One day at a time…I know you’ve heard it before, but this little statement has really helped me throughout the last year…and today, too!! Lower the bar, too! When it comes to placing expectations on yourself, simply don’t!! Simplify…

So I love this quote that a dear friend of mine and my husbands (he was originally my husband's friend, that's how I met him and am grateful I did), anyway, he lost his incredibly awesome wife unexpectedly a year ago in October and e-mailed me the quote above to actually pass on to my dad, but what a great saying for everything in life and yes of course of the reason he sent it to me, in dealing with loss of a loved one.

So don't you love the innocence and simplicity of a child's mind. Yesterday was a hard day for me at church as it was All Saints Day. Church has been and will be for a very long time the hardest place for me to go to since losing mom. Church, God, her faith, christianity was so important to her and made my mom the woman she was. She was very active in church singing in the choir, being active on many counsels and groups. So she was the main reason, besides God of course, for me going to church. Anyways, we went yesterday as they did something special for those who have past in the last year for All Saints Day. When you went up for communion, you lit a candle in remembrance of those you've lost. I had no idea it was going to have the effect that it did on me. I went up to take communion, say her name, with others, on a banner and got teary eyed remembering her funeral as it was the same church of course. Then lighting the candle and realizing why I was doing it, hit me. I went back to the pew and lost it a little, tried to sing the closing hymn and couldn't. However, while I was in the middle of this emotion our friends were sitting in front of us with their children and they have 3 beautiful girls, the youngest just turned 2 and is very lively and wonderful. She was looking at me and being all cute and we were "playing" a little. I love that though we, as adults, go through so much emotion with all the responsibility we now have in our lives, what we've been through, what we've learned so far, that kids keep it real, simple, and enjoyable. So a huge thank you to Ava who helped me get through the tough moment in church and realize so much through just a little game of peeks.

So moving on from the emotional stuff :) Check out my Stampin' Up! website, http://www.lynnae.stampinup.net This is very exciting for me to get back in the game of stamping. I also am waiting for my wonderful husband to find the software, or whatever you call it, for me to download my pics of cards and crafts. So hang in there with me. Once I get that, I hope to post things at least twice a week.

Take care, happy stamping, and as per my blog logo, carpe diem.

Stampin' Up!

Exciting news for today, with the acceptance of my husband and his wonderful support, I signed back up to become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator.. YEAH!!! This is very exciting for me. It's a wonderful creative outlet for me that I absolutely love to share with my friends and family!! Plus I have the most wonderful upline, Nic, so am looking forward to starting up my old hobby again with a fresh upline!! I have 3 cards I need to get on here, but apparently I need to get some sort of software from the camera on the computer to download pics.. This is so not my thing, my hubby is the computer genius :) So I'll get the software on here and start downloading pictures! Also, I have a quilting retreat at the end of the month, I'm thoroughly anticipating, as Lord knows I have plenty of projects to finish and work on..

Until next time...Cheers!!

Another onion layer shed.

So try to follow the randomness of this note. I've started and stopped that I'm just going to plug at it to get some kind of post out.. :) So since losing my mom, I've noticed that going through the grieving process is like shedding layers of an onion. It makes you cry, you need to get through layers to get to the core, and it can be bittersweet. So I'm really terrible about sending thank yous....really bad. Just an idea of how bad I am, if you read my first post you will know that I lost my mom on January 26 from injuries from a car accident. I use to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for five years and quit last year before my son was born as I know myself and know that I would be way too overwhelmed to have two little ones, work, plus make time for SU. Anywho, if you stamp, especially are a demonstrator, people believe they are going to get a homemade card. See this is where I am bad. I feel so terrible if I have to buy a card, as I have a whole room with stamping products. However, if I don't have time to make a card, they just don't get one..I know it's terrible and I feel terrible. So anyway, feeling so appreciative of everyone who was there for me and my family when my mom past and receiving homemade cards from others, and knowing my dad had written like 400+ thanks yous (he used the funeral home cards they provided), I thought I could do like 50 or so. So I went on to make them, which took me forever and five years and now am making myself send them before I send Christmas cards to people. Now to the point of all of this...So I thought I was strong and "accepted" that my mom was gone. Ya, well as I'm starting to finally write them out, I'm so not!! I believed for awhile that yes time does make things getter better, um notta, I believe now that it's a numbness that starts becoming unnumb as time goes on. As I was writing out thank yous to my family, it was like a flood of emotion came back. Getting the phone call finally being able to realize what happened and replaying the hospital stay, hearing her progress/decline, hearing when we had to make the decision, hearing what friends and family were saying to me, being at the funeral again and seeing her one last time. It's like my heart is filling again with anxiousness and sadness. It sucks. Friends and family who have not gone through this will ask me all sorts of questions about losing mom, and I'm very open about answering them and going back to the time because to me people have to know for their own closure and knowing that I will be okay. Plus it's therapeutic to me. When I got the phone it was on a Thursday, my day off of work, the kids were in the dining room, I hadn't showered yet (it's my day off, ha), I was getting ready to go to my parents that night as mom and I were going to be going on a quilting retreat in Spring Valley, Minnesota, with her best friend and her daughters and others. We totally looked forward to the retreats, they were so fun, relaxing, and productive. We would talk about them as soon as we got home from the last one. Plus it was time for us to share together. So my husband called me on the phone that Thursday afternoon adn said "Lynnae, your dad called me and said your mom's been in a serious accident, I'm on my way home and will get you and the kids." I didn't know what to think, I just said "are you kidding, because that's really low and not funny, tell me your kidding." Obviously he wasn't and I could tell in his voice. I don't know what overcame me but I immediately got in a zone. I just paced back and forth thinking what do I need to do, who do I call, how can I check on her myself, what do I do, what do the kids need.... Then it hit me call the emergency room. So I did and I talked to a nurse who said she just arrived via Mayo One (Mayo Clinic's helicopter) and they had to resucitate her on the scene. It's like I didn't hear it, I asked him what he said and he said she quit breathing, but is breathing now, and that she was in serious condition and that's all he knew. Then I just thought who do I call next, my first call was her best friend who was going with us to the retreat. She couldn't believe it either obviously and when I go to the hospital there was Betty and her daughter Christa. They are our other family. I continued to call my aunt and uncle who live nearby and they didn't answer, as I found out later they were on their way to the hospital too. My aunt later told me that she replayed the messages and was glad my dad called to tell what happened as she couldn't understand my message. I didn't even think of calling my brothers until I was on my way. My one brother lived in Portland, Oregon at the time and didn't get my message until later in the day and my oldest brother lives in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and didn't get my message, until his wife got home, and I found out he was in Switzerland I believe.

So we get to the hospital and there are loved ones in a small waiting room waiting to see her. A nurse comes in to say they will be wheeling her by to take her to her room, but encouraged my dad and myself to come say hello, etc., though she was not awake...she never came to because of the extent of her injuries.

Okay, so I'm so extrodinarily sorry for doing this, but I'm not in the mode of writing this and haven't been since I did the thank yous and that was at work..So until I get in the mode again. Just remember Carpe Diem!!

I am

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

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