Hockey Season has Begun

Jimmy is playing Varsity Hockey at Catholic Central this year.  Season opener last night against Orchard Lake St. Mary's.  CC won 3 to 2 in a packed Rink.  There was a tournament on the other rink so we saw lots of our hockey friends.  It was a great night all around.

Football 2009

Michael's 2nd year of football, covered in bruises, every muscle and bone beat up but the kid still loves it and can't wait for next year!  It is definitely a guy thing.

Hopping Mad MAMA

Since my post on the 28th regarding Ryan and his latest, hopefully last, fight with an IED I have been trying to assist him and the guys receive the care they deserve along with the respect and compassion which by all communications seems to be absent.  The guys remain in the wounded warrior tent enduring headaches which Ryan rates as a 15 (on scale 1-10), lightheaded, occasional nausea, neck and back pain, irritability, sleep problems and short term memory loss.  Ryan has exhibited this memory loss in our conversations, in one he talked of a letter from his Dad that I put in a box full of Halloween treats for him to share...he talked of the letter but knew nothing of the other items until I asked about the bouncy balls and he said something like, oh I have that in my hand.  I received an email with the names of other guys not well and feeling like no one is giving them any answers or monitoring them as they should.  They have not even had a tent medic.  Hmmm short term memory loss soldiers taking care of themselves and no one monitoring the meds they are taking.  Of course since they have short term memory loss is what they say or think is happening even accurate? I believe it is when I found out that the FOB commander thought they were in Germany and stateside rear detachment commander thought they were at the FOB and no one in the army at any time notified family that these men are injured and at Kandahar and what their treatment plan is. 

Enters major frustration today...Wounded Warrior Resource Center said they could make contact and at the least follow up with plan of care, they contacted Medic Command in Texas whom say they can do nothing and contacted Wounded Soldier and Family Hotline whom say they can do nothing until/unless I do not get answers through Senator Levin's office.  A Congressional Official is as high as you can go.  I am waiting to find out whom Senator Levin's aide contacted and what are potential outcomes of that interaction.  I don't wait well, I am more the lets take care of it now type...especially when someone is not well and my interpretation from what I have been told and read is that they are receiving sub-standard care and published Army Standards for TBI are not being followed.

Hope my internal screaming is not piercing your ears!

QuicKutz 2009 Holiday Gift Set: Santa's Workshop

I had so much fun creating this album using Wintergreen from Santa's Workshop.  I took fall photos in the yard that afternoon then made this fun album that night.  The scalloped edge page insert cut right through my photos making fast and easy photo pages.

I started off the album with a photo of the front of our home. I used the font Harvest to create address.

I caught Pooh,our 14 year old cat returning from his daily hunt. The ReUse gift set from spring made great fall trees. I loved scattering the leaves.

The file pocket looks great when you cut one from cardstock and back it with pattern paper.  I plan to tuck in photos of our family.  Tulip Tree was cut form Santa's Workshop font. 2 days later that tree was bare.

The spines are fun to use on pages as well as outside the book.  The final page of the book is the back view of our home along with a vellum quote from Die Cuts with a View.  "Where we love is Home, Home that the feet may leave, but not our hearts. Oliver Wendell Holmes"

Our tiny girl Juliet.

Juliet is our little talker, she greets you with barks and whimpers when she snuggles.

Our Sweet Havanese Boy

Romeo

Scrappin Time

Since it is fall and we have been too crazy busy to hit the pumpkin patch I pulled some photos from 2005.  Natalie was here and we went to a couple cider mills and were pretty wound up when we hit Jenny's fruit stand between Pinckney and Dexter. They had lots of pumpkins and being silly and thinking about Ryan and how much fun he would have had we bought a pie pumpkin and proceeded to play Pumpkin Football.  One year we hope Ry and Erin can join us.

For you scrappers this mosaic technique is super easy when you use Wish in the Wind's Mosaic paper as your foundation.  Have lots of pictures at your disposal, and cut into 1inch squares then glue onto background.  You don't have to use every square, flow them so the photos blend into one another. Of course my title, football and pumpkin are all QuicKutz.