Trop bien aimé à jamais être oublié.....

Too well loved to ever be forgotten.

PurpleStride - Baltimore

We were 1,300 strong today, walking as PurpleStride, raising funds for PC research.  To say I had a lump in my throat would be an understatement.

Even little Joey was there, wearing a little Onesie that Anna put a picture of his Grandpa on.

Our t-shirts had a long list of those who have died from PC this year.  A very short list of survivors.  There's something wrong with that.  It should be the other way around, don't you think?

My favorite "Mudders".....

Here's a picture of my favorite "Mudders"......lol they are ready to run in the Mud Run in Middletown this morning!  They are raising money for cancer research.  This is their second year running and helping to fund one of the most important projects we have today..... cancer research.

 There's nothing that says they can't have fun doing it! 

Congratulations to my cousin Russanne, Thursday was her birthday!  As a lot of you know, Russanne is fighting her own battle against stromal sarcoma.  She goes back to the doctor tomorrow (Monday) and we're hoping for some good news! 

And..... an early happy birthday to Burt.  Tomorrow is his 64th birthday.  On this day last year you were wearing your "Bubba's Bruisers" t-shirt as the kids were running in your honor.  You were so proud of those kids.  They are still running, in memory of you.

Love you. Miss you. Wish you were here.

What to do when Irene blows into town?

What to do when there's a hurricane raging outside?  You scrap, of course!

I wanted to work on the PageMaps blog card sketch this month and I finally got time to sit down and do it.  Here's the sketch....

And here's my take on that sketch!  I used Basic Grey papers (Origin and Max & Whiskers) to make the card.  I love the earthy brown/gold/orange/blue shades of that paper line.  On the inside I put "Party Animal" and will give it to a co-worker for her birthday.  I hope she likes it!

I also had time to scrap some old pictures of Anna and BJ from long ago.  Since I love everything Basic Grey, I also used the Max & Whiskers papers for this.  The challenge was one from Back Porch Memories to use a grid on your layout.

Oh what to do now?  It's going to be 24 hours before Irene gets done with us.  I guess I can scrap some more until it's time to get dinner started... I hope all my friends and neighbors stay safe!

First Car Ride Home

Joey is here!

Joseph Jeffery Tichnell was born Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

 Here I am with my very first grandchild.  How precious he is!  I can't wait to watch him grow up.

 He took his first car ride today, when they brought him home from the hospital.

Tomorrow he will get to meet his new best friend, Kari.

I'm at a loss for words.  I am so proud of my daughter and son-in-law.  I wish Burt was here to see this little "Bubba", the newest member of our family.  I think this little boy would steal his heart just like he did mine.

Waiting for Joey....

I love that picture of Burt and Anna Renee.  At only a few weeks old, she knew who her Daddy was and boy, could he make her smile!

Now Anna is going to be a Mom herself.  We are anxiously waiting for little Joey to make his appearance.  This is going to be one very much-loved child.  I think we all loved him the minute we knew he was coming.

4th of July weekend

Celebrated the 4th of July quietly today with our neighbors, Terry and Linda, and their family.  We have always celebrated the holiday with them since we put our pools in years ago.  Memorial Day was our holiday, 4th of July was their's and then Labor Day was celebrated at the Fosters (Russanne and Mike).

Burt always loved the summer and it's holidays.  Any reason to get together with friends and family in the pool.  I missed him today, he was always the life of the party (at least for me he was).

Say a prayer for Russanne and Mike.  Russanne has been fighting her own battle against cancer since March and just finished up 25 days of radiation therapy.  Mike's Mom passed away this morning at the age of 93.  It's been a tough year for them.  With both of their kids getting married in the next year, they have a lot to look forward to. 

Lots of birthdays this month, and don't forget, Joey is going to make his appearance sometime this month!  I can't wait to meet my grandson.  Such is the circle of life....

Today would have been our 29th wedding anniversary

It was 29 years ago today that Burt and I went to the courthouse in Chicago and tied the knot in a short 10 minute ceremony in front of a busy judge.  I remember he introduced himself to us, mumbled a few words and then said "You may now kiss your bride".  It was a second marriage for both of us and a new beginning.

Happy Anniversary Burt!  I miss you.

Happy Birthday to me....

Cards, Pandora charms, Vera Bradley bags....... a girl could get used to this!

My family and friends spoiled me for my birthday today.  Took me out to dinner, had cake and ice cream, gave great presents, lots of wishes on Facebook..... I am blessed!  I want to send a heartfelt "Thank You" to everyone who reached out to me today, you made my day!

Happy Memorial Day

Let us not forget those who served and are serving our country.  I am proud to say my Dad (Air Force) and my son (Navy) have both served in our military along with numerous other relatives.

Here's a picture of Robert with the Rear Admiral when he graduated

from Nuclear Power School in Charleston, SC November 2001

It's been a quiet Memorial Day weekend.  We cleaned out the garage, which was hard, as that was Burt's "Man Cave" if that's what you wanna call it.  I tried sitting out there last night to watch some TV but it wasn't the same.  It felt strange sitting in "his" spot so I didn't.  Closed up the garage and went back inside.  The only reason I sat out there before was because Burt was out there.  Oh well.....

We raised over $2,000!

Here's our TEAM - BUBBA'S BRUISERS!

 28 of us plus two dogs walked the 1.75 mile Pancreatic Cancer Walk to raise money for the Lustgarten Foundation.  Every penny of the funds goes to research. 

A big THANK YOU to all who walked, those who donated money, those who bought the T-shirts/bracelets.  Your support means so much as we try to find a cure for this terrible disease.  I think Burt would have been honored to see so many friends and family there.

Walking for a Cure

Please join us on Saturday, April 30, as we walk for a cure.  We are raising money, in memory of Burt, for research to find a cure for Pancreatic Cancer.  As you all know, PC has deeply affected my family and our friends these past 2 years. 

You can donate here - Pancreatic Cancer Walk

A big thanks to all of you who have donated, we really appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.  It's too late for Burt, but we can help others in his memory.  Hopefully, someday, we'll find a cure for this terrible disease.

April Showers....

April Showers give me time to scrap!  The first two layouts were chosen for Star of the Day at ScrapAttackScrapbooking.com!  I love trying new techniques on my layouts and the pleated circle is one of them!  That's a picture of Corey and Dani at the Flyers game last month.

 I got to use Pink Paislee's new Daily Junque papers for the "CamWowApp" layout.  Photos were taken on Hillary's Mac using this new application that distorts your image and lets you capture it in a photo.  Needless to say, they are funny, scrapworthy pictures!

 Here's a picture of some of my co-workers at UD.  They were all pumped up for Homecoming last fall and were wearing their best game faces!

 One of my co-workers made me a set of calendars for Christmas with her stamps and really did a great job making them!  I liked them so much I'm going to try and incorporate them into my layouts.

Here's hoping the rain stops sometime so I can get out and weed my flowerbeds.  They are in serious need of some pruning!

March Scrappiness

 These 2 layouts were done with the Glitz Rhapsody papers that I received as a prize from ScrapAttackScrapbooking.com.  Being so bright and colorful, it was hard to find photos that the papers wouldn't overwhelm, but I think I did it!

Cold, wet and windy days, plenty of time to scrap!  Our church crop went well, I did get 9 layouts done!  Can't wait for the next one, it was fun to spend time with other scrappers!

Dog park

We took Alleyah and Kari to the dog park in Middletown on Sunday. Alleyah went into the little dog side and Kari into the big dog side. It was fun, although Alleyah didn't like all the other dogs sniffing around....


Here's a layout of BJ's Little League team when he was on the Senior Boys. They went to the playoffs in Havre de Grace but didn't go any further than that. July 1999......seems like yesterday.

I liked this pagemaps sketch so much I did two layouts from the same sketch! Can you tell?

I can't believe it's March already. I hope we're done with snow for the year and that spring comes soon. It will be nice to spend some time outside in the fresh air.

Anna Renee and Jeff are having a......

BOY! I'm gonna be the world's greatest Grandma in July!

Scrappy Time!

I've been scrapping over at ScrapAttackScrapbooking.com this past weekend, they had a Queen of Hearts Crop with 8 challenges. I didn't get them all done but I did manage to do a few. I am really loving scrapping my older photos.

This one is of Burt at Yellowstone. I used Little Yellow Bicycle's new Twig collection, which is just awesome! The papers are textured on one side and smooth on the other. The colors go great with this photo and the one below (Date Night). I love the blue/green/brown color combo!

The challenge for this layout was to use 4 photos, the color brown and handwritten journaling. I don't much like my handwriting (it tends to be sloppy). Again, the Twig papers go great with my photos so it was an easy layout to make! The lace flower was made by gluing lace ribbon onto a chipboard circle and finishing with a button.

I used the Basic Grey Jovial line for this layout. It's Christmas papers but you wouldn't know that just by looking at them!

And here's one of my faves, Sassafras Lass papers! Their Indie Girl paper line is just so easy to use! I had the whole collection and I've just about used them all up. This is Anna Renee as a 3 month old. You can see in the photo just how much she loved her Daddy!

Our church, First Presbyterian Church of Chesapeake City, is having their very first all day crop on March 5th! I hope it'll be lots of fun as I've never done a crop before (just online). I'm looking forward to spending the day with paper, scissors, and glue!

February.....waiting for spring!

I finally took our Christmas tree down. We had lightning and thunder with last Thursday's snowstorm, believe it or not. Russanne said that that was Burt telling me to take the tree down so I did! LOL

I had a chance to scrap the other day and tried to do one of the color challenges over at ScrapAttackScrapbooking.com. I read the directions wrong and ended up with this layout.

Luckily for me, it fit the criteria for a different challenge, Scrap Your Stash, so I used it for that! If you're a scrapper, you know that your "stash" is constantly growing and it's a challenge to use old stuff before you use the new stuff you buy. Everything on this layout I've had for a long while so I was happy to use it!

I really miss Burt and it's a struggle some days to get out of bed. He has been gone for almost 2 months now. I am still working on getting all this paperwork straightened out and hope I am not making any mistakes with it. There are things around the house that need to be done and BJ and Dani are helping with those. I'm just going to take it one day at a time for a while until I feel that things are "normal" again (whatever normal is....). I am thankful for all my family, friends and co-workers (you know who you are!), who take time to talk with me about where I am and what's going on right now. I realize that everyone has some stressful situation going on in their lives and I am trying to put mine in perspective. I hope that reaching out to others who are going through something will help me deal with my life. We will see.

I cleaned the master bathroom today

.....for the first time since Thanksgiving and I cried the whole time. I put Burt's toothbrush and his toothpaste away but didn't touch his razor or his shaving cream. The sink looks so bare now with just my stuff on my side. I feel like I'm slowly putting Burt away...... I'm going to get to the point, someday, where I don't see his "stuff" anymore. And that's heartbreaking. He was such a larger than life person.....

Somedays if feels like he's on a trip somewhere and will be home anyday. His pants and shirt that he wore a few days before he died are still on the cedar chest at the foot of our bed where he left them. His shoes are still by his end table in the living room. His glucose tablets are still by the bed.

His work truck is gone though. It's not parked in the driveway anymore. His cell phone is gone, too. So are all his medicines on the kitchen bar that were such a big part of his life this last year.

But the Christmas tree is still up. I know if Burt were here, he'd be complaining, loudly, that it needs to come down and soon! So I guess I'm just waiting to hear that voice, telling me once more, to take care of it.

Life goes on

We are all back to work and trying to stay busy. I can't believe it's been a month already! There are so many loose ends to tie up. I am trying to stay on top of Dani's health, she is scheduled for a colonoscopy the end of the month. Gotta get that girl healthy again!

I haven't been able to scrap but I did get a chance to do one layout on New Year's Eve. Everyone was gone and I had the house to myself. Usually we're in Canada for New Year's. So I pulled out an oldie but goodie photo and scrapped it!

Love that picture of Burt and his Mom, siblings!