Cards and Layouts

It's been awhile since I've posted some of my cards and layouts. Here's a little of what I've been up to this past month.

Welcome card for our new neighbors

For a swap I'm in. The center part is stamped and then filled in with colored pencils

For our local PD after helping at our neighborhood block party. I did a similiar one for the fire department

Baby card with a unique fold technique

A few Layouts of the cats:

And one I finally finished of some older pictures

A New Home for Olivia

After a month with little Olivia, we hope we found her furever home today. One of my mom's co-workers was looking for a kitten and this seemed like a purr-fect match. So even though it was sad to let her go, we know that this is what was best for her and we are very excited for her. She has a great new family with kids to give her tons of attention as well as an older feline sibling. First reports from her new momma are very positive. She had seen the other cat and hadn't hissed (something she did every time she saw Callie and Teddy), found her litter box and was avidly exploring her new house and stopping by the kids to get lots of love and attention. We are so happy for her and hope to get updates (and maybe even the occassional picture) on her every now and then!!

Olivia's last moments at our house.
Sitting on her cardboard box on top of all her toys:


Olivia meeting her new momma:

Emily's Home!!!

In answer to many, many prayers, Emily has been re-united with Nathan tonight. He caught her in one of the live traps he's been setting. She looks pretty good besides one bump on her head and she's lost quite a bit of weight but right now it seems all should be well. Thanks to everyone who said a prayer for this little one.

New Toy for John

For a summer and a half, John's dad has been carting his lawn mower between our house and theirs because someone forgot to put oil in ours and blew all the seals. John kept saying he would repair it, but I was determined he was getting a new riding mower. With him working as many hours as he does and cutting two yards, I decided he definitely needed one, so after a little research, I bought him one.

Say good-bye to the old one:


And hello to the new John Deere LA 135 LE:








The 135 was this year's limited edition and has a dual cylinder engine and a few extra features and more horse power than the others in the LA line. I was looking at the 115 but after taking John to look at them there really was no comparision and it was definitely worth the extra money. The Fillmore John Deere Dealer that we went to only had 2 of the 135's left so we put a hold one on Tuesday. Thank goodness we did because when we went back to pick it up on Saturday, they had sold out of the 135's.

John didn't get any time to play with it on Saturday so on Sunday he drove it over to his sister-in-law's to try it out on their grass. He was very impressed on how well it did and I was happy to see how quickly he could get it cut. Here he is on the tractor for his first cutting:


So here's to much happy lawn mowing in the future!!

Prayers Please

Today, my brother's cat, while sitting outside on my dad's lap, just suddenly took off. She's always been really good before and we have no idea what got into her. They almost caught her twice before she disappeared into a wooded area full of weeds. My brother is completely devasted and wondering why all he ever has is bad luck and why he has to fight and struggle for everything. The whole family is pretty upset by this incident. If you could please pray that little Emily finds her way home, very soon, we'd be very appreciative!!!

You know you are a grown-up...

...when you get excited about a new household appliance.






This beauty is the GE® Energy Star® 25.8 Cu. Ft. French Door Refrigerator with Icemaker and is arriving at the Kuberski house on Thursday. Our current one is on it's last leg and currently has an awful smell that we can't figure out where it's orginating from. Saturday John and I went out to Home Depot and after an hour of looking at different options decided on this one. I'm excited about the deli tray spot and John likes the Clean Steel finish. It's significantly larger than our old one so hopefully won't dwarf the kitchen too much. And on top of all that, John is looking at new matching microwaves now as he wants to get rid fo the one we have and the cart it's sitting on.

Meet Olivia

Olivia Mae to be exact. She's the kitten John and I rescued last week. We brought her to the humane society on Monday and found out Friday that because she had an upper respiratory infection they would have put her to sleep. We couldn't have that, so John went back and got her and I took her to the vet on Saturday. Dr. Henn said it was a pretty mild cold so she didn't want to put her on any medicine, just to let the virus run it's course. She's been living in our basement since then. She's having some tummy troubles that we are hoping will correct themselves soo but she is the sweetest little thing. The vet thought she was about 6-8 months old and she's already been spayed. So someone took care of her at one point, however we can't locate who. She loves to explore everything, including the vets office, which was a first for me. And she absolutely loves to sit on your lap. She purrs almost non stop. I'm definitely getting attached but realize we just can not have three cats. John and I are really hoping to find her a good home. Here's a few more pics:
This one is a little blurry but shows her size. At the vets office she was 7lbs 10oz.


Sitting on Daddy's lap:


Getting sleepy in the chair:


And a nice close-up:


So if you know anyone who would love to adopt this little girl, please let us know.

ETA - Sorry this pictures are a little pixelated. Not sure why. Could be because I didn't upload directly. I'll try to get them clearer at a later date.

Car Seat News Clip

With Michigan's new booster seat law going into effect, channel 8 did a nice piece on getting your seats checked and I'm in it several times. If you'd like to take a peak you can see the video here:

http://video.woodtv.com/?video_id=12741

I'm the one in brown with navy blue capri's. :-)

Hi California Cousins & a foster kitty

Just wanted to say hi to all our relatives in California. From all the phone calls it sounds like everyone is having a great time. So here's a picture of John and Randy saying hi to Mom and Dad, Uncle Frank and Aunt Sharon, Sandy, Lori and families. And of course I say hi as well but someone had to take the picture. :-)

And who is John holding? No that's not our cat Teddy. About a month ago, our neighbors came over because they found a cat playing in there bushes. It was an adorable orange tiger who was really friendly. Seemed well cared for so we left it being hoping it would find it's way back to where it belonged. Today John calls me from Lisa's house down the street and said he had a really friendly orange tiger come up to him while working in the yard. I go over and sure enough it's the same cat. So, John and I decided to house it in the garage over night with food water and a safe place to sleep and tomorrow John will take it to our vet to see if it has a microchip and if it doesn't, we'll then bring it to the humane society. This little one is super sweet, purrs almost nonstop and really wants to be in the house. Would make anyone a wonderful pet.

Hopefully we'll have a happy ending to this story very soon!

Storms

The last couple days we've had some pretty severe weather. Lots of rain, wind, thunder and lightning. I got caught driving in some downpours Friday afternoon that created horrible visibilities. I've driven in winter storms where I could see better than on Friday with the sheets of rain coming down.

Saturday evening we got another set that came through and we could see the storms moving in from our front porch. John went and sat outside to watch them, and while I'm not a storm person I ventured out with the camera to get a few pictures. We did get quite a show with the clouds moving and large bolts of lightening. With my little Kodak camera it was hard to get any really good shots. Most of them turned out pretty dark like this one, which has been lightened significantly in Photoshop so you can see a little detail:

However as I was taking a few pictures, several huge bolts of lightning struck and made this picture look like it was broad daylight, when it really was quite dark out. This picture was seriously taken just moments after the one above.

And then this picture was my crowning moment, I actually captured a lightning bolt. It's the only one out of probably 30 that I took that showed the actual lightning.

And then finally one of us storm watchers. John took this and he looks very serious but I love how the picture turned out.

Stay safe everyone!!

Helicopter Crash

Today at just after 11am one of the AeroMed helicopters crashed while doing training excerises. Story details can be found here:

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8395273

I was in the building at the time of the crash and help in the Incident Command center so I spent the entire day there, scribing for the team. It was a very long and stressful day but everyone survived the crash and the hospital staff all did an AMAZING job. All the training and drills really paid off.

Just wanted to let everyone know that all is okay and I'm fine.

A few more pictures of Ludington

I'm Home

It was a fun week in Ludington, but I'm glad to be home. We had a great time and I will never think of the phrases "Call me" and "10 feet" the same way. :-)

Here are some of the photos from the class:
Class Photo:


Instructor Team:


Random shots:


The top left and bottom right are two of the students with their little ones at the carseat check. Aren't they adorable?

And the best news? The entire class passed and we now have 12 new technicians and one new instructor in the state of Michigan!

Ludington

First day of CPS class here in Ludington. Everything went well and I finally feel I'm getting the feel of the new curriculum. This due in large part because the team I'm teaching with is great and really has things in order. We were even out a little early today! We've already found some great restaurants. Had some amazing ribs tonight for dinner. We also took a quick walk on the pier here along the beach. Was really windy but was a great photo op.

Two quick pictures before I head off to bed for a busy day tomorrow:

Me with most of the instructor team. Diane is behind the camera in this one:

A cool picture of the lighthouse at the end of the pier:

It is FINISHED!!

I started working on this blanket for our niece Rochelle, back in January, when I thought her due date was in May. Her due date was actually April and then little Alana decided to arrive 2 weeks early, so I needless to say I did not have this done on time. I finished it a week ago and I think Alana is already a month old so I'm excited to give it to Rochelle and Andy tomorrow.

The stitch is a fan and feather pattern and was a lot of fun to knit.

Cake Decorating

So I've decided to take on another hobby. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile but never got around to it. Then a few weeks ago, Karen (our niece) called and asked if I wanted to take a class at Hobby Lobby with her and Rochelle. It meets once a week for 4 weeks on Wednesdays. This worked out perfectly for me so I said yes. It's a lot of work, because we have to bring frosted cakes to class so there is some homework but it's worth it. I've been very happy with the results from the first 3 classes. Next week is our final one and I definitely feel like I've learned a lot.

Here's my cake from class 2:


And my cupcakes from class 3:




We learned how to do these cute little clowns in class3:


Callie loved the one I let her have for her 5th birthday:
No, she didn't eat the whole thing. Just licked a bunch of frosting off. She has a huge sweet tooth, just like her mommy. :-)

7 Random Facts

I was tagged by Lan to list 7 Random facts about myself so here goes:

1. I have 6 toes on my right foot.
2. I can not keep house plants alive no matter how hard I try. Amazingly I have 2 right now that have made it 4 months...has to be a new record.
3. I get very grouchy if I get hungry. People who know me well, know to find food for me when I say I need to eat.
4. I'm a librarian who is very organized at work but can't keep my scrapbook organized no matter how hard I try.
5. I can communicate very basically in Spanish.
6. I am a very passionate car seat technician and instructor. (Yeah MI passing the new Booster seat law!!)
7. I love listening to audiobooks on my Mp3 player. I never listened to them on CD or tape but love them in this format.

I know I'm supposed to tag 7 other people but I think everyone who reads this has already been tagged so this one will stop here. Thanks Lan for tagging me!

Random Pictures

From my Shack Trip in mid-March. We had a great time and I got a ton accomplished:

Me scrapping at my table. Not a great picture. Have to remember to find something thinner to layer under that shirt!

One of my favorite layouts I did while there:

A very cute picture of Gabriele that Randy took while visiting the butterfly exhibit at Frederik Meijer Gardens:

And finally two of Callie and Teddy playing:

Putting a paw on Callie's head is Teddy's way of keeping Callie from attacking:

Didn't work this time though. Almost looks like they are hugging if I didn't know they were play fighting with each other:

Easter

Just a few pictures from Easter:

Me and John at Lisa's House:

Gabriele (Randy's Daughter) with the Easter Bunny:

Ice

Here are the long promised pictures of the ice at the end of our driveway. Thankfully the ice is now gone, but when it first started to warm up, we decided it would be a good idea to start chipping off all the ice that had built up. We had no idea how thick it actually was. John started chipping at it and it came up in large pieces that were over 4 inches thick. While we did get all the ice off the driveway, quite a bit was built up on the road, so we had a large drop off when pulling into the driveway. We had to pull in really slowly or we would bottom out our cars.

Driveway with pieces of ice chipped up:


One of the thicker pieces of ice:


John removing some of the larger pieces: