The Retreat Is Now 50% Full!!

Our retreat is now 50% full! We are all going to have an awesome time! Don’t forget if you signed up, we have a forum on our bulletin board so you can chat with other participants!

Haven’t signed up yet? You may want to do so before our rates go up by $25 on July 1st! All you need to do is register by June 30th online, by phone or at the store. You have until July 15th to get your deposit in to us. We have 20 out of 40 seats left! We would love for you to join us.

Click the link below for more info: http://www.scrapbookparadise.net/scrapbookretreat.html

It’s Hard Not To Think About What Could’ve Been….

On Morgan’s birthday (6/7/08) I found out I was pregnant with number #2. We’ve all been excited and were looking forward to giving Morgan a sibling. While on vacation yesterday, I suffered a miscarriage at 5 wks 5 days. It’s been a hard couple of days. After many tears and wondering what happened I have come to realize deep in my heart that I did nothing to cause this miscarriage and this pregnancy was just not meant to be.

But it is still heartbreaking and I can’t help but wonder about what could’ve been. I’m sure the miscarriage was for the best and we will never know what was wrong. So all we can do now is move on and keep our chin up and start trying again as soon as I am able. I’m sure another little angel will be sent down to us from heaven real soon!

On a better note, we had a nice mini vacation. Although it rained a lot we were able to go to the beach Monday morning and tour around and relax the rest of the time we were there. I will try to post photos real soon.

Blanca

Morgan’s Birthday Party Pics & More

Here are some pictures from Morgan’s Birthday party on Sunday and a picture of her playing in her new froggy pool on Tuesday. Enjoy!

Morgan’s Birthday Becomes A Tight Squeeze!

Morgan turned 2 yesterday 6/7/08! She had a fun day yesterday as her Nanny and Aunt Karen are visiting from Derby Line. They took her to the farmers market, then out to lunch at Rosie’s where she got cake for her birthday!

Of course Morgan, being the little wiggle worm she is, decided to try to squirm out of her high chair and got stuck! Stuck? Yes, stuck! Picture this…a simple restarurant wooden high chair with a 2 year old sitting in it. Then this 2 year old decides she wants to get out by herself. She wasn’t belted in (I think Karen learned her lesson on that one :)) so she got on her tummy in the chair and went feet first between the front bar and the seat (you know, where the strap connects that goes between the legs). Well she got her whole body through and then suddenly her head didn’t want to cooperate! So we now have a worried Nanny & Auntie trying to figure out how to get her out. Morgan didn’t really cry, she just whimpered and looked at them like “why aren’t you getting me outta here”. After a couple of waitresses tried getting her out a tall gentleman passing by tried to assist and they still couldn’t get her out. A few more customers tried helping but nothing was working. Her little butt and head just didn’t want to get back through the chair. Of course, everyone felt bad for the birthday girl. Was it time to call the fire department?? Not quite! Finally, Karen thought “Maybe if we tip the chair on it’s side she could crawl out” Well low and behold, it worked! She crawled right out and her adventure came to an end. Hopefully I recaped the story accurately since I was not there!

I think that was all the excitement Morgan, Karen & Nanny needed for one day! LOL! In either case, Morgan had a fun birthday! We are having a birthday party for her today at the house. I will post pictures later in the week.

So Much For A Quiet Evening At Home!

So I decide to leave work early to go get Mom and take her grocery shopping, only to to make a frightning discovery when I came into her door to her apartment (my moms apartment is attached to our house). I was struck by the very strong odor of propane gas! Holy Cow! I quickly rushed to get Mom & Morgan out of the house. I thought it was my Mom’s propane heater giving us issue so I turned it off. Then I preceded to turn off the propane tank and didn’t know which valve to turn so I called Bradley and he wasn’t sure either. So Brad calls our heating oil provider and they call me back and give me the low down for shutting the tank off. Meanwhile, Morgan and Mom are hanging out in the yard. So we open some doors to let the place air out.

I didn’t check the rest of the house because I wanted to get going to take mom grocery shopping before it got too late. Just as we leave Mom realizes Morgan was playing with the stove knobs earlier in the day and kept getting after her about it. So she decides to check the knobs on her stove to discover one was turned up but was never turned to light so the gas was really coming from mom’s stove! Needless to say, we’ve removed the knobs on the stove at this point. Oh, you are probably wondering why mom didn’t smell the fumes. Well she was the last to get our cold and could not smell.

So, the house was filled with gas fumes because naughty little Morgan was playing with the knobs! So I figure we better stay out of the house awhile and so we take off to go grocery shopping. Brad closed the stores early and rushed home to open the rest of the windows and let us know when the fumes faded.

After shopping and dinner at Green Peppers we got the ok to come home from Brad and the house was back to normal! The only sad ending to this story is Picaso, my mom’s parakeet, died during the night last night. Probably because of the gas fumes. Luckily Quincy was ok and so was Snicker.

The best news is our house did not blow up. Geez! We are so lucky! Let’s hope calmer days lie ahead!

Little By Little We Are Making Progress! Oh, & did I mention fudge!

I have so many things I still want to do to the store to make it the best it can be. I have many large projects that need to be done to get the store looking exactly the way I want. It’s such a long process to organize and display the store just the right way. I want my store to be one of the best in the area! Little by little we are making progress with a little help from my friends.

I had two little elves helping me at the store today (two really good friends Angela & Linda)! With their help we now have scrapbook page samples hanging on the wall and new bins, in our bargain section, full of new die cuts, embellishments, ribbon & stickers! Of course, it helps to feed my helpers fudge while they are working hard to help me get my store in shape! LOL!

Oh, did I mention fudge? That’s right, we now carry delicious, creamy, awesome fudge in the candy portion of our store. We have chocolate, chocolate walnut, maple, maple walnut, peanut butter & pecan puddle. The pecan puddle is to die for! It is a thick chocolate layer of fudge drenched with caramel on top and sprinkled with pecans! YUMMMMY! It’s like a pecan turtle! You have to come into the store and try some of this awesome fudge! Oh, if you like salt water taffy, we have that too now!

As for my virus or flu or whatever the darn thing is, I am better. I feel the best I have felt all week and can actually use my nose to breath once again, who’d a thought! LOL! I thought my severe congestion would never go away!!

My poor Bradley had to go all the way to Newport tonight to pick up a Uhaul truck for a big rental tommorrow. Poor thing, he has this virus too so he isn’t a 100% either. He is going to drive up and back tonight which is 6 hours all together. Ouch! Luckily he left a little after 4pm and will hopefully be back by 11pm tonight. He is such a sweetie. He bought flowers for my mom and I to cheer us up last night because we have all been feeling pretty lousy. Got to love him!

Well it’s gettin’ late and “Untold Mysteries of the ER” is getting interesting. I will end my ramblings now. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Blanca