Winner!

We have a winner...Sphinx63 (I sent you an email so hopefully we can get the kit to you today)! Jameson & I were dressed as firemen. He had fun pretending to spray off things and best of all we took pictures!

The last 24 - 48 hours have been almost a blur for our family. Mostly good but just overall fast paced. This morning Jameson & I left the house at 8:30 we were on the run until about 4:30 and then after a quick change over at the house we left again and didn't get back until almost 10. In the mix we go to strawberry picking with Sarah and her kiddos. The berries are so perfectly ripe now! This evening James helped out the Carr's with their new yard. A few other friends from church stopped by and it was a nice evening with friends. The real downer the last couple of days has been that Deacon has been sick. That means lots of messed for James & me to clean up around the house. Jameson & I took him to the vet today and they gave him a shot and we're changing his food so hopefully that will fix things.

This weekend Mother Crill & Joe are coming in along with lots of other Luers family. It will be a good weekend! I'll be posting pictures sometime next week. To stay more current, feel free to follow me through the twitter box on the sidebar of the blog.

Congrats again to sphinx63, I apologize for not finalizing the giveaway until now.

Online reading...

Over the last few months I've switched around a few of the blogs that I follow through google reader. I thought I would share a few of the new ones that I'm enjoying:

• Simple mom
• Waterworks (they just launched this new blog about Healing Waters)
• Vintage Plum
• The Hybrid Chick
• Toccoa location for FCC
• Angie Lucas
• Pop Photo
• MCP Actions (BTW I was not selected as one of the top 10 images - I am amazed at the top of the world shot!)
• Scott Kelby
• The Daily Digi
• Bakerella
• Her Cup Overfloweth (love the muffin tin ideas!)
• Jennifer McGuire

Such a wide variety here but a sampling of the 87 blogs (cut back from over 100) that I'm now following. How about you? What new blogs have you recently started reading?

Silly things...

This boy seems to have recently become quite a little funny guy. Here are a few things he has said recently:

• While singing a song from Backyardigans that should say "To make the world nice, fill it up with ice." Well he sings it while changing the word ice to many different things...rice, mice and a few other funny rhyming words.
• While reading stories before bed I asked him how he had gotten a chip in the wall next to his bed. His response "Jeannie must have missed a spot". Well since Jeannie the painter didn't even paint that room...hmmmm. James & I both just started laughing at him that time.
• Yesterday he asked to go to Uncle Greg's house. I knew he only wanted to go over there because he wanted to get a car (Greg has a stash of Hot Wheels and Jameson always seems to get a new one before we leave). I told him we weren't going over there just to get a car. Then he remembered that he had gotten a small allowance for helping with the mulch this weekend. We had plans to head out to walmart in the morning so I told him he could buy is own car with his money. So this morning at 6:55 he tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if it was time to go to walmart to get his car. So we're up and heading out the door now to get some groceries and a new hot wheel.
• This morning I was getting ready and heard him jump into our closet. I asked him what he was doing and he said "I'm the super spy and I'm spying on Deacon." And right now he said "Time to go check on that dog, I've got to put him in jail." Oh the imagination on this boy!

In case you didn't see it, I'm doing a little giveaway for a digital kit. I forgot to add in that if there are multiple correct answers I will be doing a random drawing from those guesses.

Giveaway!

I'm feeling like a giveaway today! What am I giving away? Since I already purchased the songbird avenue kit this month I'd like to give it to someone else to play with and enjoy! Here is the catch, we're not going to just leave your name you have to play a game. The game is to guess what dress up item Jameson & I were playing with today. To give you a little hint it is something that would be worn by someone in a specific career (i.e. not spiderman). Get your guess in by Wednesday at midnight. You can guess one time each day (so if you are reading this on Monday you have the opportunity to guess 3 times total). If no one gets the right answer I will do a random drawing from all participants. So what do you think we dressed up as today??

Giving...

In the digital scrapbooking world something wonderful is going on today through the end of the month. An additional $4 will be donated to the Autism Speaks fun through the purchase of the current Songbird Avenue kit. I actually picked up the kit earlier this month and have so enjoyed playing with it. Some of the Mother's Day gifts I've been created include pieces from this great kit.

"An Overwhelming Need: Today, nearly 27,000 children age 5 and younger will die of preventable causes. That's about 18 children every minute. Compassion's ministry focuses on preventing these deaths and releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. But we can't do it without you." As quoted from the Compassion International website.

In world news...have you heard about World Malaria Day? Through Compassion International you can help out by donating just $10 which will purchase a mosquito net to help prevent the spread of this awful disease. Click here to help. And if you're interested in giving more to Compassion through sponsoring a child to release them from hunger...let me know. I signed up to share the information with our small group (aka Life Group) and compassion sent me packets for some children. I will be sharing the information with our LG but also thought I would put it on the blog so that if anyone else is interested, the files for 4 children are at my house.

'For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Matthew 25:35-36

Featured!

Oh my goodness I'm so excited. Sarah just called to asked me if I'd seen that I was selected as the Well I'm Amazed layout for today at Vintage Plum. I don't scrapbook for the praise but it sure it nice to know others like some of what I create. The best part about this feature, for me anyway, is that this is a fully digital page featured on a paper site! Here are the details on the page. Now I'm off to play a bit with the little boy that just got up from nap...he is the real reason I scrapbook!

The little things!

This phase of my life seems to be centered around the little things...and I love it! Here are some recent things that have happened that I don't want to forget.

• Today Jameson was going on a field trip during school time. We were talking about it as we were getting ready this morning. He looked at me and asked "well which field are we going to go visit". He is so literal at times! I told him no you aren't going to visit a field, you're going to the elementary school for story time and then to a local dairy farm. He proceeded to ask if I thought the bus could handle the field that they would be driving through. So he was still stuck on the idea of field.
• Earlier this week we met up with my friend Sarah at a local park for music in the park. It was fun to meet up with her. I am amazed at how much Layla has grown already! Sarah does an amazing job with her kiddos. At the park there were so many people that we decided to just walk around outside of the actual playground portion. I was on total sensory overload with the noise and not being able to see the kids at every moment. It was nice to be able to just chat with her and enjoy the awesome weather that is settling in these days!
  
• For nap time today he shared a few things that he wanted to pray about (I usually ask him what things he wants to add to the prayers before nap then I say the prayer). Well today I asked him and then when we were praying I said "Lord hear our prayers", instead of actually repeating everything. Jameson did not like that so he said okay God I'll tell you. Like everyday we pray that daddy will come home safely to us after work and that Jose (our compassion child) will feel God's love surrounding him. Jameson's other prayers today were that he could drive better at Monster Truck Camp (the latest make believe location) and that he could learn to play golf as good as his dad. So sweet.
  
• Yesterday we all had a wonderful day. Started out doing a little shopping at the outlets. Jameson really needs new shoes but we can't seem to find his size crocs. I did find a few fun dresses for the summer and I found a new pair of white shoes. I needed a pair to wear at the ADPi convention and the ones I found will be good for other things this year too. After doing a little shopping on our own we met up with Sarah & her kiddos. (The picture here is from my iPhone while we were taking a break and letting the kids play before heading to Chick-fil-A for lunch. We ended up being there for 2 hours. The kids were all playing so well together! Straight from there Jameson & I headed to a park new our house. The Crooks were meeting us there for me to take some pictures to celebrate Caleb's first birthday. We had such a great time. I shot 359 pictures and from what I could tell on the screen on the camera there are some really cute ones. I'll post a few here once I get them processed. Oh that little guy loves me...which makes me love him even more!
• I just took a quiz about colors. I'm all over the board but slightly lean toward red (which isn't necessarily my favorite color but the description matches). It says "Red Scrapbooker: You have a real passion for this hobby. Your pages are colorful, bold, lively and full of adventure. You may enjoy travel and have many vacation photos. You like your albums to reflect your zest for life and the varied experiences you enjoy." I was close to green, blue & white as well which all blended together does pretty much describe my scrapbooking style. Take the quiz and let me know what it says about YOU!
  
• Our weekend activities...see the pile of mulch? Need I say more except that my AWESOME husband will be spreading about 95% of it. Okay maybe more like 85% with Jameson picking up that other 10%. I don't really help, unless you count supplying food and drink. I've helped in the past but I don't seem to do it the way James prefers and because I tend to get blisters. I'll post some pictures of the updated yard once it is all spread. He does such a great job keeping our home looking beautiful!

Gallery Wrap!

I am entering this photo in the MCP Actions/Color Inc. Win a Gallery Wrap Canvas Photo Contest on the MCP blog. I certify that I took this photo and give both parties permission to use this photograph on their blogs/sites. How cool would it be to be able to hang this beauty in our home? The top 10 entries are going to be posted on their blog and then the public will vote on the winner. I'll keep you posted if I make it to the top 10!

I captured this picture tonight. This afternoon I was in a bit of a saucy mood and by the time this evening came I didn't even want to be around myself so what did I do...escape to my own world with the camera in front of my face. I asked Jameson if I offered him a new hot wheel would he pose for some pictures, with his shirt off (this once naked boy doesn't like to be without clothes on these days). He agreed to go with my plan and about 8 minutes into it I snapped this picture. I was jumping up and down with excitement because I knew I had gotten THE shot that I wanted. I love having picture of him with his hands stretched out showing how old he is/or going to be soon. (Can you believe he is going to be FOUR in less then 2 weeks!?!) So I'm going to take a chance and enter this picture into the gallery wrapped contest on the MCP blog.

Earth Day!

I am excited for Earth Day tomorrow! Now exactly sure why but it could just be that it is something fun to rally around this week. On the simple mom blog she had a list of 40 tips to go more green in our own homes. Our household is doing quite a few of these things but I'm sure there are more we could be doing. I would love to find a good farmers market to buy local, fresh produce. For anyone local to me, do you know of a good one? How about you, does the mention of Earth Day make you want to reduce or reuse a bit more? The Disney channel has been mentioning it quite a bit this week too. Jameson has been talking green!

Today our plans changed halfway through the day. Since Jameson had thought we were going to have a visitor he was disappointed when that didn't happen. So I wanted to come up with something super fun for us...the solution was a color scavenger hunt through the neighborhood. It was fun to look at things that we don't typically see or notice the various colors of things. It seemed that blue was the most frequent color today (with the exception of green, we talked about how many shades of green we saw). I slipped the Trendy neck strap around his neck (with a knot to keep it from hanging at his knees). He is so my child because he was getting down and moving himself to zoom in on things. So cute! He took 48 pictures is about 45 minutes. Now the downfall with this adventure was that for some reason Jameson (remember he is my son) kept tripping. He first fell when he spotted a very pretty pink bush and he went down on the side of his thigh. After a few tears he was back up and did not want to go home. So we moved onto find something else that was cool. He found a blue birdhouse. We got all the way around the point and were coming up on the pool when he fell again. Now this time it wasn't totally his fault because the sidewalk isn't level with the ground (about a 2 inch difference). He hit the edge of the concrete and scrapped his shin and had red dirt all the way in his shoe. Now this fall did produce a request to go home. He wasn't happy once we got home though because I told him the spots had to be cleaned. Wiping them off wasn't the worst part though, he cried when he realized that he couldn't do criss.cross.applesauce. Once he got settled down he took a little nap and hasn't mentioned the wounds since. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with the pictures from today but I can imagine that they would make an adorable mini-album. I noticed that scrapbook pictures had a sale but it ends today. I might keep my opens open for another sale on smaller square pictures. Overall I think the adventure was a good one because all through dinner Jameson kept asking if we could go back out to take color pictures!

Okay I know the placement is messed on this post but it just shut down and I had to redo half of it. I hope you enjoy it for the meat of it not the look of it!

Us!

Things have been good lately. Nothing major going on, which has been really nice. Jameson has been on a mega hot wheels kick. The other day he decided to line them all up and look at them all at once. So I of course had to pull out the camera and document it. Oh boy there are lots of them...in total 80 right now (good thing they only run about $.97 each). The really cute part is that this smarty pants can tell you where almost all of them came from...this one came from Uncle Greg's house, this one came from that girl (aka Nana), I got this one with my own money at wal-mart, etc. And for the first time this week he got two duplicates. They are the same cars except different colors. These two pairs at this moment are napping with him, he loves the idea of matching, kinda like rhymes!

As many of you know our family loves Tervis tumblers. This week I found out that the sparkly ones can't go in the microwave. It didn't even dawn on me that they were metal. No one was harmed in this error except the cup.

This other pictures is a silly one I captured of him the other night playing with his new glow stick. He was having a blast with it while watching a little tv.


Yesterday Jameson went to hang out with Jenna for a little while. My friend Sabrina came over to scrapbook. It is always nice to connect with friends through this awesome hobby. I created this page about James' great-grandma E. The day before I had started working on the mother's day gifts. Jameson was having so much fun helping me measure the fabric. Oh he is such a cutie! I did do another page but I created it for a design team call for Vintage Plum. I can't post it elsewhere until after they make the decision. I used the song lyrics from this video on you tube! I love being challenged to create things I don't know that I would have thought of before. I knew I wanted to document Jameson's obsession with Chick-fil-A but I don't think I would have thought to include the lyrics from this silly song on you tube. How about you, what has inspired you lately to create something that you wouldn't have originally done?

We're having friends over for dinner so I'm heading now to get some veggies cut up!

Integrity

Wow...today I was catching up on my blog reading and was reading the Compassion blog. They were talking about living with integrity and what it means to them.

To live with integrity:

• means we don’t compromise our faith in Christ.
• means the small things matter.
• means life can feel lonely.
• reflects the character of God who dwells within us.
• requires intention.

This is some list and I personally strive to fulfill a similar list with intention.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24

Making a difference...

Choosing to make a difference is something that is near and dear to my heart. Last night James & I had the opportunity to attend a dinner with our friends L.C. & Sarah. Sarah's friend Martha Marie recently joined a group called Caroline's Promise. They are bringing their ministry to South Carolina. Their mission is to spread the word about adoption.

“Your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” Matthew 18:14

The keynote was given from Robby Mitchell. He was abandoned at the age of 3 and lived in an orphanage for the remainder of his childhood. It was interesting to hear his story as someone who was not adopted and has succeeded in life. He started following Christ shortly after leaving the orphanage. If you'd like to help share the vision of Caroline's Promise they do have a group on Facebook or you could sign up to brown bag it ones a week to help fund this ministry.

Something else I wanted to bring to your attention. Have you heard of TOMS shoes? This is a company that for every pair of shoes that are purchased a pair of shoes is given to a child in need. So tomorrow (4/16) they are asking everyone to go without shoes in an attempt to bring more attention to their company. I'm going to go without shoes but I don't run into too many people since we don't typically leave the development. I can however spread the word through the blog. So check out their site and if you're in a position to go without shoes, do it and help spread the word about One for One.

Our Easter!

Wow we had a great Easter weekend! Lots of together time, attending church together, with Greg and then heading to brunch with the Fanello family. Here is a picture of Jameson almost wearing the cute little tie we had for him. He decided at the last minute not to wear it out of the truck. I also posted some other pictures from our day (see the post below). Aunt Tam had an egg hunt for the kids. Boy did Jameson have fun with that, he couldn't decide if he was more excited about the candy or the quarters. Notice in the picture below that the pups even wanted in on the egg opening process!

I love the feeling of new-ness that comes with spring. Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus yesterday seems to fit so well with all the blooms that are on the trees (I'm sure He planned it that way). Sometime last week, after it has rained, there were blossoms all over the road from one of the trees. Jameson likes to call them spring trees - love it!

Friday with James off of work we spent a great day hanging out at home. Some of our part-time neighbors invited us over for dinner. Just as we were heading to their house, the rain that had been coming down on and off all all day seemed to pick up. Quickly we realized that there was a tornado watch. And in about 20 minutes the power was out, lucky for all of us the meal was already done. So we enjoyed a great meal, with friends...in the dark with the winds blowing outside. As the evening moved along we found out that there a tree had fallen on the power lines just up the road. We headed back to our house to go to sleep for the night. On a typical night Jameson watched a tv show before he goes to bed. He did not understand why we wouldn't turn on the tv for him. We tried a few times to explain to him that it was electric and since the power was OUT we couldn't turn it on. Then James realized that we could let him watch a dvd program on one of the laptops. So the boy got to watch a little kid tv before drifting off to dream land. (I posted a picture but for some reason it moved to a new post and I'm not willing to take the time to reload it here - look below).

One more picture, lately this boy has become almost obsessed with golf. Here he is actually hitting off the greens on one of the holes closest to our house. He played two holes...hit a little, run to where the ball landed...hit again, run again...you get the picture. We did have to have a little chat with him about the attire he was wearing for golf - this boy loves his white shirts and comfy shorts, so silly!

Easter pictures...

Here are the pictures that moved from the other post...does this 'little' boy look old or what? It is amazing to think he is going to be 4 in less then a month.

The picture of our family in the bed was taken during the power outage with the boy watching a dvd on the laptop.

The Cross!

"God put on him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God" (2 Cor. 5:21 MSG)

It is truly amazing to think of what Jesus went through for each and every one of us. It putting me in a state of awe to truly think about it. I am so grateful that He died for our sins, because each and every one of us are sinners yet he forgives us and loves us all. I pray that I am able to keep the true meaning of Easter present not only this weekend but always. God sacrificed so much for me and you.

Photo taken in 2003 at the Disciples of Christ church in Medina, Ohio. This picture speaks to me not only because it is a cross on a hill but because of the way the trees are bending in the background, it reminds me of the thorns that are protrayed in many images of Jesus.

Video!

We've been enjoying some good family time today since James is off of work with a long weekend!

I thought I would share this great inspirational video on how to cut fabric using the cricut! Check it out here. The last few baby gifts I've made have been iron-on transfer using digital elements, next I'm going to be trying this fun option with fabric!

I'm recovering from a short bought of major allergy suffering. I went to the doctor yesterday and am on an antibiotic and allergy meds. I suppose I need to face the fact that I now have seasonal allergies and must take the medication this time of year and in the fall if I don't want to get sick!

Recording the everday moments...

Today it seemed like there were a ton of simple everyday things going on all around us. The odd part was that I had the urge to freeze time. I don't typically have that feeling as I'm excited to live in the moment with the thought that the future holds so much to be excited about. So today some of the moments I wanted to freeze:

• While we were working on Jameson's hat for crazy hat day tomorrow we were painting. We had the hat done and he wanted to continue painting. So I turned around to the scrapbook table and started working on my own project. He ran to the bathroom and when he returned he held his hands in the air and said "Ummm, now where was I?" It was so funny and dramatic. The page here is the project I was working on while the little artist was at play!

• After the painting adventures this morning we had delayed our showering until this afternoon. I was straightening up downstairs and Jameson had gone up without me. When I got up to our bathroom, the boy was laying on the rug, snuggling under a towel. He said "you know it is cooooold up here without clothes on" (with the lowered temps today we didn't turn on the heat upstairs since it is going to warm up soon)

• After we were all cleaned up we were walking down the steps to come back downstairs. Suddenly Jameson tripped (another proven point that he is my son) and stumbled a bit. I was holding a cup and as I reached to stop him from falling even more I spilt a bit of the coffee on him. He was so upset that his clean shirt had gotten messed up. He is so funny about his shirts and white tees while at home (this new shirt would have been his third for the day since he got paint on the first one). So the real reason I'm telling you my son has trouble with steps was what he said once we were sitting down on the couch. He was telling me that Jesus doesn't always walk down the steps either. He likes to slide down on his belly. It is so neat that this boy has daily conversations that involve God and Jesus. It so warms my heart.

Week prior to Easter...

Here we are the week prior to Easter. This time of year the excitement is in the air, especially at FCC. They are anticipating nearly double the normal attendance. We're doing our part by going to the early service and we're taking Greg along! I can't wait to hear the message. If you're in the area and want to join us, let me know!

In preparation for Easter I just read that Rachel Olsen is exploring the readings that Jesus did the week prior to the cross. Sounds like a very interesting study of the bible. Want to join me in this reading?

I also thought I would share another CT project that I did a few weeks ago. The kit hadn't been released yet so I couldn't post it earlier. It is such a simple little thing that I just printed out on the printer here at home and slipped into a plastic frame (the kind with the magnet on the back). It is fun to have fresh pictures on the lockers while I create in the office.

Later this week we will officially be in on spring break at our house. Jameson has one more day of school, which will consist of crazy hat day and an egg hunt. We're excited to have some extra time together. I'm planning to come up with some special activities here at the house and possibly some day trips. Does anyone have any suggestions for fun things to do with a wild almost 4 year old boy that loves car. The only thought I've come up with is to create a cool road one night after he goes to bed so he wakes up to it. If the weather cooperate we may do some day trips or something. Tomorrow it is supposed to possibly snow here. Is it really April? Okay I'm off to have dinner with some friends!

ABCs...

Okay I thought I would post over here instead of just on Facebook...

1. A is for age: 33
2. B is for butter of choice: country crock
3. C is for career right now: SAHM!
4. D is for your dog's name: Deacon
5. E is for essential item you use everyday: toothpaste and powder
6. F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Grey's is back at the top
7. G is for favorite game: Memory
8. H is for Home town: Akron, Ohio
9. I is for instruments you play: Piano & flute
10. J is for favorite juice: orange
11. K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: none
12. L is for last place you ate: home
13. M is for marriage: 10 years this September
14. N is for your full name: Jill Lynn Jarvis
15. O is for overnight hospital stays: nearly 4 years ago...Jameson's birth
16. P is for people you were with today: Jameson, James & Cade Ratliff
17. Q is for quote: I'm going to go with a recent verse that is sticking with me..."If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me" Luke 9:23
18. R is for Biggest Regret: no regrets
19. S is for status: relaxed
20. T is for time you woke up today: 6:54 a.m.
21. U is for underwear you have on now: black
22. V is for vegetable you love: all of them! (or at least that I've tried and aren't mixed with too many other things)
23. W is for worst habit: spending too much time online, even though I bump back and forth between doing productive things
24. X is for x-rays you've had: hands (I've broken almost all of my fingers at one point in my life)
25. Y is for yummy food you ate today: I should say the stuffed pizza I made for dinner but it honestly wasn't that great so I'll go with the salad I had for lunch!
26. Z is for zodiac sign: Scorpio

And what would a post be without a picture or two. I've added the most recent digital layout that I finished (mix of pictures from the past week), a shot of James & Jameson blowing out candles last weekend and the picture of me with Maria & Jenna...the boy took that one. He was laughing at himself and having such a good time! We've had lots of yummy treats around these parts! I have lots of other pictures to share, eventually!