Zulily.com

There are some really cute things on Zulily today and if you have never checked out the designer duds for women, children, and babies, along with cute books, toys, and household, you are missing the boat. Check out this link http://www.zulily.com/invite/rwilliams113

Zulily.com

There are some really cute things on Zulily today and if you have never checked out the designer duds for women, children, and babies, along with cute books, toys, and household, you are missing the boat. Check out this link http://www.zulily.com/invite/rwilliams113

Kitten Update

Kittens are now 6 weeks old and are starting to act like kittens. They roam the house freely and gently attack things that move. Dexter (brown) is potty training and heading gruel (hard cat foot softened with water). Hexter (white) is not doing either. He screws around in the litter box when I put him in there and is afraid of the food dish.

Dexter is a perfect little offshoot from his daddy. He looks exactly like him except his white boots are slightly smaller and he doesnt have the white stripe on his nose like Monty does.

Hexter is a very beautiful kitten. He is fluffy with with a grey tail and ears like his mother. He is also going to be a big cat I think.

Dexter is still available for adoption and I think Jeff and Alyssa are going to adopt Hexter.

Stampin Up Event this Saturday October 1st 2011 Osseo Minnesota

NEW CLUBS AND CLASSES STARTING THIS FALL
I have a slew of classes and clubs starting this Fall. Beginning next month I will have 4 new clubs that will meet each month (Cards, 3D, Big Shot, and Scrap) and 3 classes that will meet alternating months (stamp a stack, wow cards, and make an album in a day). Come to my Stampapalooza or send me an email for more info.

STAMPAPALOOZA SATURDAY OCTOBER 1ST AT THE OSEEO AMERICAN LEGION (BASEMENT)
I have lots of retired product to sell, new classes and clubs starting this Fall, and some prize drawings etc. Please rsvp at winniethepoodle@hotmail.com if you are coming and you will be able to do a make and take.

CARD AND ATC SWAP
I am hosting a card and ATC swap on Linked In. Check out my groups on my Linked In profile for more information.

KITTENS UPDATE
The kittens are wonderful. Fat and sassy like me. The white male just opened his eyes this weekend. His fur is very soft and his tail and ears are just starting to turn grey like his siamese mother. He is very quiet and still doesnt meow much. The tiger striped I think is a female, not a male like i previously posted. She is going to be very big like her daddy. She is also as noisy as her brother is quiet. She is also quite concerned when Gideon peeks his nose in the nest and I caught her hissing at him the other day. It was sort of cute. Mischa does NOT like me picking them up nor does she like people in the room. She gets all crazy and tries to hide the kittens. I had to root around the house twice now because she moved them. One has been adopted, which one is still tbd, but the other is still available.

ST JUDES
I am still collecting card fronts for st judes childrens ranch. I have nearly 600 cards in hand and another 200 that people are working on but I still need 200 more by the end of October to meet my personal goal for this year. Please let me know if you have any card fronts you can donate.

MY PARENTS
I have been thinking about my parents lately, so much so, that yesterday I re-published my moms Legacy account via the Star and Tribune obituary site. I wish I could do my Dads too but apparently they didnt have legacy accounts when my dad died. Anyway, I will post a link sometime or you can go out to star and tribune.com and search for it Joann Morehouse died in 2008.

We have new kittens in the house!!!!

I wish I could post pictures but the stupid software for my camera doesnt work, or maybe its just me. Note to self, call Jesse for help with the camera software and ask for an android tutorial while he's here.

Anyway, I suspected Mischa was in labor so i brought up the nesting box, which she promptly left and Austin and I had to go looking for her.

After we finally found her, I locked her in the extra bedroom and within the next 2 hours she had 2 beautiful boy kittens; one snow white and one brown tiger striped. I am thinking of calling them names from Jungle Book but I am not sure yet.

When I got up the next morning, there was a third kitten who wasnt moving. i dont know if she was born dead or not but it broke my heart.

These will be adoptable sometime in November after I am comfortable that have completely weaned. I have a potential home for the tiger striped but the white one is still available. contact me if you are interested.

Last Day in Salt Lake City

I am partially rested and ready to go home. Convention was the best thing I have done in awhile but I miss Ken and the kids and the piglets and I am going through withdrawel for my stamp room.

Here is a quick rundown of yesterday.
I got up at 6 and met Darla at 7:30 but our make and takes didnt start until 9 so we took some pictures and went to Memento Mall one last time. I got some surprises for my 2011-2012 hostesses and a great gift for my next recruit. We didnt get our make and takes done in the alotted 2 hours and probably wouldnt have got them done even if they had given us another hour. They are cute though, especially the fabric card box. We had lunch and then had General Session from 1-4:30. there were walks across the stage (100k-1m lifetime personal sales) and an incredibly moving presentation from Rich Jutkins. He promoted the reason that I have stayed with Stampin Up for all these years and proved why this is a true Christian company with integrity. I cant help but compare Stampin Up to the other , unnamed, direct sales company I work for who pales in comparison. Anyway, there were 2 more prize patrols (holiday mini bundle and a MDS bundle) and I still didnt win but I left with so much free product that I know I will have to pay an extra $25 bucks to get my suitcase on the plane. I have pictures to post and am going to make extra CDS with all my pictures. LMK if you want one. Take care, miss you, I will be home soon.

Day 3 Stampin Up Convention 2011 (11:00pm)

Its Friday and we are most of the way through Stampin Up convention 2011. Today was a long but thoroughly enjoyable day. We had classes from 8-11 this morning and then a 2 hour lunch followed by General Session and Prize Patrol. I still didnt win ;(

I had dinner with Darla at the Little America Coffee Shop. They are rated high for their food and its well deserved although the server could have been a little more friendly.

From 7-9pm, I went to a special class I had signed up for called 'Village of Cuteness'. It was definately cute and I cant wait to show it to you but I have to figure out some way to get my projects home plus all the free product they gave us. I took, I dont know how many pictures, but probably in the hundreds and will post some but I need to get them burned to a disc first because I cant upload to my computer. I gotta go to bed, sorry. I will try to share more tomorrow.

Day 2 Stampin Up Convention 2011 (4:00 pm)

I have an hour and a half breather before Awards night and then an after party so I am going to trying to fill in all the datails for the day while I still remember them.

Today was my favorite day of convention ever. I spent the day with a friend I made on the way to convention, Darla, who happens to be staying at the same hotel. She and I went to General Session together which was fabulous. Shelli gave us a preview of the Holiday mini and then gave us each a pack to take home, hello goodies! Also Pam Morgan and prize patrol gave out a brand new tool called 'Simply Scoring' which is a much better version of the Scor Pal. Memento Mall is selling fabric bags for the Simply Scoring tool but i dont think the bag will be in the catalogue. We had lunch and then headed over to Memento Mall where I bought some cute pens for my club girls and a couple of surprises for my workshop hostesses. The line was so long in the MM that we were late to our first class which was Workshop #1(A) which gave me some great project ideas. My 2nd class was Workshop #2 (B) which als had great ideas and then we had an afternoon General Session. Ughh, i am so exhausted and just want to go to bed but I need to take a quick shower and get ready for the evening.

Day 2 Stampin Up Convention 2011 (6:30 am)

Good Morning Salt Lake City and my friends in Minnesota!!!

I got up at 5:45 this morning so I would have time to get ready for my day. I ordered room service and had french toast and ham, orange juice, and tea and I have to say it was worth every exhorbitant penny.

I finally went through the contents of my bag and here are the contents;
1 fabulous bag. This is the same configuration and compisition as the Demo bag except it is embroidered with blue and green flowers and has 2 metal tags, 1 attached and 1 of the keychain variety.

I also recieved 4 stamp sets; Best Friends Forever, Raining Flowers, Easy Events, and Its Your Day. I need to get busy mounting these for classes today.

Day 1 of Stampin Up Convention 2011

I checked into my hotel (Little America)at about 5 oclock tonight and took most of an hour getting my stuff put away and trying to get a frig ordered for my room. This is a 4 star hotel and there is no frig? anyway, here are the highlights;

The kickoff party was a blast! I left my cell phone at the hotel so i didnt have any way of finding my group so I made a couple new friends; Cresta and Jessica. It was their first convention and their excitement rubbed off on me. Stampin Up Prize Patrol gave away so many prizes that I am not sure there are any left for the rest of convention. SERIOUSLY, they had a game or some random drawing about every 15 minutes for 2 hours and there were probably 25 winners for each game. The prizes were amazing too.

I brought 200 swaps and traded about half and hopefully will do the rest tomorrow. There are some pretty cool ideas in my batch and I will share them when I get home. ***warning soap box**** if you ever have the opportunity to swap in person with strangers, dont say no to anyone. a first time swapper was nearly in tears after someone told her they didnt want to swap with her after they swapped with her friend. its really a shame that you cant just think of it as a gift if you think they didnt put as much effort into their swaps as you did. ok - off the soapbox....

I actually left the party early, as soon as my swaps were done, because I was exhausted and my leg hurt. It was definately a challenge getting back to the hotel and i think i walked about a mile when its really only about 6 blocks, maybe i should have brought my gps. ok, gotta take a shower and then go to bed.

Whats New

There is a lot thats new around the Williams house.

#1 - Tamra is pregnant and is expecting a girl so Ken is finally getting a granddaughter. She will be named Hannah.

#2 - I am going to convention for the first time in about 5 years. Salt Lake City July 13th - here I come.

#3 - I have a lot of scrapbooking layouts to post, keep an eye on my Stampin Up website.

#4 - 4th of July is almost here. Where did the time go. Oh yeah, our Minnesota Spring was buried under a foot of snow this year. We will be spending some time with the Williams and Link families over the 4th.

#5 - Amber is graduating!!!! After a lot of hard work, she 'got er done'.

Here is the article about Jeri

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/120499129.html

Anyone have any gowns they can donate?

Ken left the Sunday paper in our 'library' at home so I read and re-read this article so many times. I have some dresses I am going to send to her and I would say to those of you who have a bridesmaids dress or some old prom dresses just hanging around, you can send them too! I found her address on whitepages.com

Brisa - 6 and she lives in Chile

I dont know why my Brisa post didnt show the picture but Brisa is 6 and she live in Chile too.

Abigail is 4 and she lives in Chile too

My other Adopted Kids - Brisa

Brisa is 6 and she lives in Chile

Adopted another child at Childrens International

I have a new adoptoped child through Childrens International. His name is Brayan, he is 7 years old and he lives in Guatemala

eBay auction for Luke posted - $50 Stampin Up gift certificate

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180632639683

Here is the link to the ebay auction for Luke.

Prayers for Luke

I found a blog this morning that moved me so much that I wanted to add it to the blogs I follow list but for some reason, blogspot cant recognize the address so I am adding a special post for it.

****************** www.prayforluke.com*************************

This is a site, similar to caring bridge, for a young boy who has been hospitilized for the last 47 days after having a seizure. He has Meningitis. It is so sad, I am sitting here bawling as I read his families story.

I do not know this family but I feel compelled to help. I donated a $50 Stampin Up gift certificate which will be listed on eBay. Please consider bidding!

The History of the Lindberg Family Butterman

I need to tell a story about why every child born into my family in the last 3 generations is scared to go down in any basement by themselves.

When My great gramma was a young mother, apparently she lived in a home with a root celler under her kitchen. The kids, including my gramma Margaret, would want to play down there but Great Grandma was scared that they would get hurt because it was very dark, without light of any kind. Great Gramma started telling the kids that the butterman lived down there and would catch children and keep them down there with him if he caught them. Presumably, the monster was called the butterman because she kept butter down there so it would stay fresh. Suffice it to say, not only did no one want to play down there but GG couldn’t get anyone to go down and get her a jar of peaches either.

Well the tradition lives on through me and if the grand kids are doing something that I dont want them to do, I tell them in my most trembly voice that I think I hear the butterman and they come running. The other day I heard one of my kids saying so one of the grand kids 'look out or the butterman will catch you'. I know this isn’t the nicest family tradition, but I like it, and apparently my kids do to.

Blogs I Follow

I havent written in a long time. I dont know why, I guess the newness finally wore off I just havent done anything interesting. Regardless I am posting now.

There are a couple changes in my blog. Apparently its a pain to post comments so I enabled them to be posted without having to register (I hope I dont come to regret this). Please dont post anything offensive.

Next I added a section about blogs I follow. The only one that is there now is my friend Barbs son who is in Malawi for the Peace Corp. He provides fascinating information in a witty way and i enjoy reading about his adcentures. More blogs I follow will come soon.

My friend Kathy suggested I create a blog for Stampin Up only. That what this blog was supposed to be but I never stayed true to it. I will be creating a new blog for Stampin Up and will provide the link soon.

I recently watched a documentary about the Amish Passage Rite - Rumspringa, called Devils Playground. It was quite interesting as I have almost no experience with Amish culture but have been curious about it. Here is the wiki link; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_Playground_(film) and I would suggest you check it out given the opportunity and the inclination. If anyone knows about Amish culture, can you confirm;
- Amish only stay 'Amish' because they are afraid of going to Hell?
- During Rumspringa, the youth mostly drink, smoke and do drugs? do they do anything else?