{gems & father's day}

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to do another fun circle journal entry. As you can see in the picture above, the theme for my friend Laurie's circle journal was "GEMS." The idea for this journal was for each member of our group to share their own personal "GEMS," whether it be ACTUAL gemstones, favorite quotes, something you like about yourself, a personal hero or anything in our lives that is our own "personal GEM." Such a great theme. This group really has been simply exceptional as far as not only the albums and the designs go, but also the actual themes chosen. Each one has required a lot of thought and has made us really dig deep into ourselves to create our entries. I love that. Laurie chose an 8" x 8" album for her circle journal and with her permission, I am going to share her intro pages to the circle journal to give you a better idea of what she asked us to do in her journal and to also give you ideas if you are thinking of starting a circle journal group yourself. (Click on each individual picture to enlarge and view pictures at true quality, instead of Typepad Pixelated Quality. LOL!)

Laurie's "Sign-In Page" was so fun and unique. In fact, it wasn't really a page at all. Instead of having us decorate tags to sign in to her book, she actually had HUGE chipboard hearts for each of us to decorate that were tied together and attached to the inside of the album. With all of the hearts decorated, her "Sign-In Pages" actually ended up looking like a book themselves. LOL! She asked that we decorate the hearts according to our personality. All of the heart cards turned out so fun!!

Since we were supposed to design the sign-in card according to our own personalities, I decided to have mine really bright and fun. I chose to embellish with a bright orange gerber daisy (since I love gerbers!!!) with a "100% Original" chipboard circle in the center. For my name, I used alphabet stickers and cutouts from a sheet of alphabet patterned paper to create a fun and slightly whimsical feel.  Love it! And since the theme was "GEMS," I couldn't resist the fun gemstone crown! ;-) On the reverse side of the heart, I descorated it with coordinating papers and little journaling circles with my personal info. This sign-in heart was so much fun. It was almost like designing a whole other page, instead of just a sign in tag. LOL! SUCH a fun idea!!!

And now, on to my entry into Laurie's circle journal. Originally, I was wanting to think of something really original and perhaps different than what most would consider "GEMS" but was still priceless to me personally. However, after everything that has happened this week, I couldn't do these pages focusing on anything other than my family. Save my testimony of the Gospel alone, my family is without a doubt, my most precious and priceless GEM. Though a few others had focused on the same thing for their pages, I simply had to do the same.

I used the same bright fun paper for my two-page layout that I used for my sign-in heart. I wasn't sure that it would match my vintage-edited pics, but I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. This was a two-page layout that I had a really hard time sending away.

As I did on my sign-in heart, I cut out individual letters from one of the alphabet patterned papers for my title and embellished with LOTS of gems, including a little daisy that I made out of two different sizes of gems (that's really not an original idea..LOL...but fun nonetheless). I thought it was a fun combination to use these fun bright colored papers with the black ornate die cut paper and I used another large orange gerber with a big 'Everyday Moments" chipboard circle in the center. I used a conversation bubble, that runs onto the first page, for my journaling which very simply reads: "Other than my testimony of the Gospel, my husband and sweet children, and the "everyday moments" that I share with them, are above and beyond my most precious and priceless gems!!" After not liking my handwriting on my layouts for so long, I am really starting to dig the personal touch it adds to my layouts. :-) I also love these fun turquoise vinyl letter stickers that I used for the first time to spell out "priceless" on my second page. So many fun fun products out there!!

Some may ask why my testimony stands above my sweet family. The Gospel is the foundation of my life and what makes it possible for me to BE with my family for time and all eternity. So in a sense, they both go hand in hand. My love for my family is so great, that I can't even fathom for a second what it would be like to have our family end with this life. If we live worthy, our family is sealed together for eternity, forever, because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So yes, my testimony of the Gospel stands as my most priceless gem...the greatest reason being, that it binds 3 of my most priceless and precious gems to me for all eternity. What a wonderful theme for this circle journal and I am so happy with how these pages turned out. Only one more journal left and our rotation is complete. I can't WAIT to see my own circle journal complete with the entries from every member of our group!!! This has been SUCH a fun project and I am always so excited to share each one with you!

In the midst of everything this week, Chas had a great Father's Day. The day before Father's Day, he played basketball with his buddies in the morning and then played golf with his Dad, his uncle and his cousin. Sunday morning, he slept in while we made him a yummy breakfast. Kaden spent all morning drawing him a bunch of pictures of them playing basketball together, playing golf, playing football, going on a safari together (LOL), etc. I made my yummy breakfast casserole and cut him a large piece in the shape of a heart. LOL! So cheesy. Then, I made Cherry Turnovers that Chas and I used to have every Sunday morning when we were first married and haven't had in years. They are delish. (They are just the Pillsbury Cherry Turnovers...and they are HEAVENLY!). Originally, I also planned to make biscuits and gravy and bacon, but when I got going, I realized I had kinda overdone it on planning breakfast, so we saved the biscuits and gravy for another meal. :-) Then, to go along with breakfast, I made homemade Orange Julius'. And after BOTH Chas and I tasted them, we couldn't understand why we don't drink Orange Julius EVERY SINGLE DAY! OH MY GOOOOOOOODNESS. It was WOW. DELISH! Gotta share the recipe of course!!!

HOMEMADE ORANGE JULIUS

6 oz. Orange Juice Concentrate (a 12 oz. can makes 2 batches)
1 C. milk
1 1/2 C. water
1/2 C. sugar
12 ice cubes

Blend in blender until smooth (with no little ice chunks...unless you like it that way).

Oh seriously...you will die. It has been so warm here the past few days (can't complain, so GLAD it's finally warm) and I literally CRAVE Orange Julius since we had it on Sunday. But obviously I can't have it very often...it's not really on my program. LOL! After breakfast, Kaden presented all of his pictures to his Daddy and I brought out my gift to him. A few weeks ago when I was getting my Jazzercise stuff out of the trunk, I happened to catch a glimpse at his golf shoes. Oh...they are sad. I was SO EXCITED to find out something he really needed...he is SO hard to shop for. So, I saved my pennies and then last week, I went to Uinta Golf on a mission to find him some nice golf shoes. WHOA..they have a LOT of shoes. I was seriously thrilled when a nice sales person came over to help me with my decision. I explained that my hubby had some Footjoys that were really worn out....so he must have liked the Footjoys to buy them in the first place. The gentleman told me about a few of his favorite shoes and then said that they really would ALL be a good choice (which didn't help me at all. LOL!). He pointed out the Nike Tiger Woods shoes that were on the U.S. Open Display with all of the other clothing items that Tiger was wearing for the U.S. Open.  They were NICE shoes...and pretty pricey. Eeek. He said that they were the best shoe they sold...top of the line...and so comfortable from the getgo that he personally owns a pair and even wears them to work sometimes. Still, he said that it wasn't necessary to purchase such expensive shoes, since the ones half the price were still great shoes. If Chas was just a casual golfer, the others would be fine. But he has really been golfing a lot lately, so I really think he deserves the top of the line. So, I went with the $169 Nike Tiger Woods shoes. I was fully prepared to dish out my saved pennies as the cashier rang them up as $169. Then, the older gentleman that had helped me came up to her quickly and said, "Hey...these are actually going down to $89 today for the U.S. Open and they haven't been marked down yet." Happy DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! I just about squealed. I was a little worried about them being brown (I thought the black versions weren't as nice looking), since his others were black (and he is kind of a "black shoe" kind of guy...have you ever heard the personality thing about black and brown shoes? LOL! I'm a brown shoe gal and he's a black shoe guy. Will have to dig that up somewhere.), but I figured, I HAD to snag this deal and THEN, if he didn't like them, he could take them back and swap them....but at least I wouldn't have missed out on the killer deal for the chance that he loved them....WHICH HE DID!

Chas isn't a backflips kind of guy when it comes to being excited about gifts, but he was REALLY excited about his shoes. They looked great on him and he was really excited to try them out on his weekly Monday 6:30 AM round of golf with his friend Neil. He came home RAVING about his shoes, saying how awesome and comfortable they were. YAY!!! And all for a bargain I didn't even plan on getting. WOOHOOOO!

We enjoyed Father's Day dinner with Chas' family at his mom and dad's house. Chas' Dad's favorite meal is spaghetti (so funny....my Dad's favorite is my mom's Mac & Cheese), so that's what we had for dinner. And oddly enough, Chas does NOT like spaghetti...or any pasta really. But he DOES like his Aunt Pat's spaghetti. It is YUM-O-RAMA!!! And....as I flip through my cookbook, I am realizing that I do not have the recipe. Bummer deal. I will get ahold of it and post it here later...stay tuned, it's awesome!! Chas' mom asked us to bring dessert, so I asked Chas to pick his two favorite desserts so I could make both to bring. He chose Lemon Fluff and Scotcharoos. The Lemon Fluff is heavenly and it's MY dad's fave too. However, the Scotcharoos were the fave that night, so we ended up with some nice leftovers of the Lemon Fluff for us...YAY!!!!! It is so light and fluffy and delish..the PERFECT summertime dessert...or any time really. LOL! And since part of Typepad's "IMPROVEMENTS" was getting away with my SEARCH option (where is the common sense in that, I as you?), I cannot for the life of me find the post where I shared the recipe for Lemon Fluff. So, I shall share it again!!

LEMON FLUFF

12 graham crackers, crushed
1 cube margarine, melted
2 T. powdered sugar
1 (8 oz.) cream cheese
1 C. sugar
3 T. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 small package lemon Jell-o, dissolved in 1 C. hot water and cooled
1 regular can evaporated milk, chilled (VERY IMPORTANT!!! I put mine in the fridge the night before)

Combine crushed crackers, powdered sugar and butter. Cover a 9x13 pan with 1/2 of the mixture (the crust)...it will be sparce. Mix cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla together.  Add cooled (but not set) Jell-o and mix with mixer.  Whip the chilled milk in a different bowl until light and fluffy, then combine with cream cheese mixture. Mix well. Pour into pan and crumble remaining crushed crackers over the top. Chill at least 2 hours before serving. ENJOY!

After dinner, the guys continued watching the U.S. Open and we played and visited until the very end of the U.S.Open when we all gathered around the TV to scream like CRAZY when Tiger sank the last put. WOW! SO AWESOME! Many have wondered why he is still playing with his knee hurting so badly. Are you kidding me? As an athlete, how awesome would it be to play wounded and STILL beat everyone?! LOL! And even after we celebrated, Chas just said, "And it's really kinda too bad, cuz Mediate IS such a good guy." LOL! At the funeral on Monday, Dave's brother told of his GREAT love for golf and said that he was pretty sure that Dave had one eye on his funeral and another eye on the playoff on Monday. :-) He said that he even lovingly called his little girl "El Tigra" after Tiger Woods. It was an extra happy side thought for Dave that Tiger won the playoff on Monday.

So, it was a great Father's Day for us. We are so grateful for Chas. He is such a great Daddy and totally deserved a day to honor all that he does for our family. We love you Chasy!!

EDITED TO ADD: I just received a blog comment from Aleshia on my last post about the funeral and she shared an absolutely AWESOME poem and I wanted to post it here to share with all of you! It is fantastic...and I will definitely be using this over and over and over again. Thank you Aleshia, so much, for taking the time to share this poem with me and with all of those who read my blog. (Another one of my sweet blog readers, after seeing that I had posted this poem, shared a link to a little movie clip that goes along with this poem: http://www.dashpoemmovie.com/, THANKS LYNN!)

The Dash
by Linda Ellis
© 1998

I read of a reverend who stood to speak at the funeral of his friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone from the beginning...to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time that she spent alive on earth…
and now only those who loved her know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own; the cars…the house…the cash.
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard… are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left. (You could be at "dash mid-range.")

If we could just slow down enough to consider what’s true and real,
and always try to understand the way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger, and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect, and more often wear a smile…
remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy’s being read with your life’s actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

Comments

[Misty]

Lemon Fluff is my next goodie...Sounds great. Loved the poem. Sure hope you had hot water at Bear Lake... My parents found out that the water heater was turned WAY down. Sorry...

[Lynn C.]

That is AWESOME! Love how you honored the dad of your home. Love THOSE shoes! What a lucky guy! Man, if I got a surprise deal like that I would be doing the happy dance too.

Thanks for sharing the recipes. I collect them all!

And thanks for the poem. There's a video that goes with that.
I love this video. In fact, this was one of our dear widows' (from our ward) favorite poems. She had this given at her funeral. There was not a dry eye there. My husband LOVED her so much. We all did.

Thanks for the wonderful reminder. And the great flashbacks of her's and my friendship.

http://www.dashpoemmovie.com/

[Jill]

Delicious recipes! Yum! I made the Orange Julius and everyone in my family loved it! Thank you! I loved it so much, I hope you don't mind if I post it on a food blog I belong to with a link here to your post as the original source. Thank you again!

[Amy N.]

LOVE Orange Julius!! I hardly keep the OJ concentrate around though..bummer! I love "The Dash" poem. I saw that years ago, and it really hit hard for me....great poem!

[Christy B]

OMG - I wish I would have found that deal!! Holy Cow - I'd be wife of the century with that gift! You did good!!!

[Bobbi-Jo Grunewald]

You are the most thoughtful wife I've ever heard of. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't even know my husband's shoe size. You're amazing - and YAY on the great deal!! Don't you love when that happens?

And yes, I love that poem. It's always made me think and made me cry. Thanks for posting it, as it's so appropriate.

Oh, and WONDERFUL job on your circle journal! The colors, the daisies, the gemstone, the photos... beautiful!

[Christal]

Love that poem what truth eh!! Love the shoes too what a great fathers day gift and breakfeast yummy! You are mother of the year and wife of the year!You are awesome! Those recipes look so good! I printed them off and can't wait to try them!
Awesome scrap pages as usual too love the bright summery fun feeling.
Well have a faboulous warm day!!!

[Andrea]

I love Orange Julis too, Heather. It always reminds me of being a newlywed because my husband wanted some and I started to make it. He said, let's get my mom's recipe. I responded, they are all the same. But he insisted (yes he was a mama's boy!). So I got it and sure enough it was exactly the same. I think it was a good lesson for him! But I still tease him about it!

[Michele]

Wow! That was a long post! LOL!! The circle journal looks like a lot of fun! Loved your layout and your heart!

Glad that you and your family had a nice Father's Day. Especially cool about getting that bargain on the shoes! Gotta love that!

This was the first Father's Day in 38 years that I didn't get to be with my dad. My nana, his mom, had to have an emergency angiogram so he flew to Los Angeles to be with her. I'm glad that you and your family all got to be together for a wonderful meal and time to relax and enjoy.

Love the pics of the kids! Wow are they ever getting big!! Still super cute!!

Hugs,
Michele
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