Richard Ray Massey

June 16, 1939 - December 26, 2006

Passed away December 26, 2006 of cancer. He will be greatly missed by his wife Linda, two daughters, Melinda Staley (Mark) of Colorado Springs CO, and Megan Rodeffer (Aaron) of Salado TX, his seven grandchildren, Bryce, Elizabeth, Carissa, Brenna, & Sarah Staley, Molly and Brandt Rodeffer, brother Ralph Massey (Melinda) and sister Sheryl Creech (Richard) as well as his many friends and extended family members. Richard was born June 16, 1939 in Ada OK. He graduated from Central HS in Oklahoma City, then earned a BA in graphic arts at Oklahoma City University in 1961. After serving in the Air National Guard, he worked as a graphic artist in commercial advertising in Oklahoma and Washington. He retired from Washington State University in 1990. His wife Linda is a professor of human nutrition at Washington State University, first in Pullman from 1978-1990, then at the Spokane branch campus. His hobby and talent was all kinds of handywork, which he used in his church ministries at Putnam City Baptist in Oklahoma City, Emmanuel Baptist in Pullman, Pines Baptist in Spokane and finally at Heritage Congregational Church in Spokane. He loved watching all kinds of sports and especially enjoyed his season tickets with the Spokane Shock arena2 football team. His memorial service will be at 1 pm January 3, 2007 at Heritage Congregation Church, 1801 E 29th Ave, Spokane. His family requests that donations be made to the Richard Massey memorial fund at Heritage Church in lieu of flowers.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

We are trying to keep things as normal as possible even though my Dad is in the hospital and not doing well. We made our annual trek to the zoo for the Electric Safari Friday night.


Sarah enjoyed the lights. I'm sure she doesn't remember seeing them last year. She did not however, want to visit with Santa LOL the older kids all took a turn telling him what they wanted this year for Christmas.



quite a few families this year brought marshmallows to roast over the fire pits they put out so that you can stop and warm yourself a bit. The kids thought that was a neat idea and I'm sure will insist we do the same next year. Brenna managed to sweet talk her way into sharing a marshmallow with the little boy she was standing next to LOL! Here she is licking her fingers :)


The kids opened their new pajamas tonight
I didn't do such a good job guessing which size to buy Beth and Carissa (they are in between those vague sizes of M and L these days), so we will have to try and exchange the ones I bought for the smaller size if we can. They got new robes too, so they are happy with that for the time being. Brenna of course loved her new purple Dora PJs and Bryce liked the spy t-shirt and sweat pants he got. Sarah seemed Ok with her new sleeping attire, but didn't go nuts over it. She was ready to keep opening presents after all of the PJs were open and was ready to hand out the rest of the presents.

I'll leave it at that tonight. I still need to stuff stockings and try to get Sarah back to sleep ::sigh::

Up late, so I scrapped some more

I swear that Sarah has a sixth sense and knows exactly when I decide to head to bed for the night, as it is inevitable that she will wake up and start fussing while I am in the process of trying to get the computer shut down so I can go upstairs. She woke up with dirty pants, fussing and crying, and after I changed her and nursed her for a few minutes she was wide awake. So, guess what? Mama got to stay up even later while I waited for her to grow tired enough to put back in bed. Two hours later and I had a page with all of the pics from the gingerbread tree making adventure earlier that night.

journaling: A day off from school because of a blizzard made this the day that we finally put together the gingerbread tree kit. The icing turned out a bit runny, so it didn’t hold it’s shape at all after piping on the tree, but just sort of oozed off the edges. This tree wouldn’t win any awards for skill in decorating, but we had lots of fun. Besides, it reminds me of what it looked like outside that night with the snow and wind making everything conform to its own whim. ~December 20. 2006
credits: RAKscraps December 2006 Admin Add-on at Scrapdish; LO template by Robin Cabana; fonts: SBC Love Mom

I just love that icicle border and the icy alpha in the Admin Add-on to the RAKs megakit this month. You can check it out HERE.

Pics from today - are you ready for some snow?

They've already cancelled school for tomorrow, so I know I don't have to get up early if Sarah lets me sleep late. Most major roads outside of town are closed, and even parts of some of the streets in town including the major road just down the hill from us. They are saying that the storm should be by us by tomorrow afternoon, but that is a ways off still. The only official snow measurement I was able to catch on the weather report was 6 inches, and that was around dinner time. It hink I saw that we were in the 6-12" band on the weather map. The wind and drifting is the worst of it.

Just a cute pic I got this afternoon of Sarah and Beth. I was pestering Sarah with my camera trying to get a nice pic of her in her little candycane pants and pink shirt and she was having none of it, but she held still when she was standing there next to Beth.
Then, Sarah started really being a pill and playing with the presents under the tree. I don't think she understands why we have to wait to open all of those pretty packages (and no, I haven't done any of the wrapping that still needs to be done, though I did find the wrapping paper ;) ) This uses a little mini kit Dani has up at the DigiShoppe, it was perfect!

journaling: Today was one of those days, Sarah, where you just did not want to hear the word ‘no’ about anything you were doing. You find the presents under the tree fascinating and often pick one out to carry around, I think in the hope that we will say it is OK to open it. Usually you will go put it back with a little encouragement, but today you just wouldn’t leave it alone and before too long were crying and as mad as can be at me for not allowing you to do as you wanted. Christmas is only a few days away, I promise!
~December 20, 2006
credits: Naughty or Nice by Dani Mogstad at The Digishoppe; staple from Cabana Boy by Dani Mogstad; Rubon action by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: Dirty Ego and CK Handprint

Here's what it looks like out my front door tonight: The snow is blowing up under the porch roof and drifting. There is probably 6 inches piled up right there at that point.
You can't tell because the snow is so deep, but the front flower bed is about a foot lower than the front porch- the snow has pretty much drifted right up level to it now. and this one is because I just think the christmas lights under the snow were so pretty ;)
and as promised, here are some gingerbread tree-making pics:
I handed the camera to the kids and told them to take some pictures for me. Again, they did pretty well. Beth took this one.
Adding the colored candy ball decorations.
Adding more white snow (not sure who took this pic since all 3 big kids had taken a turn by this point)
and the finished masterpiece, what we are calling the blizzard tree
It is just kind of dripping with icing - kind of like the snow outside LOL The icing wasn't very thick and wouldn't hold it's shape for more than a few seconds, so it just started oozing over the side whereever I put it. Maybe I needed to mix it more, or I added too much water even though I just put in what the instructions said, but it was just very thin icing. In the end it didn't turn out too badly, but I don't think Martha Stewart will be inviting me to her show to wow everyone with my piping skills LOL!

We did get the christmas letter written this afternoon. I still need to make sure it fits properly onto the stationary I have and then print them all out, fold, stuff, stamp etc. But the really hard part is done. I headed to bed now, I hope all of you are cozy and warm wherever you are!

I'm a Dani's Girl again!!

Whoo Hoo! So, I can finally spill the beans LOL I'm on her new Altered Team, so I will be turning her delicious scrapping goodies into paper and altered projects. It should be fun, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if while I am dabbling in printing and glueing that some of my other CT team's goodies end up being 'altered' a bit too!

Good Morning from Snowland

Yes, we are having another blizzard. We are under a blizzard watch until noon on Thursday, a full 24 hours. Needless to say, the kids are home from school today and most likely will be again tomorrow. It will hardly be worth the bother to send them on Friday for a half day, but as it would count as a full day towards the school calendar they will probably go ahead and have it then. Oh the joys of living in Colorado in Winter!
Are you sure you want to come to Colorado for Christmas, Tania?? I'd say it is a pretty good chance we will be having a white holiday this year! If it isn't snowing there will be at least be a good coating of white stuff on the ground.

I've been saving a gingerbread Christmas tree kit to do at a later date when all of the kids were home, so I guess today is the day when they start to get bored. We've turned on the computer upstairs for them and will start a rotation so that everyone can have a turn. Carissa has made it through the karoake soundtrack for High School Musical already once this morning, and I'm sure we will hear it a few more times before the day is over. I've got to work on our Christmas letter. I've got the photo card I put together all printed and trimmed, I just need to write that letter- I really dislike doing that every year, but since I love to read the ones we get from our friends across the country, I figure I should write one too. I can recruit some extra hands to help stuff and seal envelopes if I can get them done. They probably won't get mailed for a day or two with the snow and wind blowing so hard, as I certainly don't want to venture out in it unless I absolutely have to. But, I would love to be able to cross that off of my to-do list!

I finished up my Christmas Traditions albums pages last night and then printed and trimmed the pages and put them in my little album. I knew I would find a good use for that little thing when I bought it ;)

a few of my very favorite things from the Christmas season

Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, stitching, holly rub-on and heart from Scraps of the Season- Love; stitched label by Robin Cabana from RAKscraps Dec06 megakit Admin Addon at Scrapdish; font: TXT Delicate Script

journaling: Our zoo membership allows us a visit to see all of the lights at the Electric Safari event during December. We always enjoy seeing the animated animals, warming our hands around the campfires, and stopping for a visit with Santa before we head for home.
striped paper by Funktabulous by Ashley Olson; light strings by Gina Miller at FunkyPlayground
font: TXT Monkeyshine

We're going to miss having Grandmama and Granddaddy with us again this year for Christmas. My dad can certainly use extra prayer as he is trying to fight off an infection he picked up after he got the flu last week. They are still running tests to determine what exactly it is that is causing his illness. His chemo treatments are on hold until he gets better from this. A CT scan a couple of weeks ago show that the tumor is continuing to respond to the chemo and shrink, so we really want him to get well enough to continue so that we can get rid of the cancer for good this time! Hang in there, Daddy! we are thinking about you, missing you and praying for you!

OK, I need to send a few emails and then get to cracking on that letter. Hopefully I will have some pics of today's fun stuff to post a bit later tonight!

scrapping scrapping scrapping!

I got this beautiful shot of Sarah looking down at me from her Daddy's shoulders while we were out enjoying a fall afternoon hike.
journaling: Enjoying the view from the top of Daddy’s shoulders while we were out walking in Palmer Park one gorgeous fall afternoon. ~November 4, 2006
credits: Second Spring by Audra Little at DigiScrapShak; LO template by Rachael Giallongo for DigiChick; fonts: TXT Antique Poster and 2Peas Champagne

credits: Color My World by Emily Farnworth at PolkaDotPotato; ScrapEasy Template Pack 1 by Cindy Wyckoff at PolkaDotPotato; masking tape by Krista Mettler from EcZentric kit at Scrapdish; fonts: 2Peas Sandbox

journaling: Bryce has always stuggled with physical coordination, in part because of his ADHD, so it was no surprise to us that it took him longer to learn to ride a bicycle. His perfectionist nature kept him from keeping at it when he couldn’t do it successfully right away. After two days of watching his younger sisters zip up and down the street on their bicycles he finally stuck with it and learned to ride himself. Way to go, Bryce! We always knew you could do it!
credits: Dirty Boys by Dani Mogstad; schmootzy alpha brushes by Nancie Rowe Janitz; LO based on sketch by Bree Clarkson
fonts: TXT Abrasive

A title page for the album of our European years when we lived in Germany and traveled to Paris, London, Prague, Switzerland, Italy and all over Germany!
credits: Artsong Rhapsody paper pack and Artistry Elements by Krista Mettler at Scrapdish; fonts: TXT Brush Script

journaling: Sarah likes to play with her Daddy’s shoes, taking them off and on and trying to carry them around the house with her. It is quite funny to watch since they are so big compared to her! December 13, 2006
credits: Feeling Festive papers by Robin Cabana at Scrapdish, stitching, chipboard circle and wavy ribbon from All Wrapped Up Elements by Robin Cabana at Scrapdish, ricrac (recolored) from Just a Memory by Robin Cabana at SBB ; Cardboard background and edge overlay by Linda Gil Billdal at Scrapartist; Circle stitches and Chipper Swirl by Karen Hunt at SBB; Bundle Up Baby Cardboard Alpha (recolored) by Amanda Roberts; Script handstamped alpha by myself; fonts: Tweed

money cards

My parents are giving all of the kids money to spend this year. They sent a check, I went to the bank this morning and came back with a stack of bills that needed some sort of creative wrapping. So, I turned to my trusty computer and the template I made for the RAKscraps newsletter this month. I made each kid an individualized money card to stash those bills in. I used a bunch of kits I had purchased and hadn't used yet. It was fun to do these, no CT assignment, I really didn't have to worry about my LO presentation too much (OK, so I really can't just let it all hang out completely- it's just not my style LOL!), and I got to use a bunch of kits I thought were pretty, neat, and just cute!

credits: A Beautiful Mess by Lisa Whitney at Scrapartist, alpha and staple from Artistry Elements by Krista Mettler at Scrapdish, money/giftcard holder template by myself; fonts: TXT Scribbleti and TXT Tough Love

credits: Crimson Christmas by Susan Long, Scrapartist Apprentice contest, money/giftcard holder template by myself; font: CK Heritage

Credits: The Gazebo by Amber Clegg, Scrapartist Apprentice contest,Sharing a brain with Sara alpha by Robin Carlton, money/giftcard holder template by myself; font: CK Heritage

Credits: Bears n Blossoms n Beads by Christy Lyle and Robin Carlton at SweetShoppeDesigns, money/giftcard holder template by myself'; fonts: CK Heritage

It was a bit of a race to get them all printed out and folded, stuffed and under the tree before the kids walked in the door from school, but I managed and even had a few minutes to spare! Now if I can just get the rest of the gifts stashed in the garage wrapped up too. Mark cleaned up the living room yesterday quickly when we were expecting the youth group from our church to drop by and carol to us and he stashed my rolls of christmas wrapping paper somewhere I havent found yet I don't know where he could have hidden it, there were 6 rolls of papper and a box of ribbons and bows- it's not like they would fit under the couch! I know, I just need to ask him- but it irks me he hid them in the first place LOL!

And they're off!

The Christmas packages that is! Hooray and Hallelujah!! LOL The line at the post office wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting/have experienced in the past. I only had to wait 20 minutes and was walking out of the door wtihin 30 minutes total. Brenna and Sarah were good too!

Now I only have a few more major things on the Christmas to-do list: wrapping the rest of the kids gifts and the Christmas letter/cards being the two biggest. I haven't really started thinking about making sure I have everything we need for Christmas day breakfast and dinner yet either.

Something is up with my wireless connection this morning- not sure what since it was working just fine when I went to bed last night. The connection just isn't working from this computer (the one I get on the internet with). So, that means that I can't get to my email easily since my email program is on the laptop. I can still get/read/send on the web mail, but that is a big pain usually. Hopefully Mark will be able to sort it out without too much trouble when he comes home to get us. His office is having their holiday lunch potluck today and since his office is on base now he has to come get us and take us.

I'm so glad to have those boxes shipped off! and I can't wait to scrap a little later today. I just hate not being able to scrap LOL!!

Buried under LOs!

The print shop did get my LOs done yesterday morning and I've been sorting and putting them in albums for a good 24 hours now. I just love seeing them on paper- you just can't appreciate their full beauty until you print them. I sent emails this morning thanking all of the designer's who share their kits with me for CT work, but I will say it again here too! THANK YOU! you are all so generous and your work is amazing! About 75% of the LOs I've done this last year are with CT kits and I wouldn't change a thing on them- I love you all!

I bit the bullet this year and not only printed the 60 LOs for family members gift books multiple times, but also 1 of every LO I have done this year. So, adding them all up- 60 x 3, plus the 187 for myself, that was 367 LOs. Then I realized after sorting them all, that I had forgotten to add my summer vacation LOs to the CD I took to the print shop. So, I have spent this morning printing them out to add in, and that brings the total up to 389. Whew! Between the printing costs, and then buying the albums and page refills to put them in (luckily the craft stores have had them on sale the last two weeks, and they actually had them in stock LOL), the CC are a smokin'! But it is so worth it to be able to see them all 'in person' and not just on the computer screen. The kids have been having a blast looking through them all too. None of the family really pays too much attention to what I am doing over here in my corner, except occasionally, so most of the LOs are new to them.

I've got a bunch of trimming to do so I can get to wrapping things. I've also printed out several more copies of my CDcase calendar this morning. I'm counting them up and I think I need to print out one more since Beth keeps asking for one for their room. I hope my ink cartridge can hold on for a few more pages, it's getting close to biting the dust after this morning's print marathon! It's going to take me several hours to crop all of the pages and calendars too. I think I need to go find a new blade for my trimmer too, so a trip to the office store is probably going to happen today too. I'm not going to get the boxes mailed for another day or two; I had hoped to be getting them mailed by today at the latest since last year the PO was so darn slow in getting my sis's box to her in TX despite the fact that I had mailed it priority in plenty of time and it still didn't get there until after Christmas. I'll blame it on the 2 extra days the print shop took getting my super large order done- yeah, that's the ticket :-P

Hopefully Sarah's little tummy won't be upset again today- she threw up all over the kitchen floor late last night. At least she missed the table with all of the LOs and scrapbooks on it. It was an ugly mess though. I'm not sure what's going on with her. She threw up a week ago during the digicraft chat, but has been fine since. I don't know if this is related to the second flu shot she got about a week ago, or something else like switching to whole milk after only getting breast milk or formula for so long. We've never had a problem with milk with any of the other kids though.

I hope everyone else's Christmas to-do lists are getting shorter too!

Christmas Ornaments 2006

I finally opened up the box we got from my parents earlier this week to put the presents under the tree. Daddy marks all of the ornament boxes so that we know what they are and can open them early to hang on the tree and enjoy this year. Presenting this year's ornaments from Granddaddy:
Beth and her pretty kitty
Carissa and her "Merry Kiss-Mouse" (LOL!)
Sarah and her Pooh Bear and Piglet
Bryce with ScoobyDoo and Shaggy
Brenna and her Cabbage Patch doll
Mark and his Mr. Monopoly
Melinda, the Scrapbook Super Star (perfect LOL!) - picture was taken by Beth
and here are the ornaments we added to our tree from this summer's vacation:
clockwise from top left: A glass mermaid from Norfolk, VA- they have mermaid statues like this scattered throughout downtown and the girls had a great time trying to spot them as we drove around; a Liberty coin from the US Mint in Philadelphia, PA; the Wright brother's plane from the Air and Space Museum in WADC; the USS Wisconsin battleship, also from Norfolk, VA; and a colonial soldier from Colonial Williamsburg

We also opened my sisters box and found Sarah's late birthday present. She didn't hesitate at all when I handed the bag and ripped the paper right out of it and started digging around inside. She found a yellow fuzzy chick and a book- both favorites :) I just love the expression on her face when she pulled out the chick!

That's it for tonight. I need to start getting kiddos in bed!

Christmas Traditions pages

Deck the Halls
journaling: With small kids around, I haven’t decorated as much as in some years past, but there are always certain things that come out of storage that help it really feel like Christmas.
Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, felt alpha from Birthday Bash kit (recolored), ornaments
font: TXT Annesia, Typewriter

Ornament Collection
journaling: Grandma Doris started our ornament tradition my first Christmas with the gift of my first ornament. Every year she would give each of the grandchildren an ornament she had made. My favorite one has always been the hollowed egg shell with the diorama inside, given to me when I was two. When she died in 1984 my Dad and MommyPat picked up the tradition and have continued growing my ornament collection with new additions every year.
Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, felt shapes, glitter palm from Scraps of the Season- Peace; font: Bickley Script

Stockings
journaling: Grandmama and Granddaddy have given each of the kids their stockings as one of their first Christmas presents. Looking in our stockings is the first thing that we do on Christmas morning, to see what Santa left in them during the night.
font: Bickley Script, TXT Santa Font; Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer

Christmas Card Picture
journaling: We send out a Christmas letter every year, and we always include a picture of the family or kids so that our family and friends can see how they have grown and changed during the year.
Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, Scraps of the Season- Peace; font: Bickley Script, TXT Santa Font

New PJs
journaling: I began giving the kids a new pair of pajamas to wear when Beth and Carissa were one. It is the one present they are allowed to open on Christmas Eve, before bed. Their new pjs are usually favorites for quite a while after Christmas is over.
Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, felt shapes, Scraps of the Season- Cheer; font: TXT Annesia

And I finally got the Christmas card photo put together- of course it helped a whole bunch that all I had to do was drop the picture into this fabulous card already put together for me by KimJ LOL! So, there are 2 of the 3 promised holiday pictures in this post ;)

Credits: Rich Holiday Coordinates Photo Cards by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish; font is TXT Delicate Script

I have one more of Sarah that I really want to scrap before showing it off as it is so cute! Maybe this week- it seems like my to-do list is a mile long still. I did get a lot accomplished last week, but I don't think the list has gotten much shorter. I thought I could wrap and pack boxes to ship this weekend, but the print shop didn't get my pages done in time to get them to me before their work week ended. Hopefully they will have them done tomorrow for me!

Necessity is the mother of the Secret Agent (finally)

So, the Christmas crunch finally got me motivated to get this little kit finished up. I've been going through the LOs I did this last year trying to narrow it down to the 60 I can afford to have printed for people and I realized that I had done birthday party LOs for all of the girls, but I hadn't done one for Bryce. In part, because I never finished up the kit I had started way back in March to scrap the pics with.
Everything is made by me on these, except for the notepaper, which is by Krista Mettler from the School Dayz kit at Scrapdish. fonts used: Dirty Ego, CK Newsprint, Typewriter
It took me a while today to get Bryce peeking out of that piece of paper. ;)

So, now that it is done, I have no idea if anyone else in the world will find this kit useful at all. I also have no idea when I will give this out. I'm sure an opportunity will present itself eventually LOL!

I've got to go get dinner made, and tonight I have to finish picking out LOs so that I can take them to the print shop tomorrow and spend some more money! I can tell it is christmas because the money is flying out the doors and windows around here of late. That is a definate advantage to buying things ahead of time, which I didn't do this year.