I stole this from another blog:

I absolutely loved this:

I'm Invisible


It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids walks into the room while I'm on the phone and asks for something. Inside, I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone,or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.


The Invisible Mom.



Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: "Can you fix this?" "Can you tie this?" "Can you open this?" Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, "What time is it?" I'm a satellite guide to answer, "What number is the Disney Channel?" I'm a car to order, "Right around 5:30, please." I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude -but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. "She's going, she's going, she's gone!"


One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned tome with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this." It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:



"To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."


In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. I would discover what would become for me four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have norecord of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that theeyes of God saw everything. A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied, "Because God will see."


I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."


At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. Then, if there is anything to say to his friend, it could be, "You're gonna love it here!"


As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.

Funny...

Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
-------------------------------------
Dear Desperate:
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.
Please enter the command: 'I Thought You Loved Me.exe', try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 It runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources. Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck, Tech Support

Ugh...Sick!!!!!

Oh, boy I am so sick! I hate being sick, it sucks!!! I have some sort of stomach thing, not sure what. I have an appointment with my M.D. at 11:30. Then I have to get the deposit from work and then deposit it.

I really can't wait to feel better. Send me lots of healing vibes.

Just finished....

I just finished a frame for my DH for Valentine's. This is also for a challenge on Shanna Vineyard's blog. Go take a look:

http://www.mynextthirtyyears.com/

Here it is:

Big Week...

This was a very big week.

1st off there was the 100th day of school at Victoria's school, we had to put 100 items on a shirt. Here is the very strange creation we made:

Victoria also had the flu this week. Super fun!

Also there was the Daddy Daughter dance at the local rec center:

Here is the haul from scrapbook shopping from today:

Journaling Junkie Contest!!!

"Get the word out" contest annoucement.

This contest is focused toward getting the word out to the scrapbooking on-line community. Design Team members ARE eligible for this contest. The contest will run starting February 15th through March 15th. Here is how it will work.Everyone will collect points through various different activities and the one with the most points at the end of the contest will win a 3 Bugs in a Rug NEW! Spring Collection Page Kit.

Here is a link to the contents: http://www.3bugsinarug.com/products/products.asp?scid=57

There will be 2 runners up. Each runner up will receive a NEW! paper punch from McGill. Here are the links to the punches up for grabs:http://www.mcgillinc.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_8&products_id=148

http://www.mcgillinc.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_8&products_id=155

Here is how you can get points:
1. For every person you refer to this blog and who responds to this thread with your name as the person who referred them, you will get 20 points.
2. For every comment you make to a post, you will get 5 points. **Note: any comments that make no sense or are one word etc. will not get points**
3. For every challenge you parcipate in and submit a layout, you will receive 10 points.
4. For every challenge you win, you will receive an additional 10 points.
5. For every link you e-mail to me at stcrupko@yahoo.com where you have posted your layout entry for the challenges in an online gallery with the title as being Journaling Junkie Challenge Entry and in the comments you mention journalingjunkie.blogspot.com as the location, you will receive 5 points.
6. For every link you e-mail to me at the above e-mail address where you have mentioned Journaling Junkie and the location on your blog or any scrapbooking forum, you will receive 5 points.
7. For every link you e-mail to me at the above e-mail address where you have put Journaling Junkie as a favorite places link etc. on your blog or website, you will receive 10 points.
8. For every response to the Journaling Junkie Challenge posts which will be posted at 2 peas in a Bucket and scrapinstyletv, you will receive 5 points. I will post links to those posts here on the blog when I make them.
9. For any e-mails you send to me with ideas to "get the word out", you will receive 10 points.
10. For any pages you send to me that have unique ideas in content for journaling or technique for journaling, you will receive 5 points. If I decide to use that page as an inspiration page for a blog challenge, you will receive 20 points.

Note: Keep an eye on the blog for posts with additional ways to earn points!Ok, let the games begin well, on the 15th anyway. LOL!!!

A special thanks to our prize sponsors for this contest, 3 Bugs in a Rug http://www.3bugsinarug.com/ and McGill http://www.mcgillinc.com/shop/!

Here is a link to the Contest announcement at 2 Peas:http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2486660Here is a link to the Contest announcement at scrapinstyletv:http://www.scrapinstyletv.com/forums/21_14652_0.html

Check it out at: http://journalingjunkie.blogspot.com/

My journaling junkie challenge...

Wow, this one was really emotional for me. Check it out:

Journaling reads:
While I certainly don't regret getting pregnant unexpectedly, the circumstances that surrounded it were very scary. You see, the reason I got pregnant is because I was on a medication that negates birth control pills. I was aware of this, but one night Christian and I were, to put it nicely, not as careful as we normally are in this area.

I had a very strange feeling that something was going on with my body even just 3 weeks afterwards. I took a pregnancy test and it was negative. No wonder, I was a week BEFORE my period. I was speaking with some gals at work and telling them how my body just felt...different. Anyway, they convinced me that even though it wasn't time for my period, I should just take another test. Well, I took another test 2 days BEFORE the time I would normally have my period and lo and behold, I was pregnant.

Problems? Uh, yeah! 1. unmarried 2. boyfriend will NOT be thrilled 3. and most important...I have been on not one but 2 medications that are dangerous for babies. Needless to say, I was freaking out. So, I called my doctor and asked should I immediately stop those medications? My doctor was not available, but the doctor on call called me back and said..."Well, you can stop taking those medications, but my advice to you is to not to have the baby. Those medications are extremely dangerous at this stage in a baby's development." Honestly, I can't begin to tell you my horror at his suggestion! I told him that was in NO way an option. Well, needless to say, I stopped those medications.

So, I called my gynecologists office and made an appointment. When I went for my appointment they asked when my last period was and I told them. They said that since I had already had a positive urine test, they would just do a sonogram. While the sonographer was doing the sonogram, I had no idea what she was seeing. So finally I said, "So I guess I'm not pregnant?" She said, "Oh you are pregnant, see that little silvery round ball there?" "Yeah." "That silvery ball is the pregnancy." "That is my baby! Are you kidding?" "Yep, that's the pregnancy."
I noticed that she kept saying the pregnancy and not the baby. While I was waiting for the doctor, I kept thinking, why would she say it in that way? Is there something wrong?
The doctor told me that yes, I was pregnant, but he was concerned. According to when my last period was, the pregnancy should be at 7 weeks, but the sonogram showed 5 weeks in development, so he was concerned that the baby was behind in development and he wanted me to come back in 2 weeks to see how things were progessing.

Those were probably the longest 2 weeks of my entire life. I worried the entire time that I was having a miscarriage. I worried that something was wrong with my baby. I worried that the medications that I had taken had severly damaged my unborn child.

2 weeks later, I went to the appointment. I had another sonogram with the same sonographer. This time, the picture on the screen looked much more like what I expected to see from watching tv shows where they show child development. A little tadpole looking baby. Of course, that still did not answer if they baby was still behind in development. When I spoke with the doctor, he said that the baby was fine, that I just must have been 5 weeks along and was now 7 weeks along, so I had caught the pregnancy really early.

Relief! Oh boy, relief. I can't tell you my relief! I made my next appointment for 4 weeks later and went home.

4 weeks later, I went back and the doctor examined me and tried to find the baby's heartbeat. He couldn't find the heartbeat. He tried and tried and could not find it! "Just to be on the safe side, let's get a sonogram."he said.

Oh my God!! I had to wait 30 minutes for the sonographer. When I finally had my sonogram, the sonographer said, "Well, he just didn't look very hard...Right there, see that heartbeat! That baby has a strong heartbeat!" I burst into tears! Thank God!

My entire pregnancy, I prayed every day sometimes 20 times a day to God to please please make my baby healthy. I am sure God got tired of listening to me. All I wanted was a healthy child. I pleaded and negotiated and said I would never do anything wrong again, if my baby was healthy.

Now 5 years later, I have a healthy, gorgeous, smart and sweet little girl! God blessed me so much with her. Despite the medicines that I took, she has no health problems and is thriving and sassy and ornery. Sometimes I just want to get a picture of my gorgeous girl and send it to that doctor that told me that I should not have her and send it to him and show him the life he almost ended. In the grand scheme of things, I am just grateful that God gave me the faith to trust in his plan and that He blessed me with my beautiful daughter.

Note: This was a very emotional page for me. This is one that I have been planning for a while, but just never did. I am so glad that I did it! My daughter is such a miracle and it is a miracle that she is here today!