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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Praying for You

Last week was full of sad events. The one that hit me the most was the unexpected passing of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Michael was the first crush I had. I was about 4 or 5 years old at the time. I remember seeing him and his brothers on old shows like Soul Train. I remember the Jackson 5 cartoon and "little Michael" was the one who always got in trouble. My friends and I always had contests to see who could name all 5 of the Jacksons in order. Yes, I was born in the 70's but I won't share the year.

When I was in elementary school, my friends and I would sing and dance to songs from Michael's beginning solo career. I could not get enough of "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and Workin' Day and Night."

Thriller came out when I was in middle school and I was really crazy for Michael then. MTV was my favorite channel and I would scream and act real silly as all the other pre-teen girls when the "Beat It" and "Billy Jean" videos played. I remember when the world premiere of the "Thriller" video was to air on MTV. I raced home from school and ran to the den to be one of the first watch it. MTV had become "Michael TV!" When Michael's hair caught on fire while filming the infamous Pepsi commercial, I cried. When Michael first debuted the Moonwalk on live TV, I wanted to faint.

As I got older I didn't have such an infatuation with Michael but I always considered myself a fan. I never got to see him in concert but every time one of his songs played on the radio I always listened to it and would sing a long. Even with all the problems he had in his life and the disturbing allegations against him, I still saw him as a great musician and entertainer. I chose to think more of him in his earlier years and often would wonder what went wrong with him that brought about the bizarre behavior in his latter years. Often I would pray for him to find forgiveness and salvation through Christ and then even healing.

On the afternoon of Thursday, June 25, 2009 Michael's life came to a very abrupt end. I, along with the rest of the world, was in utter shock. I was driving home when I first heard the news on the radio. I had to pull over to the side of the road for a few minutes to cry. When I got home, I couldn't pull myself a way from the TV news reports on what had happened and all the tributes to his life. I was in disbelief for a couple of days.

We may never know what Michael was thinking in those last few seconds before his heart stopped. I like many of my Christian friends who admired Michael, hope he had asked Christ for forgiveness and salvation, but on this side of heaven we may never really know.

This card was actually made the Friday before last. I wanted to play with some of my new SU stuff and use the new colors but the batteries died on my camera and I couldn't replace them until later. I didn't have anyone in mind when I originally made this card. I had no idea that we would lose 3 prominent celebrities all in one week, let alone 2 in one day. If I could, I would like to dedicate this card to the family, friends, and fans of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. My prayer is that you all will find comfort and peace in this time of grief by putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Prayers Answered!

Sorry no card from me today, but I do want to share that I have been released from that holding place and things are moving forward. First, I want to thank all of you who have been praying my fellow graduate nurses and myself over the situation with our NCLEX ATTs. Last Tuesday I found out that my school's Director of Nursing had received the okay from the Registrar and sent our letters off to the Board of Nursing (BON). The BON was very quick to respond by sending out our ATTs, which most of us received by email on Thursday.

Another blessing is that on Monday before the above even transpired, I received my official hire letter from the hospital with a confirmed start date for early August. Wednesday I completed all of the pre-employment paperwork and received my ID badge.

Now all that is left for me to do is to pass the NCLEX on my scheduled date of July 15th. When God want's things to happen at a certain time, they really happen!

Now, even though I don't have any cards of my own to share in this post, I want to introduce you to my friend, and fellow Graduate Nurse, Shannon. Shannon is a new blogger. She has been making cards for a little less than a year and does beautiful work! She came to my home a few weeks ago and made couple of cards which you can see on her blog. Right now she is off on her honeymoon with her new husband. So please show her some love and a big welcome to the world of blogging stampers!

Last, I won another blog award! This one is from the Women to Women: Sharing Jesus blog.

The rules for receiving this award are as follows:

1. Post the blog award in a regular post on your blog with the explanation, including the original
link to WTW and the rules for passing the award along
2. Name five people (more or less is fine!) to whom you want to offer this award and link to their
blogs. The blogs need to obviously exalt Christ in some manner.
3. Contact the bloggers you have named to let them know they can pick up their blog award
from you.
4. Invite them to permanently display the WTW blog badge and/or the award on their blogs.
The badge can be obtained on the WTW site.

So I now will pass on this award to the following bloggers:

1. Stephanie
2. Becky
3. Giovana
4. Judy
5. LeAnne
6. Kerry
7. Deborah

Please check out the awesome and inspirational talent of these ladies!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Venting but trusting

I seem to be in a holding place right now. I am still at my current job and cannot start working as a nurse until I get my RN license. I cannot get my RN license until I take and pass the NCLEX. I cannot take the NCLEX until I get my Authorization To Test (ATT) from my state's Board of Nursing. The Board of Nursing can't send me my ATT until they get a letter from the college's Director of Nursing that I have fulfilled all of the requirements of the nursing program. The DON can't send the letter until she gets to okay from the Registrar's office. And why can't the Registrar's office give the okay? I have no clue. It is not just me who is in this holding place but my all of my fellow Graduate Nurses too. It is a very frustrating place to be in. But that is the way life is sometimes.

All I can do right now is just trust in the Lord as Proverbs 3:5 says. It all out of my hands as there is nothing I can do to make the process go any faster. I guess the good thing about this delay is that I am getting more time to study and prepare for the NCLEX.

More about this card. This is a combination of 2 challenges: The sketch is from the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge 5 that I found on Chris Olsen's blog (I just LOVE her cards!), and the second is the Treehouse Stamps Color Challenge that I found out about on Crystal's blog (she does such wonderful work!). I don't have any stamps by Treehouse, but I liked the color combo.

Recipe:

Stamps: Proverbs 3:5 - Verve
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky, Chocolate chip & Soft Sky DSPs
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Embossing Folder, Nestabilities, Sizzix Die, Piercing Tool, Brads


Thursday, June 11, 2009

Do you like my flowers?



This card is for the CCEE Catchy Name Featured Stamper Challenge. My blogging buddy Dawn (Flowergal36) was selected to be the Featured Stamper for this week. So for the challenge we are to make a card with flowers.

This card not only has a stamped flower, but also paper flowers that I learned to make from Bev's wonderful tutorial. It is so easy to make Prima-like flowers in any color or pattern that I wish.

I admit that I went a little crazy with the colors on this card as I colored in the image without thinking how these colors would go together. What do you think?

Recipe:

Stamps: Rose with Stem - Hero Arts, Designer Label - SU
Paper: Green Galore, Gable Green, Soft Sky, Rose Red, WW, DSP - SU
Ink: Stazon Black, Gable Green, Soft Sky, Cool Caribbean, Rose Red
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Embossing Folder, Dies, Nestabilities, Colored Pencils, Goo Gone, Ticket Corner Punch, Designer Label Punch, Plastic Beads, Ribbon, Sakura Stardust Pen

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Isaiah 61:3

The sketch for this card is from Mojo 89 and the colors are from the SCS Inspiration Challenge 183 using this image. Because I added a butterfly the card also fits with the Flutterby Wednesday #60 challenge.

Recipe:

Stamps: Isaiah 61:3, Grateful Elegance - Verve
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, WW, Rainbow Sherbet DSP, and Sweet Always DSP
Accessories: Nestabilities, MS Butterfly Punch, Stick on Gem, Ribbon, Button

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Land's End Inspired


This card is for SCS Clean and Simple #17. The challenge was to choose a beach towel or tote design from the Land's End website and design a CAS card. This is the towel that I chose. I needed to do something quick and simple to get my creative mojo going.

Recipe:

Stamps: none
Ink: none
Paper: Green Galore, Garden Green, Barely Banana
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Dies, Ribbon, Sakura Stardust Gel pen