Inky Paws 64

Happy January 31st! Can you believe it? It seems like a long month, but at the same time, it seems like we just rung in the new year a day ago. I haven't felt much like creating, but I did make this simple card for the Newton's Nook Inky Paws challenge. The papers did most of the work for me. Always nice when you can use a mix of them for most of your project, right?

I just love Newton and this cute set of stamps. Coffee plus cats? Yes, please!  :)

Laila has had a great week so far at school. She's made all her points for the day each day and has been so proud of herself. I wasn't sure about the program after the first few days, but she's really flourishing now and I have hopes that what she's learning will help her when she transitions back to her regular classroom. Her teacher has been over several times to work with her. The counselor and vice principal have also been over. She missed the principal's visit on Friday because she was out sick. It's nice they are working to maintain the connection with her. 

I ended up at the doctor today after 5 days of a constant headache. Sinus infection. I'm crossing my fingers that the medicine she gave me works quickly. I've been in bed most of the week and I'm so behind on everything. I hate that!!  I'm off to drink more fluids and rest...again. lol I think that's all I've done for days.  

Enjoy the last day of the month!

Rita 

MFTWSC369 Super Girl

Taking a break from the last few cards with a super one.  :)  Laila had two great days in a row at school, so I wanted to make a card to put in her lunch on Friday. Well, of course she ended up sick and home. I swear anytime we are making progress that happens and kills the momentum.  These school germs are just devious. lol  I used the current sketch from the MFT Card Challenges blog for my card. I had some new markers for skin and hair, so I gave those a shot on this one. We'll see how Monday goes!

Now I'm off to find more medicine. I think she's already shared the germs and I feel awful. I took a nap and woke up feeling worse! Ugh!!   Have a great rest of the weekend. 

Fine and Beautiful

Here's another card from the card kit. It comes with this pretty cards, I'm guessing they are like Project Life cards, and they make creating pretty easy. I didn't have to stamp anything on this one. :) It has so many of them and that makes it hard to use up the kit!

Our library has some of the best programs. Once a month they have a group of ladies who have therapy dogs some in so the kids can read to them. It's more petting them, but it's fun. Laila is a little timid around some of the loud or large dogs, but she loves Dakota. Dakota's mom also has a beagle named Scout and that's Laila's favorite. She just happened to be a little under the weather this month.

Yesterday at the new program was awful. I am hoping it is better today. It's feeling like we made a big mistake agreeing to it. :/ It has yet another reward system to help with behavior and those are useless with her. With the way it's going, there would be no way they'd let her go back to her school after the 10 days. I don't know the maximum time they can keep them, but she's the only girl and maybe even the youngest. Someone asked about autism testing. I've asked and asked and all the professionals say no. Her testing last year included testing for that and they said no as well. I did read some about it showing up once the ADHD was under control, so we'll see I guess. Most of the testing was developed around boys and it tends to present different in girls. I do feel that it's more than what we've been told so far, but I don't know what. The special ed evaluation that's due next month may have more answers or lead to more questions. It does seem that we (school, teacher, us) all agree that she does need someone with her, but I'm guessing that would only happen if she is granted an IEP. I don't know. It's such a process to try and get your kid the help they need. They don't make it easy at all. I see why people end up hiring advocates to navigate the process.

I'm off to try and create a bit before it's time for pickup. I cried all evening after picking her up yesterday, so let's hope this evening is better.

Edited to add a picture we got from one of the specialists:

I like to see her smiling. :)

Thank you CASE

I'm up to five cards made with this SSS card kit from March 2015 in the past month. Woo hoo! I do think I need a break, so I'm going to switch out to something else for bit. I'll keep it nearby though, just to remind myself that I still have tons left to use. I was going to go for a month of no buying, but I forgot and got the newest card kit. Ugh! Bad me. lol I think after that I will break for a while though. I want to save any extra month for paint and maybe some organization stuff.  I am still finishing up the challenge on my kitchen, but I know the craft room/office comes up at some point. I'm scared. Why do I have so much stuff???? It's addicting, right??

Anyway, the kit comes with an inspiration sheet and this was CASEd from that. It's from a lovely card by the fabulous Debby Hughes. I am always in awe of her work. Mine never turns out half as good, but it's fun to try.

I hope you had a great week! I think this coming week will finally be a normal one for us. Well, kinda. Laila is now attending a behavior program at a different campus, so that will throw things off. She gets out an hour earlier and it's the opposite way of her other school, right through two other school zones. I hope she doesn't have to stay longer than the minimum ten days, but we'll see.

It has become so clear to me why so many parents of kids like her end up homeschooling. Things are just not designed for them in public school. She's at almost a third grade reading level, but stuck learning sight words like he and she in class. I'm sure she's bored. The results from the gifted and talented testing come back soon and I hope she qualifies and will get something more challenging to do. Unfortunately though, she doesn't handle frustration and failure well, so challenging can bring about tantrums. She's a perfectionist like her momma and we don't like messing up or not being good at things. I hate that she's dealing with that. I know I've missed out on a lot of things because of it. I hope to help her not have a lot of regrets like I do. Anyway, send good thoughts that something falls into place soon and we can all stop being so stressed out. Her evaluation for an IEP isn't due until the end of February, so it may be a while before we get there. I fear we will end up in a battle, but we'll see.

See you tomorrow with another yellow and black card. lol

Flowers for a Friend

Hi! Just popping in to share this second card I made with the March 2015 card kit. It sure doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I got it, but I guess time really does fly!  I still have a ton of papers and stuff to use from the kit, but I figure I need to take a little break and work on Valentine's Day stuff. Those stamps and papers need used as well! :)

It's been cold and believe it or not, it snowed for the second time this winter. Laila was all excited about it yesterday. They haven't had school all week, but she'll finally go back tomorrow.

Off to finish up dinner. I made Emeril's red sauce recipe today, so we are having spaghetti. I found a lot of pasta during the pantry clean up. I probably won't have to buy any this year. lol Costco strikes again! 

Stay warm. :)

Freshly Made Sketches 319

Hey guys!  Talk about behind... I was the hostess over at Freshly Made Sketches this week and I never did get my blog post done over here.  It has been a rough transition back to school for Laila. Add in that yesterday was the anniversary of Eli's death and that I joined this crazy home organization challenge and well....I've been a busy mess.  I like to stress/angry clean, so it was a perfect week for that. My kitchen and pantry are almost finished and it's so nice. So anyway...

One of the things on my list this year is to use up some of the card kits that piled up on me. I am starting with this one, so this is my first project with it. I got some awesome new inks for Altenew for Christmas and oh boy do I love them!  Four shades of gray and they are beautiful and stamp so well.

I hope you were able to join us and I apologize for being so late. I hope to get back to creating once I finish up the kitchen. I just haven't felt creative at all lately, so I've poured my energy into other areas. It makes me sad, but creativity just seems impossible to force. I may try to color a little today just to get my fingers inky.