Bon Scrapatit Designs: jumping for joy, "ouch", and thanking y'all for the love!

Happy Friday (Saturday) everyone!

From the depths of my being, a HUGE thank you for the outpouring of well-wishes for my daughter and her new husband, as well as for me as I recuperate from my surgery! Your love has lifted me and I just KNOW that I am healing quickly as a result of your kind words, thoughts and prayers! MWAH! I am trying my hardest to be good and not overdo myself. I had to chuckle at Jane’s message in the chat box, “Girl, if you are reading this, GO back to bed now”! Just how is it that y’all know me SO well … hmmmm? He, he …

So, why might I be “jumping for joy” you ask? Although jumping surely would hurt at this time, my heart cannot help itself but to do so! I have lots to share, but will try to make it as brief as “I” am able! LOL!

Firstly, here is a simple layout I put together to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Buckmier! I am working on Robert’s laptop and don’t have all of my goodies to work with, therefore, I was limited to using my *Heartfully Yours* scrapkit, which just happened to have some color coordinating pieces and I did not have an opportunity to play with the photos following due to lack of Adobe Lightroom, filters, etc. LOL!

*Heartfully Yours* scrapkit by Bon Scrapatit Designs (free here on my blog)

Font: DJB LauraT Script by Darcy Baldwin

Photo: Courtesy of the Walton boys using flash outdoors at night

As you know, due to my emergency surgery last week, I was unable to attend my daughter’s wedding, however, I was able to listen to the ceremony via Skype. Unfortunately, it was too dark for the video cam to allow me the pleasure of feeding my visual appetite, but oh my, the ambience in the Octagonal Barn at McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in Hillsboro, Oregon was flowing!

April and Ethan wished for a casual, down-home feeling to be experienced by their family and close friends. Via their wedding share site, they posted that they were not registered and expressed that the love and support of those attending their union was a gift. How sweet is that! My baby girl and my new son-in-law are now basking in the sunshine somewhere on the Mexican Riviera! *sigh*

Here are a few photos that were taken with my camera that I sent along with the boys. I’m not sure who played photographer, but have a feeling the camera changed hands several times. I had a bit of a Mama chuckle when I saw photos taken of the decor. This tells me that my boys have paid attention to what their mom snaps at family events!

A “big” shout-out of thanks to Ethan’s mom, Nila, for not only creating an INCREDIBLE photo collage of Ethan from birth to adulthood, but also for SO generously giving of her time in copying the photos I sent up with the boys and putting them into a collage for April. I look forward to meeting Nila my next trip to Washington as we’ve already spoken on the phone several times and for several hours and I feel like I’ve known her for a very long time! SO cool …

Exchanging vows and rings!

Awwww … SO sweet!

What a nice hubby! Ethan cleaning a speck of frosting from his new bride’s nose! I missed the action so not sure how wild they did or did not get with their cake!

You just know that I am going to work on creating a kit to scrap the kid’s wedding photos with once I get the DVD from Becca, April’s long-time friend, professional photographer and also the same photographer who shot April’s younger sister, Joan’s wedding. Many of you may remember me posting a link to her site a few posts back when I shared Ethan and April’s wedding invitation with you. Becca is such a sweetheart and as Nila stated, very efficient. She amazes me! I will share some of those photos as soon as I receive them.

Anyhoo, I just LOVE the tulle, lace and white lights set against a rustic wooden backdrop! A little bit country with a lot of sophistication! Love, love, LOVE it!

Dancing Queen!

When April was very young, she loved the song, “Dancing Queen” by Abba and she would sing it over and over again! I believe I have it on tape somewhere and am hoping to transfer her recordings, which she believes no longer exist, to CD and surprise her with them unless, of course, she reads this! LOL! When I asked her why she thought they no longer existed, she replied, “because I’ve never found them anywhere”! Mama has them safely tucked away darlin’ girl and just as soon as I am able to purchase the equipment necessary to convert, I’m on it!

Husband singing to his wife …

Wife singing to her husband!

Joan called me on her cell phone so that I could listen to April sing. We all wait with baited breath to hear April’s gifted vocals and her rendition of Beyonce’s, “Halo” brought many to tears as well as many shout-outs! I was not able to hear the lyrics clearly, so I looked them up. WOW! A perfect song indeed for the way April feels about the love of her life! I am hoping to get her to record it for me when she returns from her honeymoon. If I am successful, I shall definitely share it with you! I am SO happy for Ethan and April and wish them MUCH happiness as they walk into the future as husband and wife!

My next source of joy is my brand new grandniece, Elizabeth Anne, who made her debut on Valentine’s Day! My older brother, Albert, had sent a few emails while I was sick and just as I was catching up with them, off to the hospital I went, so I’ve not had the opportunity to share until now. My brother will be meeting his third granddaughter this weekend as he travels to pick up his wife, who has spent two weeks helping the new and first-time Mother!

I snagged this photo from Facebook (permission granted) and if I try to enlarge it any further, it is horribly distorted, so I am hoping you are able to see Elizabeth’s precious little face! Priceless photo of Mother and babe! Interesting and I will make note in the event that any of you who are very visual have already done so, but when I look at this photo of my niece, she could easily pass for my daughter, April! I am going to have to get some frontal photos of Suzanne and make some comparisons. April and my older sister’s daughter favored each other considerably when I snapped photos of them together when April was 14. I am beginning to see how strong my father’s genes are in mine and my siblings female offspring!

With ALL of this JOY going on over here, what else could I possibly share with you that would have my heart doing cart wheels? Well, late Sunday afternoon, just before the boys were to leave Travis and Joan’s house for their return trip home to California, I received a call from Luke who asked if I had the computer in front of me as they wished to Skype me. LOL! I was just a wee bit loopy from the pain medication and was chuckling with them all as I had to finally go to my PC so that I could follow their request to check my email, but not to look until they told me to. LOL! Yes, I LOVE surprises, but did not realize that I was amongst a houseful of people listening to my nonsense as I tried to find my email icon to follow along with kids request! LOL!

So, I wait, refresh, wait and refresh a few more times, but nothing showed up. Joan finally informed me that she was sending photos and that she might need to reduce the size. Hmmm, I thought, yeah, they will take a while to come through if sent at full resolution. Well, since time was of the essence and they needed to move things along, the kids all told me to close my eyes and not to open them until they told me to. I SO love a good mystery! ROFL!

What do you think I saw in front of my face, on my screen, in black and white?

Hello world, I’m on my way!

Yes, yes, yes, YES … I am going to be a Grandmother again! New son, new grandniece, new grandbaby! Life IS good! Between Robert and I, this will make two more grandchildren this year as his number three son, Travis and his wife, Sofie, are expecting their second baby in September. Travis and Joan’s FIRST little bundle is due to make HER debut mid-July! Yes, you read correctly, they are having a GIRL! After starting this post yesterday morning, Joan called after her second ultrasound at 20 weeks to find out the sex of their baby. Joan shared with me how she had hoped to start with a girl because being an older sister to four brothers, she thinks it’s a GOOD thing! I am tickled PINK y’all!

In case you are wondering why I am just learning about my new granddaughter-to-be at 20 weeks gestation, some of you may remember that Joan had a miscarriage last year. I shared with her that as I lay here on the sofa on Saturday awaiting April’s call about setting me up on Skype to view the wedding, I was drifting off to sleep while thinking about how happy and thankful I am that both of my baby girls have such wonderful husbands and that I was feeling that Joan would be letting us know sometime by this summer that she was with child! I knew Joan’s disappointment of announcing her first pregnancy as soon as she tested positive and before seeing her doctor. I felt in my heart that she would not even tell me the next time around until she had heard the baby’s heartbeat and seen her precious bundle via ultrasound. When I saw my granddaughter’s tiny little hand up in the air, the first caption that came to mind was, “I’m here, I’m HERE”!

I am already thinking of how to put a little money away so that I can fly up to spend a couple of weeks with the new parents to help out in any way I am able. I’m hoping to be there for the birth of my granddaughter and am trying to decide whether to make a plane reservation ahead of time to get a decent fare, or should I wait until Joan starts dilating and then fly up so I don’t miss the debut! Well, I have a little time to work it all out with the Mommy and Daddy-to-be!

One more share! If you’ve not already visited or seen her announcement, Dawn (Snowsmoon’s Design) posted our February *Days Gone By* challenge two weeks ago. Between the two of us, we’ve had so many distractions (you know, those little things we call “life”!) in our lives that we have been posting mid-month! Below is the preview of Dawn’s posting bonus for February:

We would love to have you join us for this month’s SPECIAL challenge! For information, click HERE. You must be registered and logged in to view the forum. You will also find our challenge information and links on the sidebar of our blogs each month, which stay until the next challenge has been posted. Deadline for layouts to be posted in our gallery HERE, is March 15th.

Dawn and I had originally planned to collaborate on this month’s posting bonus, however, due to my illness, Dawn and I decided that she would post this month and then for our March challenge, I will post my part using the same color palette. I love this palette and find it so perfect for heritage, romance, weddings … did I just say weddings? *wink*

Thank you for your patience and following me to the end of my post! As a VERY small token of my appreciation for all of your heartfelt messages, I am leaving you with a scrapatit made from the layout I created for Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Buckmier! Simple and you can add to it as you wish. *smile*

Wishing you all a STUNNING weekend and may it be filled with MUCH love and laughter!

Love and hugs,

Linda :D

P.S. Stay-tuned for the departure of the Mega Blog Train, Monday, March 1st!