Could use some prayers...

Joseph left today for his deployment.. It's been a sad sad day in the Ellington house. Please pray he makes it there safe, I probably won't hear from him for a few days. I look forward to the day I get to hug him and squeeze him tight. 6 months is a long long time. :(

Last night when Joseph was packing Kaylee thought she should go too...



Today on the way to drop him off...



We found out when we got there we had to just drop them off and couldn't stay, we were pretty bummed so we had to say our goodbyes quicker than we thought.

Joseph took Kaylee on a little walk in the field to have a Daddy/Daughter talk.
so sweet :)








Joseph saying his goodbyes with Hayden



He wouldn't let go, it was heart-breaking :(



The hard part, seeing him leave :(



I told myself I wouldn't cry, that I'd be strong for the kids. I even put eye-makeup on to deter me a little. It didn't help though, as soon as I got in the car to leave I was blubbering like a baby. I keep telling myself each day will get easier, I know it will. I'm going to keep extra busy so the time will go by quicker. I could use prayers of strength right now.

Love you guys, thanks for being there for me through this tough time.

xoxo,
Lindsay

A through Z of My Home

I saw this cute survey on Carrie's blog and had to do it!! I don't normally do surveys, but this one is just too cute!

A- My AIR CONDITIONER is set on: 69

B- My BEDROOM theme is: classy and elegant

C- The CAR in the driveway is: 2004 Dodge Ram

D- My DESK looks: clean with a touch of mess

E- The EXACT time I wake up daily is: lately we have been sleeping in until 10am, bu before it was 6:45 :(

F- The FIRST thing I wash in the shower is: my hair, it takes forever

G- My GARAGE is filled with: a 2008 Ford Escape... and a bike and some tools...

H- My HOME is: my favorite place to be, where I feel safe

I- If you peeked INSIDE my bedroom you'd see: a bed fit for a queen...that happens to be
unmade

J- My favorite JUICE is: Apple

K- The best part of my KITCHEN is: the coffee pot :P

L- The LAST person who visited my home was: Sonja

M- The last piece of MAIL for me was: from my penpal Amanda

N- My NEIGHBORS think I'm: really nice, they are mowing our lawn when Joseph deploys,
how sweet!!

O- If you OPENED my fridge you'd see: nothing, we need to go grocery shopping...

P- My last house PARTY was: UFC fight a few weeks ago

Q- A QUICK meal I like to fix is: spaghetti and meatballs

R- My favorite ROOM of the house is: my craft studio :D

S- The SHAMPOO brand I use is: Pureology, ridiculously expensive salon stuff..and it
stinks :(

T- My largest TELEVISION is: 47in LED

U- UNDER my bed you will find: nothing, not even dust bunnies, it was just cleaned!

V- The last time I VACUUMED was: Friday

W- Looking out my WINDOW I see: the neighbors house

X- I wish I had X-TRA: bathroom downstairs

Y- My YARD is: freshly mowed

Z- ZZZZZZZ My bedtime is: between 10 and 12

xoxo,
Lindsay

P.S if you did this survey, I would love to see it!! Link in the comments!!! :)

TYS Journal Pages Pt. 5

Time for more journal pages!!!! yay!!!! :D :D This week I went off and used more of my style. I'm very excited to work on today's prompt (which will be posted next week).



This first journal page was very therapeutic for me. The prompt was "hidden messages". There had been something eating away at me that I felt would only cause more drama by saying it. So I wrote it all down and got it out :) It's good to rid yourself of people that only have a negative impact on your life...
Live by this quote
"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second rate version of someone else" ~Judy Garland



Painted the triangles and then traced them with a sharpie



Not my favorite page, but I love tape... can you tell?



I was going for the dainty look on these 2 pages... I Love how they turned out!!





Balloons, how I love them!! I want a party with this many balloons one day!!!




I used tissue paper for "Monday" and the rest of the page is Japanese Washi tape!!




I love the little details



Pic I took last summer of all of our feet!!



I did my own thing on this page, kept it simple...


Hope everyone has a great weekend, this is the last weekend before Joseph deploys on Monday :( Super bummed they moved it up a day. Going to clean clean clean and get all the snuggling I can in!!

xoxo,
Lindsay

Fun Stats and WINNERS!!!!

SO I picked the winner(s) of my giveaway and because I didn't want to print out 160 names (there was 6 retweets) I cheated and used random generator!

I also thought it would be super fun to post some stats on what everyone's favorite form of communication is, and well.. let's face it, stats make me look smart :) (ok, confession the hubby did all the stat work....) I rounded by the way.. the .decimals were a little too much...

So after reading 154 comments (2 times) there were 158 of your favorite ways to communicate...

23% (36 people)(most preferred) would rather do it the old fashioned way, through cards and letters... SNAIL MAIL!!!

22% (34 people) would rather text (that's my favorite!!!)

18% (28 people) would rather keep in touch /communicate face-to-face :)

11% (17 people) of you would rather communicate through phone calls

10% (16 people) of you would rather blog/facebook/twitter/IM to keep in touch

10% (15 people) of you like e-mail as your favorite way to communicate

3% (5 people) of you like skype as your favorite way to communicate

I found this interesting:
7 of you guys HATE talking on the phone (I included myself in this one)

Oh and yes I counted all of your favorite ways, not just 1 per comment, so that's why the numbers seem off.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOW FOR THE WINNERS!!!!!! Drumroll please......

First Place......





The winner is... Laura from Sunshine and Starlight!!! Congrats Laura!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second Place......





The winner is Seletha!!! Congrats Seletha!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third Place.....





The winner is SaL from Love Quirky!! Congrats SaL!!!

Congrats to all the winners, E-mail me your addresses to:

Mezmerized814@aol.com

I'll be shipping off all your goodies on Tuesday!!!

xoxo,
Lindsay

SUPER Happy Mail!!

So I didn't post Happy Mail last week because of the giveaway, so I am posting a day early!!! I was spoiled the past 2 weeks and honestly it couldn't have come at a better time. Thank you girls for all the amazingness, you really brightened my days. Joseph is leaving in 6 days, and I am so happy to have friends who are thinking about me and I know will be there for me when it gets tough!! Love you girls!!!!

First up, Meg.. My happy Mail partner for the month of May!!! She sent me stationary, notecards, panda ring, panda shirt, notepads, Starbucks gift card, bath fizzles, stickers, scrapbook embellishments, bows Japanese Washi tape, lots of panda prints, alpha stickers, Happy Mail painting made by this cutie, wood grain tags, and bows she made :)



WOW!! Thank you so much Meg, you really outdid yourself, and spoiled me rotten!!! Love you!!!!!!!



Jenny sent me this amazingness, since meeting in Springfield we have gotten quite close and love sending each other goodies. She is awesome and I can't wait to see her again!!!!! I love our Skype dates, her seriously cute handwriting, and the way she makes me laugh hysterically... "Thanks for talking Sh!t with me" ROFL :P

I got a new Blackberry a few weeks ago and lookie what she got for me, a panda gel skin, OH EM GEE SO FLIPPIN CUTE!!! It's so me and so perfect :) We are Blackberry twinsies now!!!



She also got me some adorable stationary, cute panda bobble head, wood grain tape, panda pens (AHHHH so cute), panda colored pencils, panda notepad and Nutella because I have never tried it before.. I'll let you know how that goes when I try it later tonight!!!



Maria sent me this sweet package, we did a swap, I made her the elephant you can find here and she sent me this super cuteness. Cute Panda painting, panda card, panda made out of beads, chocolate all the way from Denmark and some sweet deco tape!!!



Jamie surprised me with a scholastic full of panda goodness and some super cute panda stickers, isn't she a sweetie???? Thank you Jamie, so sweet, I put your card on my sill, I love it sooooo much!!!!



Mariana sent me sweetness of button napkins, panda key chain, a cute homemade panda key chain and lots of adorable buttons!!!! Thanks for the sweet surprise Mariana!!!



Last but not least, pen pal cards, I think I now have 27 (?) ish pen pals and love each and every one of them. Some as far as Singapore to California to Illinois to Texas and back to Florida!!! I will have to write down where each of them live and post it soon, I find it so interesting and awesome!! I have "pen pal days" where I sit and write about 10 pen pal cards. I love getting to know each and everyone of you awesome girls!!!!



Oh and before anyone asks.....

No, I don't get tired of panda stuff, it just makes me more obsessed with them!!

Hope everyone has a great week, I'll be back on Thursday with the winner of my GIVEAWAY!!!!!!

xoxo,
Lindsay

Copper the Fox

I had so much fun making this fox for Mandy!! I hope she loves it as much as I do. I wanted to take Copper on a cute photo shoot but it was way too windy outside. Sorry in advance for the bad lighting >.<

He is 8 in. tall and about 11 in. from ear to tail :)



Cute little face



His tail is my most favorite!!



Cute little paws



I got some bubble tea this weekend... without the boba beads. I never cared much for them, but absolutely love the tea itself. YUM YUM!!



Hope everyone had a great weekend, we are BBQ'ing some ribeyes tonight!!! soooooooo goooood!

xoxo,
Lindsay

P.S. Don't forget about the HUGE GIVEAWAY!! I'll draw a winner on Thursday the 27th!

TYS Journal Pages Pt. 4

Yay more journal pages from the Tell Your Story class. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for doing one everyday and not falling behind!! I am running out of pages quickly in my journal though, I may have to start a new one. I decided last night after writing in my other journal that I was going to make a rant/things that annoy me journal. I felt this one is more artsy and the one I write in at bedtime (I call it my bedtime journal) is more of a happy journal. So I'm going to the store and going to get a nice BIG, (because there are so many things to rant about these days) black one for all the ranty stuff I want to get off my chest :) I was also thinking of getting a small one for all my secrets, one I would hide under the mattress!! LOL :D

When my garden was pretty, I took this pic last summer, then they died like 2 weeks later, I'm horrible with plants.. HORRIBLE!!



This pic I also took last summer, can you spot the spider???





I'm actually surprised this is the first time anything panda is in my journal!! I had to add the cuteness!!



This one was supposed to be 2 separate pages, a happy page and a sad one. But, I decided since I was running low on pages I was going to put them together. Top is happy, bottom... sad



I love the heart I embroidered on the pic, sooo cute!




I like the mix of yellow and white paint on this one. First time trying it out.







I love the layered look of a bunch of different patterned papers. I think it looks soooo pretty!!! I didn't follow the prompt look in class, I kinda went with my own thing on this one. Love how it turned out!!



How many journals do YOU have? Do you have them separated, Happy/Sad/Secrets, or is it a mix of all emotions?

Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo,
Lindsay

P.S. Don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY if you haven't yet, and spread the word!! :D