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You can reach me at: bnbharty@gmail.com and I'll try my best to answer. I get a crazy amount of email, so PLEASE don't hate me if you don't hear back from me. Love ya!

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Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Love of the Savior Part 1

My dad got off work early yesterday, and he and I put up the outside lights in our yard. Well, he mostly put up the lights, I was mostly moral support. Ha! But I'm great moral support. If any of you need someone to come and cheer them on, and offer moral support, I'm your girl - hehehe. Anyway, in joking, I said that he should put some lights in our tall poplar tree in the front yard. Well, Dad being the logger that he is, got out the ladder, then proceeded to climb up the tree. I was SO afraid that he was gonna fall down and kill himself. But, all was well.

Check out these pics, though. He's there in the tree. That's WAY off the ground. Of course, I'm afraid to go higher than the 3rd rung of the ladder. Did I mention that I was afraid of heights - LOL! Anyway, here's some "monkey" pics of my dad. He did a SUPER jobs with our Christmas lights this year! Awesome job, Dad!


Look close, that's him up in the tree. Look in the tree, past the green, in with the blue sky. He's there!


I didn't think it looked sturdy enough, but he seemed pretty confident.


I just loved this shot, for some reason :)


It may not look that far up, but look how tiny that big ladder is. He's a good 3 ladder lengths up that tree. You go, Dad!

Well, after dinner I told my 6th grader that he needed to go over his homework for the weekend, and show me his progress report. 40% in all classes. What's up with that? He a solid A/B student. I looked at it, and he just didn't turn in 60% of the assignments. And I know he's doing them, because we work on them every night. I took away TV and Computer until the assignments were found and accounted for. Let me tell ya, that didn't go over well. Apparently I'm a mean mom, and he hates me. The fun begins.

I called his dad (luckily he had a pass tonight, so he was cell phone available), and they had a little "Talk". Captain America's so good with Jacob. He knows just what to tell him to motivate him. I used to be good at that, but I'm WAY tapped out right now. Anyway, Captain America got him back to acting civil, and I wasn't hated so much anymore.

My mom and I sat with Jacob for a good hour, going through his trapper, finding a WHOLE stack of papers, sorting, organizing. Now granted, he was sick for 3 days, and had a ton of make up work (which he did). But come on, if you go through the trouble of doing the work, at least turn it in. Anyway, it's all sorted by subject, in order of date, ready to turn in on Monday. He has 2 or 3 make-up assignments that he needs to get the handouts for on Monday, and about 8 pieces of homework to do this weekend. I told him that once he completed the "this weekend" homework, the computer/tv privileges would be restored.

So I'm stil not on the top of his nice list, but I'm not public enemy #1 anymore. I guess during the teen (or pre-teen) years, if you're hated, you're doing something right. Sigh. Have we started that ALREADY?

So, we're doing the 12 Days of Christmas over at the Orchard. Each designer gets to do a sale, freebie, whatever she wants for the day. I'm gonna give out a freebie. A 6 piece set, all in one zip file. Aren't you SO excited! You're gonna like it. So, below is a list of all the girls who are playing. It's starts on Friday the 12th (MY B-DAY!!!), and I'm day 5. So that's the 16th. I'll post a little reminder here each day, just so you don't forget. We're only leaving the links up for one day, so get it fast!

So I decided that since I move around WAY TOO MUCH, and all my IRL (in real life) friends may not have a clue where I actually live (LMBO!), that you guys should send me Christmas cards - hehehe. You guys are my digifriends, and I'm SO grateful for all of you!!!! And, that way, I can decorate a wall at my moms house with Christmas cards like I usually do at home. Isn't that a FANTABULOUS plan? hehehe. Here's my address (see, I'm serious - LOL)

Bethany Harty
PO BOX 857
Florence OR 97439

And why not sweeten the pot. If you send me a Christmas card in the mail, be sure and include your email address, and I'll send you a free WordArt pack (email cards don't count for the free pack). Is that like paying people to send me Christmas cards - ha! Oh well, if it fills up my wall......

I had a TON of positive comments about my Mom's Christmas card saying this year, so I decided to give it away to you guys. One today, one Sunday, and one on Monday. She really does have a way with words. Thanks again, Mom! You're fabulous :) Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.



FONTS:
Stephanie Marie JF

Friday, December 5, 2008

I Can Do Anything

Just so you know, this is a VERY long post. I guess I'm just feeling chatty. So, as a warning, this is big - hehehe. But you know you wanna read it - hehehe. Cause I'm just so entertaining - LMBO!

OK, and now for the Aunt Shirley story. hehehe. So, Aunt Shirley is my Mom (Lyn)'s Mom (Ida)'s sister. So that makes her my great aunt. How old is she? hmmmm, like 70 or so. At least that. Grandma Ida is 78, hmmm, 70 is about right. Anyway.

Aunt Shirley's husband died about 6 months ago, so for this Thanksgiving, she decided to go to Washington State with her daughter, Cheryl and son-in law Terry. On the way home, they stopped at a gas station about an hour from Florence (home) and got gas. They got done, pulled out of the gas station, barely got back up to speed (35 mph) on Highway 99 (just this side of Junction City) (4 lane highway). Aunt Shirley got up from the front to go to bed, and stumbled, fell against the unlocked door, and it came open. Out she went. Thump. Boom. Crash.

It's the kind of motor home that when you open the door, stairs come out. She fell out backwards!!! So, she hit the stairs, and then the road. Good thing the stairs were there, or she may have been ran over. Also good thing that he was in the outside lane, so that when she fell out, there were no cars there to run her over. Holy cow!

Once they noticed that she had fallen out, Terry slowly slowed down (he didn't want to run her over), and Cheryl jumped from the (slowly) moving motor home before it got completely stopped, and got almost as hurt as Aunt Shirley. So, Aunt Shirley ended up with a huge know on her head where she landed (they used frozen french fries as an ice pack) bruises on her body, a bangded up ear, and a tiny missing patch of hair. Amazing. It could have been SO much worse.

Here's a picture of Aunt Shirley's ear with a week's worth of healing. Poor Aunt Shirley. Morale of the story is: LOCK THE MOTOR HOME DOOR when you're traveling. Goodness!

And, happier news - hehehe - my dad, the logger, was at work the other day, and were moving equipment to a new show (job site).

Lets see if I can explain what he does. OK, cutters come in, and cut down trees. But not all of them. They always leave some "straggler" trees. Then, my dad is in charge of extracting the trees. And it's not like farm land. No flat areas. Imagine the side of a STEEP hill (mountain, more like it)

Anyway, so they're at a new show, and the cutters have been in already, and he's getting ready to get his crew doing their job, and he sees, in the "straggler" trees, 4 PERFECT Christmas trees. Now, they were in the path of what would probably be the "road" anyway, so he cut the down, and brought them home for us!!!

There's one for my mom and dad, one for Captain America and I at the cabin at Baker, one for my sister's in-laws, and one for my friend, Maren. We're SO excited! Do you know how much a real Christmas tree goes for? Like $25 bucks, at the cheapest. That's insane! FREE is a much better price :) And they're not really Charlie Brown, either. Sometimes when you get trees from the woods, they're pretty Charlie Brown-ish. I'll post some good pics when we decorate the tree on Saturday :)

My dad brought the 4 trees home on the flatbed truck.

Jimmy wasn't so sure about being put up on the flatbed. But he was a good sport. Papa kept trying to drop the tree on him, and it was kinda freaking him out - LOL! Maybe he'll leave the tree alone this year - hehehe.

Another view of our 4 trees. My mom's camera actually did good pictures, considering it was pitch black outside :)

My dad, untie-ing the tree

See, it's a very pretty tree, don't ya think?


And, the little boys, watching the tree fun. Look at Joe (kid in the orange). Hehehehe, he went to the public library wearing that outfit. Ha! Tie dyed shirt, white undershirt, orange shirt (and in that order), then those jammie pants, with too short sweat pants over those, so that there was a jammie pant cuff at the bottom. Yeah, he's a classy dresser. I almost made him change, then I decided, who cares if he clashes. He piced out his outfit himself, and he was quite proud of it. Who am I to be the destroyer of fashion - hehehe.

Oh yeah, and talking about library. We went to the library today for a VERY fun after school thing they were doing there. Our school district has "early release" every Thursday. School gets out an hour early. So, the library has "GAMING" every Thursday, from 2:30 -5:00 pm. They set up 2 Wii systems, and let the kids play games. My boys had a BLAST! Jacob rode the bus home with a friend who lived near the library, then walked over. I brought the other kids up a bit later.

They really did have a good time. They played some Rabbit game. They let me play a few rounds with them. Hehehehe. In one game, the shook up soda, then drank it, then had burping contests. Who thinks up this stuff? LOL! But, the boys liked it. The one I played was some fart (we say flatch - hehehe) racing thing. That's what propelled our rabbits. Weird. I wasn't very good. I was last every time. I guess I need to refine my Wii skills - hehehe. I was thinking that it would be a fun Christmas present for my kids next year.

This really is turning into a Gi-normous blog post. Hehehe. I went to book group tonight. I almost didn't go, and was 30 minutes late, but still went. I'd actually read the book, so I figured I ought to go. I put the little kids to bed, and my mom watched the big ones.

We read 'The Giver", by Lois Lowry. It's a novel, set in the future, that at first appears to be a utopian society, but the longer it goes on, the more "problems" we see with their society. It really was a good book, and gave us lots to discuss. There's a reason why man has "free agency" or the ability to choose for himself. When you take away all choice, you take away, well, everything. The ability to choose is what makes us who we are. This society was devoid of feelings, devoid of love, devoid of emotion. SO not how it was meant to be.

Some of the girls talked about how "blessed" they felt, and how they had never known war, or poverty, or the bad things in life. How they felt removed from it all. You know, I do feel "blessed" for the things that I have, but I didn't really relate to those girls. My life is anything but stable. Yes, I have a husband who I love, and 5 loving children, but I have no "home". My husband is training to become a soldier (yeah, not so safe). We're poor (yeah, not really a good way to sugar coat that one - too much debt, house in Chicago going into forclosure because it won't sell). Most of them have husbands with stable jobs, nice homes, nice things, spending money. I guess sometimes I feel a bit more "in" (rather than removed from) the hardships of life than them. And I don't even have it bad. I know that there are SO many more who have it worse than I do.

But you know what. As much as I would like to trade it all away some days, I don't really think I would. I know that each experience I have teaches me something important. I don't always see the benefit immediately, but I know that it's for a purpose. I know that these seemingly hard lessons now will pay off someday. Maybe I'll need the experience to help someone else. Maybe I'll have to do something even bigger, harder, that this will be preparing me for. I don't know. But one lesson that that book drove home to me, is that without the pain, without the trials, without the hard time, we can't appreciate the good, the joy, the happy times. I know this is true. The saying "Opposition in all things" is SO true. We can't truly know the sweet without the bitter.

SO, this is getting quite lengthy, but remember, our trials are here to teach us something, to make us stronger, to make us better people. We all have trails. Try and learn from yours, and make yourself better because of it. I know we all can :)

OK, that's enough of that - heheheh. Are you still awake and reading?

On to WordArt, the REAL reason you are all here. This WordArt request is from Linda. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.




FONTS:
Anything - Viceroy JF
All rest - Triac 71

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Prince Daddy

Woohoo!!! New stuff is here a bit early this week :) Here's a sneak peak ot the new stuff I have releasing this Friday. 2 Attitude packs, and 3 Christmas packs. I just LOVE Christmas, don't you? hehehe. I should have at least a few more next week, too!

Wanna see the Christmas Card I made for my Mom last night? She's gonna get them developed at Freddys (Fred Meyer, kinda like Walmart, but more expensive), then attached them to a small ornament, and give thm to her friends. They're gonna be SO cute! We had fun making it up last night. AND, she came up with the text. Isn't it just PERFECT. I may be giving away the WordArt text as a 3 part series. What do ya think? Something you'd be interested in?


Kits - Ziggle Designs (White Christmas & Effloresence)
WordArt - Elegant WordArt by Bethany (ME!!)
Quote - Lyn Winona (my mom :)

I got to talk to my hubby twice today :) Usually it's just once, and from about 6:30-7:00pm. But he called once during the day today, then at about 6. You know, its really nice to chat with your man :) And, I could hear laughing and joking going on in the background, and he kept laughing at something someone else was saying. You know what. I really miss his laugh. It brought the biggest smile to my face, just hearing him laughing and joking with his friends. I sure miss him.

I spent another fun day at Marens house, but this time, I remembered to bring my laptop home - LOL! It really was a busy day. Kids off to school at 8am. I had preschool in the morning, and bearly got Joe on his bus, lunch with Aunt Sue, Uncle Steve, Grandma Ida, and my Mom (and Jimmy, of course) at McDonalds (playland). Went to a resale store with Maren after that, then to the grocery stores, then to Marens house. Then back home at bedtime. My days are CRAZY busy, but it's sure making my little countdown ticker on the side of my blog ZOOM by :) Any day now, I'll have my hubby here for 2 WHOLE WEEKS, all to myself :) Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited - LOL

OK, no Aunt Shirley story today. Maybe tomorrow - LOL! My mom is gonna try and get a pic of her. You can't have a great blog story without pictures. I know, I know, I'm bad. Poor Aunt Shirley :)

This WordArt request comes from Hannah. What a cute saying :) Gotta make sure I get a real cute pic of Eme and her daddy at Christmas time. It would make a CUTE layout - see, that's when you know you're lost forever, when you start thinking about life in terms of "layouts'. Hehehehe. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.


FONTS:
Prince - Al Sandra
Daddy - Hursheys

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Take Your Breath Away

So, I'm blogging from my mom's computer tonight (pre-publish, remember :). I accidentally left my laptop over at Maren's house yesterday. How did I POSSIBLY do that? I swear, I'd lose my head if it wasn't attached. hehehehe. I'd probably lose a kid if they didn't keep coming back on their own - LOL!

Now I'm at a loss as to what to do. What DID we do before the computer took over our lives? How did we possibly survive - LOL!

Well, tomorrow, I'm gonna blog about my great aunt who fell out of the motorhome on the interstate. Seriously! She's fine, got some bruises and such, but HOLY COW! How does one fall out of a moving motorhome on the interstate. Goodness! Yeah, so that story tomorrow :)

Click HERE to go to Scraporchard to download the zip file, but remember that you need to be logged into the gallery to get the WordArt. And don't forget to leave some love if you like my work :) thanks!!!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Aunt

So I watched Twilight the other night, and it was FABULOUS. I thought that Kristen Stewart was PERFECT as Bella. Exactly as I imagined her as I read the books. I even liked Edward. I just liked it all around :)

I went shopping at the thrift store today, and found some really fun clothes for my Birthday. My B-day is on the 12th, and since my hubby isn't gonna be here, I went shopping for him. Aren't I a nice wife - LOL! He got me (hehehe) 4 skirts, 3 sweaters, and a brown shirt. And only 2 of them were black - LOL! If you know me, you know how much black I own. LMBO! And all for about $30. I just LOVE thrift stores.

My friend Maren's hubby is Coast Guard, and he's on a training for the week, so of course, I've been at Marens non stop - LOL! I was at her house at noon-ish, then left for Cub Scouts at 5:30 ish, then was back after Cub Scouts, and left for home at 8:00 ish. We had SUCH a good time :) I'd definitely recommend getting a best girl friend. Never really had one of those before (well, since high school), and it's WONDERFUL :) Love ya, Maren!!!

This WordArt request is from Lindsay. I thought it was pretty cute. Most of you probably have aunt, or are an aunt (hehehe), so hopefully you can all use it :) Don't you just LOVE this font? LokiCola is one of my favorites. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work :)


FONTS:
Aunt, hugs, secrets, love - LokiCola

Monday, December 1, 2008

Practice Baby

Another day is over, another new day is here. I think my ticker says 18 days till my sweetheart comes home for a visit. Woohoo!!! I'm starting to get excited.

My mom and I sat down yesterday and calendared all of our December activities. Holy cow! There's a lot going on in the month of December, you know! I think we should split up the activities in December, and spread it throughout the rest of the year. Doesn't that sound like a good plan? LOL.

Church was good today. But really, I can't wait till my youngest is old enough to sit revently. My 5 year old has it MOSTLY down. My older kids do a pretty good job. But the 3 year old, oh my heck! Somedays I wonder why I got - hehehe. But I know, I know, there's a reason for my madness. I'm teaching my kids that mom thinks going to church is important. Even when she's not having fun. Even when she doesn't get anything out of it. Even when it's hard. Even when Dad's not there. We go to church. I know it'll be good in the long run.

In primary (kids age 3-11), we made a video of what we typically do on a Sunday at primary, to send to kids in India. We have an older missionary couple (The Eichelbergers - scroll down for some India pics) serving in India, and she asked if we'd do it. So of course we said yes :) The kids had a lot of fun making the video.

After church, we had a nice relaxing afternoon. And I even got to FINALLY get to my email inbox. I started with 103 messages, and got it down to 30ish. Not too bad, eh? I even did my freebie requests for the next week - ha! Some days I am on top of it all. Next project is freebies for the 2 weeks my hubby is here (did I mention that there's not internet at the cabin we're renting????), and the week I go to Georgia for graduation. Now THAT would be a real accomplishment :)

Hehehe, yeah, this one goes along with yesterdays WordArt, eh? But this one is a request. I just happens to fall back to back with another baby quote. Oh well, you guys like baby WordArt, right? This request is from Winifred. Hope you like it, girl!

Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work. Thanks!


FONTS:
Practice - LandSpeedRecord
Baby - Stephanie Marie JF

Sunday, November 30, 2008

I Replaced the Dog

We had a b-day party last night for my Aunt Sue. Happy Birthday, by the way!!! (LOVE you, Aunt Sue!) It was a lot of fun. I invited my friend, Maren, and her son Clay (Jacob's age). The grown ups were all watching the Oregon/Oregon State game. Any Duck/Beaver fans out there? Not much of a football fan, myself and my man likes Big 10 teams. So I didn't really care one way of the other. BUT, some in the room did.

In fact, my 12 year old nephew had a bet going with his teacher. If OSU won, the teacher was gonna take Nick out to lunch. BUT, if UofO won, Nick had to shave his head. And this boy has a TON of hair. Well, I think the final score was 65 (ducks) to 38 (beavers). Poor Nick. He was lamenting his failed bet all evening. Well, I guess that's why you don't bet - hehehe. But, I do think he'll look much nicer with his short hair cut. But then, I'm a bit partial to short haired men - LMBO!

I can't believe I blogged about football - my husband would be proud (even if it wasn't for his team - go Illini!)

You know what. I just LOVE the Christmas season. People are happy. People are thinking about the things that matter the most. Families are getting together. We rememeber the TRUE meaning and reason for Christmas. AND, there are a TON of great Christmas movies on TV. I know, how commercial of me, but have you guys WATCHED them? They are SO feel good :) Christmas AND love story. What could be better :)

Hey, I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who bought WordArt from me this weekend at the FARMERS MARKET SALE! You guys TOTALLY rock! I was worrying about Christmas last week, and wasn't quite sure what I was gonna do, but you girls TOTALLY took care of me :) The sales came pouring in, and it's gonna be a Merry Christmas this year - hehehe. AND, thanks for all of the kind words you girls left over at DST. You are TOO sweet :) *blushing*

So I was doing some research the other day for a new WordArt pack called "Infant Attitude WordArt pack", and only used 4 of the quotes. This is one that didn't make the pack, and I thought I'd give it to you guys :) And yes, I included the cat version, for all of you cat lovers - hehehe. Click on the image below to go to my box.net account to download the PNG file, and leave some love if you like my work.



FONTS:
I, Replaced, The - Will&Grace
Cat- Stamped DSG