Another one...

Here is another page from the April Stampin' Success...this once features my husband Kirk. He has spent over 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and we have set our retirement date. We are moving back to our home state in a few months and can't be more excited...and nervous at the same time.

I really wanted to complete an Air Force album to give him at his retirement ceremony...but he has opted not to have one...while that does give me more time to finish it...once I get it started...I wanted to do a page for our family album...this page lists all of the different countries that the Air Force has sent him to over the last 20 years...some would say that he hasn't really been gone a lot for 20 years by that list, but know that he has been to many of the places more than once...He was deployed to Italy more times than I can count...he really missed the kids childhood and a LOT of their growing up...

A few years ago he had deployed in April before school let out and was gone the ENTIRE summer and returned the end of September...we were on our way into town so we dropped off our oldest daughter at the High School...she was a freshman that year...and he turned to me with tears in his eyes and said...when did she grow up...we just left her at the door of her pre-school class...he missed it...he missed a LOT...

You see...what you probably didn't know is that even when he was home with us...he has never really been there...pretty much his entire career...he has been assigned to work Swing shift (3pm-Midnight)...once the kids started school...it was over...When the kids woke up...it was the middle of his night...by the time they got home from school...he was at work...we were stationed at Beale AFB in CA from Oct 1997 -Jan2003...that five years...was really hard...he deployed constantly and again when he was home...he worked swings...I figured it up right before we moved from Beale...I got out all of his leave forms, travel vouchers, and looked back at my calendars for when he had weekend duty...and the kids had see him a total of 362 days...out of 5 years and 4 months...now remember that he gets 30 days of leave a year...that's 150 days right there...so while he was working and deploying...the kids saw him a total of 212 days....out of 5 years...not enough...

So when I say we are looking forward to retirement...I really mean it...now that the kids are teenagers and all in high school...one Air Force journey is over...in Oct we embark on another one...Our oldest daughter is graduating from High School in a couple of months and is leaving for San Antonio in Oct to start HER military travel and her Air Force journey...so we will just transition from Active Duty to Retiree's and proud parents of another Airman...

Anyway...back to the page...20 years...is almost over...


Here is a close-up of the list of countries...


Close-Up of the title...


And here is the hidden journaling...with another use for the 20 year logo...



Hopefully you get some inspiration from the scrapbook page and a bit more understanding about what the Military Family goes through on a regular basis...

Happy Stamping...
Twila

Stampin' Up! Newsletter - April 2010

Well...I have been keeping it a secret for a while...but now that the April Stampin' Success has been posted onto the Stampin' Up! website for all demos to see and we are starting to receive them in the mail...I can...LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG...I am the Featured Stamper for April 2010....I was SO shocked when I received the e-mail asking if I would be interested...are you kidding me???...who wouldn't be...I had checked my personal e-mail at work...ssshhhh...don't tell my supervisor...and there it was in black and white...an e-mail from someone at Stampin' Up!...asking if I would be interested...I couldn't believe it!....so I immediately replied...YES!!!!!


So I was asked to do some scrapbook pages...with a new stamp set from the Summer Mini...I would get it and get to hold and play with it before everyone else...talk about excitement...boy...my family could hardly keep my head out of the clouds...so once I had come back down to Earth a bit...here is one of the pages that I created...using the Sentimental Journey travel stamp set that will be available in the Summer Mini in May...

I have taken a few close-up photos of some of the details on the pages...

Here is the Title that I Boo-Boo'd the spelling on and had to fix...can you tell where it is?



I used the "Detour" arrow and covered the word with the dates of the weekend that we spent in London...we were stationed at RAF Mildenhall, UK at the time...we left all three kids with friends and took off...it was a jam packed sight-seeing weekend. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast outside of London and rode the tube all over the city seeing the historic sights...


Here is the entire page.


Check back tomorrow for another page...I have to drag this out so I have some things to post over the next few days...Leave me a comment and let me know what you think...

More cards for you...

I have some cards that I have made over the last couple of months that I haven't posted yet...so I thought that it was time to clean out my Blog folder and get these up for ya'll to see...

The card has a bit of an unusual color combo...I have no idea where I saw it, but I thought it was striking...so I HAD to use it some-how. I used the Woodgrain Background which I LOVE as it is such a versatile background stamp...I also used an Embossing Folder on the Really Rust cardstock....For All You Do is one of my favorite stamp sets in this catalog as it has some many different stamps...


I saw on someone's blog where they had used the scalloped square die from SU! and ran it through the Big Shot two different times and shortened it from a square to a rectangle...TOO CUTE!



For this one I used the Extreme Elements and Hello Again...it is a bit of a mish-mash, but...you know I LOVE the color combo...



Hope you enjoyed the cards and get some inspiration out of them...Stay tuned as I have more to show ya'll...HAPPY STAMPING....Twila