The Paustenbaughs

Different Kind of Goodbyes

We are T minus 6 weeks now until the big move and time is literally flying by and I knew it would. It's that time in the move where I start getting super sentimental and basically tearing up at the drop of a hat.  It's not pretty.

Over the last couple of weeks we were able to spend some time with family before we go.  This isn't normally in our goodbye plans since we've always been stateside, but since we're moving 8000 miles away it's important to us to spend time with them because it could be up to 2 years before we see some or most of them.

I've said it before and I will say it forever that my girls are so incredibly lucky to have not just one set of amazing grandparents, but 2 sets of amazing grandparents and family. We couldn't ask for anything more, especially when I hear friends discuss not so stellar relationships with their parents/grandparents.

I know that they will treasure any time they can spend with them.  We don't see them often, even when we're in the same country, but they soak up all the time they can when they do see them. 

Of course it doesn't help when Maya, at 9.5, realizes the gravity of our move and gets teary and weepy before we have even pulled out of the driveway.  She's always been the sentimental one, but even more so now, which means I get even more weepy and sentimental leaving too.

We are grateful for them. Extremely grateful for good family who loves us unconditionally.  We will cherish these visits before our move and will be forever thankful for Skype starting in June!

Holiday Mini

I have a giveaway for this very kit if you scroll down to the bottom of the post!

This month at Write.Click.Scrapbook it's been mini month for all of March.  This week we are focusing on a Studio Calico kit.  Today is my turn and I made a mini about our recent (ish) trip to the Bahamas over our Christmas vacation.  I started with the smaller Studio Calico journaling kit/album and went from there!

I love these Pink Paislee mistables!  I was unsure at first, but they are so versatile with a little mist.  I've started hoarding some of them!

I'm so glad to finally get this mini album together!  It normally takes me a year to put one of these together, and I only wish I were kidding!

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And now for the best part?  I'm going to give away a Daydream Believer Kit to a lucky winner!  I subscribe to Studio Calico and thought I would need the extra to put this together and come to find out with my stash and small album I had plenty of leftovers!

Leave me a comment by Friday 4 pm and I'll draw a winner.  It will be mailed out Easter weekend.

Summer Mini Part Ni

Ah, yes, trying to do some Japanese cramming just 8 weeks before take off!  Here's hoping cramming college style works when you're nearly 40 too!

But quick before I get to the mini, there is one day left to Save 17% on up to 3 items at ellapublishing.com through March 19  so head on over before midnight for savings!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a fun Ella giveaway!! _______________________________________________________________________________________

I wanted to share a bit more of my mini album I made for the write.click.scrapbook gallery this month.

After our annual trip to Myrtle Beach, I headed off for a girls' weekend with my college friends and had the most fabulous time with those ladies! Man how I miss them and wish we weren't spread out so far apart.

I cut the "SC" from my Silhouette, then misted with a little bit of Mr. Huey to make it a bit more green.  Again, loving the lined journaling pages inserted  in this book for all the stories!

Next we headed off to what Terry refers to as "The Motherland" - Pennsylvania mountains.  We love it here and as the girls have gotten older they have come to love it more and more too.  No technology, just the family being together and enjoying some wildlife friends too.

Again, the Silhouette cut for the "PA" and just layered it over one of the American Crafts cards since these are perfect for our trip to the cabin!

I used another AC card on the right, but this time I cute out the center and used the outside as a frame for our biking photo-worked perfectly!

I used up the last bits of my Campy Trails from American Crafts and sprinkled in some Amy Tan for AC as well-the colors blended beautifully!

Still not done with this mini so I'll be back with more soon!

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If any of you remember me asking for prayers for my sister-in-law last summer we could use more prayers for her.  She has finished all her treatments for breast cancer and went in for a follow up MRI last week.  They found something else suspicious and did a biopsy on Thursday.  The results should be in any day and we are all on pins and needles hoping against hope that it is nothing. 

Thank you.

Summer Mini

This month at write.click.scrapbook our gallery features nothing but mini albums!  I absolutely love seeing what the other ladies came up with for their minis, and in my case, not so minis!

Today I'm going to share a few pages of mine.  If I shared it all it would be the world's longest blog post I fear, so we'll get to it in installments!  Plus, it's a light crafty week for me, so it gives me something to blog about later when I'm at a loss.

I started with a Fancy Pants Brag Book as a base for the album.  As soon as I saw these albums, I went and stocked up on a couple of them.  After using one I'm thinking I need to stock up on more!

I kept holding on to this older map paper from Studio Calico and nearly threw it away a couple of times, but so, so glad I didn't!  I wanted that to be the focus of the front since it's a travel album and went with a simple title/cover for the bottom part.  I stitched it all together, put a fabrip on for added color and called it done!

I made a very simple inside cover/first page to the album to list all the places we ventured off to during our crazy busy summer last year.  I wanted to keep the focus on the pages of our adventures.

We first headed off to our annual Myrtle Beach vacation with Grandma.  She is so extremely good to us and every year for the past 4 years has taken us down to their timeshare/condo in Myrtle Beach.  We always have an awesome time and come home with luggage that is a few pounds heavier with all the sand!

The lined pages for journaling are so fantastic in this book.  I really can't say enough about them.  I also covered several of them up with paper and photos for the book too!

Although I used a little bit of newer stuff, I tried to focus on using up some stash too and clearing out some bits and pieces I had left of Studio Calico kits.  Kind of invigorating to use up things that have just been sitting there for some time!

And those photo sleeves? Also an awesome touch with this book!  I didn't want it to be so thick you couldn't look through it, so these sleeves were great for those extra photos that didn't need another story to go with them.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back with more later!

Ready For Adventure

Saturday's over at Write.Click.Scrapbook there is a different focus each week.  The 1st Saturday of the month is "write" and we focus on journaling.  Amy Sorenson puts together these 1st Saturdays posts and requested layouts about something you are looking forward to and of course music related layouts since that was the gallery theme for the month.  Luckily, I had some time to put something together and knew exactly what I would scrap about!

One thing we are definitely looking forward to once we get to our new home in Japan is all the traveling.  We've already started a list of places we want to visit and I plan on using our passports to their fullest!  I love to travel, especially internationally, and now that the girls are older and can pack and go much easier than babies and toddlers, then we will definitely set off on many an adventure!

Not only do we plan on seeing all there is to see in Okinawa, but will definitely be venturing off to other countries as well and I cannot wait!  There will be no excuse for 2 years, besides the excuse of "we're only here 2 years-LET'S GO!!" 

I nearly put this map paper in the donate pile because although I think it's gorgeous, I just could not figure out how to use it and where to use it.  So glad I hung on to it and found a place for it! Of course that only furthers my paper hoarding issue!

Happy Monday!

What a Holiday

This was our home away from home for the last week.  We decided way back in late summer that we would take a cruise since no family was visiting us for the holliday and it would be our last actual vacation for some time with the upcoming move to Japan.

Terry and I aren't really cruise people, but we knew the girls would love it and it seemed like a good fit with the itinerary.  And we all ended up having so much fun together on and off the ship. 

There were tons of activities on the ship for them to do and we took advantage of all of them!

We chose not to get off the ship in Florida since it was Christmas Day and we figured many things were closed for the holiday, so instead we spent most of our time here:

Sitting poolside in the warm sun was definitely a holiday treat and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was Christmas!  I'm not a fan of cold, even at holiday time so this was right up my alley!  I'll sit poolside any day of the week!

We stopped at Nassau, Bahamas the next day and aside from the long bus ride to the beach, we enjoyed our time there.  I will say though that a one time visit was enough for us.  I believe we ran into a lot of hungover locals since their big celebration starts at midnight on December 26th!  The beach was really nice though and we took advantage of the few hours of day light we had left when we got there.

Our favorite stop hands down was the Royal Carribean private island, Coco Cay.  We got to spend the entire day there, playing in the sand and water and getting a little holiday tan to boot!

Someone was rather excited to find "a baby palm tree!!!"

While someone else was busy building a sand city:

If you look behind Maya they had this incredible Aqua Park that we went to play on for about an hour.  I have to admit though that when we were putting on life vests and getting ready to go in a brief cloud and rain period passed and I was not in a happy place!  Me + cold water + clouds= not a good mix.  But just as we got in the water the clouds parted and full on sun came our way!

We got home yesterday and I'm now on laundry load numero 6 and still going strong.  But we had fun and got away together so that's all that counts!

Now ready to enjoy some New Year's Eve festivities and get ready for an exciting 2012!

Until next time!

Goodbye Glorious Summer

I can honestly say that hands down this has been the best summer we have had in a REALLY long time.  We always try to make the most of our summers, but this one was definitely full throttle!  And this weekend we wind it down with a pizza party at the pool and a get together with some friends, full of food, drink and laughing.  It has just been amazing!

*We started out at Myrtle Beach in June:

We will definitely miss our trip to Myrtle Beach next year since we'll already be moved out of the country.  My in laws are saints to take us there every year!

*I was lucky enough to hook up with these amazing ladies:

*We had 2 girls who were already fish become fishier:

*We literally went from beach to mountains within a couple of weeks:

*And you can't go that close to Hershey Park and not go in for the day:

*And when the children are away the parents will play - in Pittsburgh!  Proper homage was paid to Heinz Field.

*We ventured to 2 states, the girls ventured to 3 states and we finally decided it was time to stay in our own state for a while, but it didn't stop us from traveling!  Up next:  Williamsburg/VA Beach:

And in between all this?!  Life happened, good news was shared, teeth were lost, sanity was gained, and friendships grew.

I don't think we'll get this kind of summer again for a while, but luckily we have all the pictures to remember it all!

Hope you are having a fabulous holiday weekend for those in US!

Summer Fun in Layout Form

Well, the nap didn't happen, but I actually feel a little more rested today and not so frenzied.  Now, talk to me tomorrow with the impending doom of Irene and it could be a different story!  Just hoping it doesn't take Terry 6+ hours to make a 2.5 hour trip.  He is traveling out of an area that will possibly get hit hard, therefore traveling with 8 billion other people.  Eek!

All week we've been highlighting summer projects on the Pebbles blog and yesterday was my turn with a layout.  Instead of focusing one on of our fun adventures, I took several photos and highlighted bits of our entire summer.

I printed off wallet sized photos, lined them up in a grid and used foam adhesive to adhere them and give extra dimension.  I then took some twine and made a fluttering butterfly come to life!

I definitely plan on scrapping the adventures separately, but I like having them all together as well so we get a good look at how much fun we had this summer!

Happy Friday and for all my fellow East Coasters - stay safe!

I Need a Nap

Ever feel like you're having so much fun and doing so many things that you need a nap afterward? That's how I feel after our intense summer of fun!  We have had such an amazing summer, with so much fun and travel, but I'm kind of feeling like an all day nap is in order now that we're at the end of summer!

We did more travel this past weekend trying to save Terry a trip up north to see us.  We had all day Friday to ourselves and not sure what to do, we ventured over to Jamestown Settlement.  I was kind of trepid at first because some historical areas aren't always young kid friendly.  They definitely blew my colonial socks off here because we all had a really great time!  It is very interactive for the kids and all the "settlers" explained things in young child terms.

They got to grind corn...

I don't think these 2 were cut out for armor wear!

We really enjoyed our time there and I highly recommend it-even with younger children!

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Our tooth fairy has also had to take out a loan recently.  Poor Ella had permanent teeth growing behind baby teeth that just weren't coming out so off to the dentist we went.  As we were headed off to the dentist, Maya's tooth literally fell out!  She was brushing her teeth and it came out in the sink!

We have an amazing dentist who makes you feel like a rock star when you are about to get teeth pulled!

 

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And if I can just get one more set of prayers I would be very grateful.  Jennifer, my sister-in-law received her pathology report on Monday and her breast cancer has now spread to her lymph nodes.  They are back to the doctor on the 2nd and will start chemo after that.  Thank you for your previous and continued prayers.

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Hope you have a great Thursday!

After my first earthquake experience, I'm turning to another weather phenomenon - Hurricane Irene.  I'm ready for some low key weather right now!  And um, how about that nap after all this?!!

A Day At The Zoo

Can I just say first how happy I am for the iPhone, and specifically the pre-installed map on it.  Our drive yesterday that should have been 2.5-3 hours was 5 Stinking Hours!!!!  However, it would have been much longer if not for the map and the line of red all along I-64 and I-95.  We made it and I enjoyed some wine for dinner and a good night's sleep!

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We are very fortunate living here in Northern Virginia that we are so close to so many things to do, and better yet, that most of them are FREE!!!  We like to head to the National Zoo a couple of times year.  No, it isn't a huge zoo, but it's a good one and did I mention it's free?!!

We went this past spring on a chilly day, but it ended up being an excellent day to enjoy zoo time.  It was chilly enough that the animals were out in full force and romping around, which was pretty exciting to see! 

I decided to get several photos from that day printed out at Scrapbookpictures.com in their wallet size.  This was perfect when I was creating one of my layouts for the Ormolu gallery.  I didn't do it for this purpose, but it ended up being perfect since I used the Treehugger Dots N Spots.  Using my circle punches, they fit nicely inside each!

These spots are perfect as an embellishment all on their own and lend themselves to being "deconstructed" as well!  And you know I love a grid design so it worked out really well!  The Treehugger line goes perfectly with the American Crafts  Campy Trails line!

We have a week of dance/theater camp this week, which means mama actually gets to get her hiney out there and run!

Have a great Monday!