Janelle Fam

Parade!

2011-07-11T08:06:00.005-05:00

I love that Peter quite often posts pictures of Anna and Simeon from his phone to his Facebook page. This one was taken on the 4th of July. Simeon is holding a little firecracker craft that Anna and I made together when they were here for a visit in June.

I Love being a Tech Saavy Grandma!

2011-02-13T12:36:00.009-05:00

I love that Sarah shares pictures of her Grandma adventures with Anna and Simeon! Here are the most recent ones from their Valentine's making craft session on Thursday.O.K., so maybe there was a twinge of jealousy when I saw these adorable pictures. I want to make Valentines with my grandbabies, too! But, then I remember the fun time Anna and I had making her Thanksgiving turkey and have to realize that being the far-a-way grandma has its advantages and disadvantages. After all, we got to have Anna and Simeon here for a whole week at Thanksgiving, and they may be here for even longer this summer - a time that I look forward to with great anticipation.

But, in the meantime, I am so thankful for our modern technology! Yesterday, we spent nearly an hour on Facetime (using Jim's and Peter's iTouches for video conferences.) Anna showed us her books that she got at the library in the morning. It reminded me of some books that I have been buying for when they visit us again. But, then it dawned on me - I don't have to wait until they visit! I can read them to her real time - right here - right now! And, I did! Anna could see the books as I read and was able to answer questions that I asked her about the story and illustrations! She kept asking for "another one!"One of the books I read was "Quienes Ponen Huevos?" - "Who Lays Eggs?" I asked her if she wanted to read in English or Spanish. She answered quickly, "English!" At the end of our reading time Ginny came to say goodbye and told me that she and Peter had rested together in the recliner while Anna and I had our reading time!

So, even though we are the "far-a-way" grandparents, technology helps bring us closer than we could have ever imagined - isn't technology great?

Where's the Line to See Jesus?

2010-12-21T23:43:00.002-05:00

I was blessed when I heard this song by Becky Kelley and watched the video. It's always good to be reminded of the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. God Bless You as you watch and listen.

Our Little Blue-Eyed Boy

2010-09-11T17:28:00.007-05:00

Ginny's mom, Sarah, recently took these pictures of Simeon. I feel like I hardly know this little guy, but I'm looking forward to spending more time with him in the near future! So, this was the first time that Jim and I REALLY thought that Simeon looks like Peter. What do you think? Isn't he a sweet little boy, with a mischievous little grin to boot?!
Journaling reads: Grandma Sarah took these adorable pictures of you toward the end of the summer of 2010 when you were 10 months old. It was the first time that Grandpa Jim and I thought that you REALLY looked a lot like your Daddy when he was little. We think his head was a bit rounder, but there is so much of you that looks like him - including those beautiful big blue eyes!

Easter in September?

2010-09-05T02:03:00.004-05:00

I know these are way out of season, but I haven't scrapbooked in so long, that I had to post what I did today! These pictures were taken when we were in Branson in April. I'm missing Anna and Simeon. Peter sent a video of Simeon walking today - it seems like I hardly know that little guy! The video reminded me A LOT of his daddy when he was just beginning to walk!
Here's the journaling: One of the “projects” that I planned to do with you while we were on our Spring Break vactation the week before Easter was dye Easter eggs. You started out with the little wire egg dipper, but you soon decided that it was much easier just to use your hands! Before you were finished, you were using both hands at the same time and dipping your whole hands in the dye to put the eggs in and get them back out. Grandpa Jim was cracking up while he watched you, but he was trying not to have you see him laughing so hard! You did a great job of dying the eggs!

Tweet Dreams

2010-08-18T21:57:00.010-05:00

I had such a fun day yesterday! Several weeks ago I had seen a little girl's trundle bed at Costco that I knew would be just perfect for Anna's room. The bed is from the Hailey Collection by CafeKid. But, because of our vow to only spend cash on any remaining house expenditures, I had to wait until my check for grading AP calculus exams arrived. So, I was thrilled when Jim picked me up from school Monday carrying the check that had arrived in the mail. Of course, I wanted to go straight to Costco, but was apprehensive, fully expecting the bed to be completely sold out. Would you believe that the only bed left was the floor model - at a significantly discounted price??!! There was one little missing part, but Jim got an immediate response to his email inquiry, and the wonderful people at CafeKid are sending us a replacement. Now that's what I call good customer service!

I couldn't go to sleep last night until I had made the vinyl wall art that I had designed and made with my new Silhouette electronic die cutting machine. I first learned about this amazing little machine on Ashley's really fun blog, Make it and Love it. Jim helped me put up the wall art, and I can't stop going into Anna's room to look at the beautiful bed and beautiful wall art. Now, we just need Anna to come for a visit and sleep in her new bed!

My Photo Albums

2010-08-07T10:44:00.007-05:00

I just discovered these albums on a Picasa site that I didn't even know I had! If you click on an image, you can go to the album and see the pictures. It's easy to see them if you choose slide show and then hit F11 for a full screen view! Just be sure to hit F11 again when you want to go back to a normal window. Happy Viewing! I'm also going to add some permanent links to the albums in the side bar. If I ever find time to do more scrapbooking, I'll add a post for new pages.

Look What I Just Won!!

2010-08-04T22:49:00.008-05:00

I just love this blogging world! I have been a long-time fan of Amanda at www.kevinandamanda.com. I first discovered her when I found her awesome Fonts for Peas - free fonts from actual handwriting samples. Then I started using her wonderful blogging tutorials, like this one to put a signature on my blog posts. You have to check out her recipes too.

Recently she hosted an Eagle Brand Ice Cream Challenge Giveaway. You know her blog is popular when she gets 995 comments/entries for the giveaway. What are the chances that I would win when my comment was buried at #694? Well, if you want to calculate the random chance of winning, that would be 3/995 or less than a 1 percent chance - not very promising. But, guess what - I won!! Isn't that a **SWEET** little package that I'm going to be receiving in the mail? I can't wait to try out this ice cream recipe!

We're Home from our Vacation of a Lifetime!

2010-07-29T17:50:00.014-05:00

We returned home Monday from the most incredible vacation - I think it may have been a dream! We stayed for 2 1/2 weeks on the French Riviera in a perfect little villa with a view of the Mediterranean Sea. We woke up each day with a beautiful view from our bedroom window, spent time at many different beaches along the coast and took a couple of day trips to explore more of France, Monaco and Italy. We ended our time with a 3-day stay in Paris. Believe me when I say, "pictures cannot do justice to the amazing things that we saw and experienced!" Our hosts for the first three days were Michel and Monique Legier, Benjamin's parents. The cute little villa we stayed in is their vacation home in Agay. While we were there several of Patrick's and Benjamin's friends came too, and we loved spending time with all of them! Patrick and Benjamin were wonderful hosts - shuffling people back and forth to the airport and train station and making everyone feel welcome and comfortable. We loved having Jim's sister, Kristin, with us as well. It was quite a memorable trip for all of us!

Happy Easter - Card Template Freebie

2010-04-04T12:06:00.017-05:00

Happy Easter! Jesus is Alive!!

What a wonderful week of Spring Break we have just had! We spent the week in Branson, Missouri with my sister, Teri, her husband, John, Jim's sister, Kristin, and Peter, Ginny, Anna and Simeon. Our time together was so much fun and I got lots of time for Grandma lovin! Here is a picture of Peter, Ginny, Anna and Simeon on the train ride that we took from Branson into Arkansas.Our home for the week was a quaint resort called Stormy Point Village. All of the stand-alone units were Cape Cod Style with nautical decor. Here was our home for the week:
The clubhouse and lighthouse - 75 steps to the top, and Anna climbed it all by herself!

Part of the fun of this vacation was the road trip to and from Branson with John and Teri. Jim and John did all of the driving, while Teri and I sat in the back seat talking, crafting (Teri helped me finish a knitted rug that I had been working on), doing Sudoku and digiscrapping! We designed and made two card templates for you to download, and then we each designed a card with each template to give some ideas of how to use them! Enjoy the templates - we'd love to see some of your finished samples! :-)
Card Template 1
Download Here
Card Template 2

Download Here

Snow Day!

2010-03-24T09:20:00.006-05:00

What a wonderful blessing I received last night - the well anticpated call with the recorded message that said in so many words, no school for Aurora Public Schools on Wednesday, March 24! Yippee!! This is what I see when I look out our front door today:
So, what do I do on a day when I would normally be spending nine plus hours at school; but, instead, I get to spend the day at home? There are soooo many options.

When the alarm rang this morning, I knew I had a choice: stay in our warm, cozy bed with flannel sheets and nurse the cold that I've been battling for the last few days or get up at 5:15 am to bake muffins for Jim and Sean, who are off to work when I get to stay home.

I really have been wanting to try a new recipe for Orange Sour Cream Muffins with pecans. I probably should have stayed in bed! They tasted O.K., but looked like little craters, and did not come out of the muffin stone in one piece.

By the way, the bed still hasn't been made and is softly calling, but I decided today was also a good day to do a blog post. My, how quickly the months have passed since my last post on December 13! So, what have we been up to the last three months? On December 18 (our 32nd anniversary) we closed on our Good Neighbor Next Door home, and have been in a remodeling frenzy since then. I had intended to blog about our remodeling progress, but couldn't squeeze in the time after teaching during the day and then spending 5 to 6 hours each night and all day Saturday and Sunday working on the house. We still have projects to do, but we are loving our new home, and feel tremendously blessed. I'll be sharing more about that soon - promise!

But, for today, here is a picture of snow on the St. Patrick's Day wreath by our front door and our cute little electric fireplace that I get to enjoy all day long!!

Winter Fun

2009-12-13T20:18:00.004-05:00

Have you seen the cute video of Anna "spinning" on the ice? You can find it on Peter's blog here. And here is another precious picture of her. Sean took it when we were in Minnesota. Anna was playing with Uncle Benjamin, and was obviously being very entertained!! The background is compliments of Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine and DSA Guild.

Thanksgiving Blessings

2009-12-07T00:18:00.005-05:00

What a wonderful time we had with the entire family at Peter and Ginny's in Minnesota. We had a perfect Thanksgiving dinner at Ginny's parents' (Larry and Sarah's) home. Patrick and Benjamin came from Germany, and their roommate from Los Angeles, Severine, was also there. We celebrated Anna's 2nd birthday too! Thank you Sean for having your camera ready to capture the special memories!

Anna Loves Simeon, November & December Calendar Template Freebies

2009-11-01T22:52:00.006-05:00

View on Smugmug.
This is my first layout of Simeon - Anna loves her baby brother and is very sweet and gentle with him, even though she is VERY possessive of HER mommy! It was fun to spend four days with the family in Minnesota. My fall break from school came at the perfect time for the visit, and we missed the huge snow storm while we were gone!

And here are the last two calendar templates for 2010! It has been so much fun to do the templates this year, and it has been awesome to make new friends along the way. Enjoy your holiday season, and Happy Scrapping!
Download November Template Here.Download December Template Here.

It's a Boy!!

2009-10-25T08:48:00.004-05:00

Simeon James arrived Saturday, October 24 at 4:00 pm (Minnesota time) and weighed 6lb 11oz - more than two pounds less than his sister, Anna, at birth! Anna is excited to meet her baby brother this morning - more pictures to follow!Congratulations to Jody who is the winner of the Janelle Baby Lottery. Jody guessed "Boy Sat morning at 6:32 am." Jody, send your address to me at tmjanelle@gmail.com and I'll get your Starbuck's gift card to you!

Janelle Baby Lottery

2009-10-20T07:06:00.003-05:00

Ginny's due date was Saturday, but we still don't have a baby, and we don't know if it's a girl or a boy. So, we are offering a $10 Starbuck's gift card for the person who guesses the correct sex of the baby AND the closest birthdate. Jim thinks it's a boy. I think it's another girl. What do you think? If you agree with someone else, the closest TIME wins.

It's October - Calendar Template Freebie!

2009-10-03T21:57:00.015-05:00

October, 2009, is the month that our second grandchild will be born. Ginny's due date is two weeks from today. We don't know if the baby is a girl or a boy, so we are very excited about the upcoming birth. This is a picture that Ginny recently posted on her Facebook page. I love that expression on Anna's face - she is intent on trying to understand what's going on with her mommy's growing tummy!Happy Birthday tomorrow, Ginny. We love you and are praying for you and little lamb!!

I really want to be better about keeping this blog a little more up to date, but the days, weeks and months just seem to be flying by!! This month's calendar template was designed by Teri. When we talked earlier today we decided that we should make the November and December templates so that anyone who is using the templates for their 2010 calendar can get them finished before the rush of the holiday season - stay tuned, and enjoy!
Download Here.

By the way, thank you, Tabitha, for bringing to my attention that the dates were wrong on the July calendar template. I have corrected the dates, so anyone can download the corrected version. Sorry!
Download July Template Here.

September Calendar Template and Happy Labor Day!

2009-09-07T16:27:00.005-05:00

I hope you all are having (or had) a wonderful weekend. It used to be that Labor Day signaled the end of the summer and the beginning of school. For me, this year, Labor Day signals the midterm of the first quarter of school; and I'm working on midterm grades! I did take a little break to design the September Calendar Template. Hope you enjoy it. Download Here.

Calendar Template is on its Way!!

2009-09-05T16:36:00.004-05:00

The new teaching job is eating up all of my time, but I promise to have the template posted by the end of this three day weekend!! Since I'm posting, I thought I might as well share a few new photos of Anna. She didn't have the pig tails in for long, but long enough to get these darling photos!! Thanks, Peter for keeping us current - these might just be the inspiration that I need for the September calendar template!

August Calendar Template Freebie

2009-08-02T23:17:00.009-05:00

First. let me share with you our Janelle family calendar for this month.
View on SmugMug
This picture of Peter was taken on Lake O'Brien - quite appropriate, considering that Peter and Ginny spent this weekend at the same lake with friends of theirs. I'll wager that Peter even spent some time on the same Sunfish!

So, here's the August 2010 calendar template. It's one of Teri's designs. Enjoy!
Download Here.

Our Present ties to the Past

2009-07-20T09:44:00.006-05:00

Greetings, family, friends and fans!! What a whirlwind summer this has been! So many wonderful things have happened, but I haven't taken the time to update the blog - sorry!

We had a wonderful trip with Jim's sister, Kris, to visit Peter, Ginny and Anna in Minnesota. Jim and I stayed for about 10 days and loved every minute of our visit. It was so hard to say goodbye to Anna after forming some new bonds with her. Our hearts melted everytime she said "Gramma" or "Grampa"! Isn't she getting so big? This picture was taken on one of our several walks in the neighborhood. We hadn't planned on swimming in the neighborhood pool, so we didn't have our swimming suits, but we couldn't resist dipping our feet for a while!

By the way, did you happen to see the beautiful pictures that Peter took of Anna?
These two are my favorite. They were taken near their home in an industrial area that has been converted to an arts district with studios galore. The buiding used to be home to Northrup King Seeds. That was really nostalgic for me since Northup King was one of the suppliers of corn seed to my dad. Corn was always a major crop on the farm when I was growing up.

So, the other big news is that I have a new job! I'm going to be a Rangeview Raider and will be teaching at Rangeview High School in Aurora, Colorado. Aurora is a southeastern suburb of Denver where Jim grew up - who would have ever imagined?

July Calendar Template Freebie

2009-07-02T09:37:00.010-05:00

Is it already July? We are so excited to be back in beautiful Colorado! Jim arrived June 8, and I flew in a week ago on June 25. All of the rain has made our home state look more beautiful and luscious green than I can hardly ever remember. It's great to be home!

So, here is the July calendar template:Download Here.

I based the layout on a frame cluster that is part of a free little kit by one of my current favorite designers, Flergs (Megan Farrow.) You can get the kit, which would be perfect for scrapping this template by subscribing to her newsletter:
And, if you are a Twilight fan, you must check out her blog, Flergalicious. Don't you just love her digital designs?

In Honor of Father's Day

2009-06-18T19:28:00.007-05:00

I've been waiting to share these precious layouts that I did a while ago, but thought it would be so fun to share them for Father's Day. The first one is of Anna and her Daddy, and the second one is of LilyAnn and her Daddy, Josva. Josva is a former student of mine and Peter's former high school classmate.View on SmugMug
View on SmugMug
It is so much fun for me to see these two fathers with their precious daughters. Josva now has two beautiful daughters and, of course, Peter and Ginny are expecting their second child in October.

It's June - Freebie Digital Calendar Template!

2009-06-01T10:33:00.006-05:00

WOW! May sure did fly by!! Here is the June calendar template called SUMMER FUN. Teri did the design and I made the template. I'm also including a layout example that I made using some pictures of Peter and Anna that were taken last summer at the Mork family cabin on Lake O'Brien. We're planning on being there with Ginny's family for the 4th of July - I'm looking forward to an awesome time!!Download Here View on Smug Mug

We're Still Safe in Colombia

2009-05-24T12:55:00.003-05:00

My sister, Teri, emailed me last week to find out if we were O.K., since we hadn't done a new post on our blog for a while. She said she started thinking, "After all, they do live in Colombia, so maybe I'd better check to see if everything's O.K.!" That made me laugh!!

It's that time of the year (end of school) when things get crazy. Extra so this year since I'm also looking for a job. Anybody know of a high school math teaching position in Colorado? I've applied for several, but the only reply that I've gotten is that there have been close to 100 qualified applicants for one job! What happened to the days when math teachers were scarce?

It's kind of forcing us to look at some more options - I'll do another post on that with more details at a later date!

We've also been busy with some serious socializing with good friends that we have made over the past two years. Some of them will be moving to different parts of the world. Yesterday we did a one-day sailboat trip to Cholon on one of the Rosario Islands. We visited, ate and sat in chairs around a table that were IN THE WATER! That's something we probably won't be doing when we return to Colorado. Here's a picture of Jim and me enjoying the relaxing, cool water.
Earlier this month we enjoyed a fun party on a pirate ship. Here are my layouts from that:View on Smug Mug View on Smug Mug
So, you see, we are doing great, having lots of fun, working hard and winding down our time in Cartagena!

May Calendars & a Template Freebie

2009-05-09T14:53:00.012-05:00

Download Here
I know - I already posted the template, but I'm posting it again just in case you missed it in the last post! And, you've probably already seen these adorable pictures of Anna, but I couldn't resist using them again for the May calendar. View on Smugmug
Here's Teri's May calendar - some of her Mother's Day gifts! Those pictures sure do remind me how much I miss springtime in Colorado!! I love how we both used pink!(Click on image for a larger view.)

(Inter)National Scrapbooking Day - Free Calendar Template

2009-05-02T13:43:00.016-05:00

What a great day! I've been downloading great sale items and freebies like crazy since yesterday and have added some great kits and elements to my ever expanding selection of digital supplies!

I used some of my new stash to scrap this picture of Ginny, her sister, Mary, and two of their friends. I took the picture last summer when I was staying with Peter and Ginny and Anna in Minnesota. That's Anna's little head sticking up out of the stroller, Ginny is holding Mary's son, Emmett, and baby Dean is in Mary's tummy!
View on Smugmug
Here are some of the fun free digital supplies that I used:

So, here is MY little freebie offer for the month of May. I know lots of people have been downloading the templates. I sure would love to see some of the finished products - hint hint!
Download Here

Chillin' with Dylan

2009-04-26T08:30:00.005-05:00

Here's one of Anna's pasttimes at her Grandma Sarah's house - listening to Bob Dylan on the headphones! Hilarous!

Happy Birthday, Anna's Daddy

2009-04-20T19:54:00.006-05:00

Saturday was Peter's birthday. He celebrated with a guys' trip to Winona to fly fish with his good friend, Craig, and his brother-in-law, Jerhad. Ginny also got a weekend away with her friend, Angie. So, Anna got to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Coyle. After Peter picked Anna up Sunday night, he wrote me an email to tell me that, "I was really glad to pick Anna up. It melted my heart when she said "Daddy!" and ran over to give me a hug and kiss. She was just as excited to see me as I was to see her." Oh, my goodness, I wish I could have seen that!

So have I mentioned how blessed we are that Larry and Sarah are Anna's other grandparents? What a blessing they are to Peter, Ginny and Anna. Even though I was a tad bit jealous that Anna got to spend the weekend at their house, Sarah was wonderful, as always, and sent me pictures of their fun times together. I couldn't resist scrapping these pictures - Sarah says that Anna is developing quite a personality. Can't you just see it in the expressions on her face in some of these pictures?View on Smug Mug
View on Smug Mug

Anna's Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-16T19:25:00.002-05:00

Grandma Sarah made this Smilebox of Adorable Anna hunting for Easter eggs at her house last Sunday! I couldn't resist sharing it with all of you.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Christ is Risen - Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T12:29:00.006-05:00

Easter blessings from the Janelles to family and friends!

We just returned yesterday from our amazing eight-day sailboat trip to the San Blas Islands. Being at these islands was like being in paradise. What an incredible journey with some great friends! Here is a little slide show of the highlights!

It's April - New Calendar Template Freebie

2009-03-31T19:17:00.007-05:00

We just took Patrick to the airport this afternoon and bid him goodbye as he left to return home to Los Angeles. What a wonderful time we had while he was here - that boy really knows how to vacation!! We are really going to miss him!

It's hard to believe that April is here! This year is flying by, but we have some fun adventures ahead!! So, here is our Janelle Family April 2009 Calendar: View on Sumg Mug
Look at those pictues of Anna!! What a difference one year can make. She is just getting cuter and cuter. SKYPING with her Sunday night was so much fun. She jabbered the whole time, and we could understand words every once in a while like, "puppy, baby, stuck, no, yes, thank you;" She is growing and learning so much! Here is a recent picture of her taken by her Grandma Sarah:
So, here is the April 2010 template. Isn't it great? Teri designed it and sent me a sketch. I used the sketch to do the template. I think we are a great team, don't you?Download here.

I Love Scrapbook Graphics!

2009-03-29T18:53:00.004-05:00

Scrapbook Graphics has long been one of my favorite places to shop for digital scrapbooking elements. If you haven't seen their store, you definitely want to check them out! For a chance to win gift certificates to their store, check out this great little gig in their Spirit Club!

Patrick's in Colombia!!

2009-03-24T17:03:00.007-05:00

What a fun three-day weekend we had!! Patrick went with us and some friends from school for a weekend retreat to an amazing beach house near Santa Marta. Jim and Patrick stayed behind and are doing some hiking and exploring in Tayrona National Park. Here are a few highlights from the trip:

Round 2 and I Need Your Help

2009-03-15T10:53:00.010-05:00

CHECK OUT THE EXCITING NEWS IN THE LAYOUTS BELOW!! WE ARE SOOO EXCITED!!

Well, I made it to Round 2 of the creative team contest!! Here is my second round entry using an adorable kit named Waiting for You by Majula Designs at Go Digital Scrapbooking. Such an appropriate name, since we are now "Waiting for you" - our second precious grandchild!I'm not feeling as confident in this second round. There are some very artistic layouts in the second round of the contest. Lots of amazing clustering of elements, which I do not do well. Even though it looks really cool, it's not my style. But, I LOVE these pictures of Anna - isn't the one of her "talking" on the phone so cute?

Anyway, Peter and Ginny also sent me a very sweet picture of Anna and Ginny with Anna wearing her big sister T-shirt. I decided to also do a layout with that picture. Here it is:Here's how you can help. At the bottom of the page is a poll. Could you please choose which one of the layouts you like better and vote for your favorite? I'm just curious! Jim was the first one to vote. He chose the Good News layout as his favorite. Which one do you like best?

Contest Fun with Two New Anna Layouts

2009-03-05T20:44:00.012-05:00

Anna's first birthday was over 3 months ago, but I just did this adorable layout to celebrate her special day. View on Smug Mug
The layout is entered into a design contest at Go Digital Scrapbooking. They are choosing a new Creative Team from over 200 scrapbookers! There will be four rounds, and the scrappers that are left after the fourth round will be the design team for the next four months. Part of the fun of doing the contest is that each round the contestants receive a free kit to use for their layout. The kit that is being used for the first round is called Your Day by Dani Alencar. Go check out the gallery to see the competition and let me know what you think my chances are!

Speaking of contests, I also entered this layout in a contest that Julie Billingsley was holding at Sweet Shoppe Designs last month. View on Smug Mug
As a random prize winner, I received this adorable kit named Leaps and Bounds from Julie:I Can't wait to use the kit - isn't it just adorable?!

It's March - New Calendar Template Freebie

2009-03-02T18:39:00.006-05:00

I was a little busy with Jim's birthday Saturday. I surprised him with an overnight stay at the Hotel Caribe, and 21 of our friends joined us for dinner at De Oliva Saturday night. Jim enjoyed both events and appreciated having me (without the computer) for a whole day!! I have to say that it was relaxing for me too! So, first, here is our March 2009 calendar. I love these pictures of Sean that were taken while he was in Seattle last spring. It was a fun layout to do, and I loved turning the calendar to this new page!View on Smugmug
And... here is the new calendar template for March 2010. I hope that you have been able to keep up-to-date with your calendar. I'd love to see finished calendar pages if you would be willing to leave links to your finished layouts! Enjoy!Download template here.

Chillin' Life in Cartagena - Anna Style

2009-02-22T20:45:00.003-05:00

I'm still scrappin' some of the pictures from Peter, Ginny and Anna's visit to Cartagena last November. We had such a wonderful time having Anna to ourselves while Peter and Ginny visited Tayrona National Park. Here are a few more pictures of our time with Anna: View on Smug Mug
By the way, many of the elements from this layout and Peter's Sunshine are from a benefit grab bag called For Mellisa that is available for one more day at Scrapbook Graphics. The cost is $5.00, which is a terrific bargain for all of the wonderful things that are included. Go check it out!

Serendipity

2009-02-17T21:02:00.004-05:00

Two of Dena's friends are visiting her. Jenna (Dena's soon to be sister-in-law) and Priyanka. Pri sometimes uses Photoshop Elements at her job when she is doing public relations projects. She was curious to see how I use Elements to do my digital scrapbooking. So, I opened up a template and some papers and elements and started quickly putting a page together to show her how it works. Immediately I realized that I was really liking what was coming together. So, I had Jim write a few words for the journaling and tweeked the layout a bit, and here is the resulting layout: View on Smug Mug
That picture of Anna is making us both miss her tremendously! Compare the picture of her to the Sunshine pictures - she really has changed in the last three months, hasn't she?

Peter's Sunshine

2009-02-13T19:44:00.002-05:00

If you follow the blogs on my right side bar, you probably have already seen the most adorable picture of Anna on Peter's recent post called Sunshine. I couldn't resist doing a scrapbook layout with the picture and a few more that Peter took at the same time. View on Smug Mug
I journaled about Daddy's blog on this layout. It makes me wonder what technology will be like when Anna is older. Will blogs be a thing of the past, long since replaced by a new means of communication? It amazes me to think about how much technology has changed since Peter was a baby. I've been a "techie" all of those almost 29 years of his life. We bought our first computer (it was an Apple II+ if anyone remembers) right after he was born.

Whatever technology looks like years from now, it's fun to know that Anna will have a keepsake of one of the entries of her Daddy's blog with this scrapbook layout!

An Even Sweeter Valentine

2009-02-08T22:06:00.003-05:00

Look at what my desktop gets for the month of February thanks to the Shabby Princess!! Jim took the picture of Anna when she visited us in Colombia last November. She was playing with blocks. Oh, I miss her!!

A Very Sweet Valentine

2009-02-05T15:26:00.004-05:00

Last night for my digital scrapbooking class, I had my students create a layout using my woven heart template. They were all so cute, and since Erin Leigh sent me a copy of hers, I thought I'd share it with you. I think it is absolutely beautiful! I love how she used the 3-photo picture frame to do the title, and aren't those just the cutest valentine pictures? She definitely gets an A+!
[Credits: Yours Truly Kit (The Shabby Shoppe)]

Mom's of Small Children - Listen Up!

2009-02-03T16:55:00.012-05:00

How many times did I say when the boys were growing up that I really need to write down some of the cute things that they said? Well, I didn't do it, but I wish I had. Some of those cute sayings are just too hard to forget, though! One of my favorites is this story about Patrick when he was in Kindergarten. [Credits: Dianne Rigdon - Old School (Srapbook Graphics)]
The journaling reads, "Patrick, I know that you’ve heard the story many times, but I still love telling it! This is what you said when you were in kindergarten and I asked Peter to help you with your homework, which was to practice spelling words with short vowel sounds and the consonants that you had learned to that point. I think that it is interesting to note your strict adherence to the rules and making sure you didn’t do anything you weren’t supposed to do! However, SOME things DON'T change - your brillance was shining through, even when you were a little boy!

This layout is in response to a challenge at Hodge Podge Art called Pictureless if you want to check it out.

And here are our February 2010 calendars!

2009-02-02T22:47:00.008-05:00

Here is Teri's with these very cute pictures of Megan and Garrett (Click on image to enlarge):(Credits: Paper: AS_SerenityBlue_CocoaLove_PinkHearts; Delicious Scraps My Valentine Add-on Freebie paper 2 (recolored); CC_ToYouWithLove_mini_paper2; RAKMKSept08 LilyBelleDesigns_Ppr9; HeartCharm: DeliciousScraps PU HeartCharm Pink (recolored); Stamped hearts unknown)

And here is mine with pictures of Jim and me from our 30th wedding anniversary (December 2007).View on Smugmug

It's February - New Calendar Template Freebie

2009-02-01T14:15:00.008-05:00

First of all, I wanted to share the Janelle Family February 2009 calendar with you. These pictures were taken a little over a year ago when Anna was a newborn. I especially love the ones of Patrick and Sean with her - the first time that they met their niece. Can't you just tell that they are smitten with her? The one of Peter and Ginny with Anna was taken while they were still in the hospital - brand new parents with their newborn baby! And there is the picture of Jim and me - first-time grandparents - what an amazing time in all of our lives!View on Smug Mug
And now, here is the new template for February 2010! This was Teri's idea - made to look like those woven paper hearts that most of us have made at some point in our lives! What a great idea! And I had so much fun designing the template in Photoshop Elements. Thank you for your response to the January calendar template. I LOVE comments, and I'd love to see how you are using the templates. So leave us some love and some links!! Teri and I will be sharing our use of the template soon! Download the February calendar template here.

January 2010 Calendars are Done!

2009-01-27T23:01:00.018-05:00

Here are our January calendars for 2010! You can see that we each interpreted the template a bit differently and freely changed it to fit our layouts. Teri's calendar (Click on image to enlarge):(Credits: Ahartline_BrrMini(free); JillDZines_SnFlk10shdw(free); ABR_Urbanlive_PaperSpec_Tan(free); RAK Jan 09 Collection ppr09_lngwntrsnt_dirgdon(free); DMI_Solids_Jewel_Snow)

My calendar: (I've already used some of these pictures of Anna, Peter and Ginny for a layout, but I just LOVE them, and needed to use them for the calendar as well. Aren't they adorable?)View on Smug Mug
We SKYPED with Ginny and Anna tonight. It was so much fun!! Anna was saying, "Hi!" to us, giving us high fives and blowing us kisses!! That is the most interactive that she has been with us on SKYPE. It's not the same as seeing her in person, but it's a pretty good substitute when we are so far away from each other!

January 2010 Calendar - Template Freebie

2009-01-25T13:42:00.008-05:00

Last year my sister, Teri, and I did a fun project of making 2009 calendars for our families for Christmas. I had them printed at My Pic Tales, and was thrilled with the results! Teri and I were blessed by the generosity of Candace on the RAK Scraps website. Candace posted a template for each month of the year at the beginning of the month, so we were able to keep up with the project throughout the year. If you've been following our blog, you saw my January calendar a few weeks ago. Because of health reasons, Candace is no longer designing the calendar templates, so Teri and I decided that we would pick up this project for 2010. Over Christmas we got to spend some designing time together. Teri is generally the creative geneous behind the ideas, and I'm the tech person. We have so much fun together! So each month I am going to be posting a link to the calendar template for that month. We would love to see how you use them if you choose to; so, please, leave us some links in the comments.Download the template here. Thanks to Obsidian Dawn for the snowflake image. Check back in a little over a week for the February template!

Sneaky Chef

2009-01-24T15:44:00.003-05:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted! We are back in Cartagena and settled into the routine. I've taken a little break from scrapbooking, but this scrapbooking thing seems to be just the therapy that I need when I'm missing Anna, like I was this morning. Some how I feel a connection to her when I'm preserving memories for her with the layouts and journaling. Thanks again to Sean for taking these pictures on Christmas day! View on Smug Mug
The Sneaky Chef is a book for creative cooking. According to the web site, "The Sneaky Chef is chock full of proven strategies for ingeniously disguising "superfoods" in kids' favorite meals." It was fun to see the creative foods that Ginny made for Anna, and for the most part it worked! It's not just for kids, either. Christine, it just may be the thing you've been looking for to get Les to eat his veggies!

Anna Loves Uncle Patrick

2009-01-05T21:54:00.006-05:00

View on Smug Mug
Here is my newest Christmas layout. It was so much fun having everyone here for Christmas. I miss all of the fun interactions, and the house is too quiet! Thank you again, Sean, for taking such fun pictures for me to scrapbook!!

365 Project and Madison's Quilt

2009-01-04T21:43:00.007-05:00

View on Smug Mug
For the start of the New Year, some digital scrapbookers are taking on a project that they are calling 365. The project consists of taking a picture a day for the entire year and then making a scrapbook with the pictures. There are several different formats that could be used, one of which is scrapping a week's worth of pictures at a time. My sister, Teri, and I thought it would be fun to design a digital template that could be used for this project. We used the right page template to do the layout of Madison's Quilt that we made this past Friday with our other sister, Tammy.
Here are the templates: You can download the left page template here and the right page template here. If you use the templates, could you please leave a comment with a link to your gallery? Thanks!

Cooking Christmas Dinner

2009-01-03T16:30:00.001-05:00

View on Smug Mug

Holiday Greetings from the Janelles to You

2009-01-03T00:47:00.000-05:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T12:19:00.005-05:00

Jim and I had a fun time with Jim's sisters, Kris and Karen, on the 16th Street Mall in Denver last night. We started out at Illegal Pete's for appetizers and then had dinner at Maggianos. We left the restaurant shortly before the 9:00 fireworks began - two simultaneous displays at either end of the pedestrian mall. Part of the fun adventure included transportation on the Light Rail train from south Denver.

So, here is the January Janelle family calendar. I posted the top part of this calendar a while back; now that the gifts have been given, I can share the rest of it! View on Smug Mug
Our wishes are for a blessed and prosperous 2009 for all of our family and friends!

Check out this amazing contest!

2008-12-31T11:46:00.005-05:00

I recently discovered a wonderful service for printing my digital layouts. I have used My Pic Tales to print out some of Anna's layouts for her album, a hardback book of Jim and Peter's Ride Across America 2008, and 2009 calendars for the boys. The staff at My Pic Tales were wonderful, and we were very pleased with the results. The prices are very competitive as well. This contest ends today, but I highly recommend their service to all of my digital scrapbooking friends. Check them out at Mypictales.com. Follow the link to the blog for more information about the contest.

Look What Anna Can Do

2008-12-30T20:09:00.007-05:00

We knew that Anna was so ready to walk when we were with her. We tried to get her to do it, but she would just sit down whenever we had her standing by herself. The day after Peter and Ginny got back to Minnesota she decided it was time, and here she is:
We're so glad that Larry was there with his video camera so we could see her first steps too!!

Winter

2008-12-23T19:13:00.006-05:00

We are loving being in Colorado with the whole family together. My brother, Jim, and his wife, Gwen, have generously opened their beautiful home to all of us while we are here. I love being with Anna - she is such a joy to have around! More pictures are coming soon, but for right now, I wanted to share a new layout that I just finished. These pictures were taken last week in Minnesota.View on Smug Mug

Back in the U. S. of A.

2008-12-20T21:51:00.006-05:00

We are so excited to be on U.S. soil! We are spending the night in Ft. Lauderdale and will be leaving early tomorrow morning to fly to Denver. Peter and Ginny are also flying to Denver (from Minneapolis) tomorrow. We're hoping that the weather does not cause any delays. We will all meet at the wedding of Courtney Nicole, who is the youngest daughter of our dear friends, Jim and Becky Sanchez.

During the week we plan to see all of our Colorado Janelle and Schell family relatives and several friends. For most of them, it will be the first time that they will have met Anna! Some of the many friends who we are hoping to see are Josva, Nancy and Lilyann Halseide. I'm excited to give LilyAnn prints of the layouts that I have been doing for her. Here is the latest one that I finished last night:View on Smugmug

NHS Service Project

2008-12-19T22:59:00.005-05:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Tonight the National Honor Society of Colegio Jorge Washington (that's my school) spent some of their Friday night (pretty admirable for a group of teenagers, don't you think?) providing cookies for over 500 children in la iglesia de Bosque. They also took gifts for 250 children, which the priest will distribute, and provided money to buy approximately 100 chickens for Christmas dinners for the families of the church. Michelle was blessed by the gratefulness of some of the children for such a small token, but Melissa expressed her frustation of not being able to do more to meet the needs of some of the children who are extremely poor. I'm proud of these students, and tonight I was blessed by their sacrifice of time and generous spirits.

That elusive thing called time

2008-12-14T09:43:00.005-05:00

I really am not very philosophical. I like formulas and equations and right (or at least reasonable) answers, you know. After all, I am a math teacher. But recently I've been thinking a lot about time. Time is somewhat mathematical, but often it really feels that I am in a time warp, and the equations don't make sense. It just keeps going faster and faster - not just the years, but the minutes, the hours and the days.

I am really excited to be in Colorado for Christmas, but I know this week before we leave is even going to fly by in front of my eyes. I'm really not wishing that this week would go faster; because, the even more worrisome part about the quick passing of time is that once we are in Colorado, there is no stopping or even slowing time so that we can spend enough time with all of the people that we love. I already feel like the time is going to pass at lightening speed before my eyes.
That's one good thing about this scrapbooking hobby of mine. Even though the moments pass too quickly, we can always have records of the memories in pictures and words. Here are some of the memories from last Christmas in Minnesota. There are no words here, only pictures. But, the pictures tell a huge part of the story, and the anticipation of all being together again is heightened for me as I look at them!

So, let me amplify that thought

2008-12-11T22:45:00.010-05:00

In my previous post I mentioned how privileged I am to have a son who is a graphic artist. That would be Patrick. More than once he's gotten me out of a jam when I needed to recolor or edit a picture or do something in Photoshop that I couldn't quite figure out.
But, I think I failed to mention how privileged I am to have two other sons as well. You see, Peter works for a company that studies and makes recommendations for long-term health care facilities. Now, that might not be important for Jim and me today, but give us a few years, and we're going to be wanting to personally be sure that those facilities are treating their patients well! Besides, right now, I'm pretty blessed that I have a son who is the father of our one and only, sweet, beautiful baby granddaughter, Anna Grace. Since I haven't mentioned recently how much I love and miss her, I thought it would be good to post a recent picture. This one was taken a couple of weeks ago when she was visiting the Minnesota Children's Museum on her 1st birthday.

Yes, Peter, and then there's Sean! I'm so fortunate to have a son who does silly things like travel to Colombia for a surprise visit. Besides, his job as an internal auditor for Dish Network just may hook us up with a Sling Box here in Cartagena. That could mean American football in English and real time American Idol!

So, what I really meant to say in that previous post was that I am so privileged to have THREE wonderful sons who are so talented in so many different ways! And, have I mentioned that we are all going to be together for Christmas in Colorado?! I can't wait!!

Checkin' In

2008-12-10T23:05:00.007-05:00

Jim noticed tonight that it has been almost a week since I've posted an entry on the blog. What can I say? I've been busy getting ready for the end of the semester - grading, writing exams, baking peanut butter cookies for the National Honor Society cookie sale tomorrow. (Did you even know that I am the NHS adviser this year?)I did do a little Christmas card project to show my digital scrapbooking students. I had it printed at a photo shop as a regular picture. It cost about 25 cents. Then I just glued it to cardstock to make a card - easy, quick and pretty cute, don't you think?

The picture I used was taken in Villa de Leyva while we were at a restaurant sitting under an orange umbrella outside, so our faces looked really orange. I played with the picture in Photoshop for a while, but I couldn't get it right. So, I sent the picture to Patrick and asked him to try to do the color correction. I think he did a marvelous job. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I feel priviledged to have a son who's a graphic artist!

Tayrona and Tropical Punch

2008-12-04T21:00:00.009-05:00

View on Smug Mug
Today's freebie is a fun kit called Tropical Punch that I stumbled upon at the Shutterfly Digi Scrap blog a while ago. The kit was designed by Dani Mogstad of Sweet Shoppe Designs. I even got to use this awesome little kit (plus a few other elements) to do a layout of Peter, Ginny and Sean's trip (along with several teachers and their friends) to Tayrona National Park. Remember, we got to watch Anna while they went? Looks like they had a pretty relaxing time in a tropically beautiful setting!

Have Yourself a Shabby Little Christmas

2008-12-04T06:05:00.003-05:00

Look at this BEAUTIFUL little kit that Iara Baers of Baers Garten is giving away today! You can grab it here on the Studio Matters Blog. Happy Scrappin!

Di Hickman Rocks

2008-12-03T21:28:00.009-05:00

I never told you that I recently won a $5 gift certificate to Di Hickman Designs. I first learned about Di's awesome work when she designed one of the monthly kits at Scrap Wow.

So, the freebie for the day is a card template in a layered Photoshop format from Di. I love the inspiration of her templates. When you go to her blog, you can see several examples of how different designers have used the sketch. You will need to register at her website: Dee Hickman Designs in order to download the template. Tonight I taught my scrapbooking students how they could use the sketch to design their own cards. I used the template "as is" and designed this card and printed it, all in less than 15 minutes! The papers and buttons are from another free kit - Seasonal Sampler - from Shabby Princees. That was fun!

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-02T22:59:00.006-05:00

We just finished a very merry Christmas tree trimming party with some of our friends. The night included limonda con coco, fresh baked ginger cookies, playing holiday Sudoku and Catch Phrase, making ornaments and putting up the tree. The ornament project was a bit challenging since I have zero craft supplies here. So, my idea was to make snowflake ornaments out of Q-tips! They turned out pretty cute, don't you think?

Speaking of decorating trees, your freebies for today are virtual glittery gold ornaments that you can snag at this Delightfully Digital blog by Thena Smith. I used two of the ornaments to decorate this branch from Manuela Zimmerman's Wonder of Christmas kit at Scrapbook Graphics.

I found another freebie!

2008-12-01T19:58:00.003-05:00

I found another free kit for you today. It comes from Claudi Designs at Digital Freebies. I think there are some especially beautiful papers in this kit. Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the two download links. Enjoy!

December Already?

2008-11-30T22:09:00.002-05:00

This is my new free desktop calendar for the month of December, thanks to Shabby Princess. Check out the links there to the other Shabby websites as well - I love these designs!The picture was taken by our friend and photographer extraordinaire, Larry Gantner (Squibnocket Photography), last year when we were in Minnesota for Christmas. Anna was only a little more than a month old - my how she's changed in a year!!

Digital Treasure Find of the Day

2008-11-30T17:58:00.005-05:00

Look at this beautiful, amazing kit that I found for free today! Look at the name of the kit - isn't that clever? That cute alphabet is included in the download as well! I love the awesome colors and the fun elements. I can't wait to use it!! The kit was designed by Sarah of AliSarah Designs, and you can find it here on her blog: Scrappin Cuteness. You can also find some other cool free stuff and links to her stores. Thanks, Sarah for your generosity!

I wish we could have had Thanksgiving dinner at Patrick's!

2008-11-29T22:37:00.008-05:00

We just talked to Patrick this afternoon to find out how his Thanksgiving dinner turned out. As we called, he was just putting his Cranberry-Tangerine Scones in the oven. (Sure wish we could have had one of those too!)

Patrick's Thankgiving dinner included a fresh turkey (I'll spare the details of how Patrick was involved in the demise of the poor thing), dried fruit stuffing, fresh creamed corn (right off the cob) with fried onions and Pecan Pumpkin Pie.

Yep, wish we could have been there, but Patrick and I talked about starting our plans for making Christmas dinner in Colorado - can't wait!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Anna

2008-11-25T21:41:00.005-05:00

Today is Anna's first birthday. Peter asked me if I remembered his phone call a year ago. Are you kidding me? You mean the one when he said, "Mom, you have a grandaugther!"? You mean the one that I was sobbing over after I heard those words? That phone call? How could I ever forget it?

And tonight Jim and I got to witness Anna eating her birthday cake and playing with her birthday toys. We got to see Anna taking some steps between Mommy and Daddy sitting on the floor. We got to sing Happy Birthday along with Mommy, Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa Coyle. Even though we are so far away, Skype allowed us to feel like we were a part of the birthday celebration! Isn't technology wonderful?

Happy Birthday, Anna. We love you, beautiful little one-year-old!

Counting Anna Blessings

2008-11-22T08:09:00.008-05:00

I am still missing Anna. I am missing Peter, Ginny and Sean too, but there is something so special about having a baby in the house!
-I miss her sweet babbling that was the "music" we listened to for a whole week, and now it is silent.
- I miss her sweet smile that greeted us everytime we picked her up from sleeping.
- I miss her little gasp - like she had just discovered a fun surprise when we walked into the room.
- I miss her joy and laughter that was overflowing when we played with her or when she held her baby doll.
- I miss her kisses and hugs that were sweet and tender, if only for a fleeting moment.
- I miss all of her many facial expressions that kept us smiling and laughing.
Last night I decided to do a layout about Anna blessings - there is something therapeutic about this scrapbooking thing! The template was a freebie for a challenge at Hodge Podge Art.View on Smug Mug

Fingers in Nose

2008-11-21T09:45:00.006-05:00

Had I been the one reading from the previous post, "In the picture before this one Anna was sticking her fingers up Ginny's nose," I'd be curious enough to want to see that picture. Here it is:
In this moment, I'm thankful for humor - aren't kids great?

Time Marches On....

2008-11-20T21:32:00.004-05:00

Well, time didn't stand still for me, and now they are gone. Peter, Ginny, Anna and Sean all left Tuesday afternoon. Peter, Ginny and Anna made it home safely. We haven't heard from Sean yet. I assume that he did too. The house seems too quiet and empty. I'm especially having a hard time seeing the empty high chair in the dining room.

The best consolation is knowing that we will all be together again for Christmas - something wonderful to anticipate. But, if it comes too quickly, then our time together will pass much too quickly as well!

I'm choosing to cherish each day, and enjoy the things that God has for me right now, in this moment - like the sound of the surf. The waves have been really big the last couple of days - the sea and the white caps are beautiful! Isn't God good?!

I would love it if you could leave a comment and share something that you are thankful for right now, in this moment - "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Last night we had our fourth digital scrapbooking class. I taught a lesson on doing digital extractions. Here is my sample - this picture was perfect for this technique. Isn't it such a cute picture of Anna and Ginny swimming their last day here? In the picture before this one Anna was sticking her fingers up Ginny's nose! I think it is cool how the extraction gives so much dimension to the photo! I will be using this photo in a layout, but I just had to share this much with you now!

I need for time to stand still for awhile!!!

2008-11-16T21:39:00.004-05:00

What a fabulous week it has been.

Most everybody else in the world knew that Sean was going to surprise us by showing up the day after Peter and Ginny got here. Dena walked in the door and announced, "Look who I found wandering the streets of Cartagena." I looked up from my computer and saw Sean standing in our living room!

It has been awesome having almost the whole family here together. Sean went to Tayrona with Peter and Ginny, so Jim and I had a wonderful time alone with Anna for the better part of three days. Anna had one little meltdown on Thursday night when she realized that Mommy wasn't there to nurse her before bedtime. Grandpa was the one who was able to calm her down and laid down with her until she fell asleep. On Friday night we both laid down with her at bedtime, and she went to sleep without any problem.

Peter, Ginny and Sean had a great time in Tayrona in spite of the ruined camera (Peter went swimming with it) and the sunburns. Sean said the beaches were the most beautiful ones that he had ever seen. He also went scuba diving for the first time today and loved it.

Peter, Ginny and Sean are at a salsa bar tonight. Tomorrow is the last full day that everyone will be here, and they all fly home on Tuesday - after a visit to my school to be introduced to friends and students there.

Here are a few snapshots of Anna's fun time with Grandpa this week - scrapbook layouts will be coming in the near future!!
I sure wish time could stand still for a while to prolong the time we have with family, but I'm also excited about spending time together again in Colorado for Christmas - and I'm excited that Patrick will be there too!!

Anna says, "I Love Colombia!"

2008-11-12T10:47:00.008-05:00

View related layouts on Smug Mug
I am, once again, in Grandma heaven! Peter, Ginny and Anna arrived safe and sound and on time yesterday afternoon. Anna was an amazing traveler, and has seemed to adjust easily so far. After breakfast, she took a little trip to the beach across the street for her morning play time before her morning nap. She is sleeping peacefully; Jim, Peter and Ginny are on a walk; I'm updating the blog with these adorable pictures. Life is good!

Sail On

2008-11-08T22:05:00.009-05:00

View on Smug Mug
One of the things that Peter has expressed an interest in doing while he is visiting is sailing on the Caribbean Ocean. Hopefully, he will get a chance to do it!

I've Been Scraplifting Again!

2008-11-08T11:23:00.004-05:00

View on Smug Mug
This picture was taken last summer when Ginny, Anna and I took a trip to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to spend a weekend with Ginny's sister, Mary, and some of their friends. It was a fun girls' weekend. The layout was inspired by the Saturday Scraplift (No. 79) on the Designer Digital's Blog this morning.

Novembrinas

2008-11-07T22:14:00.008-05:00

It's Friday and the start of another week-long plus a day vacation! This one is Novembrinas - in celebration of the Miss Colombia beauty pageant. This is a very special vacation for Jim and me because Peter, Ginny and Anna are coming to Colombia!! They will be here Tuesday afternoon and will be staying for a week. I can hardly wait for them to be here. While they are here Peter and Ginny are going to be spending two nights at Tayrona National Park near Santa Marta, and Jim and I get to keep Anna. Ginny is a bit aprehensive about being in a foreign country away from her baby - understandable, so please pray for her peace of mind. Jim and I are planning the first ever Janelle Grandparents' Fun Camp with Anna. We'll be taking pictures and sharing the itinerary as the week progresses.View on Smug Mug
The pictures in this layout were taken at my birthday dinner - nearly two months ago, but I just finished the layout, so I wanted to share it. It was a very special night with good friends, good food and a great brithday celebration!

Dena was awesome to capture these moments on her camera. You may or may not be able to tell that the resolution of some of the pictures is not the greatest - that's because she had her camera set at a low resolution - it works for Facebook :-) and blogs, but not for printing out. So, the quality of these pictures will not be good when I print them, but I am still thankful for the preservation of the memories - thanks, Dena!

Successful Marketing

2008-11-03T13:45:00.008-05:00

Why would graphic artists be willing to give away their beautiful images that they worked so hard to create? I'm sure that their motivation is the hope that someone will be introduced to their work through the freebie and end up buying their products. That's how it's supposed to work - sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. This time it worked. I loved the desktop layout of Anna and Ginny (see previous post), which was a freebie from Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine and Scrapbook Graphics. I loved it so much that I really wanted to have a copy of it in high resolution that would be the quality necessary to print - the desktop graphic was not that kind of quality. So, I purchased the kit and reconstructed the layout from scratch - that's called a scraplift, and it's perfectly legal as long as you give credit to the original designer - thank you Birgit Kerr and Flergs for the desktop design from the Autumn Glory kit.View on Smug Mug
This is not my typical style of scrapbooking with all of the layers of elements around the frame and this much "white space." Jim says, "It seems like there should be more picture and less area around it.", but I like the results, and it was fun to try to duplicate a beautiful design. I think it turned out pretty well!

Digital Scrapbooking Day

2008-11-02T09:13:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Digital Scrapbooking Day, and I spent it (doing what else?!) scrapbooking with Katie and Erin Leigh. They are doing some pretty amazing layouts for beginners. I will get some copies soon to post. There were some great deals available - sales and freebies - so shopping on the internet for new digital elements was also part of the day! This layout was a freebie from Digital Dimensions online magazine; it was made from a kit named Autumn Glory designed by Birgit Kerr and Flergs at Scrapbookgraphics.com.

This is LilyAnn

2008-11-01T10:36:00.009-05:00

View on Smug Mug
LilyAnn is the daughter of one of my former students, Josva, and Josva's wife, Nancy. I have only met LilyAnn once, and she would not even know me if she saw me. Even so, I was tremendously honored when Josva and Nancy asked me to be her Godmother. So, even though LilyAnn and I have always lived far apart, I have prayed for this precious, beautiful family, and for Josva for many years.View on Smug Mug
For a long time, I have thought about something special that I could do for LilyAnn. After seeing several of the beautiful pictures that had been taken of her, I decided that I should start a scrapbook for her. Maybe some day we will get to know each other, but even if not, she will have these scrapbook pages as a reminder that I was thinking about her and praying for her all along!

Play Date with Grandpa Larry

2008-10-29T22:14:00.006-05:00

This is the same template as the Scrunchy Nose layout. I love how a template can be used over and over again and look completely different for each layout.
View on Smug Mug

New Student

2008-10-28T21:42:00.004-05:00

I now have four students in my digital scrapbooking class. The newest member, Maria Renee, came over tonight to do the first lesson, so she has learned everything that I taught in the lesson last week. I think the layout of her niece, Sofia, is so cute! I'm all ready for the second lesson tomorrow night. I will be teaching how to use layered templates. Check back for some more fabulous layouts!

Scrunchy Nose

2008-10-27T00:03:00.009-05:00

There are some things that I'm really going to miss about living in Colombia. What did I do this weekend? Friday night we had a nice dinner out in Centro. I had a half of glass of wine and nearly slept through the rest of the evening - very relaxing! Jim and I have a Saturday routine that consists of doing the budget, making menus and a grocery list for the week and going shopping for groceries. I spent a couple of hours working on the chapter bylaws with the president of National Honor Society while Jim played Settlers with friends. Sunday Jim and I had a meaningful time digging into scripture and preparing for our bible study on the failings of Peter and how to apply the lessons to our lives when our human relationships are bound to have failings. I also baked ginger cookies to take to bible study for treats.

What did I NOT do this weekend? I didn't clean house, do the laundry or do any ironing. In fact, I never do any of those things because our maid, Argelia, comes three times a week to do it for us. I love coming home from school to a clean house and laundry done. That gives me more time for scrapbooking! I do cook, but Jim and Dena do dishes, so I have it pretty good! View on Smug Mug
So, here's my third finished layout from this weekend. Anna has such cute expressive faces! If you look really close at any pictures of me with a big smile, you will see that same scrunchy nose on MY face! That really makes me smile and scrunch up my nose even more!!

O.K. Time for (actually way past time for) bed. It's Monday and school is in seven hours. I'd better quit having scrapbook fun and get to bed, but when I come home from school tomorrow, the house will be clean and the laundry will be done. Life is good!

Digital Scrapbook Class

2008-10-26T21:04:00.008-05:00

Here is a picture of my first digital scrapbook class. Thanks to Erin Leigh I had a great set-up with a projector connected to my computer for demonstrations. My three students (Renee with her daughter, Laura, Katie and Erin Leigh) are all teachers at my school. They all finished their first layouts, and did a great job!

Maverick

2008-10-25T20:39:00.006-05:00

View on Smug Mug
Last Wednesday I taught my first digital scrapbooking class for three friends of mine. They all had fun and commented how much they had learned in just one lesson. Next week the lesson is going to be on using layered templates; so, I designed the template that we are going to use based on a sketch from Pagemaps.com, and designed this layout using it. Maverick is our great nephew. We took the pictures this summer right before we returned to Colombia. Maverick's parents (our niece Holly and her husband Jim) were great hosts for the Janelle family party at their home. At only 4 years old, Mav is a talented little athlete. We had a blast playing softball with him and watching all of the kids playing on the Slip 'n Slide that day. Stay tuned for more layouts using the template from Wednesday's lesson!

I Love That Blue Bunny

2008-10-24T18:59:00.007-05:00

View on Smug Mug
Most of you know, but a few may not that before we moved to Colombia, Jim worked as a sales representative for Blue Bunny Ice Cream. Peter, Ginny and Anna are staying with Ginny's parents - Larry and Sarah - temporarily while they are transitioning to their own home which they are hoping to buy. So, these pictures were taken at the Coyle's house recently. I'm not sure who put Anna up to searching in the freezer for Blue Bunny ice cream, but Jim and I thought the pictures were so cute and clever! I'm pretty sure that Anna has not tasted ice cream yet. Boy, is she ever in for a wonderful treat when she does!

And the Winner is.....

2008-10-21T22:06:00.003-05:00

This was so much fun! We loved reading all of the posts, and it was fun hearing Dena giggle as she read them for the first time tonight. She had a hard time choosing the winner, but she loved the imagery of Karen's comparison of our adventure to a romantic adventure movie:

"I picture a Richard Gere/Diane Lane or Robert Redford/Meryl Streep movie of you two riding around the beautiful countryside in a bus."

She also liked Karen's questions about the salt mine.

So, Karen, we will be posting pictures soon of your handcrafted Colombian bag, and we need to know if you want it to contain coffee or chocolate! Congratulations!!

A very close second was Christine's poem, however, which we all agreed was worth some Colombian chocolate as a second-place prize. We're pretty sure you wouldn't want the coffee - are we right, Christine?

That was so much fun that we may need to have another contest in the future!!

Thanks to all of you who participated - we love reading those comments!!

Contest is Closed!

2008-10-21T06:12:00.002-05:00

Thank you for everyone who entered the Janelle Fam Blog Contest! Dena has promised to read the entries and choose a winner tonight, so check back later. Have a wonderful day!

More Villa de Leyva

2008-10-18T00:10:00.003-05:00

Here are a few more pictures of Villa de Leyva in Scrapbook form!

Midwest Fall

2008-10-14T20:33:00.006-05:00

I love it when I get a You Send It notification from Peter. That means that he has sent me new pictures of Anna, and I just got a new bunch of pictures this weekend! I love seeing the new things that Anna is doing, and I love having new pictures of her to scrapbook. Just recently I had 21 of the scrapbook layouts of Anna printed and sent to her to add to her album.

So, here you have the latest layout of Anna playing in the leaves - a reminder to us of the seasons that we are missing! I have to say that fall is my favorite season of the year. Even though we aren't experiencing the crisp days, warm sun, chilly nights, the crunch of leaves beneath our feet, the beautiful colors and the fall harvest, we are loving the pictures of Anna experiencing her first fall!

Janelle Fam Cameos Contest

2008-10-13T19:22:00.007-05:00

Janelle Fam Cameos is sponsoring a contest! Here are the criteria:
1) Leave a comment on the previous post "Villa de Leyva" mentioning something specific that you notice in the pictures or in the post itself.
2) Ask a question about our experience in Colombia that may be answered in a future post.

Our roommate, Dena, who is an 8th Grade English and Social Studies teacher and a nonbiased observer will judge the comments for the winner. Hint: She appreciates humor!

The contest ends in one week, so post your comment by midnight on October 20. The winner will receive their choice of Colombian coffee or chocolate in a special hand-crafted Colombian bag. The prize will be deliverd to the U.S. in December or to Colombia by the end of the month.

Good Luck - we're looking forward to reading your comments!

Villa de Leyva

2008-10-13T16:46:00.007-05:00

We just got back from a very relaxing long weekend in the interior of Colombia. We both agree that it was wonderful to see some other parts of this diverse country. We flew to Bogota Thursday and spent the night with our friends Lisa and Felipe. They were gracious and generous to drive us to our destination of Villa de Leyva. We left on our road trip Thursday afternoon, and our first stop was the amazing Salt Cathedral (actually built in a salt mine and includes stations of the cross and an immense cathedral far below the surface of the mountain) near Zipaquira. We spent the night at one of the Vargas family fincas (farms) north of Bogota. The finca is named Buena Vista, and certainly lives up to its name! The next day we reached our destination and spent two extremely relaxing days in the quaint mountain village. Our bus ride back to Bogota was much easier than we had imagined a country bus ride in Colombia could be, even though much of it was on curvy mountainous roads. We took lots of pictures, so you'll be seeing some new layouts in the near future!

Cute October Calendar

2008-10-08T20:40:00.004-05:00

I downloaded this free desktop calendar from the Shabby Princess blog. I just HAD to share it with everyone because the adorable pictures made it look so cute!! Isn't Anna just the most precious little girl? Pretty cute pictures of Sean and Ginny too!

Holidays in Colombia

2008-10-07T15:46:00.007-05:00

It has been interesting to learn about the holidays in Cartagena. Our students do not have school this week because of a mandate from the Colombian government that no schools are in session! Apparently the reason is to give students and families an opportunity to travel to and learn about other parts of the their country. We do have three days of inservices for the teachers, but then we get a five day weekend - no meetings on Thursday and Friday, and some other sort of holiday on Monday. Jim and I will be spending our long weekend in Bogota and Villa de Leyva - more on that later!

In November we have another week off when we celebrate Novembrinas, which is a "festivo" centered around the Miss Colombia pageant - no joke! The pageant is held in Cartagena each year and is a huge deal - no school, lots of tourists and parties all week long!

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Last year Halloween was a prominent holiday at our school. We didn't have any classes, but the kids all came to school dressed in costumes, and we had Halloween activities all morning (even in the high school) with an early release. For Thanksgiving we didn't have school on Friday, and the parent/teacher association had a Thanksgiving dinner for the entire staff in honor of American Thanksgiving! Our Christmas vacation lasts from December 20 until January 13, which is the longest Christmas break that I've ever had at any school.

There are several other religious holidays that conveniently fall on (or are celebrated on) Mondays, so it is not unusual for us to have three-day weekends throughout the school year. Perhaps all of the days off account for the fact that the school year does not finish until the 19th of June next year, but I'm not complaining. It is nice to get the breaks along the way. It's kind of the Colombian way of life!

Grandmother We Never Knew

2008-10-01T17:48:00.005-05:00

Teri, Tammy, Megan and I have several "Schell Girl" traditions that we enjoy - one of them is Girls' Weekend sometime during the summer. We started this tradition shortly before Mom died, and have had a girls' weekend every year since. One of our most treasured Girls' Weekends is the one we spent with Mom in Estes Park. We spent time cooking, eating, hot tubbing, watching chick flicks and talking. This past August we spent several days with our Aunt Fran in Orlando - cooking, eating, swimming in the pool, going to the ocean and lots of talking and visiting with her and members of her family. We also spent time looking through hundreds of Aunt Fran's pictures and slides. Two of the treasures that we got were copies of these pictures of our grandmother, Frances, who we never knew because she died when our dad was only 16 years old and Aunt Fran (her youngest child) was only 18 months old. Aunt Fran was raised by her paternal aunt, who she considers her Mama.

I have often wondered what my relationship with my Grandma Frances would have been like. After asking my dad about her, I've come to the conclusion that she cherished many of the things that I cherish, including the treasure of photographs and an education.

That makes me also wonder what my relationship with Anna will be like when she grows up. Will she treasure all of the sweet photographs that we already have and will continue to take of her? Will she love looking at the scrapbook pages that I have made for her? Will she love going to school every day? Will math be one of her favorite subjects? Even if the answer to any or all of those questions is no, I am still confident that we will find those things that we enjoy together, and I truly hope that she will not have to wonder someday what her relationship with me would have been like - she will know!

Winter Hike

2008-09-28T09:57:00.005-05:00

What fun I had working on this layout!! I just finished another online class at DebbieHodge.com using layered templates - Speed Bytes designed by Pattie Knox (Designer Digtals.) What a fun class, and I learned some fun new things in Photoshop Elements!

We had such a fun time in Minnesota last Christmas, but we are really looking forward to spending Christmas in Colorado this year since we will be there on December 21 for Courtney Sanchez's wedding. We're really hoping that all of the boys and Ginny and Anna will be able to be there too.

We are so thankful for God's provisions and care!

Sean is starting his new job as an internal auditor with Dish Network tomorrow, making about double the salary that he was making in Liberty's accounting department.

Peter is feeling stretched, but enjoying his new job with My Innerview, doing statistical analysis in order to help provide improved management plans to long-term health care facilities. Ginny is loving being a stay-at-home Mom with Anna. Right now Peter and Ginny and Anna are living with Ginny's parents, and are helping provide support as the family is dealing with the loss of Ginny's grandfather, Cal. Ginny's mom, Sarah, has said what a blessing it is to have Anna there - her joy in this time of sorrow.

Jim just mentioned yesterday that he may be adding two more English language students; and if he does, he will be earning more as a tutor 16 hours a week than he did as a full-time teacher's aide at my school last year!

Patrick is keeping very busy doing free-lance graphic design work and is accomplishing his goal of reducing debt.

I am loving teaching more than ever this year, and have one of the most hard-working, talented groups of mathematics students that I have ever taught.

God is good, and we are very blessed!

Every Life is Precious

2008-09-27T12:16:00.004-05:00

I am so proud that Peter and Ginny make people a priority in their lives, and to them every person has value - no matter what their social or economic status, no matter what the color of their skin, no matter what their mental or physical ability, no matter what their age, no matter what personal choices they have made in their lives. I am so blessed that Anna will grow up knowing these same values, and have confidence that some day she will make these values her own.

My Stud Husband!

2008-09-26T05:51:00.002-05:00

What do YOU do when you can't sleep and are up in the middle of the night? There are times I pray, times I plan, times I come up with great solutions to problems that I've been contemplating - last night I scrapbooked and came up with this layout of Jim using pictures from a 10K race that he ran last year. The pictures weren't the greatest, but he is! I am so proud of my husband!

S'MORES

2008-09-24T22:35:00.002-05:00

These pictures were taken this summer in Minnesota, where even a June evening can be cool enough to wear jackets - much different than evenings in Cartagena! Peter and Ginny's neighbor has a beautiful back yard with a fire pit in a wooded setting. It was almost like being somewhere in the mountains of Colorado!