Independence
Happy Independence, America!!!
This is a great dramatic recreation of the Vote for Independence and the reading of it by the people from HBO’s John Adams. If you haven’t seen it – it’s wonderful.
Join with us in reading the Declaration of Independence aloud with your family. It becomes so much more alive to hear it !
It all started so innocently. Russ and I were in bed, watching television, and he was surfing on his laptop.
Then I hear, “Honey, you need to see this.”
He showed me a website of the Stan Lee Comicon that was coming to Dallas that weekend. I was just about ready to blow him off with a “yeah, hon, that’s great, now let me get back to Food Network Star because Alton is on it!”
Then I saw what he was trying to get me to see. Patrick Stewart. No, make that Sir Patrick Stewart. He was coming to Dallas. To DALLAS. We live near Dallas. We could go, and we could meet him, and we could shake his hand and say thanks, and tell him all about how he was about to be an integral part of our children’s education (he’s a brilliant Shaksperian actor, and we’re about to delve into some of those), and how he’s just so awesome..and.and…
PATRICK STEWART! Even Russ was excited – I could tell.
We kept pausing and giggling and saying, “PATRICK STEWART” – well, I was. He was just nodding and grinning at me. He was just as excited about the prospects of John DeLancie (played Q), David Prowse (Darth Vader’s body), and other people I’ve already forgotten.
Some back story – I disliked Star Trek. I thought it was hokie, but when Star Trek The Next Generation came along and I was hooked (still not a fan of the original). Then I moved to Austin, on my own, to begin my adult life and when I would have problems getting to sleep, I would pop in Patrick’s A Christmas Carol audio to let his voice lull me to sleep. The voice rates right up there with Sean Connery as someone who can read me the phone book and make me happy. While in Austin, I became a part of a Star Trek club (yeah, I am that nerdy, too), and got to go to a couple of conventions where I met most of the cast from Next Gen as well as some of the original series people. But the one person whom I had never gotten to meet or hear speak was Sir Patrick.
So…the excitement of meeting him was just about too much to bear!
Then we saw the price. HOLY SMOKES! But we hoped that it would be a lot like the time we got to meet Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes and that guy who shall not be named who played Worf a couple of years go (go here to see) – where we were able to at least walk up to them and say hi, even if we didn’t get a photo with them or get their autograph. So..the adventure began – and we made the trek.
We donned our geekiest matching outfit (just be thankful that there were no Star Trek Uniforms involved)
and took off. When we arrived at the venue, there was this REALLY long line. We kept thinking – surely it’s not a line WE will have to wait in. Maybe it’s the line for Patrick – for his autograph. yeah..that’s got to be it. We stepped off the bus, went to the first people in line who informed us that, indeed, it was for us losers who hadn’t bought the VIP tickets or come earlier in the morning. It was a VERY big line. They wanted to let us join their group since we were Whovians, but we didn’t want the wrath of the billion people behind them to come down on us for cutting. So..we made our way to the back of the line, and waited…and waited…and crept forward…and waited some more. We did see some interesting sites along the way:
Back to the Future
Jawas (mighty big ones if you ask me)
a “Ghostbuster”
Sora and other character from Disney’s Kingdom Hearts – Connor’s favorite game – he went just a little bonkers to see these guys.
We waited for about 90 min to finally get in the door, get our tickets purchased, and then I went immediately into another line (for an hour) to wait to get drinks. The venue was so poorly planned at the convention center – I just don’t think they knew how many people would show up to see Stan Lee and Patrick Stewart. The boy went into the exhibition hall. In that line I found out that there was just no way we were going to get to meet Patrick. No way. We wouldn’t even be able to get a glimpse. I was ready to go home.
Once we finally got something to drink, I decided I was going to brave it and head upstairs just to see what I could see. The boys continued back browsing the booths for cool stuff, and I headed upstairs. When I finally found the area where Patrick was signing, I nonchalantly walked around the area as if I was meant to be there, and walked around a door post to see….HIM! There he was – right there, signing someone’s autograph. Immediately a security guy tried to move me along, so I took a couple of steps away and got to watch a minute through a frosted window. I grabbed my camera, took a shot, then ran downstairs to show Russ and the boys only to find out I did not check the camera settings and the photo wasn’t saved properly, so there was nothing. I headed back later to see if I could at least try again, and Patrick was already at his Q&A session (and I was dutifully told that my badge was not good enough to get me in), so took another shot of the window to have the keepsake:
Would I do it again? Nope. The wait was too long, the venue was definitely not set up for these kinds of crowds, there was no real access to anything that would make us want to go without paying HUGE sums of money (and we aren’t about to do that for any one), and it was just too much trouble. While there were moments of fun talking to other people in the crowds and seeing a few characters here and there, it was definitely a letdown.
Oh..wait..I did get to see the back of Stan Lee’s head. There – that made it all better 
Scrappy Saturday – 4/14/2012
Since you last saw me in this post…I’ve been a busy beaver – scrapping!!! There are a ton of pages from me, and it makes me so glad!!!! I’ve completely embraced my style of scrapping, and it makes things go so much more smoothly and quickly when I’m not struggling to scrap something I’m not!
I’m only going to scrap some of my absolute favorites from the last couple of weeks, but feel free to visit my gallery at Sweet Shoppe Designs to see everything if you’re so inclined 
You can click on any layout to see larger sizes or the full credits.
My Honey 
Fun kit + great template + fun photos makes me a happy girl!
And yes – we’ve been bitten by those silly Angry Birds – and are loving every minute of it!!
The only one in our immediate family to love Peeps, I blame it all on my father-in-law – they share this bond of loving this really yucky candy, and Aiden looks forward to every Easter to share some with Granddad. We know Peeps are available year round now, but we try to save some things for the season they were intended – like candy corn only after October 1 through Thanksgiving !
Special because it’s my Dad..with one of his joys in life – his grandkids
There’s little that my boys like to do better than play in the rain! Unfortunately, in TX, most rain comes with lightening, so playing isn’t always an option – they grab those lightning free rain shower moments with gusto!
My gang at a Frisco Roughriders game a couple of years ago. We were given free tickets and enjoyed our evening immensely!
Our Baldwin family at Thanksgiving
A fun thing happened to me today – I was published in the May/June edition of Creating Keepsakes magazine. The magazine arrived in the mail today (and man..are they thin nowdays!). I was excited to see the layout in the magazine, but not even a quarter of the amount of excitement that Connor had when he saw his own photo in the magazine!
Here’s the layout in case you’d like to have a closer look:
It’s Good Friday…..but Sunday’s Coming!!!!
The sorrow of the day that is Good Friday is necessary – Christ died for our sins so that we might be renewed in Christ and brought to the full knowledge of God and be reunited with Him.
In that sorrow …there is great hope because…Sunday’s Coming!!!
Scrappy Saturday – March 24, 2012
Just sharing a couple of layouts I got done this week!
When I was young, my mom let me join the Girl Scouts. I was so excited to be able to do all those cool things that I’d always thought about Scouts. Instead, I got to do things like crocheting worm bookmarks, other arts and crafts, cooking and swimming with weird suits and caps at a sleepaway camp in cabins with a bunch of girls I didn’t know. This was nothing like Scouts was supposed to be – at least in my head. I’m sure that my memories are a bit different than how it really was & my ‘romantic’ notions of Scouting are clouding them now, but I did really want to be involved in Scouting the way the Boy Scouts got to do it – but evidentally I was just a girl…and that wasn’t going to happen back in the 70’s in our pack.
BTW – My Dad thinks I blame him. I don’t. For once, this wasn’t your fault!!
This layout was made with Heather Roselli’s Be Prepared kit and Jacque Larsen/Lauren Reid’s Do My Duty kits. See full credits here.
We spent Easter of 2010 at my Dad’s place with my brother’s family, too. We loved playing with the chickens and exploring the new chicken tractor he’d built. I really, really, really, really want chickens!
This was made with Julie Billingsley’s American Heartland kit and Janet Phillip’s 2 Many Photos #91 and one of my new fonts See full credits here.
What’s something you’ve been dreaming about doing, lately?
Make Your Own Ressurection Egg Devotional Activity for Easter and Lent!
One of my favorite activities to do with my boys when they were younger was actually during our Church groups playtime. We’d all gather at the park for our weekly outtings, and gather the children together, pass around each one of the trinkets and one of the Mom’s would explain the Resurrection Story. It was a great way to introduce children to the story of Christ’s sacrifice for us, with something tangible that they could see, hold and feel while they were listening to the story
For us, invariably, pieces get lost over time, regardless of how diligent we are to put them away. When Jacque came out with this little Resurrection Egg printable – it made perfect sense! If one piece gets lost or torn – just print off another one!
Directions on how to use this activity – print off the egg sheet onto cardstock – you can easy have a printer/quick copy place do it for you. Then have them laminate the sheet. Cut out each of the eggs, and insert them into a set of plastic easter eggs. You can store these in an egg carton if you wish (make sure it’s clean and dry if you’re recycling one, and store a folded copy of the scripture references in the top, then have the kids paint and decorate the egg carton on the outside!
Alternatively, you can use this as a board activity for your Sunday School group.
You can begin this activity on the 2nd Sunday before Easter, or just do it in one sitting a few days before Easter. I plan on having my 12yo present it this year each day as part of our extended devotional leading up to and through Holy Week. This will give him a chance to share his knowledge in his own words and begin to grow his faith by sharing with others.
