Send Out the Search Team!

 I think I have lost my dog Lulu.  She's been missing for a few days now.  I think she may have wandered into a wild field, aka my back yard.

My field

Sammy has decided to help out on the search to help find her sister.

Sammy heading into the wilderness

 

 

She's searching...

...and searching

Where are you sister?!

Taking a break

After a long day of searching

Sammy called in the reinforcements

 

 

 

 

 

After a long two days of hacking away at our field of weeds......

Wait....what is that?  Is that Lu?

Sammy found Lulu!

Sammy is super happy to see her sis.  Oh and the weeds are gone!  Well, shorter....

Newest card

Check out my Hello Kitty card HERE.  Remember to follow me!  That's where I post my cards and other papercraft projects now.

www.19eightyexpressions.blogspot.com

"Spring Fling" Etsy Treasury

Check out my Etsy"Spring Fling" treasury which  features beautiful pink and green images.  The creativity of these people amaze me.  I found some great shops to start making purchases from.  Enjoy!  It really is a beautiful treasury.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d86aac0246a8eef4c0fb065/spring-fling?ref=pr_treasury 

The Beginning of the End

After that fateful night at the club I realized I wasn't really that much into V. He seemed too possessive for my tastes so I moved on. I still dated him, if you can even call it that, but I dated others as well and was trying to distance myself from him. I was young and having fun with life. He was just a fling for the moment. I never expected it nor wanted it to be more.

In February of 1999 both V and I found out we would be stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base in California. That was exciting news for me. I was going home! Not really to my home but close enough for me to visit on weekends. I was also excited because I would know someone else there...V. Wait, wasn't I trying to rid myself of him?

V headed out about a week before me. All I knew was he was going to the air station on base. I knew nothing else and I didn't hear from him at all that entire week. A sign?

When I got to Camp Pendleton I found out I was to live in the middle of nowhere. A sparsley populated area of the base miles and miles from anything. Miles and miles away from V. I had no way of contacting him (remember this is before the widespread use of cellphones). I was alone.

I was alone, yes but I was determined. Within a day or two I had hitched a ride down to the air station barracks. There were a ton of barracks. A lot, but that didn't stop me. I was hell bent on finding V for some reason. Why? Wasn't it just a fling? Wasn't I trying to get rid of him when we were in NC? Why was I trying to find him? He had a horrible temper and was possessive. What was I doing?

I started knocking on doors at random until I hit the jackpot. One guy knew where the "new" guy's barracks room was.  Could it be?  Had I really found V?  On this massive base.  Among thousands of Marines did I find the one I was looking for?  I headed over to the room I was directed to and nervously knocked on the door hoping that the Marine I had just spoken to was correct, that this was the room I would find the "new" guy.


The door opened and there was V.

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New Adventure...Invitations!

I know I said my other blog would be for my cards but I HAD to show you this.  I am so in love with them.

I never planned on making invitations for others.  I know how stressful a large order can be for someone like me who works fulltime so I never considered it.  That has changed though.   A few months ago I was contacted by a friend to make invites for her son's birthday and I agreed to make them.  Since then people have been telling me they plan on ordering invites from me for various occasions, mostly birthdays, so I guess now I am doing invitations.  I don't mind one bit.  In fact I completed my first invite order this weekend.

These invitations are for a birthday party that will take place at a movie theater.  I put my creative mind to work and came up with an idea but once I started working on it the entire invitation changed from what I had originally planned.  Instead of a one-sided invitation I ended up with a two-sided invitation and much more detail than I imagined.  I love how they turned out.

Movie theater-themed birthday invite

Front: The *stars* name is 3D

Back: info side

A bucket of popcorn spills across the card

I shipped these out yesterday and I cannot wait for the client to receive them.  I wish I could be there to see her daughter's face when she sees them.  I am looking forward to the next invite order now!

Eighteen

18...that's how old I was when I met V. Eighteen. So young. So naive.

I met V when I was 18. He was 18 as well. We met right after bootcamp at our MOS school (military occupational school...I think). It was November 1998. We were in North Carolina. We were young. We were free from our parents. We were on our own.

It was my first weekend at MOS school and I wanted to party. Using our investigative skills myself and a friend found out about a hotel party going on off base. Score! Our first night out! It was exciting.

We headed over to the hotel. It was easy to find the room. A bunch of guys were hanging out on the balcony outside. We made our way up and worked our girlish charms on them. It worked. We were in! They told us there was beer in the room so I headed in and saw him. The keeper of the beer. V.

I didn't think much about him at first glance. Maybe I didn't even really see him. My eyes were on the free beer. I was 18 with no way of getting any myself so I had hit the jackpot. V was stocking the fridge with freshly purchased beer. I asked him for one. He wasn't particularly nice to me. Actually he was a total ass (a warning sign?). I somehow managed to get a beer from him and went to hang out with the nice guys. That was the end of that.

But it wasn't.

After awhile at the hotel we all decided to hit a club that we had heard let minors drink. We didn't hesitate to hail a taxi and get over there. We were all in MOS school and had just gotten there that week so none of us had cars yet.

At the club we all had our drinks, were dancing, and talking. A few of the guys...OK all of the guys...were hitting on me but V seemed to ignore me. Why? Everyone else seemed to be interested in me. Plus he was the cutest one out of all the guys. He was my target. I would get him to notice me and I did. Mistake? Eventually we started talking because I had mentioned I was part Puerto Rican. Another guy was as well. It just so happened that V was too.

OK, let me stop there and let the people that know the story of V and I laugh. Done yet? :) That is a whole story in itself. One day I'll write about that.

Once I managed to get V to notice me we danced the night away and spent the rest of the night together. I started to like him. Maybe he started to like me too.

I was 18. So young. So naive.

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Thinking back....

A few years ago when I was going through my divorce and separation from V people who knew what was going on in my life would comment on how strong I was or they'd state that they didn't know how I could do it. Now yes, those are kind words possibly meant for encouragement but they eventually started to annoy me. I was only doing what I felt any loving mother should do...keep going.

At that time I was in my early 20s, a mother, a fulltime student, and was employed fulltime. I was mother and father to my daughter. I was a single mom.

Did I have a choice? Yes. I could have stayed in my miserable marriage and let my daughter grow up in a hostile environment. I wouldn't have been a single mother then. I could have stayed but I didn't. I chose a different path. The path of single motherhood.

It was a very scary prospect and I think that's what kept me in my marriage for so long but one day something turned on inside and I made the choice to leave. I left everything behind and started over.

I was 23 and the mother of a 2 year old. I was starting over..with nothing.

I mourned the loss of my marriage but eventually I got over it. Life continued for me and my daughter. I stayed in school, I continued to work, I continued to be mommy.

Was I strong? Maybe. But for me it was something I had to do. I wasn't a superwoman or a wonderwoman. I wasn't the only woman experiencing this and I wouldn't be the last. I was just a single mother that had to get by for her sake and her daughter's sake.

Many of us don't expect to be thrust in the single mother role but it happens and what do you do about it if it happens to you? Exactly what I did. Pick up the pieces and keep going.

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