Creative Escape = Happy & Sad

So excited to be going and spending the weekend (Thursday, Friday & Saturday) with some of my most favorite women in the whole wide world.

We are ready to rock and roll !!!!

Mom picks us up at 7 am and we head to The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort. It may be super hot in Arizona but we just go inside and forget everything and really enjoy being in the moment.

What is there to be sad about ?

So sad this will be the last {Creative Escape}

I have loved being a part of this over the years - will truly miss it !!!

What a wonderful opportunity it has been that I am so grateful for.

I will miss seeing this girl in her element every year as she is one of those friends who truly inspires me to always want to be a better person.

{Heidi Swapp} you have so much to be proud of !!!!

 and none of this would be possible without Mr. Bazzill (Doug Jones himself)

I am so excited that Carol and I will get to spend 2 days working with Kelli and Jenaye Collins. 

The amazing mother - daughter team

Wait till you see what we are doing in our class !!!

{sneak peek at jenaye and kelli collins}

So for now I am going to go and forget all my worries and just really try

 and enjoy my weekend and enjoy being with all my wonderful friends !!! 

And let's not forget we get to eat Shye's cookies !!!

Bargain of the Day

So Saturday while I was over taking care of my friend Adelle she was watching TV and  I saw this infomercial and immediately thought that would be something my kids would LOVE ! But definitely was not willing to make "only 2 payments of $19.95".

So I took a chance and searched for it on Craigslist. Found one and purchased it this morning for $10.

It was brand new in the box. When I told the guy how excited I was and my kids would love it, he asked what it did and I told him and he said maybe I should keep it and I said no way you already sold it to me. 

Love it - Logan already a yummy pizza in it today after school !!!

Winner, winner chicken dinner !!!

Going on a road trip . . .

Well my mom has been called to serve a mission for our church. She will be serving in the Washington DC North Mission. She is thrilled and we are thrilled for her. 

She reports to the MTC in Provo, Utah on September 12th. 

She is packing up her car and driving and so she is going to need to have a travel companion to drive with her.My sister in law will ride with her from Phoenix to Provo and then Karen will get to visit Utah friends and then fly home. Guess who gets to be her travel companion from Utah to Washington DC ??? ME !!! I am so thrilled. 

After we map quested the trip I was even more thrilled to find out that we will drive right through CHICAGO !!! 

My girl is in CHICAGO, well she is actually traveling to CHICAGO as we speak. 

I haven't seen her in over a year and so I am thrilled to say the least.

A gentle reminder . . . to look for the good !

"We have a choice. We can seek for the bad in others.               Or we can make peace and work to extend to others the understanding, fairness, and forgiveness we so desperately desire for ourselves. It is our choice

 for whatever we seek, that we will certainly find."

--President Dieter F. Uchtdorf,

Happy

Many reasons to be happy . . . . 

The grass is not always greener . . . .

So it has been a long couple of weeks. What have I learned ? 1) I require sleep 2) I am extremely emotional - especially when I am tired 3) I have a hard time handling 15 patients at a time 4) I really like to spend 1 on 1 quality time with patients and families 5) I can't leave a toddler crying in a crib 5) cancer sucks !!!!

It has always been my favorite

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths." 

(Proverbs 3: 5 & 6) 

Tender Mercies . . .

I am feeling them all around me right now at the changes that I am making. I have to admit I have questioned myself a million times wondering if this night job is what I should do. But the reality is - I think I am willing to make whatever sacrifice is needed to help provide for my family. As I just sat and plugged in my scheduled nights for the month, all my appointments and the kids schedules. It has worked out perfect. Just another way of my Heavenly Father saying it is going to be okay. Just another way of him saying you are that much closer to getting on a plane to go visit my girl or to be able fly her home and  financially be able to help her afford to take a week off.  My heart aches for her because I miss her so much. Imagine being a mom and going an entire year without seeing one of your kids. I know I wont see Dylan for 2 years. Somehow a mission is so much different. I just want her to come home . . . if even for a day. And now we are on a road to more stable incomes and hopefully positive changes for our family. Don't get me wrong . . . I am not seeking riches or fancy cars. I just want enough to take care of the needs of my big ole' growing family.

Tonight is my first night shift and I have only had 4 hours of sleep so I am sitting at the computer for about 30 minutes in an attempt to get tired and take a 3 hour nap. I am excited. I am scared. But most of all I am eager and hoping that maybe in what I do I will be able to make a difference in a little ones quality of life. I am not sure if I told you but I will be on the Oncology floor. It is full of little kids that are much braver than I. I am excited that I will get to be their friend and maybe learn some of the simple lessons that life has taught them.

Good Night my friends - hope this works !!!

So Much for that attempt . . .

So tonight is my first night shift at the hospital. My family is all out of town so I attempted to stay awake as late as I could last night in hopes of sleeping in late. In my head I was thinking maybe I can sleep till noon. Stayed up till about 2:30 am.  The house is silent, my room is dark and wouldn't you know I woke up at 6:44 am. Dang !!! A total of 4 hours of sleep. That is not going to do me any good when I have to stay awake till noon tomorrow. So laying there trying to go back to sleep just got me frustrated and so I got up in hopes of getting tired. I am going to do chores for a couple of hours in hopes of getting tired and going back to bed. Good thing is I don't have to do this again till next weekend. I am going to have to learn all the tricks to working the night shift.

Can't Get Enough of These Boys Tonight !!!

Once a Jericho Road Fan, Always A Jericho Road fan. I LOVE their music, I LOVE their message and I LOVE the spirit that I feel when I listen to it !!!

I love this song and I love this message !!!!

The start of something amazing . . .

Many changes on the forefront for the Paolacci household. I have been trying to get a job at Phoenix Children's Hospital for the about the past 9 months. I LOVE my job in scrapbooking, but the hard core reality is some months I can pay my bills and some months I can't. And when you have a family of 8+ it is very stressful to play the guessing game of what your commission might be each month. I used to care for an elderly couple overnight and it was the perfect job. Because I could be the mom and the sales rep by day and nursing assistant by night. But then Marge passed away and that job was over. So I have wanted to get on nights at the hospital so I can still be mom and sales rep by day and nursing assistant by night. And the best part about the hospital is that I only have to work 2-3 nights a week to be full time and get benefits. I knew when they hired me I would have to do a 40 hour clinical orientation. Which begins tomorrow. So it is going to be a crazy busy week. Hospital by day and sales calls by night. Luckily Don is going to be taking my kids to California this week for a little back to school getaway.  

"Phoenix Children’s Hospital will become one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country.
Phoenix Children’s Hospital has provided hope, healing, and the best health care for children and families since 1983. Today, Phoenix Children’s is one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country and provides specialty care to patients throughout Arizona and other Southwestern states.  In response to the explosive population growth in metropolitan Phoenix region, Phoenix Children’s recently completed a $588 million expansion plan that enables the Hospital to provide essential medical service to our community and world-class care for years to come." http://www.phoenixchildrens.com/

I am so lucky to be part of something that is going to be so amazing . . . I think I have found the perfect job a couple nights a week that will allow me to work the job that I love during during the day.

Happy Monday !!!

I LOVE Monday's 

I LOVE a fresh start to my week

I LOVE the promise of a whole new week of opportunities

I LOVE Monday's !!!

Happy MONDAY everyone

In this house . . . .

Oh No !!!

So our all star baseball player woke up in the middle of the night throwing up !!!! Good news is he seems to feel better once he threw up 3 times on the way to the bathroom last night and has been sleeping soundly since 2 am. Bad news - I have some major carpet clean up to do !!!! We are just hoping it was a bad case of taco bell !!!

A little sign from heaven . . . .

So at the beginning of every Little League All Star game they have all the players come to the field and they have to repeat the Little League Pledge. Which is . . . . 

I trust in God.
I love my country
and will respect its laws.
I will play fair and strive to win.
But win or lose
I will always do my best.

Then after both teams repeat the pledge they have everyone stand for the National Anthem.

During the National Anthem I looked over the crowd and saw the back of a mans head that looked just like my dads. Suddenly at this very moment I was so overcome with emotion. I thought to myself "how proud my dad would be to watch 2 of his grandsons play in the All Star Tournament". He LOVED baseball and he was a grandpa that attended all the games. He got to see lot's of Dylan's games when Dylan was little. But not Logan's

Well tonight I had this overwhelming impression, I actually started crying during the song and I knew that he was there and watching his grandsons play in this All Star Tournament  !!!

Because make no mistake - my dad loved baseball and Little League !!!

Little League All Stars

We LOVE baseball season !!!

Especially when it includes an ALL STAR Tournament

This year Logan was selected to play on the 11-12 Major Division All Star Team for 

Shadow Mountain Little League.

The team is made up of 11 AMAZING baseball players and 3 AMAZING coaches.

So far we have won our first 3 games and we play again tonight.

Then Saturday night will begin the playoffs.

They will take the winners over Pool A and Pool B and they will play for the district 3 Championship.

Logan and his teammates have played some AMAZING baseball and even if Saturday is their last game they have so much to be proud of. From this point on we will take it game by game and see where it takes us.

Maybe Williamsport, PA for the Little League World Series !!!

GO SHADOW !!!!

What I strive to be . . .

4th of July

Even though we were few in numbers compared to the usual size, we had a great time. We never have to fight parking or crowds on the 4th of July. My brother lives near a park that has an amazing fireworks show every year. So we get to enjoy an amazing show from the comfort of his backyard. 

gotta love Memory Mixer. Memories are documented and printed and in my album 

Kids say the cutest things . . .

I think I need to write a book ! So today at church I am getting the kids ready to hear the story about Baby Moses. Let me try and set the stage. I tell them all to be very quiet because I have a very special story to share with them. I have all their attention and they are being soooooo quiet I am amazed. Then I say "I am going to tell you a story that happened a long, long time ago" and out of Eden's mouth she says "you mean like before Christmas ?"

Soooooo cute - I love my calling !!!!

Love this . . .

Okay so I have this dear sweet friend Emily - who I miss so dang much - I wish she was my next door neighbor. But then I would have to move to Colorado and then I would be far away from the LOVE of my life (Malorie) and that would never work. So I will have to continue to just love and admire her from afar.

Anyways - through every struggle and trial she has ever had she continues to teach me and I learn so much from her strength. She truly is an example of what a wonderful MOM is  

Thank you my friend for being a constant in my life . . . 

http://sheffieldsmiths.blogspot.com/

A good read . . . .

So I got up super early this morning to finish reading on this website 

(before I finish my sunbeam lesson I was hoping to read some. BTW - I teach the cutest little kiddos in the whole world every Sunday morning at church - it has been said that I am their teacher - but every Sunday I walk away being spiritually fed by them)

I LOVE reading and I LOVE this site. I have only gotten through a few of the testimonies, because each and every one has been so thought provoking. But what a fabulous addition to my quiet Sunday morning. I intend to read each one. As I still struggle to make my way though the world of college textbooks and comprehend what I am learning -  I find what I am reading here much more interesting and it speaks to my heart so it is so much easier for me to comprehend.

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/

Life Lessons from a friends example

I love BRAVE GIRLS CLUB. 

I love my friend MELODY 

and I love the things that I learn from her and her example

want just a glimpse of who she is click {HERE}

Each night as I lay down to bed I hear a little "ding" from my inbox and it is a message from another BRAVE GIRL sister. And magically it always seems to speak to my heart !!! For instance -

Dear Phenomenal Girl,

We all have parts of ourselves that need working on. We all think thoughts that aren't the best thoughts we could be thinking. We all do things we wish we would have done better, or differently, or not at all. We all make mistakes, every single day, every single one of us. And then, we all wake up every day with lots of chances to start over. It is one of the miracles of life.

When mistakes hold us back, they become bigger mistakes. In fact, holding back could really be an even bigger mistake than the mistake that we originally made! When we do something that we wish we would have done differently, or not at all, we need to do the best we can to make it right, and then let it go. We need to keep moving forward.

Let's not make the bigger mistake of keeping us from the future that is meant for us. You are not your mistakes. You are not your bad mood or your careless act or any of the other labels that come when mistakes are made. You are a human being, and you are learning something new every day. You are getting better and wiser and more equipped. You are doing a great job.

Let yesterday go. Be done with it. Walk onto your light-filled path and make today a better day.

You are so loved!

xoxo

For my Friends . . . .

I have some friends who are having really hard times right now and I just want them to know that I love them, but more importantly they have someone else who loves them even more.

Chicago - Chicago

So excited to be going to Chicago for CHA. A time that I feel really injects some energy into our industry and brings such excitement. We get to see friends that we only see twice a year and enjoy the fabulous creative juices of many talented crafters. 

There is only one sad part . . .

I will miss this cute girl by about a week

She is moving to Chicago !!!

Her boyfriend Christopher has been accepted into grad school at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)  

So they are moving to the windy city !!! I thought we might be lucky enough for our trips to overlap - but no such luck. Just means I am going to have to go back and visit and devote my time to seeing their new life in Chicago. I think I am going to have to make some connections and set up some teaching gigs to go back often !!!

Something to think about . . . . the affects of social media

So I was reading this article by FLYLADY because I have been thinking alot lately what makes people have the want and need to criticize certain things and behave in ways that they do ?

I always grew up with the teaching                                                                                                             "if you can't say something nice then say nothing at all" 

 How I wish this was taught and practiced more often. Especially on the Internet. I do believe indeed that many times when you find someone who has a need to constantly tear someone else or something else down it is just their insecurities screaming out. Because truly if one is happy in their own life they do not have the time or would they want to spend their energy spreading around negativity or hurtful things. I was reminded of this just recently when one of my boys was unable to get a movie ticket to transformers and decided to take it out on his face book status and let the entire world know how angry he was. After chatting with him about how words affect other people I thought How many times have I done this? (this is a reminder to me to let him back on face book to change that status. Because I had told him that I really didn't think that the Internet was the appropriate place for expressing his anger at the moment) Luckily he was just expressing his frustration at the situation. But many times I will see those express their feelings or words in a negative way towards people. It takes longer to heal from words than bruises, especially those coming from a loved or respected person in your life. So we all just need to be careful what we put out there. Becuase once we have put it out on the world wide web it is there forever (even if we delete it)

Have you ever tried to understand how your words affect others?  I think it is something that we all need to be a little bit more aware of. There is enough bad stuff out there on the Internet. Let's not contribute to it. Let's try to be contributors for the good. 

One of my favorite quotes

“That upon which we choose to focus determines our perspective.”  Dhammapada.

I will try to focus more on the "good things" in life 

Being a Missionary Mom

MISSIONARY MOM

Can't wait till they get called

Can't stand to let them go

Can't stop talking about them

Can't wait till they get home

That really does seem to sum it up. But I have to be honest, even though I miss my boy I don't want to rush it for him or me. We are already feeling the one year mark creeping up on us and it seems totally unbelievable that it has already almost been a year. He loves the people of Peru and he loves serving. He is so happy and making the most of this mission.

I too have been so blessed being a missionary mom. When Dylan got his call I found out about an email group called MISSIONARY MOMS. It groups moms together according to where there children are serving. So I am in an email group with probably 50 -75 moms from the all over North America who have children serving in Peru. We have been able to share experiences with each other, comfort each other, celebrate with each other and support each other through this journey. My son has come to love the missionaries he is serving with and I have come to love their mothers. I have even been able to become really good friends with his trainers mom. (A trainer is a senior companion that is with a missionary when he first enters the field.) Elder Diaz was Dylan's trainer and he is an amazing young man. He taught Dylan first hand how to be the best missionary ever. Dylan thought very highly of Elder Diaz and his work ethic as a missionary. 100% obedient and he puts 110% into everything he does. He has a deep gospel knowledge of the scriptures and a burning testimony of the gospel. Elder Diaz is from Chile' and he immediately got his mom my email and she helped me learn to put all my fears to rest and put my faith in my Heavenly Father where our missionaries are concerned. She has come to be a wonderful friend and I hope that one day I will be able to meet her.

Elder Paolacci & Elder Diaz

This is my friend Marcela - Elder Diaz' mom

She has taught me much about having faith. She is a true example of what the pure love of Christ looks like. I have shared some of my struggles with her and her advice is always filled with pure love. She is a wonderful example to me.

There is only one obstacle with our friendship and that is a language barrier. But I have learned to use google translate like a pro. It may not translate perfectly, but I get the gist of what she is saying. And then it types what I am saying into Spanish.

Saturday morning I was concerned because I saw her facebook status say

 "Necesito ayuda del Cielo.......:("

Which translated into English is 

"I need Heaven's help"

This is so unlike her and I knew something must be wrong. So I emailed her to find out what was going on. She had received word from someone in Peru that Elder Diaz was being transferred to Huanuco to train a new missionary. During the transport to this new area he was robbed and someone stole EVERYTHING he had except for the clothes on his body. If you know anything about missionary transfers, you know that they pack EVERYTHING they own into 2 suitcases and head to their next area.  She felt lost and helpless. As a mom she was worried about making sure her son had what he needed. EVERYTHING was gone. But so grateful he was safe and unharmed. As mom she was also so concerned about how she would be able to get her son the things he needed so he could finish his mission. As a missionary mom I know how much all that stuff was. I immediately knew that her missionary mom friends could make this happen. With a few emails to other missionary moms yesterday everyone jumped into action and within a few hours  we were able to  gather items that Elder Diaz would need to finish the last 6 months of his mission. We were even excited to find out that Vanessa, our shipping contact in Salt Lake was flying to Peru on Friday and we would be able to send a big box for Elder Diaz.

Well a few hours later I received this email asking us to please not send the stuff we had gathered. That the church has insurance to replace stolen items. And a fund to take care of missionaries in these situations. They knew where our heart was and that we were only trying to help our friend. But they have seen many situations in these poverty stricken countries where people might get word that we have shipped all this stuff over and might actually hound our missionaries and put them at risk. The last thing I would ever want to do is risk the safety of our North American Missionaries.  

After some long hours of prayer last night I wrote to my missionary mom friends and believe it or not many of us were still awake in the middle of the night. We agreed that no matter how much we wanted to be the ones to help our friend Marcella provide for her son. We needed to follow the guidelines that have been set up for everyone's safety. I wrote an email to my friend  and assured her that the Lord will provide. That I am sure when we hear from our missionaries tomorrow morning , Elder Diaz will assure his mom that all is well .

I  know we all had our hearts in the right place and our intentions were pure. We are so grateful for the wonderful missionary Elder Diaz is and appreciate his love and devotion to the work of the Lord. We just wanted to take this opportunity to show him how much we love and appreciate him. 

I am proud to be part of a group of such wonderful sisters and at a time of need we were able to pull together quickly to come to the aide of another sister in need.  Even though it did not turn out exactly the way we wanted,  I am grateful for the spirit that I felt and the peace I feel knowing that Elder Diaz will be taken care of so he can continue to be the wonderful missionary he is and example to all those he comes in contact with.

I am excited tomorrow is Monday and look forward to hearing from my missionary !!!

Just a thought . . .

Need I Say More . . . . .