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Dear Ann Coulter

Dear Ann Coulter,

I’ve long thought that even though we, as Americans, are politically divided, that underneath it all, we are all still human beings.  Human beings that want what is best for this country. Human beings that care for others. Well, that thought ended last night!  I can’t even begin to put into words my utter disappointment when you took to Twitter and called the president a “retard”.  Really?

When you use that word,  you hurt thousands of individuals with disabilities.  One of those individuals is my sweet daughter.  We were told over 10 years ago that she had “mental retardation”.  These past 10 years she has taught us more than we could ever teach her.  She has taught us patience, joy, encouragement, forgiveness, hope, acceptance, and unconditional love.

Ann, our daughter is NOT a joke!  She is more than you could ever aspire to be! Open your eyes and your heart.  And for the love of all that’s holy, please think BEFORE  you open your mouth or pull out your smart phone.  Think of our sweet girl and know that you hurt her, and all those like her, with your insensitive and hateful words!

Ann, meet Skylar!  You could learn a LOT from her!

Signed,

JuJu ( A mother who will stop at nothing to protect her children!)

It Works! It Really Does!

I’ve spoken with many of you who want to live a healthier, more active lifestyle.  As a parent I desire to live a long time to see my children grow up.  Those of you who have children with special needs understand the need to live “forever”!  My biggest fear is leaving my children alone in this world!  I know that this is a common fear in our community.

Some of you may know that I signed on to be a distributor with It Works! Global back in April.  I have been quietly using their products for the past 6 months. I am just not one to shove product or my beliefs down anyone’s throat!  I figured that I needed to take the supplements and use the wraps so that I could show and tell how these products have worked for me. When Chris got home in August we agreed that we would start taking their vitamins and supplements together and see how we felt.   The Dynamic Duo (It’s Vital and Greens) pictured below has truly changed how I feel!  No more constant sugar cravings!  And the best part….no mid-afternoon nap to get me through the day!

So if you would like to read more about the It Works! products, Jaima over at Ring Around the Rosies Blog wrote a review for me this morning!  She strives to live a healthy, natural lifestyle.  I sent her some products last month and today she is sharing how they have worked for her!

You can read her review here!

I also have a Facebook page for my business.  It is:

It Works! Skinny Wraps-JuJu (Click here to go straight to my Facebook page and “LIKE” it!)

Chris and I are currently working on a Health Challenge that will motivate others to live a healthier lifestyle.  We would love to have you join us!

I have been so encouraged already by those of you who are loyal customers of mine who have written, called, & texted me to say how much It Works! has worked for you!  Our Ultimate Body Applicator (wrap) is the hottest thing on the market!

We have a wonderful Loyal Customer program that offers up to a 45% discount on products!

You can visit my business site by clicking here!  There are so many wonderful, natural products to help you get started on a healthier path!

Thanks for letting me share about how we are trying to live a healthier lifestyle!  We want to do everything on our end to be around a VERY long time for our precious girls!

Make it great!

JuJu

I am so thrilled to finally share with you pictures of my craft room overhaul!  It was a LONG project.  I truly wanted to do it right and really sort through everything I have.  I got rid of boxes and boxes of old supplies that I’ve had for years that I just had to admit that I’d never use.  I honestly laughed so many different times as I said to myself “What in the world were you thinking when you bought this?”  My sister and I exchanged a lot of texts and phone calls during this process.  We both admitted that we have hoarding issues!

So now that I have confessed my issues to you let me share with you a bit of why I decided it was finally time for a good clean out.  This is my first year doing Project Life.  You can see all of my project life posts for the year so far, HERE.  Since starting to document our daily life this way I have really fallen back in love with photographing and journaling.  I definitely feel that I had lost my passion for recording our family history because of the tremendous amount of guilt I had because I was behind.  I also think I was documenting just the big events in our lives such as birthdays, major holidays, and bigger life events.  Project Life has made me realize that the everyday is not ordinary, it is EXTRAORDINARY!  I love documenting the simple everyday things like the movies we see, where we eat, what snacks the kids are enjoying right now, and what we read.  The four of us have also looked at our project life albums more than any other album I’ve ever made. LOVE that!

Because I realize that Project Life is the only way I want to document our lives from here on out, I realized it was time to let go of the stuff I just won’t use in my albums.  So began “project overhaul”.  If you remember, one of the items on my September Sort-It list was:  create a functional project life station.  My craft area was complete chaos.  I was sure that if anyone fell in there that we might not ever find them.  Below is a picture of what my room looked like at the beginning.  Don’t be jealous!

I know right!  Total chaos.  Well, after hours and hours of sorting, purging, and organizing here are a few pictures of what my overall room looks like now.

I get a lot of questions on how I organize ribbon, embellishments, project life core kits, journal cards, stickers, etc.  So today I’m going to show you a bunch of different pictures of my various stations.  This is going to be picture heavy so I’m going to keep my explanations to a minimum, but don’t hesitate to ask any questions in the comment section.

I organize all of my ribbon and embellishments by color.  I’ve been doing this for years and love this way of organizing.  My ribbon jars sit on the shelves that are pictured above.

During the reorganization of my supplies I moved all my colored embellishments from small rubber containers to the drawers you see on the counter below.

There is a drawer for each color.  Some colors have 2 drawers.

I have a shelf for all of my ink pads, paints, and misters.  Right above that I keep a jar full of buttons.  I don’t separate those by color.  There is just something about a big jar of colorful buttons that makes me smile!

I also bought drawers from IKEA years ago to use for my alphabets and numbers. They were a doozy to put together but I love the functionality of them.  There is a drawer for each letter and number.  It was a lot of work at first but I love having them organized this way.

The letter drawers sit on top of several cubed drawer systems.  Several of these drawers house my project life page protectors.  I have one drawer for the 12×12 designs.

All the other sizes are in the drawer below.

On top of the shelves behind my desk are various stations.  I love that I can turn around and have everything at my fingertips.  The first station has baskets with all my letters (stickers, rub-ons, etc.) as well as word stickers.

The next shelf holds several different vintage trays that I’ve picked up from various places.

The gray box holds all of my flair buttons.  As you can see, I am a HUGE fan of the buttons Leena over at Finding Nana makes.  You can see her shop HERE.

The little letterpress tray holds various project life goodies.  (I’m going to move the numbers over to the drawers where they belong!)

The smaller green box in the back holds various tags, labels, and journal cards.

The next station holds the old, wooden silverware box that you may have seen from this post.  It houses the supplies from the PL core kits that are 4×6 in size.  I also designated several areas to smaller stamps.

This shelf also holds a couple of shell dishes I picked up at an antique shop as well as my box of washii tape.

I bought my desk from Pier 1 Imports about 8 years ago.  I love the heigth and the little cubbies on the side which houses my sets of acryllic stamps.

This isn’t the best shot of my desk top but it will have to do.

I keep my album, paper trimmer, industrial corner rounder, a basket containing necessary supplies (tiny attacher, scissors, adhesive), and an old library card catalog box that has all my PL journaling cards.  Below is a close-up of that card box.

So there you have it!  Like I said, very picture heavy, but I hope it has given you some good ideas.  If you have any questions, please either leave them in the comments or shoot me a message.  My e-mail is in the upper right hand corner of my blog.

I’ve loved being back in my creative space now that it is clean and organized.  I try to spend a little bit of time each day in here.  Whether it be printing pictures or putting my thoughts down on journaling cards.  The picture below sits on my shelf in the craft room.  It makes me smile.

Here’s to a productive week!

Make it great!

JuJu

Project Life was created by Becky Higgins as a simple solution to documenting your memories.  You can learn more about project life here.

A Majorly Awesome Day!

This week was Chris’ promotion ceremony to the rank of Major in the United States Air Force.  It was truly an awesome evening with family and friends.  We have a lot of family who were unable to be there so I thought I would do a recap of the ceremony in pictures.

First and foremost, I am so thankful for a husband who has devoted over 20 years to serving his country!  I come from a long line of military service members and marrying military was a completely natural step for me.  Being a military spouse isn’t easy, but I wouldn’t change a thing!

Chris asked my dad to come and perform the promotion ceremony.  My dad is a retired Colonel who served 27 years in both the Marines and Air Force.  He has been a tremendous mentor for Chris not only professionaly, but spiritually as well.  My dad also commissioned Chris 10 years ago as a 2nd Lieutenant.  I was extrememly emotional as I watched the 2 most important men in my life interact with one another.  My sister snapped the picture below before the ceremony of the 2 of them discussing the order of events.  I posted it on my personal Facebook page yesterday and a friend of ours said “It looks like they are planning an invasion!”

After talking about Chris’ military career, my dad administered the Oath of Office. My heart swelled as I listened to the words my husband spoke:

“I, Christopher Eli Coryell, having been appointed a Major in the United States Air Force do solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I about to enter.  So help me God.”

The ceremony was held at the university where Chris teaches the leadership level course to the ROTC cadets who are Juniors.  It is an elite, aeronautical university that has over 200 cadets.  All the cadets were in attendance.  I love the shot below of the cadets standing at attention as the Oath of Office was administered.

The girls and I then went up and pinned on his new rank.  I was so proud of both of the girls and how well they did in front of such a large group of people!  They both struggle with anxiety, but Chris was so great to walk them through the process before the ceremony and tell them what to expect.  Skylar leaned in at one point and whispered “Mom, how do I do this?”  I was so proud of her!  For those of you with kids on the spectrum, you know this is HUGE!

After the pinning, Chris spoke for a bit.  I love this shot of him below.  It looks like he is trying to lead the group in a choreographed dance!  He is so animated when he speaks!

Thankful for all of our family who was able to attend!  Chris’ mom came all the way from Maine.

Her brother, Dick and his wife Bonnie were visiting family nearby and were able to drive over for the day.  It was really neat to have them there as Dick retired after serving 26 years in the Army.

My sister and her family drove up from Phoenix.  My niece Samantha had a HUGE smile on her face during the ceremony.  She sure does love her Uncle Chris!

And her Grandpa!

My nephew Ben was a hoot the entire evening!  First he chatted with the Colonel asking him if he had flown his plane during the war.  Love that my dad is totally cracking up.

Then, Ben and Chris had a lesson on how to salute properly.

I love this shot of the Colonel, Chris, my dad, and the Lieutenant Colonel together.

Chris gave me a dozen roses for being a totally awesome wife and mother! (HA!)

On our way back to the car we came upon Ben and Hailey doing the Tango.  I totally laughed that Hailey had a rose in her mouth!  Who did she learn that from?

Here are a couple more of my favorite shots from the day!

Thanks for reading about our special day!  I’m so thankful for all the sweet memories!

A HUGE thanks to my sister, Jenny for snapping most of the photos you see above!

Make it great!

JuJu

September Sort It Update

Just wanted to pop in and give you an update on the sorting I have been doing this month. If you missed my first post about my plan to “sort through September” you can read about it HERE!  I’ve not done nearly as much as I thought I would have by this point, but I’m totally fine with that.  Some of my projects, like sorting through my scrapbook room, are HUGE projects and I’ve spent hours and hours working in there.  I also added a couple of things to the list as I’ve moved through the house and realized that other things needed to be sorted.

So here are a couple of before and after photos of projects I’ve been working on.

The entire list is at the bottom of the post.

#14:  Sort through tool baskets in kitchen drawer.

#7:  Clean out bookshelf by blue recliner.

#24:  Clean out fridge.

Here is a shot of my craft area in progress:

I sat on the floor and sorted paper one evening for quite some time!  Glad to have my paper sorted now.

I also spent a couple of days helping my sister get sorted after her move.  Here is a shot of her letterpress drawer that I organized with all of her project life goodies.

Today I am tackling my laundry room!  As you can see there is a LOT of sorting to do in there.  We already took everything out and it is currently sitting in the hall. I’m hoping that will encourage me to sift through it quickly.

1)  Clean out junk drawer. (I’m sure we all can relate to this!)

2)  Clean out kids’ dish drawer and get rid of old dishes.

3)  Arrange pick up of old fridge and washing machine.

4)  Clean out laundry room. (This is definitely a bigger project!) (In progress)

5)  Make final plans for home-made Christmas gifts.

6)  Clean out craft magazines & books.

7)  Clean out bookshelf by blue recliner.

8)  Sort through medicine cabinet; dispose of old meds.

9)  Clean out Hailey’s dresser drawers.  Clothes to Emily and Goodwill.

10)  Organize garage sale; donate the rest.

11)  Clean out cookbook cabinet.

12)  Clean off small counter and set up mail station.

13)  Shred pile of junk mail. (my dad will be thrilled!)

14)  Sort through tool baskets in kitchen drawer.

15)  Clear cabinet space for cloth rags & towels. (Trying to reduce/eliminate our use of paper towels.)

16)  Clean out under the sink.

17)  Clean out acrylic/rubber stamps.

18)  Unpack office boxes in basement.

19)  Clean out storage closet in basement.

20)  Create a mangeable Project Life (PL) workstation. (In progress)

21)  Put all flair buttons for PL together.

22)  Clean out candle cabinet.

23)  Spray & pull the weeds around our property.

24)  Clean out fridge.

25)  Clean out both cars and take them to the carwash.

*I still have quite a bit still left to do, but I am pleased with what I have accomplished so far.  We’ve had a full September and I wouldn’t have given up anything we’ve done outside of the home in order to have crossed more of my sorting list.  Labor Day weekend was spent out at our church camp.  I sang with the worship team in 5 of the 6 services and Chris worked the sound board for all of the services.  I also went to Los Angeles one weekend with my parents for a training for a company I joined 5 months ago.  I’m so thankful that I was able to attend this event and learn even more about our products.  You can check out my business website HERE!  I plan to share more about how It Works! has helped me focus on living a healthier life so I can be here for my family for a LONG time!  Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions!

How is your sorting going?  I’d love to hear all about it!

Make it great!

JuJu

Last week I shared a post about what I’ve learned since starting to homeschool with a virtual academy.  If you missed that post you can read it HERE.   We are now in our 7th week with homeschooling and we are definitely into a better groove.  We still have days that are tougher than others, but overall we are doing well!  When I get overwhelmed or discouraged, I like to focus on the positives of our situation.  It makes me feel so thankful for where we have been and how far we have come. So,  today I want to share with you my favorite things about homeschooling so far.

1)  SEEING THAT “LIGHT BULB” MOMENT

-There is nothing better than witnessing the moment when your child “gets it”!  I have been so blessed to be able to witness many light bulb moments since starting school 7 weeks ago.  I have found that most of these moments for my girls happen during math.  It truly excites me to know that I’m a part of my child’s learning!

2)  SEEING THE EXCITEMENT ON THE GIRLS’ FACES WHEN THEY DO WELL

-In the program that we are using, the girls typically have a short assessment at the end of each lesson.  It is usually anywhere between 6 -10 questions and tests whether the girls have captured the information from their lesson.  Immediately upon completing the assessment, a screen pops up with their score.  I absolutely love the reactions that we see when they get 100%.

Skylar squeals with excitement and screams “I got 100!”.

Hailey usually says “I totally ROCKED that lesson!” or “Oh yea, I am SO smart!”.  I love hearing those words!

3)  SEEING THE GIRLS APPLY WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED TO OUR EVERYDAY LIVES

-Pretty early on we did a science lesson on the scientific process.  You know….observations, forming a hypothesis, testing, dependent and independent variables, conclusions, etc.  Well, a few days following our lesson Hailey opened the refrigerator and said “If I don’t put these tacos in the fridge, then they will go bad!  How’s that for a hypothesis mom?”  I loved it!  Since then, she has formed MANY hypotheses!

-We also did a lesson in history/geography on longitudes and latitudes.  Chris and I have been watching reruns of the show Alias.  In one of the episodes they were using a GPS device and the longitude and latitude coordinates popped up on the screen.  Hailey was walking by and quickly said “Hey!  Did you see that?  They just showed the longitude and latitude of where they are.  Now they will be able to be rescued!  That’s cool!”

I truly love these moments!  They may seem little to some, but they are HUGE to us!  I also love that I have been able to share these moments with other parents that have children with special needs and that they rejoice with us.  One thing having 2 girls on the autism spectrum has taught me is:

EACH AND EVERY VICTORY IS WORTH CELEBRATING!

4)  NO MORE “MORNING RUSH”

-This was my least favorite thing about getting the girls up and ready to go to school each day.  Both of our girls move at their own paces and trying to get them to move faster would only lead to frustration, tears, and bad attitudes.  By the time I got the girls dropped off at school I felt like I needed to come back home and take a nap. Chris even mentioned this week how much he doesn’t miss the morning chaos.  He said that the absolute chaos often sent him to work in a bad mood and it would take half his morning to really relax and be settled.

5)  FLEXIBILITY

-We are pretty routined, but it is nice to know that we can pick up and go when needed.  My sister moved this past week and we went down to Phoenix on Monday and Tuesday and helped her unpack.  The girls worked solely on Math and Language. Hailey also worked on Spanish.  I knew that this would most likely stack the end of our week heavier, but it allowed us to help my sister and her family.  We also got to see my niece swim in her high school swim meet.

-We don’t have to follow a strict schedule each day.  As long as we complete all our lessons for the week (5 Math, 5 Literature, 5 History, 5 Spanish, 3 Science, and 3 Art) we are good.  If we choose to do all 5 Math lessons on Monday, that is fine! This week we did only Math and Language on Monday and Tuesday because those are the subjects that the girls can work on a bit better on their own.  That allowed me to help my sister a bit more.

So these are my 5 favorite things about homeschooling so far.  I look forward to adding more things to this list as time goes on.

Do you homeschool?  I’d love to hear your favorite things about homeschooling! Please share them with me in the comments.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Make it great!

JuJu

I Remember!

I remember sitting on the couch playing with Hailey (she was 5 months old) when my phone rang.

I remember my sister’s voice on the other end of the phone as she told me that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

I remember sitting in horror watching as the second tower was struck.

I remember the absolute panic I felt when I heard that a plane had struck the Pentagon as my dad was there on a regular basis for meetings.

I remember the tears of relief when I finally got through to my mom hours later and she spoke the words “Dad is safe!  He was NOT in the Pentagon today!”

I remember watching hour upon hour of coverage and just being in shock that this could actually happen!

I remember thinking that life as we knew it would NEVER be the same.

I remember praying countless prayers for God’s comfort and peace to fall on all of those who lost loved ones in the attack and for those who witnessed this tragedy first-hand.

I remember the feelings of amazement and pride as the stories of the heroes of that horrible day unfolded.

I remember the unity our country had for a long time after that day!

Even though it has been 11 years, I remember that day so vividly!

I will always remember!

JuJu

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