Seriously?!?!?

I just noticed that I have not blogged for over a month!!!!!!!  SHOCKING as I have so much to say and share and tell and show!!!  Where does one begin?????

Let's start with MEXICO!!!!  I'm leaving in just a few days to drive on a bus (yes a bus) to Mexico with about 30 of us to go build houses for 2 needy families!!!  The above layout was in my latest Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine article and tells of how I had a full circle moment during last year's trip to build in Mexico... so very powerful.  And here are the families whose lives will be forever changed this year...

FAMILY#1: Single mom, Lourdes (30) and her three boys, Reynaldo (17), Fransico (3) and Antonio (2). Lourdes works when she can, whenever she can get someone to look after Fransico and Antonio. In the afternoons she goes to school to finish her education. Lourdes works hard to keep her oldest son, Reynaldo in school and he is in the process of finishing up high school

FAMILY #2:  Bulmaro (24) and Isabel (19) and their son, Cristian (3). Bulmaro works 5-6 days per week in the fields and when childcare is available Isabel also works 2-3 days per week in the fields. Isabel comes from a very large family (we're talking 29 kids!!), many of whom live in the same area.  Their current house is made of sticks, cardboard and plastic. Somewhere you would not even keep your lawn care tools in! 

What's really cool is that the moms are sisters and live right next door so we will get to be VERY CLOSE to both families as we build their new homes right beside each other :)  And we will get to go back and visit the family we built for last year!!!!  HOW FUN IS THAT?!?!?!

And I am excited as this year, instead of going with my entire family, I'm taking my 15 year old son and 3 of his friends with me... yup... I'm going to be "Momma Orthner" for this adventure to 4 teen boys!!!  Can NOT wait!!!  If you'd like to follow along on the adventure (especially if you'd like to join me on something like this in the future!!), I'll likely post a fair bit on Facebook while in Mexico and here is a link you can also go to:

http://livedifferent.com/blog

Next... GRADUATION!!!  Well, sort of... Lindsey attends a middle school so graduation comes at the end of Grade 8 and next year she is in the High School (YIKES!!!)  But we had tremendous fun taking some grad photos with her and a couple of friends...

And one final topic for today... CROP AND CRUISE!!!!  Things are getting super exciting as we are planning all the fun details for this November in Hawaii!!!  Great sponsors are already coming on board...

And this is only the beginning!!!  Our featured instructors Christy Riopel, Jill Hildebrand and myself are cooking up some delicious treats for all our attendees!!!  We are capping both the LAND event and CRUISE event at 50 scrapbookers each and currently only have 10-15 spots left at each so if you were thinking of joining us for this ultimate vacation, REGISTER SOON!!!!

You had me at Aloha!!!

That will have to do for today as I am off to Banff for my 3 month check up with my knee surgeon!!  I am hoping that I will be given the OK to do most (if not all) of the activities while in Mexico!!!

AND... I still need to chat about the AMAZING Scrapbook Your Heart retreat we had this past June!!!  We were abundantly blessed in so many ways and by so many wonderful ladies... I will share soon, but here is a layout (yeah for Bo Bunny!!!) that shows just a small glimpse from our "Lessons from the Garden of Life" theme...