Introducing.....

The newest addition to the OneMemoryAtATime Store: Black Tie!! A great kit for formal layouts!

You can find it here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=2199

And I finally got Alanna's First Layout to upload.....FINALLY!!! (See last post for more info)

She chose Little Dreamers Vintage Dreams Retro Kit. She really had a great time, and I think she's hooked!

More to follow......

Busy, busy, busy

It's been busy around here!! My kids have been complaining that I'm always on the computer...and they're right. Hopefully as I get the hang of posting the layouts (those responsibilites take longer than making the layouts!!) it will calm down. Here's what I've been up to:

These LO's were both made with Designing Moments June Collab Kit "Summer Breeze" found here: http://www.designing-moments.net/shoppe/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=616

It's lots of sunny fun!

This one was made with the GoDigitalScrapbooking June Collab Kit "Fathers Day" found here:

http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=2135

This kit is gorgeous as wells, full of blues and browns and masculine embellies. Perfect for dad, boy layouts!

Princess news:

Sophia leaves for Girls Camp tomorrow. It's been touch and go as to whether she would actually go (personality conflicts :-) but she's finally showing some excitement. Thank goodness...it's such a great experience I'd hate for her to miss it.

Alanna made her first layout this week. She had complete creative control...she chose the kit, chose the elements and where she wanted them...I just plopped them for her. I wanted to upload it here so you could all see, but it wasn't cooperating.....Maybe next time. It was a lot of fun and the other kids are in line waiting for their turn to try it.

Isabelle and her sisters finished their soccer this week. It is bittersweet. It's been so fun to have them involved in something and see them learn and grow, but the run around is a killer. She got bit by something on the back of her calf and it swelled up to the size of a tennis ball!! It's been a little scary, but is showing improvement.

Ellie, as well as the rest of the girls, has fallen in love with the neighbors kittens and I hear nothing but whining and begging for a cat...I have just one thing to say..."NO WAY." I have enough life forms depending on me as it is.

Gabby is showing her true colors...she is a TURKEY!! I was gardening this week and the girls were supposed to be watching Gabby. I came into the kitchen to find it RANSACKED. Cereal and garbage all over the floor, and Gabby sitting in the pantry on top of the garbage can.... Oh, and she's figured out how to open the child locks. Nobody else can get them open, but it's a piece of cake for her.

Sammie...she is soo fun. My sis said the other day, "she's so little, but her personality is sooo big" and it's true. There's something about her. She engages people. They just can't help responding to her. I was in line at Walmart this week, and there was this tough, "scary" biker in line behind me, playing peek-a-boo with her. Everywhere I go! It's not just "oh, she's cute" but they're interacting with HER. So funny. She's teething, but enduring like a trouper.

Mario's still looking for another job. Cross your fingers for us!!

And we've planted our garden...beans, peas, habanero, chocolate! and Lilac! peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, chives, eggplant, squash. We also planted a lilac bush, and a few "Black Dragons". Kind of new to me, but fun.

Anyway, more soon!

Drumroll, Please.......

I am so excited to announce that I made it through Round 4 of the GDS Supreme Team, and I am now a SUPREME!!! So exciting! This means.....I get to have a lot (I mean A LOT) of fun playing with different kits and things. I've been so busy getting things done for One Memory At A Time, with her new kit "Black Tie" that is being released next week!! and for the other two creative teams I'm on (GoDigitalScrapbooking.com, and Designing-moments.net) I'll be posting Layouts using their great June Collab kits in the next week!! This is a layout I just finished of Gabby using OneMemoryAtATime's Summertime Fun Kit for Girls found here:

http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=1996

I plan to update and post more in the next day or so!! See you soon!

Supreme Team Final Round

What? You say you're suprised to hear from me again so soon? Well, what can I say. I received the kit for Round 4 of the Supreme Team Competition yesterday.
























It's Savannah by Veronica Hurly, found here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=2090&zenid=d195094fece893f771af29b35afc39a6


Finished up my layout (after tweaking and tweaking some more). Thought I better send it in before I drive myself batty...maybe I can get something else done now. Tomorrow is the last day of school. I have all these great intentions. I plan on implementing the "Camargo Anti-Boredom Program." The kids can all pick homemaking skills that they want to learn, and they will have "instruction" in those skills, along with daily reading, gardening, and cleaning, to get us through the summer. I think Sophia has chosen "sew a skirt" and Alanna is DYING to get her hands on my digital scrapbooking kits. Awwww! The rest of them haven't chosen, although Gabby excels at folding washcloths, so I think she'll get to skip that catagory altogether. They all are fully aware that if they say the "B" word (bored) they'll be assigned another job, to help them out. (Isa asked a little girl in her class today if she gets jobs for saying the "B" word. LOL)

More soon......

I have sooo much to tell you.....

Ok, so I know, I know. You think maybe I've forgotten about my blog. Au contrare mon frare, as my pop would say. The thing is, I've been so darn busy!! I hear what you're thinking!! (Same song, different verse.) Maybe, but let me run it down for you. Just after my last entry, I decided to sign up for the Supreme Team competition at godigitalscrapbooking.com. I am having a BALL!! I'm kind of new to the whole online thing, but it's a lot of fun and I'm meeting a lot of people. I've also discovered that I was out of line in giving Mario a hard time about his OCD tendancies. He's not the only one who can obsess!!

I've made it through Round 1:

(Great kit by Christy Skaggs called SpringBling found here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=1863 )

Round 2:

(Really fun and versatile kit by AmyLeigh Fennell found here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=2007 )

and am waiting to hear on Round 3:

(Amazingly adorable kit by One Memory At A Time found here: http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=2042 )

I also was invited to join the Creative Team at One Memory At A Time (yes, I know this sounds familiar. It's the Designer of the kit I used in my round three submission.) This is so exciting for me. I can't wait to get started!

The kids are nearly out of school and I'm jumping up and down with joy. Probably until June 7 or 8th and then I'll be anxious for them to be back in again. Side note....Alanna made it into the Spanish Immersion Program and I am over the moon. Mario's thrilled, as well, because the teacher is a native Spaniard (they are such snobs about their spanish :-) and says she'll be learning the REAL thing. I'm just happy she's going to learn.

In addition, we've had Ellie, Isa, and Alanna in soccer this spring. Sooo much fun, and sooooo busy. Running here and there to games and practices. See, no wonder I haven't updated my blog. Anyway, I expect you'll see me more, and hear more about my doings with One Memory At A Time, and hopefully GoDigitalScrapbooking, as well.

Until next time......

Reminiscing

Camargo Girls Easter 2008

It's a busy, busy week for us Mario's birthday is Saturday, and we will celebrate by attending Soccer games at 10 am and 12:30pm, with the girls. Ellie and Gabby both have birthdays next week. Soccer practices, and more games, job interviews, high school class selection, etc, etc.....



Today is my own special day to reminisce. Nobody else really remembers the day our baby passed away, and that's ok, I think. I remember, and I'm amazed at how the edges of the memory have softened. Time really does heal. Having Gabby and Samm hasn't replaced the space in my heart that is just his, but it doesn't gape, it isn't raw and sore anymore. The tears rarely fall anymore. When I think of him, it isn't usually with sadness and pain, but fondness and curiosity. I wonder what he's doing, what his important work is, what he thinks of me and my efforts. I don't feel the need to correct people anymore and remind them that I do have a son, and that I have 7 children, and not just 6 beautiful swirling dancing princesses. I'm content to hold him close in my heart and let the memory of him live there. The girls talk about him, and are eager to let people know that they do have a brother, he's just in heaven. I think it's sweet that they remember him.



The experience of expecting Sam Owen, and then the loss, has taught me in perhaps the smallest degree that we often take this earthly existence for granted. My friend was telling me about her 3 month old niece who began having seisures over the weekend. Somehow, we've gotten to a place where we expect things to go smoothly, and for our babies to all be strong and healthy and grow up and live full lives, and it simply isn't so. Each moment, EACH BREATH that we have with them is a gift. And if for some reason we suddenly don't have them with us anymore, all is not lost. We will be reunited, assuming we are willing to go the distance.



I'm so thankful for the spiritual preparation that I had prior to his death 3 years ago. For the kind people who knew just to say "I love you, I'm sorry." Even for those who didn't know that less was more.... I'm thankful for the strengthening of my testimony of eternal families, and the knowledge of Heavenly Father's awareness of me as his daughter. I'm thankful for the children I AM raising. I'm thankful for my sisters...you know who you are. Brothers and Mom and Dad, too, of course.



Anyway, enough of that. I have to go check on Gabby.........I know you all wish you could hear her belting out Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" at the top of her lungs as she sits on top of the garbage can in the pantry stuffing her face with goldfish crackers...... "Oi yo-yo, oi yo-yo-yo, oi yo-yo, yo-yo-yo, yo-yo".......

Aspirations.....

Thank you all for your expressions of concern. I have not sunk to the depths of last week since, well, last week. Trying to keep up the exercise and the fresh air and the ignoring the housework to obsess about creating digital scrapbooking layouts. Whatever works. Sometimes it is important to remember that I AM SO NOT IN CONTROL! (Or, maybe I'm so out of control?)



Anyway, looking forward to Conference this weekend. It's been another rollercoaster week, but Alanna was 16 in placement of the "first come, first serve" for the Spanish Immersion program. Assuming that she aces her academic screening (and I am assuming she will) she should make it into the program. YEAH!!!! One way or another she will learn spanish.



Isa lost another tooth, was hysterical when she couldn't find the toothfairy's "offering," and then beyond hysterical when the toothfairy hurried in to leave something while mommy distracted her and forgot to take her tooth. This fantasy stuff is a lot of work.



Sophia has been in mega teenager mode. It's been rough. I'm trying to ignore the fact that in about 10 years, I'll have 5 of them at the same time.



All of a sudden, Gabby is speaking in full sentances. Woohoo. And to think 6 months ago, I was worried about her verbal development.



Ellie continues to tell me I know nothing about anything, and her vast experience is far superior to mine, in any given circumstance. Of course.



Sammie is still sunshine and developing so much character. Nearly always smiling, and she's a girl after my own heart....she's become a lover of hair. She'll suck her thumb and run her finger through my hair at the back of my neck. True bonding.



I posted my "domestic goddess" layout to a scrapbooking gallery today....my first submission. My goals are to someday be on somebody's creative team, and to eventually create my own digital elements and market them. I'd love that. Spend my time (once the kids are all in school, of course) creating, scrapbooking, etc. Bliss. Anyway, if you want to see it (again :-) go to Little Dreamer Designs at http://www.littledreamerdesigns.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=555 . If you really want to make my day, you can even leave me some "love" by way of comments.



Along the lines of "domestic goddess-ness" I made bread again today (we have so much wheat and flour - thanks honey - that I'm going to be baking all of our bread and then some to use it, specifically the flour, up before it goes bad) and the family joke is that it's "Love" bread. When I knead it, I put all the love, charity and compassion I can muster into it (per the instructions on Hillbilly Housewives family bread recipe). I swear I've never tasted such yummy bread, with such great texture. Try it....you'll never make bread without "love" ever again!!!



'til next time......