FTTC234, SSS224, Dahlias & a Doily

Hi friends. Today I decided to participate in the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 234 (FTTC234) to use a doily on your card, and use The Sweet Stop Sketch 224 (SSS224) as my sketch. 

Coloring is very good therapy as I'm still hit pretty hard over my daddy's sudden and unexpected death 3 weeks and 1 day ago. I was up at his house all last week just finishing up business. When I walked in, I expected him to greet me so I hollered a few times that I'm here and each time I hollered, I got a little more upset. Then I realized that he will never be physically there again and just dropped to my knees and prayed to God that I don't really know how it works up there in heaven but if he could tell my daddy how much I love him and miss him, I'd really appreciate it. I was okay after that but leaving was hard since he wasn't out front waving goodbye to me. A few times I just stood in the garage staring at his car that he loved so much and knew that he would never drive that again either or go on anymore road trips with my son or me. Daddy and my youngest son took a summer road trip last year and today Scott just asked me if I had been through grandpa's car yet and I told him no. Scott asked me when I did, if he could have the journal of their road trip that dad wrote. Of course Scott has dear memories of that trip too and they even had a professionally made license plate done for the trip. I don't know if dad got one for each of them but the one hanging in his garage is staying. I do hope that Scott has one too. 

Today I wrote dad's obituary, which was really hard. I'm having a Memorial service for him here in California but his final resting place will be where his roots are in Pittsburg, Kansas. That's two services I have to go to in a week. At the final service where he will be buried, I have a feeling I'm going to crack. I don't know if they lower him into the ground during the service or not. I'm having a funeral and then non-family members will leave and the family will stay and say their goodbyes privately. Dying is a lot of work! Planning two services is a tremendous amount of work but I'm doing what I feel is right. I'm breaking all of dad's "death rules." He said just to cremate and scatter his ashes. I had him cremated but I want him to be buried with dignity. It's the least I can do for such a wonderful father. I want a headstone to let people know that he existed and led a good life. My daddy was the kindest man I've ever known. 

I might go back up to Chico later this week but have so much catching up to do at home that needs my attention so it will be nice to stay home for longer than a week. I also want to thank my blog readers and friends for all of your cards, emails and phone calls. Your generosity is overwhelming and it means so very much to me. I can't thank you enough for your compassion and genuine love.

On a positive note, I got this add-on thing from Apple called Impression and it's so easy to put your watermark on! I was so happy! It worked one time and then thereafter, it crashed my Mac. Not cool. I'm going to have to learn Aperature afterall and actually learn this Mac. I still hate it after a year and have about 6 Dummy books. What I really want to learn has a paragraph. The learning curve is still horrendous. I am cleaning up my pics right now and trying to organize them a bit but in Aperature, you can't nest folders and that drives me nuts having too much visible. I just want to go to the stamp manufacturer folder and then the stamp set name within and the name of the card. However, Apple has made that impossible. I have too much of an investment in this Mac since it's a top of the line retina display, but still……it's a real pain I tell ya.

So, now onto today's card. As always, thank you for stopping by to visit me and God bless you. I hope you like my card. I'm a bit low on the mojo department right now and am hoping to get out of that slump soon. You'll be seeing a lot of coloring cards from me over the next month or so; just hang in there and I'll get back on my schedule soon enough. I will be holding September's online card class of Organize It! You do not want to miss this class. I think it wil be my favorite of them all. My studio seriously looks like a bomb went off and I am not exaggerating. I was going to get it all nice and clean for you before class started but maybe we can clean up a day or two together and then we can go through my storage solutions as I'm really OCD organized and you will love some of my cost effective ideas that I have. I store my die-cuts in a very unique way and am working with the vendor now to put together a package that you can purchase with a steep discount. The class is $9.99 and registration opens on September 1. Class will start on September 16-20. I hope to see you in class!

Jeremiah 23:5-6.