This week we’re spotlighting Angela!!
Hi sweet shoppers!!!!! I am so happy to be highlighted this week on the blog. Most of you know me, but for those that don’t I am a retired Navy gal (2011) and I just recently quit my full time job as a phlebotomist so I can stay at home with my kids! I have been hanging here with the rest of the sweet shoppe community for the past 6 years and have loved every minute of it! I absolutely LOVE me some sunglasses and whenever possibly I have them on! I don’t buy expensive ones and have even found great ones at the dollar store! So as you can see from my images, I have them on in 3 of my pics! I am also a microbrew beer kinda gal and the 1st trip I have been on in over 4 years was just a few weeks ago and the first chance I had I made my way to the complimentary managers special at the hotel bar 😉 I am not a lush, I just enjoy a good drink every now and then!
It was hard to pick just 4 of my favorite layouts, but I want you to really see my life….my youngest son as been struggling a few years and last year (1/2 through kindergarten) we discovered he had Asperger’s. For those of you that don’t know what it is, it is a High Function Form of Autism. Well fast forward to this year and we had him officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. So even if a child has Asperger’s PDD NOS, ODD, and numerous other disorders NOW they all fall under Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). These kids are all still the same, they are just being classified differently for the better. Children that were not classified under the Autism Spectrum were not getting all the services that they needed and qualified for so now by them all being under the umbrella of Autism Spectrum Disorder they are getting more services and care that they need. I just wanted to say that it was hard for us and it is STILL very hard daily to deal with this disorder because if affects the whole family in different ways. Some of us can tune him out when he is having a fit, some go in another room or some just aggravate him even more and make the situation worse, so you see it is hard to live with someone with this disability, but we do……and we chalk it up too another day in the lives of the Miller Household! There is no shame if you have a young child and they need to see a mental health specialist, because honestly Dr Hall, Peyton’s Child Psychiatrist is the one person that has been constant through this all and we could not do it without him. There is no shame in it!! So I believe no matter what your trials and tribulations, DOCUMENT your real life! All of my layouts here are about the “real” side and struggles of living with a child that struggles everyday. But I want my kids to know life is not was all rainbows amd unicorns and ice cream trucks, there are mountains to climb, splinters to pull out and boo boos to be kissed……so someday we will be able to look back and say “we somehow made it”……:)
My favorite products are also another hard thing for me to choose Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely have a girl crush on all kinds of kits here, but elements are what gets me! A good alpha by Shawna Clingerman is always a great base for any kind of page. Stamps,,,,,why yes I will take them in all kinds of forms, but LOVE the .abr cause I can manipulate and change color and do all sors of things with them in CS! Everyone should have some background splatters/stamps so that when you have that page that just seems kinda “blah” you pick one of those elements and BAM the page is now WOW!!!!!
Things I Believe in:
1. I have always believed that if you want a great investment in return you have to invest in good people. I delete ,erase all that negativity that surrounds you and embrace the good.
2. Thirty One Gives is an amazing part of
www.thrityone.com/ When you round up your order and give you change you are helping to save women from domestic violence, children and families in need at the Ronald McDonald house and girls that need mentoring/companionship through the Thirty One Girl Talk program. So just by giving those few extra pennies, you are contributing to some numerous . Who wouldn’t love this idea!
3. & 4. Are just memes to general Autism. They are no more or no less than anybody else around you, they are simply DIFFERENT. And once you get to know someone with Autism, you learn to adapt and do the things that work for that person so you can keep a good stable relationship with them. Relationships, in any form, are very hard for people with Autism, so always keep that on mind that it isn’t because they are trying to be tudfe, they just don’t know who to understand emotion and a lot of things are simply sensory overload for them. So take the time to be PATIENT and you will meet a GREAT person!
Paris memories:
One of my absolute favorite things about being stationed in Italy was the opportunity to travel. Paris was by far my favorite place visited while in Europe. My daughter has not only been once, but three times before she was18.
1. Absolutely LOVE the Eiffel Tower in all of it’s magnificence
2. Good luck comes to those that Kiss Oscar Wilde’s grave 😉
3. You can NOT go to Paris and not try to find Jim Morrison
4. Being an art girl at heart, you cannot miss the Monet Museum!
