Some Scrapbook Pages of Jared

FUTURE MOST WANTED PAGE: This was an idea from Jared's very first homecare nurse, Pat. She was wonderful with him. Jared always loved having her around. She took very good care of him in a professional and personal way...with lots of tender loving care. Thanks Pat...for giving my boy so much joy!


THE GRIFFIN FAMILY PAGE: This page was done when we were just a family of 3...hubby, myself and Jared. These were the days when I was telling myself that I didn't want any more kids because Jared was a handful....which wasn't what life had in store for me. Jared needed siblings....so 2 more children came along...Logan & Aidan.



HEAVEN SENT PAGE: This page was made while Jared was in Thomas Jefferson University Hospital...in the NICU. This was back when he still had an endotracheal tube. He got a tracheostomy and gastrostomy tube, I believe at 4 months old. He was in the hospital for 8 months before we brought him home. He really was heaven sent as I discovered over the years....he couldn't have come from no other place other than heaven. Dear God...Thank you for sending him my way.


SCHOOLDAYS PAGE: This page was done after Jared's first year of going to school. He went to Easter Seals School in Media, PA. He loved going to school. He loved circle time and music therapy. Those were his happier times while at school. Later, he developed an attitude because he had to do things he didnt want..like the physical and occupational therapies. He went to school with his nurse, which in this pic was Bernadette. She did a lot with Jared at school...she made him WORK, and Jared didn't like that, so sometimes he would give her the attitude. Oh, what a riot he was! Thanks Bern, for all your hard work and determination with him. As you used to say, "Go, Jared, Go!"


These are just a few of the MANY scrapbook pages I have of him......which are cherished now more than ever before. Well, thanks for looking and until next time...goodnight and God Bless.

Household Hints

DID YOU KNOW???
-COOL WHIP will condition your hair in 15 minutes.
-PAM cooking spray will dry finger nail polish.
-ELMER'S GLUE-paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and
blackheads if any.
-MAYONNAISE will kill lice, and it will also condition your hair.
-For shiny hair, use brewed LIPTON TEA.
-For sunburn, empty a large jar of NESTEA into your bath water.
-For a minor burn, use COLGATE or CREST toothpaste
-Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it.
-Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in....kills insect stings too
-For bee stings, use meat tenderizer.
-For puffy eyes, use PREPARATION H.
-For Athlete's feet, use cornstarch.
-Use KOOL AID to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a
cycle. It will also clean a toilet.
-Use KOOL AID in plain yogurt as a finger paint. Your kids will love it and it won't
hurt them if they eat it!
-PEANUT BUTTER will get scratches out of CD's. Wipe off with a COFFEE FILTER paper.
-For a sticking bicycle chain, use PAM no-stick cooking spray.
-PAM will also remove paint and grease from your hands. Keep a can in your garage
for hubby.
-PEANUT BUTTER will remove ink from the face of dolls.
-When doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with cornstarch and watch them slide
on.
-For heavy dandruff, pour on the vinegar.
-For body paint, use CRISCO mixed with food coloring. Heat CRISCO in microwave, pour
into an empty film container and mix with the food color of your choice.
-For a tie-dye T-shirt, mix a solution of KOOL AID in a container, tie a rubber band
around a section of the T-shirt and soak.
-For preserving a newspaper clipping, use a large bottle of club soda and a cup of
MILK OF MAGNESIA, soak for 20 minutes and let dry. It will last for many years!
-For fungus on toe or fingernails, use VICKS VAPOR RUB.
-A slinky will hold CD's.
-To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with COLGATE toothpaste.
-For wine stains, pour on MORTON SALT and watch it absorb into the salt.
-To remove wax, take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb
into the towel.
-To remove labels off glassware, etc., rub with PEANUT BUTTER.
-For baked on food, fill a container with water, get a BOUNCE paper softener and the
static from the BOUNCE towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak
overnight.
-For baked on food, you can also use 2 EFFERDENT TABLETS and soak overnight.
-For crayon markings on the wall, use COLGATE toothpaste and brush it.
-For dirty grout, use LISTERINE.
-For stains on clothes, use COLGATE.
-For grass stains, use KARO SYRUP.
-For grease stains, use COCA COLA. It will also remove grease stains from the drive-
way overnight.
-For fleas in your carpet, use 20 MULE TEAM BORAX, sprinkle and let stand for 24
hours.
-To keep fresh flowers longer, add a little Clorox, or 2 BAYER ASPIRIN, or just use
7-UP instead of water.
-BUDWEISER BEER conditions the hair.

My Montage 5/18/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

Hope you all enjoy this. Thanks for looking.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Meet My 3 Boys...Jared, Aidan and Logan

Hi everyone. This picture is probably my one and only picture that I have of my 3 boys. I have one more but its a family picture. I wish I would have taken more to look back on. When it was just Jared, hubby and I took so many pictures, we were overloaded with them...then it came to Logan (my 8 year old)and we didnt take so many. Well then Aidan (the baby) comes and we have very little. A year and a half later, Jared dies and here comes the regret. I know...when a loved one passes away, it's always a bunch of if onlys. If only I did this or did that has driven me crazy over the past 8 months that I have to stop with all the regrets and keep all the treasured moments. I have MANY of those and I will be writing (blogging) about them on other days.
Jared, as you probably know now, was my special needs boy (my oldest...14). He is and always will be my biggest joy in life because to me, he was "a perfect child living in a not so perfect world". He was like an angel showing us and others what life was REALLY about. For that to have been his calling in life...which I believe it was...for so many reasons. Most importantly for me because I had a very troubled childhood. (My mother left me not once but twice...I've disowned her as my mother....until I had Jared and he made me see the light.)
Aidan is the baby of the boys. It saddens me to know that he was so young when Jared died...I really wish Jared could have stayed awhile longer. Even though it was a tragedy in the way we lost Jared (which will be another post), I now feel that maybe it WAS his time to go...especially because at times before he passed, I had thoughts of who was going to take care of him the way we did...with absolute tender loving care...as if he were our only child. Sometimes those thoughts were really painful.
Logan is my middle child. I'm glad that he spent a lot of his time with Jared. He was always good to him...he and Jared used to watch Disney movies together. Here's a picture of Logan watching TV with Jared(although the television not in pic, was on a dresser so Jared could see it...and Logan would sit on this stool).



So these are my little men and they ALL bring me such joy. Thanks for coming by. Until next time...God Bless all of You!

Jared's Movie Collection

Today I'm going to blog about my son's movie collection. First of all, my husband made this shelf for Jared. He had so many DVD's that we were running out of room in their old spot. My husband also wanted something that we could see all of the movie titles where as before this shelf, we had movies behind movies and we couldnt tell what Jared had. As I said in a previous post, we bought a new movie for Jared just about every week so we knew that it was only going to get worse. Eric (my husband) started this project and I thought it was perfect for Jared's movies. At one time, we even tried putting them up alphabetically, but that didnt stay for too long. We had nurses for Jared and some of them couldnt keep up with putting them back the way they were, especially when Jared got to wanting choices of 6 or more at a time. Mr. I Know What I Have and I'm not picking until you give me more choices....that's just the little attitude my big guy had.....he couldn't speak, but boy did he know what he wanted and knew just how to show it.
Well...Jared is gone now and you want to hear something crazy I did when he first passed away....Jared was cremated after he died and I used to set his box of ashes on my dining room (which was his old room) table and turn the TV on and put one of his movies on for him just because it was his favorite thing in the world to do. I was grieving and this was how I felt close to him. Yes, I was a nutcase (and still am sometimes)!
Jared's movies are now collecting dust....unless one of my other sons feels like watching one. Well, only the 8 year old watches them here and there, my other son is just 2, so it will be awhile before he's ready to watch one.
I still stand at this shelf sometimes and fall apart but then Jared's spirit comes to rescue me by giving me something else to think about...usually it's something I should be doing at that moment or someone in the house calling my name and I walk away and forget what I was doing before. Yes, Jared has been watching over me....this I know... which is a whole new post. Come again everyone. Until next time..thanks for coming by my blog.

WHEN I WAS BORN.....

Every now and then I work on a scrapbook that I'm making for myself and this is one of the pages from my book. I had a lot of fun working on this page. I wanted to find out what things were going on the year I was born......1971. Here are a few things:
-National Public Radio begins programming (5/3/71)
-Amtrak Railroad begins operation (5/1/71)
-Jim Morrison of 'The Doors' dies of heart failure at 27 (7/3/71)
-John Lennon releases "Imagine" album (9/9/71)
-President Nixon announces 90-day freeze on wages, prices & rents (8/15/71)
-1,000 convicts riot & seize Attica, New York Prison (9/9/71)
-World Hockey Association forms (9/13/71)
-Golden Gate Bridge lights out all night due to power failure (12/14/71)
-Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opens (10/1/71)
-NHL great Gordie Howe retires (9/9/71)
-Development of a serum hepatitis vaccine for children announced (3/29/71)
-1st time a golf ball is hit on Moon by Alan Shepard (1/6/71)
-Series of tornadoes cuts through Mississippi & Louisiana, killing 117 (1/21/71)
-Boston Patriots become New England Patriots (3/25/71)

Handmade Thank You cards

I made these Thank you cards a while back. I really should get back to making some more. I've been working on jewelry a lot and now I'm starting to miss cardmaking and scrapbooking. I love to do so many different crafts, sometimes it makes me crazy because I don't know which one to work with. I REALLY love to do jewelry, but my sister in law makes really pretty cards and she's got me wanting to design cards again. Oh what would I do without my crafts!