Pirate Party and the Powells

February is almost as crazy as December at my house.  Between both my sons' birthdays and Valentines, I spend a lot of time in my craft room but not working on stuff for my business.  Which is why I don't schedule any classes at my house in February.

My youngest son's birthday is next weekend.  I don't generally share retired product on my blog, but I am today because it's whats been keeping me busy this past week: (click on the picture to get a better view)

Colors: Naturals Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Close to Cocoa (retired), Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip.  Stamps: Ahoy, Matey and matching wheel (both retired).  Accessories: Markers, Blender Pen, Aqua Painter. 

My boys only get birthday parties every other year.  But for the past three times I've done parties, the boys have picked a pirate theme.  I'm just glad that I kept this set for just this purpose.  I saw some invitations like these on Splitcoaststampers four years ago when I did my first pirate party.  It's been so long, I don't even know who to give credit to anymore (after all, they didn't have Pinterest in those days.)  The invitations where delivered on Saturday and they were well received.  One mom told me at church yesterday that her daughter slept with it.

I don't generally get extremely personal here on my blog, but with all the good and busy things happening here, we also have some very heavy hearts.  It's been all over the news about the unspeakable thing Josh Powell did to his sons yesterday in Washington state.  The Powells were neighbors of ours in West Valley and we attended the same church.  It would be disingenuous to say that Susan and I were close friends but to know Susan was to know her well. We served together in the Relief Society presidency and both sang in the church choir.  Her oldest and my youngest were just weeks apart in age and I can't help thinking if things were different, if Susan had never disappeared and we hadn't moved, one of these invitations would have been for Charlie.

This entire thing has been like a bad made-for-TV movie that was too outrageous to be believable. Yet it happened and is happening to real people that are more than just names and faces to me. Yesterday, I spent a lot of time being angry at Josh for being so spiteful and so controlling, right up to the end.  Today, I'm trying to leave the anger behind and send lots of healing prayers to Susan's family and close friends who are left to deal with aftermath.   I hope this is not where the story ends.  Her family deserves to know exactly what happened to Susan but I don't know that they ever will. In the mean time, I find comfort in knowing that those two cute boys are in a better place with their mother who loved them more than anything.