A little over 2 years ago, one of our loyal subscribers at Swirlydoos Leslie Kammerdiener ( LeslieK) decided to start a blog...For reasons unknown to her at the time, but this is what she said...

Sunday, February 24, 2008
"Hellloooo!!! Is there anybody out there?
Hello and welcome to my blog! I am not really sure what kind of direction this thing is going to take, but I am looking forward to figuring it out.

To summarize my life, I am a single woman with two grown children. My daughter, Brianna (Breezy), is 23 and she works in an underground mines in a government position. My son also works for the government but in a totally different way - he is in the Army. Kevin is 19 and is currently stationed in Bamburg, Germany.

I, myself, work for Armstrong Cable in a small department that handles the back-side of billing operations. I enjoy my job for the most part, but there are days....

I am an avid reader and I enjoy scrapbooking as well. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do and I love to cook and bake.

This about sums me up so I am going to head off for now. My son is supposed to call me on Skype in a few minutes and I want to get all set up. Gotta get that webcam operating, lol!"
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Sounds like a pretty normal life to me!!! An all America normal family living an all American normal life!!!...But today, Leslies life is anything but normal. And I know she would not mind me sharing her story...

You see, Leslies life turned upside down in May of 2008 when she got shocking news about her son Kevin.
Kevin was in a NATO convoy driving through the city of Jalalabad in Afghanistan on May 31. A suicide bomber filled a vehicle with explosives and drove it into her son's Humvee. Leslie did not know that there were 4 people in the Humvee. Both her son and his battle buddy survived the blast - the other two did not. Kevin was pulled from the wreckage and rushed to a hospital in Jalalabad. He has since been flown back to Germany and is now on this way to San Antonio, TX to a military burn unit.
His injuries were extensive, they didn't know if he would make it.

That was the beginning of Leslie, Brianna, and Kevins life...It has been forever changed.
Leslie's story is one of war, courage, honor and love....Oh, the love...In honor of Kevin, and all those who serve our country to keep us safe...We salute you...We pray for you, and we too will defend your honor...

Happy Memorial Day...

Please visit Leslies Blog "MENDED WINGS" to learn about Kevins story. She warns that it is not for the faint hearted...I visit on a regular basis...Leslie, you are an Angel...We will pray for Kevins recovery. We will pray for your dedication to helping him achieve that recovery. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, and God bless you. {{{{{{{{{hugs to Kevin from Swirlydoos}}}}}}}}}}}

I would like to share with you Layout of the week. It is Leslie's gorgeous page done with the Antebellum kit...This is her daughter Breezy giving her son Kevin a hug as they were heading to the stage for Kevin's Purple Heart Ceremony. It is one of Leslies absolute fave photos and it was taken by Rebecca Droke of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette...I agree, it requires no further words on my part..


http://lesliekamm.blogspot.com/

For those of you who will be receiving the Swirlydoos June kit, these butterflies will go beautifully!! Cant show the kit as it hasn't been revealed yet, but when I tell you it is gorgeous...Believe me!! Enjoy the butterflies. I print them up on a 5 x 7 piece of cream colored card stock, cut them out, and Stickle them with Rock Candy Stickles for old fashioned glitz...Just adding a little bit of diamond dust to the edges gives them an exquisite beauty. Try it, and for more of our collective images of butterflies for all seasons, check out Swirlydoos at this link!!

http://www.swirlydoos.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?59411.0

I have a special this week..I have these 2 wonderful LO's posted as LO of The Week. Trying to pick one was almost impossible for us. We could not choose between these 2, so we chose to show case them both..
The first one is a fabulous guy LO...We don't see these to often...And Bravo for using a flower, which by the way came out "To Die For"!!! Lovely!! Jennifer This is Jennifer's story about creating the flower...
"I am going to tell you a bit about my rose and my throwdown.....I spent about an hour on it. Hated it. Smashed it....went back to Tina's blog about 3 times. Tossed it in the trash. came back about an hour later and saved it.
Sprayed it with starch, smashed it more. Stuck it in the sun to dry for a few hrs. Cat batted it around on the floor for a bit. Then decided to glimmer mist it......
Next, to place it on the LO? Leave Off? On? OFF?
Family vote time (any of you do this?) - 2 vs 2. That means I am the tie breaker? sheesh...Finally son in photo put me in my place and said enough already with the flower thing. He has both teen angst and is bossy!"




The next beautiful LO "SHIPWRECK" is from Lisa (lisanovo). The colors, the layers, the design!! They just scream summer!!! We think this LO is worthy of a Magazine cover!! The photo's are of her adorable daughter Tahlia playing on the beach. There is so much intricate detail in this LO...You have to go visit Lisa's blog to get the instructions on how to make your own Prima inspired "Flower Stamen and natural center flower tutorial"!She did a wonderful job explaining in photo detail on how she made them!!

http://lisas-livingincolor.blogspot.com/2010/05/flower-stamen-and-natural-center.html



Congrats Jennifer and Lisa on Layout Of the Week!! So much talent at Swirlydoos!! It is just wonderful!!

ANGELICA FRANSSEN

&

TINA RUTLEDGE