Happy Birthday, Nate and Family Reunion

My nephew Nate turned 16 on June 25. The highlight of his day was going to motor vehicles and getting his permit. Seems that my kids did the same as did I and most of my siblings!

Those of you who have followed my blog will remember that in July, 2008, just after his 15th birthday, he was diagnosed with t-cell lymphoma.

Shortly after that I began anonymously sending Riley Moose cards to Nate. It seems that when Nate gets one, he can't get it opened fast enough for the rest of the family! The whole family has really enjoyed those goofy cards! (I did tell my sister who Riley really was so they didn't think some pervert was stalking Nate.) To keep the postmark from giving me away, I took the cards to the PO and had real stamps put on them and then the clerk smeared the hand cancellation.

So here is the birthday card from Riley to Nate for this year.

I found the little propeller at
Utopia Stamps in Rochester, NY
on a shopping spree with my daughter.
I love just browsing in Jenn's shop.
She has some of the neatest stuff - l
ike that propeller.
I mounted it to the card front with a long-pronged brad so the prop turns.



The inside has glittered cupcake papers and puff painted frosting on the cuppies.

Not very fancy, but everyone loved it.

And Nate has not figured out who is sending the cards.


Family reunion was cancelled in 2008 due to Nate's illness. So -- 2009 was a celebration of God's grace and healing in Nate's life as well as a great time to catch up on the last 2 years. The tumor that nearly ended his life a year ago has shrunk to be so small it cannot be distinguished from the tumor debris in the scans. Praise God!! He still has at least one more year of chemo, possibly two.

Riley Moose also had a famoosely reunion that he went to.


Here is that card--

Riley is always on a red tractor as Nate also has a red tractor that his dad gave him. I sure hope I find out if Nate paints his tractor another color.







I stamped the heads of several of my Riley stamps to create the "herd" on a 1/4 sheet of green and copied it to make the full inside.

The card arrived on reunion Friday. Nate was sure it had to be a relative sending the cards because of the family reunion theme. Everyone got a huge kick out of the card!
While Nate was outside, I told his dad, Kenny, and 3 of my sisters that I was Riley. My sister Diane, Nate's mom, had known since Christmas, but hadn't even told her hubby. So he was surprised too. It was soooooo much fun!

As we were leaving to come home, Kenny asked me if I would like to really mess with Nate's head since he was so sure he knew who Riley was. Of course I would!!!!!!! As I make the next few Riley cards, I'm sending them to friends in several states to drop in the mail from their homes. Now how sneaky is that!?!

I hope you have enjoyed the famoosely reunion card!

God's blessings to you,

Riley's Winter Fun

Because the words on this card are difficult to read, I've put my comments in blue and Riley's words in brown. I was not good at getting Nate a Riley card after Christmas. When I finally got to making one, I had several months of fun to share so made a book!

The cover was embellished with liquid applique and puffed up with my heating tool to look like snow.

Riley is on his red tractor again!

Hi Nate, do you remember me?

All the stuff under the tree was colored, cut out and put under the tree - some on pop dots.

I got new skis, a hockey stick and a for-real cammo outfit.

Sophie got new knitting needles, lots of yarn and a new pink four-four for her ballet classes.

Here I am on my new skis! Sophie made my hat and scarf. Pretty nice, huh?

Most of the events were put on backgrounds and added to the book pages without a lot of embellies.

While I was outside playing, Sophie made us some muffins.

When I came back in, Sophie was working on another scarf for me and I had hot cocoa and a warm muffin. Yummy!

When I went to play hockey, I didn't wear my hat and scarf like Sophie told me to.

After hockey some of us made a snowman. I put my hat on, but it was too late.

Sophie was right again.

Don't you just hate when that happens?

What about that Super Bowl - way to go Steelers! YEAH!

For Valentine's Day I got Sophie some chocolates in a fancy heart box.

I guess she liked them. She ate ALL of them in one day.

But then --

She worked very hard to lose all that extra weight.

It was very funny watching her do aerobics!

Guess I should not have laughed at her:-(

St. Patrick's day was great. I found the 4-leaf clover and won the pot of gold!

Sophie danced a jig wearing her green four-four.

Hmmm -- why do they call that thing a four-four?

Bet you can hardly see me in my cammo!

Maybe I can hide from Sophie when she has chores for me to do.

Time for bed now. Good night, Nate. Sleep tight.

Your friend,

Riley Moose

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed this card!

Blessings,