Littleheartsx3

5/4/16: I was due to have a baby May 13th. Well, he decided he couldn't wait to meet me and came last Wednesday the 27th of April via emergency C-section. I have only been home a couple days and am recovering so a few swaps are being sent late but I have notified my partners so they are well aware!

12/15/15...wow, what a year. So much has happened. I split up from my sons dad (finally!!), changed colleges, spent the entire summer house hunting, bought my first home, and moved in the fall. Since then I have met the best man ever (who was in a near-fatal motorcycle accident on 9/21 and spent over a month in the hospital but thankfully is almost recovered) and we are expecting a son on May 13th!! I'm really itching to get back into swapping. I am in the process of trying to contact my old swap partners to see if I can make up those old swaps they never received and boost my ratings a little as well as give them a nice piece of mail to look forward to, even though it's been several months. My life has finally taken a turn for the better and I want to share my happiness with whoever I can. I have messaged all 5 partners that I have a "1" from in an effort to make them up. A few haven't been online in a long time so I guess we'll see what happens. Fingers crossed!!

1/25/15: I just want everyone to know that I have not purposely flaked on anyone. I have felt like absolute crap for several days on two occasions in the last 3 weeks and usually NEVER get sick. I got hit head-on on NYE by a hit-and-run driver and have been dealing with $9,000 in car damage since then, including having to take the van back to the repair place TWICE after having it repaired and I currently have my second rental vehicle. I also had issues with my college literally screwing me out of a passing grade and had after appealing with the teacher, Dean, and Vice President of Academic affairs, had to switch colleges, which didn't happen until a week after the start of their semester so had to race to catch up on the first week's worth of work. On top of all this I have been working full time. I will make each and every swap up, as I always intended to do, too many things just hit me all at once and I am so very overwhelmed. I will not leave one person empty handed.

Regarding my new 3: As you can see by my THREE responses on BermudaGranny's rating, I have no idea why I was given this rating FOUR months after the swap ended. I have, again, responded to her rating three times, as well as private messaged her 3 times. the first two private messages to her have been read and ignored, that last one over a week ago is still unread, most likely on purpose. I have been in full contact with the coordinator, wolfeagle, about this and she agrees it is very odd, especially since BermudaGranny wouldn't say why she gave me a 3...four months after the fact. There is nothing else I can do about an unfair rating with no explanation when it is from someone who refuses to respond to me. Pretty lame that I have to suffer because of it but none of us can stop someone from rating us completely unfairly. Update on 12/21: I have now emailed Swap-Bot administrators for help with this...

Regarding my old 3: I sent some Hello Kitty items to a swapper. There were supposed to be 5 things. Apparently the 3 samples of hello kitty washi I sent wasn't in there so must have fallen out of the envelope sometime on the way to her house. I also gave her hello kitty notebook paper that was from a HK notepad. She sounded disappointed but nothing in the swap indicated notepaper had to be a complete book.

****Extra special*** coffee-related items like stickers, paper, colored (solid or patterned) envelopes!!! Also, I cannot find Rilakkuma or kawaii stuff where I live without ordering it online and paying too much for shipping so that stuff is greatly appreciated...thanks! Thanks in advance!!!

I don't do ATCs, I think they're cute but I don't have a use for them and don't have time to do them.

Hi I'm Tricia and I'm a 34 year old mom living in MinneSNOWta. I have 5 kids...my daughters are ages 12, 10, 9; and my sons are 3 1/2 years old and 10 months old. I am also a full time nursing student and part time alarm dispatcher. I am addicted to scrapbooking supplies and have a weekly ongoing Project Life album that is in its 2nd year.I have several SMASH books and other little odds and ends journals and have a A5 purple Malden Filofax that I use as my main planner, as well as a personal raspberry FINSBURY and a red pocket sketch Filofax that I am not currently using, , and a Mini Lavender Metropol Filofax that I use as my wallet.

The kids: ***Samantha is 12 and very much into sewing and makeup (within my limits), One Direction, fashion, loom bracelets, jewelry, music, turquoise and purple and plays the violin. ***LaTonya is 10 and loves to read. She has wanted to be a Vet for about 6 years now. She loves blue and green, jewelry, plays the clarinet, loves knitting and crocheting, music, loom bracelets, gymnastics. ***Marcella is 9 and breathes dinosaurs and sharks, yet is still a girly girl and loves pink, makeup, music, and jewelry and anything related to art and drawing, and loves to read too. ***Elijah is 3 1/2 and loves all the typical boy things: cars, trains, trucks, busses, planes, monster trucks, playing in the dirt, music, LOVES Jake and the Neverland Pirates but also into other things like Thomas the Train (and all his friends), Caillou, Dragon Tales, Play Doh (although I HATE the smell of that stuff lol I just let him go at it and I stay away). ***Noah is 10 months. I have never done a swap for him before, mainly just rotated between the 4 older ones but I am thinking I may start to include him more since he's at the age now where he is becoming more independent and able to explore and play and move around.

My music tastes vary widely. While I mostly listen to Christian music, that doesn't mean it's all "church-y". Most of the Christian music I listen to is a lot like mainstream music...hip-hop, rap, rock, pop, etc., it just has a different underlying message than most of the stuff I used to listen to back in high school. I also like using the Slacker Radio app on my phone to randomly pick music based on what I'm doing (driving, studying, writing penpal letters, need something to get me moving, relaxing, etc) or what mood I'm in.

I hate any kind of music that talks about sex, twerking (read: Miley Cyrus. Eww), music degrading anybody, heavy metal, opera, super hardcore gangsta rap. Country doesn't bother me but I don't turn to it either. And I only know a handful of country artists anyways. And that screaming stuff....where's my excedrin again? But hey, if you like it,more power to you.

I recently read Divergent and Loved it! On my next break from school I will whip through Insurgent. Maybe one day I will get around to The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I love murder mysteries. The who-done-it's. I rarely get time to read anything but textbooks right now since I'm in nursing school but that doesn't stop me from buying tons of them at garage sales and thrift stores. I figure the words won't change and they don't go stale so I have my whole lifetime to read them. It will be my reward to myself for finishing nursing school. I'm not a big fan of e-books. I download and try to read them but it's taking me a while to prefer that over actual paper books. This kind of sucks because hall my textbooks are either on the computer or accessible through apps on my iPad/iPhone. I like reading Christian nonfiction, devotionals, Bible study books, biographies (they don't have to be Christian themed), kids books--I love kids books. Not just because I have kids either. I took a Children's Literature class a few years ago and it really opened my eyes to all types, levels, and genres of kids books and now I see it as much more of an art form than it JUST being a book. And obviously I can share kids books with my kids.

Books I hate: romance novels 💏💏😝😝. Sci-fi 👽👽😴😴. Westerns. 👢👢

Most favorite: Hunger Games and Catching Fire! I can't wait until Mockingjay comes out 11/2014!!!!! I love comedies and thrillers. Hands down. I love to laugh. I like pretty much any movie with SNL characters. I like dramas but the sad sappy ones I really have to be in the mood for. I love documentaries. I love seeing the way other people live, thrive, their cultures, true life, crime documentaries, religion documentaries...not necessarily Christian...watched a documentary on Mecca...blew me away. So pretty. Again. Nursing school....not a whole lot of movie or tv time. Crime movies, love them. Kids movies like Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale, Despicable Me, Up, Wreck-It Ralph. I think I have loved every one. Not too much into Disney Princesses. Like the movies but it pretty much stops there. I have 3 daughters ages 11 and under. Maybe I got burnt out on them.

12/15/15: I'm now a die hard Wakking Dead fan and have also been watching The Curse of Oak Island. I watch a lot of documentaries and stuff on the History Channel, A&E, FYI, AMC, etc.

I don't have cable since I never have time for tv, so I'm not a big tv watcher but I just finished the whole Breaking Bad series on Netflix and I'm a total Heisenberg groupie!! I also loved the Prison Break series. If you've seen it you know why I cried at the end! I occasionally watch SNL or shows like Chopped, Cupcake wars, hidden camera shows, Dr. Phil, The First 48, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, documentaries, true crime shows. I mostly just watch a little Netflix before bed.

Don't like: same as books...sci-fi, fictional crime dramas, westerns

12/15/15: I currently use a Fauxdori and love it with my DIYFish inserts (do1p, v.2.2, Monday start). I just still need to get into the habit of looking at my planner EVERY day!

Scrapbooking, scrapbooking, aaaaaaaand scrapbooking. I'm a traditional scrapbooker-turned-I had kids and no more time or room to do it- into a devoted Project Lifer.

******* I currently already own the following project life kits: Turquoise, Baby edition for him, honey, kiwi, kraft, cobalt, coral, slate, blush, dear Lizzy, Amy Tangerine cut and paste, flea market, jade.

I still use stickers, brads, flair, washi tape, staples, die cuts, vellum, all of it. I don't think there's anything I don't like. I'm way behind but I take an over abundance of photos of every aspect of my life to put in my albums eventually. I got the chance to meet and chat with Becky Higgins during her workshop I attended at ScrapFest at Mall of America in September and I was totally star struck. What a nice sweet woman. I saw Tim Holtz and got a picture of him but didn't get a chance to meet him. I'm a fan of all the scrapbooking Big Wigs and companies. WRMK, Amy Tangerine, Heidi Swapp, Kari Holt, Tim Holtz, Maggie Holmes, American Crafts, Hampton Arts, the list goes on and on. And on. And seriously, obsessively on... I haven't found anything I don't like yet.

SMASH books. Love them. I can be a little messier and freer with those than my PL albums. They don't have to be chronological like my PL albums. Yes, my PL albums HAVE to be chronological. And my SMASH books are just about ME. Not the kids, not family stuff, just all mine. My interests, my likes, my hobbies, my postcrossing, swapbot and penpal stuff. Whatever I want.

Since I just started getting into penpalling, I started decorating my own envelopes. Nothing too fancy, just drawing or coloring or stickers/washi and snazzing them up a little. I don't have anything kawaii but wouldn't mind starting a stash.

I like stashing up on any and all postcards now since starting postcrossing. I really try to send my recipients cards they'd really like and that would mean something to them.

Maybe someday when I have more time I will get into making homemade cards and other things.

No allergies. I LOVE chocolate. I love dark, strong coffee. I love chocolate with coffee. I love coffee with chocolate. I don't know if I'd like any odd chocolate with chili or something in it. Never tried it. Chocolate covered bacon? Never had but definitely interested in. Love hazelnut, coffee flavorings, hot chocolate.

Dislikes: marshmallow unless melted in a Rice Krispie bar or s'mores or something but that's it. Peeps? Ugh. Gross. Cadbury creme eggs. Such a hit at Easter time but not for me. Mushrooms. Honey unless it's something like honey flavored _____ or honey-mustard flavored _______.

NO ALLERGIES but please if you are sending something edible please make sure it's factory wrapped and sealed. Thank you!

Football. NFL. Vikings fan till I die. I bleed purple and gold!

Purple, Gold, Turquoise, Coffee, Chocolate, Stickers, Die cuts, Paper, Ephemera, Stamps - clear or rubber, Chipboard, Rub ons, Postcards, Greeting cards, Brads, Fabric scraps for scrapbooking (I don't know how to sew 😱 ), Flair, Berries, Letter stickers, Scriptures, Candy, Animals, Breaking Bad, Comedy/tragedy masks, Pumpkin, Coffee mugs, Silver rather than gold, Charms, Animals

I would love to receive things with roller skates (not rollerblades) on them. I never see them but I pretty much lived in the roller rink all through junior high, high school, and beyond. To this day, at 34 years old with 5 kids I keep my skates in the back of my minivan because you never know when I will have the opportunity to go and so I always know where they are. I've always said that I want to be buried with them! Lol

Also, I have a passion for breastfeeding. After I become a Registered Nurse, I am determined to become a Lactation Consultant or Breastfeeding Educator. Any job where I can be teaching anyone about the plethora of benefits that breastfeeding provides and I will fight until my last days for a moms right to feed her child anywhere and anytime without being belittled, harassed, or ridiculed. I would love to receive old vintage images of women nursing their babies. Not photos of people doing it now or even in the last couple decades, I mean really old stuff. Once in a while I will see things like this on Facebook. Or if you see something out of the ordinary related to a positive image or message about breastfeeding or nursing in public feel free! I know it's a long shot but definitely worth a try.