I'm Back!!!

Hi everybody,

I can't believe my last blog post was August 29, 2013, almost one year ago.  Wow!  So much has happened to me during the last  year and I just wanted to tell you a little about it and hope that you'll check out my blog again.  I hope I didn't lose all of my wonderful followers.

I won't go into a whole lot of detail but here goes....  Last August I actually took the Standard and Intermediate Copic Classes to get certified.  Lori Craig was the instructor and she was fabulous.  If you haven't taken these classes, you will learn things you didn't know I promise.  THEN, it all started....

In September I decided after thinking for a very long time about it, that I wanted a divorce after 13 years of marriage.  I wanted this with no doubts at all but I knew it would be very uncomfortable for awhile and I knew the next step would be to move.  OMG!  I cried as I was packing up my card room.  It was so sad to me because I knew I wouldn't be able to make cards for awhile and all my stuff was a mess now anyhow.  I did like my card room I have to say, but that's no reason to stay married lol.  :)

In November I moved to Mississippi.  My family and school friends all are here so it's really where I've wanted to be for a long time.  I am originally from Southaven, MS and I lived in St. Louis for 20 years so seeing my friends after all this time has been wonderful.  My Dad let me move into my Grandmother's house with Barney.  Oh YES, Barney went with me.  I would've fought tooth and nail for my baby. :)  It is just a little two bedroom house on 70 acres in Myrtle, MS, pretty much the middle of nowhere but I was grateful to have a place to move.  I knew it wouldn't be forever anyway but just to get me down here, I am so thankful to my Dad for that.  We were never that close until this happened.  It brought us together and he has helped me so much.  I unpacked my card room but it just didn't feel right.  I didn't feel creative.  I thought I could just jump back into it but it didn't happen.

The holidays came and went and it was nice to see family and not have to drive 5 hours.  I found out after the first of the year that my ex put my two 14 year old chocolate labs to sleep, Pebbles and Bambam.  I was crushed to say the least.  They weren't really ready for that but he had to move and couldn't take pets with him. ????   I know they're in a better place but I still can't believe they're gone.  I have had them since they were 5 weeks old.  I feel like I gave birth to them.  Barney is eight.  I don't have kids so these dogs have been my kids so to speak.  I know I have a lot of animal lover friends so you know what I mean.

I wasn't looking to date anyone or anything like that but at the end of January, a guy named Richie Bailey that went to my school sent me a message on Facebook about something I posted and we just started chatting and then went out and here I am today.  He knew that it was important to me to be able to make cards and his house is about an hour from the house in Myrtle so he asked if I wanted to set up a card room at his house and he helped me and I LOVE my space here, matter of fact I am going to move into his house in September.  He's the one and I wasn't even looking.  What's funny is I used to spend the night with his sister, who is my age, but he was never there.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know kind of why I've been MIA.  A lot more has happened but I hit the high points.  I'm going to start posting cards again and there are several techniques that I'd like to play with and if they work, I'll share them with you.

I hope you'll stick with me now.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Regina Cooper

P.S.  My name is Regina Cooper now, not Regina Hardy.  I went back to my maiden name :)