Library of Memories

I'm taking a class online called Library of Memories and it is absolutely wonderful! It's about organizing your pictures in a way to help you make connections and capture the memories that are really important rather than just slapping photos and captions on a page. A recent assignment was to create a page noted your Least Common Layout. If you had asked me before the assignment I would've said that I did a pretty good job of capturing the people we love on my layouts. However, after looking through my books, I noticed that all the people were certainly represented but there was not much in the way of describing why they were special and what I loved about them. So as a jumping off point I decided to do a layout about my Dad and his nickname, Fossil, and also why that nickname has evolved into so much more than just a endearing term for Grandpa. I'm looking forward to looking at my photos in a new light and being sure to capture the wonderful and quirky personalities of those I love in order to preserve them for us now and for future generations.

Do you have a monkey?

This is a question I've been asked more than once at the grocery store. You see, both of my boys are avid health shake drinkers (so we go through 6-8 pounds of bananas per week). No need to scroll down through my posts to see if I forgot to mention another son, I still only have one boy and one girl, but as you'll recall, I also have a husband. My mother, just days before my wedding, gave me the best piece of marital advice, she said "always remember that your husband is your oldest child". At the time I laughed, listening but not really understanding, however now I totally get it. Hence, the "my boys" comment.

My darling hubby is seriously a kid at heart - sometimes it's endearing, sometimes it's infuriating, but it all washes out. In fact, when we first moved into one of our old neighborhoods, the kids told he and my son to "go ask your mother" if they could play - and they meant me!! Now, keep in mind I am 17 months older than him, but it's not as if I'm a gray hair and he's a young chippee - it was totally behavior based :-) So you see, sometimes I feel married, sometimes I feel like I have three children instead of two, and well, sometimes I just feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of monkeys!

Resulting scrapbook page:

It's ok to be me

It's so nice to have a friend that I can just be me with. No worries, no pretentions, no falsehoods - just me, plain and simple. I'm am very lucky to have someone close by that I can let my hair hang down and just be ME. I hope everyone has as least one person like that!

Stef & I at Halloween, the cowboy and the convict - so much fun!

Library of Memories: Decade in Review

So many wonderful things have happened over the last ten years. While sorting through my photos for my online class I thought it would be cool to do a 10 year snapshot - so here it is.