Family Time

Now that school is finally out for the summer I am trying to squeeze in as much family time as I can. It isn't going to be easy: Kari is going to Academic camp in a couple of weeks and will be attending ACT Prep classes much of the other weeks. Keenan is going to Governor's Scholars for 5 weeks. Glenn is doing his usual summer "get everything ready for the new year" work at school.

Knowing that everyone is so busy it makes every mooment that we have together more important. This weekend, for example, we spent a large portion of Saturday morning assembling our new gas grill.





The kids managed to get along throughout the whole process and the final result was a grill ready to be used.....



Of course, that required that we actually give it a try, right? Keenan and Glenn prepared beef and chicken kabobs, along with potatoes and corn on the cob. It was DELISH!!



Photos really don't do the food justice, but I'll tempt you with it anyway.... YUM! YUM!! (Now we just need to get a table and some chairs so we can sit outside and enjoy the food.)

Make the most of what is left of the Memorial Day weekend and try to squeeze in a few minutes with your family too. Store up some memories!

4-Ever Friendships

As a young girl, the one thing that I ALWAYS wanted but I never had was a sister. I was the oldest of three children, the other two being boys. I wanted a sister so that I would have that best friend who was always there by my side, to tell my secrets to and to share my problems with.

The next best thing would have been a BFF.... the kind that was as close as a sister could be. I never really had that either. My family moved across the state when I was in sixth grade, forcing me to leave all of the friends that I might have had during those developmental teenage years and I don't think that I ever really fit in with the other kids at school. I was just too different.

Sure, I have friends, but I don't think that any of them is a true BFF type of relationship. To see one of those, I have to look no further than Kari and her BFF, Zoey.



That photo on the far left was taken when Kari was about 3 and Zoey was probably about 5. They met then and have been inseparable since. I know that there is no one in the world who knows Kari better than Zoey does. I also know that if Zoey needs to get something off of her chest, she probably texts Zoey first. These two have that special relationship that I always dreamed of having. I like to think that it isn't too late for that type of "sisterhood" to develop, but I'm really not too confident about it.

Memories...

Recently I purchased small portable photo scanner for one specific purpose: taking it to Mom's and scanning family photos. My son and I spent a long afternoon wading through photos of ancestors who had died, ancestors he never knew, and photos of his grandparents as they grew up.

THEN we reached the can that had MY childhood photos in it. BOY! did that bring back memories. I scanned a TON of them and brought them home where I could show hubby and my daughter.

I just used one of those pics to scrapbook some things that I WISH I had known then.....



Yep! That little scrawny, freckle-faced girl is ME in first grade! Boy, have I changed! I keep wondering what I would have been like if I were in first grade NOW. (The world has changed so much and KIDS have changed so much!) That girl never saw a computer during her elementary OR high school education. She learned to type on an electric typewriter and would have had NO idea what to do with an iPod. Her proudest possession as a young teen was the little record player and the small collection of 45s. When I think about how far technology alone has advanced in my lifetime it is AMAZING!!

Gone.... But Not Forgotten.....

To a scrapbooker, her camera is not just a thing....

It is a friend, something that is always at her side, ready to document whatever high points or low points come along.

That makes the loss of a camera a tough blow to take.

I should know. I have suffered the loss of not 1, but 2 cameras within the last year.

First there was my beloved Canon Rebel. I had paid for it in installments and purchased 2 lenses to go with it. It had been at my side for a Washington D.C. trip, St. Louis trip, and MANY family events. Then the pins in the memory card portion got bent and I decided it was more responsible to purchase a new camera, rather than pay to have it repaired.

In the meantime...........

I decided to use my old digital camera. It still functioned fairly well, though I really wasn't happy with the picture quality as it compared to my Rebel. Still it was a shock when I lost that camera too.... in a rather odd way.

I decided that it was a story that definitely needed documenting, so I created a layout to tell the story.



I will never forget this camera. It was the first digital one that I had owned. It taught me the basics of taking digital pics, uploading them to a computer, and using PhotoShop.

I WILL get another camera, of course..... I will have to. After all, I am a scrapbooker and being without a camera........ Well, it's like being without an arm or a leg.

Join Us for an Online Crop!

Challenge Masters is hosting an online crop in honor of National Scrapbooking Day. (For those rare creatures out there who don't know.... there REALLY is a day dedicated to my favorite hobby!)

The crop begins today, May 5 and runs through May 12. There are lots of great challenges, a BINGO game, a guessing game, you name it! It's sure to be TONS of fun and there are lots of great prizes to be won!

My contribution to the crop is the ice cream sundae challenge.
I posted a list of several ingredients that could be used to create ice cream sundaes. Each of those ingredients was then assigned a scrapbooking "equivalent". Each scrapper now uses my list to determine which scrapbook "ingredients" she must use to create their own layout.

Here's my sample:



My ingredients of choice were vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, chopped peanuts, and whipped cream. The scrapbooking equivalents were sewing, glitter, ribbon, and rubons.

There's a link to Challenge Masters right over there----------------------->
on the side..... Click on it and come on over to check out the fun that we are having! We'd love to see some of your work too!

If you can read this.......

Thank a teacher....

You may not know that this week is Teacher's Appreciation Week. Now I know that I'm a bit biased, being a teacher myself, but I have to say that teachers are truly worthy of appreciation.

I am a teacher because I was inspired to be one. From the time that I started school all that I ever wanted to be was a teacher. I saw it as a profession in which I could help others develop their abilities, their confidence, and their intellect. If I am totally honest, I have to admit that there are days.... (more than I care to admit sometimes) when I wonder if I am truly doing any of my students any good. Then a student seeks me out, just to talk, just to spend some time with me, or sometimes on rare occasions, to tell me how much they enjoyed something that we did in class. It is THOSE days that make me feel appreciated.

If you have a child whose teacher goes above and beyond the call of duty.... If you are a parent of a child who has had a teacher who did some little something to make school better for that child.... or if you just know a teacher who could use a little boost....... Please take some time this week, just to say, "Thank you. You really are appreciated!" Trust me..... it will make his or her day!