Happy Like a Dog With Two Tails

So I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned out my dry sink, the cabinet where all my photo albums were "stuffed" inside.  It felt like the cabinet was overly unorganized because every time I had to get in there, stuff would fall out.  Loose photos, school papers to put in the girls' school books and random baby book things.  I was pleasantly surprised that once I got the first layer of stuff pulled out and placed in their respective books, my cabinet was already cleaned and organized.   It only took me a couple of hours to do the whole job and it would've taken me a lot less had I not taken the time to go down Memory Lane.  I started looking through albums and going through packages of 35 mm film photos.  I didn't realize that my albums were more up to date than I thought.  I have almost all my regular photos put in albums, but what overwhelms me is that I have about 9 years worth of digital photos that should be printed and put in albums.  5 or 6 years ago when I figured out how much that project would cost me at 9 cents a photo, it was around $600. 

What is most exciting thing about cleaning out that cabinet is I found a few scrapbooks that I've had for years and had forgotten about.  Someone had given me a baby scrapbook for Ellen when she was born.  I started it, got only one page done but I remember being so stressed out about my chances of ruining the book, I couldn't finish it. So I figured now was the time as any to get it done.  While I was waiting on photos to be delivered to finish that scrapbook, I started the other one for Marcella.  Oddly enough, the theme for this scrapbook was called "Marcella".  How fitting.  Again, my stress level rose as I was trying to figure out what the heck I was doing.  After I went to the store to buy the proper tape and glue, I couldn't enjoy the process of scrapbooking because I was so worried about wasting the pages and finishing the book with plain white pages.  So back to the store I went and bought a booklet of printed pages that matched the theme as best as I could.  This book was so old, that refills were no longer available.  Then I raided my daughter-in-law's scrapbook tools and all of a sudden, I was really enjoying my time assembling my first scrapbook.

Needless to say, my kitchen table was taken hostage for over two weeks as I worked on these scrapbooks.  Late nights, early mornings and a few minutes here and there during nap times, I was working on those babies!  I've been bitten by the scrapbook bug!  I have one more scrapbook left to do and I have no idea what theme to do with it.  Instead of journaling, this book has buttons where you can record your voice about the photos.  It's got a basic floral theme and no embellishments, just stickers... I think.  Please comment ideas for me!

 

It was really nice going down Memory Lane while I was working on these scrapbooks, but I often found myself feeling depressed.  I realized that Ellen's babyhood flew by way too fast, that I didn't even remember most of the memories with her until I saw the photos.  I know that's normal, people say, that with your first child, you remember every detail and the more children you have, the faster time flies and less you remember.  But at the end of the day, once the scrapbooks were done, it was nice sitting one-on-one with each of my daughters and going through their very own scrapbook of their first two years of their lives.

 

 

Teaching responsibility

 



I love how my girls are so honest.  Ellen came home from school last week with a very worried look on her face.  She told me she got in trouble for running around in the library.  She lost one rotation to go to the library and has to choose a classroom book instead.  At first she didn't try to cover up her story and sugar coat it nor did she try to blame her friend she was with.  The teacher sent home a note and basically confirmed exactly what Ellen had told me.  Then the tears came.  She was so worried that I would be mad at her and even more worried that Daddy would yell at her.  I simply said that I wasn't mad at her but if she did it again, then I would be upset with her.  I told her we all learn from our mistakes, even grown ups.  How else would we learn if we were perfect all the time?  She decided to write a sorry note to the librarian.

  

In case you can't read it:  "Dear Miss L and Miss B.  I am sorry I was running in the library.  I won't do it again.  Love Ellen"

 

I'm so proud of her.

 

 

Grandma Again!!!

 

I finally got to meet my newest granddaughter, Elliana.  She is four months old, just a few days older than Camden, my newest grandson.  That's Haley, her mom and my stepson's girlfriend.  

 

 Isn't she the cutest???

 

This frigid artic weather is killing me.  I've mimicked a snake's life by gorging large amounts of food, lounging around promoting a very slow digestion and peeling scaly skin.  My jeans barely fit me anymore and I feel well.... icky.  Groundhog day is coming around the corner and I vow every year to shoot the rodent.  It doesn't matter if he sees his shadow or not.  There's ALWAYS at least six more weeks of Winter.  Spring doesn't come until the end of March.  Duh!