Home Movies

I was really trying to keep this thing updated, but then I went and got visitors...my sister and my niece (who is moving to Los Angeles...YAY! someone close!) and we are just having a wonderful time.

Anyway, tonight my sister and I watched old home movies of our family. I've had them here, in my fire-proof safe, for quite a while because I am planning on getting them put on DVD. But they are so out of order and mismarked, we needed to go through them. It's not unusual for the boxes to have more than one date or notation on them, so it gets very confusing. (Side-note: I've never minded the mismarked boxes. There was a certain charm and excitement to not knowing what you would actually see until you turned on the projector.) I don't think I've watched these movies for 20 years or so and my sister and I decided we must have watched the same ones over and over because we saw several we had never seen before.

This time, however, I was able to watch through a scrapbooker's eyes, or, if you will, an historian's eyes. While many of the movies were from "events" like Christmas and birthdays, I was also watching for the "details"...like when I caught my dad in the background nuzzling my cheek when I was a baby (I was such a daddy's girl), or the old slide in the yard, that my mom still has 50 years later, or even what the ceiling looked like on the old porch before we remodeled the house. There were many exclamations from us..."There's that sofa that is now in the basement." or "Why did Mother always have to fix my hair that way?" or "Gosh, Mom looked great even when running after 5 kids!"

We laughed at the interaction of all of us siblings and ooh and awed over ourselves as babies...me hollering to my boys, in the other room, to come watch me at my first birthday, or hunting Easter eggs, or playing with a kitten before I could walk. The vacations are there...my dad holding the hands of my brothers and sisters as he walked them into the waves of the ocean for the first time in their lives, and the time we visited relatives in Kansas...I didn't even know we had a movie of the aunt who raised my dad after he was orphaned. She died before I was 1 year old, so what a treasure to see her holding me.

Not all of these things are present in my current memory and not all of these things are immortalized in photographs. But they exist in these movies...thank goodness. And thank goodness for the technology to get this additional documentation of our history into a safe and lasting (for now) format. I can't wait to finish watching the rest of them tomorrow night!

Father's Day

As everyone knows, Father's Day is Sunday. This will be a very different Father's Day for me. It's the first one without my dad. I'm not even sure how I will feel on Sunday. Right now I'm just remembering last Father's Day. You see, my dad was already in a nursing home and not doing very well. My mom had brought him home for a few hours so he could spend the day with family celebrating him. Only, I didn't know that and no one called me. When I called my mom that night and found out that he had been home, but no one let me know, I was heartbroken. I didn't get to tell him Happy Father's Day. Not that he would have understood what I was saying, but I still wanted to say it.

I know my dad is in a better place now, but I'm still dreading Sunday. I will try to make it all about my husband, who is a terrific dad and deserves a day all about him. But my heart will be heavy. My sister is coming to visit tomorrow...I suppose we can remember Dad together.

Just wanted to post a tribute to my dad...a layout I did last year, right after Father's Day...my favorite photo of the 2 of us, when I was about 3 or 4.

End of School Update

OK, so school has been out for 2 weeks...and summer school is already in session, but I'm going to update anyway... ;)

Last week of school brought the 1st grade picnic with Kent and Kurt. We lucked out because instead of it being insanely hot, it was wildy windy. Then came the 5th grade party, held at a local amusement-type park. It was nice to be able to stay for the whole day with Wyatt.

That week was also Wyatt's baseball tournament. I was lucky and for once had the camera in the right place at the right time. Wyatt was playing 2nd base and a line drive was hit to him. He caught it about 4 inches off the ground for an out. I caught that moment in a photo - the ball is in his glove. Can't wait to scrap this one! Grant then graduated from 8th grade. Middle school was awesome for him - straight A's and he is going into high school with credits for 3 classes. We are so proud!

We ended the school year with a neighborhood pool party which has been our tradition for the past 6 years.
Now, summer school is in session. Grant is taking high school PE so he doesn't have to take it during the school year. Five hours of PE 4 days a week for 4 weeks! Wyatt is taking 4 fun classes like archery, law & criminal order, aviation, and computer web design. That leaves Kent and Kurt at home with me in the mornings. Reminds me of before they went to school and I'm enjoying the alone time with them immensely. The rest of our days are taken up by friends galore. So far, a fun, but very busy summer!

Another Scraproom Photo

Finally, I finished organizing my scraproom.  Well, at least for now...it's always a work-in-progress for me.  But I did get everything up off the floor and cleaned up and put somewhere.  I put just a few more photos in my photo album.  Maybe now I can actually be creative!