Do you think I am a bit obsessed?

So do you think I have an obsession with old family photos? Of course I do. I probably have another couple of hundred photos that my grandmother had stashed in her place down here in Florida. Many of these I have never even seen before. I never realized that my grandfather had so many photos taken of himself. Let me tell you I am grateful, because I have them to cherish now, but I never would have expected it from him. He always so quiet, I never expected him to be the one out there in front of a camera. It also appears that he had quite a playful side when he was younger also.

In these photos here though you are looking at my parents. My dad in 1965 while in the Marines. Me as a child, chunky butt wasn't I? Mom, sis and me, one of our few professional photos taken. I am assuming that my father was in Vietnam when this photo was taken also since he is not present. He was in Vietnam for three tours, when it started, in the middle and at the end, so this was probably the case here. Since this would have been in the first part of the 70's. The last picture of course is a snapshot someone took of my parents wedding.

Christmas journal #27

Christmas journal #27. Today we had to use blue with maybe some silver or gold I believe it said. Our topic today was "sleep" during the holidays. Usually not a problem for me considering I always have the holidays off. One awesome thing about my job.

Christmas journal #26

Pretty simple I know, but not much to say about my day after Christmas, since we don't celebrate boxing day here in the states. Usually what I end up doing for this day is just hit the after Christmas sales. Stocking up on Christmas supplies for the next year.

Script reads:

Believe...I truly believe that I will find great after Christmas sales. Usually for me this day is for finding great sales for next year's holiday decorations. Of course when I travel for the holidays I am not able to truly experience this day, because I tend to overpack already. No room for anything new. I did make a few new purchases this year (I couldn't resist). I just have to find a way to squeeze it in, but I do BELIEVE!

Christmas journal #25

Christmas Past

Let's take a peak at me when I was a little thing. I am the blonde sitting in front of the Christmas tree, the other one is my sister. I kept my promise with my grandmother to sort through her old photos with her. While doing so I came across this one of me when I was a child that I have never seen before. Just thought you might like a laugh.

Christmas Journal #24

Christmas journal day #24

We were suppose to write about what we like about Christmas. Of course giving presents is a huge thing for me, but I truly love relaxing to Christmas decorations and music.

Script reads:

Christmas Magic

There is something magical
about Christmas. I love being
surrounded by the decorations
and music. It makes everything
in my world beautiful
even when it isn't.

-Christmas Eve 2005-

Life isn't always perfect for me, even during the holidays, but sitting surrounded by holidays decor and listening to some beautiful Christmas music helps to make my world more colorful.

I'll pray for strength

I went over to my grandmother's house today to help her go through her old photos. Looking at my book for her made her want to look at all of her other old photos. While doing this we came across some old letters also. One of these letters was written by my father in 1980. He was telling my grandmother about a "rock-a-thon" that I was in for Girl Scouts. We were doing this to raise money for some disaster that had happened. When I say rock-a-thon, I am talking about rocking in a rocking chair. He said that I made it the entire 24 hours, but that I was so tired afterwards. He ended the story by saying that I was always the one to help someone that needed help and that he was so proud of me. I was eleven years old at the time.

Growing up my father rarely praised us, well at least not that I really can remember. I wanted to cry when I read the letter because I struggle with my relationship with my father now. He is not one to express pride towards his family members. It seems that he is one that needs acceptance from those outside of the family, whereas I care more about my family than what anyone else thinks. I would really like to have a better relationship with him. I think that maybe both of us are a bit too stubborn, and not really trying to understand the other. He has not really been around since we have been visiting in Florida, when he is home he hides in his bedroom. This bothers me, but I think that maybe he realizes that I am upset with him and doesn't really say anything to us because of that. Maybe I need to be a better person and get over it. My father is an alcoholic (not an abusive one) and major smoker his entire life. I don't think that he is a bad person, just that his values are different than mine. Who knows how long he will continue to be around, and I don't want to regret things after he is gone. I think I'll pray for strength.

Christmas Journal-Day #7

Yes, I am a bit behind here. This is my day #7 of my Christmas journal. The scanner cut off the writing along the edges. It lists some of the items that I purchased for this holiday season. Gifts: games, sleds, remote control Hummers, perfume, clothes, Dell computer, television, stereo, movies, etc.

What I didn't tell about my shopping habits is that I usually complete my shopping pretty early. I had almost all of my shopping done by Thanksgiving day. I never go out for Black Friday, that is just plain crazy. I usually hit the sales at Meijer on Thanksgiving day. I get up at 5 am to do my shopping. Most people don't go on this morning, so it isn't nearly as crazy as the other major shopping days. I don't usually shop online, but I did allow my daughter to pick out some items at Hot Topic and ordered it online. I also ordered my computer over the phone. Other than that I enjoy running out to the stores and experiencing the excitement of holiday shopping.

She LOVED it!

Here is a picture of my grandmother as she is looking at the heritage book that I made for her Christmas present this year. It was so sad, she was crying as she was looking at the pages. As she looked at each old picture she did exactly what we thought she would do. She tried to tell us exactly what was taking place at the time of the photo. Like the photo that my father said was her wedding picture was not. She explained that she was not sure but they never did take any pictures on their wedding day.

I am so happy that I decided to create this album for my grandmother. She told me that I could not know how much she appreciated the book. That it was the best present that she ever received. When I dropped her off at home, before leaving she picked the book up and looked through it again. This was the best present that I have received this year, seeing how much she enjoyed it.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with my grandmother. She asked me if I could add any pages to her book. She wants me to come over and go through some of her old pictures with her and pick out some that she wants to include. My grandmother was a registered nurse, and I know she wants me to make a page from a picture she has of her in her nurses uniform. It really makes me happy to know that she is so pleased with it. I told her I would come over tomorrow to look through some of the pictures with her. We are also working on getting a tape for the video camera to record her. Unfortunately we didn't have one to use during Christmas. It might be a good idea to record her going through the pictures. This will refresh her memory and allow her to give details to all of the pictures.

Grandmother's book

Finally I have completed her book, just in time for Christmas. Well I still had more photos that I could have included, but I think twenty-one pages is plenty.

Script reads:

Dear Grandmother,

I tried to think what sort of presents you would like for Christmas this year. All that could come to mind was this scrapbook. I imagine that the best present you could receive during this part of your life is one that reflects back on some of the wonderful events of your lifetime.

This book was created with love for you to enjoy as often as you wish. Hopefully these pages will help open your mind to the memories of your past for you to cherish forever.

With all of our love,



Rhonda, Jason, Joey
& Rona

Merry Christmas
December 25, 2005

I was pretty rushed and didn't get to put nearly enough thought into my introduction page, but I think this will do.

I let you know how she likes it later.

Grandmother's book

Grandmother's book

Grandmother's book

Okay, it is time for the countdown. I am a bit more behind with my grandmother's book than I thought I would be. Although yesterday was a bit busy for me, which I didn't really plan on it being. I did a lot of running around for my grandmother. She had me pick up a surprise present for my mother. She always tells me how good my mother is to her, which she is. Then I took her to church for mass, then of course we stopped for dinner on the way home. My grandmother LOVES to go out to eat, and she loves it sweets. So today I am going my make some chocolate chip cookies for her to eat.

So anyways, here are three more pages for her book. I am not sure how many more I will get accomplished, but I'm sure she will enjoy however many I can get completed.

I didn't think that she was going to be spend Christmas with us here at the house. She walks with a walker so she doesn't come over because getting up the stairs is too difficult for her. I mentioned that I would bring the kids over later today when we bring her dinner, and she said, "oh, I am coming over there." She said that she was going to try her hardest to get up the stairs. She doesn't want to miss spending the holidays with me and the kids. This is so sweet considering that I know how difficult it will be for her. She figures that between me and my nephew we will be able to get her up. Too bad my sister and her kids couldn't make it, then our family would be complete for the holidays.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone!

Grandmother's book

Christmas journal #23

Snapshots of holiday's daily living

One of the most recent prompts that I am suppose to use for my journaling class includes pictures of the messy/clean house on that day. Well since I am not home I had to just take a few pics here at my mom's house in Florida. I'll try to take a few of mine when I get home to go into my journal. The two pics that I have included are the major mess on my mom's kitchen table that I have taken over these past few days to work on the Christmas journal, and my grandmother's book. The scrapbook in the box on the center of the table is the one that I am using for my grandmother's pages. Hopefully you can find it in the mess. This photo is brutally honest about my use of a scrapbooking space. I tend to pull everything out when I decide to work on pages, when I am finished it looks like a tornado hit (well in Florida I should say a hurricane). The other picture is a picture of my mother's Christmas tree. She wasn't actually planning on putting one up this year, but since we decided to come down she put one up for us. Oh, other than that small wreath on the wall near the door, and the tree that is about it for my mom's Christmas decor.

Reflections

I thought these photos of my son, Joey, at the airport were cute. He is looking out the window at the planes, but he is so close to the window that I captured his face to face with his own reflection.

Grandmother's

My grandmother as a young woman. In my eyes my grandmother is such an incredible woman. I am so impressed with her strength. She knows what she wants, and seems to be fearless. She is 85 years old, and every day she amazes me with who she is. She has a very soft and giving side also. The woman that I hope to be would definately be a combination of the two most important women in my life, my grandmother and mother. Two awesome women, that both have qualities that I truly admire.

Christmas journal #22

Even though I just mentioned that I am known to procrastinate, sometimes I am amazed at how good I am at getting things done. Such as Christmas tasks...besides my failure with sending out cards, I pretty much complete all other tasks fairly early. Such as tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving. My gift shopping has been done for some time now.

Another example would be my wedding. The night before my wedding we pretty much sat around with nothing to do. Everything was done before schedule. All we had left to do was decorate the hall, but we couldn't do that until the morning of the wedding. Also making the tissue flowers to decorate the car, which was totally a waste of time considering the fact that it started raining right before the ceremony so they never got put on.

Anyways, here is my SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE list of things to accomplish before the holiday.

Photo quality

Something to add about the heritage pages that I am creating. The quality of my grandmother's photos are so impressive. These pages go back to the 30's or 40's. I find this particularly impressive knowing where these pages came from. My grandmother had all of these and many more in a shoebox file system. I was so happy when she allowed me to take them and scan them to my computer, where I have since loaded the on to discs.

Grandmother's book

Coming along a bit better here. My mom kept asking me if I would be able to finish it before Christmas. I have no doubt in my mind that I will have it finished. Even if it means staying up all night Christmas Eve to get it completed. Sometimes I tend to procrastinate too much, but when I have a deadline I always finish whatever I am doing on time. Of course this has caused to me pull some all nighters, but that is usually with term papers.

Anyways here's two more to add to the book.

Grandmother's book

Grandmother's book

My grandfather as a soldier

Christmas journal #20

Christmas journal #20, getting there, still have a few to catch up with further back.

Script reads:

I won't be home until after
the first of the year, but I don't
imagine that my mailbox is
overflowing with Christmas greetings.
To be honest, I highly doubt that
many people even have my
current address. I promise
to improve on this next year!

Actually I do hand deliver some Christmas cards personally, so I am not completely out of the holiday tradition. I gave just a few cards out this year to:

My parents
My grandmother
My boyfriend
My sister
My ex-husband (for kids, but
I did sign my name also)
My ex-in-laws

I truly do want to improve on sending cards though, because there are other important people in my life that do deserve at least a card from me around the holidays if not any other time of the year.

Oh, and did you notice the mess up on my page. I wrote "but I don't imagine that MAY mailbox" oops it is suppose to be MY. I'll try to fix it later.

Grandmother's book

My grandfather with my father & uncle

Grandmother's book

Grandmother's book

As much as I am enjoying the Christmas journal, my priority has to be finishing my grandmother's book before Christmas day. So here I go with some of her pages. As I said before I do not know the history behind these pictures so I am not sure what the story behind the pictures are. This is a picture of my grandmother when she was I believe around 18 years old.

Christmas journal # 19

This is my Christmas journal page #19. This one was kind of fun, I used a bit of humor with it. My note to Santa is folded up inside the envelope.

Script reads:

Christmas with the Big Guy
Warm Winter Wishes
Come true in Florida

Letter reads:

Santa,

Hopefully you have received my temporary change of address for the holidays. I know Florida is a change of pace from the usual frosty temperatures in the North, but if you could drop me off a few new scrapbook supplies for the holidays that would be awesome. I know it is hard to tear yourself away from the warm weather and the beach, but slip your boots back on and your jolly red suit and stop by to see me. I'll be sure to keep the fireplace out just for you.

Lots of Love,

Rhonda

P.S. How's skim milk & chocolate chip cookies sound?

Christmas journal #17

Here is my page #17. I have created this since I have been here in Florida. I just managed to get my mom's scanner fixed. She needed a new USB plug and the software downloaded. She didn't have her disc, so I had to search for it on the internet. Luckily things worked out so that I can continue to post some of my pages on here during my visit.

I couldn't really think of any presents that I gave that as soon as I saw it I knew it was for someone, so I decided to write about the most special present that I have ever given to anyone, that could only be appreciated by that person.

This gift was given to my mother, and she truly appreciates it. It was loaded with pictures of her mother and father, and of course us. She made a page herself along with me, and she couldn't think of anything either, so she decided to write about the best present that she ever received, which was my scrapbook to her.

Florida, here we are!!

Well here I am finally in Florida. I guess I arrived sometime last night about six. I created a page for my journal last night, but until I get my mom's scanner set up I won't be able to post them to my blog. I'll try to work on it today. I also had my mom create her own page with me. It is nice to watch her make them. She isn't comfortable with her own creativity, so she usually only does it when I am here. It gives us something to do together.

We have plans to go visit my grandmother later on in the day after my mother comes home from work. I haven't seen her yet, but I did talk to her on the phone shortly after arriving yesterday.

Not much to talk about yet, but I think I am going to work on some pages while my mom is gone. Maybe do some catching up.

My Christmas Present

Isn't she beautiful? Todd gave me this for Christmas yesterday. I love it! It is hand carved out of wood, with a wonderful selection of bright lively colors. I've never seen this collection before, but it is created by Jim Shore, and this is from his Heartwood Creek collection.

Now all I have to do is find a special place for her in my home. Todd said he picked this specific one because he thinks that I am a great mother, and she is called "Mother, You're An Angel."

Back to school AGAIN

After two terms of taking a break from classes, I am getting off of my butt and taking a few more next term. I registered for my classes this week. They will be starting in mid January. About that time I will be just about ready for something to keep me busy, since I will still be off of work then still.

I have decided to take two classes this time, English Comp II and Speech. I took Speech once but decided to drop out because I could not understand what my professor was saying. Hopefully this time I have a better one. Now English Comp II is a different story, this class I should enjoy.

Most people think that speech would be an easy class for me to take. I don't mind the writing, but getting up in front of everyone makes me extremely nervous. I'm not sure how I appear to others, but in my mind there is nothing but complete chaos going on when I am in front of an audience.

Anyways, looking forward to January.

So here are my Christmas carolers

I'm not exactly sure where these guys
came from, but I thought they
were kind of cute!

2005 Christmas cards

Actually I should have used the picture of this Santa with the white background instead, but this was a spur of the moment thing to have done while I was at the photo counter getting pictures copied. This just happened to be one of the few that I had on the disc with me.

There is another one that would have been good. It was one of all my Santas lined up on my entertainment center, but dummy me had all the Santas facing the wrong way instead of me. Maybe next year I'll get it right.

Christmas journal #9

Still doing some catch up on my journal. Finally completed another one that I had been skipping around. This is my page #9 of my journal. This page was dedicated to traditions. We were suppose to express either ones that we had, or new ones that we wanted to start, etc. Because my life changes so much from Christmas to Christmas never knowing where we might be, or if I will even have my children or be alone I find it difficult to have traditions. I have some in mind, they just never seem to happen the way is visualize them happening.

Of another challenge with this page was to have hidden journaling. My hidden script reads:

"It is hard for me to have family
traditions to share with my children,
because it seems that each year
changes. We never know where
we will be or who we will be with.
Traditions are very important to me
and I do try to do my best to
establish some new ones with my
children in the years to come.
Life is so much more complicated
than it was when I was a child
celebrating Christmas."

Reflections of Time

Another page completed for my grandmother's book. This book is going to be for her to reflect back on the memories of her life years ago. You would not believe how many black & white photos of hers that I have copied. Like this cute picture of my father when he was a baby.

I just love old photos. Not sure what it is about them that I like so much. Maybe their style of clothes, the looks on their faces, the seriousness captured in the pictures. Whatever it is I love it. Kind of makes you wonder what our kids will think of photos of us as they get older. Will they say "I just love looking at old photos!" Or will it be "Gosh, look at this, you look like such a geek." Just looking back at photos from when I was a child myself, or a teenager I imagine that they will pick the second statement instead.

It took me a long time to realize the importance of taking pictures. Probably why you won't find a whole lot of me when I was younger, but you will find an abundance of me now. So I can reflect back when I am older and see how much I have changed over the years. Of course this might not be such a good idea, this might cause someone to go into a state of depression....ME!

I always thought Christmas was magic...

This is part of the Christmas card that I bought for my parents this year. I liked the little Santa Claus in the Christmas globe. The scanning took away some of the magic of the card (the glitter doesn't show so well). I just really liked the card and wanted to share it.

While I am there I will probably find a way to help her put the card into a page for her scrapbook.

Christmas journal #10

Okay, this is what I completed (well almost completed entirely) last night while waiting to meet my ex-husband so that he could get the kids for the holidays. I completely everything last night except for the script, which reads:

My giftwrapping techinques
are usually quite simple.
Neatly creased paper-minus a
bow, which usually gets
smashed, or a bag and
tissue paper

Of course not just any old bag. It has to be something wonderful that expresses the holiday spirit. Such as this Santa that I have taken from one of my giftbags that were purchased last year.

Doesn't he look like a Jolly Old St. Nick?