Just 2!!!

 

Jsut 2 layouts a day. That is my goal. Here is one from yesterday. I figure I should be taking the time to scan and post them.

 

 

I amm taking a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking from Heidi Swapp. We had to come up with a goal. This year I have several goals. To finish school (graduate in May), pass my CRC exam in April (hummm maybe that means I need to study, (Certified Rehabilitation Counselor exam)), and my biggest goal is to scrapbook 2 layouts a day. This has been an eye opening experience for me because I thought I would be down in my room for hours each night working on it. This goal has actually set me free from so much. I use to spend hours finding paper, embellishments, pictures, basically everything I needed to do the layout, than I would spend even more hours trying to figure it out to get it just right. God forbid I attach anything till I was 100% sure that was how I wanted the layout. I am free now. I am not even really thinking about it. I am grabbing paper (even using up tons of those scraps in the pile) and embellishments and attaching them. I just started building on the layout as I go instead of moving it all around. I figure once it is down, I will have to make it work. Layouts seriously use to take me 2 to 3 hours to get done. Now I might spend 1/2 an hour on one max. I am getting 3 to 4 done in the evenings now. I am loving it. At this rate I will be done with all 40 years of pictures I have sitting in boxes by the end of the year. It just feels so good to know that I have already done a full album this year and starting a new one. Here are my two from yesterday, I figured to stick to my goal maybe I should be scanning and posting them.

 
Just trying to empty out some old photo albums. I really want to get some of these old photos scrapped and journaled about. Here is a really oldie. The girls playing in the balls at McDonalds in December 1991. These pictures crack me up because Ashly now has a son this age, and Amanda is going to be 20 soon. Ohhh I feel so old.

Mini Album #1

Tuesday night I am teaching make and takes at a local LSS in my area. Every week it is hard to come up with ideas for new things to teach. This month I am focusing on a different mini album each week. At the make and take they just get to assemble the basic album, not decorate it. They are sent a list of supplies and can bring them to stay and decorate their albums. This is the one I am doing this week. I love spending time with the different people that come on Tuesday nights.

My goals for the coming year!

Do you make resolutions? I heard today on the news that only 14% of people are sticking with their resolutions after only 3 weeks. Wow!! I decided I don't need to make a resolution, that odds are I am not going to be sticing with in 3 weeks. I did decide that I am going to list my goals that I hope to accomplish this year.

School related:
1. Graduate in May!!
2. Study and pass my CRC exam on April 28. (This one scares me to death.)

Family:
Take a summer vacation, school has been a bugger the last couple years and we have put off major family trips. Okay gas prices didn't help either.

Spend more time, just enjoying them. Taking walks, riding bike doing whatever, just enjoying the time I have left with each of them. (Heck Megs will be a senior next year and Jerad right behind her as a Sophmore.)

Craft Related: (this will be long)
Get ORGANIZED, I really need to do this in my scrapbooking and quilting areas. Figure out what I have and get it all organized.

Do Mike's WWII scrapbook. I already sorted the pictures, but really want to get the entire album done documenting that time in history.

Scrapbook all my old photos. Get them all put into albums and done so that I can scrapbook in a proactive way rather than reactive way. I sorted all the photos into groups the last couple days, and now I just need to get tons of pages done.

Quilting, I want to get Megan's quilt done (started it last week), do a quilt for Jerad and one for Sam and I.

Those are my basic goals. Oppss forgot the most important one.......ME!!! I want to really work on becoming healtier, I am not going to say loose weight because I think by becoming healthier that will be part of it. I really want to just enjoy life more and become healthier. I really worry about Sam's health and so maybe by the two of us working together we can do it.

Okay they kind of sound like resolutions, but they really are my goals for the year.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas. Ours is very mellow, just the way we like it around here. We do most of the cooking on Christmas Eve, so we can spend today just munching and hanging out together. We splept in, opened all our presents and are just hanging out playing with them. The kids are playing with the new ipods, and Jerad is jamming to his Guitar hero PS2 game.

Sam is watching football, I am scrapbooking and just trying to go through some old pictures. I am working on a heritage album from the Marman/Geiger history. Here are two layouts I have done today.

Happy Holidays

So I can't believe it is already December 20th. On this day I take a moment to think of what life would have been like had Jesse grown up. She would have turned 21 in October. Oh wow the drinking and partying. She only lived just over 2 short years. She was killed in a car accident on icy roads. My friend Ellen was driving that day. She had her girls in their seatbelts and Jesse in her car seat, but when she hit ice there was not much she could do. Ellen and Jesse both lost their lives that day, and Maria went through some major surgeries and has come out an amazing woman because of it. Beth was not seriously hurt that day. Jess and Ellen will forever be in my prayers.

Saddness is such a powerful thing, I try to understand it but not wallow in it too long because it could suck one into a deep dark hole. So movin on to happier thoughts. There are only 5 more days till Christmas? WHAT?? Say it isn't so. What ever am I going to do. I have most of my presents purchased, but I am still working hard on finishing Amanda's present. I decided to whip out my sewing machine that hasn't been used in probably 3 or 4 years and put it to work. I am making her a quilt. The amazing thing is besides buying the batting for the lining, I am using material that I have had for the last 4 or5 years sitting in boxes. I moved the family room around and set up myself a little sewing place in the corner in the back. It is kind of nice because I can sit and watch tv in there and just hang out with my family while I am working on her quilt. I have the top almost done and than I will be busy putting it all together in the coming days. I am going to really work hard to get a lot of it done tonight.

Seeing Red

 

This was a fun layout I did this mornig of Sam. He use to have these one piece long john pajamas that he would put on and we would all get a chuckle out of how he looked in them. Seriously if he had a santa hat and beard he could pass for him. I had to srap them in a funny way because when I look at the pictures I still laugh. 

Love

 

This is a layout I did of Sam and I with a picture that the kids took a couple years ago. It is one of my favorite pictures of us.