My Lifetime Story Week 10

Back with the My Lifetime Story week 10 challenge - childhood friends or pets.  I decided to focus on my best friend from Middle School - Michelle - who died when we were in 7th grade from heart complications. This affected my life for so long, but I have finally come to the conclusion that Michelle is probably better off in heaven where she is healthy again.  There is hidden journaling beneath the lyrics to the song Wish You Were Here by Mark Harris.

   

Hidden Journaling:

I remember the morning of November 16th, 1981 like it was yesterday. It was a  bright, sunshiny November morning and there was frost on the ground. I had just gotten up to get ready for school when the phone rang...and my world changed forever.

In 5th grade, a new girl had moved to town, Michelle ******. She and I became friends fairly quickly since we were kind of on the outside of the cool kids club.  We went to the same church, we spent time at her house. I was always amazed because she had all these older sisters that I thought were so cool.  We would do overnights at her house and it was utter chaos with all those girls around.  When we got to Junion High new opportunities arrived from us and aside from just classes, we became student managers for the 7th & 8th grade girls basketball teams.  I remember after one tourney where we had taken first place, we stood in my Grandma Hanson's kitchen and sang "We Are The Champions" at the top of our lungs.

Michelle's life wasn't perfect though.  She was born with a heart condition and had to be gone for treatments sometimes.  In November of '81 she was going to the University of Minnesota hospital for some surgery. I didn't fully understand the situation, but she kept telling me she would be OK and I didn't worry about it.

That morning of November 16th when the phone rang, I answered it and Michelle's mom was on the other end.  She asked me to get my dad. I naturally asked how Michelle was doing and all Sharon said was please go get your dad.  Sharon and Dad taught sunday school together, so I assumed it was something to do with that. But when Dad got off the phone, he told me to go wake up my mom and then he sat me down and told me that Michelle had died overnight. I was in shock.  It couldn't be real.  She told me she would be fine. How could she be dead?

I dressed and went to school like normal and by the time I got there, everybody knew already and I got lots of hugs and special attention from teachers that day, but it was all kind of a blur for me from then until the funeral.  I remember that in detail, even down to the plaid skirt, blue ruffled shirt and clogs I wore.

After that, I had trouble making close friends. I was too afraid of losing them. I just couldn't go through that again and I couldn't trust people when they said they wouldn't leave. It affected me for years. But just this year, 2010, I am finally able to let it go and realize that Michelle had no way of knowing that it would turn out that way. And that I need to celebrate the fact that she is in heaven, healed and living the most happy life where she can sing and dance and run without worry. I like to image her up there hanging out with Dad and all my grandparents. I think they are all watching down on me and cheer me on every single day. And I know there will be a day when we will be together again and we can stand in Heaven like 7th grade girls and sing "We Are The Champions" again.

Thanks for reading.....see you next week!!

My Lifetime Story week 9

Back again with another layout for the My Lifetime Story challenge over at faithsisters.com.

Week 9 - my childhood favorites.  I chose not to focus on toys or anything specific form my childhood, but on three things I really loved....playing make believe, traveling to see cousins and being at the lake.  So I used photos from each of those activities.  It was a really fun trip down memory lane for me. 

First Photo and Journaling (yes...those are bed sheets that we are wearing **LOL**)

Second Photo and Journalings (Yep...that is me on the horse)

Third Photo and Journaling (So sexy in those orange lifevests...not!!)

My Lifetime Story Prompts 5, 7 & 8

Sorry - this is gonna be a long one...I have been a bad bad blogger!!!

Promt #5 - My Grandparents

 

I loved doing these layouts about my grandparents. I was very blessed to be able to grow up in the same town as both sets of grandparents and therefore got to spend alot of time with them all.  Writing all this journaling about my experiences with them was a fun trip down memory lane, but also made me miss them.  I had so much journaling about them that I had to add a second page to each layout just to hold it all.  I sewed a second piece of the same paper on to the back of each layout for the extra journaling.  Here is a photo:

PROMPT #7 - My Siblings.

As I thought about creating this layout about my siblings, I kept thinking about how close knit we are and so I wanted to carry that theme through the layouts and decided to use fabric for my backgrounds instead of paper. I printed the journaling about each one on vellum so that the fabric could show through. Then I used photos of me with each sibling and one with me and that siblings family.

PROMPT #8 - Homes I have lived in

I have lived in alot of houses in my life, but I choose to focus on the two main houses in my life....the farm and then my Grandparents house, which we moved into in 1982. The journaling reads:

"Peeling paint, rotting wood, broken cement, leaky roof, cracking plaster walls, missing shingles, old wiring and plumbing, broken windows, old fashioned wallpaper, hand me down furniture Our houses had all of this and more, but we didn't really notice. We looked beyond all that and saw the "homes" we were blessed to have with more love than most people have, more than money can buy"

Thanks for looking!!! 

My Lifetime Story Week #4 - my parents

Wednesday was time for the 4th prompt for the My Lifetime Story over at Faithsisters.com. This week the challenge was to scrap your parents. I had a hard time with this one beause I could have written pages of journaling, but I decided just to do a quick bio of them as a couple and as indiviuals. If you would like to read the entire prompt, please click here.  I have to admit that I am really pleased with how this layout came out.

Close up of the journaling about them as a couple:

Close up of the journaling about dad:

Close up of the journaling about mom:

Thanks for checking out my layout.  I did do some other scrapping recently and will be back later to post some of those layouts.  Then I will be back later this week to post prompt #5 which is one of my faves so far.

Thanks for looking!!!

My Lifetime Story - Week 3 - Family Tree

Happy Wednesday everyone. I love short weeks, though having Monday off has thrown me a bit and I have trouble remembering what day it is this week.  Oops!

So it is time for week 3's My Lifetime Story prompt at Faithsisters.com.  The prompt this week is to create your family tree.  Here is a link to the details Week 3.  I decided to keep mine simple and not go back very far. There were a few details I didn't know so I left them blank to fill in later when I discover them.

I am proud to say that I created this word art myself with this quote that I just loved!

 

Thanks for looking!!!

My Lifetime Story Week 2 - Here I am

We started the second week of My Lifetime Story over at Faithsisters on Wednesday.  This week's prompt was to scrap about your birth. I am lucky enough to have my baby book as I go through this challenge and was so excited when I found that there were 2 of my birth announcements in there.  So I was able to use one of the actual announcements on my layout. 

My Lifetime Story - Week 2

This is a close up of the birth announcement:

The journaling:

A baby photo of myself. I didn't have one from the day I was born, but this is just a couple months old, so it was close enough.

thanks for looking!!!!  Will be back later with an update for Project 365

Caardvarks New Year kick Off Challenge

I made this card based on the Becky Fleck sketch on the Caardvarks site for their New Year Kick Off challenge. I just turned the sketch on it's side.  Thanks for looking.

CPS card Sketch 149

This is the birthday card I made based on the CPS sketch 149 below. 

Bo Bunny Sketch Challenge

I made this layout for the sketch challenge on the Bo Bunny Blog.  This is my neice, Georgia, on Christmas Eve in her pj's that were a little too short so we got to play with her belly button all night.....TFL

SKETCH:

MY VERSION:

Bo Bunny patterned papers; Bazzill Ribbon, American Craft thickers; scrap tag; misc button

More Project 365 photos

January 6 - I stayed home on Wednesday with a terrible migraine headache. I woke up around noon to find this present from Finn laying on the floor beside the bed...shredded toilet paper!!!  And even better is that I cleaned it all up, went back to bed and when I woke up again at 5, he had shredded it again on the other side of the bed. 

January 7 - I stayed home again on Thursday and when I got up late in the afternoon, I felt well enough that I could go online and check out some of the blogs that I follow.  As I was reading, Finn decided he needed to be right in my sightline.  Kind of hard to read that way!!!

January 8 - I wanted to scrap over the weekend, but I knew I couldn't do it with the pile of "stuff" left over from last weekend's scrap-a-thon, so I had to clean it up first.  It looks so nice and organized.  Too bad it doesn't stay like that.  It was destroyed again as soon as I finished the first layout later that night.

January 9 - I know the photo says that this was taken on January 10th, but it was just after midnight on the 9th, so I am counting it as a photo for the 9th.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Starbuck's vanilla bean frapaccino's with no whip.  I bring them home and put them in the freezer. Then later they are even slushier to eat than when I got it.  YUMMMMM!!!  Wish they made a light version tho!

Project 365 - Week 1 layout.  If you want to see the photos or the journaling better, just click on the photo for a larger view.

Thanks for looking!!!

My Lifetime Story Week #1

Wahoo!!  The challenge at faithsisters.com has officially started and I am so excited.  This week's prompt is to create your title page for the album you will create this year. More information can be found here

My Lifetime Story Week 1.

When I sat down to create my title page, I knew I wanted to showcase some photos of myself through the years.  I have to admit, I had alot of photos to start with and had a hard time narrowing them down.  There were ones that I absolutely loved and even some that I hated, but they were me....the true me, so I included a couple of those too. The interesting thing for me was to see all the photos laying on the page together because I realized that I have had the same cheeks from day 1....and I think they are kind of cute. I had never seen that before.  So already this challenge has made me see things about myself I didn't know.  Anyway....on to the layout.  I included lots of flowers and bling because those are two of my favorite things.

Some close ups:

I hope that you will venture over to Faithsisters.com and check out the challenge.  I am looking forward to the next 51 weeks and discovering more about myself.

I will be back tomorrow with more of my 365 photos...have a good one from today. 

Project 365 - Jan 4 & 5

January 4 - Finn in the garbage. I bagged up two bags of garbage to take out with me in the morning when I left for work. Later when I walked past the living room, I saw that Finn had torn them both open and pulled stuff out of the bags around the living room. So I got this black lawn and leaf bag and threw the two bags inside and picked up all the stuff that he had strung across the floor. I go back later and this is what I see....so I had to get a picture before I about killed him!!!!!!!!!!

January 5 - One of my co-workers and friends was diagnosed with breast cancer last september and has been on a medical leave ever since. She was having her 5th of 6 chemo treatments today, so we took a break from work and drove over to see her for a bit. We had all gone together and got her this "Fight Like a Girl" hoodie and cap, which she loved. So this is all of us squeezing into her chemo room for a visit. It sure was fun to see her and she looked fabulous!!

My LifeTime Story starts tomorrow so I will be back with my layout and the first prompt.

Project 365

I have decided to try my hand at the 365 challenge this year. The idea is to take a photo every single day and then have that and kind of your year in review. I have decided to kind of take a different spin and try to find one bright spot in every day to kind of remind me that my life doesn't suck as bad as I think it does *LOL* So here are the photos from the first three days.

Jan 3rd - I LOVE sharpened pencils..especially colored pencils. I know...a rare enjoyment for most I am sure, but it is a smile for sure for me!!



Jan 2nd - this is the mess left over from my weekend of scrapping. Those piles are a pain in the rumpus, but I love to look at them and know what I accomplished out of those piles.



Jan 1 - Who knew that cats even sleep like this. but Finn does all the time and I think it is pretty cute.





Just two more days until the start of My Lifetime Challenge. I will be back on Wednesday to share my title page. See you then!!!