This & That

Happy Halloween!!

Hope your Halloween is filled with trick-or-treaters, cute costumes, pumpkins and chocolate!

10/20/30

A different kind of tag from Jen today.  The challenge was to tell about where you were ten years, twenty years and thirty years ago.  I'm hoping my memory will stand the test of time.

Ten years ago: 10/30/97
I was probably at my busiest home-wise, as I had all six kids at home.  We were in this same house, in this same town and I had 2 boys in high school, a boy in Jr. High and two boys in elementary school.  DD was two.  It was a wonderfully busy, tiring time of life, full of school stuff mostly.  Interesting little side-light here.  DD has a church youth group Halloween party tomorrow night and was whining about a costume.  I told her she could use whatever she could find out in our big Rubbermaid of costumes and she pulled out the chocolate chip cookie felt creation that I made for her in 1997.  It fits a little differently, but it's all good.

Twenty years ago: 10/30/87
We lived in St. Paul, MN, while DH was attending the University of MN in Minneapolis....the end of some long schooling.  We had three little boys and this was Halloween that year.  Those ghost costumes were chosen on purpose because they could hide the multitudinous layers of coats/thermals/hats that trick-or-treating in MN requires.  This was the year I was asked one of the most memorable questions ever.
Store clerk (in hushed and shocked tones as she looked at me and the three boys at the check-out counter)-- "Are they all yours??'
Me-- "Yes."
Store clerk-- "On purpose???"
Makes me alternately annoyed and laugh every time I think of it.

10/30/1977
I was  18, a sophomore in nursing school at BYU.  My family lived in Springville, UT, at the time and I'd lived my freshman year at home.  This was the first year I'd lived with roommates and most of the pictures I have of this time  contain shots that are very silly and a little bizarre.  And I don't think you should make any comments at all about the "Marc Face".  When I found that photo on the left, it made me wonder about genetics.  I think I need to do a layout....LOL!

Golden Moments

You know, there are those days.....when things are as perfect as they can possibly be. Days when you have a wonderful, really there connection with a kidlet....when you get them and they get you and life is good.  It's rare enough to have those golden moments, but when you can catch that time with a picture, it's even more special.  I had just such a day with DD yesterday.  The men were off doing their fall thing and I had put off her request for a friend, wanting just some quiet girl time, when we noticed that in a 24 hour period, the large red maple tree in our front yard had dropped a good share of its leaves.  She literally squealed and took off right into the middle of the heap.  I ran for the camera, hoping it was late enough in the afternoon for some good light.  We were joined by our very social cat and spent a few minutes throwing leaves at each other and taking pictures.  I was really pleased by some of the photos that you see here, but more that that, when I put them on the computer I was struck right in the chest by an "oooohhhhh" tumble of feelings....how I wanted to take this moment and freeze DD right at this age for a while.  This silly, half grown, half not, sometimes too big for her britches, sometimes still a little girl stage.  I've felt that before, when she was younger...that not wanting her to change feeling.  It never works.  She keeps growing up.  But I can occasionally freeze a golden moment.  One I can look back on and always feel the poignant memory.

Frame Project

I went to a church craft day last Saturday and this was one of the projects.  I really love how it turned out and thought I would share.  This is a standard 16x20 frame which I got on sale at Michaels. The original example had pictures that were all 4" square.  I wanted to include a family photo, so I adapted my sizes a little bit.  The photos could be done in black and white or color as well as the sepia tone I chose.  The large middle area is approximately 8x10.  On mine it holds a church document called "Family, A Proclamation to the World", but it could also be any thought that's printed out or even another pictures that's matted.  I added a little stamping to the corners, some lace along the bottom and a heart charm tied with a little ribbon.
I chose a young and older photo of each of the kidlets as well as a family photo.  It was a fun project, surprisingly easy to do, and gave a really nice result, I think.

It's a Grandma Day!

My DS#1 & DIL sent me new photos last night.   They are so good to a far-away grandma!  Lots of scrapping material here.  Grandma also sent baby the cute little pumpkin outfit and they are so kind to take a picture of him in it so I can pull out last year's Halloween papers that I haven't used yet and get a page done. 

Weird and Random

So I was tagged by Jess  to regale you with seven weird and/or random facts about myself.  Hmmmmm.   This will be a stretch.  Each time I get tagged I feel like I've used up all my weird randomness, but just for you, Jess, I'll try to introduce some new material.

1--I'm left-handed.  And did you know that left handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater?  Just a little factoid I picked up on the Left Handers Day site .

2--I am afraid of heights.  In fact, I have been to France and made it part way up the Eiffel Tower before I had a panic attack and had to come down without going to the top.  Chicken....yeah, I know.

3--Ironically, I was much more organized when I had all six kids at home.   I had to be to survive.  Now that I'm down to 2,  I find that I'm not quite as compulsive as I used to be....which is a good thing when it comes to my mental health, but not so good for home organization. 

4--The leaves are almost literally raining down off my trees all over my yard.  And when I pass the piles I always kick through them like a kid.  Love that.

5--I am very non-confrontational.  While I will complain and whine at great length to my DH about real or imagined slights and burdens, I rarely confront the people I think are responsible.  Whereupon, my DH labels me a martyr and I shut up.

6--When scrapping with a piece of patterned paper, it is almost impossible for me to leave all but the tiniest shreds, which I will then throw away.  I absolutely can not have big chunks just sitting around.  It's my disease.  I have to squeeze out just one more layout or card.  I think this has contributed to my pieced style.  That and the fact that I was a quilter before I was a scrapper.  (Wow, extra bonus fact there.)

7--I am an early bird.  It's very rare to see me on the computer this late at night (11:50 PM), but I have a harder time falling asleep when DH is gone.  Unfailingly, my internal alarm clock will wake me at 6:30 AM. 

I have never tagged, but I'm making an exception for people I haven't seen do this recently.  I'm tagging Annette, Mel, Liz, Jen, Laura, Cynthia (rnjetta), Debbie (carolinesmommy)  & Anita.  Your turn for random weirdness. :) 

Let's Be Snarky

This works for me on multiple levels over the past couple of days, but we're only going to discuss DH's hunting proclivity. 
We've been married 28 years come this November.  We know each other very well...our likes and dislikes, our hobbies and tendencies.  There's not a lot of territory we haven't covered.  It's no surprise to me that he's going to hunt as long and as often as he can during the fall....and any other time that he can manage it.  I know it's not politically correct, but it is legal, and we've already had the post about how opposites attract.  Anyway, here we are at nearly the 28 year mark and yet every fall, we seem to have a disagreement about the hunting issue and I have figured out why.  He heads out to play every fall without much of a backward glance and I'm left to be the grown-up for long stretches of time.  And it can never be fair, because I can't just drop the mom thing and disappear for a couple of weeks.  And there's always some hunt during some PMS time and I end up feeling extra sorry for myself.   It always amazes me that we have the yearly discussion, because like he says, after all these years it's not really a surprise that he's going  hunting.
In all honesty, I try not to begrudge him the time, because he does work very hard but I have vowed to myself that the first fall DD is in college (that's only six years away...where's my eye-rolling smilie), that I'm going to take a New England foliage trip and he can't come.  So there it is.  Just a bit of a pity party. 

Challenges

There are always some good challenges running at Scrap Addict .   I am responsible for some of them, and it's always so fun for me to throw something out there and then see what people will do with it.  This link  will take you right to the challenge forum on the boards.  Poke around in there and see what you can do.  
A couple of challenge layouts for you this morning....
The volleyball layout is done for this week's sketch challenge with a sketch done by Annette Pixley  and the other is for this week's ad challenge thrown out there by your's truly.  A lot of times, challenges really help me to go outside my comfort zone....fun stuff!

The Baking Instinct

There's nothing that brings out the age-old baking instinct in me than an impending visit from the college boys.  About a day before they make their appearance, I start fretting that there's not enough food in the house.   And, alright, there may be enough food, but have I forgotten any of their favorites?  This inevitably starts a baking panic that will usually result in a pan of brownies or a batch of cookies or both.   This go-round it was pumpkin chocolate chip....and the brownies.  Miss these boys.  Yeah, I know, they're a little weird, but they're mine and I do miss them.

More Seasonal Stuff

It's always amazing to me how quickly things can change.  After I took the fall pictures last week and on Monday,  we had a typical-for-this area wind that blew through for a couple of days.  That fast, many of the trees are nearly empty and soon I will be wondering where my fall has gone.  Things here at home have settled down some....volleyball is over, and all I have left to can is applesauce.  It's a messy, thankless job and since I refuse to do it by myself, hunting season will have to be over before I'll have anyone to help.   We won't dwell on hunting season right now.  I'm a little too snarky today  to  have a reasonable discussion.  It's probably not a good thing that DH is on his way home as we speak, with  a wall-hanger beastie.   Sigh. 
Not a lot of actual scrapping going on lately.  Most of it has gone on behind the scenes in organizational things.  I have my layouts in my blank AC binders and really need to do some framework pages and label the spines and get them out of my scrap room.   I'm not sure exactly where I'll put them, though.  I was telling a friend the other day that in my dream house, my scrap spot will have a sitting area with lots of bookshelf space.  Until then, I have to squeeze them in somewhere else.  I have made a few cards, though. 
Silliness.  I've decided that it's such a good thing that I still have kids at home.  They do things that make me laugh. Here is DD who got a jack-o-lantern sucker that had a white coating on the outside.  Her experiment was to see if it would transfer to her tongue.....and here are her results: