The value of a picture!

15 years ago this very Thursday, July 9th, my beloved sweetheart and I got married. I'm in so much awe that so much time has passed, yet it seems only a year or 2. I love him so very much and can't imagine life without him. I'm so very grateful for the last 15 years with him, and so very grateful for the 2 beautiful little boys we have produced.

This year we are going to go on a vacation for our anniversary, just the 2 of us. It's the first time we've left the kids so we could go away together. We are both very excited for a little time away together.

I made a mistake 15 years ago. We didn't take any pictures of US on our honeymoon. I felt I was too fat to be in pictures. At the time I didn't think about it, didn't think it would make a difference in the long run, but when I started scrapbooking 3 years later, I wished we'd have taken those pictures. 15 years later, I really wish we'd have taken those pictures. I now know how valuable pictures are. This year I plan to make up for that. We are going to spend some time in the same place we went on our honeymoon. We will never be able to re-create those pictures, but hopefully we'll be able to re-create some of those memories.

Digital camera bad for scrapbooking

My husband and I got our first digital camera about 8 years ago. At the time, I was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, and needed to be able to take a lot of pictures of cards and project ideas without having to print them. This was a great tool for me to use with my business, and really wonderful to be able to take pictures at will, not having to worry about the expense of film. We took that camera everywhere, and over the years we took thousands and thousands of pictures, but we never had them printed.

4 years ago when our oldest son was born, we actually did print some pictures of him. There were probably about 50, just so that I could make a scrapbook for my dad. I only scrapbooked about 6 pages for him, and none for me. The rest of those pictures are in an envelope, still unused.

Last year we bought a new digital camera. The new one is much smaller and easier to take everywhere. So we have taken even MORE pictures since then and have had another son.

In this time, this 8 year period, my scrapbooking has become less and less as we have quit printing pictures. Many people I know have switched to digital scrapbooking. Never printing my pictures, you would think that this would be the option for me, however, it is not. The first reason, I am not good with the computer. If I get stuck with something, I get frustrated, and it just escalates from there. It's just not a good idea. The second reason is that I prefer something I can touch. I love the actual act of scrapbooking.

So all these things have come to a head recently as I realized that I need to print pictures of our son who is now 5 months old. I want to scrapbook, I really need to scrapbook, and honestly, I really do love to scrapbook. I need my children to not go through life with a mother who scrapbooks, but no scrapbooks of them.

A dear friend of mine sent me a link to get 100 free photos, then she mailed me a coupon to Costco to get unlimited prints for $.09 each! So this last week, I have spent hours and hours and hours finding photos and getting them ready to print, over 450 of them. As I have gone through this process, ideas for scrapbooking are coming to me. I'm so excited to get these pictures, and so excited to remember what I used to love!

What I miss the most.

12 years ago this coming June, my mom died. For some reason I was thinking about this today. Actually, I've thought a lot about this lately. I was 25 when mom died. Married not quite 3 years. Hadn't had children yet. Hadn't realized how much I needed my mom.

My husband and I were married 11 years before we had our first child. I would have loved to have known my mom's heartaches, and had her physical support and love through this difficult time. Now, raising my 2 very precious children, not a day goes by that I don't want to call her and ask her questions about raising them.

I know she is with us and loves and cares for us, but some days my heart just hurts to be without her, even after almost 12 years.

Things that I love!

• My husband and children.
• Water: rain, baths, showers, ocean, lakes, rivers, you get the idea... I really love water!
• Thunderstorms.
• Good books.
• My dear friends.
• Roadtrips.
• Good food: cooking with fresh herbs, sushi, fish, etc.
• Quiet.
• Peace. Peace and quiet are 2 drastically different things.
• Scriptures.
• Knowledge.
• Office Supplies!!!

Things that bug me.

• Shoes everywhere in my house. Who has this many shoes?
• Dust, yet I don't dust.
• When my Internet is down.
• People that devalue women, especially women that devalue themselves. Being a woman is a special thing. Why do we need to be men? Are we not special enough as women that we have to be men too?
• People that have double standards.
• Non-committal answers like "sure".
• People who devalue motherhood. Motherhood is THE most important job on earth!

Confessions of a potty training mom...

So we've been attempting to potty train our short one for about a year now. He is 3 years and 8 months old. My sister-in-law told me that potty training is HELL. She did not lie. We have tried everything with him! I have never met a more stubborn child in my life.

Yesterday, I realized he has a lot of bladder control and knows how to use it. He would pee a little bit in the potty, go dump it in the big potty, flush, go back to the little potty, pee some more, go back to the big potty, flush, do it all again... He did this 10 times! I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. I counted. So, I really think that he knows what to do, he just has absolutely no desire to do it.

So, after months of frustration and weeks of intense frustration, I have come to a conclusion. This kid has done everything at his own pace. And when he was ready to do something like walk or talk, he just did it. So, we're going to try and give him a little leway with this. Against every fiber of my being, we're going to put him in pull ups. I swore I would never do this because I think it's rediculous. But now, I realize that not everything works for every kid. Customize the training for the kid. He's got to do this at his own pace, just like everything else in his life so far. Heck, he has been reading since he was 2 1/2. So hopefully his own pace won't be that hard to deal with.

Sensitive

My entire growing up years, my dad told me that I was too sensitive. He thought I got upset over really stupid things altogether too often.

Recently, however, I have realized that certain "undesireable" traits as a child, can be become very positive attributes in adults. I've seen a young man who could talk his way out of any trouble turn into a very succesful and honest salesman as an adult. An extremely stubborn young lady grow up into a beautiful woman with deep values, an absolute knowledge of her priorities, and never waivering faith. I believe that my "over-sensitivity" has lead me to a life of profound compassion for others.