Bad Luck comes in 3s...

Back in high school, I broke my thumb playing volleyball. (Never cross your thumbs when hitting the ball!) No big. And I broke my middle toe on the hidden leg of my grandma's couch. (Don't buy a coach with a skirt that hides the legs.) And that was it. No broken arms or legs - nothing. I got through 40 years of life relatively break free.

Then... 2009 rolled around. The first week of January, I was carrying a box of old pictures and tripped over hubby's tool box, resulting in my little toe nail swiftly being removed, which I didn't notice right away due to the chunk that was also taken out of my toe. It still hurts, and I'm assuming it was broken. Break #1 of '09.

January 22, started out like any other day, until I started down the steps. My foot slipped on the 4th step, and I bounced down the next 8 steps on my tailbone. You never think about your coccyx until you break it. Break #2 of '09.

February 24, I stepped on a plastic bag someone had carelessly left on the kitchen floor, it slipped and I fell. In an attempt to catch myself, I put my hand out and took the brunt of the fall with my scaphoid bone. Hoping it was just a sprain I did nothing - until doing nothing was no longer an option. So I spent the morning at the doctor's office, then the x-ray department. The radiologist said the x-ray was negative. The doctor said scaphoid fractures don't usually show up right away. A medical website confirms this..."Often patients present with wrist pain following a fall and the x-ray does not immediately show damage to the scaphoid. Persistent pain and follow up x-rays can be required to correctly diagnose the condition" Another site agrees, saying, "If radiographs are negative despite clinical suspicion of a scaphoid fracture, the patient's wrist is immobilized and radiographs are repeated in 2 weeks. If plain films continue to be negative but clinical suspicion remains, further imaging should be pursued. Bone scan and computed tomography have been used with about equal accuracy to detect occult fractures."

So, we shall see. Considering my pocketbook is lighter to the tune of $300 ( which was a 40% discount off the original bill), I certainly hope I don't have to repeat it! In the meantime, I have a large chunk of plaster strapped to my arm, and my typing speed is no longer 120 wpm.

This morning, I asked God to assign any extra guardian angels to my case. I can use all the help I can get!

From Barbed Wire to the Rolling Stones

So my family took to making fun of my English dialect at lunch today - just because I said the word Winter without accentuating the "T". Sorry. Winter and Winner sound surprisingly similar to me. That led to the word Jaguar. Apparently, you're 'supposed' to pronounce it like Jag wahr or some such instead of Jag WIRE, like I say it. My 12 year old son said it's not Barbed Wire, but I contended that they actually are very similar, when you think about it. Barbed wire is pretty jagged. My husband had to agree and informed the kids that they always called thorns and brier bushes "jaggers" when he was a kid. Our 15 year old daughter said, "jaggers?" in that voice that only a 15 year old girl can produce. It's the magic teenaged girl voice and if you have or have ever had a teenaged daughter, you will know it. The one that is used to express, "That's stupid" regardless of what actual words are coming out of her mouth. ;) So apparently, she thought it was dumb to call briers "jaggers". That's when I chimed in, yeah, then there was Mick, but that's not a brier, it's a Rolling Stone - but he probably drives a Jag Wire. I think that's where we lost them. My husband and I got a chuckle out of it, while the children looked at each other, rolled their eyes and silently expressed their common belief that their parents had totally lost it. :D

Speaking of Common Beliefs, someone sent me a link to an article at NPR called "Thirty Things I Believe". Apparently they are posting several stories in the "This I Believe" category. This particular list was written by a seven year old boy. Smart kid! I have to say that I agree with just about all of them. (There's that one about everyone should get up early that I'm not so sure about. ;) ) It would be worthwhile, I think, if we all sat down and wrote 30 things we believe. Food for Thought. So #1 on my list is: I believe we should all take time to think about what we believe. ;)

4 years ago tonight

I can say that I know with absolute certainty what I was doing four years ago tonight. I was 40 weeks pregnant with my sixth child. It was my due date and I didn't feel like much was going on. In fact, I was just getting ready to go to bed when I decided to get in the hot tub for a few minutes to relax before bed. Mike was in the next room, talking to my sister on the phone, and suddenly something happened that let me know that maybe I wouldn't be going to bed any time soon. I certainly wouldn't have believed with any level of confidence that I would be holding my baby 45 minutes later, but that's exactly what happened!

About a half hour later, I asked my oldest daughter to call the midwife and let her know that I was in labor. Knowing that she and her assistant were a half hour away, and they would need to get their supplies and things loaded up before taking off, I wanted to give them plenty of time to get here. Ten minutes later, I was pushing, and in five minutes, I was holding my precious little one! Tori called the midwife back and said, "He's here!" She had just gotten her car loaded and was ready to leave.

So the midwives arrived about 45 minutes after Jeffrey did. They checked us both out and cleaned up and got us into bed. Mike and I lay awake long into the night, with our precious gift between us talking about what his name should be. By about 3 am, we had decided on Jeffrey, meaning "Peaceful", because that's the way his birth was. His middle name is David, which means "beloved".

To this day, our Jeffrey is calm and peaceful - laid back and happy. And now he's four. He spent the day playing with his new Mario game on his brother's Nintendo DS. He wanted hamburgers and french fries for lunch, and right now, just as he was four years ago, he's peacefully sleeping. I love that little guy. This morning, he came in our room and climbed in the bed. I told him, "Happy Birthday" and asked him if I could still call him "Sweet Baby Son", even though he's four now. He said I could. I asked if I could call him that when he's twenty. He said, "yes". "How about forty?" "You can call me that forever, Mom." And I probably will. :)

My funny Valentine

Emily is just the funniest little girl. I don't know how I'm expected to teach her when she has me cracking up all the time. It's fun watching things click for her. The other day in math she had to practice writing the number 15. She was tracing the dotted sample when she proclaimed, "That's a great idea!" I asked her "what?" and she said. "They put a dotted line in the middle so you know where to start turning the round part of your five."

Next she told me that the half time show during the Super Bowl was 12 minutes long and it was already past her bedtime. Then she says, "What's a minute?" I told her, "We just learned about time last week. A minute is one time around the clock." Then she asks, "What if the clock is square?"

See why I enjoy teaching Emily? She cracks me up!

Back in Business!

Amazing things are happening lately, it seems! After joining the Creative Team at Heritage Scrap, I got up the courage to dust off my graphic designer hat that's been put away for a few years, and apply for a designer position. I am happy to announce that I am the newest member of the Design Team at Heritage Scrap!! I will be doing primarily word art and text related elements. My first two items are available in the store and I'm busily working on a new series for the Life Book Challenge I will be hosting.

My Design Blog is up and running, and I will be posting news there about my challenges and new products as well as FREEBIES! My Welcome Message describes how Victorian Rose Designs came to be. If you are a digital scrapbooker, please come on over and check it out. I will have a freebie posted as soon as it's in the store!

Here are my first two items:


I'm looking forward to this new venture!

Life Book Challenge and a Freebie

Well, I'm a few days into my job on the Creative Team at Heritage Scrap and I'm absolutely loving it. Right now I'm working on a Life Book Challenge that I'm going to be hosting. The start date is TBA, but we will be making a "This is your Life" book for ourselves or someone we love. The first step is interviewing and gathering resources from your subject. Then each week we will be scrapping the next page in the book. There will be prizes and lots of fun, and at the end of the challenge, you will have a completed Life Book. I can't wait to get started! Why don't you come join us?

If you are a scrapper and haven't stopped in to Heritage Scrap yet, run on over and check us out. Pop into the store and pick up this beautiful Dreaming Quick Page made by Lynn Griffin. All you have to do is pull in the whole page as one piece and layer it over your photo. Add some text and you have a quick and easy page completed.

And keep watching this space. I will have a major announcement very soon!

(This layout features my in-laws on their wedding day. And no, their last name is not "Something", but I changed it on the layout for security reasons. ;))

My new job!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found a wonderful new Heritage Scrapbook site called Heritage Scrap. Heritage is my first love, and I fell in love with the site and its products. My heritage album caught the attention of the Creative Team Leader and I was invited to join the creative team!

I am so excited about this opportunity. My job is to create scrapbook pages using the products from the store and post them around the web to generate business for the store. What a job! I absolutely love it!

You can see my gallery at heritage scrap here.

This is a page I did using my new products. Credit goes to Lynn Griffin for use of her Winter Roses Kit.


Here's another page I did, called Sisters, and if you are into Digital Scrapbooking, you can download this kit free at Heritage Scrap. I used Kate McClellan's beautiful kit, M'Lady's Room.

I look forward to using the beautiful products at Heritage Scrap. They really have that vintage, heritage, Victorian feel that I love and they are so easy to work with. I told someone that my house looks like it came out of the shop at Heritage Scrap with all my roses decor. ;) Come on over and check us out!

Heritage Scrapping

In one of my heritage layouts, I say that my family is made up of storytellers. Story telling is something we do every time we get together. Daddy will always start to tell me a story, and Mother will say, "She's heard that a hundred times!"

Lately, I've been calling him, and when he starts to tell me a story, I'll pop open a notepad on the computer, and start typing in his story as he tells it. I know there are details I'll forget, and I want to get those stories on paper for future generations.

Genealogy is one of my greatest loves. I love finding history in MY history. I want to know the stories behind the names and dates. I want to know what happened in the dash. Linda Ellis wrote a poem called "The Dash" that begins this way...

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend

He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came her date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,

But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

You can read the full text of the poem here.

So anyway, I'm beginning to realize that my job as one of the people charged with preserving our family pictures and stories is to learn all I can about those dashes and get those stories recorded. The best way I have found to do this is by scrapbooking heritage albums.

Last week, my cousin (and fellow genealogist and story keeper), JC, emailed me and said that one of our Dads' cousins was turning 85 and her family was having her a big birthday party. He asked if I could help out by putting together a scrapbook album telling her life story. Of course when someone starts a sentence, "Could you make a scrapbook..." the answer will 9 times out of 10 be "YES!".

JC went over to her house to interview her, wrote up her story and emailed it to me, along with scans of several pictures he got from her. Her daughter also emailed me pictures that she had, so I set to work. I had enough to get started by Tuesday or Wednesday, and the party was Saturday afternoon, so I had 3 or 4 days to scrap 85 years of Millie's life!

I emailed the last page to JC and Millie's daughter, Linda, at 5:00 am Saturday morning and then went to bed for a couple hours. JC got two copies of all 26 pages printed out and put into albums and Linda put them all in a power point presentation which she then presented at the party with over 100 attendees. Millie was thrilled and now we have those stories preserved. There are two paper copies in albums and Linda also has the .jpg images of the pages saved on CD for anyone else who wants a copy.

JC started this idea when his Dad (my Dad's brother) was diagnosed with alzheimers. His care providers told JC that a book about his life with pictures would help him with his memory. Even as he remembered less and less of the present, he would sit and look at his book and remember more of his past. When he passed away last Summer, JC presented the story of his life at his memorial service and it was such a beautiful way to honor his memory.

I plan to put together a book for my Dad to give him for his birthday in April. I made one for my Mom when she turned 70, but that was before I started scrapping digitally, so it was a LOT more work! :)

The cover page (as we have done with the others) will say "This is your life" (based on the old TV show). The outline starts with the person's birth and then covers major events in their life, ending with photos of their family, grandchildren, etc. It is such a neat thing to make and makes a wonderful gift for someone you love.

I was so excited to find a new website devoted entirely to Heritage Scrap. I hung out there this weekend and picked up some heritage kits. Here is a page I did with one of them. You can see my gallery at Heritage Scrap by clicking here. (Though it is just getting started. My other heritage pages are at Digital Scrapbook Place.)

The journaling on this page about my Mamaw's Calling Cards says: When Grace was a girl, she collected Victorian calling cards that had probably been her mother's. They hung in a frame in the room I slept in when I visited them as a girl. When she died, I asked for the framed cards and they now proudly hang in my home. One day, I carefully took them out of the frame and opened them. I was surprised to find names of friends and relatives who had come to call. What a blessing to have this piece of family history!

I look forward to doing many more Heritage Scrap pages!

Another Reader in the Family!

Emily started kindergarten this year and we started phonics at the beginning of the school year. We started with the sounds the letters make. Then she learned to put those letters together to make words. From there, we put words together to make sentences, and when we returned to school after the Christmas break, she started reading her phonics readers. Now she loves to read and can't get enough. I love to watch her face light up as she sounds out a word and then realizes what it is. What joy! I was a reader as I grew up in a home with no television and even now, I love to curl up with a good book - one that keeps me awake into the wee sma's when everyone else is snoring away. I love the fact that a good book can transport you to another time and another place every time you crack it open. In honor of Emily's journey into the world of reading, I made this Layout for her scrapbook. Special thanks to my good friend, Larry Rea for sharing the sparrow with me. He was so interested in what Emily was reading, he hopped right up on her shoulder to see what it was. :)
(Digital Kits by Nicole Young at Digital Scrapbook Place)