Whatever Happened to the Good Ol' Days?

You know the days I'm talking about...

back when all your girlfriends had blogs and they actually posted regularly.

Back when friends actually left comments.

Back when you could fill your need for social interaction without even getting dressed for the day.

Where did those days go?

I miss those days.

I feel like the lone blogger left talking to myself, seeing how most of my friends have moved on to bigger and better things.

Well, not me! I'm still blogging and...

reminiscing about the good ol' days.

Okay joking aside, I was looking back on some of my old post today and enjoying reading the comments left by friends. It warmed my heart and brought back some good memories.

So where did all my blogging buddies go?

I blame facebook!

Facebook stole the good ol' days right out from under me.

Blasted facebook! It's just not the same.

Look What I've Been Doing!

If you know me then you know that I LOVE recording our personal family history. Keeping a journal, scrapbooking, blogging -  I love it ALL!

Over the last few years of having babies and going to school I haven't been able to scrapbook as much as I'd like. I'm actually several years behind.

Blogging has been the best I can do right now, which is great, but having something in my hands to hold on to makes it feel so much more real.

SO...

I've been making these!

I recently got caught up on two years of family history by going to mixbook.com and making an online book.

This has worked out great for me for three main reasons.

1. All of my digital prints are accessible from my computer. I don't have to decide what I want to use then have them developed. I can resize or manipulate my photos easily with just the click of the mouse.

2. The size is more manageable. These are 12x12 books, so they are good size, but they are much thinner than the traditional scrapbook binders.

Here are a few of my traditional scrapbooks.

They take up so much space! Because I'm not willing to give up my passion for preserving memories I decided I better find a way to at least be able to physically manage the space.

Look how relatively thin these books are. They are much more easily stored on a bookshelf without taking up took much room.

3. No mess to clean up!

This messy space is where I usually scrapbook.

 I pull out a card table so I can spread out and make a BIG mess that I leave out for a while because you can't put away a project until it is done. Right? Don't worry I'll still put this space to good use and continue to make my share of messes. BUT creating an online memory book makes clean-up SO easy. It's only a matter of closing the laptop.

Look at a few of these cute pages.

You can have as many photos or journaling as you want. It's totally customizable. It's can be simple or more detailed. That's what I love about this...you can make it your own. And if you love to be creative you can still fill your creative bucket. If simple sounds better to you you can also just add your photos into already made templates and be done.  

Here's one more I made for Sydney.

For an 8th grade English assignment Sydney had to write something about herself from A-Z. I loved that paper so much that I recreated it into a book.

This is a small 8x8 softcover book that cost about $10.00, it captures sweet memories of my fast growing teenager. So worth the time and money.

I'm currently getting ready to print the baby blog that I kept when I was carrying the twins. I can't express my excitement to have that project done. There's a big piece of my heart in the pages of that book. Can't wait to hold it in my hands.

After that I'll work on the year 2010 until I get all caught up on our family books.

I have a bunch of ideas swirling around in this head of mine.

THIS IS SO AWESOME!

Thanks for letting me share.

Chinese Sundae's and Sushi Dessert

Last night my brother, Craig, and his family came down for dinner. Saturday night I got a text from my sister-in-law, Julianna , asking if I knew what we were eating for dinner because Craig likes to coordinate his dessert with dinner. I laughed to myself thinking that was sort-of silly but knowing it was something that I would totally do too. Well I made Chinese Sundae's (aka-Hawaiian Haystacks) and Craig made Sushi dessert. Check out these fun and delicious creations...

It was a fun and yummy dessert and a fun night of games and family.

Already looking forward to next time!



Assault Riffle Anyone?

Anyone care to look out their front window and see this?....

I didn't much care for it.

 

Dear Neighbor,

What ever you did, please don't do it again.

Thanks you so very much.

Signed, Your neighbor who prefers not to have deadly weapons pointed at anything from her front yard.



Water Can be Rather Messy

I love a good swim in a pool, a lake, or even the bathtub, but NOT in my kitchen or my basement. Unfortunatety thanks to a broken water filter under the kitchen sink we woke up to a big wet mess a few weeks ago. Initually my biggest concern was the water pouring out of the basement ceiling. I wasn't extremely concerned about the water standing on the kitchen floor because I knew I could get that cleaned up easy enough. I didn't realize that the kitchen floor would soon warp and bubble making it our biggest casualty. Fortunately we were able to have a restoration company come out within a few hours to clean-up and dry out the house. They sucked the water out of the basement then sealed it off to dry. It took 6 days of lots and lots of high powered fans and several dehumidifiers to dry things out but the basement did dry well. Part of the kitchen flooring that warped was removed only to find the original vinyl from 30 years ago. It's purdy!

Could have been much worse. I'll be glad when it's all taken care of. I sure wish I could get new cabinets, counter tops, and double oven out of this deal, but I guess I'll have to settle for a new hardwood floor.



Braces Are Off

After two years and two months of wearing braces Sydney was ecstatic to finally get them off. Looking back to the day she got them on and again today I can't believe the different just two short years can make. Not just in regards to straight teeth, Sydney has grown and matured in so many ways. I love watching her grow. I remember thinking I thought she was so big back then, little did I realize that she would grow several inches taller than me and blossom into such a beautiful young lady/woman.

  



Spring Tease

I hate it when Spring teases me. I am SO looking foward to warmer weather, sunshine, and flowers. It's starting to look promising...across the street anyway.

 

This is my across the street neighbors home. He spent last week pruning his apple tree's. I looked on in envy.

 

This is my front yard on the same day at the same time. Really? I'm still scraping ice chunks off my driveway with NO Spring insight while only a few yards away Spring is well in it's way. What a tease! Can't wait to see my front lawn again!