New Year, New Things

Hey Everyone, it is your errant fellow blogger! I want to tell you up front that I am exploring a whole new departure in bloging. Well maybe. I'm thinking things through. I don't want to bore anyone, least of all myself! Mac has a great blog feature but do I know how to create it? Of course not! Still, I am contemplating changes....like when I cut my hair and lost weight....it felt good to try something new....Anyways, my blog will still be "me", good or bad.....but hopefully evolving.....

For Christmas, I made each of my four kids a photo album. It was not the creative style scrapbook in the sense of cutting (cropping) and adding embellishments but it was a simpler form--a new Creative Memories slip-in pocket page sort of album.....It was supposed to be easier. It turned out to be a monumental task. Each album holds 160 photos and/or journalling boxes ( I left one empty for a "to-from"box) times four and that's a lot of photos to wade through and then duplicate......Along the way I changed my mind about certain photos because one was better than another or one had people I wanted to include, etc.....so that meant more photos to scan.....I also sometimes cropped and fitted two photos into a pocket to include more.....I had to use my judgment but I basically wanted to start at birth and progress, not to adulthood but stopping just short of...I also tried to concentrate on that child rather than on their siblings although they are certainly included..... Some of the photo pockets on the page are horizontal and some are vertical so I had to take that into consideration as well. So the pictures aren't exactly chronological but close....My album making project consumed me for at least two months....There were monetary considerations and many times the scanner at CVS was either tied up or had to be re-booted. Once I stood at the machine for 6 hours!.....I think I underestimated the magnitude of the project......but each of my kids seemed genuinely happy to receive a little glimpse back through the years...There just weren't enough pages to chronicle so many memories....P.S. I prefer "creative" scrapbooking!

Alyssa turned 16 on the fifth of January! My sister and her best friend who is like an aunt to my kids, offered to have her party at their house which is slightl;y larger than our apartment. They have a screened porch that accomodates more people
and more importantlly it is one story for the grandmas who can't climb stairs......Debi and Tracie outdid themselves with a lovely "black and white" theme (Alyssa's choice) and we provided the food, Cuban sandwiches (again, Alyssa's choice) and chicken drummettes, salad, appetizers and cake.....Lyss brought a couple of her girlfriends. All three of her grandmas and her grandfather were there as well as two of her brothers, Angie, the nephews and one niece..... It was both a fun and sweet time. My sister and brother Mike and his family and my dad and stepmother surprised Alyssa with an Apple iPod and she got lots of shopping money, too!

On a personal note, Alyssa is driving (and quite well, I might add!) and is job hunting... She joined the nursing club at school earlier this year and is starting to take health related courses. Yes, she is interested in nursing, most probably in pediatrics.

My daughter has become dearer to me lately. Not that she wasn't ever dear but the teenage years have been a trial that we never anticipated when we got our precious gift from God.....Let me just say that she is far more intelligent and sensitive than most people realize and she is growing up.....And sometimes, not often but SOMETIMES, she does or says something that sounds like me.....Not that I want her to be anyone other than who she is but it just amuses me, do you know what i mean?