Saturday, March 24, 2007

Scrapbooking Mania!

John has been out of town most of this past week (he returned yesterday, hallelujah! We ALL missed him greatly!). While he was away speaking every night, staying very busy, my mom and I have been on a mission: scrapbooking. John and I planned to do a scrapbook of our last three years in Asia, and had all the pictures chosen and all of the pages planned (mostly) before we even arrived back in the US. Our goal was to do the scrapbook the first week or two so that we would have it at the ready for friends and family to see what our life has been like these last three years!

However, just a few little things interfered with the scrapbook mission: jet lag, getting unpacked, having some special responsibilities already the first weekend we were back, etc. So the scrapbook got put off. Finally, when John left on his trip I knew it was now or never.

Thankfully, my mom is a scrapbooker extraordinaire. She has created many amazingly beautiful and meaningful books, especially as she has gotten more "into it" in the past few years. She has supplies galore and a real knack for choosing paper colors to make photos come alive. Since I hadn't done any scrapbooking for three years, I was out of touch with all of the new techniques, papers, designs, etc. that are now being used--but she is familiar with it all! So I am so thankful that she has been helping me this week.

My days have looked like this: get up, get the girls up. Breakfast. Clara Anne and Chloe play while I try to do a little scrapbooking. Put Chloe down for her nap. Continue scrapbooking. Give Clara Anne a little attention while also trying to scrapbook. Lunch. Put both girls down for their naps. Continue scrapbooking. Late afternoon, spend some time with the girls while giving my mom further direction in the scrapbook project. Supper. Bedtime routines with the girls. More scrapbooking until 11:30 or 12am. Sleep. Repeat cycle.

I told my mom this morning that I hope she still enjoys scrapbooking after this marathon project of 60 pages! Even now, we are on page 45 and so we have just a few days left to finish it before John and I begin some more traveling. We hope that many of you will be able to see the scrapbook before the summer is out! It looks quite nice so far, I think, but we still have a ways to go.

So there's my excuse for no blogging earlier this week! I even feel a bit guilty now for dashing off this post--so I'd better go and get back to my scrapbooking!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel, it is so good to read your stories again in your blog. Almost two weeks I cannot enter into your blog, even though I try every day in order to keep updated about your funny experiences. Lucy am I, tonight!(Maybe, it is in the morning in America.) I hope you four can be accustomed to American time as soon as possible!

Anonymous said...

ahhh...so jealous that you're having time to scrapbook! That sounds wonderful! I work on my stuff here and there but haven't had a long hearty session like yours for awhile. I'm REALLY behind but one day it will come together. I'm still working on our wedding album and we've been married almost 3 years! Kristi's baby album hasn't even been started and she's almost a year...so there ya have it. Life has been busy, but wonderful. I'm hoping to do some scrapbooking next week. Looking forward to seeing your book in August! Love ya, Melody