Scrapbook Saturday

So, last Saturday I went to St. Louis. I mentioned that in my Travel Tuesday post. 

One of the things that was planned for this trip was to clean out Janet's scrapbook room. My niece, Jackie faces the whole house--it's so much--too much! Jeanne and I thought the least we could do was Janet's room. It's something anyway.

After visiting Janice, we went down to south St. Louis to get started. As we started to look around, we found lots of completed scrapbook pages that needed to be put in albums. We gathered them all together and started organizing. It took us 4 hours! Janet has 274--12x12 double page layouts--nearly 550 pages!! We sorted them in to categories and did 2 wedding albums for Jackie that day. 

Here are some pictures.

The next day we went back and worked another 4 hours. We got 6 albums put together that day. I did a rough calculation. 274 layouts equals about 21 albums. We've done 8! We still have 13 to go. That will be at least 8 more hours. Jackie said that they are having their basement finished and she's had to change the work order to accommodate all of the scrapbooks. 

Since Janet has many, many albums completed on her own, we think she just let it get away from her. As I've said many times--putting together albums is my least favorite thing to do!! I used to do it when my stack reached about a foot tall. Then I tried doing it every month. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Usually, I do it about every other month--it's not too much at one time. There is so much satisfaction in getting it done! 

I have offered to help my friends and I'm going to really get on that now. We need to get it done before it's too late!

Friday Funnies

Ten Things Thursday

How about some laundry rooms for today? Guess which is my favorite.

1. I like the contrast of the white and wood. 

2. I like everything about this one including the wallpaper and fresh hydrangeas. But what's up with that third machine? Another washer? Or dryer? 

3. Love this color combination. I don't like orange, but paired with this aqua, it's really pretty. Are the doors bronze? Pretty cool with the rest of the room.

4. Love this shade of blue and the wallpaper.

5. I could go for pink--but only if there were pastels in the rest of the house. Love the shiplap and, of course, the flowers. I do not care for stackable. I'm too short for them.

6. Love this shade of green and I'm a sucker for the flowers. I don't know if that's the washer or the dryer. I guess the other one is on the other side. This looks almost like a kitchen.

7. I'm not sure about this one. But, I do like the brick floor and the shiplap.

8. Another pink one. I like it.

9. This is nice even thought it looks like a smaller room. Love those cabinet doors.

10. This one is okay, still don't care for the stackables. Love the ceiling.

Okay, what did you pick? For me, it's a toss up between 3 & 6. If I had to choose just one, I would choose 6.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Travel Tuesday

I went to St. Louis on Saturday for a few reasons: 

1. I wanted to visit my sister, Janice. She's in a memory care unit now at Delmar Gardens. She's doing fabulously! It's the right place for her. She's made a lot of friends. They all talk nonsense to each other and laugh like it all makes sense! It did my heart good to see her so happy! And, she eats everything put in front of her!! 

2. Jeanne and I met with our sister-in-law's daughter, Jackie to clean out her mom's (Janet) scrapbook room. Before we could even do that, we spent 4 hours organizing layouts to put in albums!! More on that in my "Scrapbook Saturday" post.

3. I was missing my siblings, so I was happy to get to see them too. I stayed with Jeanne this time! We all met for dinner along with a couple nieces. After the day Jeanne and I had, we needed this:

This blackberry martini was so good--I had two!! Then, I looked up a recipe--I'm going to make them at home!

Clockwise around: me, Jennifer, Matt, Alicia, Sharon, Ranya, Jeanne and Jim. I was so happy to see all of them. It's been too long.

I'm on my way home today.

Me on Monday

Recently, I was looking from something in my old Camp Fire stuff. I found the binder that held the information of all the beads I earned. It was always about learning something new or doing extra work. 

So many of the entries made me laugh.

"I was on time for all lessons for 2 months"--well considering I was 11 years old AND all of our lessons were in the same room (no moving around), I couldn't NOT be on time. 

I don't know what keeping "programs, games and publicity" means. But I did it. My mom would not allow me to record anything I hadn't done. 

The one that cracks me up is "I served as a telephone committee of one." Is it even a committee if it's just a single person? And why the heck did I ever need to form a telephone committee? I'd love to know what was in my little brain.

Apparently I was crafty at a young age--just 10 in these posts. Oh, and I guarantee that I read to my little sister(s) more than 6 times. After all, when I was 10, I had 3 younger sisters.

This shows that I never had any money for very long! Seems like my money was spent before I earned it! And then there's my grammar--"I took an act of part" rather than active! At least I was trying to sound smart!

OMGosh! I guess my inability to sit still for long was obvious here as I "rested completely for 5 minutes two times a day for 2 weeks!" Resting for only 5 minutes is hardly worth the time it takes to settle down! 

I guess my volunteer work started early too--making dolls, cartoons and puzzles for the hospital. And, of course, I went to Mass. I had to--no choice in that. Still, I was happy to earn a bead for doing it. 

I guarantee you that I read more than two books. I was always reading--constantly when I was little. But I guess this bead was for reading recommendations from my teacher.

I also enjoyed seeing my little girl penmanship. I love reminiscing--which is exactly why I scrapbook! I'll share more of these pages some other time.

Here is my Camp Fire vest with the beads. The patches were for selling Russell Stover candy. Each color represents a particular number of boxes. The red, white and blue beads signified each act of citizenship--I don't remember all of the things I had to do to earn them, but I know some had to do with the flag and folding it properly.

Gosh, I can still remember what most of them stood for: turquoise=frontier; brown=outdoors; orange=home; red=sports and games; I can't remember green and yellow. The large beads represent 10 small ones. My mom sewed them all on.

Our Camp Fire councils were really fun. Basically a party once a year where we received our beads, sang and had good food!

Camp Fire Girls was a huge part of my life. My mom was our leader. I started in 1st grade and went through 10th. After that, we had jobs and boyfriends. Basically, life moved on!

Something for Sunday

Today, I have some "odds 'n ends" for you--a bunch of random stuff.

1. This is my sister, Janice. She has recently gone to an assisted living facility called Delmar Gardens in St. Louis. She is in the memory care unit. As you are reading this, I am there visiting her! 

I'm happy to see a smile on her face!

2. I made this as a surprise for Connie's granddaughter, Analise.

We went to her beautiful wedding on Easter weekend. 

3. Speaking of weddings, I added Jordan and Robbie's portrait to our wall.

We're running out of wall space! And, we still have to address our Scrabble wall in the rec room. We need to add Robbie. Then we have the new baby--our first great grandchild due any day now. Next, Mitchell and Emily are getting married next year. Sooo, we're thinking about waiting until then as adding the new names will require taking everything down and re-configuring the entire wall.

We can easily add Robbie with Olly's "O"--but when it comes time to re-configure, we're going to have to figure out all of the new letters we'll need to add. That also means, that we may need to add or subtract some of the letters we already have. Years ago, when we first did this, I found a website where all I had to do was put the names in and it would generate several configurations. I cannot find that now. The thought of trying to figure it out on my own seems sort of impossible--even though Scrabble is my game!! I'll have to let you know how it goes.

4. When we went to the beach, Butch had to address the showers. Stephanie and Nicky were there the weekend before us and reported that there was little to no water pressure.

The shower heads were clogged. We ended up calling a plumber. He told us that there are actually 3 filters in each shower head. He recommended just replacing them--which is what we did. Luckily Butch is so handy--he can do just about anything.

5. Speaking of Butch, I thought I'd add this throwback picture of the early years--when he was a tv repairman.

Not great quality, but you get the idea! Also, I have to add--even though he is so handy, he cannot fix tv's now-a-days. Actually, it's a shame to say, that it's not even worth trying to repair them. TV's are cheap, so it's always replace rather than try to repair. Not great for the environment, but--as everyone says--"it is what it is!"

6. And last, but not least, I got a sweet text from Elizabeth. I love it when she shares the nice reviews and comments she gets from her clients. This one is so good that it makes me want to drive my fine, limp hair down to Atlanta to see what she can do with it!!