In Loving Memory, Part II

Tio Cesar also passed away in November, leaving behind his wife, 3 sons, 3 daughter-in-laws, 4 grandchildren, and many other family members who mourned this loss. I've known Tio Cesar since 1990. He was one of the early visitors to the Ruiz residence after their move to Florida and I met him shortly after John and I started dating. Before Tia Blanca became ill Tio Cesar would visit Florida quite often, and both of them attended our wedding. The last time I saw him was in 2007 during a business trip to Bethesda.

Tio Cesar used to quiz me on my knowledge of the Spanish language - he was always encouraging me to practice, to become fluent, and it made him happy when I understood what he said to me in Spanish. More than once he got onto John for not taking more time to tutor me. He always welcomed me, as all of John's family always has, but I knew him to be a strict and serious man. When I saw him with Isabel, his first grandchild, it was like night and day. It's true, becoming a grandparent softens you in a way that nothing else can - he was absolutely wrapped around her little finger. The only picture I was able to take of him the last time I visited was one of him and Isabel. She's the only one he would pose with. After my visit I created a layout with that picture, shown here.

Credits:
Clustered Template by Tracy's Scraps
fabric papers, stitched word - "Fun Fabric" by Katie the Scrapbook Lady (some papers recolored)
quote - free gift from Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Thankfully in his younger years, though, he always joined in the pictures. Urania has plenty of pictures of him during his visits to Florida and those are the pictures I used in this memorial layout to honor his passing.

Credits:
kit - Dreamy Island by Ingeborg
Fonts – Clerica, Duvall

Rest in Peace, Tio Cesar. You are loved, and you are missed.

In Loving Memory, Part I

On Thanksgiving Day we lost my Aunt Demarious. I got the news when we were leaving the movie theater that evening. We attended her funeral in Valley, Alabama on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I will miss her, but even more I want to remember her.

Aunt Demarious was a strong but kind woman. Several years ago I created a layout on her for my "Portrait of Ladies" album that showcases the strong, loving, caring women in my family. Here's an excerpt of the journaling from that page, as it says just what I want to say about her:

"Aunt Demarious never pretended to be anyone other than who she is - a good ole down-home southern girl, loyal to her husband, friends and family, who is just as happy hunting and fishing as she is shopping and talking girl-talk. Over the years she remained true to herself, not compromising her beliefs or changing her language to be politically correct. If Aunt Demarious offends you by speaking her mind or telling the truth, well then that's just too bad, in her point of view. She doesn't sugarcoat and she doesn't beat around the bush.

"A strong woman with a booming voice, a fierce bear hug, and a witty comeback at the ready, Demarious Jackson carved a niche in our family that was uniquely her own. Born and raised in the Deep South, she is an Alabamian through and through, and proud of it. She seems fearless, plunging ahead into new business ventures and leisurely pursuits alike with unbridled enthusiasm.

"Aunt Demarious taught me that boys may be boys, but girls can play boys' games and excel at them. She taught me that it is more important to be true to yourself than it is to be popular. She taught me that showing a tough shell to the world doesn't mean you have to be hardened inside. She taught me that sometimes when you're dealing with boys, you just have to be a real tough cookie and never show fear. Over the years I haven't always know where I've stood in the line to Aunt Demarious heart, but during a recent visit, as we bid goodbye, she grabbed me to her famous bear hug and whispered "I love you, kid." It certainly meant the world to me to hear it from the women I've grown to love and respect."

Here's the layout that journaling comes from:

I was working on a hybrid mini-album, a Printable SANTA Word Album by Kay Eflin and Julie Mead. I decided to fill it with photos from the last Christmas celebration that we had with Aunt Demarious on the farm. It wasn't ever easy to get pictures of Aunt D, but I did get a few that day.

I love you, Aunt Demarious. Rest in Peace.

Christmas Carols for One and All

A long time between posts, I know. That's because after the events in the month of November, I wanted to make my first post back a memorial post. Since it's taking longer than I expected to pull that together, we'll try a lighter post for now.

I love Christmas music. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving through the day after Christmas, it's the only kind of music I want to listen to. We have a local radio station that accomodates my Christmas music extravaganza, they only play Christmas music during that time. Normally they are an easy-listening station. Also I have a great collection of Christmas songs on my iPod. And John's XM radio has a few exclusively holiday stations this time of year. So I am totally covered.

This year my friend Amy invited me to go see the American Idol Stars in Concert for the Holidays with her; the tour kicked off in our town and she is a season passholder at that venue. 4 previous Idols (Michael Sarver from Season 8, Alexis Grace from Season 8, David Hernandez from Season 7, and Gina Glocksen from Season 6) performed together and solo in a 2 hour concert with a brief intermission at our historic Polk Theatre downtown as a part of their 2009-2010 Performing Art Series. It was a fun show - the performers started a round version of The 12 Days of Christmas and then ended up laughing so hard that they missed a few lines, but we were all laughing too so it was all good. David Hernandez was so funny with all of his theatrics on stage. Next year I've already told John that we need to go see the Tran-Siberian Orchestra Christmas performance in concert - I have their CD but I'd love to see the show live.

This post wouldn't be complete without some more specifics on what I'm listening to. My favorite Christmas carols are the religious carols and I prefer more traditional versions of them. Here are a few of my favorites, straight from my iTunes playlist, and my favorite version of each:

• Angels We Have Heard on High by the San Francisco Choir
• Baby Jesus is Born by Garth Brooks
• Carol of the Bells by Emmy Rossum
• The Chipmunk Song by Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Do You Hear What I Hear by Third Day from the WoW Christmas Disc 1
• Emmanuel by Michael W Smith
• The First Noel by Bing Crosby
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Garth Brooks
• Go Tell It On The Mountain by Garth Brooks
• Hark the Herald Angels Sing by the San Francisco Choir
• A Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives
• It Came Upon a Midnight Clear by Caedmon's Call from the WoW Christmas Disc 2
• Joy to the World by Bing Crosby
• O Come All Ye Faithful by Jeremy Camp
• O Little Town of Bethlehem by Bing Crosby
• Oh Holy Night by Kelly Clarkson
• Silent Night by Sixpence None the Richer from the City On A Hill Christmas CD
• A Strange Way to Save the World by 4HIM from the WoW Christmas Disc 1
• Up on the Housetop
• We Three Kings by John Michael Talbot
• What Child is This by MercyMe from the WoW Christmas Disc 2

My goal, eventually, is to have at least one version of every Christmas song that I like on my iPod. Last night I was searching for the song "Angels From the Realm of Glory" in iTunes, which was among the missing from my collection, and I was disturbed to find many artists had recorded the song "Angels We Have Heard on High" but named it "Angels From the Realm of Glory" instead. I finally settled on a version of the song by Stephen Curtis Chapman, it was my favorite out of the few songs that were actually titled correctly.

My helpful tip of the day: I just learned from a friend that Amazon is giving away a Christmas song MP3 download every day from Dec 1 - Dec 25. Click the link to check it out.

Now it's your turn - go forth and spread the Christmas cheer!

For the Love of Books

I love to read, and I love books. I love the feel of books, I love the smell of books, I love to page through them slowly and devour every word on the page. Recently someone was asking about e-book devices, and while the concept is interesting (so many books at your fingertips wherever you go), I just don't see myself moving away from having that book in my hand to see and smell and feel. While hardback books look best on the bookshelf, the truth is I'm partial to paperbacks. One of my favorite scenes in Ever After (the Cinderella movie with Drew Barrymore) is when she is lovingly holding the paperback copy of Utopia* in her hand, a gift she received from her father. I can't really explain it, but there's something comforting in the bend of the book and the smallness of it. Hardback books are just so darn big. I do love the teeny tiny hardbacks, though, teeny tiny books are just adorable. My grandmother gave us small copies of a few of the classics when we were kids and I still have them - Jane Eyre and Anne of Green Gables.

So imagine my delight when a friend recently (ok, yesterday) introduced me to Goodreads, a web site dedicated to books and reading. This website allows you to search their book collection, rate the books you've read, write reviews and save it all to your own book profile. You can also read the reviews other people have written, review lists that people have created (and create your own lists), and much much more. There are author bios and links to other book sites. I've already rated over 200 books and posted 10 reviews. This was made a little easier since I've started keeping a book journal in 2007 to track the books I've read and what I thought of them. Just like on Netflix, you can have friends and recommend books to them (or have them recommend books to you). I'm in the process of getting Sandy, Lisa and Tabatha to join, they are my book buddies.

I love books so much I've even scrapbooked about them. Case in point, a layout about my all-time favorite book, King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry, and how it's forever tied to my memories of my all-time favorite horse, Copper. It was actually for a theme challenge (the theme was your favorite book) held by ACOT in November 2007. I scanned and printed out the book cover (my copy is a large paperback) to use on the page along with a picture of Copper and me. I used the We R Memory Keepers Urban Window Collection because the colors coordinated with the book cover and my picture. The quote is one I'd been saving from a package of canvas stickers by Paper House Productions.

In 2008 I created a layout about some more of my favorite books, the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I found images of the book covers online and included them in this digital layout using Kathryn Balint's Farm Kid kit. I believe that reading these books is why I have fond memories of maple sugar candy, which I found at this year's Food & Wine Festival at Epcot (Canada was selling this yummy dessert in the shape of a Canada Maple Leaf). And I know that reading these books inspired my love of the old west and the life of a settler. I also know that as romantic as it sounds in the book, suffering through droughts and cold winters and Indian raids would not have been the ideal life for me, but it's certainly fun to read about.

In 2008 I met author Beverly Lewis at book signing at the local Christian bookstore (which has since unfortunately gone out of business). She has written many fictional Amish accounts including the Abram's Daughters series. Here's a layout I created this year (2009) showcasing the picture of Beverly Lewis and I taken during the event. I cut a tree shape out of patterned paper from a DCWV stack and used plenty of American Crafts flowers and Creating Keepsakes brads to embellish the page. I was also able to use this fun book tag by Daisy D's that I've been holding onto forever. The buttons are Bo Bunny and the letters are All My Memories and EK Success.

Putting up my bookshelves earlier this year was a dream come true, as now my favorite books are out of the boxes and on the shelves where they belong. Since my bookshelves are almost full, I usually choose to find new books to read from the library and only buy the books I'm in love with and plan to read over and over (like the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, a gift from Lisa for my last birthday). Right now I'm reading several books, some are mine and some are borrowed from Lisa and Tabatha, who are still in the beginning stages of growing their book collections. I'm halfway through Native Dancer: Thoroughbred Legend by Eva J Boyd. I've read the first chapter of Marked (book 1 in the House of Night series) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, a mother-daughter writing duo. And of course I'm chomping at the bit to read Sea Glass (book 2 in the Glass series, a spin-off of the Study series) by Maria V Snyder. I would be much farther along on all 3 of these if I didn't keep stopping to reread parts of New Moon in anticipation of the New Moon movie that comes out November 20!

I hope this post inspires all of you to pick up a good book today!

* By the way, as proof you never stop learning, by looking up the link for Utopia to include in this blog post I learned that the man who wrote Utopia in 1516, Thomas More, is the same Thomas More I've read about in the many books I've read on the Tudor reign and Anne Boleyn.

Speaking of Children

Here's a face I haven't seen in a while - I haven't seen Miss Bianca all month. That might have something to do with me barely being home, but I still miss her and Libby Lynn. I need to get myself on their calendar. In the meantime I'm scrapping some past pictures. This one was from September when I took Bianca to the Children's Museum. She loved the airplane - at one point she insisted I get in the airplane with her and let me tell you that was a tight fit, so after that I managed to escape actually being in the plane.

In other news, we're praying for the swift recovery of John's Tio Cesar. If you are the praying-kind, please send some prayers up for him as well. "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the main who does not fall away on account of me." (Matthew 11:5-6) Praise be to the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth, to Him be the Glory.

Baby Logan Is Here

We've been waiting for him all year! Baby Logan arrived on Monday, November 2, at 12:18. He was 7 lb 8 oz, 22 inches long, and entered this world via C-Section. And though she's still working through the pain, I know Nicole (and Dana) are just thrilled to have him with them at last. Dad and I drove up on Monday once we'd heard the news and spent the week getting to know him and spending time with the family.

I managed to (just barely) finish Logan's baby book before we had to head up to Alabama to meet him. I promised Nicole I would make his baby book, and after the length of time she had to wait on her wedding album I didn't want to show up without it. That being said, I am a true procrastinator and waited too long to start as usual. Luckily my creative mind works well under pressure. I went with a jungle theme to match his nursery. Originally I thought I would do a baby book like the ones you buy - fitting the first 7 years into one book. But that didn't really work out for me, lol, it was too overwhelming to get more than one year into the book. I'll just have to give them another book next year, to capture all the joys of the 1 year old baby. The book I gave them covers birth - 12 months. I'm really excited with how it came out - my initial thought was to use Disney's Jungle Book items, but just like with the nursery there are a shortage of actual Jungle Book supplies. I did find one set of stickers with Mowgli and Baloo that I used throughout. The rest of the supplies came from the animal section at Violette's. I chose 3D stickers to cover all the different jungle animals (EK Success and Jolee's "The Wild Collection"), animal print alpha stickers (Reminisce), and two pieces of patterned paper to compliment each animal (most of the animal patterned paper is from Reminisce's Safari line). Die Cuts With a View cardstock, both Fall and Neutral stacks, were my mainstay to work with these jungle animal patterned papers and embellishments, as well as Karen Foster and Junkitz brads and journaling cards from My Mind's Eye. There were other supplies used too, but for once I didn't take the time to catalog my supply list, I was too busy creating layouts. Here are a few of the pages that were included in the album:

The cover page - I've always loved these journaling cards by My Mind's Eye, so I had to include one of those. The colors in this lovely sunset paper inspired my color schemes as I worked on the book.

This two-page spread is dedicated to the day of his birth - the birth certificate or pictures can go on the left side, and pictures can go on the mats on the right. The calendar, from the Maya Road sheers collection that my friend Claire gave me, can be marked with the date of his birth and his and Nicole's hospital bracelets can go in the library card pocket.

When I was looking through my jungle purchases I immediately fell in love with the zebra paper for this two-page layout on Logan's first visitors. The herd of zebras just screams "Welcoming Committee" to me, and that's exactly what we were. The Creative Imaginations lined paper is attached to form a side pocket, where congratulations cards and other papers can be tucked.

The giraffe paper is one of my very favorites, the colors on it are so rich, and I paired it up with the glitter cardstock that I found. This two-page layout is for Logan's homecoming - the jungle nursery pictures should look great on here. Of course some more journaling cards were in order as well, this album gave me some practice on how to incorporate those into layouts.

In order to allow Nicole and Dana to capture important moments and events in Logan's first year, I felt I needed to include some strictly journaling pages as well. I used PowerPoint to create these chart pages - some of them have room at the bottom for pictures or memorabilia, such as the Hearing & Speech Page on the left, while some of them required all of the 12x12 area, such as the milestones for baby's first year on the right.

Here is Baby Logan:

And here I am with my newest nephew:

I'm back home now and I miss everyone already! Of course at the same time I'm glad to be home to see the rest of my family - it's hard to have loved ones spread across the country.

Orange You Glad It's Almost Halloween?

Speaking of orange, I’m just glad we’re past another weekend of College Football and one win closer to the SEC Championship game. C’mon Gators, hang in there! The game against Mississippi State was a nail biter, much closer than it should have been. And I love my Gators, but even I think that one touchdown call they got could have gone either way. Next stop - Jacksonville, where we meet up with Georgia.

Lisa invited me to carve pumpkins with the kids on Saturday, remembering my comment that I hadn’t had the chance to carve a pumpkin in years. For some reason I got it in my head that we were going to a pumpkin patch to pick out the pumpkins. I’m really not sure why I thought that, maybe I’ve seen one too many pumpkin patch layouts posted in the ACOT gallery, lol. Anyway, just before I went over to Lisa’s house on Saturday she mentioned that she was at Wal-Mart and would be home shortly. But it wasn’t until I had parked in front of her house and was walking up to her door when it occurred to me that she had probably bought the pumpkins at Wal-Mart. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw 4 pumpkins sitting on her kitchen table. Hopefully I’m right about people not paying attention when I talk, because I know I told at least a few people that I was headed to the pumpkin patch, including John.

There were 4 pumpkins – one for each of the kids and one for me. First we had to cut off the tops and gut them, and we had a great time tormenting Lisa with the slimy mess of pumpkin guts as we mashed them down into the provided pans. Afterwards I had to separate the seeds out so Lisa could bake them for us to eat as our after-pumpkin-carving snack. The kids wanted me to make a pumpkin pie from the remaining pumpkin innards, but Lisa insisted that you have to buy special pumpkins to make pies. I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I didn’t have a recipe for pumpkin pie and she doesn’t have internet so I let her throw it all away.

We had a book of patterns to choose from when it came time to carve our pumpkins. Trinity chose a happy cat, Taylor chose a Goblin, Trevor chose a skull & crossbones, and I let Trinity pick my pattern out. She chose the Jack-O’Lantern for me, and I let her help me carve it after she was finished with her own. Trevor finished his first and went on to carve the back side, then headed over to play the Wii. Taylor took more time on her pumpkin, but also carved out both sides and joined Trevor in front of the TV. Trinity and I were the last to finish up. It drove the kids crazy that I took pictures of the finished pumpkins, but how could I resist those works of art? Here they are:

Supply List:
Kit – Falloween and Falloween Add On by Kay Eflin
Font - Memo

Lisa insisted I take my beautiful pumpkin home with me, so it’s sitting in front of our front door. And decomposing fast, I’m not sure if it’s going to make it to Halloween. I guess you need colder weather to preserve pumpkins. Lisa says their pumpkins aren’t faring much better.