Sail Away With Me

I have a few other things on my bucket list which I would love to do.  Funny how the four things on my bucket list all involve traveling.  Of course I'm working on the pictures of courthouse!  I'd love to see a baseball game in the home field of every major league team, but I could give up that just to see the Cubs play in Wrigley Field!  I have many years ago met one of the heiresses of the Wrigley fortune....ahh that doesn't count.  I want to see the Triple Crown run....the key though I want to see all three races in the same year.  The third is I want to go on an Inside Passage Cruise to Alaska.  Not a big list!  Short lists are much easier to conquer!

In 1984 my grandmother and mother did take that cruise to Alaska aboard the Royal Viking Star.  They left on my grandmother's birthday, her 80th.  Dee-Dee took my mother who would turn 50 later that year.  I found the album of  the photos and brought it home last month because the album and not the photos are deteriorating.  I've done two layouts so far and I'll post the other when a week from Tuesday when it posts on Nuts About Sketches.

I just love the Studio Calico Atlantic and Crate Paper Pier to work on this album.  I'm also going to order Echo Park Birthday Wishes from the Photo Freedom lines.  Perfect for the photo with Crew and Cake on Dee-Dee's birthday!  But these photos show Mom and Dee-Dee on deck as the ship sails out of San Fransico.

A couple of other things about the layout.  I love the Boats & Anchors of the Atlantic Line.  I have the complete itinerary so those darling boats with the numbers on them are great for 1st day, 2nd day, etc.  I used Paper Bakery Kit Club Sketch #5 that Juliana Michaels provided.  Unique idea for borders!  I also was drawn to my May PB Kit to use the Lily Bee Kite Strings as my base!  Love the busy feel to the layout, too, as I don't imagine cruise ships aren't crowded.  Although the Star is no where near as big as the super cruise ships of today.  This sketch just begged to be used for this vacation.  I'll probably use it again, but with some different ideas now running through my head!

Thanks for taking a bit of time with me today.  We'll see you Monday as I'll be working on my flower garden and some scrapping!  I'm going to try to get two more pages done from these photos this weekend.  These will be done in Project Life Style.  As I started to total up what it will cost just to do this album I am pushing $400 so far.  I know I will have left overs but not alot!!!  For 120 photos I'm just stunned!

Mothers

On the heals of my rant yesterday..... I thought I would write about Mothers!!! I love being 'MOM!' I can still hear..... 'Awe Mom!' Now I smile, sometimes wishing I still had teenagers in the house. I never wanted children until I met the man of my dreams. About eight weeks after Lynn was born I told Larry, 'I want six!' Yep, six and I got.... "The Look!" Except inheriting my father's analytical brain logic set in. I wanted two, or in my case I had this extreme urge to give my husband a son. Well the son came as child number two. And the teenage thing, I couldn't wait until my kids were teenagers! Ok, think I'm nuts! Teenagers are wonderful, they see the world with optimism, enthusiasm, and haven't been jaded by life experiences in the way this 50 year old has. Our two routinely got the question, 'Why do you want to spend time with your parents?' Or I routinely heard from their friends and still do as well as my kids, 'Your parents are cool!' Are we? I don't think so, we have just always treated teenagers with the same kind of respect that we expect out of an adult. We also have listened to what they have to say and validated their opinions. They are human after all.

My mother was a positive influence as were all three of my grandmother's of which one was not a mother. I'll let you ponder that one. There comes a time when the kids become grown and your roll changes yet again. My aunt put it right, there are stages to life and they repeat. I share the following layout with you from my wedding pictures. A short two years later my aunt shared that little jewel about life's stages. Now twenty five years later I will at some point get to this stage or I'm in this stage waiting for my children to find the right person to spend their life with. Their friends are starting to marry. And God willing I will see this stage again as a grandmother. I present a quiet time with my mother:



'nuff said....