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Tell Me Why

Why scrapbooking?

Imagine for a moment that you are helping to clean up your grandmother's attic. You find three boxes in a corner, and on opening them, you discover photographs that belonged to your great-grandmother:

Box 1. Whether tossed in a photo box, left in the fotomat envelope, or placed in frames and albums, these pictures are mostly unlabeled. A few names here and there, a date or two. But mostly unlabeled pictures of people you don't recognize, but are sure you should know. The albums are not acid free, and many of the photos are faded. The box was not well cared for, and the framed and loose or boxed photos are in sad shape. Some are faded, mildewed, eaten by rodents, some have gotten stuck together from the damp. The newspaper clippings are faded, the ticket stubs and memorabelia are falling apart. You find a bunch of pictures labeled "Hawaii 1932" and wonder who took them. You see a photo of a boy on a horse. You see your grandmother holding her first drivers license and she looks happy. It's a wonderful trip down Heritage Lane, but you have no frame of reference for much of what you find, and you feel very lost.

Box 2. This box contains photo albums. These photos were better cared for. The box was not left out in the damp, so the photos are not mildewed and have not stuck together. The photos have names and dates, and sometimes places written on the back, or next to them in the albums. You find a bunch of pictures labeled "Honeymoon in Hawaii 1932" and decide that must have been your Great-Grandmother's honeymoon, she got married around 1932, right? You see a photo of a young boy on a horse labeled "Bill, Storybrook Farm Rodeo Days, 1938." "Is that Great Uncle Bill?" You wonder. "He was always so scared and nervous around horses, I wonder what happened." You find a picture of your grandmother holding her first driver's license, and she looks so happy. The albums contain newspaper clippings and ticket stubs. Some are faded as many of the albums are not acid free, and most are stuck to the cling albums that were used. It's a wonderful trip down Heritage Lane. You find enough mile markers along the way to enjoy the trip.

Box 3. This box contains several scrapbook albums. You find an entire album about your Great-Grandmother's honeymoon in Hawaii in 1932, describing where they went, what they did, how proud/nervous/happy she felt to be starting a new life as a married woman. You find the page with the picture of Great Uncle Bill on the horse. The journaling next to it describes the horrible fall he took in the bronc riding event, how long his recovery was, and how he was never really comfortable around horses again. You see a picture of your grandmother holding her first driver's license and read the story about how she was so nervous taking the test that she ran over the instructors clipboard, but he passed her anyway. "So THAT's why Granddad called Gramma 'Board-Runner'!" you think. It's a wonderful trip down Heritage Lane. You learn so much about your relatives and ancestors. What they were like, how they felt, what they did, where they lived. You feel closer to your entire family, living and deceased.


Which box would you rather find? Which box would you rather leave behind for your own Great-Grandchild to find?


That's why.

I Ran

Well, despite all my best intentions, I am becoming an athlete.

Regular readers of my blog (both of you) know that my primary resolution for this year was to get healthier and lose some weight. To that end, I have been trying to eat healthier, with varying degrees of success. I have also been exercising more. I started by trying to walk the dogs everyday. I am now walking them 1.6 miles per day, averaging 4 to 7 days a week.

I also found an incredibly supportive internet forum that I have been hanging out on. I have discovered why drug dealers Weight Watchers® works so well - a supportive community. These ladies praise each other's accomplishments and commiserate on our disappointments. They push encourage each other to reach for new heights. Some are just getting started, like myself. Others are already running triathlons.

Encouraged by the insanity dedication of my SmoFit (as we call ourselves) friends, I started looking at walking events that I could participate in. I found the Route 66 Marathon which has a marathon, a 1/2 marathon, a 1/4 marathon, a kids marathon, and a Family 5k. I mentioned the kids marathon to my kids, and the boys got very excited and wanted to participate. DD1 was less excited, but only because she felt she would get too tired to run the whole way.

Just 11 days ago, on June 6th, I posted a response to someone's comment in which I advised them that I do not run. I don't need to be an athlete - just walk daily to exercise the dogs, get into shape, lose weight, and improve my overall health. Reporting my progress to SmoFit became a way of holding myself more accountable. Knowing they would ask how I was doing, I might force myself to go out and walk even when I really didn't want to.

Following further pushing encouragement from SmoFit on hearing about my intent to enter walking events, I soon found myself looking at the Couch-to-5K plan. And then, I downloaded the podcasts.

Tonight - I ran.

I went out with my iPod, the 3 oldest children and both dogs. I listened to the podcast. And we followed it. A 5 minute warm up walk, followed by alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of recovering walking, and a 5 minute cool down walk.

11 days from "I don't run" to "I ran". That has to be some kind of record, even for Smofit pushers ladies.

Get (rid of) Smart

I recently spent days, possibly even weeks - I've blocked most of it out - fighting a particular problem on a .NET project. I am working on a web form, and I need the focus to be in a particular textbox immediately upon display. On one form, the textbox displayed immediately; on the other, it displays after a selection is made to a radio button group. I also need the focus to move to the next textbox on tab for manual entry.

No matter how I coded the textboxes, no matter how I referenced them in javascript, no matter what I hard-coded in the HTML, I could not get the focus where I needed it, when I needed it. Google did not help. Safari did not help. My coworkers looked at it for over an hour one day - no help.

After days of trying everything I could think of, and a bunch of things I just made up, I finally got it to work, and performed a victory dance the likes of which has not been seen since the '85 Bears.

Note to self: If you want to control focus on your webform - TURN OFF Smart Navigation on that webpage!

I Let My Feet Go And Get Carried Away

As with many creative hobbies, there are layouts I like, layouts I'm not too happy with, and layouts that make me smile. Then, there are layouts that I LOVE. That came out perfect - exactly as I picture it. That capture what I was trying to say perfectly, and simply can not be improved on.

This is one of those.

I have to give credit to my scrappin' buddy Fantacy on this one. Her comment in the post this series of pictures originally appeared in gave me the inspiration for the layout. So, thank you Fantacy, for inspiring the best layout I've done yet.

Dance, Like no one is watching.

Journaling: "Dance, Like no one is watching. Spin, spin, spinning at the Scarborough Renaissance Festival. Princess. Saturday, May 17, 2008"

Credits: Altered Beauty and Ancient Age papers by Raspberry Road; fonts: Freebooter Script, AndrewScript, French111 BT, Galeforce BTN; NSD 2008 Ad Challenge on ScrapBook-Bytes

This layout didn't come out perfect, but the story behind it makes me smile. I can hear my dad telling this story every time I look at it - and that is worth its weight in gold. I was inspired by the Stanley Cup template posted by DeltaDawn. I've never been a hockey fan, but it reminded me of this story, and I had to use it.

Score! Bobby Orr!

Journaling:
TV announcer: "He shoots! He scores!"
LPF (~ 1-2 yo, looks up from her playing): "Score Bobby Orr!"
Dad: "No, honey. Score (Ken Hodge / Wayne Cashman / Other Hockey Player)."
LPF (arms raised in celebration): "Score Bobby Orr!"
Dad: "No, no. Not Score Bobby Orr. Score (Ken Hodge / Wayne Cashman / Other Hockey Player)."
LPF (excitedly): "Score Bobby Orr!" “Score! Bobby Orr!”
Dad (laughing and sighing at the same time): "Ok, ok. Score Bobby Orr!"
(repeat all season long, regardless of which player actually scored, which team scored, or if the Bruins were even playing that night.)

Credits: Stanley Cup Template by Delta Dawn; Buzzy by Mandy Mystiques; Grunging Around by Scrappy Pony; Transparency Action by Atomic Cupcake; fonts: Missy BT, Bosox, Keep On Truckin' FW