Project Life *sigh*

So I took on Project Life this year, and I was doing so well.  Until actual life got in the way.  But I refuse to give up.  We may be living in Week 22 or 23 or whatever, and that means I'm halfway behind, but that is okay.  I'm not giving up (yet).

And I'm going to try to get this posted and link up with Project Life Tuesday at the Mom Creative!  :)

Credits for the two-page spread: Brandi Sutherlin Designs - Number Your Week cardsValorie Wibbens - Pockets No. 6, 92 Arrows, Sprinkles V12Peeps & Milo - To Go PL Brushes, Grey And In Between cards, Shine Bright 2, Mark It Up V1Nicole LaRue - Patchwork CardsAmy Wolffe/Lynne-Marie - Manic Monday papersDesigns by Lili - 4x6 Photocollage 2Creashens - Lychee delight paperKim Church - PL 3x4 cardsRain kit - Becky Higgens PLHeather Joyce - The Twig fontAmy Martin - 4x6 Stitched 1 & 2, Stitched Labels.Valorie Brown - Stamps: Life Edition 1

Family Territory

In the past couple of weeks, I've been doing some serious thinking about our family history (or lack thereof). I begged my grandma to keep a notebook and write some things down... her handful of favorite stories even.  I told her she didn't have to make it entertaining, just jot down some notes about the most important details.  But she refuses.

When I was young, she used to tell me story after story about being born in Alaska (back when it was a territory).  She lived in a small town named Cordova.  When I was a teenager, my grandparents took a ferry to Cordova to look at the town and see some other parts of Alaska.  They offered to take me (at the last minute when we were at the ferry dock).  Being a snotty teen, I couldn't imagine a trip wearing the same outfit the whole time.  Now I regret not going.  I wish I could have seen the little house my grandma lived in.  They lived in a big house on the hill.  Originally, the house was built as part of a church property, but the church decided the hill was too steep and difficult to navigate in the snow, so they sold it to my grandma's father and mother.

My grandma's mother had been a nurse, visiting from Illinois, when she met "Mr. Koch" as she called him in her letters.  She ended up moving to Alaska to marry him.  They married in 1918.  My grandma came along about a year and a half later.

My grandma's mother died when my grandma was only six.  Ironically, even though Edna was a nurse, she died of blood poisoning from an infection.  I think that haunts my grandma to this day that she didn't really have a mother around or remember much about her.  Her father hired a housekeeper to help out with raising my grandma.

My grandma's father ran the dairy in town (Lakeside Dairy) and had *the only* horse.  Bill pulled the milk wagon around town, and all of the kids would run out to see him. My great-grandfather also ended up working on the railroad during the war.  The government recruited him to help with it because he was one of the only people around who knew anything about logistics and handling big projects.  He remarried at some point after sending my grandma (when she was 12) to Tacoma to live with her aunt.  She never lived in Alaska again after that.  She met friends and had so much fun in Tacoma, she didn't want to go back home.

Credits: Black Crow kit, Grunge Stamps v.10 & Watercolour Brushes

Talkin' 'Bout My Generation

For the past month or so, my grandmother has been in and out of the hospital (mostly in [almost a full month]).  Every day, when we'd go to visit, she'd delight in telling the nurses (or anyone else who would listen), how our family has five generations alive right now.  She is a great-great grandma, and totally proud of it.

Jessica and I have been thinking a lot about family and connections through the generations.  There are too many missing links on all sides of our family trees.  That is the way with absent parents and/or adoptions.  I know that I wish I would have been more interested in the family tree back when I was younger and so many more of the relatives were alive.  Too little, too late.

One thing that I was over-the-moon thrilled about though... my grandma relinquished some of her old photo albums.  She was going to get rid of them (to a thrift store, like she did with a bunch of others [like a stab in the eye with an ice pick]), but since I wanted them, she gave some of them to me.  Yay.

Here are a couple of my treasures that I scanned.

My grandma, mom and uncle (and Joseph the cat) in December of 69

My grandpa in 1939

My grandma in 1939

Grandma in 1938

Grandpa and Grandma (dating) July 6, 1938

Grandpa 7/6/38

Grandpa's cousin, Rosie 7/6/38

And here is a page I created using one of the pictures.  The kit is so fitting.  It is Sissy Sparrows' Room 19: Project 5.  All about relics and vintage goodness (although it is totally versatile and can be used for anything).

Credits: Sissy Sparrows - Room 19: Project 5

What about you?  Are you interested in your family's past?  Vintage photos?  Do you want to find your roots?

The Home Stretch

I freed my grandmother from the hospital on Thursday and stayed with her until yesterday.  My uncle came up to take a shift while I finish a couple of things.  Jessica will stay with her Monday and Tuesday, and then we'll assess whether we think she can stay alone.  Even if she can, we'll have to help her with meals and laundry throughout the week.  But at least she's home, and she's feeling much better.  Once she regains her strength, watch out.

I have two papers remaining in this term.  I have to get them turned in by Tuesday just to be safe.  I'm in the home stretch and relieved to be finishing.  Then I have one additional class and then the capstone/thesis part begins.  Whew.  I will be so happy when this program is over.

What I've Been Up To

My poor blog is so neglected.

I've been doing the occasional post over at One Story Down, weekly new-release posts over at Sissy Sparrows, and now a couple of posts a month at My Scrapbook Art's blog Home Is Where the Art Is.

Between blogging at other sites, homework, wrangling a 3-year old, scrapping for creative teams, I didn't think I had much time or energy.  Then my 93-year old Grandma got sick three and a half weeks ago, and I've been advocating for her.  The first week, I took her to the ER three times, and to her doctor once.  I stayed with her a couple of days to make sure she was okay.  The last trip to the ER landed her a hospital admission, so she has been in the hospital since.  She ended up with a pacemaker (that no one proved to me that she really needed), but is on the mend and now transferred to the rehab unit of the hospital so she can regain her strength and work to get back home.

Life has been a blur the last month and a half.  Crazy times.

Here are a few of the layouts I've done to keep myself from losing my sanity.

May's pages so far...

April Pages

Scrap and art journal pages from April...

March Pages

Art Journal and scrap pages from March...