Family Matters

As I mentioned earlier, I was away on a retreat with some friends this weekend so I managed to get a lot accomplished.  I completed three projects for family and about family.  First of all --the Circus is coming to town and how I wish I could take my niece and nephews with me when I'm sitting front row at American Airlines cheering like a fool.  LOL.  But in the spirit of the Circus --oh, and not just any circus...I'm talking Barnum and Bailey, baby...anyway, in the spirit of the Circus or Le Cirque, I am sending both my nephews and my niece some fun and flavored popcorn that is adorned with a circus themed tag.  Something tells me they are going to care more about the popcorn.  :p

I also made a 5x7 book FOR ME.  Yes, FOR ME.  You see, I rarely keep things I make but gosh darnit, I'm going to keep this one for myself.  This book is filled with beautiful 5x7 portraits of my family from start to end.  The only embellishing I did was to the cover.  I covered it with 7G tissue paper and made one of my famous clusters using flowers and elements from Maya Road, Prima, and Recollections.  I am so pleased with how this turned out. 

The other project that I made is a 5x7 album as well but this one is about my nephew playing T-Ball.  Again, not much embellishing and the paper that I did use was from a cheesey kit.  But that's okay...it's not the paper or the embellishments that made this book and told the story...it was the pictures inside.

Thanks for reading!

Oh brother!

I had the opportunity to talk to my brother John yesterday and I actually understood most of what he was trying to communicate to me.  You see, John was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about 18 years ago.  Over the span of the last five years he has quickly deteriorated.  At the age of 41 he is unable to drive, write, walk, and now talk.  His speech is minimal as he is suffering from vocal cord paralysis/weakness –one of the more drastic effects of MS.  He tries to communicate the best that he can but it’s frustrating not being able to understand him –I can only imagine how incarcerating it is for him to function at full capacity in the brain and not be able to convey the majority of his thoughts.  Needless to say, we rarely get on the phone to chit chat but yesterday was a great day for John.  His cords were strong and we managed to exchange a few words.  He first wished me a happy belated birthday.  He asked me how old I was and when I replied 35 he gasped and said I was old.  The best part was when I told him that I was sorry that his Dallas Cowboys weren’t playing in the big game.  He sighed and said “I’m sad”.  I replied with, “well, they could have played in the Super Bowl but they suck!”  He let out a huge laugh.  That alone made my day.  Love you John Boy!  The picture was sent to me yesterday evening by my other brother.  He and John watched the Super Bowl together.  ::huge smile::