I cannot even imagine

the pain a mother goes through when she buries her child. My friend Val has a dear friend and neighbor who lost a 16 year old daughter on Monday. She was in a car accident in the rain on Memorial Day and she died as a result of her injuries after a week of intense surgeries at the hospital. She was a twin. So she left behind her best friend and sister of 16 years and an older sister.... I simply cannot imagine. So, I offered to help my friend Val prepare for the wake which is tomorrow. For about the last 24 hours I have scrapbooked non-stop with the help of about 30 teens for a few crazy hours last night. I took it all home afterwards and worked on it all day today. I created a four foot by eight foot wall (using a huge sheet of foam from Lowes) of the FRIENDS pages that ended up one of the most incredible things ever. To see that many pages set up like that was just amazing.

I also trimmed a 3' x 3' foam piece for another board and used three nice boards the funeral home provided. I put a few pictures in frames, too. It is all in page protectors (with the holes trimmed off) and the page protectors are glued to the boards. This way, after the funeral, we just slip out all 58 12 x 12 pages and put them into a binder Val has purchased so the family will have it forever. I hate that this family has to do this tomorrow. I hate it. I hate that their daughter is gone forever because of rain on a road at 2 PM on a Monday. I hate that all of their lives changes forever in that one instance. It all just makes me so sad. I pray they find some comfort somehow.

Scrapbooking makes me very very happy!

I was lucky to go to a crop this Friday. Felt organized and got a lot done... here are some of the pages.... And, I put them RIGHT into my labeled LOM albums. Ahhhh, it was nice. I really love having a place to put random pages. I am trying to use more patterned paper, and I used it on most of these pages....

My Library of Memories Albums are labeled!

Ohhhhhh, I know I am WAY more excited about this than I should be, but my heart RACES when I walk by this shelf. I got the shelf out of the attic and got the spines all labeled today. I love them. I MEAN I LOVE THEM! I am so happy with how simple they were and how consistent they look. I love the photos on the circle tags. I love all of it. THIS is just cool.

Happy Scrapbooker!

I love scrapbooking. I am taking the Library of Memories Class at big picture scrapbooking and it is making me sort lots of photos. As I come across a photo I love, I set it aside and have been making time at night to make a page. I love having my category binders to slide them right into. The entire process of scrapbooking makes me feel peaceful, happy, and like a good mom because I am making time to tell their stories. Going to a crop this weekend - I CANNOT WAIT!

I made 34 12 x 12 pages this weekend!

Yeah I did -- it was sooooo exciting. And VERY busy - we had Kim, from Germany, with us for a few days.... and it had always been my plan to help her make a scrapbook of her time here. And time was just getting away from us. Since she was here for a few days, we made the most of it. We knocked it out. We first organized all her photos by theme (seemed much more fun than date), and then we started making divider pages for each section and she has lots of 4 x 6 open page protectors to fill up between the sections! It was so exciting - so insane, but so exciting, too. I felt happy creating a memory that will last a lifetime for her. I picture her children looking at it one day. Best of all - she loved it. She was so grateful and excited... she kept looking at it over and over which made me happy. I even sewed on the flag page - with my machine! I know people have done this forever... but man, I liked it. Here are a few of the pages that I loved. I included one of the 4 x 6 pages so you could see how cool they will look when Kim adds her photos and her touches.