Perfect Excuse 4 A Party

Journaling:

4th Grade

IT'S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOL!!!

Estaban, RJ, Jacob, Marcus (hidden in back) and Brady played and partied and WHOOPED IT UP! all afternoon on the last day of school!

June 6, 2008

Go Big or Go Home

I wanted to create the feel of a faded OP shirt that I used to wear back in the 8th grade

Too Much Black & White

Journaling:

Halloween 2006

Brady knew all year waht he wanted to be for Halloween.  I don't know where he got the idea, but in the end he had had just a little too much BLACK & WHITE.

Refresh Button

Journaling:

While playing in the sprinklers Brady would play like crazy and then go take a quick nap before resuming play

Smitten

Journaling: (on tags)

How could I be so crazy about a 7-year old boy

miniature prince charming

a smile that melts my heart

completely smitten by this boy

brady, first day of school, 2006

Phase One

Awwww, look at that guy, he is a cutie!

Journaling:

Brad often refers to his LASIK surgery as phase one of the resurrection. I guess he feels that part of him has been, as the scriptures say, "made whole."

He got his first pair of glasses in 1972 while in the 5th grade.  For the next 26 years he wore either glasses or contacts.  What a pain.  His eyesight was so bad he used to call himself - bear bait.  Meaning, that's what he'd be if he ever lost his glasses while out hiking, because he would never be able to find his way out of the woods.

In 1998 he finally made the plunge to get lasik surgery.  It was expensive ($5000) but we both feel it's one of the best investment we've ever made.

Brady, the first 7 years - Tag Book

I had all these cute pictures of Brady that I needed to put all together.  A tag book seemed like the right solution.  I put "boy" quotes on each page as seemed appropriate. Oh man, I can't stand how cute this boy is!

Quotes:

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature called a boy.

He is my boy. He is my joy.

A small son can charm himself into and out of most things.

Cherish each smile, each laugh, each tear.  You blink your eyes and one day becomes a year.

A boy's will is the wind's will, and thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

boy (boi') n. 1. a noise with dirt on it.

My Valentine

I used Shakespeare's 16th sonnet for part of this journaling.  I got a love of it from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.  It just seemed fitting here.

Journaling: 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments.  Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove;

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the start every wandering bark

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

but bears it out even to the edge of doom

If this be error and upon me proved,

If never writ, nor no man ever loved.

More journaling: (on tag behind large photo)

What do you get when you cross 2 people that are stubborn, opinionated, over-worked and often under-appreciated?  You get Brad and I and often fireworks.  Described like this our marriage doesn't sound particularly fun and, I won't lie, sometimes it's not.  But like in Shakespeare's 16th sonnet my love for Brad is my "ever fixed mark, that looks on tempest and is never shaken."

Sometimes when we are at odds I feel like we are reading a bad script for a play. We play our parts well, but I often don't feel like myself - jut an actress playing the part of someone with a very bad attitude.  I anger myself sometimes that I can't just throw the whole script out the window, or burn it in the fireplace, never to be read from again.

But in the end I am thankful for our love, that emotional lighthouse, which stands steady through the storms of everyday life.

Accordion Book

Here's a little accordion book I made for a "make and take" at Scrapbook Island.  I printed the photos on a newsprint-type paper.  I love the effect.  This was quick and easy but it's still one of my favorite things.