flashback

My middle brother and I have been working on a secret project for the last month or so. Our parent's 40th anniversary was today, November 1.

We combined efforts in gathering old photos of our parents and putting the pictures into a book. First, I projected my parents' slides onto a white wall in our basement and took pictures of them with my camera. My brother then took my photo files and compiled them into a memory book. You can look at a preview of it here. He poured many more hours into this than I did. He did an amazing job.

Special thanks goes to Shelley and Sara. Many months ago Sara had a give-away (for a $20 gift card for Blurb) to Project 365 participates and Shelley won. But, the dear sweetheart that she is, she gave it to me! I used this gift certificate to help pay for the book--so THANK YOU friends!!!

I know our parents liked it. And they were really shocked. And because all these pictures had been on slides, they hadn't seen many of them for years. It was a blast to watch them look through their new treasure!

It was amazing to go through all these slides. I'm still not completely finished. There are hundredss to document yet, but we focused on the ones from their early years together.But here's one of us in the early 80s. Those years did terrible things to our parents, didn't they?! ;) love you, mom.

And one fun thing I noticed....my dad takes pictures of random beautiful things, just like me. Which makes my heart smile.

Unintentional Flashback Friday

Last night I discovered that a pipe was dripping in the basement. Right under said pipe was a box of my "keepsake" papers. Special cards, a few photos, my baby book!! The bottom papers in the box were beyond saving. Thankfully my baby book will be ok (you can breath again Mom!), but I had to throw a lot of it out. Thankfully I thought of taking a picture of some of my favorite things. Here are a few.

My 8th grade cheerleading squad. Yes, I was a bratty cheerleader in 6th-8th grade. Not really much to brag about except that I could do the splits. That's me in the front. And it's probably the only reason they let me be on the squad.

A graduation card from my grandparents. It's probably the last thing they gave me before they passed. Less than a year later they had both gone home to Jesus.

And my high school grad card from my brother. It made me laugh then, it made me laugh today. Thanks again, Matt. You know how to make me smile.