Saturday, August 25, 2007

All is well on the Western Front

Or: How to get your strength back when your parents visit ;^)*

My folks are great -- you know, people who really care and love you and want the best for you -- but sometimes it can be really hard when they come for a long visit. They seem to just LOVE to complain about the time difference, the airplane, that I live in the country and that I live on an island, that I have two dogs that shed and kids that mess the place up, that I am not a neatnik, yada-yada-yada. You know how some folks are really helpful when they are around? That is NOT my folks I love 'em, but grandma doesn't do diapers, and grandpa is flat out afraid of being alone with the baby!

Yeah, I know it is not stamping, but it is getting there.

Yesterday I did get to stamp -- and tomorrow I am going to put some final touches on a few cards. I can't seem to find a tiny bit of bling for one of the cards... the other I just have a few things to add... assembly seems hard. Then I will photograph and post, I promise. My mom just looked at the cards and said -- "You spend so long on these cards, how can you just send them out" -- and you know, it made me realize how much I just want to do that! Send them out! I think as I get better at photographing the cards, it will be much easier to send them out.

And -- stamping, was just what I needed to get my strength back. Tomorrow my folks are on a visit to the Olympic Peninsula, and I am going to take that time for me that I can get when my DH is home with the kiddos, too. Ah, I love having family here -- but if I could just get them to be a bit more helpful so I could stamp more!

I have been turning my mom on to scrapbooking -- I gave my folks an album that I did for them for their 40th wedding anniversary (ok, it was 4 years late -- but it is done!) and now mom is getting curious about testing the waters. THAT gives me energy! I am hoping to get my scanner working tomorrow, too -- and then maybe we can scan some of the priceless old photos she is carrying around and damaging in her purse. I did give her a new mini photo album that I picked up via Creative Memories, so I think that they are safer... and we talked about photo handling... but I am not so sure that she "gets" it, yet. I think there is hope, so y'all Hold her in the Light about it, ok?

My father and I have been going around and around about a building project that I would like to start -- one that would gain me a workshop and a car-port for our vehicles (the sap from the trees is just awful and it would be great to protect our cars from all the falling debris where we have to park them...) My dad just is so bad about DOING stuff (he is a THINKER -- he just doesn't have those kind of real-world skills) he is afraid of the thought of building, I think. I, on the other hand, have shared housing with 6 architects over the years, helped my best buddy get into Harvard school of architecture, and LOVE the thought of making a building real. I was the person who contracted out and bought land and got my home put on it -- before I was married -- and I just LOVE the thought of having space to really LIVE and USE! Dad just doesn't get it. Not that he needs to -- I am just programmed to want his approval. Gee, I feel about 5 years old when he is around!

So -- stamping -- when I stamp I am strong. I am in control. I get to pick it. I get to play. I don't have to share. Shouldn't we all have something like that?