Wednesday, February 07, 2007


Every year on this day I begin to reflect back to the day (29 years ago) that I had a sudden burst of energy after 9 VERY long months of pregnancy ... well ... actually we weren't so sure HOW long I'd been pregnant ... back then the doctors didn't have the advantage of all this technology we have today. Initially they 'guessed' my due date to be around the first of January. Then they'd move it out a week or two ... until I finally decided maybe I'd just be pregnant forever!

Eventually the labor pains started and off to the hospital we went after calling Grama Garnett to come and watch Paul, our 18 month old son. Shortly after noon we had a beautiful little daughter, Tara. We were SO excited! Who could have dreamed all the joys that were just beginning to unfold.

So, today I reflect and tomorrow I'll wish my beautiful daughter a very Happy 29th Birthday.

As I pondered again those old memories, I decided to make two digital scrapbook pages of my beautiful daughter's daughter ... check them out!

She just LOVES shoes! Thanks for letting me share!

Monday, February 05, 2007

How exciting! My friend and business partner, Kim, just called to tell me, "Today's the Day!" She's about to become a grandma! Oh-h-h-h I remember THAT day in my life. How I seemed to traverse time - one moment I'm in the hospital where my baby girl is about to give birth to her baby girl and the next moment I was back to a time ... 29 years earlier ... when I was the one about to become a mommy for the first time.

How odd it seemed! She's still my baby ... my little Tawa ... I'm still her "Muddo" ... I had trouble getting my mind wrapped around all the feeling swirly around. It didn't seem like so many years had passed. Then again, ... so much had happened between then and now ... it may actually have been a century! How odd.

There's a lot to learn about being a member of the 'sandwich generation' ... it's certainly going to be an adventure, ay? Hang on to your hat, Kim! It's a wild ride! One worth taking!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

One of the 'challenges' a parent faces is how to instill in their children the confidence to 'fly' ... to leave the nest, when the time comes. Right?

Well, now I realize you can do too good a job of it! Take our family...of four children, one is now living in North Carolina with our two grandsons, another is living in southern California with our two youngest grandchildren, and one is newly married and living in Alabama.

Our youngest is still in college ... we're betting she'll move to Alaska (thus we will have effectively sent our children to all the far corners of the USA ... not counting Maine...but we've run out of children ... do you suppose the grandchildren will cover that region?)

So, I often wonder, "Are they self-confident and adventurous or do they just want to be far from home?" I've spent a great deal of time pondering this! I see the children of my peers settling in right next door (okay...that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my meaning!) to their parents. They gather weekly to worship, to share some of the challenges of parenting the new generation, to celebrate life's milestones. It all leaves me wondering, "Was it really a good idea to encourage their desire for adventure?" "Why did we want them to be so darned independent?" "What were we thinking?" "What am I now . . . am I no longer needed as the parent of my children?"

Then, one day, the calls start coming. Those independent, adventurers actually want advice! I'm not saying they always follow the advice they seek...but it was a big day in our household when the calls began. "Mom, What do you think about ..." "Dad, how can I ..." etc etc etc

Of course, I know these same children already know the advice we'll be giving and we (DH and I) know in most cases they most likely just want to hear the advice as a confirmation to what they had been planning to do.

All this said, it warms a parent's heart to feel needed again! Welcome home, children!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Check out my Slide Show!

Just updated my blog from the old blogspot.com! Now to get started with entries...goodness!

Yesterday Kim (business partner) and I held our first training class as a Mobile Training Unit! Due to the severely cold weather in NW Iowa (high of 18 degrees F with high winds) we lost a few students, but three brave souls made it. The monitor for the instructor's pc decided to fail, so Kim was running the lesson 'blind' - and STILL she did GREAT! She was somehow able to keep an eye on the image projecting at the front of the room...better eyes than mine!

We are in the process, still, of getting a website developed. Today we started a Google Group (Digital Scrapbook Friends) to give our students a place to connect with each other on-line. All the notes from the class yesterday are posted there ... just in case they'd like to review what they learned! We will need to send an announcement to our student's from the classes held at the Lab in Ames, Iowa.

Our images for display and download are all up on 4shared.com now, so we can give access to our students and clients regardless of our physical location. That will be a huge help as we alternate our time on a weekly basis between NW Iowa and Ames.

As we venture forward, God continues to bless our little business in ways beyond our imagination! As if the first 8 computers God sent weren't enough, we've now been blessed with 7 more! (Isn't HE amazing?) Of course, this would be a good time to give a BIG THANKS to Jason for ALL he has done to help us. He is our ENTIRE technology team! There isn't anything he cannot do and we SO appreciate his help!