New Year's Resolutions

OK...no more excuses. I'm going to try and get organized this year. That's my only resolution. If I get organized everything else will fall into place.

I'd like to work on having a cute little blog where my creativity inspires others, but that's never going to happen. Instead, this is going to be my therapy. My Dad's Alzheimer's is getting worse and many days I find myself down in the dumps. It's hard to watch and I need to get my mind focused on other things. I'm hoping writing here will become my escape.

Troy gave me a slide scanner for my birthday (I'm 63 now!) and I've scanned five slides so far. I have about a thousand more to go! We started taking slides shortly after we were married in 1968 and took them for a number of years. If I just get a few scanned each day...

In December of 1968 the Navy sent the young Ensign and his wife to the US Naval Air Facility at Sigonella, Catania, Sicily. We arrived a couple of weeks before Christmas and lived in the Agip Hotel until our household goods arrived. Here's one of those scanned slides. It's me forty years ago on Christmas Eve 1968. I had fallen asleep and my husband snapped this picture.



I wish I could put up a picture of Christmas this year, but I never took any. Keith came from Austin, we had my Dad here, and I never took a single picture! Could someone remind me to take pictures next year?

Oh yes, I did take some pictures of my dolls. Setting dolls up in scenes is another form of therapy for me. Here are the "kids" having their birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve.

Ooops...Happy Valentine's Day

I'm a little late. Valentine's Day was yesterday, but this has been a hectic week. My Dad had to have a procedure done which required anesthesia on Wednesday. Any little thing really throws him off mentally now. He goes from his normal confused self to very, very confused at the drop of a hat. So, I've been kept busy running back and forth to his assisted living home and checking on him. It seems as if there's never a dull moment lately and the stress is overwhelming at times. But, I did manage to squeeze in a little play time. I've decided that long walks and playing are my therapy these days. I started this Ginny scene late Saturday and stayed up until 1:00 AM working on it. I was finally on a roll. I finished it up on Monday and apologizie for only getting it posted here on the day after Valentine's Day.

This was GinnyFaith's class Valentine's Day party. Two of the boys got into a fight over who would give her a Valentine's Day card first. The poor teacher certainly had her hands full! Boys will be boys!!!




Oh dear...for some reason spell check won't work. Excuse all errors. :)

Clearing Out...

OK...I told myself that 2008 would be the year I'd de-clutter and I'm off to a good start. A friend asked me if I wanted to go in with her on a table at the next doll show in March. I've begun going through my things and trying to decide what has to go.

Like most people, I went a little crazy when I first discovered my favorite childhood doll on eBay. I bid if the deal was too good to pass up, the doll looked so pathetic that I felt sorry for her, etc. I could think of a zillion different reasons to bid. I also went crazy buying up accessories in her scale since I enjoy setting my dolls up in scenes and taking pictures. However, I ended up with so many accessories that I couldn't keep track of what I had and would forget to even use them. Now that I'm older and wiser :) I'm more selective.

The vintage Vogue Ginny Doll has always been my first love. I especially like the years from 1953-56 with a special emphasis on 1954. I still have my 1954 PLW and I guess that's why that particular year holds a special place in my heart. I have a lot of modern day Ginnys and I'm going to be selling some of them. A number of them I bought in order to get the outfit, so I'm going to sell some of the extra dolls.

I'm also thinking about selling some of my Chatty Cathy Dolls. She's an adorable doll, but takes up a lot of room and I'm getting tired of having dolls all over the house. None of my Chattys are valuable, but I'd like to thin out my collection to a more manageable number...not that I have that many. I just want to be more selective and only keep what I really, really like.

I'll have to take a picture of the mess I've created by trying to clear out the clutter. I've got large plastic containers and boxes all over the place. It takes a while to go through everything and I sometimes make a cut and then change my mind. I should do it Fly Lady's way and have a box for the things I'm definitely getting rid of and another box for the ones that are a maybe. It would probably speed up the process.

I'm sure a lot of stuff won't sell at the doll show and then I'll have to decide what to do next. eBay or donate? Decisions, decisions.

Tomorrow we're driving to Austin to see our son. Keith moved there right before Christmas and needs us to bring the truck so he can pick up furniture. It's nice to be wanted. :) We'll drive back on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner and GinnyFaith has been studying for the big game.



We wish our Houston Texans were playing in the big game, but we know our day will come. We just hope we live long enough. :)

It's The Year 2008!!

OK...it's been a while since I last wrote something. Where do the days (and months) go??? Since I last blogged my middle son turned 37, my Dad turned 89, I turned 62, and we had Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. My how time flies when you're having fun. Happy New Year!!

I'm kept busy going over to Dad's assisted living facility and helping him locate the latest thing he can't find, running him to numerous doctor's appointments, our weekly lunch outing, etc. I'm also trying to get back to walking daily. It's hard to believe that it wasn't that many years ago when I was walking 4-5 miles a day. Now I'm making myself walk 2 miles. This weekend we're going to try and do a 10K walk again in Galveston...weather permitting.

I did manage to set my Ginny Dolls up in some scenes over the holidays.

This was Halloween. The kids enjoyed watching the Regis and Kelly Halloween show in 3-D.



And this was Thanksgiving. A stress filled day for so many of us and especially for poor Miss Jill this year.



And then Christmas. Putting up the tree is never easy!



But working on the holiday baking is always a fun, family event.



We were a little concerned about Grandma on Christmas Eve. She was walking home from our house...



And on Christmas Day GinnyFaith couldn't wait to show her friends the pretty Christmas dress that Miss Londa made for her.



I'll try and get back again soon!