Pictures, Pictures and More Pictures...

Ever had something you really, really, really wanted to accomplish.  It was on that long-term to-do list.  Then you just said to yourself, "Self, get this done."  That was my April ah-ha moment.  It was time to just move that project to a front burner and get going on it.

The project was taking all the pictures I had taken without a digital camera during our married life.  We were married in 1970 and I was given my first digital camera in 2003.  That's right, 33 years of paper pictures of just our married life and children.  That means 30+ binders full of pictures plus 8 picture storage boxes full of pictures plus whatever miscellaneous pictures didn't make it to those two categories yet.  Let's just say it was a LOT of pictures to be scanned.

Okay, I needed a system.  I started with one and improved on it as the months passed.  It should just be noted that my sewing room became ground zero for this project.  By the end I had my table to cut fabric on laden with a stake of plain white typing paper with a piece of paper to tape pictures to for Claude and me to keep to the left of that.  Below the stake of white paper I had a paper for Nissa, one for Andie and one for Jacob to attach their pictures to.  On the right side of the table I had a paper for Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey to put their pictures on.  My sewing machine was open.  On the left wing was Nissa's binder and on the right wing was Andie's binder.  One the floor in front of the sewing machine was a binder for pictures of Katelyn, Paul and Aubrey.  My old dresser had envelopes for extended family members so I could collect pictures to give to them.  I also had the paper and binders for Hayden and Bailey's pictures.  My ironing board was up.  On the left end was Jacob's binder, in the middle was GWRRA (motorcycle pictures) and the box of pictures I was trying to meld into the photo album pictures I was scanning.  On the right end of the ironing board was the album for Claude and my pictures.  At my computer table was the stack of pictures I was currently scanning. On the extra chair beside my computer chair was the notebook full of pictures I was taking out and preparing to scan.  I would empty the notebooks and sort and/or combine the pictures as I scanned what was ready to scan.  After scanning the pictures, they were taken to the to the table to cut fabric and taped with double-sided tape to a paper.  All extra plastic sleeves from the emptied binders were collected on this table and, as a page of pictures was filled for each family member, these sleeves were used to put the completed scanned pictures into each family members notebooks.  That was the system and it worked better as time passed.

I often spent entire days in my sewing room or very late nights getting this scanning done.  At one point I actually had hopes of having all the before marriage pictures scanned as well and my parents pictures scanned.  Reality set it and I knew when I was in the month of November I just needed a place for a clean break.  So I went back to the original 33 years of pictures.  I managed to get all that done before we went to Michigan before Thanksgiving.  I purchased four 64GB thumb drives.  Each of my children have a thumb drive with all pictures on it.  I also have a thumb drive with all the pictures.  

It was a mammoth project that still has lots to do to have it all absolutely complete.  It was an interesting journey to go back through all those years of marriage and child rearing and now grand-parenthood.  I ended up grateful for that journey.  Sometimes that gets lost in trying to get from day-to-day in life.  Pausing to do this reminded me of good times and bad, ups and downs and lots of growth through these years.  I remembered what a great family I have been blessed with.

It was fun to see the looks on my families faces as they opened their binders and looked at their history.  We had a Friday morning with Paul to ourselves.  He received his binder first.  As he looked at it he was amazed and happy.  He shared with us that he really doesn't remember a lot before he was 10 years old.  This gave him back a realization that he did have a life and he was a cute little guy.  He was very happy to have that portion of his life back.

Next was Nissa and her girls, Aubrey and Katelyn.  I had given Katelyn a lot of pictures when she graduated from high school.  I was pleased to still find a lot in my picture albums to scan.  I included all pictures.  Nissa has been divorced twice and there are some tender feelings there.  I told the family I put all pictures in because this is our life history.  It is a part of all we have gone through and learned from.  The albums are now theirs as are those pictures.  They may choose to do with them as they please.  Nissa and her girls had fun looking at pictures and sharing ones that really jumped out at them.  At one point Aubrey had an astounded look on her face.  She was looking at pictures of her parents wedding (Nissa's 2nd husband).  I just wanted the kids to have that moment in time.  I believe Aubrey was surprised I kept these.  I am happy I did so the kids have that part of life.  Then Todd came over and totally enjoyed looking at Nissa's life.  They laughed over things and it was good.  

 

 

Thanksgiving night we had our other two children together and the last two grandmonsters.  Hayden and Bailey helped me bring the presents up and once again I got to enjoy my kids and grandmonsters enjoying these moments from their lives.  And again, Michael enjoyed going through Andie's life with her.  Such good times and worth all that effort.  The kids were all happy to get the thumb drives with all the pictures on them.  Andie kept saying, "I need to send that picture to....(whoever from their childhood)."   The files on the thumb drives are separated by years so they will be easier for the kids to find what they are looking for.

 

 

 

This whole process just proves once again that some things in life are worth, on many levels, all the toil and effort to get them accomplished.  I couldn't post about the project until after the gifts were opened or it would spoil the surprise.  I should go back and check my posts to see how many times I said I was working on a project.