My last scrapbook page...

EVER!!!! I mean it, if I see another picture with crafty paper and cool-edged scissors, I may scream! See here's the deal... I want to be a good mom. I want to have my kids life's documented in a way that is fun to look at. I have never liked pictures in a photo album. I wanted to be more creative than that. But, honestly, I HATE scrapbooking. I have been doing it since Dane was born (including the 3 inch binder of when Dan and I dated and got married). No, wait! I even did it the four years I was in college. My problem is, I am not good at keeping up with it. I usually get 8-12 months behind before I force myself to pull out the craft table, the scissors, the fun paper, the gluesticks etc. By the time I catch up I seriously want to throw up!

I now have about 20 two inch (or bigger) binders full of my life from the past 12 years. I save everything: ticket stubs, art work, birthday cards, Christmas letters, hospital i.d. bracelets...yep, its all there. Then add the hundreds and hundreds of pictures I have taken and printed. I take a lot of pictures and even though we have a digital camera and honestly I am fairly choosy about how many and which ones I print off, there are still A LOT of pictures. I am not really that good at it anyway...I have always done just your basic cropping, mounting to colorful cardstock, cutting with the cool scissors and then arranging on the fun decorative paper. I love looking at scrapbooks with the buttons and borders and stickers (how do you do it??) but by the time I do just the basic I am so tired of it...I am just done. I have always wanted to go back and "journal" next to each picture so I have recorded memories. Let's be real! I have 12 years of scrapbooks and now 3 kids. What are the chances of ever doing that?

So, to all of you avid scrapbookers...how DO you do it? Are you picky about the pictures and only do a few? What then do you do with the rest of your pictures? How do you find time to do all the great little cutesy things and still enjoy it?

I must say, I do take a little pride in what I have accomplished. I know numerous people who have intentions of scrapbooking...they have even printed off the pictures and have them organized in boxes for each child. ( I won't mention any names...) They want to do the really great scrapbooks but don't have time right now...maybe they will get to it someday :0) and for their sake, I hope they do. But for me... at least I can say that I don't have any more pictures filed away just waiting for the day that I am not too busy.

So I do have a lot of pictures in scrapbooks, but I have two fears: the first fear is that one of my binders (heaven forbid more than that) gets knocked open and the pages all fall out. Most of the pictures don't have date stamps on them (due to the cropping). It would be a nightmare to figure out which page goes where. My solution? I am hoping to put date stickers, month and year, on the plastic sheet protectors. But who knows when that will get done.

My second fear is a disaster, like a flood, fired, or earthquake. What are the chances I will be able to get my three kids, any other valuables AND all 20 scrapbooks out of my house?? Come on, really? I can just see myself lugging the heavy things out to my car. Not a pretty picture, or very realistic either.

So with these fears, combined with my long over due admission to HATING scrapbooking, added to the fact that I can't really answer Dane when he repeatedly asks me "Why do you HAVE to scrapbook" and then multiplied by what a horrible, moody mom I become when I am trying to catch up on a year's worth of pictures... I decided that today I have completed my last scrapbook page, EVER!!

So does that make me a horrible mom? Can I still fit in with all my great stay-at-home mom friends?? I still want to document my family's life. I want it to be fun to look at. But, I don't want it to involve craft scissors,, glue sticks and itty bitty pieces of paper all over my house. AND each book needs to weight less than 10 pounds. (Did I mention that now that I have 3 kids I can't fit more than about 3 months worth of "life" into one 2 inch binder?) So... I am resorting to online scrapbooking, most likely through shutterfly or snapfish(because while I actually enjoy doing it this way, I still am not interested in spending time with computerized buttons, borders and stickers. Online scrapbooks are very organizational (which I love!), not messy, and I can do it bit by bit without taking out all my supplies. The books are fun to look at and light weight. I have done a couple already...special occasion ones like Mackenzie's first photo shoot and Brice's newborn photo shoot (I printed off Brice's pictures when he was 2 months old and they are still sitting in the envelope waiting to be "scrapbooked." I couldn't bring myself to cropping, cutting and gluing them like all my day to day pictures. But now they look great in their own little "coffee table" book.)

Now that I have moved on in my life I need to mention a few people I am thankful to. Thank you to my mom, Julee, and my mother-in-law, Anne, for the enormous amounts of scrapbook supplies. The paper, stickers, scissors, paper cutter, rolling suitcase, decorative flowers, tape, stamps, etc. etc. etc. I really, truly have appreciated all of it! They have been the greatest gifts! I do have some pretty decent scrapbooks thanks to both of you and your thoughtfulness. And don't worry, anything that is left will still get used. I DO enjoy "scrapbooking" invitations, birthday cards, and framed picture collages. But from now on, thanks to Sheri, Mindy and a few others...I won't be needing any more scrapbooking supplies; my "life" will now be "scrapbooked" on the computer!