Telling a Story

When I scrapbook, my primary goal is to tell a story. Most of my photographs are part of a series of pictures, not one-off images. It\’s natural for me to roll all these images into a page or two (or three or four or …) to tell the story of the event.\r\n

This may be easier for me than some folks, because writing is second nature to me. However, telling a story — and telling it well — is not. Writing the details of the event was always easy. What was harder to do was to roll the details together in a logical, interesting story.\r\n

I\’ve found the longer I\’ve been scrapbooking, the longer it takes for me to put together a page. Not because of the pictures and the other elements, but because it takes time to craft a story. There is no such thing as a perfect first draft; \”shitty first drafts\”, as Anne Lamott would say, are the norm.\r\n

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When I have a story to tell, I find it easiest to do a quick bullet point list of the main things I want to say. If I\’m creating a digital layout, I\’ll just create a text box in the image and start \”scribbling\”. I usually start with the five Ws and an H: who, what, when, where, why, and how. When I get my images organized on the page, I can use the scribbling to create new text boxes and form and fill in the text of my story. Then I can delete the scribbles without guilt.\r\n

I\’ve given up worrying about my penmanship (on paper layouts) and making an occasional spelling or typo (paper and digital). To spend a bunch of time double and triple checking my spelling and grammar activates that inner critic that tells you that you\’re not good enough or what you\’re writing isn\’t good enough. If the audience for your pages are your family, your kids, or yourself — they don\’t care about the typos. They\’re interested in the pictures and stories.\r\n

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As you can see from the pages I have interspersed in this post, I can have a lot of story to tell. That\’s when I try to balance the story with the pictures in the physical space. I keep the embellishments to a minimum, because the page is already filled with riches. \r\n

To be honest, a few of these pages have more embellishments than I would like, but I was trying to meet the qualifications for a Club Scrap team contest with these layouts. I didn\’t have another stamped saying that fit the overall theme of my layout. If I had the chance to do the second page of this layout over again, I\’d split out the story of Teresa and Macalester\’s name into a separate page. But as is, it\’s good enough. Lesson learned: let the stories and pictures be the most important elements and give them some room to breathe. \r\n

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If I need more than a page or two to tell the story, so be it. But I always make sure the pictures on the particular page relate directly to the text on the page. Rambling tangents don\’t help tell the story.\r\n

Lastly, humor is a good element to add to a story, but only if you know how to structure a humorous story, and of course if it fits. It pays to know your strengths in the humor department. Personally, I can\’t pull off a completely humorous story. I just don\’t have the \”funny\” gene. But I\’m good with snark, asides, and one-liners. So that\’s what I use to add a bit of humor to my layouts when a touch of humor fits.\r\n

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In summary, here\’s my approach to telling a story:\r\n

— Scribble some ideas using the five Ws and one H.\r\n

— Know that the first draft is going to stink, so scribble a little more.\r\n

— Treat the story like a page element, find the balance between your pictures and the story.\r\n

— Don\’t crowd pages; keep the embellishments simple.\r\n

— Add some funny, if it fits and you can pull it off.\r\n

I hope these tips help you out next time you have a story to tell with your pictures.\r\n\r\n’,

Carol Anne’s Five “Must Read” Blogs

I thought I’d share with you five of my ‘must read” blogs that I have set up in my Google Reader.  These are blogs that aren’t in my bloglist at the side of the blog — that list is reserved for my blogging friends.  These are other blogs that I enjoy.

  1. Profgrrrrl:  I started reading this blog about a year after I started teaching.  At that time, ProfGrrl was getting ready for the tenure process, hanging out with her boyfriend, and writing up a storm of amusing and thoughtful posts about life and teaching.  Over time, she’s got tenure, married, had a baby, and still writes amusing and thoughtful posts about life and teaching. As soon as I see a new post in my reader, I pounce on it.
  2. Baseball Nerd:  Back in my childhood, I was a huge baseball nerd, thanks in part to my mom and her love of all things Minnesota Twins.  Out in New York, there was another kid just two months younger than me, who was a baseball nerd, thanks in part to his mom and her love of all things New York Yankees.  Through Keith Olbermann’s Baseball Nerd blog, I get to revisit some of those good ol’ days of baseball that were so dear to me, plus learn about the newer generation of players too. 
  3. StellaCommute:  Stella writes about being a telecommuter, and occasionally about some quiz game she and her buddies play at a local bar on Tuesday (or is it Wednesday?) nights.  While her posts are short, they are fun to read, with just an edge of snark.
  4. CakeWrecks:  If you can’t decorate a cake to save your life, this is the blog for you.  The horribly decorated cakes that are featured here six days a week will make you feel a thousand times better about your cake decorating skills.  And on Sunday, they turn the blog over to photos of absolutely beautifully decorated cakes, that you can’t imagine ever eating.  CakeWrecks always leaves you wanting more.
  5. Passive-Aggressive Notes:  Actual notes left by real people, displaying all their passive-aggressiveness to the world.  This one is always a good Friday-afternoon-at-the-office read.

I hope you have a chance to check out a couple of these blogs.  If you have favorite blogs to recommend to me, leave me a note in the Comments.

What Was Lost is FOUND!

Note: The wild thing is that now I have found this post about finding a picture. I’m digging through the SQL database to find the early-to-WordPress posts that didn’t get archived. Happy to have found this. I’ll clean it up later. Carol Anne 8/1/2019

‘,’I found it!  The picture of the last time I was caught up with my scrapbooking is now sitting right here by my computer.  Tonight I will pull out my papers and make a layout.  I\’ll make sure to post it here.\r\n\r\nI am just giddy!\r\n\r\nBut it\’s time to make supper, so that will calm me down a bit.\r\n\r\nLater, Readers!\r\n\r\n(hee-hee, chortle-giggle-snort!)’

Spring’s Announcement

Yesterday morning, I could smell the news.  Spring had sent out the advance team of aromas to announce it’s upcoming arrival. The air had that moisture-heavy, earthy smell. A smell that’s hard to believe when you’re looking at 3 feet of snow in your yard. But it was there.

We’re having an unexpected plume of warmth settling over Minnesota.  As I write this, it’s 45 degrees and sunny. The melted snow puddles, like the potholes, are everywhere.

The cold will be back by the end of the week. Right now, I’ll enjoy what I have.  When it gets cold again, I’ll wait for the smell again and the next indicator of spring, a strong and warm sunbeam to sit in.

Sent from my Palm Pre on AT&T

Chinese New Year, Wall Family Style

Here at the Wall compound, we practice a lot of just-in-time processes:  just-in-time supper, just-in-time Halloween costumes, just-in-time get the dogs outside to pee (well, not always “in time”).  Last night we added a new trick to our just-in-time portfolio:  Just-in-Time Chinese New Year.

At about 7:30 last night, I realized the next day (today) would be Chinese New Year.  I knew it was coming, I just didn’t really get how soon it was coming.

In the course of 15 minutes, Rachel and I:

  • located the box of Chinese New Year decorations
  • colored the Kitchen God
  • unearthed the Fourth of July poppers
  • decorated the house and hung the couplets on the front door.

I almost thought to just let it all go, but I was surprised how fast it all came together. Once all the decorations were out, there were only two things to do:  set off the poppers outside and sent off the Kitchen God.

For the past couple of years, we’ve used these benign popper things that you throw on the ground and they make noise.  It passes for fireworks, and I can buy them cheap at Target before the 4th of July.  I usually get a couple of boxes, the girls and I fling these poppers on the driveway, stomp on the poppers that don’t explode immediately, and yell “GongXi” (“congratulations).  It lasts about 5 minutes, especially if it’s cold.
It was -4F at the time we were making noise outside last night, and it took about 7 minutes.  Our record is -8F and 3 minutes.

John had arrived home from practice by this time, and was witness to our rituals.  In previous years, he’s never been around to see what we do on the eve of Chinese New Year.  He had lots of questions, and most of the time looked very confused.  Especially when I lit the Kitchen God on fire in the sink.  But he did help air out the kitchen so our fire alarms wouldn’t go off.

Today, we all wore red, and we actually ate Chinese food for supper.  Usually we go get Mexican, because, well, we’re weird.  We eat Chinese on Cinco de Mayo.  Sarah sings Christmas Carols at Easter.  So we broke tradition for the first time.  I think we’ll all live.

So goodbye, Year of the Tiger, and hello Year of the Rabbit.  May your year be as soft, fuzzy, and warm as a bunny.

Christmas Letter 2010

When I was planning this letter, I was torn between two themes:  The Year of the Dog vs. The Year of Big Expenses.  They both pretty well describe our year.  You could even meld them together to be The Year of the Big Expenses That Did and Didn’t Include Dogs.

In January, this ball of cute walked into our family.  His official name is Merry Macalester Tobias Wall, but we call him either Macalester T or Macalester or Mr. Woo-woo.  But that’s another story.

Cute, Furry, Extra Long Tongue.  Macalester T.

His arrival was not planned, and is really the fault of my friend Linda M.  You see, Linda had been looking to add a dog to her family, and emailed a bunch of us about one possibility.  While looking at the pup on PetFinders.com, I made the mistake of typing “Scottish Terrier” into the search box.  Up popped this picture of a very woolly Scottie pup that was being fostered in Zimmerman. You can guess the rest.

Macalester is a bunch of fun.  He’s very vocal, aarrooo-ing at everything he can.  We were worried about how Sydney would handle another male dog, but she’s just been thrilled with her little brother.  She’s been teaching him many of her naughty tricks, especially table top dancing.

Speaking of Sydney, this year has been a medical nightmare for her.  She turned 12 in April, which is pretty old for a Scottie.  She had plenty of attitude and spunk to go with it, but something changed in May.  She had a series of bladder infections that just would not go away.  Just in time for our trip to Washington D.C., Laddie got Rabbit Fever, courtesy of all the rabbits that use our yard as a toilet.  So, instead of boarding the dogs at the groomer, they spent 11 days at the vet as boarders/patients.

Our vet bills kept piling up as Sydney would recover, and then get sick again.  She was even screened for bladder cancer.  Another Scottie owner suggested adding apple cider vinegar to her kibble.  That did the trick.  Like cranberry juice for humans, the apple cider vinegar makes the bladder a hostile bacteria environment. And everyone got well again.

Front:  Sydney, Laddie
Back:  Rachel, Sarah, and Macalester

Until Sydney got infected anal glands.  That was more vet bills and surgery for Sydney.  She recovered from that, and two months later, threw out her back.  When the vet techs saw her, they asked, “What’s wrong with her now?”

She really suffered with her back injury, lots of pain killers and steroids.  Then we had a small ice storm, and she took a big fall on our deck.  She got back on her feet, marched into the house, and started acting like her old self.  Whatever was bothering her got put back into place with her big fall.  She’s done great since, and it’s good to have The Squid back, bossing the household.

Sarah on the beam

Since I’ve done all this talking about the dogs, you might wonder what was up with the rest of the household.  The girls are busy with gymnastics year round now.  I spent the better part of January and February sitting on my butt for hours (and I mean HOURS) on end in bleachers, watching one or both of them compete. 

It’s hard for me, because I’m just not the Mom-of-Gymnasts type.  I’m way too rowdy.  I would have made a great Football or Basketball Mom.  But no, China gave me gymnasts.  I try to behave.  Sometimes I embarrass Sarah, other times she likes the attention.  Rachel loves it all the time.  I guess that’s the difference between a tween and a regular kid.  Eventually, I will become an embarrassment to Rachel.

Rachel on the beam

The girls work hard on gymnastics.  Sarah was promoted from the pre-team (Fireflies) to the competition team (Dragons) this year.  Rachel was going to be promoted to the pre-team group until she and her group members staged a mutany over the summer.  They were bound and determined to stick together and not leave anyone behind.  So they all stayed pre-pre-team (Sparks), but they are practicing and performing at pre-team level.  Semper Fi, Sparks.

John has been busy with various home improvement projects.  This spring, John decided to install the ultimate range hood in the kitchen.  While doing that, a section of our retaining wall collapsed, so we were off to get that fixed.  As long as we were spending a ton of money, let’s put in the second bathroom.  And so, those projects got underway.  The retaining wall was finished at the end of July, and the second bathroom in November.

Between those, we had to suddenly get our roof re-done when our new homeowners insurance company decided to cancel our policy in September.  15 year old roof was apparently totally trashed.  It looked OK to us and wasn’t causing any issues.  Turns out there were problems — or about to be problems, and there was a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer for pre-mature roof failure.  So, there went another pile of money.

To tell you the truth, other than the color, the roof looks just the same to me.  John says he can see the difference.  Maybe if I decided to spend some time on the roof, I’d see the difference, too.

John’s next home improvement projects will be to add more shelving to our bedroom and to add shelves to Sarah’s room.  Sarah is making that transition from kid to teen, so she’s trying out a new look for her room.  If she’d get rid of some of the kid stuff, she’d have room to make a transition.  But that’s another story.

Senator Klobuchar’s Office

I suppose I should fill you in on the trip to Washington D.C.  John’s organist guild had their convention over the 4th of July in D.C., and we decided back in January we would go.  John could go do organist stuff, the kids and I would paint D.C. red.  John agreed to go by train, provided we had a sleeping car for the overnight part.  He was not thrilled at the prospect, but he became an enthusiast about 24 hours into the trip.

The coach car had plenty of room to stretch out and move, he loved the lounge car for people watching, and he found it very pleasant to be in the family bedroom part of the sleeping car.  It was a spendy proposition, but not really more than airfare for four and baggage fees.  Oh, we could take all the baggage we wanted and it didn’t matter how much each piece weighed.

Senator Franken’s Office

We spent a week in D.C., and still had a huge list of things we didn’t get to do.  We did go to the Washington Monument, see the National Fireworks show, toured the Lincoln, Jefferson, Korean War, and World War II memorials.  We hit the Metro and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, and Target (yes, Target). 

We toured the capital and got to sit in the House of Representatives gallery.  Unfortunately, Congress was out of session.  We did get to visit Senator Franken’s and Senator Klobuchar’s offices and visit with their staff.  Both senators’ staffs went out of their way to make our visits memorable.  Senator Klobuchar’s staff in particular went out of their way to get us into a fully booked White House tour, calling us just days before we left to tell us there was an opening.

“We’re grumpy because we can’t take
pictures inside tomorrow.  Boo, hiss.”

Touring the White House was wonderful.  You only get to see the first floor, and you can’t take any pictures inside, but it was wonderful.  So much history, and little pieces I’ve seen over my lifetime and that the kids had read about.  Outside, I could use my cell phone to take some pictures, but we were only allowed on the grounds for a limited amount of time.  I wish I could have seen the Rose Garden, but that, and the Obama Girls’ playground were not even visible from where we were.

The trip back included a long stopover in Chicago, where we took the water taxi and walked a mile or more up Michigan Avenue to the American Girl store.  Everything the girls wanted was out of stock, and they really didn’t want much.  We left the store with very small shopping bags.  Most people had huge bags full of stuff and the dads and brothers didn’t look as excited as the moms and sisters.

The train ride home was just as lovely as the ride home.  We were happy to be back in cooler weather — only in the low 90’s.  We had been in D.C. during the East Coast heatwave, and had gotten use to living with 104 degree day and 70 degree dewpoints all the time.  The summer heat waves in Minnesota felt like nothing after D.C.

After the big trip and between Sydney’s afflictions and various remodeling and home repair events, I prepared to teach two new-to-me classes at Metro State for the fall and started writing for a huge compensation project at Securian.  In the fall, Sarah started her final year at Randolph Heights as a 6th grader, Rachel settled into the 3rd grade routine, and John continued on with some volunteer work at the school while doing his Sunday organist job at Emerson.

At the top of Ramsey Hill – Mile 12

The girls and I participated for the first time in the St. Paul Bike Classic, riding 15 miles together through the streets of St. Paul.  We had been training all summer, and it was a big deal that we did it.  Next year, we’re going for 24 miles.

That pretty well sums up the year for us.  I’m hoping 2011 is less busy and less stressful, although I’ve been put on notice by the gymnastics coaches that I will be spending EVEN MORE bleacher time this year.  Good thing I bought a stadium chair over the summer.

From the Walls to you, have a festive holiday season, and best wishes for a happy 2011.

Carol Anne