Entries in On My Mind (38)
Knock me over with a feather
Saturday, August 30, 2008 at 04:14PM I opened the box and pulled out a smaller box that said United States Flag on the front. I lifted the top and found that that's exactly what it contained: a U.S. flag folded into a perfect triangle, atop a manila folder that contained this letter:
Dear Mrs. Johnson,
This flag was flown over the Multi-National Corps - Iraq Headquarters (Al Faw Palace) here on Victory Base Camp. I offer it as a symbol of our appreciation.
I cannot thank you enough for the gift of the Anglican Prayer Beads. I passed the prayer beads to Chaplain (Captain) Pete Keough of the 54th Engineer Battallion at Camp Stryker to distribute amongst his soldiers.
The 54th Engineers are outside the base camp every day performing high risk missions (they had a fatality last week from enemy action), so your gift has ended up in the right hands.
I kept one for myself and carry it on me at all times. I find it a great comfort.
ALL THE WAY!
Brian K. Hathaway, LTC, USA
Also enclosed was a certificate stating that the accompanying flag "was flown over the Headquarters of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq in your honor during Operation Iraqi Freedom." It was dated July 28, 2008.
I could barely read any of the letter or certificate through the tears that immediately started flowing upon realizing exactly what it all was about. Just before Christmas last year, I had the idea to send a bunch of Anglican prayer beads to a friend's husband who was stationed in Iraq.
I'd met Tracy online through our shared passion for digital scrapbooking and she shared with me that her husband was in the military. I don't know anyone personally serving our country in the armed forces and so I decided then and there that I wanted to do *something.* That something turned out to be getting a few friends on board with helping me make the beads and then sending them to Tracy's husband, to distribute as he saw fit. I'd hoped to get them there before Christmas but circumstances that I don't even recall now prevented me from mailing them in time. Nevertheless, Tracy had shared with me through e-mail that they'd arrived and had expressed Brian's gratitude for them. I was happy that they'd made it and glad that they would eventually make their way into the hands of the troops.
Never in a million years did I ever imagine that I would receive a blessing beyond the one I'd already received: simply knowing that Brian would make sure that soldiers would receive those prayer beads, and thus hopefully be reminded of God's love for them and presence in their lives, was enough for me. But here I was, sitting in North Carolina the following August, with a flag that had flown over Iraqi Headquarters on July 28 in my honor?
But the story gets better. Not an hour before, I'd sat at our dining room table and started personalizing my new planner/calendar for the next school year: plugging in birthdays, meetings, activities, and trips. I tore off one of the enclosed bookmarks and started a list of things that I didn't want to forget to research or do: homeschool tracker software, soccer info for Quinn and Aaron, VIC card for WINGS, classical/worship music CDs, a file folder holder, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a flag. Yes, a flag. Yesterday, Karyn and I decided that we wanted to get a flag for our schoolroom at church so we could teach Liam and Quinn the pledge and I told her I'd take care of getting one.
I get goosebumps just typing this as I recall how I wondered where I'd find a flag that would be suitable. I remember wondering if they'd have anything at Target and if not, how long it would take to find one. And then an hour later Loys checked the mail and now I own a flag. Oh yeah...and this one's priceless.
I love the fact that this flag, which came to me through circumstances that originated with my faith, will find a home at our church in the room where Karyn and I will teach our children. I will share this story with Liam and Quinn as we start our school next Tuesday: what it means to believe in something--as well as Someone--that you can't see...that seemingly insignificant actions can mean the world to another person...what freedom means...why it's so important.
Thank you, Brian, for such an amazing gift. And continued thanks to each and every soldier who has made the choice to serve his or her country for me and for the cause of freedom for everyone who calls our country home. God bless you all.
Super excited about this!
Sunday, August 10, 2008 at 07:46PM I've been working for a couple of weeks on a set of digital layout templates that finally made it into the ScrapGirls boutique last Thursday. I wanted to highlight them here on the blog just in case any of my scrapping friends don't regularly shop there.
The reason I'm so excited about them is because the were inspired by the reason I got into digiscrapping in the first place: to preserve in photo books some of the hundreds of photos that I take all the time! In late fall of 2006, I uploaded 60 or so photos to Snapfish and created one of their bound books. I used their templates and ordered 3 copies: one for us, and one for each of our parents. When they arrived, I was thrilled to see the full cover casebound covers--covers with my 3 little boys and their smiling faces looking straight at me. I was less than thrilled when I opened them. I knew that the layouts were monotonous: at the time (and they may have improved things in the last two years), they were little more than 8 evenly spaced blocks to each page. The thing that really bummed me out, though, in addition to the too-small photos, were the teeny-tiny captions. I really felt like I needed to give a magnifying glass to our parents along with the book so they could read it!
Just a couple of weeks after I received the books, I discovered ScrapGirls and my life changed dramatically. Not only did I discover a passion for digital scrapbooking, but it led to an even greater passion for graphic design. I knew from the moment I started seeing the possibilities that I would never, ever have that kind of cookie-cutter photo book again.
I attempted to design my own photo book last fall but with the adjustment of homeschooling for the first time and having Loys start seminary, I just never got finished with the pages. Then, I became a member of the design team at ScrapGirls and the idea to create a set of templates that would allow people to create their own photo books--with cool layouts!--started percolating.
Which brings me to the subject of this post: the actual templates themselves! I am calling them Photo Book 1 and fully intend to create at least one more set in the next few weeks, possibly more. Here's what they look like:
The cool thing about them is that they were designed to be versatile enough that you can rotate or flip them easily to maximize your design options. You can also easily expand them to 2 pages for a really dramatic look.
If my own excitement about the product weren't enough, I was psyched to get an e-mail today from a member of the ScrapGirls layout design team. Caroline lives in Luxembourg and has just launched a scrap-for-hire business. She will be using these templates to create books for other people and even has a sample on her blog. How cool is that?!
So if you are in the market to create a photo book for yourself or someone else, check out this template set. With the time you save designing the pages, you might actually finish it in time to give it as a Christmas gift!
P.S. If you do end up using these, I'd *love* to see your final product! :)
Rest in peace, Bernie Mac
Saturday, August 9, 2008 at 07:13PM
As a child of the 70s, I grew up on a steady diet of sitcoms that revolved around black families: The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, Good Times, and What's Happening were all regularly showing at our house. As the decade came to a close, these were replaced by The Cosby Show and its spinoff, A Different World. I enjoyed watching all of these but none of them came anywhere close to the brilliance of The Bernie Mac Show. It was one of the first shows that Loys & I Tivoed when we got our magical black box and we spent many happy hours laughing out loud at the man's amazing comic timing and sensibility.