Hello Tuesday -- Funny Thing About Memories

I've got another layout to share today.  Lily Bee Design has been such a great experience.  I am in love with all the tiny, bright patterned papers.  There are a lot of tone-on-tone papers that allow me to use them for pretty much whatever I want to.

I love being able to use the yellow pattern as a background. Because it's a tone on tone, even though the pattern is busy it's not too loud to use for a BG.

Those pennant stickers are making me into a fan of banners.  I love the graphic appeal of that shape.

Did you see how I used the washi tape to create a 'mat' for my photos.  It's easy and adds a variety of patterns and textures that are slightly translucent.  <3

The circle stamps added just the right accent to finish things off.

Time for a little more of my story.  I do appreciate that you're indulging me so I can walk through this story.  I know I could do it on my own, but being able to share it gives me a goal and a reason to keep walking through it.  It also tends to bring to mind things I might otherwise have forgotten.

Memories from childhood are funny things.  They are so often rather patchy.  It's certain moments that I remember, rather than an ongoing saga like a movie.  I recall little things like the last time I wet my bed because I had a terrifying nightmare about the Sesame Street monsters trying to 'get' me.  Or my dad throwing me into the water at the beach.  Or my mom teaching me what an American Red-start was as it sat at the bird feeder in our backyard.

They are all little moments captured in my brain and they certainly have a lot to do with what formed me, but they aren't a complete picture.  I often wonder how skewed my perceptions of my early life might be because it comes back in such small bits and pieces.  I do know that as I've grown older, I've revisited certain memories and realized that how I always saw it was not really accurate, but just a childish perspective which leaves so much unexplained.

With that in mind, I'll try to tell a bit about my first 5 years but I freely admit that the picture I'll paint will be incomplete at best and very possibly quite skewed at worst.  I'll share what I saw and perceived.

I think alot of what I remember is from photos we had over the years.  I only have a few in my possession now, but I still remember pouring over them as a child.  I've loved photos for as long as I can remember and looking through our family collection is one of my favorite pastimes.

When I was a very small girl, I spent a lot of time out of doors with my parents as they worked our land.  We planted gardens, raised a variety of farm animals, took walks and sometimes even shared picnic.  I can remember on Fourth of July BBQ when I was about four years old when we light 'sparklers' and roasted a whole pig in a giant bar-b-que made from a 55 gallon drum.  I remember stepping on a hot sparkler with my bare feet just after it had gone out.  Ouch! That smarted but I never did go barefoot again at Sparkler time.

My siblings and I chased fireflies in the summer, walked to the bus stop during the fall, winter and spring.  We  went to church from as long as I can remember.  We were Catholic in the beginning because that is how my mom grew up.  We went to the swimming hole, or Ft. Island Beach.  There were trips to 'The Attraction', a local wild animal park, trips to Disney World and Busch Gardens, Circus World and Sea World and Weekie Watchie. (that was my favorite as they had an underwater mermaid show!!!)

Some of my favorite things about my parents were that they taught me to love nature.  My mom and dad both loved birds and taught me the names of many of those who visited our feeders.  Mom always got excited at the sunset and passed that love on to me.  I'm so grateful for those things.

We did a lot of the things that normal families do.  In my mind, we were normal.  I think that is true for every kid.  Whatever you are experiencing must be normal because it is all you know.  It wasn't until I was much older that I realized that not everything was so normal.

Maybe that is part of the trouble.  Families who appear to be quite 'normal' are often a complete disaster behind the scenes.