A few Studio J layouts to share

Over the last few weeks I have been busy making a few layouts of my family. My sister from German sent me this treasure trove of old pictures after my mother passed away. Many of the pictures cannot go into a regular scrapbook, first of all she want the pictures back, second they are damaged (due to a fire that destroyed our home many years ago). The best thing I could do was to scan them. Studio J is a great forum for me to put my history together at least in a little way. Share a little bit of where I come from. My mother was a very strong woman. She was born into a farmer's family with 7 other siblings. Her mom died when she was only a young girl of cancer. She never really knew her mom. As was custom, her father remarried shortly thereafter to help take care of the family. But tragedy struck again and her father passed away as well. The stepmother did not want to keep all the kids - so the children were spread all over to relatives. My mother ended up with a great aunt. She loved her to her dying days, I loved hearing stories from her. She also was the one who told my mother that one day she would find the right church. In 1957 the missionaries from the LDS taught my mother and she knew that is what my mother was waiting for. Yes, my mother was a strong woman of faith and passed it on to me. I just always hope I will be able to pass that faith and strength on to my children.  Thank you mother.

Soon I will be able to work on more layouts of the rest of my family - I have lots of pictures of my father and my siblings. My father has his own set of history! You can see his grandfather up above in his "Kaiser uniform". We still had the spiked helmet when I was young. Unfortunately, we lost many of those memorabilia in our house fire.

Well, be watching for my next sharing of my pictures ... :)

Veterans's Day

Today of all days, I can't skip and not say Thank You to all the veterans out there and their families, of course I include my husband! My husband has served in the military for over 35 years. Many times he has been hot, cold, wet, jumping in trenches, trying to stay alive and trying to keep his troops alive. Trying to teach his troops the skills they need to stay alive and keep alive. Some of the best memories he has is when he received emails from some of the troops he trained that because of the training he gave soldiers were able to stay alive and keep their buddies from dying!

My thanks go out to all the families that stay behind - I know the strength they need, I've been there for over 33 years now. We stay behind when they go, sometimes they leave for a few days, weeks or sometimes years. But the family still has to stay strong, we have to tell our children that their father still loves them, that they will be save even if we have not heard from for months. We stay strong because we have faith. Faith has kept me strong.

So, once again, let's not forget those veterans and their families - if you should meet someone who has served or helped them serve, tell them "Thank You". They have helped you stay save, even though you may not understand how, we have the freedom we have now because of those soldiers in the past who willing to serve. We keep our freedom, because of the soldiers and their families who have their back now!

Thanks.