Weekend Thought : Your 12 Stories

1. My wedding day
2. My honeymoon
3. One random picture of me and my hubby smiling at each other.
4. Any kids that will come someday down the road's first birthdays
5. Christmas
6. My 28th birthday (Its my golden, July 28)
7. A list of Wishes
8. My solo trip through Europe
9. The day Brandon surprised me by joining me for a week in Europe.
10. Brandon proposing
11.A bad picture to remind me that there is always bad days
12. Followed by a Random good day just for me.

I was fortunate to be able to take Heidi Swapp's 'She' workshop at CKU, and my She scrapbook somewhat answers your question, which I love. I wanted to put together a scrapbook that would tell my children, who are now both six, what my life was like when I was born and when I was growing up, up through the time I met my husband. I'm an older mommy, and I don't know how much of their lives I'll see them through, though I hope I live a long life and see them grow up into their own families and children! I would now add pages about our family life, not just my angle, which the She book is.
In no particular order, my twelve are/would be -
1. Being adopted by grandparents and my fit into the family dynamic we had, my feelings and some memories about growing up.
2. My school years, college and grad school and my feelings about who I was then.
3. What I like, in a broad sense. That I collected books for a while, that I think The Great Gatsby is the best book ever written, best American novel, anyway. That I like cottage style in my house. How much I love coffee. Things like that.
4. My post-college, single years, places I worked, friends I had, things I enjoyed, and also hopes and dreams.
5. Where I met my husband, how totally arbitrary it was, and a really funny story about when we started going out.
6. Our wedding and Disney honeymoon
7. Our journey to and time of pregnancy and the blessing of twin girlies.
8. When the girls were born, the NICU time, how wonderful they were then (and are now), their birth story.
9. Things about them when they were tiny and growing, their babyhood.
10. Our family life thus far, things we like to do, the "way" that we are as a family, our pets and our home.
11. My hopes and dreams and what is in my heart for them and for my husband, things I'd want my girls and husband to know if I never got the chance to tell them, even if written on the back of a scrapbook page just for them to read.
Thanks for the thoughtful question. :)

hmmm, this is so interesting, how would u choose??? i think i haven't lived enough yet to commit to the 12 pages!!!! i need to make some kids first, but then i'd want to include the grandkids too in the future. golly. thinking hard...

Ali,
Your prompt helped bring a lot of direction to a project I have been/am preparing [The Layout Series] to teach in Toulouse this fall. Wow! Thanks.
While making my list (the first 8 were easy), I noticed a range from very specific [How we met] to very general [Close Relationships] stories to tell.
Bises, D

I would have to inclue the following:
1. The Foundation - Childhood memories
2. The Transition - High School & College
3. The Evolution - Love, Marriage & Becoming a Mom
4. The Connections - Friendships, Family Moments
5. The Tragedies - Losing Mom to Cancer...
6. The Transition - Regaining strength...through hobbies,travel, and loving my family.
7. The Traditions - Favorites...recipes,holidays,milestones.
8. The Challenges - Aging, Parenting Teens,unanswered ?'s.
9. The Joys/Rewards - Proud Moments
10. The Present Time - Document an everyday experience.
11. The Predictions/Expectations - Ideas for Future, Dreams for my girls ..places I'd like to visit.
12. The Legacy - My Purpose -

Wow... I feel overwhelmed looking at everyone's picks... I feel am at the stage of life where I have done alot and yet haven't got the same things many of you have to show. I don't have children of my own, I have had many pets, and ex or two or three (did not marry all of them thank heavens)... I have done exciting "THINGS"... jumped out of airplanes, swam with both dolphins and sharks... walked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon... but do they define ME? Not sure about that even after all these years. But I will keep thinking about it! Thanks Ali! Great thoughtful promp!!!

1. My Grandparents
2. My Parents
3. My siblings
4. My school pictures
5. My wedding
6. My sons birth
7. My daughters birth
8. A collage and journaling summary of family
9. A collage and journaling of our 5 grandchildren
10. A collage and journaling "message" of my thoughts, hopes, and realizations over the years
11. An Individual collage for each grown childs family
12. A collage of my husband and I and our thoughts to and of each other and our children and grandchildren

This is great. I think this will become a scrapbook about me. One that I haven't done yet.
Thanks for the prompt.

1- How and when I met my husband and how he change my life
2. My migration to US following him and how that affected me.
3. Just us as a family of three with our DD.
4. My work and my traveling due to business of 25 years of engineering around the world
5. The relationship with my Mom before and after my move to US
6. My relationship with my niece who was with me for so may years when growing up and about her future as a young women
7. Simple daily moments of today, what ever those may be
8. My friends those who I left far away and those of today
9. What scarpbooking brought to my life, the art, the fun, the tears and the new digi friends.
10. My biggest regret and my biggest acomplishment
11. My new passion with photography
12. What I hope I left behind

Love your titles Becky.

Krys,
#2 is something that I did when we moved to a new city...how funny!! Great memory!

Wow, I will have to think about this one!
Great challenge and so inspiring to read through everyone's ideas! Thank you!

When I was a child we lived in a small town and all my brothers and sisters (there were 6 of us) slept outside under the stars. We would play ghost in the graveyard and various other games with all the neighborhood kids untill the wee hours of the morning. I loved this!

I love your 12th one about your bucket list! so true and needed to do! good inspiration!

1. My grandparents and how they influenced me
2. My great friendship with my mother
3. My first cat because her story covers my entire childhood
4. My need to read
5. My insane love for my little man
6. My complete obsession with my baby girl
7. My man and how our laughter and love go hand in hand
8. My dad and our similarities
9. My brother and our bond
10. My family and how crazy I am about them
11. My sugar addiction
12. My cars and how they reflected who I was at that point in my life

1) My childhood in a nutshell - maybe including a list of favorite memories
2) LO of my story with my husband
3) LO about son 1
4) LO about son 2
5) LO about son 3
6) LO of my travels/experiences abroad
7) LO of my quirks/routines/favorites
8) LO of my photography
9) LO about my 'first family' parents & brother
10) LO of my dreams through life/accomplishments

Oops - I only did 10, here's two more...
11) An interview with me
12) LO of my five or six defining moments in my life.

Everyone's lists are so wonderful. Here's mine (although I could make a different list 5 minutes from now...)
1. Things I'm Grateful for Right Now
2. Letter to Anna (my oldest daughter - engaged)
3. Notes from the Journey (how I got here)
4. Letter to Alice (second daughter - my joy)
5. Everyday Life (right now)
6. Letter to Jack (oldest son, you make me laugh)
7. Grace (how I found God)
8. Nathaniel (my heart, autism and how much you're loved)
9. Highlights of My Life
10. Mistakes I've Made (you could avoid these)
11. Places I've Lived
12. Hopes and Dreams
Peace. Susan

1. My father .... how is absence affected/affects me
2. My mother .... how her strength in her imperfections inspires me
3. My role as a mother .... how my perspective on myself has completely changed since I gave birth
4. My grandparents .... how their life and death has changed me
5. My husband .... how his commitment astonishes me
6. My sister ... how our developing relationship has helped shape who I am
7. My sister-in-law .... how her journey through cancer (which is about to end in the saddest way of all) has helped me re-evaluate what is truly important
8. My son .... how his struggle with adversity over the past year has made me so proud of the job I've done, and am continuing to do
9. My daughter Kelsey .... how her silent strength encourages me to be stronger for those around me
10. My daughter Tayla .... how her total and complete commitment to loving out loud, in the open, and you can't help but know how she feels about you, fills me with joy
11. My career .... how much I adore every day being able to do something important, and to touch the future.
12. My loves .... not people (or real life ones anyway!) How books, and the power of words, have changed my life, and help me make sense of the world around me.
This has been a really profound experience Ali ... thanks! I'm going to copy this list out, and make it my next scrapping project.

This is a toughy...Okay here are my top 12--in no order.
1. My birth story (with journal written by my mom)
2. My courtship with my husband
3. Missionary service in Canary Islands
4. College friends
5. Our first year of marriage
6.7.8.9.10. Pregnancy and birth of my kids
11. My favorite things
12. Week in the life (the short version)
This was a great thing to think about because I have only done half of these pages. Looks like I've got some great stories to tell.

Ali, what a great post to get the ideas rolling. To all of you who posted, those are some amazing lists. I am not sure what mine will consist of but one thing that struck me was that this is an album that should go in the emergency run and go bag. You know the one bag you would grab in a disaster. I know a bit of a morbid thougth, but think about the comfort and joy it could bring.

what a great idea. a few popped into my head just like that (marriage, growing up, etc) but the rest I will surely be contemplating.
what strikes me the most about this exercise is that if you're reflecting on this in your 40's (like me) you have a different perspective than if you are in your 20's. and that is the beauty of it. Someone commented that it would be different 10 years down the road. so true. so true.

Hi, Liz!
Fancy 'meeting' you here ... you have a wonderful list!

1. Influential teachers
2. Being selected for drill team (I know, this seems silly, but I never, ever thought I could do something athletic)
3. Becoming an exchange student to Panama
4. College experiences (Kalamazoo College, getting a doctorate in HOuston)
5. Living and teaching in Mexico City
6. Becoming a mom
7. Being a teacher
8. Travels
9. Hobbies
10.Friends
11. Hurricanes (in particular, Rita and Ike)
12. My family

My 12 stories:
1. My daughter. I am a single mom to a 3 year old and I love capturing all of the special moments of her life and savoring them.
2. My life in Germany. I was married and lived in Germany for 3 years where we were able to travel and see the world.
3. My quirks.
4. My trials I have been through and coping with them.
5. My family--a gift from God.
6. My aunt who passed away. She was truly an inspiration and my daughter is named after her.
7. My dog, Lola.
8. My love for scrapbooking and photography.
9. My true friends.
10. Family Holidays.
11. Spending time outside with my daughter.
12. What I hope and dream for my daughter.