A Year of Memories---January

My concept for A Year of Memories/2014 is a "Back to School" album. I've gone with that to have a basis upon which to build the album. Each month, I'm providing a mini flash card with the subject of the month on it. These flash cards will be the unifying factor that ties the book together. Beyond that, they can interpret the assignment any way they want. 

January's assignment is "Science." I've included the journaling if it was submitted to me.

Jeepers Creepers Where'd ya get those Peepers

What color are your eyes? This is a hereditary trait and goes into the science of genetics which was one of my favorite parts of some science classes. So this page had me searching the internet for information about eye color genetics. My memory was refreshed and out to the basic 3 eye colors, brown is the dominate color, and then green is dominate over blue. There are a ton of color variations and distribution patterns of the color with these 3 colors. As gray is a form of blue eyes. So here are the peepers of my peeps. I have blue eyes with a ring of amber {strange but a form of what they are now calling Irish hazel} my sister has green/blue eyes. When I asked by brother his eye color he said hazel, the same answer Ron gave. {I think hazel is a default answer given by people who have no idea what color to call their eyes}  At the end it appears that Jerry’s eyes are grayish blue. Ron eyes are a green-gray color. No hazel for either of them since hazel eyes are described as a brown/green eye color. Mike has the blue ring thing while Jackie’s are gray. Jackie’s husband, Greg has a blue brown color while Evie has the truest form of blue. (For now) So there are no dominate brown eyes in this family tree. I also find blood typing very interesting; it’s simple to follow if you know the basic information. As in our family Ron has O- blood type, I have A+ as did my dad. But when Jackie was pregnant I fount out she has A- blood type. Meaning I’m carrying a – (negative) recessive gene, as Evie does now. Jackie and Mike had a 50% chance of having positive or negative blood type. I would really like to find out what blood type Mike has, but that can be an opened ended question to find out later. As  science is all around us, it never stops being apart of our lives and can be FUN.

Erin was in kindergarten when her grandpa took this picture.  She was really  interested in her teacher's display of x-rays (for the letter x that week).  Little did we know this may have sparked her interest in the medical field which is her career path.  I'm sure she was especially interested in the sonogram of her soon to be born son shown here at  31 weeks gestation.  Teachers may never know the extent to which they affect their students.

 I'm doing two books for my friend, Nancy's daughters for Christmas next year. She is not a scrapbooker, but I want her to tell her stories. Plus, her girls will be so surprised. 

I have many fond memories of my High School Days at St. Bernard Academy.  Spending the first twelve years of my education under the wings of “The Sisters of Mercy” was in itself a treasured experience. Of all the sisters that I had for teachers there is one in particular that I will always remember and she was known as Sister Lawrence Mary. Having had sister for “Biology” my sophomore year and then “Chemistry” my junior year it was no surprise to see her as instructor for “Physiology” my senior year. Sister was a different individual in that she never seemed to ever smile and always appeared very unhappy. Her classes always included some kind of field trip to East Tennessee; The Oak Ridge Laboratories, St. Mary’s School of Nursing, and the little town of Townsend near Gatlinburg. I was considering nursing for my college career and this really seemed to please her. January of my senior year sister found out I was traveling to Knoxville to take the “National League of Nursing” exam and asked if she and another sister (the sisters always traveled in twos) could have a ride, since I was driving along with classmate Cheryl DeGrella. Now that I was going to be applying to St. Mary’s for the nursing program and staying in the dorm before “Test Day”, my Mother thought the idea of sister riding along was a good one. The ride over to Knoxville was uneventful except for sister reminding me every so often what a good driver I was. I think she was politely telling me not to go too fast!  Sunday morning came and we had taken the test and toured the school and attended Mass. There was snow falling and some question about whether we should try and travel back to Nashville. I assured Sister that we would have no trouble and we didn’t. I don’t know how we did though. When I arrived home after delivering all my passengers I was really surprised to see how much snow there was (at least 12 inches). Dare say the reason we didn’t have any trouble traveling was Sister Lawrence Mary!

Suzi is new to our group this year. She did not have the photo yet that she plans to use on this layout.

I used to think they were cute, but not anymore! It started with just a few scattered here & there @ the farm. That was 4 years ago & now it’s hundreds each trip. They have taken over & I’m reaching the end of my rope with them!

In early 2013, we had a $300 electric bill & we weren’t even @ the farm! So, we called our HVAC guy, David, to come check the heat pump. He did & called me to say he had never seen so many ladybugs & that they had ‘fried’ the circuit board! He even took a picture & sent it to me. Luckily, it was still under warranty & was replaced with David building a sealed box around it. I called my bug man & told him the saga & asked him to do whatever it took to get rid of these pests. He responded that he couldn’t because they are an endangered species!!  Great.

When we arrive @ the farm each trip, I spend nearly an hour sweeping up these critters. For Xmas this year, Erin asked Ellie what they could get me and after thinking awhile, she said “Something to catch those ladybugs!” So, I now have a bug vac which is terrific. It can get into narrow places & has a collection bottle with a magnifying glass to study them. While they may be cute to some people, they are simply “LADYBUGGERS’ to me!!

In 2004, we all went to Santa Rosa Beach for Malinda Potter’s wedding.  While we were there, we all agreed we must do it again the next year.  The date was set, July 2-9 and everybody was able to come back except for the Dawkins and the Broussards.  As always, it was all planned out with crafts, beach time, deep sea fishing, golf, shopping and meals.  There were even two book discussions.  As you can see, we had not planned on a hurricane.  Hurricane Dennis was approaching the panhandle and we had to evacuate a day early.  The trip home was extra long due to the amount of traffic leaving Florida.  It took us hours just to get gas before hitting the road. 

EAGLES SOAR

Jim and I share many interests, but since he fell ill many we can no longer enjoy together.  However, our interest in wildlife still gives us an opportunity to share an interesting day early each year. 

As the water freezes up North, the Bald Eagles migrate to Missouri/Illinois each year.  They hang out near Godfrey, Illinois close to where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet. 

After searching about an hour we found the eagles fishing near one of the ferries and I was able to get these wonderful photos of the majestic birds.

As the crowd gathered, it appeared that the eagles somehow knew all eyes were upon them and they became very active.

Later, we enjoyed a very nice lunch at the Marquette Lodge and drove back.  Jim really enjoys visiting this area not only because of the eagles, but this is the area where he grew up.

My summers in junior high were spent playing a lot of softball, going to volleyball camps and attending open gyms for basketball. However we also spent a lot of time at the neighbor’s house jumping on their trampoline. My parent’s neighbors, Kenny and Ruthie Nagel, bought a trampoline for when their grandkids would come over. They told us to come use the trampoline whenever we wanted, so we did. Ryan and I both just loved it. Mom would walk us over through the back yards and we would jump and flip on summer evenings.  Ryan and I both learned how to do flips on our own- we thought we were pretty cool! It was a little scary at first and figuring out that gravity will win every time was a challenge at first! This ties in to my “Science” theme for the page. We had a lot of fun those summers- care free and getting to be a kid! My nephews, Drew and Will, have a trampoline now.  Watching them play on their trampoline take me back to the summer days Ryan and I would spend playing on one. Maybe one day we’ll jump with our own kids on a trampoline.

Wouldn't you know it---I get all the way to the end of the "Science" layouts and realize that I didn't even take a photo of my own. Since I'm blogging away from home, it will have to wait...

Sheesh!!