I have found in the last 5 years how important it is for me to start preserving all of what has happened in my life. Not only treasuring up what my life has been all about but also my grandparents life. I love sitting back with my grandparents and hearing how life was when they were young, when they got married, and my grandfathers service time in the Air Force during World War II flying in the under belly of a B-24 bomber. Some stories stick in my memory but some fade away and are forgotten. My family has often brought up the idea to just put a tape recorder on while we are visiting and tape all of our conversations so we can remember the wonderful stories that our grandparents tell. There is so much history in them both and I want to be able to pass that onto my 3 children. Time is just flying by so fast and pretty soon we will not have those fun times of story telling at our family get-togethers.

About 5 years ago a friend of mine got me into scrapbooking. I am not a crafty, artsy type person and when she first brought up the idea to me, I said "No Way". She said she needed some help on something she was putting together as a big gift for a lot of us moms and asked if I would just help her. I did and that is when I saw the importance of what she was doing. It ended up not being so hard to do, and I figured I can do this. I realized it did not take any artistic skill and there was no right or wrong way to do it.

I don't know about you but I have photos galore and they were every where. I was almost confused because I was in a place where I did not even know where to begin. How do you start scrapbooking your photos when you have tons. I had some still in the developing envelopes, some in brown bags, there are pictures that my husband had from before we met that I had no clue when and where they were taken, my kids have added some throughout the years, I find some in drawers that friends have given me copies and I just slip them somewhere, and I have the ones that are built up on the computer from when I finally went digital. How on earth am I going to do it? Where do I start?

My first step was to get organized. The organizing process actually did not take that long and I was able to purchase a great sorting box from Creative Memories. This box holds up to 2,400 photos, and I took that box and sat with all of my pictures piled all around me and I filed them by years. It was so fun looking through pictures I had not been able to enjoy because of being piled up and lost in boxes, drawers, and developing envelopes. I was now getting anxious to put all these pictures into an album so that I can share them with others.

Since I started scrapping I have put together several albums as gifts for other people, I have made a yearbook for our home school group every year that all the families get to treasure, I have made a few personal albums which include my wedding, and all my school trips while growing up. I even got my husband in on it and he started a scrapbook about all of the cars he has ever owned. (There has been a lot!) I am getting my son started on an album which will be an on-going album. This summer was his first year that he went to youth camp and he will be going every summer from now on, his album will be a camp album. This will be a treasure for him to share with his friends and for him to look at for a long time to come.

I have taken a lot of my grandparents photos and copied them for my own albums and I have taken the completed pages and sat with them for them to tell me their stories. This is my favorite part. Telling the story. Scrapping is not just putting your pictures in an album; it is telling the story behind them. How often do you forget the details of an event. Well, you journal it and it will always be right there for you and your family to remember. The journaling tells it all. When I get old, my children will get my albums and they will know that I lived a full and fun life. They will know what their Great Grandparents were like and how they lived. They will have a full account of the history of their family. Now that is a treasure in itself. That is why it is important to preserve the past.

If you would like to start your history in an album then feel free to contact me because I will be happy to assist. You can even check out the event calendar on YourHub for July 21st and find a full day scrapping event that will be loads of fun. Thanks for taking the time in reading my story and I just hope it touched you enough to make you want to start preserving your past.