No More Palmdale 2nd Ward

I got word from Camille (and via the Mormon grapevine) that there is no more Palmdale 2nd Ward! The only thing I can think to say is that I am blown away!

Wow! How can that be? I spent 23 years there. I watched it surge with uncontrolled growth and just about as quickly hemorrhage to near extinction. But I never thought there would be no more 2nd ward!

For several years many have said that "they" needed to combine Palmdale 1st & 2nd wards... so what did I think would happen? I'm not sure... but no more 2nd ward?

I think the thing that stuns all of us is that if we still lived in Palmdale we wouldn't be in 2nd ward anymore (duh). They divided 2nd ward and sent all west of 35th East to 1st Ward and all East of 35th East to 4th Ward (meeting out in the Littlerock building). The up side is that there are many friends that have been axed out of the ward in earlier splits that will be reunited- Tongs come to mind right off. I always missed them.

I realize that the point is moot for me, I don't live there anymore, but it is kind of like when Mom died and there was no more family in Greenville. Hard to explain... but definitely a feeling of loss at something that will never be again.

Old Friends... (hmmm...friends that are old?)

This week's challenge at JS.com was quite fun and very well timed. It was a multi-faceted challenge. 1. Take a fresh photo guided by the theme "I want to remember this" 2. Scrap said photo any way you would like. 3. Said photo could only be taken with available light, no flashes. It just so happened that Pauline was here for a visit. How could I beat that?

When I moved to Utah just over 3 years ago I don't think either one of realized just how dependent we'd become on each other. We did a lot of crying that first year. The one positive side to this move is that neither one of us shop nearly as much as we used to when we only lived 4 houses apart! ("Hey, you wanna make a Walmart run?" LOL)


The second part of this story is this...
I wanted to use a friends quote on the page so I went to the internet and did a search. There were so many good ones that I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted to use. So I decided to use all of them!

I decided to combine them all into an overlay. I thought I could put them all together in a Word document using a different font for each quote then cut and paste them into the text box in PSE 6. Oh no... not so... I had all the words, but they were all in the same font! So I went through the process again! I then turned it into a screen mask to make the cool overlay effect.

So here's the cool part!... I turned them into my first FREEBIES! Everyone is always so good about sharing all the fun things they make so I thought it might be nice to do the same. After several tries and false starts (and some trauma!) I zipped and uploaded them to 4shared.com.

The trauma came when I uploaded them the first time with the name "Friends Overlay". One of the features of 4shared.com is to pull up what they think are some related files (I have no idea what criteria they use other than name). It pulled up some pornographic friends photo icons. ICK!!!

Now my files have the very unoriginal names of 10001 Overlay and 10001 Overlay_Mask.

If you are not familiar with using a Overlay mask here's what you do-

• Open the Overlay Mask
• Select the layer you want the overlay to be over in PSE
  
• Drag it to the thumbnail of your LO
• And as Jessica Sprague says... here's the magic part... choose Screen for the blending mode. Jessica has a great PSF at her blog on this technique. Thanks Jes!

... that is my fun for this day...

My Latest

Spencer and Tricia March 24, 2007

Organizing Queen

I popped over to the JS forum this morning as I was eating my oatmeal (yum!) and I found a question about giving credit on scrapbook layouts. Liv, one of our great gals and "Spraground Fixture" shared how she keeps track of "this is this, and this is that".

I am a firm believer in "giving credit where credit is due" and expressing appreciation for gifts (good home training!). I've been using a Word document to keep the list of all the elements that go into each layout, but this system is one that speaks to my little girl brain! I knew that if I posted this link here, not only could I benefit from it, but others as well.

Ho... Ho...
I found some more fun things about organizing over at JS.com. There is going to be a class offered about ACDSee taught by Heidi Vanyo. As a interest-getter for the class she has the first 22 pages posted in a PDF file. I found some very helpful tips there. Check it out.

Family... a blessing

I'm not sure why it is that I am such a lucky girl! Not only was I born into a family where everyone made me feel like I was absolutely the best thing that ever happened to them, ("Everybody loves little Joanie. Why wouldn't they?") but I've had the great blessing of belonging to several other families. We are not always able to live close to our birth family, what a blessing to be taken under the wings of other wonderful, loving individuals who love us like we are family!

Twenty-three years ago this month a new family moved into our growing Palmdale 2nd ward. It was Steve, Pauline and Matthew Porter. It didn't take long to become good friends with them. (Pauline chose me for her friend. I've never been aware of that happening before or since.)

A few months later when Camille and Stuart were born, Pauline was one of my friends whom I could count on to help out (granted, of course, I could find their house!! I got confused one day and couldn't find Pauline's house because I was looking on the wrong street!) It was Pauline who volunteered to watch Camille when we went to Hawai'i in November 1986. What a friend!

Camille, Auntie P and Stuart (Matt in the background)
March 29, 1986 at the Littlerock Building for an Easter Egg Hunt

Later that month Auntie P invited us to spend Thanksgiving with them. That was when we first met the rest of the Jarvis family. There was such a feeling of belonging there. Gramma and Grampa Jarvis, Pauline's parents, just fell in love with my little kids (and why wouldn't they?) They were the grandparents we didn't have close (or have at all) and filled-in very nicely that day. I love this photo of "Grampa Ralphie" and Stuart.

Stuart and Grampa Ralphie November 27, 1986

What got me started thinking about this was this week's challenge at SWC. I started looking for a photo to use. Here is this week's very challenging challenge. I generally don't like "white space". But I decided to give it a try anyway.

So third Mondays mean ColorLift Challenge time! We do a scraplift using the color scheme specified. (Yep, you get to practice recoloring your items if they don't quite fit the color scheme! ) This week we're going to be playing with white space! (which isn't really white, but you knew that, right?
Just a few nice-to-know's about white space:
1. White space, also called negative space, is the empty space between elements in a design.
2. White space gives the viewer's eye a place to rest (and that's why layouts with ample white space often leave us feeling refreshed and light!)
3. The use of white space effectively allows us to "lead" the viewer to the focal point of our layout.
4. White space is good: trapped white space is not. (Space that can't flow freely, or is trapped between elements).

As I looked for the right photo I knew I wanted something that evoked feelings since there would be so little else to the page. When I saw this photo of Riley and Grampa Ralphie I knew I'd hit on the right one.

Ralph and Edna moved to Palmdale, right across the street from Pauline and Steve, in April 1995 just months after the auto accident the broke Edna's back and changed their lives forever. I helped Pauline ready the house by painting etc. It wasn't long before we were part of their lives.

It touches my heart to see how through the years we have had the constancy of these surrogate grandparents. These are the kind folks for whom we have given daily care, mowed their lawns, performed the sacred ordinance of the sacrament, come to their aid when they couldn't find the TV remote or "Help, I've fallen and can't get up!" I know many of the Jarvis family stories (and I love good stories!) But not only did we serve them, they filled a critical spot in our lives and hearts... I wouldn't change that for the world.

Now there is a new generation who will be tucked under the wing of Auntie P and her family. So I say again... I am such a lucky girl!

Ecclesiastes 3:1

this will always be HOME to me

When I read this week's challenge over at JessicaSprague.com I knew immediately what I would scrap! The challenge (I won't make you click the link unless you want to) this week was to use JS Home Away From Home kit and (duh) scrap about home. There were all sorts of muses for those who didn't know which way to go. But like I said, I knew immediately.

HOME... it will always be my childhood home in Greenville, CA. I think that my childhood was near idyllic. I lived in the ultimate safe environment! Lock our doors? We didn't even have locks on our doors! Greenville was very small, about 1500 people, everybody knew everybody. It was the consummate "small town".

(click to enlarge)
Top left-right: 639 Main Street 1970, The girls 1974, Joanie & Gypsy 1964
Bottom left - right: Sue, Ann, Joanie,Easter 1957; Daddy's new car with house in the background,d 1963; My wonderful tree house, 1964 , Daddy mowing the lot; Joanie on Blue Boy at Gold Diggers Celebration, Greenville's Main St; My favorite view off our back porch, all 1966.

As I edited my photos I knew that I needed to use that wonderful orton effect that Kimi taught us several weeks ago. To me, this is how I see my memories... all through the orton effect filter! The colors are very vivid, warm and inviting... a little hazy, but, oh so sweet!

It wasn't until I was married and had moved away from home (all the way to Yorktown, VA) that one of my new friends informed me that I'd come from a "broken-home"! (This was also the same kind friend who informed me I had Fred Flintstone Feet! Yeh, great friend! But I digress!)

Our little home was only 800 square feet. As I looked for photos of our house I realized that almost none existed. Why? Because we had an old home with asphalt siding that was literally falling off. Mom always posed us in the driveway or by the trees, never in front of our house. I found the photo that I took of Daddy's new car with the house in the background. It wasn't until I moved out in 1970 that Mom could finally afford to fix the place up... and she did!

As I look back I realize that we really were quite poor. But I never knew it at the time. We always had food to eat, a place to sleep and lots and lots of love... the most important quality for a real home.

I have lived many place, very happily, but Greenville will always be HOME!

Cute Page... took TOO long!

Lasterday (yes, this IS a real word!) I started working on this LO. It's the PSF (Photoshop Friday) challenge at Jessica Sprague's blog. The technique was the circle accent. (I chose to make mine off-center... a little like me!) I started with different papers and elements. I tried recoloring them but the more I worked on it the worse it got! Rebekah called making a very needed interruption in my frustrating day (interestingly enough, when she called today she told me she had a very similar day! Hmm... must be hereditary or something!)

After Bek's phone call I went back to the drawing board and started all over again. I just wanted paper that had more pop to it, something that matched my monochromatic animals! I got this one mostly finished and decided that I wanted the yellow mat on the circle to have texture like the journaling strips... SO... it was back to the drawing board again for that circle element. Fortunately, I'd made the first one a set size (10") so I could make the new one and drag it onto the layout. Since I'd added an adjustment layer all the "erased" part of the new circle could be erased with just a couple of matting clicks! Whew... I was almost finished!


I think the part I liked the best was when I started using my Distressed Tool Set No.6 by Anna. JSprague said this was one of her favorite tools/brushes and now I know why! It was so cool to brush on the white ink and not get any on my fingers. I have always liked that distressed or grungy look on scrapbook pages.



So now that I have blabbered on about how difficult, no, how time consuming getting this particular layout completed - do you think I should move on and actually post said layout? (Let's be brave, little Joanie... )

Buddi was the most gentle little soul there was. Gordon says, "Buddi's a fur-covered-sack-of-love!" And that best described our little Buddi-dog. She was always so kind with Simba. If she was eating anything and he walked up she would back away and share with him (not that HE ever appreciated that quality!)

We hadn't been in our house too long before Simba devised his most evil plan. That naughty boy-cat would lie in front of the dog door and not let Buddi in! What a skunk! He thought if he just laid there long enough that "stupid little dog" would go away... and he was right. Buddi did go away last March, most unexpectedly. The funny part to all of this is Simba didn't know when he had it good.

Now Harley is on the scene and an altogether different kind of cocker than Buddi was. He is much smarter (sorry Buddi) and he knows how to play (I don't know, maybe poor Buddi was to traumatized to play from being on the street for so long.) Harley is always ready for a game and he will give Simba as good as he gets.

I told Stuart, Simba's boy, that Buddi hooked up with Harley in Heaven and told him what a rough time Simba's boy used to give her ("Step-back or the little dog gets it!!", Stuart would say.) She told Harley, "Now it's pay-back time!" Harley isn't mean to Simba, perhaps a little pesty and he just wants to play and, frankly, Simba can't be bothered with the canine-variety.

Rock-a-don

Growing up in the "way northern" end of Northern California was an experience like no other. I will forever be grateful for the wonderful, slow, safe, happy environment in which I grew up. I'm not sure there are such places anymore... not even in Greenville.

We frequently had to go out-of-town to do, well, just about anything! We went to the dentist in Oroville, 80 miles south down Hwy 70. This is also known as the Feather River Canyon. It is breathtakingly beautiful, but also has its perils!.. like curvy roads, rock slides, deer on the highway, ice slides, you get the picture.

My sisters named the ginormous granite rocks found there rock-a-dons. I always loved that name. It evoked thoughts of prehistoric animals lurking behind each of them!

One of my favorite places in the Feather River Canyon is this rock-a-don. In the winter of 1964-65 we had horrendous flooding in Northern California. It washed out numerous bridges, flooded much of the Indian Valley and caused rockslides in the Feather River Canyon that blocked Hwy 70 for months. This rock was so large they were not able to move it, so they built the new road around it. It is one of my favorite photo spots. This most recent photo was taken in August 2005.

But that isn't where this habit started... the first one I remember was shortly after said floods when Mom and I stopped there to take a photo with our little turquoise blue Ford Falcon. You can see that there isn't any foliage around the rock yet.

The next photo op was in 1981 when Tony, Rebekah, Amanda and I went from Livermore to Greenville for my 10/11 year class reunion (we had such small classes we combined with the class of 1971). It was the last day of July and I didn't have air conditioning in my little Oregon born Rabbit. Shortly after we entered the Feather River Canyon from the south end we went around a sharp curve and that afternoon canyon wind whipped in through the passenger window and whisked right out again with Amanda's favorite blanket! She started to howl, knowing her beloved blankie was lost F-O-R-E-V-E-R! She was very relieved when I made the first safe U-turn and went back to rescue her purple-beauty! We stopped at my favorite rock-a-don for a photo, which turned out to be one of the last of my little family. That whole trip, before the accident, was one wonderful adventure showing my little kids all of Mommie's favorite places. I have always been so grateful for that final time of bonding!


Fast forward 10 years to July 1991 (what am I glutton for punishment???) and our family was returning to Greenville again for my 20-21 reunion. This time there was a whole pack of us (Gordon, Kristi, Ryan, Kevin, Spencer, Camille, Stuart, Rebekah and I)! We wouldn't even fit into one vehicle so I drove the Chevy Astro van and Gordon drove the old gold Oldsmobile Firenza. We stopped for the obligatory photo op. I don't know why there aren't any kids in this particular photo.

We made several stops going up the canyon for the kids to enjoy the rock-a-dons. I love to see how dwarfed they are on these huge mastodons of granite. Below are Spencer, Kevin and Ryan. We had a lovely vacation, learning from our sad experience of 1988 and the vacation from ____ in a borrowed motor home! We rented a house on Lake Almanor. (Ahh, so many memories... fodder for another post!)


And now that brings us back to the beginning... the last day of July 2005... just me and my little red beetle... run away back to California to visit all of my loved ones whom I missed so much in the months after our move to Utah. I guess you could say that these rock-a-dons of granite form a big piece of my emotional foundation, where I grew up- my childhood roots and where I am always welcome to come back and visit... they will always be there... not unlike our True Rock and Foundation.

The Coolest Thing!

I just learned the coolest thing on Saturday. I knew, basically, that I could combine photos to get the best shot of everyone, but I'd never done it successfully. It took getting an email from Adobe trying to sell me Photoshop Elements 6.0 (hmmm I have that already!) and their little one-minute video commercial. I'd tried this with a different photo, but with no success. So I stopped the commercial video several times to determine, without any detailed instructions, where they were doing this magic. (I tracked them down like the wild-dogs that they are and figured it out.)

Back row L-R: Curtis, Stuart, Rebekah , Ryan , Jessica (Doug's wife) holding Roxie, Nikki (Ryan's wife), Kevin & Suzi, Doug, Camille, Gordon, Ashton (D&J's), me, Joanie, Tadhg . Front row L-R: Christian (D&J's), Brock and Caden, Tricia & Spencer holding baby Riley (Not here for photo: Erik & Megan, Brandon, Melissa, Bryan, Brandon, Jim & Kristi, Mackenzie, Preston)

When everyone was here last summer for the Family Reunion I got this family group shot (these chances come along VERY SELDOM when you have a large family... we are still missing several of our sweeties!) But it is nearly impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time (unless, of course, I ask them all to make a goofy face!) So the above photo is the composite of everyone's best shot. Below are the photos that were the base to draw from.

(click on photos to enlarge)

I guess I would have to say that I am a pretty lucky girl to 1) have such a great family and 2) have learned these fun tricks.
OK... now here is a funny addendeum - Camille wrote me an email (as follows) about which faces really were the best! I had to agree with her so I went in and edited the photo again. I couldn't accommodate all of them, but I tried. What do we think now?

• 
  Ok so this is what I've come up with...I don't really know how this whole technology works so I don't know if you have to do certain people from the same picture or what...but this is what I think. Also, there are lots of side comments, but you are gonna have to deal with the details! haha...
  Curt- 2 (1 is close so maybe it doesn't matter, but 2 is a little more of a smile)
  Stu- definitely 2
  Bek- I think 3...she looks pretty in all of them but there are no wrinkles between her eyebrows in 3 and she is smiling bigger
  Ryan- 1 or 2, depending on whether you prefer teeth or no teeth
  Jessica- 1 (but 2 is also close)
  Roxie- 1 (but 2 is also close)
  Nikki- 2 (but it doesn't really matter, 1 and 2 are real similar and 3 is cute in a different way)
  Kevin- 3 (maybe...or 1...whichever you think)
  Suzi- i like 3 but I also like 1 so it depends on what kind of look you are going for
  Doug- 2 (but they are all close)
  Me- I prefer 1, i thought i looked stupid in 3 which you picked ...I can't really decide because I don't really like any of them, but Alissa just said she likes 3 best and then 1 after that so you decide
  Dad- any of them, I guess...I kind of liked number 1 but maybe you liked the laughing smile thing he is doing in 3...whatever
  Ashton- 3
  Mom (you)- I like 2 best but its your call because its your picture
  Tadhg- 3
  Christian- 1 (dang, that boy is handsome!)
  Brock- all are cute for different reasons so whatever you want (3 is really cute but hes not actually looking at the camera so maybe you have issues with that)
  Caden- 3 is good but 2 is cute too in that shy way of his
  Tricia- 1 or 2, cant decide
  Spen- 2 (you picked 3 and that is good but I like 2 a little better)
  Riley- 1...or any, it doesn't matter and I don't even know if you can change that
  How's that, enough detail for you? Love you!
  Mams