Not new, but I might as well be...

[jfugina]

Hey everyone. Long time no see! The first thing I want to say is a huge huge huge thank you to all of the wonderful women who have taken over the admin reins and kept this forum up in the past few years! You have all done an absolutely amazing job, and I will never be able to thank you enough. Everything looks fantastic.

I absolutely hate that I haven't popped in almost at all in the last several years. For a while it was all of the drama of Nicole in middle school coupled with a total sh** show at work that was causing me to spend more time drinking than enjoying hobbies and other forms of self-care. Then she got to high school and we dove head first into the whole band booster scene. I was even on the board of the boosters for a while because we had some bully parents that were driving the program into the ground and running off any potential volunteer who didn't have a thick skin.

Obviously 2020 put a crashing halt to all of that momentum. We were even traveling with the Marching Band AT Disney World when the place closed down. Our kids marched down Main Street USA just hours before the parks closed for several months. We came back home to a county quarantine, and I haven't seen my office since. Fortunately I had brought my laptop home before vacation and had a spare docking station in my craft room, so I didn't have much need to return for anything. I still have personal effects there, which I'll need to go pack up eventually, because it's not likely that I'll still have a dedicated cubicle when the university starts letting IT back on campus. We've managed to accomplish more than they ever dreamed from home, and now they aren't super interested in keeping up the real estate to have us all back on site permanently. LOL.

I kind of thought that having a home office in my craft room would facilitate the return of inspiration, but it didn't. I'm on the crappiest run project of probably my entire IT career, and once I reached a stopping point for the day, the last thing I wanted to do was be sitting inches from my laptop. It was kind of a bummer. But we finally crossed a major milestone in December, and it looks like we might have a bit of breathing room again from now through about May. And with the kids school activities still severely pared down from prior years, I'd like to get back to filling my evenings and weekends with paper.

For anyone who is new in the last few years, HI! I'm Julie. I may have welcomed you to the forum via email if I enabled your registration. I'm one of the "originals" to this forum, all those years ago, but have suffered several bouts of "life got in the way". I've been married to Rob for 23 years, and I have a High School Senior (Nicole) and an 8th grader (Jake). Nicole is off to college next year, which was something I probably wasn't holding out hope for the last time I was hanging out here on the regular. But she turned her academic mess around, and has some pretty clear ideas about the direction she wants to go. Jake is a stinker, who is currently pulling the same "I don't have any homework" shenanigans that his sister pulled at that age, and we spent most nights reminding him that homework isn't optional just because it's boring. We're Disney people, and these past 9 months have been the first time in 12 years that we didn't have our next trip booked by the time the current trip ended.

Anyway, I'm ready to get crafting again. I have a crap ton of kits to put together and 4 years worth of pictures waiting to be printed and scrapped. It will take me a bit to get back into the habit of checking in, but I'm ready. Talk you you all again soon!

[pamcook]

Welcome home again!
It’s going to take me some time to get used to Nicole and Jake being older though!

BTW - Chris and Mandee just relocated to Springfield, MO. He’s a buyer for Bass Pro now (camping & water sports). So you’re practically neighbors (okay, not really but you’re closer than I am!).

I do hope you carve out some time for paper! We’re still having fun with it!

[Keitha]

Hey Julie, nice to see you back. Looking forward to your participation on the forums again.

[Debbie AZ]

Hi Julie! So glad you checked in and hope to see a lot more of you. I have been following the kids via Facebook and they are both becoming young adults and love to see their growth throughout the years.

[jfugina]

Does Mandee do any scrapping? If so, Springfield is the home of Scrapbook Generation - still my favorite page kit club of all of the ones I've ever tried. I fully intend to take a road trip to Springfield just to visit their real live brick and mortar store. It's been AGES since I've been to any kind of LSS - it's down to Michaels and JoAnn.

And yeah, I know it's hard to think of how "grown up" my kids are getting, especially since they were just 2 and 6 when this forum started.

Here's a layout I threw together recently because I found a sketch on pinterest that I wanted to use with a bunch of random scraps, and it called for a 5x7, and this was the only 5x7 I had laying around. It still needs a title or something, but this is Nicole's senior yearbook photo.

[Monica]

Julie!!!! You were missed, and it's so great to see you here again! And can I just say wow. Nicole grew up to be a beautiful young lady.

[pat-czap]

I too have to say...JULIE!!!

I think of you now and then, and wonder what you are up to.

Nicole is lovely. Funny how our kids grow up so fast.

[pamcook]

Oh, Nicole! Our little girl grew up. She’s beautiful.

Mandee does scrapbook from time to time. She amassed quite the stash while here with us and eventually I’ll ship all of it to her. I’ll let her know about Scrapbook Generations. That’s great to know.

[nchoney]

Glad to see you, Julie!! And.... yes... this group is definitely the place to be to find the comfort of non-judgemental friends who will always lend support for self care... lots cheaper than therapy... well... maybe not, considering the $$ we spend on supplies... but.. at least when we buy supplies, WE get to keep the goods... not some therapist.. LMAO

So... welcome back to the land of scrappers!!

[jfugina]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome back! And thanks for the kind comments about Nicole too. I'm biased, of course, but I think she turned out pretty cute, and given how rocky things were with her 3-5 years ago, I couldn't be more proud of how she's managed to turn things around and take charge of her future. She's not one of those AP kids who will start college with all of their freshman credits done. Instead, she's committed to a course load that she knows she can handle, which included a lot of practical arts classes. She's taking classes all day, has Winter Drumline rehearsals 3 nights per week, and works retail on weekends. She also has an internship with the school district where she's doing work for the facilities department, helping them organize their blueprints and design a new drawings room ahead of the construction on a new high school. She's planning to major in Interior Design and Architectural Studies, and her Residential Architecture teacher recommended her for the internship.

So now the focus has switched to Jake, and trying to make him a productive citizen. He's going through this thought process where the school lessons are too easy, and he acts like he's above it all and therefore shouldn't have to do the homework because he doesn't need the practice. I wish he didn't have to do the homework either, but that's not how school works. I wish that there was a way for a lot of those subjects to have pre-tests, and if you demonstrated mastery on the pre-test, that you could spend your out-of-school time doing other things. But that's not how it works. So the next several years are going to continue to be a struggle with him.

In the meantime, I've got a couple of batches of home brew (wine) in the works. Worst comes to worst, I'll have a full cellar and can just drink my way through his teenage years like I did with the first part of Nicole's teenage years.

[gwendols]

Hi!!! It's great to see you back here!!!!!

[pbp908]

You have no idea how glad I am to see you back! Thank goodness I've been able to follow you on FB somewhat, and have watched Nicole grow into a beautiful young lady who looks like a carbon copy of her mom!

I can't talk enough about the positive effects a music education has on children. The benefits go far beyond the educational benefits (math skills, etc.), but also teaches responsibility, a cooperative team spirit, and provides a peer group that has all of the same interests and qualities. I think that Nicole is an outstanding example of that.

As for Jake, he's hitting adolescence during the worst time possible. It really would be nice if kids could test out of subjects and take classes that challenge them - if this current mess continues that may become a possibility.

Anyway, WELCOME HOME!!! You have been missed!

[jfugina]

You have no idea how glad I am to see you back! Thank goodness I've been able to follow you on FB somewhat, and have watched Nicole grow into a beautiful young lady who looks like a carbon copy of her mom!

I can't talk enough about the positive effects a music education has on children. The benefits go far beyond the educational benefits (math skills, etc.), but also teaches responsibility, a cooperative team spirit, and provides a peer group that has all of the same interests and qualities. I think that Nicole is an outstanding example of that.

As for Jake, he's hitting adolescence during the worst time possible. It really would be nice if kids could test out of subjects and take classes that challenge them - if this current mess continues that may become a possibility.

Anyway, WELCOME HOME!!! You have been missed!

Pam you are waaay too kind! I don't look anything like my avatar anymore. Seems like that was a million years ago (and a substantial number of pounds ago).

You are absolutely right about the music stuff having a serious impact. For Nicole, joining the marching band was a good start, but then she joined the winter guard, and truly found her tribe. She went back to her trumpet each fall, but the guard is her true love. She's going to fully switch to guard when she joins the marching band in college. She's only in drumline this year because there wasn't enough guard interest for WGI, so the drumline was kind enough to incorporate the small handful of kids who wanted to participate as a visual component of the show.

As for Jake - he's in band too, and he came home midway through 7th grade and announced that he was switching to trombone (from trumpet). We were surprised, but didn't hesitate to facilitate the switch, and he likes it a lot more. We're "forcing" him to join the marching band next year, just like we did Nicole. He's not that stoked about it, but we told him if he really disliked his first year, we wouldn't make him continue. But he's currently suffering for friends (and the whole pandemic isn't helping at all). So I'm counting on band camp to get him back on track with some sort of social life. And maybe he can find some homework buddies there too. My fear with him is that he IS starting high school on the AP track, and I'm worried that he's going to quickly reach that point where he doesn't already know it all and he's going to be caught off guard when he realizes he actually does need the homework practice and to spend time studying. He actually wants to start next year in a series of biomedical sciences courses for college credit, and with his study skills (or lack thereof), I think it's going to kick his butt.

Anyway... like I said before - I'm brewing wine, and hopefully will have plenty stockpiled before the next school year starts.

[paddlegal]

Julie chiming in with my welcome back! Like Pam said thank goodness for FB to keep track of you and the kids. So happy for Nicole and her success in HS and band and winter guard. Having been a Band Mom I get it and Charley would be in agreement. His girlfriend was also in band...same with her. I hope the best for Jake and his discovery of AP classes and enjoy the challenges. Most of all I hope you can stick with us and enjoy your paper as it should be enjoyed.