Christmas Greetings from Floyd & Jeanie

December 2011

Dear Family & Friends,

I'm happy to be visiting with you again as another year comes to an end. I love being in touch with each of you. Here are some different ways to contact us including my beloved US Postal Service (P.O. Box 996, Inyokern, CA 93527) and the good old telephone! (You can remove our landline number from your files because it's gone. Floyd's cell is 760-677-9162 and mine is 760-677-9174.) Email Floyd at salyer@iwvisp.com and me at jeanie1951@yahoo.com. Visit the blog upon occasion at simplystated4u.blogspot.com and please leave me a comment! I'm on Facebook (search for Jeanie Salyer). I turn to Facebook quite often to get snippets of news from those important to me and to send out little slices of our life as the year proceeds.

As our card and letter arrive in your mailbox, I hope you're doing well and have had a good year. Overall, our year has been a good one! Floyd completed a couple of neat projects for his buddy including a large shed and a fancy chicken coop. Both buildings were Floyd's own design and turned out very nice. The chicken coop was especially challenging to put up because it needed to be built in a very narrow side yard and on an incline!

Interpreting assignments are way down lately, and so I might have had only ten assignments this year. I had plenty of scrapbooking events, cardmaking workshops, books to read, letters and blog posts to write, plus time spent with family and friends whenever possible to keep me busy.

On April 20th, Floyd & I celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary at a new restaurant in Ridgecrest called Maddy's Cafe. We had a wonderful time and a delicious dinner.

It was a great year for La Leche League of Ridgecrest with the ideal number of 10-12 moms (plus their little ones) attending each monthly meeting. In May, the new Leader I was training was accredited, and several of us attended the LLL of So. CA Conference. July and August were busy with preparations for and holding an event for World Breastfeeding Week which is 1-7 August every year. I am now training another Leader Applicant.

In the Spring, two longtime interpreting friends, Diane and Derby, and I went to the Deaf West production of "Pinocchio." We had a great time, and Derb treated us to a wonderful dinner afterward.

We were very sad to say goodbye to our beloved Mollie the Blue Tick Hound in May. She was such a faithful, well-behaved dog who will always hold a special place in our hearts. I remember 16 years ago when we went to choose a puppy, she picked me by sitting on my foot and not moving till we picked her up to take her home with us. One of our kitty-cats, Sunshine, had grown especially close to Mollie, and it was obvious he couldn't figure out where his friend had gone. We would find him lying alone on the bedroom floor where Sunshine and Mollie had spent so much time snuggled up together. Eventually, Sunshine has accepted the loss and now spends more time with us than he ever did while Mollie was living.

All of our other cats are doing well, although Blaze was anemic and feeling out of sorts recently. We improved her diet, added feline vitamins, and are generally trying to boost her immune system. Her normally pink pads had lost all color, but they're now pink again. Blaze is our little mischief maker, and she is again getting into all sorts of things, so we know she's feeling like herself again. Sadie, our Great Pyrenees watchdog is outstanding at her job and is such a sweetheart!

When I turned 60 in September, I threw a big party and invited people from all eras and phases of my life. It was a good turn out and a fun time. Jacqueline, Pine, my dad, brother & sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, and a whole bunch of friends joined us to help celebrate! Every day we have is a Gift!!

We hope you'll have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012!




{Snowman card at top made at Nov. 2011 Stampin' Up Christmas Card Club!}

Why I Scrapbook

When I first began to keep pictures and momentos in scrapbooks it was simply a way for me to keep things that were important to me. Over the years, I've learned that scrapbooks become a person's legacy and future generations' opportunity to know about their family and where they came from.

I've also learned the process of scrapbooking can be just, plain fun. I started traditional or paper scrapping when I was a kid. All the supplies I used were highly acidic and the books didn't last.

Almost 20 years ago, I was introduced to the concept of acid-free, lignin-free albums, papers, and adhesives. I've got quite a few traditional scrapbooks in various stages of completion.

Not long ago, I ventured into digital scrapbooking which is by far the simplest way to collect your photos and stories in one place. No physical storage needed. Simply a hard drive and perhaps an external HD, too, to keep track of the myriad digital papers and elements that are readily available (many for free) all over the Web (plus all your photos).

My most recent project was an album I created for my middle daughter who turned 35 at the end of May. It was so much fun gathering together all the photos of her I wanted to use and organizing them into themes or topics for each double page spread. Check out the page below which I made using a Quick Page. I downloaded the template, then popped the photos behind the openings in the layout. Enjoy!

Thanks to Jenna Robertson for her Quick Page, "Generations," which I got from http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com.