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The journalling for this LO is somewhat hard for me to share b/c is probably the most personal one I have ever put into a public forum! But I really enjoyed writing it and wish I could have touched on even more subjects! but was getting rather long winded :)

Journaling (on hidden tag where title is… shown in next picture):

I've always loved this picture, but my mother has always been "older" in it. I never really thought about where she was in her life or what she was like... until the other day. As I was looking at this picture for the hundredth time, admiring my pretty mom lounging against the rain-drenched car window looking so cool and sophisticated, it suddenly struck me that she is EXACTLY MY AGE in this picture!! This realization floored me! Suddenly my mom became a person to me, with thoughts, feelings, hopes and aspirations of her own- apart from me.

This picture was taken sometime in 1987, during a road trip to New Orleans. Now that trip seems like a metaphor for her life. She had just left a miserable marriage that had the singular comfort of being familiar, to venture into the unknown world of dating, working and living on her own. She'd just begun a new relationship with Peter, a man who now, 20 years later, is her husband and father to her 2 youngest children, but at that time was simply a younger man just met, a friend to her little brother. He expressed an interest in dating her and, luckily, despite having some reservations, she agreed to a date.

This trip was taken just a few months into their relationship; and now I realize she was probably just like one of my friends! Full of hopes & dreams, probably nervous and excited by her first road trip with a new boyfriend. Wondering if he was "the one"; wondering if he could ever love her. Wanting to have fun and live it up a little without her kids. And then it suddenly occurred to me that my mom was a Hottie! I've always considered my mom pretty in a very classy way. But that was her through my "mommy-vision"; I'd never bothered to step back and look at her as a person.

A thirty-one year old divorced mother of five... what would make a younger, well-educated, handsome man become so enthralled with a woman with so much baggage?!? Who is this woman that I always thought I knew, but in truth have only known one facet of?? Would we have been friends- my mom's 31 year old self and I? Would we have found things in common? She had two daughters; aged 13 & 8, and three sons; aged 7, 5, and 3... would our motherhood have been a bond we shared? Or would the unhappiness of the prior 10 years weigh on her, squashing her ability to form easy-going friendships? My mom was a very unhappy person during her marriage, and she had a hard time forming new friendships. Would I have been able to see past her battle scars to the wonderful, caring woman beneath?? At least one person did.

Now when looking at this picture, I can't help but be aware that the look she has on her face, which I'd always found thoughtful, is actually quite sultry and is aimed squarely at the man taking this picture, a man that saved her and loves her as she deserves- despite the 5 snotty, rude kids in tow! I am so thankful Peter took this picture. It gives me a brief moment of insight into what my mom's life was like when she was my age. This photo is the beginning of a journey for my mother~ the journey that allowed her to find true love and happiness at the end.

And all I can think now is that my mom must have been extraordinary at 31! Journalled 3/21/06

Sponsor Products:
Heidi Swapp: Blooms, Scrapbook Scenery/ Diamond drama 1
Ki memories Rub-ons: Pieces of Me/Color me Happy Type Cast, orange.
Scrapworks hugz small
SEI rhinestone brad: pale yellow
Gin-X flower coasters: Take a Vacation
Basic Grey: Urban couture: Garbadine, Lux, Chiffon, Sateen, Damask. Vagabond: Midnight
Bazzill: criss-cross texture

Other products:
MM crystal brad small: red
Navy Blue Seed beads: unknown
Copper Wire: Unknown
Black Thread: Unknown
Silver marker: Sharpie
Black Ink: Page Craft
Red Ink: Tim Holtz Brick Red Distressing ink
Orange Ink: Fabrico

Fonts:
Journaling: Tom’s New Roman (scrapbook answers cd)
Hip: sf-happiness (scrapbook answers cd)
Ultra-cool: Prissy Frat Boy (scrapbook answers cd)
Sexxy: Diesel (misprintedtype.com)
Artsy: Guilty (misprintedtype.com)


I had a lot of fun making my own designs with the Heidi Swapp rubons by cutting down her larger photo corners into 2 usable pieces. I then chose to put the swirls all over to help symbolize both the movement of the car and the rain on the window, as well as the change and movement going on in my mother’s life at that moment :) Thanks so much for looking!


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