Finished

DIL Missy and I got together last Friday for our third and final scrap-
booking session. She's a teacher and is back in the saddle this week. She has been a scrapper for 10 years and taught me a lot. All the stuff in the foreground was loaned to me by a friend. It's not a cheap hobby but my kids have really responded positively to my first album.
Missy is working on sports albums, recording the boys games, team members, scores and friend-
ships. She helped me thread my way to through the bewildering and expensive paraphernalia and select just the things that I need. Those three Fridays were so rich, because I got to spend time with my young grandsons as well. Periodically they'd come to the table to draw or work on their own books. I'm going to miss then when they move to Bend, Oregon. Josh's job as FedEx terminal manager starts on the 1st - next week! Missy and the boys won't be able to follow for another three months. Yipes.
My first album is finished! It's a record of the trip that DS Josh, DD Chris and I took to Germany in 1995. It was during Desert Storm and SIL Mike was in Bahrain. When they got orders to return stateside, I realized it was now or never. If we didn't go, we never would. Josh and I flew over in March - it's just plain cold in Germany in March. Many mornings found us scraping the car windows with credit cards.

I had 11 days of annual leave available and used it all. Our flight was 16 hours long to Frankfort so we really only nine days in Germany. Chrissie took us right from the airport to our first castle at Heidelberg. I kept a journal so was able to note what we were doing for all the photos, but the magnetic album they were in leached the colors terribly. Our albums get pulled out at family events and Missy was one who recognized what was happening.

We drove Chrissie's Geo Storm through as much of Bavaria as we could, staying in youth hostels at night - Bavaria by Storm. We saw as much as we could in the time we had until they were just as exhausted as I was. We joked that we castle-hopped until we dropped.
It took me three shots to get all of Ulm Cathedral and we walked all 768 steps to the top. That was almost 15 years ago and I'm so glad I have the notes because I certainly wouldn't remember that otherwise.

Photo albums are important to our family. I'm horrible about printing out photos - I'm not sure I've printed any in the last five years - but it's albums that my family gather round, joking and reminiscing. I know I'm retired and I already have too many hobbies - certainly didn't see this one coming.

Meanwhile, I've extracted all the photos from the rest of the magnetic photo albums, storing them in a photo box until I can get to them. Sometimes it required slicing the pictures from the pages with dental floss. A word of warning to those of you who think your photos are safely stored in albums - if they're in magnetic albums, they're not safe. It's about keeping those precious images in an acid environment, and there's where the expense begins.