LOAD 14: Braces

Today's prompt was 'Sick Day' and I was going to scrap about a stay in the hospital while I was little. But while looking for some memorabilia ( I knew there wouldn't be a picture of it but I do have the admissions letter) I came across some receipts for all the orthodontic work that had been done on my teeth. And I knew there were a few pictures of me anxiously keeping my mouth closed when pictures were taken because of those aweful braces!

At least four yearsI have had to wear braces, 4 permanent molers were removed tocreate room in mu very small jaw and also one milk tooth got pulled at the same time to make sure the permanent one would be there with the braces. All in the space of 2 weeks. I had a mouth with 4 gaping holes in it when I ws about 10 years old. Now all this was peanuts compared to the years before this when I needed to where this 'cap' and mouth piece to get my top and bottom jaw aligned, they were 11 cm's apart. I felt so embarassed and ugly with a cap over the back of my head and a gigantic piece of plastic in my mouth so I could hardly speak. And every two weeks or so my horribly strict orthodontist would tighten it up a bit. Which meant a lot of pain as my teeth and jaw adjusted. Luckily after the worst was over I only had to wear it at night and not at school anyore.
Now I am very happy I had it done, my teeth look great and I smile all the time. But then I felt pretty sorry for myself.

I made the title and cute 'smile with braces' with my Silhouette. I decided to make some room on my desk to put my Silhouette. It was kind of hidden so I didn't use it much. Which is a shame because it's a great machine!

Have you scrapped any health stories?

LOAD 4, 8-13 Catching up on the blogging

We have had a lovely holiday in England and I feel truly relaxed. So now that we have been back, unpacked and Thomas is in school again I have some time to upload the missing layouts....YES, I did keep making a layout each day last week. And I am still going strong: 14 out of 14 so far;-) But Mobile Internet abroad turned out to be a bit of a pain so I limited myself to uploading my layout to the LOAD gallery and not blogging.  But here's what you've missed out on;-)

Day 4, this got stuck in cyberspace somewhere. I had made blog post on my mobile and tried uploading while on the ferry but we had left the port before it went and it was then (insert french accent here) 'untouchable'. I have not been able to re-publish it or even delete it from my phone...very annoying!  Anyway, I made the page, it's another one in the USA album. Used some real washi tape to match the faux washi on the SN@P journalling card. As this is a traditional paper photo album I keep the layouts simple with as few layers as possible or the whole thing will just become too thick:-)

LOAD Day 8: Finally onto the next day in our USA album! This day we went to Ashland, VA to check out the trains. American trains are much bigger, longer and way shinier than their Dutch counterparts. Thomas loved it but was somewhat disappoint he couldn't get onto it. Luckily there was the model train shop to cheer him up again.

LOAD Day 9: Still in Ashland, we also went to a curious supermarket called Cross Brothers. Where they have not really tidied or thrown anything away for the last 100 years it seems: old tills, bills, 70's freezers and scrap books in between the long life milk....

LOAD Day 10: We rounded our trip to Ashland off with a bit of play. My friend's mom, Millie has secured Thomas everlasting love for going down the slides with him.

LOAD Day 11: As we were now back from England I could follow the prompts again. Today's was 'Puppy Love. I used a picture of Thomas laying with a lovely dog that somebody walks near our home, I think it's a Cocker Spaniel and I like it. Now this is a BIG THING, I have always been afraid of dogs and even now that I have become more comfortable around them I could never have imagined liking a dog and thinking 'I could have a dog like that...' I don't see it happening any time soon but for that thought to even pop into my head...milestone! And for Thomas to be so comfortable around dogs is a relief to me, I have really tried NOT to pass on my fear of dogs and I seem to have succeeded..GO ME!

LOAD DAY 12: Seeds for the future. I love this layout. I have combined black and white pictures of me when I was a baby, scurrying around at my grandfather's nursery and colour pictures of Thomas at our allotment and bacony. I am (unsuccesfully) trying to instill in him the same love for plants that my mom and grandfather before me had....but all he wants to do is explore and make a big muddy mess:-)

LOAD Day 13: Today's prompt was Best of the Best. I didn't feel it and couldn't think of anything. So I did another page in the USA album. I started this at 11 PM and had a hard time putting it together, it had been a long day with me teaching a stamp carving class in the evening. So not too great but another page done!

LOAD Day 14: Who? Karen!

Day 14 of LOAD, I have made it through two whole weeks. I am tired and proud. Today I was back to scrapping with paper and I really enjoyed it. I had totally forgotten about this paper I had found in a discount bin a while ago but with its bit of sparkle it really matched the picture of me and my American friend Karen. We met on exchange in Sweden a long time ago and we were instant friends spending pretty much every day together. When I went back home to The Netherlands and she went back to the US it was heartbreaking but we did our best to see each other when we could. We don't get to see each other nearly as much as we'd like but with a bit of luck we'll be seeing each other again this year.

Today's prompt was just 'WHO?' and I decided to scrap about how much I miss her and how much I am looking forward to seeing her. The picture is from 1997, the story is from the now, love the combination.