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January 11: Tell Me a Story

This was a fun challenge! A lot more words than I am used to sharing :) 590 total!
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When Maddie was born, my mom gave me a set of three plants. They were green, beautiful and doomed. I am not good with plants on a good day. With a newborn a toddler & a seven-year-old I had my hands full and the poor plants could not remind me that they were thirsty. One of the plants died off pretty quickly, but the other two held on for quite a while. They would start to look sad and I would remember to water them, and they would perk up and this continued for a couple of years until the second one died. Now the kids were bigger, and I tried harder to keep the final living plant, a fern of some sort, alive. I gave it new dirt and a new pot and tried to be more diligent about watering it regularly. I kept it alive, but it never looked like a healthy happy plant. When we decided to move to Florida with only the belongings we could fit in our car the plant went to live with my mom until we came back to get the rest of our stuff out of storage. When I talked to my mom, I would occasionally ask how the plant was doing and she would always respond that it was alive and well. I was downright shocked when we came back and saw how huge and beautiful my fern was under my mom’s care. It was amazing! I had no idea it could be so big and bushy! We took it back to Florida and I doubled down on trying to keep it as happy as it was with my mom. While I was not quite as successful, it did look better than the last time it had been under my care. We did discover that the cats really enjoyed snacking on the little leaves. We had to get creative finding a location for the plant that was out of reach of the cats and still could soak up some sun. When we moved to Idaho the plant made the move without any incidents and it started thriving in its new location. Until we moved into our house. Finding a happy spot for it was a big challenge. The cats are sneaky and persistent and really crave fern leaves apparently. At one point it almost looked like a couple of green sticks because the cats had devoured almost all the leaves. At this point, Matt decided to take over care of the plant. He started putting it outside in the morning and bringing it in before bed and it started to thrive again. Until the cats discovered the plant outside and started eating it again. Honestly, they are fed regularly, and I try to keep a few pots of cat grass around the house for them. Stinkers. We found a spot outside to let the plant soak up the sun where the cats could not get to it and it was happy again. Then winter set in and it was too cold to put the plant outside. It is actually doing pretty good even though it is a little smaller than it was in the summer. I have gotten better about keeping plants alive and now have several around the house. It never fails to amaze me that this little fern has been through so much and after eighteen hard years is still alive and thriving. We all call it the Maddie plant and try to keep an eye on it now.
 
647 Words! It took me a long time to figure out what to tell about, but once I figured it out, I had to cap myself to not take over the whole page!

 

Looking for Christmas gifts this past holiday season I found myself sitting in the makeup aisle at my local Target store. When you have a daughter, you start to realize she's just as strong as everyone else in the house -- a force to be reckoned with, a soul on fire with the same life and gifts and passions as any man. But sitting in this store aisle, you also begin to realize most people won't see her that way. They'll see her as a pretty face and a body to enjoy. And they'll tell her she has to look a certain way to have any worth or influence.
My youngest baby girl, Asia, recently turned 12 in July and is at age where her friends are starting to experiment and wear makeup. Asia has never been one to really follow the crowd. In fact, she is quite immature for her age. Yet this year entering middle school; she wants to be part of that in crowd. It may be the Tick Tock teeny-boppers talking or the fact she is surrounded by tons of new faces. But she wants to be one of those girls. The pretty girls.
So what does a mother do in this situation? Of course, I bought her one of those giant makeup kits you find in the Christmas aisle, you know the ones with everything a young girl with need from 100's of shades of eye shadow done to lip stick and even nail polish. To finish it off I even got her a fancy bag of makeup brushes finished in glitter!
Come Christmas morning, Asia's face lit up when she opened her box of makeup and found the sparkly glitter brushes along with it. She couldn't wait to use it. Being only 12 and immature for her age, Asia has little to none makeup experience. As any lady knows good makeup techniques come with practice and practice makes perfect. So seeing Asia's excitement and joy with her new-found passion I volunteered myself to be her very first victim, I mean makeover.
She carefully laid out her new makeup across the vanity we made a few weeks earlier in her bedroom. We placed a towel over my clothes, and she went to work on my makeup. Asia painlessly worked for over 20 mins picking out the perfect shades of makeup for my skin tone. She carefully applied the makeup to my face as if I was in a beauty salon. Having me pucker my lips like a fish as she applied lipstick and bat my eyelashes as she applied eye shadow and mascara.
I was not allowed to look in the mirror until my final reveal, in fact she even covered it with a blanket, so I could be surprised. Soon I was pronounced gorgeous and ready to go. She lifted the blanket and allowed me to have my first glance. I have to say I had to bite my lip from not laughing out loud. She definitely needs more experience in the makeup department. I looked a bit like a clown with rosey cheeks and bright red lipstick. But for her first job I give her props on the bold colors she had chosen for my makeover.
I proudly wore my makeup for Christmas dinner and was the most made up person at the table. And Eric even mentioned he kind of really digged that bright bold red lipstick.

576 words
 
Love this challenge. 714 words later, here's my story...... the full text is included in my credits for those who want to read it.

 
bestcee said:
Possibly? Ignore the word count and start writing. Then, at the end check and see where you are at. Add some more if needed, but you might be surprised by how much you write on your own!

Tell me about your love for Disney? When did it start? With what? A park visit? The movies? A character? How old were you? How often do you go to the parks? Which one is your favorite? Do you have a favorite moment? Like I love when the sun goes down, and the ride lights come on and there's magic in the air. Have you passed that love of Disney on to others? Do you plan to go so many times?
Click to expand...

How about last night I wrote 2 - one is 896 (Disney) and one is 1392 (MS journey) LOL Guess sometimes you have to just have the right subject and the right mindset. Now to choose one and scrap. hahahah You're literally a saint for choosing this challenge and committing to reading all of these!
 
Here's my take, full credits and journaling in gallery, thank you so much for hosting. Wishing you a very beautiful day! :bk

 
Jan 11 - Tell Me a Story 551 words
Jan 11 - Tell Me a Story.jpg

Journaling:
This story begins in May of 2015 when we toured Arizona. On this trip we had visited the Grand Canyon and the Navajo Bridge. While at the Navajo Bridge, in the visitor center, we looked at the national park Passport book. The Passport is a book of national parks with spaces for cancellation stamps and stickers. It comes in 3 different sizes: a small, compact version similar to a calendar book; a journal-size “collector’s” edition and an Explorers edition with a zippered cover. The ranger talked us out of buying a passport because she said that most visitors who collect the stamps are “more worried about getting the stamp and don’t appreciate the reason they’re at the park.” Since we didn’t want to become “one of those type of people” we passed. Fast forward to summer 2017. Making the rounds of dealerships and national parks we once again considered purchasing a passport, but as before said “no, we don’t want to be ‘those people’” and also thought that we don’t need something else to carry on the bike. Then during our 2018 summer trip to Nevada-New Mexico-Oklahoma-Oregon and Utah, we visited the National Butte monument in Wyoming. I told my husband that I’m buying a Passport because if we’re going to visit more national parks then I want something to remember the visits.

Of the three options we went with the Collector’s edition because it has brief summaries of each park, whether it’s a monument, historic trail, scenic trail, national seashore, historic site, memorial, military park and you get the idea. It’s organized into sections by region and each section has a checklist of the parks for that region. Next to the description is a space to place the cancellation stamp and a designated sticker. Additionally, there’s blank pages for ‘extra’ cancellation stamps. It’s organization makes it easy to track the parks you’ve visited and for planning parks you want to visit. To make it more fun, each year the NPS publishes a stamp set (sticker page). The stamp set has 10 stickers, nine of them represent a park from each region and a yearly National Stamp.

In the two years we’ve had our Passport I have come to love and cherish it and be weirdly proud of how many parks we’ve visited and stamps we’ve “cancelled.” To me it’s a personal version of the state decals you see on motorhomes to represent the states that they’ve visited, or the collection of location stickers on cars; something that denotes “been there, done that.” To date we have visited 50+ nationals parks and have over 100 cancellation stamps.

Each time I page through it and see the NPS designated sticker and/or cancellation for a park we’ve visited, I am taken back to that visit. Some parks leave me in awe – think Glacier National Park, some leave me reverent – Shiloh National Battlefield comes to mind, and others fill me with an intense sense of patriotism – Statue of Liberty, obvi! And each time I am reminded of how grateful I am that I get to live in this great, big, beautiful country. Visiting all of the parks is not an all-encompassing goal like the Harley dealerships are, but it is on our bucket list for when we retire and live full-time in an RV.
 
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So Polly Karen asked a question in the comments on one of my other MOC pages and i wrote like 184 words as a 'brief' reply so i just used that as a starting point and expanded and i got to 622 words (before i substituted ampersands for the 'and's to fit it on the page and not have tiny print
 
Finally Here To Post For This Challenge...This Was One Of The Hardest Challenges I Have Ever Done...Just Trying To Figure Out What To Write About Was Particularly Hard For Me!...The Only Thing I Could Come Up With Is The 3 Months Of Hell...As...I Call Them That We Have Been Living Through...Life Has Been Difficult As Of Late For Us...Me & Ray...Being Evicted In October Threw Us For A Bunch Of Curve Balls! We Couldn't Have Seen Coming!...We Had A Hard Time...We Are Still Reeling From Everything We Went Through & Are Now Going Through...Now That We Finally Have Moved!...On All Of The Worst Days Of The Year To Move!...December 26th!!!!!!!!!!!...It Was Really Hard!...It Was Really Cold! & It Started Snowing Later In The Evening!...OMG!...Thank! Goodness For The Help! From A Lot Of Rays Friends!...Without Whom! We Would Have Never Gotten Moved At All!...My Brother Was A Great Help! Too!...Either Way...Most Of The Journaling Is Easy To Read!...Some Obscured!..I Got The All O.K. From @bestcee That This Layout Is Good To Go! & Adheres To The Rules!...She Said I Could Blur The Journaling...But Now That I Have The All Go!...I'm Fine With It Showing!...Mostly!...But Glad This Challenge Is Now In The Books For Me...I Agonized Over It For 3 Days To Create This Layout!...Gladly! Completed...& Happy To Be Moving On To Another Challenge!...

*As Per The Rules Of This Challenge : I Typed 563 Words

A Special Thanks! To @bestcee ...& Anyone Who Stops & Reads Or Comments!...Appreciate!...

*For My Evicted:2020 Layout-I Used:

*Leif-Lynn Grieveson
*Togetherness-Pink Reptile Designs

 
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