Catching up on 2010

I am trying very hard to complete my 2010 family album, and had a good time recaping what layouts I have and what else I still want to complete 2010. I have layouts covering: my beloved grandma (who went to the Lord last year at 103), the boys' birthdays, our birthday prayers for them, singing and worshipping at home, boys learning from daddy to tie their ties, Jared's song for Miffy, Date Night, laughing out loud, Chinese New Year, New Year's Day, National Day Parade, Concerts, Favorite restaurant, BFFs, Moving On to new job, games we played, Shanghai trip, Ryan's 1st day at Secondary (High) school, Jared receiving his Science Olympiad award ... 2010 was a full year! I'm glad to find that I have layouts of moments, thoughts/ reflections, together with the events type layouts.

I also love the layouts covering everyday life a lot, and have a lot of photos! I was so inspired by Katie The Scrapbook Lady's Roundup Album and bought Cathy Zielske’s The Monthly album set  to speed things up!

One 'everyday' night last month the following conversation happened, and I came home and captured it on blogger:

The topic of my friend's daughter who's Jared's age setting her mind on becoming a medical doctor came up today during our car conversation:

Me: Well, Jared, do you know what you might want to become?

J: A scientist, an inventor, or an artist.

Me: Those are very diverse careers!

J: Yes, I love science, and I love to create new things and draw.

Me: The idea of you as a designer might combine your inventor and artist aspirations, more interesting than being a scientist?

J: But a scientist, more specifically, a physicist, will allow me to prove my theory about Uranus!

Ryan: That theory of yours has been disproved by R.C. (his friend) already!

Me: What theory is that?

J: The theory that Uranus was hit by a planetiod in the early years of its SOLID planet life, and was turned on its side, subliminated and sent to the outer planets by it.

Me: (pause) ok (as if I understood any of that) But what would that do to help mankind?

J: It would help the history of science, which is the history of mankind!

Me: It seems to be that physics is the least practical, or most abstract of the sciences, I can at least relate the study of chemistry and biology to real life problem solving like in medicine, food science, and so on!

J: The study of biology is the study of chemistry is the study of physics is the study of the Universe!

Me: As God made it?

J: Without physics nothing exists! Without physics our bodies won't work!

Ryan: Hhmm, I did write a fun story about a world without friction some time ago...

Me: Well, from my understanding of your personality, you're someone who needs to create and have results constantly to satisfy your insatiable curiosity. A designing career will give you greater satisfaction as you will get to 'complete' projects one after another. If you are a scientist, you could be trying to prove a theory for a lifetime!

J: But my theories are provable (!) and I also want to be a designer at the same time.

Me: Sure, my dear! Well, Ryan, any ideas what you might want to be?

R: W......ell, I'm not sure yet, but probably in science, right now I'm more into Chemistry than Physics. The current topic we're studying in Integrated Humanities is very interesting too.

Me: Yes, keep your mind open, you might discover your interests and passion forming in an unexpected area as you grow up, it will be fun discovering what that might be!

R: (smiles pensively)

Captured on 7 Feb 2011 (with some help from Jared on the technical bits): Another priceless conversation with my very different and very interesting and very precocious and very growing up boys. I won't trade this for the world! Got to capture this in my 2011 album!


Here are more layouts I just completed for 2010:
Same template sets: memories of the stuff we had to part with before our renovations..

Same template: The way it was before renovations!

And the next 6 layouts were from our short trip to Bintan beach resort in September last year...(template 31)

Loved the luxury of the jacuzi in our room! (new template 242)

This was adapted from (template 54)

We bought a disposable underwater camera and got these fun shots. (template 129)

I loved the sue cummings brushes I used on this layout (template 151)

Got this template for you to download at the bottom of this post (243)

And this is a preview of our trip to Vietnam in Dec 2010. Fantastic trip, full of history, experiences of a by-gone era,meeting the resilient and friendly people, lots to scrap about! (T.241)

You would have noticed that we travel quite a lot. Over the years, it was the one thing we consciously plan and save for, because each year and each trip just make us want to do it more. Early on when the boys were young we started travelling with them, to nearer and less expensive places. At first they may not remember much, but the time spent as a family were wonderful. Especially because we both work, and especially now that they are in school and with friends most of the time, we find that trips are the best extended family time we get to spend together. Nowadays we plan the trips with the goal of introducing them (and us) to the world's rich history and geography and culture in mind. I know we are blessed we can even do this, and are very thankful.

I found on Katie's blog (Yes, I am terribly inspired by her!) a link to this post :Travelling with your kids- why you should do it :http://mylittlenomads.com/travel-with-kids/ and I have put my own reflections in my Hokkaido album:

"We are at the end of our Sapporo stay, after eight days of unforgetable snow and winter wonderland and I’m laying awake in our tiny room in Novotel Hotel. Somehow can’t sleep for the past hour, but have been full of thankfulness instead of worry (like at home) and just decided to journal these thoughts!
Travelling with the whole family like this may be extravagrant but it is full of unforgetable shared memomies, and  also a priceless time of getting close and personal at prolonged period of time with our tween and teen.In these 10 days of wandering around together, not covering that much ground, but spending lots of time just hanging, solving problems (mainly that of being too cold!), fighting over decisions (four heads is not better than one!), watching BBC News together (Ryan said it would be nice to get this at home), laughing  our heads off, telling and sharing jokes, being able to demonstrate our love and unfailing support for them (eg, rubbing cold feet, tiredness,..), making snow angels, snow fights, snow men together, modelling behaviour, daddy asserting his authority and his love and kindness(even indulgences) at the same time, trying new experiences together, talking with them about being honest in life and what to expect, encouraging their exploration while pulling back (in view of safety), all priceless lessons, experiences, because they are shared and stay with us all for a long time (as long as we live!)
In addition, modelling mommy as a female, a girl, to them, being physically weaker, but intellectually just as competitive (haha!), how they understand gender differences and hopefully how to treat girls/a lady. How daddy and mommy get along, .. even teaching Ryan how to handle being taller now (how to get into a cab without knocking his head), how to use chopsticks. Encouraging their confidence as we practise them every opportunity (eg Ryan’s great sense of navigation)
Teaching them our idea / love of travelling on a shoe string - what we think is worth paying for and what is not, and what is worth experiencing over and above the touristy. Having no internet for 10 days!(me included) learning not to blame whoever for making a ‘wrong decision’ since it’s the first time we are here! Making the most of everything, even a detour to the clinic for Jared! Also, Gim and me united, trying new experiences and fods, no blaming or grumbling, thanking each other for every great day, every sacrifice, every help, knowing and allowing for each other’s preferences and quirks., all these were so lovely and we hope teaches them something lasting!
Thank you God for all of these and more. For keeping us safe and giving us this chance. This chance to be a family in this life on earth."

Now you know why I take so much pain to scrap our travel photos, they are a treasure trove of memories for our family, and lots to talk about with the boys! :)

Click here to view this photo book.

I was so priviledged that Christie Stearns (find her blog here) and her aunt Carla put together Carla's Egypt and Jordan travel album using my templates, You will agree that the pictures and album was awesome and beautiful!

This template is now available as Template Pack 8 in the Store. Thanks for your interest!