Snippets of a Life

My husband always says that if the house ever starts on fire he's going to grab five things: the kids (2), the tortoise, the dog, and our scrapbooks.

Ever since we were young I've taken the time to print pictures (yes, they still do that), cut out cute designs and interesting sayings, paste it all onto scrapbooking paper, and write all about the goings-on of our life together. These albums sit prominently in our living room and we often pore over them with a glass of wine. It's nice to have a physical thing to hold in your hands rather than flipping through photos on a flash drive that may or may not include a tasteful nude.

That's the last thing you want grandma to see.

What grandma does want to see are scrapbooks! Who doesn't love a scrapbook? They are a dying art, and they're super easy. Anyone can make a scrapbook. And they're inexpensive; you can get most of the things you need at the dollar store. Whenever I sit down to start scrapbooking, I make sure I have all of my necessary tools:

- Printed pictures

- Funky scrapbook paper

- Fun stickers

- Colorful Markers

- Scissors

- Glue

- And my mitts

Now, grab your wine and we'll take a stroll down memory lane.

SCRAPBOOK 1: Doug Is All You Need

Our story begins in 2010, the year I graduated high school. One night I went to pick up a friend from the bar and several strangers jumped into my car. I ended up marrying one of them. Years later, obviously. I don't live in Vegas.

The first picture of us together was taken months after we'd been dating, at a Classified concert for my nineteenth birthday. No, I didn't know who he was before that day, but I was following around a boy and thus had a great time.

I moved in with said boy shortly thereafter, and we added a new member to our family. A very, very strange member. You can read more about Doug the tortoise here.

Of course, he popped the question shortly after that since I was obviously awesome and could be trusted to make great decisions. I'd won plane tickets in a sales contest at work, so we flew down to California and bought a car to drive up the coast and back home to Canada. We went to Six Flags, Universal Studios, and The Chive HQ on Venice Beach. He proposed in the redwood rainforests because I have a ridiculous obsession with trees.

We celebrated with our families by eating grandma's strawberry rhubarb pie and reading the scrapbook I'd made encapsulating the event. It was our first scrapbook, and it started a grand tradition.

Life continued on.

While walking home from work one day I spotted this tiny dog running along the street, no owner in sight. I managed to coax her into my arms and took her home. We'd been looking for a dog to adopt and had applications with several shelters, so this seemed like fate had stepped in. We'd agreed on a pitbull because they're cute and generally have trouble finding homes because of their (unreasonable) bad reputation. This poodle was the furthest thing from a pitbull. I pranked my husband into believing I'd lost my patience waiting for a bully breed and had adopted this teeny dog on a whim, and named her Princess Snugglebum.

Reader, he was not amused.

Princess Snugglebum only lived with us for one night before we found her owner. We met Stella shortly thereafter, and knew it was meant to be. She was rescued from a high kill shelter and now had a new lease on life with us.

SCRAPBOOK 2: Another One Ties the Knot

After that, it was time to get married. We tried to save money by having a little backyard wedding on the farm where I grew up in Alberta, but we didn't save anything at all. Why? Well, I had to have the biggest bouncy castle money could rent, as well as those blow-up zorb things so I could catapult my little cousin into oblivion play soccer with my family. You know, regular bridezilla stuff.

Of course, our giant tortoise Doug had to make his appearance as our ring bearer.

I had to jazz this book up all classy and stuff, because, you know, weddings are fancy. And wedding photographers always take so many incredible photos. How are you supposed to choose just a few of them? Nope, impossible. You have to get them all printed and then just waste ten pages at the end of the scrapbook to hold them all.

But getting married was just the beginning...

SCRAPBOOK 3: Alpaca My Bags

I'd always wanted to travel. I still want to travel. I don't think it's possible for a person to travel too much. Our first big trip outside of the continent was Peru.

I had so many pictures to choose from for this scrapbook! To this day, it is one of my favourites. For weeks I had all of the pictures strewn about the bedroom floor, next to scissors, glue, and various colorful pens. I artfully placed every photo and wrote pretty titles and captions. This was peak scrapbook for me.

One of my favourite pages in this scrapbook is the photo of where we bought the gorgeous painting that's hanging on the wall in our living room, complete with all of the stamps it took to mail it back home to us.

We went on various other adventures. In my main scrapbook, aptly titled "Life," I have most of our concert stubs, airplane tickets, pictures of our friends and families and various parties that have occurred throughout our youth.

Our trip to Tofino was amazing. We slept in the Free Spirit Spheres, stayed on the Innchanter, and showered in the hobo shower in the local laundromat after surfing. That last one, I wouldn't recommend.

When I found out that my local yoga studio's owners were moving to Costa Rica I applied right away and, thankfully, they hired me. I got to wear yoga pants all day! Score, right?! We decided to go visit them.

We stayed at their gorgeous retreat center, Tierra de Sueños. I kept everything for the scrapbook, including the cute coasters at the brewery we went to and several of the bills.

There were sloths, howler monkeys, turtles, and all manner of interesting wildlife. Other than the wildlife, and seeing our friends, our favorite part of the trip was our cross-country drive. We rented an SUV and drove down the coast on one side of the country, through the mountains, straight through to the other side of the country. In a way, we drove across a whole continent! It's a bit of a stretch, but I'll take it.

After that we had to settle down a bit. Not that things were boring, oh no. We got busy. Very busy. ;)

SCRAPBOOKS 4 & 5: It's Baby Time

We had a couple kids.

I kept track of all the first times, all of their favorite things. All of the visitors, the activities, my thoughts on being a parent. It's all documented, right there, for me to some day read through once I'm out of the baby phase and want to reminisce.

Our first was born in the regular world, pre-pandemic. At two months old he was on a plane flying to different provinces. He got to go swimming, play at other people's houses, and lick the shopping cart at the grocery store. You know, all those great things kids look forward to doing.

Our second was born in the pandemic, and on May 15th we celebrated his first birthday also in the pandemic. We had a Zoom party where the family logged on and sang him Happy Birthday. It's hard not having visitors, or taking him home to meet his relatives, but it's worth being safe now to keep everyone healthy for tomorrow. One day I'll be able to add photos to his album of the day he meets his great grandparents, his uncles, aunts, cousins... one day, buddy. I promise.

All Together...

All of these books, all of these memories, snipped free with a pair of scissors and glued down with paste, collecting dust on a shelf... Some day my hands will be weathered, wrinkled, crooked with age, and they will palm these same books, touch the same pages, smile at the same thoughts. One day my kids will show them to their kids.

These books... they're not really about the trips, the concerts, the parties.

They're about the people we spent those moments with, the feelings we shared with one another, the memories we formed. And in life, isn't all we truly have are our memories?

So, I suppose, I'd have to agree with my husband.

In case of fire, grab the books.