Bookmaking

Sunday, April 9, 2016

Hello, hello, hello!
My current desktop photo is one from the bunch I posted last week. It may look slightly different than you remember because I added a cross on top of my church. I could have taken out the power line too, if I cared enough to do that, and if I ever decide to print it, I probably will.

I have been talking with my mother on a nearly daily basis for more than 15 years now. I have missed a day here and there but for the most part it has been every day.
When Momma lived in Pennsylvania, I would call at 9:00 at night. The day was done and she would tell me about her day. For reasons that I can no longer recall, since she has moved to Arizona to live with my oldest sister Patti, my time has moved to 11:00 a.m.
A couple of weeks ago Momma had a dental procedure that really knocked her for a loop. She was slow to recover and for many days in a row wasn’t up to talking to me.
Sigh!
Although I was calling at my appointed time, I was waking her up. Those were the days when I told her I loved her and let her get back to sleep. But should I be waking her? She needs her rest. 
I missed conversations with my mother. Maybe she would be more awake if I called later in the day. I talked to Patti and asked what time she thought might be a better time for me to call.
“She’s usually awake and has her meds out of the way by 2:30,” she told me.
So I decided that’s what I would do. I reset the alarm on my phone and I would wait until 2:30 Arizona time to call her.
Imagine my surprise when the second day of my new call schedule, and shortly after my old calling time, my phone rings. I look at the ID and it was Patti.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Hi sweetheart.” It was Momma!
“Hi Momma!”
“Were you trying to wait until later in the day to call me?” she asked.
“Yes I was. I thought you might be more awake if I called later.”
“Well, it’s not necessary,” she maintained.
“But I hate waking you!” I exclaimed.
“It’s alright. If I’m not ready to get up, I’ll go back to sleep. I don’t have any problems with that at all.”
“Okay, if that’s the way you want it,” I conceded.
“That’s the way I want it,” she confirmed.
So back on my 11 a.m. call schedule, there were still lots of days when I simply made an “I love you” call, because she wasn’t up to talking, and now — two weeks later — she is almost back to her old self.
Needless to say, I was plenty worried about her. I know the day will come when I will be sad and on that day heaven will get a new angel but in the meantime, I take no day for granted.
While all of this was going on I got some good news…
A free Shutterfly book!
Bad news…
I only had a week to redeem the offer. What am I going to do with another book? I wondered. Then it came to me.
“If you ever get another free book offer, you should put these pictures in it,” Patti wrote me. “They are all wonderful.” This comment came after I had posted a bunch of photos and it was several months ago. I started scanning through all of my emails but couldn’t find the one that this comment was attached to. Maybe Patti will remember, I thought and fired off an email to her.
“How about a book of us kids, maybe as a Mother’s Day present?” she replied.
What a great idea! Then I thought to ask the family for photos for my book, “But hurry,” I wrote, “the offer expires on the 22nd!”
Well, only three people sent me any photos, nieces Bambi and Taysha and my sister Patti; she had some great old ones!

Now, I’m not a procrastinator, I just work better on a deadline. LOL. That isn’t entirely true, but during that week I had other things to do. I dedicated two days to writing the story Dusty Old Things, and once that was done I had housework and shopping to catch up on, people to see and we had an appointment in Columbia to have work done on the RV. That meant packing and stowing and making the RV ready for the trip. All of these things take time.
“I have to get my book done by midnight tonight or I lose the offer,” I told Mike.
“You can work on it once we are at Camping World.”
The afternoon of the 22nd, just eight or nine hours before the offer expired, I sat in front of my computer and got to work. The first thing I did was build a file of photos that I wanted to use, then I uploaded them to Shutterfly and got busy placing them. I was putting things together when I realized that I needed to give each kid a two page spread. Eleven kids, two pages each, that’s twenty-two pages. I would have to pay for the extra two pages. Not a big deal. It’s just a couple of dollars.
I don’t live in a bubble. I can’t just do what I want to do for eight or nine hours. I have to take care of the dogs and prepare meals, and we won’t talk about coffee and pee breaks either.
But I was getting it done.
10:49 p.m., just 70 minutes short of the midnight deadline, my cute little redheaded sister Diane sent me a bunch of photos on Facebook.
“These are great!” I told her and for the next hour I worked to get some of them included in the book. Finally at 11:50 I had it done! I wished I’d had a little more time, but it would have to do. I tried to save it and it wouldn’t save. I tried to submit my order and it wouldn’t submit. I didn’t know what was wrong but I held out a glimmer of hope that my book was saved and that my order was submitted even though it didn’t appear to be so on my end.
Yeah, I’m an optimist.
I’m also a realist. If it wasn’t submitted and I lost my free offer, maybe I would just go ahead and buy the book anyway. If it wasn’t saved, I’d lose it and have to make it all over again.
Well, I have a little experience losing projects that won’t save. I’ve had that problem with the program I use to create these letter blogs with. I’ve learned to copy and paste my words onto a new page before closing it then I just have to go back and add the photos. I know, it sounds like a pain but trust me, it’s a lot easier to just have to add the pictures than to rewrite everything I had written up to that point and lost. I know my program so well now that I know when it is going to error out on me and I know how to save my work.
My copy and paste function doesn’t seem to work well on this computer when I’m copying from the internet and trying to save it to my computer. It always says it exceeds the size limit, which is funny because I get the same message if I try to copy and paste just one word.

Luckily I have a handy little tool called a Snipping Tool. I love my Snipping Tool! It works just like a copy and paste button only I have the option to save whatever I snipped as well as paste it directly into something. I use it all the time and I used it now to snip out the Microsoft Works message and I used it that night to snip out the pages of the Mother’s Day book I was working on for Momma. At least I would have a visual reminder of where I placed what photos and it wouldn’t take me near as long to recreate it.
All pages saved to my computer, I shut everything down and with a great sigh, I went off to bed.

“Get your book done?” Mike asked as I crawled into bed at 12:15.
“Yep,” I said not elaborating. Soon enough I could tell him I stayed up all night for nothing.
The next morning, when I got up on the internet, there was a message from Shutterfly. The deadline to use my free book offer was extended for one more day!
Yay!
I got on the Shutterfly web site and my book had not been saved. I’d have to start all over again.
I set to work.
Sometimes re-working things can be a blessing. It was while re-working that I decided to add our names to our pages.

It’s not perfect, but under the pinch of time, I did the best I could. I wished I’d had space for more photos but the book isn’t very big, just 8”X 8”, so the more photos you put in, the smaller they get.
And hindsight is twenty-twenty.
I got the book in the mail less than a week later. I love Shutterfly!
Mother’s Day isn’t until May 8th.
I don’t take any days for granted, I told you that and truthfully, Momma could be called home any time — as any of us could! But with my recent scare of losing her, I ran out and bought a Mother’s Day card and put it and the book in the mail to her right away.
Thursday I made my regularly scheduled call to Momma. “Hi Momma!” I exclaimed. I am always happy to talk to her.
“Peggy! You did it again.”
“What! What did I do?”
“You made me cry,” she stated.
I drew my breath in sharply, acting all shocked. “Oh no! How did I do that?”
“I think you know,” she said. She wasn’t buying any of my shocked routine for a minute but I played dumb anyway.
“No I don’t. How did I make you cry?”
“Your book,” she sighed. “It is so good. It’s great!” Then she got quiet for a moment and added a profound and heartfelt, “Thank you.”
I am pleased that she liked her book so well, but I couldn’t take all the credit. “You owe Patti a great big thank you too, you know?”
“Why?” she asked.
“It was Patti’s idea. And other people sent me photos too, so I didn’t do it alone. It’s kinda from all of us.”
“Well, thank you,” she said again.
“You’re welcome.”
Even the next day, on the phone, Momma told me how much the book meant to her. I wonder how many times she’s looked through it. I know, in the few days that I had the book, I must have looked through it at least ten times. And with my handy-dandy snipping tool, I have the pages on my computer and I looked at them again today — twice! Not only that, but I sent my sisters Phyllis and Diane a picture so they got to see their page.
“I love all the pictures of me that you used,” Phyllis (who hates all her pictures) told me.
Yay!!
This morning I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me on my computer. That sweet, wonderful, thoughtful sister of mine, Diane, sent me a video of Momma and her Mother’s Day book.
Diane is holding the camera as she walks into Momma’s homey, wonderfully comfortable sitting room full of treasures.

“Hi Mom,” she says.
Momma is sitting at her desk, one hand holding her book, the other supporting her head as she gazes at the 2010 family reunion photo that graces the front cover. “Hi Diane,” she answers.
“Whataya got there?”
“I have… a terrific book,” she paused, then, “Oh. My. Goodness.” she paused again. “Oooh my goodness.”
Mom was quiet. Finally Diane asks, “That good, huh?”
“It’s…it’s marvelous!” she says and turns and hands Diane the book. “Oh my goodness,” she says as she turns back to her desk.
Diane asked for a smile just as Patti walks in. “Peggy did good, huh?” she asks and reaches to lovingly caresses Momma’s back.

“Oh my goodness,” was all Momma could seem to say.
Patti could hear the emotion in Momma’s voice. She laughed and gave her a gentle hug and walked out of the frame.
“Ma?” Diane says questioning.
Momma turns to look at her and she has the most beautiful smile on her beautiful face.
“We love you,” Diane said.
Momma was overcome with emotion and needed a moment before she could speak. “Awww…I love you guys too,” and she sniffed back a tear as the happiness trickled down her cheek.

One minute and eight seconds that I will cherish forever.
Thank you Diane.
And Patti too. Thank you Patti for giving our mother such a wonderful home to spend her final days in. I know she's been happier with you than she has been in a long time.
End of story.
At least I think it’s the end of the story. We all know about that hindsight thing and tomorrow I’ll think of something I should have included.
This story was going to be called Whata Week because of all the things that have happened this week. But seeings how I only got one story written, I think I’ll change the title.
“What about your other stories?” you ask.
They will have to wait for another day, as will the thirty-some photos I wanted to show you. But I want to tell you one more thing before I let you go.
“What’s that?” you ask.
Did you know that the postal rates drop tonight?
“No way!” you say.
Yes way! Postage goes from 49 cents to 47 cents. I know, rates never go down, but their bond or something has expired and rates have to go back to 47 cents for first class postage. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it on the news tonight.
Let’s call this one done!
Lots and lots of love,
Peg and Mike