The Best Hobby I Ever Had

By:Tammy Cousin

I have been scrapbooking for exactly one year. When my friends first approached me about attending a Creative Memories beginner's crop, I thought to myself, "How much is this going to cost me and do I really want to get into this?" I had no idea that this would be the beginning of a whole new hobby for myself and a whole new way of bringing my family closer together.

My husband and I had been married for 10 years and had two boys, ages 5 and 6. I had over 13 years of photographs to sort through and I was overwhelmed. But I struggled through that first photo organization session and started laughing and crying over all of these old photos of my husband and myself and those of our children as infants. I never knew that a hobby could bring back so many happy memories.

My parents were divorced when I was 5 years old and I have no pictures of my then family. My father was also adopted so I have no pictures of his family. I am an only child so I had no pictures of siblings either. In essence, I had no pictorial history at all. I never knew what my mother felt when she found out she was pregnant. I never knew what day of the week I was born. I never even had old report cards to look back on. And I didn't realize how much that hurt until I found scrapbooking.

Now I can preserve those cherished thoughts and feelings for my sons. I can tell them how much I love their smiles and their hugs before I forget about them being so young. But not only does it preserve these feelings for them, but for me as well. How many times I have said to myself, I wish I could turn back the clock and remember that age. Now I can through scrapbooking.

My husband says that scrapbooking is the best hobby I ever found and he is absolutely right. My husband and I like to scrapbook together and relive the precious moments that we thought were important enough to capture on film. I have even started my boys scrapbooking with us. It has led us to discuss the importance of family and they love to hear about themselves when they were babies. My youngest son, Christian, said to me the other day, "Mom, you must have really been excited when God put me in your tummy since you took all these pictures." And between the tears and the hugs, I told him that he was one of the most important miracles in my life. I would not have found the opportunity to say that to him without scrapbooking.

It is really hard to find good quality family time in this day and age. Scrapbooking is our way of expressing our love for each other and our love for our family with each other. I may not have a lot of memories from my childhood, but I am sure to leave a lot for my children. I am confident that if I were called to Heaven tomorrow, my sons would know without a shadow of a doubt how much their mommy loved them. This is what scrapbooking has done for me; given me that peace of mind to know that I have done something for them and for our family that will last a lifetime.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Little, Brown, Oval Things - Or: How I spent my Superbowl Weekend!, by By Lyn Meeker, Tucson AZ.