A Letter to the Deer Who Ate My Potato Vines

Two days ago, I had the most beautiful flowers blooming in my yard. This was no simple feat. I did not inherit my mother's green thumb. It is a struggle for me to keep living things alive (at least of the plant variety).

Summer is hanging on in our part of the world and last night, I went out to give my pots an extra dose of water. Imagine my surprise to find 1/2 of them missing. They were nowhere to be found!

I am kind to the deer in the winter when they come down from the hills and rip the bark off my trees. I know that they are hungry. I even forgive them in the spring when they decimate my yard of all the tender blooms trying to poke their heads out of the earth after a long, hard winter. But this is NOT ACCEPTABLE deer. The potato vines were NOT meant to be eaten. They are there for adornment. Next time, I will not ignore the frenzied barks of our dog as he tries to warn us of your intentions. I have your number deer!

October is Family History Month

Did you know that October is officially designated as "Family History Month" in the United States? S.RES.175 passed back in July of 2003. This was a big deal to genealogists. It was also meaningful to the more than 80 million American's that are said to be actively searching for information about their ancestors. Even if you're not so interested in the distant past, someday, you'll be an ancestor to some future generation. Wouldn't it be nice to have your story told the way YOU WANT to be remembered?

If you are at all familiar with the mission of Stories by Me, you know our passion for preserving life's many stories. It didn't take us long to figure out that not all stories are preserved in book format. There are as many ways to preserve a memory as there are stories to tell.

Just like most of you, we're running hard to keep up. There is never enough time to get it all done. One thing that we've learned along life's journey, though, is that zero times any number will ALWAYS be zero. So, if I make zero effort to preserve my life stories for the next 12 months, I will have nothing to account for those 12 months. But, if I'm able to squeeze one meaningful task out a month, at the end of the year, I will have 12 beautifully preserved memories that will be enjoyed for generations to come.

The list of meaningful projects are ENDLESS!

We've decided to lump these projects into four different categories:

COLLECT / PROTECT
CREATE
DOCUMENT/ RESEARCH
CONNECT with FAMILY

For the next four weeks, Suni and I are committing to focus a personal effort in each category. At the beginning of the week, I'll share a list of possible projects and then during the week we will both report on our success (or failure) at our efforts. We will keep it real! Suni just had a baby and since my baby is nearly 14, I recently returned to the work force, so some days it's all we can do to keep our heads above water!

We would LOVE for you to take the Stories by Me challenge. Maybe all you can do is ONE Family History project during the month. Guess what? You've got ONE thing DONE! We'll even sweeten the deal by offering a giveaway each week to everyone who shares a story or comments!

We'd love to hear what you're doing. Send us your story at mythoughts@storiesbyme.com or add a comment with a link to your blog.

AnimatedAtlas.com

Want a quick refresher on the story of the United States?

Today, a friend shared an amazing website: www.animatedatlas.com. I'm pretty familiar with the basic history of our nation, but in ten short minutes I was reintroduced to all sorts of interesting facts as to the growth of the United States starting with its original thirteen states in 1789.

Click on this link. http://www.animatedatlas.com/movie.html

Be sure to follow the instructions and turn your sound ON. The narration is a significant part of the presentation and you won't want to miss it!


After you finish the basic presentation, you should check out some of the other cool website features. You can click on any state for more details.

Click on any decade number in the timeline for a detailed snap shot of that time period. And when I say detailed I mean DETAILED! It's incredible how much information is crammed into such a simple format.

My hat goes off to Peter Mays, creator of this sweet website. He also offers an expanded version for $20 (US Dollars, of course). For now, I am all over this free version. I am going to have my kids become familiar with the resource, as well.

I have always loved the story of our nation. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this informative reader's digest version. I imagine that you will as well!

Story with a Happy Ending

This morning started like most Saturday mornings. Things might have been a bit more quiet than usual as all the kids were out and about on various teenage activities. My to-do list was long, but I was slowly working through it.

Out of the blue I received a phone call. The caller explained that he was from some medical service...blah-blah-blah. I was already preparing a response of not being interested in whatever he was selling when some of his words broke through my dense preoccupation to inform me that they had pulled my sixteen-year-old out of the water from a near drowning and they were on the way to the hospital.

It took several moments to process what he was telling me. This son had gone with our neighbors to participate in the Kokopelli Triathlon. My neighbor had expressed concern over the swimming portion of the race, but she assured me that my son was in great shape and he'd be fine. I hadn't a moments premonition that there was something wrong. In fact, I had just sent him a text wishing him well in the race. My mind was now trying to process the facts that he was 5 hours away and utterly alone. (Our neighbors had no idea that my son was in trouble as they were all participating in the race.)

Here's today's miracle...another dear friend/neighbor happens to split her time between two homes; one here, one in southern Utah. Yesterday she was across the street. I saw her with my own eyes. We made plans to get together for lunch in the next day or two. However, late last night, she decided to return to St. George. This morning, my panicked phone call found her ready to drop everything to go to my son's aid. She met him at the ER and stayed with him until the doctors checked him out.

Angels are all around us. Today's angel bears the name of Heidi!

My sixteen-year-old is fine. They think that someone swam over him in the frenzy of the race. He remembers that he was swimming next to his buddy one minute and the next minute he's all alone and the race is off in the distance. There's a bump on the back of his head that wasn't there when he started the race (maybe a misguided foot or elbow?) The happy news is that he's fine. Actually, he's better than fine. He didn't finish the race, but he has quite the story to tell.

Welcome Baby - Save 30%

We're bustin' our buttons here at Stories by Me.


In honor of our newest Stories by Me team member, we are offering a 30% discount on any web store purchases. That's right. Anything that you order online is good for the discount. Just be sure to make your purchase within the next two weeks... and use the Coupon Code: SBM Baby

We couldn't be prouder!!!

New Vintage Tins

My thirteen-year-old would let you to know that the title 'New Vintage Tins' is an oxymoron. I love that he's actually awake and listening in his English class. Yes, New and Vintage do seem to contradict each other, but these tins are new...even though we designed them to look like they've been around a few years.
This summer's trip to New York inspired me to create the Ellis Island collection. My Pops (Grandpa Stanley) was at the forefront of my mind as I searched the photo collections at the Library of Congress. Oh, how I wish I would have come across a miraculous picture of nineteen-year-old Stanley, fresh off the boat and ready to conquer this new world. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything bearing even a faint resemblance of the man that married my grandmother (the earliest photograph that we have of him), but I did stumble across some amazing images. My favorite is the photograph of the mother with the three small children. Look closely at her eyes. Life is a little uncertain, but there is hope in her eyes; hope and courage to face whatever lies ahead.

Our Simple Thought collection is just that; simple thoughts that are meant to uplift and inspire. I love the sign that says: Breathe...Again. Seems so simple, but I've had a day or two when a reminder would have been nice!

Family Charts

What do you think? We're pretty excited about how our new Mini Family Charts turned out. What makes these kits nice is that they are SO EASY to finish...it also helps that they are SO EASY on the wallet!
Each kit comes with a 5.5x10" hand-finished magnet board, six wood buttons, magnet tape, sandpaper and instructions.

All you have to do is finish the buttons. Our Photo Wizard will help you get your pictures the perfect size for the project. If you're doing the chore chart, download the SbM Family Chart Buttons here.
Just print this page to a favorite scrapbook paper. We came up with 33 common household chores, but if you need something that's not listed you can use your text editor to create your own printout (just make sure it'll fit inside a 1.5" circle), or hand write the chore on a scrap of decorative paper. You might also consider taking pictures of the needed task. Garbage need emptying? Take a picture of the empty garbage can. Your kids should love seeing the example and guess what? You've just preserved a little bit of history with your photo taking!