Paperclipping: The Video Podcast | Design Your Story

I am responding to the question “did you have a close relationship with any of your grandparents”

I loved my Grandma Kroner. She is the only grandparent I really knew. I never met either of my grandfathers and my dad’s mom lived in Canada, so grandma Kroner was my only grandparent. She was an amazing woman. I wish I knew more about her life when she was younger. This is what I do know: she was born as Ida Auguste Niklas, in Germany 22,1903. She moved to Detroit, Michigan when she was 20. She was invited to church and this is where she met my grandfather, Alfred Kroner. They were married on September 9, 1929. She was 26 years old. They had 5 children, one was stillborn. My grandfather passed away in 1944 and she had to raise her four children by herself. She never remarried. She worked as the caretaker of the New Apostolic Church, Detroit. In 1950 she moved her family out to California, I think it was when her son was in the Navy here. I do know that she had a hearing problem and this made learning English very difficult for her. She finally had an operation that fixed some of the hearing problem. But these are just a few facts I know. What I know for sure is that she was the strongest woman I know. I never heard her complain, I never heard her raise her voice, and I never saw her mad. She went to the New Apostolic church faithfully. She taught me how to pray in German, and I am sad to say I only remember the beginning. She took care of my when I was little. Her house was across the street from my elementary school and I was with her every morning and afternoon. She was the best cook. I love her old German recipes like Goulash, Klaza, German pancakes, and apple streusel are a few of my favorites. Her hobby was knitting and crocheting and she made me blankets, dressed, sweaters and slipper. I am so very thankful that she made me 2 blankets, 2 sweaters and booties for my children. They are so special to me! What I remember most is how I just knew she was always there for me. Her love was unconditional.

Thanks for this prompt. I have copied this and can't wait to use it on a layout!

What was your favorite hiding place as a child?

When I was discovered to be missing, you could always find me in my closet. We had a mirror in there and I would pretend to go through the mirror and enter hug-a-bunch land (a cartoon from the 80's), a land of love and hugs, and where no older siblings who like to pick on you existed.

My mother gave me the trait of creativity. She and her father and brothers were all artists. I have waited for years to try my hand at painting, but have found i actually do have some talent. From my father I got a quiet, loyal nature.

What is your personal secret to happiness?

My secret is to praise those I love around me, give lots of hugs and kisses to my children, find time to scrapbook a little each day, and remind myself of all the blessings I have.

Why was your name chosen for you?

My father’s father was from Norway, and he had a cousin in Norway that he would talk about named Karin (car-in). My dad always thought it was a pretty name, so that’s what he wanted to name me. I’ve always really liked my name because I haven’t met many others with it and because of my Norwegian heritage being so close to me since I am third generation.

Which of your mother’s personality traits do you share? Which of your father’s?

My Mom and I both like to keep busy with making things and learning to make things. We’re both scrapbookers and like craft projects. We’re both singers. We like to give gifts to people and read magazines. We love owning our dogs and taking care of them. We love the same TV shows and a lot of the same movies. We both like to collect things and have a hard time letting go of things. We’re curious about our heritage and like to get to know all of our relatives and keep up with them. We like to travel and go to concerts. We both ask a lot of questions.

My Dad and I both like to write and blog about our daily lives and thoughts. We both like things to be orderly and cleaned and planned, yet like to be creative and try new things. We both like to garden and cook. We like to talk music, books, and movies. We’re both very emotional and deep and get upset easily. We’re really good at remembering people, their names and faces and details about their lives.

What places in the world do you want to visit, and why?

I want to go back to Norway because I would love to go there with my husband and to meet distant relatives. I’d love to go anywhere else in Europe, especially France, England and Ireland. I haven’t been anywhere like them before. I would also love to be able to go back to Brazil and see one of my best friends, Renata. She has been here twice and I would love to see more of her world and life. There are lots of places I would like to go in my own country as well, and the reasons behind them are pretty much all to visit people! Baltimore, New York, DC, Dallas, Portland, Seattle, and so many more.

What color was your house, your bedroom, your living room as a child?

As a child, I lived in a big Victorian home. It was gray brick. Most of the rooms were painted a cream color. My bedrom had a few colors through the years. It started off a pale yellow. The last color was a light blue textured stripe wallpaper. I had a bulletin board over my bed, a blue bookshelf build by my dad, a desk, a dresser and a comfy chair. The chair usually had clothes draped over it that needed to be put away. But, on the rare occasions it was empty I could sit there and read. As a child I loved to read. My room was octagon shaped with three big windows in the front and one window next to my bed. There was a view of a large pine tree out one window. You could climb out on the roof and climb down it. The window near my bed looked out ad you could see the window from my parents bedroom. My room was in the front of the house on the second floor. You could see the street from my front windows.

Do you have a best friend? Why do you get along so well?
I used to have a friend, that I considered my best friend for a long time, but we are no longer friends. So, it took me awhile to realize that a sister could be a best friend. We get along great, we know everything about each other. We have the same sense of humor. We both love scrapbooking. My sister is everything could ever hope for in a friend and a sister. She will always be in my life.

What is your greatest joy? Greatest sorrow?
My greatest joy would have to be the pregnancy and birth of my 2 children. Both of these occasions were very profound spiritual experiences. With my newborn daughter, I experienced an inner emotional healing and with the birth of my son, I felt a stronger sense of courage and confidence.

My greatest sorrow would be the death of my paternal grandmother at the age of 9. She was a big support to myself, my parents and the rest of my extended family. It was a sudden death – a heartattack while tending to her garden. Because of how pivotal she was to the family system, this loss really caused an “implosion” in my extended family and all the relationships were very strained for a long time. I lost the closeness to many of my cousins that was so important to me. Rewind to the first question: My daughter is a namesake of my grandmother and when she was born – I felt an almost instant emotional healing of that loss!

Why was your name chosen for you?
My mom liked the name Jamie after she heard the characters name of the Bionic Woman, Jamie Sommers. I like my name because growing up it was not that common and I love my nickname, James.

What are your most precious and deeply embedded values?

Be good to others, by being polite and respectful. No one wants to hear excuses. Just living is not enough, live happily. Laughter throughout the day is essential. If laughter bursts out loudly, don't apologize, enjoy it. You've got to do what makes YOU happy.

How do you feel about winning? Losing?

I would not consider myself a competitive person. I would much rather be encouraging and watch someone else win, rather than being upset that I lost. Winning feels great but I have always been so concerned about others feelings, I don't like to rub anything in. The last competitive sport I played was in Jr. High on the volleyball team. If we lost a game, it was disappointing but I'd be ready for whatever was next in the day. My hubby on the other hand CAN'T STAND losing and is very competitive. So it frustrates him when I am not competitive. :)

“Do you have a favorite author?”

Stephanie Meyers, she reenlivened my love for books with the Twighlight series. I had not had a book cativate me so whole-heartedly in a long time. The emotion she captured was so real that the fantasy was believable because she grounded in so well with human emotions. It was surreal.

What places in the world do you want to visit, and why?

This one for me is so very easy: Italy & Ireland… among the many, these hold a very dear place in my heart.

My great-grandparents immigrated from Italy (Sicily to be exact, and did not know each other yet) and took the long boat ride over to Ellis Island. They met and fell in love with each other in Colorado (where we still live ironically)… in the early 1900's. My other side of great-grandparents immigrated from Ireland. My grandfather and grandmother married (she was Italian, he was Irish) and so I closely identify myself with both Irish and Italian decent.

I have promised myself that I will someday travel to Sicily and Ireland to celebrate their lives and my heritage. I always find it interesting that they fought so hard to get here in the US, and I would give anything to travel back to their home countries. My grandmother passed away 4 years ago, but I continue to pass down traditions, humor, and enjoy celebrating who I am and passing all of it down to my son.

I did a new layout , I thought we need to do one http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb49/Janaina… its about my name , my mother chose my name which a name that comes from indigena culture meaning queen of the sea, but she chose because a singer she liked a lot died in a airplane accident and left a little girl named same my name : Janaina.

My favorite foods mostly Brazilian cousine but I also love mexican food and sushi, I dont like spicy food, cant eat at all and sweet and sour food.

Here's the journaling using the first question about how I got my name. I created a vintage layout of my grandmothers, who coincidentally were friends prior to my parents getting married:

What's in a name? Growing up I never understood why my parents would name me Rosann. I didn't even get a middle name. One day, I just asked my parents Why? Finally I learned that I was named for my grandmothers. My dad's mom was Rosa and my mom's mother was Ana. They Americanized it a bit and came up with Rosann. It is a great tribute to them considering I didn't turn out so bad.

Did you have a good realtionship with your grandparents?

As a child I didn't see my moms parents much as they lived in AZ I don't remember being close to my grandmother (mimi) but remembering being so excited to see my grandfather (Papa) I always remembered him as a big teddy bear. My fathers parents lived closer to us and remember staying the night and my grandpa making ice cream sundaes with reeses pieces on them my grandmother and I didn't get to really know till I got older.

Tell a short story about you and each of your sisters.
My oldest sister and Jenny were sitting in her bedroom she was a teenager I was much younger and she had a painting on the wall and we talked about the color periwinkle forever and decided it was a calming color. We also had a club called Sister Sledge club and would never let Becky the middle daughter join and she would always be so angry at us we laugh about it now.

I'm named after my grandmother. Her real name was Sophie but she always went by “Sue”. We not only shared a name but also a heart. I loved spending time with her. Everything I feel really good at I learned from her. I remember Grami teaching herself to paint at the age of 55 – she needed a creative outlet. My heart doesn't feel whole without
her to call each day but I know she is whole now with no illness happy in Heaven.

What is your most trying experience? Inspired this page & journaling that changed a little on the final layout
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff29/sgray11…

My faith has always taught me the every day is a treasure. Knowing that in your head and
living it are 2 different things. Having dealt with illness most of my life and then having
breast cancer made it a reality. The days became more precious and I understood that there
may not be a tomorrow. I embrace each day on it's own terms filling it with family and
friends along with doing things that bring me joy. It has also made me more impatient and
it's harder to wait for thing I want. Right now I am wanting grandkids. Yes my sons are
old enough to have children but it's still not on the horizon any time soon due to their
relationship status. I'll trust the Lord to know when is the right time and that I'll
be able to enjoy them someday. I'll keep praying for that day.

My best friend is Lori. We've been friends for 36 years – meeting in the 4th grade. Even though we live 12 hours apart by car – the phone and internet keeps us connected and feeling close. There is no one I trust more – knowing I can be honest and share anything with her. We make time for eachother several times a month to talk, laugh, cry, and pray. I am thankful to have her in my life.

Here's the page – journaling a bit different