Happy Mail and my MIL.

...like this card I got from Jamie this past weekend. Isn't it beautiful? Thanks so much for your thoughtfulness and creativity, Jamie! You are such a sweetheart! She is also a saint for being so patient... She, along with a few others have been asking about the WIP flickr account and the WIP logo. Please bear with me...I have two newsletters that are due and a huge NSD crop this weekend, but I swear it will all be spelled out here on the blog early next week. So any and all of you working on kits this upcoming weekend, you will be able to post them on a group gallery finally---yeah!

And here is a layout I did using the April WIP kit. Man, I love Scenic Route.
I also truly love the layout. It is a photo of my MIL and my husband, Chris. Neither one of them pose well for the camera. They appear awkward and unnatural, so catching them in a candid is better than posed shots. They're also blinkers, which has brought about many bloopers in my files. But this shot--it captures their spirits, they're relaxed, and I love it.

I will be the first to say that my relationship with my MIL has not always been good. For many years, I felt like she thought I wasn't good enough for her son. After the birth of our third child, we all sat down and had a long talk. It wasn't easy for any of us at the time.

Our relationship has changed so dramatically in the past 2 years. She has been there for me and for my family. She showed up when my mom was in the hospital and I was at my lowest. I accepted help. I let her in. She and I were both cautious, but present. Slowly, we have worked on appreciating the other for who we are, and it is truly wonderful to see that things have reached this stage now.

I don't really share a lot of my personal life on this blog--it is generally work/creative/inspiration related. But I wanted to share this with so many of you who also have relationships that you want to repair. When you think it will never happen--it can. If you both want it--it really can.

The journaling on the layout reads: "I hope we do as good a job raising our two sons as she did raising him." And as a single parent, she really did an amazing job raising him. As Mother's Day approaches, I enjoy reflecting on these things. Love you, Marcia!

Enjoy your day people!