Believe I mentioned that I've been immersed and consumed with the "Putting Photos in Albums" project? I seem to have a pattern of going eight years! Last time I was caught up it 2000 and at that time it had been since Grant was a baby about 1992. Scheech! It's very time-consuming. And I got into Creative Memories in the late 90's and trying to embellish every page just makes the entire process way too time-consuming--which is probably why I had procrastinated and not kept up this project. So this time I'm not bothering with all that fussiness and embellishing the pages--just slapping them in there. Still, the task is daunting and is taking a lot of time. Seeing this old photographs that tell the story of our lives the past eight years as been at the least nostalgic and turns me inward. So much has happened in these years! We moved to Finley Park, we loved and lost Max, Grant and Olivia grew from a little boy and a moody middle schooler into a moody teenager and a mature and level-headed young woman respectively. Then we moved from Finley to Mo.Falls and completely changed our lives again. Ah, such is life!
So as I'm searching for all the pics and perusing them on the 20 or so CD's I have them saved on, I am constantly reminded of our beloved Bella. She's in so very many of the pictures. She was just always there mostly just an observer and constant protector of her family. She loved us so very much. This project provides me with, I guess, the last phase of my grieving process. Remembering her, cherishing her and letting it go. I still yet, even after, what--ten months, sometimes just in the corner of my vision and just for a very brief second or two think I see her. Hmmm....and just maybe it is the spirit of Bella still here with us!
This photo above depicts Bella as she would be most anytime she was not in the house with us. It's the view of our property from the front of the house looking out across the pasture. She would lay like this so often, just the mistress of all she surveyed, guarding, protecting all that was Shumate! Doesn't she just look regal? Both these photos were taken in the fall of '05.
