And, if you haven’t seen Premier yet, check it out this weekend – for FREE. 

From Sept 30 -Oct 3rd, log into the HM Studio and click on “Unlock Premier” and check out all the new products and cool, cute art! 

If you’re on Facebook, I hope to see your creations on Club HM’s Facebook page!

Here I am promoting, embracing and preserving family, your legacy, your heritage and… I neglected my own.

On May 19th, 2009, my mom passed away in her sleep.  She was only 60 years old.  Yes, she was still young.   Was it unexpected? Yes and no.  She had been on dialysis for nearly 15 years… that is about the average life span of someone on dialysis.  Did I know this? Probably.   I think it was mostly denial on my part. 

When she was first diagnosed with kidney failure, she had the option of getting on a transplant list.  She did not want to.  She said she did not want to risk of organ rejection and taking the pills every day for the rest of her life.  It was a hard decision to swallow when we first heard her share it – but the decision was hers to make – not ours.  And she began her treatments with great strength and devotion.  She drove to her treatments, she followed her diet and as time went on, she remarked how some people who had started on dialysis and got transplants, ended up back on dialysis because they did not take care or went back to bad habits.  So she was doing good and I was proud of my mom!  

In 1999, she had a bad scare and they had to medi-vac her to Oahu, where the medical facilities were more eqiupped to handle her condition.  Her heart rate was alarmingly low.  I left my new job and career to go back home and stay with her.  Well, she got better and reluctantly I moved back to AZ. Two years later, I found her a good kidney specialist and my parents moved to AZ.

Over the years, she became more and more frail.  ER visits were frequent – for various things.  Bad reactions to new pills doctors gave to her, pneumonia, congestive heart failure but she always bounced back – and alwayswith a smile and her famous sense of humor.  She stopped having the energy to go places with us and for a while there spent a good amount a time sleeping… but she was still strong and had her wits and humor.  I saw who she was and not the frail body that she had become.  I talked to her like I did every day: New funny stories, new places we should check out, new dishes to make, how to make her famous dishes for dinner that night… you know, chit chat.  Once in a while we’d talk about “the good ol’ days” and she’d tell me stories about my gramma or grampa or when she was a kid.  I always thought, I should really get these in a book one day…

I always thought there’d be one more day…

I miss her terribly and although I hope that the tiles I gave her on Mother’s Day told her how I felt, I don’t know for sure.  She was there one day, and gone the next.  I never told her goodbye or that I loved her that night, I was so sure she’d be there in the morning… same smile, same humor, same mom…

As I look at the life story guide, I am coming across questions that that I thought I knew… but didn’t know about her.  Her favorite childhood memory, friend, or place.  I could ask her anything.  She always had the answers I needed.  She was always there. And now she’s not. 

Don’t wait.   Record those memories - and learn from my mistake. 

 

12/14/48 - 05/19/09

 I love you, Mom

Every first Friday of the month, the West Phoenix HM gang hosts a DIGI-Crop at Fire & Friends Z Art Studio and for April we designed 12×12 or 8×8 sheets to decoupage to a tile.  (Doesn’t sound like much but they look fabulous, trust me.)  The sheets came in well before the workshop and I took my client to pick out some tiles that would compliment his sheet desgins.  Then, we used May’s DIGI Crop time to “Modge-Podge” the sheets to the tiles and let them dry.

Well, the Mother’s Day Tiles turned out AWESOME!  Check it out.  This is one I made for my mom “from Haylee.”  The wording in the middle says, “When a child is born, so are grandmothers”  It’s one of the many quotes found in the Studio library.

 And here is the one I made from me…

The tile I made for my mom

I put them on the dining room table in the iron stands pictured and put a bouquet of pink roses in a vase between them the night before knowing that she would be up early on Mother’s Day and would see them.  What I DIDN’T expect was for her to start crying. 

I had gotten my mom cool stuff from fancy kitchen gadgets (she LOVES the Food Network) to jewelry and stationery but this simple item – that doesn’t have buttons or switches or smell nice – brought mom to tears!

See, my mom was one tough cookie.  She spent her youth keeping up with her three brothers and multitude of cousins who loved camping and fishing.  Even in my youth, I watched her as she never hesitated to climb trees to get the best fruit. She scaled steep drop offs and hills to get to the best (and often hard to get to) fishing spots then going out to the farthest rock on the beach.   As you can see from the pictures, we were pretty close and some of the best memories I have of her are when she used to pick me up from work for lunch and we’d just talk story and hang out at the beach behind my work.  We laughed joked, gossiped and when I left for college, she wrote me practically every day.  When her health started to deteriorate, it was hard… but even so, I rarely saw her cry…

We don’t do much the things we used to do together anymore, more than not it’s because she is too weak.  I miss her spunk and energy.  But most of all, I miss her. 

And when I found the graphic embellishment above that said “A Girl’s Best Friend is her MOTHER”  it was the perfect touch.  I couldn’t believe something so simple and from the heart touched her so deeply.  It is, by far, the best gift I ever gave her…

(At least , until I finish her book! ;o) )

My hubby and I celebrated a whopping 2 years of marriage on the 5th.  My wonderful hubby took me out to SKYE Restaurant As a fellow diner said from the next booth over at SKYE restaurant, “That’s nothing!” 

Sure. Maybe for her, but not to us. 

So far, every year has been is a magical one.   Ours is not an extraordinary story, just a special one.  Click on the picture to see the highlights of our wedding.  

I love my husband and I am proud of him for working full time, being a full time daddy AND going to school to pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering.

The first time I met Troy’s parents, I was already pregnant with our daughter.  Yes, not exactly the perfect circumstance to meet your future in-laws but they took me in with open arms… even after we broke the news to them.  They had reason not to like me, they had reason to be upset, they had opportunity to make me not feel welcome at the family reunion that Troy insisted I go with him to.  But they didn’t.  Instead, they enjoyed filling me in on the wonderful stories of the family.  And as I sat and listened as everyone shared their favorite memories and antics, I remember thinking these stories probably never grew old – especially the stories told by Dad.  To me, he was a natural storyteller; everyone listened intently as he spoke.  He had a story about everything and about everyone and it always drew a smile or laugh from people who heard them.

This past trip was to help Mom get some things done around the house.  To tear down the old shed. To knock down the broken and fallen fence.  To take care of things that Dad no longer had the energy to do…

Dad slept most of the day and and got up in the afternoon or evening and did not stay up for long.   This man, full of charisma and inner strength seemed strong to me but I know to the family who had heard his stories of carrying 5 gallon steel milk cans as if they were toys, this was not the man they were used to seeing.

Several times during our visit, Dad jumped into storytelling mode again, the rest of the family laughing and chiming in. Some stories I heard at that family reunion four years ago, some new.  All were as entertaining and captivating as the next.  I glanced over to my 3 year old daughter who was busy gabbering her own tales to no one in particular, oblivious to the events going on around her.  

I thought, “Will she get a chance to hear Gramps tell his stories?”

I hope so.

But if not, she can read them…

Get a 7×5 or 7×10 storybook and receive a FREE greeting card.

What better way is there to say “I love you”? Contact me for more details.

Mother’s Day Deadlines

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• April 24 – 2nd day
• April 27 – overnight

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• April 27 – ground
• April 29 – 2nd day
• May 1 – overnight

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• Recommended by April 13 (We do not guarantee delivery times for Canada.)

I love this poem.  I have used it, quoted it and referred to it many times in writing. 

I haven’t updated this blog in a long time.  Partly, because I was somewhat discouraged as a new consultant. But mostly because I was not really focusing on Heritage Makers. In fact, I almost decided to give up being a consultant.

You see, I wish that I could say I am highly successful as a consultant but I’m not.  In reality, some things just don’t come easily to some people.  Discouragement will come, sometimes more often than not for some than others.

So, in this moment of discouragement and restlessness, I applied for a job opening at my work.  The job would mean learning totally new things, working harder and proving to myself that I can do something different.  For a moment, I balked and regretted applying for it.  I was relieved when I thought I may not have to make the decision when I heard that I may not have gotten the job.  I could go back to my comfort zone and the familarity of my current position.  At that same moment, I realized that my hesitations about the  job opening was exactly what was going on with me and being a Heritage Maker consultant.   I needed to learn this new job, work hard and step outside of my little comfort zone.   So… I signed up to do the Glendale Chocolate Affaire and decided I would get out there and get exposure.  Surely, if I did the show, I would have to invest more of myself as a consultant.  I was willing to make that commitment.  And, as I was hiking up my pants and tightening the laces on my hiking boots, getting ready to head down that path…

I got the job.

So, what do I do?

I’m still excited about HM.  I love this business. 

I love the company I currently work for and I’m excited to learn new “techie” things. 

But, because they require both time and dedication, I’m kind of split down the middle and I am but  one traveler trying to go down two separate paths…

Can it be done? We’ll see…

When I moved to Arizona, I realized that certain things that once was easily accessible were now a challenge to get… like to a beach… REAL Hawaiian Shave Ice… and Hawaiian Greeting Cards.  I couldn’t just run to ABC Store or Long Drugs and grab a Mahalo (Thank You) card or a get a box of Christmas Cards from Liberty House anymore (and I heard that Liberty House is no more?)

Yep, by 2000, I realized that getting my holiday cards was going to be pretty hard to do – and I’m pretty picky as to what they look like and what they say inside.  So in 2002, when I finally found a decent color/photo printer,  I ventured to create my own using various applications (like MS Word & Serif Photo Plus and before that, MS Paint *GASP*).  I won’t post those relics here (and I hope any one you who got them from me back then have long chucked them in the recycling bin!).  Since then, I’ve gotten into stamping and card making using ribbons and such. In 2007, I made the invitations to our wedding.

This year, I get to play with a new medium- Heritage Makers’ Studio!  I’m excited! So far, I’ve got a couple invitations done up.  The front has one large area for a picture, the back has room for some text and three smaller pictures. I’ve got a couple greeting cards in progress, too, which I’ll post as soon as I’m done with them.  Let me know if any of them interest you.  If there’s enough interest, I’ll try and submit them as templates.

October 18, 2008

Take a look at my Heritage Makers projects!

FROM: Mayve ReedProject Name: Mele Kalikimaka IN2 Author: Mayve Reed Project Type: 5×7 Invitation: Landscape If the “View This Project” button doesn’t work, copy-and-paste this link into your browser: http://www.heritagemakers.com?event=projectBrowse&projectId=afe94c26-1020-4606-a443-c85282ff50dc&productId=68&projectSponsor=300115   FROM: Mayve ReedProject Name: Mele Kalikimaka IN Author: Mayve Reed Project Type: 5×7 Invitation: Landscape If the “View This Project” button doesn’t work, copy-and-paste this link into your browser: http://heritagemakers.com?event=projectBrowse&projectId=19e3c40f-3048-322b-c0a9-63802392966a&productId=68&projectSponsor=300115