The Romantic.com

I’m an intermediate level scrapbooker, and here is one of the few romantic things I was able to do as a surprise for my husband, Mark. He and I had
planned to attend the Family Life Conference last spring. The thing is, we’ve had a lot of tough times, and especially the last time we attended a Family Life Conference about ten years before. (I will spare you the details, but it was pretty awful.)

I was kind of hoping we could accentuate the positive for a change to kick off the weekend on a good note.  I had found a couple of rolls of pictures from a fabulous long weekend we had in San Antonio a few years before and I got this wild hair to create a scrapbook of “One Great Weekend”.

It was a great way for me to set my mind on happy thoughts and leave behind some of the crud for a few hours.  I just used an 8×10 pocket album which was cheap and pretty easy to fill up with just 2 rolls of film.  I got on my word processor and described in cool text some of the pictures or groups of pictures and printed this for the “journaling” on each page; and the journaling was all really positive messages about what a fun time it was.

I wrapped the album in pretty (reused) tissue wrap and glued pretty foil-wrapped candies to the front with hot glue (since I didn’t have any ribbon in the house).  I made a gift tag that said “A Treat for You” and glued it to the front also.  In addition to the scrapbook, which he totally wasn’t expecting, I also made up a basket with some strawberries and dipping chocolate (I knew there would be a microwave in the room) and some of his favorite “table water” crackers and some sparkling cider (we’re non-drinkers) in place of champagne and a few low-carb bars for balance.

While we were packing the car to go on the trip, I showed him which bags were off limits and I told him there was a surprise for him, so it wouldn’t  accidentally get spoiled. He was glad for the warnings.  When we got there, while he got ready for dinner, I laid everything out on the bed.  I was so excited about giving him the present that I wasn’t worried at all about any negative that might come up during the conference.

When he saw his presents, He was so delighted and surprised.  He especially liked the fact that I had washed the berries ahead of time.  We really enjoyed the little dessert and now the scrapbook album brings joy in two kinds of ways — we remember San Antonio, and we also remember the great beginning to what became a very successful Family Life Conference.

This album took me only 8 hours to complete.  I also wanted to mention that scrapbooking is an excellent way to reset your thinker on good things about your relationship.  Especially if you’ve had some tough times, this can be used as a tool for healing your mind.