Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

I am a procrastinator

Somehow that's not a surprise. But for over a week, I've been dying to dive into my scrap room and clean the obscene about of crap aka clutter. I need to seriously purge all the stuff I've got that I simply have no room for and really, will I ever use it at this point? But I have to simply start doing it. There's so much that I just get overwhelmed looking at it all. Plus the lack of storage space doesn't help. I did manage to go through my magazines, pull the pages that I want to keep and then tossed those. Next, is the patterned paper which I think I have enough to wallpaper most of the San Fernando Valley. Anyway, I was hoping to get through some of this over the weekend. and oh what I surprise, I didn't. Tomorrow is another day Scarlett and I'll try to make another attempt while Carly is at school. The clutter is getting to me.

On a sad note, my mom heard from one of our Australian cousins Tusia to wish us a Happy New Year (Jewish New Year for those who didn't know). She mentioned that "of course we know that Ettie passed in June." Ettie was my Great Aunt who obviously just passed. She was just short of her 99th birthday. God bless her! I met her a few times as a kid when she and Uncle Stanley came to LA for a visit and I always went to see her every time I went to Sydney. She lived in a nice 3 bedroom flat in Darling Point that had a 200 degree view of Sydney Harbour, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It was unbelievable and indescribable and she lived there for 40+ years. The last time I saw her was 5 years ago when Gregg and I were there for our honeymoon. We brought photos from the wedding so she could see everyone in the family who was there. I also visted her each of the 5 years before that when I would go to Sydney so I guess I'm the one who's seen her most recently. She was in frail health in 2001 and sad because she had outlived all of her friends but she still played bridge (her passion). She was proud of her winning trophies and bragged about it. Her mind wasn't so great when I last saw her and she often called me "Cookie" (my mom) or I had to make the connection that I was Cookie's daughter but still, I always enjoyed her every time I saw her. I maybe the only one in my family who can put up with the Australian/Polish side but I think they're great. I have to find a photo with Aunt Ettie to post here so hopefully I'll do that in the next few days. I hope she's at peace and out of pain. I hope she knows that she had family who cared about her an ocean away. And to live the nice, long, full life that she did, for almost 99 years, may we all be so lucky.

posted by Juls @ 10:22 PM