Hey Mom did you get your wings

Eight years ago today we said goodbye to mom. It feels like yesterday in so many ways and yet it feels like a lifetime in others. I miss her the same today as I did that first day. 

Those first weeks I was sure I couldn't live without her and yet here I am. The grief is continuous. Some days it hits you like a ton of bricks. Some days you just smile as a memory floats across your mind. 

I thought it might be appropriate to share the Eulogy I wrote for her to be read at the Celebration of Life in Tucson. The guy reading it got the pages all mixed up so it was a disaster when he read it. Still, as I reread it tonight, I smile at her life and who she was. 

Eulogy by her daughters, Jennifer Wraspir, Billie and Melanie

Our family would like to thank you all for being here today to celebrate the life of JoEllen, our mom. For those of you that knew JoEllen, she was not only the life of the party but often the reason for the party.  She used to always say to us kids "Don't be so serious, life is too short, just have fun".

We always knew what an amazing, generous and kind woman she was, and in these last several weeks since she passed, the outpouring of love and support has proven this to be true. Hundreds, (and that is not an exaggeration), of emails, texts, calls and messages have come to us kids. She redefined the phrase “social butterfly.” She’d be humbled at the outpouring of love, and yet secretly she’d be thrilled to know we were making such a fuss over her. Our one wish is that SHE knew she was so loved.

We probably don’t have to tell you our mother was a special woman. She embodied all of the attributes of a “perfect” mom. She was caring, thoughtful, hardworking, compassionate, loving, tough on us when we needed it and so much more.  It was so difficult to think of all of the words that described mom as a person and how much she meant to us. Our mom was our best friend, our idol and we looked up to her all of our lives. We swore as teenagers we would never turn out like mom. And now we’re proud to say we are our mother.

Mom was born on Nov 5, 1947 in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. She died on January 16^th, 2017 surrounded by her family and friends. Her life, to put it mildly, was something else.

She was a career woman her entire life. She started working at the Boeing company in the late 70’s. She struggled in the “man’s world” of Boeing, but proved time and again a woman could do the job, and in some cases better than any man. She retired from the Boeing Company in upper management and was so proud of all her accomplishments during her time there. She would use her experiences there when giving advice to us as our own careers started taking off.

When mom and dad married in 1981, we added to our already large family, the even larger Wraspir family. We used to joke that we didn’t have a family tree, but a family hedge.

Mom cherished her family above all. And family to her was anyone from a real relative, to friends, to members of her community. Her house was always filled with friends and family. All of our friends called her “mom”, because she was like a mom to everyone. She would talk to anyone, and any dog, most likely she’d speak to the dog first…

She was the communicator for all of us. If you wanted to know anything about what was going on with someone in the family, you called mom. That’s not to say mom shared everyone’s secrets, but she was definitely in the know. And her family loved her back – tenfold. She was the one everyone called for advice because we knew she’d tell us how it was.  She was happy to dole it out and expected you to listen. And while we may not have followed all her advice over the years, we’ve discovered that she really did know what she was talking about.

Mom loved to cook. Together she and dad would try new recipes and taught us to be open to trying new things. Entertaining and having people to dinner was one of her favorite things. Any given weekend you could guarantee someone was coming to the house for dinner. And no one ever left hungry.

Mom and Dad loved to travel. They got the travel bug when Dad was transferred to Saudi Arabia in the late 80’s. That afforded them the opportunity to see the world. And see the world they did. Together they visited England, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Greece, the Caribbean, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand – to just name a few. And they traveled to every single state in the United States by RV. While they loved exploring other countries, they especially loved exploring their country.

The list of things mom loved is extensive. She loved to read, to sew, to quilt, to cook, and to play games on her iPad. She loved her animals. And she loved her Seahawks. If the Seahawks were playing you knew not to bother calling because you could guarantee she would not answer the phone.

We feel like we could spend all day speaking about mom. She was an amazing woman who taught us a lot. The most important lessons were not verbal; they were in her actions. We know we are the people we are today because of her influence and guidance.  She always worked hard, complained when she needed to and was there when you needed her. She was our mother, but also our best friend. We will miss her every day for as long as we live.

EOY Wrap Up

That's right! 2024 is being seen in the rear view mirror. I find it very hard to believe we're in 2025. My Grandma Spaid used to say time flies faster when you're older and she was right. Man what happened?

Last year, while it sped by I kept slowing tracking all my goals for the year. Now, my goals these days, are never about saving or losing weight. I gave up on those goals awhile ago and focused instead on fun goals. I mean, saving and health should always be happening, so why put it as a goal? 

I have three areas that I was "tracking" last year; reading, cooking and scrapping. Let's take a look. 

Reading

For several years I had a goal to read 50 books. I rarely hit that goal. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get in 50 books a year. If I turned the boob tube off more I may get it, but that's not likely to happen. So, I changed my goal to 45 books. 

I hit it this year! 46 books. Some good, some bad. Here were my favorites (these are based on reviewing my books in good reads and these are the ones I didn't have to open to remember the story. That tells me I liked the book. Some of the others I had really no idea until I read the short description).

Favorites - in no particular order

• The Women - Kristin Hannah - What's not to love about this book? It was everyone's favorite this year and Kristin Hannah does such an exceptional job of telling the story of a female nurse in the Vietnam war. 
• The Paper Bracelet - Rachael English - Fascinating of a nurse's life in a Ireland Mother and Baby home. Unwed women who were pregnant were sent here to have babies, and then those babies were sent off for adoption. This woman saved the little bracelets from many and with the help of her granddaughter track down some of those babies. Such an incredible story. 
• The Guest List - Lucy Foley - My new favorite author this year. This book blew me away. It's a mystery and up until the "whodunit" was revealed I had no idea. I immediately read The Paris Apartment right after this book. And while that was a decent book, I was aware of her recipe for writing and I was a bit more a ware of whodunit. Still good, but not as good. 
• The Tattoo Artist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris - wow. This one was heavy. Like most WWII stories it has some serious stuff that as a human you just don't want to read about. It's brilliantly written and such a beautiful story of survival, but the going's ons in this camp was heartbreaking. I cried and cried reading this one. 
• The Lost Letters of Aisling - Cynthia Ellingsen - A grandmother requests to return to her home in Ireland before she dies. Letters are found and the granddaughter helps uncoil some tragic events in her grandmother's past. Gorgeous story of love. And I loved the setting in Ireland.
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows - Another WWII era book, this one post war. A writer looking for her next book topic. She receives a letter from a guy in Guernsey and it starts a correspondence with the writer and people from Guernsey. The literary club was set up as an alibi when members were breaking curfew. As the writer corresponds with residents she starts to understand and learn what they dealt with during the war. 

There you have it. My favorite books. 

Cooking

Now, let's talk food. 

In 2023 I made 166 new recipes. I thought that was pretty close to 170 so why not make 170 my goal for 2024. When I say that out loud I'm a bit shocked. That's a lot of new recipes. I've shared this with a with friends and family and I am surprised how many of them said this inspires them to cook more.

I keep it pretty consistent throughout the year with the number of recipes. May was travel month and so you see only 3 recipes. I suspect there could have been more, but prior to travel I hate cooking for some reason. 

Year over year is an interesting stat. You can tell exactly when I started tracking and having goals of higher yearly new recipes. Covid did that. 

This next year I haven't officially decided to make it a goal, but I'll be reaching for 170 again. 

Scrapbooking

And lastly the scrapbooking goal. This one I tried something new this year and wanted to focus on using some of my stash I hardly used, but had a ton of. 

I wanted to do at least 500 pages. Completely doable when this is your creative outlit and it's how you spend a lot of your after work hours. There's something about scrapping that resets me at night after work. I tried to spend at least an hour in the scrapbook room each night. Sometimes I'd scrap, sometimes I'd just go through my stash. That seems to trigger page ideas and starts the cycle of scrapping again. 

Four elements I have a ton of and wanted to use was enamel dots, washi tape, frames and stamping. I got into stamping and had a bunch of stamps, but rarely used them. I figured having it as a goal would help and it kinda did. 

Enamel dots

These little guys are added to pages as enhancements. They're usually small and are usually tucked in and around embellishments. I had a TON of these. 

My goal was to use them on at least 20% of my pages (I could get into how I track these, but suffice it to say, I'm a data nerd and I just do). I ended up at 16%. I'm going to keep this goal again this year and really focus on using those up and, preferably, not buying any new ones (its so hard).

Washi Tape

Washi tape is just decorative tape that can be added to pages as borders, setting a platform for your photo etc. I have a drawer full and really wanted to use some of it up. My goal was to use this 15% of time. My end result was 8%. Clearly need to focus more on this one. 

Frames

How I ended up with so many frames is beyond me. I mean, I know I bought them, but not until I put them all in the same drawer did I realize what a stash I had. My goal was to use them at least 5% of the time. My end result was 6%. The ONLY goal I made. I'm going to continue with this goal as well.

Stamping

I have a ton of stamps. I took a class in stamping early in the year and that motivated me to start using them more. I learned about inks and techniques and that made it less daunting. My goal was to use stamps 25% of the time. My end result was 18%. Not great, but not horrible either. 

Month over month I really scattered how many pages I did. Again, May was a travel month so it was low. July was when I did the cruise scrapbook so that made sense for it to be so high. 

So that's it! Let's see what 2025 has to offer