Like Branches on a Tree - A Page about my Family

Family is important, whether it be the family you were born into or the family that you make on your own. This is how I was raised. Sure, we didn't always get along, and even now things aren't perfect, but everyone needs a family. 

I grew up in Central Illinois, which is where my parents and sisters still are. There is still one sister at home with mom and dad. The other two sisters live with their significant others nearby in neighboring towns. My brother lives in St. Louis near me. So you can see, we at least don't mind being near one another. :) 

We are all close, as siblings and also to our parents. The oldest child is 43 and the youngest is 16. We have great parents who have worked hard all of their lives and still continue to do so. There have been tough times and really good times, but our family isn't much different from others in that respect. 

No matter how far any of us have gone, we still remain close to each other, which is what inspired me to create this page I'm sharing today.  

I actually started out with the tree and background, using Neocolor II's , Inktense pencils, Faber-Castell Big Brush Pens and my white ink pen. When I started the page, I knew I wanted the tree and the quote, but wasn't sure how I was going to represent my family. Then it hit me as I was looking for a photo of Keith for another page. I could use an old family photo from my graduation. Yay!

Ok, so I mentioned I have several siblings... and this photo only has me and ONE of my siblings. No, I wasn't fibbing, but at this time, well, there were some issues with the other siblings. The older ones weren't getting along with my parents, so of course they didn't show up in time for my graduation. To be honest, I'm not sure if both of them even showed up. I will have to ask my mom about that. The youngest sibling, well, dang, I can't remember where she was. She is 15 years younger than I am so she would have been  about 3 at the time. She may have been there but not in the picture. Once again, that is a question for my mom. (Geesh, I'm not so hot at explaining my family picture, am I!) 

It's hard to get us all together for a family photo. I have some from around Easter a few years ago that I shared in THIS POST.  That was in 2009... so it's been a while. 

May you have a great Friday! Talk to you soon!