Tuesday, July 1, 2008

The book that nearly kicked my BUTT

For the past several weeks, I've been faced with an enormous task. Updating the family phone directory.

It might not sound like much, but for an extended family with hundreds of members, its a huge undertaking.

Every few years, the phone directory is updated by little old moi and printed for distribution at our family reunion. The last time we printed the book, in 2005, we boasted that we had (in addition to my Grandma, her five brothers and sisters and their spouses) 62 Third-generation, 98 Fourth-generation and15 Fifth-generation*. We're talkin' twenty 8 1/2 x 11" pages plus cover. This year, I'm not counting.

Over the course of 4-6 weeks, emails have come in to me from all around the state and country with folks' changes to phone numbers and email addresses and notes like, "Hey! So-and-so had a baby! Can we add the little tyke, please?"

Imagine your very worst French accent: But uv course!

I had set up a timeline for myself to have the disc in to the printer yesterday. But being the procrastinator that I am, I was up until midnight last night putting the finishing touches on this year's book. Its really OK; I had originally wanted to pick the books up from the printers' before my vacation starts this Friday, but the reunion isn't until the 12th so I can get someone to pick them up for me while I'm gone if they aren't done by Thursday.

And now, for your bloggie enjoyment, I present to you...drum roll...you are the very first people other than myself to see this cover...

reunion book covers

TA DA!

What are you tackling this week? For more inspiration, check out 5 Minutes For Mom.

*I realize there is a first generation missing here. The first time we did a reunion phone book was in 2001 when we timed the reunion to coincide with my Great-grandma's (1st gen.) 100th birthday. One of the pages in the book includes a snap-shot of the family tree with the first two generations on it, then a count of the 3rd - 5th. Though like I said, this year I'm not including those counts. There are a lot.

16 comments:

Dawn @ simply transparent said...

Very impressive!

Wow a phone book for family...uhm I like not knowing everyone's numbers makes reuions that much more! LOL!

Great idea!

mom_of2boys said...

What a great idea! We've never had a family reunion but I bet it would come in handy. I keep a list of phone numbers, addresses and email address for my mom and dad's family as well as ours but that's it. I couldn't imagine doing it for all generations.

Great job!!!

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

Wow! That *does* sound like quite the undertaking! Your family is lucky to have you organize it all!

The Apron Queen said...

Oh, you've been a busy lady. Huge undertaking! :D

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Anonymous said...

What a great idea! I might have to do this for our next family reunion.

Cole said...

the fact that you even attempt to do this is crazy!

Happy2bme said...

Hey our family does that too!! We don't have a book, we have a hard laminated (very nice) thingy that has everyones, names, birthdates, addresses and email addresses. I guess we are normal... ha ha!!

Marni's Organized Mess said...

That is awesome. My dad's side had that for a while and I LOVED it!

Melissa said...

That is really pretty! Kudos to you for doing that for everyone.

Christy said...

Wow - that sounds like a lot of work. Honestly, I am surprised you finished it. You're a busy woman!

Audra Krell said...

This is a beautiful book. What a selfless thing to do! You have no idea how far the ripples of your work go out, you have been a bridge for many, I am sure!

Kate said...

That's awesome! Quite an undertaking too. I'm sure everyone really appreciates it.

Karen said...

That was an awesome Tackle. I am sure that all your relatives appreciate it.

Muthering Heights said...

Wow, what a huge undertaking! It sounds like a fun one though. The cover looks very pretty!

Mama Smurf said...

What a fantastic idea! The cover is beautiful!

Nicole D. Johns said...

I am working on a felt playmat for my son to use with all his cars, trains, etc. And I'm working on giveaways on my blog. Both of which I hope to wrap up this weekend.

Your phone book is pretty cool. I also come from a huge family. We could use something like this.