this could take all day

Way Back Wednesday, Christmas memories

I realized as I was organizing our December photos that I never shared with you one of my favorite Christmas memories from 2008.

On Saturday, December 12 Miracle Ranch hosted an event called "Down Home Country Christmas" that included a delicious dinner and entertainment by The Konzelman Family. While Darin had to work the event, Daisy and I were invited to participate. It was a late night, and she wasn't excited to sit through dinner, but I knew once the music started she wouldn't be dissapointed. And I wasn't wrong.

Our little dancer LOVED it.

She held my hand and danced and danced and danced. She laughed and giggled the whole time too. And every time the band stopped playing she would look up at me and as for "more?"

It got even better when two little girls came to the back of the room to do some dancing and us clever parents got them together in a little ring. I think Daisy loved dancing with her new friends even more than she enjoyed dancing with me!

How old does she have to be before we can sign her up for dance class? :)

Christmas Past

On this version of Way Back Wednesday, let's take a tour of my photos with Santa.

2 months old, 1980. And look: awake!

 

1981 in "My First Jeans." This Santa looks way too tired.

 

1982, two years old. Check out that grin! And that dress! And those pigtails! I was pretty adorable back then, if I do say so myself.

 

1983 and the poloroid.

 

1984 and the sleigh.

 

1985. Getting cozy with Santa.

 

1986. I love those tights.

 

1987. 7 years old. I think this is the favorite of the Christmas dresses. But someone should've pulled up my tights.

   

1988. This one had a negative taped to the back. Ah...the good ole days.

 

No year on this one. I'm guessing around 1990. Definitely taken on Lopez. (Anyone know that guy?!) Gone are the days of the pretty dress. Instead we've got acid washed jeans, a purple shirt, and a headband that matched my belt. Amazing!

 

The last of the bunch. Isn't that sweater the best? And if you'll look close you can see little bows on my ears. I made those myself.

 

I know there's gotta be a few more of me and Santa floating around somewhere. In Middle & High School my dad would dress up for our 4-H Christmas party and I know there's a shot of the two of us from that affair. But since I don't have one, I'll share one of Santa/Dad with Mom from sometime mid-90's instead. Aren't they adorable?

 

There are a lot of years missing. But look, I'm back in 2007. With Dad/Santa again, and this time with my own little family.

 

Thanks for joining me on my tour!

Way Back Wednesday, Debbie's Essay

This essay, written by my sister in 1983 was a real treasure to find. Her teacher suggested she save it for me one day, and I'm pretty glad she did.

I love the notes about my personality at the time, espeically the "little bunny fu fu" and "strawberry shortcake" information.

And my favorite line is the last one. (Even though we're technically half-sisters, we'll always just be sisters.)

 

they say it's your birthday...

Today I turn 28.

I know it's young...but it feels so old.

Nearing 30. That scares me.

I've had a wonderful day. I think Darin's got a good handle on how I like to spend my birthday: by being spoiled.

Blueberry crepes for breakfast.

Ice Cream cake.

New cricut cartridge wrapped all pretty.

Dinner out.

And a whole day to play and craft. Darin took Daisy to swim lessons this morning and out on errands this afternoon, and I got the day to play at my desk. For some reason I'm into making cards today, and I'm up to 16. And it feels good to have my stash stocked up again.

I don't have any pictures of the day of my birth, but I do have this adorable one of my and my sisters. Ah...way back when...

Way Back, Thursday edition

whoops, forgot that yesterday was Wednesday when I was blogging.

 

This is my high school graduation class. Yup, that's all of us. Well, almost all. One guy skipped our graduation to attend his girlfriend's. If you count us up, that's 16. And I can remember everyone's name!

Lopez Island High School, class of 1999.

There are some real perks to growing up on an island:

• small class sizes = great student/teacher ratios, you get lots of one-on-one attention

• while we didn't offer a TON of extra-curricular options, there was the opportunity to be involved in a multitude of things. For example, my activities included volleyball, track & basketball managing, 4-H, student government, french club, drama, choir, news writing, yearbook, tutoring...

• the girls in our class were really tight.

• the beauty and simplicity of growing up rural.

There were some definite challenges as well:

• you know everybody's business and they know yours.

• talk about nothing to do on a Friday night.

• taking the ferry to games or events off-island meant for long days.

• not a huge course-catalog to choose from. Some activities we didn't offer like debate or football or the ability to put on a big musical production.

• your class rank isn't too impressive when you have to right "out of 16" next to it.

A lot of people think back on their high school days with misery. Not me. I loved high school and even though there are things I regret, for the most part I remember those days with great fondness. And I'm sure I'll tell you more as we continue on these "way back Wednesdays."

way back; Darin edition

I thought it was about time we show some pics of my cute hubby from "way back when". I don't know the stories, you'll have to ask him. But I've got the photos!

 

 

Some with his sweet siblings.

(From top, clockwise: Kiley, Darin, Skylar, Charisse)

 

(From left to right: Dakota, Trevor, Skylar, Darin)

 

(Clockwise from left: Linda/Mom, Darin, Skylar, Trevor, Dakota, Sierra)

 

And lastly, my favorite photo ever of kid-Darin. This one will likely haunt him forever.

 

Yup, that's a mullet. Poor kid.

Way Back; preschool pic

Not too much time to blog today. Darin was home (a benefit of working over the weekend) and we had some great family time.

So here's a picture of me from preschool. Look at that messy hair, that lovely dress, and that crazy grin.

 

And here's my favorite part. Where I wrote my name on the back. I love "little" pieces of little me, like handwriting.

 

Not too shabby...

way back Wednesday, #4

This is my report card from senior year, first semester.

 

Yeah, that's a lot of A's.

But see that B in Calculus. Most people would be really proud of a report card like this, but that B nearly killed me.

I'm not gonna lie, I loved school. And part of the reason (besides the learning new stuff part) was that it always came easy. I was a good reader. I was a decent writer. And I was an excellent memorizer. Preparing for exams was actually, sickeningly I know, FUN. I loved the thrill of the "A" on a paper or test or grade report.

Until senior year I was 4.0 baby.

And then calculus hit. There were two of us interested in taking calculus, so they put us in a split calc/pre calc class where for the most part we were given a text book and left to our own devices. So besides having to teach ourselves, the other part of the problem was the text book itself. For 6 years throughout middle school and high school I had learned math from a certain textbook. I had grown comfortable with this book, it was my friend. The descriptions and examples made sense. But for Calculus our teacher decided to give us a college textbook that completely and totally threw me for a loop.

There were a lot of tears that semester. I just couldn't "get it". That had never happened to me before. I had never had to work so hard and still struggle. Studying for this class certainly wasn't fun. To this day, I still don't know how I managed to pull off that B.

Looking back, I'm thankful for that lesson. It taught me a lot about compassion. It taught me humility. It taught me grace under much frustration. It taught me how to stick with something and see it through.

Funny enough, I re-took calculus in college and that time it was easy. And that time I had a lot of understanding for those in my class for whom it was not.

way back Wednesday, #3

AKA: "speaking of the fair..."

See this cute little girl on the horse? Yeah, she got her parents in a lot of trouble that day.

 

My parents had decided to call in sick to work and take me to the fair. I'm sure we all had a great time. I'm pretty sure I loved being up there on that horse, what with my "cowgirl" fantasies and all.

Unfortunately there was a photographer at the fair, captivated by the adorable cowgirl. And that photographer's boss must have liked this shot, because my face ended up on the front page of the paper the next day.

Yup...the parents got in trouble.

But I got to be kinda famous!

Way Back Wednesday #2

I don't know the date on this picture. I don't have memories of those particular animals or why they were special. I don't know the story of that pink dress.

But I love that I can see my daughter in that face.

way back Wednesday

On Monday I was cleaning the guest room when Daisy stumbled upon a box of "antique" cards from my Great Aunt that I had stashed as an "I need to go through these" project. So with Daisy's encouragement, I spent some time that day and evening making my way through the box. (And don't worry, I only let her play with the "discards".) And in addition to those cards was a bag of momento-type things my dad had given me over a year ago. So I worked my way through that bag as well.

Lots of things were tossed. (Did she really need to save the envelopes every card came in?) Many things were saved for craft projects. (There's got to be some cool stuff you can make with vintage cards and decopage.) And then there were some treasures. Things I pulled out for other people. (My Uncle Rick's first typed letter to his Nanny. I think his kids would love to see it. An essay Debbie wrote about me when I was two.) And several more treasures for me.

I spent the evening yesterday doing some scanning and thinking about ways to share these treasures and stories with you all. And share the stories for me and my kids. So thus the launch of "way back Wednesday." Wanna come along?

No stories today. You'll have to rely on my Mom & Dad for those. But how about some shares instead? Treasures from the day of my birth.

Come back next week for more!