Something About Nothing

They've all grown up a bit since these photos. This sleepy birdy became. . . a little princess in blue. And the little princess in yellow wore her big sister's poodle skirt for Halloween last year. . .   And this little superman was always some sort of superhero. . . including the sports legend kind.

Halloween 1979 I'm the one dressed as the Hillbilly. And yes we seem to be the only high schoolers dressed up for Halloween in the entire cafeteria.  That's just the way we rolled. And I'm glad we did! My sistah is going to shoot me for posting this photo but I think it's the only photo I have of her in a Halloween costume.  By the way, I made the clown costume for myself for the previous Halloween and wore it to school too.  I love the pillow we put under the costume to make my sistah look fat because, of course, ALL clowns are fat!  However in this case she looks more preggo than fat.  Ah, good times. 

I pulled this photo out for a flashback because I think it's cute and funny.  The large circle is around my grandparents.  I love Grandma's hair - up and high for the special occassion.  Grandma's dress is down to her knees because Grandpa liked to see Grandma's great legs.  I remember going with them to DeMars dress shop and hearing Grandpa give this very opinion.  Remembering Grandpa Lou always makes me smile.  The person with the square around her face is Grandpa's twin sister, Louise.  The wedding is for Aunt Louise's youngest son Jerry.

One of the saddest parts of my Mother and Grandmother being gone is that they aren't here to tell me who these people are. . . I've inherited numerous photos, some are beautiful, some are funny, some are even out of focus.  I love them all because they represent a moment in time.  How can you not love a photo of a woman in the real fur coat standing by a plastic Santa Claus on a green lawn.  I have no idea who she is but she makes me smile.  I'm sure Mom or Grandma would know and they would have a funny story about the picture too. The black and white photo at the bottom looks like it might have been taken at one the apartments we lived in in Chicago, but I have no idea who the tall thin man is in front of it.  He seems very mysterious to me. The picture of the two boys buried at the top right was with a stack of photos that were taken in England.  My guess is they are siblings, cousins, neighbors or friends of my Au...

Ah yes, my Dolly. We were best buds - -for about one day. She kept wanting to borrow all my clothes because she just wasn't satisfied with her pretty pink dress - Which she wouldn't let me wear because she said I was too big for it. Do you know how hard it was for my little hands to take her clothes off and on? She could have been a little considerate by bending her knees and elbows, but Nooooooo! Then she stepped on my toes and that was it. I had to put her in the corner for being naughty and thats the last I remember of her.

These are a couple of my favorite pictures of my Mom and my girls. I wish I had taken more pictures that day. It was Christmas Eve-Eve in 2000. We were making Fried Apple Pies. One of the best things my Grandmother made were her Fried Apple Pies and we loved carrying on the tradition with my Mom. We need to make some Fried Pies again soon. The really amazing thing about these pictures is that my oldest daughter was only 10 in these photos. The twins were 3. Where did all those years go?

Need I say More?

Five things I love about this photo: 1. The wood carvings with orange fabric background on the wall are from Thailand. I wish they were completely in the photo because I'm not sure if we have any other photos with them in it. My Mom's brother gave them to her and seeing them on the wall brings back wonderful memories. 2. A couch covered in hot, sticky plastic. Ah, the good ol' days - if I ever talk about covering my couches in plastic, please slap me. 3. An Orange Ash Tray. I love the color. It matches the orange on the wood carvings. No wonder I love bright colors. However, I don't love that it was actually used to put out cigarettes, my poor little lungs. 4. Look at how beautiful those wood floors are. 5. I was 4 years old here. Wasn't I cute? This pose reminds me of one of my daughters. I have a photo floating around somewhere of her in the same pose.

I remember going to the Forest Preserves in the Chicago area when I was little. We seemed to always have a picnic for Memorial Day, Independance Day and Labor Day as well as any other occassion we could think of inbetween. This tradition was obviously started long before I was born because here is a picture of Mom when she was sweet 16 at a family picnic. (She is up front on the left) I say "Family Picnic" loosely because I don't recognize ANY of the other people! The woman standing could be my cousin MaryJo, but it's difficult to tell. Now that I look a little closer it's possible that the man on the right is my Grandmother's second husband, John. Perhaps this is mostly his family and that is why I don't recognize anyone. Despite really only knowing one person in the photo I love this photo. I love the sense of place that is preserved: the beautiful trees, the 1950's cars in the background, the people at the other tables, and the light and s...

Any seat in the house is a good seat - even if there is a pole in your face. It's great because you are there experiencing the organ music, the roar of the crowd, the crack of the bat and the umpire as he yells " steeeeerike !" against the visiting team! Mom liked to take us to the ballgames from a very early age. These photos are from when I was just 5 years old. My sistah would have been 3. I don't have pictures to prove that sistah and I were actually there on this day, but somehow I think we were. I love looking across the field over to Waveland Avenue and seeing the ballpark as it was so long ago. This is twenty years before lights were installed. People in this crowd would have told you were crazy and booted you out of the ballpark if you were to suggest that Wrigley Field would EVER have night games with big ugly lights. But times change and now there are big ugly lights but the same great baseball. When I think of Wrigley Field this is the ballpark I rem...

Found this hanging on my sister's refrigerator while visiting with her and was very excited to use it as a flashback photo. Me, Mom, Sistah, her Dad and our Aunt in West Virginia.

This past week we've seen a lot of little children with cheeks I've wanted to kiss and squeeze. There is nothing cuter than a little child's cubby face and so when I ran across these pictures of my Mom as a small child I had the same reaction: Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! That is the sound my mother would always make when she pinched my arm because she wanted to pinch a baby's rolls. Just look at those cute cheeks! Nnnnnnnnnnnn!

Ever since the apron craze took over a few years ago some of my favorite aprons have been ones like these.* They fit over the shoulder and usually slip over the head. They aren't the fanciest apron and they aren't very frilly but I love them. And now I think I know why. . . Notice the apron my Grandma is wearing at my second birthday. . . Hmmm, might my love of this type of apron have something to do with the love I have for my Grandma? *(Click on the above photos to visit the etsy shops where I found these great aprons!)

Here I am with my favorite beverage. You have to look at this photo closely because there is a cute checked puppy on the couch which could explain my obsession with making Melly & Me animals. I wonder who is on the front of that "TV Preview" on the coffee table. . . *Deep Sigh* I loved my tricycle. Now I just love the city- ness of this photo with the stairs and laundry in the back. The house in the next photo is where we lived when I followed the neighbor boy to his Grandma's house and we got lost. I remember the little boy yelling at me to go home and I didn't know where home was. He threatened to push me down a very deep hole. I was so traumatised. Obviously this picture was taken before we ran away because I'm sure the trauma would still be evident on my face.

I want to know why my Mom didn't make me take my hat off. . . Hat hair perhaps? Yes, best that the hat was left on. I probably had a classic Einstein do under there. Althought it was a pretty groovy brown and white hat, and so it is very possible that I insisted on wearing the hat to preserve it's memory for all eternity. . . I'm sure that is why I am wearing the hat. Here is the Lisa shot. Lisa Kay and Lisa Marie. My Mom used our middle names when Lisa came over to play. I remember dancing in her attic singing "The Night Chicago Died" at the top of our lungs. Ah, good times. But then she moved and we lost touch. Very sad. Does she look familiar to anyone? And finally the best photo of all. . . the classic, "Blinked at the flash shot." What would a photo booth be without at least one of these?! P.S. A last minute addition. I took my two youngest to an amusement park on Saturday AND we found a photobooth! However the cost of the photos were $5 each, and...

We discovered Millcreek Canyon in 2002. My littlest girls, age 5, loved playing in the creek and climbing the waterfall. My neighbor was the one who first took us there, and as we were leaving she told us the story of the Troll that lived under the bridge. My girls have talked about that Troll ever since. The questions just never stopped, until the Easter Bunny forgot his candy in our cupboard, and then everything changed. The same year we discovered Millcreek, we sponsored some students from China for a week. We took them to Millcreek, but I can't seem to find those photos (more than the leg in the above photo). When Grace and Violet climbed up the waterfall they became too scared to climb down. I had to send the twins up to help them get down. It was a very big ego booster for the twins. I have that episode on a video tape, but not on digital - yet. I love this photo of my girls with Grace and Violet in our backyard. We were all so young.

There is a certain art to pictures taken in a photo booth. A person enters a small booth, adjusts the stool for their height, deposits their quarters then puts on their best smile and waits for the flash hoping to capture how beautiful they are. They are usually in focus, centered and capture a moment in time. And sometimes that flash catches you when you are blinking or looking the other way. It was a great way to take a family portrait as in the above photo of my mother and grandmother, or below in the photo of my mother and her brother. They were always a quick and easy way of remembering your bestest friends, or making a photo to give to a beau. Or to just remember a fun time you had at the mall. Times have changed and photos are taken anytime, anywhere. If you have a group of 10 people, chances are you will have 9 or more cameras whether the camera is in their phone or an actual camera. And although photo booths still exsist the photo booth tradition has been lost in our fam...

May is the time for flowers, mother's day and graduations. My dear husband got his Baccalaureate in Political Science in 1989. I was barely pregnant with our second child. Don't you love the great big glasses we both have. And the darling boy in my husbands arms is now as tall as both of us put together. My dear husband graduated again in 1995 with his law degree after taking a few years off to work for the Army. This time we still have big glasses and I have HUGE shoulder pads! I followed in DH's large footsteps and received my baccalaureate in Journalism in 1995 as well. It was a very busy few years for us! Look how big our babies were then. Why didn't anyone tell me that the silly collar thing was messed up. It is off in everyone of my graduation pictures and it really bugs me now! But back to the real topic at hand! It is 2009 and we are celebrating another college graduation today. Here's a picture of our sweet little graduate: He was about 6 weeks old here a...