Memory Lane

Guess what I found in our storage stuff?

My childhood scrapbook!

Wanna see me grow up? :-P

A bit grainy but proof that I was a baby. In some sort of yellow contraption that appears to be slowly swallowing me whole.

1 year old, and no hair of course. Females in my family don't get hair until they are like 25. My brothers sill tease me about how bald I was as a child. At least I was cute!

2 years old. Still Cute. Still no hair. Well maybe a little.

3 years old. Houston we have hair! And some type of plaid, poofy sleeves. Look how hard I'm trying to look cute, "Please, stare into my adorable eyes and forgot you ever saw this horrible shirt!"

4 years old. I think that's a Snoopy cake. I always had cakes with coconut on them. Snowmen, Snoopy, White cats. I think my mom had one of those cake books put out by the coconut company.

5 years old. I remember those barrettes. They were awesome. I had tons of them, all with matching animals. I'd wear them right now.

6 years old. I think this was at Dogpatch, an old amusement park where my older brother worked.

7 years old. Here I start to have more problems with colors and style. Knit over plaid. Why? I don't know...

8 years old. I think it's time for a haircut. And a talk about turtles necks...why did I like turtle necks so much! I had one in every color too. With matching knit sweaters for each one.

9 years old, I think this was my last "cute" year for awhile. Next come the "awkward" stage.

10 years old. Yup. Here is comes. It started with these glasses. Man. Why I needed glasses that covered my whole face, I have no idea.

11 years old. Aheam. Where to begin?? First off.....the bangs! OMG.Why??
I do remember it took me forever and a bottle of hair spray to fix it every morning. And that my brothers told me it look like I had turds on my forehead. (You guys were right, by the way!)
At least I've replaced my plastic glasses with wire ones, huge wire ones. And of course there is my ever present turtleneck and knit. Stylin'!

12 years old. It doesn't get much better here. Because I decided that I HAD to have a perm! But my mom said no. So I cried. And begged. And threw a fit. And said my life was over. She did what all mothers do who have tween girls. She threw up her hands and said "Fine, but don't come crying to me when you don't like it." Which was totally uncalled for because I loved it....for about 2 hours and then I HATED it. And cried because it was so awful and was going to take forever to grow out. And Iwas so mad at my mom because she MADE me do it and why didn't she just tell me no? lol (Poor mom. And now I have a 12 year old to pay me back...)
Still rocking those turtlenecks but I've replaced the knit with a crocheted vest!

13 years old. I finally shed my cocoon and chopped off my permed hair and got contacts! Still having problems with poofy collars though...but I've got my cute back!

14 years. Braces, which means I didn't smile for 18 months. But I still  loved those knit sweaters.

15 years. I hit a growth spurt and looked like a walking bean pole, a bean pole with braces, for awhile.

Sweet 16. Braces off. Hair under control. (Decided to just get rid of those bangs all together. lol) Lost the turtlenecks!
Sadly, all these years later and I still have the same hair style...except it's not as thick and lustrous as it was back then. I've pulled it all out from my kids. hah

Graduation photo. I still have that necklace. I should have worn my crocheted vest for this photo...haha

And one to make my best friend of over 20 years laugh...

Were we soooo cool! :-P

:-P

Beaches: The only place children actually entertain themselves.

I think we've found something to make Fridays better. (Waking the kids up 2 hours early to drag them to therapies all morning is not their idea of fun.)

So, there are tons of lakes here you know. (The state's nickname, The Land of 10000 Lakes, is no exaggeration.) And since it finally warmed up a bit, in the 70s now...wee, we have been trying to find "our" lake. With so many to choose from we knew there was one out there that would be just perfect for us. We found one 9 minutes away but it was dirty water, the in-laws have one but it's 35 minutes away and down a windy road so Alex and I got car sick, you get the idea. There was always something wrong with each one... until today!

We got home from therapies at 11am and the kids were GRUMPY. (I might have been a little bit too....) So Jason threw us all in the car with a picnic lunch and said we were heading to a beach he had seen recently!

It's only 15 minutes away and...it's PERFECT! We loved it to death and stayed all afternoon! We'll definitely be going there a few times a week from now on.The best thing here is that since there are so many lakes, they are never overcrowded! Most of the time we are the only ones there!

The beach was amazing, so sandy!

And the water was crystal clear!

And the water was not deep for a long time, I loved this as the kids had tons of room to play and I didn't have to worry about them getting in over their heads.

Jarod way out there, and the water is only up to his neck. lol

The sand was perfect for creating! (Jarod never left the water. lol)

I was stretched out on a blanket, reading a novel, while everyone else played; a great book, (best I've read in a while) fresh air, the kids entertained, and the sun shining down on me - bliss.

They had picnic tables!

And a playground!

And trails!

And a freaky bird dock... no seriously....a dock that the birds took over. I don't think it was built just for them...they just commandeered it, and now guard it. And hold secret meetings.

So, I saw all the birds just sitting on the dock, staring out at the lake. Contemplating world domination is my guess. Anyways, I decided to attempt to walk out on the dock to get a photo. It was so insane! As soon as I put one foot on the dock they all slowly turned around and stared at ME! I kept slowly walking down the ramp and they just stared me down.... I got really nervous. (If my sister had been with me she would have died. She is terrified of birds.) I got really close and then half of them started to dive bomb my head but didn't touch me and finally flew away. The others stayed until I got all the way to the end and they left too, except for one. Who stayed the whole time, glaring at me. And omg, the dock was so gross! Piles of bird poop and fish heads! Maybe the one bird stayed there to protect the half eaten fish I saw all over, I think I interrupted their meal. At least they didn't make me their meal. *shudders*

I did get an awesome photo though! The sky here is always so beautiful.(Click to enlarge.)

When I got back the kids pulled me into the water and I stayed for an hour and had so much fun! I took each kid out to "the deep deep", and did laps, and threw them in the water, and played "find the best rock with your feet" game, and dove, and laughed, and got water up my nose, and almost took Jarod's dare to jump off the end of the dock...but the birds scared me too much.

A perfect afternoon, and it was free entertainment!

Oh, this occurred to me today as I was snapping photos. I took over 200 photos today. Aren't digital cameras great? Remember when we had to use film? I sure do. When we had Rebecca I wanted to take tons of photos of her but of course the meant buying film AND paying to develop them. It was $5 for a 24 roll of film and $5 to process them, money I never had so I limited myself to at most...once a month. 24 photos a month! And they weren't always good one of course. lol Of course the downside to digital is I never get prints anymore so my photo albums stop in 2003, the year I got our first digital camera. I have them all on disks so I guess when my kids leave home they will get a box of photos on CDs instead of a box of photo albums. And perhaps a digital photo frame. :-)

Long Lost Treasures!

As I mentioned, when we left for N. Ireland we gave everything away except for what we could fit in our 5x5 storage shed in AR, and there it sat for two years until 2 weeks ago when my parents came to visit us and brought our stuff with them. We have a shed on our property here, that was empty because we didn't own anything haha, so it was really convenient to just throw the items in there until I wanted to deal with them.

So, now we are unpacking about 2 boxes a day and it's just like digging for treasure and always a surprise because we honestly could not remember what all we had saved! And poor Alex, who does not remember Arkansas was so confused, he loved all his "new" toys (his old toys) but said "Where are these from? Did grandma give me these?"  I tired to explain what a storage shed was but he just said "Shed...at grandma's?" So, I finally just said yes, they are from grandma's to ease his confusion a bit. lol

I found my really nice pot set that I got as a wedding present, all our photo albums, (that stop in 2003 because that's when I got a digital camera. lol)  lots of blankets, tons of Jason's computer junk, tons of Rebecca's craft supplies, and tons of books even though we did give away 25 boxes of books when we left! Jason asked "Didn't you save anything...useful?" Not much, because useful can be replaced....special junk can't! :-) Though I did find a box with screwdrivers and an extension cord!

I found a few items that I thought would look cute on my new dresser, which I did end up filling with our photo albums and photos, they fit perfectly inside! So the top of the dresser is now a female alter of sorts, all things to do with the steps of womanhood. 

On the top is my wedding bouquet , the framed item in front of the mirror is a beautiful matrimony cross-stitch print my SIL made me, in front of that is a childhood book of mine called "How to be a mother's helper" that was written in the 60s and is awesome, in the front is a photo of my 3 children the day they were born, and my wedding photos, and my moon jar. I also have a pregnancy collage somewhere and when I find it, it will be added and of course my pregnancy cast needs to be hung on the wall nearby too. Oh, there are also rose petals from the roses Jason gave me while we were courting. :-)

Rebecca was excited to find some of her old stuffed animals, which she arranged on her bench because it was the only free spot in her room. lol (She's a packrat.)

We found Jason's old Nintendo, which the kids are just loving because we've never had a gaming system. Or TV channels. Or a cell phone that is not a pre-paid net10 one that the only thing you can do on it is talk. We're old fashioned I guess. lol Jarod has a TV and a dvd player down in the basement, Rebecca has a DSI, and we have a computer...but that's as technical as we get. Anyways, we did have a little TV that Aunt Alice had given us so we hooked that up to the Nintendo and put it in the playroom and it's been nice because it's helping Jarod with his hand-eye coordination! And the other kids enjoy it too. (And Jarod talks me into playing the games with him once in a while....though I'm horrible at it. lol)

We found our goose, dog, and bear that have outfits that you change each month. Fun!

We found Jarod's box of books! And Alex is old enough for them now so he was thrilled! I just put them in a huge plastic bin for right now, until I can build them a bookshelf. At bedtime Alex pushed it right up to his bed and read for a really long time.Jarod was also really happy to have his books back and even more special.... he can read them all on his own now!

I found a rag doll!

And my dehydrator! Which Jason used right away to make some beef jerky and then I made some banana chips! Yum!

I can't wait to see what else we dig up! :-)

Freecycle love!

A woman on Freecycle said she had an antique dresser and I was lucky enough to be the one that got to bring it home!

Jason and I got lost took a nice drive in the country on the way but finally found her house and as soon as I saw the dresser I fell in love with it! It's beautiful!

AND....I was able to carry it allllll the way down her driveway without stopping to rest my arms once! Normally when I'm helping to carry an item I take a few steps, stop, take a few steps, stop....but not this time! Thanks P90X! (And it was HEAVY!)

I've got it in our living room right now and plan on filling it with our photo albums that I've been slowly unpacking.

She said it was over 100 years old, you can't tell but it has really old looking keyholes on each drawer - adorable! I'm not sure yet if I will refinish it or leave it as it is, it's could be beautiful both ways. What do you think?

Tween Room Makeover is OFFICIALLY done! Total was $80!!

It's done! TOTALLY done! As in....when I see a pink item that is so perfect and adorable and it's only 10 cents....I will NOT buy it because there is no more room for any more pink! So yes, this will be the last update on the tween room! (I promise!)

I figured up the master total and it was just a little under $80 for her whole room! (Not counting labor of course.. there is a LOT of man power here!)

You can see all the posts with us making each item and all the costs: HERE. 

It's loud and bright and a bit gaudy but perfectly screams "Rebecca" and she thinks it the best room in the whole wide world. :-)

Wall 1: Before

& After

Wall 2: Before

& After

Wall 3: Before

& After

Wall 4: Before

& After:

And of course here's an updated video! Because photos only show so much.

It's a work of labor and love for sure! Thank you to everyone who helped us along the way! *hugs*