August 7, 1982

31 years ago, there was this.

dad + mom

[8.7.82]

and now there's this:

Dancing at my wedding.

I would say more, but really what else is there?
4 kids and 31 years later, and they still hold hands and kiss in the kitchen.

And I still think it's gross.

Happy 31st, Mom and Dad.

[See also: 29 things I learned from my parents]

Flashback Friday--A Christmas Memory

Sitting on the stairs, waiting for my parents to give us the okay to run downstairs and behold the pile of presents under our tree is one of my favorite Christmas memories. As the years went on and our family expanded from one child to four, we could no longer fit on just one step. But the excitement and anticipation was always the same. 

My dad always took forever to get the camera ready, and my mom needed her coffee.

There would be a TV tray with a plate of cookie crumbs and a note from Santa, which I figured out a few years later was what my dad's handwriting looked like when he wrote with his left hand.

We don't have stairs now in our Texas house, and my siblings and I are old enough that we don't want to wake up before the sun comes up. We're happier to get a few more hours of sleep. But the memory of sitting on those stairs is one I will treasure forever.

That, and this image of Daniel in full-body white long underwear. 
Classic.

Flashback Friday--The Year of the Cabbage Patch

Christmas Flashback #1

So I don't actually remember wanting or receiving a Cabbage Patch Doll for Christmas. I don't remember playing with one or ever having one, in fact. But apparently I did and I have, and little me looks pretty darn happy. 


This was the short-lived bang era and also clearly a time when I didn't mind wearing stripes. After this, I refused to wear stripes until about a year ago. Now, for some reason I keep buying myself shirts with stripes. I don't know what's going on. But that's really beside the point. The point being that this is me with a Cabbage Patch Doll at Christmas.

Flashback Friday--Let's Guess

Let's guess what happened to cause this please-stand-awkwardly-in-the-middle-of-the-driveway-and-smile-for-the-camera picture. 


Things we know for sure: 
1. It was either A) a first-day-of-school picture or B) one of my mom's I-need-to-take-random-pictures-of-my-children moments. 
2. Whatever the reason, this isn't a good look for me. I don't know if it's my posture or the shirt or my hair or what, but it's not working. 


So I'm really hoping the story behind this is option B, because the thought of me presenting myself like this for the first time in a new grade at school sort of scares me a little bit. 

Flashback Friday--Armed and Dangerous

My knobby knees and I are going to do some serious damage. 

Flashback Friday--Note the Following (circa 1996)

July 1996.

Please note the following:

A) the nerdy, Bigfoot-sized glasses I wore from fourth grade until high school.

B) my Bigfoot-sized bite of hamburger that apparently was photo worthy.

C) the red birthday plate I'm eating off. Which leads me to the conclusion that this joyous photo was taken on my birthday. We always ate off the plate. It says "you are special today" around the outside. It really did make me feel more special. It's the little things.

D) the large bowl of fruit salad, which really isn't important at all except to note that I love fruit salad.

Honorable mention: my faded tie-dye T-shirt. You've gotta look nice for your birthday dinner.

Flashback Friday--Princess Meets Secret Agent (The Halloween Edition)

This is one of my top-three favorite Halloween pictures. 

This is my good friend Alison and I circa 1997. Sixth grade, I believe. She's some sort of agent person, and I'm wearing the princess costume my aunt made me when I was in elementary school. The original dress was so big that we hemmed it probably half a foot, and I wore it for the next four or five years in a row. The year I finally realized I was too big for it was a dark day.


This was back when short hair worked for me. 
And I hadn't yet realized how terrible I look in red.
Ah, youth. 

Flashback Friday--A Story about Shoes

I have a thing about Pumas. 

Not the animal. That would be weird.

The shoes. 

When I was a sophomore in high school, I wanted a very distinct kind of shoe. As I write this, I realize it's a bit strange that I can so clearly recall this specific time in my life. I think the reason is because it's the only time that I've ever hunted for a particular type of shoe and been so clear and unwavering about my preference. 

What I wanted was a pair of electric-blue Pumas. 

I don't remember where I'd originally seen them, but obviously I had to have seen them somewhere on someone to know they existed. I remember going to athletic footwear store after store to discover a wall full of Pumas...none of them blue.

My mom questioned my sanity. 

"Are you sure you've seen a pair of blue pumas? You know they exist?"

"Yes, Mom, I know. I've seen them. I want them. We must press on."

I actually doubt I said anything like "we must press on." But you get the point.

What I don't specifically remember is where we ended up finding the blue Pumas. But find them we did, and I gave the sky a triumphant fist pump.

It cost me something in the area of sixty dollars to bring them home with me. But I'm still wearing them almost ten years later, so I think it was worth it. They're broken and dirty and old, but they're still just as awesome. 

And I don't know that I've seen a blue pair of Pumas since, which I guess means I'd put them in the mysterious category with the likes of the unicorn and the yeti.

{And check out the tennis shoe charm I hooked on my left shoe many years ago. I don't know where I got the charm or whether you can even buy shoe charms anymore, but I totally love it.}

Flashback Friday--Curiosity Stinks

You guys.

Tomorrow I will be in Kansas City running my second half marathon.

So...when I get back, can I put a 26.2 sticker on my car? Two half marathons = a full?

Maybe not. 

Anyhoo, moving on.
This week's flashback is a picture I put in my wedding slideshow.

But it's definitely a picture that needs its own space on my blog.

Why?

Because in this picture, I'm smelling my feet.

That's why.

Hey, sometimes you just gotta know if what you're smelling is you or your little brother.
Either that or I'm demonstrating my flexibility.

You decide. 

Flashback Friday--It's a Papoose!

I love everything about this picture.
I guess except maybe the fact that you can't really see my dad's eyes due to the shadow his hat is making and therefore he looks like a creepy ghost person. 


But other than that, I think this picture is just great. 
The Cub's hat my dad has on, the huge coat I'm wearing, and what picture wouldn't be complete without my confused expression?


Seems to be a reoccurring theme. I'm often confused. 


{Also, in case you're interested, P&P&Z is getting better}

Flashback Friday--The One with the Yellow Giraffe

I think the title pretty much sums it up. 

And my expression, which I assume is me thinking:

"Mom, how do you expect me to use the wheels in the grass?"

Certainly a valid argument.

Flashback Friday--A Baby in a Dryer

I used this picture in my wedding slideshow. 

For some reason I found the prospect of me climbing in the dryer hilarious. Especially since I don't look old enough to have done this myself, so I can only assume one of my parents (or both) set me in here just for the photo op. Nice, right?

But then, when I was home a few weekends ago, I found this:

I'm clearly older and look strong enough to have climbed in on my own power. The question is why. Did I remember doing this before and thought it was fun? Did I happen to see the earlier picture and decide to recreate the moment? Did my parents put me in here again? 

Either way, it appears I had a childhood fascination with dyers. I'm not sure what this means. Probably nothing good. But it might explain why I don't mind doing laundry.

 

Flashback Friday--Gangsta

This be my sista. 

Just bein' a gangsta. 

Circa 1998, which means in this picture she was just a wee child of 1. 

Totally rocking the hat, right?
For serious, yo.

Flashback Friday--Jeans and Saxophones

Remember when I said middle school was not kind to me? Well that's obviously because I was still digging 1991-style jeans long after they were stylish (were they ever really stylish, though?).

Also pretty sure I'm rocking my Mickey Mouse watch that my grandma gave me for Christmas one year.

Oh yes, and let's take the attention off me for a moment and focus on my brother and his saxophone. This is one of the only pictures that exists of him playing it. Why? Because his musical days didn't last long. We still make fun of him for how bad he was...which sounds mean, I know. But he really was bad. He'll tell you that himself.

But really, can anything be worse than those jean overalls? 

I suppose only the fact that I remember loving them and wearing them everywhere.

 

Flashback Friday--Four Generations

This picture was a very strong contender for my wedding slideshow but in the end didn't make the final cut. I think that was because my mom thought my grandma (we call her Nonnie [second from the right]) wouldn't be super happy with the confused/annoyed face she's making.

But I think it's great. Four generations of woman from my mom's side.

From left to right: Great-grandma Staman (her name was Hazel), my mom, me (age 1), Nonnie (my mom's mom), Great-grandma Short (her name was Thelma)

I have to wonder what was going on just before, or maybe as, this picture was taken. My mom is really the only one who looks ready. I suppose maybe that's the way of grandmas, though, isn't it? To took confused sometimes.

Great-grandma Short looks like she might be looking at me, perhaps telling me to smile or look at the camera. Or maybe she's telling Nonnie something, which is why that look on Nonnie's could be a tad bit of irritation.

I guess that's both the beauty and frustrations of photos. You can freeze a moment, yes, but you can't go back in time and recreate it. And it can leave you wondering what that moment actually was. I suppose I'll just have to wait for heaven so I can ask them.

Linking up with Lauren!

Flashback Friday--There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters

{Before you do anything else, name the movie my title comes from. If you can't, then I have to wonder what you've been doing with your life.}

So my sister called me last week demanding to be in the next Flashback Friday. What is it with my family? Apparently they think my blog is some crazy type of popularity contest. (And if it were, Jordan would be winning anyway.)

But since I already had a FF subject for last week (see: my trifecta of awesome things), I promised to feature her next week, which is now this week. So, Sarah, this one's for you.

My sister.

Ah yes, my sister.

She's so pretty, no?

[Note: this is not the "flashback" part; I just think these pics are funny.]

I am not lying when I say that I remember the exact moment I found out my parents were having a baby and that, thank the sweet Lord, it was a girl.

I was in my house in Winfield, IL, standing in the living room with my two brothers and my grandma. I had come home from school (I was eleven, so maybe fifth grade?), and my parents were gone. 

"They're at the hospital," my grandma said. "Your mom's having the baby."

Of course, I had known they were going to have a baby, so that wasn't the surprise. But I didn't know what kind, and since up until that point I was the only girl in the family (not counting my mom), I wanted a baby sister more than anything in the world. 

I waited and waited, and then the call came. 

I remember my brothers and I crowding around my grandma, who was holding the speakerphone. When I heard those three words--It's a Girl--I jumped up and ran circles around the house, yelling and pumping my arms the entire time. It sounds weird, but to this day I really do remember exactly how I felt. 

That moment is what I think about when Sarah is driving me crazy. (Example of said crazy: leaving threatening messages on my phone, promising me harm if I don't feature her in a flashback.)

But it's okay, cuz see? Eleven-year-old me is the proudest big sister ever. 
(Also of note: my huge glasses. Thanks, Mom.)

I'm biased, but really I think we can all agree that my sister is gorgeous.

She's one of those annoying girls who's hair looks perfect straight and curly. She's also one of those annoying girls who is nice and pretty and smart and athletic. (Bonus: She's a really good shopping companion. Talk about super cute dresser. And also honest in her critique of your choices.)

Yeah... she's super annoying. Just look at that face. Annoyingly cute, isn't she?

Linking up with Lauren today!
Is it Friday already?

Flashback Friday--Revisiting Wichita

This weekend I'm off to Wichita to visit my friend Hilda. We've been friends for... oh, FOREVER. Okay not really, but seriously since freshman year of high school. I was in Spanish class, and this girl kept raising her hand and knowing all the answers, and I was like, "Who is this girl?" 

It was Hilda, and we soon became fast friends. She lives in Wichita now, and the last time I was there it was October 2010, and it was for two reasons: 

A) visiting Hilda

B) running my first half marathon (I wrote about it in detail in this post, fyi.)

I ran with two friends, Audra and Cori. Although we didn't actually run together at all. We split up almost immediately, in fact. But we reconnected at the end...at the free massage table, obviously. Where else would you go after finishing your first half marathon?

See? It's me + Audra!

Cori was there too, but we preferred to take pictures later. When Cori was chewing blue gum.

And when I could really stick my neck veins out. Classic.

Good times, were they. 

This October, I will be running another half marathon. This time in Kansas City, MO. And Audra and I will be actually running together this time. 

Linking up with Lauren for this week's Flashback!
Hooray for Friday!

{p.s. Remember when I said I wanted to try to blog every day in August? Well, don't hold me to that. I may or may not still do it, but thinking about it was starting to stress me out, and certain people (ahem, Audra and Jordan) said that maybe I was being too ambitious. They may or may not be right (or they may or may not also be stupid), but regardless, blogging isn't supposed to stress me out. It's supposed to be fun. So just don't hold me to the blogging-every-day-in-August thing. Thank you and good day.}

Flashback Friday--My Death-Defying Jump

On July 25, 2010, almost one year ago today, in celebration of our July birthdays (and to cross something off our bucket lists), a friend and I suited up like this: 

Climbed in this: 

And did this:

Then we pulled our chutes and slowly went down, down, down: 

That's the short version. Read the whole story about how we almost didn't get to go and then how I could hardly breathe on the way down here.

* * *

Flashing back with Lauren! Link up and visit other blogs to see more flashbacks. It's fun! Do it.

Flashback Friday--Unpredictable Craziness

I promised last week that I would showcase my brother Austin. It appears that I have unintentionally included my brother Daniel in more flashbacks, and it was recently pointed out to me by a friend that Austin needs some Friday love as well. 

My nineteen-year-old brother Austin is, in a word, unpredictable. At any given time he could be wearing anything, doing anything, asking anything, saying anything, and in general being anywhere. 

{The following examples are for your reference}

(Lauren, this HAS to count as a chin photo. It's horribly terrible.)

He was also in my wedding (two months ago yesterday!), and the dude could NOT stop laughing.

What a weirdo. 

Love that guy.

If you don't have a brother, get one immediately. They're pretty great.

Linking up with Lauren for today's Flashback Friday!