Awkward Family Photos
You guys know this site , right? My family has more than it’s fair share of chortle inducing photos–and many of them include a certain birthday boy. He perfected the art of looking annoyed with us pretty early on, but it was just an act. I think. Anyway, nothing says Happy Birthday like cringe worthy posts!
This was taken 1992–I was 12 and JHJ was 9. We were at some sort of educational fort thing. Our vacations were always educational–something that The Hubs and I plan to continue even when we have a surly teenager.
I win the worst outfit award (I have never been to Hawaii, so this outfit was probably from TJ Maxx) , but JHJ gets props for the coordinating blue swim shoes and free hat.
Fast forward to 1999 (I think), I was 19 and JHJ was 16. He is wearing entirely black polyester. In New Mexico. In August. This picture makes me wonder if he was thinking about jumping. Or pushing. I have vivid memories of this day. We were staying in a condo in Santa Fe and then driving for day trips. That morning we knew we were going to be hiking so Dad said JHJ could not wear his black shoes because it was dangerous. Instead he had to wear white tennis shoes. Look closely and you can tell who won. I am wearing Doc Martin sandals (it was 1999, all college students wore docs), extremely practical for hiking. Good thing my dad never notices my feet.
Even with the black polyester, Mom wins the ugly shirt award–embroidered Noah’s ark on anyone older than three is a no win. Sorry Mom.
Happy Birthday Punk.
Filed under Boy is my face red, Family-blame the DNA | Comments (3)Snow Days
It SNOWED! I admit to having flashbacks of this time last year, but we kept power the whole time, had plenty of food, and nothing but fun. We all played for hours in the snow, snuffles be damned.
First snow angel!
I think he was still in shock this was happening in our southern town.
“Mama, the snow won’t go on my tongue!”
There is nothing like snow days to have an impromptu play date! W is getting huge already.
And this kid is way too cute for his own good.
I have a feeling we are going to have our hands very full!
This is O, three, one of our neighbors on the other side.
Her brother L, is five and such a ham!
On the second day we decided to drive the two miles to my parent’s house to have fun in their “un-played in” snow! They also had the ingredients for snowcream, and the grocery stores here had BARE shelves.
First up, a snow man! The whole family helped, even the reclusive JHJ.
I can not believe I posted a picture of myself with no makeup.
You know that my dad is a car junkie right? We decorated our snowman exclusively with things from his garage. His name is Greasey.
That beard really needs to go!
See that sled my baby is on? It was my Grandpa’s when he was a little boy. That is fourth generation tushie sitting on that sled.
Little punk hit me with a snowball! So I tackled him and covered him with cold kisses.
The Snowcream was delish and no one was injured during the snowball fight. (no pics of that, too dangerous for my camera!)
It was a good weekend, but not good enough to move north of the Mason Dixon.
Some of the photo credits from day two go to JHJ and The HUbs, but I have no idea who took what, so good job guys!
There will be a post with more words than pictures and this month’s postcard soon, I promise.
Filed under Family-blame the DNA, Photography | Comments (3)A limerick for my Father.
My dad is a nice guy named Barry
whose chin and cheeks have grown quite hairy.
The beard is short and normal in size,
but quite hard on my poor eyes.
I hope for a visit from the razor fairy!
ps. My dad’s name is not really Barry.
pps. Everyone hates the beard
ppps. he does not seem to care
pppps. Okay, I really don’t hate the beard, it is better than the handlebar mustache, but not as nice as his nice smooth cheeks.
The truth and nothing but the truth.
1. I scratched the windshield of thehuckablazer this morning by trying to de-ice it with an ice-cream scoop since I have no scraper thingy. It is the south people! TRUE. I need an ice scraper MAYBE three or four times a year. We do own a fancy scraper (with a big brush on the back and everything!) but it was buried in the garage and the three year old was already strapped in the huckablazer, and late for preschool. At the time I congratulated myself for my ingenuity. Whoopsy.
2. I not only wore my fuzzy warm jammie bottoms to preschool drop off but, to pick-up as well. And also for the rest of the day. TRUE. Three days. I spent three days only leaving the house for drive-throughs and drop offs and such, and um only wearing things bought originally for sleepwear. It was COLD! And I never get cold, so you know it was really, really cold.
3. All my child ingested today was Cheetos, water, and a hungry hungry hippo marble. FALSE. First of all, he has not put toys in his mouth for about a year now. Secondly–as a rule he only gets junk food if he has had something semi healthyish first. If I remember correctly, that day he had whole wheat toast with sugar free jam for breakfast, sliced chicken breast and cheese roll ups, fruit, pizza, milk, water, and yes–Cheetos.
4. The Son fell asleep during his stories tonight. The Husband and I finished the book. TRUE. See below. No nap. He was wiped out and fell asleep mid-story–and it was a good story! Just to make sure he was really out, and because The Husband wanted to see what happened, we finished the book.
5. One person in this house took a nap today. It was not the three year old. TRUE. It was me. I fell asleep and the kiddo sat next to me “reading” for a good forty-five minutes.
That was fun! Now you tell me your truths and lies!
PS. JHJ! For crying out loud. I am TRYING to give you a PRESENT! Not a jab in the eye! Here is a hint. It has to do with Belgian Surrealism.
Filed under Boy is my face red, Family-blame the DNA, Parenting for Dummies | Comments (6)BIG mess, BIG rocket, BIG plans, BIG talking toys, and BIG caves with BIG holes that cause BIG headaches.
Thanks for letting me take a break Internet. I never want this whole little project of mine to become a chore, so I need to step away and live life sometimes–BUT, I am back and with hopefully semi-regular posting again.
What was that? Oh, it seems my one remaining reader (hi mom!) wants to see some Christmas pictures before we move on. Okey-doke. Christmas is a week long affair which covers several houses for us. Christmas Eve morning we make Reindeer food. The Son and I have been doing this for three years now, and he enjoys it even more each year.
We usually try to invite friends over for this, so of course H was a must.
Recipe for Reindeer food: Cheap oats, a bunch of ‘em. A cupish of sugar for each kid to dump in. Whatever food stuffs you have laying around that a deer might eat. This year we added Honey Nut Cheerios and some popcorn. We have thrown in baby carrots and veggies in the past. Next a handful of “Christmas Spirit” stars aka, red and green sweet tart stars from the dollar store. Stir well. THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU CAN TASTE IT! I had to say that a few times this year. Okay then add a full container of EZfly sparkles (glitter). Stir again. NO EATING EZFLY SPARKLES! No! SON! NO EATING. I don’t care if you want to fly too! H! No, it is not funny! Stir some more. Normally we would then go dump it on the driveway for the reindeer to eat but, this year it was raining (MONSOON!) so we left it in its bucket on the front porch. Christmas morning the food is gone and snowy deer feet are in it’s place but see above about the rain. Instead the deer just made a mess on the porch.
After that we all have a nap and then get ready for church. The Husband, The Son and I were in charge of lighting the Christ candle in the advent wreath–and that went…um, well I guess. No one ended up in the burn unit. Halfway through my reading The Son said, “Mama! Ssssh! We have not put fire on the white one yet!” really loud and made the whole church giggle.
Then we ate yummies with church friends and family and went home to get ready for Santa.
There was Christmas morning at our house, but I only took one blurry picture because I was busy opening presents and such. Santa brought Buzz and Woody and we got the kid some educational games and such. Oh! And I got my flash for my camera! Poor Husband got floor mats for his car. That was Christmas one.
Christmas two: Down the road, still in our jammies, to my parent’s house. There it was really all about one thing. One very big thing.
Here is what happens when an only grandchild says he wants a rocket he can ride in to a semi-retired, mechanical engineer. All twelve feet of it now resides next to the swing set in our backyard.
Then over to Baby Arwen’s house for her very first birthday! Can you believe she is one? Me either.
Next morning we all slept way in and then headed west to the new elderbutnotold Huckablog compound for Christmas three. What you see here is something my child has wanted for a very long time. His very own rolling suitcase. He has been pulling it around and announcing he is getting on a plane to the North Pole.
His Gigi and Pappaw also got him this HUGE talking Rex. He is very cool, but we learned the hard way to turn him off or when the dog barks Rex’s chatting scares all of us! In the background you can see S, BiL’s friend. We all loved her, and are very sad she is back in China now.
This guy is the saddest though. Oh! he made me YamiYami sauce for Christmas. I already finished the jar.
Christmas four was with Shoeshe at AlmaMater–um, really it was at a Chuckie Cheese near Alma Mater. It was my first AND LAST time in one. Mr. Cheese will just have to get along without my family. There are no pictures of that because I was busy losing tokens left and right.
The final Christmas of the year was in Kentucky to see my Ma. The only time my camera left it’s bag was on our field trip to Mammoth Cave. It was big. Really, Really BIG. And this one sad blurry picture is all I got of my little trooper who climbed the entire trail, up and down all zillion and a half steps.
This was great–but concerning because of the big holes. REALLY BIG BOTTOMLESS PIT TYPE HOLES.
Oh, and the huge jagged rocks of death were a wee bit concerning too.
Luckily his daddy never let go of his hand. His daddy also never watched where, or when, his own head was about to ram into yet another low passageway. Oh, see all that green stuff? I thought they were lichens or something, but judging from the fact that I have had a migraine for the last five days and the only thing I am allergic to is mold and mildew–I am thinking it may not have been just lichens.
This is my cousin (actually cousin once removed, but who’s counting) Kenders. Isn’t she pretty?
She is Gabs’s sister. Gabs you know right?
So these two sisters are less than 18 months apart in age. Gabs lives with my Ma (Gabs’ great grandmother) and Kenders lives with my Aunt, who is her Grandmother. Ya following this? According to the adults in these girl’s lives, these girls hate each other. I spent the day with them, and they were perfectly darling to each other. I think they are just normal teenage sisters who sometimes behave like the insane creatures we all were when teenagers. I say this to my adult relatives–Stop putting your issues off on your kids. The end.
And so ends Christmas 2009. New Years Eve was spent on our way home and we celebrated midnight kissing in our entryway surrounded by suitcases.
Now that you are all caught up about us, what have you been up to these past two weeks?
Filed under Family-blame the DNA, Photography, lexapro lexplains it | Comments (4)Quote of the day.
These pictures have nothing to do with anything other than my mom likes pictures of my kiddo.
Somehow, not only for Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy that you give others is the joy that comes back to you. –John Greenleaf Whittier
Why is this today’s quote? Because today is the birthday of the person who gives out more joy than anyone I know. Today is the birthday of the person who taught me to have joy, and who gave me the tools to know true joy and grace. Happy Birthday Mom!
Filed under Family-blame the DNA | Comments (3)Finally!
We have this really long and wide mantle in our living room on which I keep pictures of our immediate family. I love it, they are one of my favorite parts of our house. My problem? The picture of my darling in-laws was fifteen years old. It was not even a great picture then, and yet it stayed in its silver frame right next to BiL because we could not NOT have them up there. For my Thanksgiving post I had to crop my baby’s head out of the picture!
I decided enough was enough and bossily demanded a photo session on Thanksgiving.
MMiL? I know that today is your birthday, but having lovely pictures of you was such a gift to me. Thank you and Happy Birthday! The top one is getting printed and put on the mantle ASAP.
