Tuesday November 6, 2007
Like I said, I’ve been tagged to post five random photos of myself. Five? Just five? I mean, how can you condense 29 1/2 years of living into five snapshots. I paged through pages and pages of pictures. Baby pictures. Playing church on the steps with Christy and Beth. Missing front teeth. Birthday parties. Moving from SC to VA. Adolescent awkwardness (that brought back a lot of memories of BEHAVIORAL awkwardness .. please don’t ask my mom for stories) … college textbooks, term papers, and furrowed brows. Chipmunk cheeks from oral surgery. Travelling to Belize and falling helplessly in love with David Lee. Parasailing. Hot air ballooning. Hanging out at the beach. Sleepovers. Pinning. Being awarded highest GPA of the graduating nursing class (a moment I spent three years working desperately for). Graduation. Travelling to Paraguay and Ireland and Belize. CCU days. Dating. Getting married. Pregnancy. Baby days. Working on our new house.
I still don’t know for sure what caused me to choose the pictures I did. Some of them are memorable life moments. Some are simple moments in time. Then again, some of the simple moments embody life, which is memorable in and of itself. So here they are. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. There are probably 10 instead of 5.
4 months old. Yeah, I came with hair.
And had issues with it forever after. I wonder if Mom wanted to document what I looked like in the morning when she took this picture of Christy and I and our cousins, Patrick and Christopher. Then again, maybe it was the cute pajamas. Or maybe we were just particularly sweet in the mornings. My face sort of belies that thought.
There really isn’t anything that outstanding about these pictures (except maybe my dad’s rain gear); but I found the page fascinating because it is pictures of me the same age Adam is now. I wonder if he could have changed Christy’s diapers. Yeah, probably so since he can get the washer and dryer going for me. And could he have “read” memorized books to Christy? Most likely he’d say long made up stories about the “work job.” He just put my panty hose on the other day so that one looks vaguely familiar. Somehow I think I look like a docile child in comparison. I hope some day I will look back at pictures of Adam when he is three and think he looks docile, too.
Every time I see this picture it brings out every ounce of oldest, assertive, capable sister in me. I can just hear myself explain to you that, “well, really, Christy didn’t ACTUALLY comb Beth’s hair. She just played with it b/c Beth didn’t like how loose it was when Christy did her hair so when I got done I would usually just do Beth’s over again.”
I still laugh (check out my wide open mouth)and shudder at this picture. Sheryl, Emily and I had just finished a fun sailboat ride and noticed these fisherman feeding some of their catch to a playful dolphin. It looked like so much fun I asked if I could feed him. They shared their fish. After I was done, they said the game warden arrests anyone feeding dolphins b/c it’s illegal. I sent furtive backwards glances all the way to car.
No explanation needed. Unless you really want to know how hard I worked and how good it felt to do this!
My life for a very long period of time. (No, Mom, you probably should not look at that second picture again.)
Simple moments. Happy days. 
This summer I found poke berries. They brought back so many memories of Sunday afternoon rambles with my family when I was younger. We’d paint our noses with “Indian war paint,” pick flowers, identify birds. The older we got the more we grumbled about leaving our books when Dad said it was time to go on a walk; but halfway through we realized we were having a lot of fun.
And one more photo with the one I love most of all. 
Isn’t he gorgeous?
And now that I’m done, it really wasn’t so bad. So with no ill-will whatsoever, I tag Amy, Katy, Gina, and Jo.
Oh, this was just so much fun! Sometime when we’re together we need to dig out our pictures and look at them. You can just imagine all the stories Beth would remember. As I scrolled through the post (laughing as much at the commentary as some of the pictures), I mostly saw your determined, full-throttle, do-it-till-I-reach-the-top energy. But then those painting pictures. Pity. I could almost get depressed looking at them. You did miss one picture; I want to see one of the baby bubble. Love you.
You don’t listen very well, do you???
I’m not making any promises here!
a job well done preggos! and i was gonna say what christy did at the end of her comment….i think preggos are so cute w/ their little bubbles justa waddlin around (yes, i know u don’t always feel cute, but it’s just so cuuuute)….maybe next post…
i’m working graveyard tonite…i reckon i should go sleep a tad
very interesting…and i’d say you’re both gorgeous, actually! (well, if you didn’t say it first, i wouldn’t say it about your husband!)
Interesting, now I know who you are on the mom board. My husband, Marcus, was at Bald Eagle around the same time as your husband.
Girl, you have NO idea what you just did, my pictures are who knows where??????? You might just have to wait untill 2008 to see them!!!! Pictures like this bring back lots of memories, sisters and all the fun times, fighting one minute and best friends the next. Interesting pics, and I will see what I can do
I enjoyed the pictures! but the picture of you on the ladder painting freaks me out!
Love this post!! It’s amazing how time goes so fast. One minute we’re little girls and mom’s combing our hair, and the next we’re graduating, then marrying, and then before we know it we’re watching, wide-eyed, as our own children are growing up as fast as we surely did. Thank GOD for cameras and pictures, though, right??
Were you really a docile child?
Docile people do not climb up on ladders 20 feet in the air and paint, is my thought on the matter. 
RYC: I was no docile child, either. Not even close. My mom and sisters do the SAME thing to me, they tell others how naughty and spunky I was, when I bemoan my own spunky four-year-old girlie. Merciless people, them. š
What goes around, comes around, I suppose. š
You make a good point. I don’t know what life would be like with a boring child, because all four of mine are anything but boring. And yeah, there are moments when I wonder what it would be like to be single, but I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.
I keep looking at your picture, and I am just certain I have met you before, although I was always on the fringe of the social circles, so I maybe saw you but never actually met you. Missy talks about you like you’ve known each other for years, but I have to remember that I’m 8 years older than her and now that she’s a CBS veteran she’s got friends from all over.
Love all the pictures. š I have to do this too and keep putting if off because I dread digging through all my boxes. š
I loved looking at all your pictures….the hair combimg one is great!:) And I’m freaking out at the painting one too!!
wow michelle……loved the pics….and the ones in the post before this! oh my the babies are so adorable! good good pics!! you are awesome. now …..i’m assuming the “katy” mentioned above …would that be “me”?? i promise i’ll get it done. that is …if…i can come up with 5 of em.
have a great rest of the week dear. i hope you’re feeling better. and yeah i’d love to see your bubble too. luv ya katy
yeah, we were at Matt and Diana’s wedding. LOL Came all the way from Ohio for it, too. But I don’t remember seeing you there. Were you servers? It was a big wedding, and I mostly remember how badly my children misbehaved during the service and not much more. š I don’t know if we were still going to Sharon Bethel yet, when you’d have had that reunion. Could be, but I just don’t remember. I always enjoyed hearing Roman Beachy preach. Gabriel is also still one of my favorite ministers to hear preach, too. š
Loved the pictures, Michelle. I would’ve had a precious one…all you needed to do is ask. You’re modeling your aunt Katy’s nightie at age four, approximately.
I know what you mean about the hair….I think now it’s so cute when I see it but when Ashley came with her mop of hair, I discovered it’s not that easy taking care of a baby with a lot of hair. Everybody wants to touch them, resulting in greasy hair and they never stayed in place so I figure people always wondered why, if I had a baby with so much hair, didn’t I wash and comb them???
Yes, our house seems to have shrunk in length, didn’t it?
Take care, chummy chin, you feeling better?
Adam: I will try to get some pictures of Quipment, or at least some worker men.
Very interesting collection of pictures! The one on the scaffolding is not funny! There is no way I would get out on that thing!! The hair combing pic is very cute! Love your caption for that one!
I thoroughly enjoyed looking at your pics! The one of the hair combing is priceless!
See, that wasn’t so hard! Loved looking at all of them!
These pictures are treasures, I often wished for pictures of my childhood but my parents were Amish at the time and weren’t allowed to do pictures š SAD š