Memories

This week J and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. How crazy is that?! Ok. Not necessarily crazy, but I still sometimes think I'm the same age I was back then. And that I have the same body as back then. Nope. Not even close. But man, there have been tons of memories made in those 15 years. (We've known each other for 20, which is crazy too!) So these last few days I've been thinking about the past and the people we've known-not just within our marriage.

I was looking through the small scrapbook that I made with the snapshots that people had given me of our wedding, and so many of the people pictured are no longer with us. Well, not a lot, but enough-my mom, my grandma, J's grandma, J's aunt, my uncle. I am very thankful to have pictures of them from that day. We had talked about eloping, but didn't. I'm glad. It was a crazy day. It started out raining, so our photoshoot at Stan Hywet had to be cancelled and we ended up having pictures just at Firestone Park, where we were married. After the ceremony it had stopped raining so we were able to dismiss everyone outside so that they could blow bubbles and the room could be rearranged for the reception. J and I were able to get outdoor pictures then. It's fun to look back and see how young we looked! (T says that J had funny hair and that he prefers how he looks now.) 

Yesterday as I was driving up to the hospital, I flashed back to driving up everyday last year while C was in NICU. It seemed like every day as I drove in, the Swon Brothers "Later On" would play. That song would get stuck in my head and it would stay there all day. I'd finally get rid of it, start driving home, and dang if it didn't play again! I've had that song play a few times as we were on our way in for therapy, but luckily it didn't come on yesterday. (Had I had the radio on, it probably would have!)

Earlier this week I was given the opportunity to review some pencil grips. Now, something so boring and plain shouldn't bring back memories, but these do! Back in 3rd grade, our teacher Miss Logan, made a big deal about using pencil grips to hold our pencils properly as we were learning to write in cursive. We didn't call them pencil grips. Nope. They were called "hoochies". I still can see my mom's face when I came home and asked to buy a hoochie at the store. Miss Logan was a great teacher, she made me enjoy school again. She always had fun things to do and she always cared. I saw her again after I was an adult and I was subbing. She recognized me right away, and while she couldn't remember my first name right away, after I told her my class nickname, she did. (Everyone in our class had nicknames. I'm sure now it would be taboo to do something like that, but we loved it!) She also told us she was 85. I believed it and told my mom that. She had to go in to verify that she wasn't. 

Today was the last day of school around here. I know I sound old, but man, school was never out this early when we were in school! How do I remember? Because my birthday is next week and we were usually out around then, usually after. It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since I graduated from high school, and 17 since Kent.  My friends have been showing their kids first and last day of school photos this week. It's fun seeing their kids change in a year. 

I've been taking pictures of T and C everyday since they've been born. No, really. Every single day. With T's, I put them in a calendar, so May 29 would show on May 29, etc. I haven't updated the calendars in long time. C's pictures are just sitting on the external hard drive waiting to be used. I need time to work on them. I will admit, there are a few days that I have missed pictures, and I realized about a month ago that I lost a bunch of pictures. I was very sad. I know I should not rely on the Apple cloud to keep my photos safe, but I did. Ooops. I'll devise a way to mark those days in the calendars when I get to them. I showed a few of the original pages to T in his baby scrapbook. He really liked seeing what he looked like as a baby. His baby books are just his professional pictures. It's still 2 albums. I went every month until he was 18 months. That's a lot of pictures. Not to mention all of the photos I took! I'm hoping to do some scrapbooking this summer. I've been looking into digital scrapbooking and scrapbooking on my phone. (Someday I hope to have an iPad to scrapbook on too.) I really like the Project Life way of scrapbooking these days, and since I have taken so many pictures, I have a feeling it would be the fastest way to get semi-caught up. I have the app on my phone and I really do enjoy it. I can see why people enjoy scrapping this way. I do like physical scrapbooking to-don't get me wrong. I love being able to play around with paper and move the pictures around, and cut things with my Cricut, but sometimes I think digital is just nice. Not to mention it's not messy and I can work anytime-even if I'm holding C and feeding him a bottle! Can't do that with traditional scrapbooking!

Speaking of scrapbooking, one of my friends posted on her blog about the scrapbooks that she has made for her kids. Her youngest is graduating from high school and she showed a few of the pages in the book. I love how she used the text from Dr. Seuss's Oh, The Places You'll Go. It's a really awesome idea, and I might just have to copy it someday. ;) Of course, after I looked at her page, I started reminiscing to when we used to get to see each other. She has known me my entire life, so she would remember our earliest encounters. I have photos of those encounters, but I can't say that I remember them. I remember hanging out with her family in Virginia when we go visit them when we were on vacation. We would play pool in their basement and they introduced us to IBC root beer. We hadn't seen each other in a long time, and last year they were here so her daughter could do a college tour. We met up, and seriously, it felt like we've just been hanging out all the time! I suppose that's how it is when you have "family" like her. (She's not technically family. But I feel like she's a sister, and we have so much in common, it's uncanny!) I really hope that we don't let so many years go between visits again. If you're interested in seeing her scrapbook, here's the link. (I've enjoyed reading her other posts as well, and her 2015 book project? Someday I will get to read again and post my reviews. I miss writing for What have I read lately?. And putting my reads in LibraryThing. At least I have Good Reads to help keep my lists sort of current.) 

Dr. Seuss always had a way with words. "Sometimes you will never know the value of something,until it becomes a memory." So very, very true. Until next time.

**this blog contains affiliate links.