These were the days . . .

We are getting snow. And lots of it. At first they said 5-8 inches. Now that we have almost that much on the ground now, they are saying up to 15 inches now. This winter has been the craziest I have ever experienced in my life. They say blame it on El Nino. Always someone or something to blame, ya know? But in the past 3 months, we have had a powerful ice storm, then 60 degree weather in December, and now 15 inches of snow. Who would have thought?! The last time I remember both an ice storm and snow that came up to my knees was when we lived out on the farm 15 years ago. This is fun. I actually really like it. I love being snowed in. It's the farm girl in me, I suppose, when we had no choice in the matter and sometimes we were snowed in for days and days until the county crews came to plow us out and in the meantime found lots of ways to keep ourselves entertained.

So I have time, and apparently lots of it, so I thought I'd share more pictures from my past. How about a few funny ones? Here's Neil in junior high basketball. I won't even tell you his number. He's pretty easy to spot. Hope you get a good chuckle.


And then Neil and I in high school when we first started dating. I looked at this picture and thought, "oh my God I am getting old." For the first time, looking back at pictures from 1993, I see myself and see youth. I guess having 2 kids and being almost 31 will make a gal feel old. I long for times like these. Neil and I had the best time in high school. So innocent and free and having no worries. But also having really bad style. But the thigh highs are back "in" and so are mini-skirts. So don't laugh at me. You can laugh at Neil, though. Ha ha ha ha HA.


And then Neil and I before his graduation in 1995. What a good lookin' guy. Man, I cannot believe we've been together for 14 years. Holy cow. I guess that tells our age. I'm finally starting to feel a bit old. Oh these were the days . . .


And then there is this picture, one of my very favorites, of my girlfriends and I on the 4th of July waiting for the fireworks to begin in, I think, 1996? Nat, Kalina, me and Stacy. Oh how those were the days, too.


And then in college, down at SIU in Carbondale, right after we got Frankie, we began a daily ritual of going to this park, an Aroboretum, to let her loose to run. I started really getting into my photography about this time. Here, I set up my camera on a stump, and took a self-portrait of us. How lovely.

I look forward to our new house. We'll be right next to a large beautiful park. I hope we can begin up a new ritual where we take not only Frankie, but our kids as well, to the park every day. So many great memories to look back on, but so many great things to look forward to also. I know this is cheesy, but it's true . . . life is wonderful.