And on a lighter note...

While I was home for the holidays, I scanned a pile of family pictures from when I was growing up.  It was a fun trip down memory lane.  With a few exceptions, I was familiar with most of the pictures and it was fun to remember/laugh/sigh about those many moments that made up my childhood.  That's all well and good.

However.

This time around, I also paid much more attention to what was happening in the background of these pictures.  Have you ever focused on what's going on behind the kid blowing out the birthday candles?

 (My fifth birthday and my AWEsome heart-shaped cake)

This is actually how I think of my oldest sister from the time I was but a wee babe until I was....12 or 13.  There was a lot of teasing/bossing/bugging/tormenting that happened during that time.  Glad to say we are excellent friends now, despite that history.  But honestly, I can say I'm thrilled to have pictoral evidence of this Sarah.(Also, check out my mom's hair!  So black...)

 This was one of our piano recitals.  While I would love to say some things about my sister's AWEsome outfit (why yes, that is a ruffle...), a perusal of the background shuts me right up. 

I look like an overgrowned tomboy (bruised shins and all) stuffed into a ridiculously frilly frock.  With frilly socks.  For those of you who wonder about my aversion to poofy dresses and gettin' all gussied up...I'm fairly convinced this is where that aversion stems from.  Clearly, I didn't love it when I was nine...not much has changed on that front...

Wow.  There is so much to say about this picture:

Yes.  I'm sitting on a "potty chair".

Yes.  We had a potty chair.

No.  I have no idea where the piano bench is.  We had a piano bench.  My parents still have a piano bench.  Where the heck was the piano bench in this picture?

Is that a sack of garbage on the floor? Old clothes?

I'm wearing a pair of awesome jammer shorts I sewed.

And holy cow, I have a ridiculous amount of hair. 

And I'm sitting on a potty chair.  Moving on.

What a nice picture of my dad with a fishing pole circa 1987...

...and my lovely face.  Thanks be to whoever snapped this picture at this moment.  I find it priceless.

I love old pictures.

Otherwise, how would I possibly have remembered cheering my brother on in a blow-the-boat race at a Scout meeting...next to my best friend Emily...with my My Child Doll nestled in the crook of my arm.

I wouldn't have.  Because I didn't, until I saw this little gem and then it all came back to me.  The feel of that pink sweatshirt (I loved that sweatshirt), the fuzzy face of my doll, the smudged lipstick Emily and I had painted on our dolls' faces for blush.

I'm glad for pictures with backgrounds in them.  They say so much of the life at the time.  I have renewed my effort to make sure I don't cover the background in pictures I take these days.  Who knows what gems I'll find 20 or 30 years from now that I overlook now.  Have you checked the backgrounds in your old pictures lately?