Little boys

Several years ago, after Grant was born, Mom and Dad got Mick a book called “What Little Boys Are Made Of” for a Christmas gift. It’s filled with little poems, scripture and words of wisdom about little boys.  The cover looks like this:

The book is filled with pictures that are similar in style to this cover. For years now, I’ve wanted to try to take some pictures of Grant that were modeled after the book, but just haven’t taken the time to do it. With the start of a new school year, I’ve been more aware of how much the kids are growing, especially Grant, since he is now 5 and will start kindergarten. So, I took advantage of a free evening with nice lighting and shot some pictures.

Typically, I prefer close-up shots because I love to see facial expressions, but I liked this one a little further back so the old barn door would be included.

He was a very cooperative model, especially considering the fact I had changed him out of his swim trunks into this outfit right before he was heading out to swim with the girls.

This next one has a fun Picasa filter applied to it called “Cinemascope;” I think he looks like a silent film star here.  At this point, he was looking for bugs, lost in his own little world.

Now, look closely at his expression in this next picture and imagine a light bulb over his head. This is the moment an idea came into his 5-year-old, little-boy mind.

I think it was just before this moment that he became aware of the sound of the shutter clicking and remembered I was there taking his picture. He looked up at me and smiled this smile and I snapped it real quick, thinking what a nice smile it was. Immediately after I took the picture, he broke into this completely silly expression and froze.

Right away, I realized he was posing for me. So, I took another one as fast as I could … and he did it again … and again, giving me every silly face he could conjure up.

 

I wish we had video of this because I think even the pictures don’t completely capture the hilarity of these moments. In spite of each huge grin or outlandish expression on his face, he was completely silent and frozen between each picture, waiting until he heard me take the picture, and then he’d make the next face and freeze again.

 

Inwardly, I was absolutely dying with laughter, but I held it together long enough to keep taking the pictures until he was all faced out.  :-D

 

I loved these so much, I had to crop each picture to be able to see his expression more close-up. Just imagine a completely silent, frozen boy making these faces and you pretty much have it.

    

   

   

I’ve looked at these pictures many times and they still make me smile each time. :-)  After all these crazy- face pictures, it might seem like an abrupt change to end with such a serious expression, but I love this last one. It’s my favorite of the group. Or maybe the Cinemascope one. Or the smiley one. Maybe I should just look through them all again. ;-)

The John Deere people might be interested in this

Our pastor likes to play a little color game with Trent. He’ll say, “What color is a John Deere tractor?” and “What color is a Kubota tractor?”, etc. etc. This morning, Trent was trying to tell me what cereal he wanted for breakfast. The boxes were too high for him to reach, so I said “What color is the box?” He thought about it for a moment, then slowly said “John Deere green.” He’s learning, Pastor Mark!  :-D  This gets me thinking though, there a lot of things you can get these days with the John Deere logo. Don’t think I’ve seen cereal … yet.

 

“Bleak House” by Charles Dickens

 

Yep, this is how I sit when I read books, too.

Pictures, Video, Memories

A big job for special occasions these days involves gathering up lots of photos from the past. While preparing for their anniversary party, I think I had eight of Mom and Dad’s photo albums and numerous framed pictures and letters scattered around the kitchen. It was hard not to just scan them all, but I was trying to focus on the important, clear pictures that would help tell “their story.” Some of the photo albums were in pretty good shape, others were a little more worn; most of the pictures still looked good, if not a little yellowed, but I wonder how much longer they will last?

One of the things I found – a newspaper -- was getting dangerously close to tatters. The following family story, which the article describes, is why Mom has kept this newspaper for so long. On March 31, 1966, eight days before Chuck was born, Dad was involved in a terrible car accident that almost killed him. He was thrown through the windshield of the truck he was driving and landed in a field. He crawled to a nearby farmhouse for help. He was in such bad shape that the coroner was asked to prepare his death certificate. The story was picked up by a local newspaper and printed on the front page. I found that newspaper at Mom and Dad’s, which Mom has kept for the past 47 years. It was very yellowed and some of the paper was tearing at the crease at the end of the article, but it’s still very readable and I was thankful to get it scanned.

As a bonus, scanning in these pictures often revealed details about them that I’d never noticed – even in pictures I was very familiar with. When pictures are scanned, it allows you to zoom in on them, which sometimes reveals details that were otherwise too small to see.

For example, when I was working on the invitations, I ended up enlisting the help of a friend who does desktop publishing. When I gave it to him, it had this picture of Mom and Dad on the cover:

Mom has always laughed at this picture because she thinks they look so serious and, well, scared.  :-)

My friend suggested getting a higher resolution scan of it (which I did at FedEx Kinko’s for $0.89) so we could crop out the lower half of the picture, allowing us to enlarge it so we could see their faces more clearly.

When we first saw it on his computer monitor, I think I gasped out lout. Seeing the picture so up close changed my impression of it completely. Mom looks confident (even if she was scared to death!), almost regal. Dad looks proud and comfortable with her on his arm.

The process of gathering and scanning all these things to preserve them takes a lot of time, but it is so important. I realized during this process that we are in a unique position at this point in history. If we’re lucky, most of us have quite a bit of paper documents (letters, written genealogies, journals, etc.) and print photos that chronicle our family histories. We also have the technology to preserve these important things before they fade or are destroyed. I truly believe the longer it’s put off, and the more distant we are to the people in these pictures and documents, the less likely it is that they will ever be digitally preserved.

I was thankful to get many things scanned, but there is still so much more to do. A lot of our Worley photos are print; I don’t think we got our first digital camera until 2006. That means I have a lot of work to do before the graduations start rolling by in a couple of years!

Thoughts on Mom and Dad’s Golden Anniversary party

You know how you look forward to a big event, worrying about all the details, wondering how it will all pull together ... IF it will all pull together? And then the day finally comes and it ends up being even more spectacular and memorable than you imagined! That’s how my parents’ 50th anniversary party went.

Back in January, Jennifer suggested that Glenn and I be in charge of taking pictures of the day, but I knew even then that it would be very difficult for me to devote the time to taking pictures, so Glenn agreed to be in charge of pictures. Good thing. I ended up with about 25 pictures (Erica took some of the decorations); he took over 500.  :o)  But I will share the best of what I have because I really want to document everything while it’s still fresh in my memory.

The tent

The tent was put up on Wednesday and Mom was so bowled over by it she could hardly describe it over the phone. It took up most of their small backyard! It was tempting to drive down there just to see it, but I didn’t want to take time away from the scanning for the PowerPoint Presentation, plus several of the kids got colds mid-week, so I reluctantly decided to stay home and let the kids rest. We went down on Friday to decorate and it was HUGE!  The tables and chairs had also been delivered and friend Dayla had lent some of her white lights to decorate trees and bushes. Even with no décor (except the bunting Jennifer and Kelly made), it was just enchanting at night.

It ended up being a lovely, sunny day in the low ‘80s -- not too hot or humid. But, it did get warm in the sun, so it sure was nice to have the big tent.

The Balloons

Something I realized through this: you can never have too many balloons. The balloons were used to frame the big screen and also camouflage the tent poles. But lots of balloons also say this: today is a really special day.

When we got there on Saturday morning, a lot of the balloons had already been put up by the “balloon people.” It was incredible. Glenn actually took a funny picture of me standing there staring at it all with my mouth gaping open.  :-D

Mom

On Saturday morning, Heather did Mom’s hair and a friend did her make-up. She’d picked out a dress just a couple of days before the big day and kept it hidden to surprise Dad.

She looked really beautiful. The kids were still talking about her the next day, “Grandma looked sooooo pretty!” Even 5-year-old Grant told her. She really looked lovely.  :-)

Mom is posing with James, the man who constructed the giant record, book and vinyl record columns.

I snapped this right after she came out in her party glory.  She was surveying all her domain.  :-)

Her wedding dress was on display on a dressmaker’s form, which was slightly too big around for the dress. She was only 18 when they were married and had a 24-inch waist.

Dad

Days before the party, Dad ended up trying on the jacket he wore on their wedding day and it fit! So he wore that. Most of the people I talked to didn’t know it was the same jacket, because he wasn’t saying anything about it. A cousin told me she guessed when, after she complimented him, he said “Thanks. It’s an original.”  :-)

 

 

Grandma

Grandma (Mom’s mom) turned 92 in June and has been in slowly declining health the past few years. None of us would’ve dreamed she could be at the party, but a good friend from the rehab facility where Grandma lives made all the arrangements and it was a wonderful surprise for Mom and Dad. It was such a tender moment when they wheeled her into the tent - definitely a highlight of the day for all of us! And then we girls had to sing right after that! Not fair! We couldn’t look at any of them.  ;-)

Pictures and Memories

With the help of Rachel doing the picture arranging and taping and sisters and Mom helping with milestones, we set up 5 boards – one for each decade – along with highlights from each decade. That was fun, and it reminded me of how important it is to document your pictures! Mom has told me for years to write down dates and names on the backs of pictures. I was glad she has been so faithful in doing that!

It was amazing to me how many pictures we have of Mom and Dad, just the two of them, together. Amazing especially when you think of how many kids and grandkids there are. In fact, there were so many good photos of the two of them that I decided to put them all together at the end of the presentation, one after another, in chronological order

This is a collage I just created of the ones I used (there were more I kept finding after the fact!).

The Program

This is a copy of the program we printed outlining the order of singing and memory-sharing we did to celebrate the day. We printed off 12 of them and put them in clear, plastic frames on each table. No, I did not get pictures of the actual presentation, which involved singing and a slideshow of Mom and Dad’s “story”.  :-)  But Glenn did (hint, hint, Glenn!).

More pictures

More décor …

More fun …

(Most of the rest of these were taken once the party was winding down, and I could catch my breath long enough to pick the camera back up. :-)

Watching the movie “Up” after it was all over.

Kelly made badges for each of us girls to wear. We decided to use school pictures of us, because the guests who haven’t seen us since then might recognize us in pictures from that time. I didn’t realize until I saw this picture how much Claire looks like me.  :-)

 

More love …

 

Mom and Dad

They have always demonstrated so many important ideals in a marriage: teamwork, sacrifice, selflessness. Through the years, none of us kids ever doubted their complete devotion to each other. Anyone who knows them (from their church friends to the cashier at the grocery) knows also of their devotion to the rest of us, but all of the stability and love in our family flows from their special relationship.

This is from a note I wrote to a friend earlier today:

There are some marriages that make it to the 50-year mark, and you get the feeling that the couple just sort of dug in and stuck it out, gritting their teeth through most of it. Not so with my parents. Of course, they’re human and have their faults and weaknesses and I know they had rough patches through the years, probably even some times of “digging in” and “gritting their teeth.” But I truly feel like their marriage has been a “labor of love.” I remember having a conversation with Mom about marriage when I was a teenager. She said “We hear people say marriage should be 50/50, but Dad and I have always felt like the other gives 100%.”

Roadtrip Recap

It’s been a couple of days since we all got back from the great Five Sisters Room Redo of 2013 and we’re all still basking in the afterglow of a great few days together. I seriously think my stomach muscles are just starting to recover from all the laughing, which is usual for us, but was enhanced this time by shared family jokes and memories, loads of good chocolate, extremely late nights, missed exits and wrong turns, and interesting West Virginia locals giving vague directions. There’s just no way it can all be properly told here (nor should it be,  for that matter). To quote my brother-in-law:  “What happens in DC stays in DC.”

It was great seeing Minda’s home for the first time and my niece and nephews seemed to be genuinely tickled that we were all there. They started referring to us collectively as “the aunts.”  In fact, we all agreed that was one of the unexpected blessings of the whole trip: special time with these 3 that we’ve never had before. Since the Ramseys live out of state, we typically only see them a few times a year, and then, we’re all together and the cousins spend time playing with each other, of course.

Jordan (8) and Caleb (6) were especially excited to show us all of their baseball trophies and we were glad for the opportunity to go to one of their baseball practices.

“The aunts” would like you all to know that Jordan and Caleb are both very talented baseball players; in fact, we can say with great confidence and complete objectivity that they are by far the two strongest players on their team.

   

Some day, I think these pictures will be collectors’ items worth millions, because they were taken when their talent was only known by their family and baseball coaches.

They looked so cute in their baseball gear that I have to confess it did make me consider signing Grant up for tee ball. In fact, Jordan gave one of his gloves to me to give to Grant, so I think we might be on to something here.

In addition to baseball, another of Caleb’s talents that I learned about was his wide range of facial expressions. I can’t predict how this particular talent will serve him in life, but it did make for some fun pictures.  :-)

 

While the boys often found other things to do while we were there, Cameron just seemed to enjoy being wherever we were.

 

I’m not sure how scintillating our conversation was to her, but there was a lot of that laughing I mentioned early on. ;-)

I’m sure we all enjoyed the dinners we had crowded around their dining room table, sharing stories and, well, laughing.

OK, so we look pretty serious here. We were probably all catching our breath. I know the pictures are small, but do you really want to see close-ups of people eating? Kelly was just to my left. The one picture I snapped with her in it caught her just as she was putting a piece of stromboli in her mouth, so I did her a favor and left it out.  :-D

And the decorating – yes, the whole reason why the trip was planned in the first place! Minda’s guest room needed a new look, which translates to lots and lots of painting -- no surprise to us, since we are sisters to the Midwest Martha Stewart. Different shades of white were purchased in gallons and spray cans. We all knew the results would be dramatic. And they were.

Here is just one example of a cheap Goodwill lamp before and after

Another example is the bed:

 

Even the matting of this print got a makeover with white paint:

 

One fun project was this little seat that went with a vanity. The only before shot I got of it was this:

After a trip to Goodwill, where we purchased a dress with fabric we loved, the seat was transformed!

First a little cutting …

… then a little stapling (how many women do you know who smile like that with a staple gun in hand?) …

 

… and voila!

By Wednesday late afternoon, the decorating was finished and after dinner, we were gearing up to leave. We finished with a couple of quick songs on the piano and posed for some pictures. We girls and Jordan went to a frozen yogurt place for one last hurrah and then we headed out. The epilogue to this story was an after-midnight, hair-raising ride through the hills of a small West Virginia town. I’m sorry to say that I will not be recounting that trip; it will mostly live on safely in our memories. Except for perhaps a badly-executed karate move, that I might be persuaded to perform by special request only.

We did spend several hours in the car working on the plans for Mom and Dad’s upcoming anniversary party, boy was that helpful. We got a lot figured out, and documented, thanks to our secretary.

(Yes, she’s writing on the page of an atlas. We sometimes get desperate in this nearly paperless age of electronics)

 

and yes, we had more Peanut M&Ms.

I got home around 5:00 and was greeted with great fanfare.

(One of my favorite stories about what happened here at home while I left was when Trent said to Rachel: “Are you my mommy now, Rachel?”)

I think I can safely say that for each of us, we were eager to be back with our families, but a little sad the trip was over. It all just couldn’t have gone better from start to finish and we are just overwhelmed with thankfulness for God’s many blessings.