WHEN I WAS A KID...

I see blogs from time to time that post their own baby pics and so I decided to do that, too, seein' as how I'm runnin' a little low in the subject matter department today. Won't get any more new pictures of Europe from Josh until he gets home I guess, which 'll be Sunday week.

mom & dad both grew up in hometown. Mom worked at one of the banks downtown, dad worked at Penney's and then Sears. Drat! I think I left my photos of them when they were newlyweds at the farm !&&*^(@!$#^!@@. Oh well, guess I'll just show you a few of me. Mom and her friend Jimmie Sue were big shoe nuts back when, and they would go on their lunch hour to Penney's and look at shoes and to the dime store to have lunch at the fountain. Well, her and dad finally spotted each other and mom went for several weeks to spy on him and decide for sure whether she wanted to meet him. I guess she finally did after he caught her lookin' and smiled at her. A mutual friend introduced them, and they started dating and fell madly in love! They were engaged after about 6 months and married within a year. I came along a couple of years later...

Here's me at 18 mos. I have some older photos and a good little baby pic somewhere but I'll have to find it. Mom and Dad thought I was quite cute! My hair is still very curly. Mother would brush out my white blond hair and in a minute or two, it had sprung back up in little knots and ringlets. I still fight it to this day! (we're never happy with our hair are we?)

I think I mentioned once before how much I loved the Palladin show "Have Gun Will Travel". Mom and Dad bought me this little cowboy outfit which I absolutely LOVED and I rode my palomino spring horse thousands of miles watching Palladin and dreaming of becoming a cowboy when I grew up! I even had six-shooters! I never was much of a girly-girl when I was young...

Then here I am showing you a high school pic when my husband and I were only 17 and just started dating. This was at the Sadie Hawkins dance. I look back now and realize how young we were, but of course we thought we knew everything! We were highschool sweethearts from then on. I have known him since I was 16!

I don't know how this goofy Blogger is going to show these photos. It's jumpin' around on me and the photos won't stay where I put 'em!!!

Here I am at 18. This was my free spirit-hippie stage. I was a teen in the 70's - a little late for the hippie generation, but at 17-18, it all seemed so cool and romantic and I remember being said that it was all over before I was old enough to be a part. Of course, now in retrospect, I wouldn't dare be involved in all the stuff that came with being a hippie!!! I still feel like free spirit sometimes tho. It would be nice to really get into the artist/bohemian/gypsy/hippie personna and just be weird - aren't artists supposed to be that way? and wear lots of silver and turquoise and maybe have a nose-ring and a tattoo on my ankle? whadaya think dear readers??? then I could travel around and paint and sell my paintings on the sidewalk in California and Colorado for enough money to go to Europe and paint my way through Tuscany and Spain... sigh.... sounds purty swooft to me... no really, wouldn't it be nice to just escape sometime?

I think part of the free spirit thing is that at 52, I think I've finally gotten to the point that I don't care what others think of me, I care what I think of me. I'm comfortable in my own skin, no matter what it looks like, I'm comfortable doing whatever makes me happy and makes me smile, and painting my way through life and wearing what I want and gettin' into the artsy-fartsy thing might make me happy (all this according to the Lord's will of course) I never cared for big expensive houses, or expensive cars or clothes. The Lord provides me with everything I need and most things I want. He gave me a talent that I'm really wasting right now, what with work and all. I'm too tired to even think about painting when I get home from work, and laundry and housework and cooking are all screaming to be done first.

But NO! I'm trapped in this midlife, conservative lookin' body and family and lifestyle. EEEEk! I've turned into my mother, I'm exactly like her. How many of us said we were NEVER gonna be like our parents? I sure did! I couldn't wait to get out from under their wing, and then I couldn't wait to get back. Now I want to spend as much time with them as I can before they're gone. Guess that makes me a "mature" woman.

Speaking of which..... There's this real estate magazine-lette that we have around town where all the local realtors put ads for their realty in there and they always try to have some fancy-shmancy description of their homes. This goofy guy that I went to high school works for one of the realtys and several years ago, he worded his ad somewhat like this:

"This home......she has all the charm, elegance and gracefulness of a beautiful older woman..." CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY??? OF ALL THE NERVE comparing an old house to a woman! He was a PIG in high school, and by gum, he's STILL a PIG!!!!

How did I get off on that tangent? Ok, I guess I'm tired. I'm palaverin' again. I guess I need to git ya'll used to that word. Add it to your vocabulary girls - people may really think you're smart, especially you northern gals. Us sutheners generally know what that means, at least I think most of us do. Night, night- sleep tight - sweet dreams - I love you.... my mom and dad used to say that to me and my sibs every single night, with a kiss on the forehead (then say night-night), kiss on one cheek (say sleep tight), kiss on other cheek (say sweet dreams), I love you (kiss nose). I did that to my kids and still do when they'll let me! ...... sweet dreams.....