Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Left to Right - Mom, Jim, Regina & Sue in front. No Edy yet!


Left to Right - Dad, Dad's Mom, Dad's Dad, Mom & in front Sue, Regina and Jim (Mom's lap) at the Memorial Street house in the dining room. No Edy yet!

Mom and baby Regina

Baby Suzie Video

This is a 2-minute video clip of me as a toddler. I'm guessing it was the summer of 1965. I was in Great Falls, Virginia with my parents, of course, at my paternal Grandparent's farm. At that point in my life, I was the only grandchild. It's not that exciting, but if you can hold out until the end, it's worth it. The last 25 seconds or so show what happened one time when Grandpa was in charge of watching me. At least that's the story I've been told.

Baby Suzie

I came across these baby pictures of mine that I had scanned a while ago. Thought I'd share them. In this picture, I was 14 months old.

Then I decided to compare pictures of Katie and me at about the same age to see if there is any resemblance. I suppose there is a little bit. When I go home this weekend, I'll pull out some of Katie's younger pics to see how they compare, too.

Christmas 2005 Video Flashback

This morning after I dropped Katie off at school I continued on to run a couple of errands, one of which was to shop around Linens and Things to take advantage of their going-out-of-business sale. I volunteered to get some things for Christmas for two needy families in the area. I figured I might as well save some money while I'm at it, right? Anyway, I was walking around the store and of course they're playing Christmas music now. The Christmas Canon by Trans-Siberian Orchestra came on and I was overcome by emotion. My eyes welled up and I had to pause and listen. Sounds corny, I suppose, but this song immediately brought back memories of when we had just moved to Fall City and Katie hadn't even turned two yet. In my Christmas 2005 DVD I distributed that year in Christmas cards I used that song at the end when Katie was experiencing her first snowfall. I adore that part of the video. As soon as I got home, I put it in and watched it. Seeing Katie, my sweet baby, again at that age filled my heart with such fond memories. I can hardly believe she's turning FIVE this year! Anyway, I figured out how to transfer the DVD to a format I can upload to the blog. Don't worry, I'm not uploading the entire 30-minute DVD. Just the last 3 minutes. So, if you're interested, here it is.

I was also reminded of some feedback I received after I sent out that particular DVD. A family member who does not have any kids said that after seeing all the footage of Katie, especially the end where she discovered snow for the first time, he realized why people have kids.

Baby Gina and Her Sister Sue

A few years ago I had Regina's family's home movies transferred from 8mm film to digital cassette tapes. Then I transferred the footage from digital cassette to DVD. I made copies of the DVDs and Regina's parents gave a set to each of their kids. I think it's so wonderful they can now look back at their childhood so easily, anytime they feel like it! It's a good thing we did it when we did because the 8mm film was certainly suffering damage due to the natural aging process. Eventually, it would be impossible to transfer.

These pictures I've posted here are still-frames I extracted from the footage after it was transferred to digital. The bald-headed toddler is baby Regina and with her is Sue, her older sister. In the last picture Regina is being held by her Mom. The year is either 1961 or 1962.

Looking Back - May 3, 1966

Two-year-old Suzie already in love with cats!

Looking Back - May 3, 1964

Awww, there I am, 2 days old, with my very young parents.

Surely they must have been freaking out a little bit

about what they'd gotten themselves into!

Childhood Photos

Oh boy, look at these! The blonde is me, if you didn't already guess and the other little girl is my cousin Chrisi. We spent lots of time together and were the best of friends growing up together. Chrisi's Mom was going through some old pictures, came across these and thought I might like to have them. They arrived in the mail yesterday. Yes, most definitely! I'm thrilled to have these!!