Photo by TaGurit(SS/NB) ><>.
Wow, this was a long time ago. Hard to believe it was 6 1/2 years ago. I was only 19 here (that's me, sitting front and center) and a new mom. My cousins (going counter-clockwise from the left) were 16, 16, and I think 14. You wouldn't know it just from looking... the gals in my family always look older than they are as teenagers... then we seem to get stuck there as we get older. I'm 26 now, but people still think I'm in high school at times... or more commonly just out. You wouldn't believe the way people treat me or the things they say to me when they don't know how old I really am. And then they find out and boy, are they surprised. I think that's why the doctors I take my children to also treat me like a young näive girl who doesn't know much about health care. Little do they know how much or how long I've read up on medical advances, general information, or issues pertaining to my family's particular medical history/problems. I could go on a rant about that itself for hours... but I'll save it for later. Got a pizza in the oven right now, husband's watching the Chiefs and Broncos game (go Chiefs!) and girls need a nap. Poor son is trying to interact with daddy, but *someone* gets really absorbed while the game is on... so I need to get off the computer and find something for him to do until the pizza's done.
Some other photos from when I was younger...
I was 15 here, I think. At the Alameda County fair with my sister and cousins.
I know I was 15 here. A friend of mine, his name was Jerry Ehlers, took this without my knowledge. I was helping him with a project for his photography class, and he said he needed me to stand there so he could get the right focus. Well, he took this surreptitiously while looking through the viewfinder. I was utterly surprised when he presented us with the 8x10 print.
Tthis one was taken during the same trip as the Gun-toting Girl Gang one. The border is hideous, I know. My mom had Microsoft PicureIt! Publishing, and it was a horrible program. Plus, I had horrible skills - so it came out horribly. ;) But man - we had fun. We'd gone to Raging Waters, and we were sunburned and tired.
Man - this is what I looked like 8mos. after having my son. I didn't look like this after having my daughter. It sure makes a difference when you're working as a lifeguard, in the water for at least 2 hours a day, working for around 35 hours a week... vs. being a stay-at-home mom, in a mold-infested apartment where you struggle just to take a full breath. (The apartment we moved into after I got married, had black mold all over the inside of the bathroom - and it spread over the entire apartment. When we moved out, we found black mold had completely grown through our bathroom wall into our bedroom [they had a common wall] and we had to throw out a bunch of stuff - and use rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide on a bunch of others - because mold had grown on them. Wherever anything had been up against a wall, the wall was moldy and the back of the furniture had mold on it. The entire time I lived there, which was when I got married in May '04 and got pregnant, till the end of Dec. '04, I had severe asthma problems. I lived off of my inhaler - and didn't take a deep breath the entire 8 mos. I was constantly wheezing, and couldn't sleep more than a few hours at a time. My blood pressure was sky high the whole pregnancy - about 30pts higher than normal [and even when I was pregnant with my other 2 it's been low.] That place was horrible. Oh, it was the Outlook Apartments on Ridgetop in Silverdale, if you were wondering. DON'T RENT THERE - EVER!!!)
This one was when my daughter - that I'd had the hard pregnancy with - was 5mos. old, on my first trip to Cali since I was 19. Look a bit different, huh. :) The photo is with my beautiful Great-Grandma Foster. She is the sweetest, funniest, fun-loving woman I've ever known. Most of our family is crazy - but she's just a whole lotta fun.
And how do I look now?
;P
