Life with Poot-n-Toots

waaaaaay back wednesday...

Some waaaaaay back Wednesday love, circe 1981. (my guess is that it's Christmas of '81 which makes me 4 and a smidge and Jared 7).

This picture just makes me smile. I'm essentially Ally's age and my older brother, Jared, is Paige's age.

Crazy. I don't think I feel old enough that both Jared and I have kids this age.

My brother and I weren't super close as kids. I imagine that we were typical boy/girl siblings.

He teased me. A lot. I pushed his buttons. A lot.  

He wasn't interested in my Barbies. I thought his legos were boring.

He hated being the center of attention, I loved it.

He gave irritating wet-willies. I gave eye-rolls and sighs.

He loved the beach. I hated the sand.

I loved to read. He loved music.

He sat in silence. I talked back. 

He was popular. Me...not so much.

I excelled in school. He excelled in life experiences.

He was good with words. I was good at sticking my foot in my mouth.

He was actionary. I was reactionary.

I was fearful. He was fearless.

Despite our differences, I always knew he would rescue me if I needed it (the neighborhood bully once teased me and Jared scared him off with a fantastic knife throw. real knife. which landed us both in self-defense karate classes. nice). He chose his words carefully and always doled out the perfect mix of support and comfort. He listened. He understood. I think the best part of siblings is that they get it. He was there. He lived it all with me. Jared still gets it. We may be different at first glance, but I think the core is the same.

 

   

By special request Way Back Wednesday is BACK!!!!

Kelly sent me an e-mail letting me know that it had been quite some time since I'd done one. I asked here what she wanted to see and she replied 'anything'.

So tonight as I was cleaning up and getting ready to host our monthly scrap group on Friday, I came across this fabulous-ness.

Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare to laugh.

A lot.

At my expense.

Today's installment of Way Back Wednesday is a series of my very own akward family photos (if you don't already know about this blog, you must head over there, I promise you'll laugh).

These photos were taken in 2000 and were our official engagement photos. Suffice it to say, they are TOTALLY 90's. I realize it was 2000, but really folks I'm always WAY behind in any trend.

Please remember one very important thing as you begin to snort, guffaw, drop-your-jaws, and shake yoru head in shock n' despair.... I ACTUALLY PAID FOR THIS.

So hold on to your hats and take a deep breath......

Behold the glory of Jason and me....

Wow.

Just wow.

No words.

O'kay I suppose I actually do have a few... WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING???? You want to know the worst part. I'm ashamed to admit that I actually used it on our wedding programs.

Go ahead an laugh. It's okay.

Oh....don't despair there are more..

Seriously? What are we looking at?????????? I can just hear the photographer 'look softly at the water and imagine your blissful future"

Um ok.

But this next one takes the cake. Really. It went a little like this:

Photographer- Jason, go ahead and step up on that rock over there...Joanna, stand 2 feet AWAY from Jason and lean waaaay in, put your head on his shoulder....Aha- I've done it. I've made Jason TALLER THAN YOU!!!!

 

Seriously dude. It's not a secret I AM TALLER! 

 

This last one here was probably the only 'normal' shot from the day. Thank goodness for this one redeeming photo where we don't look like awkward family photo spokespeople.

So there you have it. Jason and I in all of our bad-photography-glory. So here's the deal for those of you with blogs, I want to SEE YOUR AWKWARD PHOTOS. I know you have 'em. Don't be shy. Let the poor little pictures out.

I found some good material for the next way back wednesday post...stay tuned until next week. Thanks Kelly for reminding me to do this. 

Just for you April, a special way back Wednesday post. Can you believe it's been FIVE years????

*click the pages to view them larger*

 
 

*These pages are all digital and will be printed out at costco. Our scrapbook group has been slowly venturing out into the digital world. I'm still a little reluctant, since I LOVE the process of getting my hands covered in ink/glue and the 'community' of scrappers to chat/share with during the process of creating (since I rarely scrapbook alone). 

But, I am enticed by the speed of digital scrapping and the non-existent mess. Thank you Michele for the digi-goodness and the gentle push to try something new. It was easier than I thought, and quite satisfying to bring these pictures out after 5 years.  I've decided that the many 'holes' in my albums (mostly from 2005 and 2007) will be filled with quick digital pages. Thanks!!!1
   

 

It's been a long, long, time since I've seen this; but it continues to make me laugh each and every time....my very own first-grader's first-steps.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again.

If you can't laugh at yourself or your kids, who can you laugh at?

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

 

Since Paige has just one more day left...and well, let's face it, I need a good laugh (to stave off the tears) I've decided what better way to laugh.... than to laugh at myself.

Here goes...

Last fall, my Mom found some of my old report cards. Now let me preface this by saying, these aren't your ordinary report cards. They aren't standardized like today's report cards (no 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's), heck they don't even have grades. There's nary an A in sight. See, I went to a 'special school' called Open Classroom...it's kind of a granola school (Tiana- you're totally on my mind). Check out the links..really, there's some awesome tie-dye-wearing-birkenstock-sporting-teachers.

O'kay, all laughing aside...Yes, Mom, it *WAS* a great school, and I did in fact learn a lot...of course I learned at my own pace _{^{(read between the lines...'my pace' meant I didn't read until 3rd grade).....}}

but I digress, back to the report cards......

The district forced the teachers to give out 'real' report cards, but the teachers marked 'S' for satisfactory on every line. Because, really, it might harm our little egos to be given a grade. In addition to these pseudo report cards, we completed our own self assessments, which were clearly more telling. Each year starting in kindergarten we were given a little flower to color in. We were directed to color-in each petal category according to how good we felt about the specified topic.

Here are 3 examples....

 

Now, let's take a closer look....

Notice any similarities in the flowers?????????

Click on the last picture and look closely at the petals and comments.....

Got it??????

O'kay really???...Can you believe that I actually had the balls to write that my parents were just 'OK', my teachers were 'sometime mean', that my class 'need more book to read'...etc, etc. But by golly I felt FANTASTIC about myself. Man, I colored that whole 'SELF' petal in each damn time.

Now the comments are my favorite..here are some snippets, and since I'm a teacher, I've added the translations for these niceties:

"...She continues to exhibit very strong verbal abilities and shares her thoughts and ideas freely and easily"

TRANSLATION: she talks too damn much

"...she is terribly observant and is always aware of what's going on around her"

TRANSLATION: she's nosey

"...she is making much progress in her relationships with others..."

TRANSLATION: she's *trying* to not be so bossy

"...she is very inquisitive.."

TRANSLATION: she asks too many questions

"...she has a splendid sense of humor...she has a delightful sense of humor.....

TRANSLATION: No translation necessary, I *am* funny....(well, since I am FANTASTIC I'm allowed to  say that....)

O'kay...now let's look back and see what I wrote for 'Problems to work on__________________'

I wrote: 'talking to much', 'math' and last but not least 'being nice to other people'.

Um, o'kay, really? I had to 'work on' being nice? Man, my sarcasm must have put-off the other 3rd graders.

I suppose I've known I was a work in progress since the 3rd grade....

*check back tomorrow for a comparison kindergarten photo...

Since we recently took the girls to Yosemite for the first time, I decided that today's Way Back Wednesday Thursday post would be a tribute to our annual visits to Yosemite. As I've SLOWLY been making my way though the slides,  I've come across a ton of Yosemite pictures. I think we went there 1-2 times a year and stayed a few days each time in their tent-cabins. This collection of photos is from 2 visits: 1979 and 1980. My Grandma (aka 'Cookies n' Milk') accompanied us on both trips. My Mom and Grandma like to remind me of the trip in 1980, when I was barely 3, apparently I refused to walk for much of this trip and 'made' my Dad carry me. I think this just goes to show that I've been un-athletic (aka lazy) since the beginning. I mean, really, why walk if someone else is willing to carry you, right?

 

   

This post isn't quite *way* back Wednesday as these photos were taken this year...but they never made it to the blog.  I realized in posting both my Mom and Dad's 60th birthday celebrations, that I never did post Bev's (aka Nonnie, aka Jason's Mom). Bev turned 60 on January 1st. That makes 4/5 of our parents turning the big 6-0 this year.

            

The kids (Brianne and J) hosted the party at Bev's house....we had nearly 30 people come and had a blast. 'the girls' (as the 3 granddaughters are now called) wore their matchy-matchy Gymboree outfits given to them by Bev. Seriously, how cute are they? I mean really people, 2 girls matching is cute but 3? That's pure heaven! 

I can't post the photos of the other family members since I didn't ask permission....and I realized tonight that I never did get a photo of Bev with J and Brianne (sorry Bev)....

After looking at my Mom and Dad and at Bev, I'm reminded that 60 isn't quite as old as I'd once thought. The three of them seem much younger to me and I think they all look amazing as well. So to you-Mom, Dad and Bev, I'm hoping that the 60's bring you much happiness, much health and a bunch of new memories....

Convince me....

 

This week I decided to go 'old school' for Way back Wednesday. In this photo my friend Kristie and I are 14 years old and sophomores in high-school. Please note my rockin' bangs. Surely you remember this style? I split my bangs half and curled the top up and the bottom down...and followed that by adding a 30 second spray of aqua-net. Man, pair those bangs with my spiral perm and the bow (yes, yes, I DID make those for the entire squad) and I'd say I was looking pretty hot. Go ahead and laugh, really, it's OK. I really can't believe that this photo is 17 years old....sigh. I. AM. OLD.

...for the past few weeks Kristie has been bugging me to get on facebook. I've repeatedly said 'no way!' But she won't let up. She even posted a message on her 'wall' telling everyone to convince me to join, which she followed-up by forwarding me messages from some long ago friends. It was fun to see their messages, but I'm still not convinced..

I guess I just don't get it. I resisted the MySpace sensation (really, it's for teenagers right?) I tried to check it out, but it's a bunch of crazy pop-ups where you 'buy' pets and crap... The backgrounds and songs all made it so distracting that I could barely concentrate on the blinkies and buttons.

Then came facebook which I thought was intended to be the more sophisticated social networking site. I'm not sure what it is that turns me off....I suppose if I really wanted to still be your 'friend' I would right? I mean do I *really* want to get connected with somebody I sat next to in my 7th grade math class?

In all honesty, I didn't have a gigantic group of friends in school. I wasn't popular (heck, I was in colorgaurd for pete's sake) but I was okay with that. I had a nice smallish group of friends that I still keep in touch with. Somehow, the whole idea of 'poking', 'peeking', and planting 'gardens' and actually having to request a friend still freaks me out. I mean really, it was hard enough making friends in the seventh grade...I don't imagine I'm any better at 31.

Then there's the issue of privacy. I'm sure you're thinking I'm crazy, heck I have a blog where I put it all there right? Well no, not really. See my blog is private in the sense that the contents and the address aren't search-able. My blog isn't linked to any other sites (except for one friend's blog), so the only way to get here is to know my address. I have the power to control the contents and who sees it as well (typepad allows me to make it password protected, and I even have the ability to block specific IP addresses).

I think I spend enough time writing a blog and reading blogs...I'm not really sure that I have time for one more thing...does that make sense???

So back to the e-mail from Kristie...I just spent 45 minutes clicking from person-to-person and it was actually pretty interesting...Mind you, since I don't have an account I can only see the tiny little avatars (smallish photos).

I found this hilarious little article about the 10 people that will contact you when you have a facebook page...I guess this is what I'm afraid of.....

Long story not-so-short...this is where you all come in...leave me a comment and tell me why or why not I should sign up.....

   

This Way Back Wednesday post features me and my cousin Mia (Mia I hope you don't mind me posting this). I'm guessing I'm about 5 which makes Mia 3-4, so it's probably 1982. At the time we were the only girl cousins. I love that my Mom and Auntie Marcine put us in little matching dresses. This photo has been a favorite of mine for years...I mean, really, could Mia *be* any cuter? I think not. I love that we have our dolls in the photo too....in fact the blue dress on my doll is currently in the girl's doll dress up box and was made by my mom.