Don't forget, don't forget, don't forget!

I'm hosting a 100 celebration.
You are invited to the party.

Join us by leaving a comment on Centenarian.

You may win a pretty little package.

I choose some lucky someone tomorrow, June 1st.

Could it be you?

oh for cryin'outloud

Every.

Single.

Time.

It seems that I bring snow to Utah.

May 24th, 2010.

This is what I see:

The snowflakes are ginormous--more like a snowflake colony.

And I won't even make any Utah jokes here...

But the snow's worth it.

This is why I came:

(Brand new niece... and some of her sibs)

 (babysitting tip: feed them chocolate and let them watch a movie.  It's a snap and I am the best aunt ever!)

(Lyndee getting ready for our family reunion in Hawaii...okay, okay, it's a jaundice thing)

Things got looking better.  This was the next day:

Lovely lovely baby girl.

Lovely family.

And a bonus lovely:

I got to see Rose.

 (No, this baby is not Rose's--she is a proud cousin!  Though I got called "Grandma" once.  Sigh.)

Centenarian

I confess.

I fast forward during the centenarian celebrations on the Today Show.

While I am wowed by these folks turning 100+ years old, I cringe when I watch Willard Scott.

(I'm sure he is a nice man, but his television persona is embarrassing).

However, today I celebrate being a centenarian myself.

I'm 100+.

Not 100 years old, but publishing my 100th post.
Don't fast forward.

To celebrate my writing tenacity...
and your reading tenacity...
I'm hosting a party.

Well, a virtual party.

A giveaway party.

One guest will receive their favorite earrings from the Tallulahs website.

Here's how to join the party:
1.  Enter by leaving a comment telling me which earrings on the website are your favorite.

2.  You will be entered twice if you also mention a favorite post from Lottie Bird.

3.  You will be entered three times if you are a return commenter.

How's that for self-promotion?

 My personal favorite are the Venus Earrings which are found in the Helen Tribute Collection.
I wear them all the time.

I also love the Smoke Gets in Your Eyes earrings from the Mimi Tribute Collection.
They go with everything.

I will choose a winner June 1st.
Check to see if you are the lucky one.
And to give me your contact information so I can tell you personally that you won.

Well, virtually personally.

But please don't invite Willard to the party.

I don't want to hurt his feelings.

Incognito

I had to chuckle when I uploaded photos this morning.

I was surprised to find an incognito animal menagerie in my camera.

(Jenny)

(Simon)

Hmmm...

I wonder who disguised the pets?

 (Trudy--thank goodness these weren't the glasses with a nose attached.  I love Trudy's ginormous nose!)

Does the little hand give you a clue?

What about the "silly bands" on that hand?

Any guesses?

And your first two don't count.

Driving up

Years ago I realized how happy I felt driving up to my house when flowers greeted me.

I knew then that flowers were worth the effort.

And expense.

 (Trudy's greeting is a bonus.)

You must know how I felt as I drove up today.

And you must know that our backyard does not get this treatment--

I am all about the drive up.

Well, and porches.

Back when I had hair

I feel like a Chinese Crested.

Only backwards.

 (now I've gone and done it--my head looks so big!)

Back when I had hair...

Why did I want this haircut so badly?

Why did I have short crops on my vision board?
Why didn't I remember that I have aged 10 (plus) years since I had such a cut?

Why didn't anyone tell me that my moppy messy hair suited me?

And why didn't anyone show me these pictures before I went under the scissors?

Back when I had hair.

I am not fishing for compliments. 
So don't bother telling me how great this cut is.
I do love the cut. 
I just don't love it on my head.

A Stoop, or Almost A Porch

Doug and I once had a house with a porch.  

I remember sitting on the porch of our yellow cottage while swaying on the black shaker swing.
The geraniums on the railings made me smile.
So did listening to 3 year old Rose laugh with her friends as they played on the lawn.
Neighbors waved as they walked past.
It was a lovely porch.
And it is a lovely memory.

I wish I could show you that porch in my memory.

But surely a photo wouldn't do it justice.

Now I have a stoop instead of a porch.

And on it we live our lives.
And take portraits.
And visit with neighbors.
And watch life happen.

(Halloween 2008.  Trudy and Olivia as matching fairies.)

(Easter 2007.  Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of our whole clan?)

It will suffice.
For now.

Yet I will dream of the day when I again have a porch large enough to hold a swing.

And geraniums on the railings.

Olivia and Olivia

Oma made Olivia an Olivia quilt.

Do you know the book?

Do you know the girl?

Say "yes" to either of these and you can say "yes" to both.

Mothers and more mothers

I once heard someone say:

"If a mother can love more than one child, why is it so hard to believe that a child can love more than one mother?"

(I know we are related because neither of us are photogenic.  We are both much more ravishing in person.)
 

Stephanie is one of my mothers.

I call her Oma.

Happy Mother's Day.

Where life happened

In Sociology 211 we once read about social classes and porches.

It was stated that the lower socio-economic class would sit on porches in the front of their homes.

While the middle class spent their time in private backyards.

(My childhood home in Idaho.)

This was news to me.

You see, my childhood was spent on our front porch.

Were we poor?

(The porch was a place for portraits.  I am the darling urchin skipping rope.)

Or did we just enjoy visiting with strolling neighbors,

listening to the sounds of a distant ball games,

and watching life happen in front of us

as we sat in the embrace of my mother's petunias and daisies?

  (I know Dad took this picture because it is what Mom would call "skeewampus.")

(Before the Pinoneer Day Parade.  I guess Kevin was not such a happy Indian to be posing on the porch).

(Kevin and Julie making snowballs.  I was a sleeping baby at this time.)

(This is one of the last pictures taken on our porch.

If Mom were still alive, she would "skin my hide" for posting this photo.)

And where does the upper class spend their time?

On yachts I presume.

Or playing football on the lawn of their Hyannis estate.

What do sociologists know?

Maybe the divide is not about socio-economic demographics,

but rather the Mrs. Kravitzes vs. the non-Mrs. Kravitzes.

If you don't know who Mrs. Kravitz is, you are probably sitting on your backyard deck right now.

Am I right?

signed,

Mrs. Kravitz

Wedgies

If you know me at all, you know: 
I love traveling.
I love watching people.
I love shoes.
And these things all go together.
This is what I noticed in Spain:

the women all wear heels.
Usually wedge heels.
When they go to work, they are in heels.
When they go shopping, they are in heels.
When they go for a walk, they are in heels.
I saw women on the beach in heels.
Even women with canes wear heels.

Rose and I watched from a distance as this woman walked to mass.

 In heels (well, practical ones).

Rose was more Spanish than I.

Often I had to sit.
Do you know how hard it is to wear heels on cobblestone?

Funny thing, as I was looking at the Spaniards' feet, they were also looking at mine.

 

Because eventually I gave up.

Sigh.

I really want to wear cute shoes every moment of my travels.
But sometimes I am weak.

when I was 10

I don't remember my 10th birthday.
And I can't find a picture to remind me.

But I do know I was not this cute. 

A great moment in time.

Two sleeping kittens and a big sister on the phone.

I hope she remembers it.

Happy 10th Olivia.

Do you remember your 10th?