Gasp! Buried Treasure!

When I was working on my degree and certification, I had to take a class on how to use a computer. (Family: have you stopped laughing yet? Ok, I'll go on.) One of the things that I had to do was create a website with a PowerPoint-based photo slide show.

Today, I found those photos on some old 3.5 disks! I thought they were lost. I give you now a quick (somewhat incomplete) peek at my life and family in photos, circa 2003.

Granny Weidler

Great-Grandma Hutchinson

Grandma and Grandpa Hutchinson

My Mom

Me

Me at age 3

Me in Kindergarten

Grandpa and Me, Sault Ste. Marie

Grandpa's 70th Birthday party

Me with Mom

Me with Mom and Dad


Me with Mom and matching perms
(what exactly were we thinking?!)

Wedding Day with my Jim!

The infamous Marker Boy

My lovely daughter in a jacuzzi tub.

Probably my all-time favorite photo of Jimmy, age 3.

Little Annie in Kindergarten after her first big hair cut.

Me and the yearbook kids from my student teaching

Me, 2003

...and a gracious good evening to you.

My dad says this ALL the time when he calls me on the phone. It's like his catch phrase or something. :)

I get to see him today (probably) because I bought him a present on our recent trip to Michigan. That's why I wasn't posting, BTW. No internet access for me on the trip until near the last day.

So what did I get him for a present?

Pop, Pickles, and Chocolate Sauce.

(Really?!)
(Yes, really.)

When one of us goes home to MI, we always buy pop, pickles, and chocolate sauce. Why? Because there are three things that we love that you can't get in VA.

Pop

Pickles

Chocolate Sauce

Yum!

Memories

Isn't it funny how a powerful memory can be triggered by something tiny? A sound, a smell, a jingle, an old photo...?

Every time I hear a mourning dove, suddenly I'm at G'ma and G'pa Carley's house. I can smell the water of the lake and hear the cuckoo clock, and I can see the canal out front. All from a soft coo of a bird.

Or, fire up a grill and throw some chicken on there, or give me sun-warm raspberries, and suddenly I'm out back with Grandpa Hutchinson and he's making chicken for us while I roll down the hill and raid the berry patch.

One of those moments happened to me at church Sunday morning. I was walking down the hall and glanced into the youth pastor's office. I saw this:

Suddenly I was a little girl again, and I wanted my daddy. This green suitcase, a bit beat up, made me miss him so bad!

We used to have those suitcases - a whole set of them. I remember that I loved how hard they were; they seemed practically indestructible. They had a silky lining, with little elastic pockets around the edges. And they smelled funny. They always smelled funny.

I haven't seen one of those suitcases in 20 years, probably.

I think I'll go call my Dad.