SFMTY - Kitty-Cat Cake

Last week, at the SFMTY carnival, Wilma posted a picture of a Winnie the Pooh cake she tried to decorate for Pebbles. I thought she made a really good attempt. I promised to share my efforts at cake decorating.

Behold, my kitty-cat cake:

Actually, this was my second attempt. This cake was served at my youngest daughter, Malia's, first birthday. My first attempt was this same cake, 21 months earlier, at Janae's 1st birthday. Her cake was green. I don't know why since I had never seen a green cat! I suspect that it was because green food coloring was what I had on hand.

I've searched through all my pictures and I can't find a picture of the green cat. I'm pretty sure it is on the VHS video we took of her birthday. It's too bad you can't see it, because it was something else. From cutting the cake into shapes to assemble my cat, crumbs collected all over the top. Being the culinary genius that I am, I did not brush all those crumbs off; therefore, the green cat had chocolate freckles all over his body!

I got the idea for the kitty-cat cake from my trusty Betty Crocker's Cookbook. The cookbook is a classic, but I don't know about that cake!

If you'd like to see other humiliating photos, head over to Marcy's at The Glamorous Life Association. She is now hosting Sincerely 'Fro Me to You.

SFMTY-Return of the Sailor Dress

Remember a while back I shared a photo of me in a sailor dress? Well, here's another one. In fact, this may be the very first sailor dress that I had. I'm probably about 3 years old in this picture. That's my dad holding my hand - probably the reason I'm smiling. I just loved my daddy!

Note the well-used dolly that I'm holding around the neck. I've been told that my dolls were always naked. It's just how I rolled.

For more embarrassing photos, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

We were just talking about change being a part of everyday life this morning at coffee break time, and then I checked Kristen's website and found that change is here again. This is the last week SFMTY will be hosted at Kristen's and next week will be at Marcy's. I guess I'm prophetic!

Thanks, Kristen, for introducing me to the joys of sharing humiliating pictures. I found there is a purpose for everything -- even bad photos! God bless you!

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You-'Rents in the 50's

I love Thursdays when Kristen hosts "Sincerely 'Fro Me to You," a blog carnival where we share either humiliating pictures or else pictures that we have not got around to putting in a scrap book. Most of mine fall in the latter category, since I have great intentions to scrap but terrible follow-through.

Anyway, today I'd like to share one of my favorite pictures of my parents. This was taken sometime in the early to mid 50's. My mother hates this picture because she doesn't like her hair or her glasses in it. Nowadays, people wear glasses like that and I've seen similar hairstyles around town. I think she looks good.

What's cool is that I can see my nephew in the shape of my dad's face. I just love old family photos!

If you'd like to see other great pictures, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

SFMTY-I Love Mom

Ever notice when you buy baby things how much stuff is out there that says, "Daddy's Little Girl," or "Daddy's Princess" and "I Love My Daddy"? When my three baby girls came along, I had tons of t-shirts, bibs, and onesies that had phrases about Daddy, but nada about Mom. It was so unfair! Who did all the work getting the baby here, anyway?

But my day has come:

This is my daughter, Liss, wearing my favorite of her shirts. I love that shirt. When it's no longer wearable, I want to make a pillow out of it.



For more photo fun, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

SFMTY-Leavin' on a Jet Plane

This morning, I was listening to Joyce Meyer teach on finances. What a way to start the day!

She said that if you can't pay for a vacation without using any credit cards, you shouldn't go. Bummer ... that statement confirmed what I already knew ... unless something miraculous happened, this summer we'll be sticking close to home ...

I started thinking about past vacations. Of course, today being Thursday, I was thinking about what picture to use for Sincerely 'Fro Me to You. I decided to use this picture from the past. This is a picture of my family (before my sister was born) going on a vacation to New Orleans. This was probably taken in the mid 1960's. I doubt if my parents went into debt to go, because my dad worked for Eastern Airlines and we got to fly for free (well, he had to pay the taxes).

It was a requirement that if you were an employee of Eastern, you had to dress in your best to ride their airplanes. Therefore, we dressed in our church clothes to board the plane. Don't you just love my little brother's hat?

Be kind, and don't say anything about my knee socks and frizzy hair.

Ahh ... the memories ...

If you'd like to see more photo fun, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

SFMTY - The Way We Were

I like to do then and now pictures. I think it is fun to compare how the years have changed a person. Below is a picture of my hubby and me about 33 years ago. This was taken at my granny's house a couple of months before our wedding.

It's so funny to see how thin we were! And our hair color! Gotta love those big glasses I was wearing, too.

Next is a picture of us 32 years later. This one was snapped at a state park in the midwest. This is one of my favorite pictures because you can just see the mischief in my hubby's face!

Visit Kristen at We are THAT Family for more fun photos.

SFMTY-Beach Bonnet

Today is one of my favorite days of the week, Thursday, and time for Sincerely 'Fro Me to You, a blog carnival featuring humiliating photos that never get scrapbooked. Usually I just go with the idea, "here's a picture that I like but I never have time to scrapbook it, so I will share it with you."

Today, this picture came to my mind because I've been longing for sunny days. Here in the midwest it's nothing but gray dreary days or else bone chilling weather with winter advisories proclaimed throughout the day. (I've got the Weather Channel on my computer. It starts flashing red at me when a new advisory is posted.) Wah! I want to be warm again!

Ok, I admit it. I whine when I'm hot, too. I'll work on being content whatever the season.

This is my hubby last summer when we were at Tarpon Springs, Florida. He won't care if I show you his pic with him wearing my daughter's floppy hat. Because he is secure in his manhood.

For more photo fun, visit Kristin at We are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You - Oh, Those Sailor Dresses

It's time for Sincerely 'Fro Me to You again. Each week I have trouble deciding whether to post something cute or humiliating ...

Recently, I posted a picture of me in Junior High wearing a purple sailor dress. In keeping with my theme, here is a picture of me in grade school also wearing a sailor dress. This one is in traditional colors, but note the hairdo. My mother achieved this look for me by rolling my hair up in pink sponge rollers. And the bangs? Well, I don't remember it, but surely she put a bowl on my head and cut my bangs around it!

To see more great pictures, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family!

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You - Now & Then

Today is the day for the meme Sincerely 'Fro Me to You. The idea is to use pictures that wouldn't be scrapbooked. Well, the following pictures are certainly adorable enough to scrapbook, but who has the time? I certainly hope to do better about scrapbooking in 2009, but for now, I consider my blog my online scrapbook.


Today, I want to share a couple now and then pictures of my babies.





Here's a picture, now, of my two youngest girls. They are 21 months apart in age, and for the most part are great buddies. They do have their moments -- but all in all, they are very close.








Below is one of my favorite, then, pictures when they were little. In fact, this was just a few days after we brought Malia home from the hospital. Janae wanted to hold her, so we let her long enough to take this picture:











Aww, doesn't it look like she is holding a doll?





For more adorable (or funny) pictures, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You

Well, I'm back! I've been out of the SFMTY game a few weeks because my computer bit the dust. Thank the Lord it's up and running again.

The last time I posted, I shared a high school picture of me that I liked. But I promised to share one of me that I didn't like. The following picture is actually a junior high picture. All I can say is "chipmunk." I don't have the heart to go over all the fashion "faux pas" in the picture. You'll have to draw your own conclusions.

So here it is, a black and white photo of 7th grade me wearing a purple sailor dress:

To see more photo fun, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You #8 - 70's Pic

It's that time again! Time to look back in the past and share a photo!

I don't have any photos of me with big hair, since I went to school in the 70's, so here is one of my favorite 70's pics:

I'm wearing my favorite accessory, the choker! I loved that thing ...

Notice the hair is not big in any way. In the 70's we wore it straight and long, preferably parted in the middle. I hadn't grown my hair out that long yet. I also loved the dress I was wearing, a green dress with a long collar. It went straight to my hips (the dress, not the collar!) and then flared out. I was stylin'!

It's funny to look at this and see my natural hair color -- I'd almost forgotten what it looked like. Also, it seems different to me because this was about 3 years before I started wearing glasses.

As I said, I like this picture, but to enter into the spirit of Sincerely 'Fro Me to You, next week I'll show you one of me that I DON'T like. Just remember to be gentle with your comments!

For more photo fun, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You #7 - Hello Down There

This picture is of our daughter, Malia, back a couple years ago. I took it from a different perspective -- a perpective of extreme height. I was up on a water tower/lookout station at a national park. She was on the ground. Even though I am deathly, extremely, afraid of heights, I leaned over the rail and took this photo of her.



Photography from 100 or more feet up in the air can be deceiving. It can make your feet look really big in proportion to your height. It can make you look like you have no legs. Actually, it can make you look like your feet are attached to your knees.



I'm pretty sure that Malia will not want this picture scrapbooked. But I like it.



If you would like to see other pictures that may or may not make it into a scrapbook, visit Kristen at We are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You #6: Passin' Thru Vincennes

In this week's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You, I'd like to share a picture of my mom, brother and me on our vacation. My dad snapped this shot of us standing in front of a road sign in Vincennes, IN, on our way to New Orleans. [This is a favorite landmark of my parents. They always took pictures of us in front of signs. This is actually a clever idea because years later you can remember where you were.]

The reason I focused on this picture is to show you that stirrup pants existed before the 80's. Yes, those are stirrup pants I'm wearing. The year was probably 1966. Also, note the cool Keds I was wearing. I'm not sure but I think my brother had red ones on! I always thought my brother looked like Beaver Cleaver when he was little.

Mom wore a skirt and blouse outfit. Back in those days, I don't remember her wearing pants except around the house or to work. [She worked at a factory.]

I've often heard that fashion trends go in cycles. If stirrups were popular in the 60's and the 80's, looks like we might be due for some more stylin' stretch pants!

For more fashion nightmares, I mean memories, visit Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You #5: Christmas '65

This is a picture of my brother and me on Christmas morning 1965. Yes, I know the border of the photo says Mar '66 but trust me, it was 1965. [In my family, we let rolls of film age before developing. How wondrous it is that we now live in the age of digital cameras!]



Several things about this picture interest me. First and foremost, notice the sectional sofa encased in plastic slipcovers! I know, you've heard about it on Everybody Loves Raymond, and now you see that people actually did this. Note also, the pole lamp that looks like sideways track lighting.

I know you can't see it, but underneath that pile of gifts, we had a formica-topped boomerang shaped coffee table. Oh! We were cutting edge when it came to home decor!

We did have an eclectic side, though. You'll see that above the sofa, Mom had hung a brass plaque. (She still has it, by the way.) It was one of a pair, the other one reposed on the other side of the room. You'll never believe where she got the plaques. Yup, at the S & H Green Stamp Redemption Center! It was so cool, just for buying gas or groceries, they gave you stamps. You got to wet the backs of them and then stick them in books. Then you could peruse a catalog and dream of how many more books it would take for you to get that special item.

Nowadays at the gas pump or the checkout counter instead of them giving YOU stamps, you give THEM your life's blood, often in the form of plastic. It's the gift that keeps giving you pain month after month when the statements come in.

But I digress.

This picture shows some of the Christmas gifts we received. We were wearing our Christmas jammies. It was a tradition that we always got new jammies for Christmas in order to take better Christmas pictures.

I remember that this particular Christmas, our parents had went all out and bought a ton of gifts. [You can't see them all in this shot.] They both had really good jobs at the time, probably the only time in their married life that both of them were making good money at the same time.

Not pictured were our main gifts, a Huffy 3-speed bike for me, and a drum set for my brother. He also got a Fred Flintstone punching bag. But what you can see is that I got a Barbie, Tim is holding a transistor radio, and on the couch beside me was a Nancy Drew mystery and a Chatty Cathy doll. [I was practically sitting on Chatty Cathy.] It's too bad I didn't save some of this stuff. I could sell it on E-bay!

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my nostalgic photo. As you can see, even in the 60s parents sometimes went overboard!

If you'd like to see some other great photos, go visit Kristen's blog, We are THAT Family.

SFMTY #5 - Then and Now

Another blog carnival that I really enjoy participating in is Kristen's "Sincerely Fro' Me to You." Now the idea is to use embarassing photos or photos you know you will never scrapbook. Actually all the photos I use are ones that I'd like to put in a scrapbook, but the problem is I don't have time to do it. So I consider my blog the next best thing to a scrapbook.

When my girls were babies they truly looked very similar. In fact, a lot of people think they look alike now, and even ask if the older two are twins. Today, I want to share with you a picture of my youngest, Malia.

Then

And here's my baby, Now!

Where'd my little pudgy blonde baby go? She had the lightest hair of all the girls - now she has the darkest. When she was a baby, her eyes were green, now they're hazel, and actually look brown most of the time. When she was little, she loved to hang around me, often with her little arms wrapped around my neck. Now, not so much.

So, mama, enjoy that little one. And take pictures, lots and lots of pictures. They change so fast, you won't believe it!

Now, head on over to We Are That Family to see more photos and learn the stories behind them.

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You: "Two Jerrys"

One of these pictures is of a little boy named Jerry. The other is a little girl named Jerri. Which is which?

Believe it or not, the picture on top is of my dad. The year was probably 1936 or maybe '37. What was Grandma thinking? It's one thing to dress him in a sissy top like that, but why the topknot? Looks like Dad was way overdue on his first haircut. Wasn't he precious?

The biker babe on the bottom is me, Jerri. It bothers me that he looks more feminine in his photo than I do!

For more photographic fun, head over to Kristen's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival
at We Are That Family. You'll love it!

Sincerely 'Fro Me to You: Wigged Out

I love it when I hear Beth Moore say on "Wednesdays With Beth" about being all wigged out. I think she means "goin' crazy" when uses that term.

Here I am all "wigged out" but not in the sense of being crazed, wigged out fashion-wise. Let's go over my sartorial spendor, shall we?

The year is 1972. Note the burnt orange flare leg pants. This material is brushed-denim, people! Do they make brushed denim anymore? It was my favorite pair of pants and I believe I kept them for at least 2 years.

Now I don't know how a person might describe the neckline on my navy stretch knit top. Choker-scoop? Anyway, I thought I was stylin', although now I realize navy isn't the best choice to go with burnt orange.

But, hey! What about my crowning glory? Don't you love it? You guessed it, a wig was covering my cranium. Why was I wearing a wig? Did I have some kind of problem with my hair? Was I bald under that mop?

Nope.

My grandmother thought and thought, "why can I get my granddaughters for Christmas that would be an unusual gift and really surprise them?"

She outdid herself.

Would you like to know what my other grandmother bought me that year? Yellow, blue and pink bras.

Enough said.

If you'd like to see other people's photographic memories, run over to Kristen's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You carnival at We are THAT Family.