To DJ

My mother-in-law and her mom Ruth.


Happy Mother's Day.

To Mom

My mom and her mother Marion.


I love you.

Old Photo Friday

September 2005



Coming home from the hospital with our very first baby. He was only one day old.

Old Photo Friday

2006



Learning to walk. Such sweet memories.

Old Photo Friday

In honor of cousins...


My father-in-law circa 1940s sandwiched between Do {Doreen} and Lou {Marie Louise}. Aunt Mary recently gifted him a stack of oldies but goodies. Oh how I love old photos. Luckily, he allowed me to borrow a few of my faves to scan/print/frame for the children.

Old Photo Friday

1950s. Mom in a bar sink.

Old Photo Friday

1997. My friend Nicole and I on Grandpa J's farm.

Old Photo Friday

Husband with Doc Martens and brother with cowboy hat.

Old Photo Friday

May 20, 2000. It's funny. I never wanted a big wedding. Between us, I would've loved to marry this man on a mountain top, in a simple slip, not a soul in sight.


I didn't need a bachelorette party or champagne toasts or bouquets of freesia to commit to this man. I didn't need embossed paper or taper candles or still shots. I didn't need cake tastings, handmade favors, bustles or blocks of hotel rooms. I didn't need a disc jockey... just my guy on a mountain with a mixed tape of our songs.


The whole year before we married I tried cut people out, edit the list, make the evening smaller. Sounds awful, but I just kept thinking the more guests we invited--the more traditions we embraced--the less us it would be. And I loved us. As is.


But one thing I learned in the process is that the day wasn't just about us. Not to other people it wasn't. It was a celebration of our collective families... our friends. They were excited and wanted to be a part, so we let them in. A wedding does not a marriage make--this we knew--but garden I dos and raspberry cream cake wasn't exactly a crime either--I would realize. I insisted we keep it under 100 and handle the details ourselves.


Then I allowed my maid of honor to talk me into a veil and heals. I let my dad pay for dinner. We even stood in awkward formations for a half hour after the ceremony to cover our bases {though they aren't the shots I love today}. We allowed people to put other people on the list, even though they weren't our people by any means. We even did the garter thing {gasp} so my baby brother could dive roll to catch it for his Katie.


So maybe I never played dress-up as a little girl, pretended to marry my dad, or planned out the "perfect" wedding before there was a Mr. in the picture. But I did dream about love and friendship and passion. And I found it all in Tom. Nothing else mattered. So we had a big fat party of 110, toasted each other to tears and danced all night. And it was absolutely wonderful. Go figure.

Old Photo Week

I took this from a roof top party in Soho, and it's always been one of my favorites.

Old Photo Week

Grandpa J. with my nephew Spencer back when he was the only little lad asking for tractor rides on the farm.

Old Photo Week

My Sweets took this with an old Polaroid while we were living in Arizona.

Old Photo Week

My mom with two babies in 1977. I love the vintage Pooh dress and the collar on Mark. Wish my mom had saved some of these things.

Old Photo Week

My Sweets at a friend's house when he was 18 or 19. A different look for him, but still HOT.

Old Photo Week

University of Arizona campus my junior year. It was such an awesome place to bike.

Old Photo Week

1994 homecoming float. I'm the yellow + green astronaut... and so proud to have been on the winning float team four years in a row. That was a school record. Dorky? So be it.

Old Photo Week

Jaime, me, Becky, Darcy, Kellie, Steph, Ali, and Irv.



1993 at a high school soccer game. These were a few of my gal pals.

Old Photo Week

In 1992 I spent three months as a teenage diplomat in France. During that time I lived and traveled with a family of four from Rennes {Andre, Eliane, Samuel, and Aude}.


This was my host mom, Eliane. I adored her. We wrote to each other--in French and English--for several years after I returned home, but she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1995 and I'm not sure if she survived it.

Old Photo Week

My mom is the baby in her family by 20 years and has three older sisters. Here she is with Aunt Carol and Aunt Joan.

Old Photo Week

My little brother Billy in a wet suit... jumping rope with broken tent poles. I couldn't pass up the chance. He has the uncanny ability to make me smile no matter the situation.


We were at a campsite along the Ottawa River for {what was once} an annual Wilderness Tours rafting trip with friends. This weekend in 2004 was full of extreme highs and extreme lows, but we laughed through all of it.