S'FMtY: Tacky Day

I have posted before about how much I loved Spirit Week when I was in school. Here is an oldie but a goodie from Spirit Week when I was in 5th grade:

Don't you just love it? I'm sad to say that with the exception of the striped tank top (my mom's), all of the clothes pictured are ones that I wore regularly, although not together. What was I thinking when I begged my mom for those leggings? And the short - they had a matching shirt. Oh, and look - I'm wear ankle-high slouch boots. From the 80's, no less. These were hand-me-downs that I wore all the time. I thought I was so cool to have those boots. Obviously the concept of styles going in and out of fashion hadn't been explained to me yet. For more painfully funny pictures, check out We are THAT family!

S'FMtY: All for a Badge

When I was in first through sixth grade, I faithfully attended G.A.s at my church. G.A. stands for Girls in Action, and I believe it is limited to the Baptist denomination. I don't know what the real purpose of G.A.s was supposed to be, but it seemed to exist to inform young girls about missions and mission work. Perhaps it was supposed to be a junior WMU?
When I was in G.A.s, we all had a red and yellow sash with the G.A. emblem on it. We could complete projects and workbooks in order to receive badges to put onto the sash. Similar to the Girl Scouts, but not as fun. For one of my projects, I had to learn about a custom from another country and then re-enact the custom for the other G.A.s. I happened to remember that a friend in school had an authentic kimono from Okinawa, so I opted to learn a Japanese tea ceremony. You know me - any excuse to dress up!
It took a while to figure out how to get into the outfit. I am in 4th grade in this picture, and you can see that the outfit is just a little too long for me, but not too much! I don't remember a thing about the tea ceremony except that I was terrified that I'd spill some tea on the outfit. I didn't - and I sure hated to give the outfit back!
For more wacky pics, check out We are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: Pre-teen Fashion Queen

I know Christmas was a month ago, but I didn't have a chance to share this Christmas picture with you then. This is from the Christmas when I was in 5th grade. We went up to Ohio to spend Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We never went back there for Christmas again, and I think I know why. I am sporting a style that only a mother could love:

big plastic glasses? check
long earrings that clash with the sweater? check
too-short bangs pushed off to the side? check
bright blue barrettes holding back hair into twin puffs? check
dalmatian-print sweater, complete with knitted dalmatians? check and double-check
at least 4 rings on fingers? check
tapered jeans tucked into slouch boots? check
said boots being brown even though sweater has black? check
look of disgust for dad who is taking pictures? check

I remember thinking how stylish I was as I got ready that day. I wanted my older cousins to see how grown up I was so they'd let me hang around them, instead of having to hang out with my baby sister. I'm sure that my twenty-something cousins did have a few thoughts about my attire, but probably not what I was hoping.
For more pics that should have been burned, visit We Are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: Miss Kitty I Ain't

This week's picture is actually pretty scrapbook worthy. After last week's post, I felt like doing a more flattering picture of myself. This was one of my favorite dress-up outfits:
One of my friends had a "How to Host a Murder" birthday party when I was 17. I was assigned the role of the town madame. I remember thinking at the time how heavy my makeup was, but other than the blush, I'm really not that made-up. I didn't have a lacy shawl, so I'm using a round lace tablecloth for my shawl. You can't tell too much from this picture, but my skirt is long and really full. I just happen to own crinolines (several pair, in fact), and I jumped at the chance to wear them again.
For more pictures, check out We are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: Christmas Goodies

Don't you love the Christmas season? The presents, decorating, cards, parties, and my personal favorite - the goodies. We always have hot chocolate during the Christmas season, which means that we also have mini marshmallows for the hot chocolate. Since we had marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate chips, s'mores were an obvious choice one evening...
The s'mores were good. But messy, if you can't tell. In some families, people will run to get a napkin if this happens to someone. In my family, we reach for the camera. I can't really blame hubby, because I took this one of him:
I made a snowman cake for a Christmas party we attended, and I colored some sugar for the decoration. DH decided to eat the extra sugar instead of throwing it away. BB didn't quite know what to think about DH's teeth!
For more "you can't scrapbook THAT picture!" visit We are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: 'Fro Christmas

Here today is yet another exciting installment of pictures that are too bad for scrapbooking! Today we feature a picture from Christmas 1994.

I had just opened up my in-line skates, something I had wanted for months. You would think I would look happy in this picture, instead of the "die, DIE!" look I am giving my dad. I blame my expression on my hair and my shirt. You can't tell from this picture, but the lights on the Christmas tree light up and blink. Does anyone else remember the cut-out fabric/puffy paint decorated sweatshirts? I had at least a dozen, thanks to my Aunt Faye. As for my hair, I was in the midst of growing it out from this haircut. I have a lot of natural curl to my hair, even more so when I was younger. My best guess is that I was trying to make my hair straight so I brushed it. Perhaps my face is the look of regret I have for what I did to my hair?

For more "you can't scrapbook THAT picture," check out We are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: A Christmas Play

This week's Sincerely 'Fro Me to You features a childhood family tradition. Some families read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve and make cookies to leave out for Santa. In my family, there was no Santa. My parents were relatively new Christians when I came along, and in their new-believer fervor, Santa, the Easter bunny, and a whole slew of other things were banned from our house. Yes, I was "that kid" in the classroom who took it upon herself to tell her classmates the "truth" about their holidays.
Instead of Santa or watching a holiday special that had magic (i.e. Rudolph or Frosty), my family had their own nativity play Christmas Eve. This sounds great until you realize that I'm an only child and my mom didn't participate, which left my dad and I to cover all of the roles. We did fine with our 2-person play - I was Mary, the innkeeper and the angels, my dad was Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men. Here is a picture from our play when I was 4:

Yes, "Mary" is wearing a tie to hold the towel up around her waist and the donkey is a stick horse from an amusement park. Yes, "Joseph" is wearing a towel and a belt around his head, using a child's baton for a staff and a bathrobe for his clothes. As for why "baby Jesus" is wearing pink, I haven't a clue.
I'm pretty sure the Christmas plays kept up until 2nd grade or so, when I was "too big" to pretend anymore. I had a lot of fun doing the plays, however, and they make up some great Christmas memories for me.

S'FMtY: A Fashionable Christmas

In honor of the holiday season, I thought I would post this Christmas picture from third grade. As a child, my family opened presents on Christmas Eve, usually right before my bedtime. This explains the pj's that I am wearing, but WHY AM I WEARING TENNIS SHOES? I know my mother wouldn't have allowed me to go outside at night in the cold, and I always had house shoes. So why do I look like I am prepared to make a run for it? This is a mystery that will haunt me the rest of my days.

For more scrapbook unworthy pics, check out We are THAT family!

S'FMtY: Scary Spirit Week

This week's edition is themed: scary pics. While I think all of my 10-14 pictures are scary, I'm sticking with costumes. You may remember my undying love for costumes from previous posts. As a child, I lived for Spirit Week each year at my school, because it was the one chance I had to dress up in costume. Here are some of my favorite costumes from high school:
Tacky Day - I won first place that year. If you look closely in the picture, you can see the ribbon hanging around my neck. I think this is probably my scariest picture, other than my 7th grade class picture.
Historical Day - I believe we were supposed to be a specific person, but I just went as a queen. I borrowed the dress and cape from a friend. At the time, I don't think I realized how bad my outfit clashed. Pretty scary. Especially the weird bow centered in front. What's up with that?
Historical Day - this is the following year. I was a hippie, in case you couldn't tell. In the spirit of authenticity, I had made fake LSD stamps and rolled fake joints for my jacket pocket. Did I ever mention that I went to a freakishly small Christian school as a kid? This outfit wasn't scary, but I think I should have scared some people with my quest for authenticity.
Career Day - this is the same year as the hippie. I went as a homeless bum, complete with track marks drawn on my arms with eyeliner, and dirt smudged on my face. Not really scary, but this outfit, along with the previous one, should have set off a few alarms with my pharmaceutical interests...
In 1998, this was not scary. However, post 9-11, this outfit does scare a lot of people. This outfit was not entirely authentic, I admit. My outfit was the wrong color and my veil wasn't opaque. I believed I borrowed this outfit from my church's Christmas pageant. I sure am thankful that I don't live in a country where I have to wear this everyday...

S'FMtY: Dress Up

Anyone who knows me is aware of how much I like to dress up. Dress up as in donning a costume, not as in going to formal events. If there is an occasion I can wear a costume for, I will. I really wish there were more costume events in life.
I don't remember when I first started dressing up, but it was fairly young. Here is a picture of me when I was 4, wearing my mom's clothes. Stylish, wasn't I? Considering it was 1985, the outfit wasn't too bad.

Just to show that the dress up gene must run in the family, here is a picture I took of BB this week:
He loves to put on shoes, especially his daddy's shoes. He has a way to go before the shoes fit his feet - and he has to learn which shoe for which foot! For more Sincerely 'Fro Me to You, check out We are THAT family!

S'FMtY: Seasons in the South

I have lived in the South my entire life. There are many good things about the South. Many wonderful writers have come from this part of the country. I believe Southerners invented sweet tea, which DH adores.
However, the South is lacking when it comes to seasons. We really don't have a wide variety compared to the Northern states. Which is why, for this week's picture, I will show you my snowman from when I was 4:

I was at my aunt's house for a wedding when it snowed. I had never seen snow before. Do you notice how the yard is scraped clean of snow so that I could have enough snow for my snowman? I was desperate, y'all. Try as I might, I couldn't get a tall snowman. I settled for a 2-story snowman instead of the traditional 3-layer. In my excitement, I didn't even think to dress my snowman. Poor naked, deformed thing. I didn't see snow again for many years...

be sure to check out We are THAT family for more pics!

*AND DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON POST #200 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN THE GIVEAWAY!

S'FMtY: The Haircut

I've never been graced with the talent to style my hair. Regardless of the fashion at the time, my hair has never wanted to look stylish. Long and straight in vogue? My hair decides to be extra curly. Big curls the current thing? My hair goes limp and straight. I was born in the 80's, so by the time I was old enough to achieve big hair, big hair was on it's way out. Yet I live in the South, and my mom is in a bit of a time-warp, so for my 12 birthday, I got a perm. Behold:

Notice that my hair is just past my shoulders. Prior to the perm, my hair was over halfway down my back. I've never had hair that long before or since. That hair took some serious time to grow. But the perm? Curled that hair right up into a frizzy knot. Literally. My hair apparently doesn't like perms. Major damage ensued. I couldn't detangle my hair no matter what I tried. My hair crunched when it was touched. And the bangs? My mom had been perming those for the past 2 years at that point. At least they were trimmed often.
I started a new school in 7th grade. A big school that had popular and not popular groups. I might be style-challenged, but even I knew that a big tangled permed mess wasn't going to win me any popularity points. I begged my mom for a haircut to undo the perm. She relented and took me to the hairdresser's the week before school started. Let me just say that if you're going to try a new look for a special reason, get the new look in time for it to grow out, just in case. I at least knew what I wanted my hair to look like. However, I'm not good at describing hairstyles, because my hairdresser and my mom came up with this, the worst haircut of my life:

Oh, the trauma of this haircut! This is my 7th grade picture. Notice the bad hair. Notice that even though my hair is short, my mom still managed to attack me with a curling iron before going to school that day. Let's not even talk about my eyebrows. All I'm going to say is that people with Brooke Shield's eyebrows shouldn't have their eyebrows plucked by a person who doesn't have eyebrows. This picture is just bad on so many levels. I don't know why I'm wearing this shirt. This shirt is actually my mother's. I had a closet full of clothes that I could have - should have - worn. My only guess is that the picture flier said that the background was going to be blue and my mom wanted me to wear something that matched the background. And yes, the earrings are bad. Plain hoops might never go out of style, but these hoops really don't help the look. But that's okay, because even though I was in 7th grade, I still wasn't allowed to wear makeup. Even though everyone else could wear makeup. So I am the lone shiny-faced kid in my class picture. Which you're never going to see, BTW, thanks to the invention of matches.
Be sure to check out We are THAT Family for more pics!
P.S. this is post #194, for you giveaway watchers.

S'FMtY: Mom and Me pics

I suffer from the disability of being fashion-challenged. But when you consider my childhood, can you blame me? I present this photo as exhibit A:

I was about 10 in this picture, so my mom was still picking out my clothes. I will confess that I added the bow. I think it really helps this outfit, don't you?
Lest you think this fashion choice was a one-time event, I present exhibit B:

This is Easter of the same year. I know that back in the day, "Mommy and Me" dresses were the thing, but these dresses aren't alike. They don't even really match. But both of these dresses were bought together, to be worn together. Until I outgrew my dress, whenever my mom wore her dress, I wore mine. At the time, I don't think I realized that the dresses didn't match. You have to admit, though, those side-swept feathered bangs are lovely. This was a year before my mom decided that I was old enough to start having my bangs permed so that I could have a "top" to my hair. You know, to detract from my round face. Because nothing slims a face so much as a frizzy rat's nest atop one's head. My mom still perms her bangs (and the rest of her hair) for that reason. She continually tries to get me to have "a top cut to curl and fluff up a bit," but I resist. Aren't you glad?
A side note: ten years later, I wore my mom's dress for a college costume party. I went as "Edna the Librarian." Put my hair in a bun, add a sweater and glasses - instant dork. The sad thing is that the dress was still hanging in my mom's closet with her church clothes. And 8 years later, it still is. Thankfully, she hasn't worn the dress for a while. But she keeps threatening to go back to Weight Watchers, so you never know...
For all of those who will now enter therapy as a result of seeing these pictures, I apologize. To have even more to recover from, check out We are THAT Family!

S'FMtY: Rag Doll

Raising a child like myself couldn't have been easy for my mother. I grew up reading the Little House on the Prairie books over and over, and watching the television show in syndication. My favorite book in the series was Little House in the Big Woods. I loved the idea of living in a small cabin secluded from neighbors. I was fascinated by the descriptions given of butter making, sewing and baking. I, being an impressionable child, wanted to do this at my house. My mother, having been raised by a woman who worked 2 and 3 jobs throughout her childhood, did not know how. I wanted my clothes hand-made, my bread baked fresh, vegetables grown in our backyard and then canned to last us throughout the winter. My mother knew how to sew on buttons and use iron-on hem tape. She had briefly gone through a baking and canning phase in the 70's, but that was before my time. Still, she did the best she could when it came to making my rag doll. I wanted a rag doll just like Laura Ingalls' doll. My mom tried, but as the picture shows, fell a tad short. I loved my doll anyway, and name her Charlotte, just like Laura had done. Charlotte still exists, packed in a box with childhood memorabilia, waiting for a future little girl to play with her. Perhaps by the time that day comes, I will be able to make Charlotte a more attractive companion, although I doubt a doll could be more loved than Charlotte.
visit We are THAT Family for more 'Fro pics and stories!

S'FMtY: Disney and a Cover-Up

This week's edition will be short and sweet. I came across this picture not too long ago that was taken when I was five. I think I look particularly cute with my curly hair and Mickey Mouse ears. What I would like to point out in this picture, and what makes it a 'Fro-worthy picture, is the fact that I am wearing my swimsuit with my Mickey Mouse ears. Oh, wait. You can't see my swimsuit? Look closely - see the blue strap going around my neck? That strap is from my swimsuit. You probably couldn't tell because of the cover-up I was wearing. My dad's t-shirt. The sleeves of the shirt practically touch my wrists, and the tail of the shirt goes past my knees, but I am covered. Do you think it's because I have very conservative parents, or because I knew I was fat even as a little kid? I'm sure they sold cover-ups for little kids back then, but those probably didn't cover enough skin for me. One thing's for sure - I am happy in this picture!
To see more, even funnier pictures, check out the other Sincerely 'Fro Me to You entries every Thursday, courtesy of We are THAT family!

S'FMtY: Panties

It's time for another humiliating episode of "Sincerely 'Fro Me to You"! Be sure to check out Kristen's blog to view the other entries. I'd hate to be the only person you laugh at today!
First of all, given the title, don't worry that I'm going to show you a current picture of myself. What I will show you is this, my Christmas ballet recital when I was seven. Not only am I obviously unprepared (note how I'm blatantly copying a dancer in front of me), I have visible panty showing through my oh-so-80's purple tights. The hideous tutu and the awful red bow that we had to wear for our costumes is another post entirely.
I would like to say that I only had VPL this one time in ballet, but other pictures prove me wrong. You'd think someone would have told me. I seem to have spent my childhood unaware that I flashed people. For proof, I give you this next picture, also of a Christmas recital. In this picture, I am 4. Not very ladylike, huh? Thank goodness I once again am wearing tights!
I would blame my mother for some of this, because she really should have told me not to sit like that in a dress. However, judging by this final picture, she doesn't have a problem with my underwear showing. Observe how I am being held in this picture taken when I am 3:

Thanks, mom! Once again, tights saved the day!

For those of you who do not know me in real life, please rest assured that I do not, to the best of my knowledge, continue to flash people in present day.

The Sweatshirt

Each Thursday, Kristen at We are THAT Family hosts the "Sincerely 'Fro Me to You" blog carnival, a chance for participants to post and blog about embarrassing pictures, either recent or far into the past. This is the first of many such entries for me, as I've spent my life looking goofy for the camera.



And to think that I thought I looked good in this picture:

For Christmas the year I was in fifth grade, my aunt gave me this sweatshirt. I probably asked for this shirt, but I feel that this is clearly one present that should not have been checked off of my list. As you can tell by the picture, I was not a thin child at this age. Chubbiness had definitely set in. See the double chin? My mom did me no favors by taking this picture at an upward angle. Any fatty can tell you to NEVER take a picture of a fat person from this angle. The sweatshirt, while the right size for me judging by the waistband, is not the right style. This was in the baggy shirt era of the early 90's, which should have been avoided by everyone bigger than a twig. Baggy shirts don't make a fat person look thin, they just form a giant tent that envelopes any hint of a waist that the fat person may still have. Also note the jeans - tapered ankles were not a winning look on anyone. Need I say anything about the shoes? These are the infamous purple high-tops that I proudly picked out and wore until I absolutely couldn't fit my foot into them anymore. To me, the funniest part of this picture is my pose. One arm relaxed, one arm on my hip, smile on my face - I am POSING. I think I look good in this picture. All of this paired with the charming giant-lensed plastic framed glasses (that I begged for), and it's no wonder I was never in the popular group at school.