A *cough* few years ago...

I went on a quest to find my middle school yearbooks today.

That's right. Middle school. The only reason I even remembered that those yearbooks existed was because someone from back home is looking for a picture of a mural that used to be in the lobby of the school, and we thought that maybe there was a picture of it in a yearbook somewhere.

So I went digging, and I found two of them. One of them was from the 1981-82 school year, and one was from 1982-83. And yes, I totally realize that probably half of you people reading this were not even born yet. So shut up.

But if you do the math, you'll realize that I was in the 5th and 6th grades during those years.

I searched through page by page, looking for a shot of the mural, but it wasn't in there. Then I looked for my pictures. And because I have no shame, I now present them to you, in all of their glory...

5th grade

6th grade, and my first pair of glasses.
Wonder Woman glasses. Because I was cool.
Or something.

And now I will go hide the yearbooks on the bookcase in the hopes that my kids will never find them and attempt to use the pictures against me. And even if they do, I already beat them to the punch.

Now, if I can just find the one of me in the Strawberry Shortcake pajamas.....

She is going to kill me.....

So my computer has been running really really slow lately. And I finally figured that it probably has something to do with the fact that there is virtually no space left on it.

This was after I started removing stuff - it was so bad that the
status bar was actually red.

Anyway, we all know that I like to take pictures. And I have this really bad habit of just dumping all of the pictures off of the camera and onto the computer and not doing anything with them. I don't delete the blurry ones or anything. I just dump and go.

I started going through the pictures tonight, which started in August 2008. I found so many duplicates - I would dump pictures one day, say 50 of them. Then the next day, when I dumped again, those same 50 would dump, along with another 50 or so. That didn't happen all of the time, but it happened quite often. So I started deleting - which meant going through folder by folder and looking at pictures. It really didn't take as long as I thought that it would to go through the 5 months of 2008 - but I still ended up with just over 4GB of pictures just for those 5 months. I have 4 more YEARS after that.

Anyway, when going through old pictures like that, there are sure to be a lot of uncovered gems.

Exhibit A: (Yes, I know the size is wonky. Blogger hates me tonight.)

Funny how this happens...

I have a big family. I'm the youngest of 6 kids, and between the 6 of us, we have 13 kids (plus a few stepkids), and some of those 13+ have kids. My mother had 7 siblings, 3 of whom are still alive. They all have kids, and it goes on and on.

And as it often happens with families, not everyone has stayed in close contact over the years. Some have, some haven't. Some did, and then drifted away for many reasons. Some who didn't stay close have become close again.

But, when there's a death in the family (or even the death of an ex), it's interesting to see what happens to the family dynamics. Just from my own experience over the past few months, I have had several family members who have reconnected with me or who have even made contact with me for the first time in decades. And some have drifted farther away.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining about the new connections. Not one bit. I love the new closeness that some of us are sharing. There have been things said and done in the past that can't be taken back - ever - but we should be able to move past them.

And yes, there are some things that I just need to get over as well - I admit it.

Bottom line is that family is important. As the years go by, and I miss important family events, I realize that more and more. It was very hard for me to sit here in Kansas this weekend and not be in Pennsylvania for Uncle Sam's funeral with my family, but I just couldn't afford to do it. A family reunion is in the planning stages for next summer, so hopefully we can make it back for that.

But on an amusing note - and because I'm nursing a splitting headache and can't stare at the computer anymore or form a coherent thought - my niece was at my parents' house over the weekend, and she went through some of the old photo albums and found some winners.

Here I am, circa 1977 with my Great Aunt Alice and my Great Uncle Bill. And yes, that is a pink polyester dress that I am wearing. The very same dress that I wore in our family picture that was taken in 1976 (or it might have been my sister's if I outgrew mine, because Mom put us both in matching pink polyester dresses for that very fashion-rich photo). I have no idea what I am playing with, but I'm guessing that it's the Slime that came in a little plastic can that I vaguely remember having when I was younger.