Memories From A Lifetime Ago

(Hope standing in front of my old Volvo.  I sure loved that car.)

Most of Hope's photos from when she was younger were taken before the digital age.  I have boxes of photos of her in our attic that I rarely look through because it's just so overwhelming.  My intention was to put all of them in photo albums, but I still haven't gotten around to it.  When I heard about the Legacybox service, I was extremely interested.  Legacybox takes your old photos, film, and videos, and converts them to digital files.  You send your memories off in a prepaid, crush-proof box that comes with barcodes for every videotape, film reel, or pack of 25 photos you send in.  Not only can you track your order, but they send you email updates throughout the process so you know where everything is.  Ah... peace of mind.


When my Legacybox came back in the mail, it included all of the photos and videos I sent their way on a thumb drive (an optional upgrade), and DVD hard copies of the videos!  Are you interested in seeing some memories from our younger years?  Here's a peek:


That little laugh.  We spent many, many hours in this room reading books and playing with toys. Hope was an only child for 8 years and the only grandchild, so you can imagine how many toys that kid had.


Hope's 3rd birthday.  I asked her what kind of party she wanted and she responded with, "Yellow." So, I threw her a yellow themed party with lots of daisies and yellow decorations.


This photo was taken around the time we found out Hope is a lefty!  The girl has a solid swing.


The Magic House!  We used to take lots of trips to St. Louis just to go here and eat at our favorite pizza place.


Oh, the days of running a youth center.  Hope just hung out at work with us while we did our thing.  I mostly worked behind the bar and Johnny managed bands and the skate park.


Precious little one.  Hope was probably about 5 here.


Tiny Hope at the fair!  She looked forward to the giant slide every year.  She's always been a cautious child, so this was one of her brave moments.


This was my dark hair phase.  Isn't it fun to look back on the evolution of your style?  I had very long hair and I remember coming back from the hair stylist and one my friends literally asked, "Why'd you do that?"  Um... because I wanted to.


This was my 20th birthday and obviously any 20 year old needs a Powerpuff Girls cake!  I'm still PPG obsessed.


Hope's first fish!  I come from a family who loves to fish, so this was pretty special.  The pictures of Johnny try to take the fish off the hook are pretty priceless, too.


Johnny in our old green room.  I remember splurging on this paint and then hating the color.  I lived with it anyway because I felt guilty about wasting the money.  Oh, boy.  ;)


Speaking of style evolving... I'm pretty sure Johnny's had every hair style imaginable.  Also, now you know where Hope gets those blue eyes from.


A girl after my own heart-- playing in the snow is the absolute best!

I love having easier access to these photos!  Hope just had her 14th birthday and it's crazy to look back on how tiny and sweet she was.  Oh, time-- why do you have to be so fast?

If you are interested in checking out Legacybox for yourself, I'd highly recommend it!  Click right here and the first 25 people to use the code SKUNK at checkout will receive 40% off their order!  Happy memory making!  xo.

Weekly Wears: Lace it Up

Guys.  I'm pretty sure I found the shoes I'll be wearing for all of Fall.  We had a break in the weather last week, so I got the chance to take these new babies out for a spin.  I'm definitely into them.

Shirt (similar), skirt (similar), shoes: c/o ModCloth; Purse: vintage

We're gearing up for Hope's birthday party this weekend!  It's a water-themed party, so there will be swimming and water balloons and a slip and slide!  I'm sure there will be pictures to share after all is said and done, so stay tuned for that!

I'm off to tackle another DIY today.  I'm doing something special to the door I'm standing in front of in these photos, so wish me luck!

 

Snapshots

Here are some snapshots from life lately.  We're gearing up for school that will be starting next week. We found a half-day private Kindergarten class for Poesy, so it looks like I won't be homeschooling her this year after all.  Hope will be continuing with homeschool, though-- she's starting 8th grade! Yikes!  I remember 8th grade so vividly... I can't believe how big she is.  Time seems like it just keeps going faster and faster.

I hope your week has been good so far!  I'm trying out a new DIY today, so fingers crossed it works out!  Happy Wednesday!

**Green chair is from Article.  I can't wait to show you our living space soon!

July Garden

Now that we are well into August, I suppose I should get my July garden post in!  In July, travel and general busy-ness made everyday watering less of a possibility.  Not to mention how blazing hot it's gotten.  Some of these plants didn't stand a chance against this weather!  It's okay-- it's to be expected.  Here's a peek at what July looked like in our garden beds:


I'm going to pause right here.  Even though my squash vines have had kind of a rough go of it, they are still producing blossoms.  I haven't had any squash babies yet because they haven't been pollinated, BUT!  A friend told me a way to hand-pollinate and I just tried that, so I'll keep you posted on how it works out.

We FINALLY went from seeing tiny little baby hot peppers and bell peppers to a pepper explosion! Cucumbers and all of the peppers are my very favorite things to grow in the garden.  We use them in almost everything we cook at home!


We've had an abundance of tomatoes for a couple of months now, and I've been perfecting my salsa recipe to share with you!  I'm almost there, so you can be looking for that in the coming weeks.  It turns out a little different each time, so I've been making batches and writing down what I'm doing each time to make sure I'm happy with the recipe I put out there.


The junebugs were SERIOUSLY bad this year.  They ended up destroying my rhubarb and definitely did a little damage to my brussels sprouts.  I haven't seen any produce from the broccoli or brussels yet, but I read that they are both great fall vegetables.  All hope is not lost!


You can see that the plants have gotten much, much bigger since my first post.  The peas are officially done for the summer, but the green beans are still producing.  I feel pretty good about all I've grown and more than that, all I've learned this summer.  I haven't entirely decided if I'm going to do a fall/winter garden or not.  Sometimes it's nice to keep hobbies seasonal so you can't burn out on them. I guess I'll see how I feel once summer starts wrapping up.

If any of you have been posting about your own gardens, please leave me a link!  I'd love to see what others have going!