PHOTOS FROM THE JUNK DRAWER

Are you in for a treat!

This week we've been doing all sorts of exciting junk around the house. Such as... setting aside all the pants Huck's outgrown since spring. And redesigning the blog on a whim. (Why do I do this?) And then this huge project I finally finished just now, the sorting through of all the photos on all our old hard drives so the graphics team at my publishing house can get started already on the layout of my book. Which is weird. (Almost as weird as me trying very hard right now to properly use CAPITAL LETTERS and SHIFT KEYS! I swear this is slowing my brain down, do I really have to do this? You're Worth It, InTeRnEt.) 

Ohhh, you misty watercolor memories. A few photos felt like a punch to the gut they carried so much of my heart. All the feelings, all the sentimental garbage, blah blah blah, uh wee-oh wee-oh wee-oh (is what Huck used to say when he was certain he was saying actual sentences but only really knew maybe a handful of words). So here are a few. I think they've never made the blog (as far as I remember?), but, eh. Cue the Barbra Streisand. Go get a kleenex.

Huck on his first birthday. We had a little costume party with all his little friends. He went as Charlie Brown. 

This unflattering photo, taken in Lancaster, PA. Looking back on this, I should have known. I should have known that this Amish hat that I jokingly told Brandon I would buy just to get a reaction out of him would some day haunt me forever. I have seriously kicked myself over and over for not getting it. Come to my house, you might think I live on a farm. I'm not kidding. What is up with me? I am thinking of learning to pickle green beans this summer.

I can actually, physically feel that puppy when I look at this photo. Oh golly. I can smell him. His grape jelly head and those corn chip paws. The rough hairs along his belly and the soft hairs on the top of his head. Oh I want to give that boy a real good snuzzle. Barnaby MacDuffleMuffins, your mommy misses you. 

So this one time I was asked to speak at a blog conference, and it was, like, 2009, and I had no idea what in the world I was doing, and they needed a headshot, and I was all, "Would this work?" and then Brandon said, "No."

Barney was very supportive when I asked for his assistance in teaching Brandon how to swaddle a baby. 

These are the lilacs we grew along the back fence of our yard in Idaho. Brandon and I talk about these lilacs all the time. We often wonder how they're doing. If you're in Moscow + you happen to see them, will you tell them we say hi?

I wrote a post about the 13-hour cereal sale at the Rosauers a million years ago. It's this eternally weird yearly tradition in Moscow, and who even knew it but I guess I'd taken a photo for documentation purposes that I promptly forgot about the minute I left. So there you go. That's a lot of Frosted Mini Wheats, but I stand by it. 

The view from my room of dreams when our killer Hyacinth was blooming. 

Me, Elk River, twenty-five weeks pregnant, being a very good sport.

Oh break my heart, Peter Pan. 

The rainbow over Roosevelt Island the day Huck was born.

All three of us Randys.

!!!!

Are you seeing this, uterus?!? Come on already! What gives!

Hashtag Real Life, Bishessss. Nursing on a Thursday morning, giant tangle of who knows what on the dresser. Glamorous.

But really, guys. Thank heaven for selfies. Quit villainizing the selfies! (Pregnancy + nursing hormones gave me some really killer freckles, right? Not very cute killer freckles. Sloppy killer freckles.)

Huck's cousin Theo came to visit us one April when they were both about six months old. I sometimes forget how hysterically fat my baby was, I'm so glad I have ridiculous photos like these to remind me. Everything I ever wanted, I tell you.

This is the closest I'll ever get to a Felicity-opening-credits-esque shot in this lifetime, probably. (Hey Kaitlyn... I just got an idea....)

There was once a time when Brandon was so opposed to having his photo taken, so righteously indignant every time the camera came out, that this was the face he made. Every single time. To my future children: please use this photo for your dad's funeral program.

Huck's first subway ride, at four days old. Can we talk about my pregnancy hair?

Your girl is lovely, Hubbell!

The end.