Remembering

I hung out at mom and pop's tonight. Pop was at a meeting and mom and I decided to get together so we put up yardsale signs and got a bite to eat at Tony's. The weather this summer is unbelievable. Can it really almost be chilly in July?

It was really a relaxing "minute". A break away from reality, from thinking about work, and priorities, and life in general. Hadn't relaxed over there in a while and it really reminded me of what a haven it really is.

I got into looking at some old pictures of Carrie, Anna, and I's childhood and pics of our aunts and uncles and their kids and old friends, and softball, and cheerleading pics, and pics of me wearing too much makeup in high school and Carrie and Anna before they got braces, etc. I look back sometimes and wonder why mom let me leave the house looking like what I did. How embarassing!

But upon looking at the pictures I was reminded of all the outfits I used to love and the neighbors I used to hang out with and things that we would do when we played together. Coming across pictures of the Stone twins, I remember this special kind of ham at the their house when my parents would babysit for Matt and Nancy. I always looked forward to that week or two because I felt like that special ham in their refrigerator was waiting just for me.

I remembered these special red shoes I used to have. My pop loved those shoes. They had alphabet shoe strings in them and I think he still has them to this day. I remembered all the bathrobes I used to wear and my special pink dress with the white belt I loved and saved to put on my baby doll one summer.

I had forgotten how scraggily I was, as a kid, and how I loved to dress up with the neighbor kids. Almost all of us are married now.

Boy does life happen quick. In the blink of eye people are having babies and moving to other states, taking on new challenges and experiencing life's hardships as adults.

Learning to remember is recounting lost innocence.