past in picture: October 1982

Looking at the pictures I put up the other day of the beach made me so nostalgic for my childhood spent near the beach.  I found this picture of me looking very Rowan-esque.  And wearing a little red sweater and bell bottoms!  My memories of the beach are less of swimming in that big, cold lake, and more of hiking the bluffs and dunes and picking up special stones and lake glass to weigh down my pockets.  Just like my little family and I did on Spring Break.

past in picture: January 2011

Two years ago, we were living in a little Chicago suburb town.  And it was the winter of the "snowpocolypse."  You know.  The storm that forced people to abandon their cars on Lake Shore Drive because it came on so fast and full force.  We got about 2 to 3 feet of snow, more in the drifts,  but some places around us got even more.  And while I'm sure plenty of people had disrupted power and had hardships from such a massive storm, we treated it like a little snow vacation and played in the snow the following day.  Fletcher was 2, and Rowan was just 7 months.  It's a fun memory for me.

past in picture: October, 2008

I really love this picture.  This is Fletcher, by the way, at 4 months.  I remember this day so well, because we had taken a long walk in the colorful woods, and then we came home and Brian harvested our pumpkins.  We had quite the crop that year!  I'm sad to say we didn't plant pumpkins this year.  They tend to take over, and since we're renters, we decided against it.  This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Fletcher.  He's always been a happy boy, right from the start.  He's a joy, that one.  And of course, you know by now that I adore Autumn. 

past in picture: may, 2001

In May, 2001, we had been dating for over a year.  Brian was spending the year in Korea, teaching English.  I had fallen in love with a man with serious wanderlust.  Me.  The home body.  So I chucked my job, and joined him for the month of May, spending every second that a tourist visa would allow.  I even taught some classes at his school.  Learned that teaching is NOT for me.  Learned that living abroad can be an adventure, especially with a fun man with wanderlust.  I ate food I couldn't identify, got touched and photographed by curious Koreans, and left more in love with the most adventurous man I've ever known.

past in picture: march, 2004

In March 2004, we had been married shy of one year, and had spent 3 months of that year together.  It was Brian's first deployment to Iraq.  When he came home safely, it was like the rain stopped falling after a year long flood.  We reunited in a massive gymnasium with hundreds of other families and soldiers reuniting with their loved and missed ones.  The energy was electric, crackling, palpable.  They played Etta James, "At Last."