PoW : Jan 30 - Feb 6 ... sort of.

I don't really have much by way of a Photo of the Week this time around. The week flew by and I spent it sick and plowing through boxes of tissues. Well, with the exception of that stint to Wendover which I'm pretty sure made things worse (and cost me $5 to those blasted penny slots).  

I started organizing my external hard drive and came across an old scan. You know, better this for a PoW than some boring photo of my garbage can piled high with tissues (grossed out yet?). So here we have a fun family photo with all the cousins at Christmas dinner. Precious! Such perfect little kiddos with such shining smiles! Happy holidays everyone! Except ... wait a minute. Who is that little gem in the back with her FINGER UP HER NOSE? Yeah. That'd be me ruining the perfect Christmas dinner photo. Can't rip it out for two seconds to take a nice picture. Here's the thing, guys - this most certainly isn't the only picture of me where I'm picking my nose. And let's be sure that if I have that many pictures of me picking what in the world was I like when the camera wasn't pointed in my direction??

SO LET'S RECAP: Big Jess with a nasty cold this week and 'Lil Jess enjoying herself some good old fashioned nose picking. Full circle. See what I did there?

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday AND conference weekend? Suffice it to say that Monday can wait. (No really, Monday ... stall or something.) Wanna know what this time of year meant when I was younger? A NEW EASTER DRESS! And usually a matching one. Don't you worry --  found a pic to illustrate:

Minus Curlie, of course. Not sure where she was hiding for this one. But aren't you jealous of my dress? I remember LOVING the shiny ribbon on it. And how about Josh's stubby little tie? Quite the little Dapper Dan.

While an Easter dress still sounds pretty appealing to me, it's of course not the main focus as it was back then. So today of all days I'm grateful for the knowledge of who I am, why I'm here, and the sacrifice that was made for me. And since music can sometimes say it best, I'll let this video take care of the rest. Redeemer by Paul Cardall. Definitely a beautiful song and a great way to say .... HAPPY EASTER! 

3D Paper Art

How great is this artist's work? Talk about attention to detail. I'm getting carpal tunnel just thinking about it.

And one of my very favorites:

I always wanted to be a ballerina ... the healthy kind, though. Not eating disorder ballerina like Maureen on Center Stage. Last year during my really annoying FUN physical therapy stint I went to the same place as some of the Ballet West dancers did. I probably looked like a super creep, but it was interesting to watch them stretch out and practice certain things in front of the mirrors. They're all so graceful. I've always wanted to be graceful. This is about as far as I got with my ballerina career:

Guess I'll just ramp up the yoga and see what I can do about that "graceful" thing.

Oh, and we won't even talk about Josh's muscle man tank top in this pic. Or my patch of bangs. Or Jen's super authentic tamborine. Or Curlie's gingham faux suspenders. Nope.

A Venable Family Christmas - 1986 ... ish? Sure.

Things have changed a lot since these Christmas mornings on the stairs, one of those changes being the absence of Care Bear and GI Joe pajamas (or basically any pajama with built in feet). But even without footed pajamas the idea is still the same and I'm grateful for all the wonderful blessings in my life. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

P.S. We practiced our Guitar Hero skills again this Christmas. Our band, The Roman Irish, is a force to be reckoned with. I double dog dare you to challenge us. As long as we get to choose the set list :)

MAX AXE

This one really makes me laugh for a variety of reasons:

#1 Karlee's face looks like she just rolled out of the muddy pig pen
#2 Apparently I was a floozy who couldn’t keep her shirt up
#3 Karlee’s freakish doll has some form of leprosy
#4 The creepy Cabbage Patch Doll peering over my shoulder

This got me thinking about my Cabbage Patch Doll phase. I was so into them. They smelled like baby powder and you even got to ADOPT them – papers and all. And they had the name Xavier Roberts (the creator) tattooed on their butts. I always thought the butt was an interesting placement choice for that, but whatever.

Anyway. Then I started thinking about Garbage Pail Kids. Anyone else remember them? They were a series of trading cards designed as a play on the Cabbage Patch Kids. Where the dolls were cutesy, these cards were not. The characters were all deformed or part of some horrible scene. Oddly enough, I really liked collecting them. Which I feel is weird considering I was a shy little blonde girl with braids. Then again, I couldn’t keep my shirt up so maybe I had a wild streak in there somewhere.

Turns out there was even a Garbage Pail Kids movie. I don’t ever remember seeing it, but after looking at the screenshots I feel okay about it. It’s like they mated a Cabbage Patch Kid with a Gremlin and made a movie. I am not comfortable with that.

And aren't they supposed to be kids? The one in the front left has sideburns and a butt chin. Again, feeling very uncomfortable with this picture.

snow.

Last week Marme and I found some boxes of pictures from way back when. HILARIOUS. Lots of fanny packs, big bangs, nose pickings, Josh's spandex shorts, missing teeth, Perfect Pose Karlee and Jennie -- all there.

Thankfully there were some normal ones where my finger wasn't shoved up my nose. Just a few. This one seems appropriate considering all the snow as of late. Apparently Karlee wasn't allowed to have snow clothes and play outside and have fun. Sorry, Curlie.

Or there's this real nice one of Josh. Doesn't he kind of remind you of little Ralphie? If you look closely you can seen a glimmer of snot on his upper lip.



I'd venture I'm not alone in saying that sometimes I wanna go back to those times where your biggest concern was how big you could build your snow igloo or if your sled was fast enough. This week's snow was a chance to momentarily tap into that which was much needed. Thankfully (and not thankfully) our street isn't always plowed so yesterday was perfect for sledding and skiing down it. I'm totally buying moon boots and upgrading from my plastic garbage bag to a saucer so I can feel five and so carefree just a little more often.