(taking photos)

I remembered taking some photos years ago at my Grandparent’s house.  They were “last time” photos, as I was unsure I would ever see it again the way it looked when Grandma and Grandpa lived there.  Grandma had died and Grandpa was moving out of the farmhouse.

After I took the photos I didn’t do anything to save them.  I thought I would print them out, put them in a scrapbook or something.   But Caleb was a baby and I would end up having Seth and Sarah and being extremely busy and distracted by motherhood.

However, every now and then I would think about the photos from Grandma’s house and wonder where in the world they went.

For a time I was having my digital photos put on CD at Costco and I assumed that I had done that and lost the CD.

Last week, when I was blogging about the Nancy Drew books Grandma had given me, and I was over in the garage looking through boxes, I thought of those photos again.  I found an old picture CD and turned it over to see the label.  Nope.  Not the photos.  I stood in the closet and said a little prayer that I would someday find them.

Amanda and Cassandra came over and I wanted to take photos of the baby and our walk.  There was no camera card in my camera so I took one out of the plastic baggy I keep all my cards in and inserted it into the camera.  We went on our walk and I put the camera aside for a day or two.

In the meantime, I went to a thrift store and found a framed needlework that I had remembered Mom giving to Grandma years ago, and which Mom now has hanging in her house.  I took a photo of it, and of my ongoing collection, and texted them to Mom so she could see.

Then, I thought I had some time to blog the photos of my walk with Amanda and Cassandra so I got the camera card out of the camera and inserted it into my laptop.

This card, by the way, was funny, because during the walk I could only get it to hold about 10 photos before it was full.  But I couldn’t see any other photos on it while it was in my camera.

When I inserted it, all the photos flashed up and there were about 20 from the year 2006, including little videos of baby Caleb.  I hadn’t seen these photos in so long that I almost didn’t know what I was seeing.  In a moment, I was taken back 12 years to when Caleb was a baby, when we were getting our new puppy Parker, AND YES, those photos I had longed for, when Grandma and Grandpa’s house still looked the way I remembered it……..I cried a little with my hands over my mouth in surprised joy.  I studied each and every photo.  I just could not believe it.

I saw the needlepoint on Grandma’s wall that I had JUST BOUGHT THAT DAY for my own wall!

The only (small) disappointment was there were not nearly as many photos of the house that I thought I had taken!!!!

The corner hutch in the kitchen with seasonal Watkins pie plates, a photo of me and my siblings, and a sweet drawing of a goldfinch.  I have one of the pie plates.

More of Grandma’s kitchen decorations.

kitchen

This is the indentation in the kitchen linoleum that I always put my heel in for a moment or two….it fit just right.  So funny the things kids do and remember from childhood.

Just a small part of the livingroom, which was nice and spacious for family gatherings.

The framed needlework design hung on the wall over the TV.

Old clothes hanging up in Grandma’s closet.

And of course the bookcases upstairs on the landing.

Looking at all the books was always one of the best things to do during a visit.

On top of the shelves there was space for all the senior portraits that she framed and displayed, of her children and grandchildren.  There I am on the far right.

Makes me smile to think of her doing this.

And that’s that.  sigh.  I wish I had taken 100 more!!  But I can’t complain BECAUSE I FINALLY FOUND THE MISSING PHOTOS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!

I’m in the kitchen while Jacob videotapes his baby brother.  What makes me laugh every time is seeing Caleb pick up a piece of who knows what off the floor….and eat it.  Poor baby number 5!!!  Mama’s too busy to make sure you don’t eat yucky things!  (honestly, it happens no matter what number baby…..)  He’s so cute!!!

Me and Colleen with our gang of little ones, 12 years ago.

Mom and Dad’s old dogs Brutus, and Lion.

Ethan with puppy Parker.

beautiful mama in her garden

visiting mom and dad

Rich (at the store?)….a photo taken by one of the kids.

Little Caleb in the flower bed by Grandpa’s garage.

A trip down memory lane!

Home is where the heart is,
Love is where the home is.