Get Ready to Laugh!

I stumbled upon a website I've never seen before. It's called Yearbook Yourself. Here's the website: http://yearbookyourself.com/. You can select from all sorts of vintage hairdos and superimpose a photo of yourself (or even your sister!) I hope you laugh as hard as I did, because we all know that laughter is good for the soul. One could probably argue that I obviously have too much time on my hands, except you all know that isn't true. This is therapy, pure and simple. It's either this or a shrink.


Now take a deep breath....

Okay, now. All things considered, this one isn’t that bad. I like the whole Angie Dickinson effect. It looks good on Sharon. The haircut’s cute, the color’s good…

I think this one should be named Mildred, or perhaps Myrtle. She's the spinster librarian.



Oh, Lord. Please help us. This is Miss McGillicutty, and she had one too many Gimlets last night. The school board is writing her up for a standards violation. The lush.

Here we are, ready for a photo shoot at Glamour Shots. She was all set to enter the beauty pagent, until she had to have that emergency oral surgery.

Now, this one is the long lost, never before seen, senior prom picture that Sharon carefully hid. The humidity was so bad that day...It's a shame. But what a great tan!

OK, Sheila, you don't get off the hook so easily....

The really scary thing is Sheila actually looks pretty good in the vintage 1964 glasses. I mean, how photogenic can you be? It's not fair! I'd look worse then McGillicutty (sorry, Sharon!)

But the Angie Dickinson look? Not so good...

Now THIS is a look you should have tried! Karen Carpenter on steroids!

I think I've seen this one before...somewhere around 1990.

Yikes! A couple of bleached stripes and we'd have the Bride of Frankenstein!

All in good fun, my beloved sisters. Right?

They're Here!

Actually, these visitors are here around all year long, but once the field is cleared in the fall we can see them so much better. These not-so-timid creatures will feast on the leftovers of the harvest all winter long, often wandering into our back yard and nibbling on our bushes and the remnants of our garden. This past Thursday I counted 27 as I crept quietly into the field to capture a few photos. There were 4 bucks toward the back of the herd. Of course, they would tolerate only so much of me before they got skiddish and leaped back into the treeline, white tails high.

I'm Afraid It's Contagious!

This is a shameless scraplift of a page done by Jessica Sprague over at www.jessicasprague.com. Click on the picture if you want to read what it says.

Scenes from My Back Yard

This is a rare sight in most metropolitan areas. But one of the things I love most about where I live is the ability to look just beyond my back yard and see an active Iowa farm. Some years this field grows corn, but this year soybeans were the crop sown. Each spring we look on as the farmer plants the crop and watch eagerly as the tiny plants emerge to see whether it will be corn or beans (we like corn the best only because it provides a tall, green fence along our back yard.) Then we monitor the growth of the crop all summer, hoping the farmer avoids our garden as he sprays for weeds. We are entranced by the fireflies that hover above the field on hot summer days, and watch as green turns to yellow and brown as the days shorten. Then one day we come home from school or work or church to find the field barren - the harvest completed. This year we were fortunate to see the harvest in progress. With a combine of this size, it takes about four hours to clear the field. I think back to the combine my father used to harvest oats on our farm. It was much smaller; and it took much longer to complete the work. He rode in open air and scorching sun rather than a climate controlled cab. And what you can't see in this picture is that the driver of this monstrous machine is a woman - something nearly unheard of when I was growing up on a farm.
We're definitely living in a different time, but the connection with the land remains strong in Iowa - even in the biggest city in the state. I don't expect that this will always be the view from my back yard. Someday soon this field will probably be replaced by office buildings or restaurants or stores. So until then I will make it a point to treasure it. I'll relish the connections this makes for me between old and new, between childhood and adulthood, between rural and urban, and between two homes - one present and one left behind.

Football Friday Night

It was a gorgeous night for football! David was finally freed from his "academic ineligibility" and started at free safety, a position that is new for him. (His 140 lb. frame is no long D Line material.) He did a great job, getting several tackles that necessitated a conversation with the announcer to correct the pronunciation of our last name (thanks, Cyndi Winterbottom!) Papa, Chris and Darrin all joined us. The sophomores lost their game, but the varsity team soundly spanked their Southeast Polk opponents. The Johnston Dragons now remain as the only undefeated team in our conference! Go Dragons!





And just because every now and then I surprise myself by taking a photo that is actually pretty good, I'm including this silly picture of Lucy, who recently cleaned out a yogurt carton with her tongue. Her fur is matted and sticking straight out, and she looks so ridiculous (in a cute way!) I couldn't resist taking a few photos of this silly girl!

Hair

If you haven't seen Darrin in awhile, he's sporting a new hairstyle. Or perhaps more accurately, he's neglected his hair altogether! (In case you didn't know, you can click on any of these images to look at them more closely.) We've decided he looks very much like this famous person - is anyone old enough to remember who this is?Hey, hey, it's a Monkee! Peter Tork to be exact. I should know, 'cuz I had a big crush on him when I was, oh 9 or 10 years old. Don't you think there's a striking resemblence? All we need is some sideburns and a few strands of those beads....

Urban Farm Boy

This is, without a doubt, the fundamental difference between men and women. Al willingly, no eagerly, posed for this photo. He looks hot and he knows it. (The definition of the word hot is left to the reader.) These are his official "farming" duds. No overalls for this stud farmer! No, he wears athletic shorts, tennis shoes, and leather gloves. A shirt is an unnecessary hindrance. Sunscreen? Ha! He laughs in the face of UV rays!

Had the camera been pointed at me (and most women I know) I would have run so fast I'd be in the next county by now.

Here are the prize pumpkins that our studly farmer has just harvested. We have a bumper crop (at least 15) this year! The fruits of the summer's labors - watering, hoeing, and carefully turning each pumpkin over regularly so that the sun hits all sides - are finally paying off. And with the price of a pumpkin at $3.99 at HyVee, it looks like this farmer may have finished in the black this year!