I was organizing some old pics and found this one of me in Brick from 2018. I’m sure I thought I looked good that day. I think I’ve upped my makeup game just a little since then, eh? So you CAN teach old dogs new tricks… So if I can do it, so can you. 😍
This was from 1977. 😂
#nbcsports #sundaynightfootball #liammchugh
The merry-go-round (nowadays probably better known as a spinning metal death trap) was one of the best pieces of playground equipment ever.
My favorite thing to do? Sit on the bars facing forward with my legs hooked around the sides so you could lean back once it got spinning and fling your arms out and feel the breeze in your hair. Of course you had to be careful that no one was standing next to it otherwise you’d hit them…and you had to have some body strength to keep your body vertical enough so that you didn’t flip down and bang your head on the bottom…
If you were fast enough when recess started you would get there first and not have to get off for the whole 20 minutes. If you had a best friend you could work together and take turns.
Whenever we are driving around and see a playground I look for a merry-go-round like this, but of course everything these days is plastic. You do find merry-go-rounds now and again, but nothing like this and it makes me sad. But elementary school, man, those were the times.
NO, NOT THAT COOTIES. READ ON.
This is the extra blog post I mentioned earlier.
One thing I love about our family is our traditions. Today we’ve spent the day together celebrating Christmas in July—something we started about six years ago when we got tired of the hustle and bustle during December.
So we all got to wondering…is our family the only one that plays Cooties? Do you have any idea what Cooties even is? I asked on Facebook and predicted 90% would have no idea, and I was dead on. If you don’t count the people directly associated with our family, 91% of the people didn’t know what I was talking about…and most of them thought I was talking about the box game Cootie. (To be honest, I totally forgot the box game was even a thing when I initially posted!!)
So what IS our cooties? I went to Google to see if I could find a succinct definition and I really couldn’t find anything. What? Google failed me? Eventually I found this, which is the basis of our game:
It’s an infection tag game, whereby one person has the cooties and must try to pass it on to someone else. You can’t get the cooties if your fingers are crossed. So if you are the one with cooties, you must catch someone who isn’t paying attention (hence my fingers crossed in the photo). There are lots of good stories, but the best one (and is the aforementioned one with my cousin Greg), is as follows.
We were all packing up and rolling out after a week of camping (pretty sure it was the annual trip to Harrisville). I don’t know how old I was, but it was before my parents divorced, so it was before 4th grade—I’d guess I was maybe 7 or 8? We were in the Oldsmobile ’88 pulling our popup camper, slowly driving out towards the campground exit when we see Greg (who is 4 years older than me, so right about pre-teen) FLAT OUT RUNNING towards us waving his arms crazily. Of course we stopped, assuming we had forgotten something or there was some other emergency (he had cut through the woods to get to us). My mom rolled down her window (was it my mom? how is this part hazy?) and Greg came right up to the car, reached out, and smacked her arm while yelling COOTIES! And there was much laughter on his part and much confusion and damnation on our part!! We had been sooooo close to escaping! And obviously cooties were the last thing on our minds. Well played, Greg, well played. The fact that we’re still talking about it almost 40 years later really says something.
IT’S S’MORE SEASON, Y’ALL!! And I’m a 2 all the way. If you are a 4 we might not be able to be friends. 😂🔥 (Just kidding! We can be friends but there’s no way in hell I’ll ask you to toast my marshmallow!)
You have to s-l-o-w-l-y toast it over the coals–no sticking it straight into the fire 🤦🏻♀️–turning it consistently so that it melts evenly throughout. Once it starts to droop (if pierced in two spots) or rotate (if only pierced once), then you can get it closer to the coals so that it starts to brown but not burn. NO BURNING! NO BLACK!! 🤮
This method gives you the ooiest gooiest stretchiest meltiest marshmallow that really melts the chocolate nicely. Trust me. I’m a s’mores guru–I’ve been making my own s’mores for probably 35 years from campgrounds to gas stoves to backyard bonfires.
I might also put peanut butter on mine (it goes perfectly with the chocolate PLUS it keeps the chocolate bar attached to the graham cracker). LIKE I SAID, TRUST ME.
So, which one are you?
I am on a family vacation in Indiana and for some reason thought about a wine cooler-esque non-alcoholic beverage my cousins and I bought in the late 80s while we were camping. Imagine the exhilaration of being in middle school or early high school, being old enough to not need parental supervision, and walking around a state park campground drinking something that LOOKED adult but wasn’t. Living the dream, right? Feeling all adult and fancy. Like maybe we were getting away with something. 😂
But not one of my stepsiblings could think of what it was. We spent a half hour looking at Google’s suggestions for “1980s and 1990s beverages.” There were a hell of a lot of good memories but NOT what I was looking for.
I then texted my cousins (who I love dearly but rarely text with) and they both IMMEDIATELY got back to me with their ideas!! One who was on a road trip driving up I-75 in Michigan and the other at home elsewhere in Michigan. After a few texts and Google searches on either end, we got it!
What would we have done before the internet and instantaneous communication?! How could I have survived not knowing the answer to that most pressing of questions?! 😂
What is something from your past that you’ve needed to Google or use technology to help answer?
P.S. Bonus points if you remember Sundance or drank it. 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏼♂️
This is what happens when you give your 10yo the phone to try and take a pic on their last day of school. 😂
It looks like all smiles and laughs but we parents all know the day is bittersweet as we’re reminded just how quickly time passes and how lightning fast they are growing up. Weren’t they just in diapers a few months ago? Weren’t they just getting on the bus for the first time? Before you know it they’ll be graduating and moving out and getting married. 😭
These are the feelings I’m going to try and remember this summer when they are making me crazy with 1000 snack requests and whines of “I’m bored.” And I’m going to try and take in each moment and relish the fact they’re still actually little kids. 🥰
First and last days of school. The district actually has three more days due to snow days but we had a family reunion vacation planned for months so today is it for them. We also had a Katie outfit change with lots of drama because she’s ALMOST SEVEN and everything is filled with drama. 😂🤦🏻♀️
I saw the left pic in my Facebook memories (5 years ago!) and then Katie came down wearing the right so of course I had to recreate it!
So today we were cleaning out Owen’s baseball bag which hasn’t been touched since we moved. Lots of great memories… /sniff/ Here’s hoping a new city and new team ends up just as awesome as our last…
His setup was much more precise…but then you had to be when doing two or more bushels at a time.
These were tomatoes from our own gardens! We’ve been picking them consistently but we can’t eat them fast enough so I had to make something…and pretty much everything starts with peeling the tomatoes.
And the meat festival begins…Of course Timmy brought a ton of his amazing brats…but this year he added smoked brisket to the menu! HOLY WAH!
And no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you…that’s a Gummy Bear brat. With real gummy bears in it. It wasn’t bad…just a sweet taste. I thought Katie would love it because she LOVES gummy bears but nope. Silly kid.
And the annual kid comparison! After last year when Owen was taller, Nick pulled ahead (which he should, as he’s almost 14).
2017:
The kids goofing around while I was getting the camera set up.
My test shot to make sure the settings were okay, and I loved it so much I kept it. It’s also fun to see how we can all pull it together for the real photo!
Nick and Owen…conspiring? Planning? Who knows.
Gramma created a project for the kids—money frozen in a block! They had to figure out how to get to it! (It didn’t take them long!)
Oh yeah! We also gained a dog for an hour or so. Mom didn’t recognize him and Tom called the number on his tag and it was animal control…?!? He was good and just hung out with us—got a few pets and belly rubs (Maggie pretty much ignored him). After awhile a young girl came looking for him—and we found out she was visiting someone in the neighborhood.
Overall it was a perfectly gorgeous day—not too hot and not too cold, lots of good food (too much, actually, but we’re Lens so it’s expected), and great visiting with family and watching the cousins play!
At our dinner last night, a friend of the family (and my high school Spanish and yearbook teacher) told me a friend of mine was in town and they were having breakfast if I wanted to join them. It was early, but they are both worth it. And it was great to see her face when I walked in! It was just like a yearbook staff meeting!
Tom has wanted to come here since we moved here. He hasn’t been to one in 25 years and I’ve never been—I’d never even heard of it before we saw it here. It didn’t quite live up to his hype, but it was passable. Nothing we had was terribly exciting but I’m glad we were able to take a trip down Tom’s memory lane.
I thought they were insane when I first started wearing them but now I LOVE them.
This pic never fails to make me chuckle.
2013 and 2017
I had this coat when I was in high school—I think maybe my junior/senior years. Then I gave it to my Aunt Marge and she wore it forever. She just gave it back to us for Owen…and it’s a bit big but he doesn’t care. He LOVES it. I might need to write Land’s End about this one. (I also know I have one picture of me in it, but it’s black and white in a yearbook…and I have to find it. Stay tuned.)
When you’re away from home and didn’t pack any hair product because you were planning on getting a blowout at the beauty school but they were closed for the holidays so you have to wash your hair at home and it’s not convenient to go to town so you have to rely on the hair products that are already here and all there is is mousse from high school. 😂
So then you post it to Facebook and a friend jokes:
And I was compelled to respond with this:
I’m working on my annual holiday letter and going through all of 2017’s blog posts and it’s a lot sadder than I anticipated rereading all the great times we had with dear friends that we greatly miss. I know this happens EVERY time we move and it’s the way of the military life but it still surprises me and never gets easier. NEVER. 💔😥
Perfect pictures from my well-trained kids…
…and then daddy walked in with news of a brand new Pokemon in the yard. 😆
And our Santa Hat Project to date (I can’t believe I missed a yer!).
Kicking it old school today with my college dorm sweatshirt (class of ’94 but I got it freshman year). Do I look like a co-ed? 😂
I was out shopping today and ran across this game.
Holy cow the memories came flooding back!
I kicked ass at it back in the day when my cousins and I each got it for Christmas. (Google tells me it came out in 1982, which is about exactly when I thought it was—I guessed I was around 8 or so.) This is what the box looked like then.
I asked on Facebook if anyone remembered it, and my cousins did—and amazingly, said her kids played the very game a short time ago!! I wish I still had mine, but I wasn’t about to pay $17 for it. 🙂
Then, my neighbor and high school classmate. Now, my cousin (well, since 1998).
Katie’s school timeline…
Owen’s school timeline…
