Self Portrait Tuesday

I'm assuming Self-Portrait Tuesday, is when you include and write about a photo of yourself. I wasn't sure what to choose, The only recent shots I have of myself would be Graham and I together, which I'm sure will find their way into this blog, but this is a shot I love for some reason and decided to choose this one.

I love the 70's accents, the bright skirt my mom is wearing, the adorable shoes I'd wear today if I could, my dad's long and crazy hair, the muscle car. I think about where I came from, the sacrifices and hard work. I think about what it must have been like to have a new baby in a strange place when your combined ages don't even equal 40. The trailer house that they are proudly standing in front of . . . I imagine technically, this shot shows hardtimes, maybe even poverty, but the little red details on the curtains seen in the window are so "mom". She has this amazing knack to take simple things, and use them in a special way. I never felt deprived, I never felt hungry, I never felt poor. Only special.

My grandma Bev often told the story of how she came to stay with my mom and dad after I was born, there was no place for her to sleep, so she slept underneath the kitchen table so she wouldn't be stepped on in the middle of the night. I wonder what was going through her head as her baby girl held her baby girl. As her new son-in-law left for work early to scrounge enough together to feed me and his little wife. Did she worry? (I'm sure she had to, especially knowing Grandma) But, then again, looking at the picture, she had to see the happiness and self-confidence that is evident in this picture taken in those very early days of their life as a couple. Could grandma see what was coming? A marriage that would last through good and bad times, many more children that would someday play in her yard and climb on her tree. A hard life A happy life, alot like this picture.