I cried...lost memories

[DammitJanet]

I am a certified wuss.

This past weekend husband and I took Keyana up to Jamies for our Xmas weekend trip. Then we all packed up and headed to my dads to take the two little grandbabies to see their great grandfather. It was a special time for me. I cant help it...I feel so grateful that he is still here to know them.

Years ago I lost all my pictures of my boys in a flood. Thankfully I had always given copies of those pictures to both my mom and my dad but my mom got rid of all the ones of Jamie and Cory and only kept the ones of Billy. I had asked my dad about a year ago if he could find any of those pictures for me so I could have copies made. When I went up there this weekend he had a whole envelope with all of them and told me to take them and make copies and just mail them back.

I sat there and looked through that envelope and cried and cried. There were pictures I didnt even know existed. Pictures of Jamie at age 4 playing soccer. The team photo when Tony coached Cory in flag football. Cory was 7. A wonderful picture of Jamie and Cory together in flag football at ages 8 and 10. Pictures of all 3 of them from toddlers up.

I cried and cried.

Then he pulled out the videos from Xmas's. OMG! They were so cute.

I miss my babies.

 

[Hound dog]

Oh, Janet!

I'm so thrilled you got your pics back, and then some!!! How sweet of your Dad to gather them up for you, and show you the old video's too.

I have trouble looking at old videos and pics of my kids childhood too. I get all bleary eyed and sniffy. And in my head I keep thinking it went by too d@mn fast.

Once you get them copied tuck them away in one of those fire proof safes. If you have a scanner on your computer, scan them too. I try to scan all the pics of both grands, plus any recent fam pics. Then I have them all safely copied onto my computer. Then I back them up by copying and uploading the files to my yahoo briefcase. :smile:

Hugs

 

[DammitJanet]

Thats what I am going to do. Im going to copy them...well I scan them myself, then I am going to copy them to several disc's, print out copies for everyone, back them up online, then make a couple of scrapbooks.

 

[hearts and roses]

Awwww Janet, that is so lovely! I'm so happy that you found those pics!

 

[everywoman]

When I left pcson's father years ago, I left behind everything we owned. He refused to give me any of easy child's pictures. I have none of him before age 5. But...I've had him...all biodad has are those pictures....I got the better of the two deals.

 

[KFld]

I made sure when I moved out of my house to take the photo albums and the video tapes I made of the kids from when they were little. I am going to very soon have them put onto disc and I'm sure when I sit and watch them I'll be balling my eyes out.
That is a good cry though. It's nice to have good things to cry over for a change.
I'm so happy you were able to get those pictures.

 

[meowbunny]

I'm glad you got those photos. They really do mean a lot. And the tears are so appropriate. I know that when I start going through old albums I get all sniffly. My daughter will walk by and tell me I'm being really doofy but you can see the corners of her mouth trying so hard not go smile.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

It's great that your dad had those copies for you.

Our pictures are so disorganized. We have boxes of pictures that we are no longer sure of the date or occasion -- sometimes even the people. We have album pages that got separated from their albums. If you don't keep track of the date and who's in the picture, it rapidly becomes very confusing. Especially when, like us, pictures may come from the ex- side of either of us.

Same with old VCR tapes. We lost our wedding video somehow, and accidentally taped over easy child 2's high school graduation. Also quite a few of his football game tapes are gone somewhere. Instead we have tapes of 5 year old episodes of Survivor. D'oh!

This year I made a DVD for my parents' 50th anniversary. I scanned hundreds of my mom's photos all the way back to 1936 and saved them in three places: on my computer, uploaded to PhotoBucket, and burned on CDs (with copies mailed to various relatives). I also devised a naming convention that works really well for organizing: the file name consists of the date (yyyymmdd), place, occasion, and names of principal subjects (e.g., "20071122 Tulsa Thanksgiving Me wife easy child 1.jpg" except I use our real names). That way you can easily sort chronologically or search for a particular person or place.

My mother has her memoribilia in scrapbooks by year. The books fill a whole bookcase. I so wish I had done that.

I've been trying to sort and organize our old shots and back them up on the computer and online. Progress is slow.

Last year I bought a video camera (which also takes passable still images) and a photo printer/copier/scanner. I have been keeping up fairly well with this year's photos and videos.

by the way, I would have cried too, and I'm a guy, so I must be even wussier than you!

 

[Star*]

Janet,

Reading your post brought back some really good memories. I first lost some photos to our house fire (set intentionally by x's nephew), then to a 100 yr. flood. Then our house burned down totally and I lost what I had left from the flood in the same house. Then when we divorced I lost some more, and the only ones i had were from my Mom saving them as x's mom refused to share.

So I know where you are coming from. And I got a video in the mail one day from my Mom of difficult child as a baby - the only one we ever took.

Put a copy of all those discs in a fireproof safe or safety deposit box.

GOOD ON YA KID - you needed a smile or ten.

Hugs
Star

 

[Fran]

Janet, I'm glad you got those photo's. I'm a blubbering fool when I see the boys as youngsters.
Enjoy.

My M I L made a small personal album of difficult child when he graduated. All the old photo's we sent were put together in a chronological order. It meant more to me than him, I think.

Those good memories are the gifts we get from our kids.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Janet,

How wonderful to get the unexpected Christmas gift of pictures! I used to scapbook a lot (I'm about two years behind now) and my albums are precious - both the chidren and I enjoy looking through and reliving the events pictured. You can hold memories in your heart forever, but the pictures help you remember some of the times we forget.

I too have times when I just wish I could hold my babies again!

Big hugs,
Sharon

 

[DDD]

Janet what an absolutely lovely post to read so soon after all the sincere concern about Jamie and your Dad just last week or the week before. That is what makes families so special. You can have chaos and discord and concern and then...voila...you can
cry from joy and happiness with the same people.

I'm so glad it was a memorable visit. DDD

 

[mrscatinthehat]

That is great. So glad that you got to have so many of them.

Beth

 

[Suz]

How wonderful, Janet. What a gift! :flower:

Suz

 

[Wiped Out]

I'm so glad you got the pictures!

 

[Lothlorien]

That's wonderful. I am a lunatic with my pictures. I can imagine how devestated you were.

 

[flutterbee]

How sweet, Janet. I'm glad you were able to recover those memories. Like HWGA, our pictures are everywhere. It doesn't help that difficult child routinely goes through them and picks some out for some project she's making.

I miss so much my babies being babies. On the back of my desk - cause I spend so much time here on the computer - I have a picture of difficult child when she was 3 dressed up in a Little Mermaid getup posing for the camera with hear head over her shoulder, with this smirk that says she knows how cute she is and one of easy child at about 9 months standing at the side of the tub, with water running down his face, grinning for all he's worth.