A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words – but I say that’s only true if you use the words! You see, I believe that it’s as important to journal the story behind the photo as it is to keep the photo itself. Ever forgotten anything that happened in your life or your children’s lives? Yah, me too. That’s why I think journaling is so important! It continues even when your memory doesn’t!

So, by way of an example, I will show you several of our family photos that are, without the story told, just nice photos. But, with the story told, they become an important family memory.

This is our younger daughter when she was about two. Her sister had recently started Kindergarten and was told to bring her Show & Tell item to school in a brown paper bag. She wanted to bring her baby sister as her Show & Tell item, so I made a little dress out of a grocery bag and put it on her. Needless to say, sister didn’t like it. BUT the teacher loved it!

This just looks like a fun photo of my husband running through a meadow. However, he was entertaining our children by singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music” as he serpentined across the meadow at Skyline Drive, one of our favorite family places. It made them laugh then and it would probably make them laugh now, too!

Dad had been working out of town a lot, so he did some Christmas shopping at the Dollar Store. He gave the girls these tinsel thingies as a gag gift – and they immediately put them on their heads and pretended to be Lady Gaga. Great gift!

This just looks like a photo of an eel at an aquarium. It is, but the back story is that my husband and I took about 50 photos of this giant but elusive eel before we got a good one. The two of us were chasing the eel around the aquarium, trying to get a decent photo. Finally got one! I’m sure folks thought we were nuts!

Younger daughter again. This is a screen shot from a local TV news segment, highlighting her participation in a local kids’ golf camp. Looks like great form, doesn’t it? She’s even watching the ball travel down the fairway. However, the ball was still on the ground in front of her! Totally wiffed it!

Jenni pink pants

And finally, the story behind #1 Daughter’s nickname. My husband was working in Germany and he would come home one week per month. One month, the company paid to send the three of us to Germany (coach, of course) instead of sending him home (Business Class) because the price was about the same. We went to a consignment store across from the hotel and Daughter #1 found a pair of skin-tight pink pleather snakeskin pants – and asked if we could buy them. We were all shocked when her dad said, “Sure!” She wore them to school (8th grade) when we got home and she rocked those pants! Even teachers were stopping her in the hall to tell her they loved her pants. From that day on, she has been known as “Jenni Pink Pants” and for a long time, her license plate was PNKPNTS.

Now, what if you don’t like your handwriting? Many people don’t like to journal in their albums or prefer to do it on the computer because they don’t like the way their handwriting looks. Well, that will be the topic for another blog, so keep your eyes open for it!

Until then,