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  • The Face Behind The Blog

    June
    27
    2007

    david dairey the face behind the blog memeShelly at This Eclectic Life tagged me to participate in The Face Behind The Blog meme. Shelly has a great collection of old photographs from her childhood days – now I don’t have that many in my possession, but I’ll do my best.

    Here’s how it goes, in the words of the originator, David:

    “Post a short blog article that includes a photograph (or a series of photos) showing the face behind your blog. If you already show a photo somewhere on your site (such as in your about page), then make your post more interesting and choose a photo that’s not currently online. Include links to other people that have displayed a photo, or include their photos in your post, adding a reference. A link back to David’s post is much appreciated, to help create a more personal community! Then tag as many others as you like in your post to spread the meme. Each person tagged should create their own post and repeat the process.”

    200pic1.jpgAlrightie then. Lemme see here. It all started out when I was a wee munchkin in a suit with a.. mom? What did you put on me? Is that a TIE? Ohhh the 70’s. It’s not my fault, my mommy made me do it. At least I’m wearing a skirt, I think? I don’t really know. But I’m cute, eh? I had those grandma-pinchy cheeks. Yep, the grandma’s loved me. The dad? Not so much. He bailed not long after this photo was taken. Can you believe it? I’m so stinkin’ cute, how could he leave? ::resisting urge to pinch my own baby cheeks::

    Completely skipping those awkward years of my youth because thankfully, those photos are in mom’s house, somewhere, and I am really fine with that. They can be lost, or found and burned – whatever works. I’m good. You know what I looked like at my Senior Prom – and that’s all that really matters, right?

    200pic2.jpg Skipping right on up to my late teens – early twenties (just saying that makes me feel old), when I lived in the beautiful sunny San Diego area. Aaah, those were the days. See how happy I am with my Super Big Hair? I loved living in California. I met one of my dearest friends there, after having worked with her for several months thinking she was a snotty valley girl – and here all along she thought I was a big B-word. Funny how first impressions can be so wrong! She and I hung out on Oceanside beach and Carlsbad.

    200pic3.jpgI can’t even begin to describe how much I loved living in California. I can still hear the sound of the waves crashing up onto those rocks, and I can smell the Pacific like it’s embedded in my sinuses. I miss living on the West Coast very much!

    At the time, I worked in Accounting. Can you believe it? I can’t. I’m horrible with numbers. I always say “that’s why God made calculators!” I worked hard, though, even though my brain hurt and recovery 200pic5.jpgdid require lots of cheap grocery store wine at the end of the day. Just kidding. I wasn’t a lush, but I did have a much more relaxed and carefree lifestyle while we were living there.

    All of these photos were taken by my friend Erin. Our men were both in the Marine Corps so we had a lot of fun getting gussied up and taking photos for them while they were on duty. I was even wearing her clothes at the time, which was cool because I always wanted to wear something smaller than a size 10. That only happened for like 6 months out of my whole entire life, and only because I sucked my gut in really really hard. She took the photos in black and white so you couldn’t see how my face was turning blue from holding my breath in.

    200pic6.jpg And then. I should just have you caption this photo for me. The winner would be something like “And then she moved back to the midwest.” or “Illinois. Takes the Cali right out of a girl.” You know, something gloomy and snowy that makes you want to grow your hair out long and wear college sweatshirts and put static guard on your hair in the fall and winter. Why am I showing you this? Just to show you folks on the West Coast what will happen if you move to the Midwest. You’ll completely forget how laid back and sensible life can be, and you’ll become one of those corn growers who doesn’t know how to put an infinitive in front of a verb. You’ll start saying things like “My hair needs cut.” instead of “My hair needs TO BE cut.” I swear, “to be” or not “to be” is never a question around here.

    200pic7.jpg Aaah getting settled in, chopping the hair off, adding a dog and then a kid to the brood, life is good. Chloe came first in 1993, then Catybug was born in 1996. The two of them got along famously as you can tell, Chloe guarded us even from that scary clickity thing that daddy was pointing at us. Then she smiled pretty because she realized she was on candid camera, and she was a smart girl. We’re coming up on the one year mark of having lost our first baby girl, so expect another mushy gushy kleenex getter of a post.

    200pic8.jpg Like I mentioned, we live on the Mighty Muddy Mississippi. We’re not allowed to feed those ducks anymore – can you believe that? Apparently a goose scared the crap out of a person, instead of the other way around, so now they’ve prohibited any of the good old traditions of going down to the river to feed the ducks. Catybug and I giggled a lot that day.

    200pic10.jpgThis is one of my favorite photos, but mom would have a meltdown if she saw her winky smiley face on the internet, so I blurred up her face some just to make her feel better. She’s really cute (go see her here, she actually doesn’t mind that one being on the web!) – I would have cut and pasted her head but boy that would have looked wierd. I got this great upright piano from a gal I worked with who was going to lose it to the burn pile if she didn’t find a home for it. I love having mom and my sisters over, we all sit around and play chopsticks and songs from when we were kids – and my mom also plays Grandma teacher with Catybug now, too. It’s a wonderful thing, those memories of playing the piano when I was a kid. I still know one or two songs from my childhood, too.

    200pic11.jpgI don’t think anyone who visits my blog has seen me pregnant. So TA-DA, here I am, pregnant with our little Chickeymonkey. Yes I gained like three hundred pounds and we had to install that backing up beeper on my rear end so I wouldn’t crash into people when I moved around. Sheesh. Yeah, pregnancy is beautiful – when it’s over and you’re reminiscing about it. This is me and my hubby on our second wedding day. The second marriage, I mean. And boy am I pregnant. Woah. Where’s the beach? Maybe you should just cover your eyes and scroll down now? That would be good. Thanks.

    leanne wildermuthThe Chickster wouldn’t let me get a photo of the two of us together, making things all even between sisters and all that – so I leave you with my most current photo from a couple of weeks ago. This is me, folks, in my studio. After all these years, I’m doing what I love to do. I’m creative every day, I get to be with my kids, I get to enjoy my home and my life and I get to savor it at a slower pace.

    And that concludes my “short blog article that includes a photograph (or a series of photos)”. What is short, anyway? I don’t even want to know the word count on this entry. It’s probably longer than a whole month worth of entries all put together.

    Who to tag?! Now I’m supposed to choose some people to do this. I can tell you who I’d like to see doing this – people who haven’t shared pics of themselves very often, if ever. I’m not going to tag anyone, though. I’m going to ask that if you’ve made it this far, and if this is something you’d like to do, please let me know and I’ll link to you.

    * * * * * * * * * *
    Include links to other people that have displayed a photo, or include their photos in your post, adding a reference. Here are the others who have participated so far:


    Char at Essential Keystrokes

    Zep at The In-Sect
    Ingo at Stixster

    Stevie at Lost In Cyberspace


    Wendy Piersall at eMoms at Home





    Dave Olson at Live the GREAT life that you desire
    Greg at Become a Remote Control SEO


    Armen at iFFECT.NET




    Lisa Gates at intrinsic life design



    Adam Kayce at Monk at Work

    Tammy Lenski at I Can’t Say That!






    Steve at Ramblings from the Marginalized
    Troy Worman at on!blog
    Lilith at Lilith’s Owl Nest

    Revov at REVO-OVER


    Derrick Sorles at Life By Design
    Ken Xu at Mysites Advisor dot com

    Roberta at Roberta Ferguson


    Ingrid at Through My Eyes
    Don Lawson at Affiliate Watcher







    Faddy at Girl Next Door
    Thess at In Nederland

    Suzie at 1Day@ATime



    Skipper at My Life Starts At Forty-Two
    Seiche at Seiche
    Leah at Leah’s Cafe

    Josie at Josie Two Shoes
    Dr Ellen Webber at Brain Based Business
    Mika at Text Unlimited
    Nell at Tales of a Melodramatic Moron

    Pen at the pen is mightier than the sword

    Jamie at Terinea Weblog


    K at K, speaking!

    Chase at Queer Chef
    Hanne at Lucid Unreality
    Jill at Gelb9
    Tish at The Kat House

    Jessica at Life is RANTastic!

    Logtar at Logtar’s Blog
    Julie at TeacherJulie.com
    Wilson at Get it Funk

    Sue at Life in the Urban Zoo
    Isabelle at Tricotine

    Alternati at Sarcasm Aside
    Mousey at Sasha Says
    Diana at Nazarene Family Services

    Jen at Expat Travels
    Meeyauw at meeyauw

    Tammi at Drawing on Words
    Jams at The Poor Mouth
    Mar at maremagnum

    Karen Delaney at A Strange Life
    Lynnette at The Fun Times Guide

    Trish at Incoherent-ish
    Lisa at Lisa C Writes
    Becky at Becky’s Nook

    Dora at Peppylady
    Renny at RennyBA’s Terella

    Autumn at Autumn’s Meadow
    Jen at Jen’s Horde

    Sandy Carlson at Writing in Faith
    Captain Lifecruiser at Sea Lifecruiser
    Trinity at Rooms of My Heart

     

    {37 Comments}

    1

    Hey Leanne! Thanks for the ping, and for taking part in the meme.

    Your post was funny, and your blog looks great – so you’ve just gained another regular reader! 🙂

    6.27.2007 @ 3:19 pm
    2
    Zep said,

    Respect, Leanne – you seem to have lost three hundred pounds very fast. You could earn a fortune if you turn you blog into a “weight loss” type of blog! 😉
    Welcome to the meme and thank you for the link love!

    6.27.2007 @ 3:28 pm
    3

    How wonderful Leanne…..(It’s like my Birthday post is part of this meme…lol….I did this without knowing I was participating…)

    I surely understand why you miss California….It is a WONDERFUL place to live! Thanks so much for your Birthday Wishes for me….I dearly appreciate them, more than I can say.

    And I LOVED this post….it is funny and sweet and wonderful!

    6.27.2007 @ 4:06 pm
    4

    OMG. :rofl: You are so funny when you cut loose. I giggled through this whole thing (well, except for the sad parts about your dad cutting out and how humongous you were when you were pregnant). I do have to tell you that seeing that made me feel a lot better about how big I was! This was wonderful and worth the wait. :rofl:

    6.27.2007 @ 4:08 pm
    5
    Paige said,

    Very sweet, Leanne! A great read….

    6.27.2007 @ 10:01 pm
    6

    Hi Leanne,

    Great post! Thanks for joining in. I’m going to add your name to the original list of participants now.

    Have a great one!

    6.28.2007 @ 4:45 am
    7

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    6.28.2007 @ 4:48 am
    8
    pamibe said,

    Beautiful then, gorgeous now. Great post and idea! :thumbsup:

    6.28.2007 @ 9:05 am
    9
    carmen said,

    Well it’s good to have a face behind all that creativity! I post pics of me all the time, so no one would be interested. 😉

    6.28.2007 @ 9:19 am
    10
    Lisa said,

    I love this – – I get to see you and get to ‘know’ you a little bit more than what I know now. I love the preggers pic – – something about pregnant women I always like… maybe it’s that glow – – maybe it’s because FINALLY someone’s waist is bigger than my (unpreggers) one? haha – great post, lady!. :meow:

    6.28.2007 @ 10:51 am
    11

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    12

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    6.29.2007 @ 11:38 am
    13

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    7.3.2007 @ 9:52 pm
    14

    It’s great to see how far this list gets.

    Could I by any chance persuade you to change the petersen-inc.dk link to http://www.thebetanews.com ? And the same with the name please? Petersen Inc. to The Beta News I just moved to a better domain 😉

    7.4.2007 @ 6:51 am
    15
    Robin said,

    This is a really cool post, I hope I can sit down and do this sometime although I’ve posted so many old pics of me already.

    7.5.2007 @ 8:11 am
    16

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    17

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    18

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    8.3.2007 @ 4:37 am
    20
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    10.30.2007 @ 9:15 am
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    12.15.2007 @ 1:44 pm
    34
    RennyBA said,

    Great meme and I do remember I saw it last year.

    Btw: Thanks for the Link Love, I got the pingback to my blog today? Have you just updated the post?

    RennyBA’s last blog post..April Fool’s Day in Norway

    4.3.2008 @ 12:18 pm
    35
    Leanne said,

    Hi Renny! Yes – I did update the links in the post since so many more people have done the meme since I did – at least 50 new folks that needed the link love. 🙂

    4.3.2008 @ 12:21 pm
    36

    […] So, since she asked, and if I told ANYone else that I know that I took a new pic of myself they’d all be like “ooh lemme see, I wanna see!” here it is, and there you go. (And if you want to see what I looked like when I was a youngin’, click here.) […]

    4.7.2008 @ 3:10 pm
    37

    […] So, since she asked, and if I told ANYone else that I know that I took a new pic of myself they’d all be like “ooh lemme see, I wanna see!” here it is, and there you go. (And if you want to see what I looked like when I was a youngin’, click here.) […]

    5.2.2008 @ 11:06 am

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