Slide Scans from my Childhood

My mom gave me some money for my birthday, so I put a little money with it and bought myself a Film and Slide Converter by innovative technology.

There are some things that really drive me crazy about it. I have had to reload the software every time I plug it in. Visited their website, but it was not helpful. That being said I am still really glad that I got it. It has made me happy, made my mom happy enough to cry, and made both of my sisters happy. One of which I am not close with and we are now talking because I am sharing the photos with her.

A few years ago, my dad gave my youngest sister and me all of his slides from when we were little. There were over 400 of them! He quit taking slides in 1976. Then my mom dug through stuff and gave me as many of the negatives from our childhood as she could find that weren't destroyed in their basement flood last fall. I have noticed some from 1979. Hope there are some between 1976 and 1979, if not I am grateful for what I have!

Here are a few of my favorites of the ones I have scanned so far.

This is me (with the glasses), my sister Dana (on the left) and my sister Deon (on the right) circa 1974. This was the end of June in the mountains around Ely, Nevada.

This is my dad (I have always thought he looks like Elvis), Deon (my youngest sister on the left), Dana (my sister on the right) and me (on the far right) circa 1974. Same trip as the first photo.

This is my sister Dana and I circa 1971. The yellow knee socks make me so happy!

My sister Dana, my sister Deon, and Me circa 1972

This is me, my sister Dana, my sister Deon and my mom circa 1973

This is my mom and me circa April 1967. We both almost died the day I was born. My umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and I was blue and not breathing. My mom was hemorrhaging badly and almost died. That is why her arms are so bruised, from the hospital.

This is me and my Grammy Elsie, she is my dad's mom. Circa September 1967

This is my Grandpa Haines, me (on the left), Dana (on the right) and Deon (on the far right). We are "mooching" butterscotch lifesavers from him. My grandpa was my best friend for as long as I can remember. He died of a stroke on the 3rd of July 1991. But he knew my daughter Hannah was coming (her birthday was 01/06/92) and he was happy about it. We had told him in June that she was coming. One of these days, I will have to share Hannah's story about my grandpa. It is pretty amazing.

Thanks for indulging my trip down memory lane.

Have a great day!

Donnelly

New Prom Photos

I have been trying to post this post since Tuesday! Today is actually Saturday, April 17th! Life gets in the way, for sure. Not sure anyone wants to hear the details.

So without further ado, here is my post about Hannah's Prom day.

When I was in school, Prom consisted of your date picking you up, a quick dinner and then going to Prom. When you were at Prom, you stayed long enough to drink some really bad punch, see who was Prom queen and have your photo taken as a memento. No one but the Prom royalty ever danced that I can remember. Fast forward to Prom day for my daughter and her friends. It is an all day event!

Our morning started bright and early on Saturday at 6:30 A.M. Hannah and her best friend Amy's Prom dates came over to our house to cook the girls breakfast. They brought and cooked enough food to feed an army! Cody even brought Hannah a vase full of long-stem pink roses! Hannah's friend Taylor and her date Michael joined the party in time to eat breakfast. The boys even rinsed the dishes and loaded and started the dish washer, how cool was that?

John (Amy's date), Michael (Taylor's date), and Cody (Hannah's date)

After breakfast, the guys took the girls to a couple of local attractions. First they went to Hop-To-It, where they enjoyed multiple bounce houses. Nykole and her date, Derek, joined the group there. Derek is my daughter-in-law Becky's cousin. Then they were treated to Nascart, which is a local go-cart place where they played pool, climbed the rock wall and drove go-carts.

Hannah, Amy and Nykole at Hop-To-It

After that, Hannah and Amy were mine and Amy's mom, Cindy's, for the afternoon. Cindy and I went to pick up boutonnieres first. Then we met Hannah and Amy at my friend Terri's salon for hairdos.

Terri starting on Hannah's hair

I swear Hannah's hair was 3 feet wide! It was huge!

Not sure how Terri got that huge hair to this stage. She is truly a master!

Amy, Terri, and Hannah

The photos I posted on Sunday were from the photos we took when the guys picked up our girls. The following photos are from dinner.

Amy and John

Derek and Nykole

Taylor and Michael

Hannah and Taylor

Cody and Hannah

Grand March started at 8:00 p.m. For those outside our area, Grand March is quite a thing in our school. Grand March is a presentation of all the ladies and their dates to family and friends, as well as presentation of Prom Royalty. Here are my ladies at Grand March.

Amy and John

Nykole and Derek

Taylor and Michael

Hannah and Cody

Cody and Hannah

Hannah said they danced until the prom was over! So different from my Proms!

I would like to thank Cody for making Hannah's Senior Prom so amazing. What an awesome young man.

I would also like to thank Hannah, Amy, Taylor and Nykole for letting me make dresses, alter dresses, help with date tux issues, pin boutonnieres and take lots of photos. Love you all!

Have a great day!

Donnelly

Prom is finally here!

It's officially Prom night. Here are my girls in their finery with their guys!

Hannah putting Cody's boutonniere on

Hannah and Cody

Amy and John

Taylor and Michael

The happy couples

The guys

My girls!

Can't wait to see them at Grand March!

Have a great day, I have!

Donnelly

Prom Dress Photo Shoot!

So here are the photos from our photo shoot last night. The photos were taken at our favorite blue door and a few at a local park by our Snake River. We would have taken more, but we ran out of light.

Have a great day!
Donnelly

My girls!

Hannah and Amy have me wrapped around their fingers.

They are two peas in a pod! They both still suck their thumbs when they are bored.

Amy

Hannah

So my girls drug me out for an impromptu photo shoot at around 7 P.M. tonight. They reminded me that tomorrow is Easter and Amy has church and has to work at noon, so a photo shoot tomorrow wouldn't work. That and the fact that the wind had actually stopped blowing and it is supposed to snow tomorrow. Here is a preview of what we were doing.

We went and took photos of the girls in their dresses! More photos to come tomorrow!

Fred Meyer is open tomorrow, so I left my film there!

Have a great evening!

Donnelly

Finished Prom Dresses

I am finally able to post our finished Prom dresses!

This has been a wild ride. I have made 2 Prom dresses in between March 16th and March 30th! It wasn't really as hard as I thought it was going to be. I was scared the most by the zippers. I hadn't sewn a zipper since I was in Home-Ec in high school 25 years ago. To conquer my fear, I watched videos on YouTube that showed how to do it. Piece of cake! The Internet is awesome!
And I only sewed through one of my fingers one time!

So, first photo is of Hannah's pattern. She chose the 'blue view'.

This photo is of the materials before I started sewing.

Next, is Hannah modeling her dress. I couldn't wait to take a photo, so please excuse the dark, inside basement, late at night photo.

Here it is with the ribbon roses and ribbon streamer. The pattern called for 18 small ribbon roses, Hannah decided that would be just too much. I handmade 3 large ribbon roses instead. Hannah and her friends decided one would do. I still like it with 3, but it is not my dress, and I want her to be happy!

And here are the shoes she fell in love with. She chose white because we are adding pearl/beaded shoulder straps that I found at the fabric store. Hannah just wasn't comfortable with the complete strapless idea.

Now on to Amy's dress! Here is Amy's pattern. She chose the 'blue view'.

Here are the materials before I got started. The fabrics look almost blue, but they are really a royal purple for the over skirt and the lining. Mustard yellow pool table is not really conducive to photo taking!

Next is Amy's dress waiting for her to try it on. She had to ref a soccer game, so she was not expecting it to be done. Hannah and their friend, Nycole, made sure that she had her eyes closed until she had the dress completely on. The look on her face was priceless!

And finally Amy posing for me in her dress!

I am so thrilled that both girls were happy with their finished dresses. Hopefully tomorrow, we will be able to get out and about in the sun with no wind to take photos in natural light. All I need is some good morning light with even a little breeze, so I am crossing my fingers and calling in my karma as we are supposed to have another wind-blown snow storm. We have had 2 of those storms this week!

Oh, and I altered another one so one of Hannah's friends could go to Prom. Nycole's dad wasn't going to let her go because of the cost of the dress she wanted. Well, we had an extra one hanging around that someone gave Hannah, so I made it over to fit Nycole. Now she gets to go! I am so excited for Grand March on Saturday.

Grand March is a tradition at our high school. The girls and their dates are presented to family and friends for photo taking opportunities before the Prom starts. One of my favorite things ever! Bittersweet this year as Hannah is our last!

Have a great day!

Donnelly