friday flashback 02.05.10

Sorry it's so late in the day, but I was pretty busy today.

This is a picture I took when I was a kid, with a really old camera that only shot black and white photos. If I remember right, the view finder was on the top of the camera, so you had to look down to frame your shot. I remember taking a bunch of pictures this day. One is of my dad mowing grass in the back yard, another is of a couple toys on the ground, etc. This is probably my favorite from that day though.

A clear example of dog and owner resemblance.

By the way- Fancy (that was the dog's name) was a saluki.

friday flashback 01.15.10

The back of this picture has the stamped date of "Dec/12/99". The birthday sign in the background is for Kelly's 16th birthday, so this was probably taken between Nov. 18 and Dec. 12., 1999.

There's a few things that stand out in this picture. First there's Anna, hubba-hubba. Second, Kristi's hair. Not that she doesn't have her dreads so much as how she has it there. Then there's Kyle as a skinny bones jones. That's Nick on Lisa's lap. I think he's a junior or senior in HS these days. The tower of "stuff" holding Kelly's birthday sign is no longer there. Looks like food must be in the immediate future.

I guess this one stood out to me this week because of how different most things in this picture are compared to now. But I guess we'll look back 11 years from now, and think the same thing about pictures taken today.

Happy Friday.

friday flashback 11.20.09

That's a keeper.

This picture actually has writing on the back. It says, "brothers and sisters getting in on Kevin's photo shoot.", and it's dated (sort of), Aug/Sept 1995.

If my memory serves me right, and it rarely does, Kevin was taking some pictures for his mission paperwork. That's why he's wearing a tie. I believe he was using that yellowy-orangish blanket, draped over a string through the front room, as a backdrop. The blanket made the string droop, so he had to take the pictures while kneeling.

My guess is that dad, who was probably taking the picture, asked/told us kids to all get together for a picture. We might have taken a "nice" picture, but I don't have it if we did. Instead, I have this pretty fun picture of us all.

Someone must have mentioned reacting to something or looking at something to the right because most of us are doing that to some degree. As you can see, Kevin and I are really selling it. Kristi and Keith looked but it wasn't as scary/exciting for them as it was us. Kelly's too busy watching Kevin to look at what's there. Kim is... holding Kristi at finger-gun point? And Kyle is in his pjs looking pretty oblivious to it all.

Yep, that's us. (14 years ago) We're a pretty fun group.

Happy Birthday Kristi

Today is Kristi's birthday, so I thought I'd take a moment to put some pictures of my first little sis.

Here is Kristi and Jason in Feb. of 2008, at Grandpa and Maggie's wedding. Very nice picture of some good looking people.

Now for some of the more embarrassing pictures I happen to have...








A young, door way climbing, underwear wearing Kristi. I'm hoping this was during a bedtime routine in which Kristi escaped and climbed the doorway, and not that mom and dad let us just chill in the house with nothing on. But I'm pretty sure it's the second reason. This picture very much looks like Jennan to me.

Here is a picture I took with a very old camera when we were very young. Obviously Kristi is in this one with our long time dog, Fancy. Fancy was a Saluki. She was a cool dog. I took a roll of pictures the day of this photo, and I think they are quite artistic for an eight year old (I think that's how old I was at the time.).

Fast forward a bunch of years. Here's Kristi getting her hair done by my good friend Kara. Kara was taking cosmetology classes through ROP in High School, and hooked Kristi up.

Aahh, yes... good ol' band. I don't remember if this is Kristi's freshman or sophomore year, but there she is, ready to play her clarinet, or at least waiting to play it. This was at some sort of city dedication thing... hey, who's that cool looking guy standing in the back there?

Halloween. Not sure how old Kristi is here, but I'm guessing she's in seventh or eighth grade. Before she went all dark/goth/punk/whatever, she tried her hand at "pretty" pirate.

Well, she's in the dark ages now, and it looks as though she's just put the boots to Kevin's throat. Nicely done. I believe that's my NIN shirt she's wearing. I must have been on my mission at this point.

Coming a little bit out of the dark ages, and beginning to accept color into the wardrobe, but keeping it alternative Kristi. I think it's me she's talking to on the phone. I'm on my mission, so it's either Christmas or Mother's Day, many, many years ago.

Then fast forward again to present day. Kristi with her mini-me, Jennan. Kristi is a very positive aunt to our kids. She's always saying encouraging things to them and always very supportive. The kids love the attention, and always look forward to a visit with auntie Kristi and uncle Jason.

Luckily, Kristi and I have gotten along for most of our lives. We've had many of the same interests in music, fashion, and many things alternative to the mainstream. This continues to this day, and I'm thankful for that.

Through Kristi I found some of my greatest friends, outside of my family; worked for some cool people in the restaurant business that gave me a lot of experience; and many more things.

Happy birthday Kristi! Thanks for being a great sister and a greater friend.

Friday Flashback 05.08.09

Today's flashback picture was selected from my pile of old pictures...

The location is grandma and grandpa Letterman's coach in Hemet. The year (thanks to the writing on the back of the picture) is 1998. It's a couple days after Christmas.

If you look closely, you can see a short haired blonde. That's Kristi. It's so totally different from her hair now, that it makes the short blonde hair look so weird.

At this point, Anna and would have just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. If you recall, overalls had a resurgence in the 90s, and as you can see, Anna's totally rocking the overalls! Wur-wurr!

I believe Kelly would be about 15, and Keith 18 in this picture.

I remember not spending a whole lot of time on that puzzle. I'm pretty sure I remember Anna, Kristi, Kelly and mom spending quite a bit of time on it. I don't remember if it was completed that day or not.

Anyway, a 10+ year flashback. Fun times.

Friday Flashback 3.13.09

This picture was taken during a visit to New York. Kristi and Jason were living in NY, and had been there for a while. Mom and dad were planning a trip to visit them, and I tagged along too. I can't, for the life of me, remember what year this was.


I think we're on a ferry boat out to Ellis Island to visit the Statue of Liberty in this picture. I think it was August?

I'm sporting my South Africa Springboks rugby jersey. I really like that jersey. Kristi's dreads seemed so long at that time. Of course, that's nothing compared to how long they are now.

That was a really fun trip. I wouldn't want to live there, and it was a nice place to visit, but I think it was that much better being led around by someone that was living there. I couldn't imagine trying to visit a place like that on ones own. It's too big and crazy.

More From Kristi

Here are a few other pictures from Kristi's visit.

Liam has his own way of playing Wii.

Our little Tegan, getting bigger all the time.

Jennan is learning the Foutz grin from her Auntie. Kristi spent a good part of her day giving Jennan "piggy pig" rides.

Kristi got a new (really nice) camera for Christmas, and she's taking pictures all the time. Luckily we have some pretty cute kids.

Picnic With Auntie Kristi

My sister Kristi was in town (So. Cal.) for a few days, and came and visited us too. She came over monday night, slept over, and hung out for the first half of Tuesday. It was determined that hanging out at home was boring, so we went on a picnic. We went to a picnic area off of highway 38 (that leads to Big Bear). There were other people there too, but we found a spot we could explore. It was too cold to get in the water, so we let them trough rocks in it, and stuff.

Here's what it looked like...

just after arrival

Kristi and Tegan doing some bonding

Jennan and Kristi were sliding down this rock

"cheese" (Duncan took this picture)

Silly pose

time for a break

lunch time/photo op

We had a fun time at the stream. The kids liked having Kristi around. She gives them a lot of attention. Not a bad way to enjoy the freedom of the outdoors provided by the veterans that have served our country. A big thank you to all the veterans out there.

Friday Flashback

Today's Friday Flashback is a picture of me and my sister Kristi. She might be able to pin down when this was taken, but I can only narrow it down to somewhere between 1995 and 2001. Probably closer to 95, but I'm not sure.

If I recall, Anna and I were still living in Altadena at the time, though this picture was taken in front of my mom and dad's house, facing the street. This is shortly after Kristi had shaved her head. It was in that middle stage, and I believe she colored it to distract from the awkward length.

I also want to say that this is from a time that we didn't see Kristi all that much, so it was a rare treat to get to take a picture with her. Especially with such "crazy" hair. These days, Kristi rocks a head full of black dread locks, which she's had for many many years. They're down to her waist.

I still maintain a short cropped cut. When I "tune-up", I cut it down to about a 1/4 inch tall. I also maintain extended sideburns. I haven't had the beard and goatee look (seen in the picture) for quite some time. Though I do compete in the annual Mr. Sasquatch competition. But that's different.

Anyhow, that's the flashback this week.

Fun stuff.