Messy Drawers…

I feel, if we are being honest, we’ve all got some messy drawers…or at least I like to feel that I’m not alone in this. If all your drawers are clean…I salute you! Please do not judge the rest of us….Surely I am not alone!

I have this one little drawer in the top of a side table close to the sliding door, where I let our four and a half month old puppy out to potty about 27 times a day. When we started the potty training I put a bag of treats and a supply of poo poo bags in this drawer for convenience sake. I never paid attention to what was already crammed in the little drawer…

I would like to interject here that one of these days I’m going to be that person who shops that scrap booking aisle in the Hobby Lobby and picks out all the things that will magically come together, creating chronological albums containing all of our family memories from beginning to the present. But until then…I got lots of drawers of every size, in every room, plus a hope chest crammed full of random photos and half filled albums that are falling apart.

So….on this particular day, I’m still a disorganized mess who has grabbed the same poo poo bag out of this one tiny drawer a dozen times, hoping for poo poo success in the rain….still waiting….

On the last grab for the bag, my attention was diverted from the task at hand as my eyes were drawn to the stack of photos that lay underneath the puppy stash. And thus began an unexpected, heart-wrenching stroll down a very random memory lane….

I’ve picked some of my favorites and put them in a bit of order….

The oldest one is me standing in front of a mirror saying “yes to the dress” that I would marry Richard Phillips in….you can see my Momma in the reflection if you look closely. My sister is there, unseen…but always there….she’s always been there!

Next our honeymoon picture, being picked up in a carriage at the Grand Hotel- Mackinac Island, Michigan…such a fairytale honeymoon!

Then our girls…our sweet girls. They will both be brides this year, so be still my heart, as I sifted through these!

…hiding away with the can of Pringles (so they thought)….

putting lipstick on Daddy…

their 2 inch Mississippi snowman they built very quickly in the chair (the first time they saw snow!)…

dancing and silliness…

then full circle back in Mackinac Island, taking a break from our tandem bike ride around the island, sitting on the rocks eating our Grand Hotel box lunch….

My face might look scrunchy…but that was a perfect day.❤️

All of these photos were just tossed in loose amongst many more…

And then, there was this envelope of photos that had been developed at Walmart. This one took me by complete surprise. My Momma had duplicates made and had given me a set. I actually don’t remember ever looking through them before, though I’m certain I did.

They were from my 40th birthday surprise weekend. She and Darla, my sister, literally kidnapped me. They told me to pack a few things, and said we were going on a boat… but we first had to stop and buy some nice cheeses at the Whole Foods. What?? They had gotten us a room for the weekend at the Opryland Hotel. We did get on a boat!….a dinner theatre cruise, also saw the Rockettes Christmas show and the Grinch on Ice thing. We ate amazing food! But my favorite was balcony time…just us three. ❤️ Here are a few of the photos…

The build up to the surprise…

the cheese!! bag full of tickets to everything!! so much fun!!….

Hand massage…they wanted to pamper me 😍 We got tickled 😂……and our view from the balcony.

I can never put into words what a perfect weekend that was! My sister, my Momma, and me. I didn’t know then how absolutely priceless it would be….it felt like times like these would never end. But I do know I always soaked in and cherished the moments we had together….

And so…. after doing pretty well so far in this crazy time of isolation…my dirty drawers took me down! But, I don’t go down alone…I took my sister with me. 😎 I sent her pictures. We laughed and cried together…and then landed on counting our blessings. How blessed we were… How blessed we are…to have so many wonderful memories to fill our drawers and make us cry! So much real life, the good the bad and the ugly, that we got to share with our Momma…and so much love and laughter in the midst of it all!!

And then the blessing of mine and Richard’s girls having each found the love of their lives. And though things are crazy and uncertain, they will marry them this year and build a life with their husbands, full of love and laughter… and they will get through all of the good the bad and the ugly together….this I pray!!!

For every snapshot there is a bigger story…

If you’ve read to here, thank you for letting me share a bit of mine! I would love if maybe you could check your drawers, or maybe your perfect scrapbooks 🙄😂, and share a bit of your story!

A Good snapshot stops a moment from running away….

-Eudora Welty