Retro Friday, Four going on Five

This is the photo that I used in my anniversary post in its original color format. I mentioned that I was going to re post this, so you can see it in color, and why it is my favorite picture of myself. Do you ever have a picture in your minds eye of when you were little? When I think about myself as a little girl, this is the image that comes back to me. It is my favorite photo my dad took of me. I love the little sweater I'm wearing, and you will notice that it is my favorite color combo, red and white. There had to be some red in the sweater for my mom!! I'm pretty sure I'm four in this photo. Before I leave this age in my time line, I really wanted to share this photo in its dreamy color format, hope it isn't too redundant.

Wouldn't you love to go back in time and tell your young kid self a bunch of things? I have often thought of this. When I was this age, I always felt very much second best for some reason. I was a very quiet little kid, and my brother pretty much got all the attention, both negative and positive. I think because I never caused any problems, I was left to my own devices and imagination. Aside from always trying to play with Karen (there were no other little girls my age near by) I would quietly play by myself.

When I started kindergarten, we lived in that Victorian house I mentioned before. There was a darling little brick school that was only a block or so away from this house. I really loved that little school, and for the brief time I was there, I have many memories. As much as I wanted to move to our new home, to have my new room, I really was sad to leave this school. We were in a new district, so I had to attend a different school, and ride a bus. I remember being so terrified to ride the bus home, because my brother left at a different time of the day than I did. When I started kindergarten at the new school, I would constantly look out the window, see buses coming and going, and I would panic thinking that my bus had come and gone, and I wouldn't be able to get home! I kind of retreated into myself once I started that school, and didn't talk to any of the kids for a LONG time. They must have thought I was a complete weirdo. There were these three girls that were super evil to me also. In my head, I nicknamed them the three little blond pigs. They were so mean to me. One of them walked over to me once, while I was working on an art project, and put paste all over my hair! I remember this like yesterday. Many other things were done, and there were a lot of tears, but it wasn't until my teacher had us learn a few Spanish words during story hour one day, that kids started looking at me a bit different. She had us repeat the words she showed us. Since I spoke Spanish first, my accent was perfect when I repeated the words back. They all found this amusing and had me say the words over and over. After this, I befriended some of the boys in my class and things got better. Then the cute teacher we had got transferred, and we got a older, not as fun teacher. I remember sliding back into being more quiet again, because she really didn't understand me as much as the other teacher. The funny thing was, when I went to visit my in-laws for the first time at their home, we looked through old pictures of David when he was in school. Guess who his third grade teacher was? MY kindergarten teacher!! When I saw Mrs. Scott in the photo, I could not believe my eyes! I blurted out, "you stole my teacher!" My husband was also raised in the valley, but farther south. What a small world!!

Anyway, this picture reminds me of that time, the year before kindergarten, and how things started to change in my life. Next pictures will be of when we moved out to the country...so stay tuned.