Throwback Thursday

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It seems like a hundred years ago that I got brave enough to actually take pictures of myself. I have a very long history of avoiding the front of a camera, choosing to always hide behind the camera. I would rather be the picture taker than the subject. 

One day, I decided that I needed to answer some questions for my future descendants, those that would wonder what their "Moogie" looked like.  It was very hard for me, but I know how hard it is to wonder this same thing and have no way to get the answers.

So, here is the Self-Portrait Session of 2011, 6 months after the surgery that gave me a new chance at life.

The last one has a bit of goofiness thrown in.  Our youngest daughter came outside to see what I was doing and decided to take a few shots at of me. It is easy to be goofy with that girl around.

Please be sure to visit David's Throwback Thursday post at Random Thoughts and Observations.   If you have a Throwback Thursday post, please be sure to add your link in the comment section. I'd love to see it!



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Throwback Thursday

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Our Marine came to me at a very important time in my life. I had just lost our Dorian Lee, stillborn at 20 weeks gestation. I was in major emotional turmoil, feeling like a failure as a wife, a mother...as a woman in general.  I wanted, needed a baby to fill my empty arms and broken heart.  Heavenly Father sent me a miracle and we named him David, which is Hebrew and means "Beloved". It is also his father's name.

Here are a few photos from our journey.

Suzanne, Dec 1993, 15-16 weeks along.

Davey's first picture, 9 Dec 1993, 15-16 weeks gestation.

David's 2nd photo shoot, 23 March 1994, 30-31 weeks gestation.

Davey, 16 months old, 1995.

Here is another great source for information on names: Names.org

Please be sure to see David's post over at Random Thoughts and Observations.

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Throwback Thursday

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Suzanne fiercely stuffs David's face.

David ever-so-gently places cake into Suz's mouth.

I'm figuring that neither of us can hold being overweight now against the other considering the fact that we started off our lives together stuffing cake down each others throat!

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Throwback Thursday - 22 September 2016

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This is a digital oil painting of a photograph that I took of the oxalis in our yard. The oxalis is the flower of the shamrock and is one of my favorite little flowers. Every time our neighbors mow our yard, they mow them down, but they grow right back. Determined, just like the Irish. :)

It is signed with the artist name that I came up with back when I thought that I needed an artist name (Siobhan). Now, I use my own name, but Siobhan is on many of my images from the past.

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Throwback Thursday - 15 September 2016

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©2011 Suzanne G. McClendon

Several years ago, David and I were called on to audit various convenience stores and gas stations.  I had to take pictures in some very unsavory places, so I have files of way more toilets and sinks than most normal people have.  The above photo, that I have titled "Death of a Clown", was from one such photography/audit adventure.

The bathroom at this establishment was nothing less than disgusting.  It looked like all sorts of icky mischief had gone on in it. I didn't even want to walk in the door, but I had to.

I decided to have a little editing fun with it afterwards.  There should be some reward for having to deal with such ickiness, shouldn't there?  At this point, I can't remember all of the edits that I made to it though, obviously, increasing the saturation to the extreme was one of them. The program/filter that I used to do this was likely Topaz Adjust, which has some pretty interesting effects that I have used on various photos over the years, and Adobe CS4.


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Throwback Thursday - 8 September 2016

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Unknown Child and Date, Family Archives

Sometimes genealogy work can be very frustrating. I was given this photograph from my Grandma Spence's album while we were on death watch for my grandpa. One of my aunts, Grandma, and I were looking through her photo albums. Nobody knew the name of this adorable little girl. I am very blessed to have this photo to carry her forward as I do research, but I have no name for her.

This precious little photo was on a page with other photos that were dated in the mid-1930s. This rules out it being my grandma or her sisters, my grandpa's sisters, (all born between 1909 and 1917) as well as my mama and her sisters (all born in the 1940s). Aunt Mary, my grandpa's sister, said the little girl looked like a Pressley child to her. That tosses her back over to my grandma's family.

How would you go about getting an ID on a photograph when everyone that was alive at the time of the photograph is dead already and those remaining have absolutely no clue? Nothing is written on the back of this photograph like was done on all the others one on the page from which it came. AND, just because it was on a page with other 1930s era photographs, printed in basically the same format, does not mean that this one is from that same time period.

There have to be clues in this photograph somehow, at least about its time frame. What do you see that would offer clues to you?

Please be sure to read David's post over at Random Thoughts and Observations. Thanks!



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Throwback Thursday - 1 September 2016

Newgulf Plant, Newgulf, Texas, Circa 2006 ©2006 Suzanne G. McClendon

This is one of those shots that I wasn't supposed to have taken, only I had taken it before I knew I wasn't supposed to be taking it.  I saw the stacks and followed their beckoning until I found their home. The gate was open, so I drove right in.  It was after we drove back out of the place that I saw the sign: NO TRESPASSING.

Oops!










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Throwback Thursday - 25 August 2016

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Richard and Philadelphia Pressley are my 2nd great-grandparents.

Their son Julius Jared Pressley is my great-grandfather. 

His daughter Maggie Pressley Spence is my maternal grandma.

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Throwback Thursday - 18 August 2016

Madeline Gunter & her 4 children, Easter Sunday, 1970-something

I'm the one standing right in front of our mother.  In case it isn't totally obvious, our brothers are twins. :)  The children, left to right: Carolee, Robert, Suzanne, Ray.


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Throwback Thursday - 11 August 2016

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Frank J. and Mary Wenzel Blecha

Frank and Mary Blecha are David's 2nd great-grandparents through his maternal grandmother's mother.  They are the most recent immigrant ancestors in our family, arriving in the United States at some point between 1851 and 1873. Frank was born in Austria in 1851 and Mary in Austria in 1854.  They were married in Seneca, Kansas on 9 February 1873.  Mary died in 1929 and Frank in 1945. Both are buried in Kansas, but not in the same cemetery, no even the same county, which I find very sad. I think that they look like a very sweet couple.


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Throwback Thursday

Every time I see this photo in my collections, it makes me laugh. "Grande" means "big" or "great"...so they want you to order a small big? What is a small big?

Then, there's the whole Happy Hour bit.  Happy "Hour" should mean an hour, 60 minutes, so how is it an "hour" if it goes from 2 until 4?

This restaurant is out of business now.  Even though they didn't know how long an hour was, they sure had great fried catfish!

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Throwback Thursday

Davey at IAH headed back to Japan, 5 July 2015

This photo was taken on 5 July 2015 at the IAH airport. Davey had been home for a visit, but had to return to Japan.  We have not seen him since then. It will be sometime next year before we get to see him again. This was one of the hardest photos that I have ever taken.  Each time we tell him good-bye is harder than the last.








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Throwback Thursday

Shep, 1990-2008

Laynie wanted a dog something fierce, but we weren't ready to have another dog. Other plans were in the works, however. One of the adopted grandparents called and asked us if we wanted a dog. We said no and started the list of reasons why we could not have a dog. Laynie overheard the conversation. Between Laynie and the adopted grandparent, we were whipped.

Every obstacle that we threw came back to us with a solution. It's a boy dog. I have food. On and on, no matter our argument, there was a solution - and Laynie on our side of the phone wanting that dog. So, we brought Shep home to live with us. She wasn't a boy. We got a biology lesson on that when we came home one afternoon. She got married to the Siberian Husky next door, who must have really loved her because he jumped a six-foot fence, dragging a logging chain behind him, to get to their wedding! They had beautiful babies.

We thought that Shep was a puppy, but according to the veterinarian, she was already about 6 years old when we got her in 1996. She and Laynie became fast friends and we all loved her. She was a faithful and protective companion. If anyone even looked at the kids cross-eyed, Shep was there to take care of it. She was part German Shepherd and part Chow and all love. She didn't have a mean bone in her body, but if she was pregnant, you couldn't touch her unless you were a regular part of the family. And you absolutely could not make one of the kids squeal if you weren't a regular either. She'd chew your leg off then.

We spent lots of good years with this very loving dog. In the picture above, she is sitting on the spot that ultimately became her final resting place here in our Texas backyard.

Rest in peace, Shep. We sure miss you!

Throwback Thursday

David and Suzanne McClendon, March 1986

This photo was supposed to have been done on or about our first anniversary.  It was part of our wedding package with Crafts Photography in Anderson, South Carolina.  However, I was just over a month pregnant with our first child when it came time to have our first anniversary photo session.  To say I was too sick to go would be a massive understatement. I was too sick to do anything.  I couldn't even look at a *picture* of food without hurling my guts out.  On a couple of occasions, I had to go to the hospital for IV fluids because I absolutely could not retain anything that I consumed. My mother-in-law, bless her heart, said that I looked like death warmed over.  At one point, my blood pressure was 60/40.  I felt like death.

Our first anniversary was in early November 1985.  This photo session was delayed until March 1986.  The little prince was born in June.  Then, I was allowed to eat again. :)

 

Throwback Thursday - 7 July 2016

David and Suzanne, Rehearsal Dinner, 2 November 1984

This photo was taken at our wedding rehearsal dinner. The look on my face is a mix of extreme happiness and intense pain. While leaving my soon-to-be inlaws house for the rehearsal, I was carrying the gifts for the bridesmaids to the car. I couldn't see my feet over the packages and I missed a step coming out of the house. I fell down the steps and hurt my back. It hurt to move, but I did my best to just deal with it and get through all that the evening brought. That old saying, "You'll be feeling that tomorrow!" is absolutely true. I felt it "tomorrow" and for quite a few tomorrows afterwards.

Throwback Thursday - 30 June 2016

4 Generations: Jared, Daddy, Granny, Me, and Laynie, Circa 1991.

This picture makes me both happy and sad. I am very happy to have a multi-generation picture including my daddy and my granny. It makes me sad because so very much has changed since this photo was taken. Granny and Daddy are both in Heaven now and Jared is under the deep blue sea somewhere.  I've gone through some major physical changes. The only thing that has stayed the same since this photo was taken is that Laynie is still the sweet, beautiful girl that she has always been, just a bit taller. :)

Please be sure to visit David's Throwback Thursday post at Random Thoughts and Observations. Thank you!

Throwback Thursday - 1960-something

Grandma and Grandpa Spence, Aunt Carolyn, me (yellow dress), my brothers (twins), my cousins Debbie and Johnny. I think the baby in Grandma's lap is my little sister, but am awaiting confirmation on that. Taken late 1960s. If the baby is my little sister, then the year is 1968.


Please visit David's Throwback Thursday post over at Random Thoughts and Observations. Thank you!