~ My Family Album IV - more pictures of our daughter Erin ~
~ My Family Album IV - more pictures of our daughter Erin ~
This page is a "page under construction," but it will present more pictures of Erin.
"Photo take in May, 2001"
"Erin, age 3, "making biscuits" at her Minniema's cafe"
"Erin, age 13, in 7th grade"
"Erin in 8th grade, age 14"
"Erin in 9th grade, age 15"
"Glamorshots of Erin taken on her 15th birthday"
All of my life I wanted a little girl of my own, but after having our son Ryan, it seemed that we would not be blessed with a second child. However, after many prayers and my doctor's blessings, we found out we were expecting another child, which would be due about the time Ryan would be entering 1st grade. We were sooooo happy!!
I had a very interesting pregnancy carrying Erin...it started out with me having heart palpatations from the very beginning and throughout until the day she was born, and when her due date rolled around, she was reluctant to "make her appearance." It turns out that I carried her for 10 months!! I went six weeks "over" past my due date and the doctor finally had to induce labor...with OUR BLESSINGS!!!!
Momma and Daddy arrived at the hospital while I was in labor, and when they entered my room, Daddy had a big grin on his face as he entered carrying a plush stuffed puppy dog as a gift for the baby...for we didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl. He loved her even before she was in this world! That stuffed dog has been Erin's confidant and comforter through the years, and to this day, if Erin takes a trip or spends the night with a friend, the stuffed doggie also goes, which I think is sweet. It's extra special to me that she loves it so, because Erin was only 6 years old when her Granddaddy L.L. passed away, and she always knew he loved her dearly.
Our daughter Erin is quite a gal! She was definitely the "little girl I always wanted." Allllllll my life I had dreamed of having a daughter. You cannot imagine the joy I felt when she was born and the doctor told me I had a girl!! And never did I dream I would be blessed with such a PRETTY one, at that! Erin was a sweet little girl who loved "girly" things. I had such fun dressing her in frilly clothes and taking her places and would hear everyone "ooh and ahhh" over her. She has always been kind, and she was always very mannerly. She has a "heart of gold" and is a very giving person! Erin never really liked baby dolls as much as she did stuffed animals, and through the years we had fun giving her new ones for all occasions.
Erin is artistic and can play the piano, although she doesn't play it much these days. I remember one night when her daddy and I had gone "out" to a movie and the kids were with a babysitter...when we returned home that night, there were some hand-drawn caroon pictures waiting for us which Erin had drawn. They were so good that I thought she had traced them! I thought that was sooo coool!!!
Erin has always had fun with surprises. Some of the sweetest times I recall from Erin's pre-teen years were when I would arrive home from an evening after playing a music gig, and she would have me a "scavenger hunt" set up! She was always surprising me with special little gifts, pictures she had drawn, art objects she had made me in art class at school, and other such surprises. There was the time she and her daddy had seen something she wanted to get me and she talked her daddy into buying it for me, but "from HER," of course! ... a music-box piano that she wanted to surprise me with when I arrived home that night. No special occasion, other than to say, "I love you." So she did it in the form of another scavenger hunt...and did she evermore surprise me!! It is very, very special to me to this day!
When Erin was about 11 years of age, I took a job playing keyboards for a musical stage show. It required my Thursday nights for rehearsals and Saturday afternoons until the show was over about 10PM each Saturday night. I was with the show for almost five years, and the crowd there got to see Erin from week to week, so they got to be a big part of her life and they "took" to her. She was faithful to attend the shows and was always a great companion on my trips home each night. Sometimes at the end of the show, on the closing number when everyone would return to the stage, Erin would come play a duet with me on the keyboards for the closing number. That was always a special joy to get to share that with her. But the part that was the most enduring for us was the fact that she loved the song THE ROSE and sometimes would ask me to play it especially for her when I was featured on a keyboard instrumental. So that song has a significant connection for me and Erin and is very special and sentimental between the two of us. I hope that some day if/when Erin gets married and has a pretty wedding, she will request that song to be played for when it's time for the "mother-of-the-bride" to be seated. I would probably cry at that moment, but it would be tears of happiness for my precious daughter and the love I have for her.
Erin has always been a very strong-willed and determined young lady, even as a small child. A strong-willed child of a strong-willed mom can be quite a challenge in a household, and I'm sure neither of us made it any easier for the other, but I always knew her strong-willed determination would pay off in the "long-run."
Erin graduated from high school in 1996, and she was like many young folks, ready to "get out on her own" and experience life independent of her parents and family. So Erin surprised many folks in our community by joining the U.S. Navy and leaving for basic training in August after her high school graduation. She has always been "slender" and "feminine" and "dainty," and so many folks (NOT ME!!) were saying she'd "never make it" through the tough basic training, but her determination proved differently and showed the negative folks "back home" that she COULD do it!! I KNEW she could do it! Her daddy and I, along with our daugther-in-law Linda and Erin's friend Michelle, had the opportunity to fly to Chicago, IL, to attend her basic training graduation ceremony at "Great Lakes," and it was very inspiring and special, leaving tears in our eyes, needless to say. Our daughter had made it through the worst physical tests of all, and she had come out on top! She had achieved something that no one else in the family from her generation had ever done! I've never seen Erin look happier or better than she did that day!!
Because her daddy served
in the army in Viet Nam, he took extra special pride in Erin's decision to join the service. As parents, of course we sometimes worried about her, and there were a couple of times her platform at the Naval Hospital where she was assigned was on call for special and possibly dangerous overseas assignments, but it turned out that she never had to leave the U.S. on special duty.
Today she is home again, working in the office of a women's clinic. Erin believes in serving the community, and she is the first (and only) member of our local volunteer fire department. When she first arrived home from the service, she did not want to attend college right away and instead chose cosmetology school but saw that it was not what she wanted, then she worked for a year or so as a waitress for a new Mexican restaurant, and she has worked at a Christian youth camp as a counselor and lifeguard, and even now she life guards weekends at a private club. But the clinic where she works is her vocation. She was a nursing assistant and was recently promoted to take a position in the office with higher pay. She may enter college later this year, to study nursing.
Erin is a faithful Christian, and needless to say we are very proud of our daughter!! This year alone she has been maid of honor and bridesmaid in two weddings, and she has caught the bouquet at THREE weddings this year, even though she says she didn't "want" to...*s* She's pretty, she's smart, and she has a delightful sense of humor. She's grown and independent now, but deep within my heart of hearts, she's still "my little girl that I always wanted." Yes, we are definitely proud of our daughter, and it's a joy to present her to you on my web page. (I will be updating with more pictures soon.)
"Erin in her Senior year"
"Erin was an MSSN in the U.S. Navy"
BELOW ARE THE LINKS TO OUR FAMILY ALBUM. CLICK THE ARROW TO CHOOSE DESIRED ALBUM PAGE THEN CLICK "GO TO"
