Faith, Family & the Farm: Not photogenic

Those two words describe me most of the time. Every now and then I will take a pretty good picture, but the majority are not too great.

This problem began back in grade school. I kid you not, on picture day when the photographer would look to see who was next in line for their individual picture, and see me, she would literally cringe and mumble something about taking my picture. She wasn't mean about it, she was stating truth. (She was a family friend, so I didn't take offense to it.) You could bet that I would either have my eyes closed or they would barely be open. She took more of me than the others because she knew this.

Not a lot has changed. About six weeks ago, Jay and I went to my cousin/friend's 40th birthday party in St. Louis. Her sister and two of her brothers (also my cousins - ha) and their families were there and a few of her good friends. We had a great weekend. We stayed at the Lumiere Casino, ate a fabulous meal at a place called Carnine's, went to a dueling piano bar and played in the casino until about 1:30 a.m. We had a blast.

Up until Jay and I left for St. Louis, I felt terrible. I had had a horrible cold and really didn't feel like going, but I wanted to go so bad and so did Jay. Off we went, and we are both so glad we did.

Growing up, Danielle (my cousin/friend) and her family lived just down the road from me so we spent a lot of time together. She has three 'little' brothers. One of the brothers I hadn't seen for a very long time (sadly, probably a family funeral a few years back). It was so good to see him and his family.

Funny thing - after listening to him talk and carry on, making everyone laugh (he's a jokester - as is the whole family), I leaned over to our friend, Krista, and said, "Andrew hasn't changed a bit. He is exactly the same as he always was." (The only difference is that he goes by Drew now instead of Andrew, but he'll always be little Andrew to me.)

A while later, he and I were chatting and he said, "You know, I just told Krista that you had not changed at all, you're the same ole Sarah." Ha! How funny is that?!

Anyway, we decided we should take some pictures, especially since we don't often all get together. Sounds simple, huh? (See the first and second paragraph of this post...)

We first tried to get a picture with our friend, Krista, and so it began. Photo after photo of silliness. I could not keep it together. We moved on to a cousin picture and that was a disaster. We never did get a decent photo that included me. Jay, Krista and the three siblings looked great in all of them, and I look like a crazy woman. It was dark in this piano bar and I think I tried to over-compensate at times to keep my eyes open but not look deranged...it didn't work and then the giggling started...and the crying.

I went through all the Kleenex I had brought. This giggling-til-you-cry scenario is a common occurrence with the Bennett clan. And once I get started, I cannot stop...all they wanted was one decent photo, but I could not get it together. (It could have been all the cold medicine I was taking.) The last photo was in the casino later on...I'm calm, but geesh, there I go trying to keep my eyes open.

No wonder Bev, the local photographer, would frown when she saw I was next in line...