Say Cheese!

Remember when your church wanted a new directory and they hired Olan Mills to come take all the pictures? Remember the older ladies in polyester suits and the solid blue backgrounds and the outrageously priced pictures? We got to relive this, dare I say, awful experience a few weeks ago. I didn't even know Olan Mills was still in business. Unfortunately, I fell into the trap of "high expectations" when it came to having our first family portrait in what seems like forever. The kids didn't help the situation any by griping and complaining about it for three days leading up to our appointment time.

By the time we arrived at the church, we were all in a sour mood and ripe for disappointment. Sure enough, the first 6 takes were terrible with someone's eyes closed or someone's mouth caught in a strange expression in every shot. We were allowed a retake which met with more complaining because the boys actually had to stand close to the girls. Below is how the kids' picture turned out. I didn't get a copy of the picture that will be in the directory. I've already erased from my memory what it looked like but I'm sure when the directory comes out I will experience a new wave of embarrassment or mortification or some emotion in that category. I'm sure there's a spiritual lesson in here somewhere about relationships being more important than pictures but it must keep getting lost in my disappointment that all 6 of us were in the same place at the same time with our hair brushed and decent clothes on and I still didn't get a nice family photo!