And Then I Decided To Ditch the Sequined Dress and Bonnet...

So remember HERE and HERE when everyone was like, "Oh my, you and your brother were the cutest children in the world!"
Yeah.
Well, we did something called grow up.
And growing pains?
Well...they hurt.
They hurt BAD:

(Pssst...notice how in this picture I'm taller. At one point, someone DID actually have to reach up to throw their arm around me.)
I was probably in sixth grade and my brother in third when this picture was taken. Jimmy is still sorta cute here, because he's young, but he's definitely pushing ugly.
And me?
Clearly, I am not only pushing ugly-I am swimming in it. And ugly is a bog.

Good god that hair! My mother tried so hard to get me to fashion it properly.
I just put a hat on my head.
All the time.
And yes.
ALL my hats looked like that, because in an attempt to be cool I would "bend" the brim. But I never bent it so much as cracked it in half, so that my hat was less of a hat and more of a steeple.
Those giant glasses.
The overalls.
The multiple chain like necklaces.
It's clear to me now, with retrospect and hindsight-that I spent the better part of my adolescent years right up through... probably sophomore year of college trying very hard to hide. Not in a bad way. Just in like a "Do Not Disturb" sorta way until I could figure out who I was and what I wanted to be. I have come very far in this process, but I know I'm not "there" yet. Nor do I want to be. I'm totally ok with being a perpetual work in progress, but I'm doing my best not to hide too much anymore.
A lot of girls did it totally opposite of me-by barring their midriffs and putting on gobs of make-up and drowning themselves in "body splash." I'm not saying my way is classier (Did you SEE those necklaces?! Pretty sure one was a shark tooth, because while I was trying to hide, I was also wanted to tell the world, "I am hardcore and wrestle sharks in my spare time), I'm just saying it's different.
I should pull out some early college pictures and post them too-because I'm hardly EVER without a skull cap of some sort on.
I had a collection.
On a day when I did not wear a hat, people had a hard time realizing it was me.
Seriously.
"Whoa, Amy. I hardly recognize you without your hat on."
And then it was time to re-evaluate my life and appearance.
Step one?
Chopped the hair. Not to the length it is now, to the Harry Potter mop I sported for a year or two.
Then I got a little braver and hacked it to the point it is now and am quite pleased.
In fact-it's starting to get pretty fuzzy and I'm due for another choppin'.


...soo...
I had some requests.
So I pulled one out...
...this is a senior prom picture:

Yes.
That is actually me.
Yes.
I am not only wearing a gown, but yes, it is strapless.
Yes.
I do have on makeup.
And no, the picture isn't distorted-that's totally a wreath of flowers in my hair.
And that dust bunny of a dog I'm holding is none other than Molly the toy poodle, who had just joined our family that January.


It's so weird to look at pictures like this.
Prom was one of the last times I ever wore a dress.