Happy baby

Barbara attempts to read to Kent. Kent just plays with her hair.

Barbara is not pleased with this.

Little brothers can ruin the best of big sisters' intentions to improve them.

Christmas of yesteryear, part three

For the final in the mid-century Christmas photos, we have this lovely one of Great Aunt Gladys posing by the tree.

I think she's supposed to look like she's decorating the tree, but she looks more like she's inspecting the ornaments.


This will be the final BrIsaacson photo post for a while -- we're heading to Chicago today to visit my mother for Christmas and then to the MLA convention, conveniently located in the same area. We'll have limited access (and time) over the next week, but we'll try to get one or two in before the new year.

So have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. If you're not celebrating anything at all, enjoy the last full week of 2007

Graduation procession

I meant to post this earlier this week -- it's the photo of the graduation procession. There I am glowingly pale in the midst of things.

Christmas, 1980

Sitting in front of the Christmas tree, being very blonde. Reflective, even (not the navel-gazing kind, either).






This is, by the way, our 100th post. Thought you had a right to know.

Christmas of yesteryear, part two

Uncle Kent at the Christmas tree with a great new toy


(a tree, you might note, has a remarkable level of tinsel. Would Aunt Gladys call it blinged-out?)

Joe Bradley and Joseph Bradley, Sr.

I just love this picture of my dad and his dad.

For those family members just discovering this blog from our Christmas cards, we have a notable lack of pictures from my father's side of the family. If you've got some, please send them our way-- you can scan and email them to us, or just send copies by post.

Of Alligators and Swamp Foxes

Okay, I know-- this has mostly been the Isaacson blog, without the Br, lately. What can I say? Teaching three creative writing workshops and getting my own stuff written and sent out took up more of my time than I thought it would this semester. But now Emily and I are both on break, without a care in the world. Until next week, when we go to Chicago for the Modern Language Association conference and Emily interviews for jobs. But let's not talk about that right now. Now's a time to just chillax. And blog.



As part of our chillaxation, Emily and I decided to go into the Everglades this afternoon-- the nearby Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, to be precise. We hadn't gone on a hike or nature walk in a long, long time, and I'd never seen an alligator out in the wild. So we killed two birds with one stone. Not literally, of course-- I think they would have asked us to leave the park had we done that.




Anyway. Here are some pictures from our excursion. I imagine Emily will put more up lately-- she took close to 90 pictures today. Digital cameras are awesome like that.

Christmas of yesteryear

Barbara enjoying the Christmas tree at Aunt Dorothy's.

This picture is just quintessentially Christmas of the mid-century.

Shameless request for charitable contributions

SJ (who is a student of Bradley's) has a sister. And that sister is running in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training marathon. She needs to continue to raise funds for the entry fee (it's $2400). Those of you who know us well know that this is an important cause for us.

So, go read SJ's post about it and then go give a little for the entry fee.

Graduation video

I'm on youtube now.

Check out the video my dad made of my Ph.D. graduation ceremony, posted at Lindsborger News.

Sing, choir of angels

For Christmas 1981, my Cooper grandparents created homemade cards for everyone. Jonathan is but a few weeks old and apparently rather worthy of imitation.

One big tomato plant

Great Uncle Frank always gardened.

The year of this photo, the garden apparently grew very well. The plant was large enough to merit this photo, which ran in the Atchison Globe.

College memories

Bradley and I will travel to Columbia tomorrow, because I graduate on Friday. That's it. It will be official and I will be completely done with school. No more being a student ever, because I'll be completely and officially done with my Ph.D. And I get to wear the real robes now.

So, in the spirit of endings -- and nostalgia for the simpler days of being an undergrad (ha!) -- I thought I'd share this photo I recently found:




There I am, all fresh-faced and full of excitement as I move into my first college dorm room.

11 years and 45 pounds ago ...

Driving ...

I don't know if Barbara looks frightened about driving or ferocious about it. I'll let you decide.

Baby Kent

My Uncle Kent sitting on my grandmother's lap.

My grandmother who, by the way, always looks glamorous in these old pictures -- even with a newborn.

Puzzle time

I'm doing a puzzle with my Great Aunt Dorothy.

Aunt Dorothy was able to get down on the floor like this well into her 80s. I'm hoping that I have those same genetics (whatever those are ... the floor genes...)

Cooper women

Left to right: Dorothy Leighton(my great-aunt), Josephine Cooper (my great-grandmother), and Gladys Cooper (also my great aunt).

Apparently, whoever was taking the picture was tilting ...

Kiddie car, part 2

I found the complement to the earlier Kiddie Car post.




This is my uncle, Kent Cooper, on the kiddie car.

(to see them together, click here)

Playing Piano

My grandmother, Ruthe Cooper, was my first piano teacher. She taught me how to play a few scales and a few songs. She also suggested that when I started "real" piano lessons, I should take them until I could at least play the Doxology -- that way I'd be able to play most any song people might want to sing at parties (mostly Christmas carols, she imagined).

I took many more years of piano than that -- and I played for all sorts of choirs during and shortly after college.

Oh ... and there's something slightly odd in this picture.

Can you find it?

Tourists

My parents, looking tourist-y, sometime in the mid-1970s.


I think I need that tan pant-suit. I would not look nearly as good in it, but I love it. (I'm a little too lumpy to pull off something like that)

Bradley at sea

The water's just fine, young Bradley seems to be telling us.

Baby BrIsaacsons Become Baptized

Hush. I like the alliteration. I'm worn out and silly right now (even sillier than usual)

We have been incredibly busy this week. I have also been taking my computer with me on days that I teach, so Bradley hasn't had access to the photos we scanned last week. Hence, the relative silence.

Here's Bradley's baptism (1976):

He's with his grandparents, William and Eleanor Cook. And he looks a bit like he might have slept through the baptism.

And here's my baptism (1978):

That's my father and mother on the left; my godmother Pam Mackinem is holding me as my godfather, Walter Mackinem, looks on ... I'm wearing the christening gown worn by my great-grandfather something like 100 years prior to my own baptism. I don't look particularly impressed by that in this picture.

Hmm.

Oh well. Happy December, everyone.