It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since Troy’s dad died. It seems like it was just the other day that Troy was calling him on the phone, that I shook my head and tried not to smile while Keith laughed uproariously at an awful joke he’d just told me, that Annalie was asking her Grandpa Keith if they could go feed the neighbor’s dogs some treats from the container they kept in their garage.

I’ve been looking through old photos and have realized something: I don’t have many photos of Keith. It’s not that he disliked having his photo taken, exactly; but he didn’t encourage it either. After Annalie was born I took more photos, but still not many. I think back now to the one Christmas we were all together in Omaha: Keith and Valetta, both of Troy’s sisters and brothers-in-law, Troy and me, and Annalie and her two cousins. For some reason I didn’t take many photos that day, and I truly regret it now. It would be nice to have even one photo of Keith with all of his grandkids. Not that the photo would make us miss Keith any less, but it would be something.

Next time I want to take some pictures but am feeling shy or afraid of appearing pushy, or someone’s telling me, “Point that thing somewhere else!” I’m going to try to remember that regret. Because someday I might want those photos to help me remember.

…When Casper said she was somewhere last weekend where “WAY too many photos were taken,” my heart creaked a little bit. There’s no such thing as too many photos!…

Photographs are the way you remain immortal to your family. Don’t cringe and pull away when someone wants to photograph you. (THAT’S what gives you the appearance of a double chin, by the way, the cringing and pulling back. No one is as fat as she imagines herself to be. Your chin is lovely, I promise.) Photograph everyone you cherish, and let them cherish you the same way.

Written by the unnamed “actual photojournalist-type person” who contributed some tips about appearing one’s best in photos to an August 2007 Advice Smackdown.

“This was generally fine by me, as keeping my children out of raging fires is pretty close to the top of my parental to-do list. It’s like one of my core parenting philosophies, right up there with keeping the hyenas away. The downside, of course, was that I was the one who had to get his eyebrows scorched so that Sam could have a toasted marshmallow treat, take one bite, then declare that she didn’t like it.”

–Jamie Madigan in his weekly report on his daughters’ lives, Week 232: Fireworks, Flames and Sleep

“I want what I love to just be what I love, not for sale until I’ve gotten what I wanted out of it and it’s no longer of use to me anyway.”

—J explaining why she doesn’t necessarily want to get paid for doing what she does best, on Schnozzfest.com