Monday, May 9, 2011

Family Tree, Bush, Weed...WHATEVER!

Nick has a project due at the end of the week. What this really means is that *I* have a project due at the end of the week.

A project with pictures. Family pictures.  Here lies the problem.

Yes, we have pictures. Boxes and hard drives full of pictures. Pictures that blend branches of my family tree, his fathers family tree and his step-father's (I HATE that term) family tree. I love that they are blended and random pictures are sprinkled into each others otherwise organized stacks of family memories.

But sorting and weeding these photos out to then affix them to a poster board in some order that makes sense is HARD!

Imagine...

Dear 7th grade teacher,

My mom was pregnant when she left my father. My Aunt was there when I was born but my father was no where to be found. Apparently, he didn't think it was important to be there when I was born.
So here is a picture of me and my mom and my aunt in the hospital.

When I was 5 months old my mom fell in love with the man who became my Daddy. They got married when I was 15 months old. My family tree sprouted a new branch and  I added 2 more grandparents and several aunts and uncles.
This picture is of me at their wedding.

Oh yeah, I have 3 sisters that my mom didn't give birth to and one brother who she did. My sister's have a different mom but I don't remember any time when they weren't my sisters so "step" sisters isn't a term I ever used.
So here's a picture of me with my sisters and brother (I already explained why we don't look alike right?)

When I was 5 years old or so, my birth father found his way back into my life. Yeah, he has brothers and family too but I don't have any pictures of them. Sorry!

Some of the leaves are missing from my family tree so I'm just going to leave those branches blank and some of the nuts fell off the tree (my mom says thankfully).Please don't take off any points from my project cause this isn't my fault.

Sincerely,
Nick B

See the problem? What 7th grader wants to go into class and discuss how intertwined the limbs of his family tree are and what parts are missing?

I'd really like to just scatter random family pictures on the board announce this is our family (messy as it looks) and call it a day.