Flooded With Memories
December 11, 2018
This post is sponsored by the KODAK Digitizing Box.
A few weeks ago, our friends texted in a panic: Did we have a ShopVac? They thought they remembered seeing a ShopVac. Please say you have a ShopVac.
We do indeed own a ShopVac, as any parent of any toddler who WILL eventually stop up a drain and flood your house should.
Our friends didn't have a toddler, but they did have a leak in their basement. And a whollllllllle lot of water.
Despite house + leaks + water being one of his all-time greatest fears, Jason heroically rushed to their house, ShopVac in hand, to help bail out and rescue what they could.
He came home and promptly surveyed our basement, which was fine, but the whole experience made him realize we had our storage room arranged 100% upside down.
Top shelf items? Old suitcases, a beer homebrew kit, replacement air filters and some plastic bins with contents unknown. (Legos, probably.)
On the very bottom, in prime Water Damage Position? Oh, just ALL OUR OLD PHOTOS AND HOME MOVIES. Our wedding album, Noah's baby book, ultrasound print-outs, and envelope after envelope of crappy pre-digital photos from when we dating and newlyweds.
Not smart, Storches!
We rearranged the shelves, of course, but clearly it was time to DO something with all that stuff.
KODAK Digitizing Box to the rescue:
I'll be honest: I have no idea whose ultrasounds those are. DON'T CUT THE DATES OFF, PEOPLE. YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER WHICH SQUISHY BLOB IS WHICH.
Our official engagement photo.. Taken at the finest Sears Portrait Studio at the mall. To this day I have no idea why we thought we needed an official engagement photo, but hey, my hair looks cute.
My bridal shower. That's one of my nephews, and a bunch of my mom's friends whom I did not know. And that is also the face of a CHILD who probably had NO BUSINESS GETTING MARRIED.
But who (spoiler alert) did it anyway.
Our honeymoon at Busch Gardens. We went there because I got free tickets from working at Sesame Place. Very romantic, especially the hotel room that flooded every time the air conditioner turned on.
No idea what these even are! Into the box they go!
I packed up several hundred photos, some slides, a few tapes from our ancient camcorder, the VHS tapes of our wedding, and just for the hell of it, a bunch of old cassette mix tapes Jason and I obsessively made for each back when we dating.
And a few later, everything was carefully returned to me, along with the digitized and optimized-for-long-term-storage versions:
Five CDs and the cutest flash drive you've ever seen. (They also emailed me copies of everything, so I could immediately upload everything to my cloud storage.)
Maybe not fully cat-proof but clearly cat-approved.
Thanks to the KODAK Digitizing Box for both sponsoring this post and for taking such good care of preserving our preshus memories. Get 30% off your own box with THIS LINK and promo code AMALAH!
This is an absolutly-fricken-awesome idea! Thanks!
Posted by: Chelsea | December 11, 2018 at 11:57 AM
You two WERE babiez when you got together! Great pics all the way around.
Posted by: Sue W. | December 11, 2018 at 12:16 PM
Wow! Noah looks so much like his Dad!
Posted by: Danielle | December 11, 2018 at 12:22 PM
Wow, Noah is Jason with lighter hair!
Posted by: StatMom | December 11, 2018 at 12:32 PM
I have to ask which Busch Gardens that is, because my very first job was at the one in Williamsburg, VA. It was 1987, and I worked in the "France" section as a sweeper. Glamorous! :) I also had seasons passes every year, and the Loch Ness Monster was my first ever roller coaster. There are a lot of memories in that place for me!
Posted by: Denise | December 11, 2018 at 12:37 PM
Oh man. Great idea, but on the other hand the idea of trusting all of that to the mail service makes me shudder....
Posted by: Julie | December 11, 2018 at 01:13 PM
I think I need to get this for my mom! This is pretty amazing!
Posted by: Suzanne | December 11, 2018 at 01:42 PM
You took engagement photos so you would have eternal memories of your awesome hair! And probably also because someone's mom wanted to put an announcement in the paper and needed an "official" picture to go with it. Oh, the memories!
Posted by: Sarahd | December 11, 2018 at 02:16 PM
Please tell me that "Noah's baby book" means he's the only one who actually has one. Because while I did half-ass one for my first daughter, my second's is almost entirely blank. If I had a third, I can't imagine I'd even get around to buying the book.
Posted by: Lori | December 11, 2018 at 08:41 PM
This is an amazing service -- and in reading through their website, you can GIFT it too!! I know what I'm giving my mom for Christmas now :-)
Posted by: Nancy | December 12, 2018 at 09:41 AM
Oh my gosh that engagement photo is EVERYTHING! And man does Noah look like Jason. :)
Posted by: Katie H. | December 12, 2018 at 10:13 AM
Too fun to see your old pics!
Posted by: Erin | December 12, 2018 at 11:01 AM
Love the Sears engagement photo...Noah is a clone of Jason and Ezra is your twin! Baby Ike must be some sort of hybrid! No doubting the parentage of any of your boys!!
PS Also, good info that I should probably act on.
Posted by: Sam | December 12, 2018 at 11:07 AM
giiiiirl, your hair is on point in your engagement photo
Posted by: Jaclynn | December 12, 2018 at 06:48 PM
Woah, that looks like Noah there....
Posted by: Laura in Michigan | December 17, 2018 at 08:35 PM