Family Archives (5: Sisterly Love [A Little])

"Happy Birthday Catie! Dear Catie, I know I've called you names but that doesn't mean I don't love you! Even though you called me names I still love you! (A little)"

Handmade birthday cards are so much more thoughtful, don't you think? I did not create this gem, unfortunately. Sister J made this for sister C sometime around 1997-- J would have been 7 at the time. Yay sibling love. Sometimes.

Family Archives (4: Organizing)

BEFORE: one of many boxes of chaos.
BEFORE: stacks of deteriorating photo albums and scrapbooks with dates ranging from 1970-2007.
DURING: an explosion of papers and photos on the kitchen table. And kitchen counters, floors, chairs, etc.
AFTER: school/professional photos sorted by grade level for all 4 kids.

Family Archives (3: Swimming)

How does one go about organizing 25+ years of accumulated pictures/papers/memory-laden objects from an entire family? Not sure yet. I'm still in the chaotic piles stage. BUT, if I were to sort thematically, at least 33% of everything my family owns would end up in a "SWIMMING" pile. Between me (13 years competing), sister C (7 years competing), and sister J (4 years competing), there are lots of swim meet heat sheets and highly-chlorinated-hair pictures. Above wins my "most badass" picture award. It was taken in 2005, back before I was old and tired.


This is heat sheet from the Barbara Kay Mini Meet in 1996. At 8 years old, I swam a 3:03.97 in the 200 IM (2 laps each stroke), a time I likely could NOT approach if you were to throw me in a pool today. This is where social networking makes my past really strange: Of the other swimmers in event 15 heat 5, I trained with/competed against 4 of them well into my late teens, despite moving around the country. Today I can tell you where they all are, whether they competed at a University level and where, and how they performed. Creepy?

Family Archives (2: My Dreams)

I wrote the following piece of literary genius, entitled "My Dreams," sometime around 1996. Today I'm a recent college grad facing the dreaded real world, so it's good to get a 2nd grade refresher course:
Chapter 1: My dream is to grow up and be a famous actriss. I will live in Hollywood I will visit my mom and dad evry spring. I want to have a huge house with a swimming pool. I will have a jillion friends. And I will be knowed to the name of Kimberly the Great. One of my friends will be Mickey Mouse.
(All I want so far is extreme wealth, world domination, fame and friends. But a "jillion" is not capitalized. Thanks, teacher).
Chapter two: My dream to do now is to be the best student in the hole school. I wish evry day was a holiday and I wish to have a birthday evry month. I wish all my relatives lived in Ohio insted of in Illinois. I wish I could live on a farm with a lot of animals.
(All still true. Just insert "Hawaii" instead of "Ohio.").
Chapter 3: My dream to do when I am a teenager is to learn how to drive when I am fourteen. I still want to go to Hawken also. I want to make a world record in swimming. I want to have a pet gerble named Furry. My gole when I am a teenager is to not drive my parent's crazy.
(I have strayed significantly... no world records, and no "gerble."However, I am the only8 year old ever who would identify the protection of her parent's sanity as a primary goal).
Chapter 4: My dream to do when I am a grandma is to have thirteen grandchildren like my Grandma Lewis. I want to have a dog that looks like my next door neighbor's dog. His name is Bo. Bo is very large and he is black and white.
(Too early to tell).

Family Archives (1: Report Card)

This week I am home in South Carolina, caring for the dog menagerie while my parents hit the beaches. Since I find boredom excruciating, I have decided to dive into the mysterious "Lewis family history" closet (that's not a metaphor... it is literally a closet). From what I can tell, our family's collection of photos and assorted "memory objects" have been shoved in boxes and transported around the country for the last 25 years or so. The resulting boxes of chaos create serious anxiety for type A people like myself.

As I organize, I'll digitize and post my favorite finds (sparing my family and sticking to Kim-oriented things).

Today, I present compelling evidence from 1995 that I have always been a perfectionist. Above is the "Personal Social Growth and Work Habits" section of my 2nd grade report card. You'll note that I received the highest marks possible in all areas except one: "Demonstrates Verbal Self Control." The teacher says, "Kim is a nice girl who seems happy and comfortable at school. She has many friends and enjoys the company of both girls and boys. Kim can be quite social and occasionally needs a reminder concerning verbal self-control." Yes. I forsee a bright future of not shutting up.

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An old blog post ("Eulogy for Fall Semester"- Dec. 28 2009) has been made over and printed in the summer edition of Denison Magazine. Read it HERE.