{tagged by Rochelle}
20 years ago
It was 1988, I was 8 years old . . . . . so that means I was probably swimming and my hair was green! That year my brother and I joined the swim team - The Westside Stingrays. Not only did we spend every waking moment swimming in our own pool at home, but now we had practices several times a week and swim meets every Saturday during the summer. I remember arriving to those meets early in the morning and being forced to dive into the cold, cold water at 7:00am to do warm-ups. Oh, I hated warm-ups. The swim meets themselves were fun -- always lots of running around. On Friday the coaches would write our race numbers on our forearms with a big black permanent marker. Over the day the races would be called out over the loud speaker and all you had to do was check your arm to see when you were up. During the in-between times we sat around on blankets in the grass, I remember eating lots of bananas, raiding the concession stand for otter pops and Fun Dips, watching our teenage teammates and thinking they were so cool, and making friendship bracelets. At the end of the summer I got a trophy for "Most Improved" in my age group. I was so proud! Just a few days ago Scott and I were sifting & sorting through our childhood stuff (a post on that later) and I came across that trophy and still cannot let it go!
10 years ago
1998, I was 18. AKA - "The Summer of Love." {sigh} Scott and I met & dated & got engaged during the summer of 1998, so it definitely has very fond memories for me. July 5th was actually the date of our first kiss and this photo was taken earlier that day. I had been at my grandparents house in Mt. Pleasant for the 4th of July. My mom and brothers were there as well. We went to the rodeo, watched fireworks, and that night my mom & I shared a bedroom. I remember laying in bed as she asked me about this special guy I was dating. I told her all about him, how fun he was, the way we just matched & went together really well, and how much I liked him. I remember her saying "I see a sparkle in your eye when you talk about him." That was true.
I drove back to Provo the next day (I'm pretty sure it was a Sunday). I'm not sure if I made it to church or not. But I met up with Scott as soon as I could. I went to his apartment and we hung out for bit, just cuddlin' on the couch. We had been apart for one whole dayso we were really missin' each other. :) Then, Scott tried to go in for the kiss -- the first kiss. I panicked for a minute because this was not the place that I wanted to have our first kiss! We were in his scuzzy apartment on a nasty old couch. Plus, if you remember how we met . . . his roommate was my ex-boyfriend of just a few months, so there was all kinds of other history related to that apartment. So I turned my head and said, "not here." I felt bad for giving him the dodge, and I know he felt a bit rejected too. So we quickly changed the "subject" and decided to go for a drive in the canyon.
Not just any drive, but a photo taking extravaganza. We grabbed his camera & a tripod and scouted out several picturesque locations in the canyon to take our picture together. Why? Because we thought we were so cute together. I'm just being honest. The above picture was taken on that day. There was one moment when we were posing in front of a waterfall that I thought & hoped he would kiss me then, but it didn't happen. I'm sure his wounds were still a little raw.
He took me back to my apartment & he went to his. Dinner, change clothes, and a few hours later we had ward prayer. Afterward, he said that he needed to kidnap me. Okay?? This was a surprise. So he got me in his car and proceeded to blind-fold me. Then he drove me somewhere, and I'm sure he added extra turns and time to his route so I would have noooo idea where we were. We arrived and he had me stay in the car, still blind-folded, while he took care of a few a things. He went back & forth several times. After several minutes he pulled me from the car, led me through the darkness, and took away my blindfold. We were at a park and he had set up a dessert picnic. There was his purple blanket, two purple candlesticks that were lit, and two purple bowls filled with brownies & ice cream. (Yes, purple was a favorite color of Scott's & still is). I was totally surprised and it was so sweet! Now that I've spent enough time setting up the day I'll spare you the details of the rest and share quickly. We ate the brownies, we cuddled, we kissed, and then played around with giant 3 foot long sparklers with giant smiles plastered across our faces. I have photos.
3 years ago
summer 2005, I was 25 and pregnant with Anna. Behold, the belly.
28 weeks (July 14, 2005)
2007, age 27
This was a good year and a good summer. We visited both families, went to the zoo a lot, a couple sessions of swimming lessons, I could finally put pig tails in Anna's hair, I was doing scrapbooking classes/lessons with a girl in our ward, I was just called to be the Primary Chorister, having a good time with friends, did a bunch of de-cluttering (which ended up being helpful when we put our house on the market a few months later), and fell in love with the Twilight series.
Not much else. Just having a good time.
yesterday
I began potty-training Anna - yikes! We started the day with 2 accidents then got into a pretty good rhythm where she was telling me when she had to go potty. Which was about every 20-30 minutes. And she would actually pee every time. I quickly made up a little chart for us to keep track of her progress. Titled, "Anna's Super Potty Chart" with columns for pee-pee and poo-poo -- she can put a sticker on the poster each time she goes on the potty without an accident. So after her first success I showed her the poster and said, "Anna let's put a sticker on the paper." She says, "No. Anna want sticker on my hand." And she spent the rest of the day completely ignoring the poster and the cute heart stickers. She only wanted the smiley stickers for the back of her hand. I have to admit I was a little perturbed she didn't want to do things my way, so I ended up adding stickers to the poster myself.
And to deflate my big plans even further, I had already decided that I would offer a larger incentive to her as well to keep her motivated during the week. I told her that if she did really good going potty all week then I would take her to the store and get her a new baby doll. So here's what she says to me. "No, Anna already have baby" But you can get a new baby. "No, Anna already have babies on Anna's bed. I don't need baby." Well, maybe you can get some new clothes for your baby or some bottles or something. "No, Anna already have clothes in here" (pointing to her little suitcase of doll clothes). At that point I was like, fine, why do I even try! Man, shootin' me down at every turn.
today
Low 90's today so we went to the pool. First the indoor big pool so Conner can play. Then the outdoor wading pool so the little kids can play. Afterward, it was ice cream cones for all -- scarfed in about 3 minutes. And then I've been messing around with this post on and off throughout the day. My plan is to finish reading The Host tonight. There are only 24 days left until Breaking Dawn comes out, and I wanted to re-read the first 3 books as a refresher. Considering the pace that I read, I need to get movin'!
tomorrow
I have an appointment for a cleaning at the dentist. Shocker -- I don't think I've maxed out my benefits this year . . . .yet. The piano tuner is coming over. I'm thinking that while he's doing his thing I'll keep the kids upstairs and do a major cleaning out of the boys' room. It needs it baaaaad.
in the next year
Hopefully, by this time next year we will have a beautiful backyard. It needs some work. It would be nice to have people over again -- I always love summer time get-togethers. And it would be nice if the kids could run around in the grass in their bare feet. Shoes are required at this point -- too many embedded pine cones.
Wow, I just don't really know what the next year holds for us. Other than the kids in school, and work that keeps on workin' . . . . . I don't know what will be going on. I kinda feel like we're moving into a stage where life just keeps rolling. You know, during those first few years there are a lot of changes -- new jobs, moving, adding children -- a lot of big life-changing events. Then eventually you settle into a groove and you get to live life, moving along day to day . . . . the "coasting" stage (although that is not quite an accurate word for it). I feel like we're upon that. No life-changing events for years to come. Now is all about raising the kids, spending time together, building a strong family, and hopefully teaching them all the things they'll need to make good choices.
Right now, I just really hope that Anna chooses to keep her Pull-Up on in the middle of the night.
