Another birthday. Yea! Everything this side of the dirt is good right ;)
Not that it's all about the gifts but I was pretty spoiled this year. I got some cute shoes! Stocked up my reading material for the next while! Went shopping with some fun gift cards and bought a couple new outfits and R bought my a beautiful picture that I wanted. Sweet! Saturday we are going out to celebrate. We're going to see "Chimpanzee" after all the soccer games.
So here are 44 random stories from my life, that no one should feel obliged to read. The kids love my stories so this is for them.
1. When I was in middle school we went on a very fun field trip to the zoo. I remember walking around with Adam and John and a few other kids. Particularly I remember hanging out in the aviary and enjoying the birds and riding an elephant. However I question if I really did that. I can't imagine having $ to ride one, although I am sure I would have wanted to so maybe I did. It's an elephant mystery. I do love elephants and I love Lu's herd. And I want to see one in the wild some day, which would require a trip to Africa, or ancient South America, neither of which are on the agenda for any time soon.
2. When Sierra was a baby we went camping to Yosemite with the Dopps. It was gorgeous there. We did a lot of hiking, some swimming in frigid water (brrr!). We had to put all our food in bear boxes and there were all these warnings about not having food in your tents etc. So Si was my bottle baby and in the middle of the night when she was hungry I would grab my flashlight, grab a crying baby, find my shoes in the dark on the tent floor, "sneak" out of the tent and hike to the car (scared the whole time that she and I would be eaten) and then sit in the car and make her bottle and feed her. It was creepy. Then when she was done we'd walk back, in the scary dark, and slide back into the sleeping bag. Not so restful but it was a good trip. The kids panned for gold, made smores, threw rocks.
3. Another summer we went camping at Pinecrest. That year the little Dopplets and my little girlies got marbles and played marble games in the dirt. That year Jenna was the baby and she was not impressed with the whole lets go camping thing. The first night we were there she cried a lot. I felt bad for the other campers so I took my camp chair down the hill to the bathroom and she and I hung out in there while she fussed. I watched the bugs fly into the little light in the corner of the bathroom and listened for bears and wished she would sleep. The second night she was finally tired ( me too ). After dinner everyone gathered around the camp fire to sing and play instruments. J had finally finally gone to sleep so I announced that I was going to bed. I left S & D at the campfire with Grandma Joyce and Mark and the Dopps. They were having a great time. I gratefully put baby J to sleep and lay down in my sleeping bag when all of a sudden I heard rustling behind the tent. I figured I was imagining...but it didn't stop. Then I knew it was a bear. So I bravely unzipped the window on the campfire side of the tent and quietly yelled ( you know the whisper yell used when facing a bear, or burglar or other peril that you don't want to hear you) out "Mark! Mark! there's a bear". He and Durk came running up and bravely charged behind the tent. There they discovered a pack of ferocious raccoons working as a team to unload our ice box. One was in the chest, the other outside. The one inside was handing food out to the other, I kid you not.
4. One more bear story, well two more. A few years later we went camping to the Sequoias. Amazing trees! We had so much fun. Anyway there were bear warnings everywhere. As you are likely to find camping. One night we heard growling and Val, Anna and I really hoped for an actual bear sighting so we grabbed our flashlights, zipped the girls safely into the tent (they were asleep) and Papa and Grandma were in the next tent so they were protected, and we headed out to see what we could see. We followed the sound to a tent a couple of sites down from ours. It was a fellow camper snoring.
5. So I actually had
a bear sighting. My friend Tracey and I went to a singles conference at Big Bear where we stayed in tents and had a horrible time. A bear went into our tent while we were gone. Which was the highlight of the trip.
6. Summer 2004 Anna and Ama got married, theirs was the loveliest wedding. The reception was outside and I remember dancing under the stars with Bub who loves to dance even now. So great! Now they have their own cute little bub and I am very excited to find out if baby #2 is a boy or girl later this week. I think it's a boy. I think Dani's is too. We shall see.
7. When I was a little girl I walked to school. I would complain about how far it was. Then when I was in 6th grade my family spent the summer in France. We met dad's family, he did genealogy, we had some great experiences there. One thing I will never forget is visiting dad's childhood home. We drove to the middle of nowhere, parked the cars and then began to walk. We walked through a little field, crossed a stream, walked up up up a hill on a little rocky path and then finally got to his "house". Really it was little more than a
shack homestead. We walked in and I remember the dirt floor, the fireplace where they cooked, the dark room off to the side where dad slept (and where he said rats would run over his blanket in the night). In the middle of the room hung a bare wire with a light bulb on it. Dad said "oh look they made some improvements". He was referring to the nice new light. On our walk back I said to Dad "I will never complain about walking again." And I did not. After that I walked a lot. Lana and I would walk to piano lessons every week. We walked to the movies, the library, to candy stripe at the hospital, to the stables to take care of Goldie and Velvet.
8. Going to the beach was the highlight of my life growing up. We went every summer for a week. I LOVED it. We went with the same group of families, to the same campground and it was so fun. I loved walking to the peacock store for ice cream. I loved walking down the windy path to the beach, it always smelled like black licorice, I don't know why. I loved laying in the sun, playing in the water, hunting snipe, wandering around with Julie, making smores, eating outside. It was great great great.
9. Little known fact, I never took the ACT or the SAT. I was scared I wouldn't do well so I didn't. As a result I went to community college first. Also as a result I insisted my girls took it. Better to try and fail than not to try at all.
10. Other little known fact I have always been a very bad speller. Spell checker has made me a better speller and I am very proud that I now know the difference between to two and too, also between than and then.
11. The day I got baptized Marlis Morgan gave me a hymn book. I treasured it. Also we went out to eat, I got to choose the restaurant and I choose a lovely buffet called "Camelot". I choose it because they served chocolate pudding. I also remember having a headache. We played the drop backwards and I will catch you game before and my friends didn't catch me.
12. I cried when I took swimming lessons. I still cry if I have to put my face under water. I think this might have something to do with the night I had my first piece of gum. We were at the beach with the Andersons and we were walking along, it was dark and I was skipping closer and closer to the edge. Then the edge overwhelmed me and the ocean swooped me up and under. I tumbled around unable to find my way up. It was very scary. Peter Anderson pulled me out. I was crying and he gave me some gum to cheer me up (or quiet me down)
13. In middle school my favorite day was "touch of class" day. We got to wear lovely gowns to school. In 8th grade I wore a long yellow dress with little flowers on it.
14. The first house I ever bought had lots of pretty plants and trees in the yard. In the backyard there was a nice covered porch with wisteria growing all over it. I love the way that smells. There was also a cherry tree. I wanted to pull it out and get a swing set for the girls. Mark agreed and we bought one, then he attached a rope to his jeep and the other end to the tree and pulled it out. We loved that swing set!
15. Dani's first day of kindergarten she wore pink tights and a little flowered dress. Sierra and I walked her to school. I can not believe that was 20 years ago.
16. We used to spend a lot of time in San Fransisco with our Grandparents. Dad painted houses in the summer and we also went on holidays. Alec and I slept in Baba Olya's room. Later Michael also slept in there with us. We used to lay in bed and watch the lights from the cars cast their lights on the ceiling as they drove by. I would tell Alec stories. Often they were about the Justice League, to which we belonged, and they good deeds we would do.
17. We used to play Star Trek all the time. We'd use my barrettes as "communicators" never in a million years thinking that some day I would own a cell phone that does all that the science fiction communicators did and more. Technology is crazy.
18. One morning in Feb 1991 I stood in the shower crying. I was bleeding because I had just had a baby, and spraying milk all over because I had to wean her but my body didn't get the message so it was still making tons and crying because I had cancer and was having surgery the next day. It was a long messy shower and it was the only time I cried because I thought it wasn't fair and why me. That moment sticks out in my memory. There were other tears, but they were of gratitude for the gift of life, no matter how long or short it would be; out of great love for my babies and my God; in amazement for the kindness of others, the skill of my doctors, the evidence of God's hand in my life. There are lots of reasons to cry but the not fair one only happened that once.
19. I remember one 4th of July when we went to Tehachapi for a stake picnic and fireworks watching. We lay on the grass by the church and waited for the show. Jon and I lay next to each other. He was handsome and liked to listen to me talk and thought I was cute. The grass was cool under my legs and the fireworks were spectacular that night.
20. On our honeymoon Rob and I went to Kauai. It was delightful. We rented a canoe (kayak?) and paddled up a river past a secret grotto (that wasn't really that secret because you could pay to tour it : ) ) and then hiked up to a beautiful waterfall. There were a lot of wild chickens around. That was a fun trip.
21. The hottest summer I ever endured was a tie summer 1987 and summer 1999. Both summers I was pregnant and had August babies. In 87 I remember coming home from work and laying down in the hallway under the swamp cooler and thinking I was going to melt. It was hot in the desert that year. Summer of 99 we had just moved to Texas and it was over a 100 degrees for 100 days or something insane like that. Mom and Dad came to visit and they walked out of the airport and literally sucked in their breath at the heat of it.
22. My favorite dance recital was the one where Anna was the teacher and Sierra was a little ballerina in a blue tutu. She danced to "Animal Crackers in my Soup" and was so cute!
23. Oct 05 I took my three little kids to the pumpkin patch. They had a little hay bale maze that Ethan and Hannah wanted to go thru. It had one entrance/exit. I told them to hold hands and go through together and I would wait for them at the exit with Lu. We waited a little while watching all the little kids swarming around and then H popped out. "Where is Bub?" I asked. She didn't know. So I looked over the top. Couldn't see him. Looked around the sides. Nope. Called his name. Nothing. Sent her in to look. Nope. Finally in a panic I was running back and forth dragging her along and holding Lu while yelling his name. Another mom, a stranger really, offered to hold the girls so I could look. I gratefully and fearfully accepted then climbed on top of the bales and ran across looking for him. The workers were upset at me and told me to get down. Which I refused. Eventually I looked up and saw him running toward the parking lot. Somehow he had slid through a crack in the bales. I leaped off and ran after him. Scooped him up and ran back to get the girls, very much relieved that they were still there. Once I had everyone we all cried. Me because I was so relieved and grateful, them because our trip was over and we hauled it to the car and drove home exhausted.
24. Moms have super human strength when needed. One day the little girls and I were invited to the Musgraves home for swimming and dinner. We had swam awhile and were eating dinner outside. Jenna had little arm floaties on. She took them off to eat, then was playing on the grass. While we were watching her she actually stepped off the grass and into the water. Just like that and so quickly. I bounded from my chair and raced across the yard, jumped in and pulled her out. I beat Bro. Musgrave who was a big strong police officer. He said mom's move fast and are strong. It's true. Mom's have many super powers.
25. Something I unexpectedly enjoyed was Jenna's goat Renaldo. She really wanted to raise a goat. This required us driving over to the Ag Annex twice a day for many month. I wasn't too excited but agreed and it was a lot of fun. He was cute and we all enjoyed getting to know the pigs and goats there. Eventually he did very well at auction and J got a ribbon and made some $$.
26. Ethan's first soccer season was so funny. He was three and a bunch of little boys from our ward joined the same team. R was the assistant coach and Warren was the coach. The rest of the parents sat on the bleachers and tried not to die of laughter. Their team color was
pink salmon, and their shirts came to their knees so all these cute little boys looked like they were wearing dresses as they ran around after the ball. Some of them sat and picked flowers during the game. Some paused during the game to wrestle with each other. One boy, who was the goalie, was hanging from the goal and somehow got his little foot caught in the net behind him so his dad had to run over and detangle him before he face planted in the dirt. Every game was so stinkin cute!
27. When I was a Mia Maid we had a class activity out at the Larsen's farm. We made cakes from scratch then went and goofed around the property. We decided to swim and dove in their reservoir fully clothed. Oh the fun of youth.
28. Another time we had a slumber party at Becky Lewis' house. They lived way out in the country. It was late and dark and we watched Poltergeist. Scary!! I am not a lover of scary.
29. I was at a RS meeting not too long ago where we all brought family history/personal history stuff to share. One cute sister, Carolee, brought a scrap book. I was looking through it and saw a dance festival that looked so familiar. Turns out it was the same one I was in! We grew up not far from each other and are the same age. Somehow two CA girls ended up in the East in the same ward. It's a small world.
30. I used to help Anna with her homework from time to time. One time she had to read a book, maybe it was "like water for chocolate" and then write about what food she was and what food different people would be, if she or they were food. It was so fun to help her with that and to laugh together over what people would be. I do not remember what we chose for anyone but if I was to be a food now I would want to be a pineapple because that is the colonial symbol of hospitality and I strive to be hospitable, also it's tropical and sweet and I want to go somewhere tropical and like to think of myself as sweet.
31. Alec and I both had cavities in our teeth one day. We went to the dentist and decided we didn't want Novocaine. I remember gripping the chair arms and getting that cavity filled. It hurt but was better than being numb for the next 12 hours. I always react to meds strongly and it's annoying.
32. Mall music. The Palmdale mall used to put on musicals in the food court. They were really great. Ellen Kohn and I sometimes took the girls and we'd eat food and listen to the productions. It was unexpectedly wonderful.
33. Cow sitting. Good times. Our friends, the Blacks, had the most interesting stuff going on at their house. At one point they had cows and they went on vacation so they hired Dani to cow sit. We drove down in the morning and at night and she'd bottle feed Ace (the calf) and well, they had other cows but I don't remember if she did anything else with them. So we went over one time and the big bull Ben had gotten out of the fence. I called Bishop Eckenrode and our friend Quinn and they came over and rounded him up and put him back. They fixed the fence so I figured we were good to go. The next morning we got up early. We didn't change into clothes but instead hopped into the car in our jams and drove to their house. I pulled up and found two sheriffs rounding up Ben. Embarrassing. I was in a giant nightgown, one that barely covered my enormous belly 8 1/2 months full of baby Hannah and flip flops. The girls were in nightgowns. We traipsed over to talk to the officers. We explained that we were cow sitting...and from CA (with an apologetic shrug). They kindly fixed the fence and wished us well. After that Ben stayed put.
34. One summer day a couple years ago we were at the pool when Dani called. She said she was in labor. We couldn't believe it! So exciting! We swam, and waited, went home and wondered, ate dinner and hoped, did baths and books and speculated, put the children to bed and paced and fretted and wondered and waited some more. Finally we went to bed. I held my phone. I checked it. It was working. I called Val. Yep, it worked. I lay there. The children slept. Rob slept. My phone glowed brightly in my hands...then it rang! Yeah!! I ran outside and paced back and forth in front of the house talking with Dani, hearing the news, sharing the joy!! My Dani was a momma, I was a mimi, baby Tatum was here!!! I had to wait another week to meet her but still that was an exciting night!
35. I went to an AA meeting once. I felt like an impostor. It was a school assignment. We were to go and observe and report for a psych class.
36. Christmas 2001 R got tickets to see the Nutcracker. He bought one for little Hannah, which I thought was a horrible idea. Everyone got dressed up and we went. Our seats were in the front role of the balcony where the girls could see perfectly. Hannah was mesmerized. She did great. The big girls loved it too, that was a fun fun Christmas memory.
37. Another fun Christmas memory was Christmas 98. We went to Ohio and it snowed. Our first white Christmas ever. The girls got American Girl dolls and beautiful outfits from Nana and Abba. They were super spoiled that year between the snow and the gifts and the lovely holiday cheer. I love Christmas. Love it.
38. One summer we went to Destin. We took Andrea and met Nana and Abba. It rained. The whole time. The sun did clear up one afternoon for about 3 hours. The rest of the time it rained. And rained. We had a good vacation but the beach is more fun when it doesn't rain.
39. When our boy was one year old we decided he needed a dog. Boys and dogs seem to go together. We had some discussion about what breed to get. We had labs when my brothers were little. They were good dogs so I lobbied for that. I wanted a chocolate. R wanted a yellow. He wanted a boy. I insisted on a girl. So it was agreed and we went to the puppy patch. The batch of puppies were saw had ring worm and were discounted. Millie was a cute little yellow girl with a bald circle on her forehead from her ringworm. We got her for $150. A bargain for a papered dog, and we brought her home. She was so cute. Our bargain dog ended up costing a lot. We had to put in a fence to the tune of several thousand $$, which our boy and our dog learned to scale in a few short days. We had to go to puppy training. $$. She ate a couch, a bed, some baseboards, a stairway, 9 fruit trees and countless shoes, crayons and Barbies. She eats poop and trash. One summer Val came to visit with her kids. (the best summer evah) and Lu had diarrhea in her high chair. Val and I took her to the bathroom to clean her up and when we returned to the kitchen her chair had been cleaned by good ol Millie. Val did the sick dance and told her kids not to touch the dog ever again. One day she brought home a deer leg. Yuck. Mostly she's been a great girl though. We love her.
40. One very buggy, Texas, 4th of July Warren and R got fireworks. We swam and grilled and when it got dark we went in the front yard to set them off and to watch the neighbors displays. Peter was a new baby. Shelia and I dragged our double rocker into the yard and set up a circle of citronella candles around the perimeter, like a circle of salt, to keep the mosquitoes away. We rocked and talked and watched the kids (big and little) play. It was a good day.
41. Happy day, Dani turned 12. What was the celebration...well selfishly I now had a baby sitter in house. Thus began our evening "errands". We'd put the kids to bed and then go to Sonic. Love Sonic. Dani caught on to us and then we'd have to bring her home a payment. A blast or whatever. So worth it! Since that day we have always had someone old enough to baby sit at home. It's been great. Now R and I like to go to Salsas after the little ones are tucked into their beds. Sweet.
42. One night I was outside watering the lawn when I felt something tickle my leg. I flashed my flashlight on it and saw a black widow on my leg. Scream. Jump around. Cry a little. After that I let the lawn die.
43. On our first date R and I went to Olive Garden and to see Titanic in the theater.
44. My best bday ever was my 16th. I had two dates and got my liscense that day. My 30th was fun too, we went to Riverdance. Also one year we went camping with friends and Tori brought ice cream out to the camp site, she kept it cold with dry ice. Super thoughtful and fun.
