Preserve Your Memories.......

So I'm renaming my Personal History posts to Preserve Your Memories. I thought of it the other day and started singing the Simon and Garfunkel song, Bookends. Here are the lyrics:

Time it was, and what a time it was,
it was A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you.

Who pulled your teeth when they were loose? How was it done? How much did the tooth fairy leave you?

Well, let's just say that I hated having loose teeth. I was afraid to even try and pull them out. The thought just grosses me out and when I see little kids with loose teeth I have a hard time, weird, I know.

I just remember a few teeth pulling experiences. Once I had a lose tooth and I was riding the bus home from school and my mouth was up against the seat in front of me and we went over a bump and it just knocked it right out. That was one of the easiest I remember. Another time I was eating some cereal and one of my molars came out. Doesn't feel to good when you chomp down on one of those!

Once I remember I had a loose tooth on the bottom and my mom kept telling me it wasn't even attached. It had actually fallen over in my mouth. So one night when I was asleep she came into my room and just tried to pull it out of my mouth but I woke up and that was the end of that. I actually went into the dentist terrified because he was going to have to pull it out. I hate pain and have so much anxiety about it. But he just grabbed a hold of it and pulled it right out....like I said earlier, it wasn't even attached anymore just kinda stuck. One of the worst tooth pulling experiences I remember and all because I was afraid of a little pain.

I always remember putting my tooth in an envelop and then putting it under my pillow. I use to get $.25 for a tooth. I thought it was a lot back then. What is the going rate now a days?? Probably at least a dollar, right? I won't be to happy when my kids start loosing their baby teeth.

Combing my hair

I've said this before but Christian LOVES playing in the bathroom. I will let him come in when I am getting ready or doing Julia's hair. Today was no exception. He loves to open up the drawer with all the hair ties and bows and play with everything. Well, his new obsession is the comb! He has been doing it for awhile now, but he loves to 'try' and comb his own hair. And if he can't do it he will hand you the comb so you can comb his hair for him. Who doesn't love to have their hair played with or brushed for them. I know I do! So he must get that from me. It's so cute.

He happened to find 2 combs today!

Playing in his favorite drawer

Water bottle or sippy cup?

Picture of the Day

ARRRRG........We call this Christian's pirate smile. He usually does it when he eats for some reason but will do it other times too.  I think its so stinkin cute!

Personal History

Describe your 1st driving experience.

Oh boy seems so long ago but I remember going to Sears Driving School because I don't think my high school even offered driver's ed. So I had to have my mom drive me into downtown Flint and I had to attend driver's education. SO BORING. So when were finally allowed to actually get in a car a drive this is what I remember most.

My instructor was an old guy and just kinda grumpy in general. He used his own car for us to drive and he had an extra brake over on his side in case he had to use it. His car was probably an old 1980's Ford Taurus with no power steering. And the car didn't have the nice little stickers all over the car to warn people you were a student but it had this on top of the car..........

I could have sworn it was bigger than this picture but that was a long time ago so it was bigger in my mind.

I also remember having to sit on a phone book because I was so short to even see over the hood. So here I am in an old car with no power steering. Going into downtown Flint. First off I remember seeing a yellow light and then almost getting whiplash because my instructor had to use 'his' emergency brake. Embarrassing! Mind you yellow lights outside of CA and UT are extremely short and don't last as long as they do here. So with that said, I thought I could make the light before it turned red but I guess I misjudged it a bit. So anyway, we are now down by the city buildings, its super busy with traffic because I had evening classes and I was now getting into rush hour traffic. The instructor tells me to pull up along side of a car and then proceeds to tell me to do this maneuver........

THE WORST THING EVER! So I did my best but my best was trying about 4 times to get just close enough to the curb. And all the while I am getting heckled by passing traffic telling me to "keep it up", "you'll get it", "Come on you can do it." Of course these are all encouraging words but at the time I just wanted them to be quiet, it was so embarrassing. Besides the fact that I had to do this maneuver 4 times, I also had to have my instructor help me crank the wheel to even position myself correctly......remember, no power steering and I was a weak, scrawny, 15 year old. So I do finally get it and am relieved the whole experience is over.

Preserve your Life

Preserve your memories, seal them up well. What you forget you can never retell. But a journal that's kept fresh on the shelf will help someone through rough times--maybe even yourself!

My sister got a little jar with slips of paper that ask about your personal history. Things about childhood, family, memories, religion etc. So I copied down those questions and decided to blog them instead of just writing them in a journal. Hopefully I can answer each question and have that memory, thought or fact preserved for my future generations to read. It probably won't be everyday but maybe once a week or once a month and they won't be in any particular order. This should be interesting! I hope you all enjoy this as much as I think I'm going too!

Question: What did you do at recess? What games did you play?

Wow, this takes me back. You lived and died for recess! We even had teachers that would reward us with an extra recess during the day if we met some kind of goal in class. I remember a few different things about recess in elementary school. Probably different grades and schools, who knows? But I remember I had a group of friends and each recess we would run to the swings and have swing races, I guess you could call them. Who could go the highest, or jump off the swing the farthest. I do remember the boys chasing the girls around at recess and I hated it. I just wanted to play on the jungle gym but we always had to worry about the boys bothering us.

In 5th grade I had another group of friends and we would jump rope for the entire time. We never did double dutch, I don't even think we attempted it, we just did the normal one rope. We had all the different games we would chant/sing as we jumped, Cinderella, teddy bear, chase etc. We even had a few boys in our group that would jump with us each day. If we weren't jump roping we did penny drops off the high bars. You hang upside down by your knees and get yourself swinging and then you flip off the bar and hopefully land on your feet, I always did! Ahhhh, to have that much energy again!

Fun in the Bath

Christian and Julia got some really fun bath foam for Christmas and we used it the other night and the kids had a blast. Julia went a little over board with her bubble foam and I don't think Christian really knew what to think. Thank you Andy and Whitney for the great gift!! The kids always love bath time but this was even more fun with the foam bubbles!

We added a colored fizzy to the water
to make it pink for Julia! Loving the foam!

Christian not sure if he should eat it or not?
Having fun!

"Okay, really guys?"
Not sure what to think??

Maybe a future in wrestling or football?

During Christmas I'm not sure if Christian was making many friends. Once he got use to everyone he let them know he was around, especially the little kids. He would go up to anyone that would let him, (Eli, Olivia, Miles, Parker and Logan), and just either pull their hair or try and tackle them. On a few occasions he would even give the bigger boys kisses and tried to give them 'loves'. It was cute to watch but frustrating too, because he would just make everybody cry. So Uncle Jeff started calling him 'The Little Linebacker.' Appropriately named! He is tough and sturdy and a chunk. So maybe he will grow up and use his 'beef' for some type of sport where people won't mind so much if they are being tackled or mauled.

Pinning Olivia to the ground.

Crawling on/tackling Uncle Jeff

Happy New Year

We hope this year will bring health and happiness!

We hope to achieve new goals and dreams!

We are excited to see what 2012 has in store for our family!