The summer I turned twenty I spent living in Texas with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. It seemed like almost all my friends were doing something exciting for the summer. I didn't move away for college ever, which is one of my biggest regrets in life, and I just couldn't stand the idea of being home all summer while my friends were off doing something exciting.
Living with a relative was the easiest option. Since most of my family lives very close my only option was to go to Texas. My aunt and uncle were kind enough to let me spend the summer with them even though they didn't know me very well. Of course, I didn't know them very well either. But I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to live with them and develop a relationship that never would have happened had I not spent that summer with them. It is so strange to think that it was over twelve years ago that Iived with them and my boys are almost the age my cousins were when I lived with them.
Anyway, my first night in Texas I was laying in bed, falling asleep when I heard what I thought sounded like a car crashing through a fence. The next morning I told my aunt and uncle and they said that a truck had crashed through their neighbors fence and it wasn't the first time their neighbors fence had been crashed through. My aunt and uncle lived in a nice neighborhood that centered around a golf course. However because of strange zoning laws, behind their house was a bar called Tin Alley. There was a turn in the dirt road by the bar and if some drunk person missed the turn, they would crash into my aunt and uncle's neighbors fence.
I think I have heard that the laws have changed since I lived there, but when I lived in Texas people could driving with an open alcoholic drink in their hand. The even had brown sacks by all the cash registers at the gas stations to put your drink in so that the condensation wouldn't get all over your hand. Crazy, huh?
So, the whole point of this Memory Monday post is this- When I moved to Texas it had only been two months since Chad had left for his LDS mission. I really, really missed him and was still sleeping with one of my favorite shirts that belonged to him, in my hands. I never intended to wait for Chad, and he knew that. I didn't know where life would lead either of us and I didn't want to promise him I would wait to marry him and break that promise. I didn't necessarily think I would find somebody else, I just felt so young.
But one day when I was living in Texas I was driving down the road. I don't remember where I was going but I remember exactly where I was on the road. I all of the sudden had this feeling that one day I would have a daughter and immediately her name came to my mind. First and Last name. And the last name was Chad's last name.
Chad and I didn't get married until four years later. Two years of his mission and then two years of dating. People often wondered why we dated for so long. I don't know if this makes sense, but I never really doubted I would marry Chad and I just wondered if I should ever get married.
Despite that thought of a daughter, since marrying Chad I have felt like we would have three boys. We will just wait and see what that baby ends up being. I don't want to find out because it doesn't matter if it is a boy or a girl. I don't want to find out it's a boy and then have people say to me, "oh, are you sad that you aren't having a girl?" And I don't want to find out it's a girl and then unnecessarily worry the next four and a half months how different it would be to raise a girl. Not finding out totally goes against my innate desire to be prepared, but it's just better this way. And more exciting. :)
