Memory Monday- Shampoo and Shoelaces

Shoelaces

I wrote about this the other day on Facebook, but I wanted to expound on it. For a couple of months Ben has been asking me to buy some shoes with shoelaces because he wants to learn how to tie them. I've looked, but most of the cool looking shoes don't have shoelaces. Ben wasn't really needing new shoes and getting Jack's shoes on to leave the house is enough trouble that I didn't want to buy Ben shoes and have to tie them until he figured it out.

Ben started playing soccer. I ended up needing to buy him soccer shoes and he was very pleased that they had laces. I showed Ben how to tie shoelaces. As I was teaching him I remembered that I only know how to tie shoes one way, the 'Bunny Ears' way.

When I was five or six my parents tried to teach me how to tie my shoelaces. (I am pretty sure I was five and it was before I started Kindergarten, but I am not absolutely certain. I don't remember having velcro shoes until I was seven or eight. And I remember being very excited about them. Do you remember KangaROOS, shoes that had a zippered pocket on the side that you could put a coin or two in? I remember buying them at Christensen's Department Store in Five Points Mall.)

My parents taught me the traditional way to tie shoes and I just did not get it. One day I was visiting my Grandma and she introduced me to 'Bunny Ears'. Then she wanted me to practice and told me she would pay me a penny every time I successfully tied my shoes. I spent the afternoon at my Grandma's tying and untying my shoes. My aunt Gail stopped by with her roommate, Lark and Lark gave me a 50 cent piece for tying my shoe once! I think left my Grandma's house with about a dollar that day and, more importantly, the ability to tie my shoes.

Shampoo

Often when I get bored, I clean. It's something I've done since I have done since I was a teenager. My room was never clean, I never cleaned what I was suppose to and my mom wanted me to, but I would clean things like washing the walls or scrubbing brick.

I remember washing the walls a couple of times when my parents were out of town. I don't remember where my siblings were, but I was alone, lonely and I didn't know what to do, so I would clean the walls.

One time when my parents were gone and my siblings were around we decided we were going to surprise my parents by cleaning the carpet that they have on their covered back deck. We decided to 'shampoo' the carpet. And what should you use to 'shampoo' the carpet? Shampoo of course. We used VO5 to be exact. We dumped buckets of water on the carpet and thendumped out the bottle of shampoo all over it. We scrubbed it in and the tried to rinse it off by pouring more buckets of water on it. We quickly realized that wasn't going to work very well and ended up dragging a hose up through the house so we could rinse out the shampoo. It took a very long time and we probably didn't get it all. Bubbles probably appeared on the carpet whenever it got wet. I don't know if we ever told my parents what we did, but they probably had an idea. Parents are smart like that.

My trip to the North Pole

I have been to Santa Claus' house at the North Pole. Okay, maybe not 'the' North Pole, but North Pole, Alaska.

When I was fourteen years old my Grandpa and aunts, Gail and Roxann, took us on an awesome adventure. We drove to Bellingham, Washington where we boarded the Alaskan Ferry MV Columbia. My parents flew to Washington, took the vehicle we had driven up there and drove it to Alaska.

We boarded the ferry with our bikes and backpacks. For a week we rode the ferry and then got off at different cities in Alaska's inland passage. Some nights we camped on land other nights we camped on the ferry. They allow you to set up a tent on the deck of the boat and sleep there. Interesting, huh? If you want a cabin, you have to pay a whole lot extra for it.

The cities we visited were St. Petersburg, Ketchikan, Sitka, Wrangell, and Juneau.

Sitka was my favorite city. I think that we had to ride our bikes seven miles from the ferry terminal to the city. (It probably wasn't that far, but in my memory it seemed like a very long way.) In Sitka we walked in the woods through a totem pole park. We came upon a river where I remember watching a bald eagle swoop down and pick up a fish out of the water. Alaska has a lot of Russian influence and I remember in Sitka there was a gorgeous Russian Orthodox church. We also got to watch a Russian dancing performance.

Sorry my details aren't the greatest. I was only fourteen, that was eighteen years ago. It's hard to remember details, but at the same time I think I didn't truly appreciate what an awesome opportunity was given me to go on a trip to Alaska. So, I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have while I was there.

After a week traveling and exploring the Inside Passage we disembarked the ferry in Haines, Alaska where my parents picked us up. I think after that we headed to North Pole, where my aunt and uncle lived because my uncle was in the Air Force and was stationed at a military base near North Pole (just outside of Fairbanks). We met up with the rest of my mom's extended family. Everybody was there, but my aunt Shari and her family because she had just had a baby. Anyway, for the next couple of weeks my family drove around Alaska camping in a tent trailer, motorhome, and tents. We did a lot of driving. I remember doing a lot of sleeping because I got easily carsick, so I took Dramamine a lot which knocked me out.

We went to Denali (Mt McKinley National Park) where we rode a school bus for hours on a dirt rode to see Denali, only to have it covered by clouds. We went halibut fishing in Valdez aboard a gorgeous sail boat. We went digging for clams. We took another ferry from Valdez to Portage so we could see the Columbia Glacier and then we took a train ride from Portage to Whittier, where other people in our group had driven to so they could pick us up.

A seriously awesome adventure!

And when my immediate family headed home, I stayed in Alaska for a couple of weeks and hung out with my aunt and uncle and their two kids. My first morning sleeping at their house I woke up in the morning, looked out the window and there was a moose. My aunt and uncle let me ride one of their bikes and pull their kids in a trailer all around North Pole, Alaska.

I hope someday to take my kids on an awesome Alaskan Adventure. Randomly sometimes I price how much it would cost. It would probably be cheaper to take a cruise to Alaska (considering the food and a bed was provided), but I would love to do the Alaskan ferry trip so they could have a similar experience that I did.

One summer in Texas

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. :)

Flying beer cans and Jose

(My scanner is broken, but I wanted to post some pictures.)

The August after I graduated from high school my sister and I took an awesome road trip to the Oregon Coast with our friend Heather and our friend Anja. (Anja- prounounced 'onya' is from Germany. We met her when she moved in across the street from us with a family as a foreign exchange student.)

The first night of our trip we drove and drove and drove. Finally when we couldn't drive anymore we turned off onto a dirt road, pulled over and threw all of our sleeping stuff out on a tarp.
The next day we drove and drove and drove some more. We were almost to the coast. It was the weekend and since it was early evening we had a difficult time finding a camping place. Finally we found a camping spot at a "horse camp". (A campground where you can keep horses too. I don't remember seeing any horses though.)

We set up camp in the dark and then cooked dinner by flashlight. After dinner we went to bed. Okay, we didn't really go to bed. We were a bunch of teenage girls, so we talked and laughed late into the night. A while after we got in the tent a couple pulled into the camp spot next to us. They were more loud and annoying than us and their headlights were shining in our tent for a long time.

We quickly learned that the couple was a man and a woman. The whole night long we never heard the man say a word, but the woman? She yelled late into the night at her companion, "Jose." She was totally drunk and was loud and belligerent.

At one point, we yelled at her to "be quiet." And she yelled and yelled back. Anja wanted to get out of the tent and go talk to her. We didn't want Anja to get hurt.
We eventually fell asleep.

And then in the morning I was laying in the tent and I heard my sister, Jennifer, talking to somebody. I believe it was a ranger and this is what I heard,
"I heard you guys had a loud party last night."

What!?

Jennifer tried to explain that it wasn't us, but he wouldn't believe her.
After the ranger left a lady from a camp spot across from us came over an brought us a can of beer that she said we had thrown at her in the middle of the night when she yelled to be quiet.
We tried to explain it wasn't us, but she wouldn't believe us either.

Seriously.

Why would we have been yelling 'Jose' all night long? I can't believe that crazy lady got out of trouble and if I remember correctly when she was approached about the situation, she blamed it on us.

Seriously.

Crazy lady.

(Here was are the morning after the above mentioned incident. Okay, I might look a little drunk in the above photo, but I guarantee you I was not.)

Random Memory

So I was thinking about starting a blog posting thing called Memory Monday, where I would write a random memory from my life that came to my mind at the moment. A memory that I am certain isn't written in one of my journals and I want it to be recorded somewhere. Well, I haven't gotten around to that, but some Monday I will. Tonight though something happened that triggered a random memory and I wanted to write it down.

The boys and I went for a walk tonight. On our way back one of my neighborhood friends was out weeding, so I talked to her for a while and Ben played with her kids. Then it started raining, so we decided to head home. Within seconds it was pouring rain. My friend's husband asked if I wanted a ride, but I declined. It wasn't cold, it was just raining and it's okay to get wet sometimes. (The boys were kept dry because I had the rain cover on the stroller.) As I was walking home in the pouring rain another friend came out of her house and asked if I wanted a ride. Once again I thankfully declined.

I was soaked, but I didn't mind. It reminded me of a night just over 14 years ago. My family had the Phillips family over for dinner. It was raining that night and at David Phillips prompting most of the kids, including me, went out to play in the rain. We jumped in puddles and got completely soaked. We were freezing, but we had a blast.

That was one of my last vivid memories of David, as sadly a few months later he passed away. That moment of 'dancing in the rain' was the epitome of who he was. Passionate about life. Don't we all want to be that way? Sometimes it's just a lot of work. Or so we think. :)


P.S. Coming soon on Memory Monday-Flying beer cans and 'Jose'.

Disneyland & the Beaches

What is your earliest memory? Mine is a toss up between two things- summers at Lake Powell on my Grandpa's houseboat and going to Disneyland. I think some of my Lake Powell memories occured before going to Disneyland, but I can't pinpoint them with an exact date. Disneyland I can. We went to Disneyland over UEA weekend October 1983.

So I was just over five years old when we went to Disneyland and Ben is just about five. I am not a Disneyland freak or anything but we dedided it would be fun to take a trip there.

We left Saturday the 12th. We stayed in Primm, NV on Saturday night. My brother-in-law had to stand in line for over two hours just to check into the hotel. I guess that's what you get when you only pay $33 a night for a room. (The room was nice and clean though.) Sunday night we stayed in Huntington beach. Monday we spent the day at Seal Beach. We were ill-prepared for the really good weather so we stopped at the Salvation Army and bought shorts for 10 of us for $20 and we wore them the rest of the week.

Monday night thru Saturday night we stayed at a timeshare that I found somebody selling their week on Craigslist. It was soo nice to stay somewhere with a kitchen (so we could save money on food) and a washer and dryer (so we didn't come home with bags and bags of dirty clothes and also so we could wash our shorts.) The hotel/timeshare was a fifteen minute walk from Disneyland. I'm sooo glad we took the double stroller.

(No, I did not ride like this the whole time. I was only in the stroller for a minute. Look at Ben's face. He's mad.)

Although we have been planning the trip for a while, we only told Ben about it a couple of weeks ago. It made me laugh when Ben was telling people we were going to Disney on Land. (Last year my parents took him to Disney on Ice.) Of course Jack too didn't understand what Disneyland was and from seeing commercials he was certain it meant it would be a place full of Mickey Mouse balloons. We didn't buy him a balloon the first day at Disneyland, but when he woke up at 4:00am the morning of the second Disney day screaming in his sleep "I want a Mickey balloon," we decided we better buy one.

We went with my sister Jennifer and her family and my parents joined us too. We had originally planned to go to Disneyland for four days. We only ended up going three.

(We all felt like this at the end of each day. Especially the third day. It was soooooo much walking.)

People told us that their kids favorite part of their Disneyland trip was the day that they decided to go to the beach. You know what? They were right! Disneyland was fun, but three days was enough. And the boys loved the beach, everybody did. On the last day some seaweed attacked Jack and we almost lost him to the sea, but fortunately my brother-in-law saved him and we all returned home safe and sound (after a very long drive home, driving home from vacations in never fun).