Alright Already! (Tag Smag)

Okay, I'll do it! Apparently there is such a thing as 'cyber tag', and recently my friend Sarri 'tagged' me. So now I have to reflect back on the last 20 years just as she did. Good lord, I know I'm not THAT old, but I can barely remember what I did this morning, much less 20 years ago! But here goes...

20 years ago I was 12. I think. Yeah, I was. I was getting ready to start jr. high, which oddly enough there wasn't a jr. high in my town, so we had to go 11 miles down the road to the next town. Go figure. Seems very funny to me now. And why they never condemned that building, I'll never know! Gross, gross, gross. I don't think much has changed between me and my friends back then and 7th grade girls today. Lots of lame, catty catfights. One thing that has changed--it was that summer that I experienced the female "curse" for the first time, in Hawaii of all places! Nice. Seems like girls today are in 3rd or 4th grade when it happens! (Obviously I can't remember much if I'm talking about menstruation! Geez louise.)

10 years ago it was 1998. I had just gotten my braces off, graduated from Linfield College, and gotten married--all in that order. We totally thought that we were going to move back to Idaho until both Dave and I realized that neither of us really wanted to. Phew! The only downside to our last minute change of plans was that I hadn't been looking for a teaching job in or around McMinnville. No worries, I resigned myself to subbing for a year. Little did I know that I'd be offered a 1st grade position in Carlton halfway thru September. Talk about a stressful start to my teaching career! School had already been in session for 3 weeks. Boy did I love Carlton though and all the friends I made.

5 years ago I was a new mama. That summer we went to Dave's high school reunion, which was equally fun for me since I went to the same small school and was friends with many of his classmates. What wasn't so fun was having to see all of those friends 3 months after giving birth. Eek! I definitely hadn't discovered the South Beach diet yet! Also that summer several friends and I started a "play" group for our babes--though really it was mostly just a chance for all of us moms to get together once a week and chat up a storm! Those babes sure aren't babies anymore, and it's hard to believe that they're all starting kindergarten in 1 month's time! Speaking of kindergarten, I was teaching it at Newby 5 years ago, sharing a classroom with my pal Sarri. That fall also marked the beginning of our 3 year long childcare trade. God is good.

3 years ago I was prego with Miss Molly. We told my family at our annual reunion down in Umpqua. My mom thought she was getting some updated portraits of Grayson when really she discovered ultrasound pictures in the envelope, too. Very fun. At that point I was still CERTAIN that we were having a boy!


So far this year I have discovered blogging, read 1 grown up book, watched my son start and "graduate" preschool, celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary, gone to Disneyland twice, and taken an extreme liking to being on vacation!


Yesterday I entertained Sarri's kids and my own with Gak and the Slip 'n' Slide, among other things. We had so much fun!


Tomorrow I will watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing! I'm such an Olympics nut! Can't wait!

In the next year I will send Grayson off to kindergarten, move Molly into a big girl bed, hopefully say goodbye to binkies and pull-ups, go to Hawaii if I can convince my husband, and give my daughter another opportunity to finally hug Mickey Mouse, if I'm lucky! :) I'll also meet a new class of 5-year-olds--love most, gain a few more gray hairs because of a few, and reconsider my career path because of at least 1. Ha! Ha! There's always 1! :) And oh yeah, I'll also get braces. Again. :(

Now I tag Tara, Traci, and Fairlight! You're it!