Memories

Kailyn told me she wanted to make a scrapbook with pictures of her childhood
memories. I told her that was a great idea and let her borrow my camera.
Here is one of the pictures she took!

Not quite sure why she wants to remember this- actually I am not quite sure how anyone will forget it. This is how her room always looks.

Remember when? (I am Thankful Day 6)

Kailyn had a marine biology class at the library today. She had a really great day at school but by the time we got to the class she just wasn't feeling it. After the small hands on part she was ready to be done so we left early.

As we were driving home I decided to stop at the park. The weather was sooo gorgeous and the fall colors so beautiful I just felt like we needed to spend some time outdoors.

While we were swinging together Kailyn started asking me if I remembered when such and such thing had happened and this kind of questioning lasted through our swinging, on our nature walk and all the way home in the car.

Did I remember when Shiloh Judd pushed her right out of the swing when she was little? Did I remember the two big dogs we saw at this park a long time ago? Did I remember when Daddy kicked the ball into the stream and she had to jump from rock to rock to get it out? Did I remember the snake Tyler killed at White Oak Shopping Center? Did I remember the snake Allias chased into Lake Benson? Did I remember when I told her she never would have made a good pioneer? Did I remember the trees they used to climb at our old house? Did I remember when we brought Maisy and Molly to the park and we had bought a ball for Maisy to play with but she was scared of it and Molly played with it the whole time? Did I remember the giant snapping turtle Daddy almost ran over and how he picked it up and moved it off the road? Did I remember the Hippos we saw in Disney World and the Giraffe that came right up to us at the zoo? And on and on.

Honestly I only remembered about half of the things she was asking me about but her questioning did remind me of some of my own memories and I enjoyed spending time with her and talking.

Today I am grateful that in spite of our busy lives we have found a way to make a few memories along the way. I am grateful that Kailyn's memory is better then mine and that today she was willing to share some of those memories with me.

Small Treasures Little Wonders

While I was searching for the pictures I took of the design on a dime makeover we did in Kailyn's room I realized my pictures were in desperate need of organization. I also reminded myself that none of my digital photos are backed up onto disks or flash drives so I need to do that as well. I still haven't found the pictures I was looking for but I did get all of 2006 (the first year we had a digital camera) organized into folders. While I was moving stuff around I came across these little gems.

Trashed memories

Travis, Kailyn and I were out running an errand yesterday. We had a pretty interesting conversation while we were out. It went something like this.
K- "I wish my dollhouse had more rooms. I mean the rooms it has are HUGE and great but I just wish it had MORE rooms."
Travis- "Does KC have a dollhouse?" (Kailyn had KC over to play yesterday)
K- "yeah she has two."
Travis- "WoW two???"
K= "yeah I used to have two until mom threw all my memories away."


Speaking of dollhouses. Travis built one for my niece Lily. It turned out fantastic but I didn't get any pictures of the finished product. Hopefully Brittney will post some soon and I can steal one. My friend Shannon used it in two photo shoots when it was pretty close to being done. The first one is Lily's baby brother Owen and the second is a set of boy girl twins.

When Brad and Brittney got all settled in at their new place out in Utah Britt asked Lily what her favorite part of the new house was and she said "my dollhouse". Before they left she was dragging the dollhouse over to her bed at night so she could "sleep" with it. We got lucky when a few months before Travis finished the dollhouse I found a HUGE bag of dollhouse people and furniture at a yard sale. Lily was sleeping with those as well.
Lily is just like Kailyn in a lot of ways- one being that a dollhouse will keep her entertained for hours. The memories that I trashed were in the form of a Fisher Price dollhouse I bought used on Ebay when Kailyn was two. After over six years of constant use it was falling apart so we bought her a new one larger wooden one for Christmas. I guess we should have kept the old one in the garage or something.
Here are some pictures of Lily's dollhouse when it was a work in progress.

Washington DC

My friend and his family were sealed in the Washington DC temple last weekend so Travis and I decided to turn it into a family vacation. It was a trip fof our trip. We decided to leave on Thursday. I took the day off and Travis worked a half day. We both ended up getting about three hours of sleep the night before because Travis was on call and had to work most of the night and then had an early start the next day. There were a couple of little home projects that really needed to get done before we left and so Travis spent Thursday afternoon fixing our fence and installing bolt locks in all (4) of our doors. I think we finally got on the road around 7ish. Allias had totally cleaned out and vacuumed the van for our trip so that was very nice. We stopped at Kroger and got some road food and then ordered pizza from Papa John's for dinner. I was exhausted so I fell asleep. Around ten o'clock Travis woke me up and said he was falling asleep at the wheel and needed me to take over. I don't see well in the dark and since Travis ALWAYS drives when we take road trips together I didn't bring my glasses and I was also very tired but I took over at the wheel. I think my kids were pretty scared. LOL! I kept having to slow down to make sure I was staying on the road and I ended up drinking a couple of energy drinks to stay awake. We finally got to our friends the Evan's house at around 2:30 in the morning. We had never been there before and as we walked in their house (they left it unlocked for us) we were really hoping we had found the right place. I am bummed because we didn't think to bring the camera in and get some pictures while we were there but it was so nice to see them again and catch up and listen to their adorable kids chatter about webkinz and other kiddy stuff. We didn't leave their house until like one in the afternoon on Friday.

( Tyler trying to figure out the parking meter)
We headed downtown and parked. We toured the American History Museum and the Museum of Natural History. I was reminded of how hard it is to please everyone at once and I also decided that vacations with teenagers who would rather be doing anything other then walking around with their parents aren't really that much fun. Tyler ended up walking off on his own several times and every time I happened to bump into him he was with a different group of girls. Travis was getting tired so he headed out to the car. Good thing he did because when he got there we had gotten a hundred dollar parking ticket and a tow truck was on its way to pick us up. We had parked in a place that becomes a lane after 4 o'clock.

( Kailyn on the para sail)

(Trav and the kids getting ready to tour one of the museums)

Driving in DC is an absolute nightmare. There are so many people and cars and noise. I could never live in a place like that. It was way too busy for me. I chewed my fingernails down to nothing and I wasn't even the one driving. The only way to switch lanes is to cut people off and until we figured that out we ended up driving in circles (squares actually) for at least 30 minutes. And the pedestrians just walk or stand in the middle of the road. A group of people hailing a cab will take up a whole lane and everyone has to try and move over into traffic to get around them. It totally stressed me out. By the time we got to our hotel (which was NOT in the city thank goodness) my back and neck were killing me and I was ready for bed. Travis went and picked up some Chinese food and we all ate and then crashed out. Tyler discovered they had computers for public use in the lobby and I think he spent the majority of his vacation on myspace. The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then I headed to the temple for my friend's sealing. Our hotel had a Book of Mormon in the drawer along side the bible and it had the phone number and address for the temple so I assumed it would be close. I was pretty excited when I typed the address into my GPS and it said it was five minutes away. The ceremony was beautiful and it was so nice to see how happy Brian and his wife are and to meet their two darling little boys. When Brian got active and his wife was baptized they shared the gospel with some friends of theirs who were then also baptized. The Alexander's have three children and their family was sealed as well. It was sooo awesome to see what the gospel has done for these precious families. The Alexander's eleven year old boy was deeply touched and kept wiping away his tears. There really wasn't a dry eye in the place. The sealing was supposed to be at like 10 I think but their were some technical issues and so I think it ended up happening around 11 or so.

I got back to the hotel at like 12 and we headed back down to DC. We ate lunch at Subway and then we decided to tour the Holocaust museum. It was raining and we didn't have a lot of time since we needed to meet Brian and his family for dinner around 6. It took forever to find a place to park and by the time we started our tour it was 3:30. We didn't get to see the last part of the exhibits which was kind of a bummer but we all were touched by what we did get to see. Again Tyler kind of did his own thing but I don't think he met any girls. We didn't get out of DC until like 5:30 and traffic was pretty much stop and go. I can't imagine what it would look like on a weekday. We arrived in Stafford around 7. Our reservations were for 7:15. We stopped at Ross for a second and Tyler decided to disappear. Travis took the other kids and I to the restaurant and then went back to look for him. After several minutes Travis called me and I told him just to come to dinner. I told everyone at the table that I could bet Tyler would show up. Sure enough he did. We all laughed even though I was slightly stressed out. We had a great time at dinner and then we hung out at the Van Hoven's until late. It was soooo nice to catch up and to get to know Kim better. We had a GREAT time. I always leave places wishing i lived closer or in their case wishing they lived closer to me. I would/could never live up there.

(Travis and I with Brian and Kim and our families)
We were going to go to church in VA on Sunday morning but they were having Stake Conference so we decided to try and fit a few more touristy things in. It was raining again and we couldn't decide what we wanted to do. We stopped and did some shopping at TJ Maxx and then headed downtown. Traffic was terrible and by the time we got down there it was like 1 or 2 o'clock. The kids were being super rowdy in the car and Travis was talking on the phone and not paying attention to the GPS telling him where to go. I was upset and he pulled over and told me to drive. I just decided it was time to go home. It was actually a good thing that I did because traffic was sooooo bad getting out of DC that we spent at least two hours sitting in traffic. We pulled off around 3 and ate some fast food and then we pulled off again to get gas. We ended up getting gas in the same town as we had dinner Saturday night. I think it was around 5 or so when we got there so what should have been a 1 hour drive had turned into around 3 hours. Travis took over driving at that point and we got home around 9. I have decided that the best part about vacations are the time you spend visiting with family and friends. I don't know if you could convince me to go back to DC to sight see. Maybe in better weather where I could just park my car somewhere and walk around but I don't even know about that.

(the ride home)

You can see the rest of our pictures here

Interview

Today seems like a good day to answer these tag questions. I need a distraction! The super adorable always smiling Kristen Barnett sent me these questions to answer. If you want to play just leave me a comment and I will send you (via email) a one of a kind personalized by me interview.



1.) You have a fun, quirky, outgoing personality. What three things have helped you develop into the person you are today?
Funny I am always calling my daughter quirky but have never thought of myself that way. I guess she gets it from me! This is a hard question because there are so many things that have contributed to who I am. I guess I will focus on what helped me develop the fun quirky outgoing part of myself. There was a time in my life when I was very shy around people I didn't know but when I was with my parents they couldn't get me to shut-up. My dad even called me chatterbox when I was little. When I was in the 7th grade I started hanging around a few girls that were very LOUD and outgoing, they would talk to anyone, anytime. They totally helped me come out of my shell- probably a bit too much! Also when I was in Junior High I became friends with a teacher at the High School. He taught journalism classes and he encouraged me to get involved with the Yearbook. He along with a few other teachers along the way helped me realize that I had talents that I could share with others. I think joining the church is probably a given but it really helped me to figure out how to use my crazy outgoing side for good instead of evil LOL.

2.) If you could go back and give advice to your younger self, what would you tell her? And what do you think she would think of you today?
Wow my younger self needed soooooo much advice. The thing is if she had followed all the advice I would like to give her it would have totally changed the path her life took and so many good things have happened to her that it would be hard to imagine life any other way. That being said there are so many things she missed out on because of the choices she made so I would tell her to not waste her talents, to get an education, to wait until she was married to have sex, to party less, plan more and to treat others better. I think she would be totally shocked to see how "she" turned out. When I was younger I imagined myself well educated and doing things that would make an impact on the world. I wanted to go to Western University become a Speech Pathologist and work with the deaf. I wanted to join the Peace Corps and travel. I wanted to work with animals (gorillas especially). Because I was living in the moment I didn't see that my choices were pushing me further and further from those dreams. I don't think I could have told the younger me that I would never accomplish any of the things I had imagined for myself and still be living a satisfying life full of love and knowledge and hope. She wouldn't have believed it.

3.) You have three kids, a husband, pets, a job, church callings (do I need to keep going?) but don't seem to get overwhelmed by it all. What keeps you going with so many demands on your time and how do you "balance" it all?
For me sometimes it is just getting by minute by minute. I try to keep my focus where it should be and I always make it a point to set aside time for myself so I don't get burnt out. Honestly I do feel overwhelmed at times and when that happens I know I need to take a step back and just do absolutely nothing for an hour or two. Travis is a HUGE part of keeping me sane. He is always right there to do whatever it is that needs to be done to keep things running smoothly. I have also found that I need to keep a detailed schedule of events so I don't forget where everyone is supposed to be and when. The calendar on my cell phone has turned out to be a very valuable tool. I am sure there are sooooo many people out there that could give ME advise on balancing I wouldn't call it one of my strong points.

4.) You talk a lot about how much you love your sweet husband. How did you meet him and what was it about him that let you know he was "the one"?
Travis was "literally" put in my path. I was visiting an alternative high school one day and he walked by me. He had one of those wallets with a looong chain attached. I said "nice wallet" and he turned around and looked at me. I can remember thinking WOW he is soooooo good looking. There was an assembly that day and I pretty much stared at him the entire time. When I got home my foster sister asked me if I saw any cute boys and I was like yeah the guy with the shell necklace and the wallet with the chain. She said "oh that is Travis Nelson!!" The next day at school she wrote "for a good time call" and our phone number. I did end up going to that school but he got kicked out before I started. About a month later he called. I guess one of his friends needed a date or something. We ended up all going out to Denny's together. Travis had a girlfriend at the time and of course I couldn't stand her so I decided to try and break them up. We made plans to have Thanksgiving together but her parent's wouldn't let her go. I have to admit I was thrilled. We decided to go look for Jimi Hendrix's grave (he was born on November 27th and Thanksgiving fell on his b-day that year). It was soooo freezing cold that we didn't last long in the cemetery and we never did find his grave. We ended up a couple after that night and besides for a few minor break ups we have been together ever since. We got married exactly a year later. The moment I knew he was the one is very personal and I don't think I will share it here but the reasons behind it are two fold. First, Travis has always been so selfless in our relationship. He has always treated me like I was the most important person in the universe even when I didn't deserve it. I still get all tingly whenever he is around. Second; he is the most fantastic father. When I see him with his kids it makes me feel like everything is okay in my world.

5.) When you just want to relax, de-stress, and unwind what do you like to do?
Reading has always been a huge stress reliever for me. I can totally get lost in the pages of a book. I think my favorite place to read is by the pool on hot summer days. The combination of hot sun, cool water and a good book is the most relaxing thing in the universe.

15 Most Influential Albums (the early years)

Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically, they shaped your world.


Here are the albums I can still remember as having a great impact on my childhood and early teens.
1. Michael Jackson- Thriller (I used to pretend I was Olivia Newton John and that I was married to him- I had a Michael Jackson barbie doll too.)
2. Olivia Newton John-Physical (I remember saving up all my pennies so I could buy this RECORD- I played it over and over again on my little record player)
3. Motley Crue- Girls Girls Girls- ( I had a fish tank and my fish were named Nikki Sixx, Mick Mars, Tommy Lee and I had an Eel his name was Vince Eel.)
4. Huey Lewis and the News- Picture This (There is a song called The Only One that I can still sing word for word- I kept this tape LONG after CD's came out)
5. Prince- Purple Rain Soundtrack (My friend Jessica and I used to scream the lyrics to Darling Nikki while walking around getting into mischief we weren't very good girls)
6. Bon Jovi- Slippery When Wet (I cried every time I listened to it)
7. Guns N Roses- Use Your Illusion II (I just bought this again- it is still as amazing to me as it was when I was a teenager)
8. Bon Jovi- Young Guns Soundtrack (the movie and the songs were HUGE to me)
9. Duran Duran- Rio (I think Hungry Like a Wolf was one of the first videos I ever saw) It was a hard choice between Rio and Jane's Addiction- Nothings Shocking for this spot
10. Beastie Boys- Licensed to Ill (Timeless really- I still listen to it)
11. Violent Femmes- The Violent Femmes (I actually probably started listening to this when I was about 18 but I didn't include it on my other list so wanted to put it here. First concert I ever went to)
12. NWA- Straight Out of Compton (I would NEVER listen to this now but when I was in HS I could sing along with every song)
13. Sir Mix A Lot- Swass (LOL my posse spent plenty of time on Broadway, we also sang every word to every song while cruising the ave)
14. U2- The Joshua Tree (I haven't listened to U2 in ages- I am not really a fan anymore but this album was so amazing to me back then)
15. Madonna- Like a Virgin (man I loved the videos that came out from this album)
Okay Okay I will stop at 15 this time.
OH AND I TAG EVERYONE!!!!!

My mind

Another random memory for your reading pleasure. Travis is working in Charleston right now- whenever he is out of town Kailyn asks if she can sleep with me. She went to bed before me and when I went to climb into bed she was hogging all of the blankets. I tried to pull some my way and she was holding on tight. It took me a couple of minutes to get my share back on my side of the bed. Once I got the blanket situation under control and was all tucked it I starting thinking about when Kailyn was little. She slept in our bed for a very long time. Much longer then any child should be allowed to sleep in their parent's bed but I don't think she is permanently scarred or anything. Anyway when she was little she HATED blankets. No matter where she was sleeping in the bed she would kick and kick until she was no longer under the blankets. Didn't matter how many times you tried to cover her up she would find a way to get out. It made for very uncomfortable sleeping for those around her because it either pulled the blankets off of you too or pinned you down under the blankets. I am glad that she at least likes to be covered up now.

My mind

Don't you find it interesting how random memories can be? I was just putting some laundry in the washer and all of the sudden I remembered something someone said 16 years ago.

After I had Tyler I tried to go back to regular high school and at first it worked. My mom was paying for daycare and I just got up and went to school everyday. When Tyler was a few months old I moved away from home and things got a little harder. When Tyler started getting sick I started missing a lot of school and fell so far behind I ended up having a whole semester to make up. I ended up living in foster care and they helped me find an alternative high school where I could go and bring Tyler plus not get penalized when I missed school because of his illness.

While I was going to this alternative high school a group of doctors and other professionals that dealt with teen pregnancy invited four or five of the teen moms at this school to come to a conference. We would get pampered for the day have a nice lunch and in return we would agree to be part of a panel and answer questions or give our opinions about what kind of things might help prevent teen pregnancy.

So back to my memory. As I was sorting through the laundry trying to find a few things of Kailyn's to add to the wash I remembered something one of the girls on that panel said. They were asking us about the difficulties of being a teen mom and she said, "It's really hard when you wake up one morning and go to get your child dressed and realize- wow you have two shirts and one pair of pants." She had one little boy who was probably three or four and she was still together with the dad. Another mom on the panel had two or three kids and she the dad were married.
I have no idea why this memory would come back to me. The mind is odd. As soon as I thought about her saying that I started remembering the other things we told these doctors. They asked about myths we believed before we got pregnant and I distinctly remember telling them that I thought you couldn't get pregnant if the guy pulled out first and then I said, "but we all know sex is like basketball you always dribble a little before you shoot." One girl had believed you couldn't get pregnant if you had sex in a hot tub. She actually was LDS- I can't remember her name but she had given her baby up for adoption. I can't remember anything about the food we ate or any of the pampering, I can only remember that panel. The doctors were so thankful to us and told us we had really helped them. The only other memory I have of that day is us walking down this hallway leaving to go home and how proud we all felt. Like we had done something important.
This happens to me often. I will be going along with my daily life and then all of the sudden something will trigger some random memory. I have never written any of them down before but maybe I should. For posterity or something.

At least two crazy but really cool things

Facebook has brought me back in touch with many people from my past but a few have been really crazy and cool.
A girl that I was friends with in High school added me as her friend. I saw that someone with a last name I knew very well had posted on her wall that that the church had really changed B's life.

Okay so let's go back a few years.
The summer I was fifteen I ran away from home. I spent that summer in Chelan. I had a friend that was working there for the summer and I stored all my stuff in his car and slept there when I couldn't find anyplace to crash. I partied a lot that summer and got into way too much trouble. All of my clothes were stolen and the girl I ran away with- well let's just say her parents tracked us down and dragged her home by her hair (literally). I can still see her mom dragging her to the car by her ponytail. Anyway back to the cool part of the story. The friend who's car I slept in and who I hung out with a ton once we both went back home was named B. So upon seeing this message I was like no way B is a member of the church, and here I thought I was getting most improved player award when we get to Heaven. Anyway I messaged Ch and confirmed that we were indeed talking about the same B and that she has stayed in touch with him all these years. To say I was shocked that he was LDS would be a HUGE understatement. I told her that I would love to talk to him. I was totally stoked to let him know I was LDS too.

Well we ended up talking on the phone for like two hours. I can't believe how much the gospel has changed both of our lives. I guess he grew up a member of the church but started to go inactive when he was 12 or so. After HS he joined the Marines, got married, divorced, remarried and moved to Virginia (of all places). They had some neighbors who they really liked and one day they saw the missionaries in these neighbor's driveway. They were curious and asked the couple if they were LDS- which they were. B told them that he was too but just wasn't living the gospel right then even though he still believed (sounds so much like Travis when I met him). So this couple invites them to go out on a date one night, they tell them ElderOaks is speaking at the church and ask if they would like to come listen. B and his wife said sure but they had no idea who Elder Oaks was. After hearing Elder Oaks speak B's wife decides she wants to join the church and the rest is history. One year later they are preparing to take their two little boys and be sealed as a family in the WashingtonDCTemple probably sometime is February or March and he wants me and Travis to come up for the sealing. Travis and I were sealed in the Washington DC temple on July 24th 1999 and that is the only time I have ever been there but I can't wait to go back- especially for this.

It was almost a surreal experience to be sitting there talking to him for hours about the gospel. I can guarantee that anyone that knew either one of us in High School would have never guessed such a future for me or for him. I remember when I first joined the church I wrote a letter to a friend of mine from HS that I knew was Mormon. He was serving a mission in Argentina. He wrote me back and said of all the people in our HS I would have been his last choice for church membership, he said that it made him realize that we never know who will accept the gospel or when.

Okay let's go back just a few more years
I was born in Chelan, Washington and grew up in a little tiny town called Manson (it is a super touristy place now with casinos and the like). When we were living in Manson things were kind of rough. I counted once and I lived in 22 houses before I was 11 years old in this little tiny town (23 if you count the short time we lived in our car). If you click on the touristy link and look at the picture of downtown Manson you can actually see one of the places I lived. On the left had side of the street there are shops and when I was a kid there were apartments above the shops. Anyway when I was about seven and my mom was pregnant with my brothers we moved to a house on Harris Street and we actually lived there for a few years. There was a family next door ( I think they may have owned the house we lived in), anyway they had a ton of kids. I think three sons and four or five daughters. They had a daughter that was just younger then me and most of my childhood memories revolve around the things we used to do together. I could write a whole blog about all the things we used to do. I think know we had the BEST imaginations in the entire world. They were LDS but at the time I wasn't really sure what that meant. I can remember teasing the youngest boy telling him that he couldn't drink pop because it fizzes. I moved away from Manson shortly after I turned 11 and she and I lost contact.

Okay so fast forward 22 years or so and I found a couple of kids that I went to Manson Elementary School with on facebook and added them as friends. Then one day I log in and see a message from another childhood friend from Manson. She and I send a few messages back and forth and catch up and it was like a blast from the past. Well I decide to look through her friends and who do I find there but the girl from next door. I chatted with her online as long as I possibly could before leaving to get the kids from school today and it was very very cool. She lives in Provo is married and expecting her first baby (a girl) in March. I really hope we stay in touch. It was so great to look through her pictures and see how beautiful her family still is. And I can't believe she is a great aunt. None of my siblings even have kids yet. At least Travis' family has given me some nieces and nephews.

And more amazing to me is these people from my past that I truly loved growing up share the same beliefs and values as I do. It's amazingly cool.