Memory Lane

20 years ago: I was two. My mom, dad, older sister, Mindy, and I were living in Davis while my dad finished law school. My baby brother Joey was born this year.

I loved this teacher! She was my teacher for fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. I cried so hard at our promotion!

10 years ago: I was 12. My parents, five siblings, and I were living in the house that my parents still live in. I had just graduated from Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary School (I played Barbara Morse in the school play that year) and made the skip from 6th grade to 8th grade. I hear that I was lucky to miss 7th grade.

5 years ago: I had just graduated from high school at the ripe old age of 17 and was accepted to BYU. I went on a cruise that summer to Alaska with my mom and the performing group I was in, Galena Street East. During our tour that summer, we also went to Seattle, Canada, and Utah. We attended the Martina McBride concert in the Stadium of Fire in the LaVell Edwards Stadium at BYU. My future husband also attended that concert with another woman, but we wouldn't meet for two more years. :) I embarked on my amazing BYU journey that fall.

3 years ago: I had just gotten home from teaching English in China. I went back to BYU mid-school-year to new roommates I hadn't met before (but so glad I did). My roommate invited me to go with her to meet Aaron who she was supposed to be set up with. I sometimes think of how close Aaron and I were to never even meeting. So scary. Anyway, three years ago, I met Aaron, we dated, got engaged, and got married. Happy life!

1 year ago: I was taking care of our brand new baby. After having lost 14 pounds after already losing the pregnancy weight, I realized something was wrong. We went to the emergency room in the middle of the night because my resting heart rate was 150 (no joke). That's when I discovered I have Graves' Disease. Lucky me! Because I had taken medicine in the emergency room that I could not breastfeed with, my wonderful husband and mother bottle fed Mari for three days while I pumped every time I was supposed to breastfeed. It would have been easy to wean her then, but at four months old, I wasn't ready to give that up. I had to really work with my doctors and her pediatrician to figure out a treatment for the disease that would allow me to continue breastfeeding. We were able to find a happy median, and I continued to breastfeed her until she was 13 months old.

So far this year: I'm living my dream of being a homemaker (a.k.a. chef, decorator, cleaner, CFO, CEO, etc.) while still taking classes and finishing my degree. Aaron's with Allstate doing health and life insurance. I was just called to serve as the secretary in the Young Women's presidency.

Yesterday: Woke up at 6:30, skipped our walk, drove to my parent's house to drop off Mari, and got a ride downtown from my dad to see my thyroid specialist doctor. Learned that my thyroid is still overactive, but we're decreasing the dosage of my anti-thyroid medicine anyway. My next appointment is in July. What this all means: Aaron's brother and his wife (Brandon and Kate) who were recently married and expecting their first just might pass us up soon in the number of their children.

Today: Woke up at 6:30 again, but stayed in bed until 8! (Thanks to my wonderful husband!) I had a terrible dream that I had a homebirth, breech baby who died an hour after living. Sad!! We are cleaning our home today, and tonight Aaron and I are going to a book club with people in our ward to discuss The Color Code.

Tomorrow: The choir is singing in church, so I'll get there before church to practice. We also have choir practice after church. This will be my first Sunday in Young Women's!

This year: Who knows! What I know for sure is that I'm going to Oregon in a few weeks with my mom, brother, and Mari to see my great-grandmother (Mari's great-great-grandmother). We have a family reunion at Lake Tahoe in July, and later that month, we are going camping to Mendocino. I plan to apply for the Bachelor of General Studies program through BYU this spring. Oh, and what I'm looking forward to most is my sister coming home from her mission in August!!! Hooray!

I tag my friend Meghan (the one in the graduation picture with me) who I recently connected back up with. I have no clue what's she's done the past 5 years! I also tag our good friend Emily.