Fifteen Years

So, Lia and Michelle have tagged the Balmoral gals to write about the past 15 years...I thought...Do I even want to think back on all that stuff? It's not been the easiest time ever, but I suppose life is like that. It has it's good, it's bad, and it's ugly.
So, 10 bullet marks to go through the past 15 years.....

*Kids...you know that had to be number one! 15 years ago we had a little 4 month old baby with a wisp of red hair. Our little Zackers! The following July found us with another cute guy with brown hair this time...Joshy. 2 years after that here came our precious little girl, Megan. Another 2 years went by and we had our Matthew, or Chewy (the nickname he picked up after Megan couldn't say his name and called him "Matchoo".) When Matthew was around 3 we decided to try for another girl, though a boy would of been good too. After three miscarriages in a row we both felt like we needed to be done having kids. This was such a hard time for me and I really wanted another baby but struggled with the feeling that we were not supposed to have another. Just when I felt good about not having more kids...we were expecting what I was just sure was a sister for Megan...she had been praying and praying for a sister! Imagine my surprise at the ultra sound when we were told it was a boy. Poor Megan cried and cried. But we all enjoyed Joseph so much, we forgave him for being a boy. LOL. He was just so much fun and the kids loved having him around so much! Two years later we welcomed our little Hannah into our lives. She is a miracle! After a very scary entrance into the world (emergency C section) and a week in the NICU we brought her home on Christmas Eve 2005. Now we are complete and we are NOT HAVING ANYMORE KIDS. Living with six kids is like living in the circus. There is never a dull moment. I love being a mom and it's what I always wanted to do. It's not always fun. The whole teenager thing is giving me a run for my money. But I love all of them so much and I'd do anything for them.

*Jobs...let's see 15 years ago I was working at FHP as a receptionist. After that I worked as an apartment manager at Chadds Ford Apartments. Then I worked at an attorney's office as a collector (not my favorite job, I didn't collect much, I always felt bad for the debtors). I worked as a night time data entry person for about 3-4 weeks, maybe...I could not stay awake! I would get to work and sit down and immediately start to fall asleep while I was typing. It was the most horrible feeling! Finally one night I came home and Aaron had a big sign taped to the wall at the top of the stairs that said "life is short, quit your job"....so I did, that is the only time I've ever walked in and handed someone my name badge and walked out...I could not bare one more night of it...For a long time after that I stayed home with the kids. I worked for one summer at Aaron's Aunt's daycare. Then Aaron lost his job and I went to work for Six Continents (Holiday Inn) making reservations. Then I stayed home again with the kids and started to sub occasionally at the kids school (loved that job!!). I also worked as a custodian at the kids school. I worked at Kohl's for a while and liked it there. In St. George I worked in the kitchen at Dixie Regional Hospital..I met some of the nicest people while working there, I really liked it. Now I'm staying home with the kids.

*Cars-...wow! Do I have to count all the weird cars Aaron has had? 15 years ago we had my dad's old work truck..it was a Ford Ranger the color was "peptobismol tan" as my sister in law Michelle would say. The funniest thing I remember about that truck was when Aaron took it to a car wash (it had one of those big tool racks on the back) and he came home with a crushed windshield because the bar thingy with the brush on it came up over the hood and got stuck on the tool rack and started to slam down onto the top of the truck. Even though Aaron was not laughing my sister Jenny and I thought it was hysterical! After that we had a VW fox...that was the dumbest car we ever bought! Well..maybe some of Aaron's cars were the dumbest cars we ever bought..ha ha....anyway, we had the fox and then Aaron got an orange VW bus...once I had my friend Alison in that bus with me and it stopped right on State Street..it was so embarrassing and I think some guy helped us push it off the road. After the fox we got a mini van...a gray Dodge Caravan. Then Aaron traded his orange bus (loaf of bread) for an awful turquoise Corvair. He also had a motorcycle around that same time. Later he sold the Corvair and my dad gave him a Geo Tracker. After the tracker he had a Cadillac that was as big as a boat!! We had another Dodge Caravan...a newer one. My mom gave us, yes gave us, a brand spankin' new Honda Odyssey for Christmas in 2006. It is sooooo nice and I love it! It has GPS and a DVD player, it's a beautiful midnight blue...it's so nice to have a vehicle that is so reliable...it's the first new car we've ever had. Aaron had my grandma's CRV it was gold and he thought it looked too much like a woman's car, so he traded it in for a black 1998 Mercedes, which is what he is driving right now. He also has a motorcycle.

*Homes or places where we hung our hats- 15 years ago we lived in a small, and I do mean small, apartment right off State Street in Sandy. We moved rather quickly from there to a bigger apartment in Midvale (Chadds Ford). After that we lived in Aaron's parents basement...fun fun! Then we lived at Balmoral Townhomes in West Valley. That was such a golden time!! I have many, many friends I still keep in contact from those years. It was also a very hard time in our life...Aaron lost his job 3 times while we lived there and we ended up having to short sell our home. We moved to Magna where we had the nicest ward. After Magna we lived in two different houses in St George, Utah and then we moved here to Lincoln, Nebraska.

*Church Callings- 15 years ago I don't think I had a calling. We moved to Midvale where I was called to be a Primary teacher for the 4-5 year olds. Then I was called to be in the Primary Presidency, then the nursery. In the Balmoral Ward my calling was RS teacher (my favorite calling of all time!, really, I mean it!). Then I was Visiting Teaching Coordinator. I was a Gospel Doctrine Teacher. I've also been a co scout leader. When we moved to Magna my first calling was as the Ward Chorister and Choir Director...now mind you I had no idea whatsoever how to lead the music!! I could not read music either...what a SCARY calling!!! Fortunately the Bishop realized what a disaster I was and called me to be in the RS presidency...I was actually happy and relieved! In St George I don't think I had a calling the whole time I was there, other than visiting teacher...weird, huh? Right now I am the Enrichment Leader. I'm not a very organized person so it's not the easiest but I like it.

* Music...15 years ago I believe I was very into country music. As a teen I HATED country music, but my good friend Shelly loved "yee haw" music, as she called it and I started to like it around the time I was 20 or so. The Country thing went on for years...then I started to like the top 40 stuff that my kids were listening to. I still like country and I also really love to listen to all the old 70's and 80's rock I listened to when I was younger. I also like a lot of what my kids like...except Megan who really likes the hip hop crap...I can only listen to that for a couple songs before I am changing the station. Another thing...I LOVE loud music and I think my hearing has suffered for this love of mine...I may need some hearing aides here in a couple years.

*Fitness.....15 years ago I was not fit. I had a four month old baby and spent the next five years after that either breast feeding or pregnant...basically. When Matthew was around 2 I remember Lia, Jacque and I decided we were going to go to the new Fitness Center in West Valley and get fit! Around this time Mindy Pratt let me read her copy of Body For Life. I did get fit and I got smaller than I'd been since I got married! I felt good too....but for whatever reason I was not able to keep up the change. I'm such an emotional eater! Also having Lia for a workout partner was so motivational and I've never been able to duplicate that. Since then my weight has yoyo'd along with my fitness level. Right now I'm back on track with only the occasional treat instead of 2-3 days of gorging and 4-5 days of eating healthy. I've lost 19 lbs...but seem to be at a plateau...but I'm not giving up. I'm up to being able to run for 30 minutes without stopping and plan to increase that time little by little. My next step will be joining a gym and getting back into lifting weights...

*organization...15 years ago I was not organized and I'm still not organized...*sigh*

*Pets..hmm...15 years ago..no pets. When we lived in Balmoral we had a dog named Razzle Dazzle for a very short time. I just couldn't keep up with a dog and 4 kids! Razzle would run out the door as soon as a kid opened it and he'd come home covered in poop, this is when I discovered how prone to violence I could be. So, my dear cousin took him and he still lives there to this day. Thank you Christine! Then we got Zipper, the cat. We had our sweet Zoe, an Australian Cattle Dog, for four years before her life was cut short after being hit by a car...we still miss her so much. She was such a good girl and she loved our kids and was so protective of them. We have her picture up on our fireplace. After Zoe the kids really wanted another dog and we tried but we could not replace her. We had Moop (a dog) for a very short while, we ended up selling her to a very nice family. We had Sofie (another dog) but I just could not give her enough attention while I was working full time. She also needed surgery on her eyes so we gave her to the humane society where she found a good home shortly after her surgery. We didn't have a pet for a long time after that. Then when we moved here we got a dog..our beagle, Molly. And now we have Velcro.

*Dreams..my dreams 15 years ago were to have a happy family with lots of kids. Today I have lots of kids...the happy part is not always there. It's hard! The kids fight with each other and they fight with me! I really don't mean to be negative here. We have many blessing for which I am truly grateful. I guess life is just so much harder than I imagined it would be. In 15 years I really hope we are settled somewhere and own a house. I also look forward to being a grandma, but that can wait several more years. Aaron still wants to move up in his work (Sofa Mart), which means at least a couple more moves in our future. The Draper store is supposed to open at the end of the year so my dream right now is that he will be able to get that store!! But for now I will continue to try and make our lives better and happy here.