What Do I Remember Most?

Recently, I read a list that a friend wrote - his top 150 memories from his first 30 years. (Of course, I had to give him a hard time, because I didn't make the list.) Since then, I've been thinking about this concept... What are my biggest memories from my life so far? The good, the bad, pleasant and unpleasant... What events, people, places and ideas have shaped me into the person that I am today? So I decided to make up my own list. I don't know how many memories will make it onto the list, so I'm not going to set a number. But here is what I remember most (in roughly chronological order...)

* Preschool - working as quickly as I could each and every day to color as many pages as possible, so that I could show my mom how much work I was doing in class! (She tells me that this was because she always asked my older sister, Carin, how many pages of work she did in school, and I was competing. I don't remember that, I just remember sitting at the long table with a stack of papers and a pile of crayons, busily working long after all of the other kids had moved on to other things.)

* Eating almost 2 full bottles of Flintstones vitamins with my sister Carin and going to the hospital where they had to induce vomiting. (To this day, the smell of multivitamins turns my stomach!)

* My very first boyfriend, Seth Richards (in preschool & kindergarten). I was going to marry him someday! I was heartbroken when he moved all the way to Green River (12 miles) after kindergarten!!

* Learning how to read. I loved the book "The Fire Cat" and asked my sister to read it to me over and over and over again. Finally, she got tired of it and started skipping words, phrases or whole pages to get through the book faster. I of course, had the book memorized and called her on it. So she taught me how to read so that I could read it to myself.

* North Park Elementary School - The school was completed and the doors opened for classes midway through my kindergarten year. I still remember the excitement as we watched a brand new school being constructed near our house and the thrill of riding the bus from our old school (Desert View) to the new school for the first day of classes!

* Watching Seth and his best friend, Kenny, fight over me on the playground. I thought it was a silly thing to fight about, because it didn't matter who won. Seth was my boyfriend, and Kenny was just annoying. However, I did enjoy the instant fame I got over the fight. Even the big kids (4th, 5th & 6th graders) knew that I was the girl that the boys were fighting over, and I was something of a celebrity for a day or two!

* Mr. Kirtland's magic tricks on Fridays. It was the best thing about kindergarten! We figured out how he did all of the tricks but one - and the M&M's trick still feels like magic to this day!

* My huge crush on my Aunt Becky's boyfriend, Maurice. I didn't want anyone to know about the crush, so I always called him "More Grease" to prove that I didn't like him. And I just couldn't figure out how everyone knew that I liked him anyway....

* Eating 2 big bags of mini marshmallows at Kenny's house and getting sick. (I haven't liked marshmallows since!)

* Drawing a glitter picture for Santa - and then being amazed on Christmas morning when I discovered that Santa had supersized the teddy bear I had helped Grandpa wrap for Grandma because he was so happy with the picture! (We wrapped a 6-inch teddy bear, and Christmas morning, there was a 5-foot teddy bear in a box next to the tree!)

* Eating too much frosting at my kindergarten last-day-of-school party and getting sick (I can't eat frosting to this day, either!)

* Being the first family in the neighborhood to own a trampoline.

* The computer program that my dad wrote for our Apple computer. It was called "The Starting Gate" and it was lots of fun. My sisters and I even got to help with some of the creative aspects of the games!

* Cutting my hair all by myself (well, I made my little sister help with the back where I couldn't reach) - and then getting really upset with Santa, when he thought that I was a boy!!

* Going to QUEST - the program for gifted students - once a week and learning how to draw with a turtle on the computer (what was the name of that program?)

* Playing Oregon Trail in the amazing computer lab where we had enough computers for everyone in class. (And being beyond proud when I discovered that my dad was the one who donated the computers to the school!)

........ Which brings me to 2nd grade.............. This trip down memory lane may take a while!