Time Travel Tuesday

High School Graduation Edition
What do you remember about graduating from high school? Was there anything special about the actual ceremony you remember? What did you do after graduation?

I graduated from a class of about 350 students in 1996. Prior to graduation, the girls were asked to vote on which color robe they wanted to wear, red or black (like the guys). My sister's red robe looked almost pink when she graduated so I tried to convince my girlfriends to vote for black, unsuccessfully I might add. But, when my fuschia robe arrived, it was 5 times too big and drug the ground. So, I ended up wearing my sister's robe. Thank goodness we had the same color.

My favorite part of graduation was being able to share it with my cousin Chad, who sat right next to me. He had been voted class president and gotten the reigning Miss Tennessee to speak for our class. Chad is such a goof ball and of course cut up during all the speeches. He gave one himself, but I remember he was so sad he cried. He would probably hate that I shared that. I was more glad than sad because I was hoping to leave my geekdom behind.

After the ceremony, our families reserved the banquet room at Shoney's to celebrate mine and Chad's graduation along with another family friend we had grown up with, Brad. After the party, I attended Project Graduation at the middle school. It's an all night event for graduating seniors and their friends with all kinds of food, games, and prizes. I won a Walkman (CD-style). Remember the days of the Walkman before MP3 players? One lucky student walked away with a car. About 3 hours into the night, my dad walked in with a very stern look on his face. The lady who checked me in the front door forgot to do just that, check my name off. It was all a big misunderstanding which certainly freaked my parents out. We were able to leave at 6am to begin our new lives! Mine would start the next Monday since I started a college English class immediately. What was I thinking?

Share your memories!

Time Travel Tuesday

This week travel back to your junior or senior high prom…

Did you go all out? What did your dress look like?

Who did you go with? Any special memories from prom night?

Venture on over to Annie's to share your memories.

I went to prom as a sophomore and as a senior. My first prom was with my first serious boyfriend, who was a grade ahead of me. My prom dress was above the knee, sleeveless and fitted. It was completely covered with a vertical stripe sequined pattern. The colors were dark -- red, purple, black, and maybe green. It really didn't look as bad as it sounds!! I wore my spiral permed hair up. My date arrived for some pictures, then he took me to his parents' house for more pictures. I believe we went straight to the prom. It was held at a meeting hall overlooking the lake. We entered on the second level, which overlooked the dance floor and an erected two-story high twinkling Eiffel Tower on the dance floor. The theme was Paris. My most unforgettable moment was when my shoe toppled down the stairs, and my date had to fetch it for me. We danced, had our pictures taken, ate, then went home. I had an early curfew.

I missed my junior prom because no one asked me (no boyfriend), so when senior prom rolled around I asked my friend Jeff. He was actually my first date's best friend. He accepted, plus we started dating soon after. I thought I looked much better in these pictures. My dress was solid black velvet and almost floor length. The dress was very simple except for a lightly sequined upper back. My hair was pulled up again, and of course, it was big, curly, and totally 80s (although it was the 90s!) He took me out to dinner first, then we went to the hideously decorated high school cafeteria for a few dances. Afterward, we went to my friend Jill's house to watch a movie (one of the sequels to Tremors). He took me home before the movie ended because, yet again (and rightly so), I had an early curfew.

Both proms were fun -- not really the proms themselves, but buying the dress, having my hair done, and of course the expectation of a magical night.

Time Travel Tuesday

Did you have a favorite pet as a child? What was it? Where did it come from? What was the coolest thing about your pet?

Don’t forget to sign the mr. linky at Annie's so we can all read about your childhood pet story!

I will have to mention two pets because one pet was like a member of our family, and I still miss her. Her name was Autumn Sunshine, Sunny, for short. She was a yellow lab, and we got her from my aunt Maurina when I was in elementary school. She was so lovable, always good with kids and other animals. She even let our cats sleep on her back. She would always get excited every time we came home from school. You could tell because she would sneeze repeatedly, and she always looked like she was smiling. We had her until I was in college. My parents finally had to put her to sleep because she had arthritis so bad, she could barely get around. My mom has been unable to buy another lab due to the fact they are very suseptible to arthritis. Gosh, I want to cry.

Sunny was our family dog, but my cat BJ was all mine. I named him after the TV show BJ and the Bear. You know the trucker with the pet monkey that always rode with him. I loved that show. BJ was a black and white Tom Cat, and he was not very friendly. He would let you pet him but never pick him up. He would occasionally come and sit in my lap to let me pet him if I was really still. We had him around the same time we had Sunny. Sunny's brother, Chase, who my uncle down the road owned, killed him as he did several of my other cats. He wasn't a very nice dog.

Time Travel Tuesday

For this week’s time travel we will be traveling back really really far! Travel back to the oldEN days… how did your parents meet? Link up at My Life As Annie and share your parent’s love story.

I may not have all the details straight, but here goes. My mom was still in high school, but my dad had graduated a couple of years before. She was actually dating someone else when my dad caught her attention. She broke up with that guy for my dad, and six months later they were married at her parent's home. My dad was 20 and my mom was 17. They moved into a trailer on the same piece of land their house still stands today.

Time Travel Tuesday

This week we will travel back to our first home... was it your very own apartment, or a home with your new spouse? What memories do you have from that first home? How did you make that first house (or apartment) a home?

I really don't consider my first apartment in college my first home although once I moved out of my parent's home, I rarely slept there again. And I've already spoke of my first apartment here in another Time Travel Tuesday.

So, I will begin with our first apartment. We lived in a nice gated apartment complex when Beef and I first got married. It was two bedrooms on the ground floor shared by Beef's brother, who helped pay the rent. Six months later, we bought a house and moved along with brother Josh.

We found a great deal on a HUD (repossessed) home -- two-stories and 2000 plus square feet at a 1200 square foot home price. God really blessed us. We had to relay carpet and linoleum and paint the entire house in a month's time, the time limit set to have the home reappraised.

Beef and I travelled down to Dalton, Georgia, carpet-heaven city of the South. Side-note: I have to tell this story. Beef was afraid the 15-foot trailer would break our hitch, so we drove the 3-hour commute with my dad's 8-foot trailer in tow. I chose a nice tan and off-white bargain-priced Berber carpet. We decided on the 15-foot roll since our two-car garage had been remodeled into a den. This size roll seemed to make the most sense.

The carpet guys hoisted the carpet up onto (remember 15-foot roll, 8-foot trailer) our trailer, but the roll hung off the front and back of it. The carpet was so heavy (we needed it for the entire house), we barely had to strap it on there. It wasn't going anywhere. Being in such a hurry, we decided to chance the awkward fit on the trailer and drive back.

We entered Interstate 24 going west toward home, but upon our Jeep Cherokee hitting 40 mph, the whole vehicle started to rock. The heavy end of the carpet hanging off the back caused the trailer to sway back and forth and jerk the entire vehicle with it. We didn't know what to do. I thought it best to travel Hwy 41 the rest of the way. "It's a straight shot from here to home," I told Beef. Wrong!! Unbeknownst to me, the highway leafs and crisscrosses repeatedly. And it's really hard to navigate without a map!

Not only were we subject to constant swaying and jolting at a maximum speed of 35 mph, we had no idea where we were going. We ended up missing our turn outside of Chattanooga. The road we were travelling actually transformed into a one-way dirt road detouring up the mountain. Our two options were, A. Turn around and drive an hour to our missed exit, or B. Take the interstate up Mont Eagle Mountain, a dangerously steep stretch of road without the risk of a rocking trailer careening into a semi.

We hadn't spoken in a few hours (Can you say cut the tension with a knife?) and weren't about to add another couple of hours to our drive. We said a hearty prayer and entered the interstate cautiously. We gradually gained speed, hitting 30, 40, 50 mph, and thank the Lord, there was no rocking!! Goosebumps formed on my arms as I told Beef, "Honey, there has to be angels back there holding that trailer in place." The trailer had not NOT swayed since we left Dalton.

As soon as those words left my mouth, we hit a bump in the road and the wobbling began again. But, we had made it most the way up the mountain, and there was our exit in sight. We managed to arrive at my parent's home nine hours later from our departure, worn and bitter.

Today, the carpet is laid, and we still have a hard time laughing about the incident. We won't make that mistake again! At the end of the month, our home appraised about $25,000 dollars more than what we paid for it. We are still here and are slowly replacing our hand-me-down furniture. Our favorite room is our movie room where the garage used to be. We play movies and video games on the wall through a mounted projector, and we love having company over to share in the fun.

Join in at Annie's.

Time Travel Tuesday

This week we will travel back to either a special birthday you have been given or a memorable birthday you have had ...

How old were you? Was it a party, or just a memorable day? Tell us all about it!

One of my most memorable birthdays was my 12th, and mostly because my mom caught it on video. I was an awkward, lanky girl with braces, and a spiral perm. Hot pink was the in color, and big hair had made it's way to the south. It was the end of the summer, a perfectly mild day to have a party outside.

My mom invited both sides of the family on down to every last second and third cousin. We didn't have big birthday parties every year, so this one was the biggest that I remember. My dad set up the volleyball net to keep the adults occupied. I love volleyball now but was more into pop music and dancing at the time. All my female cousins 12 and under and I took my sister's boom box around to the back of the house to practice a big dance routine we were to perform for anyone who would watch.

My aunt Pam (at the time) thought she would video some of the practice and encouraged me to show her my "best" move. I would later come to regret this. As NKOTB rang through the speakers, I bebopped on down into what was known as the "push it." I don't know what possessed me to show off this new skill I had learned from another girl at school. She had watched the video to the song "Push It" by Salt and Pepa and showed me how to do it. Picture this, a skinny uncoordinated white girl trying to do a most unbecoming move that required me to be in the crab walk position. I am so embarassed!

My cousins and I wrapped up the dance practice and moved it around front to the porch. We decided the best song for our gig would be MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This." My aunt videoed this portion as well, but it wasn't one of our best performances.

It was quite an eventful birthday. I got the present I had asked for: a NKOTB Donnie doll complete with twig, which I still have along with the Joe doll.

My mom pulls out the video for family members and friends (including old boyfriends) every chance she gets. I usually find someplace else to be during the "dance" segment."

And scroll on down to see some birthday fun!!

Tell us about your birthday. Join in at Annie's.

Time Travel Tuesday

Annie made time travel incredibly easy this week! We've traveled all over our lives and today we are going to travel to yesterday. If you live in the US, you probably celebrated Labor Day in some way... even if it was just staying home for the day. What did you do yesterday, who did you spend time with? What was the highlight of the day? Were there any disappointments?

If you visit my blog enough, you know I love slideshows. So here's my most recent one from yesterday. We spent the first part of the day lounging. I was in my pajamas until about 3 pm until I had to get ready to go to the in-laws for some water fun. Meme and Papa found a huge Wal Mart clearance sale and came home with a monster of a water slide. We missed getting to see Meme take her turn down the slide literally flipping at the end!! That would have been the picture to have! We finished up the day with a cookout, then home to bed. How was your yesterday? Join in the fun at Annie's.

Time Travel Tuesday

How did you find out you were pregnant, how did you share the news with your hubbie... how did you tell your family?

Come travel back to the day you found out you were pregnant and share it with the group!

I found out through a home pregnancy test that I was pregnant after 3 months of "trying." The day was even more special because Beef's younger sister, Beth, who is my age, gave birth to her second son that same day. I had worked all day then went home and took the test, then drove to see her and new baby G in the hospital. Beef had taken the earlier part of the day off to be there at the birth, but I couldn't. Therefore, I didn't see Beef before leaving to visit his sister.

Beth, Shan (Beef's older sister) and I were the only one's in her room. They, of course, got on the conversation of it being my turn to have a baby, and I couldn't resist telling them I had just taken the test. Keep in mind I hadn't even told Beef. We agreed I should tell him in a special way. On the way home, I stopped off at Wal Mart, bought a "Welcome Baby" balloon and an "I Love Daddy" bib. I tied the positive pregnancy test to the bib then to the balloon. Beef arrived shortly after I had gotten home but went upstairs to finish a couple of things on the computer. I set the balloon up in the living room, grabbed the video camera, and asked him to come down to check out the baby gift -- the idea being he would assume it was for his sister.

He took another ten minutes to come down before I yelled up again. This time, he raced down the steps, and I asked him what he thought of the "gift."

"It's a little small. Don't you think?" he said.

I told him to take a good look at it all the while filming him. He smiled a questioning smile, and I asked him what he thought he was looking at. He still wasn't getting the idea! I pointed to the test and after a couple of minutes he finally figured it out.

"You're going to be the daddy!" I said. He was so ecstatic. He thought the pregnancy stick was a security tag!!


I confessed I told his sister's first who were bound to secrecy. We decided it would be best for me to take the confirming test at the doctor's office before we told our parent's. I went the next day, then called Beef with the news. We decided to each call our mothers at work to share the news. Both were so thrilled and got on the phone themselves to tell everyone else.

Join in the fun at Annie's.

Time Travel Tuesday

You're 21.
What's going on in your life?
Who are you spending most of your time with?
What's favorite things to do? eat? hobby?

My 21st year began as I started my senior year of college. My cousin Jenn and I plus another girlfriend decided it was time to end our commutes to school and rent our own apartment. It was a 3-bedroom townhouse and actually one of the older complexes in the city. It had been built in the 1970s as far as I remember but still had a new feel about it with the spacious rooms and newly replaced tan carpet. The bathroom tub was another story. We lived there for almost 2 years, and I never once took a bath due to the permanent ring of filth lining the bottom and rims of the tub. Every time I cleaned it, I used three different types of chemicals to disinfect, but it never seemed to help.

This year was a time of new beginnings and me getting my feet wet being (somewhat) on my own. It was the first time I had to get a job. I did work previously at an afterschool childcare program a few hours a week, but this job would entail more hours to pay some real bills. I was hired as a sales clerk at Goody's, my then favorite clothing store.

This was also the time I had come to full realization that I was in love with Matt (Beef), my now husband. Our story (in 8 parts, yes 8) is detailed here. He hadn't a clue and wouldn't for another year and a half. He was one of my best friends along with Joseph, my high school classmate. Joseph decided to warrant the help of Matt to make a movie for my birhtday. His idea was to remake a section of the Blaire Witch Project and to film it in the woods near Matt's home. Josh, Matt's brother, was coereced into wielding the camara.

The film took place beginning at dusk and ending a couple of hours later. They set on a path heading toward a rundown, secluded house in the forest all the while spinning supposedly true tales about a various murders and/or hauntings that took place in the area. Of course, the movie ended with all the guys disappearing. It didn't reach the scariness they had hoped, but they never knew I showed the movie to anyone willing to watch. And I replayed it numerous times to see my beloved in action. I still have the movie somewhere.

All in all, I have some wonderful memories of that particular year, especially of our apartment -- mostly because I shared it with Jennifer. We had grown up together, were saved around the same time, and both endured depression. She became my confidant during my time of despair as she had come out of hers with God's help. I felt I couldn't have left the safety of my parent's home with anyone else. She comforted me during the many months of my broken heart as I waited on Matt's eyes to open. We spent hours talking and laughing. It was a year to remember.

How was your 21st year? Join in and share at Annie's.

Time Travel Tuesday

Annie at My Life As Annie hosts a weekly post called Time Travel Tuesday. This is a way for all who participate to tell a little more about their pasts. This is my first time participating, but I know several other blogging buddies who do regularly. So here's this week's question:

Join in to share your birth story!
What did you think when you first saw your bundle of joy?
How was the birthing experience for you? hubby?

Scamp is our only child so far, but we do hope to have more. From all the birth stories I've read and been told, mine seemed to be extremely easy, especially for a first birth. Two days before Scamp was born I went to visit my cousin Jenn in the hospital who had just delivered her newborn. We grew up together and were ecstatic when we found out our babies were due only a week apart. Scamp was due first, but due to some complications, Jenn had to deliver Baby B early.

My due date was three weeks away, so I was quite surprised when I awoke on Saturday morning at 6 am to use the restroom and found my water had broke while I was sitting there. How convenient, huh? I thought I would be in hysterics, but I calmly woke Beef up and told him it was time.

He loaded the car up with our overnight bags, and we started the 40 minute drive to the hospital, mind you I had not had a single contraction. We arrived shortly after 7 am and as soon as we entered the room, I was given a hospital gown and was immediately strapped to an IV. Less then half an hour later, they plugged in my epidural and told me the baby would be born after lunch since the IV was laden with pitocin as well to speed up delivery.

Still contraction free, I welcomed our families within the next hour or so as the epidural took effect. The nurses told me I was supposed to only be numb from the belly button down. If the numbness climbed any higher, it would make it difficult for me to breath. Shortly after I did notice the numbness had reached my chest and began to feel lightheaded. The nurses rushed back in, turning down the epidural and fanning my to help me not pass out.

I started feeling contractions in my buttocks and upper thighs then. The worst pain I experienced was from a catheter and the fetal monitor the doctor strapped to Scamps' head while she was still inside me. Around 1 pm, I was dilated to 10 cm and was ready to push. I was surprised that the doctor didn't come in until Scamp's head crowned. It only took 45 minutes of pushing due to the help of an episiotome. The pain wasn't too bad, but the gross sounds coming from below was sufficiently embarrassing. But, I guess the nurse and doctor are used to that.

Beef did a remarkable job, staying on his feet while holding my hand and watching the birth. He was so proud and so excited. It's hard to say how I felt immediately after I saw Scamp. It was so surreal. I knew a baby was growing inside me, but the awesomeness of seeing the real thing, the baby that is, is hard to explain in words.

I had been told that you literally fall in love with your child. A couple of days after we had gotten home, I felt the surge of those feelings, just like when I knew I was in love with Beef.

My birthing experience was emotionally and physically challenging, especially during the healing process afterwards. Not that my birth story was worse than anyone else's because by far it wasn't. There's so many miraculous things going on in and around you. Your hormones are running haywire. You're in pain, and you have this new little person to love not to mention keep alive! In a way the pain was healing to me, but that's another story. I would go through it all again for my little Scamp. And isn't God the most magnificent Creator!


Join in at My Life As Annie!