Leaving On a Jet Plane

So just a little bit of news.
1. In my last post I said I deactivated my facebook account, but unfortunately facebook is like a drug...a very addictive drug and it was activated after about 4 days. What can I say? I like being kept up to date on who was doing what. Not to mention that I kept thinking about funny things to put as my status. It's weird how my life has come down to what I can put online since the creation of social networking.
2. The countdown for the day I leave for Europe is almost over! Just 2 more weeks and I'll be enjoying Europe by train, plane, hiking shoes, and with my best friend Jamila.

Which brings me to the reason of this post. With the idea of leaving for a month and a half in a foreign country with no real way to keep in touch with my family whenever I need to it got me thinking about all the fun times I've shared with them. Even the bad times, but I look back and it's what made our family so close. We moved almost ever three years, and always had each other to lean on when needed. So I've decided to list some of my favorite good and bad memories that I can now look back on and laugh at.

1. My favorite color was orange growing up until my sister Anji, who I looked up to so much, said that her favorite color was Midnight blue so I changed mine to hers.

2. Anji and my brother Brandon made up a game for my friend Rachel and I and we were running all over the house trying to find the "Golden Cross" to get back to our dimension and I cheated. That's right!! I cheated. I was a little rebel. In fact after I cheated I got caught and Rachel went home crying. Brandon and Anji didn't want to play with me anymore, but it was when I learned that cheating doesn't make you a winner. In the end, all you are is a sour loser.

3. We lived in tornado alley when I grew up in Texas, and we got tornado warnings a lot. Usually a little kid would be scared, but I loved it because I got to hide out in the cupboard under the stairs with my family and we'd pass the time with family time.

4. For my birthday one year, my whole family got into planning it and we ended up having this princess tea party. My mom made up a little skit that my sister and brother acted in. I don't remember much, but the fact that they were so willing to do it for me makes me smile.

5. One Sunday my parents and Brandon packed up MRE's and drove to a campground. We sat around eating the meals and looked at cute little bunnies that were in a pen. We just lied around and it was so much fun to take a break from our everyday lives and go on a picnic as a family.

6. For Anji's birthday this year I treated her to a photoshoot with a friend who belongs to a professional photography business. We got to find costumes together and woke up at 4 in the morning to go to the shoot. It was so fun to sit in a room and get our makeup and hair done before going out into the FREEZING cold and acting awesome!

7. Anji had a nightmare one day about zombies. That's really all you need to know. Okay, so zombie nightmares is a common occurrence and one time she screamed and she told Brandon and I about it.

8. Anji, Brandon, and I got in a fight about poptarts when we super little. They're convinced I was the one to eat the pop tart, but I refuse to admit it was me. After our house was banned from pop tarts and after we moved out I think all of us had a pop tart phase, and pretty much just ate them for every meal. I don't understand the appeal of them besides just enjoying the fact that we aren't banned from them anymore.

9. One sibling was banned from the internet, and the rest of us would always try and get the password from mom and dad for the banned child. We were so sneaky in our minds, but the parentals knew what we were doing.

10. I graduated from Snow college and my brother, and parents came to Ephraim....which is saying something considering my dad said he'd never return to turkey town when he dropped me off to start school there. I consider his attendance a big accomplishment.

11. For the past couple of years my grandparents have gotten my dad coal. Fake coal, real coal, a brick of coal. Don't ask me why considering he's usually a good boy, but since they've run out of coal ideas they've moved onto Chia pets. I can't decide which is worse. An Obama head sprouting green hair, or a source of energy. Hmmmm.

12. My siblings were convinced along with me that our house in Virginia was haunted. We named him Larry. He was stuck in our kitchen.

13. Good Samaritan skits are always fun, and boy did my family make the best one. Imagine my dad twirling around a fake money pouch. Oh and imagine a very young me trying to operate the camera during the bows. There's this awesome part where I say I accidentally stopped recording and then the video ends.

14. I got into a fight one year at girls camp with one of my fellow youth and my brother showed up for the young men's whatever camp, and gave me a hug. I think that was the first hug from him that I can remember besides from when I was a little kid and not annoying.

15. My family loved making videos of us putting on skits, and fairytales. Rumpelstiltskin, that one story about the rat in the house with the mill, and the cow pretty much no one will know what I'm talking about, but my mom loved to dress us up and make these movies. Brandon stomping with the camera shaking is probably the best moment of my life.

16. We used to thread together popcorn to put on our tree. Unfortunately we can't do it anymore because our cat would eat it. If you have a cat, don't feed it popcorn, it will become addicted. The sound of popping is just as exciting as the can opener to other cats.

17. My family owned a cat named Ginger. She lived to be 19 I think. One day we took her to the vet to be let down. She was in pain, and our family came together. It's amazing what effect a pet can have on someone. She was a part of our family and we cried together. We buried her in the backyard, and every time I look at where she was buried I remember all the amazing memories our family shared with her. I had known her my entire life and we have pictures of me as a baby reaching out to pet a cat turned away from me. She apparently would play hard to get.

18. Anji was married a couple years back and it was one of the most amazing days ever. To see two people with love enough to make the next commitment was wonderful to see. My brother in law Chris makes her so happy, and I love seeing my family happy beyond measure. It gives me hope along with my parents marriage that even though there is so much bad in the world and so much divorce that love does exist, and it's out there for everyone.

19. Anji used to always dress me up, do my make up and have photo shoots with me. I guess I was trained at an early age to love modeling. It's why I wanted to do the photoshoot with Anji on my birthday. It brought me back to the time when we hung out doing that.

20. Picture this. My sister teaching my brother and I to dance, My brother being sparatic, and me in a diaper with no shirt (Yes, I was a toddler. No, I do not wear diapers anymore.) We danced to "We Are the Champions" and Brandon was going all out while my sister choreographed and I was yelling at my mom to sit down. We were an odd little bunch of kids, but dang could we dance.

21. I used to work at a Subway knock off. My dad loves me, and sometimes I forgot that, but everyday he would come to my work and get a sandwich and bring along his coworkers. It was a daily reminder of how much my dad supports and loves me. When I have a hard time or I forget something at my job now, he is so willing to drop what he's doing and bring me what I need. I love you dad!


I don't just love my dad. I love my whole family. Each one is so amazing and I could think of hundreds more memories that I could share. The good and the bad brought all of us closer. I'm so happy that my life has brought me to this point. I may complain, and I may be pessimistic sometime, but the one thing that always remains constantly positive is my family. You are all my rock, and I don't know how I'll survive Europe with out you!






Okay, I know I'll survive because it's Europe! What am I thinking. Psh!

Just kidding.

I love you Mom, Dad, Anji, Brandon, and Chris.