Ingenue Mom

Age 17 or 12th Grade This was the year I realized that it was okay to be me. I stopped being ashamed of the fact that I love Buffy. I stopped worrying about what everyone thought of my clothes or my hair. This resulted in some pretty fabulous ensembles & pink hair. Yep, pink. My hair has also been black, blonde, brown, red & most other fun colors like that. I had great friends & a lot of fun this year, but I was ready for high school to be over. I didn't go to my Senior Homecoming. I was at my Senior Prom for about 20 minutes - just long enough to see the most fabulous people win for king & queen! You know how normally it's the popular kids that just get picked for all those things & they win every year - yeah that's not what happened my senior prom. It was awesome & I loved it! This was also the year I met my husband. (The picture above is me & a friend, not me & Lewis.) Our anniversary is coming up in October & I've got something...

Age 16 or 11th Grade I got my license!!!!!!! This was the year that I really started to feel like I was growing up! I think being able to drive does that to you. This was also when I had close friends & lots of people that I trusted & spent a lot of time with. Me & Diana were hanging out all the time. We carpooled to school together because her vehicle was cooler than mine. My other best friend actually had a baby this year. That was interesting considering we went to a private Christian high school. You can probably imagine that it didn't go over well there, but I look back on that whole time with such admiration & respect for her. She worked so hard in school & at home. We still keep in touch & I actually told her just a couple months ago that I had no idea how she did all of that & made it look so easy because I about fell apart the first few weeks with Isis & I was 25 with a husband! I still think she's amazing. This was the first year I w...

Age 15 or 10th Grade Sophomore year will always be important to me for two reasons. One is that I had my first "real" boyfriend (who was NOT the guy in the picture above - he was just a friend) - although real at that point in my life felt a lot different than real did when I started dating Lewis. Immaturity & hormones just don't mix well. I thought I was in love, but really I was just giddy to have a boy that actually really liked me & who I liked back! It didn't last long, but I didn't end up really dating anyone else until later in my Senior year. I was just over it. Not interested. I got really upset when we broke up & I just didn't want to do that again. The other important thing about this year is that it was the year we started my Bible study that lasted through high school & some of college. We called ourselves "Young Women of Virtue" because we were cute like that, but it got shortened to YWV because nobody can say that mou...

Age 14 or 9th Grade Ah high school. What a hormone-charged, drama-filled bunch of craziness!!! What do I remember of freshman year? Drama, boys & tears. I heard a quote by George Bernard Shaw one time that says: "Youth is wasted on the young." How true. Young people don't know how to handle youth. It should be such a wonderful time of freedom, to a certain extent & joy & great friendships & no real responsibility in terms of bills & money. But man, we sure can make it a big mess with how much emphasis we place on things that don't matter & how upset we get over little things. I remember so many things feeling like such hard moments & looking back on them, they still felt hard at the time, but now the situations seem so meaningless. I've come so far since then. I had a major crush on a boy who had a girlfriend this year. He still used to call me all the time & it was so confusing how he could say he liked both of us. (I wonder if h...

Last week I was having my guest blogger week with birth stories , so I didn't write my Mommy's Piggy Tales post. This week I'm going to just lump 7th & 8th grade together. This actually works out because they flow together in my mind. This is the only picture I could find on my computer or Facebook that was around this time - I'm in the middle with the khaki shorts. This was at the end of 8th grade. Age 12 or 7th Grade Age 13 or 8th Grade The biggest thing I remember about middle school is that my uncle died in my 7th grade year. He was only in his 40's. I have 2 cousins, one a year or so younger than me & one a couple years older than me. This was my mom's brother, so I remember my mom falling apart & I remember not knowing exactly what to say to my cousins. They're both boys & seeing how we were young & not as close as we are now, I just couldn't find the words & didn't know what to do. It's incredibly difficult to o...

Age 11 or 6th Grade The summer before 6th grade, my family went on a trip to Hawaii. The trip was fairly normal - luaus, sight-seeing, Pearl Harbor, beautiful beaches, etc. The plane ride there was a different story. It was set to begin with one huge plane ride from Atlanta straight to Hawaii, but instead it began with a fuel leak, 2 hours of dumping fuel in the air as we circle the Atlanta airport & then landing again on a runway lined with ambulances & fire trucks. They had stopped all flights into or out of the Atlanta airport & lined the runway with emergency vehicles because they thought our plane was going to literally blow up when we touched down. Apparently planes are made to take off with lots of fuel, but they touch down empty or they blow up. Who knew?? In 6th grade, my parents moved me from a public school to a private Christian high school. I start having a lot more memories from this point on. I remember I had a huge crush on a boy with a major bowl hairc...

Age 10 or 5th Grade Big news in 5th grade: I liked a boy!! I’m sure there were a few here & there that I was maybe interested in before now, but this is the first year that I remember having a major crush!! This is the year I remember my hormones going CRAZY! The object of my affection was named Alex & just to show you how redneck the city I grew up in was, I must point out that he had a rat-tail . Remember those? That one long little clump of hair that grew out & down their back while the rest of their head was shaved or had a fabulous 80’s flat-top ? I mean, really, who ever started the rat-tail craze because it’s embarrassing to look back on. Gross. We also played four-square at recess like it was nobody’s business & I wore biker shorts under cut-off jean shorts & thought I was really awesome. Ah the 80’s/90’s style crazes. Also in 5th grade, I had my tonsils removed. I remember eating soup & popsicles for days. I remember throwing up blood ...

Age 9 or 4th Grade This was the year I wrote about the life of a seahorse for testing at school & then my writing got published in an educator's journal as an example of a Distinguished piece of writing. My mom thought it was a big deal & I was just excited about the $25.00 I got paid! I also did my fair share of trying to help around school (aka brown-nosing) & I cleaned off the chalk from this brick wall outside the school door with a couple of friends. It was an area that was under a roof, so it never got rained on to get washed off, but all these kids would bang erasers (back when we had chalkboards) on the wall. We cleaned it off & the principal mentioned us over the loudspeaker at the end of the day. I felt like a big deal. Can you tell I was a bit of a teacher's pet?  I also remember we had D.A.R.E. at school that year. No offense to the D.A.R.E. people, but I find it completely ineffective. For one thing - how great can it be when your assigned polic...

Adriel at The Mommyhood Memos does something AWESOME on her blog that I really like! She has a section at the top of her blog that lists what posts are coming up. I think this builds anticipation & keeps people coming back! I have a huge list of future blog posts that I'd like to write. I thought I'd share a few that I'm working on! Guest Posting Perspectives for First Time Moms: Birth Stories Guest Posting Perspectives for First Time Moms: New Mom Tips 30 Days of Television ( Month of August to prepare for the Fall TV Series Premieres!! ) 31 Days to a Better Blog ProBlogger Challenge ( I'm going to blog about my experience with the SITS girls ! Blogging along is not required, but I'm going to do it just to share what I work on! ) Top 10 Pregnancy Tips How to Find Time to Blog How to Find Blog Post Ideas My last 10 posts for Mommy's Piggy Tales Hopefully you'll keep coming back to check out these (& many more) posts!!

Age 8 or Third Grade I am at a total loss when it comes to Third Grade. I can remember almost nothing about this year!! I remember I was in a team-taught classroom with Mrs. Sampson from Second Grade & a new teacher, Mrs. Robertson. I remember Mrs. Robertson had me say the ABC's backwards one day & I did it! I remember feeling a major surge of accomplishment. But literally, that is everything I remember about Third Grade! I have thought & thought about this for the last week & I have nothing. So I decided to tell you a little about the Quest program I was in, although it may or may not have happened in Third Grade. I was in the Gifted & Talented group of students at my school. I was always ahead in things at school & so my mom had me test for this & I was placed in the program. Once a week I would go to another elementary school in our county & would spend the day with a group of about 15 students doing more accelerated activities. I remember doin...

Age 7 or Second Grade My mom is currently on a cruise celebrating her retirement, so I wasn't able to get her help piecing together when my memories actually happened! I found this picture above that she had sent me & based on the date it said in the email, this was around 2nd grade for me. We went to Disney World! I remember Mickey & Minnie's house the most clearly, but that's about it. But I believe this picture was taken in Captiva Island, FL where we used to always go for vacations because my grandfather owned part of a time-share condo there!  I have many great memories in Captiva that I'll probably share later! I also remember wearing this polka-dotted Disney shirt countless times & you can't see, but it had a rockin' pair of biker shorts that went with it! I have great memories from 2nd grade in school because I had a wonderful teacher! Her name was Mrs. Sampson & she was my teacher in 2nd & 3rd grade. I remember reading a lot in her...

Age 6 or First Grade My first grade teacher was Mrs. Crouch. She was a friend of my mom’s. My mom is also a teacher. She taught for 27 years & just retired a few weeks ago. The majority of that time, she taught Kindergarten. Mrs. Crouch’s daughter, Emily, actually babysat for me later in my life. Now Emily is also a teacher & has a daughter of her own. Mrs. Crouch also has a son named Layne & I remember thinking he was really cute. Too funny. I remember liking first grade. I made several friends that year that I kept through the rest of elementary school. There were two in particular named Janie & Laura. Janie’s mom was a teacher’s assistant at the school and Laura’s dad was the county judge. I have a really clear memory of Janie & I getting in trouble for singing a Popeye the Sailor Man song. Do you remember this one? Popeye the Sailor Man He lived in a garbage can He turned on the heater And burned off his wiener Popeye the Sailor Man Cl...

Preschool & Kindergarten I don't have very many memories of my early years, but the things I do remember are very clear. My earliest memory is at 18 months saying the pledge of allegiance at an event for my daycare. I'm not sure if this is an actual memory or just something I've been reminded of my whole life, so I've created a memory. Either way, I feel like it's real. I also have a very early memory of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. January 28, 1986 - I was about 18 months old at this time as well. I remember sitting, watching cartoons on the tv at the daycare & the cartoons were interrupted with live footage of the explosion. We all sat & watched for several minutes. I don't remember much more than that. I feel like it's strange to have a memory before you're 2 years old, but I can remember everything about the room I was in. I guess it's the kind of thing that sticks with you. I knew it was a big deal. My brother was born ...

My birth & how I got my name... Obviously I have no memories of this experience, so I enlisted the help of my mom. She went through the details with me the other day so I knew what happened! Thanks to some different lady business complications, they didn't know my exact due date. She was given due dates ranging from August 1 to September 15. I decided to make my big debut on August 29, which was incidentally the day after my parent's 2nd wedding anniversary!  My dad was taking classes at a local university and my mom had accompanied him to class this particular night after their anniversary dinner because this was before cell phones & they just didn't know when to expect me! My mom walked around the campus & my dad went to class. My mom found her way to the campus bookstore & was looking at anniversary cards when she suddenly felt something running down her leg. She initially thought she was having a bladder control issue (common in late pregnancy unfortun...