Tag!!

My sister, Becca, did this on her blog and tagged me so I thought I'd play along this time instead of sending out a hitman to get her like I usually do. :-) So here it is:

20 YEARS AGO: Let's see if I can remember back that far. So, I was 15 years old and that was the summer we moved from Kansas to Denton, TX. This was a good thing because, aside from simply getting the heck out of Kansas, it led me to meet my dream guy...within 2 weeks of getting there actually. He was dating the girl who was my first friend at church so I met him at the first church dance I went to there. He walked in and I thought he was so cute and loved his funky style...and then realized he was walking over to us and that he must be the boyfriend!!! NOOOOOOO! Well, it all worked out fairly nicely in the end. :-) And boy, oh, boy, could he dance!

10 YEARS AGO: This was the year that my biological dad left our family which opened up a huge set of secrets & lies he's had and told. It was definitely a very difficult time. It definitely reiterated the concept that, even though you may be a grown up, you're still your parents' child. Kyrie was one year old when he left. I still look back on it as a very dark time in my life. I struggled with some serious depression for a long time which was really unfair to Kyrie. I feel like there are a lot of things I missed out on with her because I was so overwhelmed with dealing with erick's aftermath. I definitely learned a lot of things about myself and what I wanted for my life...and that I really did have an amazing husband.

5 YEARS AGO: We were living in Oregon and I was fulfilling a dream of mine by teaching natural childbirth classes which I really loved. Emma, my beautiful little niece, had made her arrival and we were still learning what her life would be like. I loved having 2 sisters living so close even though I wished for more. We loved being in Oregon, the fog, the overcast, the ocean you look at more than swim in. Ah, perfection.

3 YEARS AGO: We were still living in Oregon and despite our love of it, we were realizing that house prices among a couple of other things were going to make a future fairly difficult there. Leslie and her family were headed off to New York for Josh to go to school there. Terri's family and our family decided a move to Texas was in the plan for our future. We began a great deal of planning for such a thing which was fun to do together. At this time, I was also called to be the Primary president of our ward which was a fun & scary experience. Between that calling & Kyrie's homeschooling taking more time as she was getting older, I decided to call it quits on my childbirth classes. The last 9 months I was teaching had become more frustrating rather than rewarding so I was ready to be done. I was happy to have done it but it was time to move on.

1 YEAR AGO: Rob was in Japan or about to go. I can't remember exact dates because I try to block those experiences from my mind. I DO NOT like my husband being gone. I'm no longer hysterically spastic about it but I still H-A-T-E it. It was nice that he was going to the same place he'd been the first time so we were very clear about what the arrangements would be as far as internet access, phone access, etc. It made it nice to not have to worry about that. We were sure to arrange microphones for our computers this time so we could talk more. It was also easier to send him with a bit of a shopping list. If he ever gets sent back again, we're seriously hoping that Kyr & I will be able to go with him. It will probably be quite a long time before he gets sent again, if he does at all. While he was gone, Kyr & I took a trip to Utah to visit family. It was her first plane ride that she was aware of. She'd only been as a baby before. She had lots of fun on the plane and on the visit. On the plane, I was explaining all the noises to her as we were taking off because I wanted to be sure she didn't feel nervous. (We'd just watched the pilot for "Lost" the day or 2 days before. Oops.) As I was telling her that a sound was the landing gear going up, one of the ladies behind me says, "Oh, is that what that it?" so I guess I was giving commentary to more people than just Kyr. :-) We had a very fun trip even though I feel like I was a little distracted by Rob being gone. I'm glad I love my family and enjoy my time with them.

SO FAR THIS YEAR: We've been working hard on getting our money back under control. We had a delightful trip to Walt Disney World last November to join Emma on her Make-a-Wish trip but it did kind of blow our finances apart because we let it. We really are devotees of Dave Ramsey's plan of common sense & money and have really enjoyed working on it together. We really enjoy working out how to do our money together since that's been something we've always struggled with. Fortunately that doesn't mean fights about money. It just means I say I want more help with the money but then have a hard time letting Rob help and he finds it easier to just let me do it, etc. This is much more fun this way. With our reinvigorated plan, it looks like we should be out of debt by November or so. Now that we have a realistic date, however, I feel myself challenged to do more to get it done sooner. Okay, okay, it's all because I want my Mazda 5 asap. :-) We've also really been focusing on getting more regular homeschooling done with hit & miss success. I find that I really do love working with Kyrie on doing this and learning some of it myself...or at least having it a refresher course. We just really want her to love learning as much as we do.

TODAY: I have the torturous task of making great big cookies for a friend's baby shower tomorrow night. Actually Kyr's going to make them for me. :-) She's so convenient and cute. I also really want to get some serious work done on a wall-hanging quilt I've been putting off. I've got part of it done and it really wouldn't take that long to finish it up. I think it'll look so pretty on my wall so I want to see it up there soon.

LATER TONIGHT: We're going out to dinner with my best friend and her kiddos (Kyr's best friends). Both of our husbands have to go to the same church meeting tonight so they'll miss dinner so we're going to go enjoy ourselves...and then I'll sew some more while watching the girls' performances on American Idol this week.

TOMORROW: We're going to be so busy. I'm going to go watch Lauralyn's kids so she can take her 2nd oldest to her first cello lesson. Then, I get to take Kyrie and 2 of Lauralyn's girls to a theater group the homeschool group is starting which could be fun for them. :-) Then at 7:30 we have the baby shower for our friend, Kasia, at Lauralyn's house. Woohoo!!

THIS YEAR I HOPE TO: get out of debt, get a better homeschool routine going, be more patient and thoughtful to other people, and be a little happier and better than I was last year.

I TAG: Lauralyn & Charisse. I don't really know who else reads my blog really. I'd love to read anyone else's answers who stops by here so count yourself as tagged, if you'd like.