In my 30's

(On my birthday)

Here it is, I am officially in my 30's.  I have suddenly been overwhelmed with gratitude when I realize that if, when I was 19 and could look into my future, what I would see is exactly what I would expect and want and hope for.  Overwhelmingly, my 20's were so, so good to me.  I can't say I was always good to them.  There have been lots of times in the last few years that I've realized the toll it takes on a person to ignore your own health, physically and emotionally.  I thought it was a good sacrifice, but I'm learning that with so many little people depending on me, the best way I can take care of them is to take care of myself first.  But life is actually long, and I have time, and am taking the time, to always improve. I want to make an "in my 20's" list, and I do so at the risk of it sounding completely ridiculous.  My natural instinct will be defensive when I see "snuggled with my newborn all day" up next to "pulled off a great Battle of the Bands" event.  Because even though the snuggles seem small, they are everything to me.  The real meat of my life is found in my every day as a mom.  But how do you list that?  Anyhow, here we go.

In my 20's, I...

-On my 20th birthday I was treated to a yummy Cafe Rio salad from the cute blonde-haired, blue-eyed guy who I didn't know if I was seriously dating (funniest DTR ever)

-joined UVSC's student government, and subsequently dropped out of the Miss Orem pageant knowing that I couldn't do both and the scholarship that would open the most opportunity for me would be ASUVSC.  It was so so hard, but I had never grown so much for one singular responsibility.

-I was on student council, Institute council, in the Relief Society presidency, and in three performing arts groups.  And had a part time job and more than a full load of classes.  All in one semester.

-slipped off the Dean's List 

-put on my very first school wide event, the longest. event. ever. (Lord of the Rings marathon, believe me when I say that event was not my choice)

-knowing it was my last year to get ready for the mission (and knowing I was too young to get married), I broke it off with Marty. 

-That summer was full of MRIs, a cerebral angiogram, and surgeries (sounds worse than it actually was).  After one of those, I had left my car in Orem and got a call from a friend letting me know it was vandalized and totaled.  I fixed it up, but it would be totaled again just a few months later when I hit a cow in a rainstorm.

-For about a month I held my most hated job ever, in the call center at myancestory.com.  But I rocked the house and made BANK in just that one month.

-In the fall, our little student government made national news again and again for our controversy over Michael Moore, which I can't possibly explain right now (I showed up in a documentary about it that Marty and I rented from Netflix!).

-Also that fall, I had an uneasy feeling about my life.  I "got away from it all" when I went with my mom to Virginia and came to the conclusion that I would be making a huge mistake if I let Marty slip away.  

-It took me until December to finally say good-bye to my dream of a mission and go crawling back on my hands and knees to Marty.

-Meanwhile, some events I headed up were UV Unplugged, Fine Arts Week, the UVSC Film Festival (and my first serious threat at getting sued - just Moore controversy, haha)...and I cannot believe I can't remember the others...

-Traveled to Reno for the NACA conference and VA

-Officially got back with Marty at Christmastime and decided he was the one.  Without a doubt. 

- I got engaged on my 21st birthday in the amphitheater right by the Mount Timpanogus Temple.

-I said a very sad good-bye to all of my piano students and took a job at the PGM call center right near UVSC .

-spent a wonderful few days in Boulder for My Grandpa's 80th birthday party with ALL my family.  And two weeks later...

-I went through the temple for the first time.

-And on August 4, 2005 I married Marty (no big deal)

-I started doing the things I'd always found unpleasant.  I stopped living off of trail mix and started grocery shopping and making dinner sometimes.  I still found it all so tedious.  I didn't get home from school/work til late.  We didn't eat the healthiest.  

-We were on the Married Institute Council and put on a dinner/fireside event once a month.  

-We went to the temple every week, never missed once.  

-Sang back up for some of Kurt Bestor's Christmas Concerts.

-Had my hardest and most rewarding school semester thus far.

-In a two week period: graduated, found out we were pregnant, found out Marty was hired to teach seminary, and shortly after that we found out he'd actually be teaching in Gilbert. AZ.

-Went through one of the most traumatic periods of my life during my crazy-severe hyperemisis with Brynn's pregnancy.

-I had four pregnancies, four babies (again, no big deal)

-Lived in two different houses in AZ

-Became a landlord (UGH)

-Traveled with Marty to:  Utah, Idaho, Albuquerque NM, Grand Junction and Durango CO, Bristow VA, Washington D.C., Las Vegas NV, Seattle WA, Fairbanks AK (twice), Missouri, Nauvoo IL, WY, NB, CA, Mexico, Grand Canyon and all over AZ.

-Got my piano business chartered with the National Federation of Music Clubs.  Taught piano in AZ for 7 years and then gave it up last year with a very heavy heart.

-Served in Primary, Relief Society, Young Women's, learned to play organ and direct a choir, played violin in the Messiah and then let it collect dust for 7 years.
-Learned to live with pain on a daily basis
-Read somewhere around 360 books (if I've read 3 a month for the last 10 years), and tried hard to keep learning, and learned that learning takes more discipline now than it did in college since it has to be completely self-motivated.
-Memorized all the major AZ roads from West to East and North to South, learned how to survive in "excessive heat warnings," that if you leave flip-flops out in the summer they may melt, what "heat sickness" feels like, that the only way I can survive this crazy desert is to go somewhere in October, that babies seem to change way too fast when my parents miss a milestone, what it feels like to cry for an entire morning when my mom leaves the state way too soon after she meets my newborn, but that - heck yes, I can bloom where I'm planted!
-Spent 90% of my daytime (and sometimes nighttime!) of my last 7 and a half years with some of the most amazing, lovable, and yummy little kiddos ever.  And taught 4 to sleep through the night, 3 to use the potty, 2 to play piano and read, 4 to love each other, 3 to say Jesus (Camille's still getting there), 4 to say ma-ma first, 4 to fold their arms for prayer, and so on and so forth.
-Memorized the Lorax, among many other children's books, from beginning to end

 -Somehow managed to learn how to: get gas out of newborns, drive a van, paint a house, mend a suit (sort of), get various stains out of clothes, change freeways, grocery shop, cook cheap, then cook healthy (next up: cook cheap and healthy), get a family of six out the door to be at church at 7:45 a.m. (playing prelude for 8:00 church is a bit of a blur for me).  

-Fallen more in love with my eternal companion:  Cheered him on when he got his BS and then MA, learned how to be more selfless and how to watch from the sidelines, and how it usually feels better to just admit I was wrong already, and how fairy tales actually do come true sometimes.


So, it's fun to see my life change.  The biggest theme I see is turning my focus from myself to my family.  To me, that is a life that is fulfilling.  I'm lucky to have had so much happiness and so many blessings in my 20's.  I guess time really does fly when you're having fun!