Past, Present and Future

Alright, so we’ve been talking in both of my classes this week about family traditions and keeping journals about ourselves and our families. Seeing as how I usually just copy and paste what I write on the blog into an electronic journal, I thought I would write a little bit about some fun traditions that my family and I have done and a little bit of random thoughts about me that maybe most people don’t know. So, here it goes. Some of these are ones we used to do and don’t really do anymore, some we still do and some are new. I’m warning you…this might be kinda longish…

Favorite Traditions/family rituals:
· The obvious: Eating pancakes/waffles/French toast on Sundays after church.
· Sugar cookies with Grammy on the Christmas’s when she comes to our house. Nothing is better than making/decorating cookies with my Grammy! Especially when I think the cookie is an eyeball instead of an ornament like it was supposed to be and decorating it accordingly. Haha. That was a great year.
· Making a gingerbread house with my mom and sister (and now Syd!)
· Giving blood with my dad when I go home
· Playing Cranium or other games when we’re all together for the holidays
· Dad’s yummy smoked Ham on Christmas day *drools*
· The “Schweps dance” that Meredith does with the empty bottle after we eat Thanksgiving dinner
· Butterfly kisses from dad
· Christmas Pedicures with my mom, sister and grandmamma
· Being woken up in the morning one of two ways…my mom jumping on me or hearing her open the blinds REALLY loudly. Haha
· Helping mom make Jam during the first session of conference
· My brother and I bringing our mattresses downstairs to lay on during conference. haha
· Watching Anne of Green Gables with Meredith whenever I come home to visit
· Our family New Years party consisting of games, my homemade queso, little smokeys with Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce and sparkling apple cider.
· When we’re together in the living room, and someone goes to the bathroom that shares a wall with it, we always knock on the wall to annoy the person in the bathroom.
· Watching MAVS games together with all our gear.
· Birthday dinners
· Having to take down Christmas decorations on New Years day. This is one tradition I wouldn’t be sad to see go away. Haha right, Grammy?
· Hearing dad’s joke of the day that he made up
· Flying rolls…need I say more? Haha
· Getting our new ornament to hang on the tree each year from Grammy
· Getting free samples and Clinique moisturizer from Grandmama for Christmas and birthdays. Oh and usually a package of socks. haha

Random thoughts:
· When I was young, I LOVED my binky. Like seriously, I don’t think I can emphasize the word LOVE enough. I learned how to talk with it in my mouth and you could understand me perfectly. As a result, I used to say my “S’s” like you would say a “T” but it would sound like a normal “s.” Good times right? Well, I’m pretty sure I had them until I was about 3 years old…my mom started taking them away from me when I’d fall asleep or something because that’s the only time she could get them from me. I started realizing this so I’d hide the ones that I still had. That way, when she took away the ones that she let me have, I could just go to my stash and pull out another one. This went on indefinitely. They didn’t realize that I had hidden so many…Good times. It’s good to know that I learned how to outsmart my parents at such a young age. Haha. Love y’all!
· I am absolutely addicted to propel as of a week ago
· When we were kids, and there was something we wanted (ex: a trampoline) we would make picket signs out of construction paper and rulers and march around my mom and dad’s room, chanting. It usually went a little something like this…”We want a trampoline, tonight, tonight, tonight. We want a trampoline (Meredith yells, SWITCH) *flip signs around* Besides, we love you.” Hahahaha so we sound like spoiled, rotten kids, but it worked so it was totally worth it. haha
· My sister and her friend, Marika, would put on New Kids on the Block concerts for us, frequently. I always wanted to play too, so they’d stick me under this box and make me push tickets up thru the hole in the top. For some reason, I loved it. haha
· When we received the previously mentioned trampoline, Meredith and Cody LOVED to bounce me as high as they could. My brother thought it was funny to continually bounce me, one after another, because I would just keep getting higher. Sometimes, I was too high and he couldn’t grab me and throw me back down onto the trampoline and I’d fly off. Usually, I’d just hit the fence or the ground…sometimes a tree or two or running into our wood pile in the backyard. I would have to get a new bandaid every day from bleeding and stuff and my sister said that I looked like one huge bandaid…hence, where I got my name that has forever stuck to my existence. Get it? stuck? Hahah wow…
· Another fun thing they liked to do on the trampoline was to get 4 big people to stand around me (I would be sitting in the middle) and they’d count to three and all bounce as hard as they could to get me as high as I could go. Somewhere at home, we have a picture of me and I’m higher than the Breinholt’s two story house. Talk about good times, and I loved every minute of it. Although, I don’t think my mom did…
· When I was really little, my brother and sister were babysitting me while my parents were out shopping or something. We had just finished building the 2nd floor of our house and the stairs didn’t have carpet on them yet. Meredith and Puden decided to go downstairs to get something to eat and somehow, I climbed over the couch they had blocking the stairs and I fell down the stairs. You know those soft spots on children’s heads? Yeah…my sister thought those were a result of me falling down the stairs…she was hysterical. She thought I was going to be retarded or something because of it. I can only imagine how funny it was on my brother’s end. Lol. Maybe that explains a lot about why I am the way that I am today…. :)
· One year for Christmas, we each got beanbag chairs. Our favorite thing to do with them was to set them at the top of the stairs and run and slide down them. In our house in Washington, there was a door at the bottom of the stairs. You can only imagine how many times we ran into that thing.
· Whenever I had to yawn, my brother and sister would always chase me around the house and make me laugh so I couldn’t finish my yawn. It always made me so mad…sometimes I would cry.
· I never had an imaginary friend, although I used to talk to my stuffed animals like they were people. Whenever my brother and sister would leave me out…or I would feel like they didn’t want to play with me (which didn’t usually happen, but sometimes it did), I would go into my room, line up my stuffed animals and vent to them…they understood me. Don’t judge. Hahaha.
· One of our favorite musicals was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. During the barn dance scene, all three of us would do the dances around the living room. Meredith and I still remember how to do them today!
I’m sure I could keep going, but I don’t want to bore everyone! :) So there you have it…some more insight into why I am the way that I am! Haha. Hope you enjoyed! XOXO