Memory 3

On the day of my baptism, I was a nervous little bunny rabbit. I called the missionaries, who were coming to my house to get pictures with my family, to say that they were late. The missionary who was baptizing me had left four weeks earlier. He got on the phone and asked me why i was nervous. After explaining my fears, I had never seen a Baptism before, he told me that I had no reason to be nervous. He was the nervous one. He had visions of him dropping me and me slipping and hitting my head on the tile in the font and bleeding out!

They came to my house and we took pictures. Barker was going to kneel down to get a picture with me but the flower petals would stain his knees so he squated and I pounced from behind...Best picture from the day! When we actually got there, very few people showed up...Birkette, the elder who baptized me, could not remember my middle name to say his life.

When we got in the font, he was so nervous he forgot to wet my hair. WHen he dipped me down, my hair did not go under. He was so focused on that he pushed me under and my legs went flying, my dress went up, and I went swimming in the baptismal font...but my leg didn't pop out!

I fought so badly with Barker I almost cancelled the whole thing initially...and I am so glad I didn't! Afterwards, I brought a sweater to change into...that didn't fit...so my shirt was falling down the whole time! One of the elders who was my witness admitted he saw my dress go up! I got shot at by a missionary with a Nerf Gun! We all took a ride in my huge car...an experience in and of itself...And several sets of senior missionaries came! We went out to buffalo wild wings and it was quite the day! April 24, 2010...It was a day to remember!

Memory 2

When I was a freshman in college I took my one and only trip to DC's country Junction! It was a metal warehouse thirty minutes down a country road into the middle of nowhere in a corn field. The parking lot consisted of some gravel thrown down to stop the mud from spreading everywhere. The music can be heard far and wide....given that it is the only music for twenty miles.
There were about 20 of us that went. We walked in and the dance floor was covered with men in undershirts, tight jeans, and cowboy hats and boots. In short, country MEN! There were haybails for sitting on and the music was up so loud that you couldn't hear a rooster crow. The bar was filled with smoke, he-hawing, and remarkably...babies! There were so many babies on mama's hip that I lost count. Now this was a line-dancing bar, but this was not ordinary line dancing! They jumped, kicked, fliped, and literally leaped over eachother all in perfect rhythm and timing. It was crazy and intimidating. I tried dancing to a few songs, but I primarily watched in amazement.
Eventually the smoke got to me and the hay bails got to my friend Michael's hay-fever. We went and breathed fresh air at the door before continuing our festivities. Remarking at the couple fighting in the parking lot...and the other one making out. It was a night not soon forgotten...over at DC's Country Junction!

Memory 1

Thanks to Brittni's brilliant idea, I have decided to take my memories and turn them into a blog...I have too many to keep them in my head.

In 6th grade I joined the photography club. I would trapse all over my neighborhood, camera in tow, pretending to be a world famous photographer. I would look at a line of trees and pretend as if I were in the arctic circle and this was the rarest type of tree...so rare it was thought to be extinct...that is...until I photographed it. One day, I was trapsing around, as I often did, when I saw some fluttering on the clover flowers in an undeveloped lot. I went over and saw thousands upon thousands of monarchs. I had no idea why they were there or why they were so still. Their little bodies, limp with exhaustion, they sat feeding on the thistles for hours. I danced around the field, weaving an odd pattern with my feet, to avoid crushing the lissless fliers. I took picture after picture, all lost of course, and sat talking with them, holding them, and telling them all my life's stories and ambitions. At the end of the night I bid farewell to my companions and walked the two houses down to my home. I never saw such a sight again.

I now know that they were migrating monarchs. It is an extremely rare sighting that I was priveleged to have witnessed. They were on their way down to mexico. They travel thousands of miles and are often quite tired. They will fly very high up and appear to be in clouds of thousands of butterflies. I did not see them in the air, but on the ground. They came to my world and I got a very rare glimpse into theirs.

Monarchs aren't doing well know because of a lack of milkweed plants. They nest, feed, and live on milkweed, the caterpillar, eggs, and butterfly. If you go online, many web sites will give you free milkweed plants if you supply your address. Maybe you too can encourage a monarch flock to pass your way. For more info see: http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm