A Decade Of...

Growth?

I guess that is what I would like to think! As we enter this new decade, I have thought back to the turn of the last one, which doesn't seem all that long ago to me. I really remember the Y2K hype so maybe that is why it stands out. However. I went back and read part of my journal from around the 1999-2000 turn and whoa, I was a tad bit crazy back then. (Maybe I still am?). Let's be honest, I was 14 years old then, so that might explain a lot of it. Following are a few examples of my ten years younger self:

*I was an out of control Savage Garden, NSYNC, and Atlanta Braves freak. My journal is covered in every magazine picture that I could get my hands on of the bands and at the time I was also a proud subscriber to the Choptalk Magazine (the official Braves publication), so I had plenty of photos of the Braves pasted in as well.

*The bane of my existance was my orchestra teacher, who continually made me write sentances 100 times, such as "I will not talk while in the tuning line." I never failed to mention how much she bugged me, nearly every day, in my trusty journal. Perhaps I was a bit hard to deal with??

*My four best friends and I had started a club that we called the "YWIA" club. I can't hardly type this without laughing, it is so funny to me now. The YWIA stood for "Young Women in Action". We basically took it upon ourselves to find service projects to do, which included making Valentines for people and visiting nursing homes. We met each week and contributed dues that were put into a wrapped box. After that, we had a lesson, which was always like a Family Home Evening lesson basically. Each of us was given an assignment, such as President, Treasurer, Historian, etc. I noted in my journal that as Haylee was the club counselor, I turned to her when I was having a particularly rough time with life and she always solved my problems. We took this club VERY seriously. Man, we were awesome. But, we were definitely good girls and for that I am grateful.

*My friends and I also took it upon ourselves to be missionaries, which we were. After taking the discussions with one of our friends, she was baptized.

*My sister and two cousins and I had our annual Christmas program at my Grandma's house. That generally consisted of us wearing whatever costumes we could scrounge up (red longjohns anyone?) and singing (yeah, I don't sing) Christmas songs on the top of our lungs. Oh, this might have been the year that I played Cortney's trumpet to accompany everyone (although I had never picked up a trumpet in my life until that day, so that tells you how beautiful it was!) Everyone in the family dreaded this blessed event except our dear Grandma and Uncle Charlie, who pretended it was the best thing they had ever heard.

*I used phrases like "he is so fine." Enough said.

*I made sure to mention when the first person ever on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" won a million dollars. By mention I mean it took up the 2 page entry. No, I didn't know the person, I was just excited, okay?

*I mastered the manipulation tactic with my piano teacher. Whenever she told me to improve (and she was very very nice about it), I would cry and tell her that I was doing my best. Then she would feel bad and pass the songs off for me anyway. This is why I am such an excellent piano player today (sarcasm). On the other hand, I got along excellently with my violin teacher, who yelled at me constantly and told me how awful my playing was. I guess she was just more my style.

*I had several very serious crushes. I am sure that not one boy that I liked every really paid attention to me because I noted things like "he touched my binder today!" Yikes. I also memorized and wrote down each of their schedules so I knew exactly where they were at all times.

*Overalls were my outfit of choice. Yes, please!

Alright, I think that is enough embarrassing confessions.

Now, for the next ten years, here is what I hope for myself:

*I want first and foremost, to be a good wife and mother. I have an amazing husband who makes my life so much better and who makes me so happy. I hope that our marriage just continues to grow stronger and that we continue to love each other more as time passes. (I really should give him a big fat THANK YOU for even marrying me. For why this is necessary, see above.) I also want to be the kind of mother who is involved in her children's lives. I want my kids to know that I love them and that they are important to me. I want to be patient with them and help them learn to make good choices on their own.

*I want to grow stronger in the Gospel. I need to make scripture study, prayer, and temple attendance a constant priority. I know that my life is better and my marriage is better when I do and when we also do the simple things as a couple.

*I want to expand my skills and abilities in my professional life. I don't know that I will always be working, but even if I am not, I want to seek out opportunities to use the things that I have learned to better other people's lives. I have a passion for social work and I hope that it can continue to grow.

*I want to make memories with my family. Whether that is home, traveling, around where we live, or whatever. I have very fond memories of my growing up years and I want my children to have the same.

*I want to be a good friend. This has always been important to me, but as I get older, I hope that I can continue the relationships with friends that I have had for years. I want to be there to celebrate happy times with them, be there for them through hard times (and vice versa) and just make sure that they know I care about them.

*I want to be charitable. This is something that is important to me. I don't foresee Devin and I ever being really wealthy, but I want to make sure that helping is a priority for us.

Perhaps in 10 years if this blog is still up and running I can come back and check to see how I did. I think I have grown up a bit in the past 10 years (I don't know, you be the judge!) and I hope that I can continue to grow in the next 10!