I stole this idea from Deana Nall (link to the right), who got it from someone else. I hadn't actually meant to get a blog idea, but I was having fun trying to remember what I was doing 20 years ago. The only thing I did differently was add 30 years ago to the rest of it. By the way, her name is pronounced DE-NA. Not De-A-nna. And it's Nall-not Hall.
30 Years Ago - I was 6, and life was great. We lived in Ashdown, Arkansas, which is about 16 miles north of Texarkana on Highway 71. I was in first grade, my sister Katie was 4 years old, Mom was a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom, and Dad worked at Ideal Cement Company at Okay, Arkansas. We had a dog named Tippy and probably at least one cat at that time. I remember wanting my hair to be so long I could sit on it, just like Jennifer Jester's. As you can see, my mother had a different idea. We lived right across the street from my elementary school, so Mom walked me across the street every morning. My teacher was Mrs. Beasley, and I remember liking her. We were very lucky to have a playground directly across from our house, which we considered "ours." I liked to climb up and sit on top of the swingset. My favorite things to do were play Little House on the Prairie and play on the playground, both of those with Katie. We got along very well. I included this picture of me, so that Katie's wrath might be lessened for the next picture!
20 Years Ago - This picture of me and my sister, Katie, was taken at Walt Disney World. Like my bow? Please don't kill me, Katie. I was a junior at Ashdown High School. Looking back on it, I believe this was my best year of high school. I had shoulder length hair and big bangs, like everyone else. My favorite shirt was a green and white long-sleeved rugby. My dad had bought a used red Ford Ranger pickup with manual transmission that he made me learn to drive. I drove the 3 blocks back and forth to school every day. We had an open campus for lunch, so I usually gave my sophomore friends a ride to McDonald's or Sonic. Sometimes I went home and made myself a hamburger. We were toward the end of marching season in band, my primary extra-curricular activity in high school. I was on the flag line that year, though I regretted not just playing in the band. At least the outfit I got to wear was cuter than the band uniform. I played trumpet, and there weren't many girls in the big bad brass section, so I learned a lot about boys. Ugh. I was a shy girl and was glad they were nice to me. I had been given a nickname the year before, for which I was known the rest of my high school career, by Chris Dwyer, the first chair French horn. All the band nerds had a nickname, but they were all guys. Once I asked why I was the only girl to have one, and I was told that mine was the only one they could say in polite company. I didn't mind so much after that. Here's a bit of trivia: I wore the same pair of marching band shoes (black oxford-type) from 8th grade through my senior year.
10 years ago - This was a stressful and busy year for me. At this point John and I had been married for 5 years. I had been a math teacher at CAC in Little Rock for 4 years, but had quit to be a systems engineer for EDS. EDS did, and still does, the Medicaid claims processing in Arkansas. My dad had died from cancer in April, and we had helped my mom move back to Ashdown from Lake St. Louis. My sister had worked for one year as the Family and Consumer Science agent for the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas in Murfreesboro. I'm glad I typed that instead of saying it. I went through a training program for a few weeks and was probably working as a business analyst learning about Medicaid before actually working on programs. I liked teaching, but I think this job was more suited to my personality. I had plenty of conversation with my coworkers, but spent most of my time in my little cube typing away in COBOL and JCL. My favorite part of the day was lunchtime, because a bunch of us played the speedy version of spades. I didn't like having to wear a dress or pantsuit every day. Later they relaxed the dress code, which made us all happy! John also worked for EDS, but in a different area. It was nice, because we had some interesting conversations.
5 Years Ago - Emily was two years old, and I was two months pregnant with Ethan. I had quit EDS when Emily was born, and John and I had moved to Searcy when Emily was less than 6 months old. John was working as the OR manager for White County Medical Center. We were living in a neat old red brick house on Arch Avenue, just down the street from John and Lara Noah. John would walk Emily to the "corner store" and get her a Kool-Aid from Tim. She liked to pick up the magnolia "pine cones" in Lara's front yard on the way. I enjoyed living in Searcy, and planned to stay in that house for years and years. It turned out to be only 3.
1 Year Ago - John and I made the hard decision to move from Fordyce to Pocahontas. We had moved to Fordyce in July 2006, and that's where I started my blog because of pressure from my Searcy friends. Fordyce was John's first administrator position, and he did so well that Pocahontas called and wanted to interview him. We came through Pocahontas on our way to Missouri for Thanksgiving and looked at houses. Emily was in first grade, and Ethan went to preschool two mornings a week. I was still staying home being a Mommy. I had a really nice little garden that summer and hated to think of leaving it after all that work. I hated telling our friends we were leaving, too, especially our little church family. We moved January 19, 2008.
Yesterday - I got up early for a Saturday and worked out at the gym. We took the kids to Mountain View and Blanchard Springs Caverns. We ate lunch at Wood's Pharmacy and walked around the downtown area. Then we drove by the hospital to check on their rebuilding process. The hospital was badly hit by the tornado last spring. After that we went to Blanchard Springs and enjoyed a tour of the caves. At the beginning of the tour we rode down an elevator about 21 stories. It's a colorful tour-the formations are really beautiful. At the end, we came out and took a bus ride back to the visitor center. This was the scariest part of the tour, as we were driven down curvy, narrow roads by Paul, the maniac bus driver. We ate supper at Anglers, in Sylamore, on the way home. Note: Don't order anything grilled unless you want to wait. The food is good, but it takes an extra 30 minutes to prepare. It took the kids about 5 minutes to go to sleep when we got in the car for the almost 2 hour drive back home. It took me about twenty minutes.
Today - I got to church early to prepare for my 4th-6th grade Bible class. I really like the kids who are in there. I almost never have the same mix twice. I have one or two regulars, and the rest come sporadically. We had small group after church at the Buxtons' house. We had pork roast, broccoli, hash brown casserole, corn, bread, and two very yummy desserts. I know because I tried both of them. One of them I tried twice. Our usual leader was out of town, but we still had a pretty good discussion during the Bible study. The rest of the afternoon I spent planning what to do this week, reading blogs, reading news, moving a book shelf and pictures out of Emily's room, and spackling the nail holes. My goal is to get her room painted before Thanksgiving.
Note: I had written the 20 Year Ago section about my sophomore year of high school. When I was doing my final proofreading, I realized that was the wrong year and had to rewrite it. Nov. 13-I was going to add a few more pictures, but will just go ahead and post. I'm tired of trying to remember to do it!
