9 years ago...

Nine years ago I married the love of my life. Nine years ago my life changed forever for the better. Nine years ago I started out on an eternal adventure with a wonderful man at my side. Nine years ago.

Jason, thank you for marrying me. My life is so much better because you are in it!

Flashback Friday 1988

While I was trying to decide on the topic for today's flashback, I realized that 20 years had passed since I lived in England with my aunt and uncle for six months. I was 15. There may be other posts in the future about my trip to England. For this one, I will limit myself to my first date and kiss.

This is the boy. His name is Tommy Withers and in this picture is he is 19. Isn't he handsome? Of course he is nothing compared to my Jason, but this isn't a post about Jason. Tommy is from Scotland and as a young and impressionable 15 year-old, he blew me away! I didn't think he even noticed me until he talked to me one Sunday at church.




He had gotten his mission call and one night he called me to ask if I wanted to do some sightseeing the next day. Did I also mention how naive and innocent I was? I didn't think of it as a date. We were just two friends who were going out to see the town. Really! I took every Friday off from school to go sightseeing and the way I saw it, one Friday I had a friend to come with me. Again, very innocent.


Don't we make a cute couple? My 15 year old heart was ready to make this our engagement picture!


I know you can barely see us here. We are in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo and by this time that day, I was deeply and forever in love. He was the one and I knew it! Actually I didn't know it. Looking back, I didn't know anything at all. It completely caught me off guard when he tried to kiss me! For the record, I did not kiss him at that time. I turned my head and we hugged.











It was the next time we went out that we kissed. It was very sweet. I think that if I had to do it over again, I still would. It is a good memory. We wrote faithfully while he was on his mission for about two months and then he stopped writing so of course our great love affair ended. I think I was more hurt by his abrupt failure to return my letters than anything else. I mean, think about it. There was a four year difference in our age and we were from two different countries. Besides, I would have had to dump him anyway once Jason, the love of my life, came along. Our time together was short, but precious and in my 15 year old life, very romantic. You know, I may even have those love letters somewhere. It might be fun to read them again.

So there you go. A momentous event that happened 20 years ago. Fun flashback! I've always said that London is my favorite international city. This just might be the reason why...

Mission Memories Monday music

Oh yes, you read that right. This post is about the music from my mission. To those of you who served in Romania, you might be surprised at the music files I found. If you didn't serve in Romania, you might be surprised by the songs that bring back mission memories for me.

When I was in Romania, there were some enterprising entrepeneurs who sold cassette tapes of songs, which were obviously copied from originals. They would set up tables on the sidewalk and display the tapes for sale. Of course as anyone with marketing experience knows, in order to sell your product, you have to advertise. What better advertising for cassette tapes then to play songs for your potential customers to hear? Makes sense to me. So we would be walking to various appointments and it was very common to hear songs on the street. Even though I didn't listen to the radio, it was pretty obvious which songs were popular, because those were the songs we heard the most often.

The first song is a song that I called the Romanian National Anthem during the summer of 1995 because it seemed to be played everywhere! It is called "Casablanca" and to make it even better, the woman singing the song mispronounces the words! It is pretty obvious she doesn't speak English, which makes the song a little more fun for me.


The next song is one I heard quite a bit when I first arrived in Romania, January 1995. This is one of those songs that sounded like euro-trash disco music to me, a song that could only be popular in Europe. Americans would NEVER listen to a song like this. Imagine my surprise then when I went to a club after my mission and heard this song! Instantly everyone in the club - most especially the dj lowered in my estimation! This one is "Cotton-Eye Joe."

This last song is "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio and it shocked people a little when I came home from the mission and knew the words. Again, we would hear these songs everywhere! The more popular they were, the more we heard them! We couldn't exactly shop or take the bus or go around town with earplugs, so what can I say? I know this song. What's more, I liked it then, and I still like it now!

You will find these three songs on my group site at the following link:

http://groups.google.com/group/scumpas-group?hl=en

Copy, paste, listen and enjoy!

Happy Father's Day!!

This post it dedicated to all the amazing Fathers. Actually, I think I will narrow it down to the amazing Fathers that I know. Wait, I take that back. Happy Father's Day to all. So yes that includes even the not so amazing Fathers.

My Jason is an absolutely amazing Father! He loves our children and shows it in many, many ways. Of course he goes to work everyday to support our expensive habits of living and eating, but there is so much more!! He goes to dance recitals, soccer games, doctor appointments, and so on. With my job requiring me to work weekends, he'll often take the kids to these various events by himself! I know I would have a tough time doing that. He also spends time with them individually. Last night for example, he was playing a game on the computer with Tegan. It was great watching them decide their moves together and plot their strategy.

Jason also dotes on his children. It seems almost cliched to say he would do anything for them, but it is really true. He spends time with them, teaches them and isn't afraid to tell them "no." He is more than a friend. What a wonderful Dad!

How could I have a post about Fathers and not include anything about mine? Well I couldn't. I have a great Dad. He wasn't around much when I was younger. He worked really hard to support all of us. Now that I am an adult, I have enjoyed getting to know him. Family is very important to him and he works hard at maintaining relationships with all of his children. He is actually in SFO right now with my sister Keturah. My Dad is also very reliable. If he says he will do something, it is as good as done. He is also non-judgemental. He treats everyone with respect. He is a great example to me of how I need to treat others.

Thank you to all the wonderful Fathers. You all make the world a better place to live and are just as important as the Mothers. We work as a team and that is what makes us successful.

Do you Geocache?

Another side effect of our trip to SFO was that we had such a fun time playing with my parents GPS, we had to get one of our own. Once we got our GPS, it really opened up a fun game for us. Geocaching is where you use a GPS to find treasures that have been hidden around the world. You get the coordinates from the website (http://www.geocaching.com/), enter the coordinates into your GPS and off you go! The cache is usually a weatherproof container with various trinkets inside as well as a logbook to sign your name. You can also track online that you found the cache.

There are quite a few in our area and we have had so much fun as a family finding them! Yesterday we found three. Two in Clearfield and one out by Antelope Island.





Here is Jason finding the cache by Antelope Island. As you can see, it was hidden under some rocks, but still easy to reach.



You can see that the cache isn't anything fancy. This one is plastic, so weatherproof.




Here are the kids finding a clue that actually leads to the real cache. I would recommend any of you try it. The caches can be easy or hard to find. We're rank beginners so we look for the easy ones. So if any of you are geocachers, please let me know. We can compare notes!

San Francisco Trip

As I'm sure I've already mentioned, one of the perks of working for an airline is the flight benefits. Granted, the airline I work for doesn't fly everywhere, but for now they still fly from SLC to SFO, so a couple of weeks ago my family flew to San Francisco to visit my sister Keturah and her husband Brook.

Like every time we go to visit them, we had a great time. For this trip, we went to Fort Point, which is a Civil War Union fort to protect the Bay from invasion. It also has a lighthouse, for obvious reasons. It was really interesting and extremely windy.



In fact, here is a picture of Keturah and me demonstrating just how windy it was! Keturah is the one with the hair in her face. Being the older sister, I have obviously learned to control the elements enough to keep hair out of my face.




This is a picture of what the fort would have looked like in Civil War times. I think it is a pretty realistic reinactment. Look at the realism on the trolleycar! Simply amazing.




Even bundled up and freezing she is a cutie! I love how Janica's eyes twinkle when she smiles. It as though she knows a joke she wants to share with all of us!


After we had seen all we wanted at the fort, we moved on to the beach. Since we were in San Francisco, it was way too cold to think about swimming, but perfect weather for playing on the beach and getting sand everywhere! As luck would have it, Brook had gotten some beach toys for his birthday, and it only took a little coaxing to get him to share with us.




So yes I do find it interesting that with all the beach toys at his disposal, the funnest thing that Brook could do was pour sand on Kierra. Aw who am I kidding? I thought it was fun too!





Some people choose to play in the sand. Kierra clearly enjoys embracing it fully, becoming one with the sand, as it were. I should think it goes without saying that we all took showers when we were done at the beach!




Jason also takes his beach play very seriously. I'm not sure what he was doing, but from the look on his face, there must have been lives hanging in the balance. Probably the very future of the free world was at stake. I'm glad Jason was on the case!




Tegan had a great time. You can't see them in this picture (or any of our pictures, since we didn't take pictures of them), but Tegan was busy making sand castles and/or digging holes. We also had fun watching all the dogs run around. Apparently dogs in San Francisco love to go swimming in the Bay. Who knew?


The next day, we went to a park near Keturah and Brooks place and took pictures using their fancy and of course expensive camera. As you can see, the pictures turned out great! The problem is that now Jason and I want a fancy and expensive camera. Maybe it will be our anniversary present - for the next five years!




I know this isn't a picture of their faces, but it still speaks to me. How tender, how gentle. A loving father walking with his daughter. Beautiful!




What a handsome young man! He will be eight in September. It doesn't matter though because as I have told him countless times, Tegan will always be my baby.




What a look! I can't tell if that is disdain or controlled amusement. It may seem a little sophisticated for a two year old, but then you don't know my Kierra.




There is that beautiful smile again! I know I've said before that Janica will be a heartbreaker and I still believe it. I don't know how anyone could see her and not love her.





What beauties! Thanks Keturah and Brook. We had a wonderful trip!

Flashback Friday 1975

I've been scanning old pictures onto the computer and I found these. They were actually made into slides, but due to the capability of modern technology (read scanner), I was able to digitize them onto my computer, thereby providing me with a subject for today's flashback.

As it says in the title, this is 1975. These pictures are from my aunt Teddie's wedding. She is my mom's younger sister. She got married in the Washington DC temple, and I think my family was living in New York at the time.

Here is the Bateman clan. I think this picture includes all the children, in-laws and grandchildren up to this point. Groovy clothes! I'm a little shocked to see how short a skirt my aunt Lamona is wearing. I never thought she had it in her! Check out uncle Monte's tie. Way to keep it real! Real seventies, that is.


Here is part of my family. I think this picture very accurately demonstrates why my mom hasn't had long hair in years. Maybe 33 years. Keturah is the one pulling her hair, for those of you who are wondering. Don't you love Cortney's outfit? I believe we called that his "sissy" suit. Makes sense, doesn't it? My dad must have loved that jacket! I can remember it, even without the help of a picture.

So here is my whole family in 1975. I wonder why I'm not dressed like everyone else. Didn't my mom love me enough to make me a matching dress? Actually, I'm probably wearing the green dress because I had a huge accident in my matching dress. Sounds like something I would do.


Ah, here we are again. Why did I include two similar pictures? Because I am in both of them! This one you can see my face better because my hands aren't in my mouth. The dress is still dirty in the front. Still, what a cutie!

I like this picture because they are all wearing matching dresses. I'm sure they were homemade. Just think of all the work that went into them! I don't know who the lady is on the far left, but the others are aunt Lamona, my cousin Vanessa, my sister Milaka and my aunt Rachelle.


This is a cute one of Cortney dancing with Vanessa. I love Cortney's shoes! That and the scrunched down socks. Great outfit!


These are my grandparents. Both of my dad's parents had passed away at this point. These are the only grandparents I have in my memories. This is really how I remember them too. Of course they seemed really old to me at the time, but thinking back, they had plenty of energy and were pretty young. I think in my mind, this is the age they will stay to me.

I know there are other things that happened on this trip for the wedding, but I was only 2 1/2 years old! I'm sure we caravaned with my grandparents and their children. Is this when Cortney got left at a rest area in PA by grandpa? Didn't Gayla get married in Utah the same summer? I haven't found any pictures of her wedding. Did we go to that too? I don't know. Anyway, please feel free to share your memories in the comments.

Flashback Friday!!

You probably thought I had forgotten about flashback Friday - or at very least lost interest. Oh how wrong you were! Actually our external hard drive where we were storing pictures crashed. Literally. On the floor. It was knocked off the table where we were using it and it will now cost us thousands of dollars to restore. Why do you care? I really don't know. My point is that I have just recently started scanning pictures on a new hard drive (that is not in any traffic areas for children to knock down), so I have pictures to use while I reminisce.

Here is aforementioned picture. I'm seven. We're standing on a carriage stone, or something like that. I don't know what they're really called. I just remember being told that they were used when people rode in carriages so they could get down easier. I don't know and frankly don't care if it's true. I like the explanation, so that is what I will continue to choose to believe.

The occasion is my baby brother's baby blessing. He was the sixth child and second son. I remember very clearly the night he was born, because my sister Keturah was stung by a yellow jacket. It was a very big deal. In fact, I think a bigger deal than the baby that showed up the next day. Hey give me a break! I was seven, remember!

My grandma sewed the little sailor's outfit that Conan is wearing. I remember her coming to our house to use our sewing room to sew it. She didn't like it when we bugged her. Looking back, I can see why. We were pests!

Check out the sideburns on my Dad!! This picture was taken in 1980. Wow! My mom was 30. I'm 35. She had six children and I'm overwhelmed with three! Just think, there are three of my brothers who are missing from the picture because they hadn't been born yet. Wow.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll post more later about the house we were living in when the picture was taken. It is enough for me to remember that summer. Was I ever that small? Tegan is seven now. I guess Milaka and I liked ruffles. I'm sure Milaka liked ruffles and I wanted to be just like her. Oh the joys of youth!!