My aunt's maroon van

When I was a kid in the early 1990s, my aunt had a maroon van. I saw and rode in that van many times, so it has a moderate presence in my childhood memories. I always knew when my cousins had arrived at our house because I could hear it moaning up the driveway.

I always thought it was really cool because it had lots of little pockets and things where you could store things. It also had a means to control the radio from the first row of backseats. I remember my cousin Joey annoying his mom by switching the radio to rock 'n' roll instead of whatever she was listening to.

I remember going to a Saver's store when I was four or five (I always thought of Lifesavers when I heard of Saver's), and on that same day I got a watch that came with a stick full of candy. It was very rainy that day.

On another occasion, I remember singing along with Billy Joel on the radio (of course, I had no idea who was singing): "In the middle of the night, I go walking in my street." My cousin Jesse corrected me: "Sleep!" In fact, when I hear early 90s music, I often think of this van.

One time (I was probably about six) my aunt drove me to the zoo, and when we got there, my cousin Peter threw up on the sidewalk in front of the van, so my aunt had to tell the person when we got our tickets that he had thrown up in front of the "maroon van." That was the first time I heard it called that. (It may have been the first time I ever heard the word "maroon.") When we got done for the day, we saw a wet spot in front of the van where Peter had thrown up.

Then I think I was probably seven or so when my mom got a call that they had been in a wreck. I was jealous that my cousins got to be in a car wreck, since I had never been in one.

Movies I've seen in theaters

I don't see movies that often, and I tell people, "If you name a movie, I probably haven't seen it."

Therefore, I'm going to try to remember all the movies I have seen in theaters. I will undoubtedly miss some, especially those from when I was very young. (I probably saw Aladdin in theaters, but I don't remember it.) I'm only counting regular theaters. I'm not going to count documentary-type films seen at the Clark Planetarium, such as Beavers.

The Flintstones. We saw this at a drive-in, but I remember more about the second feature, which was Jurassic Park. My mom thought it would be too scary for me, so she made me go to sleep in the front seat (we had our trunk open and facing the screen). I was peeking over the seat, and I remember seeing the scene with the animated DNA. Every time my mom looked back, I would duck behind the seat. I thought she didn't know what I was doing, but she probably did.

The Lion King. It seems like we saw this movie after a day of back-to-school shopping. I remember going home that day and telling my dad we saw lions.

The Pagemaster. This was a birthday party for Jonathan Martin. We were supposed to see The Swan Princess, but when we got to the theater, we got to take a vote whether to see Swan Princess or Pagemaster. I voted Swan Princess, but I ended up loving The Pagemaster.
 
The Santa Clause. This was a family outing.

Pocahontas. I think we saw this at a drive-in, and I brought the McDonald's Happy Meal tie-in toy I had. However, I don't remember what the second feature was. I think this is the only time I've ever seen this movie.

Toy Story. My uncle Paul took me and my Thompson cousins to see this a few days after Christmas (I remember "Feliz Navidad" playing on the radio). When we left the theater, it was raining, and Paul said, "It's probably snowing at Strawberry." They asked what our favorite parts were, and Paul said, "Mark's was probably the Christmas part."

Nell. This was definitely not an appropriate movie for a six-year-old. Since I was so much younger than my siblings, I think my family had to take me to a lot of movies they wouldn't otherwise take me to.

The Indian in the Cupboard. We were going to this movie with Uncle Paul and his kids. Susanne left a note for our parents that we went to see the movie; she asked David, "How do you spell cupboard?" and that was the first time I learned to spell "cupboard." David got mad at me because he had to take me to the bathroom during the "best part" of the movie.

Phenomenon. This was at the drive-in with my Thompson cousins, and they had brought small plastic lawn chairs. I'm not sure why this was the first movie.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This was the second feature that night. This is the only time I've ever seen this movie.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park. My mom and my siblings and I went to see this with my grandparents.

Star Trek: Insurrection? I know I saw some Star Trek movie with my family, but I don't remember what one. I didn't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek. I remember telling my friend David Christensen that I had seen a Star Wars movie with a lady in a black dress, and he laughed and said, "That wasn't a lady!" because he thought I was talking about Darth Vader.

The Parent Trap. I had a broken leg, and we went in our white station wagon to the drive-in. I think my cousin Tammy was with us.

Mulan. This was the second feature that night. When we were leaving, I remember the "True to Your Heart" song playing on the radio. I was also thinking about the creepy music from The Black Cauldron, which we had recently purchased.

The Waterboy. In November 1998, we had gone to Cedar City for my cousin Kim's wedding. That night, the entire extended family went to see this. I'm not sure why they chose this movie (I know it wasn't my own family's decision), because there were lots of kids in the family. My mom told me to close my eyes in one scene, but they didn't show anything.

A Bug's Life. We stopped and saw this movie on our way to Fillmore on New Year's Eve 1998 (almost 1999).

My Favorite Martian. My aunt had some tickets to a pre-screening of the movie, so my cousins and I went, along with my aunt's friend Susan and her kids. When I think about these movies from my childhood, I see that PG-rated movies have really toned it down. I've been watching the original My Favorite Martian series on Hulu, and it's pretty bad.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. When we were watching this, the tape melted. I remember seeing the bubbling on the screen and thought it was just part of the movie. We were all taken in to another theater that was also showing the movie but had started a little later. I remember basically nothing about this movie. I also remember nothing about episode IV, the only other Star Wars movie I've ever seen, so I can basically say I've never seen Star Wars.
 
The Iron Giant. I saw this for my birthday with my friends David and Brad. There is one scene that I can remember that I'm pretty sure is from this movie, but it was taken out for the home video release--unless it's from a totally different movie. Hogarth makes an ice cream sundae while his mom is on the phone telling him only to eat healthy things, and while he's eating the cherry from the top, he says, "I'm eating something healthy right now!"

Toy Story 2. My family saw this on the day after Thanksgiving in 1999. There was one little kid who kept yelling and cheering with the movie.

Chicken Run. This was another birthday movie; I saw it with my friends David and Cory.

The Grinch. My parents took me to see this movie the day after Christmas in 2000, at the no-longer-existing theater on 2600 South near Woods Cross High. Then I went home and read the book and watched the TV special to compare them all.

Shrek. I actually don't really remember seeing this, but it might have been with my cousin Jesse.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. My sister came with us and had brought her friend's six-year-old son, and he kept wanting her to offer me popcorn and other treats.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I found this movie boring.

Monsters Inc. I saw this with my parents.

Spider-Man (2002). My aunt Sarena was in town and she insisted on taking me to the movie, but I think I still had to pay for my own ticket. This is the only Spiderman movie I've ever seen.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I know I saw this, but I don't remember much about seeing it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I think this was at a dollar theater. I was bored by the first one, so I was reluctant to see this one, but my brother told me it was better. I went with him and Ya-ping, and I still found it boring. I've haven't seen any Lord of the Rings movies since then.

Holes. A 2003 drive-in trip.

Finding Nemo. Part of the same drive-in visit. I actually saw it twice in the theater. The second time was with Paul and my cousins. Tammy thought it might be too scary for her kids because of the shark, but I found it hilarious that two-year-old Anna said "the sark" was her favorite part. There was a grown woman who kept laughing and screaming loudly.

Elf . My family saw this on Ya-ping's birthday in 2003.

Shrek 2. While we were waiting in the theater to go into our theater, we passed one-year-old Allie around. When the movie was over, my mom and sister said they didn't know Julie Andrews was in the movie, but I had seen that on the movie poster.

The Incredibles. This was the day after Thanksgiving, and I think we saw it before some of us went to Target. I was disappointed in the movie's language.

March of the Penguins. I think we saw this movie because I liked polar regions.

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I had reluctantly agreed to go to the drive-in on this October Saturday night.

Corpse Bride. This was the second movie that night, and I loved it. Our radio shut off during the climax scene, but we got it started again.

Cars. We saw this on July 3 in the Fillmore movie theater, which only has one theater. Allie was not quite three and Preston was one and a half. Allie fell asleep during the movie, but Preston didn't, and he said, "Car?" when the movie was over. When we got back to Grandma Judy's house, Preston was laughing at sleeping Allie and was trying to poke her.

Charlotte's Web. I saw this my senior year in high school.

Shrek the Third. Susanne took me and Allie to this movie, and she had smuggled in some frozen Junior Mints. This movie renewed Allie's interest in Shrek.

The Nightmare before Christmas 3D. This was released in 3D in 2006, but I didn't see it until 2007, on the day before Halloween. It was my mom, my sister, Allie, and my cousin Quin, who was thirteen. Susanne was annoyed that we made her sit by him and said that she had to watch him more than she did Allie.

Alice in Wonderland. I think this was the first movie I saw in a theater after my mission. My mom and dad met me to see it in Provo, and my dad wanted to see it in 3D.

Toy Story 3. We saw this in August 2010, just after I moved back home for the fall. My sister was wearing her "Advice from a Bat" shirt.

Tangled. We saw this in December 2010. Allie had already seen it, and when Flynn Ryder was mortally wounded, she assured us, "He's not really dead." She didn't have the concept of Spoiler Alert.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. I don't really watch PG-13 movies, but a special set of circumstances led me to see this one. I think my grandma was in the hospital for some reason at this time.

Puss in Boots. We saw this on October 29, 2011, right after my parents made their very last house payment.

Hugo. We saw this in December or November of 2011. We saw it in 3D, and I didn't think it worked very well in 3D.

Arthur Christmas. I believe it was December 27 when we saw this movie in West Valley, so Christmas was already over.

The Lorax. On May 14, 2012, my roommate Bryton invited several people to go see a late showing at the dollar theater. Our little group had the whole theater to ourselves. It wasn't a great movie.

Frankenweenie. My parents met me in Provo on October 20, 2012, to see this movie. I had to see it. Sadly, this movie was overshadowed by Hotel Transylvania, an inferior flick.

Free Birds. My parents took me to this movie on November 2, 2013. I had to see it, since Thanksgiving movies are so rare.

Frozen. We saw this with my aunt's family on the day after Thanksgiving.

The Lego Movie. Last May, many members of my ward wanted to see this at the dollar theater. I rode with one Jarom Redhair, a very rude individual. It was a hilarious movie, and I understood why it sold out that night.

How to Train Your Dragon 2. We saw this at a drive-in last summer in California with my nephews.

Maleficent. This was the second feature that night, and our car battery died, so it was very hard to hear, but we got the gist of what was going on. My nephew Franklin seemed fine with the movie, but he initially wasn't keen on seeing a princess movie.

Meet the Mormons. I saw this opening weekend last October. I didn't think it was really that great for it to be released in mainstream theaters.

I'm sure I've seen others. And as soon as I post this, I will remember more.
 

Melville family cars

My family has had a fair amount of cars, especially since my dad likes having multiple cars. So I'm going to remember the ones we've had.

The gold Subaru. We had a gold Subaru when I was very young. I remember being able to see the road through a hole in the door. I can remember seeing a McDonald's napkin with multicolored M's on it, and there was a certain news sound I would hear on KSL that I always associate with the car. We got rid of this car in 1994 or 1995.

The Eagle. We had a car called an Eagle (apparently a Chrysler), and it was small (only a two-door), so we called it the "Eaglet." I can remember riding in it to our church for a Wednesday evening activity, and there were ginger snaps in the back, since my dad drove it to work. When I was seven or eight, my family wanted to sell it, so I made a "For Sale" sign with a green marker on a yellow piece of construction paper. It said "300$," and I remember my dad saying it wasn't selling because it looked like "3000." One time, we got a call asking about the car, and they asked for directions, so I said, "You're at the bottom of the hill, and then you go up..." and explained the way to our house, only in our neighborhood. The directions weren't helpful, but what could I do, since my mom was in the bathtub? Eventually, we sold it to a guy whose name was Markland, which was also the name of a fictional world I made up. A few weeks later, we got a call, because we hadn't removed the license plates, and Mr. Markland was apparently a homeless man living out of his car.

The Thunderbird. We got a brown Thunderbird, or T-bird, from my dad's parents when I was about five, and I was excited that it had a little ledge in front of the rear window where I could lie down. It only came with four seatbelts, so my dad bought another one for the middle seat in the back. My mom thought it was weird he bought a blue seatbelt when everything else was brown. We didn't have it very long before my dad totaled it by hitting an elk on his way to work in Park City. He was OK, but a little cut up.

The Mercury Marquis. We had a white station wagon with a blue interior. I was told it was a "Marquis," which sounded similar to my nickname, Marky. In 1996 (I think), my newly driving sister totaled it because she turned left in front of a car that didn't stop at a red light. One piece that was salvaged from the car was the little plastic "Marquis," which I kept on my bedroom door for years.

The blue Subaru Legacy. After we got rid of the gold Subaru, when I was six, we got a blue Legacy. I remember going to a special meeting for new car owners with my parents. They had a children's area where kids could play and get hot dogs, but I wanted to stay with my parents. I was content just holding my Valentine bear. My mom didn't like that the rear windows didn't roll down completely. In that vehicle, all five of us drove across the country to Washington, DC, and New York. One spring day in 2000, I think my mom was helping her friend's son Jake, and I was playing outside. My mom had to leave because she got a call that David had rolled the car, which he had dubbed Bertha. He was miraculously safe, but that was the end of that car.

The second station wagon. We got a very similar station wagon in 1995 to the one Susanne totaled, but I don't know if it was the same. It had a red interior instead of blue. I remember going with my mom when she bought it from the previous owners; they were talking about some Hispanic people who had stolen their car. That was the first time in my life I heard the word "Hispanic." I found a Donald Duck pen in the car, and I thought it belonged to the previous owners, but apparently it was ours. In 1999, David was at his girlfriend's house, and the car was parked on the street, and a teenage girl crashed into it and totaled it.

The Jeep Cherokee. In 1995 or 1996, my parents got a red Jeep, since my dad's family always had red Jeeps. The first night we rode in it, we stopped by my mom's friend Jackie's house, and I think we went to Smith's and got donuts. In 2003, when we got our Suburban, we sold the Jeep to my uncle Mike. I think he later wrecked it.

The Mercury Tracer. In 1999, after our second white car was totaled, my parents bought a 1994 Mercury Tracer. (I remember it was a 1994 because my friend Brad Rogers saw the tag on the keys that said "Used 1994" and thought it said "1999" and wondered how that was possible.) I think its official color was "Fiesta Red," but one of the documents called it "Hot Pink." It was definitely not hot pink, but it became known as the pink car. It had squealing brakes, so my dad suggested naming it Pig, since it was pink and squealed. Because of the brakes and the faulty automatic seatbelt, among other problems, my family sold it in 2007, thus ending my chances of learning how to drive a stick shift.

The white Subaru Legacy.  After the blue Subaru was totaled in 2000, my parents bought a 1995 Subaru Legacy. My dad suggested naming it Ghost, since it was white and was like a better version of the blue car. It was the first car that we ever had with a CD player, so that was really exciting, and the first car we ever had with a sunroof. We still have that car. It got me through high school and college and now I drive it to work. It's still in pretty good shape, considering how old it is. (It did refuse to start on the day before Halloween, but it fixed itself.)

The Chevy Suburban. Just before Easter in 2003, with my sister pregnant and my brother recently returned from a mission, my parents decided to get a bigger vehicle for our family. I was not happy with the purchase, as I didn't think we had money for it. We still have it, and our family has actually outgrown it. It came in especially handy when all of us lived together. We have taken many trips in it to Tennessee and California.

The Ford Taurus. In 2005, when I was a new driver, my family bought a green Taurus. It came with a Christian fish with a cross for an eye (get it? cross-eyed?) on the back. My dad thought it was part of the car, thinking it was the zodiac symbol for Taurus. But we told him that Taurus was a bull, so after that we sometimes referred to the car as the Pisces. It was a good little car, but the AC didn't work. If we fixed it, it would soon quit working. I took that car to Provo during the winter so that my dad could have the 4-wheel-drive Subaru during the winter, since he had a longer commute. When the car was covered with snow, sometimes water would leak into the passenger-side floor, and there would be puddles (or ice) in the car. Tired of fixing the AC, my parents sold it to my dad's cousin's family in the summer of 2013. I really liked driving it, but the AC was a problem.

The Toyota Rav4. One August night in 2007, I was standing outside Walmart, waiting for my mom to pick me up from work. I was talking with one of the guys who worked in Customer Service, telling him my mom was picking me up. A vehicle drove up and he said, "Is that your mom?" I said no, but then the window rolled down and it was her! I drove it a few times in those last few months before my mission, and I thought the seat didn't go back far enough. But I don't know why I thought that, because it does go far enough. My mom drives that car now.

The red Mazda. In the summer of 2013, my dad got a red Mazda CX5. It had to be red because that's his favorite color and his family always had red Jeeps. I'm not exactly sure why he got it. It's a good car, except that it has a really weird smell on the inside. He usually drives it to work.

The Nissan Pathfinder. In 2009, right after I got home from my mission, my sister traded her Nissan Altima for a Pathfinder. Last summer (2014), she wanted to buy a more gas-efficient car, so she wanted to sell the Pathfinder. The dealer wouldn't buy it for a great price, so my parents decided to buy it so they can go on adventures. I didn't know that they had done that until I had moved back home and my dad mentioned something about owning five cars. We took it on a bumpy road in Capitol Reef, and I think we will use it for more similar adventures. It's not as long as the Suburban but has better clearance than the other cars. We still often keep it at my sister's house, and she still drives it if it's snowy.

We still have the white Legacy, the Suburban, the Rav, the Mazda, and the Pathfinder. My grandparents say that we should get one more car. Then we will have enough for each of us in our house to have two.

Melville family pets

In this post, I'm not going to try to remember everything, but I will try to remember all the pets my family has had while I've been alive.

We had some guinea pigs, but family lore tells me one died because I dropped it. It seems that one was white and brown. I remember my dad burying some brown ones and him insinuating my cousin Jesse had contributed to their deaths. But I can't have been older than four, so who knows if that really happened.

We had a fishtank and we had plecostomuses, sucker fish. Because they are ugly, my family named them Homer, after Homer Simpson, and I think we had several Homers: Homer 1, Homer 2, etc. But then one day that fishtank cracked, so we had to transport the fish to bowls and my aunt came and took them.

One Christmas, probably in 1993 but maybe 1992, my brother got an iguana for Christmas and named it Lizzie. But a few days later it died. That was one of the rare times I saw my brother cry.

Soon after that, however, my parents got him a snake. It was an albino corn snake, so David named it Al. He used to play with Al all the time, and he even measured its length on the closet door where my family measured our growth. (My family got rid of that door. :( ) After a while, though, he quit playing with it as much, and it became less tame. That made it a problem when it would sometimes escape and he had to catch it. We used to go to the pet store to buy pinkie mice to feed it. We eventually gave it to my uncle's wife.

Around this same time, circa 1993, my aunt got a blue budgie bird that she intended to give to my cousins for Christmas, and we kept it at our house, but my family became attached to it and kept it. We named it Tweeters, Tweets for short.

In 1994 (I think), David got another bird, I think for his birthday. This bird was a cockatiel, named Spike for the stick-up feathers on its head. David often called her Spoy or Shpoy. David really wanted a dog, so Spike became his pseudo-dog. At one time we got bird food that looked like dog food. David taught it to bark, wolf whistle, and say "Pretty bird." It would often look in its mirror and go, "Pretty bird. Pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty bird." We tried to teach it to whistle the Andy Griffith Show theme--it got the first notes right, but then it did its own thing. One peculiar trait it had was to put its head in its toy bell, grab the dinger with its beak, and shriek as loud as it could. This was loud to us, so we can only imagine what it was like for her! (Sorry I keep switching pronouns for the bird.) If she would see someone nodding, she would nod too. I used to run around the living room and spin my arms in circles, and that would make her nod too. Sometimes Spike would have night terrors and would thrash around in the cage, leaving bird blood splattered on the cage and walls.

When we would get the two birds out, Tweeters was a little more defensive and aggressive, even though she was the smaller bird. David cut out pieces of cloth to put on his shoulders to keep his clothes clean. Sometimes he would take the birds (at least Spike) into the shower with him, although I don't think they sat on his shoulder but on his finger. David left on his mission and later moved away again, and since birds are messy, we didn't get them out often, and they got less tame. Tweets died just before Thanksgiving in 2003. In 2007, my sister was diagnosed with some disease that was aggravated by birds, so we had to give Spike away.

In 1995 or so, our neighbors across the street, the Reeds, gave us a hamster. I think one morning David found it in a plant holder. Shortly after that, we found it had escaped again and died, probably from eating mouse poison.

For my birthday in 1994, we got a new fishtank, and over the years, we had lots and lots of fish. I was particularly fond of the see-through glass fish, and I liked the crabs we had that used to escape. (I once wrote a post all about the crabs.)

We had a few notable fish. When I was in first grade, we had orange fish in which the males had sword tails, and on one occasion we bought both a male and a female, and soon the female was pregnant, and shortly thereafter there were lots of tiny orange dots in the fishtank. The other fish, including the parents, tried to eat the babies, but one hid in our decorative rocks. We captured it and took it to my aunt's house so it could be safe until it was fully grown. I named it Pumpkin and it lived to adulthood.

In college, David became a biologist and worked with zebrafish. In one lab in 2000 (I think), he injected chemicals into sets of 100 zebrafish, and in one of those sets, two fish survived while all others died. I don't know if they survived because they were superfish, or if they were superfish because of the chemicals, but these were super hardy fish. David named them Ishmael and Queequeg, characters in Moby Dick. They lived for more than four years, maybe even as long as six years. Not only did they live a long time, they lived in harsh environments. My mom took the aquarium to school, and the kids accidentally turned up the heat, killing all the fish except for the zebrafish. We weren't the most responsible at cleaning the tank, and sometimes it became super gross and all the fish died except the zebrafish.

And then there are our cats. In 2001, my sister and her roommates got a cat, Cleo, and we watched it for a few weeks. After that, I really wanted a cat. My mom's friend's cat had kittens on July 16, 2001, so we got one, a black and white cat with a black "mustache." I named it Dinah, after Alice (in Wonderland)'s cat. Dinah was hilarious but mean. She would sometimes bite me and even drew blood. She liked to attack my feet. As she got older, she got tamer.

Unfortunately, after we had had her for just over a year, in September or October 2002, she disappeared. We don't know what happened to her, although my dad saw a raccoon in our yard the night she disappeared. We went to the pound, but she wasn't there.

But I wanted to get a replacement cat. We were going to Taiwan in November 2002, so I asked my maternal grandparents if they would watch a new cat while we were gone. They agreed, so in October we went to the pound and got a grey kitten, which we named Jenny. More than twelve years later, Jenny is still alive and well. And what a strange cat she is. Soon after we got her, my paternal grandparents came for a visit, and Jenny loved rubbing against Grandma Judy's white leather shoes. To this day, she likes to rub against feet, more than she likes to be petted by hands. My dad won't let her be fed inside the house because she tends to throw up. She's picky about her litter box. She isn't particularly loving, hisses at kids, and likes to spill her water bowl. But she's a good mouser, and I like having her.

Conversation hearts

You know those chalky little hearts we always get in February? Love 'em or hate 'em, they are a ubiquitous part of Valentine's Day. (I'm actually surprised there aren't things flavored like them, like there are lots of candy corn-flavored things.) With it being nearly Valentine's Day, I'm going to remember incidents connected with them.

In preschool, one day we were in the upstairs dance hall, playing around, and when we were done playing, our teacher gave us some with faces on them. (I noticed that was different, so I obviously had had them before that.)

When I was in kindergarten, I decided I wanted to do a Valentine's adaptation of Santa Claus, so when we were at Kmart one night, I wanted to get a bag of the hearts. I made stockings out of paper and drew hearts on them and stapled the front and back pieces together. I was going to wait until Valentine's Day, but I couldn't wait, so I got up really early one morning, when it was still dark and my siblings were getting ready for their school, and I put the hearts in the stockings I had made. I remembered seeing pictures of Santa with his finger over his mouth, so I did that, and then I asked Susanne if she knew why I did that. She said she thought it was because I was telling her to be quiet, but I said that wasn't why. I remember her saying the yellow ones were her favorite.

One January in 1998 or so, I was at Food 4 Less in Bountiful, the one by the no-longer-existing Five Points Mall. I begged my parents to get me a box of  them, and they did. There was another girl who got her mom to get a whole bunch of them for a party.

In third grade, my friend David Christensen gave me his valentine at recess, and it had a few "lacy" conversation hearts in it.

Another time, perhaps around 2000, our home teacher's wife, Ivy Petersen, was visiting us and said she loved conversation hearts and got them right after Christmas. But she didn't like the purple ones, saying they "taste like perfume."

On Valentine's Day 2001, I was at mutual, and I remember someone in another ward saying some girls had helped her decorate sugar cookies, and some of them had conversation hearts. I thought that was a horrible topping for a cookie.

In junior high, I remember talking with my friend Houston about how the white ones were our favorites. Around that time, my family bought a bag that was all white, but they were a strong peppermint instead of the mellow wintergreen in the regular mix. My dad loved them.

On Valentine's Day in eighth grade, I awkwardly gave handfuls of the hearts to girls from my ward as they walked past me on the bus.

One year, perhaps in 2005, I was dismayed that I hadn't had any conversation hearts, and my mom had only a few that she got from her class, and they were weird ones.

In 2006, I put a bunch of conversation hearts in a dish downstairs. Months later, they still weren't gone, and my nephew Preston (between 19 and 21 months) knew they were up on the shelf. He had his own language, with some words in English, some in Chinese, and some that he had invented himself. His word for candy was "ba." (My guess is that it was the way he tried to say "pop," as in "Otter Pop.") He would beg for "ba," so I would get one for him.

A few days after Christmas in 2007, on my mission, we had visited our investigator Cindy, and she gave us boxes of conversation hearts. I think they were of the "smoothie" variety. Perhaps that day, or at least very soon after that, we were out shoveling the driveway where we lived, and I slipped a little bit. I didn't fall, but somehow my slip hurt my ankle, and I felt like I had sprained it again. So I went inside and read on my bed while eating the conversation hearts.

I got some in a package from my mom in 2009, but I got transferred right before Valentine's Day, so I didn't eat many of them before I went to my new area. (I didn't want to take them with me.)

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2010, I was at Walmart with my family, and I got a bag. They were different from the ones I was used to, and they even had a blue one. That night I went to my dinner group in Provo, and the host had bought some cookies that were heart-shaped with messages on them. That led to a conversation about the candies, and someone said how bad they were, and I told them they had changed them and they were better.

In 2013, I put some ice cream-flavored ones in a jar in my apartment for a decoration. My roommate Cameron loved them, and one day I discovered one on the stairs outside our apartment, I think because our friend Carissa had taken some with her and dropped one. That heart was on the step for months. After he had eaten some, he bought two new bags--one was the ice cream kind like I had, and one was the large version of the fruit variety. He asked me which I would prefer him to put in (he correctly guessed that the ones I had were the ice cream ones); I can't remember what I said. Once Valentine's Day was over, I transferred them to a bowl, but then I quit eating them, and apparently Cameron quit eating them, because they sat in the bowl for months until I decided they were too dusty to be good for anything. (Come to think of it, it was around that time Cameron decided he was too good for us. So apparently he was too good for the hearts, too.)

Childhood imaginings

When I was a kid, like most kids, I liked to imagine things. So I'm going to remember the things I imagined when I was five and younger.

When I was a very small kid, my dad would put me in a backpack and go jogging with me. (I know, right?!) I remember hearing birds (I don't know what kind) and I imagined they were saying, "Big Bird!" (I was a Sesame Street watcher.)

I also remember sitting in my bedroom, hearing the train at the bottom of the hill, looking at my toys. I had a package of Pull-Ups in my room, and I imagined going in the picture on the package and playing with the kids. (I think I liked the idea of not wearing any pants.)

One of my bath toys was a little man who could sit in a little boat. I think this was it:For some reason, I got this image of the man with a string through him, and I imagined him going back and forth along the string. I have no idea where I got that image, but I liked to run back and forth down the hall, imagining I was the man on a string.

Our side and backyard have some interesting structures made with rocks. Our patio has seats made of rocks, and our backyard has four rock steps that lead to a higher level of the yard. I liked to pretend that the yard was my house, and my house was upside down, because you went up the steps to go to my downstairs.

We have a rowing machine that had a black rectangular pad on it. It was covered with specks of white, so I imagined the specks were stars and it was a TV screen showing The Jetsons. And then since I imagined it was showing that show, I then imagined it showing other shows too, and I imagined I had lots of tapes of different shows I could watch, including the Vicki talk show I used to watch with my sister.

I remember being in the living room and seeing the sun shine on the specks of dust in the air. I imagined they were snowflakes and I was out in the snow.

We had a large black umbrella, and I liked to get it out of the closet, open it up, place it in the sun in the window, and pretend I was at the beach. 

There is one incident of imagining that I don't really remember. I do remember sitting in the living room and seeing the pillows on our couch. But I don't remember doing what I did after that. Apparently, I was pretending I was baking cakes, and I imagined the pillows were cakes. So what do you do with cakes? You put them in the oven. So that's what I did. And then later my mom came and started the oven, not knowing that I had been "baking."

Halloween costumes

I'm going to remember all the Halloween costumes I've worn through the years. Usually I start from most recent and work back to the oldest, but this time I will do the opposite.

1989. Family pictures indicate that I was a panda bear. But obviously I don't remember that, since I was only one.

1990. Again, family pictures indicate that I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but I don't remember what one. Just today, I was thinking how TMNT was a sizeable part of my childhood, even though I remember hardly anything about it now.

1991. My mom insists that I was a green butterfly, but I don't remember it.

1992 or 1993. One of these years, I was a ladybug. I remember one kid saying, "A little ladybug!" and I was offended because I thought he was making fun of me. My mom told me he wasn't.

1994. I was Santa Claus, but my beard didn't look good. I had pillows to make me fat. I had a purple arm cast, so some kids told me I should say that I fell out of my sleigh and broke my arm. I loved to wear that costume again at Christmas.

1995. I was a mummy, so when we went to Boo at the Zoo, I wanted my face painted with a mummy on it. During my school's costume parade, I held my arms out in front of me the whole time, so when we went outside and no one was watching us, I was relieved to put my arms down.

1996. I was a grim reaper in a felt costume my mom had made. I think my face was painted white; my robe was black with red trim. I carried around a little plastic scythe. I don't know how I managed that in elementary school; they probably wouldn't allow that today.

1997.  I was a jack-o-lantern, with leaves on my shoulders and orange and black curly vine things. I put pillows in the orange shirt to round it out. I remember my cousin Peter walking around in it, and the pillows dragged the shirt down and stretched it out.

1998. I was obsessed with the Wallace and Gromit shows, so I was Wallace, with a bald cap, a green sweater vest and red tie, and a stuffed dog that I carried around with me. Seeing the bald and the dog, someone thought I was Charlie Brown, but Ann Palmer, who was standing next to her, recognized me as Wallace. A few people knew who I was.

1999. Oh boy. I've always been a nerd, and in fifth grade I was especially nerdy, having a fascination with chess, even though I was horrible at it. I decided I wanted to be a chess piece, so I decided on a white king--a white robe, white face paint, and a white cross on my head. I doubt anyone knew I was a chess piece. They either thought I was a religious nut or a member of the KKK. I'm glad I didn't get arrested.

2000.  Taking the idea from someone mistaking my costume two years earlier, and with my fairly new-found interest in Peanuts, it was only natural that I be Charlie Brown. I wore a baseball cap (because I didn't want a bald cap) and his shirt (which my mom had made), and carried around Snoopy, who had been Gromit two years earlier. (He really looked more like Snoopy than like Gromit.)

2001.  Since I no longer went trick-or-treating, and my school had uniforms, there was no point in dressing up.

2002. Since my family was going to be out of the country on Halloween night, I decided not to celebrate Halloween that year, which was probably a bit silly.

2003. I didn't have much opportunity to wear it, but I wore a Charlie Brown ghost costume. You know, with all the holes in it.

2004. During the spring, during South Davis Junior High's spirit week, my mom had constructed a Fred Flintstone costume for decade day, so I wore that for Halloween.

2005. I think I wore the Flintstone costume to the mutual party, but when I took Allie trick-or-treating, I was a traditional ghost (with only two eyeholes).

2006.  I was a vampire, with a suit, a medallion, and a beautiful cape.

2007. I was a vampire again, but I think I had some enhancements. I painted my nails black, and I had a red and black bowtie.

2008. Elder Love and I wore identical ties, and I switched our name tags, so we were each other for Halloween. Only at district meeting, though.

2009. Nothing.

2010.  I was a vampire yet again--but this time, I had teeth to go with the costume.

2011.  A vampire again, but this time I was younger. I first wore my costume to a Halloween 5k, with red athletic shorts and a scary red-and-black skull shirt, with a cheaper red and black cape. I wore red shoes on Halloween.

2012. I only dressed up one day, and I wore the same simple vampire costume, but with red regular shorts instead of athletic shorts.

2013. You guessed it. A vampire, but with no cape. At a Halloween party, I got my face painted rather scarily.

I like my vampire costume, but it's time to move on.

Technological innovations in my lifetime

During my life, I've seen a lot of changes in technology. Definitely more than I will be able to remember for this blog. But nevertheless, I will try to remember what I can.

As a little kid, I can remember watching cartoons on our big TV that was put on the floor. To change the channel, you had to type a two-digit channel number, so if you wanted to go to channel 2, you had to put in 02. The channel numbers showed up as a large green writing in the lower right corner. I remember sometimes looking really close at the screen and seeing little green, blue, and red squares. I think I was in late elementary school when I first heard about TVs that were flat like pictures and you could hang them on the wall. But they were very expensive, and I didn't know anyone who had one. Now, of course, most TVs are flat.

I remember when we got our first fluorescent coiled bulb when I was in third grade. That night my parents came home from Fred Meyer and put it in our downstairs lights. Then I stayed up late to play Super Mario World.

And speaking of Nintendo, I grew up with my siblings playing the NES, and then when I was around seven, my brother bought a used Super Nintendo. When I was in second grade, the Nintendo 64 came out, and I wanted one really bad. I was obsessed with getting one. But I never did. (My brother tells me it was because he told me it was hard.) I remember trying one in Target one day when I was "home" sick, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. (Now that I think about it, I don't think stores have video game testing centers like they used to.) Later in elementary school, the GameCube came out, and I was no longer really interested in newer game technology. In high school, the Wii came out, and that has been the most recent Nintendo system, until the Wii-U. Of course, there have been other game systems that I've seen--I remember watching Sega games at others' houses, and then there were incarnations of PlayStations, X-Boxes, and others. When I turned eight, my grandparents got me my own GameBoy. It was really cool, because it was black instead of typical grey. Then Pocket GameBoy came out, then GameBoy Color, then GameBoy Advance (which is the most modern one I have), then DS and 3DS.

When I was a kid, we would listen to tapes. I remember listening to The Little Mermaid and the Carpenters on tapes. Occasionally we would even listen to records on our big stereo, which was so big it was its own piece of furniture. When I was six, we finally got a CD player, although they had existed long before then. However, our cars only had tape players, so we would put our CDs on tapes, and we would make mix tapes for vacations. When we finally got a car that had a CD player, it was a big deal. Now, of course, tape decks are obsolete, except that I use mine with an adapter for my phone. CDs are well on their way out, with some stores not selling them at all. I still buy CDs, but I pretty much only use them in my car, ripping the music electronically. It is more convenient to have all of your music available from one device, rather than having to carry CDs that only are part of your collection.

When I was very young, we had a computer that when you printed something, it came out on those sheets of paper that are attached and you have to tear off the sides. It had WordPerfect (which was a great program, even in high school, and I'm sad it's gone) on it and some primitive games. There were plenty of floppy disks that went with it. Then in 1997, we got a new computer with Windows 95 (school computers used Windows 3.1). We had dial-up internet, and we of course used AOL. (The only people I know now who use an AOL email are my grandparents.) We had to wait for the internet to dial up, and it was super slow on Friday nights. On one occasion, I heard my mom and brother say that they had dialed a different number, and it ended up being some old lady's number, so they heard her voice when they tried to get on the internet. We thought we were pretty cool for having the internet. It wasn't uncommon, but not everyone had it. I had a lot of fun searching the internet and setting up my email account. That was the era of email forwards. (I was spared most email forwards, but now that they have transferred to Facebook, I unfortunately have to deal with them.) One time, someone sent this video to my mom, and it took ten minutes to load:
Now we can watch it instantly, most of the time. One time, I remember reading an article in the newspaper where they made a computer that could access the internet without any wires. Now wifi is the norm. As with TVs, large monitors are practically fossils.

I remember when cell phones weren't overly common. You must have been rich if you had one, and they were really annoying when people used them in public. The ring tones were just beeps. Then cell phones became more and more common. When I was in high school, Apple announced the iPhone, and now smartphones are really common. Even I have one. Phones can do pretty much anything. In the early 2000s, Palm Pilots were a big deal, but now phones are better than they were.

I remember in early high school seeing the top of my house from Google Earth. Now that's not special, and you can see the front of your house with Google Maps. Sometimes I think it's a little creepy how much Google can do; recently, I got some notifications from Google in which they identified where a lot of my pictures were taken without me telling them. It amazes me when Facebook and other sites can identify people's faces.

I have been home from my mission for five years, and sometimes it amazes me the things that have happened even since I've been home. I first heard of iPads in 2010, and now they are common. I remember a discussion in 2010 about cloud storage. I had never heard that term before. I know it existed before then, but now it is much more common, with things like Google Drive and Dropbox.

Around the year 2000, DVDs came out. I didn't know why they were better than VHS tapes, and I didn't think we would ever get one, as DVD players cost hundreds of dollars. But now they are very cheap, as are DVDs. Blurays try to replace them, but the change isn't as drastic, so I think they will take longer to finally dethrone DVDs. I think Bluray and DVDs will probably die out around the same time. The 3D movie fad, which was popular five years ago, is becoming less popular, and there are fewer 3D Blurays being released, even when they are 3D in theaters.

We thought our used 1995 Subaru Legacy that we got in 2000 was really cool, as it had a CD player and a tape player, and a sunroof and a moonroof, and of course automatic windows (which wasn't new to us, but we did have several cars without automatic windows). Now, cars have built-in GPS, iPod decks, backup cameras, alarms that alert you when you might hit something, and so much more.

Household appliances have become more high tech, with lights that show you when a cycle is done, alarms that beep when you keep the fridge door open, and other things.

Broken arms

When I was a kid, I broke my arm twice.

The first time was on an October morning in 1994. I remember seeing the yellow leaves on the chokecherry tree in the backyard. I was jumping on the trampoline with my brother David, and after being bounced, I landed on my arm on the tramp. I went inside with my arm hurting. I don't remember a whole lot about the day, but I think my mom knew immediately it was broken--so we missed my cousin Chancey's baptism. I remember getting a little pink bean-shaped dish in case I needed to throw up. At the doctor's office, I got some Halloween stickers. My cousins came and gave me a picture book about a kid and a tree house. It seems like my family asked me if I wanted any candy, and I said I wanted green frogs, but they couldn't find them so they got me blue sharks instead.

The second time was a March evening in 1997. I was jumping on the tramp again with David, but there were also two girls about three years older than me, Taryn Pay and her friend. We were playing crack the egg, where you fold yourself up and the others bounce you until you open up. I had been the egg, and I had been opened up. I was on my hands and knees on the mat when I was bounced up, and when I hit the mat again, my arm started hurting. It felt just like it did when I had broken it two and a half years before. I went inside and lay down on my bed, crying in pain. I remember Taryn's friend came inside to use the bathroom, and she saw me in pain. David came inside and I think gave me some ice. He was unusually nice to me. At InstaCare, I got a sling with Snoopy on it. At that time, not only was I not interested in Snoopy, I thought I was too mature for cartoons in general, so I wasn't overly happy with it.

December 21

As we inch ever closer to Christmas, I'm going to remember what I can about four days before the holiday.

2012. I remember wrapping Christmas presents. That night I watched Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the intent of seeing if it could count as a Fourth of July movie. But since they didn't mention the Fourth of July until twenty minutes in, and the last half of the movie takes place July 5 and July 6, I decided not to count it.

2011. We had our work Christmas party in our break room, so all the people from other departments had to go elsewhere for their breaks. They had put strings across the room and hung those plastic candy-filled canes on them. We all got one, and then later we got to get more. I got red and green Sprees and I think one other kind of Christmas candy. They had even brought the radio up into the break room, which annoyed me a little, since radio Christmas music isn't very good. Our supervisor, Nate, thanked us for our work. Then we ate Subways. Then they told a bunch of us we could go home early. So I drove to Shopko in Bountiful to do my shopping, listening to Handel's Messiah on the way. I looked at various stores, and when I went to my car, it wouldn't start! So I called my parents, and while I waited I finished my shopping. My parents came and tried to jumpstart the car, but it wouldn't work. So then they called a tow man, and he tried to jump it, and it still wouldn't work, so he towed it. Then we went to dinner at Burger King, where in the background they played Rachel Platten's "1,000 Ships."

2009. In the morning, my mom and I were going up to Farmington to get me a new driver's license. I put in my He Gives Flowers to Everyone Cherie Call CD. When we got off the freeway in Farmington, I saw a car pull off on the shoulder, and I could tell they were doing a U-turn. I told my mom that, but it was too late and he pulled right in front of us. It was the first time I had been in an accident. The car started spilling liquid all over, and I tried to call 911. My phone was acting weird, but fortunately a police car drove by right then. The guy in the other car was very sorry and admitted it was his fault. I think Susanne came and picked me up to take me to the DMV. That day we discussed how our family home evening would be for the kids to deliver Christmas presents. Allie called it "Hamily Fome Evening." (Maybe that was a different day that month.) But instead of going to our FHE, I went to the singles ward FHE, which was a white elephant party. I grabbed a couple of CDs I no longer wanted, a Monkees compilation and a cheap Halloween CD. I went to the house where the party was being held. I almost went to the wrong house, but then I figured out it was wrong. The Christmas tree was a really fancy designer tree with gaudy candy decorations, and a cover album of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack was playing. They had pizza for dinner, and Peter Moosman, a vegetarian, was disgusted when he found out that what he thought was cheese pizza actually had meat on it. "Who puts toppings under the cheese?!" He said he felt sick. I thought it was funny, though now I would be a bit more sympathetic. Then we went downstairs for our white elephants. At one point I got a Cafe Rio giftcard, and later a Star Wars cup and a watch, but eventually I ended up with an IQ book and a CD of songs written by Orrin Hatch. The Down syndrome Matt Chidester ended up with a typewriter, which he was going to give to his mom. The party went late, and then I still had to come home and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which I did in the kitchen.

2008. It was very snowy in Davenport. We went to church, but a lot of people were snowed in, since they lived in other towns. There were very few of us at church, so we had a short sacrament meeting and went home, even though it was supposed to be the Christmas program. Elder Love and I put our boots on and got shovels and went around shoveling people out. We shoveled Sister Barnett's driveway, and she invited us in and gave us hot chocolate.

(Isn't Google cool? It made a snowy version of my picture without me asking!)

Then we went to shovel the driveway of a woman named Henrietta. We shoveled her car, thinking she could probably make it out the rest of the way. We didn't talk to her; we just did it. (A few weeks later, we went back to her house/trailer, and she asked us if we were the ones who had shoveled her car out. I expected her to thank us, but instead she complained that we had only shoveled one side, as if we had done some terrible, inconsiderate thing! Her entitlement mentality made us never want to help her again.) We did lots of walking and shoveling, but we did that a lot that month, so I can't remember specifics about this particular day.

2007. We went biking around to contact people. We visited a less-active who was the brother of a semi-active family in the ward. Elder Chun talked to him, and he said to me, "I see you're a little green around the ears," and I said, "Completely." Then we tried to see Cindy Neely (whom I had never met), but she wasn't home. We then went home, and I remember being on my bike, thinking, "Don't hit that small pothole on the shoulder," and I did and crashed. I was fine, though. We went home for lunch, and we talked with Sister Welsh, whom we lived with. That evening we went tracting in the Greenbluff Ward, and all the people said we could come back (although none of them were actually serious when we went back). Then we went to an appointment with Ashley Guiler, a less-active teenage girl. Elder Chun missed the road to turn on and ended up in a forested, steep, icy road. It was scary. We simply couldn't make it up the hill. I suggested going to the bottom of the hill to see if there was an outlet to a main road, but Elder Chun wouldn't (because there wasn't one). He told me to pray we would be able to get out. He would have me push, but I would just push myself away from the car on the ice. Eventually he got the idea to go on the side of the road where there were pine needles, and then we were finally able to make it out. Then we visited the Guilers, who gave us Thin Mints and hot chocolate. He told them the story of what had just happened to us, as an illustration of receiving inspiration (the inspiration being to drive on the pine needles). We left late (I was brand new and didn't feel it was my place to say what to do) and as we were driving home, the zone leaders called and asked to talk to Elder Chun. I told them he was driving, and they asked where we were. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was quite an eventful day. This morning we went biking to contact a referral. I had many close calls on my bike. We contacted Sister Cunningham's less-active brother, who has a lot of faith in God but questions much of the deeper doctrine. He agreed to let us come back.

"On our way back home, I completely biffed it, falling directly on the road. Fortunately there were no cars. I am fine, although my knees were scraped through my suit, and I think one of my knees in my pants is a little thinner. A button came off my suit, as did a reflector from my bike. My suit is dusty so I will have to stop at the dry cleaner's on Monday, hopefully. I had debated not wearing my gloves on the way back. Fortunately I did so my hands are fine, not with the scrape that is on my glove. 

"Later we went tracting. We went to six or seven houses. Three of those had people answer--all of them agreeing to have us come back next week. The first was interested in our idea of a prophet on the earth.

"After that we drove around looking for houses of referrals. We could not find many of the houses.

"After this unsuccessful drive, we were finished before we had planned. We made an appointment with a less active member. On our way Elder Chun missed the road and we had a scary experience driving on a dark, steep, windy [as in winding], icy road with ditches on either side. Elder Chun tried to turn around but we had a very unsuccessful time driving back up the hill. I suggested driving down to the end of the road but it turned out (according to the sister we taught after) to be a dead end, so I'm glad he didn't listen. After failed attempt after failed attempt, we prayed. Elder Chun had the idea to try driving on the side of the road where it was not icy. Eventually it worked, and we thanked Heavenly Father for the successful serendipity of the situation. The roads here aren't maintained very well--that road was solid ice that when Elder Chung [sic] asked me to push, I was only able to push myself away from the car.

"We taught the family after that and got home after 10. Breaking mission code just a little bit..."

2006. I'm not certain, but this might have been the day that in my Spanish class, we were singing Christmas carols, and some classmates wanted me and a kid named Zach to sing in front of the class. I realized they probably considered us similar, but that bothered me, because I didn't want to be like him.

2005. Again, I'm not sure, but this might have been the night that we bundled the kids up and took them to Temple Square. Then we went inside one museum where there was a play area for kids. I came home and had some pumpkin cheesecake.

2004. We made suckers in my chemistry class, but we had to put the flavoring in before it cooled, and that ruined the flavoring. I got a school newspaper, and I took it home and read it. That night there was a power outage. I read some Edgar Allan Poe by the fireplace. I was going to take a shower and go to bed. Ya-ping and my mom questioned me taking a shower in the dark, but I did that all the time.

2000. We might have had our school Christmas sing-off. We sixth-graders sang "Little St. Nick" and "My Grown-Up Christmas Wish," which I thought was a dumb song. Mr. Williams (my teacher) went around throwing candy to everyone, wearing a poster that said "Sugar Plum Fairy." 

1999. I'm not sure, but this might be the day we gave our teacher our gifts in fifth grade, and I gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card. She acted excited when I gave her the envelope, and she said, "Is this what I think it is?" The night before I didn't want to lick the envelope, so I sealed it with water instead, and got the envelope a little wrinkly from water, and I worried Mrs. Call would think I slobbered on the envelope so that it got wrinkly.

1995. This might have been the day that the office ladies called me down so that I could sing to them, and then they gave me a fruit-flavored candy cane. Then I went back to the classroom and got my stuff, since school was over.

1994. This might have been the day that Mrs. Christensen, our kindergarten teacher, gave us little Christmas hard candies. She told us we couldn't talk with candy in our mouth because we might choke. One of my classmates was being silly and put her candy at the front of her nose like Rudolph, and Mrs. Christensen reproved her. I was talking to Ali Snarr, and she took her candy out of her mouth and said to me, "You're not supposed to talk with candy in your mouth."

Election Day

Some Election Days are bigger than others, but I'm going to remember as many as I can anyway. Election Day is the first Tuesday of November, unless the first Tuesday is November 1.

2012. I remember I kept checking the election results on KSL. Although I voted for neither Romney nor Obama, I was kind of hoping Romney would win, and I was disappointed when he didn't. But I wasn't as disappointed as my roommate Bryton, who had even gone campaigning for Romney.

2011. OK, so I don't really remember what happened this day. But I want to provide a link to a blog post I made in connection to Election Day that year, because I found a certain candidate's platform hilarious.

2010. I remember I drove down to the North Salt Lake offices to go vote, and I saw the Ulmers there. I said hi to them in the parking lot, but I don't know if they recognized me. People were wearing "I Voted" stickers at work.

2009. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was one of the first days in a long time that Elder Tamblyn was healthy for all of the day. Therefore, we were able to get a lot accomplished, visiting the Heaths and Sister Adair. We did some light tracting in the dark, which I hate. We had dinner with the Larsens and my back tire got flat. We met with the Piquets. Michael told me I should become a professor or a teacher, which surprised me, since I don't feel like I'm too good at teaching over there. 

2008. All the things I can remember are accounted for in my journal, except that I remember that I read aloud "The Raven" while Elder Love worked on tiling (which probably wasn't very kosher). At dinner, five-year-old Bailey Christensen asked what we had dressed up as for Halloween. Elder Love said he was a missionary; then I reminded him that he was me (we had worn identical ties and switched name tags). The Christensens commented on my very short hair, and Elder Love confessed that he had done it. Here's the journal entry:
"We helped with the Herrons' tile for most of the day. Not having much experience and fearing messing it up (since I never do anything right), I didn't feel like I was doing much. The times we weren't tiling we were waiting at the church to meet with Wanda but she didn't come. We also had dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the Christensens, and then helped the Stackhouses with a little moving. It was rainy and very cold today. I like my new sweater."

2007. I remember going with my dad to the Eaglewood golf course clubhouse to vote. I voted against the school vouchers, and thankfully they didn't win.

2006. My mom and I went up to the clubhouse to vote. We passed the house that my niece had dubbed "the spider house" because it had a giant spider at Halloween. They had all their Christmas stuff out already. After we came home, I watched the Election Day episodes of The Addams Family and Gilligan's Island. I realized that the Gilligan episode would be more suitable for a presidential election, but I realized I wouldn't be around for a presidential election for six years!

2004. Someone in my history class had some writing on his hands that someone else had written. It said, "Vote No on Proposition 3! Go gayness!" My chemistry teacher, Mrs. Duffin, drew some red and blue stars on the whiteboard with a note that said, "Vote today! If you are 18 (and registered)".

2000. I remember someone asked the janitor if he was voting for Al Gore or George Bush, and he said George Bush.

1996. I remember that our teacher, Miss Slater, gave us little pieces of paper with pictures of Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. She told us not just to vote for the best looking person, but that there should be another reason we voted for the people. I think most of us voted for whoever our parents were voting for. She tallied up the votes, and Bob Dole had the most, followed by Bill Clinton. Ross Perot had two votes. (David Christensen told me years later that he had voted for Ross Perot, because he interpreted "Don't just vote for the most handsome one" as "Vote for the ugliest one.") My mom made Rice-A-Roni for dinner.

1994. I think we kindergarteners wondered why there were all those grownups behind little curtains.

October 29

This time I'm going to remember what I can about two days before Halloween.

2012. Our ward was having a Halloween party over in Kiwanis park, so I donned my red shorts, black-and-red skull shirt, cape, and vampire teeth. I walked over to Kiwanis, and some people I passed complimented me for my costume. When I thanked them, they saw my teeth and were impressed. When I got to the party, there were few people in costumes. Joel DeVore was making hot dogs. I talked with my home teacher Westin and his friend Lisa. Somehow the term "phonology" came up, and that reminded Westin of "phrenology," and he told me he heard about phrenology being applied to Joseph Smith. Our activities committee announced that they wanted to show Hocus Pocus but couldn't find it, so they were watching Young Frankenstein instead. I didn't want to watch Hocus Pocus, but Young Frankenstein was even worse, so I left. As I was walking home, I noticed that the Mountain West Burrito was having a party--apparently it was their grand opening. I went home and turned on my computer. I was listening to "Alejandro" when our home teachers came by. They visited for a while. I had invited my horse friend Kristen to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas that night, and she came when the home teachers were still there. Eventually they left, and I started the movie. There was something weird with the sound. Another horse, Carissa, knocked on our door, so we invited her in and she watched the movie with us. During "Jack's Lament," my roommate Bryton fixed the sound. After the movie, I asked the three how they liked it (since they hadn't seen it), and they didn't like it as much as I do.

2011. In the morning, I went with my parents first to Winegar's grocery store. They went into America First and made their final house payment. The teller drew confetti and balloons on the receipt. My mom wanted to keep the receipt, but I don't think she did, just leaving it in the Suburban. After that, we went to the new movie theater in Centerville to see Puss in Boots. I waited for the credits because I feel that that's the true end of a movie, I wanted to see if there were any special features, and I wanted to learn who was singing at the end of the movie. Then we went to Walmart. We got Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters and I got caramel-apple-flavored cereal. After that, my parents went to Home Depot (I think to buy a mirror) but Allie and I stayed in the car. Then we went to Dairy Queen for lunch. I asked if I could get a pumpkin pie Blizzard with my meal, but the cashier couldn't understand me and my mom had to "translate."

2010. This might have been the day that "The Monster Mash" played on the country station at work, and my coworker Brandon rejoiced that they played a classic Halloween song. We would have swept up at the end of the shift, and the brooms always made me think of witches, and I may have thought about how the next time I came to work, Halloween would be over.

2009. I remember going to rake leaves at Sister Carter's house. She had Halloween cookies from the store. There were bat cookies, and I found it strange that they were white. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we did some of sacred planning but Elder Tamblyn was feeling out of it. Then we ate at Sister Carter's. Too many leaves stopped the mower so I raked instead. There were a lot and we didn't finish. 

"We were late to Deana's appointment so we didn't get to teach her. We tracted a little bit and saw some potentials. It was cold and misty all day. After dinner we tracted some more and such. We visited Tyson next door and found out Kim's being kicked out. Then we stopped at the Coopers' before our lesson with Mallary."

2008. We had spent the night in the house Sister Stackhouse was moving out of. I got up and ate Boo Berry cereal for breakfast. Elder Love noticed beer in the fridge and said that Sister Stackhouse would be mad about that (that might have happened the night before). I think Sister Stackhouse might have come later to move some things out. That day we were moving a pile of dirt for Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active member. While we did so, I played all of The Nightmare Before Christmas in my head, just to see if I could. Sister Coultas made us tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches for lunch. After that, we drove back to Ritzville. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Exactly one year ago today I was buying my temple clothes in a pumpkin shirt. I got up early to go to the store, and bought lots of candy. I can't believe how long it's been.

"We helped Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active, by moving a large pile of dirt underneath her fence. That took a while but she made us lunch. We briefly helped Sister Stackhouse as well.

"Then we came back down to Ritzville. We tried to see a few people. The Carletons talked to us for a while. They're some of those digressing people. Then we saw Crystal--it was Edward's birthday--and went over the branch list with Brother Andrus, whose wife had her name removed."

2007. That morning I got up early and my mom and I went to Target because she wanted to buy my sister a Wii for Christmas. I remember waiting for it to open and discussing with another woman about how we had to wait until Monday since we didn't shop on Sunday. When we went in, all the Wiis were gone, but some other waiting customers were able to get their X-Box Guitar Heros. We looked at the Halloween stuff and I got a jack-o-lantern fleece blanket. We got a white pumpkin so I could carve it as Jack Skellington. I noticed candy cane Kisses, so we got those as well (I was less strict back then about things being in season). Then we went to Shopko. We looked at their clearance Halloween stuff. We got a silly bat decoration that descended on a string and made noises as it did so. Later that day we went to the Distribution Center so I could get fitted for my temple clothes. One of the workers complimented my jack-o-lantern shirt.

2003. I think I was with my mom and we were buying things for me to take the the seminary "extended devotional" (party) the next day.

1999. This was the school Halloween parade. I wore my ridiculous chess piece costume--a white robe and a white face with a cross on my head. Cody Egbert in my class was dressed as the devil. As we passed by the sixth-grade classes, I heard Mrs. MacAdams say I should go by the devil--that was the first time I realized people might misinterpret my costume. We got little trick-or-treat bags, and Hillary Ulmer wanted to use hers to hold her pretend knife. That might have been the night that I remember watching one of the Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons in the kitchen, and then later my mom turned off the lights and screamed. We asked what she was doing, and she said she thought it was Halloweeny.

1994.  My mom took my cousins to the hospital so they could see their new brother, Quin. After we got there and they saw the baby, Wayne told my cousins that there were donuts they could have, and Chancey and Jesse were excited. Then they told me I could have one too, and I was excited.

October 28

As we get closer to Halloween, it's time for me to remember what happened three days before All Hallows' Eve.

2012. I wore my jack-o-lantern tie to church. As I came home with my roommate Scott, we saw some people putting up lights on the house across the street. I probably had leftover pizza for dinner. That night I wrote a blog post.

2011. I would have watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and I wrote a blog post.

2009. We had to get up at 1:00 a.m. to drive from Clarkston to Spokane in order to go to the temple. An old man from the Clarkston elders' ward worked there, so he was driving us. I tried to sleep in the car, but it didn't work. When we got to the temple, he went in for meetings, while we missionaries slept in the van. That was the only time I was really able to fall asleep. Then we went in. Since we were dependent on riding back with that brother, we were there long enough to do two sessions. After one of them, I talked to some members of my first area, but they didn't really remember me. Elder  Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories instead of another endowment session, which annoyed the temple workers. I wasn't able to stay awake very well. After we were done, Elder Masten had a conversation with one of the temple workers about wrestling (I won't describe how that one came about). Then the member we were with took us to Denny's. (That's one thing I miss--free meals all the time.) We drove back through Idaho, and the member had to stop at the cabin of his son, or something like that. Elder Critchfield went in with him while the rest of us slept in the car. It took a long time, which annoyed us, because we were losing valuable P-day time. They finally came out, and they had a stinking garbage bag with rotted turkey meat. Elder Critchfield held it out the window while we drove to the nearest Dumpster. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very loong day. Elder Critchfield had told us we would have to leave at 4:00 A.M. But he was wrong. We had to leave at 2:00. If I had known it was going to be that early I probably would have declined. I had a hard time sleeping on the way up. We got to the temple about 4:30, and slept in the car until about 5:30. That was the only time I could actually sleep and it wasn't long enough.

"We did a 6:00 session. President (now Brother) Wells, Brother Jones, and Brother (now President) Grimes from my first area were there. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories while Elder Tamblyn [I meant Masten] and I did another session. I had a harder time focusing in that one as the hunger and fatigue were getting to me. On the way out I saw Ashley Guiler's fellowshipper from the Greenbluff ward (I can't remember his name).

"We went to Denny's, and then headed back. I slept a little better, but we were waylaid because we stopped at our ride's son-in-law's house. Elder Critchfield went in with him and over an hour later they came out with a bag of stinky, rotting meat.

"When we got back we only had time to shop. Then we saw Elijah, then the Hugheses. We put on thermals, and saw a PI named Melissa, then visited the Loves, then met with Bishop.

"I have understandably been tired all day."

2008. We had zone conference up near Deer Park. I think when we got there, Sister Shaw was singing in the chapel, and I thought it was an elder with a tenor voice. When we got in line to greet President Clark, he told me that "Sister Turnbridge got baptized." I didn't know what he was talking about, but eventually I realized he meant Kristi Turnidge, whom we had taught and who got married to the less-active Brother Turnidge right before I transferred out of my first area. There are other things I remember, but my journal describes them pretty well:
"Today is my eleven month mark. Exactly one year ago, I taught nursery for the last time, giving out pumpkin candy to the kids.

"This morning (and afternoon) we drove through Mead. It's mostly as I remembered, except for a few things. The Pehl house, the home of the murder, is now remodeled. A church being built then is now complete. Signs are plastered saying the contract for the big freeway is complete.

"President Clark told me that Kristy Turnidge got baptized in Montana. At first I didn't know whom he meant because he said "Sister Turnbridge." Also he asked for people who know Spanish, so I told him I did. All of our MTC group was there; it was Northland and Spokane zones. Sister Van Noy badly wanted a picture but Elder Maxfield and Elder Hansen both left before we could take it. [We did take a picture of just three of us, but that picture apparently is on the one memory card I haven't been able to find from my mission.]

"Elder Hightower came up to hug me while I was next to President. I didn't hug back and President tried to get me to, but I said I didn't like to hug. Then President lifted his elbow and said touching elbows will be our hug replacement. He can be kind of silly sometimes. I feel a lot less uncomfortable around him.

"Elder Condie tried to hug me, but I blocked him and told him to get his claws off of me.

"On our way back from Airway Heights, where we stayed last night, we saw Joel in Reardan. Then we decided to see some distant potentials near Davenport. We entered a shady gully with lots of trees. It was more like someplace up north of Spokane. It was too dark to determine the house we needed, but now we know where it is.

"Right now we're staying at Sister Stackhouse's old house. It's not the cleanest."

2007. It was my turn to teach nursery. The lesson was "I can be honest," so I decided to test their honesty by giving them candy pumpkins and then asking who didn't get one. Only one kid said they didn't get one, but I think they were too young to really know what they were saying. I also brought jack-o-lantern pictures for them to color, but apparently that was too sacrilegious and some other teachers printed off pictures that said "I can be honest." They let them color the pumpkins at the end of nursery.

2006. My dad had considered going to Fillmore, but my sister convinced him otherwise. My family had made brownies, and I tried to come up with excuses to eat them. There was a Munsters marathon that day, and we also watched Frankenweenie. I think we vacuumed the basement.

1995. I went to Boo at the Zoo with my cousins. I was wearing my mummy costume. They gave us little plastic trick-or-treat bags that had a picture of a witch made out of candy on them. We kids filled our bags, and my brother David got a solitary piece of candy near the butterfly exhibit. I remember talking with Chancey near the fish exhibit, near the place with the fake jail. Later we got our faces painted; I told the woman I wanted a mummy on my face. Then we went to my grandparents' house. They had a fire going, and I remember thinking that we couldn't get the balloons near the fire, because they would pop.

1994. David was having his birthday party with a few friends, playing video games. I remember they had some Doritos that had a Halloween picture on the bag. My cousins were also all there, because their mom was having a baby.

September 30

With it almost being my birthday, I found it fitting to remember the various things that have happened on the day after my birthday.

2012. At church, Michael Wyatt was talking to me about something after sacrament meeting. While he was talking to me, Shayli Simmons came up to me and wished me happy birthday. So then when Michael was done talking to me, he also told me happy birthday. After church, I made a blog post.

2011. That night we went to El Matador for my birthday dinner. When we got at the restaurant, I noticed a terrible goathead patch, and Allie was standing in it. I said, "Don't stand on those plants." She said, "Sorry." She probably thought it was because she wasn't supposed to step on them, but I just didn't want her to get them stuck to her shoes. While we were waiting for food, I mentioned that I had the stupid "I Wanna Go" Britney Spears song stuck in my head. Then my mom told Susanne that they had got me Lady Antebellum and Kelly "Clarkston" for my birthday. I said to my mom, "What did you call her?" since she had inserted a t.

2010. I think this was the time my mom and I went down to the Legacy Parkway trail so I could use my new bicycle. I was wearing my Snoopy "Party like a Rockstar" shirt. I think I brought a Gatorade in the car. My mom just walked on the trail while I biked. I was annoyed when I came across some bikers stopped and having a conversation in both lanes of traffic. Another woman alerted me when she was passing me, but I stayed in my lane, although I might have slightly swerved and made it look like I was switching lanes. Then I came home and ate some Jelly Bellys and I think I turned on the TV for some reason. I think I started making pillowcases from the holiday material my mom had bought me.

2008. Elder Duncan and I waited to get the car from the other elders. We were dressed in our suits to go to district meeting, but when the other elders arrived, they asked why we were wearing our suit coats. They told us that district meeting had been moved to Wednesday, but we had missed the memo. Those elders informed us that we still had more than a hundred miles we could use and it was the last day of the month. We worried that if we didn't use our monthly allotment of miles, they would take miles away from us, so we considered going to Waterville, a small town twenty-five miles north. Elder Duncan and I went home and changed our plans for the day. We went through the area book and looked up people we could see in Waterville. Elder Duncan started having second thoughts, but I persuaded him that it was a good idea, since we had never worked in Waterville. Before we left, we fueled up at 7-11 and bought candy for the ride. I got peach rings. It was a nice drive, but I think I was driving slow. We were at a place where the road was curving, and I began singing "The Long and Winding Road." When we got to Waterville, we stopped at a Shell station to see if they had maps of the town. They didn't have any for sale, but they gave us a paper one that wasn't very good. We parked in front of the house of a part-member family. Apparently the wife was semi-active, but I didn't know her. We walked around to try to find people, but we had a hard time figuring out where we were. We wanted to see one less-active who was a mortician, but we could only find the funeral home, and we didn't know how appropriate it was to knock on a funeral home. We looked for one former investigator, but we couldn't find the house. (I later realized what we did wrong.) Later we got back in the car. We went to one house to try to see if they were the right people, but the guy either slammed his door shut when we got out of our car or else was very short when we knocked on the door. That surprised me, since I had this perception that small towns would be more receptive since they didn't have missionaries there as often. (Odessa, WA, and Winchester, ID, later proved to me that that wasn't true.) We stopped at the house of Billy Byington's father, and there were lots of little annoying dogs, but no one was home. Like all small towns, Waterville had its abandoned buildings.

Eventually we left, not having had a terribly productive time in Waterville. But I figured that it would be a good way for us to be familiar with the town for the next time we went up there (but I was transferred the next week and never went back until I drove through the town after my mission). I was driving when I realized I hadn't put on my prescription sunglasses, so Elder Duncan opened them for me so I could trade glasses while I was driving. While we were driving back, Elder Bates, the district leader, called us. He told us that district meeting the next day was cancelled because President Clark wanted to have a special meeting with us on Friday. We didn't know why he would be visiting us, since it was the week that he would be planning transfers, so it would be really busy for him, and we had already had interviews. We began speculating about what crazy things could be happening for this meeting to happen. When we got back to East Wenatchee, we had fried chicken from the elderly Schoenmakers, and we got a call from a less-active, Brian Latimer, who wanted us to help him move across the river to Wenatchee. We were glad he called us, and we were more than happy to help him move, since it would help us ratchet up miles on the car. We were only sad that he was moving out of our area. When we got to his new house, they had problems getting the couch through the door and didn't think it would work. But Elder Duncan had served in the college town of Pullman, so he was used to moving things, and he was able to get it through the door. I think we drove over to Wenatchee twice that night. When we did our miles that night, our daily miles turned out to be 77.7. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very weird day. Firstly we thought we had district meeting so we were surprised when we didn't. So we did our mission survey. Then we mowed the Schonemakers' lawn. We had over 100 miles to use, so we went up to Waterville. We couldn't find many addresses, and the few we found weren't home. One address was a 210, but it wasn't there, so we knocked on 201, but we don't know if it was right because he just closed the door on us. On our way back we received a call that President is unexpectedly meeting with the mission.

"We had dinner with the Schoenmakers--Bill is sadly almost gone--and helped Brian Latimer move. We went over to Wenatchee twice, and in total we went 77.7 miles.

2006. I think this was the evening that I watched The Munsters' Revenge with my dad. While we were watching, there was a knock on the door, and my dad and sister made me get it. It was an old guy telling us about something, but I don't remember what. He was there a long time.

2005. It was the night before I was singing in general conference. I believe this was the time I went to Great Clips to get a haircut, thus beginning a pattern of getting professional cuts instead of having my mom cut it. I went home and tried to catch what I could of the I Dream of Jeannie mini-marathon, and for some reason my aunt was there. The only thing that makes me unsure about this is that I don't know why I would have gotten a haircut the night before singing in conference, but I think this is what happened.

2004. I remember going to my theater class in the morning and burping up the flavor of Mexican chocolate cake. It made me remember the weird Munsters pilot I had watched the previous night while eating cake.

2003. When I showed up to gym class, Coach Hyde showed me that my binder that had gone missing the day before was in the garbage can. I was relieved to have it back, but I wondered what kind of evil person would do that.

2000. I think we went to my sister's house and she gave me a birthday present of the soundtrack to Chicken Run, which I had seen the night before for my birthday. I thought it was a strange present, but I went home and listened to the Flip, Flop, and Fly song. (I think I still have that CD, but I never listen to it.)

1998. I think David took me to Winegar's to get my birthday present of a Veggie Friend Seedie. He gave me exact change to get it, and he sent me inside to get it myself. I got "Ima Farmer Corn," the one that had overalls. I went to pay for it, but David had miscalculated the tax, and I was a few cents too short. I informed the cashier that I had to go get some more money. She seemed both amused and annoyed. I ran to the car and got some more coins from David, then went back in and bought it (the cashier had kept it at her register).

1994. It was my birthday party. I (more likely my mom) had invited a bunch of my kindergarten friends over.  We took my friend Wesley (I think that was his name) home with us. I really liked Wesley, but I think I just liked him for his mullet. While we were waiting for more kids to show up, I got on the fireplace and put one of the pumpkin lights in my hand and said, "I, Jack, the pumpkin king." Hillary Ulmer was there, and she really liked The Lion King, which came out that year. She imitated me, but said, "I, Nala, the pumpkin queen," which didn't make sense. After the kids all got there, I got my various presents. I think I got a Lion King puzzle. I got a candy bar with a gold wrapper, so I started singing, "I got a golden ticket!" We had lots of Halloween party favors. Then it was time for Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I went first, and everyone laughed when I got the tail far from the donkey. That didn't bother me--but it bothered me that they didn't laugh as much at the other kids, even when they got the tail even further than I did. Looking back, I realize that they thought mine was funny, since I was the first one, but as more kids did it, they realized it wasn't really funny. But I took it as a personal offense, and I had a fit and went and hid under my bed. The kids kept coming to my room to try to get me to come out, but I would just yell at them. Except when Wesley, came, I nicely asked him to leave. Eventually I was coaxed out, but I don't remember what happened. We had to take Wesley home, and there was a broken sprinkler shooting water everywhere on the apartment complex lawn. This might have been the night that the Thompsons stayed longer to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the "What's This?" sequence, when Jack runs into the Christmas Town sign, Wayne said to two-year-old Peter, "Did Jack fall down?"

September 28

With my birthday coming up in two weeks, I'm going to remember what I can about the day before my birthday.

2012. I was at work listening to Pandora, and Lady Gaga's "Marry the Night" came on. Then I went to go running, but I got caught in post-game traffic. I had to walk for a lot of the time because there were too many people. It was a bad idea to go by the stadium. Then I came home and there was a knock on the door. Hanna Dunn, one of my "horse" friends from the previous summer, was down in Provo visiting. I changed out of my running clothes and went across the hall to Alex Masterson's apartment, where they were visiting. It was Hanna, Kristen Jensen, and Olivia Mayer. Hanna said that she was glad she had made cinnamon rolls the previous May, because that was how she learned that I only ate seasonal desserts. Kristen pointed out that I could have Halloween treats, and I mentioned that I could have anything I wanted that week, since it was my birthday. I mentioned that I had gone to the French bakery, and Olivia was excited to learn there was a French bakery in Orem. The girls were excited it was my birthday, so they made birthday cards for me. Hanna's said she wished Jan Terri were here to wish me happy birthday. There was a running joke that Hanna and I should get married (simply for the fact that we both go by our middle names), so Kristen wrote about all the kids Hanna and I would have. Then we discussed getting some kind of dessert for me. We left, and as we were leaving, Kristen and Hanna called Alex "Alejandro" and began singing, "Ale, Alejandro." Alex said he loved Lady Gaga. We went to South End Market, but they were closed. Then Carissa (who had come over at some point) drove us to Smith's. I think it turned to midnight, so they talked about it being my birthday. Alex started singing the "Happy Happy Birthday" song from The Emperor's New Groove, and Carissa said, "Heh heh, it's your birthday?" like Kronk says. I went through the ice cream aisle and found some birthday cake "ice cream," which Hanna bought (I later learned it was a "frozen dairy dessert," not ice cream). Carissa found some clearance flower-shaped cookies, which weren't that great. Kristen bought me a sticker from a little vending machine; it was that Domo character. Then we parked across from the duck pond and went and ate by the stream on campus. At one point, for some reason Alex was singing the "Monster Mash," so I sang the relevant lyrics from "Get Down Goblin." Then we all went home and I went to bed.

2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a mediocre day. We did have some good QGIs. We talked with a friendly Pentecostal woman named Alma. She married a minister, but we might be able to talk to them sometime. 

"I can't believe I'm ten today [in mission years; I was out ten months] and twenty tomorrow!"

2005. I know that we juniors had to go to school early for testing, but I don't remember what else happened.

1999. My mom gave me one early present after school; it was the Moy Mushroom from the Vegetable Friends collection. (I had the spinoff collection, the Veggie Friend Seedies, but not the Vegetable Friends.) I was excited to take my new toy to my Webelos meeting. Chantelle Christensen later called my mom and asked where she got it to see if she could get me something like that for my birthday, but my mom had already ordered the rest of them for me (I got them the next day).

1997. I asked if I could have my birthday presents that night, since it was right before my birthday. My dad said, "Should we break tradition?" My mom pointed out that we had always gotten our presents the night before our birthday. I think this was the time they brought out my Magnadoodle keychain, and I told them that I had sneaked and already seen it. I thought it was funny, but they were shocked that I did such a thing, and said that no one else in the family had ever done that. I got a turkey magnet that gobbled.

1996. I got my various presents: a purple Koosh ball witch keychain, the Warioland GameBoy game, and The Sound of Music on VHS. My mom told me she wanted me to start singing the songs from the movie again. David started playing my game. We went downstairs to watch the movie, and David told me that he had gotten to Lake Asparagus in my game (I was enthralled by the map in the instruction manual).

1994. I got my presents, but the only one I remember is the VHS of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was surprised I got it. I remembered seeing the trailers on TV the previous year, but I figured it was too violent for my parents to let me see it, and here they got it for me. We went downstairs and watched it. That may have been the most influential birthday present I ever got.