The Saturday before Thanksgiving

I've now remembered the entire week of Thanksgiving, so now I creep earlier to the Saturday before.

2014. In the morning I went to an indexing breakfast at our bishopric second counselor's house. I was wearing my cat astronaut shirt under my orange hoodie. Madi Anderson saw part of the shirt and asked, "What is your shirt doing?" Some people from the other ward came because they had won the breakfast contest we had with them. Jeremy Gibbs was telling me he had to go to his work in Centerville, and Brady McArthur and others were talking about Taylor Swift's 1989 album. Later I went to the temple with my parents. It was very rainy when we got done, and then my parents went to Winegar's grocery store to buy groceries. I hated the white shirt I was wearing and didn't want to be seen in public wearing it. I sat in the car and played music and read the news on my phone. My mom had bought pumpkin ice cream. That night I made turkey and leaf sugar cookies, and I think I made orange frosting. I watched the "Turkey Day" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, and I think I repeated what my roommate Scott had said this previous year: "Except for the terrible cigarette commercial, that was the best Thanksgiving show we watched." I wrote in my journal:
"Two years ago today was Thanksgiving!
"This morning I went to an indexing breakfast/party. I couldn't bear the thought of trying to decipher names on one of the batches. I went to the temple with Mom & Dad. It was rainy, and I didn't like my clothes, so I waited in the car while they went to Winegar's. Then I made sugar cookies tonight. It snowed but didn't last long.

2013. I know in the evening I watched the "Elly's First Date" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.

2012. My ward in Provo had done a turkey bowl/chili contest. I didn't participate, but my former roommate Zach Zimmerman saw me and invited me to have some chili in his apartment. He had bought a lot of chili from Wendy's to take to the contest. That night I watched the "Thanksgiving Comes but Once a Year, Hopefully" episode of That Girl with my roommate Bryton. He liked the line "Technically, you and mom aren't blood relatives either." He asked if the show was like a commercial, since Ann was dressed very well and she said she used "room spray--hides cooking odors."

2011. In the morning I had to go to a work shift. As I was leaving work, the radio was playing Lady Gaga's "Telephone," which became stuck in my head the rest of the day. I think I went to Port of Subs but learned it was closed on Saturdays. That afternoon I wanted to go to World Market, so my parents drove us out there. A radio was playing "If I Die Young" outside the store. I got some turkey dishes and pumpkin bark; we admired the international nutcrackers, and we looked at various Christmas candies. Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and they were all prepared for Christmas.

2010. It was a cloudy day as I drove up to the church where I parked to go running. As I got close to the twenty-minute mark, at which point I would turn around, it started snowing lightly. I found it kind of pleasant, and since it was almost time to turn around anyway, I just kept going until I really did need to turn around. Soon, however, it really started snowing/hailing hard, and I knew pretty soon it would be too slippery to run. Before I got to that point, however, an older guy and a younger girl stopped and offered me a ride. I said I needed a ride to the church; they said they would take me home, but I told them my car was there. I tried to pay it forward by offering a ride to a guy with a dog, but he declined. I really had to press firmly on the brakes near my house, and the antilock brakes came on. We had to call my sister to warn her it was really slick near our house, but I think she came later after the storm had calmed.

2009. I was on an exchange with Elder Critchfield in Clarkston, WA. The members he lived with were heading to Utah, so they agreed to take my bike and some other things with them. I rode my bike for the last time. Elder Critchfield saw some people on a porch, so he stopped to talk to them. A girl said she had been pregnant when she was thirteen--not because she was a promiscuous person but because she never had a birds-and-bees talk and was curious, an explanation I didn't entirely buy. We stopped to visit a family in a trailer. Later we stopped to get lunch from a food truck; in addition to my burger, I ordered spiced cider and was very disappointed it was the fake powdered stuff. When I expressed my disappointment, Elder Critchfield (who had kindly paid for my lunch) said he had noticed the powder in the window. We saw people putting up Christmas lights, and Elder Critchfield was talking on the phone while biking no-handed, which I couldn't do. We knocked doors, and one house set up a dinner appointment because they had Mormon relatives, and in fact they were going to a baptism that night. At another house, they were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Then I think that night we stopped at a members' house, where they talked about Elder Rand, whom I had known from the beginning of my mission. I couldn't write in my journal because I packed my journal in the box of stuff I was sending home.

2008. I wrote in my journal:
"Today was quite a meh day. No one was home, like most Saturdays. It was cold in the evening, and all the weight and clothes were not comfortable. We saw the Stackhouses this evening, and we may be able to teach Destiny [whose father had previously objected]. We had to get food for dinner and breakfast from Family Foods. Our QGIs [quality gospel invitations] were not quality today, and neither is my coherency.
"One year ago today was Thanksgiving, and I immediately left the following week. I cannot believe my year mark is looming one day closer."
 
2004. I can remember a November Saturday, but I'm not sure whether it was the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I had to work on a group project for my French class, so I had my dad take me to my classmate Kenny's house. I thought I knew where it was, but I was way off, but we found it eventually. Kenny said he liked to watch the History Channel. His brother was taking Spanish, and Kenny said he was understood the word "blue" on a Spanish channel. Two girl classmates came over. Kenny turned on the new Shrek 2 soundtrack. When it was playing the Fairy Godmother's song, I was embarrassed for him and tried to speak loudly and consistently to draw attention away from the song. One girl said, "Girls are easy," and I pointed out the undesirable connotations of that choice of words. Then that afternoon I liked the autumnal atmosphere, so I put a chair underneath our crabapple tree to do homework outside. I liked the berry-like crabapples with the fall leaves.

2003. I wrote in my journal. This was a year when I was really excited for the Christmas season:
"I'm SO Glad it's the weekend. We only have school on Monday and Tuesday. Then it's Thanksgiving "RECess." I am glad. I need a break. And it starts the Christmas season [insert giddily happy face]

Youth Conference 2004

The biggest youth conference I ever had was a stake conference where we performed From Cumorah's Hill. They did that in place of a trek, so I never got to experience pushing a handcart or anything. (I probably would have died.)

We started one morning by meeting at North Canyon Park and we got colored bandannas to put us in groups; each bandanna had our conference theme, "I Never Stand Alone," the last song of our program. I can't remember whether the color was assigned to us or if we picked them; I got a white bandanna. A fairly young couple oversaw our group. I might have been wearing a Joe Cool t-shirt that day. We were talking about people being on teams and playing sports, which of course I didn't do. The wife of the couple asked me if I did chess club--I was a little offended that she thought I was nerdy just by looking at me. I was nerdy, of course, but I didn't like chess. I felt extremely uncomfortable in that group. We had an activity where we played a charades-type game, and I think they were all sports clues, and we had to have a partner. I had to be partners with the husband of the couple. One of the ones we had to act out was wrestling. Later, they played some musical clips and all the groups had to come up with a dance to go with it. I really did not want to participate. Part of the music clip had the sound of an engine revving, and we got in a line and pretended we were on a bus. I was at the end, so I was the driver. We practiced it a few times, and then before we were supposed to perform for everyone, I noticed that my mom, sister, and niece were sitting on a hill watching. I wanted to play with my niece, so I used it as an opportunity to try to get out of doing the dance. But then the leaders came up and insisted that I do it, so I reluctantly did so. They told me later that they couldn't have done it without me because I was the bus driver. We all watched the other groups, and one of them incorporated the words "Given this land, if they lived righteously" in their dance. After lunch we had an object lesson where we had to put blindfolds on and someone would guide us over to the park's amphitheater, including telling us when to step down. I kept hearing the guide in front of me telling his person to step down, so I kept stepping down prematurely. Once we were settled in the amphitheater, we were taught by a Bountiful High seminary teacher. He told us a story of a friend he had who got a temptress girlfriend after his mission and ended up getting disfellowshipped, so in order to prevent him from getting excommunicated, he would go to his friend's house when he knew the girlfriend was there and wouldn't leave until she left. He said one night he spent the entire night on his friend's couch eating Cheerios.

I know we had two performances, but I can't remember how many days the conference lasted or if we had dress rehearsals, although I know we had little practice runs. I remember getting in my costume (I was Alma) and taking off my glasses. The people in charge noticed I was squinting and told me I could wear my glasses; Sister Castleberry said she was legally blind, so she knew what it was like. They put makeup on me for the performance. I remember talking with David Christensen about something bad that someone in our stake had done, but I couldn't tell him. He was mad that I told him he had done something bad but then didn't tell him what it was.

We practiced our entrance onto the stage. They played a bagpipe version of some hymn (which I found not fitting), and we all sang "Army of Helaman" as we walked up to the stage.

After the night of our first performance, when I played Alma, we were standing outside with my family, with my makeup still on. Jennifer Nilsson was saying that she hadn't remembered some of the lyrics, joking that she had mouthed "watermelon," which Ya-ping found funny. Someone used the expression "a piece of cake," and Ya-ping said, "a piece of cheesecake!" We took other kids in the neighborhood home. We talked about Chalei Simmons wanting to be a librarian; I said that was a good job for her because she was so quiet. I was excited to go home and watch The Addams Family. After we got home, Susanne was saying that she didn't like Peter Moosman when he was a kid but she liked him now.

I think it was after our first performance that Susanne said that the Brunners' son Brandon had been really excited to see the performance and learned all the songs, and then he slept through it.

I wasn't really going to wash my makeup off--not because I wanted to wear makeup, but because I wanted to see how much would come off just by going about day-to-day activities normally. My family may have made me wash it off, but I can't really remember.

One morning we ate bagels in the green room at the regional center. I remarked about the cornmeal on the bottom of the bagels, just like pizza; Matt Miller said they probably used it to keep them from burning. I didn't know what it was, so I joked that they looked like those things you pull out of your eyes, and Matt said something like, "There are enough tired people here rubbing their eyes for them to use that."

At one point, we engraved our testimonies on gold-colored fold, which they fastened into gold plates and had Moroni "bury" on the stage. My mom later said that she had alluded to "disrespectful youth" in hers because Paul Castleberry had been behaving horribly, and she had threatened to tell his mom.

I wasn't performing during the second night's showing; I was just in the choir. We all got on the stage after singing, and then the lights over the instrumentalists' music didn't turn on, so we just sat in the silent dark while we waited. There were a few outbursts of laughter, I think in an attempt to ease the awkwardness. Some sarcastic guys were behind me, and one said, "That was professional." They were being irreverent the entire performance, so at one point I nudged them to get them to be better. Then later one of them was trying to show his friend what I had done, so he tried to make noise, but I knew that I couldn't nudge him then. I remember watching Alex Harding helping Matt Chidester, who had Down syndrome, beat the drums at the right places. I thought it was nice that he wanted to help Matt do it, but I thought he should have just done the drum himself. Matt liked to belt out the lyric "Stand alone!" in the last song, "I Never Stand Alone."

After that performance, the consensus seemed to be that that was the better performance, but my mom and I thought the first one was better. Matt Miller thought the second was better, but I pointed out how we had the awkward silence at the beginning, and he conceded that that did affect the momentum.

I think it was after the second performance that I saw my friends Macey Garrett and Tiffany Frandsen, and they had called us the "Three Amigos" in ninth grade, and I was sad they missed me as Alma.

Our last evening, we had dinner at our old stake center. They were also showcasing the float our stake (or was it our ward?) made for the 24th of July Parade. Bernie Ure showed up in his Moroni costume; I thought it was because we had all been dressed up as Book of Mormon characters for our show, but I think it was because that was the costume he wore for the parade. Then we went up in the chapel for closing ceremonies. They told us that some sisters employed by the Church to see stake performances had been at our show, and they said that they had seen From Cumorah's Hill performed many times, but they had never seen it with a live orchestra, and they had never seen such a well-behaved group. We closed our meeting by singing "I Never Stand Alone," and the sister in charge gave us a note to start on, but I was pretty sure it was the wrong note. Afterwards I heard someone say, "It's hard to sing a cappella," and I was thinking that it wasn't that we had no accompaniment, it was that it was the wrong key.

Patriotic treats

If you read this blog, you undoubtedly know that I only eat candy and desserts that are seasonal. Seasonal treats abound at other times of the year, but for the Fourth of July, they are a little more rare. You never know what to expect from one year to the next; and even if a particular seasonal candy is made from year to year, you never know what stores will carry them. They're very inconsistent.

Therefore, I'm going to remember the patriotic desserts I've had in my life. Here is some basic information about this list:
1) This only includes things that I have personally eaten. I saw some patriotic candy corn the other day, but I haven't had them, so they're not on the list.
2) Some things on the list aren't strictly dessert, so I could eat them at any time (e.g. pretzels), but they are still fun to include.
3) The list refers mainly to pre-packaged goods. I'm excluding most bakery items (like sugar cookies) because there are always seasonal bakery items. (I think of the Killers lyric: "Red, white, and blue upon a birthday cake, my brother he was born on the Fourth of July.")

Many of these treats predate my seasonal eating rules, but I still remember them. (For those of you who are wondering, my eating habits got started in 2003, but they have evolved significantly since then, generally getting stricter.)

My favorite priority is unique flavors, followed by unique shapes and/or colors. Individually wrapped candies with seasonal wrappers count, but they're my least favorite kind of seasonal things.

Patriotic popsicles. Red, white, and blue popsicles are the one thing I can count on from year to year. They are made by multiple brands, and they aren't always marketed for the Fourth of July, so they're always around. I can eat any popsicles during June, July, and August, but these ones are funner. One noteworthy variation is Dairy Queen's Starkiss, which is shaped like a star and is striped.

Keebler rainbow cookies. Keebler's M&M cookies weren't originally made with M&Ms but with their own brand of chocolates. They had ones with red, white, and blue candies in the late 90s. I had them in 2012--they were marketed for the Olympics but I used them for the Fourth of July. This year, they use real M&Ms and are available at Target, and there are both regular and chocolate varieties.

Summer Oreo O's. Back in the late 1990s, there was a cereal called Oreo O's that had brown rings with white spots on it. One year, probably 1999, they changed the white spots to be red, white, and blue. This is the only time I have ever known of a patriotic cereal. Oreo O's no longer exist, so of course the summer variation does not.


Sno-Balls. You know the Hostess Sno-Balls, the chocolate cake covered with marshmallow and coconut? They usually come in two-packs, but in 2001 or thereabouts a Hostess store carried a three-pack with a red one, a white one, and a blue one. That's the only time I've ever known of them doing so. Before Hostess went out of business, they would change the colors (such as orange at Halloween and lavender at Easter), but I haven't seen them do it as much since they were resurrected.

After 9/11/2001, patriotic things became much more popular, and there was an abundance of patriotic things. In fact, I think some of the things that are still around today may have got their start then.

M&Ms. When I was a kid, I always wanted them to make red, white, and blue M&Ms, but it wasn't a reality until fall 2001. Since then, they have come back sporadically. I know I've had them in 2006, 2007, 2013, and 2015, but this year they're only available at Target, whereas they've been available elsewhere in the past. They come in both milk chocolate and peanut varieties.

Marshmallow Peeps. They made star-shaped Peeps after 9/11. I can't remember whether they were plain or vanilla flavored, but they were white with blue and red specks. They came back for a few Fourth of Julys, but they quit making them because they didn't sell well. In recent years, they've made vanilla-flavored traditional Peep (chick) shapes with the red and blue specks. I don't quite get it. I mean, chicks are still an Easter candy, and what makes them think chick-shaped candy will sell better at the Fourth of July than star-shaped candy?

E.L. Fudge cookies. In 2002 or 2003, there were patriotic E.L. Fudge cookies. These were truly unique--most patriotic candies simply change the colors, but these changed the shape instead. The elves were holding flags or patriotic signs.

Vanilla ice cream. In 2003, my mom bought vanilla ice cream that was colored red, white, and blue--like Neapolitan except it was one flavor. That's the only time I've known of patriotic ice cream.

Goldfish. Goldfish crackers are made red, white, and blue. I first had them in 2004, and I've had them every year since 2013.

American taffy. The Sweet's brand makes peppermint-flavored white taffy with patriotic wrappers. I know we had some in 2007. They used to come in boxes and bags. This year I saw them in bulk, and I got one in my 5k goodie bag this year.

Animal cookies. You know those pink and white, kind of waxy animal-shaped cookies? They used to make patriotic ones. In 2007, I had ones where the frosting had different colors, so there were white, red, and blue cookies. In 2010 and 2011, they were only white, but they had red and blue nonpareil sprinkles. I haven't seen them since then.

Little Debbie brownies. On my mission, in 2009, I saw various Little Debbie treats with a patriotic theme, and I got brownies. I haven't seen them since then.

Tootsie Rolls. These aren't my favorite, since once you take off the flag wrapper, they're the same brown candy, but they're fairly reliable from year to year. Shopko usually sells them, although I didn't see them this year, but I did get one in the goodie bag I got from my North Salt Lake 5k this year.

Tootsie Dots. In 2010 and 2011, I saw patriotic Dots. There were two kinds of Dots, and each Dot had two colors, a red and white one and a blue and white one. The white parts were vanilla, the red ones were cherry, and the blue ones were blueberry. I'm sad that they don't make them anymore, because they were some of my favorite candies. (The red and white ones are still made for Valentine's Day and Christmas, but the blue and white ones aren't otherwise around.)

Tootsie Roll Pops. One of my favorite patriotic candies, usually available at Shopko, are Tootsie Roll Pops. The red ones are cherry, the white ones are strawberry vanilla, and the blue ones are blue raspberry. I like these since the white and blue ones aren't available at other times. I think I've had them every year since 2010.

Blo-Pops. I've seen these in 2011 or 2012, but this is the first year I've had them. The red ones are cherry, the blue ones are raspberry, and the white are strawberry lemonade (which are really good). I'm not a big fan of gum-filled suckers, but I like them since patriotic candies are rare.

All-American Oreos. I've only seen these in 2012, and I don't know whether they were for the Fourth of July or the Olympics. They were the golden variety, and the creme was blue and red. They were plain flavors. They weren't the greatest, but I'm always sad to see Fourth of July desserts go.

Star-shaped Marshmallows. In 2012, I was really excited to see star-shaped marshmallows, and they were red (really pink), white, and blue.  Then I saw bigger ones. I've seen both sizes since then, but I usually get the big ones, since they're better for roasting, which is what you usually do during summer. However, I have occasionally used them on rare cold June days, since they allow me to have hot chocolate.

Pretzels. In 2013, I found pretzels that were shaped as flags, Liberty Bells, and stars. I haven't seen them since then.

Pop-Tarts. I first had patriotic Pop-Tarts in 2013. At that time, the pastry was red, the frosting was white, the berry filling was red, and the sugar sprinkles were red, white, and blue. I didn't see them in time in 2014, but in 2015 they're very different. The pastry is regular color, the frosting is blue with white star-shaped sprinkles, and the berry filling is still red. I think they've improved the flavor. (I'm not big on berry Pop-Tarts.)

Planters trail mix. In 2013 and 2014, I had patriotic Planters trail mix, made with peanuts, raisins, dried cranberries, red chocolate-covered peanuts, and blue and white chocolate pieces.

Patriotic Twizzlers. Walmart is the only store I've known to sell these patriotic Pull-and-Peel Twizzlers. Each strand is a different flavor; the white ones are lemonade, and the others are different berries. I've had them in 2014 and 2015.

Summer Ice Pop Tic-Tacs. Last year, there were red, white, and blue Tic-Tacs based on patriotic popsicles. The red ones were cherry, the white were lime, and the blue were berry. I haven't seen them this year. I have a feeling they may be the rarest of rare candies, so I'm lucky I got some last year.

Patriotic mints. At my 5k this week, I got a goodie bag with various mints. There was a dinner mint with a flag wrapper and some patriotic peppermint lozenge things. There was also a red, white, and blue striped candy stick, but it was some kind of fruit flavor and wasn't very good.

Caramel Cob. Caramel Cobs are basically large caramel popcorn balls shaped like a corncob. They put seasonal sprinkles on them. I had a Halloween one in 2012, and I saw patriotic ones in 2013, but I didn't have one until this year.

I always like seeing what will come out every year.

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.
 

February 16

I've already considered the other days around Valentine's Day, so now I'm going to remember what happened two days after it.

2014. In the morning, I called my mom at her hospital room to see if she wanted us to come or if we should go to church. She told us she was feeling fine, so we didn't need to see her immediately. So my dad and I went to sacrament meeting together. I didn't want to talk to many people so that we could get to the hospital sooner and so that people wouldn't think we were jerks for going to church without Mom. I drove to the hospital because my car is lower to the ground and would be easier for my mom to get into. I tried to listen to my Lower Lights Hymn Revival Volume 1 CD, but the CD player kept spitting that finicky CD out, so I asked my dad to put in Volume 2 (it was in the little compartment between the front seats). He found Imagine Dragons first, but then he found Lower Lights. We went up to her room, and my mom was told she could leave soon. But it took four or five more hours. My mom said that some other family had visited and had brought a sick two-year-old, and she found it inappropriate to bring a sick kid into a hospital. The nurses seemed a bit incompetent, as they kept coming in with conflicting reports. Sometimes she was informed she could take home a knee scooter but not crutches. Sometimes it was the other way around. But she had originally been told she could have both. While we were waiting, my mom watched the Olympics while I looked up St. Patrick's Day topics on Wikipedia on my phone. At one point, my dad and I went down to the cafeteria and got food. We didn't know what was going on, but we figured it out eventually. I wanted to see if there were any green desserts I could have, but there weren't at the à la carte. There was some green ice cream at an ice cream stand, but I couldn't justify that. Susanne texted me at one point and asked me to take a picture of the head nurse's office near the elevator, since she wanted to report the incompetence of the nurses. Eventually my mom was allowed to leave, so I went out in the parking lot and drove my car up to the door of the hospital. My mom got into the seat, not without some difficulty, and I think my dad rode with Susanne, who had come a little later. I think we were driving up Marialana Way when mom asked if Cherie Call was one of the people singing. When we got home, I think we helped my mom go down the garage stairs backwards and then into the family room. Right as we got her home, Laura Anderson came by, and I think she had cards from the primary kids. I may have asked my mom if she wanted to get revenge on the pizza by eating it, as we still had some.

2013. I remember going to Smith Marketplace with my family, and I got some Werther's candies to put in little pots of gold. Then I drove back to Provo and put out my St. Patrick's Day things. My roommate Cameron made a Facebook status about it.

2009. [Copied and pasted from a Presidents' Day post:] Our district went to Kohl's for P-day because there were supposed to be some good sales. I bought a white-and-green-striped tie for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at the St. Patrick's Day t-shirts but I didn't care to pay the price to buy them. Elder Canova admired the Snoopy "Party Like a Rockstar" shirt. We looked at a shelf with clearance stuff on it; the perverted Elder Stafford talked about the "man thong." I found an orange beanie. I thought it would be good to have, since we frequently had to walk along unlit roads with no sidewalks at night. Then we did our grocery shopping. That year, M&Ms made green candies for Valentine's Day (stupid idea), but since no one liked that idea, there was plenty of clearance candy, so I bought a bag. Then we went to the Days', where Elder Lestarge and Elder Kitchen lived, and played the typical missionary game Bang! Elder Dunn liked the M&Ms. While we were waiting for a ride back to our house, I put on my new hat, and Elder Stafford commented on it. When we got home, I looked in the mirror, and realized how ridiculous my orange hat looked. It looked like a bathing cap. Elder Betenson said that he wasn't going to say anything, but that he agreed it looked terrible. He said that his previous companion, Elder Torrance, had cut up a hat and used it as a neck warmer. I mostly cared about the orange for the visibility, so I cut it up. But he said it still looked dumb, so I threw it away. Then we went and tried to visit a Sister Locarni, who lived close to us. We found out she was an active member, but her husband wasn't a member. We learned that Brother Wilhelm, the ward mission leader, visited them, which was a scary thought, since he was notorious for teaching false doctrine. After 9:00, Elder Wilson called me and said, "I have sad news," and told me that Brother Martin from the Davenport Branch had died unexpectedly. They announced it at stake conference. I think I might have called Elder Love and relayed the info. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was my first P-day in the district. It was a hassle with all the people; we had Elder Stafford in the trunk. I bought an orange hat to be more visible at night, but it looked ridiculous, so I threw it away. I also bought a green tie (and green M&Ms) for St. Patrick's Day. We also played Bang.

"Then this evening we met Sister Locarni, who is active, but her husband is not a member. We tried to see others, but they weren't home, and we came back.

"Elder Wilson called me and told me Brother Martin from the Davenport branch died unexpectedly."

2008. This is my journal entry for the day, which I don't really remember. For some reason, I decorated the date with spiders and spiderwebs:
"So since the last time I wrote in here I had sacrament meeting, P-day, a reunion with Elder Chun, Zone conference on Valentine's Day, and the exciting news of a family to teach. The reason for the lull in writing is due to the long exchange [my companion had been sick for a week] and trying to read sixteen Psalms a day.
"Today Elder Chun slept in and then had a three-hour nap after comp study. We tried to contact some people before we came home because Elder Chun was still tired and he slept at his desk for about an hour, while I read and practiced the piano.
"Then we went with Brother Palmer to try to contact some people. It was quite an uneventful evening."

2004. We went down to Provo and saw Dave and Ya-ping. My family was seeing a movie that I didn't want to see, so I was going to watch my new Gilligan's Island DVD at their apartment. As David was going through channels to get the right one, I discovered that Hallmark Channel was having a Gilligan's Island marathon, so I watched that instead of my DVDs. I was working on a seminary assignment where we had to make valentines for our parents. The holiday was over, of course, but it was still an assignment I needed to do. (I had a horrible seminary teacher that year.) My family came back from the movie and had bought lunch at Beto's. Then we went to Old Navy, and I remember seeing they had a lot of St. Patrick's Day clothing, including board shorts. My intuition tells me this was a day we went to the Target in American Fork where I got a Snoopy St. Patrick's Day shirt, and my sister wanted to get Toffifay, and we got some Easter candy--but I can't make sense of why we would have had Dave and Ya-ping with us, because I know we were coming back from Provo, so it wouldn't make sense for us to take them home with us. It could have been a different weekend. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This weekend was Valentine's Day. I got the entire first season of Gilligan's Island on DVD. But it has a scratch on it that causes it to skip, so we need to exchange it. The Hallmark Channel is having a Gilligan's Island marathon today. My family went to Provo, got David and Ya-Ping and went to Big Fish, but I didn't want to see it because it is PG-13 and has sexuality and nudity in it. I stayed at the apartment and watched Gilligan's Island."

The Sunday before Thanksgiving

I'm going to remember what I can about four days before Thanksgiving, which is always a Sunday.

2013. Oddly enough, I don't remember much about this day. I would have had to be at tithing settlement, I'm sure. I think I went home teaching, and we took turns saying what we were thankful for. I think Autumn Tullis told me she liked my turkey tie--which is always a favorite.

2012. My home teachee, Zach, who was also the Sunday School president, asked me to teach the marriage and family prep class with Laura Molnar. I went over to Laura's apartment, Elite 6; I hadn't met her before. I asked her the typical where-are-you-from-what-are-you-studying questions, and then we discussed our lesson plan. When we gave our lesson, we mostly just asked a lot of questions. That night, my roommate Scott and I went over to Elite 5 to see our home teachees, Emily and Natausha. Someone else was there who Scott knew but I didn't; he called me Mr. Turkey Tie. After we had been there for some time, Megan Ward said, "You're wearing a turkey tie!" Her roommates thought it was funny that she just noticed that, since their friend had drawn attention to it when we got there.

2011. After church, we had a linger-longer Thanksgiving dinner. I think I talked with Meleea Larsen while we were in line. I was happy to have pecan pie, but it was a little hard to cut with a plastic knife. That night we had a fireside with Sheri Dew. She made reference to the time she almost got married, but she didn't tell us the whole story. Jon Schmidt played his own version of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief."

2010. I wore my turkey tie to church, even though I hadn't planned to, and I was glad I did. I blessed the sacrament, and afterward the Wortleys, who were a married mentoring couple, noticed my tie. That night I went to Peter Moosman's house for home teaching, as we home taught someone who was his home teacher. His mom had Thanksgiving decorations up, and she had a lot of the same things I had, including the Fisher Price Little People Mayflower. I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one who considered candy corn suitable for Thanksgiving. Our home teachee asked Peter if his mom decorated that much for Christmas. Peter said no, but his sister Michelle corrected him.

2009. We had dinner with the Hastings family, and their daughter Sammy was throwing up in another room. I think Sister Hastings wasn't there for some reason. The other kids were laughing about the throwing up. This might have been the time I pointed out a funny blurb in the Ensign--one issue had shown a picture of a man being sucked into a TV because of a video game addiction, and another issue told of a kid who had seen that picture and said to his friend, "Let's go outside so we don't get sucked into the TV!"

2008. We attended the Davenport Branch. The Corrigan family spoke; Sister Corrigan she hated Thanksgiving, even more than St. Patrick's Day. That night we had dinner at the Kieffers'; they had a bowl full of tree seeds that looked like tiny pumpkins. We went downstairs in their house to show them our promotional video for Christmas around the World. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a good sacrament meeting. We sang Thanksgiving hymns, and the new family, the Corrigans, gave excellent talks.
 "After church we saw a few people, including Sister Henrietta Camel, and the part-active family the Moores, whom we can teach. We had dinner with the Kieffers, and a member visit with the Wilkersons.
"Two years ago today was Thanksgiving. In the morning we went to the store and bought crackers for my niece, then had Thanksgiving in Fillmore in an empty house. I remember watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on a portable DVD player."

2007. I was in Nashville, and I was preparing for church with my new mission slacks. The water just beaded up on the pants when I was ironing them. I thought that was impressive, but I was not impressed that they literally tailored the pants three inches too big. We loaded up in the car to go to their stake conference near the Nashville Temple. When we got in the car, I helped buckle three-year-old Preston, and I told him he couldn't do something. He said sadly to his parents, "Shu-shu [uncle] talk to me!" I think this was the day when Ya-ping was getting after David for something, and Preston said, "Mommy! Don't talk to Ba-ba!" We all found that funny, and David said something about him defending him. We got to the conference late, so we had to sit on a stage at the very back of the last overflow. I liked the speaker's talk about him talking to a guy who attended church in blue jeans and later got baptized. As we left the stake center, their friend called out "Melvilles!" On our drive home, David was asking me questions that he thought I needed to answer before I went on my mission. I was annoyed by them. That afternoon, we took bikes to go let me practice. We were at a school parking lot, and I was doing a fair job riding around. I wanted to take one last jaunt behind the school, and I tried to turn and fell. My ankle really hurt, and I couldn't move it. I was hoping David would come around, since he was on the other side of the school, and see that I couldn't move. I seem to remember seeing a nickel on the ground. David eventually came around and saw that I was hurt, so then he got the car and helped me into it. Then we drove back to their apartment. He was trying to call our parents to get insurance information, while I sat in the car thinking. I was supposed to go into the MTC in a week and a half. Could I go with a broken leg? It was nice to think that I might be able to stick around home for the holidays--but that meant that when I came home, I would come home around the bleak time of February. Eventually we went to a medical place. In the waiting room, Preston saw Peanuts on a comics section of a newspaper, and said, "Is that Charlie Brown?" None of us knew that he knew who that was. Some teenage boys were making funny noises at him, which made him laugh. I felt like a bad uncle, that strangers were entertaining him but I wasn't. Then we went to a hospital. One of the doctors was in David's ward; when I said I was worried I might have to postpone my mission, he said they would probably let me go with a broken leg. Eventually, they came and told me that my ankle was sprained, and I felt silly for having to go through all that for just a sprain. She wanted me to try to walk on it, but I couldn't, so she said, "That's not going to work," and they got me crutches. Then we returned to the car. Preston had noticed that they had taken off my shoe, and he was worried about that--"Shu-shu shoe?" he repeated several times. At one point, Ya-ping got a little impatient with him asking, so she made a frustrated noise, and he started crying. On our way home, they stopped at the store because they needed milk for Preston, even though it was Sunday. At home, I wanted to watch the Thanksgiving episode of That Girl, which I had brought. I remember being able to maneuver around enough to take a one-footed shower and get down on the air mattress. We made arrangements for me to go to the airport the next day.

2006. I remember sitting in my room doing homework while watching a documentary on the Pilgrims. My mom had made some pumpkin cake cookies, which I was delighted to have.

2004. Sue's family came over to see newborn Preston. At one point, my mom was holding Allie and said to her, "Do you want Uncle Mark to take you out to look at the turkey?" That made Allie immediately put out her arms for me to take her, as she loved going out to the inflatable turkey. Sue was saying, "Are we going to watch a Christmas movie?" Jesse said we should watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, since it was "perfect" because it was between Halloween and Christmas. I wanted to watch an episode of The Munsters, "Grandpa Leaves Home," since I suspected it was a Christmas episode but wanted to be sure. Sue was referring to the show as "The Monsters," and my mom had to correct her. She liked the line, "There's a showbiz family for you; they even go home with their makeup on!"

2003. We had one of those meetings where you share your favorite hymn. I got up and told a story involving "Hum Your Favorite Hymn," and then I said I wanted to sing "I Believe in Christ." (I only remember this because I kept a journal at that time, but the journal entry is a little personal.)

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.

October 26

I have now remembered the last five days of October--so now it's time for October 26.

2013. My roommate Jordan had a girl over to watch a movie. He asked if I was going to watch a Halloween movie, and indeed I was watching the original Frankenweenie. After Sparky got run over, the girl said, "That's terrible!"

2012. This might have been the time I went running and ended up getting caught in post-game pedestrian traffic, but it might have been a different day. I was in my apartment that night when my friends Alex, Kristen, and someone else (maybe Carissa) stopped by. They wanted to see if I wanted to go get ice cream with them (someplace was giving it for free). I didn't. I asked them if they wanted to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but they didn't. I showed them my new copy of Mapping Mormonism, which had my name in it.

2010. I'm sure I would have been working, and at the end of our shift we would have swept the floor.

2008. I don't really remember the day, except that I liked the Zellers' Halloween decorations, but here is my journal entry:
"Think of me, thou ransomed one,
Think what I for thee havedone.
"I like sacrament songs.
"At branch council they gave us the home teaching list, and want us to see a lot of them, so that may increase our work in this branch. At church Bailey Christensen talked to me, glad that I didn't tease her, saying other missionaries tease her because she's cute.
"After church we met with Donna Tysz, a less-active who wants to do right. Before her we met Jeanne Saunders, who is married to a Baptist, and has a very anti daughter. We're doing service for her this week.
"We had dinner with the Zellers, an active PMF, and talked to the Divineys."

 2007. This was my last day working at Walmart. At one point in the day, I prepared rotisserie chickens (by smearing spices all over the raw chickens), and when I wrote the date on the plastic covering over the chicken cart, I think I wrote something like "goodbye," since I wouldn't be there anymore. My coworkers bought me a cake and wrote on it with frosting. I found some plastic silverware and cut the cake with a plastic knife, making a very messy cut. They also got me a very nice farewell card. After I was done with work, I was doing shopping. I got a pumpkin and some mint Oreos. I walked near the bakery to get the rest of my cake, and my coworker Alice saw my cart and said, "Are you having a party?" While I was out shopping, my coworker Ursula came up to me because she hadn't gotten any cake. I wanted to tell that Sea Witch she couldn't have any because she was mean, but I let her have some. When I was checking out, I told the cashier that the cake was already paid for (it had the receipt on it), and she asked if it was my birthday. I told her it was my last day working there. When I got home, my family had rented The Blob and High School Musical by Top Hat Video.

2005. This might have been the day I went to our school's Trunk-or-Treat, but I didn't dress up. I sat with my French classmates. Nate Dopp had his old VW beetle, and we gave the candy out of the "trunk," and one girl was kind of freaked out: "What happened to the car's engine?!"

2004. I know this was a Trunk-or-Treat day. I was wearing my Fred Flintstone costume with a flesh-colored shirt underneath. I was wearing shorts underneath as well, and Susanne said David wouldn't have worn shorts underneath.

1996. I would have been at Boo at the Zoo in my Grim Reaper costume. I think we saw a woman with a barn owl--I recognized it as such before she told us. We kids got most of the candy, but David got a chocolate licorice rope that he started eating immediately. Then I realized that I didn't have to wait to eat my candy, since he wasn't waiting. This was probably the day where we went to my grandparents' house afterwards. It was a little cold--there had been snow at the zoo--so they had a fire going, and we talked about how the balloon couldn't get near the fire, or it would pop.

1993. I think this was the time David was getting his birthday presents, and he got one of those hanging ghosts that wails and shakes when it is touched or hears noise.

The day before Labor Day

Labor Day is coming up on Monday, so I'm going to remember what I can about the Sunday before.

2013.  I went to church early for bishopric meeting, and when Bishop came in, he said to me, "Hi Beardie." I told him that I had grown it in my field studies class, my one chance to grow a beard in a BYU class. He asked what the field studies were in, and I told him geology. We met in the Varsity Theater for church. I remember hearing Matt Markham saying his brother wanted to move into our ward. During priesthood meeting, I got up and urged everyone to get on our ward website so I could get their records. I told them to talk to me if they had questions (I think), and Bishop said they might not recognize me without my beard, and I said, "Yeah, the beard's coming off tomorrow." After the block of meetings, Brother Jensen said he was scared to do tithing with me because I looked scary. Then I came home and wrote up about Geology 210 and wrote on this blog.

2012. I think I got the member sheets that everyone had filled out, and after church I spent time in the clerk office, pulling in records. I think I might have split up the work with Cory Newton. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"It was a good Sunday. I finally got set apart. Then today I was able to input info from all the new member sheets and write both of my blogs. It helps that there's no school tomorrow."

2011. I wrote a weird blog, but I don't remember much about the day, really.

2009. In ward council in the morning, we reported about our visits of the week. When we talked about Bea Dorsett, I had written on the progress report, "If Negative Nancy and Daniel Downer had a baby, they would name her Bea Dorsett." Everyone thought that was really funny. Then I announced that transfers were occurring, and I said I was staying. They said that I sounded like I was Daniel Downer, and someone said, "Look where he's going," as I had written that Elder Warren was being transferred to Brewster, WA. Sister Presnell's convert mom came to church that day, and she was very gung ho. We were happy to have Heidi Wohlmacher, an investigator from Culdesac, ID, come. After gospel essentials, she said she was looking for a flock, and Sister Presnell's mom very strongly said, "This is the right one!" We hoped she wasn't overbearing. This is my journal entry for the day:
"We were pleased today that Heidi came to church. Shaun didn't, but he called later and said he had a stomach bug. [It is rare for investigators to actually call you when they miss church!]
"I wonder what my purpose is in dying here. I will see what it is, because I know there must be some reason."

2008. We were going down Baker Ave, which didn't have a bike lane and had lots of cars parked in the road, so we were riding on the sidewalk. There was a garbage can in the sidewalk, but there were cars in the road, and I thought I could make it between the can and the fence. But I hit the can and crashed. Some people driving by saw it and stopped to see if I was fine, which I was. But then my gears weren't working right (they only worked in 3rd gear), so we walked the rest of the day. I think this was the day when we were walking uphill on 9th Street when there was a cloudburst. I didn't have my umbrella, so I got rained on. I was annoyed that my planner got wet, because it meant I would need to go through most of a transfer with a warped planner. We went and had dinner with the Raabs, who had been to Utah and taken some of our stuff. Sister Raab asked if the five-year-old girl she had met was my sister. I said she was my niece, and she said that Allie seemed amazed that they had been in my presence. This might have been the time Brother Raab gave us apples, and Elder Duncan immediately began eating his, so I followed suit, and Brother Raab said, "You didn't need to eat them now." Sister Raab might have asked if my first name was Herman (Melville), and she said that would be a better name than Herman Munster. While we walked home for the evening, I might have sung the closing song from A Boy Named Charlie Brown, "Now the shadows of the morning have gone beyond the August afternoon," since it was the end of August. This might have been the time Elder Duncan said his high school had sung that song in their production of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, even though it wasn't part of that musical. I told him it wasn't part of that musical, but he said they added it, but I'm skeptical. This is my journal entry:
"We dropped Jason. We were sick of him bailing on us. And the Gillespies bailed on us. I hope this doesn't become a regular thing.
"Today we were biking down Baker. I was biking on the sidewalk because there were parked cars and people in the road. I thought I'd be able to dodge a trash can, but I didn't and I crashed. Now my gears don't work properly. I hope they can fix the bike. When I crashed some people were driving by. They saw me and stopped and asked if I was OK, which I was."

2004. My mom said we weren't going to church that day, because it would probably be the last time we went camping with my Grandpa Boyd (and it was). I was wearing new pants, but I thought my mom would be mad that I was wearing new clothes camping. She said to me, "Those must be new pants," and I said, "How did you know?" She pointed out that I had left the tag on them, and I felt dumb. She wasn't mad, however.

2003. In the day, I remember reading scriptures, and my cousin Cannon came in and said, "Oh, you're reading scriptures." David was playing Sequence with Ya-ping and one of her friends, and he asked if I wanted to play. I said no, and he said that the Mormon rumor about face cards wasn't true. That wasn't really why I wasn't playing, but I ended up playing anyway. Later, I remember standing near the bridge at the Pistol Rock campground with Dave and Ya-ping, and Cannon's baby Lillian was very giggly.

1996. We were playing in the creek, and I was really excited that it was September. I remember picking a red leaf and putting it on my little boat. I hated the water skeeters that were in the water. Later, we walked up the creek, and I slipped and hurt my shin. I was an over-dramatic not-quite-eight-year-old, and I was crying. I suggested getting a rag wet in the stream to use as an ice pack. After I had recovered some, I remember telling my cousin Terrill that the creek was "gruesome." He said, "How is it gruesome?" and I explained my shin situation. (I had only recently heard the word gruesome from my dad. I asked him what he meant, and he defined it as "awful." So I tried to use it, not quite getting its sense.)

The day before Memorial Day

Last week I blogged about the Saturday before Memorial Day, and this week the topic is the day before the holiday (Sunday).

2013. After church I drove home, and I remember in the evening sitting on the couch in the living room, writing my blogs.

2012. I remember going to the singles ward up in NSL, and I felt bad that Brittany Bowman moved into that ward after I had unfriended her on Facebook. My mom had made a birthday cake for my dad with red, white, and blue sprinkles so that I could eat it. When she dished out my bowl, she had even put sprinkles on the ice cream. I didn't think sprinkles belonged on ice cream, and I would have been able to eat it anyway, since it was paired with the patriotic cake.

2011. I think I wore a sweater to the NSL singles ward, because it was a cool day and I could.

2010. I would have been home this day, but I can't remember what I did.

2009. This is what my journal says. I think when we met Rebecca's brother, we were looking for her, but he was the only one home and invited us in: "At church today Kim told us the talk with her mom wasn't the greatest, so we're going over tomorrow.

"This afternoon we tracted a small street but few people were home. Then we had dinner with the Smiths. After that we contacted Rebecca Dyer's brother, who isn't a member, so hopefully we can possibly teach him. Then we visited Brother Nickel, and gave Sister Carter a blessing."

2008. My companion at this time ruined my mission for those three months, and later during the week blamed me for all his shortcomings. At our visit with the Hokes, we were there way too long, and they played Bill Cosby's chocolate cake routine. Here is what the journal says:
"Today, Kristy and Austin were our only investigators at church, although Gina, an investigator from another stake, came with her friend.

"We overstayed with the Hokes--great family--and then we tried to see people. Our numbers this week are bad, and P-day isn't tomorrow. It will be an interesting day."

2007. We were camped in the backyard of my late grandparents' house, and I think that night we watched The Flying Nun on the little portable DVD player, in the trailer. 

2004. I think this was the time that we went down to my grandparents' house in Fillmore to go to church. I was dismayed when I realized that I had forgotten my dress shoes, but Grandpa Boyd told me that a lot of people at church wouldn't be in dress shoes either. But people wouldn't have noticed my shoes. David, Ya-ping, and a friend had not brought any church clothes at all. David said it was because they didn't know if they would be going to church. It seemed pretty obvious to me that if you didn't know, you would bring clothes just in case. They didn't even shower before church, and we had been camping. We were embarrassed to be with them, and Mom was really mad.

2001. My dad wasn't happy to turn 50. We were at Shingle Mill campground in Fillmore Canyon. That day we went to my grandparents' house in Fillmore before and after church; my dad said that it was fifty years ago to the day that he first entered the doorway to the kitchen (when he was born, the kitchen door was the front door of the house). Grandpa Boyd told my dad that he remembered when he came into the world. We went back up to the canyon, and my aunt Sarena brought my dad a cake that had "Over the Hill" decorations and black frosting on the edges. My cousin Steven got some all over his face and we discovered that the black frosting was blue when it was diluted.  Then my uncle Mike invited me to go adventuring in the red Jeep with him and my cousins Krishelle and Terrill. We went up the canyon, and I think we saw a place for cattle to drink. Then we looked out over Fillmore from the canyon; Mike pointed out the Maverik station. Krishelle pointed out tiny Flowell. We went to the "M" for "Millard" on the mountain; there were tin can lanterns all over the M for them to light up. I was immature and I thought it would be funny to make some weird noises by vibrating my cheeks. It really annoyed Krishelle, who kept saying "Stop that!" Then we went to a place known colloquially in Fillmore as Pink Elephant Lane; my uncle said that my dad had once crashed there. He told some silly jokes: Why do pink elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees and Why do they paint their toenails green? So they can hide in lime trees. Then we went and filled up the Jeep at the Maverik station; I was surprised my uncle was buying gas on Sunday and I was especially surprised that he was also buying drinks. A snake had hitched a ride on the Jeep and fell off at the gas station. Mike asked a girl at another pump if she wanted a snake; she saw it and was a bit grossed out. Then we went back up to the canyon and our trailer's porch light was on. It was about 10:30 and everyone was going to bed; I was sad I missed a night of campfire business. This paragraph was taken from My dad's birthdays.

1993 or 1994. This might have been the time we had a little campfire devotional service. My memory tells me we even had sacrament, which is a big no-no, but since I was so young, it's possible that didn't happen.

Brother Heaston, the false-doctrine seminary teacher

In ninth grade at South Davis Junior High, I began seminary.

And looking back, it's sad to me that all of us students were introduced into seminary by having one Brother Heaston. We all liked him when we had him; he was a fun guy, and I think he was good at making students passionate about the gospel.

But I remember a few years later, I was in a conversation with people who had him, and although we had liked him at the time, we realized he taught some false doctrines and did some other questionable things. So I'm going to remember some of the things that make me question why he still got to teach seminary.

For one thing, his class was the most rigorous seminary class I had all four years, and it was more taxing than many of my regular classes. During spring break, we had to do a writeup about Isaiah. It was due the day after Easter, and it required us to read every day during spring break and write about it. Which meant he was basically ensuring that we would be doing homework on Easter, a family day. Toward the end of the year, we had to spend ten hours on a gospel project, at a time when we had projects in other classes.

Now, there's nothing wrong with challenging seminary classes, because many students don't take it seriously. But his demands were excessive, and since it was our first seminary class, we didn't know just how excessive it was.

There was one day in which we had an entire lesson for the entire class period about how we should never call adults by their first name, or even just their last name--even if they asked us to call them by their first name. We must always use "Brother or Sister" or "Mr. or Mrs." But calling your friends' mom "Mom" was acceptable because it was a title. I understand the idea of respecting your elders--but to devote an entire lesson to it was a little ridiculous, and calling an adult "Sister" or "Mrs." when they asked you not to seems more disrespectful.

Once we had a lesson about fasting. He asked, "How long should you fast?" One student said, "Two meals." He said, "No, it is not two meals, it is twenty-four hours." Umm, a quick search on lds.org reveals that Church publications say two meals. I remember one conference talk in which a Seventy said "Two meals or twenty-four hours." So even with your point of twenty-four hours, you can't say "two meals" is incorrect, and in fact it looks like two meals is the more doctrinal one. "Two meals" may be easily misinterpreted, but it isn't wrong.

Occasionally we would write essays in class, and he would edit our papers when he gave them back, although we weren't graded on the grammar. However, he said that serial commas (also known as the Oxford comma) were incorrect, because a college professor had told him they were. Um, no. It depends on the style, but according to The Chicago Manual of Style, the most common style in the U.S., they say you should use them. They aid clarity. As a seminary teacher, he had no right to insist on not using those commas, especially when he was wrong. 

I remember one day when he passingly mentioned he didn't believe in dinosaurs. That seems so absurd to me that now I'm wondering if he really said that. But I think he did.

Early in the school year, he gave a lesson about how to give a good talk. One of the things he said to do was to engage the audience by saying, "Turn with me to [such and such a scripture]." The First Presidency has issued letters saying you shouldn't have people turn in their scriptures during sacrament meeting. I don't know if they issued that statement before he gave us that lesson, but it's wrong.

Once during the opening hymn, Colby Johnson was just lip-syncing to the opening hymn, so Brother Heaston sat directly in front of him to intimidate him into really singing.

One day someone was saying the prayer and saying "Lord" repeatedly throughout, and afterwards Brother Heaston told him it was a great prayer. It seems weird to me to compliment a prayer, especially if he didn't compliment others'.

One day, he was explaining that he didn't like movies like The Singles Ward because they make fun of our religion. It's OK not to like those movies (I find them a bit ridiculous), but I don't think they make fun of our religion--they make fun of the non-doctrinal subculture of our religion.

This was the year that The Passion of the Christ came out. He was very adamant that you shouldn't see it because it was rated R and the prophet said not to watch R-rated movies. That is not doctrine, and there are multiple reasons why. I wouldn't have a problem with him saying why he didn't think it advisable to see it, but to say not to simply because the prophet said not to--which isn't true--was overly simplistic.

One day, we learned about the requirement in the law of Moses to put lamb's blood on the right ear, thumb, and toe. As an object lesson, he took a red marker and made marks on those places on all of us. Which isn't necessarily bad, but is definitely odd, and a little hypocritical since he was a big advocate of not writing on yourself.

I'm sure there were other things he said or did that seemed wrong to me. I'm sure there are other things as well that didn't strike me as odd at that time, since I was young in the gospel, but if I heard them today I would find them false. After a mission, graduating from BYU, and being thrust into the world of Mormon scholarship because of my profession, I could engage him in a discussion and prove him wrong.

The day after Easter

Well, the trio of Valentine's Day/St. Patrick's Day/Easter is coming to an end, so I'm going to remember what I can about the day after Easter.

2013. We were having FHE at our bishop's house, so I rode with Joel DeVore up to Bishop's. On the way there, one of the passengers was playing solitaire on his laptop. They were talking about The Onion, and I said that on April Fool's Day the Onion should run real news. When we got there, I admired Bishop's granite boulder, like I usually do. (It's inside his house.) When we left, I remember there was a discussion about dubstep. I was impressed with Google's treasure map theme, and I appreciated the Delicate Arch and Salt Lake Temple pictures they put on the map.

2012. I needed to do some grocery shopping, since I hadn't done it over the weekend. For some reason I went to Shopko, and I was surprised to see they already had patriotic Tootsie Roll Pops and Tootsie Rolls. I went over to Buy Low Market, where I had never been before. I could see why, because their oranges, while very cheap, were moldy. I remember seeing a lady buy a bunch of clearance Easter M&Ms, but I didn't because they were out of season.


2011. I would have driven back to Provo. I remember lying on my bed, looking at things and listening to music. My new roommate Nate Gardner came in and said hi to me--it seemed like he knew who I was from high school, but I didn't know him. I was doing situps and watching some Peanuts specials, when both my new roommate Chase Elwood and, at another time, my roommate Zach Zimmerman came in. Zach came in right at the scene in It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown about which I had shown him a YouTube video that showed that the audio was backwards.


2010. I went to my math class, and another student asked what conference talk was my favorite. I said I liked Elder Holland's; he said it wasn't his favorite, as it was another pornography talk.

2009. I'm not sure, but it's possible this was the day we called a member of the ward to give us a ride, since the other elders for some reason couldn't give us one, and the member came in his pickup truck, and he had expected us not to be dressed up, since it was P-day (even though we were required to wear our proselyting clothes when we were in public). He thought that if we weren't dressed up, we could ride in the back of the truck--which was also against the rules. I moved some papers over on the seat to make room in the cab, and he said the papers were very important to him. I assured him I would be careful. I don't think we called him again.

2008. I remember eating most or all of the fake chocolate ("mockolate") bunny that Sister Welsh gave me.

2006. I remember coming home from school and seeing that my family had gone shopping at Kmart. They got clearance Easter toys, little eggs that would spin around after you pulled the cord out. They also bought the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I watched it, and I remember thinking that maybe it had a message for me, since I would be in the French spelling bee the next day.

2004. I had to turn in the Isaiah assignment that my terrible seminary teacher made us do. (Seriously. That guy should have been fired.)

2001. There had been a teacher strike earlier in the year, so we had to go to school on this day, even though normally it would have been a day off. There weren't many students there; I remember Mr. Unger (who I think was acting as a secretary at that time) was saying he could only remember one other day in all his teaching with such low attendance. My mom wasn't happy that I went to school that day.

2000, or 1999. It was on one of these years when I was in the kitchen trying to make a deviled egg (or maybe egg salad) and somehow I made it awful. While I was eating it, my mom's friend Jackie came over.

1998. My mom picked me up from my cousins' house. We went to Sam's Club, and I was talking about how early I wanted to go to bed that week, because I was super tired; I said I wanted to go to bed early on Friday, but she told me Sabrina the Teenage Witch would be on. We saw my teacher, Mrs. Fisher, at the checkout, and I was so tired I could hardly talk to her.

Good Friday

Easter is this week, so I will remember the things that happened two days before the holiday.

2013. I was taking a girl in my ward whom I home taught, Kayla, to the airport, so I parked over by her place and helped her load her suitcase in my car. We took off, and I was at a stop sign, waiting to turn left. Eventually I turned, and Kayla screamed. Another car was coming and honked--I hadn't seen them. I felt dumb the whole way for having done that. At one point I asked where Kayla got her mission call to--she said she hadn't even finished her papers. I felt dumb because I should have known that; I just got confused because so many girls were going on missions. We talked about the band fun. and I said I didn't like them; Kayla said she didn't like the lyrics of "We Are Young" but it was so catchy. We talked about little kids (since she was an el-ed major) and she told a story of a little kid saying there were bugs in raindrops (because he learned water could condense around bacteria in the atmosphere). My GPS confused me and I got off at the wrong exit, but it got me back where I needed to be and I was able to take off my sunglasses, since it was then dark. I went home and my mom had put a new Easter DVD on my bed. I asked if there was any candy I could have, but there wasn't. I went in her room while she cleaned and watched The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town, and then I went downstairs and watched Here Comes Peter Cottontail. I stayed up late writing a memory post, and my dad came home.

2012. I went to the library, and the computer I was working on on the second floor had all the settings really big. I bought a package of lavender-colored Hostess Sno-Balls. In my editing class, our teacher brought us Irish cheese that she loved and gave us apples. I tried a bit of the cheese, but I hated it, so I stuck to the packaged apples. I remember watching It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown while eating my second purple Sno-Ball. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today it was snowing! But it was gone by the afternoon. I got my semantics collection back and got good comments. In editing today none of the members of my group were there, so I got a bag of apples to myself. I got 88% on my geology test. I had a successful run, and tonight I made dinner, watched "It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown," and finished my logical fallacies assignment."

2011. We left Las Vegas and drove home. This might have been the day we were listening to my Owl City and Coldplay CDs. My mom looked in her CD case and said, "This one is for Pops"--it was a CD, "Funny Favorites," that she had bought for me for Valentine's Day in 2006, but I didn't like it so I gave it to her. It was a CD of annoying old songs. When "Purple People Eater" was playing, Matt said his mom always used to play it. During the song "Tiptoe through the Tulips," the CD began skipping a lot, and I was relieved for an excuse to say "Time for a new CD!" We stopped at Burger King in Fillmore, and Taylor Swift's "Mine" was playing over their sound system. That led Susanne to talk about how T-Swift had an apartment in Nashville, and Matt said she was stalking her for knowing that.

2010. I baked Easter M&M cookies to take to my mission reunion. I left some of them in the oven a little too long, so I didn't take the burned ones to the reunion. I listened to Handel's Messiah in the car. I showed up at the stake center by the Draper Temple, where the reunion was being held. My companion Elder Chun was visiting from California; he was surprised to see me, and he came over and picked me up. I was wearing brown corduroy pants and an orange hoodie. I was talking to President Clark, and he was impressed that I had make cookies if I was living in an apartment, which didn't seem unusual to me. He had bought a cake from Costco with a bunny on it, and he was dismayed when he realized it said "Happy Birthday"--he thought it had said "Happy Easter." But it was still Eastery enough for me to eat it. Before I left, someone dumped all the cookies (since lots of people brought cookies) into one bag, so I couldn't take mine home. I left, and it was snowing and really windy. I called my mom to see what the weather was like at our house, but she said it was fine. I got lost trying to get to the freeway, and I couldn't see the lines on the road because it was dark and wet. When I got home, I went downstairs to watch It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown, and while I was putting in the DVD, I was singing "All We like Sheep."

2009. We were teaching two boys, ages 8 and 9, and we were often impressed by their profound questions. Michael, the 9-year-old, asked this day why we celebrate Easter with eggs and bunnies. I told him it was a very good question. I can't remember what I told him. This is my journal entry:
"Today we actually were able to teach both the Youngs and the Williamses. The lessons went all right. We're hoping they will all show up for the Easter activity tomorrow so we will have a valid reason to attend. Michael Williams asked good questions, like why do we have Easter for Christ's resurrection with eggs. We've also been running into all sorts of crazy people while tracting, so it's good when we find some normal ones."

2008. We left early in the morning to drive up to our zone conference. It was snowy, and I remember pulling out my camera and narrating our drive. There had been a running gag that our zone leader, Elder Gammon, had cottage cheese skin, so I brought a cottage cheese container for him, but he was distracted looking for something. One of the new missionaries was Elder Wilson (who would later be my companion), and when we left, Elder Condie said bye to him, even though he didn't know him. I think this was the time that the Relief Society ran out of food for us, so President Clark didn't get any. Elder Condie got some packages from someone in a previous area. One of them was a St. Patrick's Day package that had been delivered to the wrong Elder Condie, so it was late. After conference, we went to the church, because Elder Condie was lazy and ruined those three months of my mission. That night we visited the Vaughans, and they had a two-year-old granddaughter visiting, who was saying funny things like "pretty sure" and "keep your hands to yourself."

2007. We went to a park in Nashville, and there was a train in the park. Preston would get mad at us and yell "No!" when we got near to it; apparently he had been trained not to go near trains. But that didn't stop him from touching it himself.

Allie was swinging, and I would give her a few pushes on the swing, then I would run over to swing myself. We saw Nashville's Parthenon. We went back to David's apartment to color eggs; after doing eggs, the kids took baths. It was snowing outside, and we were surprised it was snowing in April in Nashville. 

2006. It was our last full day in Moab, and we went to different places in national parks. When we got back to our trailer, we watched It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown on my little DVD player.

2005. I didn't have school, and we got our Easter baskets in the morning. I got the Easter Beagle DVD; my mom said my dad considered getting me Easter Parade but they didn't. I went and took a "nap" and watched It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown on my little DVD player. Allie came in with Preston's new telephone toy. It had a picture of a dog on it, so she pointed to it and said, "Woof!" It was the first time I knew she knew what a dog said. That night we colored eggs (I think Easter Beagle was on TV), and I was eating an egg-shaped Tootsie Roll Pop. 

2004. We went down to Fillmore to go to the sand dunes. Ya-ping and I slept in Grandma Judy and Grandpa Boyd's camper. 

2003. I probably ate a popsicle.

2001. I got the card game Blurt! in my basket, and my mom said we could take it in the car on the ride to Fillmore the next day, but she said my cousin Joey (who was going with us) might not like playing it.

2000. My mom and I went to Provo to help David move out of his apartment. We loaded up all his stuff in our car, and my mom said he would be sad because he would probably never see his roommates again. We went to Walmart and got jelly beans, and when we got home I put them in a bowl on top of our TV. 

1999. My cousin April was visiting, and this might have been the time she joined me in watching The Simpsons in my parents' room--it was an episode that I don't think was appropriate for a ten-year-old. My mom came home from shopping and I wasn't allowed to look in the bags she brought.

1998. We had all the cousins over for an egg hunt (after some of them had spent the night). My mom and aunt hid the eggs all over outside, and they explained how many eggs everyone was allowed. My mom said there were Skittles, and Sue repeated her, but there were no Skittles; I think they meant Starbursts. They told us there were small, medium, and large eggs and told us how many of each we could have. Rick Gildersleeve was helping Rhys find eggs. He found a medium one, and he asked me if it was a small one; I thought, if he thinks that's a little one, how big does he think the big ones must be? After everyone left, my parents brought out our Easter baskets, and I was disappointed to have them given to us in the evening. I got a little Tweety Bird thing that you connected to the water faucet and it acted as a drinking fountain.

1995. I awoke to snow covering all the tulips outside. My cousin Tammy had spent the night at our house, and my Thompson cousins were coming over for an Easter party. Tammy played the "Fluffy Bunny" song from the Picture Book of Songs. Some of the candy we had were Sweetarts ducks and bunnies.