July 17, 2013
1 to 6 years old
I don’t
remember a whole lot from these years in my life, but I do have a few memories.
I remember the house that we lived on, and how beautiful I thought it was. At
that time in my life, I remember Alissa and Tyler the most when I was growing
up. Alissa and I shared a room with bunk beds and built in shelves in the wall.
When you first walk into the house, the living room is the first thing you see
on the left. On the right was the hallway to where the three bedrooms were. If
you walk past the living room towards the back of the house, you would see the
kitchen and the sliding glass door to the back yard. We had an underground trampoline
and a slide on the right side of the back yard. Towards the left of the yard we
had a big grassy area. Near the brick walls is where mom would plant her
flowers, grape vines, sweet peas, carrots, apricots, lemon trees and just
anything pretty.
Mom built a big garden of flowers, fruits and
vegetables in the front and back yard. I loved being outside with her when she
would garden. I loved catching butterflies, lady bugs, rollie pollies, but most
of all I loved to catch caterpillars.
Almost every caterpillar I would catch I named Flick (because of a bugs
life). Mom used to have a journal that she would keep of me as a child and she
wrote about a particular time that I caught a caterpillar, named it Flick and
made a comfortable home in a plastic bag for my little friend. I had zipped that bag closed tight right
before bed. When I woke up the next morning, my sweet little friend, so warm
and friendly just hours before, was now stiff,white, dull and just as dead as a
caterpillar can get. My heart was broken and I cried and cried and cried. I was
either in kindergarten or preschool, but that day I just couldn’t handle it. I
just could not go. Mom let me stay home from school and drove me to the pet
store. She let me look at all the animals in the store to try and make me feel
a little better. It had been a very hard day.
I loved animals and nature. Mom says that she
would look out the window and see me in the back yard, with all my clothes
lying in on the ground, and see me just rolling in the mud naked. She said that
I would feel the dirt and close my eyes, and just be so happy. Nature and I had
a strong relationship, which is probably why I looked forward to my camping
trips with Dad. It was normally just Dad and the kids and I had the time of my
life swimming in the lake, trying to catch ducks, learning how to fish, eating
red licorice and beef jerky, roasting marshmallows, hotdogs, catching lizards
and frogs, sleeping under billions of stars, and playing with my brothers and
sisters. There was a camping trip that I remember in particular with the
cousins. Brookie and I were learning how to fish and I had gotten mud all over
my pink and white sneakers. I set them close to the fire so that they could
dry. They were so melted that I couldn’t wear them much of anywhere afterwards.
Every child has their weird
quarks about them, and boy did I have some. I used to wear swimming suits under
all my clothes, all year round. I wore them to church under my dresses, to bed,
to my friends houses, and I even wore them when it would snow. I also used to
write my letters backwards. For instance, the E in Eryn would look like a
three. My N’s would also be backwards. I remember this because I remember
practicing writing my name one day. Grandma Anderson had a big pomegranate tree
in her back yard and we would pick tons of them when they were ready to eat.
Mom was making jam or jelly out of pomegranate’s in the kitchen that day and I
propped myself right on the floor with paper and crayons in front of me. I
remember having a bowl of pomegranate seeds for me to munch on, and practicing
writing my name with my red stained fingers while mom was busy in the kitchen.
I
always loved animals. I loved my dog, Coco, and I thought that she was the best
dog anyone could ever have. This beautiful chocolate Labrador was given to my
Dad as a gift before I was born. She never harmed anyone (except a girl that
came over to my house to play one time who used to be mean to Coco). I used to
sit on her back and have her walk me around the house. I remember trapping her
in laundry baskets and pretending that she had a turtle shell. Coco had about
three litters of puppies, and as a little kid it was the most exciting thing in
the whole world. I remember sneaking into the shed to play with the brown
miniature dogs.
One
day when I returned home from school, my mom greeted us kids at the door. She
told us that they had to get rid of Coco and had done that very thing this
morning when we were gone. I was so upset. Talk about heart break. I remember
running in my room and tears just pouring out of my six year old eyes. I didn’t
want to speak to Mom or Dad because I was so hurt. For years I would complain
to them and get after them for doing that to us. Looking back now, I can see
that it was hard on Mom and Dad to see me so upset. Mom doesn’t like to talk
about it, because it either broke her heart that Coco was gone, or it broke her
heart to see me so torn up about it.
7 to 12 years old
I loved going
to school and always looked forward to the first day of every grade. Well I was in the third grade and attending
Cozine Elementary school. My teacher was a lady in our ward who would home school
Tyler and Alissa when they were in middle school. The third grade was
interesting to me because It was the year we moved, the year I had my first
crush, and the year I met my friend Sara.
Tyler had a friend
that he liked to ride bikes with. They were both into motorcycles and building
jumps. This boy (I don’t even know his name) lived down the street from us. He
was in my grade and sometimes we would have art or music class together. I
don’t remember why I liked him, or if I even knew what it meant to like a boy,
but one day we were sitting in our art class and all of us were in a circle.
There was an Asian girl who was very skinny and would wear gold bracelets every
day. The boy that I had a crush on, liked this girl and I remember feeling a
little bit jealous of that girl. I wanted that boy to like me so bad, so I came
up with a plan. I decided to try and be like the Asian girl and squint my eyes
anytime I would see him. There was one day in particular that I remember
standing in line for the restroom against the wall. We had our fingers to our
lips, meaning that we all needed to be silent. Well his class was walking past
us, so I got my eyes ready, and starred him down until I couldn’t see him
anymore. After that he would avoid me and always look at me funny. I would even
bring Tyler’’s dirt bike book outside when they were playing and pretend that I
was reading it right in front of him. I thought that outta impress him for
sure.
Well that boy was
out of my life when one day Mom came into my room and sat down on the bed and
she told me that she was pregnant! I was out of this world excited. I remember
looking at houses with mom and packing up our old one. I walked out of the
house the day we were leaving, with a box of stuff in my tiny arms, when an
orange and black butterfly landed on my bare skin and just stood there for a
while. I thought it was so cool! We rented a house not too far from our home on
Quinton Avenue. I think we were only in this house for about a year when Mom
and Dad found one that they wanted to buy. We packed our stuff up again and
moved into 6116 Sandstone Mesa Drive, still in Las Vegas, Nevada. I loved this
house because it was so much bigger than our other one, and we had stairs to
play on. We started out with green carpet throughout the house, and in some
rooms we had speckled blue carpet. The house wasn’t very pretty yet, but the
backyard was! We had so many plants and big trees and a giant vine growing
under the balcony and up on the side of the house. The Tadds helped us move in
and the first night we stayed there I didn’t have a bed set up yet. Amanda and
I put a tiny T.V. in the living room and slept on the ground that night. Amanda
and I used to have tons of fun together. Her family would take me boating with
them almost every summer and we would have sleep overs all the time. We used to practice piano, play with her dog
Ace, color, eat, chase the bunnies in the backyard and just be silly. She was
my best friend.
Once
I moved, Amanda and I didn’t play with each other very often anymore, but I met
a girl named Sara Isley who lived right across the street from my house. She
had long light brown hair, freckles and pretty greenish blue eyes. Her family
ate fast food all the time and I loved eating over there. They would always
take us out to eat to eat at Denys a lot. Sara and I were always there for each
other when we were heartbroken, confused or just bored. I remember the day that
Sister Isley had to put their dog, Samson, to sleep. Sara was so angry and sad
and we just sat in her room and cried. I hated seeing her so sad and it lasted
for a long time.
13 to 19 years old
Dad
drove me to my first day of junior high at Lied Middle School. I was a little
bit nervous as he walked me into the school. “Do you know where all your
classes are?” He asked me before leaving to go to work. When I told him I knew
where I was going, we hugged and he told me he loved me and left. This was so much more different the
elementary school. Middle school was a confusing time for kids my age and
nobody really knows that they are lost and confused, but they are.
I
remember the school used to sell Smoothie King smoothies every Tuesday (?) for
three dollars. If we got enough people to buy a smoothie, the vice principle
would dance on the tables for us, so my friends and I became pretty good at
advertising. It was the best when we got to see him hop on the table and dance
like crazy!
I
always looked up to my sister, but especially at this time in my life. I wanted
to be just like her. I wore her clothes, tried to hang out with her and since
she had short hair, I wanted to chop my long beautiful, blonde hair off to look
just like her cute shoulder length hairstyle. Well, Alissa was in hair school
at the time, so she cut it for me. She cut about ten our twelve inches off and
when I looked In the mirror, I cried. I ended up trying to grow my hair out for
forever!
I
made a lot of new friends in middle school and I hung out mainly with people in
our ward. Danielle Dinino was one of my closest friends. I loved going over to
her house and going swimming or eating Cathy’s delicious dinners with them.
Tara Howlette was another great friend of mine. We all used to sleep in Tara’s
RV in her front yard and eat French bread with a Jones Sodas. Tara and I
started doing ballet together in the eighth grade. I loved doing dance! We went
every Thursday together and we were the oldest girls in our class. After dance
class we used to walk over to Villa Pizza and grab some of the butterscotch and
cinnamon candies they had out for grabs sitting on the counter.
I
met Allecia Olave in middle school as well. She was a couple years older than
me and started to befriend me at church. Her and I would write long notes to
each other about the most random things. I’m so glad I met Allecia because she
is my ultimate best friend. I’ve never had a friend care for me as much as she
has. I loved going over to her house and spending the night. We used to watch
movies and eat tator tots with ketchup. When we had sleep overs we would talk
and talk for forever. We would cry and laugh all the time. I fell in love with
her family and spent a lot of time at her house.
Jarom
(Allecia’s older brother) and Celeste were getting married and the Olaves asked
me to watch over the kids. I went to their house as they were getting ready to
leave and I met Allecia’s friend named Chelsea, who was going to the wedding
with them. After the wedding I started to hang out with them more and more. We
would all three have sleep overs together all the of the time. The two of them
became my very best friends and are in most of
my memories from then on.
Well
Chelsea met my brother in high school and those two started to date, so I saw
Chelsea at my house a ton, which I loved. Once I started high school my brother
was graduated and getting ready to serve a two year mission for the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Allecia and Chelsea were seniors and I was a
freshman. Chelsea would pick me up for early morning seminary at about 5:50am
every day before school. We always rocked out in her purple truck in the
parking lot at Shadow Ridge High School, where we all went to school.
We
used to play guitar hero and make bean and cheese burritos almost every weekend
at my house. Preston Simper, Tyler, Chelsea, Jake Dinino, and Allecia would
come over all of the time. I loved hanging out with Tyler and his friends! Well
once they graduated I started to hang out with friends my age more often. My
junior year in high school was when I started to hang out with Quinn Skouson a
lot. Quinn and I grew up in the same ward and he supposedly had a crush on me.
He told me that when I would go over to his house for piano lessons from his
older sister, Mikayla, he would just sit there and watch me play. My young
womens leader, Sister Eliason told me that he said he wanted to marry me. Well
as I spent more time with Quinn I started to like him a little more. Him and I
would spend a lot of time together and I loved talking to him. When we became
friends I was going through a hard time in my life. Quinn never knew that I was
having a hard time, but he made things a lot better for me.
Senior year snuck
up on me and little did I know that it would be the best year of all. I went to
homecoming with Wade Wilson that year and I even played powder puff football.
It was the year that I turned eighteen years old and got voted ‘most likely to
become a Disney princess’. I was having a blast! I got out of school at 10am
every day. I was living the life. I think it was sometime in November when my
friend Brandon Fisher had been texting me again. Him and I met freshman year.
We had a lot of the same friends and had a P.E. class together freshman year.
I was out front
one day, gardening and listening to Kina Grannis on my ipod. Brandon was
texting me and then told me that he had a crush on me. This sort of came as a
surprise to me because I was completely oblivious to all of the times he tried
to dance with me at the church dances, or when he would try and talk to me on
facebook or text me all througout high school. The Sadie Hawkins dance was
coming up and I had decided to ask him. It was 80’s themed and I made him wear
a mullet and giant glasses. That day was so much fun! We went to crystal palace
and rollerbladed and then we went to the dance and then ate in my backyard around
a fire with our group. Then we topped the night with a movie and root beer floats
at Jessica McCinnes house. We started spending more time together and going out
on dates almost every weekend. I was falling hard for this boy and he didn’t even
know it. We went to Senior prom together and then we had stopped dating afterwards
because he was getting ready to serve a two year mission in Tampa, Florida.
After
school ended I got my dream job. I was workng at Gilcrease Orchard doing
elementary school field trip tours, being a cashier and bottling apple cidar. I
was in love with this job! I started working their in September or August until
it closed down for the year in November. The best time was when It was
halloween and I would help the kids pick their pumpkins, eat apple cidar
doughnuts and go on hay rides with them. The little kids used to come up to me
with their handouts and have me autograph them. Little girls used to run up to
me and tell me I look like a princess and then run away. I absolutely loved
working with the kids! I also continued to work at FlipnOut as an assistant
manager. I loved this job because of the people. I have so many memories working
here!
Well
I worked until December and then headed off to BYU-Idaho to attend school. I
had no idea who my roommates were, and they’ve ended up becoming some of my
greatest friends! Tara Spears, Mikayla Holliday, Brooklyn Wease, and Jenifer
Higareda have packed my college life with so many memories and laughter. We
used to stay up until four or five in the morning, just talking or dancing or
eating or doing homework, you name it. One day, Brooklyn and I stayed up all
night on a Saturday just talking and
drawing faces on our roommates eggs. I
remember when I was craving mashed potatoes and Mikayla voluntarily made them
for me a two in the morning. College life is so much fun!
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