My Favorites . . .

So many times, a song or a thing fleets across my memory and I think, "Oh, a green Saturn, that's what Grammy used to drive."  It's not meant to be the only association you have, it's just a little thing that builds a bridge and it makes sense to start here, with my favorites:

My favorite flower . . . . is the Alaskan Shasta Daisy, but I also LOVE lilac bushes in spring along with snowball bushes.  I'm a big fan of flowering shrubs in general.  I adore working in the garden and have a love for any one of a million common perennial garden flowers.  Iris remind me of my dad.  Lilies make my heart sing.  I love, love, love sedum.  Violas make me happy and remind me of Grandma Mills.   It's probably easier to name flowers I don't like.  I don't like yarrow, am not a fan of sunflowers and associate carnations with funerals.

My favorite perfume . . .  Well, I don't have one.  My favorite scent on skin is fresh cleanliness that can only come with good hygiene.  I love the mix of smells from a good shampoo, nice conditioner,  a soft body wash and a good teeth scrubbing with good old fashioned toothpaste.  I sometimes spritz on a bit of body mist.  I'm a fan of vanilla because I like to smell like fresh baked cookies.

Color . . . blue.  And green.  And rust.  And yellow.  And red.  Oh, so hard to pick a favorite.

Song . . . Oh, I do NOT know.  I love lots of music.  I love lots of different artists across many different decades of music.  That, truly is impossible to choose.   I have a blessed memory for song lyrics and once I learn the words to a song, they are with me forever.  It probably takes up a ton of brain storage, but it's who I am.  I'm like that with phone numbers, too.

Book . . . I'm an avid reader, but don't have a favorite.  The best book I've read lately is The Chaperone.   I like adventure, romance, fantasy . . . again, it's impossible to choose just one.

Saying or Quotation . . . "It's the little things."

Dessert . . . Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.  I'm a cookie connoisseur.  I also really love a good snicker-doodle.

Vacation spot . . . Breckenridge, Colorado.  Or Montana.  Or California.

Type of food . . . Salad.  I love a good salad.

Sport . . . Gymnastics.

Movie . . . City of Angels is where I always land even though I probably have several others.

Leisure Activity . . . Gardening.  Or biking.  Or painting.  Or doing house remodeling or re-design. Or organizing stuff.  I'm always organizing something.

Me . . .

Not for the purposes of Blogger . . . but to fill in once the project is bound and complete.

My full name is: ___________________________________

My birthdate is: __________________________________

I was born in: __________________________________

My mother's name is/was: ___________________________________

And she was born in: ____________________________ on: ___________________________

My father's name is/was: _________________________________

And he was born in: __________________________ on: _________________________

My paternal grandparents are: ______________________________________

They were born in: _______________________________ on: ________________________

My maternal grandparents are: _____________________________________________

They were born in: ______________________________ on: _______________________

My marriage . . .

I married _________________________________ on _________________________

Kiddos . . . here are the names and birthdays of my kiddos:

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

Why?

To:  My awesome, wonderful, perfectly perfect children, all four of you . . . 

(and, of course, all of your children and those children's children)

From:  Me, Your Mommy.  I am so, very honored that God chose me to take care of you. 

This is a gift.

This is a really special gift.

This is my story.   In my words.

It's my most heartfelt hope that it becomes a family keepsake and contains stories that are treasured for generations.  It  is not now,  nor will it ever be a spot to air dirty laundry, let skeletons out of the closet or cause hurt or harm.   It is, however, the honest to God truth.

Still, days pass and seasons change.  Minutes become hours, hours become days and suddenly years have melted into decades.  We stand there, looking back at a tangle of memories, childhood treasures and stories that we can barely wrap the wispy fragments of our memories around, and we think . . . I should have written that down.

That's the point.

I'm writing about my childhood.  I'm writing about my parents along the way.  I'm telling stories of how uncles met aunts and how our family came to be.  I'm telling about my first cassette tape, my horse, our animals, my room, climbing trees.  I'll tell you about finding love, losing it, being heartbroken and finding hope again.  I'll make a valiant attempt to explain how I managed to make it to adulthood without earning an allowance.  Be amazed at how Coke used to come in bottles and be 10 cents.  Giggle at the thought of my mom sending me to a movie with a dime in my pocket so I could use the pay phone to call home for a ride when the show was over.  Laugh with me.  Cry with me.  Come along, won't you?

This will be a story in the  making for years to come.  The goal is to eventually, print it and bind it.  Eventually.  But the goal today is to start it . . . and to feed it and grow it into a really, really special gift.


***********
Writing disclaimer . . . . because it is the year 2012 and safety to me and my family is of utmost concern, you'll have to decode names later.  To preserve the innocent and protect the guilty, I won't use real names.  Instead, I'll provide a key to nicknames along the way, or later.  Also, because the goal of this writing endeavor is to publish eventually, I won't be labeling posts.  Just read it . . . from cover to cover, the good old fashioned way.