As we get ready to put our house up for sale, we have been cleaning our house of stuff we have collected for nearly 9 years. Yesterday I was cleaning out the attic and came across my junior high, high school and college collection box. Four hours later I was still laughing, reminescing, and just enjoying sharing with the girls what I had kept. My girls loved the high school love notes from girls, dance pictures, my feathered blond hair, pictures of my first real girlfriend and date pictures! Not to mention my grades (I knew I was a good student, but I am wondering if I bordered on geek! I didn't realize I had such good grades) My worst grades were in my religion classes (Seminary) I got a C in Church History. I couldn't believe it--guess the church history bug had just not bit me yet.
As I was deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I did throw away my lifeguarding swimsuit (I thought that was the coolest job--size 26 shorts. Skinny boy---couldn't have saved a 10 year old girl from drowning with how skinny I was. But boy did I think I looked good! LOL!) I wouldn't throw away my Alta tennis team shirt. To many good memories with that--but as I was deciding what to keep and what to throw away I asked Gale, "Who is going to look at this?" I have never looked at my parents stuff or my grandparents. I think it would be fun for an afternoon, but it's not like I want to keep my parents grade reports. I then realized that the little box of stuff that I had whittled down as important and absolutely unthrowawayable. (new word) was not what was important for me to remember and for my kids to remember about me. It is the friendships I had made in high school and college, the things that I learned, the experiences that I had. It is the relationships and experiences which are of most worth to me. Not my Eagle Scout medallion, but the experiences I had getting it. (thanks mom and Charles Dahlquist--you should have it in your memory box as you really earned it.) With Gale's 40th birthday just past and a new year a head of me I think Gale and I have both realized it isn't in the "things" that we are happy, but in the friendships with both my own family and those around me and it is in the experiences that I have had. For the past few months I have wondered if I should have left my corporate DM job, the stability, the money, the free trips. But as I look back at 2007 and the growth I have had, the increased time I have spent with my family and the great things I know are ahead for our family in our new business I am at peace. One of my new years resolution--peace with where I am at. I plan on working hard for what I want to accomplish, but the path to get there for me is going to be filled with peace and happiness for where I am at, at that moment in my life.
Tonight Gale was gone and Chloe was at a church activity so it was Olivia, Elle, Ava and myself eating dinner and holding down the fort. (Gale had already made dinner, so all I had to do was put it on the plates and get everyone around the table. Can't believe she made me cut everyone's meat and have to carry the plates to the table! Her audacity! She won't get away so easy next time!)
As we get ready to put our house up for sale, we have been cleaning our house of stuff we have collected for nearly 9 years. Yesterday I was cleaning out the attic and came across my junior high, high school and college collection box. Four hours later I was still laughing, reminescing, and just enjoying sharing with the girls what I had kept. My girls loved the high school love notes from girls, dance pictures, my feathered blond hair, pictures of my first real girlfriend and date pictures! Not to mention my grades (I knew I was a good student, but I am wondering if I bordered on geek! I didn't realize I had such good grades) My worst grades were in my religion classes (Seminary) I got a C in Church History. I couldn't believe it--guess the church history bug had just not bit me yet.
As I was deciding what to keep and what to throw away. I did throw away my lifeguarding swimsuit (I thought that was the coolest job--size 26 shorts. Skinny boy---couldn't have saved a 10 year old girl from drowning with how skinny I was. But boy did I think I looked good! LOL!) I wouldn't throw away my Alta tennis team shirt. To many good memories with that--but as I was deciding what to keep and what to throw away I asked Gale, "Who is going to look at this?" I have never looked at my parents stuff or my grandparents. I think it would be fun for an afternoon, but it's not like I want to keep my parents grade reports. I then realized that the little box of stuff that I had whittled down as important and absolutely unthrowawayable. (new word) was not what was important for me to remember and for my kids to remember about me. It is the friendships I had made in high school and college, the things that I learned, the experiences that I had. It is the relationships and experiences which are of most worth to me. Not my Eagle Scout medallion, but the experiences I had getting it. (thanks mom and Charles Dahlquist--you should have it in your memory box as you really earned it.) With Gale's 40th birthday just past and a new year a head of me I think Gale and I have both realized it isn't in the "things" that we are happy, but in the friendships with both my own family and those around me and it is in the experiences that I have had. For the past few months I have wondered if I should have left my corporate DM job, the stability, the money, the free trips. But as I look back at 2007 and the growth I have had, the increased time I have spent with my family and the great things I know are ahead for our family in our new business I am at peace. One of my new years resolution--peace with where I am at. I plan on working hard for what I want to accomplish, but the path to get there for me is going to be filled with peace and happiness for where I am at, at that moment in my life.
We don't look so great----but does anybody at IHOP at 8:30 in the morning?