Letters from Dave while on his mission. I am not throwing these away, but still wanted to document them here. Dave wrote me every week while he was away. What a faithful friend!

 

I finally threw away all of my college work. It was really hard to do, for a couple of reasons. #1 I loved school and I always enjoy going back and looking over my work. I am kind of amazed at myself when I do. I was a good student and I like to have that evidence that I was good at something once upon a time. I am not really gifted in house cleaning or decorating, dressing or any of the things that "show" right now. Parenting is so hard and you can't really see the results day by day.  College you constantly measure progress and looking back it is a very satisfying time.

I went through all of my old college work and took a few random pics.

bio chem

I would often print out the AIM sheets which track progress toward a major and be sure I was on track to graduate.

genetics

ecology - one of my favorites

regular chem

yes, I took bowling in college.

tons of organic chemistry

This was from a project I did in 7th grade for the science fair looking different water, from a lake, from the tap, orange juice, coke. We measured ph of each of these. I still remember doing this project.  My dad worked in water pollution industry and so I liked doing something that related to his work.

more memories

I had some awesome friends over the years.  I filled two trash cans full of letters that I threw away this weekend. Here are some things I was reminded of while going through all of the letters.
I had files for each of these categories, plus a few more not really necessary to write down.


Jana Kohler (smythe). We were BFF's and then she moved to Utah after our freshman year. I missed her. We wrote for a long time after she first moved. It is so funny reading the letters. They are full of "I love you. I miss you. You're such a good friend..... oh my gosh, you know who I kissed... you know who is so cute? You know who I really like?"  too funny for words.

Laurie Kawasaki - my BFF from freshman year. She was from a small island in Hawaii on Lanai. She  came home with me for Christmas break freshman year since she lived so far away. She was a wedding planner lover but claimed she'd get married last. Well, she got married first. After dating Curtis for just a few weeks. I thought she was crazy but they are a great couple!

Aurelia Stone - chile mission and general friendship.

Andrea Zwick and Andrea Roeder - middle school friends

 Sarah Vesey - was one of my BFF's in high school. She was/is a smart good girl with a nice family. She is such a sweet friend. She sent so many cards -- good luck on the AP test's, happy Valentine's Day, Merry Christmas, Happy Easter etc. She was definitely one to remember holidays and special occasions and able to say I love you.  I have many memories of Calc study sessions and late movie nights at her house.

This was a hilarous card from a goofy friend. I should try this with my kids one day.

Poway Girls - AT girls camp we had nicknames. Mine was George STraight. The other girls had country names too - Merlow Brown, Vince Gill, Reba McEntyre..... The girls were Adrianne Brown, KAtie and Jamie Neuenswander,  Cami Konold.


Mom and Dad - I'm going to keep these letters, but just in case they end up lost I should document them as well. Mom and Dad both used to write me in college and send $ or little gifts.  I sent a lot of cards home to my paretns during that time too. My mom had been diagnosed with cancer just a few weeks before I left for school, so I'd send her cards and notes. Plus by the time I left home I was really starting to like my parents (esp. my mom) after getting past the years of battle of wills in high school!  To my dad, I'd mail bills and grades. I guess he mentioned to my mom once that I only sent him bills and sent her nice love notes.   Dad sort of sent me business stuff too - my ballot, informational news type stuff which was always nice and interesting.

Wickmans- Pat Wickman is one of my favorite people in the world. Growing up she most definitely was my MOST favorite person in the world. I learned a lot of great things from her. I should probably have an entire post about my life at the Wickman home. I'll save that for another day. Right now is for letters. I have more letters from the Wickmans than from anyone else. She was great at notes.

This one is from Justin Sabin. A good friend for many years.

When I was about 10, we went on a family vacation to aspen grove and I met a friend, Jenni Meachem who I kept in touch with for 8 years 'til we went to college at BYU.  She was from colorado. We also had a Meacham family in our ward at home, with a Jenny, so it was kinda funny.

throwing away junk, saving memories

We are doing a massive clean of our house. By "we", I mean me. I am cleaning. The kids are messing. Dave is saving. Any way, it is so great to get rid of stuff we don't need. There are some things that are a little hard to get rid of because even though we don't need them, there are memories. At this point I'm not saving every card and note I got, though I used to! It has been fun reading through some things. I took a few pics of things I wanted to remember but not keep. I'll probably have several of these posts over the next couple of months as I finish cleaning up all our stuff.

This will be kind of a bragging post so feel free to skip it if that is annoying, but it is for my kids so they know had talents and loves before they came into the world. As a kid, my mom always told me my dad was a brilliant student and I wanted to be more like him and do well in school. Dave is brilliant of course but I also want the kids to know I did well in school too....they have no reason they shouldn't do well also!

I am throwing away lots of school work. I took a pic of one of my tests from an animal  physiology class. One of my favorite classes I ever took. It was at CSU San Marcos.  The year I was home from school.

I thought it was funny how this teacher used secret names so that he could publicly post scores.

I picked the secret name George b/c I loved George Straight. I even joined the George Strait fan club!

I got varsity letters in band and soccer. I think the stars are for ALL CIF and ALL palomar league for soccer. I played 4 years varsity soccer and I was pretty good, especially by my senior year.

 I found this great note from the Konolds! I have loved them for many years. What dear people. Now Bishop of our ward.

Sr. year of soccer I got the "golden boot" award for most goals and assists.

This bad boy is Dave's. He was a wresteler in high school. We are FOR SURE saving this in the hope that he'll put it on for us one day! Clare cried laughing when she saw this.

And another note from Marilyn Faulkner.

 I had a file of notes from my "favorite families" - Faulkners, Jergensens, Hawkes, Stone, Christensens, Hilbigs. All great family friends and especially supportive of my Mom when she was sick. Great people.

Some A's and B's

 A post card from a friend Kirk Faulkner a childhood friend who went on mission to Russia.