Wasser Ski

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 10th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 8th grade.

8th grade was a grade of who's who. Who are your friends, who are you dating? I was still in the transition period of who my friends were. I had started to become better friends with some girls who would have a big impact on me by the faith that they carried.

But as far as school went my favorite subject at this time was my German class. My good friend Kari was in it. We got to pick German names to use in the class period. My name was Daniella. Which I think I picked because my parents picked out Danielle for a name for me when I was born, but obviously didn't keep it. I remember taking field trips to some German restaurants in the (Cities?) This restaurant was dark and dingy. To my shock, during this visit my German teacher Frau Swenson snorted a shot of tobacco through her nose. It was done with a contraption that I guess was very Germanic. And yes....all of the 8th graders stood around and watched her do this. I thought it was disgusting as most of them cheered her on. But, during this class towards the end of the year we got to make a commercial to show the class in German of course. Kari and I wanted our commercial to be on how having the right pair of water ski's can make a big difference in skiing.

So a chilly May day we went out skiing to make our commercial.

I remember it started out with me not skiing well, and my big line was.

"Diese wasser ski sind schreckliche!" ("These water skis are horrible!")

To which Kari had good water skis and skied great!

But it was a whole lot of fun to make.....hmmm makes me want to view it again. Kari's parents own it! I should check to see if they have it still. Maybe I could post it=)

Gone!

Last Friday we went to some car/motorcycle races. I was quite surprised that it was a very family friendly place. Seeing that there were many families there. Lots of kids waving checkered flags=) We sat in the first bleacher since Kenz is very mobile now and I knew she would not do well just sitting for a few hours. There was plenty of room between the stadium seating and the race track. They kept things going at a good pace, plenty of different races. Each lasting no more than 5mins? The last two races of the night were longer though, maybe a total of 30 laps. Kenzie was getting fussy so I thought I'd take her out to the truck feed her, change her get her a little more settled before we left. I knew my husband had lots to get together back at the bleachers plus the kids to get to watch...so I headed back to help him.


Now the way the stadium is set up is there are two entry points to the seating. I could take the first one and walk all the way down in front of everyone to where we were sitting, or I could walk behind the bleachers and go to the 2nd entry way which is right where we were sitting. I chose to walk behind the bleachers. As soon as I got there everyone had this worried look on their faces. Our friend Beth said to me "Caden is gone!" What! I look to my husband. He said that he had told Caden and Keira that it was almost time to go and he had bolted. What and you just let him?? I didn't quite get what was going on. So my daughter points down in front of the stadium saying she saw him. I look and start walking wondering where she sees him. I ask a few people on the way to see if they saw him. "No!" I walked all the way down. He was not there. My heart was pounding! So I turned back around walked back and hoped to see him back with my husband. Nope. Our other friend Joe took off to look in the bathrooms, my husband to look by the concession stands. Nothing. The minutes felt like eternity. My heart was racing and I was screaming inside. I handed Kenz off to Beth and told Keira to stay with her as well. I started just running and thinking how can I get them to stop the races..it was sooo loud there is no way he could hear me yelling for him. As I was yelling very loud and in a panic. My only thought was if someone took him they would have to bring him to the parking lot to leave. I knew I had to get to the parking lot and stop whatever cars are leaving. I had never been so scared! I just kept pleading "Please Lord No!...Please Lord No! I ran right to the outside of the ticket booth and there he was walking towards me. My heart leaped and I grabbed him and picked him up and asked where he was? Crying he told me he went to look for me over and over he just kept saying he was looking for me.=( I NEVER told the kids I was leaving to get Kenz ready at the truck. They were so engrossed in the race he never realized I had been gone for a while. So when my hubby said it was time to leave he bolted after a woman who he thought was me and followed her, in front of the bleachers, she was a ways a head. If I had taken just a few more minutes we might have crossed paths. I'm pretty sure he was walking in front of the bleachers as I was walking in back of the bleachers. But, I had never been so thankful to see him. At the time it felt like I was in a dream. Luckily it was a good ending! And the owner gave Caden a checkered flag as he knew he was missing. It took my heart until next morning to feel less anxious.

How about you...have your kids ever gone missing?

Ho Hum

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 9th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 7th grade.

Jr High. The big time. I went into Jr High not having too many school friends. The friends that I had ran around with before started to get into things that I wasn't into. My locker at school was in the yellow hallway. At school they had these different color hallways. It looked very much from the 70's. I just remember how fun it was to be able to decorate your locker. Or, share your locker with someone. Which I did for a short while at the end of the year. But, my 7th grade year was not very memorable. I started playing basketball and softball and played alto saxophone in the band. I did fairly well playing the sax usually first or second chair. But when it came time for solo performances....ah yeah. I would get so nervous my whole body would shake. the teacher excused me because I think he was embarrassed for me. If you were in band you could also be in choir or small band because they traded every other day. I did not want to sing. So I was in small band, and you had to do lots of solo performances. I only did one. After that one my teacher pulled some strings so I could be in the advanced art placement class. Granted I have no art skills what so ever! But that was way more fun than having to get up in front of others. Plus the art student got to take lots of field trips. Lots! So getting nervous in front of others has its up side=)

At home I pretty sure my step-dad and my mom got married within the last year. Sorry a lot of these dates I don't remember very well. Well I think they actually got married during my 6th grade year. I remember both my mom and step-dad were in the Army. The newspaper people came out to interview them about the possibility of them both being sent to Operation Desert Storm and having children at home. They never went.

All in all 7th grade was a pretty ho hum year as far as school went.

Looking For Necklaces?

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 8th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 6th grade.

My 6th grade teacher was Mrs. Miller. Again she was a teacher of mine that was not very well liked, however I liked her. Again this is a grade I don't remember much about. I do know by this time my parents divorce was finalized.

I also remember my friends changing a bit. I started hanging out with the more rebellious girls, but not really wanting to. Knowing something was wrong with the things they did. A specific memory was being out at 3 in the morning...mind you we were in 6th grade. My "friends" had boyfriends that were in the Jr High. While spending the night at my one friends house one night they came by and we all went out walking. I think the guys were drinking and not to sure about my friends. I was a little confused about it all. Well all of a sudden the police must have gotten a call because they pulled over to where we were walking and turned their sirens on. All of them jumped into the nearby fields and just ran. I didn't know what to do so I off course go into the ditch and just lay down with my friend...mind you our only offense being out past our towns curfew. The police shine their lights on us and told us to get up. They ask us what we were doing to which my friend replied that we were looking for a necklace she had lost earlier! Luckily they just told us to go home. Man were we pretty dumb.

I think by the end of this grade I knew these were not the type of girls I wanted to be around. I went into the summer not having too many friends from my class, just a couple of girls in my neighborhood who were good and did not get into trouble to much.

A Lesson On Treating People

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 7th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 5th grade or when I was 10.

The memory that sticks out the most to me during 5th grade was when we were in social studies class. Specifically civil liberties and racism. While talking about it my teacher mentions to the class that a specific student in out class has AIDS. He named him. The entire class turned and looked at him. Unsure of what to do next. Our teacher then starting asking questions about how we should behave and with in a few minutes class was over. I don't remember if another class was after that but I do remember the health class was before recess. And when recess came...so did the insults and complete humiliation that the students put on this poor boy. Everyone was gathered around him, some asking questions, others threatening him and a few that were pushing him around. I was in the midst as an on-looker. I remember feeling horrible for him, but yet at the same time feeling scared that I could get it too.
As recess ended we all headed inside, got to our desks. To all of our surprise, our teacher told us it was all a hoax!! This student did not have AIDS. He was trying to teach the class a lesson on treating people that are different than us, with respect and dignity. The student knew this was going to happen. I certainly changed my outlook on how I am to be treating people, even on just the thought level.

As a side note its funny how teachers could do things like that in the past, but today would that even be allowed? I think it would make the news and the teacher would be fired. The times they are a changing!

Tales of a fourth grade juggler!

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 6th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 4th grade or when I was 9.


Well 4th grade ...hmmm.... 4th grade I had my first male teacher, Mr. Gauer. And it was his first year teaching. He cut his thumb pretty badly on the paper cutter one day and had to leave to go get stitches.
In 4th grade I got in trouble and had a major talk from Mr Gauer about not making fun of people. He took me and another girl into the coat closet and we talked about the importance of treating people with respect. As I and another student, made fun a another girls pants. I still remember what that girl looked like and her name. His talk had a big impact on me as I don't remember doing that again, and hated when I saw others doing it also.

I learned in forth grade that dessert and desert were spelled differently. I once again got to be in a play about Paddington Bear. Fortunately I was prop set up. Yay! No messing up with that. But unfortunately 4th grade was also the year how-to speeches started. I didn't mention anything to my parents until the night before I was to do mine. I had nothing ready, so I believe they gave me a recipe for making chip dip. It was easy and only 3 steps. So when I got up it didn't take long and virtually fool proof. It went okay, well... better than me being a play.

One day when staying at school after class was over, I don't remember why, a couple of other girls in my class and I asked Mr. Gauer to teach us to juggle. He had juggled for our class not long before that. So we sat and learned to juggle:) He was so kind and patient with all of us. I would go home and practice for hours just so when I got the chance I could show him how much better I had gotten. After that year was done I never saw Mr Gauer again until incidentally when I was in 12th grade, I went back to the same school for a class where I had to teach 3/4 graders to read. Mr Gauer recognized me and my name. I thought that was neat that he would remember me.

Spelling Test Redemption

I am joining Janna at Mommy's Piggy Tales to record my youth. This is the 5th of 15 series, every Thurs, that I will be recording. These memories are from 3rd grade or when I was 8.

In third grade my teacher was Mrs. Wetzel...which is good that I remember that because I don't remember my 1st or 2nd grade teachers name. I could guess, but I don't know if I am just remembering a teachers name in the school or mine. I liked Mrs. Wetzel. I don't think a lot of the students did but I did.

I think my cheating days of 1st grade were behind me. A bunch of answers got left up on the chalk board for a spelling test. Mrs. Wetzel passed out our papers and started saying the words for us to write. I kind of looked around and seeing if people noticed if the answers were up there. Everyone could see them. So of course being the girl that knew she never wanted to cheat again I calmly raised my hand and told the teacher the answers were on the board. Yep, I don't remember having many friends that week. Hmmm... maybe they didn't know about the changed person I was;-)

The summer before 3rd grade we got the chance to go to Disney World. We drove the whole way there. My mom, my brother Derek, my mom's friend Sandy and myself. On the way we stopped at Graceland. My brother and I being only slightly thrilled because we knew that Elvis was some one famous who was a singer and actor. I thought the best part was his horses, and the animal room. I did want to be a veterinarian when I was little...well until the 11th grade. But we kept going after that and ended up at Wet and Wild. I loved it! We had so much fun there and probably even remember more of it compared to Disney. The only thing I remember from Disney is one ride that was a train. See... I don't even remember the name of the ride, or if I saw any characters....actually I think we might have saw Mickey at our hotel??? Who knows! I was and still am more of a thrill seeker and like doing active things which is why I probably remember Wet and Wild more than Disney. I kept my mug from W &W for a very long time. It was pink:)

The only other real memory I have from the 3rd grade is yet another play I was in. It was a play for health class. It was a big deal because many parents were going to be there to watch. I was the cracker. I had all my lines memorized, the first day of practice. I had it down during all the practices. Well...until show time. Remember I don't like to be in front of people. I just stood there. You could see all the sympathy faces. Boo Hoo. But, as my years progress it is funny that I still will volunteer to be up in front of people, yet I will still not do well in front of others. Hmmm...