WHERE DO I BEGIN?

A little background about me...I know...boring. I guess because I just had my birthday, I'm wondering what I did with 51 years. (You don't have to read this, I am just remembering "stuff" & this is MY BLOG so I can do anything I want to, right?)

I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, May 9, 1957. Moved to California when I was 3. Lived in La Habra most of that time & went to Disneyland so many times each year I can't even count. At that time, you didn't have to pay the main park entrance fee, you just bought the book of tickets & used mostly the "E" tickets--the other ones were for things that weren't as much fun. Every time family or friends would come to visit, off we would go to Disneyland. Of course, I never got tired of it. I remember Dad would call Mom from work & tell her to get a babysitter & meet him at the "Blue Bayou" in Disneyland for dinner. Like I said, no entrance fee. Wouldn't that be nice now?

Anyway, when I was little, we lived on Verona Street & I had a really pretty white Persian cat. When I went to Kindergarten one day, I saw the cat hanging from a tree right in front of the school & I ran all the way home crying. I also had a little weenie dog named "Poochie." I think he bit someone because we had to give him away to a family that lived next door to my Grandma Hazel in Granger, Utah, (city name changed to West Valley City).

Here's something my cousin Pattie recently told me about a conversation she had with my Aunt Dorothy, just to let you know I was a cute kid (was there any question?). "She told me a story about how when you were little, she was tending you.....you were outside playing and you kept ringing the doorbell, so she told you not to ring the doorbell anymore. You said OK..Then in a few minutes the doorbell rang again and you yelled through the door "It's just I, me ringed it again"...CUTE!! You were such a cute little girl..."

Our next door neighbors were Mexican so I went over there all the time because Grandma Rodriguez would make homemade tortillas with butter & a little salt on them & I just loved 'em! Julie Rodriguez' dad, Primo, did concrete work & built their own pool. I played with Julie a lot in my cute playhouse that my Dad built for me. I LOVED that playhouse! We had another neighbor on the other side named Mrs. Nolan, but she let me call her Grandma Nolan. She had a granddaughter or niece named Pricilla & so I wanted to name my first kid Pricilla because it was like a princess name. I'm sure Jodi is VERY glad she's not Pricilla!! (See Jodi, at least I didn't do that, even though you had stupid doggie braids! LOL!--check 'em out! Don't blame her for not liking this picture--what was I thinking??) Oh, I also remember playing with Silly Putty & got it on my white bedspread & Mom (who's the most patient person in the world) got real mad, so I couldn't have Silly Putty for a L O N G time!

When I was 5, I was run over by my uncle's tractor on his farm in northeastern Utah (Duchesne). I was so tiny & the back tires were new, so I went in between the lugs (the grooves of the tires). I remember laying in the hospital & the dr. looking down at me. I got stitches in my eyebrow (that's why one eyebrow is lower than the other one). I don't remember this, but my mom says I couldn't walk for 6 months. My parents tell me that the dr. didn't charge them anything for my treatment because when my Dad was a teenager, he had saved the dr.'s son from drowning in a canal. I've had problems with my neck & back ever since. I also get migraines. (I'll tell ya about my neck stuff later...)

Anyway, I begged my parents for a sister, so when I was 7 1/2 they adopted Trudy (did I forget to tell you I was VERY spoiled?), so we had to move to a bigger house up in La Habra Heights, overlooking a private golf course. Our old neighbor Primo poured lots of concrete for us there. On our property was a really nice little stream & we had some big eucalyptus trees that my Dad put a swing on by the stream. We had a really pretty curly haired black laborador retriever named Stasha. She loved to play in the stream when we were swinging. It just happened that it was also close to where people would tee off. Well, Stasha, being a retriever, would chase the balls which would really tick off the golfers. They complained, the golf course complained to us but we couldn't do anything about her, so one time when we were on vacation, we are POSITIVE they came & took her away. Before that, she had a litter of puppies about the same time our cat had kittens. One of the kittens would nurse off Stasha. Pretty funny! I ran down the stairs one time with the stapler & stapled my thumb--ummm...it hurt!

We didn't have many neighbors since we lived in the hills, but our next door neighbors had 2 boys & I played with Kevin Schrock. We played spies (pretending we were the spies from this one show on TV). Lots of fun running up & down the huge hill in our backyard! I also babysat a little girl named Kelly & when I was babysitting, we would watch Dark Shadows. She had nightmares so her parents asked my parents to tell me to quit watching it. She liked it too, so we kept watching it but pretended we didn't. She promised she wouldn't have anymore nightmares. I'm sure she didn't because she PROMISED!

When I was 12, my Dad got a job with Mountain Bell in Utah, but there was a condition--he had to lose weight--that's before EEO. He currently was working for different aerospace companies as an electrical engineer one in a TOP SECRET government program, heading the department. I remember him going to the airport a number of times with a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist--super-spy stuff, huh? Well, the aerospace program finances were getting cut by the government & Dad had to keep laying off his guys who were his friends, & they saw the "writing on the wall," so my parents decided it was time to move back to Utah to be closer to family. While Dad was waiting for his job to come through, they sold our really big house overlooking the private country club, on prime land for a whopping $45,000! A couple of years later, we heard the people who bought it sold it for over $250,000. This was even before the overpricing of houses in California! Anyway, we moved to a rental house for a year. It had a pool that dad swam 50 laps in the morning & 50 in the evening to help him lose weight. Almost the only thing he ate for a year was beef jerky. He really stuck to his diet & lost lots of weight. I remember how proud of him I was & how I still wish I could be so committed to something.

WOW!! I just read everything up to here & it's REALLY, REALLY LONG!! (And I just touched on the surface...More later--remember, if you don't care, don't read! LOL!)