Tag! I'm It

My virtual blogger buddy Luisa tagged me for a new, sort of a chain-letter, getting-to-know you Meme. I'm playing along.

I'll be blogging about a very exciting development in the LDS fiction arena soon. Keep your eyes peeled for that!

In the meantime, here we go:

Remove the blog from the top, move all the blogs up one, and add yourself to the bottom.

42
Twas Brillig
Ennui in the Grocery
Novembrance
The Lyon's Tale

What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago was 1997, which means that S. was just a few weeks old. She didn't have much hair, but what little she did have was bright red, and I always made a little curl out of it and KY-ed a little bow on the side. D. was almost two. We were living in Spanish Fork in our cute little split-level starter house, and I was in the YW presidency. This is about the time that my article stint began.

What were you doing one year ago?
Like Luisa, I figure out time by calculating my kids' ages. A year ago D. was closing in on his 11th b-day, S. had just turned 9, M. was almost 7, and A. was 3-almost-4. At the Journey's End had just gone to press (sound familiar?), and I was doing some Chocolate Show work here and there.

The biggest thing, though, was that Rob and I were getting ready to visit my parents in Israel for a week and a half, where my dad was in charge of the BYU Jerusalem Center and Mom headed up the Humanitarian work for the Church. Dad was also the District president of Israel. BYU students weren't back yet, though. Rob and I just don't travel. The most we have done is visit his grandparents in Idaho and maybe go up to Yellowstone. Last fall we made the trek (for the first time) to Disneyland. (Yeah, world travelers.) So this was a very big deal.

It was the coolest trip of my life. The hardest part was being away from my kids that long, especially my youngest. But it was the trip of a lifetime. All I can say is WOW. I'll never see the scriptures the same again. There was one interesting wrinkle. Mom and Dad had their itinerary and tickets and were supposed to return home in November after about a year and a half of being in the Holy Land.

While we were up in Galilee, Dad got a cell phone call, and excused himself to take it in the other room. We didn't find out until about a month after we got home what that phone call was (Dad apparently has a serious poker face; we had no clue). The speaker on the other end was one President Hinckley calling my parents to be the first temple president and matron over the Helsinki, Finland temple. They wouldn't be returning home in November after all. Instead, they jetted home for 6 weeks in September to get their affairs in order, flew to Finland, and are now there for 3 YEARS. But I digress. Here's a photo of Rob and me on the Dome of the Rock.

(I loved Rob's beard! Too bad he had to shave it off as soon as we got home to start his new programming job, which has a much stricter dress code . . .)

Five snacks you enjoy:
1. Sonic's strawberry slush
2. Training Table's cheese fries
3. Almonds and raisins mixed up together
4. Chips and salsa (but not Pace salsa; ick)
5. Apples or grapes or strawberries or, heck, any fresh fruit

Five songs you know all the lyrics to:
1. "Come What May" (Air Supply)
2. "Thank You For the Music" (ABBA)
3. "Heart to Heart" (John Denver)
4. "Lift Me Up" (VoiceMale)
5. "White Christmas" (Bing Crosby)

Things you would do if you were a millionaire:
1. Pay off that stupid mortgage
2. Travel
3. Save up for the kids' college, missions, weddings
4. Landscape the house so it's like the one in my dreams
5. Donate to literacy causes

Five bad habits:
1. I rarely get out of my PJ's until lunch time.
2. I consider chocolate the fifth food group. (Note how it's not listed as a SNACK.)
3. E-mail and blog-reading addiction.
4. Thanks to TiVo, I watch every episode of Dr. Phil and Oprah. I do this while I sort laundry and clean the kitchen, so I pretend I'm not wasting time.
5. I am such a freak about grammar and punctuation that I cannot read a book without flinching at the wrong use of lay/lie or snarling at a comma splice.

Five things you like to do:
(although I rarely get to do enough of any of these)
1. Sleep
2. Knit
3. Take walks
4. Camp in the high Uintahs
5. Take long, lingering baths

Things you will never wear again:
1. The 4-inch silver Latin ballroom dance shoes I met my husband in. (Took him weeks to stop looking around for me, since he knew me for two months as four inches taller than I really am as we cha-cha-ed as partners all summer.)
2. The blonde wig I wore as Rapunzel in the community production of Into the Woods my freshman year of college.
3. The royal blue maternity bathing suit I bravely sported for Mommy-and-me swimming lessons when D. was 3 1/2 and I was 8 months pregnant with M. He better appreciate the humiliation I went through for him.
4. Blue mascara. So I went through brief but strange phase my sophomore year of high school. All I can plead is the temporary insanity of the era, along with other things that matched the time period, like pegged jeans, sky-high bangs, and denim jackets.
5. My leather jacket. Sadly, it has gone the way of all the earth, so I can't wear it again. But I loved that thing, and I still would wear it if I had it. I had lots of great memories attached to it, most of which were connected with dating my husband.

Five favorite toys:
1. Alphasmart Neo. I CANNOT live without it. I highly recommend any writer invest in one. It's my #1 writing tool for drafting. Not so good with revising, but it's a massive time saver. So portable. Nearly indestructive. Battery lasts forever. I can write whenver, wherever. I couldn't have gotten my last two books written without it.
2. Dawn/Dusk simulator. Especially in the winter, it keeps me sane. Helps me get to sleep and helps me wake up in the morning. Since I'm not a morning person and I have children to get to school, this a good thing. Probably more of a tool than a toy, but hey.
3. An antique typewriter my sister bought me for my birthday last year. It's so rockin cool that I couldn't resist including it in my latest author photo on my website splashscreen.
4. Paper cutter. It's jumbo huge and a gift from my hubby. May sound weird, but it has served me well for many projects over the years. Love it.
5. The new porch swing. My hubby's latest gift to me. I enjoy sitting out there and relaxing, reading, and yes, putting my Neo on my lap and writing. Ahhhh!

Where will I be in ten years?
Scary, scary thought. Let's see . . . in 2017, D. will be closing in on his 22nd birthday, which means he'll be OFF his mission. YOWZA! He'll probably be close finishing up college. He may be about to meet a pretty girl (I met Rob when he was 22 . . .) and thinking marriage.

S. would be 20, in college. She might be thinking about a mission. Or not. I got married at 20. (FREAKY!) M. would have just graduated from high school. And A. will be 14, ready for high school.

I imagine my husband and I will still be in this house. Since he's no longer with the lay-off king of companies and is now programming software for the family history department of the Church, I think there's a good chance he'll still have the same job in ten years. I hope I'll still be publishing and have several more books under my belt.

Okay, this is all getting a little unnerving to think that far ahead and to imagine my little kiddies all grown up . . .

Five people to tag:
Michele Paige Holmes
Josi Kilpack
Julie Wright
Heather Moore
Tristi Pinkston