47 Memories

Dear Mommy and Daddy-

In honor of your anniversary, I decided to list 47 memories of our family. Because without your love and commitment to each other, I would not be here and I would not have all these wonderful memories to call upon. It's funny how much I feel that Ty and I are like you two. And I sincerely hope that we have at least half the strength and love that you two have for each other. I know that marriage is not easy and it takes hard work. Nowadays, people don't even try and give up too easily or they get married for the wrong reasons. Since I was brought up in a household where the husband respected and treated his wife as an equal, I made sure I looked for that in my relationship. So, thank you for giving me these experiences that I can think back on and smile. And hopefully, you will read these and continue to smile with each other.

1- Listening to Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis Christmas Records

2- Staying up until 5am in the morning watching TV with Mommy when we first got cable and the new big screen.

3- Road trips to Louisiana and stopping at waffle house and Popeyes

4- Road trips to Connecticut and stopping at KFC

5- Making apple Pie with Mommy

6- Going into dramatics when Mommy would make fruit salad, because I hated it.

7- Watching over 15 VHS tapes of recorded Christmas Movies and TV specials every holiday season. Daddy's favorite: the grinch (animated) Mommy's favorite: The snowman

8- Telling Mommy, I was going to marry my brother when I grew up. And me not understanding when she said I couldn't.

9- The broken wooden paddle in the kitchen that was duct taped together. It was broken on my brother's butt before I was born and my parents never had to use it again! (sidenote for 21st century parents, kids need a good smack once in awhile!)

10- Waking up early Saturday morning and trying to put on the TV without waking anyone up. This was very difficult since we had the old TV that had the button you had to pull and the dials made loud clicking noises when you turned them to change channels.

11- Singing along to Disney soundtracks in the car with daddy.

12- Helping Mommy hang up laundry on the clothesline

13- Stacking wood. I hated doing that!

14- Trying to roller skate in the house with fisher price "my first skates". You know the ones that buckled over your shoes.

15- Getting picked up from school every Wednesday for ballet practice and having Chinese food for dinner

16- Camping...too many good ones to list

17- Daddy shooting the rabid raccoons in the backyard. Don't tell PETA

18- Catching my first fish at swinging bridge

19- Father/daughter dinner dance and daddy wearing that corduroy blazer

20- Daddy's Indiana Jones hat

21- Being the only ones in the theater watching Cinderella when it was re-released.

22- Going to the Orange Plaza and getting orange Julius' and chocolate croissants

23- Twilight zone marathons on New Year's Eve, when they were on channel 11

24- Watching Friday night videos and daddy singing along to LL cool J's Big Ole Butt

25- Daddy taking me to my hair appointments to get my hair relaxed

26- My parents dancing up a storm at my brother's wedding

27- Unknowingly swimming with sharks at grand isle in Louisiana and daddy saying they were just dolphins

28- Doing shots with my sister and mom in Jamaica

29- Eating at El bandido and Daddy having too many mexican coffees. We had to hang out at Media Play for a while before he could drive home.

30-Practicing parallel parking at the high school. I have never been able to do it again since my road test.

31- Mommy loosing her glasses in the ocean when we visited my brother in Atlantic city

32- Mommy being upset she couldn't see the prostitutes on the corner at Atlantic city because she lost her glasses

33- Latch hook with mommy

34- Computer fairs with daddy

35- Running the kids race at the orange classic and getting robbed a trophy! I totally won that, we know the truth!

36- Hearing stories of Mom and Dad riding on a motorcycle together. I still can't imagine this.
37- Going to the city every Christmas to see the tree.

38- Birthday dinners at Gasho and getting bopped on the head

39- Eating dinner together every night while watching NBC news and Roseanne reruns.

40- Mom and Dad cheering me on at my track meets

41- Taking my sister to the ER when she sprained her ankle during softball.  I wanted her crutches so bad!
42- Feeding carrots and apples to our horse, Jimmy.
43- Baking pumpkin cookies for Thanksgiving.

44- Going grocery shopping with Mommy. At Lloyd's I would get a free cookie and we would have lunch at the little restaurant.

45- Watching trashy movies and Dawson's Creek with mommy

46- Watching Buffy and Roswell with daddy

47- Saturday trips to the library or the used book store.