Friday, October 8, 2010

Blast from the Past-Part 2

This post is extremely late but better late than never right?

Friday before the festivities I broke out the yearbook and as I was reading through the notes just about everyone wrote "let's stay in touch" or some similar version. Do you know how many people that I actually stayed in touch with prior to Facebook? Maybe 5 or 6 and that was inconsistent at best. Sad right? I think I'll try working on that.

10th Grade- I can pretty much sum up this year with a few words- Athletics, boyfriend, no car. That's where most of my focus was spent. If you're like me and don't have a birthday early in the school year you're stuck with no car and no license to drive while it seems like everyone else does. Major bummer. My girl Julie P. took pity on a few of us lowly 10th graders and would take Camron, Michelle, and I to Sonic after school on days when we had home volleyball games. Those rides were a lot of fun because we would always leave the car with some profound Julie Wisdom.

I dated the same guy pretty much the entire year. And for high school standards that was a pretty long relationship. What can I say, I'm picky? I've never really bounced from guy to guy. My friends all congratulated me on my "good catch". He was a Junior, played football, and could drive. Apparently those were the three major requirements for a boyfriend when you were in the 10th grade. I just thought he was cute and nice.
I love sports. Am I the best player? Nope. Am I decent? Yes. But during 10th grade I decided to start pulling back from athletics slightly. This was my last year to play volleyball and basketball. The coach had a seething hatred for me that I still don't understand to this day. And while that sort of thing doesn't bother me, it made my sports involvement sort of miserable. And believe it or not I actually miss running the 5-6 miles per day that she insisted on with all of the rushing warm-ups and other drills. My ass has never been in better shape and that's a fact! Although I'm trying to work my way back to it now, but that's a story for another day.

The summer between 10th and 11th grade I got my first job-Sonic carhop. Don't laugh. When you're a girl and halfway cute you can make awesome tips. I NEVER came home from a 6 hour shift with less than $30 in tips. I also got my first car. A lovely 1992 Toyota Tercel, blue, standard. I didn't know how to drive a standard and spent two frustrating weeks learning to drive the stupid thing before I could actually get out of the driveway in it. Boyfriend and I broke up, started dating someone else.

11th Grade- Allison, Cali, and I were pretty much together during school hours and school events 24/7. When we weren't together we were with our respective boyfriends. To fill all the free time I had since pulling out of some sports I got into drama. And it was amazing how much free time I had! I did two plays that year- Little Women and Winnie the Pooh (I was rabbit). We did two plays per year-an adult and a childrens.And since I no longer had a coach breathing down my neck and keeping tabs on me, Allison and I were able to get away with murder during our free periods. Sneaking off campus, ditching classes, wearing masks and sneaking through the hallways. It occurs to me that I was pretty damn easy on my parents if this was the worst that I did. You always hear of horror stories, like girls gone wild type stuff. Hell, I was still on the honor roll for crying out loud. So apparently I didn't miss anything during those "away" times with Allison.

I started dating a 21 year old. I was 17. What in the hell were my parents thinking? At the time I didn't see anything wrong with this but parenthood puts things in a whole new perspective. If this were Emma Jeremy would have already killed the boy and buried the body. His brother the cop would probably have helped. So now way will she be allowed to pull something like this. Cause Mama knows. It only lasted about 6 months anyway. Close to the end of the school year Jeremy and I started dating. Here we are at Junior Prom. My dress was totally awesome by the way. Note his hand on my ass in the picture. Try explaining THAT to mom and dad.This was also the year that our Beta Club advisor (a certain teacher who shall remain nameless but always, always, always had hickeys on her neck) learned the follies of letting high schoolers roam the streets during a convention with little to no supervision. Did I mention that we were "good kids" so got away with murder?
The guy patting me down is an attorney now. Ironic?Bottom pic is Cali, Allison, and I.

12th Grade- I only needed two classes in order to graduate but I also took some college courses at the unholy hour of 7am. I got to leave school at noon and completely dropped out of sports. Athletics period was at the end of the day-didn't love sports enough to take 4 classes I didn't need just to stay for athletics.Stayed in drama and did two more plays. I was Kate in The Miracle Worker and an evil witch in a children's play that Allison and I wrote. This play was awesome and featured me and Cali as the evil witch and witch-in-training. We worked our evil spells and messed up Mother Goose nursery rhymes. There were sexual innuendos, cross dressing, and loads of other stuff pulled from our warped imaginations. Priceless. Senior year was great but probably best told through pictures so enjoy. (Break out your reading glasses-A lot of these pics were scanned from a senior memory book and cover several years and are crammed together.)

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Blast from the Past- Part 1

I've been pretty nostalgic this week since I have the big 10 year reunion coming up this weekend. It's always funny when you talk to people about their high school experience; they are rooted firmly in one of two camps. They either loved high school or hated it. Had a blast or were miserable. My opinion is that high school is what you make of it. And I had a blast baby!!

It was interesting to sit down and go through all of the yearbooks, mementos, and just plain crap that I had collected during my time at MCHS. I can't believe all of the stuff I had forgotten. For instance, I was sophomore class president. Totally forgot about it and don't remember doing anything in that role. Beta club president-forgot that one too. I was also in just about every club known to man, including FFA. What?! Do I even remotely resemble a Future Farmer of America to anyone? I lay the blame for that embarrassing membership firmly on my all-around-cowgirl Cali.

And since I got such a kick out of some of the pictures I figured I might as well share them along with some of my favorite high school memories since not all of my friends and family who read this actually knew me in high school.

7th Grade- My first year at MC as my family had just moved to the Cove that summer. (Sadly I couldn't really find any pics from 7th grade and I'm not sure why.) Leslie and I both moved to MC at the same time and everyone kept getting us confused for the first few months. (2 new girls, both long dark hair, I guess I can see it.) And, my girl Cali took an instant dislike to me because she was afraid I was going to steal her boyfriend Brandon. Since that wasn't the case we became friends and were basically inseparable during high school. This pic (left) is 11th grade I think and yes I realize we both have basically the same haircut. And yes, she wore a belt buckle, wranglers, and boots every day. Still does as a matter of fact.

8th Grade-Was flag captain. And had lots of fun bossing around girls that were older than me, ha! I was told after flag tryouts that other than my mad twirling skills, I was chosen as captain because I could hold a "stuck-up and bored" expression throughout the entire routine. I looked like the best snob! Seriously, that was a requirement! Watch the flag line at your next football game-the majorettes are the cute and happy ones and the flag line looks bored to tears. And check out this combo- lots of hair and sequined shoulder pads! This was before I learned the virtues of a good cut/style and the use of a chi iron . . .One of my favorite memories from band/flag had to do with our feature twirler Brittany. She came up to me before a band competition and was like, "Ok Stephanie, you better keep your girls in line because I want a 1. And I've never gotten less than a 2 so you make sure they're keeping the beat and staying together." Had she not been the big sister of my friend Lyndsay I would have been quaking in my little junior high sequins. So, I was only slightly afraid . . . :)
Lynds and I were the homecoming maids that year. Here we are with Cali and Carrie right before the ceremony. We both got stuck with total losers as escorts.9th Grade- I really couldn't find a lot of pics from this year either. Tore all the tendons and ligaments in my wrist during flag practice so I graciously bowed out of the captain role in the flag line. And yes, I know it's lame that I messed up my wrist so badly just by twirling a flag. I eventually wound up quitting band all together because 1) I was swamped with sports and the practices kept interferring with each other and 2) Did you get a good look at those marching uniforms? No way in hell was I going to wear that!

This was also the year of my hair evolution. Praise the Lord no more thick thick bangs! Just so there's a visual aid, here's a pic of me, my sisters, and the little girl I babysat. Granted, its not a great shot of my hair but there is a definite lack of bangs which means I can stop cringing each time I look at a picture . . . Stay tuned for grades 10-12 . . .

Friday, October 1, 2010

Mr. Big is 3 months old!

My baby boy is three months old already. I'm still having trouble believing it. So much trouble in fact that I actually counted back just to be certain. Yup, three months.

What's funny though is that everyone who meets him for the first time assumes he is around 6 months old. Mr. Big is an appropriate nickname since Seeley is already at 15 lbs and 8 oz and mostly wearing 6 month clothing. To put things in perspective, Emma will turn 3 in November and weighs 28 lbs. Your math was correct- he is already half the size of Em. Needless to say, unless the growth spurt slows down Seeley is definitely well on his way to becoming an Arkansas Razorback football player. Go Hogs!

All the men in my family are tall (6'3" +) as are Jeremy's (minimum of 6') so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Although I am still trying to figure out how the tall genes missed the hubs and I but hit everyone else . . . .we're "average" height at 5'5" and 5'11" respectively.

I broke out the big gun (aka my oh-so-lovely-Nikon) last week to take some 3 month pics. I was pretty pleased with the results.
What can I say? We Johnsons are photogenic!