Since I have dug out all my old scrapbooks from my mom’s house it has inspired me to do a life history on this blog (why I’m sharing it with the world I do not know -I must have lost all sense of reason.)

It’s going to be written in a few posts. I do not yet know how many it will take. I only have 28 years under my belt and I’m not sure how much I’m going to elaborate until I actually get writing.

Who knows if it will be excited to you or not but I hope that maybe you can find a few new interesting things about me. If my childhood doesn’t grab you, maybe the dating years will. If anything maybe you’ll like the pictures. I do.

*** *** ***

It all began with a house. A house my dad built. For 23 years it was the only house I had know. I always kind of felt like it was my house because Dad finished it just a few months before I was born. In the beginning it was such a beautiful house, modern and stylish. As the years went on we began to realize just how BROWN it really was, but we still loved it, even with all of the wear and tear, because it was ours.

So I was born… I was 7 lbs 11 oz. That was never hard to remember. 7′11. I was delivered by C-section. It was a rude awaking, if I recall properly, I was not quite ready to enter into this world and it didn’t help that the doctor accidentally nicked my head with the knife. Yes, I had to have stitches on my wee little head and he didn’t even apologize. Since Mom was tied down to the surgical bed, Dad was the first to hold me. He’ll never let me forget how I squeaked. Even now as an adult he’ll give me a big hug, pat me on my back and make the squeaking noise that I made.

I was named after my great grandmother, Amanda. I always felt pretty special being named after her and felt just a strong bond with her. I always hoped I was her favorite great grandkid but maybe there is some unwritten rule that Grandmas can’t have favorites. Oh, well. I will always remember and love her wrinkled skin on her hands and her special “squeaky kisses.”

I am a second child. My dear older sister, Jessica, had to adjust to my arrival because she loved center stage so much. But no worries, I could have cared less about any sort of stage. I was happy just being on the side lines. “Go Jessie!” My mom notes in my baby book that I loved to tag around with Jess. Doesn’t everyone need a big sister?

At 3 weeks I went on my first camping trip. Each summer we have these huge family reunions in the Uinta Mountains near Flaming Gorge, UT. I didn’t leave the trailer very much but it was the introduction to the mountains that would change my life. Ha ha. Well really… we did go camping every single year of my life and this is where I learned to have a love for the mountains.

Dad taught us to fish as soon as we could walk. Here I am with my first fish. When I was older, I realized that Dad first hooked them and then handed the rods to us. Kind if cheating but we were pretty little. We’d feel the fish pulling and get so excited. Thrilling really. I love fishing little brookie trout in the high Uintas, especially with Dad. They are best cooked over a camp fire.

At 1.5 months, I discovered my thumb. I popped it in and never took it out. I think this is why I was such a happy baby. I could make myself content. Whenever I see little thumb sucker I just have to say Awww! Some people can’t stand their kids sucking but I loved it. They’ll grow out of it so no worries.

At crawling age I broke my arm. It’s a mystery as to how it happened. Jessica claims that she must have done it my pulling me around on my belly but really we don’t know how it broke. One day my mom just noticed that I was crawling funny. We went to the doctors and yup, it was broken. I guess I was sucking on my broken arm’s thumb. The doctor laughed and said something like “this will cure that” and put the cast on the broken arm. I was not upset, I just popped the other thumb in. You see, for those of you who do not know, thumb sucker usually prefer one thumb or finger only. I was unique. I liked both.

This happens to be one of my favorite photos ever. I’m not sure why but I love the scratches on my face, my blond hair and the happiness on my face. Growing up everyone called me Mandy. When I went to elementary school I turned into Amanda. So depending on how you know me decides what you call me. I always introduce myself as Amanda and I guess I even think of myself as an Amanda but I think it’s real sweet when people call me Mandy for some reason. A lot of people call me Manda. Not on purpose really, they just drop the A. If you are really lazy it just turns into Mand.

Some favorite things of mine were playing in the dirt, watching dad’s rabbits (I would actually climb into the cages with the rabbits and I even got worms, yuck!), being with Jessica, playing with dolls, singing and listening to music and reading books. (I think I sound like a typical kid) I guess I was also constantly wearing a swimming suit. Mom noted that I loved to play, play, play! I also enjoyed jumping rope and roller skating.

Speaking of roller skating, I broke my leg around age 3 while skating in our unfinished basement. I crashed into a stack of dry wall leaning up against the wall. The stack of sheets landed on my breaking my leg. No wonder Emma broke her arm… It runs in her genes.

Here is a picture of me at age 4. I thought it would be fun to compare a picture of Emma and see if we look alike at all.

That’s all the time I have for now. Hope you enjoyed getting to know more about me. Look forward to more installments. Give me some love via comments if you like hearing about my history.