Golden Birthday
Today is my golden birthday. (Yeah, that means I'm 29 today) I just realized this a few weeks ago. Growing up, I was so jealous of everyone else because they had big birthday parties to celebrate their golden birthdays. I always thought that by the time I got to my 29th birthday, I'd be too old. Uggg, if only I knew.
So in "celebration" of my golden birthday, I am going to tell you 29 things about me. I feel like I've done this before, so this will mostly be things from my childhood.
1. I was born in Farmington New Mexico in 1982 (in case you didn't feel like doing the math). I have a grandma and uncle that still live there. I used to love to go to my grandparents house and look for old pottery. They live near a Navajo reservation so you can find all kinds of things in the soil around their house.
2. I am the oldest child. I have 3 younger sisters.
(November 1982, I was almost 5 months old)
3. I went to 5 different kindergartens in 5 different states. No, I wasn't held back 5 times, we moved that many times during that one school year.
4. I went through almost all of elementary school in Hawaii. I learned Hawaiian words along with English and learned Hawaiian culture and the hula in school. I wish I had remembered everything.
(1984, My 2nd birthday)
5. Every year, our teachers would call us by our Hawaiian and "American" names. Since my name didn't translate over, I got to choose a different name. Here are my different Hawaiian names: Alohilani, Moana, and Kehalani. I would love to name our children with Hawaiian names. James originally wasn't going for it at all, but I think the more times I take him to Hawaii the more comfortable he is with the idea, but we'll see.
6. I always had a swimming birthday party either at the "up pool" or "down pool". When we went back to Hawaii a few years ago, I was able to climb a tree and take pictures of these residents only pools.
7. Once we moved to Indiana, it was too cold in march to have a swimming party. I remember my mom was very creative with my parties after that.
(March 29, 1987 I was 5 years old)
8. We had a hot tub in our backyard. For 4 little girls, it was big enough to be our swimming pool when we didn't have time to go to one of the pools. This is where my dad practiced baptizing me.
9. I was scared to death of dogs. I climbed many light poles, trees, random vans, strangers legs and hung out until the dog either ran away or one of my parents came and rescued me. When I was in middle school, my parents decided to get us a dog. The day we brought Taffy home, I was no longer afraid of dogs. I spent most of my free time with Taffy, training him to do all kinds of amazing tricks. I love dogs now!
10. I used to choke on hard candy all the time. It seemed to always happen as my parents were driving away. I'd quickly run across the street to a neighbor that I knew was a nurse. Since I could still breathe, I had to hang out in her house and drink lots of water to get the candy to dissolve quicker. I still have swallowing issues, I wonder if they are related.
(March 29, 1987 I was 5 years old, my sister was 2 1/2)
11. When I moved to Indiana from Hawaii, everyone at school was anticipating my arrival. I think they were picturing a dark skinned, long haired girl in a grass skirt and coconut bra. Instead they got a very white girl dressed in as many layers as possible.
12. We moved to Indiana in December in a snow storm. I remember walking out of the airport and instantly freezing. We had no need for warm clothes in Hawaii so when my parents went to Indiana to find us a place to live, they brought us back tons of warm clothes. I remember a lot of the clothes had the Chicago Bulls logos on them. That was around the time of Michael Jordan's reign.
13. I remember teaching myself how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I rode around in circles for hours in the garage until I could ride without falling over.
14. You'd never guess it now, but I loved to dance. I remember spending the night at friend's houses and we would stay up late and wake up early so we could perfect our running man.
15. In 1992, I was obsessed with Miss America and that year Miss Hawaii won. I saved every newspaper article about her. I even got to go and meet her. I have a picture with her somewhere.
16. For a few years, I had a very goofy smile. I would pull my top lip up to my gum line and show all of my front teeth. It is almost noticeable in the picture below, thankfully I could not find any pictures with the actual smile.
(November 1985 I was 3 1/2 and my sister was 1 1/2)
17. In school we learned about Pearl Harbor. I was very intrigued with the history of it. I read and reread the book Sadako and the thousand paper cranes (it's about a girl who dies because of the cancer she gets from Hiroshima). Last year, I ordered this book from amazon and have read it a few times. It never fails, I always cry.
18. I was in marching band my freshman year. The practices were too hard for my little body and after a knee injury that wouldn't go away (and I still occasionally have issues with), I had to quit. I never played the flute again :(
19. In the picture below I am wearing turquoise earrings and a ring. Both my mom and dad were from New Mexico so we wore a lot of turquoise. The other day, I actually wore this same ring (it still fits...my pinky).
20. We had a french foreign exchange student for a month while I was in high school. I was so excited to learn about her culture, but we did not get a long at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the worst month for everyone.
21. I took 4 years of french and 1 year of german. I LOVED learning foreign languages. I was a member of the french club all through high school and my senior year I was the teacher's aid for our french teacher.
22. I got baptized on April 1st. Everyone teased me that it was really an April Fools joke. After the baptism, I was covered in leis.
(April 1st, 1990)
23. My very first job was at Wendy's. I was the drive thru girl and was asked many times if I was Wendy (it had to have been the freckles). I loved everyone I worked with!
24. I loved to learn and study. I usually got pretty good grades. When I was younger, I would enjoy copying pages from an encyclopedia by hand.
25. I graduated in June 2000. I remember a teacher telling me in 3rd grade that we were an exciting generation because we would graduate in a new decade, century and millennium. I was so afraid that on December 31, 1999, the Y2K crisis would hit and I'd never get to graduate.
26. I graduated with 400 and some other students. We lucked out and the skies cleared up the day before graduation so we were able to graduate outside on the football field instead of inside in the cramped auditorium.
27. I was the last class to graduate from that high school. After we graduated, they converted it to a middle school and opened a brand new high school one street over from my house.
28. After graduating high school, I went to Purdue North Central. I was studying Bio Chemistry with the hopes of becoming a CSI. After two years, I realized I HATED chemistry. I then went to Utah Valley State College for accounting for a year. Then I went to California State University for childhood development (I can't remember the reason but for some reason I wasn't able to do accounting there). I have yet to earn a degree in anything.
29. And finally the last things about me.... My graduation open house had the Hawaiian theme (would you expect anything less). We decorated the garage with luau decorations and I think we served luau type food. I was very disappointed that it was too cold that day to comfortably wear my hawaiian outfit, but I did anyways and froze to death all day!
Well now I start my last year in my 20's. I've begun the countdown until I freak out. Only 364 more days :(
So in "celebration" of my golden birthday, I am going to tell you 29 things about me. I feel like I've done this before, so this will mostly be things from my childhood.
1. I was born in Farmington New Mexico in 1982 (in case you didn't feel like doing the math). I have a grandma and uncle that still live there. I used to love to go to my grandparents house and look for old pottery. They live near a Navajo reservation so you can find all kinds of things in the soil around their house.
2. I am the oldest child. I have 3 younger sisters.
(November 1982, I was almost 5 months old)3. I went to 5 different kindergartens in 5 different states. No, I wasn't held back 5 times, we moved that many times during that one school year.
4. I went through almost all of elementary school in Hawaii. I learned Hawaiian words along with English and learned Hawaiian culture and the hula in school. I wish I had remembered everything.
(1984, My 2nd birthday)5. Every year, our teachers would call us by our Hawaiian and "American" names. Since my name didn't translate over, I got to choose a different name. Here are my different Hawaiian names: Alohilani, Moana, and Kehalani. I would love to name our children with Hawaiian names. James originally wasn't going for it at all, but I think the more times I take him to Hawaii the more comfortable he is with the idea, but we'll see.
6. I always had a swimming birthday party either at the "up pool" or "down pool". When we went back to Hawaii a few years ago, I was able to climb a tree and take pictures of these residents only pools.
7. Once we moved to Indiana, it was too cold in march to have a swimming party. I remember my mom was very creative with my parties after that.
(March 29, 1987 I was 5 years old)8. We had a hot tub in our backyard. For 4 little girls, it was big enough to be our swimming pool when we didn't have time to go to one of the pools. This is where my dad practiced baptizing me.
9. I was scared to death of dogs. I climbed many light poles, trees, random vans, strangers legs and hung out until the dog either ran away or one of my parents came and rescued me. When I was in middle school, my parents decided to get us a dog. The day we brought Taffy home, I was no longer afraid of dogs. I spent most of my free time with Taffy, training him to do all kinds of amazing tricks. I love dogs now!
10. I used to choke on hard candy all the time. It seemed to always happen as my parents were driving away. I'd quickly run across the street to a neighbor that I knew was a nurse. Since I could still breathe, I had to hang out in her house and drink lots of water to get the candy to dissolve quicker. I still have swallowing issues, I wonder if they are related.
(March 29, 1987 I was 5 years old, my sister was 2 1/2)11. When I moved to Indiana from Hawaii, everyone at school was anticipating my arrival. I think they were picturing a dark skinned, long haired girl in a grass skirt and coconut bra. Instead they got a very white girl dressed in as many layers as possible.
12. We moved to Indiana in December in a snow storm. I remember walking out of the airport and instantly freezing. We had no need for warm clothes in Hawaii so when my parents went to Indiana to find us a place to live, they brought us back tons of warm clothes. I remember a lot of the clothes had the Chicago Bulls logos on them. That was around the time of Michael Jordan's reign.
13. I remember teaching myself how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I rode around in circles for hours in the garage until I could ride without falling over.
14. You'd never guess it now, but I loved to dance. I remember spending the night at friend's houses and we would stay up late and wake up early so we could perfect our running man.
15. In 1992, I was obsessed with Miss America and that year Miss Hawaii won. I saved every newspaper article about her. I even got to go and meet her. I have a picture with her somewhere.
16. For a few years, I had a very goofy smile. I would pull my top lip up to my gum line and show all of my front teeth. It is almost noticeable in the picture below, thankfully I could not find any pictures with the actual smile.
(November 1985 I was 3 1/2 and my sister was 1 1/2)17. In school we learned about Pearl Harbor. I was very intrigued with the history of it. I read and reread the book Sadako and the thousand paper cranes (it's about a girl who dies because of the cancer she gets from Hiroshima). Last year, I ordered this book from amazon and have read it a few times. It never fails, I always cry.
18. I was in marching band my freshman year. The practices were too hard for my little body and after a knee injury that wouldn't go away (and I still occasionally have issues with), I had to quit. I never played the flute again :(
19. In the picture below I am wearing turquoise earrings and a ring. Both my mom and dad were from New Mexico so we wore a lot of turquoise. The other day, I actually wore this same ring (it still fits...my pinky).
20. We had a french foreign exchange student for a month while I was in high school. I was so excited to learn about her culture, but we did not get a long at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure that was the worst month for everyone.
21. I took 4 years of french and 1 year of german. I LOVED learning foreign languages. I was a member of the french club all through high school and my senior year I was the teacher's aid for our french teacher.
22. I got baptized on April 1st. Everyone teased me that it was really an April Fools joke. After the baptism, I was covered in leis.
(April 1st, 1990)23. My very first job was at Wendy's. I was the drive thru girl and was asked many times if I was Wendy (it had to have been the freckles). I loved everyone I worked with!
24. I loved to learn and study. I usually got pretty good grades. When I was younger, I would enjoy copying pages from an encyclopedia by hand.
25. I graduated in June 2000. I remember a teacher telling me in 3rd grade that we were an exciting generation because we would graduate in a new decade, century and millennium. I was so afraid that on December 31, 1999, the Y2K crisis would hit and I'd never get to graduate.
26. I graduated with 400 and some other students. We lucked out and the skies cleared up the day before graduation so we were able to graduate outside on the football field instead of inside in the cramped auditorium.
27. I was the last class to graduate from that high school. After we graduated, they converted it to a middle school and opened a brand new high school one street over from my house.
28. After graduating high school, I went to Purdue North Central. I was studying Bio Chemistry with the hopes of becoming a CSI. After two years, I realized I HATED chemistry. I then went to Utah Valley State College for accounting for a year. Then I went to California State University for childhood development (I can't remember the reason but for some reason I wasn't able to do accounting there). I have yet to earn a degree in anything.
29. And finally the last things about me.... My graduation open house had the Hawaiian theme (would you expect anything less). We decorated the garage with luau decorations and I think we served luau type food. I was very disappointed that it was too cold that day to comfortably wear my hawaiian outfit, but I did anyways and froze to death all day!
Well now I start my last year in my 20's. I've begun the countdown until I freak out. Only 364 more days :(
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