My Family

Ok, I will give you some boring family statistics while these pictures are loading. Tom and I met while I was in my sophmore year at Dixie College, my roommate married his brother and we met during all of the wedding stuff...well kinda before, at his brothers house watching videos. The first time I seen him we had made pizza and he and his brother Jack came in with squirt guns and were squirting everyone. I was more worried about the pizza dough getting soggy, but I did think he was cute. *VEG*

The next time I met him (this was a few weeks before Christmas) was at his brothers house again. There was a Christmas tree outside that we thought was his brothers so Tom, my roommate Liz, and I thought we would bring it in for him. But he didn't have any Christmas decorations so...I got a bright idea *see lighbulb flash above my head* I got the measuring spoons, hotpads, flyswatter, potato peelers, etc. and we hung them on the tree....lolol (Tom said that was when he fell in love with me) HE was easily impressed...wasn't he? lol But the funniest part was..it WASN'T his brother's tree!!!!! You should have seen the look of mass confusion on his face when he came home...hahahaha. So Tom slipped out to go back home and left Liz and I there looking like idiots. >:|

Well, they were married in the beginning of January and Liz and I went to Colorado with them for the reception and Tom and I spent the whole time together. He asked me to marry him on the ride home. We didn't even have our first real date until after we were engaged..lol He was late *sigh* He is a clock repairman and he is ALWAYS late, he has no sense of time...figure that one out..lol

We were married August 1, 1985, after I got my associates degree at Dixie. We went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Yellowstone for our honeymoon. While in Yellowstone we couldn't sleep in the tent we took because of the bears...it had to be a hardtopped vehicle, like a camper or a trailer. We had taken his '59 vw bug so he took the seats apart, made them into beds with all of out blankets and sleeping bags. So we stayed in the campground in our hard topped vw bug.

Our first apartment was a TINY studio apartment. On our first anniversary we moved into a singlewide mobile home we bought for $1500. It was in real bad shape. We put in new carpet and fixed alot of thigs up, it was ugly but it was ours. We bought a building lot to put it on, and lived in it for 11 years (we rented it out for 4 years while Tom went to college at Utah State).

The day after Christmas of this last year we moved into out new home we built on that same property. We gave the mobile home away to someone who needed it worse that we did. It made me feel good that someone was getting something better than they had. IF we wouldn't have lived in it for so long and paid off our property, we wouldn't have our home now. I can look back and be grateful for how we did it, but at the time I thought it was a punishment worse than death.

After 12 years I have a nice home that I can be proud of. It is amazing how much better you can feel about yourself when you have something to take pride in. I hate the phrase, but I felt like everyone looked at us as "trailer trash" in that falling apart piece of scrap metal we had lived in for so long. Now I feel like I am a REAL person.

I know that probably sounds stupid but we had to do alot of things to get by when we were first living in there...like sleep in the living room because we couldn't afford to heat the bedroom. The only heat we had was the woodstove for the main house and we had space heaters in the bedrooms, and we just couldn't afford the electricity to run them.

I am very grateful for what we have now. Tom and I have both worked hard to get what we have. We both have expensive tastes, we prefer quality, so when we did buy thigs they were few and far between. We both know the value of hard work to get what we want. Nothing has ever been handed to either of us. I have worked for everything I own since I was 13. I put myself through school, bought ALL of my cars with my own money, even after I was married. I made every single car payment for 5 years,and I am VERY proud of that.

The happiest days of my life were when I heard these words..."It's a girl" A tear trickled down my cheek both times. I have really only wanted girls. I think because of what happened to my youngest brother when I was 16. I watched him die on the highway after he was hit by a car...the first time he tried to walk home from school a few weeks before Christmas. Ever since then I have always wanted girls...some deep seeded psychosis about loving another little boy as much as I loved him.

A big part of my heart died that night in the hospital. My parents weren't home when the neighbor kids he tried to follow home came and told me. I ran up to the road and seen the EMT's working on him, trying to revive him...the paddles..the shot in the heart, and all I could do is stand there with strangers, policeman, and paramedics as my sweet little brother died right before my eyes. The policeman took me to the hospital and he drove so slow...I knew something wasn't right. Minutes after arriving at the hospital the doctor told me he didn't make it.

The same policeman took me home, when I went to introduce myself, he said he didn't want to know my name, it was too hard he said. He cried as he said all of the bad people he sees and an innocent 5 year old child had to die. My parents finally came home and I had to tell them that their precious child was dead. I can still hear my mom and dad both cry out, then left me alone once more as they went to the hospital to see their son.

Because of this experience, I have NEVER been good at letting people go. My friendships are so special to me. I have loved and lost and I hold on TOO tight to the people I love and care about, I guess because I know how precious life is. You NEVER know from one day to the next if when you say goodbye to someone you will ever see them again. I want the people I care about to know how much they mean to me, in case this day is my last. When I love someone it is with all of my heart and it is FOREVER. I have never taken it lightly and I would do anything for a friend or family member if I thought they needed it.

Well...I have rambled on long enough and probably told you too much about my troubled mind and heart, but maybe if you know me a bit better, you will understand why I am the way I am. Well..lets see if these pictures are loaded yet...shall we? :)



Tracy and Kelsie




Tom



Ashley and Kelsie



Tom, Ashley, and Kelsie



Tracy, Ashley, and Kelsie(before I lost 40 lbs)


Me when I was a little girl :)

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