Journal #3

1. Where did your grandparents live? What was their home like? Did it have a certain smell or look?

My Baba (grandma in Ukrainian) lived a mile across the field from me in the same home my Aunt and Uncle live in now.  They lived their too.  The house is pretty much the same now as it was when I was a child.  It wasn't overly bright, kind of empty and smelled like baked bread.  My favorite things about her house: they had chairs that turned at the kitchen table, there were always peanuts to shell and eat, you drank water from the tap out of a huge cup (well it wasn't a cup it was like a cup but with a long handle, I guess it was a water ladle-what is the name of something like that), they had an organ for a while and I used to like playing on that, the basement was really cold but there were lots of really cool old things down there, her bedroom was bright and had a wrought iron bed frame.  I remember sleeping with her sometimes-it was really small and I had the hardest time ever falling asleep but it was warm.  She had homemade quilts and a butterscotch candy or two in the kitchen cupboard.  One of my favorite memories of her house was coming home after school and getting off the bus there when her and Wayno would be making twiddle bugs (a fried bread twist).  Oh they were so good.  Baba's bread was always really good and her gravy and pie.  I also remember her old house which she no longer lived in but it was on her property and we used to go in there and explore and play.  It was amazing to me.  I loved the kitchen-the old appliances and the wooden cupboards.  She had a cellar filled with bottled things and potatoes.  The upstairs was really neat-small, from what I remember but it just possessed such a charm for me.  The walls had wallpaper on them and there was no toilet-that is what the outhouse was for.  My Uncle tore part of it down and turned half of it into a shop.  I hated and still hate everything about that move.  Then my cousin in his reckless teenage years spray painted all kinds of crap all over the inside of it with his other buddies.  Baba would have been so mad.  To me if feels like such a desecration of something I considered so magical and wonderful.  Now there is so much stuff and dirt in there you can hardly get to the kitchen anymore.  I have such fondness for that house, the new house and my Baba.

2. What do you remember about yourself as a teenager?

Oh brother-I remember that I was not confident at all, I was shy, I had big dreams and goals, I was a good student, I loved art and crafts, I was not popular or even close, I had plenty of awkward moments and some pretty bad taste in clothes.  My best friends were: Charelle Racicot, Christine Sidebottom, Chelsea Bull, Leanne Murphy and Maria Mogdan as well as Chris (a German exchange student) and Carolyn (a french exchange student).  We were all pretty similar.  We had cooking parties and sleepovers, we all ate lunch together at the same table.  We were all smart.  Charelle and I were the only members of the church in our little group.  We had pretty much the same interests in everything but she was a bit more ambitious that I.  I loved the gospel, I played the piano for my branch, I had crushes on lots of boys but never any dates.  I loved to dance but rarely got asked.  I wanted to be a High School Art and English teacher and my only college choice was BYU.  I was extremely close to both my younger and older brothers.  In my high school years my younger brother Daniel and I started the door notes.  He actually started by leaving little notes on my door.  I began to follow suit and we would write eachother a note everyday.  That was one of the greatest things that could have happened to me as a teenager.  We also began nightly pondering sessions where we would just talk about things together just the two of us.  That also is one of my favorite things from my teen years.  Pretty much except for Charelle and times with my brothers I would like to just forget most of my teen years and early teen years-well I have almost completely blocked those from my memory (thank heavens).  Neither are a time I would ever like to relive and I will do everything in my power to not have my own children have to repeat anything like my teenage life (except for the best friend part).