52 Week Challenge: Question 16

What foods do you like? What foods do you dislike? Do you have any food or medical allergies?

I haven't done one of these 52 week challenges in forever! It's time for another one.

As far as food goes...I would say that I am an adventurous eater. There is nothing that I won't try once. I grew up eating out at diverse restaurants a lot and at a young age I loved things like sushi and escargot. They are still two of my very favorite foods. My brother Kirk and I are probably the most adventurous eaters in our extended family. We are looking forward to our trip to San Francisco and we are already planning what we will eat. Kirk has a list of all kinds of weird dishes and places for us to hit. Can't wait.

Tyler grew up eating a fairly conservative diet. Very meat and potatoes. Very Utah Mormon food. (Yes, that is a thing.) When we started dating he didn't eat seafood or sushi or even mustard. (What?!) But he has since developed a much more sophisticated palate and there isn't anything he won't try. Now he is often the one pushing me to try weird foods. I love it!

Out of our four kids...Kameron is our most adventurous eater with Bryn right behind him. When we were in Portland they wanted to eat jelly fish and rabbit and all kinds of things that were on the "wild side" of the menu at the Chinese restaurant that we went to. That fills me with great joy! Ailey is our least experimental eater. She likes about four things and that is it. She is the pickiest of picky eaters. Reilly is fairly picky too. For Reilly it is no seafood, no sushi, no mushrooms, no onions. Good grief. Tyler and I never cater to our picky eaters. Reilly is a bit easier because she will just work around her dislikes. She will eat cucumber rolls and things like that when we go out for sushi... which is a lot... and she just quietly deals with her dislikes but Ailey throws a huge fit. Trying to get that kid to eat as a toddler was one of my greatest tests of patience as a parent!! It still is. Sometimes when we go out for dinner she just orders white rice or buttered noodles. Seriously. Where did this kid come from?!

It is hard to say what my favorite foods are because I like so many things! I would say that sushi, seafood, Thai food, Japanese food, and Korean food are at the top of my list!!

There are however certain foods that I dislike:

1.) Fast Food

I cannot think of one fast food place that I like or can even order something from. Gross.

2.) Mayonnaise

This is hated across the board by me and my siblings. Too many school lunch bologna sandwiches with clear mayonnaise. There were no lunch box ice packs back in our day. It's amazing that we didn't all get salmonella.

3.) Milk

Also universally despised by all of the McClellan kids. One day on St. Patrick's Day our mom turned our milk green with food coloring to be festive. The milk must have been going south before that since I *hear* that food coloring won't sour milk (allegedly) but that was all it took. Some green sour milk and now none of us can drink it. *Shivers*

4.) Pears

I hate the gritty texture of pears. My mom also used to make a very disgusting side dish for our dinners back in the 80s which was half a pear, a blob of mayo on top of it, and sprinkled with cheddar cheese. This was beloved by none of us. My Grandma Ellersick used to take a wedge of iceberg lettuce and put a blob of mayo on top of that and call it *salad*. Also not beloved by the McClellan kids... I feel sick just typing that.

5.) Raisins

I used to like them as a kid. I have memories of being little and eating them out of the little red boxes and enjoying them. Perhaps I enjoyed them too much? Now I cannot eat even one. So gross. Do NOT even THINK about putting those in a cookie at our house!!

6.) Apple Sauce

Same reason as Pears. Gritty texture. I like apples...just not in a sauce or in a pie. Because apple pie is just basically applesauce pie.

7.) Melon

I hate all melon. Every.single.one. But cantaloupe is literally the worst food known to man.

8.) Cucumbers

Nope. Disgusting. This is literally the only thing that I have to pick out of food. I can get down most things that I am served but cucumbers are a NO. Although I do like tzakiki sauce a lot. I make it quite often but I always very very finely shred the cucumbers.

9.) Pizza

This is the greatest sorrow of my children's lives. I think we have had the pizza delivery guy come maybe 5 times in their entire lives. Believe me...they let me know how sad this is for them all.the.time. Whenever I go out of town it is pizza for days at our house.

10.) Marinara Sauce

See above. It makes me not enjoy other things like lasagna and certain pastas and of course pizza.

When I think back to the meals that my mom made growing up...

My very favorite meal was my mom's finger steaks dipped in homemade ranch dressing (add bottled ranch dressing to my list of inedible foods) with homemade mashed potatoes (no potato buds...gross). This was only made on special occasions...like birthdays... and was one of my Grandma Ellersick's better recipes. I still request that Tyler make this for me on my birthday and I wash it all down with my Grandma's green punch too. Delicious!!

Other meals that my mom made that I loved growing up:

Tacos
Taco Salad
Enchilada Casserole (Tyler requests this every year as his birthday dinner.)
Meatloaf
Homemade Clam Chowder (My mom's recipe is the best!)
Fried Rice (My Aunt Margaret's recipe)
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (My Grandma Ellersick's recipe)
Stroganoff
Pot Roast
Chili
Steak Soup

If I came home and saw that we were having any of the above for dinner I was STOKED!

BUT... if I came home and saw that we were having any of the foods listed below... I would invite myself over to a friend's house for dinner.

My Mom's worst meals:

1.) Salmon Loaf

This is BY FAR the most loathed meal in my house growing up. Liked by NO ONE but my mother. This gem was also a recipe from my Grandma Ellersick and it is straight up the most disgusting thing you will ever eat.

Let me paint you a picture... you open up a can of...yes CAN of pink salmon. It looks like cat food. You mix it with things like celery and crushed up saltines. You mush it into a loaf pan and bake it. Then you slice it and cover it in the most vile sauce of made of milk and boiled eggs. You might as well just vomit now. It is HORRID!!

Right behind Salmon Loaf was....

2.) Liver and Onions

Enough said!

Tyler's favorite meals growing up were:

1.) His Mom's Roast Chicken Sunday Dinner (or Pot Roast)

This was what they had almost every Sunday after church: Roast chicken or beef with potatoes and veggies and homemade rolls and Crystal Light to drink. Tyler still loves himself some Crystal Light! He drinks it every day at work.

2.) Canned Fruit and Peanut Butter Toast

This is a meal that he speaks of with such joy and love. Just ask our kids!! LOL. Whenever it was a busy night and his mom didn't have time to cook dinner; (His dad never cooked...can you imagine???) she would have everyone in the family go into their food storage and pick out whatever homemade jar of canned fruit they wanted to eat...no sharing with anyone else...everyone got their own jar. (Tyler always picked cherries or pears.) This was then accompanied by peanut butter toast. He mentions this meal all.the.time. I told him to learn to can fruit! I am sure that his mother would be SHOCKED by how fondly her *quick* meal is remembered.

3.) Lasagna

Tyler makes this for himself because ...see above...I don't like marinara sauce. I will make him a delicious butternut squash lasagna with a basil cream sauce which he likes but sometimes he just wants his mom's lasagna made with cottage cheese. :)

 4.) Lefse

This was a Norwegian flat bread made from potatoes that Tyler's family would make at Christmas time. It is delicious. Not all lefse is alike. Tyler makes a darn good lefse!

5.) Ground Beef Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Ground beef, Lipton Onion Soup Mix, and cheddar cheese were all combined and baked inside a crescent roll. Tyler's eyes still light up at the mention of this!

6.) Friday Night Pizza and Pop

On Friday nights when Tyler was a kid... his family had the tradition of going to Sounds Easy Pizza in Orem, UT every Friday night and getting a bunch of pizzas and then heading over to the Gas N' Go to fill up their refillable giant mugs with pop. He married the WRONG person. Poor guy.

Foods that Tyler hates:

1.) Oysters

2.) Sardines

3.) Salmon

4.) Liver

5.) Pigs Feet (He had to eat these on his mission in North Carolina.)


If you ask my kids...and I did...what their favorite meals are they include:

Broccoli Divan (This is our typical Sunday Dinner)
Pecan Patties with Mashed Potatoes
Street Tacos
Pad Thai
Stroganoff
Hawaiian Haystacks
Salad Bar
Taco Salad
Granny's Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Pasta Alfresca
The Dieter's Plate

The Dieter's Plate was a creation out of desperation one night and totally helps satiate Tyler's cravings for his canned fruit and peanut butter toast. One night we had literally no groceries and no time to go to the store. I rummaged in the fridge and pulled out random items. A little bit of leftover cottage cheese, some olives, carrot sticks, crackers, canned fruit (not homemade), a couple of boiled eggs, some pickles, and some cheese that I sliced. I made everyone plates with cottage cheese in the middle and all of the other stuff radiating out from it. I called it the dieter's plate because it looked just like the meals my Grandma McKinnon used to order at restaurants in the 80s because she was always on a diet. MY FAMILY LOVED IT!! They ask for it all the time!! Ha ha!

As far as food allergies go...we don't have any life threatening ones. Thank goodness. Tyler is allergic to pistachios which is terrible because he loves them and Reilly is allergic to kiwi.

I could do multiple posts on food and family. Maybe I will. It is a much more interesting topic (to me) than some of the other topics on this challenge!! :)

52 Week Challenge: 14

52 Week Challenge: Question 14

Where did you go to Junior High or Middle School? What was it like for you?

Junior high was a mixed bag for me. Some parts were good, some parts were bad, and some parts were just okay. I went to two different junior high schools in Orem, Utah. The first one sucked and the second one was a lot of fun.

Junior High:

I had a little bit of the same situation that occurred in 6th grade. A new junior high was being built and while it was being built the school district crammed everyone into Orem Junior High. The next year when the new junior high was complete...half of the kids stayed at Orem Junior High and the other half (me included) went to Canyon View Junior High. They were two very different schools and I had two very different experiences at them.

Orem Junior High

In 7th grade I attended Orem Junior High. The transition from elementary school to junior high was a difficult one for me. I had a crappy schedule and the wrong lunch...all of my friends from elementary school had a different lunch than I did that entire year. I had to make a whole new set of friends and I quickly learned that making friends in junior high was very different from making friends in elementary school. The cliques!! They were awful and unlike in elementary school people didn't just automatically want to be my friend. They already had friends. I can be a fairly reserved and shy person until you get to know me and then I am very out going but in a new school and at the age of twelve I was not out going. I had to really put myself out there to get to know people.

Luckily on the first day of school, in my history class, when the teacher was calling the roll I heard the name of Britney (the best friend of my friends in Springville ...the one who had moved away when I moved in) called. I literally froze. What?! She's in this class!! When my name was called I saw her head whip around and we stared at each other in horror. That was the class right before lunch and it turned out that none of her friends were in our lunch either. I remember her coming up to me and begrudgingly saying hi and begrudgingly asking me if I wanted to eat with her and I begrudgingly said okay. The rest is history folks! A great friendship was formed. We were two little newbies finding our way in 7th grade and we became best friends in the process.

I had a particularly rough start that year because I had broken my arm right before school started playing "Olympics" on the monkey bars in the dell and I had a cast on my right hand so I couldn't open my lockers (hall or gym) and I could barely write. It was a nightmare. I was also mortified to have to take a shower in PE. Yes, we actually had to shower and come and show our gym teacher that we were wet and then she would put a check by our name and we could go get dressed. I was always late to class and getting stuck behind slow movers. The school was extremely over crowded and my teachers didn't seem to care about that and I got many tardy slips. My grades went down because I was so overwhelmed. I was also forced by my mom to take band and to play the french horn. Ugh...I hated it so much and I was terrible. My mom had been in band when she was in school and she loved it and so it was forced upon me. I was extra annoyed because I was already taking piano lessons which I loved. So I was already playing an instrument!! But she was VERY insistent. (It's so funny that after saying that my kids will NEVER have to be in band...I have a son who absolutely LOVES BAND and is super talented!!)

I really hated going to school that year. I remember thinking that I literally hated every single class that I had with one exception...Honors English. That particular class and teacher I loved. The first book that we were assigned to read was The Outsiders and since I had been reading and rereading that book since the 4th grade I was an expert. :) My teacher, Mr. Christensen, was super nice and thought that I was really smart...due to my extensive Outsiders knowledge. Ha ha! His confidence in me gave me the boost that I needed to get through the first part of 7th grade. I was also lucky enough to have Mr. C for 8th grade Honors English too. (I ran into Mr. Christensen at the mall when I was in college once and it was really nice to be able to tell him how much I appreciated him as a teacher!)

Despite a rather rough start to 7th grade I eventually found my way and ended the year on a pretty good note. Britney and I became great friends and our circle began to expand. Also, not only did I have school friends, I also had fantastic friends in Springdell, and good grades.

Canyon View Junior High

In 8th grade the new junior high was completed and I attended Canyon View Junior High also in Orem, Utah. I loved it! 8th grade was a really fun year! Britney and I were best friends and we had a big group of guys and girls that we hung out with. I felt like I was hitting my stride in 8th grade. I had great grades and good friends...both at school and at home. Britney and I both liked boys that were in high school and we both had older friends so we spent quite a bit of time at Orem High hanging out with them. I liked most of my classes with the exception of PE, Math and Band. Yes, I was still being forced to play the french horn and I still hated it and was still terrible. My favorite classes were my Honors English (Mythology!) and foreign language. I was in my second year of German in 8th grade. I remember being really happy. Such a welcome relief! The year that Canyon View Junior High opened, the school district decided to have 9th grade remain in junior high. I was very disappointed because I was really looking forward to going to Orem High with my friends from the dell in 9th grade.

For 9th grade I spent the first part of the year at Canyon View Junior High and loving life. The second half of my 9th grade year was spent at Center High School in Kansas City, Missouri and it was sheer hell. I will comment on that in my post about high school.

The first part of 9th grade was amazing! I had great grades, a great social life, amazing friends, a cute older boyfriend, Rex, (who was also my next door neighbor). I felt like I was on top of the world!! My very best friends have always been my friends from the dell... Naomi, Kyle, Chris, Rex, Matthew. I am not going to go into detail here about all of them because I have talked about them in great detail on the blog already. I am going to focus mainly on school and school friends in this post. Because we lived up the canyon we were pretty isolated from the kids that lived in town. When the weekends rolled around we always just hung out with each other. Then we had school friends that we hung out with during the week. But I think all of us would agree that we wanted to and would rather hang out with the kids from the dell than with anyone else but sometimes school friends mixed in and hung out with our dell group and it was extra fun. That year because most of my older friends could drive and so we had a bigger combined group of dell kids and school friends. Britney often hung out with all of us and we had an absolute blast!! My social life was going great! I had gone on my first date! I went to see Pretty in Pink with Rex. No waiting until I was 16 for me!!  I was counting down the minutes until high school!!

I finally got to quit playing the french horn...hallelujah!! I also got to work in the school office as an aid (I had extra room in my schedule because I didn't go to seminary) and I loved bustling around in the office, answering the phone, running errands, and taking attendance. (I used to have to walk to the seminary building to get the attendance and would feel so sorry for all the little Mormon kids who not only had to go to school but also had to go to church during the day!! Ha ha!!)

Then my parents dropped the bomb that we were moving to Kansas City and life as I knew it was over. It took me years to recover from the blow. High school was rough...certainly not the glory days that many people experience. You couldn't pay me a million dollars to experience high school again for even one day. Those three and half years were very tough...at school and at home. It was a difficult time for me.

52 Week Challenge: 13

52 Week Challenge: Question 13

Where did you go to elementary school? What was school like for you? 

Obviously this is NOT a 52 Week Challenge!! I think I am on year three. Oh well...I am still plugging along and it will take as long as it takes, right? I still think these are important questions to answer.

Elementary School:

I went to multiple elementary schools. I went to Kindergarten at Washington Elementary in Rexburg, Idaho. I went to 1st and 2nd grade at Sharon Elementary in Orem, Utah. I went to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade at Sage Creek Elementary in Springville, Utah. I went to 6th grade at Orchard Elementary in Orem, Utah.

Despite attending quite a few elementary schools I really enjoyed school and made friends easily. I always had a good group of friends. I loved to read and was a good student. I was organized, a hard-worker, and a people pleaser. I loved parent teacher conference because I loved to hear all of the good things that my teachers would say about me. Usually the only critique was that "Kristin can be a bit chatty."

My teachers were:

Kindergarten...Miss Cheryl
1st Grade...Mrs. Beal
2nd Grade...Mrs. Neubert
3rd Grade...Mr. Jacobson
4th Grade...Mr. Whiting
5th Grade...Mr. Strong
6th Grade...Mr. Barlow

I particularly liked going to school at Sharon Elementary and at Sage Creek Elementary. No surprise there since I was at those schools for the longest amount of time. Sage Creek was my absolute favorite and whenever elementary school is mentioned that is where my mind instantly returns.

I was in afternoon kindergarten which I always thought was so superior to morning kindergarten. (Reilly and Kameron were in afternoon kindergarten too.) In my mind, my school and classroom looked exactly like the school and classroom in the book Ramona the Pest. I remember thinking that when I was in Kindergarten and that book was being read to us and it has stuck with me for all of these years. We had naps on little rugs and the person who was the quietest got to be the wake up fairy with a wand. I LOVED being the wake up fairy!! We had cubbies and the smell that I associate with kindergarten is the smell of rubber gum erasers.

I can smell those right now just looking at the picture! Whenever I am at an arts supply store or an office supply store that has these particular erasers you can find me sniffing them and thinking...Aaahh... the smell of Kindergarten.

I loved Kindergarten. My best friend's name was Heidi. Her parents were building a house by themselves and only the basement was done and they lived in the basement. I thought that was pretty cool. My boyfriend was a boy named Anthony who was a 4th grader who used to get into his mom's jewelry box and steal jewelry and give it to me. My mom was always having to return these *gifts* to his mother!! There was also a boy in my carpool whose name was Stanley. Stanley used to lick all around his mouth as a nervous habit so he always had a red chappy ring all around his mouth. If my mom ever saw us so much as lick our lips she would say, "Don't be a Stanley!!" I have used this phrase with my own children!! Poor Stanley. I am sure he turned out to be a wonderful person.

Sharon Elementary in Orem, Utah

In first grade we moved back to Utah and I went to Sharon Elementary. I loved my teacher Mrs. Beal. She took a special interest in me...probably because my mom was a single mother. I remember her being especially kind and getting to know my mom and little sisters. (I love that Bryn's 1st grade teacher's name was Mrs. Beal too.) One thing that always amazed me was that whenever she talked about her husband she always referred to him as "Mr. Beal" never Jim or whatever his name was or "my husband". It was always..."When Mr. Beal got home last night...blah blah..." I always thought that was so weird. She wrote me letters through out the summer and for a couple of years later. She once sent me an intricate paper cutting when she was on a trip to Hong Kong and in one of her letters she said that she and "Mr. Beal" had bought a cabin in the mountains that was shaped like an A.  I especially loved Mrs. Beal because she taught me how to read. The first word that I remember reading was the word "Clean". I distinctly remember when everything clicked for me with reading. I was in the car with my mom and sisters and we were driving down State Street in Orem.  I was looking at all of the signs when they suddenly came into focus and I understood what they all said. I remember screaming, "I can read! I can read all the signs!!"

I accidentally found Mrs. Beal a few years ago on Facebook through a mutual Utah friend. She had stopped teaching when she had children...in fact our class was the only class that she ever taught full time. She even had a picture of our class on her FB page. I sent her a message and she was as charming and delightful as I remembered her.

My 2nd grade teacher's name was Mrs. Neubert. She was awesome and loved parties. When she was my teacher one of her sons was on a mission to Hawaii. We used to hear all about his experiences and adventures. Once we had a big Hawaiian Luau. We got leis and ate pineapple and poi. We even got to crack open coconuts. I remember thinking that it was the greatest party ever!! We had big birthday parties with punch and cupcakes...even the kids who had birthdays in the summer like me were assigned a time to celebrate during the school year! We celebrated every holiday in a big way. We went on amazing field trips...the zoo, the Monte L. Bean Museum, Liberty Park, BYU, and even a beaver farm off of Geneva Road!! That beaver farm still remains a highlight!! Tyler and I were just talking about that place last week. I was late for school that day and the school bus had already left for the field trip without me. (I was a latch key kid and a dawdler.) I called my Grandma McKinnon from the office and she immediately came to get me and drove like a bat out of !@#$ trying to catch up with the school bus. Which she did!! She was not going to have her "little sweetheart" miss out on seeing that beaver farm!!  We also learned about Egypt and I thought that it was fascinating and terrifying. That was the year the King Tutankhamen exhibit came to Utah. I also attribute my love of audiobooks to Mrs.Neubert. Whenever we did art we got to listen to a book on record. Our class particularly loved all of the Francis books...Bread and Jam for Francis and Best Friends for Francis etc. I still adore those books and have shared them with my kids who also loved them. I had a blue plastic Snoopy lunch box and whenever I think of 1st and 2nd grade I always think of the smell of a fresh box of crayons (still a favorite smell) and the smell of my blue Snoopy lunch box which was NOT a favorite smell. My best friends were Lori and Renee. The boys I liked were Richard and Teddy. My favorite thing to play a recess was kissing tag... with tether ball a close second!! Ha ha!

This looks just like the smelly lunch box that I had!! I found a picture on Ebay!

When I was in college I worked at the front desk of the Howard Johnson Hotel. One of my co-workers was one of Mrs. Neubert's sons. I was so excited when I made the connection...and even more excited when she came into work one day to say hello!

Sage Creek Elementary School in Springville, Utah

In third grade we moved to Springville, Utah...not to be confused with Springdell. I loved Sage Creek Elementary so much! It is really where all of my best elementary school memories were made. In 3rd grade my teacher was Mr. Jacobson. When I found out that I was getting a "boy" teacher...he was more like a 60 year old man...I cried my eyes out!! I did not want a "boy" teacher and went into hysterics. What a waste of tears! Mr. Jacobson was the kindest teacher that I ever had. I loved him. When I think of him I always see him leaning up against the radiators during recess and lunch and talking with his best friend Mr. Whiting (my 4th grade teacher). In Mr. Jacobson's class we learned our times tables aka multiplication facts. I remember having to go up to his desk and reciting them to him so that I could pass them off and our class could have a pizza party. We also used to get fluoride treatments in there. Once a week the secretary Mrs. Crandall would come in with a tray of little Dixie cups with our mouth wash in it and we would swish our mouths out and spit it into the sink. This was also the year that our school caught on fire and our classroom burned. We had to move all of our things into the library and the library got moved into one end of the lunchroom/gym. We were in the library for several months while our classroom was repaired. When we finally moved back into our classroom the burnt smell lingered all year. (Tyler's house caught on fire and burned down when he was in college. He lost most of the things from his childhood and mission. The few things that were salvaged are singed and have that same awful and sad burnt smell...the exact smell of 3rd grade.)

My best friends in third grade were Lori and Amy (and my neighbor Christine who went to another school.) At the time that I moved in one of their best friends had just moved away...Britney...I heard over and over how amazing she was and how they all missed her so much and I hated her! She once came to Lori's birthday slumber party and I was right...I didn't like her at all and she didn't like me! Later in 7th grade... Britney and I would become best friends and would stay that way all through jr. high and high school until I moved to Kansas City. So crazy!!

In third grade I was obsessed with wearing knickers and zip up riding boots. It was hilarious when those riding boots came back into style. Lori and I loved the movie Grease and got satin jackets to wear. We also loved the movie Xanadu and we each got the record and would sing all of the songs. I loved roller skating and slumber parties. I liked to play kickball at recess. We had mini-courses at school every few weeks. That meant we could sign up for different classes like computers (this was even before floppy disks...we inserted a cassette tape into the computer drive!), macrame, pottery, gymnastics, basketball...and things like that. It was really fun! Our auditorium/lunchroom/gym was the same big room and during lunch we would sneak onto the stage and go back behind the heavy big curtain where there was a trampoline and we would jump on the trampoline in the dark all lunch recess.

This was also the year that I got bullied a lot for not being active in the LDS church. Utah in the 70s was rough for inactive kids. My mom had stopped going to church and my step-dad moved in with us. The girls in my class were okay...but I remember the boys being pretty mean when they realized that I was supposed to be in their ward but didn't ever come to church. The worst was the boy I liked the most...my neighbor, classmate, and crush Brad...who is now a dear family friend all of these years later but he could be a real jerk and a bully at times...and yet I still loved him. He was also my next door neighbor.

In 4th grade I had my very favorite elementary school teacher, Mr. Whiting. He was an absolute character!! He was funny and liked to tease. He had twinkly eyes and a big grin. His name was Juan and I thought that was so exotic for 60+ year old man from Springville who didn't seem to have any exotic ethnicity. Mr. Whiting loved animals and basketball!! We learned so much about animals that year and played a TON of basketball. We had a snake in our classroom that I loved to hold. We did reports on snakes...mine was on the Black Mamba! I can still regale you with all kinds of facts!! We read books about animals... Where the Red Fern Grows, Summer of the Monkeys, Brighty and the Grand Canyon, and Island of the Blue Dolphins to name a few! My very favorite book that Mr. Whiting read to us was The White Falcon. I thought it was the best book ever!!

It was in 4th grade that my friend Dayna moved in and that was when all of the usual girl drama seemed to kick in. I don't really remember it before 4th grade. Dayna was cool and lived in a big house. Everyone wanted to be her best friend. She had feathered hair and wore Nike tennis shoes. She was pretty cool. It seemed that whole year Lori and I took turns being best friends with Dayna and then also being left out. By the end of the year Dayna and I were consistent best friends. She lived up the street from me and we would walk to and from school together every day. We used to beg our moms to take us to Fashion Gal, a clothing store in Orem, and buy us matching clothes to wear on the same day. We loved Dittos clothing! I also begged my mom for a pair of Nikes just like Dayna's. We loved to be twins and would call each other the night before to plan our outfits for the next day. In class we were pretty chatty and we didn't often get to sit by one another so we learned sign language from a Boy Scout manual that we checked out from the library so that we could talk to each other across the room. The boys quickly tried to learn it too so that they could understand what we were saying. Ha ha! I also liked a boy named Peter in 4th grade...mainly hoping to make Brad jealous which never happened. :) But Peter and I used to have long phone chats and would spend hours trying to call K-96, a radio station, to *dedicate* songs to each other!!

One of my VERY FAVORITE things in elementary school was the SRA Reading Kits. I loved it so much when this box was brought out! It was full of files with stories that represented your reading level. You would read the stories in a particular color and then take a test on the reading material. If you passed you got to move up to the next level. The goal was to read your way through the rainbow and be the top reader in your class. My other love was the Book Fair!! That was paradise to a bookish girl like me!!

This was also the year that we could work in the lunchroom and be a lunch helper. I thought this was so fun...if...and only if...I didn't have to touch the milk cartons. (Your hands smelled like sour milk all day) or be a tray washer. I can gag just thinking about that!! I loved helping with everything else and getting leftovers...cinnamon rolls, cookies, second helpings etc. My favorite lunches were Tacos, Chili (because we always got a sugared donut), and  my very favorite was the fish sticks meal. We had really good buttery potatoes with this meal and we also got a chocolate peanut butter bar!!  Tyler and I found a recipe for Lunch Lady Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars about 6 years ago and got on a real kick. Apparently we made them one too many times because not one of our kids will touch one now!!

In 4th grade Dayna and I would get dropped off at the mall. We used to walk around for hours and take crazy pictures in the photo booth and buy lip gloss and eat at the food court. We thought we were so cool! We also used to walk to the swimming pool and swim for hours almost every day in the summer all by ourselves. We perfected our underwater somersaults and flips in the lap lanes. We would buy Fanta Red Cream Soda and Moon Pies from the vending machines for our walk home. Also her dad was a doctor and one of the most exciting things that we were allowed to do was spend the night at the hospital in the physicians lounge. We would eat at the Pink shop (the coffee shop) or in the cafeteria and then would watch TV and eat Whatchamacallit candy bars all night in the lounge. It was the best! My mom also worked at the hospital, as the Director of Nursing, so she would let us go look at all the new babies in the nursery!! We also used to ride our bikes down to the Sage Creek Store which we called the candy store and would buy our favorite Dinosour Eggs...I still miss those! They were like giant gobstoppers.

And ... Jolly Rancher sticks. They could last for days in your desk at school!!

Dayna's mom, Carol, also made one of my very favorite meals. It was so delicious that I asked her for the recipe...the first time that I ever did that! It was for Hawaiian Haystacks!! I still make it to this day and it is one of Kameron's very favorite meals.

This is also the year that I went from reading Roald Dahl to reading grown-up books. The Outsiders was the gateway book. My babysitter, Andy, introduced me to that book and I never looked back. By the end of 4th grade I had read The Thornbirds!! It was a mini-series that was on at the time and I wasn't allowed to watch it. I tried to hide and watch it while my parents were watching but I always got caught. I heard that it was based on a book so I rode my bike down to the Springville Public Library and checked it out. I read it and hid it under my bed. Mind blown... I couldn't go back to the Bobbsey Twins after that!! (Side note... I cannot even imagine Bryn who is currently in 4th grade reading The Outsiders...much less THE THORNBIRDS!!) Both books are still favorites and are on my bookshelf today!

I loved that we could ride our bikes all over town back then. We used to head off on our bikes with the Ropers in the morning and not come back home until dinner time! It was the best!

My teacher in 5th grade was Mr. Strong. He loved history and was very patriotic. His full name was Robert E. Lee Strong. I have a memory of him often wearing a buckskin jacket and a bolo tie. He made us memorize all of the Presidents and learn to play the harmonica and sing in a class choir (which I hated). I learned so much about American History in Mr. Strong's class.I loved that! I remember having some very interesting discussions as we would sit on little benches in the back of the room and he would talk to us. He gave us reading challenges and would tally all of the books we read on the wall. He also posted our class rankings. Hence my status of "Kristin McClellan 3rd smartest girl" which I still quote sometimes. We were always ranked with a boy of the same academic status: 

1.) Jonathan and Lori

2.) Peter and Amy

3.) Brad and Kristin

We also got to make and launch rockets in that class which I thought was a lot of fun. We played a lot of sports...and picked teams old school style. Was I often picked first? Never. I was terrible at sports (except for basketball) and Mr. Strong always chose two boys as the team captains. Ugh... This was the year that we got to earn "gold certificates" and then buy things at an auction and have businesses and earn more "gold certificates" to spend at the auction. For my business I made homemade suckers (my mom HATED this unit and dealing with sucker making) and toothpicks dipped in Binaca...mint and cinnamon. (This was my own idea and secret merchandise...and best seller.) Chewing on a flavored tooth pick was quite the thing in 1982. This was also the year of square dancing!! I loved it! Brad picked me as his partner and I was beside myself with joy! There are several pictures of us square dancing and they continue to appear regularly on social media thanks to his sisters!!!! This was also my greatest disappointment...when I choked (figuratively...not literally) at the tryouts for the Christmas Program. Brad was trying out for Joseph and he told me to try out for Mary so that we could be a couple. I got so nervous and did terrible. All my friends got big parts...I still recall it being a very cool Christmas program...and I was relegated to the chorus. Brad was furious...he didn't like the girl who got the part of Mary...a poor picked on girl who actually really needed a win in her life...and I cried my eyes out. 

This was the year that there was the most social/girl drama. Two sets of twins moved in...Nephi and Helen and Britni and Brandi. This completely disrupted our class social structure. I remember that everyone wanted to be best friends with Britni and Brandi...who were super cute and all the boys wanted them as their girlfriends too. Best friend groups kept forming and then breaking up and reforming. The boys all took turns "going with" them. Brad and Brandi were quite the couple and I felt like I was always being left out of the girl group. I remember crying a lot in the bathroom at school in 5th grade.

To this day... I am still friends with Dayna. Her best friend from high school lives in Spokane and is a friend of mine. Brad and all of his sisters are dear dear friends. Brad and I even went out a couple of times in college. Lori, Dayna, Britney, and I all reconnected in college. Lori used to live near me at BYU. She and I went to Britney's wedding reception together and cried tears of joy for our mutual beloved friend! I am FB friends with Lori, Dayna, and Amy and I enjoy following them on social media. Amy has a fantastic blog and is an amazing writer.

Orchard Elementary School in Orem, Utah

The summer after 5th grade my parents bought our house up Provo Canyon in Springdell. We were bussed down the canyon to school in Orem. They were building a new elementary when I moved and when school started it wasn't ready yet. We had to *share* a school with another elementary school which meant that two schools attended Northridge Elementary. One school (Northridge) met early in the morning until noon and then our school (Orchard) started at 12:30 and went until 6pm. It was crazy. We had a big snack time in the lunchroom at 3 pm. That year will always remind me of the drink Proffessor Pooles Trio Orange Drink. This was the first year in my elementary school career that we got a choice of beverage instead of just milk (which I hated) before that the orange drink was only for the kids who were allergic to milk. 

This was also the time that they were widening the road up the canyon and were blasting away part of the mountain. This created a huge nightmare for the people who lived up the canyon. Sometimes we would get stuck either up the canyon or at the mouth of the canyon for up to two hours. It made getting to work and school very difficult. Sometimes we were super late to school because our bus would be stuck or we would get home very late from school and when school ended at 6pm that meant that sometimes we wouldn't get home until 7 or 8 pm. It was crazy! Luckily sharing a school only lasted for a few months and then we had a beautiful new school to attend. The canyon construction continued on until 9th grade and the "Canyon Kids" continued to be late to school on a regular basis which we loved!!

One thing that was kind of fun was that several of my friends from Sharon Elementary now attended Orchard Elementary and we were reunited. My 1st grade and 2nd grade best friend Lori now went to Orchard as did my 1st and 2nd grade crushes...Richard and Teddy...and so did several other people from our class. It was fun and it made moving to a new school much easier.

My 6th grade teacher's name was Mr. Barlow and I was not a fan of him...nor were my parents. He had a very odd personality. That winter he got into a skiing accident and ended up seriously injured so we had a substitute for basically the rest of the year. He came back the last month or so and was in a wheelchair. I think he broke his back and both of his legs...anyway... he didn't have the nicest disposition to begin with and it wasn't improved upon after his accident. Let's just say we really missed our substitute. My friends and I used to skip school during lunch and run to Stratton's Fruit Stand and buy candy. That was the joy of my life until I was spotted and ratted on by one of my neighbors!! We also learned to play the ukulele that year.

My best friends in 6th grade were Jenny, Holly, and Kimby. They were a lot of fun and the girl drama seemed a bit less this year. The boy I liked at school's name was Cory. Holly liked his best friend Garrit. We would meet them at the mall and go to the record store and hang out. They loved Motley Crue and ZZ Top. Holly and I weren't into that kind of music...we liked Michael Jackson... but we were into them!! My first tape was ZZ Top Eliminator given to me by Cory. He was super cute with dark hair and wore graphic t-shirts, skinny jeans, and checker board Vans! It's so funny how fashion cycles around. I just described Kameron's current every day outfit!! In the dell I had another boy that I liked... Mike. He went to my elementary school too but wasn't in my class and understood that he was strictly an *at home* boyfriend. Ha Ha!  I graduated from elementary school very excited to head to Jr.High. My friends in the dell were all older than me and I was super excited to leave childhood behind and get to explore the mysterious world of being a teenager. :)

Memories of Nana

Nana

52 Week Challenge: Question 10 (Part 2)

Share your memories of your paternal grandparents? Where did they live? How much were they involved in your life?

This has been sitting in my drafts for forever... Time to finish and post.

My Nana passed away on Easter morning. She had been ill and suffering from dementia. I hated that this vibrant and hilarious southern lady had become a shadow of her former self and had been suffering in the throes of dementia. It robbed her of her memories of family members and her trusting spirit. It was heartbreaking.  The last time that I saw her, she was still her joyful and exuberant self. It was at my sister Jordin's wedding. We had a great time together. All of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there. We laughed a lot and enjoyed one another. Nana even got out on the dance floor for a few minutes. It was great!! A treasured memory. Not too long after that she really began to spiral down into the dark recesses of dementia.

Nana came into my life when I was seven years old and never left. She is technically my step-grandma (Nana is the mother of my ex-step-father Larry) but she has never felt like a step-grandma to me nor was I anything less than a true granddaughter to her. She was a gift and she made me feel special and loved.

Nana was living in Denver when she passed away. She had a small viewing and then a graveside service. I wrote an essay of memories to be read at her service which my sister Jordin read. Kirk and Jordin are her biological grandkids and she also has two other biologicial grandchildren; Donny and Colin. They spoke on behalf of their side of the family. They are my Aunt (step-aunt) Marylee's sons. They grew up living in Denver and being near Nana and then she eventually moved in with their family.

Kirk, Nana, Kristin, Colin, and Jordin at Jordin's wedding in Kansas City.

Memories of Nana

Nana was one of a kind. She was an absolute original. The way she walked and talked and navigated her life. She was a southern girl with charm and sass and a flare for the dramatic. She laughed a lot. She cried a lot. She smiled a lot. She wore her heart on her sleeve and I don't think that she ever met a stranger. She had a big beautiful smile that would light up her entire face. She loved BIG...HUGE...and unconditionally. Her loyalty was absolutely unwavering. Whomever she loved she loved with her entire being. Everyone should have a Nana in their lives and we are so blessed and grateful that we did.

Nana and Grandma (Nana's mother) first came into our lives when I was seven, Stacey was five, and Kelley was three. I remember the first time that we met them. They were coming for a visit from Denver and we were so worried that they wouldn't like us. I remember watching them get out of the car and coming over to where we were playing in the yard. Nana immediately introduced herself and said,"You girls are just so beautiful!! Can I give you a hug?" I knew right then and there that things were going to be just fine. At that time we called Nana...Kathy. She asked us what we were playing and we told her that we were playing horses and she just jumped right in and was neighing and snorting and pawing the ground. We thought that she was amazing. We loved both she and Great-Grandma right from the start. I remember the day that she asked us if we would like to call her "Nana". She said, "I know that you have other grandmas and that they are wonderful women and I wouldn't want to take anything away from them but you girls can call me Nana if you want to." Of course we wanted to! She has been our Nana ever since.

Nana had such a wonderful way of making you feel special...beyond special. She made you feel like you were the smartest, most beautiful, most talented, most entertaining person in the world. Not only did she make us feel like that but she told us repeatedly...every time she saw us...that we WERE all of those things and more!! She would ooohhh and aaahhh over every little thing that we would say or do. She loved to say how "precious" we were. Nana made us feel like a million bucks. She spent her whole life praising us, uplifting us, telling us that we were special and important and that we had worth and value. We never doubted that Nana loved us. Ever!! Because she told us how much she loved us over and over again. She would cry and tell us how precious we were and how loved we were and how happy she was that we were in her life. You don't know how much that meant to us...especially during times when we felt ugly, unlovable, and worthless. To know that Nana loved us, believed in us, and was in our corner meant the world to us.

We have so many amazing memories of her. Her laugh, her southern accent, dancing and singing while she played the piano, her dramatic gasps when excited or touched by something, her squealing in terror as we would drive up the canyon, her tears of joy when we would come for a visit. We used to love to go and visit she and grandma. We were so intrigued by her glamorous high rise living in Denver. We loved buzzing her when we were down in the lobby and knowing that she was watching us on TV on the security channel for her building. We thought it was so cool when she would buzz us in and we would ride the elevator up to her floor. We thought that she lived in the most fabulous high rise apartment complex with a swanky swimming pool, bowling alley, and a car and driver if needed. Whenever we would come to visit we would always have a southern style baked ham (with pineapples and cherries), potato salad, and a homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It was always so fun to be with Nana and Grandma and to be fussed over. We always felt so fancy staying with her.

When we turned thirteen Nana would fly us out to visit her all by ourselves. I remember being greeted at the airport with gifts and flowers. I felt like a celebrity. Nana asked me, prior to coming, what I wanted to eat while I was there and had stocked the fridge with all of my favorite foods and beverages. I remember drinking fancy grape juice and eating homemade banana bread and Jimmy Dean sausage every morning for breakfast while I sat on the balcony looking out at the pool. While I was swimming in the afternoons Nana would bring me an icy cold Dr. Pepper and a piece of cake. It was heaven. Nana was a fabulous hostess and kept me entertained beyond my wildest dreams the entire week that I was there. We shopped, ate out, toured Denver, went to special restaurants with games and prizes, went to the movies, and to Elitches amusement park just to name a few. That was such a special time in my life. Stacey has very fond memories of her week spent with Nana and Grandma too. She remembers eating creamed peas and all kinds of other "exotic" delicacies. I remember going to work with her one day as she proudly introduced me as her granddaughter to her co-workers. I loved to hear her call me her granddaughter. She would also let me go night swimming every single night even though she was terrified of water and was always worried that I would drown.

One of our all-time favorite memories of Nana was when she introduced us to garage sales. We loved going garage-saling with Nana and she stopped for every single one that she saw. We definitely got our love of garage sales from her!! I still have a little ceramic poodle that I got at my first garage sale with her. She and Grandma were hilarious and the times that we spent with them were full of laughter and crazy antics. They were always up for anything. It was the best!!

We loved to have Nana and Grandma come and visit us. I remember how much they loved the lilacs that grew in our yard in Utah. One day we helped them cut a bunch of branches of them and wrapped them in damp paper towels and newspaper and they took them home on the plane with them.  When she was visiting, Nana would always check to see how our piano lessons were going and how we were progressing. I remember her sitting at the piano many times with me while I practiced. One of my favorite pictures is of the two of us at the piano together. Nana loved to meet our friends and would always tell THEM how special, beautiful, and amazing we were and how lucky they were to have us as friends. My best friend has some great memories of Nana as well and was one of the first people to contact me when she heard that Nana had passed away.

When Kirk and Jordin were born we wondered what would happen to our relationships with Nana and Grandma. Would they still love us? Would we be second best? Nana had such a huge capacity for love that never once did we feel second best. That is one of the things that I appreciate and admire the most about her. We were as loved and cherished as we had always been. From day one Nana was our grandma and we were her grandchildren and it has stayed that way ever since. Donny was our cousin and we have loved him from the start and Marylee (our aunt) too. As Kirk and Jordin and Colin were born and the number of grandchildren grew, Nana's heart just grew bigger and bigger as it did when the great-grandchildren were born.

Some of Kirk and Jordin's favorite memories are of Nana and Grandma coming to visit us in Texas and going to the beach with them. They would come downstairs all ready for the beach in big floppy hats, sunglasses, and knickers. We all remember Nana chatting with anyone and everyone on the ferry. She was a people person for sure!! We have the best memories of Nana and Grandma sitting in lawn chairs on the beach, half in the water, in their big sun hats, knickers, and with their purses on their laps. We love remembering them squealing and trying to get up and run away before the waves got their knickers wet!! We also remember their love of Lysol and their hysterics when Kirk, as a toddler, ate a fly and they wanted him to "gargle with Lysol!!"

One of my very favorite memories was the first time that I introduced Nana and Grandma to Tyler. We had only been dating for a little over a month and had gone on a road trip with friends to Colorado for one of my best friends' wedding. Tyler and I spent two nights in Denver with Nana. When I introduced them, Nana did one of her famous gasps and when Tyler went to get our luggage she grabbed me and said, "OH Kristin!! You need to marry that man!! He is just beautiful!!" Great-Grandma was nodding along with her. Then she said these famous words..."Listen! When he gets back Mom's gonna hold him down and I'm gonna call the preacher!! Don't let him get away!!" and Grandma chimed right in with an "mm-hmm". Tyler and I have laughed about that for years!! Nana was right and she loved and accepted Tyler from day one and he loved her too. For more years than I can count Nana would call us every single week and would talk to all of us and listen to Reilly sing and play the piano. She has always been such a huge part of our lives even though we lived far away.

Another one of our favorite memories is the trip that me, Tyler, Reilly, Kirk and Jordin all took to Denver to visit Nana. She was living with Marylee, John, and Colin in the house with the indoor swimming pool. We all had the best time together and made some of the most hilarious memories. I can still see Reilly and Nana eating bowl after bowl of ice cream (Nana's favorite food) while we all sat around the table laughing together. She had the greatest sense of humor and never took herself too seriously.
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Despite living far way, our love for Nana never diminished. She was loved and adored and her legacy lives on in each of us. We are all the richer for having had her in our lives. We are so appreciative of Donny, Colin, Marylee, and John. Marylee would drive Nana out to visit us and to weddings and that has helped to keep our connection strong. Colin has always done such a great job of staying in touch and keeping us up-to-date with Nana and her health issues. We appreciate it more than we can say. It hasn't gone unnoticed nor unappreciated. You are unsung heroes especially as you have cared for her over the last several years as her health has declined. You did all that you could to keep the fun and adventure in her life as you would travel with her and take her out for nights on the town. She was so blessed to have you!!

Nana was one of a kind. There will never be another like her. She has enriched our lives more than we can express. We are so grateful for every moment and memory that we have shared with her. We will miss that mischievous smile, her teasing, her laughter, her hugs and kisses, her phone calls that always ended with her in tears and telling us, "Nana loves you!!" We love you too, Nana, and we always will.
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Nana lived a life that wasn't always an easy one. She grew up in Parkersburg,West Virginia and was a pampered and much doted upon only child who was beloved by her parents and extended family. She got pregnant out of wedlock and ran off and married the father. Her parents did not approve of him and the young couple briefly moved to another state. She had Larry (our ex-stepfather) and then divorced her husband.  Later she married Marylee's father and had Marylee. She was a talented musician and gifted pianist. Her dream was for her children to be in show business and she was quite the successful stage mother for many years while they were kids and teenagers. They performed and appeared on TV and modeled and did quite a few things in the entertainment business.

She had a series of unsuccessful marriages that took a toll on her but didn't extinguish her love of life and people. Nor her belief in true love. She had suitors and love interests until her dementia became debilitating. Her mother moved in with her after her final divorce and they lived together until Great-Grandma passed away. Grandma helped Nana raise her children. Great-Grandma had had Nana very young and they were often more like best friends that mother and daughter. Nana's name was actually Irene Katherine but she preferred to go by Kathy. Her mom (and dad) only ever called her Irene.

Nana's relationships with her children...who always called her "mother" as they called great-grandma "mom"... often brought her heartache. She was very close to her daughter Marylee but was often estranged from her son Larry...his choice...particularly after my mom divorced him. But despite her relationship or lack thereof with Larry, she was always there for all of us and fully involved in our lives. Nana's legacy of loving with her whole heart and finding the joy and adventure in life despite life's obstacles and disappointments are a wonderful example to her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She will be missed.

52 Week Challenge: Question 11

52 Week Challenge: Question 10

Share your memories of your paternal grandparents? Where did they live? How much were they involved in your life?

Kristin:

My paternal grandparents were Kate and Jack McKinnon. I love that the names Kate and Jack are so trendy right now. Who would have thought it? There is even a Kate McKinnon on SNL. How funny! We always called them Grandma and Grandpa McKinnon. We didn't have any cutesy names for them. When I was older and in college I started calling my Grandpa "Pops"...actually I called both of my grandpas that when I was that age. Reilly called my grandpa "Papa McKinnon". When they were being sweet to one another my grandma called my grandpa "Daddy" and when he was being sweet to her he called her "Mother." Both their sons used to affectionately call my grandpa "Pappy" when they were being loving.

My Grandma and Grandpa McKinnon lived out on Geneva Road out toward Utah Lake in Provo, Utah in the area called Vineyard. My Grandpa grew up on a ranch in Randolph, Utah near Bear Lake. He loved where he was from. He grew up with a lot of sisters and only two brothers. His sisters doted on him. He was very beloved his entire life. He met my grandma when she came to Randolph to visit her newlywed sister. Maysell, who had just moved there. They met at a dance. They married in the Salt Lake Temple and moved to Provo where my grandma was from. My grandpa served in the South Pacific during WWII. He had many jobs usually in the construction industry. When I was a kid he worked at Geneva Steel. On days when we didn't have school, we would often go to their house and spend the day. I loved helping my grandma pack his big black metal lunch box that always contained a can of coca-cola and some kind of Hostess cake. He LOVED Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, Snowballs, Cupcakes, and Zingers.

My Grandma was born in Provo and grew up in a big house off of Center Street. She came from a large family of girls. She had one biological brother and then when she was a teenager her parents adopted a son who was the youngest of the family. My grandma always lived fairly close to most of her sisters. They could be a quarrelsome bunch...someone was always mad at someone or not speaking to someone... but they were still a close group and always spent a lot of time together and were always into each other's business.

My grandparents lived on a farm with a bunch of acreage that stretched nearly to Utah Lake. They had all kinds of animals: horses, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, dogs, and cats. We used to love spending time at their house. They had a huge vegetable garden, a big barn, and a bunch of outbuildings. There was also an irrigation ditch that ran through their farm and part of their property line ran parallel to the Provo River. It was so fun to go to their house!! We were the only grandkids and we were spoiled rotten. We always knew that we were loved and adored. My grandparents were active members of the church and they were always hopeful and encouraging that we would go to church some day. I love that I often saw my grandpa kneeling and praying for his family.

My grandpa was very active, super hard-working, and a lot of fun. We loved to follow him around while he did all of his chores on the farm. He also would play with us...especially games in the yard. He would chase us around and make us scream with laughter.  ( I am going to add in the memories that we shared at his funeral. They describe our Grandma and Grandpa McKinnon perfectly.)

Tyler read this at my grandpa's funeral: 

The girls have many fond memories of times spent at their Grandma and Grandpa McKinnon's house. They loved spending time down on the farm with Jack, following him around while he did his chores, helping him with the animals, naming the calves and riding in his old pick-up truck. They used to love playing pioneer on their farm and used to pretend that his old pick-up with the cattle guard was their covered wagon. They would sweep it out and pretend that they were traveling across the plains. 

Jack had a huge garden and used to plant rows and rows of peas and strawberries just for the girls to pick and eat. He was also an amazing flower gardener and grew all kinds of gorgeous flowers. He used to let the girls cut all the flowers that they wanted out of his yard. They would take home huge bouquets of lilacs, snowballs, roses, tulips, and zinnas. 

Another favorite activity with Jack was going to the dump. Jack used to collect scrap metal and then would take it to be weighed and exchanged for cash. The girls used to love to go with him and loved to help him find metal, not to mention all the other treasures they would find, and come home with. One time they came home covered in hives. Kate about had a fit, but they had the time of their lives. Once they found some old cologne in the shape of a golf ball at the dump. They thought that Jack would love it! He swore he loved it and took it home and kept it. He has had it all these years. He even used to bravely wear some when they would come to visit and would ask if he had put any on that day. One the way home, Jack used to take some of the money he got for the metal and would stop at the Texaco on the corner that the girls called "the candy store" and he would buy them all the candy they wanted and 25-cent grab bags.

The girls loved going on adventures in the motor home with Kate and Jack. Kristin, Stacey, and Kelley always wanted to go to Liberty Park in Salt Lake and they never wanted to go in the car. They always wanted to go in the motor home. Kate would make a picnic of the girls favorite foods: Kentucky Fried Chicken, chips, cake, and all the country time lemonade they could drink. Then they would go on all the rides that used to be there. Jack loved scary rides. He loved going to amusement parks. He was always the first one on all the scary rides. His favorite ride at Liberty Park was the Tilt-a-Whirl. He could spin and spin and never get dizzy. Kate only wanted the girls to ride the carousel but Jack would take them on everything. He especially loved to take them all up on the Ferris Wheel. He would tell them to "Yell at Grandma!" and they would wave while he would start rocking the seat back and forth like crazy. Kate would be on the ground screaming and Jack and the girls would laugh and laugh.

Jack had quite a sense of humor and loved to tease Kate. The girls remember playing many wild card and board games with their grandparents. They particularly liked Old Maid and Spoons. Jack used to cheat and slip the girls cards under the table so that Grandma was always the Old Maid. He also used to help the girls cheat at Spoons. They made up all kinds of wild rules and once when Grandma didn't get a spoon the rule was that she had to get up and bray like a donkey. Kate acted disgusted and put out but she could hardly do it because she was laughing so hard.

Jack used to let the girls name all the new calves in the spring. They would check on them and ask about the calves when they called and came to visit. He always told them not to make a pet of them but they never listened. Many times they would be eating a steak or hamburger at their house and Jack would ask, "How do you like that steak?" and then when the girls would answer that it was good, Jack would laugh and say, "Well it should be...You're eating Blackie!!"

The girls loved having sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They got away with murder and they knew it. They could stay up late, watch whatever they wanted on TV, and eat all the cake and ice cream they wanted. 

Another favorite pastime for girls was snooping. They used to love to go through Kate and Jack's drawers, closets, and cupboards. They were sure that they would find a treasure and they always did. Jack used to yell at them and say that they were big snoops but he never stopped them and always made sure that there was plenty of black licorice and doublemint gum for them to find. The girls would go through their closets, dress up in their clothes, and come up with some crazy costumes. They would put on plays and sing and dance. Jack always talked about how much they would make him laugh with their crazy shows. Then after sleeping over they always got to eat one of Grandma's famous country farm breakfasts: hotcakes, eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, orange juice, and chocolate milk. But their favorite thing to eat was mush--just like Grandpa.

The girls loved to play games out on Kate and Jack's big front lawn and Jack was always in the thick of things.  He was right there playing Tag, Red Light/Green Light, Mother May I, Statues, and Wolf Over the River with them. Then they would go in and eat Jack's favorite ice cream: cherry nut.

Jack used to sell night crawlers to fishermen headed to the lake and if the girls were good they could go down into the basement, get into the worm refrigerator, measure out a cup full of worms, and take the money from the customers. Jack always let them keep the money.

The girls have so many wonderful memories: feeding the ducks at Utah Lake, eating at the Coachman and Chuck-a-Rama, going fishing at Strawberry Reservoir, swimming with Grandpa at Bear Lake and at many motel swimming pools, riding horses, and going on vacation with them.

When Kristin was in college at BYU she would come over every Sunday for dinner. Jack could be pretty picky about food. He like his meat and potatoes and dessert every Sunday night was cake and ice cream. Jack loved ice cream. One thing that he absolutely hated was yogurt. Kate loved yogurt especially frozen yogurt. One time she and Kristin decided that they were going to trick Jack. Kate had Kristin go and get a quart of frozen yogurt. They served it to him on Sunday night with his cake and told him that it was ice cream. He ate it all down without complaint. Then they laughingly informed him that it was frozen yogurt that he had been eating. He started gagging, spit out the last bite, and ran for the bathroom.

Jack could be gruff at times. He loved to tease his prissy granddaughters and ask them if they were wearing enough "war paint" (make-up) and if they were done "primping". His favorite term of endearment for them was "snot-nosed brats". He would yell at them to quite bossing him around or fussing over him and to stay out of his stuff, but they always knew how much he loved them.

In the last few months, when Jack was sick, the girls got to spend some special time with him. They had a lot of time to talk with him and share memories. They really got to know him as a person and not just their grandpa. He told them stories about his childhood-- going hunting and fishing with his brothers, neat stories about his mom and dad, and funny times with his sisters. He told them about his service in WWII, his life as a newlywed, stories about raising his family, and what it was like to be a grandparent. He gave them lots of good advice about life.

Jack was always a constant in their lives. Not just a grandpa but also a father figure. He was someone the girls could always depend on. Jack was there whenever they needed him. The girls have said that Jack taught them many things. He gave them an appreciation for animals, a love of the outdoors, and a sense of adventure. He taught them the value of hard work, how to be generous to a fault, how to serve others, and the importance of faith, family, and friends.

Even just last week he was preparing them for his death. He told them that he would not be getting better but not to worry about him. He told them that he had lived a good long life and that he did not have any regrets and was not afraid to die. He said that he was looking forward to a reunion with his loved ones. He told the girls that he was not worried about them because all three of them had turned out "real good". He told them that he loved them and they told him how much they loved him and how much he meant to them. 

Jack was a wonderful grandfather, not just to Kristin, Stacey, and Kelley but also to their other brother and sister, Kirk and Jordin. He was a fantastic and patient great-grandfather to Reilly and he was looking forward to the birth of his great-grandson who is due in November. Jack will be missed every day.

Here are some memories of my Grandma:

My grandma was a girlie-girl. She was the only woman in a house full of men and boy was she excited when she got three granddaughters!! Her favorite color was pink. She loved getting together with her sisters and her girlfriends. She loved make-up, perfume, nail polish, jewelry, and going to get her hair done. She loved going out to eat and going on Sunday drives with my grandpa. She loved to visit people. She always had a big purse full of all kinds of amazing things (that she usually made my grandpa carry) and she always had white Tic Tacs. 

My grandma was a good cook. People always talked about her home cooking. She also loved to decorate her house. Like clockwork every five years she would update her furniture, or get it reupholstered, change her carpet, and drapes. She and her sisters were always trying to out do each other. My grandpa always had his pick-up and my grandma loved cruising around in her Buick or Oldsmobile. (We always called it the Granny Mobile.) They would get a new version of it about every five years as well. It was always maroon. My grandparents would always ask, "What do you think of our new car?!" and we would always joke and say that it looked just like the old one!!

My grandma had a tight group of girlfriends that hung out together for about 50 years. They went to church together, were in bridge club together, were members of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers together, served together, and raised their children together. I knew them all. Wanda, Gertrude, and Dorothy were some of my favorites. Most of them lived off of Geneva Road. They were a gossipy bunch and always knew what was going on with everyone. Wanda was my grandma's very best friend. They had a little code that they used to do. Whenever they drove by each other's house they would double honk. That distinguished them from all the other family members and friends who would drive by and just honk. Too funny.

My grandma LOVED her Bridge club and Canasta club. She loved to be the hostess and would go all out and host a fancy event. She had several sets of pretty tablecloths that she would use and centerpieces for all the tables. She would fix dainty sandwiches, cake, and snacks. There was always punch in a big glass punch bowl and nut cups...filled with peanuts, dinner mints, and m&ms. She used to let me help her fill up all the nut cups...and eat all the leftovers...and I loved it. The color pink was her usual color scheme but she would also do different things for the holidays depending on which month she hosted. She served her food, punch, cake, and snacks on glass luncheon snack sets similar to the ones below but she had several different varieties.

I've sold many sets like these through my business Sisters Creed and I'm still drawn to them. I love them. They are so fun for book club and birthday parties. 

My grandma loved to go on vacation. She and my grandpa always traveled with her sister Zola and Zola's husband Cub. They went all over the U.S. in their motor homes together. Sometimes we got to go with them which was so much fun and we loved to talk on the CB's.

My grandma spoiled us. She always called us her "little sweethearts" even when we were in college. Her house was always stocked with our favorite treats and drinks. Every time we went to visit her we came home with grocery bags full of treats and gifts. She loved Avon and always had a big stash of make-up and perfume for us to get into. She used to save all the little tiny lipsticks samples for us.

We used to get SO EXCITED when she told us that she had a new stash for us!!

My grandma loved jewelry. My grandpa bought her a piece of jewelry for most holidays. She had several awesome jewelry boxes filled to the brim with treasures. Some of her jewels were real and she also had lots of gorgeous costume jewelry. We sell a lot of costume in our business and it always reminds me of her. She used to let us go through all her jewelry boxes and wear whatever we wanted.

When we got older, every year for Christmas, our grandparents would give us a bottle of our favorite perfume and $50. That was THE BEST gift!! My grandparents would go to the ZCMI perfume counter with their list of our favorite perfumes for that year and my Grandma LOVED it!! It was such a special gift because we couldn't afford fancy expensive perfume on our babysitting salaries when we were in junior high and high school and my parents certainly weren't going to buy it for us. It was such a luxury and even when Tyler came along he too got to pick out his favorite designer cologne and got $50. We are totally going to do that for our future granddaughters.

One of my favorite things at my grandparents house was my grandma's pudding drawer. Tyler and I are totally going to have one at our house when we are grandparents. My grandma had a big drawer in her kitchen stocked with every kind of instant pudding you could imagine. Pistachio, butterscotch, chocolate fudge, coconut, banana, french vanilla...all the good ones. The drawer was stocked and whenever we would ask if we could "cook something" we were directed to the drawer. There was also every flavor of jello imaginable in the "pudding drawer" too. For three little girls who never got many sweets at home it was sheer heaven. We made pudding every.single.time. we went. She also always had mini-multi-colored marshmallows, Nilla wafers, chocolate milk (IN A JUG), several flavors of punch (IN A JUG), and always our very favorite chilled country time lemonade (IN A CAN...the way God intended it to be served!!)

We also had a playroom to play in filled with toys and games and a little black and white TV. That was HUGE when we were kids. We pretty much ran wild and our grandparents enjoyed every minute. My mom always said that we were complete nightmares coming home after spending the weekend at their house. I bet!!

My grandma had some specific phrases that she would always say. She never swore (unlike my grandpa--ha ha!!) Instead she would always say, "MY LAW!!" whenever she was annoyed, angry, frustrated, or exasperated. Or the commonly heard..."Laws Jack!!" when my grandpa was bugging her. Ha ha!!

My Grandpa and Grandma McKinnon weren't perfect people but they were amazing grandparents. My mom and grandma rarely saw eye to eye especially after my parents divorce but my mom always kept them a part of our lives and a part of our family. They came to Christmas when we were little and when we were older they came for Thanksgiving year after year. I really appreciated that. They were fun grandparents. Always up for an adventure, trip, or to go eat at a cafe (as my grandma used to say.) They played and played with us...games, shows, performances...you name it and they did it. We always knew that we were loved and adored. I miss them very much.

I am glad that Tyler got to know and love them. They both loved him. There are many things about the way that they grandparented us that Tyler and I want to do with our future grandkids. Being a good grandparent is an art form and they did a pretty spectacular job!!


**If you are wondering where Tyler's post about his grandparents are...I'm still waiting...** :)  But since we are MANY weeks behind on this project I am posting this anyway!!