Yesterday's List (Day 19):
Dear _____, You Can Make Me Happy In The Following Ways...

Dear Tonight's Sleep... (I'm getting ready to go to sleep and I can't think of anything, so sorry! P.S. This list is pretty lame, anyway.)
  • By not being that hot: It's summer already in central Illinois on the first day of spring (surprise surprise) and it's flippin' hot up here. I finally broke down and turned on the air conditioner, even though it's loud. Which brings me to my next point...
  • By not waking me up, even though the air conditioner is really loud when it kicks on.
  • By being super comfy and not causing me to toss and turn as per the norm the past couple of weeks.
Today's List (Day 20):
Favorite Memories

I have a lot of memories; they are some of my favorite things. I am a very reflective person, so memories are important to me. It's hard to pick out specific memories since a lot of mine are just experiences rather than certain moments. I guess that counts, though.
  • Dancing: I danced for about 9 years from age 3-12. I really enjoyed it and often miss it and wish that I would've continued and maybe even pursued it as a career (actually dancing or just teaching). I learned a lot during those years and formed a lifelong love of dance.
  • Playing outside with my brother: I have such good memories of me and brother growing up. We would create games together like throwing a basketball on top of the garage and keeping it up there (sounds fun, huh?!) or making a pile of pillows on Mom and Dad's bed and jumping over it like we were pole-vaulting. We would play PIG and HORSE together and made a very small baseball diamond in our backyard with the bases being the shed, the fence, the swing set, and the huge Vick's gas container. (It's thick metal--no worries here. My dad used/uses it to heat the garage.) My home run was over the fence and Ryan's was past the telephone pole in the neighbor's yard. I will always cherish those memories. We were/are bffs.
  • Color/winter guard: Some of the best times of my life. It's so strange how I came upon guard; it really was meant to be in my life. In 9th grade, I was kind of a loner. The friends I had in junior high were the "popular" girls and I was totally over trying to be cool. I started hanging out with a girl named Stephanie right before sophomore year and she told me she was trying out for color guard in the cafeteria one day after school and I just decided to do it with her. We practiced at her house afterwards, but she never continued to go to practices. I was pretty much alone at these practices, but then I got to know Erin and then I got to know Ashleigh and our little group formed (along with Nicole and Sheila). I feel like I was better at making friends back then or maybe it was just that we automatically had guard in common, so it was just easier. I sometimes wonder who I would've hung out with or how I would've turned out in high school had I not fell in love with guard.
  • All of the traveling I've done: I've been really fortunate to visit quite a few places. I've had some great trips with those that I love but, of course, England stands out. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I will possibly always look back on my time there as the best couple months of my life.
  • Philip proposing: I've detailed the play-by-play of that evening and it will, of course, always be very special to me.

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