Questions about Childhood
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember sitting on the floor and eating pizza while my older sisters where babysitting me because my parents were on a date. (they had weekly date nights where we usually got pizza)
2. How did your parents choose your name?
They got it from a TV show called Family Ties with Michael J. Fox. However, my mom chose to spell it the MOST difficult way possible and no one in my life has ever gotten it right without asking me first. But I don’t mind because it makes me feel unique.
3. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a 3 bedroom house in Mission Viejo. We lived in a cul-de-sac with lots of children and the elementary school was the next block over. I only moved once when I was a Senior in High School and that was only a couple of blocks away.
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
My mom always drove me. By the time I was in fifth grade I could walk to McDonalds with a friend who lived close to it. But that was pretty much it.
5. What are the names of your brothers and sisters, in order? Do you remember how you
felt and what you did when your younger brothers or sisters were born? How about _____?
(Name the next younger child. Go through all the children’s names.)
The only sibling I remember being born was Spencer. I remember making fun of his name when he came home and calling him a “dog” because my grandpa (papa) had a dog named spencer and that was the only time I had heard that name and I thought it was weird that my parents would name my brother after a dog.
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
I remember always trying to tag along with my older siblings Tiffany and Ryan. Most of the neighborhood kids were their age and I would always try to hang out with them. I remember always being jipped out of everything! I remember having a sisters club with my older sister, but when it was FINALLY my turn to run a meeting… they stopped having it! I also remember playing King and Queen where my older siblings would create thrones and I would be the servant and then we were supposed to switch after that, but somehow everyone would be done with the game when it was my turn to be the Queen. I also remember hanging a blanket in the hallway between the doors and making a hammock. I remember playing hide and go seek and my favorite place to hide was in the top part of the closet. I remember going there a lot because I had even written some things on the wall. I don’t know if me and Ryan would go there together or not but for some reason I think we would, or else we would take turns. I also remember babysitting my younger siblings a lot. Every Wednesday night my parents would go on a date and we would ALWAYS get pizza. My favorite was pizza hut and usually that is what we got.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
I was never into Barbie’s but I wasn’t really a Tom-boy either. I remember that when I was in fourth or fifth grade I would play “Spice Girls” and I would be Scary Spice. I also remember having a Happy Days club that me and my friend April Daly made together. I played roller hockey on the street for a little with some of the neighborhood boys. I was pretty good at it and my Dad even bought me a hockey stick. I would spend a lot of time at my friend Nicole Aaronson’s house. She lived by McDonalds and we would walk there a lot and sometimes play in the play place.
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
People called my mal, mally, mallo. Mallo came from Tiffany’s wedding night. Some of us were crammed into a small classroom during the reception (it was at the church building.) We were playing hangman and I tried to write someone’s name on the board (I think it was mine) and I ran out of room and all that was left was “mallo” then we tried it with everyone’s name and they all sounded pretty cool!
The Nickname that I absolutely HATED was “mallorieA diarrheA” They started calling me “mallorieA” because apparently I was a big whiner and so everything I said there was an “A” stressed at the end. Ex. (mooooma) if that makes since….
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
We had a chore everyday. When I was in Kindergarten my chore was mostly doing the bathrooms. That would involve picking up the clothes, cleaning the mirrors and maybe wiping down the counters and taking out the trash. When I was old enough I would put a chair up by the sink and do the dishes but I hated doing them because it I would have to get down from the chair to actually load the dishes in the dishwasher. Other chores included cleaning the living room, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen table and sweeping, and cleaning our bedrooms. As I got a little older some of the jobs were split up, like instead of having to clean the kitchen table and sweep we only had to do clean the table and sweeping was another persons chore. On Saturday's we had two chores (but that never really happened.) I wasn't a fan of doing chores but I am pretty sure that I would do them without too much complaining. I remember sometimes when I did the dishes I would pretend in my mind that I was teaching a class, and that made it a little more fun.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
CHRISTMAS WAS THE BEST EVER!!!! I loooved Christmas! The whole month ahead we would have Christmas decorations and Christmas music going. On Christmas Eve we decorate Christmas cookies for Santa. We would reenact the story of Christ's birth. We would all sleep in the same room and tell stories. We had one specific story that was told every year and is still told. Usually someone would get in a fight right before we were about to get all settled in the room. Then the person would leave and say they aren't sleeping with us, then they would come back eventually. I always had a hard time falling asleep on Christmas eve because I was sooo excited for Santa Clause to come! I would wake up extremely early and usually the older siblings would want to keep sleeping. We would eventually go wake my parents up, and sometimes they would say we have to wait 15 or 20 more minutes. When we went in the living room the whole floor was covered with presents. We each got 3 presents from Santa and they would all be lined up by age. Then we would all sit by our presents and take pictures. I remember Heather and Chanelle hated getting their picture taken because it was really early in the morning. Then from youngest to oldest we would each open a present one by one. I asked for a gumball machine for about 5 years straight! I also remember getting a cotton candy machine! That thing was so awesome! Then we would usually have some small presents wrapped in our stockings and we would open those. Then we would go through and open the rest of the presents under the Christmas tree. The rest of the day was spent putting together new toys and playing with them. We would eat dinner and usually there was a kid table and an adult table.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did
you have?
Birthdays were a lot of fun as well. On our birthday we would get to choose what we got for dinner, most of the time I chose to eat at Chuck E. Cheese's because we would be able to play games. We also got to have a birthday party each year. In kindergarten for my birthday I had Barney come over. We were all with a parachute and somehow he tripped over a sprinkler head and squashed me between a wall. I also remember going to this cool kids play place. Almost every party I had a pinata. My parents were really good at making me feel special on my Birthday.
12. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
My dad baptized me. I am sure that my family and some ward members were there. I have a picture of me and Gammy (my mom's mom) on my baptism day. I remember my favortie part was walking into the baptismal font because the water was warm and my clothes clung to me and it felt really cool.
13. How did you feel about school? What did you do well in school? What did you do poorly?
Which teachers did you like best?
In elementary school I think I was real silly, but a sweetheart as well. I remember in fourth grade I got to be in the advanced class. We did a lot of cool stuff in that class like make our own soda's. Everyone made coca-cola but since I didn't drink caffeine they had me make sprite. I really liked to read and in third grade I think I read every Jack Wayland book. I think my Dad and Chanelle were reading them at the time so I decided to read them.
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?__________________
In third grade my teacher was Mormon and my dad thought it would be funny to ask if I could call her sister George. So I said it to her, but she didn't take it as a joke and explained that it was probably appropriate for me to call her Mrs. George.
I peed my pants about 4 times in kindergarten. One time I decided to go to the bathroom too late (because I was having fun on the field.) One time the bathroom locks weren't working. One time I was to embarrassed to ask to go, and I don't remember the fourth.
I think I was embarrassed that Barney fell on me. It wasn't the fact that he fell on me, it was mostly the fact that they caught in on camera and Chanelle and Heather Tanner would watch it OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Another time, I loved eating jawbreakers and it would always take me a few days to finish it. Well I had lost mine for a little and then I found it on the front porch. I started licking it right away. Then the neighborhood kid came over asking if we had found his jawbreaker. Well, apparently my jawbreaker was in our van and I had started eating his jawbreaker. My family made fun of me for a long time about that.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I lived in the same house until my Senior year of High School we moved a couple of blocks away to the exact same floor plan. We had to move because the landlords decided they wanted to sell the house instead of rent it out.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
I loved going to church dances with my friends. We would go almost every Saturday night. I was very involved in the church and I really enjoyed going to mutual and church activities. I had a little bit of a hard time finding some good group of friends as I transitioned from middle school to high school but I eventually found a really fun group. All of my friends had Disneyland passes and we would usually go there once or twice a week in the summer. We lived about 30 minutes away from Disneyland and we would each take turns driving. We would sometimes go with just five of us and other times we would have a big group of about 15. We created a lot of memories at Disneyland and every time I go there I see something that jogs a memory of when I went in high school. I also used to go to this restaurant called Island’s all the time with my friend Bahar who I called “Beatrice.” We would just order unlimited chips and salsa and then fill up on that. The servers probably hated us but we had a lot of fun doing it. We would also go to the spectrum every once and awhile. It was just a huge outside mall kind of with a movie theatre.
3. What was school like as a teenager? Was there something you were especially good at in school? What school activities did you participate in?
I did not like school at all! For some reason I was extremely shy at school. I wasn’t involved in anything really. One time my freshman year I tried out for vice president ASB. I sang a Spice Girls song and danced on this truck. I was really nervous and when I didn’t win I was pretty embarrassed. But I wasn’t really planning on winning because I was running against a pretty popular girl. My mom would let me miss as much school as I wanted because I still did pretty well in my classes. I would usually miss about one day a week, sometimes more. I mostly got A’s and B’s. I only got one D in my chemistry class and so I took it again and got a B. I didn’t like the people that I went to school with. The majority of students lived in “Coto de Caza” which is an extremely rich gated area. When I was going to high school the show “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” came out and those women lived in that housing complex and their kids went to my high school. Everyone was really stuck up and cared about materialistic things. My family was not rich and we were borderline poor all the time. It was just hard to go to school with people who wore designer clothes and got brand new cars when they turned 16.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
Liked reading a lot. Harry Potter came out during this time and I loved reading those books. I even went sometimes at midnight to get the new books when they came out. I liked watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville and Gilmore Girls. However, I didn’t really watch a lot of TV because my parents turned off our cable so we wouldn't waste so much time watching it. We would usually rent movies.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
I really liked listening to 102.7 kiis fm. That was mostly hop hop and pop. I also liked listening to oldies as well.
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I never went to my high school dance but I went to two of the neighboring high school’s winter formal and prom. The dances were pretty fun. For winter formal, after the dance we went to a place called pump it up. It was a place full off bounce houses and slides and things. That was a lot of fun. The dancing at the school dances was disgusting. It was full body contact, grinding and gross. Hip-hop dancing was also very popular.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
My mom had me babysit and I did chores every once and a while. When I got a job my mom didn’t really have me do any chores any more.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
I had a pretty easy teenage life. Nothing dramatic happened for me.
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
My good friends were :April Daly, Lisa Sanford, Lisa Hoppie, Savannah Sessions, Brandon Herscher, Jeremy Penrod, and Jaron Scrivens.
10. What made you decide on your career or college or your plans for your future? What goals did you have at that time?
I decided to go to BYU – Idaho because my grades were just average and I don’t think I could have gotten into BYU. I never really planned on getting married. I planned getting my BA, going on a mission and then getting my Master’s degree. I just wasn’t really sure what I was going to get my degree in.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
Not really. I wasn’t super boy crazy until college.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ? What memories do you have of Church meetings or activities?
I always had a testimony of the gospel. In high school I knew it was time for me to have my own sturdy foundation of the gospel. I prayed and prayed and prayed and read the book of Mormon hoping for the burning bosom in my chest. However, when I finished reading it nothing happened. I continue to read it again and this time I noticed how much I felt the spirit as I was reading the book. That is probably when I officially got a testimony for myself. Since then I have had numerous accounts of a “burning bosom” experience. As I mentioned before I loved going to church activities.
Questions about Adult Life
1. How and when did you meet _____ (name of spouse)? What was your first impression of him or her? Tell me all about it. What happened then? How did you feel?
I met Brian my 3rd year of college. I was living in Baranessa apartments. Me and my friend Rachael were obsessed with him and his group of friends. We thought they were the funniest people ever. They were best friends with the girls next to our apartment so we would always leave our door open and hope that they would stop by our apartment before they went to their friends. One time we finally lured them in. It was Brian, his friend Matt (we called him Chester because he had a creepy mustache) and his other friend Kyle. We were all laughing and having a fun time but then Brian had to leave to go play basketball. When he left things got boring real fast. After the other guys finally left Rachael and I talked about how cute Brian was and how funny he was and he had the cutest southern accent. She said I could go for him. Then one time for our FHE there was a dessert contest. Brian’s apartment brought a frozen fish! Out apartment got second place and one of their roommates said we could bring the fish home for our prize. Well the next day (or that night) we went over to their apartment and stuck the fish underneath their couch. They didn’t find the fish for a couple weeks and their apartment stunk sooo bad! Anyway… somehow I gave Brian my number. Because I was a big flirt Brian didn’t think I really liked him and my friend Rachael had to convince him to go out with me. On our first date we went kayaking down a river. We were floating for a while and having a really good talk. Then we decided to start heading back but we had to go against the current. We got lost a couple times and it was dark and cold by the time we got back. Brian even made us stop at one time so he could pee in the bushes. If it wasn’t the fact that I was on a date with Brian, the date would have been miserable. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and watched some TV.
2. When were you married? Where were you married? What do you remember about your wedding day?
I was married on December 19 2009 in the San Diego temple. I was really calm on my wedding day and everything went fine. Brian’s pants had a yellow stain on the crotch and we had to return them after the temple. Brian’s parents couldn’t come in the temple but they were really understanding about it and I am so grateful for that. Our sealer said a ton of amazing things but the only thing that I specifically remember is that he went on for a bit about how important it is to be physically intimate. The reception was a lot of fun and beautiful. I loved my centerpieces and all of the decorations. The food looked so beautiful.
3. What was it like to be a newlywed in those days?
I love being a newlywed. We lived in Virginia right after we were married and I got to know Brian’s family a lot better. We moved back to Idaho after about 8 months to finish school. A lot of our friends were recently married and so we hang out with them a lot.
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember sitting on the floor and eating pizza while my older sisters where babysitting me because my parents were on a date. (they had weekly date nights where we usually got pizza)
2. How did your parents choose your name?
They got it from a TV show called Family Ties with Michael J. Fox. However, my mom chose to spell it the MOST difficult way possible and no one in my life has ever gotten it right without asking me first. But I don’t mind because it makes me feel unique.
3. Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a 3 bedroom house in Mission Viejo. We lived in a cul-de-sac with lots of children and the elementary school was the next block over. I only moved once when I was a Senior in High School and that was only a couple of blocks away.
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
My mom always drove me. By the time I was in fifth grade I could walk to McDonalds with a friend who lived close to it. But that was pretty much it.
5. What are the names of your brothers and sisters, in order? Do you remember how you
felt and what you did when your younger brothers or sisters were born? How about _____?
(Name the next younger child. Go through all the children’s names.)
The only sibling I remember being born was Spencer. I remember making fun of his name when he came home and calling him a “dog” because my grandpa (papa) had a dog named spencer and that was the only time I had heard that name and I thought it was weird that my parents would name my brother after a dog.
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
I remember always trying to tag along with my older siblings Tiffany and Ryan. Most of the neighborhood kids were their age and I would always try to hang out with them. I remember always being jipped out of everything! I remember having a sisters club with my older sister, but when it was FINALLY my turn to run a meeting… they stopped having it! I also remember playing King and Queen where my older siblings would create thrones and I would be the servant and then we were supposed to switch after that, but somehow everyone would be done with the game when it was my turn to be the Queen. I also remember hanging a blanket in the hallway between the doors and making a hammock. I remember playing hide and go seek and my favorite place to hide was in the top part of the closet. I remember going there a lot because I had even written some things on the wall. I don’t know if me and Ryan would go there together or not but for some reason I think we would, or else we would take turns. I also remember babysitting my younger siblings a lot. Every Wednesday night my parents would go on a date and we would ALWAYS get pizza. My favorite was pizza hut and usually that is what we got.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
I was never into Barbie’s but I wasn’t really a Tom-boy either. I remember that when I was in fourth or fifth grade I would play “Spice Girls” and I would be Scary Spice. I also remember having a Happy Days club that me and my friend April Daly made together. I played roller hockey on the street for a little with some of the neighborhood boys. I was pretty good at it and my Dad even bought me a hockey stick. I would spend a lot of time at my friend Nicole Aaronson’s house. She lived by McDonalds and we would walk there a lot and sometimes play in the play place.
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
People called my mal, mally, mallo. Mallo came from Tiffany’s wedding night. Some of us were crammed into a small classroom during the reception (it was at the church building.) We were playing hangman and I tried to write someone’s name on the board (I think it was mine) and I ran out of room and all that was left was “mallo” then we tried it with everyone’s name and they all sounded pretty cool!
The Nickname that I absolutely HATED was “mallorieA diarrheA” They started calling me “mallorieA” because apparently I was a big whiner and so everything I said there was an “A” stressed at the end. Ex. (mooooma) if that makes since….
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
We had a chore everyday. When I was in Kindergarten my chore was mostly doing the bathrooms. That would involve picking up the clothes, cleaning the mirrors and maybe wiping down the counters and taking out the trash. When I was old enough I would put a chair up by the sink and do the dishes but I hated doing them because it I would have to get down from the chair to actually load the dishes in the dishwasher. Other chores included cleaning the living room, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen table and sweeping, and cleaning our bedrooms. As I got a little older some of the jobs were split up, like instead of having to clean the kitchen table and sweep we only had to do clean the table and sweeping was another persons chore. On Saturday's we had two chores (but that never really happened.) I wasn't a fan of doing chores but I am pretty sure that I would do them without too much complaining. I remember sometimes when I did the dishes I would pretend in my mind that I was teaching a class, and that made it a little more fun.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
CHRISTMAS WAS THE BEST EVER!!!! I loooved Christmas! The whole month ahead we would have Christmas decorations and Christmas music going. On Christmas Eve we decorate Christmas cookies for Santa. We would reenact the story of Christ's birth. We would all sleep in the same room and tell stories. We had one specific story that was told every year and is still told. Usually someone would get in a fight right before we were about to get all settled in the room. Then the person would leave and say they aren't sleeping with us, then they would come back eventually. I always had a hard time falling asleep on Christmas eve because I was sooo excited for Santa Clause to come! I would wake up extremely early and usually the older siblings would want to keep sleeping. We would eventually go wake my parents up, and sometimes they would say we have to wait 15 or 20 more minutes. When we went in the living room the whole floor was covered with presents. We each got 3 presents from Santa and they would all be lined up by age. Then we would all sit by our presents and take pictures. I remember Heather and Chanelle hated getting their picture taken because it was really early in the morning. Then from youngest to oldest we would each open a present one by one. I asked for a gumball machine for about 5 years straight! I also remember getting a cotton candy machine! That thing was so awesome! Then we would usually have some small presents wrapped in our stockings and we would open those. Then we would go through and open the rest of the presents under the Christmas tree. The rest of the day was spent putting together new toys and playing with them. We would eat dinner and usually there was a kid table and an adult table.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did
you have?
Birthdays were a lot of fun as well. On our birthday we would get to choose what we got for dinner, most of the time I chose to eat at Chuck E. Cheese's because we would be able to play games. We also got to have a birthday party each year. In kindergarten for my birthday I had Barney come over. We were all with a parachute and somehow he tripped over a sprinkler head and squashed me between a wall. I also remember going to this cool kids play place. Almost every party I had a pinata. My parents were really good at making me feel special on my Birthday.
12. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
My dad baptized me. I am sure that my family and some ward members were there. I have a picture of me and Gammy (my mom's mom) on my baptism day. I remember my favortie part was walking into the baptismal font because the water was warm and my clothes clung to me and it felt really cool.
13. How did you feel about school? What did you do well in school? What did you do poorly?
Which teachers did you like best?
In elementary school I think I was real silly, but a sweetheart as well. I remember in fourth grade I got to be in the advanced class. We did a lot of cool stuff in that class like make our own soda's. Everyone made coca-cola but since I didn't drink caffeine they had me make sprite. I really liked to read and in third grade I think I read every Jack Wayland book. I think my Dad and Chanelle were reading them at the time so I decided to read them.
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?__________________
In third grade my teacher was Mormon and my dad thought it would be funny to ask if I could call her sister George. So I said it to her, but she didn't take it as a joke and explained that it was probably appropriate for me to call her Mrs. George.
I peed my pants about 4 times in kindergarten. One time I decided to go to the bathroom too late (because I was having fun on the field.) One time the bathroom locks weren't working. One time I was to embarrassed to ask to go, and I don't remember the fourth.
I think I was embarrassed that Barney fell on me. It wasn't the fact that he fell on me, it was mostly the fact that they caught in on camera and Chanelle and Heather Tanner would watch it OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Another time, I loved eating jawbreakers and it would always take me a few days to finish it. Well I had lost mine for a little and then I found it on the front porch. I started licking it right away. Then the neighborhood kid came over asking if we had found his jawbreaker. Well, apparently my jawbreaker was in our van and I had started eating his jawbreaker. My family made fun of me for a long time about that.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I lived in the same house until my Senior year of High School we moved a couple of blocks away to the exact same floor plan. We had to move because the landlords decided they wanted to sell the house instead of rent it out.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
I loved going to church dances with my friends. We would go almost every Saturday night. I was very involved in the church and I really enjoyed going to mutual and church activities. I had a little bit of a hard time finding some good group of friends as I transitioned from middle school to high school but I eventually found a really fun group. All of my friends had Disneyland passes and we would usually go there once or twice a week in the summer. We lived about 30 minutes away from Disneyland and we would each take turns driving. We would sometimes go with just five of us and other times we would have a big group of about 15. We created a lot of memories at Disneyland and every time I go there I see something that jogs a memory of when I went in high school. I also used to go to this restaurant called Island’s all the time with my friend Bahar who I called “Beatrice.” We would just order unlimited chips and salsa and then fill up on that. The servers probably hated us but we had a lot of fun doing it. We would also go to the spectrum every once and awhile. It was just a huge outside mall kind of with a movie theatre.
3. What was school like as a teenager? Was there something you were especially good at in school? What school activities did you participate in?
I did not like school at all! For some reason I was extremely shy at school. I wasn’t involved in anything really. One time my freshman year I tried out for vice president ASB. I sang a Spice Girls song and danced on this truck. I was really nervous and when I didn’t win I was pretty embarrassed. But I wasn’t really planning on winning because I was running against a pretty popular girl. My mom would let me miss as much school as I wanted because I still did pretty well in my classes. I would usually miss about one day a week, sometimes more. I mostly got A’s and B’s. I only got one D in my chemistry class and so I took it again and got a B. I didn’t like the people that I went to school with. The majority of students lived in “Coto de Caza” which is an extremely rich gated area. When I was going to high school the show “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” came out and those women lived in that housing complex and their kids went to my high school. Everyone was really stuck up and cared about materialistic things. My family was not rich and we were borderline poor all the time. It was just hard to go to school with people who wore designer clothes and got brand new cars when they turned 16.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
Liked reading a lot. Harry Potter came out during this time and I loved reading those books. I even went sometimes at midnight to get the new books when they came out. I liked watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Smallville and Gilmore Girls. However, I didn’t really watch a lot of TV because my parents turned off our cable so we wouldn't waste so much time watching it. We would usually rent movies.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
I really liked listening to 102.7 kiis fm. That was mostly hop hop and pop. I also liked listening to oldies as well.
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I never went to my high school dance but I went to two of the neighboring high school’s winter formal and prom. The dances were pretty fun. For winter formal, after the dance we went to a place called pump it up. It was a place full off bounce houses and slides and things. That was a lot of fun. The dancing at the school dances was disgusting. It was full body contact, grinding and gross. Hip-hop dancing was also very popular.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
My mom had me babysit and I did chores every once and a while. When I got a job my mom didn’t really have me do any chores any more.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
I had a pretty easy teenage life. Nothing dramatic happened for me.
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
My good friends were :April Daly, Lisa Sanford, Lisa Hoppie, Savannah Sessions, Brandon Herscher, Jeremy Penrod, and Jaron Scrivens.
10. What made you decide on your career or college or your plans for your future? What goals did you have at that time?
I decided to go to BYU – Idaho because my grades were just average and I don’t think I could have gotten into BYU. I never really planned on getting married. I planned getting my BA, going on a mission and then getting my Master’s degree. I just wasn’t really sure what I was going to get my degree in.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
Not really. I wasn’t super boy crazy until college.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ? What memories do you have of Church meetings or activities?
I always had a testimony of the gospel. In high school I knew it was time for me to have my own sturdy foundation of the gospel. I prayed and prayed and prayed and read the book of Mormon hoping for the burning bosom in my chest. However, when I finished reading it nothing happened. I continue to read it again and this time I noticed how much I felt the spirit as I was reading the book. That is probably when I officially got a testimony for myself. Since then I have had numerous accounts of a “burning bosom” experience. As I mentioned before I loved going to church activities.
Questions about Adult Life
1. How and when did you meet _____ (name of spouse)? What was your first impression of him or her? Tell me all about it. What happened then? How did you feel?
I met Brian my 3rd year of college. I was living in Baranessa apartments. Me and my friend Rachael were obsessed with him and his group of friends. We thought they were the funniest people ever. They were best friends with the girls next to our apartment so we would always leave our door open and hope that they would stop by our apartment before they went to their friends. One time we finally lured them in. It was Brian, his friend Matt (we called him Chester because he had a creepy mustache) and his other friend Kyle. We were all laughing and having a fun time but then Brian had to leave to go play basketball. When he left things got boring real fast. After the other guys finally left Rachael and I talked about how cute Brian was and how funny he was and he had the cutest southern accent. She said I could go for him. Then one time for our FHE there was a dessert contest. Brian’s apartment brought a frozen fish! Out apartment got second place and one of their roommates said we could bring the fish home for our prize. Well the next day (or that night) we went over to their apartment and stuck the fish underneath their couch. They didn’t find the fish for a couple weeks and their apartment stunk sooo bad! Anyway… somehow I gave Brian my number. Because I was a big flirt Brian didn’t think I really liked him and my friend Rachael had to convince him to go out with me. On our first date we went kayaking down a river. We were floating for a while and having a really good talk. Then we decided to start heading back but we had to go against the current. We got lost a couple times and it was dark and cold by the time we got back. Brian even made us stop at one time so he could pee in the bushes. If it wasn’t the fact that I was on a date with Brian, the date would have been miserable. Afterwards we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner and watched some TV.
2. When were you married? Where were you married? What do you remember about your wedding day?
I was married on December 19 2009 in the San Diego temple. I was really calm on my wedding day and everything went fine. Brian’s pants had a yellow stain on the crotch and we had to return them after the temple. Brian’s parents couldn’t come in the temple but they were really understanding about it and I am so grateful for that. Our sealer said a ton of amazing things but the only thing that I specifically remember is that he went on for a bit about how important it is to be physically intimate. The reception was a lot of fun and beautiful. I loved my centerpieces and all of the decorations. The food looked so beautiful.
3. What was it like to be a newlywed in those days?
I love being a newlywed. We lived in Virginia right after we were married and I got to know Brian’s family a lot better. We moved back to Idaho after about 8 months to finish school. A lot of our friends were recently married and so we hang out with them a lot.