Questions about Childhood
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember when I was 5 or 6 I think and I sang "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" for a solo in sacrament meeting. I remember walking up to sing it, but I don't remember being nervous or anything.
2. How did your parents choose your name?
Apparently my parents really liked the name because my oldest sister is Chanelle Tiffany, and then my parents named me Tiffany. It is a little annoying to have a used name, but I still like it.
3. Where did you grow up?
On a fun cul-de-sac in Mission Viejo, California. It was called Via Fiesta, and we did have a lot of parties, thanks mostly to my mom. There were a lot or families, probably because we were right next to the elementary school. We had block parties for all seasons.
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
The first car I remember was a station wagon. When we got too big for the car, two kids would "double buckle" in the back, meaning we would share a seat belt. I rode in a carseat until I was "4 year or 40 pounds," as was the law back then. I was a skinny little girl and it felt like forever before I could get out. The car seat was a hard plastic seat with a thick plastic lap bar that lifted to get in and out. The family upgraded to our first 12 passanger van when I was at a sleepover birthday party, I was probably around 9 or 10 years old. I remember it looked so nice and clean when my mom came to pick me up.
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.)
Chanelle is the oldeset, then Heather. Heather and I were pretty close (20 months apart) so we played together a lot. Then comes me.
Ryan was my first younger sibling, but I was too little to remember him being born.
Mallorie was next, and I think I remember Aunt Tammy coming to stay with us and taking us to see a PG-13 movies (3 Men and a Baby). My mom did not approve. I'm not sure if this was with Mallorie or Ryan but I remember getting to go to McDonalds. I loved going to the hospital to visit my mom and getting the hold the new baby, with a pillow on my lap of course.
Kristen and Ariel were twins. Ariel still born and Kristen only lived two days. I remember my mom having to go to the hosptial for a while and being disappointed that I never got to see the babies except in pictures.
Chase was probably the first one I really remember visiting at the hospital. I remember feeling very big and thinking I was old enough to hold without a pillow. Chase had a diaper bag that said "baby" but the top of the "a" unraveled so it said, "buby" and that's what we called him.
When Spencer was born I did not approve of his name because I thought it was a nerdy name. Also, at the hospital, I remember Dad saying his ears stuck out like Spencer W. Kimball.
I was old enough to really help out with Sierra. I was excited that there was going to be another baby girl to dress up.
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
Heather was usually the boss and decided what we were going to do. She would organize plays that we would put on in the garage for the neighbors. She was usually the lead. We would set up chairs on the driveway and go and invite all the neighbors. It was a great neighborhood and lots of people came to watch.
One time Chanelle organized a "sisters club" for her, Heather, and me. She even made stationary with three little girls on it. I don't know what we really did beside sit in the second level of the playhouse (a really cool 3 level playhouse we inherited from the neighbors when they moved) and plan. When Mallorie was older it seems like we did it again, or maybe I am remembering one time as two...
Heather, Ryan and I used to play "shipwreck" with the neighbor kids. The game was basically "house" except we were shipwrecked somewhere.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
I played with the neighbors (Meghann and Ashely Carlisle). Ashley and I would play all sorts of make-believe games. We would also play Sonic and Tiny Toon Adventures on her Sega Genesis (video games). I liked to make things
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
When I was little I was Tigger to my family, because I was so bouncy.
My Dad and Meghann and Ashley, my neighborhood friends, called me Tiffers, and still do. I don't know why...
There were the normal variations of my name, Tiff, Tiffy
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
We had to do a chore everyday before we could go play (supposedly 2 on Saturday but that rarely happened). Normal chores could be cleaning the living room, which including floor, end tables, hall and vacuuming, even the edges; folding and putting away laundry; dishes, which included putting away the ones in the dishwasher, loading and starting the dishwasher, and wiping the area around the sink down; kitchen, which included wiping the tables, taking out the trash and sweeping; or bathroom, which included mirrors and taking out the trash. Sometimes we would have other assignments (car, backyard, babysitting, mopping) but those were the main ones. I remember on Saturday mornings I liked to go over to Ashley's house early, so I would wake my mom up to ask what chore I had to do. It was a good way to go because she hadn't looked around and didn't know what really needed to be done so sometimes I got off easy. I know I complained about chores, but I also knew that we just had to do them before we could play.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
Christmas was magical. All us siblings would sleep in one room together and then after Santa came, we would sneak out to get a look at Christmas in the magical glow of the Christmas tree. The presents would be arranged beautifully with a separate pile for each child (the row of presents got pretty long). Candy canes would be hung on the tree and our stocking would be full. In the morning, before we could start opening presents, we would each have to have our picture by our presents. And we couldn't wake up our parents until a pre-arranged time. We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always new pajamas. We would get one big present from our parents and 3ish presents from Santa; one big and 2 smaller, plus little things in our stocking. After all the presents were opened Mom would make a big breakfast with pancakes, eggs, sausage, and my favorite, bacon. When I was younger, we took turns eating dinner at the different grandparents houses every other year.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did you have?Mom would always throw great parties for us growing up. The house would be decorated with balloons and streamers. Mom was really good at twisting the streamers just right. They are what really made it look like a birthday party. I can't think of any birthday traditions, except maybe that the birthday kid got to choose what they wanted my mom to make for dinner. And of course we would have cake and ice cream and sing Happy Birthday to You.
12. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
I was baptized by my dad when I was 8. It was a stake baptism and there was another girl in the ward that was also getting baptized. The only person I really remember being there was my piano teacher, Kendra Campbell. I don't know why that stands out in my mind. I know my family was there, too.
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?
I loved school. I was a teacher's pet. I always did extra credit and helped out in the teachers classrooms. I loved doing extra work (in elementary school at least). I did everything well in school, which was probably why I liked it. Ok, well, since the next part is what did you do poorly, I guess I'll say, sports. I was never, and am still not, so coordinated. I really like my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Dennison, because I could tell she believed in me. She let me work ahead and be excused from class for student coucil and other extra things I did. All my teachers were pretty great, I just probably remember her the best. Mrs. Smith (5th grade) was good too.
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
Hmm...nothing stands out. We would go "exploring" on the hill in our backyard that was kind of wilderness like. We would always try-out for the talent show in elementary school. We performed "I won't grow up" from Peter Pan, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins, and I'm A Nut, dressed like acorns. There were probably more but that is all I can think of.
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?
This is so silly, but for so long I thought it was extremely embarrassing. I was in PRESCHOOL, so you can tell it really stuck with me. I was sitting with my knees inside my shirt, up against my chest. A little boy in my class when up to the teacher and said something about me being pregnant or having a baby in my tummy. I never put my knees in my shirt again. I didn't care to much what people thought about me and as a result probably have a lot of experiences that should have been embarrassing but weren't. There is one that looking back was pretty bad. At the 6th grade dance they had was all sitting down and said they were going to do a slow song or something like that. They said they would give a prize to the first couples dancing. So I hopped up and went to Kyle Sherman, who was in our ward, to ask him to dance, because I wanted a prize. Well, I kinda flicked my bright green (also glow-in-the-dark) retainer out of my mouth and right at him when I was asking. He didn't want to dance, by the way.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I lived on Via Fiesta in Mission Viejo, California. It was a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom, 1300 sq ft house and we had a lot of people living there. When I was 14 there would have been 10 of us including parents, but only when Chanelle was home from college. After Chanelle moved out, Heather and I shared her old room, Sierra slept with the parents, and the rest of the siblings had 2 bunkbeds in the other room. I don't remember it being a struggle or anything that it was small, that was just the way it was and it was fine. When Heather left for college I even had my own room for 2 years. Heather was into rainbows when we got our room, so we painted a mural across the walls of a sky with a huge rainbow and stars and clouds. We got the paint from neighbors leftovers. We had a huge backyard to play in, along with a hill area and side yards. In the summer we would get a snap-set pool. When I was a teenager I would go layout in it to get a tan. In the garage, Ryan had built a kind of room out of a tarp and put couches in there. He had a full size arcade game in there and Heather had a neon rainbow sign that was in there. It also had a small sized pool table in the middle. That was a good place to hang out with friends sometimes. Of course, when I had my own room, that we even better.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
Probably dating?? Or going to dances. We would go to all the stake dances before I could date. The first Saturday of the month was the Irvine dance. The was where I had my first kiss (that I count). I was huge. There were probably about as many members of the church there as was there were non-members. I would always bring my non-member friends and they were happy to come. Ashley (my bestfriend) and I had all the techniques down to get a boy to ask us to dance on a slow song, or, if we didn't want to dance, how to avoid getting asked.
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?
By highschool I was over the teachers pet part of my life. The classes were harder since I was in advanced classes and I actually had to work at them and study, sometimes. I think something I was especially good at was procrastination. My English teach even gave me the "Best Excuses" award one year. I think I was pretty good at writing, though. I always did pretty good on my essays. Freshman and Sophomore year I was involved in choir and drama. I was in the all-girls audition only choir called "Tapestry." I loved singing and we did some fun extra things. We would go on "tour" every year and take a little trip somewhere for a week. One year we went to San Francisco and another year we went on a Mexican cruise. Drama was probably more about what Heather wanted me to do, but I liked it enough. I was on the "house crew" for all the plays, which basically means you set up chairs, sell tickets and concessions, and clean up. But I got to hang out with everyone and go to the after parties. It was fun. Sophomore year I was in the fall play, David and Lisa. I was an extra, but we all got to choose some mental disease and write a monologue about it that we would perform during scene changes. I chose paranoid schizophrenic, because it sounded coolest, but basically my character heard voices that made her scared all the time. Being an extra was actually hard work because I was in a lot of scenes and had to be at a lot of practices. I was never in drama class because at first it didn't fit in my schedule. That is actually why I didn't continue in choir either. Tapestry was 2nd period and this class I wanted to take called "American Cultures" was 2nd and 4th period. I tried out for the top level choir which was 3rd period but didn't make it, so that was the end of that. American Cultures was really fun. It was American Lit and American History combined. We would all meet together for class presentations on whatever we were studying at the time, then split up for English and History. We had parties and service projects. We all got to know each other pretty well. At the end of junior year I went our for student government. I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting ASB secretary because it was a smaller position and I knew kids in every grade. I was in 2 classes that had lots of freshman (health and aerobics) just because I hadn't had room for them in my schedule earlier but had to take them to graduate. I got it and had so much fun doing that senior year. I loved being involved in everything, getting to help make big decisions, and got to go behind the scenes of the school.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
My favorite book was Lightning by Dean Koontz. I liked his books. I kind of read what they made us read in school, but usually not all of it. I could get by with class discussions and sparks notes online. I listened to Star 98.7 which was 80's and 90's music. And the show I really liked to watch was Gilmore Girls. It was a drama about a mom (who had her baby at 16) and her teenage daughter. I would hurry home from young women's to watch it because back then you had to watch shows when they were on. The series ended after I was married and my husband and I finished it together. My family was really into Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That was a sitcom about a girl that found out she was a witch and had to learn to use her powers. It was really cheezy but fun to watch.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
There was screaming type music some people listened to, and rap, white guys rapping like Eminem. But there was also hip hop music that was good for dancing and songs too. I listened to what was on the radio. I wasn't super into music.
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I loved going to school dancing. We had a DJ and everyone would just dance in the middle of the room with people hanging out around the edges. We had after football game dances and the homecoming dance at the school, but for the fancier dances (winter formal and prom) we would go to a cool location like The Queen Mary cruise ship, or golf clubs, etc. People would go in limos. The girls would wear formal dresses and the boys would wear matching tuxedos. The dancing was bad, though. For slow songs you just kind of hugged and walked in a circle. For fast songs we just jumped around. But then there was also "freaking" which was pretty much bumping and grinding.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
I don't think I had to do to much at home after I got a job. I probably had to babysit sometimes. It was my responsibility to keep my room clean if I wanted to. I also had to drive Ryan to school and seminary when he was going.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
My best friends Junior year of high school were Sommer, Tina, Eric, and Sam. We would hang out pretty much every weekend. We would go to each others houses, drive around, go to water polo parties (Eric played water polo). I was fun just being with them. When I think of high school they are the friends I associate with it. Ashley Carlisle was still my friend and we would still hang out a lot too. We would go to the Irvine Spectrum (outdoor mall) with our friend Jessica and usually meet boys there.
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 knew I wanted to go to a church school because I figured I would meet the guy I would marry in college. I also figured I had a better chance of meeting the right type of guy and making the right choices at a church school. I only applied to BYU, BYU-Idaho, and BYU-Hawaii. I thought I wanted to go to Hawaii the most, but then I actually got into that school, which I didn't think was much of a possibility. I started looking into it. It only had 2000 students, less than half as many students as were in my high school! I was also really far and would cost a lot to travel. And I just felt like I should go to BYU-Idaho, so that is where I went. Everyone thought I was crazy. As for goals, knew I wanted to get married in the temple, but I wanted to wait a while. I was planning on majoring in Journalism and being a writer.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ? What memories do you have of
Church meetings or activities?
I think I always had a testimony of the church, but what stands out is when I was 12. The youth in the ward did a summer reading challenge. We were supposed to read the whole Book of Mormon before the summer was over. I did it and I remember sharing my testimony at the fireside at the end. Ashley Carlisle was also recently baptized at the time. I loved when we had firesides on Sunday evening because then I got to go hang out with my church friends on Sunday. We usually had them at the bishop's house and afterwards had refreshments and just all stayed and talked for a while. I remember being bored in Sunday school because the lessons were always the same. The teacher would do the attention activity and within the first sentence we would know what the whole lesson was supposed to be about and how it was going to go. Some of the teacher were really good and used a lot of personal stories. Those were the best lessons.
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? Travis and I met at a training retreat to be leaders for new student orientation at BYU-Idaho, in the fall of 2002. I thought he was good looking. We hung out a lot at the training and started dating soon after.
2. When were you married? Where were you married? What do you remember about your
wedding day? We were married in the San Diego, California Temple on December 20, 2003. It was a long but fun day. We had only a few people at the temple with us but lot of friend from high school at the reception. I let Travis sit with his brother and friend too each while I visited everyone.
3. What was it like to be a newlywed in those days? We had to learn to cook. We ate out and ate a lot of frozen foods. But we both had jobs so we weren't too bad off financially.
4. What memorable or humorous adventures did you have?
5. What was it like to become a parent? How did you feel? I was nervous when I was first pregnant but then got used to the idea. When Jade was born it was hard to balance my needs with the needs of a new baby. I lost a lot of sleep.
6. During your adult years, where have you lived? Why did you move there? We lived in Rexburg, Idaho while we attended BYU-Idaho. We moved to Travis's parents house in Pleasant View, UT after I graduated from college. Travis was going to finish school at Weber State. We bought our own home in Ogden, UT in 2007 and lived there for 4 years. We are now moving to Gilbert, AZ where Travis is transferring for work.
8. What talents did you discover in yourself as you grew up? Tell me about all the things
you learned to do. Planning events (Banquets for MOMS Club, family reunions, birthday parties)Healthy cooking, using fresh produce
11. What was the greatest accomplishment or joy you have had in life? What others do
you remember? Everyone is probably going to say this, but I have to say my kids. It's makes you feel so special when they learn something you taught them. Or learn more than you taught them by figuring things out for themselves.
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember when I was 5 or 6 I think and I sang "I'm Trying to be Like Jesus" for a solo in sacrament meeting. I remember walking up to sing it, but I don't remember being nervous or anything.
2. How did your parents choose your name?
Apparently my parents really liked the name because my oldest sister is Chanelle Tiffany, and then my parents named me Tiffany. It is a little annoying to have a used name, but I still like it.
3. Where did you grow up?
On a fun cul-de-sac in Mission Viejo, California. It was called Via Fiesta, and we did have a lot of parties, thanks mostly to my mom. There were a lot or families, probably because we were right next to the elementary school. We had block parties for all seasons.
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
The first car I remember was a station wagon. When we got too big for the car, two kids would "double buckle" in the back, meaning we would share a seat belt. I rode in a carseat until I was "4 year or 40 pounds," as was the law back then. I was a skinny little girl and it felt like forever before I could get out. The car seat was a hard plastic seat with a thick plastic lap bar that lifted to get in and out. The family upgraded to our first 12 passanger van when I was at a sleepover birthday party, I was probably around 9 or 10 years old. I remember it looked so nice and clean when my mom came to pick me up.
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.)
Chanelle is the oldeset, then Heather. Heather and I were pretty close (20 months apart) so we played together a lot. Then comes me.
Ryan was my first younger sibling, but I was too little to remember him being born.
Mallorie was next, and I think I remember Aunt Tammy coming to stay with us and taking us to see a PG-13 movies (3 Men and a Baby). My mom did not approve. I'm not sure if this was with Mallorie or Ryan but I remember getting to go to McDonalds. I loved going to the hospital to visit my mom and getting the hold the new baby, with a pillow on my lap of course.
Kristen and Ariel were twins. Ariel still born and Kristen only lived two days. I remember my mom having to go to the hosptial for a while and being disappointed that I never got to see the babies except in pictures.
Chase was probably the first one I really remember visiting at the hospital. I remember feeling very big and thinking I was old enough to hold without a pillow. Chase had a diaper bag that said "baby" but the top of the "a" unraveled so it said, "buby" and that's what we called him.
When Spencer was born I did not approve of his name because I thought it was a nerdy name. Also, at the hospital, I remember Dad saying his ears stuck out like Spencer W. Kimball.
I was old enough to really help out with Sierra. I was excited that there was going to be another baby girl to dress up.
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
Heather was usually the boss and decided what we were going to do. She would organize plays that we would put on in the garage for the neighbors. She was usually the lead. We would set up chairs on the driveway and go and invite all the neighbors. It was a great neighborhood and lots of people came to watch.
One time Chanelle organized a "sisters club" for her, Heather, and me. She even made stationary with three little girls on it. I don't know what we really did beside sit in the second level of the playhouse (a really cool 3 level playhouse we inherited from the neighbors when they moved) and plan. When Mallorie was older it seems like we did it again, or maybe I am remembering one time as two...
Heather, Ryan and I used to play "shipwreck" with the neighbor kids. The game was basically "house" except we were shipwrecked somewhere.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
I played with the neighbors (Meghann and Ashely Carlisle). Ashley and I would play all sorts of make-believe games. We would also play Sonic and Tiny Toon Adventures on her Sega Genesis (video games). I liked to make things
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
When I was little I was Tigger to my family, because I was so bouncy.
My Dad and Meghann and Ashley, my neighborhood friends, called me Tiffers, and still do. I don't know why...
There were the normal variations of my name, Tiff, Tiffy
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
We had to do a chore everyday before we could go play (supposedly 2 on Saturday but that rarely happened). Normal chores could be cleaning the living room, which including floor, end tables, hall and vacuuming, even the edges; folding and putting away laundry; dishes, which included putting away the ones in the dishwasher, loading and starting the dishwasher, and wiping the area around the sink down; kitchen, which included wiping the tables, taking out the trash and sweeping; or bathroom, which included mirrors and taking out the trash. Sometimes we would have other assignments (car, backyard, babysitting, mopping) but those were the main ones. I remember on Saturday mornings I liked to go over to Ashley's house early, so I would wake my mom up to ask what chore I had to do. It was a good way to go because she hadn't looked around and didn't know what really needed to be done so sometimes I got off easy. I know I complained about chores, but I also knew that we just had to do them before we could play.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
Christmas was magical. All us siblings would sleep in one room together and then after Santa came, we would sneak out to get a look at Christmas in the magical glow of the Christmas tree. The presents would be arranged beautifully with a separate pile for each child (the row of presents got pretty long). Candy canes would be hung on the tree and our stocking would be full. In the morning, before we could start opening presents, we would each have to have our picture by our presents. And we couldn't wake up our parents until a pre-arranged time. We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve and it was always new pajamas. We would get one big present from our parents and 3ish presents from Santa; one big and 2 smaller, plus little things in our stocking. After all the presents were opened Mom would make a big breakfast with pancakes, eggs, sausage, and my favorite, bacon. When I was younger, we took turns eating dinner at the different grandparents houses every other year.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did you have?Mom would always throw great parties for us growing up. The house would be decorated with balloons and streamers. Mom was really good at twisting the streamers just right. They are what really made it look like a birthday party. I can't think of any birthday traditions, except maybe that the birthday kid got to choose what they wanted my mom to make for dinner. And of course we would have cake and ice cream and sing Happy Birthday to You.
12. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
I was baptized by my dad when I was 8. It was a stake baptism and there was another girl in the ward that was also getting baptized. The only person I really remember being there was my piano teacher, Kendra Campbell. I don't know why that stands out in my mind. I know my family was there, too.
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?
I loved school. I was a teacher's pet. I always did extra credit and helped out in the teachers classrooms. I loved doing extra work (in elementary school at least). I did everything well in school, which was probably why I liked it. Ok, well, since the next part is what did you do poorly, I guess I'll say, sports. I was never, and am still not, so coordinated. I really like my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Dennison, because I could tell she believed in me. She let me work ahead and be excused from class for student coucil and other extra things I did. All my teachers were pretty great, I just probably remember her the best. Mrs. Smith (5th grade) was good too.
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
Hmm...nothing stands out. We would go "exploring" on the hill in our backyard that was kind of wilderness like. We would always try-out for the talent show in elementary school. We performed "I won't grow up" from Peter Pan, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins, and I'm A Nut, dressed like acorns. There were probably more but that is all I can think of.
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?
This is so silly, but for so long I thought it was extremely embarrassing. I was in PRESCHOOL, so you can tell it really stuck with me. I was sitting with my knees inside my shirt, up against my chest. A little boy in my class when up to the teacher and said something about me being pregnant or having a baby in my tummy. I never put my knees in my shirt again. I didn't care to much what people thought about me and as a result probably have a lot of experiences that should have been embarrassing but weren't. There is one that looking back was pretty bad. At the 6th grade dance they had was all sitting down and said they were going to do a slow song or something like that. They said they would give a prize to the first couples dancing. So I hopped up and went to Kyle Sherman, who was in our ward, to ask him to dance, because I wanted a prize. Well, I kinda flicked my bright green (also glow-in-the-dark) retainer out of my mouth and right at him when I was asking. He didn't want to dance, by the way.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I lived on Via Fiesta in Mission Viejo, California. It was a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom, 1300 sq ft house and we had a lot of people living there. When I was 14 there would have been 10 of us including parents, but only when Chanelle was home from college. After Chanelle moved out, Heather and I shared her old room, Sierra slept with the parents, and the rest of the siblings had 2 bunkbeds in the other room. I don't remember it being a struggle or anything that it was small, that was just the way it was and it was fine. When Heather left for college I even had my own room for 2 years. Heather was into rainbows when we got our room, so we painted a mural across the walls of a sky with a huge rainbow and stars and clouds. We got the paint from neighbors leftovers. We had a huge backyard to play in, along with a hill area and side yards. In the summer we would get a snap-set pool. When I was a teenager I would go layout in it to get a tan. In the garage, Ryan had built a kind of room out of a tarp and put couches in there. He had a full size arcade game in there and Heather had a neon rainbow sign that was in there. It also had a small sized pool table in the middle. That was a good place to hang out with friends sometimes. Of course, when I had my own room, that we even better.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
Probably dating?? Or going to dances. We would go to all the stake dances before I could date. The first Saturday of the month was the Irvine dance. The was where I had my first kiss (that I count). I was huge. There were probably about as many members of the church there as was there were non-members. I would always bring my non-member friends and they were happy to come. Ashley (my bestfriend) and I had all the techniques down to get a boy to ask us to dance on a slow song, or, if we didn't want to dance, how to avoid getting asked.
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?
By highschool I was over the teachers pet part of my life. The classes were harder since I was in advanced classes and I actually had to work at them and study, sometimes. I think something I was especially good at was procrastination. My English teach even gave me the "Best Excuses" award one year. I think I was pretty good at writing, though. I always did pretty good on my essays. Freshman and Sophomore year I was involved in choir and drama. I was in the all-girls audition only choir called "Tapestry." I loved singing and we did some fun extra things. We would go on "tour" every year and take a little trip somewhere for a week. One year we went to San Francisco and another year we went on a Mexican cruise. Drama was probably more about what Heather wanted me to do, but I liked it enough. I was on the "house crew" for all the plays, which basically means you set up chairs, sell tickets and concessions, and clean up. But I got to hang out with everyone and go to the after parties. It was fun. Sophomore year I was in the fall play, David and Lisa. I was an extra, but we all got to choose some mental disease and write a monologue about it that we would perform during scene changes. I chose paranoid schizophrenic, because it sounded coolest, but basically my character heard voices that made her scared all the time. Being an extra was actually hard work because I was in a lot of scenes and had to be at a lot of practices. I was never in drama class because at first it didn't fit in my schedule. That is actually why I didn't continue in choir either. Tapestry was 2nd period and this class I wanted to take called "American Cultures" was 2nd and 4th period. I tried out for the top level choir which was 3rd period but didn't make it, so that was the end of that. American Cultures was really fun. It was American Lit and American History combined. We would all meet together for class presentations on whatever we were studying at the time, then split up for English and History. We had parties and service projects. We all got to know each other pretty well. At the end of junior year I went our for student government. I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting ASB secretary because it was a smaller position and I knew kids in every grade. I was in 2 classes that had lots of freshman (health and aerobics) just because I hadn't had room for them in my schedule earlier but had to take them to graduate. I got it and had so much fun doing that senior year. I loved being involved in everything, getting to help make big decisions, and got to go behind the scenes of the school.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
My favorite book was Lightning by Dean Koontz. I liked his books. I kind of read what they made us read in school, but usually not all of it. I could get by with class discussions and sparks notes online. I listened to Star 98.7 which was 80's and 90's music. And the show I really liked to watch was Gilmore Girls. It was a drama about a mom (who had her baby at 16) and her teenage daughter. I would hurry home from young women's to watch it because back then you had to watch shows when they were on. The series ended after I was married and my husband and I finished it together. My family was really into Sabrina the Teenage Witch. That was a sitcom about a girl that found out she was a witch and had to learn to use her powers. It was really cheezy but fun to watch.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
There was screaming type music some people listened to, and rap, white guys rapping like Eminem. But there was also hip hop music that was good for dancing and songs too. I listened to what was on the radio. I wasn't super into music.
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I loved going to school dancing. We had a DJ and everyone would just dance in the middle of the room with people hanging out around the edges. We had after football game dances and the homecoming dance at the school, but for the fancier dances (winter formal and prom) we would go to a cool location like The Queen Mary cruise ship, or golf clubs, etc. People would go in limos. The girls would wear formal dresses and the boys would wear matching tuxedos. The dancing was bad, though. For slow songs you just kind of hugged and walked in a circle. For fast songs we just jumped around. But then there was also "freaking" which was pretty much bumping and grinding.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
I don't think I had to do to much at home after I got a job. I probably had to babysit sometimes. It was my responsibility to keep my room clean if I wanted to. I also had to drive Ryan to school and seminary when he was going.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
My best friends Junior year of high school were Sommer, Tina, Eric, and Sam. We would hang out pretty much every weekend. We would go to each others houses, drive around, go to water polo parties (Eric played water polo). I was fun just being with them. When I think of high school they are the friends I associate with it. Ashley Carlisle was still my friend and we would still hang out a lot too. We would go to the Irvine Spectrum (outdoor mall) with our friend Jessica and usually meet boys there.
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 knew I wanted to go to a church school because I figured I would meet the guy I would marry in college. I also figured I had a better chance of meeting the right type of guy and making the right choices at a church school. I only applied to BYU, BYU-Idaho, and BYU-Hawaii. I thought I wanted to go to Hawaii the most, but then I actually got into that school, which I didn't think was much of a possibility. I started looking into it. It only had 2000 students, less than half as many students as were in my high school! I was also really far and would cost a lot to travel. And I just felt like I should go to BYU-Idaho, so that is where I went. Everyone thought I was crazy. As for goals, knew I wanted to get married in the temple, but I wanted to wait a while. I was planning on majoring in Journalism and being a writer.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ? What memories do you have of
Church meetings or activities?
I think I always had a testimony of the church, but what stands out is when I was 12. The youth in the ward did a summer reading challenge. We were supposed to read the whole Book of Mormon before the summer was over. I did it and I remember sharing my testimony at the fireside at the end. Ashley Carlisle was also recently baptized at the time. I loved when we had firesides on Sunday evening because then I got to go hang out with my church friends on Sunday. We usually had them at the bishop's house and afterwards had refreshments and just all stayed and talked for a while. I remember being bored in Sunday school because the lessons were always the same. The teacher would do the attention activity and within the first sentence we would know what the whole lesson was supposed to be about and how it was going to go. Some of the teacher were really good and used a lot of personal stories. Those were the best lessons.
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? Travis and I met at a training retreat to be leaders for new student orientation at BYU-Idaho, in the fall of 2002. I thought he was good looking. We hung out a lot at the training and started dating soon after.
2. When were you married? Where were you married? What do you remember about your
wedding day? We were married in the San Diego, California Temple on December 20, 2003. It was a long but fun day. We had only a few people at the temple with us but lot of friend from high school at the reception. I let Travis sit with his brother and friend too each while I visited everyone.
3. What was it like to be a newlywed in those days? We had to learn to cook. We ate out and ate a lot of frozen foods. But we both had jobs so we weren't too bad off financially.
4. What memorable or humorous adventures did you have?
5. What was it like to become a parent? How did you feel? I was nervous when I was first pregnant but then got used to the idea. When Jade was born it was hard to balance my needs with the needs of a new baby. I lost a lot of sleep.
6. During your adult years, where have you lived? Why did you move there? We lived in Rexburg, Idaho while we attended BYU-Idaho. We moved to Travis's parents house in Pleasant View, UT after I graduated from college. Travis was going to finish school at Weber State. We bought our own home in Ogden, UT in 2007 and lived there for 4 years. We are now moving to Gilbert, AZ where Travis is transferring for work.
8. What talents did you discover in yourself as you grew up? Tell me about all the things
you learned to do. Planning events (Banquets for MOMS Club, family reunions, birthday parties)Healthy cooking, using fresh produce
11. What was the greatest accomplishment or joy you have had in life? What others do
you remember? Everyone is probably going to say this, but I have to say my kids. It's makes you feel so special when they learn something you taught them. Or learn more than you taught them by figuring things out for themselves.