In love with a Jersey girl



The infamous white Prom dress :) 



The New Jersey Years

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what kind of crazy fashion choices I was making. 

Some time around 9th grade. I can't decide what is worse- the glasses or the weird pink sweater

I was in choir. Third row up from the bottom on the far right. 

Field hockey. Why do I look so solemn?



Graduation day. I am only 19 lbs heavier now then I was on that day :) 



So..onto the next chapter of my life story. 

We moved to New Jersey when I was almost 13. At the start of 8th grade. 

We lived in a town called North Cape May in my grandfathers house. It was his parents house before him and he had kept it as a shore get away house. 

We lived two blocks from 'the bay'. If you're from Jersey you know what I mean by 'the bay'. It was littered with dead hermit shell crabs, trash, sea weed and jelly fish. One should never swim in the bay. The 'real' beach was one town over, in Cape May. 

But I will always remember living just minutes from the ocean. It was strangely freeing. 

Over the course of the five years I lived in NJ, a lot of things happened. 

We lived in three different places. Moving from North Cape May to Wildwood (for a few months) to a town that is kind of infamous in south Jersey- the Villas. 

I started working at the Acme (grocery store) when I was 15 years old. By my senior year I was working full time and had my own health benefits. 

My mom went to nursing school and became a nurse after years of being a waitress and then a CNA.

I had a lot more interaction with my extended family (mom's side) as most of them live on the Jersey shore. Some of it was very positive and some was very negative. Actually, we lived with my aunt Cheryl and my uncle Ron for a few months each, so we actually lived in 5 places. 

I played field hockey for 3 years. I was a goalie. I was NOT very good but I was so invested in the idea of being in high school sports. 

I was in choir and I tended to gravitate towards 'the smart kids' crowd. I took a lot of AP classes (and got 4s! on my AP tests). I would later discover that most of my 'smart kid' friends were heavy drinkers and/or gay. I was completely oblivious in high school. 

I didn't really hang out with people outside of school. I think graduation night was the first time I spent any time outside of school with my friends. My friends had big plans to have a drinking party down at the beach. It rained though. It was the only time anyone offered me alcohol in high school. Luckily, I didn't have to decide. I'm not sure what 18 year old Lori would have done:) 

My siblings graduated from high school in these years. Jr left for his mission in Las Vegas. Danielle went to college in Idaho. Erin moved to Salt Lake and went to college there. 

I crashed my parents only car driving to the Wawa for diet coke and tasty cakes. 

I had some of the best church friends- we had a million and one sleepovers. Church was a huge part of my life. 

My main activity- besides seminary (early morning scripture study class), school, and work was reading trashy romance novels. I probably read 5 or 6 a week. I used to walk down to the library and buy them by the dozen. I had to hide them because my parents didn't want me reading them. I actually had quite a sophisicated system for smuggling them in which included a hollowed out tree trunk, duct tape, and leaving the house at midnight. :) 

I didn't have a great self image in high school. Who really does? I didn't think about how I dressed and how I wore my hair. Although I was obsessed with lightening my hair. I tried to be blond until I was about 28. Then I embraced the brunette. 

Sometimes I wish I could go and talk to 16 year old Lori. Tell her to be confident in who she is and not worry what other people think or say. To embrace what she likes and to brush her hair every day and to not be such a people pleaser. 

And to hook up with Tyson Rementer.

 (even though he was probably gay- actually, all the more reason to hook up with him!) 

So, those are the Jersey years. There a million stories I could tell. From the Prom Dress Shopping Incident to being a cart doggy to driving my parents car to the BK at age 15. I think everyone has a million stories from those years. 

But we will pick up next on years 18-21. When I lived in Utah, Idaho, and PA. And I didn't get accepted into any of the colleges I wanted to go to. And I took the train across the country. And I broke my leg. And I literally thought it was the end of the world. All before life took me, at age 21, to a little town outside of Chicago, Illinois. 

Lori Ann