Been this way since 18

Eri and I with the sister who inspired Danielle to serve.

 (which in turn inspired me!)

 

You will all be relieved to know that the scrap booking mania is about to die down.

 

Mainly because I have now gone through every single box of memorabilia I have, including the giant blue tote my parents have in the basement with my name on it.

 

The THINGS I found in there, people.

 

My cabbage patch dolls.

 

My 8th grade journal.

 

All of my course work from algebra 1.

 (which still looks as incomprehensible today as it did then)

 

Strange pictures.

 

All the letters I sent home from my mission.

(Several of which were unopened. Seriously.)

 

My dad tried to claim they were 'resealed' the humidity in the basement but the sticker speaks for itself, devils!

 

I am so grateful that my mom has slight hoarder tendencies.

 

There are about a million things I am ok putting in the trash but there are a lot of things I am so grateful to have.

 

A drawing from my first day of first grade.

 

My painful Spanish 1 essays.

 

Pictures from my childhood.

 

A letter from my grand mom.

 

A photo of my mom and I the day I was born.

 

 I had never seen it before!

 

Endless mission mementos I had thought were lost.

 

I now have EVERYTHING about my life history in one gray tote.

 

My mission scrapbooks.

 

My graduation caps and gowns.

 

My dolls and birthday cards and 3rd grade art projects.

(The funny thing about the cabbage patch dolls is that there were like 5 in there and Danielle came over and I said "I think these were all of ours" and she was like "Yeah, this one's mine, that one, that one"- she knew EXACTLY which ones were hers and she grabbed them and ran!)

 

I have always thought of my life as this scatter of boxes in the basement and the mission stuff I had hoarded at the bottom of my closet.

 

Now it's all together.

 

Which gives me a weird feeling of peace.

 

And since, this walk down memory lane wouldn't be complete without WAY TOO MANY pictures...Let's do this dance!!

 



The infamous blue tote where all the secrets of my past awaited.





8th grade journal.

The angst level is unreal.

 I apparently really had it out for this girl named Brandi.





Erin says we look like the children of serial killers in this one. I agree!

 



Me and an older wealthy man who wanted to give me gifts.

 Story of my life :)

 

No one could look at this and not identify me as the youngest child.

 

The 80's, baby!

 

I just saw this for the first time yesterday.

Can you believe that when this photo was taken my mom was 23 and had a 3 year old, a 2 year old, a not quite 10 month old, and me?
(My parents had 4 children in exactly 3 years, 2 months, and 4 days)

 

Me as a crazy missionary

 

I loved this khaki skirt.

LOVED IT.

 

I played field hockey for 3 years. As you can see, it was a grand passion of mine.
(I am literally the only one without their shirt tucked in and not smiling)

A Spanish assignment from high school.
(It translates: the sofa to be Bruno's bedroom. You should to be kitchen. The sofa is the bathroom. You should to be the living room....I'll stop there. It only gets more thrilling)

 It's a wonder they even made me take language training in the MTC.

 I was so good already.

Seeing these makes me excited to take a million fall pictures this year!!

My art was hipster before there even was hipster.
 

My 13 year old journal.

Which I wrote COMPLETELY in the third person.

Apparently I was kind of obsessed with the peace symbol and Boys II Men.

Less angst than year 14 journal but more star trek quotes.

So, it's a toss up as to which one the Smithsonian will want after I die.

Who are we kidding?

They'll want both.

And THIS is why I had to take algebra 1 twice in high school.

 

All of my writing assignments.....every single one reads like a horrible, horrible romance novel.

 

Even one I wrote from the perspective of a shrimp.

 

This writing assignment was clearly a cry for help.

And lastly- my dad just found this one today.

It's me at my heaviest weight.

Yikes!

Not that I didn't love that Lori, but I can't ever got back to that.

I'll take this picture of me and my mom over that one:)

So....

It's legit time to move on to our next obsession.

I am thinking self tanning and green smoothies.

Or at least the appearance of green smoothies.

Where I take pictures of myself with one but then dump it and drink a red bull.

YES!

Lori Ann