Thursday Throwback

One of my favorite memories from Meredith was my sophomore year. My dad and I went to the Father Daughter Dance. My mom just sent me some pictures from the night, enjoy!

Us before the dance

Girls and dads

Suitemates

Girls and dads on the bridge

Thursday Throwback

Today’s Thursday Throwback is going to be stories from and about my Grandma because her 79th birthday is tomorrow. I have more stories than I can even begin to count about Grandma. She lives up the driveway from my parents and always has. We went to Grandma’s all the time. But this wasn’t your typical go for Sunday lunches at Grandma’s house visit.s My grandma is a bartender and has been for almost 60 years. Girl can make a mad L.I.T. (not that I would know personally). I have tons of stories surrounding growing up having a bartender for a grandma, too many for this one post, but just ask me sometime and I’ll be happy to share more.

I am going to share two stories about Grandma today. First, her Elvis story and then her chickens story.

My grandma served Elvis. And yes, I am talking about THE Elvis Presley. As in the KING. Back before he was a huge megastar, he performed in Burlington. He stopped in Whitsett (my hometown) at Brightwood Inn (my grandma’s bar/restaurant) to eat. Grandma’s story has changed a bit over the years. Originally he had a cheeseburger and beer and she had to tell him to quiet down. The story that she shares now is that he had a cheeseburger and milk. He was also very nice and well behaved. She tells the story about twice a year to a local tv station and also is written up in the newspaper. She’s a celebrity in our town.

Grandma was interviewed by a paper that did a montage thing on their website a few years back. She was asked to share some stories about working at Brightwood for so long. One story she shared was about Henry the rooster that lives at Brightwood. She recalled someone trying to pick up Henry, to which her response was “you just don’t go around pickin' up chickens”. Thank you, Grandma, I definitely wouldn’t have learned that one with out you.

Isn't she cute?!

Thursday Throwback

Today’s throwback will be in honor of Shelly (or Shellie as she prefers). Shelly turned 18 at the beginning of the month. In May she will graduate and go to college. I have tried to narrow down a favorite Shelly memory for my throwback this week, but I can’t seem to do it. So instead I thought it would be fun just to write about how special she is to me. Shelly and I are 10 years apart in age (and her mom and I are too, isn’t that cool?) Shelly was my baby when she was born. I stayed over almost every weekend. Being a mom now, I am thinking that Susie was a nutjob for taking on a 10 year old as well as her newborn and 3 year old. But I am so thankful for that time because we have a sweet special bond.

I think Shelly was about 8 here and Sierra was 2.

The girls are great candy makers

Even though they fight, they love each other

Me and my girls

A bunch of MC girls

Thursday Throwback

From Greece and me having a boyfriend to going on a first date:
It's actually not that dramatic. We got back from Greece and in typical teenage fashion I dropped the boyfriend and saw Spencer that day. Was he sitting pining for me? Waiting for me to call? Dreaming of my long blonde hair and killer tan? Nope, he totally blew me off. Are you kidding me? I had just broken up with my boyfriend to get blown off? He called back and apologized and we worked out the details for seeing each other that night (we went and got ice cream and my cousin Abigail came too, but it was cut short because I had lied to my Mama and she busted me) and then also for our first date.
This is where I found out for the first time that Spence had LIED. In order to go on said date, I had to pick him up. Why did I have to pick up a guy who had said he was 16? Oh, because he wasn't 16. So, I went and picked him up and we had dinner and went to see Dr Doolittle. And we went dutch (he was only 15, how was he gonna pay for anything it's not like he had a job). AND we had our first kiss, right there in the Burlington movie theatre with Eddie Murphy big as life on the screen. Seriously one of the most romantic moments of my life, ever. That sweet first kiss is one of the books. The date ended with us driving around Gibsonville and listening to the radio. We totally knew it was meant to be when we heard "When you say nothing at all" by Alison Kraus, followed by "I don't wanna miss a thing" by Aerosmith. To be 16 again and feel all mushy about a song.
Audience participation time: what was your "song" with your high school boyfriend?

Thursday Throwback

I thought it would be fun on Thursdays to give you a bit of history. If you want to know something, feel free to post a comment and ask. It can be about anything, mine or Spencer's story of coming to know Christ as our Savior, info about us going to college, embarrassing stories about us growing up, no topic is off limits.

So, here is the first "Thursday Throwback". How Spence and I met. The trip:
The summer of 1998, Spencer and I both went on a school history trip to Greece. Prior to this trip, he and I did not know each other. We went to the same small high school, had many of the same friends even, but had never crossed paths. (Our mothers had even served together on the PTA) I met him the day we left for the trip when our group took a picture in the airport. At that time, he was just a weirdo with a frosty who ended up beside me in the picture. As the trip progressed, Spence and I kept pairing up. When we went anywhere on the trip where we could break up into small groups, each group had to have a guy and an adult. Spence and I paired up and his mom tagged along to chaperone. Pretty soon we were finding reasons to hang out. We had a blast touring Greece together. BUT we left the trip just friends and not knowing what would happen once we got back to the States since I still had a boyfriend back home...