Sunday, April 5, 2009

100th Post. . .Sort of

For my 100th post I thought I'd try to focus on something other than grief which seems to dominate this blog lately. So here's a 100 point timeline of my life. Obviously it's a long post, so I'm splitting it into three. I hope this helps you get to know me a little better. While typing it out I was reminded of a lot of things I'd forgotten about.

1. Born Rachel Ellen on October 28, 1976 in Hudson, WI (I won’t make you do the math, I’m 32.)
2. My name was going to be Rachel Elizabeth, but my dad decided it was too long. Ellen comes from my grandmothers' names: Elna and Florence Eleanor.
3. I’m the youngest – one older brother, Richard, who knew I was going to be a girl.
4. If I remember correctly, my name would’ve been Robert if I’d been a boy.
5. My earliest memory is of watching the maintenance man clean the pool at our townhouse. I was around the age of two.
6. I don’t have a lot of crystal clear memories from that point to about age 6 or 7 (is that weird?)
7. My first crush was in first grade. His name was Brian, but alas, he was held back and our one – sided romance ended.
8. Most embarrassing moment was when I was 8 or 9. I arrived at soccer practice but had forgotten we had team pictures that day. My mom wouldn’t take me back home to get my uniform. So in my team soccer picture I’m wearing a “Snuggle Me” t-shirt with the bear on it that advertises the fabric softener.
9. One of my favorite memories of grade school was starting a dirt collection: We sent letters to friends and relatives in other states and they sent us dirt which we bottled and labeled until the whole class had a bottle of dirt for each of the 50 states.
10. I am mad at myself still for giving my dirt collection to a girl that I babysat for about 18 years ago!
11. At age 12, I met my BFF Joolee.
12. My mom had been praying for a girl my age to start attending our church and God answered her prayers. Julie and I became “kindred spirits” immediately, despite her sitting in my armpits the first time I went over to her house.
13. I have many memories with Joolee, a lot of them involving her laughter- induced incontinence.
14. At about 12 I read the book, A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle and fell in love with the idea of being a marine biologist and working with wild dolphins.
15. Also that year my mom surprised me by getting me a kitten. I named her Cleopatra until we found out she was a he. I called him Cleo from then on.
16. Around age 13, I began my long and illustrious career as a babysitter. Fueled by my mom’s home daycare, I loved caring for kids.
17. I’m pretty sure I was 13 when I received my first kiss. It was a magical as any first kiss could be, though with 30+ years of life experience behind me now, I wish my first kiss had been on my wedding day.
18. 13 was also when I trusted in Jesus as my Savior.
19. The day after my 15th birthday, I started my first “job” at Dairy Queen. I worked one day and then they closed for 4 months for the winter season.
20. I continued working there for 3 years and remember making buster bars, dilly bars and ice cream sandwiches by hand. Now they are factory made for the most part.
21. At about age 15, I realized being a marine biologist involved moving to the west coast and away from my family. I abandoned that dream and decided to be a teacher instead.
22. One of my favorite things to do at this point in my life was rollerskating on Christian music night. I even opted to get rollerskates instead of a class ring. I rarely felt “cool” growing up, but at the roller rink I felt cool, when I wasn’t tripping over my own feet, that is.
23. When I was 16 I began working as a cashier at the local hardware store (with Joolee). It was my favorite part-time job. I quickly learned about left-handed hammers and solar powered flashlights thanks to the guys I worked with.
24. At 17 I got my license and learned how to drive a stick shift.
25. Got another part-time job cleaning at a retirement home.
26. At one point I was working three jobs at the same time – during the school year!
27. I enrolled in my state's post secondary enrollment option. I “skipped” my senior year of high school to attend the local community college – for free!
28. I got my first car that year; a yellow Honda Civic that I named Daisy.
29. Quit all my other jobs and began working with Joolee as a Personal Care Assistant for a family with an autistic child and a Down’s Syndrome child.
30. During high school I went on many trips with my youth group to places like New Orleans, Mexico, and Colorado. That pretty much sums up my travel experiences.
31. In ’95 I graduated from high school with a year of college already done.
32. I transferred to Northwestern College and majored in Elementary Education.
33. As a sophomore in college I started working with the youth group at my church. Loved it!

8 comments:

Ae said...

I remember the dirt collection. Mine was lost in one of my oh so many moves. Driving through Oklahoma last summer (on my way to MN) I saw a ton of red dirt and wondered if our OK bottle was red. I know some of them were.

Ebe said...

This is a cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

Good to get to know you a little bit better.

Diane Shiffer said...

i read madeline l'engle's books during my formative years as well... i adored her! my english teacher was a close personal friend of hers and she offered to have me over for dinner once when mrs. l'engle was visiting, but i declined because i was sure i'd embarrass myself... what a *dope* i was! lol

this was such a fun post! can't wait to read the next installments☺

Sarah Hintermeyer said...

#33...we loved that you were helping with youth group. You're definitely someone that made a positive impression on me. :)

Billi Jo said...

19. That itty bitty little store, still puts a smile on my face.
22. Ahhh the good'o days, when we were ‘cool’.
30. I think you're right, that about sums up my travel experience too, boo hoo hoo.
To be continued…

joolee said...

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the whole armpit experience......but you just had to throw in the laughter induced incontinence, eh? We sure had fun together.......We shared quite a few jobs, didn't we? How lucky we were!

Heidi said...

Hey did we hit 100 that close together? I so want to make a dirt collection now!

Sharleen said...

Rachel! You were a "holy roller" too! LOL