what really matters

How long has it been since my last substatial update?  a month, or 2, or 3?  Anyhow, no matter. 

Last weekend Daniel and I traveled up to Grayson Valley to visit Dad for the day. 

Our goals: 
Daniel:  Help Dad paint the exterior of the house.
Me:  Clean out childhood and college items and memories.

Frankly, I think Daniel got the easy task.  I mean it was close to 100 degrees outside and he had to avoid wasps and mosquitos, but still.  He didn't have to really think to paint.  I had to really think about what was important to me in order to keep.  Unfortunately for me, the lack of space in our attic dictates just how many items can be important to me.  Considering I find all of our year round decorations to be extremely important along with a few of Daniel's items, we just don't have much more room in the attic.  Now before you start thinking that we have an entire attic full of tubs, don't.  According to Daniel (I have never been in the attic before because I freak to go up the unstable ladder to see for myself), we need to purchase more plywood to extend our attic.  So our small area in the attic we have is almost maxed out. 

There were 2 things to consider while I cleaned out:  what is really important to me and remember limited space. 

So I began my quest.  I shuffled through some old school papers that Mom had placed on the hearth.  And I found some interesting items.  First up, a newspaper clipping from the 7th grade (circa de 1997ish).  Check out this classic photo

7th graders across Jefferson County were honored at Bartow Arena for high scholastic honors.  That is me with my big foot and poofy bangs.  Next to me is Blake Burdett, who eventually became my bf that year and the next.  Much later in 2008, he was a part of my wedding party.  ha!

Don't worry.  I definitely kept this clipping because I want to laugh about it in the future when I rediscover it again.  I love refinding things like that. 

After looking over some pre-SAT/pre-ACT test results and still realizing that I am a TERRIBLE test taker, I moved to the basement where the real fun was.  I went through a small stack of items from both childhood and college years.  Why was I hoarding coloring books and my 4th grade subject notebooks?  bye-bye.  And let's face it:  back in the day, Sunday School artwork was no where near the calibar of school artwork.  So bye-bye Jesus and the little children artwork that was half-colored.  Don't judge me because I threw away my Jesus artwork, because I did keep all of my Bibles since birth.  I have my pink baby New Testament Bible, purple Precious Moments children's Bible, and hardback Teen Study Bible.  My navy College Bible and navy "adult" Bible are kicking it at the house already. 

The above were easy toss outs, but the hard part came when I moved to the play area, which is under the front porch.  That is where Sis and I played house.  We couldn't play Barbies in there because it was too narrow and cluttered.  And our Barbies lived in mansions so we needed much more room for that.  In the play area, mounds of stuffed animals could be found.  And we LOVED our stuffed animals.  Too bad we let them get all gross and let rats poop on them.  So bye-bye to my Cabbage Patch Kid, Pinky.  Bye-bye to Sissy's Care Bears.  Bye-bye to My Buddy, who we dressed up in real kid clothes and diapers.  Bye-bye Teddy Ruxpin.  It was a hard moment to let them go.  But when I realized that I was wearing gloves to protect my hands from germs and the grossness, then I didn't feel so bad.  No one can take the memories of those toys away from me.  And isn't that what really matters?