Stephanie Marie 1981

 STEPHANIE MARIE- Boise, Idaho -1981

In 1980, still in school at Boise State University, we moved to 3904 Pershing Drive. We were having trouble making ends meet financially and there was an ad in the newspaper for an apartment manager that read: “no experience referred and small child okay". Sure sounded like us. I could work at home while Roger went to classes and worked part-time at Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company in the Accounting Depart. There were 36 apartments in 4-unit buildings that had been army barracks and housing for officers during World War II. We lived in a three bedroom townhouse with the bedrooms upstairs. For payment we received free rent and $100 a month. We had to pay our utilities the first year, but those were paid the second year as well. The tenants were an eclectic mix, including wives of convicts in the prison nearby, but I was able to be home with my children and that was important to me. I was soon expecting another child.

Both Dr. Kreuger and Roger felt like I was having a boy. The baby’s heart beat was always slow, between 120-140 beats per minute and girl babies are usually 140-160 he said.  I was expecting the first part of December, but by the middle of November my body was ready and the baby could come anytime. Roger was going away on a scout over-nighter Friday the 13th, so I thought it might happen then…little did I know it would be over a month later! 

Finally on December 17th, 1981 the doctor induced labor. I had gotten teary in his office earlier that week because we were hoping to go to Twin Falls for Christmas and I was nearly two weeks over due. He broke my water at 8:15 AM and at 12:22 that noontime, I gave birth to Stephanie Marie Christensen. She weighed 8 lbs and 14 oz and was 21 and a half inches long. Her amniotic fluid was meconium stained from being overdue, but she was darling and healthy. I wrote in my journal the next day, “She was different than Emily in every way. She is dark and has dimples instead of a cleft. She seems more mellow. She is a sweetheart. Emily loves her. She came into recovery and kissed her.” With finals and basketball Roger was too busy to come back to the hospital, so my mom who was there to help, took us home the next day. Then she took us back to Twin Falls on the 20th and Roger joined us on Christmas Eve. I painted Roger a picture of Alpine Lake for Christmas at my mom’s house before he arrived. We were now a family of four!

Picture I painted for Roger Christmas 1981

Roger finished his Bachelors Degree in accounting that same December Steph was born and was hired on at C.W. Grow and Company accounting firm (later Grow Rassmussen Co.) for $16,000 a year. Brother Grow was in our Stake Presidency so Roger felt good about the job. He was very busy with tax season and basketball and I was busy with the apartments and two little girls. We decided it was time to get our own house. We had been very frugal in college and not taken out any student loans or gone into debt. We even had a little savings. I believe it was because we were blessed for paying over 10% tithing for a period of time and always paid full tithing with some offerings. There is no logical way to explain that we had saved money during college when we received no earthly financial assistance.

In March of 1982 we purchased a little home and moved in the first weekend of that month. Double bonus, we blessed Stephanie that same weekend. The home was only a year and half old and had almost 1100 square feet. It had 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a living room and a dining room connected to the kitchen. It was not big, but it was ours and I loved it. We paid $46,500 plus $500 closing costs and put $4500 down. Our payments were only $370 a month which was good for those early 1980's years when some interest rates were over 20%. (The only reason I include all this financial info is that it was in my journal and I think it is interesting how much prices of homes have increased. I am not obsessed with money...pretty much the opposite). There were government subsidized apartment buildings directly behind us, but we were on a quiet cul-de-sac called Kerr Place. I was called to be the 1st counselor in YWs and Roger the Ward Clerk in our new little ward. Welcome to suburbia. We even got a dog named Annie which we had for nearly 16 years.

Roger's Christmas present. Steph 1 day old.

Steph a few months old at the lake.

Camping at 6 months old.

In front of Kerr Place with Stephanie, Emily and dog Annie.

Feeding the ducks at Ann Morrison Park.

Piggyback on daddy while camping.

Wild flower meadow camping at 1.

Own potty in the woods at 1 and a half.

Steph with her own style.

A favorite picture... Steph's doll told her to get in the dryer.

Daddy's girl hug.

One of Annie's puppies.

Mommy Chris and Annie in Kerr Place backyard.

Christmas 1983 in Twin Falls.

Little Indian girl Halloween 1983.

Trip to California for Craig and Becky's baby's blessing without our 2 kids.

                                                             

Emily Brianne 1979

Almost 4 generations with Gma June, Mom Pauline and me expecting Emily.

Expecting Emily at church at 7 months along.

EMILY BRIANNE - TWIN FALLS, IDAHO 1979 - Our first bundle of joy was born less than a year after we were married. I did not want to become pregnant on my honeymoon knowing all my relatives would think that was the reason we got married, but I became “with-child” the next month. I finished up my RN degree and worked in the Twin Falls Clinic which was a private hospital until she was born. At my doctor's appointment the day before she arrived, I was already dilated to 5 cm and only 10 cm is needed for delivery. He said if I did not have the baby soon, they would induce me so it did not drop out as I walked around :-). He asked if I had had any contractions and I replied just Braxton-Hicks or fake ones.

The next day I thought I might be in labor with real contractions so I went and visited my labor and delivery practicum mentor from nursing school at the Magic Valley Memorial Hospital (Denise Mayes). By the time she got around to examining me I was at 7 cm! We called Roger at work (Vans Department Store) and he said he would come over when his shift was done. I told him to come sooner if he could and he finally arrived a few hours later (shortly before Emily was born) with his buddy in tow, since Tim had driven them there. Roger brought him into the labor room where Tim proceeded to spread out his school books to study while we waited for the baby. Horrified I asked the nurse to have him leave. Tim went out and called family members to tell them I was in labor (my mom asked me later who was the stranger who had called). The baby arrived swiftly and face up or posterior, which is the only reason the doctor had time to arrive for the delivery with only 5 minutes to spare. He said they usually have to use forceps with posterior babies. Tim did end up being an inspired addition to the event. After delivery I hemorrhaged on the delivery table because the placenta would not detach. I lost consciousness and had to be taken to surgery. They last things I remember were an oxygen mask being put over my face, the doctor calling for an anesthesiologist and for lab to type and cross match my blood and me asking for a blessing. Tim was there to help Roger give me that blessing. 

One of the nurses said later that she does not believe in “that stuff”, but she had to admit, they could not find my blood pressure or pulse before the blessing, but it started to increase afterward. Luckily Denise had felt inspired to put an IV in my arm (which was not routine in those days) before the hemorrhage or it may not have gone so well. I woke up hours later not having seen my baby girl yet! A large nurse came into my room with Emily tucked like a football under her arm and I still had trouble seeing the baby amidst the nurse’s girth. She was tiny, but perfect, weighing 6 pounds 5 ounces and 20 inches long. I guess the placenta had grown into the lining of my uterus and was getting all the nutrition so even though Emily Brianne Christensen was 10 days late, she was little. Roger sat up beside my bed that night as I received 2 units of blood. I had asked for him during recovery in my drug induced haze and randomly my brother Steve too.

We went home on Halloween 1979 with the nurses all dressed up in costumes. This is what I wrote in my journal about Emily at one month “I am sure Emmy is a very intelligent child. She is so alert and strong. Her eyes are very bright. She smiles and is very fair like Roger with a cleft in her chin.” She was intense and active and walked at 8 months old without ever crawling first.

That first Christmas our family was asked to portray Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus in the ward Christmas presentation. Definitely not gender specific casting. Shortly afterward we packed up our belongings into Larry’s diesel truck to move to Boise, Idaho for Roger to attend Boise State University and work part-time at State Farm Insurance. We lived in married student’s housing on campus in an all brick apartment for $175 a month. It was small, cute and cozy and I have happy memories there. We attended a married student ward on BSU Campus and felt blessed. I decided to not continue with college at this time because I could not imagine leaving little Emily with a babysitter all day, so I asked the state to hold my scholarship for a year….that became more... 

Roger in Hospital with Emily.

Emily snugged up at a few months old.

Bright eyed Emily Brianne

Emily with Great Gma Helen and Great Gpa Art Crossler in Moscow, Idaho.

Smiley Emily and me

Christensen cousin time in Sun Valley, Idaho first summer.

Horsy ride holding mommy's mane in Meyerhoeffer's yard.

Emily put daddy's socks on herself.

At Redfish Lake with our blonde baby.

Emily had a trick, she could fold and tuck her ear into her head and it would stay.

First time we left Emily to go away to Aunt Lori's wedding in SLC.

The Proposal, Wedding and Honeymoon

Idaho Falls Temple November 24, 1978

My Wedding - November 24, 1978 -  Roger "casually" proposed to me the same day he returned from his mission in early August 1978. My little brother Jason and I went to Salt Lake City with Roger’s family to meet him at the airport. It was a bit awkward. Roger was released over the phone by his Stake President from his service while still at the airport so he could stay a few days in Utah to vacation with his family and go to the Park City alpine slides etc. When we arrived at the hotel later that day, he asked me if I “still felt the same”. There he was, a glowing RM who took my breath away…of course I felt the same, plus some. After we returned to Twin Falls he officially proposed to me about 2 weeks later down at Twin Falls Park in the Snake River Canyon on a metal balcony over looking the falls. He had asked for my father’s permission previously during a long beating-around-the-bush visit with him in our basement. My dad asked if I knew anything about the request :-). We planned a Christmas break wedding, but my dad said Christmas was too busy and asked me to wait until spring to get to know Roger again since he had been away for three years including college and his mission.  All I heard was “Christmas is a busy time” and we moved it up to Thanksgiving break. 

We were married just three months after he returned from serving in the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission. Roger, his mother Bonnie and I went to the Idaho Falls Temple the Saturday before our wedding, November 18th, to take out my endowments. Then at 7:00 A.M. on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, November 24th, 1978, Roger and I were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple for time and all eternity. No one told me that getting married at 7:00 AM was weird even in the LDS Church! None of my immediate family could attend, but all drove up Thanksgiving night after our turkey dinner and all waited outside. My Harding grandparents and some of my Harding relatives were there. We were married on my Grandpa Benjamin Williams Harding's birthday. My grandma Helen was upset she couldn't come to my temple wedding and told me horror stories over the phone about what happened in the temple. Thank goodness she was wrong. My mother, who had sewn my wedding dress, but could not attend the ceremony in those days because her spouse was not a member, waited in the waiting room off the foyer and my dad, who said if he couldn’t go to his only daughter’s wedding he would not go to the reception, was outside the temple on the snowy temple grounds when I came out. That made me cry. We had the “wedding breakfast” at 8:30 AM in a hotel across the river following the early morning sealing. Then Roger and I drove back to Twin Falls in our own car for our reception that was later the same day.

There was a basketball tournament going on at the college that weekend, so we had the reception upstairs in the Student Union cafeteria between games from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. The food was catered by the culinary department at the college and was so delicious. Ham slices were wrapped around dill pickles and turkey wrapped around cream cheese as well as other side veggies, nuts and mints. Since we could not serve alcohol on campus (a tender mercy because that was a touchy subject for my father who wanted to serve alcohol to his friends and we did not want it at our reception), we had non-alcoholic champaign. Our cake was three-tiered layers on pillars surrounded by 6 heart-shaped cakes covered with daisies. My flowers were daisies and yellow roses. The wedding colors were yellow, white and a rusty brown, earth-toned colors were popular at the time. Roger’s two sisters Cheri and Lori were my bridesmaids along with my friends from jr. high and high school, Mary Ann Salisbury and Nancy Evans, Nancy even went to college with me. My brother Chris was Roger’s groomsmen and his brother Craig was his best man, of course our parents participated too. We were young, just 19 and 21, but it was a magical night.

Roger was not thrilled people kept coming well past the designated time for the event to end and wanted to leave anyway, but we appropriately waited until the guest arrivals slowed down and well-wishers began to disperse. We were both in college and had to be back in school on Monday, so did not have much time to get away. We took off with some of our reception food and stopped in Shoshone at a drive inn restaurant on the way for more, then headed up to Roger’s "Mommy Chris" or Grandmother Clayta Christensen’s trailer in Ketchum, Idaho near Sun Valley. We spent one night there in her mobile home with a roof that had water damage so the ceiling hung precariously low over our heads. I knew then I was marrying a practical-minded man. :-). I am not complaining, it has kept us out of debt and from living beyond our means and we have always had what we needed. We did go to breakfast and dinner at a nice resort restaurants in Ketchum. But Roger was ready to head back to our apartment in Twin Falls next to the Fire Station on 2nd Street, open our gifts and get settled in a day earlier than planned. He still regularly likes to end vacations early and head back home or to work 40 years later. 

Roger and Teresa at CSI Reception

Cake and Reception food

Our parents-Jerry, Pauline, Bonnie and Larry

                  

Our wedding party Nancy, Chris, Mary Ann, us, Cheri, Craig and Lori

A favorite picture of mine...I love that Roger is tenderly holding my face.

College Days

COLLEGE (1977-1979) 

I was now a Golden Eagle at the College of Southern Idaho. I had the opportunity to go to any college in the state of Idaho with my scholarship, but decided to stay home and go to the college where my dad worked as Vice-President. I really wanted to be a teacher since education is my love, but I decided to be practical. I had a feeling that I would marry Roger after he got home and knew it might be difficult to finish four years of college under those circumstances. I also knew that it was important in my family to get a degree. So after ponder, prayer and reasoning, I decided to apply for the Registered Nursing program at CSI. It was a two year program that would give me a degree and the graduates took the same boards or tests as the four year RN graduates. The Bachelor degree grads just had more general classes which I would have loved to take, but it worked out well.

I began over the summer right after high school graduation at only 17 years old taking prerequisites needed for the program. I would ride my bike to college down Falls Avenue East probably about 3 miles each way. My fingernails had grown so long I had to hold my pencil differently to write. Someone mentioned I must not do much manual labor…my nails had to be cut before officially starting the RN program that fall. I remember the first day of orientation when the teachers went through our syllabus thinking there was no way humanly possible with only 24 hours in a day to accomplish all the reading assignments and videos they recommended we read and watch. I felt like crying, but decided I would do what I could and have to call it good. Not my perfectionist style, but I had no other choice. The sciences were not my strength. I persevered. I CLEP tested out of some of my English and other basic level courses and jumped right into Anatomy and Physiology and all the core nursing classes. 

My first Clinical experience was at the care center in Jerome, Idaho. In one of the first rooms I entered there was an elderly woman buck-naked except for a pair of high heels she was trotting around the room in. To my surprise the nurse training me did not seem to notice the nakedness, but only chastised that she had told the patient not to wear high heels! It was a welcome to my new world of not-normal. One of the hardest patients I had to deal with was a young man my brother’s age in the Burley Hospital whose leg had been pulled off my the bumper of his parent’s car while he was riding his motorcycle down the country lane to their home. Emotions welled up in me and I had to leave the room and cry. My care plan case study I did was on an older gentleman with pancreatic cancer. He and all 5 of his brothers were lawyers. He was such a nice, elegant man. I learned that pancreatic cancer is not usually diagnosed until it has spread to other parts of the body and was very hard to cure. He was in stage four and probably had about 6 months or less to live. Every day was an adventure and new learning experience. I only fell asleep once driving the early morning roads to clinicals and I grew up quickly with all of the real-life world I was exposed to.

I attended the LDS Institute in a little brick building kitty-corner to the southwest corner of the campus and took classes and went to church there. We had “Friday Forums” with lunch and speakers each week and even had a retreat at a snowy Red Fish Lake in October for leadership training. I was called to be an officer in the presidency there. I loved the Institute. I represented the LDS Institute in the combined groups of college organizations to plan activities for the college. We decided to have a Homecoming weekend during the basketball season and I was nominated to represent the LDSSA as their Homecoming Queen candidate…again. Surprisingly I finally won Homecoming Queen on the fourth attempt, but it was not a huge competition. Glad to be done with that chapter of my life.  

Since I enjoyed sports, I attended all of the basketball games and even some of the baseball games. CSI did not have football and I was not into rodeo though their team won nationals. Over spring break three girls from the college and myself took a road trip to Arizona for a baseball tournament and vacation to a warmer place. We stayed in various interesting places on the journey, I even asked one college in Mesa if we could sleep in a dorm on campus, but most nights we shared an old motel room. I had promised my parents we would not sleep in rest stops for safety. We had planned to make it to Mexico, but did not get there. It was too dark to really see the Grand Canyon very well when we pulled in, but we did swing through Las Vegas and it was a big adventure for an 18 year old girl to journey that far on her own. The baseball couch invited us to have one meal with the team, but I lost weight on that week long trip with very few meals. 

There was drama when a former missionary from Roger’s mission came to his brother’s house in Twin Falls when he was released from his mission and befriended me. He had seen pictures of me on the mission and asked me if I wanted to see pictures of Roger from the mission. I readily agreed and we met. I saw far more pictures of him than of Roger and he asked me to go dancing. Then asked me to accompany him to an old girl friend’s wedding reception in Utah. We only hung out for a few months at most, but he actually asked me to marry him. I told him I needed to wait for Roger to get home which was only a few months away to see how I felt about Roger (since I was still sort of waiting for him even though Dear Jane-d). Needless to say this did not go over well with Roger. I can see things so much clearer looking back and may have made different decisions, but at the time did the best I could. I was a decent person and tried to please too many people I suppose. 

Roger and I got married during the second year of college, but more about that in the next section. He returned from his mission the summer between the two years of the nursing program, we were married in November and by January I was expecting a baby so it made clinical shifts a little more difficult. I remember working in the NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) with babies and being nauseous. Also studying all that could go wrong with pregnancies and fetuses made me think it would be a miracle if everything went okay. Roger would say… “millions have gone before and millions will come after”, but somehow that was not too comforting. 

When I walked across the graduation stage to receive my diploma the College President, Dr. Taylor, said "even though there are two of you walking across this stage the diploma is just for one of you" :-). We had a separate Nursing Graduation and I received the award for graduating academically #1 in my class shockingly. I took my state boards in Boise that summer six months pregnant with my baby kicking me regularly through out the two days of tests and it was actually comforting.

I could write much more, but truly don’t want to bore my posterity with details, instead hopefully give them a feeling of who I was and what I did even though you may have never known me. I have read that people are forgotten by the fourth generation. Maybe at least a few will know who I am and that I hope to meet you one day. I was very imperfect, but tried to love and lift as I sojourned here. 

Nursing School Graduation with Roger (#1 in my class)

CSI graduation with my dad May 1979

High School Years

My family...mom, dad, Chris, Steve and Jason on my birthday at Clayta's trailer in Ketchum, Idaho with a birthday donut on my pinky finger.

High School 1974-1977

I was a Bruin. I went to Twin Falls Senior High School and that large bear was our mascot. The building is still there, but has been added on to include a new auditorium and more, but it was a large, accommodating school of about 1200 students back in my day. Seven is my favorite number and I graduated in 1977. Our graduating class was over 400 students and I was one of 8 or 9 Valedictorians graduating with a 4.0 grade point average. Still an honor even if shared I suppose. 

My first memory as a incoming sophomore was the start-of-the-year dance when an unknown upperclassman asked me to dance and was such a good lead partner I felt like I was floating around the floor. I have never danced that well previously or since. My brother Chris came in to pick me up early from the dance to go on a family trip to Caldwell, Idaho for my brother Steve’s all-star baseball tournament. Chris had packed for me. Who knows why I had him do it, but I arrived with only a pair of cut-off jean shorts and a swim suit top for the weekend. His excuse was “that was all I wore all summer anyway”. I suppose he thought it humorous, but I was mortified. Needless to say, I have always packed for myself since that day and often make lists for myself and others so not to forget key items needed with this event in mind :-). 

My sophomore year I ran cross country and track. Cross country was to keep in shape for track. I was not a distance runner. I remember even hitch-hiking one practice, but most days I ran the country roads, canals and grade to the falls or did a combo of running and walking at least. One day on the practice bus one of the coaches came up to me with his keys in his hand and asked me “what he needed to do to turn me on”. He was trying to get me to be a more motivated runner, but of course the boys on the bus had a field day with that quote for some time. Our girl's team actually won state that year. Not because of me. My goal was to not walk any of the 3.1 mile course, but I was the 7th girl on our team so I participated and shared the honor. I was still a fast sprinter, but one senior girl could beat me and I did not handle that well. I even false started one race and was not allowed to compete. I could not cope with not being the best and did not run track after that year. I regret it as an adult, but was too concerned about what others thought of me at that age and was not comfortable unless I excelled. So silly, I missed out on a lot. 

Fall of my sophomore year I kept stats for the football team on the sidelines. I often did stats for the basketball teams too. I undertsood sports well having grown up with a dad and brothers who all played. Kenny Samac taught be how to drive a manual stick shift car out on country roads. He would run along side the car while teaching me. I guess I really was a scary driver. He was such a nice young man, but I never reciprocated the feelings which he had for me which was sad. I hope he had a good life.

In January of that year I was hanging out down by the gymnasium trying to hitch a ride home so I did not have to ride the bus (all my brothers had cars in high school but I did not get one until my senior year which I shared with my brother Chris who was a sophomore, he got to kept it when I started college so I rode a bike to school in college). I had spoken with Roger Christensen at a few youth basketball games our brothers, Steve and Jared, played in. His dad Larry coached them that year and Roger had seen me in gymnasiums when he refereed youth games and my dad coached. He offered me a ride home, but first had to present his book report. Also his friend had gone to get gas to fill his car. When we eventually got to my house Roger asked me to go to the dance after his basketball game the next night (January 11, 1975). Then he got stuck in our icy driveway on his exit.

The Bruins lost in double-overtime and I waited for Roger to shower and come out after the game. He could not find his car in the parking lot and had to go back in and ask his “cousin” who had ridden with him where he had parked. I guess it was hidden between two buses. He did not really like to dance, so we mostly talked and then he took me to a late dinner afterward, near midnight. He ordered pancakes, onion rings and root beer at Big Boy's Restaurant.  Memorable in itself. (From my journal: After the game I went to the dance with Roger. Boy did I have a blast. The band wasn't very good, but my company sure was. We went to Big Boy afterward, the whole time he was such a gentleman and so fun to be with...It is funny how someone just happens to like someone else. It seems Roger and I were made for each other. But he is kind of shy. It's too bad he doesn't feel the same. That always creates a problem). Roger said I kissed him goodnight that night on my front porch, but I think it was pretty mutual. 

From my journal four days later on 1-15-1975: "Roger is so different. He is everything I am looking for. He has a nice personality, not stuck on himself, always joking around and really refreshing. He is about 6'2", good looking, and plays football, basketball, etc. He is about two years older than me, comes from a really neat family, and to top things off, is an active member of the church. Can you beat that. This is ridiculous I know, I can't imagine what has come over me." I guess I knew I liked him right off.

We dated the rest of his senior and my sophomore year. We went to the Sweetheart Ball with his friends Craig and Sheri Day (pictured) and to many other events including the Seals and Croft Concert in Pocatello, Idaho which we had to be towed home from. We rode in the car being towed by his dad and the rope kept breaking, so we got home very late. My parents were not very strict with me about curfews or really much of anything. After we had been dating for about 6 months and Roger was getting ready to go off to BYU, he confessed he had had a serious girlfriend that he had spoken about marriage with. I confessed I was not really a member of his church although I had been attending since before he met me. He said we needed to do something about that and I wrote my father a letter sharing all the reasons I wanted to get baptized. I received permission and Roger baptized me shortly before leaving for BYU the summer I was 16 years. (See story in "Conversion" section).

Sweetheart Ball 1975 at the Day's home.

During the 1st semester of my junior year Roger was attending BYU, so we talked on the phone and he came home every other weekend. I was involved with school, but probably not as much as I should have been. I sat in the halls at lunchtime and talked to a friend Dave Morris. He used to tease me about joining a church with a prophet named “Joe Smith”, but later as adults he visited me and he had also joined the LDS church. I was called as Primary Chorister so every Wednesday I wore a dress to school and walked to the church afterward to do my calling. I was teased about that too, good-naturedly.  

I loved math, especially Algebra and got 100% on a National Algebra test. Geometry was not my favorite. I also loved English and was a member of Inscapes Creative Writing Class my Senior year with Mrs. Dudley that printed a book of our compiled works. She was a memorable teacher who died not too long after we graduated. She would give us a prompt and put on music and let us write. I remember listening to Dan Fogelberg and writing some pretty crazy stuff. I still love to write and have started a few books but have never had the confidence or experience to finish them. 

Every fall all three years of High School at Homecoming time I was voted to be one of the four girls in my grade to ride in the Homecoming parade on the hood of a car as part of the Homecoming Court running for Homecoming Queen or Princess . And every year I walked out onto the football field at halftime of the Homecoming game and every year I did not win. It was an honor, but embarrassing too.This year Roger sent me flowers and said I “would always be his queen”. Pretty romantic for that guy. It touched my heart.

Roger came home from BYU and attended CSI his 2nd semester so we could date before his mission.  He told me since he was in college he would not attend a high school dance with me. I told him if he would not go to the one formal dance, I would go with someone else, so he went, begrudgingly. Hopefully he had some fun. I did not want to miss out on all high school experiences. I probably did miss some, dating someone in college, but I thought I was so old. 

The summer between my junior and senior year Roger left for the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission. I was dutifully writing him as good girlfriends and neurotic communicators do and he wrote me a “Dear Jane” letter. He said he saw too many missionaries devastated at the loss of their girlfriend and wanted to focus on his mission. His trainer would listen to a cassette tape of his girlfriend’s voice and cry every night. Well I kept writing him and he would write back a paragraph monthly of his testimony. In the meantime I started my senior year.

I was elected Student Body Secretary and got to work with student government. A junior boy whose brother Pat Donnelly was in my class, was my campaign manager and in his campaign speech he said “She looks like a girl, thinks like a man and walks like a dog”. He was supposed to say “works like a dog”, but everyone thought it was funny so perhaps that helped me win. My old buddy who had been in most of my classes since grade school, Jay Dodds, was elected Student Body President. I always said he and his girlfriend looked like they jumped out of a church video. I have never seen him wear jeans, but he was a nice, easy to respect, young man who ended up working with my brother Jason at a bank. We went to some fun conferences and had a good year. I went to the Christmas Dance with another buddy, Dave Morris. I still didn’t really date anyone else even though I was sort of dumped. Roger had me writing the girlfriend of one of his companions who was pretty crazy and ended up moving in with an old boyfriend. It was an odd time.

I mainly remember Inscapes class with Mrs. Dudley and Government with the football coach Mr. Almquist where I wrote a very inappropriate paper about relocating people with alternate lifestyles to an island to live. The coach loved it. I had Mr. Busbee, another coach, teach my science classes and I always worried about him because he was single and I saw him at movies alone, so I dropped some treats off at his house anonymously. Mr. Depew a history teacher (whose wife had been my grade school librarian) and my English teacher Miss Alban were dating and always nice to me. I don’t remember a ton about my senior year. Ironically I remember most about my sophomore year. But I stayed pretty solid and graduated with honors. I received the State of Idaho Academic Scholarship where I could go to any college in Idaho and receive what was a large chuck of money back then for four years ($1500 a year is not much today, but my tuition was only around $300 a semester) This payed for my schooling and books with money left over (since I lived at home). 

Some High School Awards: 
Valedictorian
Student Body Recording Secretary
Voted "Miss Gullible" by my classmates. (Not really an honor, but funny I suppose.)
Altrusa (ServiceClub)'s February girl of the month as a sophomore (for keeping stats for basketball and football teams, Pep Club, Spanish Club and Girl's League member) 
Representative at Girl's State as a junior (setting up a mock government experience)

I wish I knew what would be of interest about my teenage years. I was insecure like most teens, not girly since I grew up with all brothers and did not understand the whole complicated girl-interaction-thing. Thus I did not have many girlfriends, but more guys that were friends since it was easier to relate growing up with all brothers. Now I need and adore my woman friends. Glad I grew up and learned that skill. 

Roger's 18th birthday 1975

Roger's watermelon birthday cake 1975.

Knots Berry Farm 1976

Sun Valley Idaho date

Borrowed Roger's clothes on a Sunday afternoon.

Roger's backyard 

Roger's back patio

Roger's front porch

My mom made this dress for Craig and Becky's wedding.

Borrowed a baby.

Chris and I going to a High School dance.

Basketball backboard I painted. (Idaho Vandals, Twin Falls Bruins, CSI Eagles)

Graduation with little brothers.

Grandma Lewis

Cascade or Candy Cane Park where I worked as park recreation director during the summers.

Roger leaving on his mission from Provo August 1976.

Note Roger and I wrote to pretend we were eloping. :-)