Friday, February 02, 2007

Fifty Wonderful Memories

In honor of my fiftieth post, I am listing 50 wonderful memories of my life. I will do them in several parts. These are in absolutely no order, and will probably be too random to be in any way all-inclusive.

1. The day my mom told us we were having a baby brother or sister (Emily). Anna and I jumped up and down on our beds half the night in excited anticipation.

2. A snowy nig
ht last January when I found a bosom friend in Christen Taylor over hot tea and leftover Panera Bread.

3. Playing kick-ball with Josh's family and my sisters at the school across the street. Neislers versus non-Neislers!

4. Leaving our w
edding amidst hugs, sparklers, bubbles, snap 'n' pops and people handing us cards with money in them. We'd never felt so loved!

5. When the 3rd Lord of the Rings came out at midnight, and the theatre was so loud and exciting. Misty jumped up and shouted on the part when Aragorn jumps over the side of the boat.

6. Holding my neicelet Schmader-Cakes for the first time. She was the most darling baby I'd ever seen, and I was overjoyed to be an Auntie!

7. Super Bowl 29 with my dad. Game began at 6:00pm, gates opened at 11:00am, we arrived at 9:00am. Then we
left during the 3rd quarter because it was such a blow out, and we went to a nice restaurant. :) (Only my dad! Hurry up and wait!)

8. Abby (my sister) c
rying and crying at my wedding. I realized how close we'd become that year after I was out of college, and the precious gift of friendship I shared with my sisters.

9. The first time I finished reading The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis, and how my heart was overjoyed and my mind was overwhelmed at those precious words "the term has ended, the holidays begun. . . "

10. The night I stayed up until 3 am finishing Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth
Elliot, and I bowed my head and worshiped our Great God of Life and Death.

11. There are so many Camp OUTT memories, but one that stands out was the day Mandy did the obstacle course and the kids had to get gummy worms out of the sick wading pools. That was such a great day! And such a great summer!

12. My going away party at Blue Kangaroo Books. I was so honored and blessed by all the people who came by to hug me and say goodbye. It opened my eyes to how many people I knew and loved from those clubs and that job.

13. New York City trip with Misty, Shea and Emily. I can't imagine a better fun-packed 4 days. We walked the length of Manhattan, watched a Broadway show, ate at "21", saw the Met and the Guggenheim, and scarfed down a million pretzels with spicy mustard.

14. When I won the freestyle dance at the PowWow. I couldn't beli
eve it when I looked over and the Native American guy was imitating me. Then he chose me as a finalist, and after I danced my guts out, and they held the feather fan over my head, I WON! I'm sure I'll tell my kids someday. :)

15. The precious last Wednesday night at Calvary with all the kids, and counting our AIDS orphans offering (over $370 total!!) and the teens and the parents blessing Josh and I upstairs with prayer and a goodbye party.

16. Being in the King and I with DLO. Abby, Emily, Nancy and I and a lot of their friends were all in the chorus, and sang "Getting to Know You". I met my friend Stephanie K there, and bonded with all the terrific "head children". I got to be the mother of the twins, as well as the one little special child with lines who reads the goodbye letter to Anna.

17. When I was 11 and I was scared of losing my salvation, I spent multiple terrified nights in a row "praying to be saved" as the Lord opened my eyes to more and more sin in my life. One night I confessed all to my parents and my mom prayed with me. Relief is one of the best feelings in the world, I found, as the peace of God stole over my small body and I was able to rest.

Stay tuned for part 2!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a neat idea for your 50th post! I'm coming up on my 50th too and will try to think of something special to do.

Display Name said...

I dunno why, but I love slice-of-life blogs. Number 17 was especially moving. Sounds like you got straightened out much earlier than I did. I recently blogged on my own past Anfechtung:

http://onesimos.blogspot.com/2007/01/brother-martin.html

GloryandGrace said...

After this post, I've come to the conclusion that I definitely need to hear more about this free-style dance competition you won!

Sandy said...

Gret, I SO remember when you went to the Super Bowl! I can remember we were watching the game at the Miller's house in their party room and you called from the game. All the guys tried to pretend they didn't care, but you know they were green with envy!
Sandy

Anonymous said...

I always love reading your blog. you are such a great writer. i like your 50 list and can't wait to read more!

Anonymous said...

i don't know why my posts aren't linking to my blog. just testing again!

Anonymous said...

I don't mean to be a downer, but I MISS YOU!!!!:(
Staci

Gretchen said...

Morning Rose -- Thanks so much! I was going to wait until 100, but who wants to read that many??

Kev -- if I got it straightened it out earlier, it was because of my wretched sinfulness at such a young age. God's merciful kindness is amazing! I'll have to tell you the background sometime. And I'll check out your post for sure.

Grace -- tomorrow night. demonstration. participation manditory. :)

Sand -- HA HA! Like I didn't know those guys were jealous! That's why I called! I was such a brat.

Meg -- I have no idea why either, but I tried to link to you, and it never works! Don't know why!??

Staci -- WAH! I miss you guys too!

mitchells2000 said...

Cool idea for your posts... it's fun to find out what other people's memories are like!