Top 10 favorite memories

Here we go:

1. Favorite movie memory (as a kid): definitely the scene in ET when they come to the house in the white suits ready to capture ET and do tests on him and the kids are crying and Elliott takes off with ET in his bike. That was heartstopping entertainment for a tweenage little girl.

2. Favorite food memory: It's a tie. Eating pepperoni pizza at Abby's pizza after jr. high dances in my hometown. Still the best pizza I have ever tasted. And, eating the Burrito Grande at Cheesecake Factory with my husband in Miami while on vacation. Anything from Cheesecake Factory is delicious....my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

3. Favorite "cute guy" memory: After hearing the real cute guy at school kinda liked me I decided to go back to my dorm room and cancel a date with a different boy and show up at the girls basketball game "cute guy" would be working at (because basketball players were required to work some of the girls games). I spent the whole game stealing looks back and forth with the cute guy, and got a call from him the very next day. Now we live together.

4. Favorite birthday memory: One year my husband picked me up from work a little early and we decided to get dinner and a movie at the mall (woo-hoo!) But what I didnt know is that he had withdrawn a decent amount of cash and decided to let me have a little shopping spree before the movie started! I didnt spend it all, but it sure was fun feeling like I could!

5. Favorite elementary school memory: 1st grade, chasing John Carpenter around the playground, catching the back of his shirt and watching it rip off of him. The thrill of catching him but the fear of having gone too far. More the thrill of catching him. (I've always been a little boy crazy. Ahemmm, for my husband that is!)

6. Favorite boardgame memory: Balderdash is a hit with our family, and before we had kids we used to stay up til the crack of dawn playing. One time we had some jazzy music playing in the background and while we were intently trying to write down our fake meanings to these words the saxophone solos began. I dont know what happened, but someone commented on how funny it would be if Stretch and Giles (my father-in-law's 2 Italian Greyhounds) were actually playing the intruments in the other room and we didnt know it. Each time the saxaphone solo got more and more elaborate, and with each solo we got to cracking up harder and harder just imagining those two dogs in there playing. It reached of level of hysteria, we were laughing so hard, and there wasnt a dry eye in the room. It may not make sense on paper, but that is a great memory!

7. Favorite dreaded memory: Is that even possible? Oh well. One of my favorite bad memories is of a former home owner who rented an apartment to us which was actually a part of her house. Without going into much detail (it would take me a day to type out the whole story) we asked if we could take up the pink carpet in one room to make my husband's studio. She agreed to let us remove the carpet and paint the floor a neutral color. The morning after she came knocking on our door at the crack of dawn asking what the horrible smell was. When I explained we had painted the night before she went ballistic on me. In fact, the one line that I will never forget her saying was, "I dont know if you two are naive or just plain stupid!" Ahhh, good times.

8. Favorite "now Im a grown up" memory: Buying a house. It was SUCH a tedious process, but the most glorious moment was realizing that we no longer answered to anyone about color, noise, "stuff", where to park, how long we had to stay, etc. And at the same time realizing that we had no one to answer us about plumbing problems, yard work, noisy neighbors, bugs, etc.

9. Favorite candy memory: The "lick-a-stik." Oh I loved those candies! You get two big white hard candy sticks and three separate pouches of powdery sugar to dip them in. Your tongue would get raw but you would power thru and finish the whole thing, spending the rest of the afternoon on a major sugar high only to come crashing down right around suppertime.

10. Favorite mom memory: Not too long ago I had one of those moments with my daughter that was too precious. It was a moment I wished I could snapshot and hold on to forever, but I knew that a photo wouldnt have come close to capturing the beauty of it. We were at the park and she was just tugging at my heart strings with every word. It was one of those days. And I thought she might like to swing with me. You know, the "spider swing"? When you sit normal and the other person sits on you lap facing you with their legs around your waist? It was a beautiful day outside and we were sitting there swinging and she had this look on her face, pure enjoyment, amazement, and innocence. I thought I could never love her more.