Perspective - Day 3/ School

Question for this one was: What was school like for you growing up?

“It was hard. In thinking about school in Hawaii and school in Utah and they were totally different. In Hawaii school was much more relaxed. I think I had more confidence.

I was going into 4^th grade when we moved to Utah. I remember being happier in school in Hawaii. Moving here I felt very self conscious. I felt like everyone was staring at me. Probably because I was the new one and people were trying to get to know me.

It was harder here.

My teacher would yell a lot, it seemed. She got mad at me one time in front of everyone. That was embarrassing. I was more prone to day dream during class here.

In Hawaii you didn’t have to wear shoes to school. Utah was much more strict.

It was uncomfortable.

I think I became much more shy here in Utah. It was a weird thing for our family to move here. We were all caught off guard.

In Hawaii there weren’t the clicks. There weren’t the popular kids. Here there was. I always wanted to fit in with the clicks and the popular kids. There was a girl here named Catherine and I thought she was so cool, and she was the popular one. I wanted to be like her. I don’t remember feeling like that with anyone in Hawaii. I think because of that I felt more insecure. That went on through Junior High.

I remember introducing friends at school to the game “Go Water” that we used to play in Hawaii. It was sort of a version of tag.

I think people thought I was athletic because I was always the taller one. So in games at recess I was always one of the top picks for kick ball. I remember one time standing up there to kick; there was this kid I liked, Denny, he was the pitcher. I remember him telling everyone, “Ok guys, scoot back, scoot back”. That was a proud moment because obviously they thought I was going to kick that ball way out there.

I didn't like to run during PE. I remember saying I had asthma when we had to run the mile. I got out of it.

I was very fragile kid. I sprained my ankles several times. I was always falling off the trampoline, or burning my arm, and having to wear some sort of cast”.

Preschool - Hawaii 1981

Kindergarten - Hawaii 1982-1983

2nd Grade - Hawaii 1984-1985

6th Grade - Utah 1988-1989
Denny, the kid I liked, is standing on the row in front of me with a red and white striped shirt. Catherine, who I wanted to be like, is standing next to me on the end (top row on the right)

Perspective-Day 2/ Favorite things growing up.

"What were some of your favorite things to do growing up?"...

“Playing dress up. Mom would go to the good will store and buy all these old ballerina costumes, and grown-up outfits. We had this huge bin full of dress up clothes. Some of the neighborhood kids would all come over and we would play dress up. I had a certain outfit that was only for me. No one else could wear it. It was like an ice skating outfit. It was white and had light blue ruffles on the backside, and it was all mine. We spent hours and hours dressing up. We had necklaces, and shoes.

It was a perfect girl’s paradise.

Me and Erin playing dress-up; although she's the only one wearing dress-up clothes.

As I got older a favorite thing to do with my friends was watch pre recorded music videos, such as 'Walk like an Egyptian' by The Bengals. We would memorize the song and learn all the dance moves from the video. We would do this sort of thing all the time. We had a few different instruments and act out each song that we liked.

When the movie Newsies came out my best friend, Michelle Bogart, and I would walk to the SCERA Theater all the time and watch it. I was obsessed with boys! This was in 1992, I believe. I was like 13 or 14. I was so obsessed with boys that for my 14th birthday we played Bingo with boys’ names that we had crushes on instead of numbers. Boys like Balthazar Getty, Christian Bale, etc.

New Kids on the Block were my favorite! I was completely obsessed them! I would buy BOP Magazine & Teen Beat magazines all the time just so I could get the NKOTB pictures so Caitilin and I could plaster them on our walls. Every inch of those walls in my bedroom were covered! We even went to their concert. I remember being so determined that I would meet them after the concert, I didn't. I would practice writing my name ‘Shannon McIntyre’ because I was going to marry Joey”.

Perspective/ Earliest Childhood memory

Last week one of my younger brothers Sean came over to "Interview" me for his Sociology class. The Assignment was to get a perspective of life from a sibling. I was honored that he chose me.

There were 5 questions he asked me and I'd like to post them on my blog each day. It was fun reading what he wrote as I babbled on about things. I mean, after all this was to be a 5 page paper...I had a lot to talk about...lol.

Here's the preface of his paper...

"When I first heard about this assignment I was actually really looking forward to it. The opportunity to interview a member of my family really interested me because I knew I would be given the chance to learn more about one of my siblings. I come from a family of 8 kids. There are four boys and four girls, and I am the 2nd youngest. Within a few moments of learning about this paper I instantly knew I wanted to interview my sister Shannon, who is 4 years older than me and was born in 1977. The main reason I was looking forward to involve her is because we didn’t grow up spending a lot of time together like I did with my brothers and some of my other sisters. I felt like this would be a great chance to really get to know my sister better and hear about some of her life experiences growing up."

Now, the way he wrote this was exactly as I said it basically. I jumped around a lot as I took a stroll down memory lane.

Question 1: What are some of your earliest Childhood Memories?

“I remember playing with my sisters all the time. We used to play pageant. It was because my oldest sister Megan was in a preteen pageant in Hawaii. Because of that we would pretend we were in a pageant at home. We would stand there in a line while Megan was the host. She would ask us interview questions. It was always like, “What do you want to see in the world?”, and of course the answer was always ‘World Peace’. I remember she had this program from said pageant. It had all the all the contestants names, pictures and everything. We would pretend like we were those girls from the pageant. When Megan was actually in the pageant, the girl that won was named ‘Sunny’ – so each of us would take a turn being Sunny so we could all win on different occasions. Megan would have her crown and sash and she would announce the winner. We used our coffee table as the stage. It was so much fun! We would do different numbers; songs and gymnastics. Caitilin would do aerobics. There was always a winner. I think sometimes I would get jealous of who won, but we would take turns so much that we would all eventually win. Megan even coached us how to do certain dance moves. Each of us would practice our number in a separate room for a little bit, and then Megan would do the introductions.

"Another memory is of my Wizard of Oz phase. It was MY movie. Anytime there was an opportunity to watch a movie it was always Wizard of Oz. I loved it so much that my best friend Meilani Smith and I would play the "Wizard of Oz" out in the back yard. This was in kindergarten. I was always Dorothy. I would make Meilani hang on the clothes line we had in the backyard, on the metal "T" part of it, and pretend to be Scare Crow. I also made {my older brothers} Shane and Quinn pretend to be the lollipop Guild. They would kneel down and do the dancing. I had this little battery operated dog and it would do flips. This was Toto. Mom knew how much I loved it. I had long hair like Dorothy, and mom would braid my hair. One time she went to the good will store and got me a surprise. She got me these Silver sparkly slippers, not ruby one, but it was good enough. I would wear them all over. I loved them. I remember going to BYU-Hawaii basketball games and I's be in my own little world on the upper level walkway, pretending like it was the yellow brick road, and I would skip around the whole gym. I would dance and twirl and just imagine I was Dorothy”.

My 4th Birthday. This was during my Dorothy phase. I always wanted to wear dresses, and I was such a poser back then. Some things never change.

Good times...

January

I signed up for my first real 5k. So excited!

Me & the newlywed, Erin.

My Dad and oldest Nephew, Kalin celebrated their birthdays.

Max keeps growling at something in our front room. Scary!

Kalin the b-ball player. The one in white ready to start the game with the jump shot.

Went to some of his games this month.

My youngest bro, Conn, and I hanging out at Kalin's b-ball game.

We finally got SOME snow.

I love my blueberry graham smoothies that I make each morning. I can't get enough!

wearing some lip stain that I just bought.

He's so cute!

Pink and black day. Didn't you get the memo??

Awww...my favorite boys.

More December pictures/videos

I still can't get over how fun December was with Erin's wedding, and Caiti and Liam coming to down, as well as having our cousin Brendan come out for the wedding.

I found more pictures to upload--and I'm sure I'll keep finding more and more.

These were taken after the wedding, and after just leaving from the wedding luncheon at La Dolce Vita Restaurant in Downtown Provo. It was fun!

During the lunch the boys decorated both Erin and Dave's cars, because they weren't sure what car they were going to take. They ended up taking Dave's car, and I got to be the lucky one to drive Erin's home, all covered in "Just married" decor.

Throwing a little rice at the Bride and Groom.

Good looking guy right there...

Erin's decorated car...

Getting in to Dave's decorated car...

So long...happy honeymooning!!!

Me and Ryan during lunch. My eyes are red and puffy because
I was crying so much during the ceremony. Tear of joy, of course!

It was so fun having my little sissy come into town with her cute little boy Liam. I love it when she comes to town. I just wish it could last a lot longer.

Gosh, he's cute! I love that boy!

This cute little girl had her 1st birthday on the 21st. Lover her!

Here are the highlights of Erin & Dave's reception. Oh man, I still laugh so hard when I watch this!! Now, it's 12 minutes long so if you want to watch the whole thing...cool. Or, if you want to see the really good stuff start watching at 3:25, where my brothers Quinn and Shane serenade Erin and Dave with their own rendition of "reunited". So funny! Then after that You'll see my sisters and I singing. Watch closely as Caiti, next to me with the mic, hoggs the microphone all to herself--you can see me trying to signal to bring it back. The Waterloo after that is THE BEST though!!!



December was a good month indeed.

My Mom...

Last Friday my sisters and mom and I had been emailing funny things back and forth. Each time my Mom ends her emails she always has a funny way of writing her name by adding to the word, "mom". After the most recent one I read, and laughed out loud, I decided they needed to be documented.

So, I searched through my saved emails from my mom and compiled this list of the way she ends her emails. Gosh, she's funny!

Ready for the list??

-Mommywannabearichgirlwommy.

-Mommyinshitinski (by the way...that swear word look alike should be pronounced with a long "i"...it's not meant to be a swear word...we figured that out with our back and forth emails. So funny!)

-Mom/Colleen

-Momella

-Momellainski

-Love you muchly, Mommy

-Mommy Wommerinskilevitchdoooowhaaadooowhaaa and so on.

-Mommy Kins

-Love you bunches, Mommy Wommy

-Love you so much, Mom

-Love all of you more than you can measure. Gramma, Mom, Colleen

-Mommy loves you so very much. Big M

-Love you muchliness, Colleen

-Mom/Gramma/Colleen/Precious Darling Wife

-Gramma, Mom, Colleen also very precious individual

-Mom/Colleen/Sweetheart/Darling/Precious

-Mommy Wominski

-Mommy

-Momzer

-Mommy Licious

-Momly Womly

-Momness

-Momzerwomzerinski

Gosh she's funny! I love my Mom! I love that she's not so serious and can be so dang funny! I love that she makes us laugh so hard! I love that she is not afraid to be silly. I LOVE YOU MOMELLA!!!

Krissie the Model

I did a FUN, FUN, FUN photo shoot with my cousin Krissie last Saturday. Holy Moly, I never knew she was a model! Seriously, look at her posing, and 'smizing' with her eyes. Tyra would be so proud!!!

I would post these to my photography blog but while my new website it being worked on I can't post anything on there. But, as soon as it's done I sho'nuff will.

You are HOT Krissie!!!!

PS: Cool tidbit. That camera she's holding in her right hand (would be on the left if you're looking at the picture) belonged to my Grandpa Phil Curran. There is still film in it too. That case by her foot was his camera case. Way cool!