The Basement

This is one of those memories I'll never forget because as soon as I light a wood burning fireplace, I'm transported right back to the basement of the house I grew up in.

The basement, now home to a new guest bedroom with a gas fireplace on the wall, and the laundry room was once our main living space. The upstairs living room used to be full of antiques and was more of a formal living room.

There used to be an ugly green and off-white-ish sort of couch as well as a burnt orangish red lazy boy chair.

There was a large hutch, which I believe is still there that used to hold our box TV and if I am remembering correctly it had a dial to change the channels. I remember watching cartoons and Sesame Street on it! I remember my dad coming home for lunch and us RUNNING upstairs

Most of my memories stem from looking at pictures of my childhood which might be why I LOVE pictures so much! But we had many birthday parties down there. We had a long table set up along the front side of the house of the basement... There are home video's of these parties and I love seeing my Grandma in them!

We also used to have Christmas down in the basement. We used to get a REAL Christmas tree that went in the basement every year and the fake one in the living room upstairs. The one down stairs had all the goofy, animated, colourful ornaments and the bead strands. We also have a wood burning fireplace in the basement which is why we lived down there. Once we got the "fake" one upstairs the downstairs ceased to exist as "the" hang out place.

My brother and I used to make some forts down there that were pretty cool! I remember a series of tunnels we made with the amazing cardboard boxes my dad used to bring home from work! I need to remember to bring home random stuff like that for when I have kids!

I also had a fancy tea party birthday down there one year!

I remember falling in love with  Kristi Yamaguchiand Scotty Hamilton's backflips there, snuggled up under ugly but warm (yellow, brown & orange zigzag striped) blankets, sipping cocoa, replacing wood in the fire. Such wonderful, wonderful memories!


One year I hosted a big dinner for 21 girls! It was formal attire, and it was a full turkey & potatoes spread on Valentines Day! After dinner we had an awards show in the basement that Carrie helped me plan! We had a red carpet lined with Christmas lights, and a podium! We invited Anne - the Youth Leaders wife, and we even had entertainment; Nikki & Nicole sang a duet! We gave each girl an award based on something from their personality!  That could be a whole other blog post as well!!  But here's a picture of the senior girls from the party!!

amplified

As mentioned in my previous post, I concocted an idea while at Fair Haven's to plan an event that would be a city-wide Worship event.

I named it Amplified because like an "amplifier" we need to be loud and get the word out, our Praise needs to be amplified.

I got great cooperation from my church, after proposing the idea to the board of deacons and getting approved, Pastor Jeff helped out so much! We had 2 worship teams participate, our Youth Choir performed a whole production and I also had a speaker present a message. We had food and drinks and really cool lighting. I had to do all kinds of advertising and the event was a success!

So much so that I did it again a 2 years later. I must have been only 13 or 14 the first year that we put on the event.

The first year it was in our church gym and the 2nd year it was in the main sanctuary.

pictures to come soon .....

My Memories

Lately I have been having flash backs of memories I never want to forget. Since I'm blogging about my life now, I have a record of the things that are important happening now, but there are so many memories from the previous 22 years that I don't want to go down in history. I want them to live on. So most of these posts will be short, and really only for my benefit and those who are really close to me.

My BFF, writes out a memory in detail once a week in her blog, but I feel like I have too many so I'm making my own blog specifically for those precious or not so precious times.

If you read this, I hope you enjoy.... maybe it will inspire you to write down your own memories too.