Day #17: Tell me you remember...

"Do you remember?"
What an interesting phrase...
I've been doing a lot of remembering lately.
I've been hearing a lot about remembering lately.

Where we have been makes us who we are.  It creates the person we are today.  I've heard that the past is what happened; it just is.  But history... history is what we make it.  It is the view of the past that has been recorded.

History is what we remember.

These are pieces of my past.  This is my history. This is what I remember.

Tell me you remember some of my earliest memories...
Do you remember when Granny Joy died?
Do you remember how I cried for what seemed like everyday of kindergarten and how my parents tried everything they could think of to try and make it better?
What about the pillow case I stole from Dad and loved more than any other possession?
How I still have a really difficult time with change?

Do you remember singing and dancing with your whole soul in the living room to Disney music and Milli Vanilli?
How I really believed that I knew how to Riverdance?
Do you remember the Leprauchauns and the birthday spankings and piggy banks and learning to color and barbie towel that were kindergarten?
Do you remember "Sally the Slitherin' Snake" and being afraid to go trick or treating?
Loving to eat dinner on the front porch? The honey-suckles and thorns in the back yard?
Or running downstairs the morning of our birthdays to see the cake that mom had decorated?
"I remember that."

Tell me you remember the Carrs...
Do you remember Grandma bringing us books and Grandpa bringing us candy?
Or not really knowing my Dad's side of the family very well?
Do you remember seeing the other Carrs at Thanksgivings and how much fun that was?
Do you remember how I was able to receive my Patriarchal blessing from my Grandpa?
Or Grandma making Cinnamon rolls and the thoughtful things she would make for us?
Do you remember Uncle Dave and how perfect he is and the spirit he carries?

Tell me you remember my not-so-extended family...
Do you remember the hot days at recess and the pleasure of the air conditioning in Nan-Naw's den as we played Monopoly Junior?
Do you remember watching the adults playing Rook and talking while the cousins played video games and invented games and drinks?
Or Ali throwing you on the trampoline and biting your tongue?
What about Nan-Naw baby-sitting us and bringing the Dr. Pepper and Butter-spray for the pop-corn? Or bubble-gum check books and taking us to the Dollar store when we spent the night, or the movies, and eating out, and birthday and christmas shopping?
Do you remember watching Ali cheer, Amy do flags, Andrea play softball with puppy Scooter hanging about? Watching Zack do karate and play DDR and Kayla do gymnastics?
The summer of Lake Lanier with the MacPhersons?
Family spend-the-nights and Bob's cotton candy shoes?
Do you remember the bubble baths and making a fort out of the table on the porch?
Catching the fireflies in the backyard? Nan-Naw's answering machines and pep-talks before going into Wal-mart about what to do if someone tried to kidnap us?
Do you remember going to Pigeon Forge with Nan-Naw and Paw-Paw and what a special trip that was?
Swimming in the Turner's neighborhood pool?
The Dairy Burger, eating in the back, scrubbing the floors, cold cake, cherry sprites, food so good I can almost taste it to this day, the stool by the meat weigher, all the workers, the slaw machine, and the smell it put on clothes?
Do you remember the lazy days and parties and all the food you could ever need at family gatherings?
Do you remember the love and excitement to see each other? How everyone was always at my plays and events to support me?
Do you remember calling me "Red Chip"?
Laughing with Paw-Paw at his jokes and his attempted force-feeding of food? Nan-Naw saying "Bill! Leave them alone!" and trying not to laugh at his jokes?
Trying to learn how to bowl? Nan-Naw singing as we approached her house?
"I remember you."

Tell me you remember the school days...
Singing our multiplication tables and making book-marks and caterpillars out of paper and tape?
Do you remember becoming blood sisters and then your real sister told us that was how people get AIDS?
Do you remember riding our bikes and pretending they were ponies?
Playing boyfriend and girlfriend and having a sophisticated community of stuffed animals and Barbies (complete with religion, occupation, and families)?
Do you remember playing in the gutters when it rained?
Duck or jump?
Drawing streets on the driveway and driving around on it?
Do you remember Mrs. Ausborne leaving and how said that made us? What about her little alligator head on the bookshelf?
Or Casey Tanner's giant house and mom who always made us crafts on the holidays?
Do you remember OOM and how you loved it and thought we should have won?
What about the countless field trips to Fern Bank and Elachee?
Do you remember playing dogs and orphans? The giant rock and forest in our backyard and exploring back there for hours?
Do you remember how I helped Dad build us a tree house?

Do you remember how my best friends went to different middle schools?
Do you remember when I first met Jessica Elinburg standing in line for lunch and she became my best friend?
What about standing in line to try out instruments for band and meeting Ben, my first guy friend, and how he told me about how much he loved cheese?
Remember how I thought that Ishan Ladak was faking his accent when I first heard it?
Do you remember Mrs. Hart? Mr. Tipton? Coach Stubbs?
What about how Coach Allen would always say, "What's up band-nerd?" when I had P.E.?
Do you remember singing VeggieTales at the lunch table and how no one sat across from us?
Or fashion shows when we got to eat outside?
Dad chasing us around the house?
Or coming up with what animals we looked like?
Do you remember Coach Anglin drinking Coke diagonally so his eyes didn't cross, the volcano stories, grading his papers, and the rope-a-dope? Do you remember how he told us he used to be a synchronized swimmer and we believed him for just a second? Do you remember how I lost an assignment and trusted me and gave me the good grade anyway? What about the fact that he will forever be one of my favorite, if not my favorite, teacher? Ever?
Do you remember Wing Staff?
What about drawing doodle pages instead of paying attention in math?
Do you remember trying to wash some of the smell of the hand sanitizer off in the bathroom?
What about rock-a-thons and getting sick after staying up all night at the Wing-staff party?
Or going to free movies at the mall and talking about how one day when we could drive we were going to party all day at the mall?
Do you remember Hoops & Yoyo and doughnuts and ICEES?
What about not having to wear shoes in Mrs. Martin's class and the scale of evil?
Do you remember the 8th grade formal and how nice Justin was to buy us corsages?

Tell me you remember band...
Do you remember how much we loved Mr. Rowell?
Or going to help him sort through all of his music?
Do you remember how we all played trombone?
Do you remember going to Competition all three years, once to help play the xylophone?
What about "Harpo Yerfniw" "Rrac Ycak" and "Acissej Grubnile"?
Do you remember feeling like our teeth were moving after playing trombone for HOURS on end?
What about UGA mid-fest and how much fun that was?
Do you remember being band-aids and being so disappointed when they made us ride with the color-guard?
Or making up songs, listening to "In the Dark of the Night," "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts," and "Who's gonna eat some corn-bread?"
Learning all of the color guard dances and HOW MANY PROPS THEY HAD!!!?
Do you remember how marching band is one of the most difficult things I have ever done?
How Spencer's parents brought us giant muffins from Mimi's?
Mom chaperoning?
"I like-a da banana-nut!"?
Do you remember the color guard instructors and the yappy dog?
Do you remember how we would ask Ben what time it was every two to three minutes in band class?
My red, plastic mouth-piece and rash from metal allergy that resulted in my using a bandana?
Do you remember storing pixie-sticks in our coveralls? How much I loved the coveralls?
What about trips to Waffle House and Sonic after football games?
Do you remember the first time we beat Gainesville and the football team came to celebrate by the band and Mr. Wiebers made us play the alma-mater?
What about the glory of marching band competitions and trying to sing the shows?
Or that one time we were having sectionals and marched around the wood-winds? Or when it was lightning and Mr. Wiebers had to check the weather before we could go inside? Or when it was my birthday and everyone was getting dyhydrated/passing out?
Do you remember how not excited Mr. Wiebers was when I decided to quit and start theater?
"I remember that..."

Tell me you remember theater...
The first play I was in and how I got to be Scottish? How I almost had to kiss Derek Nunn? How I was an emo half-seal girl named Ellen Jean?
Do you remember Peter Pan and the cat with nine tails, cakes with green sugar, and all of our inside jokes?
Do you remember Ben's indestructible hair and how we put WAY too much wrong colored make-up on?
Or how I got to be Wendy and talk with a British Accent?
Maybe the awful audition for Big Bad and Mrs. T giving me the part of the Fairy God Mother anyway because she had faith in me?
Do you remember how I ruined my back forever from pulling two chairs and talking on a cell-phone at a rehearsal?
Being in Mr. Wagoner's class where I learned so much... both from him about theater and improv and from the other kids in the class about lots of things I didn't want to hear about?
The little baby auditorium and feeling like I owned the place?
Do you remember how I found a love of dance during the dance concert that Jessica Thaxton choreographed? Or how much fun I had being in the ensemble of Oklahoma! and the wonderful friends I made?
What about how Dallin convinced me to try out for Tom Sawyer the summer before our junior year?
Do you remember Bequelenduh, how Carter and I had WAY too much fun with this show, and how that show will forever be summer?
Do you remember how Madi and I were drama club president president and vice-president and didn't even do Footloose?
The haunted houses? Attempted dances? Musical Theatre? UTAs and Shakespeare Competitions?
Do you remember Kindness I, Kindness II, and Kindness III?
How Taming of the Shrew was way more fun than any Shakespeare play should ever be and how Madi and I had the best back story of all time?
That suspicious look that Mr. Carpenter gave me when he told me that he wanted Tanner to be Earl and me to be Matilda and how I was scared to death for that first kiss?
Do you remember how "All Shook Up" started my obsession with Elvis? How much I loved that play and listening to Dallin Littlefield sing?
How I had the funnest costumes ever in Music Man and how it was so different from Tom Sawyer?
Do you remember how amazing Urinetown was and how Dayquil helped me to make it through performances without hacking up a lung? Or Texas Dirt? EVERYWHERE!?
Do you remember MacBeth and how Stephanie did my hair and I got to where the Zefron wig and die? Twice?
What about Thoroughly Modern Millie and how Mrs. Meers will probably always be my favorite part I've ever played? And how long it took me to put all of my make-up on and 3 people to put on my wig and my plethora of costumes?
Do you remember Fiddler on the Roof and Mr. Tumnus and Sabbath Prayer and how it was the most unexpectedly fun play and I loved my family?

Tell me you remember moving...
Do you remember feeling like my world was crumbling?
Or realizing that Grantsville was Napoleon Dynamite?
Do you remember Dallin helping us get the flies out of our tent?
And becoming friends with KK, Heather, Parker, Dallin, Rhett, and Grady?
Seeing people lasso each other in the parking lot and riding horses on the side of the road?
Do you remember hating it here?
Do you remember when I learned to love it here?
Do you remember how I had to learn ballroom just so I would get asked to dance at stake and regional dances?
How theater classes were SO different?
How ALL classes were SO different?
Do you remember mashed potato thursdays?
And actually being able to walk places? And spur of the moment visits to KK's house? And not turning 16 until forever?
Do you remember when Parker and I got to go to the David Archuleta concert for free?
Or the Verona Lane concert where Ashtyn and I bonded for the first time?

Tell me you remember having way more fun in high school than any one girl should be allowed...
And being on the ballroom team? And the stretch of the angels?
Do you remember Madi and lollipops, and powdered sugar fights, glitter, matches, snickers, notes, mr. lineras, long deep conversations, theater, Disneyland, pooling butter, dressing up, representative barbie dolls, dance parties in the car, her mom, and sisterfriends?
Do you remember Tanner and superhero dates, paint fights, adventures, joking around, the zoo, epic yard sales, going to the movies, holding hands, lots of dates, ice skating, best friends, doughnuts, Christmas lights, and being in love?
Do you remember getting our faces painted in an epic manner?
That one time I got to be a techie?
Do you remember the homecoming pagent and not wanting to do Sterling Scholar?
What about Ashtyn and Bekah? Pink icing toilet paper, temple trips and seeing the prophet? Jamming out to music, back-road rides, boy talks, creeper pictures, heart-felt conversations, theworstfriendsthatanyonecouldeverhave, spend-the-nights, dressing like a cow to get free food, and trust and understanding and the unstoppable trio?
Or doodling... a lot?
What about when we rode bikes all the way to Grantsville and Dallin never let us quit?
Do you remember finding a box of over 50 doughnuts?
Do you remember Dallin and summers, hugs, prom, four-wheeling, a teddy bear, grocery shopping, oh cherie, icing fight, teasing, slip-and-sliding, dancing, and falling asleep during movies?
What about how nice Mr. Topham was/is to me all of the time?
Or lunch picnics? Or going home for lunch?
Please! Ren Wilson and his butt-flap?
What about karaoke and dance parties at Carlos' house? Johnny and Friends?
Do you remember the Kacy's Angels? That one time Dallin, Johnny, and Justin ate 50 million bags of pop-corn at my house?
What about people setting goals to not eat at my house?
Do you remember Chester, milkshake runs, trust, always being there, laughing through dances, being the back-up plan for the snow ball, and how he is always there for me?
What about Fredrick and scream therapy and milkshake runs, and how he is super man?
Or Stacy and hair checks, pocket tanks, and jumping on tiles in the hallways? Chick-pick and togas, nerf wars, and SUCH an epic date?
Do you remember Stephanie and how good at hair she was and her epic songs that we listened to? And building a cardboard castle?
Do you remember Carlos and how sincere he was, dancing, laughing, dancing, laughing, man arms, "Kacy don't cry...", level-up fights, and final fantasy?
Do you remember how we would all have hours of conversation with my parents?
How they would let Sydni and I sit on the end of their bed and spill out our concerns and seek their advice?
Graduating and how hard it was but how amazing our parties were?
That one time we went to Georgia and how much fun it was?
How about Zac Cooper and Richard Simmons and cousin Ed?
Do you remember Lake Powell, sea doos, wave runners, trying to wake-board, facials, tubepooing, tubing, late nights of sleeping under the stars, singing songs, making bracelets, boating, no make-up, lavender oil, true laughs, and spiritual conversations?

Tell me you remember college...
And being scared to death?
How clean my roommates were?
Do you remember Tanner coming to visit and colormemine?
Do you remember LOVING Polynesian dance and beginning world dance?
What about the incredible spiritual aspect of BYU and growing?
The beauty all around, my amazing ward, and my terrible allergies?
Do you remember how I practically lived in a hotel?
How about writing missionaries?
Or the earthquakes that we would wake-up to in the mornings?
Do you remember the amazing friends I made, although most of them I didn't make until the last couple of months?
How Ashtyn and I relied on each other so so much and became BFFAEs?
Do you remember when Tanner and I broke up?
Or Zumba and how I loved it so much even though it made me feel like I was going to die at some points?
Do you remember growing up and loving the feeling of progression?
Realizing that God's hand is everywhere?
How about how some days were better than others?
Crying in agonizing pain and laughing in complete and utter joy?
Do you remember coloring alone in my bedroom and watching Tangled and Avatar the Last Airbender?
The millions of times I must have watched Remember the Titans?
How much of a pain moving is?
Do you remember soccer four-square, dinner at the hospital, and sitting on the waterfall?
What about the Bean Museum?
Tengo la Camisa Negra?
Do you remember actually loving the testing center?
Or Oatmeal and cookie parties? Tunnel Singing?
What about how I would stay for hours after ward prayer talking to the guys?
Or activities commitee, scrabble sundays, and break-the-fast?
Do you remember how hard and awful summer was at first?
Or the one time Jalen came to visit me?
Do you remember working at the Daycare and growing to love the kids?
Hanging out with Parker all of the time and how he was SUCH a tender mercy?
Going to Bear Lake, rasberry milkshakes, and loving how much time I got to spend with my family over the summer and really rebonding with them? Or going to San Francisco and mom making us walk the Golden Gate Bridge?
How much I love my family?
Do you remember how Parker and his family took me and Steph to Disneyland and how it was SO SO much fun?
How the summer was the most unexpectedly awesome thing ever?
Zac Cooper coming over and busting a gut with me?
Do you remember sitting partying with Ms. Lisa because she is the best and we were lonely?
Do you remember sitting around the table with the McBrides, Brandaris', and Tylers and talking for hours?

Tell me you remember how blessed I am and how much I am grateful for and love my life. <3

I can hardly wait for the adventures to come.....
"So, as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterday however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future -- faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives." ~ Jeffrey R. Holland