Day 25 - What I would find in your bag

• Wallet
• Two flavors of gum, always a fruity kind and a minty kind
• iPhone earbuds... broken... got new ones today
• Purple pen
• Black pen
• Regular strength Tylenol (no Extra-Strength for preggies!)
• Lotion
• 2 lipsticks, 2 lip balms, 1 lip gloss and 1 eyeliner
• Keys
• iPhone

Day 14 - A picture of you and your family

Day 12 - How you found out about blogging and why you have a blog

This post was originally posted about a year ago on another blog of mine.  Rather than rewriting the same post over again, I figured I'd just post this one again!  The reasons are still the same.  And this was a pretty good post, really.

See this gorgeous girl I'm hugging' on?  This is Naomi.  She's been my buddy since 9th grade.  You can blame her for my blogging.  When we were 14, she showed me her blog.  I was intrigued!  A diary?  Online?  AWESOME!  I have now been blogging for about 12 years.  Back in the day, before the internet got all fancy I even wrote my own HTML code for that blog.  I made a new blog every few months, when I got tired of people who I didn't want reading it having easy access to my thoughts.  Why it never occurred to me to just make it a private blog, I will never know!  But anyways, Naomi is the one who first told me about blogging.

Fast forward a few years.  Elder M. Russell Ballard gave a commencement address in 2007 at BYU-Hawaii.  He talked about the importance of using the internet for good, and how members of the church can use their personal blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts and other types of social media to stand as examples of what it really means to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today.  He invited members of the church to join the conversation on the internet.  You can read the talk here.  Or even watch a clip of the talk below.

This talk has been mentioned by other LDS bloggers, but it truly affected me.  I've become a lot more open about my faith online now.  It's a big part of my life, and I love to share what I believe.  I love having conversations and discussions about what I believe, and learning about what other people believe.  Why not do that on my blog?

Another reason that I blog is to have a record of my life.  I have always, always kept a journal.  I may not write every day, or even consistently.  But I do write.  I also have this blog.  Someday, I'd like to scan all of my old diaries and put them into one book.  I'd like to print these blogs out, and bind them.  I want to have my remembrances in one place, rather than 15!  I blog to preserve my story, and hopefully, to leave something behind for my progeny.   

Momma's got a brand new attitude...

My awesome friend Ashley posted a really neat blog post today.  She talked about living below your privileges, and it really struck me.  She's a rockstar.

But it got me thinking... Mainly about how I'm not ashamed of my past.  I'm not proud of a lot of it, and I'm sad about some of it, but I've certainly learned a lot from it.  And... maybe it's okay if I'm "out" on the internet.  Maybe it's okay if I let you know who I am.  Maybe it's okay if I stop hiding, because... that sorta makes it look like I'm ashamed of who I am.  The whole reason I was hiding behind the anonymity of this blog was because I was afraid that people would be watching me, and reading me, and knowing who I am... and there are a couple people I would prefer NOT to know my everyday comings and goings.  But... that's kinda silly.  I have so many friends and family that are scattered abroad, and blogs are how we keep in touch a lot of the time.

I still plan on keeping "internet names" for me and mine.  And I'm still on the fence about putting up Baby Bug's image on the web.  But... Maybe it's not so bad if I start sharing my blog.  :-)  Enough people have asked, that maybe it's time.  So... here goes.

My name is Aubri.  I'm 25, I am a single mom.  My ex-husband and I divorced in my first trimester.  I don't talk much about him, because that's his business.  I don't talk much about our marriage and divorce because he's a private person, and I respect his privacy enough to leave it at that.  It's not just MY story, it's his story too.  And he chooses to keep his stories OFF the web, so out of respect for him, I keep it off my corner of the web.  I hope that everyone else would respect him enough to leave him out of my internet life as well.  I will never tolerate anyone slamming him, his character, or his family.

Hello internet.  I'm here to make my case, and present myself to the world.  Aubri, The Lemon Momma... out and proud.

Day 5 - A picture of somewhere you've been

Something Old...

Ten years ago last August, my maternal grandmother passed away.  It was a really tough time for me.  Her passing was a beautiful and spiritual occasion, and it brought us together as a family in a way that nobody but she could have possibly done.  She was seriously a rockstar.  I have a LOT of happy memories from that time.  Weird, I know.  :-)

After she passed, we got to do the whole tear apart the house, sort everything out, prepare things for donation and being given to the children as per her will etc. etc. etc.  Her craft room became a sort of... sorting place.  Towards the end, mom said that I could run up and look through her costume jewelry and if I saw anything I liked, I could probably have it.  Now, there was some AWESOME stuff in her costume jewelry collection.  Fun cocktail rings, great necklaces, amazing pins... she had amazing taste, and a fun and eclectic sense of style.  She could pull off a big bling-y cocktail ring and make it look expensive.  She was just that classy.  So... I was a little more than excited to sort through these treasures and find something tangible and wearable to remember her by.

Digging through the little clear acrylic divider boxes, I found a little tiny chunk of silver-colored metal.  It was round... so I assumed it must be a ring, but it certainly didn't look like any other ring I'd ever seen.  For starters, it didn't have any stones.  It was just... metal.  It had three flat holes in it, and some delicate looking, vintage-y scrollwork on the sides.  I was entirely transfixed.  I knew enough in my 15 year old mind to know that this HAD to be important, and definitely NOT just costume jewelry.

I took it to my mom, and said, "I think I want... this."  Her eyes got a little wider, and she quietly said, "Where did you find that?"  I showed her the box, and she smiled, and pretty soon we were showing it to the aunts and my Grandad and as it turned out... this was no ordinary ring.  I had found my great grandmother's wedding ring.  Grandad's mom.  My great grandmother, Vera, was born in 1893... on Indian Territory in Oklahoma.  She married my great-grandfather, Frank, in 1916 in Portland, OR.  Of course, that's only part of their story... but the neat thing about life, is that we leave little pieces of ourselves behind for those who come after us.  We're all tied together.  And I had found her ring... everyone had thought it had been lost.  Nobody knew what had happened to it.  And I'd found it, inside a box, in another box, in Mimi's costume jewelry. 

It had (at some point) had its stones removed.  This is pretty common with antique jewelry, so I'm told.  I took it to a jeweler who specialized in restoring antique jewelry, and he informed me that the side stones were likely heart shaped, as evidenced by what was remaining of the prongs.  He said that someone had ground off the prongs... which isn't the best way of removing stones from a setting, but that it wasn't irreparably damaged.

Here's some of that gorgeous, vintage detail I was talking about.  Can you imagine?  This ring is nearing 100 years old... 

Also, same size as my finger... because, you know... genetics.  :-)

(Also, also... ON my finger... because I am A GIRL and it's what WE DO.)

I'm really excited to eventually get this beautiful ring restored.  I have NO idea how much something like that would cost.  I do know that I have two diamond wedding sets and a diamond necklace that need to find new homes... and I would be MORE than happy to let the jeweler take them in trade for newer, better, and prettier stones for this gorgeous ring.  I love that someday this ring won't sit empty, like a sad little skeleton.  But it's going to be happy and loved again.  Someday.