After my sixth grade year our family moved back to Napa, California because my dad was never laid off from his job, and the situation was difficult for my parents. When we moved my parents rented out the house in Utah, and we became renters of a home off of Silverado Trail. The move was difficult for me again, because I was about to start my seventh grade year, and after two years I didn't know the people that I had known before. However, I was friends with Ashley Alkema still, yet I found that myself and my other friends had changed.
On the street that we lived was a girl named Jaclyn Stetler who had a little brother named Andy who was my brother's age. Jaclyn and I became good friends, and we spent a lot of time together. I remember that one Saturday my dad had my brother and I stack wood, and to make the job go faster so that we could play Jaclyn and Andy started to help us stack the wood. During this time we had a lot of fun raising pet chickens, biking up and down the street, swimming in Jaclyn's pool, going on adventures on Private Property and playing Badminton and Football.
One distinct characteristic that I remember about Jaclyn is that she was always happy, she was always laughing about something. I really enjoyed spending time with her; we would even do our homework together.
At home I also spent a lot of time taking care of the yard, since my brothers were more interested in things like singing, and playing instruments. For some reason I had an obsession with earning and saving money, and since I was paid to do yard work I spent a lot of time outside. I guess that may explain why I became so interested in being outside as opposed to doing indoor tasks.
I still remember being outside in the garage, where I was grabbing a set of pruners. For some reason my little brother was in the garage as well, and was talking to me. I think we were messing around and somehow the end of his finger ended up being clipped! He started bleeding and went running into the house where my sister and mom put a wash cloth over his finger. He still has a scar to this day from our pruning incident.
During the eighth grade I became interested in woodshop rather than choir or band. My woodshop teacher was Mr. Fleming who owned a 30 foot long snake which he kept in a large cage. On our first day of class Mr.Fleming took his snake out of the cage and had each of us pet it. I was somewhat apprehensive to get close to the snake, however, I went ahead and pet its' scaly surface. Many of the boys in my class would become excited when it was time to feed the snake, because it would eat rabbits and chickens whole. However, I always felt bad for the animals and would leave the room.
I became good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Fleming who were also in charge of the gardens that I worked in. In fact, I would spend many Saturdays working at school in the garden or watering and feeding the animals. Mr. Fleming showed me how to use the different tools in the woodshop and abide by the safety regulations. At this time I made several projects, which included two Adirondack chairs. I gave both of these Adirondack chairs to my parents who still own them today.
At the beginning of my tenth grade year (my first year in high school) my sister Amy was having a lot of difficulties with friends and other issues. After an accident one morning Amy was taken to the hospital and later was sent to a program in Southern Utah. I didn't see my sister again for two years, because she was kept in a lockdown facility for teens. I remember that it was difficult for my little brother and I to not have Amy at home. However, I remember that after two years when she came back Amy was a different person.
On December 7th, 2000 I received my Patriarchal Blessing. My parents and my sister Natalie came with me to Patriarch Killian's home. It was on a Sunday evening, and I still remember praying in preparation to receive my blessing. As we drove about a half hour to the Killian's home I was anxious to receive my blessing. I remember entering their home and sitting down on the couch, and listening as Patriarch Killian shared a little bit about his family, I also remember him asking me questions so that he could get to know me better. I recall him telling me that there was something different about me, and that I was a very special person. As I received my blessing I remember how calm and peaceful I felt. There was a special spirit in their home which I noticed when I walked in.
Age 15
When I was fifteen years old I was a student at Napa High School where my older Brother Steve and my sisters Natalie and Amy had also gone to school. We used to pass the school when I was younger, and I would always enjoy looking at the District Building which had been restored. It was an architecturally stylistic building, which always interested me.
Sadly, once I started high school my group of friends really changed. Half of my friends from Middle School attended our rival high school, which changed things up quite a bit. Religion became a big deal to a lot of my friends and they would try to fight with me about being a Mormon. I tried to stand up for my religion, but after a lot of criticism I slowly stopped hanging out with some of my previous friends and spent a lot more time with Amanda Rogers, and my friend Amy Dahlgren.
Amy Dahlgren was a member of the Napa third ward, which we moved into as a result of constantly renting different houses. Throughout my high school years we moved from house to house within the same city thus changing ward boundaries. We moved a lot because when we would rent a house we would always spend a lot of time fixing it up on the inside and outside...coincidentally the owners always wanted to sell the houses after that. On the bright side...I was always earning more money because there was work to do! I also did a lot of yard work on the side for neighbors and family friends.
Amy and I had an early morning drafting class every morning throughout high school together, so we would often drive to school together in her red mustang. We called her red mustang the "tomato" because of her license plate. We made many early morning Starbuck runs (can't beat their Carmel apple cider) and visits to the Butter cream Bakery for doughnuts!
We became good friends with our drafting teacher Mr. Dinsmore and ended up taking his class all four years of high school. Mr. Dinsmore was a funny guy, and was always cracking jokes though he would often get annoyed with the students who were slackers. Amy and I always sat in the back corner of the class working on AutoCAD. Our senior year we worked on a huge project called our dream house, which we had a lot of fun with.
Another teacher that I remember from my high school years was Mrs. Watter my Honors English teacher. She was very liberal; however, she was a very funny character. She later told me that the first day of class when I sat in the back corner of the classroom she thought: "Death Row." I was labeled as a bad student, because I sat in the back of the classroom. However, throughout the semester I surprised her when she realized that I was a good student, and merely enjoyed sitting in the back. She had a passion for poetry and American Literature. Mrs. Watter was originally from South Carolina and I still remember going to her house to taste some of her delicious cooking. She made an awesome dip with asparagus and it was my first opportunity to taste black eyed peas.
By the time I was sixteen years old our family had moved again to a house located on Devita Drive. We were once again living in the Napa First Ward, and my sister Amy had returned home. I have many fond memories of the house located on Devita Drive. This house was located at the base of a hill containing ten acres of land which we would often hike and explore. Around the house was two acres of land that needed to be maintained. Natalie and I went crazy! We spent hours digging up an old concrete foundation which was held together with rebar, so that we could plant wildflowers. We also purchased hundreds of tulip bulbs which we planted. However, because we lived at the base of a huge hill we would often have deer come down into our yard and start munching on our tulips. Natalie and I then decided after chasing the deer away countless times that we needed to build a fence. So we constructed a fence to keep the little demons out! Somehow they always found a way through the wire even with our efforts.
We also owned several chickens that we built houses for. One chicken was named Carnivorous, because she would often escape the pen, run around the house, and find the cat’s dish. She would then eat any turkey or chicken meat that was in the cat's food dish. I really loved little baby chicks so one time when I was supposed to be collecting the eggs I notice that the mother hens were brooding. My dad would ask from time to time if I'd been collecting the eggs, to which I'd reply "yes." A while later he found out otherwise when thirty baby chicks were hatched. It was a really funny sight to see thirty little fuzz balls chasing two mothers and cheeping. Luckily, my dad wasn't too upset since he also liked chickens himself.
I have many good memories of also attending Young Women's Camp during my four years in high school. I know that the awesome spiritual experiences and testimony meetings around campfires strengthened my struggling testimony at this time. I spent many hours from the age of fourteen to eighteen pondering the scriptures, and reading to know of the truthfulness of the Gospel. I determined that I really wanted to know that if what I was being taught was true. Being raised in the church it was difficult for me to recognize the Holy Spirit because it was something that I had grown up with. I believe that I always had a testimony; however, I came to recognize the validity of my own testimony when I was eighteen years old.
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| My family |
During this time I also became good friends with Terry and Kathy Medlar who were members of the church. Kathy was a recently baptized member, and Terry was a returning member. They became great family friends and adults that I looked up to a lot in my life. I remember finding out that Kathy had cancer, and I wanted to do something nice for her so I returned to my eighth grade woodshop teacher, and made two more Adirondack chairs. I gave one of the chairs to Kathy, which she was very touched by and another chair to
Mr. Schroeder one of my previous math professors.
One holiday weekend The Medlars took me to a cabin located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where I learned how to ski. Of course, I had been skiing a few times when our family lived in Utah for two years; however, I had never been given lessons. I had a great time learning to ski with Terry and Kathy. At first as I gazed up the huge mountain from the Gondola I was afraid, but with time I learned that as long as I took it a little bit at a time there was nothing to be afraid of. We went skiing for three days at Squaw Valley which is still my favorite ski resort that I've ever been to. The Medlars have always been great examples to me, and I have always looked up to them. They're a few of my personal heroes that I have in life. I have adopted them as my second parents and always refer to them as Mom and Dad.
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| Brother Perry with one of our pet chickens |
One hot afternoon at the archery range Brother Perry and I installed an irrigation system, in an attempt to turn the brown dirt area on which we shot into a lawn. As we worked in the sweltering sun several other archery members sat beneath the covered porch drinking beers. He always told me that he enjoyed having me come with him to the archery range, because when I was there the men wouldn't swear. It made me feel good to know that they respected me enough to alter their language in my presence.
Age 17
When I was seventeen years old I joined the cross country team, which I really enjoyed. I was a running fool! Many hours after school were spent running across town and up and down hills. I still recall a run that we made which was about an eight mile loop. I was utterly exhausted!
I also spent a lot of time playing church basketball and volleyball. In fact, I still remember how surprising it was to all of the other wards when the Napa First Ward took first in the basketball and volleyball championships that year. Normally Napa First Ward was known for having the least amount of youth, and was very small. However, it so happened that we had a group of about ten Laurels who were all really sporty. Rita Meyers, Ashley Alkema, Alyssa Alkema, Amy (my sister), Carli Zwetsloot, Stephanie Alkema, and I were a few of the girls.
I also remember participating in a ward play where my friend Ashley and I dressed up as old ladies. I was super nervous; however, I think that we made some pretty funny old ladies in our costumes. Honestly, I don't remember the point of the play, but many member of the ward came to watch our humorous performance.
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| Sister Ricks and Sister Wadsworth |
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| Becca and Jeff Stoddard |
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| Me right before the Powderpuff game |
My senior year of High School rather than running Cross Country I joined the Powder-puff Football team. I really enjoyed our practices, especially since I was already in shape from running. When we would run drills the girls would often tell me to slow down, because they were exhausted. We practiced all for several months for the night of our game. We had one game in which we played against our rival high school. The grass was wet and the field was slippery, but I remember running my heart out as a wide receiver. We tied our rival high school with a final score of 6:6. However, I felt that if we had been permitted to play more games we would have done better, because everything became so confusing with people staring at you and yelling from the stands.
I also participated in badminton where Amy Dahlgren and I were partners. We had a really fun time whacking the birdie at our opponents.
During my high school year I spent a lot of time doing yard work for Carolyn Ernst who was my friend Becca's mom. I still remember Becca and I driving around in this old clunker jeep of hers with missing doors and no roof. I had a lot of fun trying to learn how to drive a stick in her jeep. 
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| Mom and me at my High School Graduation |
At the end of my Senior Year I graduated high school, and can still remember how thrilled I was to be moving on with my life. I really enjoyed my high school years, but had enjoyed middle school more because of the changes that occurred within my friends. During high school a lot of my previous friends changed, they started drinking, and taking drugs; showing that their standards had changed.
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| Steve, Amy and Rhys |
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| Rhys and I |
After graduation I went on a Family History trip with a distant relative named Judy Edwards. The Edwards are also good family friends of ours, and I was lucky enough to go! We spent time in Milan, and several small villages in Northern Italy. We even spent a week up in the Alps, and were able to visit the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
On our way to Italy we spent a day in England where we met up with some of Judy's friends and spent the day in the London Temple. It was entertaining to see everyone driving on the opposite side of the road. What was even more interesting is that the two older gentleman in the temple started fighting over how to pronounce my name when I went to perform baptisms. I spent the day taking care of Rhys, a cute little English boy, while the adults went into the temple for an endowment session.
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| Florencia and I |
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| Judy's family |
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| Me next a waterfall |
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| Graciella's family with Judy and I |
The people were so amazing, even though I didn't understand what was being said. A lady named Graciella that was related to Judy spoke English very fluently. Judy and her are relatives, and so we spent a lot of time with their family. Graciella's mom spoiled me, and would always feed me a ton of delicious spaghetti! I remember learning how to eat my spaghetti with just a fork by twirling it with one hand. I also remember how disgusting I thought that carbonated water was, so I'd always add orange juice so that it tasted instead like orange soda.
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| Milan, Italy |
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| Village called Casa Francoli up in the Alps |
In an effort to do genealogical research I recall that Judy's family who were not members of the church paid a Catholic priest with a bottle of wine to allow us into a church which contained hundreds of historical records. I felt as though I had just witnessed some type of black mail as I observed the trade. The priest seemed content and took out a ring of old style keys, with which he opened the door. We spent hours taking photographs of historical data, and later I was able to perform baptisms for these same people.
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| Washington D.C. on the way home |
