feeling nostalgic

As I always do this time of year, I've been feeling a bit nostalgic about my years in school, way back when. I still get that excited (and a little bit nervous) feeling, wondering how the new school year will go... even though now it's my kids who are headed off to school, not me.

(George, on the other hand, says he hated school so much that he still gets a sick feeling whenever it's back-to-school time now! I'm thinking Nick will be the same way... if we so much as mention the dreaded "s word" at our house before school actually starts up again, Nick will run from the room screaming, LOL.)

It's hard for me to believe that Nick will start his last year of elementary school tomorrow, and that Emmalie will be a high schooler! Seriously, how did that happen??

When I was in 6th grade, I looked like this: (I would like to hope that my hair normally looked better than that, but I'm guessing it didn't. Despite the BIG blue comb that I always tucked into my back pocket that year.)

I went to Crawford Elementary, a small school just a block from our house. My teacher was Mrs. Schmidt, a soft-spoken and kind woman. I really enjoyed having her for a teacher!

We had about 25 kids in our class that year, and most of us had been together since Kindergarten. My best friends were Heidi (who moved to Austria in the middle of the year, much to my dismay), Inger, Abby, and Lisa. Like all the previous years, I still had a crush on my classmate Greg. That year, though, I also had crushes on Tom (a new boy) and Brett, a 4th-grader! (What can I say ~ he was cute!)

I was a Junior in Girl Scouts, I attended a French class with Abby 2 days a week before school, and I did a History Day project on Sacajewea with my classmates Bryce and Louise ~ we won at the district level, and got to go to the state competiton.

I loved reading, writing, riding my bike, and climbing trees. At recess, when most of our classmates would be playing kickball (which I *hated*), Abby, Inger, and I would be on the playground, trying to get Brett and his friends to chase us! :)

When I was a 9th grader, I looked like this: I remember I used to get up at 5am every day, just so I could wash my hair, blow dry it, and spend forever trying to style it with the curling iron. You would think it would've turned out better after all that! ;)

For me and my classmates, 9th grade was not high school. Rather, it was our final year at Welch Jr. High. It was one of my favorite years in school ~ I just remember having lots of fun with all my friends that year!

In 9th grade, I had English with Mrs. Grant, world studies with Mr. Rosheim, algebra with Mr. Black, gym with Mrs. Smith, typing with Mr. Kosbau, French with Ms. Quint, and earth science with Mr. Bredeson and Mr. Adams. (And homeroom with Mrs. Pier.) I really liked English, French, and science. I hated algebra, even though I had the highest score in my class!

I was in the 8th & 9th grade chorus and the chorus for our school musical, Finian's Rainbow. I was also on the Tempest (yearbook) staff, and was a co-editor of the Cassiopeia (creative writing) and the Welch Newsletter. Outside of school, I was a Cadette Girl Scout, attended Confirmation classes at church, and I loved to read and listen to Top 40 music. And spend lots of times at parties or just hanging out with my friends.

I had a large group of friends by then (who I've been very glad to reconnect with recently on Facebook!!), but the ones I hung out with the most were Tara, Lisa, Abby, Inger, Sara, Mike R., Kevin, Sean, Jonathan, Little Mike (who hated to be called that), and Erik.

I started out the year with Nathan as my boyfriend (we'd started "going together" in 8th grade), but after he broke up with me, I developed a HUGE crush on Mike R. and after several weeks of me fawning all over him, he asked me to go with him. We were an item for several months, and I was totally crushed when Mike broke up with me on the last day of school. You might say (and everyone probably DID say) that I was a bit obsessed with him. ;)

I've been done with school for a long time now, but I am filled with excitement (and a little bit of nerves) as my kids go back to school. I hope that this next year will be filled with all kinds of happy memories for Emm and Nick!