Saturday, August 15, 2009

Cleaning Out My Closet

A while ago I blogged a thoughtful insight into how I might be like my father. This one has to do with my mother. Without going into the psycho-babble of it all...my mom likes to collect stuff. Some if it is sentimental, some if it is useful, a lot of it is neither. My closet is my own personal space in the house that I can do with whatever I like. I recently (and Carrie a long time ago) realized I had too much and it was overflowing. Carrie thought it would be a good idea for me to let the world in on my world...

Spot the: Mission pictures I haven't done anything with in 12 years, newspapers I kept from hurricane Katrina, Handyman magazines full of good ideas I'll never do, old Jazz ticket stubs, framed segment of A Proclaimation to the World that the Hansen's framed and gave to us for our wedding (recently taken down in the remodel), two "mini" toys cars picked up in England, old bass module from some computer speakers (maybe it will come in handy one day), and a picture of me playing on the floor with my kids two years ago.



I don't consider myself a packrat, but what do you do with decent shoes that you don't wear as much that are in good enough condition not to throw away but bad enough that I can't give them to the D.I.?

Spot the: 3 pair of Dr. Marten's that I wore on my mission and can't bring myself to toss even though I'll probably never wear them again (they may make a good object lesson for Primary some time), the pile of 15 sweatshirts I still wear, the football helmet bank I made in jr. high, the box that had my snowboard bindings in and is now full of tapes nobody in their right mind would listen to again (well, maybe one day...)



This is just another angle of the previous pic. Spot the 30th Anniversary Cure calendar I special ordered from the website and don't do anything with, England Birmingham Mission Christmas group photo, map of England, and 3 Cyprus High School Piratescope directories.



My favorite are the little sentimental things I come across and am glad that I've kept for some reason like anniversary and birthday cards, old Jazz tickets, a review of the Greenday concert I went to with my brother and nieces, baptismal program from my neices baptism, old Stratosphere ticket stub, plane tickets to Seattle, a raincheck from Blockbuster for the movie "Batman begins
from 2005, my old Frankie the Brave Fireman book from when I was, like, 6, and Frank Newman's (sister's father in law) funeral program.



The best was finding a journal from 1988. I was in 6th grade and 12 years old. Carrie and I have been laughing about some of the things I wrote, like "Today I got up real early, like about 3:30 am. I got up and went into the kitchen and my mom, Rod, and Shauna were in there talking so I just got a drink and went back to bed". What were my mom, brother, and sister talking about at 3:30 am in the kitchen?! I will never know. I remember my mom staying up all hours of the night baking wedding cakes. My job was beaterlicker. Carrie said she knows I had a good childhood but she feels sad for me when she hears me read my journal. Here's the last picture that's a tribute to my mom (Carrie is making some blamtastic cookies right now!)

9 comments:

Carrie said...

ha ha! Funny Sam! Regarding the closet: my favorite part was me saying "Sam, this closet is unacceptable!" and then for the next 2 hours while you were cleaning it out you kept saying "Unacceptable!" with each new pile you were making in our room. I honestly cannot believe you had all that crap packed in your side of the closet! Sorry, I'm not sentimental at all...
As for why I felt bad for you in your childhood: I feel bad when you read your journal to me because we laugh really hard but then I realize that most of your childhood was spent alone or with friends. I guess being the youngest of 8 kids means your mom was to the point of saying "do what you want". While I'm sure that was nice at times, part of me feels sad that you didn't have a mother-hen putting her wing around you. I'm just glad you turned out so awesome!! Can you imagine if we let Carson do what he wanted? Yikes. I'd trust Parker...but Carson? Yowzers. :)

Lindsey said...

Love it! I'm a clutter-bug myself and it's hard to tame!
I immediately spotted the "Sweet" wedding gift from my mom and I loved seeing your football helmet bank---I either totally remember yours or Ryan and/or Nat had one as well!

Rose said...

Sam was a hilarious kid! I remember I was cleaning up and he asked me where I was going. I said, "Crazy, wanna come!" He was so excited, he came back a couple minutes later with two cars in his hands and ask, "Can I bring my cars to Crazy's house?"

faa - ernnnn said...

this was just as hilarious as when carrie told me about it! the word 'unacceptable' has crossed my mind a few times as i open kitchen drawers!! time to dejunk!!! love ya sammy!!

Anonymous said...

I'll have you know that very important things are discussed at 3:30 in the morning and I'm sure if I were wide awake at the time I would remember what they were. I'm sure Rod remembers - we'll have to ask him ;)
So, besides creating some fun 'search and find' games on your blog - what did you do with all that stuff?
LotsaLuv from your favorite Seestar in St. George

Natalie said...

Loved the post! I'm glad you spent lots of time with your friends. It made my childhood WAY FUNNER! ( I like that word - "funner.")

Advice: Keep most of it. Your kids and grandkids will cry one day when they go through it. Especially keep the mission shoes. Neal has saved his. The souls are worn through. A reminder that a little piece of him is still left on the sidewalks of Germany.

DJ and Gin Family said...

I like to keep old crap too! It makes me happy to look at every 5 years or so. Plus, my kids love to see my old stuff too. They get to see an old piece of me. Speaking of your mission, I have a really cool lace picture of the London temple that you gave me for our wedding. The frame broke when we had all of our stuff stored, and I haven't gotten a new one for it. Would Carrie like it? You weren't married when you gave it us, and I didn't know if she would find it cool/sentimental. (Not that I don't, but I didn't serve a mission there like you did). Let me know... loved your post!!

Ginger said...

Whatever you do, never chuck the Dr. Martins. They last FOREVER!

PrincessKatie said...

Thats hilarious. I think i am going to have to tell Jared his piles of junk are unacceptable now. Just kidding he just takes his "treasures" AKA Junk to work and stores them there..At least I don't have to look at them! Glad you cleaned your room. I Hope your mom is happy now aka CARRIE!