Our first trip to the beach...

I was around nine years old and remember it like it was yesterday. My sister had a ball tournament, and then we headed straight for the beach, and my Aunt Britney went with us. None of us kids had ever saw the ocean before so of course we were super excited. Mom was unpacking in the condo and told us to go on to the beach with Dad. She said one thing as we were walking out the door, "Do not get wet because we are going to eat!" We got to the beach and Dad, of course, let us get in the ocean. We came back soaking wet and ready to go eat.

Playing with our cousins growing up...

We always loved to play with our cousins Kaitlin, Meagan, and Chase at our Nana's house. We got into all kinds of things there. We had a babysitter at our house one summer and sometimes stayed by ourselves when we were a little older. Sometimes our cousins Katie and Savannah would be at their grandparents house, (next door to us) and that was always sure to be a good time. We played in the creek and rode bikes down the hills in the cow pasture. Then there was that one time when we were climbing trees and someone fell and broke my aunt's little concrete statue. We won't mention any names of course because to this day I don't know if she knows who did it. We were good at keeping secrets and having each other's backs.

My first time getting stitches...

We were playing in the front yard when Brendon, my brother, decided to fill the bottom of the basketball goal up with water. Somehow he let the whole thing fall directly on my head, and I ended up with three stitches. I remember being so proud of myself because I never cried during the whole ordeal.

Christmas Eve...

Every Christmas Eve night we get together with all of my mom's family, and it's a night we all look forward to all year. We all don't get to be together many times throughout the year so this is always fun for us. We almost always go to Moulton, and I remember always looking up at the sky on the way home to see if we could spot Santa flying above us. I was always scared he would beat us home, and we wouldn't get any presents.

Brendon climbing on the roof...

Bless his heart. I dared him to climb on the roof, and like any young mischevious boy, he didn't turn down a dare. He shimmied up an old rusted out antenna pole and got up there. It was all fun and games until I realized he was too scared to get down. I was scared to tell Mom because I figured we would both get in troubl. She only had a mild heart attack once she saw him up there, and then Nana and Papaw brought a ladder to save the day.

Going to Nana and Papaw's all the time...

Growing up, we lived two houses down from my grandparents and that was awesome. When we stayed at home alone, we would walk down there and play forever. They had a refrigerator outside on the porch which was always filled with drinks and popsicles. We helped ourselves almost every day in the summer. We had a gravel drive and they had a paved driveway, so we would take our bikes and scooters down there just to ride on the concrete.

Dad's off days...

Sometimes during the summer my dad would get an off day during the week, and we would eat breakfast and visit with my grandmother and great-grandmother. We would always watch The Price is Right.

Learning about the Bible...

This was something that was always important in our home. Mom and Dad would always help us get our Sunday school lessons if we asked. Dad made us memorize Bible verses for a while, and we kept up with it by putting stickers on a paper on the fridge.

We were normal kids who did dumb things, and we fought all the time. In our house the saying was, "Grab the chair." When Mom or Dad said that, you knew a spanking was coming. We had to go to the kitchen table and with both hands hold the chair so that way we wouldn't stick our hands behind us. We always tried to sneak and go put on two or three pairs of pants, but most of the time we were caught. One time I stuck my hand behind me and it happened to be a time when my dad was using a switch. My hand swelled up nicely and I learned a great lesson-- when Dad says don't put your hand back there, there's a good reason for it. He kept a switch beside the fridge, and one day while he was at work we all got together and decided to break it up into a million pieces and throw it away. That wasn't our wisest decision. All of these times helped to shape me, my brother, and my sister into the people we are today. I believe my parents did it out of love for us. We deserved every one of them, and we were taught to respect authority and do what's right.

It's so funny to look back on some of my favorite memories and realize that none of them involved fancy things or a lot of money. Most of them consists of the simple things in life like spending time with family and friends. It makes me stop and think to reevaluate what's really important in life. It's not spending money and obtaining objects. It's the time spent together and things we learn that we remember and cherish the most. God blessed me with a great childhood and great family and friends.