So yesterday I decided it was time to clean out the cedar chest at the foot of our bed. It was a gift for my 16th birthday that I have since filled with movie ticket stubs, pictures, newspaper clippings, old prom tiaras, specials cards, shower invitations, baby socks, wedding keepsakes, and so on. It’s the one place that I can pile up with crap and Clint is none the wiser. Well, it was so full that there wasn’t room for anymore memories! I started while the kids were napping and finally finished at midnight! (That is normal for a project around here, what with all the diapers, tantrums, and potty-time.) I found so many things that I had completely forgot about! Not to mention $60 in an envelope of wedding receipts! After finding mementos from all my firsts (toy, car, date, apartment,……), it dawned on me that I am now collecting first memories for other people (baths, shoes, train rides, earrings……) Now the trunk means alot more to me. It’s sort of a Family History box, instead of a Heidi history box. The best part was when I saw Conner wearing a tiara, rifling through a stack of pictures of us in high school. Here are but a few of my random treasures and a few oddities.

*The sweaters my children wore home from the hospital
*a note clint left saying he would call after he got his tatoo
*A penny I wore in my shoe at my wedding, minted the year we started dating (thanks dad)
*A sixpence in the other shoe that Vandy raced to Clinton for, the morning of,
so I would have one (so goes the rhyme “……….and a sixpence in her shoe”)
*notes I took before calling 6th grade boyfriend to break-up with him
*ticket stub from Grease at the drive-in (gift from Michelle)
*The newspaper announcing my birth (I made the front page)
(my cousin was born the same day and in the same hospital)
*A book of poems I wrote in High School
*A cookbook I made in 1st Grade
*A letter someone wrote me from prison
*My first attempt at embroidery, a bird the my grandma drew
*A picture of Clint with Santa Claus
*A newspaper article about “Jump for Jesus” (skydiving in Chi-Alpha)
*Miss Pride of Oklahoma sash
*paper car tag from first car ($845 at auction)
(named blush b/c it was embarrassing when she would die at stoplights)
countless things from subseven and other rock shows
*4 Baby Books (one for everyone) and
*A Partridge in a Pear Tree