You Are My Sunshine

I was hesitant to do this next post because it's going to contain lots of photos, but I realized this is my blog and this is where I post what's important to me. I have had the desire to scan Rylan's old scrapbook pages and post them to my blog so they are someplace electronically... so that is what this blog is all about. 

These photos represent the first four or five years of Rylan's life - and that is super important to me. And I want it documented someplace besides in his actual scrapbook (which I did, by the way, before scrapbooking was cool - and before there were all the cute scrapbook background papers and awesome tools...).

The title of this post is "You Are My Sunshine," because that is Rylan's song. That is what I always used to sing to him as a baby and little boy. Then he learned it. I would sing, You are my... and he would sing "Shuhshine" with a great big smile on his face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whew! That was quite a project, but I feel so great having it all done!

Dear Diary...

A couple of the treasures I came across when I was cleaning out boxes in my garage for my yard sale were two of my old diaries from 1978 and 1979. I had so much fun reading through the pages and finding out what was important to my 10- and 11-year old mind back then. Ahhh - life was so much simpler. My biggest worries were boys and sleepovers.

Here are some of my favorite entries, and the memories they conjured up... (forgive me if you get bored; but this one way for me to write up some personal history). I'll type the literal translation of my entries below each picture - misspellings, poor grammar, and all - in italics.

 

 

Kathleen Folkersen

943-1804

7156 S. 2220 E., Salt Lake City, Utah 84121

This was the address of my home from birth until I was 16 years old - except during the three years my dad served as the mission president over the Sweden, Stockholm Mission from 1972-1975 (from when I was 3 until I was 6).

It was a multi-level home with three bedrooms upstairs (one was the master, one was the office, and I shared the third with my sister, Leslie, who is six years older than me); the main level with the kitchen, dining area, and living room (I remember we called it the "front room"); the next level down which had two bedrooms, shared among my four brothers, the laundry area which we called the "utility room," and our old upright piano where I was to practice during my short-lived piano lessons at age 8; and down even lower was our family room (furnished with red carpeting, a pool table, and our Atari game system), and the furnace room (where we had our food storage and our costume barrels - into which I delved frequently for dress-ups).

January 1, 1978 - Well here it is in (78). And this is the first time that I've written in a real diary. My sister Leslie made me a diary made of papers but I missed a hole bunch of it because I forgot about it. I put some makup on today but everyone said that I am too young to put it on. Good night!

My sister Leslie was a very artistic person, so it doesn't surprise me she made me a diary. As far as putting on "makup," that obviously started for me back at age 10 (or sooner) and didn't ever stop because I eventually went on to go to beauty school.

January 2, 1978 - Today we went bowling because it is another holliday. But tomorrow we go to school, (boo hoo). I really didn't get very much points in bowling because I haven't been practicing very much. And me and my family played a few card games but I won one game. GOOD NIGHT!

Ah yes, every child loves to go back to school after a holiday break. Not.

January 3, 1978 - (Hi) today we had school ((it was sortive fun)). today I went to one of my friends house today and they had a new trampoline, (from Christmas,) and I got to jump on it. Today I talked to my boyfriend MIKE! I had to walk Tamm H. home (it was late)and I found a tap shoe. (Aint) got (nutin) more to say! GOOD NIGHT. HaHaHa.

Now there's a new word: "sortive." Hey, it works, and that's how it sounds, right? My friend with the trampoline was Michelle Hyte. She and her older sister Laura were pretty good friends of mine. I remember one time we had a birthday party for Michelle and we got to sleep in their camper in the driveway. Another memory about going to Michelle's was one night when we were planning a sleepover and I took the yellow ten-speed bike, holding my pillowcase and belongings in my hand over the handlebars. There was a steep hill we had to go down - and on that hill my pillowcase got tangled up in the spokes of my tire and I flipped over the top of my bike and my bike landed on top of me. I got pretty messsssed up in that fall.

January 5, 1978 - (Hi) well today I went to PRIMARY. I went over to my friends house again today and jumped on her TRAMPOLINE but this time one of my old boyfriends (his name is Billy B.) came over to her house and jumped on her trampoline too. (GOOD NIGHT.)

Okay, a couple of things came to mind when I read this one. First of all, Primary was on a Thursday. We used to have our auxiliary meetings on weekdays instead of on Sundays. And seeing the name Billy Bruske brings back a funny memory: he used to be able to turn his eyelids inside out and then he'd sit there and blink at everyone and freak us all out. Isn't that a lovely memory?

January 15, 1978 - (Hi) Well today SCOTT WOODBERY had his farwell and he's cute! Good night!

Scott Woodbury was the older son of one of the couples in my parents' Study Group. They were a group of couples who had gotten together on a monthly basis to study their scriptures, have dinner together, etc. There were a couple of good looking boys in that group. I think the one I had the biggest crush on was Spencer, Scott's younger brother.

February 9, 1978 - (Hi) Well today on MICHELLE'S TRAMPOLINE I LEARNED HOW TO DO FLIPS! GOOD NIGHT!

...and I can still do them. Thank you very much.

February 10, 1978 - Well, Well, Well, Today I just slightly had some fun, but not to much! GOOD NIGHT! yea.

So when you're young it seems like your priorities are boys, friends, and fun. In that order. Apparently on this day I didn't have as much fun as I could have had.

(Unknown Date) - Well tonight we went to see PETE'S DRAGON. Good Night!

I remember what an impact this movie made on me. It's funny though - I couldn't tell you what the movie was about if you asked me now. All I remember is Helen Reddy singing, "I'll be your candle on the water," which was one o the songs we sang in Madrigals when I was in high school.

March 3, 1978 - Hi! Well today I'm sleeping over at Christy P. house having a slumber party. Good Night.

Christie Park was one of my best friends in the ward. I have a few memories of her, specifically. I was at her house when one of my dogs, Sparky, died - he was hit by an appliance truck as he was crossing the street. I can't remember if my family called me but I remember walking up the street towards my house seeing a lot of kids bending over in a circle around him. It was sooo sad. The other thing I remember is that Christie was badly burned one day - she was sitting or standing near her stove when her mom had something cooking and it somehow spilled all over Christie. I remember she was out of school for months as she was at home recovering from her burns. I remember there was a smell in her house - I don't know if it was medicine or burned skin - but it was really hard to smell. I was so worried about my friend.

The other diary I found was my 1979 Diary. 

Eleven years old. Fifth grade at Bella Vista Elementary. Mrs. Zimmerman. She had a couch in her classroom that she called her "davenport," and she drank coffee nonstop so her breath was awful. But she was such a great teacher. I loved her.

Please Watch Over Him...

Today I hugged and kissed Rylan good bye for the last time... at least for a while. How long? I don't know.

He left for Missouri to live with his dad. We have been so busy making arrangements, finishing up all the last-minute plans, and running him around to say good bye to his friends and family. When today finally came, it didn't seem real. I drove him to the airport, walked with him to his gate, and stood in line with him. Once the line started moving I grabbed him tight one more time and kissed him, finally realizing I wouldn't be able to do that for a while. (That's a tough one for me because I'm a physical touch person - and now I won't have that with Ry.) He turned around a few times as he walked down the ramp onto the plane, and then he was gone.

I can't lie; I completely lost it. Quietly, of course. But I lost it. I sobbed the whole way home. And in little spurts throughout my day. I went to the temple this afternoon and gained a tremendous amount of peace and reassurance there.

On Sunday Ry received a beautiful blessing from Papa Sterling, and the message I took away from that blessing is that Rylan has lives to change, and one of them may just be his own. He has a HUGE heart, and a generous Spirit. He will make an impact for good there - whether it be on his own family, his friends, or himself. He is going to do some growing.

It's kind of like a pre-mission mission! 

I love him so much! Today has been one of the hardest days of my life, but I KNOW he will be watched over and cared for by a loving Heavenly Father who knows him, who understands his greatest fears and his deepest desires. I will miss having him WITH me, but I will keep in touch with him, and hopefully he will feel comfortable opening up to me and sharing his new world with me.

Love you Ry Guy!

The Last Hurrah...At Least For Now

Back in March I started making plans to book a cruise for just Rylan and me. I contacted a cruise planner and she sent me 7 or 8 options, and she walked me through the whole process over the next few weeks. I put money down on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean in September, and planned on telling Rylan about it on his birthday.

Then he decided he wanted to move to his dad's.

During the very small window of time between his visit to Missouri and his actual move there, I told him about the cruise and asked if he wanted to move forward with that plan, knowing he would already be in Missouri by then, or to try to do something while he was here ... before he left. I offered suggestions like San Diego, or Jackson, or visiting is cousins in Phoenix, AZ as an alternative to the cruise, and he jumped at the opportunity to spend time with his cousins before he moved.

So ... I cancelled our cruise the very day my final decision had to be made in order to receive my money back with no penalties. It was sad, but also somewhat of a relief because it would have been really difficult to plan and change airfare, etc. with Rylan in Missouri.

Scott and Melissa ("Aunt Sissa") gave us the dates that worked for them and off we went. To Arizona. In the middle of July. (What WERE we thinking?!)

Here are some of our memories...

Swimming
One of the only ways to cool down is to swim, so thank goodness Scott and Melissa have a pool. We played "Colors" and "Marco Polo" and "Dive for as many things as you can find." Even Aunt Kathy played. It felt SO good to jump in after being hot. Rylan is a fish, and if he could have, he would have been in the pool 24/7.

Game Night
One night we played a game called Telestrations. It's a combination of Pictionary and Telephone. But that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is Melissa's incredibly compelling artwork. Check out this...Zebra?

I'm Going On A Trip
One night while we were just finishing up the dishes after dinner, crazy Aunt Kathy started a game of "I'm Going On A Trip, and I'm Gonna Take...." Everyone played along. Cute Haylee wrote it all down!

We ate well. We made some really good meals while we were there. For one of our dinners we made sweet pork in the crock pot. It was delicious! We made nummy meatloaf for Sunday dinner. Mmmmm. I taught the girls how to make German Pancakes, and Ry made nummy brownies.

Kuzzins
Rylan was such a cute big cousin. He played Legos with Haylee for hours on end. He was quite proud of his treehouse!

Good Sport
Ry was a good sport too. One night I was painting the girls' nails and they said he should get his painted too. So he did! We did a lovely sparkly polish with pink French tips. Ashley made him promise he would keep it on for 24 hours. So when we were at breakfast the next morning he was holding his menu asking the server questions, when he remembered he had sparkly nail polish on!

Haylee wanted to do Rylan's hair. She got out pretty much every clippie and barrette she had and found a place to put each one!

Water Park
One of our favorite activities was the day we went to Wet and Wild...

Grub
One day we drove to Cave Creek, AZ and walked around some little shops. We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant named El Encanto. It was really good. Outside they had a pond with TURTLES. That's not something you see every day.

Monsoon!

The night before we left Phoenix, there was a Monsoon. I had waited ALL week for a nice big rain storm. Almost every evening we heard there would be one but it would pass by us, and hit every other town nearby. Well, the last night was finally my turn. We didn't even know it was happening - the girls were all home chillin' and the boys had gone to the store for a few groceries. When they got home from the store they said we had to go outside - a storm was coming! I was so excited. I ran outside and faced the wind and just stood there smelling the coming rain and anticipating what it might be like. Before long, it was POURING and we all had to run inside to keep from being soaked. But I still couldn't get enough. I watched out every window and even sat in the back yard right by the house for a few minutes in the middle of the storm - feeling it and loving every minute. The girls were very nervous about it, but I talked with them and hopefully helped them to not be so afraid. One of Haylee's favorite memories was "the storm with Aunt Kathy!"

Food, Flooding and Fun
On the way home from Arizona we stopped for the night in Henderson, Nevada (which is about halfway). Our hotel was okay, but one of the reasons I booked it was because it had a pool. Well - the pool turned out to be ice cold. And I don't mean just chilly. I mean ICE cold. But my fish was VERY brave and did a little swimming. He amazes me. And the hot tub was about a gazillion degrees. It was all I could to go put my feet in!

Tricia had told us about a really good buffet she and Kerrie had stopped at on their way home a few weeks before so we thought we'd check it out. The food was all right - my favorites were the prime rib and the ice-cream. When we bought our tickets for the buffet, I was given a one-time card to swipe at any of the slot machines with the possibility of winning $500. Ry snapped a shot of his mom "gambling" from a distance because he wasn't allowed on the floor - being under 21.

Afterwards, we started hearing people talking about how bad it was raining outside. Well - it had been FLOODING. As in rivers down the streets. But we braved it. My hair was nothing to brag about anyway, so no harm. We had planned to go back to our hotel, but I had this wild hair (no pun intended) to take Ry to see the Las Vegas Strip since he had never seen it at night all lit up. For the first few freeway entrances, the water was running so deep and so fast I couldn't even tell where I should drive, so we stayed on the same road until we found a place we could turn. Rylan took videos out his window of us car surfing! The water was nearly up to the bottom of the car doors and when we drove through it we made the coolest waves. It was crazy and fun all at the same time! Once we were actually able to maneuver the roads to get ON the freeway, it was smooth sailin'. (Thank goodness for my GPS!)

Change of Plans
The next morning we were supposed to head home, and wanted to get an early start after eating our free breakfast. The breakfast part went fine; the leaving part... not s'much. Just after I jumped out of the shower, the fire alarms went off and everyone had to evacuate the hotel. Um. Yah. Towel on my head. No make-up whatsoever. And out we go. All I grabbed was my purse. No car keys. No phone. I thought we might be outside for a few minutes and then get the all clear. It smelled NASTY as we came down the stairs so we knew something was up. We pulled up a curb and sat down and here came trucks from two fire departments. The firemen started pulling out their hoses and going in.

Apparently a towel had caught fire in one of the dryers in the laundry. There were families with little ones - in their diapers, people in their jammies, one lady in a crazy rug/moo-moo, and one lady with the most awful toenails I've ever seen in my life. They were longer than my finger nails. Ew. Disgusting! (Meanwhile, they're all talking about the lady with the towel on her head.) I've gotta say a few of those firefighters weren't too bad to look at. And with that, I'll move on. (Hey! It's okay for me to look.)

One of the firefighters grabbed a stack of plastic fireman hats from the fire engine, and brought them over and gave one to each little child who were waiting so patiently. He ended up with one extra hat. Guess who he gave it to...

Ry and I finally got so bored we wandered over the Dollar Tree and went up and down the aisles trying to pass time. Finally, when we went back they were letting people in.

On The Road Again
It was after 12 noon when we FINALLY pulled out of the parking lot...we were delayed about four hours which was not our idea of fun. The drive seemed longer because of the LONG morning, but we finally made it home about 9:00 p.m. Sunday evening.

Home, Sweet Home!

July 3, 1996 ... 17 Years Ago Today

Today is Rylan's Birthday!

It's hard to believe my "Little Buddha" is already 17!

I know I haven't been the perfect mom, but I sure do love that boy with everything I have. There is nothing I wouldn't do for him. Knowing he is leaving in 27 days is really hard to think about - I think I'm in denial that he'll really be gone (I like to think of it as making the most of my time with him while he IS here with me).

In a week and a half he and I are going on vacation to Phoenix, AZ (of all places -- in the middle of JULY) to stay with Uncle Scott, "Aunt Sissa," and their girls. We love them so much! We can't wait to actually BE there. I'm not thrilled about the drive but we're breaking it up into two days each way so that should help. Having a new driver is not the most relaxing thing when you're a passenger on a long road trip but we'll do the best we can.

Last night we had one of the best nights we've had in a long time. There wasn't any BIG thing that made it good - it was just nice. We didn't fight at all and with a 17-year old that can be a rare day. We went on a hike with the Young Men and Young Women up to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon. He was so nice and helped his old mom across some treacherous slippery wet rocks. That meant a ton to me. Most teenage kids wouldn't be caught dead walking next to their moms. Then it was time for a Cookie Sundae at Chick-Fil-A.

Anyway - he is my center. He is my rock. He is who keeps me going and trying to be better. I want so much for him to know he is loved!! He has been through a lot in his life - more than any kid should - but he is going to be stronger for it. He will love others more and be more compassionate and understanding - and those things will make him an incredible missionary (...and eventually a better husband and father someday).

I'm so proud of the man he is becoming. He is a very thoughtful person. He is somewhat private about his thoughts, but once in a while he will give me a glimpse into what is going on inside his mind. He has a good head on his shoulders and wants to do the right thing.

I love that he is taller than me. I love that he cares about his friends. I love that he is so good with younger children - they magnetize toward him. I love that he gets goofy at 9:00 every night. I love that he can joke around. I love that he loves his Heavenly Father and has a testimony of Joseph Smith. I love that he loves dogs. I love that he loves shakes at Arctic Circle. I love that he is a fish and would rather be playing in water than almost anything. I love that he loves good music. I love that he cooks and bakes with me (or without me). I love that he has a great voice. I love that he loves his younger cousins and isn't too cool for them. I love that he loves to laugh. I love that he knows how to do his own laundry - and sometimes even does it. I love that he is passionate about the things he loves, including the Celtics. I love that he is so darn handsome.

I love that he IS who he IS!

*HaPpY BiRtHdAy*
RyLaN-RoO BuGaBoO

Another Tutorial...The Loop Updo... Ta-da!

Okay so I'm learning... I have a long way to go, but I'm learning. On Sunday I did The Loop Updo and whaddya know? It worked out (after a couple of failed attempts)...

Here's how it was SUPPOSED to look:

Here's how mine turned out: