When you were my age, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was younger, I wanted to be a teacher. Then, in 3rd grade, our class had a section on stamp-collecting. One of the kids' parents brought all of us some stamps, and an album page (like a sports card page, but with smaller slots). I fell in love! I decided right then that I wanted to be the Postmaster General of the United States. Over the years, I came to realize that you had to have a lot of background in business, and I really didn't want to go into business, so it became a shelf-dream. Stamp-collecting is still an avid hobby of mine.

I always knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home-mom. I am so blessed to have that job now! Looking to when all the kids are in school, I will go back to college. But I still don't know what I want to "be". Maybe I'll just be a smarty-pants. That's fun.

What was your favorite thing to wear when you were my age?

Before I started Kindergarten, I watched "Punky Brewster" and I LOVED her. For the first day of Kindergarten, I wanted to dress like Punky. Mom said NO to the different shoes, but okay to everything else. So I had a ponytail on 1 side of my head, 1 pant leg rolled up with a bandana around it, 2 different socks, 3 layers of shirts, a few necklaces, and lots of bangly bracelets. My only personal lament was that I didn't have pierced ears. Mom was probably convinced I would be made fun of, and never do it again. Parents are harsh like that.
But I wasn't made fun of! The other kids thought I was the coolest, and I must have the coolest mom ever. I decided that dressing like that all the time was a pain, though, since I had to do it all myself. I only dressed like that on special occasions. LOL

My parents had a tradition of getting a family photo every year, right around Christmas I think. Everyone dressed in their "Sunday best". When I was in 2nd grade, I decided that I would only wear a dress to church, because God liked that in church, but it was a waste of time any other time (those were my exact thoughts). So when it came time to dress for the family photo, I threw a fit! I told my mother I would NOT wear a dress, and nothing she could do would make me. She finally gave up, and found a nice button-up Peter Pan-collar shirt, and a pair of slacks. That is my favorite family photo!

Jeans and t-shirt were my favorite thing to wear most of my childhood. Later on, when Sheila and Cyndie still lived at home, they both tried to help me dress more like a young lady. You know, more "cool" and less "hoodlum". I don't think it worked right away. ;)

What is the scariest thing that has ever happened to you?

When I was about 13, we lived in Pleasant Grove, Utah. My best friend was Susan Kay, and she lived a few blocks away, down a hill. It was just before Halloween, and Susan was throwing a party. It was after dark; I was walking from my house to Susan's, with another friend, whose name I can't remember right now {dangit!}. There was a huge field* that we had to walk around, because there were cows in the field, and stepping in wet cow poo is just nasty. We had just passed a street light, and it went out. That sorta freaked us out, since we had just watched a scary movie at my house. Then a black pickup truck passed us real slow going in the opposite direction, and the driver seemed like he was looking at us. We were pretty freaked out now. We started walking faster. Then the truck came back the direction we were walking, and we were totally freaked out! There was a huge rock on our side of the road, so we hid behind it. The truck stopped about 30 feet away, the driver got out, and got something from the back of his truck--it looked like a crowbar.
We ran.
I have never run so fast in my life. I think we covered the last block in 4 seconds.
When we got to Susan's house, we didn't even knock (something her dad was anal about), we just busted in, slammed the door shut, closed all the blinds, turned off all the lights, and kept screaming, "He's after us, he's after us!" We told everybody what happened, and nobody believed us.
Until the black truck passed her house, driving real slow.

As I typed this just now, I couldn't help laughing. But at the time, I thought I was about to be murdered.

*it now holds about 12 houses~~come to think of it, the other side of the street was a ginormous field at the time, too; it had horses. The landscape changed a LOT over the 5 years we lived there, because of the amount of new-house construction. We went from "living on the edge of wilderness" to just barely being able to see it from the front yard....

What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?

I did a scrapbook page about this:
Basically, my brother pantsed me in front of my new bro-in-law, my sisters, and the boy I had a crush on.

Have you ever had a nickname, and if so, how did you get it?

The first nickname I remember having was Julie-Bulie, from my parents. We sang the "Name Game" song a LOT when I was growing up.
Julie, Julie, bo-bulie,
Banana-Fanna, fo-Fulie,
Me-my-mo-Mulie, Julie!
Then there was Julie-Bean, given to me by my 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Smith.
In 9th grade, I all of a sudden hated my real name, so insisted that everyone call my "Jo". That lasted about 2 years. While I was Jo, I had a friend named Monica, who became Mo to my Jo.
Of course, my kids call me Mom. When Krillin was 2, he figured out my name is Julie, and tried calling me that. I kindly told him that since there were only 2 people in the world who got to call me Mom, I felt really special when he did.
P-chan has started calling me Jules. I don't know how he's spelling it in his head (could be Jewels).... but I started adding an 's' to his name, too.
I can't think of any other nicknames...maybe my sisters can help me out!

What was your favorite childhood toy?

{5-6} GI Joe and He-Man were the best! I loved having wars with my siblings.
My Little Ponies were fun, too. They had such silky hair, and were so colorful.
I had a Rainbow Brite doll with the white Sprite. I still have the Rainbow Brite doll (sans dress).
I also LOVED Strawberry Shortcake and all her friends. The dolls smelled like the fruit they were named after, though after awhile they all started to smell the same.
I remember liking Barbie, but I was older (10 or 11) before I got a "real" Barbie. I loved all her accessories, but the way you put a ring on her finger always grossed me out.

What was your favorite game when you were my age?

When I was pre-school age, "Hi-Ho Cherry-O" was my favorite game! I loved it so much! It was so much fun!
When we lived at Gramma's house, I loved running races with my younger siblings (because I usually won) and "Red Rover".
When I was 9, my church Primary teacher took the class bowling, and I found that I loved that!