Reminiscing...

Lately I (Steph) have been in the mood of reminiscing childhood memories. As we get to enjoy more and more of our friends having children, I'm more and more reflecting back to what I enjoyed as a child. My personal immediate family has not ever been as close as I've always longed for, but I'm becoming ok with that. Instead, I'm starting to think back and treasure the fun things that meant a lot to me growing up. I'm excited to go to Oklahoma in May for my brother's high school graduation. I plan to do some digging for some more treasures at my parents' house. But for now, here we go with a couple current memories on my mind...




The above picture is of my top two favorite stuffed animals: Cuddles and Ducky! My stuffed animals were my FAVORITE as a kid. I had an easy 50 in my room at all times. My mom was great because she even hand sewed several of them with little outfits. A Martha Stewart incarnate she is. :) Ducky went with me everywhere as a toddler, but as soon as I was old enough to latch onto Pound Puppies (boy did I ever), Cuddles took first place. Recently, I was going through a box I have here at home of a few childhood things, and these guys were in there. My heart melted and a tear or two almost came to my eyes. I still love them, but no worries I don't sleep with them.

This picture is my most treasured memory so far. It's a song my mom wrote for me in 1982. She wrote a song for each of us. I have two younger brothers, Zack (25) and Joseph (18). One year, she wrote the song out, hand drew some flowers, and covered the picture frame in lace. I mostly remember my mom singing this song to me when I would be sick or had a bad dream. She would rock me or lay beside me and sing my song "You are Precious". Talk about priceless! Seriously, it's QUITE the treasure to have a song God put on my mom's heart just for ME!

Here are the words: " You are precious. You are valuable. You are special to God and daddy and Zack and me (Joseph was a surprise years later). There's not another girl in this whole world just like Stephanie. God has a part for you in His plan. You gave Him your heart. Now He'll lead you hand in hand. No other one can tell of His Son just like you can. You're important to His plan." Thanks mom for the treasure of a lifetime and all the times you sang it to me. I still tear up when I think about it. Now it's time to get her to sing it on cd to have when I need to hear my mom's voice when I get sick :)

The last memory I'd like to share today is about a Christian artist I grew up LOVING and still do today. Yep, it's none other than Russ Taff (the artist playing on my blog right now). He was pure 80s, and one thing my parents were awesome at was always having music playing. This has given me a love for music. I can hear a song and be taken back to a memory within seconds. I hear that when I was in diapers, I would shake my bootie to Russ Taff anytime his tape or record was on. I also got to go to his Medals concert at OBU in the late 80s. I had the biggest crush on him and pretended my name was Tori, his wife's name. It was always a bashful crush, nothing creepy. Today, he's definitely old school, but yes I do have several off his songs on my IPOD. I still jam out here and there. Rock on Russ. Rock on.