Forty favorite memories

This list was meant to commemorate my fortieth birthday. I refused to abandon the idea, even though my birthday is long past. So here they are -- forty of my favorite memories, in no certain order.

• Sitting with Steven atop a Birmingham overlook in October 1987, enjoying a gorgeous autumn view. The world was glowing with hues of gold, orange and crimson on the day he asked me to marry him.
• Hearing the words “It’s a girl!” from my obstetrician, Doctor Belyeu, as he delivered our first child by c-section in June 1993.
• The miraculous moment when God healed my relationship with my Dad, and I knew it.
• Ladies nights out at Macaroni Grill
• Toting Aden around in the baby sling from the time he was a newborn til he was 6 or 7 months old. He was the first baby I was home with, and I cherished the time with him.
• Sitting up til 2:30 a.m. with my sister-in-law, Laura Kay, on a May 2002 family beach trip, chatting and laughing til our cheeks and stomachs hurt.
• Steven, in boxers only, tied (by his fraternity brothers) to a tree outside my sorority house on the campus of Birmingham-Southern in honor of our fraternity/sorority “pinning.”
• Daily conversations at the kitchen table over coffee with my neighbor, Tracey Hambrick, before she and her family moved away.
• September 1990 vacation to Ski Beech, N.C. Steven and I white-water rafted, dined in a general store’s basement cafe, and hiked Grandfather Mountain and Linville Falls.
• Shopping for furniture with my grandmother just after she and Danny bought the house in Moody. I valued the normality of it.
• All the times I told Steven we were having a baby.
• The time Steven told me we were having a baby.
• The smell of cheeseballs cooking every Christmas at my Great Aunt Merle’s, and investigating her huge patio, yard and hidden stairs with my brothers.
• The moment of SURPRISE at my 40th birthday party!
• Lunchtime at BellSouth, howling over I LOVE LUCY episodes with my closest friend, Robin.
• Hanging out with my sister, Christy, who came from Texas to stay with me for a week after Emma was born.
• The day my little brother graduated from high school. No one I knew had worked harder to accomplish what he had.
• The way my mother smelled.
• My mother, wearing really funky, extremely high heeled shoes (as opposed to something a little more appropriate) on a field trip to Tannehill State Park with my 6th-grade class. The other moms must have thought she was ridiculous, but I remember all the other girls being crazy about her.
• Vacations taken with friends – many with the Claytons, women’s trips to the beach, etc.
• My little brother wiping a tear from his eye at my wedding.
• Enjoying coconut cookies and kool-aid every summer at my childhood church’s Vacation Bible School.
• Anita Boykin, in a Bible study 7-8 years ago, challenging my motives for wanting to grow spiritually; want it not merely for the sake of spiritual growth, she said, want it instead so that God would be glorified.
• Answering our telephone in the little Leeds apartment just months after Steven and I married, and hearing Debi Manville’s tremulous voice: “Laura, I’m going to be a Mommy .... in three days.”
• My grandmother, when I was a teenager, reminding me to “Lock your doors,” EVERY time I got in the car to drive to school or work.
• Choosing my wedding dress with the help of Debi Manville.
• Sleeping in the back bedroom in the big double bed all by myself when, as a kid, I spent the night with my (Great) Uncle Jim and (Great Grandmother) Biggy. The solitude was glorious!
• And, speaking of Uncle Jim, sitting on his knee as he entertained me with classic fables and corny jokes. He would always give the characters in the fables the names of my friends and the people in my own neighborhood.
• The first sight of Eli’s hands – they were enormous, and I LOVED them!
• Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial
• Shopping for souveneirs in Pigeon Forge when Mimi, my dad’s mom, would take us on vacation with her. Outings were rare in our home, where noone drove, and a vacation was the ultimate outing!
• Being called “Sweet Love” and “Doll” by my grandmother
• My 12th-birthday party, planned by my mother and held at the apartment she shared with my stepdad. We played Pin the Mustache on Shaun Cassidy.
• The sights and sounds of San Francisco on a 12th-grade awards/competition trip. Specifically, Fisherman’s Wharf, sourdough bread, Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge, trolley cars, row houses and combing the shops of Chinatown for Steven’s souvenir teakwood chess set.
• Seeing my writing in print.
• The first time I heard Steven’s laugh
• The most recent time I heard Steven laugh
• Snoozing in the now-retired ugly pink Lazy-Boy-Recliner with my newborn babies nestled against my chest
• My brother’s wedding gifts to Steven and me – half the cost of my wedding dress, and a wedding night stay at Anniston’s Victoria inn.
• Hearing my husband preach for the first time, and every time since

Just a smattering of my favorites. How about sharing one of yours?