Sweet Sixteen...I remember when...

My oldest son turned sixteen. It was just yesterday that I was looking forward to my own first date, and getting a drivers license, and having more freedom. It was also just yesterday that I gave birth to a squirmy little boy who moaned for twenty-four hours like he'd just been through the most traumatic experience of his life...Ok, I guess in some ways, he had. Even the nurses didn't know what to think of it. I remember they came to me and asked me what I thought the problem was. And I remember thinking, ' You're asking me? I have nooooo idea what is wrong with him. All I want to do is curl up under a blanket and sleep.' He eventually stopped moaning, but I didn't get much sleep for the next... twelve years. But sixteen! How can it be?

I think back to what I was doing at sixteen. Well, at least the things I can share. I remember my first date: swimming at Green Canyon Hot Springs, picnic, burgers,"bubbly" and then proceeding to soak the blanket with our drinks. Then we went to Rexburg where all my friends were waiting to surprise me with a party at the Botanical gardens. What a fun time. So much has changed. Or has it, I wonder? I'm not sure. So I've made a list of all the things that were happening that wonderful year. See if any of these are familiar:

#1 song on the billboard the week of my birthday was Sinead O'Conners,
"Nothing compares to you",

but I had the tape single of the #1 song from the previous week called, "I'll be your everything" by Tommy Page.

1990 was also a great year for movies, like Joe Verses the Volcano and Gremlins II. No, it really was a good year for movies. It included one of my all time favorites, "Ghost"

Hunt for Red October, Pretty Woman, Edward Sissorhands. (The beginning of my Johnny Depp crush.)

Dances with wolves, and my personal favorite, Misery, 'Mr. Man' Wow, that was a good year.

Some other fun facts for 1990 are:

Cost of bread=72 cents

Cost of a gallon of milk=$2.78

Cost of a dozen eggs=$1.00

Cost of a new car=$9,437.00

Cost of a gallon of regular gas=$1.16

Cost of a new home=$149,800.00

Cost of a stamp=25 cents

The average income=$29,943.00

The Dow-Jones market reached a high of 3,000 and a low of 2,365

Minimum wage was $3.80 in 1990.

TV shows were Days of our Lives and Cheers and Seinfield. It was also the first year of Prince of Bel Air.


I could put five bucks in my blue sprint and drive for a week.

There was no such thing as the internet or cell phones or mp3 players or even DVD's. Especially in my red neck of the world, (Idaho). But I did learn that 1990 was the year http was invented. In 1990 our texts consisted of notes we wrote to each other in class.

I never locked my locker, which might explain why money was constantly stolen from my jacket. I also found little presents like cookies, candy bars, M&M's, love notes. Roses, teddy bears, and other surprises. I'd talk on the phone for hours! And because the phone was attached to the wall, I'd stretch it as far as I could and lay on the living room floor, making the whole family step over me. (As a mom, that would drive me CRAZY. My parents were so patient!)

I was crazy for Madonna

and in love with Brad Pitt and
Patrick Swayze's "Ditto"

not to mention Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise. So many choices.

I listened to the Princess Bride Soundtrack every night before I went to bed and wished I were twenty-something living a dream life on an island in the Caribbean with a tall gorgeous man. Poor 16 year-old me would be appauled that I have yet to put my feet on Caribbean soil. Boo! Boo! Putrescence!

So that's about it. And the answer is, yes! Things have changed, but some things haven't changed: the desire to be loved, respected, cared about, and for. The hope that you'll do something big, and be somebody important. In the wise words of my favorite movie of 2011, "You is smart, you is kind, you is important." 16 years ago one of the good ones joined our family. I hope he knows he is all of those things. I thank my Heavenly Father for sending him to us. Happy Birthday, sonny boy.