my old room

When I was in 7th grade my family moved to a new house.
I got the best room in the house.
It was downstairs. The rest were upstairs.
I had my own bathroom (and my sister had to share a toilet with my stanky little brother for 8 years... muahahaha).
I had a walk-in closet (far larger than the closet that I share with my husband now).
I had a huge beautiful window (that allowed for easy in-out access late at night. totally innocent though, promise!)


And the best part of all were my walls.


Yep, walls. My parents [for some crazy, unknown reason] gave me permission to write, paint, draw all over them. Why, you ask? The world may never know. Regardless, I loved it. I went through a phase of being obsessed with quotes, song lyrics, Bible verses, etc. and this just fanned the flame. I have many journal pages covered in the above (thanks in part to just such a journal my friend Paula's sweet sister Francina [aka- Pantina] gave me in 10th grade. No lie, Paula. I still have it. A "jimmy book" perhaps?)

After I moved away to college, my parents decided to rearrange some rooms in the house and the first thing to go was the decorated walls. They actually added on to my room and made it a fabulous master suite for my 'rents (so now when David and I go visit we get to stay in the previous, fabulous master suite upstairs. Oh and Ash, we're planning on having kids before you get married so we'll always get the good room :) sorry.)


My dad labored through repainting that room. He likes reminding me that he had to sand it, and sand it, and prime it and prime it and prime it and paint it like four times to cover all my crap. I like to remind him that he let me do it :).


So, in cleaning up and out all kinds of stuff lately, I came across these pictures of parts of my old walls. Mementos of my former middle- and high-school self. Reminders of what I was thinking about and what I learned.

Next to my mirror. Oh, and with a swirly stamp (yeah, it was actually a stamp).
Jimi Hendrix quote compliments of David Carr.

Sonja Metcalf quote written by Ashley, but enjoyed by all.

Framed bear with balloons. ????

Creepy dolls?

Ok, let's talk about this one. I don't think I had ever read that verse in context. I think I liked the thought of being carefree... or something (what was I thinking??). However... that isn't even the right verse! Here ya go:

15 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day;
16 restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

OOPS.

I think the one on the far right is "We can do no great things. We can only do small things with great love. " -- Mother Teresa

Again... not sure I really understood what this one meant. I'm confident I didn't know what abdication meant.

Oh, and to the right... that's an airplane. Looks like a pickle. I think the quote is something about being friends but being far apart... I was so full of wisdom.

Whew. You're probably thinking about how you would not have been my friend back then. You're probably right. I was weird. And unfortunately, this isn't the first of it. There was a whole hallway of Superchic[k] and Reliant K lyrics scribbled all over the place.

So when we spent a weekend painting the man room, my dad reminded me of all this. His sage advice was, "Now consider letting your first born and any of her friends come over and write (with Sharpies, no less) and paint all over those freshly painted walls. Yeah, I think that would be a great idea."

I do appreciate my parents letting me explore my creativity -- albeit at the expense of formerly white walls.