The other night, Becca, Jamie and I got together to work on homecoming decorations…I mean, to work on our high school reunion decorations.
Jamie and Jamie circa 2001
It felt just like old times…
Becca and Jamie did all the work
Ohhh, this is such HARD work....
Keep up the hard work, Becca. I'll watch.
(No one ever lets me do anything crafty because it inevitably will be screwed up. I’m a writer, not a painter. Gotta stick with what I know ;-))
While I talked to the boys…
Brody and I looked through the yearbook - I showed him pics of his mommy!
Okay the boy was a bit different this time around. The boy was none other than Becca’s son Brody, my new favorite person in Nebraska, and in my completely biased opinion, the cutest child on the planet.
Our favorite activity is going through my phone (Brody loves the touch screen) and looking at pictures. He can always point out pictures of his mommy and pictures of himself…except he calls himself Elmo. You cannot possibly imagine how cute it is when this little boy says, “ELMO!” I like to show him pictures of himself over and over again, just so I can hear him say it…
We ate some of our favorite cookie cake
Never take a cookie cake away from this girl...you'll be sorry
which was adorned with a megaphone and school colors…
Thanks Mom, you really are the best!
The delicious cookie cake was purchased by Sometimes Healthy Mom, who always bought us a cookie cake for special occasions back in high school. My friend, Jamie, is an extreme cookie cake fan, so my mother will find any excuse to buy her a cookie cake (promotions, birthdays, just because).
In fact, we are bringing a giant cookie to our high school reunion, and when we were discussing whether or not the venue would allow us to bring in our own cake, Jamie stated, “They better let us. Or I will sneak it in. Nothing gets in between me and my cookie cake.” The girl is serious about her cookie cake.
Don't be fooled by that sweet smile - the girl means BUSINESS!
We even practiced our cheers!
Well, not exactly. We’re using old books (spray painted black and gold) to hold down the balloons as centerpieces. We wanted to write some old sayings from back in the day on the books, but we couldn’t remember anything.
These ladies are craft - Good thing I didn't grab a marker!
That’s when we started to remember our cheers, and shockingly I knew the most. I probably could have preformed an entire half time show worth of cheers right there in Becca’s living room.
The Burke Cheer Team...of course, I had to be wearing HOT LOOPS in my hair...some things never change.
You see, cheerleading didn’t come natural to this somewhat uncoordinated Sometimes Healthy Girl, so I had to rehearse a lot back in the day – now it appears those cheers are stuck in my head for life. Practice makes perfect, my friends
And of course, just like old times, we let the boys do the “hard work.”
Okay Rory, you can handle the dirty work - I'll watch.
Becca’s husband, Rory, is an excellent spray painter, so we didn’t see the point in dirtying ourselves, when he could obviously do a much better job. Plus, he was practically begging us to do it all by himself…
But, he did snap a photo of me spray painting a book, just for kicks.
Sometimes Healthy Girl + Spray Paint = DANGER ZONE
Check out that form! Rory took the spay paint can away from me immediately after the photo, because he wasn’t looking to have his driveway spray painted black and gold…Don’t think I have the best aim. Oops.
Back to the Present
In the end, we had some good-looking centerpieces.
Nice job, Jamie and Becca!
I’ll show you the finished product when I recap the reunion, but I must say we (okay Jamie and Becca) did a fantastic job on these!
We also framed our senior pictures from the yearbook for the rest of the tables, and we’re going to sprinkle gold hershey kisses all over the tables.
Becca found her beautiful senior picture
Nebraska Nostalgia
This trip back home has been more nostalgic than any other time I’ve visited home. I think a large part of that is the reunion, but I also think hanging out with my old friends so consistently has brought back lots of good memories.
I’ve also made it a point to hit up my favorite Omaha past-times…
Like my favorite bagel place, where we used to go every weekend and sometimes after school, when we attended the junior high right down the street.
The Bagel Bin - one of my favorite places to visit growing up.
The best bagels in all of O-Town! Maybe they could even rival NYC???
The Cookie Company, the place behind the infamous cookie cake! My mother, of course, has become best friends with the owner 🙂
Ellen, owner of the Cookie Company. My mother started going there so much, they have become friends over the years!
She makes pieces of Cookie PIE too!
And my high school football field, which I always try to visit whenever I come back. Partially because I love running around in circles around the giant track (should have been a hamster in another life), but also because, at the same time, I listen to my country music and reminisce about some of the fun times I spent in this football stadium.
Such a beautiful football field - just like the ones from tv!
Standing on the track cheering for the team, sitting in the stands with all of my friends gripping each other with nervousness as the clock ticked down in the 4th quarter and of course, suffering through many an awkward gym class. Yep, this field contains lots of quality memories.
So, this inevitably led to me digging up a few pics from the past. Please enjoy a couple of oldies, but goodies:
During Spirit Week, raising money for Make a Wish Foundation! We raised $2000!
With Becca, sporting my adorable little braces - while she sports that million dollar smile
With Em at my graduation party - got a little too much sun. Oops.
And finally, for those of you who read my guest post on I’m an Okie about gaining confidence through the years and didn’t truly believe the description of an awkward little Sometimes Healthy Girl, please see the pic below for proof:
Yes, it's really me...lord, I hope this won't be spread on the internet!
Funnily enough, when I look at this picture, I can’t help but smile. Sure, I wasn’t the most attractive thing on the block in the early years, but dealing with those ugly buck teeth and those gigantic glasses helped shaped me into the sweet Sometimes Healthy Girl that I am today. And I wouldn’t trade those childhood memories for the world (of course, if I could go back, I might suggest to my mother that we buy glasses that actually FIT my face…)
And with that, I’m off to grab some dinner and enjoy one of my last nights in the Big O. I think it’s going to be a bit hard to leave this time around…
Question:
What was something you did recently that made you feel nostalgic?
Name a place, person or thing that always brings back good memories and tell me why. Let’s reminisce together!
My high school track also brings me wayyyy back. Anytime I go home, I make sure to run the infamous XC loop that I ran so many times in high school – so many good memories. And surprisingly, I always run into someone from my high school which just makes the memories rush back even more. I’m nostalgic just writing about it.
I LOVE that last picture. Made my night.
One of my favorite posts to date 🙂 love all the old school photos. Glad you got to spend the week in town.
So cute!! I love to reminisce! 🙂
OH my those the pictures of the cookies are so so pretty!
I am lovin this post, the old photos are wonderfu
I had my high school reunion last year and it was SO nostalgic. It was like no time had passed at all with some of my friends, and we spent the whole night reminiscing. So fun!
So cute and fun looking back in time!
I wish we had a bagel bin place near me! That sounds awesome.
Cookies >>>>> Cake, thus Cookie Cake = AWESOME 🙂
I need a cookie pie right this minute!! I LOVED all of the pictures gorgeous girl!! Staying up really late makes me feel super young again ha! I wouldn’t trade my childhood memories either!
ahhh how fun! that cookie cake looks amazing, and so do the slices of it! I don’t know what it is about a cookie cake that makes it so much better than a cookie… must be the icing. 😉
-courtney
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So happy to see you in the Big O last week!
What a nice surprise……glad you stopped by to
see your favorite cookie store. Remember…..we
do have a low-fat lemon oatmeal cookie and we
can deliver them to New York in case you get a craving
for them:) Love your blog!
Hugs, Ellen
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