One hour life history
Today in church a woman gave a lesson on having our own personal history. This has been a daunting task for me because I don't have a lot of free time, and what free time I have I don't want to spend writing because (as anyone that follows this blog knows) I can get longwinded, and I take so much time to write once I get started. Plus, it's much more interesting to write about other things like kids and trips and things.
Anyway ( I know, longwinded, right?) the woman giving the lesson challenged us to writing our one-hour life history. She gave us a sheet of paper with some suggestions to write on and a time limit of one hour. It really inspired me because I thought "I can take one hour. That sounds great!" So I came home and wrote it. It actually took me 1 1/2 hours.
Here are a couple of excerpts. I would put the whole thing up, but I don't want all that personal information online. (For anyone else who would like to try this, you can find the One-Hour History Guideline Here I highly recommend it!)
My name is Amber Lee Casdorph Dobson Tilley. It is a long name for a white girl born in the Rocky Mountains, but it’s mine. My parents liked the name Amber because it was pretty and unusual. They didn’t know anyone named Amber. Within a couple of years that changed a lot. In fact, in my high school, I had a 1 in 25 chance of being named Amber. In my graduating class, I had a 1 in 9 chance of being named Amber.
The Lee in my name comes from my father, whose middle name was Lee. His father’s middle name was also Lee. My parents wanted to give me the choice of being called Amber or AmberLee ( I’ve mostly gone by Amber, though).
I’ve also had many nicknames. Some nice, and some not so nice. My Dad’s favorite nickname was “Bologna” because around the time that I was born the company Oscar Meyer came out with a jingle that went “My bologna has a first name ; it’s O-S-C-A-R, my bologna has a second name it’s M-E-Y-E-R” my dad changed it to “My bologna has a first name, it’s A-M-B-E-R.
As a child, I was involved in many activities, thanks to my parents. I was part of the primary in my church, I was a girl scout Brownie and I was in 4H; I was also part of a crafting club started by Katie Bird. My brother and sisters and I started countless clubs and groups as we played in our treehouse and clubhouse (an old camper trailer). I participated in Odyssey of the Mind in 6th grade where we made up a story to explain what happened with Mt Vesuvius. Starting in 6th grade, I began volleyball and basketball. In Jr High, my age volleyball team (we played by grade) never lost a game. Our basketball team also went undefeated my 8th grade year.
I was married for time and eternity to Derek James Tilley on Saturday April 22 at in the Billings Montana Temple. Derek and I met at the Utah State Fair on September 17th. We started dating November 6th; he kissed me for the first time on November 18th. We talked about getting married on December 7th, and we were officially engaged on December 27th at Bodega Bay California. We were married on a beautiful spring day a few days after Derek and I finished our finals at college. We wanted our marriage and reception separate, so our reception was on May 27th.
We moved 15 times in our first 10 years. We moved into an apartment in Orem, UT run by our friends Brian and Cristi Myrup. It was too far away from school an too expensive for us, so we moved to a basement apartment on 300 south in Provo (dubbed the bat cave because it seemed like one). After living there for a few months, the Landlord kicked us out so she could use our apartment for an office, so in November (when I was 3 months pregnant) we moved again to another cute, old one-bedroom basement apartment. I graduated from BYU when I was 8 ½ months pregnant.
Our first son Nathaniel was born 2 ½ weeks later. We had a wonderful 3 months in Provo with him, then we moved to Gainesville, Florida so that Derek could pursue a PhD in plant systematics. After being there for 1 semester, Derek and I decided that we needed to change our life course, so, in December we moved back across the country to live with my parents in Wyoming while Derek looked for a job.
While he was looking for something permanent, I started a job at Rocky Mountain Photo Company, where I put my computer skills to use and learned a lot about Photoshop. In May, Derek obtained a summer job in Dinosaur, Colorado at Dinosaur National Monument. We moved into another 1 bedroom place there. In September, when that job ended, we moved to Twin Falls, ID to live with my Uncle Vaughn and Aunt Heidi Casdorph. Derek took a job working potato harvest there. While there, Uncle Vaughn used his contacts to get us an interview with University of Idaho Extension station in Parma, ID.
We moved into a rental there until we purchased a house in Parma. While there our second child, Logan, was born the day before Thanksgiving in Caldwell, ID. We brought him home and 2 weeks later, Derek informed me that he had been hired with the USDA NRCS PMC in Aberdeen, Idaho. In February, we moved into an older 2 bedroom home on main street in Aberdeen. After renting for a few months, we found a cute home on 3rd west that we bought. We lived there for 2 ½ years (and had Christmas in the same house twice for the 1st time).
A couple of years later, we saw a house on Powerline road that we liked a lot. It was bigger, and our family would be expanding soon, so we traded houses with the owner of the other house. She was looking to downsize, so it worked perfectly. A few months later our third child, Andelin, was born. Later that year, Derek had the opportunity to become the manager of the PMC in Lockeford, CA. His parents lived in Sacramento, so, in December, we moved to Lodi, Ca. Quickly, Derek realized that he did not like his job, (and as a family, we determined that California was not really our speed), so he applied and was hired back on to his old job in Aberdeen. We moved into a rental a few miles out of town until we bought a piece of land in August 2010. We moved a trailer on to it and began building our own home which we stayed in for the rest of our lives (I hope).
After becoming a mother, I have mostly stayed at home as a mom. I work part time at nights as a data specialist, and I have worked at a few other things such as: piano teacher, substitute teacher, secretary, teacher’s aide, yoga instructor, web page designer and other things. I spend much of my time involved in other activities like the Aberdeen Arts Council, PTSA, scrapbooking, church volleyball, among others.
And ta-da that's my life history in an hour! If you made it this far, than you are hooked. Give it a try, you'll be amazed at the results! I'd love to hear about it if you actually do it, too :)
Anyway ( I know, longwinded, right?) the woman giving the lesson challenged us to writing our one-hour life history. She gave us a sheet of paper with some suggestions to write on and a time limit of one hour. It really inspired me because I thought "I can take one hour. That sounds great!" So I came home and wrote it. It actually took me 1 1/2 hours.
Here are a couple of excerpts. I would put the whole thing up, but I don't want all that personal information online. (For anyone else who would like to try this, you can find the One-Hour History Guideline Here I highly recommend it!)
My name is Amber Lee Casdorph Dobson Tilley. It is a long name for a white girl born in the Rocky Mountains, but it’s mine. My parents liked the name Amber because it was pretty and unusual. They didn’t know anyone named Amber. Within a couple of years that changed a lot. In fact, in my high school, I had a 1 in 25 chance of being named Amber. In my graduating class, I had a 1 in 9 chance of being named Amber.
The Lee in my name comes from my father, whose middle name was Lee. His father’s middle name was also Lee. My parents wanted to give me the choice of being called Amber or AmberLee ( I’ve mostly gone by Amber, though).
I’ve also had many nicknames. Some nice, and some not so nice. My Dad’s favorite nickname was “Bologna” because around the time that I was born the company Oscar Meyer came out with a jingle that went “My bologna has a first name ; it’s O-S-C-A-R, my bologna has a second name it’s M-E-Y-E-R” my dad changed it to “My bologna has a first name, it’s A-M-B-E-R.
As a child, I was involved in many activities, thanks to my parents. I was part of the primary in my church, I was a girl scout Brownie and I was in 4H; I was also part of a crafting club started by Katie Bird. My brother and sisters and I started countless clubs and groups as we played in our treehouse and clubhouse (an old camper trailer). I participated in Odyssey of the Mind in 6th grade where we made up a story to explain what happened with Mt Vesuvius. Starting in 6th grade, I began volleyball and basketball. In Jr High, my age volleyball team (we played by grade) never lost a game. Our basketball team also went undefeated my 8th grade year.
I was married for time and eternity to Derek James Tilley on Saturday April 22 at in the Billings Montana Temple. Derek and I met at the Utah State Fair on September 17th. We started dating November 6th; he kissed me for the first time on November 18th. We talked about getting married on December 7th, and we were officially engaged on December 27th at Bodega Bay California. We were married on a beautiful spring day a few days after Derek and I finished our finals at college. We wanted our marriage and reception separate, so our reception was on May 27th.
We moved 15 times in our first 10 years. We moved into an apartment in Orem, UT run by our friends Brian and Cristi Myrup. It was too far away from school an too expensive for us, so we moved to a basement apartment on 300 south in Provo (dubbed the bat cave because it seemed like one). After living there for a few months, the Landlord kicked us out so she could use our apartment for an office, so in November (when I was 3 months pregnant) we moved again to another cute, old one-bedroom basement apartment. I graduated from BYU when I was 8 ½ months pregnant.
Our first son Nathaniel was born 2 ½ weeks later. We had a wonderful 3 months in Provo with him, then we moved to Gainesville, Florida so that Derek could pursue a PhD in plant systematics. After being there for 1 semester, Derek and I decided that we needed to change our life course, so, in December we moved back across the country to live with my parents in Wyoming while Derek looked for a job.
While he was looking for something permanent, I started a job at Rocky Mountain Photo Company, where I put my computer skills to use and learned a lot about Photoshop. In May, Derek obtained a summer job in Dinosaur, Colorado at Dinosaur National Monument. We moved into another 1 bedroom place there. In September, when that job ended, we moved to Twin Falls, ID to live with my Uncle Vaughn and Aunt Heidi Casdorph. Derek took a job working potato harvest there. While there, Uncle Vaughn used his contacts to get us an interview with University of Idaho Extension station in Parma, ID.
We moved into a rental there until we purchased a house in Parma. While there our second child, Logan, was born the day before Thanksgiving in Caldwell, ID. We brought him home and 2 weeks later, Derek informed me that he had been hired with the USDA NRCS PMC in Aberdeen, Idaho. In February, we moved into an older 2 bedroom home on main street in Aberdeen. After renting for a few months, we found a cute home on 3rd west that we bought. We lived there for 2 ½ years (and had Christmas in the same house twice for the 1st time).
A couple of years later, we saw a house on Powerline road that we liked a lot. It was bigger, and our family would be expanding soon, so we traded houses with the owner of the other house. She was looking to downsize, so it worked perfectly. A few months later our third child, Andelin, was born. Later that year, Derek had the opportunity to become the manager of the PMC in Lockeford, CA. His parents lived in Sacramento, so, in December, we moved to Lodi, Ca. Quickly, Derek realized that he did not like his job, (and as a family, we determined that California was not really our speed), so he applied and was hired back on to his old job in Aberdeen. We moved into a rental a few miles out of town until we bought a piece of land in August 2010. We moved a trailer on to it and began building our own home which we stayed in for the rest of our lives (I hope).
After becoming a mother, I have mostly stayed at home as a mom. I work part time at nights as a data specialist, and I have worked at a few other things such as: piano teacher, substitute teacher, secretary, teacher’s aide, yoga instructor, web page designer and other things. I spend much of my time involved in other activities like the Aberdeen Arts Council, PTSA, scrapbooking, church volleyball, among others.
And ta-da that's my life history in an hour! If you made it this far, than you are hooked. Give it a try, you'll be amazed at the results! I'd love to hear about it if you actually do it, too :)
posted by Amber | 5:29 PM
1 Comments:
Very cool, Amber. I read the whole thing. And I learned some things too :) Miss you!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home