The World They Knew

There was a night, not long ago, when the world stopped for the town of Montoursville, PA. When I think about July 17, 1996, the picture of that morning is starkly contrasted with the memory of what happened that night. It doesn't seem so long ago that 16 students from the Montoursville High School French Club and their five chaperones were heading to France. It doesn't seem so long ago that I heard the news that their plane, TWA Flight 800, crashed off the coast of Long Island, and took the lives of 230 people.

And yet here it is, July 17, 2015. The world has changed a lot in 19 years. Since I was 17 when it happened, I have known more life "after Flight 800" than I did "before Flight 800." But for our friends, the world of July 17, 1996, was the world they knew.

I run the risk of sounding like my parents when I say, "Well, when I was a kid, life was better, life was simpler, blah blah blah." But that's exactly where I'm going with this, especially since I have kids who hear these statements of nostalgia. For instance, when my 9-year-old asked when I got my first cell phone and I told her I was 23, her mouth gaped open in shock. She finds it hard to believe that her father and I lived in a world where we did not have hand-held devices, video chatting or digital cameras, just to name a few.

But those 21 from Montoursville lived in a world such as I described.

They didn't have phones to text messages on; instead, a text message looked more like this:

This was an origami-folded text message, 6th grade, 1991.

Bored in 8th grade study hall.

Passed back & forth in 11th grade cultures; the song lyric Monica tried to figure out?
"I Wish" by Skee-Lo: "I wish I had a six-four Impala!"

A birthday card featured the popular cartoon characters of the day...

And computer graphic technology looked like this (and probably took a half-hour to print!)...

These were the "selfies" of the time...

Kim--6th thru 11th grade

Monica--4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th & 11th grades

Jess--10th grade

And thank you notes were never in short supply...

This would've been the "writing on the facebook wall" of the day...

Looking through these pictures, notes and cards brings so much to the forefront of my mind. I can hear their voices when I read those messages. Nineteen years have not faded what I remember about them; if anything, time has made that stronger. Those memories are a reminder of what life was like when they were here.

There is still sadness because of what happened on the night of July 17, 1996. But going back to that morning... they were happy, they were thriving, and they were headed on an amazing journey. For that moment in time, in the world they knew, life was good.  

Tales of Potty-Training Woe

There is nothing quite like the adventure of potty-training child #3 to test your patience, increase your laundry duties, and humble you. I would've thought I'd be a pro at this by now, able to dispense advice to other moms in the trenches of potty-traning their first.

Wrong-o!

I thought she #3 would be the easiest since she has two big sisters she can observe, is uber-verbal, and to be perfectly honest, because I am tired of buying diapers. Since numero uno was born, there has been a total of 16 months of being diaper-free. I have now officially been a mother for 112 months. I never wanted to have more than one kid in diapers at a time, and somehow, that all worked out in my favor. But as I sit here and add the numbers up, perhaps it would've been better that way, because this diaper phase wouldn't be so long and drawn out.

I anxiously awaited the moment that Jacey turned two, because then she could get on that potty, and we could be on our way to being a diaper-free home! Oh, silly me. Two-and-a-half came, the age at which her sisters showed the signs of being ready to potty train, and I got excited again. Once again, a fool I was. However, once we decided to take a vacation which involved driving to S. Carolina and then Disney World, we figured it would be in our best interest to not have a freshly potty-trained kid who would make that drive even longer. When vacation ended and her third birthday a month away, we decided to buckle down and get this kid in underwear permanently!

This Saturday was her first full-fledged day in underwear, and besides a couple minor accidents, it was a great potty-training day!

Yesterday, a lot more accidents, a lot more laundry, but it's just the beginning.

Today, as we both were at work, my mother-in-law had a great first two hours, and then it went downhill from there. Several pairs of underwear and two bottoms later... then once we got home, she still managed to pee in her closet. Sigh. But the bright side to that tale of potty-training woe is that we have hardwood floors. At the rate she's going, they are all going to be getting a thorough cleaning in the next few days... or weeks.

But I can see the light at the end of this diaper tunnel!