Where were you 10, 20, 30 years ago?

Well, I've been tagged with another meme that I've seen around the blogosphere: The 10-20-30 Meme--share what I was doing 10 years, 20 years and 30 years ago. I am glad I was there for Lori to tag, since she didn't know where to turn! Here goes:

Ten years ago, I was just about to finish a stint working part-time in the Loan Servicing Department of our local bank. They wanted me to stay on to take the place of the retiring manager. I told her (she was a Christian sister) that if I was going to leave my child and home to work full-time, it wouldn't be at a bank. She completely understood! We had moved here the previous year, after nine months of unemployed and nomadic following after God's will, and needed my help for about 14 months while we settled in and began to recover financially. Our #1 son was 2 1/2 and there were no thoughts of #2...yet, much less #3!

This picture from Christmas of that year is of sister#4 and her three kids and my family and my Mom (Dad took the picture). We are all wearing the sweaters that she had been secretly knitting as gifts for everyone that year...that was 28 sweaters...in one year!

Twenty years ago, I made the unlikely jump from support staff to management at Hughes Aircraft Company. Boy, that's a story for another time! Talking about the best of times and the worst of times! I did, however, have the pleasure of renting part of a home that was walking distance from my office. My cat, Hobie, and I were a lot of company to each other during that time of long hours and lots of work that goes along with the whole management role. The ladies small group I was part of on Wednesday nights had really gelled and I was reading The Chronicles of Narnia to them...we spent quite a few years reading, processing, laughing and crying our way through all seven of them. It was an important time of community-building and embracing vulnerability and authenticity for everyone in that group....

Thirty years ago, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into...as I settled into missionary life in Chiang Mai, Thailand and tried to get the hang of washing clothes by hand (never wore those jeans enough to need washing again!) and figuring out what I could eat with allergies to onions and peppers and any pungent spice. (As an aside--by the time I returned home two years later, I weighed a mere 94 lbs. After four months of home cooking--including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's--I had only gained 6 lbs. I may have more than I need now, but I don't wish to return to those days! I'll spare you the picture....) Then there was four hours a day in language studies learning to speak, read and write Thai. (My vocabulary is a little rusty, but I am still fairly fluent! Reading and writing are another story...I can just barely get by anymore.)

So...who to tag? Let's see...what about Janet, Richard, Brad, Scot, and Alan. Some of us could talk about what we were doing 40 years ago, but there's no need to go there ;^)