0: Somewhere around my 0th birthday, the single most defining moment of my life happened. melissanicole became Melissa & Nicole. I don't remember the specifics from Biology of that splitting thing, but I do know that it is impossible to understand our relationship without realizing that we started out as 1 person. I read somewhere that identical twins occur spontaneously (that every other generation thing is fraternal twins), and the egg splitting is basically something totally unnatural. A freak of nature type thing. What is ironic, of course, is that what started as a separation or split resulted in the complete opposite for the rest of our lives. We were always together. So much to that for the majority of our childhood, we spoke in plural. 'I' was always 'we'. Our days were pretty much the same, so it kind of made sense, I think. Everything that has happened to me since then was directly influenced by being an identical twin. I am not exaggerating.
10: Being a twin gives you automatic bonus points in life. I think it has something to do with the fact that I always had someone on my side, so I really could just be myself and not have to worry about fitting in, which led to...fitting in. That probably only makes sense to one person reading this. Anyway, based on the above picture, thank God we had each other. With our frizzy hair, unibrows, giant glasses & spectacular fashion sense, one of us alone would have been eaten alive. As it was, we had a lot of friends. I daresay, we were actually popular.
I have 3 clear memories of 5th grade:
1. Mrs. Garvey took my Malibu Musk spray perfume & slap bracelet because Anna (pictured above) & I were not paying attention. She promised I would get them back at the end of the year. She kept trying to slap the bracelet on & it wouldn't work for her. I remember being so grateful that it refused to recognize her as it's owner. I never got them back. I knew she was going to keep the perfume. Who wouldn't want to smell like Malibu Musk??
2. Mrs. Privslosky (I cannot remember her exact name, but she had red hair and glasses) was in the room across the hall. 2 of my memories are associated with her. First, she caught me reading a book that was hidden in my math book during class & I got in so much trouble. Clearly, the math tension began early. And, I must have not been very good at hiding things. I perfected this one a little better by high school. But, I always thought it was weird that I got in so much trouble for sneaking a little reading. It was a BOOK, not a cigarette.
3. Disclaimer: Mom, it is too late for us to get in trouble for this one....Whenever Mrs. P had to leave the room to run errands, Nicole & I had to go with her. As an adult/teacher, I am so concerned that she frequently left an entire class of 5th graders to visit other teachers in the building or copy or whatever 5th grade teachers do. But, I do remember that Nicole & I would those opportunities to "entertain" the class. Usually, we would have fro fights where we would fight with our hair. People would take bets. I think someone pulled out popcorn once. Anyway, I think it was very selfless of us to think of the rest of the class, trapped with their math books. Inevitably, she came back to class a little early during one show & we were caught. From then on we had to go with her whenever she left. I think it was around this point that we realized the power of The Twins. We can get away with a lot more together.
20: By 20, I was doing a little better in the eyebrow grooming, frizz ease shampoo, contacts department. I think Emily & I are 20 in the above picture. We were getting ready to go to "Harleys & Honeys" mixer with Sigma Chi. Here is what I love about my life at 20: I thought I was busy. There is no way. I had time to find some random arm tattoo & are those black leather pants? I do know that one really awesome things happened toward the end of my my 20th year (July, to be exact). I saw a super hottie standing with his right foot up against the wall in front of the big Santa at TGIFridays. Before our first date, I told my mom I was going to marry him. These were my exact words: "Don't be mad if I went over my cell phone minutes this month. I had a really long conversation with your future son in law. Our first date is next week." I love that I was right & that Mom still paid my cell phone bill.
Again, I thought I was busy. Busy buying clothes for a decades party, I guess. 20 is carefree when viewed from the eyes of 30, but it is unfair to 20 to totally judge. I was pretty busy going to class, figuring out who I was & laying a foundation for the future. Maybe I am giving 20 a bit too much credit....
30: As I turn 30, I am so excited about a new decade!! I look back on the last one & am pretty overwhelmed about everything that happened. If 20 year old me had known about some of the things I would do/accomplish/experience, I would have never believed it. Some highlights: met my soulmate, got married, celebrated our 5 year anniversary, went to Italy with my parents where I told them I was pregnant, stood on Omaha Beach with Brandon, welcomed my parents to East Tennessee, earned 3 degrees, went skydiving, attended a Presidential Inauguration, ran a marathon, traveled a lot, adopted both of my girls, had tea in London, Haggis in Scotland & olives in Greece, lived in 4 apartments, discovered CVS, bought a house, got a job that I love, met some awesome friends/coworkers/in laws that I can't imagine I ever lived without, discovered I love avocado/guacamole (Clare!!), read some life changing books, got the Internet on my phone, found out I was pregnant, BECAME A MOM, patched a toddler for 8 months....
It's a pretty nice little list. The point is, if I did all of that in the last decade then what is this decade going to bring?? 10 years ago I had no idea how wonderfully amazing being a mom would be. What on earth? I can't even remember who that person was.
Granted, there were some sad spots in there, too. I said goodbye to my Nanny, ended some relationships, struggled with some of my own issues, moved away from Nicole...But, overall look at all the cool stuff!! I am so, so excited about the next decade.
As a birthday surprise, Mom got us pedicures. Because we are huge nerds, we picked the same color. Also, please check out the identical bunions on our right feet.
I am 30! Well, WE are 30!!
Last Saturday was possibly the best day of Anderson's life (besides Garbage days during the summer). We went to the "Farragut Fleet" show at the Farragut town hall where our cute little town had about 15 different vehicles for the kids to climb on, sit in and drool over. Anderson decided to have a little snack in the loader.
He LOVES bobcats right now. If a drive a certain way home, he gets to see one and it is the highlight of his day. He loved sitting in this one. 
They had crafts & gave away fire hats!
The excitement was too much & he crashed on the way to visit Brandon at work. How awesome is this picture? Not to be too mushy, but I just love how my husband can pull off a hard core SWAT uniform just as easy as he can carry a baby bug.
Hanging out with the guys.
Fire truck!
I will never get tired of seeing this little face asleep. Every time he doesn't have his glasses on, I get to fall in love all over again. I am literally shocked at what he looks like without his glasses/patch. I love the face with the glasses, but it's kind of nice to see without them every now and then, too.
