luxe chandelier

I was looking through old pictures on my computer. I know for sure I have gone through a lot of different phases with hair styles and clothes. Duh…who hasn’t!? For a while in middle high school I had low self esteem and always had to wear a long t-shirt that covered my booty. I’m so glad I outgrew this phase quickly!

I had a friend, Katie, who lived across the street that was 5 years older than me. I remember the day when she came over and tried getting me to wear my jeans low past my belly button because it was the new trend. Remember those days where we had to make sure our hair was perfect when putting it up. Katie told me to trust her and put my hair up in a messy bun. I remember cringing at the feeling of my jeans being too low and my messy bun style hair! It was a torture at first to get used to. (Thanks for all the advices & fashion help, Katie!)

2000 – Haley and me

One of those fun nights we had playing dress up especially for spirit week at school.
This was the era of bangs for me.
Blow drying it with a round brush every single morning!

2003 – Senior Picture

My hair looks ORANGE! This is one of those times when I bleached my hair.
I can’t believe I had twisted my hair on the top for my senior pictures.

Overalls, don’t you miss those? and how it was so cool leaving one strap off.

The beanie hat phase in college. A few of us bought the same hat and wore it all the time.
We even took “we’re too cool for you” pictures. Pfft!

Click on the image to see a short GIF animated video I created years ago

Transcript of video:

Me: My shaw (HOT) boyfriend!

‘Shaw’ is one of the many words we made up in high school. I never use that sign anymore. Did you see the necklace Tyler’s wearing in the video? and his earrings? Tyler stopped wearing them since he got a job. Thank god! I can’t imagine him wearing them again… I think he moved on.

Now I’m sure years later from now we’ll be laughing at the clothes we’re wearing now and the hair styles too!!

Hubby and I are high school sweethearts. Soon it’ll be 8 years since we started dating when we both were 16 years old.

Tyler and I first met on my first day at the deaf school. I was outside of the dorms (we lived there during the week and went home on the weekends) talking with my friends when Tyler came up to me and awkwardly asked me what my name was. He didn’t really know that much sign language at the time so he was clumsy and he didn’t even understand what I said when I fingerspelled my name. He smiled then walked off. (Many years later I found out that he didn’t know what I said and had to ask the other boys what my name was).

Tyler in green and me next to him in blue.

Tyler never gave up trying to talk to me and sat with me on the bus when we went home on the weekends. He’d even say “Hi, Mom!” to MY mom. Of course my mom thought he was cute and sweet! I shrugged it off because at the time I was dating someone else. I was at the age where I was interested in boys that were so cool and not so nice like Tyler. I enjoyed Tyler’s company as a friend and nothing more than that. After school he would always go to his dorm and finish his homework and call his Mom for their daily chat then come over to my dorm to hang out. My dorm counselor always came to my room to say, “Tyler’s here to see you!”

A few months after I broke up with the boy I was seeing, Tyler started flirting with me. He would let me borrow his sweatshirt and CD’s to listen to every night. One night I kissed him on the cheek before he went back to his dorm. Immediately that night I felt confused and guilty for leading him on so I wrote him a letter explaining I didn’t want to hurt him and thought it would be best if we were just friends. Tyler ignored everything I said and would not give up.

The day came where everyone was discussing who was taking who to Prom. Tyler asked me to go to Prom with him and I told him I would as friends only. One day after school we all were hanging outside with our friends. One of my friends said she thought Tyler was cute and jokingly said that she should ask him out. I quickly reacted by saying, “No!” and then realized I did like him but was afraid of getting into a relationship mainly because my family was moving to Arizona that Summer.

A few weeks went by. Tyler and I were chatting online and he had told me he needed to ask me something on the Bus when we go back to school. Right then I kind of knew he was going to ask me out again. I was so nervous! We sat together on the bus and he asked me if I would be his girlfriend. I said Yes! I think at the time he was more excited than I was. He’s definitely a Mama’s Boy and called his Mom to let her know we were going steady. We went to Prom together and had so much fun together!

Prom 2001

School was coming to an end. We had to figure out where our relationship was going since my family was moving to Arizona. Tyler suggested we stay together and attempt the long distance thing. Being long distance was the most difficult thing we went through for 2 years before we finally went to college together. It was a whole new relationship for us in college since we were on our own and seeing each other everyday compared to 1 week every 2 months or so.

Visiting each other during the Summer

The year before I graduated from college, we got engaged & married! The engagement story is another story for another time.

Tonight at DPHH (Deaf Professional Happy Hour) I was enjoying myself with Tyler and our friends but as the night went more deaf people arrived which became more awkward for me. I’ve had some people interrupting my conversations with friends to remind me that I went to high school with them (the deaf school in Phoenix which I only went to for 5-6 months before I switched over to a hearing school).

Honestly I’ve blocked out my memory of that span and I didn’t know what to say especially when one guy told me straight up that I always ignored him. What did he want? for me to apologize for something that happened in high school?

After being blasted from the past tonight, I realized I’m sooo happy and grateful for all the friends I have currently in my life and the wonderful family I have. I’m happy with where I’m at in life with Tyler!