all I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten.

The year was 1985. My parents had just moved into a new home (the same home they are living in 23 years later.) I was 6 years old and starting my scholastic career as a Mountain Man at Oquirrh Elementary... (and you better believe I can still sing the fight song!) I have many great memories from Kindergarten, but I think that's because I suppress all the bad and only talk about the good :) Kindergarten gave me a new sense of freedom and I loved making new friends. My mom allowed me to walk to school with my friends and that was thrilling! I was shy, sweet and told other kids on the playground that they didn't jump rope the RIGHT way. (How many times do you want me to apologize Annie? Geez.) I have always been independent, but I don't think I have a rebellious bone in my body. My mom would probably disagree, but that's because she's biased. The only time I can think of openly rebelling was in Kindergarten on picture day. At least that's the only time we have proof of my rebellion. I think.

Picture day was always exciting, wasn't it? For years, I had watched my older sisters stress about school pictures... "What do I wear? How should I style my hair? How do I keep the picture guy from making me smile my real smile?" (because we all know that the half-smile is definitely more sexy.) I am telling you, I knew the tricks of the trade and had my outfit all planned out. But the morning of my very first official school picture day, my mom crushed my hopes and dreams. She insisted that I wore my fancy, lacy pink dress, not my favorite (dirty) stripped T-shirt. I was devastated. It was hard enough getting through church wearing that itchy thing, but HOW was I going to run around the playground with a frilly dress? She reassured me that it would be okay and that fancy was the only way to go. I was disappointed, but agreed to wear it, as long as I could accessorize with my favorite pink jelly necklace. When I put the necklace over my dress, my mom took one look at me and said, "No way, no how." She told me that it did not look good together.. but I disagreed. After all, they were both pink!!!! She gave me The Look, and I was crushed. I took off the necklace and sulked down the hallway to my bedroom. And THEN I had a glorious idea. I would pretend that it didn't bother me. I would leave the house without wearing the necklace, carry on as normal and when it was time for pictures, I would pull out the jelly necklace from the secret compartment of my backpack and wear it for the portrait. Brilliant. No one will ever know. I was so smart and sneaky that after the pictures were taken, I took off the necklace, slipped it in my backpack and returned home as Miss Obedient. I had fooled everyone. Or so I thought. My six-year-old-brain didn't realize that the pictures would be printed and distributed back to the parents. My mom was shocked when I brought home my Kindergarten head shot.




oh, you actually want to see the picture? Okay.



















wait for it.































It took my mom a few years to get over it, but now the picture is classic. The jelly necklace definitely doesn't mesh with the dress, but the REAL criminal was definitely not me. It was my hairstylist. For years I thought the look on my face was "I can't believe I am getting away with this!" But now I think it could have been, "I hope the janitor doesn't want to use this mop on my head to clean the gymnasium floor."

Lessons I learned in Kindergarten:

• Jelly necklaces rock.

• Never commit a crime unless you can dispose of all the evidence.

• Moms are usually right.. but sometimes they aren't.

• the best photos (the ones that really show personality and have the best memories) are not always "picture perfect."