Childhood memories--Throw Up

This is pretty grouse, so you can all stop reading right now.

You have now been warned.

I have the weakest stomach out there and the wimpiest gag reflex on this planet.

My first swim lesson, I remember walking through the door to the pool at the Orem Rec Center. The smell of chlorine hit me so bad, I ran to the garbage can and let it all out. I still hate swimming pools.

Walking to Kindergarten every day was a treat. I had my little book bag that my mom made for me. I loved that bag. I would chew on the fabric handles. One day I had a runny nose and didn't know what to do so I wiped my nose with the handles of my bag. Later down the road, out of habit, I brought the handles to my mouth. As soon as it touched my lips I remembered that I had wiped my nose with it and immediately started gagging and threw up. (I tell this story whenever I say that I NEVER picked my nose and ate my boogers ((I fully admit that I picked (((pick))) my nose)) because people don't believe me.) I was across the street from my Aunt Laurel's by then and she got out her hose and cleaned me and my bag up.

When I was twelve, I had an awesome retainer that always seemed to be broken. My dad would use epoxy to glue it back together so my parents wouldn't have to pay for another retainer (I still have dreams that I am wearing my broken retainer. And epoxy? That explains all my problems!). We have a pretty nice hill in my childhood backyard. Back when we had winters full of snow, we would go tubing down that hill. I never had the sense to pull my hair back in a pony tail, so when I would biff it on the tube, my hair would get caught up in the snow and in my mouth and retainer. Enter in my gag reflex.

There are, of course, many more occasions in my life when my weak stomach and poor gag reflex have come in to play, but let's fast forward to my wedding day. A sweet little temple worker had to fetch me a trash can and it stayed by my side throughout the whole day. I did, however, succeed in NOT throwing up that day.