Personal History

Personal History: First memories through age 8

            I was born May 10, 1990 in the Phoenix, Arizona hospital.  My parents are Dan and Judi Rush.  I have 6 siblings: Christi (10years older than me), Charlie (8 years older than me), Ben (4 years older), Tim (20 months older), Michael (2 ½ years younger), and Annie (5 years younger).  Most of my memories of growing up are from family vacations, outings, home evenings, and time spent together. 

            My very first memory that I recall was from when I was about 3 years old.  This memory was of my great grandma Preston’s funeral in Utah.  I remember playing in the snow at the cemetery she was buried at.  I also remember parts of the hotel we stayed at, mostly being in the swimming pool with my cousins and grandma Denison.  My grandma Preston is my mom’s mom.

            Another memory I have from around that same age was being picked on by my 3 older brothers.  Until about age 4 I had a speech impediment that I quickly grew out of.  I could not pronounce the letter “R.”  My brothers would tease me by telling me to say certain words like, car or Christi.  When I would say caw or kwisti they would all laugh.  Then they when they got into trouble for laughing at me they would say they were, “just testing me,” as if that made it better.  Having 3 older brothers was good speech therapy.  

More memories that I have from a very young age are taking long road trips with my family of 9 in our 8 passenger vehicle.  My older brother Tim once pulled a trick on me that I can remember at about age 4.  At the time our family vehicle was a white van.  The van had a step under the door that was very useful for small children.  One day after church Tim got out of the van right before I did.  He thought it would be funny to put his chewed gum right where I would step to get out of the van.  So when I stepped on the gum, of course I complained and Tim was punished.  I can remember being very upset about this.  But it is something that Tim and I often laugh about now.

After being teased so much by my brothers, my dad started to “stand up for me.”  Something he often said when I would come to him tattling on something they did was, “be nice to your sister, she is a delicate flower.”  At the time I felt that was a good response, and felt much protection by that.  I now realize that he was saying it in a joking manner, without punishment, almost egging them on.  This is something I find quite funny.  My dad also had a couple of nicknames for me: baby girl, and emy em.  He still uses these nicknames every once in a while.  When my dad was home from work we always asked him to do, “roots, kalicatie (gibberish)” This is when he would basically just throw us in the air and say “roots kalicatie.”  I know that this came from some movie or TV show, but didn’t and still don’t know the meaning of what he was saying.  I just enjoyed being thrown in the air.  Another daily “tradition” we would do with my dad was: when it was time for him to leave for work we (Ben, Tim, and I) would “kick him out the door.”  He would stand at the door; we kicked his calves, and say, “Don’t come back until I tell you to… come back!” And finally, at dinner time my dad would often say, “good-licious.” And all of us kids would say, “and oh so good-tricious.”  I’m not sure where this tradition came from but my dad still does it today.  Only I recently learned that I had been saying it wrong all of these years.  I usually said, “and also good-tricious.”

As a child I remember having really long blonde hair that people complimented all the time. About the time I turned 4 my brother Charlie was babysitting on a Friday or Saturday night while my parents went on a date (back in the times when we used beepers).  Somebody let me have bubble gum, and I fell asleep.  I remember waking up with gum all tangled in my hair.  Charlie had some friends over, so they decided to use peanut butter to get it out.  Another thing I remember from that night, which probably added to Charlie’s fun was Tim, putting on every pair of underwear he owned at the same time.  Because Ben was about the same size they probably shared meaning he had double the amount of underwear as most boys his age.  Tim remembers this and claims that it was a good idea.

When I was about 3 or 4 I broke my leg.  We had a Sharpe dog named, Prunes.  Prunes and I were buds.  We were about the same age, and she was a very good dog.  One day, the doorbell rang, and I loved to answer the door.  So when I sprinted toward the door, Prunes followed.  When I came to a halt at the door, Prunes continued to run behind me throwing me over her body smacking the tile.  My dad had an x-ray machine at his office (he is a chiropractor) so when we found out it was broken, an orthopedic doctor in our ward casted it for me.  I got a pink cast, and my mom got to stroller/wagon me around for the next couple of months.  Soon after I broke my leg, Michael, my younger brother also broke his leg falling off the kitchen counter.  My mom had her hands full!

Some of my friends at that age were: Paige Grant (the neighbor girl) and Sterling Smith (family friend in the ward).  Sterling and I were best buds at this age and spent a lot of time together.  We were each other’s first kiss at age 3.  This was when Tim and Chase (Sterling’s older brother the same age as Tim) dared sterling and I to kiss under the trampoline, and Sterling and I dared Tim and Chase to kiss on top of the garbage cans.  We still laugh about this.  The Smiths were backyard neighbors to us at the time.  So we shared a backyard fence.  Tim and I would meet Sterling and Chase at the fence to play with our new pet gold fish.  We would actually take the gold fish out of its tank and pet it.  Sterling was always the only boy at my birthday parties.  Growing up he use to give me a hard time about that.

When I started Preschool I seemed to be a pretty easy transition because Tim was also in preschool.  Since his Birthday is in September he went to 2 years of it.  Our preschool teacher was also a woman from the ward, her name is Mrs. Janny.  She taught in a little school they built in her backyard.

Starting Kindergarten at Highland Elementary (where I spend all of my elementary school years) was also a fairly smooth transition because Tim was just a couple class rooms down from me, and we would see each other going to and from recess.  In elementary school I had a “clan” of girlfriends that I mostly stuck around.  But in kindergarten I have memory of them not being very welcoming to me.  I have a memory of them sitting in a circle in the sand, and me asking if I could sit with them.  They said yes and when I sat down they all left.  These girls later became my good friends, and do not remember this happening.  Jori, who to this day is one of my best friends, still denies this.  But I also had other friends in Kindergarten.  Sterling and his family moved to California for a few months.  They weren’t their long when they moved back, and Sterling and I could be buds again (about half way through the school year).  My school teacher’s name was Ms. Marrow.  She was very kind.  One of my favorite memories of this school year was stuffed animal day.  We got to bring any stuffed animal to school, and Christi and I had a teddy bear themed room, so we had a lot of stuffed animals.  And I brought a big giant bear, about the size of me. I also loved play time at the end of the day, when my friends and I could play house.

My first grade teacher’s name was Mrs. Black.  She was very artsy.  We did a lot of art work in first grade.  I also remember becoming a better reader during my first grade year of school.  We did a lot of flash cards in class that helped me to learn the sounds of a combination of letters.  My best friends in first grade were: Lexi Wood, Jori Jarvis, Brittany Stapley, and Lindsey Brown.  The summer after 1^st grade, Lindsey got in a really bad car accident.  She was put in Acoma for a couple of months.  When she woke up she had to relearn how to speak, walk and do most things.  My mom and I visited often.  After about a year she returned to function able status.  But she had a different personality.  Even though we still loved her, and were there for her as friends, she didn’t share the same interests as she used to.  She quickly made more friends, and throughout elementary, junior high, and high school we were friendly when we passed by each other, but we were not, and never became as good of friends as we use to be.

Second grade was a fun year.  Girls would chase boys on the playground, and boys would chase girls.  Even though I didn’t initiate this, my friends and I would still have fun joining in.  Sterling and I’s friendship slowly dwindled.  Just as most boy and girl friendships naturally do around ages 7 and 8. Even though our families were still good friends Sterling and I pretended not to be good of friend.  I think I may have even had a crush on him at some point.  But when we became teenagers we were friends again.  Actually I got engaged a couple of weeks after he came home from his mission.  When he found out I was engaged, at church he said to me, “What? Emily, we were supposed to get married.”  My family and I thought that was quite funny.  He also got married a few months ago.

Jori and Lexi were my best buds in second grade.  We would do everything together; this was mostly because we were in the same class, with Ms. Lake as our teacher.  Something funny that we used to believe, was that string cheese was lucky.  Whenever we got it we would try to make it last as long as possible.  Once, we forgot our jump rope in the class room for recess (we loved jump rope) normally we were not allowed to go back inside after we went out.  But this one time the recess aid let us go in to get our jump rope.  This was right after lunch, and we later found out that Jori had a piece of string cheese stored in her mouth, that she was savoring.  We tribute our good luck to the string cheese in Jori’s mouth.       

          During this year I also turned 8 years old.  This was a very big deal for me, because I got to get 

baptized. My stake did baptism days clumped together for the whole month.  So, at the end of the 

month, everyone who had turned 8 since the last month was baptized on the same day.  I got to be 

baptized the same day as Jori Jarvis, Alexa Jones, and Austin Trausdaul. All of these people were 

some of my very good friends, so that made it special for me. I remember wearing a big white bow 

with my baptism dress.  And as I changed in the baptism jump suit, we forgot to take the bow out of 

my hair.  So when my dad and I met in the water, my mom on the side that I came down was telling

 my dad to take my bow out of my hair, so it didn’t get wet.  My dad tossed it over to her.  I also

 practiced with my dad in my cousin’s pool that summer.  After I came out of the water I remember 

feeling physically heavy from the wet jump suit, but very fresh and clean.  After the baptism I was 

confirmed in the primary room.  Then Ben and I sang, “When Jesus Christ was Baptized” together.  I 

remember my primary presidency giving me a new book of Mormon with their testimonies in it.   

Afterwards family and friends came for lunch at my house.  Some of my favorite gifts were: my first 

pair of scriptures, which were maroon and a scripture case with teddy bears from my parents.  And a 

pink journal with my name engraved from my Grandma Denison.  Receiving that journal was the 

beginning of my journal keeping.