Meeting Callie - Part 3 Her Namesake

For the third and final part of the "Meeting Callie" posts, I want to write about choosing Callie's name.

I have been thinking about girl names ever since I could remember. I never thought of boy names, I figured my husband would have that covered.  As a little girl I liked names like Sarah, and Hannah.  I would pair them with family names that I liked.  I named my "Baby-Think-It-Over" (you know, those mechanical babies you have to take care of from the parenting class in high school) Christina Lily.  I knew from way back then that it was something important to name a baby.  As I grew into an adult I realized I wanted to name my little girl, that I hoped to have someday, after somebody that I actually knew and spent time with.  I wanted her to have a family name I respected, from someone I admired.

I of course okay-ed my plan with my husband. I would never agree to name my baby something he didn't like too.

We named our daughter Callie RaNae.  Callie was the name Briant and I picked out together that we both just really like.  We gave her the middle name RaNae, after my Aunt Pam, a very special women to me... whom Briant and I also both really like.

Pam is not an easy person to get a picture of.
She the one always behind the camera!

Growing up I spent an good amount of time with my aunt.  She has her own photography business, and each summer we spent most weekends helping her take pictures.  All of my siblings and I at one point or another helped her and learned from her.  She started us out pretty young and made professionals out of us.  I think I was about 11 years old when I helped her for the first time, and I continued helping her until around when I got married. It means a lot to me that she trusted us at such a young age with something so important to her.  We not only learned about cameras and taking pictures but also about business ethics and acting professional (something that is hard to learn as a kid, but was indeed very valuable as a young adult). I really feel like she gave me a head start in working hard, money management, and thinking beyond my age. It is also from Pam that I gained my love of photography.

Growing up I was diagnosed with ADD.  Pam was (and still is) one of the only people who really knew how to motivate me.  She never gave up on me.  She always knew just what to say to help me improve and keep trying. We would have daily reviews where we would talk about what I had learned and what I could do better at the next day.  I don't think she knew it at the time, but that was probably one of the best things for me.  It also gave us an opportunity to just talk, and really helped me know she cared about me.  I plan to do this same thing with my kids.
I still have lots of her 1 liners of advice running through my head each day:
"Do the hardest thing first, get it out of the way and out of your head."
"There's no such thing as a good excuse."
"Solve your problem. Ask for help. Don't give up."
"Start it, finish it"
"Dare to dream"
"Adjustment takes time"
"Let someone else have the credit"

When I found out I got the job to work at Great Harvest I asked my brother Devin and my Aunt Pam for some advice.  This is what they told me: "Always be early, never late. Always do more than expected. Always be sincere."

I have respected Pam ever since I could remember.  When I was little and she would come over, I would do whatever I could to impress her.  I really looked up to her and I never wanted to disappoint her.

Over the years, we have become really close.  We have had some really good times together, both working and playing.  We have camped, hiked, fished, gone to nickle arcades, gardened, built things together, and just had a lot of good chats.

I've known for sometime that I wanted to name my first little girl after Pam.  She is one of my greatest role models and my hero.  She is like a second mother to me.

When my little Callie asks why I named her after Pam I will tell her:
My Aunt Pam is fun, creative, has great common sense, she is humble, considerate, kind and unselfish.  My Aunt Pam has the greenest of thumbs, she has a photographer's eye and she is a great teacher!  She has a sense of duty but no sense of entitlement and she is always professional and competent.  She possesses some of the values I value the most: Integrity, patience, motivation to work hard, and a strong testimony of the gospel.  She has taught me so much about life and about who I want to be.  I love her so much and I think she is one of the most incredible among women.


One more thing.... I lovingly call my little Callie "kiddo" sometimes.  This is a nickname that I picked from Pam...