LeAnn Marie Christensen Albrecht
submitted by: Lexi Hawkins
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Back when she went to school, there were some things that were the same as now and some things that were different. For example, they did not have air conditioning. I think it would feel like you were at the sun if you had no air conditioning. They also did not eat lunch at school like we do today. They would have to go home at lunch time, eat their lunch there, then when they were done, they would come back to school after lunch. Another thing that was different was what they wore. For the girls, they would have to wear a dress all the time, they could wear pants under the dress but would have to take them off once they got to school. I would not like to live back then. I am glad I live now, having no air conditioning, having to go home for lunch, and only wearing a dress would be rough. I would not like that!
My grandma had some normal pets but also had some different pets. She mostly had dogs, but one Christmas she got a spider monkey. She usually kept him in his cage because he would break stuff if he was out of it. So she only let him out of his cage if they were going outside. Unfortunately, he only lasted a few months. He only lived for 3 months. Other than that she just had dogs.
Just like me she started her favorite sport at age 2. She started twirling. Twirling is not a very popular sport today, but it is where you twirl a baton. She started twirling because her mom was a drum major at the high school and her mom wanted for her to twirl. Her normal practice schedule was every day for 2 hours except for Sunday. That is a lot of time I think! You have to practice a lot to get good. Eventually she started competitive twirling. Her biggest competition was the National Competition in Minneapolis St. Paul in January. She did that competition more than once. One time when she went, it was -42 degrees. It was as cold as Antarctica! When I heard this I did not believe it, but it is true, they could not have any skin showing or it would freeze. It was so cold! Some of her most memorable experiences twirling was being able to go to the state competitions. She won 6 years in a row. People, practice pays off! She must have been really happy. I would have been really happy if I had won state 6 years in a row. She practiced a lot!
When she was 14, she decided to try out to twirl for the Packers, so if she made it she would twirl at their games and stuff. There were about 70 people there to try out. That is a lot of people. They had 2 cuts. They put them into groups of 5. Then 1 of the groups would come out and perform and the judges would pick 1 girl from the group, they would do that over and over again. Then the girls that were left would come back the next week and they would put them into groups of 5 again. They would do that until 1 girl was left. My grandma was really lucky and was the last one. So she became the twirler for the Packers. Again practice pays off! When she twirled for the Packers she did not travel with them. She would only twirl at their home games. I would be glad that I would not have to travel far. When it was game day she would go up to Green Bay on Saturday and the game was on Sunday. The Packers usually played at 1:00 in the afternoon. They had to be there at 10:00 in the morning. That is sooooo early for a 1:00 game. When she waited for the game, she would practice and then do a rehearsal while the band played. She would do this over and over again until about 12:00 before people started showing up for the game. Now, she would perform before the game and she would also perform in between the quarters. When she performed in between the quarters, she was on different sides of the football field. That is a lot of twirling and she was in front of the whole crowd. I feel like that would be a little nerve racking. When she was twirling for the Packers she felt excited. I mean anybody would be excited right, but then again it would be a little nerve racking so not everybody. Like I said she was excited that is where she learned about football and how they played. She twirled for 13 years and 4 for the Packers so 17 in total. That is a lot of years. That is almost double my life. She started when she was 2 and ended when she was 19. She was very very sad to quit, I mean anybody probably would be. She was sad because she had done it for soooooo long.
In high school she had a boyfriend. Her boyfriend invited her to go to church with him. She started going to church more and more often and her mom started going to church too. She wanted to get baptized but her dad said not until you are 18, so she waited until she was 18. She got baptized and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
After she quit twirling, her life was kind of calm, but not really. She went to BYU for college. When she went to BYU it was her first time flying. A couple of years later she got married but not to the same boyfriend I talked about earlier. He also went to BYU. But anyway, she got married to a man that was a member of the church, his name was William Steve Albrecht. Now people just call him Steve Albrecht. He was from Bicknell. Bicknell is in Wayne county. He has 4 siblings, 3 brothers and 1 sister. They dated for a long time. Then they got married on November 20th, 1970 they have been married for 53 years now and this year will be 54.
They lived together for about a year before they had a wonderful child; he was born on November 4th, 1971 whose name is Scott. Fasting forward a little bit, now he is serving a mission in the Philippines and he has 4 kids, 2 of them are married, he has 1 grandchild and 2 on the way. Then after they had Scott, 2 years later they had another child. It was a boy he was born on June 11th, 1973 his name is Conan. Today he has 5 kids, 2 of them are married, their family makes soap. After they had Conan, 3 years later they had another boy. He was born on November 14, 1976 his name is Tyler. Today he has 4 children, 1 of them is on a mission and 1 is about to go on a mission. After they had Tyler, they had another boy, he was born on October 20th, 1978 his name is Chad. Now he has 5 kids and his oldest is a junior in high school. They loved and cared for all their boys even though they were craaaaaaaaazzy. After they had Chad, they had another boy. His name is Deven. Today he has 5 kids. They had sooooooooooo many boys but finally they had a girl whose name is Neisha. She is my mom. Today she has 4 kids, my siblings and I. Her oldest is a freshman in high school. That is all the kids my Grandma had. So today, she has 6 kids and 28 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild and 2 on the way, who she spoils. She is taking all of her family this year to the Dominican Republic. To an all inclusive resort. She is turning 76 this year. I love her so very much!