Grandma Alley

While visiting Grandma Alley two weeks ago, we were talking as we weeded her roses. I asked her about the day she fell in her yard and broke her hip. I asked her if she was in a lot of pain. She said she had to stay very still. Any movement caused a lot of pain. She couldn't move and could only lay there and call for help. Here's the amazing thing. As she lay there, instead of thinking about how much pain she was in or focusing on whether she would be heard and found, she began thinking about her yard. She pondered on her surroundings and how grateful she was to be surrounded by such beauty. She is a wonderful example for us.

Learning To Ride A Bike

When Dad and I were at Josh and Jaime's, he was teaching Tess how to ride her bike. What are your memories of learning to ride your bike?

Witchcraft

I was just sitting here in my office (my bed) with my computer on my lap typing up a comment to a student in one of the hundreds of discussion boards I have to participate in each week. So, as I'm sitting here, Jaime comes up and sits down next to me. And I look over at her and keep looking while typing up my message. She kind of laughed at that and pointed it out to me.

It reminded me of a time when I was a kid and was convinced that Mom had superpowers. I am pretty sure we were living in Indiana, but I could be wrong about that. So, she was typing away at something, and I think I was running up to tell her something. And when I approached, she turned her head to look at me, and she just kept typing along on the keyboard. I'm pretty sure we had a 20 minute conversation and she never stopped typing or looked back at the computer...that may be a little bit of an exaggeration on the time there. But it was the most amazing thing I had seen up to that point in my life! And I was a little convinced that there was some sort of witchcraft involved because how could that be possible?!

Speaking of early computers...anyone else have fond memories of Dig Dug and Centipede? Or maybe really resentful memories about when you were about to get a high score in a game and your bratty little brother ruined it for you because it was his turn to play...and he turned off the computer or something horrible like that? You don't remember that? Good. Let's just forget I said anything then.

Soapity Soap

 

I'm sure you all saw this on the Facebook, but I'm not going to ask if you remember how awesome I was growing up with my art, basketball skills and good looks. We definitely all remember that the same way.

The main point is--does anyone else remember this soap growing up? I had forgotten about this stuff until I pulled out this painting. I am 73% sure this is what gave me eczema. Ha! Just kidding, Mom. I'm not kidding, guys. I put this in a smaller font assuming Mom and Dad's poor eyesight couldn't read it.This stuff was the worst, right? I think maybe the only thing worse was showering at Grandma Alley's and not even being able to get the soap off because of the low water pressure.

Josh says we ate rice and milk once a week for 20 years. I don't believe this. In Idaho--yes. I have very few memories of IN. In KY it was fried rice once a week--not rice and milk.

Wales

Once upon a time, Mom decided she was going to educate us on our ancestry after finding a documentary at the library about Wales. I remember being at the library or perhaps at home when she told me that she had gotten this movie about Wales. I don't know why, but I got pretty excited about it. So, she turned it on and we sat through the whole darn thing, and not once did they make any mention of any majestic mammoth sea mammals. This is why I don't know why I got excited to watch it because I have never in my life been interested in the ocean or fish or dolphins or sea animals. Well, except manatees--my 3rd grade (?) class adopted one. So, I thought Mom had gotten this documentary on whales and it sounded so great to me for some reason. By the end of the documentary on Wales, I was completely confused by the whole thing. We came from whales?

I was not a small child when this happened. Sometimes it is hard being so smart.

Cymraeg!!!

Ice Cream Pizza

I'm not sure why I was thinking of this, but I needed help remembering what happened.

So it was during the time that Ice Cream Cookie Pizzas were becoming pretty popular.  I know at one time Erin, maybe Josh and myself decided we wanted to make our own.  So we walked to the Food Lion to buy the ingredients.

Questions
1)  Why did we walk?
2)  Did we walk back?
3)  How did the ice cream not melt if we walked back?
4)  Food Lion is a bit of a walk, what were we thinking???
5)  Did this actually happen or was it just a dream?          

Kellie

One time we went camping as a family in Chimney Rock, NC. Miriam (and her family) and Kellie actually weren't able to make it. It was on my birthday and Kellie's too. But then as we were camping, no one thought about Kellie the entire time. The ENTIRE time. It was such a fun trip.

Deja vu

This happened last week:

Eli met me at the door as I was bringing in the day's harvest from the garden. He exclaimed, "Jalapenos!," grabbed one from me, and chomped off the end. Then I watched as he began fanning his face and shouting while tears streamed down his cheeks. I admit that I laughed a bit before getting him a glass of milk.

This happened 25 years ago:

One day while we were making lunch, Dad started teasing Miriam with a jalapeno. "Try it," he taunted, chasing her out of the kitchen with it.

As soon as they were gone, I went over to inspect the jalapenos. What was the big deal? I picked up one of the jalapeno seeds and popped it in my mouth.

When Miriam and Dad came back into the kitchen, my mouth was on fire and I may have been crying a little bit, but of course when Dad asked what was wrong, I said, "Nothing!"

A short, early memory

Down the street from our house in Idaho was a field with some horses that Miriam and I liked to visit. There was also a tree house of some sort near the horses? One day, Miriam was down there climbing up to the tree house, and she stepped on a nail. I think she was wearing flipflops, and the nail went through her flipflops into her heel. She limped home, trailing blood the whole way. I think I was with her, but judging by how badly I'm remembering this story, maybe I wasn't. Miriam will have to retell it since her memory is perfect.

The point of this story is this: we moved away from Idaho when I was seven, which means that this story happened when I was younger than seven and Miriam was younger than nine. I remember playing unsupervised in the field across from our house in Idaho all the time. I also remember walking to friends' houses in the neighborhood by myself. We would also walk down the street to a convenience store and buy lollipops - our babysitter was with us, but she was like twelve. That is so crazy to me!

Singing in the Shower

It's 2 in the AM, and I just finished a long day of grading. So, I should be going to bed, but I wanted to get this blog a rollin! I've got all sorts of horrible things to say about you people and it cannot wait! You'll want to listen to this as you read the story:

It's only fair I start with Kellie. That's the point of this blog, right? To tell stories about how our siblings have wronged us? Well, when I was a wee child growing up in Goshen, I used to love singing in the shower. I don't know if anything brought me as much joy. As we all know, the acoustics in any shower are uh-mazing.

So, one day, I was really belting out some classic. I wish I could remember what I even would sing in the shower. I don't remember having any sort of musical taste in Indiana. It was probably MC Hammer or New Kids on the Block because I remember Miriam having that awesome music.

So, let's pretend that I'm busting out some classic from New Kids because that will make the story worse. I'm just minding my own business singing like crazy when suddenly the door to the bathroom flies open and ALL of my friends and their friends and their friends are outside of the bathroom. Miriam had invited them all over to come upstairs and listen in on my impromptu concert. I do have a beautiful singing voice, so I can understand it more as I think about it today.

Here's the kicker to this story. I spent probably 20 years blaming Miriam for this and in all honesty holding a grudge against her for it because that is how I am. A couple of years ago, I finally confronted Miriam about it. And it turns out, she wasn't the one that invited ALL of my friends and their friends and their friends up to my beautiful rendition of NKOTB's The Right Stuff. It was that dirty, rotten Kellie!!! My twin. My partner-in-crime. My Brutus!

To this day, I don't sing in the shower. And if I do, I do it quietly because there is no telling who is standing outside of the bathroom door. And while I'm at it, I'm just going to go ahead and blame Kellie and this incident on my never singing in Choirs too.

I don't know if I have any other stories actually. I spent 20 years just ruminating on that one so none of the others stuck.

Dad Tests the Blog for Mom

This is Mom posting as Dad.

The Real Story

My kids tell great stories about their "growing up" years. Some I know well. Some I've never heard. And some I swear are just plain not true. I've created this blog to get these stories on record. There may be different perspectives on the same story, but hopefully we'll come to a consensus and get these family stories written in stone!!

Here's how it's going to work: think of one of those family tales that we love to tell. Post it here and let others corroborate your story.