BACK IN TIME PART 2

Well it's Friday again and I have been somewhat neglecting my blog. I have visited most of you, but have found myself with I guess not much "new" to say, haha...Here are some quick highlights of my week. A long nice visit with my mom on Tues., lots of GOOD conversations with all of my kids. Having 4 children and 4 in-law children and 8 grandkids takes a lot of keeping up on, haha. We have been getting some estimates on having our kitchen counter replaced. I am very excited about this as the counter was NOT in real good condition when we moved in, NOT something I would have ever picked out, NOT the granite I came to love in my old house, and really looked bad in a couple of spots after our fire on Thanksgiving...you can check that story out HERE if you are interested. I have kept the worst of the burns covered with various different items, but can still be seen a little no matter what I do. The insurance company is going to cover this, but so far what they are willing to pay doesn't even come close to the estimates we are getting, so this could be a LONG process. But to just even be beginning it has got me excited. Once we come to some decisions I will take a "before" pic and you can get excited with me. I've been doing a small amount of spring cleaning and re-organizing and that about finished up my week. Unless I mention the fact that I almost knocked myself out this morning as I was bending over to pick up a feather on the floor (a LONG, better left untold story) and hit my head on the cupboard in the utility room coming up. WOW....sooo not good. My husband (literally as I type this) is at his second interview for the opportunity that has come up, and we are both VERY excited and have prayed about it quite a bit this week. Who knows, maybe I will know next week at this time of the outcome of that. Anyway, as you can see, a pretty ordinary, run of the mill week. I have decided at this point to continue with my back in time story.


Let's see....I think I left off with moving to California at the age of 4. All I really remember about the trip was it was my first (and last so far ~ another LONG story) airplane ride. My older sister got to pass out gum with the airline attendant and I was sooo jealous...She was only 5 to my 4 so I think (to this very day I might add) that they should have let both of us do this don't you?? Anyway, we moved into a small rental house in Lakewood where we lived until I was just finishing up kindergarten. I remember a few random things about this time period in my life. My mother had another baby, a mere 17 months after the birth of my brother David. Another girl...Danae. I don't remember much about her as a baby at all. I think it was because I was in KG, and was soo totally engrossed in that. I LOVED school. It was soo hard for me when Diane had got to go off to school and I had to stay behind. I guess if I am being honest I spent a GREAT deal of my childhood watching Diane get to do things before me, and wanting to do everything she did. KG back in the days that I went, was a very different place then it is today. We didn't do much of anything but play, finger paint (soo fun) sing, and have books read to us. Much like pre-school is today I think. I did learn to write my name, but that's about it as I recall. We lived just down the street from the school so I got to walk back and forth by myself, something that could never be done in today's times at 5 years old, down the street or not. I remember feeling sooo old. I don't remember who my girlfriends were, but I DO remember having a crush on a little boy named Eric, haha....I also remember him kissing me on the cheek one day as we walked home from school too! How wild as I think about it now, haha. I also remember this as a time period where Diane and I were ALWAYS playing "house". And as part of our house game we would play going to church. Now here is another instance where having an older sister calling the shots came into play. We had obviously two "little" brother/sister's to be our "babies" which worked well...Now Danae of course was actually a little baby that was easy to carry around and fun to "pretend" with, so naturally Diane was ALWAYS her mother. I had to mother David who was only 3 years younger than I was and who was really pretty big. My carrying him around was difficult at best (and remember, I had already dropped him on his head once) and he seldom wanted to cooperate with our games anyway. I remember spending most of the time complaining to Diane that I wanted to be Danae's mother and her totally ignoring me, haha...Looking back on it now this had to be a hard time for my mom. She had 4 little kids under 6 and a very small house. I think it is where Diane and I began to be referred to as "the big kids" and the other two as "the little ones". This went on for years and years. Funny when you are one of the "big" ones at 5. My dad worked for a newspaper almost the entire time we were growing up. I honestly don't remember much about him at all during this time of my life except for the fact that he let me keep the light on in my bedroom ALL NIGHT (much to Diane's horror ~ I spent the first 10 years of my life sharing a room with her) for at least a week after I had a dream about a witch. It was when Snow White and 7 Dwarfs had first come out I think, and I had been traumatized I guess. I remember the terror well. Well, I think I will stop here with the story as we were about to move to the first home my parents bought in California.

The weather is STILL beautiful in California and I am looking forward to getting out and about in it this week-end. Hope you all have a wonderful one!