One great big family!!

Okay – so now that my niece’s have me blogging, I find myself thinking all the time about what words of wisdom I can pass on to my family. It’s great being part of a huge family and I love each member of that family so very much. Are we perfect – heck no. Are any two of us really alike – I think not. But it is the uniqueness of each individual that makes a family. From the squigglies to the circles and pyramids (leaner and hairball will know what I’m talking about there) each individual does things a little differently and that’s great. Wouldn’t life be boring if everyone were exactly the same like a bunch of robots.

I have special memories of each person in this big family – leaner sleeping in a drawer at my house when she was a baby (hey this was before pack ‘n plays were available – at least for us lower income people), tif going with me to Phoenix airport to pick up Aunt De for Grandma Carter’s 70th birthday surprise. Clint spending lots of time with us when we lived in Blythe and the night he was sick with what turned out to be appendicitis – I had read that you would know if it was appendicitis if it hurt when a person stood on one leg so I kept making him get out of bed and stand on one leg – poor kid. Elise and her mom taking Grandma and I to the airport for the big trip to Switzerland – I had on a leather strap necklace with 3 little silver buffalo beads dangling on it, Elise had a 3 or 4” bead chain that she put on my necklace so I’d remember her – I still have that necklace although the leather is pretty worn and has broken several times but the bead chain is still there.

Penny the one who made me an aunt – I worked with her Aunt Kathy in the cafeteria at high school during our lunch hour. We spent most of our time arguing about who’s niece she really was. Then when Shari was born, Kathy decided that she got Penny since I had a new niece. Carter and his comment the day after my big wreck – “Why didn’t you turn the key off and get out of the car before it wrecked?” So logical.

Stopping in cool-town and picking up Bri to ride with me to Grandma’s house. One day when I picked her up, she was sleeping and she seemed a little worried when I put her in the car. I kept telling her we were going to Grandma’s house but she didn’t seem to cheer up (she had the cutest little pouty face). All of a sudden, she broke into a big grin – “We are going to Grandma’s house. There are the bumpy bumpy mountains.”

How proud I was when my new little sister Polly was born and how I bragged to all my friends – and yes grandma’s right – we helped spoil her – what were we thinking? Sharing a bedroom with Suzy and how hard it was to get her to help clean up – in the red brick house our room was always a horrid mess. Then she turned into the perfect housekeeper when she got married and had a place of her own. Weekend camping trips with Suzy and Morris to the ranch before Max & Mary moved down there.

Riding horses with Jack – he would take off in the desert and I was supposed to follow his trail to find him. It always looked so easy on tv. Doing dishes with Tom and him refusing to wash them until I picked off every single bologna skin – that’s something you don’t see anymore either. Little brother Danny – I used to help him with his homework – he struggled so much with reading. I remember Grandma taking him to Tucson two or more days a week one summer so he could learn to read better. But my mouth runneth over so I’ll post this and get on with my day.