Flashback Friday, part 10

Photo taken 04/07

This is my genius brother. He was back on leave in the states from Iraq, and was used to making due with what he had on hand. Why go through all the steps to rotate the screen when it's easier to flip the whole monitor? Of course, this made my techie husband about blow a gasket.

Yeah, that's my gene pool. We may not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but gosh darn it, we'll figure it out! And usually will have people laughing at the same time.

Join in on the Flashback Friday fun! Swing by Tia's blog to find out more.

"Don't lie to me, it's Christmas!"

I know it's not Friday, and I don't normally post anything except on Friday, but I've been feeling yucky and laying around. With all this extra time spent on my tush, I figured I might as well get another blog post squeezed in this week.

Let's take a trip back in time, the year is 2008, and it's a few days before Christmas. For Christmas, Hubby and I decided to get the kids a dog. We didn't really want just any dog though, we wanted one that had been previously loved/house-trained and tested with irritating children. By a huge coincidence, my sister had a black lab mix that fit the bill perfectly. Score! So Goliath began his journey to come live with us. The grown-ups decided the best way to acclimate the dog and the kids to each other was with a "visit". There was no mention of him coming to live with us in case he decided that Monster didn't really need all ten fingers, or Monster decided that a large black dog was not in his best interest either. Instead, my sister brought her kids, a family friend, and Goliath over for lunch. Of course, the dog had to go out, so my sister, me, and the family friend took him around the neighborhood. It was a quick walk. I think my sister brought her phone in case Hubby couldn't handle all 6 cousins, and I brought nothing, not even the house keys because there were people still there to let us back in. Like I said, it was a quick walk. No muss, no fuss. Until the trip back home.

We were walking back down the main road through the neighborhood, which also connects two pretty decent sized roads. We get a lot of through traffic because of this. We also have a lot of really irritating speed bumps. Wait, let me clarify, the speed bumps aren't irritating, the people who don't know how to drive over them without slamming on the breaks are. Anyway, a car pulls up beside us with 5 rather large adults in it. They slowed way down, and I was expecting them to do the whole slam on the breaks for the speed bump thing, but instead the passenger rolled down her window. Now, we don't know very many people in our neighborhood- my allergic reaction to the trees in our backyard (and all over the neighborhood) keep me inside most of the time, but I do have "How 'bout this weather" conversations with a few people I see regularly. This car did not contain any of those people.

The passenger, an older lady, started the whole we need gas money conversation. Normally, I believe what's mine is yours, and I will share just about everything I own to someone who needs or even just really wants it. But, like I said, no one had anything in their pockets. We were out taking the dog for a walk. The lady in the car didn't want to believe that, and started muttering stuff about needing to take her kids somewhere, and some people were so rude. At this point, I started having indignant thoughts like, your children all look more than old enough to get a job, and on top of that those "boys" look big enough to push the car down the street if the need arises. So I clamp my mouth shut, because I knew something would come out that I would regret. One of my eyebrows started sliding up my forehead, too. The pursed lips and rising eyebrow usually forewarn my kids that Mommy's gonna let loose, so knock it off, by the way. The lady could see that she wasn't getting anywhere with begging, so she hefted her quite liberal bosom and upper body out of the open window, stuck her finger in our faces, and shook it while yelling, "DON'T LIE TO ME, IT'S CHRISTMAS!" And that's when I lost it. My sister and I looked at each other and started laughing. I'm not really sure if she said anything else as they drove off, but that one phrase has become part of my Christmas memories. One day, I may write a Christmas Carol featuring that line. I'm partial to the melody from Carol of the Bells, but it may be difficult to come up with enough words to match.

Flashback Friday, part 9

Ugh, it's been one of those mornings, but I'm actually posting my flashback on time today. Of course, my laptop's hard drive is fried, so I have no access to any pictures on it. I also don't know how to work the scanner from Hubby's laptop, so we're stuck with a blurry scan of a photo taken four years ago from my sister's Facebook. I've already posted all the old pictures from mine.

This is my family. My immediate family. As in just my brothers, sisters, their spouses and children. We make for a fun, large, loud group.



Let me introduce you to everybody- on the far left we have my brother (#4 of 5 siblings), his wife, and step son. She is pregnant with their daughter in this picture, but you can't really tell. This was between two tours of Iraq for him, so that's why his hair looks the way it does. His stepson wanted his hair to be just like his Daddy's (he's always called my brother Daddy, so sweet). She's also had another little girl since then.

Moving toward the right, we have my older sister (#1 of 5), her husband, her son and daughter. Her husband had issues with the whole solid white shirt concept. I believe my mom had to send him home twice to put a different shirt on. I'm pretty sure that's not his shirt he's wearing.

Then you have my mom (Grammy) seated, holding the Monster. She got to sit, but me, who had just had a C-section 4 weeks earlier had to stand the entire time. Whatever, it was for a good cause.

Moving along toward the right, there's me (#2 of 5) with my puffy pregnant face and Hubby holding Sissy. Monkey and Bubby are standing next to Grammy. That's not a smile of happiness on my face. I was in a decent amount of pain because my brother, whom I love dearly, decided it was his job to make the lady (who just gotten staples removed from her belly) laugh. Yeah, God bless him, he and my brother-in-law were playing with all the props and telling my poor mother they were going to get their picture taken in the ridiculously small Santa hats and Eater Bunny ears. They were also stealing the reward stickers and sticking them on people. You might even be able to spot a couple if you look hard enough.

Then there's my younger sister (#3 of 5) with my youngest brother's (#5 of 5) hand on her shoulder. She just recently got engaged, and he just started college. They're both hearing impaired, too. Did I mention that yet? She communicates almost completely by Sign Language, but she can read lips very well. He just has enough hearing to make him think he doesn't have to wear his hearing aids and ends up asking "What?" every five minutes. Yeah, that could be his age, too. He's at that irritating I-know-everything college stage. It's fun.

This was taken in January of 2005. My brother was back in the states, and my younger sister had traveled from Texas to see him and all the nieces and nephews. My mom had decided that this may be the one and only time she would get all the kids together, which of course meant we had to get our picture taken. I don't know if she really explained to The Picture People how many of us there were because we were crammed pretty tight into that room. They had to wheel the camera out into the hallway and stop every time someone had to walk by.

It was quite the evening. Trying to keep all the cousins clean and contained (White shirts? Genius idea, mom!), making sure everyone was smiling and looking the same way, and keeping my brother and brother-in-law out of the props was, um, interesting to say the least. That was a good holiday, though, and for all the fighting we did growing up, I still love my siblings and wish we could be together every day. Well, maybe not everyday, at least once a week. Uh, once a month, yeah, definitely once a month.

Stop by Tia's blog to join in on the Flashback Friday fun! You know you want to.

Flashback Friday, part 8

At this point I'm not even sure why I try to post on Friday. I should give up and plan on posting Thursday because then it would be on time for once. Hey, it's Flashback Friday, and I might get a post up by Saturday! Sara's way behind- what's new, huh? Anyway...

Tia posted a really cute picture of herself in Santa's lap. You have to go check it out because the expression on Santa's face is so epic. My parents never pushed the Santa thing, and were perfectly honest about it. So I don't have any pictures of me with Santa, but I do have this picture of a belly that jiggled on it's own.

(I'm pretty sure that's a doll in her shirt. Mine was definitely a very active baby.)

I'm about 6 weeks away from giving birth to my fourth and last child, and my sweet Sissy was determined to be just like her Mommy. She's not quite two in this picture, but she already knew everything about being a mom. She had quite a few babies, and although she carried them around by their heads, she was a very attentive mom. We even had to rig up a baby sling once Monster was born, so she could carry her dolls around just like Mommy.

Even to this day, she is in charge of those boys, despite the fact that they all outweigh her and could easily hurt her, she keeps them in line.

Come join in on the Flashback Friday fun. For more details, swing by Tia's blog.