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.

Things I need to remember...

On days like today (we're not even getting into how my day is going) there are a few things I need to remember...

He did stay in his bed during nap time at one point in his life.
(Picture taken 12/06)

She used to be cute, you know, before she learned how to sass me.
(Picture taken 12/04)

They can play together without the house exploding.
(Picture taken 12/04)

No matter how bad it gets, sometimes all you need is a new perspective.
(Picture taken 12/04)

Flashback Friday, part 7

I'm a little late. It's not because I was out Black Friday shopping. I refuse to shop on Black Friday. After thirteen years of retail, it's a matter of principle. Someone has to get up and be at work at least an hour before all those shoppers show up, and I can guarantee they'd rather be in bed. So that's my rant about that.

To continue on with the parade of hideous formals... I don't have a picture of me in a formal. However, I do have a funny story about my Senior year Homecoming Banquet. Yes, it was a banquet, there was no dancing. (I feel like I have to explain that every time so we're all on the same page.)

Imagine if you will, a small, private Christian school with about 120 students in the high school. Every year, a Homecoming Banquet is held in the fall, and a Junior/Senior Banquet is held in the Spring. Well after enough complaints of boredom from the students, the faculty decided to try something different. Because they were such a small group, they could do something fun, like say, a mystery dinner theater.

Yes, we went to a mystery dinner theater for Homecoming. We didn't fill up the whole room, so there were tables with random people sitting at them. I can't even begin to think what those poor people were thinking when they entered the room full of teenagers in formals with a few wary-looking chaperons. Oh, and even though someone at the restaurant knew that a group of Christian teenagers were attending that night, the actors went right ahead with the normal show, full of double-entendres and sprinkled with a few choice words.

This point would be a good time to introduce my date. He was a friend of my older sister's boyfriend, and he was in the country on a student visa. He was from England, had long hair, and drove a white Harley. He was also very well mannered and polite to my parents. Yeah, I was rebelling with an extremely polite gentleman because that's how I roll.

Here's a shot of me, my date, my sister, and another one of our friends taken on a different night.

Back to the banquet, we were sitting at a table with a few other people from my class, one of whom hated the school and did her best to be as different from everyone else. So of course when the, um, adult jokes were made, the director of the school (a Baptist Pastor) and the other chaperons became quite red, several students stifled giggles, several more ducked their heads and covered their mouths with napkins, and my date and my rebellious friend laughed loudly. I felt so bad. I had to explain to him why no one else was laughing. He looked confused at first, but apparently decided to ignore it because he continued to laugh at what he thought was funny which I enjoyed very much. Especially since it didn't help drain the blood from the chaperons' faces.

So the next year, they went back to the hotel dining hall.

To join in on the Flashback Friday fun, swing by Tia's blog.

Flashback Friday, part 6

In trying to keep with the "look at my hideous formals" theme, I found a picture that I actually like. I know that I'm normally very self-deprecating, but this time I can't really say too many negative things about this picture. I'm sorry, I tried.

This is my dad and youngest brother, too. In case you can't figure that out.

Obviously this was my Junior year of high school. Obviously I made the homecoming court. I didn't make queen because that was only available to the three Senior representatives. What isn't so obvious is that we only had fifteen girls in my class so it wasn't that big of an accomplishment and I'm wearing a bridal gown that was $25 on the sale rack of the bridal store where I was working at the time. Yeah, that dress had a train that my mom cut off. I believe the reason it had been marked down was because of some stains on the hem, because my mom cut off a couple inches from the front as well. She also put a slit up the front so I could walk without doing the geisha shuffle which was very helpful when I had to be escorted across the basketball court by my father during halftime. Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that my high school is so small that they don't have a football team? They have Homecoming Banquet during basketball season and Junior/Senior Banquet in the Spring.

Anyway, I really liked this dress a lot. It was very retro in the way it was cut (for the early nineties anyway), and the neckline was fairly flattering for a girl with no chest. Hey, that's me! I had no chest, so it was fairly flattering. It's kind of hard to see the pattern, but it was a really pretty brocade stripe that lengthened. That was something my beanpole self didn't need, but I liked it anyway.

The one bad thing I have to say about this picture is- I have no idea why my hair looks like that. Whoever I paid to do my hair like that should have gotten a stern talking to. Don't get all up-in-arms about me being wealthy enough to pay someone to do my hair. I had a job, found a hugely marked down dress and bought my shoes at Payless. Plus, I was on court that year and was getting my picture in the yearbook. It was necessary. It does make my head look huge though, doesn't it? I look like a bobble-head. Oh, I almost forgot, the next night at the banquet, I matched the tablecloths. Yeah, they had off-white brocade tablecloths. Everyone else at my table was wearing black, so I stuck out like a sore thumb. Not something a shy teen-aged girl wants.

It's like when Maria made the kids clothes from drapes, except my mom stole a tablecloth. Not really.

You should recognize the girl sitting at my left, she wised up that year and went with something more subtle. No more Michelin Tire Sleeves for her! Sheesh, I'm really slumping over in the picture, too. I guess that's what happens when the person sitting next to you is a good six inches shorter than you are. I have to say too, that only three of us at the table were completely in dress code, one was right on the edge, one was in violation, and one kept her dress on her shoulders until the camera came out. That's one thing dress codes taught us- how to push it just far enough without getting caught.

So that's my Junior Year Homecoming Ensemble. If you would like to peek back at my Freshman and Sophmore years, feel free! I don't think I have any pictures of my Senior year Homecoming, which is sad. I don't even remember what I wore, but I do have a good story about that year and a casual picture of me and my date taken on a different day.

Join in on the Flashback Friday fun, if you're brave enough. Or just swing by Tia's blog and laugh at the rest of us.