Sunday, May 16, 2010

MY VISIT TO THE MOTHER LAND-------THE THINGS I REMEMBER

It all started when a boy met a girl
fell in love, and got married.
The boy is my dad.
The girl is my mother.
And 2 weeks after they married
My dad left my mother.....

NO, they did not get a Deeevorce...that is how my mom pronounces deeevorce
and so now do I.
He left her to serve a 2 year mission
 for the LDS church in California.
I can't even imagine the courage and strength
it would have taken to do that!
My mom grew up here......
And her dad (my Grandpa Carter) would be rolling in his grave if he could see what has happened to his home that was in perfect, pristine condition.  The driveway has been torn up, his beautiful trees and shrubbery have been removed, and his prize roses....................all gone.
From perfection to perdition. So.very.sad.

My dad was raised here....
by a mother who had to quit school in the 7th grade to raise and care for
her brothers and sister because her mother (my great-grandmother)
had died in childbirth.

I was raised here....
  
until I was 15 and we moved "up the canyon".
I remember this house. When I lived there it was always painted white
with red trim where the gray is now. I remember sitting on that porch for many hours
singing quietly
 (I didn't want to get teased by my sisters!)  
 along to my Carole King "record" (yes you read that right) and my favorite song
 There was a guy I "liked" but I didn't know if he "liked" me.
I wrote letters I would never send to him, and I would sing this song 
and fantasize about this song being "our song" and how I would some day
casually be able to break his heart, like I felt he was breaking mine.....
 He of course had no idea that my 15 year old self had a ginormous crush on him........  
I had a pen pal and in our letters to each other we would include a  
"top 10 song list" 
"It's too late" was my #1 song for a LONG, LONG time.
I also spent HOURS inside my house
listening to the radio and WAITING, WAITING, WAITING 
for "Love grows where my Rosemary goes"to come on, so I could record it through the radio.
Back in those days, there was no instant access to a song you wanted to hear.
( I can't believe I just wrote "in those days"!!!)
You had to WAIT for the radio to play it, and IF they finally did........
The DJ usually talked over the first 10-15 seconds of the song, 
RUINING the song you had waited HOURS to record.  
I remember that tree and climbing it and trying to build a tree house in it...
 which was a complete failure.
On the left side of the house were rows of flowers. I remember the holly hocks and my sisters
and I daring each other to catch the bees that were in them.
 If you caught one, you could hear it buzzing angrirly inside the flower.....
I can still remember the fear as the flower vibrated with the bee inside waiting to "get us"
When we let them go, we usually got stung.
 And yet we did it,
over and over and over again.
I remember crying with the pain and running to my mom more than once with a stinger in my finger.
I remember she helped me put "mud packs" on the sting to relieve the burn and draw out
the stinger. I remember being so upset after getting stung one time that I couldn't quit crying.....
Until my dad told me that even though the bee sting hurt me, it hurt the bee more,
because  once a bee loses it's stinger.....
it dies.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E......
my childish mind thought.

My mom, always there for me then
and now
Mothers Day
a day to be together with ALL of my sisters
and my brother, for the first time in many years.
Waiting patiently outside of Chuck-A-Rama
for our Mother's Day dinner
a guilty pleasure...
Even those who claim they don't like a buffet....
Secretly
love Chuck-A-Rama....
or
Is that just me?
The scones are pure heaven to me.
Speaking of pure heaven....
the guy above is single...
any girl would be in pure heaven
with him as her mate.
(gotta give a plug for him, he's a keeper!)
Larry...a guy who can fix anything, anywhere, anytime.
He's married....to my sister. The one that used to do back flips, and gymnastic 
routines on the side of our house by the garage.... the shady side...without the bees. 
She flipped, flopped and hand standed to the music of  "Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass" 
I know, I know
You've never heard of them.
As a mother I say
 Thank you Ron for being such a great husband to my daughter

as he waits for his own daughter to come into the world
in a few months.
He loves Briqelle and Cali as his own.
and they in turn love him.
 And everyone loves Jama...
But Jama doesn't love
everyone......yet.
He's a bit on the shy side. He needs to hang out with
Kyle for a while. Kyle loves everyone and everyone loves Kyle!
Cali was so excited to show Bumma her new
ladybug dress.....IT TWIRLS!!
 This visit  to my home town 
brought back a lot of memories.
 I think I'd better check to see if my teen age crush
ever got over me.....
AS IF! 
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

(ALL EXCEPT MY YOUNGEST) SISTERS WEEKEND

The weekend started out with Bumma's  pet
(which you may remember from Bumma Gets A Pet)
deciding to make an entrance INSIDE
the house this year.
Briqelle came running into my bedroom before daylight,
or at least it seemed like it...but actually around 8:00 am 
(and yes, I was still sleeping at 8:00 am on a SATURDAY)
 "Bumma there's a hummingbird in the house"
I'm thinking....."of course there is"
It is perfectly normal for hummingbirds to be in my house.
Wait a minute.......
THERE IS A HUMMINGBIRD IN MY HOUSE!
Poor Mr.Hummer.....he was terrified because 
Bumma is pretty scary looking  24/7  in the morning, and
 Mr.Hummer was screaming wildly in his native bird tongue:
" eek, eek, from 20 feet away she looks like she has a cozy nest on her head, from 2 feet away she looks like something that should be seen from 20 feet away."
If you are wondering how I know he was a Mr. Hummer and not a Miss/Mrs. Hummer,
its my blog post and since it is the closest thing to a male speciman to be near me in many years,
it is MR. HUMMER, and since we are such, close personal friends now,
I call him Mr. H.
Any questions?
Do you have a problem with that?
'Cause if "youse" do, I'm just sayin'.......
I'se been watching The Real Housewifes of NJ
and I think I could flip a table with
the best of them.
Anyhoo, blonde that I am, I was trying to get Mr. H to leave the same way he came in....
through.the.front.door.... Stop laughing...
No, really.....S.T.O.P. laughing.......
After what seemed like 20 minutes of trying to figure out how
to get Mr. H to fly through the house and back out the front door,
I got the brilliant idea  to take the screen off of the window that he was sitting next to, 
which goes directly into the back yard, and "shoo" him out that way.
I know. Most people would have figured that out
in the first 5 minutes  5 seconds...... but notice that I said "most people".
After the bird drama, I met up with 2 of my 3 sisters who had 
come down for our bi-decade sisters weekend. We have tried to have an annual sisters weekend,
but have only been able to manage about once every 3-4 years. And sadly, this
year my baby sister Melanie couldn't make it.  How we missed her; and I know Mr. H missed her as well!
  I hope we can ALL make it for the next bi-decade sisters (and their daughters) weekend.
 I know Mel would have been the FIRST
 one to run screaming out of the house to get help for poor Mr. H. 
She's that kind of sister. As the baby of the family, she survived many of her older sisters
FAMILY FRIENDLY FUN IDEAS
one of which was being put in a box
 and pushed down the stairs
 for a "fun" slide that broke her arm.
(Love ya Mel!)
But back to the point I was trying to make a few ramblings ago...
It simply wasn't as fun without you!
So................the sisters went to Samari 21 for
great food, and entertainment.
As if I hadn't had enough entertainment for the year.
The flaming volcano...
(can't wait to try this at home.....top chef is my middle name. choke, choke)
I don't know which was worse, the chef
throwing food, or the fact that it was
S.H.R.I.M.P.
or
the fact that it was shrimp and was heading directly towards my mouth....
HORRIFYING!!!
However, I wasn't able to catch it (wink, wink) and it ended up on the floor.
In my opinion, 
  FISH of ANY KIND
 belongs only in the water, and is not for human consumption. In a word...
I.C.K.
and now that you know how I REALLY feel
about fish of any kind,
we can move on.
(If fish is brain food...mine will be on a permanent fast) 
Briqelle opening her birthday present...
She couldn't believe it was a real camera.
She was so excited, that she got up early Saturday morning
and went outside to start taking pictures,
 leaving the front door open.....
and that is when the hummingbird
incident started.
Smile.....
Nicole, Jamie, Leesa, Gracie,Karen, and Bumma
with Elle in the stroller.
A fun sister's weekend, but we missed our
baby sister Melanie. and her daughter McKell. 
  
Ending with these words of wisdom, I say:
Spring in St. George
nothing better...
Summer in St. George
nothing worse...
110 degrees in the shade will be here in
less than 30 days.....
Maybe my humming bird friend will come fan me with his wings....