Thinking of Mom.....

I was in the grocery store today getting some things and this woman passed by me and she had a head tremor. I immediately thought of mom. We were always so worried about her when those started, weren't we? It made me very sad. I probably could have started bawling right there in the maket if I wanted to.

Catch phrases......didn't you just love the ones she had? Honeybabe was one of my favorites. I find myself saying that more and more. Remember how the couch wasn't called a couch, but a davenport? I think grandma came up with that one first.

I remember when we were all little and Saturdays were cleaning day at our house. Of course mom did most of it, bless her heart. She always did everything for us, you know? She always had her beer with her on Saturdays while she cleaned too. :) Remember the stereo cabinet out in the living room? It played records and I think at one point it played 8 tracks too. She was so happy when she got that for herself.

Did you know that she didn't always sleep on the hide-a-bed? Before she got that, we had those green sofas, and there was a twin bed in the living room that she slept on. I think that when we moved from the apartment to Landis, she originally had the double or queen bed that used to be in our bedroom (Kari, you and I slept in it when it was on Landis), and I probably had the twin bed at the apartment. But of course mom always put us first, and so she took the twin and Kari and I slept in the double bed. I know that she did get the sofa sleeper before Heidi was born, as there is pictures of me sleeping on it around that time. That summer that you were born, Heidi, was when we got the trundle bed for me and Kari. Of course you needed a crib. :D

The other day Cheyenne and I were talking and she was saying how sometimes she felt like we were poor sometimes. I reminded her of all the things that she does have and the things that she does get to do, and I compare it to what we all had and didn't have growing up. You know, I wouldn't say that we were poor at all though. We may have had a lot less than our friends, but mom never had to go on food stamps or welfare (she did for a short time when Kari was born, but she couldn't survive on that, she had to go to work), and she provided us with what we could and we all knew it. I'm sure we complained growing up (I think all kids do that), but she did what she could and I know that grandma and grandpa were there to help too. I remember wanting designer jeans SOOOO bad in junior high and I knew that we couldn't afford it. That Christmas I think everyone got me a pair because mom knew I wanted them. :D

Ahhh........I'm going to sign off for now........see you soon!

Sunday, Father's Day.....

Wow, it's been six months since mom passed away. Sometimes it seems like so long ago, and then it also seems like it just happened.

Today is Father's Day. Another "first without mom" day to get through. I always used to call mom up and wish her a Happy Father's Day. I know when we were little we would make presents and give them to Grandpa, since he was really the only father-type figure we had growing up, but I still would always wish mom too. She was our mom and dad in our lives.

Growing up just about all of my friends had their mom and dad there in their lives. Sometimes I wished we had a dad around, but most of the time I truly loved it being just us girls. I never really wanted a man in mom's life and have him take time away from us. I know that sounds selfish, but I just felt that way.

Our house was so small, but mom made it our home. She made everything fit, you know?

I still so wish she was here with us. Like you, Heidi, I miss her little quirks too, that used to irritate me. I miss her laugh too. One of my most favorite memories of her laughing was the year I gave her the Odie slippers for Christmas. I remember her opening up that present and just laughing for probably five minutes straight!

I could almost always make her laugh. I loved being able to do that, especially on the phone.

First Post!

Okay, I started this blog, I should probably post first.

Let's start with our first and earliest memory of mom.......

I would say that I was probably about 2 or 3. It was when we lived in the pink house. I just remember being in that house and having mom around, and going into the kitchen and outside. We had a dog named Oggie Doggie back then. I was terrified of that dog! I remember clinging onto mom when she opened the back door and the dog came running. I'm sure that dog wasn't big, but it was big to me! I also remember times when my father would come over to visit there. Mom was always so nice and cordial to him.

You know, I don't know how she did it! Being so nice and cordial to a guy who used to treat her the way he did. I guess that's probably where we learned a lot of manners from. She was always so nice to everybody, it seemed, although I'm sure there were probably a few customers at the bank who were trying to get away with some kind of crap and she wouldn't take it.

I do miss her so much!! I want to eventually create a blog of our family members online, so that everybody else can post memories, and also to keep in touch more with each other.

So know that we can always post here when we need to talk about mom and we're not around on the phone, or can't get what we need to say out verbally. ;)

I love you both!!