Summertime Memories

I recently received one of those wonderful junk e-mails about getting to know your friends. You know the one… where you list your favorite soda pop, movie, eye color, whatever… Well this one in particular asked you to list your favorite childhood memory. Now, I have issues (and which of us does not?)… I cannot retain certain memories for very long… if you give me a start with a couple of details then I can run with it, but to just pop up with a memory, I will just look at you with a blank stare. Pathetic but true… This particular question, however, I did not delay in my response and knew immediately which of my memories would top out all of the others… Summer-times with the cousins… My grandparents lived on a farm. They raised Berkshire hogs, and grew peach & prune trees on several acres in the Manzanita area of Gridley. Each year my cousins from the north, Gerald, Melissa & James (who was Stacy at the time) and the cousins form the south, Becky & KC would come to visit with their parents. Now I don’t remember if B&K’s parents did this but GM&J’s parents stopped at the road, kicked my darling cousins out and encouraged them to run down the long driveway to Grandma & Grandpa’s green house (remember the green piano cousins?). The arrival of the cousins meant that we would have constant playmates… to run barefooted in the freshly made checks (small mounds made to keep irrigation water in-check and not running everywhere), to share in the gorging of ourselves in the ripe peaches, to pick blackberries for yummy cobblers, or to climb in the broken overloaded prune branches that littered the field… those were the days… At night we would play hide and seek in the peach field, screaming and running like little filthy heathens to base. I remember finding an old cow trough out in the barn that we tried to fill and make into a swimming pool, not caring that it was full of cracks and only a couple of feet deep… it was PERFECT at the time. There was a chicken coop under a fig tree, where the chickens laid blue-green eggs and we would race out to see what we could find each day. The pigs were another story… the flys were so bad that they covered the barn walls, and there was a manure ditch for the waste that sort of flowed into the ditch out back… Occasionally a visitor would come for a pig and Grandpa would go out and shoot one so that they could cook it for their celebration. We weren’t supposed to go out there, but we went into stealth mode (as much as several giggling kids can) sneaking close and could hear everything. You had to be careful of the electric fences (and yes, if you touch it with a weed, it WILL shock you), and Aunt Tanya’s drink called Green Lightening, or something like that… whatever it was… it was STRONG stuff and to be avoided (I’m sure that the adults loved it, but my unpolished palate did not… sorry Tanya). We fit so much into the short time that we visited that I’m frankly shocked that I remember so much! One of the things we did with Grandpa Bob was to go to the Candy Store… He would have us all load up into the back of his old tan truck and he’d drive one mile down the road to the Manzanita Market where we would pick out a candy each, and sometimes even get a soda, then we would drive all the way back to the farm. There we would either find a tree to play under or go inside the house to lay on one of Grandma Arlene’s vinyl couches in front of the air conditioner (you got to choose the red or the tan one). There was an old zenith tv to watch, with a lovely star shaped clock above it right out of the 50’s-60’s. Those were the days! I happen to live next door to that old farm, which held so many memories to me… Sometimes, in the evenings those wonderful smells of the summer bring me right back to that place in time when life was so blissfully innocent. I think that it’s rather comforting that my children, and my nieces and nephews are able to share now in creating their own memories on the same plot of land, enjoying the same smells of summer in their own way that are sure to be remembered for a lifetime. They run around barefoot, like we did, play hide & seek, like we did and they occasionally get a trip to the Candy Store too! I guess moments like these are timeless! Thank you to whoever sent me that junk e-mail… I needed to take a minute to ponder the past. If any of you cousins have any photos of our adorable selves, send me a copy... I can't find any good ones!

On another note…. HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!

Our Wedding Anniversary - 15 years

It seems like yesterday that we were completely consumed with wedding plans… Were the flowers going to wilt? Did we have enough chairs, food and drinks? Was anyone going to show up? Oh… the drama of throwing a wedding! I’m pretty sure that I got a bit witchy as the countdown progressed but all was forgotten as people started to arrive, more chairs were pulled out to seat everyone, and my nerves calmed. I remember being so surprised as we walked down the aisle through so many people… we were really quite amazed at the turn out! I don’t really remember much about the ceremony except that Mike & I both were chewing gum at the time, and that our family friend Rev. Judith Stone performed a wonderful service. I do remember that there was a song in the middle, and that we walked out to “All My Rowdy Friends are Coming Over Tonight”… I look back and think that was a silly choice, but at that time in our lives, it fit. I remember dancing in a large group of girls, eating chocolate covered strawberries, and that our friend Becky put her hand in our extra cake.

We were so young, so naïve about everything. Who knew how dramatically our lives would change in the next 15 years? At that time, we had no idea as we prepared for the birth of our first child that he would be torn from us within the first few hours and rushed to a hospital miles away in hopes of keeping him alive. We faced the same terrifying trip in an airplane 6 weeks later rushing to yet another hospital. How fast we had to grow up to take care of our 4 pound beautiful boy. We had no idea of the joy we would feel at purchasing our first home, and all of the wonderful responsibilities that we gained with it! We had no idea what a blessing it would be to be gifted with another baby boy who was so very happy & healthy all of the time! We had no idea that Mike would almost be killed in a horrific car accident that left him in a comatose state, on life support with numerous broken bones, and internal injuries. I had no idea how hard it would be to manage two babies and a husband in a wheelchair, and no income for a very long time. We had no idea that our youngest son would need emergency surgery at 9 months and how hard it would be to kiss him as the nurse took him away. We had no idea of the joy that we would feel, each time one of the boys giggled, rode their first bikes, played in their first baseball games, or mastered a new skill. Simply put, there was no way for us to have planned for many of the circumstances of life that were thrown in our direction, but we held strong to those vows that we took so many years ago in front of God, our family & friends.

So… here we are 15 years later (August 14, 2008), having dinner at the same restaurant that we had our rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding… probably still naïve about what is to come, but, oh what a ride it will be!

Love you babe!