Random Memory #12

When we lived in North Olmsted, my Dad and Uncle John used our garage and chicken coop to store things they were fixing up. I remember a lot of dirt bikes and I'm sure there were some used Harleys at one time or another.

I also remember that we had a few vehicles that we drove. One that I will never forget is the big yellow van. I think we called it the banana van. We also had a little silver Ford Escort and an old brown pickup with a flat bed on it. Dad had a silver and gray F-150 at one time, too. He also had a Harley.

I remember that at at least one of our birthday parties (possibly Stacy's since it is in the summer) Dad and Uncle John took us all for Harley rides in the open field between our house and the boarding stable next door. We were little and I recall sitting in front of Dad holding onto the gas caps while we hit each bump as we rode through the field. I'm sure we weren't going as fast as I remember, but I know my hair was blowing back and to me it seemed like 80 miles an hour.

I don't know if this is the same party or not, but as I am thinking about it, I remember Mom- who was always painting- painting "Happy Birthday" in different colors on a couple of canvas boards. I thought that was the coolest birthday sign ever and I wished I could have painted it.

Random Memories

This is such a silly memory, but it popped into my head and I thought I'd better record it before it gets forgotten.

When I was really little- under 5 for sure and maybe Mom can comment and tell me how old I was- Mom had a tin of either nuts or chocolates on the counter that I was NOT allowed to get into. I vividly remember climbing onto the countertop, getting into that tin and cutting my hand.

The moral here... always listen to Mom...


...when your'e 4. :o)

Random Memories #4

In high school, my Economics teacher talked like Yogi Bear. No joke.

We had to divide up into groups to form companies and give our group a name. The name my girlfriend and I chose for our group- "Hey, Boo Boo!"

Each week, when progress reports were printed and handed out, the teacher would announce, "Hey, Boo Boo!" in his best Yogi inflection.

Someone in the class also had a list that he named after this teacher which included all of the words he was incapable of pronouncing. My favorite was "rooooned". This was how he pronounced "ruined."

Perhaps I'd be a more wary and educated consumer had I not wasted all that time making fun of the teacher. :o)

Just One Of My Many Quirks

We were discussing movies at work the other day and I told the girls that I like to watch good movies over and over. If I really like a movie, I will often watch it as many times as I can to analyze it- the writing, the acting, the delivery of the dialogue, etc.

I also mentioned that on about the second or third viewing, I like to watch the movie by myself with subtitling. I turn on the closed captioning on my TV and watch intently to catch every word. (Movies today will be really loud and the next line can be nearly inaudibly quiet. What is the deal with that???) Anyway, they looked at me like I had coat hangers growing out of my ears. Am I the only one who does this?

I also love to watch DVD movies with the director or actor commentary. I like hearing all of the details I guess.

What Goes Good With Poached People?

Thankfully, we've resolved our water bed issue.

HALLEULIA!!!

I got to sleep in a warm water bed last night. And after Mike left for work this morning, I crawled right back in and slept for another 2 hours! Ahhhhhh!

Margaret Sally commented that she had a water bed and, since she lives in Texas, didn't turn the heater on resulting in aches and pains.

This reminded me of another water bed incident.

Sometime in the summer of 2006, I started feeling really tired. It was an all-over tired. My entire body hurt and I felt like I was just completely worn out. I had no other symptoms of illnesses or colds and I thought it was just all in my mind or that it was just from getting older. I never said anything since nothing was really wrong with me.

After about 2 weeks of feeling like this, we were getting ready for bed one night and Mike mentioned that he had been feeling the same way. He asked what the bed heater was set at. The thermostat is hidden by my robe that hangs on the bedpost.

I moved the robe aside and said, "No wonder we both feel like that! We're being cooked!"

The thermostat was set at around 100 degrees!!!

We could only guess that we were being blanched courtesy of either Steven or the Girly Girl that I babysit. She takes her daily nap in our bed and Steven routinely climbs in our bed during his evening game of musical beds.

Needless to say, we now make a habit of checking the thermostat at least once a week.

Sweet Memory

I have a few gold bracelets, but one of them is very special to me.



I was thinking about it this weekend because Saturday was Sweetest Day and that's when Mike gave it to me eleven years ago.



We had only been dating a couple of weeks at the time, but I had been eyeballing a sweater at the department store I worked at and decided to buy it for him. I had no idea if he even knew what Sweetest Day was and the thought of him buying anything for me hadn't even crossed my mind.



He bought me a beautiful twisted gold bracelet that matched a necklace he always wore. I put it on and couldn't wait until we went out to show everyone.



When I showed it to my friend's Mom, her comment was, "Wow, Heather! This guy really likes you!"



Less than a year later, we were married.



Its been over eleven years since that Sweetest Day night. He still wears that sweater (which he looks great in, BTW), I still wear that bracelet and we still really like each other. :o)



Happy Sweetest Day to my guys! I love you!!!

Random Memories #6

This particular memory sticks in my mind just because of the trauma of it all. My Dad would have gone through the roof if it had been one of us girls who did this.

I remember one time when I was little that my parents had some friends over who had little kids. They were those kind of kids that only need be there for an hour and you are exhausted and your house looks like a war zone afterward.

One of the kids, we'll call him Billy, climbed the end of our set of bunk beds and shook them so badly that the top mattress actually FELL onto the kids on the bottom bunk!

Everyone rushed into the room to help and luckily no one was seriously hurt.

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

Random Memories #5

In light of recent events across the country (Virginia Tech Tragedy and copy cats) I thought I'd stay out of the whole stressful thing and revert to my childhood. It's my little way of dealing with it.

Hey, it's either that or I'm making more chocolate chip cookies and Lord knows I don't need to eat anymore of those this week!

Aaaaanyways...

I keep thinking about Mandy lately. First of all, since she's started her own blog, Controlled Chaos, we've been talking and emailing a lot more. I'm really glad for that since I live 30 minutes away from my family and I don't get to see them as much as I'd like.

So I was at Mom's one day and my almost 2 year old niece Audrey wanted up on Mom's bed. I put her up there and she started jumping. I asked if she was allowed to do that and of course she said, "Yeah." I held her hands and let her go to town. She had the biggest, "I'm having the time of my life" grin." It was precious as is everything our nieces and nephews do since we aren't the ones who have to punish them.

This took me right back to when we were little. We were in Grandma's basement. Our Aunt Teri had her bedroom down there at the time. Aunt Teri used to let us do all of the stuff Mom wouldn't, so naturally, we wanted to jump on her bed.

Teri cranked up the music (likely AC/DC, Cheap Trick, KISS or Led Zeppelin) and we were off and bouncing. The next thing I knew, Mandy was flying off the bed and landed right up against the dresser. The way I remember it is very cartoonish- she did a sort of spinning cannon ball (very athletic), but I know that it was more like a panicked flail.

Now we all know why Mandy is the way she is. In all fairness to her, I was dropped on my head by our cousin as an infant and that is why I am the way I am. Now if we can just figure out what happened to Ea and Stacy. I'm POSITIVE that Mandy and I have nothing to do with the way they turned out. (Please notice my innocent whistling while I sneak out the door.)

Random Memories #3

When I was in first grade, my Grandma Norma helped me sew a little lavender pillow with lace trim for my teacher. It was the first thing I ever sewed. I'm sure it was made of scraps left over from a bridesmaid's dress or something, but to me, it was the most beautiful thing ever.

Leave your own random memory in comments or post your own adn let me know so I can come check it out!

Random Memories #2

I used to have a pair of cockatiels named Salt and Pepper (NOT named after the female rap 'sensations'). I taught them to whistle for the dog. At the time we had a beagle named Poky (absolutely named after the storybook character) and it drove him CRAZY! He was an outside dog and he'd run around and around the house stopping at each door to see who was whistling for him.

Share your own random memories in comments!

Random Memories #1

I remember my sisters and I "cleaning" our Grandma Margie's bathroom by taking whatever we could find and mixing it in the sink. Knowing what I know now, that could have ended VERY badly! Frankly, I'm surprised Mom isn't a millionaire seeing as we gave her many opportunities to invent cabinet locks or babyproofing in general.

Random Memories

All of these random memories keep popping into my head lately. My best guess is that it's from posting about my Mom and my three sisters.

Most of the memories that pop into my head are mere moments and don't really have any big story to go along with them. I don't feel they merit a long, glorified post when really a few lines will convey the thought.

These moments shall henceforth be known as Random Memories. (Didn't that sound intriguing and fancy? *wink*)

Keep an eye out for them as our family is filled with all sorts of interesting characters!