It was a bad burn...

After spending a lot of time reading over at Mama's Losin' It, I've finally decided to take the plunge and participate in Mama Kat's Writers Workshop. Her writing prompts are always great and there's always something that I can relate to. The prompt I've chosen to write about today is...

"It was a bad burn. Tell about the worst sunburn you ever received. How did that happen!?!"

Now I must confess that with living 25 years of my life in sunny Florida I have had many, many sunburns. Bad sunburns. Some were self induced as I was often trying to get the perfect tan. I admit to slathering on baby oil as a teen and other stupidly unhealthy tricks of the trade. But the bad burn I'm going to tell you about was one that occurred when I was a kid and I can totally blame this on my parents! Ha! Not only is this a story of a bad sunburn but also of being humiliated. I can blame that on them, too. The opportunity doesn't happen often so I should certainly take advantage of it, right?

The year was 1986 I think and we had taken a cruise to the Bahamas, stayed a couple days on the island and then cruised on back to South Florida. I don't think there was as much awareness about the importance of protecting our skin from the sun back then, but hello! common sense. I was sent to spend many hours swimming in the pool and in the Caribbean Sea, playing games like the limbo and all that good stuff. I had a blast. But without a drop of sunscreen. Needless to say I also had a burn. The bright red, lobster hued, hurts really bad type of sunburn.

That night as the full effects of the burn made itself known, I hurt. Very.Badly. My dad tried to ease the pain by putting soaking wet cold towels on my back while I was laying in my bed. As the heat from my burning body would make the towels hot, he would refresh me by pouring more cold water (maybe the water from the melted ice bucket?) over me on top of the towels. Bless his heart, he tried to help. I'm sure you can imagine that the bed was soaking wet.

For the rest of our vacation I swam with a t-shirt on to keep the sunburn from getting worse. And my dad would repeat the cold water process at night so that I wasn't in too much pain to sleep. But a peculiar thing started to happen...I began noticing that every time the housekeeping staff would see me they would start snickering amongst themselves. It took a little while for me to realize that they were laughing at *me*. I was a kid at the time, but old enough to put two and two together. I think they thought the reason for the wet bed of mine that they changed each morning was because I was um...not properly potty trained. They must have thought I was wetting the bed. And that I had a HUGE bladder as the bedsheets were super soaked. I mentioned I was a kid, but I was a kid that was too old to be wetting the bed.

Upon this epiphany, I was so embarrassed. Mortified.

So there you have it. I'm not sure it was the worst sunburn I've had as far as burn and pain. But it was certainly the worst.sunburn.ever. And just so you know, I'm a sunscreen tyrant with Kelley and Bethany. They'll thank me one day!

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holiday faves

i asked for requests for things to blog about during my nablopomo challenge and a bloggy friend jennifer (you can check out her blog by clicking on her name!) suggested favorite childhood memories. i have a lot of them, and i think i'll share my holiday faves from being a child to now being a mom.



growing up, most of the holidays were spent with just me and my parents. sometimes we'd have relatives over or go to visit, but usually it was just us. i have great memories of our holidays.

thanksgiving always started off with watching the macy's parade. then we'd have our thanksgiving dinner, complete with homemade noodles. yep noodles. outside of family, i've met just a few people who have noodles as well. but for us, it's a must! the day usually ended with our bellies full and watching the original miracle on 34th street. that was it, and it was perfect!

thanksgiving these days is spent with family, and of course the girls. i have never been able to get them interested in watching the parade, but i still give it a little peek every year. our menu has changed a little, but not much. mammie does the cooking, and other than mashed and sweet potatoes, there are no veggies, none. one year i did make the ever famous green bean casserole. but have since gone back to a veggie free thanksgiving.

my very favorite day of the year is christmas eve. i love the anticipation of santa claus and remembering the birth of Jesus. both are just absolutely magical. our routine hasn't changed much over the years. lots of christmas carols. dinner is an awesome mixture of appetizers and treats made by mammie and papa. papa's specialty is loaded nachos. we exchange gifts with extended family. and mammie always makes sure we have a new pair of christmas jammies. the girls hang their stockings and papa reads "twas the night before christmas" to the girls. we do all of this at mammie and papa's house because they have a chimney! they leave santa milk and cookies of course, and usually carrots or oats for the reindeer.



christmas morning is all about the presents. as a child i remember always waking up to a lit christmas tree stuffed with presents underneath. and santa always, always took great care of me! one year he almost broke my heart. what i really wanted that year was a speak n spell. i was so excited to get it, i just knew it had to be there. all the packages were opened and there wasn't a speak n spell. i was thrilled with all of my gifts but still sad. turns out santa had dropped a present behind some furniture...and it was my beloved speak n spell! i am an absolute spelling bee and i'm sure it's because santa didn't let me down!

our christmas mornings are pretty similar now, waking up to that magical site of a lit tree and presents everywhere! sometimes we sleep at mammie and papa's on christmas eve, sometimes we sleep at home. fortunately we are barely a mile away. papa has an "in" with santa and he never gets confused as to where he's supposed to show up. we unwrap presents from santa and from each other. listening to carols. we usually have a light breakfast of cinnamon rolls. saving our appetite for the big christmas dinner. my grandma has been making that for the past couple years.



as for new year's eve and day, we really don't have any traditions. it's never late to start them though! last year the girls had their first sleepover and rang in the new year with sparkling grape juice. the adults had champagne. new year's day we do watch college football. but again, no real traditions.

i'd love to hear about your new year's day traditions...we definitely need to start some!

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siblings...the best laid plans

do you have siblings? were you close with them while growing up? how about now?

me? i'm an only child. as a kid i hated it. it took me many, many hopeful years to realize that brothers and sisters just weren't going to happen. i still am sad about not having a sibling. it was lonely then and it is still lonely now.

being an only child certainly did come with benefits. there was only one of me, so things stretched a little further and i didn't go without. in fact, i usually ended up with the things i wanted. (there are a few things i didn't get that are now inside family jokes). i did get my dream car for my 16th birthday. fortunately my dream car was an old one and less expensive than other cars. if i had wanted a bmw or something like that, i would have been out of luck. my parents felt strongly about being able to send me to college. they both had to work their way through college on their own. had i chosen a traditional wedding, i'm really sure they would have made it a beautiful occasion. so it seems that when they decided to just have me, their life experiences played a big part in it. they wanted to offer me so much opportunity and they did. (thanks mom and dad i love you both so much!)

but at the other end i was the only one with which things were judged. meaning, my parents at a time, thought i was on "the highway to hell". i think that they now maybe realize i was just a normal kid/teen. they just had nothing to compare me against. and really i ended up turning out ok.

my friends all had siblings. and one of my bestest of friends was the middle of three daughters. ever have one of those friends that seemed perfect, the whole family seemed perfect, and you really wanted to be part of that family? yep, that's how i viewed them. i'm really lucky and happy that even now after all of these years, i'm in touch with all three sisters. i know they've had their bumps along the way. but to me they will always be the "perfect family".

fast forward to my family. i definitely wanted three kids, girls, that were fairly close in age. i admit it, i wanted my family to resemble the family of my friend. kelley and bethany are close in age (18 months apart). my hope for them was that they would be instant BFF's. i'll admit that even after all these years (the girls are almost 9 and 10 1/2) i have baby fever like there's been a rabid outbreak. however, having another is not likely to happen. mr. h is just not on board with that idea.

so back to siblings. kelley and bethany. close in age, both girls, the best of friends. right? no. wrong. at best this only lasted through the preschool age when they called each other "sissy" for sister. sometime after that it became a love/hate relationship which it remains to this day. we have issues that i never even dreamed of. not quite to the point of wearing each others clothes without permission, but we're getting there. right now the biggest quarrel involves friends. "but she was my friend first!". if i had a dollar for every time i've heard that...

i do anticipate (hope) that this will change next year. this will be the first time in four years that they will be attending different schools, different busses (and if they had their way, living in different states). we also are anticipating the possibility for them to have their own rooms in the coming future. yes, maybe this will all help.

remember the stories of our grandparents and great-grandparents "when i was your age, i had to walk ten miles to school, uphill, in snow, with hand me down shoes"? here it sounds more like "when i was your age, i didn't have a sister to play with and be friends with. it was lonely. when i played board games, i had to play the left hand against the right hand"!

*sigh* if only they realized how nice it could be to have each other...

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

p.s. remember "little baby girl" is only part of my dream family. no, i'm not trying to tell you all any news. =)

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The Simple Woman's Daybook for Monday, June 29

Outside my window… the sky is dusk with whispy clouds.

I am thinking… wondering actually-why children seem to have boundless energy and why us grown up's are so worn out?

I am thankful for… my husband and i just celebrating our 10th anniversary-it hasn't always been easy and sometimes it's been downright hard. but i'm thinking that we must really love each other to make it this far.

From the learning rooms… the girls and i will continue to learn to sew, and i have been encouraging them to keep a journal of their summer vacation. i have some learning to do with a couple new computer programs and gadgets.

From the kitchen… i didn't want to mess up the clean kitchen so we ordered pizza.

I am wearing…a pink victoria's secret sleepshirt

I am creating… nothing at the moment but have sewing and art projects planned as well as some new recipes to try.

I am going… to spend time playing with kittens and tonight. i also have some packages to get ready for tomorrow's mail.

I am reading… for a change i'm reading some chick lit... "mercury in retrograde", it's a fun and easy read.

I am hoping… that i will be able to entertain the girls since their best friend is going away for the rest of the summer.

I am hearing… crickets, whippoorwills, the girls playing and the kittens bouncing around.

Around the house… the house is nice and clean today, well except for the never ending laundry.

One of my favorite things… my sony e-book reader.

A few plans for the rest of the week... hoping to catch the last of the abandoned kittens we rescued and finding them good homes, sewing with the girls, and not much more...i'm pretty tired after a busy last week.

Here is picture that I am sharing…my dad (papa) was in the newspaper! he is teaching driver's education this summer:

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my failures, memories and blessings on father's day

i have to admit that when it comes to celebrating today, i was a big fail. i had the perfect gift project in mind, my intentions huge. but then i started having trouble finding the things i needed for the project both in town and online-they were pretty important parts of the project. so to daddy and papa...i still have great intentions but it's going to be a little late. that wasn't all though, i was supposed to be up early to tend to the girls and we fully intended to make a great breakfast in bed for daddy. we did in fact have everything we needed. except for the energy on my part to actually get out of bed. we had a really big day yesterday. and i'm not as young as i used to be so let's just say that i was not in fact the parent who got up early today. but the girls and i will make that fabulous breakfast, some day.

ok now that i've gotten that out of the way...when it comes to acknowledging the father figures in my life, i have a lot to say!

i was lucky enough to be able to know one of my great grandfather's. even cooler than that, kelley got to meet him i don't know of many people who had the blessing of meeting their great-great grandfather's. she was pretty little and doesn't remember but we have pictures to share. in fact we had a five generation portrait done and even bethany was a part of that in my growing belly.

a little known fact about me, i actually have had six grandpa's, three on each side. sadly my birth grandpa's weren't in my life as much as i would have liked. i did get to spend time with my mom's dad when i was a little girl and i have very clear memories of that. my dad's dad came into our life when i was an adult. we had a few years with him and both girls got to know and remember him. bethany especially loves and misses her poppy. i wish we had more time together, but the time we did have was a blessing.

my second grandpa's on each side, well i didn't get to have them in my life long at all. i have one memory of my grandpa cook and it was a good memory. he was much loved in our family. when i was four he disappeared on a fishing trip. he was never found. i don't believe i ever met my other second grandpa.

my third set of grandpa's have been around for most of my life. grandpa cliff joined our family when i was just starting school. most of my fun times with him have been during camping trips. and when i was diagnosed with cancer, he and my grandma were just leaving from a visit with us. they turned around and helped care for the girls during that awful time. one of their good memories of that time was when the easter bunny found them on a camping trip. i'm pretty certain that grandpa cliff clued the easter bunny in on their location.

that leaves my grandpa roger. he was my grandpa when i was born and proved to be a miracle shortly after that. he had what should have been a fatal heart attack and a good samaritan found him and likely saved him with CPR. his recovery was from what i was told pretty rough, so much of his heart was damaged that his survival truly was a miracle. and he lived a long life after that. sadly he passed away this past spring but not before giving me and the girls wonderful memories. i spent my lifetime with him and there is so much i want to share, but as i type this out my eyes are beginning to fill with tears. i will just stop here and let you know that i couldn't have been more blessed with a grandpa and it was a miracle.



no father's day can pass without thinking about my dad. there's so much to tell about him. most importantly is that outward appearances can be very deceiving. my dad for many years was a football coach and he has what most football coaches probably have-a booming voice. this voice can be very intimidating. but once people get to know him they are often surprised at what a kind and loving person he is. it was not uncommon for him to help his player's out in ways that maybe their parents couldn't. a big example of that was helping his less fortunate players get into college when their life outside of football have ended and they likely were destined to lives of crime. he's also a teacher and there's been plenty of times that people will acknowledge that their teacher was my dad. and to be honest sometimes i cringed, not sure i wanted to hear what they thought of him. every single time though...they loved him, even some who were never the type to take school seriously. no doubt he has touched many, in a positive way throughout his career.

as a dad, well there were plenty of times that we butted heads. he and i are alike and different all at the same time. he is the most organized man on earth and has a schedule for everything. in fact i probably was potty trained way earlier than most because of course that too was on a schedule. me, i'm not so motivated or organized and that likely drives him nuts. growing up he was pretty strict and i was pretty mouthy and determined to do my own thing. i spent a lot and i mean a lot of time grounded. but it wouldn't be fair of me to not mention the times he went over and above for me.

every holiday was perfect and still is. he made sure that santa was good to me in the most magical of ways. same with the easter bunny, i was hunting for easter eggs and baskets long after i could drive. and speaking of driving, i had my dream car for my 16th birthday-a 1966 mustang. he taught me to drive without ever losing his cool. as a preteen and early teen every summer he would take a carload of me and my friends to a water park. the entire he day he let us go and have fun and if he ever checked up on us, i never knew about it. another tradition were amusement parks and rollercoasters-we road every one over and over. (however when it came to spinning rides, that was where my mom came in-he does have a weak stomach). we've traveled a lot and thanks to him i've seen great sites from hollywood to new york city. and pets, just to show you his softer side...he buried everyone of our pets with tears.

along the way dad became "papa". and some of his ways have changed. the strictness? not anymore...grandkids are for spoiling. and kelley and bethany definitely are spoiled. he has already in their short lives filled them with a lifetime of fun and special memories.



it's pretty obvious that i have the best dad ever. =)

and finally on father's day i have to mention kelley and bethany's daddy too. you would never realize that this man who is tough in so many ways could also be a fun daddy to two little girls. when they break out the make up, nail polish and hair goo...they don't come running my way. nope their daddy gets the makeovers. he's the one who makes the pancakes they love so much. he's the go-to science guy. the one who calms the inevitable bumps and bruises (because i'm panicking with the girls). he's also big on manners and pretty strict, wanting the girls to grow up to be respectful and successful adults. and all of this amazes me because sadly his childhood was nothing like this. he has had to overcome his own less than ideal (to put it mildly) childhood to be the best he can be for his children.



so there you have it, as you can see when it comes to father's day i have lots of blessings and thanks for indulging me in sharing them.

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kelley got a new car...i mean papa got a new car!

papa (my dad) got a new (to him) car. it's pretty nice and it sounds like he got a good deal.

he also has a classic mustang. this was promised to kelley at birth. but bethany decided it was more her type. and so kelley has claimed her papa's new car as hers.

they'll be stylin' when they're 16.

and me...i'll be stuck driving the mini-van.

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