My Nanny

For today's Thinking Back Thursday I'd like to share some of my favorite memories about my Nanny...my grandma on my mom's side. Her full name (including her catholic confirmation name) is Emily Mildred Theresa Caterino Bakken...whoa...that's a mouthfull! I'll just stick with Nanny!

My earliest memories of her are when we lived in Modesto, CA and we had a pool in the backyard. I just remember her laying out on a lawn chair watching us kids and smoking her cigarette.

My Nanny has always made the BEST homemade spaghetti sauce with italian sausage and meetballs. However when I was little, I was clueless and had no appreciation for it. She would labor over the stove for a HUGE family gathering making her sauce and when mealtime came I would say..."can I just have butter on my noodles please!" But she loved me dearly and always set aside a plain bowl of noodles before she lathered the rest of them in her yummy sauce.

I mentioned staying at my Nanny and Papa's house in a previous thinking back..but I'll elaborate. I stayed with them for over a month the summer when I was 6 years old. They managed an apartment complex so there was a pool and always lots of interesting people around. There was one lady who had a parrot and another who was a clown....stuff like that. Everybody loved my grandparents and they would often stop by the front office just to say hi to my Nanny while she was working. Every morning my Nanny would stand at the bottom of the stairs and call me down for breakfast. When I got downstairs my breakfast would be sitting there on a tray in front of the couch waiting for me. I would eat breakfast while watching the show "Alice" (you know the one with the waitresses who worked at Mel's Diner) Our favorite was when the character Flo would say, "Mel, kiss my grits!"
My Nanny ALWAYS had a jar of pickles in the fridge for me because she knew they were my favorite! And one of our favorite commercials was the vlassic one with the bird that would say, "that's the best tasting pickle I ever had." Remember the one with girl who says, "Dad...when you gonna eat that pickle?" That was our favorite.
Then there was the Young and the Restless. I watched it with her everyday that I was there! She still watches it everyday...I gave up the habit years ago!
When I left and went back home that summer, my Nanny had a really hard time letting go of me. In fact there were days that she would prepare my breakfast tray and call for me, only to realize I was gone. She told my mom she would never keep a grandchild that long again...it was just to hard to let them go afterwards. There are so many memories, but I know all you bloggers out there prefer posts that aren't on the lengthy side! So I'll share more another time. I just want to say that my Nanny is the BEST. I love her tons and love spending time with her playing cards. She is the coolest, hippest, cutest 85 year old lady you'll ever see!

This is her and I at her 85th birthday with the cake I made for her!

From Trailer to Trailer

If you've been reading my blog then you know that we are currently living in our 5th wheel trailer inside of our shop while we are building our house. What you probably don't know is how this is a return to our early marriage roots!

When I met my hubby he was a single guy who owned his own business, owned his own piece of property....and his own 1970's single wide trailer! It was complete with 70's green shag carpet and everything!! During our engagement he remodeled the single wide and updated pretty much everything. New paint, new carpet, new vinyl floors, new faucets, new countertops, new light fixtures...you name it! It wasn't totally done by the time we got married but our family worked on it while we were on our honeymoon and by the time we got back it was "fit for a princess".....on the inside! From the outside...well that's another story it was your classic 70's single wide complete with lots of RUST and tin roof!
Two years later we moved into our first home that we built on the same property. 2.5 years after that we moved into our second home..and now5.5 years later we are living in a trailer again waiting for your third home to be complete. It's funny how things come full circle sometimes!

Hooplagrande!

Working at VBS again this year has made me think about church camp from when I was a kid. The camp I went to was called "Hooplagrande" It was soooo much fun. We met at the church and took a bus to this outdoor day camp and there were all sorts of fun things to do. We would meet in these little tree covered dens with our group leaders for teaching time and I remember there was a zip line. The bus was a blast because we would sing songs like "spring up old well ....splish-splish-splish-splash...." and "the wheels on the bus" ...and ... "give me wax on my board, keep me surfing for the Lord" But my favorite song was the camp song!! I remember every word:

Oh they say that camps are boring and they're never any fun
But we know the camp were going to is surely number one.

We drive the counselors crazy and we keep them on the run
The fun has just begun!

Singing songs and running races
Itcyr skeeters in all places

We gather in our dens with friends
To learn of Jesus Christ

Hooplagrande is the BEST
IS THE BEST!!

Hooplagrande is the BEST!!!
_____________________

......it really WAS the BEST!!

There are people who would file a law suit today!

Today I'm taking you back to the second grade.

I walked home from school everyday. Most of the time I walked with my sister, but some days she would walk with her friends, and me with mine. On this particular day I was without my sister and I was walking home with my friend Stephanie. I lived about 3-4 blocks further from school than Stephanie did, though, so some of the way I walked by myself.

There was this boy named Doug. Doug was the kind of boy who would come up to you on the playground and tell you he had a secret to tell you. Then when he went to tell you the secret he would kiss you instead. He was a skirt flipper on "Friday flip up day"....that kind of boy! YUCK!

I hated when Doug would try to kiss me! He walked the same way that Stephanie and I did to go home, so sometimes he would just try and run up and kiss us.

So on this one particular day Doug was walking behind us but he wasn't alone. His older brother and a couple other older boys were with him. I knew his older brother was trouble, so I was a little bit nervous. I remember when we got to Steph's house and I had to continue walking by myself....I got really scared. I did not want to walk the rest of the way alone. I came to a corner where there were two ways to go to get to my house. I went one way and Doug followed, the older boys went the other. When we came to the place where those two paths met I was suddenly surrounded. The next thing I new I was being held down by two of the older boys while Doug kissed me. OH I was so disgusted!!! And I was soo mad!!

It's funny though, because I don't remember running home afterwards, or telling my mom and dad all about it. I'm sure they will comment to let me know if I did or not!

I remember just being really disgusted and mad, but can you imagine that happening today!! WOW! That would be called sexual harassment these days and somebody would probably sue somebody, have them sent to anger management classes, or have them expelled or something. Oh how times have changed! It's not anything that scared me or anything like that. It's really just more of a surreal memory.

Bus Rides

In today's Thinking Back Thursday I'm going to share random memories about bus rides.....

When I was in Kindergarten and First grade my parents did not attend church. But there was a little local church that had a bus that went around through the neighborhoods and picked kids up and took them to church. Every Sunday my parents would put my sister and I on that bus and we would go to church by ourselves. I even remember times when I would spend the night at my Aunt Judy's house and I would take the bus from there too. It's strange to think about that today....can you imagine doing that with your children? Times were different then though. In second grade we started going to church as a family...and we haven't stopped!

There was another random bus that came through the neighborhoods....but this one took you to the strawberry fields in the summer. So when I was in like 5th, 6th, 7th grade I would take that bus at times during the summer and head out to the strawberry field to earn money by picking flats of berries. I don't remember how much we made per flat though. I think the most money I would even make in a day was like $10 or something like that.....again....can you imagine doing that today?

The only time I ever rode the bus to school was in the 6th grade. It was bus number 52....yes I have a weird and random memory! That bus driver was so sweet and nice. If it was your birthday she would make you this small little personalized birthday cake. It was probably like a 4-6 inch cake. On my birthday she had made it, but forgot it at home. So I stayed on the bus until she had dropped everybody off and then she drove the bus to her house, got me my cake, and took me home. Once again....can you imagine? A bus driver would get FIRED for taking someone to their house today. I didn't go in the house. I just waited on the bus while she got the cake. I didn't think it was wierd or anything, I thought it was pretty cool!

Of course there are lots of bus ride stories that include boys...but seriously...like ya'll want my post to go on forever and ever! I'll just go with most memorable: pretending to fall asleep so that I could slump over and fall asleep on the shoulder of the boy sitting next to me! CLASSIC!

Scattered Memories....

For today's Thinking Back Thursday I thought I'd share a few little scattered memories instead of a big long story.....

If my elementary school hadn't been torn down and rebuilt....I could take you to the exact spot I was standing when I had the thought......

"Oh I can't wait until I can pick out my own clothes!"
(4th grade...standing right in front of the classroom door....wearing navy blue slacks and a sweater with matching socks....thanks mom!)

"I am sooo old (as in grown up) now!"
(2nd grade....standing outside in front of Mrs. Huson's door)

I was a "champion" over the years.....

In 5th grade I was the reigning tether ball champion

In 3rd grade I was the reigning "snowball" champion (a snowball was when you bent over the bar, wrapped you arms around your legs and propelled yourself in a circle.....I could do over 100 in a row!)

In 7th grade I was the reigning foosball champion

Random things I participated in over the years.....

I took square dancing for about 4-5 years

In 4th grade I did tininkiling. What? You don't know what tininkiling is? Check out this video (it's not of me...I just got it off the web!) Oh and the video is kinda long...you don't need to watch the whole thing!

Tininkiling anyone?

Puppy Love....

First I just gotta tell ya'll that I'm having fun with thinking back thursday! ya'll should do it! Now onto the story...."Puppy Love"

My kindergarten teacher's name was Mrs. Frazier. She was an older teacher who was just really sweet. I have lots of memories from kindergarten. I remember making candles, dressing up like pilgrims, my grandparents walking me to school on the first day....good times. The memory that stands out to me the MOST though is the memory of one certain classmate, Brent McCormick. I don't remember "the moment" we met or anything like that. I just remember that he is who I played with at recess on the tire swing everyday. Believe it or not there were many days that we would come home from school and talk to each other on the phone. He was also the ONLY boy that was at my birthday party. He got me skateboard Barbie. It was puppy love for sure!

The summer after kindergarten I went on a trip to California to visit my Nanny and Papa (my grandparents). I ended up having so much fun that I kept asking to stay longer and I think I was there for like 5 weeks or something (I'm not exagerating either). I've got great memories from that summer too. My Nanny and Papa managed an apartment complex and so there were always lots of interesting people to meet and talk to. Every morning I would wake up, go downstairs and there would be a tv tray sitting in front of the couch with my breakfast on it. My Nanny and I always watched "Alice" together and our favorite saying was, "kiss my grits." I remember going fishing with my Papa and being scared because I had a dream about a shark the night before. Oh, and atari. I played donkey kong! I will always remember sitting close to the TV and starring in AWE as I watched Princess Diana get married in that LOOOONG wedding dress. Last but not least...I'll spare you the details from the memory of the night I was an "unexpected guest" in my grandparents bedroom (if you know what I mean!)
During those weeks I would of course talk to my parents and my mom would often tell me that Brent had called again. Hey, this was back when long distance was expensive and cell phones didn't exist so there was no way I could talk to him. I missed him though.

After all those weeks of fun it was time to head home. My Aunt and Uncle took me on the long drive home. I'm sure I was only home for a day or two when I called Brent. No answer. Each day I would call and each day...no answer. School finally started and Brent was not in my class but during roll call the teacher called out his twin brother's name. But his brother wasn't there. Out at recess I looked for Brent but couldn't find him. Each day went by and there was no sign of him. Finally I found out that he and his family had moved away, but nobody knew where they had moved to. He was gone and I had no way to reach him. It hit me that all those phone calls he kept making he was trying to reach me....he wanted to let me know he was leaving, but he never got to tell me. I never saw him again.

Oh Brent McCormick from Eisenhower Elementary....where did you go? Are you out there? Is your wife out there in blogland reading this? I'm rather curious... Where did you move to? What's going on in your life? I guess as always, it will continue to remain a mystery.

The Haircut - Seventh Grade

I decided to start a new "segment" on my blog. I'm calling it "Thinking Back Thursday"
Each Thursday my plan is to post a story from my past. Maybe my distant past, maybe my recent past. You get the point. Someday when I move into my house and my scrapbooks are all unpacked I will be able to include pictures. That will make it more fun. But for now words will have to do!

I have extremely thick naturally curly hair. When I was in junior high I tried everything they had to make it manageable. After a few chemical treatments and a HORRIBLE thinning process something had to be done to rectify the problem. So it was off to the salon with my mother.

It's important that you know that just the day before I had broken up with my boyfriend, who had been my first kiss, because I found out that I was his "church" girlfriend and he had another girlfriend at school. I was "devistated" (everything is devistating in Jr. High!).

So, going into this haircut I don't think my head was totally screwed on right. The stylist said that I would have to basically cut my hair SUPER SHORT and "start all over". I guess I had no choice. So I let her do it! Oh I really wish I had the picture for you to see! When you have super thick curly hair and it is cut short, your head pretty much looks like a muffin! I was completely mortified! To make things worse, that night we had to go and have family pictures taken for the church directory. Yes, that hairdo is forever immortalized in the church directory that I'm well aware some people still have sitting in their junk drawers!

Jump ahead two days....ok, don't forget about the breakup with the boy from church.....
It is now Sunday and it was time to go to church. Guess who I would have to see there? Yes, the boy. C'mon now ladies, you know as well as I do that when you see a guy after you break up you want to look YOUR BEST so they know what they are missin'. RIGHT?! And here I was with my new muffin top hairdo! Once again....I was mortified. (can you imagine?) Oh I could see the smirk on his face from a mile away! I think his brother didn't even hold it in..he just laughed.
So, I crawl my way through that experience knowing that the next day I would have to go to school and display my new muffin top hairdo for the whole jr. high world to see!

We pull up to the drop off point and my Dad lets me out of the car. (deep breath...here goes nothing!) At the front of the school near the entry doors is a HUGE window. Sitting just inside that window was this eighth grade boy that I thought was SO CUTE! He was the first person to see me as I walked toward the door and see me he did! As soon as he saw me he literally pointed at me and started laughing! Once again....mortified!

oh people, can I just say that I NEVER WANT TO BE IN JR. HIGH AGAIN! Do I hear and Amen!