FAMILY - November 2007

This month I thought I'd introduce you to my family.

MOM

My mother was born in Davos, Graubunden, Switzerland in 1923. She has one brother. She spent early adulthood smack dab in the middle of WWII Europe. Her father was an alcoholic - something I did not find out until the late 1990's. Mom doesn't like to talk about it. Her hair was jet black in her youth ... and as long as she bothered to color her hair. Now it is a nice silvery-white. It was quite a shock, though, when I flew out of Salt Lake one time, leaving her there with black hair and came back a couple of months later to see her with white hair. *LOL*

She was stern in bringing up my brother and me. She wore horn-rimmed glasses for the longest time. I guess it was a 60's thing. We got disciplined by being spanked by a wooden spoon - this was back in the days before spanking was considered child abuse ... but THAT is a topic for another day.

I also credit her with raising me in such a fashion that I did no more than dabble with drugs and alcohol. She took the news that I was pregnant (and not married) a LOT better than I thought she would. For a while, though, I considered myself closer to my MIL than to my own mother ... until MIL tried to get custody of my sons about 7 years ago. Mom stood by me in that and I am grateful.

I appreciate my mother a whole lot more and feel much sorrier for how I treated her while I was growing up now that I have kids of my own.

*****

BROTHER

My brother is 22 months older than me. When the tooth fairy "forgot" to visit me one night when I was little, he dug a quarter out of his piggy bank and gave it to me. When we moved from Maryland to Utah, he punched me in the arm (in an annoyingly brotherly sort of way) more times than I care to remember.

I felt bad for him when he had started college and lost a scholarship based on .001 of a grade point ... and because I happened to have a teensily higher GPA (I was still in high school) that term ... and our parents never let him forget it.

My brother is an EXTREMELY TALENTED keyboardist. He plays mostly piano and organ. He has played with the Utah Opera (as a rehearsal accompanist), accompanied many voice students at the University of Utah and is in the Master of Music program there.

He is a ROCK.

*****

HUBBY

I met my husband online. He is my 2nd husband.

You could say that we complete each other ... or you could say we're co-dependent on each other. He has manic depression (bi-polar disorder) - and I'm beginning to suspect BPD - and I have clinical depression.

We've been married ten years and counting and are still learning about each other. I hope that never stops. There are a lot of things I like and admire about him ... and one or two things that don't sit quite so well.

He is nearly totally self-taught in computers and I say with confidence that if there is something he cannot do with a computer ... then it pretty much doesn't need doing by the vast majority of folks.

*****

DS1

DS1 will be 11 on December 1st. I still remember going into the hospital for him to be born. I remember the utter terror when they wheeled him into my room for the first time (he was on O2 and I was restricted to bed for 24 hours).

He has ADD and is starting to enter that flippant "tween" stage. (I am headed to the store for vitamins ... and maybe valium.) He is also one of the brightest, most inquisitive people I know.

The cutest thing about him is when he got mad at the nurses in the NICU when his sister was born because they wouldn't let him take her home so he could take care of her!

*****

DS2

DS2 was born 18 months (almost to the day) after his older brother. I figured we were done having kids then because each of us had been born in a different state ... and we had no plans to move.

DS2 has SPD. His intelligence his deeper in his person than is his brother's. It takes him a little longer to catch on but once he does, he remembers forever. He likes to draw (a former speciality was butterflies - and I had to literally bite my tongue the day he brought me one ... it must have been female because the top half was anatomically CORRECT!) *LOL*

He is one of the sweetest and kindest individuals I know. He enjoys doing things to make people happy, and giving them nice surprises.

*****

DD

DD is my miracle baby. I was 41 YOA when DD was born - 8 weeks premature. We were told to expect her to stay in NICU until the original due date, but she was progressing well enough that we were able to bring her home at 22 days old! The hardest thing I have ever done was to have to leave her in the hospital when I was discharged.

I roomed in with her the final night. There were several rooms in the NICU unit that were like little hotel rooms, where the parent/s could stay with their preemie alone, but still have the hospital staff within hollering distance should the need arise. The next morning, it was time to go. She was dressed in her white lacy going home outfit, when it became apparent that she needed a change. Once I got her wiped up, and before I got the new diaper secured, she squirted out another poopie all over her going-home outfit, pretty blankets and ALL OVER MY ARM! *LOL* (I knew I'd laugh at that one day!)

She has impossibly curly hair (less so now that her hair is a little longer) and likes pink. Last week she talked for two days about getting a tool set ... so Papaw took her out and got her a tool set. She was thrilled!

Now she wants a cupcake set ... whatever that is.

*****
*****

How about y'all? What does YOUR family "look" like?