Flashback Friday

I was telling J about this the other day, and thought it was worth putting up here. I hope some of you get a laugh on my behalf today.

Here's the background...I started babysitting at 12, I was a very sheltered, naive girl who had been in Christian Schools and church my whole life.

I was asked to babysit for my hairdresser's two children. They were around 5 & 7 at the time, how hard could it be? When this story unfolds, I had babysat them a few times. By now, I had figured out that they were a couple of Satan's minions. One day I asked them, "Why don't you EVER obey?". The boy looked at me and said, "What does obey mean?". Yep, that's what I was dealing with.

So this particular day, the parents come to pick me up, and on the way to the house they explain to me that they have worked really hard to clean the whole house. A set of their parents was coming in and they really wanted to impress them. They went on and on about the rules they wanted me to follow. Two that stand out is not to let the kids eat in the living room, and NOT to let the pair of St. Bernards out of the garage because the female was in heat.

Well they dropped me off, and the first couple of hours went pretty smoothly. The boy was excited to show me a movie his parents had recently bought. It was Rambo! Not only was there no way I was allowed to watch that movie, there was no way I wanted to either...I do not like blood & gore. But, they both had seen it before, and were totally into it so I let them watch it to try to keep the house clean.

I'm not sure what I was doing when the calamity started. However, this is how it went down. The girl let the St. Bernards out, and without me knowing it the boy had gotten himself a bowl of cereal. I took off running up the stairs after the dogs, it was easy to know where they were, I just followed the trail of blood from the female up the light carpeted steps. In all the commotion, I didn't notice the boys cereal on the floor. I stepped right in that bowl, and spilled it and soaked my sock. I chased the dogs back downstairs, pulled my sock off and threw it in the microwave and turned it on. We had never had a microwave, and I thought this would be a good way to dry my sock...wow, does a wet, stinky sock make quite a stench through the house! About this time, the boy comes out and tells me the toilet is overflowing.

Let's recap, there are blood drips all over the floors, two St. Bernards running wild, spilled cereal on the carpet upstairs, a toilet running over, my sock twirling in the microwave, two children going crazy, AND the guests walk in...SURPRISE!! We made it early!

They helped get the dogs in, and the toilet to stop overflowing. Took me home, and I was never called to babysit there again.

This is a true story!!

Hope you have a great weekend!

A Christmas Flashback

Every year my children get Christmas presents before Christmas. This is my fault. Honestly, it drives J.D. a little bit crazy. It all started when I was a child. My parents had a tradition of putting a few presents under the tree each week leading up to Christmas.

What they didn't know was that I was an EXPERT at unwrapping enough of the gift to find out what it was and re-wrapping it without them knowing. I would do this when they were still in bed on Saturday mornings. My brother & sister would gather around me to watch my skills, in return for their secrecy, I would do their presents too.

One year in particular, we hit the jackpot. All three of us were avid Mr. Rogers watchers. This year sitting under the tree was a puppet each from the show. My brother got King Friday, my sister had Lady Elaine and for me X the owl. We were SO EXCITED about getting these. Of course we all were cool and collected when mom handed them to us for our Christmas Eve present and we all acted very surprised to see them. (as we did with all our presents over the years)

My parents did not find out we did this until I was 25. It was my first Christmas that I didn't live at home with my parents. They came up to Arkansas, and Christmas Eve, after everyone was in bed, my brother and I spent some bonding time unwrapping and re-wrapping gifts. The next day we were cracking up at each other trying to act surprised and we finally confessed what we had been doing all of those years.

Now, I get so excited to give my kids their gifts that I just can't wait. They know I'm a big softy and that I understand their pain of hating surprises.

So, today they will each open a present after they finish school & chores. Can any of you relate? Share your stories!

Blessings,

Happy Birthday to Me

I am 40 today. I chose to live my life wide open and so even though I am not really thrilled about everyone knowing I'm 40 it's better than everyone knowing it and just not telling me they know. :)

I remember thinking 40 was VERY old as a teenager. Like the next step was rocking in a rocking chair on the porch, sipping tea and eating cookies. Then you were DEAD.

Well it turns out it is really no different than 39.

When I was 39 I

Played hard
Laughed hard
Loved lavishly
Was loved lavishly
Saw restoration from my Lord

Sounds like 40 is going to be pretty great!

Blessings,

A Little Background

I was raised in church every time the doors were open and led a very sheltered, fun little life.

When I was 13 my world started to change. From kindergarten I was in a very small Christian school where everyone was much like a family. I had 8 friends who had all been there from the beginning with me. Our principle was so wonderful and had a huge influence on me. He was very understanding and really loved to teach. My thirteenth summer he fell asleep at the wheel and was killed instantly. His little boy who was 5 lived but had brain damage afterward.

I believe everyone has a story and I really enjoy hearing other peoples story. I am one of those friends who always listens. In a large way this is my own fault as I am a private person. I think I am going to enjoy having this outlet for my story.

Blessings,

Heather Kay

Background Part Two

Two years later at the age of 15 my father was laid off at his job. The pastor and his family and another family close to my parents had moved to Florida. My father had a job opportunity there and off we went. Now I was a Michigan girl of the 80's and as you know style is on the coasts. I went from being very popular at my small school to being a total geek with neon shoe laces in 10th grade. However I was young and pretty so the boys were interested. I really lacked a good girl friend the rest of my high school years. Well I made it through although it was a rocky time at school and at home.
I was "going out" with a guy two years younger than me when I went off to college. We wrote letters and missed each other desperately. I was at Pensacola Christian College and it was very strict!! I was so homesick! I was also only 17 when I graduated so I was just too young to be away from home yet. When I got back home for Christmas I begged to stay home and thankfully was allowed to. While I was at college my parents marriage fell apart. This resulted eventually in my break up and my younger sisters pregnancy. My parents after being separated awhile did get back together.
During all of that I just decided within myself that I would not let any guy hurt me again. I would have fun but no one was going to get to my heart. This has affected my life in such a great and hurtful way.
I will just continue this background stuff until I get to the present day. However, in the present day, I am a homeschooling mom of two great kiddo's and I must go get to it.
Blessings,
Heather Kay

Background the Third

A few years go by of working and dating but guarding my heart. My family moves into a new neighborhood of condo's and there is a pool right outside our front door. Being a Michigan girl my opportunities to swim were few and far between, however, I loved it with a passion. This was a dream come true!
The first week we were there I was swimming at the pool and a guy comes by walking his dog. He was friendly and I asked if he would like to join me swimming. He said no the Cubs were on. I thought ok, whatever. During the next weeks I got to know J.D., I found out that he was a sports nut and a great friend. I also found out that he was about 6 years younger than I originally thought that day I asked him for a swim. Making me almost 8 years older than him.
We became fast friends. We both had other dating relationships but did everything together. This went on for a couple of years. I continued to pursue my career with Wal-Mart and he kept playing baseball and going to high school. I lived in C 2 and he lived in E 1 at the condo's we could see each other across the parking lot.
His senior year I began to realize I had feelings for him. This was not part of my plans! I was offered a job opportunity to move 1200 miles away. I talked to my sister who really needed to get away from a bad relationship with her boys father and asked if she would come away with me. I was 25 and had only been away from home that one semester while at college. My sister agreed and we packed up our things. (and a few of our parents things too) :)
More tomorrow!

A Honor Roll Field Trip

In 1984 I was 14 turning 15. (Yes, I will be 40 this year) I was still in Michigan. At my school we had A level field trips on Fridays, once or twice a month. It was field trip day and all I had to do to earn the privilege of going on this trip was have my flag answered and score one last thing. We had teachers called monitors that went around the room and answered questions, allowed us to leave our seats to go score our work, or go to the restroom.

I was not a favorite of the monitor in charge at the time. My flag had been up for some time and I desperately wanted to go on this field trip. You see, there was a guy I had a crush on going and I wanted some extra time with him. I knew I deserved to go on the trip. All I needed to do was score one last thing. However, she would not come over to my desk. So I stole the A level card of the kid who sat next to me. When they called for the field trip, I just went out and got on that bus.

I did not have much guilt about this because I reasoned it was my right to go anyway. Now I was supposed to spend the night at my best friends house and I was not going to risk telling my mom (who worked at the school) about it in case she saw it differently, and I was not allowed to spend the night. So when the teachers confronted me I lied. I made up a big story and lied my way out of school that day. Well my best friends mom was a teacher there too. I was afraid if we stayed after school very long my lies would catch up with me. I suggested to my friend that we walk to her house saying it would be fun. She lived 9 miles from the school. Our mom's gave us permission and off we went. As the miles went by it went from fun to exhausting. Now my guilty conscience was catching up with me. That was one miserable night.

It was a miserable weekend actually. My lies had not caught up with me, but I knew they would. Monday was the day. As the teachers and principle got together with my story they realized I had lied to all of them. I had a "long talk" with the principle that resulted in an eight hour detention. Then when I got home I had a time of my dad "not sparing the rod". You know "spare the rod, spoil the child." My dad was usually a softy, but not this time. Then he grounded me from my most loved thing...Youth Group...for the whole summer. Now this was huge for me. I was very social and thrived on my time with my peers. Also, this was the year of the Detroit Tigers. The year they won the World Series! My youth group was going to a game! I had to miss it! That summer of sitting at home cured me. I am not saying that I have never told a lie since then. Yeah right! However, my habitual lying stopped. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

We moved to Florida at the end of that summer.

This was just another peek at what God was dealing with when He got a hold of me!

Blessings,
Heather Kay

Grammar

Although I do not want my daughter reading this at this age, she will someday. I am hoping that knowing the whole story will help her understand what we went through a little bit better. She is eleven now.

I was thinking about my grammar yesterday and remembered why I can't figure out comma's. As I said I went to a christian school. We had the PACE system there. If your not familiar with that it is work on your own curriculum where you complete small books called paces. I had one pace with punctuation that I just couldn't get through my head. When you failed a pace you had to erase it and start over. I know I went through erasing that pace at least once. Then I started getting close to the test and I just knew I would fail it. The thought of erasing it was just too much.

At the time, the house I was in had those styrofoam tile drop down ceilings that you could lift up and replace. My sister and I shared a room, and I had figured out that I could lift those tiles and hide "important" stuff up there. Well I got to the end of one of those paces and just stuck it up there. Being the little liar I was I was very convincing that I had lost it. My parents searched everywhere and just couldn't find it. I was given another pace and towards the end of that one we were driving down the road during a Michigan snow storm and I had the window beside me down a crack. (This was normal because I get severe motion sickness) So I just slipped that sucker right out the crack while my mom was driving. Now my mom is one of those drivers who never takes her eyes off the road, so, that pace was searched for and never recovered. I am sure my parents had to know I was getting rid of them but they just couldn't prove it. My third replacement pace I took to piano lessons with me. My teacher had a waiting area that she could not see with a back door that we came in. During my sisters lesson I just snuck out back and buried that pace under the 3 feet of snow by her porch. My parents never found that one either. However, they must have put the fear in me because I did finally pass that test.

So please forgive my punctuation. Tomorrow I will interrupt myself again and tell the story of when I was finally broke from lying. (for the most part) I wound up with 8 hours of detention and a lot more consequences.

Blessings,
Heather Kay