Zak's English Paper

Much to Zak's frustration his English teacher required him to write one more paper, which isn't fair because the kids in the class last semester didn't have to do it. Evidently since mother's day is coming up that was the subject of the paper. He was supposed to find out about my childhood and how my life would be different if I didn't marry Layne. He called me the day before it was due and asked me to write down a bunch of stuff and then he would type it up. It was kind of fun to take a trip down memory lane. And I realized that I do remember more things from my past than I thought. In fact he didn't even use everything because he had too much information. I think he kind of found it interesting to learn a few things about me that he didn't know. So I couldn't resist posting the paper and I have added my own editorial comments in bold italics.

My Mom

My mom is the youngest of ten children. There were eight girls and two boys.
Her parents had her when they were forty six so she was pretty much raised as an only child, from the age of ten on. Her closest sibling to her was eight years older. She grew up with her nieces and nephews who were only three years younger than her.

She lived in Ammon which was a lot like how Parker is now. It was quiet and they would play all over the neighborhood. They also had a convenience store that was only a few blocks away. They would ride their bikes over there all the time to go buy candy.

She loved her yard growing up because it was surrounded in all different kinds of flowers like, pansies, daisies, roses, peonies, irises, and lilacs. The only thing she didn’t like about it is she had to mow it every time because she was the only kid at home. They had lots of fun when they would flood irrigate the lawn. They would run and slide in the water. At night she and her friends would play “No bears are out tonight.”

Her parents owned their own business so she was taken to work with her mom a lot and helped clean rental houses and trailers and do inventory at their store. So she was usually working at the business instead of having fun with her friends as much as she wanted. But it has made her that much more of a hard worker today.

They had a family room that had a pool table and a ping pong table. They spent many hours there and had lots of sleep-over’s with her friends there.

When she was eight years old her family went to Disneyland for Christmas. That was supposed to be her only present. But she remembers before they left she got a big box that had a Sunshine Family Doll house with all the family dolls. She loved that and played with it for many years.

When she was twelve years old her doll house desires got even bigger. She got a kit for a wooden dollhouse and her mom helped her put it together. It was three stories. It took a lot of time to put it together and paint it. At that age it was more about decorating it than playing dolls with it. After she grew out of it her nieces and nephews played with it. But it took some beating from them playing with it. So her dad helped her build a beautiful oak case to put it into to protect it. When my little sister Karlee turned 8 she gave it to her for her birthday. She still plays with it pretty much every day she loves that thing.

One of the funny things she remembered was when she was about ten and the only child left at home she got to wondering how old her parents were. She did the math wrong and thought they were sixty-eight instead of fifty-eight. She was scared to death that they were going to die any minute and then what would happen to her. She had nightmares where, “One would be dead and dying the other’s already gone.” So she would get up in the middle of the night to make sure they were still breathing. But little did she know that she would be taking care of them thirty years later. If she had known that then she could have slept a little easier.

Some of her favorite activities as a kid were going camping, swimming and golfing at Heise. She even got her own left handed putter to play golf with her parents. They also went boating where she learned how to water ski. But the boat was old and they always had a hard time getting it started. A lot of times it would die out in the middle of the reservoir and they would have to get towed back in after someone took pity on them rowing in with their water skis.

She enjoyed helping her mom plan parties for the family. Since she had so many grand kids she would just throw one big birthday party and call it the “un-birthday” like in Alice and Wonderland. They would usually do it at Easter and have an Easter Egg Hunt. She would always help hide all the eggs. Her mom always had a gift for each kid that had special meaning or had their name on it. It is because of her mom that she tends to go overboard when planning any party or activity. According to my mom when you come from such a big family it is hard to downsize when you plan.

She said if she hadn’t married my dad she said would probably still be overweight with no desire to change. She remembers when she went with us camping for the first time out to Clyde she had to get off my dads bike and climb the hills while my dad rode it up because it didn’t have enough guts to carry her big butt up the hill. That was a real eye opener and gave her the desire to change her life. She has since lost over eight pounds and feels better than ever.

My original statement was that if I hadn't married Layne I would still be an obese virgin. I was just waiting for Zak's reaction when he got to this part and it was priceless. "Mommmmm. Are you kidding me? Is that really necessary? Get over here and change this right now. Uggghhh, why do you do that?" After laughing my guts out and daring him to keep it in I changed it for him. I love making my boys squirm. When we had our Superbowl party their friend Brian brought a "Better than Sex" cake and after finishing it I told them, "close, but not quite as good." I got a huge chorus of moans and groans after that one.

If she wouldn’t have married my dad she would still be traveling with her friends for a fun trip every year. But then she would miss out on the camp outs that our family has. She also wouldn’t be as stressed out about money because she would only have to worry about herself. But then she wouldn’t have a husband and kids that love her in spite of her quick temper. But then again she never had a quick temper before she got us three kids all at once to worry about.

She would be staying up late every night watching TV shows she had recorded and eating herself sick because she didn’t have anything better to do. Now she is in bed by ten o’clock at night, because she’s so exhausted from all the things she has to do.

She says, “I would be hanging out every weekend with my nieces and nephews and their kids and loving every minute of it. But I would be missing out on football games, wrestling matches and dance recitals that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I had a good life as a single person and thought I was perfectly happy, but I really didn’t know what I was missing, like hearing ‘I love you Mom’ from my 17 year old. That makes all the gray hairs that I wouldn’t have if I was still single worth it.”

Zak told me that after reading this last paragraph he actually almost teared up. Yes, mission accomplished. Zak has actually initiated the "I love you, Mom" quite a bit lately. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and am waiting to see what he wants. But I think he is just actually appreciative of what I am already doing. It is nice. I have to admit that my kids are good at saying "I love you," and I'm glad. I remember as a kid it was hard for me to say. I distinctly remember having a lesson in church about telling our parents we loved them. One night after my mom tucked me in I really had to get my courage up to say it. Looking back I think that is weird.

So that is my proud mom moment of the week. It is nice to have a pay day every now and then.