Precious Memories How They Linger...

My swanky friend Chili at Don't Try This At Home tagged me for this meme. I said SWANKY, not skanky. Sheesh. She is not that kind of mom. Then I discovered that Susanne tagged me for the same one. I love when I can kill two birds with one stone. By birds I mean posts - not bloggers, although they are both pretty cool chicks...

1. Favorite memory of your mother? When I was in high school, maybe 10th grade, my mom decided to head with me to the mall for the sidewalk sales. Now mind you, I'm not a shopper, but this was atypical of anything we would do together since she wasn't a shopper either. I definitely remember feeling pleased with the deal: new clothes and time with mom, plus we had a slice of pizza from Milano's. Ahhh, the good stuff. Anyway, we were doing the typical "Try this one on" to each other. We were in the same changing room (we're both rather petite) when we were doing this, so we could ixnay some things and oooo and ahhh over others. I had my mom try on dress on that was summery and fun. She started to try it on... and got stuck. It wouldn't go up or down. So she's there with her hands above her head, the dress neither on nor off, and I cannot see how to help - other than to laugh, which got her to laughing while she's still getting frustrated, telling me to "just rip it off of her!" while I'm trying to hold her still to figure out why it won't go on or off of her. About three minutes later, somehow we figured out how to get it off with nary a rip. No, we didn't buy the dress. But we should have just to have that kind of laughter and entertainment now and again. I remember it being such a fun, mom and daughter time that I can't wait to share with my girl... without the stuck dress comedy bit that is.


2. Favorite memory of your father? When I was around 12 years old, a friend of mine and I started a water fight by throwing cups of water at each other in the hallway (wood floors). My dad came out, so we got him too. He ran back to the bedroom and locked the door. We refilled our cups and ran back there to wait for him to open the door. We both knelt down and were trying to see under the door when my dad threw open the door with a "Now Honey!" and totally blasted us with the water hose. (He enlisted my mom's help, had her crawl out the window to pass in the garden hose and she stood at the ready to turn it on.) We got up and screamed like girls, yelling all the while, "Dad!" and "No fair!" and "We're not cleaning up that mess!" Yeah, there were a few good times at my house.


3. Favorite memory of your sibling(s)? I've only one brother who is four years older than me. We have never been close. Too many years to make it happen and probably too many times that I was an utter brat (Shocking! Not you Sha!) to make him want to have a close sister. I do have a few memories that I hold dear though, one of which is the nerd dance. One day my brother (22 yo) and I (18 yo) were in the same room with my mom, and one of us started talking real nasally and like a nerd - well what we deemed to be nerdy. My brother put on "nerd" glasses and a pocket protector and fixed his pants leg to hitch up in his sock. I pulled up my pants to where my breast would have been, had I any, pulled all my hair down straight and shoved it behind my ears so that they would stick out and hutched over like a true wallflower. Then we started to do the nerd dance which was basically us holding each other from a distance and swaying back and forth with no rhythm whatsoever. We kept talking about complete nonsense, but we noticed that our mom was laughing and crying and basically begging us to stop so that she could breathe. Of course that only made us keep going. (Of all the things I wish I could do, going back and having more great memories with my brother, or even a relationship of sorts would be in the top three of that list of do-overs.)


4. What one skill would you like to wake up tomorrow and be able to do (though you'd never learned it)? There are many things that I wish that I could do... Playing the piano, sewing, writing a great yarn, being a fantastic mom who does nothing but bless her children with wisdom and how to be a woman after God's own heart ALL. THE. TIME. Oh, I'd also like to be able to tell a joke so that people to laugh... at the right time.


5. Which one of your dreams has come true? Marrying and loving Mr. Right, raising two beautiful children to know God, this surprise, presently holding a job that I love with a fantastic boss and most of all - discovering (after years of ignorance and disbelief) that God is capable of so much more than I can even imagine.

Okay... Who haven't I tagged before? AggieJenn, Kelli in the Mirror, Pezmama and Susie. Of course, anyone can play. Just leave me a comment and I'll come and check it out.