Lots going on

Well as some of you know, Uncle Jack passed away. Garry was able to go be with him the week before and I am sure it meant the world and all to Jack and his family. I know it did Garry's heart good to spend that time with him.
Today I want to tell you all about my baby brother. If you remember, I mentioned him in one of my past blogs and how upset my daughter Cari was that I had not told you about him before. Well he was born when we lived in Bloomfield, New Mexico, but I think he was actually born in Farmington. I may be mistaken, it WAS a LONG time ago. And to be truthful I cannot even remember my mother being pregnant with him. I think we all knew she was pregnant and there was going to be a baby, but I just dont remember her being pregnant or anything about the pregnancy. I just know that we came home from school one day and the house was a MESS but there were some signs all over the house stating that the baby was born. Cannonball is here, Its a boy, you know, all the excitement of the day. I dont remember mom being gone for anytime. I dont remember them coming home. I just know he was not there one day and then he was. AND I INSTANTLY fell in love with him. He was SO cute and tiny and sweet. Back in those days, all the babies wore those little half shirts, not the onesies they wear now. I remember he had LOTS of those. Mom had let me have LOADS of baby clothes that she knew she was never gonna put on him and I remember playing in the garage with my dolls and dressing them up in his baby clothes and playing like the doll was HIM. OH MY. How silly that sounds now, thinking back on it.
As I mentioned above about the house being a mess. Well any of you that know my mom knows what an immaculate housekeeper she is. You can eat off any floor in the house at any time and expect it to be just as clean as the table. She would start cleaning as soon as we kids were out the door for school and clean all day til everything shined like a brand new copper penny (as my aunt Donna would say). SO when we would come home from school and find the house a mess, we KNEW something was going on. It didnt happen often but when it did, it was made your belly flop to wonder what had happened that had stopped mom from cleaning that day. Funny how we have those memories. It was the same for dinner meals (or any meals). If we missed a meal it was because something was happening. Mom cooked every meal. I cant remember eating out often. She was and still is (WHEN she cooks) a wonderful cook. Always had a balanced meal on the table for us.
We would get off that bus and trot home to find some sort of snack waiting for us EVERY DAY. Sometimes it was as simple as a bag of candy that we would all sit around and divide up between us. I think Arch would always get the extra one if it didnt come out even. I think that is probably what possessess him to HIDE the candy wrappers in the couch cushions TO THIS DAY. He would get the extra ones and not want us to know. Of course we all know he was the smartest one. SO I am SURE that he would count them out and keep the extra ones. I am ALMOST certain of that now that I think about it. That thought JUST NOW came to light. I never really thought about that before but it sure sounds good. LOL Love you brother. I hope you dont take all this teasing to heart. teeeheeee And then there were days that mom would make us plates of homemade fudge or homemade candy apples for us to have as snack. THOSE were the days we lived for. HER fudge was the best. She still makes it for the SMART brother. Sends him tins of it. Does she send the rest of us any? NNNNOOOOOO JUST him. LOL Anyway she makes it different from what she used to . She used to cook it and butter some plates and pour it onto them until it firmed up. I remember pulling a piece off the plate and the saltiness of the butter from the plate would be on the bottom. Sure did make that fudge taste better. Wish she would still make it like that. Now dont get me wrong. It is STILL delicious, but the OLD way was much better.
She would have a nice dinner ready for dad every night when he came home from work. I can remember him coming home, putting his lunchbox on the counter and kissing mom on the back of her neck. They were so happy and in love. I remember them dancing around the kitchen and him swatting her bottom or pinching her hiney. She did NOT like that and used to get SO mad at him when he would do that. Once dad stuck him nose in the cooking pots to see what was in store for him, he would head out to do chores. He would feed and milk the cow, the chickens, the pigs, horses, or whatever we had going at the time. Then back in he would come and we would all sit and have a family dinner. We would talk about the day and tell what had happened in our own little parts of the world. Or just sit and eat in silence if our day had not gone so well and we didnt want to share it. After the days events and our great meal was shared we would do our dishes. Us kids took turns doing dishes and mom and dad would walk down to grandma and grandpas for an evening get away. They were usually gone about an hour or so, just long enough to give us time to get those dishes done. Then they would come check the dishes and make sure the kitchen was cleaned up correctly. Sometimes we had to take ALL the dishes out of the cupboards and redo them. BUT we learned to do them RIGHT.
Then the bathtime routine would begin and we would trot off to bathe and get our jammies on. Then family time in the living room would happen. I LOVED to be the first one to bathe cause then I could sit and watch tv or sit and eavesdrop on what everyone else was doing. Arch was usually reading the encyclodedia. We would actually play games with those books. He would ask us a question and find out how much we knew , then he would inform us of what we didnt. If it was our turn to ask him, he KNEW all the answers. teeeheee It was fun growing up in our house. I have so many happy memories. I will sure share more with you as time goes on.