FAMILY MEMORIES by Mom
I thought it would be fun to share some of our family memories. I would love to have you add your own stories to this.
TAYLOR
Our first born – our Experimental Child. If it didn’t kill him, then it was good enough for the rest of the kids!
He always had LOTS of toys because he had so many interests and curiosities. However, getting him to take care of them was another story. By his senior year in school, I just would close the door to his bedroom and hoped nothing ‘leaked’ out.
When he and Stephanie were little, I remember Stephanie waking up in the morning or from a nap and calling out from her crib, ”Mom.” If I didn’t answer, she will call, “Daddy.” If he didn’t answer, it was then “Taylo.” He was good to come get her out!
The first night that he slept in the top bed of the bunk beds, he fell out during the night. Thankfully, he didn’t reach the floor, but was held upside-down by his foot catching in the side bar. Mick picked him up and gently placed him back in bed. The amazing thing was that he never woke up! (Have things changed there?)
When he was about 4 years old he had a friend named Charles Rich. Charles had a hard time saying the name “Taylor” so he called him “Trailer.” Finally, Taylor started calling him “Chuck” – which was a definite no-no in the Rich household . It took about three days, where Charles wouldn’t call him anything, before Charles could come out with “Taylor.”
STEPHANIE
Born on our 5th wedding anniversary.
When we moved into our first home, on Camino Verde, Stephanie, Taylor, Leslie, and I went there to clean and get ready to move in. Stephanie was 2 ½ years old, Taylor was 5, Leslie was 6 months old. Stephanie went in to use the bathroom and Taylor asked her if she would like him to lock the door. Now this was a novelty since in the apartment they couldn’t reach the lock – for obvious reasons! She told him, “Sure.” Taylor proceeded to lock the door and then leave the bathroom, leaving Stephanie alone in the bathroom. Remember, she is only 2 ½ years old and she didn’t know how to unlock the door. I had to go next door and borrow a screw driver – nice way to meet your neighbor for the first time. I took the knob off, but couldn’t figure out how to unlock the door. We ended up calling the fire department. The fireman took a credit card and quickly undid the lock. (By the way, this was the same type of lock that was on the front door, so we had that changed to a dead bolt before we moved in.)
Stephanie has always been careful with her money – but not in her sleep. One time Royal and Jonathan were staying with us. They wanted to go to Wendy’s and get something to eat. Stephanie was taking a nap, so they went in and asked her if she wanted anything. She told them what she wanted, got up and gave them some money from her stash, and went back to bed. When they got back from Wendy’s, they again woke her up to tell her that her food was there. She didn’t remember ordering anything and was especially upset to find that she had used her own money, which she had been saving for something.
When Stephanie was in high school it was her turn to drive the Chevy pickup. At one time, the truck had a hard time getting started and you had to rock it back and forth while turning the key. I still have memories of watching her in the cab of the truck, hair just flying, as she violently rocked back and forth to get the truck to start.
When Stephanie left for BYU, she needed to pack up everything that she was leaving behind as her bedroom space was needed for younger siblings. The last time she had moved, she was 2 ½ years old so she had quite an accumulation of STUFF. Of course, she waited until the very last minute to do this – the last night before she left. And, of course, every boy in a 30 mile radius came to tell her goodbye so it was late at night when she finally got to packing – or I should say, throwing things in boxes. These boxes were then stored in the rafters of our garage – all 17 of them. When we were getting ready to sell the house, we took these 17 boxes up to her and Gerald (they were living in Provo, Utah at the time). Gerald wasn’t too happy to see all these boxes, to say the least. I think after Stephanie went through everything, she ended up only keeping about one box worth.
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LESLIE
Our athlete – our gymnast – our strong one! What a dynamo she always has been.
When I found I was pregnant with her and that she was due around 5 August, I just kept praying, “Any day but 5 August.” I wanted her to have her own birthday. At about 12:10 AM on 6 August, I went into labor and slam-bam she was born. She came so fast that my waters didn’t come out until after she was born. It was like, “I have waited until after 5 August, but I’m not waiting any longer!”
When Leslie was little, Mick was in the bishopric which left me in the congregation with four little ones. Bless my visiting teacher, Lois Butler. She would come sit with me and let Leslie take EVERYTHING in her purse out and play with it. This kept Leslie quite entertained. Not many women would let a 3 year old go thru their purse.
Leslie has always had incredible upper body strength. If she wanted her furniture moved around – and this was quite often – she would just move it around to where she wanted it. Pieces of furniture that most men would have trouble moving.
I lost track of how many bones she has broken. One time I took her to Kaiser for an xray. The tech was looking her up in the computer and asked her if she had ever had any xrays before. We both laughed and especially laughed at the look of the tech when Leslie’s record came up on the screen.
When Leslie was having some trouble with muscle spasms in her leg, I took her to several different doctors trying to figure out the problem. One fun thing, however, was when the doctors would be doing their preliminaries on Leslie, they would ask her if she could bend over and touch the floor. Leslie and I would just smile at each other, and then she would proceed to put her head between her knees! It was fun to watch the doctor’s reactions, which was usually, “Well, there is no problem with being limber.”
Leslie was strong enough to ride herself, Allison, Mindy and Marianne to school on her bike – yes, one bike. Leslie would stand on the pedals, Marianne on the seat, Allison on the handbars and Mindy on the back bumper. One morning Mindy and Allison switched places and Allison fell off, leaving tire marks from her crotch up!
Then there is the infamous Christmas Sheets. When I was pregnant with David, Grandma Atwood had made sheets for Stephanie & Leslie’s bed with matching pillowcases. By the time we got home Christmas night from Grandma & Grandpa Haws’ I was absolutely exhausted. Stephanie & Leslie wanted their Christmas sheets, but I was too tired to change their beds. They had bunk beds and it was not an easy chore. Not long after they had gone to bed, Leslie informed us that she had wet the bed. So, I changed her sheets, of course, using the new Christmas sheets. I went back to bed only to woken up shortly thereafter with the information that Stephanie had wet her bed. Coincidence? I don’t think so. What came out is the Leslie had purposely wet her bed so she could have her new sheets. Stephanie wanted her sheets, but was too much of a coward to do want Leslie had done. Somehow Stephanie talked Leslie into getting into her and wetting it, too. (You would think Leslie was out of pee!) I was so tired and mad, I took the new sheets off of Leslie’s bed, put towels down for them to sleep on and their new sheets were put away for about a month.
ALLISON
I got to pick Allison’s name! Mick really thought she was going to be a boy (this was before ultrasounds) and we had only picked out boy names. I always like the name “Allison.” She has been known as Allison, Ali, or Alligator.
I think it was Allison’s 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Duree, who told me at the first parent/teacher conference what a wonderful, sweet girl Allison was. I almost asked her if we were talking about the same child – the one who came home from school with her claws bared and her fangs showing. I finally realized, that she had been so good at school and it took all her energy. By the time she got home from school she was tired and exhausted. For a long time after that, when she came home from school, she could have something to eat then had to spend a “Quiet Time” in her bedroom, hopefully sleeping. When she emerged from her bedroom, she was again the sweet girl her teacher had described.
When she was in about 3rd grade, she had a teacher that Leslie had had two years prior. This teacher kept calling her “Leslie,” which didn’t sit well with Allison. She took to wearing a visor I had bought her that at BIG letters on it that spelled “Allison” and wouldn’t answer the teacher unless she was called the right name.
When Allison received her mssion call, she hadn’t told us about doing this. I can’t believe the control she showed. She was staying with Leslie at the time and when her call came a few days before Christmas, she didn’t open it up! Now how much control is that? She put it in a big box, wrapped it up and put it under the Christmas tree with a label: To Allison From Santa. So we were all there when she opened it!
DAVID
Our 5th and last!
What fun memories we have of David. His Legos and tape – the two things that could keep him busy for hours. I would buy roll after roll of masking tape at the paint store, only to lose them. However, they usually surfaced in David’s bedroom.
Grandpa Atwood made a great bed for David that had 9 large drawers and a secret compartment.
His love of string and tape – one time he tried to rig up his bedroom so he could lay in bed, pull a string and have it turn off his lights! David – did it every work?
He and his friend Chris (Fer-Fer) were the farting kings of Contra Costa County. I take that back, of California. They would go in David’s room. You didn’t dare light a match anywhere near the room for fear of an explosion.
He loved playing make-believe. His favorite character was “Wonder Woman.” Grandma Atwood had made him underpants with a cotton front of dark blue background with little white stars. He would wear these underpants, pin a towel to his shoulders and run through the house being Wonder Woman.
One day we were in the car – our old Duster – and David was sitting right next to me while I was driving. I accidently slipped and hit him with my elbow. With tears in his eyes, he said, “Popeye’s hurt.”
When I was going to DVC, for a while David would attend their child care on campus. One day we were walking across the DVC campus and David said, “I hate gurls.” I think that has changed!
He, too, has been careful with his money. When he was going to Ricks, I remember taking him grocery shopping. I stopped at the meat counter to ask him what he wanted and he asked, quite humbly, “I can have that?”
While he was going to Ricks, I had given him my old Honda Civic. He didn’t like the license plates, however, because they were my SHEHAWS plates. We had moved to Georgia so we got Georgia plates for him and sent them to him. Shortly after he received them, we received a call one night from David asking what the license plate numbers were. He couldn’t find the car and needed to phone the police. The car had been towed for parking in front of a driveway. In his defense, however, you couldn’t tell it was a driveway because of all the snow. It was an expensive proposition to get the car out of hock.
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