31 Days of Life Stories #30

My time of sharing life stories is drawing to a close. Only 2 days left! Tomorrow I'll be sharing what I consider my greatest life story of all.

Today, I thought I'd do a little recap about each of my children because without them my life story would not be complete.

Our oldest, Elissa, was a shy quiet child. She learned to read at age 3. The first time we knew she could read was when she and Jim were waiting for me in the parking lot of the Dell Farms grocery store.

"Daddy, what does 'Open 2-4 Hours' mean?"

We've got a genius on our hands!

Although timid, she was not afraid to speak her mind when she had enough, though. I had a friend who used to come over and do aerobics with me. Naturally, Elissa would join in with us trying to do all the moves. After the tape was over, we'd collapse at the table and drink sweet tea and talk. One day, Elissa felt Sue had been at our house long enough. She interrupted our conversation to demand, "When's Sue going home?"

Elissa always said she wanted to be a teacher. She spent a lot of time teaching her stuffed animals in her room. She also went with me to Ladies Bible Study and often after the lesson was over, she'd drag a chair to the front of the room, stand on it, and proceed to teach the lesson all over again. She did, in fact, achieve her goal and spends her days discussing the mysteries of Math with high school students.

She was the big sister, the translator (when we could not figure out what her sisters were talking about, she always knew), our tech adviser, and the one who kept our family going. We'd have been lost without her!

For more stories about Elissa, see "In Which I Share What I Learned from Our Daughter," "They Call Me the Fireman," and my personal favorite, "Help from an 8 Year Old."

Janae was our fearless and sociable child.  I say fearless because she loved to climb. She also fell a lot, busting her two top teeth twice. I was terrified she would have problems with her permanent teeth, but all turned out to be well.

She was friendly as a child. One of our fave stories about her was at the doctor's office waiting room, she'd go up to kids who were strangers and say, "Hi, I'm Janae. Wanna play?"

Somehow she grew up to be an introvert!

As I may have mentioned a couple of hundred times, she grew up to be the mother of our twin grandbabies. She is made to be the mom of twins because she is calm in seemingly all situations.

For more about Janae, see "Happy Birthday, Nae Nae" and "Icy Chickens"

Malia, our youngest, was our little lovebug. She liked to spend a good part of her toddlerhood with her little arms wrapped around my neck. She was an adorable chubby blond baby who somehow grew up to be a thin brunette.

As the youngest, she often had the problem of being overwhelmed by the chatter of her older sisters. I remember so often hearing her go, "Mom, mom, I talka to you." She would keep saying that until I heard her. I'd say, "What Malia?" and she'd hesitate ... because by this time she forgot what she wanted to say. "I love you, Mom," would be her answer because wasn't that always a safe way to respond?

For more about Malia, see "Sweet Seventeen," and "I Can't Believe She Did That" (about both she and Janae.)

I talk all the time about my Dad but I have a great mom, too. Here is a tribute I wrote for her once, "I'm Thankful for Mom."

I've been so blessed to have been surrounded with wonderful loving family members my whole life. If there are any I've not mentioned that much, don't worry! I've either mentioned them at some point in my seven years of blogging, or their time is coming! Because, I'm not stopping writing about my crazy blessed life anytime soon.

(By the way, if you read yesterday's story and felt a little sorry for my hubby that I told the inter-webs about his mishap, no worries. He loves that story and tells it on himself all the time.)

This post is #30 in my series, 31 Days of Life Stories. Hundreds of writers are linking up at the 31 Day Writing Challenge hosted by Crystal Stine. There is a wealth of information on many topics. Go visit and see! I'll be posting under the category "Inspiration and Faith."