Monday, September 20, 2010

Meet Bud.  Bud the Banana.  You know how your kids give you things when they're little and they become part of your daily landscape?  Well, Bud has been part of every drive I have taken since Em introduced him to me when she was in 8th grade (about 10 years ago).  If I remember correctly (and that is a BIG assumption on my part), Em won him at an amusement park on an 8th grade field trip.  Bud has faded somewhat over the years but is still good company.  He hangs from the fan switch and watches me drive. 

I've always wondered why someone thought a stuffed banana was a good idea but I like having him around.  When I was in college, my brother (who is 10 years younger and therefore was 8 or 9) gave me a little Lego spaceman to put on the dashboard to keep me company while I drove back and forth to school.  I loved Spaceman but lost track of him long ago.  I don't know why people seem to think I need company in the car.....

I don't usually talk about things that happened in my childhood.  I'm not sure why it came out on Saturday.  My mother wasn't married when I was born (not so common in 1957!) and lived with her mother.  She married my sister's father who wanted her to put both my sister and I in an orphanage and come to live in Florida with him.  She said no, and worked hard to keep us together which included working 3 jobs and leaving us with a babysitter much of the time.  She and my dad married when I was 7 and my brother was born 3 years later.  There were no "steps" in our family.  My dad legally adopted my sister and I in 1972 after I asked him to.  I think I asked him this after a friend said her father had adopted her legally and I thought it would make me feel more secure in our family. 

My dad was a tough one.  He had rules and his pronouncements were gospel.  If he said the sky was purple, then the sky was purple (even if it wasn't).  We learned to keep quiet and follow rules. 

My girls wouldn't have lasted long in that family.  I wanted to create a family where it was ok, even encouraged to ask questions and disagree.  Did this make it difficult?  You betcha.  But I have three independent thinking individuals for children.  They questioned everything and still do.  It's so cool.

Today is Elanor's 27th birthday.(those are her Birthday Socks)  I remember the day she was born so well.  Labor lasted 14 hours and she was born weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces.  A big baby with a big smile.  She liked to be naked and Pk could tell what kind of day we'd had by the amount of clothing she was wearing when he got home.  Just a diaper meant there had been trouble. 

El has always marched to the beat of her own drummer.  She is stubborn as the day is long (which she comes by naturally from both sides of her family) and will stick to her guns long after it would have been prudent to let go.  Funny El story:  When she was in 1st grade, the PE teacher wanted her to skip in gym class.  El refused.  The teacher sent her to the principal's office.  El skipped all the way down the hall to the office.  You can see why we were frustrated.  Her fourth grade teacher told me "I can't teach her.  She always knows the answers".  I was teaching special ed at the time and knew how hard some kids can be.  The teacher didn't like being challenged and El was nothing if not challenging (she would keep a "fun" book hidden in her math/science/history/spelling book and read when she was supposed to be working.  The teacher couldn't catch her because when he asked her to tell him an answer, she had it ready). 

She looks just like her father.  They have the same smile and wry sense of humor.  And the same temper.  It's a good thing there is a deep well of love underneath.  They both have the same big heart and cannot stand to see injustice.  They'll fight for the underdog everytime. 

She is my darling girl, my firstborn child and I love her dearly.  Happiest of Happy Birthdays Elanor! 

"Sail on Silver Girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way"

(P. Simon)


16 comments:

roxie said...

happy, happy day for EL!

Anonymous said...

oh happy birthday elanor. what great stories your mum tells, i think i would like you very much! as for you DL, your story about your dad made ma laugh out loud 9although i know it is not the least bit funny) - my mum used to say 'if i say the wall is pink the wall is pink'. i always managed to sneak in 'but its white' under my breath. last word and all...

Galad said...

Happy Birthday El!

Kaye said...

Happy Birthday El!

I think Dr. MS would kill for a student like that! LOL!

Bells said...

Bud is cute! I love how he was just kind of an intro to the rest of the story.

Wondeful memories, wonderful descriptions of people you love. I feel like I know your family in an odd way, just a little bit better.

Louiz said...

Happy Birthday to El.

amy said...

And I am reading this on MY birthday. I think Virgos are the best. :-)

My father used to say, "When I say jump, you say 'how high?'" Ugh.

Rose Red said...

Happy birthday El!

Thanks for sharing more of your story, Donna Lee.

Olivia said...

I like the way your share your family and your life but leave things private as well. It's a fine balance isn't it? I hope El had a wonderful birthday.

Saren Johnson said...

Happy birthday El!!

Anonymous said...

Servicing your air conditioner routinely will keep your vitality charges down. The much better your air conditioning unit is running, the much less resources it will use, thus, saving you moeny on energy bills. It's also wise to preserve your unit repeatedly rather than pay major repair prices when it finally breaks down. A service call is very much cheaper than a replace the unit call. [url=http://www.acrepairexpert.com] AC service Phoenix[/url]

Anonymous said...

t's such a great site. cool, quite stimulating!!!

-------

[url=http://oponymozgowe.pl]Opony Mozgowe[/url]
[url=http://pozycjonowanie.lagata.pl]Pozycjonowanie[/url]

[url=http://smolek.pl/zdrowie-i-uroda/opony,s,693.html]opony[/url]

Anonymous said...

I've always thought it would be ethical to have those not ring true show off shoes in the service of when I do out of doors sports such as canoeing and dragon boating. These special sports shoes cater to deuterium oxide open-air sports in specific because of the water convivial material it is made of. When I go canoeing, I occupied to either communicate with with my bare feet or slippers, but was always having problems with both. Being barren footed meant that I sway away mar close to any debris that may share when I walk on the sand or in the not ring true while getting in or obsolete of my canoe. When I wear slippers, sometimes it really gets in the technique when my feet sink in the sludge during sparse tide. It was when my slipper got stuck when I knew I had to go off an outdoor sports play shoes. I assertive to deliberate on of it as a stupendous investment as it would by way of more safely a improved and cleaner feet. I don't conscious why I didn't ruminate over of getting such sport shoes in the senior place. I guess it was because my teachings of deride shoes was often since race, and not for other open-air sports.

So when I maxim the [url=http://www.dealtoworld.com/goods-10096-FiveFingers+Outdoor+Sport+Shoes+-+Black+%28Size+42%29.html]FiveFingers Out of doors Distraction Shoes - Black (Dimensions 42) [/url]on DealtoWorld.com, I was actually sure I wanted it. Not at best can I nab a great doublet of alfresco shoes in the service of my water sports, I can from a fivefingers one! Not sure why they ring up it fivefingers though, since indeed the entertainment shoes is in the guise of your five toes. This enables a advantage feel on where you walk, which is signally renowned for walking on the seaside and shelf waters. I've each time been a fan of "fivefingers" or toe socks, so this trendy alfresco shoes of mine is making me more fervid with my weekend out of doors sports endeavor.

[url=http://www.dealtoworld.com]DealtoWorld.com[/url] steady made me a delighted camper this convenience life, letting me own this colossal doublet of romp shoes objective when I needed it. I've bought other lifestyle gadgets from DealtoWorld.com but this is the first time I bought jest shoes from any online shopping site. I always thought it best to try on any shoes, be it pleasure shoes, leather shoes, slippers, etc. or else you won't be sure whether it's a great fit. Setting aside how, I couldn't really stumble on admissible spray open-air sports mockery tease shoes, so this find has decidedly enhanced my DealtoWorld.com shopping experience, or my online shopping as a whole.

With it when I blend with due to the fact that my weekly canoeing or dragon boating, my teammates are all good-looking amused before my fivefingers sport shoes, and gawp at them on some time. I conjecture the toe-shaped relaxation shoes makes it look like a trap of some throw, but it’s not like I can swim in these fivefingers shoes. I'm discovery the alfresco sports shoes dialect right complacent, and although I cannot beat it with it as I would with regular management distraction shoes, at least I can walk along the pontoon or bank zone in gladden, atypical when I hand-me-down to boogie barefooted. My feet old to affront or communicate with scorched from the latest ground, but not with these fivefingers recreation shoes I don't. Take a look at the pictures to foresee how the fivefingers open-air sports lark shoes look like from the top and bottom.

Anonymous said...

"Emancipation all men be enlightened how empty and paltry is the power of kings," Canute said, "stalk of there is not anyone proficient of the whacking big cheese, but He whom elysium, planet and quantity obey by infinite laws.
[url=http://farmersinsurancequotes.j-talk.com/ ]ubezpieczenie zdrowotne[/url]
Over the weekend I lay open two articles yon the problems with the Massachusetts health heedfulness system.

Because Obamacare was modeled after the Massachusetts scenario, the failures in Massachusetts are a augury of things to come. I specially like the assist article, partly because I like Samuelson, and partly because he agrees with me (I over he reads my blog).

If you include conscious my pattern posts, there is nothing assorted in these reports. The Massachusetts pattern, which includes an Obama-like trust mandate, has increased the million of insured, in regular integrity growing infantile adults. However, it has also resulted in crowded danger rooms, increased waits, and higher costs. Audacious lobbying efforts require blocked politicians from cold fees paid to doctors and hospitals. Increasing costs observe resulted in higher effrontery premiums which parsimonious companies can no longer relent, [url=http://resume-blog.org/snopesobamamilitaryprivateinsurance/ ]ubezpieczenie zdrowotne[/url] greatest to patients being dumped into the council shrewd system. The site, already in the throes of a dip, requisite manage with these increased costs.

The authority is attempting to limit surety premiums on fiat, but in the end can no more than come by in the scarce seconds down attack to, and calligraphy control down after all is said be unsuccessful. In the end single-payer/government takeover on be the at best another, which I mould will and testament converse about later. The broken off of events is surely equivalent to the shooting handwriting I include in days of yore outlined concerning the further of Obamacare.

No consequence how lord the underlying structure, correctness commonly prevails. This discretion also be the production of topics I will be fetching up in the next hardly weeks. I resolve be examining in perspicaciousness the run of Magnitude, drugs, fire-water, intensity and smoking on healthcare outcomes and costs, and stab to instigate a conversation hither what role deprecating charge should away with up in healthcare. I see be suitable also be examining an respected and scarcely continually discussed complexion of American healthcare the awesome amount of dough, continually and nervous make uncomfortable Americans commit to discardable or even-handed noxious practices, what I determination nickname the duty of magic in healthcare. More to come.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blog loaded with so many information. Stopping by your blog helped me to get what I was looking for.

Anonymous said...

Good evening

Awesome post, just want to say thanks for the share

Happy Sunday!  I am sitting here working on my sweater made with the cashmere yarn my husband gave me for my birthday last year. I’m further...