Wednesday Nutcracker Hell Cont.....

     Woke up today with a sty in my right eye and it is killing me.  Probably from doing all those military uniforms and rubbing my eyes to see if they are perfect.  Hope to not see a dress blue for a long, long, time.  Ticking things off the list daily.  Was able to make 10 doz Swedish meat balls last night between teaching and cleaning the bank.  I froze them.  We have Hub's Christmas Party this Friday evening and I will take meat balls and new potatoes and a Swedish almond cake.  The on Saturday I will take the same menu to the Church Christmas around the world party.  I also have two mother's having babies in the next two weeks so guess what they will get for a meal?  Yeah Swedish meatballs, new potatoes, I will throw in a vegetable and a Swedish almond cake.  The cakes take about 10 minutes to prepare and then 45 to cook so I can do several in a day and freeze.  They are elegant and delicious.  People think you work for hours and really you just go to the freezer.  I am such a con artist.

     I was able to start my swizzle sticks last night and still have to paint and add ribbon.  I am three short but they ran out of parts at Wally world.  I will improvise. The ribbon has been shipped.  I got the puppet theater curtains done and installed.  The dad who is going to bend my conduit for the Mother Ginger Costume came last night to the studio and took away the runner box and the conduit pieces and the bird cage platform.  He will have everything ready for us to run on Saturday at our large all day rehearsal. That is three large things off my mind. 

     Hubs and I will run out tonight after rehearsal to Costco and get a large bag of new potatoes and we have to get a gift exchange gift for his party.    I just realized rehearsal is until 8 so I may be doing that alone this afternoon before I get to the studio.  I also have to make a deposit and do payroll tonight.  I need to pay a few bills that did not get paid last month just because of time and the Holiday.

     I have a boat load of sewing to complete before I leave today.  House payment is do next week and I need $500.  So far I have $260.00  so I cannot stop sewing.  Feel like I am on a tread mill but it will over in 10 days and I will be able to relax.  I just thought I haven't heard from the man that does my videos, I had better call him.  Always something.

     Sissi put down that charge card!  You are doing the 12 days of Christmas with Mother aren't you?  12 gifts one a day that is why it was so important that you get her there on the 13th.  You sneak.  She will love it.  Maybe I will do that with hubs.  Just little things, like a Score candy bar wrapped up in Christmas paper.  I will think about it.  Because I have nothing else to think about between now and the 13th:)

cont:

     I really liked living in this house on Rainbow drive.  It was large and mom and dad seemed to get along.  I loved my Grandmother, her husband was another story but I ignored him.  Our neighbors were all nice and there were many kids to play with.  Mom became really active in the Methodist Church and we all went there including 2 of her brothers.  Sis and I were hellions and mouthy.  Mom was so non confrontational, but our behavior was now becoming pretty obvious.  I think the fact that she lived with Grandma and the Uncles were around so much.  She knew our behavior and smart mouths were bad, but she would do nothing.  Now she had an audience and the embarrassment became too much.  We started hiding her wooden spoons under our mattress downstairs.

     Sis and I were both really good students, school was easy for us and I don't remember getting into trouble at school.  But I do believe Sis was boy crazy and of course I had to follow her example.  Now where we got this tendency I don't know.  But we both had boys that we liked and mine was named Jeffrey.  I am not sure how this got to the the teachers attention but we were told to knock it off.  I remember planning my break up with Jefferey.  I had watched a scene on a TV show where a girl had stuck out her hand and tearfully said, "Friends."  I planned the same departure from my true love.  What a drama queen.  I
acted out the scene complete with tears and rushing away.  I am sure if it had been recorded for daytime Television I would have gotten an Emmy.  My mother did not watch soaps, but where I got the soap opera mentality is beyond me.

     Sis and I were growing.  We had always been so small.  I remember for the first time in my life being hungry.  I wanted a whole hamburger not 1/2.  I could eat a whole hot dog.  Mom was surprised we had just not eaten much for our whole lives. She had to adjust our lunches we would come home ravenous.  Sis and I joined blue birds a campfire organization.  Mom was our leader along with a lady down the street.  I loved Bluebirds, but I think it was a trial for mom.  Sis and I were very bossy and wanted our way and mom was constantly embarrassed by our behavior.  The wooden spoon often came out after a Bluebird meeting.  It got to the point that I really did not like that little vest and cap we wore on Bluebird days.  But did I change my behavior?  No!

     Christmas that year was a big deal.  We had 7 cousins to celebrate with us and everyone gathered at Grandmas.  Sis and I had asked for a new doll that walked.  We also had a real fireplace.  I was so excited.  Christmas morning we found our beloved dolls.  Again mine had a note pinned to her.  She had fallen off Santa's sleigh and did not work but he would fix her right after the Holiday.  I remember the Adults laughing about the fact that I had a doll two years in a row that was broken.  My moms retort was, "try having twins."  I was not upset and just played with Sis's doll.  But I determined in my head I would never ask for the same gift Sis did again.  Sis and I loved to sing and that Christmas we sang a duet at the Church.  I am sure it was beautiful, never had two brats received so much praise.

     I was able to get through my second grade winter with only one bad bout of sickness and I was grateful.  First grade had been a nightmare health wise.  We were learning to embroider tea towels in bluebirds.  It was just a simple outline of a bluebird on a white towel. Every damn week I embroidered that bird to my skirt and it had to be undone.  I wanted to do things fast and be first and I was always done first, with a tea towel attached to my skirt.  Every week my Mom would cut it off.  I remember begging her to just cut my skirt and she would not.  I was so frustrated.  Part of the Bluebird promise was: " to always finish what I begin, to help to keep my temper in, most of the time."  So I had to restart that damn towel until it was done.  I still hate embroidery.

     Mom was now dressing us three girls alike at holidays.  Sis, little sis and I were I wore matching dresses.  I was slightly taller than sis and thinner.  Mom would buy three dresses a 7 for lil sis and then try to get two 8's for sis and I.  But she could never get 2 of anything the same size.  I would get the 10 dress because I was an inch taller.  I always looked like a concentration camp victim dressed up in a too large dress.  Mom was an excellent seamstress and so was grandam, but no there I am looking like a freak, while sis and little sis look normal.  Oh and also Mom always wanted to curl our bangs and fluff them up under our hats.  We hated that and sis usually refused.  I was always more compliant so not only were my clothes too big, I had stupid hair!

     I am sure that it was the stupid hair and the overly large dress that made me mad that Easter morning.  Sis and I were in rare form at church.  We kept snapping each others elastic straps under our hats.  It hurt and it was so much fun to see the other one wince.  We were in Sunday School and we were acting up and I left to go tell mom.  She was in the kitchen of the church with some other ladies and she told me to go back to class, I stubbornly refused and started to act like an ass.  I thought I was so cute and smart.  Finally Mom ignored me so I left.  I went back to class and really snapped Sis's hat.  She started to cry and ran to Mom.  Mom was just not interested and I do not know what happened, but I will you that we were yelled at all the way home and we were terrified to get out of the car.  Our cousins were with us and we begged to have them stay but mom took them home with Sis and I shrinking in the back seat.  I was  sure mom was bluffing and usually mom would yell and then calm down.  She got out of the car and went to yank us out.  We locked the back doors.  She got out her key and physically pulled us from the car.

     We received the worst spanking of our lives.  It was horrible. Grandma finally came down in the basement and took Mom away.  She had lost control.  But who could blame her?  We were awful..  It was Spring and warm, but mom made us wear tights for the next two weeks to cover the bruises on our legs.  I am telling you Sis and I were still bad but we were changed brats.  We knew our Mother had a limit and it was too bad she had to go to this extreme. When Grandmas new house was finished and we got ready to move into it, Mom and Dad found 7 wooden spoons under our mattress.  It was a big joke.  We would leave the Cold Springs area at the end of our second grade year and we would miss our friends.  It was such a nice friendly neighborhood. 

     Spring was lovely in the Rockies.  Wild asparagus grew along the rail road tracks and we picked it by the apron full.  Rainbow stables was down the streets and we had horses to watch and feed. There was just always something to do.  Sis and I were really into earning money.  We would shovel walks, dig out dandy lions, help at the horse barn, anything to add a dime to our banks.  Mom stayed home that year and she watched two little girls down the street.  One went to school with us and was in our room.  Her name was Gwen.  I thought she was lovely.  Gwen's mom was beautiful, she looked like a movie star.  Gwen had a little sister who was about 3 named Edith.  She was a whiny spoiled brat.  I did not have to deal with her much as I was in school.  What I do remember was Gwen's house.  It was immaculate.  She had her own room done completely in pink and her toys were precisely placed.  Gwen's dad was a big burly dark man with a permanent scowl.  He was not Gwen's dad but Edith's and he made that obvious.  Edith could do no wrong and was babied and cooed at while Gwen was snarled at and made to behave perfectly.

     I don't know why I was even allowed to sleep over at her house, but I was and Sis was not with me.  We were brushing our teeth and I left my tooth paste spit in the sink.  I never cleaned up after myself and I was a slob in the making. Gwen was so shook up when she saw I had left this mess.  She immediately told me to wipe it up.  I did but I thought she was a weirdo.  When I wiped it up I pushed most of it down the front overflow drain hole.  I never thought much about it.  Well Gwen's step dad went into the bathroom and called Gwen out into the hall, where he gave her two licks with his belt because the sink was not clean.  I remember being horrified.  But Gwen took it in stride like it was no big deal.  I don't know if she did this for my sake or what?  Mom took both of them down with us for Pixi s pinups which was a photo company that took cheap head shots of children.  Gwen's mom took Edith's picture but she did not take Gwen's.  My mom thought that was odd.  There were no pictures of Gwen in the house only Edith.  It was pretty obvious that Gwen's mom was afraid of her step-dad and we heard later that they divorced.  I remember my Mom saying, "Thank God."

     That early summer we moved back up the Rattlesnake to a brand new house.  The next three years would be tumultuous ones for Sis and I.  This was a very wealthy neighborhood, in fact the wealthiest in the area and we were poor relations living with our Grandmother.

cont:

     Well I am off to attack my pile of sewing.

Out My Window:  It is really cold I am going to check on my chicken.

Have a great and productive day!

Kim