Ben's one year photo session

Trying so hard to get up those steps!


Not a fan of Mom and Dad holding him still to kiss him.

What are you doing up there?

One of my absolute Favorites!!!

Going for a stroll!

We finally received our order from http://bhaphotography.com/## for Ben's one year pictures. They were taken 7/1/08. These were just a few of my favorites out of the many.

The joy of our lives.........

This would be Big Man Benjamin----In his favorite spot.........that he knows he shouldn't be under..the computer desk.

A Baptism of Mati and Elle

Over last weekend, our family with 9 out of 10 siblings got together for a BBQ, Birthday celebration for brother #7, and Baptism of neices Mati(3) and Elle(5). My oldest sister, (#1) was a god parent, as was I. It was a really neat mass, and celebration. I was also the photographer, so I have to share an awesome picture I got of the girls-Two Best Friends.

Back and Forth

I have decided so my Blog continues to stay up to date with everyday things I will go back and forth on history lessons of my family and current daily adventures.

See, the most recent, being in June of this year of Jake and I on our last night in Los Cabos, Mexico.

So, yesterday was my birthday, the big 28. Even though, it was one of the calmest one's ever it was also one of the most memorable. Our one year old, Benjamin, has been going through a phase of not really wanting to sleep the whole night through. Hubby, being a fireman, and working 24 hours shifts isn't always there to enjoy the nightly parties. The parties with Ben can be quite tiring when I have to go to work the next day. Yesterday morning, being one of those mornings, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. In the last four days, I had only seen hubby for a couple hours on Saturday. He decided to meet me at work yesterday morning with a birthday card. Inside the card there was a CD. This by far is the best gift, I have ever received! It was made up of pictures and video clips of our lives together back to when we were dating four years ago, through Benjamin's first birthday, three weeks ago on the 6th of July. Inserted were clips of my interview right before the C-section, Benjamin's birth, Ben's first steps, and Ben's Birthday. It was choreographed(spelling?) with my favorite songs. I cried, I laughed, cried some more, and then laughed some more. How thoughtful! Honestly, I didn't know Jake had it in him.
For any married women, you would understand, that as the years go by, a man may not be quite as romantic as he was when you first started dating, and the newness is still there. Throw a child into the mix, and that has an affect on it too.
Anyhoo, on my 28th birthday, I was taken out to lunch by my bestfriend, and ate myself silly. I took off work an hour early, and went home to take a nap. I woke up to a dinner of one of my favorites(Sausage, Biscuits, and Gravy) that Jake had made. After Ben and I were finishing up, Jake runs out of the kitchen and comes back a couple minutes later with a cake and candles, singing Happy Birthday. While I was taking a nap, apparently Jake and Ben were baking a cake. Chocolate on Chocolate, just the way I like it. Ben's a pretty big fan of cake too.
I slept all night and Jake woke up with Ben at his 3am ritual. We are really going to have to stick to our guns and work on this by letting him cry it out.
Anyways, I had a pretty darn good birthday.

History on Winter Hiking and the wood stove.

Some things never change. Dad and his wood furnace. Piping hot all the time, if he thought it was getting low, he would put another half tree in there. We actually had a furnace room, and the house was solely heated by the wood furnace.

You may ask, where did all of this wood come from, well that would be the Fall weekend events every year of cutting down tree after tree, and all the kid's would line up in an assembly line to stack the wood on the back of Dad's truck. What fun!

The winter months were great though. Sled riding on the "spruce goose" Dad built a 6 man sled to use behind our house. Great sled riding hills were behind our house in the field. Sister 2 got ran over a couple times, and I do believe once or twice we hit barbed-wire fence. But no one was ever badly hurt. Dad would always have an oil barrel cut in half close by with a burning fire. We would roast hotdogs and marshmallows.

We would go for long hikes in the woods behind our house, and go break the ice in the streams. We would often break the ice and then run accross to see if we could stay afloat. Not the smartest thing to do in freezing weather miles from home, but hey, we had fun.

Won't ever forget the ice storm when Mom and Dad allowed us to create more ice with the garden hose running water over the lawn to create an ice arena in our front yard.

Some of things we did seem pretty odd now, but at the time were ingenius.

Summer Fun and Chores(1985-1994)!

Some more history:

The best part about living in the middle of nowhere is that we had no boundaries. We could go play where ever we wanted. Mom and Dad had about two acres. One pretty much of woods, and the other of lawn.
Oh the memories of cutting the grass. This could be a full day event sometimes two. The first years I remember living in our earth contact home, we only had a push mower which explains the two day event sometimes of cutting the grass. And a million and a 1/2 of trees. Whew! So, the drill was, each of the older children would make one circle around the yard, and then the next one was up. After each of them had a turn, it was your turn again. It became a competition to see who could get around the yard the fastest, needless to say each go around was a little smaller than the last.
Then there were the trees. You may not believe this, but Dad didn't have a weed-eater. What he did have were several pairs of lawn clippers. That's right, each child would plop right up next to one of those million trees in the yards and clip around the trunk all the loose grass the lawn mower couldn't reach.
The one thing I didn't understand, is that no matter how many trees we had in our yard, Dad insisted on planting more.
The garden: the enourmous football field size garden. Mom and Dad planted everything: corn, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, squash, tomoatoes, brocolli, lettuce, carrots, peppers, grean beans, and even dill. Dad made the best dilled pickles ever. Needless to say I never appreciated fresh produce then, but what I wouldn't do for a garden like that now. We had no idea how lucky we were to have all of that great food.
Our playground: Dad taught himself a lot. As a teacher, he had summers off, and worked construction. He built a swingset, jungle gym, and a 20 foot high stand for our tree house, that our uncle built.
Dishwashing: We had a list- each of us did a different task every night. Monday through Sunday, they were clean kitchen, wash dishes, dry dishes, and then put dishes away. Everyone's favorite was putting them away, and hated the task of washing dishes. Ever night a different task, and every so often you would get a night off. We had it memorized. So memorized that we would taunt each other saying, "you have to wash tonight." Your only response was "shut-up" cuz you knew it too.
Swimming: We had no boundaries. We would get our jobs done in the morning, and each afternoon head to the creek. About a mile trek to get to our favorite swimming spot, which we named the Gar-hole. What is funny, is I can't see myself swimming in a creek in a million years now, even though we did it day after day, summer after summer.

Will make you learn responsibility!

If my Dad and Mom ever went to a parenting class, this would be the name of it. There wasn't a day that went by that I don't think Dad was pondering on another way to make his children learn responsibility. The tasks could be random ones such as helping spring clean the house, clean your room, fold laundry, vaccumming, and other house acts.

But probably the best ones, were getting the runt pigs from the local farmers, and letting us feed and water them in the morning and evening. My older brother taught me the technique of carrying a water bucket down to the pig shed. It was about 200 meters from the house which could be quite the trek being three feet tall carrying a five gallon bucket of water down a hill half asleep at 6am without spilling. If you spilled you had to do it twice then. The technique was taking the handle and switching it from hand to hand while turning in a circle and allowing the momentum of the spinning and the water move you down the hill toward the shed. Crazy enough that it worked quite well. After they grew big and strong, we shipped them off to market, and we got paid the difference of what we were paid for them and what Dad had paid for the pig feed.

Then there were the chickens. Oh! the chickens. In one batch we had chickens and roosters. One day, Dad had to kill the roosters after a horrible attack on my brother, #5, pecking away at his little body. Horrible. Never again did Dad get roosters. The worst part about chickens was after they were shipped or butchered. Cleaning the coop. One of the grossest things ever, shoveling chicken poo while trying really hard not get any maggots on you. Yes, Maggots, they were quite the fan of chicken poo.

We did have a few pet rats but they weren't really adopted. They came after the pigs came and then were terminated not long after.

We had guinea pigs, fish, rabbits, some of the more likely pets for children. Our favorite pet of Sister 1, 2, brother 3 and me was definitly our Shelty, "Daisy." What a dog she was. Prettiest dog we ever had, and the best with kids. I remember her as a pup. She was so much fun. We had a mutt, named "Daisy" prior to that. Number 3 brother's favorite! She got sick and had to be put down. #3 Never learned that she was put down until years after he was in high school. He thought she ran away. Now in the country when a dog is put down, they are shot. My Dad could never bear to do it, but he had a friend that did it for him.

Sis #2 had a pup for a while, "Skippy." He actually died from the "stimper" a disease that was passing through pets around town. Horrible site.

Enough with pets, I never was much of a fan of the "dog" YOu would be able to tell that now since we got a Boxer Pup for our son's first birthday. The coolest thing about that is he thinks I am his Mom, and I have warmed up to him so much better than I ever thought I could have because of that.

So these were some of the things Dad and Mom helped us to learn responsibitlity by. All of us sisters and brothers still laugh about it today. Oh the good times.

Why?

So, the question is why do I write about everything now, especially in a blog. There are several reasons. I have been throwing it around for several months now, since one of my friend's started her own blog. I read hers religiously and a few others that she has pointed me too. I love reading the stories of everyday people. I also believe in writing down your memories and journaling. Journaling has been one of my most stress relieving things in my life. You would think I would do it more. I would write off and on as a child and teenager, my every day thoughts. Oh, the juicy emotional one's were about my highschool dating experiences, and guys I thought I couldn't live without. That is a whole other blog there. Those experiences were not the life molding ones. Now, there were a few I will talk about, but that was in early adulthood.

Writing down, recording, and taking pictures, has been one of my hobbies/goals since two miracles came into my life, one being my husband, and the other being my baby. You will get to hear about them all of the time....so much you might be thinking "Enough already!"

I have been very good since my pregnancy to start a babysite and totsite about our son. I felt now is the time to indulge into a "life" site because even though my child and husband make up an enormous amount of my life, there is so much more to write about. I have included them and family, friends into the previous totsite, but I am ready for an "add-on."

What better way to share your life with people than through writing though. You can draw your own picture for people to understand. A picture can say 1000 words, but those thousand words could be so different from one perspective to the next.

One major goal of writing this, is also that one day my grandchildren and children will know me just as if I was sitting right there talking to them, long after I am gone.

At this point I may explode with all the memories flooding through my head, but I will do my best to take it slow, and explain as much as possible. This isn't a race as my "competitive side" tries to take over. So enjoy.

Only the beginning.....

Once upon a time, there was a girl. She grew up in an itsy bitsy town with her two loving parents, and at the time 7 out of her now 9 brothers and sisters. So, that puts it at 10 total, 6 girls, four boys. The last two weren't born yet. I am "number four." In naming the blog, I wanted to make certain I made it something that would define me, and well, I couldn't get any closer than that. Everything I am about, my basis, my foundation, comes from being the fourth child in a somewhat amazing family. I may be biased, but as I indulge on this blog, you may all find out why I use the word amazing.

Frankenstein is the name of the town. You may ask, 'where the heck is that.' By it's name you may think it was established by none other than........but you are incorrect. It was solely founded by German Catholic families. The one thing I remember about this town, is its Church. An Enormous, Beautiful stone Church, and the small grade school. When I graduated from the 1st -8th grade school, there were 87 students total. The town did have a "general" store, but actually the first one burnt down. Crazy enough, the owner of the store was pulled out of the burning store, by none other than my father. This is only one of the many amazing acts of my dad. Apparently, the owner couldn't fathom watching the burning of the store, and didn't want to leave it. This store was his life.

After several years, another store was built, along with a gas station. Granted, the small town that we lived in could not possibly support the revenue and expenses of this store. It closed down just a short couple years after it opened.

I do remember this store the most though. When times were good(Pulling in a little of $10,000 a year), with my Dad being the principal at the school, and Mom staying at home, waitressing on the weekends, the oldest children would get a small allowance. Fifty cents a week. HOLY COW! We were rich. What did we do with our money, we went right up to that general store, often on our bikes, and bought a candy bar or icecream bar. Did we eat it like we eat one today? No, we let the sweet indulgence of every bite melt in our mouth. That is when I learned to eat the outside of a candy bar first and then the center. Still do it today.

The school was just as quaint as could be. Four classrooms upstairs and a cafeteria downstairs. 1st and 2nd in one classroom, 3rd and 4rth grade in one, 5th and 6th, and then 7th and 8th. The seventh and eighth grade room was also the principal's(my dad) office. What exactly was a teacher's lounge, anyways?

Yep, went through every room in that school. Oh the stories to tell. We had a 15 minute recess in the morning, lunch, and then a 15 minute recess in the afternoon. The morning recess was when we would eat a snack you could bring to school. Not every morning were we able to bring one, but we did have one every so often. Thinking about it now, this was not any easy finacial task for my parents, but then again what was at that time?

We had certain things that no student could ever forget. Certain events of the school. Number one was our "Christmas Play." Roles I played were, my two favorite. "Lucy Lou" in "the Grinch who stole Christmas" in 7th grade, and "Lucy" in "Charlie Brown's Christmas. I gotta say I pulled off a pretty good Lucy, and my Mom made a dress that looked exactly like the original. I will never forget that eighth grade year, when Lucy was licked on the face by Snoopy(one of the four boys in my class) and almost in kissing stance with Simon, the pianist( one of the other four boys in my class). Not really cool, when you are going through puberty, and all the boys have cooties at that time. But definitly a lot of fun. To this day, I enjoy watching plays and the effort put into them.

So, school was great. My best Math teacher ever was of course my Dad. Still is for many children to this day. He had the best way of teaching us the multilication tables. Two teams, one number(1-12) and write out each one: for example
12*1=12
12*2=24
12*3=36
12*4=48
12*5=60

and so on all the way up to 12. The person that finishes first got a point. The team with the most points won a "little Debbie Snack." Couldn't get any better than that.

Being the fourth, I think I was also the most sick, and accident prone out of all of us. Stomach problems at age 5. Stitches age five, when older sis closed the car door to the datsun on my middle right finger. Appendicitis at 12, stomach infection age 12, and the topper, Bone disease at age 11. Still deal with to this day, but will go into that much later. Car wreck, age 16, resulted in whiplash, broken collar bone, and finger. My favorite quote ever learned from my 23yr old brother, is "No BD" which stands for No big deal.

I will talk about a lot of stories here, just like your parents tell you stories, but what is funny is that I have always been able to relate more to my peer's parents than my peers. Most of the children I went to school with especially high school, were in mid to upper class. I never really knew the difference then, but then again I don't know that I cared. Don't get me wrong I knew family's that were a lot like ours too, but none of them had over seven siblings. The other thing I wish to clarify, is that even if we were poor, not one of us knew it. Our parents gave us everything they could, and we never went hungry or with out clothes. We were extremely blessed, and I couldn't have asked for a better childhood.

Who am i?

Five foot tall Mama, married to the man of my dreams. These are writings of an every day working Mama, along with journals of fitness and goals to be in the best shape of my life! I have a four year old son, Benjamin and a two year daughter, Jonna, both of God's daily miracles. They are my number one joys. Other things you will find I enjoy are my faith and excitements about natural health, vitamins, and exercise. I can literally talk about nothing for a long period of time(thanks Dad) and have a million things to talk about. The name for the blog has comes from the number that I fall in the siblings of my family. You will have to read the beginning portion of my blog to understand it fully.