My Autobiography

Well last night I finally sat down to write my autobiography. Before I knew it I was on my fourth page. I still have one of three sections left (Marital section) so who knows how much longer it will get. Anyway, the section on childhood was pretty fun to write. It took me back in time and I think I smiled most of it because memories came flooding back. So I thought I'd take a little clip from it for your enjoyment (mostly siblings). Please ignore grammatical errors as I have not proofread the document. Also, I had to leave out all the gory details about the fist fights, "I hate you's" and karate chops seeing as this is for our homestudy.

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Childhood description:
(taken from somewhere in the middle)
As far as how I get along with my parents and siblings that is easy; they are my best friends. I think I talked to my mom at least 3 or 4 times today (it was her day off) and three of my siblings. I talk to at least 3 or 4 siblings a day. You can imagine what Nathan thinks (“you always talk on the phone”). Hey, it’s hard to keep in touch with that many people. They are my bestest friends and I get homesick certain days missing them. So when that time comes I plan a road trip or book a flight. Next to hubby and little man, they are the best thing that ever happened to me.

To have been a fly on the wall at our house would have been interesting. Yes, it was chaotic but somewhat of an organized chaos. For instance, when I was in high school we all knew the order of the downstairs shower (we only had two bathrooms). Yes, when someone missed their turn b/c they were sleeping and thought they could cut in line, all hell broke loose. But we got through it. It was chaotic, full of laughter, sometimes tears, definitely not serious and NEVER a dull moment. And when we all get together still, it’s the same old crew, but just a “little” more mature. I would say we’ve only grown closer.

What was it like growing up in our family? We lived on one acre but it felt like so much more because we had a huge field behind our house and woods behind that where we spent much of our time. If it wasn’t storming, blizzard conditions or the middle of the night, we were outside. We didn’t have cable, we were in very few sports (swim team every summer) and my parents did not let us stay the night anywhere. We were stuck with each other. So we made do with that. We invented lots of games, played outside and if we fought, we were quick to make up, because we couldn’t stand solitude. Dinner every night was the kitchen table (which my dad made eventually; two long benches on each side and a chair at each end). Bedtime sometimes included hide’n’seek upstairs (depending on whether or not my folks where in bed yet) and trying your hardest to tiptoe around so they didn’t hear you. Some nights it was giggles and getting yelled at to go to sleep and other nights crawling into bed together because you were scared (Keely J). We all shared rooms with different siblings and by my senior year I actually had my own room (woohoo).

Family activities would have consisted of board games, yard games, holidays or a get together with extended family. And to be perfectly honest every family activity included at least one fight among the siblings. With eleven kids I guess that’s pretty hard to avoid. But again, it was “forgive and forget” shortly after.

I would say my mom was the disciplinary for the family especially since she was with us most of the time. As far as punishment or discipline goes I remember as a child standing in the corner and as I got older not being allowed to socialize. Oh, and there was the wonderful punishment of writing sentences. For example, we would have to write 100 times “I will not play on the propane tank”. I never liked that one.
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