It Seems Like Yesterday


I really had to write this, it’s one of those posts that really just have “to be”. It’s a story that spans 25 years and it seems like yesterday. She was born on New Year‘s Day, that in itself is special wouldn’t you say? This is a story of my niece and of course I am her favorite Aunt, but why you may be asking? Well, because she is Autumn’s beautiful daughter and I was always and will always be her kind of second Mom. Thanks so much for sharing her Twinnie!
I did my best with the loving, the spoiling, the holding onto that little girl hand of hers as I strolled her through some magic times, with your permission of course. You were, are and will always be the best and most fun of Moms Twinnie dearest! I loved the time Twinnie had on her leather cowboy hat in the school pick up line and darling niece who was maybe 6 years old was not pleased. I got called Mom and Autumn was Aunt Gabs until that evil cowboy hat got taken off!
The darling niece had a fine sense of humor from the start and it still remains.  I feel blessed I had a major part of this lovely niece’s life, and those years seemed to roll by way too quickly. The darling niece learning to walk, then running everywhere she went because walking was way too slow! The girl had a zest for life from early on, she was clearly her mother’s daughter!
Then    


The days of schooling, well they seemed to fly and then, onto college…Those 4 years went by in a blink of an eye, too. Anyway, I am along with Autumn having a hard time of it these days. The beautiful niece has moved way too far away, 2, 000 miles away…I am still convinced she will tire of this new location and be back very soon. Her new job will end up boring and dull, she will miss us too much and move right back where she belongs. I just knew  we Twinnies should have kidnapped her and refused to let her go, except that’s not how real life works. I should have bribed darling niece with the shopping trip of her dreams, because I had helped teach her to shop until you dropped. Did I mention along with loving this niece like crazy, that I spoiled her shamefully? I couldn’t help myself, her big brown eyes just had me from the start!  Well, I know that kids have to find their way and live their own lives as they see fit…But who would have known it would be so difficult? Trying not to make this sad, we Twinnies shared a new batch of tears last night.
NOW

Autumn was a single Mom for way over half of darling niece’s life…Sorry to report, Autumn’s ex-husband was really not father material and forever shame on him! Thankfully our parents were a marvelous help, I helped and so did my husband along with other family of course. It’s just hard to believe, here we are 25 years after the miracle of darling niece’s birth and she is really off having a new adventure of it. Well, I am trying to be strong and be there for Autumn and somehow we will get through this! I love my darling niece and want the best and brightest for her..Whatever the future holds for her, may she be blessed! But it still seems like it was only yesterday…
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The Twins Run Away From Home~ By Gabby Angel


The twins at 5 years old took a bold and gutsy move. We ran away from home!Thinking of this still makes me laugh at our silly selves…We up and ran away clear down the block to our Nana’s house. Yes, I know but when you are 5 years old and pouting at your parents you just throw caution to the wind! 😉 Why were we pouting? Well, if you are following my twin memories…You will remember Autumn and I got a new baby sister just the year before. We loved her, thought she was cute and all..But she took up a lot of Mom’s time.

OK, I admit we were good and huffy, just stomping our feet (literally) mad at Mom and needing attention! How embarassing to think of it now, we had Dad but he was at work this fine early summer day. Autumn and I just got it into our heads we would just take ourselves on our own little jaunt. Right straight to our beloved Nana. This gets dramatic, we packed our smallest little girl suitcases with an odd assortment of clothes and of course our favorite treasures. Mom was of course listening in andhearing our every complaint. “Mom will miss us when we’re gone”, “We won’t come back until we are good and ready” Ha, we’ll show her”. On it went with each complaint accompanied with a stomp, I have to state here that stomping was not encouraged at our house either!

Autumn and I gathered our belongings, dramatically making our exit. We were thought we were quite slick, but Mom was watching our every move. Watching us as we trotted off hand in hand to our Nana’s, Mom was on the telephone with our Nana the whole time! Nana hung up when we amid a flurry of drama waltzed our sorry little selves through the door. She greeted us with hugs and smiles like always, saying “what a nice surprise girls!”

She was behaving like nothing was wrong, so of course we pipe up with our complaints! Nana proceeded to distract us with baking cookies, playing with her kitty Pearlie and later hanging out under our favorite spot the willow tree. After all was said and done she had us forgetting all about our huff at Mom!:) Our beloved and special Nana, well she fixed our sad little day and reminded us we were loved by many and jealousy was not attractive. We promised to be good big sisters and she walked us back home. Hugs for Mom and Dad who was home from work now, all was fine in our little worlds once again! We promised not to run away again without permission ;), laughable because we saw our Nana almost everyday.

! I have to add, it was of course a blessing to have our Nana and the parents we had because patience goes a long way when it come to us twinnies! 😉

Twinnies Can Find Fun In Our Own Backyard~by Gabby Angel


Yes indeed we could, fun and adventure without even leaving home! 😉 This one again brought to you be Gabby, the girl with the memory of an elephant. 😉 Yes indeed us twinnies could conjure up an adventure right in our own backyard! 🙂 This one was Autumn and I with our two favorite neighbor boys having a little innocent swim. Well, that’s what it started out as anyway. Autumn and I were joined this sunny, summer day by Tim and Alex. Tim being our age and Alex only 1 and 1/2 years older than us, these neighbor boys were our best guy friends back then. This particular adventure we were about 6 or so years old, still needing a bit of supervision!

Mom & Mrs A. (the boys Mom and also Mom’s friend) were keeping an eye on us from our enclosed backporch. Thankfully it had a nice big window because keeping watch on us was important! 😉 Our pool at the time was maybe only 2 feet deep or so & the boys and Autumn and I were splashing about having good times. Tim got splashing Autumn a bit too much and she started crying and yelling at him. It got a bit ugly, but Mom was out the door to straighten them out. Alex and I were looking at them in disgust, Tim and Autumn seemed to revel in getting each other stirred up. She did end up dumping a bucket of water over his head, this done with Mom still standing there. Well, Mom had them both saying their own “I’m sorry’s” & they both did settle down enough for poor Mom to return to the porch!

All was OK for about 15-20 minutes, then it was my turn to howl, bringing both Mom & Mrs A, racing outside. It wasn’t the boys or Autumn, I had stepped out of the pool to go have a drink. After all, I couldn’t drink the pool water! 😉 What happened I had stepped on a bee and was seriously not liking this pain and everyone sure knew it. Mom got me set down on a nearby chair, while Mrs A. had retrieved tweezers and baking soda, boy were they both moving fast! Mom got the stinger out and Mrs A applied baking soda to take some of the pain of the sting away and to reduce swelling.

Autumn was out of the pool beside me, holding my hand and consoling me and also had started her own crying in sympathy. Our poor Mom and Mrs. A, getting us both quieted and calmed while those poor little boys looked on with both their little mouths hanging open. They were used to us, but Oh my, both the twinnies howling loudly at the same time was not a fun sound! Shortly , probably seemed hours to the boys, Mom and Mrs A. but really only made 10 minutes in Real time, the twinnies settled down and the howling, crying sniffling had stopped. Autumn, the boys and I were all sitting at the picnic table having ourselves a popsicle by then, everyone smiling chatting and laughing! 🙂 So ends another adventure, oops I did forget just one little thing.

After the popsicles were  eaten Autumn and Tim had wandered off to admire the new rocks in the flower garden. Tim discovered a baby toad and before we all could stop him tossed it on Autumn! 😦 She was screaming and jumping up and down telling Tim he was an evil boy, well who could blame her…Yuck!! Mom and Mrs A. back to the rescue both deciding time for the boys and Mrs A. to head back home. Well, not before Tim said “I’m sorry” about 5 times & had given Autumn a true friend hug. All was happy and we waved a goodbye to Tim, Alex and Mrs. A.

The bad news was this started poor, dear Autumn’s fear of anything toad and frog like. 😦  That is also another whole blog, maybe? Pease, anyone reading this Do Not tease Autumn about her fear, she may get testy! 😉  See you back here tomorrow and thanks for reading! 🙂 🙂

Helping Mom at the Bake Sale~by Gabrielle Angel


This one is a passing thought that popped into my head while working in my own kitchen. Making a couple loaves of zucchini bread, something I do for relaxation is cooking and baking. Usually to share with family and friends or even to freeze, but I do love to putter in the kitchen.

Anyway, as often happens I get these random thoughts and this brought me memories of a bake sale. I was laughing to myself just  thinking about this one. And it wasn’t just any bake sale, I need to say.  This was one when Autumn and I got to help our Mom at at a church bake sale. It was being held in the church basement, which was a good spot . Come rain or shine, the bake sale would go on.

We were about 6 years old and Mom (for whatever crazy reason) let herself be talked into the twinnies helping her out. It was going to be an all day long bake sale, so some of the ladies were taking turns. After all, it was only one short hour and what could possibly go wrong? 😉

OK, sometimes Autumn and I could be a handful but lots of time we were quite well behaved. Poor Mom, she thought this was going to be one of the well behaved times. We tried and it all started out so well…It really, really did. The first 45 minutes was great fun, busy helping Mom and chatting with all and any who stopped by.

We twinnies were far from shy, we enjoyed chatting to people from an early age. So, we were an asset of sorts to our Mom. Autumn and I were happy to talk everyone into buying something, after all it was for a good cause. 🙂

Mom was pretty calm, things had been gliding right along and going quite smoothly. Selling cookies, cupcakes, brownies, doughnuts and all that good stuff.

Everything was prewrapped for many reasons, so far Autumn and I hadn’t been tempted to tamper with or open anything. Well, that all went out the window when one of our favorite people stopped by…our Grandpa! Well, Grandpa was all smiles and greeted us with hugs and kisses. Our Grandma was off in the church kitchen chatting to some of her friends and helping out behind the scene, so to speak. Later Mom would reflect on that, why didn’t she herself stay in the kitchen? Autumn and I were so thrilled to have Grandpa as a customer, he was scooping up a few things that he was going to buy and getting ready to pay Mom.

He was catching on to the fact we twinnies were getting ready to act up. Oops, too late Autumn had torn open a nicely sealed bag of cookies! Each of us twinnies quickly had a cookie in our hand and trying to offer Grandpa a bite. I was getting huffy at Autumn because she had gotten to him first, so I started to howl. Before everyone knew it we twinnies had gotten quite loud and things turned ugly.

Poor Grandpa, poor Mom…They each grabbed up a twinnie. The half dozen cookies in a bag had gotten stomped on (by mistake) and we had created a small mess. Not to mention caused a small ruckus…In swooped Mrs L. to the rescue. She took over for Mom and another few ladies came to help tidy our mess. Those ladies were so fast, my could they all move quickly! Autumn and I were quickly helped into our coats and told to give Grandpa hugs and off to the car we went.

As usual a lecture and quite the talking to we got on our 5 minute ride home. Autumn and I very subdued and quiet as we walked with Mom to the door of our house. We were in trouble again, when we were really trying to be good, too. 😦  Dad greeted us with a big smile asking, “How was the bake sale girls?” We never got to answer, Mom sent us to our room! 😦