My Life's Musings

I guess when you go through life you find happiness and also sorrows. It’s a balance everyone goes through. When I was young and carefree, I thought everything was great. When I was around four or so, I remembered seeing Santa Claus talking to my mom and dad. I told my brother and he wouldn’t believe me, because he was five years older than me and already knew there wasn’t any Santa Claus. Well, he didn’t tell me that, but I wondered how he could be so sure. To this day it’s such a vivid memory.

Growing older, when you start school, you wise up to what your parents tell you is true. It’s a big letdown to know there is no Santa Claus, no tooth fairy, and that clowns are men just dressed as clowns. I had a friend, twelve years old, who would scream whenever a clown came near. I asked her what was so scary about a clown. She answered by asking me if I read the book “It” by Stephen King, or seen the movie. I hadn’t, so I wanted to find out what scared her. Let me just say, I wish I didn’t follow up on 'It' and leave it at that.

Why is it that most children are drawn to scary movies? My brother and I would go to every scary movie there was. Sometimes our cousins would tag along which made it all the more fun. Those movie theaters were extra loud with us screaming at top of our lungs. Oh, those carefree days!

During high school, life became more serious for me. My brother was a brain, and I had to keep up with him in grades if I wanted to get bragged about, too, to our relatives. I found some friends that were just like me in my quest and got great grades studying with them. Sadness struck when I lost my mother to kidney disease. I was in eleventh grade, and this was the hardest! It's a heartbreak that never really goes away.

Married life brought me five wonderful children. I lost my first baby, because she came too early, and wasn’t fully developed. I’ll never forget Karen Jean. I lost my dad to cancer around my fourth year of married life. My children never really got to know what a great man he was, or know my sweet mother. How they would have spoiled them!

On our first Christmas as a family, we drove to a farm that grew trees. All that greenery was a sight to behold! We found our perfect Christmas tree and hauled it home to trim. My children were taught the meaning of Christmas. We'd go to our church where the Sunday school children took part in a play about the birth of baby Jesus. Those were fun times, and teaching our children their pieces to say was the hardest part, but when they learned it, how special it was to see it played out! All their colorful costumes of reds, yellows, and purples. So many memories when our children were younger, and this was a big part of it.

I lost my brother at the beginning of this year. It was so unexpected! We were always so close, and I got through this sad time with the support of his wife staying strong for the both of us. He married a wonderful lady, and we hit it off immediately. She’s the one who made us love theatre which our twin cities in Minnesota are so well known for. Now we get together whenever theaters are showing something we want to see, and remember my brother.

Around ten years ago, we moved to a hobby farm of around forty acres. We raise sheep, cows, and goats of brown and white, and at one time we had a black and white llama named Bosco. We had him for eight years and he sure was a joy, always so curious! He died along with our two German Shepherds, Bo and Louie. both twelve years of age. We now have two more German Shepherds, Rose, who's roan-colored, and Max. who's mostly black with some brown. Our thanks go out to our son, Kevin, who bought us Max for Thanksgiving, and for Christmas, we got a puppy from our daughter, Gail.

When you love your pets as much as we did, it’s hard to replace them yourself, so our children took the initiative to do so. They thought we needed some good watchdogs. Max and Rose are puppies right now, but they’re showing signs that they’ll be strict with whatever comes along. We replaced our llama, Bosco, with two girl donkeys - The correct name for them is Jennies or Jennets. Their names are Daisy and Velvet. They protect our animals from the inside of the fence while our dogs watch on the outside to keep coyotes at bay.

These are the memories that linger the most in my mind, and I’m thankful for the life I’ve had so far. I want to wish my group on WDC, "WdC SuperPower Reviewers Group" , a Happy 10th Anniversary!

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