Child's Play

Mum left today around 11, taking Ezra, Jacob, and Sam with her to get hair cuts at the ChopChop Chinaman's place before our family pictures this afternoon. A bit later, Alexa was napping, Kait was playing on the computer, and Levi and I were sitting out on the deck when Eden straggled out and plopped herself down uselessly in a chair.



Ezra winning a round of RedLight-GreenLight.



"There's nufin' to do," she complained. It has been beautiful all day, and I felt bad that the kids had been sitting on their butts watching movies or playing computer all day - or week I guess would be more acurate - so I suggested that we eat lunch and then I would teach Kait and Ede how to play some games I always played as a kid.

Eden winning a round of Mother, May I...


After tuna sandwiches and molasses cookies, Mum drove up the hill. The boys all popped out and Sam and Jake started primping for the pictures. I told Ez we girls were going to go play some games in the driveway. I moved the car and took a chair from the deck and put it at the head of the driveway. I dragged a hose across so that we'd have a finish line and finally began to explain the rules to RedLight-GreenLight.


Kaitlyn following instructions for Mother, May I...



As a kid, I remember always playing games of "RedLight-GreenLight" and "Mother, May I" at grammies houses. We played multiple rounds of each of these games, along with a few others, and topped it all off with a race between the little kids. I was a little surprised at how many times they asked to repeat the games. We played for about 30 minutes or so, then headed in to get ready for pictures.
Kaitlyn pinning Ezra in a free-for-all. Their idea, not mine.

Christmas Traditions - REPUBLISH NEXT WINTER

My family has many traditions. I'm talkin' lots. And we're very protective of them, at least us kids are. For example, one year when I was probably about ten my parents announced to us that Thanksgiving would be held at our Grammy's house. For many children, this is the tradition. We on the other hand have always had it at our own house. We may invite people over, but we do not go anywhere else. My older brother had a fit.

"What?! You mean we're going somewhere else for Thanksgiving?!" That set us all off. We made such a ruckus about it that Mum and Dad called up Grammy and told them that we'd have to pass. They were welcome to come to our house, but we would be staying home for Thanksgiving.

All holidays call for such traditions in my family, but none are quite like Christmas. Christmas is a meaningful, wonderful time in my house, but it is also full of pointless traditions that we have always just accepted, until one of us realizes - and points out - just how weird it all is.

Christmas morning. Kaitlyn rolls over to me and asks what time it is. 5:30 is the reply.

"We woke up late!" Yes, usually us kids wake up between 2 and 3 am. We sit in the family room watching movies until 5:30 when we're allowed to bother Mum and Dad. We rush around waking everyone up. When enough kids are awake to make rousing the parents necessary, I venture over the upstairs and down the steps to the master bedroom. Mum drousily tells us to go ahead with the stockings.

While we're sitting in the family room looking through our stockings, Jake pulls out the apple and orange from the toe.

"Ahhh, the apple."

"Jake, we get apples every year," I say.

"Yeah, but do you ever actually eat the apple," he whispers so that Mum wont hear, but she does and we know it.

Calls Home

So, yesterday was Sam's birthday, (or today it was rather, but not really, just here, not there) and today was Eden's birthday, (or tomorrow, here, but not there, if you catch my drift) so I made some calls home. I try to make sure I call them separately, even though their birthday's are only one day apart.

Yesterday, I called and talked to Sam-a-hamma-whamma. That was fun. We laughed at things and people, and then we put them together and really got laughing! Oh man, some of the stuff people do. It's just too funny. So that was good. Sam's a good kid. It sounds like he's done a lot of growing up since I've seen him last. That's always a good sign.

I'm not the kind of person that kids grow up "too fast". I think that there are some people that just don't grow up, which is bad, and people that take on a lot of responsibility at a young age, but seeing as many of the people in this position that I know personally just use that as an excuse to feel sorry for themselves because they "never had a childhood", shows their immaturity and therefore, they really aren't as grownup as they would have you think. I mean, if a kid had to start taking on these responsibilities at like, age 9, okay, that'd be, maybe, too early, but I don't know of anyone like that, so - yeah, no.

Anyway, moving. Let's see, what were we talking about, oh! Birthdays! So, yeah, talking to Sam was fun. I just got off the phone with Eden-peanuty about half-an-hour ago. She's such a cutie. I can't really talk with her as long as I can with Sam, but she's always a pleasure to chat with. She was searching frantically for someone who knew the title of the song her new music box made, and I could hear in the background, Kait, Jake, and Ez go, "da-na-da-na-da-na, da-na-na." I knew what they were singing, but no one was really sure what the title was. I tried to tell Eden, but she ran off to get the box so I could listen to it.

"Ede, Ede."
"Yeah?"
"It's 'Fur Elise'."
"Fa Elise?"
"No, 'Fur', like the hair of a dog."
"Yeah, that's what I said."
"Okay, yeah. That's what it is. 'Fur Elise.' That's a pretty song."
"Yeah."

So, for those of you that don't know, "da-na-da-na-da-na, da-na-da" is Morse Code for 'Fur Elise.' Everyone knows that.

Happy 17th and 7th Sam and Ede. Keep on rockin' out.

Roxaboxen Was Alexa's Game

Many people may not realize this, but it was Alexa who was the imaginative one as a child. I mean, yes, Sam and Jacob and I still get lost in our little reveries, but it was Alexa who would get an idea in her head and then actually carry it out. It was Alexa who could spend a good part of the day just sitting up in her room reading; it was Alexa who would write-out, direct, and of course act, in all the plays we have ever put on; it was Alexa who had the flow of thought that always kept us outside and busy in the summers - and winters for that matter.

It was Alexa who initiated one of our longest running childhood games - Roxaboxen.

One of the greatest things about coming from a big family is that you always have someone to play with. I remember when Scoobie found out about our little backyard game he wanted to join, and he did a little bit, but he was not what made it. Not even my friend Colleen got in on that. It was really a family thing.

We would go out behind our house, past the big birch in-between the garden and the old, ugly trailer that took up most of the yard; we would go down the little path and into the woods. Not very far in the trees started to thin some and we had our little set up. Alexa had a general store near the brook, in a little grove of trees. Sam had his blacksmith shop by the stump of a tree. I was the jailer. It was in a small clearing right in the middle of a bunch of pines. Jacob, if I remember right, started out as my deputy. (Kaitlyn joined us later, and eventually Ezra. Eden never got in on the game until a new "chapter" of Roxaboxen started out in Saipan.

In the summer we would go back there in the woods a little ways, and play. We had our houses, shops, and such. We had our village disputes, but eventually, things always worked out. Sometimes we would go farther into the woods and sneak past the hermit's shack. Yeah, really, a hermit's shack. It was old, tumbling, and gross. Sometimes we would look in the windows, but usually we just walked on by into the little meadow that was beyond it. The man, Dier, was usually never there, or at least not that we could tell, but we thought it was kind of brave all the same.

In the meadow we would play games like hunting. The grass was really tall, and some of us would hide, while others looked for us. It was fun hunting, but it was more fun being hunted. That way, you could find a real good vantage point and watch the hunters try to be clever.

In the winter, the village was moved a little closer to home - right in our back yard. We would pack the snow up to build houses, line streets, and build stables. In the stables we would keep our sleds. We had a tobbogan that some of us would sit on while another pulled. It was always Lexi or I was did the pulling. If we were lucky, Levi would come out and pull us girls around. He was strong enough to run with us, so that was always fun.

In winter, the village disputes turned into village battles. Girls against boys. We would raise our walls up higher, and make little pockets in the snow to keep our snowballs cold. (Everyone knows you need a pocket in the snow to keep your snowballs cold.) We would chuck the snowballs at each other from our respective forts. You could almost guarantee that, if he was home, Levi would be in on this part of the game as well. I didn't mind getting hit by a snowball or two, but Levi was a pitcher, and he threw hard. Not to mention his aim was good - he hit me right in the eye once, and pleaded with me not to tell. I didn't cry (I remember 'cause I was really proud about it) but I was soooo mad. Needless to say, there wasn't any point in trying to keep it from Mum and Dad 'cause I was yelling so loudly at Levi they could hear it through the windows.

You could always guarantee on a game of Roxaboxen to keep us kids busy, any time of year. But then something changed... something really changed. Alexa started growing up. She wasn't a child anymore, and didn't have time for childish games. She and I started public school, and weren't at home as much, especially during the winter. We met new friends, outside our family, and started hanging out with them more. Sure, the boys and I played the game a few more times, but it wasn't the same. Alexa had moved on. Her little shop by the brook was taken over by Jacob, but it seemed empty.

Eventually the brook in that part of the woods became polluted and we were forced to move Roxaboxen downstream. (Don't ask me about the logic there, it was just cleaner.) Everything had changed. After one last summer of Roxaboxen - entirely Lexiless - we had all come to realize that the glory of the game, it's charm, it's fun, had died.

It sounds sad, I know; any time you spend reminiscing, it usually leaves you in a slightly saddened state. But really it's not. It's just different. It was fun being a kid, but I'm grown now, and I actually don't mind it so much. Yeah, I play different games, with different people, and in a very different way, but I still have fun. Imagination - a tool important in everyday living. I was taught to use mine by the very best.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE AUGUST KIDS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! This is my gift to Sam "The Man" and Eden "Peanuty", since their birthdays are today and tomorrow. (Or actually tomorrow and the next day if you're going by Eastern Standard Time, but I'm not!) So, yeah, since I couldn't actually send them anything for their birthdays, I figured I'd write some sweet stuff about them!

SAM: Sam's pretty cool... you know, for a sixteen year old. I even found myself annoying at that age, so that's saying something! He's wicked funny! I just got off the phone with him about an hour ago. Man! We had each other cracking up over the funny things Eden was asking for her birthday, which lead us to laughing over Indian curry for and Chamorro empanada's for Indian and Chamorro Thanksgivings... long story, I'll touch on it later! Yeah, so we had a good time. The great thing about Sam is that I've really been able to watch him grow up. I remember spending late nights in the boys' room late at night, usually after Ezra was already asleep, and we would talk about everything and anything! Usually it would turn to who likes whom if Jake had anything to say about it! But we talked about a lot of stuff, and had fun doing it! If Dad ever found us he would send us out so that we wouldn't wake up Ezra, not that you could wake the kid up with a train whistle! But if we ever were kicked out, the boys would usually run in to my room and jump on my nicely-made bed and kick off their shoes and make themselves comfortable. See, it didn't matter if I did that in their room, because you really couldn't make their room much worse! But in my room it was terrible evident that something was out of place. Ah well, the point is I love Sam, he's a pretty cool kid!

SAM'S THEME SONG: "Teenage, Mutant Ninja Turtles" It's always been the cartoon I've associated with him, so naturally the song just fits!

EDEN: What a sweety!!! "She reminds me o' me!" as the great John Wayne would've said. She's a funny one too! She actually told Dad that since she couldn't get the bike she wanted for her birthday she wanted a car instead. When Mum asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner she suggested "that meal with the big bird and potatoes and everything" (a.k.a. Thanksgiving Dinner). So, yeah, my six-year-old sister is getting a mini-Thanksgiving for her birthday! GOOD GRIEF! Anyway, like I said, natural cutie! In fact, Lexi was just telling me last Sunday that Eden was gonna be one of those really irresistable girls that all the guys would be in love with but too intimidated to say anything to. In Lexi's opinion it's kind of sweet. In my opinion that kind of sucks! But she'll just have to deal with it I guess!

EDEN'S THEME SONG: "I'm Cute!" - Dot Animaniac. She just is! ;)

Oh Brother!

My brothers are so weird. I mean, they're sitting here comparing two girls that live HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MILES apart. It's really annoying. They are so wrapped up in things that have absolutely NO relevance to life. Okay, Jake is getting a little violent now, I should probably split them up. Oh wait never mind. They're okay now. Jake is plucking away at a guitar (which he doesn't know how to play) saying, "Oh, you wanna hear the note I can play?" He's pretty excited about being able to play one note. WOW! I think he actually almost played a tune! HA! Man, Sam is really being annoying now. He.... uhhh.... I don't know. They are just so strange sometimes! They keep trying to out-do each other. MAN! Okay, I'm going to bed. This is getting so frustrating that I just simply cannot abide it!

The Battle of The Black Couches (AKA: The Battle for The Innocents)

I knew exactly what was going on. Before any of the other kids. Before any of it every really happened. Of course, I have been living with my parents for 18-1/2 years, longer than anyone else in the house.

I knew what was going on as soon as Mum stood up from the dinner table and looked at Dad with that "Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'" look. It didn't take long to put two and two together.
"No!" I said as soon as Mum started moving toward Dad on the other end of the table. I pushed my chair back against the entertainment center to obstruct her passage. She laughed and Sam and Jake finally saw what was going on. They too started to shout and clamor about what was coming. "Aww, Mum!" "Come ON!!" "Not in front of the kids!"
Mum tickled me and I had no choice but to immediately remove myself from her path. She got through. Kaitlyn took immediate action and started to put herself in Mum's way, but nothing would stop her. She finally did make it to Dad's lap. The kids all responded with the unanimous groan, "Oh, gross." I fell to the floor against the entertainment center and averted the innocent eyes of my littlest sister, Eden. The boys all continued in their noise. It worked to some extent, 'cause Mum didn't stay on Dad's lap for too long. Instead she got a worse idea.
"Let's go over to the couch honey."
"Ooo, yeah!" Dad said in that really freaky voice he gets when he likes something. (For example: when taste-testing food, a suggestion of a good action flick, etc.)
"Hit the deck!" I shouted.
"Everyone down! DOWN!" Jake cautioned.
"Don't look, Ez," was Sam's concerned warning. But Ez didn't listen. He ran towards the small couch and fell on top of it.

It was then that the idea came to me. Mum and Dad weren't on the large couch yet. If we moved quickly we might have time; the maneuver was possible, if just barely. I made the command and the troops followed suit. "COVER THE COUCHES!" I ran first into battle and planted my whole body, face-down, on the large couch.

What happened next is a blur to me. All I saw was the black couch-cushion, but I felt Eden and Ezra jump on top of me, and I heard Sam and Jake coming quickly. Then Kait shouted, "Get the little couch!" directly followed by all the kids getting off of me and me jumping up to see the enemy retreating, to the depths of their lair; Dad had Mum by the hand and was leading her down the steps to their bedroom.

We had won the battle, but we intended to win the war. Jake was there first. I came in last but pushed to the front in order to examine the situation.
"I've got the knob turned. They can't lock it," was the Captain's report.
"Good job." We tried to push the door open but the effort was lost due to my Second-in-Command, Sam, openly rebelling me by saying,
"Hey! They're in their room, let's go to the computer!" Even though they all know that's never going to happen because they would get their hides skinned, they still all shouted a "Hooray!" and left me there at the door alone. I too left the enemy in there to lick their wounds. Ha! I got the troops back to camp and we cleaned up the mess the ambush had caused.


A STARTLING SURPRISE

As if all this weren't bad enough, I later came out of the bathroom and heard Jacob singing in his bedroom. This wasn't unusual; he's practicing for a play. He's the prince. I knew the camp was finished being cleared up so I went into his room, unannounced (which I will never do again) and found my Captain on one knee facing away from me towards my Second-in-Command. A CD was playing and Sam was trying to mouth the words to the part the princess sings after the prince (Jake) proposes or says something or other to her. Jake and Sam both stopped as soon as they saw me and for a moment paused in a moment of awkward silence, with only the CD playing. Suddenly Sam, Jake, Ez (who was watching from the bottom bunk) and I all started cracking up. I ordered them back to their duties and contemplated the oddities of life. Don't worry, I didn't waste too much time doing that!