There are so many different memories of my girls growing up that it is hard to choose a few.  When Addi was very little she was helping me fold laundry and she asked me if the piece she was folding was “frog side out”?  I asked what she meant, and she replied, “frog side in?  Or frog side out”?  I realized she had misunderstood wrong as being frog.

When Jessica was little my sister and I took them to Niagara Falls.  The girls were asleep, and I told them we had entered Pennsylvania.  Jess asked, “where’s all the pencils?”

Addi was pretty much reading by the time she got out of Pre-School.  At the Kindergarten class play, Addi read the play as the narrator.  The people sitting behind the hubster and I inquired if that reader was a first grader.  The hubster had tears in his eyes, he was so proud.

When Jessica finished Kindergarten she and Addi attended Girl Scout camp one week during the summer.  I was so proud of Jess as she was one of the youngest to attend camp and she never complained.  It was a rough camp as they were in the woods and had to “do it, dig it and bury it”.  I am pretty sure the counselors had pity on the child and took her to the bathroom.

When Addi was in first grade her teacher took me aside and told me of an incident that had happened that day.  One of the little boys was having a very tough day.  He cried, and the teacher told me that Addi had gone over to him and put her arm around him and comforted him.  I was so proud of her.

When Jessica was in third grade her book won the Book Competition at the school and she got to go to Springfield and get a reward.  The whole family went, and we had such a good time.

Addi was still a young child when she contracted Herpangina.  It was a horrible disease and her lips, mouth and throat had the most terrible sores.  She was a trooper though and came through it.  I was throwing her pillow away, as I had gotten a new one since she had slobbered and bled all over her other one.  She cried so hard.  She wanted to keep her pillow and I had explain that it was infected with the disease and she might get the disease back.  She finally allowed me to throw it in the trash.

Jessica was quite the musician.  She wanted and got a violin for Christmas one year.  She tried and tried but didn’t take to the instrument.  We decided to go with the flute when she joined band.  Later she switched to the piccolo and in high school she picked up the saxophone and learned to play it so she could join the Jazz Band.  She also borrowed a bass guitar from someone and “Smoke on the Water” resounded throughout the house.

When Addi joined the band, I believe I influenced her to go with the oboe.  I told her it was an odd instrument and not many people played it.  I thought it might help her in college.  She got braces after playing for a while and had to relearn to play it.  When she got her braces off she changed instruments and played the drums.  In later years she switched to the marimba.

My girls were both good students and human beings.  I didn’t have many problems with them.  I am proud of my girls because they are both quite sympathetic.  During Girl Scouts they always chose one of the shy girls to be a partner.

In high school choir one year, the choir sang a Dvorak song for me.  I cried when they began, and they were all looking at me.  I was so embarrassed because they knew how much I loved that song.

Each summer when the girls were off school, I had them make at least one meal a week.  They had to plan it, prepare it and clean up after themselves.  I am proud to say they are both excellent cooks.

Peace be with you.