Homemade Pancakes

For many years, I've been craving my homemade pancakes (of which my chocolate chip pancakes are well known & liked by any kid who stayed all nite at our house). I lost my Betty Crocker cookbook several years ago in a move. I decided to look it on online. Voila!!! There it was. I made it and was worried it may flop on my first time around with Larry. It, severely, reminded me of the one big flop I made for a birthday stayover for Heidi one year(of which was a popular girl that she wanted to impress & had bragged on my pancakes). The party was great. I remember the kids played games in the yard for which I organized. I had them make homemade pizza and root beer floats. I made a lemon birthday cake (a first timer). It was all a blast except for they didn't like the cake but all else. They had dance contests in the living room of which Heidi pretty much won them all. She was a good dancer. Then morning came with the pancakes and boy did they flop. They weren't big and fluffy and I think they tasted flat. I did it by memory(which failed me - my ego I think). I think I used baking soda instead of powder. Nasty. Poor little Heidi was embarrassed. Spoiled her moment. Ruined the prior days events. Sorry, Heidi. My pancakes turned out this time. Satisfied our taste buds.

Blizzards & Snow Days

The worst snow cancellation that I can remember with the Danville Schools was when Amy was attending Washington School (torn down a year later). It was so bad that the buses weren't allowed to return kids to their homes. The only way a child would be able to go home was for the parent to come and pick them up. I remember worrying how she would take it but consoled myself with the knowledge that her Aunt Jody was a teacher there and would be there, too. As it turned out, dad was in town, picked her up, and brought her home. I was relieved.

Cadbury Bunny & Billy

I saw the Cadbury Creme Egg commercial for this year now out. This year's commercial shows a lion, cat , and another animal with bunny ears on. Back in the day when the kids were little, it was only the bunny rabbit next to the Cadbury Eggs saying, "Cluck!!!Cluck!!! Cluck!!" . One time while visiting over a relatives house close to Easter - Billy made some comment about the rabbit saying, "Cluck!!!etc..." - as if he really thought rabbits say "Cluck". I corrected him on which animal made that noise but he said, "Uh Uh, on TV the rabbit does. I remember laughing and explaining it to him. But as an afterthought, for a city kid pre-school who never saw a chicken - this was understandable why he thought that.

Heidi had two best buds on Sherman St. One was a little girl named Mandy. They were born around the same time. I think Mandy was born first. Her mom, Debbie, and I were pregnant at the same time. She had a brother named Eric who was Amy's best bud during that time, too. We had a yellow plastic pool which they played in at least one summer. They had fun. We have one picture of that pool. I remember once dad got in the pool, too, cause he was hot. It was funny seeing an adult in that kiddy pool.

Heidi, also, had Trisha. Trisha and Heidi were like twins. They were the same age, heighth, hair color, and weight. Katilyn and Mickayla remind me of them. I babysat Trish while mom and dad were at work. They, actually, only lived about a block away. I enjoyed their little friendship- it was so cute. One time, though, I can remember giving them both a big spanking. It was more of a scared reaction. They were chasing each other and had running out in the street from behind our car and around. Oh, did that scare me. Praise God there wasn't any traffic. I just couldn't believe they did that. We weren't so lucky as to have a fenced yard.

Heidi Memories

I remember one hot hot summer day we had an appt for Olan Mills for Heidi. She was 2-3 yrs old. She sure was having fun playing outside. OH, she did NOT want to go in to take a bath or get her hair combed!!!! She threw a BIIIIG FIT threw the whole getting ready. I had to spank her while trying to get her dressed. She was being such a stubborn child -- to put it nicely. I remember thinking how was that picture going to turn out? I envisioned a red face with swollen eyes from crying but it ended up really cute. You couldn't tell she had been such a fisty kid getting ready. She had a pair of navy blue shorts, white elastic blue print tube top with shoulder ties, and wore piggy tails. She looks so adorable in that picture. Do you have that picture or remember it?

St Pattty's Day Assignment

I remember while going to college I had an art class once on St Patrick's Day. The teacher gave us an assignment one year (majority of the class was mom's): cook something for dinner tonite that was green and write a paragraph about the family reactions. I went home and decided to include green mashed potatoes as part of the supper. Boy did Billy like that!!! He was so excited to have green mashed potatoes that he wouldn't eat any mashed potatoes without being green or at least until mom ran out of green food coloring. I didn't decided not to indulge any longer in is fetish and refused to buy any more green coloring so Billy had to get back into regular ole mashed potatoes.

McDonald Memories

Reading the I'm Loving It blog of Heidi's reminded me of a couple McDonald Memories. Billy at Tyler's age was in this burbing in public for attention thing. Don't know why----anyway, we were at McDonald's with Grandma Nixon & Billy started his burbing . It was so embarrassing & he wouldn't stop when you told him to stop until I threatened to have him apologize to every person around us if he did it one more time.

The 2nd memory was when I had some spare money to take my kids out for breakfast which was, I think, a rarity. We stood in line for a half an hour waiting to order. Little did we know that a tour bus party was in front of us. The McStaff were all on getting their orders before the breakfast ending time. I, finally, got to the counter and was told the breakfast time was over & it had to be hamburgers which my tastebuds just weren't ready for at 10:30 am. I was hot!!!! To say the least. Only two times in my life did I ever show my temper in public & choice words especially in front of my kids. This was one of them. All in all we had a much better breakfast at a motel restaurant which I heard had excellent pancakes with flavors of our choice. It was good

Moving/Dreams/Adjustments

We moved to the west side of Danville on a street named Elm approximately 1978-79; Heidi being about 3-4 yrs old. It seemed as if all accepted the move okay but within a week of the move our household was suddenly awakened by the screams of Heidi "SNAKES!!!!SNAKES". All lights when on in the house. I ran to her bedroom which she shared with Amy. Asking her what was the matter. All she could say was "SNAKES". I laid next to her and reassured her it was just a dream. When all had calmed down, I turned out the lights and went back to bed. Within 15 minutes, she screamed "SNAKES!!!!SNAKES". Lights back on. Mom running in again. This time after comforting her, I took her to my bed. Feeling she'd feel secure with mom & not disturbing Amy's sleep again, we tried it again in my bedroom. Lights out. Less than 15 min. "SNAKES!!!!SNAKES!!!". This time she wouldn't let me turn the lights out. Okay, so mom got Amy to go to her bed & returned with Heidi to her bed and went to sleep with the light on. That did it. No return of the snakes.

Scarey storms & Sirens

We had two scarey incidents during the time we lived in our trailer. One was the trailer in 1981 which happened on March 2nd. I'll never forget that day. It was a beautiful sunny, very windy, and warm day. It hit 70 degrees which was considered unusual for that time of the season. But as the day progressed , storm watches & warnings came around. Heidi had Greggy Rouse staying all nite. Amy was asleep in her bed. Heidi and Greggie were playing Barbie, and Billy was sleeping in his crib.

I don't think Heidi & Greggie were even aware of the weather. Not me. Around the time I had decided to put my jamys on, I started hearing this noise. It sounded sort of like a train but not the train vibrations I was used to. I started thinking it sounded like what probably was how the first trains called locomotives would sound like. I remembered hearing people say that's what tornadoes sounded like.

I rushed to the living room to see if I could see anything even though it was dark. I saw our big ole tractor tire rolling across the yard. So I rushed & got Heidi & Greggie to Billy's room with me. I don't know where my thinking was. Trailer's are not safe but then the idea of running outside & where to was not security to me. It didn't last but a few minutes but a lot of damage was done.

The next morning was sunny, bitterly cold, and more windy than ever. We had an apple tree in front of the house. I remember what all day the roots of that tree coming to surface several times. That was scarey watching the force of the wind blowing this tree to angles repeatedly. The day after that was a blizzard.

Our awning over the porch was blown off. portions of the wood fence was damaged, our block storage building was cracked enough for the need of replacement, and the attached carport was blown apart. Let alone surrounding damage on neighbor's property like the garage that was setting on the fence next to the girls' bedroom and one of Alice's big palm trees had been blown down. She was blessed with to damage due to the tree falling.

The next storm happened when Aunt Lori & Marsha were staying all nite. Grandma was probably in Montezuma. It was another sunny, windy spring day. Watches were out again. I had emergency provisions set up to grab this time & sitting in the back corner hallway ready to grab & run. My plan was to go to the block bldg (guess this was before the tornado incident). We were sitting at the table playing games in the kitchen. Had the radio on. Heidi was sittin in the wooden high chair. Billy wasn't here yet.

All of a sudden the storm warning sirens went off, I jumped up & started hollering instructions to everyone on what to grab & where to go. So we all scrambled but as I went to go out the door I happened to glance in the kitchen for a double check & there was Heidi still sitting in the high chair with big eyes & fear/confusion in her eyes. Poor Heidi , mom forgot to tell someone to grab her. So I grabbed her and ran to the storage bldg.

Amy, Marsha, & Lori were under a mattress. I didn't think Me & Heidi would fit so I found a cubby hole and climbed under the most cushioned sleeping bag we had. Poor Heidi was really scared & sure didn't want to be there in that dark/hot bag. She started crying then. All I could do was try to comfort her for the few minutes we were there while the sirens were on.

No storm came; we were safe and were all able to laugh about how we all scrambled & handled the whole thing. I think Heidi wouldn't sit in the high chair for the rest of the day.

Kids Can Sleep Thru Anything

When Heidi was born, she shared her bedroom with Amy. Their bedroom at one time, I believe, was a foyer to the house on Sherman/Clay. The door must have been moved over. Anyway, it was located between the living room and our bedroom. Amy & her friends played in the bedroom. I was never one to let a baby sleep on a regular bed alone. Sometimes, my babies & I would nap together on my bed. But it never bothered Heidi having Amy/playmates in the room while sleeping. This amazed me at the time.

When Amy was 9 mos old, we sent to the U of I Stadium to see the fireworks. The U of I was the most beautiful fireworks I'd ever seen (grandpa nixon always took us there when we were little) but boy it was loud!!!! I don't know how she ever slept thru it.

I will say though, that until Billy was over 2 yrs old, we always had to watch the fireworks in a nearby cornfield cause he couldn't stand the noise.

Billy did sleep through a tornado though. March 2nd, 1981 Billy slept through a tornado. We lived in our trailer; I'll say the noise really just sounded like a roaring locomotive. So maybe it was a peaceful sound. Our trailer, itself, didn't have any damage but the attaching porch and other damage was on the property (porch roof, tree damage, fence, block storage bldg & half garage attached.

To us awake, it was scarey.

Praying with Mom

Billy called the other morning wanting prayer for his tooth pull that was to be done later that day. It is so comforting to hear a child request a prayer with you. It confirms to you in your heart that talks to them about the Lord held dear in their hearts. Enough to want your prayers with them.

I can remember praying with the kids at nite when they were little. Particularly, when sick. Heidi had a few good earaches (which hurt the most at nite). I remember doing all that I could to try alleviate the pain in the world fashion. Then we had to ask help from above. I remember feeling the presence of the Lord when I prayed for her and sang Jesus Loves Me to her. I will testify that I don't remember a time when she didn't relax & fall asleep before I finished. The Lord heard our prayers.