A Kodak Moment
I left work early today - I had barely put in two hours before my stomach started feeling queasy and my head was began to throb like it does before I get a migraine. A no-brainer to go home, but still I felt bad.
As I lay in my bed trying to utilize the whole "mind over matter" thing, I told myself to think back and remember one of the happiest days of my life. This is what came to mind.
I was at Chub Lake in Carlton, Minnesota - a little farming community just outside the town in which I lived, which wasn't much bigger, but I thought it was big-city in comparison! My four kids and I were ecstatic, playing in the water and splashing each other and I believe I did not have a care in the world - except maybe that my hair didn't get entirely wet as I remember feeling like I looked damn good that day!
Yasmina looked so pretty and she had even let me braid her hair - something that was happening less and less the older she got. I was always really fussy about her hair. I always remembered when I was little, that my mother never had time to fix mine (four kids and three of them girls) and I felt bad that it was always loose and unkempt - compared to the other girls my age. I suppose that's why I was always so intent that Yasmina always had her hair up and the same with Amelia all these years later.
But back to my memory - it was such beautiful day! The sun was warm and bright and I had slathered my kids with water-proof sunscreen and I teased them that they looked like greased little piglets! Mathew grinned at me and asked if they were piglets, what was I? I remember thinking he was always a step ahead of me and too smart for his own good! I probably told him as much too, now that I think about it. Mychal's fair skin showed the outline of the little tank tops I always put him in - he and Jeren were almost always dressed alike - nowadays they dress completely opposite!
My littlest boys were babies still, but they were having so much fun - and Jeren would start to scream if he thought I was going to remove him from the water! Mychal characteristally just enjoyed himself and didn't utter a word, but I could see by his face that he was as much in seventh heaven as I was.
We played and we played and I was just as much a kid as all of they were. I had always loved the water even though I was secretly afraid of drowning in it; and even though I made sure we didn't stray too far from the shore, I still felt like I was in the middle of the big deep ocean that surrounded Puerto Rico.
It was a glorious day, and we were all wrinkled by the time we returned to shore and our awaiting picnic lunch. We had bologna and ham sandwiches, chips, dip and oreo cookies - Mathew's choice of menu - he had gotten to pick that day and was he ever proud of it! We huddled together in towels and hungrily munched down our feast before going back for just a little longer and then calling it a day.
Like always, I brought my camera that afternoon, but I was having too much fun to think about pictures. However, a lady who saw us playing together in the water commented that it would make for a good photo to put in an album, so I quickly motioned to our blanket and pointed out my camera. And look! It really was a Kodak moment, and one I will never forget and I am forever grateful to the kind person who offered to preserve it for me.
As I lay in my bed trying to utilize the whole "mind over matter" thing, I told myself to think back and remember one of the happiest days of my life. This is what came to mind.
I was at Chub Lake in Carlton, Minnesota - a little farming community just outside the town in which I lived, which wasn't much bigger, but I thought it was big-city in comparison! My four kids and I were ecstatic, playing in the water and splashing each other and I believe I did not have a care in the world - except maybe that my hair didn't get entirely wet as I remember feeling like I looked damn good that day!
Yasmina looked so pretty and she had even let me braid her hair - something that was happening less and less the older she got. I was always really fussy about her hair. I always remembered when I was little, that my mother never had time to fix mine (four kids and three of them girls) and I felt bad that it was always loose and unkempt - compared to the other girls my age. I suppose that's why I was always so intent that Yasmina always had her hair up and the same with Amelia all these years later.
But back to my memory - it was such beautiful day! The sun was warm and bright and I had slathered my kids with water-proof sunscreen and I teased them that they looked like greased little piglets! Mathew grinned at me and asked if they were piglets, what was I? I remember thinking he was always a step ahead of me and too smart for his own good! I probably told him as much too, now that I think about it. Mychal's fair skin showed the outline of the little tank tops I always put him in - he and Jeren were almost always dressed alike - nowadays they dress completely opposite!
My littlest boys were babies still, but they were having so much fun - and Jeren would start to scream if he thought I was going to remove him from the water! Mychal characteristally just enjoyed himself and didn't utter a word, but I could see by his face that he was as much in seventh heaven as I was.
We played and we played and I was just as much a kid as all of they were. I had always loved the water even though I was secretly afraid of drowning in it; and even though I made sure we didn't stray too far from the shore, I still felt like I was in the middle of the big deep ocean that surrounded Puerto Rico.
It was a glorious day, and we were all wrinkled by the time we returned to shore and our awaiting picnic lunch. We had bologna and ham sandwiches, chips, dip and oreo cookies - Mathew's choice of menu - he had gotten to pick that day and was he ever proud of it! We huddled together in towels and hungrily munched down our feast before going back for just a little longer and then calling it a day.
Like always, I brought my camera that afternoon, but I was having too much fun to think about pictures. However, a lady who saw us playing together in the water commented that it would make for a good photo to put in an album, so I quickly motioned to our blanket and pointed out my camera. And look! It really was a Kodak moment, and one I will never forget and I am forever grateful to the kind person who offered to preserve it for me.