They Were Right.

So.. I guess to start this off.... I have to start at the beginning...
Well... Maybe not THAT beginning. I don't want to bore you through my baby and toddler years that even I can't remember....

How awful would THAT be!?

So instead I'll start with the basics about my family before I dive into all of this...

I come from a family of four.

A mom, Julie.

A dad, Bannon.

A sister, Katie.

And, of course.... My adorable self.

My family is small. As a child I used to hear stories of these large families with twenty-five cousins and four aunts and ten uncles and great-aunts and great-great grandmothers...
My family.. My immediate close family... I can count on two hands.
My mom's father died when I was a baby so I only know my Grammie.
My dad's parents are Grandaddy and Muther. He also has a sister... My Aunt Joy who was married to my Uncle James.
That's it. That's my family. Not a lot to remember... and Holidays are WAY easier this way.

We hail from a small town in North-East Texas where the population is about the size of the numbers of fingers and toes on my immediate family. The local Wal-Mart is a big deal there.
However, we moved away when I was a baby to a town slightly larger than that of the previous and this trend actually continued again after my sister was born. When I was starting elementary school we moved to a significantly more populated area... But this place was considered "The country"...

My childhood? That was happy. Sure.. I may have whined and complained...

Stomped my feet and threw fits....

Fought with my sister...

And made my parents INSANE....

But.. I was happy. ..
And so was the rest of my family.

Some of my most fond memories are the silliest ones... Monsters under the bed.. Crazy birthday parties sponsored by my incredibly creative mother... Climbing to the top of the tree in our backyard and giving our mother a heart attack...  Playing ridiculous games that involved a round-about fireplace, running around it in circles and all the while our parents shot hair ties as us as from the couch as we zipped by. (What..? You didn't do that?!)
There was also playing hide and go seek in the dark.. And having our parents scare the devil out of us for fun...

There was lots of laughter in my childhood.

But then again... As children we only think our parents are unfair and that they're out to make us unhappy.

Life got harder after childhood when we moved to a less-country place...
And I'm still not sure I handled it all correctly...

However... My parents are great parents..

I've never told them this to their face and... God knows I can't until I'm speaking to an urn of ashes, bawling my eyes out, wiping snot off my hands and I have children of my own... But...

The truth is... My parents were right... About everything.