Allowance

I also remember that it was the Smart family who told our family that their accountant told them you could pay your kids and get a tax write off. So Dad said we were getting paid for our work. At the end of the month we drove to the bank with our checks. We were so excited. We signed our checks and dad collected all the money and deposited it right back into his account. Dang, we hadn't thought of that. Later they had a tax audit and had to pay back what they had saved plus interest and penalties cuz it wasn't legit. Ha Ha Mom and Dad, that'll teach ya.

from kelly...

I remember having to puke during prayer. All I could think of is how your not suppose to move or open your eyes so I held my skirt up and puked in it. We were in front by the exit door. Dad hauled me out by my hair and stood me up against the corner of the building and lowered my head "puking position" so I could get a visual of the more appropriate way to have handled the puking during prayer incident.

I can't remember if he actually hauled me out "by my hair" but I added it for the effect.

Kelly about Karley

Sounds like something I'd do to Mike's kids. But only after they have dropped it 20 hundred times. Maybe you've forgotten that part, cuz David and Karley would only remember the embarrassing part too.
I was late getting home and I just wanted a quick cup of coffee, the line is long and there was a friend in line (who goes on and on and on and on and I was trying to shorten the conversation and it wasn't working and I was stressing inside) and all the while I'm hearing Karley say "Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get
something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get
something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something, Kelly can I get something.
And so instead of calmly saying yes or one moment please. I finally blow and scream and it echoes throughout the building: KARLEY! CANT YOU SEE I'M TALKING TO SOMEONE! and the whole place goes completely silent the machines stop and everyone looks at me like "oh my" and the lady who is also a step mom, is looking at me like "who are you, you big mean crazy lady, the poor child just wants to get something".

Kasey's "boys I liked, but got embarrassed by dad" stories.

#1: I for some reason was in love with Justin Chase (yes I get it 'just in case' ha ha). Anyway...I was playing with my fake rubber snake (Kylee Reed's dad bought it for me so don't go thinking that I was bought a toy by dad). Justin Chase walked by and I called him a name (I looooved him, okay). He came up to me and pulled at my snake, I also pulled trying to keep it. It broke. Of course, never having any toys I was heart broken, I ran to my father at the apartment's garage. I cried to him telling him Justin broke my snake. Dad called Justin over, he said that I had called him a name. Dad gave ME a spanking. Justin Chase looked at me like he could not believe it. I remember being more embarrassed that I cried really hard in front of him, than of the actual beating. I have hated Justin Chase's guts ever since.

#2: When we were working on the old kingdom hall in I'Falls. I thought Terry Bleau (Gabe's dad) was so cute, I think I was 8 years old. I thought he thought I was so great, so he was teasing me and I was laughing and joking with him, I called him a pig. I don't know why I did, but I remember thinking I was so cute. Anyway, Terry was mad that I called him a name. Dad told him he had permission to spank me. So he took me over his knee and spanked me. I was so embarrassed that Terry would actually take dad up on his offer, dad offered that all the time, to this day, Terry is the only one who ever did it. I could have died. The whole neighborhood, all the people helping with the hall saw. I wanted to crawl into a hole.

stories

We used to drive around in a club cab pick up truck. There were eight of us, mom, dad and six kids. Mom and dad sat in the bucket seats, two kids sat on the tiny fold out seats in the back, one kid sat on a wood seat dad built for between the bucket seats in the front, and the rest of us just sort of crammed in wherever else we could.

Our favorite game at the cabin was when dad took a rope and tied a plastic orange sled behind the green monster station wagon. His job was to make us spill and land face down in the ditch. With two or three kids in the sled, it was pretty easy. The more snow down your coat, the more crumpled and upside down your body, the more dad laughed.

The first time my dad took my brother hunting, when Pete was about four, they were around a mile from home, and my brother turned to my dad and said, "maybe one of us oughta keep mom safe at home." So my dad pulled over and let Pete walk home.

In those days, dad had a pigeon coop. I guess he still does, anyways, when my brother was five years old my dad sent him in there to get what he thought was a crow that had gotten in there and was stuck and couldn't get out. Pete was in there for a really long time, but my dad figured he was OK. When he emerged, bloody and scratched to bits, holding an owl upside down by the leg, my dad felt kind of bad. Or maybe proud, that his little boy became a man after killing an owl with his bare (maybe mittened) hands. -And owls are nasty creatures.

kasey posinoski

Well, at least I was Dad's favorite.

This reminded me of something...

When Kady & Kasey were little - 3- to 5-ish, Mom decided to buy a wading pool. It was really cool. It was green and had a little built-in slide and either had a big turtle or frog design. It wasn't just a plain wading pool, but was molded and really neat. Anyway, when you buy your kids a pool, drive a stationwagon and have 6 children, including some tweens and teens, how would YOU get your pool home from K-Mart all the way to the South Falls Apartments??

Well, Mom put the pool upside down on the top of the station wagon and had Keri and I (and maybe Kelly?) stand in the back of the stationwagon (our feet inside the car) with our upper bodies outside through the back window and hold the pool in place on the roof.

I will never forget driving down main street International Falls, holding the pool for dear life and screaming at mom to slow down, because the force of the air on the front of the car was blowing the pool up and threatening to blow it along with us (since we would never have let go!) off and out of the car and onto the street. It did get home, and there are many pics of us all enjoying it in our backyard.