We Are the Lightens

Birthday Cereal

2011-02-23T06:53:00.000-08:00

Remember when it got to be your birthday and you had the opportunity to choose your own sugar sweetened cereal? That was the only time of the year when we actually got to have the yummy sugar coated stuff. The rest of the year was basically Chex. The sad thing that used to bother me a lot was that when it was finally your birthday and you got to choose your favorite forbidden cereal you had to share it with the rest of your siblings...a one serving birthday cereal.

The bumpy road

2010-02-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

I was driving with my kids the other day, exiting the freeway onto Riverdale road. There is a bump that is just the perfect size that causes your tummy to flip. It totally reminded me of Dry Creek road and how mom would take us on the "bumpy road" and drive really fast!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

As tomorrow is Thanksgiving I was reminiscing about our family Thanksgivings in the gray house on Emerson. Roger and Wendy Castle were our only other family in Colorado so we always had thanksgiving with them. What I recall the most is the butt load of pies that mom & Wendy would make. Thanks a lot for the tradition! I am making pies right now!

Colorado Home

2009-11-25T10:01:00.001-08:00

Thank you Dan for an updated photo of our Colorado home. Most of us think of this home as the house we grew up in. Miss it! Miss being young!!!

Mom and food

2009-07-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

My story begins with Mom and her having no aversions to food and will not throw any food away, to save money of course. Anyhow, mom was making rice for dinner. I went into the kitchen and I see her sifting out something from the boiling water and throwing it in the sink. I go ask what she is doing and she said, "There was just some weevil in the rice, they are dead and I am just picking them out." I freaked out yelling, "Gross!" mom's reply, "DON'T TELL THE OTHER KIDS!" I obviously went around the house and told everyone. I don't think I ate the rice?

Matt & Scout Camp

2009-07-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

The previous story reminds me of Matt again. I remember that he would make money going to Scout Camp. He would go around finding the grossest things to eat. This was usually some nasty bugs or rotten food, things of this nature. Then he would go around asking other boys and scout leaders how much they would pay him if he ate it. Boys, well they'd offer .50 or a dollar, leaders usually much more, 10-20. All of these people did not realize that Matt would indeed eat whatever he showed them. I will have to ask Matt if he ate the items in a big production at the evening camp fire or right on the spot after a money value was settled.

Matt and Peb bee bee gun

2009-07-18T11:11:00.001-07:00

What is the story about Matt and Peb and the Bee bee gun?

I think I remember Matt told Peb that if he shot him in the bare butt he would give him $1. Trevor was all for it. Then Matt told Peb it would hurt less the closer he was to him. So I remember them in the back yard, Peb like three feet away pulls his pants down and Matt shoots. Peb screams and cries and has a "peb spaz" on Matt. Very funny!

Sleeping arrangements...Meg's crotch beeper

2009-07-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

I always remember that while I had my own bedroom most of my life at home, I always slept with Amy when she lived at home.

Then Megan and I slept together for years. Even though Megan would pee on me every night I would still sleep with her. Which reminds me of her Crotch beeper she would wear at night that she would snap to each side of her panties, then when she peed, it would make a loud alarm, supposed to scare her and train her not to pee her pants. Well we all know Megan and her deep sleeping, it NEVER woke her up, and she continued to pee on me...

Trevor and Chinese Prank calls

2009-07-18T11:02:00.001-07:00

Okay, I am a bad poster on here but I will try to do better. One of my fondest memories involves Peb. He went through a little phase where as soon as he got home from school he would get out the phone book. He would go to a section of chinese names like Chang, and he would mark with an X the people he called already. Then he would call them up in his fabulous chinese accent and tell them to come pick him up "at aaarrport." And he actually got some people to agree. (at least we think...)

Holiday Inn

2009-07-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

Anyone besides me remember this Holiday Inn play set? It was Grandma & Grandpa Bullocks and I first played with it when they lived in Concord CA. I think it might have been a new toy bought then (1975?) for visiting grandkids. I ♥'ed it!

An old photo

2009-05-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

This is dad and Uncle Rob in England on a summer day. So cute! Check out this swim shorts, and do you think they are trying to swim?

In the basement

2009-05-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Just thinking back to being a teenager. Heather and I would go down to her bedroom when it was in the basement. We would sit on the waterbed with our backs against the headboard listening to the:

playing.....

creating numerous...

We did this for HOURS and it was fantastic!

The Cleanest Bathroom Award!

2009-04-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Mom reminded me of this the other day, and I did find it rather funny. In order to inspire us to clean "our" bathrooms better she made the cleanest bathroom award. What it was, was a trophy she made by gluing a Little People toilet to a wood base and calling it the cleanest bathroom award. She would hand it to whomever demonstrated that their bathroom was the cleanest during the week and the person who had it from the week before would have to relinquish it to the new owner.

Mattys security blanket

2009-04-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

I remember way back when that Matt would carry around the Cookie Monster from the little people set. Mom even had to buy a whole new Little People Sesame street set when the Cookie Monster was lost!

Amber

2009-03-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

When looking over the list of past pets I was reminded of one of our bunnies, Amber. Mom had found a safe place for him to live when we moved to California at Uncle Rogers house. Roger ate him.

Speaking of bunnies. Once after our rabbits had a litter (are they called litters when they are bunnies?) Mom let Heather hold one in the kitchen, it was a bit scary for her as it moved around and well, heather dropped it. DEAD bunny. We were all a bit p-d at Heather and she was crying her eyes out, mom said the bunny fell out of Heathers hands. Not!

The BB Gun

2009-03-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

I am sure there are many more posts that this title could fit. Why on Earth did mom and dad buy Peb a BB gun? I vividly remember Peb in the third yard, down by the gate, bent over and bare aced letting Matt shoot at him for $5.

Christmas Bonding

2009-03-20T21:57:00.000-07:00

In the house on Emerson, there was an attic over the garage that you could get to through Peb's room. This is where mom and dad hid all of the Christmas presents. (Heather will have to tell her story about what she did one year with all the presents in the attic...). Well every Christmas Eve, or at least a couple, Peb would have to sleep in my room on the floor. Seeing as we disliked eachother so much, I would be so perplexed as to why they would force this on Christmas Eve...bless my little heart...

By the way, at Christmas, I remember loads and loads and loads of present under the tree, it seemed like a sea of gifts, mom and dad majorly hooked us up!

Freezing

2009-03-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

Heather and I shared a bed for as long as I can remember, even though we had our own rooms. When she was a teen and staying out late, she would come home and climb in bed where I was fast asleep, and put her freezing cold hands on my bare tummy! How mean!

Scripture Study

2009-03-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

I remember in the house on Emerson, I was probably 6, and everyone else would have to get up early in the morning to read the scriptures before school, but I was exempt because I was still sleeping. However, I would lean over on the top of the stairs and peek through at all you miserable people being forced to read, then climb back in my warm bed :)

The Last Fight

2009-03-20T21:45:00.001-07:00

Peb and I fought many a fight in our day. The last one I remember was in American Fork, Utah in the rental home we lived in while the house was being finished. I don't remember how it started, or what it was about, but I remember it ending with me standing next to Trevor's car outside holding his CD with a rock to it. He was standing in the doorway with my backpack upside down, still holding it shut, but ready to let it go. We stood still like this for a few seconds, and then I made the move, scratch! He dumped my bag and started chasing me...

Rich & the Brass Bell

2009-03-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

This bell looks very similar to the one we had. It was a brass bell that mom would often ring for dinner. There was a time when I was in 1st grade at Mark Twain Elementary. I was on the bus going home to the brown house (Wellington Street), I looked out the window of the bus and there was my mom on the side of the road. WHAT! Mothers are never in viewable sight out of the home when you are coming home on the bus. If they are there it means they are not at HOME! Anyhow, as the story goes, Rich was holding the brass bell and opened the door of the blue van and fell out. The bell just gashed the heck out for his little three year old chin. Mom said that she found someone to watch the rest of us kids so she could take him in for stitches. Mom said it was the most horrible thing to watch, those doctors washing out his chin. Needless to say, I think the bell was no longer seen......

Union Jack

2009-03-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

Anyone else remember this one? I had a flash today back to that slightly sticky Union Jack apron we once had.

Blue Alf

2009-02-24T08:59:00.001-08:00

Fifi, didn't you at one time have a dream about a blue Alf? Can you expand on that?

My Blue van memories

2009-02-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, this was the last blue van we had, maybe grey-blue? I remember late one night Amy driving me home from King Soopers, there was silver rack thing on top of the van. I was laying on top of the van holding on for dear life while Amy would go faster and faster. Stupid?

The Mustang

2009-02-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am sure mom & dad remember this car. I know once Heather was born in a time before car seats she went in her carrier on the floor of the passenger side. Safety! Anyhow, I remember back at the Wellington St. address that I would put rocks in the holes in the wheels. Mom would back out and hear the rocks rolling in the wheels and get mad!

Looking for keys

2009-02-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

I was small, I'd say 4 0r 5. Rich and Dan 2 or 3. We lived in the brown house on Wellington. Mom had the blue van all packed and ready to go again to Utah I assume. Dad got home and we were ready to go. Now, the keys. I guess Rich or Dan had them and now they were gone. I don't know how long we searched but I do remember that mom & dad had us get together and pray that we would find the keys. I then recall that we all were walking around the front yard and there they were in the grass. To me it was my very first spiritual experience of prayer and faith. Click on "View Larger Map"

View Larger Map

Van entertainment

2009-02-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

Oh, me me me! I get to make the first post! Okay, first story. I remember riding in the back of our blue ford van on a trip to (I assume Utah). This was our first van after the mustang went the way of old horses. I think like a 1970 model. Anyhow, Mom had made curtains so we could sleep and a denim cover for the back seat that she could put games, toys, color books etc in to entertain us. I reached in an pulled up......a Ziploc bag full of pee. I guess one of the boys either couldn't wait or just wanted to pee in it. Nice!