Weird Kids

Looking back at my childhood, it's a wonder sometimes how my sisters and I turned out so normal (relatively speaking, of course). 

Carrie and I especially were odd. Quite odd.

 When most little girls our age were playing princess or teacher, we made witches' potions in the backyard. We would fill our turtle sandbox with water, mud, leaves, bugs, and whatever else we could find, and pretend we were evil witches, and the strange backyard concoction was our potion.

We were also quite maniacal. Well, to be honest, I was maniacal. Carrie just went along with my evil schemes. 

We used to torment our older sisters, Daisy and Jeannine, by getting into their makeup while they were at school, so our mom put a little lock on the outside of their door. But that led to more shenanigans when we realized that we could lock them in their room. We'd wait until they were in there doing homework,lock the door, then tell mom that they were being mean to us. When she'd call them, they couldn't get out and got in even more trouble! Ha! 

(Sorry guys.)

And now, the piece de resistance. This is the weirdest of the weird. 

This is the reason Carrie and I didn't have any other friends besides each other.

This story takes place when I was about 7, making Carrie about 6. Our dad built us a little clubhouse out of spare wood, complete with working windows, shingles on the roof, and a peep-hole for when we played speak-easy.

He painted the outside and we decorated the inside with crayons. Instead of drawing flowers and butterflies like any other normal little girls, we used all the red crayons to draw a large blood stain on the wall. We then filled a pillowcase with stuffed animals and invited the one family of neighborhood kids to come over. We closed all the windows, sat them on the pillowcase (makeshift couch), and told them the chilling story of Wang and Chang, the siamese twins. One day, Wang woke up and found Chang, his other half, dead. The shock and horror of discovering half of himself dead, killed him as well. The kids were obviously terrified.
We then informed the kids that they were siting not on a couch, as they had assumed, but Wang and Chang's body. And then we showed them the blood on the wall. Needless to say, they ran home crying and weren't allowed to play with us anymore.

We didn't care, they were lame.

Ship of Theseus

For Christmas, my Jeannine-sister gave me a really cool book, called S. by J.J. Abrams. It kinda blew my mind when I first opened it up.

Here's a summary:

"There's a whole lot going on within the formidable book package known as S. After removing the shrink-wrap, you find a book holster, inside of which is the novel, Ship of Theseus, attributed to one V.M. Straka. Flipping through the pages, you notice that they all feature seemingly handwritten notes in the margins, amounting to a dialogue between two students passing the book back and forth. Like a hastily assembled briefcase, there are clippings, postcards and other assorted ephemera scattered about, physically wedged in between pages. Finally, while reading the introduction to Ship of Theseus, it becomes clear that these students are enmeshed in the mystery of the book’s authorship, one that has supposedly daunted scholars for decades."

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3021011/inside-jj-abrams-brain-bending-book-within-a-book

Basically, it's a book within a book, surrounded in several different mysteries.

There's the novel itself, and the strange circumstances surrounding its main character, a man only known as "S."

Then there's the mystery of the identity, life, and alleged crimes of the author, V. M. Straka. 

Then there's the story of the two students written in the margins.

Guys, this book is intense!

I honestly haven't been this excited reading a new book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And that's saying something. 

If you have the chance, I highly recommend this book!

A conversation

We spent the afternoon at my sister's house yesterday. The girls had a blast with their cousins, and didn't want to leave. This is the conversation I had with Portia on the way home.

Portia: I wanted to sleep at Dahlia's house.

Me: I know, Sweety, maybe next time we can have a sleepover. But we gotta go home so Daddy can go to work tomorrow. He has to go home and get his work clothes.

Portia: But Dahlia's house has a pool.

Can't argue with that logic.

May Blogging Challenge- Memory! All alone in the moonlight!

You ready for this?

Day 31: A vivid memory

One of my most vivid memories is actually one of my oldest.

It takes place when my family lived in Indiana, so I must have been around 2 or 3 years old.

I remember my whole family, cousins, aunts and uncles, all being over at our house. We lived in an old yellow farmhouse, and the adults were all inside talking and the kids all went outside to catch fireflies. I remember that I was wearing a purple shirt, and I was standing next to my Jeannine-sister and my cousin, Ryan, in the little yard on the left side of the house..

I remember that I had to run inside to go to the bathroom, and I was trying to hurry so that I wouldn't miss any of the fun outside. What I didn't know is that while I was in the bathroom, all the kids decided to come inside. Jeannine and Daisy had just gotten new beds, and they all came inside to see them.

I finished up in the bathroom and hurried back outside. By that time it had gotten really dark, and when I realized that I was all alone, I was so scared. I remember feeling stuck, like I was frozen outside. I have no clue why I didn't just go back inside, but I was very little. And people who are very little sometimes don't think clearly. I started to cry, and I remember looking up at the moon, because it was the lightest thing out there in the dark, and I was afraid of the dark.

Eventually, someone came out and found me (I seem to think it was Jeannine), and they said "Cassy, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" I had never been so happy so see someone in my small little life. I remember feeling suddenly very safe and calming down pretty fast. And then I remember going in with whoever found me in to see the new beds.

On another note:

It's in another language, but you get the jist.

Allen

So I have a nephew named Allen, who is super cool. He reads J. K. Rowling and J. R. R. Tolkien. He has the entire Homestar Runner website memorized. He makes Star Wars origami.

He's seriously one of my best friends.

Siblings

Today is National Sibling Day!
I was blessed with three wonderful sisters, who I adore.
Let me tell you about them!

Daisy is the oldest, and is quite a force to be reckoned with. She is eloquent an organized, and absolutely gorgeous. Spitting image of Audrey Hepburn, no joke. Daisy is the fiercest friend ever. I know that no matter what happens, she will always stand by me. Loyalty at it finest. Plus, she has a pretty sweet house.

Jeannine is incredible. She can be quiet and soft spoken at first, but has the sharpest wit in the room. She is classically beautiful, intelligent, and probably the most gifted artist alive. Jeannine and I can sit up and talk for hours and never run out of things to say. She is awesome!

Carrie is pretty much my other half. She and I are only 18 months apart, and I consider myself to be the luckiest girl jn the world to have her as my sister. She is beautiful and clever and thoughtful, and has the most toned buns you will ever see. She's way cooler than me, way smarter than me, and way funnier than me. But we still hang out. The hardest I've ever laughed in my life is when Carrie and I were together. I loce you, Larry.

Vacay Part 3, or Six Flags and Jim!

After dying and going to heaven in South Padre, we shook the sand off, loaded up the car, and drove for what seemed like forever back to Dallas. And we couldn't leave Dallas without going to Six Flags again, could we?
Margot wasn't feeling well, so Brandon stayed back in the hotel with her, and the rest of us headed to the park. This time around, it was freezing, and there were no lines! Portia was a bit braver too, and rode pretty much all the rides she was big enough for! She had a blast!

By noon, we were all hungry and cold, and the kids were done. We left the park and went to lunch. Afterwards, the kids and dads hung out at the hotel, and Jeannine and I got to go play till our hearts content at Six Flags. We rode everything that we could! We stayed until the park closed and we were frozen solid! But it was so fun!

The next morning, we loaded up and drove to Tulsa, dropped the kiddos off with babysitters and went to go see Jim Gaffigan in concert. He's a great comedian, very funny! He does a lot of food jokes, so you know I love him!

And with that, our vacation ended. We are home now, and I'm dreaming about the beach! I can't wait to go back!

Vacay Part 2, or South Padre!

Lotsa pictures coming up guys, lotsa pictures!
You ready? Here we go!

From San Antonio, we drove about 6 hours to South Padre Island, aka My New Favorite Place Ever. It was gorgeous!

We rented a little condo right on the beach. 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, a huge living room and kitchen, and a sweeeet balcony overlooking the water.

The view form our balcony.

I'm a little excited, can you tell?

We arrived Sunday night, and stayed until Thurday morning. And we spent every moment we could on the beach! Here are a few beach shots!

mmmmmm apples!

After about 6 minutes, I had the worst sunburn ever. I spent a lot of my time sitting under the umbrella, all covered up. 

One morning, we woke up to jellyfish! This is actually a Portugese Man'O'War.

I love the ocean. I wish I could go back already! We had a blast, just soaking up the sun, or in my case, frying like a lobster.
Let the peeling commence!

Vacay Part 1, or Six Flags x2!

Well folks, we have officially been home from our vacation for 3 days, and I'm still trying to get the sand out of our stuff! Not that I'm complaining, we had a blast! 
Oh, you wanna hear about it?
Well, here you go!


Last Thursday morning, we met up with my Jeannine-sister and her family, and drove down to Dallas. We checked into our hotel about noon, and quickly headed off to Six Flags!  
It was interesting, as we had 6 kids with us, but they did pretty good! It was about 1000 degrees, and there were about 4 billion people there, so the lines for all the rides were ridiculous. Portia was big enough to ride all the kiddie rides, but she was too scared. She rode a few rides, the log flume and the airplane one. You know, you sit in a little airplaine and it spins you around like you're really flying. She was really happy while we were on it, but as soon as the ride ended, she was miserable again. 
We took the kids back to the hotel after a few hours, and Jeannine and I stayed with them while the dads went back to Six Flags to play. Then around bedtime, the dads relieved us and Jeannine and I went and rode a few rides. It was pretty awesome! 
There are no pictures of this day, because every time I paused anywhere, the crazy masses of people started shoving the stroller. No joke, at one point, a woman actually pushed my stroller for me in an attempt to get me to walk faster. I was not amused.
The next morning, we all packed up and drove down to San Antonio. We checked into another hotel, and headed off to the other Six Flags. Oh yeah. You wish you were us.

It wasn't as crazy this time around, there seemed to be just as many people, but no one was freaking out. That makes a huge difference. Portia and Margot got to ride one ride, the train.

Classic.

After that, things all went downhill. The girls were DONE. They were so tired and hot and cranky, and so furious at the world because of it.

Here's Portia holding Daddy's hand, because she was getting real dramatic.

Aaaaaaand Margot.

So we bid farewell to Jeannine and her kids, and headed back to the hotel early. They stayed at the park till it closed and had a blast! We were thrilled to go watch cartoons.

This is before we even got out of the parking lot of the park.

We ate dinner, and went to bed, excited for a day of driving to come! 

Sisters

We were slightly goofy as kids

But grew up to be pretty cute!

Buuuuut we still know how to pull out weird faces!

our holidays

It's been awhile since I've been able to post; the holidays were busy for us! What's that? You wanna hear all about it? Why, I thought you'd never ask!

Rewind about a month, to about the second week of December. Can you see it? The stores were still blasting Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole, camera-armed Santa Stations dotted every mall in the country, and the Rawlinsons were gearing up for our holiday travels!

First, we drove to Tulsa, to visit our parents. We stopped at my parents' house first, for the Annual O'Dell Grandkids Christmas Party. For those of you who aren't aware, there are 11 grandkids on my side of the family. As you can imagine, all of us getting together for Christmas is a little difficult. So, my mom and little sister came up with a plan. Every year, everyone joins together for one evening for some awesome kid-centered holiday fun! We decorate cookies, open gifts, look at Christmas lights, we go all out.
This year, we went bowling! The kids loved it! We then drove to Rhema to see the lights.

Carrie and I at the bowling alley. Something exciting must have been happening. Probably a strike.

 Me, Carrie, and Daisy, and the back of Margot's chubby little head.

My cute parents. 

There aren't many pictures of my kids, as they were too excited to stand still. Fun times!

Next, we headed to Brandon's parents house for a week. We celebrated Christmas early, and the girls made out like kings! They got Little People, Barbies, new jammies and outfits, and tons more. They were in heaven! This was the first Christmas that Margot was old enough to really know what was going on, so she was really excited.

Next, we drove 15 hours to LaGrange, IN to visit my extended family. It was a surprise, only my Aunt Peg knew we were coming, and she kept a really good secret! It was so much fun to visit everyone, especially since I haven't seen most of my cousins in years! Plus, my girls got to meet a whole new group of kids their age to play with! Woohoo! 

Portia, decorating cookies.

Tuckered out. Brandon and my dad.

My grandpa. I like him.

My beautiful grandmother.

Next, we drove back to my Daisy-sister's house. She and her husband have been married for 15 years, and to celebrate, flew to Paris and London for 9 days. We watched their kids and house-sat while they were away. They had a blast, and got to do this:

which was very important.

After that, we drove back to Tulsa, where we relaxed for a few days, then drove to my Jeannine-sister's house for a night, where we relaxed some more!

At this point, we had been away from home for a month, so away we went! 

It was so fun and exciting to travel all over, but boy is it good to be home!