Living on the Furry Farm

Unconventional wisdom

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes whomever with a baby carriage………………………..well that’s the way it’s supposed to work and for the most part, did with both my daughters, Christina and Kimberly.  As their mother, I was sometimes frowned upon due to my unconventional way of thinking about parenting, dating, the use of  the phone and then what to do with the man of your dreams.

As a matter of fact, the reason that I haven’t blogged in a week is due to the fact that we now have our first grandchild on the way and I was visiting Christina and Michael for the first sonogram and assist with the “baby registry” items.  We literaly “wanded” our lives away with that UPC coder thingy!  I think the two of them are ready “ item wise”, but they will soon find out, if they are ready “parent wise” around the end of May or beginning of June.

Phillip did not grow up with any sisters.  He had two other brothers.  With both of us coming from broken homes, we didn’t have the best role models to follow, but perhaps that was a good thing.  We learned “what not to do” when raising a child.  When Christina was born and there were no instructions written on her heel or attached to her ankle, we were quite certain we had our work cut out for us.  Kimberly will undoubtedly say I am absolutely correct in this statement, but each child is different and perfect, dispite their faults or those that teach them, by mistake of course!

My motto to the girls was that “If you should turn out wrong, don’t blame me.  I’m doing the best job I can with the knowledge I have” and I stuck to that motto.  All-in-all, I think we did a pretty good job.

When the girls were little, Phillip taught the girls that all boys were, well, “YUCKY!”, except for Daddy because he didn’t count.  As they got older and started asking to bring boys to the house to meet us, because that was always one of the rules, he would introduce himself and then introduce the guys to the gun cabinet identifying exactly which gun was going to take them down, should they lay one hand on his daughter or harm them in any way.  I stood beside Phillip 100%.   Worked pretty well!

Of course as they grew even older in high school and into college, we told the girls that it was much different living with someone than it was dating them and if they truly fell in love, to try living with the man of their dreams first.  Unconventional wisdom at its finest.  Both girls followed along with this plan.  Kimberly feel madly in love with someone that we honestly thought she was going to marry.  They lived together for a good while and even moved twice.  That is a huge strain on a relationship, especially while she was still in college and flying back and forth to see us in Japan and then they broke up.  Her call.  Kimberly dated quite a few guys looking for her prince, but only lived with two.  She feel in love with Christopher while she was still in college, they bought a home together, she graduated and they have been married since November of 2008.

Christina on the other hand, dated two guys, one in junior high that robbed our house.  Phillip didn’t have the opportunity to shoot him because he was away at a school, but Christina slapped him so hard, it was the slap heard round the world!  She was so hurt and felt terrible that we had been violated.  The second guy she feel in love with, she met in the 9th grade, while stationed in Japan.  His parents were in the Army.  We left before they did and Christina and Michael had a long distance relationship for two years.  She moved to the west coast after high school graduation and they went to college together, got an apartment and stayed there for several years.  She worked her way up through the financial industry and was promoted to assistant manager, but the offer was in Atlanta, GA.  The company moved them and they bought their first home together.  They got married after 14 years of courting on 070707 at 070707 PM in our front yard.  They are the ones expecting the baby later this spring.  At least one thing was conventional about the relationship.

As we were “wanding” for baby items the other day, Christina came across the cutest pair of little rubber boots with frogs on them and she commented that she could just see her little one running across the farm in those boots after the chickens and goats and all the other furry creatures. 

Life comes full circle with your children and all you ever really want for them is health and happiness, money is just a plus……………..but you can be just as happy as long as you fully enjoy and love what you have.  Life is good.

Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment