A Few Memories of the Green House

The house was not always green! In fact for most of our eleven years living there it was...brown, light brown, pinkish, taupe. Anyway, one day we decided to paint it. I was to pick the color and I wanted to live in a green house. To me, many green houses in town were so pretty. So I looked at the swatches and decided that my favorite shade was Barbados Green. Why did I not heed the warning of the name? As soon as a significant amount was applied to the house, I knew I was in trouble. I was horrified. Although I loved the color, it was almost obsene on a house! I decided that I would just go ahead and love it, endure the shocked looks on all our friends' faces, and pretend it was the best choice ever. There was nothing else to do.
Soon thereafter, it came time to sell it and we closed a deal in 45 days! A Mexican family (who still lives there and are good friends with us) bought it right away. In America, house colors were going more trendy, earthy, quiet tones while in Mexico are bright and festive colors. Of course they would love it. Funny thing, though, within a year they had new siding put on, the kind that requires no painting. It turned out to be the same color as the house before the Barbados Green!

One of the clearest memories I have is the creation of the game: Hide the person. It was preceded by a game we had been playing called Hide the Van. There were tons of hiding places in that house. The closets had drawers under them and there were plenty of beds and dressers. After exhausting all of that, the hiding places became more sophistocated. I stopped playing as I watched Dad increase the risk to your safety to get the "perfect" spot.

After fifteen years and seven kids, we got a dishwasher (which was no longer me!). We saved $100 a month for four months and paid cash. This was my ticket to sound mental health. I seriously loved my dishwasher nearly as much as I loved my children. I could never figure out, though, why loading it was the least popular job of you kids. I collasped in abject joy at the thought of placing dirty dishes in a machine and taking them out perfectly clean.

I got a phone call one day from the Times Standard. They wanted to feature our family in the paper because we were a functional large family, native to Eureka. I remember all of us sitting around and she (I can't remember her name anymore) asking us all kinds of questions about being in a big family. All you guys sat on the couch (Jared and Rachel were draped accross the back) and were not too wiggly, but you all answered her which impressed her so much that the article turned out very good.

How can I ever forget the big earthquake? The older children and Dad were somewhere up Fern Canyon at the time. As the tremor increased, I took the little ones under the kitchen table. I don't ever panic but rather enjoy earthquakes and this was no different. This had a calming effect on every one but little Naomi. She buried her face in my lap so hard the she was just short of climbing inside my body! She refused to budge, not making a peep. The earth shuddered for a good half hour, or maybe we just kept feeling the rocking motion. After some time, I lifted Naomi up. She had fallen asleep, still pressed firmly into my legs and was feverish. We all felt bad for her.

One year, all you kids got your money together and bought a room for our anniversary. You also offered to babysit for that night. It was a wonderful time at the Carter House Inn. When we came home the next day, the entire livingroom floor was completely covered in blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, stuffed animals, bowls, toys, etc. Even though I was eight month pregnant and the room was ridiculous, I remember enjoying cleaning, thinking that this will be a great story to tell someday.