Mother's 114th Birthday

Good Morning Merry Sunshine!

Baby Kathryn 1911

That is what my mother would say to me as her morning greeting,
especially if I had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.

"Good Morning Merry Sunshine".
Oh how that irritated me as I got older. 
I feel sad thinking about that now...

I also remember a favorite song of hers, "You Are My Sunshine".  
That was the first song I learned to play on the electric organ.

Thank goodness it wasn't the accordion...
Like my brother Billy!
 

Billy
                                          

She wanted her children to be happy. 

I know she rarely was. Life had been difficult for her. 
Losing her mother at just 13 and not being able to go off to college,
as her two siblings had.  She was a child of the Great Depression.

Kathryn

Mother's father had lost a leg in a rollover accident. 
A wagon rollover. The mule pulling the wagon lay on its side 
(in the ditch for hours) and didn't move until help came. 
If it had moved it would have killed my grandfather.

My mother, aunt, and uncle. 

After that, my grandmother went back to college and got another degree so she could support her family. She became one of the very first female doctors in Washington State. That was a real accomplishment (for a woman) at the turn of the century. 

Dr. Sarah Gibson

Her career didn't last long. She died after a car accident 

(no seat belts back then).
She was sent into surgery and never came out.

My mother found out at school... on her first day of 8th grade.
Not a good start to the new school year.
The picture below shows her a few years later with her 

very stylish "Flapper" hairdo.

Kathryn age 16

Mother didn't get to go to college as her brother and sister had.   

The Depression had made that impossible.
She worked and put herself through nursing school. 
That was not her choice, but what was available.
 
I am sad to say I have no idea what she had aspired to be.
I do know that she was artistic and loved poetry.

Kathryn at Nursing School Graduation

Mother was born in 1911.
She had me late in life. A surprise at 40.
I think maybe it was also a slight embarrassment.

She was a R.N. and worked on the maternity ward.
She worked her shift the day I was born. I think she needed to
as she was working full time to help support the family.

She did the best she could...

She would have been 114 years old today.

She died at 97.

Kathryn age 97

I hesitate somewhat to show this last picture.
Mother was slightly vain about her looks.
Saddened by the fact that she lost her beauty early on. 
That's what a hard life can do to you.

Happy Birthday, Mother.

It was hard, but I did love you.



xoxo 

Bunny Jean

(This story was edited and reposted to reflect the current date.)

1O1 Years Old Today

Today would have been 

my mother's birthday. 
July 3, 1911

 She would have been 101 years old.

This is my mother and father.


My father was an amateur photographer 
and developed his own photos.

This is one that he took of my mother and their first son Billy.
They are dressed up in drapery... posing as immigrants.
My father was  an artistic and  creative man.

I wrote a post  last year for her 100 birthday 
and it has more wonderful pictures 
and a short story about her life.

If you missed reading it and have the time, 
you just might enjoy taking at look.
(100th birthday)

Thank you for visiting me today, and allowing me to share some of my history with you.

xoxo 
Bunny Jean

Turning Six!

What a great way to start off 

the month of June.

Someone in my family is celebrating her 6th birthday...

Someone who LOVES to get prettied up!

Someone who loves sunglasses and shoes.

Someone who loves to look stylish.

Someone who loves to go camping.

Someone who is just TUTU cute!

Happy Birthday Riley!

Someone I love VERY much!

I wish I could be there to give her 

BIG hugs and LOTS of kisses!

XOXOXOXOXO

BTW...

This is her mother... and my first born. 

Tammi 2012

It is so hard to believe this little girl of mine has 

FIVE children and is going to be a GRANDMOTHER. 

She still looks like a teenager... 

and she is over 40!

xoxo

Bunny Jean

Happy Birthday To... Me!

My birthday invitation from 3rd or 4th grade

Today is my birthday.
I am 60 years old.
Sixty.

I might start to believe it if I say it enough. 
Yes, I definitely look older... I notice that every day!
But I just don't feel like I have really ever grown up inside. 

Like many children, I had to grow up way too soon in so many ways. 
But I still feel like I never REALLY grew up.

I have gone through my childhood pictures to make 
this post and it brought back an abundance of feelings.

Some good, and some not so good.

If I had to do it over again I would try to know myself. 
To appreciate  what makes me... me.

To feel that I was special.

This is a VERY long post and it is all about me... 
But since it is my birthday I felt that I could indulge myself. 

After all... today should be about me :)


 My first ten years.

Yes! 
I am a natural blond...
or at least I started out that way.

This was my 4th birthday.

I just love that little dress!

1st grade school picture

A true product of the early 5o's with my little "pop pearls". 
Did any of you have those "pearls" that popped together 
so you could have any length necklace you wanted?

At seven I thought I was going to be a ballerina...
but what's with that lipstick and mascara?! 

My mom was an RN and she worked as the camp nurse during her vacations, 
just so I could go to Campfire Girls Camp for two weeks.


My teen years.

7th grade school picture

Time for those bangs to finally go...
and for the braces to arrive.

High School.
I wish I had still had those eyelashes!


My 20's

Honeymoon #1

We backpacked (hiked and slept in the wilderness)  in the 
Olympic National Forest in Washington State for two weeks. 



Honeymoon#2

Nine years later and the start of 
my second (and last) marriage. 
It's been 33 years so far...


My 30's

Two marriages and two sets of kids 
kept me busy as a stay at home mom.


My 40's

At 45 I was heavily into gardening. 

My 4th granddaughter arrived when I was 49.


My 50"s

In my early 50's I worked for Estee Lauder.
That was my first full time job since 
I was now an empty nester.

Then I worked for Ethan Allen
in Northern California.

Then again in DFW, Texas

At 57 I was a nanny for six wonderful months!

This is what my hair looked like 18 mos. ago 
when we first moved to Palm Desert, Ca.

This is how long it is now. 

I just let go... I know it is way too long for my age.
I was planning on getting it cut for my birthday  
but I just don't know how what style I want.

If you look closely you can see that those sunglasses are hiding 
my black eye that I posted about a few weeks ago.  
It is all better now but I haven't yet taken a picture. 
Maybe I will share one as soon as I get that haircut...


That's all folks!

I spent the whole day going through all my old family photographs. 
Since I am here alone on my birthday 
(The Mr. is in North Dakota for a few weeks) 
I thought that it would be a nice way 
to remember some family moments. 

Thank you so much for allowing me to share some 
pictures from the last six decades... yikes!

xoxo 
Bunny Jean

Just a little reminder:
My Bunny Hop Party is still going on until Sunday.

Surprise! It's Twins!

I am enjoying a lazy morning,

just sitting here, reading up on

some of my favorite blogs.

Not at all like the morning I had

just 30  short years ago.

Yes... that morning I was the

proud, happy, worried, and already

very tired mother to brand new identical twin boys.

And that doesn't even begin to describe

the depths of my emotions.

This is the story of our surprise,

our extra little bonus from the stork.

Yes, it is a story about labor and delivery...

but mine is different!  Really.

(Isn't everybody's?)

This is not a graphic
or gory story.

~~~

A Mother Just Knows

They were unexpected.

By that I mean that I could not convince my doctor that I was having twins,

even after the first one was delivered... breech! 

Frank breech, as in bent in half, bottom first. 

I am not kidding. 
 

I told the doctor to hurry up and

put the first baby down...

and grab the next one.

He gave me that same look I had seen for weeks. He really thought I was crazy...

until he put his hand on my belly, just when the "imaginary" baby kicked me,

hard in the diaphragm, taking my breath away.

The doctor looked as white as a ghost

... I'm feeling vindicated... at last.

 I was a tiny woman way back then.

I was just under 100 lbs when I got pregnant and 135 lbs when I delivered.

Maybe he didn't think I was so big but to me I was huge!

 That doctor needed to

listen to his patient!

After all... strangers had stopped me in the Mall in the last few weeks,

to ask how much "over due" I was, or if I was having twins. 

But, according to my doctor, I was due any day...

and having just one.

This was a planned pregnancy,

and according to my records

I had five more weeks to go.

Sonograms were fairly new back then, and he refused to let me have one.

So... I delivered on time (according to my doctor) but in reality... five weeks early.

Yes... I had been right. With one just over 5lbs. and one just under.

One born on the 17th and one five minutes later... on the 18th.

My midnight babies.

The longest and hardest 

five minutes of my life!

Push!... Breathe... Push!

So, after all was said and done... 

I sat up (sort of) and told him that next time... he better listen to his patient!

One of the attending nurses also happened to be my Lamaze teacher.

I had told her in class, just the night before, that I just knew I was having twins.

I had told all the nurses when I arrived that very afternoon. 

I had told anyone who would listen.

The problem is that they just wouldn't.

Right after delivery my babies were then taken from me (after I got to touch each one)

and whisked off by ambulance to a hospital... just three miles away.

To a hospital that specialized in preemies and twins. 

To where they should be.

They went without me.

To the hospital where I should

have delivered them.

Then, this same doctor preceded to tell me

that I really would not be able to breastfeed twins,

and wanted me to take the meds to "dry" me up. 

But once again I just knew. 

So... I left that place and that doctor, ASAP.

We took in bottles of my milk to the other hospital, 

twice a day, for ten days until my precious babies came home.

10 weeks old

At 2 months they doubled their weight

and by 5 months they had TRIPLED

their weight... on breast milk.

All because... I just knew.

Never underestimate the determination of a mother.

These were my third and fourth babies. 

I had done this before... it was not my first rodeo.

And so our family was complete.

Two girls and two boys. My husband's first children.

We had been married less than a year.

I had added to his family legacy in one fell swoop. 

~~~

Identical twin boys...
and friends for life!

They are now over 6' tall.
One is an engineer for an aeronautical company (Boeing) and the other
is working for the U.S Dept. of Energy at Stanford University (SLAC) .

Happy Birthday
Marc and Matt!

We love you!!!

~~~