The Explorers

Growing up, I was the only girl living in my neighborhood. I was living in Mont Belvieu at the time and our house was out in the country. And our neighborhood was also full of old people. Lucky for me and my brother, the only two other kids in our neighborhood lived next door. So everyday it was always my brother, the two neighbor boys, and then me.. who was several years younger and a lot less rowdy than them. 

My mom didn't want all the kids staying in the house all day so she always made us play outside. Since our house was so far from town, we had a large wooded area behind it. The boys had the great idea of going "exploring" in the woods. I remember I didn't want to go because I knew there would be bugs and dirt, but I didn't want to get left. So I followed behind as usual. Now that I think of it, it probably wasn't very safe going to play in the woods without informing my mom where we were. But i guess it doesn't matter now! 

Once we got deeper into the woods, we all started acting like we were really exploring. We even gathered some branches to use for walking sticks. It felt like we were walking for miles but I was only about 6, so it probably seemed a lot father to me. I didn't care though. I was having so much fun. We would walk along the shallow ditches and pretend like they were actual rivers. We even jumped in them and would get all muddy.

We stayed exploring until the sun started to set. Then we found our way back to the front of the trees again. By the time we got back to the house we had to hose off our legs and feet because they were covered in  mud. Exploring turned out to be really fun. We continued to explore the woods almost everyday that summer.

After a couple of years the exploring stopped. The boys became older and were too "cool" for that. I don't really think it shaped my life too much. It just gave me an opportunity to be creative and pretend I was some great explorer. Although I was very much of a girly girl and I think spending all this time in the woods with the boys made me a little tougher and enjoy the outdoors more.

The Best Christmas Ever

One of the best childhood memories I have is from when I was in the 4th grade. That whole year it seems like I was constantly begging my dad to get me a puppy. His response was always "You're not ready for that kind of responsibility yet." At the time, I thought that I was the most responsible person in the world. So I could never understand why he would always say that. He would drive me to school every morning. And every morning it was the same conversation. I would remind him that i would feed it, walk it, and give it baths. And he would say no everyday. I would get so upset.

Christmas was coming up soon. So I made sure to bring up how much I wanted a puppy more than usual hoping that this would be it. Of course he always had the same response, but I never gave up. I also made sure that it was the number one item on my wishlist.. Just in case my parents forgot how badly I wanted one.

Soon enough, Christmas day had come. I ran out of my room early in the morning expecting to see a brand new puppy sitting under the tree like you see in movies. But it was just the usual presents under the tree. I was a little bummed at first. But then I remembered that my parents always hid some sort of 'big' gift in the garage and would bring it out after we opened up all the presents. So I didn't lose hope.

I could hardly focus on all the presents I was opening. I was grateful and happy that I received all the presents i got.. But the only thing i could think of was my new puppy. I just knew he was waiting for me in the garage. Sure enough, after we opened all the presents under the tree, my dad announced that he had a surprise for us. I got so excited because I knew just what it was! My dad went to the garage and came back dragging a huge box. I thought, "Okay, maybe the dog is in the box or something. It was like that when the kid off of My Dog Skip got his puppy." So my brother and I tore open the paper to find a motor scooter.. Definitely not what I was hoping for. I was in such shock. I just knew it would have been a puppy. I didn't want to show my disappointment about getting the scooter, so i pretended to be really excited about it.

I was crushed. My mom had told us that my grandparents were coming over for a while. I thought it was pretty strange because they usually came over Christmas night, not early in the morning. I didn't give it much thought. I couldn't think of anything because I was so upset. We all went out in the backyard to set up the scooter. All i could do was stare at it and wonder why it wasn't a dog. My grandparents had arrived and we were all sitting on the backyard porch talking. That's when I suddenly heard the cry of a new puppy. I even mumbled to my mom, "Well sounds like somebody got a puppy for Christmas" thinking it was my neighbors or something. Then I saw my dad walk around the back of the house holding a tiny ball of fluff! I was so excited! My mood completely changed. Apparently my whole family was in on it and it had been staying at my grandparent's house for the past couple of weeks. The puppy was a Miniature Schnauzer, so we named him Mr. Whiskers. That was definitely the best Christmas I had ever had and it is a memory I will never forget.