South Dakota Memories and Keep on Keeping on!

I recently started taking walks every day because my closest cousin started walking and posting her steps on Facebook for everyone to see. Some days she would accumulate 20,000 steps! She motivated me to get off of my rear as I was probably accumulating about 2,000 steps. I’ve been loving getting outside and taking beautiful pictures with my daughter as my prop.

Most days during my walk I am reminded of Waitsburg, Washington when I was about four years old. I do have an excellent memory and can remember things as far back as wearing diapers! Walking through my neighborhood today reminded me of when I lived in South Dakota while married to the father of my older children. I love my memories of South Dakota, and I felt I should write some of these memories down in case my children ever find these blogs. I don’t know when they will ever bring me back into their lives, and I don’t want these memories lost from them forever.

We only lived in South Dakota for eight months. We moved there because my husband-at-the-time began working at a new college to coach football; unfortunately, that program ended just as we became very comfortable. Previous to South Dakota we lived in Minnesota where he coached, and his contract terminated.

We lived in a house with a beautiful, fenced in yard and had a basement where my three children would play. I would read outside, sitting on a blanket under a tree to my children every chance I got. They would then run to the swing-set that was just outside our fence. We never knew who that belonged to. I would hang dry the laundry. The children and I loved the yard. Today’s walk reminded of when I would take walks with the kids in the neighborhood and the trees canopied the sidewalks and streets, just like it does in my current area. Some nights the locusts would be all the things we could hear.

During this stay in South Dakota, my husband’s father died, and we traveled to Arkansas for his funeral. Somehow we inherited two dogs during our stay and brought them home with us. We named one dog Tsunami… I’m not sure why anymore. That might have been when that giant Tsunami occurred on the other side of the world. I don’t remember what we named the other dog. Sadly these dogs did not want to stay in our fenced yard, and things occurred that we ended up not being able to keep them anymore. We also tried to have a kitten, that very sadly did not survive. I look back at some of these moments, and I wish I had known how to handle some things differently.

We endured a terrifying night in the basement once when four thunderheads were looming over our town. I slept under a shelf while holding my 2nd son in my arms as he was only two years old. Thunderheads caused this to be a long and scary night. Fortunately, the thunderheads never turned into tornadoes and the next day we rented ‘Tornado’ and watched this with our oldest son.

I spent a lot of time cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. My oldest son spent a lot of time with me doing this. I remember we would create artistic cakes with fondant and marzipan. In this home, I remember us creating a space-themed cake.

My daughter and 2nd son spent their time playing together. They spent the majority of their childhoods as best friends. In this house, my daughter would dress up my 2nd son in dresses and her bathing suits! It was quite hilarious! He enjoyed playing dress-up unless we laughed, which was sometimes hard to avoid. He is now 16 and is all boy and would be very embarrassed if I had any pictures of this, which I don’t.

We had an inflatable ball pit in the basement they would play in and send balls all over the floor! My son’s bedroom had cowboy wallpaper, and my daughter’s bedroom had clown wallpaper. I remember hearing my 2nd son screaming once, and he was shut in the closet… I’m not sure why or why he couldn’t just open the door, I remember I hated hearing him scared.

My oldest son was in 2nd grade, and I remember he kept getting fevers and the school had a strict policy that he couldn’t come to school if his temperature were over 99.5. He missed quite a few days because I stressed over this a little too much… he wasn’t even sick half the time, I don’t think. My daughter began preschool in this town, and eventually, her teacher asked her to stop coming because she was either too complicated or immature. This was when she was in a ‘treat me like a princess’ stage and always demanded to be ‘first’ at everything. We didn’t always allow her to have her way at home, so I’m not sure why they couldn’t figure something out at school for her. She is now in college and is the furthest thing from a ‘princess’ that you could imagine. She has a fursona that she lives vicariously through as a dragon!

This is where I became pregnant with my 3rd son. I haven’t heard a word from him in over a year. I miss him with every cell in my body. He was quite a surprise. We discovered we were pregnant the week my husband had scheduled his vasectomy! Life works in its ways… not our own. I am grateful beyond measure for this child. He is beautiful and smart, and anyone who gets to be in the same room with him is blessed! How I wish it could be me.

This is where my daughter had her ears pierced. Since she has been a dragon for a few years now, those have closed up. See?… whatever we decide to do in life, we never know what the outcome is going to be. Therefore it is best to go forward each day spreading love and joy and trust that everything will be alright. I can only hope that by my spreading love however I can, that it will reach my children’s hearts and they will remember I love them more than anything at all. I love my new husband as much but differently, of course.