The second ten

This is what I got from my children on the momentous occasion of my 40th birthday:

It was from Isabelle. It was written on scrap paper. It came a couple of days late. I treasure it also.

More about me:

1. The smell of cedar always reminds me of mice because my mother let my oldest brother keep mice in cages in our basement. They reproduced rapidly and we had tons. I accidentally killed mine.

2. My 5th grade science fair project was on mice, because I had some. They were a hit. My 7th or 8th grade project was on epilepsy. I have no idea how I chose it.

3. I went to Catholic schools for 12 years. In grade school, my 6th grade teacher's BO was absolutely noxious and poisonous. Child abuse. My 7th grade teacher smelled of alcohol. Other than that, it was a good grade school.

4. We walked to school and walked to church.

5. We went on a family vacation to Greenfield Village in the Detroit area when I was little. All of us. My mom made us all matching shirts. We had the shirts that were blue with little white stars all over. We had the bicycle shirts--they were white with different colored bicycles all over. And we had the flag shirts--every flag of the world in a big collage. People took photos of us. Some day those photos are going to surface.

6. I had a paper route for awhile.

7. I loved babysitting. In 5th grade we had to write a paper on what we thought we might do for a living. I said that I wanted to work with children.

8. I had perms. I have freckles. I had braces. I had zits, enough to visit the doctor about them.

9. My mom and my older sis made a lot of clothes for me. I remember requesting bell bottoms instead of regular pants. My sis made me a terry-cloth romper, and my mom made me a lovely pant-suit.

10. I remember making up stories at dinner just so people would listen to me for a change instead of my oldest brother who never stopped talking.