Tooooooo many kids

    To say that growing up as the fourth of sixth children was crazy is a COMPLETE UNDERSTATEMENT. I think of all the things that I have faced in my life, that was one of the most challenging thing. I had three older sisters, a younger brother and a younger sister and man we were (definitely still are) a hand full. I know what you're all thinking, " C'mon Jay, what were they like? who was crazy? Who was super funny? Who was the spoiled brat?" I gotcha! 

Top: P.B., Meg, Juicy Jay
Bottom: Katie, Syd, Jelly
 Taken: August 2017 

    The oldest is Meg, she's the mama bear. If you make her mad or threaten the rest of us kiddos, there is no place on heaven or earth where she won't find you and believe me, she'll find you.

     Syd is next, she was known as the crazy pants. Always doing weird things and getting us into who knows what, every summer was an adventure that's for sure!!

     Katie is above me and she is mellow. Growing up she was quiet and didn't say a whole lot but she learned from other people's mistakes and gave her knowledge and assistance to my younger siblings and I as much as she could. 

    Peanut Butter is just younger than me and the joker/ prankster. He was always playing pranks on people in the house and getting someone to do something super silly. His jokes were (still are) hilarious. That kid has a natural talent for making anyone and everyone laugh until they have some serious tears coming out of their eyes! 

    Jelly is the baby of our family. She was (still is even until this very day) my best friend and she had a great talent of talking to you until you cried happy tears or ended up in a smiling contest, and sometimes if you're really lucky, you'd get both. 

    Right when Jelly was born, my parents got divorced and we stayed with our mama. She came from a crazy family that liked to have lots of family get togethers and loved to spend as much time together as we possibly could. Each of us were drawn to certain family members. You would often find me with either my Grandpa Tom in his man cave watching Power Rangers or some really sweet action movie eating butt loads of candy or with my Grand-ma-ma Susan in her lap eating freshly sliced cheese watching I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show or Mash. My mama worked as much as she possibly could to give us the best home the money she made could get us. We moved a lot and as a young kiddo, I thought that was awesome not knowing the many reasons at all but because many times it brought us closer and closer to our family members homes! 

Meg & I 

    Yet, I don't remember spending a whole lot of time with my mom because she was too busy trying to provide as much as she could for us, that Meg had to take over as mom. Almost if not all of my life, I was taught, disciplined and loved by Meg. I learned how to properly cook, clean, and pick my battles from Meg. Up until the end of my time in high school, Meg and I butted heads on nearly everything. She has more patience and love in one hand than most people have in their entire body, yet she knew the proper way to discipline me that I would realize what was going wrong! I didn't always apply it next time round or the time after that but she made sure I always knew what I was doing wrong, like a good mama does. 

    Often times, I was left on my own. Okay, that sounds bad like super bad. ha! It wasn't like that, I just often found comfort in being alone and doing things the way I wanted to do them. I liked to go for bike rides, walks, or simply just play with my Polly-Pockets ( that's right, I was a very proud number of an extreme amount of Polly Pockets) or any of my other toys that I had at the time. There was a couple of times that I was left at a grocery store or grandmas house or at home just because we forgot to do a head count or I had no idea we were leaving! When you have many kids, don't forget to do a head count or you'll end up with a kid stuck somewhere just waiting for you to come back! 

    I guess I never said who the spoiled brat was?? Syd, most definitely Syd.