Boat Loads of Fun with the Crafts!

The Craft family has always been around water. Ever since I can remember we have had a boat. At first we always had a sail boat, then once we got old enough to do water sports we had a ski boat. My earliest memories of sailing are on Lake Gaston. We kept our boat at Eaton's Ferry Marina. The best part of Eaton's Ferry was buying a little bag of puppy chow to feed to the gigantic cat fish and carp that hang out by the gas tank. Usually our days on the lake were fun and relaxing, but one day in particular was very stressful. It all started when I had to go potty but Mom was too busy to take me to the bathroom. We had not even left the marina yet. She told me to go pee in the woods. So, like a good little girl I went into the woods. I remember taking my shorts off and putting them on the ground. Unfortunately, when I started peeing, or wetting in my family, I wet right onto my shorts. Oops. But I did have a bathing suit to wear for the rest of the day. So then we set out on the boat. The wind promptly carried us into a big section of weeds where we got stuck. Dad tried to use the motor to get us out, but the weeds just got all tangled around the turbines. Once we finally made our way out of the weeds, we decided to anchor and eat lunch and swim. I can still picture Dad standing on the bow of the boat holding the anchor, and swinging it out over the boat. Too bad he forgot to tie one end of the rope to the boat. All five of us watched our anchor sink to the bottom of the lake. No one wanted to say anything, we could all see how frustrated Dad was. We did make it back to the marina though, and we lived to sail another day.

Our favorite activity to do while sailing was rope riding. Dad would get a long rope and tie it to the back of the boat so it made a big loop in the water. Then, Sarah Margaret, Dennis, and I would put on life jackets and jump into the water. The rope would just slowly drag us behind the boat. It was very exciting for a preschooler. Sometimes it got too exciting and I would get acred and go ladder riding instead. I would just stand on the ladder off the back of the boat so Mom and Dad were still close by. On one outing I remember Dad let Sarah Margaret steer and he told her she was first mate. I immediately asked what my title was. They decided I would be the maid. I was so glad to have a title, that I didn't realize they were taking advantage of me. All day whenever someone wanted a drink or a snack I would run to go get it for them. I think Sarah Margaret's job was way better.

We did a few overnight trips on the sail boat too. Marg and I slept in the musty compartment in the bow of the boat. It was always very creepy how you could hear the water sloshing around outside. There were also a lot of pesky dirt dobbers down below that we had to kill too. Sailing was a fun family thing, but once we were old enough we decided we needed more speed. So we sold the sail boat and got a ski boat. I think Dad will own a sail boat again one day. Maybe next time I can be first mate. A girl can dream, right?

The Importance of a Valentine-or 9

This memory is one of my Grandmama Ruth's favorite of me. You know how Grandmamas tend to retell the same stories over and over? Well this is one of her classics about me.

My parent's had gone out of town so Grandmama Ruth had come to stay with Sarah Margaret, Dennis, and me. I was in first grade at the time. It was the week of Valentine's day and my class was going to have a party on Friday. (Side note: elementary school parties are the best. It's like the room moms need to show their superiority to the other room moms so they go all out.) We had made little mail boxes to put on our desks out of milk cartons so that we could receive all the wonderful Valentines that our classmates would give us. I feel like everyone harbored that secret fear that their mailbox would be empty on Valentine's Day...or maybe it was just me. Anyway, we decorated our milk cartons with paper hearts and crayon scribbles, they were all so beautiful and anxiously awaiting the cards and candy that would fill them. My teacher, Mrs. Daniels, sent out the class list so that we would know how many Valentines to buy and to make sure we would not forget anyone. Of course my class was too big for one box of Valentine's to be enough, so I had to buy two boxes and have so many left overs. I always wondered what to do with my left over Valentines, but in first grade I found a use for them.

I remember being at the drug store and picking out Valentines with arctic animals on them. The specific card I remember had a penguin on it and it said "You are so chill, Valentine." I loved them. So I laid out all my cards on the table and began the painstakingly slow process of a first grader writing every name in her class. I gave the cute ones to my best friends and the ugly ones to the people I didn't really like, or the boys who I thought had cooties. However, there was one boy in particular that I was sure did not have cooties and his name was Cody. So when I was left with nine extra Valentines and no one to give them to, I decided that they should all go to Cody. When Grandmama came in to see if I was finished she noticed the ridiculous number of cards with Cody's name and hearts around it on them. Being a wise woman, she asked me if I really thought that Cody would like me just because I gave him nine Valentines. I said yes, that would make him like me. Well I was right.

The week after Valentine's Day and our class party, Cody was chosen to be Student of the Week. In Mrs. Daniels' class one of the privileges of being student of the week was getting to sit on the big red couch during story time with one friend of your choice. Well every day that week Cody chose me to sit on the couch with him. I could tell it was getting serious when he gave me a ring that he had won in a gumball machine. It was lime green plastic with a shiny silver triangle on top. Unfortunately, before I could even put it on my finger he got embarrassed and threw it behind the couch. I guess that was the end of Caroline and Cody. O well. My nine Valentines were worth it for that one week of story time on the big red couch.

Sometimes people can diminish the importance of a Valentine, but if you think back to your elementary school parties I think everyone will remember how special they felt when they were going through their milk carton mailbox and reading all the little notes people had written. The ones with candy attached were especially exciting. Sometimes it takes nine Valentines just to tell someone how you feel. Grandmama still thinks it was a silly plan.

Dandelions- The Craft Children's Cash Crop

Every Spring dandelions would start popping up all over our yard, and all over our neighbors yards. The little yellow flowers were everywhere! We also had the fluffy white dandelion seed pods in abundance. One year Dad had had enough. He did not want the pesky weeds in our yard anymore. He gathered us together and told the three of us that we would pay us $0.10 for every dandelion that we picked that season. The three of us happily agreed to that. So we went out into the yard to start picking. We soon realized that we could easily pick all the dandelions in our yard in one afternoon. That would not be very profitable. So we started picking the seed pods too and blowing them around of course. That way more dandelions would soon sprout up and we could make more money. Also, if we knew that Mom and Dad were not watching us we would go over into the neighbors' yards and pick a lot of their dandelions. At the end of every week Dad would count up our dandelions and pay us what we had earned. It was a great system. Not too much work and a lot of reward. $0.10 can add up quickly, especially when you are 9. All in all I made $30.00 that Spring. I thought I was rich. But really, 300 dandelions is not that many. I am sure I spent the money on something really important like Pound Puppies or a new Barbie outfit. Sarah Margaret and Dennis made even more money than I did. Dad did not offer us the same bargain next Spring. I guess he would rather have a few dandelions in the yard than pay us over $100 to pick them.

Boy Bands

Just like every other tween in the 90's and early 2000's, I loved boy bands. There were so many great ones in that time period. Of course there were Backstreet Boys and N*Sync, but then there were a plethora of other lesser known boy bands. Just to name a few: O Town, 98 degrees, Dreamstreet, LFO, 2gether, Hanson, Savage Garden, and I am sure I have forgotten some great ones. My personal favorite boy band of all time was, and still is, the Backstreet Boys. When the song "As Long as You Love Me" came out I was just so sure they were singing to me. N*Sync was amazing too though. My friends and I used to spend hours and hours singing and making up dances to the songs of these musical geniuses. Whenever I hear BSB or N*Sync dance moves that I committed to memory immediately pop into my head and it is all I can do to stay in my seat. At most of our sleep overs we took time to make up a dance and then record it. So in the majority of my music videos I am wearing pajama's, it is very attractive.

Sally had an N*Sync poster and one afternoon each of us chose our favorite band member. I chose Chris, the weird one, Sally chose Justin, the hot one, and Corie chose Lance, we didn't know he was gay yet. We lathered our lips in hot pink lip stick and then kissed the pictures of our guys leaving lip prints on their cheeks. If you are a girl reading this, you know you probably did the same thing. Another favorite boy band activity was to play "Sisters". It was basically house but we were all sistters instead of like mom and dad. In Sisters we were dating our favorite band member from whichever boy band we chose for the day. If we were playing BSB then I was dating AJ. For N*Sync I of course chose Chris, and for 98 degrees I was dating Drew. Yeah, I got around the band crowd. We spent about a billion hours of our childhood pretending to be college age sisters and dating celebrities. In the back of my mind I sincerely thought that that was what my life would be like when I was 20. Well needless to say, it is.

I went to 2 N*Sync concerts when they were in their prime. The first time during the song "Sailing" the boys fly out over the crowd in harnesses. Joey almost kicked me in the face. It was one of the best moments of my life. I was talking about it for weeks at school. Honestly, he was probably so far from me, but no one could convince me of that at the time. The second N*Sync concert was the most exciting. It was a surprise that our moms put together. Corie, Sally, and I were actually fighting because Corie was going to the concert and Sally and I were going to see Tarzan in theaters and we were all jealous of the others. Then while I was sitting at home crying a limo pulled into my driveway and Corie, Sally, Leslie, and I all got to ride in the limo to the concert. I never did see Tarzan, but I am pretty sure N*Sync was way better.

I only have been to one Backstreet Boys concert even though they are my favorite. I really think that I may be one of their biggest fans, besides their moms of course-just like the song says. I was in 10th grade and my parents got three tickets. I could not find anyone to go with me, so I went with mom and dad. That part was kind of lame, but the concert was amazing! Click 5, another cheesy boy band, opened for them and it was their Never Gone tour so they played all their old classics and new stuff. Definitely one of the best nights of my life.

Boy Bands played a huge part of my childhood. They taught me all about love and life and having fun. Seriously, the lyrics are like poetry... NOT! But I do still enjoy the occasional cheesy love song. Nothing beats "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" or "Tearing Up My Heart" when you are feeling a little down. Kids these days are really missing out if you ask me.

Brownies, like the girls dressed in brown, not the yummy dessert

"Do a good turn daily" That is the Brownie Girl Scout's motto. Once a week a wore a brown skort, blue button up shirt, brown sash, and cream colored neck tie to school so that I could attend my Brownie meeting after school. This is probably the ugliest outfit ever. I loved it. I felt sooo cool on the days that I got to wear it to school. All my best friends were in my troop and at first we had a lot of fun. then my troop leader decided to have a baby and quit. Cool. So we all joined a new troop together. This leader was not so good. My favorite part of Brownies was the day once a year when each troop in the area would set up a display at the convention center and represent a different country. I remember being Mexico one year. We made a Mexican flag, cooked Mexican food and learned some Spanish for our display. Then, you got to walk around the convention center and see all the other troops and their countries. It felt like I was traveling the world. However, the year that I joined the new troop we got all of our food and posters together and drove to the convention center. Guess who forgot to show up. My troop leader. We were not allowed to set up our table without her there and she never came. I was devastated. This was when my disdain for Girl Scouts began to take root.

My best friends and I got into our biggest fight that I can remember at our Brownie meeting one day. We were always arguing about something, but this particular fight has always stuck with me. Corie, Sally, and I were sitting at the same table and of course our leader hadn't shown up yet. So while we were waiting I must have said something and Sally called me stupid. I immediately decided to retaliate by calling her a brat. Corie took my side. We were all crying and stayed mad at each other for a few days. Yes, it was a big deal.

One good thing about my troop was that my leader was too lazy to take us camping. All the other troops in my area would go camping, honestly I was not jealous. My brother was in Boy Scouts and I would hear stories of sleeping in the rain and eating nasty camping food. That did not seem like the activity for me. However, my parents thought I should give it a try. So they talked to a troop leader that went to our church and asked if I could spend the weekend camping with her troop. I found myself on a cot in a damp sleeping bag hoping creatures didn't eat me in the middle of the night. Also, I did not know any of the girls in this troop so I was kind of the weird intruder to them. Throughout the course of the weekend I had two near death experiences. At lunch on Saturday I choked on my hot dog but I could not remember the sign for choking(I feel like I should have learned that basic thing in Girl Scouts...) I just sat there thinking I was going to die until I finally got my hot dog to dislodge from my throat. Later we were night hiking with glow necklaces. I put my necklace in my mouth and it got caught on one of my braces wires. The necklace busted open and all the glowing juice got into my mouth. I was not sure if it was non toxic but during the course of the hike I convinced myself that it was poisonous. I was too shy to tell anyone about my situation though. It turns out that the magical glowing juice is non-toxic and I did not die. It was still a terrible weekend.

I had had it with Girl Scouts. I bridged over to Juniors and quit before I got any patches on that teal vest. It was one of the best decisions of my life.

The Best Cat Ever/ Manipulating Dad

When we were young we lived in Chesapeake, VA (that little factoid is not really relevant to this story, it is just information). One Sunday morning in 1998 we arrived at church and found out that someone had left a box of about 5 kittens on the door step of the church. I guess they figured that Christians would be kind enough to find homes for the kittens. After all, what would Jesus do? I think He would take in a homeless kitty. So naturally, the Sarah Margaret and I wanted one of the kittens so bad. At this point we only had one dog and one cat at home, and our current cat was really weird and not fun to play with (RIP Chief). There was definitely room in the Craft house for another animal.

Four of the five kittens were black and one was a little white girl. We knew that Dad would only let us have a female cat, that has just always been a rule. He says boys make a bigger mess in the litter box, and they are not as nice. This explanation made sense at the time because this seemed to be true of the human boys I knew as well. Most of the kittens had been spoken for except for a little black girl kitty so we snatched her up and took to the sanctuary where Dad was. He obviously did not want another cat, but he needed to give us a logical reason. He said we could not get the kitten because she was black and we had already had a bad experience with a black cat. Her name was Carmen, as in Carmen San Diego. She pooped on the rug a lot and finally just ran away. Dad was also aware that the only white cat had already been claimed by a boy in my Sunday school class whose mom had already said he could get it. He said if only the cat was white we could have her. He thought the discussion about kittens was over.

Well Marg and I would not give up so easily. We immediately found Aaron, the boy with the only white cat. We explained our situation to him. Aaron was very nice to us and agreed to trade kittens with us. He did not care whether his kitten was black or white. With gigantic grins on our faces we ran back to the sanctuary to show Dad out accomplishment. Much to his dismay our new kitten fit all his criteria and he could not say no.

We went through many names for the kitten. She started as Apricot because she had orange on her ears and tail, but that is just too long to say all the time. Then, she was Boo because she's white like a ghost. Next was just Kitty, we were not feeling creative anymore. However, after we said "Kitty" enough in baby voice (because who doesn't talk to kittens in baby voice) her name evolved into Bitty. to this day Bitty is the best cat ever. She is actually curled up beside me right now as I am writing this. I think Dad would be the first to tell you that he is glad we tricked him into getting a kitten that day.

Christmas with the Crafts

So like most families we have our standard Christmas traditions. We have been doing these things for as long as I can remember. We always got our Christmas tree at Lowe's. The best part of a Lowe's tree is that you get free apple cider while you look. Then, I love how they send the tree through the little shoot that bundles it up. I am sure that they do this at every Christmas tree place, but I always thought it was special. Next, we would decorate the tree as a family. Sarah Margaret, Dennis, and I would choose which ornaments we wanted to hang. Our tree was, and still is, an eclectic mess. We definitely do not have a theme tree, or only pretty ornaments. Our ornaments are all the glitter explosion ones we made in elementary school. We also had some very nice ones that we constructed at McDonalds one year. The coveted ornament was a Rudolph whose mouth could open like a puppet. We would fight over who could hang it. Sometimes even after one of us had hung Rudolph, someone else would come along and move him.

Grandmama Ruth would come a few days before Christmas to celebrate with us. She was a staple in the leather recliner just sitting there crocheting for days. She would also help mom cook. Since I am the youngest child I always had to give up my bed. Aunt Diane would come for Christmas Eve so she would sleep in Sarah Margaret's bed. This meant that all three of us were in Dennis's room. We had a pretty sizeable collection of beanie babies, which are all for sale if you are reading this and are interested. So the three of us would go to bed and wait for Santa to come, which we knew was Dad all along, and we would hold our annual Beanie Baby Club meetings. We even had a theme song. It was to the tune of "We're From the Country and We Like it That Way." Usually we would get all thousand of the beanie babies set up for the meeting and then we would fall asleep before the actual meeting. I really don't know what we would have discussed.

Christmas morning was super exciting! We woke up usually before the sun came up and ran to get Mom and Dad. They would look at the clock and tell us to wait a little longer. Then, when it was time we had to gather at the top of the stairs. Mom would always make sure that we all had socks on. For some reason it was a family rule that we could not open presents unless we had socks on. I'm not sure what the correlation between covered feet and opening presents is. Once we all had socks and we waiting at the top of the stairs Dad would go make sure Santa came. He had already told us Santa is not real (if this is news for you, I am sorry that I ruined Christmas for you). Once Dad got downstairs and turned on Christmas music he would call us to come down. This is when the real excitement started. We would all sit on the stairs and race down on our butts. I never won. Then we would open our stockings and rip into our presents.

For breakfast every year we had waffles, eggs, grits, country ham, and orange danish. It was so delicious every time. The Craft family Christmas traditions are pretty standard, but they are part of who we are. This year all our traditions have been thrown out the window since Sarah Margaret got married. We are going to initiate Jonathan into the Beanie Baby Club next week, but I'm not sure all four of our butts will fit down the stairs at once. I think the race will be interesting.