Of Pets, Barrettes, and Remington Steel...

My family is...nuts. Sorry Mom, I know the look on your face when you read that so let me rephrase: my family is very special and odd and fun so it's never dull. My earliest memories are being with my four sisters (Im the middle) and living a very sheltered life(sorry Mom but it's true). I remember sitting around in the living room as a family listening to Dad read aloud the Mandie Shaw series before bed. That's right, people- we did not watch television. But we kept ourselves entertained to say the least. We listened to Dad read books aloud to us, sing along to songs Dad would play on the guitar, and pretend to be a beauty salon as Dad would allow us to put pastel colored barettes in his hair and make him look like a lady. When you have five girls and no sons, you got to have a sense of humor. We were lucky to have a dad with a great sense of humor and patience with all the estrogen. We made family videos called "Buzz the Fuzz" that involved each of us "magically" disappearing on Dad's count. I think we lived pretty happily and humbly. We weren't spoiled and in no way had everything we asked for. But our Grandparents loved to spoil us which will be in other stories to come. Mom and Dad kept us grounded with Focus On the Family Odyssey cassettes, recycled clothes that the sister above us in order wore, and doing lots of family activities together that may have included Dad building a port-a-potty slash picnic table contraption. Our family never did quite figure out how to successfully raise pets. Dogs were not our thing (neither Heidi #1 or 2), so we gave up on the idea until Joey the Cocker Spaniel surprisingly joined the family for about two seconds because he bit Laura Joy's friend's hand. We had two birds that ended up both dying, a hermit crab that lived in the inside pond Dad made, who jumped to his death and was found a gonner on the floor the next morning. I had a pet rat, Vivian that was actually quite normal compared to the rest and Whitney had more than a few hamsters that all had really odd lives. One hamster was attacked by the other and received life saving surgery from my dad who duck taped him down and performed surgery with a needle and threat. One of the hamsters actually hung himself, which sounds impossible but I can't make this stuff up. Mom and Dad are now raising tortoises in the backyard and its really one of those things you have to see to believe. At some point, each of us sisters were home schooled for a portion of elementary school. My mom is a sweetheart for dedicating her life to teaching us at home. My years of home school involved keeping my little sisters and I entertained by putting on performances of singing Mary Kate and Ashley, watching Barney and Friends every day (I may have been in the sixth grade at the time), and eating lots of heated applesauce sweetened with cinnamon. My sisters and I would often "live life on the edge" by watching Remington Steel while Mom was gone doing errands and take turns manning the window to watch for her so we could quickly turn the tv off and look like we were reading or talking. I have seen every episode of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Square One, and Reading Rainbow. We were not allowed to watch any television with "relationships" so Family Matters, Full House, and Boy Meets World were out of the question. My sisters and I can literally quote the movies: Wild Hearts Cant Be Broken, Newsies, and Cool Runnings.
I'm now just listing random information that only my sisters will appreciate so I will sign out and continue more later with good stories.