Just in time for Mother's Day

You know, I wasn't going to write a blog in honor of Mothers Day. It all seemed so cliche'. I have decided to write a blog about my children (who made me a mother, so I have an excuse to buy myself something foolishly expensive this weekend, and almost not feel any guilt. Because hey it is Mother's Day.)

Anyway, I have been wanting to write a blog about each of my kids. Lisa did that for her family and it made me think, why not?

First up will be my firstborn Donald.

I am sure that most the people that read my blog read his and you have learned quite a lot about him. But trust me there is so much more.

Donald was born on August 5th at around 2:30 in the afternoon. We knew he was going to be an interesting kid with lots to say because as soon as his face felt air he was screaming. Yes that's right, he wasn't even all the way born and he was screaming.

He was an absolutely beautiful baby boy. My Grandma Brinkerhoff came and stayed at our house the night I brought him home and got up with him every time he cried. After that night she was completely in love with Donald, and he continued to be the apple of her eye until her death 8 years later.

Donald was mostly a happy kid. He had a very positive outlook on things. He had a " Follow That Bird " record (that would be on vinyl). He loved that record and one day he decided to roll it pinwheel like across the floor. It hit the closet door and shattered. I expected him to burst into tears at the sight of his dearest record in ruins. Instead he just came up to me and said "It's okay Momma we can glue it. I had to laugh at his optimistic attitude. I told him that, that would not work and it would just fall apart. He looked at me like I must be the worst kind of fool and said "no Mom I mean with SUPER GLUE!!"

Donald was very independant and really quick to learn things he wanted to do. I think he was probably 6 years old when he learned to ride a bike. The thing is he didn't have a bike at the time. He came into the house one afternoon and announced that he could now ride a bike. I was confused by this. He didn't have a bike and I had never even seen him try to ride his friends bikes that lived on our street. He was adament though that he had just learned how to ride a bike and that he wanted me to come and watch him.

I decided to humor him.

He led me around the corner to the park that was behind our house and we walked all the way over to this one house where a friend of his lived. Donald told his friend that he wanted his mom to see him ride his bike.

He took the bike to the top of the hill in the park, got on it and just took off.

I could not believe it!

I asked him how long he had been learning to do that and he told me he had just learned how right before he had come to get me. The kid didn't have to learn how to ride a bike it had just come naturally to him.

Donald was always a bright kid but he could be so lazy. He could have gotten top grades in school but he wouldn't put in the effort. This was frustrating for me and for his teachers. They would always tell me that he was one of their smartest students but they would get so upset with him for not living up to his potential.

When Donald was in the early grades he was constantly in trouble for talking too much. He was always so excited with life that he had an almost impossible time being quiet. Like his 1st grade teacher once told me " If one child says something about a dog, Donald will have 10 stories about dogs, and he will want to tell them all.

Donald was kicked out of several school assemblies before he even reached the 3rd grade. Principal Harry Clemens got to know him very well. Fortunatly he really liked Donald and I think he was secretly amused by him.

Donald had a hard time at first when he entered Middle School. He had been friends with the boys from Eastgate and assumed that he would still be a part of that group when he reached Middle School. Unfortunatly for him there was this one boy (who was actually in our Ward and had been friends with Donald for most their lives.) Any way for some reason this kid started a smear campaign on Donald and within the first day or two none of his Eastgate friends would talk to him. He came home after the second day and was so sad and discouraged he even started to cry as he was telling me about it all.

I don't think there is anything harder on a parent than to see your child hurt in this way.

I hugged him and told him that this was actually an opportunity in disguise. I pointed out to him that there were tons of kids at that school who had not been at Eastgate. I told him that I knew how easily he could make friends and that tomorrow I wanted him to start making new friends with new kids.

He came home from school the next day SO happy!

He had met several new kids that day and had found new friends to have lunch with and suddenly everything seemed wonderful. I knew he could do it because he was just that kind of kid!

I think Donald mostly enjoyed his school years. He had a few girl friends but I don't want to dwell on that except for one and that is because it leads to a much bigger story.

When Donald discovered the internet he was hooked.

It didn't take him long to start meeting people on line. After that it didn't take him long to meet girls on line.

He had met this one girl on line I cannot remember her name (not that it matters), anyway Donald struck up a friendship with her and I was cool with it because she was a member of the church and she seemed alright to me. Well before I knew it he was telling her he loved her and soon after that he was actually thinking, MARRIAGE!!!

Now I was freaked out!

He was over twenty so there wasn't much I could do but voice my opinion, and tell him I thought he was really rushing things.

Which I did!

After a couple months of this He made plans to go visit her. She lived in Idaho. I tried my hardest to talk him out of it but he was determined. He was sure he would come home triumphant having met finally the GREAT LOVE OF HIS LIFE. Well to make a long uncomfortable story short he called me the first night he was there. He was pretty much in tears. He told me that she didn't look anything like her pictures, ( apparantly she was using ones that were like 5 years old). He said that he felt nothing for her and that the more time he spent with her he was really turned off. She was, shall we say, very eager.
I told him to come home as soon as he could, and to not worry about hurting her feelings because the alternative was to stay there and get engaged.

That's how eager she was.

He thankfully took my advice and came home. I knew at the time that he was breaking her heart but (being kinda ruthless when my kids are involved) I told him it was better her than him.

Okay fast forward several months.

He was doing it again.

Meeting girls on the internet.

I was really annoyed with him. You would think he would have learned his lesson with this other girl. But no. He showed me that there were two girls he was talking to but one in particular had really gotten his interest. I started in lecturing about learning from your mistakes blah blah blah. " But Mom this girl is different She's going to BYU and she's really pretty and we have really hit it off. I think she may be the one." I was totally sceptical but he showed me her picture and I had to agree that she was very pretty. It turned out that a friend of hers at school was coming to Yakima for the weekend and that she was going to come with her and come to our house to meet Donald in person. For some reason I wasn't half as worried as I had been about Idaho girl.

I was up in my sewing room making a bed in the closet for her to sleep in when I heard the doorbell ring and then I heard happy excited sounds downstairs. After a few minutes I heard thump thump thump up the stairs and then there was Donald at my sewing room door. He said "Mom I want you to meet . . . . . .

LISA ! ! ! "

I swear it was love at first sight.Not only for Donald but for me as well.

Lisa stayed that weekend and went home with the understanding that she would be back very soon. It wasn't too long after that that she dropped out of the "Y" and Donald went up there and brought her and all her stuff home to the Tri-Cities.

Well the rest of course was history. I really have loved Lisa from the first time I met her and she is truly one of my very best friends.

Donald (with help from his father) was able to get a good job out at Hanford.
He has three beautiful, precious little girls. He is a wonderful husband and father, and I am so proud of how well he has turned out.

Well I see that I will have to do a seperate post for each of my kids. Stay tooned for my next post about my smart, super funny, creative daughter Heidi.