Pat on the back

A few weeks ago Scotia asked me if Tyrone might have gone pro if he didn't get hurt playing football at BYU.  I said that I guessed he might have- he had a few teammates who did.  She was intrigued imagining what it might have been like being rich.

We talked about what we would have had more of if we had been "rich".  Maybe a bigger house, or fancier food.  But then we all agreed that we really had plenty of healthy food, a warm in the winter/cool in the summer house, lots of trips to Nova Scotia/Utah/beach/DC etc.  They all did lots of extracurricular activities and we had the best friends ever - spending hours and hours and hours playing inside and out with all the kids in the neighborhood. We had family friends that made every holiday really fun.  And then at the end of the conversation, Jaxon piped up, "It's like we were rich."

A few days later Taye agreed that the Hedingham years had been exceptionally good, full of wonderful memories - just a really happy time.

We moved to Hedingham just before Tyrone started grad school which was really, really stressful and ended in disaster, then a few sad years, and then more school.  I was always trying to figure out how to pay for school, how to pay back loans from school and then pay for more school all while feeding, housing and entertaining my kids. I worked part-time when the kids were in preschool and after they went to bed.  I had a husband who was AWOL and then sad and then AWOL again.  They were exhausting years when I could never stop - just keep moving forward, keep making it work.

And yet, my kids have these amazing memories of feeling "rich" and really happy. For that I'm giving myself a really big pat on the back.  Nice job Jessica!