Does anyone really like babysitting?

Eleven is a hard age. A little more than a kid but not an adolescent you are caught at the in between place on so many levels.

As we run into my Grandma and Grandpa’s house there are two things that are absolutely guaranteed - there will be chocolate chip walnut cookies in the cookie jar and peppermint ice cream in the freezer.

There was a knock at the front door. It was about 5 pm and I had FINALLY gotten dinner going, the house picked up, and you boys settled into some games.

My porn name is Candy Towanda.

Julie, my best friend in 7th grade,  was everything that I was not. 

Uncle Phil, Mom and Mary K’s oldest brother, was a forever bachelor and bit quirky.

My Uncle John was a tease, a cheat, a crackpot and one of the smartest and funniest men I know and we loved him. 

Aunt Mary K (my Mom’s sister) and Uncle John McCall were two of my favorite people and often visited my Grandma’s house whenever we did. 

My Mom, Lucile Evelyn Pfister Wachter was born in 1940. She was part of the Pfister family that owned and operated Lester Pfister Hybrid Corn.

Most of my memories of Dad are from the two week camping vacations we took every summer.

As an expert in the art of procrastination I would often find myself up late at night starting and finishing a school assignment that had been given to me three weeks before.