Tonight I was in the kitchen getting a spoon from the drawer when I noticed there were cruddlies in the slot where the spoons lie. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I cannot stand to have any crumbs or the like in the silverware drawer, or anywhere, for that fact. I grabbed the remaining spoons out and wiped the slot. As I did this, I remembered a time at our house in Southlake, a home we built and then rented back from the owner when we found ourselves 'homeless'. My mom had come for the winter and was getting acquainted with yet another home with us.
I worked for our business by day and for Sprint by night so Mom, my former spouse and Justin would usually eat dinner without me. One day I was emptying the dishwasher and pulled open the silverware drawer. There was what appeared to be a handful or so of instant potato flakes! How did that happen? I took stuff out of the drawer and wiped it all up, asking aloud how the flakes got into the drawer. Sweet little Justin, all of 5 years old, said, "Maybe Grandma did it---she doesn't know where everything goes yet." Ha! I laugh yet thinking about that. "Hmmm, where does this handful of potato flakes go? Ah, I bet in the silverware drawer!"
It was in this house also that Justin would entertain himself (and us!). One thing he liked to do was take lengths of rope and string it between his rocking horse and other furniture pieces in the family room, and hang clothing items and other things on it. Just like his Auntie Lynn and her 'drying strings', as he called it. That looked really pretty---not! When we lived there he badly wanted a horse for Christmas so Santa had to write him a letter explaining how the landlord would not allow us to have a horse in his yard. This same yard where Justin thought it would be a good idea to cut down all the trees and make a cemetery. He decided on this plan after visiting the Huegenot Cemetery in St. Augustine. He thought we needed one of our own! Thankfully the landlord would not allow that either. Oh, that Justin was such a character!
One day we were having a particularly hard time with this little 'character', and I was stressing about our plans for the evening. One of our customers had asked us to a house warming party for their new home and insisted we bring our little charmer along. Unfortunately he was not being very charming and when it was time for him to get ready, he refused to come into the house. His father had to chase him around the house, and once caught, got a spanking. I got Justin cleaned up and dressed in his snazzy blue wool blazer outfit and he looked so handsome. On the ride to the party, I explained to him that he had to be the very best boy there and so on. And he was!! All the guests were impressed with him, how cute he was and well behaved. Wow! On the ride home, I told him how proud we were of him for being a good boy. He said, "You know, that spanking really helped...." My spouse and I could hardly contain ourselves. "Oh, you're welcome, Sweetie Pie, you're welcome!"
