|
|
About Mumma |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
My Family: Home Page My Immediate Family My Nuclear Family Extended Family: Sundholm Arlington's
Family page Pauline's Birthday Celebration 2007 Extended Family: Dietzler |
Supermom My mom is an amazing woman, having raised two children by herself, long before it was considered cosmo to be a single mother. We were always very poor, but Mom always found some way to feed us and keep us clean and warm, even when there was no gas in the propane tank and no money to buy more. Those times when we literally had no heat, while rare, were actually great memories for me. I remember snuggling together in our sleeping bags on the floor in the living room by the fireplace to keep warm, because the rest of the house was cold. For me, it was like a slumber party or a camping trip. And there was definitely no shortage of love. We turned out ok. No....we turned out DAMN GOOD. Here's our 2006 Christmas card picture (before Shawna) and our 2008 family portrait (click either thumbnail to enlarge):
Although Mom was the salutatorian of her class and nearly a straight-A student, she didn't have the opportunity to go to college after high school. The family just couldn't afford it, and scholarships and grants weren't as readily available as they are today. Instead, she entered the work force immediately. I came along when she was only 20, and then Sean just a few years later. The next 15 years or so were consumed with raising us and trying to make ends meet. But when we were old enough, she went back to college, and not surprisingly, she excelled (3.8 GPA). Career She started working for the State of Michigan almost immediately after she graduated. For over a decade, she worked at the Family Independence Agency (formerly the Department of Social Services--the Welfare Agency for the State of Michigan). There is great irony here, because for several years while Sean and I were little, when the economy was especially bad and Mom couldn't find work, we needed the state's help so that we could eat and have clothes and stay in school. Now, Mom was working behind the very window that she had to walk up to so many times as a struggling young mother to ask for help. This was a very stressful job, and in the late 1990s she applied to be considered for other state clerical jobs. For the last 10 years or so before she retired, Mom worked at the Escanaba branch of the Department of Transportation.
Home Improvement Let's start with the home improvement projects. Their most recent project was turning an outdoor, virtually-unused patio into a fully-enclosed family room with a hot tub and bar (click to enlarge): Northeast wall before & after:
North wall during & after:
West / Northwest wall before & after:
Photos of Mom's bedroom (project completed in 2003?) and bathroom (project completed in 2004?) coming soon! Those projects were equally impressive....I just don't remember where I saved the pictures. September 2007: I found the pictures! They're in queue for "Files to be added to the website." This is a long list; sorry. Hunting David has been hunting for so long that we couldn't even begin to count how much venison he has provided for his family and friends. He hunts with a rifle and a muzzle loader, but he is a master of archery, with numerous state awards to his credit. But Mom is relatively new to the sport. The day before I arrived for my Christmas 2004 visit, Mom had her first bow kill. In fact, she killed two. David is immensely proud of this, as Mom has shot "less than 30 arrows in her life," and she did it with a bow made for a little kid, with only 28 pounds of pressure. Grown men have bows three times as powerful, and after decades of bow hunting, have nothing but stories to take home with them. Here's mom just a few hours after her kill (click to enlarge):
Here's my unsolicited opinion: It annoys me when people object to hunting or suggest that it's inhumane. Listen, people: I grew up in the U.P. I saw first-hand what happens when there's a bad fall hunt. Deer are far from endangered; in fact, there are so many of them that the herds need to be thinned, so they don't die of starvation during the long, hard winters. The people of my town live on venison during the lean months, when the economy doesn't allow them to buy meat at the store. They also eat fish, rabbits, and other game that they humanely killed or caught during the warm months. I am very compassionate about animals--don't get me wrong. I ran over a raccoon once and cried for three hours (just ask Derek--we had to pull over and stay at a hotel). I don't want deer to run out into the woods and suffer after being shot. David assures me that Mom's arrows were such clean hits, that the deer couldn't have lived for more than 3 or 4 minutes. The short distance that they ran into the swamp supports this. Racing For Mom and David, home improvement projects and hunting are, for the most part, borne out of necessity. Their true passion is racing. David races his '79 El Camino all over the country. Mom wakes up every day wishing she was closer to retirement so she could attend all of the races and spend half of the year in Illinois like David does, enjoying his "gray" years. One of their favorite things to do is go to Super Chevy Shows, and he finishes in the Top 10 on the PRO Edelbrock Fastest Street Car Series almost every year. He finishes in the top 10 racers in the U.S. in the Pro Edelbrock Series "Open Comp" division every year, and his car received the Editor's Choice Top 10 (not a speed award, but an aesthetic honor) for the third year in a row! So his car is fast, AND good lookin'!
After attending a few races with them, Sean started to race his '68 Camaro too. Go to the "About My Brother" page to learn more about Sean, his family, and racing and other adventures.
|
