I recently had been invited to speak to the Henderson County Republican Women’s group about “Our Family”. Let me tell you these ladies know how to put on a wonderful luncheon. They served chicken & ham salad sandwiches with chips and just about every kind of salad you could dream of. For dessert there was this wonderful pineapple cake and fruit pizza. I must get the recipe for that cake. It was the lightest, fluffiest, moistest cake I have ever eaten. All was served with a refreshing glass of ice tea. Since I gave the talk I thought that it would be nice to post a blog titled the same. You know I don’t like to brag, OK yes I do, but my family is my favorite subject. Whose family isn’t? I mean, we love to talk to them and about them. Whether we are happy, mad, sad, or glad, we love to talk about family. I couldn’t wait to publish this, so I am going to be adding to it as I get time!
Our Family
Bobby and I have been married for 24 years this May. Time goes by so fast and slow. At times, as most of you know, when you are married to someone, it seems like you were married yesterday and other times it seems like you have been together for 100 years.
We started out in a small duplex in Rock Island. My husband was working at a now closed box manufacturer plant. Money was very tight. This duplex was a great investment because we lived in one side and the rent from the other side paid our house payment. We really couldn’t have made it any other way. My husband did all the repairs including replacing water heaters, toilets, light fixtures…He even fixed a water line that was 6 ft down under our side walk.
Bobby is really good at fixing things. He has a mechanical and mathematical mind. So he is always studying how he can fix things and how much money he can save doing it himself. He always did our car repairs, even replacing an engine. (He’s really cute with a ball cap on, turned back, a white t-shirt, wholly jeans and grease on his nose. It’s also really cute when one of the little guys has their face resting on their folded arms watching him work and handing him the tools he needs) By him doing this we were always kept above water. He is always quick to lend a hand to a friend, replacing their water heater or brakes on their car. Helping them stay above water. One of our first dates (and not the last) was a trip to the junk yard to pull a part off of one of the old junkers. He is also good at recycling.
Through his hands he has built equity into our home and business. Not just equity buy he and our sons actually built our home. He has done a wonderful authoritative job of instilling these values into his sons. I am so proud of them all. I pray that all families are blessed in such a way.
My oldest son Terry is 23 and has always been a thinker, God has blessed him as a problem solver. When he was 7 his little brother got his head caught in the stair railing. Bobby and I puzzled over this for what seemed like hours. We were just about to get out the tools to take our railing apart but stopped and decided to listen to a very insistent little boy. Terry kept telling us go the other way. So we pulled Levi’s little body through the railing instead of his head. Clever boy! He wasn’t at all panicked so he could think clearly. He could carry on a conversation with an adult at a very early age. He did this so well that sometimes the adult would forget they were talking to a five year old. I remember him sitting on the couch with the news paper at age 2. He was amazing, not because he could read at age 2, but because he could read the paper upside down. He would peak around the side of the paper and proceed to tell me all he was learning about what was going on in the world. He has been blessed with the ability to play music by ear on the piano and guitar. He made up a song about his little girl Grace and his brother Sam, their best friends. He loved spending time with Grandma Great. She taught him everything! She built his self confidence too! Telling him, “Terry you could be any thing you want to be, this is America!”. He believes her over everyone. He recently graduated from Franciscan University of Stubenville Ohio. He graduated with an above 3.0 as a Poli-Sci major and did this while working full time. He had to earn a living while going to college to help in supporting his daughter Gracie and pay his own way through college. Terry is wonderful and gracious at handling criticism. He takes in what is said to him, analyzes his situation, and applies a solution.
Terry and Katie
Terry was recently married to a wonderful girl Kathleen McLaughlin. A spitfire of an Irish Catholic Red Head from Boston. It was the funnest wedding I have ever been to. An Irish Catholic wedding in Boston! Let me tell you, the Irish know how to put on a wedding. They are excellent story tellers! At the rehearsal dinner we had a wonderful time getting to know this wonderful family! I am very proud of Katie! She very bravely moved here with Terry, found a job, and has made a wonderful home for my son.
Terry’s little girl our grand daughter Gracie is 4 years old! What a hoot she is! Full of life and song! She loves to sing “Soul Sister”. She lives in Michigan with her mom and we miss her very much. She can already write her name and she isn’t even in pre-school yet.
Aaron 21, our second born is always after my heart. He calls for no reason except to just say hello. He builds me up, telling me that he loves me and that I am a good mom, in spite of the desperate day I am having. He is doing a great job managing St. Giuseppe’s our restaurant. He makes a perfect pizza! I should say he’s slow, but your pizza will be perfect! He loves photography, absolutely loves to take pictures. He taught himself how to play the Ukulele. One time he in Moline playing on a corner when a man who had had too much to drink asked if he could make up a song for a girl from Australia. So of course he said “Sure!” He took Aaron up to a candle lit restaurant and showed him the girl. Aaron sang her a song called “The Girl from Australia Song” . The people in the restaurant clapped and the man paid Aaron $40.00. Now if we could just find him a job doing this. He write a song about his favorite soft drink Jones Soda. He calls it the Jones Soda Song. Oh and he still loves to catch frogs. 
Levi who is in the picture with Aaron, is 18 now. He’s growing up so fast. He is my compassionate kid. Always hugging me and doing funny little things to make my day. He is always the one to say my two favorite words in the whole human language ”Sure Mom!”. He prefers to stay home and help me for free over going into the restaurant and working for money. He also loves his friends. He never has a bad thing to say about any one. He’s always saying ” I love that kid!” His favorite sport is football, although he loves all of them. He used to love track for the socializing and of course the girls. He has a spirit for history, loves the story of aspect of it. I love listening to him talk about WW II or the Civil War. His favorite aspect of history is war. He has always loved soldiers and would love to be one.
He also loves the story behind others. He is shy so it can be difficult for him to pursue a persons story, but eventually he does get it .
Levi is a joy to be around. He is also tall and very handsome! Whenever one of his sisters mentions him to their friends they swoon and often will say how much their sisters think he’s handsome.
Joe has a heart and mind for math and music. These are two talents that have escaped me and Bobby and some how jumped into Joe and a couple of our other children as well. Joe has seem to cling to these the most. Joe has a dry sense of humor delightfully mixed with slap stick. For instance during baseball season Joe got hit with a pitch at least once every game. Most of the time it was more than that. He would just go with it and expect to be hit at every pitch. He was not that good at bat so he would basically exaggerate his lack of coordination by swinging really weird. The fans would giggle and laugh and look forward to Joe either striking out or taking first base. Luckily for the team he was surrounded by excellent players. We are constantly entertained by Joe. He’s either making us laugh or filling us with rhythm or lulling us to sleep. Joe has a real love for St. Giuseppe’s heavenly pizza. He works very hard to please our customers and his dad. He also loves the numbers aspect of it. (I would like to add that he is amazed that the government takes so much of what our hard working family earns, and what other hard working families earn!) Joseph is wonderful with handicapped and the elderly. He is also very chivalrous! One time in school a boy was giving a girl a very hard time because she wouldn’t date him and he stood up to this kid (who was much bigger than him) and demanded that he apologize to the girl. The kid, to his credit, did! Joseph is also President of his class. He also won Student Counsel President of Black Hawk District! We are very proud of him.
Joe last summer playing baseball Isabel and Rachel at a bbq in Boston Rachel, Isabel, Sophia, and Olivia
Our daughter Isabel is 14 and number 5. We were so tickled to finally have a girl! Don’t get me wrong, boys are wonderful creatures and they truly are a treasure to me, but there is something about a baby girl that is just so sweet and endearing. When I picked Isabel for her name I received a lot of wrinkled noses but the name suits her to a “T”. It’s kind of funny because a lot of people are naming their daughters Isabel now. She is a strong willed girl who hates frilly. (that was hard for me) She loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian. She loves biology and creepy crawly things even mice. (Yikes!) When she was 10 I saw her crawling around on the ground and she slapped her hand down and excitedly yelled ”I got one!” I said, “You got what?” “A mouse!” she said! Aaron taught her every thing she knows! Aaron has also passed to her a talent for photography. She takes really interesting and awkward shots of flowers, bunnies, her brothers and sisters and the cat. Isabel is an excellent violinist! We enjoy the sound of her music and so does the cat. He (his name is Hobbes) loves to curl up at her feet and fall asleep while she plays. It gives her a peaceful satisfaction. She has recently taken up tennis. This is something very new and I look forward to watching her play. Another one of her favorite things to do is lye in wait for her sister so she can jump out and scare her. This annoys everyone especially me!
Rachel number 6 is 12 years old. She is tall and graceful and she is the other mother in the house. Of course this really works out for me at times. The babies gravitate towards her and so do two years olds. The problem with her being such a good little mom is that the 16 and 18 year old boys don’t take to her bossy side too well. I am continually working on toning down her mothering with the older siblings. Rachel has this awesome competitive nature. A true American Spirit! (if I could somehow get her to compete with cleaning her room) This I really admire in her. Mostly because my nature is more like “Here let me help you win” rather than being better at something. Not a bad thing, but our two natures work great together. For example; Rachel is running cross country and needs to train all summer. So I don’t like my girls to run a lone so I run with them. Of course my little gazelle is way faster and more graceful at running than me, but knowing her competitive spirit, I push her to the limit. We run about 2 miles a day together. Rachel gets way ahead of me soooo when she reaches the turn around point, I turn around too. At first she considered this cheating, not so. She really poured it on when she saw that I was (cheating) helping her and she passed and pulled ahead of me! Way ahead! You see, she loves competition! So she succeeds! Competition breeds success! Her and Isabel are best friends. They laugh, sing, dance and compete with one another.
Olivia is luck number 7! She is eight years old. She has a very big appetite for life. I love her laugh and she loves to laugh! He emotions are always on high. If she is happy she is very very happy, if she is sad she is very very sad. I have a series of pics of her 
that demonstrates this. See how happy she is while we are singing Happy Birthday. Well her big sister pulled the usual big sister move of blowing out the little sisters birthday candles and she shifted her laughter to tears. She was unable to recover from this, even though we sang and lit the candle again. (just not the same the second time around) She did apologize to me the next day for being so up set with her sister. Olivia is also my extravagant one. She loves tulle skirts and funky nail polish. As you can see by the cake I made, she also loves special birthday cakes! I once made her a Barbie doll cake with the most obnoxious dress. Uggg she loved it though. (which is the only thing that mattered to me) She is also Grandma Greats little pal! They love to go to the library together. They also spend hours in the thrift store searching for those one of a kind bargains! She also loves to sit Sam and Sophia down in front of the chalk board and teach them. Surprisingly they will sit and listen to her.
Sam is 5 and our number 8! (no 8 is not enough!) He is amazing!!! Just ask his brothers especially Joe. Joe is Sam’s favorite. When Sam was a new born Joe would set him on his lap and play his guitar. I can still seen this tiny new born with his eyes opened so wide listening to Joe play. Joe was his first word. As he got older Sam would wait at the front door and watch for Joe to come home. He would then pump his little arm and run as fast as he could to the back door saying adoringly “Joe, Joe, Joe!” That is how I knew to get a snack ready for the kids. Sam and Sophia have a Pavlov response every time they see Joe, because he always gives them gum. Samuel is excellent at imitating physical actions as well as voice. He demonstrated this at a very early age. Before he could talk he could imitate a baseball pitcher. It took me a while to figure out what he was doing. What I was amazed with was that he would even check second base. He can break dance and could dribble a basketball before he was 4. He is also our only lefty. Bobby is left handed so we thought that we would have more.
Sam of course shoes untied. Here he is having a major hair dysfunction, and here, riding his bike with his cape. (It’s only a dish towel but that can be our secret)
Sophia is 2 and our number 9. She’ll be the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest! If I want to keep her out of reach of something I put it on the bottom shelf, because she is totally not interested in anything there. Only if it is up high and she can’t see it will she try to attain it! She is finally potty trained! YEAH!!! Something that as mom of 10 I figured the easiest way to do it is wait until they really want to! When I do this it takes an after noon to a couple of days to accomplish! She also likes to put Cheerios on a spoon and see how far she can fling them across the room. They have gone as far as 10 but probably would have gone farther if there wasn’t a wall in the way. I feel the need to digress here. You know I have learned a scientific secret. That oatmeal, milk, and sugar combined in the right amounts could be used for roofing material. (I will make a lot of money marketing this when my kids are grown) Back to Sophia, she is very bossy. She puts her hands on her hips with eyes squinting belts out commands that usually gets results! (I should give her chore assignment duty) She loves to sing to herself while she plays or looks at books. It reminds me of Boo on Monsters Inc.
Our number 10 Anthony is 4months now and changing so fast! He has beautiful chubby rolls on his legs and arms. His face is nice and round with the full benefit of a double chin! He giggles at us all the time and if you get close enough he will grab you and maul you with slobbery kisses. I love that.
All of our children have a very strong sense of righteousness and empathy towards others. They have taught Bobby and I to be very flexible with our time and talents, but very firm with rules and love. In our home there is a constant low roar of activity and commotion. Bobby and I often stay up too late after the kids are in bed just so we can sit and look at each other. We very often marvel at how far we have come, from a small duplex in Rock Island to owning out own business and building a beautiful home out in the country. So much has been accomplished through our hard work and perseverance. Only in America!!! We thank God every day for our children and the successes HE has blessed us all so graciously with!
