A Family at Work: My History

A family is probably the best and worst thing ever. Through families, you are united with other human beings in a deep and intimate way. You are forced to learn how to get along with other human beings and live in unity. At the same time, striving and doing are two different things and unity is often simply chaos. In my family, things are crazy! (BTW, warning...long blog)

A little background...First there's Dad...Daddy's from Italy (he spent his childhood there). When he was a teenager, he came to the States and spent his high school and college years in the North East. Daddy's basically a genius and knows everything...and not trivia everything...more like he's just really smart and you wonder how anyone can be that smart. He's really cool at the same time, though, because he doesn't brag about it and he isn't in any way a show off. He's an engineer and his company sent him to Texas.

Insert Mom...Mom was healing from a previous marriage and had two small children who were living with their dad. She has a British (mostly Irish) and French Canadian heritage. She'd sworn off men for life and was content being on her own. One day, she overheard some co-workers talking about a soccer group. My brother had just gotten involved in a soccer group, so naturally, Mom butted in. The guy invited Mom to join their adult soccer group.

Mom and Dad met through the soccer group...the rest is boring...Mom looked into his eyes and melted, they fell in love (well, Mom fell in love. Dad supposedly has his doubts LOL), got married...and then...

Enters me! Adorable little me was born in Texas on May 17, 1992. When I was little, Mom and Dad used to calm me down by running water (maybe that's why I like the rain at night). I've always been neurotic (according to Mom)...we have a video of me when I was two at the park. I was going down the slide, walking around, climbing back up, and sliding down again. Every time I landed, I'd spend the whole time walking back to the ladder brushing myself off. Then we have another video of me at two opening Christmas presents...I was carefully unwrapping as my aunts are saying, "Rip it, Sara!" I have a confused look on my face and I slowly rip a strand of paper, place it gently on the couch, and rip another strand. I loved Barney and squealed every time he came on. When my parents were at the hospital having my sister, I put the tape in, rewound, and played all by myself because my grandmother couldn't figure out how to use our tape machine. We also have a video of Mom telling me which letters to type and me finding them on the computer and typing them. So I've always been adorable and apparently, my currently odd traits have been in place since infancy.

When I was three, I demanded (demanded, mind you...not asked) that my mother teach me how to read. As I've previously stated, my mom had two other kids (8 and 10 years older than me). Even at their young ages, she could already see the negative effects of having smart kids in the school system (my sister got in trouble all the time for being bored and my brother had a hard time as well). Mom decided that if she did teach me how to read, she would have to home school me, because she didn't want me getting bored, as well (supposedly I'm like my dad). So Mom started homeschooling because she decided that she was more educated than the teachers and that I could do better one-on-one.

So backing up a little...at a little over two years old, came Gabriella, my baby sister. Gabriella intruded on my only child status, but that's not something I ever really minded (except during those moments when my siblings are driving me CRAZY and I wish I was an only child). I called her "udaba" (uh-duh-bah). I was nice to her most of the time and we got along pretty well.

A few years later came Gino. That child NEVER shut up. He cried the first 8 months of his life and has been making noise ever since. He consumed a lot of Mom's time after he was born, so Gabriella ("Bri") and I were left to mischief. We were good for the most part, though.

For a while, it was just the three of us kids. A lot of my early memories are from living in GA and playing with Gabriella or my best friend Ashley. Once, (referring back to how childhood habits continue later in life...) I remember Mom putting us on a timer and telling us that if we didn't clean up our toy room in two minutes, we would be in trouble. Being the angel I am, I immediately started running around cleaning up. Bri? She sits on a trunk and points, saying "There's a toy, there's a toy, there's a toy." o.O It never ends.

So after a while, we moved to Kentucky. Now enters Rosanna. I remember going to the hospital when she was born and basically ignoring her because I was so excited to see Mom again. I hadn't seen Mom in forever, it seemed like. While Mom was at the hospital, we stayed with some friends of ours. We went to Mass and a guy had a heart attack during Mass and an ambulance came and got him. Craziness...

After another few years came Lucia. I remember having to help Mom out a lot because she couldn't move much the last few weeks of pregnancy. Dad was studying for his doctorate at the time and would have to be out of town for school when Mom was due for Lucia. Dad had been at all of our births, and he didn't want to stop with Rosanna, so Mom was induced. My dad's sister came and stayed with us for the two weeks Dad was gone.

Growing up's been interesting. Shortly after Lucia was born, Mom went through this BIG health kick. It was insane. We even went without gluten for a whole month. WORST month of my LIFE. She went through different phases and now she's content with being as natural as possibly as cheaply as possible. Works for me.

When I was 12 (almost 13), Dad lost his job. I was devastated. I remember that I was in the middle of writing a letter to a friend when Dad called Mom. We were in the car and I was writing my emotions as Mom was talking, saying that Dad was on the phone with Mom and I was afraid he'd been laid off because that's what it sounded like. That's what it was. I was really upset.

Fast forward to eight months later and Dad decided to accept a position in Connecticut. I was seriously depressed the first three months of living in CT. It was miserable. I finally came out of my funk and tried to make things work. It's kinda funny...I was just beginning to get to know people and enjoy life in CT when...

We moved again. Back to the same Kentucky town that we'd lived before. Dad has a job with another company. So after living in an apartment for three months (CRAZINESS), we moved into a nice house surrounded by 68 acres. I thought life would be perfect after we moved back, but it wasn't. Getting back into the swing of things was probably harder than making new friends. At least with new friends, you don't expect to be good friends from the start...anyway...so it was definitely a learning experience.

So that's where we are now. Back in our Kentucky home and trying to get back into the swing of things. The holidays are the worst, because it makes me miss CT a lot, cause we would go visit Dad's relatives on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Life's interesting and life moves on. But anyway...so that's a brief overview of my family history.