"Every story has a lesson"

After dinner I usually take my dog "Wilbur" for a run. While listening to the sea lions barking and bellowing over and over again I decided to check them out this evening. There was probably 50-60 sea lions either sleeping or barking at each other. I always wonder what their purpose is? My dog and I just watched while fights broke out with a playful nature. Do you know the difference between a sea lion and a seal? One thing I know seals don't bark or roar. So I know that these "dogs" of the ocean near me is sea lions! I like taking our children to this spot near by, they are always fascinated watching these mammals. Sea lions are pregnant for eleven months and their pups can weigh up to 50 pounds! Ooch! I carried on because the sky was getting dark with rain clouds, my fingers were starting to freeze because the wind started to blow. I was shocked on how cold it was! During my run back, I was tucking my fingers into my jacket, quickly running to hopefully miss the rain. Wilbur had to stop for a bathroom break. The Mother I am, I'm always checking out the goods. You never know if your child or dog might have a case of worms or blood in their stools. I know what you're thinking and to clarify, I wasn't digging in the stool with a stick! (I just looked) It was literally moments later when Wilbur decided to do this male back kick thing and I thought it started to rain. I wiped my face to find out it wasn't rain at all, it was Wilbur's stool that was flicked during his attempt to bury! I hope you're laughing because the only reason why I'm sharing this story is too make somebody laugh! After all I wasn't! The next best thing to do was run! A ran home and jumped immediately into the shower. The rule not to get kicked is don't stand behind a horse and note to self; do not stand behind too closely just after a male dogs bowel movement! Funny, at the dinner table tonight I was talking about my past as a little girl. I had ALL our children's attention! I explained that I had some interesting ideas that got me in trouble, (but at the time) it was a good idea. For instance when I was in grade seven I found an injured crow while I was at school. My idea at the time was taking it home to nurse it back to flying health! So I captured it with my coat and stuck it in my school locker until the end of the day. It didn't take long until when I was called down to the office. My Principle was mad and we marched down to where my locker was, while he demanded what was banging around inside?! Of course I was scared and after the ordeal I was grounded for what I thought was saving a bird. My story sparked my oldest daughter's story. She was around seven years old and found a pretty blue bird. This pretty bird was so pretty to her with the different colors, she wanted to keep it in her room. The key to her story is, the bird was dead. So she nicely put it into a zip lock bag and hid it in her dresser draw. To my shocking discovery days later while putting laundry away, it was a bag of bones. Not only bones, the whole draw was crawling with maggots! (Sorry to give you that vision) A vision we didn't want with dinner either so moving along.......another interesting story came out. Of course mine! My Mother used to make everything. Our toys and our clothing. One Halloween she made me a big fuzzy blue bear suit. I was so proud of my costume that I walked to school in it. I sweated during school in it. Then on my way home after school (hot but proud of my suit) I skipped along. All of a sudden a bunch of boys decided to tease me. They started throwing rocks at me. Imagine running in a big fuzzy bear suit tripping on your own paws and unable to see out of your bear face! Thinking back, it would have made a great You Tube video I'm sure! Although it became worse then just rocks. All of a sudden these boys were shooting roman candles at me and my bear suit caught on fire. I was zipped up, running and my happy Halloween changed to fright. Lucky while falling to the ground I was able to put out the flames on my suit. A memory I will never forget. Two other vivid stories I will share during my childhood; one was when I was doubling on the back of my friends bike. We crossed a neighbors yard and their dog came running out and bit my back, ripping me off the bike. I landed with a thump. I was really scared. I immediately stood up and starting running. When I opened the door to my house crying and bleeding, I explained to my Mother what happened. I also stretched the truth. I decided to tell her that I didn't know who's dog it was. There was a neighborhood search for days looking for this dog that didn't match the true dog. I did confess and not only did I receive a dog bite, I received my punishment for lying. The other story I was at my friends house playing tag. An innocent childhood game. Not on this day. I was a quick runner and the friend who was "it" decided to use a rake and tag me with it. I still have the scar today, on the right side of my forehead. One interesting factor during that day was after the impact, their Mother sent me home. I lived about five houses away. I walked home drenched in blood. I looked like the horror movie, "Carrie" Thirteen stitches and a concussion later, I was never allowed back to that friends house again. One more, one more, bare with me if you haven't left reading already! I was a Tom boy. Our children get tired of listening to me about how I played outside, climbing trees and making mud patties. Running through the forest like a wild child. I wasn't afraid of doing anything, my parents fished, hunted and we were the true outdoors type family. I would bounce fish eyeballs, watch a deer hang and bleed (sorry) getting graphic again, moving along......I was a nature child. One day I thought swinging from the top of the tree would be fun. I had that tree moving back and forth, it was a ride! All of a sudden (snap) I flew off. Guess what happened next? I didn't break a thing! Amazing, I started brushing myself off thinking that was the coolest experience ever! Then I started hearing a buzzing noise. I was wearing a homemade wool nit sweater and my hair being naturally curly was all over the place! (The hair was normally that way!) Moments later I was being stung repeatedly over and over again. On my back, my chest and my scalp! The bees were stuck in my sweater, they were stuck in my hair. It was horrible and listening to them buzz was worse! Again, I ran home searching for my Mother's help. Lucky I wasn't allergic to bees.....but my Mother sure had an awful job picking them out of my hair! I have tons of childhood stories, teenage stories and young adult stories that I can share with our children. My purpose for sharing my personal stories is every story has a lesson. It can be about "The boy who cried wolf" or about what happens being "Bullied" or a story that our children can relate too thinking, "Heh my Mom used to think like me" Sharing stories opens doors, trust and builds relationships. Tonight I had our children listening and to me not only were they interested, they were learning. They were connecting with me on a level they could understand. And if I can not only teach but make our children laugh because I had poop on my face, it's worth telling!