Frogs, Frogs, and More Frogs!!

As we walked closer to our motel room door with its' overhead light, we could see what had been moving in the dark. It wasn't just a thing. It was many "things" ... many, many, many things. I felt like I had just walked out into one of the Moses' plagues in Egypt. There were frogs everywhere ... hopping up and down the sidewalks, in the grass, and in the parking lot. The kids were ecstatic. "We need a bucket, we need a bucket", were the simultaneous cries. Fortunately we could not find a bucket or anything else that could hold a frog, but promised the kids we would see what we could find in the morning. By morning, most of the frogs were gone, but enough remained that we were able to capture a few for the girls to "observe". We were soon to find out that frogs would play a big part in our children's lives.

Our first concern after arriving in Novato was finding a place to live. After searching a few days were able to find a house which we could purchase without a down payment using our G.I. bill ... a benefit program that was available to veterans of the Korean War. The house was in a quiet little isolated subdivision containing only a few streets entry to which was by way of only one of the streets. The best part of this choice was that the grade school was right at the entrance to the area ... a short and safe walking distance from our home. The house was an Eichler designed building, recognizable by its large ceiling to floor windows. These windows comprised two walls of our living room. The kitchen was small but had a DISHWASHER, my first ever dishwasher. I really didn't care that there wasn't much cupboard space because it had a DISHWASHER! There was a small dining area off the kitchen, and there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms (another first). The best part was that there was a bathroom right off what would be the girl's room which had a door that lead to the back yard where the girls would spend a lot of time. The back yard had been divided into several planter boxes with rock pathways between them. One of these boxes we turned into a sandbox. In the corner of a the yard was a rock "wall" which I think at one time must have been a small fountain and water fall. A sliding glass door between the dining area and the living room lead to the side yard where there was a nice patio and grass area. On the other side of the house was the sidewalk

that led to the front door, and a small slope covered with ice plant. All you could see from the street was the garage because the rest of the house was secluded behind fences on both sides of the garage.

This was the first home that we had lived in that was OURS. And, my first thought was to decorate it the way I wanted. The house came with white drapes that covered those two windowed walls of the living room. We had bought our piece of new furniture in Klamath Falls which was a white Naugahyde (imitation leather) couch. With all that white, I knew I needed some color. All the floors throughout the house were asbestos tile, pretty common back then. There were no carpets. The first thing we purchased was beautiful bluish green tweed, wall to wall carpet for the living room. Then I purchased blue and green pillows for the couch. My creativity then kicked in and I decided to make planters to go on to of the bookcases that were built half way up the wall on both sides of the white brick fireplace. The fireplace and the bookcases comprised the whole far end wall of the room. Dad built the metal planters and I covered them with blue, green and white Mosaic tile. When filled with silk greenery, they really added to the beauty of the room. My next purchase was a large gold sunburst clock which I hung over the fireplace. I just loved the way it all turned out. I felt that this house was now really my "home".

Novato??? What the Heck is Novato?

Things got a bit easier as the twins grew big enough to sit and play in a borrowed playpen. They seemed happy to just sit and play together with their toys unless, of course, they both wanted the same toy at the same time. Jeanie and Debbie were now both in school for part of the day, and Kathi was still taking an afternoon nap which meant that, if I was lucky, the twins would go to sleep at the same time, and I could have an hour or so all to myself. But I'm sure that time was not spent taking a nap myself. There were other things I'd rather be doing than sleeping.

As I look back now at the Easter picture of my five little treasures all sitting together on the couch dressed in matching homemade dresses (and little suit for Jim), I wonder how on earth did I have the time to make all all those clothes. They were not simple dresses, either. Each dress was made of a different colored gingham check with a white pinafore over it. The pinafore was trimmed in matching check and had matching little flowers which were hand sewed on each pinafore. Each little girl had a matching gingham-covered head band except Shelly (as we called her) who had a matching bonnet. I made little Jim a blue gingham romper with a white vest and I purchased him a little boy's hat. I have to admit they looked pretty cute. But I still can't believe I had the time and patience for this project that now looks HUGE to me at age seventy-five. Oh, to be young again! I guess I know now what I did with that one hour or so that I had to myself each day.

It was the spring of 1962, when Jim received a notice of transfer from his company. We were to leave that summer for his new assignment to Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, California.

I had never heard of Novato before, but was told that it was in the northern part of the state in between San Rafael and Santa Rosa. It was a good time to move because of the summer break from school and after looking on a map, it seemed a favorable place to be going. I had never been to that part of California, and that would be new adventure. We would be close to San Francisco with its' cable cars, China Town, and the Golden Gate Bridge. That was all exciting to me.

The company packed us up, and put all our things in storage until we could find a place to live. We stayed in a motel while looking. But it was that first night's stay in the motel that excited the children SO much, but scared me to death. As we headed toward our room that first night, it was getting pretty dark. Suddenly I saw things moving on the sidewalk ... lots of "things". I stopped dead in my tracks and the girls started squealing. What kind of town were me moving to?

More Challenges With Twins

It didn't take long before I realized I had new problems to solve having two babies. Without any of the new "necessary" baby equipment that is available today (carriers, newborn seats that can be moved around the house, "bouncy" chairs, swings that play music, bath equipment, etc. etc.), I had to be innovative or just plain frustrated. How do I have the babies in the same room where I was working, especially the kitchen, when they were awake. There was no place to lay them. The only way we had to set the babies down was to prop them in the corners of the couch and put a pillow in front of them so they wouldn't fall over.

And what about bath time? Since we had both babies on the same schedule, they both were bathed at the same time. Where would I lay one screaming baby while the other was being bathed and dressed? The only safe place was in the crib in another room which made for an even more unhappy baby. Daddy came to the rescue by building a double decker changing table which we placed in the kitchen where I bathed the babies in the sink. It was ingenious. I could lay one baby on the lower deck while I bathed the other then dressed her/him on the upper deck and visa versa. There was a shelf below the lower deck to hold diapers, clothes and bath accessories. It was GREAT!!.

Next problem: How do I get out of the house to take the children for a walk or to make an emergency trip to the grocery store. It was still summer and Jeanie and Debbie were still at home. We only had one car which Dad took to work. I had only a single stroller so I would have to push with one hand and carry the second baby in the other. But then how could I hang on to the other three children, especially the three-year-old. Imagine this sight: Me, holding a baby and pushing a stroller, a small child hanging on to my skirt, and two others holding hands and walking in front so I could see them. I'm sure I was a sight to behold. After one of these exhaustive trips to the store, and coming home in tears, I KNEW I had to have a double stroller no matter what the cost. Tears worked on Jim when he came home from work that I day and a twin stroller was ordered from the Sears catalogue, the only place that they were available. Even though the stroller was SO welcomed, it presented a few problems of its' own. The double seats were side by side, which made it very wide and hard to maneuver through single doorways of homes or stores. Yes, I wanted the stroller in the house at time just to have a place to set the twins so I could do other things. But the positive far outweighed the negative, so I never complained.

As that first fall and winter approached, and the weather became colder (even freezing), hanging the "massive" amount of laundry outside became a real problem for me. I couldn't drape washed clothes over the furniture to dry like I used to do in Utah. There was just too much. An automatic dryer now became an absolute necessity in my eyes. Money was still tight, but somehow we managed a monthly payment on a new dryer. What a blessing!

One more thing that was so difficult for me was bedtime without the help of Jim three or four nights a week. He would leave right after dinner to teach classes or take care of church responsibilities. Often that would leave me with dirty dishes in the sink, two crying babies, three little girls needing baths, teeth brushed, and story read before going to bed and one tired, frantic mom to deal with it all. Enter the picture my saving angel, Cheryl. Cheryl was a teenage neighbor girl whom we only knew by name. In desperation one bad night I called her on the phone and asked if I could hire her to come over and help me out. She came. She turned out to be one of those rare young adults who could see what needed to be done without being told and she just pitched in. She would pick up and soothe a crying baby, put the girls in the tub, wash a sink full of dirty dishes, play with or read to the girls, or whatever she saw was needed at the time. She was an answer to my urgent prayers. From then on, all I needed to do was call, even on a moment's notice and she was there. I wouldn't have survived those first six months without her. And she would never take a penny for her services. She was not a member of the Church, but she could have been the perfect role model for what we would like all of our young women in the Church to be. We kept in contact with her over the years and were thrilled to hear years later that she had joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We were not surprised.

We survived the first year by:

1. buying a second crib when the twins got too big to sleep in the same crib

2. buying an Osterizer to make our own baby food when we realized how expensive it was

to buy ready-made food for two growing babies.

3. buying a new car, a VW bus, to accommodate our growing family.

4. teaching our three younger daughters to assume more and more responsibility

5. ....and nearly adopting Cheryl to be our personal "Nanny". She was truly my buoy in

stormy weather.