Apr 18, 2010 by Lindsay
On October 16, 2009 my Mom passed away after a year long battle with brain cancer. She was a woman that cherished her kids, worked hard, loved the Lord more than anything, and had a LOT of stuff! The past few days were full of memories, funny stories and a few tears. We had so much fun going through every cupboard, drawer and cabinet in the house we grew up in finding everything that Mom had saved through the years. I found myself wanting to keep everything I found that was special to me, but knew that it was just something that would sit in my closets, so I thought it would be better to take pictures and keep those instead.
In the upstairs of our house we had a cedar chest for as long as I can remember. It held sheets, blankets and special items that Mom wanted to keep. In there we found a few funny things. First we have our Minnie Mouse suspenders. I don’t know who got them for us, but I do know that Em and I proudly sported them with bright yellow turtlenecks. The elastic was breaking and so unfortunately there won’t be any future little girls making this fashion statement!
Next we have Nicholas’ beloved pajamas! If you can read the note it says “Nicholas 5 – FAVORITE pajamas, 1997-1998.” These pj’s started out as long pants and were turned into shorts after the knees were too worn out. As you can see, almost every seam is falling apart, I am pretty sure the kid was heartbroken when Mom told him it was time to retire them!
Em and I modeling snowsuits….very attractive, I know!
These are four of my favorite games from growing up. Did anyone else have the Discovery games and books?
After a long morning of hard work we took a break to enjoy a Wilson’s hamburgs and a frosty. Some of us my or may not have had two frosty’s 
This was the traditional Rarey kid first Halloween costume. Don’t I look like a real pumpkin?
These ornaments have been on our tree for as long as I remember. My Mom made the cross-stitch ones and her and my Dad painted the ceramic ones for their first Christmas together.
Now, this was my absolute favorite part of our trip, going through the old clothes my Mom made for us. My Mom was an amazing seamstress. The details on these clothes just blow me away, I hope that someday I am half as talented as she was. Miss Caroline has some beautiful dresses to grow into and I hope someday I will have a little girl to put in them as well!
Here I am modeling one of Mom’s dresses that she made for herself.
I was a thumb sucker from the very beginning, I would suck my thumb and hold my Care Bear blankie on my face. I remember driving through the parking lot at The Pharm (a local supermarket) and my Mom told me I could keep my blankie or keep sucking my thumb! (Obviously I was probably too old for either since I remember!)
These are our “special” plates. The silver one says “You Are Special Today.” Mom always got that plate out for us to eat on for our birthday’s and other special events. The other plates are ones that we made when we were little, I was quite the artist!
This little lamb can wind up and play “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It was the day after Matthew was born and Emily and I were eating at Cracker Barrel with Dad before we went to pick up Mommy and our new little brother. We were sitting next to an older couple and were so excited to tell them our news. After they ate they went to the gift shop, bought this lamb and told us to take it to our new baby. It’s been around for almost 20 years!
Who new that you could have a memory of Tupperware? Well the green bowl is what Mom always made her Cauliflower salad in, the big white one held a triple batch of cookies when company was coming, and the pitcher is what we made jello in.
While we were working in the kitchen Emily was cleaning out the pots and pans and pulled out this red and white pot and asked, “What does this remind you of?” In unison we said, “hard boiled eggs!” My mom only used this pot for boiling eggs and nothing else, why I don’t know, but we all remember it!
Em and I took ballet for years starting when we were three and these are our ballet slippers. As you can see we would continue to wear them for dress up and they got pretty worn out! I also found a box with all of our old dance costumes but didn’t take a picture. It was so sweet when we were having the garage sale on Saturday there was a little girl about four years old begging her mom to buy the dresses, I hope they will provide her with hours of dress up fun just like they did for us!
These hillbilly teeth were not a special memory for us, but they did give everyone a good laugh while we were working, my Mom would be so proud of her beautiful children!
The one thing I wanted to do was take one last picture of all of us kids at the house. We have lots of good memories there and hope that the next family that buys the house will make memories too!
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