Sit back...relax...sail back to yesteryear with me

~cue wavy lines and soft music~
Once upon a time I was a sought after babysitter. It seems so long ago in fact that the PC term is probably something more intelligent like child-safety-reenforcer. Or something like that. I mean we never actually sat on baby's in my day.
Anyhoo, back to the story, having come from a family of 9 children, and being the oldest of said 9. I had a pretty good clientelle of paying sittees (if there's a term for it). I had the regular Friday night couple and then they had to start calling 3 weeks in advance to compete with the very well paying widow with 2 small kids. I also had the regular couples at church who could pretty much depend on me day or night. I even met a family at the park once when I was like 15 or 16 and they liked that I played with their kids so much so that they asked me if I'd babysit!! Wow, I have yet to meet a 15 or 16 year old, at the park, that I'd randomly ask to watch my kids. At my house. Alone. Times are a changin that's for sure. Of course that's not to infer that I don't know any perfectly responsible 15 and/or 16 yo at all. Mackenzie and Rosa.
All that to say that my mom emailed me a copy of 2 wedding invitations this week. Yep, you know where this is going. 3 of the kids I used to watch from 3 different families, are getting married. 1 boy married today. The other 2. From 2 other families. They're marrying eachother. Next month. At my home church. In WA!!! I can't be there. This boy (who's now like 24) and his brother taught me a computer game that I absolutely loved and they would sit and laugh at the fact that they were better than me at it. Their words, "and you're a teenager". Can you see them shaking their heads?! Get this, their mom arranged the music for my wedding!
*sniff* I did not receive an invitation *wail* not even a phone call. Nor did I expect one. Then tonight it hit me that the youngest person I used to watch...I started watching her when she was 6 months old. She's probably close to 18 now!!! Typing that was very hard.
I now have a brother who will be 22 tomorrow, one who will be 21 in June and another who is 18. Yes, of course, I watched them. If any of them, (you guys), tells me they're getting married before the end of the year...I just may show up in a wheelchair. Especially if it happens after Oct. 28th. Honestly, though, I know you have to have a girlfriend first. *phew*
So now that it's 8:30 I must get my shawl and my hot water bottle and would someone please grab my cane for me? It's time for this geriatric, arthritic has been babysitter to head to bed.