Harvey and Lori announced that they had bought the old Brace-Gideon mansion and would be lovingly restoring it for their new home. There was also an update on Harvey's kid sister, Debbie, who was a senior at Sim State U.
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Valrae's Journal:
So here I am again. Aunt Debbie will be graduating soon and she came home last weekend for a visit. I want to be just like her some day. When she first went to University her hair was short, but she has grown it out long. Now she wears it in these tiny waves and it's all wild.
I asked Mumma could I please wear my hair like that but she said that it was too much hair for a little girl and when I become a teenager "we will review the matter". She said besides it's "a lot of work". I don't think I'm a "little girl" because I just turned 10.
So then I asked if, since Aunt Debbie has naturally curly hair and mine is just kind of bendy, shouldn't I have a perm at least? But Mumma said,
"No, you don't need one, even if you were going to wear your hair that way. You ask Aunt Debbie what all she has to do to make it look like that and see what she says. Meanwhile, you have lovely loose waves, sweetheart, so enjoy not having to style your hair while you can."
When Aunt Debbie got here Daddy and Grandpa Shep and Gray went fishing but me and Aunt Debbie went swimming in the pool. She put her hair up just like mine to go in the water and she said we were practically twins. That made me smile like anything!
It was fun to have us all together for supper. Aunt Debbie slept on the second floor on Gray's bed in her old bedroom with me. She smells good all the time and our room smells good when she's here. I hope when I get her age I will smell like she does and make whatever room I'm in smell good. Because sometimes this bedroom stinks like a boy, if you know what I mean; like old sneakers and farts. Gray hates to take baths. He tries to get out of them whenever he can. When I was little, like 6, and it was summertime I wet the bed (I used to do that sometimes) so I crawled in with Gray and there was sand in his bed from the sandbox! Ugh, I don't even know how that could be, but it was.
Mamie has redone the little living room on the third floor that is Mumma and Daddy's. Grandpa She says she redecorates a room at least every six months so if you don't like the way she did this one, don't worry it won't be long before it gets changed.
Anyway, it's real bright and cheerful and Gray slept on the sofa-bed there on the same floor with Mumma and Daddy instead of downstairs on the couch all by himself. He said he wasn't scared to be down there alone, but I think he was glad he didn't have to do it.
When I was watching her play pinball Aunt Debbie told me that she uses a crimping iron to make her hair look the way it does. She says her hair was real curly when she was young but by the time she was a teenager it only had loose waves and she blew it out straight. So now she crimps it. I takes her a long time, so I guess waiting until I'm older will be okay.
Daddy has a twin sister, Holly, and she married Andy Lomax. They have four kids! Anyway, Uncle Andy came by just as Gray and me got home from school. I was wishing the twins, Arliss and Alexa--who are only one year older than me and Gray, could've come with him, but he came by himself this time. He didn't stay long, just stood on the sidewalk talking and laughing with Daddy.
I don't understand why grownups do that. I mean, why they stand around while they talk. Kids do stuff, like play games or ride bikes and then, while they're doing it they also talk with each other. Well, girls talk to each other; boys mostly laugh or yell or make grunting noises at each other, or sometimes they practice saying sentences while they burp and see who can say the longest one before their burp runs out. If you ask me, which you didn't, but if you did, I would say boys are mostly stupid. Anyway, I hate to stand around doing nothing unless I'm at a museum, staring at stuff. But then that's not doing nothing. I don't want to just stand around with a friend and go blah, blah, blah and that's all. I can sit still when I read or watch TV, or write in my journal, but not when I'm talking to a friend, like Scarlett. She and I go for walks around the neighborhood and pick out our favorite houses. And Gray can hardly stand still for a minute unless he is painting or fishing but he doesn't talk when he does those things. People practically have to chase around after him to have a conversation. Mumma says I will like to stand and talk when I'm a teenager. Sounds boring to me.
Well, Aunt Debbie went back to school Sunday afternoon and I miss her. We had crispy chicken salad for supper today and it is one of my most favorite salads in the world. And then the grownups went out on the back porch to talk (at least they were sitting and not standing). Gray and I went swimming in the pool--yay!
And then, right while we were having the most fun of all and playing Marco Polo, Mumma said this:
"It's time for bed, so upstairs with you and get out of those wet suits and into your pajamas. Don't leave them on the bathroom floor! Hang them over the shower rod. Daddy or I will be up to tuck you in. You have 10 minutes.
I hate when parents send you to bed and don't even try to hide how they're really happy to do it. I think it's rude. On the way up the stairs Gray was crabbing about how he didn't need to be tucked in anymore because he was 10 and not a baby. I like being tucked in; if it's Mumma sometimes she smells like cinnamon if she's been baking or Bell Dopium perfume if she and Daddy are going out. (I don't think I spelled that right). And Daddy smells like the outdoors--like grass and or if they're going out he smells like Polo, which I love. I like to smell things and people and then I will remember them better. Anyway! I told Gray that I liked being tucked in and how Mumma and Daddy smell and he looked over his should at me and said,
"You are a girl, Val; a girl. You can't help it but the way you think is just wrong."
His voice was like Mumma's when she sounds all tired and says,
"I have HAD enough."
I stuck my tongue out at him but he'd already turned back. I don't see how I'm ever going to get married when I grow up when boys are so mean. Maybe they get better when they grow up. Now that I think of it Daddy is not mean (mostly) and neither is Grandpa Shep. And Scarlett's daddy, Gareth, is lots of fun.
So that is all for now. I hardly had three minutes to write this last part. I have to go in the bathroom now to change into my p.j.'s. Gray gets to change in the bedroom, but I have to change clothes in the bathroom all the time now. Gray says it's because he is forced to share his room with a silly girl but according to Mumma and Daddy I can't see him get dressed and he can't see me because we need our privacy. I guess supposedly I will fall down in shock or my brain will be fried if I see skinny Gray in his underwear. Ha! I've seen him in his shorts and tee shirt before...big whup. I can't WAIT to move to the mansion and have my own room!
I love you and you love me,
Valrae Diana Ferguson
Next Harvey and Lori Ferguson Update: Harvey and Lori Ferguson Ch. 25 Moving Along
Next Harvey and Lori Ferguson Update: Harvey and Lori Ferguson Ch. 25 Moving Along
Next blog update: The Brothers Everhart Ch. 23 Perry and Lalique
