The Gallagher Clan

I’ve noticed that the popular bloggers make up clever little nicknames for their family members. Since I so desperately want to fit in I’m going to pretend to be clever and think of some for my own family. My husband is “Stranger” since we hardly ever see him and he comes and goes at such odd hours. He doesn’t use a key because he just comes through the garage but as soon as he gets home he bolts the garage door. I have long wondered why Stranger locks the door when he gets home at 3 in the morning. Oh goody, now that we have a big strong man in the house to protect us, we can lock the door and feel safe. When we’re on our own and defenseless, we have to leave the door open so Stranger and any sort of criminal can help themselves to our home and family.

Grey, my 8 year old can be “Winner”. He is the most competitive little boy I have ever met. He loves to play games. He was proficient at Candy Land at the age of 2, years before his age mates could even sit still long enough to set up the game. And he had to win too. Mr. Plum had to conveniently get “lost” so that Winner wouldn’t get sent back to the beginning just as he was getting ready to claim his victory. He takes a loss a little better these days but now he is just better at cheating. He can cheat at any game. He doesn’t get that from my side of the family. I never cheated at Clue. I don't even know how to cheap at Clue. I don't know what you're talking about.

One time Winner set up a game of cards and then invited Stranger to play it with him. Winner likes to win but he isn’t a very good actor. His fake surprise at having a hand made up entirely of wild cards wasn’t very believable. For the next game, Stranger and I ganged up on him and kept adding cards to his stack when he wasn’t looking. It took him for. ever. to figure out that he had about 50 cards in his pile. Imagine someone CHEATING like that! Cheater might be a more fitting name but let’s just stick with Winner.

My 6 year old is relentless, stubborn, obstinate... What’s a nice way of saying that? Persistent! Oh yes, she is persistent. Very single minded. Once she gets an idea into her head that is the way it’s going to be. When she was 3 she decided to learn to swim, at four she was riding a bike, tying her shoes and jumping off the high dive. I spent the better part of 6 months trying to teach her to read the alphabet and she did her best to discourage me. Like one day knowing all the letters and the next day forgetting half of them. I finally figured out it wasn’t a battle worth fighting so I gave up. Two months later she was reading books. By the age of five she was into chapter books. I think her greatest achievement is her ability to aggravate her brother. Well, any good sister is good at that but the amount of time Persistence spends practicing you would think she was getting a gold medal for it.

Fifteen month old Elisabeth is just Lovable. There’s not much else to say about her. She gets along with everyone, she is happy about everything and is generally a pleasure to be around. I hate to say it but Lovely may just turn out to be a perfectly ordinary, average child. Heaven forbid that I would have one of those.

There you have it. My family: Stranger, Winner, Persistence, Lovely and me, Lazy.