I guess that's what I get for having a mother like mine.

My mother is a writer.  She writes humor-laced stories for a local newspaper and has written a couple of books (think Erma Bombeck).  She is very good, but she isn't really famous; she just happens to enjoy writing.

Mom likes to write about some of our escapades, or "the lighter-side-of-parenting".  She is always gleaning ideas from us, her children: she has three sons and one daughter (the "daughter" is ME).

We are 15 (me), 13 (Ryan), 10 (Patrick), and 3 (T.J., or Thomas Jacob).  We are Mom's pride and joy.  She says that although sometimes we fight like cats and dogs, Mom would do anything for us.  She loves us so much.

I am glad that Mom does, but does she have to write about the time when I got my first zit at age 11 or when Patrick (then eight) threw my bra and panties on the tree in our backyard for all the neighborhood to see?  (Mom mentioned that in her last book, "I Wanted To Be A Gardener, So I Grew Kids Instead Of Vegetables!").

Mom has also written about the escapades of my brothers (all which were featured in the same book), such as the time Ryan poked holes in a can of deoderant and then threw it in the backyard (only to have it explode; the backyard smelled just like Old Spice for over an hour!), or when T.J. got into the fireplace (after the ashes had cooled and the fire had been long put out) and emerged, looking like a tiny black bear cub (it took three baths in a row to get most of the filth off).

My friends know that my mother is a writer, but they like to pick on me about some of the things that she's written about, such as The Bra And Panties Incident.  I try to laugh it off on the outside; yet on the inside, I'm dying all over again.  I just hope that no other kids happen to read this book because then that would be the death of me.  I would be the laughingstock of the entire school!

The book "I Wanted To Be a Gardener ...." is available in our local school library, as well as the library here in town.  More opportunities for kids to pick on me if they ever get a hold of that book!

I wold love to get a hold of that book myself and BURN IT!!!!  It's bad enough that Mom writes about our lives in a humorous way; I don't need to be reminded of all the embarrassing moments of my life all over again!!!!