I miss a lot of things from my past, but I work toward creating similar memories with my family. I remember stumbling out of bed before school each day. I would sit at the same spot at our kitchen table and without fail, my mom would have a cup of tea waiting there for me. I wasn’t much of a talker first thing in the morning and the tea was welcoming. I do the same for my children, but like their father, they like coffee in the morning. Being spoiled in the morning makes waking up that much easier. On the weekends, sometimes my husband will bring me a cup of tea if he gets up first, but that is a rare occasion. Every Saturday when I lived at home, my dad would wake us up with pancakes. To this day his pancakes are still the best.

I also miss all of my cats. Each cat I had, had a different personality. Cupcake would get up on his hind legs if you put your hand out to pet him. Haiji would follow me on walks around the neighborhood. Meeko and Mickey were really hyper. Mickey liked to lick everyone, he also liked to bite my dads nose when he was a kitten. We thought it was cute, but when he woke my dad up by biting his nose, my dad wasn’t too happy. My cat now, Cinder,  likes to drink out of the sink and sleep under chairs instead of on top of them.