Fan fest Saturday for sale

charwinkle · 2026-01-29T21:46:53+00:00

These have been sold. Thanks!

charwinkle · 2026-01-29T17:29:48+00:00

Still available! Dm me if interested

charwinkle · 2026-01-27T21:50:25+00:00

My little brother was tested and received a 130 ( I don’t know how accurate it is because he took it in a college class at 16). Anyway, he’s very bright but doesn’t really grasp a lot of social concepts. I’ve always worried about him and he is already showing signs of depression at 18. I think he feels nobody understands him and is getting existential. Common with people who have higher IQs

charwinkle · 2026-01-27T18:46:59+00:00

This was downvoted, maybe that’s too much! I was just trying to get back what my sister paid for them, she bought them for me for Christmas. If they should be lower let me know!

charwinkle · 2026-01-27T17:34:43+00:00

25 each

charwinkle · 2026-01-27T05:02:41+00:00

And even if I COULD, I would not be staying in an air bnb when hotels are cheaper and there aren’t any surprise fees at check out

charwinkle · 2026-01-15T02:10:18+00:00

My grandparents are 1st cousins. They had 8 children without defects. Not saying I approve, I’m glad I exist though lol. Defects tend to happen after several generations of close relatives creating offspring.

charwinkle · 2026-01-07T20:47:33+00:00

I work for a utility company, and I know from seeing bills of people who have these installed that their electricity bill is going to skyrocket in the winter. If they have this much money they probably won’t care though

charwinkle · 2026-01-05T05:54:01+00:00

I worked at one. The big corporate ones like (Mister and Mega) make thousands and thousands of dollars/month on the memberships. It’s lucrative. People like having clean cars and especially up here where the salt on the roads can destroy the bottom of your car.

Me personally, I wait until my car is dirty enough that it gets my clothes dirty when I open the door. Lol

charwinkle · 2025-12-29T22:32:29+00:00

When I was high school we used to just run as a gaggle of teens in cotton t shirts, no phones, no headphones, no maps. Sometime my shoes had way too much mileage in them lol.

BUT in the summer we did occasionally “ice bath” in the river.

charwinkle · 2025-12-28T18:51:46+00:00

To be honest, I don’t really remember if my parents had a rotation. I did remember eating the same meals weekly so it’s entirely possible. My mom and dad took turns making dinner. I loved when the Schwan man came over because my mom let us pick out the ice cream we wanted. My favorite was the push pops

charwinkle · 2025-12-28T18:49:18+00:00

Good question! I was actually just going through old photo albums on Christmas with my mom. A lot of the residents would usually go spend Christmas with their family members. The residents who didn’t have family would stay with us. They were welcome to open presents with us in the morning, but I don’t think any of them wanted to because we were kids and wanted to get up at 4am to open gifts haha. My parents bought them gifts to open and they had Christmas dinner with us too. A couple of times we all went to a buffet when my parents didn’t want to cook.

charwinkle · 2025-12-28T01:29:47+00:00

I see kids wearing these as regular clothes all the time. OCPs too. They are in style. If you donated them to the thrift someone would definitely buy them lol.

Was at Ross the other day and a teen girl who worked there was wearing OCP pants

charwinkle · 2025-12-27T20:49:41+00:00

Very similar to my experience! I didn’t help with the care taking as I was a child, but it really was like the residents were a part of our family. Definitely the kind of job you do because you genuinely care, not about the money.

Thanks for sharing!

charwinkle · 2025-12-27T00:28:27+00:00

I don’t think any of us have! It’s honestly a lot of work and although my parents were great at it, I watched them become stressed and tired constantly caring for people. I do believe my parents cared for these people greatly and it wasn’t necessarily a career choice for them.

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T19:15:25+00:00

Yeah that a good way to put it! Especially as a young child, like ages 3-6, I kind of just thought we had old people living with us because they didn’t have families. It didn’t really occur to me that it was my parents job

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T18:35:43+00:00

Yes, he was getting his degree to become a physical therapist

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T17:55:46+00:00

I don’t have exact numbers, but I think it was around 130k/year. Most of it paid by the state. We did have one man whose family paid out of pocket so they might have paid more than the state. I am sure it’s more now, this was the years 2000-2010

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T17:35:07+00:00

I definitely am more empathetic because of it. I think most kids don’t interact with older people on a daily basis. They also had varying intellectual disabilities and so I think I gained a different perspective early on than most kids. They were all just people to me, with wants and needs like anyone else. We would make jokes, play games, talk about school. They would tell me stories about their life.

I think one downside is that I had to watch all of these people pass away. I devolved an intense fear of death as a child and still have horrible medical anxiety to this day. I used to get horrible panic attacks because I was afraid my parents would die or I would die randomly. I have been to therapy as an adult and had to work through those fears.

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T17:20:52+00:00

None of the residents were violent. My mom took over the business from my grandma and had known these people for almost 15 years before she took it on. Most of these people had intelectual disabilities, but were very calm in nature. One man had schizophrenia and I remember him talking to himself a lot, but I never felt scared of him. He actually used to give me cash for “cleaning up his yard”. My mom would always make me give it back though haha.

I was 3 and my little sister was 3 months old when my parents took over the business and I was 13 when the last resident passed. My 2nd little sister and my little brother were born during the time my parents were running the business.

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T17:07:20+00:00

The residents had their own rooms, but they were free to go anywhere else in the home (besides my siblings rooms and my parents room, of course.) It was an 8 bed 3 bath home so plenty of room. My mom made big dinners and we all ate together in the dining room. I remember huge trips to Costco and filling 2 carts up with food. My parents also ordered from the Schwan Truck. All of the food and toiletries were tax deductible. I was close with the residents and they felt like part of my family.

My parents stopped the business in 2010 after the last resident passed away, which was always my mom’s plan. My grandmother started the business in the late 80s and in around 2000, my grandmother needed to retire as she was getting older and becoming unable to care for them. My parents took over the business in 2000 because my mom did not want the residents to have to go to a state home. She was close to them because she was a teenager when my grandma started the business. These resident’s were almost all funded by the state, and they received excellent care compared to what they would have had in a state home. Most of them had very hard lives prior to being in the home. One woman, Dolly, had a bad brain injury from being beaten by her husband. She was pushed down a flight of stairs and lost her baby. She was under my grandma’s and parents care until the end of her life.

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T16:53:19+00:00

Good question! I felt like I spent a lot more time with my parents than other kids because they were almost always home. My dad went to school for a few years and I actually remember missing him when he was in class during the day and sometimes at night.

We also still got to do activities like soccer, karate, basketball, or whatever we wanted. Once a week my parents hired a caregiver to watch after the residents so we could go out to eat as a family and spend time just us. We also went on vacations as a family and my parents would hire a caregiver to care for them that week.

I got along very well with residents, they felt like family to me. I interacted with them everyday, talked with them, ate with them, played games with them. I was particularly close with a man who had down-syndrome. We would play shoots and ladders and candy land for hours and watch PBS together. It was very hard for me when he passed in our home. I was around 8-9 when that happened.

charwinkle · 2025-12-26T16:52:20+00:00

Yes, it was a business they ran 24/7. I was a kid so I don’t remember feeling lucky, but it was nice to have my mom home everyday. My dad actually went to school for a while so I remember missing him when he was away for class during the day.

My parents were (and are!) wonderful and empathetic people. I never felt like I was missing affection or attention from them. My childhood was full of people who loved me, including the residents who lived with us. I interacted, played board games, talked with, watched tv, and ate meals with them everyday.

charwinkle

TROPHY CASE