Wakey wakey

Since I've been using my CPAP machine, I've not been sleeping well. By well, I mean very long. I used to be in bed for the night about 8 or 9 hours each night, but now I'm lucky if I make it to bed by 11pm and stay there until 4am. I just can't get my mind settled down to be sleepy. My body is tired, but my mind is whirling. I think it's adjusting to the new level of oxygen. And though I think the 4 or so hours of sleep on the CPAP I'm getting are better than the 8 or 9 hours I was previously getting, it just ain't enough downtime...

This has made for some interesting nights. And many, many eBay purchases. Right now I have about 12 unopened packages from yesterday's and Saturday's mail. I also found a great place to buy New Balance shoes, Joe's. Highly recommend Joe's. I also bought 3 used books from Amazon.com sellers, and they're awesome. And cheap! What a deal!

I found some real super cool etsy stores... dyenah from California who cold-water dyes vintage textiles, like tablecloths and aprons, and they're beautiful! That's what some of my eBay purchases are... vintage tablecloths because dyenah has inspired me to wanna try cold-water dyeing. But now I've ordered 3 tablecloths from dyenah, too. I couldn't resist... she had them on sale!

I've liked etsy for a long time. Before all this late night computer obsession started, this etsy artist, Jessica Grundy, easily convinced Joycie and I to purchase several prints... we have plans to use them in a future girl's nursery, among other places. We bought her prints: Roots, Jenny, Swarm, Little Sharpshooter, Duet, Take Warning and Layers. Layers is going in my kitchen area. When the prints arrived, extremely well packaged, I might add, the artist had included a hand-written thank you note and some free goodies. I love etsy shop owners... they're so nice!

I like to get on etsy and pick a word to search items... like spike. Search that one and you'll love some of the results. I don't remember what search led me to this awesome charm bracelet, but it also led me to discover the term, "steampunk." I know! Where the heck have I been?!

Tangent: Wikipedia for me is just like the old-fashioned, printed World Book Encyclopedia set we had when I was a kid... I'd look something up, and that would lead me to something else, so I would have to go pull out another letter of the alphabet (there was a book for each letter, for those youngsters reading this), and pretty soon, I was sitting on the floor near the bookcase surrounded by 14 volumes of the encyclopedia. Ahhh... good times. Sometimes on Wikipedia, I get so far linked from my original topic that I forget what I was looking up in the first place. Ahhh... good times.

Anyway, back to etsy... this photographer, Wild Life Prints, from Nova Scotia, is someone who I think I would really like to meet in person. I'm sure he must be a fun person to be around.

These salt and pepper shakers made me laugh out loud!

This artist, who lives in Hawaii and makes a lot of masks, inspired me with her tomato face mask. By inspired, I mean that I pretty much copied it, and then I made a matching green pepper and jalapeno for my sister, Kathy, to add to her collection she puts on the side of their shed near her garden, which collection has grown large enough to expand to another wall of the shed...





And based on this item and this one, and also this one, Uturn is also an etsy artist/shop owner who I'm sure I would like to know.

Just like eBay, of course, there's a whole lotta crap on etsy along with all the cool stuff. I know as hours and hours of research lately has proved it. But I still love searching on it. I've been semi-obsessed with wall hooks lately. And this feature of etsy is awesome.

Thanks to my friend, Michelle in California, I've been enjoying some new web sites, like this one. And thanks to my niece, Michelle, I've been enjoying StumbleUpon, too. My niece is very talented, by the way...



I've even begun keeping a list of words, phrases, names of people & things that I hear on the radio, on TV or in conversations, or that I read, such as in magazines at the doctor's office waiting room, that I want to look up later. That Internets! So interesting!

I also have been searching for the perfect purse on eBay. And in the process have given away 2 purses to Joycie, 1 to my sister Janet and 2 to my mother-in-law Sharron. Only 1 I've bought is okay, but it's still too small. I've been trying to get a good deal on a Vera Bradley Stephanie now, but those people who sell VB on eBay are crazy. Too much money. But I did find a great Tignanello wallet real cheap. Score! Update since I started writing this post: I forgot! I won a VB Stephanie purse auction, and it arrived and I like it. Still too much moola, though.

Along with not getting sleepy enough, I have also discovered that I can't stand to sit for long in the recliner and watch TV in the evenings anymore. Kev and I follow a lot of TV shows. I do mean a lot of them... many shows. We are American TV junkies and proud of it. We rarely ever watch a show that we haven't recorded on the DVR, and we fastmercialize though most of the commercials. We do stop and watch some of the commercials; I'm really enjoying the SubWay ones where the adults talk like little kids. I can't explain why those appeal to me, but they do! Especially the "do you wanna be my boyfriend" one.

So anyway, back to my point, which is though I have not only enjoyed vegging in my much-beloved recliner for many evenings, I've craved it often (since 2008), but now... now I sometimes feel like I'm gonna go crazy if I don't get up out of it and move.

I think I've been gravitating to the computer because it keeps my mind active. I've been Googling all kinds of junk, er... I mean information. But don't quiz me about it, coz I don't think my short-term memory thing is quite back up to par yet.

The many hours, many in a row with no break, spent at my desk in the dining room on either my company laptop working or on my home computer the past couple of weeks has brought up a new problem for me. My poor old feet swelled up like big, fat cantaloupes. Too much arthritis and too many hours hanging down... not used to it, so it caused holy havoc on me feets. At present, I'm wear old person socks, and I confess I love them. Those socks, along with a dedicated effort to raise my legs as often as possible, have really helped. It's nice to walk again. File that one under "if it ain't one thing, it's another."

Curious thing, though... it's taken me about 5 days to actually complete this blog post. That's the other thing about the past couple of weeks... I think the only thing I've been good at, and actually productive at, is the work I've done on my job. With all the stuff at home, I start, I stop, I go back, I get distracted, I stop, I start, I go... ya get the picture. What a mess. And today is Saturday, and at our house, that means that mom goes to the pottery studio. But I didn't make it in there today... I just couldn't get to it. And I wasn't feeling creative. This past week being back at work into the office was hectic and exhausting, and I feel flattened. Flattened and strange.

Speaking of strange, I leave you with a photo I took one evening a while back. Joyce and I were on our way home from her trying on wedding dresses, and we passed a church that had a sign that caught my eye...



Good to know.

Apropos of nothing, something in my house has been emitting a single, very high-pitch beep every so often, like every 1 hour, 17 minutes and 23 seconds or so, for DAYS. At first I thought it was our smoke detector in the living room telling me of the eminent demise of its battery, but that's not it. I cannot find the source. It is bugging me.

Happy Birthday to my Dad

My Dad is 81 years old today. I got to wish him a happy birthday early this morning. Dad is always up super early, so sometimes I get to talk with him on the phone while I drive into work. I love that.

Dad and Mom went down to my brother and sis-in-law's, Jim & Sue's, today for lunch. It was a beautiful day today, so I'm sure they had a wonderful, sunny drive and a great time at lunch. Nice way to spend your 81st, Daddy. And I heard Jimmy was making Swedish meatballs, so lucky you!

Joycie took this photo of Dad and Mom at the table after we had Thanksgiving dinner last November. (Wiley is in there, too - he loves Gramma!) I sure hope I look as good as they do when I'm their age, and I hope I have half their strength. I think my parents are the strongest, most wise, most dependable and most loving people I will ever know in my life. I want to be just like them... when I grow up...



Joycie also took this photo of Mom and Dad holding hands at the table. I love this photo.

The 5 faces of Ell... times 2...

My beautiful, adorable grand-niece, Elliana...
June 7th:






and June 25th:

And... Reilly

After I decided that I wanted to be more consistent in creating posts on my blog, I've not hardly blogged at all. A lot of things have happened in the past 3 months... awful things and wonderful things.

A good friend's father died quite unexpectedly. His name was Ron and he was grampa to one of Sammy's good friends, Zack. Through the years, Sam became close to Ron because Ron was always around, at all the sporting events, picking Sam up with Zack before or after practice, taking them somewhere fun, like Taco Bell. Ron was a good, sweet man, and I wish deeply that he was still here with all of us.

My brother-in-law, Bob's, father died also. His name was Roy, and Roy was another good, sweet man. Roy had been ill for quite some time, and since he was suffering so much at the end, his passing was a blessing. Or so the common opinion would go, and it makes sense. But I still wish Roy were here, too.

An aunt, Aunt Marguerite, who has been through so much lately, the past couple of years, had to have a double mastectomy. So far, she's doing pretty ok.

My Momma, who has been not feeling quite right for a couple of years, finally had heart surgery, a triple bypass. She needed it, and we could have lost her at any time. It makes me feel ill and dizzy just thinking about how close it was. And, in my Mom's usual style, she is doing so well. My Mom is the strongest and most wonderful woman I know & have ever known.

Joyce made the Dean’s List this past semester at CMU, the start of her Junior year. And she’s figured out that she may be able to graduate early, after the first semester of her Senior year. Joyce has worked so hard at her classes, taking extra during summertime. We are so proud of her. Unfortunately, the full-time job horizon looks bleak, and I worry she may have to settle for a job that sucks, until she can get one in her chosen field.

Sammy is a Freshman in high school this year, the first year our high school switched to trimesters. Sam’s getting all A’s, and working hard to do so. He’s enjoying the trimester schedule. But, like so many Michigan school districts… heck, school districts everywhere, the money isn’t there, so budget cuts are deep. Back to semesters next year, with less class options, and less teachers, less staff, less everything.

And, my best friend, Sandy, came up from Texas and surprised the heck outta me! She had a short visit, and I got to spend Saturday with her. It was awesome. Joycie & Mike made a super excellent Mexican dinner for us all. It was so good to see Sandy.

And also, back in December, our dog, Reilly, started acting oddly. No energy, and eventually no tail-wagging hardly at all. He was ill, and we thought it had to do with the surgery he had in October, and with the pain pills we kept trying to get right for him. Then on January 9th, Reilly became very ill. The symptoms he was having, with the problems he had following surgery, were disguised... Reilly died on April 13th from Addison's Disease. I don't have the words to express how much I miss him daily. I know that sounds crazy, given all the events I've described above... he was just a dog. Right?. Not to me, not to us. Reilly was part of our family. I loved him so much. And he loved us. I will miss Reilly forever.

Reilly
April 10, 2003 - January 13, 2010

Elliana

01/01/10... What a way to start the New Year! Meet my beautiful, adorable grand-niece, Elliana Faye, born 12/09/09...



This is her momma and daddy, Sara and Derek...



and this is her gramma and grampa, Janet and Bob...



and her great-gramma and great-grampa, Jim and Joyce, my Mom and Dad...



Elliana slept through the passing of her along from one family member to another over and over... but she finally opened her beautiful eyes...



I am already aching to hold her again!



Sara and Derek both seemed so very, very happy and content. I'm so happy for them. And for us, our family has brand new baby Elliana!

Meet my brand new grand-niece

Elliana

I'm not 100% sure what time she was born, but I think it was close to midnight and I think her birthday is Dec. 9th. I am 100% sure she is beautiful! She's 8 pounds, 10 ounces and 21 inches of beautiful. I love how she's looking at the camera... you can tell Elliana is smart... those eyes! She almost looks like she's smirking, an expression I've seen on her momma's face a time or two... !

My niece, Sara, and also her husband Derek, must have had a long afternoon and evening... I got the text they were heading into the hospital at about 2pm yesterday. But mostly Sara... coz I heard they finally went with a C-Section around 11pm. Both momma and baby daughter are doing well. Sara sent me Elliana's photo in a text message this morning at 7am.

My fingers are itching to hold her!

With blessings to share

My niece, Susan, has a son, Rogan, who is my sister, Janet's grandson and the light of her life. That light will be shared in the not too distant future...

My second eldest niece, Sara (Susan's sister), and her husband of 19 months, Derek, are expecting their first child.

Last Friday evening, we all met at Janet & Bob's house, and Sara and Derek were on the speaker phone. Sara had an ultrasound earlier, and so they were to announce to us all whether it would be a boy or a girl. Sara had wrapped 2 presents at some point in the recent past, and she hid them at her mom & dad's house. Sara told her mom to go get and open the one with the yellow bow. Inside was a pink outfit... Janet's face was awesome to see! Gramma is happy at the expectation of a baby granddaughter. I wish I had gotten a photo of that expression on Janet's face, but I missed it, so this poor quality photo will have to do:



Janet still looks glowing with happiness. We all were, of course. Not that a second great-nephew would have been a difficult thing to look forward to! But it was a very nice bit of news...

And what a fun way to share it with the family. Such a cute, tiny pink outfit. It was very cool. Sara sounded so happy, too. She told us they have decided on a name; she will be Elle. Such a pretty name.

Sara scanned the ultrasound photos and shared them with us. Meet our beautiful Elle:



This one of Elle sucking her thumb is so adorable:



And this one of her little foot...



I can't wait! My fingers are itching to hold this baby girl.

Then on Monday, I went out to lunch to a Mongolian BBQ and on the way out, I snagged a fortune cookie. It sat on my desk at work; I didn't get around to opening it. Then yesterday morning, after I was talking with a coworker about his wife who is having their 2nd child this week, a baby girl, and I told him all about Elle... and then after he walked back to his cubicle, I noticed the fortune cookie and opened it...



Way too cool! I tend to keep fortunes, and I have a ton of them. I've read a ton of them through the years... but I've never received or read this "short stranger" one. So I had to send a picture message to Sara right away... a Chinese fortune cookie that predicts the future for real. Can't wait!!!

TGIF

It has been a long week, and I'm tired. Sam is gone for the evening, as usual. Our little social butterfly is rarely home on Friday evenings, and he has made plans for the weekend. Tonight he's at the Loons game with friends and staying overnight with his best bud, Nate. Joyce and Mike are both done with their respective college 2nd semesters, and they've been working full-time each day this week. They're not home yet because they're getting groceries for us on their way home. Words cannot express how much I love and appreciate those 2 youngins.

It's a beautiful evening, and Kev started mowing the lawn about an hour or so ago. Since he has made such an enormous lawn for us, it takes him quite some time to mow. I've been sitting at my computer trying to get up the energy to do something, like write a blog post... but instead I was playing Hoyle chess. Kev decided I was looking far too serious, so next time he drove by the window I'm facing, he waved at me in a very energetic way... and he was buck naked. Yes! I know! How cool is that?!! But alas, my new cell phone failed me. The photo save and erase buttons are on opposite sides from my old cell phone... so I deleted 3 great pics instead of saving them. *sigh* But oh my heck, I laughed. My hubby is crazy. Very cute also.

Mother's Day was awesome. Sammy made pancakes for breakfast. Extra wonderful. Extra wonderful with my brother, Jim's, maple syrup, too. Yum. My wonderful kiddos, and Kev, too, gave me a Zune. 4 gig! I was so excited and surprised. I want to download books. And use it for music from Joycie, too. But, I have been unable to download the software. My high speed dish Internet access just isn't high speed enough, I guess... it keeps timing out. I had to call them and ask for a CD, which they are mailing, but it is the older version software, so after I install it, I will have to download the upgrade. Fingers crossed. It's frustrating. I wanna use it so badly!!! And I can't yet. Grrr... And it is such a pretty, pretty pink! With a pretty white and pink case!

My sister, Kathy, called me yesterday morning on her way to work. We both drive M-20 and there has been construction along a part of it recently. Yesterday morning was windy. One of those huge black and white signs that reads, "Injure or Kill a Worker..." blew over right in front of her. Right. In. Front. Of. Her. Thankfully no one was in the left lane, and she didn't hit anyone as she swerved to avoid the attacking sign. Which would have otherwise surely injured or killed a worker on her way to work. Irony on a windy morning. Gotta love it.

Both Mike and Joycie have done very well on their grades this past semester. I think they feel like college is crawling by, but I cannot believe this college year is over. I'm so very proud of the both of them. They are also both doing great at their jobs; both working for the same start-up company. That's for another blog post. But again, I'm so proud of them.

I'm also proud of my niece, Michelle, who has graduated from college (look for pics later), and I'm so proud of her brother, my nephew, Michael, who has also completed his first year of college. Michael with a straight 4.0 GPA. My nephew is brilliant.

Joycie's good friend, Allison, got a nice surprise this week. Her sweetheart who is in the Navy and stationed in Italy came to see her here in Michigan. We get to meet him tomorrow evening, and I'm very much looking forward to that. Also to Joycie's homemade Mexican food. The girl can crank out the tortillas so wonderfully. Mike's momma, Izzy, has taught her well.

And can we all get a HALLELUJAH! that "Coach" is finally, finally voted off. He has been barf material all the way. When he told his "Assistant Coach" that "they" call me the dragon slayer, I actually did feel a bit of vomit in my throat. They didn't call him that, HE called himself that. Ugh. Gag. And did anyone else find it strange that everyone else had a family member visit, but not him? We have been muting or fast forwarding through the Survivor episodes now whenever we see his mouth moving. He would have been the ideal person to take to the final 2, though... who on the jury would give that conceited jackass a million bucks? No one. Stephen is one smart dude. I hope he wins the million just for getting Coach out. Though JT is awfully adorable...

And speaking of adorable... this week's Two and Half Men was awesome. I love the character, "Berta" (Conchata Ferrell, who plays the part perfectly!)... my favorite quotes from that episode: 1) Jimminy, I'm drunk, and 2) He digs the trench and you lay the pipe. Classic.

Yet more TV! I really enjoy the show The Big Bang Theory. The character Sheldon and his "classic pranks" is so funny. Bazinga! This recent episode where Wolowitz pretends to shoot a crossbow at Sheldon, with the added gesture of throwing the weapon down when he's done shooting it was awesome. And now we are saying Bazinga! around this house.

I used to cook a lot. I used to be known as a really good cook. But I haven't been cooking hardly at all in the past, oh... 18 or 20 months. It's another thing I keep hoping will return to "normal" one of these days. Meantime, I am recording a heck of a lot of cooking shows. My favorites are Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Giada and Tyler, and of course, Rachel, too... I have so many different episodes recorded on our DVR, and I rename them all just "Food" so they are grouped together. When I am feeling particularly tired out and yet still anxious (have that going on a LOT lately... work pressures, so much work backlog from last year... ugh), I love to watch Paula cook. Her Southern drawl is so soothing, y'all. And her food looks so good. I just wanna hug her. And then eat everything she's cooked up in her gorgeous kitchen. I think Paula Deen is probably the TV cook I most admire... her book, "It Ain't All About the Cookin'" is on my want-to-read list. I love watching the Barefoot Contessa episodes, too, also soothing. Her home is lovely. But it's all a little too... I don't know... too too... y'know?. Kevin likes it when I'm watching any Everyday Italian episode, and he'll actually watch them with me. I'm sure it has nothing to do with how gorgeous Giada is... (Kev calls her the little midget with the big knockers and the low-cut shirts.)

Wow. I watch a lot of TV. And right now, the Tigers are on it. See ya!

Tdap

Tdap, Tdap... Tdap, Tdap, Tdap... Tdap, Tdaaaaaaaaaaaap. TDAP.

Don't know why, but that's what happens when I think "Tdap" in my head. It becomes Pink Panther theme music.

If you do not know what a Tdap is, then FOR SHAME. Get thyself to thine doctor (or reasonable facsimile thereof) pronto and get it. It's a shot. Yes, it'll hurt. Ya big baby.

My niece, Chelle-Belle, was very, very sick recently. Thankfully, she was home from college for the weekend, so her parents were able to get her to our local ER very late one evening. Her struggle to breathe was painful in many ways... painful for Chelle and painful for my sister and brother-in-law to watch. Michelle did not have pneumonia; a day later it was confirmed she had Whooping Cough.

Michelle received a medical checkup and the shots required before she began her first college semester, including a Tetanus shot. But for some reason, though I believe the Tdap shot was available back then, Chelle got only the T. (Michelle is in her final semester of her 4-year college program, pre-med.) Tdap is Tetanus, Diphtheria and Pertussis. We all greatly wish she had received the "p" along with the "T", and what the hell, the "d" too for that matter. She has it all now.

Pertussis, aka Whooping Cough, is extremely contagious. Since it's now been discovered for young adults, and us old adults, that the vaccinations we received as children have worn off, we all need to be sure to get re-vaccinated with the Tdap shot. Unfortunately, many parents are recently deciding not to vaccinate their children. So between these 2 factors, Whooping Cough is on the rise in the U.S.

Dreadful.

I say "unfortunately" because I am pro-vaccination. And yes, I know this is a big ol' can of worms (I listened to the Momversation on it recently). I'm totally Old School. Shoot 'em up, baby. Coz I agree with 2 statements on that Momversation: 1) Vaccinations are one of the best medical breakthroughs of our generation, of recent generations, and 2) parents who decide not to vaccinate their children are relying upon the rest of us who do... otherwise, we would be back in epidemic city Big Time on many diseases. Also, I have a niece, Sara, who teaches Special Education, and Sara is certified in MI, MR & Autism (MI is mental illness and MR is mental retardation - I think, though I'm not sure if that is still politically correct). I have such awe of Sara, choosing that profession; I am so proud of her. I talked with Sara not too long ago about the relationship that seems to be made between vaccinations and autism. She explained one thing I hadn't thought about, which was that years ago, children were not diagnosed as autistic where they would be diagnosed as such now... it is not so much a situation of an increase in autism as an increase in diagnoses of autism.

I am not saying there are no risks associated with vaccinations, because of course there are risks. But, I believe that vaccinations have allowed my children to be free of the danger of many diseases that plagued children of my father and mother's generation and the generations before them.

Right before Michelle became so sick she had to be taken to ER, I got to visit with her, and since we're such a huggy/kissy family, I was hugging and kissing her. Thankfully, last May when my physician checked me out from attic to basement, I got the Tdap shot. I have no recollection of that, so I had a scary bit of hours between learning I was exposed and learning I was vaccinated. Whew. I wasn't up to another round of any kind of antibiotics.

Also thankfully, Kevin just got a Tdap shot at work at his recent physical. Kev has to undergo a very thorough annual exam due to his new job at work, and the Tdap shot was not optional; get it or don't keep the job. Not that he wouldn't want it. And even more special for Kev was that his employer provided it, made the pain on his shoulder for the next 4 days that much more bearable... at least he didn't have to pay actual money for the shot. (Kev can be so cheap!) Joycie and Sammy also have had the Tdap shot within the past 2 years, so we are all good. But our Mike needs his Tdap shot, which he will get pronto. He needs the Tetanus anyway, because of the job he has now, where he works around older homes and buildings.

Remember: Renew your Tdap shot every ten years.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today is my Dad's 79th birthday. Happy Birthday, Daddy!!! 79. Crazy, ain't it? Where does the time go?....

Since my Dad was 30 years old when I was born, this means I am soon to be 49. Which is really just 50, as I think I've mentioned already... 49 is really 50. And I'm the "baby" of the family. Youngest of 5 kids.

Hey, Dad, 79 is really 80!

In spite of all the frustration and worry us 5 kids managed to put our parents through during the years, Dad and Mom are both pretty young-acting for their respective ages, and they're strong. You would've think some of our stunts would've aged them more considerably. Guess that's why we're all made pretty tough, coz our folks are tough. We were kids raised in the country with parents who expected us to work hard, do our share of the chores, think for ourselves, do the right thing and speak with good grammar.

We had all kinds of fun growing up. Summers were, of course, the best. When I was real young, we had horses and some ponies, too. I remember one pony that was a biter. I hated that one. Got me in the fleshy side part of my back once. Mean old thing. We had chickens out there near the horses, too. I remember being afraid of the rooster who would chase me, until I chased him back. I think my brother showed me how to do that.

I remember us kids making a tree house in the big White Oak tree out in the front field. I also remember that my brother accidentally buried the claw of the hammer into his head while we were making it.

I remember jumping off the back deck of the house. Our house was built into the side of a hill, so from the front of the house, coming up our long driveway, it looks like a single story typical ranch style home. But over the hill was the downstairs. Can't really call it a basement, so much of it is open. There was a deck off the kitchen/dining room on the top floor, running all along the back side of the house, kinda like a back porch with an 8' or 9' drop, so jumping off it was irresistible. Kids! Jump and roll.

After a while, Mom and Dad sold the horses, being sick of hearing us kids complain about having to take care of them and whose turn it was to do what with them. Then one day, our Mom bought us some motorcycles. She surprised my dad with a 250cc Kawasaki, I think it was, and then we got like a 175cc or 125cc and then a smaller 100cc or 90cc or something like that. I remember part of one summer where we had to clear some land, cutting and hauling brush, and we'd take turns riding the smaller motorcycle. The rest of us would have to clear brush while one of us got a turn on the bike. That was fun. The motorcycle part, while everyone else had to work.

We always grew a huge vegetable garden, and us kids had to work in it, hoeing and weeding in the summer. Usually hated it, as most kids do. We'd have to work for a while, then get to cool off and swim in the pond for a while, then maybe have to work some more. We got a ton of food out of that garden, and really, my Mom and Dad worked harder at that than us kids did, all combined. Didn't appreciate it much then. Sure do now. Loved the frozen corn we always had. And good potatoes. Getting potatoes out of the cellar in the winter. And Mom's canned tomatoes, and peaches, pickles... all that stuff. We sure gave our folks a lot of grief getting us to work in that garden. But we always ate a lot!

Once my sister, Kathy, and I were riding the motorcycles in one of the front forty fields, and I believe I was on the 90cc, and there was a small, very small, hill in the field. We'd jump it with the motorcycles. Get some air, too. Problem was one time was I took it in the wrong direction... the side with no slope. Stopped the bike cold and I went flying over the handlebars. Hurt like H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks and tore my shirt off me. I remember the shirt was blue with white buttons, and I was really bummed coz I loved that shirt. Too torn and blood stained to fix. Kinda screwed up the bike a bit, too.

My Mom sewed a lot. Back then, you could buy fabric for a shirt for less money than a shirt. Not so nowadays. Back then, with 5 kids to clothe, my Mom did a LOT of sewing. She was awesome at it, and still is. All the many, many, many clothes she sewed for us. Jeans to look like the popular painter paints, with triple seams and everything. My Mom could sew anything you wanted. Anything.

When we had horses, at various times we had quite a few, like 6 or 10 or so. Once we had a new stallion. I believe his name was Buck. Or maybe Blaze. Been a lot of years now, so I'm not positive... Anyway, Kathy and I decided to take a ride, and we took out a couple of mares. As it turned out, mares in heat. Buck was very interested in following us, and he broke through the fence and chased us. The mares took off like bats outta hell. Kathy and I were pretty scared. Buck was gaining on us, so we decided the safest thing to do was to get off the mares. How do you get off a galloping mare over which you have no control? Jump. I seem to remember the unfortunate coincidence of my decision to jump being right near the big briar patch. How accurate all these memories are is surely up for debate. But I recall briar patch related pain. And then we had to catch those darn horses. But first Kathy and I had to walk back home, all dirty and dusty and covered with scratches and blood.

I also remember one day when my folks were gone and my brother decided to hollow out a big old tree like the kid in the book, "My Side of the Mountain." Only that kid did it to a live tree. Jimmy had picked out a dead tree. And he tried to hollow it out like the kid in the book... using fire. Caught the tree on fire. I remember we called Uncle Don over to help. Lucky on that one, no forest fire ensued. I remember Uncle Don saying something about, "You know what happens to kids who play with matches? They wet the bed." I never did get that. We did play with matches a lot. Can't believe we never did any major damage.

Jimmy did a lot of things. He was a fearless boy growing up. And tough. I remember one time Dad had the trailer hooked up to the tractor and somehow Jimmy got his hand caught and pinched on the hitch. He screamed in pain. Dad stopped the tractor and jumped down quick. But Jimmy took off running, holding his hand, and Dad couldn't catch him. Jim did a heck of a number on his hand.

We gave our parents lots of opportunities for trips to the ER. I remember stepping on a board with a rusty nail... went right through my left foot. I still have a big scar there. ER - tetanus shot.

Once Jimmy and I were riding a horse, both of us on one horse, no saddle. Us kids always rode bareback. We were never supposed to ride down the road, but we did (of course). And I ended up falling off the back of the horse, slid right down his rump. He was a big horse, too. Fell on my left arm. Jimmy told me to get back up on the horse, but I told him I couldn't. I had to walk home. Boy, was Jim mad at me, coz he knew we were gonna get it. And I walked home and had to tell my Mom and Dad I broke my arm. And of course, they found out we had the horse out on the road. Boy, we sure did get in trouble for that. ER - broken humerus. Clean break, though. Too high up for a cast, so I had a sling. Started 3rd grade wearing a sling to school. And that stunk.

Once, Kathy and I took Dad's 250cc Kawasaki for a ride. Kathy had to drive, I was too small to handle it. I was wearing an old Lee coat that was my Dad's. It was way too big for me, but I loved that jacket. It was white denim with big pockets. We were ready to go, but Kathy had to run inside for something or other. Can't remember exactly. But I had to hold the bike up, but it weighed more than me and it started to fall. Which wouldn't have been good, but worse, a handle or something caught the sleeve of my coat and flipped me a good one when the bike fell. ER - broken collar bone. Compound fracture that one. Had to wear some kind of brace. That sucked. Shoulder tells me when it rains now. Coz I'm OLD.

Us kids used to fight with each other a lot, too. Like all kids. Chase each other around the table, pulling chairs out behind us so it'd trip up the one chasing. And we would get some speed going, too. We were tough. We'd wrestle for fun. And like wrestling fun with kids sometimes does, it'd turn ugly. Coz someone would get mad, and then we'd wrestle in earnest! We were very tough country kids. But let any other kid pick on one of us, and watch out, coz you'd have all of us kids to deal with. We always stuck up for each other. Dad and Mom taught us that, too.

We didn't have any close neighbors, so each other was all we had most of the summer days. We had tons of fun, though, always. Swimming in the pond (now filled in and no longer in existence), swimming in the river, climbing trees, making forts in the woods, playing inside the lilac bush, catching fish in the river and frogs in the ditch, running around summer evenings catching fireflies. Playing all kinds of games in the yard, our own versions of tag, football, baseball, Red Rover, especially fun when friends and family kids were over. Spying on our parents and their friends or aunts and uncles when they were over, coz we could look through the windows after it got dark and they couldn't see us. We thought that was so fun!

We used to walk along the road and try to find those brown beer bottles to turn in at the little store, I think we'd get 5 cents for them. Which was a lot of cash to us kids. I don't think kids today would bend over and pick up a nickel in the mall parking lot. With a nickel, we could buy 10 pieces of candy at the little store. We'd walk to the store on rare occasions, and since the store was a mile down one road and then a half mile down M-20 and our folks would NOT let us walk along M-20, we would walk to the store through this old oil well trail through the woods. That trail is still there, but I think it's private property now. Heck, it may have been back then, too, but the owner was never there. That was fun going to the the little store and picking out penny candy, getting it in a little brown paper bag... Two-for-a-penny candy, really, rootbeer barrels, chewy nutty squirrels, hot cinnamon fireballs, caramels, jawbreakers, sweetarts, bit o'honey, tootsie rolls, or suckers, all different kinds. Sometimes we'd get orange sherbet push-ups. Or a pop. Or a fudgesickle. Great on a hot summer day.

Us kids were pretty typical kids.... trying to find clever ways to get out of a bath or brushing our teeth. Or trying to get out of work. I somehow have the reputation of always having to "go to the bathroom" when it was time to clear the dinner table. I have no recollection of those events whatsoever.

Also, the usual fighting in the back seat of the car until we got yelled at. Breaking stuff and blaming it on each other. Hitting, getting caught, "but she/he started it!" Good times.

Actually, the thing I remember most about riding in the car as a family is that we would sing. All of us. Dad, too. I learned a lot of old songs that way. Like "Your Cheatin' Heart" (Hank Williams) and "(Put Another Nickel In) Music! Music! Music!" (Teresa Brewer, baby!) and "It Comes and Goes" (Eddie Arnold) and so many more. We'd also sing a lot of the good old hymns, and also some of the "new" songs, like "Proud Mary" and "Burning Bridges"... And yodeling!! My Mom can really yodel! Not that Swiss crap, I'm talking hillbilly yodeling. I loved that as a kid, listening to my Mom yodel in the car. I love hearing her yodel now! I yodel like my Mom, though not nearly as well (coz no one can yodel like my Mom!), and my kids groan at me. Eh.

We'd sing at home, too. My Mom can play the piano, she's awesome. Mom never had lessons, she played "by ear," and Dad would ask her to play a song, and Mom would play it and we'd sing.

Breakfasts. Feeding a family of 7 ain't no small thing. We had hot cereals for breakfast every morning before school, and often on weekends, too. Oatmeal, Malt-O-Meal, Ralston, Cream of Rice, Cream of Wheat... We all had to sit down together for breakfasts and for dinners. And dinners. Meat and potatoes. My Mom could fry chicken... yum. Meatloaf and baked beans on Sundays, come home from church starving and the house would smell sooooo good. Roast beef and gravy. My Mom's gravy was the best. Hamburger and beans, with bread and butter. Yummy. And home-baked cookies every weekend for school lunches. And Mom's jello cream cheese whipped cream lovely bowls of heaven. Chocolate cookie sheet cakes. Mmm... New potatoes out of the garden. Corn on the cob, dripping with butter. Enough for everyone to have too many pieces! We ate like kings. And we went through gallon after gallon of milk every week. I remember Dad would buy it 4 gallons at a time, using one of those plastic carrying things for milk.

Takes a lot of food to feed that many people. We were never supposed to just go into the kitchen and open the fridge and help ourselves to food. All the food in the house was for breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Not for snacking. Though, of course, us kids would snack. I remember sneaking a big spoonful of peanut butter and eating it while I would read a book.

And books! Trips to the library all the time. Checking out tons of books. And then Janet's boyfriend, Bob's (now husband) mom worked at Kresge's, and when the paperbacks were discontinued, the store was supposed to toss them. (Did any store ever really do that???) So she would give us grocery sacks (the brown paper ones, coz there were no plastic grocery bags back then) full of Harlequin romance novels and other paperbacks, all with the covers torn off. We devoured those books. Well, not Jimmy.

Sunday evenings watching the Wonderful World of Disney TV show, with Tinkerbell and her little sparkling wand. And Mutal of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Playing the games in the front of the first huge book of the World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary, a 2-volume dictionary, each volume weighing about 50 pounds!

All in all, the 5 of us kids were basically good kids, but we also gave my Mom and Dad plenty of unpleasant and worrisome moments. And here we all are, all grown and getting old, and we're all still close. Still totally a part of each other's lives. With Mom and Dad at the center of it all. They raised us right.

Analogies & words of wisdom

This past week, while in the middle of an activity at home, a mild activity, I had to stop, drop to my knees and put my head on the floor. Vertigo is such a fun thing.

After I few minutes, upright and onwards again. Answering the question, "are you alright?" several times, yes, yes, yes... So I tried to explain...

A vertigo attack is like when playing an album, yes on a record player, the old vinyl... and if there is a scratch or a bad spot on the album, the record player's needle will react... it will skip or play the same part of the album over and over... it will not just smoothly keep playing music. If you pick up the arm and move it forward a little bit, away from the bad patch, voilà!, smooth sailing and sweet music again. [In my book, mixing of metaphors in an analogy is totally ok.]

But... going through the bad patch on the album does affect the needle. So the needle is no longer perfect, and to a keen ear, that will affect how the needle plays the rest of the album's music.

That's kind of like a vertigo attack. Depending on the severity, that is... and lately this past week and half, my vertigo attacks have been primarily quite mild (in comparison to those I had last autumn). Once the episode is over, I'm back to normal... pretty much. May take a bit to get my needle all sharp and pretty again, but still... One could say that my being at less than 100% capacity, say at 98%, is not a good thing. But I could say that my 98% is arguably better performance than some folks' 100% performance. And yes, of course, the reverse is true... my 100% performance is not, I'm sure, as good as, for example, "Mrs. B's" 80% on one of her bad days. (There is always somebody better!) But still... ya get my drift, eh.

And that's what dealing with vertigo is like. Like most (all) life experiences... I believe that a person who has never experienced a vertigo attack is truly unable to completely empathize. Recently, Kev had that mild experience with vertigo due to his inner ear infections, and since then he has been so much more understanding and sympathetic with me. And he was understanding and sympathetic before his experience! (I love that man!)

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My sister, aka O Wiser Sister, and I had a conversation recently, and as is often the case, she had words of wisdom to share. I was quite moved by her analogy, and will share it with you, though I'm sure I will botch it somewhat...

On dating and relationships...

When you meet a person in whom you are interested in dating, you show them your interest. So you date, and you like the person. Date some more, and then without any truly deep analysis, you jump in. You jump in emotionally and physically, and get into a relationship with that person. This is a common scenario. The common scenario.

But what if you Stop And Think...

Think. Value yourself. Think, for example, that you are made of all these wonderful pieces of gold. The finest gold that exists. When you jump into a relationship, you are giving that person some of you... some of your valuable pieces of gold that make up who you are. You are investing in that person. You're investing pieces of yourself. If the relationship fails, you invested pieces of yourself that you won't ever get back. You've given away some of your pieces of gold.

I love this analogy. The point is to stop and think. Can you ever know from the moment of meeting someone that your investment is going to be worthwhile? Of course not. Well, not usually... I do believe in Love at First Sight... Kev and I are living proof of that. And our 26th wedding anniversary is coming up soon. (Did I mention I love that man?!)

Stopping to take the time to think can be a difficult thing to do, because sometimes when you meet someone, your feelings are running high, hot and heavy. Not exactly the formula for analytical thinking, or caution.

But if you decide to make a conscious effort to take things slowly, you are more likely to make a wise investment. What you get for your investment may simply be a learning experience, an education to apply to future investment choices. What you may & should also get for your (slower) investment is increased self-respect. Pride in yourself for being so dang smart with your pieces of gold, for your investment savvy.

Everything seems to go so fast nowadays. And if that statement doesn't make me sound like an old fart, I don't know what would! But it's true. Warp speed. Friending people on Facebook and myspace, etc. Hooking up. Zoom, zoom, zoom.

Taking the time to stop and think doesn't mean you should absent yourself from opportunities. It just means realize the value of your precious pieces of gold. Value yourself.

And this is true in not just romantic endeavors, but also in simple friendships. The older I get, the less time I seem to have. It's true... ask any older person you know, and they will confirm that the older you get, the faster the days fly by. Life's too short to spend it on people who don't value your pieces of gold.

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End of wisdom. Off on tangent...

What is it lately with the return of the record album? I'm seeing and hearing references to albums everywhere lately.

Back last summer, when we painted our basement, Joycie found our boxes of albums. She and Mike looked through them and were impressed with our choices in music. The old farts were not always so uncool.

For Valentine's Day, Joycie got Mike this really cool portable record player... so they could listen to all our old albums. Though it was pretty funny, because the first thing they did was forget to lock the arm in place, so the poor needle was jumping all over the place inside the case. Kids! But they forgot; they have little experience with turntables.

The other day, Kev and I were watching an episode of "Without a Trace" where the main guy's daughter returned to live with him, and she found his old albums. She also determined he must have been pretty cool in his younger years, and in the show, she went out and bought a turntable so she could listen to her dad's old albums. She also made a comment that his albums could make some serious cash.

There were also some references to albums and turntables on some HGTV shows I've watched lately... album references abound!

Last week, Kev set up his old stereo system, including the turntable out in the pole barn. So now he's listening to his old albums out there. Rock on, baby!

YTD '09 in photos...

Sandy and I are on the same wavelength lately, kind of.... neither one of us got our Christmas packages mailed out on time. But Sandy sent us a huge box in January (and I have yet to mail our box to them! *sigh*). It was so much fun to open that box, as are all boxes from Sandy... my friend is very creative.

Christmas this past year was not typical. Everyone was so sick that some family get-togethers had to be cancelled. We got together with my in-laws in January, which happened to be at the time we got the huge box from Sandy. One of the many gifts Sandy sent was this...



How cool is that?! And it was perfect timing, because we had a festive Christmas dinner that evening in January...



My family had discussed getting together in February, but so far we're still trying to find a weekend when we're all mostly healthy and not contagious. Oy!

A few of us did manage to gather at Kathy and Bob's and celebrate my beautiful niece, Michelle's, 22nd birthday...



Chelle-Belle was thrilled to get outfitted for snowboarding for her birthday...



There is the most gorgeous snowboarder on the hill, folks! I know she and her brother had a blast snowboarding one day. The very idea of snowboarding makes me feel nervous... and old. Ah, to be young and graceful and flying down a snow-covered hill at a kazillion miles per hour on a piece of board. Um... no thanks.

I also got a very pretty photo of Michelle with her Gramma at her birthday party...



And a nice photo of my Mom and Dad, with Dad's fancy new hat that Joie gave to him, and I think he looks very dashing...



I also got this so very cute photo of Janet and Bob, with camera in hand, that's my sis...



This is a photo of the devine coconut cake that Sammy made...



All the photos I took of Sammy and this first coconut cake he made, from scratch!, turned out slightly to very blurry. Sammy made it on Valentine's Day, which happened to also be the time when Janet and Bob received their zebra rug from Africa. They brought the rug over to show us, and they had a piece of Sammy's awesome cake with us... a cake so awesome, that was all Kev wanted for his birthday!

Reilly was not very happy with the rug, and to his credit, it did still smell quite strongly... from being boxed up and shipped all that distance. It's gorgeous, though...



It's also very large. So beautiful. I tried to convince Bob and Janet they should just leave it here at our house, but they declined....