Any of you who's been reading my blog for any length of time now knows about my granddaughter, my little princess, Miss Maya, as well as her little brother, the duke, Kurtis, and that Maya has already been diagnosed - last April - as autistic - PDD-NOS, high functioning - and that Kurtis has developmental delays which look like he too will also be diagnosed as autistic too.
The only other charity issue I feel as strongly about as I do organizations set up to help find ways to aide autistic children and/or adults is the American Cancer Foundation and that's because I've lost several family members, many, many close friends too due to cancer and I am, so far (almost five years now) a survivor of colo-rectal cancer.
Now, one of my blogger friends - Sunshine - has a brother who is 20 years old and who is autistic and her thoughts, theories, feelings about this disorder mirror mine completely.
And right now - until noon tomorrow (Thursday) if you visit Sunshine's blog and comment there, she will donate $1.00 for every single comment she receives by that time toward Autism research. A very noble gesture don't you think? Also a very, very easy way for everyone to come through, come out of the woodwork, DE-LURK - and by doing so, you are putting another dollar in the kitty that Sunshine will then donate that amount to this fund.
All you have to do is go to her blog, read her post about this and COMMENT! Just visiting there won't do it - you actually have to come out of that woodwork, come forward and comment! You don't have to write a book to her -unless of course, you want to do that -but you do at the very least have to say "HI - I came by from Jeni's place to support you in your commitment to Autism research!" Can't possibly be any easier than that now, can it?
Come on, do it for me. Do it for your friend's child who has autism or a family member perhaps. Do it because it is a disorder that has no cure but so many things can be done that will enable people who are autistic to live the best life they possibly can - thanks to your sending that little supportive message by reading Sunshine's blog and COMMENTING there!
Do it for my little Princess Maya! Do it for the children of several of my favorite bloggers on my blog roll too who are also autistic. Heck, do it for yourself cause it will make you feel darned good knowing you did SOMETHING to help!
Whatever - Just. Do. It! Go now! Read Sunshine's post and DeLurk and comment!
She's waiting to hear your voice so others voices too can be heard someday too!
And get ready too because come March, I'll be doing something special here - asking you to please support my family and me as we participate again this year in the State College walk-athon to support Cure Autism Now!
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Working Nightshift
Today, while reading other blogs, in reading the post my blogger buddy, Minnesota Blue, had done about her daughters along the theme of "sounding like our mother," it brought to mind a story about my older daughter and myself.
Back in 1984, when older daughter was a junior in high school, she got a job working weekends as a waitress at the same truckstop where I was employed full-time. I warned her on numerous occasions prior to her starting there that the job often was hectic, also stress-filled with dealing with customers -who can be nice as pie sometimes, some of them, and others who can be like meeting the devil himself. I warned her too she would have to deal with co-workers, the owners of the establishment, as well as the customers and walk a fine line at times. Do the impossible too and keep your mouth shut- something that's not an easy task for me or for her.
She survived the year till she graduated and a week or two after graduation, the boss (owner) approached me asking if I thought my daughter would be interested in working there full-time as there was an opening on the midnight (graveyard) shift. I told the boss that since the kid had no other offers, needed a full-time job, I was fairly certain she would take the job. I told the daughter about it and she agreed.
I tried my best to tell her about certain things on midnight shift that differed from the other two shifts - some tasks that had to be done, like stocking items for the incoming shift, etc. But mainly, I tried to indoctrinate her to some of the various "personalities" she would no doubt encounter between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., five days a week. After all, I had worked the graveyard shift myself for over three years and had come to know - and in many cases, understand, yes even love, some of the characters who came in regularly during those hours.
Her first night on midnight shift came and the following morning, she arrived home tired, spent and yes, a bit angry too. She threw her stuff on the dining room table and announced to me, "YOU might like Ed Sandie, but I DON'T!"
Hearing that struck fear in my heart because this guy, a driver for a now defunct trucking company (Consolidated Freightways or CF) was a regular visitor on the midnight shift. And all I could think of was if she couldn't adapt and accept Ed and his ways, her days on that shift were going to be long, hard and very upsetting. Ed was, as one of my other driver friends explained it to me, "A ball-buster." He liked to stir the pot, tease, rile people - do whatever he could in other words. But you had to understand also he didn't usually mean anything bad by his actions - he just liked to pick on people. I tried to explain this to her, telling her what you have to do to deal with Eddie is, when you see him coming, you start thinking of something to use to harass or pick on him first. That way, you set him a bit off-balance and you could then be back in control of the situation - whatever it might be.
What exactly had happened though to create this reaction in her about Eddie though? I asked her to tell me about it and here's her story.
Seems she was clearing a table - leaning over, stacking dirty dishes into the bus cart and then, brushing crumbs and lint off the table cloth to get it reset for the next customer when Eddie came in that morning.
Now, she had never seen him, never met him before so she didn't recognize him. He had heard via the truckers' grapevine though that my daughter was going to be starting fulltime on midnight shift, so when he walked in and saw her, he knew immediately she was my daughter and Eddie, being Eddie, immediately started in on her, taunting her.
He walked up behind her, leaned over and in a low voice told her "You look like your mother, you walk like your mother, you talk like your mother and you act like your mother!"
She was incensed at this comment because, after all, she didn't really want the customers to know that she even knew me, much less that we were that closely related.
But, after our little discussion, my explanation of what Eddie is like to deal with, etc., she vowed to try Mom's tactics in dealing with him.
A couple weeks later, one evening at work - I was on the 3 to 11 shift then - a Roadway driver from Akron came in, sat in my section and as I started to wait on him he remarked to me that he'd been in the night before on the graveyard shift and that my daughter had been his waitress.
I told him then that he'd best not let on to her that he knew she's my daughter and of course, he wanted to know why. So, I had related to him then the story of Eddie and my daughter's first meeting.
After hearing that, this Big R driver said to me, "Well, she does kind of walk like you, she does sort of act like you and look like you and yes, even at times, talk like you too, but there's one very big difference there you know."
And I asked him what that might be.
"She's much more polite than you!"
To which I retorted, "You don't know what it's like to live with that little b***h!" He cracked up - knowing how I meant that because I knew he had seven children of his own and how they act in public compared to how they are at home often are not exactly the same thing!
But one thing I have to say here as I end this little tale, when my daughter quit working at that restaurant three years later, I bet you know too which driver, which customer, was her absolute favorite to wait on, don't you?
Yep - it was good old Ed Sandie! She came to know and understand him - and yes, love him almost like a father and he felt the same about her too! A couple years later when I was working at another establishment, once in a blue moon, Eddie would stop in there just to have a meal and visit and when I saw him come in, I would call my daughter, who then lived nearby that place, and if she wasn't busy, she'd come over and sit and visit with him then too.
Both of them really appreciated that opportunity to come together again, catch up on things, enjoy some good laughs too, for sure.
Just another little story I remembered from my days of waiting tables, contending with tourists, locals, drunks and lots and lots of truck drivers.
Back in 1984, when older daughter was a junior in high school, she got a job working weekends as a waitress at the same truckstop where I was employed full-time. I warned her on numerous occasions prior to her starting there that the job often was hectic, also stress-filled with dealing with customers -who can be nice as pie sometimes, some of them, and others who can be like meeting the devil himself. I warned her too she would have to deal with co-workers, the owners of the establishment, as well as the customers and walk a fine line at times. Do the impossible too and keep your mouth shut- something that's not an easy task for me or for her.
She survived the year till she graduated and a week or two after graduation, the boss (owner) approached me asking if I thought my daughter would be interested in working there full-time as there was an opening on the midnight (graveyard) shift. I told the boss that since the kid had no other offers, needed a full-time job, I was fairly certain she would take the job. I told the daughter about it and she agreed.
I tried my best to tell her about certain things on midnight shift that differed from the other two shifts - some tasks that had to be done, like stocking items for the incoming shift, etc. But mainly, I tried to indoctrinate her to some of the various "personalities" she would no doubt encounter between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., five days a week. After all, I had worked the graveyard shift myself for over three years and had come to know - and in many cases, understand, yes even love, some of the characters who came in regularly during those hours.
Her first night on midnight shift came and the following morning, she arrived home tired, spent and yes, a bit angry too. She threw her stuff on the dining room table and announced to me, "YOU might like Ed Sandie, but I DON'T!"
Hearing that struck fear in my heart because this guy, a driver for a now defunct trucking company (Consolidated Freightways or CF) was a regular visitor on the midnight shift. And all I could think of was if she couldn't adapt and accept Ed and his ways, her days on that shift were going to be long, hard and very upsetting. Ed was, as one of my other driver friends explained it to me, "A ball-buster." He liked to stir the pot, tease, rile people - do whatever he could in other words. But you had to understand also he didn't usually mean anything bad by his actions - he just liked to pick on people. I tried to explain this to her, telling her what you have to do to deal with Eddie is, when you see him coming, you start thinking of something to use to harass or pick on him first. That way, you set him a bit off-balance and you could then be back in control of the situation - whatever it might be.
What exactly had happened though to create this reaction in her about Eddie though? I asked her to tell me about it and here's her story.
Seems she was clearing a table - leaning over, stacking dirty dishes into the bus cart and then, brushing crumbs and lint off the table cloth to get it reset for the next customer when Eddie came in that morning.
Now, she had never seen him, never met him before so she didn't recognize him. He had heard via the truckers' grapevine though that my daughter was going to be starting fulltime on midnight shift, so when he walked in and saw her, he knew immediately she was my daughter and Eddie, being Eddie, immediately started in on her, taunting her.
He walked up behind her, leaned over and in a low voice told her "You look like your mother, you walk like your mother, you talk like your mother and you act like your mother!"
She was incensed at this comment because, after all, she didn't really want the customers to know that she even knew me, much less that we were that closely related.
But, after our little discussion, my explanation of what Eddie is like to deal with, etc., she vowed to try Mom's tactics in dealing with him.
A couple weeks later, one evening at work - I was on the 3 to 11 shift then - a Roadway driver from Akron came in, sat in my section and as I started to wait on him he remarked to me that he'd been in the night before on the graveyard shift and that my daughter had been his waitress.
I told him then that he'd best not let on to her that he knew she's my daughter and of course, he wanted to know why. So, I had related to him then the story of Eddie and my daughter's first meeting.
After hearing that, this Big R driver said to me, "Well, she does kind of walk like you, she does sort of act like you and look like you and yes, even at times, talk like you too, but there's one very big difference there you know."
And I asked him what that might be.
"She's much more polite than you!"
To which I retorted, "You don't know what it's like to live with that little b***h!" He cracked up - knowing how I meant that because I knew he had seven children of his own and how they act in public compared to how they are at home often are not exactly the same thing!
But one thing I have to say here as I end this little tale, when my daughter quit working at that restaurant three years later, I bet you know too which driver, which customer, was her absolute favorite to wait on, don't you?
Yep - it was good old Ed Sandie! She came to know and understand him - and yes, love him almost like a father and he felt the same about her too! A couple years later when I was working at another establishment, once in a blue moon, Eddie would stop in there just to have a meal and visit and when I saw him come in, I would call my daughter, who then lived nearby that place, and if she wasn't busy, she'd come over and sit and visit with him then too.
Both of them really appreciated that opportunity to come together again, catch up on things, enjoy some good laughs too, for sure.
Just another little story I remembered from my days of waiting tables, contending with tourists, locals, drunks and lots and lots of truck drivers.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Blast From the Past
After I mentioned last week about my cousin Tom and his wife having sent me a box of old, old photos, some of you - foolish people, that you will discover you were -asked me to post some of these old pictures for you - give you a glimpse of me in a different era. Well, these are definitely from a different era!
Some of these pictures - I have no idea how well they will show up on the blog post because back then, no one in the family had any really good photograph equipment - probably only a very select few of my relatives even had clue one about how to take a good picture anyway so why would they have needed to have a "good" camera? And, come to think of it, what would have constituted a good camera back then anyway? I don't know - that's for sure!
So anyway, here's a little tour for you of some of the pictures I received and got scanned in tonight - before my scanner started weirding out on me!
This photo -taken probably in the summer-early fall of 1910 is of the four oldest children of my grandparents - Adolph and Ellen (Johnson) Eld. Standing is my uncle, Bertrum Eld, and my older aunt, Ethel Eld. The child in front is my uncle, Ralph Eld and the baby in the carriage - my Mom, Hazel Eld. This was taken in Edna, PA - somewhere in Westmoreland County, near Greensburg, PA where the family was living then.
Here's another really old picture too - also taken in Edna, PA. This is my grandfather, Adolph Eld (my maternal grandfather) and if you look real, real close, you can barely see there is someone's head peeking out around the corner of the house and that person is holding a baby. That would be my maternal grandmother - Ellen Johnson Eld and the baby she is holding there is my mother, Hazel Eld. This photo was taken sometime in the spring of 1910. Note -the dog in both pictures too. I have no clue what that dog's name was but my grandfather always had an affinity for collie/shepherd type mixed breed dogs. You might pick up on that in "newer" family photos - of when I was a kid, with the dog we had then, good old "Lady" -or as I called her when I first began to talk (or so the family folklure goes anyway) "Lady-Laddie-Lou." Even then, I couldn't be satisfied with one word if I could edge a couple extras in, ya see!
Jumping forward a bit in time - there's no date (of course not, why would anyone want to know what a photo was taken, ya know?) on the back of this snapshot, but judging by other photos I found of the same caliber, scenery, etc., I would estimate this was taken around 1938-1940 or so. The people in the picture are, from left to right, my Uncle, Albin Gustafson who was married to my Mom's older sister, Ethel Eld Gustafson and that's her by his side. Next is my Mom, Hazel Eld Hill and my dad, Jim Hill. I always loved as a kid, seeing pictures of my Dad and I still do because I just think he had to have been one of the most handsome men. I never knew him so I can't verify this but it's been told to me over the years that he had what we refer to as the "Hill blue eyes" and if they were anything like my sweet Aunt Mike's eyes, they had to be a beautiful light, almost icy blue, that just sparkled. When I was much younger, people used to say I had eyes like my Dad's family -a pretty blue - but I'm not sure what happened to that color over the years. Either too much eye strain -or too many beers, not sure which -but today they're still blue but seem to have a tinge of red in them too most of the time. But, if you look back at my post last week of my grandson, Kurtis, and see the bright blue of his eyes, then you might have a bit of an idea of what kind of "blue eyes" I'm talking about here.
A little bit more recent (?) photo here - the two older kids in this picture are my cousins on my Mom's side - Carl Eld and his older sister, Nancy. The baby - well, that would be sweet little old me! Cute little you-know-what, huh? Yeah, and everyone is still wondering what the hell happened there!
Note in the background you can see the roof of a car - that was my Dad's car - a 1941 Ford (whatever model specifically, that I don't know) but for the record, when my Mom got rid of it in 1951 and bought a 1948 Plymouth coupe, I was madder than a wet hen at her for doing that. As a small child, I had been told that the car we had was my Dad's, that he had bought it new, etc., and even then, I had these sentimental attachments to things -and that car was one of them because it had been HIS ya know!!!! And, to get rid of a Ford, a darned good old Ford, for a Plymouth - what ever was she thinking then anyway?
Taken probably about the same time as the above photo, this one is my Uncle Albin Gustafson holding me -I'm the one with the cute little bonnet - and my MUCH, MUCH younger than me cousin, Ray Eld! Turkey is always picking on me, reminding me that I am the old fart, over the hill girl and he is the young one, the spring chicken and all because I came into the world a whole three days ahead of him! The nerve of some people's cousins, huh? He had asked me when we were chatting the other night though if there were any old pictures in the assortment cousin Tom had sent of his brothers and sisters - yes, there are - the one above with cousins Nancy and Carl - they would be Ray's oldest sister and older brother. Can't seem to find any pictures of Ray's other sister, Joanie though! Apparently as the third child in my Uncle Bert and Aunt Nellie's family, she didn't rate much in the way of photographs - typical ya know for kids in a family larger than two kids, isn't it? But anyway - this is my dear sweet cousin Ray - youngster that he is - with the old lady of that year's assortment of grandkids. We were two cute little ones though weren't we?
Now, if you recall, back in October I did a post about scenes from where I call home and in it -actually I did two posts on the topic, but that's beside the point -I had posted a photo of my house, as it looks today. Well, this is what the old homestead looked like back in the late 30's, early 40's! I'm not sure exactly when the family re-did the appearance of the house - enclosed the old porch and made it into a sunporch, revamped the interior then too, they did -but then in 1989, I revamped the sunporch and in 1991, redid the windows in the living room and upstairs too to what the place looks like today. Really was a pretty old house wasn't it?
This picture, judging by the size of the child in front (me) was probably taken sometime in 1946. The two older girls - that would be on the left, my cousin Barbara Eld - daughter of Mom's brother, Uncle Ralph and his wife, Aunt Hazel and the other girl, that's my cousin Nancy Eld, who holds the honor of being the first grandchild born to my grandparents. By the way, Nancy reads my blog now (can't get her to comment though) but I'm wondering if by posting these old pics that have her -and her brother Carl in some too - if she's liable to find a lawyer and sic a law suit on me? Think so? Nah, neither do I, really. Nancy, Barb and Carl were the first three grandkids you see and although when I came along, because I lived with our grandparents, it was often assumed by many that I was the "fair-haired" grandchild but in reality, in our Grandmother's eyes, that wasn't true. Nancy, Barb and Carl were the three who could DO NO WRONG in her book! Grandma always thought those three were definitely the cat's meow - as she would have said back then. Barb was the first of my cousins who had a child of her own too -the first great-grandchild, who just happened to come along into the world on April 16th - same birthday as my cousin, Nancy -the first grandchild. Now, how's that for a bit of coincidence?
This is me - about age 3, maybe 4 - not sure -again, no dates on the back. The dog is my dog, Lady. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be my dog as my Mom's younger brother got her and brought her here when I was about 6 months old and she was supposed to be FOR ME! However, remember what I said above about my Grandfather and dogs -well, Lady was ours - his and mine - had to share her with him. Not that I objected to that - not really. We had lady for 12 years. My Grandfather died in March of 1957 and about six weeks later, so did Lady. Granted she was old, in dog years, but if you'd seen how she acted after he died, we really believed then, still do, that she mourned herself to death because every day, she would leave our house and go to the neighbor's homes - places Grandpa used to frequent - and sit out side the back door at each house, ending up at the end of the road at my Grandpa's brother's home where she would sit on the front porch there for a while and then, when Grandpa didn't appear, she would tuck her tail in between her legs and make the slow trek up the road and back home. She really was his dog though ya know - even if my Uncle Cookie had brought her here supposedly for me to have a dog to grow up with.
I'm jumping ahead a bit here - for a minute - only because of the picture I posted above here of me at about age 3 or 4. The pic on
the left here is of my older daughter, Carrie - taken in 1969 and this next picture, taken a year ago at Christmas of Maya and Kurtis - I wanted to put it in here just so you can compare and you tell me if you see a resemblance there between me, Carrie and my little Miss Maya?
Sometime, if I can find them all, I will have to post a photo taken of me at about 6 months (a studio picture), one of Carrie, taken when she was around 3-4 months, and then, top it off with a picture of Miss Maya at about six months. Boy, talk about kind of spooky, those three pictures really are because you can definitely see the resemblance there between me, my older daughter and Maya. And, if I were to add in the picture of my dear Aunt Mike when she was about a little over a year old, you can track the genetics back yet another generation there. Really amazes me when I see them it does, ya know! It's funny too when we look at this picture of Kurtis and then also photos of his older brother and his dad, you can see a straight line of resemblance there too but you can also see the same type of likeness if you compare pictures of Kurtis to my son, Clate, as well. Strange, isn't it how that stuff works - good old DNA!
Now, here we are, back to the 50's again. Here's one of the "bathing beauty" photos I had mentioned were in the pack of pictures I received. This was taken in the summer of 1954 - in front of the house here and the people standing behind me here are, from left to right, my Grandpa, Adolph Eld, my Aunt Ethel Eld Gustafson and my Mom - Hazel Eld Hill.
Now this one isn't the best picture, for sure, but it's not as bad at the other one, taken the same day, when I was really hamming it up apparently for the camera. Since I posted this picture here, I was debating if I should put the other one up too. Maybe not, I thought - one is bad enough. But then I thought it over and figured what the hell - Meloncutter is on a weeks' hiatus from blogging and maybe, just maybe, when he comes back, he won't bother to dip down through a week's worth of posts ya know.
Think he will? I dunno but I decided on the off chance he won't, here goes my really "lovely" pose in that just scrumptious bathing suit. And with that, it will be the end of my picture show for tonight but fear not, once I get the old scanner rolling ok again, there's bound to be more at a later date!
Some of these pictures - I have no idea how well they will show up on the blog post because back then, no one in the family had any really good photograph equipment - probably only a very select few of my relatives even had clue one about how to take a good picture anyway so why would they have needed to have a "good" camera? And, come to think of it, what would have constituted a good camera back then anyway? I don't know - that's for sure!
So anyway, here's a little tour for you of some of the pictures I received and got scanned in tonight - before my scanner started weirding out on me!
This photo -taken probably in the summer-early fall of 1910 is of the four oldest children of my grandparents - Adolph and Ellen (Johnson) Eld. Standing is my uncle, Bertrum Eld, and my older aunt, Ethel Eld. The child in front is my uncle, Ralph Eld and the baby in the carriage - my Mom, Hazel Eld. This was taken in Edna, PA - somewhere in Westmoreland County, near Greensburg, PA where the family was living then.
Here's another really old picture too - also taken in Edna, PA. This is my grandfather, Adolph Eld (my maternal grandfather) and if you look real, real close, you can barely see there is someone's head peeking out around the corner of the house and that person is holding a baby. That would be my maternal grandmother - Ellen Johnson Eld and the baby she is holding there is my mother, Hazel Eld. This photo was taken sometime in the spring of 1910. Note -the dog in both pictures too. I have no clue what that dog's name was but my grandfather always had an affinity for collie/shepherd type mixed breed dogs. You might pick up on that in "newer" family photos - of when I was a kid, with the dog we had then, good old "Lady" -or as I called her when I first began to talk (or so the family folklure goes anyway) "Lady-Laddie-Lou." Even then, I couldn't be satisfied with one word if I could edge a couple extras in, ya see!
Jumping forward a bit in time - there's no date (of course not, why would anyone want to know what a photo was taken, ya know?) on the back of this snapshot, but judging by other photos I found of the same caliber, scenery, etc., I would estimate this was taken around 1938-1940 or so. The people in the picture are, from left to right, my Uncle, Albin Gustafson who was married to my Mom's older sister, Ethel Eld Gustafson and that's her by his side. Next is my Mom, Hazel Eld Hill and my dad, Jim Hill. I always loved as a kid, seeing pictures of my Dad and I still do because I just think he had to have been one of the most handsome men. I never knew him so I can't verify this but it's been told to me over the years that he had what we refer to as the "Hill blue eyes" and if they were anything like my sweet Aunt Mike's eyes, they had to be a beautiful light, almost icy blue, that just sparkled. When I was much younger, people used to say I had eyes like my Dad's family -a pretty blue - but I'm not sure what happened to that color over the years. Either too much eye strain -or too many beers, not sure which -but today they're still blue but seem to have a tinge of red in them too most of the time. But, if you look back at my post last week of my grandson, Kurtis, and see the bright blue of his eyes, then you might have a bit of an idea of what kind of "blue eyes" I'm talking about here.
A little bit more recent (?) photo here - the two older kids in this picture are my cousins on my Mom's side - Carl Eld and his older sister, Nancy. The baby - well, that would be sweet little old me! Cute little you-know-what, huh? Yeah, and everyone is still wondering what the hell happened there!Note in the background you can see the roof of a car - that was my Dad's car - a 1941 Ford (whatever model specifically, that I don't know) but for the record, when my Mom got rid of it in 1951 and bought a 1948 Plymouth coupe, I was madder than a wet hen at her for doing that. As a small child, I had been told that the car we had was my Dad's, that he had bought it new, etc., and even then, I had these sentimental attachments to things -and that car was one of them because it had been HIS ya know!!!! And, to get rid of a Ford, a darned good old Ford, for a Plymouth - what ever was she thinking then anyway?
Taken probably about the same time as the above photo, this one is my Uncle Albin Gustafson holding me -I'm the one with the cute little bonnet - and my MUCH, MUCH younger than me cousin, Ray Eld! Turkey is always picking on me, reminding me that I am the old fart, over the hill girl and he is the young one, the spring chicken and all because I came into the world a whole three days ahead of him! The nerve of some people's cousins, huh? He had asked me when we were chatting the other night though if there were any old pictures in the assortment cousin Tom had sent of his brothers and sisters - yes, there are - the one above with cousins Nancy and Carl - they would be Ray's oldest sister and older brother. Can't seem to find any pictures of Ray's other sister, Joanie though! Apparently as the third child in my Uncle Bert and Aunt Nellie's family, she didn't rate much in the way of photographs - typical ya know for kids in a family larger than two kids, isn't it? But anyway - this is my dear sweet cousin Ray - youngster that he is - with the old lady of that year's assortment of grandkids. We were two cute little ones though weren't we?
Now, if you recall, back in October I did a post about scenes from where I call home and in it -actually I did two posts on the topic, but that's beside the point -I had posted a photo of my house, as it looks today. Well, this is what the old homestead looked like back in the late 30's, early 40's! I'm not sure exactly when the family re-did the appearance of the house - enclosed the old porch and made it into a sunporch, revamped the interior then too, they did -but then in 1989, I revamped the sunporch and in 1991, redid the windows in the living room and upstairs too to what the place looks like today. Really was a pretty old house wasn't it?
This picture, judging by the size of the child in front (me) was probably taken sometime in 1946. The two older girls - that would be on the left, my cousin Barbara Eld - daughter of Mom's brother, Uncle Ralph and his wife, Aunt Hazel and the other girl, that's my cousin Nancy Eld, who holds the honor of being the first grandchild born to my grandparents. By the way, Nancy reads my blog now (can't get her to comment though) but I'm wondering if by posting these old pics that have her -and her brother Carl in some too - if she's liable to find a lawyer and sic a law suit on me? Think so? Nah, neither do I, really. Nancy, Barb and Carl were the first three grandkids you see and although when I came along, because I lived with our grandparents, it was often assumed by many that I was the "fair-haired" grandchild but in reality, in our Grandmother's eyes, that wasn't true. Nancy, Barb and Carl were the three who could DO NO WRONG in her book! Grandma always thought those three were definitely the cat's meow - as she would have said back then. Barb was the first of my cousins who had a child of her own too -the first great-grandchild, who just happened to come along into the world on April 16th - same birthday as my cousin, Nancy -the first grandchild. Now, how's that for a bit of coincidence?
This is me - about age 3, maybe 4 - not sure -again, no dates on the back. The dog is my dog, Lady. Well, she was SUPPOSED to be my dog as my Mom's younger brother got her and brought her here when I was about 6 months old and she was supposed to be FOR ME! However, remember what I said above about my Grandfather and dogs -well, Lady was ours - his and mine - had to share her with him. Not that I objected to that - not really. We had lady for 12 years. My Grandfather died in March of 1957 and about six weeks later, so did Lady. Granted she was old, in dog years, but if you'd seen how she acted after he died, we really believed then, still do, that she mourned herself to death because every day, she would leave our house and go to the neighbor's homes - places Grandpa used to frequent - and sit out side the back door at each house, ending up at the end of the road at my Grandpa's brother's home where she would sit on the front porch there for a while and then, when Grandpa didn't appear, she would tuck her tail in between her legs and make the slow trek up the road and back home. She really was his dog though ya know - even if my Uncle Cookie had brought her here supposedly for me to have a dog to grow up with.
I'm jumping ahead a bit here - for a minute - only because of the picture I posted above here of me at about age 3 or 4. The pic onthe left here is of my older daughter, Carrie - taken in 1969 and this next picture, taken a year ago at Christmas of Maya and Kurtis - I wanted to put it in here just so you can compare and you tell me if you see a resemblance there between me, Carrie and my little Miss Maya?
Sometime, if I can find them all, I will have to post a photo taken of me at about 6 months (a studio picture), one of Carrie, taken when she was around 3-4 months, and then, top it off with a picture of Miss Maya at about six months. Boy, talk about kind of spooky, those three pictures really are because you can definitely see the resemblance there between me, my older daughter and Maya. And, if I were to add in the picture of my dear Aunt Mike when she was about a little over a year old, you can track the genetics back yet another generation there. Really amazes me when I see them it does, ya know! It's funny too when we look at this picture of Kurtis and then also photos of his older brother and his dad, you can see a straight line of resemblance there too but you can also see the same type of likeness if you compare pictures of Kurtis to my son, Clate, as well. Strange, isn't it how that stuff works - good old DNA!
Now, here we are, back to the 50's again. Here's one of the "bathing beauty" photos I had mentioned were in the pack of pictures I received. This was taken in the summer of 1954 - in front of the house here and the people standing behind me here are, from left to right, my Grandpa, Adolph Eld, my Aunt Ethel Eld Gustafson and my Mom - Hazel Eld Hill.Now this one isn't the best picture, for sure, but it's not as bad at the other one, taken the same day, when I was really hamming it up apparently for the camera. Since I posted this picture here, I was debating if I should put the other one up too. Maybe not, I thought - one is bad enough. But then I thought it over and figured what the hell - Meloncutter is on a weeks' hiatus from blogging and maybe, just maybe, when he comes back, he won't bother to dip down through a week's worth of posts ya know.
Think he will? I dunno but I decided on the off chance he won't, here goes my really "lovely" pose in that just scrumptious bathing suit. And with that, it will be the end of my picture show for tonight but fear not, once I get the old scanner rolling ok again, there's bound to be more at a later date!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Next Installment
I know you've all been waiting, anxiously, for this - the next week's Bushism's. Am I right? I thought so. These, like those last year and last week, are gonna be "block-busters" too, I'm sure. Have you seen any so far that aren't?
Monday, January 14, 2008 - 372 days left
"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants."
--The New York Times, January 14, 2001
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 371 days left
"Because he's hiding."
--Aboard Air Force One, discussing why Osama Bin Laden is still at large, January 2005
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - 370 days left
"There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it."
--The White House, January 2001
Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 369 days left
"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously, but I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."
--To the Associated Press, January 2001
Friday, January 18, 2008 -- 368 days left
"I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I'm going to be the president of everybody."
--Washington, D.C., January 18, 2001
Saturday and Sunday, January 19/20, 2008 --367 days left - 366 days left
The night before Bush's first inauguration, members of Clinton's staff reportedly removed the "W" key from White House Keyboards in protest of his election.
--January 19, 2001
There they are, in all their shining glory.
Monday, January 14, 2008 - 372 days left
"The California crunch really is the result of not enough power generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of generating plants."
--The New York Times, January 14, 2001
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - 371 days left
"Because he's hiding."
--Aboard Air Force One, discussing why Osama Bin Laden is still at large, January 2005
Wednesday, January 16, 2008 - 370 days left
"There's no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but I'll never see it."
--The White House, January 2001
Thursday, January 17, 2008 - 369 days left
"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously, but I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure."
--To the Associated Press, January 2001
Friday, January 18, 2008 -- 368 days left
"I want everybody to hear loud and clear that I'm going to be the president of everybody."
--Washington, D.C., January 18, 2001
Saturday and Sunday, January 19/20, 2008 --367 days left - 366 days left
The night before Bush's first inauguration, members of Clinton's staff reportedly removed the "W" key from White House Keyboards in protest of his election.
--January 19, 2001
There they are, in all their shining glory.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Something to Think About
As if anyone in this country could possibly not be aware this is an election year, show me that person who is oblivious to the news, to the special reports on the primary in New Hampshire and the Iowa caucus that just ended this past week.
We should all brace ourselves because with the field so congested, shall we say, on both sides of the street -with many candidates vying for the party nomination for the presidential election.
I have not made a decision for myself as yet exactly which candidate I would prefer to see get the nomination - either for my party or for the opposition.
But what I would really appreciate is fair and balanced reporting about each and every candidate. In a country that touts itself as having great freedom of the press, of speech, I don't think that is too much to ask, do you?
This morning, my friend Minnesota Blue sent me a piece that I think regardless of your opinion of HIlary Clinton everyone should read. This article, while focusing primarily on ways the author feels Ms. Clinton has been given unfair or biased coverage by the media - primarily by MSNBC's program "Hardball" and more specifically, by Chris Matthews, a reporter/correspondent person on that program, the issue also pertains to other people - women - who have come into the line of fire by Mr. Matthews.
I watch this program on rare occasions - mainly if I happen to have MSNBC on late at night and fall asleep then wake up to hear Chris Matthews expounding his thoughts on various issues. At times, I have been confused by what I would awake hearing and thinking somehow I had been a bit groggy and accidentally clicked on the Fox network news. His attitude, demeanor, base knowledge all too often, turns me off totally so I rarely do watch this program as a matter of choice - just purely by accident.
Frankly, I think MSNBC is very lax in not addressing his manner of reporting, his patronizing attitude towards women as well as towards issues that often have a strong impact too on women's lives as well.
Check out this article though and see if you don't see the writer's point that comparing Ms. Clinton's voice, her choice of clothing, other aspects about her to male counterparts various political platforms, not their dress, their voice, their laugh -their whatever personal attributes making each person who he or she is would be biased and very unfair reporting.
Each candidate should be given fair reporting -not about how they speak or laugh but about what they actually say - what their tenets are, their creed, their beliefs, their ambitions. If the election were for a personality contest, fashion show or anything that superficial, then compare away on appearance. But it's not so make the field a level one for all concerned by fair and unbiased reporting through the media and that means to keep you opinion then strictly to yourself if you are doing a job in that medium.
We should all brace ourselves because with the field so congested, shall we say, on both sides of the street -with many candidates vying for the party nomination for the presidential election.
I have not made a decision for myself as yet exactly which candidate I would prefer to see get the nomination - either for my party or for the opposition.
But what I would really appreciate is fair and balanced reporting about each and every candidate. In a country that touts itself as having great freedom of the press, of speech, I don't think that is too much to ask, do you?
This morning, my friend Minnesota Blue sent me a piece that I think regardless of your opinion of HIlary Clinton everyone should read. This article, while focusing primarily on ways the author feels Ms. Clinton has been given unfair or biased coverage by the media - primarily by MSNBC's program "Hardball" and more specifically, by Chris Matthews, a reporter/correspondent person on that program, the issue also pertains to other people - women - who have come into the line of fire by Mr. Matthews.
I watch this program on rare occasions - mainly if I happen to have MSNBC on late at night and fall asleep then wake up to hear Chris Matthews expounding his thoughts on various issues. At times, I have been confused by what I would awake hearing and thinking somehow I had been a bit groggy and accidentally clicked on the Fox network news. His attitude, demeanor, base knowledge all too often, turns me off totally so I rarely do watch this program as a matter of choice - just purely by accident.
Frankly, I think MSNBC is very lax in not addressing his manner of reporting, his patronizing attitude towards women as well as towards issues that often have a strong impact too on women's lives as well.
Check out this article though and see if you don't see the writer's point that comparing Ms. Clinton's voice, her choice of clothing, other aspects about her to male counterparts various political platforms, not their dress, their voice, their laugh -their whatever personal attributes making each person who he or she is would be biased and very unfair reporting.
Each candidate should be given fair reporting -not about how they speak or laugh but about what they actually say - what their tenets are, their creed, their beliefs, their ambitions. If the election were for a personality contest, fashion show or anything that superficial, then compare away on appearance. But it's not so make the field a level one for all concerned by fair and unbiased reporting through the media and that means to keep you opinion then strictly to yourself if you are doing a job in that medium.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Making a Choice
I do think the time has come for me to make a big decision here. Either I have to resign myself to dealing - coping, is a better word -with the slow, contrary dial-up service I have or take the plunge and sign up for Broadband Services with our local TV cable company.
My cousin sent me an e-mail a week or so back after I had posted the mini-rant about how long it had taken me to load a tiny video to my blog that I need to either move to a high-speed provider or just accept the dial-up -and lower cost -for the lower quality service it also provides. Bite the bullet is pretty much what he was telling me.
Yesterday, after spending a lot of time online, getting very, very frustrated too, as I was trying to pull up my telephone bill so I could pay it, (not all of the problems there were due to the dial-up though), when I finally was able to access it, the amount due was $20 more than it should have been. I had changed my phone service back in August to a plan offered that would give us unlimited long distance calling in exchange for a flat fee per month. I figured by eliminating the long distance calling charges each month, having a set price there, would give me a tiny bit more control over my finances. A cousin of mine had told me about this service with our local phone company and she said it had worked great for her and her husband so I figured I had nothing to lose and switched to the "Freedom" plan.
When I saw the amount due I started looking at the details then on my bill and discovered a $5 increase in costs to the base plan as well as another charge to something labeled as "ESBI" for almost $16. In checking back on this ESBI thing, I discovered I was being billed for voice mail and it had been added, supposedly, to my service on November 27th. How this happened, I have no idea but I contacted the ESBI number to inquire about it and was told someone had signed up for that service for my phone number and the name given of the party who had done this didn't belong to anyone in this house nor did it belong to anyone any of us had ever heard of either. Considering all the hoops I had to go through to get into the online site to pay my phone bill - all kinds of security-type questions, passwords, etc -it kind of surprised me that there were not similar checks and balances for someone to add something to my bill that would increase it by $16 a month -plus that I never had any such service either. (Of course, if I didn't know I had voice mail, how would I know how to access it to see if I had any messages too, ya know?)
So after getting that corrected for and a credit issued for the bogus voice mail, I questioned other charges to my phone bill. Normally, on the telephone bill, it lists every single itsy bitsy tax and fee that add on to the base charges one pays for phone service but on this bill, under the tax and fees schedule, there were six items listed which totaled $6.39 but at the bottom, under the header of "Total" the amount showing there was $12.30. My initial thoughts were that the phone company needed to make some corrections to their program or buy all their help new adding machines. After discussing this with a rep, I was told the $5.91 difference from what was listed out and the total was for the Federal line fee. Boy, these guys manage to get you at every turn ya know. Also, she informed me the base price of the package I am using increased this month from $39.99 to $41.99- a big $2.00 increase. Ok, I argued, then my base bill total should have gone from $49.80 to $51.80 of maybe $51.92, considering a .06 cent on the dollar state sales tax. Right? Wrong! There was still this matter of the $5.91 federal line charge fee - why wasn't it showing on my bill and why was I suddenly having it added in where it apparently hadn't been added in on prior bills? No full explanation was given for this -or at least none that I understood at any rate.
Now, where am I going with this post you ask? I started out with the idea of the switch to Broadband and now, I'm ranting a bit about the phone company? Well, it all ties together here.
I know I am naive about many things - the phone company just being one of them - but I had no idea there are several other telephone companies I could possibly be dealing with. Granted, I have never heard of any of these except for Vartec, which I had at one time for my long distance calls, so I have no clue as to the reliability, dependability, much less pricing of any of these companies. Would any of them offer more or less, in the way of phone services, than Verizon?
I haven't actually gone to the extreme as yet of checking into any of these companies to see what their costs and plans are - even if they are available in the area where I live for that matter - but here's the names of the other Phone service providers:
AATelco.com -- ATC Pre-Paid -- Broadview Networks -- CloseCall America -- Curry Communications -- MyLine -- Full Service Network -- NationsLine -- Qtel -- 1-800-RECONEX -- Spectrotel -- Talk America -- TRINSIC and O1E Choice. Anyone here ever heard of any of these companies or better yet, does anyone here deal with any of them and how are they as telephone companies go anyway?
Now, to the internet provider thing -- I know I can't get any type of DSL connection here because the lines needed for that do not extend to the area of the village where I live as yet. Verizon has been telling us they are "Coming soon" to this part of the town but we've been told that for over two years now and they seem to have stopped work on extending that service to everyone. THey are, at this time, between 1/2 to 3/4 mile away from my home now. That figures something like that would happen now since Verizon is offering a package where you can get DSL -if you sign on with them now - for $14.95 per month -for LIFE! WOW, now that would be a deal, wouldn't it? Well, it ain't gonna happen here though cause they won't move to come close enough for me to hook into that program!
But, I can get Broadband service via the local tv cable company and since that appears to be my only option for high speed connectivity, it does look like I am finally at the point where I'm gonna bite that bullet and make the big move. They have a special this month if you sign on for their premium package, which runs around $45 a month for the broadband connection, for the next three months, you get the package at half price - plus, no installation fees either. Sounds good, right? But I really wasn't looking, definitely not wanting, to increase my expenses by $45 more per month. That's a heck of a leap over the paltry $11 a month I currently pay for lovely (NOT) Peoplepc.com's dial-up services. Then the lady I spoke to said what I can do is sign on now for the premium package but after three months, have them drop the service to the Mid-Rate plan - not quite as fast as the "premium" one but it only runs about $23-24 a month. Ok, that sounds doable. The biggest problem I have with switching internet providers is how to deal with notifying EVERYONE about my new e-mail address - not just those in my e-mail addy book, but mainly all those places that are online that I subscribe to and can't think of right now, but I do business with throughout the year - how do I find all of them to notify them of my change of e-mail address? Anyway to set up a "forwarding" mail like the post office does?
Now, here's my big question too - how, exactly, do these VoIP plans work? What I've read about them, I gather you have to have some form of Broadband internet connection to get a VoIP plan but do you also have to have a telephone line, such as the one I currently have through Verizon or how exactly then would you operate a telephone on a VoIP plan anyway?
I'm wondering if there are any VoIP plans that are available in my region that would cost less than what my phone service is going to run me now per month (roughly $55 a month), that would give us the same type of phone service with unlimited long distance for a lesser fee and if I could then eliminate the Verizon expenses then completely?
Remember, I said at the beginning of this post I am really naive as hell as to how the telephone systems work ya know.
So if anyone out there has any knowledge about these things and is reading my blog, please feel free to comment - give me information much needed - or e-mail me!
End of that rant and before I end this post, here's just one more bit of "bathroom" humor, ala Maya that I found amusing albeit it off-topic here.
I've told you before about our trials with Maya and the potty training, as you will recall. She's doing great with using the potty for one factor - and has had no wet accidents for almost two months now. However, getting her to use the commode to go "poopie" still has not been achieved. She flat out refuses to do that and when she feels she needs to "go" do that, she will go to the changing table, take out a pull-up, remove her clothes herself and don the pullup, then as soon as she does her business, she comes and gets one of us telling us she needs "Dry pants."
Last night, after yet another episode of her doing that, as I was changing her and talking to her while doing so about the benefits of using the big potty for this, I reached over and emptied the contents of the pullup into the commode and flushed it. As I was doing this, Maya commented on the "poopie going bye-bye" and I said yes, it had. Told her that if she would do "plop-plop in the pottie" things would be much, much nicer all around ya know.
And she looked up at me and said, "NO. NO. NO! No plop-plop of the poopie in the pot!"
Guess she told me didn't she?
My cousin sent me an e-mail a week or so back after I had posted the mini-rant about how long it had taken me to load a tiny video to my blog that I need to either move to a high-speed provider or just accept the dial-up -and lower cost -for the lower quality service it also provides. Bite the bullet is pretty much what he was telling me.
Yesterday, after spending a lot of time online, getting very, very frustrated too, as I was trying to pull up my telephone bill so I could pay it, (not all of the problems there were due to the dial-up though), when I finally was able to access it, the amount due was $20 more than it should have been. I had changed my phone service back in August to a plan offered that would give us unlimited long distance calling in exchange for a flat fee per month. I figured by eliminating the long distance calling charges each month, having a set price there, would give me a tiny bit more control over my finances. A cousin of mine had told me about this service with our local phone company and she said it had worked great for her and her husband so I figured I had nothing to lose and switched to the "Freedom" plan.
When I saw the amount due I started looking at the details then on my bill and discovered a $5 increase in costs to the base plan as well as another charge to something labeled as "ESBI" for almost $16. In checking back on this ESBI thing, I discovered I was being billed for voice mail and it had been added, supposedly, to my service on November 27th. How this happened, I have no idea but I contacted the ESBI number to inquire about it and was told someone had signed up for that service for my phone number and the name given of the party who had done this didn't belong to anyone in this house nor did it belong to anyone any of us had ever heard of either. Considering all the hoops I had to go through to get into the online site to pay my phone bill - all kinds of security-type questions, passwords, etc -it kind of surprised me that there were not similar checks and balances for someone to add something to my bill that would increase it by $16 a month -plus that I never had any such service either. (Of course, if I didn't know I had voice mail, how would I know how to access it to see if I had any messages too, ya know?)
So after getting that corrected for and a credit issued for the bogus voice mail, I questioned other charges to my phone bill. Normally, on the telephone bill, it lists every single itsy bitsy tax and fee that add on to the base charges one pays for phone service but on this bill, under the tax and fees schedule, there were six items listed which totaled $6.39 but at the bottom, under the header of "Total" the amount showing there was $12.30. My initial thoughts were that the phone company needed to make some corrections to their program or buy all their help new adding machines. After discussing this with a rep, I was told the $5.91 difference from what was listed out and the total was for the Federal line fee. Boy, these guys manage to get you at every turn ya know. Also, she informed me the base price of the package I am using increased this month from $39.99 to $41.99- a big $2.00 increase. Ok, I argued, then my base bill total should have gone from $49.80 to $51.80 of maybe $51.92, considering a .06 cent on the dollar state sales tax. Right? Wrong! There was still this matter of the $5.91 federal line charge fee - why wasn't it showing on my bill and why was I suddenly having it added in where it apparently hadn't been added in on prior bills? No full explanation was given for this -or at least none that I understood at any rate.
Now, where am I going with this post you ask? I started out with the idea of the switch to Broadband and now, I'm ranting a bit about the phone company? Well, it all ties together here.
I know I am naive about many things - the phone company just being one of them - but I had no idea there are several other telephone companies I could possibly be dealing with. Granted, I have never heard of any of these except for Vartec, which I had at one time for my long distance calls, so I have no clue as to the reliability, dependability, much less pricing of any of these companies. Would any of them offer more or less, in the way of phone services, than Verizon?
I haven't actually gone to the extreme as yet of checking into any of these companies to see what their costs and plans are - even if they are available in the area where I live for that matter - but here's the names of the other Phone service providers:
AATelco.com -- ATC Pre-Paid -- Broadview Networks -- CloseCall America -- Curry Communications -- MyLine -- Full Service Network -- NationsLine -- Qtel -- 1-800-RECONEX -- Spectrotel -- Talk America -- TRINSIC and O1E Choice. Anyone here ever heard of any of these companies or better yet, does anyone here deal with any of them and how are they as telephone companies go anyway?
Now, to the internet provider thing -- I know I can't get any type of DSL connection here because the lines needed for that do not extend to the area of the village where I live as yet. Verizon has been telling us they are "Coming soon" to this part of the town but we've been told that for over two years now and they seem to have stopped work on extending that service to everyone. THey are, at this time, between 1/2 to 3/4 mile away from my home now. That figures something like that would happen now since Verizon is offering a package where you can get DSL -if you sign on with them now - for $14.95 per month -for LIFE! WOW, now that would be a deal, wouldn't it? Well, it ain't gonna happen here though cause they won't move to come close enough for me to hook into that program!
But, I can get Broadband service via the local tv cable company and since that appears to be my only option for high speed connectivity, it does look like I am finally at the point where I'm gonna bite that bullet and make the big move. They have a special this month if you sign on for their premium package, which runs around $45 a month for the broadband connection, for the next three months, you get the package at half price - plus, no installation fees either. Sounds good, right? But I really wasn't looking, definitely not wanting, to increase my expenses by $45 more per month. That's a heck of a leap over the paltry $11 a month I currently pay for lovely (NOT) Peoplepc.com's dial-up services. Then the lady I spoke to said what I can do is sign on now for the premium package but after three months, have them drop the service to the Mid-Rate plan - not quite as fast as the "premium" one but it only runs about $23-24 a month. Ok, that sounds doable. The biggest problem I have with switching internet providers is how to deal with notifying EVERYONE about my new e-mail address - not just those in my e-mail addy book, but mainly all those places that are online that I subscribe to and can't think of right now, but I do business with throughout the year - how do I find all of them to notify them of my change of e-mail address? Anyway to set up a "forwarding" mail like the post office does?
Now, here's my big question too - how, exactly, do these VoIP plans work? What I've read about them, I gather you have to have some form of Broadband internet connection to get a VoIP plan but do you also have to have a telephone line, such as the one I currently have through Verizon or how exactly then would you operate a telephone on a VoIP plan anyway?
I'm wondering if there are any VoIP plans that are available in my region that would cost less than what my phone service is going to run me now per month (roughly $55 a month), that would give us the same type of phone service with unlimited long distance for a lesser fee and if I could then eliminate the Verizon expenses then completely?
Remember, I said at the beginning of this post I am really naive as hell as to how the telephone systems work ya know.
So if anyone out there has any knowledge about these things and is reading my blog, please feel free to comment - give me information much needed - or e-mail me!
End of that rant and before I end this post, here's just one more bit of "bathroom" humor, ala Maya that I found amusing albeit it off-topic here.
I've told you before about our trials with Maya and the potty training, as you will recall. She's doing great with using the potty for one factor - and has had no wet accidents for almost two months now. However, getting her to use the commode to go "poopie" still has not been achieved. She flat out refuses to do that and when she feels she needs to "go" do that, she will go to the changing table, take out a pull-up, remove her clothes herself and don the pullup, then as soon as she does her business, she comes and gets one of us telling us she needs "Dry pants."
Last night, after yet another episode of her doing that, as I was changing her and talking to her while doing so about the benefits of using the big potty for this, I reached over and emptied the contents of the pullup into the commode and flushed it. As I was doing this, Maya commented on the "poopie going bye-bye" and I said yes, it had. Told her that if she would do "plop-plop in the pottie" things would be much, much nicer all around ya know.
And she looked up at me and said, "NO. NO. NO! No plop-plop of the poopie in the pot!"
Guess she told me didn't she?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Surprise Package
Monday afternoon, when I came home from my most recent dr's appointment, Mandy greeted me by telling me she had a big surprise for me and that it had arrived that day in the mail no less. She held up a box that she had already opened and told me I couldn't see the whole thing until she found something in the box to show me first.
She whips out a little packet that I recognized what type objects it held immediately. It was a little packet that contained old photographs all fastened together for viewing. I'm lousy at descriptions here but anyway, it looks kind of like a smallish notebook and the photos are all inside then -makes it nice to carry them around to show them to others. Or rather, I should say it MADE it nice because I think they stopped packaging photos like that probably in the late 50's, maybe the early 60's.
Well, this packet she pulled out, she leafed through it and showed me a really old, not so hot either, picture of me. I would judge it was probably taken when I was around 11-12 years old and is of me, leaning against my uncle's car out in front of the house -in a god-aweful bathing suit and don't 'cha know, I have this really terrible "come hither" look on my face to boot. Terrible photo, really terrible but Mandy was absolutely loving that one!
What the heck? Where did this come from anyway. And then she told me it had been sent to me -to us - by my cousin Tom and his wife, Linda. As I glanced through some of the old photos in this package, I knew immediately these were old photos that had been taken by our oldest aunt and her husband - Aunt Ethel and Uncle Butch - the couple I had lived with for over a year as a kid and who I generally spent a good deal of my summer vacations with them at their home in Jamestown, NY.
Linda had written me a note, explaining she and Tom had been doing some cleaning out at their house and hidden in the depths of one closet they had found this box of photos. She said they had gone through it and scanned the ones they wanted for their family and knowing how much I am into family tree stuff, old photos - anything that details our family's history in one way or another- that I would most likely appreciate this package.
And boy, she was soooo right!
Many of the photos in this box are duplicates of some I already have but some were ones were I recognize the occasion but don't have any photos of it. I went through the box and pulled out enough photos that it almost fills a large (gallon size) zip lock back and it's now laying on top of my printer/scanner, just ready and waiting for me to dig in and scan them into my computer now too.
Some old photos I had seen before but apparently were destroyed in the fire in this house back in 1991 - like a picture from 1910 of my grandfather standing outside the house where the family lived then in Edna, PA -down in Westmoreland County - and at the back of the house, you can barely see my Grandmother, peaking around the corner and she's holding a baby - my Mom. It's a great picture of my grandfather -not too hot of Grandma and my mother because of the angle but I know that's who it is and that's the important thing.
Some old photos of a trip my Mom, grandparents and Mom's older sister (Aunt Ethel) and her husband (Uncle Butch) and mom's brother, Uncle Ralph, his wife, Aunt Hazel and their daughter, Barbara, who was probably 3, maybe 4 years old at the time, had taken to West Virginia. It was a return trip to Tunnelton, WVA where the family had lived for several years in the late 19-teens and early 20's before they moved back here to the old homestead in Pennsylvania. I think it was probably the only time my grandparents were able to make the trip back to Tunnelton to see who they could find that they knew still living there then.
And seeing those pictures of them all together - so much younger for openers than when I knew them all -it brought to mind a little story I love. You all know by now (I hope anyway) that I am a firm believer in the little things that prove as big as this universe is, in many ways it is also still a very small world now and again.
Back in the mid-to-late 70's, my cousin Ray was working at the time I believe for Greyhound as a manager type and for a while, he was in charge of the bus terminal in Charleston, West Viriginia. When he came to the family reunion that year, he couldn't wait to talk to my Mom, tell her about something that happened to him when he transferred into that terminal and first met his new secretary there.
After being introduced, the lady, who was nearing retirement age at that time, asked Ray where he was from and he told her, the Pittsburgh area, Monroeville, to be specific. And she nodded, said ok and then told him she was interested because of his surname - "Eld" -and that she had known a family by that name who had lived near her as a child but they hadn't moved to the Pittsburgh area when they left her home town.
(The surname "Eld" isn't a very well-known name you see and we've often joked that if you meet someone in this country originally from Sweden with that last name, odds are pretty good that they are related to my Mom's family.)
Now Ray was aware of that fact so he started asking her where she was from originally and she told him Tunnelton, West Virginia. Then it was Ray's ears, his interest level, that picked up steam!
He told her that our grandparents and their children had lived in West Virginia for a number of years way back when and the discussion then turned to the girlfriend she said she'd had then - a Hazel Eld. That was my Mother!
Ray's secretary's name was Elizabeth Brown and when he told my Mom this story, that his secretary had sent her greetings, remembered her and all - after well over 50 years by that time since they had moved away from Tunnelton, I wish I'd had a digital camera then to capture the look on her face at that moment.
Isn't it just amazing though how you can meet someone and find out my goodness, we really aren't total strangers after all because we share a connection to this or that person or perhaps a place where we once lived -little things like that.
One thing for sure, it certainly made my Mom's day that Sunday to have her nephew tell her that her long ago friend still remembered her and had asked that Ray remember her to my Mom with a big Hello!
Yep - it is a small world - and a package of old photos brought back that memory to me along with many, many more.
Thanks Tom and Linda for thinking of me and sending this package as you were so right - I really do appreciate it -very, very much!
As Bob Hope's theme song went - "Thanks for the memories!"
She whips out a little packet that I recognized what type objects it held immediately. It was a little packet that contained old photographs all fastened together for viewing. I'm lousy at descriptions here but anyway, it looks kind of like a smallish notebook and the photos are all inside then -makes it nice to carry them around to show them to others. Or rather, I should say it MADE it nice because I think they stopped packaging photos like that probably in the late 50's, maybe the early 60's.
Well, this packet she pulled out, she leafed through it and showed me a really old, not so hot either, picture of me. I would judge it was probably taken when I was around 11-12 years old and is of me, leaning against my uncle's car out in front of the house -in a god-aweful bathing suit and don't 'cha know, I have this really terrible "come hither" look on my face to boot. Terrible photo, really terrible but Mandy was absolutely loving that one!
What the heck? Where did this come from anyway. And then she told me it had been sent to me -to us - by my cousin Tom and his wife, Linda. As I glanced through some of the old photos in this package, I knew immediately these were old photos that had been taken by our oldest aunt and her husband - Aunt Ethel and Uncle Butch - the couple I had lived with for over a year as a kid and who I generally spent a good deal of my summer vacations with them at their home in Jamestown, NY.
Linda had written me a note, explaining she and Tom had been doing some cleaning out at their house and hidden in the depths of one closet they had found this box of photos. She said they had gone through it and scanned the ones they wanted for their family and knowing how much I am into family tree stuff, old photos - anything that details our family's history in one way or another- that I would most likely appreciate this package.
And boy, she was soooo right!
Many of the photos in this box are duplicates of some I already have but some were ones were I recognize the occasion but don't have any photos of it. I went through the box and pulled out enough photos that it almost fills a large (gallon size) zip lock back and it's now laying on top of my printer/scanner, just ready and waiting for me to dig in and scan them into my computer now too.
Some old photos I had seen before but apparently were destroyed in the fire in this house back in 1991 - like a picture from 1910 of my grandfather standing outside the house where the family lived then in Edna, PA -down in Westmoreland County - and at the back of the house, you can barely see my Grandmother, peaking around the corner and she's holding a baby - my Mom. It's a great picture of my grandfather -not too hot of Grandma and my mother because of the angle but I know that's who it is and that's the important thing.
Some old photos of a trip my Mom, grandparents and Mom's older sister (Aunt Ethel) and her husband (Uncle Butch) and mom's brother, Uncle Ralph, his wife, Aunt Hazel and their daughter, Barbara, who was probably 3, maybe 4 years old at the time, had taken to West Virginia. It was a return trip to Tunnelton, WVA where the family had lived for several years in the late 19-teens and early 20's before they moved back here to the old homestead in Pennsylvania. I think it was probably the only time my grandparents were able to make the trip back to Tunnelton to see who they could find that they knew still living there then.
And seeing those pictures of them all together - so much younger for openers than when I knew them all -it brought to mind a little story I love. You all know by now (I hope anyway) that I am a firm believer in the little things that prove as big as this universe is, in many ways it is also still a very small world now and again.
Back in the mid-to-late 70's, my cousin Ray was working at the time I believe for Greyhound as a manager type and for a while, he was in charge of the bus terminal in Charleston, West Viriginia. When he came to the family reunion that year, he couldn't wait to talk to my Mom, tell her about something that happened to him when he transferred into that terminal and first met his new secretary there.
After being introduced, the lady, who was nearing retirement age at that time, asked Ray where he was from and he told her, the Pittsburgh area, Monroeville, to be specific. And she nodded, said ok and then told him she was interested because of his surname - "Eld" -and that she had known a family by that name who had lived near her as a child but they hadn't moved to the Pittsburgh area when they left her home town.
(The surname "Eld" isn't a very well-known name you see and we've often joked that if you meet someone in this country originally from Sweden with that last name, odds are pretty good that they are related to my Mom's family.)
Now Ray was aware of that fact so he started asking her where she was from originally and she told him Tunnelton, West Virginia. Then it was Ray's ears, his interest level, that picked up steam!
He told her that our grandparents and their children had lived in West Virginia for a number of years way back when and the discussion then turned to the girlfriend she said she'd had then - a Hazel Eld. That was my Mother!
Ray's secretary's name was Elizabeth Brown and when he told my Mom this story, that his secretary had sent her greetings, remembered her and all - after well over 50 years by that time since they had moved away from Tunnelton, I wish I'd had a digital camera then to capture the look on her face at that moment.
Isn't it just amazing though how you can meet someone and find out my goodness, we really aren't total strangers after all because we share a connection to this or that person or perhaps a place where we once lived -little things like that.
One thing for sure, it certainly made my Mom's day that Sunday to have her nephew tell her that her long ago friend still remembered her and had asked that Ray remember her to my Mom with a big Hello!
Yep - it is a small world - and a package of old photos brought back that memory to me along with many, many more.
Thanks Tom and Linda for thinking of me and sending this package as you were so right - I really do appreciate it -very, very much!
As Bob Hope's theme song went - "Thanks for the memories!"
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Jeckel and Hyde?
Boy, today is finally over and am I, for one, ever glad for that! Today was the day that Kurtis was scheduled to have the tubes put in his ears - and yes, it was done -which was the reason for a lot of the things that happened around here between midnight of last night and midnight -or slightly after midnight, tonight.
This is Kurtis - the way he normally is - sweet, smiling - those big blue eyes that just melt your heart away.
Kurtis had a really rough night and day today - and that is probably an understatement if you were to ask him about all this and if he could talk!
He has his own little routines - one of which is that he does tend sometimes to keep late hours - like his grammy often does too -although he's been getting a bit better about going to sleep earlier lately (like 1 a.m. as compared to 3 or 4 a.m.) But, to get him to go to sleep -there's where things were really messed up for him last night because generally, he has at least one, sometimes a couple bottles of milk before he finally drops off into dreamland. And last night, although we tried our best to really "overfeed" him throughout the evening, in hopes that he would crash and sleep before midnight, that didn't happen. So, as a result, he was a very unhappy camper -also a very tired one too - who didn't fall asleep until about 3:15 this morning. The reason it took so long - he couldn't have any more bottles of milk after midnight until well after having had the ear-tube procedure done today.
And this picture, to the left, is pretty much what Kurtis looked like, acted like for the bulk of the day!
So, from about 11 p.m. last night until he finally fell asleep by my rocking him (for the umpteenth time, I might add) he was whining and fussing and sometimes, pretty loud too about his displeasure. About 12:30, he was fussing but not all that bad and I was trying to ignore him then, in hopes he would lay down, fall asleep and all would be fine, but his dad decided to come down and check in on him and when he did, I happened to overhear Bill say "Daddy will go get you a bottle buddy!" and I sat bolt upright and yelled at him "Don't give him a bottle as he's not allowed anything after midnight tonight!" Well Bill claimed he knew nothing about that and I insisted and he went back upstairs muttering about "going to go ask Mandy about this." Since he didn't come back downstairs, I knew she had set him straight on what was what then. Sometimes, the things that go on here that he doesn't pick up on absolutely amaze me but that would be fodder for several other posts I suppose.
So anyway, Kurtis didn't fall asleep as I stated above until 3:15 a.m. but the bad thing there is that Mandy had to get him up at 5 a.m. to get him dressed to take him to the hospital as they were scheduled to be there at 6:30 a.m. for the pre-op stuff and then, 8:30 for the actual procedure. You can imagine his displeasure then when she woke him up at 5 a.m. and started dressing him to go out - not happy, not happy at all, at all.
They returned home about 10 a.m. and from then until about 9 p.m. tonight, he must have been feeling the aftershocks or something like that from the procedure - not the good things anyway -and he was a regular little bear. Once in a while, Kurtis will get a bit contrary, fussy and difficult to deal with but most of the time, he is generally a pretty agreeable little fellow -smiles for all, snuggles up to you as soon as you pick him up.
That definitely was not him all day and most of the night tonight. And, I can completely understand his being very out-of-sorts as he lost all that sleep, no food either till late today and I'm sure the procedure had to create some type of discomfort for him today in his ears too.
But finally around 9 p. tonight, the tide seemed to turn and the smiles re-appeared. He seemed to have gotten his "sea legs" back as he was walking a lot better - earlier he was wobbly as all get out and looked a bit like a little drunk most of the time - when he wasn't having a hissy fit and screaming, crying that is.
He started seeming to get a bit fussy around 12:30 tonight -not drastic, just whimpering more than anything - but I picked him up and he snuggled up against me and after rocking him for about 10 minutes, put him back in his playpen, where he grabbed onto his fuzzy bear pillow and within five minutes, he was down for the count.
That was my Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde day with Kurtis but this morning, when it came time to get Maya up and dressed for school, Bill and I both had a direct meeting then with Dr. Jeckyl and MRS. Hyde as Maya, upon realizing Mandy wasn't here to get her ready for school, decided to go into a major and massive meltdown for us!
And trust me - it was not a pretty sight to behold either! Sometimes, in retrospect, I could say it was humorous because of the things Maya does and says at times under conditions like that but that attitude about the meltdowns doesn't come to you when you are in the heat of the moment and boy, it was heated, for sure!
Mandy had laid out a little outfit for Maya to wear to school today and had chosen it because she thought it might make getting her dressed easier. Normally - had she been dressing her, it probably would have worked that way but with Bill, with me - it took a whole "nuther" turn.
From screaming and kicking and throwing the clothes - insisting that she NOT wear unneywears but rather a pullup (something I was willing to concede to just to keep some peace), it was a battle royale!
Maya began by crying, wailing, screaming how she wanted "Mommy dress Maya." And I was trying to do the impossible which is trying to explain where Mommy was and why she couldn't dress her for school. She wasn't hearing any of that about Mommy and Kurtis being at the hospital - no sirree - she was telling me "Gotta go wake Mommy up. Gotta get Mommy outta bed!" No Maya, Mommy isn't here - she and Kurtis are at the hospital. Her response eventually to that bit of truth was "Maya go to 'hopsible' with Mommy and Kurtis!"
The battle ensued, on and on for well over 30 minutes of the illogical versus the logical. Finally, I did get her dressed then came the fight to comb her hair. She left with having only a lick and a promise of the comb so looked a bit like a rat's nest there!
Getting closer to time for the van to pick her up, I started looking for her jacket. This kid has to be "color coordinated" too ya know - her rules, not mine - and I knew she was going to want her pink jacket but it was no where to be found. I sent Bill on a search and destroy mission cause she threw a nutty with me when I tried to put her blue jacket on her. He finally located the jacket down by the washer and dryer on top of the pile of clothes that were to go into the washer next. Thank goodness the jacket wasn't already in the washer or she'd probably still be standing here having a hissy fit with me! LOL
Got the jacket on her and we went outside - standing on the stoop in front of the house and since she generally is a sucker for compliments (to say Maya is vain - well it is quite an accurate description in one word there) so I started talking to her, telling her how Miss Pam (the teacher) was going to be telling her how pretty she looked today, her outfit was so cute and she was such a good little girl and all that ya know.
And, because she was holding my hand, being nice and polite and quiet, I thought I had the cat by the behind ya know. That is until she looked up at me and said "Grammy, don't say any more. Not. Another. Word!"
Kind of set me back a peg there, it did but I decided to follow her instructions then till the van arrived for fear of jinxing the rest of the process.
Getting her in the van turned out to be ok though as when she saw the other little guy who rides the van to school with her, she mellowed back very nicely. Got her all fastened in and then - pushing my luck I thought at first - I asked her if she was going to give Grammy a kiss goodbye.
And she did!
And all was well then -God was in Maya's heaven - and mine too - at that point in time. Any parent who has ever dealt with a four-year-old in a meltdown phase and has them turn back to the sweet child on them like that will know exactly what I mean there!
I had planned on posting some photos here tonight of Kurtis - something I haven't done much of in the past - and I happened to have two photos of him, one with him and his big beautiful blue eyes and all smiles and then another of him in a not so happy frame of mind too one day in the recent past. But Blogger decided that was not to be - no photos for you tonight it said! Just would not even open the icon to post the photos at all for me. So, for now - all you get is text.
Maybe tomorrow blogger will cooperate and I can go back in here and edit this post and put the pictures up for you to see little Kurtis too!
And now, I think I'll go relax and enjoy a nice cold beer! I deserve a chilled Coors tonight, don't
'cha think?
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
I Resolve....
David McMahanon of Authorblog has asked a question this week about New Year's Resolutions. He wants to know if we've ever broken a New Year's Resolution.
Ha Ha! I would be easier for me to answer how many New Year's Resolutions I have made and kept.
Know how easy that would be to count those resolutions made and carried out. For me, it would be ultra simple because the answer would be a big fat "ZERO!"
I have, over the years, made numerous resolutions - virtually everything from soup to nuts types too I think. I've vowed many times to quit smoking -one which usually was broken by noon on New Year's Day. (Probably earlier than that if it was back in the time when I used to go out and party New Year's Eve cause ya know, a cigarette and coffee are necessities when trying to recuperate from a hangover. Thankfully, I don't indulge in the alcoholic refreshments these days. Not to say I don't have a beer or mixed drink every now and again, but it is not something that is a mandatory part of my life now.
There have been times I told myself I would strive to be neater - a better housekeeper. But that too was usually a pretty short-lived resolution in my life. I have resolved however that the only way my house is ever going to be neat, tidy, spotless all the time is after I win the lottery and can afford a full-time, live in maid - or several of 'em perhaps because with six people in the house, for one maid to be keeping up with cleaning up after that many folks, she's be pretty well exhausted within the first two days. My house definitely has the "lived in" appearance all the time - especially with all the floor decorations Maya likes to add to the mix. I can hardly wait now to see what the place will look like once Kurtis is always out and about in the house too. Gonna be a whole lot of toys for me and anyone else to trip over, for sure. Actually, a solution to that problem would be if (here again, after I win the lottery) we built on a room strictly for the kids and their toys where they could strew them all over the place and then, let them be the ones in there to trip over them - not me! Sounds like a good game plan to me ya know!
I've said on numerous occasions too that I was going to watch my weight, go on a diet - get slim and trim. I don't think I ever made a resolution that involved exercise though. That part of getting slim and trim involves too much pain in my book so I've always steered very clear of that baby! And, judging by the size of the clothes I wear now, the numbers on the scale that keep moving in an upward manner, apparently the diet resolutions were all broken by at least 6 p.m. on New Year's Day.
When my kids were younger, I always would list on my resolutions that I was going to be more patient with them. Well, that's one resolution that sort of has come to pass although it took a goodly number of years and the addition of three grandchildren in my life before I finally began to learn a little bit of patience. And, since I didn't consciously set out to develop more patience when I finally began to acquire it, it sure as heck can't ever count as a resolution I held to can it?
Other things I made resolutions about - getting a better job was one. Well, on that one, I did often try to follow through on that however, doing that also takes a little cooperation from a potential employer that they have a job opening I was qualified to apply for and that they decided my resume showed them enough to warrant at least an interview My good fortune in the job hunting arena could be viewed as one good reason NOT to make resolutions because they are too doggone depressing when you realize you don't have enough control to get things to work out all the time. Well, at least from my point of view that's the way it seemed to work.
I was going to save money too but I forgot, in order to save money you have to have enough to meet your expenses to begin with - a factor that wasn't always present each and every month. I was going to clip coupons too - become the "coupon queen" but I think that only lasted maybe a week at most before I forgot about that idea too.
So now, I make no resolutions as I never either remember them or if I do, I decide early on it was a rash decision to put that item on my resolution list so out the door it goes.
I tell myself now that there are things I am going to try to do but I don't make it a hard, fast rule that I WILL do this. This way, it's sort of like making a resolution but gives me the much needed leeway to change directions in mid-stream too without feeling like a quitter or a failure. I definitely don't need anything more in my life that screams at me that I didn't follow through at all or enough. Then, this way, if I do get a little bit of one of my ideas that I say I'm gonna try to work on accomplished or started and then postponed for a while, I'm happy that I got that much done!
Just a little bit of mental trickery there I suppose.
How about you? Do you make and keep New Year's Resolutions or are yours like mine - a bit of the fly by night variety? Come on and 'fess up. Inquiring minds really do want to know!
Ha Ha! I would be easier for me to answer how many New Year's Resolutions I have made and kept.
Know how easy that would be to count those resolutions made and carried out. For me, it would be ultra simple because the answer would be a big fat "ZERO!"
I have, over the years, made numerous resolutions - virtually everything from soup to nuts types too I think. I've vowed many times to quit smoking -one which usually was broken by noon on New Year's Day. (Probably earlier than that if it was back in the time when I used to go out and party New Year's Eve cause ya know, a cigarette and coffee are necessities when trying to recuperate from a hangover. Thankfully, I don't indulge in the alcoholic refreshments these days. Not to say I don't have a beer or mixed drink every now and again, but it is not something that is a mandatory part of my life now.
There have been times I told myself I would strive to be neater - a better housekeeper. But that too was usually a pretty short-lived resolution in my life. I have resolved however that the only way my house is ever going to be neat, tidy, spotless all the time is after I win the lottery and can afford a full-time, live in maid - or several of 'em perhaps because with six people in the house, for one maid to be keeping up with cleaning up after that many folks, she's be pretty well exhausted within the first two days. My house definitely has the "lived in" appearance all the time - especially with all the floor decorations Maya likes to add to the mix. I can hardly wait now to see what the place will look like once Kurtis is always out and about in the house too. Gonna be a whole lot of toys for me and anyone else to trip over, for sure. Actually, a solution to that problem would be if (here again, after I win the lottery) we built on a room strictly for the kids and their toys where they could strew them all over the place and then, let them be the ones in there to trip over them - not me! Sounds like a good game plan to me ya know!
I've said on numerous occasions too that I was going to watch my weight, go on a diet - get slim and trim. I don't think I ever made a resolution that involved exercise though. That part of getting slim and trim involves too much pain in my book so I've always steered very clear of that baby! And, judging by the size of the clothes I wear now, the numbers on the scale that keep moving in an upward manner, apparently the diet resolutions were all broken by at least 6 p.m. on New Year's Day.
When my kids were younger, I always would list on my resolutions that I was going to be more patient with them. Well, that's one resolution that sort of has come to pass although it took a goodly number of years and the addition of three grandchildren in my life before I finally began to learn a little bit of patience. And, since I didn't consciously set out to develop more patience when I finally began to acquire it, it sure as heck can't ever count as a resolution I held to can it?
Other things I made resolutions about - getting a better job was one. Well, on that one, I did often try to follow through on that however, doing that also takes a little cooperation from a potential employer that they have a job opening I was qualified to apply for and that they decided my resume showed them enough to warrant at least an interview My good fortune in the job hunting arena could be viewed as one good reason NOT to make resolutions because they are too doggone depressing when you realize you don't have enough control to get things to work out all the time. Well, at least from my point of view that's the way it seemed to work.
I was going to save money too but I forgot, in order to save money you have to have enough to meet your expenses to begin with - a factor that wasn't always present each and every month. I was going to clip coupons too - become the "coupon queen" but I think that only lasted maybe a week at most before I forgot about that idea too.
So now, I make no resolutions as I never either remember them or if I do, I decide early on it was a rash decision to put that item on my resolution list so out the door it goes.
I tell myself now that there are things I am going to try to do but I don't make it a hard, fast rule that I WILL do this. This way, it's sort of like making a resolution but gives me the much needed leeway to change directions in mid-stream too without feeling like a quitter or a failure. I definitely don't need anything more in my life that screams at me that I didn't follow through at all or enough. Then, this way, if I do get a little bit of one of my ideas that I say I'm gonna try to work on accomplished or started and then postponed for a while, I'm happy that I got that much done!
Just a little bit of mental trickery there I suppose.
How about you? Do you make and keep New Year's Resolutions or are yours like mine - a bit of the fly by night variety? Come on and 'fess up. Inquiring minds really do want to know!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Hot Time!
A little excitement here tonight in the old burgh!
Just as we were getting ready to sit down at the table for supper, the phone rang. (Doesn't it always happen that way?) Anyway, it was Bill's Dad, calling to ask us where 1734 Cooper Avenue is - whose house that might be? Now, our house numbering system here is such that you can't anticipate what the next house number will be other than whether it will be an even or odd number, that is it. You could have a double house here and the number on the first might be 100 and the number on the adjoining home could be 130 - yes folks, the number is that scattered, that random and no one has a clue as to why either.
Well, Bill asked me but because of this lovely numbering system, I have no clue as to what my neighbors house numbers might be but I told him since our number is 1607, then we are on the "odd" side of the street so 1734 would be across the road and down the street someplace from here.
I asked him why he wanted to know and he said his dad had just heard on the scanner that there is a fire there and the building is "fully engulfed."
Wow! So, being the inquisitive and caring neighbors we are (translated - nosy), Bill and I went outside to look down the road and see if we could see anything. However, the fog was so thick you could barely see your hand before your face, so I - being ever vigilant and ambitious, energetic, etc (translated - really nosy) set forth to walk down the road to see what I could see - in my soft-soled, but fur-lined, bedroom slippers, of course. You wouldn't want to waste time looking for a pair of shoes or pulling a jacket on either even though it was warmer today it is still January, still cold, still raw.
I walked down past three houses, stopping at the driveway between house #3 and house #4, but was unable to see any flames. Didn't smell any smoke either for that matter. As I started walking back to the house, two fire trucks came whizzing down past me and turned up into the driveway of the last house on the right hand side of the road and I could hear the firemen getting down off the truck but still didn't see anything. Still didn't smell anything either. The residence involved though is an old house - belonged at the turn of the century to my Grandfather's sister - my Great-aunt Anna.
After supper, Bill's dad called back and gave us the details - don't know how accurate they are though but supposedly the family living there now has a garage or basement foundation for a home they've been erecting there for about two years or so now and someone, somewhere there, had a kerosene heater which got tipped over and caught something then on fire. Sorry that's all the details I can provide as that's all Pap's reporting system remembered. (And, please don't assume those to be actual facts as he has been known to get a detail or two -or three -a bit discombobulated from these scanner reports in the past.) But just thought I'd add to the gossip and rumor mill anyway though - on the off chance what news he told us might possibly be correct.
You heard about it here. Just remember that, ok?
A little Maya-ism for today here too. Tonight, after supper, Maya appeared in the living room carrying this little round blob that looked like a fancy bar of soap or something - but she was chewing on it. Guess that would rule out soap of some type then, wouldn' t it. We ascertained it was one of those little circlets of cheese that sometimes come in those Hickory Farms gift packages (we received one for Christmas) and Mandy asked Maya what it was that she was eating? THe response - "Radioli!" Radioli sans a tomato sauce of some type too. I told Mandy if she continues eating that little blob of cheese, the poor kid will be bound up tighter than a drum for the next two-three weeks.
Now - my cousin Skip's girlfriend, Randall, sent me an e-mail tonight. The e-mail had pictures to it for each of these items listed here below but I don't know how to copy stuff like that and get the pictures to show up here too so you're just gonna get the words to this little "look-back" in time.
Read through the list and tell me -truthfully now- - how many of the things listed here do you remember? I'm older than dirt and the Pope too so you know I remembered all of them! LOL
45 rpm spindles
Green Stamps
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Marlin Perkins
Drive in Movies
Drive in restaurants
Car Hops
Studebakers
Topo Gigio
Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Sky King
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers
5 cent packs of baseball cards
Penny candy
25 cent a gallon gasoline
Jiffy Pop popcorn
5 cent stamps
Gum wrapper chains
Chatty Cathy dolls
5 cent Cokes
Speedy Alka-Seltzer
Cigarettes for Christmas
Falstaff Beer
Burma Shave signs
Brownie camera
Flash bulbs
TV Test patterns
Old Yeller
Chef Boy-AR-dee
Fire escape tubes
Timmy and Lassie
Ding Dong Avon calling
Brylcreem
Aluminum Christmas Trees
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!
Just as we were getting ready to sit down at the table for supper, the phone rang. (Doesn't it always happen that way?) Anyway, it was Bill's Dad, calling to ask us where 1734 Cooper Avenue is - whose house that might be? Now, our house numbering system here is such that you can't anticipate what the next house number will be other than whether it will be an even or odd number, that is it. You could have a double house here and the number on the first might be 100 and the number on the adjoining home could be 130 - yes folks, the number is that scattered, that random and no one has a clue as to why either.
Well, Bill asked me but because of this lovely numbering system, I have no clue as to what my neighbors house numbers might be but I told him since our number is 1607, then we are on the "odd" side of the street so 1734 would be across the road and down the street someplace from here.
I asked him why he wanted to know and he said his dad had just heard on the scanner that there is a fire there and the building is "fully engulfed."
Wow! So, being the inquisitive and caring neighbors we are (translated - nosy), Bill and I went outside to look down the road and see if we could see anything. However, the fog was so thick you could barely see your hand before your face, so I - being ever vigilant and ambitious, energetic, etc (translated - really nosy) set forth to walk down the road to see what I could see - in my soft-soled, but fur-lined, bedroom slippers, of course. You wouldn't want to waste time looking for a pair of shoes or pulling a jacket on either even though it was warmer today it is still January, still cold, still raw.
I walked down past three houses, stopping at the driveway between house #3 and house #4, but was unable to see any flames. Didn't smell any smoke either for that matter. As I started walking back to the house, two fire trucks came whizzing down past me and turned up into the driveway of the last house on the right hand side of the road and I could hear the firemen getting down off the truck but still didn't see anything. Still didn't smell anything either. The residence involved though is an old house - belonged at the turn of the century to my Grandfather's sister - my Great-aunt Anna.
After supper, Bill's dad called back and gave us the details - don't know how accurate they are though but supposedly the family living there now has a garage or basement foundation for a home they've been erecting there for about two years or so now and someone, somewhere there, had a kerosene heater which got tipped over and caught something then on fire. Sorry that's all the details I can provide as that's all Pap's reporting system remembered. (And, please don't assume those to be actual facts as he has been known to get a detail or two -or three -a bit discombobulated from these scanner reports in the past.) But just thought I'd add to the gossip and rumor mill anyway though - on the off chance what news he told us might possibly be correct.
You heard about it here. Just remember that, ok?
A little Maya-ism for today here too. Tonight, after supper, Maya appeared in the living room carrying this little round blob that looked like a fancy bar of soap or something - but she was chewing on it. Guess that would rule out soap of some type then, wouldn' t it. We ascertained it was one of those little circlets of cheese that sometimes come in those Hickory Farms gift packages (we received one for Christmas) and Mandy asked Maya what it was that she was eating? THe response - "Radioli!" Radioli sans a tomato sauce of some type too. I told Mandy if she continues eating that little blob of cheese, the poor kid will be bound up tighter than a drum for the next two-three weeks.
Now - my cousin Skip's girlfriend, Randall, sent me an e-mail tonight. The e-mail had pictures to it for each of these items listed here below but I don't know how to copy stuff like that and get the pictures to show up here too so you're just gonna get the words to this little "look-back" in time.
Read through the list and tell me -truthfully now- - how many of the things listed here do you remember? I'm older than dirt and the Pope too so you know I remembered all of them! LOL
45 rpm spindles
Green Stamps
Metal ice cubes trays with levers
Beanie and Cecil
Roller-skate keys
Cork pop guns
Marlin Perkins
Drive in Movies
Drive in restaurants
Car Hops
Studebakers
Topo Gigio
Washtub wringers
The Fuller Brush Man
Sky King
Reel-To-Reel tape recorders
Tinkertoys
Erector Sets
Lincoln Logs
15 cent McDonald hamburgers
5 cent packs of baseball cards
Penny candy
25 cent a gallon gasoline
Jiffy Pop popcorn
5 cent stamps
Gum wrapper chains
Chatty Cathy dolls
5 cent Cokes
Speedy Alka-Seltzer
Cigarettes for Christmas
Falstaff Beer
Burma Shave signs
Brownie camera
Flash bulbs
TV Test patterns
Old Yeller
Chef Boy-AR-dee
Fire escape tubes
Timmy and Lassie
Ding Dong Avon calling
Brylcreem
Aluminum Christmas Trees
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!
Round 2 (of 54 to go)
Here it is - the first FULL week in January of 2008 and you know by now what that means here on a Sunday night now don't 'cha?
Yep - time for the next round of Bushisms to start your week off right! Without further adieu, here they are.
Monday, January 7, 2008 - 379 days left
"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope."
-- Benning, Georgia, January 2007
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 -378 days left
"It's about past seven in the vening here so we're actually in different time lines."
--Washington, D.C., January 2001
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - 377 days left
"I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous spacial* entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country." *spelling as shown on the Bushism calendar here.
--Washington, D.C., January 2004
Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 376 days left
"Who could have possibly envisioned an erection --an election --in Iraq at this point in history?"
--Washington, D.C., January 10, 2005
Friday, January 11, 2008 -- 375 days left
"Rarely is the question asked: 'Is our children learning?'"
--Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000
Saturday and Sunday, January 12/13, 2008 -- 374 days and 373 days left
"We thought long and hard about what to propose. We proposed a bold initiative, an initiative that takes equities out of the system, so people are treated fairly."
--Lee's Summit, Missouri, January 2007
Being an obnoxious old, former truckstop waitress, there are many comments I could make here about some of these statements, but I think I will forgo that honor and let you, my readers make you own witticisms - which I am quite sure you can find many to work with there, can't 'cha now?
Yep - time for the next round of Bushisms to start your week off right! Without further adieu, here they are.
Monday, January 7, 2008 - 379 days left
"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me --with an ideology of hope."
-- Benning, Georgia, January 2007
Tuesday, January 8, 2008 -378 days left
"It's about past seven in the vening here so we're actually in different time lines."
--Washington, D.C., January 2001
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 - 377 days left
"I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous spacial* entrepreneurs who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country." *spelling as shown on the Bushism calendar here.
--Washington, D.C., January 2004
Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 376 days left
"Who could have possibly envisioned an erection --an election --in Iraq at this point in history?"
--Washington, D.C., January 10, 2005
Friday, January 11, 2008 -- 375 days left
"Rarely is the question asked: 'Is our children learning?'"
--Florence, South Carolina, January 11, 2000
Saturday and Sunday, January 12/13, 2008 -- 374 days and 373 days left
"We thought long and hard about what to propose. We proposed a bold initiative, an initiative that takes equities out of the system, so people are treated fairly."
--Lee's Summit, Missouri, January 2007
Being an obnoxious old, former truckstop waitress, there are many comments I could make here about some of these statements, but I think I will forgo that honor and let you, my readers make you own witticisms - which I am quite sure you can find many to work with there, can't 'cha now?
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Revamping - Bit by Bit
Ah -things are beginning to change here. Even looking up from my standpoint anyway. However, I'm not so sure Mandy would agree with me.
I'm feeling much better -head is finally clearing out a good bit. Still have some cough residue but not near as bad as I had back in September. As much goop as I had coming forth on a constant basis for the past week, there really should be nothing but cleaned out fields now in my sinus cavities but don't you know all that stuff I was getting rid up apparently left a bit of a vaccum there as I got up today with a lousy sinus headache. Go figure, huh. Took two aspirin, which kicked in about a hour later making me really sleepy so I took a nice afternoon nap and when I got up, I realized I was starting to feel civilized again.
It was about that same time too that Mandy started to complain her throat was scratchy, headachy and cold - very, very cold so she's been on the couch now since about 5 p.m., trying to get warm, feel a bit better.
While she's been reposing and I've been reading blogs, etc., I noticed something else had been going on behind our backs this evening too though. Someone in the house has been a busy little beaver and doing some "revamping" apparently. A recent trip to the bathroom revealed the handiwork that has to belong to a certain little four-year-old here. Thankfully, it's not traces and smudges of the real thing -not really lipstick or rouge but rather some of her "Bratz" products but I thought I'd take a nice little snapshot of her art work, save it maybe for posterity -or perhaps years from now, Mandy can haul it out and show it to Maya's children so they can take it as instruction of ways to drive your parents crazy!
Lovely, huh? Well as I said above, thank goodness it's not the "real" thing as makeup goes cause this stuff will at least wash off without too much problem. Ah yes, just another of the fun sides of parenting/grandparenting, isn't it?
I know I have commented on several other blogs this past week about resolutions and that I didn't make any specific ones. For me, they never work to do anything for me except create an added element of failure and then depression -mainly because I lack a lot of follow through.
However, because I do have so many things I would like to accomplish sometime in my lifetime, I am going to try to tackle some of these projects with a little bit more "Stick-to-it" theory. See if I can do a little housecleaning -of sorts - that way.
I have two books -one given to me back in 2004, when I had my first surgery - "The Count of Monte Cristo" and I've been struggling, trying to read it for almost four years now. I don't think I've gotten beyond the first 100 pages in it yet. As a classic, it would be nice if I could complete reading it at least before I turn 65, don't 'cha think? That gives me about 20 months to complete that project. Then there is also the book "Anna Karenia" that I bought about two years ago and still have not finished it either. I have managed to read a bit further in it - up to almost 200 pages completed now but still, for someone who used to be noted for picking up a book, regardless of the size, and not dropping the reading ball there until the book was finished, I'm really way off base with both these books. I have two books I am currently "reading" - one is "The Last Promise" by Richard Paul Evans and the other - a book by Susan Senator - "Making Peace With Autism" Neither is a difficult read - but I just keep finding other things to play with - like the computer - and haven't finished either of these. Then there is the book sent to me by some sweet blogger down south - J.D. Robb's "Glory in Death" which looks really interesting and should provide some reading relaxation in the near future. I also have four other books out in my room I purchased when I did my online Christmas shopping back in November from B&N - love that place - and also, there are four other new books that Mandy got for Christmas (from me) that of course, I'll want to read them once she is done with them. Add to the mix the book "The Basic Book of Photography" that my son gave me as part of my Christmas gifts and I've definitely got my work cut out for me in the reading department for a long, long time to come now don't I?
THen there are craft projects I've started and not yet completed. I have a quilt I embroidered for Maya the spring/summer prior to her birth that only needs to have the finishing touches applied to it - binding the edges, ya know. However, I have never done anything like that before and it really kind of scares me because I'm afraid I'll end up mucking this little quilt up then. Even though my cousin Julie gave me instructions at our last family reunion 18 months ago - even wrote them down and I have them folded into the middle of that quilt but I'm still leery. A friend of mine who does quilting with the women's quilt group at St. Severin's Catholic Church near here has also told me she would come down and help me get started once I decide to tackle completing this project so I think I'd best get myself moving to do that one. Get it finished and out of my hair. I also have a quilt I began shortly before Kurtis was born too - this one is just an embroidery project though as it was already quilted and the edgings done - I just have to finish embroidering it. I have more yarn set aside to do up into crocheted six inch by six inch squares too - granny squares ya know - to get done and packaged up to send to Texas to my blogger friend, Shelly Tucker of This Eclectic Life for the Share A Square quilt project she is running. These squares will be used with others sent by folks from all over the world to make afghans for kids at a chemo camp. Great project, beautiful afghans Shelly and some others are piecing together to give to these kids. Afghans make such lovely and very warm, comforting pieces to wrap around yourself and for kids dealing with chemo treatments, I can't think of a nicer way to try to do something to ease their recovery, can you? And, if you go visit Shelly's site, be sure to click on the youtube video she has posted there too. Great entertainment in that piece there is!
As one who has enjoyed sewing a lot over the past 27 years - made many clothes for Mandy when she was small as well as some things for my son too - including one year when I made him a three piece suit that almost was enough to send me away for the cure at the wacky ward with the lovely little fake-type pocket in the jacket -along with the long fancy dresses I made that year for Christmas for both the girls - matching dresses of green velvet that had a special ribbon trim down the front of each dress. If I say here and now that I have never tackled anything made of velvet since then, does that tell you how much those dresses took out of my already small supply of creative talents? But, over the years, like most all others I know who indulge in sewing, I have accumulated several large storage units -those big plastic bins ya know - which are all filled to the gills with different pieces of fabric and it would be kind of nice if some day I managed to whittle the amount of material I have on hand down a tad too you see. At least make SOMETHING out of some of it so it doesn't all go totally to waste. And the same thing applies to the many other plastic storage totes I have -also filled to the gills - with yarns of all types and textures. I could knit or crochet from the yarns I have on hand for several years I'm sure if I'd once get started into making and finishing some projects there too.
And finally, another project I've been working on for the past three years or more and that's the research project I started through the historic newspapers listed online at Ancestry.com. I've been reading copies of our local newspaper through that site because they do have a pretty decent sized data base of copies of that paper from 1913 through 1976. Been researching any articles about my home town and/or the people who lived here during that period. Then, my goal was to also go through and research the other little villages here for the same type of articles about them too and compile all this data into some type of book that would be useful to folks who are working on family tree research - or enjoyable perhaps to others who, like me, just like to read and learn about how things once were here. I really do need to start back into working on that project - very much so.
In between trying to find the time to read those books, finish those two quilts, do some more granny squares, figure out some things I can sew, knit or crochet and work on this research thing, I still have to keep tabs on the Princess and her brother, the baby Prince, cook meals and clean up my kitchen messes afterwards and also, can't forget to make time to keep tabs on the blog too! I know people who do all of those things and still manage to hold down full-time jobs as well so I don't think it is an impossibility for me to manage them - just need to get some incentive and do just that - "Manage" them! So wish me well in my endeavors there, will ya please!??? Say lots of prayers too that I don't mangle any of them too much in the process as well.
I've heard or read this before someplace that as we age we become more like our parents and boy, for me, that is really becoming the truth. My Mom was a very talented seamstress - I am not of her caliber, not by a long shot, but she also had a tendency to procrastinate - greatly. Someplace in this house there is a pink wool dress, intended to be a Christmas dress for a 9 or 10-year-old girl, in partial states of completion. Yes, this was supposed to be a special dress for me for Christmas and it never got finished and I really don't want to leave this world with things like that left undone for that many years too!
When it comes to "revamping" and trying to do some of my own special needs housecleaning, I really do have my work cut out for me now, don't I?
And what about you? Anyone else who collects ideas, materials and has plenty of great intentions and yet, years later, they are still undone?
I'm feeling much better -head is finally clearing out a good bit. Still have some cough residue but not near as bad as I had back in September. As much goop as I had coming forth on a constant basis for the past week, there really should be nothing but cleaned out fields now in my sinus cavities but don't you know all that stuff I was getting rid up apparently left a bit of a vaccum there as I got up today with a lousy sinus headache. Go figure, huh. Took two aspirin, which kicked in about a hour later making me really sleepy so I took a nice afternoon nap and when I got up, I realized I was starting to feel civilized again.
It was about that same time too that Mandy started to complain her throat was scratchy, headachy and cold - very, very cold so she's been on the couch now since about 5 p.m., trying to get warm, feel a bit better.
While she's been reposing and I've been reading blogs, etc., I noticed something else had been going on behind our backs this evening too though. Someone in the house has been a busy little beaver and doing some "revamping" apparently. A recent trip to the bathroom revealed the handiwork that has to belong to a certain little four-year-old here. Thankfully, it's not traces and smudges of the real thing -not really lipstick or rouge but rather some of her "Bratz" products but I thought I'd take a nice little snapshot of her art work, save it maybe for posterity -or perhaps years from now, Mandy can haul it out and show it to Maya's children so they can take it as instruction of ways to drive your parents crazy!
Lovely, huh? Well as I said above, thank goodness it's not the "real" thing as makeup goes cause this stuff will at least wash off without too much problem. Ah yes, just another of the fun sides of parenting/grandparenting, isn't it?I know I have commented on several other blogs this past week about resolutions and that I didn't make any specific ones. For me, they never work to do anything for me except create an added element of failure and then depression -mainly because I lack a lot of follow through.
However, because I do have so many things I would like to accomplish sometime in my lifetime, I am going to try to tackle some of these projects with a little bit more "Stick-to-it" theory. See if I can do a little housecleaning -of sorts - that way.
I have two books -one given to me back in 2004, when I had my first surgery - "The Count of Monte Cristo" and I've been struggling, trying to read it for almost four years now. I don't think I've gotten beyond the first 100 pages in it yet. As a classic, it would be nice if I could complete reading it at least before I turn 65, don't 'cha think? That gives me about 20 months to complete that project. Then there is also the book "Anna Karenia" that I bought about two years ago and still have not finished it either. I have managed to read a bit further in it - up to almost 200 pages completed now but still, for someone who used to be noted for picking up a book, regardless of the size, and not dropping the reading ball there until the book was finished, I'm really way off base with both these books. I have two books I am currently "reading" - one is "The Last Promise" by Richard Paul Evans and the other - a book by Susan Senator - "Making Peace With Autism" Neither is a difficult read - but I just keep finding other things to play with - like the computer - and haven't finished either of these. Then there is the book sent to me by some sweet blogger down south - J.D. Robb's "Glory in Death" which looks really interesting and should provide some reading relaxation in the near future. I also have four other books out in my room I purchased when I did my online Christmas shopping back in November from B&N - love that place - and also, there are four other new books that Mandy got for Christmas (from me) that of course, I'll want to read them once she is done with them. Add to the mix the book "The Basic Book of Photography" that my son gave me as part of my Christmas gifts and I've definitely got my work cut out for me in the reading department for a long, long time to come now don't I?
THen there are craft projects I've started and not yet completed. I have a quilt I embroidered for Maya the spring/summer prior to her birth that only needs to have the finishing touches applied to it - binding the edges, ya know. However, I have never done anything like that before and it really kind of scares me because I'm afraid I'll end up mucking this little quilt up then. Even though my cousin Julie gave me instructions at our last family reunion 18 months ago - even wrote them down and I have them folded into the middle of that quilt but I'm still leery. A friend of mine who does quilting with the women's quilt group at St. Severin's Catholic Church near here has also told me she would come down and help me get started once I decide to tackle completing this project so I think I'd best get myself moving to do that one. Get it finished and out of my hair. I also have a quilt I began shortly before Kurtis was born too - this one is just an embroidery project though as it was already quilted and the edgings done - I just have to finish embroidering it. I have more yarn set aside to do up into crocheted six inch by six inch squares too - granny squares ya know - to get done and packaged up to send to Texas to my blogger friend, Shelly Tucker of This Eclectic Life for the Share A Square quilt project she is running. These squares will be used with others sent by folks from all over the world to make afghans for kids at a chemo camp. Great project, beautiful afghans Shelly and some others are piecing together to give to these kids. Afghans make such lovely and very warm, comforting pieces to wrap around yourself and for kids dealing with chemo treatments, I can't think of a nicer way to try to do something to ease their recovery, can you? And, if you go visit Shelly's site, be sure to click on the youtube video she has posted there too. Great entertainment in that piece there is!
As one who has enjoyed sewing a lot over the past 27 years - made many clothes for Mandy when she was small as well as some things for my son too - including one year when I made him a three piece suit that almost was enough to send me away for the cure at the wacky ward with the lovely little fake-type pocket in the jacket -along with the long fancy dresses I made that year for Christmas for both the girls - matching dresses of green velvet that had a special ribbon trim down the front of each dress. If I say here and now that I have never tackled anything made of velvet since then, does that tell you how much those dresses took out of my already small supply of creative talents? But, over the years, like most all others I know who indulge in sewing, I have accumulated several large storage units -those big plastic bins ya know - which are all filled to the gills with different pieces of fabric and it would be kind of nice if some day I managed to whittle the amount of material I have on hand down a tad too you see. At least make SOMETHING out of some of it so it doesn't all go totally to waste. And the same thing applies to the many other plastic storage totes I have -also filled to the gills - with yarns of all types and textures. I could knit or crochet from the yarns I have on hand for several years I'm sure if I'd once get started into making and finishing some projects there too.
And finally, another project I've been working on for the past three years or more and that's the research project I started through the historic newspapers listed online at Ancestry.com. I've been reading copies of our local newspaper through that site because they do have a pretty decent sized data base of copies of that paper from 1913 through 1976. Been researching any articles about my home town and/or the people who lived here during that period. Then, my goal was to also go through and research the other little villages here for the same type of articles about them too and compile all this data into some type of book that would be useful to folks who are working on family tree research - or enjoyable perhaps to others who, like me, just like to read and learn about how things once were here. I really do need to start back into working on that project - very much so.
In between trying to find the time to read those books, finish those two quilts, do some more granny squares, figure out some things I can sew, knit or crochet and work on this research thing, I still have to keep tabs on the Princess and her brother, the baby Prince, cook meals and clean up my kitchen messes afterwards and also, can't forget to make time to keep tabs on the blog too! I know people who do all of those things and still manage to hold down full-time jobs as well so I don't think it is an impossibility for me to manage them - just need to get some incentive and do just that - "Manage" them! So wish me well in my endeavors there, will ya please!??? Say lots of prayers too that I don't mangle any of them too much in the process as well.
I've heard or read this before someplace that as we age we become more like our parents and boy, for me, that is really becoming the truth. My Mom was a very talented seamstress - I am not of her caliber, not by a long shot, but she also had a tendency to procrastinate - greatly. Someplace in this house there is a pink wool dress, intended to be a Christmas dress for a 9 or 10-year-old girl, in partial states of completion. Yes, this was supposed to be a special dress for me for Christmas and it never got finished and I really don't want to leave this world with things like that left undone for that many years too!
When it comes to "revamping" and trying to do some of my own special needs housecleaning, I really do have my work cut out for me now, don't I?
And what about you? Anyone else who collects ideas, materials and has plenty of great intentions and yet, years later, they are still undone?
Friday, January 04, 2008
A Butterfly Net
This is the "new" look that transpired the other night in Maya's bedroom.
Note the lovely big Bratz poster on the wall. Posters for a four-year-old? Oh my, you betcha! When she unwrapped that poster Christmas Eve, you should have seen the look on her little face. All smiles, all smiles.
The netting above and that falls around her bed now is -according to my sources here - a butterfly princess net. I can't say I'd ever seen this around a small child's bed but Maya knew what it was when she opened the package that contained this present and it too, like the Bratz poster, made her eyes light up, big time.
Just how does a four-year-old learn about all these things anyway? It just amazes me how so much of what she picks up seems to come through via that old biology term -"osmosis." It just seeps in somehow and finds a home in that little sponge commonly called a brain. And trust me, hers really does soak EVERYTHING up these days - just exactly like the sponge does and just like the brain is also supposed to do.
She picked up a new sentence this week - well several actually but this one is the one that stood out to me. As we were getting ready to leave the house Sunday, she decided to pitch a fit with Mandy who merely wanted to change her clothes. Maya threw herself down on the bathroom floor, kicking about and said quite sternly to Mandy, "Leave. ME. Alone!" Hmmm - we're still trying to figure out where she heard that one.
Then a couple of days after that, one morning as Mandy was trying to bribe her to do something else, she told her she could do X if she picked up Y first - the "Y" being a mess of Barbie and Bratz dolls and their clothes and accessories that she had scattered all over the living room floor. It was a pretty big task, no doubt about it, but Maya had said ok to picking up this stuff and as she looked at the pile in front of her, we heard her say, in a very low, soft voice, "Oh shit!"
And now, there's a lot of finger-pointing going on here -from the sil to Mandy to me and back and forth -as to which one of us would happen to be the guilty party who said that and from whom Maya picked it up. Truth be told, it could very easily have been any of us but no doubt those who know me really well would probably be most inclined to point in my direction. I am probably the most forgetful about this business of watching my words and cussing under my breath instead of saying things out loud but it was kind of fun to hear Mandy and Bill each fess up to having said those words a time or two within Maya's earshot too.
But the biggest thing for me over the past week really has been in looking back over my posts of the past year, reading the things I wrote about - mainly pertaining to Maya - things she was learning and now, watching her, listening to her actually prattle on and on sometimes about different things and realizing how far she has come in those past 12 months. You really do have to be very cautious now if you're trying to do something and feel the need to pull the wool over her eyes in the process because she catches on very quickly now to so many things and you don't even realize a lot of the time that she is paying attention either.
We're starting to use the time honored technique of spelling out some words from time to time here and even that, sometimes maybe she just puts two and two together but there are times when she figures those things out too that we're trying to be so crafty and smarter than her, ya know! Where do we go once she learns how to spell then anyway?
But regardless of what she learns next, how quickly these transitions occur too, I'm just so grateful to be able to see them happen.
Gives a body something else to take heart in for her future ya know!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
First Decisions
First things first here tonight. I've been busy doing two things today - one is trying to read and comment on the blogs of my favorites - the other is to try to do a little work on a research project I've had ongoing for well over two, maybe three years now.
The research involves reading old issues of our local newspaper, searching for articles pertaining to the township where I live or the people who once lived here or in some instances, perhaps are still residents. I didn't find any articles on the topic I was actually trying to research today, although I did find a few articles that were interesting. Here's a copy of an article that had no relevance at all to my research but I just found it "interesting" to say the least - maybe even a bit humorous too although in a kind of perverted way, perhaps. Truth of the matter is, I love the writing styles employed in the local newspaper back then. Sure wouldn't see a piece like this in the newspaper today now would ya?
And, speaking of the election process, if you've been living under a rock, you maybe don't know or don't care - whichever - that today is a big day in our political process with the Iowa caucus. Granted, this system in Iowa is one that I still don't understand completely how it works but I do know it's the beginning round of several primary type things that will ultimately boil down to which people we will have as full opponents come November in our general election here and for the presidency. If you, like me, don't understand the Iowa caucus system and would like a shot at understanding it better, then I really recommend you go read Sunshine13's blog -and her post today about the caucus. It might clear a little of the questions about that setup out for you and also, give a lot of insight into the mindset of at least one intelligent young woman in that state who puts the voting process up as a very important part of her life. Some very good words, very intelligent words and a whole lot of people need to read her post and understand how seriously - how much patriotism - the people of that fine midwestern state place on our form of government. Might make some think twice about calling farmers -or people from the farm states - a bunch of country bumpkins cause folks, they sure as heck are not that!
And tonight, here at home, Mandy and Bill were going to go meet Mandy's closest and oldest girlfriend and her husband to be able to spend a little bit of quality time with them since they are in the region today and tomorrow for Mandy's friend's grandmother's funeral tomorrow and before leaving, Mandy got Maya all bathed, pj's on, ready for bed. Things appeared to be fairly calm at first when Mandy and Bill quietly slipped out the door and then, suddenly it dawned on Maya that they weren't here which then led to one of the longest meltdowns she's had in quite some time - screaming and kicking and hitting and wanting other clothes on because she was insisting she wanted to go where "Mommy and Daddy are." I, in the meantime, was lying to her - telling here they had just gone out for a few minutes so Daddy could get his haircut - a plausible line to tell her, in hopes she would at least quiet down a bit, maybe lay down on the sofa, fall asleep.
Eventually, she did just that but she no longer had the pj's on - they were (still are as I write this) in a little pile in the middle of the living room floor. She had insisted on getting out the jeans and tee shirt (and unnywears too) that she had on earlier today, stripping off the pullups and pj's and putting the other clothes on. That still wasn't enough to satisfy her and the tantrum continued on and on. Eventually, I did convince her that she could at least lay down on the couch and keep it warm till Mommy gets home. By that time, she had expended enough energy (way more than I put out in a day's time anyway) and was tired enough that within five minutes of laying on the sofa, she was out like a light and the house has been very peaceful and quiet since then. The bad thing about this whole deal is that although I did finally find a way to get her to quiet down a bit, I don't remember exactly how or what I told her that finally got the desired results. That's the drawback of dealing with the active mind of a 4-year-old with autism when you are 63 years old and hitting a bit on the senility side of things from time to time! Now I have no idea what to say to repeat that reaction or response in her! Rats! Gonna have to go through the whole process all over again sometime in the future then I suppose!
Now, before I head to bed tonight here's another little direction I'd like to ask you to take. Head on over to my blogger friend Theresa's Place and leave her a greeting there on the occasion of her 45th birthday - which was today! She's a good lady, great blogger friend and as friendly and vivacious as they come, so give her some blogger birthday love today will ya?
And, this is me -how I felt tonight between trying to get rid of the head cold (it's moving out but taking its sweet time to do it), deal with Maya and her meltdown while trying to comprehend the results of the Iowa caucus tonight. Apparently -as of 10 p.m. eastern anyway - MSNBC says that Obama and Huckabee are the winners there. Quite a shake-up, don't 'cha think?
The research involves reading old issues of our local newspaper, searching for articles pertaining to the township where I live or the people who once lived here or in some instances, perhaps are still residents. I didn't find any articles on the topic I was actually trying to research today, although I did find a few articles that were interesting. Here's a copy of an article that had no relevance at all to my research but I just found it "interesting" to say the least - maybe even a bit humorous too although in a kind of perverted way, perhaps. Truth of the matter is, I love the writing styles employed in the local newspaper back then. Sure wouldn't see a piece like this in the newspaper today now would ya?
May 21, 1919
Page 1
The Progress
Appearances Were Deceitful
Mary A. Ross, by her attorneys, Pentz & Pentz, has filed an application in the Clearfield county courts asking for a divorce from her husband, Francis Ross. The statement recites the fact that they were married November 3, 1915 and dissolved partnership March 1, 1919. The complainant says that when she promised to wed her intended represented himself to be sound of limb and mind, and without blotches, chilblains, ringworms, etc., etc., but like some “hoss trades” he could not live up to specificationson account of enfeebled physical condition, hence the suit for divorce.
Now, back to my reading my favorites posts - there were several instances where I tried to comment but for whatever reason - blogger, dial-up, maybe just my computer being quirky, who knows - but I couldn't leave a comment. One was at Empress Bee's place where I wanted to wish her and Sarge a very Happy 40th Anniversary. Don't believe me - go check out her blog for yourself and see, it's their 40th wedding anniversary and that, in my opinion, deserves a big round of applause, a lot of greetings and good wishes and a medal of honor too for being able to keep their marriage going and still fresh after that length of time. I, for one, am in awe!
Another blogger who had a very, very good post today was Mary Ann -the Smalltown RN from British Columbia. Her post today about the healthcare system in Canada was really a very good one. She addressed their system, pros and cons and even delved into the ethical dilemmas ALL medical care and insurance programs bring to the forefront today, more than ever. Want a good unbiased read - go have a looksee at what she has to say about their system. Might surprise a lot of folks to read her piece. Maybe some of our politicians should take the time to read it since it does appear that healthcare in this country is shaking out to be one of the big issues of the coming election.And, speaking of the election process, if you've been living under a rock, you maybe don't know or don't care - whichever - that today is a big day in our political process with the Iowa caucus. Granted, this system in Iowa is one that I still don't understand completely how it works but I do know it's the beginning round of several primary type things that will ultimately boil down to which people we will have as full opponents come November in our general election here and for the presidency. If you, like me, don't understand the Iowa caucus system and would like a shot at understanding it better, then I really recommend you go read Sunshine13's blog -and her post today about the caucus. It might clear a little of the questions about that setup out for you and also, give a lot of insight into the mindset of at least one intelligent young woman in that state who puts the voting process up as a very important part of her life. Some very good words, very intelligent words and a whole lot of people need to read her post and understand how seriously - how much patriotism - the people of that fine midwestern state place on our form of government. Might make some think twice about calling farmers -or people from the farm states - a bunch of country bumpkins cause folks, they sure as heck are not that!
And tonight, here at home, Mandy and Bill were going to go meet Mandy's closest and oldest girlfriend and her husband to be able to spend a little bit of quality time with them since they are in the region today and tomorrow for Mandy's friend's grandmother's funeral tomorrow and before leaving, Mandy got Maya all bathed, pj's on, ready for bed. Things appeared to be fairly calm at first when Mandy and Bill quietly slipped out the door and then, suddenly it dawned on Maya that they weren't here which then led to one of the longest meltdowns she's had in quite some time - screaming and kicking and hitting and wanting other clothes on because she was insisting she wanted to go where "Mommy and Daddy are." I, in the meantime, was lying to her - telling here they had just gone out for a few minutes so Daddy could get his haircut - a plausible line to tell her, in hopes she would at least quiet down a bit, maybe lay down on the sofa, fall asleep.
Eventually, she did just that but she no longer had the pj's on - they were (still are as I write this) in a little pile in the middle of the living room floor. She had insisted on getting out the jeans and tee shirt (and unnywears too) that she had on earlier today, stripping off the pullups and pj's and putting the other clothes on. That still wasn't enough to satisfy her and the tantrum continued on and on. Eventually, I did convince her that she could at least lay down on the couch and keep it warm till Mommy gets home. By that time, she had expended enough energy (way more than I put out in a day's time anyway) and was tired enough that within five minutes of laying on the sofa, she was out like a light and the house has been very peaceful and quiet since then. The bad thing about this whole deal is that although I did finally find a way to get her to quiet down a bit, I don't remember exactly how or what I told her that finally got the desired results. That's the drawback of dealing with the active mind of a 4-year-old with autism when you are 63 years old and hitting a bit on the senility side of things from time to time! Now I have no idea what to say to repeat that reaction or response in her! Rats! Gonna have to go through the whole process all over again sometime in the future then I suppose!
Now, before I head to bed tonight here's another little direction I'd like to ask you to take. Head on over to my blogger friend Theresa's Place and leave her a greeting there on the occasion of her 45th birthday - which was today! She's a good lady, great blogger friend and as friendly and vivacious as they come, so give her some blogger birthday love today will ya?
And, this is me -how I felt tonight between trying to get rid of the head cold (it's moving out but taking its sweet time to do it), deal with Maya and her meltdown while trying to comprehend the results of the Iowa caucus tonight. Apparently -as of 10 p.m. eastern anyway - MSNBC says that Obama and Huckabee are the winners there. Quite a shake-up, don't 'cha think?
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
For the Rest of This Week
Ok, to make sure everyone gets the good words of wisdom once more, I'm going to post today the Bushisms for the next few days - through Sunday, January 6th, and then, will revert to trying to remember to post a week's worth of Bushisms each Sunday thereafter.
Since this particular calendar is also set up in "countdown" style, these quotes will also show how many more days are left that we have to contend with the lovely folks in Washington too.
January 2, 2008 - Wednesday - 384 days left
"I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place."
--Collinsville, Illinois, January 2006
January 3, 2008 - Thursday - 383 Days Left
"We need to apply twenty-first century information technology to the healthcare field. We need to have our medical records put on the I.T."
--Collinsville, Illinois, January 2006
January 4, 2008 - Friday - 382 Days Left
"I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging."
--Austin, Texas, January 4, 2002, at the dedication of his gubernatorial portrait.
January 5/6, 2008 - Saturday and Sunday - 381 and 380 Days Left
"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes."
--Ontario, California, January 5, 2002
Here's hoping these little tidbits gives people a little incentive now to think positive -better days ahead. I sure do hope so anyway!
Since this particular calendar is also set up in "countdown" style, these quotes will also show how many more days are left that we have to contend with the lovely folks in Washington too.
January 2, 2008 - Wednesday - 384 days left
"I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place."
--Collinsville, Illinois, January 2006
January 3, 2008 - Thursday - 383 Days Left
"We need to apply twenty-first century information technology to the healthcare field. We need to have our medical records put on the I.T."
--Collinsville, Illinois, January 2006
January 4, 2008 - Friday - 382 Days Left
"I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to come and witness my hanging."
--Austin, Texas, January 4, 2002, at the dedication of his gubernatorial portrait.
January 5/6, 2008 - Saturday and Sunday - 381 and 380 Days Left
"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes."
--Ontario, California, January 5, 2002
Here's hoping these little tidbits gives people a little incentive now to think positive -better days ahead. I sure do hope so anyway!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
And So It Begins...
It's the New Year - 2008 - and you know what that means now don't you?
Only 385 more days to go!
And, thanks to my grandson - Alex -I got another Bushism calendar that will take me through not just to December 31, 2008 but to January 20, 2009 - the official end of the regime. Sometimes my kids and grandkids know exactly what goodies to get dear old Grammy J for Christmas and I figure a little bird told Alex that Gram really wanted, really needed another of these desk calendars.
So, without further adieu, here's the very first installment on the next 385 days worth of words of wisdom from the DUBYA himself.
January 1, 2008
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
2001 Gridiron Dinner.
Just starting out easy right now - by Sunday I probably will revert back to the weekly postings though.
Enjoy and here's hoping each and everyone has a very Happy, Safe, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year.
Peace at least would be a darned good start but then, that's just my opinion.
Only 385 more days to go!
And, thanks to my grandson - Alex -I got another Bushism calendar that will take me through not just to December 31, 2008 but to January 20, 2009 - the official end of the regime. Sometimes my kids and grandkids know exactly what goodies to get dear old Grammy J for Christmas and I figure a little bird told Alex that Gram really wanted, really needed another of these desk calendars.
So, without further adieu, here's the very first installment on the next 385 days worth of words of wisdom from the DUBYA himself.
January 1, 2008
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on."
2001 Gridiron Dinner.
Just starting out easy right now - by Sunday I probably will revert back to the weekly postings though.
Enjoy and here's hoping each and everyone has a very Happy, Safe, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year.
Peace at least would be a darned good start but then, that's just my opinion.
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