Memories

What To Do…What To Do?

About a year from now, on April 9th, Hubby and I will celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. It really is quite an accomplishment. Many people think that marriage is easy. It’s not. Many days it was down right difficult, but the one thing that never stopped, was the friendship, the love between us.

It’s funny how things worked out for Hubby and me. Hubby was my best friend for a long time. Long before we ever dated or fell in love. He made me smile and he made me laugh. I’ve known him since our daughter’s were 4 and 5 years old, and became playmates. Friends.

I think it’s important to be good friends first, because at the end of the day, in good times and bad, you need to know that you are friends and can rely on each other.

In the early years of our marriage, things were tough, but we handled it by deciding on a coarse of action. Hubby had his pilot’s license, so we would look at each other during those days and say, “There’s always Alaska!”. And we knew there was. Together it wouldn’t matter. We could get through anything. Even Alaska!

I have been thinking about what Hubby and I can do for our 25th Anniversary. Our family is very small, so a party seemed silly. I was thinking more along the lines of a trip. A romantic, relaxing trip, next April, someplace warm for Hubby and me.

Any ideas?

Imagination

When I was a little girl, my parent’s didn’t have a lot of money. Although I do not recall truly being without, I do know that my imagination was able to grow and expand in ways it might not have, if my parents had given me everything I wanted.

I loved my Barbie dolls, and I actually had a few, but my parents could not afford the clothes and the Barbie houses, so early on I learned what to do in order to have beautifully clothed dolls. Just let my imagination run wild!

I moved my bed so it sat just under the window in my room. In those days we had heavy storm windows. So, I would open the regular window, sit in my jeans and a sweater and socks and rest my feet on the heater below and play Barbie. My sister, Melodie, and cousin Janet would join me and in that window sill, we were Mick and Bianca Jagger, or Paul and Linda McCartney, etc.

I would take old pieces of cloth and by cutting them up make my dolls the most glamorous outfits! A tissue could be the most beautiful wedding gown imaginable! Also, by not having the doll houses, and doll clothes, my imagination let me see into another world. Kleenex boxes became beds or sofas, and paper towel rolls could become table bases. It didn’t matter that I didn’t have the real thing, in my mind, I had it all.

Imagination!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Do you put Christmas decorations in every room of your house? If not every room, what rooms do you decorate?

No. I decorate our kitchen/family room. That’s where we live.

2. If you could visit one of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) which one would you choose and why?

Norway. Because I have friends there I would like to meet.

3. What does the word faith mean to you?

Believing in something you can’t necessarily see, but knowing is out there. Whether it be God’s love, my family’s love or the things I believe.

4. You can go back to your childhood for one day…what day and age would you choose?

Childhood? I think, perhaps the day I changed schools in fourth grade. I was so traumatized and that started a vicious cycle of self doubt, and so much fear. I wish my mother had been gentle with me that day and helped me.

5. When did you last have ‘punch’? If it’s not too much trouble share your favorite punch recipe.

A couple of years ago when we had friends with kids over. My recipe is simple. Orange Sherbet and Ginger Ale.

6. Do you fill stockings at your house? Are stockings opened before or after the bigger gifts?

Sadly, no. We no longer do that. But once the baby comes, I know Santa will be stopping at my daughter’s home!

7. What takes your breath away?

Today my Kindle Fire arrived! After opening the packing, and the inner box, I held the kindle in my shaking hands! Today, that is what took my breath away! lol

In real life, the days my daughters were born and I first beheld their perfect faces! I was just telling Hubby about that today. As I looked at Mandy for the first time, my heart skipped a beat and took my breath away! Such beauty!!!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Do you know how in October or even November, Christmas seems such a long way off, and then the next thing you know, CHRISTMAS IS HERE! Mandy and I are meeting up this weekend for a little mother-daughter time and some shopping. I sure am looking forward to that!

What I Did This Past Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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In the last four days I have made 4 batches of tomato something. Three spaghetti sauces and one batch of chili. All of these were made from tomatoes we are growing in our garden. I sure hope the tomatoes stop growing. I’m literally running out of freezer space!

I did get my report written and it was only 4 pages. Still I have to figure out a way to take shorthand, and get all the information I need each month to put into the report, without losing track of what is being said. People just talk to darn fast!

My doggies and Husband let me sleep in both on Saturday and Sunday! Wow! That is always welcome!

My classmates and I are still in the partying mood from our reunion. Facebook is a great place to chat with everyone about the things that made my hometown of Falmouth, Massachusetts such a great place to grow up.

Friday and Saturday were beautiful days. Sunday…rain. Oh well.

I’m going out with my daughter this week to shop! I love this, as we shop well together!

And to end this post I want to share this funny story with you all. It is totally true, I assure you.

When I was in High School, we literally moved into a brand new school with all sorts of high tech things, which back in the 1970’s included closed circuit TV. Each day our fearless Principal would send messages out to us either in person, or he would have the news kids read the messages. But here is the wonderful part of the story. The theme song was by Elton John, and somehow I always laughed a little when I listened to it playing!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. July is National Ice Cream month…your favorite flavor? Soft served, hand dipped, or frozen yogurt…which do you prefer? And technically yogurt is not ice cream but its hot outside so I’ll let that slide for today.

My favorite ice cream is Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia. I love it served in a handmade sugar waffle cone! YUM!

2. When you travel do you tend to pack too much or too little?

Always too much. I am one of those people who say, “What if…” and then I pack that way!

3. What’s your favorite cleaning product?

Oh I love the new and improved “Fantastic” it cleans everything so well. I also like the “Clorox Clean-Ups”.

4. Which is the greater tragedy-an innocent person imprisoned or a guilty person set free? Explain.

Since a guilty person usually will recommit a crime, I would tend to lean towards setting the guilty free. I think an innocent person would eventually be exonerated and get free of the conviction. Just look at OJ. We all know he killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, and he got off. But could he just keep out of trouble? No. Well, now he will sit in prison for a while, still not consolation for the Brown’s and the Goldman’s.

5. What’s the longest trip you’ve taken by car?

Well, actually it was motor coach, and we drove across country, down the west coast, across the southern part of the country and then back up the east coast to New Hampshire and home.

6. tennis-golf-canoeing-biking…pick one.

Biking. Although I do live in a great spot for canoeing.

7. What sound drives you crazy?

Probably the sound of wheels in my driveway when the dackels are outside. Let me explain. I always worry when the dackels are running freely in the yard and a delivery, or meter reading truck comes into the yard. Fear grips me that one of my dackels will be run over.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I am really looking forward to returning to my hometown next week, for my High School Reunion.

I have not been to Falmouth in 8 years and I am looking forward to revisiting my favorite beach, two of the homes I grew up in, and having fried clams and stuffed quahogs! A favorite of mine, that are best served and eaten in Falmouth!

Contemplations

I could complain about the heat, and humidity that we have had the last few days, but when I started to think about what is important in life, I decided that our “Heat Wave” didn’t really matter too much in the big picture of life.

A few days ago a friend of mine lost her boy-friend. He was taken far too young, and I know that my friend will be truly challenged in her life as she goes on.

I know. I do. It is so difficult to see that, as time goes on, the pain lessens. Right now it feels so overwhelming and strong, to her. I know she will always love him, but I do know that one day, she will smile again.

Then the catastrophe happened in Oslo and three of my dear blog friends are Norwegians. Their country is a small, safe, loving country. In some ways it is an end to the innocence. The Norwegian government has said that it will not change the country…but all of us here in the USA know, that the day after 9/11, we were all different.

So why are we challenged with these difficult things? Perhaps so we can truly appreciate the goodness when we have it. I do not know.

I do know that when I lost my own daughter 26 years ago, I thought I would never make it, never be happy again.

But here I am. 26 years later, and my life is happy. I still love Katie. I still miss her terribly. I still do not understand why she died. I still hate it.

But…my life is good. I have my family, both human and fur, and I love and in turn I am loved!

Life has gone on!

And I’m okay!

All My Children

I know that many of you may not be Soap Opera fans. I do not watch many, but I do watch one. “All My Children”.

Many moons ago, I admitted I was addicted to “All My Children”. I’ve been watching, almost since the beginning of the wonderful and wild and sinful world of Erica Kane! So many wonderful actors and actresses have come and gone over the years, so many good and evil characters, too. Somehow, Monday through Friday, I had that time with “All My Children”, and it allowed me to escape my own life’s drama, and focus on something totally unbelievable, like women wearing sleeveless dresses in the middle of winter.

But the dresses were always lovely and the actresses always looked beautiful and the men handsome. No one ever woke up with bad breath or, heaven forbid, had spinach on their teeth after having lunch. Mostly because no one really eats on the Soaps either.

The characters fall in and out of love like I have never seen, but then, sometimes you have special loves, those long and enduring loves. Angie and Jessie, Joe and Ruth, Tad and Dixie, Mateo and Hailey! And Erica and just about every man on the show…

And now, 41 years after the show made it’s debut, it has been canceled because they want to put on a cooking and fashion show for a younger audience! I guess baby boomers aren’t a good demographic because ABC announced they want to appeal to women 18-49.

This is the first time I have not been in the correct demographic…meaning young!

Well ABC, take “All My Children” off the air. I can’t stop you, as it is obvious that you care very little about what women and men in my age bracket think.

The last air-date for the show is in September. Until then I shall value the characters just a little bit more than I would have.

Thank you to every cast member and crew member who made that hour each day during the week a nice escape for me.

Love

Hubby and I celebrated our anniversary in a great way. We celebrated the beginning of someone else’s marriage. We went to a wonderful dinner party where we talked and laughed and ate and drank to the joy of the new couple! It really reinforces the whole belief in marriage, doesn’t it?

Everything was wonderful. Grilled meats, different salads, and a cupcake wedding cake! Just perfect!Here are a few pictures!

We got home late, so I will post this now and get off to bed! I’m tired and so are the dackels!

I was looking for a certain picture today in my Flickr Photo-stream, and I had such a good time. I had a chance to look over a whole bunch of pictures of Hubby and me,

my daughter

my cousin Janet and her boyfriend,

my parent’s and sister,

happy faces, cherished loved ones, now gone,

Shubi with Jack

and newborn puppies.

As well as my very own fur children!

Anneliese.

Arnie

Greta.

Fritz

Yes, it was fun and brought me back to enjoy the time I have had. It was a great way to spend the afternoon!

I Did It!

On Thursday, while most of New England dug out from “The Great Blizzard of January 2011”, Hubby and I took off for the mountains to ski. Our little corner of paradise only got 4 inches of fluffy snow, which made for perfect skiing!

Now, my regular readers have been following my feelings of dread about skiing since my accident. I lost that sense that I could actually ski with little or no consequence, but when I fell, a few years back I really developed a fear of skiing. You can read about the ski accident HERE.

In fact I went through a few years of just plain not skiing at all. This year I thought, why not overcome this fear? The first day out in December I was a wreck, but today, it was all good.

I skied stiffly at first, but eventually loosened up, and in the end, actually learned a little about skiing through fresh snow! In fact I did 4 runs and was going to quit after the 5th, but I had a breakthrough and felt so happy that I actually went back up and skied a 6th run!

Yay Me!!!

Oh, I think I will always have a healthy respect for the dangers of skiing, and I will be very careful, but perhaps I can also enjoy the scenery, the fresh air and the exercise.

Speaking of exercise, oh yeah, I had a good workout today, and I’m feeling a bit sore tonight, but happily so!