Friday, June 20, 2008

ONE WORD

1. Where is your cell phone? CHARGER
2. Your significant other? HUSBAND
3. Your hair? WHITE
4. Your mother? SPRY
5. Your best friend? FUNNY
6. Your favorite place? HOME
7. Your dream last night? NONE
8. Your favorite drink? WATER
9. Your dream/goal? RETIREMENT
10. The room you're in? BEDROOM
11. Your children? FIVE
12. Your fear? TERRORISTS
13. Where do you want to be in 10 years? TOURING
14. Where were you last night? HOME
15. What you're not? THIN
16. Muffins? PUMPKIN
17. One of your wish list items? HAWAII
18. Where you grew up? NEBRASKA
19. What you read last? PEACEGIVER
20. What you are wearing? JEANS
21. Your tv? LOST
22. Your pets? NONE
23. Your computer? LAPTOP
24. Your life? BUSY
25. Your mood? CYNICAL
26. Missing someone? HUSBAND
27. Your car? EXPEDITION
28. Something you're not wearing? SHOES
29. Your favorite store? TARGET
30. Your summer? HOT
31. Like someone? WHAT?
32. Your favorite color? BURGUNDY
33. Last time you laughed? TODAY
34. Last time you cried? SUNDAY
35. Your favorite thing? FAMILY

Monday, June 16, 2008

SUPER-DADS

Since yesterday was Father's Day, here are my memories. The first one about my dad and the second one about my husband:

My dad was a great gardener. He landscaped our home, including putting in rock walls and steps. We had a flower garden on one side of the house where Dad had planted petunias. One time he called me over and showed me how to pinch off the head of the petunia after it had withered. He told me if I did this, then the plants would grow more blossoms. So everytime I passed that flower bed, I always had to stop and pinch off all the withered or dead blossoms before going on. Dad seemed to always know all about the flowers and plants and was always telling me about them. I can remember him even letting me mow the backyard sometimes, but he wouldn't let me mow the upper level. I loved our backyard and loved to play out there. We had lilac bushes all across the back of the yard and a peony bush - which was my favorite. Dad planted - I'm not sure if this is the right name - seedum - on the rock walls. I thought it was cool to pick a piece and squeeze it. I loved the stone steps he built on the side of the house and in the back, separating the two backyard levels. I used to play that the backyard was my house and the side steps and gate were my front door. One time Dad had got some 2'X 4"s for something. He let us play with them and we used them to "outline" a house that we could play in. We used leaves for dishes and found "forked" sticks to use - yes - for forks. I used to wish that I could just really live outside in my backyard. We use to put on neighborhood variety shows, using the upper level of the backyard for our stage. One time, after our cat died, we decided we would dig the cat back up - for what reason, I don't know. We "thought" we knew where Dad had buried him, so we got a couple of shovels and started digging. We dug a pretty good hole - at least 3" deep or more. Dad didn't seem to mind - mainly because he knew that was not where he buried old Scamper. He just told us to fill the hole back in when we got tired of digging. I always wondered where Scamper was buried and wondered if it was under the peony bush?

My husband "L" went to college for almost the first 10 years of our marriage. He worked full-time and went to school full-time the last 5 years. My kids don't think their dad had a lot to do with them as babies, since he was always studying at night, but he did. Several of my babies had problems with lots of colic. He always would take them and lay them on his knees and gently rub their tummies to help them get rid of the colic. My kids always spit up a lot when they were babies, and I remember many times when L "got it" all over his shirt or even down inside his shirt when he was rocking them. One time when my 2nd daughter was a toddler, I had to go to the store at night because I had been babysitting all day. I thought she would lay in my bed while her dad sat beside her at his desk studying. It took me about an hour since I had a lot of groceries to buy. When I got back, there she was sitting on her dad's lap. She had cried the whole time I was gone and he was rocking her. With daughter #1 he would go in her room to have a "tea party" with her. He would actually sit at her little table and let her set the table and bring him "tea". Whenever he would play his guitar, the girls loved to listen to him and "dance".

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO TWO GREAT DADS!

Sunday, June 8, 2008

HAPPY 38TH!

Today is my wedding anniversary. My husband and I have been married 38 years. My, time does fly when you're having fun. Here are ten "fun facts" about our dating:
1. We met at the Hi-D-Ho - a fast food drive-in like Sonic.
2. He did not kiss me on the first date.
3. He did not kiss me on the second date.
4. After the second date, I told my friend (who introduced us) that I was going to marry him.
5. He asked me to marry him 2 weeks later.
6. We were married 2 months later.
7. I did not know his real name until after we were married.
8. He and his friends joined a fight to help out my good friend DJ, who was getting the tar beat out of him by a group of boys.
9. When we were talking long-distance on the phone one night, a tornado hit our town and did a lot of damage. The phones were down all night. He stayed up all night watching news reports because he was worried about me.
10. He is the love of my life.

CHAPTER ONE

Well, I started Chapter One in my new story today. I was sustained as the new Relief Society President of our women's organization at our church. I don't know if I should call this post "Chapter One" or "Act One". That's kind of how I felt today - acting out a play. I wanted to say, "No stop! I can't remember my lines! This isn't the part I wanted to play!" Hopefully it will get better. Maybe it will come more natural. I decided to try to learn 2 people's names every Sunday. One woman walked up to me and started congratulating me on my new calling and when she stopped talking, I said to her, "Now, tell me your name." She said, "Oh, you know my name". I said, "No seriously I don't so please tell it to me." She said, "Yes! you know my name!" I said, "No seriously I don't so please tell me." Then she said, "My name is S_____." I said, "Oh yes, I guess I did know your name...sorry."
What can I say? She had her hair pulled back and it didn't look like her. But then I added, "I'm sorry my brain is so addled I wouldn't know my own daughter if she came up to me today."

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

LET THE NEXT STORY BEGIN...

Two things: I watched "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" tonight, and I'm almost to the end of THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING. I really liked the quote from Mr. Magorium, "Turn the page, continue reading, and let the next story begin." It made me start thinking... As I've been reading THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, even though it hasn't been the best book I've ever read, it is interesting. I have never read anything about King Arthur, so it has been interesting to me to finally read about him, Merlin, Guinevere and Lancelot. I have to admit that some of King Arthur's adventures, as Wart, were a little lengthy, as well as some of Lancelot's - and other character's - quests. But don't get me wrong...I still enjoyed reading it. I learned things I didn't know before. I got into the character's lives as well as the magic of the story.

After watching Mr. Magorium tonight it made me think about life. Sometimes parts of our lives are like the best books we've ever read. Life is good. Things are going great. Other times our life is like a boring book. We're just trying to get to the end of that particular story so it will be over. Sometimes we just skim over parts, reading them quickly to get past the uninteresting chapters. Maybe we start reading and find we really don't like this book at all - do we stop reading? Do we struggle through to the end just to find out how the story ends? Other times we start on a particular story, and as it begins we think we are not going to like this book, but then things start to happen and we start getting interested in the characters, and events that are happening in the book, and "lo and behold" we actually start to enjoy the book. Maybe it becomes our favorite, or maybe it just becomes a "nice read".

My life is starting another chapter. At first I didn't want to read it. I couldn't see how this book could have a happy ending. I thought about giving the book back. I'm only reading the introduction right now, but something is peaking my interest. Maybe this will be a "nice read". Maybe it will keep me guessing all the way to the end of the book. Maybe it will be a completely different story than I have read before. Could it possibly even become a favorite? Turn the page, continue reading...