Tagged Again

My friend Ms. Smockity tagged me and I thought I might reply to this tag, but with an added twist at the end. The rules are:

*Link the person who tagged you.

* Mention the rules in your blog.

* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours.

* Tag a new set of six following bloggers by linking them.


* See last item in fuchsia at the end...


So, after much thought (about 5 minutes), here are my six unspectacular quirks:

1. I LOVE to hang my clothes outdoors to dry even though my husband claims that his underwear is "crunchy" when it comes in all fresh smelling off the clothesline.

2. I am a stickler for time schedules. I make up my daily schedule each morning and getting off schedule sometimes rattles me. I think I passed this quirk on to at least one of my sons!

3. I get up early (5:30 a.m.) at least 5 mornings a week to journal first and then exercise--even though I am retired. It just starts my day off right!

4. I LOVE to sleep late (about 7:00) on weekends!

5. I am a pack rat and hate throwing things away because "someday I might need it!"

6. I am relearning how to oil paint and am having a grand time smearing paint on canvas, good shirts, shiny new easel and everything nearby--such fun! Maybe I need to revisit my finger painting days also!

I now tag: Maryls, Patricia, BooMama, Sharon, Peggy, Larry

* Now my plan is to write about these six quirks the next couple of weeks and provide pictures when appropriate and available. Then, I challenge each of you, dear readers, to do the same.

OUR FIRST YEAR TOGETHER

Today I was going through a box of things I had stored in our barn and found an album that I had made for my husband as an anniversary present after our first year of marriage. I thought our boys might enjoy looking at pictures of their parents that first year. How young we looked then!

On our July Honeymoon we traveled across from Texas, where we were married, to California where my husband had a fellowship to attend a leadership training program at San Fernando Valley State College beginning the next January. We planned to find a place to live and enjoy the sights as we drove to the Los Angeles area. I think we visited every Indian ruin between Texas and California, but we had fun along the way. First we stopped in Albuquerque and visited hubby's aunt for a couple of days.

After we left Albuquerque, we headed west, stopping at interesting places until we reached California. In Northridge, we stayed with friends who were in the program that hubby would being the next January. We found an apartment and made arrangements to rent it when we arrived in January. We returned to Texas and began our last semester of teaching before pulling up stakes and moving to California. Here is a picture of the first house we rented--fully furnished.

We spent the first Christmas that we were married with my parents and brother and sister, and Fancy, the dog that my parents inherited when we all left home.

After Christmas, we packed up all our belongings in a U-Haul trailer, hooked it up to our Chevrolet Malibu and headed for our great adventure in California. For me, it was a bit like a big vacation because I did not plan to work. I had a wonderful time exploring all the new shopping places, discovering a world of new fruits and vegetables in the ABC Grocery Store where we shopped and exploring the wonders of Topanga Plaza--a wonderful shopping mall (before shopping malls were popular in Texas). I did end up doing some part-time work for the college and typed papers for hubby and some of the other students for spending money.

While we were in California, we did a fair amount of sightseeing, saw some snow, the Redwood Forest and local attractions, including Universal City and Busch Gardens. I also went with friends to Disneyland, but hubby missed that trip.

My sister came to visit and we had a wonderful time showing her around. We even picked a few oranges from the orange trees on the campus.

Graduation time finally arrived and we began to pack for our next adventure. It was hard to say goodbye to so many friends that we had made while in the San Fernando Valley but we still stay in touch with some of them even though it has been more than 40 years since we spent that time together in California. From California we moved to Chicago because hubby landed a job there and that was a whole new adventure for us.

Lots of memories were packed into that first year of our marriage--fun memories, interesting experiences and wonderful new friends!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I am thankful for many things today, but most importantly I am thankful for my health. This time last year I had just had my second hip replacement. For about 3-4 weeks after the surgery it was really difficult, but then things begin to improve. I am now able to do many, many things that I had discontinued doing before the surgeries due to the pain.

This morning I went to the gym and did the treadmill, the Nautilus elliptical machine and all kinds of exercises to keep the ole body fit and working properly. One of my friends pointed out how well my hips are working compared to a couple of years ago. I am so thankful that I had the surgeries but I am really thankful that it is a year later and I have all that behind me!

A Babysitting Adventure

We were asked by Son #4 to keep their almost-two-year-old for three days last week. After raising 4 boys, I thought one little one would be a snap! Ha! I had forgotten about the continual motion syndrome when they are awake! And thank goodness for naps and early bedtime. The minute she was asleep I headed for bed also! I was pooped! Guess I am out of practice.


But Miss Ella Bella is a real joy! She runs--never walks! She laughs with glee at the simplest things like rolling a soccer ball down the hall and having me roll it back. She loves to clean things--the picnic table, our car when it sprinkled on it, the kitchen table after eating.




She enjoyed going shopping with us and had to have her purse over her arm just like mine. In the car she was always on the lookout for COWS! She loves cows and announces her sightings of cows in a VERY LOUD VOICE so that we would not miss them! We stopped by the roadside and watched one near the fence eating grass. Ella Bella watched for a minute and then announced: "BIG tongue!" Yes, that cow did have a very big tongue. Ella talked about the cow's big tongue all during dinner and gave several demonstrations of the way it licked its upper lip!


She loved story time with her granddad.














She was a great help in the kitchen. She learned how to snap fresh green beans, make Mickey (er, excuse me--she LOVES Minnie!)Mouse pancakes and then she helped make yummy brownies for the neighbor down the street who had surgery. She also very efficiently helped load silverware in the dishwasher after each meal.



The last day we were there I was taking pictures of flowers for possible painting projects and she had to take one picture "all by herself!" Not bad for a young 'un! Maybe she is a budding young photographer--or maybe I will paint it for her!



Most amazing of all are her computer skills. She has an ABC program at http://www.starfall.com/ that she loves. We had to call her mother to tell us how to find it and then we were able to access the program several times so that she could do her ABCs. Amazing!

More on Junk Mail

I still have a thing about Junk Mail! We were gone for three days this past week and the neighbors gathered our mail for us. We had a pile of mail and all but four letters/bills went into our trash or recycling.

I still think Junk Mail is a shameful waste of manpower, paper, postage, increased cost of items, and additions to our landfills. Yesterday I found another recommendation to curb the catalogs that come to our house. I went to www.catalogchoice.org and checked many of the catalogs that come, unsolicited, to our house. One response from a major business in our area came back marked "denied." The explanation is that this company has refused to be involved in the opt-out process. Guess that means I will still get their expensive mailings which will go into my recycling.

I do hope that the catalog delivery to my house will diminish if businesses opt to honor my wish not to receive their mail!

Trinity Sunday

Today is Trinity Sunday. I saw this prayer and it seemed very meaningful today:

God For Us, we call You Father,
God Alongside Us, we call You Jesus,
God Within Us, we call You Holy Spirit.

You are the Eternal Mystery
That enables, enfolds, and enlivens all things,
Even us, and even me.

Every name falls short of your
Goodness and Greatness.
We can only see who You are in what is.
We ask for such perfect seeing.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be.
Amen.

By Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, NM

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I am so thankful for our many blessings today! We were awakened this morning about 12:30 a.m. with an awful banging on our roof. It was a storm coming through with rain, high winds and hail. We jumped out of bed and ran to look outside--probably not the brightest thing to do--and saw the wind whipping the trees in our front yard and twisting them. As I stood looking out our living room window, one of our large trees broke off about midway and twisted to the ground leaving several huge branches hanging upside down. The storm passed quickly but our yard was strewn with millions of leaves and several large branches in addition to the one broken tree.

This morning at daylight all of our neighborhood was out surveying the damage. Each yard was carpeted with leaves and many, many branches were down. One neighbor had a tree broken off similar to ours, but it landed square in the middle of her new SUV. Another neighbor had a car window broken out by a falling branch. Several houses had large branches on their roofs and one neighbor thought the corner of his house was damaged by a falling branch

As the morning progressed we listened to the sound of chain saws as people began to clear and clean their way out of the mess. We were leaving town, so we left our mess behind knowing that our clean up would be delayed a bit because we are going to take care of Son #4's little one for several days. We are there now and have had a delightful evening with her. She is almost two and talking up a storm! She could tell us what she wanted and where things were. She was VERY definite about her bedtime--she did not want to go, but only fussed about 2-3 minutes and then was out like a light! Whew!

I am so grateful that the storm only damaged a few trees and left us and our house relatively unharmed. I sat up much of the night thinking about how bad it could have been in light of the spring storms across the country and giving thanks that we were safe! And I am also grateful for the chance to enjoy being with Miss Ella Bella for a few days.