Archive for the ‘when I was a kid’ Category
Shy Little Girl
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
I was a shy little girl growing up. There’s tons of proof about it, too…
Here’s a picture (date unknown) of me, my two brothers, a foster sister, and two girls we sponsored from the Fresh Air Fund. Can you guess who is who?
From the left: my brother Kris, me hiding in his lap, Emma from the Fresh Air Fund, my brother Karl, our foster sister Kelly in the lap of Sharyl, from the Fresh Air Fund.
Everyone in this photo is happy to pose for it… they even smile when they are directly looking at the camera. Me, I’m busy studying my fingernails or something as equally as fascinating. At least I’m not sobbing my eyes out while be forced to look directly at a stranger!! And no, my parents didn’t scare me to death with Stranger Danger tales that made me afraid of strangers. I was an equal opportunity scaredy cat… any adult would do. I never looked at any of my parents friends directly – I always stole glances at them while they weren’t paying attention. I never looked at any adult from church directly either – especially if it was the choir director trying to get my attention so I would actually sing the song the children’s choir was doing. I might have possibly looked directly at the teachers – but you were supposed to do that or you’d get in trouble for not paying attention. And I was…NOT…going…to…be…in…trouble….EVER!!
Posted in when I was a kid | Comments Off on Shy Little Girl
All I ever needed to know, I learned from a country song…
Friday, June 19th, 2009
I’ve always been a fan of country music – pretty much grew up on it. And…
All I ever needed to know, I learned from a country song…
1) Don Williams – I Believe In You:
I don’t believe in superstars
organic food and foreign cars
I don’t believe the price of gold
the certainty of growing old
that right is right and left is wrong
that north and south can’t get along
that east is east and west is west
and being first is always best.
But I believe in love, I believe in babies
I believe in mom and dad, and I believe in you.
2) Gary Allan – Life Ain’t Always Beautiful
Life ain’t always beautiful
Sometimes it’s just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart
Life ain’t always beautiful
You think you’re on your way
And it’s just a dead end road at the end of the day
But the struggle makes you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it’s own way of takin’ it sweet time
3)Joe Nichols – The Impossible:
Unsinkable ships sink
Unbreakable walls break
Sometimes the things you think could never happen
Happen just like that
Unbendable steel bends
If the fury of the wind is unstoppable
I’ve learned to never underestimate the impossible
4) Tanya Tucker – Strong Enough to Bend
When you say something that you can’t take back
Big wind blows and you hear a little crack
When you say “Hey well I might be wrong”
You can sway with the wind till the storm is gone
Sway with the wind till the storm is gone
Like a tree out in the backyard
That never has been broken by the wind
Our love will last forever
If we’re strong enough to bend
5) Toby Keith – As Good As I Once Was
I ain’t as good as I once was
that’s just the cold hard truth
I still throw a few back, talk a little smack
when I’m feelin bullet proof
so dont double dog dare me now
’cause id have to call your bluff
I ain’t as good as I once was
but I’m as good once as I ever was
maybe not be good as I once was
but I’m as good once as I ever was
Posted in when I was a kid | Comments Off on All I ever needed to know, I learned from a country song…
Cooking VS Baking
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Are you a cook or a baker?
I think I am a baker more than a cook. I have always preferred baking over cooking food. I don’t have some inner quality that cooks do. Maybe it has to do with the rush of cooking – everything is going at once and you have to time it just right so something doesn’t burn or get cold waiting for everything else to finish. I can do it – but I don’t really enjoy it. Hence, I would feel safe in saying that for most of my married life, The Hubby has done the majority of the cooking. And before I was married, I ate chocolate bars for dinner (and I’m not lying!)
–Side story (kinda like a side dish – get it? I’m so amusing, aren’t I?) When we were first dating, The Hubby would come to visit me at my place of employment – a news stand/bookstore place. I’d generally get 30 minutes for dinner, so most of the time I’d grab a Hershey’s bar (with almonds – I need protein, after all!) and get some homework done. Once he got wind of what I was doing for dinner, that changed quick! He’d take me out to the local diner, about 2 doors down from the store I worked at. He’d ply me with sandwiches, burgers, fries, pizza – whatever I wanted. He insisted that I needed to eat more than a candy bar for dinner! So – he has always been in charge of dinner! —
So – back to the main dish point – cooking is not my strong suit. But, baking, however is a different story. I don’t bake much – I don’t want to give you the wrong idea – but I do like it. Lately I have been on a baking kick – from bread to cookies (and Rice Krispie treats too!). It’s a bit more laid back than cooking – no one is timing how long it takes to get it to the table. When I was a kid, I loved making apple pies and used the leftover pie crust (homemade, of course!) for cinnamon rollups. Hmmm… even the thought of them makes my mouth water.
So with this baking kick, I’ve been bringing baked goods to our movie nights. Another one is coming up this week, so I’ll have to think about what to make in the next few days. I was contemplating cupcakes, but that seems kinda … lame. I want something a bit interesting… maybe merengue cookies and some brownies…
Happy Baking!
Posted in Family Life, Food, The Hubby, when I was a kid | Comments Off on Cooking VS Baking
3 Squares
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
That is not a reference to three square meals a day (The Hubby would tell you I wouldn’t know what that is anyway).
I recently saw a discussion (online, of course) on the realization that this one particular family of 2 adults and 1 child in diapers went through 10 ROLLS of toilet paper in ONE month. Let’s just ponder that for a moment…. 2 adults… one month… 10 rolls. (Try not to let your imagination go too wild – I can’t catch you if you faint over!)
The poster made a concerted effort to track toilet paper usage for the next month, and by the mere process of tracking it, they cut down on usage.
Then they made the effort to cut back. She went to four squares per visit to the loo. They cut down to about half of their “normal” usage.
The intriguing comment she made was really about her grandmother, who lived “in a rural area” without “city water” – meaning they had their own water well and septic system. You know, like we do here. Well it seems to cut back on paper going into the septic system, her grandma had a “pee rag” (that was incredibly hard to type – it conjures up all sorts of images that I just don’t want to have).
While we never went that far, with up to six kids in the house, plus the two adults, toilet paper was an issue at our house when I was growing up. Well, it wasn’t always, but after some particular incident (no – it wasn’t me!) the 3 Square Rule was put into effect. So for a long period of time, we were issued our 3 Squares and that was it. And generally speaking, that was enough.
This has been on my mind for the last several days for a couple of reasons. One, it is just so bizarre to read about other people’s toilet paper habits. (And yes, it’s kinda weird to be writing about it too). Two, I have been sick since Sunday and have spent lots of time in the bathroom – I seem to have gone through 10 rolls myself! And three, having read the comments about how wonderful it was that the poster had cut back and “saved the environment”, it just seems to be further proof that Al Gore truly has invented the Internet just to push his green agenda. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
Posted in Family Life, when I was a kid | Comments Off on 3 Squares
The Poconos
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
When I was growing up, we never took vacations. Our family would go with my father on “business trips”. He would do what ever it was he had to do, and my mom would take the kids all over the city we were in (remind me to tell you about Washington DC sometime!). There was one trip to Florida that resulted in my parents buying a timeshare (a long tale all of its’ own, including egg shells in scrambled eggs).
So, apparently my parents started putting a priority on taking vacations. At the very least, they were now committed spending money on them. I was about 15 at the time, so my older brothers were 19 or 20 and out of the house by that point.
My parents decided to take vacation – but without any of us kids. I highly suspect the last time my parents had gone anywhere alone at that point was probably their honeymoon (and I think their honeymoon was just somewhere local – no where fancy like Hawaii). So, I was left in the care of my grandparents who lived across the street from us.
Towards the end of the week, my parents called my grandparents. Apparently they missed me. Missed me so much that they wanted my grandparents to drive me to them in the Poconos to spend the weekend before their vacation time was over. And my grandparents agreed to do it.
Now, I am not sure who (mom or dad) talked to who (grandma or grandpa). I’m not sure how it happened, but apparently history was being made. My grandmother HATED travelling (which I never knew until she had passed away). So somebody did some arm-twisting to get it done – I’m just not sure who did it. In all honesty, my grandmother was a softie, so she may have wanted to make me feel good by letting me go. My grandfather could be a bit gruff and shall we say, set in his ways. She may have had to convince him that “we should take the poor girl to see her parents”. Or it could have been my grandfather saying “Let’s go drive her – it’ll be nice to take a trip”.
So we drive from our lovely little hometown and worked our way to the Poconos Mountains. I think we left on a Friday after school was out, so of course we were driving when it was dinnertime. So we started looking for a place to stop and eat. The roads we were taking were, as family tradition dictates, back roads – little 2 lane highways were God forbid if you get behind a truck you are so stuck! So we find this place. In my memory, it is a German restaurant, but really the thing I remember is how dark it was – dark furniture, low lighting.
We get seated. The hostess gives us each a glass of water and the menus. I am hungry (after all, I am a growing girl!) and so looking forward to dinner. My grandfather looks at the menu, looks at my grandmother, looks at the menu and says, “We’re leaving.” I look at him; I look at my grandmother. I look back at Grandpa. Clearly there will be no discussion. Grandma is a bit distressed – they served us water! – but she also knows it’s no good to argue. We get up, walk past the hostess, me looking at the floor and wishing there had been bread at the table before he looked at the menu.
We get into the car. He says, ” I’d never pay that much for dinner – that’s too expensive! We’ll find something down the road.”
Now, I have no idea if we actually did find anything “down the road” before we got to the timeshare. All I can remember from that drive is sitting down and getting up without a word to the staff.
But, on to the “making history” portion of the story…
My grandparents actually had a pretty good time (I think). I have some pictures from the trip – just to prove that my grandma actually was there. One of them is of my grandfather, on the second floor of the condo, looking down at me. The stairs were a spiral staircase – which, when I think about how hard it got for grandpa to walk is amazing to think of. But the one I have to share is this one, actual proof that Grandma left her safe little hometown to make her granddaughter (and her daughter in law) happy:
And this was apparently the last trip she ever took out of state before she passed away from cancer. I am so glad she went and had a good time!
Posted in Family Life, when I was a kid | Comments Off on The Poconos
Sleepless Summer Nights
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
When I was a teenager, I was very lucky to have a small 13 inch black and white television set in my room. This is when cable tv first came out (hard to believe that cable hasn’t been around for ever!). But of course, we did not have cable. I was stuck with ABC, NBC, and CBS on the main dial, and various “independent” channels on the UHF channels.
But you would never know what you could catch on those UHF channels. I actually saw music videos – and it wasn’t MTV! And I swear I say Jon Stewart on a comedy show, sitting behind a desk with a female counterpart. Anyway…
It was those summer months… stay up late… sleep in late… that I got exposed to “old” movies. Now they have their very own channel – TCM (Turner Classic Movies). I saw some great movies:
1) Portrait of Dorian Grey
2) The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
3) African Queen
4) all the Bikini Beach movies with Annette Funicello & Frankie Avalon
5) The Invisible Man and The Invisible Man Returns
6) Fred Astaire – Funny Face, Top Hat, Holiday Inn, Royal Wedding, Daddy Long Legs
7) ELVIS movies – the cheesier, the better!
8) Arsenic and Old Lace
9) My Favorite Brunette
10) My Three Angels
11) Twelve Angry Men
12) Katharine Hepburn – Stage Door, Bringing Up Baby, Philadelphia Story, Desk Set
13) Father of the Bride and Father’s Little Dividend
14) Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
15) TopperAt Home With Faith › Edit — WordPress
16) Rope
Maybe that’s when I really started to love movies. I loved them just as much as books. I’m sure that some of them were “bombs” when they were released, but 40 years later they were entertaining enough for me! It’s the same now – there are plenty of movies out there – they weren’t blockbusters or career-defining roles for the actors, but it’s a good way to pass an hour or two. I still haven’t seen The Crying Game (released 1992) yet!! (I hear it was kind of good, with a twist!)
So we are starting a Movie Night with some friends from work. We will rotate from house to house, and each host gets to pick the movie(s) we watch. It’ll be fun to see what other people have in their collections and see if they are favorites of mine or new movies I haven’t discovered yet.
8/9 – Editor’s Note: I apparently forgot about Fred McMurray’s Absent Minded Professor and Son of Flubber. I was upstairs this morning, not being productive (a.k.a. surfing the net for new blogs) and I heard his voice coming from the downstairs tv. I listened for a moment and shouted down – “is that Fred McMurray?” After getting an affirmative response, I said – “what movie is it – Flubber?” Reply back: “Absent Minded Professor”. I say to myself – yup, Flubber. Robin Williams might have done it in ’97, but Fred had it down in ’61.
Posted in TV/Movie, when I was a kid | Comments Off on Sleepless Summer Nights
Laundry
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Ok, it’s not the most exciting subject. (Not even close)
But, everyone has to deal with laundry. I figure I have been doing my own laundry since I was at least 10, so I have been at this for 25 years(ok, more than that, but who’s counting?). Then, if you add in that I started doing Hubby’s laundry at least 18 years ago, and then The Boy’s for the last 15, it starts to add up. And I’m still not that awesome at it.
I hardly ever pre-treat stains.
I hardly ever iron.
I hardly ever iron to anyone’s satisfaction.
I do, however, fold the clothes to MY satisfaction. It is just one of those routine, habitual things – the particular ways I fold the clothes. And if I don’t fold them just the way I like… I will take them out and re-fold them. Just a bit of OCD there, huh?
So recently I had my best friend Sally help me out with a laundry problem. I give her FULL credit for the solution to my problem. There are 2 laundry baskets upstairs for The Boy (one in his room and one in the bathroom) and 2 in our bedroom (one for me and one for Hubby). So when I would do laundry, I would get all the laundry baskets into the basement and sort the clothes into piles for washing. But, if laundry took more than a day (that work thing is a real pain in the butt!), then we were left with no laundry baskets in our rooms to use.
So Sally said: you should get some of those collapsible clothes hampers. Put them in the regular baskets, like an insert, and just take those out on laundry day. So even if it doesn’t all get done, at least there is a place in the rooms to put the days’ dirty clothes into – and they won’t land on the floor (it’s a theory, anyway).
So I did that and it is AWESOME! (See how easy I am to impress?) I took it a step further and bought some large cloth hampers and wrote “WARM”, “COLD”, and “JEANS/TOWELS” on it for sorting. So now I don’t have piles of dirty clothes on my basement floor (no more kitty cat nesting areas!).
But you are probably thinking… “what about the whites? Doesn’t she have any whites?” Of course I do, silly. I just sort those right into the washer and get them done first.
And now I am “going green” (no, I am not turning into a frog) by line drying.
I used to do this all the time when I was a kid. Our house was so old that there was no vent to the outside for the dryer, so instead of heating up the non-air conditioned house in the summer time, my mother made us line dry the clothes.
Hubby & I purchased some retractable clotheslines and put up the 40′ one. I’m not sure how impressed I am with it… it tends to sag too easily. Instead of putting up the other retractable line (only 20′), we re-appropriated the dog line as a clothes line. It works pretty well – doesn’t droop too much. We haven’t used the line for either of the dogs for at least a year, maybe longer, so it doesn’t interfere with that. (They were starting to dig and that was getting The Hubby kinda upset.) My problem will be when we have a “full” laundry day. I used every inch of the dog line AND the 40′ retractable line for a “light” laundry day (about 3 to 4 days worth). Laundry adds up in this house due to Karate classes. And it’s stinky, sweaty, wet laundry … so it’s not like I would ask anyone to “re-use” the shirt, thinking it was “just worn for a few hours”. So I may need to start doing laundry twice a week instead of once.
Of course, that all depends on the weather. The great thing about summer is the sun; the bad thing is afternoon thunder showers and humidity. Either one of those will throw your schedule off.
One of my goals for doing this is to offset the kilowatts we use on the house air conditioner. I’ve often read that one of the biggest draws of electric power in a home is the dryer. So, for the summer, I will be trying to conserve energy by using the clotheslines instead of the dryer. I do see where there may be an emergency that I will have to use it, but as a regular habit, I will be hanging them up to dry.
The Boy commented that when he touches his clothes they seem stiff, but when he gets them on they feel fine. No other real comments about this little experiment yet. We’ll see how it goes!
Posted in Family Life, when I was a kid | Comments Off on Laundry
Tantrums
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
I was just reading this post – don’t ask how I got there – I just did, ok? http://24hours7daysaweek.blogspot.com/2008/06/bookstore-breakdown.html
It brought up the following memory:
We had foster kids when I grew up. One of them, Jill, was a major pain in the tushy. I mean, Mother Theresa would have gone nuts.
At the time of this story, I think it was me, my two older brothers, Liz, and Jill in the household. Five – not too bad, right? Well, when is the last time you took five kids anywhere? (I can happily say “Never”.) Of course, what happened at the mall has scarred me for life (just kidding Mom!) – so I really am not sure who was there that day. I would guess that Jill was about 13 or 14 – just the right age to be a bitch and have fun doing it.
We were all in the mall. We had to get some stuff at the grocery store (yes – a grocery store IN the mall – amazing, huh?). We got what we went for, waited in line, paid the cashier (you remember the time when you actually had someone ring up your groceries for you, don’t you? And bagged them too?) Afterwards we went to another store – I can’t recall if it was the drug store or a Hallmark store. I am almost thinking it was the Hallmark store since I remember thinking we didn’t go into that store too much. Anyway, Jill saw something she wanted. She asked mom and mom said no. She might have asked again, and if she did, I am sure mom said no again. Then, out of nowhere, Jill launches herself onto the floor. She starts yelling and screaming “I want this! I want this! Gimmie this!” (whatever “this” was!). OH MY GOD!! How horrifying. A TEENAGER… ACTING LIKE A TWO YEAR OLD… IN PUBLIC.
Now, with a two year old, you can scoop them up, hold them down as they hit and flail at you, force them into the car seat and get the heck out of there. Not so easy with a teenager. My mom calmly told the rest of us kids to walk to the car and to ignore Jill. We turned around, headed out the store, out the mall and went to the car. And behind us was my mother, dragging Jill by the arm. Jill was still on the ground, flailing around, screaming and kicking and being a baby. My mom just walked straight ahead, head held up high and dragged that whiny baby to the car. She got Jill into the car, turned around and faced the rest of us. I wasn’t particularly scared of my mother, but I sure wasn’t going to give her a hard time that day. She proceeded to get out some money from her purse, handed it to one of us and said in a loud voice, in front of Jill: “You kids deserve a treat. Go into Friendly’s and everyone can get an ice cream cone.” My older brother led the way, and we came back to the parking lot, all of us with ice cream cones. We ate those ice cream cones on the way home, all the while Jill was still throwing her hissy fit over whatever it was she wanted and wasn’t allowed to get, plus now she was pissed off that WE got ice cream and she didn’t.
I guess the only thing worse than an out of control toddler is an out of control teenager!
Posted in when I was a kid | Comments Off on Tantrums
Thundering Dogs
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Why is it that some dogs are so afraid of thunder? At this moment, there is rumblings of thunder going on. It’s been like this for a week. Every night, there is thunder. Sometimes there is rain and lightning too, but there is always thunder.
And our big, mean, vicious, protective guard dog turns into a wuss. He tries to jump in our laps (very inconvenient when one has a laptop on one’s lap!), snuggle his way into the crevice between us and the couch, and generally whines and is miserable. The only thing that makes it halfway tolerable for him is to hide under the bed. Which he won’t do if no one is actually on the bed!
Chewie – on a happier, sunnier day
So last week while Hubby was playing his video game and Chewie was going nuts trying to get on his lap, I went into the bedroom, caught up on some shows and he was happy to be under the bed, in a safe place (Chewie, that is… Hubby was happy to be playing his game in the tv room… silly person, you can’t play video games under the bed!)
Now it is rumbling again and Chewie is trying to get into my lap. Hubby is out to dinner with one of his work guys. So off to the bedroom I go!
I used to have a dog named Clyde when I was in eighth grade. I say he was my dog, but my mom bought him. I remember distinctly that I got picked up from Mr. Ryan’s class before the end of a school day (a very rare occurrence!) so my mom could pick up “her dog”. I, of course, have no memory of where we went to pick him up, but I sure to remember getting picked up myself.
I don’t know if it was love at first sight or not. But somehow he ended up being my dog. He was a big black lab – I don’t think he was ever small! We must have gotten him as a full grown dog – I don’t remember really having to train him or ever changing sizes – he was always big!
At that point, I had a room to myself. I had a bunk bed that I had both sections on the floor – so there was no top bunk or bottom bunk. I took one corner of my room and put either bunk bed there so it created a box. To get into the middle, you had to go over a bed. I slept in either bed – it never mattered to me. Clyde slept in my room – either on the spare bed or on some blankets on the floor in the “box” and I was the one to walk him in the morning.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the house I grew up in is very old. At this point in time, the front door was not working well. Opening it was not the problem – keeping it from opening was! The latch had pretty much worn away in the door jam and it wouldn’t catch. So every once in a while, I would wake up and Clyde would be gone. I’d go down the stairs, and there was the front door, wide open. I’d be in my night gown, no slippers or shoes (I’m sure my mother was thrilled about that!) looking for Clyde. I would find him, usually pretty close by. But there were several times I had to run down the street to the stop sign. There Clyde would be, in front of the 18 wheeler truck driver who lived up the street. He’d be barking and barking and not letting the poor guy get through the intersection.
Big, brave dog, huh? Unless, of course, it was … raining, thundering or lightning! That dog was huge (I’m sure you all have a good idea of how big labs get!) and the only thing he wanted to do was jump in my little twin bunk bed with me – right next to me – and whine in my ears.
But not all dogs are bothered by it. Pansy is acting all normal… no worries for her. So – what’s the deal? Anyone know why some dogs get so wound up and others don’t?
Posted in Animal Life, when I was a kid | Comments Off on Thundering Dogs
A trip down memory lane
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
The house I grew up in was the house my father grew up in. It was the house his mother grew up in (and so on, and so on – just like that shampoo commercial!). The house is now over two hundred years old and has always been in our family.
My parents took in foster kids. Some of them were fairly temporary (the shortest stay was 3 days); some were medium stays (up to a year or so) and then there were a few that were supposed to be forever. I say supposed to be because there were some circumstances that changed plans, either on the birth parents side or on the child’s.
One of the longer term foster kids was Liz. Liz was an interesting case, for lots of reasons. She was a few years older then me. I think I was in second or third grade when she came to live with us.
She was quite the convincer. She could have me believing just about anything. And apparently one of her favorite things to convince me of was that the house was haunted.
She “noticed” that the corners of the rooms were always much colder than the rest of the rooms. This, of course, was just one of the sure signs a house was haunted. She would take me room by room to make me feel the difference between the corners of that particular room versus the center of the room.
Now, since this house is over 200 years old, it has some, shall we say, less than weather tight windows and doors. It has a forced air heating system – with the blowers in the interior walls. So of course the corners were colder – the heat hardly ever got over to them, and whatever heat may have tried to get there was sucked out the windows and doors.
But she had me convinced, because everyone knew that cold corners meant a haunted house.
The house also made noises. It creaked; it moaned; it must be the spirits roaming the rooms! It couldn’t possibly be the hardwood floors needed to be nailed down a bit after a hundred years or so, could it? Or that after years of use, the floors were worn down and squeaked when you walked on them? Definitely haunted!
There was also a fireplace in the house. It was used as the main source of heat in the early days, and was even equipped with a bread baking oven next to it. Over the fireplace mantel was a small cabinet. It was too high for me to reach, so I never really knew what was in there.
But Liz did.
It was a HAND. Yup, a hand skeleton. In a jar. Apparently my parents were hiding it up there so I wouldn’t know about it. (Why else would it be so high up that I couldn’t find it?)
I did eventually get wise to Liz and her fabulous tales. But every once in awhile, I’d be in the house alone… and start to think… could it be haunted?
Posted in when I was a kid | Comments Off on A trip down memory lane