Signs - I have to go potty!

Maybe it's just my warped sense of humor, but when I saw the name of these porta-potties at our town's Septemberfest, they just made me giggle.

For more signs, visit Lesley here.

Memories in a box

As you know, I have been unpacking boxes that have been in storage for over seven years. I have found that  items seem to fall into four different categories:

1) Surprise! I forgot all about this!
2) Hello old friend! Happy to see you!
3) A walk down memory lane = instant tears.
4) Now where am I going to put THIS?

I have a terrible memory. I will be the first to admit it. I can't remember things from my childhood. I can't remember things from the other day. But funny how when I opened up a box filled with things from my KIDS' childhood, all the memories came flooding back. And the tears began flowing.

Because not only do these items bring back memories of my children, but also of what my life was like at that moment.

Here is my son, Jason's christening gown.

I don't know if I spoke of my son's health before, but he was very sick as an infant. Unbeknownst  to me and his father. We were young (early 20's). Jason was 3 weeks early. He never "dropped" into the birth canal. He was in fetal distress and was finally taken cesarean. At one month it was discovered that he was in congestive heart failure; his heart was very large, and he was hospitalized for a few days for some tests. Bottom line: he had a very large hole in his heart, and with the size and location, the doctors felt that he would need open heart surgery when he was around 2 years of age. In the meantime, he was put on digitalis, a heart medication to slow down and strengthen each heartbeat. Jason was very small for his age, and although he met every milestone, he was on the tail end of the timeline.

I had Jason baptized when he was 5 weeks old (we are Catholic), and my mother insisted that I tell the priest about Jason's health. I did what my mother asked and the priest said, "May I?" He took Jason from my arms, walked over to the statue of the Blessed Virgin, held Jason high into the air and said a silent prayer. Then he brought Jason back to me and said, "This child will NEVER require open heart surgery. I prayed to the Virgin Mary, and she ALWAYS answers my prayers."

I was amazed how strong this priest's faith was. And do you know that Jason NEVER had to have open heart surgery? When he was two years old and had a check-up, the cardiologist was shocked by the results. The hole had almost completely closed. Now, it's true the holes in the heart DO close, but it was unusual for Jason's to close due to the size and location. The doctors all admitted that it was truly a miracle.

This is the dress that Jessica wore to my second wedding. She was 2 1/2 years old. The plan was that she and Jason, who was 4 1/2, were going to walk down the aisle first, then Jim and I would follow. But Jessica had a cramp in her leg and wanted her Daddy to carry her. So all four of us walked down together. (The kids were from my first marriage - Jim adopted them 2 months after we were married.)

This little dog with its puppy belongs to Jessica. If you pull the puppy dog, it winds up a music box and plays "How much is that doggy in the window?" I remember pulling that cord many of times.

Although Jessica doesn't remember this one, he must have been a beloved pet, for his ear is missing.

I gave birth to Jessica on my own. I DID have my family with me, but my husband had left me for another woman. I was determined to bring up these kids on my own.

I have many more items, but I won't bore you with them. But I can't leave this one out.

Grover.

A much-loved, slightly squished Grover.

Jason just loved Grover. He took him everywhere with him. When I was a single parent, I took some night classes at a local college. I would stay overnight at my parent's house and they would watch the kids. Jessica would be real good and sleep in the crib in my parent's bedroom. Jason would sleep between my parents, along with Grover. (Looking back, my parents were ANGELS!) My mom would get up early in the morning, and inevitably Jason would too. AND he would want his Grover. So Mom would go back into the bedroom to get the beloved stuffed animal, only to find that Grandpa had rolled over on one of Grover's legs or arms. Mom would have to pull real hard, trying to release Grover, but not to awaken Grandpa!

Another time Jason had to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. He began hemorrhaging after the surgery and the doctors had to go back and pack Jason's nose. Of course Grover was at the hospital with him. When Jason came out of recovery with a big bandage on his nose, so did Grover! It made Jason smile and made it a little easier so spend the night in the hospital.

So these items don't just bring back memories of when my kids were little, they bring back a time that was a mix of joy because of the birth of my children, scariness - because of Jason's health problems, but most of all  I am in awe of the strength I had because I went through all of that during a very messy divorce. I was very lucky to have Jim come into my life (my knight in shining armor!). He accepted me AND my kids, in good times and bad, sickness and in health, till death do us part.

Thursday's Things in a Row

Nothing too exciting this week. We drove up to Minnesota a week ago for Jim's class reunion. I kept my eye out for things in a row on the road.

We stopped at the cemetery and paid respect to Jim's Mom and Dad. This is the ornate fence in front of the cemetery. Notice all the crosses along the top.

Here is the tree-lined driveway leading from the cemetery. It really is a beautiful area.

Telephone poles lining the road. It can get mesmerizing after awhile!

I took many of these shots from a moving car, so please bear with me! Corn sign identifiers.

Aren't these for putting hay in or something like that? C'mon,  you're dealing with a city girl!

Stripes and checkerboard in a row on top of a silo.

Snore. BORING! Sorry. I hope next week's photos will be more interesting!

Signs - Smile!

Spotted this car in a parking lot. This car was advertising for a pair of orthodontics.  But this one was cute, being one of those extra small cars (Smart car?), and have that big toothy grin on the front!

For more signs, please visit Lesley here.

The Winner Is......

Congratulations to Eva from Wrestling with Retirement! She is the lucky winner of:

I will contact you, Eva, via email to go over the details.

Thanks to all who participated!

Thanks to Bob from Simply Bags for sponsoring this giveaway!

Two old ladies go to the movies...

Recently I invited my friend Barb out to the show. She recently had hip replacement surgery, so her days have been filled with doctor's appointments and therapy. She's healing pretty well, and uses a cane only if she's out in public.

I wanted to see the movie, "Hope Springs" with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.

We arrived at the theater at about 4:50 pm. Usually tickets are offered at a discount price before 6 pm. Around here anyway.

Barb was first in line. She told the girl behind the ticket counter, "One for Hope Springs, please."

"Ten dollars," the girl answered.

Barb just handed over the money.

I said, "Are you kidding me? Don't you have an 'old people's' rate?" (even though at some places that is 65 and over, and I'm 56, I've been known to go along with it).

The girl said, "No. Not when we offer the summer discount rate," and pointed to this small sign.

The sign read, "summer rate $5 all movies before 6:00 pm MONDAY-THURSDAY"

A lotta good that's going to do us on a FRIDAY.

Why don't they have a senior rate on the days that the summer rate doesn't apply?

OR have a senior rate all the time, and have the senior choose which rate they want to pay (whichever is cheaper?)

In my appeal for lower rates, I had slapped the counter. I saw the look of fear then disdain in the girl's eyes. I said, "Oh, you know how crabby old people get!"

Barb and I laughed and walked away - $20 lighter.

 A young man with unruly red hair stood behind the refreshment counter.

"You look like you are just dying to help us!" I kidded.

"I am!"

We told him what we wanted, after changing our order a couple of times. He was very polite. I didn't drop my teeth (if I wore false teeth I guarantee that I WOULD OF, though) when I bought a 20 oz. bottle of water for $4.75! I didn't realize it was that much until he rang it up! I could have easily bought 24-30 BOTTLES for that price.

We had a bag of popcorn, one honking big cup of soda, and a bottle of water. Plus my purse that weighed a ton. I said to him - "It would be so nice if you carried my purse for me!"

And do you know what that young whippersnapper said?

He said, "MA'AM, I COULD GET MY SUPERVISOR AND HE COULD HELP CARRY YOUR THINGS!

I replied, "We may be old, but we're young at heart!" I hope we walked away as jauntily as we could with all our aches and pains. We got about two feet away when the redheaded brat called out,

"Ma'am, you left your cane here!"

I thought Barb and I were going to split a gut. Or wet our pants.

With as much dignity as was possible, I turned around and snatched the cane.

Did I want to beat him over the head with it and teach him not to f*ck with seniors?

You betcha!

Barb and I held our heads up high, she grasping her cane firmly with one hand, the pop in the other, me slinging my one-ton bag over my shoulder, my expensive water in one hand, and expensive popcorn in the other and we made it to the bathroom before we pissed ourselves.

Life is good.

And so was the movie.

I highly recommend it. You will laugh. You will cry.

Of course, I just love Meryl Streep.

And Tommy Lee Jones is a bonus

Steve Carell is great as a serious character.

Here is a snippet of the movie.

Boxes, boxes and MORE boxes

Seven years ago we decided to live full-time in our trailer and travel.

In March 2005 we moved the remainder of our belongings into a storage unit. This was after we whittled it down to the bare minimum, getting rid of the majority of our furniture, Jim's tools, books (donated 650 to the library!), and other miscellaneous stuff. The remaining items that I could not POSSIBLY part with fit into a 10 x 10 storage unit.

Which we've paid on for 89 months.

I don't want to tell you how much money that totals up to.

Billions and billions.

Okay I'm exaggerating.

But not by much.

Anyhoo, the day had finally come to empty the storage unit. When we first came back to Illinois, we moved about half the storage things into our garage. Of course I unpacked the dire necessities such as dishes, towels, pots/pans, etc. But many things I just didn't want to deal with and left in the garage.

Big mistake.

Every month since we've been back we say, "We've GOT to get the rest of the stuff out of storage so we don't have to pay another month."

Of course, we say this when there's about two days left of the month and it's almost impossible to schedule the moving van from the storage place.

There was always an excuse.

But this month we bit the bullet, scheduled the van, and moved all the stuff.

In one day.

It is 40 miles one way to the storage place. We got there, got the instructions for the truck, pulled it closer to our unit, then went inside.

I should have taken a picture of our unit.

It looked more than half full, although Jim assured me it was not.

Huh.

Luckily, Jim is a BIG GUY, with strong muscles and is like a work horse. An old work horse, that sweats like a mother, but strong nonetheless.

I, on the other hand, am worth shit.

I can say it's from fibromyalgia, which is partly to blame, but pretty much I am a weakling.

I admit it.

Even though I used to be a good arm wrestler.

I arm-wrestled every boy in the 6th grade and BEAT THEM, except for Jack Indurante.

Who else could put that on their resume?

But I digress.

Even though we donated so many books to the library, I bet we have 20 boxes of books! Seriously? Now what?

We loaded, and loaded, and loaded, and eventually filled the truck and emptied our space.

Mission accomplished!

Jim looked like he ran through somebody's sprinkler he was so wet! There was sweat even dripping from the brim of his hat!

Now I admit, I wasn't as fresh as a daisy, either!

We arrived back home soon enough. Then I decided to get out of the truck.

My body did not want to move. Every muscle was screaming "NO!"

I plugged my ears and said, "La,La,La", ignoring the pain, and slowly stepped down.

We have a one car garage that already had boxes. It was about 3/4's full.

Hmmm....now what.

I told Jim that I wanted all the Christmas boxes in one area. I kept pushing box after box after box of Christmas stuff to the end of the truck while Jim brought them into the garage. Just when I thought I was done, I'd find another one and sheepishly bring it out. "Here's another Christmas box!"

Jim was an angel and didn't say a word.

Any box that said "knick-knack" or "household items", etc, were brought right into the house. I also went through the boxes that were previously in the garage that were marked the same, and instructed Jim to bring those in, too. Here is where I regretted not doing this before.

Because this is what my house looks like now.

and this

and this

Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway posted here. Ends Monday,8/27, at midnight.

A giveaway!

Hey everyone!

How would you like to win this cute insulated Zebra-striped lunch bag? Embroidered with whatever name  or initials you choose?

Description:
New for this year, a chic zebra print lunch bag. Insulated interior, water resistant exterior. Add a name, single or three letter monogram for a personal lunch tote. Insulated zebra lunch bag measures 10"W x 7"H, five inches across bottom. Overall height 11" with zipper closure. Three letter monogram sequence, First Initial, Last Initial, Middle Initial, enter into text box in that order.

Bob from Simply Bags contacted me recently and offered me this bag for free if I mentioned his web site on my blog.

I decided to spread the love, so to speak, and offer this bag up as a giveaway. Sorry, only open to US residents.

Here are the rules.

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog.

2.  You MUST visit Bob's website, Simply Bags, and tell me which bag you like, besides the one above. Of course, you will only have a chance to win the above listed, but maybe another one will catch your eye and Bob can drum up some business and that will make HIM happy, and return make ME happy.

This giveaway closes on Monday, August 27 at midnight. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, 8/28.

Good luck!

Thursday's Things in a Row

Last week I took you on a tour of my library. I'm finishing up with the pictures this week. Just a note - I never even got to the second floor of the library! That's where all the non-fiction items are, plus magazines, and many, many computers for people to use.

A view from the fiction stacks

a different view of fiction

I am an avid reader, and I can say that it is RARE if this library doesn't have a book that I want to read!

There is this wonderful fireplace in the fiction section. I'm sure it has gas logs, but it gives off a nice ambiance of warmth! We came here in April and there was still a chill in the air, so I got to experience sitting by the fire. There are about 20 cushy chairs with lamps sporadically placed between them in front of the fireplace. The chairs have a "table" that slides up and across your lap for a computer or writing desk if you should prefer to use one. Plug ins are available every few feet, and wire less is available throughout the library.

Here is a close up of that beautiful artwork of glass in a row above the fireplace.

And finally, here's LOTS of things in a row. This is the check-out line. We were lucky enough to be next in line, but sometimes there can be SEVERAL people ahead of us. There can be anywhere from 2 to 4 circulation clerks working at one time.

Even though I promised the Library Director that I wouldn't take pictures of people, I couldn't help it for this one. I don't think you'd be able to identify anyone, though, as their backs are to my camera. Whew!

What 'cha got?

Signs - Which Way?

This is a sign near the lodge and cabins where we held our family reunion. Our resort was the last one listed! Luckily there was no one behind us on the road as we ran down the whole list of resorts before finding ours at the bottom! Notice ours was the only one that was straight ahead; the rest were located to the left. Sorry the photo isn't that clear; my husband took it with my point and shoot camera while hanging out the car window!

For more signs visit Lesley here.