Count down

 I am counting down the days till a birthday. I have found the months leading up to this event have brought many deep thoughts on life, analyzing what things mean the most to me. I mentally inventory things I have done and yet wish to accomplish and enjoy. It is the stuff that I thought I would have had opportunity to do thus far but not yet had the chance or time to that seem to most of all dominate my thoughts. I hope I can still do many of those things.

 I find I am a young-thinking person, I am younger in my imagination than the mirror shows me (although, many people swear I don't look my age. I thank them for the compliment... or the good talent of being a great liar!).

I was shopping the other day, with my daughter. I love to have one-on-one time with each of my 3 kids. She reminds me a lot of myself in many circumstances. And I swear it was just only yesterday I was her age at her same school. Really! I was on the hunt for new work shoes for me (boring, ugly ones- darn it!).  In one store we found a great dress for her. I like that she enjoys pretty clothes and pretty shoes, in addition to her fun casual wardrobe.

We also included a visit into a rather off-beat store that sells everything from pin-back buttons to novelty t-shirts to dresses to funky jewelry. It was at my request. I love almost every item in there and told her if I were 20 years younger I would buy nearly one of everything!!.... and she said "Wow Mom!, I would never guess you like the stuff in this store!" She did not say it in a way that she was shocked, but rather that she was happy I liked it!

She bought a dress, very unique and perfect for her.  I bought a dress for myself (which I wore already last night for a birthday dinner out) that is basic, pretty, and age appropriate in style for any young-thinking girl. I think dresses are a super wonderful part of a closet collection, especially when they can be worn for varied occasions. I love empire waist, hemline above the knee-styles.

 I ended up finding some (ugly) perfect for work shoes-- non-slip bottoms, comfortable to wear 9 hrs-on your feet, moving constantly --kind of a deal. My new job of about 6 wks' time has been a learning experience and fun too. I am back to full time work after not having that since last June. What an ordeal that was to live through. Finding you are wa-a-a-y older than your co-workers, and even your bosses too, is a sobering revelation. Middle age has its advantages. I have discovered many. What I have decided is this-- having accumulated more life experience helps me more greatly understand responsibility, prioritizing, and understand what is important and what really isn't, whether on the job or in every day life.

The resume/job search world has changed since my first days in the workforce. The days of face to face meetings and firm handshakes and a well appointed paper resume offered in person seem only an event that occurred in past history, now frequently replaced with fill in their online formatted one size fits all resume and see if a computer program decides to let you be worthy of further consideration or be dumped in the "sorry, no go" bin. My opinion is that many programs of weeding out inappropriate candidates only prove to weed out a certain amount of very worthy ones as well. Real life setting problem solving, strategizing, organizing, and budgeting is acquired through years of first hand experiences. That degree comes only with age, and some failure, and learning day by day to be better, and learn from mistakes. Some online resume applications do not lend themselves to showing complete attributes of one's skills and talents.

My blog used to be a place to sort out my thoughts and review my dreams for days and years ahead. I fell away from that for a time, many times over the years, since my blog started. Maybe this week I will (try to) get back to that, as I do my count down.

I found these ads for products I've used and loved at one time or another. I am a scent-driven person, and I can recall in my memory the way these items all fed that sense. The F.O. shampoo/conditioner was one of my all-time favorites and I used it on my long blonde hair until the product could no longer be found on store shelves. Wish it could come back like some of the retro soda pop brands that have made their returns for nostalgia. I would love that, I would buy a case worth!!

on to new partying

The new year is here and the celebrating is done for the holidays... but at our house the partying continues with A.'s birthday. She will be 17. I wish I could have stayed eternally age 17.

I love this image above. It speaks to me somehow. I enjoy vintage images-- and black and white is special in photos like it was in television. I think kids now miss out a lot on using imagination. They don't need to. They don't have time to.

Watch an old movie or TV show on DVD and see how your brain turns the images into color without even trying.... that's why we were so good at using imagination. We also played outside EVERY day-- it was not an event, it was life. Playing outside meant using your imagination. The things we did and played with rarely used batteries, and never used electricity. It was all powered by imagination, an endless power supply!!

What have I finished?

• sorted more books(fiction and non-fiction) and magazines to send other places to live
• moved the TV to a new location within the family room-- it seems to be a hit with everyone
• reorganizing the pantry, and finding I am shopping even more carefully than ever before

What do I need to do?

• find the top of my desk, it is suffocating under paperwork
• use the ham bone for a batch of homemade bean soup-- I never know how to make just a small pot of soup
• make some apple crisp to use up the apples before they go bad

What do I want to do?

• paint my lamps in my bedroom to be gloss black, the lampshades will be perfect
• have lunch with a friend I have not seen in 10 years or more, it may be soon if we can mesh schedules
• hang a big mirror in a spot I have been plotting out

Back....finally!

[ love this photo I took of my daughter and a surprising gourd from our garden ]

My computer, it seems, is somewhat of a senior citizen in the technology world. I could no longer blog as I once did. I could not install the needed updates that Blogger required to play on my own blog. Sad, really.

I had a lot to say. I wasn't sure what to do. When in doubt, and you are of a certain middle age, what should you do?....Ask the advice of a teenage offspring, that's what!!

Now it is all fixed and well, and now I am back. With a lot to say.

[ my stack of antiques travel cases filled with special keepsakes, I have since this photo ditched the one in the middle with no handle. ]

Things I have Been Up To:

* I lost 50 lbs in 5 months, my first goal, and so far a total of 54lbs

* loving my new job of about 7 months!!

* not getting much of anything done around the house

* learning to say "no" to things and people

* severing the umbilical cords to my children so they can become more independent

* surviving somehow on less than 5 hours of sleep every 24

* enjoying my new car

* trying to enjoy every minute of every day, as life seems to be racing past

* reading an interesting book

* celebrating another birthday

* feeding a bit of shoe lust with some purchases, I was very long overdue for a turn (life of a mom)...usually the kids get all the new shoes!

Things I want To Do:

* work in my gardens

* rearrange the furniture in my bedroom

* paint in watercolors

* draw my favorite birds in colored pencils

* achieve my next weight loss goal by August

* get rid of "material things" around the house with emotional guilt attachments

Things I Need To Do:

* sort through stuff around the house

* redo my filing cabinet

* detail the inside of my cars

* clean out my closet, lots of things are WAY too big to fit anymore!

* take stuff to the Goodwill

* take donations of books and videos to school

kid art

N., age 10,drew this on the front of a homemade thank you note for one of his birthday gifts.

I love it!

Tween?

My baby boy has told me that 10 is almost a teenager. Really? I don't think so. Don't rush it. Please. Plenty of time for growing up to be a responsible adult person. Responsible for earning your own way no matter how much you want to blow off going to work, responsible for all the bills in the mail box with your name on them, responsible for figuring out life and where it will lead you.

For now my dear son, please please be responsible for earning the title of happy kid, responsible for running to the mail box in anticipation of the major league ball cap being there we ordered for free, being responsible for enjoying each day of being 10. Please. Trust me on this one.

N. chose to have an ice cream cake. I was planning on hiring our neighbor to make him an incredible, wonderful decorated cake like when he was little. I was too busy with all those pesky grown up things to give her enough advance notice, so a trip to the Dairy Queen it was, to purchase a last minute substitute. There's always next year, right? Maybe we have passed the days of putting a toy Spiderman figure or Hot Wheels monster trucks on top of a cake anyway. *sigh* I really liked those days. Cherished memories.

The first day of 4th grade started off without a hitch. I had to do the required sequence of photos (child abuse photo sessions as they are referred to at our place) that we do each year. Click here to read a silly post about 2nd grade. First a shot of the happy student. He is always the tallest boy in the class as they changed the birthday cut off right before he was ready to start kindergarten, so he had to wait another year to board a yellow bus for the first time. (side note: Thankfully we are blessed to have a wonderful friend who takes N. each year to buy his school supplies and anything else he needs and provides hand-me-down clothes that are pristine! [Wish I had hand-me-downs so fine.] She takes care of N's shopping for me 1. because she wants to, 2. because she can, and mostly I surmise 3. because her baby boy is becoming a grown man, himself. )

I am certain that by 6th grade he will be sharing the same shoe size as grown men. Not sure about sharing the same style choices, however.

N. and his "friend-girl" J. are in the same classroom this year, first time since kindergarten. I am slipping a note to the teacher giving her a heads up on seating arrangements she may find helpful. It's in everybody's best interest. Talk, talk, talk. Click here to read about last year.

So as I think about my boy trying to hurry the growing up process (I am smelling the "manly" body spray he has just applied to himself as he gets ready for the 3rd day of school) I am reminded of an "N.-ism" from when he was little enough to not know what being a tween meant.

At bedtime he blurted out our standard good night phrase with a kiss before I had the chance to do the same.

He told me, "Good Night, I love you Mom, Don't let the bugs eat you."

He meant, of course, "Good night, I love you Mom, Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite." (Bedbugs? Ewww. Too gross if you really think about that one too much anyway. I'm just sayin')

I think you're too young to be a tween anyway, my sweet son. For your mom's sake please humor her need to slow down these years. As much as I love to try to imagine you as a handsome grown man with your own bills in your own mailbox, I kinda like you being shorter than me (not hard to be) and still wanting a good night kiss.

Oh and for the record...I got a kiss {in the house} on the first morning of 4th grade but he wouldn't let me wait at the bus stop and kiss him when the bus pulled up. *sigh*

Birthday wishes

Some images for you to use in your art. As always, please play nice and do not sell images as is.

The violets birthday postcard is dated from 1913!! Violets are one of my favorite flowers.

I have been celebrating my birthday week. I did not receive as a birthday gift a magic genie lamp like in the first image above. If I did I would have wished these 3 wishes... a bigger kitchen with more drawers and counter top space, my pre-5 pregnancies body, and a maid!!

Oh, back to reality. *sigh*

I had a good birthday... and I still don't feel any older than 30 in my mind...and that was quite a few birthdays ago!

my apparent cake curse

Flamingos and snowflakes?

Man, those northern-most Ohio people

are a little cuckoo!

I know that's what you must be thinking.

A. has always fancied flamingos since she was a toddler. It's one of those mysteries of parenthood, trying to decide where these attractions come from that your kids latch on to. We obviously have no live flamingos in Ohio, not even at our zoo! A. even collects flamingo Christmas ornaments.

I am endlessly amazed by how many different flamingo Christmas ornaments there are out in the world. Her attraction to these pink birds with backwards knees is even funnier because she likes to often pair them with her birthday which is in January. In OHIO!

Two days before her birthday this last week, A. made this cake. She likes to bake. I do not. Sorry, I just don't. I teased that she was baking herself a birthday cake. I half teased.
The night before her birthday as we were running around in the Mom taxi from this stop to that activity and all around town, I said we would stop at the local small grocery that has a nice bakery and A. could pick out any cake she wanted. She chose one with nice flowers and lots of pink. Surprise, surprise. Gee, I think that would go nicely with a flamingo or 2.

Silly Mom suggested that we make it more personal (and what else says "personal" than a store bought cake chosen from the slim selection on hand at 7:00 pm, bought in haste between scurrying around town, the night before a birthday?) by asking at the bakery counter if they could write her name in icing under the plastic pink "Happy Birthday" trinket.


Here is where my birthday cake curse started to take shape. I had this old feeling before, with N's last store bought "personal" cake, last August (from a different store).

We asked two very fine friendly looking young gentlemen behind the bakery/deli counter if they could simply add the name to this cake to make it complete. "It is her 14th birthday tomorrow!", I added cheerfully. The immediate invisible tension in the air made me wonder if A. wanted to shrink behind the nearby endcap display of toilet tissue to escape her hopelessly embarrassing Mom! Can you imagine? Honestly!

One young man responded truthfully, "I can't do that. I don't do that."

The other young man chimed in quickly, "I can do it. I have done it lots of times. See, the bakery girls leave at 3:30 for the day and then it's just us. We are meat cutters."

Oh dear, this is where I should have cut bait and ran to the checkout line with the cake as is, good 'nuf! But no! I let it all play out like some Saturday Night Live skit, in the presence of my extremely embarrassed almost 14 year old daughter.

The "meat cutter" says, "How about pink like the flowers?"

I respond, "Yes, perfect!" I am enthusiastically nodding my head and so is A. This could turn out just fine after all. Have a little faith, would ya!

After too much time has elapsed he proudly emerges from behind the scenes of the bakery/deli department and presents A. with the cake, again all enclosed in it's clear plastic clam shell domed lid. As he transfers it from his hands to hers he says,

~~[get ready, brace yourself]~~

"There. I did pink AND BLUE. BLUE like your coat!!!!"

We gazed at the top of the cake and our faces fell into a strange expression as we studied the name written first in pink and then over-written in blue.

WHAT?????????????????

There is no BLUE ANYWHERE, ANYWHERE else on that cake. Does he want her to wear her BLUE coat while she is blowing out her candles???????????????????

In his defense he did give me a HUGE hint of events to come when I handed over the very "personal" cake to him to alter. Remember? He did say, "We are meat cutters."

I only have myself to blame.

I should just bake. Simple. Done. I should JUST BAKE!

Here is why I have a store bought cake curse cast upon me from some karma devil. This has happened before. Before, I tell ya!

Last August, the night before N's 9th birthday I found time to run to a different store in our town to chose a "personal" cake for my one and only son. I had plenty of time. The store wasn't closing for another 20 minutes, after all. This will work.

I scanned the case of cakes waiting to be taken home to various parties by Mom's who dearly love their offspring, but apparently not enough to bake for them on their one day each year which bonds a Mother and child.

No no! Not one masculine looking cake of any size shape or flavor. Nothing without flowers. Nothing!

I explained in detail my dilemma--I inquired of the very nice looking friendly young man (with the hair net over his beard) if he could possibly write "Happy Birthday N." in icing on the top of any of these cakes and I could scrape off the flowers when I get home and smooth out the frosting. I was sure I could handle THAT! Come on, I'm not a total loser. I could even add a Hot Wheels monster truck or a macho guy action figure or something to "guy it up".

Mr. hair-netted-beard-man said yes, and so I eenie meanie minie moe'd one of the cakes and handed it off to him.

I had faith. He could do this. I could come through with a cake for N. that would be acceptable.

Well, after way too much time had elapsed (was he multi-tasking back there and sweeping up the floor? After all, it was getting closer to closing time) he emerged from behind the scenes clutching the cake in his proud little hands, handing it to me just as the voice that comes from the ceiling speakers announced, "Please take all your final selections to the check out lines as the store will close in 5 minutes."

I looked at the cake and my expression melted quicker than ice cream in August. Yes, he had skillfully written "Happy Birthday N."
....right next to the NEW BLUE FLOWERS he had painstakingly created in the same spot where he had scraped off the purple flowers.
UGGGH!!!!
Cake curse. Bad cake karma.
At least I was still N's hero because he was surprised by a new (nearly new hand me down) shiny red bike for his birthday.

Happy birthday A., my love. Your own flamingo cake was a masterpiece.
And besides, you have decided to have your party with friends in February. Maybe I have learned my lesson on store bought altered creations, and will bake for you.
Stay tuned for that one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pearls of wisdom

(A. dressed in the "cool"

junior high school fashion, or so I am told!

Converse sneakers and striped knee socks!)

Do you ever throw little pearls of wisdom in the direction of your kids? I tossed some little lustrous ideas towards my A. in the car on the way home last night from the library.

It's her 14th birthday.

How can that be even possible that 14 years have passed? When she was born, it was 2 1/2 days of labor, ending with an emergency c-sec., to meet a sweet almost 10 pound baby...Oh, and a horrible ice storm.

Every year since then there has been a snow storm or ice storm either on the day of or the day before or after her birthday. Not this year. Nope. For the first time -as they would say on Mary Poppins- the winds are changing. I am not really talking about a weather report. It is more symbolic than that.

This year she is having even more fun with school and her group of friends and all their activities than ever before. But I feel the winds are changing. She is no longer a little kid, she is a smart young woman.

So here is how the pearls of wisdom conversation went in the car last night:

__________________________________

Mom: A., you will find that after 14, the time will start to go by faster now. I don't know why it does, but it does. Before you know it you will be 16 and then 18!

A.: And then 20 and then 50?????!!

Mom: No, it seems to slow down for a while in your twenties and thirties....But then yeah, it does speed up again. But I mean the time between 14 and 18 seems to really speed right by.

A.: **silence**

Mom: You are not a little kid anymore. You are a young woman. It is the best time in your life because you get to have more responsibilities than you do as little kid but you don't HAVE TO have the crappy responsibilities of being an adult.

my boy N., age 9 1/2 -annoyed voice comes from the back seat of the car: Yes she IS still a little kid!!!

Mom: No she isn't. Not anymore.

my boy N.: **silence**

Mom: All I'm telling you is make sure to have lots of fun in these next few years while you are 14, 15, 16, and 17. You'll find you spend the whole rest of your adult life wishing you could be those ages again!

A.: But I still have to do Algebra homework.

____________________________________

As a Mom, all you can do is throw those pearls in their general direction. What they do with them is their part.

**sigh**

Stay tuned for some birthday photos to come.

A birthday and a reunion

Yesterday we made a short trek to Michigan to see some people that share the same blood line. Those would be my cousins!

We had a wonderful gathering at the home of one of my cousins. We had blue skies intermittently mixed with quick summer downpours throughout the whole day. We easily adapted to moving as a group of about 30 from his comfortable yard to his cozy house as the weather dictated, back and forth.

Another reason to get together on this particular day was the event of my Uncle's 75th birthday; the father of my party hosting cousin.

He now holds the honor of being the eldest relative on that branch of the family tree; his two sibling's (one being my Mother) are both gone. He is the one we now go to for stories told and questions to be answered.

The above photo is him as a boy with his parents (my Grandparents) and his sister (my Mother). His oldest sister must have been the photographer! I do love the stories, and a few new ones were told yesterday!

My cousins had some old 8mm family movies transferred to DVD and we had a glorious time narrating and laughing as we all sat in the same room to view some of it.

We marveled, as we watched ourselves on film as infants, at how we all survived the seemingly death-trap contraptions of babyhood eras gone by.

The strollers and walkers and cribs and playpens...

Several times throughout the day, my daughter commented that we needed to get together much more frequently as, "I want to learn all the names and get to know these people!"

I have 2 cousins born the same year as I and our conclusion was that, We are becoming the generation that sits and talks and tells stories as the little ones run around and play.

When did that happen?

A note about this photo: I have used this photo before on my blog and have previously commented on how I like this photo...it is funny- the fact that only my Uncle and the dog appear happy. Maybe they know something??!

a little of this and that

milk glass and vintage birthday card

milk glass and

vintage birthday cards

-oval frame, photo of me
-square frame, my daughter's baptism
-glass kitties that were on one of my childhood
birthday cakes



-vintage plastic pink powder box (bought as a gift for my best friend)
-vintage coat buttons given to me by a friend
- violet tray given to me by a friend who didn't want it anymore due to a chip on the rim. I love it, chip and all!!


-vintage porcelain rose topped box and roses (both throw away items at a friend's house!)
with fortune cookie papers tucked in
-tea cup holding beautiful red roses from Betty
at She's Sew Pretty Etsy



-my favorite book collection (Suzette may recognize the blue book!)
-a bunny from my 1st birthday


-vintage roses post cards
-family photos (Suzette may recognize someone wearing gloves)
and vintage "adopted family" photos


-old tattered books
-violets dishes



-a soft coat that my Dear once wore as a toddler
(it's vintage now !)
-a pic from a magazine tucked into the sleeve



-old family purses
-and more vintage images


-mini dresser from H. Lobby (clearance $1.99!!)
-vintage glass box hand painted with green and roses, it matches the mini dresser (and only 25 cents, how fun to find that!!)
-old family photo of my Dad and brother
-vintage family gloves


-vintage family framed items, baptism certificate


-more family items


-my childhood dollies brought by Santa. I still love them!



-Milk glass adopted by me from owners throwing them away. Throwing them away!!

I love Kid Art

N. was sitting one night and doodling when he came up with this!! I love how the solitary leaf is blowing in the wind! Kids have the best sense of art. No rules and no disappointments.

I put this one in a frame, with pride.

I asked if N. would draw something to send to Grandpa for his 82 birthday. He went to his drawing notebook and said, "Can we use this one? I think Grandpa would like it." He was right, I am sure Grandpa would love it!! We made it into a card for my Dad and sent it off in the mail today. My Dad still drives his motorcycle. He just bought another new one last summer. Don't try to tell my Dad that he is really going to be 82 and most 82 year olds don't drive motorcycles!!!
My Dad ~photo taken in Oct. 2008

me and cousins

1964- I am the baby in front holding the Raggedy Ann. It was my first birthday! My cousin B., the baby in the blue shorts, was just a birthday boy again this month!! The rest of the people are my uncle, aunts, cousins and my grandparents (Dad's parents). My Mom was the photographer.
I still have the doll. She was well loved!!

1967- That's me in the red bubble suit in the front. To my left, wearing red shorts, is my cousin B. The rest are cousins and second cousins. I think this is a great photo because of the twisted shorts on the boys!!!! Obviously they "pull to the right" when pulling up their pants. Too FUNNY!

See the nuns in the background? This was taken at one of the many picnic reunions we attended each summer at the orphanage where my Grandma Bubbles and her siblings grew up. The building location changed through the years but it was always run by the same division of nuns.

birthday surprise

Just as our record breaking arctic blast began around here,

I threw a surprise 13th birthday party for my daughter A. on Tuesday.

13 on the 13th!

And where else do you have a birthday party in the middle of winter? At D Q of course! No fear of an ice cream cake melting in the below zero weather. I think they could have stored it on the back loading dock instead of in their freezer case.

Today the actual temperature in our town was 15 degrees below zero this morning and the high temp all day was about 1 degree!!!! The wind chill temp was negative 38 degrees at one point this morning.

At D Q they have this very fun vintage mural on the wall, which I love.

The party was a complete success. We pulled off the surprise and all 4 friends that I had invited for her were able to show up and keep the secret before hand!

I did have a scare earlier in the day when we had snow squalls and you could not see 2 car's distance in front of you. I thought, "Oh no! Parents are not going to bring their kids to a party in THIS!" But then it settled down and just was plain COLD!

Then my next scare was more of a panic when I went to photograph the birthday table set up 15 minutes before anyone arrived and guess what? My camera battery was DEAD!!!!

Off I raced as fast as I could drive (about 20MPH on the snowy, icy roads) to go buy a battery. Then I thought I was being smart by trying to put the new battery in while I drove. Guess what? The battery went in the wrong direction and got STUCK! After arriving back at the party and some muttering under my breath and wanting to say some bad words and lots of tugging and prying, it finally came out and I fixed it. Phew!

This was the set up-A. was lured away before the party to go shopping with her friend's Mom. After some shopping then the Mom said, "A., let's stop in to D Q and get some kind of treat for your birthday to take home."

When they walked in, the look on A's face was priceless!!!

She looked at one friend and then 2 then 4 and then around the room and then at me and then she just stood there not knowing what to say.

I hadn't even told her siblings about the surprise party until after A. had left to go shopping. I knew N. of all people could not keep his mouth shut.

He would have let the cat out of the bag for sure!



See her wrist watch? It is her first grown up watch, a birthday gift from her Dad and me.

The cake was very yummy. It was vanilla on one layer and chocolate on the other with crumbled cookies in between.

After she opened her gifts they played some games. Theater size boxes of candy were the prizes for the first 2 players to finish the word search, cross word puzzle, and a word scramble I had made on the computer. They also had fun just doing what young teens do. Talking and joking and laughing and having fun!!!

A's nails are plaid! She did them herself. She often locks herself in her bedroom for hours to get away from her siblings and do her nails in all sorts of creative patterns. She makes up designs using the polish on a piece of paper. Last summer I kept her in business doing my nails red with white polka dots!

I have to say she is my child for sure because I did the same thing- nails and polish were my big priority when I was young!!!! Now I wish I had the time to keep them nice all the time. She has inherited my strong fast growing nails too. Just like me when I was young, she has people often ask if her nails are fake. She hates that. So did I.