Ecuador

Standing in the middle of the world

Galapagos Islands

Tomorrow is the big day. We have waited and waited with growing excitement thinking July 8 would never come, but as always the much waited day has almost come.
We leave bright and early tomorrow for our once in a lifetime trip to the Galapagos Islands. Tomorrow night we will be in Quito ,Ecuador. After two days there we will fly to the Galapagos Islands. We will spend the next week on a forty passenger tour boat seeing sights we have never seen before. The islands are populated with many varieties of unusual birds and wildlife. This is the place that inspired Charles Darwin to write his theory of evolution. My beloved the bird watcher will increase his life time bird list by many birds that exist only in these islands. I believe he is more excited than he ever has been about a trip. One of the most common birds there is called the Blue Footed Booby. It is a comical duck-like bird that often dances. When I start talking about dancing boobies, I am referring to the birds like the one in the picture.
We will be away from phones and computers. You will have to wait until we return to hear all about our adventures in this far away place.

$

When we returned home from our visit in West Virginia we had a message from our bank to call as soon as possible. There had been unusual activity on our bank account. We weren't too concerned, assuming our out of town charges had been noted. When my husband went in to check it was a little scarier than that. A phone call from someone impersonating my husband had come in from Singapore to verify the faxed withdrawal slip with a signature closely resembling my husband's signature. Whoever it was had all the information about our bank account and was requesting the exact amount of money available in our account plus a loan for $100,000. It all looked very legitimate. Fortunately the bank recognized this as highly unusual and called to verify the transaction before transferring the money. Apparently the information was obtained through records that are part of the public domain about property ownership in Maryland and then through credit checks that had all our financial information. It was scary to think that we were a keystroke away from having our entire savings wiped out. We have closed our bank account and opened a new one that is password protected. The FBI and the Secret Service are investigating the incident. We are grateful to still have our savings.

Michaela

We have just returned from an overnight visit in New Martinsville, WV. The long drive for a short visit was prompted by the need to see one ten-year-old girl who who calls me Gramma. I do love this little girl and just needed to give her a big hug and spend a little time with her.

The hardest part of the trip is always trying to answer the many questions she always asks about her dad. Her father was our foster son. Todd came to live with us when he was fifteen years old. In my heart he became my son, but unfortunately Todd was not able to make that same commitment. We were the end of a long line of parental figures in his life and he was just not able to make another intimate attachment. He was a sweet boy who definitely livened up our household. When he finished high school we sent him to a small college in West Virgina were he fell in love with and married a West Virginia girl. They were married for four years and had a beautiful little girl, our Michaela. Marriage, commitment and responsibility were hard for Todd and one day he just left. He came to see us for Christmas five years ago. We had a great visit. After a week he climbed back into his big truck and drove away. We have not heard anything from him since then. Well, almost nothing. A couple of years after he left we hired a private detective who found him in Iowa. He did call to talk. He said he knew we loved him, but it was hard for him to talk to us. Life was hard for him right then. He would call us when he was able. He has not called.

So Michaela asks us about her dad. She wants to know about him. We tell her some of the funny things he did while he lived with us. She laughs at some of the funny antics we remember. When she asks if he will ever come back we have to say that we don't know, but probably not. Something inside of her daddy got broken a long time ago. He is missing out on so much and that is sad. She is a well loved, happy little girl. We are grateful that we get to be her grandparents.

Airplanes

Saturday we decided to go to the Smithsonian's new Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum near Dulles airport in Virginia. This is an enormous hanger that houses hundreds and hundred of airplanes. There was a replica of the plane the Wright brothers flew ,the space shuttle Enterprise and some of every kind of airplane in between. It was amazing to see so many kinds of planes all in one place. We saw lots of World War II planes. The Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, is there. The SR71, The Blackbird, a spy plane used until recently was there. That plane flew from Los Angeles to Washington DC in 64 minutes. There was even an exhibit about the IUE (International Ultraviolet Explorer.) That is a satellite that my beloved worked on for many years. It was cool to see him looking at something that had been such a big part of his life on display in the Smithsonian. It was a fun Saturday thing to do.


The Enola Gay



The white plane in the back is the Concorde



The space shuttle is huge!



Dennis by the IUE console

Laundry Room

I asked my beloved to take a picture of my clean, colorful laundry room. He put together this panorama picture that make my little room look deceptively large. It is only as wide as the washer and dryer. The end with the furnace and water heater is what you see if your back is to the washer. It is a small rectangular room about five feet wide by 10 feet long. I don't have any before pictures so it is hard to tell how much better it looks. It had never been painted. The walls were stained and scarred. The floor was dirty. Now it is clean and bright, but still small. I used up four of my partial cans of left over paint. I wonder what I can do with the rest of my paint. I still have two shades of green, dark blue, bight red, and some antique white.

Any suggestions?

Facebook

Last week I became a member of Facebook. It is a fun way to communicate with my grandchildren. Somehow it seems to be cooler to talk on Facebook than to just talk. It has been fun to set up my page and to add friends. I have found many of the children I was once close to who have now grown up and moved away. I have over twenty friends. I feel so popular. I haven’t yet figured out how to use all the features. You can send virtual gifts and hugs or poke your friends. I was just looking around the site and typed the name Barack Obama into the search. I did find several official and supportive websites as I expected. I also found about twenty-five sites that claimed Obama was the Antichrist. The hate just spilled out of those pages. It is scary what people believe and say. I then typed John McCain into the search engine and found several official and supportive sites. I did find one site that claimed McCain was the Antichrist. So I know some people hate him too. The part of the world I live in is mostly a friendly place filled with kind and gentle people. It always startles me when I come face to face with hatred.

Sunday School

I came across this picture last week. It is a photo of my eldest daughter’s first Sunday School class. She is the cutie pie wearing the bonnet in the middle of the group. The date was 1965. She was twenty months old. Going clockwise around the table from her we see Kim. Kim became an engineer and moved to Seattle where she lives with her husband and a menagerie of animals. The dark haired young teacher is Donna. She has moved to Nashville and is now a great grandmother. I don’t know who she has in her lap. Next is Melodie. She was married and divorced. Last I heard she was an aerobics teacher in Florida. Then we come to the twins, Rocky and Raye, daughters of the teacher Donna. They are both married in living in Nashville. Raye is a grandmother. I’m not sure who the next little girl is. I think her name is Joanna. Then we are back to daughter number one. She grew up, married, raised two beautiful children and still lives in Bowie. The baby in the crib is Graden, the only boy child in the group. He is married with a couple of kids. The last I heard he was selling medical equipment and living in Arkansas. I am just out of the picture feeding my newborn daughter who grew up, married, divorced, and is the mother of three beautiful children. They live here in Bowie too.

Church and Sunday School were a big part of all of these kids lives. Some of them are still faithful to the Church of Christ in which they were raised. Some have found a home in other denominations. Some are no longer believers.

Are you still a part of the faith community in which you raised?

Gettysburg

We have just returned from a two day vacation in Gettysburg, PA. We went to celebrate our forty-seventh wedding anniversary. One of the things we did was to take a Segway tour of the battlefield. It was just one more trip together on our journey through life.

Touring the battlefield was a very sobering experience for me. We stood on this peaceful, green countryside and remembered the tens of thousands of lives that were lost during this three day battle. The ground had been covered with the bodies of men who were fighting for what they each believed was holy and right. They fought for a cause that was worth more than their own lives. They died willingly and courageously. I felt like I was standing on holy ground. The picture of us on the Segways was taken at the High Water Mark of the Confederacy. This is the place where Lee’s troops almost broke through the federal lines. If they had succeeded here, the course of our country’s history might have been very different.



This is the spot where General Lee waited to greet his returning troops after the failure of Pickett’s Charge. Over half of his troops were killed. It was a great defeat and turned the tide of the war.


This is the view from Little Round Top looking down into what became known as the Valley of Death. This little hill was the site of great carnage.


This is a wonderful monument. It was erected in 1938 and dedicated by Franklin Roosevelt. Present at the dedication were many of the veterans from both sides of this great battle. The Eternal Peace Monument was erected as a symbol of this nation’s commitment to live together united in peace. I found it symbolic that one of the cannons placed there to indicate where it had been during the battle now held the nest of a bluebird.

It is my prayer that one day all the guns of the world become the home for nesting birds.

Ol' time Religion

Like the country song says I come from a long line of love. Today I was thinking about the legacy of fathers and grandfathers. The lives of these men impacted the lives of many generations to follow them. I wonder if they would be surprised at the stories that are still told about them today.

My grandfather was a Church of Christ preacher in Texas during the first half of the last century. In those days preachers were not paid by the church and they had to support themselves and their families with other jobs. My mother tells this story she remembers about a gift her father was given after holding a meeting.

Mom was about five years old. Her little sister Rubye was three. The buggy they used to ride to meeting had two small red chairs in the back where the girls sat for the long ride to and from church. That Sunday the congregation paid my grandfather for his preaching with two barrels of molasses. The barrels were placed in the back of the buggy next to the girls’ chairs. It was hot in Texas and as they rode home the heat caused the molasses to expand. The barrels began to leak and the molasses oozed slowly out onto the floor of the buggy. When they finally arrived home the girls were unable to move because their shoes were firmly stuck in the molasses. Their dad yelled at them to quit dawdling and climb out of the buggy. They started to cry because they could not move. Finally he figured out their predicament and he reached in and unlaced their high top shoes and pulled them out barefooted. She doesn’t remember how the shoes were freed, but since they were their only good shoes they were rescued, cleaned and worn again to meeting the next week.

What stories have been passed down in your family?

Painting

I walked into my laundry room this week and actually looked at it. It is really dirty! I started cleaning and sorting things out. I use that room to store the things I don’t know where else to put. It is a small, cluttered, dirty room. Among other things in there is all my left-over paint. I have decided to brighten the place up by giving it a fresh coat of paint, using all the half full cans of paint I already have. Today I painted the ceiling with the left-over half can of white primer. That has already brightened it up. Tomorrow I will figure out how to paint the walls and shelves with the two shades of red, two shades of blue, two shades of white and some olive green paint. It will at least be clean and colorful. Another good thing is I will not have all that paint on the shelf and there will be room for me to put up some of the clutter. I think it will be fun to paint.

Does anybody out there have a room decorated in all the left over colors of other projects?

Have a good week-end everyone.

Time Flies

Twenty four years ago today our beautiful daughter married her college sweetheart.

Time flies. Two grown children. Still beautiful and still sweethearts.

Happy anniversary

Nice Week End

Our church secretary’s previous employer was Ray Charles. She is a talented jazz singer who was once a backup singer for Ray, a Raylette. She has interesting stories. Friday night she performed in a jazz concert that was very good. Good music, good food and pleasant company made for a lovely evening.

Friday was the hottest day of the year, 99 degrees with thick humidity and no wind. Our church had a booth at Bowiefest, a community fun day with lots of booths, food, entertainment and kiddy rides. I worked in the church booth for a couple of hours and felt like a wet rag afterward. The heat made for smaller crowds than in years past. In the evening it was a welcome relief to jump in our daughter’s pool. Swimming and visiting with family made for a full recovery from the heat.

After church we went out to lunch and came home to enjoy a Sunday afternoon nap. This evening we went to the movies. We saw The Visitor. It was an interesting story about immigrants to our country and the struggles they can face. I did enjoy it.

Reading

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

Finally

The primaries are finally over. It looks like our choice in November will be Obama or McCain. Who do you think they should choose to be their running mate?

Birth

Forty-one years ago today I gave birth to my third child, my first-born son, David. He is a wonderful man who has brought me great joy. Happy Birthday son.

The day of his birth was the closest I have ever come to dying. I don’t remember anything about my labor or his delivery. What I do remember is floating above my body and looking down at a room full of doctors and nurses. I heard one say, “Her pressure is 40 over nothing. I think we’re losing her.” Another voice shouted to pump in more blood. I drifted there watching the activity and thought that I must be dying. It was not a scary thought, just a realization of what was happening. Then I drifted off into blackness. It was thirty-six hours later when I next opened my eyes and saw my sweet husband sitting at my bedside crying. Bless his heart; he had had a hard day. In a day before fathers were allowed into delivery rooms he waited a long time without any information. Finally a nurse came to tell him he had a son, but they were still working on me. He saw the baby through the glass to the nursery, but I did not come out for a very long time. Finally the doctor came and informed him that I had hemorrhaged and lost a lot of blood. It was a close call.

I recovered and gave birth to another son a year later without any complication.

Have you ever had a near death experience?

Found

This morning I found my mother’s tablecloth. I had been looking for it for the past two months and this morning I found it. It was folded inside another cloth and I had just missed it in my searching. This is an old vinyl tablecloth made to look like lace. It is not valuable or even very attractive, but it was used by my mom and later by me at almost all our major family dinners. If this tablecloth could speak it could tell some wonderful stories. I cried with happiness when I found this cloth full of memories.

My mom was wonderful. Everyone loved my mom. She had many great qualities, but cooking was not her greatest skill. One evening the family gathered around the table for dinner. She had made a casserole of chicken and green chilies. It smelled and looked great. We all served ourselves generous portions and dug in. After the first bite we all grabbed our water and gulped it down. Our mouths were on fire. I’ve never tasted anything quite so spicy hot. We gasped and asked mom what she had put in that recipe. She swore she followed the recipe exactly. My brother looked in the trash and found the culprit. Instead of using green chilies, she had used jalapeño peppers. Mom said they looked green to her. She thought they were the same thing.

This tablecloth has heard a generation of stories and laughter. We have sung happy birthday around it more times than I can count. It held the cake when we celebrated my folks golden anniversary. I brought home with me when mom moved into an assisted living facility. It has great value to me.

What do you own that is worth very little money but is a great treasure to you?

Motown and More

Last night was the big concert for the Senior Chorale. We had an audience of 670 people who applauded and cheered for us. It was great fun to sing for such an enthusiastic audience. Singing such happy music just has to make a person smile. One of my favorites was “Wonderful World.” Our soloist for that song was Chuck. He is a frail little old man who can’t read music, is nearly blind and is easily confused. He never did get his solo right in rehearsal, but he nailed it last night. The audience loved him. We did a Motown Medley with the help of our own version of Pips who called themselves the Sparkettes. They danced and sang and made the music wonderful. It was a great concert. I love singing with this group.

Disney Dreams

My granddaughter just called from Orlando. She is just bubbling over with excitement.

Tomorrow morning she reports for duty as a Disney employee. This is her dream job assignment. It is wonderful to watch anybody who is so happy.

She has started a blog to record her adventures. I have added her to my blog roll. If you want to catch her excitement, check her out at Disney Dreams.

Week End Snapshots

Friday night Aunt Ann hosted a party celebrating Ashley's college graduation. Family and friends had a good time wishing her well as she heads off to Orlando for an internship with Disney.




We enjoyed Bowie's Memorial Day parade on Saturday morning. I think half the town was in the parade. There were Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts baton twirlers, and anybody who thought it would be fun to be in a parade. Uncle Sam led them all.




The fife and drum corp was one of several marching bands.




This old fire truck was one of many antique cars.




The Bolivian dancers were colorful entertainment.




The Abrakadoodle float with Splat riding in the back. Splat won the Best Dog award. My daughter is driving and several grandchildren walked along to pass out prizes to the crowd.




The weather Saturday afternoon was too nice to stay home so we took DQ sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. Here's a picture of Captain DQ at the helm of a seventy foot schooner.




This morning at church we honored our high school graduates. It is always amazing to me to see how quickly our children grow up. One of the girls sang an absolutely beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace. The song made me cry.

Silliness

I stole this idea from Jennie’s blog. It was a cute idea for a day when I had nothing profound to share.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car):
Spotty Dorland

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe):
Moose Tracks Birkenstock

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME (favorite color, favorite animal):
Green Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born):
Rowland Cape May

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first three letters of your last name, first two of your first name):
Eva-Su

6. SUPERHERO NAME (2nd favorite color, favorite drink):
Blue Coffee

7. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers):
Gideon John

8. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy):
Skin- So- Soft Chocolate

9. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (your fifth grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter):
Harris Huntington

10. SPY NAME (your favorite season/holiday, flower):
Summer Rose

11. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now):
Strawberry Socks

12. HIPPIE NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree):
Coffee Christmas

Birds

Yesterday while working in my yard I came upon a nest full of baby birds. The nest is in a row of bushes right at eye level so these babies could be easily observed. I found myself totally enchanted by these little creatures and watched them for a long time. They were tightly packed into that small space, and as they slept it appeared that the nest was pulsing with each breath they took. Their nearly featherless bodies pulsed up and down in a steady beat. I backed away a bit and watched as the mother robin returned to the nest to feed them. Three wrinkled little black heads popped up, beaks wide open. They truly are ugly with their wrinkled, featherless necks craning up hungrily. Their eyes appeared closed. I wondered if they were able to see anything yet. It has been raining here and I wondered about the birds in their little nest with only a few fuzzy feathers to protect them. I just checked on them again and they are all there appearing safe and comfortable in their wet little nest. I wonder how long it will be before they fly away and leave their mama with an empty nest. Will their mama miss them when they go? Is the empty nest syndrome just something humans endure?

18

Thank you for all the birthday wishes on my last post.

I found this picture of me on my eighteenth birthday. I’m all dressed up for a mother/daughter tea to celebrate my high school graduation which would occur a few days after my birthday. I am leaning on my birthday/graduation gift, my first car. It was a baby blue 1958 Studebaker Lark. Oh, how I did love that car!

67

I came home from Tennessee with a bad cold. Today I woke up with laryngitis. I was supposed to sing in our Senior Chorale Motown concert today, but my singing voice is gone. I was disappointed, but I did go watch the concert and those old folks really can sing Motown. It was great. Hopefully I will be able to sing with them on their next concert in two weeks.

I found a lovely swing in my backyard when we arrived home Sunday night. It is a mother’s day gift from my kids. They must think I am a swinging gramma or a rockin’ mama. It is a nice place to sit and enjoy the birds and enjoy the sunshine.

Today is my birthday. I am 67 years old. There is no way I can make that sound young. There has been a little flurry of well wishes from friends and family. I feel loved. Life is good.

The Graduate

Granddaughter #1
Bachelor of Arts
Applied Finance and Accounting


Graduation was a wonderful event. The weather was beautiful. The graduate was excited and beautiful. I asked, “Ashley, you’ve just graduated from Milligan College. What are you going to do now?” She replied in her happy squeal, “I’m going to Disney World!” She has in fact accepted an internship at Disney World. She will be working in one of the eateries is park for six months. Then if all her dreams do come true she will get a professional internship in Disney’s accounting department. Today is a day when all things seem possible.

Motherhood

I watch my children who are so busy with all the duties of parenthood and job concerns. I like watching them pass on the traditions that are part of our family history and making traditions of their own that make their homes and families unique. They are all so very busy. It takes a lot of time to raise children and earn a living and find time to laugh and enjoy life. My kids make me proud because they are such good parents and somehow find time to work in all the important things.

I miss the busyness of being the center of a busy family. As a little girl all I wanted to do was to grow up, get married and have a family. I did that. I mothered four wonderful children. It just never occurred to me that there would be a time after that. One of the biggest adjustments of getting older has been learning to enjoy not being at the center of a busy family any more. Now I am the grandmother. This is a wonderful role, but it is not the same intimate role that motherhood is. I no longer am the center of my children’s world. I am in the circle of their lives, but they are the center of their own homes now.

Tomorrow we travel to Tennessee to watch our oldest grandchild graduate from college. She is an adult and ready to become the center of her own world. The circle of life just keeps on rolling forward.

A Landmark Case

Mildred Loving died last week at the age of 68. She and her husband Richard changed history.

In 1958 seventeen-year-old Mildred and her childhood sweetheart, twenty-three-year- old Richard, left their small town in Virginia and traveled to Washington DC where they were married. Mildred was black. Her husband was white. After the wedding they returned home to rural Virginia. At 2AM the county sheriff rousted them out of bed and hauled them off to jail. Their District marriage certificate was no good in Virginia. They were charged with unlawful cohabitation. The judge sentenced them with a year in prison which would be suspended if they left the state. They moved back to Washington DC, but they missed home and longed to return. In 1964 they wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy and asked if any of the newly passed civil rights legislation would allow them to travel and live together in their home state. The Lovings just wanted to go home. They had no idea that their case would go to the Supreme Court and change the lives of so many. On June 12, 1967, the court ruled that restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violated the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause. The Lovings were able to go home and live the quiet life they had wanted.

Today my son and his beautiful wife are among 4.3 million interracial couples living in this nation. I am grateful that they were able to marry.

Stardust

This weekend we went almost camping with our granddaughter’s Girl Scout troop. The girls camped in tents among the sand dunes of Assateague Island. They had a wonderful time playing in the sand and watching the wild ponies. We had been invited along so my astronomer could bring his telescope and help the girls to see the night sky. The clouds blew away long enough for a little stargazing. He brought his telescope and they could see Saturn’s rings with it. They did seem to be impressed with the vastness of the universe. Stargazing can cause a person to ponder and think about big things. Scientists believe that the universe began billions of years ago with an explosion of energy that sent stardust spreading out into space. Along the way this stardust clumped up into stars and planets. With some instructions from the Creator this stardust was formed into earth and all that lives upon the earth. I like the thought that we are all made out of stardust.
I said we went almost camping because as the girls crawled into their tents for the night we headed up the road to a quaint, historic hotel and slept in a comfortable hotel.

Swing Time

The High school had its pops concert tonight. It really was fun. I am always impressed with the talent these kids have. They were singing and dancing and performing with great style this evening. They really did swing. Of course the most talented and beautiful girl is the show was our lovely granddaughter.

May Day

My azalea is celebrating May Day with a spectacular show of beautiful blooms.

Birthday Boy

We had a small family birthday party tonight. It is hard to believe that it has been thirteen years since this boy was born. His mom gave him a new ipod, engraved on the back with his name and, “Turn it down.” I got him an itunes gift card to go with that. Just for fun I also got him a nerf gun which was a big hit. He got the video game from his aunt and uncle, clothes from his older sister and a stuffed monster from his little sister. It was a fun family gathering for my beautiful boy.

13

My youngest grandson will be thirteen this week. He told me that I could get him anything I thought he would like for his birthday. He really wants a new video game, but he has figured out that I am video game challenged and never can remember just exactly what game he wants or exactly just what game system he has. It would be better if his aunt and uncle got him new games. They understand those things. I can get something else.

What should I get this sweet thirteen year old boy for his birthday?

Eyes

Yesterday afternoon I stayed in a darkened room resting my eyes. They were painfully sensitive to light and weren't working too well after a routine exam by my ophthalmologist. The exam revealed that other than normal deterioration due to aging , whatever that means, my eyes are fine. A day of not being able to see well did make me appreciate the blessing of sight.

In her later years my mother was blind. She lost her vision, but never her sense of humor. One day I found my blind mother sitting at her vanity gazing into the mirror. When I asked what she doing she replied that she was appreciating the benefits of blindness. “I used to look into this mirror and saw a wrinkled old woman whose hair was never quite right. Now, I look into the mirror and I don't see a wrinkle or blemish of any kind. I can't see a single hair out of place. I conclude that blindness has just made me beautiful.” She, in fact, did radiate a beauty far beyond what could be seen in the mirror.

Not long before mom completely lost her sight I did something terrible to her. She lived in an assisted living home in California. I had flown from Maryland to spend a few days with her. I had shared her room in the facility and we had had a great visit. Leaving was always tearful and difficult. So after a weepy hug and good-bye I grabbed my reading glasses from the nightstand and hurried to catch my ride to the airport. As I settled into the plane for the flight home I pulled out my reading glasses and discovered that I had grabbed mom's very strong glasses instead. When I put them on the world became a fuzzy blur. In an age before cell phones I couldn't call her until I arrived home that evening. Meanwhile my mom, not knowing her glasses had been taken, put on my reading glasses thinking they were hers. She could not see anything. The doctor had previously told her that her retina were slightly detached and that it was possible that the complete detachment could happen suddenly. If that happened she would suddenly lose her vision. She thought that was had happened. She called my sister-in-law who called the doctor. He though it sounded as if the retina had detached and scheduled Mom for surgery the next morning. My sister-in-law went to stay with her and take her to surgery the next morning. They were getting ready for bed when I called and told her that I had accidentally switched glasses with her. I didn't understand her laughter and crying. I returned her glasses by overnight mail. She could miraculously see again as well as before. The surgery was canceled. She forgave me and we laughed about the day she went blind for years afterward.

Earth Day

In honor of earth day I am posting some pictures of places I love on this planet of ours.

The Grand Tetons

Glacier Bay, Alaska


Yellowstone Park

Rehoboth Beach


Pacific Sunset


Niagara Falls


Aruba


My backyard

Young at Heart

I was inspired yesterday. We went to see the movie “Young at Heart.” It is a documentary about a group of senior citizens aged seventy to ninety who sing with such joy that it just makes you feel good. They don't sing the typical old people songs. They sing hip -hop and rock 'n roll. The audience was clapping and cheering. You just couldn't help but feel good after watching this group of people who seize each day and live it to the fullest with enthusiastic joy. If you are ever planning on getting old this movie will show you how to do it.

Camping

While going through old pictures we found these of a camping trip a long time ago. It was 1961. Our best friends were Randy and Edna. The four of us went camping in the middle of the Mojave Desert, way off any beaten road. We spread our sleeping bags on the sand under a clear sky watching the stars stars until we slept. It was the only time I ever shot a gun. Randy had a 45 service revolver from World War I which we used for target practice. My first shot practically knocked me over and the bullet shot into the sand about half way to the target. Randy tried to brace me while I shot again. This time I fell backward into Randy and the bullet landed about a fourth of the way to the target. I figured if I shot again I would shoot my foot off. On the way home our car hit a major pothole and got very stuck. In the process of digging and pulling it out of the hole the gas tank was punctured. As we stood there watching our fuel leak into the sand Randy pulled out a bullet and emptied the powder from it. He then stuck the bullet into the punctured tank and secured it with some well chewed gum. We got home safely and planned our next adventure in the desert sun.

A Lovely Day

Today was one of those days that makes me rejoice in my retirement. I woke up to the smell of fresh coffee prepared just for me by my beloved. He is so sweet. I put on a comfortable robe and poured a big cup of coffee and went to my happy room. Everybody should have a room that just makes them happy. I sipped my coffee and read a little from my Bible, sat and just meditated for a bit and counted my blessings. I spent a few minutes then straightening up the mess left from yesterday before fixing my morning cereal and enjoying the birds and beautiful lilac bush in my backyard. Then I was off to the pool for a good work-out in my water aerobics class. It feels wonderful to be able to move my body through the water and not be slowed down by painful knees and feet. In the water I can work up good sweat and feel young and strong. The exercise of course gave me a good appetite. My daughter met me for lunch and we spent an enjoyable hour talking about this and that. I love having a chance to just sit and share the day with her. After lunch I took an older friend to the doctor and listened while she talked about the things that were important to her today. On the way home I stopped at the garden center and browsed through the flowers. I came home with a new azalea to plant in my yard. We enjoyed a quiet supper together. This evening I may watch the debate between Barak and Hillary, or I may just read a book.
Tomorrow I plan to sing with the senior chorale and then work in my yard.
I love the time to just enjoy the things that bring me pleasure. Life is good.
How was your day?

Bobby

Bobby came to see us yesterday. Bobby is my husband's baby brother. He is five years younger and a few inches taller. The last time we saw him was eight years ago at my mother-in-law's ninetieth birthday party. The time before that was eighteen years ago at my father-in-law's funeral. The brothers really were happy to see each other. There was a whole lot of catching up to do. Bobby stayed for about five hours and the conversation was about everything. They talked about childhood memories, grandchildren, baseball, politics and faith. They are so much alike and so very different. It was a wonderful and much too short visit. Bobby lives in Seattle. We live in Maryland. Too many miles for frequent visits, but once a decade is a little too infrequent.

George & Clara

This morning I went to my aqua-yoga class. Aqua yoga is just like regular yoga except we never do downward facing dog and in the warm water I can stand in warrior three pose forever. There was a new student there today. When I introduced myself she said her name was Clara. Suddenly a memory flashed into my head of a story that I thought I had long forgotten.
When I was about ten our next door neighbors were Clara and George and their daughter Georgina. Georgina was a little younger than me, but she was a nice girl and we often played together. Her mother often invited me into their sparkling clean kitchen and gave us homemade cookies. Clara was a nice lady. I wouldn't go in their house though if George was home. He scared me. He was big and loud and he drank beer. In my tea-totaling home beer was evil. George did not like to change his underwear. I know this because when Clara decided he had worn the same underwear long enough she would try to sneak it off of him while he was asleep. Usually when she tried to do this he woke up. In our kitchen we could hear him yelling, “Get your hands off of my underwear, woman, I'll change it I'm ready!” The worst thing George ever did to me was to steal my stilts. I loved playing on the stilts and could walk the entire length of our long driveway on them. One day George came home with a pet monkey. He set about to build a cage for his monkey and came over and took my stilts, cut them in half and used them for poles for his monkey cage. I was very upset. George never apologized. My dad said to just let it go and Dad took me to the store and bought me new stilts. I never left them in the driveway again. We moved about a year later and we never saw George, Clara or Georgina again.

Dying

One of the things that takes up a lot of my time is serving as a Stephen minister. This is a ministry to people who are in the middle of one of life's many hard moments. We help people through all sorts of situations, such as job loss, divorce, grief, problems with children and problems that come with old age. Stephen ministers aren't there to solve problems or fix things. We are just there, walking though the moment with people and letting them know they are not alone. I find it a fulfilling way to help others and meet my need to be a caretaker. There is some training involved , mostly on how to be a good listener. Currently we are working on a lesson about how to care for the dying. One thing we have to do is figure out our own feelings and thoughts about our own deaths. It is an inevitable part of life, something we should talk about. One of our homework assignments is to list five words that come to mind when you think about death. So I am asking you to help me.
What five words come to your mind when you think about death?

Bells

I you are interested in hearing what my bell choir sounded like on Easter, just click here.

Role Model

We took our friend Effie to lunch today. When I grow up I want to be just like Effie. This amazing lady is an eighty-two year old widow. Her sight is gone and arthritis makes walking difficult, but she is one of the happiest people I know. She is delightful and funny and full of dumb jokes that she loves to share. She sings with two different singing groups, takes tap dancing lessons, swims and hangs out at the pool. I always come home smiling after a day with Effie.
Here is her joke of the day.

If a well endowed woman works at Hooters, where does a one-legged woman work?
.....
At IHOP

Grand Opening

Yesterday I attended the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the world's greatest son-in-law's new business. He has just opened a residential cleaning company here in beautiful Bowie. Opening a business is both exciting and scary. I have great confidence that it will go well. He is smart, hard-working, kind and honest. In addition to that he has a smart, hardworking, kind and honest wife who is helping him.

Backyard Birds

This morning I lingered over my second cup of coffee watching the birds that had been attracted to our backyard by the six bird feeders there. There were lots of birds this morning. The iridescent black grackles were strutting among the little finches and sparrows pecking at the seeds that had fallen from the feeders. Two gray mourning doves pecked regally at the seed. Bushy tailed squirrels were happily sharing the birds' breakfast. A little black and white junco, a snow bird, was flitting from feeder to feeder. I guess he wasn't ready to leave the lovely spring weather and fly north to colder climates. A robin sat on the fence to proclaim that spring was here. A flash of red announced a cardinal had joined us for breakfast. Then a bright yellow goldfinch hung upside down to eat thistle seed from the feeder just outside the window. Watching the birds from my window is an ever changing show of nature that is always entertaining. Maybe tomorrow I will see a grosbeak or a rufous sided towhee.

Growing Boys

This afternoon we went to watch our almost 13-year-old grandson play lacrosse. We were a little late and spent the first several minutes just trying to pick him out on the field. Last year it was easy to find him because he was the biggest boy on the team. I finally realized the problem. I was watching the wrong game. He was on the field with the bigger boys. He is a year older and has moved up to the older team. This year he is one of the youngest and smaller players. It was amazing to me how much better these older kids played. They are much rougher and play with greater skill. This was no little kid game. This gramma has a problem watching the kids grow up so fast.
Last night we went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner. We had a phenomenal waiter. This tall, dark handsome young man was friendly and helpful and even volunteered to come do some yard work for me next week. The more than generous tip we left him was entirely due to our excellent service and had nothing to do with the fact that the waiter was our grandson. Our little boys are almost grown. The time does fly.

Honeymoon

My husband just bought himself a new toy. It is a little copier that scans slides into our computer. We have several thousand 35 millimeter slides stored in boxes in our closet. He figures it will take a few years to get them all done, but it is his now his new project. It is fun to look at the old pictures and have all those old memories stirred up. He began at the beginning with our wedding in 1961 and has just finished that year.
The picture is one taken of me on our honeymoon to the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, just north of San Diego. I was twenty years old. My husband was twenty-three. It was a beautiful, quiet little resort. When we went to dinner that first evening we were sent back to our room so Dennis could get a tie. Gentlemen were required to wear ties in the dining room. On the day we checked out the resort management gave us a paperweight to keep as a souvenir of our honeymoon. I remember being totally embarrassed that they knew we were on our honeymoon. We hadn’t told anyone that it was our honeymoon. How could they have guessed?

Motown

Today I drove my fifteen-year-old grandson back home after a couple days of spring break visit at gramma’s. As we got in the car he put on his earphones so he could listen to his music during the drive and I put my new Motown CD in to enjoy. As we drove down the road DQ took off his earphones and looked at me incredulously. “Do you really like this music, Gramma?” When I said yes he was delighted because he loves Motown. So we sang together the entire way home. “Oo, Sugar pie, Honey bunch you know that I love you.” “Oh, I heard it through the grapevine, Oo, I’m just about to lose my mind.” We sang loud and with feeling. It was wonderful. When he got out of the car he told me I was cool. What greater praise could I possibly want?

The Sound of Easter

I spent Saturday morning at bell practice. We needed a little more rehearsal before playing on Easter morning. The music was hard with complex rhythms and lots of accidental notes. Bell ringers count constantly. “One-and-two-and- dah- three-and-four and.” Counting is the only way to not get lost. . Getting lost causes some of us to finish the piece a couple of measures before the director quits directing. It is a bit embarrassing. “Uh-oh, I didn’t see the key change and forgot to change bells. That sounded really bad.” Fortunately we have a wonderful, patient director and friendly, forgiving ringers so practice is a happy time. We do it again and again. At the end of practice we are tired. Ringing the sounds of Easter can be hard work.
Easter morning comes and we are all in place. Bells up. One-and two-and-three-and-four-and. The joyous sounds of Easter ring out and fill the sanctuary. The music is glorious. Hallelujah!

Good Friday

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3: 16

Music

I am having a racial problem. I came of age during the 50’s listening to Perry Como, Tennessee Ernie Ford and my beautiful, wonderful Pat Boone. I loved Pat Boone with his sweet melodic voice and his white buck shoes. I had his autographed picture on the wall. His music lived in my heart. Today I am a member of the Bowie Senior Chorale. This is a group of mostly white senior citizens who came of age listening to the same music I loved. We are good at singing songs like “Moon River” and “Shenandoah.” Our young and talented director has decided that it is time for us to learn some new music, so now we are preparing to sing Motown for our concert in May. This is not our music. We can’t make our Pat Boone souls sound like Ray Charles and the Rayettes or the Supremes or Stevie Wonder. We are trying and having a good time in stretching our souls into Motown. Can a girl who grew up with Pat Boone learn to sing, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours?”

Weekend Report

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all my Irish friends. Today it seems that everyone is Irish.
Today is my baby’s birthday. He is thirty-nine. Happy birthday Paul.
We had a lovely weekend. Friday evening we went to dinner at church. During Lent they have a supper and time to visit with friends every Friday night. It was a peasant evening. Saturday afternoon we celebrated Paul’s birthday by taking him to the theater in downtown Washington. We saw, “Major Barbara.” By George Bernard Shaw. It is a story that tries to understand the difference between right and wrong. I enjoyed it a lot, even if the birthday boy did doze of for a bit. His sister AM and I kept nudging him so he wouldn’t snore. Afterward we went to a lovely restaurant downtown, Cafe Atlantico . I had duck confit for dinner. It was delicious. I always enjoy sharing dinner with my kids.
Sunday was Palm Sunday. Church was very good. Sometimes I just go to church, but yesterday I came away after a wonderful experience of worship that brought me to the feet of Jesus. I am still feeling the glow of real worship.
Happy Monday everyone.

Gramma Mullins

This is a picture of my great-grandparents, JR and Mattie Mullins. They lived in Texas. I never met them. They died long before I was born. All I know about them is that mother loved them and enjoyed going to visit them. My mom had two grandmothers. One grandmother scared my mother. She was very stern and did not allow for childish play. That grandmother owned an organ that my mother longed to play. Mom was never allowed to touch that organ. It was not fun to visit that house. Then there was Gramma Mullins. Gramma Mullins was a sweet lady who laughed often and made my mother feel loved. Gramma would take leftover biscuits from breakfast and fill them with honey for her grandchildren. My mother remembers sitting in the sunshine on the back steps with her gramma and savoring the sweet, sticky biscuit. My mom always savored memories of her sweet grandmother.

One day, when my grandchildren tell their children stories about their grandmother, I hope they remember me as the sweet grandmother.

Mime

My blog friend Simon from London tagged me with this mime. Another blog friend, Greeny, had tagged him.

Here are the rules.

1. Write your own six-word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

This is hard. Should I talk about being a wife, mother, grandmother and friend? Or should I talk about being a nurse and a caregiver? Maybe I should talk about what being a “church lady” means to me. Could I talk about my love of reading and music? I am much too complex to reduce my life to just six words. After much thought, I have come up with this description of me.

Blessed believer.
Looking forward with joy.

That’s me. Now I tag these people:

AM, my daughter who inspired me to start my own blog

Rosemary, who has an attic full of wonderful memories

John, the trucker who was a great friend to my girls in their camp Wamava days

Sling, my blog friend who always make me smile

Sandy, who leaves wonderful comments for me to enjoy

I look forward to your replies.

Daffodils

Yesterday I went out to clean some of winter’s debris from my back yard. I had not been out back for quite a while and did not realize that spring had poked her lovely head up along the back of my house. A bed of dazzling yellow daffodils is dancing along the wall announcing that spring is coming. How wonderful.

I thought of my father as I admired these flowers and remembered this poem that he loved.

"Daffodils"

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

Sisters

When I was little I remember begging my mom for a baby sister. My pleas went unheard and I had to learn to make do only with brothers. I always knew I missed out on a very important relationship by never having a sister.

God eventually granted my heart’s desire by giving me two beautiful little girls to be my daughters. One of my life’s greatest joys has been watching the bond between these two girls of mine. LK was only fourteen months old when her sister AM joined our family. They have always had a connection that was something beyond best friends. They are part of each other. I don’t remember them ever fighting. As they grew they became very different people. LK was the Home Ec student of the year. She earned the most Girl Scout Badges. AM played the piano and told the most elaborate and entertaining stories. When they were in Junior High they could sing and dance to every song from Grease. In high school they kept each other’s secrets. These sisters, my daughters, are now grown with families of their own. They love and care for each other’s children.

This weekend two different people thanked me for being such a wonderful mother. They knew I must be a good mother because they knew my daughters. These two sisters bring me great joy.

Church Ladies

In honor of women’s history month I thought I would honor some of the women who were important in my own personal history. My mom was the single most important woman in my life, but there were many women who helped me to become me. There was a group of women who I call my church ladies. They were my mother’s friends, my Sunday school teachers and my second mothers. These ladies demonstrated by their daily life what it meant to be a woman.

Peggy was one of my favorite people. She made the best blueberry pie in town. I always knew that if anything ever happened to my family I could count on Peggy. She loved me and I knew it. Iva was my best friend’s mother. She helped me learn to cook. Sister Williams lived on a farm. She taught me to shuck corn. Vonda taught me to love music and the joy of singing in church. Inez had a fancy house and I learned to sit still and act like a lady when we visited her. When I was little I would go to ladies bible class with mom and listen to these women study scripture, pray for one another and talk about their families. On Sundays I saw them dressed in their fine dresses and fancy hats. On Saturday mornings they would show up in their pajamas and make my mom and me join them for a “Come As You Are” breakfast party. They laughed and giggled and ate huge amounts of high fat, high carb foods. Frequently I joined them when they visited the “poor farm.” They taught me the joy of serving those who were not as blessed as we were. I felt loved and wanted by this wonderful group of women. They blessed me richly.

Did you have a group of church ladies who helped you along life’s journey?

Women's History Month

Did you know that March was women’s history month?

Monday night my club discussed Cokie Roberts’ book, “Founding Mothers” to celebrate women in our country’s history. We had a lively discussion about the importance of many women whose names are missing from most history books. We talked about Eliza Pinckney, Kitty Greene, Mercy Warren, Abigail Adams and Martha Washington. I don’t believe the American Revolution would have succeeded without the wok of these women, and yet we know very little about them. It was good to learn about them. In this book Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on.

Our group then talked about the woman who is making history in our country today. They all wanted to see Hillary succeed in her bid to become president because it would be good to have a strong, capable woman lead this nation. For many of them Hillary represents a long wanted dream for equality for women.

Do you think Hillary will really win the presidency?

RN

This picture was taken on the way to my graduation ceremony from nursing school in 1961. Don’t I look professional? The handsome young man is my astronomer. We met on a blind date set up by our mothers a week before I began school at Pasadena City College where I would be living in the nursing residence at Huntington Memorial Hospital. He was a student at Cal Tech and needed a ride to school from Whittier where we both had grown up. Nursing school was a time of hard study and falling in love.

We were married the day after I graduated.

Muskrat Love

There was an article on the front page of yesterday’s Washington Post that caught my eye. Last week there was a beauty pageant just sixty miles from our nation’s capital, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Beautiful girls in lovely gowns competed for their beauty and for their talent. Two of the girls demonstrated the fine art of muskrat skinning as their talent. One of them won the contest and was crowned Miss Outdoors. According to the article she still had muskrat blood under her fingernails when the crown was placed on her lovely head.

Somehow this contest makes me believe that the world will be ok.