That's What I'm Saying

Tommy

2011-11-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Tommy
by Joye Roberts Fratoni on Saturday, 09 April 2011 at 17:58

My brother died last week. It sent me tripping down memory lane; or perhaps it was more like tumbling. I found myself cast into my deep South past on a farm in Alligator, Mississippi. That’s where I spent endless hours of endless days being entertained by him. He was three years my senior; described by teachers and friends as fascinating, brilliant. Talented Tommy Roberts in the Gifted and Talented Program; it would have been harder growing up in his shadow had I not loved him so much. He tolerated me well enough; let me follow him around day and night. He honored me with roles to play in the “Masterpiece Theater” of his mind. I was Robin to his Batman, Torch to his Stretch and more often than not, his partner in crime. I would love to say we continued down those fun, dusty roads to adulthood, but we did not. We emerged from the isolated South into cities full of more intriguing adventures for him. He with his friends and I with mine, we parted ways. He disappeared into college, drugs, and street-life; I into marriage, motherhood, and God’s gracious arms. We only spoke a few times over the years, but I inquired about him a lot. I used to keep bits and pieces of him tucked away in a memory box, a drawing he made, a story he wrote, a sketch, a painting, a scribbled note. It’s all I had of him. I threw some of that stuff away. Now I wish I would have kept more. Nevertheless, what’s done is done, what’s gone is gone, and life does and must continue on.

Things that Amuse me, Amaze me, and Confuse me

2008-07-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

When I worked at Edgewood Flower Farm, old, old (98 year old) Mr. O’Ravez used to come out to the barn on occasion and say “I have a mystery.” Usually his mysteries were about cars that stayed in the parking lot all night or about how the left tire of his Park Avenue kept losing air (it lost more air every time he checked the air pressure), or about where his cane disappeared to and mysteries like that. Well, this week I have a mystery. My mystery is “How did Doug’s 1975 Red and White Torino win a trophy at the car show?” Yes, this is my mystery. It amazes me, amuses, and yet confuses me, too. His car (you know the one that not only I have complained incessantly about but the neighbors have as well) won the “Best Work in Progress” trophy. When Doug proudly brought that trophy home, I naturally assumed everyone at the show got trophies but he said “Nope, they did not”. Then I assumed his car was the only “work in progress” but once again he said “Nope, it was not.” So now I am just left to wonder...hmmm.

Another mystery I have is “Why do people find it necessary to celebrate Christmas in July?” I don’t understand this practice; it just makes no sense to me. But there are radio stations and entire TV stations that flaunt this practice as if it made sense or something. Then when rational people like myself complain (I mean don’t we get enough Christmas music or Christmas movies at Christmas time...which by the way starts way earlier than it used to) those people who think the practice is sane choose to call us “Scrooges”. Well, all I have to say is that I won’t even dignify such nonsense with a bah humbug! Hmph.

Another mystery I have is no mystery at all…it is rather a revelation, especially to me.
I have decided my whole life has been one big fashion faux pas. And, I have the pictures to prove it. And now that Sarah has started scrapbooking…I have the pictures to prove it all arranged and beautifully mounted in scrapbooks.

And my final mystery is “How did driving across the country and back make my tail bone so sore?” Seriously, it must be those uncomfortable seats in my car….I’ve been home for two weeks and I’m still sore.

I’ll blog about that trip on another day……

Winners and Whiners

2008-03-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

So, I was thinking the other day that in the world we have people who win at games and we have others who lose and just get to whine about it. Being married to Doug, I have spent a lot of time being a whiner. It wasn't so bad when we were first married and played regular board games like Life and Monopoly or even Yahtzee. It wasn't even that bad when we played games with our friends and occasionally Doug would lose. But over the last few years I have really wearied of always, always losing, especially at my very own games. Doug's perpetual winning streak started a few years back when he bought me a Backgammon game for Christmas. I used to love to play Backgammon when I was young and have fond memories of it (including winning!). Not anymore. And this has nothing to do with skill. I don't really believe in luck but I have never seen anyone as lucky as Doug. There have been games when I took his dice and switched them for mine because he kept rolling doubles over and over and over. I seriously thought it had to be the dice. It was not. He continued getting doubles with my dice. This happened repeatedly in Backgammon until we finally just gave it up. Not long after that we bought Texas Hold 'Em (we even taught Mom to play). But of course Doug always wins. Because of skill? No! Because of luck, I tell you. Now most wives would not urge their husbands to go to Vegas to gamble but I am packing his bags and saying "Honey, go put this luck to good use. Win us some money, will you." He hasn't yet but I keep encouraging him. There is one consolation in all of this....I still hold the high score in Scrabble. Try as he might, he can not beat my high score. I think it's like 372 or something. Was it a fluke? Maybe... but never-the-less I still have something to gloat about! (that and twice in a row, I beat the pants off of him in pool)

First Crocuses of Spring

2008-03-09T10:00:00.001-07:00

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?...

2008-03-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

...it is the sun! I was really starting to get confused about what state I live in (physical not mental). You see, almost everyday for the last two weeks I have been waking up to the sun shining in my room. I squint and say "What's going on here?" Then I grab my little doggie, and say, "Billy, I don't think we're in Washington anymore." But seriously, it has been beautiful lately and I'm not complaining. Unfortunately, for the first week or so I didn't get to enjoy it because of finals. But this week, (I'm out of school for ten days) I've raked leaves, pruned all the roses, and pulled weeds. It's been great.

Spring

2008-02-19T21:49:00.000-08:00

I saw the first spider of spring the other day. He was in my garage. He wasn't one of those big guys but he certainly wasn't little. I don't know why but I didn't have the heart to kill him. Maybe because he was brave enough to come out early and all...I don't know. Last year it only took the Orkin guy one visit to rid the house of spiders all year. I guess it's time to call him again.

Sad note...Ashly and John have left for San Francisco.

Poetry and a Midlife Crisis

2008-02-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

When Doug had a midlife crisis a few years ago, he bought a replica (minus the black vinyl roof) of his first car, the 1975 Gran Torino. It cost him thousands of dollars. When I had a midlife crisis last week, I ordered used copies of the first Rod McKuen books I ever owned, "Seasons in the Sun", "Looking for a Friend", and "Alone". It cost me under a hundred. Interesting, huh.

So my resurging love for Rod McKuen's poetry is probably due less to a midlife crisis and more to PMS and the results of a personality test I took in class that happened to remind me of how much I used to love poetry. (Doug's resurging love for Torinos, however, was a midlife crisis...especially for me!)

Rod McKuen was the first poet I really loved. It was his poem "A Cat Named Sloopy" that ignited my interest. At 10 years old, I wasn't crazy about boys but more about my pets. Rod's love for Sloopy and her love for him said it best. When I graduated from pets to boys, Rod was still there speaking volumes. I bought all of his paperback books when I was seventeen, but lost them over the years.

Thanks to Amazon and Ebay I'm able to collect them again.

A Cat Named Sloopy
Rod McKuen

1For a while
the only earth that Sloopy knew
was in her sandbox.
Two rooms on Fifty-fifth Street
were her domain.Every night she'd sit in the window
among the avocado plants
waiting for me to come home(my arms full of canned liver and love).
We'd talk into the night then
contented
but missing something,
She the earth she never knew
me the hills I ran
while growing bent.
Sloopy should have been a cowboy's cat
with prairies to run
not linoleum
and real-live catnip mice.
No one to depend on but herself.
I never told her
but in my mind I was a midnight cowboy even then.
Riding my imaginary horse
down Forty-second Street,going off with strangers
to live an hour-long cowboy's life,but always coming home to Sloopy,who loved me best.

2A dozen summers
we lived against the world.
An island on an island.
She'd comfort me with purring
I'd fatten her with smiles.
We grew rich on trust
needing not the beach or butterflies
I had a friend named Ben
Who painted buildings like Roualt men.
He went away.My laughter tired Lillian
after a time
she found a man who only smiled.
Only Sloopy stayed and stayed.
Winter.
Nineteen fifty-nine.Old men walk their dogs.Some are walked so often
that their feet leave
little pink tracks
in the soft gray snow.
Women fur on fur
elegant and easy
only slightly pure
hailing cabs to take them
round the block and back.
Who is not a love seeker
when December comes?
even children pray to Santa Claus.
I had my own love safe at home
and yet I stayed out all one night
the next day too.

3They must have thought me crazy
screaming Sloopy Sloopy
as the snow came falling
down around me.
I was a madman
to have stayed away
one minute more
than the appointed hour.
I'd like to think a golden cowboy
snatched her from the window sill,and safely saddlebagged
she rode to Arizona.She's stalking lizards
in the cactus now perhaps
bitter but free.
I'm bitter too
and not a free man any more.
Once was a time,
in New York's jungle in a tree,
before I went into the world
in search of other kinds of love
nobody owned me but a cat named Sloopy.
Looking back
perhaps she's been
the only human thing
that ever gave back love to me.

Merry Tossmas!

2007-12-15T20:45:00.000-08:00

I love Tossmas! I will be celebrating it from now on. To find out more just follow the link...
http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm

Random News

2007-12-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

I finally joined the Y. My friend Debra talked me into it. She has been talking up the Y to me for years but I have always resisted because it costs more than other gyms. She finally convinced me it was worth it because of all the free classes they offer. So I joined. Then she and I, along with another friend of ours, started going to the "Core (that's your abs) and More (that's every other muscle group in your body) Class." All I can say about that is "Ooowwww."

Ashly and John are moving to San Francisco. John got a job there. I am both sad to see them go and excited for them. They've been traveling to SF on the weekends looking for an apartment. They have until March to find a place but they're ready to get there now. I am glad it's only a 2.5 hour flight there. I'll visit often.

I'll be in Virginia for two weeks in January. I have my first two intensive classes to complete. That will mean class all day and homework all night for two weeks. Sounds like fun, no? I have two classes after that in the Spring, then one more intensive in May, and then I start my internship. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Doug is now "Airshow Coordinator" for both the AirForce and the Tacoma Events Commission. I will miss him this summer.

My mother, who sits in a chair and watches TV all day, will eat KFC popcorn chicken every single day of the the week if I let her. Sometimes, I do. (j/k) I think the KFC employees think I'm nuts ordering the same thing every time I come there. I haven't told them its not for me, yet. Someday I will.

When I was in the Commissary last week there were two cashiers who could not identify an unshelled pecan. This was incredible to me. I thought everyone in the world knew what a pecan was. This is probably because I grew up on a farm in Alligator Mississippi that was surrounded by pecan orchards. I have been eating them all of my life.

Over the Christmas holidays I have four textbooks to read and two workbooks to complete before I head to class in January.

I should be doing school work right this minute but instead I am wasting time writing this poorly crafted blog.

The Hot Tub

2007-11-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

The hot tub is alot of fun, but it is most fun when you stay in it because you want to and not because you locked yourself out of the house after 10:30pm and your husband is still at work and your mother won't wake up to answer the door because she sleeps like a dead person. And even though the hot tub will keep you warm for the next hour and a half while you wait for your husband to come home from work it is not so much fun now because you're starting to shrivel and you start wishing REALLY bad that you had an extra key somewhere outside and you vow that you will NEVER go out to the hot tub at night again without a key.

John, you're fired!

2007-10-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so sometime in late spring, I was taking pictures of the flowers in the backyard (I keep trying to capture what it all looks like but it's impossible to capture the total look...at least for me and my non-existent photography skills)

So while I was capturing photos, I looked up and noticed that you could see John in my bedroom window. I had forgotten I put him there, so it took me by surprise. John was in the window for a purpose...not to just be funny....he was supposed to be doing a job. He failed, however. See, sometime in early spring the birds in my backyard got all Hitchcock on me. For reasons I'm not completely sure of...though I would guess it was reflections from the morning sun...these birds started kamikaze crashing (loudly, mind you) into my bedroom window. Now, that's disturbing, in and of itself, but it's even more disturbing when it happens at 6:00 am. Yes, these were the early birds out catching something more than worms, I would guess. (Or maybe they were the party all night birds still trying to get home from last night's excursion...I don't know). Whatever the case, I was losing sleep that I did not want to lose. I kept hoping maybe they would eventually all break their little necks and be done with it...but it never happened. So I got this brilliant idea. A scarecrow...yes, what we needed was a scarecrow (or a scarerobin in this case). So who is more intimidating than John Wayne? (well quite a few people but John happened to be the most available) He does make a formidable foe, though...don't you think! I did. But the birds....well, they could care less. I think they saw right through him... (literally)...they didn't miss a beat...every morning starting at 6:00 am the crashing continued. We started thinking perhaps that's why the Matthays sold this house. Finally, however, finally....around early summer they gave it a rest and John well he got retired to another room. He does make an occasional appearance, however, in Mom's closet, bed, chair, or shower just to give her a little jump and chuckle (thanks to Doug) but his scarebird days, they are over.

The Streets of San Francisco

2007-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Ahhh....the Streets of San Francisco...where were Michael Douglas and Karl Malden when we needed them...that's what I want to know. Yes, two women walking all alone after dark amidst thug and derelict crowded streets (each taking turns pretending to talk on the phone to some important person that would magically rescue them if something were to go wrong) could have used the help of two strapping (or not) police officer/detectives. I personally wanted to walk down the middle of the street rather than through two blocks of drug deals and homeless gatherings on the sidewalk. I thought I would probably have a better chance of surviving being hit by a car but....Margaret opted for the sidewalk...and I followed. We walked fast and furious all the way back to our hotel. This was our walk home from the theater adventure we had. Ahh..the Theaters of San Francisco...what an interesting audience we sat with that night....but then again...what would one expect when one goes to the Empire Plush Room to see a drag queen impersonate Barbara Streisand? Hmmmm.....

So the rest of San Francisco went like this...the Streets (hills) of San Francisco just about did Margaret in (walked through Union Square, China Town, to the Trolley Museum, to Grace Cathedral and back again) ...and an overcrowded bus of San Francisco (there was standing room only and I was standing among tall people who were sucking all the air out of the bus) almost did me in...luckily the bus broke down at that point and most of the too-tall air-hogs got off....After that, I refused to take the bus again.

So we took a taxi (or was that a roller coaster?) to Fisherman's Wharf. Up the hill, really, really fast, Stop! Down the hill,really, really fast, Stop! Up the hill, really, really fast, Stop! Down the hill, Stop! Up the hill....ok so that's the way it was all the way to the Wharf. Fun. When we got to the Wharf we found it to be VERY crowded. Actually, we found most of SF to be crowded. We also found it to be noisy. Wow. Seattle is so quiet in comparison. Not sure if there is a law against honking in Seattle or not but people do not honk in this city. In SF they honk....alot.

So all in all we did most of the touristy things ... went to Sausilito, drove across the Golden Gate bridge, did Ghiradelli Square, ate at an Italian restaurant across from Union Square, and the numerous other things aforementioned. One of the most marvelous things about the entire trip (up the coast and all) was that the weather stayed beautiful the entire time. Even in the Redwood Forests where it was supposed to be rainy and 40 to 60 degrees, it was 74. I was amazed at how beautiful it turned out to be.

Summer...(I think you can call it that)

2007-09-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

So summer came and went in a blur this year. What an odd summer (year) this has been. The summer itself was disappointing (the coolest we've had in a while)... and I have craved the sun and heat this year even more than others (perhaps its from getting old). I can say thankfully that there were two beautiful days (upper 80's) that I spent at the Puyallup Fair...(then Margaret went home and took the sun with her!). I am glad we got those two days!

I also had one wonderfully hot day just outside Santa Rosa, CA. We ate lunch (outside mind you) at a beautiful little winery...The Crushed Grape...(I believe that was it). Outside in the shade that day it was 102 degrees. It was the first time (in a long time) that I thought..."It's too hot out here." Of course, I could not possibly say that to Doug and Margaret (I have done nothing but whine about the lack of heat) so I kept saying "Are you sure you're ok out here, honey?" Unbelievably, he kept saying, "Yea, I'm ok". So I had to suck it up and sweat through lunch. Needless to say, I had enough heat for that day.

Aside from those few days of heat, the other great thing about this summer has been discovering the hottub. I don't know what took Doug and I so long to actually get it up and running (we kept saying "Ah, we don't care about hottubs...) but Wow! after we did, we couldn't stay out of it. For me the warm water and the smell of chlorine gave the illusion that I was actually having a summer. I kept having alternating flashbacks of summers spent in the Jacksonville Rec Center pool and of every hotel hottub we've enjoyed over the years.

Now the rains have returned and well....fall is settling in as usual. At least the hottub is covered...I can still go out there and pretend.

When is a blog not a blog? (Hi, Margaret)

2007-07-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

Technically, I don’t believe a blog ever ceases to be a blog. However, I do believe a blog may cease to be an active blog which has been the case with this blog for what… the last six months or so? So when does a blog cease to be an active blog…perhaps one reason is when the blogger is busy writing 2 two- to three-thousand word papers a week. This may make the idea of writing anything outside of class…ummm…absolutely unthinkable. Yeah, that could be one reason.

So what has occurred over the last six months besides more school papers than I ever cared to write?

Well, for starters, Sarah went away to school(Western Washington University) in January. This was a huge deal for her. She is a complete homebody, a Momma's girl that I thought would never move out! (Ashly, who is quite the opposite, could not get out fast enough).

WWU is only two and a half hours away so Sarah drove home (yikes!) on the weekends. It was an interesting experience for both of us. I had no idea I would actually miss the child as much as I did. With her being at school and Doug working at night,though, the house got way too quiet for me. Now that Sarah is home for the summer, she has already decided not to go back to Western. (I had a feeling....she likes free meals and room and board too much).

I lost Doug for most of the last six months to his Tacoma Freedom Fair Airshow planning. I already had a loose hold on him where his airplane interests were concerned...(truly, I cannot compete...he would trade me for an airplane, anyday, I'm sure)so when the Tacoma Events Commission asked him to coordinate their air show for the 4th of July...I lost him completely. I think I have some of his attention back, now...a little anyway.

When Sarah got out of school in June, she and I took a road trip. We had been craving the sun and Western Washington weather is so bipolar in the spring that we decided to head over the mountains to Eastern Washington. For those who do not know it...Eastern and Western Washington are like two different worlds. The west side (where we live) has cool, rainy, mild weather and the East side (where I'd rather live) is like a desert. That is ... it is like a desert most of the time....but not this time, nope....this time it was just as cold on the East side as it was on the West. We were disappointed but we decided to have fun anyway.
We stayed one night in Leavenworth...a Bavarian look-alike town with dozens of gift shops and specialty stores. They have plenty of German food, accordian players in the park, and yodeling, too.

Because of the fruit growing climate on the East side, there are dozens of fruit stands on the way to Leavenworth. Smallwoods Harvest is our favorite. It has grown to be much more than a fruit stand, though. It has green houses, a playground, and a petting zoo ( my absolute favorite thing to do!).

After our night in Leavenworth we drove to Spokane. It was a beautifully, warm drive (about three hours or so) until we actually entered Spokane, then it rained the rest of the day. Again, we decided to have fun anyway. We swam in the heated indoor pool. The next day was very cool outside but it was not raining. We spent the whole day at Silverwood Theme Park in Idaho.
We decided to swim at Boulder Beach even though it was in the low 70's. Fortunately, the shivering stops after you've been in the water for a while. The next day the weather was beautiful for the drive home. So on this, my four day vacation in June, the only part of my body that got tan was the lower half of my left arm, my driving arm.

In other news...I am only taking one class each term through the summer. This is freeing me up to enjoy the summer some...to play in my garden and to work in my church's counseling program....and maybe...just maybe to keep this blog from going inactive for so long...

I really hate to bother you Ma’am…..

2006-12-20T17:13:00.004-08:00

That’s what the policeman said the first time he came to the door. “I really hate to bother you, but is that your red car out there?” He said this as he pointed to Doug’s red Torino that was parked in the cul-de-sac. Yes, Doug’s red Torino….. that is…one of Doug’s 1975 red and white Torinos…..one of his 1975 "not a Starsky and Hutch red and white Torino" but more like a Huggy Bear "looks like a pimp drives it" red and white Torino. Yes, one of the 1975 red and white Torinos that he bid on on ebay and won and flew across the country to get this fall.

“Yes, it is,officer,” I reply. “Well, one of your neighbors has complained that it is parked in the wrong direction and has been that way for weeks.” I’m sure the expression on my face gave away my disbelief. The officer apologized thoroughly for having to come to my house about such a petty thing. I told him I would move it and he left. So I turned it the other direction.

I, of course immediately called Doug to let him know someone in the neighborhood undoubtedly did not share his appreciation for cars made in 1975, especially ones that are red and white and look like they belong to people with un-reputable professions.

This happened about four or five weeks ago. Since then we have regularly joked about it considering half the cars on the cul-de-sac are parked the wrong direction. But last night as Doug and I joked about it again I decided we needed to just let it go….we needed to get over it and love our petty neighbors no matter what. He agreed……until today.

“I really hate to bother you ma’am.” That’s what the policeman said this morning, the second time he’s come to the door. “Is that your red car parked out there?” You’ve got to be kidding, right! Nope. “Someone has complained that your car never moves from the cul-de-sac, does it run?” Wow, I’m thinking what kind of neighborhood did we move into? The officer was very apologetic again and said as long as it runs and we drive it occasionally then it can stay on the cul-de-sac. Wow. I was pretty stunned. I mean,I know my husband is crazy and I know that car is ugly but hey, that's for me to say...not my neighbors.

Ok, so it's really time to catch up....don't you think.

2006-12-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in a while because all my blogging energy the last few months has been sunk into my first graduate course, "The Integration of Psychology and Theology". I did manage to get a couple of blurbs up on MySpace but nothing much. To catch up here, I'll start with Mother/Daughter activities.

In September, Ashly and I had our first Mother/Daughter trip. We went to St. Louis. Because Joyce Meyer is one of my heroes and she was being joined by such greats as Lisa Bevere, Darlene Zschech, and John Maxwell, I wanted to go to her Annual Women's Convention. I wanted to take both girls with me but Sarah was afraid she would get bored. She opted out. Ashly, on the other hand, could not pass up an all expense paid trip so she and I went. We had a great time. In addition to laughing hysterically at Lisa Bevere and enjoying all the conferences, we managed to cram in some sight-seeing. We walked under the Arch but did not go to the top. Doug thought it was a crime that we didn't go up but she and I decided it was one of those things like bungee jumping or going to DollyWood..we were pretty sure we would be ok if we never got to do it..(for me it was never got to do it again..I've been). We also ate some good St. Louis BBQ and went to the Zoo but the best thing we did was go to Historic St. Charles. It is a cute little town with cobble stone streets and little old houses converted into gift shops. We went during an Irish Festival so all the shops stayed open late and there was Irish music and such. Lots of horse and buggies, too. It was great fun.
Also, she and I learned something about each other on this trip. I learned that she suffers from lilapsophobia and she learned that I have macrophobia. (I'll make this interactive by letting everyone look those up for themselves). HA.

Ok so I had another Mother/Daughter activity in October. This time it was with Sarah. This activity was nothing I anticipated, planned, or particularly wanted to do, but I did it anyway because I'm good like that.
Sarah and I hold a common admiration for the Christian poppish-punkish rock band, Relient K. She of course loves them enough to want to see them in concert whenever she can. I prefer to listen to them from afar. Well, about the third week of October she found out, quite by accident(it was not well advertised), that they would be in Seattle on Halloween night.
When she discovered they would be here, she immediately bought two tickets without even knowing who she would bring. Now it was only a week before the concert date and the concert was on Halloween, do you really think she could find someone without plans...she's 19. Of course not. Guess who she chose for a backup date. That's right, me. Now, I don't mind seeing people like Jars of Clay in concert..they're pretty benign but Relient K with four other rock bands...That was another one of those things I was pretty sure I would be ok if I never got to do...But, got to do, I did. And even though two of the bands were extreme (heavy-metal, screaming, head-banging, jumping into the crowd kind of guys) I did survive. I don't know if it was because the venue was small (as well as the crowd) or that I just underestimated my ability to tolerate loud music and chaos but it really wasn't that bad. (I was also very grateful that I was not the only old person there...there were at least several moms and a couple of dads). Yeah, so the whole thing was not all that bad.

Ok, well that is all the news I have for now....

Fountains and garden gates

2006-08-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's Official.......

2006-08-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

On August 11, 2006 I graduated from Saint Martin's University with a BA in Psychology. My diploma is in the mail....YAY.

Assorted garden photos and a really big spider.....

2006-08-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

Fashion

2006-08-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Have you ever experienced that strange sense of panic after getting yourself stuck in some article of clothing? I think my first real panic attack was when I got myself stuck in a pair of pants as a kid. I had pulled my jeans on over my shoes and about half way up, my shoes got stuck in the legs. They wouldn't go up or down. Then this dreadful feeling of panic hit me.. like "OH, My God! I'm stuck!!!" Then I started struggling and pulling and trying to get myself out of them, making the situation even worse. Finally something gave (I think my shoes came off) and I got the jeans back down my legs. "Whew!" That was a horrible feeling. I'd love to say that never happens anymore but....it does (usually not with pants over my shoes though, I learned that lesson). But, I have gotten myself stuck in dresses as I'm pulling them over my head.......... nothing like flailing around with both arms stuck up in the air......it's horrible.....and I still get myself stuck in my jean jacket when I try to take it off without removing my arms first.....and that's like tying both arms behind your back.....You would think now that I'm an adult some rational reasoning like "Hey, this is just cloth....it can't be permanent....what's the worse that could happen.....I could always cut myself out of it"......or some brilliant thought like that would keep me from panicking, but it doesn't. I think it must be related to claustrophobia or something.....anyway, Sarah experienced a similar type of panic while shopping at Ross yesterday. She went in the dressing room to try on a couple of shirts while I was still shopping.I knew it was taking her a long time.....when she finally came out she had one of the shirts on. I thought she was just showing it to me so I said, "I think it's too tight." She grimaced and said, "You think! Come here." That's when she frantically whispered, "I can't get it off! I'm stuck! I need your help!" "Heh, heh, heh," I snickered. And I gleefully followed her to the dressing room to help peel the shirt off. Snicker, snicker.

Accidents will happen......

2006-08-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

So Doug and I were driving down Meridian the other day, in stop and go traffic, minding our own business, when the boy behind us accidently used the back of our car to stop his. I really don't like the feeling of getting slammed from behind...it's disturbing...BUT I'm glad he wasn't going very fast (nothing like the time I got slammed into in my Escort). I felt sooooo bad for this boy, though. He was only 18 and he was so upset he almost cried. He had to fight back the tears the whole time he was talking to us. I don't know if he was just afraid of what his parents were going to do or what....but if he had not cracked my bumper I would have just let it go. We talked to his dad last night...I did ask him not to be too hard on his son since accidents will happen..."I know," I told him, "I have two daughters that have wrecked our cars multiple times." His dad was reassured after that.....so.....now I'll just be without my Mustang for three whole days!

More photos

2006-07-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

Photos by request......

2006-07-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ok so it appears.......

2006-07-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

that I took a rather long hiatus from blogging but honestly I was just MySpacing for a while. Both Ashly and Sarah have MySpaces and they wanted me to have one too, so I made one. It was quite fun for a while.

Meanwhile, Doug and I have bought a fabulous new house. It is not only bigger than our last house but much better, too. It's a split level that allows Mom to stay on one floor only. She was having a hard time with the stairs in our old house. It also allows us our own space for entertaining. (We've already started!) Best of all though is the incredible, incredible yard!! It was professionally landscaped for wedding photography by the previous owners.

Sooooo........ we've inherited 42 rose bushes of various styles and colors, eight or more hydrangeas also of various styles and colors, two kinds of honeysuckle (the hummingbirds love it), three clematis, numerous rodedendrons, four peonies, a butterfly bush and much much more. Some of the stuff I don't even know what it is. Oh, yeah, there is a wysteria....several Japanese maples, and other assorted trees,as well. The only drawback to all this beauty is the amount of work it takes to maintain it. Who knew it could take soooo looong to weed a garden! Wow!

Another interesting feature are the hundreds of garden spiders that build their little webs in all sorts of inconvenient places.....like doorways and pathways and in between trees and bushes and almost anywhere you would like to walk. Doug, Sarah and I are perpetually running into them then frantically asking..."Do I have a spider in my hair!!??" That's annoying...but those guys are not nearly as scary as the spiders who have set up home under the hottub gazebo. Those guys are Scary! One of them looks like he's been eating something more than bugs for dinner......I don't think we can allow him to live much longer! Seriously.

Aside from all that fun.....I finally finished school. As of July 18th I finished all the credits I need for my BA in Psychology. Now it's just a matter of formal paper work and I'll have my degree in hand! Yipppee! I'm taking 6 months off before I go back for my Masters'. Hopefully, I won't lose too much momentum!

(Oh, yeah, in the middle of all the craziness....buying a house, finishing up school, moving, and trying to sell our old house...we managed to squeeze a trip to Hawaii in. We took Sarah with us this time.....she loved it....)

I'll blog photos next time.

No time for blogging..........

2006-02-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

I'm taking four classes this term. I'm taking "Learning and Behavior", Personality Therories, (uh, oh, watch out, I'm analyzing you),"Abnormal Child Psych" (uh, oh, now I'm analyzing your kids)and "Psychology of the Family". This is keeping me reeaaally busy so I might not be on here for a while.......but who knows....maybe I'll squeak something in if it strikes me as blog-worthy.

"And over to you, Dan, for the weather...."

2006-01-20T21:20:00.000-08:00

Jars Of Clay - Flood

Provided by VideoCodes4U.com

Here's something to think about......

2006-01-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

Organic socks. Yes, you can now buy your socks organic. That's right....right between the "Goldtoe" and "Hanes" you can find "Sara's Organic Legwear". Isn't that something.

Yes, the model rocket is mine.

2005-12-26T21:19:00.000-08:00

Why you ask, did my husband get me a model rocket for Christmas? Because he's great, that's why. You see every time we go into this one hobby shop I have flashbacks of my childhood. So I tell him the stories about how I grew up in the middle of nowhere (Alligator, MS) and we (my family) used to go to "town"(seriously! we went to Clarksdale) on Saturdays. Mom would drop us (the kids) off at Woolworth's and we could shop (with our dollar allowance) in the stores on that one city block. (It was really the only block, the main drag I guess) So I used to follow my brother Tommy (who was four years my senior and pretty much "God" to me) around. And every Saturday, Tommy would go to the hobby shop and I would follow. He loved to build model rockets so I spent alot of time watching him build his rockets and helping him shoot them off. It was great fun. So now every time we go to a hobby shop, I say to Doug, "We ought to build a model rocket." And for years he's been saying, "Yeah, we should." And now this Christmas season we will.

Ok, so that's not the only great thing he did this Christmas. He also got me a box full of gloves (my hands are always cold), the Giant Book of Origami (I wanted one of those origami calendars so I could create something new everyday...he got me the deluxe kit instead), several DVDs, a blender (we needed a new one) and lots and lots of money that he hid all over the house and gave me little clues (a treasure hunt) on where to find it. Things like that constitute greatness, to me.

Now, of course, all of that made Christmas fun, but the best part was getting to go to Church on the actual holiday. It really made it special. I think we should have church every Christmas day whether it falls on Sunday or not. I know some churches probably do, but ours never has. So, I think I'll suggest it.

If only I had known.......

2005-12-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

I would have started model rocketry a long time ago.

Christmas ghost stories

2005-12-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok so yesterday as Doug and I were riding around in the car, a popular Christmas carol was on the radio. I do not know which one it was (and neither does Doug) but I swear it says something about telling "scary ghost stories"...... I am not kidding....... I have probably heard this song a billion times and I had never heard that line......"scary ghost stories" until Doug pointed it out. And so we both went...."What? Scary ghost stories? There are Christmas ghost stories? Hey, why haven't we heard them? All these years we've been missing out! We've been cheated.....no one has ever told us a scary Christmas ghost story! Uh, what's up with that?"

Merry Christmas

2005-12-20T08:51:00.000-08:00

We're Baaack.......

2005-12-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

We had to buy a new hard drive. We're having to reinstall every program we had, but we are on our way. Yay.

I get a whole month off from school and I am very excited about it! On my first couple of days off I was so happy to be alive that I decorated the whole house, inside and out. (ok Doug helped with the outside) I even bought a new wreath, put lights in all the windows, and put lights on the little tree outside. I haven't decorated that much, I think, since the girls were little.

But, in-between creating all this beauty, I was also creating some "Death and Dying" of my own. I killed five innocent little fish. It wasn't intentional, I mean how was I supposed to know that tropical fish need their water heated? (Perhaps the term "tropical" should have been a clue.)
But nowhere in my 2 gal aquarium instructions did it suggest you needed to heat the water. It mentions conditioning the water and buying a lightbulb but no heater. So anyway I go pick out the prettiest little fantail guppies and some neon tetras. And what do I do, I bring them home to the Artic to chill them to death. The tetras died over night but the guppies kept swimming furiously for a day (I think they were trying to create their own heat). By the second day, I had killed all five fish. What a shame. And I had even given them names.

On a lighter note.....Doug and I have a Secret Santa.....we don't know who it is but one of our funny friends is leaving packages on the porch with pieces of a nativity scene. Each package has come with a funny poem letting us know there are more pieces to come. The last poem was based on "We three Kings made in China we are." It was funny. So Doug and I have been leaving our Secret Santa cookies and milk in return. (we just might steal this little game and use it as our own next year.....it's quite fun)

I've hijacked Sarah's computer.....

2005-12-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Mine is broken.....which really hasn't bothered me that much now that finals are over. I was utterly and completely panicked when it first crashed. Why? Because I had four papers to write in about the same amount of days...ok well a couple more days but what's the difference when you don't have a computer? Needless to say, I was extremely stressed. My paper writing process usually consists of me sitting in front of the computer for hours and hours on end, lots of food and loud music, too. I really did not know if I could process a paper any other way but guess what.....I found the old fashioned just going to the library with paper and pencil in hand actually still works. I did get to use Sarah's computer for typing and some of the work but I survived without my old routine. Amazing.

I also survived my three depressing classes. For those who did not know..... I took "Death and Dying", "The Problem with Evil", and "Chemical Dependency and the Family" last term. Nothing like reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Plague" for Thanksgiving break. (it did make me more thankful though) I really liked the Chemical Dependency class. It was one of the few classes I've taken at St. Martin's that I have really enjoyed. I don't know if it was the instructor or just the relevance of the materials....but anyway it was good.

Just to let you know....Burlington Coat Factory never returned my email. But Doug finally cooled off....he never called the corporate office. I do know he will never shop there again though, so if you are on his Christmas list and you happen to get a $40.00 Burlington gift card, well you'll know why.......

(our computer should be back up next week)

Store credit only.

2005-11-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning the house the other day when the phone rang. It was Doug. “Did you know Burlington Coat Factory does not give refunds?” he asked. “Uh… no, I didn’t know that,” I replied. “Well, they don’t,” he said, “They give store credit, that’s all.” Uh, oh, I recognized that tone of voice. It was the “I’m-just-faking-calm” voice and it sounded like it was just about to stop faking.

See, last week he and I went to Burlington to buy him a jacket for work; one he could wear on the flight line when it was raining. So he found this red and black jacket that he liked and I thought was ok. In the store, it made him look like a football coach. But, funny thing about trying on things in stores, half the time you get those things home and they look totally different. And so it was with this jacket. When he tried it on here, the football coach disappeared and big, white rapper guy showed up. Needless to say, we agreed, he should take that back. And now we're back to the phone call.

“Well, that’s ok,” I said about the store credit, “you can use that.” Wrong! Calm voice gone. “I don’t want store credit! I want my money back!” Now, all I was thinking was “Poor, Sarah. She’s standing there with maniac man while he tries to force the manager to change the store policy.” Well, it didn’t work, at least not yet. (Sarah told me later that she thought it was funny....she agreed it was a stupid policy) In the meantime, I did e-mail Burlington to ask why they offer a full cash refund in their online store but not their “real” stores. They sent me a nice form letter that said, “We do not offer cash refunds or credit charges to credit cards. We do however offer a store credit.” So I sent the e-mail back and said, “That was not my question. My question was……..” They never e-mailed me back. Doug is still going to call their corporate office. He insists that he’ll get his money back. But don’t be too surprised if you see a crazy guy in front of Burlington with a boycott sign.

I never get sick....

2005-11-13T10:21:00.000-08:00

at least that's what I always say. And it's been true, up until now. I used to never get to call-in to work because well, I was never sick. The last time I had a cold was at least two years ago if not more. I mean it's been so long...I can't even remember. The girls and Doug are always "fighting off something". Me....never "fighting off" anything. But at this point I really do need the tissue attached to my head. And I'm going to blame my friend Debi. I know it's impossible to catch a cold over the phone but that's what I'm claiming. You see, Thursday morning my friend Debi called saying she didn't feel like doing anything because she had a cold. And I was like, "Wow, you keep getting all these colds. Don't you think it's because you work in a medical office." Not this time she says....she caught it from her daughter. And that was that. Well, by that evening my throat was feeling a little scratchy but I was blaming it on yelling at Billy when he chased a cat outside. The scratchiness, though, never got better. And by Friday evening I was full blown sick. What's up with that? So, I've spent two days all holed up on the couch with cough drops, tissues, my water bottle, and the remote control. I don't like being sick but..... I have to say, I do like everyone saying "Can I get you anything?" and "Is there anything you need?" and "No, it's ok, you can watch whatever you want to." Heh, heh, heh....yep...I could get used to that.

Billy's little sweater.....

2005-11-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

was originally to keep him from messing with his stitches. It served a dual purpose though; it also made him easier to look at. Now that his stitches are all out, his sweater is serving to keep his little furless body warm. (and it makes him handsome, don't you think!)

AAAHHH!

2005-11-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

Please know this….I love my psychology professor, Dr. B (I’ll call her that for privacy)….she is an incredibly unique and interesting woman. She has sat under some of the most renowned psychology professors in the world. She has wisdom and experience that I can not even fathom. But…….. She. Drives. Me. Crazy.!

Like today, we watched a movie in class. And that’s all we got to do, was watch. We would have liked to have listened, too....BUT...for some reason, Dr. B felt she must narrate this film…. play by play. She would say….this is the part where she’s thinking of her past….this is the part where she is younger….this is the part where she meets her friends….and in between these announcements she would give a brief discourse on why that scene was important. She did all of this WHILE the movie was still going. Then she would stop and give us just enough time to get re-interested in the movie and she would start narrating again.

The whole time I heard the constant drone of blah, blah, blah, from Dr. B in one ear and blah, blah, blah, from the actors in the other. This was the MOST frustrating experience I’ve had in a while. I would've just blocked everything out except we were told we would have to write a reaction paper at the end of the film. It turned out that Dr. B changed her mind about the paper (she does that often) and I was REALLY glad because all mine would have said was ……..AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!(I just had to get that off my chest)

Isn't life grand.

2005-10-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

Ok so last night I had a two hour meeting at the church. Because the meeting started at 5:00, I left the house around 4:30. And because this was too early to eat dinner, I decided to wait. Someone else in the church (not in the meeting) did not have to wait, so for two hours I got to smell the delicious aroma of their dinner coming from the kitchen. This made me very hungry. When I got home, I greeted Doug with, “I’m hungry, what did you have for dinner?”(not very nice, huh?) Well, never mind that, because Doug being the super-duper guy that he is, just smiled and pulled a brown paper Po-Boy’s BBQ bag from the fridge. Yay!! Po-Boy’s only has the best BBQ EVER! It’s this scary little diner on Meridian that has all of its original 1970’s fixtures and (I'm sure) some of its original dirt. I, personally, would have never, ever gone in that place. (something about old, rundown places… I avoid) But, Doug, who doesn’t have obsessions like I do, was pulled off the streets one day by its aroma. He liked it so much, he brought me home a sandwich and we’ve been addicted ever since.

So, after I ate my sandwich last night, without too many bites or too many breaths (I paid for that later) I settled in on the couch with my blanket. Ahhhh. While Doug was busy conquering the world via his computer game, I had sole possession of the remote control. I flipped through the channels to my hearts content. At first my mind kept saying, “You ought to do your homework.” Then my mind would say, “No, this is fun, do this.” So, I did that. I spent the rest of the night flipping between the food channel (I have a fascination with the Iron Chef….both American and Japanese….I don’t know why…..the food they fix is not really edible is it?....but anyway) and a figure skating competition. And so, I said, "What more could you want?" Being warm, full and entertained, I marveled, "Isn't life grand!"

My passion fruit.

2005-10-21T16:32:00.000-07:00

While Doug and I were out shopping last night, we were in the produce department when I discovered this ugly little fruit. I had probably seen them before but because of their unappealing exterior I most likely walked on by. For some reason last night, though I was feeling a little risky and said, "Hey, I wonder what this strange little fruit is all about?" Doug wasn't interested at all.....until I told him it was a passion fruit. Then he decided, "Sure, we can get one of those." Neither of us looked at the price and were a little astonished when we got to the register with it. $3.00! It cost three whole dollars! Wow! I had no idea it could cost that much. I've bought whole melons for less than that! Well, we bought it anyway and today I decided to try it. I was in for another surprise when I cut the thing open. "What is that?" I wondered as I gazed at the oozing innards. Doug thought it looked rotten. It didn't smell bad, it was just gooey and strange on the inside.

Since Ashly used to work in the Safeway produce department, I called her up to see what she knew about passion fruit. She said their Safeway was much too small and unsophisticated to carry passion fruit. She suggested I ask the store where I bought it. I looked online instead. And yes, that's what a passion fruit should look like on the inside and well, all those seeds are edible. Most people, they say, just sieve them and use the juice. In Hawaii they eat them with bananas. And in Doug and Joye's house, they will skip eating passion fruit. They will eat apples, and oranges and melons, instead.

A fish tale...

2005-10-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's less of a tale and more of an epiphany (I think you can call it that). Did you realize (I'm sure most of you did, but it has just occurred to me) that these fish are called "smelt". Now, please, I wonder how they came up with that name! Hmmm.....I personally believe that when they were sitting around saying, "Man, that thing smelt!" ... they should have been more specific and said "Man, that thing smelt bad!" And don't you think all fish could qualify as 'smelt'. I do.

(Ok, I'm betting this post is an epiphany to some of you who have just realized that I am completely weird. )

I know it's wrong.......

2005-10-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

But I have an unhealthy desire to hurt Tom Cruise. He wants Katie Holmes to push that baby out of her body without screaming, talking, crying or medication; I can't help but hope he gets to experience passing something really, really painful out of his......(I know...... it's wrong)

On a lighter note, did you realize that airline ticketing agents ask: "Has anyone put anything into your bags without your knowledge?" hmmmm...How exactly are you supposed to answer that?......."I don't know, maybe we should look?"

First fruits (or are these vegetables?)

2005-10-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

These are the first pumpkins from my "surprise-you-accidently-grew-a-pumpkin-patch" garden......I think I should have fertilized.

It's Alive!

2005-10-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Or, rather He's alive. Yes, Billy survived the second surgery but he came out looking like something Dr. Frankenstein assembled. I decided not to include a photo because quite frankly.... he's gross. Sarah, won't even look at him. She talks to him with her back turned which is kind of confusing to him...but, at least his still alive.

That's something to blog about.

2005-10-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ok this is how bad my “blogger-logged” brain has become. Last night when Doug and I were taking out the trash together there was a small slug on the sidewalk. When Doug’s foot was just hovering over it I said, “Be careful, don’t step on that blog.” It’s true. Of course we both laughed about it but then I thought, “Hey, slugs are something to blog about. After all, if you haven’t been to the Great Northwest, have you really experienced a slug?”

So this is my blog about slugs. The first time Doug and I saw a slug here we thought it was something the dog did. I’m not kidding, but then it moved….and we were like, “Hey, that thing’s alive!” Seriously, the slugs here are HUGE, like four inches long.

So is there anything worse than stepping on a slug….barefoot?........Yes! Squishing (or rather, popping) one in the garage door and having guts fly into your face and hair.................much worse. Doug had a similar “up close and personal” experience when he chopped one up with the weed-eater. Pretty gross.

When we first moved here, though, I was pretty much at peace with the slugs, they just didn’t bother me. Then, I bought some flowers....and then my flowers started to disappear. Of, course, slugs, being stupid little creatures, they leave trails of evidence every where they go...and so the war was on.

Someone told me beer was the solution. I was told to pour it in a saucer; the slugs would come along, try to drink the beer, fall in and die, right? Wrong. My slugs just came along, drank the beer, ate my flowers and were grateful for the party.

Doug devised his own plan to get rid of them. He had a little "chamber of death" on the front porch. He just picked up slugs, threw them into an empty coffee can, put the lid on and left them there to die. They all melded into one big slug and that was way too gross for me.

After losing one too many plants, I decided to buy some slug bait. Poison, I say, Poison. It’s disguised as tasty little morsels and slugs love it. When niece Allie was here she became the "Great Northwest Slug Hunter". She tracked them down all over the yard and hand fed them slug bait. It was great fun. Now, I do that, too. With box in hand, I go out saying, “It’s time to feed my slugs!” Heh heh heh…..

Billy's Harrowing Tale

2005-10-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

I don’t usually write long, sappy stories but this one I had to tell. You see, I had completely forgotten how much I love my little dog Billy until a few days ago. For probably ten years my family accused me of loving the dog more than them and well, I guess it appeared that way. But over the last couple of years, like my friend Ruth and her dog, me and Billy had grown apart. With all of his increasing needs and little accidents in the house, I was getting rather tired of him. He had also been producing an odor that made him believe his new name was “Billy You Stink”. I really believed it was time for Billy to pass on. But the other day changed my mind. It was about mid-day and Mom let him out in the back yard to “do his business”. She didn’t know the gate was open but Billy knew it and he decided to take himself for a walk. What happened when he was walking himself we will never know, but it was something bad. When he came home a few hours later I knew he was acting strange but I did not know exactly why. When I finally checked him over thoroughly for wounds, I found a three inch long gash in his side along with other small wounds. I cried. It was then that I realized I was a long way off from wanting Billy to leave my side. When I took him to the vet, she was concerned with his wounds but she was even more concerned with his teeth. It turned out that his teeth were in such bad condition, she had to pull many of them. Poor Billy, he went in with one wound and came out with no teeth. Now he has a big, bald spot on his side, seven stitches, bald spots on his front legs, and snaggled teeth. But all in all, he came out smelling a whole lot better and regaining a lot of love. Awwwww……

I'm completely addicted.

2005-10-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it, I am completely addicted to reading blogs. (no thanks to that little "next blog" button at the top of the page). I keep finding myself sucked into this perpetual cycle of "next blog" read a little, "next blog" read a little ,"next blog" and on and on. It's crazy! I have found some great pages, though. I'm also completely jealous of some of the really "cool" sites. There are tools out there that I don't have! Someday, I'll link some of those sites, if I can stop reading long enough to figure out how to add links!!

It Bears Repeating.

2005-10-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Because this was the funniest/craziest thing I had heard all year...... (except when the mail lady thought Doug said his name was Stud)...... I decided to repost it in this new blog. Above you will see part of the instructions for my new "Vidal Sasoon Professional 1875" model blowdryer. If you'll note: #7 says to never use while sleeping. While this is understandable, my original dilemma was that I wasn't sure how I would know that I was using my blowdryer when I was asleep. That made it hard to comply with instruction #7. My new thoughts are....."How much trouble do you think I would be in if I did break rule #7? You see, if I could blow dry my hair while I was asleep, do you know that would knock off a whole 20 mins. of getting ready time AND I could add that to my sleep time.....now that would be worth it. Hmmm.....I just wonder...."

Some things I learned as a kid.

2005-10-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

I learned that.....

Dry dog food tastes great but adults flip out if they catch you eating it.

Cats do not like to be thrown up in the air and if you happen to catch one as its coming down, you'll be sorry.

Batman slippers do not protect your feet from rusty nails and tetanus shots hurt.

You should never trust your brother when he says, "You go first" after he suggested you both jump off the water tank.

When you jump off a really high structure, like a water tank, it hurts your ankles really bad if you don't know how to land right.

You should never run into a room crying "I lost my marbles" even if it is true.