My Son

Where has all the time gone? It seems like yesterday that my children were small.Today I went to order the Senior photo packet for my youngest son. Next fall he, too, will go off to college and then what? It will be just me and their dad -- what to do? Oh my gosh, what am I talking about? I should be rejoicing in the fact that our youngest is almost there! One more year of high school.

My youngest is different from my other two. My oldest was a social butterfly--the Belle of the Ball, the hockey player, the actress, the Princess. My middle son was the jock, the football player, the politician who wrote many stories. And my youngest is a little of both, but much like his father. He is pensive, playful, talkative, and also a wonderful writer. He is so ready to be done with high school and move on with his life. "Change your attitude," I tell him. "Enjoy your last year -- make it fun." He responds, "Are we talking about the same high school?" And he laughs.Today I ordered his senior pictures -- pricey, yes, no doubt. But he is my last one and his picture needs to hang right next to his brother and sister's.

Honey, we've done good. God has blessed us.

Where's my antibiotic?

Oh my gosh! Did I mention that I was sick this week? I do look forward to retirement. More and more my immunities have declined and I catch anything my little ones have. My daughter said, "Mom, you don't touch their pencils do you?" My response was, "Yeah, I do." Oh darn! I don't think I had been this sick in a long time. Right now I am exhausted. So much going on around me, but I'm going to put it all on the back shelf until tomorrow morning or midmorning or better, around noon! The moral of this story is -- buy -- is it Prell?

Family

This is the area where I grew up. It is called the Hagerman Valley in southern Idaho. From what I hear Hagerman has grown by leaps and bounds. New people have moved in to replace or add to the old families that used to live there. When we were growing up, I don't think we thought beyond tomorrow. We lived for the day and had our good and bad times. My favorite thing to do beside going to school was fishing. Every year - I don't remember what season - we would wake up early with our fishing poles ready to go. We would go out to the lakes along with many of the local and visiting fishermen (and women) to cast our poles at the designated time. It was so much fun! As soon as we caught our limit (there was quite a few of us) we would head home to cook our trout. Delicious!

Times have passed. Memories are good. We all went our separate ways. Two of us stayed in Idaho - the rest are scattered across the U.S. -- sometimes when I am at the store during a holiday, I hear people talk about who is coming over for dinner and everyone I listen to has family here -- we are too scattered.

BUT we love each other and do try to get together once in a great while. :-)

Now our children are growing up and making their own ways in the world. We celebrate their accomplishments which are many and share our sadness when there is a misfortune or poor choices made. I have heard that people say sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in order to see the errors of your way and I believe this. As parents, however, our hearts hurt when our children hurt.

Again we are here for each other.

Little Sister

Happy Birthday, little sister! I love you.

Let me tell you about my little sister. I am 2nd in line and she is 5th. There is a lot that I remember when we were growing up and a lot that I do not remember. I left home when she was still very young.

Now that we are older, she is my closest ally -- I can tell her anything in confidence and she in return. She grew up to be a tall, beautiful young woman. She dresses in styles of the fashion world. She is soft-spoken and kind. Her husband and sons love her and hold her in high regard. She is blessed. And I am happy for her life. I am proud of whom she has become.

Happy Birthday, little sister. :-)

Simple Life

Where have the simple days gone? Yesterday I had a child (first grade, mind you) who told his partner "f-you" but used the long version. I could not believe it. When I asked him why he said that he shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know." ok. Then this morning I had a child who twisted another child's arm for the third time and I had to send him to the office with a referral. I'm at a loss right now.

Growing up in a small town back in the 60's and 70's, it was unheard of to use vulgar language. I don't even think I heard it till I moved to California. Children were very respectful of their teachers. But I do realize the problems that exist today for our school children - don't get me wrong - times have changed.

I was telling my husband yesterday how my mom used to make all our lunches from scratch. Our bread was homemade (the best you ever tasted). She would make hamburger patties or egg salad. It was a treat for us when we actually got a baloney sandwich in our lunch -- I think that's why I like baloney so much now. A good baloney sandwich with a cup of coffee is the best! mmmm....

We also used to spend a lot of time outside -- gardening, fishing, working on the farm, playing with each other since there were 8 of us kids at one time. We didn't watch tv too much. I remember watching shows like Lawrence Welk, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Car 54 - Where Are You?The Three Stooges. Later on we would watch Laugh In! Loved Goldie Hawn!

The picture up above is my old school gym. We were the Pirates! Going to basketball games was the highlight of our town-- that was the best time of my high school life. As a reward about three times a year, we got to watch a movie on a screen set up on the stage. It was so much fun since we had no movie theater in our little town. We watched The Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck. We also watched To Kill a Mockingbird -- also with Gregory Peck. Don't forget Where the Red Fern Grows and The Yearling. Good all-American movies :-).

Yes siree -- life was simpler . . . then.

For My Friends

To my dearest friends,

Sometimes I hear a scripture that really hits home and I think how blessed we are to be able to hear God's word and to know how much He loves us. There is so much strife in the lives around us that our hearts hurt for them and I always pray for God to give me the words that he would want me to say to them.

Here is a scripture that really hit home yesterday -- My first thought upon hearing it was -- Wow! How amazing!

Psalm 30:5 Weeping may endure for the night,

But joy comes in the morning.

Seasons come and go, the pain becomes easier and the burden lighter with God's help. I, too, need to remember this scripture. We need to have faith and believe that He will help us through the "night" for "joy comes in the morning." Everything will be alright for those who believe in the Lord and pray.

Times Change

Where are the days when counselor's use to help fill out all the necessary paperwork for seniors embarking on their future college careers? I don't get it. My son and I have sat in front of this computer for probably an hour filling out the very lengthy, detailed form for the darn ACT. I don't remember doing this for my two oldest children. My daughter told me her AVID teacher helped her and my son's counselor helped him -- so back to the question -- where are those days when counselors did this for us? No more? Then I should be a counselor and help, especially our Spanish speaking parents -- how do they do it????

Nevertheless, it's done.

Now, changing the topic: Coming home today from taking our parrot to get his claws and wings clipped, we saw some boys waiting for the change in the traffic light in order to walk across. One boy had his pants hanging past his hips with other shorts underneath, and then his "chonis." Now come on, he must surely know that his "nalgitas" were showing through those skimpy "chonis" -- does he not realize how STUPID that looks? Ay! Estos jovenes!

On another topic: Boy that Edwards blew it, didn't he -- Que cochino! Who did he think he was? What a jerk!

Ok-- I vented. Thank you very much. Now I'll go water the garden and calm down. ;-)

Music to Our Ears

There's something about listening to a good jazz band. I'm not a jazz enthusiast by any means, but my husband is and I like to go for the ride. When we went to San Diego last week we ventured upon a farmer's market. It was fantastic. So many "puestos" of fruit, vegetables, jewelry, trinkets, odds and ends. We had already had breakfast, but the smells emanating from the stoves and grills were delicious! We wondered why our own city didn't not have a farmer's market such as this. Tonight our city has it's interpretation of a farmer's market so we decided to go check it out. Why not? Let's help our own economy while we shop for organically grown food. And to top it off, a jazz band was scheduled to play. Upon arriving we were a bit dismayed. It was small, but ok. The jazz band was playing and they sounded great. We bought a banana-strawberry smoothie with whipped cream and found some chairs to sit while we listen to this very nice band. Ahhhhh.... we may not be San Diego, but we have our own little corner of the world, too, and it's beautiful.