Basswood Road

I moved to Basswood Road when I was about 5, before I was in school..no kindergarten for me, straight to 1st grade and guess what, I was a genius! I remember how exciting it was to read the word "Something", such a big word for a child that did not have Sesame Street or PBS. I swear I never saw the alphabet in order until I saw it above that black board at Osceola school. I still love Dick & Jane in their white bread world, because they taught me how to read which I still love all these years later.
My Dad still lives on Basswood Road and my Daughter Aubrey moved in when my Mom died.
When my Mom was dying she told me to get her bulbs and she was not talking about Christmas lights, she was talking flower bulbs. Once she quit working she kicked into some crazy Martha Stewart wanna-be who would almost cry with pain at the end of the day from gardening. I am talking a flatbed truck might not work for all the plants.
And please note, I am not a gardener.. I got poison ivy one time which turned into shingles which turned me off being in any weeds. But my Mom told me to get her bulbs.
I went to Basswood road yesterday after work and I dug up some flowers. I had to get the iris plants with flowers so I knew what color they were. I could not get the tulips that were the most amazing tulips ever when they bloomed last Spring.. my Mom never saw how wonderful they were. But we all did and it broke our hearts.
But I leaned the shovel against the truck and cried in front of my Dad. He said mowing the lawn was so hard and I pictured him coming around the corner and not seeing her bent over some new plant or weeding like a maniac. I don't know how he can do it.
And then, later I asked him where she got all the rocks from around the bushes. Did she buy them? He said she picked them up in the yard and carried them in 5 gallon buckets.. and I had to laugh. I miss the silly things my Mom would do.
And Basswood Road was her home.
And in many ways it will always be mine too.
(And Mom, I still am not a big fan of gardening but you know, you never liked to read, love you, miss you, see you soon!)

Aunt Jean

My Aunt Jean is celebrating her 70th birthday this month. I would have to say she is the aunt my mom really grew up with. Their birthdays were only days apart and they got married on the same day, just different locations. I want to say Mom only went out with my Dad because Aunt Jean didn't want to go on a date alone. I wish I could confirm this story with my Mom, but that is the one I remember.
Growing up, we were at my Aunt Jean and Uncle Ray's house a lot. We rode horses, okay, everyone else rode and I was thrown and dragged by various horses and ponies. Uncle Ray in the summer could be counted on to take you to the lake every day when he got home. I remember buggy rides and an assortment of dogs that would sleep in our beds and leave God only knows what in the sheets. (C'mon, we gotta shake the sheets, I can't sleep in this sand pit!)
One time Mom and Jean loaded 7 kids into a station wagon and we went to the big slide at K-Mart and then we headed to Hubbard Hill Museum in Elkhart where I saw a lamb with another lamb growing out the side of it and I can still see us racing through the orchards. That day I think they stopped and used their last 35 cents to buy gas.
Growing up my cousins were like extended family. We raced through our lives with the same faces next to us when we were young and then as teenagers. And in the background were our Moms. They both had incredible senses of humor and both rooted for the underdogs, every time. I can still see them sitting at the kitchen tables in our houses and just talking and laughing. (Why is it always the kitchen table?)
They taught us patience, love, how to laugh, how to have fun and always how to remember. And I do remember.
There is not much better than a sister. (Yeah, Sally that is a shout out to you!)
Happy Birthday to my Aunt Jean who was one of the best sisters ever.

22 years

Kenny & I will be married 22 years tomorrow.
Man, did that fly by.

And in this marriage there has always been a balancing act. Kenny has always been the fun one. When the girls were little and doing things I wouldn't let them I would hear him yell, "your mom is coming!" because he was right in there with them. He is calm, I am crazy. He does not let his emotions control him at all. He is steady.
He has been the best Dad ever and an equally good husband. He still makes me laugh. He still makes my heart hurt and that is how I decided I would marry him forever. He was replacing storm windows in his old house and I pulled into his driveway and man, I got this ache and thought...uh oh. I love this guy.
Any time someone has asked about some guy they were dating my first question is; Does he make your heart hurt? and if they say Yes I think it will work.

Yeah, God sent the right guy for the job. He lives with a house full of women and he still has a sense of humor. He always has the best Christmas costume for the pictures. He can cook and he even helps clean. He does all the yard work and pool chemicals. He can fix anything. He doesn't complain when he has to work on the girl's cars. He sat with Aubrey during chemo as much as I did. He comes up with the best and most unique presents. He makes my heart hurt still. Another 22 years? Yeah, I'm in.

Cheesy Potatoes

It is a holiday, my family will meet and do what we do best.. eat until we are stuffed. I want to fix cheesy potatoes but I gotta tell you.. I love them and will eat until my eyes look like potato spud eyes...creepy but true.
I love a good spud.. what can you do to screw them up? Baked, fried, boiled, thrown in with any food and they are tasty. Mashed..yummo! Breakfast, lunch or dinner and I could eat a tater.. I believe this is why we are so hostile to other ethnic groups.. they do not love their potatoes like us. Chines food? Mexican? They miss the whole starchy quest. Bob's 19th hole... they have twice baked that make you want to slap someone they are so good!
But, I am trying to eat better. (Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? I get it) Since when is Nachos & goopy cheese a main dish for our kids at school? Thank you government food program, again you fail! And these nachos are only cheese, no lettuce, olives or tomatoes. And why do we not feed our kids food that is in season when it is? Corn in August, tomatoes in the fall.. clueless we are.
So, there will be no cheesy taters for me :( I need to learn how to eat real food. Healthy food, maybe a tater here and there but until I get this obsession with potatoes controlled I will have to wait.
Sigh.

Yard woes

About 7 years ago I went into Lowes and bought these very pathetic ornamental grasses. Maybe in 5" pots and dropped them into my yard. They grew. And grew. And grew.
Two of the plants are restrainable but they are now popping up baby grasses through the black plastic and the pea gravel.
The other plant has turned into a huge, straw like monstrosity that may be getting a dose of Round-up which I hear kills everything. In the fall it reaches my roof and every Spring we cut it back and we have a wheat field of hay from the thing. I think it has roots that go to China and back, there is not any way to pull them out.
And then, there are the adorable chipmunks that think my yard is the Disneyland of Chip & Dale life. They have been digging like there is no tomorrow and all ways to get rid of them are just wrong. (A plank set up over a bucket of water with 2" of sunflower seeds that they go to eat and meet their maker.. Ugh!) But, they really need to go.
I am not a gardener because I have OCD.. I want perfect so I just don't even bother... and weeding, what an endless task.
My pool will need a new liner this year and my plan is the usual plan, you can't see the mess when you are floating with your eyes closed.
And in the meantime, need some grass? I got plenty but you do the cutting!

10 pounds

Every summer, every winter, like clockwork I switch my clothes out..summer to winter and winter to summer.
And every year all year long there is a basket in my closet with clothes that will fit better if I just lose 10-15 pounds. I can get them snapped and zipped but I got a muffin that would make Otis Spunkmeyer green with envy.
I still have not recovered from the incorrect scale that let me live in denial for about 6 years. Then I watched Kirstie on t.v. whining about how hard it is to lose weight. Thank goodness I am not the only one who screams from lack of motivation.
I have 4 days of work this week and then 10 days off... I think I need to be motivated. I need to be held accountable for this hot- sick -out- of -shape mess I am in. The walking at work does not work for me. Drinking all the water does not work for me. Trying to eat healthy doesn't work when I don't work out at the same time. So I need to move it just to get that basket out of my closet.
And I have to understand that it will be harder for me, especially since the report came out saying an hour a day will only maintain me at this age. I don't want to maintain this, I want to be rid of it.
I will be walking more now and if you want to join me, give me a call. I will warn you, I keep a pretty quick pace.
Catch me if you can:)

Sunday Nights

When I was growing up on Sunday nights we all had a bath and watched
"Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" and "Disney". I think I choked thru the wild kingdom stuff just for Tink spraying her wand over that magic castle. (Years later when I went to Disney World I was highly disappointed... I just didn't get IT) How many times could I endure the zebra being eaten by the lions, really?
So last night I watched a few episodes of "Life" and was totally pulled in to the brutal world of crazy strange animals.
I did not know snakes had sex like that.. I thought it was an egg thing. I watched a little frog tumble to safety by stiffening up and falling, falling... and those huge ugly dragons that bit a cow and the poison brought the cow down 3 weeks later with all the dragons surrounding it. It was totally fascinating and strange.
Years ago I would watch nature shows and for some reason I always ended up on the episode of the little sea turtles. Left on the beach to fend for themselves and get to the sea. First, their clumsy Moms crushed them, the crabs ate them and just when you thought they were safe, here came the sea gulls to pluck them up. Millions of turtles and it seemed like five made it to the sea...
I am thankful those damn camera men didn't follow those turtles into the sea and film the sharks eating them...
Just saying.