Labor Day, Etc.

Ah, the last holiday weekend of the summer season. Hopefully it'll be a good one for everyone. We plan on “taking the day off” Monday.....we may not notice any difference from every other day! Most likely we'll make a trip to Marshall Monday morning – we need to return something to Walmart, and that will give me a chance to check out Dollar Tree and Aldi's. I've been needing to shop there for awhile.

Older daughter had a good birthday yesterday, even if the day was crazy for her. She taught school as usual. One of her students brought her a huge “birthday cookie” to share with everyone in the class – a doubledecker with frosting in between. When she got home from school, her 14-year-old had cupcakes made, frosted, and decorated for her. They had to take the 4-year-old to soccer, then ordered pizza for a late supper. Her hubby got her a new tablet with all kinds of wonderful apps.

It doesn't seem possible that it can be Labor Day weekend. I'm dating myself – but where in the world has the summer gone?? We have now been out of work nearly seven months. And other than the first initial shock, it's been a wonderful seven months!! We're so enjoying having time at home together. But the time, it's just flying by! We've finished up winter, gone through spring and now summer. Yikes. The next thing you know, it'll be 2014.

I've been mulling over the possibility of having someone till up part of our back yard next year so I can plant a garden. I did a bit of container gardening this year, with mixed results. It hasn't been a great garden year overall, from what I can tell. We one one nice mess of fresh peas from one of my containers. We've had a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes; the roma tomatoes haven't ripened well and haven't had much flavor. One small mess of beets tasted really good, but the spinach didn't happen at all. There's a second pepper on that plant, and hopefully it'll be better than the first one. The zucchini – now that was a surprise. The first plant that came up blossomed, but no fruit set on. But suddenly, after the first of August, a second plant came forward that has produced a few zucchini. We've really enjoyed them.

Our town has started up a Farmers' Market this year, after several years without one. We've enjoyed going up there and buying local muskmelon to eat. Yummy! Mom has found some good tomatoes there; last week they didn't look great, so I passed them by. I wouldn't want to plant everything, but it would be nice to have some green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, peas, beets, and so on to eat fresh out of the garden. You forget how flavorful garden-fresh produce can be until you have some!

I've spent countless adult years canning and freezing. I always enjoyed it – but, I'm not sure I want to get back into that. For one thing, I've long since parted ways with my canner and jars. So getting back into preserving would be a financial commitment that I'm not sure I want to make. On the other hand, I was explaining the ins and outs of pickle making to hubby yesterday. As much work as it was, I kind of miss it!

I have the winter to think about this, to weigh the pros and cons. But as it stands now, don't be surprised if I post next spring that I'm looking for someone to till up my back yard. Right now, gardening and having fresh veggies sound like a wonderful idea!! You can remind me of that next summer when I complain about having to hoe the garden.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and that we're all ready to start a new season. Have a great holiday weekend!

Teachers

Mercy, it's hot out there! We had such a nice break mid-July to mid-August, and now we're spoiled. Yesterday and today were the days that really felt unbearable – the heat index has hit 100 both days. And something's in the air that's just killing the allergies. I'm perfectly content to stay inside with the air conditioner. That'll work for one more day, then we'll have to give in and get out long enough to mow the yard. Ah, yes, I love summer!

A Facebook group I belong to, from my hometown, has had a wonderful thread going the past few days on our school. We truly had a unique school experience in that little town. We didn't have a wide variety of classes offered due to the size of the school – but the depth of our education was unbelievable.

Our teachers had longevity of careers, which allowed them to know us very well. The superintendent when I graduated had been at the school since my mother's senior year of high school. He continued until the school closed in 1980. The principal when I graduated had been teaching since she was 16 – she started in the one-room schools that educated grades 1-8. She, too, had been teaching when my mom was in junior high and high school.

A longtime neighbor was my first grade teacher. She was great – we just had to remember not to call her by her first name at school! The teacher I had for second and third grades had been teaching there for some time. For fourth through sixth grades, my class had the same teacher.....thanks to a teacher retiring at the end of our fourth grade. From then on, we had three instead of four elementary teachers, with each teacher teaching two full grades (prior to that, second and fifth grade students were split between two teachers).That poor teacher knew us all too well after three full school years!

When we transitioned “upstairs” to junior high, we had teachers who had all been at the school longer than we had......with the exception of the music teacher, who had started when we were in second grade. We didn't have much transition in high school, because the same teachers taught grades 7-12. We had a few changes, but that teaching team stayed pretty steady.

This kind of longevity makes for an unusual relationship. These men and women knew us well. Our math teacher was a former student who got his degree and came back home to teach. So we had a caring relationship whether we were at home or at school.

This kind of longevity can be good. It can also be bad. Sometimes, in spite of their innate caring nature, a teacher can be touched by something in the past. There was one particular teacher that I had for 7^th grade, 9^th grade, and 11^th grade. It was obvious to me from the first year that she had some kind of issue with me, but I had no idea what it was. By 9^th grade, I had this teacher for two different classes – in one class we were fine, but in the second class that bias was still obvious. Finally, near the end of 11^th grade I found out the source of the bias. One day the teacher asked me something about my “brother” - my reply was that I don't have a brother. The teacher said, “Yes you do – ____”(blank, to protect the obviously guilty). I replied again that I was an only child, the person in question was my cousin.

From that day on, this teacher and I had a totally changed relationship. I went home that night and told Mom that I had no idea what my cousin had ever done to this teacher, but it must have been memorable!! I should also add that this was ten years after my cousin's graduation.

If you were fortunate enough to attend a smaller school, you know what I'm talking about. If you weren't, I truly hope that you had many caring, dedicated teachers to help you through your school journey.

Candles

Every time I'm struggling for ideas to blog about, hubby suggests that I write about what a wonderful husband he is. That's really not a bad idea – he's a pretty terrific guy!! We take good care of each other, he helps with the housework, and he laughs at my goofy jokes. What else could a gal ask for?

Thirty-six years ago tomorrow, I woke up as usual, all situations normal. By noon, I had a tiny baby girl in my arms. She came a month early, anxious not to miss out on anything. And my life had changed in ways I couldn't begin to imagine.

She was so tiny, still a little under six pounds when she went in for her one-month checkup. I can remember all those first-time-parent anxieties, waking up in the middle of the night and touching her gently to make sure she was still breathing. She took off and started growing, her big hazel eyes highlighting her face, as well as her big smile.

She was always active, not wanting to nap or sleep through the night so she didn't miss anything. When her baby brother came home from the hospital just 16 months later, her face lit up at the sight of him. From then until they went to school, they were inseparable.......in fact, she pretty much acted like we'd brought her a new toy to play with. Early on I had to put him in a playpen instead of the basinette – whenever he would cry, big sis would crawl into the basinette to see what was wrong with him.

As the two of them grew, there was no limit to her imagination and the things she would lead him into. In Oregon, where there was a lack of bugs and therefore no window screens, she dug into their dresser drawers and handed him clothes, which he would take from her and throw out the window. She scared the daylights out of me when she would get up and wander the house in the middle of the night. I might not have known, but she would raid the fridge and take food to bed with her. Imagine trying to wash a stick of butter off sheets and out of her hair!

After their baby sister arrived, the two of them would join the baby on my lap, and all three of us would rock. Big sis had always been able to control her brother, even though he quickly outgrew her. They would “wrestle”, and he always just laid on the floor while she sat on top of him. He never fought back. I remember too well one day when they were watching a “Bonanza” rerun. When the time came for the usual bar fight, both of them stood up and really got into the action. It was funny until big sis got too caught up, turned, and popped her brother in the nose with her fist. He was always prone to nosebleeds anyway.

She seemed so little the first day I sent her to kindergarten. Even though she was picked up by a district station wagon instead of a bus, she looked tiny crossing the yard. She actually started kindergarten a few days before her 5^th birthday. I wish now I'd kept her home for another year – hopefully I didn't scar her too much! The first couple of years of school, she spent time in the nurse's office with “headaches”....they always seemed to start at the same time as her reading class. We all survived that year.

In the spring of kindergarten, she started playing softball. They didn't have a helmet small enough for her, and she had to keep her ball cap on to hold the batting helmet into place. She attacked softball with the vengeance she did everything else – heaven help the coach the day she popped a foul ball into her own nose and got a nosebleed.....she wasn't about to come out of the game!

She's always been a fighter, something she's continued into adulthood. She's fought through her shyness and is an outstanding elementary teacher. She is an amazing wife and mother, keeping her sanity in spite of a full time job, one high schooler and one preschooler. She does everything well – including handling a real “girlie-girl” 4-year-old!! Quite a feat for that tiny little tomboy I raised! Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Spring Treasures

Spring was always such a wonderful time of the year on the farm. The grass turned green, the timber greened up, baby animals were born........and Dad would plow the garden. Granted, that meant seeds would be planted and hoeing was to come. But for me at that time of the year, having that garden plowed meant fun.

I don't know if at some other time in history there had been an Indian settlement there or not. But every year when the plow turned the earth over, I spent countless hours walking the furrows and finding arrowheads. Yep, I said “finding”, not “hunting for”. I occasionally found some other rock pieces that looked like they might be other weapons or tools. But the arrowheads were always there to be found.

I must have started finding them when I was very small, because I remember that scouring of the garden soil as an annual event. It was always fun to find them.

We had an elderly neighbor who had quite an extensive collection of arrowheads and other Indian artifacts. Yearly, when I was certain I had everything found that had been unearthed, we would go visit him. He would sort through my treasure trove of arrowheads and pay me for the ones he wanted to add to his collection.......something in the gray matter is telling me I got ten cents apiece for them, but I can't say that for certain.

I can't remember at what point we moved the garden spot. But I know by the time I was a teenager, we were no longer plowing up that earlier area. The new garden spot never gave up any treasures, other than the usual green beans and tomatoes. Neither did Dad's back-of-the-farm watermelon patch.

Years later, after my cousin purchased the farm from my folks, I know he looked for arrowheads. He never found any.

That elderly neighbor who paid me for the arrowheads was an interesting character – and he was married to an equally interesting character. Even after they moved from our neighborhood, we would make a point of visiting them a time or two a year.

The wife, Miss Willie, was a former school teacher who truly had a teacher's heart. She had a manual typewriter that she would always load up with paper so I could write stories while they visited with my folks. She was always loving and encouraging. He, on the other hand, always worked at being cantankerous. Those visits were always interesting.

That neighborhood where I grew up had such a wonderful canvas of interesting people. I'm sure it's been said before, but I wish I could go back to that time and those people, knowing what I know now about appreciating and embracing everyone's uniqueness. It would be a wonderful, educational trip!

Ahead or Behind?

A relaxing Monday night – after an afternoon of Social Psychology. I'm trying to rationalize why it's taking me two to two and a half hours a day (weekdays) to attempt to keep up with a class that was touted as taking 3-6 hours a week. And keeping up isn't really accurate – for one thing, our class lectures and readings are being released to us a week early. So from that standpoint, I'm ahead. But, Week 4 has already been released and I still have three Week 3 bonus readings that I haven't looked at yet. So from that standpoint, I'm behind. You see why I'm so confused!

The additional good news is that I have until September 23 to finish the course. The additional bad news is that I'm two weeks behind transcribing my lecture notes into a printable, readable format so I can reasonably study for the class final. Hmmm. Further confusion.

I can't claim to being a stellar student, ever. My kids think I was, but that was because I convinced them of that while THEY were in school! Never admit that you were less than perfect when it comes to guiding your offspring in the direction you SHOULD have gone!!! Don't get me wrong – I studied. But did I study as much as I should have? Oh, no way! I would have made better grades if I had.

I remember my junior year as my favorite, in so many ways. Not the least of those fond memories is having a homeroom seat at the back of the study hall. I was just across the aisle from my cousin Ken and sat just in front of one of my favorite friends, Cindy. Many was the time our principal tapped on the window that sat between her office and the back of study hall, letting us know she saw us talking and it was time to quit! Ken and Cindy were both seniors. I missed them when they graduated.

I had probably my heaviest load of courses that junior year. I don't necessarily remember each and every course – but I remember many a night carrying home every book from my desk in order to get my homework done. I know I had Algebra 2, Bookkeeping, American Lit/Grammar, Band, Chorus, PE, a history course (probably American History, but I can't remember for sure). Okay, that train of thought just took me to a box with all my grade cards in it – a box I never, ever showed my kids!! Yes, I had American History that year, and I also had a class where we published the school paper. Between Algebra 2 and Bookkeeping, there was a lot of paperwork to go through every night. Then there was the reading of American Lit and American History, plus the bookwork of daily vocabulary and grammar.

I didn't ever really “not” study in high school, but I could have spent more time studying. In college, though, it was a different situation. And that situation – being away from home for the first time and not having anyone watching over me. I was desperately trying to make up for time in high school when I was not allowed to go out on the weekends. Having been a parent-imposed wallflower during high school, I was determined to be part of everything going on once I flew the coop. I could have stayed in my room and read Civics.......but the activities going on in the Student Union Snack Bar were so much more interesting. Often, it involved a deck of cards. But it was more exciting than pre-World War II Germany.

I still have time to get my notes typed up and finish my reading. And luckily this is only a six-week course. I'm at that point now I'm not sure how I ever had time to work – I seem to be busy from one end of the day to the other! But I guard the early afternoon as my time to listen to lectures and do my work for class. I supposed you never get too old to transform into a better student!

On a personal note – a very Happy 15^th Birthday to our grandson Collin!

Shopping Memories

It's Friday again, and I'm fresh out of thoughts to write about. I'm sure something should be popping into my head that could be somewhat interesting........I'll be glad when it shows up!

Dr. Oz's show just finished – it was a rerun from just before Mother's Day. And that triggered a childhood memory. My favorite store in my pre-teen years was Mattingly's Five & Dime, on the northeast corner of the local town square. There were so many things to look at.

And when Mother's Day – or any other special event – came up, I never failed to find something to buy with my meager funds for a gift. It may not been on my usual aisle to check out, but Mattingly's had bottles of perfume for just 25 cents. I'm sure it smelled wonderful......I never noticed Mom smelling BAD, and she always had a good supply of that perfume on hand. It was about the only thing I ever bought her.

Dad was harder to buy for. I remember one time I ended up buying him a steptic pencil.......I'm not sure I spelled that right, to tell you the truth. And I'm not sure if they're even made anymore. But it was a white pencil-shaped “something” that men could swipe on razor cuts to make them stop bleeding. Dad didn't cut himself much while shaving, but that thing was the only I found within my ten-cent budget. So that's what he got.

Mattingly's had a great candy counter with a lot of bulk candy. That was always fun to check out. There were toys, makeup, clothes, needlework, cards, knick-knacks. You name it, they had it. I always enjoy checking out the old-time Five and Dime in Branson when we go there – just so many memories! Mattingly's had a “toyland”, too. It was at the back of the store, on the second level. In November I would check the store every week to see if the lighted Santa above the stairs was lit – that was the signal that Toyland was open. I would spend a lot of time up there, checking everything out.

Mom would occasionally buy candy at Mattingly's candy counter. That provided a light moment in what was one of the scariest times in my life....in late January when I was in second grade, Mom and Dad picked up Grandpa one weekday and they went to town for groceries. While in Mattingly's, mom bought a pound of Valentine conversation hearts. They stopped at Grandpa's on the way home, and Mom was fixing lunch for everyone.

There was a knock at Grandpa's door, and the person at the door kidnapped Dad at gunpoint. The two of them left in our car, and a wild couple of hours ensued. Dad convinced the kidnapper that he needed to fill up the car at the local gas station, then further convinced the kidnapper they needed to drive by the farm where Mom worked for some of our neighbors. At that farm, Dad was able to jump out of the car and disappear behind some outbuildings. The kidnapper drove off in our car.

In the meantime, Grandpa flagged down my cousin as he drove by, and they took off after the car. The kidnapper was driving very fast down a gravel road and then rolled the car during an attempt to change gears – the kidnapper had not driven an automatic, and that action of shifting caused the accident.

The car ended up in a fall-plowed field. After everyone was reunited, my cousin asked mom how many of those little conversation hearts she'd bought......in his description, it looked like about an acre of that plowed field was covered with the candy!

I don't remember if we got any more conversation hearts that year or not. It was more than enough to have everyone reunited safe and sound!

Kids & Germs

A friend once told me that when you have a child in kindergarten or first grade, those will be the years you have the most illness in your home. She was SO right.....and, of course, it doesn't seem to improve as you move down the line of your offspring! Those adorable little critters you love so much seem to bring everything they find – and everything that finds them – home to share!

I remember the year I was in second grade. During that school year, my class shared mumps, 3-day measles, chickenpox, and then hard measles. We were such a giving, sharing bunch!! We started with mumps in the fall. I was sidelined with them over Halloween. Our house had originally been two 2-room houses fastened together, with three more rooms and a long front porch added. The pertinent fact here is that we had three doors leading into the house off that porch.

My cousins down the road went to a different school, and they didn't realize I had the mumps. When they drove up for trick or treating, the six kids there were at that time poured out of the car and headed toward the porch. Mom and Dad tried their best, but there were only two of them and three doors. Somebody from that bunch made it inside the house....and took the mumps germs home with them. Five of the six kids came down with the mumps, and so did their dad. That was my second time having the mumps, and I was very glad they didn't come back again!

I don't really remember the 3-day measles, other than we shared them during the year. Chickenpox arrives in the early spring. They weren't too memorable either, other than being told repeatedly not to scratch. But the measles – oh, my! What a “downer” to break out with them four days into summer break.

At that time, the belief was that you could lose your eyesight with exposure to light during measles. So I was kept in bed, in a darkened room. And you weren't allowed to strain your eyes – no TV watching, no reading. Nothing. Just lay in bed and be miserable. Mom and Dad brought Grandpa out to entertain me. He read, he talked, we played. Mom even got the local newspapers from our neighbors and he read those cover to cover. It was a long, unforgettable two weeks!

Years later, those two weeks didn't count for anything. When I was expecting my son, there was a measles epidemic in our neighborhood. When I was getting my prenatal bloodwork done, they checked for an antibody that showed I'd had measles. It wasn't there. That was a shock, because I distinctly remember those two weeks of quarantine in that dark bedroom! But, the bloodwork told its own story. And immediately after delivering son, I received a measles shot. In a rather inglorious part of my anatomy. But at least that was over!

When my oldest was in kindergarten, she brought chickenpox home to the other two. The oldest one was absolutely covered – you couldn't put a finger on her without touching chickenpox blisters. The incubation period was 14 days. I'm pretty sure we were into the 13^th day when son got up from his nap with chickenpox. Younger daughter had been claiming every time I changed her diaper that she had chickenpox – pointing to a freckle next to her bellybutton! She was so happy when she broke out the same day as her brother. She'd watched people bring gifts to her older sister – that didn't happen with the other two, especially with both of them down at once! Being the younger ones is tough sometimes!

I'm so glad there are vaccines against those childhood diseases now. I wouldn't want to see the grandkids have to go through that – and I really wouldn't want my kids to have to go through taking care of sick kids!! In multi-kid households, they'd probably stretch those incubation periods as far as mine did!

Books

For two people who have lived here as long as we have, it was high time we got around to going to the local Library and getting our library cards! We've talked about it for years – today, we finally made it.

Even though we have a nice new facility to house the local library, I still have fond memories of the former building. As a kid, I always had a library card. Especially in the summer, I looked forward to our weekly trips to town on Saturday so I could make a trip to the library and check out books.

The only negative about my trips to the library was that they limited me to checking out three books at a time. I would start reading on the trip home (sometimes even sooner, while the folks were doing our grocery shopping) and have one book nearly finished by the time we pulled into the driveway. By Sunday evening, I would have all three books read. It was a long wait for the next Saturday!

I had a few books of my own at home. Mom bought me a few of the Bobbsey Twins books. A friend had a good library of Trixie Belden books that she gladly shared. I also had a couple of books on the Lennon Sisters – from the Lawrence Welk Show.

As I got older, I was able to order paperback books from the Weekly Reader Book Club. I loved when those book orders came in! I can't remember too many of those books now, but I do remember how much use I got out of “101 Elephant Jokes”. Evidently as a child I was easily amused!

At school, we utilized the same library from grade 7 through grade 12. I may not have read every book in that library, but by my senior year I must have been close! I enjoyed the rare times when we would receive a shipment of new books.

I've never lost my love of reading. There was a time, when my kids were little, that I didn't have time for extra things. But it's easy now for me to become lost in a good book. I own several books – an overloaded bookshelf full, actually. I've been a member of a book club for many years. I've sometimes “played the game” and cancelled my membership, only to get a stack of free books for renewing my membership.

I've always had the dream of having a house with walls lined with bookshelves. To me, that's just about perfection! My kids have inherited my love of reading, and the girls and I trade books back and forth. In fact, last month when older daughter and her hubby went on their cruise, she left me one of her library books that she knew I'd love. I enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to hubby's generosity, I now have a tablet with an Amazon Kindle app. And thanks to the further generosity of a college friend, I get daily emails from two sources that have free book downloads. I'm looking forward to getting back to that reading once I'm done with my class. I can also hit the Library then and start catching up on books by some of my favorite authors.

I find the tablet app handy, but I'm “old school” enough that nothing really beats the feel and smell of a real hard copy book. That's a sensation you just can't copy!

Small Schools

We had a much more normal day today. We did our daily podcasts, walked, I cleaned up the house and did three loads of laundry. I started on Week 3 of my online class, and we did a “bonus” walk this afternoon.

I got two magazines in today's mail. The September issue of “Vogue” is 902 pages long........no, I'm not really a “Vogue” kind of girl, but I let myself be suckered into buying a year's subscription because they gave me a free purse. I AM a sucker for purses! The cover of Oprah's magazine for September had a photo of Oprah with hair just about as large as that “Vogue” magazine!! It all should be interesting reading.

Hubby has been in “handyman” mode the past couple of days. We picked up a new toilet seat at the big box store yesterday, and he installed that last night. This morning, he put up the new miniblinds we picked up to replace the set I broke a few months ago trying to clean them. They needed to be replaced – the slats were brittle enough that one broke when I was wiping it off. We're all fixed for now.

I heard the school bus stop at the corner this morning at 7:30 – first day of school here in town! I was always so glad for the first day of school when I was a kid. Some years that summer just got longer and longer as time passed without my seeing my classmates. Usually we were aware before school started if we were having any new students in our class. Even without good communication, that type of news usually got around.

I think the highest number ever in my class was 17 one year of elementary school. We usually held around 14 or so. By senior year, we had dwindled down to ten. Nine of us had been together all twelve years. We still have a few smaller schools in the area, but a lot of people have trouble comprehending the small numbers I'm used to for graduating classes.

My small school is now closed. The high school and junior high consolidated with a larger school district in 1980; the elementary school closed in 1982. The teachers and staff who chose to continue working were incorporated into the larger school district. That meant were were a few teachers I'd had that my children also had. I enjoyed that, though probably not as much as my kids!

When the school closed, there was an auction of property and items. I wish I could've been there and purchased some memory of my childhood school days. The different pieces of property were sold to individuals. One of the sale stipulations for the main building was that it either be actively used or it be torn down – this was a reaction to a local school district where a new building had been built and the previous one was left to go into ruin. A local family bought the main building and tore it down. Even though much of the playground equipment was moved to the new school district, the former school site was turned into a park. The gym/cafeteria/music room building burned to the ground a few years after the closure.

We now have an all-school reunion every four years. It's a great time of reconnecting and visiting. About 14 years ago, a memorial monument was dedicated on the original school building site. It's a three-section monument, each with one of the three school buildings engraved on it.

Some of the school mementos are now housed in the local County Museum. All the senior composite pictures are there, as well as plaques of the yearly Valedictorians and some special sports trophies. Hubby enjoys going with me to view those – he says he likes being married to someone who is in a museum!! It just makes me feel old.

My nine co-graduates are all nearby – two are about an hour away, everyone else is here in the local community. We lost our first classmate last fall, that was a sad time, and she was a special, sweet person. We have a small-school bond that time can't break!

Games People Play

Well, Monday's almost over. I had a “command performance” this afternoon at the Career Center. It was a nice day for a drive, I just don't do late afternoons very well! But I got the appointment over with for now – need to return in four weeks for a workshop. I will, I'm glad to do what's necessary to keep the unemployment coming in. But attending a workshop won't make any jobs appear on the horizon in our part of the state.

We stopped by Walmart before we headed home. Note to self: Do NOT go to Walmart on the afternoon before school starts. There were kids and parents still buying school supplies, still stocking up on clothes....and I ran into my cousin and her family buying food for lunches. It was slightly chaotic.

My cousin and I were chatting in the grocery aisle about playing games. It brought back memories of all the games played at our house when I was a kid. I've mentioned before that there was a period of time during my childhood that we didn't have a TV. On summer evenings, we would sit out in the yard and talk. Those were the times I learned about my parents' childhoods, and I especially heard the World War II Army stories.

But once the cooler weather arrived, we would spend evenings at the kitchen table, playing games. We played card games – Old Maid, Go Fish, Crazy 8's, Solitaire, Double Solitaire, Casino. I'm sure there were more, but we didn't get bored. We would just switch games.

We also had board games. Dad was always up for a good game of checkers. I remember one Christmas when I got one of those “54 Games Board”.......one box, multiple game boards and instructions, and 54 different games. That was our introduction to Parcheesi. We had countless games of that. And there was always Tiddlywinks. I killed at Tiddlywinks. Somehow, I guess my little fingers had the dexterity to really guide the game pieces to that center cup. Maybe it was the piano lessons.

Mom also taught me to play dominoes. She still enjoys a good game of that. Mom was always tougher to play games with than Dad was......from what I hear, she still is! Dad was a softie, and he was known to let me win. Not Mom. Mom's side of the family is where my kids and I get our competitive nature. She worked hard at raising me like a “normal” kid, not letting me get by with acting like an only child. (Yes, I AM an only child...but she didn't want me acting like one!)

I understand Mom's theory. I also understand that my Mom is the baby of her family and the only girl. So I always wondered in the back of my mind how much that played into those lessons from Mom on how I should learn how to lose graciously. Hmmmm.

Before I get myself into trouble – topic switch! I spent what seemed like a lot of my weekend catching up on my Week 2 classwork.......there were a lot of lectures (average length, about 18 minutes), about 54 pages of reading, and then an assignment. I kept reminding myself how much I enjoyed my day at the State Fair!

I finished up my assignment and got it emailed in early this afternoon. It's a good thing I got that far, because my next week's lectures and readings were posted around noon today! I'm sure glad I don't have a grade, raise, etc., depending on keeping up with this!

I'm ready for a quiet evening now – talk to you tomorrow!

Concession Stands & Doughnuts

Ahh, Friday. So nice to be looking at the weekend.......even not working, the weekend is a nice break in the routine! The only thing we have staring at us this weekend is mowing the yard. Other than that – there's really nothing on our agenda. I like that!

Fridays during the school year in my youth meant softball games. We may have had them other evenings, but I remember Fridays.......both boys and girls in high school played softball in the fall. Almost as soon as school started, so did the softball games. (We didn't have high enough school enrollment to have a football team.)

If we were playing at home, that meant “homemade” doughnuts. At all home sports events, we had a concession stand that was manned by the juniors and seniors. The proceeds from that concession stand went toward our annual senior trips. Our school was especially known for our doughnuts – a treat not replicated by any other school in our conference.

The Home Ec students were in charge of the doughnuts. The freshman (and later freshman/sophomore) class put the recipe together. The dough would be left to rise overnight. Depending on what the class schedule was, sometimes students would come in before school to roll out the dough and cut out the doughnuts. (If there was an early Home Ec class, they would take on this roll.) Later in the day, Home Ec classes would deep fry and glaze the doughnuts. They were wonderfully fresh for each home game. Occasionally we would get to fry some doughnut holes to enjoy before class ended.

Making those doughnuts was a team effort. The teacher would divide us into teams, and each team had a particular job. The big thing I remember about that doughnut recipe was that it used hot mashed potatoes. That made the dough so light and fluffy. Yes, we used instant potatoes. But they were so yummy and good. I think our concession stand always sold out of the doughnuts.

As a junior, I may have worked the concession stand once or twice during the softball season. I can't remember if I worked the girls' game or the boys', but I wasn't playing softball and could be flexible. When basketball season came, I was equipment manager for the girls' team and therefore was only available to work the concession stand during the boys' games.

My senior year, though, brought a personal change. I played softball that year, since we had moved to town (prior to that, I lived the farthest out on our bus route and wasn't able to play softball due to the practice schedule). I enjoyed so much being a part of the team that year. So I would've worked the concession stand during the boys' softball games. But when basketball season rolled around, I was just about the only girl available to work the concession stand before and during the girls' game......athletic, I really was NOT! :) I had done some waitressing by then, and I actually enjoyed working the concession stand.

By senior year, Mrs. Leakey was our sponsor, and I always enjoyed opportunities to be with her. She was a wonderful teacher for history and business, and she was just generally a great person. I had also visited her in her home during the summer, since she lived just down the street from my grandma. So to me, working the concession stand wasn't “work”.

I know there were things I missed out on by going to a smaller school – but the comraderie of working the concession stand was something students in a larger school might not enjoy. To me, it was a valuable experience and also a point of helping us “own” our senior trip!

"Our State Fair Is A Great State Fair"

As far as the weather goes, the last two days have been about as perfect as you can get. Yesterday was sunny and in the upper 70's.....today is more overcast and a nice breeze, still in the upper 70's. Wow. I could handle this all the time!

We had a great day yesterday for going to the State Fair. We stopped for breakfast in Marshall on the way down, and arrived just after the gates opened. We checked out the day's activities and our Fairgrounds map, then we started wandering.

We decided to check out the activity in the Coliseum, and found the cutting horse competition. For those unfamiliar with that term, you have two people, each on horseback, and they trade off “cutting” (separating) a calf from a small herd and guiding it into a different pen. For the competition, there were ten calves in each pen and each had a number on its back. When the timer started, the arena announcer told the first participant what number calf they had to find.....from there, they had to take the calves out in numeric order. If the wrong calf switched pens, the cutting team was disqualified. Pretty impressive! It really showed how the horse and the rider had to learn to work as a team.

From there, we decided to check out the pig races. We'd heard about it, and we'd seen it on TV. In person, though, it's pretty amazing how those little piggies race around the track! It may have something to do with a plate of fig newtons (or at least what the announcer said was fig newtons) on a tray at the finish line. The first pig got the whole item, the rest had to root for the crumbs. And root they did!

We enjoyed just wandering around, looking at different vendors and exhibits. We checked out the Commercial Building, the Varied Industries Building, and a few other buildings on our way from one side to the other of the fairgrounds to the other. We eventually found the Missouri Wine Tent and decided it was five o'clock somewhere! I enjoyed the Butterfly Blush from Jowler Creek Winery near Platte City, and hubby had some dry red wine from Meramec Winery near St. James. It was a nice break in the action!

We checked out the Fine Arts Building and some other things in that area. We decided against going through the Rabbit & Poultry Building – as hubby said, if he wants to see a rabbit, he'll just look out in the back yard! (And, indeed, one of the neighborhood bunnies spent quite a while in our back yard this afternoon!)

We parked ourselves on a bench underneath a shade tree near the south side of the Fairground and enjoyed our lunch. Thank goodness for small insulated lunch coolers! We checked out the Conservation Building and enjoyed checking out the fish from around the state. We meandered more and appreciated that we'd brought our own lunch when negotiating through the long line for the Beef House!

We decided to meander down the Carnival Midway. They were gearing up to open at noon. By the time we walked down and back, it was time for them to open. We stopped at one of the stands where you throw darts at balloons – last year, I killed at that! In fact, I ended up breaking four balloons with three darts. I won a small blue dog that had watched over my car from the dashboard for the past year. I tried again – actually ended up trying twice. The small prizes had changed this year, and I didn't see anything I wanted when I nailed the first three balloons. So I tried again – and that time I got to upgrade to a medium prize. There were pink and purple stuffed dogs, so now my blue dog has a (little bit larger) sister! Mom will think I've lost my mind!

We finished off our visit with the Mo-Ag Building and sharing some Tiger Stripe ice cream from Buck's Ice Cream (on the MU campus). It you haven't had any, I highly recommend it! We were pooped last night – of course, we did a Walmart stop on the way home, so I'm sure that is what wore us out!! We're already looking forward to next year.

Fairs & Competitions

My mental focus has totally left me today. I'd say I don't know why, but that wouldn't exactly be true. We're going to the State Fair tomorrow - and for some reason we're both as excited as little kids to be taking off for the day! It's by no means our first trip to the fair, so I don't know where this excitement level is coming from.

I tried to focus on my online class today. I really did. I stuck with it for an hour, then I gave up. We took a nice afternoon walk in the park and then hit Dari Maid. Yum. I'm trying to regain my focus, but it's not happening so far. So it goes. The good news is that they're actually releasing the weekly lectures and readings a week ahead of schedule. So if I lose any time, I have some extra days to make it up.

I remember school starting while the State Fair was still going on when I was a kid. I was so envious of the 4-H kids who were excused from school to show livestock or give demonstrations at the fair. I always wanted to go to the fair, but we were never able to. And that just made me want to go more!

Growing up, and even after I was an adult, I thought it would be great to enter projects at the State Fair. At this point in my life, I don't have any excuse other than it's not really a priority now. When I was younger, I was moving around a lot. Because of that, I never had the opportunity of getting acquainted with the State Fairs in the various states where I lived to know how to enter items. Heaven knows, I did enough canning over the years to feed a small third-world country (or three hungry kids!). But there wasn't time to deal with getting the “perfect jar” to exhibit at the State Fair – there also wasn't money to pay entry fees.

I'm glad hubby's so sweet – he accompanies me as I go through the Home Ec building and look at all the food, sewing, and handiwork exhibits....they make me think of college friend Laura who exhibits her knitting projects in the Oklahoma State Fair. We also check out the 4-H Building and all the projects made by kids across the state. This year I intend to also make a point of enjoying the exhibits in the Fine Arts Building – I have a good friend exhibiting her photos.

My two older kids were able to be in 4-H a couple of years when we lived in Indiana. I'll never forget the excitement the first year when daughter's cookies received Reserve Grand Champion ribbon at the county fair. She didn't quite know what was going on, but she knew she had a big pretty ribbon. But, as a sign of the times, she was beat out by a boy. So it goes. Son hoped history would repeat itself the next year, but no ribbon came home with him. It was a sad day.

Those two older kids were so competitive with one another. I'll never forget the year they were both playing summer ball. It was a rainy spring, and games kept getting postponed. Daughter finally had her playoff games on the 4^th of July. Her team had a stellar day, and they ended up winning first place. In that Indiana community, each player got a trophy. She was so proud of that.

Son's team kept getting rained out. In fact, we were into August before they got their season over and playoffs started. His team kept winning in the playoffs. Then came the fateful night they were scheduled to play for first – on the same night all the 4-H kids were scheduled to check in their livestock for the county fair. Angst! The 4-H rules stated the kids had to be there in person with their animals to get them checked in and housed in the livestock barn. And, of course, the baseball championship game couldn't be played without the players. Our team had more 4-H kids than the other team did, so their coach graciously offered to accept our forfeit – I don't think so!

A compromise was finally worked out, and the game was played. Our team won, and now son had his own first-place trophy so daughter could quit crowing over her win – and wouldn't you know it, when he got that darned trophy home, it was a couple of inches taller than his sister's! As a parent, you just can't win!

Sheep - & Other Thoughts

We had a nice weekend. The weather was great, we had very little on our agenda, and it was restful. We did mow the yard Saturday, the first time in a couple of weeks. But, we've had some rain since the last mowing and we've had moderate temps and sunshine. At one point while we were mowing, I wondered if we would have been better off buying some sheep!

The grass was fairly tall and it was much thicker than it has been much of the summer. Not only that, but it was wet. We waited until late morning to mow – I'm not sure it would have dried any more had we waited until the afternoon. It was just thick enough that it was holding onto the moisture.

We had to stop several times, turn off the mower, and clean the grass clippings out of the chute. I think it was my second stop when I had the thought about the sheep. Hubby and I both felt zapped when we finished mowing. I fixed us a yummy lunch, but even after eating we were pretty lethargic. He read for awhile, and I tried to take a nap. I finally realized that I was having some trouble breathing, so I closed up the house and turned on the air conditioning. Within five minutes, both of us felt better. Darned allergies!

Speaking of sheep – and there actually is a logical train of thought here! - I'm excited that we're going to the Missouri State Fair on Wednesday. One of the stops I enjoy making is the Missouri Wine Tent. They sell Missouri wines by the glass, and I can get some Butterfly Blush from Jowler Creek, one of my favorite Missouri wineries.

Jowler Creek Winery is a completely green business.....hence, the connection with the sheep. They use sheep to keep the grass down in the vineyards. They also have chickens and bats as a natural way to keep pests out of the grapes. Add in solar panels for energy, and using recycled glass in their bottles, and you have a pretty impressive, responsible business plan! They're far enough away (north of Kansas City Airport, near Platte City) that they're not a place we get to visit much, and there's no local store carrying their wine. So I enjoy that stop at the Missouri Wine Tent!

Younger daughter and her hubby have returned from their trip to Seattle. Smart girl – she took today off to help combat jet lag. She did take time to post all of her photos on Facebook today, and I'm enjoying those. Even though they were in Seattle for a convention, they wisely scheduled fun time as well. They went to Mount Rainier one day and hiked. Another day they visited Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. Daughter took a day trip to Orcas Island and did a kayak trip – it was supposed to be to see the whales, but someone forgot to tell the whales to show up! Another trip was to Pike Place Market, to visit the original Starbucks and the fish market where they throw the fish. There was also an organized visit to Safeco Park to watch the Mariners play baseball.

The photos are great and the Seattle area is so beautiful! Makes me want to take a trip.....good to know I get to take a trip to the Fair on Wednesday!

Flooding Etc.

Well, it's Friday again. So far, the only thing on our weekend agenda is mowing the yard sometime tomorrow. It will take awhile for all the moisture to evaporate. Not that we've had a lot of rain – we just got a short sprinkle today. But the humidity has been really high the last few days. I went outside mid-afternoon today, and the grass was still holding onto the moisture.

We enjoyed getting our mail today. We got all the paperwork showing we've paid off our home and own it free and clear. Yay. We actually paid it off almost a month ago, we've just been waiting (rather impatiently) for that paperwork. It's a good feeling.

We've really been enjoying our weather. For some time now, we've stayed in the upper 70's and low 80's for our daytime highs. That's so unusual for this time of the year. I can't remember how many days last summer we had temps of 100+. This year, we have yet to hit that daytime high. With the State Fair going on right now, I'm sure everyone showing livestock is happy to have these temps.

We have been having heavy rain and flooding in the southern part of the state. What I've seen on TV looks bad. It brings back memories of the flood of 1993. That was a very long year! I still remember coming to Carrollton in mid-July from my home in Mound City, MO, for my uncle's funeral. His son looked at me and said something to the effect of, “Good to see you – wish you hadn't come”. I knew what he meant.

We lost my maternal grandmother in May 1993. Even that early in the year, the flooding had started. Roads were closed the night of her visitation, and the ground at the cemetery was really wet. And that was just the beginning.

There were rolling clouds and thunder all during my uncle's graveside services in July. I headed back to Mound City that afternoon, and I ended up having quite an adventure. I knew the country roads well enough to get out of Carroll County and heading west on Highway 36. But by the time I got to St. Joe, I knew I needed to get even more creative. I-29 north of St. Joe was closed that afternoon. I went north on Highway 71, from St. Joe toward Maryville. Once I got to a local point known at “Pumpkin Corner”, I took off on the blacktop west toward Mound City. I had to be one of the last cars through the area between Graham and Maitland, because one lane of the road was already under water when I went through.

When the first wave of flooding arrived in Carroll County, my mom went to work with the Red Cross. Some people from her church were the local county representatives, and they asked her to help them set up the Red Cross center. And there she stayed until the end of the post-flood flood in September. She helped the Red Cross volunteers get acquainted with the local area. She had people fill out paperwork when they came in for assistance. The Carroll County Red Cross Center went through three or four homes that summer – most of their time was in the local junior high school.......and for as many people as were out of their homes and needing help, they needed that space. But when school started they had to relocate again.

Every time a shipment of water or other supplies came in, Mom was on the radio asking for volunteers to unload. When the water finally started receding, she went out with the Red Cross teams helping them find their way around the area to assess damage at various homes. Her local knowledge of the roads came in handy for them many times.

Local recovery took a long time – many people who lived in the Missouri River Bottoms couldn't get their homes cleaned up enough to move back in until the following summer. Some things are still not the same and never will be. We feel for those in the flooding areas in south Missouri.

A Good Sale

Well, we didn't win Powerball – of course, we didn't buy a ticket, so that was kind of a foregone conclusion. We didn't win Missouri Lotto either – we did have a couple of chances at that, but evidently we didn't match a single number. So it goes, I'm not sad.

But, I feel like I was a winner today – we went to a local store for a “super sale”, and I was able to pick up a few things we needed for the house. After checking out, I saw on our sales slip that we saved nearly $32!!!! For me, that's almost as good as winning the lottery! I love a good sale, and I love seeing that much savings on a sales slip. I'm attracted to a “clearance” sign like a moth is attracted to light!

I'm not a hoarder........at least not yet! But I do love a good sale. I will migrate toward any “clearance” sign I see. Sometimes, I'm able to walk away. Today's buys were actually regular items at a super sale price – I actually DID walk past their clearance items and walk away. And let me tell you, walking away from Lindor truffles in a chocolate hazelnut flavor was not easy!!

I also managed to stay away from all their back-to-school sales. I bought one toner cartridge for the printer......because I used a bit of toner printing off my course reading. It's a lot easier for me to read on paper rather than on the computer screen. But I walked past the ink pens, notebooks, etc., without them calling to me too much. I heard them, but I kept walking.

The big reason we hit this super sale today is bath towels. I felt like the ones I use were getting a little too scratchy. I checked the tags, to see if they were 100% cotton or not.....they're so old, the tags are blank. All the words are gone. So I figured that probably was a good sign that they needed to be replaced. The two I got feel so soft!!

I got some new potholders a few months ago. The ones I had were so old. But these new ones weren't exactly functional. In fact, I soon realized if I touched the regular fabric to anything hot, it melted. That's not good. I was able to replace those today, too. I replaced a couple of other items I hadn't had for awhile. It was good.

The yard next door got mowed today. I didn't have the urge to ours, but by this afternoon I was starting to think “ours looks so bad compared to theirs”. So we'll need to get ours mowed. It's amazing how just one yard getting mowed can make the others look even more in need of attention!

It wasn't a particularly exciting day, but it was just right for me! Hope your day was good, too.

Powerball & State Fair

The Powerball Jackpot once again is getting “up there”.....it'll be interesting to see where it ends up before tonight's drawing. It's interesting to watch how people get “Powerball Fever” once the jackpot gets higher than normal.

We occasionally like to play “what would we do with the money” if we would win the Powerball. I suppose it's harmless......dreaming is good for the soul sometimes, I think......and we know there's not a ghost of a chance of it happening! It usually starts with a new but unpretentious home, with room for my mom to live with us. We move on to setting up trusts for the grandkids, paying off mortgages and college loans for the kids, and possibly some new furniture for us.

Occasionally we will throw in trips to a few places we'd like to visit. Then, oddly, it usually stops. I don't know if I'm boring, or low maintenance. We would, of course, enjoy having spending money to buy small things – I occasionally think how nice it would be to have multiple pairs of glasses. But I really don't think we would be one of those couples who would blow through all the money and then be broke. We've both lived too much of our lives knowing how to live within our means.

In fact, we rarely buy Powerball tickets – especially since the cost has gone up. We frequently buy Missouri Lotto tickets, but they're only $1 each. As my uncle would say – a year from now we won't know where that money went anyway. It seems to us to be more manageable and less of a headache to win just a million or two, should we ever hit the right numbers!

The Missouri State Fair starts tomorrow. We ran by our local Orscheln store this morning and picked up discount admission tickets. We can go any day we want, but we'll likely head down next Wednesday. We'll doublecheck the daily activities, just in case there's another day we'd rather go. But Wednesday is Senior Citizen Day (did I really say that??!!!) and there's free bluegrass music all day at various locations. A friend has some of her photographs exhibited again this year. She's very good, I always enjoy seeing her work.

We enjoy attending the fair. I've enjoyed visiting other state fairs in Kansas, Oregon, and Iowa. I worked for our local Extension office for over nine years, and I got more interested in the Missouri State Fair when I had contact with the 4-H members sending their exhibits down. We enjoy going through that building to see what fun projects the kids have come up with. We enjoy the Fine Arts exhibits, Department of Conservation, and will sometimes catch the livestock exhibits. Last year, we also discovered the Missouri Wine Tent – it's fun to go in there, enjoy a glass of Missouri wine, and catch some of the informational talks on the Missouri Wine Industry.

I never had the opportunity to belong to 4-H when I was a kid. We lived too far from town for things like that to be feasible. We were ten miles from the town where I went to school, which is also where 4-H meetings were held. Ironically, hubby did belong to 4-H when he was growing up in Palo Alto. He did gardening projects. On my first trip to Palo Alto, his mom took me by the place where hubby planted his 4-H garden. It was on someone else's property......I think they were nice enough to let him use the space at no charge.

Maybe when we win the Powerball drawing, we can have a project of attending the State Fairs of all 50 states!

A Natural Playground

One week ago, I blogged about our continued unemployed status and that we had started Federal extension payments – but without the mandatory reporting at the Career Center in Chillicothe. Today I get a letter in the mail from Unemployment – I have a mandatory appointment at the Career Center on August 19. Wow, lucky me. What a time to be picked to be “special”! I'm hoping this is a one-time thing, but I have a bunch of paperwork I have to fill out and take with me. And they said to be prepared to be there as long as 90 minutes. Oh, joy.

It was a nice day (up to the point I got the mail). We enjoyed lunch at the local Mexican Restaurant, and I watched the final two videos of my first online class session. I have some bonus reading to do, and I want to type up my notes from today's videos. The basic thought of the first session – first impressions do count!

Hubby and I walked in the park this morning. The walking trail has three bridges over a couple of small creeks. We started talking about our childhoods, creeks and bridges. It turns out we both enjoyed playing around creeks and under bridges. Maybe rural north central Missouri and Palo Alto, California, aren't completely different!

We had two creeks that ran through the farm. One of those creeks was a favorite playground of mine. It wasn't a deep creek – maybe a little over ankle deep at a few points. So it was completely safe for me to play up and down that creek. It wasn't unusual for me to follow the creek all the way to the end of the farm, letting my imagination run away with me.

Mostly, though, I stayed in a smaller section of the creek. My imagination could always come up with different games of make believe. Sometimes I could make believe I was at summer camp. Other times I was a spy. Often it would depend on what I'd seen on TV or read about in a book. I really enjoyed the “Trixie Belden” books as a kid, and Trixie was always solving some mystery. That inspired a lot of my make believe.

My cousin who lived down the road often came over to play – she liked my quiet house where I was an only child, and I liked her house where she was one of seven kids! It was a nice change of pace for both of us when we visited back and forth.

I remember one time when we “discovered” a section of the creek bank we hadn't noticed before. It was fairly steep, it was clear of grass and weeds, and it had loose dirt. It didn't take us long to realize it would work as a slide. We spent a long time that afternoon sliding down that creek bank over and over. I can't imagine what the backsides of our shorts looked like. I know Mom wasn't too happy with me when we came back to the house. I never heard what her mom said. It was a fun afternoon.

Younger daughter and her hubby are enjoying their trip to Seattle, working some fun around their convention sessions. Daughter took the ferry to Orcas Island yesterday. Today, they enjoyed the original Starbucks and Pike Place Fish Market. On Saturday they traveled to Mount Rainier and posted some beautiful photos.

Both grandsons had Freshman Orientation last night. I just cannot wrap my head around my boys being old enough for high school! But, they not only are about to start high school, but both will be old enough for their learner's permits in the next few weeks!

I guess all I have to say to that is.......time marches on!! Talk to you tomorrow.