Christmas Earrings

Growing up my mom had a pair of holly earrings that she wore every Christmas. These were not anything special. They didn't have any precious stones. I am not even sure that they were metal - it is more likely that they were plastic. However they were the only pair of holiday earrings in the house. Ear piercing was around but neither my mom or I had pierced ears. As the years passed it became more and more difficult to find clip on earrings so my mom became more and more protective as the possibility of replacing any lost earrings became less and less.

It was understood that on Sunday that she would wear those earrings to church during the holidays. I never would have asked to wear them. However as I became older and began attending holiday parties on my own - such as ones for scouts or at a friend's house - I began asking to borrow them. The answer was always the same, "No, you might loose one of them."

Without having any other festive earrings I got some of my own, but I never liked them as much as those holly earrings of my mom's. That didn't stop me from asking to borrow them though. Eventually, she did occasionally relent and let me wear them, but always with a very strict warning not to loose them.

One day I asked if I could borrow them and she said no. I didn't push it and just figured that she had her reason. After several denials, I got up the courage to ask why not. It was then that she had to admit that SHE had lost one of them. I did feel a little sad to loose the earring that I had coveted for years but the feeling of satisfaction that I was not the one who lost one felt even better.

As the years passed mom did eventually get her ears pierced and began collecting a many new earrings but she never threw out the one holly earring. I know that because when she died I went through her things and found the one lonely holly earring that had been without its partner for over a decade. Although it was steeped in memories I didn't feel the need to keep one lone earring so I got rid of it. Even though the earring is long gone, I still remember them and my desire every year to wear them.

Last night I was at a new Bible study. I have been attending for just over a month. It is fairly nice but I have not had the chance to get to know many of the ladies there. We had a cookie exchange and some holiday cheer so a few of the ladies were wearing seasonal clothes and jewelry. I happened to look at the lady next to me and to my great surprise, she was wearing the same holly earrings that had haunted my childhood.

I mentioned that my mom had a pair like that when I was growing up. I told her that my mom often forbade me to wear them because she was afraid that I would loose one and in the end she was the one who lost it.

As I was packing up to leave she gave me her holly earrings. That really touched me. A woman who is almost a total stranger gave me a pair of earrings because she thought that it would make me happy. My own mom wouldn't do that for me. I guess that is just another way that the Lord is seeing that I am taken care of by him (and those who serve him) so much better than I ever could have hoped for.

25 Things

25 Random Things

I saw this done on someone else's blog & thought it was a fun idea & so I've been putting together my list of 25 Random Things that you may or may not know about me.

1.motorcycles: I like motorcycles. I rode one once and it was a great feeling. I have never driven one but I love to be on the back of one. I have heard from the drivers that I am a good rider. I guess that it just comes naturally to me after decades of riding a bicycle.

2. Raggedy Ann: I got my first Raggedy Ann on my first Christmas. I slept with her most of my childhood and I still have a doll that sits on my dresser (although not the original one)

3. Cocoa only: That is the only hot beverage I like. Keep you coffee and tea. I will have cocoa or nothing.

4. Homeschooling: now that I am in my 12th year of homeschooling it seems hard to believe but when I first read about homeschooling I thought that it was one of the weirdest things that I had ever heard of.

5. Cats: Three is the perfect number of cats for me. I have 3 now - Hope, Blackstone, and Copperfield.

6. Puppets: Yes I have been a puppeteer since I was 16, It might sound like an interesting and different job but in reality it's not. It is very similar to teaching but you have a sock on your hand.

7. Bible: It is the inspired inerrant word of God and I read it regularly. I am planning to read it start to finish again in 2011

8. Husband: I met Tom when I was 16 and he was 21. He seemed so OLD! but cute. I met him at a party but had no idea how to see him again. I knew that he worked in the wine department at the grocery store. I wanted to go there and knock a bottle of wine off the shelf and see if I could see him again, but I never got up the nerve.

9. Breakfast: I hate most breakfast foods - cereal. pancakes, eggs etc. So most of the time breakfast for me is a baked apple or cheese and crackers

10. Bread: I love making bread, rolls and bagels, but the first time I tried it, I didn't know that yeast could die and the package I was using was dead. The bread never rose and it was so terrible that not even the dog would eat it.

11. Applesauce: I will only eat home made. Don't even think of giving me that stuff that you buy in the store. It is simply gross.

12. Vegetables: The green ones are all disgusting. There are a few that I will eat (broccoli, spinach, green beans and some lettuces) but the rest of them are simply gross. It is better off just to avoid them all.

13. Bubble Baths: one of my favorite ways to relax is in a nice warm tub with enough bubble bath to act as insulation and keep it that way for at least an hour.

14. Jellyfish: they are gross and disgusting and I would be very happy if I never saw another one again - not even a picture.

15. Candy: I have a nasty sweet tooth and I love candy. Chocolates are my favorite, but they tend to melt and get on my scrapbooking so my second choice is either skittles or gummy worms/bears.

16. Reading: I love to read just about anything. My favorite book is the Bible but I also like sci-fi/fantasy and adventure

17. Movies: If I am lucky I will get to see about one a year in the theater. I have some of my favorites at home and have seen them so many times that I can practically recite them. They include Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, Princess Bride, Independence Day, and the Three Musketeers.

18. Shoes: I do not understand the obsession with shoes. I own a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of dress flats, sandals for summer and dress boots for winter. That is it and that is enough.

19. Travel: I would love to travel to many places around the world including most of Europe, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Australia. I would love to, but as far is reality is concerned, the only countries I have been in other than the U.S. are Canada and the Bahamas.

20. Employment: The last few years have been an exception. I have only had 2 - 3 paying jobs at a time. For most of my life I had at least 4 jobs. Those are in addition to being wife, mom, and teacher.

21. Letters: When I am angry or upset, I write very nasty letters. (The girl scout council is my target most of the time) My kids quiver at them and say that they would prefer to be grounded than to receive one of my letters. They say it scares them too much.

22. Technology: I am a Luddite. I am so bad with technology that it is almost funny. I do not text (I really don't see a point in it any way if you need to tell some one something, just call them - you have the phone) and I have no idea what to do with a pager. I have my computer set up the way I like it and even though it is not optimized, I won't let anyone "improve" it because I don't want to have to learn anything more about it.

23. Film: Yes, I use and love my film camera. I had a digi one and hated it. I know that there are some good digi cameras out there, but not in my price range. The cheap digis all have a shutter lag that I just can't seem to get used to so I mess up the pics. Never do that with film so I will stick with film

24. Role Playing: I really like it. Even wen to a con this summer. Very fun, but I just don 't have enough time to really pursue it. If given a chance though, I will reminiss about past campaigns and games. D&D is my favorite. I think I like 3.5 best but I have played them all from 2nd edition to the present.

25. Friends: I have more cyber friends than friends I see with any regularity.

Making Dinner vs. Cooking Meat

I confess, I like to cook. I am challenged most of the time by a limited budget and picky eaters (myself included in that category) but I do like to cook. I do it most nights of the week. The worst part of cooking for me is not the actual food preparation - that is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what to make. I hated that job so much that I made a deal with the older kids. They come up with and prepare 1 dinner a weed each and I will do the kitchen cleanup afterwards.

There is another player in this game about cooking too - my husband. He LOVES and I mean LOVES to grill. He is addicted to it. He is outside when the temperature is 20 below with a wind chill cold enough to cool off hell itself standing at the grill. I like that he grills but he doesn't cook dinner. He says that he cooks dinner but he doesn't. He just cooks the meat.

He will come in and say"The meat is almost done, what are we having with it?"

He thinks he is cooking dinner but he is cooking meat. Now rather than figuring out what to have I have the even tougher job of trying to figure out what will go with the eclectic spices, rubs and marinades that he uses.

Am I wrong? Is making dinner no more than cooking meat. If that is the case, I have been doing it wrong for years. I don't think I am. I just want to know, who told them that they were the same thing?

Such a Lovely Neighborhood

Well it was when we moved in almost 20 years ago. There were some of the nicest neighbors that anyone could want. There were kids playing and everyone at least recognized everyone else. No it was not perfect, but it was a nice place to live.

But that was 20 years ago and the world was very different. Now the neighborhood is basically made of transient renters who are not here long enough to get to know. I wouldn't mind so much if they were moving on to better things, but many of late seem to be moving on...to incarceration.

The house next door has been a challenge for the better part of the last decade. The landlord that bought it did so just about the time we bought our house. He may not have been the best but he seemed to screen his applicants well and we always had decent people living next door. Then for reasons that I do not know he sold the house that that is when things started to slide.

The first thing that he did was raise the rent preventing the family who were living there from staying. The first renters were very quiet but by far, they have been the best who have lived there since the house was sold. I believe that they were Muslim and although they were quiet and reserved they were nice to have next door. I am happy for them that they inherited a house in the suburbs and moved to a really nice house. However that was the beginning of the slide down the slippery slope.

The people who moved in next were not too bad except for their somewhat illegal practice of raising dogs for dog fighting - pit-bulls no less. Although the dogs never threatened us in any way, I was never comfortable living next to 13 of them. I was saddened when most of the dogs died in the fire in that house. I may not have liked them, but they certainly did not deserve to die like that. Not surprising, those people found a new place to live after the fire and never came back.

That is when the real trouble started. The current landlord then hired some questionable men to rebuild the house including but not limited to the convicted child molester and rapist. Needless to say my feeling of unease only increased and I would have much preferred the dogs back.

Once the house was remodeled that man was kicked out. Now granted I didn't want him next to me, but they way he was treated was not fair either. I believe that if someone has served their time that they should be a part of society again but just like I don't think a recovering alcoholic should work at a bar, I don't think that working next to kids is a good fit for that man either. I do not know what he did after that, and honestly, I am glad of it.

The next tenant was an older man who was under house arrest. I do not know what his crime was but he was friendly enough. The problem was that because he couldn't leave the house, all his friends came to him. There were parties every weekend and some got a bit wild but nothing that caused any real trouble - for us at least. However we were blessed with that because New Year's Eve of 2009 the police were swarming next door around that man and the recked car that he had used to try and get away. He was removed to a jail cell and the house was up for rent again.

This house is a duplex so at any given time there are 2 sets of people living there. I am never sure who belongs to up or down but it seems as if often they are somehow related to one another. The sister of New Year's Eve is currently living up stairs and by far she is the best we have had in a LONG time.

Although upstairs is really nice by far the worst downstairs moved in this spring. He was loud and vulgar. I doubt that he could speak a sentence without profanity in it. I didn't know it at the time, but he was an ex-con as well. The parties and the violence was almost constant and I we were forced to call the police on multiple occasions. But the call that got signaled the end was not made by us but rather by upstairs.

They saw that downstairs was attempting to grow pot in the house. The police were notified and downstairs was forcibly evicted (but not before assaulting upstairs and firing a gun). We left all the "fun" for the authorities. I have since heard from upstairs that downstairs will not need to worry about where he will live for the next 25 years because he will be a guest of the state.

So down it has gone. From a place that although was not perfect was not bad to a place where my kids are afraid to be. I wonder what is coming next, and I pray that the Lord will keep up safe through it all.

Altering attitudes

I have to confess that I love scrapbooking. It is an obsession/addiction. At current count I have 24 albums full of scrapbooking pages (and I do mean full!) I really enjoy it. For me it is my therapy and my hobby and a big part of who I am and what I do.

When I became involved with online scrapbooking pages it did not take me long to discover that although scrapbooking was the main idea that there were others that went along with it. They use the same supplies and have similar appeal. Card-making, Stamping, and Altering are just some of these siblings to scrapping. It did not take long for me to embrace Card-making and even a bit of stamping, but I didn't care much for altering.

I am a VERY practical person. I enjoy making crafts of all kinds but only if they are "useful". I don't want to make something just because. It needs to have a purpose (other than one more thing for me to clean). My attitude to altering was taking something that is practical and making it totally decorative (thus something else to clean). I stuck with this attitude for a LONG time.

Now however I have discovered that it can be useful in some instances. I had to make a piece of altered art and I was stumped. Then I remembered a gift I had received once which was an altered candy bar cover. It just really made the candy bar special. I decided to give it a try. Here is the result:

I have to admit that it was fun. No, I don't think that it is ever going to take the place of scrapping or even card-making but at least I don't now see it as the enemy. AND I now have a great idea for gifts. Not only are they inexpensive but they are also very classy looking.

Impressions are EVERYTHING

Last night was a wonderful night. Tom and I found ourselves unexpectedly without kids for the evening. (Eva was at camp, Timothy was at youth group, and Emily was invited to a birthday party) Being the weekend Tom was of course going to grill. However having no kids and being extremely hot (Heat index of 104) I couldn't see the point. I called him and told him he was taking me out to dinner - and fortunately he agreed.

I decided that because this doesn't happen that often I was going to make the most of it. I really got dressed up. I have to admit that I looked really good. Loosing 40 pounds helped in that matter but it was just the start. I had a little black dress from Freecycle that I wore. I added a necklace that I was given as a bride's maid 20 years ago and a pair of ear rings that I inherited from my mom. Understand I really did look great and I didn't pay a dime to do it. I don't do that often (I don't often have the reason) but when I do decide to, I clean up very well.

It felt good to look good but that was not the best part. The best part were people's different reactions. We dropped Timothy off at youth group and the pastor was there. This was not the church that we regularly attend. It is the church were I work for Angelfood and had a casual Saturday night service that we attended. At one point in time the pastor, Eric, might have seen me in my Sunday clothes but he had never seen me really dressed up. The double take he did was priceless.

We went to a little restaurant in Tremont (Tremont is sort of Cleveland's version of Greenwich Village). We don't go out often, but if we do, we go there. When the owner of the restaurant saw us she did the same double take. They seated us right in the window. I am not sure if that was so we could see out, or the passers-by could see us.

The best part was after dinner when we went to do a little window shopping. I decided that I looked the part, so we were going to go into the jewelry store. The woman behind the counter just couldn't get to us fast enough. Without any provocation she was pulling things out of the cases and having me try things on. I have never been treated so well in a store. And I couldn't quit smiling. It was obvious that she thought that we were going to buy the store or at least something. Now in all honesty there were a few things that I would have liked, but nothing I needed at those prices. I just loved being fawned over line I was someone who mattered. I still grin just thinking about it.

In the end my lesson learned is that a good impression really does make a big difference. It is nice that I can make it once in a while too. However I am back to my old life of boring obscurity with the memory of a great evening.

Throwback

Awana has several theme nights. This year they had an 80's night. I was not sure of this. I did graduate in 1985, but I do not feel old enough to be an oldie. I guess it just depends on perspective. I never thought much of it, but I guess the styles have changed (although not much for me as I still have some clothes that were from the 80's which Eva is wearing. The ensemble is complete with a big hair bow and hoop earrings.

We had her hair all poofed up but she took one look at it an vetoed going out in public like that. I can't say that I really blame her. I didn't wear my hair that way then - in fact my hair style is the same now as it has been since I was in junior high.
What we realized was that as far as fashion in the 80's went, clothes were not really worn but rather they were accessories. Emily chose to tie a sweater over her polo - with the collar up, of course - but that wasn't the only example. There were plenty of legwarmers and fingerless gloves.

So I guess that I am getting older because I don't think that most of the styles were that bad (with the exception of legwarmers which I never understood at the time either) At least my pants went up to my waist and my shirt hung below the waist leaving no bare midriff. I guess that time marches on though so I had better get used to it or I will be crushed by it - but that doesn't mean that I am ever going to wear pants and shirts that let any of my ample middle show.