It’s interesting how nostalgias are passed down through generations. And it’s significant how strong a reminder food is of the stories that go with it. Growing up, mom would occasionally buy this bizarre tubular food, Boston Brown Bread, known to me as “brown bread in a can.” She bought it because it reminded her of […]
Today, my mom and my husband and I all worked to remove the enormous root of an old Oak Tree in which I spent much of my childhood. It died long ago due to a disease and had to be cut down. I still remember the sadness in my heart when my Mom called and […]
What a year this has been… I like being like everyone else and doing a year in review type post around this time of year. It’s fun to go back in time and see how much everyone has grown, what has changed, what hasn’t changed… etc. In January I informed you once again about just […]
True friendships are not always easy to come by. They are wonderful gifts from God. Like other wonderful gifts from God, such as creation and children, they have to be cared for and nurtured to maintain strength. Sometimes when children who are best friends grow up there is such a cataclysmic change in the friendship’s […]
It’s so girly. Since I started changing up my headers every month I’ve had a work lunchbox, a Beatles lunchbox and a Roy Rogers lunchbox… I guess it’s about time I had something girly! I think we had this lunchbox. I know we had Holly Hobbie curtains at some point in time. What kind of […]
I’ve been going through a handful of old pictures and starting to upload them to my computer. A lot of them needed fixing due to over or under exposure. I thought you all might get a kick out of the string of Golden Retrievers throughout these pictures… The Rusty years…. The Shasta years… The Arthur […]
These pictures aren’t quite as old as the one I posted yesterday obviously, since the subjects are still little, but they were taken before my Photoshop craze days. So I deicided to pop some of them over to Photoshop to see what I could do with them. I mostly just like making them into black […]
I pulled this old picture out of moth balls yesterday… This picture was taken more than 13 years ago. (Yes, I know, I’m a mere infant… or so I’m told.) It is funny how Senior year seems so long ago and so recent at the same time. I’m wondering if this is how it will […]
is not mine. It’s pretty though isn’t it? I love how shiny it is. The piano. It’s a wonderful, amazing, beautiful instrument. I should know. I took lessons for five years as a child, which I’m sure you realize is not enough to warrant me saying, “I should know” about it. I’m lucky if I […]
I wasn’t going to post today because my brain is fried. I’m tired. We spent the morning at the U.S. Consulate office doing legally binding activities like raising our right hands and making promises that we are who we say we are and things like that. That really takes it out of ya. Plus, I’m […]
We decided to go out for a mid-morning jaunt today. We needed to pick up a few items for various art and hobby related projects. Imagine our co-mingled feelings (mine, displeasure – the Pastor and the children’s pure excitement) when we found that this was happening: Yuck. Ick. Blargh. Don’t get me wrong. I like […]
Today we had our yearly church picnic which commemorates the last day of Sunday School for the term. As I was standing outside with my youngest in the stroller, I was laughing as I watched my husband and three older sons running to and fro with 5 gallon buckets on their heads as part of […]
My husband and I have been my husband and I for 10 years as of today. He was 25 and I was 20. The day was beautiful. It was a Sunday. We had a beautiful outdoor wedding with over 200 friends and family members there to share the day. Ten years goes by terribly fast […]
The jerks. We were about 16 when my best friend, April, and I walked to and from school together. It only lasted for about a semester at which point I finally got my driver’s license started driving to school. Honestly, strange things were wont to happen on those walks along that route. One time we […]
Annie has suggested a trip down memory lane for today and I decided to play along. This picture is of me and all of my siblings when I was 18. This is one of the last pictures of all of us together. I think we may have gotten one more at my sister’s wedding but […]
I’ve got a challenge for you! And I want you to take me up on it and pass it on by way of your blog. Sign Mr. Linky and remind your readers to come and sign Mr. Linky too! :^) Tell me and if possible show me about your childhood toys, games or playgrounds. Do […]
Childhood seems to have been turned into a very sterile and safe existence. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for safety. But really, just look at your local new community or subdivision. At least where we live they seem to mow down every single climbable tree, level every bump out and plant tiny sprigs that […]
Robin at Pensieve is hosting Fun Monday today. She challenged everyone to post a horrifically bad hair image of themselves… I was all excited to participate because I truly believe I have one of the worst, most hair offensive pictures ever. My scanner, sadly, has decided to go on strike and refuses to communicate with […]
Growing up we almost always had two dogs. Generally one was a purebred of some sort and the second was a stray that made itself at home with us. One such stray was Nikki. Nikki was a Belgian Sheep Dog. They basically look like black Collies. Lots and lots of black hair. Nikki wandered onto […]
I’m hoping to start a chain reaction or a game of tag with this post so if you are reading it, consider yourself TAGGED! :^D I’m trying out Mr. Linky so make sure to add your link if you participate! (Oh and send anyone who reads your blog and wants to participate over here to […]
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while or if you’ve read my archives you know that I have a long history of being somewhat of a prankster. I’ve also recently told you that I like to tease my husband and kids endlessly. Sometimes when my kids ask me what’s for dinner I tell […]
I was a terribly incurable flirt when I was a teenager. I can’t really explain this except that I was born that way. I wanted to marry every construction man that ever worked on our many additions and building projects in our yard when I was little. I came home from preschool swearing that I […]
Kinda sorta. My Dad bought me the perfect car for a sassy girl like myself. It had attitude. It was fun to drive. I could fit a bunch of friends in it. Not such a perfect car, it turns out, for a terribly incurable flirt though. It was maroon in color with black interior. It […]
Admitting that I have a problem is the first step towards recovery right? And I already have my higher power… So… what? I’m already at step three? Talk about rapid progress! If you don’t like April Fool’s Day, you won’t like living in my house. I can’t shake the constant nagging desire to tormentingly tease […]
I was just perusing my stat counter to see what search terms people have recently Googled to end up at my blog. I get a lot of people Googling for Ree because I plug her blog so frequently. Glad a search for her led you here but there’s her name in bold letters if you […]
I was 15. I was afraid that somehow I had been left in the dust, by all my friends, with regards to boyfriends even though in reality few of my friends had had “serious” boyfriends up until this point either. The church youth group (oh, all manner of evils take place in connection with youth […]
It all started when my parents told my big brother and I that we were allowed to invite a friend for a week long houseboating vacation at beautiful Lake Shasta in Northern California. I chose to invite one of my best friends, Corrie. Corrie and I met each other at the annual Back to School […]
I had a pet canary when I was in fourth grade. What prompted me to want a pet canary? I do not know the answer to that question. I think my Mom planted the idea in my head to be quite honest, because I think she really wanted a pet canary. Have I ever mentioned […]
Yeah. Not doing so well on that blogging fast. So I’m declaring it Nabreakblofast. National Break the blogging fast. This Nabreakblofast is especially created so that I can tell you about my childhood dreams of becoming a famous singer. This news might come as a surprise even to my Mother. Then again, the walls of […]
My Mom got her first computer… Oh what year could that have been? It had to have been maybe 1987. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why my Mom wanted a computer. What could my Mom want with a giant black thing that does no more than print “Happy Birthday” banners and […]
I do. I love. I love my favorite clothing store. I love the smell of freshly cut grass, the smell of ocean spray and the smell of wood burning fires on a snowy day. I love cashmere. (I don’t own any but I love it. If you wear it anywhere near me, beware you could […]
I never went to Juvy. Never got drunk. Never tried smoking anything. I never did get in much trouble. The only time I was sent to the office in all of my school years was when I was in Kindergarten and got snagged for chasing the principal’s son and trying to kiss him. That was […]
“I know what a Guinea Pig is but what on earth is a Cheemonkey?” you may wonder. The answer is… I don’t really know. Cheemonkey was a game that my best friend, April and I invented while playing at a local swimming pool during one of our Summer breaks during the elementary years when we […]
My funny is coming back. I have a story about a game that my best friend, April and I used to play in the swimming pool but I decided to leave that for another day. Instead for your listening pleasure I will do my best to recall some of my positive memories of my brother […]
My best friend, April, and I used to have so much fun together. This is the same friend with whom I made an untold number of crank phone calls and the same friend with whom I participated in an open casket funeral for a dead mole that we found in my backyard. If you have […]
Music crazes. I always drove my sister crazy when I was young. For one thing, we shared a room for many years and I would wake up cheerfully at 6 a.m. singing. She hated it. I was reminded frequently by my mother of the Proverb about how greeting your neighbor too cheerfully early in the […]
I must tell you, when I look back on my many years as a babysitter I wonder at the fact that God saw fit to give me children of my own. There were some pretty crazy babysitting experiences that I had and I guess it’s a wonder also that after all of it, I still […]
The other day my husband and I read in the local news of a couple whose brand new car was stolen out of their driveway! Of course they called and reported it to police but they also decided to not sit idly by and wait for the cops to recover the stolen vehicle. They just […]
If you have ever been the victim of a crank call I may have been your worst enemy about 16 years ago. My best friend and I started our short-lived but notorious careers as professional grade prank callers at a rather young age. I recall with clarity our very first crank phone call made in […]
My big brother, my fellow movie and sitcom quoter, the one who prepared me for all the potty talk that my boys come up with… thanks for making it less shocking by easing me into it throughout childhood!I clearly remember being stuck in the sandbox (top closed) and thinking we were never going to escape, […]
My older and only sister, my dear and permanent friend, a kindred spirit… Playing house, I was always the baby. You were always the responsible mother. I did anything I could to get Mom to give me a baby bottle when I was much too old for one. We shared a room and a queen […]
Last night I was lying in my bed remembering moments from my childhood and I decided that I would blog for the next few days about some of the memories I can conjure up of some of my family members. If you decide to blog about your family memories. Please share the link to your […]
Well, though I’ve had my ibook for over a year now tonight was my first time to venture out into iTunes land and make my first download purchase. Oh my. Can we say addictive? I think I just spent my Mother’s Day allowance. It really is like the dollar store. You see that you can […]
Have you ever gone through a pink phase? I imagine that most girls have, somewhere around fourth or fifth grade. Depending on the era you grew up in the pink phase may have been baby pink, Barbie pink, Barbie and the Rockers Pink, magenta… But am I right or just stupid in assuming that most […]
Do I have to have an excuse to share about my Grandma? I wrote this for her memorial service, held back in November. My Grandma Bailey by Nancy Grandma Bailey was my friend. The last image I have in my head of Grandma Bailey is one of her sitting in her chair, fluttering her bare […]
Broken Sojourners 