When you finally go back to your old hometown, you find it wasn't the old home you missed but your childhood. ~ Sam Ewing

You never know who you might stumble upon on Facebook. Today I became reconnected with a boy...well, he's a MAN now...who I grew up across the street from when we were children. My mom used to babysit his baby brother. We used to watch "Batman" on their color TV...they were the first family in our neighborhood to own a color one. We used to play a made-up game called "Bat" the whole neighborhood would get together and play in his family's yard on summer nites. It is like stepping back in to the best years of my childhood. It feels good.

Australian Christmas Wreath....

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world. ~ Leo Buscaglia

The Christmas cards we usually get weren't quite complete this year. We didn't receive one from my childhood best friend's mom who has sent one to me faithfully for 35 years, as well as more letters than I can count. She moved from my hometown this past year to live with her daughter -- my childhood best friend -- who's lived on the East Coast for the past couple of decades. She's been in ill health. As I took down all the Christmas cards this morning I got to thinking about Babe and I wrote a short note to her daughter. I hope her daughter will write back and let me know if Babe is even still with us. Angie is notoriously bad about keeping in touch...hence, the long years of correspondence between her mom and me, my only link to Angie outside of sporadic Christmas cards from her every now and then. Oh, and the fact that she named her oldest daughter the same name, same spelling, as mine. I'm hoping she'll at least let me know about her mom. I would like some closure on this one way or the other.

Salad, anyone?

I was supposed to provide a Mandarin Orange Jello salad for our Christmas dinner yesterday. I think it was supposed to look something like the one I have pictured here. I had never made one before so my daughter-in-law kindly emailed her recipe for it to me and I'd gone out and bought the ingredients for it the other day. As I perused my list and saw "2 boxes of Tapioca" and then gazed up at the Minute Tapioca boxes on the top shelf I thought to myself, "Man, that sure is a lot of tapioca!" But I bought it and then on Christmas Eve day I brought the boxes of tapioca, the cans of mandarin oranges, and Cool Whip out to whip it all together. Poured the two boxes of Minute Tapioca into the pan. The water/juice combination. And began to bring it all to a boil. Oh my my. Right away I knew something wasn't right. It looked like joint compound you could spackle walls with. And it took about 5 cups of water...maybe 6...to make it look even remotely...ok. Hmmmmmmmmm. My daughter was watching me as I'm going about it, getting the giggles as she looked at my pan full of...goooooooooooo...and said, "Mom, I don't think you're doing that right." I said, "Well, this is what the recipe says and I'm following it," handing the paper over to her. She looked at it and had to admit I was following directions, alright. As it cooled and I added in the oranges...and a can of pineapple, too, because the salad looked so 'empty' with just the orange slices, we both looked at it rather dubiously and said, "Well, who knows?"

Yesterday as I started loading up the food I'd prepared out of the refrigerator I picked up the pretty cut glass bowl I'd put the jello salad in. It must've weighed 15 pounds. It'd turned in to cement overnite. I quickly whipped together a Pumpkin Mousse and tossed the orange salad in the trash.

Come to find out, I was supposed to have used 2 little boxes of Jello Tapioca. But I'm of the 'old school'. Tapioca is Minute Tapioca, like my mom used to stir and simmer on the stove.

Duh.

Oh well.

Another one of those Christmas bloopers like the one years ago when I got a cute little wicker basket with a patchwork chicken cotton topper and I said, "Finally...something to keep my buns warm!"

We still laugh about that one.

The Day After....

THINGS TO DO BEFORE MY PARENTS ARRIVE: My parents are deceased.

7 THINGS I'VE BEEN DOING INSTEAD OF PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS:
1. Procrastinating
2. Taking care of the grandkids 10-12 hours per work day
3. Hoping Dear Hubby's Christmas bonus arrives before Christmas Eve
4. Blogging
5. Searching for my DVD of "Family Man" that I put in a safe place so I'd remember where it was at Christmas.
6. Purging piles of papers that have stacked up
7. Trying to stay away from watching the evening news. Too depressing for words.

7 THINGS I DIDN'T DO THIS CHRISTMAS:
1. Go overboard on shopping
2. Do any baking or fancy cooking -- it was take-out Chinese for Christmas Eve!
3. Stress too much
4. Feel guilty about anything I didn't manage to get done
5. Get up at the crack of dawn to visit family
6. Watch "A Christmas Story"...Christmas seemed to be here and over before I got my copy of that DVD out, too.
7. Go to our church's Christmas concert. We had a family dinner we needed to go to instead.

7 CHRISTMAS WISHES:
1. All family members were safe
2. Everyone liked their gifts
3. Time to relax
4. Some time on the computer without feeling rushed
5. Time to read some of a book I've been wanting to get to
6. No sinus headache to ruin the day!
7. Getting thru Christmas without going in to debt

7 THINGS I SAID AS CHRISTMAS APPROACHED:
1. I'll get to the decorations when I can.
2. Santa will be coming to your house!
3. Be careful with the Christmas tree!
4. I LOVE our neighbors!
5. I hope I remembered to send cards to everyone
6. I'm sure I forgot someone!
7.What a relief to have the shopping out of the way!

7 FAMOUS PEOPLE I'D INVITE FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER:
1. Jesus -- because there'd be no Christmas without Him
2. Handel -- because he wrote some of the most powerful, sacred Christmas music ever
3. Andrea Bocelli -- because I'd love to hear him sing Christmas songs
4. Billy Graham -- because he's so fascinating
5. The Whites/Ricky Scaggs -- because I'd like some great bluegrass Christmas music as well
6. The Apostle Peter -- because he's my favorite person in the Bible
7. George Winston -- because I'd like him to play background music while the rest of us dine

7 FAVORITE FESTIVE FOODS:
1. Honey Baked Ham
2. Pumpkin pie
3. Apple pie
4. Barber pole peppermint sticks
5. Hickory Farm Sausage
6. Pumpkin Mousse
7. Roast turkey

And HE Shall Reign Forever and Ever!

My most favorite hymn of all time, done with so much joy and enthusiasm!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Merry Christmas Ramblings...

I guess I should be checking my list. If I had a list. But I don't and I don't have much of anything prepared for Christmas. The grandboy gifts are tucked away in a dark corner of the basement. I need to print off a Jello salad recipe my daughter-in-law emailed to me so I can get busy on that sometime today. I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 1:15 and couldn't go back to sleep. It's becoming a regular habit with me, this 1 am wake-up time. I go to the bathroom, then can't go back to sleep. So...I get up and turn on the coffee, eat my bagel and read my Bible. I'm getting a lot of Bible reading done. In fact, I just finished reading it completely thru for the 8th time...or the 9th? I've lost count...just the other day. Tomorrow I start on St. Luke, which is so appropriate since it has the Christmas Story in it. It is so beautiful.

Am I rambling? I'm rambling. I have several nice long emails in my Inbox crying out for answers but I don't want to get busy typing on them yet. I find if I email super early in the morning, by the time evening gets here I can't even remember what I wrote and I'm always afraid it was a mess of mumbo-jumbo because my mind at this hour is miles away from where my mind is around 6 pm when I might get a chance to sit down here again for a half hour or so.

I'm so glad I checked to see if the library was going to be open today or not. It's not. I'd put "The Friendly Persuasion" DVD on hold, hoping it would get here in time for Christmas Eve viewing. It did. Yesterday. So when I found out the library's closed today, Dear Hubby and I made a quick trip there before it closed last nite so we could pick up the DVD and a couple of books that came in, too, that I've been waiting to read for a long time. We'll also be watching "It's a Wonderful Life" and my copy of "The Family Man" if I can remember where I stashed it away. In one of those places where I wouldn't forget, don'tcha know. And then promptly did.

And so another year is almost over. Another birthday for me is just a few days away. Another Christmas is here and will be gone before I can catch my breath.

And I am still here to enjoy it.

And I'm thankful for that.

Christmas Countdown...

Dear Hubby finally got his Christmas bonus so after our daughter-in-law picked the boys up after work he and I made a trip to Fred Meyer to pick up some last-minute food items for my contributions to our Christmas dinner on Friday as well as the last of the gifts for the grandboys. I was done with everything within half an hour. As I placed all the items on the check out counter I told the checker, "I don't mean to sound like Scrooge but I'll sure be glad when all of this is over." She rolled her eyes, let out a big sigh, and said, "Me, too!"

Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas from the spiritual standpoint. I love the Christmas decorations at church, the beautiful music and singing that goes on. I love the lights decorating houses. But the grinding of the gears that goes on preparing everything else...jostling crowds in the stores, worrying about if there's enough money to go around...that isn't fun. We've really begun simplifying this year. No more stacks of gifts. One nice gift for each adult child, half a dozen for the grandboys each. Dear Hubby said it's time we begin saving a little bit of it aside for ourselves for a nice getaway weekend sometime soon. I agree. We need that.

Yesterday the boys and I got out for a nice long walk for the first time in ages. We went to the bank, stopped at Fred Meyer for a much-needed diaper/Pull-Ups replenishment. I bought a container of Christmas cookies and on the way home we stopped at one of the construction sites we've been visiting the past several months while the city works on improving our sewers. We've become such a regular sight the guys tell us they've missed us if we haven't been by in a while. They've all become like 'friends' to my grandsons, especially Dylan, and have been so nice, taking the time to show him stuff down in the trenches and treating him like one of 'the guys'. I wanted to thank them for their kindness. Dylan was so excited to give them the cookies...he handed them off to one of the men and wished him a "Merry Christmas!" You don't expect grown men to be touched but they were so appreciative...thanked him profusely, gave him high 5's. I don't know who got a bigger kick out of it, the giver or the receivers!

Then we stopped at a little pizza place to buy a pizza to take home for lunch. We go there every week or so and the young woman who works in there has been so kind to us, too...letting the boys have little super balls and interacting with them. Dylan loves to 'pay' with either my debit or money. Yesterday we had $10 on us so he paid for the pizza and gave the change back to me. I bent down and whispered to him we were going to give Kim a Christmas present, too, and told him to hand the $5 back to her and wish her a Merry Christmas as well. He did, and she was speechless. When she told me, "You didn't have to do that!" I told her yes, I did. "What goes around comes around," I told her. "This is to say thank you for your kindness."

OK...maybe I like Christmas after all.

To infinity and beyond!

24, 54, 36, 43...157 posts just in the past 4 months. Where do they come from, these words in my head?

I have a relatively new reader named Anita who's been leaving some lovely comments on my blog. Yesterday I actually had some time on my hands...as you can see from the amount of posts I put on here then...so I went over to Anita's to do some "Now it's MY turn to return the favor!" reading and take some time to get 'acquainted' with her. What a lovely site. And one of her posts about "Passion" really stuck with me. Because, like with her, writing is my passion. I have lived, breathed, loved, lived words my entire life. I have devoured them. I used to love to sit with my parents' huge old Webster's Dictionary sprawled across my lap and read pages of words in my quest to learn more, more, more. To learn where they came from, to learn what they mean. I still get a thrill when I stumble across a new one and have to go to Dictionary.com to find the definition.

Why?

I dunno.

But one thing I do know. I would literally dry up and die if I couldn't sit down here at my keyboard and let the streams of words that build up to the point of explosion inside of me flow out. Maybe it's from a lifelong build-up of words that were dammed up inside because my mind has always moved at the speed of light and my hand could never keep up with it when all I had at hand was a pen and paper. I grew frustrated and gave up on countless journals. But the day my daughter sat down with me at my new computer and showed me the cyber-world of blogging, the moment I clicked on "Publish Post" for the first time and saw my words up there on a screen for the world to see, I knew I had found my earthly version of heaven.

One of the definitions of passion is this: any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. It also speaks of great suffering, as that of Christ on the Cross or of martyrs. Writing...blogging...falls somewhere in the middle of both of those definitions for me. It's powerful, it's compelling, and if I could never do it again I would suffer great emotional pain. I really would. It is the lifeblood of my existence at this stage of my life. It is my connection to the 'real' world out there since so much of my time is centered around the care of my grandsons. When I click on "New Post" I have come home.

I done lost my marbles!

My father-in-law was a man with a lot of funny sayings. He grew up on a farm in the country in the state of Missouri and I'm not sure how many of his sayings were cultural vernacular privy to that part of the country or just plain silliness that he and his brothers came up with. He and the two older brothers closest to him in age even had their own language and when they'd get going sometimes their father would say, "Willikers, boys! Get next to yourselves!" This evening his saying of "Pick up the marbles, skinny. You win!" came to mind. It's one of those throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air type of expressions when you're overwhelmed or frustrated...a sign of giving up or giving in.

Well, I'm having one of those moments. I had a Post-It note I'd been scribbling on the past week or so, random things I wanted to blog about when I felt well enough to do so and had time enough to do it. All day I've been posting random bits and pieces but tonite I was going to sit down and write something of...substance. Something with a little bit of thought behind it. Yeah, right. I started sorting thru the pieces of paper scattered on the window ledge here that my monitor rests on and do you think I can find that Post-It?

So...I'll tell you instead a little more about the recovery of my truck. Anonymous, if you're here you'll probably say it was just another one of those 'coincidences' that God has nothing to do with. And that's your right, your privilege, but if you've come back I'd say this is kind of a funny blog for you to return to. I'm a great believer in coincidence but I'm even a greater believer in a God who has His hand in more of my life than even I'm aware of most of the time. You see, Portland is a pretty big city...something like over 1,000,000 people in the greater metro area. Most people who live here have at least one vehicle. Or two, like Dear Hubby and I have. I blogged about how it was my daughter-in-law of all people who spotted my little red truck parked on a side street near a 7/11 store she and my son had happened to stop at. But I was in a hurry to write that nite and I didn't tell you "The rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. You see, Anonymous, at the exact same moment my son was walking over to my truck to see if it indeed was mine a co-worker of my husband's was traveling down the main boulevard this side street intersects with. And Joel happened to spot it as well. And just as Dear Hubby and I were leaving the house to meet the police at the store our cell phone rang and Joel told Dear Hubby, "I think I've found your wife's stolen truck!" In fact, he and my son had never met and he thought our son, who was standing by the truck as he was talking to us on the phone, was the thief. Dear Hubby told him, "That's our son..." hoping Joel wouldn't jump him. When the police finished clearing the truck off the "hot list" and had us look it over for damage there was nothing wrong with it. No broken locks. No broken windows. No torn-up ignition. The pennies in my ash tray were still there. So was my hankie, my pens, my pack of gum. And most importantly -- to me, anyway, because it was a gift from a treasured friend -- my little traveling Guardian Angel was still clipped to my visor. Because, when I worked with her at one of Portland's schools and had to commute several miles, she wanted Someone to watch over me and keep me safe.

Now, here is what I call a coincidence. The 7/11 store my truck was parked next to is also the same store one of Dear Hubby's cousins had his truck stolen from 7 years ago.

Christmas Meme....

I found this delightful meme at Jeanie's site, who found it at our friend Betty's site:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Bread pudding.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps. That's the magic of Christmas, the anticipation of wondering what's inside!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Colored, and tons of them. I don't like white Christmas lights. Too sterile for me. Sorry...personal preference is all.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Before I began doing day care for my grandsons, the first week of December. Now I'm lucky if I get any up at all.

6. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? We didn't have much money when I was growing up but I remember my 4th Christmas when my mother somehow found the time to make me a doll house. That was something I wanted SO badly that year. They didn't have the funds to buy a 'real' one for me so my mom somehow found the time in her busy schedule to make one for me out of cardboard boxes taped together. She'd carefully cut out doors and windows, using a pen to make door knobs and other decorations. She put scraps of fabric on the windows for curtains. Furnished it with a cheap little set of doll house furniture and plastic dolls. There was so much love and effort put into it, and when I found it under the tree on Christmas morning I was absolutely enthralled. I played oh-so-carefully with it so it lasted a long, long time.

7. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was around 7, I think. With two older brothers more than willing to spill the beans, it's a wonder I made it that far!

8. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? No.

9 How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I let the fiber optic lights that change color all the time do it all.

10. Do you remember your favorite gift? The year I graduated from high school and had a job I told my family I didn't want to receive any gifts, I just wanted to give them. I could finally afford to give nice things and I didn't want anything in return. I mean, my poor middle brother had been getting a package of Fruit of the Loom underwear from me each Christmas from as far back as I could remember. After everyone had opened their gifts my Dad spoke up and said, "Hey, it looks like there's a gift still there behind the tree. Kristine, why don't you go see who it's for?" I went to retrieve it and on the tag it said "To Kristine from Santa". Oh brother, I thought. I began to open it from the bottom of the box...it was long and oblong. As soon as I parted the flaps and saw a black shoe inside I knew what it was. "MY RAGGEDY ANDY!!" I squealed. I'd wanted a big Raggedy Andy F.O.R.E.V.E.R. Forever!!! But the funds for one had never been there when I was a little girl. That gift meant the world to me. It was love at first sight.

11. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Experiencing it thru the eyes of my grandsons.

12. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Coconut balls rolled in decadent, rich, and expensive dark chocolate!

Livin' life in Looney Land...

Someday my grandson Dylan will shoot me for posting this photo. But he decked himself out with his Pull-Ups the other day...it was his super hero getup for the day. His auntie snapped this before she left for work. He didn't want to stand still so it's blurry...but this is how our days go...

Living in Mr. Magoo Land....

I have something in common with Mr. Magoo. Neither one of us knows just how bad our eyesight is. I mean, seriously. When I went to the eye doctor this morning to pick up my new prescription and put them on it was like...WHOAAAAA! So that's what the world looks like! So I, the most camera-shy and I-HATE-myself-in-pictures person in the world, am coming out of the shadows to say hello, especially to the many new readers I've been noticing in my Feedjit who probably haven't been around for any of my rare 'appearances' on here. It won't be here long, most probably for the weekend and that's it...but here I am.

Hello!

It's nice to meet you!

I have a little ant...one so tiny it's almost too small to see -- at least with my eyesight -- who I spot crawling around on my monitor screen almost every day. Do I squish it, or do I admire it for lasting so long? So far he's surviving.

Out of the mouths of babes...

I only know the names of two angels, Hark and Harold.
Gregory, age 5
　
Everybody's got it all wrong. Angels don't wear halos anymore. I forget why, but scientists are working on it
-Olive, age 9
　
It's not easy to become an angel! First, you die. Then you go to Heaven, and then there's still the flight training to go through. And then you got to agree to wear those angel clothes.
-Matthew, age 9

Angels work for God and watch over kids when God has to got to do something else.
-Mitchell, age 7

My guardian angel helps me with math, but he's not much good for science.
-Henry, age 8

Angels don't eat, but they drink milk from Holy Cows!!!

-Jack, age 6

Angels talk all the way while they're flying you up to heaven. The main subject is where you went wrong before you got dead.
Daniel, age 9

When an angel gets mad, he takes a deep breath and counts to ten. And when he lets out his breath again, somewhere there's a tornado.
-Reagan, age 10

Angels have a lot to do and they keep very busy. If you lose a tooth, an angel comes in through your window and leaves money under your pillow Then when it gets cold, angels go south for the winter.
-Sara, age 6

Angels live in cloud houses made by God and his son, who's a very good carpenter.
-Jared, age 8

All angels are girls because they gotta wear dresses and boys didn't go for it.
-Antonio, age 9

My angel is my grandma who died last year. She got a big head start on helping me while she was still down here on earth.
-Ashley ~ age 9

Some of the angels are in charge of helping heal sick animals and pets. And if they don't make the animals get better, they help the child get over it.
-Vicki, age 8

Sick Day? What is a Sick Day?!

It's just another one of those AWFUL annoying UTI infections

I've suffered from since having my hysterectomy.

The antibiotics have been making me more sick

than the infection has!

But I finally finished them.

No more back pain. No more fever. No more nausea.

So I should be back to my usual

nonsense

on here soon.

Please bear with me...I'm just a little...

this week.

It's raining like crazy here, too...

My church's Christmas Lights...aren't they beautiful?

(Photo by Allan R. Smith)

An answer for Anonymous....

Anonymous said, in regards to the return of my truck:

"My guess is they were healthy thieves - eating garlic. It is a beautiful truck, but what did God have to do with it, I'm wondering."

I would say, since a lot of people were praying about it and it was returned to me safe and sound, that God had an awful lot to do with it. I have no idea who you are or what your stand is on spiritual things -- but if you're a person who walks by faith, this is the way you believe. And I am a person who walks by faith, and this is the way I choose to believe.

It's Back!

Well, glory be. Miracles still happen. I got my truck back. No damage. Had about the same amount of gas in it that had been inside the tank when it was stolen. The glove box had been gone thru but my flowered hankie and pen were still sitting on the console. My package of gum too. It reeks of garlic. Maybe they stopped and bought a pizza or a spicy Italian subway sandwich before they parked it on a side street about 18 blocks from our house. My son and daughter-in-law had stopped at a 7/11 to pick something up and while my d-i-l was waiting for my son to come out she spotted the truck. When our son got back in their vehicle she asked him, "Isn't that your mom's truck?" He looked it over and said it sure looked like it to him. He called on his cell phone and when we confirmed the plate numbers...yup. Three police cruisers met Dear Hubby and me there and had me look it over for any damage, then had me sit for a few minutes while they cleared it off the stolen vehicle list. It started right up and seems to be running fine. And now it's parked out front where it's supposed to be!

Oh, if only my little red truck could talk!

I thought this was worth sharing...food for thought...

25 Things about to become extinct in America:

25. U.S. Post Office They are pricing themselves out of existence. With e-mail, and online services they are a relic of the past. (refer to #9) Packages are also sent faster and cheaper with UPS.

24. Yellow Pages This year will be pivotal for th e global Yellow Pages industry. Much like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like 20 an acceleration of the print 'fade rate' and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years.

23. Classified Ads The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it.. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them.

22. Movie Rental Stores While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster keeps closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left ac ross the world, but those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a quest of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop earlier this year. Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already.

21. Dial-up Internet Access Dial-up connections have fallen from 40% in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to accomm odate affordable high speed Internet connections and the disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet access.

20. Phone Land Lines According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-only and, of those homes that had land lines, one in eight only received calls on their cells.

19. Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945. Just four decades ago the bay produced 96 million pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and they think they need 200 million for a sustainable population. Over-fishing, pollution, invasive species and global warming get the blame.

18. VCRs For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller and staple in every American household until being completely decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes are largely gone and VHS decks are practically nowhere to be found. They served us so well.

17. Ash Trees In the late 1990's, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle, now known as the emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from eastern Asia. In less than a decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in theMidwest, and continue to spread. They've killed m ore than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more lost in Ohio and Indiana. More than 7.5 billion ash trees are currently at risk.

16. Ham Radio Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless communications with each other and are able to support their communities with emergency and disaster communications if necessary, while increasing their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation of the Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In the past five years alone, the number of people holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse Code is no longer a requirement.

15. The Swimming Hole Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a thing of the past. '20/20' reports that swimming hole owners, like Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if someone gets hurt they'll sue. And that's exactly what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham was sued by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole in Whatcom Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!' signs.

14. Answering Machines The increasing disappearance of answering machines is directly tied to our list -- the decline of landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New York; since 2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical that as cell phones rise, many of them replacing 20 traditional landlines, that there will be fewer answering machines.

13. Cameras That Use Film It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance of the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional' s choice for quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to the shrinking market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment.

12. Incandescent Bulbs Before a few years ago, th e standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt) bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement and all-things-sustaina ble-energy crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb mark et. And according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys Bowling Balls. US claims there are still 60 million Americans who bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today most new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and glow miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many non-traditional venues such as adult communities, hotels and resorts, and gambling casinos.

10. The Milkman According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented only 0.4% percent. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and longer-lasting milk. Although some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S., they are certainly a dying breed..

9. Hand-Written Letters In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day... Two million each second.. By November of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world's population had access to cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the number has no doubt increased exponentially since then. So where amongst this gorge of gabble is there room for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?

8. Wild Horses It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses were roaming free within the United States. In 2001, National Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population has decreased to about 50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory board states that there are 32,000 free roaming horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in Nevada.

7. Personal Checks According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based payments -- for the time being. Checks continue to be the most commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one recurring bill per month by writing a check. However, a bill-by-bill basis , checks account for only 49% of consumers' recurring bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003).

6. Drive-in Theaters During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since 2005. Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so there isn't much of a movement toward reviving the closed ones.

5. Mumps & Measles Despite what's been in the news lately, the measles and mumps actually, truly are disappearing from the United States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the introduction of the measles vaccine, approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S. annually, resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.

4. Honey Bees Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire; plummeting so enormously; and so necessary to the s urvival of our food supply as the honey bee. Very scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past few years, wiping ou t 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.

3. News Magazines and TV NewsWhile the TV evening newscasts haven't gone anywhere over the last several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story about the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times reported that all three net work evening-news programs combined had only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have today is half that.

2. Analog TV According to the Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% -- or 13 million individuals -- who are using rabbit ears or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you are one of these people you'll need to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the new stations which will only be broadcast in digital..

1. The Family Farm Since the 1930's, the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. Accordin g to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the 2007 census is just now being published). Ninety-one percent of the U.S. FARMS are small Family Farms.

Both interesting and saddening, isn't it?

A ho-ho-hum meme....

I am not a blog decorator when it comes to holidays. If you won't tell anyone I'll confess something here...I'm not much of a 'house' decorator at holiday time either! But here's a little Christmas tree of a sort to get us in the 'mood'. Something has to get me in the mood!

OK. I'm tired and not feeling well so I'm 'borrowing' from my darlin' friend Betty once again. So here goes on some more random questions:

1. Which physical trait do you now accept--maybe not love, but accept--and no longer feel extremely self-conscious about? My basic physical appearance. I will never be 21 again and able to fit into a teeny-weeny bikini. I'm no slim jim, but I'm not grossly overweight. I'm just...comfortable.

2. This week Meredith Baxter Birney, best known as the mom on the favorite 80s sitcom "Family Ties" came out of the closet, which led me to formulate this question: Who do you think is/was the best TV mom? Sada Thompson as "Kate"on the old show "Family". She had such a quiet grace and was so 'unflappable'.

3. Do you speak any foreign languages? Are there any you'd like to learn? I don't and it is one of my life's regrets. But I have an excellent ear for languages. I also have an uncanny ability to understand foreigners when they speak heavily-accented English, too. Maybe that comes from years of working in our church's merchant seaman ministry and having people from all over the world come to our home. From Algeria to Zanzibar and anywhere in between!

4. Who is your personal hero? I have to agree with Betty on this one and say the Lord. People will always fail and disillusion us. (Does Tiger Wood come to mind?!) But in 35 years of serving Him, the Lord has never let me down and never deserted me.

5. What is one holiday food that you find extremely difficult to resist over- indulging in? Coconut balls a co-worker used to make and bring in to work at Christmas time. She used only the highest-quality chocolate to roll them in and they were sinfully delicious!

6. Tell me about a Christmas decoration that has special meaning or sentimental value. A little styrofoam ball with a pipe-cleaner for a hanger. It still has a few of the green and red glitters on it that I glued to it about 50 years ago when I made it.

7. How do you feel about snow? As long as I don't have to drive in it, I love it.

8. On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? I go to bed around 7 pm and get up at 3:15 am...so that's what? A little over 8.

9. Tell me about your first crush. My very first crush was on a boy named Craig I met in Play School when I was 5. I was in love with him until we moved away from my hometown just before I turned 13. If I had never moved away? Who knows. But he liked me, too. And, ironically, our paths crossed again when we were 19 when he was dating another girl and I was dating another boy. I felt the spark was still there and I'm sure he did, too, because when he took my hand and squeezed it at the end of the evening, it was like just the two of us were in that car, not 4. He looked me straight in the eye and told me, "It was really really good to see you again." But we were with others. And not long after that I met Dear Hubby. But I always wished somewhere along the line I could've kissed him.

10. You're stuck in a room for 2 hours with only a chalkboard and chalk. What will you write/draw? Probably flowers. And experiment with my signature. But I'm left-handed and never did very well with chalk because my hand has a tendency to drag over whatever I do on a chalk board and smear it.

11. Do you dress for the current temp or for the day's forecast? I am a jeans-and-t-shirt person no matter what the weather. And I hardly ever wear a coat no matter what the temperature is. I'm a Swede, you know. I thrive on comfort.

12. Favorite Christmas movie is? It's a toss up: "Christmas Story" and "The Family Man". I can't choose between the two.

Hey, I'm cool....

Our DISH network receiver was 'corrupted' so needed to be replaced.

The new one arrived yesterday.

I hooked it up.

It works.

Miracles still happen.

Sounds in the nite....

There is nothing quite so disconcerting as waking up in the middle of the nite to find Dear Hubby chuckling away in his sleep. Do I wake him up to see what's so funny...or leave him to his pleasant dream?

Curiosity killed the cat...

I always wonder what the author had to say that made them delete their own comment.

It's one of Life's little mysteries here in the Blogosphere.

It drives me crazy.

A Day in the Life....

And so...another day ends in our household. I know, I know...I'm always and forever telling you how busy I am, right? How I never get to go to the bathroom by myself. How I can never sit in a chair by myself. I think it was my Daughter who said I resemble a human jungle gym the way I have one or both grandboys crawling and/or sitting on me almost constantly. I am a very popular Grandma!

So here is a typical nontypical day. I woke up around 3, about 15 minutes earlier than I needed to get up, and turned off the alarm. Went out into the frigid living room with my Bible and breakfast and wrapped up in a fleece throw. I am a diehard tightwad and it gripes me to turn on the heat any earlier than I need to in the morning. I awakened Dear Hubby at 3:45, fired up the computer, and did a little 'visiting' and emailing. At 4:30 I turned up the thermostat and went to get dressed. I made the bed. I put a load of laundry in the wash and brought a load upstairs from the dryer to fold. I went out into our 14 degree morning and put a load of trash in the garbage can as well as a sackful of dirty diapers out of the little trash can I keep on the front porch for that purpose. I set up the coffee maker for the afternoon when Dear Hubby comes home from work. I baby-proofed the house, making sure books and magazines and knives and my Discman are up out of reach of Cooper...it also entails putting a table and gates across the steep stairwell in the dining room and tying it all together so the boys don't accidentally fall down it during the day. The boys arrived at 5:30 and then it was a free-for-all until Cooper settled down for a nap around 11. We played Bat and Monster and Hide and cars and trucks and Dinosaurs and took several trips to the potty because both boys are potty training at the same time. Chili for lunch when Cooper woke up. Then more Hide. More cars. When Dylan tired of that he took his big Tonka dump truck and began running it back and forth thru the house, from couch to kitchen cabinets, over and over yelling, "Watch me, Gamma!" every time and me yelling "Ready! Set! Go!" In the meantime, I sat on the dining room floor with Cooper while he played with the Fisher Price garage. Dylan whizzed by again and then "BAM!" Then a long moment of silence. Then, flying around the corner screaming at the top of his lungs with his mouth streaming blood runs Dylan. Into my arms and holding on for dear life. I'm still not 100% sure what happened, if he tripped and slammed his mouth into the back end of his truck or hit the kitchen cabinet full-force. But he completely knocked the lower front left tooth out of his mouth. I found the tooth. Put it on ice. Got a hold of my son and d-i-l and told them what happened. They called the dentist. I got a call to put the tooth in a bowl of cold milk. They took him to a pediatric oral surgeon who decided not to implant the tooth, figuring the adult tooth will eventually come thru. And one thing about Dylan...he won't be 4 until March but he already stands as tall as my lower chest so to see him with a gap in his teeth isn't going to look too remarkable since he looks like he's 7 years old! Everyone showed up at the house around 4:45 to pick up Cooper and away they went. Then, dinner, more laundry, dishes, setting up the coffee maker for the morning and...finally...here. At my Grandma's desk. With "Viva la Vida" playing in my Discman, Dear Hubby reading in the living room. It is 6:35 pm and I'll be heading for bed at 7. Outside of Dylan's disaster, this was a typical day. Oh, outside of not fitting a 4-5 mile walk in to our day. It was too cold to go out.

And you probably say, "Well, so what? Mothers have days like this every day, too." How true. But most mothers are 30 years younger than me, if not more. I'm going to be 56 in a couple of weeks. And today, I feel every year of it.

But tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. And I'm ready for it. I think.

The History behind "Where I'm From"

In 2009 I undertook this project to compile a 'biography' of people important in my life and also the lives of my grandsons. It is to give them a more 'real' view into the lives of those who I've had the privilege to call my friends, of those who are related to us by blood. As these trickled in I was simply amazed at how connected and also how unique each and every one of us is. I hope Dylan and Cooper will appreciate them some day, too, long after we're gone. Maybe they'll trigger some memories in them as well.

Where Edna is From

Another edition of "Where I'm From" has trickled in to my Inbox. This one is from a Canadian friend of mine named Edna. She's not a fellow blogger but somehow she stumbled across mine a few years ago and has been coming back ever since. Sometimes I'll spot a comment from her. Sometimes there'll be an email. But she has become a treasured friend, too. And this is where she's from:

WHERE I'M FROM
I am from Dick & Jane readers, from Coffee crisp bars and orange sugar cookies.
I am from the two-storey farm house without plumbing, with frost-patterned windows in winter.
I am from the rhubarb, lilacs and northern lights, the crabapple tree, dandelions and long summer evenings.
I am from Christmas gift exchanges and a wacky sense of humor, from Cornelius and Helen and Doells and Olferts.
I am from the gardeners and cooks and from “make-it-yourself” or “make do”. I am from Saskatoon picking, chicken slaughtering, gopher trapping and catching crayfish at the dugout.
From chewing caragana seeds and chamomille growing in the back yard, and for illness downing wonder oil soaked sugar cubes.
I am from pacifist Annabaptist-Mennonite, Russian immigration 1874 . I am from Sunday morning church services, and morning Bible reading and evening prayers.
I'm from Winkler, Manitoba, Mennonite stock, bubbat, rhubarb/banana jam and halvah.
From the father called on by the hospital for RH negative factor blood donations to save women in childbirth, the mother from a family of 11 surviving the dirty thirties in Saskatchewan, and the grandma who died young.
I am from black and white photos of four girls, oval-framed wedding photo, a little tin box of treasures in Dad’s metal trunk.
I am from love, long chats, family get-togethers, kinship and soulmates. I can hardly ask to be from more.

Here's 99/1% in action, Kathie...

So this is how my day went, for those of you who aren't on my Facebook. I set out at 7 am to begin my oh-so-dreaded grocery shopping. First stop was Walmart. Then Save a Lot. As Dear Hubby helped me carry in the load from Save a Lot he said, "This is it, right?" and I told him no, I still had to go to Fred Meyer. He said, "Wouldn't it be wiser to just do your shopping at one store? Especially since you come home between each one?" Men! What do they know?! I told him all 3 are so close...plus, with a pick up truck, everything I buy is visible. I have always felt it's better to bring things home in between so no one steals my groceries or whatever else I've bought.

Well, silly me.

I went into Fred Meyer. I bought my groceries. I said "Goodbye!" to the greeter at the door. And I pushed my cart out into the parking lot, heading toward my truck. Only to find a blue Mustang parked in my parking spot. And a lady getting out of the car. I must've stood there with a stupefied look on my face. I said, "You're parking your car where my truck is supposed to be!" That drew her up short and she said, "What?!" I said, "My truck...I parked it right there when I went in to do my shopping!" She gazed back at her car in disbelief, too. Then she said, "Now, stop and think for a minute. You know, we all get so busy. Are you sure you didn't park it on the other side of the store and maybe just forgot? I've done that at the mall before," she told me. I began second-guessing myself for a moment but then I said, "No. I'm like 99% positive I parked right there."

Somebody stole my truck.

In broad daylight.

Right in front of the pop can return machines with lots of people standing there.

Someone very smooth and sneaky, that's for sure.

So...I turned around and pushed my shopping cart back in to the store. I shop at Fred Meyer a lot so when the greeter saw me coming back in he gave me kind of a funny look. Well, I gave him kind of a funny look, too. And I told him, "Somebody stole my truck!"

Everyone in the store was so kind and helpful. They made a...stressful...moment so much easier to deal with. And the kind ladies at Customer Service gave me a phone to call Dear Hubby. I told him, "Somebody stole my truck!" and I heard a stunned silence and then, "WHAT?!" "Yup," I said, "and I'm standing here with a full cart of groceries that need to get home." "I'll be right there," he told me. And he was. And we got the groceries home. And called our insurance. And the Portland police, who sent an absolutely wonderful police officer to our house to take my report, one who was very sympathetic and empathetic.

And then we got in our other truck and drove to the Goodwill in Sandy.

Because, even when traumatic things happen, Life goes on.

It could've been much worse.

Whoever stole my truck could've taken it at gunpoint. Or maybe carjacked me. So God took care of me. And I'm thankful for that.

There must've been a reason....

...why the huge old nail was in our dining room floor. It rubbed a hole thru the carpet so I took it out. And now every floorboard in the house seems to creak.

Author's Update: From some of my comments I'm wondering...IS there such a thing as an alpha nail for holding it all together?! I sure hate the thought of going to bed one nite and waking up in my basement in the morning, HA! And yes, Jeanie...it was one HUGE nail!

I am very blue today.

I don't know why.

I Tell You...

I tell you I am a wayfaring stranger.

I tell you I listen to

melodies

written for only

me

to hear.

I tell you I am alone.

Misinterpreted.

Misunderstood.

I tell you I am on a lonely road.

I tell you I see things

images I can't explain

to even you.

I tell you I am invisible.

Invisible.

Evaporated.

I tell you I am a mystery.

I tell you I am unknown.

Strange...

living in a world

I don't understand.

I tell you I am aching.

Troubled.

Lost.

I tell you I have secrets.

I tell you I am enclosed

caged

behind the

bars

looking out.

I tell you I am airborne.

Drifting.

Directionless.

I tell you.

I tell you again.

And

again.

-- MissKris2005 -- July 30, 2006 --