Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume. ~ Jean de Boufflers

It's been one of those weeks:

Dylan and his mama left for Atlanta at 11 PM on Monday.

He was invited to come on to the jet

by the flight attendant

on their stopover.

Toured the cockpit.

Seventh heaven for my little gear-head grandson.

Tuesday, Cooper arrived,

totally lost without his brother.

We walked to the library.

Wednesday, it rained.

But we walked to the bakery

for

blueberry muffins.

Thursday, Coopy and I took a bus ride in to downtown Portland.

We went to the park by the court house.

Fed the pigeons bread we'd brought along.

Took the bus home.

His first bus ride.

He was enthralled.

Friday, we took the bus to go shopping.

Walked to the store.

Walked back to the bus stop.

Took the bus to Clackamas Mall.

Took the bus home.

He could've ridden forever.

In the midst of it all, several phone calls from Dylan.

Who was terribly homesick.

But having a blast.

Allergic to cats, we found out.

And his mama's friend,

who they'd gone to visit,

had several.

And Dear Hubby.

Gone on vacation all week to Idaho.

Bear hunting.

Got a bear.

A BIG bear.

And yesterday...drove up to my hometown

with my son and Cooper.

My son had never been there before.

We were going to walk thru the town so I could show him

my childhood.

Saw the house I grew up in.

Went to the lake on the outskirts of town.

Cooper loved the water.

The waterfall dam.

The fish we saw caught.

We drove in to town to have lunch.

Just as the food arrived

my son's cell phone rang.

My daughter on the phone.

"Mom, we've sprung a leak in the basement!"

I am 150 miles from home.

Water gushed every where.

The neighbor had a valve key and was able to turn the water off.

So much for the trip down Memory Lane.

We drove home.

I tried to be Red Green and patch the pipe

with duct tape.

Didn't work.

Called a 24-hour-emergency plumber.

Thankfully,

he was able to come.

Patched the pipe.

We are $385 poorer.

Overtime holiday rates, don'tcha know.

And today,

daughter-in-law and Dylan arrived home safely.

They were all just here.

I got

a Florida key chain.

An alligator magnet.

A lighthouse magnet.

Auntie got a lighthouse snow globe.

Papa got two coffee mugs.

One says:

"I'm a little bit crabby"

with a crab on it.

All picked out by Dylan.

And tomorrow?

Grocery shopping.

A Tag of sorts...

I have recently become enchanted with the blog of a lovely Irishwoman named Ciara and she put forth a Tag that is unique enough...at least, in my long 'history' of blogging I've never come across one like it before...to pique my interest in participating. It is to go back in to your archives and republish your 5th and 10th blog posts. I had to go back to my original blog to do so, but here they are...just scroll down to read them:

My Grandmother's Desk...May 29th, 2005

There's a piece of furniture that's followed me around for most of my life. It's my Grandma's desk. She died when I was 3 years old and I have no conscious memory of her but I wouldn't and couldn't part with this desk for all the money in the world. I'm not sure how old it is...but it IS old tho I don't think it would bring in thousands of dollars like some old pieces of furniture do on Antiques Roadshow. This one pictured here is very similar to Grandma's desk...dark wood and about the same size and height. It came into my possession when I was around 9 years old. I'd gone with my Dad to clean out my Grandpa's house after my grandfather had passed away and as I was wandering thru the house I spotted this desk in an upstairs room and asked my Dad if I could have it, as well as my Grandma's old sewing basket and her cast iron bed. Dad said sure and at the end of the day we hauled it all home.

I spent more hours than I can count at this desk. I always had the desk in front of a window no matter where we lived. I did a lot of daydreaming as I sat there. I had an old turn-of-the-LAST-century Underwood type writer on top of the desk that I'd rescued from the attic of our old house before we'd moved to Vancouver and I would come home from school or spend endless summer days typing away on the old Underwood. I wrote endless stories and poems. In fact, a couple years ago my friend Liz found one of my old stories I'd written in Junior High and given to her... it was packed away somewhere at her house and she sent it to me.....arggghhh...it was so dated and silly compared to kids having sex at 11 and 12 nowadays. Life was so much simpler in 1967 for us younger teens.

When I married, my possessions fit in the back of a pick up truck...my clothes, my chest of drawers, my desk chair, my stereo, my album collection of around 200, and my Grandma's desk. I went from living at my parent's home to living in my husband's little apartment...couldn't take much with me. Didn't really want to. Fresh start and all that, you know. Lack of space, too. Next month we'll be married 31 years...31 YEARS!!!! .....and that old desk has gone everywhere we've gone. Now it sits here in my dining room with my computer on it, facing towards my dining room windows. I still do lots of typing here. I still do lots of daydreaming, too. I still have a stereo but now it's a collection of CDs I have. We got rid of the record albums when we no longer had a turn table stereo to play them on. There are lots of scratches and scars on it and a little burn spot in the lower right hand corner where a stick of incense I was burning fell over and scorched it when I was about 17 years old. I used to rest my feet on the bar underneath and my shoes have worn away the finish there. Will I ever refinish this desk? Will I give it lacquer and shine? No...it's beautiful to me as it is. It's my Grandma's desk....but it's MY history.

Welcome to America...June 21st, 2005

This is Ellis Island where the vast majority of us had ancestors land in America. My great-grandparents, Otto and Christina, came over to Boston on a steamer ship from Sweden back at the beginning of the 1900s so they never passed thru New York's Harbor...don't imagine they ever saw the Statue of Liberty, either, since they were pretty poor immigrants and had two young children with them at the time, one of them being my grandfather Paul. They settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, and my great-grandfather found work in a wire factory there. He spoke some English as time went on but I don't know if my great-grandmother ever learned any or not. A very dear friend of mine named Liz has been doing a Family Tree for me and we were recently looking over the census papers from around 1920, I think it was, giving me just a snippet of information as to what my ancestors' lives were like almost 100 years ago. It's a weird feeling looking at those papers, thinking if they'd never been brave enough to set sail for America where I might be! What made them decide to come here? I don't think Sweden was ever in as dire of straits as some of the other European countries were...I'm thinking of Ireland's potato famine for one where those poor people were only one step away from starvation. I was talking to my Dad about Grandpa Paul coming to America and he said one of the reasons they chose Worcester to live in is because it had a strong Swedish American community where a lot of people from 'home' lived and Swedish was spoken so my great-grandma wasn't totally isolated.

Portland has a large immigrant population, probably because we're a port city and we're on the West Coast. In the 70s and early 80s it was mostly people from SE Asian countries who moved in...then a lot of people from Romania and Russia. Now we have a lot of Latinos moving here. I don't know what it is about my face that makes them trust me but I can be in a grocery store aisle with 10 or 15 people around me and I'm always the one our immigrant population approaches if they're confused about the price of something or want to know where they can find something. I've become a pro at sign language, lol! But I always manage to get them to understand. My Dear Hubby says it's because I'm always smiling. I think it's because I love people and when I make eye contact with someone I'm not afraid to say hello or chit chat for a moment. I also have infinite patience. But mostly I think it's because of my great-grandparents coming to America, knowing that it was a scary and confusing place for them, too. And I like to think if I ever am blessed to travel this big wide world of ours and I get lost on the streets of Paris or Bucharest or Vienna or Rome or Moscow...someone will see my fear and take a moment to be kind to me, too. The wonderful thing about it is it makes YOU feel good, knowing you've made a scary moment a little less intimidating. You've touched a life...but they've touched yours, too.

Me? Disappear?! Nah, you're not THAT lucky...

"Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and

spark-spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror. It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving".

~ Martin Amis ~

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~ "The Wonder Years"

Recently an aunt of my husband's asked us if we'd like the photo slides and old films taken by our beloved Aunt Gin, one of my husband's aunts who was like another mother to me. She passed away back in 1992. We jumped at the chance to get them and Dear Hubby stopped by his aunt's house to pick up the collection as well as the old film projector and screen. Little did we realize just how BIG a collection it is...boxes and boxes! I haven't had a chance to look at anything yet but Dear Hubby has begun slowly sorting thru everything. And lo and behold, something he's been finding a lot of are old photo slides taken of weddings thru the years at our church, mostly of couples who married back around our time, in the early 70s. This was before we ever became church members. As we're finding them we've been contacting the couples, asking them if they'd be interested in having them and, of course, they're really excited about getting them. These are all photos they've never seen before. Most of the couples involved are still intact, some of them now celebrating their 40th anniversaries. One, sadly, ended in a divorce a few years back. Another couple left the church years ago and are living in Colorado now. With some sleuth work and help from a friend of mine, I was able to contact them thru Facebook and I got an email this morning from them telling me they'd also love to have the slides so I'll be packing them up and sending them off in the next few days.

In the email to the gentleman in Colorado, I told him I wish we had such a treasure trove of old slides from our wedding. Dear Hubby and I had a very simple ceremony in the home of one of my brothers. What few photos we have are mostly Polaroids. Sadly, they haven't withstood the test of time very well. But as they slowly fade away and become less distinct, it doesn't lessen the memories. I look at those images and I am transported back in time to that day when my parents were still alive and younger than I am now. Of the estranged brother whose home I got married in, whom I've had no contact with for almost 18 years. Of the young couple so in love, the girl with long dark hair that's now silvery white, the man with hair almost to his shoulders
in the white jean suit.

Oh my.

We the People Speak!

All I can say is "Very Interesting!" :

For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. ~ Author Unknown

If I have one more cell-talking/texting driver

almost mow me and the grandboys down

while we're out walking...

well, let's just say it

ain't gonna be pretty!

Happy Birthday, Man That I Love....

It's Dear Hubby's birthday!

It is 5:30 am!

I baked the cake this morning!

And made a macaroni salad!

And the day is just

beginning.

...though everything I write is a poem to my mother. ~ Sharon Doubiago

It's the image of you that stays with me.
You,
at the table.
A coffee cup ever present beside you.
A cigarette smoldering,
and your hands
busy playing
Solitaire
Over and over and over
again.
Quiet,
eyes downcast,
concentrating.
The shuffle shuffle shuffle
slap
of the cards
the symphony
of my childhood.

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~ Chili Davis

You want to do something fun?

Try this out.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. ~ Aristotle

I've been visiting Betty again....

1. Please share one memory of your high school graduation. Pics would be great! This is rather embarrassing to admit. But I was very, very quiet in high school and definitely not very sure of myself. I'd been told I was ugly for so many years I believed it. I was a really dorky, awkward adolescent. But as I overheard a conversation - one that cut me to the heart and didn't help my self-image as a girl - between my mom and a friend of hers where my mom was somewhat concerned about my attractiveness, my mom's friend said, "Kristine may be an ugly duckling now but she's going to grow into a swan". I held those words so close to me! But at my high school graduation I wasn't believing them yet. Any time any boy showed any interest in me at all, all thru high school, I thought they were actually picking on me and making fun of me. So as I walked up on the dais to receive my diploma and I heard all kinds of wolf whistles out there, I was stunned! And then, the way my life blossomed after high school, I finally began to believe maybe I'd grown into that swan after all.

2. What is one "emergency use" item you keep in your vehicle at all times? It's not what you'd call an 'emergency' item for the most part but I consider it essential and that's hand sanitizer.

3. In your region, do you celebrate graduation open houses? Addendum: (If so,) how many open houses/bridal showers/weddings are on your upcoming events calendar? Yes, there are graduation open houses but I don't think I've ever attended one. And I'm not big on showers of any sort, either. I grew up in a very small family with barely any relatives around - and we weren't close to them as it was. When I got engaged to Dear Hubby I told my future mom-in-law I didn't want a bridal shower and I'm sure she thought I was totally nuts. But things like that make me super uncomfortable. I am not a girly-girl at all. Baby showers are different...they weren't for me, they were for my babies and that made it ok. I keep telling everyone I go to the beat of my own drummer...and I do!

4. Tell me one truth you believe about motherhood. I don't care how old you get and they get, your kids are a part of your heart forever.

5. What was the last thing you broke? I had a big fish bowl shatter in my hands...I didn't break it, exactly, but it scared the living daylights out of me.

6. On average, how many pieces of junk mail do you receive daily? One, maybe two.

7. Do you like to shop by catalog? I like to shop by web pages. Does that count? Not by paper catalogs.

8. Is lawn maintenance at your house a "his job," a "her job" or "his/her job" or "that's why we have teenagers" job? It is MY JOB!!!! And I wouldn't have it any other way. Dear Hubby mows the grass, but everything else is MINE MINE MINE!!!

9. Which room would you like to redecorate in your home? I wouldn't mind getting the kitchen cabinets finally refinished. We've had them stripped since around the time I began doing grandboy day care and that's as far as they've gotten. No time. And I don't care. If people don't like it, they don't have to come look at them.

10. Do you read a newspaper regularly, or do you read most of your news on line? I get my main news from TV but if I go sign in to Yahoo it shows their main news page and I'll glance over the headlines. Rarely do I ever go read anything, tho.

11. Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Yes. I truly believe God is in control of everything.

12. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things? When I was younger, it was being worried about doing things right. Constantly. Because I thought everyone was watching my life and judging me by how well and how 'right' I did things. Then I had an epiphany year in 1999 that totally changed my way of viewing life. Now I focus on doing the right things. For me. Because I finally realized other people's opinions weren't all that important and the only one I was hurting by focusing so much on every one else was me.

"...an anonymous corner of something called Blogspot"

Do you realize we live in an "anonymous corner", we who blog on Blogger? Do you realize we who have personal blogs are looked down upon by those who blog for fame or fortune? By 'serious journalists' who consider our blogs here as a social diversion? A 'coffee klatsch', so to speak? That we have nothing much to say worth noting, that we're morons for wasting so much time writing for nothing? That even if we do get some revenue from what we write thru Adsense and other venues, that we're working for less than minimum wage because we spend so many hours writing for so little return? I found this post interesting, too. If you do a Google Search on "why people blog", there are something like 352 million different voices out there telling you why.

Well, let me tell them a thing or two about a thing or two.

I don't spend 3-5 hours per day blogging. I spend...oh...maybe 15 minutes to half an hour, if even that. Depends on how late the grandboys go home and how quickly I get the dinner dishes done before I hit the bed around 7 pm. I'm a fast typist so that helps.

Tho I've made some wonderful online friends thru my blog, my blog is not for social networking. I'm not a follower. I don't care if anyone follows me. I don't know what my current stats are anymore because I took my counters off eons ago. I've never made a penny on here in any way, shape, or form.

So why do I blog?

Quite simple...for the great joy writing gives me.

And that's the truth.

Just so I don't forget...

Things Little Boys Love to Do:

1. Feed ducks in a pond

2. Splash in mud puddles

3. Throw rocks in mud puddles

4. Squirt water out of the spigot when they wash their hands

5. Collect all the worms they find when digging in the dirt

6. Spit on the window and then watch it slither down the glass

7. Cram as much sandwich in their mouths as they can

8. Show off that half-chewed mess in their mouths

9. Squat down and watch ants coming in and out of holes on the sidewalk

10. Poke pieces of stick or grass down those holes

11. Pick dandelions for Grandma

12. Endlessly put things in something, then take them out again

13. Love to get down and get dirty

14. Set up the coffeemaker for Papa

15. Help Grandma cook

16. Fold laundry

17. Dust

18. Hide under blankets

19. Race dump trucks from one end of the house to the other

20. Garbage trucks and garbage men

21. Fire trucks and firemen

22. Give tight squeezes

23. Cuddle in the rocking chair while watching "Super Why"

24. And "Word World"

25. And "Sponge Bobby"

26. And "Curious George"

27. And "Between the Lions"

28. Go barefoot...must've gotten that from their Grandma

29. Shriek outside for the fun of it

30. Balance and walk along walls

These things, darling boys, are what fill your days with joy

in 2010.

Ages 2 and 4

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them...

This is so precious it moved me to tears.

Let your love be like the misty rains, coming softly, but flooding the river. ~ Malagasy Proverb

Do you want to know a little more about The Man I Love? The support system who holds me up day by day...who is quietly there for me any time of the day or nite, 24/7/365? I spotted this meme and thought I'd give you a peek into the man who is the center of my universe:

1. He’s sitting in front of the TV; what is on the screen? Any type of history, crime, or hunting show. He's particularly fond of "Eastman's Bow Hunting" with Fred Eichler

2. You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Thousand Island

3. What’s one food he doesn’t like? Chicken breast...he got food poisoning from some a while back and he won't touch it now.

4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? The man hasn't had a drop of alcohol in over 33 years.

5. Where did he go to high school? In a small town not far from Vancouver, Washington.

6. What size shoe does he wear? 10

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? He collects Bibles, hats, boots, knives, and longbows.

8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? He likes sandwiches I make on Hoagie Rolls with ham, cheese, sliced tomatoes, sliced zucchini, and pickles

9. What would this person eat every day if he could? He DOES eat it every day...oatmeal.

10. What is his favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cherrios

11. What would he never wear? Shorts with polo shirts

12. What is his favorite sports team? He's more in to watching golf than anything so I'd say Phil Mickelson

13. Who will he vote for? I know who he DIDN'T vote for, and he'll be more than happy to tell you why. I think even those who DID vote for him wonder why they did now.

14. Who is his best friend? ME!

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do? He does not like it when I do more than I should! And he wishes I didn't have such a hard time telling our kids no when they ask me for something. Once a mom, always a mom, don'tchaknow.

16. How many states has he lived in? 2

17. What is his heritage? German and Austrian.

18. You bake him a cake for his birthday. What kind is it? Spice bundt cake with cream cheese frosting

19. Did he play sports in high school? He was like me...school was just something he had to endure until he could graduate. He HATED school.

20. What could he spend hours doing? Target shooting with his longbows and/or tinkering with his archery equipment.

"Halves" -- for my Leenie Beanie, whose photo inspired the poem

(Photo by Leenie)

You show me halves.
Half smiles.
Hints of what lies
half-buried
beneath the surface.
Half truths.
Half lies.
You torment me with
half an answer
and half hours
that
stretch
into eternities.
You hold back half your self.
You don't share.
You don't reveal.
You leave me in
half
shadow.
You are as elusive
as the dark side
of the moon.
There,
but not visible.
There,
but unknown.
There,
and half a world
away.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one. ~ E.B. White

Yesterday morning I stepped out on the front porch with Dylan right behind me. I had the bath mat in hand and was beginning to give it a good shake when BOOM! The front door slammed shut behind us. It was locked.

Cooper was inside alone.

I had no key to get in.

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no.

I made a mad dash to my neighbor Sharon's, praying she was home. They have an extra key of ours for such emergencies. She was home. But the key couldn't be found.

Now what?!

I'd had an extra key made for us, just for this purpose, but life has been so...distracting...lately, I'd hung it up inside the house and forgotten about it. The two closest family members who could come to my rescue were each at least half an hour away.

All the windows were locked. At least the alarm system was disarmed. So I did what a good Grandma had to do. I broke in to my own house. But...the window I was able to break had a good 5-6 foot drop to the floor. So I did what a good Grandma would do. I dropped. And I hit hard. But I got inside and rescued my little two-year-old grandson. Who was waiting at the gate at the top of the stairs. Who said, "Hi, Ahma!" and smiled at me as I arrived at the top of them and heaved myself over the gate. Nothing had fazed him. All the excitement had been happening outside!

But me...I was a wreck. I had a good cry. I had a very good cry, the woman who rarely, if ever, cries.

And the key? It's hidden. Outside.

37 Things You May or May Not Have Known About Me, Lucky You....

OK...if you're interested, copy and paste these 100 things to your blog. Highlight the ones you've done in bold print:

1. Started your own blog ( You're reading it!)
2. Slept under the stars (Many different times)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (Disneyland)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang/played a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (Painting ceramics)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (Unfortunately, several times)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (Made my own bread, too)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (Twice...and one time it was with a guy I'd just met. We were picked up by a couple of other guys, total strangers. I must've been out of my mind.)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (Back when I was single to go on dates. I worked nites.)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26.Bathed in a river (Skinny-dipped...does that count?)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (Twice in my lifetime so far)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (Countless times for both)
31. Hit a home run (Many times...I was a tomboy with 3 brothers)
32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied ( I am easily satisfied)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (mission movies!)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (But not for years and years, thank goodness)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (Mine, my children's and my grandchildren's)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square ( While Jackie nearly passed out)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (Leased a brand new pick up truck)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (A back view of me only)
85. Read the entire Bible (8 or 9 times...I lost count)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (Dear Hubby killed it, I've prepared it)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (Both regular jury and Grand Jury)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Made a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (And I seriously don't know how to use it, outside of making and answering a call)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Built a house out of mud!

There's 100 questions, right? And I think I highlighted 37. I'm 37% interesting. My younger brother should've done this...he's been everywhere and done just about everything, including climbing a mountain, been in Africa, overnite trains, Eiffel Tower, Nazi concentration camp. Hard to believe he's related to ME! I like my own little quiet corner. But, boy, am I boring.

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. ~ William Shakespeare

Sometimes people just bug me. My Dear Hubby has gotten interested in an archery site here online. He browses thru the classifieds a lot and has made several successful trades and purchases with other members. I've always held my breath, hoping he doesn't get burned by one of them because all these transactions are with people from everywhere and every walk of life. Some of these purchases have been for several hundred dollars. Up until recently, all has gone well.

But....

There's always a rotten apple in every bunch, isn't there? He recently purchased a bow quiver that ended up being a piece of junk. For $60, no less. When he took it out of the box it was mailed in and attempted to pull the zipper down, the zipper-pull fell off in his hand. The stitching all along the lower hem of the outer pocket was coming apart. We emailed the gentleman he'd purchased it from and told him the problem, asking what store he might've purchased it from so Dear Hubby could take it there and see if he could get money back for it. We didn't ask for our money back. We got an email from him telling us it had been 'gifted' to him so he had no idea and he offered to send our money back. We emailed him, thanking him for his offer, glad to hear he was willing to do that, telling him in all the transactions with this particular 'club' have always been with good people. We sent the quiver back, intact with the zipper pull. Then...an email yesterday: "Got the quiver. Where's the zipper?" I emailed and said Dear Hubby had put it in the side pocket. Instead, Dear Hubby told me later that he'd rubber-banded it to the top of the quiver. Even so, it should've been easily visible. Got another email back: "I searched quite thoroughly and it isn't there. Blah, blah, blah..." Snarky stuff, all of it. But he did say he was sending a money order back. Didn't want to hear from us any more! Hmmm...that in itself tells me it must've arrived as we sent it or I really don't think he'd be sending a money order after all. Whatever. It's not our fault what he sent is junk.

Anyway, I've always kept a folder with any of Dear Hubby's bow transactions and I have all the emails with this guy documented. So if he tries to smear Dear Hubby's name on the bow site I think he'll regret it.

But aren't people...some people...something?!

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~ John Henry Newman

From Betty's...I love these:

1. What was the last thing about which you procrastinated? Doing my income taxes. Even tho I let a service do them, it's the process of getting everything together that I hate doing. At least I've learned to keep what I need in one place thru the year. I used to have everything stuffed willy-nilly in several drawers and it was a several-days process to get things organized.

2. How long does it take you to fall asleep, and do you sleep through the night? Usually within half an hour of going to bed. It takes a few minutes to shut my mind down. I don't think I've ever been one to sleep completely thru the nite, even as a kid. And in my midlife years I seem to need to get up to 'visit the widow', as my mom used to say, at least twice each nite. And I occasionally suffer some major nite sweats but Menoquil has helped that a lot.

3. Which decade would you choose to exemplify your favorite fashion styles? I'd say right now. Or the 60s. In both decades it's pretty much do your own thing. I am very, very casual. Barefoot most of the time. Jeans or capris. Tee shirts or knit tops. Once upon a time I used to wear nothing but skirts/dresses but now I wear them to church only for the most part. Even in my 50s I'm still a tomboy thru and thru!

4. What is your personal best dish to feed a crowd? My homemade overnite dinner rolls or venison lasagne, back when I used to make it from scratch. At this stage in life, people are lucky to get hotdogs and pork 'n' beans out of me.

5. Are you an impulse shopper? What was the last thing you bought on impulse? Not really, tho if I see something to indulge myself, like a new book by a favorite author, I might buy it. I just read "Every Last One" by Anna Quindlen and I bought a copy for myself from Amazon after finishing it. I know I'll want to read it again, and I'd wished I'd had my own copy the first time thru, there were so many passages I'd wanted to bookmark.

6. What is one wish you have for your own funeral? I want the song "Victory in Jesus" played. It isn't a typical funeral song by any means, but I feel it reflects my entire life.

7. If it's true that joy is found in the simple things in life, what does your joy look like today? Hopefully having a few sunbreaks today so the grandboys and I can get out and plant the window boxes they'll be taking care of. They are so excited about that!

8. What is your favorite type of bread? Anything homemade! I love a good pumpkin or zucchini bread as well.

9. What trait do you fear developing the most? (Laziness, greediness, grumpiness, etc.) Grumpiness, especially letting it ruin everyone else's mood around me.

10. What trait would you like most to develop? Patience

11. Which room in your house best reflects your personality? My "outdoor" room...my garden.

12. How do you maintain balance in your life regarding, work, family, church, other organizations and activities, and blogging? By doing what I can when I can. I have a tendency to stretch myself too far...or at least I did when I was younger. I almost did myself in, doing that back in the 80s, trying to be Super Woman to everyone. I've learned...well, I'm still learning...to not sweat the little stuff, to allow myself to sit back and smell the roses. A choice between staying home and doing house work or riding out to the archery range with Dear Hubby so I can read a book while he target shoots? That's a no-brainer...I GO!!!!

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. ~ Confucius

Do you like geography? Think you know the world?

Go take this little quiz. All aerial views.

I got 12 out of 16 right.

I'm a "Know-it-All"!

What are you?

Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy. ~ Author Unknown

I was just reading a Blogger profile.

Her Occupation?

Busy!

I loved it.

Ride 'em, Cowboys!