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Let talk about the fun things. 

Posted by Dottie at 7:38 AM 4 comments: 
Happy Turkey Day

Enjoy your turkey day! We'll all think about dieting after Thanksgiving, right?
Posted by Dottie at 4:36 PM 2 comments: 
Another Choice

Would I have retired when I did if I knew the economy would become so terrible so swiftly? If I had hung on for another two years until I turned 65, my social security benefits would have been a bit higher and maybe that would have been enough to see me through now.

Well. let's think about this! What did I do in those first two years of retirment that couldn't have waited a little bit longer? One of the things would have been that I would have been at work when my first grandchild was born and not get to spend the first six weeks of my granddaughter's life, helping her mom with household chores so she could concentrate on getting all the little motherly things down pat and coming up with a routine which she could handle when I went home.

The next year, my husband and I rented a RV and traveled cross country visiting family and friends scattered about. We got to take in the wonders of America that we had previously only read about.

We got to have a wonderful, fun filled two years doing things together. Once my husband became ill,that trip would never have happened and those six weeks watching the baby change each day wouldn't have come to pass either.

I think I made a good decision to retire early. What do you think?
Posted by Dottie at 1:25 PM 1 comment: 
Grandma, then and Now
 
A Moving Experience

"Bret, Bret, where are you?" Madison was running through the house screaming her brother's name as if she had lost him forever. "Madison, I'm right here in our room! What's the matter?".Madison was sobbing and just about out of breath from running up the stairs. "Calm down, Madison, take a deep breath and tell me what's wrong?" Bret said to his little sister in his big brother voice which usually seemed to work with her. "Mommy said we are moving to a new house and will each have our own room, I'm glad we share a room. It makes me feel safe" Bret laughed and said "one day soon, you'll be glad you have your own room and I'll be happy that I have mine and can hang up all my baseball posters and stuff".

Since Bret was a big second grader already, he looked upon the move as an adventure while Madison at the age of five wanted nothing in her life to change. She wanted to go to the same kindergarten class as she had been; she wanted to continue to have a best friend in school named Tammy and another best friend down the block named Sarah. She didn't want changes in her life, didn't want to start at a new school, be the new kid in the neighborhood and have to search for new best friends. Bret, meanwhile, saw the move as a chance to join a new baseball team in the summer as well as a new soccer team in the fall. He welcomed the chance to meet new friends. He thought it would be nice to have a new teacher especially since Mom had told him that his new teacher was a man. That was so neat! While he liked his teacher fine now, having a man teacher just sounded so right.

How different Bret and Madison were from one another. He looked at the world as a place to explore, research and observe. Madison was a scary cat. He didn't know if it was because she was a girl or just because she was only five and had just started school. He realized that having his own room would allow him to decorate it as he wished and not feel the need to hide his best treasures such as baseball cards from his little sister's prying eyes and fingers. She would be happy to have a really girlie room once she got used to the idea of having her own space. Maybe Daddy would put up shelves for both of them. Bret would love to have shelves to put his books on as well as last year's soccer award. Madison could put out all her Dora the Explorer stuff on her shelves and she would like that.

Bret sat down to explain all this to her and to help her realize what fun it would be for this new move.
Posted by Dottie at 4:35 PM No comments: What happened to Amy on her first day of school

Today was the first day of school for Amy. The little four year old had eagerly dresses herself this morning in her best dress. She added small, lace trimmed socks to her feet and then slipped on her shiny new black patent leather shoes that mommy called Mary Jane's.

She ran into the breakfast nook of her home and twirled around for her mom and two older brothers to see how pretty she looked.Unfortunately, her seven year old brother was attempting to bring jars of grape jelly and honey to the table with the thought of adding to his toasted English Muffin.

Amy collided with her brother and the jars went flying. She was covered in purple as well as the sweet, sticky honey from her hair down to her shoes.Everyone first reaction was to laugh, Amy looked so funny turned purple.After a minute, her mom collected herself and rushed to Amy saying soothingly, "come Amy, let's get that dress off, get your face washed and get you into something really beautiful to wear to school". Amy wanted no part of this. She was crying and gasping for breath saying "I won't go to school, not today, not ever."

It took awhile but mom eventually got her calmed down, into the shower and cleaned up (no easy task with the honey situation.) She chattered brightly at Amy about what would be a good outfit to wear with her sandals now that the shoes had been ruined. Between them, they found a pretty blue skirt to go with a white blouse that was trimmed in blue. Another pair of lace trimmed socks and sandals and Amy was good to go.

Later mom would deal with the mess in the kitchen. Right now, she needed to get everone including Amy out the door, into the car and to school on time.
Posted by Dottie at 4:19 PM No comments: A True Teacher I long to be able to walk again at the beach, feeling the sand drifting in and out of my toes as I move along. I wish I could stand at the ocean front and feel the sensation of the sand shifting beneath my feet as the waves wash ashore.

I've always felt a calmness at being able to walk along the shoreline, bending from time to time and choosing shells to add to my collection.
Posted by Dottie at 4:08 PM 1 comment: 
Book list

I'm listing below some books I'm hoping to read within the next two months.Do any of them sound intersting to you?

It Only Takes A Minute
8 Sandpiper Way
Last Kiss
Against Medical Advice
Damage Control

and to get me writing AGAIN

Guide to Fiction Writing by Phyllis A. Whitney
Shimmering Images A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir by Lisa Dale Norton
How Not To Write A Novel by Howard Mittelmark & Sandra Newman

Tell me what you're reading these days.
Posted by Dottie at 2:24 PM 1 comment: 
What every happened to good service? 
Thoughts on Halloween

What a nice day today was. I went out in the morning to get my hair cut and all the stylists were dressed up for Halloween. My favorite one was Raggedy Ann.

Next I went to the bank and there one of the tellers was dressed as a jailbird. Hope he didn't get into my account!

The grocery store had several Batmen and my cashier was dressed as a Geisha lady.She was done up perfectly but I fear her white makeup was scaring some of the younger children.

Finally when I arrived home and thought I would take a short nap (ha) the doorbell started ringing and I got to see several ghosts, again Batmen and Robots. Most of the children were so polite, thanking me when they got candy. A few just took the candy and left without saying anything. Oh well, takes all kinds of people to make the world what it is.

This evening appears to be the daddies, dressed up along with their children coming by to trick or treat. Guess the moms are tired out from trekking around this afternoon or perhaps they had to stay home to do their share answering the doorbell.

Anyway, it's been fun seeing the little ones all dressed in their favorite costumes and I look forward to a repeat next year.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE! Don't eat too much of the kids candy now!
Posted by Dottie at 3:54 PM 1 comment: 

I'm so glad tomorrow is Halloween. I look forward to seeing the kiddies come to the door in their hopefully "original" costumes. Last two places I lived we didn't really get many trick or treaters and I miss that.

Posted by Dottie at 4:21 PM No comments: 
Little Miss Suzy

It appears little Miss Suzy has come to visit on our patio. We recently moved into our new home and noticed lots of acorns and of course lots of squirrels around the neighborhood.

For the past few days, we noticed one squirrel who loved to visit and run around the patio. She climbed on the park bench and ran across the top of it. She appeared to notice that we were watching her but seemed unfazed by it and certainly not worried that we would harm her.

Today she again went through her antics and then stopped in full view of our back door, stood up on her hind legs and placed her front paws together as if begging for food or praying. She was not put off by us approaching her. Evidently, the people who lived here before us had fed her. Watching her a little longer, we saw that she actually had some acorns stored in a flowerpot where nothing was now blooming.

The choice appears to be up to us at this point. Should we feed her or just leave the flowerpot in place for her to use a storage of her food?

Posted by Dottie at 1:06 PM 1 comment: 
Since we've recently moved, one of my aims for this week was to get to the local Senior Center and see what they had to offer. I was nervous, more than nervous, to the point of stomach sickness wondering how the people would greet an outsider.

No need to have worried. I went today and met such nice people, eager to make me feel at home. The ladies that I sat with made conversation easy for me and explained what activities were available there. I sat in a on a hand of "Kings in the Corner" before the morning activity of ceramics started. While most of this time was spend concentrating on painting, there was still comments going around the table so that a person didn't feel alone. After a short time for a snack, we got to play bingo before it was time to go home. I'm looking forward to returning next Monday to see what sort of crafts are available to do as well as visit with these nice people.

I should have realized that people are people and that there was no need to get my self upset.
Posted by Dottie at 1:43 PM 1 comment: 
My Song

Being a very literal person, when given a writing assignment of My Song in my Creative Writing Class, I thought WOW, I have no song. I wish I did!

As a small child when I sang, my mother would ask me what I was saying and when I answered I was singing, she would tell me I couldn't sing. She had a good voice and she was probably right that I couldn't carry a tune.

In school, we were separated into singers and listeners in music class. I was a listener. Listeners had to sit in the last row in this class and keep quiet while the others sang. This greatly affected my life. I do not sing out loud to this day. I mouth the words in church and when attending a function which turns into a sing-a-long, I just sit there, mouth closed. I never sing out loud at birthday parties, again just mouthing the words. Thankfully, my children never caught on to the fact that I wasn't singing at their parties.

However since I realized early on that there is joy in song, I always attempted to encourage my children to sing. Some of them had better voices than others. One of my daughters has a lovely voice while the other one sings as well as her mother. This latter child tried out for and was accepted in glee club in sixth grade. Between songs, she would be smiling constantly up there on stage. I was so happy for her. When her son was born, she would sing to him constantly. When he got old enough to speak, he would say "gain" to her when she finished a song. It was his way of saying again and it was music to my ears. At last I had a song of my own.
Posted by Dottie at 1:37 PM 1 comment: 
Coping with and Overcoming Hearing Loss Maybe!

In recent years, I have lost a great deal of my hearing capacity. It was a gradually thing that crept in. When I finally realized what was happening, I had my hearing checked and found that I REALLY needed a hearing aide. Actually both ears needed help but finances caused me to only purchase one hearing aide in the beginning. About a year later, I knew it was time to get the second one.

Coping with hearing loss and getting adjusted to using an aide took sometime. Like many women, I am vain and needing a device stuck in my ear was not a pleasant thought to me.

I remember leaving the audiologist office and starting my car. WOW, when those signals get so noisy? It must be hailing out there, that can't possibly be rain as I drove away! Incredible, these were two of the first sensory differences I noticed.

Pleasant surprises were being able to have a one on one conversation with someone and actually hear the whole conversation and respond correctly to that person and not see that puzzled look on their face as I had before when I did not respond in a reasonable manner to something they had asked.

One great benefit of using hearing aides is the ability to remove one in a crowded restaurant and still be able to carry on conversation without feeling overwhelmed. The biggest benefit by far comes at night when my extremely loud neighbors above me throw items around. Once I have my hearing aides out, I generally do not hear what goes on. Unfortunately, my daughter who is blessed with great hearing has to resort to ear plugs.
Posted by Dottie at 4:35 PM 1 comment: 
As I said yesterday,I'm going to try to use this site to post memoirs and some just plain fiction that I've written or will write. If you enjoy, good. If not, sorry, guess it's not for you.

Starting tomorrow, I'll try to get on and post something I've written before.I'd been attending a creative writing class in my neighborhood but recently moved so I'm trying to write on my own. I will continue to get back from time to time to this class since everyone there was so pleasant and helpful. Meanwhile if anyone has suggestions for topics, please post and I'll consider.Thanks.

Presently my daughter and I are attending a creative writing workshop that is held once a month in the evening at a local library. The teacher is excellent and has good speakers often as part of her class.

Posted by Dottie at 12:01 PM No comments: 
I'm New Here