Six-Year-Old's Public Speaking Projects

My niece was in kindergarten last year. Her project was to give a speech to her classmates on how to do something. Earlier in the month she did "How to Make Popcorn." Her parents helped her make a poster. Then my niece wanted to do another topic, "Making Homemade Ice Cream." I helped her make the poster (actually I made the poster; I let her help tape the wording on). My husband went to the school with some ice cream we had made, my niece gave her speech using the poster, and it was a big hit!

Cudos to EMS Bike Riders

My cousin-in-law MIKE should be committed!

Or I should say, Mike is a committed guy.

Click on this link to read his account of the 600 mile EMS Memorial Bike Ride that he and his peers participated in this year. Their commitment to honoring their fallen EMS comrades is commendable and inspiring. Good job on reporting both facts and feelings in this heartfelt article.

Congratulations to you, MIKE, on being such an upstanding guy!

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/article.jsp?id=8104&siteSection=1

Computer Genius

I have the greatest, smartest nephew. He's a computer genius!

When I am baffled, it takes him moments to de-baffle me. While de-baffling me, he teaches me little tricks that enhance my whole computer experience. For that I am truly grateful.

"THANK YOU, CURT! YOU'RE A GENIUS!"

WHERE I WORK

THIS IS WHERE I WORK: www.taskerswell.com

Corn on the Cob

C
o
r
n
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grew tall
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in the fall
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it tasted yummy
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in my tummy
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with butter
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that slid down
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my chin!

Our Spacious New House

HERE IS MY HUSBAND'S AND MY NEW HOUSE.

WE'VE BEEN 'IN' FOR ONE YEAR AND TEN MONTHS.

Before this, we lived in the little cottage to the left...a small, quaint, homey place that we outgrew. Being in the new house is wonderful. We love it! It's sooooo spacious!

My Junk; Your Treasure

THEY SAY ONE PERSON'S JUNK IS ANOTHER PERSON'S TREASURE. Today, that was proven.

Let's clarify: I don't like to think of my previously used items as junk. I enjoyed it for what it was, for the use I got out of it, for the time I used it. I had a bond with each and every one of my things at one point in time. However, that time has passed. Now, those coveted items are displayed on three tables and one clothes rack. (Also, three of my sisters, my mother, and my niece each have their tables.)

Strangers and some townsfolk looked at my table of things. One hand grabbed a book I once read 20 years ago when I was in the service, another held up a shirt to their chest to see if maybe the pink blouse would fit, yet another liked the purple etched vase and an old jackknife that I actually don't know where it came from.

These items, plus gads more, are my previously used items that I placed stickers on: .10, .25, .50 cents, and/or $1.00. Yard salers' slash bargain hunters picked up the items, looked at them right side up and then at the underneath (for hidden flaws) and then the contemplation began.

"Is it worth .10? Is it worth digging in a purse or pocket for .25 cents? Where will it go in the house? Who can I gift it to? IT'S SUCH A GOOD DEAL! I'D BE CRAZY NOT TO BUY IT!" These and more questions and comments zipped through the frugal yard sale shopper's minds. Some don't ask questions: they impulse buy. I like impulse buyers!

Behind my tables I held my breath and silently added the total of items. A whopping $2.25!!! I didn't think anyone would buy my stuff. They paid good money for the junk I didn't need anymore.

At the end of six hours the tally was $75.00 for me and new treasures for the fifty people who were kind enough to pull off the busy road, visit the yard sale, and give me a couple bucks.

To those fifty I say thank you. See ya next year!!!

Fairy House

Little fairies flutter through the air. They twitter about on a wing and a prayer. All day long they flutter here, and there, and everywhere.

To give our little fairy friends a rest, my young niece and I built a fairy house the other day of rocks, bark, flowers, and leaves.

It was a sweet fairy house, it was our first, but definitely won't be our last.

Come little fairies, flutter through the air. Twitter about on your wing and prayer and then come take a nap in our pretty little fairy house. Curl up and close your fairy blue eyes. Smile while you dream...

Divorce: So Many Questions, Few Answers

What do you do when it ends? How do you feel when it crashes and burns?

Where do you go when your sense of security is wrecked? Who can help when the person you thought would aways be there for you, isn't anymore?

Will there ever be recovery? How will your dark cloud disperse?

When will you feel light and breezy? At what point will you say it is probably for the best?

Where will you be when you realize you can do this, alone?

Why? Why? Why?

So many questions about impending divorce, few answers.

May Love be a Colorful Rainbow

Today I attended an intimate garden wedding in my town. The couple was sweet. They were committed to each other before the wedding, but with the vows spoken while family and friends looked on, they made their devotion official.

I sat in the front row under the pine trees. I watched the groom's nervous smile appear and reappear time and again. The bride's back was to me, but I could tell she was ecstatic, too. I'm not sure that she was nervous. This was her fourth wedding, but his first.


Beside them the brother of the groom, a best girlfriend, and two young flower girls, their children dressed in peach, stood innocent and fresh.

Love, when you find it, is virginal. It begins that way and depending on the couple, that awe-feeling may last a week, six months, or long after the ceremony.

It is through the good times and trying times that a relationship is forged. If it's a good relationship it grows more sturdy, thus if it is a marginal relationship, each storm beats upon the ship until the perfect storm crumbles the thing like a ship tossed upon a rocky, jagged shore.

In this couple I saw a groom who doted on his bride and a bride who appreciated his doting. They laughed, they giggled, their eyes twinkled. For this bride and groom I wish a virginal outlook on love that lasts for many, many happy years.

To the reader, I say, cast away any tainted past and let love be new, and fresh, and wondrous. Harbor only good will and warm heart to your loved one. With childlike simplicity I say, may all marriages be strong when storms arrive...may your love be a colorful rainbow that shines in the sky and glows on your faces...

The Difference Eight Years Makes

You're a whisper in the wind, a fragrant flower bud

A leaf of autumn gold - quiet, yet bravely bold.

You paint mountains and bubbling brooks

Your speech jubilant - passive, yet defiant.

Fifteen flavorous years

I've watched you grow

Spread your pretty wings

Forget, and learn new things.

From your cocoon you stretch and sail away

Fighting for more room - you leave, but always stay.

10/27/2000

P.S. means I can add more now

Eight years later

you are the epitome of WOW!

A brave mother, a patient wife

You give happiness to babes and embrace life.

From you

wondrous things abound

A true friend

and companion is found

Look inside

and reach for heights of greatness

For you deserve

all the world's unequalled happiness!

8/1/2008

DUTY CALLS

Under the wire I write. In a few moments I must go. Work is calling...making the almighty buck is so important that I must stop writing and force myself to go where 'duty calls.'

Listening and heading the 'duty calls' horn has always been my way of life. Duty called for the service of my country in the early 1980s and I did so, tho' sacrificed my sense of safety. My safety net, invisible and questioned, was breached when I fled home and joined the outer-realm. I went to places never gone before, pushed my comfort zone (though what comfort was there?) to new heights. What I found was a bunch of yes-people who joined the throng with me. I survived the break-away years. I survived the tumultuous, wandering, vague existence that was vastly better than what I had left behind.

That said, I must cease and desist. Duty is calling. I must go and earn not only the almighty buck, but the coveted benefits, and swim in the sense of fulfilling my obligations. Then I shall come back to my haven and write my little heart out!