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Gimmie the Pennies

Picture this.  I’m 5 years old and it’s Mother’s Day.  We are all getting ready to go out to eat and I’m ready before everyone else.  I’m bored and asked Mom if I could go outside.  She told me that was fine as long as I didn’t get dirty.  Apparently, I took that message to heart, because I was found just sitting at the side of the road in my little lawnchair.  Lisa called mom and said “You have got to check this out!”  In my defense, I was just doing what I was told. Continue reading

Please Be Happy

childhoodI worked hard to find my place in our family. I was the youngest of three girls. My oldest sister was 9 years older. My middle sister was 5 years older. As the youngest, I often felt like I wasn’t allowed to do the things that the older girls could do. I wanted to help. My mom said I had a hernia so she wouldn’t let me shovel snow or vacuum or do anything that would exert extra effort. I wanted to be more of a player even though I was younger. My sister thought it was silly and somehow it was my excuse not to get involved.  Continue reading

Streamline and Simplify

“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” –Marie Kondo

 

I love vacationing and spending time at our cottage. It is so “me” to drink good coffee, go adventuring, look for fun earrings to buy, read while the family is watching TV, and write in my journal.

Now I can do all these things at home too, of course. But the kicker is that a couple of other things always seem to block me. If I could just let go of them or figure out how to minimize the space they take up in my world…I would be a super happy camper. Continue reading

Letting Go of Overthinking

overthinkingSometimes when something is troubling me or I don’t understand why people do the things they do, I have a hard time not overthinking the issue. Thinking about a problem or situation can keep me awake at night and cause me to fill my mind with nothing else.  Continue reading

The Green-Eyed Monster

green-eyed monsterI have a bad habit of comparing myself to others and then feeling bad about how things are going in my life.  I look at the people around me and see people with more money or bigger houses or people going on fancy vacations and I get jealous.  Why isn’t my life like that? Continue reading

No One Special

celebrities Favorite or least favorite celebrity??

Boy, this is a hard one for me.  I have never met a real celebrity to classify anyone to be a favorite or not.

As a teenager when everyone was wild about Elvis, Tom Jones, and the Beatles, I was interested in their music, but never actually went all crazy for any of them. I liked to watch Elvis (who didn’t as a teenager), but in movies not so much.  Tom Jones starred in a couple of movies that I really liked, and I liked his performances and music, but I didn’t go crazy over him.  Now, I am one of the few it seems, but I really didn’t care for the Beatles or their music at all.   Continue reading

Pat McCurdy

pat mccurdyI can’t say that I have a favorite or least favorite well-known celebrity (with the exception that I CAN’T STAND the Kardashians), so I thought of a local celebrity that I really enjoy.  Pat McCurdy!  Continue reading

Why Bother?

I went to Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks on a trip to San Antonio, TX. It is billed as a place to “walk among the stars and snap a few selfies as you come face-to-face with unique, lifelike wax figures of superheroes, characters, and celebrities!” I passed up Brittany Spears, Madonna, Harrison Ford, Prince William, Princess Kate, and various presidents. I did sit with Jimmy Kimmel for a moment to laugh with him about a joke I recently heard, but I soon went on my way. (Yeah, I know he doesn’t look much like Kimmel, but that’s pretty much the problem with these “lifelike figures”. They may look like a famous person, but you have to use your imagination with most of them.) Continue reading

Shallow Meetings

Olivia Newton JohnI have 3 very nice photos of myself with 3 different celebrities. One is with Barbara Mandrel. Another picture is with Olivia Newton-John. The third picture is with Barry Manilow. One would assume that I knew these folks. We are smiling and looking comfortable with each other.  Continue reading