My Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades!

What a great area to live. Our bank is close, our grocery store is close, both being the same as we had in St. Johnsbury. We are going to lunch today in the dining room that's in our building. Roast beef and the trimmings. On Thanksgiving and Christmas, they have free dinners which we are looking forward to as well.

I took some pictures of the progress we have made plus a view of the town. I simply adore small intimate towns. Beauty is everywhere.

Finally got my lids sorted!

From H.O.P.E. thrift store. $3.00 sandals brand new Dr. Scholls!

Chuck sitting at our borrowed table and chairs in our 'computer room.'

Looking forward to sorting out these boxes. Some of them have been packed for five years making my stuff seem new again.

Taken from my bank a view of Lyndonville.

My homemade bookshelves. I'm going to get something pretty to cover the boxes.

My bathroom is slowly becoming organized.

Showing no more boxes and if there is a place to hang stuff on I will find it.

Have a wonderful day wherever you are in this world:)

Monday Memories #12

Continuing from last Memory Monday...

I'm married now at the ripe old age of 18. My husband was 20. We had bought this little blue Ford that zipped us around and a few days later we decided to move to San Deigo. I was all for it, ready for adventure, got a new husband, let's go! We packed up a tent, sleeping bags and a few other things and off we went.

I remember staying at a campground keeping warm by having a very long hot shower. We met a guy who we befriended for a short time while often going to Denny's and drinking hot coffee all night long. Before long we needed a job like yesterday!

Now my husband had told me stories about working on the Sports Fishing boats so when we got to the harbor I was in absolute heaven. We both were hired and I was overjoyed. Pretty soon I had mastered both fishing, helping the customers and cooking on a boat this one being 64 feet long. I loved being a deckhand.

We had overnight Albacore fishing trips, we'd come in to dock the first place I headed for was the little shop that sold smoked fish and I loved it! Another place was a restaurant that sold big crab salads with white wine. I was so in love with the area.

We lived on fish and I would go barefoot with my dress tied up at the knee running all over the deck, it was as if I had been born to the sea. I believe those were some of the other happiest days of my life.

What are some of your happiest memories of?

Monday Memories #9 #FixThePlus

Continued from last Monday...

I needed a date to the Prom. Thanks to the diligence of my wonderful friends a boy was singled out. Poor guy didn't know what hit him! He was 6 feet tall with black longish hair, wore jeans & black T-shirts and had a set for seven days a week. We met and a few weeks later became a couple and then lovers, I was one month away from turning eighteen. 

 I loved his mother and we would go to his house after school and she would cook hamburgers for us after school. Between that and a roadside restaurant which served up the greatest burger and fries I would gain a few pounds then have to starve myself to lose the extra pounds. Been that way all my life with the yo-yo dieting. We had a great time together but unfortunately it just didn't work out, but I did make it to my Prom which we left early. I discovered the Prom wasn't all that great.

It's funny when you think a part of your life is over as far as your concerned but he has found me again after thirty some odd years which totally blew me away. Found my brother Chris also and talked to both on the phone, not at the same time. It felt like time had stopped rewinding itself. The Internet and Facebook can be wonderful thing.

Mexico is the best place in the world. Or one of the best places. My family and I must have gone at least twenty times maybe more. As an adult now I know why “one piece of baloney” and “one glass of milk at night with dinner” etc. was for going on vacations. It would have been nice to be told this! But again that’s why I insisted on any kids I had we would communicate. Sometimes loudly but communicating either way.

Going through customs at the border you are already getting the feel of Mexico flavor. We actually had our car stripped once which I watched with great interest. The border police were looking for contraband. 

You drive through dusty streets with vendors in the streets selling giant powdery treats for a quarter calling out their wares. Little kids are surrounding you yelling “por favor” with their little dirty brown hands stretched out pleading for money. I had been warned three things...DON'T DRINK THE WATER...DON'T GIVE CHANGE TO THE LITTLE BEGGARS...and whatever you do DON'T EAT TACOS from a street vendor it could be a ~shudder~ dog. Which of course to the teenage lover of dogs grossed me right out.

I loved the shops with the smiling vendors; it was like a covered Flea Market with Mexican shawls, shoes, toys, etc all hanging all around you. I loved it. I vaguely remember staying in a hotel once and it wasn't a very good experience with a broken A.C. and the room was filthy. When we went the next time we had a camper. I loved riding on the top bunk in that camper. I would always pass out and later when my little brother Christopher came along when he got older we would ride up bunk together giggling and laughing.

I remember meeting a young girl my age and her introducing me to my first papaya walking along the beach line not being able to speak each others language but still laughing and smiling. It was so pretty with blue skies and the water was so warm like bath water. We would run in and out at will.

Snorkeling was a lot of fun. I remember one time my cousins came with us and me and Mark, my cousin, decided to snorkel. It was a gorgeous day with a blue sky, the warm water, wetting my mask I put the plastic mouthpiece to breath in my mouth, looking at my cousin doing the same, we sunk into the water and started swimming wearing the fins my parents had bought. I loved them pushing me through the water so much faster than bare feet. 

We swam up to a giant coral hill and started circling it and a bunch of small colorful fish came swimming by which I thought was just amazing. I went to touch the cool and felt stinging on my fingers then they started bleeding. My daredevil cousin made me get out of the water and onto the beach so the blood wouldn't attract sharks. I sure miss him. That's when my cousin was alive may he RIP...

...to be continued next Monday 

Do you like my story so far?

Monday Memories #8 #FixThePlus

 Continued from Monday Memories #7

Anyways back to the cutest guy in the whole wide world who has since passed may he R.I.P but that’s a whole different story. I remember talking my parents into letting me go on my first date at almost sixteen.

It was to the movies and hell if I can remember the movie, but it was me, Ricky, and his cousins. So holding my breath until he asked me to “go steady” with him we were right into each other. He really paid me a lot of attention and introduced me to Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven which I learned every word.

We would have long make-out sessions to which was what teenagers did, but that was as far as that went. It was all and good, but my mother had to ruin it by insisting that he came over to my house and that was never a good idea.

We would meet up at the mall but mom made it harder and harder to see him and he finally broke up with me which broke my teenage heart. God the tears flowed and flowed and I blamed my mother. She had no trust in me at all. Maybe because she got pregnant with me, but she should have trusted me more.

I smile when telling this story about the one of two times I snuck a boy into my room. Of course, my parents came home early and if anyone outside the house was looking they would have seen a teenage boy jumping out my window! Here's what happened.

Me: "I can't believe it, my parents came home early"! As I shoved Rick into my closet I cranked up my music.When my parents got in the house my mother hollered for me to turn down my music.Me and Ricki: Freaking out saying Oh crap...alot.Me: Opening my window pushing the screen out telling Ricki to jump out helping him by pushing at his legs.

I have told this story a few times and when I told him which fences to jump over, he jumped over the wrong fence coming face to face with my backyard neighbor's Doberman. Needless to say, he yelled at me when he got home...oops!

 I look back at it today and can't help grinning at the craziness of that day. Anyways I and his cousins remained friends all through my 12th year and they were all in their 11th  year and that’s when at the ending of my 12th year me and the girls went on a 'manhunt'. I needed a date to the Prom...


You ever have a crazy teenage moment...or two?

Thinking Back Tuesdays Story #5 FixThePlus

Continued from last Tuesday...

Little did I know my future husband's brother & sister-in-law lived right down the block where my family lived. Then the “black people” as my mother called them and “beaners” (I didn't agree to either term) as everyone called them started moving into the Dream Homes. 

By this time, I had a little brother but he was still a baby. The Doctor had made a mistake cutting his forehead during his C-Section which really pissed big sister off!

I am having an epiphany writing this. I am reading a book that was given to me and came across a paragraph that pretty much described what I couldn't really put into words but knew it was there all along. It says the following:

“There were times, like today, when she realized that after a youth of skating along slippery surfaces, she had now settled into a domestic rut of dazzling sameness, each day forced to perform the same show with the same players, just each player one day older. She wondered why it had to be this way, why are we forced to choose one life. Why do we insist that there can only be one “us”, one life that makes us up in our entirety? Why can't we have more than one identity? And why do we have to destroy one life in order to create another? We claim to long for the “well-rounded,” the Renaissance man or woman inside all of us, yet our only variety is cosmetic. In reality, we do all we can to smother that spirit out, to make us conform, to define us as one thing and one thing only.”

Looking back I have had many lives in this same life. When I had my own children I used what had happened to try and protect them and it never seemed enough knowing what was really out there.

It's funny sometimes the bits and pieces that come back as memories so long ago. So I pretty much made it through Elementary School where the 6th-grade girls were all into wearing training bras and I wasn't allowed a bra. 

Between the peer pressure of wearing a bra, saddle shoes and nylon ankle socks not to mention plain dresses that looked like I was in a Catholic School I got very creative at breaking and wrecking these things I hated. Which when I became a mother it was very important to me for my children to feel comfortable in clothes they liked not hated, which lucky for them I liked their clothing choices as well. 

That went for hair also. My son started liking a shaved head , my daughter wanted short hair for a long time.I think my mother thought of me like a Barbie Doll only Barbie was way hipper than I was!

My absolute happiest memories are when I was 15 years old going to the pool every day if possible. My High School's pool was open all summer so that’s where I spent my summer days swimming, tanning, and acting oh so nonchalant around the boys. I would hop on my bike and spend the day carefree under the blue Californian sun and the crystal clear blue water of the swimming pool.

Junior High went a little bit better for I got better at telling lies and finally taking more control over who I was. Before you get the wrong ideas let me explain...

To be continued next Tuesday...

Inspired By My Family

F orgive and forget and just love each other

A lways there for you, especially when your not there for yourself

M ake time for each other

I am always happy to hear from you

L ove each other the best that you can

Y oung or old, we are all in this together

In The End It Doesn't Even Matter

       

                                              

                   CHOOSING CHANGE 

When I first saw you I was enthralled with your blue eyes, your honesty, you were funny, worked hard and had an interesting past that aligned my own. For months, I tried to stay away only to be drawn back to you quickly leaving your vicinity. You were in my circle of friends so as time went by I slowly came to trust my fluttering heart feeling like a teenager again for the first time in a long time. Finally tiring of the tug-a-war of my heart and mind, I let my heart win and you became my lover.

In the beginning, we laughed, you were good with my children, helping my youngest with her homework which I didn't really understand, I thought maybe, just maybe you were 'the one'. I can stop searching. You made me feel like a queen but there was that one thing, your drinking. I thought I could ignore that for all the other good qualities would outweigh that.

You gave me money, you gave me fun, you protected me from harm, I finally fell in love. Three years we were wonderful together, you had landed a Taxi driving job, my future was secured. Then something happened. A slight change in the air, something was off, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, you started to change. We started to argue never sitting in the same room, I did things alone, what the heck had happened?

You had met a woman calling her a 'friend'. I said I believed you but I knew better. I was living waiting for that relationship ax to fall, it finally did. I had taken my kids and their friends to the movies to see Men In Black 2. I said good-bye to you, you grunted goodbye back. The movie was two hours long, then we all headed home. As I walked into an empty house little alarms in my head were going off. The quite felt final.

I called everyone I knew looking for him after a few hours had gone by. I knew what had happened but wanted verification. I didn't sleep at all that first night. I called my full-time job explaining what had happened. They gave me some time off. I called my 2nd part-time job, again, they also gave me some time off. Easter was a week away, I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, all I did was cry. I listened to all the sad songs I had. That was the hardest Easter to get through I ever had. I was depressed and in deep mourning telling myself I will get through this, I know I will but it hurt so bad. My trusting heart was broken.

Adding insult to injury he had gotten into my little box of saved money, taking all but a few bucks. My world was crushed, I had been dumped, fooled by this man who had vehemently declared he would never do such a thing to a woman and her children. Try adding guilt on top of all the other feelings, I lost 20 lbs. 

My son saved the day when he printed out the lyrics to "In The End" by  Linkin Park. I played that song, loudly, over and over again with tears streaming down my face. I knew every word. Two weeks went by, I get a phone call. It was him! My heart just about jumped out of my chest. He kept apologizing claiming he would pay me back, every penny. I had been doing so well in my fight to get over him and I started to cry telling him sorry, it's too late as I hung up.

Three weeks I get a letter, from a prison. He had been incarcerated for a year for trying to walk out of a big grocery store with five hundred dollars worth of food. He told me it was Karma, I agreed to myself as I read on. He asked to come back but not because he needed a place, oh no, that wasn't it. The three weeks of break-up hell was still fresh in my mind as I read oh I thought to myself, no I don't think so and in return I sent him the lyrics from that song In The End.

Because in the end, it didn't really matter. That song saved my sanity.

I got the idea for writing this from all the reading I have been doing. I feel so refreshed and I hope this helps someone else who needs to know it will be okay.

Memories Of A Valentine's Past

I am going to try my hand at writing a story at the encouragement of my friendly blogger 'tribe'. I read that somewhere deciding I love that feeling same as 'village'. I'm making up my own quote. "It takes a village to raise a blogger". I like that. I hope you enjoy.

                                                  Memories Of A Valentine's Past

Wendy sat dreamily gazing out the window. It was the day after Valentines. In her mind's eye, she was that young girl of fifteen sitting at the edge of the local pool sunbathing. Tanning was very important to her loving the golden brown color she had been working on for the last month. The Californian sky was a vivid dark blue, a slight breeze was gently moving her long brown, sunbleached hair.
As she tilted her face towards the sun closing her eyes through the gate came a couple of boys armed with a big black plastic inner tube throwing it into the pool making the water shift slightly, a loud  noise of plastic hitting the water rang out. One boy was dark-skinned, the other she recognized lived in her neighborhood. She went to school with his sister.
Taking a running jump, they both cannon-balled into the pool making a huge splash jostling each other for the innertube. Meanwhile, she would glance over when the boys were submerged then looking away as they came up shouting, continuing to nonchalantly sunbath.
After a few more minutes of horseplay, the boy Matt from her neighborhood came swimming over to the side where she was sitting telling her as she blushed slightly, his friend would like to meet. Thus began Wendy's 'first love' affair.
They dated for the rest of the summer meeting at the pool. Wendy was in love with this handsome, dark-skinned, slanted green eyed boy.
But alas circumstances changed making it so difficult to see each other they had to break up. Wendy was heartbroken, crying at every sad song that came on the radio.
Days, months, then years passed as time does, Wendy's pain faded into the past. She never forgot about her green-eyed, dark-skinned boy at the local swimming pool.
One day in January Wendy went to visit some old friends she had gone to school with. They were two sisters having been married living side by side in an Apartment complex.
They all had to go to work leaving Wendy with instructions to turn off the oven when the timer went off. Wendy was sitting waiting when the door opened and in came Dale, her first love was right here in front of her!
They started to see each other again, January turned to Febuary turning into Valentine's Day. Wendy stared at the phone deciding to give Dale a call at his place of employment to wish him a Happy Valentine's day.
"Hello, I'd like to speak to Dale if he's available please"? Her heart sped up with excitement as she anticipated the sound of his voice. She never knew what that saying, "time stopped" truly meant until she heard what came out of the phone's receiver, "I'm sorry, he died".
Wendy hung up in disbelief and after that, valentines day was never quite the same.

                                                       The End