Most of us can remember every little thing we did each minute of the day on September 11, 2001. Like a movie we play it over and over, especially on September 11th of every year. We can never forget. We will never forget. We should never forget.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Most everyone that I know has a facebook page. Some hardly ever get on, while others (like me) are on a little too much. I had never planned to do facebook, but for some reason needed to set one up. I think I had gotten an email from something that I was subscribing to. They had set up a facebook page and the only way to view it, of course, is to set one up for yourself. I really didn't get it so after I activated it I left it be and promptly forgot about it. A month or two later, I received a facebook friend request from my niece so I decided to take a closer look. I had been doing myspace, but it seemed as though everyone was moving over to facebook. It really became an excellent way to easily keep in touch with my family down south and my LIW (Laura Ingalls Wilder) friends.
I quickly found out that facebook has some games. Fun games. Cute games. Did I have time for them? No. But, with everything going on for the past couple of years, it became a great stress reliever. And it was a fun way to interact with the friends and family that I rarely see. I have learned that I have to limit it to one game at a time though, or else I have the potential of wasting waaaay too much time.
A year or so ago, I was playing farmville as were several of my friends and family. I realized that one of the draws for me was that I could set up my little farm and it was the one thing in my life that I had complete control over. Weird? Maybe. But there were so many things that were out of my control.
At some point I needed more neighbors. Those games are always pushing you to invite more friends and you need a certain number of farmville neighbors (or whatever game it may be) to accomplish certain goals. A couple of my friends created facebook pages for their dogs to bring their neighbor count up. I refused. I would not make a facebook page for my dog!
Weeelll...as things progress there came a time when I was only one neighbor short for some goal or to expand the farm. I don't even remember now. But I caved. I created a page for my dog, Duke. I used his birthday, but made his birth year a few years older. I gave him an old email address that I never use and went about my business. Duke had a few friends (for those others who needed that "one more" farmville neighbor).
I don't have a ton of facebook friends. Mostly family and LIW friends. After LauraPalooza I became friends with several more people and, when I was in my profile recently, I noticed I was only a couple of friends away from 100. Then a few days later, I had to get into my friends list to find a friend so that I could write on his wall. I noticed I had 97 friends. I was pretty sure I had had 98. No biggie, I thought...but then it started bugging me.
For the record, I usually don't keep track of the number of friends I have, but I just happened to take note of it and I could have sworn I had 98 friends. Did someone unfriend me? Why? What did I do? It's amazing (and somewhat disturbing) that this bothered me so much.
I actually looked through my friend list trying to figure out who unfriended me! Couldn't figure it out.
It still bothered me that I had done something to cause someone to unfriend me, but I put it on the back burner.
A few days later, I was logging into Duke's facebook page (because, yes, I'm playing another game and needed him for a neighbor) and was told that my (Duke's) account was deactivated. Upon further investigation I found out that the birth year that I used for him had put him at the age of a high school student. Facebook had sent him emails to verify his high school and he hadn't responded so they deactivated his page.
I was unfriended by my own dog!!
I quickly found out that facebook has some games. Fun games. Cute games. Did I have time for them? No. But, with everything going on for the past couple of years, it became a great stress reliever. And it was a fun way to interact with the friends and family that I rarely see. I have learned that I have to limit it to one game at a time though, or else I have the potential of wasting waaaay too much time.
A year or so ago, I was playing farmville as were several of my friends and family. I realized that one of the draws for me was that I could set up my little farm and it was the one thing in my life that I had complete control over. Weird? Maybe. But there were so many things that were out of my control.
At some point I needed more neighbors. Those games are always pushing you to invite more friends and you need a certain number of farmville neighbors (or whatever game it may be) to accomplish certain goals. A couple of my friends created facebook pages for their dogs to bring their neighbor count up. I refused. I would not make a facebook page for my dog!
Weeelll...as things progress there came a time when I was only one neighbor short for some goal or to expand the farm. I don't even remember now. But I caved. I created a page for my dog, Duke. I used his birthday, but made his birth year a few years older. I gave him an old email address that I never use and went about my business. Duke had a few friends (for those others who needed that "one more" farmville neighbor).
I don't have a ton of facebook friends. Mostly family and LIW friends. After LauraPalooza I became friends with several more people and, when I was in my profile recently, I noticed I was only a couple of friends away from 100. Then a few days later, I had to get into my friends list to find a friend so that I could write on his wall. I noticed I had 97 friends. I was pretty sure I had had 98. No biggie, I thought...but then it started bugging me.
For the record, I usually don't keep track of the number of friends I have, but I just happened to take note of it and I could have sworn I had 98 friends. Did someone unfriend me? Why? What did I do? It's amazing (and somewhat disturbing) that this bothered me so much.
I actually looked through my friend list trying to figure out who unfriended me! Couldn't figure it out.
It still bothered me that I had done something to cause someone to unfriend me, but I put it on the back burner.
A few days later, I was logging into Duke's facebook page (because, yes, I'm playing another game and needed him for a neighbor) and was told that my (Duke's) account was deactivated. Upon further investigation I found out that the birth year that I used for him had put him at the age of a high school student. Facebook had sent him emails to verify his high school and he hadn't responded so they deactivated his page.
I was unfriended by my own dog!!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Simple Sunday
my backyard last winter
Because this summer has been so hot and humid that sometimes I feel as if I can't breathe.
Because I swore that I wouldn't complain when it got cooler, because it would feel so good.
Because I had to close windows last night for the first time all summer and I did complain about being a little chilly.
Because every day is one day closer to those days when it's so cold that, when you walk outside, the frigid wind takes your breath away...
Monday, August 30, 2010
the college years
I've been reading quite a bit, on other blogs, about the beginning of the school year. A couple of posts have been about kids going off to another year of college.
Jamie went to college locally for the first year and a half and then transferred to a college about a 3 hours' drive from home. She had been planning to go a full two years to the community college near us, but was having problems with the classes they were telling her she needed versus those which she really needed. So, she decided, in November to start the next semester away at a different college. There was so much to do in a short amount of time and I was happily kept busy helping to get things ready for her big move.
When the big move came it hit me. Hard. Jim and I drove up to help her settle in. All the kids were coming back from winter break that day. She would have a brand new transfer as her roommate though and two girls who had been there as suitemates. We were the only ones in her dorm till late in the afternoon on that Saturday, so had plenty of time to help her settle in before the others showed up.
We had decided to spend the night in town just to prolong the leaving, I'm sure.
We left Jamie to get to know her new roommates and checked into our motel. Then we decided to run to a party store to get something to drink and some snacks.
That's when it began to hit us. We sat in the parking lot of this store and watched kid after kid come out with beer, and lots of it. It was obvious that there were going to be lots of parties that night. We wondered what would happen with our straight-laced daughter from here on. (She wasn't a partier then and never did become one).
The next day we finished up a few things, did a little shopping for some odds and ends that Jamie might need, took her to lunch and headed for home. The farther we got from her college, the sadder I became. When we got home I soaked in the tub and cried my eyes out.
About a week later, I heard Jim talking to a friend of ours. Her son (her only child) had gone away to college the fall before so she knew how I felt. She had sent me a card that simply said "A mom hug". So, she must have asked Jim how I was doing because I heard him say, "I think she's starting to come around. She's stopped walking around the house looking like she's lost."
I truly was lost those first weeks. But it got better. Jamie had good days and bad days. We emailed nearly every day and I printed out many of the emails, saved them and put them in a scrapbook to give her when she graduated. Some just talked about general things that were happening, some where she needed to vent about this or that. We learned to take them all in stride.
Our favorite. After what must have been a difficult day, she filled an entire email with only five words. Over and over again:
I WANT TO COME HOME!
She didn't and survived just fine!
Of course, six years later and she's not working in her field. But that's another story for another day...
Jamie went to college locally for the first year and a half and then transferred to a college about a 3 hours' drive from home. She had been planning to go a full two years to the community college near us, but was having problems with the classes they were telling her she needed versus those which she really needed. So, she decided, in November to start the next semester away at a different college. There was so much to do in a short amount of time and I was happily kept busy helping to get things ready for her big move.
When the big move came it hit me. Hard. Jim and I drove up to help her settle in. All the kids were coming back from winter break that day. She would have a brand new transfer as her roommate though and two girls who had been there as suitemates. We were the only ones in her dorm till late in the afternoon on that Saturday, so had plenty of time to help her settle in before the others showed up.
We had decided to spend the night in town just to prolong the leaving, I'm sure.
We left Jamie to get to know her new roommates and checked into our motel. Then we decided to run to a party store to get something to drink and some snacks.
That's when it began to hit us. We sat in the parking lot of this store and watched kid after kid come out with beer, and lots of it. It was obvious that there were going to be lots of parties that night. We wondered what would happen with our straight-laced daughter from here on. (She wasn't a partier then and never did become one).
The next day we finished up a few things, did a little shopping for some odds and ends that Jamie might need, took her to lunch and headed for home. The farther we got from her college, the sadder I became. When we got home I soaked in the tub and cried my eyes out.
About a week later, I heard Jim talking to a friend of ours. Her son (her only child) had gone away to college the fall before so she knew how I felt. She had sent me a card that simply said "A mom hug". So, she must have asked Jim how I was doing because I heard him say, "I think she's starting to come around. She's stopped walking around the house looking like she's lost."
I truly was lost those first weeks. But it got better. Jamie had good days and bad days. We emailed nearly every day and I printed out many of the emails, saved them and put them in a scrapbook to give her when she graduated. Some just talked about general things that were happening, some where she needed to vent about this or that. We learned to take them all in stride.
Our favorite. After what must have been a difficult day, she filled an entire email with only five words. Over and over again:
I WANT TO COME HOME!
She didn't and survived just fine!
Jamie with her proud mom and dad on graduation day!
Of course, six years later and she's not working in her field. But that's another story for another day...
Friday, August 27, 2010
changes...
The week has certainly ended on a better note than it had started on. Thank you to anyone who answered my request for prayers for guidance. I have certainly spent a lot of time praying for strength and guidance lately...
Things are better, although I'm afraid that a relationship that I hold very dear to my heart has been somewhat changed forever. I guess things happen for a reason, even if we don't understand the reason ourselves...
Yesterday was a month since my mother passed away and, oddly enough, was the first day in the past month that I did not cry. I'm not saying that I'm grieving less, but maybe just getting used to it...
Jim has been my rock. Wow! He has listened to me, he has held me and let me cry, he has tried to keep me busy. He knew that this would be so much harder for me than I could have imagined and he has just plain been there...
I think that I have been feeling better for the past couple of days. I picture my mom and dad, together at last, and I draw strength from that...
Things are better, although I'm afraid that a relationship that I hold very dear to my heart has been somewhat changed forever. I guess things happen for a reason, even if we don't understand the reason ourselves...
Yesterday was a month since my mother passed away and, oddly enough, was the first day in the past month that I did not cry. I'm not saying that I'm grieving less, but maybe just getting used to it...
Jim has been my rock. Wow! He has listened to me, he has held me and let me cry, he has tried to keep me busy. He knew that this would be so much harder for me than I could have imagined and he has just plain been there...
I think that I have been feeling better for the past couple of days. I picture my mom and dad, together at last, and I draw strength from that...
Monday, August 23, 2010
Please...
I hesitate to ask this...
I need some prayers. Something has come up that, while it is not catastrophic, is weighing very heavy on my heart and head. I don't even understand why it is happening...
I just ask for prayers for guidance in getting through this and figuring out why it is happening.
Thank you.
*Sometimes the first thing people might assume is that it's my marriage. That is not the case. I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband.
I need some prayers. Something has come up that, while it is not catastrophic, is weighing very heavy on my heart and head. I don't even understand why it is happening...
I just ask for prayers for guidance in getting through this and figuring out why it is happening.
Thank you.
*Sometimes the first thing people might assume is that it's my marriage. That is not the case. I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Simple Sunday
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