Meet Me on Monday by Acting Balanced

This Meet Me on Monday was started by Acting Balanced because we missed Java from Never Growing Old so very much! Please be sure to visit both sites.




Here are today's Questions:

1. What was the first live concert you ever attended?

I believe that it was a Sandi Patty concert. She has an amazing voice!

2. What colors look best on you?

When I was a little girl, dark green looked great on me. Maybe it is still a good color for me, but I rarely if ever wear it. I generally stick to earth tones and occasionally a red slips in there. My preferred color is black.

3. What is one thing about you that most people wouldn't know?

I am an incredibly bashful person and most people know this. But, during the delivery of my first baby, I had an audience. A class of about 30 student nurses (both male and female) asked if they could be present for the birth. I apparently told them yes, though I have no recollection of this.

4. Who would you call to be bailed out of jail?

I don't know. Nobody I know has access to large sums of money at the drop of a hat. I'd just be toast.

5. What do you think is the greatest invention of your lifetime and why?

It certainly isn't Facebook, that's for sure. I'd be happy if that fell off of the planet and ceased to exist. I think that I would choose digital photography. Though I prefer the old ways and had a lot of fun watching my husband develop pictures in the darkroom, digital photography gives instant feedback to those of us lacking in patience. I can tell before I spend a zillion dollars to develop a roll of film whether the picture is worth printing or not. No wasted film, no wasted paper. Unfortunately, no physical darkroom either.

First Birthday

Thank you to all of you that have been with Random Thoughts by Suzanne over this past year. Our one year anniversary was on February 15th and, naturally, I missed it!

I look forward to the year ahead and appreciate the reading, commenting, and sharing that you all do here.

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Please click the button above to join the fun!

1. February 22nd is National Be Humble Day...what makes you proud? What keeps you humble?

My children make me very proud. They aren't out there running wild and getting into trouble. What keeps me humble is knowing that I'm just a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things and He loved me enough to secure my future.


2. Where is the catch-all (aka dumping ground) in your house?

I think the whole house fits that description at the moment.


3. Do you make it a point to visit State/National Parks when you travel or even in your own hometown? What's your favorite?

It is one thing that I'd like to do, but we don't often go anywhere that is near a state or national park.


4. How would you define honor?

I think it is fighting and possibly dying for what you believe in. It is doing right even when it would be easier or more fun to do wrong. It is defending the defenseless. It is putting others before yourself.


5. Angel's food or Devil's food-which cake do you prefer?

Devil's food wins, though I'm not at all fond of the name! I think "Brat's Food" would work so much better. I'm a brat, so I should know. :)

6. What's the most recent road trip you've taken? Where did you go and how many hours did you spend in the car? Do you like to zoom to your destination without stopping or leisurely wind your way there with stops along the way? What is your car snack of choice?

We went further north in the state that had me driving for ten or so hours. If I had chosen to drive straight through Houston, there would have been less drive time overall, but there would have also been a freaked-out Suz at the end of the journey. We don't have the option of non-stop driving. One of us is diabetic and the other one is a old lady. Many stops are going to happen on any journey that we make. Generally, I like barbecue chips and Diet Coke.


7. Recent headlines told how a preschool child in NC had their packed lunch from home taken away and a school lunch substituted by a school inspector who deemed the homemade lunch unhealthy. Reportedly the parent was then billed for the school lunch (chicken nugget meal) although an update to the story says the parent was not billed. The inspector was conducting a routine inspection of the classroom-he/she was not there solely to peek in the lunchboxes. The packed lunch contained a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple juice box, a bag of chips, and a banana. You can read the story here. Your thoughts?

Personally, I think the government is stepping way out of bounds. It should be the parents' choice what their child eats or doesn't eat. If they want to inspect the school-provided lunches, then let them have at it, but stay out of the private lunches. It is none of their business. It sounds to me like the lunch the little girl brought from home met the guidelines. She had a meat, a grain, a dairy, and two fruits. Sure, the chips aren't necessarily the healthiest thing, but how healthy are the school's extras? It just seems silly and intrusive to me to give this family grief over their child's lunch when most schools these days have soft drink vending machines all over the place. Maybe they should get their "healthy police" to get rid of those soft drink machines and leave little girls alone to eat their turkey sandwiches!


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I am wondering what happened to the little baby that I just read about in the newspaper online from back home. I'm also wondering how a family can bury two family members within four days and survive, but I hope that they do.

Meet Me on Monday by Acting Balanced

1. What is your favorite kind of soup?

I love a chicken noodle soup that I had at a pizza place a couple of months ago. The noodles were more bread-like than the usual pasta noodle. It was delicious!

2. What was the last movie you saw in a theater?

The Lion King in 3D.

3. What is your least favorite TV program?

My least favorite TV program is anything with people showing off more than what should be shown to the general public. That pretty much limits what I like as most everything has half-nakey people on it these days.

4. If you were to write a book about yourself, what would you name it?

My Walk Through the Valley.

5. What 3 places that are on your bucket list to visit?

Ireland.
Scotland.
Greensburg, Kansas.

Saturday 9

1. Do you every solicit advise on your love life?

Sometimes I talk to my friends and ask for suggestions or feedback.

2. What was the last thing you argued with someone about?

I have insecurities that cause jealousy and that is generally the source of arguments involving me.

3. Who do you hate right now?

We aren't supposed to hate anybody. Unfortunately, I am not honoring this rule at the moment. It wouldn't be a good idea for me to name the person. I am working on not hating them, but this might take a while.

4. Who do you love right now?

My husband, my children, my birth family, and my friends.

5. Where do you want to be in 6 years?

I would love to be most anywhere but where I'm at.

6. What is your craziest vice?

I find my thrill on Cemetery Hill. I stalk dead people. In other words, I like to hang out in graveyards. I totally love genealogical research and it involves a lot of this. I'm not sure if that is a "vice" or not. It is just all that my husband and I could come up with for this question.

7. How did you celebrate Valentines Day?

We watched the movie Endless Love, which is what we watched on our first date on my sixteenth birthday.

8. What is your most unique or fondest memory of a special Valentine's Day?

There are two that come to mind (my husband's, not mine; my memory is shot!).

When I was sixteen years old and living in the Upstate of South Carolina (where they do have a winter time), I wore a sundress on Valentine's Day because my then-boyfriend/now-husband loved the way that dress looked on me. Never mind that it was February and below freezing. I loved him and wore it for him. I don't remember being cold at all.

The second one is that my husband can't hide things from me. I find what he hides generally. One Valentine's Day, he decided not to fight it anymore. He bought candy and just laid it out in the open, right under my nose. I never found it. He surprised me that year. :)

If you want me to find it, hide it. If you want me to miss it, put it in plain sight.

9. Were you in the same location five years ago that you are today? Would you have expected to be?

Yes, I was. Expected? Yes. Wanting? No, but I figure I'm stuck here until I get that 8' x 4' piece of real estate.

Writer's Workshop: Don't Want To!

Click the button above to see the full list of this week's prompts and join the fun!


3.) Create a reverse bucket list that names the top ten things you never want to do.
(Inspired by The Hairpin)

I never want to...

...OK, I had my list of ten "don't want tos" and then my husband pointed out that writing those down was one sure way to cause them to happen. So, I deleted that list and here is a sarcastic version. :)

I never want to...

  1. ...eat cotton candy.
  2. ...ride a roller coaster.
  3. ...see Monticello.
  4. ...live in the Biltmore House.
  5. ...win the Powerball lottery.
  6. ...play ping-pong 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
  7. ...have the most productive blog on the Internet.
  8. ...have a totally toned body.
  9. ...publish a #1 best-selling serial killer novel.
10. ...have "Shattered" hanging in the Louvre.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

Please click the button above to join Joyce's Wednesday Hodgepodge fun!

1. George Washington-Abraham Lincoln-Thomas Jefferson...who would you most like to meet and why?

Most definitely I would love to meet Thomas Jefferson. He's supposedly in my family tree (still working to confirm or deny that!) and I think that he was a very interesting character. I think that his house and grounds are beautiful.

2. What's your favorite chain restaurant?

I love Olive Garden. Everything about it is great. The food, the decor, and the service, it's all great.

3. I spied this question on the Bears at Home blog last week and she gave me permission to steal borrow it-

When you look back on your life, do you imagine you'll think about the goals you failed to meet with regret? Or will you look at what you accomplished and say: it was good?

There are things at this point already that I wish I had done or done differently. There's no going back. I can only hope to do better from this day forward and I'm working on it.

4. Grapefruit-take 'em or leave 'em? Given the choice between an orange and a grapefruit which would you choose? Would you prefer it served as is or squeezed into juice?

I am majorly allergic to grapefruits and have a milder allergy to oranges. The last time I drank grapefruit juice (well over 25 years ago), it wanted out of me so fast that it passed itself...as I was drinking it, it was coming back up. It didn't even have time to warm up. Yucky, I know, but it is the truth!

5. When was the last time you cleaned out a closet? Is there a closet in your home that currently needs cleaning? What are you waiting for?

All of them could do with a good sorting and cleaning out. I'm waiting for the energy to do it. And maybe for the good fairies to beat me to it.

6. You get to have lunch with three famous people...who would you like to see round your table?

I think that I would enjoy a visit with Zig Ziglar. He is a great motivator and seems to be a genuinely nice man. I also think that it would be interesting to have Frank and Jesse James there, too. I want to know if my take on the reasons for their actions is on the mark. I know what I believe; I just want to know if it is true or not.

7. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your ability to parallel park?

-1000. OK, that isn't a scale of 1-10, but it is way more accurate in my case than 1-10 would be. I stink at it. I can't do it and, personally, I think the way they require it to be done is an accident waiting to happen!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I made an interesting find today. I found a pension application for one of my great-great grandfathers on my mama's side of the family. His name was Jim Spence. He enlisted in the CSA, Company C, Palmetto Sharpshooters, Jenkins Brigade, in August 1863 at age 16 and was in service until after the surrender in April 1865. He died in October 1923. You can learn some very interesting things about family members by reading these pension applications.

Meet Me on Monday by Acting Balanced

In Java's absence, another blogger has stepped up to the plate to offer us more Meet Me on Monday questions. Please be sure to click the button above to visit Heather at Acting Balanced.

Here are today's Questions:

1. Are you planning anything for Valentine's Day?

I have been trying to think of something both special and budget-friendly to do for V-day, but haven't been able to think of anything. Any ideas?

2. What song automatically popped into your head when you saw this question?

Oddly enough, "I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me". Why that popped in there, I have no clue!

3. What did you have for breakfast today?

I had peanut butter Ritz crackers. My tummy is really sensitive when I first wake up.

4. Where do you keep your keys?

They usually live in my pocketbook.

5. Who was your favorite teacher from when you were in school?

I had lots of very nice teachers, but there are two that are my favorites: Ruth Elrod and Anna Dean Pennington. Both of these ladies demanded much and let me know of the potential that they saw in me. I worked hard because I didn't want to disappoint them. I have a great deal of respect and love for the both of them.

Please be sure to add the link to your Meet Me on Monday post below. Thanks!

Saturday 9

1. Do you enjoy going to a casino now and again?

I've never been to one and don't really think that I would enjoy it. I don't enjoy a lot of noise or crowds.

2. What makes you happy most of the time?

Knowing that Heavenly Father is there for me makes me happy. My genealogy work, my family, and pretty flowers make me happy. There are frustrations that come along with each of these at times, but overall these things make me happy.

3. Are you jealous of someone right now?

In a manner of speaking, yes. But at this point it has gone beyond any jealousy over alienation of affection to downright loathing.

4. You're stranded on a desert island with one fictional character. Who is it? Why?

Eeyore would be my character of choice. He's the only one that I can think of that would understand my way of seeing things.

5. Have you ever been in the emergency room? If yes, for what (most recently)?

Yes, I have been many times for myself and with my children. The most recent time for myself was 18 June 2010. It was when they diagnosed severe anemia and the tumors.

6. Where is the last place you drove to just for fun?

I haven't been anywhere "just for fun" in ages. There are lots of places that I go to that are work-related that are fun sometimes. The last one was in Nacogdoches, TX.

7. If you were to make your living as a photographer, what would love to shoot?

I would love to be able to shoot beautiful landscapes, rural scenes, florals. I also would really enjoy photographing teeny-tiny things and making them look huge.

8. Tell us about a band you like that we might not have heard.

I don't know about any bands, per se. But one of my favorite is a one-woman wonder: Enya.

9. Where was the last place you went shopping? Why?

HEB was the last place that we went shopping. We had to buy groceries.

Five Minute Friday: Trust

Please click the button above and be prepared to be inspired by The Gypsy Mama's writing. Join the rest of us as we write life five minutes at a time, unedited.

This week's prompt is: Trust.
===

Trust is a hard one. We're asked to trust in things that we cannot see and we're asked to trust in spite of things that we do see.

Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding."

We go to the doctor and trust that he will make us better. We go to work and trust that we'll get paid. We leave the house and trust that we'll make it back. We raise our children in Christian homes and trust that they'll turn out fine and faithful.

It is easy to trust when life is going great. But how do you handle it when the world seems to be falling down around you? We are to trust in Him, in the good and in the bad, that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Psalm 62:8 "Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah."

For better or for worse, can we be trusted to fight through the bad to get to the other side, or will we run at the first sign of trouble, or give up just because things aren't going our way, on our time table?

Psalm 56:4 "In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me."

Saturday 9

Saturday 9's questions this week are as follows:

1. I read that Bud Weiser & Kathy moved into their new house! When was the last time you moved? Where to?

The last time that we moved was in September 2004. We moved from the upstate of South Carolina to the Texas Gulf Coast. This was the biggest move that either of us have ever made, both as children with our parents and as adults. All of my previous moves were usually various places still in Anderson County, South Carolina (and one time to Greenwood County, SC). David was from Atlanta, Georgia and moved to South Carolina as a little boy.

2. If they were making a Hall of Fame for the blogosphere, name a blogger or two who you think should make the list. Why?

There are so many great ones out there, I can't pin it down to one or two!

3. What are couple of funny things you remember your parents saying? (Like, “They're starving there in China, so finish what you've got.” - John Lennon) Do you say them to your kids?

I can't remember anything funny that my parents said when I was young. We did have laughter in our home and tickling was a big feature, but I can't remember any funny sayings.

4. What is something that has happened to you that you would consider a miracle?

The fact that I am still alive to be typing a response here is a miracle. In May 2010, I laid down fully prepared to die, knowing it was imminent. I couldn't move, could barely breathe and couldn't speak above a whisper. My husband was having to ice me down, going through many pounds of ice a day. It wasn't due to hot flashes (though those were happening, too). Somehow the ice was helping me to breathe. I closed my eyes and felt myself leaving this life and, then, heard my aunt telling me that it wasn't my time to go to Heaven yet. I was diagnosed with severe anemia and the tumors were found. I wasn't able to get surgery to remove the tumors until October 2010, but they were removed and declared non-cancerous. Although I have mostly recovered, I am much weaker than I was before the anemia took over and am wondering if I will ever be strong again.

5. What is it too late for?

It is too late for listening to the stories of my grandparents, the ones they were so eager to tell when I was young and I was too fidgety to truly listen to. It is too late to ask them how they met and where they got married. It is too late to ask them the things that I'm only learning now that I should have asked. It is too late do a lot of things.

6. What do you try to stay away from?

I try to stay away from things that are going to cause arguments. Somehow those things always find me.

7. When you get into a disagreement or fight, how often are you the first to apologize?

If I feel that I am in the wrong, I will apologize. Generally, I don't feel like I am wrong about whatever the situation is, though. If I did, there wouldn't be an argument in the first place.

8. Tell us about a current issue that you’re unhappy with.

I am unhappy with our current financial status and my memory issues.

9. How often do you update your blog/site and why?

My goal is to update my blogs every day. I'm doing good these days if I get it done a couple of times a week. I enjoy blogging, but I have a very hard time coming up with things to write. As I wait to get my brain back, the memes are a big help.

Five Minute Friday: Real

Please click the button above and be prepared to be inspired by The Gypsy Mama's writing. Join the rest of us as we write life five minutes at a time, unedited.

This week's prompt is: Real.

===
Keeping it real; that's what me and my friends do. We share our hearts, the dark and the light. Nothing is too ugly to talk about, to learn from. We've had the love of a lifetime and we've lost it through death or divorce. We've had babies, schooled them, sent them off to war, and watched those babies have their own. We've loved our parents and said good-bye to them as they left this life. We've put Him on the cross and brought Him into our hearts. We've tested and been tested. We've been through it all and shared it all, the laughter and the tears.

Real is what we are, what we're meant to be. We live in the real and in the love that He gives us for each other.

We're living life, keeping it real, one day at a time.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. It's that most wonderful time of the year...tax season! Do you complete your own returns or farm that job out to the professionals?

My husband has a Master's Degree in Business Administration/Accounting & Finance, so he does them. I wouldn't touch them with a ten-foot pole!

2. This next question comes from Kansas Bob...he posed it in his response to something I asked in an earlier Wednesday post and I asked him if I could add it to the Hodgepodge some day. Today's the day....

Which do you think has changed you more-love or pain?

I'm thinking it is a mix of both, but pain has made the most obvious changes. Actual, to-the-core, hope is generally a thing of the past and laughs are few and far between. However, that trend seems to be changing and when I do laugh, it is a deeper, more true laugh than in the past.

3. Tangerine Tango has been named color of the year for 2012. Your thoughts? Would I find this color anywhere in your house? How about in your closet? If not, will you be adding this color to your life in some way in 2012? If you're not sure what tangerine tango looks like click here.

I'm allergic to citrus fruits and that carries over to home decor and clothing. :) I'm more into earth tones, blacks, and reds.

4. Are you a collector? What do you collect and does it get admired, used, and/or dusted regularly?

I collect angels and books. No, no, no in regards to the angels and yes, yes, no in regards to the books. The angels are in the living room and I rarely am in that part of the house. The books are here in the room with us.

5. February is National Heart Month...besides a green salad what is one tasty heart healthy dish you like to prepare?

Anything loaded with garlic would be our choice. Garlic helps to reduce blood pressure and that can't help but be a good thing for the heart.

6. When was the last time you had car trouble?

We had our last car trouble about a year ago, unless you want to count a flat tire. That happened on the way to take our daughter to class just a few months ago.

7. Have you been more demanding on yourself lately or less? Is that a good trend?

In some ways, yes, I have been more demanding of myself lately and I do think that it is a good thing. Rather than taking things at face value and assuming them to be the truth, I am digging deeper and looking for confirmation. This comes out the most in my genealogical research. Just because someone says A belongs to B doesn't mean that this A belongs to this B. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered and records to track down to prove the connection. It would be easiest to assume that all information that I was given was correct and let my research stop there. But, I need to go the distance and get that confirmation through legal papers and other fact comparisons.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I do not like waiting. Most of my life I have been an impatient person. Over the last couple of years I have become a far more patient person. Until last night, that is. Someone dangled a blasted carrot that they know I want and now I have to wait to see if I can have the carrot. Hurry up and wait. OY! One problem with this particular dangler is that they dangle and then take it back without following through. I know this, but I can't help but get my hopes up each time, hoping that something will change for the better. I am determined, however, whether they follow through or not, I'll find a way to get that carrot with or without their assistance.