Miscellaneous

The most important award I ever received was a box of colored pencils from Mrs. Simpson, my 5th grade art teacher. She also taught penmanship, and I remember her being a very demanding and perfectionist type teacher.​​​She expected our letters to be perfect and made us practice over and over on paper especially designed for improving our handwriting.…

What’s your favorite roller coaster? ​I loved Universal Studios Dueling Dragons. Simultaneous fear and delight.​Gone now, but forever the perfect balance in my mind.​I’ve been on a bit of a real life roller coaster the past few months, with a series of challenges hitting me hard and fast from one side and then the other.​In the…

Yep, sometimes less really can be more.How do I know?Just look out my kitchen window with me.There are over 25 birds, at least 5 different kinds, feasting.In September I was getting ready to have total knee replacement surgery. I was in a lot of pain and didn’t do much gardening. I usually cut back all…

When I was 11 years old, I went to Yellowstone National Park with my father and other fathers and sons from our church. It was supposed to be a fun filled adventure with our fathers and friends. It started out that way and ended well but, in the middle, we experienced an event none of us…

In December 2011, my son Paul, my grandson Calvert, and I drove from Stuttgart, Germany to Frankfurt to catch a plane to Morocco. We were flying on Ryan Air and when we arrived at the gate, I got a lesson in inappropriate European airport etiquette. For example, as at most airports around the world gate…

I’m still working on the holiday jigsaw puzzles. When the family gathered we worked together and finished the first one, The Ram. Quite a challenge. It had no straight edges. We had to throw out a lot of our “puzzling” skills and create new ones.Then we started our second. Wow, again. 1,000 pieces, with an…

This story began several years ago when my 15-year-old granddaughter, Lydia, was two or three. She has a very interesting personality which has been present at least since this experience. In some situations it can be challenging to her parents and siblings but in other situations it has served her well. The incident of which…