Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot?

My M posted a picture of her baby girl today. I can't (of course) lay my hands on the picture of her at about the same age, but I think this photo will give you some sort of a clue as to how much they look alike. M was a few months older here and had slimmed down a lot (not kidding.) Sometimes people change so much that we have to go back and remember those folks almost as strangers. Baby M certainly was different back in the day, but just as thweet. Check out her blog and see if there's as much resemblance as I think there is.

The other photo is of two really skinny people who decided it was a good idea to get married in January of 1971 in spite of his being drafted during the Vietnam War. We're coming up on our 38th wedding anniversary this month. This photo was taken at our rehearsal dinner. So it's interesting to think of us being not married in this photo. That takes some real imagination. Dear Abby posted letters this past month about getting married young and whether it was a mistake or not. I was shocked to find that those folks got married at about the same age we did. I didn't feel like I was that young. I had my college degree for Pete's sake! I do know that marrying Michael was the best decision I ever made. Plus, there have been some incredible benefits. Baby M, for one.

Happy New Year's Resolutions!

Resolutions work. Too bad I haven't made any yet. But I'm getting there as fast as I can. When I get those resolutions made, I'll post them.

My plans for this week include flying to DFW on Friday, driving to Shreveport, spending the week with my folks helping them move. Mom and Dad come first on this trip. If I have time after they're well-settled in, I'll drive to Austin to see my redhead and then up to Denton to see my boy at the end of the trip. I'll be back in PA on Sunday the 18th. I'm planning to find time to eat Mexican food and to say y'all a lot.

So plans for the New Year, resolutions and all that cool stuff will have to be put off for a few weeks. But they're coming. I'm a total believer in them.

Need a laugh?

That's "Mr. Ground Sirloin" to you.

Just lost two and a half days

Lucky me. Migraine all day New Year's Eve, all day New Year's Day and half of today. I'm hoping that it's gone but I still feel a little lurking twinge in my left temple. I need to go buy groceries but am afraid to leave the house for fear it will come back. What with bronchitis for Christmas and headaches for the new year, I feel pretty cheated.

I've heard migraine described as punishment without sin. I have to admit that in the middle of one, you wonder what you did to deserve it. You also rack your brains for the trigger that started it so that you will never eat that food again or do whatever it was that caused it again.

Here's the biggest issue with moving to Pennsylvania so far--cold air is a migraine trigger. I feel like a prisoner in my own home. Here's my number one resolution for 2009--outgrow migraines.

First Annual Vaisselle Awards--2008

Photo credit: terren in Virginia on Flickr.

First of all, you all know you deserve a trophy. Every reader of this blog has done something praiseworthy, noble and outstanding this year. But in the interest of time and space, I'll have to limit the awards this year to my family. Nepotism raised to the extreme. Drum roll, please!

The "I Know What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" award goes to N, my oldest, who, unlike most of us, finally knows what she wants to be when she grows up and has gotten awards and entrance into grad school to prove it. Go Red!

The "Supportive Spouse" award goes to T, her husband, for going along with this new plan and agreeing to move and renovate a whole house to make it work. Whoo-hoo!

The "Don't Worry, Be Happy" award goes to M, my second, for having a baby, starting the whole family blog trend, raising kids all week without a husband, moving, traveling around the world with two toddlers and managing quite a few other stressful things this year with a calm smile on her lovely face. You rock!

The "Super Dad" award goes to N, her husband, for going beyond the call of duty to spend quality time with his kids. This includes teaching a four-year-old to fly fish. Awesome!

The "Multitasking" award goes to G, my third, for running the world's biggest Cub Pack, creating some of the world's funniest blog posts, starting her own business, ramping up her photography skills, learning to make her own patterns, taking care of her family which includes four children six and under, a husband, a cat and a dog, and making homemade Christmas presents in just one year. Amazing!

The "I Want to Live Forever" award goes to her husband, D, for getting his cholesterol checked and then amazingly lowering it with a good diet and exercising. A winner!

The "Mean Green" award to my son, Z, for building his own truck and realizing that driving a practical and energy-efficient vehicle is almost as cool as being turbocharged. Vroom, vroom!

To Michael, my sweetie, the "Norman Vincent Peale Power of Positive Thinking" award for consistently trying to see the positive side of every aspect of our gut-wrenching move and life changes this year. Couldn't have done it without you!

To my parents, the "Aging Gracefully" award for getting through a tough year with good humor, intelligence, wisdom and common sense. You rule!

Although many other extended family members deserve kudos, I must honor my cousin, J, with the "Survivor" award for looking cancer in the face and staring it down. Think pink!

And to me, (it's my blog--you didn't expect me to leave myself out, did you?) the "Thinking Outside and Inside the Box" award for getting one house so ready to sell that it got an offer the very first day it was on the market and for unpacking and setting up another house so that we manage to live comfortably with only one big closet, a one-car garage, only one living area, a one-drawer kitchen and only one and a half baths. Go me!

To the rest of you, pat yourselves on the back. It's been a great year and I wish I could honor you all. But I do wish you a 2009 that's filled with accomplishment, satisfaction and, above all, joy. To quote Ginger Rogers in "Bachelor Mother", "Appee Neu Jeer!"

Awesome Christmas present

One silver lining about feeling bad during Christmas was that one of my presents came in really handy. Michael gave me the whole set of The Thin Man movies with Myrna Loy and William Powell. If you have to be cooped up, I can't think of a better duo to be spending time with. We realized that we had never even seen the first of the series, "The Thin Man" and only pieces of the next two. We've decided to wait a while before watching number four and five. We need to save some entertainment for the rest of the long winter. Those movies haven't aged a bit. They're still just as lively and charming as they were when brand new.

They must be a bit of a culture shock to the younger generation though. In one scene, there's about fifty people and one man is on the telephone and another interrupts him to make an important call because, of course, it's the only phone line in the room. You have to wonder how many phone lines there would be available in an roomful of people today. Also, the man making the original call asks for permission to call his mother and then proceeds to call San Francisco from New York. This is supposed to be a big joke as the charges would have been enormous back in the day. I remember my dad calling his parents on Christmas Day and Mother's Day and that it was a very big deal. He'd place the call early in the morning and the operator would call back in the afternoon when there was a connection available.

I do appreciate the ease and cheapness of communication today. It's made this move much easier knowing that I can pick up the phone whenever I want to and call Texas, Utah or even the Czech Republic. I only have to worry about who's awake when.

Dave Barry and the State of the Union

The local rag printed two and a half pages of Dave Barry today. It was his month-by-month take on 2008. It was a bizarre year even by Dave Barry standards. Thanks! It made our day. The man is still right on the money and always makes me laugh. His comments on the year really put it into perspective. He said you might as well laugh at it since you paid for it. How true!

As we look at the year in review, Michael and I were stunned to find out that our congregation added 19 or 20 new members by baptism this year. (This doesn't include children who are baptized when they turn eight.) To put this in perspective, our Texas stake (this is a whole bunch of congregations put together) had 24 baptisms in a year. It's nice to know that people here are seeking for truth. For us, it means new friends added to our church community all the time. And that's very nice.

We have been so impressed by the kindness and essential goodness of people we have met here. Sometimes when you live in Texas you start to believe that Texans are friendlier than other folks. And they are extremely friendly and nice. But we have been so well-treated here that we can't complain at all. The economy may be going to heck in a handbasket and Wall Street may have lost its moral compass, but things are doing just fine here in Wilkes-Barre. Most people are still trying to raise good kids and treat others fairly. So I'll drink sparkling grape juice to that!