Memories - Like the Cobwebs of My Mind





 

When was the last time you thought about youthful things? I thought about it recently because I had a visual trigger.

 

Triggers can be visual, auditory, taste, touch, etc. They cause you to remember things long forgotten. This is what I had forgotten:

 

When I was a little girl, I made these baskets with my grandma. She taught me and I thought they were the coolest things. They were tucked away, a long forgotten fond memory of many colors and patterns.

Recently, I started doing home health care. At one home, I spied this little beauty and a flood of memories returned. Strange how I thought they were gone. I'd forgotten these little baskets ever existed. I'd forgotten making them with my grandma. How could I forget such a treasured thing? I loved doing these and had many of them.

I think I made these at about the same time I made crocheted wire hangers. Lord, they were ugly, but they kept the clothes on the hanger. I just now remembered those, too. How many other things my grandma taught me have been forgotten? These memories were tossed into the abyss of my brain... lost forever, or perhaps just until a trigger signals their return unexpectedly.

It shocks me to realize how many things must be stored in the abyss. Will they ever return? Are they filed away for all of eternity? Am I brain damaged?

If I recall, these baskets were sewn together with a needle and thread, but I don't remember how to make them. Surely I am not the only one who made these in the 70's. Did anybody else make these? Do you have a triggered forgotten memory you can share? I'd love to hear about it.

Creative Bioscience Update

I haven't written much lately, and I'm having severe withdrawals. This post won't help with that too much, but it's something to get me started again. Plus, I'm obligated.

A few months ago, I started a blogger challenge put on by Creative Bioscience wherein I would try three of their products, blog about my choices, my results once during the duration, and once at the end, and then I would receive three more products to give away to my readers.

I agreed to try Raspberry Ketone, African Mango, and hCG Zero, each for one month. To be quite brief, here is my view of the products so far:

Raspberry Ketones - didn't work
African Mango - worked pretty well
hCG - just started, so not sure yet

I have lost 15 lbs of my goal of 30 so far and it's pretty much all from the African Mango pills, I believe, coupled with some dietary changes. We shall see what the end results turn out to be, but so far, the African Mango is my winner. Stay tuned for the end results in a month!

Dumpster Diving? Yes, I did!

I received one of the worst calls a parent can get last week. I glanced at the phone and saw that it was the Junior High. I assumed it was a robo-call. Alas, it was not to be so.

"Mrs. Brown?"
"Yes."
"I'm very sorry to tell you this, but..."

Now, friends, let me just pause here for one second and tell you that what goes through your mind in that moment is absolutely a worst case scenario. It just is. You can't help it! I expected them to tell me that she had been lost in a tragic dodge ball accident and they needed me to come identify the body.

As it turns out, it may have been just slightly worse than the death of my little angel.

"...your daughter threw away her retainer at lunch and didn't tell anyone until all of the lunch trash from all four grades had been collected and taken out. You're going to have to come and dig through the trash with her to find it."

I quite sensibly replied, "She should do it herself since she is the one who threw it away." The secretary informed me that she didn't think my daughter would do it by herself. I believe she was most likely right.

I must admit that the human being in me let a curse word slip out after I hung up the phone.

Don't ask me why, but for some reason, I thought we would be going through the trash indoors. When I arrived, the secretary informed me that we would have to have the janitor get the trash out of the dumpster outside and we would have to sort through it out there on the ground... in the freezing cold. I was not pleased. I also didn't have an extra $300 for a replacement retainer, so there was really no option.

The only upside? They had rubber gloves we could wear. I put them on over my winter gloves and said, "Let's get to this, kid!"

As it turns out, junior high trash is pretty much... ummmm, slop. Pigs would have loved my job that day. I did not love my job that day. It was one of those days when you regret your choice to become a parent. "I wouldn't be out back by the dumpster digging through trash if I didn't have kids," I mused. Then I looked at my poor sweet kid who was nearly in tears and banished the thought.

She loves that retainer. It's really a bite plate which keeps her bottom teeth from hitting the roof of her mouth and cutting it, but it essentially looks like a retainer, so that's what we all call it. She wanted braces so badly, but her 12 year molars weren't in yet, plus we couldn't afford braces for her after just shelling out $5,000 for her sister's, so we decided the bite plate would at least address her most pressing problem. She is only required to wear it at night, but she's so happy to have anything resembling braces that she wears it day and night. She'd only had it a few weeks.

"Mom, I didn't mean to throw it away," she choked with watery eyes.

"I know you wouldn't throw it away on purpose, honey. We just have to find it, that's all."

I knew her poor stomach had probably been in knots, wondering how much trouble she would be in with mom and dad. As I stood there contemplating the possibility that the people at the nearby Aldi's were likely wondering if we were homeless and foraging for food, I decided to give my daughter a pass on this one. I didn't yell. I didn't complain. I minimized my displeasure to mild facial display and frequent sighs of exasperation.

The janitor had a broad idea of which of the nine bags of rejected lunch might contain the buried treasure. The first bag out had broken and sploshed all over the ground. It was a mishmash of chocolate milk, salad, orange slices, and cheeseburgers with soggy buns from the chocolate milk. It was truly disgusting, but we knew we had to find the thing. He pulled out two bags and I was able to wrangle the third from the outside of the dumpster. We started digging and putting all slop into new trash bags in cans the janitor brought out.

It seemed like days, but I think we were out there a little over an hour. These were LARGE bags.

One bag down. Take a deep breath. Two bags down. My daughter found the rest of her lunch, but no retainer. I was already working on bag three and bag four... well, I was going to have to actually get down in the dumpster for that bag and I really didn't want to do that. ARGH! Are you kidding?

"Okay," I said, "we've got to be close, so let's just keep digging. Hey, let's sing a song to Jesus and see if he'll help us find it." Truly, it was not with great faith that I suggested this. It was more out of boredom and for entertainment. "Ohhhh, Lorrrrrd, please help us to find this retainer in the garbage, pleeeease help us Jeeeeesus." It was awful - horribly out of tune and ridiculous sounding.

I looked down and couldn't believe my eyes. There it was.

"Oh my God! Here it is! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I prayed we would find it and we did. Let's clean up this mess and go!"

My daughter's response melted my heart. She said, "Mom, I prayed all day too. But I didn't pray that we'd find it, I prayed that you wouldn't be mad at me."

I could barely choke back the tears. In that moment, I realized that this wasn't about a material thing. It was about love, anger, and grace toward those we love. She is a good kid and a joy in my life and in that moment, I knew I made the right decision not to be mad about the situation, but to show her what a mother's love was really made of - the willingness to dig through sloppy trash for her daughter's mistake - and be kind about it.

I had to pick up the food on the ground so the school wouldn't be plagued by ravenous critters and my plastic gloves scraped the ground and tore at the fingertips. I couldn't even feel my fingers anymore, so I had no idea that my winter gloves underneath were soaked with slop liquids. I threw them in the trash on the way out and had no qualms about taking a loss on the $1.50 Walmart gloves. That, I could afford!

What would you have done? Grace? Punishment? Bought the new retainer? We thoroughly bleached and scrubbed that puppy, let me tell you. I swear, it's cleaner than brand new. And I love my daughter no less than before the dumpster diving. She's totally worth it.

Scavenger Hunts - Gremlins and Prizes, Oh My!

My daughter went on a scavenger hunt recently. She stated quite emphatically that she had the "most fun she's ever had." She's twelve. I believe her. There was even a cool mom involved. It wasn't me.

I can remember going on scavenger hunts when I was a kid. I even did it once for a job at a "fun day" event. I had the required safety pin in my purse and other items which I'm sure won us the trophy. There was no trophy, but I wish there had been. When in its organic state, my purse is a thing of wonder. You never know what buried treasure you might find in there. There could be gremlins in there, too. I'm not sure. I could stick my hand in there for my wallet and lose it, you just never know.

I can be very competitive and brave when necessary. I'm also great at doing research. So when I saw a scavenger hunt challenge on Firepole Marketing, I played my what the heck card and threw in my hand.

As it turns out, I'm finding that online contests often result in... well, things I don't want to do. But the competitive nature in me is strong, so I comply. Some contests are full of self-promotion, like the Top 25 Circle of Moms contest where I had to get my peers to vote for me, and the Firepole Marketing contest where I had to get people to comment, Tweet, share, etc. and another contest I just received word I was a finalist in recently where again, you have to vote for me to win. Here's where to vote for that one. I'm number two.

Please be advised that I despise doing this to my readers. I hate it. I usually don't even enter a contest if I know I will have to bother people to vote for me. I like contests where I do one particular thing and it's voted on by a higher power and I win or I place or I don't. They usually don't tell you, however, until after you've already entered the contest that you'll be required to do this, so you're kind of stuck.

I was happy that I didn't have to ask for votes for the Firepole Marketing Great Online Marketing Scavenger Hunt, however. It honestly would have ruined it for me. But it is a lot of work. Each task I complete earns me points and points mean winners and prizes. There are hundreds of people participating, so I even have to keep score for three other contestants to be kept in the contest. I told you, it's not all fun and games. It's hard work. But the point is to help you grow and gain in certain categories like:

1. Networking and Guest Posting
2. Social Media Mastery
3. Multi-Media
4. Writing, Reading & Researching
5. In Real Life

The duration is long. Five weeks and over 100 challenges. Firepole Marketing can really help you out if you market anything online, including yourself. This contest is hitting me at a very busy time and I'm struggling to stay in it and be productive. My post here about it gets me some points, though, so I'm killing more than one bird with this stone!

Do you participate in contests? What have you won? What do you love and hate about online contests? Have you ever done an online scavenger hunt? If so, tell me about it!

Tell Me About Your Husband, But Don't Touch Mine!

In honor of this being a post-Valentine's Day post, I'm going to talk about my honey-bun, my sugar snap, my lover boy. I don't call him any of those things. Barf! But yes, I am referring to my husband.

First, however, in honor of it being President's Day, I must channel my inner George Washington and admit that I chopped down the cherry tree. I've heard that may not even be true, but I'm using the analogy anyway.

Without being too enigmatic, I'm trying to say that I told a lie. I didn't mean to. Blogger made me do it., I swear! I told you in my last post it was number 100, but it wasn't. I didn't look closely enough and Blogger combined my drafts and my published posts, which equaled 100. I'm actually only on number 90. My bad. I'm sorry and I'm sure you forgive me and could care less. Moving on...

I talk a lot on this blog about myself. Okay, fairly incessantly. Okay, incessantly. Don't get me wrong. Other people are important to my daily life and I need them to exist - like my husband, my kids, my mom, my dogs. Today, I want to introduce you to my husband because he's honestly the most awesome man... ever.

Hands off. He's mine. Finders, keepers. Losers, weepers. Wah, wah, wah. I got him and you didn't. Phhhhht! So there. He's awesome, I tell you. He not only has provided me with a good life and works very hard as a Union Boilermaker, I can give you a long list of his awesomeness.

1. He let me quit working to take care of him, the kids, the house, and all things he cannot accomplish whilst working insane hours. He works so hard, I feel bad that he has to do anything at home. But alas, I cannot cook. Therefore:
2. He cooks. If he were not a Boilermaker, he'd be a chef, and a good one. He loves to cook and does so unless he is super exhausted. Then we eat microwaved boxed food that I cook. Or spaghetti, which is a meal I manage to cook and not make fire alarms sound.
3. He has hobbies he's passionate about, like beekeeping and raising sheep. He supports my hobbies as well.
4. He's artistic. He paints. He draws. He sings. He plays guitar. He writes. He even juggles, like throwing it behind his back and over his head and under his leg and crap. He's good!
5. And my favorite... he carves. Just look at these beautiful pieces he's done...

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, he's just hot! I love him more than words can say. We're perfect for each other. Our strengths complement each other and so do our weaknesses. We learn from each other. We're a rock for each other. He's my spiritual rock. We rock as a couple. It will be ten years this summer and we are still happy as clams together, however happy that is ??? I hope they're happy. Hmmm. Suddenly, I wonder how happy clams really are... note to self: investigate the validity of clam happiness.

We're goofy together, smart together, stupid together, and committed to each other fully. We trust each other and support each other. He's my biggest fan and he doesn't have to read my work very often to believe in it completely. He tells me every day how much he loves me and how wonderful I am. That right there covers a multitude of sins.

We met on a blind date. It wasn't our date. You see, he... oh, never mind. I'll tell you all about it on our ten year anniversary this summer. It's a cute story :0)

Everybody, meet my husband, Neil Brown.

Now, tell me in the comments a little bit about what's so great about your mate!