More Maddie!

It's been a while since you've seen our newest addition to our family, so I would like to let you know a little bit about what Maddie has been up to.

Maddie is going on 9 months old now.

She is a really small cat.

Maddie loves to play in bags.

 

She also likes to sleep in bags.

Maddie still enjoys playing with toys...

... and leaves

...and toilet paper

...and visiting birds

She enjoys a good stretch...

and a good nap.

Maddie's biggest sources of entertainment continue to be Momo

and Tigger...

much to their dismay!

Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels

My kids take great pleasure whenever I don't understand the lingo of their world.  Their faces were glowing when I didn't know what MILF meant, and thought it especially funny when I teased them and said I was a MILF!

On another occasion,  I told them to keep some information on the QT.  They had never heard that expression and assumed I meant to say "keep it on the DL" but got the letters wrong.  I had to explain that both expressions mean the same thing. Back in my day "QT" stood for "quiet".

This got me thinking about all of the other expressions that were common in my family when I was growing up.

A little background on my family would probably be helpful before I continue.

My mother grew up in an Irish family with 4 brothers and one sister.  They say the Irish are blessed with the "gift of gab" and storytelling.  I can vouch for that.

My mother had quite a variety of expressions.  Every now and then, I will use one of them without thinking and I surprise myself!

Here are just a few of hers that I remember:


Don't take any wooden nickels              

Be careful, don't fall for anyone's tricks

You lie like a rug                                        

You are a liar

His name will be mud                                

He will have a bad name, bad reputation

I am going to lay him out in lavender        

I am going to give him a piece of my mind

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be there 

A lot of people will be there

He doesn't have a pot to piss in                
He doesn't have much money

You will have to pay through the nose      

It will cost you a lot of money

You are up the creek (without the paddle)

You are doomed

The car was coming like a bat out of hell   

The car was coming fast

My uncles also had a very unique way of talking.  Not too many sentences went by without swear words.  Hell, damn, ass, sonofabitch were used in everyday speech and just rolled off their tongues.  I think "shit" was the most used of all, though.  My guess is that they picked a lot of it up when they served in WWII.

It amazes me how we (the kids) would hear these expressions so often, but know we weren't supposed to say them ourselves.

There are endless variations, but I will try to give you the gist of it:

No shit!                                                     

That's unbelievable! I didn't know that!

He was happy as a pig in shit                   

He was very happy

He doesn't know shit from shinola           

He doesn't know anything

(shinola was brown shoe polish!)

He doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground

He doesn't know anything

He doesn't know his ass from his elbow  

He doesn't know anything

The shit will hit the fan

Bad things will happen

Shit or get off the pot

Hurry up

He had a shit-eating grin

He had a big smile

You are in deep shit

You are in a lot of trouble

He was scared shitless

He was extremely afraid

You are on my shit list

I am mad at you

I don't give a shit

I don't care

You are full of shit

You are wrong

That sonofabitch is a hell of a nice guy.

He is a very nice man

It was snowing like a sonofabitch!

It was really coming down!

Sonofabitch!

Wow!

And they never said Mr. or Mrs.  It was always "old man _____' or "old lady ________".

Not to be confused with "the old boy" which was my grandfather.

In comparison, my father hardly ever swore.  My mother, however, had her moments!

In later years, she and my father would play rummy every night.  Whenever my mom was waiting for my father to discard a particular card that she needed, and he didn't give her anything good to use, she would always say

"Frank, you wouldn't give your shit to the crows!"

That makes me smile!

Coincidence?

I have gained weight over the summer.
Eight pounds to be exact.

Enough to make my rings tight.

Then, this past week I have had itchy hives all over.
My hands must have swelled too, because my rings got even tighter.  Tight enough to be uncomfortable.  Very uncomfortable.  Too tight to come off.

Three nights ago I decided I really needed to get them off.

I soaked my hands in ice water in an attempt to reduce the swelling.  Even a little bit would help.

My wedding and engagement rings came off.

The ring on my right hand did not.

I told my husband.  He told me that maybe I should think about getting it cut off.  We talked about how my father had to get his ring cut off his finger  years ago.

I was persistent.  I tried oil.

I pulled and pulled.  Little by little it came over my rather large knuckle.

I was so relieved!



The next day I decided to go through my closet to find things to donate to Goodwill.   Among other things, I pulled out a couple of old pocketbooks that I haven't used in a while and put them in the growing pile.

Yesterday I walked by that pile and decided I had better go through those pocketbooks to make sure I didn't leave anything in them before taking them to Goodwill.

Look what I found.

A man's ring.

My father's ring.

 Look closer.

I don't remember putting it there.

My dad has been gone for more than two years.

I lay in bed thinking last night with my dad's ring next to me on my nightstand.

What is the likelihood that these two events would happen within 24 hours of each other?

Coincidence?

I think not.

I'd like to think of it as a gift.

Thanks, Dad.
 

How Many Friends Can You Have?

People have soooo many FRIENDS these days!

And the number of FRIENDS we have grows larger every day...

OR DOES IT?

The average Facebook user has 130 FRIENDS.





A leading anthropologist, Professor Robin Dunbar claims
the maximum number of FRIENDS a person can have
at one time is 150.  He says our brains can't keep track
of more FRIENDS than that.

Aristotle had much to say about FRIENDS.

 "The desire for FRIENDship comes quickly.
              FRIENDship does not."

"A FRIEND to all is a FRIEND to none."

Aristotle also said there are 3 kinds of FRIENDships:
         FRIENDships based on usefulness,
         FRIENDships based on pleasure,
   and genuine FRIENDships.

The first two last only as long as the person is useful
         or gives us pleasure.
Genuine FRIENDS are those who sit with one another
         across the course of their lives.

FRIENDships take a lot of time. 
I don't think it's possible to be a good FRIEND to more than 5 people at one time.
That's just me.
I can be "FRIENDly" with lot of people though.

What do you think?

How many FRIENDS can YOU have?

Where Has the Time Gone?

It's the first day of school today for Annie. 

It's also the first day she drove to school - by herself!

My baby got her driver's license yesterday.

After posing for our yearly "first day of school" pictures....

She climbed into the driver's seat of Papa's truck, gave us a wave,

  
and drove away!

It wasn't too long ago that she was the passenger.

It wasn't too long ago that they ALL waited for the bus.

It doesn't SEEM like that long ago...

 

 

As the days, months, and years slip by so fast, how can these moments seem like just yesterday?

The human mind is like a time machine.

It can take us WHENever we want to go.

Isn't that nice?

See How They Grow

Over the past week, I have been working on a very important project. 

My family has been going on vacation to Lake George every summer for the past 17 years.

The very first year we went, 1995, we went for a ride on the Minnehaha, a paddlewheel steamboat that gives one hours cruises on the lake.  Before you board the boat, each group poses for a picture.  After the cruise is done, the pictures are available for purchase.

We bought that first picture back in 1995, and that started a tradition that has yet to be broken.  Even after the kids no longer had any interest in riding the Minnehaha, we went back JUST to have our picture taken. 

Each year I would come home from vacation, frame the picture, and hang it on the wall in our living room.  When I painted the living room last week, I took all of the pictures down and noticed how discolored many of them were.  We only have that one copy of each picture and it made me sad to see them that way.

My project this week - photo restoration.

Here is a before and after.

 

I finished all of the pictures!

Here they are in order.  Watch them grow!  (click on each one to see it larger if you want)

And finally, this is the picture taken this summer.  I didn't really want to get it taken because Adam wasn't with us on vacation this year, but Adam insisted that we should not break the tradition! 

We may not have had Adam, but Jojo joined our family this year!