Gratitude Friday - Madame Lee Pivornick

This post is eleven years late. Jim and I are very fortunate. We had fabulous teachers in high school. Madame Lee Pivornick was one of them. She taught French and English. Jim was in her French class and we both had her for senior English. She was elegant and eccentric. She wore silk , chiffon, high heels and a French twist. (This may not have been the fashion of the day, but she had her own definition of hip.) She expected excellence and good manners. She was classy. She loved Europe and the United States. She loved Las Vegas. Her enthusiasm and upbeat attitude just bubble in her writing - she wrote a book called Continental Fling. Jim and I found a copy in Special Collections at UNLV yesterday. We had so much fun going through it. It was a travel guide written in 1965. She flew from Las Vegas to New York and then cruised across the Atlantic to Europe. The captain and crew on the ship were French. Champagne was served at dinner. There is a photo of Madame on the bridge with the captain. She is steering the ship. She said that she and Madame de Gaulle are the only people besides the captain who got to steer the ship. She said that the passengers were all practicing their French with the crew and learning new words on the way over to Europe.

In addition to teaching high school, she taught French at UNLV (Nevada Southern University at the time) and she wrote travel columns for the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review Journal. She was the French Club advisor at Las Vegas High School. She took the French Club to France in the summer.

As adults, Jim and I talked several times about contacting Madame, but we never did. Oh, how I wish we had. She died in 1999. I wish I had thanked her for getting Jim through French grammar and getting us both through Great Expectations and Macbeth. Most of all, I wish I had told her how I admire the way she lived her life. She was so special and she did exactly what she wanted to do. She was a superb teacher. I hope she was happy in her personal life. Jim and I think she must have been. She did so much traveling and in class, she never seemed to have a bad day. That has to be a sign that all parts of your life are good.

We took notes on Parisian restaurant recommendations she made in Continental Fling. Paris is on our list. When we go there, we're going to one of the restaurants she recommended and we will drink a toast to Madame.

Gratitude Friday (A Little Late) Thank Heaven for Little Girls

I'm grateful to Jim for having two children. I don't have children, but because Jim does, I get grandchildren! They are terrific. Jim's son, daughter, her husband, Jim's stepfather and Jade and Lucy (our granddaughters) came over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so much fun. Jade is 7 and Lucy is 1-1/2. They were both born on April Fool's Day. During dinner, Jade's dad asked her what she was going to do in the school talent contest. Jade said, "I'm going to play the trombone." I asked her if she knew how to play the trombone. She said, "Not really." I thought that was so funny. I admire how brave she is at the age of 7 - brave without being obnoxious. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. I'm looking forward to watching her grow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Gratitude Friday - Farmer Jim Harvests His Crop

These are the photos of Farmer Jim's first tomato crop. The crop was harvested on Sunday, November 15. After harvesting, we divided it in half and ate it in one sitting:) We would have had a crop twice this size, but Rosie (our Lab)ate the other tomato. The tomato that Jim and I ate was delicious. We had no complaints from Rosie about her tomato. We're going to try to do better next year. (It's unlikely that we could produce fewer tomatoes.) Anyhow, I'm glad Jim gave it a shot. I can say, without a doubt, no matter how few you produce, tomatoes that you grow yourself are absolutely delicious.

Gratitude Friday

A friend and former employer died on Tuesday. His name was John Harmon. He was a great guy - a good old cowboy from Texas. I'm grateful to have known him for over thirty years. He will be greatly missed by many. Rest in peace, John.

Gratitude Friday

I'm thankful for the blogger friends I have made. I love reading their blogs and reading the comments they make on my blog. This is so much fun.

I'm grateful that today is Friday. I'm ready for the weekend. I'm going to finish the painting that I'm working on.

Gratitude Friday - Who Said I Can't Drive 55?

Pap test results: Normal
Mammogram results: Normal
What more could a girl ask for? To top things off, when I went in for the mammogram, everyone there was nice - including the other patients. My appointment was for 6:15 a.m. and they had me in and out of there by 6:45. Amazing!

At the end of April, Jim planted some tomato plants in a Topsy Turvy planter. Neither of us had ever grown our own tomatoes. Nothing happened. The plants grew bigger and bigger, but no tomatoes -not even a flower. Guess what! Today Jim spotted a teeny, tiny tomato! Farmer Jim is very proud. It may sound silly, but I'm grateful for this tomato. It's so cool!

This is Candy rapidly approaching 55 with a smile on her face, joy in her heart and the breeze blowing through her hair. (At almost 55, you don't give a hoot if your hair gets messed up a little.)