What a Nice Thing to Do

My blogger friend, Autumn Leaves (Sherry) gave me this award. Check out her blog Of Mice and Men and Cabbages and Kings. The link is at the right side of my blog.



Thank you, Sherry! You are very kind.

According to the rules, I am supposed to share 7 things about myself and then pass the award along to 7 other bloggers. Here are 7 things you may not know about me.

1. My sister, Tammy, is a dancer. My mom and dad can both dance beautifully. As for me? I can't dance, don't ask me:) How did that happen?

2. After I retire, I'm going on the road in a rock band with my granddaughters. Jim will be our roadie.

3. I may be the only woman in the United States who hated the movie Titanic. I know hate is a strong word. I really mean it.

4. I used to be afraid of almost everything - talking in front of a group of people, driving, being absent from school, going to a school dance, not being invited to a school dance, doing things alone, etc. As I've gotten older the fear has gone away.

5. The only kinds of meat I eat are fish and poultry. I haven't eaten any other meat in over twelve years (except for two times I ate food that I didn't know had beef in it until after I took a bite. Then I didn't eat any more of it.) Eventually, I would like to eliminate all types of meat from my diet.

6. I love animals. I can't stand it when people don't care for their animals properly.

7. I can sing along with most of the songs from musicals prior to 1975 - everything from Fred Astaire movies to Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm not too sure Jim appreciates my ability. There have been several mornings he has been awakened by my thunderous rendition of Oklahoma.

Gratitude Friday

I am grateful that my husband is romantic and sweet. Here is what he brought home for me today.



We now have two teeny, tiny green tomatoes on our tomato plant. Farmer Jim is very, very proud.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Sometimes when we go out to breakfast on Sunday mornings, we drive past the construction site of the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. Things are moving right along on the project. This organization was created to study, treat and prevent diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's and dementia. The building was designed by Frank Gehry, the architect who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Dancing House in Prague. I can't wait to see it when it's finished.

Okay, I have a few chores to do and then I'm going to paint. Hooray!

What Would Julia Say?

In My Life in France, Julia Child describes this group of women she met in Germany as being nice, but "incurious". It made me wonder if she would think I was incurious (a very undesirable characteristic in her view). Then I realized that my wondering about it showed that I'm not incurious. Ha!

I think I would have liked to have been Julia's friend. What a life she led!

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.)

Julie and Julia

Go see this movie! It's wonderful! Jim and I saw it today. We both loved it. Julia Child was a fascinating woman. Both she and her husband worked hard and accomplished a lot during their lives. I'm also reading Julia's memoir and have about 90 pages left. Like this movie, it is excellent. Julia is an inspiration. She had such a zest for life!

As for Julie, she is also an interesting person. I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to spoil the movie for you. Just go see it and we'll talk.

About twenty-five years ago, there were a lot of patches of desert scattered throughout Las Vegas. My friend had horses and we used to ride in town. You would see road runners and lizards and other interesting creatures. Now, it seems as if every square foot of land has been built on - no more lovely pieces of natural desert in town and no more desert creatures wandering in the city limits. That's why I was so thrilled at the visitor we had last weekend. (You'll have to look hard. He's by the ceiling of our screen room.)

Gratitude Friday

Yikes! I guess it's actually Saturday. I'm very thankful for the beginning of fall weather. I love this time of year. The mornings are cool, but it is still getting very warm in the afternoon.

I'm also grateful that Jim loves animals as much as I do. He became a fan of cats when we started dating. Until then, he hadn't been around them. He had no idea how interesting they are. Right now, all four of the cats are napping. (Jim and the dogs are napping, too.) I love just watching the cats.

My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

I picked up this book at Costco last week and started it yesterday. I'm on page 91, so I haven't gotten very far, but I think it's very good. Julia Child fell in love with France. She tells about her life there with her husband and about learning to cook at the Cordon Bleu. Her charm, honesty and her sense of humor shine through. She may also have been a bit snobbish, but nobody's perfect:)

Gratitude Friday - Back in School

After a month off, even though I love my job, I felt a bit grouchy being back in school. I've come home exhausted every night. However, I had two things happen that reminded me how fortunate I am to have this job.

We were working on the simple past tense of regular verbs. I put examples of the spelling rules on the board. If you haven't studied English grammar lately, you really don't spend much time thinking about the rules. If a single syllable word ends in consonant, vowel, consonant; double the last consonant and add ed. If a word ends with a consonant plus y, drop the y and add ied. If a word ends with a vowel plus y, just add ed. There are more rules, but I'm sure you get the idea. (By the way, I love grammar, but I know not everyone feels the same.) Halfway through the lesson, one of my students said, "I understand! I understand!" She was thrilled. She had a great big grin on her face. I am grateful to that student for making me feel so good about teaching. I'm also grateful to her for making me remember how cool it is when you're working hard to learn something new and all of a sudden, everything clicks. Yahoo! I get it! (Time for me to take some more classes myself.)

Yesterday as I was getting into my truck to leave, a student came running over to me. She threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. She hadn't been to school in at least six months, but she told me she was there to register and was coming back on Tuesday. I'm grateful to her for making me feel so good. She didn't give up. Hooray!

One more thing. (Did you used to watch Columbo when you were a kid?) I'm grateful to Celeste for taking time to stop by my blog and comment. She really brightens my day. Check out her blog. You won't be disappointed! It's pure magic.

As always, I'm grateful to Diana Strinati Baur for starting Gratitude Friday.

Oh! One more thing. I'm grateful for my "blogger friends". (Please see the right side of my blog.) They are the most interesting people! I love getting glimpses of their lives.