lucky lady

five years or so ago, a good friend of my parents' passed away and i went to the house to pay my respects to the man's wife and children. several weeks later i received a lovely note from the widow, thanking me for coming by and for the pie i'd taken. i'd known this family since i was a kid and really did care about them. the thing that caught me so off-guard about this woman's note was her saying that she and her husband were so grateful for their young friends. some of you may chuckle a bit at that, but when you're 70 or more years old, 40-something IS young! haha anyway, i always considered this couple my parents' friends and honestly never ever thought about them being MY friends too, much less them considering me one of their friends.

i hadn't thought about those people or that note in forever, until recently--obviously! i suppose trying to get the guest list for the wedding worked out prompted that memory. anyway, i'm realizing i feel very much like that woman did in being grateful for MY young friends. over the years, larry and i have gotten Christmas cards, notes, birth announcements, etc from our kids' friends because they consider us THEIR friends. we've met young adults through friends that have invited us to their birthday parties, anniversary celebrations or house warmings. as an "old lady", it is so heart warming to know that young people enjoy your company. i feel almost like sally field, ca. early 1980's at the academy awards, when she won an oscar and got up on stage and said to the crowd "you like me, you really like me".

every generation has something to offer, so count your blessings if you're lucky enough to have friends of all ages. your life will truly be enriched....this i know firsthand.

hugs~karen

sad truths of middle age

getting old is hell. there is apparently just no escape from bad and annoying things as you age. you sag and bag everywhere--your skin is dry and sandpaper-y, at least in the areas not covered by your mustache and beard......your smile lines are no longer cute, but have manifested into crows feet at the eyes and craters in your cheeks and forehead.....your pores are as deep as the grand canyon and your broken capillaries and age spots make your face look like a red bell pepper and mushroom pizza.

i can handle these problems because i think they are happening to most middle aged women. however, i noticed a problem today that made me cringe......in fact, when i saw it i said to myself "what the f__k?" seriously, i'm praying some other woman has this problem. i was sitting at my 10X magnifying mirror and saw it--i have freakin' nose hairs!!!! not "inny" nose hairs, but "outy" nose hairs....and they are black. do you wanna puke or what?? well i guess i know now why people have been looking at me lately! i thought they liked my clothes or my hair or just thought i was dang cute in general, but noooooo...... (sniff sniff)

taking this hairy nose to bed now............karen

HB to Z

i can't believe it, but yesterday was my car's b-day! that's right, i've had my 350 Z for 2 years and have 9143 miles on it. i LOVE this car!!!!! it is sooooooooo much fun to drive! don't tell any cops you know, but i've taken it to 130 mph on the interstate. (shhhh) i think i missed my calling as a race car driver though...man, can i handle that speed! LOL

prior to getting this snazzy ride, i was driving a mercury marquis.....a very OLD marquis, i might add. don't get me wrong, that was a nice car, nice riding car, roomy and all, but i swear, i was the ONLY person in t-town under the age of 100 driving one! next time you're out and about, look around and you will see that i'm right--it's an old person car, no doubt about it.

i had the marquis for 12 years and in that time, the hub had 3 vehicles and marshall and allison each had 2. why was i slighted, you ask? because i'm a mom--duh! we are always on the bottom of the list. i think it just comes with the territory??? seriously, i didn't mind driving an old car until i got out of the driveway and then saw all those OLD people in the same kind of car. *sigh* the hub and i talked several times over those years about a new(er) car for me, but then something major would happen like we needed to eat and then it was obvious there wasn't going to be a new car for me then.

think about it.....your child gets his/her driver's license and you do everything in your power to see that they have their own vehicle. some say it's a win/win if you can do that because the parent no longer has to chauffeur their kid around, especially in the mornings, and the child gets his/her first taste of responsibility. hub did the morning taxiing around here, so it didn't make a difference to me.....however, i did miss my afternoon pick-up duties--for about a day! ha no, it was a week, i'm sure. honest, it was. as for that responsibility we tried to give the kids: marshall got a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign 3 days after getting his truck and allison knocked off her outside rear view mirror just a few weeks after getting her explorer! do you think mom moved up or down on the list after this?? fastforward to when your child graduates college........he (AND she in my case) are not coming back home to live.......you want them to have newer and safer transportation when they go out into the cold, cruel world, so you find a way to make that happen too. now, after kids in college for over 6 years combined, mom is so far down on the list that she is OFF it! oh, the hub's vehicles were business related, so he says they don't count. who the hell taught that man math???

anyway, this momma finally got to the top of the list.....and let me tell you, it was a longggg, hard climb! i got a job i basically hate for money and benefits i love....yep, i'm braving the harsh elements and scaling my mt everest in my totally fabulous "Z"!!!!!!

happy birthday dear Z~~karen

full heart

oh my gosh......did you see shuggie's mother's day tribute to MOI??? now you know why i am SO proud to have such wonderful kids!

i am so appreciative of allison's love and support.....i know it hasn't always been easy putting up with me. now i've got a big head to go with my big hair!! but it is cool beyond words when your child realizes "you got it going on". well, i know that's not what allison said, but it's what she implied, yes?? of course it is, right??? hello?????

i'm not a big fan of pics of myself, but her pictorial tribute was very nice; it was fun to remember those times together. did anyone notice that my hair has hardly changed in all those years? sure it was curly some time, straight another, lighter in summer, darker in winter, but the style is still the same. my stylist says it's a sign of confidence when you find what works for you and stick with it.....all i know is that what he said sounds better than the truth, which is i'm a big old chicken! definitely not the "variety is the spice of life" type here.

i've never doubted that allison loves me but i am sooooooo happy that she likes me too. she was always wanting to spend time with me growing up and i treasure that. as for the embarrassing moments--well, that's just part of life. seriously, it's in the parental manual. you know, the one that miraculously appears on your doorstep right after you bring your baby home?? yep, chapter 12 i think it is.....it says all parents MUST find some kind of dorky something to do EVERY time their child is around peers!!! :)~

love, pride, appreciation, respect........my heart is full. thanks shug!

testing....123

lost a longggggg post......before redoing, i want to see if this will go through

BIGgies

tomorrow is mother's day and i feel SO blessed to be among the women that are honored with this special day. some people say every day is mother's day and that the holiday was created by hallmark, and the like to get families to spend extra money on their products......i vote for presence over presents, you know??

some of my biggest everythings in one way or another relate to my kids. i guess the first biggie would be my biggest JOY is having them. my pregnancy plan didn't work out like i'd hoped, but i got so lucky and finally had my precious marshall and then a little less than 3 years later, i got my angel allison. one of each sex is just what i'd always hoped for and what fun it was for me getting to share in both boy things and girl things while they were growing up.

my biggest HOPES are that marshall and allison are happy and healthy, that they get through any tough times with faith and strength and that they have the lives they've dreamed of. my biggests FEARS are what any mothers' are: that i can't protect them if and when things go wrong. wouldn't it be wonderful if 'kissing the boo-boos and making it all better' worked for adult children like it did for small ones??

i feel my biggest ACCOMPLISHMENT is raising 2 wonderful kids. i know i'm prejudiced, but both of them are strong and intelligent, personable and funny, talented and driven, each in their own way. they are beautiful, both inside and out.

lastly, my biggest LOVE is for them.....there's nothing like the deep, never failing love you have for your babies. they are your babies, no matter how old they get. you may not always like them, i.e. pissy moods or them not minding you, but nothing can make you quit loving them.

thanks to marshall and allison for making my life so full of BIGgies.

scaredy DOG

this family loves cocker spaniels! we've had 5-4 females and 1 male-in the 19 years larry and i have been married. three have passed away, so (obviously) we just have 2 right now. there's cheyenne who is buff and swayze--yes she's named after my all time biggest crush EVER patrick swayze--who is chocolate. chey is 5 and swayze is 1.

apparently i have never vacuumed with swayze in the house. oh my gosh, you should've seen that baby this morning! after finishing in the dining room, i moved on into our den...the vac was still going and i look up to find swayze sitting up on the back of the couch. i don't know how she didn't fall off! but she was like pushing back and crouching down almost, as if to make herself smaller. very strange sight indeed........she was so scared and i felt so bad for her. i immediately turned off the vac and hugged her.....had to love on that sweet thing!

my junior high--that's middle school for you youngsters!--speech teacher told my class that the word vacuum was pronounced vac-U-um rather than "vack-yume", like i think most people say. anyway, if we said it wrong, we got points taken away from our grade. UGH! i hated speech. just don't like getting up in front of people and talking, you know. most kids take speech their freshman year in college; i put it off til i was a senior. major fears!

anyway, that's if for now......my living room still needs to be vacUumed!

karen

1.22.11

that's the big day! shuggie's getting married!! the MOB is freakin' out--there's so much to think about, decide on.....PAY FOR!! (gulp) we have made some headway though--we have the church and reception venue booked and we have a photographer. we've both started guest lists.....is that good with 7 months left?? allison has also done some looking towards her registries; what fun it was to see all the pretties out there! don't know how anyone ever makes up their minds!

the music for the reception seems to be our biggest obstacle right now.......but hopefully this will be decided soon so it can be checked off our list of to-do's.

pretty positive shug knows where she's leaning on her gown and we will be seeing to that in a month or so as we were told to do that early to insure getting what we want--makes sense.

allison is thinking outside the box on her "theme" and color wishes--you know how those artist types are! LOL no, seriously, i am really excited about what she's wanting and am looking forward to seeing it all come together. we want to share, but really want some element of surprise, so i doubt there will be much talk anytime soon about particulars for the ceremony.

if anyone in t-town, or the surrounding area, wants to offer up some helpful hints, i'd love to hear them. i am also open to suggestions for florists, bakeries, rehearsal dinner venues, wedding hairdressers, ceremony music..........the list is long, i know.

today at work, a gal had some of those smarties candies, you know the little roll of sweet and sour flavored discs? anyway, seeing that candy reminded me of when allison was first learning to talk and for some reason, she had a really hard time pronouncing "S's", so she called smarties farties! oh, it was SO funny. she would dampen her forefinger and stick it on a candy, hold the finger up and say farties before every one she ate. her dad and i would laugh and laugh and of course the more we laughed, the more she said it. what a longggggggggg time ago that was.

thanks for the comments on my first ever blog post........i appreciate them all. hopefully i can come up with some "good material" to keep you coming back. HA

love and smarties--karen

what am i doing here?

hi! i'm karen......welcome to my blog. i hope at some time or another i might have something interesting to share, however you might not want to bet the rent on it! i don't have a plan with this blog; i just want to be "cool"! seriously, i do..... ever since my daughter (allison @ designing woman) and her friends started their blogs, i've been dying to get with the program. however for me, that actually meant having allison fix things up so i could have a blog.......pretty sad, huh?
thank goodness she loves her computer challenged mom enough to do this. YAY shuggie--you're the best!!!!

ok, i'm 55 years old, wife to larry and mother to marshall (28) and allison (26). to help combat my empty nest syndrome, i started working for the united states postal service about 5 years ago. that's a story in itself, so i'll save it for another time. i obtained a blackbelt in taekwondo when i was 47, but am no longer training. i had a heart attack at 49 and have 2 stents.......oh, i'm deaf too. what a gal, huh?

my kids are very compassionate people and i think a lot of that comes from being raised by a deaf mom. they learned at a very early age that i was different, but that's just how things were for them/us. i worried that they would be embarrassed by me, that their little friends wouldn't understand and would be cruel, but all my fears were unfounded. they both had, and still have, the greatest, most accepting friends. i have a cochlear implant, which affords me some sound, but i am not very successful at using the phone. even when the kids were small, it seemed this household was bombarded by telemarketers. once they were old enough to answer the phone, i had them do so; these callers would ask for me and they would tell them that i was deaf. we all know how persisent telemarketers can be--they would ask when they could call back or if they could call back that evening....it goes on and on as we all well know and the kids just got so frustrated at times. i finally told them to tell them the truth--"no you can't talk to her tonight because SHE WILL STILL BE DEAF!!!" DUH!!!!!!!!!

ohh, pizza's here.........

karen