Living Without Cell Phones!

The other day I wrote about some of the changes that have occurred in the last 50 years.  Today I received (ok, so I didn't GET it today, I just opened it today) an email entitled Growing Up Without a Cell Phone.  I've got to share this email with you.  I have no idea who the original author was; but they definitely hit the nail on the head!
Hilarious! Growing up without a cell phone


If you are 36, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways...yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of forty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

1) I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up in the card catalog!! or pull out the encyclopedias!!

2) There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

3) Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

4) There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

5) Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

6) We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

7) There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MYGOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

8) And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

9) We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen.. Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! and if you lived in the country like me you didn't even have an Atari 2600!!.

10) You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

11) There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little brats!

12) And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

13) And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

14) And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1970 or any time before!

Regards,


The Over 40 Crowd

What is 50 years?

Fifty years....half a century....half a lifetime....a drop in time infinite....a mere spec of time to God....an entire lifetime for some....an unachievable goal for others....today....a birthday....an anniversary.....gold.....old....young.....What is 50 years really?

Fifty years ago, computers were huge machines that took entire rooms or buildings to house that processed information at a mere fraction of what man could do with pencil and paper and yet look at computers today. Computers can access information from across the world, across space, across the years with the flick of a button---or as in the case of i-pads and i-phones, with just the touch of a screen. They can fit into the palm of your hand, into just the smallest of microchips that can transform so many things into a working computerized system. Who would have thought 50 years ago that the computer would be a personalized object that so many people now feel they can't live without?--and I'll admit, I'd have a hard time doing without one.

Fifty years ago, we had mostly stay at home mothers who were there when school got out at the end of the day. They wore aprons and cooked home cooked meals that were on the table about the time the man of the house got home. Those same aprons wiped away tears, washed skinned knees, dried wet hands, and accepted flour from the evenings dinner rolls or dessert. Moms were able to use a kiss to "heal" skinned knees and elbows and sent their children back outside to play. They weren't worried about where their children were--because they were always within calling (by mouth, not by phone) distance either outside or at a neighbors house. And she knew all the neighbors. Do you know all the people that live around you? on your block? I certainly don't.

Fifty years ago, people had kitchens with ice boxes (now called refrigerators) that held ice cube trays that had to be emptied and refilled with water. People had milk delivered that was then put into the refrigerator. Grocery stores were mom and pop owned operations and you could have groceries delivered to your door. The refrigerators weren't mini computers with TVs inside the door, ice, water, and maybe even your favorite beverage delivered through the door. The food inside the refrigerator didn't hold foods that were processed to death--they were fresh from someone's garden or from the local butcher.

Fifty years ago, going to a fast food restaurant (or any restaurant for that matter) was considered a huge deal and was a special occasion. Now we stop by this place or that one on the way to work for coffee, another for a quick bite for lunch and because everyone is too tired to stop and cook, we go out for dinner. And people wonder why we're such an unhealthy and overweight nation. It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out. All the high carbs and high fats that you get from all the prefixed meals, no more playing or walking---after all, we drive around the corner to see friends instead of walking and all our game playing involves the thumbs and fingers--and we wonder why we can't lose weight. If we had to work the fields (even small ones) to tend our vegetables that would feed us all winter and until the next harvest, if we played outside and walked everywhere, we might not have to worry about what we ate. Sure our parents, grandparents and beyond ate real butter, eggs and bacon and fried foods in pig fat. But they also did more physical work in a few hours each morning (let alone all day) than most of us do in several days worth of living. They didn't have to worry about high cholesterol and fatty arteries----they worked it all off and there was nothing extra to store.

Fifty years ago, we had party lines and you had to wait for someone to get off the phone to make your call. And chances are good there was always someone listening in on what you were saying. Oh wait, 50 years ago, not every household had a phone. Well, I suppose you could say that now. After Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Mississippi Gulf Coast, many people never bothered to have "land" lines reconnected. After all, everyone in the family had access to or actually had their own cell phone number. We carry the little phones around with us like they were gold. We can't seem to get off of them. We play games on them, talk to people on them, use them as our walking rolodex, listen to music on them, watch tv on them, watch videos on them. Phones went from just a simple means of talking to someone that wasn't in the same building with you to a way of connecting with the entire world through them.

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy was President of the USA. We've averted the Cuban Missile Crisis, participated in the Korean War, endured the Vietnam War, lived through the Cold War, and have been involved in the war against terrorism that I wonder if will ever end. And now there is talk of another Korean War and a Civil War in Libya. We've seen good presidents and bad--I won't say which were which as each person has their own opinions on who was/is good and/or bad. Was it the person that made it good or bad? The congressmen/women we elected that made him good or bad? The circumstances they were in office under? I wonder, if the same presidents were President during a different 4-8 year period than when they served, would the same outcomes have occurred? Makes for an interesting debate topic--one I'm sure my son-in-law could debate for hours--I just don't feel like debating.

Fifty years ago, a handsome young chaplain was stationed in Korea while his beautiful young wife was in Lakeland, Florida giving birth to an innocent baby girl. A lot has occurred in the last 50 years. People have come and gone. Musicians have changed music--or in some cases just borrowed the old stuff and made it new for the younger generation. We've put a man on the moon and brought him back. Space may still be considered a foreign and ominous "place"; but it isn't nearly as foreign as it was 50 years ago. Cars have become bigger or smaller (depending on the design style), faster, sleeker, less classy (in many cases), and more fuel efficient--after decades and decades of being fuel guzzlers. The beautiful woman who bore that innocent child spent 69 years on this Earth before meeting her maker. The young chaplain? He's still a chaplain--and has been for the better part of his life. He's ministered to young and old and will until the day he meets his maker--of that I'm sure. The innocent baby girl? Well, she isn't nearly as innocent and knows a whole lot more now than then. She's grown up and married and gave birth to three wonderful children. She has divorced and remarried the second man of her dreams---dreams aren't always what they seem when they are first dreamed. In doing so, she also got two more wonderful children. She's had the privilege of watching all five of those children grown into young adults--watching each graduate high school and watching three marry and getting pictures from the fourth wedding. The youngest has introduced his (latest) dream girl to her and hopefully is taking things slowly as they are both still very young. She's had the privilege to see two of her three grandchildren and the fourth grandchild is due in August. This same woman who started out so innocent and protected has grown up through so much of a changing world. She's graduated from high school and college and earned her way in the world teaching very special children for 25 of the last 50 years. She's had joys and pains--as all of us that have lived 50 years have done.

Fifty years, I used to think of people that were 50 as being OLD and joked about them being over the hill. Mom used to say that when she got to be 50 she would no longer age--she would spend the next 50 years counting backwards. Well she didn't get to 0; but I'm so grateful for everyday that I had her with me (us). Fifty years--seems like a long time doesn't it? To a small child 50 years is forever from now. For a college graduate, it is the time that they will spend working and hoping to retire at some point. To the 87 year old father of the woman, it seems like just yesterday he had his daughter placed into his arms upon his return from Korea.

To me? Today seems just like any other day--its a day I can spend with my loved ones and family members, a day I can receive well wishes from friends I've known since junior high school or to ones I only know through games on the social network. Today, is my 50th birthday. No big surprise that I made it to 50 I guess. We're living in an age where it is rare for people not to see their 50th birthday. But still, I feel like its somewhat of an accomplishment that I've made it this far. I'm blessed beyond imagination through God's love and hopefulness in me and people in general. I've lived in so many places and experienced things that only could be experienced because of Dad being in the military, me being married to one man for almost 20 years and my being married to another for 7 1/2 years.

Our experiences in life--good or bad-- are what makes us. And the past 50 years worth of experiences are what makes me ME! There are things about me that some don't like. Guess what--there are things about me I don't like either. But there are so many more things that I hope people do like about me. If not, I'm not going to try to be molded into someone that fits into someone else's perfect mold of who I should be. I am Me, I can't be anyone else. Whole or broken, with or without the different pieces of my personality, my being, my ME-ness--I am who I am.

Now I am starting on the next 50 years of experiences. I wonder what new things will be achieved in the next 50 years. Hopefully, I'll be around all 50 of those years to find out. So, who among you will join me for the next 50 years of experiences? Will you be someone I experience new (or old) things with? Will you be someone that just passes through my life unnoticed? Will I be someone that just passes you by unnoticed? Who knows. But we have the next 50 years to experience it together---one way or the other.

New site and AWESOME Give Away!

I don't usually toot other peoples horns; but this horn really should be tooted! The new site is the DIY Dish and it is giving away not 1 but 2 sewing Janome sewing machines (1 is an embroidery machine) Check out thier video!


In their own words:
What is the surprise? Well, we’ve been “dishing out” some of the latest and greatest DIY projects in sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, home decor, kid projects, machine embroidery, hand embroidery, and more! Take a look!
It’s a brand-new series of videos — it’s free — and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun! Join us!
To celebrate the launch of this new show, our friends at Janome are letting us give away TWO (yes, TWO!!) dream machines! Someone is going to win the Janome 350e EMBROIDERY machine and a second person is going to win the Janome DC4030 SEWING machine! Now how cool is that?!

Dinosaurs

We've been talking about dinosaurs this month in my class. We have learned so much about our prehistoric friends. Its amazing how much the film industry has tainted our vision of these magnificent creatures. Do you realize that many of the dinosaurs did not all live in the same time period? Did you know that the idea of cavemen running from dinosaurs is all fictional? There were NO cavemen (or any other men) on Earth while the dinosaurs were roaming around! What's more amazing is when you take the height or length of these creatures and compare it to things in today's world.

Did you know that the great Woolly Mammoth weighed 3 tons? That is as much as all the steel and concrete in the Washington Space Needle, a full grown adult hippo, or a HUGE truck! It was as tall as many trees (15 ft. tall) and as long as a Morey Eel or a Hammerhead Shark (11 1/2 ft. long). I wouldn't want to see him in a dark back alley! LOL But then, none of the dinosaurs were very small. Even the Pteranodon had a wingspan of up to 33 feet! That is bigger than the width of my classroom.

But I think what is more amazing to me is the size of their brains in relation to their body size. One of the largest dinosaurs, the Stegosaurus weighing in at 6,000 pounds, 30 feet long and 9 feet tall had one of the smallest brains! The brain was only the size of a walnut! Imagine having to function, let alone live with a brain that small when your body was so huge! I imagine that they would not know much more than pure survival instincts--how to eat the plants around them and how to move as fast as they could when a carnivore was in the area!

As usual, we've come up with some really cool crafts to go along with this unit (I apologize to those of you with young children for not keeping up with the past months of crafts we've done). Of course, if it weren't for the awesome folks on the web and other teachers and mothers, I would not have found these neat things to do. I'd like to share a few of them here that we've done (and the links back to where I found the original ideas if I can find them again!).

Ok, so I have scattered them within the post again as opposed to putting them all at the end--breaks things up a bit that way!

1) The picture at the top of this post was simply done with sponges and dinosaur stamps. The dinosaur stamps I got from Oriental Trading Company--they have a big supply of ready to do crafts and "junk gifts" for kids or parties.

2) The picture of the Triceratops was done with an outline of the Triceratops that I found in a children's coloring book. I put the outline on construction paper and then covered the entire area with glue. I then used colored sand to sprinkle over the glue. Shook off the extra sand and allowed to dry. Warning: The construction paper will begin to curl as it dries, so using a tag board probably would have been better for this project.

3) The picture of the Great Woolly Mammoth (yes its hard to tell that's what it is) is a picture of a skeleton a man somewhere in the northwest has. I had seen an idea that utilized glue and paint. I wasn't real sure how it would work--but it turned out (in person anyway) really cool. We covered the skeleton with glue and allowed it to dry overnight. The next morning we took tempera paint and painted over the entire thing. The paint showed darker on the areas that weren't covered in glue--and brighter on the glued areas.

4) Our Stegasaurus came from an idea from a stay-at-home mom and her idea for teaching dinosaurs to her toddler. It was a spur of the moment idea for this mom at No Time for Flashcards . Instead of using clothes pins, we used craft sticks that we painted and cut/broke into varying lengths and glued to the back. We finished it off with a googly eye glued to the head.

5) Tyrannasaurus Rex came from the DLTK's Crafts for Kids dinosaur section. It includes the templates to print out and color. We sponge painted ours and glued the templates to tag board. We used craft sticks in between the front and back to keep it stiff. I guess we kind of goofed by only putting one leg on the bottom of it, but it just didn't look right to us with both on there! Oh well!

6) The Pteranodon was one of the last projects we did; but it was also one of our favorites. This is definitely a craft that will take lots of supervision of younger children and may take lots of adult help as this craft is made from two milk jugs and hot glue! Danielle at Danielle's Place has so many neat things to see and do. We use her ideas many times throughout the year. But for our lessons on dinosaurs this was an awesome art project. She provides the templates and shows just how to draw it on the milk jug and how to put it together.

My assistant, Micki, and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing our projects. And if you need more information on dinosaurs, go to Enchanted Learning--they have many more craft projects and fact sheets on SO MANY more dinosaurs than we even knew existed!

Drama, Drama, and More Drama!

First let me apologize to my followers for not keeping up better than I have! There has been so much going on in my family that it seems I just haven't been able to catch up! And it doesn't seem to be slowing any--if anything, the month of January has sped things up to the nth degree!
As you can see, my daughter had her baby in September--and what a cutie he is!!! She was the maid of honor at her sister's wedding January 15. We had everyone here except for one son--he had just made 2 trips in December to come to Mississippi (once for Christmas and once for his Dad's wedding), and couldn't come on such short notice again in January. There is another grandchild due in March--Dave's son's wife is pregnant. So that will be 3 little ones added to the family in a year! The youngest (and tallest) of the children will be graduating in May from high school. Oh and let's not forget that baby Austin and his mom moved to Utah right after her sister's wedding--then called and told me she had gotten married!

In the mean time, I've been trying to get things sewn--including the crib bumper guard railing (which unfortunately I don't have any pictures of), a larger than baby size quilt for Austin, curtains for the house, a couple of dresses for my granddaughter and 18 tunics for a local high school band, complete with trim and fringe.

So you wonder why I haven't been blogging much? There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day. That doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping up with all of you. I may not always comment, but I do lurk and read through what you all have been keeping busy with.
To all of my dear blogging friends in Australia--Happy Australia Day!

Hen Parties!

My Dad used to say that any gathering of a bunch of women was nothing more than a hen party! Nothing but a bunch of squawking old hens! Hee Hee Well, I guess that is true in most respects. But you get a bunch of ladies together for a baby shower and you get lots of squawk, ooo's, ahhh's, and squeals! Janyce's two baby showers were no different! The one held this last weekend brought in old and new friends alike as well as family (well adopted family).You remember Forrest from the last post? This is Uncle Tony's Mom, Momma Yvonne. Like I said, we just adopt family to add to our family. You see that Forrest is just as comfortable in Momma Yvonne's arms as Uncle Tony's.

My Dad's wife was not able to come, but she and Dad sent this adorable Adopt-a-Bear. This bear is sooo soft. Scott, my son-in-law, has started sleeping with him so that "it will smell like Daddy" before baby Austin gets it. This wasn't the only adorable creature that showed up at the shower. There was also an alligator, a dinosaur, and I think I saw a frog, too! Good thing all of these are STUFFED animals. The house could get just a little bit scary if these were live critters! LOL

This shower allowed me to give a beginner lesson of cake decorating to Athena, our other daughter. She's been asking for me to teach her how to decorate cakes. I should send her to classes at our local cake decorating classes; but her work schedule makes it difficult to do so. So I have taken this opportunity to teach her how to star a cake. That was one of the first things I learned after icing a cake. Of course, her Dad had already iced the cake, so I couldn't use that experience as a learning experience for her. I started her out starring the duck. The she took her yellow stars and alternated with my orange stars for the borders. I think she did a pretty good job for the first time that she's ever done anything with a cake decorating tip! I added the duck prints and writing and blue dots on the borders. We used frosting to glue plastic baby pins to the sides and the rubber ducks to the top. And, Voila! we have a rubber ducky baby shower cake!

This was also my first time to attempt making a diaper cake. I used size 2 Huggies, toys, a hygiene set, some baby t's and of course, rubber ducks. It isn't perfect and finding toys that are small enough was kind of tough. But all in all, I think it turned out kind of pretty.

Family is Great!

Family is great even when they're not REALLY related! As an Air Force brat, I've often seen my parents become the parent or grandparent to many guys (and women) that were overseas and away from their own families during the holidays. I've seen them take in my friends and never minded when they were called mom or dad by them. So I guess it is only natural that I carry on the tradition.

People have asked many how many children do you have? I never know exactly how to answer them. Sometimes I just say alot. Other times I say, "well I gave birth to three and got two more when I remarried, so I have five." Other times I just say five and let them wonder how I got through life with five children. But there are other times, when I want to sit and really think about it, I come up with a LOT more than five. I always had girls and boys at the dance studio that I was always a backstage parent with that I called "my kids" (and still consider them my kids even though they're all grown up now. There were the kids on the swim team with my daughters that always came running up and called me Momma that I considered "my kids." And of course there are all those friends of my children that spent as much time at my house as their own and my kids were the same way at their houses. Those young adults I still consider as my kids. Then when you add in the folks that are so close to us that they ought to brothers or sisters to us---well that adds up to a large family for an only child!

Currently, there are three of my husbands Navy buddies that are considered family. I am Aunt Shelly to their children and they are known as Uncle Mike and Uncle Tony to mine. And the third??? Well, he's just a youngin' himself, so the girls call him their older brother Vince. Uncle Tony is currently in his last days stateside before going to the forbidden land in Iraq. Well, I call it forbidden as I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to go there. I'm sure there are plenty of people that consider the US as forbidden land; but I really am not fond of any of our friends and loved ones going over and spending the necessary time allotted there. Anyway, Tony is currently staying at the house with us--giving all of the kids that are still in the area a thrill as Mom (or someone) cooks dinner most every night allowing them a chance for a free meal.

One of Buggy's roommates has a cutie of a son, Forrest, that I have "adopted" as one of my grandchildren. I am known as Gramma Shelly to him and even his Dad has begun to figure out that Gramma Shelly and Grampa Dave really consider Forrest as much a grandchild as we consider Kahli and Austin and baby Roberts our grandchildren. Buggy and Teri (Forrest's Mom) decided that since Uncle Tony was home they just HAD to have this little army camo hoodie set for Forrest so Forrest and Tony could have pictures together. Well, Forrest didn't take long to wrap Uncle Tony around his little finger--and even though he didn't want to have his picture taken, tell me he isn't enjoying the time with Forrest! Yeah right! He loved every minute of it!

And do you think that they could have gotten much more of a better match for Forrest to wear? I swear there really is a baby inside all that camo somewhere! Oh, and can you see why Forrest likes Uncle Tony so much??? He's finally found someone that has as little hair as he does! No matter that this child's true relatives live away from him, he knows that he has family here that love him, too.