Monday, March 9, 2009

No Toe Socks for ME!!! WAAAAHHH

I have two webbed toes on each foot. One foot worse then the other. I can't wear toe socks. This has forever been an annoyance for me because I think they look fun and funky.



Well, along comes:

http://loveyarn1984.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-first-blog.html


WOW...can you dig it...not toe socks, but foot mittens!! Better than nothing...and I'm going to try them!!

another voice from the past

I'm now on facebook and a friend from the old days (how long ago did we know eachother??) has added me as a friend. I know we go back quite a ways...she'll know. Elementary school? Very cool getting in touch with past friends.
I'll have to have her look here...and see what I've been up to. Not much online lately. I keep promising to blog more...don't I?!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Update - Shaun found!

About a month or so back hubby contacted the Marine Locators and found out Shaun had finished his hitch with them. Just the other day hubby searched on the internet and found that Shaun lives in Lynn. Joe called him and left a message. Shaun called back and they chatted a bit. He let Joe know he wants no contact from me, his father nor from his sister, Eva.
Eva called him today and told him he was an uncle and did he want to see pics and he said no...then he said he had to go. He may have been in work.
I think of him and pray for him everyday. I wish he'd at least come over and tell us this himself. I have a few questions for him. Maybe someday he will.
He's on Facebook and Myspace...I've seen pictures!! At least I have those! He still looks like himself.
If you read this Shaun, there hasn't been a day go by that I haven't thought of you and wondered how you are. Please call sometime. I'd like to talk with you. I always have loved you and will love you forever.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Journals...Why?!

Well, I now have two good reasons to start keeping a journal again. I used to journal off and on. I saved them and I was going over them recently to see if I wanted to keep any of them, and to glean any really good information from them.
I found an entry for June 12th, 1985. This was the year Shaun was born, and just before Eva's 2nd birthday. After reporting when Shaun woke up, his fussiness level, how many ounces he took, diaper changes and other assorted boring stuff, I came on this entry,
"Cynthia (Fellows) Young was on Good Day, today around 10:40".
Over the years I've tried to find her, using her maiden name (forgot about the "Young" part though). I'm in contact by email and hopefully soon by phone. She lives in Virginia, so we aren't going out for coffee anytime soon. I've often thought of her over the years and wondered how she was. We both graduated the same high school waaaaay back in 1974. See, journalling is good!!
It also provided another memory - the very next day there's an entry about my daughter,
"Eva has been cooking ice cream and pudding on her "stove" and baked macaroni and cheese in her "oven" today. "
She'd been "pretend" cooking in my oven, and I was afraid she might try it when the oven was in use, so I let her use a small slatted table my father made for me. It has a slotted top and shelf near the bottom, and yes, I still have it. It's a little wiggly from all the use over the years. She'd use the top as her stove and the bottom shelf as her oven.
Yet another reason to journal!!!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Dealing with Death

I've never been very fond of death. Sometimes it isn't very fair. Recently on an email group someone died and I passed along two poems that have helped me deal with death. I'll include them here, as well as a little explanation of how those poems have helped me deal with death.


You can cry because she is gone
Or you can smile because she lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want, smile,
open your eyes, love and go on
by David Harkins
http://www.poemhunter.com/david-harkins/biography/


The first poem helped me deal with the death a year ago of my dear friend Carol. It was the first death I felt ok about. We had a chance to say we loved each other and to say good bye. I kept her telephone number on my cell and home phones until just recently. She was a knitter, although not prolific. During the chemo treatments she didn't have the energy to finish an afghan she made for a former neighbor's child. I inherited it and have finished it. Now I have to get my butt over there and give it to her. My final gift to Carol. She is with me daily as I knit. She had one of those fabric bags on crossed wooden legs you can put your project in, and I inherited that as well. It sits beside me in the living room. I also inherited all her yarn, and assorted accessories. I left her one day and spoke with the hospice nurse on the way out. I said it wasn't fair that it took so long...Carol never was very patient! I went out to the car and prayed that God would take her soon. I didn't go in the next day, but a neighbor did. About 1/2 hour after the neighbor left her, Carol passed away. I was out doing what Carol loved, shopping. Carol would have loved it...Everytime I shop I think of her...When I buy peonies I think of her...she loved them and they were the only flowers she ever had in her house because of pollen allergies - she put up with the symptoms every year because she loved peonies...I always thought it was weird - my grandmother loved and grew peonies.

Parable of Immortality ( A ship leaves . . . )

I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a peck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!
Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the places of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
'There she goes! ' ,
there are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout :
'Here she comes!'
by Henry Van Dyke - 1852 - 1933

http://www.goingeasy.com/writeside_publishing/parable.html

This second poem helped me get over the sudden death of my father in 2002. Well, sort of get over...I doubt I'll ever stop grieving for him. He was the wisest, most wonderful person in my life. It still hurts as much today as it did then. I "chat" with him several times a week (although never out loud if people are near...I doubt they'd understand). I chat with him when I see winter turn to spring, when spring blossoms into summer, when summer fades to fall, when fall finally gives up and lets winter come into its own; those quintessential days when you KNOW the season has just changed. I chat with him when I see wildlife, or animal or bird tracks in the mud, and even when driving and find myself lost - he had such a great sense of direction! Sometimes I can think or speak of him without tears...more often than not I can't. I will always miss him.

Eva says to update my blog

Ok, dearest daughter says I need to update my blog, so here I am...WOW!! I didn't realize so much time had passed since I last blogged!!

Hmmm....I didn't even post about the birth of my first grandchild, a wonderful boy, Saad! Well that was October 29th, 2007!!!!! He weighed 7.51 lbs. None of my babies were that small (my smallest was Saad's mommy - and she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz)!
He's over a year old now...and they nicely email me pics now and then...I wish they lived closer!
Tariq and Eva stayed with me when he was 4 1/2 mths old until he was about 5 1/2 mths old. Then they went off to Abu Dhabi, which is in the UAE (United Arab Emirates). So far away...and the cost of a plane ticket is over $1200! I'm saving up the money.

I haven't been up to much...except crocheting, knitting, moving, organizing, dealing with the death of a dear friend (I'll post on this later), losing weight, gaining weight, buying furniture (sort of goes with the moving), dealing with my last teen, reorganizing, downsizing "stuff", laundry, cooking, etc.

'nuff for now...more later