Happy Birthday, Brett

Happy Birthday Erin

The phrase I love to hate

I have a SIL who gets on my nerves on a regular basis.  I actually like her; but she has a couple quirks that, to me, are like nails on a chalkboard.  One is she continues to smoke, against medical advice.  The main quirk that bothers me is her penchant for saying "suffice it to say".  Really, what the hell does that mean?

She throws the objectionable phrase into her personal narration on a regular basis.  Each and every time, I just cringe.  SIL uses the phrase as a filler, to make her sentences longer, or instead of pausing to gather her thoughts.  Urgh!

This the the definition from Dictionary.com, 

"suffice it to say

It is enough to say this and no more, as in Suffice it to say that the judge was furious when the invitation was withdrawn."

Do you have any words or phrases that drive you buggy?

Carrie's post, earlier this month triggered this rampage.  Sorry.

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Advice

We all know how much advice is worth, especially unsolicited advice.  Recently, I read a post on Blissfully Domestic titled Best & Worse Marriage Advice.  The author mentioned that this was some of the worst advice that had been posted:

“The worst advice came from a “friend”.  "She told me that I should always remain independent of my husband.  She told me that she did not need her husband.”

I have to say, I think this is great advice.  Marriage should be an equal partnership; not a needy relationship.  Each partner should be able to act independently, and be strong enough to survive without the other.  Each partner should be prepared to support and help the other, any time it's necessary.  This support should never by 24/7, unless there is an unusual need; in other words, not every day; but as needed.

I really don't need my husband, Bob, nor does he need me.  We each are very capable of living without the other.  However, we really like each other, in addition to loving each other, so we stay married and have a wonderful full life, without dependency.  We actually like being married.

And Another Thing

Carrie had this to say about my invitation to the inauguration:  

:o) after we talked yesterday I had a dream last night that you had changed your mind, and were going, with a friend, and staying at their house, and you didn't tell me about it, but now I can't remember how I found out, and then I woke up. By the way - my dreams suck.

The funny thing is, one of the kids at work, told me Sunday, that he has a friend I could stay with in DC.  Very generous don't you think.  I just can't imagine sharing space with a male college student.  No, I can't.

Also, after my interview with Daryl, she had one more question.  She wanted to know why Carrie is my favorite daughter.  Daryl understood clearly, when I told her I have two fabulous daughters and Carrie is my Favorite Oldest Daughter, and Sharon, who was born two years later, is my Favorite Youngest Daughter.

Anybody have a wedding scheduled?

This is really funny.  Carrie, maybe some one will do this at Erin's wedding!...in 10 or 20 years!

Rain, come and gone

Yesterday, we had A LOT of rain, of course we really needed it. We always need rain in Southern California. When I left work at 6 PM, it was really pouring; I was sopped by the time I got to my car. On the freeway, no one drove over 50 miles an hour, quite unusual for here. Everyone was being very cautious. The above photo was snapped while sitting on the exit ramp, almost home.

Once I exited the freeway, all the traffic lights were out. Not working. No red lights, no green lights. Again, all the drivers were very cautious and most courteous. It took forever to get home, but because everyone co-operated, I wasn't frazzled.

Below are a couple of photos from my rose garden, this morning. All the plants took a beating, but are thankful for the rain water.

Today, I'm off to Seal Beach, to bring my Mom her Christmas and Birthday gifts. Her birthday is December 24th, she'll be 87. She usually spends Christmas Day with us, but has decided to spend it with my newphew, who just moved into his first house.

California Granola Hippies

Months ago, one of Carrie's friends called us California Granola Hippies, when she found out how Carrie and Sharon had been parented. You see, I was the main parent, and I decided, since we were not-affluent (in the extreme), I really didn't need television commercials selling my kids "stuff". Mainly, "stuff" they didn't need and/or was poor quality. If they didn't see it on TV, they wouldn't know to beg for it. My solution was PBS. No commercials. Educational. Fun. Age appropriate.

Another thing I controlled was toys, as any parent should. I thought that if my girls were going to stand a chance to grow up and be good caring Moms, they needed baby dolls to play with at a young age; not Barbie’s! So, they had no hard-body, skanky Barbie dolls.

Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't raise them to only be Moms. They were raised to be anything they wanted, but if they decided to be a Mom, I wanted them to be a good one, and Barbie’s just don't foster parenting skills. So no regular TV, no Barbie’s.

What else? I think that's about it.

I want to tell you, my plan worked. My daughters not only are beautiful and successful, they are both great mothers.

(You may wonder why I called myself "the main parent". Bob and I had 4 parents between us, we each had a Mom and a Dad; but when we had our own children we realized, that out of our 4 parents, we really only had one "good" one, my Dad. Bob was at a distinct disadvantage; he didn't bow out, but he stepped back on a lot of things. He felt he had a lot to learn with no role models at all.)

To all my blog friends

May The Peace and Beauty of
The Season Remain with You
Throughout The Coming Year.

Jan and Bob

This is the card we sent out this year. We have a division of labor, Bob does the watercolor and I come up with the verse. When he retired 10 years ago, once we were settled in our new house, Bob took up watercolor painting. He'd never painted anything, except walls in the house, before. For the past 9 years we've sent out our own cards with one of his watercolors on the front. The orignals, as well as most of his other paintings, are at our daughters' homes. They're proud of their Dad.

Money

This morning, I sent Bob and Carrie off to pick-up part of our Thanksgiving dinner, plus Carrie needed her Starbucks' fix. This is the conversation, as they left the house.

Carrie: Do you have any money, I'm not bringing any.
Bob: I have two dollars.
Carrie: Wait I'll get some.
Carrie: You should get some from Mom!

Fun Monday

First of all, it is Fun Monday, today. Second, ChrisB. passed on this award to all the Fun Monday participants. Isn't that cool?

The theme this week is - High moments...in our lives! Our hostess with the most-est is Mariposa; she's always a great hostess. Here's what she ask:

If you could share to us 3-5 high moments in your lives...this could be funny moments...the you can't believe you did it moments...the "I told you so" moments...or the times we asked the ground to go open and eat us moments! You need not write a book to explain them, the highlights will do.

My first 3 High Moments are family moments:

1.) Marrying Bob.

2.) Giving birth to my daughters.

3.) Having my daughters give me grandchildren.

Those were wonderful moments, and really highlights for me.

Two other moments came to immediately came to mind.

The first was when I was about 14, and 5 inches taller that my Mom. She tried to slap me, again, and I grabbed her wrist, and told her to never try that again. It was a very empowering moment.

The second was after I'd been married short while, I told Bob I didn't want to be on a pedestal any longer; it was lonely up there, and not much fun. Life was much better after that.

Saturday’s Photo Scavenger Hunt, Family

Sharon and Carrie

Here are my daughters at 18 months and 2 1/2 years old, ready for Halloween.

And below, when they were 16 and 14, in all their teen age beauty, braces and all

Carrie and Sharon

Now, they all all grown, and georgous.

Sharon and Carrie

Visit http://tnchick.com/ to see all the other Photo Hunters.

Viva la difference

This is what always happens when I ask Bob for a favor:


With his recent surgery and recovery, I've been my normal self, and even at tad more helpful than usual.

Then yesterday, I had something than needed simple assembly.  Looks like there's no reciprocity in the The Prytz household any time soon; I was so hopeful!

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday is the brain-child of Mary at Work of the Poet

 go visit all the Ruby people there.

This lovely young lady is Erin at 2, having a cooking lesson with me, her Grandma. She's a wonderful 15 1/2 year old, now, and we're very proud of her. Here she is, being a red-head.

This year she's marching in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and is very busy with fundraising. If you have any extra change in your pocket, click here - http://www.wjhsbands.org/.

Erin tossing a rifle, during a parade.  Isn't she darling?

Remembering

Seven years ago, it happened. It was an American nightmare, we were attacked at home, on the main land, a first since the Revolutionary war. We all remember where we were, and what we were doing when we either experience the attack, or heard about it.

I've always lived on the West Coast, so I was just waking, when the first plane struck the Towers. The phone brought me all the way awake, it was Sharon, she'd heard and said, "Mom, I think we're at war." Man what a shocker that was. After I got off the phone with her, I called my Mom and my Dad and his wife. I wanted to make sure they were OK; of course they were, but I had to check. By that time it was late enough to call the bookstore, and make sure they knew what was going on, they'd need to deal with concerned customers.

There have been a lot of books dealing with the 9/11 experience, most weren't really worth much; even good authors weren't able to put it all together on the page. There is one that came out this year I want to recommend, Bikeman. Another good one is The Good Life.

Grandparents Day

I had two long lived grandparents. Grandma Sorenson was my Moms' mother. She was born in 1884. She wasn't a great mother or grandmother. Everything my Mom knew about parenting and grandparenting, she learned from Grandma Sorenson.

For some reason, she was always nice to me, but she played favorites. Her favorite grandchild was my cousin Wayne. Now, I have to tell you Wayne's a great guy, intelligent, funny, kind; he's a great Dad and Grandfather. Why was Wayne her favorite? Grandma Sorenson was 100% Norwegian, as was her husband, and Wayne's Mom, my Aunt Clara, was the only one of 8 children to marry a 100% Norwegian. So, by default, Wayne is 100% Norwegian, and therefore, in Grandma Sorenson's eyes, the best. Her least favorite grandchildren were the unfortunate ones that were raised Catholic, you see, Grandma Sorenson was a bigot. Grandma Sorenson passed away in 1964, when I was 20, five months after this photo was taken.


My other grandparent was Granddad Davis, my Dads' father. He was born in 1891. He was nice to all his grandchildren. I remember him having a great sense of humor. Part of the Davis clan lived in Oklahoma, and he always told me that when he came back from his visits there, he'd been me a Indian boy to be my boyfriend. Granddad Davis outlived two wives. The first was my Dad's mother, who bore him 9 children. Theirs was a hard-scrapple life. In their youth, Granddad was a horse trader in Nebraska and when the Depression hit, they came to California with their younger and young adult children. Grandma Davis passed right in 1944, after my cousin Tom and I were born. When I was about 8 or 9, Granddad married Edna, and we called her Edna, not Grandma.



They were always bickering, but seemed to get along OK. Granddad would always help us out, I remember him picking me up from school, if I needed to leave unexpectedly, usually because of "cramps". Once after I was married and had children of my own, I was able to pay him back for this. The part of Long Beach he lived in was near Wilmington, where there are oil refineries; there was a spill of some sort and a voluntary evacuation was ordered. By that time, Granddad wasn't driving, so I went across town, picked him up, and took him to my home. I just acted, but I got several calls from my Dad and Aunts and Uncles, because they didn't know where he was, and if he was safe. I forgot to let them know that I was in possession of their Dad.

This is Granddad and my dad in 1966

Speaking of not driving, that was a very sore spot with Granddad, for a while. When he was pretty old, about 80, the DMV automatically renewed his drivers licence. Well, we all were aware that his driving was getting pretty dangerous. My Dad, took Granddad and his new drivers licence to the DMV and told them that Granddad shouldn't be driving any longer, and that they better cancel his drivers licence and not re-issue one. Boy, was my Granddad mad, hopping mad; but my Dad was just being responsible. Granddad passed in 1980.

Stay tuned

My phone conversation, last night.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is National Grandparents Day.

Share a memory or two about your grandparent(s).

Or share a tale about being a grandparent.

Laundry

Colleen at MommyAlwaysWins, (don't you just love the name of her blog?), commented about how her hubs is the worse when it comes to doing laundry.

Doing laundry isn’t my fave thing either. This is how I solved this, in case you're interested. As soon as my girls, were old enough to reach the controls on the washer and dryer, I taught them to do their own laundry. Then, I thought, “Wow, this is great, but I’m still doing tons of laundry!”

I kicked my brain in gear and figured out why. Bob had 4-5 times as much laundry as I did and he was very happy to have me do it for him. Well, I rebelled and informed him that if he wanted clean clothes, he could do his own laundry. I even bought him his own hamper. The poor guy wasn’t all that happy, but oh, well.

The reason he had so much more laundry that me, and still does, are two fold. My laundry consist of mainly under clothes, panties, bras and socks. I’m not very messy, and don’t perspire or have oily skin, so my outer clothes can be worn more than once. Now, Bob not only is messy, he perspires, has oily skin, and he’s an athlete. He’ll will change his clothes from the skin out, one, two, or three times a day, and each time, everything, except maybe Levi’s have to be washed, before being worn again. Before we retired, his work clothes were always sent to the dry cleaners; first, because he was in uniform, then when he made detective, he wore a suit every day with a shirt and tie; so we’re just talking leisure clothing and underwear, here.

To this day, Bob still does his own laundry. It’s been over 35 years, since I started this program, and he’s gotten used to the idea, and he's never had to hang it on a clothes line. That may have been the deal-breaker.

Happy Birthday Sharon

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday, Dear Sharon

Happy Birthday to you.

You're a wonderful mother.

A great Auntie.

A wonderful daughter

The best sister.

Happy, Happy Birthday.