Beneath the Wraps

         Today is the last day of second grade for Jenna. It is also the last day that I’ll be driving the car for a while.  But I’m at the point where I actually don’t trust it anymore.  Plus there is a ton of construction happening just outside of my husband’s work.  Not having a car also means no dealing with construction.           There is still the matter of visiting my mom.  On Wednesdays Jaime and I will walk to the TRAX station and purchase an all day pass.  We can go see mom and take the bus to the high school for her theatre class.            She has three parts.  Only Dorothy is in the first scene.  But she will be a munchkin for the next two.  She’ll be a tree in scene four and will enter as the lion on scene five and remain on stage as the cowardly lion.         ...

In an earlier post     I had proposed the question, “ What’s up with bridesmaid dresses anyway?”   Why are Bridesmaid and Choir Dresses always so ugly? Well, maybe not Always.  But more often than not. Neither of my daughters-in-law wasted money on needless dresses – nor did my sister or I.  No bridesmaids.  No ugly dresses. I had once heard someone describe the purposely made ugly dresses allows the bride to shine (Roz Doyle on Frazier)           I love the movie 27 dresses.  Roland purchased the DVD one year and gave it to me for my birthday.  The movie came with a humorous book called "101 Uses for a Bridesmaid Dress" by Cindy Walker.  It provided ways to recycle. There were suggestions such as cutting the dress up into squares and washing your car.  Or throwing the dress over the car to protect it from the elements. How glorious it would have been to own ...

          Last week my husband spotted a wallet in the parking lot of a shopping complex.  His arms were full of groceries and he asked Jenna if she would bend down and pick it up.  Excitedly, she retrieved the wallet and announced that it must be returned.  I am so happy that it was such an automatic decision for all three of us to turn the wallet in.  Oh, and we could have so used any money it may have contained.  But I’ve been in that situation too many times where I have been the one that has lost whatever – and if the roles were reversed, it is exactly what I would want the finder to do.   As the grocery store is the largest – it is where we ended up taking the wallet.  The owner frantically entered the store only moments after we turned it in.  We told him where it was.  With gratitude he gave Roland a half embrace. Jenna was a little bit disappointed that there weren’t an...

        In addition to sharing my birth month with Mothers' Day, half of my birthdays happen to fall on Memorial Weekend - which actually bothered me as a kid (or rather when the holiday was pushed to the Monday prior to the 31st) because everything was always crowded, nothing but war movies all weekend long, and like I really have a strong desire to visit cemeteries on my birthday.         But now that I think about it, having freedoms is a pretty awesome birthday gift.  So thank you men and women who helped fight (and continue) for this awesome gift.  What an honor it is to celebrate your day with you!  Have a good one

I once attended a Relief Society enrichment meeting where we made “journal jars”.  What is a “journal jar”? you may ask.  It is a jar containing questions that will hopefully provoke thought to get written answers one may record in his or her journal.  Questions like: “Do you remember your grandparents?  What special memories do you have?”           “Did you have a favorite radio or TV show as a child?”           “Tell about the changes you have seen in your lifetime: society in general, technology, fashion, politics, laws, inventions, etc.”           Jenna absolutely LOVES to explore these questions – or my answers rather.  Often she can answer for herself, but many ask for detail on things that she hasn’t experienced yet such as marriage, parenting, high school, dating, etc.    ...

          I know that I mentioned in an earlier post – perhaps several – that cooking is really not my forte.  Roland, on the other hand, enjoys cooking and baking but does not have the time or opportunity that he used to, and so I have had to put together more of the meals and frankly, I’m just not that good at it.           I can follow a recipe but it’s got to be exact.  Roland has told me a few times (probably) that I need to cover dishes when baking in order to maintain moisture – I haven’t committed that to memory however.  If the recipe had instructed me to cover the dish, I would have done so, but it didn’t – needless to say the lasagna I made was a little dry.           The other day I went to the office to meet Roland for lunch.  He was on the phone and pointed to his lunch bag and said he had something for me.  Inside were ...

          I am usually not pressed for time – but on those few days that I do need to leave – well, those are the days my mom would like me to stay.  And it would be all well and good if I actually lived closer – or with her.  But I don’t.           We’re down to one functional car – and even that has been questionable.            Since Roland works late on Wednesdays, he drove the car in and so I borrowed my son’s car in order to get out to mom’s.  Talk about nerve racking.                     First off, it has a quirkiness to it that anybody but Biff might not get – and the fact that other people have trouble turning on the ignition is actually a great feature in Biff’s opinion.  I was just about to give up, when I actually got it to turn....