Saturday, November 27, 2010

We should give Thanks!!!

I am thankful for many things. I have found as I have grown older that I am also growing wiser. It is a rotten shame that couldn't have had this wisdom when I was younger. They say that youth is wasted on the young!!! Well, I don't know if that is true or not...

It is a hard realization that as we get older, we are less important to our children. I'm not saying that they love us any less...but we are actually less a part of their lives. That's the way it was with me when I was younger and my own mom was still alive and I know that is the way it is with my children. In reality, I wouldn't have it any other way. However, when I'm the one sitting home wondering what my children are up to...it could be very easy to feel left out or to be less thankful. It is wonderful that they have full lives and just "check in" with me. I have friends who complain about not hearing from their children. I am so lucky that I don't have that complaint!!

I look back at my life and I wonder if I would change anything if I had a chance. I know that I would. However, I don't think I would change anything that would take me to anywhere except where I am right now. So, what would I change? probably nothing. But I made a lot of mistakes getting here. I suppose a lot of those mistakes made me who I am today. They say experience teaches a good school...but a fool will learn in no other. I guess I'm that fool.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Life is good...

I am just getting over whatever it was. It could have been the flu, it could have been a sinus infection but whatever it was, those antibiotics knocked it out. I feel like I have been in a fog for a couple of weeks!! But today is a new day and I'm gonna make the most of it.

John and I will have Thanksgiving here with our 4 legged little girls. Then I will be looking forward to Christmas. Jenny will be here on the 15th and Jeff will be here on the 18th. Jenny is gonna fly home to go to Vegas with Dave for Christmas day, and Jeff and I are gonna drive to Atlantic City for Christmas day. I tried...but could not convince John to go with us. His favorite thing to do is stay home and chill.

I loved Christmas growing up. I used to sleep on the sofa close to the christmas tree, hoping to catch santa claus in the act. I never did!! My mom always made christmas special for me. I felt very much like an only child because by the time I was 12 I was the only child left at home. It was a life of mostly me and my mom. My dad kept to himself most of the time and we liked it that way. I wonder if the day will ever come when I don't miss my mom. She died February 10, 1985 and I still think of her just about every day. She put her children before everything else and always made me feel special.

The last few years that we lived together were mostly good times. I moved home in May, 1974 after the auto accident and splitting up with you know who. I got a modest settlement regarding a bit of insurance I had because of the accident. Ten thousand dollars to be exact. I took that money and in October 1974 I bought a little house for me and mom. The cost of the house was $28,000. I paid $10,000 down and took over payments of $120 a month. I went back to work for Boopa Pritchard as a legal secretary. Mom and I were torn between the house I bought and another one that would have also been $10,000 down but the payments would have been $200 a month, and I just couldn't swing payments that big!!

I wish I could relive those last couple of years with mom in that house at 4123 Olivia Drive. I married John in May of 1976 and moved to Mississippi with him. Mom stayed in that house until she got so sick with complications from breast cancer that she moved in with me and John in 1981. I would change a lot about those couple of years we lived together. I would have spent more time with her. I would have gone to church with her every Sunday, the way she wanted me to. She worried about me until I met John. I think after I met him, she felt like I was gonna be ok. She loved him dearly and was so happy that we got married.

She was worried about me because I dated a lot and she just thought I'd never settle down. I was determined not to get married again, but I did party a lot and wish now that I has spent that time with her. She loved living in that house on Olivia Drive. I sold that house in 1998 for about $80,000. I had the same renters for 16 years.