Today's HAPPY thought

Do ya want to know something that makes me happy?







Something that makes me smile as it brightens my day?

It's finding Jonagold apples (Honeycrisps have all said bye bye) at my local Yokes market for .78 cents a pound.

It's buying several pounds of them, and hoping against hope that they will be good.

Good as in, never been in cold storage.

Good as in, not at all MUSHY.

Good as in, not too sweet.

Good as in, a nice slightly tangy taste.

And knowing that in mid to late January, the chances of finding apples that fit this discription are almost impossible to find. But wanting them so badly you are willing to take a chance on them anyway.

After all they are only .78 cents a pound.

And

guess

what????

They are delicious!!!!!!

Britney Spears sells dress for Haitians

I really hate Celebrities.

With very few exceptions they are the most
self important,
self promoting,
self indulgent,
stingy,
attention seeking,
and
downright nasty people on earth.

Ever since the tragedy in Haiti, it seems that you can't turn on your TV or radio, or read a newspaper or browse the Internet without some worthless Celebrity being forced in your face for their "heroic" efforts to save the hundreds of thousands of victims suffering from the devastating Earthquake of two weeks ago.

I would really like to see any of these shallow, spoilt, self important, idiots actually make a big enough contribution to cause themselves even the slightest amount of pain.

The other day, I read an article praising Madonna for her contribution to the cause.
Apparently she went through her furniture looking for loose change and announced to her adoring masses that SHE was sending a contribution of 200,00.00 to Haiti.

Oh my!

And then to show how even more selfless she could be she challenged her many fans to match her donation.

Did ya hear that all you Madonna fans?!?

She wants you to match her generous offering.
I'm sure that even Madonna is savvy enough to realize that her average fan is far short of having an extra two hundred thou to send to the rescue and recovery efforts.
She clarified her intentions.
Of course.
She told everyone to send as much as they can.

Hmm, how amusing that she has the nerve to expect anyone to send more than a dime or two. After all, if a fan was to give the same percentage of their, yearly net, as she did with her minuscule 200,00.00 it would amount to, perhaps, a quarter.
For the better off fan, gee, why not do Madonna one better and send off a really extreme amount.

Like say a ten dollar bill.

And that fan would still have sent more, by comparison, than "The Ever Holy" Madonna.

Do you know the people who's contributions really do make the world go round?

Those spotlight shy, individuals, whom I guess, would best be called "Old Money". You know those who didn't make their fortunes overnight.

They didn't sing, act, slam dunk a basket ball or host game shows to account for their millions and billions. Many of them have made their fortunes the old fashioned way. Through education, hard work and perseverance. Not to say that there aren't those multi-millionaires who see no need to look beyond their own lavish front gates.
But from my observations, those old, monied, families have a far greater appreciation of what they have and feel a more urgent need to give back than Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie ever could.

Or would.

Did you know that Nicolas Cage has more than ten mansions worldwide and way more rare and uber expensive cars than would ever fit in a 20 car garage. Oh yeah, and the poor guy is, of late, having money problems.

How very sad.

I just can't understand that kind of gluttony.

How on earth does someone like that live with themselves. To have that kind of wealth and use it exclusively for their own excessive self indulgence.

I don't know.

I never have and I'm sure I never will, come close to that kind of money. So maybe there is something I don't know about.
Does having that kind of wealth change a person so extensively that every good and kind thought you ever had, every hope of one day being able to help others, becomes so foreign to you as to render you incapable of love or compassion for your fellow beings.

Unless, of course, you can make the front page of USA Today.

I would hate to think that, that kind of selfishness and greed would be the rule instead of the exception.

Celebrities do as little as they can, while demanding the largest amount of attention and praise as possible. Why do you think they are putting on yet another of those sickeningly, self righteous, "We are the World" type "fund raisers".

They want to get the maximum amount of exposure they possibly can while putting out as little as they can.

We, the everyday Joe's, WE, are the ones expected to donate, to these ridiculously self serving "Events".

Just think.

If every single one of those ever so generous Celebrities were to give, say, maybe a twentieth of their annual income towards these, oh so worthy causes, there would be more available funds for relief than could ever be raised from one of their silly little Sing-a-thons.

So, Britany Spears, sweetie, save your nice little dress that you've decided to sell to raise money for those poor Haitians. Go ahead and give it to Sean Preston's Pre-School fund raiser for ergonomically correct toddler chairs.

I'm sure they would love to have it.

If you, and all of your fellow famous do-gooders really want to sacrifice for those hurting Haitians, then why don't you challenge each other to see who can send the most millions to further that ever so worthy cause.

And to really surprise people, while making a "difference", hold off on your interviews and press releases.

Who knows?

A few of you may find out that doing good for the sake of good and not to further your careers, might actually feel GOOD!

And in the mean time, be sure and check out that ever humble and generous little Justin Timberlake.

He is performing LIVE.

For relief for Haiti.

Such selfless generosity just kinda makes you feel warm all over.

The Princess and the Frog

I loved this film!

If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend it for everyone. Well, at least everyone that is old enough to know how to properly behave at a movie. There were two groups of parents, I think one was most likely a grandparent, with young children in the theater with us. Their children would NOT shut up. I gave them plenty of evil stares, but since I had three of my granddaughters with me I decided not to actually tell them to shut their kids up.

How smart do you have to be, to realize, that if your kid can't keep his mouth shut for the length of a movie then they are TOO YOUNG to be there.

Lorelai was the youngest of us and she didn't make a noise the entire time. It was that good. She and Abbey and Lindsay were so enthralled that they never took their eyes off the screen.

The music was incredible. I can't believe the reviews I've read complaining that Randy Newman shouldn't have been chosen to write (and perform) the songs. I have always loved jazzy, Cajun type music. And there is plenty of it. Anika Noni Rose, who is the voice of Tiana, is a pleasure to listen to.

She really brings her character, Tiana, to life.

I never have understood why the young women that provide the voices for the Disney Princesses never seem to be able to move beyond those roles. They all have such beautiful voices. Much more so than say, Britney Spears, Beyonce or Jessica Simpson. I would love to see Ms. Rose come out with an album. Her voice is so clear and pure, so alive! I could listen to her sing the phonebook and be happy.

The "side" characters are also done to perfection.

The villain, Dr Facilier is as evil as any Disney villain has ever been, but he is also quite fascinating. I've always loved reading about and watching anything concerning Voo Doo. Tiana calls him the Shadow Man. A very fitting nickname for a dark, dangerous man with one foot in the world of evil spirits. He is just plain fun to watch.

Then we have darling little Mama Odie. She is basically the opposite of Facilier. She performs magic as well but hers is tempered with wisdom and good values. She is blind as well as 200 years old, but with the help of a kind hearted and loyal pet snake name Juju she is still in top form.

Of course there are the typical Disney talking animals. They are a great bunch. There is Louis the big, fat, jazz loving, alligator. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, he just wants to play his trumpet. He longs to be human so that he can play with the many Jazz performers he hears on the Riverboats floating down the river. Then there is dear, friendly, loyal little Ray the Firefly. At first it seems as if he is there simply to be comic relief. As the story moves along though, his true colors shine through and he (as well as his new best friend Louis) show what brave and steadfast characters they actually are.

I heard a reviewer, (our local Mr. Movie. Yeah, he's as lame as he sounds) point out that Prince Naveen is not your usual Disney Prince. He seemed to consider that a bad thing. Trust me it's NOT. Of course the Prince has to be a shallow, materialistic, jerk, who only wants to party and have a good time. How else could he grow up and become a man thanks to Tiana's influence.

And then there is the animation itself. It is stunningly beautiful. Computer animation is wonderful of course but the old fashioned, drawn by hand, animation style is alive and well. Something I was so happy to see. After all, it's what I grew up with. And it's obvious that those Disney animators have not lost their touch.

All in all I give this movie a great big THUMBS UP!

And I'm sure that if I include Heidi, Shawn, Abbey, Lindsay and Lorelai, that it would be a solid SIX THUMBS.

You certainly can't argue with that. Do yourself a favor if you haven't taken the time to see it yet.

GO!

I realize that I can't speak for everyone, but this film is worth whatever it costs to see it on the BIG SCREEN!

The BOY is back

Apparently, my son Donald has decided to return to the world of Blog. I took his blog off my sidebar because he had more or less decided to stop blogging. In favor of Facebook.

I honestly don't get Facebook.

I've seen it, I just don't see the appeal.

Please, no hate mail.

I'm not saying it's stupid or a waste of time. I'm simply pointing out that I have NO interest in it.

Anyway, this short little post is being done to let my friends know that my son has started utilizing his blog again. He is, for the most part, even wordier than me. But quite enjoyable never the less.

So if you have never seen his blog you should go check him out. Maybe if her gets enough attention he'll decide that his blog is worth it after all.

Here is the link.

Thank you and goodbye for now.

Prized Posessions

Hey, remember about seven posts ago, when I talked about the small things I had, that meant so much to me?
It was inspired by a list of important life lessons my daughter Heidi had posted the day before on her blog.

One of them, number seventeen, really resonated with me.

In a nutshell it said to get rid of all your excess stuff, and to hold on to only those things that were useful, or if not exactly useful that really meant something to you. I realized that without intentionally doing it I had done it.
I wrote about the small, seemingly unimportant, little treasures I had accumulated over the years that to the casual observer may not look like much, but that meant an awful lot to me.

Well, I promised to put up pictures. That meant getting Lisa's help. I do have a nice little digital camera, and I actually do use it once in a while. But in this family, if you want beautifully done photos you go to either Lisa or my daughter Heidi.

They are both pretty incredible.

All right. Enough background. If you never saw the post you can read it here.
I can be succinct, clear and concise if I really put my mind to it.

At least I like to think I could.

Like, say, if someone put a gun to my head.

Alright, alright.
Without further adieu (or explanation) here are pictures of a few of my favorite things.

I love these. These are the paper dolls I made for Courtney when she was around nine years old. I mentioned these in my earlier post. I have made probably at least a hundred sets of paper dolls in my life time. Most of them before the age of 18. And one day I was thinking about them and wishing I had kept even a few of them.

That was when I decided to make some new ones. It had been a LONG time since I had drawn anything, so it took me a while to get the first doll done to my satisfaction.

I had so much fun. I made lots and lots of clothes for her. In fact I ended up making another one using the same body but drawing different hair and face. That was so Courtney's best friend Karleen would have her doll to play with too.

Oh how I wish I had one from my childhood to compare these to. I would be so interested to see which ones were better.

Well, the dolls were a huge hit.

Courtney and Karleen even took them to school to play with at recess. Of course they were the envy of all the other girls. Well the ones who weren't trying to pretend they were way to old and sophisticated to have an interest in something as juvenile as paper dolls.

They had been so much fun. Courtney then asked me if I had ever done little girls before.

The funny thing is that I don't think I ever did. When I was younger I made them to be whatever age I was at, at the time. That way I could dress them in all of the styles that I loved but didn't have. Well of course I did have clothes. I craved the clothes though that I saw the older girls wearing.

I mean think about it.

This was the era of Go Go Boots and Hip-huggers and all kinds of cool sixties fashions. Could you blame me for a little vicarious fashion wearing through my paper dolls?
I think NOT.

I decided that I would very MUCH like to make a set of little girls.
So I did.
They turned out so darn cute that they are my absolute favorites.

Aren't they just so cute? The picture only shows a small part of all of the adorable clothes I made for them. And who knew at the time that the outfit with the Mickey Mouse head would one day thrill a little grandaughter that at the time I wasn't even thinking ahead to.

And yes. It is one of Lorelai's favorite outfits for my little baby girl dolls.

While I'm on the subject of paper dolls, below is a picture of the darling little wooden doll my sister Janice bought for me several B.C. (before she had children) years ago.

I also have my little Happy Meal Dutch Barbie in this picture as well as the 2 dollar bill I won from David in one of his first contests/give-aways.


This is one I forgot to mention in my post that day. It's a little bar of soap that my oldest daughter Heidi made for me at her church girl's group activity to give me for Mother's Day when she was nine or ten.

I could never bring myself to use it. So it has been renting space in my bottom drawer ever since.

Don't worry. My rates are very affordable.

Alright. Now we come to my oldest and most favorite of all of my favorites. I already told the story of my little Piglet and how I acquired her.

It probably wasn't one of my finest moments, but hey, I was just a kid.

Here is my sweet little, 45 years young, porcelain painted piggy bank Piglet.

Isn't she just the SWEETEST?????

I know that there have been countless cheap knock offs of her seen in dollar stores and various other places over the years. Some of them weren't really even that cheap. I've seen a few that actually look pretty similar to her.

But.

As far as I'm concerned they are merely pale imitations, of my beloved little Piglet.

Like I pointed out in my earlier post, she has her share of the war wounds you would expect a little piggy of her years to carry. I have lovingly glued her back together more than twice. And as you can see in this last picture there was one time when I couldn't even find all of her to glue back on.

She takes it in stride. She knows that she is loved and she is happy with that. She never was one to put on "airs", my humble sweet little piggy.

Well, there you have it.

The things that I love.

The things that I hold on to year after year.

Some, like David's two dollar bill, are fairly new to my collection. Most are much older and at times almost forgotten. But never for long. All it takes is an occasional sighting of one or more of them and I am reminded of how simple life can be. I realize how little a person really needs to enjoy life.

It's a lesson I am happy to remember time after time.

And I will use them to remind me of that. If I ever find myself getting carried away with too much longing for things I will most likely never have, my little treasures will be there.

Ready to pull me back to earth and ground me in reality.

One last Christmas post and then on to the next thing

I completely forgot to post this picture.

Here I am with my first three sisters at Christmas of 1962. At least by my figuring it is 1962.

Starting at the far left is me (with my hands in the air). My baby sister Linda, my year older than me sister, Barbara (holding the big doll), and my year younger than me sister, Kathy (I believe her doll is taking a nap)


Providing background, would be our TV, our super cool 60's pole lamp, our Christmas Tree, and my dad.

Oh, and playing a supporting background role, would be a plant and our old maroon chair.

I will assume that no explanation is necessary for the various toys scattered around.