I Beg Your Pardon..... It's Almost Time For Kindergarten

Even though it seems like summer has only just begun school clothes and school supplies are front and center in nearly every store you go to. Six of my seven grandkids will be starting a new school year in a few weeks, but it is an especially big start for my two youngest granddaughters, E.J. and Anna, both 5, who will soon be trading in their swim suits for school clothes and starting kindergarten.

E.J. and Anna

They have both had a couple of fun years in preschool and they will both be going to schools they are familiar with from having an older sibling at the school. Even so, their attitudes about this big change in their lives could not be much different. Anna is excited, ready to go and pretty much thinks she will be running the show within a few days. E.J., who is a girl who resists any big change in her life, DOES NOT want to go to kindergarten and has been lobbying for home schooling. The good news is that her mom, my daughter Joanna, taught kindergarten for six years and has seen and dealt many times with all kinds of first day of school angst. E.J.'s history suggests that after a couple of days of high drama at the beginning she will love kindergarten, though it will take her a while longer to actually admit that she likes it. 

Do you deal well with changes in your life or are you resistant?

Do you have any memories of starting kindergarten?

 To participate in the Grand Social visit Lisa here.

Dinner Tonight

I am looking forward to a special dinner tonight.....a belated birthday dinner with my 3 kids. Of course,  I love family get-togethers of all kinds, but this is the first time in a very long time that I have done something with just me and my kids......the last time may have been way back when my son was a senior in high school and we all went to Disneyland. I'm sure they will all be ready to remind me of a time since then, but that is my best recall.

Me and my "kids" at my birthday party last year. (I'm the old one in the red feather boa).

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Thanks to everyone who let me know that apparently Blogger ate my blog background and left only multiple repetitions of something like "this image has been removed." I have no clue what happened, but then I am usually clueless about the internal workings of Blogger. I wasn't able to resurrect my original background, but I think I was able to at least, with a little help, get something back there. If anyone has any idea what happened or how to fix it, please let me know. In the meantime, I will just do what I usually do and hope that it miraculously fixes itself. 

Wednesday Hodgepodge

To participate in Wednesday Hodgepodge visit Joyce here.

1. July 24th is Amelia Earhart Day.  Earhart was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  What's something you've recently accomplished solo? 

I'm not sure I can really call it an accomplishment, but I enjoy traveling solo sometimes.  I have traveled to London by myself, to Mexico several times and to several cities in the U.S.  I hope to go back to London by myself in the next year and then have my friend Patty join me to take the Chunnel to Paris.

2.  What's one product you use that never ever fails?

I love that I can go to a Starbucks anywhere in the world and order my usual half-flavor skinny vanilla latte and know that it will be exactly what I want (though the prices vary).

3. Have you found your place in the world? Where is it?

As far as my physical place in the world, I have lived in Colorado for 30 years and will be happy to spend the rest of my life here.  As to my place as a person, I am very happy being a mother, grandmother, partner and friend to the people in my life. 

4.  Worst movie you ever saw?

In the early 1960s my cousin and I used to visit my grandmother in a small town. There was one movie theater in town and we usually saw whatever was showing at that theater at least three times during the week. One summer the movie was Circus of Horrors,  a movie about a circus in which the performers were all people with horrible facial disfigurement. However "horror"ful the movie was, it had a beautiful theme song called "Look For A Star".

5. What's the last fun thing you did?

Just a few minutes ago I booked tickets for Doc and I to go to Las Vegas with friends in October. The actual booking wasn't that fun, but it is always fun for me to have a trip with friends to look forward to.

6. The month of July is named for Roman Emperor Julius Caesar...ever been to Rome? What's your favorite Italian dish?

I have been to Rome and would love to go back.  I can't say I have a favorite Italian dish but I can always find something I really like at a good Italian restaurant.

7. What is one piece of advice you'd offer new mom Kate Middleton?

I think Kate will have more than enough advice. I just hope she will be given privacy to enjoy her new baby.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Whether you are a weekly participant or just an occasional one, like me, I think we all owe Joyce a a big 

THANK YOU for hosting Wednesday Hodgepodge every week.

You Can Call Me Jeanie, Please

This week, another one that has flown by, started with me having internet problems....again. My desktop computer had no internet connection and my laptop had intermittent connection. Frustrating, to say the least. It was late in the week before I could get Comcast out (another frustration that it took so long, but very good service once they were here). In the meantime, I used my Kindle for e-mail, blog reading and so forth. I have no clue why it could connect to the internet when my computers could not. 

Using the Kindle created a couple of problems. First, when I sent e-mail or commented on a blog the auto-correct kept changing what I said or changing the spelling of a name that I typed. If I left comments that sounded weird (worse than usual, that is) or spelled a name wrong on a comment I apologize, but I just couldn't seem to beat the dang auto-correct. 

The other problem was my name. My legal first name is Dorothy, (Dorothy Jean) but I have never been called anything but Jeanie and of course that is what my blog and other internet activity says. It seems that because the credit card that is connected to my Kindle account says "Dorothy" that is the name that was on much of what I sent out on my Kindle. I got several e-mails asking "is your name Dorothy or Jeanie?", or why does your e-mail say Dorothy?, or just who are you? I think I am back to normal now and apologize for any confusion.

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We celebrated my 2nd oldest grandson's 10th birthday this week. Justin is a lively, fun loving kid who, even with a mouthful of braces, always says exactly what is on his mind.

This boy lives for sports. He plays baseball, basketball and football. His baseball team had a very successful season, winning a state championship in their last tournament of the season.

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I learned something this week. Do you know what a "batchmate" is? Doc was talking to some young guys about renting a house and they referred to themselves as "batchmates". Doc was too embarrassed to ask them what that was, or maybe he was afraid he would be embarrassed by the answer. It turns out, according the the Urban Dictionary,  that "batchmate" is a term commonly used in the British commonwealth countries, the term "batchmate" refers to a person who was in the same "batch" as you were in school, college, a military or administrative academy; or another intensive program where people get to know their cohorts quite well. The rough American equivalent is "classmate". Much more innocent than what I think Doc feared the meaning might be. 

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By the way, it is okay with me if you keep that "Dorothy" thing just between us. 

Whew!

Whew! I made it through the week staying with two of my grandkids, EJ, 5, and Beck, 2 1/2. I say "whew" because my experience as a grandmom has been more of the one day or overnight kind of babysitting. A whole week was a new, fun and tiring experience for me. Even though I am not the kind of super-grandmom who arrives with a bag full of crafts and science experiments we had plenty of fun, in spite of a few missing mommy and daddy tears. (I got over them pretty quick).

We all got good and wet at the pop up fountains.

Some more water fun at my friend Patty's house with her granddaughter, Isabella.

My two oldest grandsons, Jared and Justin came to help me out one afternoon. Justin is a little big for the jeep, but he was game to be a good big cousin.

The good thing about EJ and Beck is that they can entertain each other for hours with pretend games in the back yard....even early in the morning still in their pajamas.

My favorite lines from the week:

EJ, playing a pretend game, showing me one of her dolls- This is my daughter. She's allergic to music. It's awkward, but we deal with it.

Beck, piling up his dishes, unasked, to carry them into the house after dinner on the patio-Thank you for my dinner Grandmommy.

I have to admit that I said a little whew! when we get to this time every night.

It was a great experience to live in the world of these two little people for a week, a world of popsicles and pretend, bikes and belly laughs, tickles and tears, and yes, I admit, some Mickey and Minnie on the TV. 

And the final WHEW! at 2:30 a.m. Sunday when I heard the garage door go up and knew that mommy and daddy were home.

A Low Key Day and A Very Nice Surprise

I am celebrating my birthday today by packing to travel 7 miles to my youngest daughters house to stay with her two youngest kids for a week (EJ, 5 and Beck, 2 1/2). While I was packing I got a wonderful birthday surprise on Facebook from my friend  Betty at A Glimpse Into Midlife. She is sending me these beautiful flowers through Facebook Gifts. It makes me feel very special to get such a greeting from a good friend who lives over 5000 miles away in Paraguay. Thank you, Betty.

Even though it is a low key birthday, I have not been at all neglected. I got a nice gift from Doc and Dodger this morning, several birthday calls from friends and family and an invitation from my three kids to a birthday dinner with them later this month when things have settled down a bit for everyone. 

I'm sure that after a week with two little kids I will be feeling every one of my 66 years, but I am looking forward to all the fun that will wear me out. Oh, and I am sure I will get some birthday hugs and kisses that will make it all worthwhile. 

I Used To Be........

I have been sort of retired for a year at the end of this month. Even though I still work a few hours most weeks I think being mostly retired is pretty much the best "job" I have ever had. Thinking about that reminded me of some past jobs I have had.....not exactly a career path, but some fun along the way. (Some of this is from a post I wrote a long time ago about the pain of writing a resume.)

My first job, other than babysitting, was when I was 14. I opened mail for a newspaper columnist. He wrote a humor column for the Tulsa World, so he, in turn, got some pretty funny mail. Not a bad first job.

When I was 16 I worked after school in the stationery department of a fancy department store. My favorite part of that job was eating in the store's hoity-toity tea room on my breaks.

Then came college and a journalism degree. That got me a job at a newspaper with stellar assignments like writing obituaries and covering school board meetings in Norman, OK.

Next  came Motherhood, my most important and most lasting job, but not exactly a resume filler. Over the next 15 or so years, I had several part-time jobs in several cities. I taught pre-school (loved it) for a few years. I did some free lance writing for local publications. I worked as an assistant producer for a radio talk show, which was one of the most fun jobs I ever had. I did some modeling and taught a class at a junior college called "Poise for the Professional Woman". (I hated that name). I wrote feature stories and a weekly column for the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

After some life changes (divorce) and some additional schooling, I went to work full-time for the first time in years as a paralegal. After a few years I decided I needed something more lucrative and worked for a factory rep firm that sold furniture to hotels and hospitals. I was a dismal failure at that job, but to this day I can identify the manufacturer of the fabric on a chair in a hotel room.

A couple of zigs and zags after that  I spent 15 years in the job I still do part time in financial services. I will be more fully retired with time, but for now I like being able to work if I want to and not work if I don't.

What is your favorite of the jobs you have had?