Family Fun Fact #17

We once had to attend a western themed wedding for which Teen Angel was a flower girl. The invitation said we all had to wear western attire. And it was family. So we did. We sat on hay bales in sticky August weather and sipped punch from a bowl with rope wrapped about the base of it. Unfortunately, there were no adult beverages to sooth the trauma of wearing cowboy hats, boots and bolas for family photos that linger in albums years fifteen years later.

On Tour

The countdown is on for Teen Angel, me and her best bud-27 days until we attend the Blue October concert in St. Louis.

Blue October

They’re very excited. I’m pretty revved up myself. I love live musical performances, especially at a venue I’ve never been to before. I had Teen Angel burn me a CD of some of their songs, and I’ve decided I really like this group. I expect to enjoy the show, and all of this concert talk is providing me some entertainment between now and then….and memories.

It has gotten me all nostalgic and forced me to pull up this picture.I think this is 1982. M., C. and I about to head out to an REO Speedwagon concert about an hour away from home. I'm in the middle. Look at us in all of our Calvin Klein jean and oxford shirt glory. You can smell the Love’s Baby Soft just looking at that picture. And the hair. Oh, the big hair. Believe it or not, we’ve all registered higher marks on the big hair meter than seen in this photo. God, I loved the 80’s.

M. sent me this picture after our reunion last year, and immediately the memories of that night flood back. The giggly drive there. The purchase of counterfeit T-shirts. The loudness of the band. Waving only one cigarette lighter in the air, because none of us smoked and that’s all we had. Sigh. Good times.

Remember what it was like to be a teenager and to be SOOOO into the music of your time? I came of age at a time when everything about live shows was big. Big sounds, big hair, big pyrotechnics. Kiss, Def Leppard, Van Halen ruled the tours, and the Rolling Stones weren’t old yet, although they were working on it. I saw the Police on their Synchronicity tour, and thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I know what Teen Angel is going to experience in a few weeks, and I’m excited for her. So, to mark the occasion dear readers, I’m asking you to tell me in three lines or less about your first or best concert experience as a teen. Come on. Break out your oxford shirt or your poodle skirt and divulge.

Fun Monday-Saving $

Our Fun Monday hostess this week is the lovely Sayre, who wants to know how we're making do during this stinky economy. Specifically:

What are you and your family doing to deal with the current economic situation on a personal level? Obama's got a plan for the nation, but how do you/will you deal with your own economic stress.

Well, my economic stress started the day my child was born and really accelerated when she reached high school last year. Every time I turn around she needs money for school related stuff, and don't even get me started on those dance dresses. With her driver's license test just around the corner, the hell known as "car insurance for a teenager" is about to kick our backsides in mere weeks. Add to that our federal tax bill and the price of gas, utilities and groceries and the Hula-gen's are feeling the pinch just like everyone else. Whenever I look at my 401K portfolio, it feels more like a sucker punch than a pinch. I could certainly use a few money saving tips, so I'll be visiting Sayre's and scouring everyone else's posts on how they're cutting corners these days. Here are some ways we save around this house:

1. Invest in a good freezer-It's a great way to save on food costs. In fact, we save several hundred dollars in beef alone by using the freezer. Here's a peek inside of ours, and I'm only showing you this because we just replaced ours and it's still nice and tidy inside. In a couple of months it will look like something out of the movie Twister. My brother in law raises beef cattle. Every year we buy one from him and have it slaughtered. That's a very common thing in these parts. We tell the meat processing folks how we want everything cut and packaged and then pick it up when it's done. We get roasts, all kinds of steaks and enough ground chuck to feed hamburgers to all of the starving children in Africa, and it costs a fraction of what we'd pay for it in the store. This year, we paid $1.79 a pound for every pound. That's porterhouse steak, ribeyes, T-bones, chuck roast...everything. Ground chuck alone is $2.68 a pound in the store. Porterhouse steak was $11.69 a pound at the grocery last week. Keep in mind, we know where the beef comes from and how it's fed, so we're basically getting organic, safe beef for the entire year for less than $2 a pound. The only meat I buy at the store is chicken breast and a little ham or pork now and then. We did lose some of our meat this month when our freezer pooped out after the power outage, but we managed to save quite a bit of it, thank goodness.

I also buy a lot of produce at the farmer's market in the summer and freeze it, along with the stuff from our garden and the gardens of our family. We get 120 ears of corn every year, blueberries, green beans, strawberries, peaches and a variety of other things that get blanched and frozen. I also stock up on specials at the grocery store like sugar, flour and frozen foods and stuff those in the freezer for future use. We save several hundred dollars a year on food costs by using the freezer, and you can too. I know some of you are thinking, "Wait, I live in the city and no one around me grows cattle". You might be surprised to find what's available by checking with local meat packers and ag extension offices. A lot of meat packers will allow you to buy a loin and have it sliced into steaks at a cost that's much cheaper than buying them at the grocery.

2. Eye makeup remover-I never buy it. I use this instead:

And I have since I was seventeen. Vaseline takes it off easily, is cheap and is a great moisturizer for the skin around your eyes and your eyelashes. I use it every evening, and my eyes are never greasy when I wake up.

3. Eating out-We eat out only on the weekends. I cook the rest of the week. We eat healthier that way, and save money. I usually check the local newspaper or the web for coupons for chain restaurants before the weekend. A lot of restaurants are running great specials right now to get folks in their doors. Last weekend, TGI Friday's had a two for one entree deal. We also buy a few of those "spirit cards" the local schools sell as fundraisers each fall. They have discounts for local restaurants on them and come in very handy.

4. Clothes-I never pay full price for clothing. I usually buy stuff at the end of the season and put it back for the next year, picking up only a couple of trendy items while they're in season. Two weeks ago I hit a sale at J.C. Penney's and bought among other things, a $180 blazer for $9.99, a $72 suit jacket for $7.95 and a $110 cocktail dress for $9.99. I ended up with $400 worth of stuff for $31. Sweet! Which leads me to:

5. Cocktail dresses-Because of my job, I always have one or more black tie events to attend each year. I refuse to spend much money on formalwear, so I wait until the holiday stuff is on sale (now) or better yet, the clearance sale on prom dresses and dig through the racks for a little black dress that's age appropriate and a classic style. Trust me, they're there, you just have to dig. I buy one dirt cheap and put it in the closet for future events. I haven't paid more than $20 for a cocktail dress in fifteen years, and it's a motivator to stay the same size throughout the year. One year, it cost me more to have the dress tailored than it did to buy it. Geez, I love a bargain.

Now, I'm off to read everyone else's ideas. I'm hoping someone out there has some thoughts on how to save on Charmin toilet paper. Hubby refuses to buy any other brand, and have you seen the price of toilet paper lately?! It drives me crazy to spend that much on paper to...you know.....

Running A Temperature

Holy moly! Sweet mother of Mabel! Check this out. Weather.com said our high temperature today was 71 stinkin’ degrees. Sweeeet. I ran outside today at lunch for the first time since before the ice storm…and wore shorts. Yes, shorts. And let me take just a moment to apologize to the people driving up and down our city streets at noon today for the pearly whiteness of my legs. The sun was peeking through the clouds and it was warm. I sweated like a thief in Sunday school. Great, big stinky drops and I loved it. I had to dodge only four piles of storm debris, and I had more energy than I’ve had in a while. I did startle two tourists in our downtown area when I rounded a corner and hollered, “Whoot!” at them. No wonder people are scared of southerners.

And guess what. Tomorrow? 76 degrees. Ha! This weather is a balm to my spirit. A salve to my soul. A boost to my droopy attitude. It tells me that spring WILL come after all. That winter’s end is drawing near, and flip-flop weather is soon to follow. And all those names I’ve been calling Mother Nature lately? I take them all back. I guess she’s not a total wench after all.

Added Value

I want to show you a piece of stained glass we own. My favorite part is the little frog at the bottom.This hangs in one of our bathrooms and keeps my elderly neighbor from seeing my ta-ta’s after dark. It’s also a beautiful addition to our home. I look at this artwork several times a day. Please ignore the wrinkled curtain. I decided a few years ago I’m not ironing curtains any more, and it shows. We bought the glass at a fundraiser at church a few years ago, and I’m glad we did. We paid more for it than I wanted to. Hubby fell in love with it and wanted to keep bidding when the auction price went above the limit we had set prior to the bidding. Being the tightwad in the family, I stood firm. He overrode me, won the bidding and carefully brought it home where we spent quite some time figuring out where to hang it. I don’t remember now how much we paid for the stained glass, but I’m glad we bought it because its value has increased greatly since then. That’s because we got to know the artist.

Delmar was a man who attended our church. We didn’t know him but learned at the auction that he made all kinds of stained glass and carpentry projects. His work was outstanding, as he paid particular attention to detail, like the little frog in our piece. At the auction they also sold a toy truck he made out of a beautiful piece of wood. It was sanded and lacquered to perfection. When you looked closely at his work you didn’t find a single flaw. Hubby struck up a conversation with him and discovered that he was a very interesting fellow. Quiet, but fascinating. His skills were many, but he was very modest about them. He wanted no praise for his work, didn’t seek attention and was a fountain of information. He was paralyzed from the waist down and sat in a wheelchair, but neither one of us ever had the nerve to ask him how he got that way. It was obvious the wheelchair wasn’t an issue for him. It didn’t stop him from driving, holding leadership positions or doing the things he loved. Whatever trials he had with his paralysis were private, and it was obvious he didn’t want to focus on them. He was truly a unique person.

Over time, Hubby got to know Delmar better. The Methodist Men’s group at our church builds wheelchair ramps for people in our community. Hubby helps them sometimes. In fact, he worked on a ramp today. Delmar was always there, using the tray on his wheelchair or any other method he could find to complete his work. Working with Delmar has always been one of Hubby’s favorite things about working on the ramps because of Delmar’s skill and attitude toward life and church.

Delmar died last week. Cancer claimed him, but God claimed him first, so I’m sure he’s had the ultimate healing by now. We will miss his smiling face at church, but I take from him a great lesson in handling life’s difficulties and working with what you have. His paralysis created no boundaries for him, and he made the world a better place just by being in it. He was a very special person, and I’m proud his artwork is hanging in my house. For us, that piece of stained glass is now priceless.

Snap Shots

I carry my camera just about everywhere I go these days, but I still find myself without it when some of the best photo ops cross my path. Like the night during the ice storm hell when I stopped at Kroger on my way home from a twenty hour work day and found myself parked next to a car that held a big dog with both paws on the wheel as if he were driving. Maybe I was amused out of exhaustion, but I thought it was hilarious, and I hated that I couldn’t capture it. Everywhere I look these days, I see moments like that I’d like to preserve.

Also, during the ice storm I pulled into the parking lot of the electric utility that serves my home and watched as a middle aged woman exited the building, walked to her car and then laid herself against the car and bawled her eyes out. This was about day fifteen of the power outage, and I assumed she had gotten bad news about her prospects for getting electricity soon. I had my camera that day, and longed to take her picture but refrained from intruding on such an intimate moment. But oh, how I wanted to take that picture. Often, I long to take pictures in the most inappropriate places.

Church is one of those places. The Sunday morning sermon is full of little moments that I would take pictures of if the rest of the congregation (and the preacher) didn’t mind me snapping away. And if I wasn’t supposed to be listening instead of playing. This past Sunday was a prime example. I kept seeing photos everywhere. Even now, I can visualize the pictures and how I’d tweak them in PhotoShop. I would have done most of them in black and white. Alas, I couldn’t take them, and I couldn’t post them. I CAN tell you about them. You will have to use your imagination, but perhaps it’s better that way. Things are often much better in our imagination than they are in real life. I’ll tell you about the pictures I wanted to take, and you tell me if you can see them when you read about them.

1. Five young children eagerly peering over the rail of the balcony with only their little faces visible to those of us below.
2. A senior member of the congregation, a widow, holding and playing with the baby of the young couple sitting in the pew behind her.
3. The face of a choir member as he concentrated on a particularly difficult song note.
4. The fifty-something daughter who always sits with her arm around her mother as if she’s afraid her mother will disappear if she lets go of her.
5. The quizzical face of the four year old near me at the communion rail as he reached for the usher’s bread tray.
6. The same face of the four year old as he struggled to pick a tiny piece of bread out of his little communion cup.

Can you see them? Can you? I think #6 is my favorite. How about you?

The iPod Game Because I Like Jason's Rules

Jason's playing the iPod game over at his place, and I decided to play along because I like his rules (see variance in rule #3). Care to play along? By the way, I've decided someone should do a study about the music we listen to and what it says about us. I think I would totally baffle the researchers since Amy Grant and Amy Winehouse sit side beside on my Nano. Here are the rules if you're interested:


INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Put your iPod or other music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
Unless you don't like it, then you can keep shuffling until you get to something you like!
(Jason added this variance to the game) .


WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Trouble/Pink
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE? Fumbling Towards Ecstasy/Sarah McLachlan
WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Get Off Of My Cloud/Rolling Stones
WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? Girl Gone Bad/Van Halen
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Can't Get Enough Of Your Love/Barry White
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? 's Wonderful/Rod Stewart
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Got to Be Real/Cheryl Lynn
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress/The Hollies
WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Real Wild Child/Iggy Pop
WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? Damn/Matchbox Twenty
WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Get the Party Started/Pink
WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Old Hippie/Bellamy Brothers
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Heaven Help Us All/Stevie Wonder
WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN? Over at the Frankenstein Place/Rock Horror soundtrack
HOW WILL YOU DIE? Falling Off The Face of The Earth/Neil Young
WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET? Paradise by the Dashboard Lights/Meatloaf
WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? Livin' it Up/Ricky Lee Jones
WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? When it Don't Come Easy/Patti Griffin
WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST? The Way You Move/Big Boi
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE? Changes in Latitudes/Jimmy Buffett
WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW? I Feel it All/Feist
YOUR ULTIMATE FANTASTY? Glamorous/Fergie