Tag Archives: memories

Another Time for Letting Go

I’m having mixed feelings about Regina starting kindergarten this week. Part of me wants to cry out that I haven’t had enough time with her– I should get an extra eight months! (Someone did once ask me Meg’s age when she was two and a half years old, and I responded “a year and a half” because that’s how long she’d been with me!) If Regina were a summer birthday I would definitely hold off on school, but she’s almost six. (And she has been wearing her sister’s outgrown uniforms since April.) I do sometimes feel a bit jealous about … Continue reading →

Memorial Day Scrapbooking

Memorial day celebrations are plenty. With parades, commemoration ceremonies, flag ceremonies and barbecues, there are many things to take photographs of. Honoring the men and women who lay their lives on the line for us, is an important part of being an American. This day is special in so many ways. When you sit down to create a layout for Memorial day, it is great to include all the photographs from the different events that you attended or celebrated. However, there is much more you can do to make your layouts reflect the true meaning of the day. Perhaps when … Continue reading →

What Your Nose Knows

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Don’t knock your nose — scientists believe that the nose is capable of recognizing thousands of smells. In fact, studies are showing that your sense of smell may be as much as ten thousand times sharper than your sense of taste. That’s pretty amazing! So how does smell work? Inside your nose are millions are cells that act as scent receptors. We have hundreds of different kinds of smell receptors that allow us to identify lots of different odors. Once your scent receptors detect a smell, they send the information to a cluster of neurons in the brain known as … Continue reading →

Are Memories and Nostalgia Bogging You Down?

I have some incredible memories of my kids’ growing up, and I also have some unpleasant memories of a dissolving marriage and divorce, not to mention other little hard times that make up my past. As parents, we can find ourselves reminiscing, wishing, and getting nostalgic on a fairly regular basis. Sometimes they are nothing more than brief, sweet memories, but other times, our memories can become so strong and constant that they keep us from being able to live in the moment. What can you do with all those memories and what do they mean? I do believe that … Continue reading →

Inspirational Animals: Oscar the Naked Cockatoo

I guess because of the situation I find myself in with my mom I’m even more on the lookout for uplifting and inspirational stories these days. The kind where an underdog faces incredible, perhaps even seemingly insurmountable, odds but still emerges victorious. That’s why the story I saw on the news over the weekend caught my eye. It would have anyway because it had to do with an animal shelter harboring a very special bird. But it grabbed at me even more so because the bird was touted the ugliest bird alive –one who shouldn’t even be alive. Yet it … Continue reading →

A Trip Down Memory Lane

When I went back to Denver to to get my mom Wayne stayed behind. Physically. But as he is most days, he was never far from my thoughts. Except the thoughts I had of him while I was there were a little bit different. Mostly because I was remembering our earliest years together. Heck, our earliest days. The ones when we very first fell in love. And most of them were sparked when I passed places where we’d shared time together. Tamarac Square There used to be a movie theater inside, and I want to say there still might be … Continue reading →

Tell Them Before It’s Too Late

Sometimes God stops us in our tracks and gives us times to recharge our batteries, whether we like it or not. This week has been like that for me. As I’ve struggled with the flu, it’s been a case of doing the essentials. Anything else has had to be put on hold. So, it’s been a week of bible study and prayer, writing my blogs but little else, and doing crosswords, reading or watching DVDs, when the head could not focus on print. This means several of my blogs have, or will, result from movies I’ve watched. One was ‘The … Continue reading →

Suspicion (1941)

Joan Fontaine won an Oscar for her role in “Suspicion” as Lina, a young woman who is given to reading books, riding horses, and living a quiet life with her parents on their country estate. She is traveling home by train when she meets up with Johnny (Cary Grant) a charming rascal who manages to “borrow” some of his train fare from her. He comes to a fox hunt on her estate and manages to schmooze her, breaking down her natural walls. When he doesn’t return as promised, she realizes how much she likes him, so much so that when … Continue reading →

Too Many Baby Boomers are Facing Alzheimer’s

A new report from the Alzheimer’s Association has some bad news about the future of Alzheimer’s disease. Right now, more than five million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease — including as many as 250,000 people under the age of sixty-five. By 2010, the Alzheimer’s Association predicts that there will be five hundred thousand new cases reported each year. By 2050, the Alzheimer’s Association predicts that there will be one million new cases of Alzheimer’s disease annually. The bad news focuses especially on baby boomers. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that ten million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer’s disease in their … Continue reading →

Angry and Helpless as My Mom Loses It

As I wrote in a recent article, my mom is beginning to battle Old Timer’s (a.k.a. Dementia or Alzheimer’s) like her mother did, which makes me angry. But I’m not angry at the disease. I’m angry about a lot of other things. Angry at Losing Her Now As I commented on one of Aimee’s articles about this issue I had to stand by and lose my grandma to this disease before she actually passed. Now it’s happening with my mom. I’m angry about that. Angry at My Mom I’m angry at my mom because she refuses to take steps to … Continue reading →