I Spy!

For those of you who know me well, you will enjoy this little game of mine. For the rest of you who just peek into my life occasionally, this may give you a little picture of the kind of humor I enjoy along with how disgustingly sentimental I am. So here goes ...

Several months ago I found a treasure in Shipshewana. Well, a treasure to me, but trash for others. I understood the "trash" part when I was laughed at loudly at the Essenhaus when I pulled this treasure out of my large purse to show it off!

For the explanation: I grew up visiting my Grandma Yoder every Christmas in Pine Craft, FL - more about this in my previous post "Wet Ones". Way back in the 70's Pine Craft was this little burg outside of Sarasota, FL. Yes folks, I said outside. I remember arriving in Sarasota on 41 (no 75 back then) then turning onto Bahia Vista and traveling a little gravel road several miles out of Sarasota to Pine Craft, where we would stay with my Grandma in her little trailer. This little burg is now swallowed by Sarasota, and the city now extends miles beyond Pine Craft. I am sure there are many people in Sarasota alone, that aren't aware that Pine Craft is still there. There are street names that ring a familiar chord to many of us ... Graber, Miller, Yoder, you get the picture.

So back to my game ... My Grandma used to take us to this little "gift shop" type porch at someone's house in Pine Craft, where this lady made many of these lovely painted seashell artsy pieces. Items like shell covered salt & pepper shakers, turtles & pelicans made out of shells, and of course the occasional beautiful collage of flowers. Please notice the words "Pine Craft, FL 1960" created out of alphabet macaroni on that floral piece! What a skill and talent! :) Dave & I snuck away to Sarasota for several wonderful days of R & R and I drug my treasure all the way south, so I could display it proudly in our hideaway! Can you find it in one of the following pictures? The first to respond with the correct location has a cute little piece of seashell art coming to them.

One last picture ... this is what I was looking at yesterday while sprawled on the beach with my face to the sunshine!

Wet-Ones

I read somewhere that smell is the most powerful of all senses, when it comes to memories. I often smell different things and it reminds me of days gone by ... the smell of my Grandma Yoder's house, the smell of my boyfriends' silver Chevy Monza (Dave's of course), an ER visit, ... some good memories, some not so good. Today as I pulled a Wet-One out of the travel pack that I keep in my glove compartment I experienced a very real memory that I could really put words to. So as I traveled home from Mishawaka on the toll road I smiled and cried as I visited Memory Lane.

There are no other wipes that smell exactly like a Wet-One. On every one of our road trips, my wise Mother kept the round yellow cylinder of handy wipers underneath the seat of our wonderful maroon Buick something-or-other (all I remember is the Buick symbol on the hood). It seems that we took a lot of road trips, but I think they were mostly south to Pine Craft, Florida at Christmas time to visit Grandma. I do remember one biggie trip out West with my older two brothers, but I'll save that for another post. So back to the Buick ... my Dad would cut a piece of plywood to wedge between the back of the front seats and the back seatbacks. Then he had the sewing dept. make a custom-made cushion that fit exactly. I remember Wendall and I thinking we were really special if Dad asked his company to do something like that for us. My Dad was always pretty careful to not take things or not to take advantage. So pre-trip Wendall and I would "move in" with all our goodies, blankets, pillows, dolls for me, trucks or planes for Wendall. Sometimes, well often, Mom would have to put a piece of yarn down the middle because we just couldn't seem to get along like perfect little angels. Then Wendall would stick his finger over the yarn and look at me, as if to say "whatcha gonna do now?". We had it made! We could romp around on our pretty big bed (I remember it as a queen size, but probably more like a twin). Or we could choose to lay up on the back window, it was the kind with a good 12" dash-type window sill thingy. Or sometimes we ended up in the front seat between our parents watching the world go by at a good 55 mph clip. Oh OK, my Dad was a leadfoot, so more like 60 mph. It's really a wonder we all survived without seatbelts, car seats, airbags, radar detectors, ect...

Now for the Wet-Ones. We often would pull into a grocery store for some bread, mayo, meat, and cheese, and Mom would whip up the most delicious cold-meat sandwiches ever! Fast food restaraunts were few and far between. Then she would peel and slice apples for us, and on the way home from Florida peel fresh oranges! YUM! Then out would come the yellow container of wipes! Ah, the smell ...

The favorite memory that this smell brought to me today? My Dad listening to a Southern Gospel 8-track tape, and thumping his hand on the steering wheel in rythm. Actually banging on that steering wheel so hard that sometimes Mom would say "Dad, you're going to break it!" And his absolute favorite song ... I'll Fly Away!

I am so grateful to God for my sense of smell, so that I can still smell Wet-Ones, and remember the really good times that I had traveling the highways with some very important people in my life! I miss them so much, that 24 1/2 years later the pain of loss still feels so fresh! Almost as fresh as a yellow cylinder of wipes under a car seat!

The Nesting Instinct

In 3 short weeks I will be having surgery on my right elbow and right wrist. Dave has referred to my frenzied activities as "The Nesting Instinct". I just refer to it as a very important To Do List!

I have a major tear on a tendon, that the Dr. said he will just pull it all together and screw it to my bone. Sounds easy enough! And I have a cyst on my wrist that they'll remove. Do you really think I will be pain free after all that??? I certainly hope so, because I have had pain and limited use in my right arm since I had surgery on my left shoulder in January of 2007! They tell me it was overuse of my right arm while I was recuperating from that shoulder surgery. So to avoid overuse of my left arm, while I'm recovering from my impending surgery (6-8 weeks of immobilization) I have a gigantic "to do list" that I intend to finish before surgery. Then I can just sit around and be waited on hand and foot, right?

So my list really isn't that long, just some important things that tend to hang around like a "pop-up" on the computer! Unless I deal with the item it just sticks in my head!

1. Clean flower beds and garden COMPLETE

2. DeClutter and organize a canning/storage room in the basement COMPLETE

3. Sort my clothes, store summer stuff and get rid of anything I haven't worn for 1 year COMPLETE as of last night at 10:30
disclaimer - I kept some of my summer stuff out, because Dave & I are heading south for 6 days in a couple of weeks :)

4. Trim shrubs

5. Hang Christmas lights on outside trees - I always do this early while it's still warmish and I don't have to freeze my fingers off, then all I do after Thanksgiving is plug them in.

6. Tear apart and reorganize my own personal scrapbooking/collecting/ misc. room that's way in the back corner of the house. Oh so easy to ignore ... until I'm staring surgery in the face!

7. Make an Australia Vacation Photo Album - we've only been home 10 months, what's the hurry?

8. Finish up the volleyball season - last game is October 16th.

9. Finish Christmas Shopping - I've got 1/2 of my shopping done.

I can't come up with a 10th, but if you think of anything I should be adding please let me know!