July 4 ??? 1986-1987 Or 1988?

Joining Lynnett in walking down memory lane.
For memories of other fellow bloggers, hop on over and check out their memories too.


I wish I had a photo to share today, but cannot find the photo I wanted so I will tell my memory regardless.

What year was that?

Was it 1986 - 1987 or 1988? I wish I could remember that. But I know it was one of those three years, because of where we lived at the time.

IT was July 4 time again, we lived close enough to the lake that we could walk down to the lake to watch the fireworks.

Kimberly was either 6 - 7 - or 8 years old. And very excited to be walking to the lake to watch the fireworks. After all her Aunt Evie and cousin Kris came by and were going to go with us.


Everybody ready? Here we go, off to the lake early so that we get a good seat on the hill so we can sit and watch the fireworks.
It was about 2-3 blocks , and across busy Lake Shore and we were there.

We had not gone over a block and I kept getting a whiff of something. The smell was a peculiar smell, I simply couldn't put my finger on what I was smelling.
Yet the smell was there.

We walked a couple more steps, and I looked at my daughter and said, "Did you use lotion? What do I smell?"

Her answer, "Oh, Mommy, I used that Mousse that was on the back of the toilet."

I STOPPED DEAD STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.

"WHAT?"

"Ya, Mom the Mousse, you just bought."

"I didn't buy any Mousse, where did you get it?"

"On the back of the toilet."


OH MY GOD, Oh My God, "Kim that isn't mousse for your hair, That is NAIR hair remover for your mother's legs."

Then the panic hit me. "How much did you use?" "I don't know just a bit" and made sweeping gestures that she applied it across the top of her beautiful blond hair.

"WE GOTTA GO HOME NOW!" As I turned around, and she realized what I kept saying over and over. "That was hair remover, Nair, it makes your hair go away", And knowing me I'm sure I added, " I hope your hair don't all fall out." She started to cry. I was in a panic - I don't think I could shed a tear, I was petrified, trying to figure out what I was going to do if her hair fell out the minute I started washing it. And from where she said she applied it, I had visions of her having hair on either side of her head but not on top of her head.

So, we rushed back to the house and I put her on the kitchen counter and we started washing her hair in the kitchen sink.

THANK GOD she had not gotten the Nair to the roots of her hair, but applied it to the outer edges only, and NO HAIR came out at all.

So with a wet head I think we did return to the lake to watch the fireworks that night.

I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was petrified. How would I send my child to school if she had no hair on top of her head.
I am and was very thankful that she did not reach the roots of her hair and that she lost no hair over this lesson.

My lesson was, that I needed to make sure my young child knew the difference between mousse and Hair remover, so that this would not be repeated as she grew up.
Also, I needed to make sure I put my things away when I got home and not leave it setting on the toilet tank to be mistaken for something that it is not.

So on this 4th of July, I will smile and remember, our unusual 4th . 1986- 87- or 88, whichever one it was.

Hope everybody has a safe and happy 4th of July 2009.

Label it!!!!!!

Label it, labels , and more labels. If you don't have labels make sure you get a big magic marker and label it with a marker!


Today, I am reminded once again, that we as adults need to label things. Not only for us, but for others.

Number 2: If it leaks, throw it out, don't put it in a bottle that is labeled something else.

I am so grateful, our Sunday School Teacher's granddaughter is okay. But, he should have labeled it!!!!!!!

Quite some time ago him and his wife had a bottle of ammonia in the closet that was leaking... They wiped it and yes, it still had a leak, so he grabbed a empty plastic bottle and transferred the ammonia into it. ( Did not remove the old label and did not relabel it).....

Months later.....this bottle was transferred to their kitchen by error...after all the label on the side said "Nursery Water". Friday evening it was used in error and their granddaughter was given what they thought was a bottle of water.... She immediately spewed it out and made a awful face.

911 was called, and the cops, ambulance, fire department all responded and there is an investigation. THE BABY IS OKAY, and was allowed to go home with her mother yesterday afternoon. But did spend the night in the hospital under observation. The grandparents feel awful about what happened.

But, this is a reminder and a lesson for all of us.

LABEL IT!
THROW IT OUT IF IT LEAKS!

Lets keep our little ones safe. After all it might be someone else who sees things in a different light. That might pick up something we in the past had put in a wrong bottle or unmarked bottle. And someone could get hurt.


I told him later, I was going to blog about it, but not use names, But pray for them.

SO, I'm off to check my cabinets and make sure things are labeled.
I will label my small spray bottles of eye glass cleaner since it is alcohol.
WE WANT TO STAY SAFE!!!!


I will make big stick on labels and replace the magic marker one, but I must buy more labels first.

A couple of laughs

The story of the gynecologist who was sick of dealing with HMO, Insurance, law suits, etc. he decided to go to school and take up another profession.

Went to school to be a car mechanic.
When it was time to take the final exams, He was all ready. Took the final exam and on hands test, when the results came back he saw his score was 150%.

How can that be? 150%??? So he questioned the professor.

Well said the professor:
You got 50% for disassembling the motor.
Another 50% for reassembling the motor.


AND


ANOTHER 50% for doing it thru the muffler.





And the story of the lady who went to the pharmacy to and ask to buy cyanide.
Pharmacist--- I can't sell you cyanide....It's illegal.
Lady---But I have to have it, I want to kill my husband.
Pharmacist---Can't do it.

Lady reaches into her purse and takes out a photo and hands it to the pharmacists.
(It is a photo of her husband and in his arms he has the pharmacist wife.)

The pharmacist stands there a few moments looking at the photo then said.


"You didn't tell my you had a prescription."

Hot tub

Went down to the hot tub this evening after we got to the motel.

NOW that I am back up here in the room I am actually falling asleep sitting straight up. And it is only 10 p.m.

Guess, I'd best try and get some sleep and go from there.

St. Louis Here I Come.

Women of Faith Conference is in St. Louis, Mo. on Friday and Saturday.

I am privileged to attend with a lady from my church, her daughter and her friend.
Plans are to leave Decatur on Thursday and go to Tomatoes for dinner, then rest so we don't have to get up so early on Friday morning to go to the preconference.

After 400 calls in a few days, they simply will have to cope with the phones without me. All I ask of her to do on my job is the payroll on Friday morning, the rest of the stuff she can pile in my basket and I will deal with it all next week.

She is already filling the slots for regular time on next Monday, it amazing me that people want to wait their turn and not pay the extra for after hours to get their air conditioners working. And this heat is not supposed to give us any relief till Sunday. (That should make for a wonderful Monday).hee,hee.

But, as of tonight I do not have to deal with any of that. I am offically off till Monday and I intend to enjoy every minute of it!

Better Late Then Never and misc.

Taken on the swinging bridge at Lake of The Woods, Monticello, IL.




I hunted for a photo of my father. I found this one, You can't see his face, but I believe this is the only photo I have of my father holding our daughter.
He had a number of strokes, and I do remember he just cried and cried.
I hope they were happy tears that he got to see and hold his granddaughter.



Grandpa Jerry and Kim. Jerry is Bud's step dad, the only grandpa that Kim ever knew. This is a happy photo. The one with him being the Easter bunny...oh, my he had to take his head off to hold his own granddaughter.

A number of years ago, Jerry had to have brain surgery and since then every so often he suffers from seizures. The latest last evening. For the first time since he has been having them, We were able to keep him at home. All the doctors and hospital ever did was monitor his blood pressure and let him sleep it off. The one he had on Mother's Day, Bud ended up going to the hospital that night. They told him then, that there really wasn't any reason to cart him off to the hospital unless he was bleeding that he had fell. So, last night even tho grandma had called 911, Bud convinced them to leave him at home. He stayed till he woke up, got him to take his meds, and put him to bed.


I went over at noon and he didn't remember going to bed, but seemed to be okay today.
Grandma had to go have her esphophicus stretched again.


So, I trust the men in our lives all had a good Father's Day.
Kim called her father from Florida. We were glad to hear from her as they are vacationing in the Florida sun.

THE SUN????? Tonight I almost wish it were snowing. Truthfully, people are worse in the summer then they are in the winter. Since Friday morning we have taken over 400 service calls... It is very hot and humid here.

When I came home this evening, Bud had been on a trip today, and he was resting in his recliner when I came home. Told me they sent him home, I guess he must have gotten too hot, and was purple when he got back. So, food it was, lots of water, and off to bed early.

So, if we are going to be outside we must all remember...Lots and lots of water and try and stay as cool as possible.

20 Degree Temperature Drop

When I think of a 20 degree temperature drop when I am at the office, I am thinking, "well, if you have a 20 degree drop then your air conditioner may be doing all it can." After all that is what air conditioners are designed to give us. Especially the older ones.

Today, I had to talk a sweet little old lady through how to turn her air conditioner on. She states she turned it to 60, and her unit just runs, and runs. It was all I could do not to laugh. Sweet little thing is still thinking of how her stat works on heat not cooling. She told me she doesn't like to too cold.
So to make sure she had it turned on correctly I started with.
1.) What temperature do you want your house to be? answer 78-80
2.) What is the thermostat set at now? answer 60. (Whee I must get her to understand that she needs to turn it up.

I ask her to check her stat, was it turned to cooling? Yes,
Was the fan set to auto and not the on possition? :Yes, but what does that do?" "Well it lets your furnace fan to run when the air conditioner is calling for cooling. It cycles on and off when your thermostat calls for cooling."
And then came the task of getting her to understand that if she didn't want to freeze plus freeze her air conditioner up into one solid block of ice she needed to turn that thermostat up to 78 or 80 degrees.

Oh what we don't do for our customers.

But that is not what I had in mind with my title tonight.
20 Degree Temperature Drop........This was God's thermstat tonight.
When I came home from work at 5 it was 91 degrees out there and very mucky...humid.
Now it is 71 degrees out there and still doing some storming.
Lightning, thunder, rain, it has brought the temp down a bit. Hope the servicemen got all their overtime calls done without getting drenched to the core.

After the first storm passed on East of us. This is what I saw out the front window.
Still looks very stormy out there.





Again, it is lightning and thundering, sounds like another storm is coming in.


Just for the fun of it, I went to the weather channel and the above is what it is showing is almost upon us....wowwww.... looks like we are going to get another round, will it continue to bring the temperatures down. Or will the humidity go way up after it goes through? I'm glad I have the week end off, and don't have to work....heee,heee, the guy on call will work a bunch I am sure. Plus there will be some units that get struck with lightning that will need to be replaced.
Julie told me today the forcast for next week is in the 90's and I am planning on taking off on Thursday and Friday to go to the Women of Faith Conference in St. Louis.... Oh, well, I had it planned for a long time. They will simply have to cope without me. I am going down there to Praise God and be refreshed.

Was Verna trying to HANG herself?

Walking down Memory Lane--
August 1969--- The years that I suffered more than one whip lash to my much younger neck. I was in a neck brace. Yet I learned how to maneuver the car and drive while wearing it. I learned to use side mirrors, park where I would only have to back up a very short space before I was on the street again. To this day I drive using mirrors much more then some people do.




I made my dresses with much bigger neck lines, so that the brace would fit better and not be uncomfortable. But, trust me that thing was hot, especially in the heat of summer.


My chiropractor went on a two week vacation, and he gave me an across the door traction unit so that I could use it three times a day and stretch my neck, and it would help keep my head aches away. The head gear hooked snugly around your head/neck was hooked to the rope that run up on the pulleys and down the back where at the bottom there were two bricks in the bag. The weight of the bricks pulled on the neck to stretch it and relieve the pressures.

It was around the end of the two weeks that he was going to be gone when I was invited to go to the east coast with my older sister and her family. So I packed my traction and off we went.

The doctor came back from vacation and expected to see me in his office the first day, complaining that it still didn't feel correct. Much to his surprise I never showed up that day. And a greater surprise he had the next day when he got a post card from me, and I stated that I was at the Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for vacation with my older sister.

The mountains in Pennsylvania were wonderful and we had a good time.
But on the 28th while journeying homeward we were traveling along turn pike all day and I knew traction was a must because of how my neck felt. After all I was instructed to use it 3 times a day for 15 minutes.

We stopped for our picnic supper, beside the turn pike. And my brother in law hooked the traction in the tree. I had to hold very still because we were afraid it would fall out and really cause trouble. Everybody who passed really looked and looked.
Right after they could see me there what looked as tho I was hanging from the tree they passed through an underpass and could not see us anymore.

We laughed at people and I waved at the truck drivers. The looks on their faces was gold--as tho I was committing a crime and trying to hang myself.



Note how the across the door portion is hung in the tree.



Some people may still be wondering what that Mennonite girl was doing. But who cares, it did the trick and gave relief at the time.

So was Verna trying to hang herself? No, her feet were on the ground.

And yes, this might have been my first Verna rigg. (Making the best of what you have with what you have at the time.)


So for more walks down memory lane go on over to Lynette's blog and see what others have to say:

Yummm, chocolate cake, carmel icing and useful kitchen tool

YAA! I can still bake. (Unlike my last baking I did and I burnt the cookies) I baked a chocolate cake and iced it with Carmel icing.
One like my mother taught me how to make. But for years and years nobody could master the icing.

A number of years ago actually about 30+ years ago, I tried the cake recipe again. Mom was already gone to heaven so I couldn't ask her anything. My cake was flat, and I called my younger sister and was telling her, "My cake is good, but it's not nearly as thick as Mom's used to be," She stopped me before I could keep on bemoaning my flat cake and ask, "What did you measure the ingredients with?" Well, a measuring cup---it asked for 2 cups of sugar, etc....." "Wait" she declared, "Mom NEVER USED A MEASURING CUP", In fact we don't think she even owned one. She always used our coffee mugs when she did baking. "Throw out your measuring cup and use a coffee mug." is what my sister told me to do.


Friday evening when my sister-in-law called to let me know that they wanted to get together for lunch today, since my brother and wife from Indiana were here for a visit. She told me my brothers would love to have a cake like Mom's to go with the homemade ice cream and strawberries.

Below are the results of my cake.



See the icing is all but running over the edges....when I went to cut this cake, The icing was falling off around the edges so I put it on the tin foil that I had used to cover it.... OH, how I wished I had a camera at the time....two of my brothers all but fought for that icing. And the third one said, "Oh, I didn't get any".

Then one ask "Where are the low spots? When Mom iced her cake she always filled in the low spots with icing. That's the part I want."
Guess it has been a while since they had this cake. And from the looks of the above, With only 7 people eating cake, we made a dent in it.(We actually ate within one piece of 1/2 of this cake) And yes, the icing is rich, and sweet, but oh so Yummy!

From start to finish on the icing it took me over 2 1/2 hours since it has to be cooked very slow so that it will not burn.


This handy kitchen tool is the best when I go to making the icing. I searched for years for one since I didn't get Mom's. Also searched a long time for a pan like the one below, so that I could cook the icing in, nice and slow and not burn it.
But pans like this get very hot, so I was indeed grateful when I found this helper (Just like Mom's) at a garage sale one day. I believe I got it for a quarter. Little did the lady who sold it know that I would have paid up to $10 for this pan holder. It allows me to remove the very hot pan from the stove and hold it in the kitchen sink on water to cool the icing so it can be spread on the cake.




I did leave some cake for Abe and ZoAnn, Levi and Anna to enjoy later this evening with more strawberries. Clara said she was glad he got cake today, now perhaps she wouldn't have to make him one for his birthday. Dan didn't take any cake home, but years ago he had a birthday gift given to him with a promise if he brought me his pan, I would bake him a cake anytime he wanted it as long as I was able to do so.
So, wonder how soon it will be before he brings me another empty pan?

Tonight I took a couple pieces to church with me for my adopted Mother/Father at church. And the balance of the cake will go to work with me tomorrow. The pan will be empty in no time flat. If I want another piece I'd best be to leaving it on my desk or I won't get any. It will probably be lunch tomorrow since I have a 1:45 p.m. doctor appointment. (Please keep me in your prayers, I hate doctors appointments!).

Dorky photos.

Sometimes its the dorky photos that our kids take....


My eyes always look like I've been crying.
After having them tested the other evening and all but dying when they told me the price of new lenses for my glasses, I felt like all I needed to do was add the sound and people would think I was crying.


These photos were taken in Oaklahoma---Thanksgiving of 1988 by my then 8 year old.
On the other hand that same trip I managed to get this:



Hop on over to http://lynnettekraft.blogspot.com/ (lynette's blog) and check out additional dorky photos. Love them.
Thanks Lynette, laughter is good for all of us!

Wanta ride a donkey?

Joining Lynette for Wednesdays walk down memory Lane,



Ever been on top of a donkey?
Now who in their correct mind would get up on top of a donkey?
Well, Jesus did and so did I.

Back in the early 70's there was a church paper called "The Words of Cheer" and in the back there were people who wrote wanting pen pals.
I started writing to this girl, my age, in Canada.

After a lot of years writing letters, I decided I wanted to go to Canada to see her, but I didn't want to travel alone. My younger sister, Martha said she would go if her husband didn't mind.

She called him and he said she could go, and before he could call back and say no he didn't want her to go after all --- we were on the road.

While there the second time we met we went to this farm that had a donkey, and yes we were getting rides. My comment was, that when I got on him he would probably just be a stubborn mule and not move. You guess it, he had to be led so that I would get my turn riding.

The second time we went we took our niece along.Also Marthas husband went with us.



Across the years we were able to visit each other about 5 times.
I miss her since she is gone, but God took her home to a much better place then here on earth. But because of her friendship, I have become a much better person.
Bernice, love you and miss you.

Our first meeting in April 1973.






And my first and only donkey ride.

Double Meaning

When we went to New York City we found this plaque.
My husband said we needed to buy it. Since my maiden name was Beachy it was fitting.
But I want to say it would be nice to go to the Beach and just sit on the beach and enjoy it.


But for me it is a double meaning..... Go to the beach and be beachy

or My maiden last name was Beachy.
It is hanging on our front door, so my relatives should be able to find which door is ours.

Another wonderful one.

We are coming to the close of another wonderful week end.

Got my flowers planted, the house cleaned and the laundry done.
Sorted some photos, and found a few that made me laugh, and others made me want to cry. I want to put all my photos on the computer, but I see that is going to take lots of time and work doing it on the scanner.

I did find some photos of more things I have made in the past so if you want to see them you will have to go over to my other blog to see them. Just find the button on the side of my blog and it will take you over.

I found lots of photos that I know my daughter will laugh at when I show her what I found. Some very wild hair days back in the 80's. But, I did not find the photos that I was particularly looking for. (The ones where I crocheted my wedding dress).
Where oh where are they hiding. I thought I looked in all those albums up there. What Have I done with them? Oh well, perhaps, I shall just have to post some wedding photos which will show my dress in more detail.

Tomorrow it is back to work, and I have to pay all the Company bills. Glad it is their money I am spending and not mine.

Wordless- Speaks for itself.

Joining Lynette for Wednesdays walk down memory Lane,


Only this is a Wordless walk- speaks for itself.

Alone- sleep over.

Tonight I am having a sleep over. Totally alone, unless you count the dog that's in the landing, and the cat downstairs.

In order to save time and energy I have optioned to sleep at my girl friends house. They are in Florida enjoying the sunshine, and we are stuck here in Illinois with thunderstorms.

Bud has to go to Ohio early in the morning for a car, So that leaves me to dog sit.
So, I am spending the night here alone. Jake, (The dog) hopefully won't make any messes on the basement floor, and I will be able to let him out at 5:30 in the morning before I head to Curves then off to work.

SO I am having a sleep over at my co-worker- Julie's house, while they are gone.

This house is bigger then I am used to and I hear all kinds of sounds.
Oh, yes, and I must not forget--- Julie's oldest used to communicate with Jack. And the youngest says Buster lives here too. Jake the dog hates thunderstorms, so hopefully they are over for the night.
So, hope the spirts (if that is what they are) will sleep tonight and know that I am not here to harm them, I simply don't want to run all over town in the morning before I have to go to work.