Tag Archives: Veronica crying
A Day of Reflection in Nagasaki, Japan
Our day of reflection takes us through cherry blossom-strewn, peaceful Nagasaki.Join us as we stroll through The Peace Garden with its towering Prayer Monument, wonder at the surviving statues of a church at ground zero of the atomic bomb, visit the epicenter and the Atomic Bomb Museum.
We’ll take you back to the day when the clocks forever stopped at 11:02… CONTINUE READING >>
Smooth Sailing? Not Likely!
I’d been following the controversial Abby Sunderland story with interest. Remember Abby? She was the sixteen-year-old sailor who, while attempting to sail her vessel around the world solo, found herself stranded in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Her parents took quite a bit of flack over the situation. I’d looked at this story from many different angles – and, as usual, my feelings were mixed.The helicopter Mommy in me shouted, “What the &#*% were her parents thinking?!” But after calm reflection I saw things a bit differently. I too have a child with “dangerous dreams.” My son, The Boy, has been flying airplanes since he was thirteen.
Sure, I’ve heard all the arguments… CONTINUE READING >>
I Am NOT a Useless Waste!
Has it happened? Have I become a crotchety old lady? Do I abhor certain kinds of music because I’m too old to get it? Am I shocked at some of the things that “young people” wear these days?
Possibly so. But I’m dead certain of one thing – people are much more rude than they were when I was a young whippersnapper.
Because we have a website I am painfully aware that there are those that don’t treat others with civility. I’ve quit reading the online comments on news stories – it’s horrific.
Then, out of nowhere, cyberspace-type incivility came crashing into Real Life. In a manner that I couldn’t ignore or justify… CONTINUE READING >>
Post-Parting Depression: Saying Good-bye to My Adult Kids
I’ve got an issue and I need help! I’m hoping I’ll get a lot of suggestions on this post from our amazingly insightful readers.This past holiday season, we had a lot to celebrate. In addition to our typical yuletide festivities, we were blessed to celebrate my in-law’s 60th wedding anniversary two days after Christmas and our own 30th a week after the new year started.
As wonderful as it was to have such momentous events smack-in-the-middle of the holidays, it led to more good-byes to our adult kids than I’m normally used to.
Having The Spawn come and go in such short and hectic celebratory spurts gave me some interesting insight into how I deal with my empty nest good-byes.
Not well, it seems… CONTINUE READING >>
The Weight of Six Million Paper Clips
In a small town in Tennessee there is a monument so moving, so touching and so unlikely that the story behind it is almost unbelievable.Here is a tale of a group of school children who found out that even the smallest idea can spark a world wide movement. And how compassion can change the world… CONTINUE READING >>
The Long and the Shorts of It All
When women get to be “of a certain age” questions of appropriateness inevitably rear their ugly heads. I think I have squarely hit that certain age. With a vengeance.My questions of appropriateness have actually turned into a LIST of questions of appropriateness:
Should I stop wearing shorts?
What about sleeveless blouses?
Is my hair too long?
When should I stop dying it?
Should I do something about my wrinkles? The shorts quandary is a tough one for me. It’s on the top… CONTINUE READING >>
Spice Up Your Holidays with a Tamale Party
Do you need some spice in your life? Here’s a festive holiday idea!Whether it’s a tamale party or your own special holiday tradition, please be sure to get together with family and friends this year.
Enjoy each other… CONTINUE READING >>
Fear Conquering & Hate Mail
A comment on our site:“In my opinion, anyone who would refer to children in such a disgusting and disrespectful way (adult or not) is an emotionally bankrupt shell of a person…”
BAM! My first hate mail.
I read a lot of blogs. Any of them worth their salt raise strong emotion and spark debate on their message boards. Sometimes it can get a bit heated, but makes for a nice balance.
We have had comments on our website that strongly disagree with our opinions and we relish them, we value every… CONTINUE READING >>
Things We Wish We’d Known BEFORE We Sent Our Kids to College
With autumn upon us, many new empty nesters have sent a fledgling off to college for the first time. Here are some DOs and DON’Ts on how to get through that first semester without losing your mind. 1. Don’t start off on a bad note. It’s hard to let our kids go. The day our babies head out on their own is a tough one for any parent. Because of her self-awareness about her emotional outbursts, Veronica
… CONTINUE READING >>
Helicopter Mom – You Are Grounded!
“A mother is only as happy as her saddest child,” a close friend’s grandmother used to say. When I first heard her say this, all three of my children were young and safely in the nest so I could totally relate. Somehow I thought once they were grown up this would change. It didn’t.Trouble finds its way into everyone‘s lives – and as much as we hate it – trouble finds our adult children. Whether it rears its ugly head in a… CONTINUE READING >>
A Little Talked About Sign of Aging
Here’s the thing. My best features come from my Romanian roots. I’ve always enjoyed having dark hair and blue eyes. I am psyched that my “gray” hair is silver, some people pay big bucks for that. Dracula was Romanian, and by most accounts was a particularly handsome man-thing.
That being said, we Romanians are a very hairy people. My beloved Grandpa not only had follicles growing out of his ears, but in his later years his lobes looked like small woodland creatures. My stunningly gorgeous mother had quite the collection of… CONTINUE READING >>
Following the Freedom March in Alabama
It was a difficult few days for us as we were forced to confront thoughts and feelings that we would have much rather avoided. We addressed issues that many of us Americans would like to think have been completely resolved. But it seems to us that turning a blind eye is not the solution.The lesson we learned is that the light of day is best, because as much as this is fairly recent history, we were taken aback by how little we knew about the details. In Birmingham, the details are on display – front and center – and in Montgomery… CONTINUE READING >>
16 Boxes
Almost everyday we hear somebody say “I live vicariously through you” or “ I wish we could do what you’re doing.” As inviting as it may seem, it’s probably not the lifestyle for everybody. There is actually quite a commitment to chucking it all and becoming a gypsy. It takes a dash of nerve and a pinch of intestinal fortitude to get rid of everything you own except a handful of personal items that can be fit into a few boxes.16 boxes to be exact. Close to 30 years of marriage and 3 kids later, we’re whittled down to 16 boxes, most them in storage. Many of these boxes are tagged to go directly to the kids… CONTINUE READING >>
Why Do People Like Us Even Have Kids?
@DianaHayes “Tell me why when a person says they enjoy the empty nest another person counters with – Oh, but I am close to my kids. ARGH”Receiving this sort of frustrated Tweet is not uncommon for us, this one came while sitting with our morning coffee in a hotel cafe. I had just returned from using the lobby bathroom where I overheard a cell phone conversation in the stall next to me.
Yes, I admit I was eavesdropping – but I have two lame excuses.
1) We had just… CONTINUE READING >>
Attack of the 1000 Dollar Mammogram
Ten people. TEN.This is how many people I dealt with while getting my annual mammogram. How did something so personal turn into an assembly line? As if getting my boobs pancaked and my skin yanked so tight that I felt it all the way up to my ears isn’t bad enough. I get to be treated like a cow in a roundup.
Before I go off on a complete diatribe, I want to be fair. I’m ALWAYS a wreck at mammogram time. My mother died of breast cancer. The final ten years of her life were hell as the cancer spread to her lymph nodes, her spine and her brain. I learned to administer shots. I watched as her brain fluid was removed from a shunt in her… CONTINUE READING >>
SoHo Appy Crawl
We take making a meal out of appetizers very seriously. Having them at multiple restaurants is even better. For this appy crawl, in the heart of Manhattan, we enlisted help from our middle child, Decibel, the black-wearing, taxi-flagging, fast-walking, free-lancing, f-bomb-dropping, urbanite New Yorker.Feeling generous, we asked Decibel to decide on three restaurants she’d been waiting to visit until Mom and Dad could be there to pick up the tab. She rattled off three so fast that we knew she must have been waiting for us to ask 22 to decide on three restaurants she’d been waiting to visit until Mom and Dad could be there to pick up the tab. She rattled off three so fast that we knew she must have been waiting for us to ask and next thing we knew she was at our hotel room. The girl is like the… CONTINUE READING >>
My Dirty Little Secret
David and I have one chick left in the nest. He graduates from high school in June. And I am marking the days. I keep a gigantic calendar and mark a red X each day. For my son’s sake (and to avoid horrified looks from house guests), I keep the calendar between the mattresses of my bed.
I’m fully aware how bad this looks, so I will explain myself. I LOVE MY KIDS! But, when June 8 rolls around, I will have spent almost twenty five years of my life raising them. I deserve this dirty little secret.
This callousness does not make me impervious to the emotional milestones along the way. I recently received my son’s cap and gown picture taken at his school. My heart literally … CONTINUE READING >>
St. Croix Appy Crawl #1
We take making meals out of appetizers very seriously. Having them at multiple eateries is even better. For one thing, it forces us to walk off some of the food between stops, for another, we get to try several different places without destroying our credit rating. We decided to hit three brand new restaurants on the evening of the St. Croix Christmas Parade in Christiansted… CONTINUE READING>>
