Richer or Poorer.

So many images are invoked by those two simple words.
Richer.
Poorer.

I wonder how many people reflect on those words spoken at their weddings and think “OK God, I was great with rich, didn’t really think we would have to deal with poorer.”  After all, this is America we don’t do poor.

And, by the rest of the world standard we aren’t poor, not a single one of us; however, when we are busy keeping up with the Jones’ the American version of poor can bite you square in the rear end.  The number of people having to declare personal bankruptcy is growing by the day.  The ones who wanted so desperately to live a life they could not afford is now costing them greatly.

My grandparents generation didn’t use credit.  They only borrowed money for their house.  My grandparents paid cash for every car they ever bought.  WOW.

My generation…
Well, we finance everything-even our toilet paper (for those of us who have used a credit card to buy groceries).  Some of us think as along as they keep sending offers for credit cards, my credit is fine.  Only to realize 6 months later that the bills are coming and they cost us more than we make.

I am so very thankful to be married to a fiscally minded spouse.  We have only been married a little over a  year and we have cleared out all our debt except for the car and our house.  We have contingency plans for if something should go wrong.

But, I worry about my friends and other people of my generation-we have never had to want for anything and this current economic “correction” has many of them running scared.  After all, the last time there was a recession, we were children.

I certainly do not want to wish poorer on anyone because-well, I just don’t think many of us have the grit that past generations have had.  I don’t think many of us (myself included) could live through a depression.  Heck, many of us, wouldn’t know the first thing about being truly self sufficient.

Which one would teach us the most?
Richer.
Poorer.
Hard lessons to learn.
Check out more on change at Sunday Scribblings.

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I Believe…

Wow, those words rolling around in my head came upon the Apostles’ Creed.  Which is true, I do believe all of those things-except the Decended to Hell part…oh where was i…
Ah yes…

I Believe….

Oh for petesake and a volkswagon!  Now the old Don Williams tune is chasing the Apostles’ Creed down the street in my brain….I Believe in You.

I Believe that song has stirred up some memories.
I Believe I won’t be sharing them here!

I Believe that there is some truth to that old country tune (and by the way, it is a CLASSIC Country tune)-and somethings I don’t believe. (I am a huge fan of Organic Food and I drive a Honda!)

I Believe we are entering in a very exciting (if uncertain) time in our nation’s history with our first minority president.
I Believe that to many people are living in and breeding fear over the state of affairs in this country.

I Believe in the spirit of Christmas and the wonder of a child when you speak of it (and Santa)
I Believe that Sonic ice is the closest thing to manna (from heaven) that we have today here in America.
I Believe that Sonic ice also has me spoiled rotten.

I could go on with this thread for hours, however…
I Believe I will go play with my Christmas gifts now.

I knew instantly…

When I saw the subject line of the email, “Fwd: Psalm 2008-2012″ it was not going to be good.

Several factors gave it away.
1.  It was from my grandmother, and God, I love that woman but in the past several months (mostly since my popaw died-or maybe she has always been this way, but he was our buffer) -well, past several months she just ain’t been right.  (Bless her Heart).

2.  It was a forward.  My momaw doesn’t write many emails but she sure as shootin’ forwards EVERY ONE of them.  NO matter if they talk about aliens, or the old lady who will rob you blind in the Target parking lot.

3.  There is a biblical reference-but wait I am no biblical scholar and sometimes it seems like there are 3000 psalms, I know in reality there aren’t nearly that many.

Oh, I get it…thems dates!
So, I open the email.  (Bless my Heart)

And it is a poem about Democrats.  Well golly gee- I didn’t see that one comin’.
And it is a really bad attempt to parody the 23rd Psalm.

Because, well that one really doesn’t Rhyme.

I think I might have to start filtering my momaw’s emails because never once in the 5 years she has had her AOL-has she ever written me an email.

I just knew instantly, it should have been deleted.

It has been a few weeks since I was able to participate in Sunday Scribblings and this is one of my favorite topics: A Winter’s Tale (which translates to me SNOW STORM!)

Right off the bat three storms come to mind.

January 16th 1978, January 17th 1994 and March 7, 2008.

All three of the storms had record level snow fall the two in January were over 15 inches in a 24 hour period and the one in March was about a foot-but it was MARCH!

The first storm I was 9 years old and it seemed like school was cancelled for a full month. School was cancelled for so long that the local PBS station started broadcasting “school” for kids to keep up with some of the things they learned. We also had to add 45 minutes on to every day so that we wouldn’t be in school through most of the summer (I guess it was alot!) My sister and I spent alot of time at my grandparents farm. I remember the fence in the front yard colapsing under the weight of the snow. My great uncle Emanuel had snowmobiles that we got to ride all over the back 70 acres. We would come in after an hour of bone numbing cold and warm by the fire and eat snow cream. It seems that the whole family stayed there for days, but that could just be one of those fabricated childhood memories.

The next storm was about as much fun but I was much older-25 and the night the snow started several of my friends and I went to see our favorite local band play- The Merry Pranksters. During set breaks we ventured outside to have snowball fights and make snow angels in the middle of Bardstown Road. Yes, the MIDDLE of the road-no one was driving anywhere. I think that the 150 or so of us who were crazy enough to stay out in that storm WERE the only people in the city who did so. By the time the band was done playing at 3 am there was already at least 12 inches of snow on the ground.

By the next morning-16 inches! It took us over 2 hours to dig my car out of the snow. My 1988 Seville was the only car on the road that didn’t have any issues with the compacted snow. We even passed police cruisers sliding down Lexington Road-backward. My friends Andy and Carrie had spent the night at my apartment but we thought it would be better to go to her place because she had a working fireplace-so we did! After we found an open store to buy food and firewood-the only open store in the entire city. That time it was a full week before everything was back on track. We worked at a Mexican Restaurant and between the three of us and a few other people that lived above it, we were able to work when the owner couldn’t get out of his house for another 4 days. Ah-good times were had by all!

And the last storm-the most recent.
This past March.

The 13 yr old had a soccer game that was thankfully cancelled-mainly because you would not be able to FIND the ball in a foot of snow. So, spouselet, the 13 yr old and several other kids from the neighborhood went to the bottom of the hill and rode sleds, garbage can lids and peices of plastic for hours. Spouselet took tons of video that he is still editing. I made snow cream-for the first time in almost 20 years.

I think the dogs had more fun in the fluffy white stuff than the kids did as the picture above displays.

I love a storm, but the ones in winter will always be my favorite!

Change.

There are so many things all of us could say about change this week.

Here in Kentucky the leaves FINALLY started coming off the trees.
Change.

Earlier this week, we, as a nation, elected the first African American President.
Change.

Stock market up.
Stock market down.
Change.

But, nope, not me.
I am gonna talk about stuff going on around my house.

We (the spouselet and I) have known for a couple of months we made a really bad financial choice in getting my new car. (new to me, not new off the lot) The lure of the leather heated seats, 6 disk changer, DVD and sun roof got us all hot and bothered and we bought the car. The first day out.

We do love it. HOWEVER, we do not love the 15 MPG (which ISN’T what all the websites said it would get) nor the increase in insurance and we really didn’t like the big car payment-and when gas was 4 bucks a gallon…this car was setting us back close to a $1000 a month.

OH HECK NO!
Something had to Change.

So, today, he took the car in for an oil change and while there started talking to one of the sales persons. We have several choices that fit our eco-criteria and could save us up to 300 bucks over what we are doing right now, IF we play it right.

It won’t have heated leather seats. It won’t have a DVD. It might not even have a CD player (OH the humanity!). And it will be much smaller back down to seating for 4 instead of 8.

It WILL be a change.
One I can certianly live with.

Check out more on change at Sunday Scribblings.

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This weeks prompt is My Style.

I used to know exactly what was considered “My Style”. It was very distinctive, very me. It was artsy, bohemian, funky, hippie mama-cool as Stevie Nicks. I loved black. Lace. Scarves. Fru-Fru. If it was crafted in India. Tye-dyed or batik’d, it was in my closet. Vintage-oh now THERE is a word! I used to wear my grandmother’s outfits that looked like something Marilyn Monroe would wear-complete with the dyed shoes and purse…wow.

A lot of my style was “Oh My Gawd, is she wearing THAT in public?”
(which was a direct quote from my father, to my mother when I wore a bustier and a man’s blazer)

Funky-monkey.
Weird.
(Peculiar)

Then I got older. Got “fat”. Lost my nerve.
People across the county are praising my extra weight.
But honestly, I don’t want to wear things that shock people anymore. I am quite over that phase of my life.

I am not however, over being funky-they just don’t make a lot of funky in my current weight class-or more for my body shape.

Honestly, I am not vain enough (ok, yes I am) to admit that one of the reasons I want to lose weight is so I CAN wear some of the clothes that scream “ME”-and they just aren’t on the shelves and racks and Layne Bryant.

Head on over to Sunday Scribblings to read more on the topic.

This weeks prompt is Forbidden.

Oh the images that forbidden bring.  Sadly, for me, they are all food.  I know that some people are thinking of stuff like the results of the 7 deadly…or something a bit more dark and mysterious. 

Nope.
Not me.
It was food.
Fruit actually.

No. Not Adam and Eve forbidden fruit, something for me much darker.
Fruit with a high glycemic index.
Bananas.
Melons.
Pineapple.

My mind went straight to bananas and pineapples.

See, a few months ago, my doctor told me that I could eat these foods, but they are a serious detriment to my health.  They are the enemy.  He told me that I may never (NEVER) be able to eat some of these foods again.  The list is much more extensive than mentioned above, but I LOVE fruit. 

I didn’t think I could make it.  I loved having a banana for breakfast with some cereal.  There is nothing better on earth than a Peanut butter, banana and mayo sandwich on white bread…oh which, by the way, he tells me, I can’t have ANY of that either.

Usually when someone tells me that I can not have something, I rebel. 
Ask my parents. 
Wow, can I rebel.

I guess this time, I am more mature (at least I hope so) and I have heeded his advice.
I have not had one banana or pineapple in over 6 months.
That doesn’t mean that I have not thought about, or even dreamed of having them again one day.

Head on over to Sunday Scribblings to read more on the topic.

Coffee

I am not much of a coffee drinker.  It is something reserved for special occassions and always involves some sinful chocolate desert. 

It wasn’t always that way.

When I was younger, no bigger than 4 or 5 my grandmother, on my mama’s side used to let me drink black coffee out of her saucer.  She would get up at 6 before anyone else and have a cup of coffee. 

When I was small and we were visitin’ her in Lexington I got to sleep with her.  My parents were glad for the break, I guess when she woke up, I woke up and that is how I was able to share a few stolen moments.

To this day, when ever I smell coffee-I think of her.
And I still take it black.

However, I have graduated to a cup.

At the Sunday Scriblings blog, the question(s) or prompt this week are the following:

How did you meet your significant other, your best friend, your dog, your nemesis? On the flip side of that, are there any people in your life you have lost touch with who you wonder about?

This is actually a very timely post because my significant other and I  started communicating via email about this time 3 years ago!  But the question was how did we meet!  Ah….grab a chair, this could take a bit.

Seriously though-Sunny and I met online.
:::listens to the collective gasps::::
Playing a Video Game
:::more gasps::::
We were both members of a group of people who got together online and played Guild Wars.  After a few weeks people started dropping off to do other things, but Sunny and I were really into it.  (I still play occassionally)  Then one night he asked me out-in game!  I said sure because I knew he lived like 15 hours away and it would be a LONG time before I would have to deal with that.  I was pretty content being a divorced mama.

My Lovin

Little did I know that soon after that-soon after we started emailing and comparing life  plans, philosophies and goals-he asked me to come to Iowa to attend a wedding of a friend of his.  WOW.  MMMM-ok, that is a bit serious!

We actually ended up having a great weekend-then 2 years later (that same month) we got married in the same state (Iowa).

The picture at the right is Sunny at our wedding rehearsal.  Isn’t he a cutie!