Big Mud Puddles and Sunny Yellow Dandelions

When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to
take over my yard.
My kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff you can wish on.
~~~
When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person
who probably wants money and I look away.
My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.
~~~
When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don't have much
rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen.
My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words.
If they don'tknow them, they make up their own.
~~~
When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up
my hair and pulling me back when I walk.
My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they
fall to the ground laughing.
~~~
When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that.
My kids say, "Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends.
Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don't want to go to Heaven yet,
I would miss my Mommy and Daddy."
~~~
When I see a mud puddle I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets.
My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross, and worms to play with.
~~~
I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from?
No wonder God loves the little children!
~~~
Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and
realize they were the big things.
~~~
I wish the world Big Mud Puddles and Sunny Yellow Dandelions!!!
~~~
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away."

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV to warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?
You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had
their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped,
without asking, all for free, every time?
And you didn't pay for air?
And, you got trading stamps to boot?

Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a
real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . ...and they did?

When a 55 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber
or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in
the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things
like, "That cloud looks like a ..."

and playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because
no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?


And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in
time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?



When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that
awaited the student at home?

Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't
because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.


Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!


But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.


Do you remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody
and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger,

The Shadow Knows,
Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.
As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games,

Hula Hoops, bowling
and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good,
just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better
and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes, Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles,

Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes, Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum,

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers,
Newsreels before the movie,

P.F. Fliers, Telephone numbers with a
word prefix....(Raymond 4-601). Party lines, Peashooters, Howdy Doody,

45 RPM records, Green Stamps, Hi-Fi's, Metal ice cube trays with
levers, Mimeograph paper, Beanie and Cecil,

Roller-skate keys, Cork pop guns,
Drive ins, Studebakers, Washtub wringers,

The Fuller Brush Man, Reel-To-Reel tape
recorders, Tinkertoys, Erector Sets, The Fort Apache Play Set,

Lincoln Logs,
15 cent McDonald hamburgers,
5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum,

Penny candy, 35 cent a gallon gasoline, Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when... Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER - by Erma Bombeck (written after she found out she was dying from cancer). I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day. I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage. I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded. I would have eaten the popcorn in the "good" living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace. I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband. I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed. I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains. I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life. I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime. Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle. When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's." More "I'm sorry's." But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute...look at it and really see it...live it...and never give it back. Stop sweating the small stuff. Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what. Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us. Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally. I hope you all have a blessed day.

The Years of a Woman

The Years Of A Woman Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen. Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella. Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mum I can't go to school looking like this!) Age 20: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly"- but decides she's going out anyway. Age 30: She looks at herself and sees "too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly" - but decides she doesn't have time to fix it, so she's going out anyway. Age 40: She looks at herself and sees "clean" and goes out anyway. Age 50: She looks at herself and sees "I am" and goes wherever she wants to go. Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world. Age 70: She looks at herself & sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life. Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a PURPLE hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

Prone to Swinging.....

I'm getting into swing dancing. Not on purpose.
Some parts of my body are just prone to swinging

Remember: You don't stop laughing because you grow old,
You grow old because you stop laughing.

THE SENILITY PRAYER : Grant me the senility to forget the people I never
liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do,
and the eyesight to tell the difference.
~Author Unknown~

No Peer Pressure....

Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman: "And what do you
think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked.
She simply replied, "No peer pressure."

The nice thing about being senile is you can hide your own Easter eggs.

I've sure gotten old. I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement,
new knees. Fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I'm half blind,
can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications
that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts. Have bouts with
dementia. Have poor circulation; hardly feel my
hands and feet anymore. Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92.
Have lost all my friends.
But, thank God, I still have my driver's license.

My memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

Don't think of it as getting hot flashes.
Think of it as your inner child playing with matches.

A Women's Random Thoughts

A Woman's Random Thoughts

~~If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it will always be yours. If it doesn't come back, it was never yours to begin with. But, if it just sits in your living room, messes up your stuff, eats your food, uses your telephone, takes your money, and doesn't appear to realize that you had set it free .......You either married it or gave birth to it~~

~~Insanity is my only means of relaxation~~

~~Reason to smile: Every 7 minutes of every day, someone in an aerobics class pulls a hamstring~~

~~Women over 50 don't have babies because they would put them down and forget
where they left them~~

~~One of life's mysteries is how a two pound box of candy can make a woman
gain five pounds~~

~~My mind not only wanders, it sometime leaves completely~~

~~The best way to forget all your troubles is to wear tight shoes~~

~~The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what
you're doing, someone else does~~

~~The older you get, the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, your body
and your fat are really good friends~~

~~Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today~~

~~Sometimes I think I understand everything, then I regain consciousness~~

I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together
and setting my pantyhose on fire~~

~~Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks two sizes!~~

~~Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like, "You know, sometimes I just forget to eat." Now I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name, and my keys....but I've never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat~~

~~A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills. She had 14 kids,
but she doesn't really care~~

~~They keep telling us to get in touch with our bodies. Mine isn't all that communicative
but I heard from it the other day after I said, "Body, how'd you like to go to the six o'clock
class in vigorous toning?" Clear as a bell my body said, "listen witch... do it and die."~~

~~The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then
they marry him~~

~~I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are: eating too much,
impulse buying, and driving too fast. Are they kidding?
That is my idea of a perfect day~~

~~If men can run the world, why can't they stop wearing neckties?
How intelligent is it to start the day by tying a noose around your neck?~~