A Little High School Nostalgia

Tomorrow is my 30th high school class reunion.  Unfortunately, I'm not going although I'm regretting that decision more every moment.  I am fortunate that many of my classmates are friends on Facebook. We weren't all so close in high school, but it's funny that as the years go by, we realize we have so much more in common that we thought when we were teenagers.  Most of us now have teenagers - some actually have kids in college.  I'm one of a smaller group of late bloomers - our kids are still in elementary school.

Right now a few of us are starting a little trend on Facebook and posting our senior pictures from our high school yearbook

Yeah, I'm feeling a little old tonight, but I don't feel as old as my age would indicate.  I still feel a bit like that girl in the picture.

Happy 30th Class Reunion Althoff Catholic High School Class of 1983!

cindy

Mom, I Have Arrived

My kids are 10 and 12.  They've always been good kids and generally well behaved.  I ask them to do something and eventually it gets done.  Yes, I may have to ask more than once, but no one has perfect kids, right?

Recently I've started to hear things I have never heard before coming from my children's mouths:   Why?  How come?  Now?  When it first started happening I was too surprised to respond or I tried to explain why, how come, and when I needed them to do what I asked.  Today, after I asked for something to be done and heard "why," I was shocked to hear my own voice with my mother's words.

"Because" I said, "Because I said so.  Because I'm your mother, and I don't need a reason to ask you to do something."

Whoa, who is that?  It's my mother.  I've become my mother!  You know what?  It's O.K.  What else would I say?  It's true.  They should do things because I asked them, I'm their mother and I don't need a reason to ask.  Right?

But I know more is coming:  "When donkeys fly" (That's a particular twist from the usual "when pigs fly" courtesy of my mother.);  "As long as you live under my roof;" "I'm the mother and you're the child;" and my personal favorite that has been handed down from my grandmother and then my mother: "If I say white is black and black is white, then white is black and black is white!"

I feel like I've attained an entirely new level of parenthood.  I guess it's a transition I must accept.  My kids are entering the testing phase.  I guess I need to transition with them.  I miss my mom - she died a few years back.  But now, whenever I hear one of these statements coming out of my mouth, I will think of her and smile.

And hope my kids are doing whatever I just asked them to do.

cindy

A Death in the Family

I hope I didn't scare anyone with the title, but this death sure hit close to home:

This giant saguaro was in our front yard when we bought our house 11 years ago and it was standing for well over 100 years in the same spot before the house was built.  It was about 35 feet tall and defined our front yard.

It was the background for Christmas cards and Easter egg hunts and the foreground for many, many pictures of rainbows and blue skies.

It is survived by its smaller twin, but it's just not the same.  It doesn't really matter what brought it down, but evidently it was an internal infection.  These giant saguaros live for hundreds of years, but when a cactus wren (think woodpecker) makes a hole in them for bird condos, it opens a wound that can never heal.  For our giant silhouette, it came down without anyone here noticing.  Kent just looked outside during the day and it was stretched out on the ground.

I know it was a plant, but it sure felt like part of our Arizona story.  RIP old friend.

cindy

Contemplate - Honoring The Fallen

A couple of weeks ago, the City of Phoenix held it's annual memorial to employees killed in the line of duty. Fortunately, no employee died this year.


           

In the United States last year, 126 law enforcement personnel and 82 firefighters (39 of those volunteers) died in the line of duty. Each one knew that the possibility of death was part of the job description and each made the conscious choice to pursue their calling. They don't do it for the money - they do it because they love serving the public.  That's you and me.


           

Take a minute or two today to remember these hometown heroes and say"thank you" the next time you meet one.



cindy

Contemplate - Living in the Now

Tonight I was going through the photos on our Mac and managed to do a quick trip down memory lane with pictures of my kids.  Mackenzie is now 9 (10 in a couple of weeks) and Christian is 11 (almost 12) {sigh}.  While I looked at pictures from infancy to elementary school, I remembered the times when each one was taken and what I was thinking then.

By the time Mackenzie was 2 and Christian was 4, I remember thinking that they were such big kids and I missed their "babyness".  Now I look at pictures of them at those ages and wish I could reach back in time and smack myself.  Didn't I see how adorable they were?  I also think how "busy" I was (or at least I thought I was) when I was a SAHM.  Some of the cutest pictures were taken while I was trying to take pictures of items to sell on Ebay.  I had to stop and take pictures of them because they wanted to spend time with me.

Today I look at them and still catch myself thinking how their "childhood" is almost gone.  How ridiculous is that??  They still have plenty of "kid time" and I need to enjoy it NOW.  Sure, they were cute back then, but they are still cute now.  Mackenzie asks if we will pay for college, but she doesn't want to go more than a couple of miles away :)  Christian is still creeping into our room at night every once and again.  They are still so innocent and I'm trying to stay in the present to savor every minute.  I wish I had a device to record all the funny things they say.

You know, when you try to drive while constantly looking in the rear view mirror, you are bound to crash into something in front of you - the future.

cindy

The Best of 2012

I'm sitting here on New Year's Eve about to begin the festivities with close friends.  2013 is coming very fast, so I have barely enough time to think back on 2012.  Here's the quick and dirty "best of"

My Craft Room!  In 2012, I went from Dreaming of a Craft Room to Craft Room Musings, DIY Fabric Storage, and ultimately, the Craft Room Reveal.  I love my craft room, even if it is a mess right now.  2013 will bring more sewing and crafting, God and time willing.


Etsy and the creations in it!  Pretty Pretty Cindy opened in 2012, with all of my various creative projects.  I love having a place to share my projects/creations without needing to find a family member or friend to give it to.  One of my favorite items was this Catherine Wheel Afghan.  It will always remind me of Kawaii where it was made.  I made a few rag quilts (I really need to get back to that):  Raggedy Rag Baby Boy Quilt, Chocolate Pistachio Quilt and Pinkie Rag Quilt.  Then there was the dress making frenzy:  the Watermelon Dress, Upcycled Gauze Dress, Upcycled Denim Skirt and Black Slip Dress.

I also started to share my Arizona with you:  javelinas, other Arizona critters, the Arizona Biltmore, Arizona's Centennial, Sedona and roses, clouds, the State Fair and Verde Canyon Railroad.

See you in 2013.

cindy

Who Stole My Twinkie?

By now you have heard the news - the Twinkie, Ding Dong, HoHo, Suzy Q, Chocolate Cupcake - GONE!  Yeah, we've been hearing rumors for a while now that Hostess was closing forever and taking the Twinkies with it.  But I never thought I'd see the day when these important parts of my childhood weren't there for my children. {sigh}

Tonight, I went on a noble quest to find the last Twinkie.  It was an odyssey that took me through six grocery stores, a big box store, a drug store and a convenience store.  Epic.

First stop - Target.  They're big, gotta have it, right?  Nope.

That's it.  Strawberry Cupcakes?  Chocolate Cream Twinkies?  WTH?  Little did I know I was looking at the best selection I would see tonight.  I scooped up the box of Suzy Qs and moved on.

Next stop - Frys (Kroger for those of you in different parts of the U.S.).  Gotta be more, right?

More chocolate cream Twinkies!?!  They don't even look good on the box!  These were the last Twinkies I would see.  Meanwhile, Little Debbie was right there to mock me.  Check out these Cupcake, HoHo and Ding Dong wannabes:

Fresh & Easy - ummm, no.  I don't think Twinkies ever showed up there.

Safeway (Vons for the California crowd).  I had high expectations.  Too bad for me - crickets.

AND more mocking:

At this point I was running out of big supermarkets.  I gave Albertson's a chance.

I knew it was over.  No Twinkie stockpile.  No Ding Dong stash.  Only fake Cupcakes and HoHos in the future.  There had to be a place where there would be something!  Time to go to the K

I picked up a cherry pie and trudged to the door.  At least I got to taste that salty cherry filling in the sugar glazed crust.

I heard that Hostess is going to sell the Twinkie name and recipe, so I'm sure we will see our old friends again.  Let's just hope they don't look like bad cosmetic surgery.

cindy

Family Wedding

Sometimes it's good to go home.  I'm getting to that middle age when you only get to see your extended family at funerals.  Last weekend we traveled to Illinois for a joyous purpose - my brother's wedding.  My four brothers and sisters, husbands and wives as well as most of their children, were there to celebrate.  We are really quite the crowd:

I didn't realize my immediate family was so big until I looked at this picture.  Not only did my immediate family attend, a good number of my cousins with their kids (and a few grandkids) showed up.  I had 23 cousins on my mother's side growing up and counting their spouses, children and grandchildren, there were 21 family members there representing the original 23.  That might not sound like a lot of family members to some people, but my cousins are scattered from Boston to Virginia, from New Orleans to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and everything in between, especially southern Illinois.  The best part?  Because of social media, I feel like I still know what my cousins are doing most of the time.  Gotta love it.

We don't get too many chances these days to gather for occasions like weddings.  My mother was one of five girls and in the last four years, 3 of them have died, including my mother.  It's wonderful to know that even as my mother's generation is waning, their children still enjoy getting together and introducing new members of their families.  How ironic that probably the last wedding of the cousins is my brother's, the oldest cousin.

My kids were very surprised to find out how many "cousins" they have.  Here are the first cousins:

My daughter kept asking how she was related to all the other family she was meeting.  I kept repeating that they were all "cousins," some just farther removed.  During her week in Illinois, she also visited with my husband's family, including "cousins."  After we returned to Arizona, she missed being so far away from her extended family on both sides.  As the unofficial family genealogist, I was thrilled to see both of my children so interested in their family roots.

My cousins used to comment that such a large family came from the five "Wilbourn girls" (my mother and her sisters).  As we get older, our families have become very extended.  My kids and their cousins will now look to the five "Hendricks kids" as their source.

Mom and Dad would be so proud.

cindy

My Old School

Last weekend I visited my Alma Mater where I met my wonderful husband:

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is a large sprawling campus that is gorgeous at any time of year (yes, even in the winter).  We were so blest last weekend to have a perfect autumn day to walk the campus.

We walked around campus with my Arizona family, including our kids.  It felt strange to be there with the kids, but they enjoyed it.

On a campus this old, time seems to stand still.  The same stately buildings where we (mostly) studied look exactly the same.

There are so many memories floating around that place, and I felt wistful thinking about the time I was there and the friends I met (especially my husband).  I realized I am living the life I could only dream about when I was there.

Then I remembered trudging across the frozen tundra in -25 degree wind chill on the January night I met my husband and reminded myself why we live in Arizona :)

cindy

Back in the (School) Day

At the risk of looking really old, I've been thinking back on my high school days in the '80s.  It's September now, and I'm reminded of all those Friday nights when we went to the football games.  I went to a Catholic high school in southern Illinois and we didn't have our own football field, so we used the stadium of the big public school about 5 miles away.  (For those of you still in Belleville, that's my best guess.)  I specifically remember those games as a freshman, because we didn't have cars or rides from anyone but our parents.  God forbid our parents would drop us off at the stadium - NOOOOO.  We would have them drop us off about a mile or two away and then we would walk down West Main Street.  Now that I think about that, we were kind of stupid because that was a long walk and sometimes it was cold.

Back in the day, we wore big hair and clogs.  I was never too much into the big hair thing, but I did have clogs.  You know, backless shoes with wedge heels.  Our heels were never that high, but they were wooden and made a lot of noise when you walked.  I can also remember how much my feet hurt at the end of the day - my heels from walking on a wooden block and my toes from scrunching them to keep the clogs on.  But as my mother would say "Beauty knows no pain."  (Although I definitely don't remember her saying that about those clogs.)

Yeah, we went through some weird clothing trends during my high school years.  I started high school at the very beginning of the 80s and went off to college toward the end.  We started with the "preppy look."  For most of you who were born after my high school years, that consisted of plaid skirts (preferably pleated), long knee socks and loafers.  You could wear a button down blouse with a ribbon tie at the collar, with a muted sweater over the blouse.  You could always wear clogs instead of loafers.  By the end of high school, we were teasing our hair and getting "punked out" with the big shirts/sweaters, bright colors, leg warmers and leggings.  Yep, we wore some crazy stuff.

I remember my freshman year at Homecoming.  We had a parade down West Main Street and every class (freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors) also had their own floats on flatbed.  Everyone used wood forms, chicken wire and tissue paper flowers to make figures for the float.  I made so many of those tissue paper flowers, my fingers were cut up by the floral wire we used to keep them together.  (See, even then I was crafty!)  The freshman float always looked pretty sad.  I remember that year the seniors made a giant Pac Man eating a player from the other team - impressive.  That year at football games, we saw the appearance of a new mascot - the Crusader.  Here was a guy dressed in armor (yep, the real thing), riding a big white horse and carrying a banner.  It was very cool.  We never knew who the Crusader was until the last pep rally of the football season when it was revealed to be one of our school priests.  Oh man, was he awesome!

Yep, the 80s were a very strange decade.  We saw the birth of MTV and music videos, very crude video games (remember Pong?), crazy fashions and awesome music.  I was there and I wouldn't change that for all the world.

Go Althoff Crusaders!

cindy


I'm participating in the SITS Girls "Fall Back into Blogging" this week.  

The Old Clock

This is my grandmother's clock

It doesn't work, but I remember it in my grandmother's house and then in my house as a child.  Women in my family are strong.  My grandmother raised five girls after my grandfather died - the oldest girl was about 14.  My mom has been gone for a couple of years now, but another one of the surviving sisters, my Aunt Hope died last week.  That leaves only two sisters left.  This is a picture of four of the sisters in about 1934, a couple of years before my grandfather died.  My Aunt Betty isn't in the picture because she wasn't born yet.  My mom was the smallest one on the left.  The picture has been colorized, but you get the idea.

My Aunt Hope lived in far southern Illinois in a area where people knew each other.  She raised six children with my Uncle Sam and they were well known in the community.  They had the house on the hill.  I remember that house - big with two stories and lots of bedrooms.  I can still see it now as I close my eyes.
I didn't get to go to the funeral, but my two sisters did, as well as my oldest brother.  My two older siblings were born in the middle of a large group of cousins (about 9 within 5 years).  They all lived in the same area of southern Illinois and all used to gather on that house on the hill.  I've seen old home movies with lots of kids running around during Easter egg hunts with my aunts standing by, except my Aunt Hope who was chasing after the youngest child of the group.

On Facebook, one of my extended cousins, who also did not attend the funeral, wrote a nice memory of my aunt.  She received nearly 40 comments, mostly from non-family members who remembered my Aunt Hope.  It was truly touching to see the broader impact she had on the entire community.

My mother and her sisters were part of a generation that is waning.  My cousins don't live in the same area - we are scattered all over the United States.  Our kids didn't have that house on the hill where they all gathered.  It's a bit sad, but it's O.K. because we all have pictures, old movies and most importantly, the pictures and movies in our mind.  It's important that we share those with our kids so they know where they're from even if they've never been there.  I know I remember.

Rest in peace Aunt Hope.

cindy

Friday Coffee Date

If we were having coffee today . . .

I would tell you how my kids are growing up so fast.

I would ask you whether being with your kids made you remember being the same age.

Do you know I have memories of being their age that I never remembered before?

It's the strangest thing . . . but makes me feel so connected to them

and not quite so  . . . old.

cindy


Coffee Dates is a concept from Alissa at Rags to Stitches.  Drop by and pull up a chair every Friday - better yet, come over to Rags to Stitches and catch the whole coffee crowd.

I'm Naked -Where's My Phone?

The last week has been scary. I've been disoriented and disconbobulated.  I've been without a phone!

More accurately, I've been teased with a phone only to have it snatched away.  It started about a two weeks ago when my HTC Rhyme started to get hot - really hot.  After the guy at the Verizon Store burned his finger on the SD portal, he suggested we send it back for a replacement.  Two days later I had a "like new" Rhyme.  I meticulously reloaded all of my lost apps and thought the unpleasant experience was over.

No. Two days later my "like new" phone wouldn't turn on and it was hot.  I called Verizon and they agreed to send me a new type of phone.  After an endless holiday weekend, it finally came - another Rhyme?!?  I had to change SD card because the phone practically burns up with the old card.  It's still hot with the newer card, but not as bad.  I'm trying to deal with it.  Who knew this would be so traumatic?

My daughter thinks I grew up with cans strung on twine, but I can say as a kid I was excited when we got a phone on the wall with a long cord.  It was awesome because I actually talked on the phone with my friends.  The best game we "played" on the phone was the one where we pranked the lady down the street by asking her if her refriverator was running.  I remember being amazed in the 80s when I saw Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" walking on a beach with a shoe phone.  So rich!  So futuristic!  Now I can't go 5 days without a phone, and I don't even talk on it.

Definitely the worst part about being without my phone was my recent jump into all things social media.  I just started with Instagram and haven't been able to take a single picture because I didn't have my phone (15 years ago people would have looked at you funny if you said you couldn't take pictures without your phone).

I'm recovering nicely from my traumatic adventure, thank you.  I'm getting reacquainted with my "new" phone.  Hopefully this one won't leave me in the cold (wait, the problem was with heat so we should be OK).

It's a love affair I tell you. (Just don't tell my husband)

cindy

If Our Mothers Had the Internet . . .

Every time I go to a linky party I see some amazing things.  It's mind boggling.  I'm speechless when I see all the creativity and talent from bloggers and on Etsy.  You can use the internet to find anything and learn to do anything.  It makes me wonder what our mothers could have done if the internet existed in the 70's and 80's.  I suspect there would have been less valium prescribed.

We could have linky parties featuring macrame plant holders and owl swings.

Just imagine what we could do with Jello!

Ponchos, legwarmers and tie dye, O MY!

Somehow Brats dolls don't translate as well to cakes

Don't forget those latch hooked rugs!

If our mothers had the internet they could have been more crafty, thrifty, and fashionable, even with mod podge, felt and egg cartons

Wait - I think I saw that last week in a linky party!

cindy

The Ear Piercing

Ever since Dear Daughter was 5 she's been begging to "have her ears to pierce".  I figured I would wait until she knew how to ask before I would agree.  My mother didn't let us pierce our ears until we were 12.  I've also heard my daughter howl in pain at the top of her lungs when you brush through her hair or she gets a splinter.

Because she just turned 9, I thought it wold be a good time, especially because she was still so excited to do it.  We went to Claire's about a week before her birthday, just in time to watch another 9 year old get her ears pierced.  Watching that little girl go from near tears to a smile sold both of us on the idea.

So the next week she was sitting in the same seat:

She was a big girl.

Since the ear piercing I've noticed a new sense of maturity.  She's becoming a young lady.  I'll miss my baby, but I think I could like this new lady in our house.

cindy

Scrapbook Sunday - Easter 2003

This was an easy page to put together.  It was part of a two page spread.  (My son was on one page and the rest of the family was on the other :)

This page was a combination of some really funky paper someone gave me and traditional paper cutouts.  I used foam adhesives with the cutouts for a three dimensional look.  I was surprised at how well the traditional pastel greens and blues matched the funky paper.  The pastels also coordinated with Christian's outfit, which was one of the reasons I used them.

Again, I like to focus on individual subjects (Christian was definitely that in many layouts).  I was also happy with the different sizes of pictures, with a larger picture and a couple of smaller related pictures.

Notice my son is about 2 in these pictures.  He's now almost 11.  I keep thinking that doing Scrapbook Sunday is going to get me to start scrapbooking again.  I'm still waiting for that to happen :)

cindy