Living the Dream

From my earliest memories I remember my mom working the polls at the election. She was born red, white and blue. And she was one of those democrats that liked to share her political views. She put signs in the yard, collected all of the political buttons and wore them too. She loved adding to her donkey collection and showing them off to her republican friends. Her political views were passed to each of her children. We passed this down to our children and to her honor the tradition is continuing. My four year old great niece even pretends that she is Michelle Obama. How adorable to see Nyla put her hand on her hip, flip her two big old foofy hair poofs and say with quite a diva attitude "Hello, my name is Michelle Obama and you should vote for my husband, so... we can start calling him President Obama!" This was spoken so eloquently from the pretend podium. My mom would have eaten up every precious moment with her grands and great grands. That brings me to the real meat of this message. WE ARE LIVING THE DREAM! I have not been able to pull myself from CNN with the coverage of Martin Luther King Jr Day and the inauguration of Barack Obama. We are living out the dream! The dream of equal rights of all Americans. The backs of the buses are not reserved for anyone anymore. We all drink out of the same water faucet. Public education is exactly that. It is for everyone. And the list goes on. Unfortunately, I take alot of these rights and issues for granted. You see, I am blessed to say that I have great nieces and nephews on both sides of our family that are African American. We have been privileged to have several African American children in our home for day care. One day, my oldest great niece asked "what color is my new baby sister going to be?" That knocked me back a few steps, not really knowing the answer that her parents would approve of. We talked a while and she and I came up with cinnamon toast. My mom passed away twenty years ago. She never knew how her political views would transcend into the future. She did not get to live out her dream. Frequently we feel her presence and I smirk or get a tear in my eye. Now I remember why she loved cinnamon toast. We will continue celebrating this historic time and hope everyone is living their dream.

You know it is C-O-L-D when...

...junkin nite gets cancelled due to weather. We have not had school for three days. Snow, blizzard conditions and below zero temps. It takes alot for us to postpone a junkin journey! Remember it was in my own basement. Three of the junkers live out of town. Rural driving can be so dangerous. Some roads are not primary and do not see the snowplow for a couple of days. And this, an old 1938 house with block walls and a cement floor. The frost was really bad around the windows and it was chilly down there. The junker of the evening was me. And the junkees will be over next week. But, I can tell you a few of the items I thought would be a big hit. Lots of miniature padlocks, tags, vintage jewelry, wooden ballisters, a couple of old green window screens, little bottles, ribbon, skeleton keys and gemstones to mention a few.
I did get my holiday tree decorated. It is a 6 foot pencil tree. Clear and red lights. Three wooden plaques, hope, love and peace. Snowflakes, country wooden hearts with little buttons and some tin snowflakes.
The seasonal array of vintage Valentines from 1927, lace and doilies will be out and displayed tomorrow. Better get to work. The grunging jar is calling me.

Goin Junkin!

Oh boy! I am goin junkin tomorrow nite. We are having below zero temps, more snow and I just need a good junkin night! I have invited Brenda (quirky kind of gal) from jbknackerblogspot.com, a fun girl that has a sign company and my crazy sidekick, Sheri. Sheri is a fun, good hearted woman with deep spiritual faith. She can talk about ANYTHING! More about that in another blog (always gotta look forward to the next blog). Back to the junkin night. Did I mention that this trip will be in my basement? I am wondering if that is a sign of a true junker or should I be embarrassed? It truelly is a junkers delight. So, we are going to the basement, find anything we want in a short period of time and head back upstairs to put it to good use. I will have to figure out the whole picture thing so I can show you what we have created! I am going to close out with my mantra of Every piece of junk is someone's memory. Think about it and I am sure you will understand where I am coming from!

Let me introduce myself some more

I have just celebrated my 49th birthday! I also celebrated the 2nd anniversary of breast cancer survivorship. My co-survivor is my husband of 30 years. We are high school sweethearts, graduated (walked together in graduation ceremonies) in 1978. Vern served 10 years in the US Navy. Yes, we were married at 18 years old. He was stationed on the east coast. During that time we had two children. Michael is 29. He and his wife, Courtnie have two boys. Easton is 5 and Emmitt is 3. Now I know why I thought my mom was a freak carrying around photo albums of the grandkids. I am now the freak. Although, I have a pocket video frame. There will be plenty of stories about the EE's! Our daughter, Mary Ann 26, lives with us. She provides child care. I have a niece, Addie that means the world to me. She and her husband, Dwight have Nyla 4, and Jabari is 2. My dad is 82 and lives one block from us. And I can guarantee there will be stories about him! Vern works for 3M. Hopefully he will be able to continue through this rough road that we are all on. Me, I am pretty much a Jill of all trades and master of a few. More on that in another post. That pretty much is the run down on our little family. Our EXTENDED family is ever growing and so loved and appreciated. In blogging, I hope to show some great photos of befores and afters of the junkin trade. I absofrickinglutely am a collector of wwwaaayyyyy too many things. I come by it naturally from my dad. He has many collections! Once we get the hang of this blogging thing, I will show you what I mean. I am sure I will be at this again as we prepare for blizzard conditions tonight and tomorrow!

A Time for Change, I hope!

Whoa! With support from my husband and encouragement from friends I have entered into the world of blogging. I find myself talking out loud to the dogs or anyone that may listen. So, I figured that blogging would be the right thing to do! I am not one that discusses religion, politics or money. Those three subjects are squeezing into my comfort zone. But, I have taken to them lately. I voted for Barack Obama. I support the time for change. And I support him. I love to listen to him speak. I feel like he is talking right to me. And, I love that! I am excited to see a typical family in the White House. And...I am really excited to find out what kind of dog will be honored to be the "first dog!" I feel like there are enough of us supporters to actually make changes. I am making little changes. I am trying to figure out my new camera, video frame and little pocket video frame. Another change is that I am going to start making healthier decisions. Oh! I can't believe I am putting that into print. Now it is official. I will continue to pay it forward as I do believe in it. So, thanx for reading and hopefully I will make this blogging event fun and interesting to everyone.