The View from Here

Who are those people?

I looked at a few old photos of us this morning. I love our wedding photos. The hair! LOL We got married at my aunt's house. We spent our honeymoon traveling along the coast. The other photos are just random ones from good times. Most aren't good photos and I'm not good at retouching so you'll just have enjoy what is left of them. After all, they are quite old!!

I did notice that we have very few "couple" photos. Most are photos we took of each other, with or without the kids. When you are married and busy you don't have many opportunities to take couple photos.

   

 

22

That’s how many plants I bought at the 50% off sale at Lowe’s yesterday! And since they range from trees to six-packs, there will be some serious digging going on this week. Gary’s fault! He called me to tell me about the sale and asked me if I was ready to try out my new pickup. Duh…

Met some very nice people from Texas yesterday. They came to see the new headstones they had ordered for some family members buried at Gethsemane. I had helped them a little in finding the obits in the paper, and corresponded with them about Caddo. It was great to meet them in person. I love helping folks with their family history!

Had an interesting discussion with a friend on Saturday. She teaches fourth grade and has seen a rapid decline in the spelling and writing abilities of students over the past two years. She blames it on “texting” and I think she may have a point.

Robert went fishing yesterday. He didn’t catch anything, but it gives me hope that spring is really here. After our blustery day on Saturday, it was balmy and 70+ yesterday. Went from “bundled and miserable in front of the television” to “short sleeves at the fishing hole” in 24 hours!

Nothing else exciting here. Back to school today. I’m working in after school detention this week. Wish me luck!

Thirty-seven years

Our anniversary is Tuesday and I plan to post some photos of us on our special day. However, I’m writing today because after thirty-seven years Gary and I have a bond that is worth analyzing a bit. Sundays are good for that.

First of all, we know each other. I started thinking about that Thursday when Gary called me to tell me he needed a ride because his car had quit. I was still on the road the first time he called so he had been at the dealership for about an hour by the time he reached me. While he was waiting for me he weighed our options and looked at new vehicles to replace our dead car. He picked out one he thought I would like.

When I arrived we had a brief discussion about keeping and repairing our car. I agreed that it was far too costly and risky for such an old car. So…I asked him what he had looked at and he said “pickups”. Now this has been a discussion we have had for years! I’ve always wanted a pickup and we’ve always bought a car. But not this time. He told me there was a truck on the lot that he thought I would want and we could afford. And here is the thing about being married for thirty-seven years- I would have picked out the same one! It is exactly what I wanted! He remembered all the things I’ve told him over the years, even that I didn’t want carpet. And it’s blue! I didn’t even drive it until Friday when we got ready to sign the papers. I just knew it was going to be perfect, and it is.

Second, we have similar backgrounds and values despite a seven-year age difference. We were deeply influenced by our grandmothers. We had authoritative fathers. We were raised on farms. We like many of the same activities. We actually consider ourselves best friends. This is not always a good thing. Our son has a saying about us- “My parents are crazy!” I’m sure we are the source of much of the stand-up routine he does at the clubs in Dallas.  Our girls are more polite. They are apt to use the word “different” or “special”. What they mean is that they don’t understand us. They think much of what we do is old-fashioned. They think we are an odd pairing- polar opposites on some topics and clones on others. Much of what we do has no rhyme or reason for them. Sometimes they question our ability to survive in their “modern world”. I remember thinking the same things about my parents. However, I think deep down they are proud of the fact that we have stayed together and still love each other.

We have agreed over the years to just disagree about some things, but don’t assume that we are some perfect couple. Gary often drives me crazy. I nag him to death about his socks on the floor and candy wrappers left in the living room and a dozen petty things. After all, he is a man! Men are never fully housebroken. He complains about my stubbornness and my obsessive ways.  But we “fight fair”. We don’t fall into name-calling or endless arguments about the past. We accept some personality traits as “just the way we are” and go on. I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve actually yelled at each other in anger. Most of those involved disagreements about our children or money. Aren’t those the most heated arguments in your house?

We have endured. We’ve been together through some horrible experiences. We’ve faced financial disasters, accidents, illnesses, heartbreak, and the deaths of loved ones. We’ve also had some wonderful experiences together. After thirty-seven years I can look back and see a balance between the two that I appreciate.

I married one of the good guys. He is thoughtful, helpful, respectful, and understanding. He’s also intelligent and creative. He has a good sense of humor. He works hard. He likes to make me happy. I think I’ll keep him.

It's blue...

Got a new truck! The weather is awful this morning so this is the only picture I'm going to take.

Let the gardening begin...

Worn out...

Yesterday was one of those days that gets in your face and says "you really have no control over what happens to you!!" But you know I'm the obsessive optimist, so I think that all in all the day was a good one and I will adjust to the changes it brought with it.

I got by with about four hours sleep yesterday because we had had plumbing problems during the night. Sleep deprivation never helps anything! As a result, I had a raging headache for most of the day.

Our coffee pot quit so I had to stop after school and buy a new one. That was actually an adventure that had several nice benefits. Saw a friend I hadn't seen in months. She was also shopping for a new coffeepot. Got a great coffeepot that has automatic shut-off and that will be a good thing!

Gary's car quit on the side of the highway last night so I had to return to town and get him. Thankfully he had just started for home, wasn't hurt in the process, and was less than a mile from the dealership where we bought it. The cost to fix it will be far more than we want to invest in an eight-year-old car. I think they are going to keep it, fix it up, and give it a new home. We're going to try to get something else. We've put over 140,000 miles on that faithful car and it's time to move on.

My children were "off the chart" rowdy yesterday. I don't know if it was the weather or what. Just to prove that it wasn't my headache making me more sensitive I'll give you ONE example. One of my boys blew air into a zip-lock bag (that was supposed to store his word cards) and then busted it! It was so loud it sounded like a bomb! The other classes down the hall heard it!! And thankfully he was very frightened and sorry. Didn't require much punishment to convince him that wasn't a good thing to do! LOL Okay, one more...one of my students got the bright idea to cut his jeans instead of his paper. Enough...

My day today will be great! I hope yours is too!  

After the rain....

I ran out to take these photos of the pretty light on the pond. I'm so happy to get some rain.

 

Just thinking out loud...

I still wash dishes by hand. Oh, I have a dishwasher, or I should say the house has a dishwasher. It was here when we moved in. I would never buy one. And I don’t use this one. Don’t like them. Never did. I like to wash dishes and look out the window at the bird feeder and contemplate things. Here are some of the things I was thinking about tonight.

1.       I don’t always agree with people, but I’ve come to understand that disagreement doesn’t make me right and the other person wrong, or vice versa. It just means we don’t agree. That’s a lesson some people never learn. They go through life always trying to be right, mostly by trying to prove someone else wrong.

2.       Lincoln was right. Most people are as happy as they “make up their minds to be”. But I don’t think it’s just a matter of attitude and perspective; I think it’s also a matter of need.  I honestly think some people need to be happy and others need to be miserable. They don’t know how to function any other way. They seem to thrive on the type of attention that their basic personality and behavior attracts. Perhaps that starts in childhood. I have students who seem to float through the day, no matter what happens, on a cloud of positive energy. They are happy and confident and love to see what is going to happen next. Others drag in the door complaining and whining. The happy group accepts even the most difficult work as just something we have to do in order to learn. The second group fights every step of the way against doing one more thing that makes them unhappy.

3.       My favorite people don’t care how they look, they care about what they do. I’m not saying that I hang around with a bunch of slobs, or that I don’t have any attractive friends. I actually have friends who could be models. But those same friends will pick up trash on the highway, or work at the homeless shelter, or visit strangers at the nursing home. They know that real life is about getting dirty and having scars and growing old. We can’t spend all our money or waste too much energy on painted toenails or the latest fashion, nor can we obsess about that new wrinkle on our neck. If we do, God is quick to show us someone without toes or someone who has skin cancer and tell us very bluntly that our body is just a house. Keep it clean, keep it healthy and in good working order, but understand that it doesn’t have to be a mansion in order to provide shelter from the storms of life.

4.       Most people don’t get nicer as they older. They don’t mellow. They just become more of what they’ve always been. It’s like they become a concentration of themselves as they get older. They tend to rid themselves of some of the actions that were “just for show” or “just to be polite” and stay with the basics of their personality. So if you’re waiting around for Joe or Jane or Harry to become a “sweet old person”, don’t hold your breath. I think if people are going to make real changes in their lives or actions, they tend to do it when they are in their thirties or forties or fifties. After that, we’re sort of set in stone!  

5.       Some people think it is their mission in life to make others miserable. I think they must take an oath or something: “I hereby promise to criticize, critique, disparage, belittle, and demean others at every opportunity, whether asked for advice or not”. We all know those people, but sometimes we don’t realize we know them. We recognize them as the people we “tend to avoid” or the people who “make us uncomfortable”, but for some reason we usually take the blame for the situation and feel guilty about not being the person they want us to be. Human nature being what it is, if there is a fault in a relationship we always think it is ours. We don’t understand that those people find fault with everyone because the real fault is an emptiness within themselves.

6.       My favorite people are quirky. They are different. They are eccentric. They are talented. They are motivated. They are busy. They aren’t perfect, but they know it. They don’t expect me to be perfect. They forgive and forget. They get on with life. They give to others. I honestly think I have some of the best friends in the world and I treasure them.

See why I wash dishes! It gives me time to think. I’m not sure I ever solve the problems of the world while I’m ridding my plates of crumbs, but I work out a few things in my head.

Hope you have a blessed day filled with enjoyable people!

A whole new ballgame...

I can’t begin to explain how much fun I’m having with my new camera! Why did I wait so long to buy a digital camera??? What is wrong with me? Okay, don’t answer that one. But honestly, I let my fear that I’d be “too stupid” keep me from trying it sooner. How often do we do that and miss an opportunity to learn something new? Have you ever been the last one on the planet to try something because you thought everyone else would be better at it and make fun of you? Confess and make me feel better!

The thing I like about digital is its immediacy. I can think and do and save or delete right now. I watched a couple of my students at table centers yesterday and thought “I should have photos of the work we do”… and I took them. Done…and without a trip to WalMart! One is below and others are on my kindergarten blog. I still think there is a place in my life for my film camera because it makes me more careful and deliberate in my photographic efforts. It also has some lens options I don’t have with my little digital. But this opens up a whole new world of blog possibilities!

The reason I included the photo you see in today’s blog is because it is a magnetic “paper doll”. So cool! Craighead’s only had the girl one, but Belinda is ordering the boy for me. My student’s think it is the neatest thing ever- even the boys play with it. “Look, Mrs. Maurer, the clothes stay on!”

Speaking of “Mrs. Maurer”…I was in WalMart last night and heard my name called, very loudly. I turned and saw two little cuties from the pre-k class. I help with the car pick-up line each afternoon, and they are two of my “regulars”. One said, “You were at school!” “Yes,” I replied. “We saw you!” “Yes.” “Now you’re HERE!” All smiles and giggles. “Yes…” LOL Kids are so funny. They think of you only within one context.

I hear the wind again this morning. Why do I bother to plant daffodils? Have you ever seen what a daffodil looks like in a 40mph wind?? I have some beautiful ones- four different kinds and colors-but you may not see a photo of them any time soon. I can hardly stand out on the patio and even enjoy looking at them.  And the rocker I want for my porch?? Still no idea how to make it STAY on the porch. Oh, well.

Off to school. Have a great day!

Spring Walk

I went for a walk with my new camera yesterday. I’m still experimenting and there are lots of things the camera can do that I can’t do yet. LOL However, I’m pleased to be able to show you what I did yesterday without going to Walmart today! Technology is good, technology is good….

Robert also installed my new scanner so I will be able to scan and upload the last set of headstone photos that were on my film camera. I also scanned an amusing bank ad for him. It says “The lean dog of despair never follows a man with a bank account.” LOL It has a comical drawing and more information. It’s from 1919. I may have to post it on my Caddo blog.

I’ve been researching old Bryan County court cases by using Google Books (on the more tab). I can’t say enough good things about this feature of Google. If you haven’t used it, try it out today. Don’t think of it as a way to “look for books”, but rather as another source for information about anything. Take something you are interested in and enter it in the search box. This morning I tried “vegetable gardens”. Google listed 8,000 books about vegetable gardens! Look at the listings: newer ones will have a “limited preview” so you can see a few pages and gather information or simply see if the book looks interesting. Old books will say “full view”, meaning you can read the whole thing!! I found a book from 1914 that starts out with “In connection with gardens, learn to take things as they are, rather than to wait for things as they should be according to the opinions of many writers.” Priceless words of wisdom for much more than gardening! If you find a book you want, there are links on the right for “order from a bookstore” and “find in a library”.

So…I digress. Back to the walk. I also visited a dear friend yesterday and the tulip photo is from her yard. I don’t know why her tulips are so much earlier than mine- perhaps because they are older. When I walked down to the pond the neighbor’s donkeys had to see what I was doing, but being the stubborn things that they are, wouldn’t come close enough for a really good photo!

Enjoy today!

 

First Photo

Here is my first photo with my new camera! I haven't begun to figure out all of the features, but I am confident that I WILL. Thank goodness for the "auto- any fool can do this" mode! Those Nikon people are pretty clever. LOL More later.