I can see clearly now

My 7 year old grandgirlie, Micah, got her first pair of glasses today. It made me think about when I got mine.  I got my first pair of glasses in grade 3 or 4. Can't remember exactly. What I do remember, however, is what a difference it made in my life. I could see things! Trees had leaves, cats had whiskers, creeks had rocks and the blackboard had discernable words on it! Having glasses opened up a whole new world to me. I loved being able see the details. I think maybe that's why I'm such a detail oriented person now. I spent the first 7 or 8 years of my life not being able to see clearly. Did I get teased because I wore glasses? Probably. Kids are mean but I don't really remember being singled out because of my glasses. I got teased for other things like, crooked teeth, being a pastor's kid, having scraggly hair and having a big mouth. Glasses? Don't remember that. My glasses are so much a part of me I couldn't imagine being myself without them.

This I think is grade 6.  I think this is my favorite school picture.  To be perfectly honest I really don't remember these glasses.  They may have been the ones I dropped in the creek I guess I didn't have them long

enough to make a very big impression

Grade eight.  The classic John Denver wire rims.

 Same glasses.  Grade 10  Threw this one in for the hair and the crocheted vest I made.

These are wire rims too, but a more hip style.  Or so I thought.  This is my grade 11 picture.

  On to the late 70's early 80's with the gimondo plastic frames.  And get a load of the hair.  This "do" earned me the nickname Tumblweed from

my then boyfriend now husband.

Late 90's back to wire rims but black this time and a more face flattering style.  I wore these for a number of years.Some where in here I wore the red wire frames I'm sportin' in the Huckleberry Pie banner above.

So this is me now.  Taken on my 50th birthday to be exact.  Black wire rims for me...pink plastic for my adorable grandgirlie

Micah.

Could she be any more adorable?  I wonder what her glass frame journey will be like?  As the saying goes...time'll tell.

ras muny for kids in afreca!!!

This adorable child is the oldest son of my niece. I read this story on her facebook page and sobbed my way to the end. I wanted to place it here and save it to read over and over. The accompanying journalling is in her words. "I came home from work today to find Zachary at the bottom of our driveway with a make-shift donation stand set up. He'd made it himself out of styrofoam, a rock and a tomatoe cage"I asked him what he was doing and he held up his sign : "ras muny for kids in afreca!". You may know such charities by more familiar names like :"Raising money for kids in Africa!" He told me "I could buy them pencils or food or clean water for them!" I nearly burst into tears with how much I loved him for this. I was less touched by his spelling. However, I will be putting the sign in his memory box :)He'd stand at our busy street and wait for cars....

...and when they came he'd hold up his sign frantically and yell out "Raise money for kids in Africa!"...and even though no one stopped he stood out there for over an hour with only a few quarters from Mimi and Mom and Mr. Joel in his little green cup. His goal was to "make enough money to go all the way to the top of the cup".

After a while the neighbour kids came out to help....

...their spelling was much better and their sign was much bigger! They even gave him a chair. He stayed out there for another hour. Finally one guy did turn around, park on the other side of the road and brought some change for the little green cup. I didn't get my camera out in time but the smile on Zachy's face is something I'll never forget. "Mom! Someone stopped!"After he came in he counted his money and was thrilled to see that he'd made $12.59 . It's safely tucked into a ziplock bag in his backpack to take to school tomorrow and show his teacher. I sure do love this little boy.

He plans to be back there tomorrow after school if anyone is driving down Auto Road at around 3pm :)Stay tuned for updates on this story!

Grande, de-caf, non-fat, pumpkin spice latte. Extra hot...

Oh yeah, WITH whip cream.  I can have the whip cream cause I got non-fat milk right?  Right....  As a general rule I don't like Starbucks coffee.  It is too strong and has a burnt taste to me but lattes?  Yeah,baby.  Vanilla mostly but Pumpkin Spice this time of year.  No other coffee place can compare.  None.  Don't try and nominate yours cause it just won't even be in the same league.  A vanilla latte is a vanilla latte but Pumpkin Spice....  man oh man.  Had one yesterday.  Had one today, too.  Probably have one tomorrow.  Love 'em... really I do. 

retro electo and other pretty things

So, I get this email from Cody-Anne telling me she was/is no longer a blog virgin and started her own blog the same day as me! She is going to share pretty things she finds on her journey as a stylist. I told her to find the prettiest of all, just look in a mirror. Her blog is called retro electo.  You can find a link under Places I Visit on the Web.

"Huckleberry Pie" comes out of the oven

One of my most favorite things in the world is huckleberry pie. I have such great childhood memories of picking huckleberries with my family. If you know anything about huckleberries you know they are hard to find, hard to pick and hard to resist! You have to swathe yourself from head to toe in every-inch-of-skin covering attire, tromp through the trees to some isolated heretofor unknown neck of the woods (whose whereabouts you never reveal to anyone) then you swat mosquitos, avoid the poison ivy and listen to the plink plink of the berries as they hit the bottom of the bucket. As the buckets fill the sound becomes more of a plop than a plink and you remind one another to leave some for the bears. You then tromp back throught the trees and home to admire your booty/bounty. Mom would make a pie that very night but the rest of the berries would go into the freezer in one-pie portions to be savoured in the months to come. When the pie came out of the oven the juices would pour out and it was more like soup with a crust than actual pie. The runnier the better. So this blog is going to be about my favorite things... scrapbooking, music, theater, gardens, grandkids, horses, camp life, and whatever else I come up with. So get out your cloth napkin, tuck it under your chin and be prepared for deliciousness.