Tag: United States

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 12

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Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 12 Question 12: As far as you know, who in your family’s history has lived the longest?

Answer: My paternal grandmother, Isabel Sanchez was born in 1895 and she passed away in 1992. In her 97 years on earth these events took place:

1895        Feb 8, Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake,” premiered in Petersburg.
(MC, 2/8/02) 

1896        Dr. Herman Hollerith, inventor of a tabulating machine (1889), founded the Tabulating Machine Company. In 1911 it became part of CTR. In 1924 CTR was renamed IBM.
(www.answers.com/topic/herman-hollerith)

1897        Gilbert Loomis was the first car-owner to purchase auto insurance for his vehicle. The premium was $7.50 for $1,000 worth of liability insurance.
(WSJ, 6/19/96, Adv. Supl)

1898        Mar 24, The 1st automobile was sold.

(MC, 3/24/02)

1899        Mar 27, The first international radio transmission between England and France was achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.
(HN, 3/27/99)

1900        Feb 22, Hawaii became a US territory. [see Apr 30]
(MC, 2/22/02)

1901        Aug 30, Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner. [see 1869]
(MC, 8/30/01)

1902        Apr 18, Denmark became the 1st country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals.
(MC, 4/18/02)

1903        Jan 2, President Theodore Roosevelt closed a post office in Indianola, Mississippi for refusing to hire a black postmistress.
(HN, 1/2/99)

1904        Feb 3, Colombian troops clashed with U.S. Marines in Panama.
(HN, 2/3/99)

1905        Mar 11, The Parisian subway was officially inaugurated.
(HN, 3/11/98)

1906        Jan 13, The Golden Gate Hotel opened on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nev..
(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F4)

1907        Feb 22, The 1st cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.
(MC, 2/22/02)

1908        May 10, The first Mother’s Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia. In 1997 Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia first proposed the idea that all mothers wear a carnation on the 2nd Sunday of May.
(AP, 5/10/97)(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E5)

1909        Apr 18, Joan of Arc was declared a saint.
(MC, 4/18/02)

1910        Apr 14, President William Howard Taft began a sports tradition by throwing out the first pitch on baseball’s Opening Day. Taft threw to Washington Senator pitcher Walter Johnson, who went on to hurl a shutout win, allowing the Philadelphia Phillies just one hit and ending the day with a 3-0 victory for Washington.
(HNQ, 8/9/02)

1911        Mar 7, The United States sent 20,000 troops to the Mexican border in the wake of the Mexican Revolution.
(AP, 3/7/98)

1912        Mar 23, Dixie Cup was invented.

(SS, 3/23/02)

1913        Apr 21, Gideon Sundback of Sweden patented the zipper. [see Apr 29]
(MC, 4/21/02)

1914        Sep 5, The First Battle of the Marne began during World War I. The German First Army was led by Gen. Alexander von Kluck.
(AP, 9/5/97)(WSJ, 12/31/99, p.A10)

1915        Jan 19, The neon tube sign was patented by George Claude.
(MC, 1/19/02)

1916        May 11, Einstein’s paper “The Basis of the General Theory of Relativity” was published.
(http://tinyurl.com/2dvp8de)

1917        Apr 4, U.S. Senate voted 90-6 to enter World War I on Allied side.
(HN, 4/4/98)

1918        Mar 19, US Congress authorized time zones and approved Daylight Saving Time.
(AP, 3/19/97)(www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/usstat.html)(SSFC, 3/27/05, Par p.15)

1919        Feb 14, The United Parcel Service was incorporated in Oakland, CA.
(HN, 2/14/98)

1920        Jun 13, The U.S. Post Office Department ruled that children may not be sent by parcel post.
(HN, 6/13/98)

1921        Aug 10, Franklin D. Roosevelt (39) was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello, New Brunswick. Mrs. Roosevelt acted as her partially paralyzed husband’s eyes and ears by traveling, observing and reporting her observations to him. As First Lady, an author and newspaper columnist and, later, a delegate to the United Nations, Eleanor Roosevelt labored tirelessly for the poor and disadvantaged. In the words of historian John Kenneth Galbraith, she showed “more than any other person of her time, that an American could truly be a world citizen.”
(HNPD, 10//99)(SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D11)

1922        Jan 11, Insulin, then called isletin, was 1st used to treat diabetes on Leonard Thompson (14) of Canada. [see Jan 23]
(www.insulinfreetimes.org/00_spring/giants.htm)

1923        Apr 5, Firestone Co. put their inflatable tires into production.
(MC, 4/5/02)

1924        Jan 25, The 1st Winter Olympic games opened in Chamonix, France.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A19)(MC, 1/25/02)

1925        Apr 10, The novel “The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, was first published by Scribner’s of New York. A film version was made in 1974.
(TMC, 1994, p.1925)(SFEC, 2/16/97, Par. p.18)(AP, 4/9/97)

1926        Mar 7, The first successful trans-Atlantic radio-telephone conversation took place, between New York City and London. AT&T began trans-Atlantic telephone service via two-way radio this year.
(AP, 3/7/98)(WSJ, 10/26/00, p.A12)

1927        Jan 13, A woman took a seat on the NY Stock Exchange breaking the all-male tradition.
(HN, 1/13/99)

1928        Jan 31, Scotch tape was 1st marketed by 3-M Company.
(MC, 1/31/02)

1929        May 28, The first all-color talking picture, “On with the Show,” opened in New York.
(AP, 5/28/99)

1930        Mar 17, Al Capone was released from jail.
(HN, 3/17/98)

1931        Feb 21, Alka Seltzer was introduced. [see Dec 31]
(MC, 2/21/02

1932        Apr 23, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre opened at Stratford-on-Avon. It replaced one built in 1879 that burned down in 1926.
(www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,,1740490,00.html)(Econ, 3/31/07, p.91)

1933        Oct 10, The 1st synthetic detergent, “Dreft” by Procter & Gamble, went on sale.
(MC, 10/10/01)

1934        Mar 26, Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
(SS, 3/26/02)

1935        Feb 28, Nylon was discovered by Dr. Wallace H. Carothers.
(MC, 2/28/02)

1936        Feb 6, Adolf Hitler opened the Fourth Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 1061 athletes stood at attention half-hidden by a furious blizzard. Austrian and French athletes gave the Nazi salute in passing the revue stand.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Winter_Olympics)(SSFC, 2/6/11, p.42)

1937        Jan 1, The US Social Security system began levying taxes on workers’ wages.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.23)(www.ssa.gov/history/1930.html)

1938        Apr 25, First use of seeing eye dog.
(HN, 4/25/98)

1939        Jan 24, Some 28-30,000 were killed by magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chillan, Chile.
(MC, 1/24/02)(AP, 6/22/02)

1940        Feb 29, “Gone with the Wind” won eight Academy Awards, including best picture of 1939. Victor Fleming was named best director, Vivien Leigh best actress, and Hattie McDaniel best supporting actress, the first black performer to receive an Oscar. Best actor went to Robert Donat for “Goodbye, Mr. Chips.”
(HN, 2/29/00)(AP, 2/29/04)

1941        Jan 22, The 1st mass killing of Jews took place in Romania. [see Jan 9]
(MC, 1/22/02)

1942        Feb 11, “Archie” comic book debuted.
(MC, 2/11/02)

1943        Feb 13, The Marine Corps began allowing women to enlist as reserves.
(www.mcleague.com/mdp/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=63)

1944        Jun 6, Cherokee tribal members communicated via radios in their native language on the Normandy beaches. Some 6,603 Americans were killed along the coast of France during the D-day invasion. A total of 9,758 Allied soldiers died during the invasion. “D-Day” by Stephen Ambrose was published in 1994.

1945        Jan 20, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated for his fourth term.
(HN, 1/20/99)

1946        Jan 1, Kathleen Casey became the first official US baby boomer following her birth just after midnight. On Oct 15, 2007, Kathleen Casey-Kirschling became the first baby boomer to make an early filing for Social Security benefits.
(SFC, 10/16/07, p.A8)

1947        Apr 10, Ronald Reagan and his wife Jane Wyman provided names to the FBI of Screen Actors Guild members believed to be communist sympathizers.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F2)

1948        Jan 27, The 1st tape recorder sold.
(MC, 1/27/02)

1949        Jan 10, RCA introduced the 45 RPM record.
(MC, 1/10/02)

1950        Jun 24, In Brazil the Maracana stadium in Rio was officially inaugurated for the opening of soccer’s World Cup, the first in 12 years due to WW II.
(www.soccerhall.org/history/WorldCup_1950.htm)

1951         Jun 1, The first self-contained titanium plant opened in Henderson Nevada.
(DT, 6/1/97)

1952        Feb 29, The first pedestrian “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway at Times Square.
(HN, 2/29/00)

1953        Jan 6, Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie’s in Manhattan. His trumpet’s bell was bent upward in an accident, but he liked the sound and had a special trumpet made with a raised bell.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.34)

1954        Mar 22, The 1st shopping mall opened in Southfield, Mich.
(MC, 3/22/02)

1955        Mar 4, 1st radio facsimile transmission (fax) was sent across the continent.
(SC, 3/4/02)

1956        Mar, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $1.00 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)

1957        Jul 22, Walter “Fred” Morrison applied for a patent for a “flying toy” which became known as the Frisbee.
(AP, 7/22/07)

1958        Aug 4, Billboard, founded in 1894, premiered its all-genre singles Hot 100 chart.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100)

1959        Aug 21, Hawaii became the 50th state as President Eisenhower signed an executive order, five months after he’d signed the Hawaiian statehood bill.

1960        May 9, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the pill Enovid as safe for birth control use. The pill was made by G.D. Searle and Company of Chicago.

1961        Mar 18, The “Poppin’ Fresh” Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
(MC, 3/18/02)

1962        Jan 30, Two members of the “Flying Wallendas” high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.
(AP, 1/30/98

1963        Mar 21, The Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

1964        Jan, The Beatles made their North America TV debut on the Jack Paar Show. [see Feb 9, 1964]
(SFC, 1/28/04, p.A1)

1965        Mar 21, Martin Luther King Jr. led more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators on the 50-mile march to Montgomery from Selma.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, p.T1)(AP, 3/21/97)

1966        Jan 1, By law all US cigarette packs began carrying the warning: “Caution! Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.”
(www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1992/8/1992_8_72.shtml)

1967        Mar 3, The US performed a nuclear test at its Nevada Test Site. The Mushroom test was part of Operation Latchkey.
(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Latchkey)

1968        Feb 10, Peggy Fleming of the United States won the gold medal in women’s figure skating at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France.
(AP, 2/10/97)

1969        Mar 3, Sirhan Sirhan testified in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
(HN, 3/3/99)

1970        Jan 7, Woodstock, NY, farmers sued Max Yasgur (1919-1973) for $35,000 for damages caused by the “Woodstock” rock festival.
(www.woodstockpreservation.org/pastpresent/maxtribute.html)

1971        Jan 31, Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
(AP, 1/31/98)

1972        Apr 17, A handful of women were first accepted as entrants to the Boston marathon.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D8)(www.boston.com/marathon/history/1972.shtml)

1973        May 14, US Supreme court approved equal rights to females in military.
(http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=411&invol=677)

1974        Mar 1, A grand jury in Washington, DC, concluded that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.  7 people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. They were convicted the following January, although Mardian’s conviction was later reversed. In 2005 Vanity Fair Magazine revealed that W. Mark Felt (91), former FBI official, was the Watergate whistleblower Deep Throat, who helped bring down Pres. Nixon.
(HN, 3/1/98)(AP, 3/1/99)(AP, 6/1/05)

1975        Jan 1, The Federal Hourly Minimum Wage rose to $2.10 an hour.
(www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/coverage.htm)

1976        Jul 4, The nation held a 200th anniversary party across the land in celebration of America’s 200 years of independence. President Ford made stops in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and New York, where more than 200 ships paraded up the Hudson River in Operation Sail.
(TMC, 1994, p.1976)(IB, 12/7/98)(AP, 7/4/01)

1977        Jan 3, Apple Computers incorporated under Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In March  Apple produced the Apple II, the first pre-assembled, mass-produced PC.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R42)

1978        Apr 7, A Gutenberg bible sold for a record $2.2 million in NYC. It was bought by Martin Breslauer for the state museum of Baden Wurttemberg.
(www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=35363264&aid=frg)

1979        Jan 3, The top of the record charts included: Le Freak by Chic; Too Much Heaven by the Bee Gees; My Life by Billy Joel; The Gambler by Kenny Rogers.
(440 Int’l. 1/3/99)

1980        Feb 22, In a stunning upset, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-3. The US team went on to win the gold medal.
(AP, 2/22/01)

1981        Mar 6, Walter Cronkite signed off for the last time as principal anchorman of “The CBS Evening News.”
(AP, 3/6/00)

1982        Apr 1, The U.S. transferred the Canal Zone to Panama.
(HN, 4/1/98)

1983        Sep 17, Vanessa Williams of New York became the first black contestant to be crowned “Miss America.” The following July, she also became the first Miss America to resign in the wake of her Penthouse magazine scandal.
(AP, 9/17/98)

1984        Feb 14, 6-year-old Stormie Jones became the world’s first heart-liver transplant recipient at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. She lived until November 1990.
(AP, 2/14/04)

1985        Jan 1, The 1st US mandatory seat belt law went into effect in NY.
(www.nysgtsc.state.ny.us/seat-ndx.htm)

1986        Mar 6, Georgia O’Keefe (98), US painter (Flowers), died in Santa Fe, NM.
(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.C8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O’Keeffe)

1987        Jun 22, Fred Astaire (b.1899), Hollywood dancer, died at a Los Angeles hospital. His elegance and fancy footwork graced more than 30 films.

1988        Jan 3, Margaret Thatcher (b.1925) became the longest serving British PM this century.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_3)

1989        Mar 24, Good Friday. The nation’s worst oil spill occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude. The Exxon Valdez struck ground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and spilled 10.6 million gallons of oil. It was later renamed the Mediterranean and operated between Europe and the Middle East. Exxon then spent some $2.5 billion to clean up the spill and filed suit against Lloyd’s of London for reimbursement under a $210 million insurance policy. In 1996 a jury in Houston voted that Lloyd’s and some 250 other underwriters should compensate Exxon $250 million. The Exxon Valdez oil spill fouled approximately 1,000 miles of Alaska shoreline. The oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, spilling some 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed. The Exxon Valdez spilled 240,000 barrels of oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
(AP, 3/23/97)(TMC, 1994, p.1989)(SFC, 5/5/96, p.A-11)(SFC, 6/11/96, p.A10)(SFEC, 2/8/98, p.T5)(HNQ, 8/14/99)

1990        Jan 31, McDonald’s Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.
(AP, 1/31/98)

1991        May 23, In a five-to-four vote, the US Supreme Court upheld regulations barring federally subsidized family planning clinics from discussing abortion with pregnant women, or from telling women where they could get abortions.
(AP, 5/23/01)

1992        Aug 24, Hurricane Andrew smashed into Florida causing record damage; 55 deaths in Florida, Louisiana and the Bahamas were blamed on the storm. It swept across Coral Gables, Florida, and destroyed two-thirds of the Fairchild Tropical Garden. It cost $15.5 bil in insured losses and was the most expensive natural disaster in US history. Insurance losses in the US and Bahamas totaled $21.5 billion.
(SFC, 7/12/96, p.A11)(AP, 8/24/97)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.62)(Econ, 9/17/05, p.73)

Melting Pot

· 1 Comment ·

We are a nation of immigrants. I’m proud to say that I’m an immigrant as well. I came to The USA in 1976 and I thank God everyday for bringing me here. My aunt Blanca came here in the 1960’s and established herself with a job as a secretary in Chicago; once she was settled in she began to work on helping  many of her brothers and sisters come here with their families. My aunt Blanca is one of my one personal heroes because if it wasn’t for her starting the whole process, I don’t know if I would be here today.

Another personal hero of mine is my uncle in whose house I grew up. He came to the USA in 1968 with his new wife. He was a young doctor in Colombia and he gave it all up to come live here. He followed his sister Blanca to Chicago; his first winter here was rough; coming from a tropical climate like Colombia, he had to endure the great Chicago blizzard of ’68. Not only that, he had to really start over career wise; he would go to night school to learn English and in the day time he had to work hard to pass his tests in order to get his MD licence so he could practice medicine here in the US.

My uncle had made a very comfortable life for himself by the time I came to live with him and his family. 2 years after I arrived, he joined the Air Force. THAT was so amazing to me. He chose to give back to this great country of ours by serving in the armed forces and I have always been very proud of him for that. I don’t know of too many people who would give up their comfortable life style, an established medical private practice and all if its accoutrements  to serve in the military like this special man did. He gave back to a country that gave him almost everything.

So today I salute my family members who have served and are  still serving in the military: Uncle Frank, Mireya (sister), Diego (brother), Kelli, Tracy (brother-in-law), Frank (cousin), Joe (father- in- law, deceased), Kristina (Niece), Larry (brother-in-law), David, Don Sr. ( deceased ).

I also salute and thank all of my friends who are currently serving and who have served this great land of ours in the past. I can’t name them all because they are too numerous to name..you know who you are! Thank you for being the brave men and women that you are who keep this country free from the claws of oppression. God bless you and your families always!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 10

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Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 10 Question 10: What was the most mischievous thing you can recall doing as a child?

Answer: This memory always makes me chuckle because I really didn’t like my cousin I had to grow up with. He was always mean to me, so it felt good when this happened. We were vacationing in the south of Spain. My uncle was in the Air Force so while we were stationed in Germany, every summer we traveled around in Spain.

We had stayed the night in Rosas

 

a tiny, picturesque beach town. Tio (Uncle) had us get up around 5 am so we could get an early start. I was ready to go and when I knocked on my uncle’s hostel room door he told me to get the others up. My cousin was with me so we went to knock on the door of the friends we were traveling with. I  knocked on the door several times and nothing happened. So I walked away leaving my cousin there, who was still half asleep.

I went back into my room to get my belongings and then I heard a huge commotion. I poked my head out and there was an elderly man standing outside the door I had just knocked on. He was blasting my cousin out in French. I froze for a minute not getting the full picture. Then suddenly I understood what I’d done. I let my cousin take the fall and I was giggling like crazy. The upset French man slammed the door in my cousin’s face right when I walked up. My cousin looked at me in total bewilderment and I never explained to him what had just happened. Payback is hell baby!

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 7

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Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 7 Question 7: As a youngster, whose house did you always look forward to visiting?

Answer: My Abuelita (Grandma) Isabel’s house was the best place ever! She would always greet me with a kiss and a hug and then she’d press a $2 bill into my hand. She would tell me to spend it or save it; now that those $2 notes aren’t around, I wish I would have kept them. She was a seamstress and there were times when I’d sit by her sewing table watching her work; she’d tell me all of the stories of all the dogs she had owned when she lived in Colombia. Her two favorite canines were named Trambia, after the street cars that had just come to Bogota; and Nylon, after the popular lady’s fashion accessory of her day.

"Eje Ambiental" on Bogota Downtown, ...
Image via Wikipedia Bogota

At times Abuelita would tell me stories of my father; he was her youngest of 11 children. I learned a lot about him through these brief times of sharing.

Abuelita Isabel had a sweet tooth bar none. She would keep a tin of cookies, Lemon Coolers were her favorite. Once I entered her bedroom she’d give me a few from her cookie tin which she kept close to her night stand. At other times she would sit in her easy chair in the living room eating Tootsie Rolls and drinking glass after glass of water. To this day, when I eat candy, I wash it down with a big glass of water.

I always hated going home after spending time in Abeulita’s house; because her home and presence gave me comfort. Things were cold in the home I grew up in.At Abuelita’s house the whole atmosphere was warm and welcoming, much like the afghans she crocheted for her 32 grand children…I still have mine and on the coldest of nights I take it out and wrap myself in it, still feeling her warm embrace. 

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 6

· 2 Comments ·

Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. :)

Day 6 Question # 6

What is one family vacation you have never taken but would still love to take one day?

Answer: This one was easy! I dream of taking my 4 kids to Colombia because that’s where I was born. I left  Colombia when I was 6 years old and I want my kids to see where I came from.I love Colombian food; there are fruits in Colombia such as cherimoyas,( also known as Custard Apple and Bullock Heart)

mamoncillos (Spanish Lime),

Curuba, found only in Colombia (Passion Fruit),  

 

and other exotic fruits that you can’t find in the U.S. so easily. If you do luck up and find some, they are either too expensive or they never ripen properly. That would be one of the main reasons to go there with my kids, so they can experience Colombian culture. The picture below is my birth place, Medellin.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 4

· 6 Comments ·

Please refer back to my earlier posts and read what this challenge is about so that the later posts make sense. 🙂

Day 4 Question #4: What is the greatest compliment you’ve ever been paid?

Answer: In the early ’90’s I worked at a museum in Atlanta. The museum director, Lillian and I got along great. One day she asked me to do something extra in order to promote the museum. She told me I had the option to say no and that would be fine too. Lillian asked me if I would make an exhibit using flowers to enter in the Atlanta Flower Show.

Midtown Atlanta, Piedmont Park
Image via Wikipedia

I was taken aback at first since I didn’t consider myself a “pro” at working with flowers. Then I thought about how I had worked with flower arrangements at home so I figured I’d give it a try. The job was to make  an arrangement that resembled the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War. Once I accepted the challenge Lillian stood back and looked at me then she said,” Wow! You’re simply amazing!” I laughed as I asked her,” What do you mean?” The comment caught me by surprise. Then my boss said,” I have never met someone who exudes so much self confidence. It’s almost as if you can do anything that comes your way, because you never let anything or anyone get in your way.” THAT, blew me away because at the time I didn’t think much of myself. I thanked her as we hugged and I went off to plan the exhibit. Words like that stay with a person 🙂

Just Show Up

· 15 Comments ·

Have you ever been in a place in your life where you’re not exactly sure where you’re supposed to be? During my teen years I was a high school student. Then in my twenties it was college and after I graduated came marriage and becoming a parent. My roles were clearly defined, that same pattern continued into my 30’s. Now that I’m in my 40’s the roles are beginning to change on me.

My kids are growing up and I find myself having more time to pursue my own dream and goals. Having older kids doesn’t mean they don’t depend on me anymore; now they depend on me differently. When they were smaller it was easy helping them fix a broken toy, bandaging a sore knee and just being there period. Now they have problems to which I have no pat answer for . They get older and suddenly are seeing that mom and dad are pretty limited and human.

I visited a good friend of mine in San Antonio Texas 2 summers ago. He is a musician and I wanted to know how he figured out what direction to go with his career. At that point I was completely clue less regarding which path I wanted to take next. The way he put it was so simple and yet it stuck with me. Luis just said to me, ” I keep an open mind, I hear about events for net working and I just show up.” That was it, I adopted that way of thinking and do you know what it’s done for me? I have become more open minded and willing to try out new paths which before, I would have never even considered.

In order to do that though, you have to be willing to let go and not try  to control things so much.  Sometimes you have to be willing to lose yourself in order to be found.

REACH

· 1 Comment ·
The Newsboys perform Saturday, June 30 at Crea...
Image via Wikipedia

My youngest daughter recently performed a Lyrical Dance to Peter Furler’s song “REACH” at a church. Sometimes God will use a child to reach out to you and I believe this video will bless you and encourage you to keep reaching out to a God who really cares about you and loves you; no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Reach, keep on reaching and NEVER give up hope.

J.O.W.K. (journal of an over worked kid)

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Dear Diary,

I can’t believe it! I go to a dance studio 7 , yes SEVEN days a week. I am taking ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, ball room,lyrical, voice lessons and piano lessons. I go to school for 8 hours a day and then I’m in the studio 4 hours after school. Not only that, I am part of the competition team and we train everyday. I almost regret the day I showed my mom I could dance; there was a song on the radio, I was 2 and I had just taken my first few steps earlier that week. My mom came in my room and she freaked out when she saw me shaking my booty and singing along to “Hit Me Baby” by Britney Spears .

So the next day she signed me up for dance lessons at a dance studio not too far from our home. I have to admit, at first all the attention was fun. The costumes I had to wear for my first recitals were pretty cute too and I felt like a princess in a fairy tale.

It’s been 14 years since that day when my mom discovered I had some talent and I am past fed up. My mom doesn’t really have a life of her own; I almost feel that she’s living her dreams of being a performer through me and I resent her for it everyday. She has gotten really demanding lately because she thinks I’m being lazy; when in fact I have lost some of the flexibility I had when I was younger, due to my body changing and maturing. So now she’s suggested I take diet pills to control my appetite. I hate where I am in my life and go to sleep dreaming of the day when I can walk away from all of this chaos and just be a normal kid.

So I’m posting this video, my friends and I made it. It’s a spoof that describes how I feel inside but I’m afraid to tell my mom. 

Talk to you later…thanks for listening, I’m glad someone does,

Jolette ❤

TFCL (talk from the clothes line)

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Mattina Buon Dio, ( Good morning God/ Italian)

 The sun is shining so brightly that as the singer says, ” I gotta wear shades.” I need you to be my Counselor right now. Of all the roles you play in my life, Counselor is one of my favorites because You never lead me wrong. Your advice is always spot on!

My family is grieved by a relative who is neglectful; he reasons that since he was neglected as a child, then the rest of us around him should pay and pay and pay.

Neglect-  Fail to care for or attend to properly. Habitual lack of care.

ne- Latin for NOT

glect- to choose, pick up

When we study the word neglect and break it down, we see that neglect is a CHOICE. I have had many close friends advise me that perhaps this relative of mine just doesn’t have the tools to care for properly for others. I disagree because this person certainly possesses the ability to care for his own person and might I add, he excels at taking care if his own needs.

Just for an example the other day we all wanted to go shopping; I normally hate this activity but that day I was in the mood. My relative refused to go and so we never went. The next day when we were all exhausted from having been very busy the day before, my relative decided that NOW was the time to go shopping and so off we went. Later on when we confronted him about the spite (definition of spite- malicious ill will prompting an urge to humiliate) everyone felt while we were in the store, he just smirked as he gave himself a congratulatory pat on the back. I was done.

 If you are reading this and you live with someone who fits the description above,you should know a couple of things: Proverbs 3:27 Don’t withhold good from someone entitled to it, when you have in hand the power to do it.

When someone holds back from doing good to you, that is evil; the opposite is true as well.

Proverbs 12:10 …but the mercies of the wicked are cruel. When a significant someone in your life willfully and habitually neglects you, that is cruel. There is no excuse for that. Remember the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Do good to others when it’s called for and the same shall be done unto you.

Thanks for hearing me God, I’m so glad you never neglect me!

Parleremo di nuovo presto!