Don't Worry, Be Happy

Patti, you can do your DNA through Ancestry.com or 23 and Me, but I heard 23 and Me filed bankruptcy and maybe you shouldn't go that route. David has that one, and I have Ancestry.com. Ancestry puts theirs on sale frequently, so I'll let you know if I come across an ad for it. You don't have to be a member to do the DNA test. 

This morning when I was doing my journaling, I tuned in to YouTube to listen to some music. I first heard "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, then "The Git Up" by Blanco Brown, and then "Combo #5" by Lou Bega. If you want to get instantly in a good mood, listen to one of these! And if you have time, listen to all three. And you should watch the video as well. That makes it even better.

Rick's mother, Joyce, is in the hospital again. This is the third time since she got to Washington in a little over a month. Two weeks, one week, and I don't know how long she will be there this time. She got admitted last night. She got a pacemaker last time. I hope they keep her long enough to get her completely well. So, if you're "praying around," could you add her to your list? Thank you. We saw her on Saturday and had a nice visit. 

Serendipitous

I think there is a movie called Serendipity, and it is one of Vic's favorites. He has quite a few favorite movies: Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, The Bourne movies, Crocodile Dundee, and the Taken movies with Liam Neeson. Probably more. Oh, yes, one about a little girl and a horse. I can't remember the name of it.

Anyway, one day, when Vic was in the shower, the doorbell rang. I usually tiptoe to the door and look through the peephole and maybe I'll answer it, but most the time I do not. Especially if Vic isn't here. So he's in the shower, the doorbell rings, for some reason I opened it. A man was standing there and enquired about the Aurora automobile in our driveway. He asked if it was for sale. I did not know, I thought we were just going to donate it to one of those charities that takes cars. It had been sitting there in the driveway for 4 years. So, since Vic wasn't available, I gave him Vic's phone number and asked his name and phone number to give Vic. I asked hs name. "Paul Martin" he replied. "Paul M-A-R-T-O-N, I asked. "He gave me a funny look and replied that was right, that was his name. I then asked, "Rusty's friend?" And it was Rusty's friend! I told him who I am and Vic came to the door. He and Paul talked for about an hour in the living room. We gave him the car and he has been working on it ever since. Rusty was my brother, but he passed away. Last I heard, Paul was in Michigan or Minnesota or somewhere not here. Rusty lived with him for a while in Idaho. I had not seen Paul in many years and did not recognize him and he didn't recognize me. Serendipity. Co-inkee-dink, yes?

Has anything like that ever happened to you? Once in awhile, I will happen to think of a person I knew in the past just out of the blue. I figure God wants me to pray for them, so I do. 

Have a good week, it is Spring Break for the teachers and kids. I hope everyone has safe travels. 

The flowering trees around town are in bloom.
They are so pretty. 

Baby Chicks

You know you are old when the baby you held just yesterday is driving now. Or signing a letter of acceptance to a college when she was just running through our beaded curtain and giggling. Sweet memories. Almost Kleenex time when I think too hard about it!

It's baby chicks time. I used to get baby chicks, I love them. I'll tell a story about myself. I had maybe six baby chicks. I kept them in a cardboard box with layers of newspapers on the bottom. There was a light clamped on the box to keep them warm. One night we were sleeping in our upstairs bedroom at the house on Campbell's Drive in Prosser. I woke up and smelled what I thought was cookies. I wondered who would be making cookies at that time of the night so I went downstairs to check. No one was making cookies. The chicks had pulled the light down into the box. They were huddled in the corner farthest away from the light. The downstairs was full of smoke. I rescued the chicks, and called the Fire Dept., and by that time everyone in the house was up. That light burnt through the layers of newspapers, the cardboard box, the indoor/outdoor type of carpeting on the floor and it scorched the wood. There were no flames. The insurance company paid well. They paid me and I made all new curtains, we had to paint, and I can't remember if we put carpet back on the floor, but I doubt it. It could have been so much worse. So every spring I think of baby chicks and my toasted little chicks. They survived! I don't recall if Crippy Hippy was of this batch or not. I'll have to ask the kids about it. 

Jerry and Anne are back from their adventure! We sure enjoyed going with them. The pictures and the places they went were very interesting and we had not heard of some of them.

That family history problem I mentioned a couple of posts ago? I have yet to solve it. I'm about to give up and just leave the parentage blank. Can't prove it, can't disprove it. But I'm like a dog with a bone. I have to quit looking, I've done it many different ways, so I just need to move on.  (That's what she said.) 

DNA Test Results

I had my DNA test last year sometime. The results are interesting. I agree with some, but not others. And sometimes I was able to say who influenced that result, Mom or Dad. Other times, no. Here are a few of them. There are more but I didn't want to take up so much room. 

Alcohol face flush - both parents passed it on 

Able to smell asparagus metabolites - I guessed Dad, yep

Athletic ability - Dad - and I have zero

Caffeine intake - likely to drink more caffeine than average - Dad - Wait,     I'll be back in a moment, I gotta go talk to Keurig.

Cilantro aversion - likely to enjoy cilantro - both

Cleft chin - likely to have - would have thought Dad, but is Mom

Dancing - least likely to enjoy - WRONG and if they said Dad, it would        have been a lie - Mom

Earlobes - unattached - Dad - yes, mine are unattached

Earwax type - wet (who decided to study earwax)

Eye color - dark eyes - Dad, yes, I have brown eyes

Finger length - index finger longer than ring finger, both, and yes

Flat feet - unlikely - Dad

Hair color - blond hair, could pass on red - Dad - but I don't and didn't

Hair strand thickness - both parents and my hair strands are very                  thin, some of them are invisible, see? Right up there! LOL

Hair type - wavy - thought it would be Dad, but it was Mom. My hair              is not wavy.                 

Heat tolerance - tolerates heat well - Dad, no surprise

Introvert, extrovert - introvert - Mom

Morning or night person - morning - Dad - so wrong if referring to me

Mosquito bites - less attractive to mosquitos - Dad

Optimist - unlikely - Mom

If you have had your DNA tested, tell me a few of the traits you have. Especially if you are family, see how we compare to one another.

  

Terms of Endearment

Not really. Lately I've been wondering if kids these days say the little ditties we said as children. "We" meaning my siblings and I, and other children of my generation. So I've decided to put a few of them here in case some of you don't know them. They are cheeky! They are NOT the cute little nursery rhymes we repeated to our children. 

"Oh, the biscuits in the (Army or Navy) they say are mighty fine, but one rolled off the table and killed a pal of mine. Oh, I have had enough of (Army or Navy) life, gee Ma, I wanta go, gee Pa, I wanta go home."

"Liar, liar, pants on fire, hang them on the telephone wire." You can tell that one's old. Not that many telephone wires anymore.

"It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring. Bumped his head, went to bed, didn't wake up in the morning."

"I see London, I see France, I see (someone's) under pants."

This one is extra-cheeky: "Salvation Army, Salvation Army, put a nickel in the drum, save another drunken bum..."

And the song we sang on the bus in high school on the way to games: "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer, take one down and pass it around, 99 bottles of beer on the wall..." Keep going, 98 bottles of beer, etc. We weren't drinking beer on the bus. But this one time...

And words to supposedly "hurt" one another: Pig. My sibs and I always used this word before it became a jeer at police officers. We thought we were hurting each other by calling them this name. And butt-duck. What? Where did that come from, even? Probably one of my brothers made it up. 

Mom used to sing to us. "There was an old woman who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I think she'll die." I can't remember all the things the old woman did, but I think she died. 

"Hush little baby, don't way a word, Momma's going to buy you a mocking bird, and if that mocking bird don't fly, Momma's going to buy you a ..." and so on. You can make up your own words

And, so appropriate: "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do." But, Mom wasn't an old woman. She didn't live long enough to be considered old. RIP Mom.

Do you remember any little ditties I didn't mention here? Make a comment and I'll post it after I review it. 

Music and Dance

I have a confession to make. I am addicted to You Tube Shorts. Mainly the military videos (love them) and dancing videos. Music and dance. When I was a little girl, sometime before 5th grade, I would go downtown in Beaverton, OR, just a few blocks from our house, and watch thru the windows of the Anita Pavlova Dance Studio. I wanted to be a ballerina. Even now I can't sit still when listening to music. 

I'm curious why the military shorts always use the Sounds of Silence by Disturbed in their videos. I like it, don't get me wrong. Maybe because of copyrights? 

I tried to have these to play right here but I can't figure it out. These links will take you to YouTube to that short. Then click the back arrow to come back to this blog entry. I think. 

 https://youtube.com/shorts/KtxzqaVgb0s?si=MerxJmWBw_qW9pYq

Little Boy Teaching Dance

Sleep and Done

I survived the sleep study. I was surprised the room I had was set up like a real bedroom. There was a whole lot of noise when I was supposed to be trying to go to sleep. Like construction noises. Seems like that shouldn't be happening. But, I did finally fall asleep. I only had to get up twice. Which means I had to get the nurse to come in and unhook me. Then I had to carry a big wad of wires with me. I had electrodes everywhere. In my hair - glue. Anyway, I survived and when I got home, I went right to bed after breakfast. 

Each of these wires had an electrode on me somewhere.
And there was a tube in my nose. 
Try to go to sleep with all this apparatus encompassing
every part of you!

I'm working on Vic's family history. I had some trouble getting my scanner to save the scans but I finally have it worked out. I came across a "Time Capsule" for the day Vic was born. Very interesting.

Prices in 1948

House: $13,500

Car: $1,550

Milk: $.86

Gas: $.20

Bread: $.14

Postage Stamp: $.03

Average Income: $2,854

Prices in 2025

House: $357,138 (per Zillow)

Car: $48,641

Milk: $4.47

Gas: $3.21

Bread: $6.14 

Postage Stamp: $.73

Average Income: $59,436

Oy vey. That's all. 

2nd Post

I forgot to mention that I got a letter from one of the people at one of the nursing homes I started writing to. I never expected to get a reply! The woman is 94 years old and wrote me a letter on notebook paper. She is pretty much on the ball for being 94. Wrote me a very interesting letter about her life there. And, she sent me some dead leaves. How sweet is that? She probably doesn't really get things. I always send stickers or coloring pages or Word Searches, just something to put in for the person. I do that with my pen pals, too. 

I have dried Johnny Jump Ups before, so I'll do that again this year. I dry them and laminate them for a bookmark. 

Fiddler on the Roof

I love that movie. I'll have to watch it again soon. The reason it came to mind is because "life." L-chaim. Whenever life happens when other plans were made, I think of this song from the movie. 

A grand-nephew has passed away. It's pretty sad around here right now. 

The lyrics are from the song, but the Jewish faith toasts to life with the words. There are quite a few more refrains, but I'll just put this one up for now. And go find the movie. 

To life, to life, l'chai-im,!

L'chai-im, l'chai-im, to life!

Life has a way of confusing us

Blessing and bruising us,

Drink l'chaim, to life.

She's A Doll

In some ways, I guess I could be considered a mixed media artist. I'm thinking a real artist would not call me one, so I just say I craft. 

When I was working on Rene', I got an idea for another one of my ladies' heads. I'm supposed to get the supplies today. And I'm anxious! 

I just wasted a $10 dollar bill. On the way home from the orthopedist this morning I got an Americano and a sugar cookie. $9+... I know the SF iced Snickers that I like so well are spendy, so I ordered the Americano, to take home and put my 1/2 and 1/2 in. Shocking! And the Americano wasn't all that good, either. Starbucks' Americanos I do like, but we went to a Wake Up Call near us. Guess I'll stick to my own coffee at home. It wasn't the "treat" I thought it would be.

My leg/knee is still painful. Yesterday I phoned the orthopedics clinic and asked if by any chance they would have an opening yesterday or today; they got me in today. That's unheard of these days. Usually you have to wait weeks to get in to any kind of a physician. So I saw my own doctor, even; he said it's my arthritis. I got a injection in each knee. Have you ever had one? They are brutal. I had one in the heel of my foot once. That was even more brutal! 

I'm off to do some letter writing so I can mail them later today. 

 

Busy, Busy

Greetings. I have been busy and not posted for a week, wow, time flies when you are having fun. My leg is still in pain but I'm going to see my orthopedic doctor tomorrow. I don't think anything is broken but I need to know what to do to hurry the healing along.

Have you received your enhanced driver's license? I haven't yet. I did go and apply for it but they said I need a copy of my marriage certificate showing that I changed my name, i.e., that my name is not the one given to me at birth. Picky, picky! I'm not going to fly anywhere so why do I need it. 

Hubby is working out in the yard, pruning those 29 rose bushes. It has rained some, and it has been windy but he goes out when its goes away during the day. He wants to get it done so we can go to the beach. No date yet, he just wants to wait until the work is done because we often go when he isn't finished and peonies harvest comes along and he doesn't finish his chores. 

This is Rene'. I have been working on her.

She isn't finished yet. This is a sneak preview.

Take care and have a nice weekend. 

Woe Is Me

I'm still hobbling around. I am getting pretty tired of it. Now my left leg and foot are so swollen I think they are going to burst right out of my skin. 

Hubby just got the violin that belonged to his Grandpa Hoefer (Francis John) down from the closet. It came down the line to Philip (Bud), then on to Vic. Next Josh, our #1 grandson, will get it, then his son, Owen. Grandpa Hoefer wanted it to go to the 1st sons, on down the line. I suggested we get it fixed, it needs cleaning and repairing. 

I won a sterling silver charm bracelet one year. I saw the ad in the back of a craft magazine that Rembrandt, a jewelry company, would give away a bracelet and x number of charms to someone who wrote an essay about what charms they would choose if they won, and why. I won. They had quite a selection of charms; it was fun to write and then to win! Melanie has given me a number of charms for it so when I pass on, the bracelet will pass on to her. 

I'm still watching Midsomer's Murders by BBC. I crack up over some of the sayings and words they use, and sometimes I have to look at Google to learn what the word means. I think I like the show because it keeps you guessing until the end to find out "whodunit." 

I've written more letters to Letters Against Isolation care homes. They actually have the need for letters in Russian and Chinese, and probably other languages, too, but those are the ones I've come across. 

Hump day. 

Good For Nothin'

That's me. Good for nothing since I fell. I'm using a cane and a walker. Funny how pride goes away when you're hurtin' for certain. 

Rick's mother, who came to live with him and Katie, is in the hospital. She never got over the pneumonia. We're praying for a complete recovery. 

I've been writing letters to the organization I told you about last time. I can sit just fine, just can't maneuver well when walking, standing, etc., it's too painful. So it's a good time to write letters. I like doing this, I don't have to worry about what I may have told the recipient in the last letter because they won't get a second letter from me. 

March means Spring is just around the corner and that makes me very happy. I hate winter.

Have you been reading Jerry and Anne's blog? They are posting lots of photos and telling about places I've never heard of. It's interesting. Makes me want to go someplace. Oh, yeah, I can't. At least not right now. Going to the kitchen from my craft room, where I have a writing table, is a big deal!