High School

I went to school for 5 years at a private Christian school in Florida. I'm not naming names in this blog - simply because I want nothing I say to reflect negatively on my Alma Mater. It was a wonderful education, and a fine institution, where I made friends, good friends - that I still speak to today. THAT is what this post is about. 


I've reconnected with some friends on Facebook recently, that I thought I would never, ever hear from again. When my dad died in 1979, my mother made the prudent decision to move back to Florida, from our home in Tennessee. The place held too many memories, and my dad's whole family was in Florida, and we needed family. So we moved to Florida. I was behind in school because my dad died right in the middle of my seventh grade year, and I missed a LOT of school. So, when we arrived in Florida my aunt suggested a school she knew of. It was private, and Christian, and guaranteed to get me caught up to, and probably ahead of (by miles) my peers. So Tennessee country girl, used to horses, dogs, woods, trucks, and mechanic work with my dad became South Florida beach girl... ya'll I have to say - at first I didn't fit in... but slowly, slowly I began to make friends. I was a great talker, and generally friendly... my daddy said I'd never met a stranger. I made friends, and we had five great years together. But, being a teenager, and following rules don't go hand in hand... and I was a cause without a rebel... or is that the other way around??? Hell I don't know, I was young, and stupid. I decided that didn't like rules, and I really hated the rules the school was imposing on  us. So, I begged  manipulated my way out of the private school and re-entered the public school world I had not seen in five years. It was, to say the least, a shock to my system. I excelled academically because of the wonderful education in private school. Socially, I was 'everyone's friend' but nobody's friend at the same time... I don't keep in touch with anyone I hung out with during that time in my life, except my private school friends that I still hung out with, and family. Flash forward 26 years to today...
I see their posts on Facebook all the time, and most all my old schoolmates seem to still be close, and inclusive. This is something that the school was famous for, close-knit relationships throughout the grades. There weren't any cliques to speak of... everyone was friends with everyone else for the most part. I often wondered over the years what happened to my friends and where they were now... and now I do! I found both girls I considered "best friends" when we were in school, girls that were there no matter what choices I made, and no matter what happened. They were true friends... but something else I've noticed, everyone of the people on my friends list that I went to school with is accepting, approving, loving, and nonjudgmental. No matter what I say, what I post, share, or photograph. They're supportive of what I do, no matter what it is. These are good people. Not just your run of the mill, every day good people, I mean really, really good people. People that even if you didn't know they had faith, you'd assume they were going to heaven, just because they were the embodiment of what we would see in Christ. 
I've seen them go through nearly losing a child, breast cancer, job loss, cancer,  milestones, and joys. And all across the board there is nothing but love and support offered. 
In short, I think I'm saying - surround yourself with the kind of people you just know are good people. Positive people that spread joy and happiness, especially in the face of adversity. These are the kind of people that you need in your life, they infuse you with joy, happiness, and passion for life in every contact. Surround yourself with the kind of person you want to be. Eventually they're attitudes and passions become contagious and you can't help but be more like them. 
This is what makes life worth living! 

Opportunity

Opportunity - 1 : a favorable juncture of circumstances 
2 : a good chance for advancement or progress *Merriman-Webster Dictionary Online

I like that, a good chance for advancement or progress, yes - I really like that. 

In this economy, in this age, we have little opportunity for advancement in our normal course of life. Oh, there are the raises, the perks of our jobs, if we are so lucky as to have jobs. There are the milestones that keep us going, children growing, having birthday's, dates, proms, graduations... those things sustain us... but an Opportunity for true change and the cosmic do-over it implies, does not come often. 

Our family has chosen to make one such opportunity for ourselves. We have decided to pull up the stakes of our comfortably paid for home, in a town with little or no work, to return to the precarious life of renting in a town with at the very least 7% more work than where we currently live. 

7% really doesn't sound like much - but it's a chance we are willing to take. It is a chance for us to start over in a new place, with new surroundings, and with old friends and family for support, and that's what makes the difference. 

Where we live now is drying up, not only economically, but emotionally for us as well. Everyone who supported us here, everyone we were truly 'friends' with were related to the job I formerly held. Those tenuous friendships have held, but barely, through the ensuing ten months since I left the company. I connected with the mother of my daughters friends, and at one time we were inseparable, but our kids don't see eye-to-eye anymore... and our parenting styles seem to be so different now that the girls are older... that it's just not as close as it once was. 

We are truly ready to accept this challenge, and move to the next stage of life in these challenging times. We will hope for the best, and work to meet the challenge with open hearts and open minds! 

Food

There is a new post over at Hopelessly in Love with Food in which I talk about the amazing desserts I made this past week from Pioneer Woman's cookbook. 
I also talk about my grandmother. Sometime this week, when I get the chance, I'm going to write a post about my grandmother, and what she meant in my life. She was truly an amazing woman, with a lot of guts! She fought cancer on her terms, and while she lost the war, she won important battles. 
That's all I have to say about her for now - I've got to go dig up some photos!

Photogenic much?

Our kids spent a very good portion of the weekend vacation avoiding my camera... the roving eye saw all! I was incessantly behind the lens as the official Chronicler of Family Events.


It's funny how I got the title, the camera was purchased with a tripod for the hubster, because his hands are too shaky for even the auto balancer to keep up with. So, in lieu of all our photos looking like the blob slid across the child just as the shutter snapped, I get to take the photos... which means I get looks like this: 

Or this...

But no matter what look they're giving me, they're exceptionally photogenic kids, at least I think so!

Even though they hate the camera, they seem to always have some sort of smile or something for me... it's kind of nice to know I haven't driven them completely insane with my one eyed monster!

Of course my favorite part is catching them off guard... I have to work on that, something about the camera protruding from my forehead tips them off... every stinking time!