A Walk in the Park

We recently visited Jacob L. Loose Park in Kansas City to get Hannah and Nick's engagement pictures taken.  The photographer they hired for their wedding is from that area.  Why would we hire a photographer from Kanasa City rather than around Pittsburg?  Good question!  We found a photographer in the Joplin area but she was very rude and seemed like we were bothering her with our questions so we noticed at the bottom of her Facebook page several other photographers were shown.  David Selby Films and Photos popped up so Hannah browsed his pictures he had online and loved them and sent him a message.  Within minutes David called and started asking her when the wedding was, what she had in mind, etc.  Once he found out her wedding wasn't until February, you would have thought we handed him a million bucks!  Photographers aren't as busy in February so he offered her the best package for the lowest priced package just because he and his videographer would be "bored" in February!!! LOL  

TAKE A WALK IN THE PARK day gave me the perfect opportunity to post a picture of me and Beau walking and playing in the park while Hannah and Nick had their photo session.  David took several candid shots of me and Beau playing which meant a great deal to Hannah and Nick.  I had no idea he was sneaking some pics in of us!!  I know it looks like we were looking at him, but we were really watching a gray squirrel "squirreling" around a tree.  

The park is beautiful and very large.  There are many things to do in the park like tennis, walking your dog, exercising, splash pad, ponds, geese and ducks, fountains, park benches everywhere, and large places to play or kick back and relax on a blanket.  

We had a wonderful time and they had a wonderful session.  Life is good, especially while spending it in the park.

Pink Foam Curlers

I don't know if they even make pink foam curlers anymore or not because I'm so traumatized from these nasty beasts that I think I've spent my entire life unknowingly avoiding whatever aisle they might be on in the store!

When I was a young girl, my sister and I had hair down to our waist.  Our hair was straight so my mom would wash our hair at night by lying us on the kitchen counter and we'd inch up to the sink and she'd wash our hair using the spray nozzle.  I think I'm traumatized from that as well because I cannot stand any type of rain, overspray at the carwash or beauty shoppe, splashing at the swimming pool like NOTHING in my face or eyes!!  Call me a wimp, I'm just telling you how it is!! lol

After we got our hair washed, we'd go get our pajamas on and then mom would comb our hair and roll it in the pink foam curlers.  Rolling the hair in the pink foam curlers was extremely disliked by my sister and me.  Have you tried to sleep with plastic gouging your head in all directions all night long?  It was uncomfortable and honestly barbaric! 

One day, we went to Otasco (a store back in the day before a Walmart) and mom bought a bubble hairdryer!  It was a blue plastic model (pictured below because she still has it) and our hopes of never having to sleep in the pink foam curlers again were quite promising.  Mom got the hairdryer out of the box, unlatched it and pulled the dome up and plugged it in.  I wanted to go first so I got to be the first one to sit under the new dryer, but my sister got to go first because you know, she's the favorite!!  Just kidding, but not really...back then I think she was!  Anyway, once we got done sitting under the dryer we were anxious to get those dreadful pink foam curlers out of our hair.  We found out real fast that mom only bought the bubble dryer so we wouldn't have to go to bed with wet hair any longer, not so we wouldn't have to sleep in the horrendous head-poking heinous hard-plastic pink foam hair curlers!!!!!  Why on earth should we still have to sleep in those pink foam hair curlers?  It was pure agony.  I'm just now realizing that I might honestly have been tortured as a child!!!  After complaining quite fiercely, we discovered that if we took out the unpleasant pink foam curlers that our straight hair that now has curls would be flat once we woke up the next morning.  It was a no-win situation for sure.

I spent many years having to endure the pink foam curlers, curling irons, electric hot rollers, and barrel brushes but something happened on a day in the fall of 1995.  I was getting a perm and was pregnant with Chet and from that day on I've had curly hair!  (Don't try this at home folks)  Seriously, isn't that weird?  It's like the hormones or something in my body during that time caused me to go from straight as an arrow hair to curly hair and life without those stinking pink foam curlers, curling irons, electric hot rollers, and the barrel brushes has been like heaven.  But wait for it...EVERYBODY WANTS STRAIGHT HAIR NOW!!!!  Bring on the flat iron!!!

Garnet and Purl

You've heard of garnets and pearls, but what is wild about the Garnet and Pearl I know is they were both my grandfathers' names.  Who names their child Garnet?!  Who names their child Pearl?  Priscilla and Alberta, my great-grandmothers, that's who!!  I never knew either of these women, but I did learn that my dear poor old' German great-grandmother might not have had been "on point" when spelling the names of her boys.  I found out from my mother that she not only named my grandpa, Pearl, but his brothers were named Jean and Leigh.  At least their brother, Harvey, had a name she couldn't "feminize"!!!  We laugh about this now, but back when my grandpa and his brothers enlisted in the Navy, thank goodness the military encouraged and helped Purl, Lee, and Gene change the official spelling of their first names!!  Learning about my family is so interesting to me, but what are the odds of having my paternal grandfather named Garnet and my maternal grandfather named Purl?  I guess that is why I am such a "Jewel"!!!

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald

I never knew anything about the SS Edmund Fitzgerald until I visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point, Michigan.  It was only then when we started to watch a video about the shipwreck that we were told the song written and sang by Gordon Lightfoot was a tribute to those that had died during that horrible day in November.  I've attached a link to the song below with the lyrics.  As we sat and watched the short documentary with the song playing softly in the background, there wasn't a dry eye in the museum after hearing the story.  The documentary included the family members of those that had perished and the story of the raising of the ship's brass bell. 

Prior to visiting, I couldn't imagine how a ship could sink or wreck in a lake.  My small-town country-girl brain was thinking of lakes we have around this area, a body of water that just sits there for recreational purposes!!  When you drive up the coast of Lake Michigan, the first lake you encounter, one might forget it's just a lake.  When you look out, one might possibly think they're viewing an ocean because the body of water is so huge.  Once we got further north in the U.P., we drove along the southern coast of Lake Superior and learned that Lake Superior is the largest lake of the "Greats" and the deepest and its southern shore of Lake Superior is known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes" where more ships have been lost around the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior.

The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in a storm on the 10th of November, 1975, on Lake Superior.  All 29 crew members perished when the ship sank, and no bodies were ever recovered. Edmund Fitzgerald was swallowed up so intensely by Lake Superior that the 729-foot ship split in half; similar to the Titanic, and her two pieces sit approximately 170 feet apart at a depth of 1,333 feet in the "graveyard" of Lake Superior.  I had to purchase a book in the gift shop so I could read and learn more about the mighty "Big Fitz" as it was often called.

While at Whitefish Point, we stayed in the US Coast Guard's Captain's Quarters that has been turned into a Bed and Breakfast.  There is a beautiful lighthouse there, walking trails, a protected area for an endangered bird to lay its egg, and the round rocks creating the beach rather than sand were fun to pick up as if they were seashells.  We walked the beaches of Lake Superior, sat on a large piece of driftwood, and watched a ship cruise along the point and give a tug at its horn.  I could have sat there all day and night watching ships pass, but that tug of the horn left me entranced and wanting more.  I can't wait to go back!

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

The Worm

During my morning commute to work, I enjoy many things each and every day such as sipping on my freshly-brewed coffee, I enjoy listening to some 80s tunes...sometimes country and sometimes classic rock.  I look forward to visiting with my sister, I eagerly await the beautiful sunrise, I'm pretty pro at dodging idiot drivers, I can drive with my knee so I can eat my granola bar or banana while sipping on my freshly-brewed coffee...not a minute wasted...but, I never ever EVER planned to enjoy eating a tiny green worm all wrapped in white silk!  Thank goodness I could not find my granola bar on this one particular morning I speaketh of!!

On this particular morning I speaketh of, I zipped into the school parking lot, I got out of the car and went around to the other side of the car and opened the passenger door.  There, between the seat and the car door, was the granola bar that slid off the seat and fell to the floor and thankfully was out of my reach, and because of that, I was starving to death during my early morning commute.  Imagine how hangry I was!  I was dying to get in the school doors and high-tail it down the hall to unlock the library and turn on the lights.  My belly was growling fiercely as I threw down my bags and computer and plopped down in my chair while opening that granola bar package only to find white, finely spun silk, outlining the granola thin.  Hmmm!  I thought it looked weird like maybe I had actually purchased the s'mores one...if they even made the s'mores one...and also thought that the white stuff all the way around the edges of the granola thin was possibly a thin layer of marshmallow?  Aw, heck, no!  It really was finely spun silk and my eyes did not deceive me because there was all of a sudden some movement and would you believe that slowly, but surely, out inched the tiniest green worm I had ever seen?!  I couldn't believe my eyes.  Had I eaten my granola bar in the car, I would never have seen the worm because it is dark in the car during my commute to work.  I would have eaten it.  I think I'm going to hurl just thinking about it.  What was I doing just sitting there?  Was I in shock?  I most definitely know I was dumbfounded!  At least I thought to video this miraculous moment in Nature Valley history!  I bet you just want to run out and buy yourself a box of Nature Valley Granola Thins...don't ya?!!! 

P.S.  I could not find the video at the moment, but I will look for it in my spare time if anyone is interested in viewing the little green worm and the web that came out of a thoroughly sealed package of granola thins!  I do keep the box on the top shelf of my library bookcase to serve as a constant reminder of what brand NOT to buy when purchasing granola bars!!!

Hawksbill Crag

If you're thinking about going on a hiking trip and you don't want to go too far away from home, look no further than the Buffalo National River area.  It is about a 3-hour drive, but it is a beautiful drive, especially if you take the route through War Eagle and check out the old mill and all it has to offer.

We stayed in Jasper, Arkansas because there is a restaurant where we could eat breakfast, lunch, and supper!  We have also stayed in an AirBnB where we took our own food and cooked all of our meals in the kitchen of the house we rented.  It is whatever floats your boat!  There are motels and gas and a DG in Jasper.  If you need a nearby Walmart, I'd suggest staying in Harrison and driving the thirty minutes each day you're hiking it would take you to get to any of the trailheads.  Jasper, it was a cute little town with character and charm though!

The first time I went, I took my daughter Hannah and my grandson Beau with me.  We got back home after our bike hiking excursion and showed our pictures to Nick, her fiance', and he couldn't wait to go so we planned another trip to the crag with Nicholas.  We really can't wait to go back.  I'm taking my husband next time as he wants to go too!  We left many trails untouched such as the Goat Trail and some we've done twice like the Hilltop.  Our favorite trail is the Hawksbill Crag at Whitaker's Point.  Once you reach the point, there is no view like it, it takes your breath away. 

Here is a picture of Hannah, Nick and Beau on Hawksbill Crag!

Grab Your Torch and Pitchfork

This is the time of year that I love to do yard work.  Raking under trees, around the foundation of the house, and even around the carport makes a huge difference.  I noticed the other day that the grass was growing like crazy and it is starting to look like a jungle out there!!  I threw our old mower away and need to go get a new one so I had better get on the stick and get one purchased or it's going to be "Houston, we've got a problem!"

One thing I really love about yard work is burning the dead leaves, sticks, and grass.  I love to throw on a few logs that we didn't burn in the fireplace during winter and have a wiener roast AND fix s'mores!  The kids usually invite their friends over and we sit around the fire enjoying one another's company until the fire dies down and it's time to call it a night.  One time my son even broke out the ukelele and we all sang.

I better grab the torch, light the fire, and load up the pitchfork with wieners because this girl is craving hotdogs and s'mores and this beautiful early spring weather is perfect for just that!