Your name is WHAT????

My daughter who is now 25 seems to lately be experiencing the most aggravating comments about her name. She works where the public comes in, and they see her name badge, and the majority of the people will comment. The latest yesterday was, “you poor thing, I guess you should tell your parents how to spell”. Now what comeback is there for that? She is so mild, and doesn’t and can’t be impolite to the customer, but I told her you should have said, “yes, right away, I’ll go home and tell mom she should suck me back in, learn to spell (AND DON’T BE CREATIVE) before she pops me back out and then she will know how she should spell my name - the way most people think it should be spelled, not the way she wants to spell it. 

I admit, she has had to spell it most of her life for people, but even when she does or if she even writes it herself, they correct it for her. Duh….

She is going back to college and signed up today, and guess what, the person signing her on at college could not get her name correct. She had spelled it, and when the person was writing out her papers, she had to correct her, and the lady said, “Oh, that really messed me up, I thought they misspelled it when you came in so I was correcting it”. Now with all the kids that are in college today, and all the unusual names floating around, wouldn’t you think she would be open to different spellings?

We had two boys 5 years apart, and when they were 13 and 18, we found out, surprise, we were having a baby. It was a little girl, and when we were picking names, my husband reminded me that when the boys were little, we had chosen a name if we ever had a little girl. Well, I had totally forgotten about that.

Well, are you ready for this really unusual name, it is Jennafer. I wanted to name her Jenna after Gena Rowland (the actress) because I always liked the way her name sounded, but thought the spelling of it didn’t sound like Jenna. And, I really didn’t want her to be called Jenny which was commonly short for Jennifer. So to compromise, her name is Jennafer. I call her Jenna (most everyone does) and her dad calls her Jennafer. If you Google her name, you will find quite a few people with the same name, and the same spelling…wow, I wasn’t that unusual after all. But, I guess to some people, her name is off the wall. I say, “Really, when people are naming their kids names like Nike or whatever?” 

If you could have named yourself, would you have picked the name your parents gave you? I’ve always hated my name, it is so common. My sisters had pretty names, and I always said to my mom, “what, you just didn’t have time to think of a name for me?” My name is Patricia, but I was never called that…always just Pat and when in school, if you said Pat, most of the room would stand up. Now some were known as Tricia, Trisha, Trish…that would have been okay, but “Pat”. Not to knock anyone else who is called Pat if you like your name, I just would never have named myself that so maybe that’s why I wanted something a little different for my daughter.

Summer Vacation

Hubby redeemed himself from a couple years ago, and caught this Saugeye…we usually only catch 1 each per day, but not this year. Mostly though, I never care because I just laze on the boat, and apparently, we aren’t very good fishermen because we see others at the lake with a huge catch.  I only caught one fish the entire 10 days, and that was a catfish..(not too small, but definitely not a large one - no pic of it). Whoops, missed my chance to tell a fish story there since no picture, it was definitely a huge one (not).

The fireworks over the lake were the first year we were disappointed. It rained and was cloudy so the fireworks mostly were behind the clouds. I didn’t even take my camera out on the boat because it was still raining, but at least warm.

All the kids showed up for the 4^th  to go see the fireworks so that definitely made up for the disappointing fireworks. They brought dad a corn-hole game that they had made themselves for late Father’s Day and for his birthday, which is this week-end. They also brought him a keyboard, and being the musician he is, he was thrilled with that even though it was a small one and nothing expensive. Daughter-in-law found it at a garage sale. He plays sax and that is his main instrument, but he also does the guitar and taught me the keyboard when he had his band in the late 60’s because he couldn’t find a keyboard player. Opening my mouth, I had said “if you need one, I can do it“. Well, shouldn’t have because that night, home came a keyboard, and I was his keyboard player until well into the 1980’s.  That’s another story though because we ended up playing 5 nights a week and later with a family band and both sons play instruments (oldest son play drums and the other one plays the keyboard and alto sax). 

Sorry, I kind of rambled there and got off subject.

Anyway, they are always dredging the lake so took picture of the machine and also just some other scenery pictures of just the lake. (on photo tab) It was nice the whole week.

We did play corn hole, and I am lousy at that. Only won one game.  Everyone there seems to have this game so at least we now have one also, and everyone stopped by on Friday night and it turned into corn-hole competition (mainly among the men).

We rode the wave runner, which we had considered selling last season, but kept it. It is a great way to cool off and so much fun, but unfortunately, it started having problems mid week so no more wave runner. All and All though it was a good vacation, and always a good time to get to spend with hubby since he drives semi and is gone most of the week (usually).

What do most of the other PNN’ers do for vacation. I’m sure much more luxurious than ours just hanging at the lake, but would love to hear the experiences.

I see where GoingGreen has been in Utah and has posted some great pictures of her visit, which allows me to feel as though I’ve gotten a glimpse of another state for myself.

Fun Day

Baby-kins and I headed out Wednesday at 10:00 to stop at the Dollar Tree to get him some beach toys and then head for one of the local beaches.  It was my last furlough day of this quarter, and really hot 90° so thought that would be the best place since we don’t have air, and baby-kins could have a fun day, and get worn out for a nap. (however that statement was wrong…it just wound him up).

Later, mommy joined us when she got off early that day, but while we were waiting for her at 1:00, I thought he needed cooling off some so in the car we went, air conditioner on, Sippy cup, and exploring we went.  I followed the road sign that said lower dam visitor recreation area. Now, I had no idea what that meant, but oh well. When we got there, it was a play place…so no nap for baby-kins.  He was thrilled.  He got to play, I got to take some pictures of the dam area…so we

both won. Then back to the beach we headed to wait for mommy (who stopped to grab snacks, which I had forgotten and me a cold, cold, Pepsi).  Gotta love that mommy.

Here are the pics..larger ones are on my photos page

The Summer of My Gall Bladder

I was 17 and hubby was 19 when we married. He was a musician that traveled on the road with the band so I went along.  It was fun and different, but I mostly stayed in the hotel/motels and read books or lay at the pool or beach, as I was too young to go to the bars where he played. We traveled for two years, and when we found out we were having a baby, home we went to settle down with the new baby coming and start a family. I was 20 and he was 22 when we had a little boy.  Five years later along came our second little boy. 

One summer when I was 37, and our boys were 13 and 17, I started my week of vacation, but was so sick that I just sat around on the patio (it was a hot July) and thought okay, it doesn’t feel like the flu so diagnosing myself, I thought gall bladder.  However, during that week our 17 year old opened a Pepsi in front of me and the smell made me so nauseous.  I later told hubby, if I didn’t know better and it couldn’t be because mother nature had been right on schedule every 30 days, I would suspect being pregnant and that is why I feel so bad because when I was pregnant with the first baby, now 17, that I couldn’t take the smell of a Pepsi or Coke.  I couldn’t even drink them even though I had been totally addicted to them.

Back to work the next week, and not feeling much better, I thought before I decide to go to the doctor saying that I thought I was having gall bladder problems, and considering we had never had to use any type of birth control, I called to see how soon they could tell if someone was pregnant (if they had home tests, I wasn’t aware of it at the time).  The nurse told me just drop off a sample and they could tell as early as a couple of weeks along.  So that’s what I did.

Well, later that day the phone call came from the doctor’s nurse, and she said, are you sitting down, and I said should I be?  She said, yes, the test is positive, you’re going to have a baby.  I immediately called my sister crying and told her, and she laughed because she thought I was joking her, but with my crying soon realized I wasn’t.  I cried for two weeks.  When I went for the exam, however, I was 3 months and hadn’t had any indication at all except the Pepsi incident.  Hubby was thrilled and wondered why I was crying.  It was because I was too old (I thought) and I said everyone will laugh.  We had one graduating school that year and a 13 year old that pretty much could survive without my constant attention. I’d be going back to diapers, worrying, up at night, etc. I also thought the boys’ friends would laugh, but they didn’t they were great. 

Short story, 9 months later, along came a little girl.  The nurses had such a ball with our two boys because they said they usually have younger siblings, but the boys would head straight to the nursery, the nurses would bring the baby out so they could take pictures, and then they would eventually make it to my room to see mom. 

The baby girl turned 25 this past March, and she has been a complete joy.  In ways, she has kept us young. 

Although, she hates when I jokingly say she was my gall bladder attack.

Through The Curtain

July 11, 1998

After my mom died, I painted every room I could and did everything I could to keep busy and keep my mind off the hurt. I cried at least once a day for a year. After that year, I felt like I definitely needed a change. Our last child was 14, and we had definitely fallen into a rut. So with credit card in hand, I took husband and child over to the lake determined that I was going to buy a boat and have it on the water that day. Well, we did find a boat, but unfortunately, the salesman then said, “Do you have a dock”. Being newbies, I said, don’t you just have one you can rent us? His were all full, and so were all the ones around the lake. We drove all over that day, and frustration was at an all time high, and our daughter was ready to go to divorce court and divorce her parents. Heading back to the boat dealer, we also found out, they don’t take credit card, so my bubble was burst. J. He did though turn us onto someone that might have a dock available. We put in the paperwork to go ahead and buy the boat, and thought if we don’t get a dock, then we’ll trailer the boat.  I was desperate. I told the husband, I want to get a life and this is it.  Luckily, we later ran into my sister and her husband and group, and did a chill out time before we killed each other.  

Back home, I called the places the dealer had told us had docks. Found one.  It was dock 57, a covered dock, and in our price range. The month was July and husband’s birthday month so when he came home, I had a card that said happy 57.  He said, but I’m not going to be 57, and looked at me like I had just so insulted him.  I thought it would be funny, but not. Then told him, surprise, I got us a dock and it is #57. He was thrilled.

Well, the week-end came, and off we set out to pick up the boat we had bought (used), and we were going to check out the new dock, and then fish, and stay on the boat all night.  We had all the gear. We now look back and laugh at how we must have looked loading up that boat. Now the surprise for his birthday was a surprise for us all. We headed out on the water and over in the direction they had told us the dock would be. Heading into it, husband and son is saying, sure looks narrow. I said, but I told them we had an 8ft pontoon, it has to fit. No way, so now we didn’t have a dock and were out the money paid up front. Finding a pay phone (before we had cells), see how primitive we were? Called the guy who rented me the dock, and told him wanted the money back. He said, just tie up at the end of the docks. The lake rangers won’t bother you because they don’t want to make people mad and they want the people to keep coming to the lake. We headed back out on the lake to enjoy the rest of our day. Nightfall came, and so did the hoard of bugs. They dive bombed our citronella candles and put them out. We thought, what the world. It was suppose to deter them. It was horrible, they were everywhere, but it was too late to head to shore…we weren’t that familiar with the lake. Eventually, the bug attack stopped, and things settled down. Everyone went to sleep except for me. I just kept thinking of scary movies and what comes out of the water. We hadn’t been out on the water at night for years. I now wasn’t too sure if me getting a life was worth it.  We survived that first night and the next day, and the adventures at Indian Lake and my new life had now begun. We tied up to our boat at the end of the docks, in the grass and weeds mostly, and headed home. 

July 4, 1998                                    Now it was July 4^th, and my sister called and said, “Hey, you guys want to go over to the lake with us and watch the fireworks on the lake”. I was sure husband would say no, but I asked anyway, and surprise, he said sure, we could do that. When we got there, they had a pontoon at the dock, and we walked right on and set off. They took us around the lake, and down the channels before the sun set and it was time to head out to the open to the fireworks. Now, we had always had v-boats, and had never thought we would ever want one of these huge pontoon things, but husband was walking around, checking it out, and said, “now this is the way to boat”. Much more comfortable. I was hooked.  Going to work that next Monday, I left husband a note that we could go over on the week-end and look for a boat and start boating with the others at the lake. When he came home, he was blown away because I was usually the sensible one, and never wanted to go buy something like a boat.  I told him, I wanted to get a life, and out of the rut we had gotten into since raising the kids.

Once we got settled into the life at the lake, he even called me one day and said that he had bought a wave runner at a garage sale.  I said, What!! A garage sale. He said, I know, but it was a local garage sale and people we knew. I was okay then. Of course, he said it was for our daughter, she would want one, but really, we ended up enjoying it more that she did.

2009

We have now been going over to the lake for 11 years this year. When we head over on Friday night, we always say, at one point on the ride, it is like going Through a Curtain where the worries of the week just seem to fade away. 

During those 11 years, we found a better boat dock, we bought a campsite since renting is so expensive each season, we have played and partied together, and we even bought a brand new boat. Another time that I shocked my husband when we found the brand new boat, and I told the dealer if I write you a check, how soon can you have that on the water? He said, you do that and we can have it ready for you and on the water in 20 minutes. My husband was blown away, and really liked the new me that he had met in my getting a life.

In my first post, I said Life In The 60’s. However, my getting a life started in my 50’s, and now in my 60’s, I am being forced to start another new life. One in which we have to gear down, even more so with the economy today, and facing the fact that retirement will be no fun, and actually, we have not much of a retirement to speak of. But, each day, I am thankful for my three healthy children and their children, and the best friend in the world that I have spent the last 45 years with, and hopefully more to come. We will again spend another summer at the lake, but we have slowed down quite a bit, but actually, I am enjoying the more slowed pace at the lake. In our 50’s we partied until the wee hours of the morning with friends coming and going until almost daylight. Friends and faces have changed over the past 11 years, my sister and husband no longer care to go over to the lake, and the kids hardly come anymore so it is just hubby and I, and we still enjoy my life that I started those years ago to get out of our rut and rediscover one another. We still Go Through The Curtain each week-end of the summer, and it gets harder and harder to go Back Through the Curtain on Sunday afternoon to the workaday life.  

Get a Life

When our two sons were grown, one was getting out of the service and the other had moved to Colorade, we still had a 14 year old at home. Mostly, I shopped with her, and my other self (my hubby) worked on the monster that fed us, the semi tractor and trailer (he's self employed truck driver), most every week-end and then off on the road he would go again. After my mom died though, I was really lost, even at 51 it is hard to lose your mom or anytime in life. So the summer of 1998, we happened upon Indian Lake, Ohio. Now I had gone there as a child when it had an amusement park, but never since. Anyway, we visited with my sister who owned a Pontoon boat. I had always just remembered those boats as a barge floating on things similar to oil drums. Anyway, they are greatly improved, and needless to say, I enjoyed the day. We rode the wave runner, and spent the day in the sun. Hubby and I had always boated and fished, but just locally and where we boated had no drive up by boat to a McDonalds, Taco Bell or Bars with great food like Cranberry's or Tilton Hilton. Anyway, after that week-end, I was hooked, and I decided, I needed or we needed to get a life and out of the rut of going our own way each week-end.

The following week-end, we were on a mission to find a boat and start our life at Indian Lake. We got rid of our small fishing boat, and we bought our first pontoon boat. My "getting a life" had begun.

The picture below is of hubby and the second boat we bought, and when we bought it he jokingly said, "if we buy that boat, I'll drive you around and you can laze in the sun". And that's what we do still, and we are still enjoying "my life I needed to get", even if only for one more season.

Out of the Pack'nPlay & to the Beach

Grandbaby's 3rd season to go boating with us, and this was the first trip (over Memorial holiday) to the beach by boat. The first season (see picture on family page with sunglasses) grandbaby was in the pack-n-play. Now he is going on three and was thrilled to go the beach this past week-end by boat and just boating and camping. He squealed and laughed a lot. Still a little timid to go far into the water...but loved the waves rushing in.

They're Baaack!!

                                                                  Looks like a very pretty flower, especially to a 2 1/2 year old toddler. He picks one and gives to his mommy who says Oh thanks...a flower for me!! Sooo Pretty. Unthinkingly, she tucks it in her hair.

Not long later, along with the dandelions being back...also are those creatures that I simply hate, hate hate...and I use that term lightly, she feels something crawling and looks down and sees a tick. We thought it blew onto her in the wind, but most likely the dandelion flower innocently given also contained another gift.

So, they're back....yuck!!!