Today???? The 1st Lady and I began our day…..not at the early hour that others begin their day……by hitting our street and walking our 32 minute power walk of right at 2 miles. I hadn’t taken this walk for several weeks and, actually and honestly, it felt DAMN GOOD!!!! Yep……once you get into the habit of walking, exercising, etc……it always feels good to do it again, after 2-3 weeks of abstaining from it.
Then…..it was time for my French Roast coffee…..and checking/reading the newspapers that I read daily online. Then….where the hell did the morning go??? It was soon 1pm….and the 1st Lady and I left for the Madison County Health Center…for what??? Well, it is time that we get down to business……and get our Hep A shot. The 1st Lady is really paranoid about getting shots…..and in fact, she came damned close to passing out this afternoon with that tiny, little prick of the needle into her upper arm. She DID pass out……when we had to have blood tests prior to getting married……hahaha!! Wasn’t sure at the time if it was the needle or the thought that we were getting that close to the marriage day!!!! Still not sure……???
Afterwards….it was a quick trip to Walmart….and $51 worth of….???? Not sure what caused that total because it seemed like all we got were a few veggies for salads, etc., etc. Then it was off to the local Farm and Home store……..looking for something….ANYTHING….that will assist us in getting the roots and underground stump of our Crab Apple tree to DIE…..DIE…..DIE!!!!!!!! We are constantly mowing, plucking, cutting, whacking…….those new little crab apple tree shoots that have began to spring up all over the back yard!!! The other day I mowed down 53 of them……53 of them !!!!!! Soooo, we bought some powerful liquid stuff…and hope THIS will do the job. We had the original tree cut down last year, but his year has been the year of the Attack of the Crab Apple Shoots!!!! UGH!!!!!…..and more curse words!!!!!
Then…..the 1st Lady needed to watch the Tivo’d episodes…the last two weeks….of Damages on FX. Tonight it the next to the last episode….and she HAD to see these…..they were really intense!!!! Soooo, it was 5 o’clock somewhere, and I had a bit of my dark red medicine as I spent over an hour reading the most interesting blog. Written by this ex-pat who has been living in Egypt for more than the past 20 years…..and her writings for the year 2004 was soooooo interesting and informative!!!!! I was simply unaware of what was happening around me as I read her posts for that year………sooooo much insight into the politics of Egypt at that time,……her personal loss of her husband in a plane crash…….all of this was simply fascinating to read. WOW……..I am still thinking about everything that she wrote….and she writes
sooooooo well!!!!!! I was, and am, soooo pulled into her blog….she can make you feel as if you are sitting there in the same room as she tells her “story”……WOW!!! If you are interested in looking at this blog….and she has two others, also……go to:
http://miloflamingo.blogspot.com (Living in Egypt)
The year that I was reading today was 2004.….and begin from the bottom of the webpage that the above address brings to you.
Ok…..the 1st Lady pulled a quick 35 minute dinner tonight (copying Rachel Ray???)) and it was quite…actually, VERY…good! Pasta with a tomato sauce, a wonderful mixed greens salad, and I fixed the garlic/parmesan cheese bread under the broiler. This was accompanied with her chilled Riesling wine and my dark red medicine……WOW…..soooo good.
OK……in reading my post last night, I realize that it was almost ALL about …….me(uttered rather humbly now). I apologize for that…..as sooo much was about things that happened to me. And yet……there was soooo much that happened as my family became older and began to have their own experiences…….soooo:
Chapter 6...Amended!: As my job of band director became more and more and more involved with rehearsals, travel, competitions, and more and then, even more…rehearsals. Have you ever heard the phrase: You create a monster….and then the monster consumes you. And….yep, it was consuming me …..and waaaaayyyyy toooo much.
Dr. Jeni became quite the young lady, Jeremy grew into a wonderful, loving little guy, and Michael found his niche and became very successful in his music activities and competitions during his four years in high school. Michael graduated from high school in 1986.….and made the decision to major in Music Education. He had received top ratings in the Missouri State Music Festivals each of the four years he participated…..and, so it did not surprise me when he decided to teach. He received many scholarships which allowed him to attend his first year at Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, MO for little or nothing…….WOW…..that sure helped our checkbook!! This university is now called Truman State University.
The 1st Lady, who did not have a position the first year we spent in Eldon…..began working/teaching at Lincoln University in the Dept of Agriculture…..working on Federal Grants. She traveled over the state “plucking hair” from senior citizens as she did research on trace metals in the human body, and she was concentrating on the hairs of the body. She did really, really well in her research and after writing a huge paper on the results of this research was invited to South Africa to present her paper at an international conference. She turned them down, reluctantly…..but it just wasn’t in our budget in those days for a trip of this magnitude……and no expenses would have been paid for her.
A few years later….I believe it was five years…..she took a position as a Science Teacher in the Eldon High School…..and she enjoyed it tremendously.
Soooo, in 1987 I began with NY Life……and after about 6-8 months, I realized that I really did NOT like, nor enjoy, this particular job. Hmmmmm…….I wallowed in my thoughts about the decisions that I had made…..and by late spring of 1988, I decided to get another teaching position……wherever. The dollars on the NY job were very, very good, however……I was very unhappy….and money is not the only thing in Life.
By mid-April I was receiving calls to “come see us for an interview” from several schools across the state…….and the school that had the most potential for band improvement and growth of the program, along with what appeared to be wonderful community support……well, that school was Fredericktown. And so……..with Dr. Jeni in tears each day…..we began our project of moving across the state…..to an area of the state I had oftentimes stated I would “not want to live’ there. Hmmmmm………what a misunderstanding that was!!!
And so, by August 1st of 1988, we had found a HUGE old house to rent in F’town….and had our house in Eldon on the market……….and moved to F’town on the hottest day of the year: 107 degrees that day!
To be continued……in Chapter 7!!
LIFE IS GREAT….And, I hope it is for all of you, also!!!!
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