THIS MAY NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.....

PHONE RINGING

ME: Hello?

CLARKIE *3 yr old grandson*: Is soda good for me?

ME: * I know Mommy is there because I can hear her translating the question...I need context sometimes) Ummmm.....no. No it's not.

CLARKIE: Ohhhhhhh *in a crying kind of way*

ME: Clarkie, soda isn't good. But! If you drink juice and water, you can be smart like Daddy and kind like Mommy.

PAUSE............

CLARKIE: Mommy, can I have some apple juice?









SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IS YOUR NOSTALGIA "REDEMPTIVE" OR "MISCELLANEOUS"?

Does anyone ever dream or think about "the good old days?" Nostalgia is alive and well. In a recent study at the University of Southampton in England, 79% of the 172 subjects surveyed admitted to having nostalgic thoughts at least once a week and 16% reported experiencing nostalgia once a day! There is a growing body of research on the subject that is looking at the benefits of nostalgia. The HEALTHFUL benefits...what other kind of benefits are there? According to the July/August issue of Scientific American Mind magazine, the term "nostalgia" is derived "from the Greek words nostos ("return") and algos ("pain"), so that nostalgia means, literally, the suffering that results from a desire for return-to a place, to a time, to a way of life." It also was once referred to as "immigrant psychosis"...nice, but in hindsight understandable.

Finally, in 1979, sociologist Fred Davis discerned that words such as "warm", "old times", and "childhood" were being associated with nostalgia. A survey in 2006 yielded results that demonstrated that nostalgia is a "specific form of autobiographic memory; most people give themselves the starring role in nostalgic flashbacks. These glances back often focus on relationships; a third of nostalgic thoughts involve other people. And nostalgic memories quite often feature a so-called redemptive theme or master sequence-a story line that begins with a bad experience out of which something good ensures."

I'm out of the loop on this. My nostalgia involves clips (little videos) that play in my head. They involve drinking out of the hose on a hot day; watching my grand mother laugh so hard that her belly shook, her toothless mouth was open, and her corn cob pipe was held high; the clink of glasses at my parents' cocktails parties; Christmas morning-the first few moments (the sensory overload and the smiles on my dad and sister's faces) of it, just little short bursts of video. I remember mastering riding a bike, and being forced off of the diving board and then loving it.

I'm interested in others' tales of nostalgia. Does anyone match the findings described in the research? You can answer anonymously if you wish or you can share openly. I'm just curious is all.

Much love.

The geek in the glasses.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT...I'M FULL OF PRESERVATIVES...

Okay, so school's back. Annddd...Imma little out of shape-IQ wise. I took the summer off and yowsa. If you don't use it, you lose it. So as I was doing my home work, I looked at my study area and this is what I saw...that's my IPod, my current and prior texts books (prior books are a good source of references for my homework), tylenol, a huge container of Mt. Dew, and my cell phone. If you scroll down to the next pic, it was my actual shopping cart from the day before...breakfast of champions...and by champions, I mean future cardiac patients....CIAO!

I'LL HAVE THE TWINS TO GO, PLEASE...

This is at Mom's house. We were chasing 2 different balloons, I think, and we kept it up for about 30 minutes. Eli and Abby stayed on the couch and babies ran around them and over them and through them. It was adorable...
I remember what's it like to be Daddy's girl...it's the best...this photo made my heart sing.
Charlie has the most soulful expressions of any 5 people I know....put together, enlarged, and magnified...they can't outdo the Charlie Boy.
Hi Charlie Boy....What? You want me over there? Sure...whatever you say....
Abby's face...eternal motherhood...that's all I see.....
That's me and my wittie bittie boys. Sure. They never even started off wittie bittie. But let me tell you, that spot, right there between those big boys, is the safest I'll ever be. :)
Me and the babies...this is what my face will look like if I make it to the Celestial Kingdom...
Charlie loves all appliances (I assume), but he adores my phone because he appears to connect to the internet each and every time he gets it. It's uncanny. I can't even do it.
I don't know what happened here, but somebody had to fix it...NOW...that face could break anyone's heart...look at it! It makes me want to put bleach in my eyes to get the image out....
"You can't see me!!!"

LOVING THE LOBSTER...

Sometimes Peter does things that I can't explain. He's a New Englander, born and bred. He's stoic, pragmatic, practical, not given to whimsy or small talk. He's not a "mingler". He works with his hands. He's "salt of the earth". You know, THAT kind of guy. Getting the picture? So when his youngest sister recently gifted him with a huge, stuffed apparently female lobster with overly botoxed lips, he became rather enamored of it...defying all explanation. He brought it out in Columbus and insisted that we each have our picture taken with it. Not only our picture, but that we lovingly embrace it. Love the lobster....LOVE IT!!! And so I present....

Above is Peter "hiding" the lobster in a bedspread to "surprise" my brother, who was the first victim, sorry, recipient of the "love the lobster" campaign.
David was....um....a little stunned....
But David, being the nice guy he is, embraced the lobster...nay, he "loved" the lobster..
Next came my sister. She loved the lobster, but not without a strangle hold around its lobster neck. She's nothing if not passive-aggressive....believe...I'm her "little" sister...I know....
Next came Eli....he was used to it by now...he had loved the lobster in Michigan and now in Ohio...he was getting used to inter-species affection...
This is my bro, David's family. Mary obediently embraced the lobster, which was approximately as tall as her. Look at David's face. He was enjoying this....much more than he should have....

This is my mother with the lobster. Notice the walker in the distance. Peter had strategically moved the walker out of the way so mother couldn't escape....of course, I may be wrong about that....possibly...but does it look to YOU like she can get away?....hmmmmm???

This is all of us loving the lobster. I think the lobster looks inebriated. For real. Look at it. And look at its lips. The fact that Peter likes this thing sooo much makes me wonder if I need to look at Botox a little harder....and maybe some red lipstick...and a sun lamp....and some more xanax....

VACATION LEIGHTON PICTURES-FOR INQUIRING MINDS

Here's Eli with his Abbott cousins. They had a lot of fun together.
This is left to right on top: John Leighton, Peter, and Marti's husband. In front, Vicki Leighton, me (laughing because John said something funny at the worst possible time!!!) and Marti Abbot (Peter and John's sister).
Me composed at the 2nd shot.
John, Marti and Peter in a "cheeky" shot. I told them they would thank me later...they did....
Marty and Peter.
Me and my mother-in-law doing a dance.
Peter and his sister Eydie. He was playing a joke on her about bending his silly index finger.
Then he yelled "OUCH" really loud and scared her to death. Yea...he thought it was hysterical.
Peter, his mom, and I...look how cute she was in our "dancing" photo.
Grandma sharing family history with Elijah.

That's the photo update for inquiring minds.

ALFRED...

I'm sitting here with my mother. It's 1:30 in the morning. She's having a snack. We're talking about the common housefly. This is what she just said to me...verbatim:

"You know, the other day, Billy and Bev was over (my cousin and his wife) and there was a fly buzzing all around us, just making us crazy. Tiffany (my niece) said, 'Oh, don't worry about that fly, Grandma, they only live for 24 hours and then they die'. I never heard tell a'such a thing. That durned fly irritated me forever. After three days I yelled at him, 'Hell with ya! You're name's Alfred. You're a pet now!"

Yea...classic...