Exceedingly Mundane

I just realized that my blog buddy Susie tagged me with this meme. Thanks Susie!

Preface: Memes that revolve around memories are tough for me! If you’ve read my blog before, you might have picked up on the fact that not only do I have a terrible memory, I remember almost nothing from my childhood. Before age 18, I have almost no memory of my life, and very little before I met my husband. It’s like my life started over when I fell in love with Tim. However, in the spirit of doing this lovely meme, I’ve put a lot of thought into it and come up with this…. 🙂

1. Favorite memory of your mother? One strong memory I have of my mom is that she worked crossword puzzles every morning. She used to sit at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the paper, and work the crossword and the jumble. And of course, she was smoking. My mom smoked all her life and it ended up taking her life. Other fond snippets of memories I have are that she always cooked for us, we rarely ate out. I never remember going to a restaurant, not even on birthdays or special days, we ate at home all the time. I realize now that I’m older what a good thing this was, and a gift she gave to me. I think my love of cooking comes from that. Also, I have memories of watching certain shows on TV with my mom. We used to watch “The Love Boat” and my dad would not watch it with us! She loved “Wheel of Fortune” too, and we’d watch that, and try to compete to get the puzzles first.

2. Favorite memory of your father? My dad used to love to work outside in the yard in the house I grew up in. He had this beautiful rose garden out front, and he tended those roses and they were just gorgeous. I used to come home and my mom would have cut me a rose and put it in a vase in my room. My dad also would plant vegetables, although I don’t remember much about those. But the big thing was the yard, my dad took wonderful care of the grass. Our front yard looked like a golf course. He was very particular about how it was cut and cared for. It was a HUGE deal when he finally let me ride the riding mower and cut the grass. I can remember being excited that I was finally going to get to cut the grass! I remember one time I came down at too sharp of an angle on one little rise in the yard and scalped his grass in one spot, and he was NOT a happy camper! But, he loved working outside and still does. He is 83 and just now, in the last couple of months, has given in and gotten a “yard man” to come cut his grass.

3. What one skill would you like to wake up tomorrow and be able to do (though you’d never learned it)? Wow, another tough one! When I was growing up, I wanted to be a pilot, so I guess I’d love to be able to wake up tomorrow and fly an airplane. Or the space shuttle, or the Starship Enterprise 😀 Another thing I’d love to wake up and be able to do is play the piano or play an acoustic guitar. Then, I’d have something to cover up my terrible singing voice 😆

4. Which one of your dreams has come true? That I found someone to love, who loves me. Tim is a gift from God, he’s my soul mate. When I met him, I realized what I had been looking for all of my life. My heart felt whole and that’s because I realized he had been carrying around half of my heart with him, and when I found him, I felt like I’d found my other half.

OK, I’m going to tag my sisters (Gail and Suzanne), and my blog buddies Cam and Trista