A Blast From The Past

Last night Ed and I traveled to Tri Cities to the Benton Franklin County Fair to hear the Beach Boys perform. Now I realize that there is only 1 true Beach Boy left and the rest were fill ins. But honestly they sounded just like they did 40 years ago when I saw them in concert at the Spokane Colliseum. I was 18 then and I ironed clothes for 2 weeks to earn enough money for tickets for my "then" boyfriend and I to go. If you can believe it my parents also went, and dad loved it. All last night cost was the Senior rate "5.oo" to get into the fair. I didn't know they were playing there until Kevin & Amy told us on Sun. You had to pay for tickets to sit up close and they were sold out. But Kevin said to just go early and they had a section for everyone else to sit "free". So we arrived early, set our chairs up, went and got something to eat, came back, and there was a million other people with the same idea. There wasn't one empty spot of grass in the area. It was just a bunch of 50 & 60 year olds taken back to the good ole' days. I did resist the temptation to stand and dance (unlike alot of others)But it was great anyway. I'm tired today, but happy to have gone down memory lane last night with my "now" boyfriend of almost 38 years. I would like to think my dad was there groovin' with us but I'm sure he has better things to do.

IT'S A BOY

Yesterday, Monday, TJ and Misha had a baby boy. He weighed a whopping 9 lbs. We just saw Misha not long ago and its hard to believe that this tiny girl had such a big baby! Not only that - she had him at home, with no drugs!!!!! I can't even imagine it. But congratulations both, we humbly bow. They named him Sabastian Thomas Cox. (I hope I spelled that right) This makes something like 44 great grandchildren and 3 more on the way for Grandma Cox. (Forgive me if I calcuated wrong) Way to go Grandma!

Grant County Fair. ..isn't fair!

As you all know I am not one to complain. (well maybe once in a while) But I was so disappointed in the fair. I realize the economy is bad but did they have to triple the prices of food at the fair. Imagine my shock when I arrived at my favorite Pronto Pup booth and found the price had jumped from $1.50 to 3.50. And a plate of curly fries had leaped to $6.50!!! When you consider the ingredients of a corn dog, 1 weiner dipped in corn batter and deep fried. And how much would 1 potato cost cut with a curly cutter and deep fried. I'm not a spaceburger eater and wouldn't you know that they were the same price as always. I didn't think the "lion's ear" was that good either. When you get my age the fun thing to do at the fair is eat and its not that fun anymore. And while I'm complaining I really did think Lyn's cake was beautiful and deserved at the very least a blue ribbon! I know it doesn't do any good to complain - maybe I'm just getting old - or maybe I'm still suffering from the M-80 they blew off at the Demo Derby that just about gave me a heart attack!!
I guess its time for me to take my place in the "Senior" section.

Forever Plaid

Last night I ventured to Othello by myself to see the play "Forever Plaid" (Ed was working and Mom had already seen it) It was worth the drive! I want to tell anyone who has not seen it that they really should. If you love harmonized singing, and if you love 50's music, and if you love comedy, you will love this play. And even if you don't love any of those things - you will really like the play. We live here in this po-dunk area - and seldom have the opportunity to see live plays. These 4 talented men and the people they have playing piano, guitar and drums really put on a good show. The sad thing is that only about 50 people, if that, have showed up for each show. Its such great family entertainment and you don't have to have a ticket to see it. I think that is one thing that has stopped people from going is that they think they have to have a ticket. So if you are wondering what to do Friday or Sat. night and your tired of going to the fair, I would encourage you to go to Othello Stake house at 7:00 and see this great show. And its much better than anything on TV. And ITS FREE!

Back to the Good Ole Days . . .

Coupon clipping, budgeting, exchanging babysitting. This is the headlines these days for people who are trying to make it thru the recession - Like its a new invention or something. But these things are not new to us. Aunt Deby was the queen of coupon clipping.We took care of each others kids, FOR Free, even overnight sometimes. Those are the reasons why we didn't have to work when our kids were little. That is why we were able to live on $1,000 dollars a month (or less) and still go to the show and to dinner once a week and go on vacations even. Of course things weren't as expensive as they are now. We could have a really good steak dinner for 2 for $15.00. And feed the whole family at Burger King for 15 dollars. We took the whole family to Disney Land with $1500.00 dollars in our pocket and came home with 300.00 still in our pocket.(The kids all helped to earn that money I might add) And the kids have good memories of all the things did. Even though we did them as cheaply as possible. I was the queen of cheap. The only thing my kids haven't forgiven me for is the time we took them all to the show one night and when the ticket lady said it would cost $28.00 I said "sorry, I'm not paying that much!" My kids were mortified. (I admit that I was too cheap sometimes) But as far as I know none of my kids are scarred for life. But thats the way it goes, we did more than our parents did and our kids have done way more than we did. But it always seems to come back to the basics. Even if you make lots of money - every generation goes thru bad times. It keeps us humble and grateful. In the old days we got together more, went out less, cousins played together more, because we were babysitting for each other. I remember helping Deby move into the house she is in now, we had all of our kids and everything we could cram into an old van (no seatbelts) and made the trip a million times back an forth until we moved her in. We made do or went without but didn't seem to let it get us down. Deby was also the queen of garage sales and knew all the good houses to go to. Alot of our school shopping was done that way. We didn't have to keep up with the Jones's because they didn't have much either. But I'm glad things are turning back to the basics. I saw first hand Amy's coupon keeping book and I was so impressed. And she really does have a full stocked pantry. Its proof you really can live on any budget. Its more funner with a bigger budget, but it can be done.

Confessions of a Soap Opera Addict

They say that when you give up one addiction you find another which is exactly what happened when I gave up diet pepsi last March. Maybe deep down inside I'm not ready to change my evil ways. I have slipped back to an old addiction that I had years ago. I love watching "The Young and Restless" and "All My Children". I used to watch them when my kids were little, EVERY DAY!! Now with the new technology I can even watch them more than once a day. MyBAD! All My Children is on at Noon when I go home for lunch and when I'm watching it at 10:00 at night Ed goes "didn't you watch this today already?" I didn't think he would notice, and I'm embarrassed, like a kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But how could I not be interested to see if Nick and Sharon get back together because she is pregnant with his baby and she told him it isn't his because she didn't want to break up his marriage, but now she's in jail because she started stealing things as a way to cope from losing Nick. And what about Ashley,who was pregnant but now she's not and she still thinks she is, but her 30 year old blind step son, Adam, is living with her and Victor and he is trying to drive her out of her mind by dressing up like Victor's former wife who is dead, and caused her to fall down the stairs and lose her baby but he convinced her that it was just a bad dream. (I know, I know, how stupid do they think we are that we would believe this could really happen) But I am drawn into this crap, like a druggie looking for his next fix. I think to myself, I'll just skip a day or two, or I'll just watch a little bit to keep up on whats going on, and then, there I am glued to the tube, anxiously waiting to see if Kendall is going to get out of jail for killing Adam's twin brother - Stewart - which she really didn't do- and she's not really in jail because her husband - Zack - paid a Kendall look alike to go to jail for her and he has her hidden in a secret room in their house while he really finds out who killed Stewert. See, how can you just walk away from entertainment like this! I wonder if they have a rehab for Soap Opera Addicts like me. Maybe I'm the only one. Oh, heaven help me, I do need help!

Calling All Strong Family Members . . . .

Chris & Erin will be here and moving into their house Saturday morning - 9 AM. If anyone can be there to help him he would greatly appreciate it. They would like to know exactly who and how many can actually be there so if you can blog or call Rick and Sharon or email them that would be great. That way he will know if he needs to call in recruitment from his new ward which is not what he wants to do if we can help him. If your worried about hurting your back - I'm sure Chris would be willing to give on site treatment to anyone who needs it - wouldn't you Dr. Cox??? Aren't you glad you're moving close to family?

Singin in the Rain . . .

I love the rain. When I was younger we always used to go for walks in the summer rains. And after this hot summer we have had - this is great! We got our air conditioner fixed just in time for the cooler weather - but I'm not complaining. Come to find out it was cooling and heating at the same time. Which accounts for the $100.00 more on our electric bill this month. Just what we wanted - a winter power bill in the summer. And for those of you who were wondering if Ed got his pick up fixed after having to leave it at the church Sunday - he did - when it rains it pours! Our life has always been 1 step forward and 2 steps back! Thats why we can't retire and live the life of luxury. But again, I'm not complaining. We have our health and if we can just hold out until Obama's universal health care kicks in we'll be ok. Then we can sell our house to the government and live it until we die - Free! I only wish we had an old Klunker to turn in and get $4,500 from the government. Oh, well, we can't have everything.

I've Got A Secret. . . . .

Well its not my secret and really its not a secret at all. Its something Brian and Ronnie found out today that they are letting me announce. ITS A BOY! Or will be sometime around Jan. 1st. And they are thrilled. Madi even wanted another brother. Brian is beaming! So lets all see if we can come up with some good boy name suggestions. Something that has not been used yet in our family. Now that will be a challenge. Not that they will pick our suggestions but lets see if we can come up with some good ones to offer them.

Some Like it Hot. . . .

That was a title to an old old Marilyn Monroe movie and could be the title to our weather except I don't know of anyone who likes it hot! But I'm sure that movie wasn't talking about the weather. Anyway, I Hate It Hot! And so does our air conditioner. So it decided to quit. Just like that, on the hottest day of the year. Well it decided it would cool just a little bit to tease us. I asked Ed if maybe the big hole he cut in the basement door to help the heating in winter could be causing us to lose our cool air but he assures me that its not. So he called the repair shop and we are "on the list" waiting for someone to come fix our air conditioner. So probably as soon as it cools down they will show up to fix it. Personally I think we are too old to own a house. We need to rent and let landlords fix our stuff, mow our lawn, pay the property tax - cook our food - oh yeah, thats called a nursing home. If their air conditioner works we might consider it!