Harper, the year I turned 40 was one of my best years in every sense of the word. I don't know how to explain it, except to say I knew who I was and where I was going and everyone else's opinion didn't matter anymore. I valued their thoughts, opinions, well wishes ect...but didn't let them influence my decisions on what I wanted, what made me happy and what was good for me.
Example:
Before my 40th B-day I would of asked if it was OK with everyone if I went to the RU @ Kassia's. If my kids, hubby, or even my animals would of been unhappy......I wouldn't of went.
Now I say "On the 28th of June I am going to Framingham, Mass. if anyone wants to come with me be ready by 7am."
Last year I didn't not feel right leaving DH so soon after surgery, so it was my choice not to come, not his. Although he appreciated me staying home!! LOL Anyways....I loved turning 40.
Harper's Birthday - Part 6!
Wheee! Oh, you're the best Celeste! LOL Can't wait to meet you at the RU.
Turning 30..... 40.... was no different than turning 39 or 41. (30 I was pregnant with DD #1, by 40 I was married to my dear darling wonderful husband, DD#1 was 9 DD#2 was 5 - I seem to identify myself by my family.) Anyway, Harper, it's only a big deal if you let it be.
Celeste - yeah, right on, you go girl! Growing up is fun! I've had similar experiences. I can't put my finger on them as articulately as you do, but what you say sure strikes a chord with me.
Nice to hear, Celeste! Good for you! The year I turned 40 was one of my very best years also. I met my DH that year. 60 isn't bad either! LOL
Well, at forty I got jewelery and at fifty I got a Kubota tractor named "Wanda". I'll have to give this some thought. Wanda seems to get more use these days but I might need to load her into the safe too with the cost of diesel.
L
Hi Laurel! Welcome back to the party!!!!
Hope you don't mind that I'm not all dressed up for Harper's soiree. It's in the mid nineties this week and I'm having a bit of trouble pulling the panty hose on.
L
I wore tights to DD's HS graduation last week - and regretted every single minute of it. The tights, that is.
Thanks everyone for the welcome home. I had a busy time - mostly doing obligatory visits with relatives. Next time we go to BC, I don't want to tell any relatives; I just want to go camping and touring great gardens.
Got to see Buchart Gardens - honestly, this should be Mecca to gardeners - with an obligatory at-least-once-in -your -life prilgrimage required. I had never seen the gardens in spring before - absolultely breath-taking. I will have lots to talk about during the RU.
Happy HOT Birthday, Harper!
Mmmmmm nice out for the party!
Laurel, I don't wear pantyhose ever. Ugh, they make me feel so stifled. If you knew me, you'd see how casual I am. No pantyhose please! It was up to 92 or something like that today.
Michaela, I hope you have picutres to share of this wonderful mecca?
Happy birthday, Harper. Here's a cool blue bloom to help cool us down.
Harper, do I look like the pantyhose type. lol!
Nice blues Candyce. In fact..very pretty.
Carrie, it's already ninety in the shade. Think I'll grout the bathroom.
L
Thanks, Laurel.
I am actually hoping that if I post that photo often enough, someone will know its name!
It's 87 in the shade right now, but, thankfully, not as humid yet as it was yesterday. Yesterday, it was horrid!!
The tall one? Is it Ladybells maybe? Adenophora?
L
I honestly have no idea, Laurel. Yes - the tall Columbine. Our neighbor gave it to us last year, and he didn't know what is was, either. He's a sweetie. He loves his gardens and loves giving away plants. We have received a lot of his generosity. But, he doesn't know plant names. He's in his late 80s now, and Alzheimer's is beginning to set in, so we watch out for him very carefully.
Great to have nice neighbors, Candyce!
And doesn't it seem like just yesterday we were saying "before you know it, we'll be complaining about the heat"?
Happy Birthday, Harper - and all the June babies! (Who remembers how Captain Kangaroo used have birthdays once a month; on June 1 he'd say Happy Birthday to everyone born in June, July 1, everyone born in July, etc.?)
i remember Mr. Green Jeans.
Oh, yeah, Mr. Green Jeans! The ping pong balls!
I could never figure out why he was called "Mr. Green Jeans." We had a black and white tv. Were his jeans really green?
Hi Michaela. Hope you can post photos of your trip.
Regarding Mr Green Jeans though...didn't he wear overalls (called overhauls here) and if he did not...shouldn't he have been more properly called Mr. Dungarees back "in the day"? Not that I would know or anything :>).
L
I believe he wore green overalls and was so named because it sounded good. (Large Bird? The Two Smothers?) We didn't have color TV - were they in homes back then?
Laurel, why wouldn't you know? I think it's regional/familial/socioeconomic? We wear, in my house, jeans or blue jeans, but I know people who wear dungarees or Levis or other names for the same denim pants. Plus it's too darn hot to consider wearing something so hot and heavy today!
Happy Hot Birthday, Harper!
Carrie, with another year around the corner, I was just trying to "young myself up". They were dungarees from Miami to Maine in the fifties. DH, who is from Newton, MA. confirms this. Obviously the rest of you are a bunch of young whipper snappers! Have some respect here.
Laurel
Maybe Mr. Green Jeans was trying to appeal to the really hippest young parents? I don't know - he's just one if my early idols. My mom dressed me at the Captain Kangaroo stage, or at least she bought my clothes and told me what they were called. Dear Laurel, I certainly meant no disrespect to any items of your clothing, your DH's clothing, the clothing of anyone in Newton, MA, the clothing of of anyone born in the fifties, or of anyone else using this bandwidth!
Yup. My dad calls jeans 'dungarees', scarves 'mufflers', refridgerators 'ice boxes', pants 'trousers' and the list goes on.
Laurel, no, you definitely do not look like the pantyhose type, but you're the one who brought them up, silly!
Harper, is your birthday in June? If not...prepare to move over and while you're at it a little "Yes Mame". Silly? Hmmph! We are the home of Spanx here and the founder is a neighbor. We're liberated.
My Mom used to complain that whenever she commenced putting on her pantyhose the family would converge for a debate in her bedroom. We'd be in the middle of a huge argument and needing her opinion while we ignored her struggle, in the Miami heat, to grapple those hose. It became so predictable that she'd shout out, "I'm putting on my hose now" and we'd converge on the bedroom and pick a topic to maintain the tradition.
And isn't a muffler on a car? We didn't have those on Miami Beach.
L
I call "scarves" mufflers. A scarf, to me, should be silk or cotton and light, not warm and fuzzy and go with mittens, but I'm learning that search engines don't think that way. Trousers . . . I think it depends on what kind of pants. I certainly know what dungarees are. I wonder if my kids do.
At my grandmother's house, we sat on the davenport.
Yes, Amy, but now the davenport is in the carport and you probably sit on the sectional in the great room.
L
I think we did too at mine .... or something odd. Not a davenport, but not a sofa or a couch, and it looked just like those to me.
Sorry, Laurel - i have no great rooms. Just terribly cluttered ordinary rooms.
(And actually, i don't have a davenport, sofa, or sectional. i have a cruddy futon from when we lived in NYC that we still haven't got 'round to replacing.)
Late breaking news - I asked my 14 yo if she knew what dungarees were, and she thought they were underwear from Australia! ROTFLMAO!!!! (DUNG-arees, or dunga-REES?)
Hahaha. Those would have to be dungaroos. Give DD points there Carrie. For those of us with boys...remember underoos?
Amy, "futon" counts as New Age furniture (even when it's very aged and cruddy). Who would think we would be sitting on uncomfortable Japanese-style furniture in the next century? Or is yours one of the few that's cruddy and comfortable?
L
Nope. The #@*^ matress slides down the front further and further till i get DH to haul it back up the frame again. We keep a fitted sheet on it as a slipcover, and our girlkitty likes to get inside it like a hammock and attack string or mardi gras beads through it. It's like the attack of the blob. Really cute. If we get a nice sofa, that will not continue...
Darn it Amy, I wish I'd known! Well, I guess it depends on how "nice" you're looking for. . . and how big. And what size vehicle you're bringing to the RU. D-mailing you....
hehehee....
i think i am riding with David. But DH and i have a Prius. We just never get around to getting a new sofa. Right now it is too hot to imagine moving furniture...
Good point, excellent point.
Laurel, my birthday is in October. Unless I'm meeting the Queen or something, I'm not putting any pantyhose on.
Amy, I have an old futon too. I'm looking forward to the day when I can graduate it to the basement and get a real couch.
One of the best parts about retirement is not having put on panty hose ONCE...and none of the work suits that I kept for some ridiculous reason has been out of the closet either! Just on general principle, I think I might put on a suit ....or maybe just a lapel pin....to go out and fight the gallant soldiers tomorrow. I'm knocking on wood and fearful of jinxing it, but I THINK my daily weed blitz may be showing some progress. I murdered only about 50 or so of them tonight. Progress......