Summer Seven: An Off-The-Top-Of-My-Head List of Summer Happenings

I blinked and summer is nearly over! Oh sure, I had grandiose plans for all the things I wanted to do and accomplish, but here I sit scratching my head wondering what the heck happened.

Considering how little I've been around Blogland lately, the blame can't be placed there by any stretch of the imagination. And speaking of imagination, one of the reasons I haven't blogged much is because my imagination and creativity has been missing in action.

So to jump-start my brain and wrap-up my activities, below are my Summer Seven: An Off-The-Top-Of-My-Head List of Summer Happenings...

1) I had a whopping 897 text messages on my cell phone bill in June! That's what happens when you send your first text message announcing to your very large family that you've truly entered the technology age and finally learned how to use your iPhone. It was great fun but I had to put myself on a "Texting Time-Out" after I received an additional $68 in charges on my cell phone bill. Oophs.

2) A "Cannonball" jump into the deep end of the swimming pool has a very different impact on a 53 year old's body than it does when this 53 year old was, oh, say, 40 years younger. It also gets a very different reaction from the younger generation, who apparently found my old self hysterically funny.

3) My good intentions of reading War and Peace were for not. It never left my nightstand, nor was it even opened. But, I did read Margaret of Nanny Goats In Panties' new book Sticky Readers: How to Attract a Loyal Blog Audience by Writing More Better. It's a fabulous and very informative read for all bloggers-- Not to mention way funnier than War and Peace. It's available on Amazon. Please check it out.

4) I learned to "never say never" and for the first time in my life I took a spin on a Ferris Wheel. I do not like heights so all I can say is-- Once was enough.

5) On five different days I happened to be in five different places that had record-breaking high temperatures-- all over 100 degrees with hideous levels of humidity. Unfortunately, I was not near the above mentioned pool on any of those days.

6) Blogger kindness never ceases to amaze me. I published a picture I took of a blue butterfly-- with an out of focus right wing. A blue butterfly was a first for me and I was thrilled to actually capture even a shaky image of it to share.

About a week after posting, I received this gorgeous Photoshopped picture from the very sweet Cathy of Yooper Yarns. Her photography blows me away on a regular basis (go check it out!) so when she sent me this perfectly edited photo, I squealed like a school girl. What a nice and unexpected thing for her to do. I have a framed copy in my office and think of Cathy's thoughtfulness every time I look at it. Thank you Cathy!

7) We have a thick and very tall wall of ficus trees separating our house from our crazy as a loon neighbor. Over the years, humming birds have made their nests in the trees and we've enjoyed numerous humming bird sightings. But this year I happened to be sitting on the patio when all the baby hummers were getting their first flying lessons! I watched all afternoon as at least 50 babes flew from the ficus to the opposite side of the yard, land on a camellia bush, rest, then fly back. It was amazing.

How about your summer? Wanna play along? Feel free to grab the above Summer Seven photo (Sorry, I have no idea how to make a button.) and join in. If you do, link up below so we can all see YOUR Summer Seven: Off-The-Top-Of-My-Head Summer Happenings.

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: © Maya Mishina - Fotolia.com and Margaret Andrews

Dave

I'm pretty sure if you'd ever met my step-dad, Dave, you'd have liked him. He was one of those guys with a big, friendly smile, a kind word or a funny joke, and always a warm embrace. After a few minutes of chatting, chances are he'd have learned a little bit about you and your family, and that you probably even had a few friends in common.

I'm sad to say, our sweet Dave passed away very unexpectedly and our hearts are breaking.

Over the past few weeks my family's heard a lot of wonderful stories about what a great guy Dave was and the kindness he'd shared with countless people. Some stories made us roar with laughter, other brought tears to our eyes, but all were greatly appreciated.

These weeks have flown by in a rush even though they have been some of the longest days I can remember. So many time I've sat down and tried to write about Dave and the meaningful impact he had on our family and how he embraced each and every one of us with his whole heart. But words fail me and emotions take over until I simply need to sit alone quietly for a while.

So I will share with you part of my Middle Sister's word about Dave from our family's Eulogy for his memorial service-- She started the same way Dave started each meal and it's the perfect example of the sweet, good-natured guy we all loved so much....

We'd join hands and bow our heads so we could not see the food we were anxious to eat. Dave would begin, Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for all who are gathered here, please be with the people who are not with us (and sometimes he would name them-- all of them). Thank you for our many blessings.

Then, while the food was chilling and our drinks were warming, he would continue-- The weather was pretty good today but we could have used some more sunshine and many more drops of rain during the night. It was a little warm and too much humidity Lord. If you could please cool us down a bit and send rain-- during the night please, because we have things to do tomorrow. We would be ever so grateful.

Thank you for the food-- Oh, I almost forgot, he'd say with a chuckle, please bless the dog and cat too. Like I said Lord, please bless the food we are about to eat and nourish us with it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

This wonderful man who married my mother more than 20 years ago touched three generations of our family and blessed us with his presence. He came to more family reunions, 4-H horse shows and pig auctions, Grandparents' Days, school band concerts and car washes, football games, weddings, christenings, anniversary parties, baseball games, clam bakes, camping trips, graduations and other various family related activities than you could count-- all to support Mom and her big, loud family-- and because he loved us. He managed to find something to smile about at all these events and occasionally caught a short nap in the process.

Dave will be missed more than I can say.... So will his comment at the end of every meal-- "Boy, that really ruined my appetite."

Big sigh.

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Carmageddon Carmaheaven!

Proud Member of the

Sunday's In My City Community

Have you heard about the huge traffic insanity forecast for Los Angles this weekend? It's called "Carmegeddon". Yes, in LA we actually come up with cleaver marketing names for our road construction projects and it's all everyone is talking about in our neck of the woods.

A vital ten mile stretch of the 405 freeway that connects one side of town to the other is completely closed both ways. The result is upwards of a half a million cars that usually take this route on weekends will have to find alternative routes, or, as our eloquent public officials are saying, "Stay the hell out of here!"

The very thought of getting on the 405 makes me cringe on a good day. Traffic is always jammed and traveling at a snail's pace or worse, at the speed of light which is not cool when you drive like the "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" *cough*that*would*be*ahem*me*. So as you might have guessed, I've planned to stay close to home from 10pm Friday - 5am Monday for the road construction which includes removing half a bridge to allow for the road to be widen.

Only half-- Did you catch that part? That means we'll be going through this again next year for the other half to be removed. Do I live in a fun place or what!

Twenty-four hours into the "traffic nightmare" and all I can say is CarmaHEAVEN! People are either staying home or are outta here because this place is like a ghost town, and traffic is a breeze. Case in point-- The usually very full parking lot for Bloomingdale's on Saturday afternoon....

Normally cars are lined up for a parking spot because it's also prime parking for the huge movie theater complex and this is opening weekend for the final Harry Potter movie.

I dreaded going to the Mall for a last minute birthday gift but I bite the bullet and headed out thinking it would take me a couple of hours to make the usual 30 minute trip.

Ha! I think I passed about 10 cars on the road and 6 of them were police cars. The parking lot was empty-- So was the mall, actually-- something that was not making retailers very happy.

I have to admit, if traffic was more like this-- light and easy, I'd stop complaining about living in Los Angeles. I'd shop more, I'd see friends and family more often, I'd, I'd, I'd be living in CarmaHEAVEN.

Of course the big question now is whether or not the traffic will remain this light through Monday at 5am when the freeway opens or if people will see how easy it is to get around on surface streets, head out the door, start their engines, and cause the dreaded traffic jams news reporters have been scaring us about with for weeks.

Either way, I had one day in heaven.... And there is always next year's freeway closure.

How's your Sunday?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

For more Sundays In My City CLICK HERE

Timing Is Everything

Every since I took this picture last weekend, I've been thinking about timing and the impact the phrase "in the right place at the right time" has had on so many of the paths-- large and small, my life has taken. I realize this isn't a fabulous photograph-- the butterfly is a little blurry and it's not framed all that great, but it's the fact that I've never seen a blue butterfly before and that I just happened to be in that exact spot at that exact time to snap the photo with the wings showing my favorite color blue that's made me so happy.

When I checked my camera to see if I'd captured the butterfly before it flew away I was excited as a school girl which is an oddly unusual thing for me to do. It's been many decades since I was even remotely considered "a girl" and the excitement it generated was pretty out of proportion for me. Nevertheless, I started thinking about the times in my life I've "been in the right place...."

The top of my list would have to be the airport in Milan, Italy where I met my husband thanks to a very delayed flight back to Los Angeles. The odds of us both being in the same place at the same time with a third person who could introduce us is so out of the norm that I hesitate to think what would have happened had I slept in that morning 22 years ago and taken a later flight.

There was another time everything worked perfectly in my favor and I was directly outside the hospital delivery room at the precise moment my oldest niece was born....Which actually meant that several other people were NOT in the right place at the right time *ahem*security*cough* so I could sneak into that area of the hospital. I was even more lucky that the head nurse took pity on me and actually brought my niece out for me to hold when she was just minutes old. I get a lump in my throat just thinking about how beautiful and tiny she was in my arms.

And then there was the time I was in the doorway of Godson's kindergarten at the end of the day to hear another child ask him who the lady was picking him up. His deadpan response was "she's my wife". Being in the right place at the right time gave me one of my fondest memories of carpooling him after school.

It's the little things-- and big things-- that make me appreciate "perfect timing". Why the blue butterfly has me taking a trip down memory lane remembering these things is a mystery but I'm enjoy the mental tour of the finer times of my life.

Have you been in the right place at the right time?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Spud's Arrival

At last the phone call came-- "Her water broke!!!" my sister hollered into the phone. "We're on our way to the hospital-- I'll call you later." Click.

I told you HERE that my oldest Nephew's wife was due any minute with their first child we'd all lovlingly been referring to as "Spud" since their first ultrasound. They didn't want to know the sex of the baby until it arrived and "Spud" is the nickname that our future bundle of joy was dubbed.

Sister was so breathless when she called that you'd have thought she was doing Lamaze class breathing. There was an over-the-moon excitement and a slight panic in her voice that she might not make it to the hospital in time because the future parents lived about two hours away.

I know my Big Sister. It would be a very long drive to the hospital. But once she caught her breath, after racing through town like a crazy woman with her husband in the passenger seat holding on for dear life, and blowing through a couple very yellow *cough*probably*actually*red* traffic lights and hit the freeway, she would slow down and come back to her senses. It was about 7 o'clock in the evening and the notion that this baby's labor would probably take a little while would settled in as her odometer (and heart rate) slowed to a respectable speed limit.

Just as they were about to walk through the hospital doors, their cell phone rang and Nephew asked his parents casually "Where are you guys?" After a few brief conversation, he announced they could come meet their new grandchild.

What?!?!

Nephew's Wife already had the baby-- Wow! That was F.A.S.T.

But Nephew stopped there-- He wasn't going to tell them the long awaited baby's sex. "Come upstairs and meet Spud."

At that point, I think my sister sprinted up the hospital's three flights of stairs instead of waiting for the elevator-- And trust me, sprinting is NOT something the women in my family do-- ever. But in record time, my Sis laid eyes on her second grandchild and the waterfall of tears poured down her cheeks.

Nephew and his Wife presented the happy grandparents with a beautiful gift-- Their new baby granddaughter-- Olivia.

There she is-- 36 hours old - 7 pounds 10 ounces

And the angels sang!

A beautiful, healthy, baby girl has blessed our family. Mom did a truly amazing job of delivery and looked like a supermodel through the whole process! Seriously, this first time Mom made childbirth look like a walk in the park. Nephew looked a bit awe struck and thrilled, and my Sister....

....When Sister called me back, I knew it was her, thanks to Caller ID, but she had such a gigantic lump in her throat that I had to wait for her to gather enough air into her lungs to push out any words. The phone was silent for a long moment.... And then her voice-- I will never forget it-- Her voice was so rich and filled with absolute love and amazement that she squealed "It's a girl and she's unbelieveably beautiful!" And then she just sobbed and sobbed with joy. I'm pretty sure Olivia was showered, literally, with her grandmother's tears.

Olivia just a few hours old looking at her Mama.

For our entire family and of course Olivia's Mommy and Daddy, it was love at first sight.

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor - Joanna Jenkins

No Place Like Home

There are three things in life I know for sure-- Death, taxes and I can always go home to my Mother's house-- No matter what, no questions asked-- Mom will welcome her children with open arms and we will always have a place to stay for as long as we want or need to. (That's Mom with her oldest grand daughter on the left.)

She started teaching us-- her five children, this important lesson at a very early age. Perhaps it was because, at times, a place to call home wasn't always as secure as she would have liked it to be as a child. Her mother died when she was young and being bounced around a bit too much made making a home for her own family supremely important.

Don't get me wrong, we were absolutely taught to grow up to be self-supporting, independent adults with our own homes but Mom made sure that if life ever threw us a curve ball and we needed a little tender loving care, her light was always on-- literally.

Home is where Mom is and the door is always open. Period.

My siblings and I are remarkably lucky and blessed to have been raised with this knowledge tucked away in our hearts. Some of us have taken Mom up on the offer in our adult lives too, staying a few days or a few years as the case may be.

Her home for the past nearly 20 years has been with her beloved Dave, our step-father, who has the very same attitude and open door policy with his five children. Sometimes their house is a little crowded but none of their children have ever been turned away and there is always enough love and support to go around.

I've told you about their house HERE and the meaningful 40+ year history it has in our family--

The outside is neat and tidy with the pink dogwood tree in glorious bloom every Spring for as long as I can remember.

But the inside-- Let's just say the inside had a protective layer of dust holding it together and my folks had absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. They knew where everything was and eventually all the clutter, nic-nacks and stuff got moved and dusted, just not necessarily on a regular basis.

As signs of the aging process took hold of our folks a few years back, we arranged for a weekly housekeeper to help with the cleaning and surprisingly, Mom didn't argue about it one bit.

This past winter was the first year in dear Dave's life that someone else shoveled his driveway and sidewalks. And this summer is the first year his lawn mover was retired to a landscaping service to handle the weekly chore. He, on the other hand, is not happy about it but, at age 86, we think the guy deserves a break and his doctors do as well to insure he doesn't break anything if you catch my drift.

It's been a rough couple of months for them. In April both my folks were in the hospital-- First Mom, then Dave, and that's when things really took an unexpected turn. Mom came home from the hospital to their big rambling house. Dave went to a rehabilitation facility.

And Dave LOVED it there! In rehab! Swear to gawd!

The rehab center is nestled on a beautiful lake with many of the prescribed activities to strengthen his legs and arms taking place outside in the fresh air. It was like a Senior Citizens Camp with fishing and woodworking and gardening! After a week I actually think Dave was sorry to say good-bye because there were so many fun things for him to do and so much social interaction that, despite his health issues and the need for a cane, he had a spring in his step again.

For at last four years I've been discussing the monumental problem of no downstairs bathroom in their 100+ year old house. The bathroom is 19 very steep stairs away and would be impossible if anything caused them to be immobile, even briefly. None of my siblings, all of whom live within six blocks, have a downstairs shower or tub either. Ahh the joys of owning century old homes and the underlining problems they cause.

Before "downsizing" was part of our vocabulary, Mom and Dave already downsized to this house and had no intention of ever moving again. Then the stairs became a concern but, thanks to mastering denial over the years, our folks turned a blind eye to the potential problem.

The necessity for rehab and physical therapy brought the problem front and center with nowhere to hide.

Thanks to the wildly positive experience Dave had at rehab the often difficult "assisted living" conversation was actually started by none other than Dave himself-- And the even bigger shock was that Mom jumped on it! There was no drama, tears, hard feelings, begging, pleading-- Nothing.

Our folks were ready to move N.O.W.

Oh yes, we are a very happy group of children thanking our lucky stars that this often difficult parental transition is so welcomed by our folks. They'll be moving in late September to a beautiful one story, two bathroom home in an assisted living community that has a continuum of care (translation-- they can't get kicked out if their health turns south) and that will be the very last time they'll ever need to move.

With activities galore, local transportation, extensive health and wellness facilities and skilled nursing all on the rolling hills of its campus, it's really paradise for them. Throw in the fact that several of their friends live there already and it's a whopping half mile from their current home, and well, life is good for one and all.

When my folks and I first toured the facilities in April the same two questions were repeatedly asked and of great concern to them-- 1) "Does the house have extra bedrooms because we have a lot of kids." and 2) "Can bring our dog?".

The answer to both questions was a resounding YES!

So now, when I make my regular trips back home to see family, "home" will be at a new address-- One that still offers all the comfort only a mother can offer. But more importantly, it's a home that ensures comfort and security for our folks as they transition to a place where they will be safe and well cared for-- but still with enough independence to keep them-- and their dog, happy.

Of course I'm a little worried that I'm nearly old enough to be a resident in this Senior's community-- I'll be sure to carry my driver's license with me to prove I'm not quite old enough to move in and just a guest. It kind of gives a whole new meaning to "getting carded". Who knew I'd ever be happy to be "only" 53.

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins