I am a mother of two, grandmother of 5. I’ve been married 42 years this June. I have been a cake decorator for 32 years.  Anyway, our area is economically depressed. I’m working in a business that people buy as a luxury. When money is tight, people can bake their own cakes and cookies. I’ve only been working 30-32 hours a week. Since I’m partly handicapped, I was agreeable. but over the past year and a half, money doesn’t seem to go as far as it used to. I got a wild idea that I wanted to sell Avon again. I’d sold it in the past, but nowadays…Avon has come of age! It is sold on the internet. I personally love shopping on the internet and do it all the time. I haven’t been shopping in years since someone has to take me in a wheelchair. So, I got excited and signed up to sell Avon online.  I bag up an Avon catalogue, a fragrance sample or two, sometimes a sales brochure and then my daughter drops them off in neighborhoods for me. I have a handful of regular customers. It’s been a great hobby. It is something I enjoy doing. I enjoy getting the new catalogues and putting in samples. I get to see the new products and see the brochure first. It is fun. But, those few regulars are only paying for the 30 books I pass out every 2 weeks and are covering the samples I buy. So far, my wish for extra income has not panned out. This is where I make the shameless plug! You can order online from anywhere in the US and as long as you order from my web page, I get credit for it! Everyone has heard of Avon. We sell bath products, hand and body lotions, anti-aging and creams  for every age; make-up and jewelry and even clothes. Avon is more than it ever was before. Fragrances by Reese Witherspoon and Fergie. No one will call, or visit your house. The products you order will be mailed directly to you! Easy! If you haven’t looked lately, consider helping a grandma who’d like to make a little extra money on the side. I told you it was a shameless plug! Go to http://esthersavon.com   I’d love to see you come by!

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Mother No Longer Suspect After 25 Years – ABC News. I love these kinds of stories! New evidence, or new technology frees someone from jail or from being suspected of a crime! Awesome! A mother free to live her life now after 25 years of being a suspect in her son’s death! He was bitten and scratched by several dogs, and then strangled when the dogs pulled his clothes too tight on his neck. Did they suspect Mom bit and scratched him and then strangled him? Not too much info in the article, but sounds crazy. I’m glad she was exonerated.

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Obama subpoenaed: three birther cases to be heard in GA | American Vision News. It seems the question of Obama’s birth and legal right to be President of the United States is still being investigated. He has been subpoenaed to appear to answer questions in court. The first two cases are pretty much not going to accomplish anything, but the third has actually filed the subpoena and will ask questions and expect answers. Interesting how long this has been going on. He has been the President for the past 4 years!  So long in fact, that most Americans have forgotten the controversy, don’t care, or don’t feel it is relevant any longer. Also interesting is how we never hear any of this in the news. I wonder if any of this will be resolved this time. Will we ever know the truth? And does it really matter now?  ”Is it live, or is it Memorex?”

I was recently updating our webpage for work. In doing the update, I was browsing some of the pictures. I had forgotten some of the cakes that are actually on our web page. I really have a large body of work that has accumulated over the years. There is much to see there. I guess you could say that these pictures are my legacy. If anyone is interested, check out our/my wedding cakes. http://373cake.com

This video is horrifying! To see a stroller roll off the subway platform onto the tracks with a 6 month old baby inside just before the train passes over! And what is miraculous is that the baby was not injured…only suffered a bump on the head! He certainly had angels watching over him! The mother must have been so emotionally traumatized! Truly terrifying.

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Taking a bubble bath used to be one of my favorite things. It was truly a “Calgon” moment. I would just soak, add more hot water with my toes when it got cool, and read a book in blissful privacy. It was never a bath, but a time of pure relaxation. The steam, the smell, the bubbles all contributed to the mood of the experience. Sigh. The trouble with getting older is there are always a few things that you lose. You know, like the ability to open jars easily, or being able to work on 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Since I have a problem with my knees, I miss being able to walk. I see people running up a flight of stairs and I sigh. I would love to just be able to walk up one or two steps. Squatting down or sitting on your haunches to talk to a child is a thing I marvel at. I tend to be careful and more fearful in my old age, but I think I’d like to be able to ride a bicycle again. I remember the breeze in my hair. I could go on and on, but the thing I miss the most are my bubble baths. I can no longer step into a bathtub and I really miss those soaks. Simple pleasures are sometimes the things we need to cherish. They don’t always last.

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All-Am erican comic book hosts ‘gay’ wedding. Anyone who has read my blogs for a while knows I am unabashedly pro traditional family! After all, I’ve been married for 41 years…42 years in June. And now, Archie and Jughead and Veronica are getting a new sidekick. The authors are really piling it on. Not only is the new character a white American soldier, but he’s been wounded in Iraq and has a black physical therapist who helped him to recover. Add to that,  there are now plans for the two men to get married. Come on people, give us a break! Archie and Veronica are almost a tradition, an icon from my childhood. Why do you have to play the politically correct and socially relevant card? I’m really showing my age by saying, what happened to the good old days?

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Anyone writing the “great American novel”? There is a web page called critiquemynovel.com that offers proofreading and/or critique services for a very reasonable price.

They are having their first writing contest. They are offering over $850 in cash and prizes as well as free publicity for the winners blogs, websites or author pages on facebook.

Submit the first 10,000 words of your novel and four judges will read and grade the submissions in 6 areas. They will be looking at character developement, style, premise/plot, hook, overall entertainment and logic flow and organization. Each manuscript entry will be given a score from these 6 categories from each judge and then be averaged together for an overall score. There will be a Grand Prize, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner.

The first chapter of each winner will be published on critiquemynovel.com with a link leading back to their webpage. Find all the sumission guidelines and list of prizes at http://critiquemynovel.com/writing_contest   Enter now. Contest ends June 1st.

I’ve never been one to make New Years resolutions. I guess because everyone knows we won’t keep them for very long. Why advertise my inability to follow through? But, a new year with the opportunity of new beginnings brings about a lot of thinking. What have I accomplished in the past year? What have I accomplished in my life so far? Does it even matter?

I was told one time I wasn’t born to think, I was born to sing. That was a long time ago. But remembering the comment made me realize that thinking too much can bring about a lot of regrets. I had a best friend in high school I still remember. We haven’t talked in years and lost touch a long time ago because I was ‘crazy’ at the time. Spending some time in therapy as a clinically depressed person affects most of your life. My husband is a saint. I never knew why he picked me back in the 7th grade when we first met. He saw something in me he liked and he’s been here for the past 41 years despite my bad habits and my mood swings. Like I said, he’s a saint. I look at my children and marvel. My son is married and has 4 children. He is a prayerful man who feels family is important. I marvel how well he turned out despite having me for a mother. After all, he was a child during my ‘crazy’ years. My daughter joined the Army fresh out of high school and  told us she had been abused from the age of 4 to about 13 when she felt strong enough to say “Leave me alone”! These two events amazed me. I was so proud of her for joining the Army and petrified at the same time. We rallied around her and worried and prayed for her emotional well-being as she went through therapy. The only flaws I see in her now is she is too trusting sometimes, loves animals too much and adopts too many. She is optimistically hopeful that she can meet her goals despite the difficulties of holding down three jobs and the economy that fights us at every turn.. She is amazing but could easily be a hoarder of recyclables. LOL.

I’ve decided to have a prayer I will say every night as I lose sleep during my frequent potty breaks. I will ask for help in making better choices. That applies to my eating habits as well as to anything else in life. I need to pray more. I need to stay close to God and not forget He is what keeps me sane and gets me through each day. It’s okay to blog, to play video games, to watch tv, but those things don’t need to define my life. There are many things that could turn into regrets if I let them. I’d like to sing in the choir at church again. That would mean I would need to find time to vocalize and regain my voice. I quit singing when my younger sister died about 12 years ago. That wasn’t the only reason. I was trying to finish my masters degree while still working and I got burned out and overloaded while dealing with grief. I would like to walk again. I can walk a few steps with difficulty using my walker. I have bone spurs in my knees which prevent me from straightening my legs out, so I walk with bent knees at a crouch, which really throws off your center of balance. Add to that the fact I need two knee replacements. 62 years of obesity of varying degrees and lymphedema keep me from having the surgery now. I need to lose about 100 lbs. The only thing is…the brief time I weighed between 175 and 200, which for me was THIN, I still had large legs and thighs and knees…so I’ll never have thin knees just to satisfy the surgeon.

Okay…this post has gotten long enough. I tend to get bored when I’m reading a long post so I’ll quit now. Just be aware, that the  new year brings about reflection even if I never make a resolution. Here’s to inner discovery.

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Have you noticed those commercials? The ones where they take you into a really nasty commercial kitchen full of dirty dishes full of leftover food and sinks of standing water? The person blindfolded is amazed at how wonderful it smells and how they were totally fooled when they remove their blindfold to see where they are. Or the ones who remove their blindfolds to realize they are sitting on filthy furniture holding a blanket. My complaint with those commercials is they are so unrealistic. The kitchen would be closed down by the health department! Even if the entire staff went home leaving everything from a busy night until the next day, the kitchen would never look this bad. And who would remove their blindfold and just say “Wow”? I think at the very least I would flinch and start backing out of there. And if I was the one sitting on that couch when I removed the blindfold, I wouldn’t just say “Hello”? wondering where the people who led me there disappeared to! I’d jump up throw that blanket away from me and begin brushing myself off hoping I didn’t catch anything. Everyone’s house gets dirty and mine has been very dirty, but that is just over the top! I guess the commercial is successful since it is memorable, but just not very realistic.