1.Scooby Doo. The old one, none of this fred and daphne hitting on each other and dressing scantily.  The old ones with globetrotters, mama cass, and all those other people who were cool back in my day

2.Tom & Jerry. One of my first birthday cakes I remember maybe I was 3, it had Tom & jerry on it. I watch it now with my kids

3. The Jetsons. Wow, I loved the Jetsons. I wanted to be at my age now, in flying cars, with conveyor belts in your house, robot maids and full meals in pill form-when is that going to happen?

4.Flintstones. I watched it and I liked some of it. I hated Fred’s voice and I hated the canned laughter,even as a small child I found that weird.

5.She-Ra, He-Mans sister.  I loved this chick, first off all the little boys my grandmother babysat with me, had He-man so when his tough sister got her own show, I was over the moon. I could finally play with them and use the skeletor castle and not have to be moss man, or the man whose face turned around and had a few weird choices.

6.Muppet Babies.  I loved the Muppet Show and the movies.  I liked the muppet babies, but didn’t like the mam or nan or whatever that lady was called whose legs we could only see.  That freaked me out, why didn’t she realize there were little animal creatures living in her nursery.

7.Jem, this was from the end of my youth. But I liked her.  I liked how she was cool looking and had a band and if I remember correctly I think she lived in a really cool house.

8.Smurfs.I loved these guys. I had all of them, I used to act out the cartoons after I watched them.  I loved the smurfs, especially smurfette and brainy

9.Snorkels, I may be the only person on Earth who remembers the snorkels. They were cute and way more cool than Sponge Bob, who I despise.

10. Fat Albert. I loved when Bill Cosby said hey hey hey. I loved the adventures they all got into.  I loved how hip they seemed and it reminded me of when my dad and I would watch What’s Happening together.

What were your favorites?

My grandparents were married 59 years.  Can you imagine spending 59 years with someone, that’s almost 6 decades. They went through wars, tv, cds, internet, cable,fast food and countless other things together.  Now unlike the Noah and his girl ( I can’t remember her name right now), they had their squabbles. Both were stubborn as could be and if my grandmother was mad at you, she was mad at you and could ignore you and make you feel awful in a way you would think not possible. The same grandmother would take care of you when you were sick and do everything she possibly could to love you and help you.  My grandfather was always comic relief, he was funny and he could talk.  I learned that they met, because my grandfather would watch my grandmothers legs walk past his house every day from her grandmothers house and finally he got up the nerve to talk to her.  They rest as they say is history, 3 kids later, 2 grandkids, and 3 great grandkids all got to know them and their love.  They held and cuddled us all.  Sadly my grandfather was called home last May as his body had slowly been shutting down for several months. It was hard, very hard to see him so helpless and sad, but he was not in pain and it happened quickly once he was in hospice.  One night about a week before he left us, I went to see him in the hospital, he was talking about the weekend and the horse racing papers he wanted me to buy him, he then said well if I’m still in the hospital I don’t want you to get them because it will be a waste of money.  I told him I’d get him whatever he wanted.  I thought wow, he’ll bounce back, he’s planning on coming back home and we can all get back to normal.  I stopped at the nurses station and asked her why he was talking like that if they thought he was so sick and weak, did he know he was sick? She told me, that when the times comes many people will tell loved ones what they think they want to hear, as to protect them from the truth.  A few days later he was gone.  We got the call in the middle of the night, my husband had just come home from sitting with him a few hours earlier.  I knew he was gone,I woke up out of breath right around when he left this world, and I felt ok.  My grandmother in the meantime, had become unresponsive.  As he got sicker, she was getting sicker.  Finally she went to the hospital on a Sunday since she was unresponsive. It was bad, she was in ICU. Not in a coma, but not waking up and not responding.  We started to call people to come and see her.  The morning after my grandfather died, her doctor called me and told me in the early morning she had “woken up” and was asking for us.  I could not believe it. My dad, aunt & I drove right to her.  We didn’t know what to do.  We needed to tell her my grandfather was gone,but we were afraid of her condition.  I think she knew in her heart, that and the fact that dad brought a chaplain along. Telling my grandmother that her husband of almost 6 decades was gone, was hard. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  I’m kind of a straight up person, I don’t get too emotional, so I told her.  My dad and aunt were crying and freaking out.  Well time went by, she was moved out of ICU, we planned the memorial service.  She needed rehab to strengthen her legs and had finally decided to go, so she could come home and help potty train my daughter last summer.  I called her every day of my adult life.  On my Friday night call, she asked me to go and buy her some new underwear and pjs for the rehab. I worked all day Saturday and went to get the stuff, I saw her rehab called when I came in, but I didn’t call her, my aunt was there and said she was doing ok.  Later on around 10pm, the calls started coming to me, she wasn’t doing well. She was going to the hospital, she was unresponsive, could we come right away there wasn’t much time.  How do you deal with that?  The same thing happened a little over a week ago and she bounced back.  We were grieving my grandfather, we were stressed.  And then as my aunt was about to pick me up to take me to see her, the call came. She was gone.  11 days almost to the hour of my grandfather. Weeks later while going through her stuff, my aunt found a small devotional in her bag of things from the rehab and in her scratchy left hand writing, she had written “I love you Cal”, her last thought was on him and then she went to be with the man she had spent more time with than any other person on this Earth.  That to me was a love story.  We needed them both and wanted them both but God needed them more.  He knew we were ready and He knew they wanted to be together.I know what love is, love is  years of staying the ups and downs, loving your family and loving each other so strongly you couldn’t be without each other.

No mom ever thinks there will be something wrong she can’t fix, whether it’s physical, emotional, or whatever.  Despite it all she has a beautiful voice, she can carry a tune like you would not believe. She is fearless and I’ve been told she has a natural talent for skiing.  She is braver and stronger and more of a fighter than I’ve ever been and I love it.  I love her, she is sensitive and caring and wants to take care of everyone and I know when she’s older, she will never let her hearing loss get in her way.  She has been a fighter with a strong will since day 1.  Super proud mama right here and fighter for preemies and children with disabilities- something I never expected, but the surprises in life are what makes it all worth while.

My dad let one of our cats knock down the Christmas tree once and all my moms glass balls broke.  Speaking of cats, I guess I was not pleased with the color of our cats.  One time I had a cat and I wanted it orange so I filled my training potty with orange kool-aid and tried to dip the cat in( the cat was not having that) and my mom was at bingo again.  Then on another occasion of mom at bingo, I decided I wanted a white cat, so I dumped flour and baby powder all over the cat.

When I moved to my grandparents house I had several parakeets, who I would dress and put in my dollhouse (again the birds didn’t really like me), I had a rabbit who we got a rabbit leash for and I tried to walk him and he chewed threw it and took off, I had a small dog my grandfather surprised me with and years after he died, we had another small dog that lived to be about 22.  I also had hermit crabs through the years.  I had some fish at my grandmothers, once my mom was changing the water and didn’t wait long enough and some of my fish died from cold shock. Another time I had fish and a little frog, well that frog was always trying to jump out and luckily we kept finding him.  My husband (now) then boyfriend put some heavy chicken wire/plastic on top so he couldn’t jump out and he still did, one time we never found him after he escaped.  Then at another point my friends brother gave me two frogs which I kept in a tank in my room, well they mated and mated and mated and they were loud, so I set them free in a pond.

For some time in my life I thought about being a vet. I still love animals- I have four cats, 1 dog and one hermit crab.  I still pick the underdog and I would still want to help or save every creature I come across.  One time a few years ago, we took our large dog (a German Shorthair Pointer) and one hermit crab to church to be blessed at the blessing of the animals.  That was an interesting activity.  But then again I think you are born with a love for all animals big and small.