Five Word Meme

Before I do the meme, I want to update a bit from the last post. I just finished reading this book by Nicholas Sparks. I love his books. I've seen some of the movies that were spawned from the books, but I never like movies made from books - well, rarely. I do have to say that the only really good movies that I've ever watched that I felt did tremendous job of following the books were the Anne of Green Gables movies.

But - back to this book. I finished it this morning and shed more than a few tears at the end. Very well written - especially the end. They are already making the movie, which amazes me. Nicholas is writing the screen play. I have to say that I don't like the choice of Miley Cyrus as the main character, Ronnie (Veronica). I may be wrong, having only seen her on brief looks at Hannah Montana, but I can't see her in this part. And I probably won't. What do you think?

The pictures of the two girls in the previous post - the upper one is Care Bear and the lower one is Katie. We think they look remarkably alike. What do you think?

Mary, from Mary's Writing Nook, sent me these 5 words to write about. I've been short on ideas of late, so this should give me a boost. Mary knows me pretty well from our years of blogging together, and chose these words that would be just up my alley. So here goes.


Granddaughters. If you've read even one of my posts, you know that four little special girls brighten my life, and make me tired! I've been privileged to be at the births of all 4. Many of you lived through the twins' arrival vicariously with me. There's probably not much I can say about them that I haven't said before since, after all, you and they "Call Me Grandma Dawn."

My favorite things about each of them:

Care Bear: She is an amazing little girl. I can never understand how she knows what she knows. She has an inherent understanding of how life works. She has amazing insight. She is an artist, who loves to write and illustrate her own books. She is smart. She has worn glasses since she was the age the twins are now and is just fine with that. She can be very bossy - she is kinda like her grandma, who was always the self-proclaimed president of every club she started. Grandpa loves her can-do attitude and doesn't want anything to stifle it.

Feisty: She is a beautiful little girl with a smile that just brightens your day. She kind of got lost in the shuffle - she was born when Care Bear was 20 months old, and was only 3 1/2 when the twins came along. She has a very soft and kind heart. She can be very ornery. She is very smart, too, but gets overshadowed by her big sister so often. Right now she's coming into her own in kindergarten and in the neighborhood and it is delightful to watch.

Katie: She is one minute older than her sister. She is the bigger one. She has the greatest laugh. She can be very clingy at times, but on the other hand she won't let you hold her hand when she really really needs to! She can be a bit of a bully - she's a lot like Care Bear, which is as it should be, since Care Bear claimed her as her own before she was born - and named her.

Emma: Feisty named her long before she was born. They were supposed to be Victoria and Samantha, but Feisty wanted Baby B to be Emma so badly that Kristen let her have the privilege of naming her. Emma's the one who tore the oxygen out of her nose the morning after she was born, and they never put it back in. She has been first in many of the developmental steps. She talks constantly, and is saying more real words every day. She is bitty and mighty.


Colorado. I love living in Colorado. I love the seasons - especially this one. Spring's a bit iffy, but it can be lovely, too. I don't even mind the snow most of the time. I wish there weren't so many other people who keep moving here, because we're getting too crowded here on the Front Range. But I love it here.

I was born in Minnesota. We moved to Arkansas when I was 4, back to Minnesota when I was 11, to Nebraska when I was 16, to Oklahoma for college, to Kansas as a teacher for a couple of years.

My parents moved here when I was a junior in college. I think I've written about it before, but I'll never forget my first trip here for Spring Break. My dad bragged that the sun shines every day here in our town. We had to tease him mercilessly when we didn't see the sun for 3 days after we got here - we might as well have still been in Kansas or Nebraska or Minnesota - couldn't see a mountain anywhere.

But when the sun came out - it was glorious.

I moved here from Kansas in 1971. That's a long story which I've told before, but suffice it to say, I am glad I did. I had some heartbreak at first, but God had a plan - and it included meeting DC who had moved here from Illinois not long before I got here.

My kids and grandkids are natives. We have deep roots here. Come and visit any time!


Childhood. My childhood memories are wonderful. My dad was a pastor - we didn't have money. There were 5 of us kids and we had fun. I was the eldest, and I was given a lot of responsibility.

I loved being the preacher's kid. Sometimes PK's have a bad reputation. But we felt like it was a privilege. We got to know the evangelists who came and ate at our house and stayed with us. We became acquainted with the missionaries who also stayed with us. I loved moving from place to place - I considered it a great adventure.

My sister was born two weeks before my first birthday, so we had a great time being "twins" for two weeks every year. I loved it when someone found out we were sisters and said, "Oh, I thought you were friends." We were. We still are.

Travel. We have done our share of traveling, nothing like a lot of people. I'm not fond of the actual trip, but love getting there, wherever "there" is. I get claustrophobic in airplanes these days, but don't mind flying otherwise. We haven't taken a long road trip in awhile, but I wouldn't mind doing that again.

When I was a kid, we mostly went to our grandparents' in Minnesota for our vacations. We did take a trip to the North Shore camping - that was an adventure with a large family. We went to California when several of us were in college, for my brother's wedding.

DC and I have had some nice trips. When the kids were young, we visited grandparents as well. But we did make it to Disneyland and Yellowstone. We took a fabulous trip to England to visit my brother and his family when Kristen was 13 and Kev was 11. What wonderful memories we made there.

I've been privileged to go to Washington DC with my DC on several business trips. We finally made it to Hawaii for our 25th anniversary, then back for our 35th. We are craving another trip back there as soon as possible. We have really enjoyed our times in Georgia, North and South Carolina with DC's brother and SIL.

We did make it to Boston area when Kev was in TC the first time - I told him that I didn't like the reason, but I sure enjoyed the trip.

I'm planning to get out east to see Kev this fall. I also plan to get to my 40th college reunion in Oklahoma in November - yikes! 40th?? How can that be possible??

We hope someday, when we are truly retired, to take a road trip to every place we've ever lived - he is a PK, too, so that'll be alot of towns all over the country.

Hobby. Awhile back I did a series called "I Used To. . . " where I showcased all of the many creative things I used to do when I was young and energetic. I sewed like crazy, crocheted, knitted, embroidered, crewel embroidered, cross-stitched. I don't do any of those things now. My main hobby now is reading, strictly for enjoyment. Nothing very mind-stretching. I get most of my reading in while I am on the exercise machines at the gym. I guess it's called multi-tasking.

Fall is coming in with a cool start - we had a huge rain this morning and it's been very cool all day. I enjoyed a quiet day with myself!