Each day 43 families in the United States hear the words ‘your child has cancer’ according to the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. It is a diagnosis that providers don’t care to deliver. It can be devastating to anyone but when the news come about your son or daughter your whole world is turned upside down. It takes families on such a roller coaster of emotions...

Brain Tumor. Pediatric Brain Cancer. Surgery. Chemotherapy. Those words are a kick in the gut for any parent. But when those parents are the parents of your grandchild it makes you feel helpless. Utterly helpless. Over the previous weeks our sweet grandson had been battling ear infections and bouts of vomiting. Ears infections and vomiting aren’t mutually exclusive at least in my experience. Both our girls had ear infections and could projectile vomit...

Was the Eclipse of 2017 worth all the hype? Given that it was an event I wouldn’t get to witness again in my lifetime, it was definitely worth the time to view. My husband and I were able to spend the time watching from the parking lot where I work. I had joked with him that he has had days off for snow, ice, rain and mud but this would be the only time that he didn’t work because of an eclipse...

Last week, in the early morning quiet, the sound of a train whistle came rolling in through the open bedroom window. The two longs, a short and another long of the crossing warnings came through distantly and then closer and closer as the train rolled through crossing after crossing. It faded away as the train was moving on to its destination...

Today would have been my dad's 86th birthday. I try to remember his birthday every year because to me that is something to remember in a positive light. Dad grew up in the panhandle of Texas during the dust bowl. I believe that is one of the main reasons he left where he grew up and spent most of his adult life in Wyoming and Utah. ...

Snow -- by definition - noun - an atmospheric water vapor frozen into ice crystals and falling in light white flakes or lying on the ground as white layer. (According to Google.) I loathed snow days as a kid. I have never been much of an outdoor adventurer. ...

I am sorely disappointed with the moderators during the recent presidential debates. I would like a moderator who asked fair, balanced questions WITHOUT trying to stir up controversy. The candidates do a pretty good job of self-implosion. Let them do it on their own. The moderators need to be fair and balanced. They need to leave their personal agendas at the door. That has not happened at all in the last two debates...

Recently, our younger daughter was married. It was a very nice June day for a wedding. Not too terribly hot and not too terribly muggy for June. Friends and family from far and wide gathered in Lincoln for the nuptials. SIL (son-in-law) #2 surprised the bride with her proposal late last summer and she didn't expect it. ...

Recently I had knee replacement surgery. My original knee was pretty much bone-on-bone for the most part and to get any relief and improvement on the quality of life a replacement was the option. My surgeon uses the quad sparing procedure, which means my scar is on the side of the knee and not directly over the knee. As the name implies, it spares cutting through the quad muscle. which is supposed to allow for a quicker recovery...

Thirty years ago I spent my final full semester in college serving as a legislative intern at the Unicameral. It was a pretty cool way to spend a semester. I earned college credit and earned enough money to live on for the semester which was a bonus...

In a recent conversation, we were talking about Christmas gifts. Back in the stone age, I had received a Kodak camera with the disposable magicubes flash bulbs. These little flash bulbs were four-sided cubes (hence the name). It was pretty cool at the time and I took a lot of photos with it. ...

We have now completed the initial wedding dress shopping with our younger daughter. The bride --to-be arranged the weekend for her older sibling and her parental units to be together for "the" shopping event. She had a plan. She had a style and color she wanted. Yes indeed, we were set...

On a recent trip to the City, Hubby and I were shopping at one of the malls. We had gone to most of the obligatory sporting goods stores in the walk-about of the mall. As I often do, I detoured into another store. This time, I had a mission. Yes, it is only August but I was after Christmas ornaments. Yes, they are Hallmark ones and yes, there are specific ones that I was going to purchase...

This past week, I was able to play with sidewalk chalk and bubbles one afternoon. It has been a day or so since I had played with sidewalk chalk. The neighborhood discount store had these handy dandy sidewalk chalk kits for a five dollar bill. With Little Miss still being 'little', she needed the kind of chalk that little hands can hold onto...

I have a little friend that I would like to introduce to you. His name is Ben. He is two and one-half years old now. He has curly hair and soulful eyes. He is the youngest in his family. I first saw Ben before he was born. I was able to see his first ultrasound picture. His folks were so very excited that he was going to joining their family. His mom, dad, big sister and grandma got to see the photos first. His mom shared with her co-workers (one would be me.)...

It has been old home week on ABC's General Hospital. The show is celebrating its 50th anniversary. They have brought back many of the actors and actresses who had been on the show in previous years. While I haven't been a lifelong fan, I am more recently back to the party thanks to my DVR. I have been enough of a sudsy fan (my term for being an soap opera fan ) over the years that I have kept up with the various story lines...

It is official. I have turned into my father. He would have thought this was quite comical and he would have chuckled about it and shook his head at the same time. When I was growing up, my dad seemed to visit with everybody wherever we went. Now, it probably wasn't that bad but sometime it seemed like it. ...

Our current vehicle is a Chevy. There are some features that I love. I suppose I could write a fan letter to the engineers who designed the features, the execs who okayed the features and the assembly line workers that built the car. That would require too much work. Next best thing is to blog about it...

Now that Little Miss is almost two, going out to eat means we have to go to the kid-centered eating establishments some of the time. We had some fun this past Sunday at lunch. The kids suggested going to Fritz's. Son-in-law mentioned trains so we figured we would give it a go...

What to write about? Numerous times in the past several weeks I have plopped down with the laptop and typed. Then I would delete. Then I would type and I would delete. I decided I should make a list of potential topics and see if that would spark anything...