I can remember when I was a high school senior and I applied to go to Virginia Tech. I was accepted to go there, but I did not qualify for enough grants and scholarships to be able to attend – even though I had taken college preparation courses in high school and had received all A’s and B’s on my report cards. My parents were already sending my older brother to college and they said that they could not afford to help me to attend college as well. So, I could not go to college. My life’s dream of becoming a veterinarian would never come to pass. If I had been able to attend college right out of high school, I would have led a much much better life, and the lives of my children would have been much better as well. College is the foundation on which financial stability is built. Our children need and deserve the chance to improve their lives with a good education.

When that happens, all of the friends of the original poster jump on the case of the older, wiser family member and call that older person a “hater.” Sometimes friends of the older family member will interject a post that is an attempt to calm the waters, but instead it turns into a feeding frenzy of the younger people becoming argumentative and the older people not being heard. That is so sad. Makes me want to stop reading the posts on Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m thrilled that he has finally decided to go to work dressed like a serious businessman. I’m just wondering what in the world changed his mind about how to dress for success! For years now he was perfectly happy to wear cargo pants and T-shirts, but now he spends hours picking out the best looking tie to wear with his gray pin stripe suit.

I do have a nice kitchen pantry closet that I keep my spices in, but there are several different spice rack set-ups in there. One of them is a double-decked lazy susan. Another one is a newer kind that I cannot remember what it is called but it is ingenious in the design – it has four shelves that flip and twist and slide around. To be honest, I’d like something like that on a larger scale because this particular one only holds small cans and bottles, and many of the cans, jars and bottles that spices are sold in just do not fit. That is the most aggravating part of storing spices, don’t you agree?

Much to my surprise, a couple of weeks later one of the intended recipients told me that she was thinking about buying one of those Himalayan salt lamps online. She showed me the picture of what she wanted, and it was exactly the same one that I had already bought for her! I told her that I had bought one for her for her Christmas present, and not to buy one herself. She asked me to give it to her now because she wanted to start “enjoying the benefits” immediately. Well, I agreed and I gave it to her. She was happy and took it home with her.

Less than a week later she told me that her daughter told her that she hated it, that it made her feel depressed instead of happy, and she gave the lamp back to me and asked me to give her something different for Christmas. I agreed to do that, and now I am using it in one of my bathrooms. I like how it deodorizes and helps to dehumidify the room. As for the original recipient, well, I ended up giving her a gift card to Wal-Mart. I know she buys things there, and I think that maybe I’ll just keep giving her gift cards in the future.

Although I’m not happy that there is some kind of rodent in the garage, I’m grateful that it was not a poisonous snake or a skunk. That would have REALLY upset me! And now I have to decide whether to leave it open a crack for the next few days, or keep it shut. What would you do?

But this was moist and delicious! The addition of the cream cheese was just the perfect touch! I thought I had never had anything so yummy in my life! But THEN I bit into the Savannah bar! I felt like I had died and gone to heaven! Towards the end of the meeting I saw that there were a few pieces left, so I went ahead and helped myself to another one.

After the meeting I found myself driving into old town and going into the Great Harvest Bakery. It smelled so good in there! All of the employees greeted me with great big smiles (Love it already!) and they offered me a slice of bread to sample. One of the bread choices had strawberries in it, and I said I’d like to sample that. It was still warm and oh my goodness yummy! If I wasn’t already going to buy some of the Savannah bars and scones I would have bought a loaf of that bread too! I will definitely have to go back there and buy some of that in the near future!

Sometimes I add some spices to the crock pot when I’m cooking meat, but this time I just put the roast in the crock pot with no spices, and no water. I ended up having three people showing up at the dinner table, and it worked out fine – I warmed up some Bob Evans mashed potatoes, some canned green beans, and some chicken gravy. Nothing fancy, but it was still good eating. I was glad that I had put the roast in the crock pot – I don’t have any idea what I would have had for supper if I had waited until the last minute, when everyone walked in the door, hungry and tired. I love my crock pot!

The first game I played was only nine holes, and I was exhausted be the end of the game. We walked the course, and I carried my own clubs. Yes, I mean I really did carry my own clubs. The first couple of holes were better than I had hoped they would be, but I was nowhere close to par. Thankfully I avoided the sand traps and the water hazard, but I really have to chalk that up to blind beginners luck. By the end of the ninth hole, my body was so sore that I was just hitting the ball wildly and although I never ended up in the rough, the ball never went very far down the fairway. More than once I asked my father if I could just forfeit the hole, pick up the ball and call the game over, but he was insistent that I finish the hole. If I recall correctly my score on that hole, which was a Par 3, was a very embarrassing nineteen. From that point on, every time I played golf I insisted on renting a golf cart. I understand that golf is great exercise, but I wanted to survive the game!

Maybe next year I’ll try to go online to a website that sells cheap sports tickets and get my father a ticket to go to the Masters himself so he can be part of the action, instead of watching it on television. I’d love to see the look on his face when he realizes what the ticket is for!