Recent Comments

1. 11 months ago on Off the Mark

   I had a German Shepard who loved M&Ms. So when I would have a bag of them, he’d sit and wait for me to toss a few to him. He could catch an M&M in mid-air. He lived 15 years, and on the last day of his life, we gave him a small bag of M&Ms to have in the car as we took him to the vet.

2. 11 months ago on Real Life Adventures

   The joke would be on them because I have lousy credit. I’ve never had a credit card or taken out a loan. I’ve gone to school, bought cars, a house, and other big purchases with cash. I just sold my house and bought another one with the money from the sale. But all that makes my credit score very low.

3. 12 months ago on Pickles

   My husband and I had our first ones last year. He had no problem with that awful drink, but it made me violently ill, to the point that I was dehydrated and weak. Turns out, I’m allergic to something in the solution. So it’s Cologuard for me from now on. Oddly enough, the doctor told my husband that I was the “cleanest” he’d ever seen. On the other hand, my husband has to do another one in 2 years, since he had some anomalies.

4. 12 months ago on Real Life Adventures

   I called my bank the other day to ask about a charge that I didn’t recognize. I had to give my name, passcode, last four digits of my social security number, my address, my phone number, and my account number. The first person transferred me to another person and I had to go through all that again. Then that person transferred me. By the time I got to the person who could actually help me, I’d been transferred eight times and had to give all my information each time. I have to wonder, with all the technology we have, why couldn’t they have just transferred my information, too?

5. 12 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   Perhaps. But I’ve raised 3 of my own, and when my cousin and her husband died, I raised their 4 boys. They all made bad judgments and mistakes as teens. Since I have studied childhood development, I like to think that I used patience and calm guidance to raise them. Did I get angry and sometimes irrationally punish them? Of course I did, I’m human. However, all 7 have grown into productive, decent adults, some with children of their own now. We will be celebrating the youngest one’s college graduation in May and then he’ll be moving a couple of towns over to teach high school.

6. 12 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   I did. In the town in which I grew up. My friends and I had been at a graduation party and when we left, it was dark. I took a wrong turn after dropping off a friend and was lost. I eventually found my way back home where my mother was all set to punish me until my dad reminded her that I was 18 and she couldn’t hit me anymore.

7. 12 months ago on For Better or For Worse

   That’s true. A teen’s brain isn’t fully developed until about age 25. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, which is the brain’s rational part. Teens think with the amygdala. This is the emotional part. In teens’ brains, the connection between the emotional part and the decision-making center is still developing. This is why teens can’t explain what they were thinking. They weren’t thinking as much as feeling. We all went through this, but for some reason, parents seem to think their children are just small adults. As an educator, I see this often and it frustrates me to no end.

8. about 1 year ago on For Better or For Worse

   We did, too. My dad stole my tv for it. But then I played “Munch Man” on it for hours at a time when he was at work, and he also bought me a better, bigger tv for my birthday the next year.

9. about 1 year ago on For Better or For Worse

   We had an Atari 2600, too. My brother and I would spend hours playing. My dad created a cartridge adapter and he and his other engineer friends made rom chips that we snapped onto it. I remember my brother and I spending one snowy, no-school week besting each other’s score in Space Invaders.

10. about 1 year ago on Arlo and Janis

    I’m a Michiganian living in Tennessee and I was floored the first time school was canceled for my kids. There was no snow, and the sun was peeking out through the clouds. But I soon learned that they pave all the roads here and those roads get slick when it rains or snows. I was amazed to see paved roads in very rural areas. From what I remember growing up in Michigan, many semi-rural roads were not paved and even some main roads weren’t. I have a friend here from Pennsylvania and, as the milk and bread disappear at the mere mention of snow, she says when it snows we’re all going to have to eat milk and bread sandwiches. All that being said, my husband got the car stuck halfway up the drive when he came home from work Thursday and we didn’t get it unstuck until yesterday when everything melted.