• Things I Should Warn You About

shenrydafrankmann

~ Hopeful honesty from simple sentences

shenrydafrankmann

Monthly Archives: December 2013

Have iPod, Will Lose It

27 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

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Tags

daughter, fatherhood, teen girls

Guess what this selfie was taken with?

Guess what this selfie was taken with?

My wonderful daughter is one of the most responsible and conscientious people that I know.  Careful.  Level headed and smart.

Until it comes to a phone or iPod.

Alyssa becomes a typical teenage girl once her hands touch a Touch.  Or a cell phone.  My nerdy curly haired redhead with a near perfect grade point average turns into a valley girl, fingers working the keypad nimbly with the practiced ease of any American teen.  Most executive assistants (i.e. secretary — but I would get blog smacked for using that term, so I am safely putting it in parentheses) would be jealous of the keypad skill most teenage girls possess.  Indeed I take advantage of Alyssa’s adept secretarial.. er.. executive assistant-like talent now and then when I need a quick text sent.

I threw her off last Tuesday afternoon while we were out Christmas shopping together.  Her mother sent me a text while I was driving.  I handed my flip phone to Alyssa and asked her to send a text back.  You would have thought I was asking her to dismantle a nuclear bomb.  She grunted at me with a superior grin, then proceeded to take a full two minutes to type out a text.

Ha!!!!  Dad WEEEEEENNNNNNSSSSS!!!!

Alyssa was shopping with me for a specific reason.  Monday night, she had demonstrated another teen female skill.  While kicking back and basking in my new holiday freedom, my last work day of this year complete, I answered my cell phone to hear a sobbing and quavering voice exclaim

“Daaaaaaaaaaadddddd”

*sniff snort sniff*

“I can’t believe this happened again.”

*sniff sniff*

“I lost my cell phone”

*pause*

*snort sniff*

“AND my iPod… WHAT DO I DO?”

Alyssa was at work.  Frantic, the tools essential to female teenage existence ripped from her grasp.  She called me because Dad helped find her stolen cell phone four years ago, the thief stupid enough to use the stolen phone to call his girlfriend to brag.  He destroyed the phone, but I found him and his parents forced him to buy a replacement.  Two years later, I used my cell phone upgrade to replace the phone she had broken.  And I found a deal to replace an iPod that was stolen from her.  Calling Dad calmed her down because she knew Dad would solve the emergency.

It’s Christmas.  I wait until I get my Christmas bonus on my last day of work before I buy presents.

Teenage girl is now in teenage girl hog heaven — she has a new iPhone to lose.  And it cost me $30.  Alyssa will pay the monthly fee for the phone.  Problem solved.

Until next time…..

Just Enough For The

21 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

♫ Citayyyyyyyyyy ♫

Barely enough.

Chicago is roughly a 30-45 minute drive east for me.  Or an hour train ride.  The big windy city, full of life and people, buildings, cars, shopping, professional sports, theater,… you name it, Chicago has it.  It even has a beach, a place I don’t recommend this time of year.  Chicago is COLD.

I am not a fan of the city.  The suburbs are a challenge for me.  Oh, downtown Chicago is OK is small doses, but I find myself feeling like I need the open spaces and quiet of the burbs after a short time of being here.

People watching is fun, though.  And I am a girl watcher.  Chicago girls are very pretty with all varieties represented.

There is also the popcorn.  Hot dogs, Chicago style pizza.  The Lincoln Park Zoo.  Lake Michigan.

I am sitting in a Starbucks on State Street, convinced the barrista to stay open for a while longer.  It’s 8 on a Friday night.  I guess this part of Chicago shuts down early even on Friday.  Once the workers are gone, the weekends are quiet in the city.  My brother, who lived right of Michigan Avenue for a while, told me that once.  I visited him one weekend and confirmed it. 

Of course, I also had to confirm that there was a woman who lived in the condo directly across from him who did yoga and cleaned the house in the nude.  He wasn’t fibbing.

There is the lake front path, wonderfully beautiful to ride at sunrise during the summer when the sun begins to shine on the buildings.  That was the real reason I visited my brother.  Seriously.  I had to ride the path.

I just have a few hours to burn here while I wait for Alyssa and her best friend to be ready for me to pick them up.  They are enjoying another perk of the city, the broadway production of ‘Wicked’.  They saw the show together as seventh graders and wanted to see it again as high school seniors.

Geez, I just convinced myself to enjoy the city.. at least enough to tolerate it for a few hours…..

Man Children Want Christmas Presents Too

19 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

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“Maybe we should just say this present is for you and Nate.  You two can share this one.”

There is a reason my wife’s first sentence does not include a question mark.  My wife was proposing not asking a question. 

Since when did I come to the point where I am sharing Christmas presents with my teenage son?  I just got another hint of what my wife truly thinks of me.  To her I am just another one of her children, her man child.

The Christmas present in question is an expensive video game system.  Mir and I both are grinding our teeth over the sensibility of spending money at a time when we have had to accept financial gifts from family members just to survive.  We should not get nice new things.  Maybe sharing a present, something that I also will enjoy — I play the video game system Nate has right now quite a bit — will make buying the new and expensive video game system more acceptable to those who see it and wonder.

Each year my company gives out a bonus to its employees the last day of work before Christmas.  The bonus is calculated based upon years of service.  I am a 24 year employee, so I get a very decent bonus.  We always buy our Christmas presents out of that bonus.  Each year I see that bonus and think about what a dent I can make in our debts, something I am usually able to do with part of it.  One year I actually was able to reduce our debt to zero with the help of that bonus.  That should tell you something about our actual debt.  We don’t have much debt.  The fact that we are fretting and fuming over spending money on an expensive gift is a statement of what our philosophy has been in the 21 years we have been married.  Anything new and expensive usually belongs to our kids.  Mir and I are accustomed to the used, including the bicycles that I ride.  Spending money does not come easy to us.

Christmas has been that time of year where we have conceded to spending some money on presents.  I have had to, acknowledging years ago that Mir was right when she told me that our kids are only kids once, that we should spend money on presents for them at Christmas time.  She also is that way about their birthdays.  The money comes out of my pocket slowly and painfully, but it comes out.

Of course, one of the reasons Mir’s proposal was hard for me to hear was that I am hoping there will be enough of that bonus left over to justify my spending money on a new television.  I have never had a new television.  I have been hanging out at electronics retailers, trying to get an idea of what needs to be left if I am going to be able to get a TV.  Mir’s proposal deflated my Christmas dream and sent it flying around the room. 

The Christmas dilemma will be solved.  Mir and I have agreed to get that present for Nate.  I probably won’t get that TV. 

This is a time for peace on earth, after all.

Heaven meets the Doctor

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

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Tags

change, Christianity, divorce, heaven

Doctor L sat across from me, his left leg crossed across his right knee so that his skinny argyle clad ankle showed, bony fingers intertwined while stroking his beard, eyes creased merrily. Merry is his normal expression, the expression of a man whose conversation I have come to enjoy immensely in the past weeks, a friend as much as a counselor. One does not need to know the man to know he is Jewish, his appearance says that, the richness of his faith evident in the conversations we have. The doctor is excited to be able to talk about his faith with me, my strong background as a Christian something he appreciates, and often our conversations go in the direction of how our faith in God affects our lives.

He was about to share something about faith, his posture giving him away, his smile showing the satisfaction of the God he loves to talk about.

“There is a willingness in people who believe that there is life after death, a heaven where life continues, a better life than here. They are able to accept a life here that is less than acceptable, live in pain, stay in a relationship or a career that does nothing for them, all because there is something waiting on the other side. They ask God to do something about the pain they are experiencing here, but they don’t really expect it to change or they don’t do anything to change it because of the hope that something better is waiting on the other side of death.”

He paused again, hands uncrossed and now folded across his lap, a signal that it was my turn to talk. His statement had struck a chord, a bit of that thought ringing true with me, maybe because Doctor L was going somewhere close to the destination my thoughts were already going. The man is not going to give me specific advice, I know, but there are times when it is real evident he is trying to get a certain point across to me. The man is also a good listener, a quality any counselor should have, but he seems to do it better than most. It seems like he leads me to a place where I am already going and I know it’s because he is listening to what I am saying.

He also knows that it often takes very little to animate me, to engage the talker I can be.  This was a thought I could wrap my mind around.

I had just read James 4 in my bible that morning.

What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Life is so short.

“What do you think is going to happen?  What is heaven going to be like?”

I had to confess that I really don’t know.  There is that inkling of a notion that heaven is a second chance, a place where not only is my body is new but I will have a shot at relationships that I missed or had put aside in my youthful foolishness.  New relationships, full in not only a sexual way but a relational way made rich by the presence of God.  Better.  Heaven may just give me hope that the relational emptiness, the lack of meaningful touch, is only temporary and renewed when I get there.  Is heaven a place of constant and eternal worship or singing, bowing to an everlasting sovereign God?  Maybe it is.

“If it is, then why be satisfied with what does not satisfy me here on earth?”  It wasn’t the doctor who presented that question.  I asked that question, not really of Doctor L, but really just so I could say it out loud.

The message he was trying to get me to understand is pretty simple. We had spent the few minutes leading up to his statement talking about not only how Christians approach the notion of divorce but also how Jewish law approaches divorce. We even talked about how the purpose of marriage has evolved in our modern world, how it has gone from a practical arrangement less geared toward romance, more towards survival, to one that has become focused on relationships and meeting emotional needs.

And he got my wheels churning. Thinking about change.. it is the end of the year, after all. My thoughts do go to that, my natural tendency to internally organize taking me there whether I realize it or not. The biggest arguments I have had with my wife, ones that have focused on what I need changed, have come at this time of year, a huge one happening on January 1st of this year. Coincidence? Maybe not.

The good Doctor L assumed the pose again.

“Much of the Jewish religion is about peace, finding it and giving it.  We even make concessions in the name of peace when it comes to marriage, allowing one untruth to be told.  Do you know what that is?”

No.  Please tell me.  This should be interesting.

“You should tell an ugly woman at her wedding that she is beautiful.”

Nice story.  Funny.  But what does that mean to me?

“Sometimes we lie to ourselves, make our situation out to be something it is not, all in the interest of peace.  No one wants to be a bad person.”

True enough, but is anyone really a bad person?  A person can do bad things, we all do and we are all sinners, but our sin does not make us bad.  I understand that.

“Nothing you do is going to make you a bad person.  And you can not let that hold you back.”

I am changing whether I want to or not. Even my willingness to talk to the good doctor is evidence of that, my central Illinois macho male put aside in the interest of finding a way to wrestle with my demons.

The doctor stood and I stood on cue with him, his arm outstretched in my direction, hand on my shoulder as he smiled warmly.  This day, as usual, he had given me a lot to think about.  Shared that peace, gave me a reason to put away that ugly bride persona.

“Until next time, my friend”

Aside

Wonderful Worry

13 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

≈ 14 Comments

december puzzle

This is a season of great wonder.. with a pinch of worry mixed in as well as a large dose of anxiety.

Knowwuttimean?

There I go again speaking in Ernest.

Every December I find myself contemplating on what a journey life is.  For me it is very circular, a certain deja vu niggling at my brain (does using the word ‘niggling’ make me a racist?) and telling me that much of my experience takes me back to a place I have been before.  December is always tough, a financial conundrum destined to bewilder me and chase me in my dreams.  Christmas is looming large, bills are weeping unpaid in my happy place bill box, and the frigid northern Illinois weather tests the limits of anything mechanical until it breaks.  My world is a universe governed by Murphy, so if it’s going to break it’s going to break at the worst possible moment.

Every December I find myself reaching deep for that final sprint to the finish line.

And every time I make it there, limping a bit and holding my hamstring, but across the line on my own power nonetheless.  I hesitate to say it that way because, well, it’s never my own power that gets me there.  What gets me there is a combination of wills — faith in God’s will, my own will and determination, the support of others, maybe even a bit of luck.  I keep expecting to break down, fall short of that year end finish line, but experience has shown me that there is always that little bit left that gets me there.

So I survive weeks like this one, where it felt like the huge December cloud emptied itself on me all at once.  This week started off with the cloud dumping double car failure, house failure, even library failure on me.  When I felt like those were about to be tackled, the PT Loser decided to have a flat yesterday morning.  I stood outside at 7:15 in the morning, my work personal days used up and an 8 AM punch time looming, in frigid 3 degree weather while I looked at a flat tire, searching for my emergency air compressor and car jack.  The dark cloud of depression descended on me, so much that I could literally feel it enveloping me and the physical signs evident.

I stopped myself.  Walked inside the house, warmed my frozen soul, prayed for calm and found it.

I also found my compressor.  Last night.  It took twenty minutes of pleading, but Mir gave me a ride to work in the rental car we had from the day before.  I made it.

It’s December.

Give me a ho ho ho.

Metal Soul

13 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

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Tags

appliances, gadgets

Lewis Hine Power house mechanic working on ste...

Lewis Hine Power house mechanic working on steam pump. (1920) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The only sound in the house was the flail of thumbs on a video game controller, my teen son busy upstairs in the middle of a zombie massacre.  Nick the sheltie backed his furry backside into me as I sat down at the kitchen table to remove my shoes, my usual routine when I come home from work — Nick gets a butt rub while I give my tootsies a break.

Wait a sec.. IT WAS QUIET!!!!!

For the last week, the furnace fan has been running constantly, a problem caused by a failed relay on the furnace control circuit board.  There was no break from the noise.  But here I was, sitting right next to the mechanical closet in our kitchen, the furnace a few feet away behind the metal folding doors.. listening to thumbs on a video controller upstairs.  it took me a few seconds to comprehend why it was so quiet.  Yes.  The furnace fan was not running.  Yes.  The pilot light was lit.  On cue, the burners in the furnace lit and the furnace fan followed.

Our freaking furnace was working perfectly.

A chill crept up the back of my neck, not from the cold in the house because our FREAKING FURNACE WAS WORKING PERFECTLY.  Thoughts of one of my favorite Stephen King novels, Christine, crept into my tiny brain.

The furnace knows.

It’s alive, it has to be.  How else would it know that just this afternoon someone had been at our house to give us an estimate for a new furnace?  In a few minutes, another salesman was due to stop by with another estimate.  Our furnace knows that it’s life as a furnace is about to end.  So it has decided to work, convince us that it doesn’t need to go.

Creepy.

My car does the same type of thing.  As soon as I take it to the mechanic it quits making that noise, decides to start up like it did when it was new.  The mechanic tricks my car, entices it with intoxicating oils, inebriates it’s metallic brain until it weakens and spills every secret ailment.  When I come to pick up my car, I see how my vehicle has been lavished with expensive parts and baubles, my bank account paying for the sickening way my car has spread itself out for the greedy gigolo of a mechanic.  I wince as he pats my car on the backside while he hands me the keys.

I am not fooled.  Say good bye, fickle furnace.  You will be replaced tomorrow.

Image

Multitasking

10 Tuesday Dec 2013

Tags

cyber generation

Multitasking

Let’s see if you notice something in this picture besides our cat, Chester, in his usual pose and position. My 17 year old daughter is demonstrating something far too common for her generation….

Posted by shenrydafrankmann | Filed under Uncategorized

≈ 12 Comments

Furnace Envy

10 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

attempted humor, maintenance, marriage

“Do you actually have to take notes for this?”

I tried just a little to mask my sarcasm, soften my voice just a little, tried to discover a bit of amusement in the fact that my wife was standing next to me taking notes on a notecard while I showed her how to use a back up battery to jump start the family van. 

“This is just like using jumper cables and the battery posts are color coded with those felt discs.  See?  Connect the cables, turn the dial on the box to jump start, and give the battery a minute or so to build up a charge.”

My wife was feverishly drawing a diagram on the note card.  In 21 years, I have shown her how to jump start a car many, many times.  The thought ran through my head that I had best not die.  Anything breaks or quits in the house, my wife would be lost without me.  Clueless is probably a more accurate word.

Last night I dealt with the furnace repair man, my concession after spending Sunday messing with the furnace, conceding after confirming that the ancient 30 year old contraption (the nameplate screamed 1983 at me when I looked at it) was literally breathing its last breaths.  I had hoped that the repair man could at least provide a cheap fix to help us limp through the winter.  He confirmed my worst fear.  The control circuit board was failing, a part that costs in the neighborhood of $700.  The heat exchanger was old and rusted but not rusted through.  A new furnace will cost far more than I want to consider right now, but will probably have to try.  Even with financing, if we can get financing, $4000 is too much even if spread out over a few years.  I understood what the repair man was telling me, thanked him and paid him the service fee, told him I would look into my options (probably will have to find a way to do the replacement myself).

When I broke the news to my wife, suddenly she became an expert, wanted to tell me what was wrong with the furnace.  The woman who just that morning had refused to deal with a repairman during the day instantly knew what was ailing. 

“Oh, my sister knows somebody who had the same problem and they just replaced a switch.”

“Uh huh”

Don’t get me wrong, but let me take notes while you take apart our furnace and figure out what is wrong…..

Break

09 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

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I’m trying to decide if a furnace is really required to live in the Chicago area.  Or running water.  OK, maybe running water because you can only dig so many holes in the back yard.  Does my car need tires or wheels even?  That hole in the roof gives extra ambiance and fresh air.  Driveways and windows are overrated. 

Things get old.  When things get old, they wear out and break.  Things should be fixed, repaired or replaced.

Things make me want to run off to Fiji and join a naked commune that lives on bananas and coconuts and rides bicycles all day.

My house is roughly 26 years old.  The family van and the PT Loser that I drive to work are both 2004 models.  I am a 1961 model. All of them are worn out.  All need a new roof, tread, and just plain don’t want to run any more.  All need more attention than I am able to give or pay for. 

God, this lily of the field needs quite a bit of help.

Being a husband and provider requires energy.  Balance.  An ability to find a way to stay sane while juggling responsibilities that go way beyond anything that could ever be imagined, all by a guy who possesses more will than way.  I try.  I push through, stubborn enough to keep myself from quitting, from going off the deep end to chase that Fiji dream. This husband rarely gets a true break, especially when family and those dreaded things keep needing attention.

This weekend was the furnace.  It works but the blower fan runs constantly.  Until I replaced the thermostat the burners had to be coaxed on.  I have done enough research to figure out the problem, a bad limit switch or a worn out relay on the furnace circuit board, but I am at the point where experience has taught me that digging in could end up costing more than having someone else fix it for me.  So I will call someone to come look at it, someone who will tell me the furnace is worn out and should be replaced.  Duh.

Oh, and my “stay at home” wife refuses to make sure she can be home to let a repair man in our house.  The challenges usually have more than just the mechanical aspect.  The kids can ride the bus home one day, can’t they?  Guess not.

Faith tells me to hang on.  God will provide.  I often forget to look back and see all the obvious times that has happened.  But I could sure use a break, sure need a time when nothing needs to be fixed or repaired or replaced and the larder has a chance to build up a little.  Since kids came along that has been rare if not non-existent. 

OK, well, until Fiji happens….

 

Instant Karma

06 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by shenrydafrankmann in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

marriage, technology

I was raised in an instant world.

Knowuttimean?  Vern.

That last comment came out nowhere.  Sometimes I just have to speak in Ernest.

My generation was born into an American culture that transformed from black and white to color, Ovaltine to Nestles Quick, theater to VHS to DVD to streaming video, Encyclopedias to Wikipedia, Gomer Pyle to pay at the pump, stove to microwave, diners to fast food drive through.  My generation has gradually become accustomed to having it now and has raised another generation which in turn is raising another generation to expect all to be available at their fingertips.

Patience is no longer a virtue.  Those who are willing to wait are simpletons stuck living in the past.

One way I can tell that my wife has transitioned into a true American is by her incredulous insistence that all things must be instantaneous.  For instance, when Miriam is using the family computer, I avoid our office and even occasionally leave the house completely, lest I am summoned to help her out and listen to her complain.

“This internet won’t do anything” (click click click click click… click……… CLICK)

I usually walk in to see the Windows start up screen transitioning or an icon at the top of the window indicating that her task is loading.. but she just clicked the mouse so many times that is never going to happen.

“Just walk away from the computer and come back in a minute.”

“Can’t you just fix it for me?”

There is no explaining that the only thing broken is patience.

She just called me to ask me why the furnace won’t go off.  Our daughter and a friend are filming in our house for a school project.  The furnace makes too much background noise.  I asked her if she shut the furnace off at the thermostat.

“Yes, but it’s…. oh, … never mind.”

I didn’t have to explain that it takes about the same amount of time as dialing a cell phone for the thermostat to respond.  And I probably shouldn’t even tackle the whole cell phone issue.  Cell phones have given a whole new meaning for every husband to the phrase “you can run but you can not hide”.  My wife knows because the cell phone knows.. and if that thing rings god forbid if a husband doesn’t answer it (and right away).  And with smart phones becoming the norm these days, everything is literally available at the fingertips.

I am considered a dinosaur and snubbed by many a smart phone user, sneers directed at me as the user raises their phone in my general vicinity but the gaze unable to lose the attention of whatever vital information is being viewed on said phone.  Yes, I am a flip phone user.

“But how do you text?” you might be asking.  Many do.  My children scoff at me and condescendingly offer their text secretary services to me on a regular basis.

It’s not a disease if you can’t whip off a text message in two seconds.  I manage.  But my text messages are not immediate responses.  My wife or my daughter often send me two or three texts while I am attempting one reply.

Wut r u doing r u thr I rlly nd u to pck up some hair stuf for me now

K

The church I attend has even joined the instant age.  No longer is it necessary to write a check or pull some cash out to place in the offering plate or bag as it is passed by the ushers.  Noooooooo.  Scan your cell phone as you come in or use the offering app from the church website.  Offering time during the church service is beginning to resemble a rock concert (my church has been a rocking church for some time), cell phones lighting up all over the auditorium, a mix of old and new fashion as the offering bags are passed amongst glowing smart phones.

I wonder where this is all heading.  Marriage by internet? I actually like that idea.  The ceremony could not have gotten over fast enough in my humble male opinion.  Yes, there is such a thing as a humble male.  What will my children be telling their children?

Before delivery drones we actually had to walk into a place called a “store”, pick up the thing we wanted to buy, carry it to a place called a checkout cash register, pay for it with something called “money”, and carry it in a bag into our house.

Wow, Dad!!!!

 

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  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012

Blogs I Follow (and maybe even read)

  • glennkaiser.com
  • There and Bach Again
  • Dean
  • Southern Georgia Bunny
  • The Rambling Biker
  • Storyshucker
  • Ah dad...
  • Squeeze the Space Man's Taco
  • I didn't have my glasses on....
  • kidscrumbsandcrackers
  • longawkwardpause.wordpress.com/
  • Cycling Dutch Girl
  • The Shameful Sheep
  • Blog Woman!!! - Life Uncategorized
  • Life in Lucie's Shoes
  • Fit Recovery
  • lifebeyondexaggeration
  • Globe Drifting
  • I AM TOM NARDONE
  • Cathy's Voice Now

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glennkaiser.com

There and Bach Again

a teacher's journey

Dean

Marketing major. Outdoor sports lover. San Diego living.

Southern Georgia Bunny

Adventures of an Southern Bunny everything from dating, sex, life and shake your head moments.

The Rambling Biker

Roaming & Rambling in search of MTB Stoke

Storyshucker

A blog full of humorous and poignant observations.

Ah dad...

I need the funny because they're teenagers now

Squeeze the Space Man's Taco

A journey into Cade's world

I didn't have my glasses on....

A trip through life with fingers crossed and eternal optimism.

kidscrumbsandcrackers

Kids - I`m like the old woman who lived in a shoe - Crumbs, my house is full of them - Crackers, Im slowly going

longawkwardpause.wordpress.com/

Cycling Dutch Girl

the only certainty is change

The Shameful Sheep

Blog Woman!!! - Life Uncategorized

Mother, Nehiyaw, Metis, & Itisahwâkan - career communicator. This is my collection of opinions, stories, and the occasional rise to, or fall from, challenge. In other words, it's my party, I can fun if I want to. Artwork by aaronpaquette.net

Life in Lucie's Shoes

Life in a bubble: a dose of New York humor with an Italian twist!

Fit Recovery

Stay Clean Get Fit

lifebeyondexaggeration

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stranger

Globe Drifting

Global issues, travel, photography & fashion. Drifting across the globe; the world is my oyster, my oyster through a lens.

I AM TOM NARDONE

Cathy's Voice Now

Sharing my "voice"

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