Monthly Archives: November 2015

25Nov/15

What Are You Wearing??

Why don’t people dress up anymore?

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This is my family, my Dad, Mom, my sister Rhonda and me all dressed up visiting my Aunt and Uncle at Christmas. It wasn’t Christmas Eve or Christmas Day but we were still dressed up because that is what we did “back in my day.” People don’t dress for anything anymore, not even church or weddings. It makes me kind of sad to see the way some people dress to go to the mall. I know people who won’t agree with this but I think if people would dress up more there would be less problems in this world. I’m no stupid, I know this is an over simplification. It wouldn’t make the world safer or stop wars or anything, but If kids had to dress like we did in school back in the 1960’s maybe it would make them more respectful. Maybe everyone would respect each other more if they respected themselves and how they looked.

The other day I saw something at the mall that got me to thinking about how we dress and what we wear. An older woman in her late 70’s had on a pair of the ripped, torn jeans, My first thought was, wow, she is too old to be wearing them. Then I stopped and thought about it a little and said to myself…”you go girl.” I have a pair myself, granted mine aren’t as ripped and torn as hers were. She had a cute sweater on and her hair was quite stylish. I had to admit she did look nice. At least she didn’t have on pajama pants like some of the people who were also shopping that day.

We should all wear things that make us feel good and if wearing those jeans made that little 70 something feel good than more power to her. It makes me feel good to dress up and go to meet friends for lunch or dinner. I don’t get the opportunity to dress up as much now since I don’t go to work every day. But when I do get dressed up it makes me feel great. Putting together a fun outfit, with just the right jewelry….Silpada of course (www.mysilpada.com/renee.stambaugh)and maybe a scarf and then top it off by having someone remark on how much they liked it sure makes my day a whole lot better.

All of this made me think why do we only dress up to go somewhere or to do something. And why don’t some people dress up to even do that? I have a lot of clothes…a lot! And the fact is, if I only wear my nice things to go out to lunch, dinner, shopping with friends or the occasional event I go to, most of my clothes will never get worn. So I am doing something out of my norm and changing things up a bit as I have spoke about in a previous post. And I have mentioned this quote before too because it is one of my favorites, but thought it said what I wanted to accomplish here…”Get Up, Dress Up, Show Up and Never Give Up,” – Regina Brett

Most of the time if I don’t have anywhere to go I just have on a tee shirt, fleece jacket and leggings or sweats. Oh and my slippers…That is fine but really there is something to be said for dressing up a bit, a nice sweater, jeans, putting on some light makeup(maybe a little mascara and lipstick),jewelry and shoes, comfy shoes but shoes. You would be amazed, it really can change your whole attitude.

I have been doing this for a few days now. Wearing things that I have had in my closet but that seldom get worn. I am not wearing my best clothing or dressing up like I am going to an event. But I feel better. I sure look better. And if I don’t wear all of these things than who will? Maybe this will be the start of something.. I would love to see people care about the way they dress again and maybe they can also stop wearing yoga pants everywhere. If you do could you please turn around and look at a view of yourself from the back before you go out the door.

What has happened to us? Why don’t we care how we look anymore? I think about my Grandmother and how she wore a dress everyday her entire life until the day she died. We don’t need to go that far but having a little respect for ourselves and the people who have to look at us certainly has to be of some value. It can’t hurt.

Do you dress up? Do you dress up only if you are going somewhere and even then do you really dress up or just get dressed?

My outfit today….

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18Nov/15

“Why Don’t Pizzas Come in Round Boxes?”….

And other things I ponder from time to time….

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I have a tendency to think about things too much. Like the title of this blog..why don’t they put pizza that is round in a round box? I wonder about this type of “why” all the time and drive my family absolutely crazy. But that’s me and it’s just the way I am. Here are some more of the crazy things I wonder about.

1. Why do panda’s eyes not open for 50 days and why when they are born are they so much smaller than almost any other animal? Pandas are rather large so why are there babies so tiny?

2. Why do we have to turn the clocks back? Isn’t it bad enough the days are short, do we have to make them even shorter? What happened before we started doing this? And who thought of it in the first place?

3. Why do we have eyebrows? They really serve no purpose. Was it because people worked outside and it kept the sweat from running into the eyes?

4. Why don’t kids write anymore? No one will be able to sign a check in the future. Of course they more than likely won’t have checks but what about a card? What if they want to send a real card to someone? Will they print their name? And don’t even get me started on why they can’t just subtract 55 from 100 the old fashioned way.

5. Why is it when you drive to another state you see more cars from other states than the one you are in? Why don’t people just stay in their own states? If they don’t like it there, then move…

6. Why does the person at work who never really works and goofs off all the time get rewarded and the person who does their job right and on time doesn’t or even gets let go? (just saw this happen last Saturday, and have seen it happen numerous times)

7.Why do some books have blank pages at the end of the book? Is it so if you don’t like the ending you can rewrite it?

8. Why do we stand and stare into the fridge for hours when we are hungry? We know what’s in there, it’s our fridge. Do we think something is magically going to appear in there that wasn’t there earlier?

9. Why are child resistant caps so hard for us to open but kids can open them just fine? I often have to ask my grandchildren to get mine open.

10. Why do we have to turn the radio down when we are looking for an address we can’t find? (just did this yesterday)

11. Why do I have to have my mouth open to put on mascara?

12. Why when we are on Facebook do we have to copy and paste things if we want to share someone’s post? Does it mean we care more about the person if we copy and paste it rather than just sharing it? We must if we took all the that time to copy it and paste it.

13. Why when passing an electric socket do I suddenly have the strong urge to stick my finger in it? (I have never done this by the way, but I so very much have wanted to)

14. And finally, and I have asked this question my whole life….why do eggs have those stupid white things in them?

Do you have stupid things that you have pondered? I would love to hear some of them.

10Nov/15

“We Are Family”..

What does this mean to me?

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My youngest child was home for a visit this past weekend and it started me thinking about our family. What was the meaning of the word and what it really meant to me? I truly enjoyed having her home and spending time with her. One of the moments I loved the most was having all my kids in one room, eating dinner, being silly, and laughing hysterically together. Just like we did when they were little kids.

It filled my heart as I was watching them, seeing them as adults and two of them with children of their own, truly enjoying each other and their time together. I was thinking, I must have done something right. I must have done a half decent job at parenting when for the most part I was doing it on my own. Thank goodness for my parents and in-laws help and support during those tough years. I don’t know what I would have done without them.

Sure our lives have not been easy and we have had our share of ups and downs, but it always comes back to this…we are family, no matter what someone has done or said, we forgive and move on. Because that is what families do…or should do. It isn’t always easy to do that. I know this.. and I have had my moments and harsh words were spoken and feelings were hurt but we moved past it and were better for it. We need to remember to choose our words wisely when arguing with a family member. Those words can damage a relationship and can never be taken back. But we can move on and prove our love by our words and actions from that point forward. We have to learn that everyone has opinions. We don’t have to agree with them, we just need to love each other enough to look past the things we don’t agree on.

I look back on the years my kids were growing up and I remember how rewarding yet difficult it was. Parenting is hard work. As parents, we give up so much of ourselves and what we want to be there for our children. And most of the time it feels like they don’t even appreciate what we do or have given up for them. We all have had those days when the kids were little where we wished we would be somewhere else. Anywhere else but there in the house with them. And then they are gone, out of the house and on with their lives barely having a moment to spend with us.

Family, as is life, is one continuous big circle, and “What comes around, goes around.” As a child or teen, we just wish to be out of the house and then in the blink of an eye, our parents are gone and we wish we had just one more moment to spend with them again. We wish for one more of those family vacations we totally hated when we were teenagers. But it’s not to be.

And I know family doesn’t always mean blood. A lot of people I know don’t have family or have lost them all. But I feel the same way about my friends, many of them I consider my family. They are always there when I need them. They don’t put restrictions on our relationship and don’t expect anything from me but love and respect. They allow me my opinions and views and accept me as I am. I honestly don’t know where I would be without them. I can only hope they feel the same.

So hang onto each moment with your “family” and make memories while you can. Enjoy them to the fullest because one day all you will have left are the memories. Make them good ones.

I have one last thought….What if we envisioned everyone we met as family? What a wonderful, different world it would be.

What does family mean to you?

03Nov/15

10 Lessons I’ve Learned At This Point In My Life

And why didn’t they teach us these in school…

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I guess the reason for that is we had to learn these life lessons ourselves. No one can teach them to you and we can’t teach them to anyone else. No one would listen anyway…and we didn’t either. But these lessons helped make me into the person I am today, so I guess that is really what it’s all about.

Here are my 10 lessons that I have learned at this point of my life.

1. Love the people you love like there is no tomorrow – Because sometimes there is no tomorrow and the “I should haves” will haunt you forever. Tell people you love them and show them by the way you treat them. You still will feel the loss, you just won’t have so many regrets.

2. Be You – Don’t be someone you aren’t or try to impress other people. Don’t worry so much about what they think of you or what they say about you. The real people in your life will be there. You don’t need to act to win their approval. You just need to be genuine. And be who you really are. And who you are is “enough.”

3. Time Flies – Spend quality time with your children. The dishes don’t need to be washed right away and the house can wait to be cleaned. The kids will be out of the house and in college before you know it and the house will be clean and very quiet. You will never get this time back again. The same goes with the grandchildren. Don’t spend a lot of money on them, spend time with them. I really don’t remember anything my parents or grandparents gave me, but I remember things we did together.

4. Work Smart, Not Hard – How many times have we heard this? But here is my take on work…We can’t work at the expense of everything else in our lives. Our families, our friends and our health. We need to take those vacation days and take time to do things that make us happy and fulfilled. No one is going to reward you for working those extra hours at night on that report or the weekends you spent on the special project. In fact, the company could downsize tomorrow and all that extra work you did and time away from family would be for nothing.

5. You Have to Have the Lows in Life, to Enjoy the Highs – Another one of these quotes we have heard so often. I never believed this when people said it to me when I was young. But as I grew older I do see some truth in this. If we keep going along in life and nothing bad ever happens we get lured into a false sense of security and entitlement. After a few bad years you really learn to truly appreciate those good times and be grateful for them.

6. Laugh – Laughter truly is the best medicine. We need to learn to laugh at ourselves and life and not take everything so seriously. We are too easily offended these days and it causes us to be angry and stressed out. Feeling like this doesn’t do our bodies or minds any good, so laugh….a good laugh can change everything.

7. Live in the Present – Don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future. The past is just that, the past..it’s over and we can’t do anything to change what has happened. The future is unknown and all the worrying, sleepless nights and stressed out days won’t do one thing towards making it better. We should just have gratitude and give thanks for each day we are alive. And try to find small moments that bring us joy and peace throughout the day. There is always something to be grateful for every single day. Find it!

8. Take a Risk, Take a Chance – Do something that makes you feel alive. Take the road less traveled. Do something out of the ordinary for you, something out of your comfort zone. As I tell people all the time, you don’t want to be sitting on your rocking chair in the home or on your front porch when you are 90 thinking, “I wish I would have done that.”

9. Look for the Good – If we focus on negativity, that is what we see and feel. If we focus on good, we will see and feel more good things. I know this isn’t easy to do. I have been through one of the worst years of my life. But I’m here, I’m alive and have so much to be thankful for. I try to concentrate on what I have and not what I don’t have.

10. Take Care of Your Body – It is the only one we get. We can’t trade it in like we do with our cars. I think when we are young we feel like we are invincible and that we can do anything and our bodies will be fine. Too much sun, too much of the wrong kinds of food, too much of everything takes a toil on us and can shorten our lives. Even if we do manage to live a long life, it can make those years worse with all the damage we have done to ourselves. Eat healthy, exercise and get a good 7 or 8 hours sleep every night. And take care of your “one” body.

I will end with this quote that I love:

“No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up and never give up.”  ~ Regina Brett  (Just be sure to dress in whatever makes you feel good!)

What lessons have you learned about life?