Future Ahead...

Future Ahead...

 Welcome to Tuesday 4 in memory of Toni Taddeo.

This week we have some questions from Pamela Steiner once again.

I hope you enjoy them.

1.  Let's pretend that it is 50 years into the future, and explorers have just discovered your house, "frozen in time" exactly as it is today. Everything is preserved, even the food, but of course no one has lived there for fifty years.  What do you think would be their first reaction as they walk in the door of your house? I would hope they would think that the house looks homey, with the signs they see on the wall. The flowers on the entryway table and the little block o the other table that says welcome friends. They would probably wonder why there is a tent in the family room or a Lego camp set on the kitchen buffet table. As they walked forward they would see a little table that had shelf that held 4 boxes with a names on it. They would find a Bible in each box along with craft items like color pencils, tape, ink and ink block. If they looked through the Bibles they could see the art work and bible verses of children. If they went past that table and into the family room, they would see a picture of the children hung over the baby grand piano. They would also see a few doggie beds. They would see a Slimline tree in the corner that has patriotic  ornaments on it and a sign saying God Bless America!

If they walked into the two guest bedrooms they could see that one room is geared to boys and the other to girls. They might wonder how many kids lived here. Hopefully they would see the pictures of an older couple with young kids in frames that say we love our grandkids. As they continue down the hall they would see lots of pictures of family. 

2.  What would the things left in your house tell the explorers about you? Lots of things. A china hutch filled with china, crystal, and other collectibles. They would think wow they liked to collect a lot of crafts! But they would not know that I gave up my craft room so my grands could have a play room and a place to sleep when they were over. They would see a crowded master bedroom that also had an area for crafting. They would also see a bookcase filled with all my Bibles and devotionals. They would find a office in the last bedroom that was geared to a male with walls filled with paintings. They would not know that those painting were made by my mother in law who was an artist. She lost her sight to diabetes.  They might take a seat on the cozy Lazyboy loveseat and observe the many Disney collectibles. They would see that the desk was neat. They would also see a few globes in the room along with some Route 66 decor. Yes a man cave for sure!
 
3.  What kinds of books would they discover on your bookshelves or beside your chair/bed? They would find a lamp, tissue paper and water bottle on the end table. Besides study Bibles, they would find the Left Behind Series and AD Chronicles along with some Bible commentaries and several journaling Bibles. They would also se some pictures.   
 
4.  What things would they discover in your closets or cabinets that would make them wonder why on earth you were saving it? They would think, wow she had a lot of clothes and shoes! They would find lots of pictures in one of the guestrooms and craft storage in the other. 

End the end they would see that this was a house full of love and memories.

Thanks  Pam for more great questions!

Update and Saturday 9

I can't believe it has been 10 days since I last blogged! But I have been busy. I have been at a "virtual craft camping . So I have been doing a lot of crafting. I have been eating out with my friends and spending time with my grandkids. We put together a craft binder and I like to add pictures to it. I like to decorate my "camp space" When I look back over the years, I was always involved with "set decoration" Whether a school activity, family party or church event. I always liked providing the things that make the activity come to life. One of the recent crafts was to decorate a page with material. I took it a step further and decorated my own tent. Today we also drew a camper free hand  and water colored it. This camp ends at the end of month. Then I start back to "school" BU or Bible University. But the things I like the most is Bible journaling with my grands. This lesson was on the Good Samaritan from the Book of Luke Chapter 10:25-37. Love God and love your neighbor and Elijah says "Be kind!"

Saturday 9: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (1963)

Unfamiliar with this song? Hear it here.

1) TV writer Allan Sherman based this song on his own son's letters of complaint from camp. Did you go away to summer camp?  I went to church camp. Our church went every Labor day weekend. We stayed in family cabins until we hit Jr. High. Then we could go with the girls are age. I also went camping with the Girl Scouts. We only stayed one night because a big rain storm was coming in and it was cold!  I was fine with that! The pictures below were taken around 1965.

2) Our camper is afraid of both bears and alligators. What animal scares you? Snakes!

3) One of his fellow campers developed poison ivy rash. Have you ever experienced redness and itching caused by poison ivy or poison sumac? No I have not.

4) Early in his career, Allan Sherman created the game show I've Got a Secret, which became a big hit. What's your all-time favorite TV game show? Jeopardy. 

5) In 1959 he moved from New York to Hollywood, where he transitioned from writing to performing almost by accident. As a lark, he entertained at the parties of his next-door neighbor, Harpo Marx. A recording company executive heard him and offered him a contract. Tell us about the last party you attended. My husband and I went to my friends 70th birthday bash a couple of weeks ago. Then we went to a family baby shower for my niece and her husband. They just adopted a baby girl.

6) Allan Sherman got unexpected press attention and a boost in record sales when it was discovered that President John F. Kennedy was a fan. What's something you purchased because of a recommendation from someone else (friend, relative, celebrity endorsement ...)? I just got a portable flexible desk lamp/phone charger. I will use this for traveling.

7) In 1963, the year "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh" was popular, Studebaker stopped producing cars in the United States. What was your family car when you were growing up? They had a few. I know they had a station wagon. I learned to drive in a VW Bug. My dad also had a Buick that I sometimes drove.

8) Also in 1963, Vogue magazine did a cover story on how make wearing white "new and exciting." What color do you look best in? Is it the color you wear most often? I wear a lot of black. I also like florals. 

9) Random question: Have you ever gone on to have a platonic relationship with a former lover? No

Happy Camping!

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Tell us about one small blessing you have counted in the past week? Tuesday, swimming and smore with the grands!

2. Bastille Day is celebrated on July 14th...have you ever been to France? Any desire to visit or re-visit, and if so what site or city would you most want to see? (pretend for a minute international travel isn't an issue) 

No and don't have a big desire. We went to Paris Hotel in Las Vegas 2007 and had a a fun time. 

3. A food associated with France that you love? Baguettes, Crepes and Croissants though croissants originated in Austria.

4. Something you recently purchased where a coupon was involved? Do you regularly shop with coupons?  I got something from Michael's craft store. 

5. You have to give something away this week...what will it be? Old purses I no longer use. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. Tuesday was a fun day with the grands. We took them swimming at my friends house who lives down the street. we had pizza for dinner. Later we roasted marshmallows for smores, watched a movie and snacked on popcorn. The boys went to bed in the tent outside and the girls went in their tent in the family room. Today we will be watching more Disney movies as Bible jouranling.

Tuesday 4 Movie Night

Books.. TV.. Movies are the topic of the week.

1 A movie theme song will play every time you walk in the room.. what is it? (consider asking family or friends) My son's would sat the original Star Wars Theme song. It came out in 1977 and I loved it! I would hear it play on the radio every morning while I drove my husband to work. I was about to get my BA from UCI and was so glad to have made it through after 3 hard years, the 4th being the best. But still hard since I was working at the Post office, doing work experience for the Dept. of Social Services and trying to graduate. That song represented the highs and lows of those years. Then the next 4 years as I struggled to get pregnant. After 4 years I had my son. The next Star Wars movie came out when I was pregnant with my 2nd son and I remember taking my first son to see Star Wars and he loved it. I was able to get him toys and we  would play together. I also liked John Williams the composer of the Star Wars music. But I also liked the music he did for Superman and many other movies. I love music, but there is just something about Star Wars that brings and excitement. Every time a Star Wars movie comes out, my oldest son and I will go and now the grandsons go. My favorite ride at Disneyland is Star Tours!

2. What movie, book or TV program could you live in? My kids would say Star Wars or Gone With the Wind. So many to chose from! I also loved James Michener's Hawaii.  I read before I ever went to Hawaii. 

3. Is there a book/movie/TV quote you often think about or that effects you in some way? I don't think about it often, but when I get this question it comes to my mind... GWTW "Frankly my dear I don't give a d___. " I remember when I heard that at the movies, I was so surprised! There was no cussing allowed when I was growing up. We couldn't even say stupid.  But then Clark Cable-Rhett Butler said it was just powerful. And of course Scarlett's reply....."After all tomorrow is another day" So needless to say those quotes have come to my mind. in the past. They also make me think of my mom because she loved that movie and I have the book she got back in the 60's. I read that book around 7 times. I also read other books about the Civil War back in high school. There are other quotes I know and of course I know a lot if Bible verses which I focus on now.

4. OK friend, its your turn to organize our Blogger Movie Night where we get together as a group for snacks and movies!  What movies have you planned for us tonight and what snacks are we going to have? Well the movies I mentioned are not a favorite of all. But I would play something funny like The Long Trailer with Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. Maybe a musical like Phantom of the Opera. I love popcorn! But I would also have some fresh fruit and cheese. But then again, how about some ice cream like a hot fudge sundae with nuts?

I am on YouTube as I write this and I found the Orchestra performance of Star Wars. I find it so fascinating to watch the performers play. They make the movies come alive. I enjoyed watching the orchestra play when we saw Phantom of the Opera in Las Vegas and then later on Broadway. 

Saturday 9

Saturday 9: Mairzy Doats (1944)

Unfamiliar with this song? Hear it here

1) While today this is considered a children's song, "Mairzy Doats" was a #1 hit and a staple on radio stations in 1944. Do you know any of today's most popular songs? (Here's this week's Hot 100.) No.

2) One of the song's writers recalled that the song was inspired by an old English nursery rhyme. Tell us a rhyme you remember from childhood. 

Mary had a little lamb,

Little lamb, little lamb,

Mary had a little lamb,

Its fleece was white as snow

And everywhere that Mary went,

Mary went, Mary went,

Everywhere that Mary went

The lamb was sure to go 

3) This week's group, The Merry Macs, was formed by three brothers -- Judd, Joe and Ted McMichael -- who learned to harmonize at home. Did you grow up in a musical household? I played the piano. My parents always had music playing. I loved watching musicals with my parents. Especially Rogers and Hammerstein. 

4) When the McMichaels decided their new group needed a woman's voice, they asked Cheri McKay to join them. Realizing all their names began with Mc, they began calling themselves The Merry Macs. Have you ever performed with a singing group? (Yes, that garage band you played in after school counts.) If yes, what was your band called? I sang in the school choir in Jr. High. I also sang in my church choir. 

5) The Merry Macs' first gigs were playing high school dances. Do you have any memories of school dances you'd like to share this morning? I went to several of them and had fun. My special one was my Sr. Prom. I went with my boyfriend(husband) It was on the SS Princess Louise next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach California. I wore a green prom dress and another girl had the same dress in pink. We wend up taking a picture together. I also had fun at the Harvest Ball(Sadie Hawkins)the year before with Kevin Dodd. We had to wear matching shirts. We stayed friends after dating he met my husband later.

6) Once their recording career took off, The Merry Macs went to Hollywood. They appeared in a film with the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. Who last made you laugh? My dog when she was playing with her toy.

7) In 1944, when "Mairzy Doats" topped the charts, sunscreen was invented. It was first developed to protect soldiers during WWII, and that original formula was sold to Coppertone. Do you regularly use sunscreen? Not as often as I use too. I do on my face, but I need the sun to get some vitamin D.

8) Also in 1944, a board game called Murder! was introduced in England. In 1949 it made its way to the United States and was renamed Clue. It's still popular today. Can you name any of the original 6 "characters" in the Clue game? (Extra credit: One was replaced in 2016; who was it?) No.

9) Random question: The new house you just bought comes with a big mirror on the ceiling of the master bedroom. Would you take it down or leave it there? Take it down and put up a ceiling fan with a nice light fixture.

My website is Susan's Garden of Friendship The link is to the right. Lots of inspirational pages too. I hope to see you there!

 

Welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 kept up in her memory.

This week the questions were supplied by Pamela Steiner... Here we go, let's talk about Blogging!

1.  Tell us about your blog.  When did you start blogging? I made my first official blog post in 2002. But back in 1999, I discovered the world of Country theme websites. This is where I met Lori, Melanie and Toni. I started my site through  Yahoo Geocities and used a drag and drop program. I had a lot to learn about using graphics and copyright and so on. Eventually Geo left and Yahoo and allowed us to do more detailed pages. I learned to do html so that I could do layers and place graphics how I wanted. I still have my website up and it is linked to the right. I have more than 200 pages that are listed at my site map. Many of those topics will take you to "cottages" that contain many more pages. But prior to the blogs, we had intro/welcome pages where we would share things and new pages we had done. We had guestbooks were people left comments and left a link to a graphics. We could even add background music. Later I got my own domain and changed my hosting services. It was such a great community! We would send each other gifts(graphics siggies(those cute things at the bottom of our pages) We exchanged birthday, anniversary and Christmas cards. We had adoption shops and more. We learned many new things. Then came Blogger and Facebook. Sadly it took many of our friends because those were both free. For some reason I could not link my pages to Blogger for Memes. Some people had a hard time navigating my inlineframe pages. That is where you have a list on one side. As you click on a topic the page appears in the middle. I got a Blogger page around 2009 but hardly used it. I missed being able to use my graphics the way I wanted. 

2.  What prompted you to begin blogging? Women started doing blogs at their websites so I joined in too. Some women went to Blogger for blogs though they kept there sites. Blogger started in 1999. I liked having more control of my site so I kept my blog housed on my webhome.  We shared about our families and celebrated occasions. When 911 hit, there was so much support and outreach. We shared pics of our family like this one. This was taken with my siblings and spouses at a family baby shower.

3.  What was your first blog about and why did you choose that subject/title?

I copied this from my first official blog post. The date is listed. It shows the HTML coding because that is how we all got to do our multi layered pages. I will leave a link to one at the end.

 <center><img src="blog/kleinroos.gif" width="43" height="17"></center>

<font face="tempus sans itc,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">

<align=center>Sunday July 28, 2002<br> Todays saying is: Don't give up.

<p align=justify> Hi there! I am finally getting to do a blog. This is more like a journal of what's going on in my life. I could not figure out the FTP thing and so I decided I can do my own journaling. bI want to thank God for giving me the ability to do "all things". I want to thank Him for my family and friends. Hugs, Susan  </p>

4.  How has your blog changed over time, and has it done for you what you hoped it would do in the first place? Blogging has changed a lot over the years. I tried Wordpress and did not like it. The key thing about blogging for me is making friends. Meeting people from all over. I still have several of my friends from our country days and I see most of them on Facebook. A lot of those friends are from other countries. They blogs/webhomes were unique because they had dual pages. English and the language of their country. Brazil, Mexico, Sweeden, Norwary, Japan, Austrailia and more. Many were graphics artist that sold their graphics so we could decorate our pages. They drew their graphics and did not use pixel art. 

Now the main focus is meeting and chatting with friends. Thanks to this computer. I have had 2 desktop computers and this is my 3rd laptop.

Here is a link to my Old Blog. There are links to my Hawaii trips.

Saturday 9: The National Anthem (2016)

... because it's 4th of July

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) An early handwritten manuscript of "The Star Spangled Banner" (complete with scratch outs) is preserved at the Maryland Historical Society. Today, much of what we write is preserved in The Cloud. Do you often write down your thoughts with pen or pencil? Or do you do everything on your laptop, pad or phone? Most of what I have written has been on my blogs. But since I started Bible journaling and participating in different groups, I have many journals filled with thoughts and Bible verses. I do have a blog from 2002 - 2020. I have saved it as text documents and on a disc.

 

2) It's well-known that the lyrics were written by Francis Scott Key. Not so well known is John Stafford Smith, the British composer who gave us the music. He is buried in England's Gloucester Cathedral, under both the US and UK flags. Where is the nearest United States flag waving near you right now?

There is one hanging outside on our garage. I have a smaller one in the front porch that is a garden flag. There are a few other flags that have a  patriotic design.

 

3) This week's video features Lady Gaga singing The National Anthem before the 2016 Super Bowl. She also performed it at President Biden's Inauguration last January. When is the last time you sang it? Last 4th of July. 

4) Our second and third Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4, 1826. OK, it's your turn. Share a Presidential fact.  President Lincoln and President Kennedy were shot while in office. They both had vice presidents with the Johnson last name who then became the next president 

 

5) John Hancock said his signature on the Declaration of Independence was intentionally large so King George could see it without his glasses. Do you need glasses to read? I need glasses for everything!

6) The Revolutionary War still raged during that summer of 1777. General George Washington allowed his soldiers to celebrate with a double ration of run on July 4. Will you be toasting the United States with an adult beverage this weekend? No, just ice water with fruit.

 

7) Since this year, July 4th falls on a Sunday, banks and post offices will be closed will be closed on Monday. Thanks to email and ATMs, Sam doesn't find this a hardship. How about you? Do you find it inconvenient to go an extra day without regular USPS delivery or access to a teller at the bank? I have no problem with it. I went to the post office today to buy stamps and mail letters and a package to Hawaii. I just received a package from Hawaii with a coffee mug, pouch and a cute camping paperclip.

 

8) Celebrity chef Rachael Ray says she considers mini-hamburgers, or "sliders," the All-American food. What will you be eating this 4th of July? We usually have Bbq chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. Hubby likes to have sweet white corn. I plan to cook zucchini, mushrooms and onion. Our kids all have other plans. We are going to a family baby shower today. Sunday I plan to get caught up with my Bible journaling and camp crafting. We will also have our grand doggie who hates fireworks. I will probably go in the spa and relax  that day too.

 

9) The 4th of July is a highlight of the summer season. Have you yet suffered the traditional warm weather maladies: sunburn or bug bites? I  have had a couple of mosquito bites.