Clean Jeans Will Do

Are you all getting ready for Easter?

Buying a Springy light weight dress even if it is still snowing?

Should we all buy Easter bonnets and bring them back?

How about those pretty, lacy white gloves?

I am considering wearing some lady gloves with my jeans this Sunday.

:)

That's the only part of this outfit I miss.

What does your family do on Easter?

My little sis is much happier with her outfit that I am.

Let The Girls Out

I found this wonderful jem over at Traci 66, she has a super funny blog with lots of giveaways too! Go check her out! As soon as I saw this it reminded of my girlfriends and our weekly night out together.

Actually we don't "go out" anywhere. We gather at one of our homes, get comfy, drink our wine and yak, laugh, cry, share our rants and our "yays!"!

We are all very busy women. Well, I am the least busy, but the others all travel a lot on ministry trips and speaking engagements or hosting important people in their homes. We finally realized that if we did not set up an appointed time together it would still be too many short, quick hugs in hallways, at church or in the office.

So, once a week we try to jump in our cars and walk into a friend's home without knocking, slip out of our shoes and have a relaxing evening together. All six of us do not always make it to every gathering, but whoever is in town drops everything and comes!

Why did that cartoon bring this to my mind? If you think it is just because it talks about girlfriends, you'd be wrong. It immediately reminded me of our last girls night out in the tiny, cozy home of one of us who is divorced. She used to collect antiques and this super small little "granny house" on someone's property is packed to the rafters in huge but gorgeous antique furniture and pictures.

We were talking away and enjoying the different wines we had brought, when right in the middle of a sentence one of my friends stops her story and says,

"Know what? I'm sorry guys

but I have GOT to let the

"girls" out!"

And she proceeded to remover her bra from underneath her clothes. The hostess laughed and said,

"Why do you think

I'm wearing this loose shirt?"

I said,

"It is my favorite thing

about having an

empty nest!"

So from now on I am pretty sure that our Girls Night Out is really going to be a "GIRLS" NIGHT OUT!

TMI

I attended a delightful wine country wedding yesterday. Two of our former students tied the knot next to a wonderful shimmering pond. We laughed a lot with close friends during the reception and enjoyed some great Philippine food.

As always the wedding of former students became a fun and emotional school reunion! I just love seeing so many of our students together to celebrate the joy of finding a mate. Especially when the mate is also a former student! Hubs and I are cupids I guess! We take all the credit as long as the marriages work out great.

This event also answered a burning question I have had.

When you wear spanx, like you see pictured here....where does the fat go? If it pulls you in to make you look more slender, then where does the extra flesh go?

I found the answer.....it all becomes Back Fat! You basically just move the muffin top up to the bra line in back. It's a lovely feeling and even lovelier to see in the mirror when you are out with friends.

At Last!

I found my Mother of the Groom dress!

Hallelujah! It was quickly becoming more important and time consuming than I wanted it to be!

I cannot find a picture of it online, but it is really close to this dress.

But it hits the knee and has two pretty darts at the neckline and wider V neck, so it's almost off the shoulder. Mine is a deep purple and I totally love it! (Feel like Jackie O or Michelle O in it, if I squint a lot!)

Yikes, it was becoming way too mind consuming. I hate that! Feel so relieved. It does need some altering because I am a definite Pear shape, so I bought a size that fits the LARGE part of the pear and will have the top taken in so there isn't a lot of EMPTY space up there!

Hubs says that now he won't keep finding me just staring into space as I try to figure out where to go to find THE dress anymore! Ha!

Never Heard of this Award Before!!

Okay, I thought I had seen every single AWARD possible

for bloggers.

But this is a new one

and I am thrilled and twitter-pated

to receive it!

Thank you Weezer

for the

SHOPPING FOR A WEDDING AWARD!

I absolutely LOVE it!

As Mother of the Groom

I am looking for the perfect dress for

Writer Son's casual woodsy wedding in Texas.

He and the totally delightful and adorable Miss M

will celebrate their joy of finding one another on the fun date of

TEN * TEN * TEN !!

ARGH! Dress Shopping!

Over 40 Friday Follow!

I thought that I would enjoy the

dress shopping process.

My normal uniform is jeans and nice tops

If we go out I dress up by wearing

better pants and higher heals.

As a Mother of the Groom in October

I don't think pants are going to work

I know that,

and I was looking forward to getting dressed up

for a change.

But I still don't know HOW dressy to get

for a casual outdoor wedding.

In the woods and trees kind of outdoor,

not a manicured lawn or garden.

Long dress or knee length dress?

I just found out he Mother of the Bride

is going with the short style.

So I will try to do that.

But I am overweight and the

dressingroom

mirrors are making me very unhappy!

And again I say

ARGH!

(Yes, I added "Menopause" as a subject label because my weight has nothing to do with eating junk and forgetting to exercise!)

OK, Next Day....Just did a full hour of yoga and high - low aerobics...take that, unsightly flab!!

What Is Coming In the Mail?

As I have been babbling about for a few months, Writer Son is getting married on 10/10/10 in the hot state of Texas. I am so happy and excited about it! My new adorable daughter-in-law-to-be is a treasure whom I already love to pieces!

As the MOG ( mother of the groom ) for the first time, I started browsing through the wedding sites as soon as the news broke. Those helpful and overwhelming websites ( I can totally see why modern brides freak out! ) led me to special websites just for MOG dress shopping!

It took me a while to go along with the idea of actually buying and wearing one of these amazing and dramatic dresses. "Gowns" are really a more appropriate description though. I started to get excited about looking like a queen for a day. ( looking like a princess is a thing of the past, so I am skipping on to queen. ) I began to bookmark the ones that I thought flattered my shape. Though I have never worn anything like these silky, chiffony, lacy concoctions!

The MOG sites also instructed me that the 'mothers' of the wedding couple needed to coordinate their dresses to compliment one another regarding length and style. Color didn't matter much, just not to get too flashy or sexy. "Flashy" and "sexy" are not my problem at all! Even though I am a "recovering church lady", I seldom wear dresses of any kind. I love my jeans and cargo pants. But I was looking forward to having an excuse to glam it up for once in my life! ( other than my own wedding! )

So, with all this dress description you may be wondering why I have a picture of an extremely low-key and casual summer dress on this post? Well, it turns out that the wedding will be a very casual, outdoor celebration! I was actually relieved to hear this after all. So I began to bookmark casual black and white summer dresses because the wedding colors were black with purple accents.

The wedding party colors have changed to brown with purple and yellow accents. ( Told you it was casual! Ha! ) Miss M, the Bride, wants the moms to wear one of the accent colors. ( Did you know they now tell the moms exactly what color to wear? ) Well, I am NOT going to wear a long yellow dress, it does not do nice things to my skin. So I have been shopping for a long summery purple dress.

I saw the dress pictured above, online at a chain store. Today I went to the local store to try it on and buy it before all the summery items get replaced by sweaters and jackets. They did not have my size in the dark purple. It fit well in another color though and I really loved it. I came home and ordered it online and it will arrive in a week or so. But there is one tiny problem.........

Just after I clicked on SUBMIT ORDER, my eyes saw the words COLOR: RANDOM. What?!! I was sure I was ordering the color in the picture on the description page. What in the world is "random"? What will be arriving in the mail? I don't know........but at least I know what store to return it to if it is pink, yellow and green all over!

Should be interesting.

Exercise Shmexercise!!!

I have been faithfully working out 30 to 45 minutes six mornings a week for the last 3 weeks and I am seeing very little improvement! Other than sore muscles!

Writer Son is getting married in October in a casual outdoor wedding in Texas. The colors are black and purple and I am looking at dresses like this one. The normal online Mother of the Groom dresses are all wrong for this casual setting and my non-dress wearing life. I love this long summery polk-a-dot dress a lot! If I wear a long dress I won't have to worry about high heels in the grass.

But....my butt is large and my arms are flabby!!
I need to up my workouts and I hate it while I'm doing it, but love how I feel after.

I don't really like the bottom of that dress though, wish it did not have the lower tiered affect. Just one layer all the way down would dress it up a bit more. Well I'm still just doing virtual shopping online to get ideas. I would wear a shear shawl with it.

Question......the wedding websites say that the MOB and MOG (mother of groom) only need to be careful not to clash with each other or the wedding colors. But our Bride and some others are saying that they want the Moms to almost match the bridesmaids dresses! Is that a new thing? Does the bride choose the Moms colors?

I'm such a newbie at this, didn't even really plan my own wedding as far as I can recall.
It was 32 years ago and my mom did most of it. Otherwise why would my wedding photos show my handsome hubby in a pink shirt with a maroon tux?? See, we really cannot trust my taste here can we?

***Added next day*** Colors of wedding have changed to chocolate brown with purple & yellow accents. Miss M would like the Moms in the accent colors. Ok, but no yellow for me, I will be looking for a long summer casual dress in purple I guess! ***

In Her Easter Bonnet With All the Frills Upon it! FRIDAY FOLLOW!

The promise I made to myself earlier this week with all of you as my witnesses is harder to do than I thought! BUT, I have done it....so far! I decided to use the slogan..."MOVE FIRST....THEN BLOG!" to get back into the routine of exercise that my new Mac sabotaged so well. (Yes, I blame this lovely hunk of technology.) Every day since March 30th I have moved my body in serious workouts before coming to see you all. (Ha! "since the 30th"?...that's what?....FOUR DAYS !) This morning I even took a BEFORE photo of myself, but you will never see it unless there is an amazing AFTER photo to put next to it! :)

*********

This Sunday is Easter Sunday! The photo above shows you my background experience with Easter as a little girl. It was about Jesus & pretty dresses. Because we loved Jesus we dressed up for Him on that special day. Even though I am not the excited one with her arms stretched out all drama-queenish, I loved my new dresses, shiny shoes and especially the WHITE GLOVES made of lace!

I still love Jesus very much & I'm looking forward to our Easter service in two days, but the fancy dresses are a thing of the past. I probably won't wear my usual jeans that I wear on most Sundays to service, but new clothes are no longer a part of the day for me. I helped stuff Easter eggs this week for the kids ministry egg hunt & I love seeing the little ones all dressed up special.......but my focus is completely different than it used to be on this celebrated day each Spring.

The best part of the holiday for me are the words, "It is finished." When Jesus uttered those famous words on the cross, He was not talking about His life being finished or even that His time of suffering on the cross being finished.

The thing that is........ done with..... over........ finished.......... is our need to run to Him for forgiveness every time we blow it. He was talking about the price for our sins being paid for. We ARE forgiven, not just at that moment but forever. PAID IN FULL. I am forgiven of my past mess ups, my current mess ups and my future mess ups. What? That just sounds too good, how can that be true?

The word "sin" has come to include a lot of things that are truthfully not sinful. A bad thought is not a sin. A drink of alcohol is not a sin. Smoking is not a sin. Staying home on Sunday morning is not a sin. Going to a bar is not a sin. (Can you tell what kind of church I was raised in?) Any of these things can become a sinful thing if they begin to control you rather than you controlling them.

The cross and what happened there is huge in that it was the beginning of our freedom. I don't keep running BACK to the cross to get forgiveness, I live FROM the cross in total forgiveness for my mistakes. I can say to Jesus, 'Wow, I messed up there. Thank you so much for forgiving me, it won't happen again." And go on with my day. Just like that! Honest! FREEDOM!!

*** And yes, I have accepted Jesus' forgiveness for letting my mom dress my firstborn son in the Easter outfit you see below! Not so sure that Hubs is forgiving me yet though! Ha!

http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/

I Won!!! That Makes Me A Winner, Right?

I have a blogger friend who is super creative with jewelry among other things & she recently had a drawing and Tada! I won this gorgeous Smokey Grey Pearl Bracelet set!! You can visit Janet at Along The Way . You will be glad you did! Now what can I wear tomorrow that will show this off just right?

I've Been Married How Long???

Today, February 18, is our 32nd Wedding Anniversary! And yes, the photos are undeniable evidence that we were married in the 70's & that I made poor Hubs were maroon & pink! It is truly amazing he did it....especially now that I know him so much better! How in the world did we (mostly my mom!) talk him into that? I am full of regret about that choice & wish I had photos of my handsome man in a black tux. Hm.....looking at the cake pic just now....the look on his face could be tied in some way to what we made him do. He's enjoying that entirely too much!

I do love my dress though. It was a gorgeous off-white heavy lace trimmed thing of beauty. After going to so many weddings of our young students lately, I see that my dress is a whole lot more material than the modern ones now. Most are off the shoulder & low-cut, which is very pretty & sweetly dramatic. I did not have enough "up there" to keep a dress like that up though, so it would have made me way too nervous!

February is fun around here & love is definitely in the air! And THAT is all I'm going to say about that! (For now!!!)

Hats Are Where it's At!

I have been sorting through my hundreds of photos this last week while loading them on my Mac & came across some cuties.

The straw hat shot is me many many moons ago (kind of Shirley Temple-ish huh?). The camo-hat photo is Rocker Son when he was a cute little munchkin. The similarity is fun don't you think? R.S. and I are very much alike in our coloring & looks. Writer Son looks just as much like Hubs.

The three-ladies-pic is me with my Mom & Aunt. I was & still am always reading! But did you notice my cool crocheted vest? Too bad my Mom is wearing the same one! I've always been an edgy dresser! :)

Fashion Backward

More about my cousins & me if you can stand it. These 3 photos illustrate
the differences between us.

The eldest child in the first 2 pics were obviously still wearing mom-chosen clothes.

I am in the second pic with the cute little cardigan & straight leg pants that were not jeans!

In the last pic is my coolest cousin, the girl in the peg leg jeans. She was always fashion forward compared to me.

These are from the 60's as I am sure you can tell....but not from my families pic!

Bridal Jammies!

The earlier mentioned Lingerie Shower was a really fun & silly evening after all. There had to be at least 40 women in that house, filling every couch, chair, dining room & livingroom. We were on the stairs & up above the crowd on a second floor loft!

After a wonderful snack of the ever-popular seven layer dip & chips, amazing guacamole, salsa & the yummiest little torte thingies along with punch, sangria or margaritas, the girls all went outside to watch the bride-to-be hit a pinata! (Condoms & candy could come in very handy!)

Gift opening began with the explanation that the undies & lingerie were going to be hung up around the room after being opened & at the end the bride would choose her favorite & that gift giver would get a prize! I think it may have been their own made up game because to me it seemed a little awkward to be rooting for your gift to be her favorite. Talk about competition! But it certainly made for an interesting decorating theme by the end of the night!! I was sitting on the stairs & had to peek between a pair of plaid skirted panties & a gorgeous lemon yellow see through nighty to watch the bride open the rest of her gifts!

The adorable Bride remained pretty unflustered by the sexy packages she was opening, which included 3 books on creative ways to have an orgasm, flavored nipple cream, a huge bottle of chocolate syrup & thong after thong after thong! Ha! I really loved the beautiful & fun nighties though! So many luscious colors & fabrics. It made me picture my ugly tank top that is my only sexy nightwear. I heard someone say that we ought to require a Lingerie Shower every 10 years at least! I agree!

The funniest thing to me, besides the fact that those orgasm books never made to me as they were passed S L O W L Y around, was that the bride only got embarrassed in an obvious way at one gift. It was not any skimpier than the others, just a cute baby doll nightie with a string like bottom pantie that she held up for all to see. As she held it up she asked who it was from & a voice back in the kitchen called out that it came in the mail from her mom who lives out of state. Oh my gosh, did her little face turn bright RED!!!

I guess the idea that her own mother bought such a thing for her was really embarrassing. That cracked me up! Do they think we stop living once we hit 45 or what?

Lingerie Party

In a couple of hours I am off to an evening of possible extreme discomfort. But I've got to get over it, NOW, before I am sitting in a house full of 40 - 50 twenty-somethings!

I have been invited to the wedding shower for one of my former students. She is a lovely & delightful 21 year old who will be married to another former student in about 2 weeks.

That is all wonderful & I am really very happy for them & I know they are meant for each other & all that.

What I have managed to avoid until now is attending a bridal lingerie shower. I know, I know! Of course the excited & anxious young couple are going to have sex for the first time (possibly) very soon! No surprise there. But.........it just feels so weird to be kind of a third party to it, ya know? My old lady fuddy-duddiness is showing, I see that. But still, an evening of watching that sweet young thing open gift after gift of barely there jammies sounds kinda creepy to me.

I am so tempted to package up some items like the ones pictured above. I didn't though. I actually bought her a set that includes a see through garter belt with bows! I am going totally against my normal instincts...it will be the only way to survive this night!

Wordless Wednesday!

Happy Feet!!

Mother's Day Barbie!

I am pretty much out of the loop when it comes to the latest Barbie dolls on the market. I have two grown sons, so every Christmas I usually choose a girls’ name from a charity Christmas tree that gives me an excuse to buy a Barbie & some fun accessories for a deserving little girl in our community! That is my only link to Barbie, until I become a grandmother anyway!

But, in honor of Mother’s Day I am wondering if these ideas have been used in the last 50 years of Barbie-dom. Has there ever been an edition of Pregnant Barbie? She could waddle her way into her dream home & there would be a whole new array of maternity clothes for her. They could sell that special cream you put on your belly to prevent stretch marks & her feet could slowly swell until she had to always wear slippers every where she went. You could buy pickle flavored ice cream & Skipper & her friends could give her a baby shower! Little girls could learn how the body changes shape & hear the first heartbeat with a tiny little sonogram machine. She may have a hidden button you push that makes her water break all over her maternity jeans with the stretchy panel in the front.
The next purchase would have to be Mommy Barbie, who comes with a perfect baby & a car-seat for the pink convertible! For a little extra you could buy the super deluxe stroller that turns into a playpen or baby pool. Since the stretch mark cream never really works, she would definitely have them all over the place. Some extra accessories may be a breast pump & one of those cool baby wraps that keep the baby close to mommies’ heart all the time. A baby monitor is a must, along with baby clothes & all new transition clothes for Mommy Barbie while she slowly loses the baby weight over the next 5 years.

Oh man, this just opens up a whole new world for her! There could be Soccer Mom Barbie, Carpool Barbie, Hire- A- Nanny Barbie, Single Mom Barbie, Mommy-Blog Barbie! There is no end of great ideas & opportunities out there! Of course, maybe there already is a Mommy Barbie, like I said; I am way out of the loop on this stuff. But I will bet you there is not a……

Menopause Barbie!! I mean, she IS fifty years old now folks! She would come with an assortment of tiny fans, both manual & electric. Her face would unexpectedly turn several shades of red & pink without warning & beads of sweat would roll down her face & back in the middle of important work meetings. She would come with several pairs of light weight pajamas to change into through the night as the night sweats hit her. She would also need an ID bracelet to help her remember her name & maybe a special beeper to help her find her convertible in the parking lot! Of course she must have a treadmill & stationary bike or at least a gym membership to get rid of that new tummy fat that just won’t budge! And a dermatologist friend who can help her with the unsightly facial hair that sneaks up on her, poor thing. At least now she doesn’t have to worry about contraception….um no, I’m not gonna go there!

Easter As A PW

Happy Easter to you all & happy Spring to those who don't care for Easter! Tomorrow I may be able to post a few fun Easter pics of my boys through the years (so glad they don't read me!), but for today you can see me here being the calm big sister. I so loved those little white gloves!

The memories I am about to share took place many, many years after this photo was taken. Hit "Fast Forward" on your time machine with me OK? That sweet little girl up there grew up to be the very sweet wife of a pastor. Some of you who are involved in church life.....and there is really no such thing as being "a little bit involved", kinda like being a "little bit pregnant", when it comes to church life, you are either all the way in or not. If you volunteer for one thing, you will soon hear your phone ringing for about 50 million other things. Churches run on volunteer help, so if we see your timid little hand even slightly twitch during a planning meeting....ta da! YOU ARE IT! Yay you!

As I was saying, if you are involved in church life you have no doubt seen your pastors' wife standing next to her hubby after church greeting the people as they leave the service or warmly embracing several different people all over the sanctuary following a beautiful & inspiring Easter service. From a distance she looks so serene, cool & collected. You may even feel a twinge of jealousy as you recall your crazy, difficult morning getting your young family to the early sunrise service & then pulling the kids away from their Easter baskets in order to go to the special church celebration on time.

I was that calm, cool & collected pastors wife. I loved my life & chosen path, but I was jealous of you. Holidays were such crazy, hectic times that I now sometimes regret the energy & time I gave to making an event run perfectly, possibly to the slight neglect of my boys. Our years of Senior Pastoring were during the boys growth from 5 & 9 to about 15 & 19. Both Christmas & Easter were all about the church events, supplies, decorations, parties, gifts for the Board & teachers, Holiday Programs, community outreaches & on & on the list goes.

I loved Easter (still do!) & all it stood for. We decided that it should be as wonderful & full of life as Christmas, so we planned many special things for that one day each year. Our town, like many communities then, offered an Easter Sunrise Service where all the churches in town who could agree on at least one thing, got together to greet the rising sun with songs, scriptures & freezing people in the local park. So our church joined & took part in the planning of this once a year gathering. That meant dragging my two boys out of their cozy beds at crazy-dark-o'clock & bundling them up to go stand in wet, soggy grass for an hour.

Which brings me to another Easter observation! Easter is celebrated in the Spring so we all bought these silly, light-weight flimsy dresses & sandals & then found ourselves freezing most of the morning as we stood outside watching our kids hunt for Easter eggs. Well, consider the temperature at DAWN! I finally figured out that the early park function would not be at all compromised if I wore some warm pants....as long as I kept my dressy, long coat on over them! Ha! (I know....times have changed...yay!)

After the sunrise service I got my kiddos back home & packed up to return to the church for the annual pancake breakfast before the actual Easter service began. In between each of these jaunts my boys are running back to their sweet filled Easter baskets that they found at the foot of their beds when they woke up. The sugar rush is beginning to catch up with them later on when the real service is about to begin & the whole church is very quiet.

So, there I am, all dressed up & working in a tiny old-fashioned kitchen with an ugly apron over my pretty new spring dress. The boys are now sliding out of my sight whenever possible to do who knows what on the blackboards of the Sunday school classrooms. The fellowship hall of our little church was packed to over-flowing (literally) with happy, dressed-up families & many families who only came to church on this one Sunday each year. It was loud, fun & full of life, I loved it!

Towards the end of the breakfast time I would sneak into the crowd & quietly gather the teen-agers to put them to work hiding plastic-candy-filled Easter eggs all over the church lawns. A few of the ladies in the church & I had spent several hours earlier in the week stuffing these eggs with non-melting, paper wrapped candies. While the grown-ups were eating the breakfast we also somehow manged to get the little ones to decorate pastel colored paper lunch sacks to collect their eggs in.

Keep in mind that during all this activity I am also being the gracious & inviting hostess to new people who were being brought up to me for introductions all morning. Because we were a small church, I literally had my hands in on every single activity that happened. I am still working on learning to delegate! I'm sure it will not surprise you to hear that the beginning moments of the actual Easter Service were my first chance to sit down all morning & even though it was not easy to keep a couple of sugar wired boys in control, it was beautiful to sit & watch someone else, my hubs, take charge. For some reason we had decided that it was important for the kids to be in the service instead of going out to the kids service on that day! Of course it was probably ME that made that decision because I was the KIDS CHURCH director too! As I write this I have absolutely no idea how I did so much!

I don't believe my sons would say that they were cheated by this life. At least not in a huge degree, but I know that I feel like I may have robbed myself of enjoying them more rather than taking care of everyone else. We had wonderful Easter afternoons with my parents & sibs who lived an hour away. After church we changed into more comfy clothes & packed ourselves into the mini-van....hmm, I need to interrupt myself there & correct that statement. I changed into comfy clothes, but KEPT the boys in their nice outfits (such as they were by that point) so that Grandma could see how cute they looked. Ha! Sorry guys! I let them change after Grandma got her pictures taken of them! We got to watch the boys & their cousins do another egg hunt in Grandmas' yard & sit down to an amazing meal with tons of laughter & teasing. The drive home late that night would be a very quiet one as the boys snoozed with candy wrappers & plastic green grass in their hands. Actually I don't think I would change very much about those days if I had the chance.

Barbie is 50!

Could Barbie really be fifty years old? I keep seeing headlines & articles saying it is true but she certainly is holding up well! Maybe a bit of plastic surgery along the way, that's what I'm thinking. So I did some research & yes, she was invented in 1959 & changed the doll industry forever. Before her birth most dolls for little girls were baby dolls. She changed our way of playing & a few days ago I stepped back in time for a while in the privacy of my bedroom while my hubs watched men beating each other up on TV.

I'd like to introduce you to my Barbie, isn't she gorgeous? She was given to me in 1962 when I was 7 years old. I love her bubble hair cut & recently learned that it was designed to honor then presidential wife, Jackie Kennedy! Last week I retrieved her & her Barbie Case from the garage & sat down on the floor of my room & had her give me a little fashion show of the few pieces of clothing she still owns.

The wonderful memories of my afternoons with Barbie came flooding back as she patiently tried on her swimsuit & then her dressy coat for me. I remember riding my bike down to the opposite end of Arlington Drive to my friend, Ginger's house. I would carefully balance the black case & the handle bar in one hand & hanging onto her Dream House & handle bar in the other hand! OH, the dream house was amazing, I loved it so much! It was cardboard & folded out to a pretty good size house with separate rooms & little cardboard stand up furniture & stuff inside.

We would set up our houses so her Barbie & mine were best friends & neighbors, just like us! Of course we explained the absence of husbands by talking about how they were doing in Viet Nam. Wow, that tells you my era doesn't it?


Speaking of a husband for Barbie, I never wanted a Ken doll for her, he was not very good looking to me. Not much personality, at least not enough to be worthy of Barbie! She was, in my imagination anyway, a strong, sassy but gentle woman who was always laughing & humble about her beautiful looks. I mean just take a look here at Ken, he looks like he could be her little brother or a pesky neighbor or something. Compare him to G.I Joe who arrived on the scene in 1964. Which would you choose? Joe has some character & personality, where did that mysterious scar come from, for instance? And those heavy-lidded eyes!


Looking at these G.I Joe pictures reminds me of my own son's action figures of super heroes & Star Wars characters. They hated it when I called them "dolls" or compared them to my childhood Barbies. I was supposed to call them "action figures" or just "guys"! I never bought them the G.I Joe figures because I really hated the idea of giving my boys military stuff in those days (remember I grew up amidst the Vietnam controversy!).

Barbie created some controversy of her own in later years. People have blamed her for causing eating disorders by showing little girls such a beyond-perfect body shape that is not realistic or achievable. I don't recall feeling that way, but that would be pretty hard to detect in yourself wouldn't it? I was a late bloomer in getting any shape at all, so comparing myself to her could have been a problem I suppose. In fact, it may be what's bugging me now as I am trying so hard to get in shape. Her waistline is pretty amazing & I am still wearing the same size bra as a pre-teen so really the only thing Barbie & I have in common is our dark hair!

My fun afternoon of playing with Barbie came to an end as she let me know she'd had enough & waved me away, guess she was ready to be alone again in her shiny black case tucked away in the garage. Up there on the second shelf seems like a pretty dismal place for such a glamorous & important lady, but maybe she knows what an honor it is to be sharing the space with my husband's beautiful Shadow motorcycle!