Shifting Gears   Baby Boomer…Member Life 2.0…Wife, Mother, Grammie…Bicyclist…GoldWinger…Mensan…Girl Scout…Reader…Knitter…Rotarian

When we traveled to Tlaquepaque Mexico last March we met so many wonderful new friends and also got to experience their culture through music, dance and art.  This weekend the Springfield Sister Cities organization is hosting Artsfiesta! featuring the female mariachi band from Tlaquepaque.  If you’re in town this evening (10-9-09) you can catch their performance [...]

I worked my inaugural shift as a CoxHealth Ambassador a couple of days ago and had a blast!  The Ambassadors program is a new arm of volunteering for Cox and is linked to Guest Services so I worked with my friend Debbie who is the director and a couple of her staff members.  As their [...]

Ralph has been reading the “Little House on the Prairie” series of books to Julia and Lydia over the past few months.  The girls are intrigued with life in the late 1800′s and see it as a grand adventure, not fraught with all the perils the Ingalls family had to face. The books reminded Ralph [...]

Today is granddaughter Tarah’s 16th birthday but since she had school and had to work the concession stand for a game tonight (a JV cheerleader duty), we had her family celebration last evening. We had offered to take her out to dinner but being the bright young lady she is – as well as a [...]

When Julia was born, Ralph and Blair knew for certain that they would never employ media childcare.  Their kids were NOT going to grow up sitting in front of a screen being entertained.  By time Julia was 2, her response to the question “What does TV do?” was “Fries Brain!” They have actually been pretty [...]

I’m in Des Moines for a few days while Ralph and Blair enjoy some time away from active parenting and can actually have an adult conversation, sleep late and watch the “Today” show uninterrupted!  Julia was at school most of the day and Ralph had already paid for Lydia to be at Miss Vickie’s since [...]