National Cell Phone Courtesy Month

I have a love/hate relationship with my cell phone.  How about you?  A modern convenience or incessant intruder?  I can't decide.  


July is National Cell Phone Courtesy Month and I was thinking it's a good time to focus on a few important rules of phone etiquette.  I've culled the following from a couple of good cellphone sites.  For the most part, I've resisted the urge to editorialize since on occasion I have been known to engage in a few of these phone faux pas myself.  But on a few, I couldn't resist. 

1. Don't talk too loudly.

2. Don't hold inappropriate conversations in public.

In the last few years I have been witness to at least 3 or 4 separate one-sided conversations about weight loss goals and methods of birth control and their effectiveness.  Seriously.  

3. Don't interrupt face-to-face conversations to answer your cell phone.

4. Don't check your phone at the movies (or a Broadway show, a high school play or your daughter's piano recital, for that matter) even if you are just using your phone as a watch.  (see also #9)

Believe it or not, that little screen lighting up in a darkened theatre is a real distraction to a lot of us.  

5. Don't text while driving.

6. Don't text while talking.

7. Turn off your phone so you won't disturb live performances.

I was in church one Sunday when several pews in front of me a cell phone began to ring during the sermon.  The parishioner chose to ignore the incessant ringing until finally (and I kid not) the pastor said from the pulpit, "Why don't you answer?  We'll wait."

8. Consider your location before you answer your phone.

Number one on my list:  never answer your phone while you are in a stall in a public bathroom.  Seriously.

National Day of the Cowboy

Because we live in Texas now, we're celebrating the cowboy today.

National Lollipop Day

Thanks to my sister for the heads up that today is National Lollipop Day.  Coincidentally, when I received her email I'd just returned from a trip to the bank (along with other errands) with the kids.  Though seemingly beyond the ages of needing a car treat, they'd requested lollipops from the teller.  Sadly, there were no cream soda (their favorite) among her offerings but they were satisfied with pop potluck.


We're big lollipop fans at our house.  We even have a special lollipop jar - one that is conspicuously empty these days,

mostly because I've been busy with a few other things.    But when I fill it up, I'll be sure to use Dum Dums.  We're also partial to Tootsie Pops and their candy cousin, Blow Pops.


Like ice cream, we don't really need a day to celebrate the lollipop, but we're celebrating anyway!

Sundae Sunday

It's National Ice Cream Day (aka Sundae Sunday) - not that my son (a real vanilla fan), my father-in-law (butter pecan), my dad (any flavor) need a special day to mark the occasion.  Personally, I'll never forget the taste of High's Lemon Custard, a flavor my grandmother introduced my sister and I to when we were children.

Ice cream and a hot summer day . . . what could be better?

Moving Day

I've been noticeably absent from my blog and I've missed it.  But I have a good excuse, a really good excuse.  We moved.  And not just down the street or across town, not even intrastate.  This was a real honest to goodness, pack up all our worldly possessions, load up an 18 wheeler and have our accumulated stuff hauled 800 miles (from Georgia to Texas). 


From here

to here 

And who knew that all the things in our home consisted of some really good stuff collected over 12+ years settled in one spot, but also a lot of odds and ends and clutter acquired over the years?  Even now as we begin the unpacking process, this notion is crystallizing in my mind.  How many [insert the inane item of your choice here] does one family need, after all?  In fact, I don't doubt that there is some law of physics that says the stuff you own expands to occupy the space you have.  


Keep in mind, that I am no moving novice, having moved 8 times as a child, 6 times in my married life plus a few additions for apartment/dorm room changes in college. All total, I figure my relocation undertakings require almost two hands to count.  My husband's history is remarkably similar and nomadic.  So I'm shocked and a bit embarrassed to admit how many plastic food storage containers, Halloween decorations, board games, etc., etc., we own.  I thought I (we) would have known better.  


So, while on moving day (July 10, 2011), it looked like this

by July 13th, it looked like this 

and I'm cautiously optimistic every day will be a little bit better (and, hopefully, we'll own a little less stuff).


Don't get me wrong, this post isn't celebrating Moving Day - (which is turning into moving month) - 'cause it really is no fun, but it is a time of special significance particularly to our kids who only remember one home and I thought that it deserved a post of its own. 

Happy Birthday America!

A War Hero's Birthday

We celebrated the anniversary of D-Day a few weeks back (my son's a WW II buff) at our house and while you may be familiar with that historic event, if you don't know the story of Audie Murphy, another compelling part of the history of World War II, you should.  


It's art imitating life, and life imitating art.  It is inspiring and intriguing and so totally worth knowing about. 


There are not many American heroes of his calibre, one's we can teach our children about.  

Somber expressions at Murphy's gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Happy Birthday and thank you to Medal of Honor recipient and Great American Audie Murphy who, if he were alive, would be 87 years old today.