The alligators are awake. They disappear in the winter perhaps napping somewhere close by.   We have water right behind our yard and the golf course is on the other side of the water.  This beautiful picture of wildlife is in our view from the back yard.  We highly respect this creature.  He likes to sit on the edge of the golf course everyday sunning himself.  We have been doing a lot of spring work in our yard.  He will slink into the water trolling up and down the water way watching us, perhaps wondering what we are doing.  Glancing in the water, only 2 eyes and a nose will be sticking out.  He can move very fast.  We do not have any problems coexisting with these creatures as long as no one has fed them.  Once people start feeding them, the alligators lose their fear of people which is not good.  We have lived here for eight years, and I am still as amazed by these creatures as when I saw the first one eight years ago.  Absolutely Breathtaking!!!

Diane

We follow the safety guidelines around the house to protect our little one from dangers: electrical outlet covers, gates to block doorways, covering sharp corners, etc. All these safety devices have only caused pain for the adults of the household! Our little guy learned how to take off the outlet covers, but my husband however has the hardest time removing them. I have tripped over our baby gates at least three times now (I blame that on me being too short, and not due to being clumsy of course). And what adult can easily open a bottle of medicine these days? Thankfully, all these devices have protected our child, but man will I be glad when baby gates are gone!

-Courtney

Our family has a long tradition of scouting including Boys Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Brownies. Mother was a Girl Scout leader and my sister and I were both active in troops. My Father was a Boy Scout leader, my brother; sons and husband all participated in Boy Scouts over the years. My two sons started out as Cub Scouts and I was a Den Mother. They moved on to Boy Scouts and both earned the rank of Eagle Scout. They have many fond memories of backpacking thru Land Between the Lakes in Western Kentucky and along the Appalachian Trail. They both had summer jobs at Roy C. Manchester Boy Scout Camp when they were old enough to become counselors. They went white water rafting on the Ocoee in Tennessee and both went hiking at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico with their father. Camp outs in the hot summer and coldest days in the winter made memories to last their entire lives. Our younger son has been a Cub Scout Master and involved in the leadership of his sons’ Boy Scout troops. Our older son also went to the Scout Sea Base in Florida. He later became a member of the US Coast Guard and I will always believe scouting has helped him and continues to help him in his military career.

Last Sunday was Boy Scout Sunday and two of our grandsons are members of Troop 1, sponsored by the local Episcopal Church. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting and it is also the 100th anniversary of Troop 1. Grace Episcopal Church has been the sponsor of this troop for all of those 100 years. I believe there are only 5 troops in the country who have been chartered for the entire 100 years. To mark this anniversary, several people in our community sponsored a mural to be painted on our floodwall. We have several murals sponsored by individuals and businesses that portray different important events in the history of our community. It is something we are very proud of and honored that this last mural was for the Boys Scout Troop. Our two grandsons were fortunate enough to be in the mural and we will be able to drive by it for years to come and remember the day they and a few of their friends posed for the artist. Our community and visitors to our city will enjoy the mural dedicated last week for many, many years. We will continue to celebrate a long and rich heritage of Boy Scouts in Paducah, Kentucky as we move into the next 100 years!

Janet

I am a photographer that owns my own photography business. Strasburg has always been a company that I could trust when photographing my own child or making a recommendation to a parent for a children’s clothing store. What makes their clothing nice to photograph is their quality, style, and attention to detail. The majority of their styles are a single color, that helps to not cause a distraction from the subject in the photo. When you look closer (or from a photographer’s perspective, zoom in) you will notice the fine details in their clothing; maybe a bit of smocking across the top, or embroidery, or a nice trim. As with all nice clothes you need to pay special attention to the washing instructions, not all items can be tossed into the same load of laundry as the jeans your kids play in. Also, their clothes never go out of style. So, from a photographer’s point of view, Strasburg has excellent clothes to choose from for your next family portrait!

There’s a first time for everything, right? We have loved marking our daughter’s firsts since her birth in the summer of 2008. Her first smile, her first Christmas, her first word, her first steps . . . On and on we stopped to notice and cherish her firsts.

Well, this past week, she had a first that though we didn’t necessarily cherish the moment, it will go down in the book as a first (and hopefully a last!)

Our daughter decided that it was time for her first visit to the emergency room. She decided it was the day to climb out of her crib, fall and break her arm.

We rushed from pediatrician, to pediatric orthopedist, to pediatric emergency room. After a long day, she had a bright red cast, and we had another first to record in our book.

A week later, she has fully recovered (aside from the cast.) She runs around like she’s been wearing it forever and is accomplished at doing everything with her one good hand. I, on the other hand, am slower to recover. I still feel traumatized and exhausted from this first. However, I am most grateful that for the excellent care she received and for the fact that it could have been much worse. We are fortunate, and blessed and one day will look back at this first and laugh.

-Lisa

So, have you ever tried to herd butterflies? Neither have I, but I bet it would be about the same as trying to keep up with our two youngest grandchildren. Jathen is 20 months and Ella is 16 months. Ella and her family recently moved to Tennessee, so we don’t have both of them at the same time too often. When Ella comes to visit we always try and have Jathen come over to play.

We were able to get them together for a play date recently and when he came in the door and saw Ella the sweetest smile spread across his face! He was so happy to see her. (When Jathen hollers “Ella” it always makes me laugh, because I hear Marlon Brando hollering “ Stella” from the movie “On The Waterfront”.) They played with toy cars, fed and rocked her baby dolls, looked at books, and played hide and seek, played duets on the piano and chased each other around the house until they were both exhausted.

While I was trying to finish things in the kitchen, Popsicle was in charge of watching them. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two little images dart through the kitchen towards the back stairway. Popsicle was nowhere in sight. (Seems he was trapped in his recliner with two miniature schnauzers on his lap). When I got to the stairs, Ella and Jathen were almost halfway up. Of course, when they saw me, they went faster, laughing all the way and squealing with delight! The chase was on! After all the exercise, our butterflies took time for a snack and posed for pictures.

Janet

I think in this economy we are all trying to save money, right? I’ve always been a fan of coupons. As a child, and still to this day, I love getting the Sunday morning paper to see what great coupons will be there for the week! (Don’t even get me started on the excitement of the after Thanksgiving Day newspaper!) So, I clip the coupons out, check online to see what is on sale that week, and then look for any online coupons that I maybe able to add to other discounts. I seriously love shopping with coupons. Standing in the isles, doing the math in my head as I total the discounted price plus the manufacturer’s coupon, plus the store coupon, plus the competitor’s coupon! Who wouldn’t enjoy that? Yea, I suppose your right, the nice person at the register that has to go through and find all the discounts, and the person standing in line behind me, probably do not enjoy my coupons as much as I do! If you are one of those two people, I apologize. But, to the bargain hunters out there, you know the joy of saving money I’m talking about!

Did I mention I got some excellent bargains this month online at Strasburg? 25% off clearance and free shipping! I couldn’t pass that up!

-Courtney

Many years ago, country music stars Barbara Mandrel and George Jones sang a duet titled, “ I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”

I liked that song because being from the South I really could identify with the lyrics. Like Barbara, I remember “singing with Roy Rogers when the west was really wild”, I remember “listening to the opry” (for you who don’t know – that is the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville), I remember” circling the drive-in” (oh how embarrassed I was when my father drove us around the local drive in restaurant . . . but he went the wrong way. . . on purpose). I remember “seeing people puttin’ peanuts in their cokes “, although to be perfectly honest I never knew exactly why!

Which brings me to “going green”? If you are confused and wondering “how on earth did I go from Barbara Mandrel to going green” here’s how: “I Was Green When Green Wasn’t Cool”.

I remember saving grocery sacks and putting them in the kitchen garbage cans. I remember seeing my mother and grandmothers save the vegetable scraps to put in the garden or flower beds. I remember drinking soft drinks out of glass bottles and then guess what we did with the glass bottles? We took them back to the grocery store where the cashier would give us money aka “a deposit” for returning them. I remember when milk was in a glass bottle and delivered to our door by a “Milkman”. I remember when babies wore cloth diapers and every yard had a clothes line where we hung our laundry to dry. Very few people had clothes dryers. We never had “disposable” anything. Everyone did it out of necessity, not to be “cool” and we had never heard the phrase “eco friendly”.

Then one day we had something new and wonderful that was going to make our lives so much better and make our world a better place. It was plastic. We had plastic dishes, plastic grocery bags, plastic garbage can liners, plastic milk cartons and plastic soft drink bottles. The world went plastic everything! Disposable diapers replaced Birdseye cotton diapers and life changed for all of us.

OK, now you are asking “what does this have to do with my blog entry title?” As Barbara and George sang “ Now look at everybody trying to be what I was then” . . .”what you see ain’t nothing new”. . .” they call us country bumpkins for sticking to our roots”. See, everything old really IS new again! Barbara and George . . . there may be another hit country song in here somewhere!

Janet

This winter has been especially snowy in NYC. Last night we got about 19 inches and this morning my daughter was excited to have our snow day pancakes and to go out and play. Since she is two and half now, she really loves the snow. Our city neighborhood was turned into a winter wonderland and the laughter of happy children could be heard everywhere, especially since they all got a rare snow day from school.

Lots of people are complaining that they are sick of snow, but we are enjoying every flake. There is a calmness and beauty to our neighborhood when it is blanketed in the white stuff. In a few short months it will be hot and humid and people will be complaining of the heat, so for now, we will keep enjoying the wonderful world of winter!

-Lisa

My husband says I have a portable soapbox in my purse that I can bring out at a moment’s notice. He’s Right! I admit I have little problem getting on it about anything I feel passionately about!

I read an article in the paper last week that said it is not important to teach our children to write in cursive. It went on to say it didn’t matter if a child could write the letter “q” correctly. It said all a person needs to know is how to write their name in cursive. Sorry folks, but I don’t agree.

Many of us (including me) are lost without a calculator. Now they want to mess with our handwriting. Are we becoming so technologically advanced that we are now in danger of becoming behind? It reminds me of something I once heard, “that person is so smart they are stupid.” Hmmm?

I feel we are already losing our ability to communicate effectively by not talking face to face or speaking to someone over a telephone. It saddens me to see young people and adults “text” each other instead of talking to each other. Could it be that is why some children become isolated and unable to fit in with others, because their main form of communication has been electronically? I don’t know, I am not an expert, but it does cause me concern.

I feel a child needs to learn many things and in many different ways to become well rounded! We all love to take our children places such as museums, art galleries, musical performances, the zoo, etc., giving them a variety of life experiences. I think communication is just as important, whether it is written or conversational.

Simplicity is not always a bad thing. I like simplicity in fashion and most of us long for a less complicated lifestyle. Let’s make sure we remember to teach our children the simplicity of readin, ‘ritin and ‘rithmatic!

Janet