Five Things About Me

I thought it would be fun and a bit different this morning to share with you five things you might not know about me.   I hope you don't mind.    It's not narcissistic . . . just something different to talk about.  So here we go . . .



I am the oldest of three children.   That's me on the far left, my sister Cindy on the right, and my brother David in front.  I think I was about 6 or 7 in this photo.   I got my first job when I was 6 years old.  It was cleaning telephone booths.   Where we lived there at that time (RCAF Base Gimli, Manitoba) there weren't a lot of people that had telephones in their homes.  In fact we didn't get a telephone until I was around 9 or 10.  There were about half a dozen phone booths scattered through the married quarters or PMQ's as they were called.   The boy across the road was the telephone booth cleaner, but when they got posted away, his mother asked my mother if I would like to do it.  I said sure!  I had a bucket and some sponges, and a few other bits and I would walk around to each booth (it was a very small area) and clean the glass and floor, etc. for which I got paid the huge sum of $1 a week.  It was hard work, especially at Halloween when kids had thrown eggs at them and stuff.   I did it though and I saved my money, earning enough to buy my own Brownie Uniform, two wheeled bicycle (as well as a basket for it and a horn) and my very own Barbie doll.




I used to be left handed, and still do a lot of things with my left hand.   When I was five I burned the whole surface of my left hand very badly on the stove.   We had a solid burner electric stove.  I used to like to get up and watch my mother cooking.  I would stand on the garbage bin which was next to the stove.  My mother had been cooking on this particular day and just taken something off the burner and turned it off.  I went to get up to watch and when I did I put my hand down on the burner in an attempt to push myself up onto the garbage bin.   It was very badly burnt.   I can remember it being excruciatingly painful.  I had to go the hospital.   They dressed it, but it developed a huge blister which covered the whole palm of my hand and fingers.   My mother sewed a flannel pouch to keep over it so that it would keep clean.  Each day she would dress it with these special gauze dressings and then put the flannel pouch over it.  It tied at my wrist.   I was in kindergarten at the time.   I was off school for a few days.   When I did go back I wasn't able to use it and so I was taught to write with my right hand.  We used to have nap time at school.  We all had little sleeping mats that would be spread out onto the floor and we would have to lay there quietly for fifteen minutes or so.   At the end of the time, we would roll up our mats and put them away.  One day after nap time as I was standing up (on the mat) getting ready to roll my mat up a classmate pulled the mat out from under me and I fell onto my hand and broke the blister. That was really painful, I can remember screaming with the pain.  Our next door neighbour's daughter was in Grade 8.  I think her name was Sharon Dukamon.   She brought me home.   And that's the story of how a left hander became a right hander.



I've only ever had three "steady" boyfriends and I married all three of them.  Not all at once mind you!  That would not have been right!  I got married the first time when I was 19 years old, which is when this photograph was taken.


I think I was not that bad looking. I know I only weight about 100 pounds at that time, which was slightly less than 7 1/2 stone.  I won't tell you what I weigh now!   Some people might think it odd that I keep these photographs, but I will never look like that again and this experience is all a part of what made me who I am today.  The marriage did not last long.   We were young and things did not work out.  My oldest son, Anthony is from that marriage.    As I said yesterday everyone should have an Anthony in their lives.  He is my treasure and the best thing to come out of that ill fated marriage.  

I married again at 21 and had four more children over the next 22 years.  I have no wedding pictures of that union.  My ex did not believe in big weddings or church weddings.  We got married by a Justice of the Peace in his living room in Calgary, Alberta.  It cost us $25 which we paid for with nickles and dimes that we rolled from out of a piggie bank. That didn't work out either in the end.   I saved the best for last however . . .  my Todd.  I was 45 when we got married  It was the best thing I ever did, marrying him.   We are not just married til death do we part, but sealed together for time and all eternity in a Temple of the Lord.   That may not be some people's cup of tea, but it is ours.   When you love someone enough to marry them, why not make it for time and all eternity.  ☺



This is me when I was about 9 months old.   I was born with a growth on my forehead, a cyst I guess it was called.  You can almost see it in this photograph on the left hand side of my upper forehead.   It got larger as I got older.   When I was 9 years old it had begun to grown into my skull and the Doctor thought it should be removed and so I had an operation to have it taken off.  I remember being in the hospital overnight and sharing a room with a grouchy old woman who did nothing but grumble at me the whole time.  I was scared of her.  I thought she was mean.   I had to be awake for the operation, but they gave me something to keep me docile.   I remember them putting something white over my eyes so I couldn't see what was going on, but I could hear it and feel the tugging etc. as they cut into my forehead.  I remember the white cloth turning red.  It was quite a traumatic experience actually and I have never liked hospitals since!  I have a nice scar on my forehead where the cyst once was.  I cover it up with my bangs.

 

I started smoking when I was 17, just sharing puffs off of people's cigarettes at the bus stop waiting for the school bus.  The single, most colossal, absolutely stupidest thing I ever did.  I smoked for 17 years, quitting when I was 34.  When I quit I was smoking a pack of 25 a day.   Quitting was the hardest thing I ever did, but I did it and am glad I did.   If I could change one thing in my life it would be that I had never ever smoked at all.   Mind you my mother smoked for all of my growing up years so I had a lot of years of breathing in second hand smoke anyway, and they say that is worse.   With all of the information that is out there today about smoking, and it's adverse effects, I am astonished that anyone still smokes, or even begins smoking.  It is so NOT cool!

And there you have it five things about me.  Hope that I did not bore you!

A thought to carry with you through today . . .

(¯`✻´¯) 
`*.¸.*✻ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ..ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, 
learn more do more and become more, 
you are a leader."
~John Quincey Adams 
ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ..ღϠ₡ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ.. 

 

Cooking in The English Kitchen today . . . Mediterranean Herb Baked Chicken.   Delicious!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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