Sophie's Story

I was going to write about why New Year's is my favourite holiday. Then I read over the column I wrote last year and realised that I had covered that territory already. It must be an occupational hazard. When you write once a week for nearly a year and a half you will eventually repeat yourself unless you keep track of what you are doing. Last year I talked about what we are going to graze on. We are having grazing food again, but slightly healthier grazing food. I'm making homemade chicken nuggets, a cheese ball and tuna dip. We got a small veggie tray and a small cheese and cracker tray. I have my usual bottle of Asti wine. I also talked about my hope that we would be adopting a kitten soon. Colby has spent his first Christmas with us. He did all right except that this morning he chewed through a small cord on my Christmas tree lights. Fortunately I can splice the wire and save the lights. Carrie will be spending New Year's Eve with her friends. I never imagined l...

At the beginning of the year C and I do some planning for the new year. We make a budget, we talk about things we would like to do the following year. An example of this would be painting a room or places or things we would like to see. We also discuss major purchases we'd like to make and when the best time would be to buy these items and how they will be paid for. We organize the items in order of priority from necessity to luxury. The priority list is subject to change depending on things that happen during the year. In 2009 we planned to buy an elliptical and a big screen TV they were down on the list as luxuries. This changed when C was diagnosed with mild liver disease and advised to lose weight and keep it off. Both items went to the top of the list. (It's much more fun to use the elliptical if you can watch something good on TV.) The following are a few items I would like to buy in 2010 along with why I want them. Dishwasher-- I would like to buy this as soon as possibl...

My well made plans for Christmas Day fell apart late on Christmas Eve when we got a panicked phone call from Denise, the oldest of my step-children. She had to work and was planning on leaving Nic, her two year old son, with her mother who got called in to work unexpectedly. Could Nic come over and stay the night? Carrie and her sister Carmen would take care of them. (Carmen, by the way is not her real name, she has long dark hair and dark eyes and reminds me of the tempestuous gypsy from Bizet's opera.) I had some misgivings, but agreed as Denise was desperate. We don't see Nic much. Denise has an older daughter as well and is very busy working. I was afraid that Nic would be frightened at being left with people he didn't know. I was right, a half hour later Terri dropped off a sobbing Nic who tried to cling to her, She pried him off and handed him to Carmen and took off. Carrie and Carmen got him interested in a toy and some cookies and he settled down. He slept wit...

It looks like C and I will be alone on Christmas Eve. This is not unusual as my step-children usually spend the holiday with their mother. I feel sorry for kids these days. It used to be that you didn't have to make decisions like this until you were married and had to decide which set of parents any given holiday would be spent with. With divorce being so common kids have to make these choices at a younger age. It's worse if you are married. Depending on how many parents have remarried there can be up to two sets of in-laws instead of just one set. That's another discussion for another time. I have to work Christmas Eve. The store usually closes at four in the afternoon so it is a short day for me. When I get home I'll have a little time to relax before we eat what is our traditional dinner, Chicken Parmesan. I'm not sure when this became our traditional meal. It's easy to make which is good since I'm usually working on Christmas Eve. After we've e...

December is not my favourite month. I know I'm not alone in this,I bet most retail workers and United States Postal Service employees share this dislike. This is supposed to be a time of year for joy. Peace on earth good will to others. Not for me. December for me is 27 days of being overwhelmed punctuated by the occasional good day. I feel like I'm running at top speed, getting very little done and not enjoying any of it. We do have a tree purchased at a local nursery. The tree is in a stand and in water. It has lights on it no other decorations. The decoration are all in boxes scattered over the living room. We were going to put them up on Sunday, but it took more than an hour to get the tree up. C wasn't feeling well and went to bed. I could have put them up by myself except that we got an eight foot tree this year and I can't reach the top. I also prefer it to be family activity. Yesterday evening two young men from C's church dropped off a plate of Chris...

Nearly every year for as long as I can remember I've been making or helping to make Christmas cookies. I can't even really remember when I started doing this. When I was younger there was a full array of treats to be baked cut out decorated sugar cookies, Russian teacakes, dipped pretzels, cracker peanut butter sandwiches dipped in chocolate, chocolate mint bars and for a few years,fudge. As the years went by the list became smaller. Now all that I make is cut out sugar cookies and the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey's kiss in the middle. Last year I did this alone. I still had fun and the cookies got baked, but it is more fun when you have someone else to help. This year I got it. Mariah, I call her my daughter-in-law as she is married to my stepson, expressed an interest in helping me this year. She's never baked anything except the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies. We set up a Saturday that both of us had off. I asked her and Jake if there wer...

I was paging through the mountain of catalogs I get this time of year. I had already found a few gifts and a few things that I bought for myself when I happened upon "The Elf on the Shelf". The Elf on the Shelf is a tradition started by a woman to answer a question her children asked, "How does Santa really know if we are being naughty or nice?" The answer came in a small elf that arrives around Thanksgiving. He watched what the children did and would report back to Santa each night. He would come back in the morning perched in a new spot for the children to find. There are two rules. The children couldn't touch the elf, so he wouldn't lose his power to go back to the North Pole and he can't talk to the children only Santa and the adults. He would, of course,be happy to listen to the children if they wanted to talk to him. I liked the little guy and I'm always on the lookout for a Christmas tradition that we could start. It's easier for young...

I stayed up way too late the other night. We were flipping through the TV channels to see what was on when we landed on VH1. I haven't watched VH1 in a long time. I think that last time I watched it they were still playing music videos most of the time. Now they have shows and movies with musical themes. The show we stopped on was 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s. I grew up in the 80s. (Yes, that is dating myself, isn't it?) I was anti social back then (some would say I still am) and spent most of my free time reading books and listening to the radio. I spent my Saturday afternoon listening to America's Top 40. A lot of the time I had the chart memorized. Needless to say we stayed tuned in to VH1. When C changed the channel during a commercial break I loudly protested and kept it up until he changed it back. I wanted to hear the Weather Girls sing 'It's Raining Men'. By the time he finally changed it it was too late. They had already moved on to t...

It turns out that I did do a little shopping on Friday. C and I went to the Homestead Pickin' Parlor in Richfield Minnesota, one of the suburbs outside of Minneapolis. C wanted to bring his banjo in for some possible repairs. I figured as long as we were going there I might as well see if they have hammers for my dulcimer and maybe some songbooks. The Pickin' Parlor is a small music store three maybe four rooms in a strip mall. The first room is recorded music CDs, cassette tapes and I think I even saw a few boxes with records in it. They also sell the small accessories that musicians might need. I took a quick glance over the selection which is mostly country and folk music. The next room is smaller and filled with all kinds of acoustic instruments. Guitars, banjos, mandolins, mountain dulcimers and dobros hang from the walls. There were a few shelves with autoharps and another section with a few hammer dulcimers. I remembered this room. I bought C a banjo for a wedding ...

Today is the day after Thanksgiving and also my day off this week. I'm spending it doing laundry, picking up the house a bit, writing a letter and hopefully getting a little practice time in on the dulcimer. I'm not going shopping. I have a strict rule about Christmas shopping. No shopping until December first. I have two exceptions to this rule. I collect the Hallmark Barbie Christmas tree ornaments. I have to buy it in July when it comes out because if I wait they may sell out of them. The other exception is if there is something that I might not be able to buy or has such a good price that I need to buy it before December first. I understand that retailers need people to buy as much as possible so they can make money, but I'm tired of this holiday season (I'm not anti-Christmas, there are many holidays celebrated during this time.) being hijacked by desperate retailers. I am appalled by stories of people being trampled outside of stores waiting to get in to get...

A women's soccer tournament game between BYU (Brigham Young University) and UNM (University of New Mexico) two weeks ago is getting a lot of press. This is due to the conduct of one of the UNM players,Elizabeth Lambert. She was caught on film hitting, kicking and pulling the hair of players on the other team. This was posted on You Tube where it has been viewed a lot. The opinion posts are full of people who want Ms Lambert kicked out of school, kicked off all teams permanently, and jailed for assault. I can't begin to remember all the names she was called polite and impolite. I finally found the voice of reason in a column written by Darnell Dickson, sports editor for the Provo Daily Herald. Provo, by the way, is the home of BYU. He made three good points that I want to share with you. The coach of the New Mexico team is Kit Vela, who has nine years of coaching experience. He wondered why Coach Vela, faced with a player who was obviously losing control of herself, did ...

Hi This is Scamp. My brother and I are giving Sophie a day off and will be writing today's column. Sophie, C and Carrie live with Colby and me. Colby is my younger brother, you'll hear from him later. Today we are going to write about a few things for which we are thankful. I'm older so I will go first. I am thankful that I am good looking. I am. Ask anyone who knows me. Everyone tells me how handsome I am and wants to pet me. I have medium length black silky fur with cream and gold stripe markings. My eyes are a piercing green colour. I am a big, muscular cat not one of these little sit on your lap fuzzballs. My paws are large and have tufts of fur between my toes in case I ever have to walk on snow. (Who'd want to though, much too cold.) If you go to Wikipedia and look up Maine Coon Cat, you'll see a picture of me. (Just kidding, it's not really me but it does look a lot like me.) I also have a long feathery tail and tufts of hair on my very attractive bac...

My husband is a musician. I'm talking about a person who at some point in their lives made a living by playing an instrument or singing. (as opposed to someone who dabbles in it.) There are advantages and disadvantages to marrying a musician. Unless you are a big star, it is not the best paying of jobs and the hours are lousy. The good part is the music. (assuming you like the kind your spouse plays.) I was courted with an Alvarez 12 string guitar which I think is one of the sweetest sounding instruments I've ever heard. My husband also writes so sometimes I am the first to hear a new song he has written, and I've helped with lyrics a time or two. Some times a musician will have to take a mundane job for awhile. Even if they aren't playing you know they would still rather play or sing than whatever they are doing now. They also need three basic things, food, water, and good instruments not necessarily in that order. That brings me to what happened this weekend. ...

One of the most uncomfortable places for me to be in is any situation where I want to and need to say something, but I don't know what to say. It's not being speechless exactly, it's more of a loss for something appropriate. What do you say? My cousin, Cindy, died earlier this week. She is one of the older cousins from my Dad's side of the family a side of the family I don't know well. She was older than me by eleven years. The only time I'd see her was at the few family functions we attended weddings, funerals and such. The last time I saw her her was at my wedding a bit over five years ago. It was the largest gathering of the cousins since my grandparents died twenty years earlier. Only two cousins could not make it and a picture was taken of all of us. She was in remission from ovarian cancer at that time, I think. I can't remember how long she had been fighting it. I do know that she fought with everything she had. She had countless surgeries, chemo t...

The church my husband attends encourages young men who are members to spend two years doing mission work for the church after high school graduation. They are not paid for this work, in fact they expected to pay their own expenses during this time. The young men and their families start putting money side for this purpose as soon as possible. These men in their late teens and early 20s are sent all over the United States and to many foreign countries. They live with another missionary and serve in several places during the two years. They spend their time teaching, looking for people interested in the church and helping when needed in the area to which they are assigned. The missionaries (Elders to give them proper church title) have been coming to our house once a week or so to visit and to teach my husband. These meetings tend to be instructional for all involved. During one visit we got on to the topic of what the Elders are learning out on a mission. One of them is learning...

While we were in Door County we stopped at a bookstore that we both like. As I browsed through the shelves I found a book by James Lipton titled "Inside Inside". I like the show 'Inside the Actor's Studio', because I'm curious about people. In that show the guests talk about how they came to their profession, their past, what motivates them, etc. It ends with ten questions that the guest has to answer. That is my favourite part. The questions make great Table Topics if you are in Toastmasters and great ice breakers if you are not. I'm not so fond of James Lipton. He does a good job in the show and does his homework on each guest,but I've always thought of him as a name dropping, self important ninny. I leafed through a few pages and decided that I would buy it. Chapters two and three are about the Method, which I think is a way actors to prepare for their roles and acting teachers he has had. I was interested in this. My step-daughter, Carri...

When I bought my dulcimer I also bought a book on how to play it. One of the things I decided to do was to learn to read music. Actually, that's not true. I already know how to read music, but not very well. I've had two years of piano lessons and played viola for about eight years in high school and college. I did learn how to read music during that time. Reading music is not easy for me. I have trouble connecting the note on the page with the note on the piano of the fingering on the viola. It is much easier for me to play by ear. I can listen to a song or part a few times and play it. That is how I got by. I'm not sure any of my teachers ever realised what I was doing. I imagine that this difficulty connecting the printed note to the sound is a lot like dyslexic people having trouble connecting words on a page to the sound a word makes or what an object is. It gives me a certain amount of sympathy for others. I don't have to learn to read music. There are many musici...

We came back from Door County last night. It is a six hour drive or so and we make two or three stops along the way. We stopped in Green Bay for lunch at Curly's Pub located in the Lambeau Field complex. I am a Packer fan and it just wouldn't be right to drive by Green Bay without stopping. We also stop at a small cheese factory 20 miles away from Shawano to stock up on cheese. The best cheese can be found at small cheese factories all over Wisconsin. There are none nearby here so I have to stock up. It did occur to me that at least in the fall winter and early spring, I could have it shipped to me. As much fun as we had on our trip, I am glad to be home. Towards the end of the week I begin to tire of restaurant food and driving from place to place. I like to get up early and have coffee with the innkeeper before the other guests come down for breakfast. I tend to lose track of how much coffee I drink and by Thursday my stomach lets me know this. (It doesn't help that i...

As you already know, my husband and I are vacationing in Door County Wisconsin. We've been coming here to the same place the same week of each year since 2004. We stay at the same place each year. It's been a good week. On Monday we spent the morning in in Peninsula State Park. It is a nice park mostly wooded with a few beaches that I imagine get a lot of use over the summer. We like to hike around in the woods. There are a few scenic overlooks in the park. One of them is from Eagle Tower. We've been walking past Eagle Tower for a few years now. I know it has a great view from the top and every year I climb the tower part way and then get nervous. I'm afraid of heights. I'm all right in airplanes and tall buildings, but there's something about things like towers and Ferris wheels that makes my stomach feel funny. This year, to celebrate my 40th birthday, I was going to climb all the way to the top. No matter what. The first few levels were all right. I...

My husband needed a few new shirts to wear. His warm mock necks were all worn and I refused to let him wear them when we went on vacation. The day before we left we hit Kohl's to do a little shopping. As long as we were there I decided to look for a few things for myself. I got a nice sweater and jacket set for my birthday and wanted to find a black skirt to go with it. I decided a new pair of jeans wouldn't hurt either. I found a few things, picked out my usual size and went into the dressing room to try them on. They were too loose. I was in shock. Too loose. I've been exercising, doing some things with weights, but that was more because I wanted to tone up. I know that the exercise was helping me and I feel better when I do it, but I didn't think that I had lost any weight. I wasn't trying to lose weight. Every time I did try to lose weight I never did so I just gave up. I couldn't ignore the fact that I had the same size that I'd been for the last ...

I saw a store in the Mall of America once called Successories. The front window had prints with pictures of things on them and a motivational caption. An example is a picture of an eagle flying. Underneath it says "Dare to Soar" "Your attitude almost always determines your altitude in life" There's Determination, Diversity, Synergy and so on. Each has its own picture and saying. Bleach. I've never liked motivational things or speakers for that matter. Everyone gets all pumped up and goes out ready to make changes. Then reality hits and it's just like it was before. There is a parody of Successories called Despair, Inc. Same concept, but the messages are not uplifting. My favorite one is failure. It's a picture of a dejected runner sitting on a bench with his head in hands. Underneath it says "Failure, When your best just isn't good enough" I was thinking about that the other day when my husband told me that Carrie, my stepdaughter ...

Now that we have the elliptical in the basement, I've been getting up around 5:30 in the morning to exercise. I go downstairs with my glass of water. (Hydration is very important, you know.) After turning on the lights I turn on the TV. I don't really like watching TV, there are only two shows that I watch on a regular basis. (CBS Sunday morning and MASH reruns) It would be a lot harder to work on the elliptical if I didn't have something to watch or listen to. Fortunately, we have cable. The cable provider we use has Music Choice. Music Choice is a bunch of channels each featuring different kinds of music along with pictures. There's a 70s channel, a few kinds of jazz,classical,dance etc. There are no commercials. Along with the sound are pictures, sometimes of the performers and little facts about the performer of the song being played at the time. I like it a lot. The channel I set it to when I work out is channel 438 Singers and Swing. Singers and Swing is a combi...

I think I'm coming down with something. I can always tell when a cold is coming on because it starts one of two ways either uncontrollable sneezing or a dry,raw,sore throat that doesn't go away no matter how much water I drink. My husband and I differ on how we each handle a cold. He lays around and doesn't do much because he is sick and he can't. I, on the other hand, try to ignore the cold and do what ever I do normally. I've been like that since high school. When I was in high school I usually had three hours of homework every night. I never wanted to stay home when I was sick because if I did I'd get behind and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch up. Once I got out of college and started my first job the habit continued. You'd think that, as a pharmacist, I'd know better and stay home when sick to prevent spreading anything to my customers. The problem was that although I did have sick time, I couldn't use it. If I called in sick, it mea...

We moved into this house about two years ago. There were some screws and a nail or two left in some of the walls so I put up a picture or two just to cover it up. I figured eventually we would hang all the pictures and I could move them around later. Then we got busy. There were places to go and things to do. Food to be cooked, dishes to be washed, laundry, vacuuming and so forth. The walls did not look too bad so there was no hurry to cover them up. A few months ago we got a large screen TV and an elliptical. We put them both in the finished family room in the basement. We wanted to make that room the "entertainment" room. We could watch TV and movies there. We decided to get a recliner for my husband and we got a smaller chair for me. It was time to fix the room up and make it more livable. That meant we needed to hang the pictures that were sitting in a corner since the day we moved in. Some of them were still wrapped in bubble wrap, others in cardboard sleeves. I had aske...

My husband and I decided it was time to get a laptop. Until now we did just fine sharing the one we have complete with 10 year old printer and keyboard. (Hey if it still works, use it). Since I'm writing more he thought it would be handy for me to have something portable. I could go to a coffee shop and write or I could go into the living room and write. He could also do some business stuff on it too. We decided if we could find one we liked at a decent price we would buy it. Well, earlier this week we found one. It came with a wireless mouse and its own backpack to carry it in. It had everything we wanted on it and a few things we don't know how to use. Yet. So we bought it. Now I have been using our old computer and my husband has taken over the laptop. That's just fine with me. Setting up a new computer is a pain in the neck and with a laptop I might not be able to resist the temptation to throw the thing out the window. The way we have it set up is that the main compute...

I've always told everyone that if you want to test your relationship with your partner buy something that needs assembly and assemble it together. If you can get through it and still be friends afterwards you're in good shape. A few weeks ago my husband and I bought an elliptical. Now, I could have paid the money to have them assemble and deliver it, but my thrifty side does not allow this. There was no reason why the two of us could not put this together ourselves. We had already put together a couple of chairs, two tables and a clothes closet. We survived the experience each time. Still, I was a little worried. I read the directions and follow each step carefully. My husband tends to look at the item and put it together the way he thinks it should go. Needless to say this leads to some clashes. The clashes get worse if I follow the directions and it doesn't make sense to him. I figured the elliptical would be fairly easy. All the parts are large and it's pretty...

Hello, I'm new here and just want to introduce myself. My name is Sophie and I live with my husband, step-daughter and two cats in the western part of St. Paul, Minnesota. I started writing a column that I've been sending to several friends of mine in May of 2008. I've been getting positive feedback from it so I thought I would also start posting them here for more than just my friends to enjoy. I write about whatever I want. sometimes it's something that happened that day or someone I met. Sometimes it will be thoughts that occur to me while I'm reading the news or watching a show. My goal is to entertain, inspire or maybe just make my readers think in a way they have not before. I welcome any comments and constructive thoughts you may have while reading. Enjoy!