L is for Lottery

How awesome would it have been to win the MegaMillions the other week when the jackpot was so high? I have some grand ideas about how I would use the lottery winnings: build a beautiful home on a large expanse of land, donate money to my alma mater, put a large portion in savings for my daughter, share with the charities that we support.

Winning the lottery could be a life changing experience. Not only could we take care of any debt that we had, we could guarantee our future. I would hope that I would be a responsible lottery winner, not one of those folks who spent it all and was bankrupt within a couple of years.

So 'L' is for lottery. I guess I need to actually buy a ticket if I expect to win!

100 Book Challenge: Shine by Lauren Myracle

Book 19: Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best friend is attacked, Cat retreats into herself, blowing off all of her other friends. But she is determined to find out why someone would have committed a hate crime against her gay friend, Patrick. Set in the mountains of NC, Myracle weaves a coming-of-age story involving poverty, drugs, and intolerance.

Definitely one you will not put down until you have finished it.

K is for Kid

When I was a teenager and dreamed of marrying my high school sweetheart, I also had dreams of having a family, a really large family. I thought that I wanted a whole softball team: a dozen kids sounded reasonable. Maybe this was because I was an only child that I thought a big family would be just right. Whatever the reason, that was what I thought that I wanted: a dozen kids.


As I got older (and wiser), I realized that a dozen kids would be a whole bunch of work! So in my mid-twenties, I reasoned that four or five kids sounded like a much better number. When my first marriage ended with no children, I had no idea if there were kids in my future.


But the idea of having a child was still on my bucket list.


When I married in 2001, we weren't in any rush to have children, but by our late 30's, we realized that we might want to try to see if that kid thing would actually work! In 2006, at almost 38 and 39 years old, we had a kid, most likely our only kid.


And while it's not a whole softball team, she's wonderful!

J is for Joe

When I wrote my original bucket list in 1997, it was in response to an article that a friend and I had read entitled something like 50 Things I Want to do Before I Die, or something close to that. My friend was upset that she didn't have that many items on her list. I told her that was a good thing: she had accomplished much, taken risks, gone for it, whatever it was.

I added a few things to my list over the next few years and wrote dates next to items that I accomplished. On January 1, 2001, I added Marry Joe (It couldn't hurt) to my bucket list.

Joe is my high school sweetheart from the late 1980s. After high school through college and early adulthood, we talked infrequently, catching up on each others' lives every now and again. In November of 2000, he actually called me after probably almost four years of very little communication with one another and asked me out on a date. By March, we were officially dating, and that October 2001 we were married.

Somehow I guess I knew that January that we were meant to be together, so why not add it to my bucket list. It makes all those teenaged scrawlings of Mrs. Joe Lastname seem not so silly now.

And marrying Joe didn't hurt it all.

Testing Season is Here!

While for the most part, I am excited that I am not the test coordinator for my school this year, I am still in test coordinator mode and it's driving me bonkers. I have the organizational and communication skills to plan the pants off of testing for a school (even if I do think it contributed to my high blood pressure diagnosis). So when I think about the next 60 school days at my year-round school and the 22 days of testing (kinda crazy, ain't it?), my wheels are turning with all the logistical questions about who will test where, what the schedule will look like, and keeping the staff happy and informed.

I know it's not my problem this year, but it still concerns me. While I was only in charge of testing for two years at my school, I did a darn good job. Ask most any teacher or staffer at my school. Most people were pleased with how it all turned out on a daily basis and overall.

I have the confidence that this year's test coordinator will do a fine job of making it all happen the way it should. It may not be exactly how I would have done it or on my self-imposed time frame or with my flare or passion. But testing will happen. It's just still in my blood.

Once a test coordinator, always a test coordinator.

I is for Ice Cream

I love ice cream! My favorite is chocolate peanut butter ice cream, but almost any fruit flavored ice cream comes in a close second. As a child I remember my dad dragging out the old crank ice cream maker and the bag of rock salt and mixing up yummy peach or strawberry ice cream in the heat of the summer. Such a comforting, fun childhood memory, I want to recreate it as an adult and make memories of summertime ice cream fun with my daughter.

So 'I' is for ice cream. I've added "Buy an ice cream maker" to my bucket list.

Mmmmmmm.....!

H is for Historic Home

My husband is a preservation specialist, taking care of old houses, fixing their aches and pains, and leaving them proud and stately. He has worked on many homes in our area and in the county in which we grew up. He can tell you about historic homes across our state, when they were built, who built them, who lived there, their importance in our state's history.

We don't live in a historic home, though. The kind of house we want would be pre-Civil War and probably need lots of work and updates. He says we'd probably kill each other trying to restore or rehabilitate an old property. I don't think so, though. I think we would love and care for and raise our old house so that it would be with us for a long time. (Photo: Bracebridge Hall, Edgecombe County, NC)

You can find great historic properties in our state at Preservation NC.