Kids Say the Darndest Things - Bye Bye Man!

Children are the best if comes to their expressions, their gestures and their innocent talk. Matthew is now 20 months and what a small loud character he is.

Yesterday we had an appointment with the banker to invest some money in Matthew's future education. Last year the same appointment wasn't so bad, as Matthew was still in the car seat, but this year he walks, runs and talks. The crayons and the coloring book only kept him busy for three minutes, other ten minutes he actually observed the banker do all the work on the computer. Suddenly, Matthew screams - 'oh preent preent woooow'. Yes, the man was suddenly printing our paper work. Well that was it for sitting in the office.

He runs out the office, and the exploration starts. On the side of the eye, I can see everyone looking at Matthew, and in their eyes I can see smiles. Yes, he not only walks, runs but asks - 'What is thees? and thees?'. That's man's computer, that is TV, you want to watch Bambi - 'Nope', he says. He walks into another empty office, stands there for a good minute and observes everything around. Finds calculator, 'Seet Seet', points at the chair. Sits on the chair and makes a butt motion to move him closer to the table. He is ready to calculate. He knows his numbers. Then he takes the calculator and brings to the office where his dad sits with the man.

Ready for another run. Matthew now gets my cell phone to play with. Oh Matthew this is a long distance to Maryland. I still don't know how his little fingers always find numbers to call the numbers we don't want him to call. So he calls some number, puts into his ear - 'Noonnaa, noonnaa! doing' That is his grandmother he is calling now and asking what she is doing.

Time to sign some paperwork for me, so we switch now - my husband gets him. Time is running out and so is Matthew's patience. He swirls him self away from daddy, grabs my handbag and starts walking out the door. Matthew where are you going sweetie? 'Bye bye man, taank you, bey bye man'. He walks out the office, and walking to the door keep repeating to everyone around 'bye bye man', happy having us going with him. On the side of my eye I could see everyone in the line turning, and again bright smiles in their eyes. We came out laughing too. I guess we will have to decide later on the education fund investment.

I also have Matthew's latest photo on MyOnlyPhoto blog, Motion Pictures - My Experimental Photography - little speedster he is.

Sleeping During Lecture

It is good to remember good times, and university was one of them. I only remember good times. All other times where we had to study hard and sometimes results were not so pretty are gone and I never looked back once. But then let me tell you this funny and memorable story.

In our fourth year of university we ended up having tough professor for one of the solid mechanics course. He was a happy individual, but tough. He was one of those professors who wants you to pay attention in class - so guess what, he would ask questions, and if you didn't know then you are shining star on the spot light.

Well, one day the lecture wasn't very interesting, but we all tried hard not to show how bored we were, otherwise, this usually initiated question and answer period. Well there is always that small percentage of the population that will surprise you. So we are vividly paying attention, and suddenly professor points at one student in the auditorium - 'Hey you in the brown jacket, would you be kind enough to wake that guy up beside you' - he said. The student in the brown jacket looks back at the professor and answers - 'You put him to sleep, you wake him up'. I could see that probably every hair including mine, on every student got stiff when hearing the reply. But to our surprise, the professor started to laugh, and said - 'That was good one, I guess I will have to wake him up'. We all laughed, and the sleepy head didn't know what did just happpen.

Calculation Bloopers - Conversations and Blobbing

Dog's Lung Capacity
- So how did your test go?
- It was okay.
- Just okay. You probably did well. I saw you study a lot.
- Yes I did, but you know how it is when you have to calculate something under lot of pressure.
- Oh yes I know, I know. But you always did well. It seems like you are thinking about something.
- Yeah. I am still trying to figure out what I did wrong.
- What do you mean?
- There was this problem I had to solve, and I cannot figure out what I did wrong.
- How do you know you did it wrong. Did you know the answer ahead?
- No no, it was logical calculation, meaning real life numbers. So if you see the answer then you will know that you did something wrong.
- Okay then....
- Well, I left this problem to the last thinking that it was the easiest. It wasn't much time to go back and to correct. Boy... the teacher is going to have a good chuckle.
- Aha...
- Okay, the problem asked to solve the dog's lung capacity, meaning to determine the size of the dog's lungs.
- Okay, and then what?
- Well, don't laugh! My result showed that the lungs were bigger than the dog.
- Ouch....can I laugh with you.

Beam to Space
- Hey I finally finished my report. Do you want to see it?
- Yes yes, show me.
- Here it is.
- Wow you are so neat and organized, this is very nice looking report you have.
- Thank you!
- Do you mind that I look at the numbers, I used to take the civil engineering statics course.
- Yes go ahead. I checked my numbers and they seem okay.
- Just okay.
- Yes, but please do look it over.
Looking over the report briefly.
- So, did you really check your numbers.
- Yes I did. Why? What is wrong?
- Oh nothing, just a small mistake - it looks like your beam is bigger than our Mother Earth circumference. Please tell me that the problem asked for it.

Weight Loss Calculator
I don't know what was wrong with this online weight loss calculator, however, according to the data I entered, I have to loose additional 50 pounds. You tell me if I should. I am 125 pounds and 164 cm tall. I think the prefect name for this calculator would be - 'Become Anorexic' Calculator. Oh wait a second, may be they got their units wrong.

Someone Little Enjoys His Food

My Matthew who sometimes looks like a little man in the baby clothes is definitely growing. Not just physically but mentally too. His little brain is processing everything he sees, and everything he sees he wants to do - one of them - eat like we eat.

You Are Getting Your Own Dinner Plate. It was time to give Matthew big dinner plate, and let me tell you why. Every breakfast, lunch or dinner Matthew would reach out for our fork or spoon, and dish full of food. He wanted to eat what we eat. It was fun for while, but us eating spaghetti with the spoon did it. 'Matthew you are getting your own plate' - we said. He absolutely loves it now as he can choose from three different foods I put on his dish. To our surprise Matthew started to pick his own food with his fork right into his mouth. The nice thing is that he knows when he does something new, and he is so proud of himself - the big smile on his face tells it all.

Spaghetti Time. Matthew is now almost 15 months, and he got total of four teeth - two on the bottom and two on the top. We thought that eating spaghetti would be tough, but we were wrong. Matthew would grab this long pasta and grind into pieces with his four teeth, and then with more shredding on the back and then its all gone. The best of all is to watch him how sometimes he would try to put long pasta onto the fork and then into his mouth. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, and this is when his face looks like tomato smugged in the ground beef.

Let Me Clean Your Face. No not Matthew's face. In fact my face needed to be clean one day. With few sneezes around food, and with Matthew sometimes eating from my dish and then grabbing my face for a small hug and kiss, it is hard for me to keep my face clean. In addition, Matthew likes to pick small crumbs around him with his little fingers and eat them. So one day Matthew finds a small bread crumb attached to my face, picks it and eats it. This time I laughed.

Chocolate. Did I mention the chocolate yet?... Yes Matthew loves apple cinnamon chocolate loaf !!!

As life goes on, we continue our messy breakfasts, lunches, snacks and dinners. One day when I am old and washing my floor around the table, the greasy stains will remind me how wonderful and precious eating times we had together.

My Grandmother Used to Drink Miracle Multi-Vitamin

I don't drink alcohol at all, but I tell you some of my family do, and may be if you read my previous post about drinking on the trips - yeah drinking in Europe was and is very common. I still remember the martial law in Poland in early 80s, when we lived on food coupons and allowed only one bottle of vodka per household. And even better I remember those days when those who liked to drink, sat in front of the store drinking perfume and eating pickles. This being story for another day, let me then tell you this cute story about my grandmother.

The story goes - as kids my parents used to give us all kinds of vitamins. Mind you on top of that we used to eat out the garden - current, plums, apples, goose berries, strawberries - and some of them never got to the ripe state. Yes we loved sour. Yes, yes the vitamin story! Did we ever needed, never know - I guess my parents were on the mission to grow healthy kids, thus they finally got hold of this miracle multi-vitamin for us, them and my grandmother. In the liquid form, tasted just like very sweet sweet strawberry juice - and we liked it. It was hard to get this particular one, but my dad being very useful TV and radio repairman in the neighbourhood - he got all kinds of favors, and especially from the pharmacist.

You probably saying get to the point, so I will. In the late 80's we came to Canada, leaving my grandmother behind. One day my parents came across the same multi-vitamin here in Canada. Then they decided to send some to my grandmother, since our departure she wasn't able to get one. We send one bottle, then been asked for more - she loved it. She would ask, send me some more. 'I feel really really good every time I have a shot' - she would pass this message in the letters from my aunt. Yes, she loved it - so we sent more. Twenty years passed, my grandmother is now gone, resting in peace. I got married, got new home, and a bottle of the vitamin in my fridge - brand new, never opened, with label reading 12% alcohol.

A Tip, Parents Do Not Loose Your Children at the Zoo

About two years ago we took our 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to the zoo. It was hot sunny day so we really needed to have some mouth watering ice cream. We split, I took my niece and sat under the tree full of peacocks. Yes, the peacocks were hiding in the tree. We decided to be brave, and lucky no flying patties or rain from the sky. My husband took our nephew to get the ice cream. I think the ice cream man was making that ice cream from scratch since there were only few people in line and took them forever to deliver that mouth watering ice cream to us. The funny thing was that there were few young Amish girls same age or a bit older as my nephew and they couldn't take their eyes off him. I watched from far away as he would at times put his head up and pretend not to see them. It was kind of cute.

The ice cream was really being made from scratch. We gave up waiting, just sat under the tree and observed by passers and by standers. As the time lapsed, by standers would come and go. Then one cool looking guy, not good looking guy, but cool looking guy made a quick stop to have a cigarette. He played cool, blowing smoke to the sky. Good thing it was to the sky and wind was blowing away from us, because I am allergic to the second hand smoke and I can smell it miles away. This cool looking guy was not approachable, he just looked like one of those if you are lost somewhere, you rather be lost and not ask questions.

We continued to wait. Many people passed by us, especially lot of parents with children - walking, being pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons. As we watched all these people passing by, suddenly a child fell out the wagon. The parents continued to walk not seeing what happened. The victim of the situation was 1.5 or 2 years old girl. The second older child in the wagon, the brother, was reaching out with his hand saying something, but because it was loud no body could hear him. The little girl was stunned for a moment, so she just sat there for few seconds trying to recover. There were lot of people, so no body really noticed anything, just us and the cool guy.

I really underestimated the cool guy, he was actually first to notice and first to yelled out loud - 'excuse me, excuse me' - he at first said in deep cool voice. No response from parents. 'Excuse me, you lost your child' - he finally yelled really loud, and started to move towards the little girl. It all happened in matter of seconds, and since I knew that the cool guy was taking care of the business I just got myself ready just in case. The parents finally turned back, the girl started to cry. The parents picked up this little girl and just walked away - looking kind of embarrassed. Well may be this is why the cool guy is cool guy - he got no thank you, or even a nod of acknowledgment. And I was ready to give him a medal.

The moral to the story - don't underestimate others by their behaviour or look or cool look, they may be first to give you a helping hand after all, and probably the last to be thanked. And the main moral to the story is - strap your children to the wagon, especially when at the zoo, because it isn't just the zoo of animals, but zoo full of people and you can easily loose your child as these parents did.

Can I Schedule An Appointment To Have My Nails Done – Call to The Body Shop

I am sure we have done stupid things in life that are worth laughing at. I had many and this is one of them. Back in 1998 me and my husband were planning a wedding. We were very conservative trying to negotiate every item we needed as we just spend all our money on the house. We tried to prepay as much as possible – that was important item on our list of all. At that time I was working at the large corporation, had some flexibility to do some of my planning.

Needles to say, I am not very big on make up, pedicures, manicures – but looks like every bride was doing so was I. Bottom line is - I hated it. I remember I came home once from a trial makeover, oh God, I looked like a scare crow. May be it was nice, I just wasn’t too comfortable, so I guess my face was looking not very happy. But that is not the story, however, the make up was scrapped from my list – a lipstick and some powder did the job.

If not make up, then may be I just will have my nails done. Where do I start I thought – yellow pages sounds good. I flipped through and I got to the section, body shop. Have you ever shopped at The Body Shop, I did. Got some creams once. To your surprise, they have cream for every part of your body – may be that is why it is called The Body Shop. I guess calling body shop was a good start. During a lunch time I took yellow pages and got the phone number of my first contender.
- ‘Hello’ – a man answered on the other side of the phone.
- ‘Aha’ – I thought, now man are in this business too, that must be one darn good business then.
With quiet voice, not to disturb co-workers I said:
- ‘I will be getting married in 2 weeks and I would like to have my nails done’. Sudden silence.
- ‘You would like to have your nails done Miss?’ – man repeated.
- ‘Yes, yes’ – thinking he understood me.
Suddenly there is honest laugh on the other side of the phone, and the man replied:
- ‘But Miss, we don’t do nails here, we are a body shop and we fix cars, but Miss if you would like you can drop by and see what we can do’.
He had to rubbed it in.
With embarrassment and trying not to start a further conversation, I apologized and hanged up the phone. For the rest of the day I sat in front of the computer laughing to myself and having trouble concentrating. Hopefully no body saw me laughing, they probably would think I was going insane. After all we had a very busy year at work and almost every one was going insane at the same time.

That night I told my husband-to-be this eventful story, and later in the week I broke the news at the office – we had one good chuckle.

No Child Should Ever Be a Victim of the War

Every day I look at my baby, I look into his eyes, and I wish that every child in this world received same love as I give my baby every day, every hour, every minute, every second. No censorship anymore, media is telling us all. Everywhere we turn and look, everywhere we hear, children die - accidents, sickness, diseases, murders, abuse, hunger, poverty and war.

'A little girl playing outside her home in the dirty sand. Assembling a small structure from small pebbles and dry sticks, and a leaf, and some dirty sand. Her golden hair is getting in the way. With little hand she moves her hair off her eyes, with the other hand she is trying to keep the pebble wall to stand. Her face is getting dirty, her blue eyes are full of tears, she is struggling to put her little farm together. A boy near by runs around with a stick and a string attached to it. It is his homemade fishing rod. Suddenly dark flying machines are flying over the girl's and boy's head. They look up. Oh, not again - they know. Bombing starts. Noise is unbearable. More wind with dirty sand. The boy somehow escapes in the potato fields. Lays there half covered in the sand and scattered around potatoes. He is scared. He follows asleep. As he opens his eyes, he looks around. He is safe. People are talking. The little girl stands in the middle of the field, dirty sand is hitting her small gentle body, but she stands there like a little trooper. She is not moving. She is looking at her little farm falling now apart. She wants to reach out for the falling pebble wall, but she cannot. A man grabs her small body. Pulls her to his chest. He holds her tight. He is protecting her. Its too late. Her eyes never opened again. Next morning she dies. She dies from shock. People are crying.'

The little girl is a victim of the WWII. This little girl in the above story is also my dad's sister, she was only 5 years old. She died of shock. Even though the story is dramatized a bit by me and enhanced, I am sure that in the real time, it was even more dramatic then I could ever describe. At later time, my dad's another, only month old sister also dies. Result of local bombing, falling off the bed, trauma and shock to the little fragile body.

WWII indirectly killed many innocent children, unrecorded, never mentioned. Unmarked small wooden crosses deteriorated over time. Burial grounds became empty fields filled with tall green grass swaying left and right. The little lost souls dance forever in the wind.

This Christmas as we celebrate this glorious day, let us remember those little souls that never got to enjoy the small presents, home baked cookies, warmth of the fire place, Santa Clause, and love.

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. "
~ Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby

Wrought Iron Gates - What Is Wrong With This Picture?

Driving home on the Sunday afternoon. As we get closer to home, we can see more and more snow. I guess we are living in the area where there always will be more snow. Such remarkable change in weather can be seen in twenty minutes apart.

I sit on the back with Matthew and as he sleeps I observe outside the world I used vividly photograph before Matthew was born. Yes, we got second time in three weeks a two inches of snow. Beautiful view, and as sun emerged in the afternoon all the trees sparkled.
- 'Beautiful ', I said to my husband, 'just beautiful day to go outside and shoot and shoot'.

Suddenly a very nice big house comes to my view.
- 'Look what an amazing gate on your right' - I pointed out. A beautiful structure made of iron wrought rods, and concrete support, and located on the one end of the long curved paved driveway. Oh, and has security key pad.
- 'Okay, I don't get it, what is wrong with this picture? There is no fence'. I know, I know, its a decor thing lol.

My Toe Took A Tripple Beating

For sure I am not the only one that ran into the furniture and suddenly felt excruciating pain in the toe. Couple of nights ago I did it again. About 2 am in the morning after feeding my baby I walked towards the area where I have my water drinking station. Suddenly bang, my foot hits the wooden foot of the ottoman. Oh no, not again, I hate when this happens to me. As I reached out to grab my toe and apply pressure, a technique that always works, my husband heard the noise and he in a furious manner attempted to get up from the bed. That scared me, and I almost fell on top of my water station, that was close almost, lol.

'Why don't you wear slippers?' - a question my husband asked when around 9 pm I ran into the chair with the same foot and exactly same toe.

'Well I was going to get my slippers, but the chair was before the slippers' - I replied.

Somethings just happen in three's. In the late morning I had my dentist appointment. Just routine check up appointment. Everything worked out fine, Matthew behaved himself in the waiting room as he and my husband waited for me for almost 1 hour.

'I guess I will see you in next 6 months' - I told the dental administrator.

'Yes, will see you then, good bye' - she replied.

'Let me get the door' - I told my husband as he was strolling Matthew out the dental office.

'Ouch ouch ouch, for love of Pete' - I made squeaking noise, as this time the stroller ran over the same foot and the same toe.

As we sat in my parents living room this afternoon, we laughed, and I asked, 'So what's next?'
'A tire' - he replied laughing out loud.

In conclusion, I was fortunate that it was only toe self abuse and no real damage was done. However, will this teach me a lesson to wear slippers. I don't know I just like walking in my bare feet.

A Tragedy or A Blessing

I read this little story 'A Tragedy or A Blessing' a few days ago, and I would like to share it with you today. The story is from the book by Glenn Van Ekeren - 'Words for All Occasions, Quotes, Stories, Anecdotes, Poems, Fables, Proverbs and One-Liners'.

'Years ago in Scotland, the Clark family had a dream. Clark and his wife worked and saved, making plans for their nine children and themselves to travel to the United States. It had taken years, but they had finally saved enough money and had gotten passports and reservations for the whole family on a new liner to the United States.

The entire family was filled with anticipation and excitement about their new life. However, seven days before their departure, the youngest son was bitten by a dog. The doctor sewed up the boy but hung a yellow sheet on the Clarks' front door. Because of the possibility of rabies, they were being quarantined for fourteen days.

The family's dreams were dashed. They would not be able to make the trip to America as they planned. The father, filled with disappointment and anger, stomped to the dock to watch the ship leave - without the Clark family. The father shed tears of disappointment and cursed both his son and God for their misfortune.

Five days later, the tragic news spread throughout Scotland - the mighty Titanic had sunk. The unsinkable ship had sunk, taking hundreds of lives with it. The Clark family was to have been on that ship, but because the son had been bitten by a dog, they were left behind in Scotland.

When Mr. Clark heard the news, he hugged his son and thanked him for saving the family. He thanked God for saving their lives and turning what he had felt was a tragedy into a blessing.'

I hope you enjoyed this story as much as I did. This brings me back many years ago when I entered first year of university. First year was a total disaster. Not to go into too much details, I had to change my educational path. There was not much of a change, but on the end I ended up taking slightly different courses than I anticipated on the first place. I was disappointed that I lost some time, but you know if my path was not altered, I would never met my loving husband - yes I met my husband in school that very next year and we both ended up graduating from the same profession, and got married. My story may not be that tragic, but still who knows what would happen if I did well and continue my education as I anticipated - however, I don't what to know, I am happy with the final result. Our paths in life get altered for reason, I believe; and unfortunately altered paths seems bad at times, but if it wasn't altered, then sometimes we find that things could have been worst, and sometimes we will never know.

Live & Learn From The Fish

Live and learn from the fish - what's this all about? This is a story for this post, and it is coincidental that it lines up with one of the posts form my blogger friend Kathy from Photography by KML blog, who has this really beautiful photo of her blue Beta fish - just in case you never seen this type of fish. The story is not just about the Beta fish, as you will find out. However, this is a fish with personality and fish that needs attention. Let say, I don't have any big pets in my house like a cat, dog or bird, and it is not because I don't like them, it is just I don't have the time to take care of them or spend time with them. About year ago, I did research on birds in captivity, and every article I read the emphasis was that you just don't put the bird in the cage and let it sit there, you really need to spend time with them and play, otherwise, they will get depressed, and eventually you know what happens, either the bird becomes really unfriendly or eventually moves on with other life.

I currently have two beta fish, one red and one blue. I find, and this is just my little statistics results, but the blue beta's are more friendly and more excited to see you when you around. Don't take this idea into your head, this is my opinion based on one red and two blue beta fish. You will agree, not a big population to have data on. However, lets move on with the story. Both beta fish are very exciting fish to have, they get excited when they see you, they like to eat and crunch their food, they try to jump out the tank - something you would not expect from the fish, at least something I would not expect from the fish.

These past few months, I have been busy, go to work, come from work, eat, rest, turn computer on and then rest for the night. Between, in the morning, I would quickly feed my betas, drop the food and leave. I know they get excited to see me every time, but I just have to run. Believe or not, sometimes I forget to change the water too. I admit, this is the side of me I don't like because I know if my fish is not getting attention, something is wrong, I am not managing my life properly, I am probably neglecting every one else around me, never know may be some bloggers feel like that to due to my reduced blogging visits.

The story continues, my negligence finally surfaced. Last week I noticed that the blue beta was behaving abnormally. The fins would not spread out as usual. The body was tilting to one side. I right away changed water, and really noticed that my healthy blue beta was sick now. It wasn't swimming, it wasn't eating, and even would not puff on his red beta friend. The red beta knew something also, because soon as I put two small tanks side by side, the red beta would not puff back on the blue one at all - would just rest on the rocks and look at his sick friend now. I said to myself, they are communicating. Suddenly I am different, I am very attentive, I am sad, I am angry that I neglected my fish. Now I am there every 15 minutes to check on him. He is weak, he tries to float but he cannot because his one side is tilting to one side. How do you safe fish, the worst comes to my mind, I lost my hope?

Its been few days now, and to my surprise the beta fish is getting better. It is still tilting to one side, but tries hard to get up and eat, and actually swims with excitement to see me. I am happy now, however, I definitely know that I failed, I failed to give my best to someone who always was excited to see me.

This is a story about fish. However, live and learn. I will not stress enough that our relationship with others need maintenance. When one gives you this carrying smile, please give it back. I gift that we have, and believe or not a gift animals have too.

Addition: After 2 weeks of suffering my blue beta fish died [February 16, 2008]. I know it is only fish, but I will miss him.

Kids are Fun, Kids are Grown Ups

I am always fascinated what the one year old, two year old or three year old can do. There is a difference between me and my younger sister and my younger brother, five and ten years, respectively. So I have some memories of some funny moments, and some not so funny. I remember that very first word I thought my sister was a parrot. I don't know what I was thinking then, but she loved it - may be that is why she is into breeding birds now. She also loved going into the barrel full of potatoes and water, and take a bath - and that was quite a scenario. Because my older sister and myself had to take care of both of my younger sister and brother, we used to do crazy stuff when playing. We had to entertain ourselves because we had one or two occasions when we received toys, and we only had one TV channel. Going back to the story, we used to build these snow walls between neighbor kids and then play war. Well few times the curiosity of my younger sister earned her few bruises in the head from snow balls, at least we did not need any ice for compressions. The best was also racing streets with my sister in the stroller. Accidents always happened, but lucky no injuries. Lucky there were no cars, but there were light posts to which we always happened to run into. We lost our sister few times upon the impact, no injuries as she always safely landed on the grass. She was only one and a half years old, and I was about seven years old.

Then five years later my brother was born, and so more kids on the street. My brother loved horses, and he had huge collection of them by the age of four years old. So what did he do? Well there was this kid across street who just started to walk at one, and somehow he by himself always made to our backyard. Well my brother then two, soon as he saw him, he always wanted to ride him. It looked funny, but we always had to separate them just in case the one year old's mother showed up. I think the idea came from horse collection.

And now thirty years later, do I have the same experiences with kids in family, and I do find that kids are talking much more and much more like adults. The latest, my cousin's three year old daughter was really entertaining us this holiday season. We had dinner together, and the little girl decided to be at the head of the table. She would converse with all of us, and her vocabulary was just amazing. The best line of the year was when mother offered her a cup of tea, with puzzled face she responded - 'How can you give your own child a hot tea' - very clever for the three year old.

Share Your Christmas Moments

The Christmas is around the corner, so why not get into holiday spirit, a time of giving and time of beautiful moments with your family. These are few things that I would like to share with you - a moments of happiness. A moments that can be described in few words, however, they will last forever with me, and now I have the opportunity to tell the world, and have them on record.


I have two sisters and one brother. The order goes as follows: my older sister, me, my younger sister and my youngest brother. There is 5 years age difference between my younger sister and 10 years difference between my brother and me. My happy moments were when three of us (my brother wasn't born yet) used to go to the local forest and cut a small tree down, drag it home for about 5 km over fields of snow, in some places 1/2 meter high. Then we would assemble it and hang as many candies as we could, then we would eat them in a matter of few days.

When my brother was born and he was about 2 or 3 years old, I dressed up as Santa Claus and give out gifts in the house. We all head a blast.

It was tradition that no meat was consumed during Christmas dinner and still is. However, not now, but during my grandmother's time we all used to eat from one dish, and hold on to the spool through all 12 courses so our back would be good to work in the fields - I think that was funny when you are about 5 years old.

Last year in 2006 I finally decided to dress up as Santa again this time for my nephew and niece. I made my Santa suite from scratch, it took me a whole week to do it by hand. Unfortunately, my pants didn't survive the adventure, and thank God I had the long jacket. They called me a skinny Santa, hopefully this year I will not have that problem, lol. I will post some pictures on my only photo blog in few days.

And if you have some happy, funny or even sad moments - I would love to hear it. If you by any chance had the same idea, please feel free to provide a link to your site.


[TRUE STORY]

Help Can Come In Many Different Forms and Shapes

Helping others is one of the greatest gifts one can give someone. However, each individual will offer help in many different ways, and I would like to present my way of helping others. Believe or not, I helped many times, and many times my help wasn't viewed as help, but I always believed in the long term help meaning that will last forever, and I am lucky to have my second half thinking the same.

Here is my magic list of items of which I strongly support:

1) Help your self first. Let just give you an example from the air travels. Not sure if anyone pays attention to the emergency routine demonstrated by the stewardess, but I do. When that oxygen mask is ejected, put on yourself first. If you will not, then in case of emergency if someone needs more assistance than you, without a mask you may help one person, but with the mask you can help many.

2) Think how you are going to help. It is nice to give little things there and there in case of need, but have you heard an expression when you give someone a finger, next thing they want your whole hand. Yes, some people will eventually abuse the free help, and especially the financial help. So here is the statement that explains it all. I think this comes from the bible, and not sure if these are the exact words, but if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, however, if you teach a man to fish he will eat for life. Don't be afraid to give people advice and teach them, and don't be afraid to set rules when your help is abused. I rather teach people how to survive, than just give and see that on the end it is all wasted.

3) Help is not just about giving, it is also giving a mental support. Believe or not, such support may be indirect help, but it does gives one in need strength to go on.

4) When you helped someone, don't expect to get help back from the same person. Life works in mysterious ways, and the help will come your way in time of need, and don't be surprised that the helping hand came from total stranger.

5) Sleep on your helping decisions. I am strategic thinker, and many times people think that I am reluctant to help. But no, they don't see sometimes that there may be an alternative way to help, and not just one way. I think even the person in need, needs to understand that they cannot just turn the whole world upside down because they are the only and only that need help. Sometimes, I do sleep on my helping decisions, because I really think working in harmony together we can accomplish a lot more.

I would love to hear what others have to say about that, and if you have other helping suggestions that may benefit all of us here, please let us know.

[JUST BLOBBING]

Halloween Bash 2007: Ghost Story 4 - In the House

When we were young we played crazy but not dangerous pranks among us, but these pranks turn into scary feeling. The house we used to live was an old house built by Germans. I think Germans used to keep deceased in the funeral home right at the cemetery. However, that tradition changed when Polish moved into the area right after the war. A dead person was prepared and kept in the house for three days. When my grandfather died, they did the same, they kept him for three days in our house. All I remember is that a lot of people came every day, sat around the coffin, and either prayed or again gossiped about the latest and greatest, and also told stories or little things just enough to make us think about it. I was only five years old then, but I was quite aware of the ghosts too. So they used to say that kids had tendency to see more, and they told once a story how a little girl saw her dead mother just beside the coffin. No body saw anything, but the little girl was talking to her dead mom as she was alive.

Going back to pranks. Sometimes my parents and grandparents would work late in the field or for some reason leave us in the house alone. I think then it was three of us, my older sister probably eight years old, me just about seven year old and my other baby sister probably year old. For some reason we would sit tight in the house, but then one of us would start tell the ghost stories and even embellish them and act like one too, lol. On the end, we both would get so scared that we would take are baby sister and sit outside the house until late evening when it was dark, and wait for someone to come back home. We were much more comfortable outside, I guess we had more freedom just in case we had to run, better than hiding in the small rooms with an imaginary ghost, lol.

So the Halloween is around the corner. I will conclude the Halloween Bash 2007 with this story. So for all those kids and everyone else celebrating Halloween - have fun, play safe, and never know may be you will see the real ghost too.

[TRUE STORY]

Halloween Bash 2007: Ghost Story 3 - Man Without Faces

This story unfortunately makes me laugh now, but not then. This is the second cemetery story I am going to tell you. I will keep it short today. The story was by this one man in our town, and I think this time it happened on the side of our cemetery, because I recall them talking about him biking to work to the milk processing plant that was few kilometers away from the cemetery. Yes biking was very common in Europe then, now days many treat bicycles as exercise mechanism but then it was main transportation mechanism.

This man was working evening shift, so around seven in the evening he was biking to work. It was fall season so around that time it was getting darker. His main routine was biking by the cemetery. So one day he is taking his regular routine to work, and he sees this army of seven to ten man standing at the entrance. It was a bit dark, so he didn't really see all the details meaning - do I know them. However, they were all dressed elegantly, and just standing around, no real movement. As he kept biking towards them, he could clearly see them, but still could not recognize who they were and if they were from this town. He got scared, so he moved to the other side of the road and kept biking, biking fast. He eventually passed by them but was scarred to look at them. But his curiosity did not stop him from looking behind, and he did. To his surprise, he saw these man in uniforms and their blank faces, its almost like there was a cloud front of their faces distorting all face features. Now he was paddling very fast and when he was now farther he gave this one more look back - but there was no body there anymore.

Well I don't know how much I can believe this story. There are few things that I have not included, the man who saw the army of man in the uniform without faces, liked to drink. It was later in the day, so being a bit drunk and scared might have disturbed his vision. What I cannot explain is why they were there in the evening and all dressed the same. So this story remains a mystery to me, but again in our town it was very much believed to be another ghost encounter or encounter of many ghosts.

[TRUE STORY OR NOT]

Halloween Bash 2007: Ghost Story 2 - Beautiful Cherries

Small town, lots of gossip and lots of ghost stories. We all know what happens to the story when the story is passed from one person into another and then another - embellished story. People want to make it more exciting so they add stuff and remove stuff. Therefore, I cannot confirm the stories I write here are one hundred percent real. However, our parents and grandparents always claimed that they were real. By the time I was fourteen I heard many ghost stories that I start fearing them, and this continues until today.

I remember every November 1st on the Souls Day in Europe we used to go to the cemetery and light candles on my grandfathers grave. All was fine when this happened on the weekend, because we all went, but when Souls day fell on the weekday and when I was old enough, my mother asked me to visit the grave by myself after school. Oh, I used to bag her not to make me do that. One year I went, and I was so focused that I never noticed beautiful flowers placed on my grandfather's grave, plus the other conditions I experienced - increased heart rate.

Therefore, I will tell stories that I heard related to people seeing ghosts in the form of people, around cemeteries of course. There were two everyone was talking about, today is one of them.

This happened in the neighboring town. There was this poor woman with a small child. She had tendency to walk around the neighborhood and gather fruits and vegetables form others. Collecting fruit from wild fruit trees that grew on the side of the road was also very common. Everyone in the town knew about the beautiful cherry trees that grew on the side road just beside the town's cemetery, but everyone also knew that they shouldn't eat them. They did not really say why, but it all makes sense now, the cherry tree roots got all their nutrients from the cemetery, and I will not expand on that any further. This woman knew about that too, but one day she ignored the message. She and her child were passing by and decided to collect some beautiful cherries. She put the child on her sweater under the tree, gave him some tree branches and flowers to play with. The tree wasn't really small so she had to climb, and she did. Once in a while she would look down to see if everything was okay with the child, and everything was, until that one time. Yes that one time she looked down and she saw this beautiful young woman playing with her child. The child wasn't really replying just playing with the branch sticks while it looked like the woman was saying something and trying to get the child's attention. The mother couldn't hear anything. The mother felt something was not right, and without thinking she literally jump off the tree. To her surprise she found no one with her child, and the child continued to play with the sticks.

Now you know why I will not go to the cemetery alone. These are not very huge ghost encounters, but enough to make me think twice when I am passing by the human resting place.

[TRUE STORY ENHANCED]

Halloween Bash 2007: Ghost Story 1 - A Deadly Prank

Until I was 14 years old I lived in a small town, a small town of about three thousand people where everyone knew each other, everyone attended everyone's wedding party, everyone celebrated new born baby, or everyone gathered at someone's funeral. Everyone knew everyone's affairs. Everyone watched the same shows and patiently waited for the next episode. And by the way there was only one channel, and no commercials and the TV was still black and white. Beyond all this the gossiping was big, and there was not a single day when we didn't have a gossip or story to tell. As title states, there were many ghost stories going on in our town. Sometimes it was parent's greatest tool to keep children disciplined by scarring them with ghosts - not very bright idea. We as kids never saw ghost, but we knew and we had to believe that they existed as our parents and grandparents made us to believe.

When someone died, at that time the body of the deceased was kept in the house for three days. For three days most of the time grandmothers and sometimes mothers, and may be grandfathers, would gather around the body, sit for hours and talk. Sometimes they would bring us kids so you could actually listened to the real prayers - gossips and ghost stories, lol.

Not to go into scary mode immediately, this ghost story told here is a ghost prank played among few guys - unfortunately tragic. One day bunch of twenty year olds decided to play a prank and bet some money on two guys who claimed that are not scarred of ghosts at all - they believed that there were none. One of the guys was told, if you such a hero, then go to the cemetery's funeral home before eleven at night jump into the coffin and close the lid. He was instructed to lay in it until pass 12 am. At 12 am - the so called ghost hour, a ghost will come to the funeral home. The cemetery had this old funeral home which was not used at all, I think it was build by Germans who lived in our town before. However, it was well maintained by the cemetery's gate keeper.

Later on, the pranksters told other guy, if you such a hero, then go to the cemetery's funeral home just before 12 am. Bring some hazel nuts with you and start cracking them on top of the coffin at exactly 12 am. We are sure that the ghost will show up. There may be even one in the coffin.

The bet started. The ghost non-believers went for free cash believing that they will win the bet. What happened next? Well that one day first guy showed up at night at the cemetery's funeral home. What he did exactly, how he felt, and was he scared? - no body knows, it is just him, and I cannot speculate on this. He jumped into the coffin, covered with lid and waits. There is probably more to the story, he probably showed up during they day and ensured that the doors were open, and the coffin was free of dust, may be or may be not. Note, at those times life was different, so doing things like that was very normal. Yes, what do you do with all this time when shows on TV were only for limited time, there were no computers, no video games, and no work for students.

Very close to 12 am, the second guy showed up with flashlight, hammer and sack of hazel nuts he probably stole from someone's property. At exactly 12 am he sat on the coffin and started to crack nuts. What happened next? Well the guy in the coffin puts his flashlight on and checks the time - and its 12 am. He is not scared - just curious. Now the guy who was cracking the nuts noticed the small illumination coming out from the coffin, and he probably started to think that may be ghosts do really exists. He continued to crack the nuts now more eagerly. Well the guy inside the coffin is now very very curious as he hears harder knocks - he decided to get out. This did not help the other guy, when the lid moved and more light escaped from the coffin, and it is only speculation, the guy probably got into a shock first. Well for sure he collapsed. As the lid continued to open, and the curious guy is walking out, thinking - someone is probably playing a prank on me. He is right, however, to his surprise he found his friend lying dead and realizing what just happened.

[TRUE STORY, SOURCES: MY TOWN]

The Good Food

Today I will be talking about food. However, I will be talking about very natural food I used to eat, and probably never I will experience the same taste again. Someone may ask why? Firstly, my grandmother is resting in piece, recipe or way of doing left with her, and ingredients are not the same as they used to be. In short, the person, the process and the ingredients can not be duplicated at this moment. So lets go back in time over 30 years ago to a small town of just about three thousand people where my grandparents and parents used to have a small farm consisting of a one cow, one pig, one horse, and chickens and roosters. Occasionally we had rabbits too, a seasonal breeding. When my grandfather passed away, we ended up selling the horse. My dad had his own business so he didn't really have time to utilize the horse in the farm. It was easier to just contract out for a necessary task - and it worked. The farm also consisted of many hectares of land, mainly used for potatoes, hay, and then for regular vegetables that were stored over winter time. Around the house we had many different trees such as apples and plums mainly, and lots of current bushes and goose berry. This was our garden of Eden.

Lets now go back on track and talk about the food. There was no pesticides, that means always needed to watch out biting into these high protein worms - you learn how. Fruit was always available all year long. Fresh from the tree or bush in the summer, and fresh, dry or jarred in the winter. The only fruit we ever bought in the store, were exotic ones such as oranges, grapefruit, or lemons. Or other fruit that needed special attention like melons or grapes. It was kind of cool not to have them all the time, because when we did we appreciated it more. We never bought vegetables in the store. Okay I lied, may be tomatoes, but that because we didn't have the heat to grow them, but my mother had a way to used them and make a green tomato salad.

You know what happens when you have a cow around. Yes, you get a fresh milk, in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon and in the evening. I think me and my father were the only two individuals in the house who never milked the cow. Because I just couldn't do it, so I got the responsibility to hold the tail and keep the flies of cow's back. My grandmother specialized in making butter and cheese. There is nothing like fresh bread, butter and cheese sandwich sprinkled with a bit of salt on top, or if you had sweet tooth - homemade jam was added. Add glass of milk to help the flow. As I mention my grandmother was master in making butter. I still remember her slim figure with long arms beating the life out of the milk using wooden barrel and holed beater. Cheese wasn't so bad, it was more a function of heat and time, and separation task using a cheese cloth. As I am writing it now, I am feeling hungry to go back in time.

You know what happens when you have chickens around. Yes, fresh eggs, and fresh chicken soup on Sundays. Sunday was a special day, the chicken was sacrificed for lunch. Hardly ever we had different type of soup on Sunday. We always fought who is going to get the chicken heart or other internal organs. Yes, many people just don't eat that stuff any more because the way chickens are fed - just way too much of unnatural stuff that is fed through the organs. But then it was different, all the food was grown by us, with not pesticides or any fertilizers, except the natural fertilizers - you remember the cow.

You know what happens when you have a pig around. Yes, annual sacrifice - I mean lots of meat. We used to smoke it all or preserve it in the jars. The very common way was to preserve in gelatin. Some people would say - yak, but I like it. The other good stuff was ham and sausages. Again, nothing like bread, butter and ham or sausage sandwich. However, we used to melt lard with bacon bits, it was good but pure fat and deadly. Also, I never liked the pig killing time - sad, and especially when my father had to do it. I have to tell you he just had no skill, and I would like to put that part behind me because wasn't pleasant.

The last thing we had lots of land mainly used for potatoes for us, and grass, wheat and sugar beats for cows, pigs, and chickens. Then around the house garden, a garden full of vegetables and fruit that was consumed during late spring, summer and early fall, and then preserved for winter. I don't think I have to describe the fresh salads, vegetable soups and snack vegetables. The fruit was unlimited.

As a kid myself and my family back then lead healthy life. I continue to lead healthy life, but then there are limitations. For example, an egg may look the same, but the composition is not. The food will never be the same, unless I go back in time.