My Favorite Thanksgiving - Miss you, Mom!

My Mom

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Treasure this time with your loved ones!  This is about my mom's last Thanksgiving with us--one of my favorite memories!

Cooking Thanksgiving Day Dinner 
(November 25, 1999)

My mom had been quite ill that month. She was in and out of the hospital but was having a good day. We all knew it meant a lot to her to have a nice Thanksgiving so my dad, me and Gerard (my husband) all decided to pitch in and make it a good day. Mom had made Waldorf salad and the turkey roll was in the oven when Gerard and I arrived. (I thought about bringing the camcorder, but didn’t because I knew mom wouldn’t want me to take her picture. She was always camera shy, especially when she didn‘t think she looked good enough. This was the last time Harry‘s oven was used--as an oven, that is.)

Mom supervised the dinner preparations from her favorite comfortable chair in the living room, telling dad and me what to do next. (I am deficient in cooking unless it’s heating up frozen dinners.) We were going to put the stuffing in the oven next to the turkey roll and the rolls on top, but dad had the cookie sheet with the turkey roll turned the wrong way so he had to spin it around. Then the lid on the stuffing was too high, so dad had to make the rack lower. Mom’s wondering what’s going on because I am laughing by now. Instead of taking the turkey out, dad tried doing it leaving it in and just lifting the rack. The turkey started sliding into the oven! Gerard was back from CVS by then, so he was laughing too. I caught it with the potholders in time before it fell into the oven. Dinner was good.

Mom was feeling good and seemed back to normal like before she went to the hospital, recovering nicely. She ate good too. It was a nice Thanksgiving and, as it turned out, was a very good last memory of our time with mom. I really wish I had brought my camcorder that day!

(Excerpt from the book I wrote:  "My Funny Dad, Harry," pg. 34.)  I shared this in response to Mama Kat's Writers Workshop prompt to write about a favorite Thanksgiving memory.  

Reposted--Originally posted 11/24/11.

Would You Do This To Your Kids?

This video (http://youtu.be/_YQpbzQ6gzs) that I first saw over at Unknown Mama, although funny in how it shows how much the kids like their candy, is also sad how the parents purposely attempt to get the kids upset. The parents lied to their young children, saying that they ate all of their Halloween candy and videotaping their reaction. This little prank was instigated by Jimmie Kimmel who thought they would just get mad and was surprised that almost all of them cried. I think some cried because they were so angry. I know I do that sometimes and so did my mom.

I am grateful that my parents never teased me. Maybe you think we were too serious all the time, but I really can’t remember them ever getting me mad on purpose. Ephesians 6:4 says, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” My dad took that literally and so I know he would not have participated in this prank.

Would you do this to your children? Do you tease them just to get them mad? Did your parents tease you? If so, did you like it?

I am donating .50 cents per legitimate comment this month to St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital.

A New Year Means A New Calendar

Customized Calendar I Got From Work For Christmas

I am a big fan of calendars and like how they keep me organized. I like calendars about as much as my dad liked thermometers and flashlights which he had in just about every room. I use calendars throughout the house and have two at my desk at work.  It used to bug me when I visited my dad in his later years and his calendar would be on the wrong month.

What To Put On A Calendar

My dad only had one, but he used it for everything. If he got a new roof on the house, he marked it on the calendar along with the year. If he had a Dr. appointment, he marked that on the calendar. If he bought a new furnace, that would go on the calendar along with the year. For birthdays, he would also include how old the person was, not just put their name on that day. (I liked that idea and started doing that on my calendars too.)  The problem with this though was that it would take him forever to change to a new one because there was so much information to transfer over that he kept putting it off.  It must have taken him all day to get his information transferred to a new calendar but when it came time to sell his house after he died, it made it easy for me to find out how old the roof and furnace were when the realtor asked.  

When To Flip A Calendar

Sweet Thing, my favorite of Dad's cats

Most people flip the calendar page at the end of the month, but not Harry. One year I made him a customized calendar with his cats and he didn't realize they were his cats on it until I pointed it out to him. His eyesight wasn't so good. He was very surprised and quite impressed with it! Throughout the year though, when the months ended, his calendar would still not be changed. I thought he just forgot so reminded him and he just nodded and said he knew. He always had business cards and stuff hanging from it so he had to transfer it all to the next page and just put it off.

What good is a calendar if it's on the wrong month? And the year I got that customized one with his cats, I really wanted him to flip it to the next page because that was Sweet Thing, my favorite one! I remember being very aggravated about that. I am very good at flipping the months on time on all my calendars so just had a hard time understanding why he didn't.

What do you mark on your calendars? Do you change yours on time?


To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here. Tweet This

A Title I Am Proud Of: " Why Wash Your Car?" (Back2Blogging Day 3)

For the SITS Back2Blogging challenge, today's is to re-post a post with a title you are particularly proud of and explain why. I chose "Why Wash Your Car?" because it's a question that prompts people to wonder if they know or not. Also, doesn't that peak your curiosity a little bit to come and look to find out? Then, when you read the post, you will find a funny surprise about my dad. I hope you enjoy this one:

Why Wash Your Car?

Harry never washed his cars. I remember when I was a kid, we used to write things with our finger in the dirt on the car sometimes. He didn't care. For one Father's Day, my husband offered to wash my dad's car for him and he didn't even want Gerard to do it. He just said, "I don't need to wash it, I just wait for the rain to wash it off." He didn't want Gerard "wasting" his time washing it either.

I really cannot recall one time when my dad washed his own car or even went to a car wash. Although I only remember washing my car once myself, I did go to the car wash now and then. My husband loves a clean car and likes to wash it himself every week. In the winter though, he'll run it through a car wash. He does mine for me too.

How often does your car get washed?  

Related Posts:
Challenge Day 1: First Blog Post I Ever Wrote
Challenge Day 2: Important Post To Me That I Wish More People Had Read
Challenge Day 4: Inspired by Marva Collins
Challenge Day 5: Why Do I Blog? Good Question!

This post originally posted June 21, 2009 is in connection with a giveaway going on in connection with "Back To Blogging." The giveaway is a washer and dryer from sponsors, Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances.


To find out more about my book and why I wrote it, read the Foreword here.
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Foreword of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

MY FUNNY DAD, HARRY

FOREWORD


I have so many funny memories of things my dad, Harrington Arlettaz (Harry), did that I decided to write this book in his memory as a tribute to him. This book is not only about my dad, but also about me, life and aging and how we deal with it. I kept a day-by-day journal since the end of 1999 from which I picked out the funny things that happened and formed this book as well as thinking back and drawing from my memories. I never thought I would write a book until he died. It was a way for me to handle my grief and helped me to really think about what a special man he was. Also, I couldn't sleep through the night because thoughts about things he did kept coming in my head and I thought how easy it would be to write them down and put them in a book. Even the title came to me so I started writing and this book became a reality. I hope it brings a smile to your face, maybe gives you some pointers and even makes you laugh out loud.

My dad lived from December 9, 1917 to February 16, 2007. He was around before TV and lived to see the digital age of high tech. He even got to use a computer! He truly was a Godly, wonderful husband and father. I hope you enjoy the humorous side I am sharing with you in this book as well as some of the tender moments we shared. Everything in here really did happen. He was an amazing man, absolutely one of a kind! Perhaps you too will learn some things from him just as I have.

Having grown up through the Depression, Harry was a king of pack rats. He saved EVERYTHING, but in an organized way. It just took me awhile to figure out his system. If something broke, he would save it because he planned to fix it. For example, Dad was very excited about getting a new microwave and so proud of himself for researching it out and getting exactly the right one. The next day, Gerard and I took groceries to dad and got him to move the old microwave off the counter at least. I thought maybe he'd let Gerard put it by the front door so it would be easy to take out when "the weather broke." But no, he told us to leave it in the dining room for now. I told Gerard "I'm not saying anymore about it, but you watch, he won't throw it away." I was right, he never did!

He just ran out of space and didn't get to everything he wanted to do; consequently, his house was full of clutter when he died. This motivated me to learn how to sell items on eBay, but I had to try things out first to make sure they worked.

Harry truly exemplified the man described in Micah 6:8: "He hath shewed thee, O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (KJV)

My dad was a very quiet and private person. That's why it is so ironic that I am sharing him with you through this book. My mom's side of the family were big and loud and my dad was quite the opposite. Mom was always the one who liked to read and talked about writing a book some day.

Harry's priorities were as follows:

Trust in the Lord and Help Others

Be Warm and Comfortable

Family

Working with his hands (like all the time)

Learning

Cats and other Animals

Notice that sports, appearance, cleaning and what others think don't even make the list. These things were totally unimportant to him which made him the unique, one-of-a-kind very funny person.

When he hit "old age" he always had to be warm. He wore a jacket vest inside the house all winter long even though the thermometers registered close to 80 degrees. (Yes, plural, because he had at least one hanging in each room, many of which were still in the plastic).

As you read this book, you will get to know my Funny Dad through my eyes as well as how our relationship grew. If you are a caregiver to an older person, I'm sure you will identify with many of the events I share in this book and realize other people have some of the same problems as you. Hopefully, you will even learn some things and get some ideas from him just like I have.

--Karen Arlettaz Zemek

(available on www.amazon.com, www.bn.com

and www.outskirtspress.com/myfunnydadharry)