Mary Anne has her own blog now
Monthly Archives: February 2012

What kind of job should the kids be training for?

by Mary Anne

One of the most difficult questions a kid can ask their parent is “What kind of job should I be working towards getting when I get out of school?”

I’ve heard that question several times from my kids, and it is a tough one.  I want them to be ultimately happy with the work that they do, but they also need to earn enough money to pay their bills!  And in today’s global market, and the new technologies that are already out there, and being developed, technology seems to be the key to the answer.

My advice has always been for them to think about their favorite subject in school and then talk to their teacher about what professions there are that use that knowledge from the class. What do YOU tell your kids?


Homes in Hobe Sound Florida – buy or rent?

by Mary Anne

Lately my hubby and I have been talking more often about moving to Florida. A big reason for that is as the years go by, his fibromyalgia and arthritis seems to be bothering him more and more during the wintry months up here where we live. To be perfectly honest, I’m a little bit worried that the barometric pressure might be too low for him to be comfortable anywhere on the East Coast.

His sister Lillian has been living in Florida in Hobe Sound for the past couple of years and she has been trying to get us to come down and visit her for a couple of days. To be perfectly honest I think that maybe we should consider renting a place for the winter months for a year or two before we make the commitment to actually sell our house up here and invest in one of the homes in Hobe Sound Florida.

One of my concerns is that I keep remembering a former neighbor of ours that moved to a place on the east coast of Florida near Miami and then they were really sorry that they moved to that particular community. I remember that they were really excited because it was a gated community and they felt safer in a place like that, but after only one year of being down there they relocated because they said crime was too high where they were.

Another concern is the fact that we can’t get our money out of this house right now – we payed about $365,000 for this place back in 2006 and the real estate market tumbled and it is now only worth about $200,000 – which is what we owe on it! If we sold the house we live in right now we wouldn’t have any money to put down on a new place!  One thing that I’ve noticed about gated communities around here where we live right now is that even though they all have guard houses, the guard houses are never occupied by a guard. So what is the point, exactly? I know one thing is for sure, I’m going to do a ton of research before I move anywhere in the future – I don’t want any unpleasant surprises waiting for me!


I’ve always been reluctant

by Mary Anne

To read my own tarot cards for me.  I’ve done a pretty good job of reading for other people, but as for reading for myself, I was never quite sure if I was reading what I “wanted” to read into it, or getting the “reality” of the reading.  And I’ve been reluctant to use those phone-in psychic services, and reluctant to use the pay-for-a reading Internet sites.  But, I’d like to have a reading!

So, I’m thrilled to find out about a brand new Internet fortune telling website called www.ifate.com.  The website offers (absolutely free) readings from a variety of sources, one of which is the tarot cards.

I went on the website today and tried a free tarot reading.  I asked the question “will I land the job I’m interviewing for tomorrow?”

In a nutshell, it looks like the answer is yes! 


Darn it!

by Mary Anne

After I got up and showered this morning I was getting dressed and ripped a sock.  I hope that is not an indication of how today is going to be going! 

At first I was going to just toss the sock in the trash, but then I decided that I will try to darn it to repair it.  In this economy, I’m trying to pinch every penny and stretch every dollar.  It’s been a few years since I’ve darned socks, but it isn’t hard to do.  So I’ve put the sock aside for now, will try to get to darning it this evening after supper.

I found that when it ripped and I was looking at the rip, thinking about darning it, memories of my step-mother teaching me how to darn socks came to mind.  I remember how she had a wooden bulb to use as a form to put inside the sock while working on it.  I don’t have one of those; I’ll just use a light bulb.  I find it interesting how often small and seemingly insignificant things will trigger a memory of a person!


My secret garden

by Mary Anne

Every year I enjoy going to the spring flower shows, so I can drool over all of the gorgeous professional landscaping designs and take lots of photographs to take home to show my husband my favorite ones to keep in mind when he is working in our yard.

I was looking though the photographs of last year’s flower show and trying to find the picture of the landscaping scene that had a bamboo fence surrounding the design. I can remember that there was a path that went through the garden, there was a pond with a pretty little waterfall that cascaded down some realistic looking  fake rocks and fed into a small stream that wound through the display. I can remember that when I saw that display that I was thinking that it would look great in the north-east corner of our property.


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