Mary Anne Carter
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Tag Archives: family
May 19 2012

Bridal shower invitations

by Mary Anne

You can imagine my surprise when my neighbor Danielle called me on the phone yesterday to ask me for my help with her daughter’s bridal shower. To be perfectly honest, I think that it is probably a breech of etiquette for her to be calling me and asking me to help her with that, (I mean, if she is the mother of the bride, should she be doing that – I thought that was the responsibility of the matron/maid of honor?) but I’m not the type of person to come right out and say something like “that’s not the “proper thing to do.” I try to get along with people, and telling them that they are doing something egregious like that just isn’t my style.

Anyway, Danielle asked me to come over to her place tomorrow afternoon and help her to fill out, address, and stamp the bridal shower invitations for her daughter’s bridal shower. She is getting married in July and they want to have the shower two weeks before the wedding.

The phone call got me to thinking about how long it has been since I’ve been involved in any way in the planning and/or preparation for a wedding. Or for that matter, even attended a wedding! To be perfectly honest, I think that the last time I was at a wedding was my very own wedding back eleven years ago! And prior to that it was probably back in 1992. Wow – that is a very long time between wedding ceremonies! For a moment I was starting to wonder why it was that it has been so long since I had gone to any weddings – should I start to do some serious soul searching about my worthiness as a friend, or what exactly is going on here.

Looking around at my friends and family, though, I realize that most of the people of my generation either have been married a long time, or have no intention of ever getting married. And our kids, well, they are just too busy having fun being single and pursuing their education and careers to even be considering getting married. Which I think is interesting, and wondering if this is a new trend nationwide, since most of these kids are already in their late twenties and up to their mid thirties. I think weddings just aren’t as important to people as they used to be. What do YOU think?

Categories: Around the House, Family and friends, Life, Opinion | No Comments »

May 16 2012

New used car

by Mary Anne

When we decided that it was time to go ahead and buy another family car, we agreed that we would take a look at the used cars available for sale to see if we could get a decent used car for a reasonable price. We really did not want to have to take out a loan to buy a new car if we could avoid it. So we were really pleased when we found this used Lumina for sale at a local used car dealer at a reasonable price. The car looked like it was in really great shape and had really low mileage. When we asked how a car over ten years old could have such low mileage on it the sales man said that the first owner of the car was a little old lady (yeah, how many times have we heard that before?) who gave her car to her grandson because he needed a car. The ungrateful brat used a car title loans Michigan service to borrow money against the car and then never made any payments on the car at all. So the car got repossessed and we ended up with a decent low-mileage car at a decent price to boot! Their loss, our gain!

Categories: Around the House, Automotive, Business, Finances, Life, Shopping | No Comments »

May 6 2012

Summer memories

by Mary Anne

Our childhood summers were full of weekend vacations to the “cabin.” My parents had a summer cottage that was built like a rustic log cabin. It had a very small galley style kitchen, a very spartan bathroom with just a toilet, sink and shower stall, and a very large main room. That main room had four sets of bunk beds in it on one end of the room, a large fireplace at the other end of the room, and a rustic picnic table in it. There were two Adirondack style chairs hewed out of logs, and a rustic end table between them. There was a small loft that you could access through the use of a ladder, but generally speaking nobody went up there – it was dirty and full of spider webs.

Also on the property was a small recreational vehicle we called “the trailer.” It was pink, and it had a “real” living room, and two small bedrooms. Sometimes our parents would let us kids sleep in the trailer, sometimes we slept in the log cabin. I think that I preferred sleeping in the cabin because at least then I had my own bed. When we slept in the trailer I had to share a full size bed with my sister, and she was a restless sleeper that tossed and turned and kicked – a lot! Besides, when we slept in the trailer we could hear the parents talking and laughing and the noise made it impossible to fall asleep.

About twenty years ago my parents sold both the cabin, and the trailer. I really wished that they had let me buy the cabin from them. I liked the rustic feel and the relaxing frame of mind that I always felt when we were spending our summer days there. I don’t know if I will every get that same feeling anywhere else.

Categories: Around the House, Family and friends, Life, Memories | Comments Off

May 5 2012

Every home should have a fire resistant safe

by Mary Anne

Every home should have a fire resistant safe. Important papers, such as life insurance policies, vehicle titles, copies of wills, and stock certificates all need to be protected from the possibility of being lost if the unthinkable happens and the house catches fire. Sadly, there may even be times when one family member needs to lock up other types of valuables to protect them from dishonest friends, family, and even service personnel.

Back when I was a newlywed, my husband was taking classes to become a paramedic he brought home some special vials that had hearts on them, and a big heart shaped sticker to put on the refrigerator door. He told me that the idea was people that have medical conditions that emergency response personnel should know about where supposed to put information about that condition in the vials and put the vials in their freezer. The emergency response personnel were trained to look at the refrigerator door for that heart sticker and if they saw it that they would look in the freezer for that medical information. Part of the reasoning for this was that freezers are insulated and would resist burning in a house fire, so that would be a great place to keep something important.

From my point of view that’s a good idea, except that my refrigerator doors are always filled with magnets and shopping lists – I’m not sure that anyone would see a heart sticker on it! But that was back in the 1980′s and I don’t have any idea if the rescue people still hand those out or not. And my hubby at that time is now my ex-hubby and I’m not very inclined to call him up just to ask him about it, so I may never know.

Categories: Around the House, Family and friends, Health, Life, Memories, Opinion, Shopping, Tips & Words of Wisdom | Comments Off

Mar 2 2012

Cosmetic surgery for me?????

by Mary Anne

Rachel, my friend who moved to St. Paul, called me this afternoon to “catch me up” on all the latest gossip about her and her family.  She told me that she has finally decided to go to a plastic surgeon about having her eyelids lifted.

She has noticed that her eyelids have been sagging a little bit more every year. The drooping eyelids have started to affect her ability to see clearly, so she feels that it is more of a medical necessity than a vanity issue.  Of course, the fact that it will make her look younger is an added bonus!

I’ve noticed that my eyelids have been drooping a lot lately, too.  Maybe I should consider having that done to me too! I wonder if any of my medical insurance would help to pay for any of it.

Categories: Health, Life, Shopping | Comments Off

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