Wii Life

Being immune suppressed is particularly challenging in the winter which is flu and cold season.  Working out is one of the challenges since going to a gym is out of the question as is walking on icy sidewalks.  For several years, I’ve gone to my “WII Fit “for work outs never realizing it also was a psychological outlet for being socially isolated.  

At Thanksgiving, one of my grandsons told me, “Grandma, I think your Wii is dying”.  Thinking it was the disk, I ordered a new one.  

After a hectic December, I went downstairs to play Wii in January and even with the new disk, I got nothing.  One daughter said, “Why don’t you get an Xbox?”  Another daughter, in the middle of a move, said, “We just got rid of ours.” My third daughter still had one and said she would bring it the next time she visited.  With everything else going on in my life, I needed the Wii NOW, so I ordered one on-line.

I hooked it all up and got ready. . . .it was clearly not MY Wii.  I had to create a new Mii (the digital me) with gray hair not red, it didn’t welcome me to my 3578th day using it, I had to go through each activity as if I’d never done it before.  But none of that mattered compared to losing my tribe.

When I had first gotten the Wii, years ago when it was the new gaming system on the block, everyone in the family created their own Mii, and we had contests to see who was better at being a penguin sliding on ice catching fish and who was a juggling champion.  I no longer had those Miis and I no longer had the records to try to beat.

I was miserable doing steps without Jason by my side or running and not seeing Taryn bop by with her pony tails or without Leah behind me in Kung Fu.  I hadn’t realized that having these digital loved ones had helped with my winter isolation.  It was the “straw” that broke my back.  

When the girls and their families came for their February visits, I had one request, “Come down and play Wii with me.  I need to have some familiar faces—I’m tried of working out with all of these weirdos and strangers.”  Although weighing in was sometimes painful for them, each daughter went down and created her new Mii.  The grandchildren created theirs and we all started playing Wii Fit, Wii Party, Wii Sports.  

We had a great time challenging each other.  The grandchildren saw that Grandma was quite the golfer (on Wii) and we laughed  at the silliness of some of the challenges.  Rachel was #1 as always in the marching band baton exercise until Roman came a few weeks later and had a perfect score. We played and laughed and exercised for hours.  My cup was re-filled.

Now, I can go downstairs, fire up the Wii and bicycle past all of those wonderful faces (and a few grandson-made-Miis like Michael Jackson, Darth Vader and Winnie the Pooh) remembering the fun we had this very difficult winter.  I can run past cheering family members urging me on.  And I am happy.

My Tribe, putting the WE in Wii

Road Number Game

I tend to get pretty bored on road trips. It always helped me to play games like "license plate bingo" or finding objects for each letter of the alphabet. I got off to a late start coming home from Texas---we left early, in the dark, in the rain. I slept for awhile and then I drove. After Muskogee, the sun came out and I got bored. So, I decided to see if I could find the numbers 1-10---not as easy as you might think.




I was having a hard time find "3" so I took this while I was driving :-l


Obviously, I didn't do these in order---this was tough enough.

Go Mizzou!

This is NOT a simple sports rivalry, but a rivalry going back to brutality on both sides around the Civil War. Click here for more information. Here's another one--click here.

Mizzou Homecoming

Mizzou is recognized by many as beginning the Homecoming tradition which is celebrated by colleges, universities and high schools around the country. Click here for a discussion of the history of Homecoming. They also claim the first bowl game with University of Texas (see above photo)in Mexico City.

After the Tailgate Party, we were ready for some football, but first we watched the team enter the field, followed by Truman the Tiger (the mascot)---the fire engine sprayed water on the fans in the cheap seats!
The game began and we quickly took the lead.



The half-time show had the real Marching Mizzou band spelling out M-I-Z-Z-O-U.

The chocolate cupcakes Roman had at the Tailgate Party, weren't quite enough for a growing boy.
Every time there was a touch-down, Truman had to do push-ups---he must have been exhausted at the end of the game with 58 push-ups.
We decided to leave during the 4th Quarter with Roman. We took him back to the hotel with us where we all crashed at 9:30 PM.
The next morning, we went to Boone's Tavern for brunch with the Lewises and the Yateses.

Roman and Nana (Marilyn Lewis) entertained us. After brunch, the Lewises and Yateses celebrated Zachary and Megan's birthdays while we headed back to St. Louis.

Next Blog II

I enjoy hitting the Next Blog button to see what other people have "out there." I am naturally curious, but also, I can see what makes a good blog to make improvements on my own.

The first time I did it, I hit an Asian blog---written in Kanji? I was stunned because I was expecting to see my daughter's next blog (not realizing at the time that it would not be the next POST).

So, I routinely started hitting the button. I am the kind of person that could waste a whole day doing that, but I put limits on it. First, I had to read the blog until I figured out 1. What language it was in. 2. What country it was from 3. What the age, demographics of the blogger was. Then, I could hit the profile and see if I was right. My other rule was, I had to stop when I found an American blog.

So, here are some interesting blogs I have found. These were all Spanish language!

http://elcorraldelmanel.blogspot.com/
horses and hogs in Spain. I loved the map that showed where all of the visitors were from. So, I added it to mine, hoping to see where in the world viewers were from-----I'm still waiting for someone from outside the USA.

http://elpeztelescopio.blogspot.com/
female, Spanish, 30 something, (Wallis and Futuna in South Pacific!)

http://7gtr.blogspot.com/
NASCAR, Spanish, Argentina?

http://ashran92.blogspot.com/
Spanish, male, Spain---right on!

http://blogdelpincha.blogspot.com/
Spanish, South American, cool slides, soccer (Argentina)

http://craftsmakers.blogspot.com/
Spanish, cool paper mache--see the cow below!


So, go ahead, take a chance---hit that "Next Blog" button and see what a small world it is --- NASCAR fan in Argentina?

I Thought I'd Never See

Last week I was talking to a friend of Iranian descent. She shook her head and said,"I'll probably never go to Iran again---I'll never see my grandfather's grave." I shook my head and said, "When you live as long as I've lived, there are a lot of things that happen that you thought you'd never see."

Several have happened the past few weeks with the Olympics in Beijing.

First, I thought I'd never see China open the doors to the world for an event such as the Olympics. During Mao's rule, the door to China was shut to journalists from almost all countries. Click here for a brief summary of Post-war China. To allow European or American journalists in was unthinkable much less allowing the world in for the Olympics.

Second, I thought I'd never see the Russians being dominated by Americans and Chinese in gymnastics (I'm not counting Rhythmic Gymnastics). Click here for more details on Russian dominance of the sport. OK, technically Nastia was born in Russia, but. . . While speaking of gymnastics, we will never see the truth about the Chinese gymnasts' ages. Anybody who has seen as many 12-16 year olds as I have (many of Asian descent), could see that these were not 16 year olds. I spotted the missing baby teeth immediately on one of the girls. It's not about the medals, but I hate to see these children exploited.

Third, I thought I'd never see the Russians so far down on medal count. As of Sunday AM, the United States has 110, China 100 and Russia just 72. But, wait a minute, how many would the old Soviet Union have? Ukraine had 27, Belarus 16, Kazakhastan 13, and the other 9 republics had 38 making a total of 166 for the old Soviet Union---wow! There's a lesson in that for the United States and China.

Fourth, I never thought I'd see Mark Spitz record broken. But, Munich was such a traumatic Olympics with the Palestinian terrorists killing the Israelis (another thing I never thought would happen). When Mark Spitz won those medals, it was the much needed ointment for that pain. Click here for more details about the Munich Olympics. Reading that article, I had never realized that Spitz (who is Jewish) had to leave the Olympics early because officials were afraid he would be a terrorist's target. Congratulations Michael, but we still love you Mark for restoring our faith in humanity!



Finally, I don't think I'll ever see a more beautiful opening ceremony than in Beijing. Click here for a YouTube slide show.

Next Blog

OK, I'm relatively new at this Blog Stuff and I do have some time on my hands, but I really think my natural curiosity is more to blame. I really enjoy hitting the "Next Blog" button. At first, I thought it would get me to another page of my daughter's. I was quite shocked the first time when it put me on another continent---Asia, I believe. I became something of an eavesdropper, snooper and just enjoyed seeing what people were putting out there. So, it is part curiosity, but it is also part research to make mine a more interesting Blog.

My daughter says that leaving comments on people's pages when I don't know them is a little "over the top." But, I just had to set the record straight on a visitor to St. Louis who thought we still hadn't cleaned up the flood debris from FIFTEEN YEARS AGO! Hello, we just flooded again this summer.

Then, there was the woman who lived in West Palm Beach and was soooo lonely. She wrote something about waving at a car from Missouri and no one in the car waved back. So, I had to write her a cheery note to let her know that not everyone from Missouri was unfriendly.

So, whereas my daughters have regular features on "Flashback Friday" or "10 for Tuesday", I'm going to have an occasional post on fun stuff I find on "Next Blog."

Please leave a comment if you are a "Next Blog" Spy, too.

Tag! You're It!

How it works:
1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers questions about themselves
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and post their names, then goes to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the players blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers

Where were you 5 years ago?
We were right here in Missouri, but I was probably back in school.

What are 5 things on your to do list for the weekend?
1. Rest after the church rummage sale.
2. Update the Deacon Handbook.
3. Laundry
4. Vacuum
5. Clean up toys from grandchildren's visit

What are 5 favorite snacks?
1. Popcorn
2. Hot pretzel at Auntie Anne's
3. Pita chips and hummus
4. Cheese, Crackers
5. Chocolate chip cookes

What are 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Give 10% to charities
2. Set up trustfunds for the grandchildren's college funds
3. Print off some pictures of our grandchildren and update our Brett collection
4. Take an around-the-world cruise on a private yacht with close family & friends
5. Buy a Smart car or a Vespa.

What are five of your bad habits ?
1. Not updating my photo collection
2. Eating too much
3. Not thinking I have 5 bad habits
4. Why doesn't anyone ever want to know my GOOD habits?!
5. I'm in my 60's---I've whittled the bad habits down to two. . .or three

What are five places you've lived? (these are not in order)
1. St. Louis, MO
2. Pittsburgh, PA
3. Ballwin, MO
4. Cape Girardeau, MO
5. Bellefontaine Neighbors, MO (and Memmingen, Bayern, Deutschland)

What are 5 jobs you've had?
1. Lifeguard & Swim Instructor
2. Waitress and Hostess at Howard Johnson's
3. Mailroom clerk and Snack bar Associate in College
4. High School and Middle School Teacher--German, Reading, English
5. English as Second Language Teacher (K-Adult)

Five people I tag.
1. The first person who "Next Blog"s me
2. The second person who "Next Blog"s me
3. The third person who "Next Blog"s me
4. The fourth person who "Next Blog"s me
5. The fifth person who "Next Blog"s me