Sunday, June 10, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
My Husband
I met my husband when he hired me to work for him and as he tells it now "she married the boss and is now the boss". Never a more true statement was stated!!!!
My husbands name is Sterling, and as a grade school student he sang in the school plays, and painted the backdrops for same. He was a more than adequate artist as well as being a top quality athlete. He ran in the junior olympics, was offered baseball and football college scholarships and had a generally happy childhood.
For me the repurcussion of his childhood that is not quite acceptable is that as an only child he apparently never had to pick up after himself - clothes, shoes, open cartons, anything and everything is left for some imaginary maid to pick up. I suppose in his youth that maid was his mother or grandmother, but i can assure you that in his older age it is NOT his wife!!!
My husband was an all round athlete - played in the 1957 RoseBowl and scored a touchdown and got an honorable mention All American. After college - where he drove his first car, a VW bug, around the seating inside the football stadium to the chagrin and massive annoyance of his coaches - he entered the Marine Corps and shot High Man East of the Mississippi, and then for some strange reason he was allowed to transfer to the Coast Guard on the west coast. He apparently had much fun on the sailing to Mexico from California but i prefer to spare you the details.
He bought the business we now have from his mother in 1962 and from a small one man office (only one man unti he made the wise decision to hire me!!!) at that time, we now have 186 offices in California and Nevada.
Together we have three children and 6 grandchildren with one more on the way. Our lives are very full, gratifying and interesting.
My husbands name is Sterling, and as a grade school student he sang in the school plays, and painted the backdrops for same. He was a more than adequate artist as well as being a top quality athlete. He ran in the junior olympics, was offered baseball and football college scholarships and had a generally happy childhood.
For me the repurcussion of his childhood that is not quite acceptable is that as an only child he apparently never had to pick up after himself - clothes, shoes, open cartons, anything and everything is left for some imaginary maid to pick up. I suppose in his youth that maid was his mother or grandmother, but i can assure you that in his older age it is NOT his wife!!!
My husband was an all round athlete - played in the 1957 RoseBowl and scored a touchdown and got an honorable mention All American. After college - where he drove his first car, a VW bug, around the seating inside the football stadium to the chagrin and massive annoyance of his coaches - he entered the Marine Corps and shot High Man East of the Mississippi, and then for some strange reason he was allowed to transfer to the Coast Guard on the west coast. He apparently had much fun on the sailing to Mexico from California but i prefer to spare you the details.
He bought the business we now have from his mother in 1962 and from a small one man office (only one man unti he made the wise decision to hire me!!!) at that time, we now have 186 offices in California and Nevada.
Together we have three children and 6 grandchildren with one more on the way. Our lives are very full, gratifying and interesting.
Friendships
I'm sure that most of us are fortunate to have ANY good friends in life and as i age (far more quickly than i would like!!!) my older and closer friends are more precious and distance between us is a nuisance.
My husband and i are lucky to have as our friends, Mary and Bob Sullivan who live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mary's blog is Across the Pond. We try to get together once a year, and email has meant that we can keep up with each others lives more than we were able to before the advent of the internet - invented by Al Gore wasn't it? (of course not!!!)
We spent a wonderful weekend with them last weekend, remembering our 44 years together - both the good times and bad times. If you look at Mary's blog you'll see that we are quite different people - she is a creative homebody, excellent cook, wonderful garden keeper, and i'm not! I'm a busy professional woman, with a stressful job and no time to do "housey" things.
But to have good friends who are always there for you no matter what is worth more than i can say.
My husband (more on him later) and i have a couple who are really good "couple friends". We met them in 1973 on a hydrofoil going from Hong Kong to Macau. I was apparently being difficult and telling my husband not to waste film taking a picture i didn't think would come out, and Walt (who is now our friend) went to tell his wife what a "rhymes with witch" he had just seen, berating her spouse (me!). He left to go look around some more, and when he came back the "rhymes with witch" was chatting with his wife. We have shared our lives since and have been in over 50 countries with them, and on more than 60 trips. They live in the PHoenix area and we visit often, and they visit us sometimes, and we have watched our mutual children and grandchildren grow and it's really what life is all about. I could never be a nun!!!
My husband and i are lucky to have as our friends, Mary and Bob Sullivan who live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mary's blog is Across the Pond. We try to get together once a year, and email has meant that we can keep up with each others lives more than we were able to before the advent of the internet - invented by Al Gore wasn't it? (of course not!!!)
We spent a wonderful weekend with them last weekend, remembering our 44 years together - both the good times and bad times. If you look at Mary's blog you'll see that we are quite different people - she is a creative homebody, excellent cook, wonderful garden keeper, and i'm not! I'm a busy professional woman, with a stressful job and no time to do "housey" things.
But to have good friends who are always there for you no matter what is worth more than i can say.
My husband (more on him later) and i have a couple who are really good "couple friends". We met them in 1973 on a hydrofoil going from Hong Kong to Macau. I was apparently being difficult and telling my husband not to waste film taking a picture i didn't think would come out, and Walt (who is now our friend) went to tell his wife what a "rhymes with witch" he had just seen, berating her spouse (me!). He left to go look around some more, and when he came back the "rhymes with witch" was chatting with his wife. We have shared our lives since and have been in over 50 countries with them, and on more than 60 trips. They live in the PHoenix area and we visit often, and they visit us sometimes, and we have watched our mutual children and grandchildren grow and it's really what life is all about. I could never be a nun!!!
Elephant Encounter
One of the most amazing experiences in the life of my husband and i was the four hour "BUSH WALK" we had with three elephants, rescued from mistreatment and being abandoned by a couple called Doug and Sandy outside Stanley's Camp in Botswana. They are not caged or really trained, and to have the four hour experience we had to drive out to find them. When we did, Jabu (the only male of the 3)insists on being the first to be introduced and at 10.5 feet tall, when we had our picture taken with him he looked like a behemoth. He shook "hands" with us, allowed us to look in his mouth and touch one of the 16 sets of teeth he will have in a lifetime. Then we were introduced to the smaller females - Marula and Thiembi. We followed our 3 elephants as they ambled through the bush, ate the branches, had a mudbath (you have to stand FAR way to prevent being covered in mud), chased away other elephants and it was probably the most magical experience of our lives. Marula was asked to lie down so we could look at the pads of her feet, and feel her stomach skin, and she happily complied. Then being that close when she chose to rise to her feet was like looking at a wall being raised in front of us. At one point the three elephants stood in a line and one by one we stood in front of them and each put their trunk on our shoulders and head for photos - and let me tell you, trunks are very heavy. We were able to stroll with them while holding their trunks in our hands. At the end of our four hours, they demonstrated all their normal elephant noises for us, and when it was sadly time to leave - they all stood together and with slightly folded trunks, waved goodbye to us. NEVER EVER WILL WE FORGET THIS MESMORIZING EXPERIENCE.
Some of my favorite travels
I have traveled in over 90 countries and to many of them several times. The very favorite for my husband and I is always somewhere in Africa - nowadays Botswana and/or Zambia. Our ambition is to see just the few more countries we've missed, and the rest we can skip. Other than Africa our next favorite has been the two trips we made to Antarctica. On both we went on small capacity Russian icebreakers and the experience was so unique and wonderful that i wish everyone could have it. THere are thousands of the most magnificent icebergs in colors from turquoise, to deep blue, to white, and in the most magnificent shapes you can imagine. It's almost like Disneyland/Antarctica. We were amongst thousands of funny, affable, cute king penguins in South Georgia and i could have stayed there for days watching their antics. Then we were confronted by so many fur seals we thought we woudln't be able to land in certain area. And to have icebergs crack and break in two right in front of you when you are in small zodiac boat is a heart-stopping moment. THere is about 5 times more ice under the water than you see above, so when they break and roll over it's astounding to see what comes from below the surface. Then to have a 20 minute interaction with a curious but dangerous leopard seal - attempting to attach the outboard motor on our zodiac, was another of those 'remember for ever" moments. Antarctica is not what you think, and way more than most people would imagine.
I need much help
If i could just understand how to post pictures to my BLOG i would be really happy.
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