November 22, 2009
A few weeks ago, for my birthday, my family gave me a new sewing machine. It wasn’t a surprise because I had to pick out the one I wanted to replacing my much-beloved older machine. I have missed having a working sewing machine for the past year or...
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November 8, 2009
Every now and then, history repeats itself. One day, back in the summer, I was sitting at my computer minding my own business, and the next thing I knew, I was going to the Facebook social networking site to sign up for an account. I had resisted for year...
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October 20, 2009
When my husband and I debated the pros and cons of moving here to the countryside of Gibsonville 18 years ago, the fact that we’d be living across the road from railroad tracks never entered the conversation. We didn’t think about what it woul...
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October 13, 2009
A few weeks ago, my son, Christopher, and I were preparing to eat some sandwich meat for a snack. Christopher sat the plates on the end of the bed and returned to the kitchen to get a drink.
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October 7, 2009
When I was young, one of my weekly chores was to dust our living room. For many years, a clay bird whistle sat on the bottom shelf of the end table in my parent’s living room. It was about five inches tall and chipped from us kids dropping it accide...
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September 23, 2009
Recently, the kids and I were at the Graham branch of Alamance County’s library system, browsing through the DVD collection of television shows, picking out a few disks to watch over the weekend. My daughter had a handful of “Gilmore Girls&rdq...
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September 8, 2009
Scoring just three points less than the gold-medal winner, Joan Humphrey of Burlington won a silver medal in singles bowling 80-84 age group as she represented North Carolina in the National Senior Games. Humphrey traveled to San Jose, Calif., in August w...
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August 25, 2009
When my kids and I were discussing potential activities for a trip to Boone and Blowing Rock, half serious, half teasing, I threw out the idea that we revisit Tweetsie Railroad. They surprised me by wanting to add it to our list. The kids reasoned that th...
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August 11, 2009
Double-checking buckles and tightening loops, I walked over to the open airplane door and jumped out. I floated down along with hundreds of others making connections by grabbing hands as we posed for impromptu photo shoots in the air. Continuing our desce...
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August 5, 2009
Let me set the scene for you. It’s about a month into Sally and Wally’s summer vacation.They have slowly become acclimated to the lack of schedule a relaxing summer entails with no school. They wake up later than usual, enjoy afternoons at the...
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July 29, 2009
Summer, with its hot and humid ways, encourages me to stay indoors with the air conditioning and a cool drink. It also serves as a great time to get caught up on some leisure reading as I pull out the good novels I’ve saved as the world melts outsid...
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July 22, 2009
It seems like just yesterday that Linda Wilkes and I, as new mothers, met for the first time. It was almost 19 years ago. Recently, the kids and I met Wilkes and her daughter, Ashley, late in the afternoon at Panera Bread on Wendover Avenue. We hadn&rsquo...
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June 14, 2009
In the fall of 1978, I spotted a group of dollhouses at the toy store inside Carolina Circle Mall. I spent a lot of time studying these dollhouses and all the accessories inside a glass case. The dollhouses had electric lights that glowed from within. Roo...
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June 10, 2009
A few weeks ago, Staples was advertising a labeler machine. It appealed to me because after the Easy Rebate, it would be free.I like free. I did not pay much mind to what brand of labeler to buy. I just figured that there would be some kind of sale/rebate...
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June 3, 2009
A few days ago, my 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, brought me her beloved Baby Lamb. The lovey had a tear in the threadbare fabric that covered its head. My daughter’s lovey has seen better days. When Hannah was 2 weeks old, we received a baby gift of...
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May 26, 2009
Ever since I was little, I’ve loved to draw. Patterns emerge, pictures develop with a few swipes of an ink pen or pencil in motion. I loved it when the teacher would pull out the paints, or better yet, when I got to pull them out at home. I had sket...
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May 20, 2009
I know white hair appears at different ages for everyone. I remember thinking that my first- grade teacher at Bessemer Elementary School, Miss McNairy, must be old for the single reason she had a full head of white hair. My mother tried to explain she was...
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May 13, 2009
A few days ago, I was cleaning out the refrigerator trying to make space for groceries. It was an exercise in tightening up what was in there, throwing out leftovers no one came back for and getting the kids to drink that last drop in the milk carton. As...
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May 6, 2009
When I was pregnant with my daughter on Mother’s Day 1990, my sister, Dorothy, sent me a Mother’s Day card that read, “To the Mother to Be.” It was a sweet reminder of what was to come in just a few short months, though I knew I w...
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April 29, 2009
April showers bring May flowers, so the saying goes. In our family, April also brings a couple of birthdays. My husband, Jay, celebrated his 46th birthday April 7. It was a good reminder that while all birthdays have the potential to be memorable, not all...
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April 22, 2009
A few weeks ago, I took a bus to a brand new town and bought a house. I learned to shake money and apples out of trees while running from occasional swarms of bees. I spent my days catching butterflies and fishing from ponds, rivers and lakes that fed int...
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April 15, 2009
The day had all the appearances of spring. The dogwoods were in bloom and grass was growing thick and green after a long winter lying dormant. There was a chill in the air, as an April day in North Carolina can be known to have. My husband and I, still pr...
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April 8, 2009
One of the first things my husband and I did many years ago when we moved to our house here in Gibsonville was to attempt to tame the natural areas that surround our house. We spent many hours raking leaves, collecting sticks and cutting down thorny vine...
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April 1, 2009
The fall that I turned 6, I pored over the toys in the Sears Wish Book in anticipation of Christmas. I longed for Santa Claus to bring me some Fisher Price Little People sets. I added several sets to my Christmas wish list. Secretly I wanted all of them.
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March 25, 2009
In my adulthood, I have always been a coupon clipper with varying degrees of intensity. It’s always been fun to shop discount, thrift stores and yard sales or to find something my family needed at a deeply discounted price. About a year ago, I start...
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