Dear Peter,

Hi! I hope you are doing well. I am fine, but I have been very
busy with school, work, illness of the kiddos,etc... It seems like I don't
have enough time.

I know that God gives us 24 in a day, but my 24 hours
doesn't seem to be "stretching" far enough. LOL... :-) There are so many
things going on, and events that are still scheduled to happen. I am
beginning to have to "pick and choose" which ones to do. I have a party
planned for April 22nd. I am planning a wedding anniversary gift for Dear
sister and brother in law.
That will take time and money, another thing that I can't seem to
stretch.... :-)

I could schedule the first weekend in May to work on the gift, because I
want to get it to them BEFORE their actual anniversary. However, that is
also the National Karate Tournament in Oklahoma. I am
pretty sure I can afford the gift, but I don't think I can afford to go to
Oklahoma. That following weekend is the ending program for our homeschool
group, however it is also the weekend for the homeschool book fair in
Arlington. My family and I REALLY want to attend. I have already made that
decision. I am skipping the ending program. So, that means IF I went to
Oklahoma I would have to fund the entire trip, probably including car
rental. (See what I mean?) :-)

Time is also working against me. We need to paint the school room. The red
just isn't doing it for us. I want to go with a pretty light blue. I am
hoping the light, cool shade will help dear older nephew focus more. (Hey,
I can
hope..) :-) And HE helped pick the color! Anyway, with all of the events
and money stuff I won't have
the $$ until the 3rd week in May. Problem is that between mine and
"John's"
schedule "John" won't be able to paint until August! It's too hot in
August,
and homeschool group starts in August.


Sorry to make this e-mail a "downer". I guess I just needed to vent a
little. :-) Tell Tink and the Lost Boys I said, "Hello". Gotta run.

Love,
Wendy Darling

Dear Peter,

How are you today? I hope you are well. I thought I would write and tell you about something I am excited about. I have discovered a new TV channel that I just LOVE! It is called American Life TV Network. This is what TV Land SHOULD be. (and was at one time.) My family recently "upgraded" our cable. I never knew this channel existed, but it is wonderful. This shows all of the old shows that I used to watch, and even some before my time. :-) Shows like "Chico and the Man", "Welcome Back Kotter", "77 Sunset Strip", "I'll Fly Away" and "Homefront", "OUr Gang". These are the shows the whole family could watch.

If you want to check it out go here: http://www.goodtv.com/ In my opinion the only thing that could make it better would be adding the old variety shows like "Sonny and Cher", "Donny and Marie" and "Hee Haw". :-)

OK, I know I sound crazy, but I love these old shows. I wish TV Land would follow suit and go back to the old lineups they had in the beginning. SOme of the shows now are ok. "Little House...", "Andy Griffith" and "Good Times" are cool, but I can only take so much "Cheers". What about "The Hardy Boys?" "Nancy Drew?" "The Waltons?" "Leave it to Beaver?" "Father Knows Best?" Where are these old shows?

If I ever get rich I would love to buy my own independent network. My "dream" channel if you will. I would show the above mentioned shows as well as the following...

1. I Married Joan

2. My Little Margie

3. Palmerstown, U.S.A.

4. Family

5. Call to Glory (I know it only lasted one season, but I really liked it)

6. Ozzie and Harriet

7. Burns and Allen

8. Sha Na Na

9. Mickey Mouse Club

10. The old Hanna Barberra Cartoons

There are so many more, but these were the first to come to me. How about you? If you could have your "Dream" channel which 10 would you put on there? List the ones that are not on TV now.
(i.e. "Cosby", "Happy Days", etc...) Go for the ones no one thinks of that we/you loved. :-)

I look forward to reading your list.

Love,
Wendy Darling

Dear Peter,

I am foregoing your letter this evening because I have been "tagged" and now I have to answer some silly questions sent to me by a friend. I will talk to you soon. :-)

Love,
Wendy Darling

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was behind you?
Me in the mirror on the back of the door.

2. How much cash did you spend yesterday?
About $18.00 (my dinner plus tip).

3. What's a word that rhymes with mist?
list.

4. Favorite planet, on which you would live, if you could?
Hey, I've been teaching about the Solar System long enough to know that I want to stay on Earth!

5. Who is the last person you kissed?
The little girl I baby-sit. She fell down and I "kissed her bo-bo on her forehead)

6. What is your favourite ring on your phone?
Fly Me to the Moon.

7. What is the last band shirt you wore?
Does Shaun Cassidy count? :-)

8. What do you think of yourself?
I'm okay. :-)I would be my friend.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing?
Reebok

10. Night light or pitch black?
Night light, please.

11. What do you think about the (previous) person who took this?
"He Ain't Heavy, he's my brother." LOL... :-)

12. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Watching American Idol that I recorded earlier.

13. What did your last text message say that you received?
I don't get text messages.

14. Where is the nearest Valero?
About a block away, I think.

15. What's something that you say a lot?
I love you.

16. Who told you they loved you last?
My dear older nephew.

17. Last furry thing you touched?
teddy bear

18. How many drugs have you done in the past 3 days?
I took some advil 2 days ago.

19. Favourite age you have been so far?
37

20. Your worst enemy?
Satan

21. What is your current desktop picture?
nephew in his gi (he takes karate).

22. What was the last thing you said to someone?
After being asked, "what are you doing?" I replied, "Answering questions for my blog."

23. How do you like your eggs?
Don't really like them. BUT, if I HAVE to eat them I want them scrambled with cheese on them.

24. Do you like someone?
Sure, but not romantically :-)

25. The last song you listened to?
Surf City by the Beach Boys

Dear Peter,

How are you doing? I hope you are well. I am pondering a question this evening and I hope you can help me. What is it with boys not wanting to bathe? Seriously, you can hint, ask, tell and threaten a boy to take a bath/shower, and he will do everything in his power not to do it. Why!? I had to become the "meanie" today with my dear older nephew. He was told, told mind you, to take a shower and wash his hair. It smelled! Did we tell him that? No, we said, "It is time to take a shower, so go take it". I bet he barely stood under the water. Do boys think it is toxic? We then got rude and said, "You stink! Go take another shower, use soap and wash your hair!" He had the audasity to argue! We had to threaten to actually bathe him ourselves if he did not go back and wash. I guess the embarassment of this would have been too much, because he did go back and shower properly. "Mean Aunt Wendy"! I know we are not the only ones dealing with this. I know other people who have trouble getting boys to bathe properly. Maybe I don't understand because I am female. I don't know. All I know is that now I am "Mean Aunt Wendy", and he smells better and is resting comfortably. I guess I don't mind being known as mean as long as I get those results.

Tell the Lost Boys I said, "Hello", and don't forget to wash behind your ears.

Love,
Wendy Darling

10 songs, old or new, that I am enjoying right now. (A task given to me by Princess Ladybug) :-)


Well, I have been digging out the "oldies but goodies" lately. SO, here are my 10 in no particular order.

1. Sweet Home Alabama -Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree... Glenn Miller's Orchestra
3. Desperado- The Eagles
4. Third Rock from the Sun-Joe Diffy
5. Old Time Rock and Roll-Bob Seager
6. At Last-Etta James (THE ONLY GOOD VERSION)
7. Shadow Dancing-Andy Gibb
8. Dream Lover-Bobby Darren
9. Could I have this Dance- Anne Murray
10. Cocomo (sp?)-Beach Boys

As you can see I like a lot of different kinds of music. I could not pick just one absolute "favorite" song. There are WAY too many that I really enjoy for different reasons.

Love
Wendy

Dear Peter,

I hope you are doing well. I thought I would write and tell you about something else that happened this weekend. As you know dear older nephew spent last week with his Mom in Dallas. I had the week to get some things done and relax, a little.

I also got in the mood to sew this weekend. That happens every once in a while. I pick it up, and put it down (unfinished) :-), a few times a year. This time I decided to go the EASY route, literally. I picked up a pattern for a really basic dress for girl size 3-8. It says EASY on the Simplicity pattern. I picked up some very pretty pastel pink and pastel green fabric for $1 a yard. I got the fusible web and headed home to make my creation. That is when I remembered why I don't like sewing.

First I have to wash the fabric, iron it, fold it and cut off the strings. Then we come to the pattern. WHY do they make patterns from tissue paper? You have to cut it out, iron it, pin it to the fabric exactly like it is on the picture and cut it out, praying you pinned it right. I can't remember what to do with the little points going "in" on the pattern. Am I supposed to cut those out or make them go up on the fabric? I can't remember, so I just cut straight across. I then read the directions, again, for the umpteenth time. Did I say the name of this pattern was EASY by SIMPLICITY? I managed to get the front and back sewn together at the shoulders and the fusible web ironed onto the collar pieces. I then tried for 1 hour to figure out what to do next. During this I realized I sewed one of the back pieces on backwards.

After awhile I decided, "I think I will just take piece #5, the front, which is in one piece and cut it twice. I will stitch the neckline and armholes to finish them off. Then I will just sew up the shoulders and seams and do the hem. Done, a cute little play dress for little girl I babysit. Good idea except that that is when I realized I did not have enough fabric. So, that is where it was left. A partially done green dress in a bag, 1 1/2 yard of pretty pink fabric in the bag, and the pattern, folded, in a bag. Then I took a nap. :-) I plan to go to Wal Mart tomorrow for more fabric. I will let you know if I ever finish this dress. :-)

Tell Tink and boys I said, "HI". BTW, have you seen Captain Hook lately?

Until next time,
Wendy Darling

Hello Peter :-)

I hope all is well in Neverland. I thought I would tell you a story about my morning. I call it "The Quest for the Perfect Chair". I am in need of a very sturdy, straightback chair to exercise in. It has to be sturdy enough to 1) hold me, and 2) allow me to pull on the legs with my elastic restraints without breaking.

My quest began at around 6:45 am. My sister and I dropped "John" off at work. We had our list of 4 garage sales to hit. The first began at 7:00 am, and was the furthest one away. It took us a little time to find it. For some reason the roads in East Texas are not always in numerical order. We were looking for CR 3406. Traveling down the road we see a sign for CR 3405. Okay, we should turn right at the next road. Ah, you would THINK that wouldn't you? That's what we thought. We see the road, slow down and look at the sign. CR 3407... huh? did we miss it? We must have missed it. So, we turn around, make a U-turn and attempt this again. Here we go...CR 3405 .... look for the next road...nothing... then CR 3407. What? OK, maybe they are out of order. 2 miles later we find CR 3406. We get to the garage sale, and there is a beautiful dining room table with 6 chairs. They are sturdy, but I don't want the whole set. They are not willing to break up the set. I inquire how much they want for the whole thing. $100!? We look around to see if there is anyhting we can't live without. We find a "Guestures" game. We already have this game, but one piece does not work. I open it, and everything seems in good order. Oh well, for $1 I am willing to give it a shot, so we will have a working game. :-)

We get in the car and head to the next garage sale. It is now almost 7:30 am. My sister and I both give in and admit we are VERY hungry. We decide to go to Sonic and get Breakfast Burritos. My sister gets a diet Pepsi, and I get a Strawberry Smoothie. Neither of us eat the tator tots. We feel that we made a good choice, since we were both eyeballing the Donut Palace right across the street, but we didn't give in. :-) We eat our burritoes and head to the next garage sale.

We find this one easily. My sister immediately spots a large bag of Mega Bloks Legos. Perfect for the little one I babysit, and the younger dear nephew when he visits. I look at the tag...$3. SOLD. We continue to look around. Way in the corner I see THE chair. The perfect chair I have been hunting for. I look, but there is no price tag. My sister goes to the lady and asks, "is the chair in the corner for sale?" "No, I am sorry. That was brought out for us to sit in. It was my Grandmother's, and I just can't sell it." I am disappointed, but I understand. My sister spies two 13 inch TV's. That would be perfect for our older dear nephew to have for his PS1. It is $20. We decide there is no room for it, so we leave it on the table. I purchase the Legos and we are off to the next garage sale.

The third is only a few blocks away. We get there in just a few minutes. We find nothing there, so we leave.

The fourth garage sale is about a 10 minute drive. My sister and I are dicussing our purchases, and expressing our disappointment over not being able to find a chair. We reach the next garage sale. We notice there is no furniture, but we look around anyway. What is that on the table? A Leap Pad, with books and cartridges. It is in very nice condition. The tag says $3. That would be good for the little ones as well. And here is a nice book for the older dear nephew. :-) So, I make my purchases.

That is all 4 garage sales on the list, so we head home. On the way we see another sign for a yard sale. This one was not listed in the paper. We are already here, so we decide to give it a shot. We pull into the drive way. I get out and look, but see no chairs. I start to turn around, but something catches my eye. An orange box. It has a brand new Detail Shrubber in it. Black and Decker, that is supposed to be a good brand. I decide not to make this a wasted trip, so I purchase it. Every year for 6 years we have said we were going to buy one, and we still haven't. So, this will solve that. I pay my $8 and leave.

Once we get home my sister and Mom make a trip to the store. While they are out my sister decides that dear nephew NEEDS that TV, so they go back to the garage sale and purchase it. :-)

I am now $15 poorer, and still have no chair. But, I had fun and the people I love have the things they "need", so it was worth it. :-) My quest for the perfect chair continues..... I'll let you know when I find it. :-)

Have a great day, Peter.
Love,
WEndy Darling

Hello, Peter :-)

I trust you are doing well. I have not had too much to write about lately, so I thought I would just drop you note to say, "Hi" and tell you about my day. I spent my day mostly running errands. My dear nephew is visiting his mom this week. The young lady I homeschool canceled on me today. The little girl I babysit did not come either, so Mom and I finished the cards we have been making. She made hers for one of her cousins, and I made one for my brother in-law. (But, don't tell him about it, because it is a secret) :-)

I spent time with Mom on Saturday looking for the photos she needed for her card, and I reorganized my photos. I love looking through photos, because you get to relive so many wonderful memories. Some are not so wonderful, but if you didn't have the bad memories you would not appreciate the good ones, right? :-)

I have found two quotes that I just love, and I have been using them in my journaling. The first is, "Every family tree produces a few nuts." Well, I do not have to tell you this fits our family! The other is, "We don't remember the dates, we remember the moments." I really like this one. My brother "John" and I were talking the other night about our childhood. We were trying to recall some songs that our Daddy used to really like. The ones he would play a lot. We remembered, "Wooly Bully", "Disco Duck" and "Wipe Out". We remembered that he liked a lot more, but we couldn't really recall. I remember our weekends. We would spend all day on Saturday at Little League football games. Then Sunday mornings we would all clean the house with the song "Luv Ya Blue" playing on the stereo really loud. We would eat junk food and watch the Houston Oilers play.

Sometimes Mom and Daddy would surprise us and take us to a drive in movie. We would all be in our pj's and Mom and Daddy would put us in the car. There would be brown bags of popcorn on the seats for us. My sister and I would sit on the ground next to the car, something that we would not dare do today. It was such a great time then. I remember the smell of Jade East cologne. I remember "Mister Misty's" from Dairy Queen, and Mom taking us to the park for picnics. Sometimes she would order a pizza and we would take that for our picnic. I remember going out to eat every Thursday night, because that was the day Daddy got paid. I remember Monopoly championships. :-) It all seems so long ago, and yet it seems like yesterday. :-)

I remember watching Sha Na Na on Monday nights before Girl Scout meetings, and Little House on the Prairie. Tuesday night was Happy Days and Lavern and Shirley. Friday night was Donnie and Marie. Saturday morning there was a plethra of cartoons to choose from. Sid and Marty Kroft rocked! Sunday night was the Hardy Boys. That was back when you could actually let children watch Prime TV.

I remember my sister and I sharing a room. We would listen to "Mystery Theater" on the radio. I was always secretly glad that we shared a room, because the show scared me, and she seemed to never be scared. I remember we would set up a Kool-Aid stand on the corner and then walk to the 7-11 to spend all of the money we made on candy. Those are good memories. :-) I just thought that I would share a few with you. Tell the Lost Boys I said, "Hello".

I will talk to you soon.
Wendy Darling