Showing posts with label Cindy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cindy. Show all posts

Friday, July 2, 2010

THE BAND GIVES A PRIVATE PERFORMANCE AND MRS. BIRD MARCHES TOO

Every year the Timpview High School band marches around our neighborhood in preparation for the 4th of July parade. This is the woman who makes sure this happens. She emails the band teacher and tells him how we are looking forward to their pre-4th of July practice parade. Thank you, CindyThe shadows on the mountains were still long from the morning sun. The neighbor's geranium was probably happy to get those first rays. The only thing better than a private neighborhood band parade would be for them to be wearing their uniforms. We will have to brave the real parade heat/crowds/sometimes rain/noise/confusion for that.

The 4th of July, there isn't another holiday like it!

Here comes the band. The band marched around "the circle" twice. Here is the neighborhood gang, waiting for them to come around again. Every year our neighbors have a grandchild just this size. How do they manage it? Here he is following the band. He's patriotic that way.And I heard from Mrs. Bird. As she was getting dressed--she only had her pajama bottoms on--when the patriotic mood got to her too. She started marching down the hall. Now, Mrs. Bird was a drum majorette in her high school years so she has skills--she is also well endowed and gravity seems to have given her a reprieve. The feather duster was tossed in the air and caught just as her husband came in the house.

The 4th of July has many perks. The parade, celebrations, the Art festival downtown, vendors selling ethnic foods of all kinds, the hot air balloons that fill Fox Field and then the sky, family picnics and barbecues, the Stadium of Fire, Fireworks, and private marching expeditions for one.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

IT'S WEDNESDAY AND I RECEIVED A WEDNESDAY GIFT

Years ago, I started a tradition of giving my girls Wednesday gifts. Things that weren't big, just something fun or cute or useful, maybe even something as little as a heat resistant spatula for the kitchen or a lip gloss. I called them Wednesday gifts because for some reason the first few happened to be purchased or given on a Wednesday. They didn't get a gift every Wednesday or even one Wednesday a month, just whenever.

My girls have even given me Wednesday gifts. What fun for me. And today, my neighbor, Cindy, gave me a Wednesday gift. The cutest Santa you ever saw. (I MUST learn how to post pictures.) Plus a book. How lucky am I? Not that getting gifts is lucky but having Cindy for a friend, who know exactly what would surprise and please me and then making sure it came on a Wednesday--that's lucky. I have such a good friend, within spitting distance, (that is if I spit or if she did. I don't. Well, not when anyone is looking and I'm pretty sure she doesn't spit, even if nobody ever looked. She's that kind of non-spitting girl.)

Anyway, I have lots of Wednesday friends, people who give to me just because. They send me emails. How I love emails. They call me on the phone. They stop by. That has got to be my favorite kind of a friend, the stopping-by ones. People that know they are welcome at any hour of the day or night. They stop by just because. Last Christmas two friends stopped by, one because I had said in an email that I was in a major meltdown and the other one just knew something was wrong. I'm sure it was the whispering of the Holy Ghost that told her I needed her. They both held my hands and told me everything would be all right. They were both here at the same time and I will never forget that day and my two good friends if I live to be one hundred.

Come to think of it, as I read other people's blogs, look at their photographs, glimpse into their lives, laugh or are awed by the tough things they go through, the loneliness, the illness, the worry over children or other family members and all those things are a gift to me, on a Wednesday or any other day. I see strength that I want in my own life, I see compassion and I see humor. There are some incredible funny people out there. Some can make me laugh with one line, others have me laughing paragraph after paragraph.

Many gifts for me today. This Wednesday. Thank you, my dear friend, Cindy and my other friends. Seen and unseen. Those of you within spitting distance and those from the nether parts. I wish I had a Wednesday gift for each of you but since I don't please know that I appreciate you and wish you well, this Wednesday.