Jo's Personal Blog at Blogger.com

Wednesday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Love

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:

Love

The Brief:

Love comes in varying shapes and sizes
I love you
I love ice cream
I love the smell of rain, Spring, toast
I love my (insert your family member, pet etc)
There is no right or wrong way to love....or is there?
Define what love means to you.

Love is a 4 letter word that can and to some does mean so much more than a 4 letter word. It means a variety of things from loving a song, colour, a food, a thing, a place, a pet and a person just to name a few of them. It also revolves over your lifetime as well. Something you love when you are aged 10 changes and as you grow some of the things you love drop off once you reach the age of 40, while others stay there but there are different types of love each of which has a different level of importance.

As I group these into types, remember these are MY types and levels and not everyone will feel the same way.

Hobbies & Everyday Items Type - Lowest

2 of my running trophies before I had to stop

The lowest type of "love" are for hobbies and everyday items such as chocolate, ice cream, shoes, songs, etc. These are the things we do love but if they ever went away, while we would feel the loss, it wouldn't bring you to your knees. Further, these are the items I'm talking about when I say love drops off and evolves overtime. Other types of love do this, but this is more frequent in this group. For instance, when I was under 15 years old, I loved to run. I would run to school and then run home...just to run. However, once I had injured first my back and then my knee and ankles, I still
loved to run, but just couldn't do it any longer. Do I love to run? You bet, but I can't. Another form would be chocolate and ice cream. I love both, but I have to regulate how much I eat, so I can't eat as much as I want (or else I'd get sick if nothing else!). I could survive without them, and I have done so in the past when I needed to regulate my sugar, however, I wouldn't want to go without. Besides, as I'm sitting here writing this article up, I'm eating some dark chocolate baking bits. YUM!

When you discover a new hobby or item, such as a new food you tried, and when you experience it or accomplish something is when you feel true love of this type.

Pets & Friends Type - Medium

This is in the middle as we have very close friends and some friends that we haven't seen in awhile, but the fact remains if they were to go away or die we'd feel a more severe heart ache because we do love them. The same goes for pets. Some people have pets and they go outside to feed and give them a quick pet. Whereas others, like myself, consider them family and they are a member of the family. When something happens to them, we have the same severe (or maybe even more so) than loosing a close friend. An example would be my friend Brian Sherry VanLeuven. I knew him from school and considered him a friend; however, when we lost him in 2013, it hurt and I was sad to know someone that young is gone. Another example would be when we lost our dogs JR (2004) and Jackie (2012). They were both our dogs, but JR was under 3 years old and Jackie as over 10 years old. They both hurt, but Jackie we let go due to diabetes complications as it was the thing to do. JR I still think of and mourn for but Jackie I am sad but know he's in a better place.

During better times, you have when you first meet the friend or pet or parties or celebrations for them are some examples of these times.

Family Type - High

Unfortunately, we only have one of these which for some people is a good thing and for some people is a bad thing. However, how much everyone within that family fights and doesn't get along with they are still joined by common genes, people and views on basic levels. Believe me, I don't have the closest of families, and have never even had a reunion or gathering because World War 3 would probably be a safer place, but we all still have the same genes and basic views on most things (please notice the world MOST).

Some family at my uncle's funeral

While I put the word most in there, there are sometimes very few things families look at the same way whereas sometimes you cannot mistaken they are family because they have the same outlook on all things. For instance, my father's a Republican and sends me (who's a Democrat for the most part) jokes about things against the Democrats. At first I told him not to send me those things, but he didn't take any notice of me. At first I was ticked off and annoyed, but rather than getting upset, I just delete them now. However, the fact is we both have strong views in politics, which is a common thing and that's ok. Another is my brother, myself and my nieces feel strongly about family and how close they should be. And if anyone in the family needed anything, we would help out as much and where we could and nothing would stop us. An example would be when my niece needed help after the hurricanes visited her multiple times in 2005. They needed a bit of help to get them up and going again, and my nieces took up a collection for her to help them out, which it did. It wasn't much but it was all we could do to help them out and they were very thankful.

Some good examples of this type are parties, celebrations, births and weddings are when you see each other during the better times.

Spouse/Partner & Children Type - Extremely High

This type are the people you are in direct contact with day in and out. If something happens to them, your whole world feels like it comes crashing down on you. This is the extreme love where your chest feels like its going to kill you because it hurts so much. I know all about the children loss when I didn't have a choice to have surgery because our baby was in the wrong spot in 2004. Your whole world just stops spinning and you just feel completely and utterly numb. Every day you think about the person - even if its just something small or in passing but it reminds you of the loss. True over the years the loss feels less but its still constantly with you no matter what.

1997 My husband's family at our wedding

Marriage, commitment or baptism ceremonies are probably the best examples of these types of good things in these types.

As you can see by my chart, there are different levels and types. They do vary but if they all still hurt when it comes to death or disassociation from them. On the other hand, which I don't think I've mentioned enough in this article, when you feel the love with these types its the best at the same time.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Sunday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Parents

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Parents

The Brief:

Names / Nick Names
Where were they from?
Where were they born? -
Were they migrants? Born somewhere else from where they were living
How did they meet?
Photos
Anything you want to share about your parents

My Mother's Growing Up
My mother had told me growing up that her real name was Joan Ann and when she became an adult, she put the names together to create Jo Ann which she had gone by since then. However, upon finding the 1940 census, I found that she was known as Joanne then. I think the person doing the census misspelled her name (which is common) on the form. Also, as you can tell by the census, my mother was born in Pike County in Pennsylvania in the US. Her parents names were Louise and Janet Gauquie and she was the oldest child of the marriage.

1940's census showing where Joanne & parents were living

In the 1950's, my grandfather and grandmother moved their family from Pennsylvania to Newburgh, New York. I believe my grandfather transferred from his job in one of the Pennsylvania railways to a job at a railway in Newburgh, New York.

My Father
My father's name is Matthew Gerald. He was born in New York City; however, my grandparents actually lived in Linden, New Jersey. His parents are Matthew and Jean (Genevieve/Genowefa) Schmitz. He was the oldest child of the marriage.

1940's census showing where Matthew & parents were living

My grandparents moved from Linden, New Jersey to Newburgh, New York after my grandfather got out of the US Army (in the Medical area) and made a gentleman's agreement to buy a Bar & Grill in Newburgh, New York. In the mid 1940's the family moved to Newburgh.

Nicknames
His mother, Jean, had a few names - born Genowefa in Poland, migrated to US and then went by Genevieve or Gennie. It wasn't until she married, that she went under the name of Jean. My father is named after his father Matthew. He has many names he uses - Matt and Jerry/Gerry are the top nicknames. My mother usually just refers to him as Hardass. In fact, growing up I didn't know my father's real name and it wasn't until after my mother overheard me telling someone that my father's name was Hardass, she sat me down and explained what his real name was.

January 1956 - Jo Ann & Matthew with his parents and brother, John

How My Mother & Father Met
Upon the move, I believe sometime in the 1950's my mother met my father and they married. I do know they were dating in January 1956, as is shown in this camera labelled date.

They stayed married until the mid-1970's when they divorced.

My Mother's Life After Divorce

My mother getting ready for work in 1996.

When my mother left my father, she had no real skills, so she tried to get a job that would pay anything, so we could have some place to live. My father would have Charlie live with him most of the time. However, this was not to last very long and in the 1980's, my brother came and lived with us until he moved out.

My mother eventually got a position as a factory working in Walden, New York. Its been several
names but two names that come to mind were Champion and AmPac, but everyone in Walden calls it The Bag Factory as they make the bags you buy to put gifts in for birthdays, special occasions and holiday. She worked there until she retired because of her knees in early 2000's.

My mother's also had some boyfriend's. There were very few in the first few years after the divorce, but eventually had a few long term relationships. The first long relationship was with Lyle Goldsmith, which lasted about 10 or so years. The other long relationship has been with Dave Weimer and this is her current relationship.

My mother and I in 2011

She loves her cigarettes, watching her crime TV and playing her online games. She does have a dog and loves dogs. Cats, as much as she likes them, she has allergies and they set them off. She used to drink; however, her stomach cannot deal with it since she reached her 60's.

My Father's Life After Divorce

My father and his second wife, Louise in 2011

My father kept the house we had lived in. In fact, he lived there until the 1990's and then moved. My father was single for a few years and remarried in the 1980's to a person called Louise. She had adult
children, so children were not a factor. They are still married today and have moved, like I mentioned, from Newburgh to Wallkill, New York.

As for employment, my father has his pension with the US Navy as he saw out his 20 years. After that he did some factory repair work with some employers. I do remember going to see him at his job with huge machines in Middletown, NY. He did that for a few years and then decided to slow down a bit. He did work for school districts where he ran the internal mail bags from school to school on a daily basis. He did this until he retired in the early 2000's.

My father in his suit for a VFW function in 2009

He loves the US Navy and the submarines and has been into serving via the VFW in different levels. He's also had memberships at the Black Rock Hunting Club for gun shooting and he was actually a registered gun trader until the 2000's. We also made bullets for the variety types of guns. In recent years he's slowing down and has given up formal VFW duties, but still goes to decommissioning of submarines and reunions.He does like his John Wayne and Elvis movies. He loves his dogs and his PT Cruiser.

My father and I in 2010.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Favourite Colour

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Favorite Colour

The Brief:

Do you have a favourite colour? and if so why?
Do you like vibrant colours or darker colours?
Do you associate anyone with a particular colour? If so who and why ?
Does your favourite colour reflect your personality?

Yes, I do have a favourite colour. I don't know why other than I like the colours I do. I do think I try and reflect my favourite colours when out of work or studying. Now that I've given you a bit about the colour, I better tell you what colours they are. They are shades of blues and greens. They make me feel restful and relaxed. The blues look good on me because of my blue eyes, but the greens are usually only around the house and remind me of the forest.

My husband likes greens, so when we even had to choose the colours for our wedding, it was a blue/green colour.

Our Wedding with the girls wearing the blue/green dresses

Our house colours were again blue/green to me but the place we went to and the husband both considered it tones of green.

Moving in day into our house with the green colour - kitchen & hallway

Even now, we have been talking over the colour to repaint the inside of the house, and again it was green or blue/green colour to make a reappearance. We have painted one room - the study - and the entry into the house, but really have to do the back part of the house where we have trialed colours and it looks pretty strange.

Our entryway into the house - notice the colour on the walls?

Our study - again - notice the colour on the walls?

I've always worn shades of blues because it highlights the colour in my eyes.

Jo at the Senior Prom in 1991.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Cars and Transport

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Cars and Transport

The Brief:

Did you have a car in your family whilst you were growing up?
What methods of transport were there? And what did you & your family typically use?
Your Driving Test
Where Did you learn? - Can you drive?
Your first car?
Your Favourite Car?
Do you name your cars?
Can you remember the registration details? And perhaps explain what the registration means.

The Family's Cars
This is an interesting topic as most of the time we've had cars in my family. My mother finally got her drivers license just before she left my father when I was under 4 years old. My father had the drivers license up until then. I can imagine it was very difficult for my mother up until she got her license as my siblings are all older than I am and we all know just how many accidents and cold children have.

After my mother left my father, we didn't have a car for years. Instead we walked from where we lived, outside of the main part of town, into town for school and work. I can still remember the winter when my mother and I got up and left to go to work and school and it was snowing like crazy out. There was that much snow, we had to walk in the road because people hadn't shoveled yet and it was half way up to my mother's chest and she stood about 5 foot 4 inches tall, so that goes to show you just how much snow there was. Anyhow, we stopped once to warm up in a small restaurant and get something warm to drink, and then continued on to school and work - only for both of them to be cancelled because of the snow. It wasn't long after we bought a car when I was about 8 years old.

On the other hand, my father had a car when I was that age (below is a visitation day when I was about 6 or 7). My father has always had a range of car. Currently, he's had his PT Cruiser which he loves.

Jo with her father's car in Newburgh, NY

My License & Cars
I received my first permit when I was 16 - as is common in the US. Because of my good grades, my mother's boyfriend, Lyle, bought me my first car - a used Chevy Citation(below) he got a great deal on - only cost him $500 US back in 1990.

My Chevy Citation in front of our apartment (middle 3 windows)

Upon being taught, I was driving down a very narrow and dirt road during either the summer or spring. I was going very slowly past parked cars on the road (they were on the right and there was just enough room on the left to pass them) and all of a sudden some idiot came down the driveway at a good speed and I saw it and stopped. Thankfully I did that or else I would have gotten T boned. The idiot stopped, looked up and his jaw dropped because he didn't even see me until then. Then he just continued on like there was nothing wrong with what he just did. However, with me being a beginner driver, I started to shake. I got us back home, went up to our apartment, opened the window and proceeded to rip up my permit and throw it out the window.

However, within a year, I knew I had to get my license in order to get a job and some freedom. Ever since then, I'm very careful with how I drive because of that. In 1990, I finally got my license.

I haven't had that many cars in my driving time. Like I mentioned above, my first car was a Chevy Citation. I was going to take my drivers test in that one; however, on the day I was to go take it, it started to rain and my wipers wouldn't work, so I ended up having to take my mother's Isuzu Pup truck instead. I never drove this car/truck at all, so I was really nervous because of the parking involved, not being used to the car/truck and the rain. I drove the the testing site to get used to the truck before the test - a 20 minute drive is all I had. Then I went through the test, and passed. Shocked both myself and my mother that's for sure!

Jo's Drivers License results

Since then, I've had a Nissan Sentra which we got while I was at college in the early 1990's. However, once I left and moved to Australia, my mother's boyfriend was driving it about 3 years later and the tie rod broke and made the car undriveable.

I drove my husband's Holden Commodore when I first moved to Australia and then later his 2 Ford station wagons, before I had enough saved to get myself a my first car. I was driving on my international drivers license and by 1998 or 1999 I got my Australia license, and I bought a
Daihatsu Charade II (below). I bought it from a used car yard. It did fairly well and lasted about 4 years. When pump's, and other major stuff started to go wrong, we decided to go and get either new cars or almost new cars as it seemed as we were always fixing them.

Jo's Diahatsu Charade II on the car lot where she bought it

In 2007, I bought my Toyota Yaris. I paid for it brand new and drove it off of the car yard.

Picture after Jo drove it home for the first time

I still have this one even after it was vandalized later in 2007 at a train station (below).

The back of the car after it was vandalized

Then in 2012, when I was on my way to an appointment, a young girl wasn't paying attention and decided to hit my car with the front of her car (and I did my best to avoid it by pulling out of the way but wasn't completely successful - if I hadn't done that my car would have been wiped out).

Moments after the accident - a picture I used for the insurance claim

Anyhow, my car was fixed and I'm back on the road since then.

Keep Safe & Happy Traveling!

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Monday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Daily Routine(s)

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

The feeling of home

The Brief:

Do you have a daily routine?
Did your parents? Grandparents?
Why did they (or you ) have this routine?
Where did this routine take place?
Structure - Is this important to you? or your family?

My mother on her way to work

My mother thrived on having a routine. She left 2 hours early to get to work as a shift worker at the local bag shop. She worked one week during the day and the next week in the afternoon and evenings. If she was home, we would have dinner at 4:30pm in the afternoon and then watch News and entertainment shows in the early evening.

My father, I could never see a routine. Most of the time on Sundays, when it was his allotted custody time for having me, he would do 1 of 3 things - forget and not show up (and my mother being my mother would have me up and dressed by 8am waiting for him and I wasn't to move from the couch or chair) - would call in mid afternoon saying he wasn't coming - and lastly, he showed up at different times to get me. The last, unfortunately, would happen more when I was younger, but as I was growing up, he did the first two quite often. By the time I was 8-10 years old (I can't exactly remember the age), I had enough and told them I wasn't going to be doing it any longer. If my father wanted to see me, he could call and see if I was busy.

My grandmother, before her death, always took me during the summer. I think this helped my mother out with what to do with me over the long US summer breaks.

As you can see, I never really had a daily routine. If anything my routine was around moving. Every 3 or so years we would moved from one place to another. This continued until I graduated from high school and then it was only because I don't think my mother could figure out where else to move us. Once I moved to Australia, within months, my mother moved once again within the state of NY. I think she was having moving withdrawals. Even today she moves about every 4 or so years and she's in her 70's.

I did try and create a routine as I had always heard of bedtimes, but when I tried to do this, my mother kept asking me why I was going to bed when I did. After about a year I gave up trying.

The only thing that was a given was the time I spent outside. When the street lights came on, I had to be in the house.

There are many more but I couldn't find a better picture than this

If anything, out of our household, the only one that works on a daily routine is the dog, Buddy. He "needs" his breakfast of wet dog food between 6:30-9am. Then when he sees us eat our lunch, he goes in and has his "lunch" by eating his dry dog food. When he sees me in the kitchen in late afternoon or early evening, he knows I'm making dinner and wanders in looking a me and this is his hint for his wet food "dinner". We eat and then when my husband is doing the dishes, Buddy watches him and when he's done he gets his treat for the night. Even when I head towards bed later at night he

Our doggies in 2007 Jackie (left) and Buddy (right)

knows its bedtime and he gets under the covers and cuddles with me. If both of us go out the door, he knows he gets his treat and barks at us and even has stood between us and the front door to make sure he gets his treat. This is every day. If we try to go away from this (as we had this routine because of another dog, Jackie, had diabetes and that was how we controlled giving him his insulin shot) to something even a bit normal like one bit of food a day, and we've tried both morning and night, he jumps all over us, wakes us up, and barks at us until we give him his tiny bits of food.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Friday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - The feeling of home

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

The feeling of home

The Brief:

Home means different things to different people, so this week we are going to explore what it means to us

What does it feel like?
How do you recognize it?
What makes it home - people, place, time

The most common phrase I always hear is "Home is where the heart is". Growing up, I didn't understand this concept. Even now, I think I understand it but it still feels foreign to me. This is confusing and I'll like to warn you, not everyone (within my family) will be happy to read some of the things below, but its what I feel.

I believe that home is what you make of it. Growing up, we had a place to live...and I visited my father on Sundays. Home? That is probably what I made out of those 2 places. That being said, we moved every 3-5 years when I was growing up, so once I started to feel comfortable, I guess would be the name of it, it would be time to move once again.

Early 1990s with a small group of my friends

Fast forward this to high school, and what I realized was that my physical address and the people in it might change, but my friends in school that were around me almost never did. If anything, there always seemed to be a few people that didn't belong any place so we accepted them into the group of us. There was one year when we moved from one part of the state to another, but that only lasted for about a year and then I went back to the original school and most of the group was still around, although people were changing and the one group was splitting bit by bit, but no matter what if anyone needed us we were all there for them.

We had a few issues within the family and then there was college at the local college I went to. The old group in school went their own ways and it seemed like I made what I could out of it. Made some new friends and learned quite a bit about relationships. In fact, one of the classes I took, psychology 101, actually went over relationships and why they are formed, etc. For me this was great because I started to understand people within the family and what they do and the reasons behind the way the groups and people were in high school. Interesting and informative.

By the time I was ready to complete my Associates Degree, I understood living compared to feeling accepted. Unfortunately I had both my in my life which is why I've always had the problem understanding the difference between a house to a home and the statement "Home is where the heart is" and I understand why.

A house can be a place you live and existing with common people which you have a relationship with. A home is where you find yourself completely accepted for who you are without reservation or judgement. This is why the term home is so difficult to understand for some people - if you don't have those types of relationships with a group of people then you wouldn't fully understand those statements.

Did I have a family that cares for me? Yes, but I never truly got the feeling as they accepted me completely and without reservations. They took care of me and made sure I had food, and a roof over the head, but the feelings? That's another story.

A few years ago - a group of my friends and I from high school

Over the last 10 plus years, I've reconnected with some of my friends in high school. The best thing about it is it feels like it hasn't been those many years since we last saw each other. It was great to feel that relaxed around people I grew up around.

So do I have a home? Yes, I believe once we got married, we truly have a home where everyone is welcome (to a degree which is a long and personal story), but everyone must be accepted and respected above all else because our family and friends which walk through the door are loved because of these things and that IS what a home is. I know as a person, all I've ever wanted was to be completely accepted.

Us in front of our home

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Hobbies & Collections

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Childhood Hobbies & Collections

The Brief:

Did you share a "passion" with a family member or friend?
Tell us about it - How, why, where
Do you still have any old hobbies - the ones that have been with you since childhood?
Do you still have those childhood collections?

I had many hobbies and collections growing up. Both of which has stayed with me in some respect throughout my life up until now. Sometimes there was a break from doing them, but I've always gone back to what I like and love to do.

Hobbies
I had many of these growing up. This was always a challenge because we never had any extra money really laying around, so you had to be creative and think a bit out of the box.

TV - I loved my television. From Soaps (Ryan's Hope - how many remember that one!) to the "newest" TV shows (like Buck Rogers, Mork & Mindy) to sports (Got to love the Yankees!) I just loved it. I was always entertained and later intrigued by how they could tell stories from different angles and make them seem soo real and believable. During summer, the Yankees were the one think I looked forward to watching no matter what.

Dogs and Puppies - I've always loved pets. Over the years we've had many different types of dogs, many stray cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and many gold fish that never seemed to last long. However, it was a common theme to always have some type of pet running around. The only time I hadn't had a pet was when we moved during my senior year of high school until I moved out and got married (about 5-6 years) and that was only due to where we lived wouldn't allow us to have pets. In fact, when we moved into the apartment, we had to give the 2 pekinese dogs we had up which was really sad. Since I married, we had dogs once we moved into our own house.

My library card from elementary school and a reading award

Reading - Reading I've done since I could string sentences together. In fact, I used to help out at the library in elementary school. Most kids wanted to go outside and run around and,I wanted, and usually asked, to go to the library. You know its a sad day when in 5th grade my homeroom was across the hall from the library and I was excited about it because it wasn't very far to the library. Everyone else was complaining because of the stairs. In fact, once I read just about every book at the elementary school, I took up going to the local library and checking books out from there. I went there almost every day after school just to sit and read.

The local public library where I grew up

Throughout the years, I've read many types of stories - from Planet of the Apes (now that's one think and heavy book!) to romances and sci fi. In fact, during the early part of the 2000's, I used to do book
reviews for Harlequin Mills & Boon here in Australia. It was great because I got to read books before the hit the shelves and was able to give great feedback on them. It helped the hip pocket because by this time I was buying my books.

In fact, in the past 10 or so years, I've been tossing up if I should try and write my own book, but for now its just that - a passing thought.

Running - When I was in elementary school, I lived at the edge of town and would walk to school. One day I took up jogging and then followed that up by running. It was great and I loved to do it because it cleaned out the head and actually made me relax. First, I started to help out more with family and then I hurt my back and it hurt to run, so I stopped. However, this brought me to my next hobby - Bike Riding.

One of my results of running growing up

Bike Riding - I took this up more once I realized it didn't hurt my back as much as running did. I did have a bike but if I had to choose I'd choose running over using a bike. However, that was taken from me, so I rode my bike. In fact, it was great because I liked it and I could get over to help out with family (as we now lived in town but they lived out of town - around in farm fields back then) and I could take my bike (a ten speed) and ride it over to help out.

Swimming - I learned how to swim by going to the local pond and watching others and then going to the library and reading about it. Then by the time summer came, I knew how to swim and I wouldn't feel left out of being able to do what the other kids my age did. It worked and it didn't cost anything which was even better.

Collections

Baseball Cards - When I got to the 4th grade, one of the teachers shared with us baseball cards. I never knew about them and they intrigued me with all the information that was contained on them. Once that happened, I started to save some but as this cost money we just didn't have, I had to be careful on what I could afford to buy. Because of this, my collection never got big but I do still have some of these cards. They are in our our garage some place.

Stamp collection - Stamps didn't cost too much, but I would get books out of the library and read all about them. Because of this I did collect some and I just went around asking people to save the stamps. After awhile I realized those stamps didn't actually contain much money in saving, so I stopped. However, during my teens when I started to work, I did join a stamp collection group at the US Postal Service. I still have these today and my husband complains because they are so odd shaped they are hard to put in the book cases.

Some of my stamp collection

My 14K gold Elvis stamp from my dozen or so 14k stamps

As I grew up, I developed more hobbies like picture taking, baking, cooking and driving - just to name a few!

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - First Present or Gift

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

First Present or Gift

The Brief:

Can you remember it?
Who bought it for you?
Do you still have it?
Pictures or a description
Other special gifts?

I've talked a bit about what I remember about some of my presents when I was small in my posting about Toys and Games growing up a few posts ago.

This time, however, its about my first presents and gifts. One of my first presents was what we affectionately call "my baby" (see picture below). This was given to my mother and I when I was born and it had flowers coming out of it. I don't know who gave it to me as a gift. As you can see, I still have it, although it has seen better days with all the cracks and breaks. Over the years its been glued, taped and tried to use silly putty trying to keep it together. Since moving into our current home, nearly 14 years ago, its sat on the shelf in the back room with other things that mean a lot to us. This is one of the few things I have of my childhood and cherish it dearly.

My "baby" from one of the first presents I ever got

Up until the time I was making plans to move from the US to Australia in 1996-1997, I had a baby book as well. My mother handed it to me and I put it with other important papers. In late 1996, I visited Australia to see what it was like, what it would be like living here, and other related things. We were about 95% sure I would be the one moving, but I wanted to make sure I could live here. There's nothing like experiencing where you'd be living in. During that trip, I brought over my baby book which my eldest sister, Theresa, filled out mostly for me. However, I hadn't gone through it due to not having the time. My mother handed it to me right before I got on the plane for the visit. I brought it along because I figured I'd leave it here in Australia, so that way nothing would happen to it.

One of the few pictures of me growing up

Little did I know, that someone would come into my soon to be father in law's house, walk into my fiancee's room and start a fire. This fire would claim my baby book and most of my childhood photos. This devastated me because little of my childhood that I knew about was in that book and was just - gone.

1997 a write up in the local newspaper about the fire

However, I had to pull up my grown up pants and move on to what was important - my fiancee, things like shelter, food, and clothing. Then approximately 2 weeks later, we married.

My husband and I on our wedding day in 1997.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.