I saw RED.......Thursday

This is a framed picture of my Mom and Dad taken before their 50th Wedding Anniversary. My mother is almost 94 years old now and she lives with us. My father passed away 9 years ago. He served in WWII, hence the patriotic picture frame.

This red lampshade is in our great room and it compliments
a chair and the pillows that are on our couches. I think that
I bought it at Ross or TJ Maxx about 4 years ago at a rather inexpensive price.

Here is my Red Wednesday picture for the "I saw RED" challenge on Sara's blog at Sadie Olive. I'm having so much fun doing this, I can't believe it! I've NEVER done anything like this before and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The picture I'm including for today is a vintage pair of Little Red Riding Hood (love their sweet and delicate faces) salt and pepper shakers that my mother had when I was a child. She saved them and now I have them on display (safely behind a glass panel) in my kitchen. She also had a cookie jar to match the shakers, but she doesn't remember what happened to it! As I've stated before, I'm not crazy about the color RED, but this challenge has given me a chance to really see and appreciate the various colors around me. Thanks, Sara, for the challenge~~~hence, nudging me to stop and take in the colorful beauty I usually take for granted every day.

RUBY TUESDAY
Necessity is the Mother of Invention....And I'm Very Needy!
Thank you Sprint~~~~
Thank you Nicole by O P I for Stolen Kisses and I'm Not Really a Waitress~~~~

This is the first official day of Sara's RED challenge and I must say that I've come across several things around my house that are red. I'm not overly fond of the color RED, and I really don't have a whole lot that is RED, but what I do have has special meaning to me. The cute vintage teenage girls and record player were put on several birthday cakes as I was growing up. My mom rarely threw anything away, so I came across these darling pieces to include in my challenge. The "Happy Birthday" bag is a current item and I thought that I would include it because of its RED color. The following picture and post were included Sunday night when I first read about the challenge.

This is my first post for the "I saw RED" challenge on Sara's blog Sadie Olive. This is an adorable picture of my 15 month old grandson, Brandt, eating RED watermelon in a RED shirt.

Our eyes were too big for our bedroom or the Incredible Shrinking People!

As many of you know, John and I bought a second home in Tucson to be closer to our "kids". Because of this new adventure, we/I have been "collecting" stuff to put into the Tucson house~~therefore, my Chandler house looks a bit crowded with furniture, etc. Our house is so crowded that some of the "stuff" has spilled into our nice, big garage forcing me to leave my car parked outside! It is because of this that I wanted to bring our "new" bedroom suite into the house and put our present bedroom furniture into the garage (the newer furniture is quite big and takes up a lot of garage space). So.........I told John that we needed an "accent" wall which I wanted painted a darker color than the other walls in the bedroom. I picked out the paint and we/he painted the wall. The color is okay (I still can't pick out colors from those small chips). After painting the accent wall, John and our neighbor hauled in the headboard, foot board, and two nightstands. Oh, I forgot to tell you that this "new" bedroom furniture is from a model home estate sale and we got a great deal on it (we are poor so I spend a lot of time at garage sales and estate sales). I had to sub the day of the estate sale, so John somewhat willingly braved the tag-pulling, beady-eyed lunatics and went to the sale for me. Originally I just wanted him to pick up some pictures and stuff that would easily fit into a nice size clear plastic tub/box. We had seen pictures of the bedroom furniture the night before the sale posted on the estate sale website. He told me that he would look at the furniture and decide if he wanted it and that was fine with me. After numerous calls back and forth, John decided to buy the furniture. That brings me back to today and moving the aforementioned four pieces of furniture into the bedroom....mind you there is still a dresser with a mirror and an armoire in the garage that go with my headboard, foot board, and two nightstands. Well....the giant from Jack-in-the-Beanstalk could easily and comfortably sleep in this king-size bed! The nightstands are huge and high and the furniture is off center on the accent wall. I'm stunned because I still have some of the old, smaller bedroom pieces in the bedroom (we move pieces in and out as the walls are painted) and I don't know how I'm going to move around my bedroom with this new ginormous furniture. We thought that our bedroom was rather large since our old stuff looks like dollhouse furniture in it, but our "new" model home bedroom furniture could fit into any room at Buckingham Palace and easily accommodate the queen and all of her family at once....maybe some members of Parliament as well!!!
Alas, I've lost my bedroom and my mind isn't far behind. I can't wait to see what happens when the other pieces are moved into the bedroom (if they can even be moved into the room)! Wine, Zoloft, Valium anyone?
Loretta

To Teach or Not To Teach....That is definitely the question!

Recently I subbed in a 5th grade classroom and I was shocked to learn that the teachers at this grade level were instructing their students that the blood inside our bodies is blue! Not true, not true, I say....and said so when the entire grade level was together to view a video on the circulatory system. Everyone (teachers included) looked at me in disbelief when I gasped, "What?" when a student answered that blood is blue and the teacher said, "That's correct". Now let's be clear about this....I am not a doctor but I am a teacher and have been for 31 years. I have taught the circulatory system for many years and I have read about it in numerous publications. Contrary to popular belief, your blood is not blue inside your body and it does not turn red when it seeps from your body as it is exposed to air/oxygen. There is oxygen in your blood! The blood in your veins (check your wrists) may look blue because it is deoxygenated blood (blood that needs to get to your lungs for a fresh supply of oxygen). I could, at this point, explain the circulatory process, but it would be too complicated and take up a lot of space. Please, please don't keep perpetuating this myth that blood is blue when it is, in fact, red!