Janet's Blog

When I was a little girl, it was so exciting to lose a tooth, because then I could expect a visit from the tooth fairy. My lost tooth, left in a glass of water on my dresser at bedtime, was always promptly exchanged for a single dime while I slept. A shiny dime was a reasonable amount of change back then; with it, I could buy a bottle of pop from the lobby pop machine, or two full sized candy bars, or two glazed donuts from the next-door bakery, with 2 cents to spare. A dime would also buy a brown paper bag full of penny candy or, if my sweet tooth wasn’t beckoning, even a comic book. By the time my oldest children started to lose their baby teeth, the tooth fairy left a quarter for most teeth. But, when Meagan was about seven, there was one time when the tooth fairy was extra generous. Our family, along with Bill's parents, his brother, Jim, and his sister JoAnn's family, was staying in a large cabin at Fort Robinson. Meagan had been wiggling her two loose front teeth for days...

I love thunder and lightning, puddles, and rainbows. I love the smell of rain, and the beauty of the thunderheads as they overtake the entire sky. The last few years have brought an abundance of rain to the Nebraska Panhandle, but this summer is different. This year, our last significant rain was more than two months ago. Since the beginning of June, we've seen some promising clouds, heard a little rumbling thunder, and experienced some devastating hail, but we've only felt a few sprinkles. Just this week, I saw these unwelcome words in print: severe drought . Ugh! So, this summer, we've had to celebrate the wonders of water in other ways, and in other places.  Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime; it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.  Zechariah 10:1 We set up our pool early this year, before Memorial Day. Pool accessories have been hard to find this summer, so we've made do with a pa...

October really flew by this year, but some days, it seemed as though life was just creeping along. Either way, I have been having a hard time keeping up. Bill and I spent a few, fabulous days in New Orleans at the beginning of the month; then I had oral surgery, two-and-a-half hours away from home, in Fort Collins, which has meant three car trips back and forth, so far, and some unexpected, coexisting, health issues. I was just beginning to recover when our 13-year-old cat, Charlie, had to stay at the animal hospital three different times, before we made the hard decision to end his suffering. In the midst of it all, I was excited when my new children's book, Grandma, Whatcha Doing?  was published and became available for purchase on Amazon.com and  BarnesandNoble.com .  All of a sudden, I had to scramble to put together an author webpage, which can be found at  https://grandmajanetk.wordpress.com/ , and set up author pages on Amazon and Goodreads . ...

New Orleans, Louisiana. They call it the Big Easy, in comparison to New York City, aka the Big Apple. While New Yorkers live a rather frantic life style, life in New Orleans is much more laid-back, according to New Orleans gossip columnist Betty Guillard, who coined the nickname in the sixties. When I found out that Bill was being inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers at their banquet in New Orleans on October 2nd, I decided to go along to help him celebrate that great honor. Besides, I had never visited New Orleans, so I was excited to explore a new city. The sunset view from our room on the 33rd floor of the downtown Marriott. Bill attended a Cable Television conference at the convention center across town, so I was on my own most of the time during the day.  The first day we were there, though, after Bill registered for the conference, we were free to explore the French Quarter, and have a marvelous lunch and supper. The food was amazing. We savored the duck gumbo,...