More 80's Commercials

Okay, as promised, here are more great commercials from the 80's!

I may find more yet....hope you don't mind.  : )













































This last one is from the 90's but so cute, I had to include it.

Great 80's Commercials

After finding the old 80's commercial I wrote about here,  I found many more great ones from my childhood.
See if you remember any of these and wonder along with me....why don't they continue to broadcast them? 
Kids today need them more than ever.

I'll post more in the next few days, but for now; enjoy some nostalgic fun!:

Summertime Flowers

Every state in this amazing nation has its own beauty.  

Where I live currently, we have an interesting mix of mountain forest and high desert plants.

While we have huge 100 year old Ponderosa Pines, we also have cacti and Yucca.  


In the Summer and Fall there are wildflowers everywhere.


This past week I took some pictures of the flowering cacti and a bouquet I picked of my Iris mixed with some of the wildflowers.  
I just thought I'd share!

 Also, more of the local wildflowers:

Mountain Bluebells and Lupine, Indian Paintbrush and Yucca

Aren't they beautiful?

June

This month has been full of summertime activities.

For Father's Day, we celebrated with a barbecue-


Delicious ribs,

Corn on the cob,

Homemade baked beans,

and cake for dessert.

The Man of the House got lots of hugs, kisses, calls  and homemade cards from his children.

His mom was in town visiting, too, so that made it even more special.

That week, the kids also got some fishing time in with Grandma:

We had delicious trout for dinner one night; cleaned by the kids and cooked by Dad.  Yum!

The kids also had fun playing with their cousins.

June has been a month chock full of Summer! 

Summer Storm

Remember this 80's commercial?






For some reason, it's the first thing that came to mind when I looked out and saw this after a crazy Colorado storm:

Any questions??? 

(It looked even worse before it began to unfold itself!)

Ogallala

Recently, at the close of our camping trip; we saw the sights in Ogallala, Nebraska.

Now, I had never before been to the state of Nebraska and truly, I only crossed over the border and did not venture that far in.   However, I have to say that what I did see....was beautiful.

Rolling hills, green grasses and two beautiful lakes.  That's what I took in.  
Also, the town of Ogallala.   Interesting name, huh.

According to the city's website:

Ogallala received its name from the OGALA Sioux Indian tribe.  The Indians spelled the name Ogala and they pronounced it Oklada.  The word means "scatter," or "to scatter one's own."  Ogallala has been spelled in a variety of ways such as  Ogallalah, Ogallalla, and the present spelling OGALLALA.

So there ya go.  

Apparently the history of this little town is pretty colorful.   It was called "The Gomorrah of the Plains" having at one time in the booming 1800's  no church, but 3/4 of its businesses were dance halls, gambling houses and saloons.  

It was the end of the line for Texas cattle drovers, who after much time in the saddle, arrived in Ogallala and shipped their cattle by the railroad.  Things got pretty wild once the cattle shipped out.

Many cowboys never made it out of town, in fact.  

That's where Boot Hill came in.  A cemetery where many lawless men were buried with their boots on. 

I'm sure many have heard of  Dodge City, Kansas, and its Boot Hill.   But according to historical writings, there was at least one Texas cattle drover that would let his men go into Dodge City for recreation but refused to let them go into Ogallala because of its wild and unsavory reputation.   That gave rise to the phrase that Ogallala was the  " town to tough for Texans."  

We visited Boot Hill and found the stories interesting.   Women and children were also buried there, but most were later moved to another cemetery as relatives didn't like the idea of their family members buried next to outlaws and drifters.

The cemetery itself is found in a regular neighborhood and you would miss it if you didn't know to look for it.  It's on a hill, which overlooks much of the town.  I marveled at the idea of owning a home and living a modern life so close to a piece of western history!


Here are pictures of our visit:

 Believed to be the first burial here; mother and baby in childbirth.

This statue was worth the visit alone!  It's incredible.

Get Outdoors!

Recently, I've been reading the book, 'Last Child In The Woods; Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder' by Richard Louv.
It's a great book!  I highly recommend it.
For so long, I've been concerned about the pull of electronics on my children's lives.  Boys in particular seem drawn to games, computers and t.v. over anything else. 
It's been an ongoing battle for me.  I try to teach them to balance their time or I have to restrict it.  
If I had my way, we would have no television in our home.  Maybe a small TV with a DVD player for the occasional movie.  Unfortunately, my husband and I can't agree on that.  
He grew up with television, I grew up with the occasional channel or two and a mother who didn't allow us to watch t.v. except for the occasional holiday special, Saturday morning cartoons, 'Lawrence Welk' and 'Little House on the Prairie'.   

Paul Cooperman remarked, when he observed (in the early 1980's) that a child spends more time between the ages of five and eighteen in front of the television set (15,000 hours) than in school (11,500 hours),
  "Consider what a child misses during the 15,000 hours he spends in front of the TV screen.  He is not working in the garage....or in the garden...not doing homework, or reading, or collecting stamps....not cleaning his room, washing the supper dishes or cutting the lawn...not playing baseball or going fishing or painting pictures.  Exactly waht does television offer that is so valuable that it can replace all of these activities?" 


Indeed, and I would include video games in that.

To see updated statistics on television and child health, go here.


Years ago, I saw a great film called, 'Avalon'.   It portrays a family emigrating to America, extended family slowly earning enough to bring over the others from the Old Country.  You see their traditions, their togetherness.  But family dynamics change when the young generation in America grows up and television is introduced.  The old traditions begin to disintegrate as modern American customs are embraced.  

 Here is Amazon's Editorial Review for it:
Writer-director Barry Levinson is at his best when exploring his native Baltimore during his formative years: the 1950s and 1960s. This film, drawing upon family stories, tells a compelling, amusing tale about an extended group that came to America one by one, each earning enough to bring the next sibling. The new, American-born generation--represented by Aidan Quinn and Kevin Pollak--see a future in that mysterious machine known as the television, even as the older generation, led by Armin Mueller-Stahl, finds its traditions shattering or being put aside. Funny, tragic, and telling, it's a terrific, multifaceted film that ultimately details the breakdown of the oral tradition in the wake of television's burgeoning popularity. --Marshall Fine

Fortunately, The Man of the House and I both grew up in a time when kids played outdoors for the majority of their childhoods.   Most of our great memories revolve around outdoor play and imagination. 
It saddens me that so many children today sit passively in front of electronic boxes.   
My own children are not exempt.
I've been trying to teach them to govern themselves in that area; a different, nicer angle than me yanking the cords from the wall and putting it up in a cl0set or throwing it in the trash. 
(Because that is the temptation with which I struggle!)
My goal now is to teach them correct principles and allow them to govern themselves as much as they are able.  So I educate them on statistics, I point out the endless possibilities of hobbies and nature, sports and recreation.   And then, I get them outdoors.   
(and sometimes I still unplug it all and hide it away)
Nature has a way of doing the work for me.  

Recently, we went camping in Nebraska.   The kids played and swam, cooked over a fire and fished to their heart's delight.  It was.....wonderful.
Here are pictures from that trip:

 Arriving in the middle of a rainstorm

Finding, studying and, of course, naming toads

My children begged me to read to them.  How incredibly enjoyable, to read 'The Great Brain' outdoors, next to the lake.

The girls in the middle of their three-legged race.

Get your kids and yourself outdoors!