Moved.

Hey...
Same Road...
Different Address:

http://dancewithnance.net/

Flashback Friday....Hold On...

WE GOT THIS.

Flashback Friday...Disney $$

I just read an article about how entrance to Disney World is just shy of $100.00.

That's quite a bump since my Mom and Dad took me there!

Is there ANYTHING you can get in the park today that is $3.75 cents?

Sure wish I could have Flashbacked Friday the price for The Hayden Crew....

at Flashback prices, we could have made it an all play Family Sunday Dinner at Mickey's house!!

Directions to here:

The thing I remember most about this trip is Mr. Toad's wild ride and getting stuck in "It's a Small World." Did I make this up???

Flashback Friday...A Valentine for a Memory Keeper

Last fall, at a Sunday Dinner...

Luke pulled a "DanceWithNance" of his own and surprised this Memory Keeper with a video he made "just for Nance."

Since there are soooo many of my Favorite Valentines in it...

I thought Valentine's Day was a good day to share it.

Directions to here:

So THAT is what it feels like when you watch these shows! 

Sniff, sniff.

Thanks Luke, it is beautiful.

"I will see you again.....

This is not where it ends..."

Flashback Friday...Snowed In

The last time I REALLY shoveled snow was 1999.

(Benefits of living in the city and a landlord that hires it out)

Being Snowed in, shoveling out my car and of course it being this time of the year has made me think of the last time I was snowed in at HOME...

winter 1999.

I think Mom and Dad were set to leave for Florida right after Christmas...

but if I remember right, the roads were torn up in the Trailer Park and they delayed their flight for a week....or maybe the snow started falling and that delayed their flight...

I can't remember which came first.

But the snow came and we were stuck.

If you spent winters at this house, you remember how pretty, yet crazy the drifting was in the driveway in between the buildings.

I could not get him to STOP shoveling and come inside...

I think he was worried about getting Mom to Dialysis.

Then a hero in Green showed up and plowed thru the drifts...

making a path out.
If it's the same storm, I remember someone coming to pick her up and we put a step stool out for her to step over the snow and into the car.

Dad was not at all happy that they were here in the snow, instead of there in the sunshine.

But, seriously, if I knew what was about to happen in February...

I would have never taken them to the airport.

I would have rather been snowed in with them ALL winter long.

Remember When...sday?

Summer Fun!

2006

Ruby Tuesday....Going Digital

I can't even imagine how much pavement and typewriter keys were pounded in all the years of research that Ruby and all the other genealogists did to give us the records that are now being digitized.

I've been working on digitizing Ruby's Book on Grandma Fern's side of the Family as well as digging for more on The Vandercars and of course, I continue to steal info from Cousin Jane, who has put in thousands of hours on the Grandma Bryant's side of the family.

I feel like such a cheater, cause all I do is enter a name and "leafs" show up with hints to follow to add more and more info to the family records.

Thank You to all the REAL genealogists who paved the way for us WannaBes to come in and make it look easy!

This Week on Main Street...

Drink of the Week: 
Martini & Rossi - Asti Spumante 

One of my favorite drinks!

Soup of the Week: 
Clam Chowder Snap
Easy, quick and good. 

 
App of the Week:
My Fitness Pal

New Year's resolutions of course.
Keeps tracks of food and exercise.
I'm amazed at how many calories tortilla chips have :/

TV show of the week:
House 
Season 1: Episode 14

Movie of the Week:
Nebraska

This movie.
I left and felt like I had spent 2 hours with my Dad.
I don't want to give any spoilers away, but I may just have to do a blog post entirely on this movie.
If you've never spent time caring for the elderly, you might not think much of it.
If you have spent time with an aging parent, you will see yourself on the screen. But not in a "in your face way"…and that, is the beauty of this film. The reality is so subtle and underplayed…only those who have been there will see how well the actors have captured the heartbreaking bittersweetness of this simple story that is common to many parents and children.
Bruce Dern deserves an award…he is beyond Oscar good in this role.

Song of the Week:
Dancing Queen

I'm slowly rebuilding my iTunes library, since when my computer crashed I realized the only backup of music I had was on my iPod.
I'm revisiting my favorites…
I would have Abba and the Dancing Queen in my favorites anyway, but anyone who has seen or heard me talk about the movie "Muriel's Wedding," knows that this song is more than just a song.
It's an adjective…a way of measuring things up.

Album of the Week:
AC/DC : Back in Black

Shaking the cobwebs out of 2013!

Book of the Week:
The Bible
Again with the resolutions.
"In the Beginning…."



Directions to here:

Little known fact:
Abba's Dancing Queen was originally known as "Boogaloo."

Here's the lost verse!

Flashback Friday…Snow Storm

We're about to get dumped on by the Polar Vortex.

Bundle Up!

On Second thought….

Forget the lists…

Let's do this instead….

2014….

Happy New Year!

2014

Let the Lists Begin!

And…..

Happy Birthday, Jerry!!

Flashback Friday…Unlucky 13

Remember all those years when I fretted over whether I would get the Christmas video done…

and then somehow at the last minute, always managed to get it done?

Well, Unlucky 13.

It finally happened.
The combination of computer crash, old dog (me), new tricks (new imovie software), a way too heavy heart in November (my dear friend losing her cancer battle) and just too much waiting til the last minute,caught up with me and I just
couldn't.get.it.together.

(I'm really sorry, Joey)

So, for those who were there, hope you are enjoying the ghosts of Christmas past….

12 years of 

DanceWithNance

For those who weren't, I'll catch up with you sometime to give you your copies.

And this old dog is chaining myself to the desktop to make myself learn this software and get it together for Easter.

Thanks for understanding and for all the cheerleading over the years!



Directions to here:

FYI…
I've written it down.
Christmas is on Dec. 25th next year, right?
Okay, got it.

Flashback Friday…The Family Living Room

On Sister Janet's birthday I posted a picture of little Janet in what I believe was Grandma Fern's Farm house.

Cousin Denise, who as you know, bought and now lives in Mom and Dad's house, made a few comments and we spent a half hour or so, chatting back and forth about memories of the house, the little Red House, The Log Cabin, etc.

I'm amazed at Denise's memory of the Cabin and Grandma's house. 

I forget that she is one of the first grandkids on the Wayne Vandercar side of the family...
which puts her in the time where she would remember more about things that the younger grandkids have only heard stories about.

I enjoyed our Facebook chat very much.

A week or so later, I was looking thru old Christmas pictures.

When Grandma Fern was still living in the Red House…her kids, Wayne, Bob and Gladys would trade off having Christmas…on Christmas Day. Eventually, as the families kept getting bigger, we outgrew everyone's living room and around 1983 or so, starting having the "Vandercar Christmas in July."

I found this picture from a Vandercar Christmas taken on Christmas Day. 

mid 1973-4ish

That is Denise opening a gift in our Living Room.

I thought it was cool to see her as a child, celebrating Christmas in this Living Room and that she now celebrates Christmas in this Living Room as an adult.

Denise says she thinks of Grandma Fern and Mom very often and has a lot of memories and often senses them there…

....kinda cool that she might see flashbacks of her childhood too.

Directions to here:

Oh, and here's a flash back of Vanderkid childhood!

I was looking at a pic that Denise posted on Facebook....(sorry Al...caught you sleeping)
and I asked her…
"is that tile in the living room…and is it tan?"

The answer was yes! 
They pulled up the carpet…revealing the tan tile of our childhoods!!

Remember When..sday

The Mister Vandercars

Flashback Friday...."Okay...Honey"

It was the end of the summer of 2000.

The previous Spring, I had left the job that I thought I would have for the rest of my life.
I spent the summer decompressing, sleeping, reading and wondering what was next.

I mean, after ten years of answering "the call to come help change the world" as your job description, honestly, where do you go after that?

I had no clue, but I knew I was 3 weeks away from running out of all the money I had in the world.

It was time to get a job.
I had always wondered what it would be like to work in a bookstore.
So, I applied to three different stores.

I interviewed with Barnes and Noble.
They wanted me to work part-time...which to them meant 38 hours with no insurance.

It wasn't ideal, but it was the best offer I had.
Then I came home one day and heard a message on the answering machine.

"Hello?
This message is for Nancy.
Nancy, this is Chris Turner, at Half Price Books.
I'm calling about your application...we'd like to interview you, if you're still interested.
So give me a call me back and we'll set up an appointment....
Okay honey? Alright, I'll talk to you later, Dear."

I remember standing in the living room and smiling at the answering machine.




"Honey?" "Dear?"
Was this a Bookstore or a Diner that serves up comfort food and homemade pie, where the waitress calls you honey?

I went to the interview and The rest is, as they say, history.

13 years later, although a lot has changed in the land of bookselling, I'm still working at the Bookstore.
11 of those 13 years I worked for the woman that left that message on my machine.


Chris Turner.

Chris always told me that I could not leave or transfer to another store (read Chicagoland), until she retired.

She ended up taking an early retirement to focus on staying well and continue her battle against colon cancer.

I talked to her exactly one month ago today and she was still spitting out her catch phrases that her employees call "Turnerisms." She told me she had been working on her bucket list and crossed off riding in a combine and that she was going to go to the Eiteljorg Museum with her sisters on the next Friday.
A week or so after I talked to her, she went into the hospital.

Two weeks later she passed away.





As I mentioned, Chris was the kind of person that had a long list of trade-mark catch phrases.
She was the kind of person that can call you "Honey...Sweetie....Dooberhead...
or shout....No, No, No, No...or....shut, shut, shutty....talk to the hand cause the face isn't listening..."
in loud voice and still not make you feel offended.

She was down to earth. Tell it like it is. You hardly ever wondered where you stood with her.
She told you the good and she told you the bad.
Sometimes it was great to hear. Other times it sent us running to hide until the rant passed.
But her heart was big and she held no grudges.

Chris was the kind of manager that you don't appreciate until she's not your manager.
She was a master delegator.
She knew how to create responsible employees by giving her workers tasks, trusting them to do their best and getting out of their way while they do it, either succeeding or failing.
Most succeed, and by doing so, ownership is created and when employees feel like they "own it," they care more. When they care more, they are happier and when they are happier, the business is successful.
Much of Chris' style was unorthodox in many professional (read corporate) circles, but there are few stores where a manager can be on medical leave for months at a time and everything still runs smoothly.
It's because the employees step up and own it.

Chris not only had trade mark phrases, she also had trade mark beliefs.

I honestly don't believe I would have stayed working in retail for as long as I have if it wasn't for having her as a boss and the the values she held.

I learned a lot from Chris.
But there are a few that I still apply every.single.day.

1. "There are No Book Emergencies"

There is a bumper sticker that says "I know there is a hell, I work in retail."
Most days it is not true, but there are some days, some customers, some incidents that make this bumper sticker ring true.
There is a lot of crazy that happens when dealing with the public...
especially in a business that both sells AND buys things to and from their customers.
There is a lot that can happen when 30 plus people work together all day, every day.
Drama happens.
In those situations, Chris would often shout it out:

"There are No Book Emergencies!!!"

And it is a simple saying.
But also a very true saying.
To this day, whenever the customer or employee Drama threatens to push me past the edge...
I hear her "There are No Book Emergencies" in the back of my head and I (usually) take a deep breath and step back from the ledge.

2. "It's just Books"

For several years, when people would ask if I still liked working at the bookstore, my response was "it's the least like work of anything else I can think of."
People, there is more to life than Work.
You get a pass on this if your work is saving lives or making people's lives better, but seriously,
most of Work is just work.
And Chris Turner knew this.
While she was an avid book lover and cared a lot about her work...
I often heard her say...
"It's just Books...get over it."
And it took the edge off.
It made us not take ourselves or the above drama too seriously.
A few years before I started working there, Chris, who used to live in Indianapolis, moved back to her home town to be closer to her parents and her family. This meant an hour commute each way, but for years she didn't seem to mind...
because she knew there was more to life than work.
And when I was running back and forth to Lowell to help with selling Mom and Dad's house and then later, when Dad's health was failing, Chris was there with understanding...
reminding me...that "It's just Books..."
giving me permission to focus on what's important.

And finally,

3. "The Good Lord knows..."

Chris was a cancer survivor.
She had a deadly cancer as a younger woman and lived to tell about it.

One day, when she went to the doctor to find out about stomach pain she had been having...none of us expected it to turn out like it did.
Chris was a fighter and fought long and hard against this disease.
But, early on, she told me point blank:
"I'm gonna die from this stupid cancer."
But as she told me that she also told me....
"but it's okay. I know where I'm going."
Chris knew what she believed. She believed "the Good Lord knows what he's doing."
She didn't understand why everything happened the way it did, but she had faith and knew where she was going.

I hate that this stupid disease took so much of her energy and robbed her of enjoying her retirement and her "golden" years.
But as I sat next to her at the hospital and held her hand, I could tell, she was at peace.
She lived and died as one who knew where she was going.
And that is a gift.
For her.
And for those who loved her.




Her home going has reminded me once again of what a force Chris Turner was in this life.
Her home going has reminded me to live and work by her "Turnerisms" sayings and beliefs.
And her home going has reminded me of how much I loved this woman, who ended most of her conversations with "Okay, Honey."

It is hard to believe the world will never again hear her leave out the back door,
shouting her trademark goodbye:

 "Ta Ta Tu Tu's!!!

See ya tomorrow!"

Farewell, Dear Friend.

You are loved.

Directions to here:

Oh, in case you were wondering, it never escaped me that Chris is a Turner.
I always told her it was why we got along so well. I'm sure in the way, way, back of the family tree, we are family.

Remember When..esday

The Great Pumpkin

 Starring 

 Drew Hayden!

Flashback Friday...The Golden Girls

They are Golden!!

Happy Golden Birthday, Avery and Alexa!

Remember When..esday

Remember when we were Pirates?

That was awesome!