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Valentine’s Far From Home
By Stephanie Olsen, Fri Dec 9th

“What shall we make grandma and grandpa for Valentine’s Day?”

This is an oft-repeated question as February 14th draws near;and despite being another highly commercialized holiday, it isstill a nice way for geographically separated families to touchbase.

Although e-mail is invaluable, homemade cards from grandchildren- gluey, misspelt and smudged, delivered in crumpled envelopeswith upsidedown stamps - are the wishes that will be caressed bygentle hands, hung on the fridge under hatted cow magnets, andproudly shown to passers-by.

My own daughter knows that her grandma is a jigsaw puzzleexpert, so she glued a teddy bear picture to a red constructionpaper heart, with little messages of love written around theperiphery. With great care, tongue tip protruding to steady herhand, she then cut the artwork into several large pieces.Proudly, dumping her homemade puzzle into an envelope, we wentto the post office hand in hand.

We press flowers, collected on warm walks and summer picnics,haphazardly collecting them in any book on hand. It’s always alovely treat when fragile petals float from a page we’rereading, and sometimes we glue these decorations of nature tohomemade Valentine’s Day cards sharing colorful memories ofspring.

Children grow up fast, and grandparents miss the little things -like a first lost tooth, a new smile. One fun way to sendpictures is to decorate cards with sunshines and flowers,replacing round centers with cut-out faces of the grandkids.There’s no better way to wish the folks Happy Valentine’s Daythan to have a garden of your children’s faces beaming up atthem.

About the author:Stephanie Olsen, published writer, homeschooling mother of twoand ESL teacher currently residing in Europe, is also owner ofthe expatriate site, Family Life Abroad http://www.familylifeabroad.com where you’ll find humorous andinformative articles by experienced expatriates on all aspectsof living abroad, with lots of links and travel tips.

Addictions – They Seem To Fit Together Like Pieces In A Puzzle
By tkugler
I’m a person who walked away from both drinking and smoking, after engaging in both activities for more than 15 years, and I’ve always been perplexed at how so called “addictions” seem to fit together. Smoking cigarettes and drinking go together like Peas and carrots. It was always amazing to me how one seemed to go with the other. Smoking was never quite as satisfying as when alcohol was being consumed. And so to, alcohol seemed to elicit the need to spark up a heater. The amount of cigarettes I could choke down while drinking a lot of alcohol was obnoxious! The two activities, or addictions as it were, just seemed to fit together so perfectly.
It’s also interesting how the beginning of both practices coincide so perfectly. It wasn’t too long after I had my first alcoholic beverage that the stinky lung darts wound up in my mouth. That must be why that I told people for all of those years that if I quit one of these activities, the other would soon follow. And I was right. I ended up finally kicking both of them to the curb at the same time.
I’ve simply always found it incredibly interesting how addictions such as these seem to fit together. The other one that I used to “enjoy”, was feeding gambling machines. You know the old video poker and keno machines? These little bastards can suck up your money like a freakin’ vacuum cleaner! And when you play these video slot machines what do the attendants offer you? Drinks! Specifically alcoholic drinks. Yet another way that these “addictions” seem to fit together like a puzzle.
The other very interesting thing about these addictions fitting together like a puzzle for me, was the fact that when I walked away from drinking and smoking, I no longer wanted to even enter a casino. This wasn’t at all a conscious act, it simply followed suit naturally. Which I suppose is a good thing. And now I do none of it and am as happy as I’ve ever been. The bottom line is that these addictions seem to fit together like a puzzle, but the good thing is that once you decide to remove them from your life, they fit together in exactly the same way. That is once you stop drinking, you don’t like smoking as much and vice versa.

Trevor Kugler is co-founder of JRWfishing.com and founder of yourmoneyconnection.com. He has more than 15 years of business experience and 25 years of fishing experience. He currently raises his 3 year old daughter in Montana.
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