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A Rocky Start: Chapter Ten

August 21, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

On Tuesday afternoon, Amber was surprised by a phone call from Doris Duncan. She asked if the Happy Helpers could come to her house after school on Wednesday to give her a hand at watering her plants. Amber was so excited she said yes about six times.

On the way to Doris’s house, Amber told her friends what to expect.

“Doris has the cleanest house I’ve ever seen,” Amber said. “We’ll have to be very careful not to make a mess anywhere.”

When they rang the doorbell, Doris yelled for them to come in. She was seated on the sofa in the living room as she had been when Amber was there with Betty.

“It’s so nice of you girls to give up your afternoon like this,” Doris said. “I can usually manage by myself, but with this darn back, I decided I’d better get a little help.”

As Doris instructed them, they carried the plants into the kitchen. Doris had slowly made her way to the sink. As each plant was placed in the sink, Doris used the sprayer to water the plant. Then she asked one of the girls to remove it from the sink so it could drain. The plants that were too high for them to take down were watered using a watering can. Melissa, who was tallest, volunteered for that job. She stood on the step stool Doris had her get out of the laundry room. With that, she was able to reach every plant.

“You girls did a wonderful job,” Doris said when they were finished. “I’d like to pay you something for your trouble.”

“We’re volunteers,” Amber explained. “We do it because we want to help others. We don’t expect to be paid.”

“Isn’t there anything I can give you?” Doris asked.

“Your plants are so beautiful,” Laura said. “Can you tell us your secret?”

“Of course,” Doris said proudly. “It’s very simple. I talk to them.”

“And that works?” Melissa looked doubtful.

“Well,” Doris said, waving her hand around the room to indicate the plants, “what do you think?”

“It must really work,” Melissa said with surprise.

“I’ll tell you what,” Doris continued. “If you girls come back and help me next Wednesday, we’ll take cuttings from some of the plants, and then you can take them home and grow your own plants.”

“Wow,” Amber said. “Would you really do that?”

“Of course.” Doris smiled. “It’s the least I can do to thank you for all your help.”

Friday was Good Friday, so there was no school. Mary took the day off from work so that she and Amber could have a girls’ day out. They both got up early to take Domino for a walk. Either Mary or Kyle walked Domino every day.

Amber hadn’t been allowed to walk Domino by herself since he was five months old. Something happened that made her parents decide Domino was just too much dog for her to handle. Amber had been walking him on the next block, when Domino spotted a rabbit. Domino and the rabbit stared at each other for a minute. Then the rabbit took off running. Domino tried to run after the rabbit, but with Amber holding on as best she could, he wasn’t able to catch it. When the rabbit ran under a wire fence, Domino tried to follow it. He dug at the ground, throwing dirt all over Amber. The rabbit just sat there on the other side of the fence, taunting Domino. Finally, Domino gave up trying to go under the fence and went over it instead. He would have pulled Amber over after him, but she let go of the leash. The rabbit hopped away across the yard with Domino hot on its heels. When the rabbit went under the fence on the other side, Domino continued over it. Amber ran to the alley to cut them off, but they were nowhere in sight. After looking for Domino for twenty minutes, she went home. Kyle jumped on his bike and rode around the neighborhood, calling Domino. He told Amber to stay home in case Domino showed up there. By the time Kyle caught up with Domino, he had terrorized someone’s cat, torn up a flower bed, and eaten another dog’s food. Kyle and John went back the next day and fixed the flower bed, but they all agreed that Amber’s days of walking Domino were at an end.

After their walk, Mary and Amber got dressed up to go shopping. It was their annual quest to find the perfect Easter outfit. Before starting their journey, they attended the Good Friday service at church. As they walked into the church, Amber spotted Mrs. Snow sitting by herself in a pew.

“Hello, Mrs. Snow,” Amber said. “I’d like you to meet my mother.”

“Hello, I’m Mary Snyder. Amber told me you are the volunteer coordinator at the senior center.”

“That’s right,” Mrs. Snow said. “It’s nice to meet you. You have a very fine young lady there.”

“We think so.” Mary gave her daughter a squeeze. “Thank you for giving the girls another chance. I’m sure they won’t let you down.”

“No one can figure out what happened with the spoons,” Mrs. Snow said. “But I thought I should at least give them the benefit of the doubt.”

“We’ll be there tomorrow,” Amber promised. “And we’ll do exactly what we’re supposed to do.”

“I’m sure you will,” Mrs. Snow said. “We got off to kind of a rocky start, but I’m sure things will work out fine from now on.”

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon

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Kirstin’s Jamz

August 18, 2015 rosemaryheddens 1 Comment

My mom says I have a very eclectic taste in music. That means I like all kinds of music. I’ve always been a huge Amy grant fan. I have so many Amy Grant songs I love, it’s hard to choose one, but I think “Thy Word,” is my favorite. Sometimes we sing it in church.

When I was a small child, I had a cassette player that I took everywhere I went. Back then, I played all the Disney music. I still love Disney music and I listen to it sometimes.

As a kid, I liked most of the pop music. I was a huge fan of the New Kids on the Block. I remember being teased in school because I liked to wear my New Kids on the Block T-shirt. Later, I listened to other boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and Boys to Men. I still think they are cool. Of course, I danced along with Michael Jackson videos. At Halloween time, they always play “Thriller” at the dance. It is so much fun acting like a zombie. Debbie Gibson and Hilary Duff were some of my favorite artists.

David is a huge Luke Bryan fan and of course I am too. David has all the CDs and I have a lot of them. Sometimes we sing karaoke when David is at my house. “This is my Kind of Night” is one of the songs we sing. David and I both like country music. I think it is important that we like the same kind of music. David and I went to a Band Perry concert at Cliff Castle Casino. It was great to see them in person. We were dancing in the aisles.

Even though we are huge country music fans, David and I like other kinds of music. I like Celine Dion. David likes Elvis music. I think that’s because David looks like Elvis Presley and Luke Bryan all rolled into one. He is the total package–actually two of them. I like the beach boys. I even like Gretchen Wilson and her band, Wilson Philips.

When I lived with my grandmother, I learned to enjoy the oldies. That was what she played on the radio all the time. I’m talking about real oldies like Patti Page, Doris Day, and Frank Sinatra. My grandmother even introduced me to Lawrence Welk. I was just crazy about all those bubbles.

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A Rocky Start: Chapter Nine Continued

August 14, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

Laura gave her career report on Monday morning. Just like Logan’s, it was perfect in every way. First she talked about some chefs she liked to watch on television, like Rachael Ray. Then she talked about famous cooking schools. “The best ones,” she said, “are in Paris, but you really don’t have to go that far. There is Le Cordon Bleu College in Scottsdale that has a very good reputation.”

At the end of her report, she passed out samples of her homemade cookies. She called them Laura’s Everything Cookies because they were filled with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, and pecans. Everyone said they were the best cookies they had ever eaten. Amber was thinking that Betty Jenkins still made the best cookies she’d ever eaten, but she’d never tell Laura that.

After school, the girls rode their bikes to the senior center. Mrs. Snow saw them looking at the bulletin board. “Girls,” she said, “I need to see you in my office.”

The Happy Helpers looked at each other as if to ask, “Did we do something wrong?”

“Have a seat.” Mrs. Snow pointed to some chairs near her desk. “Bob said he had you set the tables for lunch on Saturday.”

“We did, “Laura said. “We did exactly what Bob told us to do.”

“He said that he made it quite clear that you should put out forks, knives, and spoons,” Mrs. Snow continued.

“That’s what we did.” Amber sounded concerned.

“Well, there were no spoons on the tables when the lunch was served. In fact, there were no spoons anywhere in the kitchen. Later, Walt found them in the recreation room.”

“I know there were spoons on the tables,” Melissa defended. “I put them there myself.”

“Maybe you forgot to put out the spoons,” Mrs. Snow suggested. “That’s possible, isn’t it?”

“No,” Laura insisted. “There were spoons on the tables. We didn’t forget.”

“Well,” Mrs. Snow went on, “I guess we’ll let it go at that. We all make mistakes sometimes. Try not to let it happen again.”

“We won’t,” Amber promised. “We like helping, and we always try to do our best.”

“Next Saturday, the women’s auxiliary is setting up for the big Easter luncheon. We could use your help with that. It’s an important event for the seniors. I hope I can count on you.”

“You can,” they all assured her.

“That was so strange,” Melissa said when they got outside.

“I wonder what happened to the spoons.” Laura shook her head.

“I don’t know,” Amber said thoughtfully. “But I think someone doesn’t want us here.”

At dinner that night, Amber told her family about what happened at the senior center.

“We really did set the table correctly,” Amber insisted. “The spoons just disappeared.”

“It sounds like someone was playing a practical joke on you,” John said. “I wouldn’t take it too seriously. Anyway, you have a second chance to prove yourselves.”

“Yeah, sis,” Kyle added. “What would your life be like without a little drama now and then? Pretty boring!”

“Not to change the subject,” Mary continued, “how are you coming with your career project?”

“Fine,” Amber answered. “It’s almost ready. Laura gave hers today. It was perfect, just like Logan’s. I think Ms. McGuire had the best students give their reports first to make the rest of us look bad.”

“She’s probably trying to let you slackers have more time to finish yours,” Kyle said with a laugh.

“Your teacher’s a smart woman.” John frowned at Kyle. “She had the best students do theirs first to give the rest of you an idea of how to do it. She let them set the example.”

“You might be right,” Amber said. “Logan did a little show-and-tell at the end of his report, and so did Laura. I suppose everyone will have to do that now. I’d better think of something I can show.”

“How about some of your drawings?” Mary asked. “That is, if you are doing your report on art as a career.”

“That’s my secret,” Amber reminded her with a sly smile.

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon

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Crazy about crayons

August 11, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

With school starting parents are or have recently been school shopping. One item sure to be found in nearly every cart is a box of crayons. I remember getting a new box of crayons as being one of the highlights of back to school. Even now, I occasionally find myself picking one up in a store. I love looking at the neat rows arranged by color. I love smelling them, counting them, and reading the names of the colors. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in coloring as an adult activity. The benefits of coloring are being recognized as a way to wind down after a busy, stressful day. For all those who also cherish this time-honored treasure, here is my ode to a box of crayons.

COLOR ME GREEN

I have a box of ninety-two;

It looks like I have more than you.

There is green in every shade,

Avocado, emerald, jade.

I have so many reds it’s scary.

There’s rose, fire engine, and cranberry.

I could start a yellow craze

With lemon, buttercup and maize.

I think my favorite ones are blue,

Like midnight, sky, aqua and true.

Purple shades are truly delicious.

There’s grape and plum and violet dishes.

Oh! Pink! How can I forget you!

You’re shocking, hot, or pale as dew.

Look at all the oranges I’ve got.

There’s peach and flame and apricot.

What’s that? You have a hundred and four?

Well, I guess then you have more.

Maybe the sun will melt yours down

To just one color….yucky brown.

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A Rocky Start: Chapter Nine

August 7, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

As she promised, Amber’s mom picked her up at Laura’s at noon. On the way home, Amber was thinking that she would get her chores done quickly and then take a nap.

“Did you have fun?” Mary asked.

“It was great,” Amber said. “We made pizzas on the gas grill. We each made our own. Then we made s’mores.”

“Leave it to Laura and her mom to come up with a unique idea,” Mary said. “Maybe we’ll try that some time.”

Amber filled her mother in on the rest of the sleepover and the trip to the senior center. “I sure would like to know how my poster ended up under that table,” Amber said thoughtfully, “and why our names were erased from the volunteer list.”

“It’s probably just a mistake,” Mary told her daughter.

“Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I know who made it,” Amber said to herself.

As soon as Amber got home, she put away her sleeping bag and other gear. Then she started getting out the vacuum sweeper so she could do her chores.

“You don’t need to do that,” Mary said. “Kyle already did it for you.”

“Why?” Amber asked.

“Maybe he just wanted to do something nice for his little sister,” Mary answered.

Yeah, right, Amber thought. And I bet he reminds me the next time he wants me to do something for him.

Sunday morning, Amber awoke to loud screeching from outside her window. She pulled back her curtain to see a cat crawling out on the branch where the bird nest hung. The worried parents were dive-bombing the cat, trying to keep it away from the nest. Amber opened her window and yelled at the cat. At first it just stared at her. Then it crawled backward along the branch until it could climb down the tree. By that time, the parents were back with their babies at the nest.

“That was a close one,” Amber sighed to herself. She worried that the cat might return later and finish the job.

After church, Amber asked her mom if she could go visit Betty Jenkins. She found Betty busy in the kitchen, getting some food ready to take across the street to Doris Duncan.

“Why don’t you come with me?” Betty asked. “It’ll give you a chance to meet Doris. I know you’ll like her. Besides, I can use some help carrying this stuff.”

“Okay,” Amber said. “Do you take food to her all the time?”

“Not usually,” Betty explained. “Doris injured her back a few days ago, and she can’t get around too well right now.”

“How sad,” Amber said. “She’s lucky to have a good friend like you. Are you bringing her chocolate chip cookies?”

“Not for Doris,” Betty said seriously. “She has diabetes.”

“That’s awful!” Amber exclaimed.

“She’s had it for a long time,” Betty assured her. “She’s really healthy otherwise.”

“I meant it’s awful that she can’t have chocolate chip cookies.”

“Oh, I see,” Betty said. “But you can still have some when we get back.”

Doris Duncan’s house was neat as a pin and filled with beautiful green plants. Tiny little figurines sparkled on glass shelves in her very tidy living room. Doris was stretched out on the sofa in her robe but sat up when they arrived, which obviously caused her some pain. It was her daughter Lisa who let them in. She had come to take care of her mother for the weekend.

“They brought you some food, Mom,” Lisa said. “I’ll put it in the refrigerator for you.”

Betty introduced Amber, and the two of them sat down in chairs across from the sofa.

“How are you feeling today?” Betty asked.

“A little better,” Doris said. “The doctor told me it will take a few months before I’m back to my old self.”

“That’s too bad,” Betty responded. “How did you hurt your back?”

“The usual way,” Doris explained. “Trying to reach something on an upper shelf. I hadn’t cleaned up there for a while.”

“I’ve told you before,” Betty scolded, “dust that is out of sight should be out of mind.”

“I can’t help it,” Doris said. “I like a clean house.”

“Amber here might be able to help you while you’re laid up.” Betty nodded in Amber’s direction. “She and two of her friends just started a club to help seniors. What do you call yourselves?”

“We’re the Happy Helpers,” Amber said. “But we really haven’t helped anyone yet. You could be our first though.”

“I’m sure I’ll be able to keep up with things.” Doris grimaced as a movement caused her some pain. “I’ll just have to take it easy for a few days.”

Doris and Betty chatted for a while about friends and things that were happening around town. Then Amber and Betty said their good-byes and left. Back at Betty’s house, the two enjoyed some chocolate chip cookies and milk.

“Why doesn’t Doris want us to help her?” Amber asked. “Does she think we’ll break things?”

“She does have a lot of pretty things,” Betty said. “But I don’t think that’s the reason. You have to understand something about seniors. We need to be independent. Sometimes people treat us like we can’t do anything. Sometimes they make us feel like we’re just in the way. Doing things for ourselves is really important.”

“I do understand,” Amber said. “It’s the same way for kids. Sometimes adults treat us like we’re helpless. We may make mistakes, but it’s because we’re still learning. We like to be independent too and show everyone what we can do. That’s what we like most about being Happy Helpers.”

“Just give the seniors some time,” Betty went on. “After they get to know you like I do, I’m sure they’ll ask you for help.”

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon

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A Sneak Peek at Book Four: Not A Happy Camper

August 4, 2015 rosemaryheddens 2 Comments

I’m still working on the final third of book four. I’m excited about how it is turning out and wanted to share a little bit. This is my favorite scene so far.

Trisha pulled a chest from under her bed and opened it. Inside were dresses and scarves, shoes and purses. One at a time, she lifted dresses from the chest and held them up for the other girls to see. “This is my favorite.” It was a purple dress with a V neck and a narrow skirt. “I’m going to wear this on my date.”

“I have a date too,” Molly said. “I’m going to wear this dress and these shoes.” She picked up a red dress with tiny beads around the neckline and red high-heeled shoes. “Oh, there’s a purse too!”

The other two girls looked at Rachel. “What do you want to wear on your date?” Trisha asked.

“Can I wear anything I want?”

“Of course, but you want to look nice don’t you? How about this rufflely dress with blue flowers on it?”

“Okay,” Rachel hung her head.

“I’m just kidding,” Trisha laughed. “You should wear this black dress on a date. You’ll look totally hot!”

“Hot?” Rachel looked worried.

“Hot’s a good thing when you’re on a date,” Molly assured her, “and you’ll look hot in that dress.”

The girls helped each other into their dresses and shoes. Then they stood in front of the long mirror on Trisha’s wall. “We all look hot,” Trisha said.

“Yeah,” Molly agreed, “but we’d look hotter if we had on makeup. Where’s your makeup?”

“I had some play makeup, but I used it up. I guess we’ll just have to pretend we’re putting on makeup.”

Rachel watched in wonder as Trisha and Molly went through the motions of dusting powder on their faces and put on lipstick. “Aren’t you going to put on makeup?” Molly asked her.

“I don’t know how,” Rachel sighed. “I’m not sure what makeup is.”

“Didn’t you ever watch your mom put on makeup?” Trisha asked.

“My mom died when I was a baby.”

“Oh, sorry.” Trisha put her arm around Rachel. “I forgot.”

“I wish we had some real makeup so we could show Rachel how to put it on,” Molly said.

“Actually, I do know where we can get some makeup. My sister Melissa has some hidden in her closet.”

“Won’t she get mad if we use it?” Molly asked.

“She’s not s’posed to have it, so she can’t say anything or she’ll get in trouble too.”

Trisha peeked around the corner to check the hallway. No one was there. She put her fingers up to her lips to tell the other girls to be quiet. Then they all tip-toed down the hall to Melissa’s room. The door was closed and locked, but Trisha had a key and quickly opened it. When all three girls were in the room, Trisha closed and locked the door. Then she led them to Melissa’s walk-in closet and took down a box from the shelf. Removing some winter sweaters from the box, Trisha revealed compacts with face powder, blush, eye shadow and two tubes of lipstick.

The girls sat in a circle on the closet floor, the makeup lying on the carpet in the middle of the circle. Trisha opened the face powder and dusted some on Rachel’s face. “Now you put some on me.” She handed the powder to Molly. When Molly had finished with Trisha’s face, she handed the powder to Rachel who did her best to dust it on Molly.

“Next we need blush.” Trisha picked up the small compact with bright pink powder and used the brush to apply it to Rachel’s cheeks. “You’re putting on too much!” Molly gasped.

Rachel was concerned, but Trisha assured her that it looked fine. Next came the eye shadow—in tiny cases of blue, pink and purple. “You look so lovely,” Molly told Rachel as she brushed on an ample amount of purple shadow.

“I want blue,” Trisha said, “because it will go with my eyes.

“But your dress is purple,” Molly reminded her.

“That would be too much purple,” Trisha pointed out.

“That’s true,” Molly nodded. “The blue will look better.”

“Can you put on your own lipstick?” Trisha asked Rachel.

“I’ll try,” Rachel said, taking the tube that Trisha had turned until the lipstick was all the way out. As Rachel pressed it against her lips, the lipstick broke and fell onto the carpet. Trisha grabbed for it, but Rachel, shocked by what happened, stood up quickly, stepping on the lipstick and smearing it into the carpet.

“Oh, no!” Molly witnessed the catastrophe. “What are you going to do now?”

Just then the closet door opened. There stood Fran and Molly’s mother, Emma.

“What are you girls doing in here?” Fran asked.

“We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Emma said, upset.

“Trisha, you know better than to go in Melissa’s room. What have you got there? It’s all over the carpet. That looks like makeup.”

“We were playing dress-up and we didn’t have any play makeup,” Trisha said, innocently.

“Whose makeup is that?” Fran asked

“It’s Melissa’s,” Trisha admitted.

“How did you know it was in here?” Fran demanded.

“I accidentally found it.”

“Accidentally. You accidentally went snooping in Melissa’s closet?”

“I was just looking for some . . . some . . . some colored pencils.”

Gus stretched to see over the ladies’ bent heads at what was going on in the closet. There sat Rachel in the black dress, her cheeks painted red. “What happened to you?” Gus asked. “You look like a raccoon.” Rachel lowered her head as purple tears ran down her cheeks. “That’s okay,” Gus said, soothingly, “but we’d better clean you up before I take you home. Jeremiah’ll be angry with both of us if he sees you like this!”

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon

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Celebrating forty-five years together

August 1, 2015 rosemaryheddens 2 Comments

Forty-five years ago on this day, August 1, 1970, Craig and I were married. In honor of our time together, I am posting this poem I wrote several years ago.

Of All the Men in My Life

by Rosemary Heddens

I think of him often—

That young man I married so many years ago.

Quiet, a little awkward,

But so certain he knew where he was going,

And so determined to get there,

A man with enough dreams to last a lifetime.

From time to time, I see him—

In a shy smile,

In a crinkled brow when he is deep in thought.

Now an older man has taken his place—

Strong and tender,

Rugged and soft.

He has made his place in the world,

Confident, contented with his life,

He does not mourn for unattained goals,

But holds fast to those dreams that still remain.

I wonder at the thrill I still feel

From the touch of this man

With whom I have spent

More than half of my life.

Little by little, I see another man emerge—

A man with less urgency in his step,

Wanting to be at home with his family,

More salt than pepper in his hair now,

Wearing glasses as he reads the evening paper.

I must confess a certain excitement

When I consider getting to know

The man who will share my remaining years.

He will be like the others in so many ways,

And yet different and new.

A younger friend asks me

Whether I have ever found my life dull

Married to the same man for so many years.

I smile and shrug, unsure what to say,

Unable to tell her of all the men in my life,

And how I’ve loved each one.

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A Rocky Start: Chapter Eight Continued

July 31, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

Sunlight was coming in through the seams of the tent when the girls woke up. As soon as talk was coming from the tent, Taylor appeared at the door flap. “Daddy’s making french toast,” she announced.

“My dad makes the best french toast,” Laura informed them. “He makes it with thick slices of bread, and he puts cinnamon in the mixture.”

After downing two servings each, the girls went to Laura’s room to get dressed.

“I don’t have my bike here,” Amber suddenly realized. “I’ll have to walk to the senior center.”

“Mandy will let you borrow hers,” Laura assured her. “I’ll go ask her now.”

At ten o’clock on the dot, the girls arrived at the senior center. They quickly checked the bulletin board to find their assignment. After going down the list several times, they were convinced that Mrs. Snow had forgotten to assign them a job. To make matters worse, Amber noticed that her flyer was missing from the bulletin board.

“Maybe it fell off,” Laura suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Amber said. “See, here’s the corner where I put the tack. I think someone pulled it down.”

After several minutes of looking, Amber located her flyer under a small table. She dusted it off and stuck it back on the bulletin board.

As they had been instructed by Mrs. Snow, the girls went directly to Walt’s office. They found him at his desk and explained the situation.

“Mrs. Snow isn’t here today,” he said. “Let’s go take a look at the list. Mrs. Snow said she was going to have you girls set the tables for lunch. Your names should be on the list.”

Walt checked the list but couldn’t find their names. “It looks like it was there, but someone erased it. I’m going to take you over to meet Bob Stone. He’s the lunchroom manager. He’ll show you what to do.”

Bob Stone was a big man with sandy-blond hair and a mustache. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with a large white dish towel tied around his waist. Bob smiled broadly at the girls and talked fast as he filled them in on what they would be doing.

“Usually, the ladies’ auxiliary from the Community Church sets up our lunch on Saturdays,” Bob explained. “But they’re working on table decorations for next Saturday. We’re having a big Easter luncheon. You will need to put out a plate, silverware, a glass, and a napkin at each place around the tables. Usually, we just put out forks and knives, but since we’re having pudding today, you will need to put out spoons as well.”

Bob showed the girls where to find everything. Then he left the Happy Helpers to set the tables and went back to preparing the food. Laura took charge of explaining proper table setting to the other two girls. She told Amber to put out a plate and glass at each place. Then she put a napkin and fork on the left side of each plate. Melissa placed a knife and spoon on the right side. In about forty minutes, the girls had finished their work. On the way out, they waved to Gus, who called them over to where he was sitting with some other guys.

“Like you to meet my cronies,” he said. “Here’s Al, Bert, and Norman. We’re planning our Monday-night poker game.” Gus gave the girls a wink.

“It’s nice to meet you,” the girls said.

“Tell them a joke before they leave,” Bert told Gus.

“Okay, try this one,” Gus said. “Why did the boy eat his homework?”

“Was the boy named Spike?” Amber asked.

“Okay, why did the boy eat his homework?” Laura played along.

“His teacher said it was a piece of cake.” Everyone laughed.

“That’s a good one, Gus,” Melissa said. “You’re a pretty funny guy.”

“We’d better get going,” Laura reminded Amber. “Your mom will be at my house to pick you up.”

“See you later, alligator,” Gus called after them.

“After a while, crocodile,” the girls called back a little awkwardly.

Out in front of the senior center, the girls saw Chris and Logan sweeping the walkways.

“Where’s Spike?” Melissa asked. “Isn’t he one of the Handy Guys anymore?”

“He went inside to use the bathroom,” Logan answered. “He’s been gone for a while though.”

“Are you volunteering here now?” Chris asked.

“We are,” Laura announced. “We just finished setting the table for lunch. It’s kind of fun.”

“Some of these old guys are really great to be around,” Logan said.

“You mean like Gus?” Amber asked. “He just told us a funny joke.”

“Why did the boy eat his homework, right?” Chris laughed.

“That’s the one,” Laura said.

“Kind of corny, huh?” Logan asked.

“Yeah, but we’d never tell Gus that,” Chris added.

The Handy Helpers book series is available at Amazon

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All the World’s a Stage

July 30, 2015 rosemaryheddens 1 Comment

In all the books I’ve read about Down syndrome, I have never seen anything about being dramatic, but I really believe that should be included in the description. Most of the people I know with Down syndrome are dramatic. They are animated, impish, and absolutely adorable actors and actresses. It is my theory that it is a trait carried on their extra chromosome, along with other traits such as being loving and cheerful. Kirstin has been a little actress all her life. When she was a preschooler, she would order french fries from the speaker on the car dashboard. At home one day, I came running as fast as I could when I heard her shrieking. What I found was Kirstin on a stool, holding a doll over the edge. Our cat was circling below, and Kirstin was in the process of rescuing the doll from the dangerous animal.

After Kirstin’s year in kindergarten, we took a trip to Hawaii. It was our summer vacation, but it was a little bit of a business trip for me as the Region Eight vice president for Jaycee Women. At the end of our vacation, there would be a meeting I was in charge of, but first we would have some fun. Kirstin is a great traveler and enjoys seeing new places. We have a picture of her on the trolley on Kauai, singing into her imaginary microphone.

It was at the Polynesian Cultural Center that Kirstin was really a star. We were making our way from island to island, around the exhibits, and at some of them, ladies were invited to come up and don grass skirts to try the traditional dances. I participated in the Hawaiian exhibit, and Kirstin wanted very badly to join me. She was unsuccessful that time, but when we reached the Samoan Island, there was no stopping her. Before I knew it, she was on the stage. They put a skirt on her that was nearly as big as she was and tied just under her armpits. As the music started, a group of Scandinavian tourists arrived. I wondered what they thought as this tiny girl in a huge skirt stomped up and down on the stage, pumping her arms and shaking her head. It was scary and funny all at the same time.

As I kicked off my meeting on Friday night, I asked my children to provide the entertainment. Michael had acquired a set of poi balls, two balls attached to cords. The balls are swung in circles and crossed over in a sort of juggling style. He had developed some skill with them and performed for my group of ladies. Kirstin followed his act with her version of the hula. By that time she had her own grass skirt. Finally, they sang a song they learned on Kauai. As they sang “I’m a palm tree, I’m a palm tree, I’m a palm tree through and through,” they moved ever closer to their dad who was seated on the edge of the stage. When they reached the end of the song, “But I’d rather be a palm tree than a coconut like you,” they knuckled their dad on the head. It was adorably funny, and I was really impressed with both my children.

From: This Little Light of Mine, A woman with Down syndrome shines brightly in the world. This book is available on Amazon

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The Story Behind the Snake Picture

July 21, 2015 rosemaryheddens Leave a comment

On the cover of Seven is a Perfect Number are pictures of my granddaughter Avery’s lovely little hands signing the title of the book. In the book, Amber and Laura help out in a special education class and learn a little sign language, so it seemed appropriate to have sign language on the cover. It also gave me a way to use hands on the cover as is my plan for every book.

When it came to choosing a picture for the back cover, I had several ideas. I like to show parts of our beautiful state. The back cover of the first Handy Helpers book is of me and my granddaughters at the Grand Canyon. But as I considered various pictures, I kept coming back to the one of me holding a huge python. It was taken by my friend, Tari Dane, while we were at Out of Africa with our students. Our tour guide brought out the snake and most of my students took turns holding it. At last, she asked if I would like to hold the snake, and of course I said I would. As soon as the snake was draped around my neck, the cameras came out. I stood there for ten or fifteen minutes cradling the snake’s head in my hand while everyone in our group took my picture. It was just like stepping out on the red carpet. I felt like a star.

As I considered whether or not I should use the picture, I decided to ask for advice from my friends on Facebook. I posted the picture along with the scene from the book that inspired me to use the snake picture. It is a scene where Logan and Chris are helping the science teacher clean the animal habitats and get them ready for summer. This is what happened:

“As Melissa walked back to her classroom, she noticed some kind of commotion going on.

‘What happened?’ she asked one of the students standing on the walkway in front of their classroom.

‘Some snakes got loose,’ the student explained. ‘Chris and Logan were cleaning their aquariums and somehow the container they put them in got knocked over.’

‘What kind of snakes?’ Melissa sounded worried.

‘Harmless ones,’ a boy named Carl told her. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of, but you couldn’t tell by looking at all those stupid girls in there jumping up on their chairs.’

Melissa looked in the classroom and saw girls running around screaming and standing on chairs. Laura and Amber were trying to calm them down. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of,’ she heard Amber say. ‘Those snakes won’t hurt you.’

‘I hate snakes!’ one of the girls yelled, and they all started running around and screaming even more.

Melissa was about to go into the classroom, when Chris came walking up with a little California king snake wrapped around his wrist.

‘Caught the king snake,’ he called to Logan, who was crawling around in the bushes outside the science room.

‘That’s all of them, Logan said, ‘except the bull snake. He’s big and should be easier to find.’

Kids standing on the walkway started yelling and pointing. ‘Here comes your snake,’ Melissa laughed. Chris and Logan looked up to see Ms. McGuire coming up the walkway. She had the bull snake draped on her shoulders with its head in one hand. She was stroking the snake with her other hand.

‘What are you yelling about?’ Ms. McGuire scowled at the students outside the classroom. ‘It’s just a bull snake. He won’t hurt you. Be quiet or you’ll scare him.’

‘Not any more than he’s scaring us,’ said one of the students.

‘Go on back in the room,’ Ms. McGuire told them, ‘the reptile rodeo is over.'”

As the vote came in, my friends overwhelmingly urged me to use the picture. Even my niece, Tara, who is horribly afraid of snakes, voted for the picture. When I told my cover editor, she said, “Well let’s put that picture on the back cover then!”

Written by Rosemary Heddens