The Water Wiggle

For a couple of weeks now I've been remembering something that happened when I was a girl and it was so funny I just have to memorialize it in my blog. First a little background...I was filling out one of those "get to know your friends better" surveys when the question came up, "What was your favorite toy as a child?" To be completely honest, I don't really remember playing with toys very much. I know I had some toys but the only toy I could really remember having was the Barbie game. I remember having fun playing it, but it really wasn't my favorite toy to play with, mostly because you had to have at least one other person to play the game with you.

Suddenly I remembered playing with a toy that was so much fun the memory brings a smile to my face to this very day. It was a Water Wiggle! I'm not quite sure where the Water Wiggle came from but my guess is that my Aunt Chita probably brought it home from work. It was a hot summer day and my best Beatle buddy, Marie, was staying at my grandmother's house with me. We were bored, hot and sitting on the front porch when my grandma and grandpa decided to hook the Water Wiggle up to the hose. If you're not familiar with a Water Wiggle, it was a tube that you attached to the water hose, then there was a cup-like piece of plastic with a silly face painted on it. The water shot up from the hose, into the long tube and then bounced off the top of the cup which made the water propel this contraption all around, shooting water everywhere the whole time. Marie and I were wearing capris and poor boy tops and we were, of course, barefoot. Once the water was turned on, the Water Wiggle wrapped around us, chased us and soaked us from head to toe. We were laughing so hard, the thing would wrap around us and we kept running around getting wetter and wetter! When we finally stopped, my grandparents were sitting on the front porch with tears running down their cheeks from laughing so hard. I'm not positive but I think my aunt was there as well.

I'm sure we were quite comical to watch and I wish we'd had a videotape of that event but there was no such thing in those days. Sadly, quite a few years later I heard they stopped manufacturing Water Wiggles because they were too dangerous. Maybe they were dangerous, but it didn't stop us from having a great time with that silly toy.

God bless everyone this Thanksgiving and please pray for our troops and their families.

November Sunsets

It's November again and I'm enjoying the sunsets through my office window. November sunsets are especially spectacular because of the various colors that are displayed in the sky. The setting sun causes a rich yellow gold and the clouds become tinged with various shades of pink and peach. The remaining sky takes on deep blue, light blue, grey and periwinkle. I've watched the November sunsets out of my office window for a few years now.

The first time I noticed a November sunset, I was struck by the beauty and was convinced the Lord had painted the sky with such beautiful colors as a present for me. As Novembers came and went, I began to look forward to the evenings when the "painted sky" would appear.

In November of 2004, I had just become engaged to my husband Ray. We were planning our wedding at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Ventura, CA for February 2005. As I sat at my desk in my office I caught a glimpse of the November sunset and decided that the colors in the sky would be the colors at our wedding. This year, when I noticed the November sunset, I looked at a picture of my two daughters dressed in their bridesmaid's dresses and held it up against the sky. The two different shades of blue (sky blue for Candie and periwinkle blue for Nicole) matched the blues in the sky perfectly!

Now a few years have passed and Candie is living at Fort Irwin with her husband. We visited them last weekend and, late in the afternoon, a November sunset appeared. I was pleased that she had noticed the splendor of the sky herself and even took a picture of it.

Please take time to look at my November sunsets. You will not be disappointed! Please pray for our troops and their families.