Mari's Morning Room: The *Best* Time

Mari's Morning Room: The *Best* Time

Wordless Wednesday

 The Storybook

Bowling With My Boy

So, Zachary turned 4 last week. I can't believe he's already 4! They grow up so fast. We started the day with him opening his gift. If we are friends on Facebook, you probably already know how much he loves the movie Cars. So he got a Cars bicycle. Since he wanted Handy Manny tools (and costume) for Christmas, we thought he might enjoy putting it together. So he got dressed up in his hard hat and tool belt and went to work. One word~ADORABLE!

Times have been tight financially, so we didn't have a party. In retrospect it would have cost me less, if not the same amount of money to have a party. When exactly did bowling stop being an affordable family outing?!?! I was shocked at how much it cost for shoes, the lane (per person/per game) plus food and drink.

Ok, the cost aside, my little man had a blast! We asked him what he wanted to do for his big day and gave him 3 choices. Hannah and Lauren wanted skating or Monkey Joes. When we weren't around, I am pretty sure they tried to convince him to go somewhere else. However, when we all got in the car, I asked him one more time and he said he wanted to go bowling. He was so funny! I wished I had taken video because the lighting was so bad my pictures didn't come out very well. But I will forever remember the happy dances and the jumping around in excitement whenever he knocked some pins down! It was so worth it! I don't really bowl but I think he did pretty good; he bowled a 68.

We finished off the afternoon with a stop at dairy queen for blizzards. I selected a few pictures for this month's photo spotlight.

What’s in a Name?

I’m not certain, but I think my mother chose my name. She went high school in an area where there were a lot of Hispanics and liked the name Yolanda. While I have met several Hispanics named Yolanda, I wasn’t sure it was of Spanish origin. I recently did a little research. Most sites said it was of Greek origin or Greek and Spanish origin. They all agreed that the name meant violet flower. I also found out that it peaked in popularity in the early 1970s, which happens to be when I was born.

Growing up, I didn’t really like my name all that much. For one reason, most people butchered it, mispronouncing it all the time. Secondly, there were all these cool personalized items like key rings, zipper pulls, nameplates, stickers and the like, but there was never, ever a Yolanda. Lastly, I didn’t meet another Yolanda until I was in high school. The originality of my name in my circles may have been a good thing, but I didn’t recognize that until years later. I really, really wanted a “regular” name like Karen or Jennifer. I did try to have a little fun with it. At one point I would develop aliases and try them out, like when I met a guy I wasn’t really interested in-I’d give him a fake name.

There came a time when I was reading about how it was considered disrespectful to your parents to trash or change your given name. Apparently in some cultures and certainly in the Bible, the given name had significant meaning to the family or events in their life at that time. I have great parents, whom I love and honor, so I still have my name. However, my childhood isn’t without scarring.

For a nickname, I was called Gypsy. My great-grandmother called my Gypsy. She struggled with saying my given name and gave me this nickname. At the time, my parents lived out of state and traveled I-95 heavily. Great-grandma Ida likened us to gypsies and that’s how I got my nickname. As a child, it didn’t matter to me. I hadn’t known any different. As a teenager however, I would beg and plead to not be embarrassed in front of my friends by being called by “that” name.

I had long reconciled myself with my name when I began to meet other Yolanda’s. In fact, there were four Yolanda’s in my high school. Okay, this was confusing. You always had to ask “which Yolanda?” in conversations. With the embracing of my name came a little more research: what does it say about me? I found some interesting things for example; I am a person motivated by success. I am a joyful person. I have reasoning power and I am known for loyalty. I don’t like leaving things unfinished and I have inherent artistic qualities. I don’t even remember which site I found this stuff, and I don’t know how valid the information is, however, I did feel as though it was pretty factual about me. Perhaps, I just became inspired to be all those things.