Local Columns Section
|
Mommy Musings – Good, Bad and Ugly This week as I sat preparing my thoughts the words that keep cropping up are: What should I have done? or What would you do?Perhaps I should offer a little clarity on what has me so confused and perplexed.Recently, our family, along with some friends who were here on holiday, visited an area park for some outside activity.It is ... |
|
|
Marg-Ins - Of Moves And Shoes So much happens in a month. Regular readers are familiar by now with our column rotation, with a submission each week for the ‘Perspective’ page, myself the first week of the month, Dawn M. Henley the second week, Craig Macho the third week and Kim Van Meter the fourth week. If there happens to a fifth Wednesday, we let John Branch sneak in a column on this page as well. |
|
|
Stuff ‘N Nonsense - A Love So Strong On the day this column reaches the newsstands, my oldest son will turn 17. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that concept. Was it really 17 years ago that I brought that nine-pound, 10-ounce kid into this world? I guess so. When I look into his eyes, I see the boy he was, but when I pull back, I see the young man he’s turning into. |
 |
Mommy Musings - More Than One Reason In a past column I shared a little insight into my recent undertaking of helping with costumes for the Oakdale Community Theatre Production of “Annie” the musical. 
|
|
|
Macho Madness - Little Ears, Big Ears It’s a constant battle. It’s been an issue for generations, with both sides using the latest in technology, psych-ops, and state of the art equipment. |
|
|
Kimberly’s Book Reviews As Good As It Got by Isabel Sharpe |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Time To Adjust Last week our oldest child started Kindergarten. |
|
|
Dawn’s Column - Yard Sale Tale My husband and I recently held a gargantuan, one-day yard sale. Due to our union, we had double, and in some cases, triple, of everything required to furnish a home. We had filled the shelves of the garage with boxes of items just for the yard sale, knowing that it wasn’t even everything we needed to put out because we hadn’t had time to address it all. |
|
|
Reporter’s Notebook – Lessons Learned High school graduation is an exciting time in a young person’s life. One chapter of life has ended, excitement for the future is at an all time high and gifts from lost relatives arrive by the truckload. Yet among the excitement and parties, nervousness came over me. Where to go, the four-year universities I was accepted to or Modesto Junior College, which was affordable, ... |
|
|
Marg-Ins - Summer What? Welcome to August and the resumption of school and a somewhat normal routine. Summer, or what months pass for summer vacation here in California, are just about over and like it or not, alarm clocks will soon be back in use. The unusually mild summer weather (trust me, I’m not complaining at all) has made it seem like we are still waiting for the ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - All For Love Today I cannot help but wonder … have I lost my mind? The good news is, I realize I am not alone and many parents wonder this on a daily basis. The bad news is, I am still really wondering if I am completely nuts. |
|
|
Stuff N' Nonsense - What’s New? As July comes to a close and August creeps closer, a number of important calendar events are coming for our household. Most notably, school starts quickly followed by both sons’ birthdays but also, my first Silhouette Romantic Suspense novel is coming out and that’s very exciting. You may recall the trip my husband and I took to the northern coast ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - The Open Road The time has come for yet another unforgettable Hammond Family vacation.While I am writing this prior to the vacation happening, there is one thing I am certain of. This vacation will indeed be unforgettable. The location we will travel to this summer is not exotic, tropical or even coastal. This year the Hammond Family is headed to the hip ... |
|
|
Macho Madness - Hey, Whippersnappers! I recently turned 50.I’ve heard people say “50 is the new 40,” or some other sort of nonsense during the past couple of weeks, possibly in the spirit of cheering me up.I’m not sure if this is true, but now that I’ve reached this benchmark I’ve found there is an upside to this whole turning 50 thing: I’m able to release my inner ... |
|
|
The Rest Of The Story Dear Editor,This past February I was out on a business trip when I got a call from my wife at approximately 9 p.m. She had just gotten a frightening call from her 82-year-old mother who lives alone on Tioga Avenue. She said there was a strange acting, hooded man sitting in a rocking bench on her back patio. I told my wife to call the Sheriff’s Department ... |
|
|
Dawn’s Column - Married…Finally It’s official. I’m now a Mrs. — for an entire month already.All the details came together for the wedding, which was a beautiful, memorable event — that went by very quickly. We feel blessed to have wonderful friends and family who supported us throughout this whole process.I now have a husband. I’ve altered my name, moved into a new home — just to ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Bloom In The Gloom We’re still in a recession. This simple sentence is far from breaking news, even for a small weekly such as ours. Legal Notices continue to occupy a minimum of three complete pages in our paper each week and property rental ads continue to come and go quickly in our classified section. |
|
|
Marg-Ins - May I Ask You A Question? If you have been a regular reader of the paper for any length of time, you are probably familiar with our feature that has been called a number of things, from ‘Street Beat’ to ‘Question of the Week’ to our latest moniker ‘People Poll.’ It typically occupies a space here on the ‘Perspective’ page but that, too, has changed over the years, from the bottom of the ... |
|
|
Ramblings – Slip Sliding Away Words slip and slide. I discovered that a long time ago. In writing essays for high school, papers for college, accounts of trips and adventures, I found the words take over and dictate the story, not the other way around, and the story doesn’t turn out the way you intended it even when you sometimes, almost by accident, choose the right word. Much is the same with life ... |
|
|
Stuff ‘N Nonsense – Homeownership: An Education In Economics As previously mentioned, you might remember that we purchased our first home last year. It’s been about six months now and we’re still settling in but we’ve managed to unpack most of the important boxes even if we aren’t entirely sure where everything ended up (I still can’t find certain items that once resided in the kitchen). |
|
|
Mommy Musings – Grown-up Friends I’ve recently come to realize that navigating through grown-up friendship is no easy task. A couple of girlfriends and I were recently discussing an awkward situation I had been in and, well, being girls we digressed onto the topic of making friends. Before I continue I have to point out what I love about grown up friends is how age and interest can vary. ... |
|
|
Macho Madness - Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes A few years ago — in fact, it was one of my first columns — I wrote about the changes my wife, Donnelle, and I were going through as our children prepared to leave home. |
|
|
Dawn’s Column - On To Something ‘Big’ A couple years ago around this time, I wrote a column about going to see the Sex And The City movie on opening night. I drove three hours to meet up with one of my partner-in-crime girlfriends from college and some of her girlfriends who held a ‘Big’ bash, complete with cosmopolitans (and champagne and kamikazes and…) and a limo to drive all 10 of us to the ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Not-So Common Sense Knowledge is not always power. |
|
|
Marg-Ins - Through The Raindrops May has given way to June and junior high has given way to — yes, that noise was me gasping — having a high school freshman daughter. Of course, she won’t actually be considered a freshman until school starts in August but the simple fact of the matter is my daughter is now an eighth grade graduate, has completed her elementary and junior high school years and, I am ... |
|
|
Stuff ‘N Nonsense - A Few Words… The school year is winding down. My teenage boys are moving into their junior and sophomore years respectively and my daughter is moving onto kindergarten. It’s hard not to sit back and reflect when everything has gone by in such a blur. This past year my oldest son traveled to New York with his drama club and collected priceless memories ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings – More Than Smart … Pure Genius It’s a whole new world out there. |
|
|
Macho Madness - Biker Bars, Books & Debbie Macomber Ever have one of those moments where you find yourself someplace you really don’t belong? Where conversation stops, the band quits playing, and others look at you as if you are an alien life form that has descended into their midst? |
|
|
Dawn’s Column - The Merger My fiancé and I are in the process of planning the final details for our wedding, it’s nerve wracking. But I can tell you something else that’s equally stressful — getting his house ready for me to move in. |
|
|
Mommy Musings – It Takes A Village What makes a good mother? |
|
|
Marg-Ins - It’s A Wrap One of the luxuries of being the editor — at least on some days — is that since I am the last one that reads stories, captions and columns before they go to press, I can tinker with my own deadlines. For instance, reporters have to turn their columns in by mid afternoon Friday before the Wednesday it is published, since the ‘Perspective’ page is laid out over ... |
|
|
Stuff ‘N Nonsense - Things That Go Bump I’ve always been fascinated by the paranormal. I embrace the theory that there is something beyond the life that we experience in the here and now for I cannot imagine that this is it. Throughout my life I’ve encountered a number of experiences that may qualify as paranormal from a phantom touch on my shoulder to noises that don’t belong and while I may have been a bit ... |
|
|
Macho Madness - Fool Me? Another April 1 has come and gone. |
|
|
Macho Madness Me, Egotistical? |
|
|
Dawn’s Column - Sparkly Shoes And Ham My fiancé and I recently hosted Easter dinner at his house for our families and have done this for the past few years, as his place is centrally located. We made the plan to drive to Stockton the day before Easter to pick up a Honeybaked Ham for the family gathering. He ordered the ham and I proposed that we arrive at the store early, before the line got too long. ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Navigating Diplomacy For those who follow Mommy Musings — be warned, the Hammond Family has enrolled a student in the Oakdale Joint Unified School District system. This is a precarious time for me, personally. It is a time when I will now be tested on how well I can balance my personal and professional life and not have it come at the expense of my children. |
|
|
Marg-Ins - Keeping It Simple Amazing as it seems, we are already a quarter of the way in to 2010. Time literally seems to be flying by – yet again – this year and, before we know it, we’ll be looking at Halloween candy and Christmas decorations. |
|
|
Ramblings – Flirting With Fantasy Well I finally did it. Having for years disparaged people for going on cruises and indulging in what appeared to be unforgivable sloth and decadence, I succumbed to my son’s persuasion and went on a Caribbean cruise with him — and enjoyed it very much. |
|
|
Stuff ‘N Nonsense – The Stuff Happening In My World The life of a working mother is rarely static. Between kids, home and work, there’s always something going on. I’m accustomed to the chaos but lately, it seems the hectic nature of my life has sent me skidding a bit sidewise as I try to hold it all together. But rather than focus on the negative, I’m concentrating on the positive aspects of my life. |
|
|
Editor’s Notebook - Just One Big, Happy Idiosyncrasy After several weeks of personnel shuffling, between an (away from the job) injury, one previously scheduled vacation and another mini vacation by various staff members, it looks like we are back up to our full complement of reporters. |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Dentist And Deadlines I have a confession to make. At least once a month, as I put the finishing touches on a ‘Mommy Musings’ piece I wonder, ‘Does anyone really care about life according to the Hammond family?’ |
|
|
Macho Madness - Waiting for D’artagnan It’s good to be the papa. |
|
|
Dawn’s Column – The Breakup I recently broke up with my hairdresser. |
|
|
MARG-INS - Letting The Guard Down There’s something to be said for keeping your defenses up. |
|
|
Swept Up By The Games They’ve been hard to escape; if you haven’t heard re-caps on the news or found them as you wield the TV remote, chances are you have talked about them at work or with the family over dinner. And there are many stories to tell, as the Winter Olympics in Vancouver play out on the ski slopes, the ice rinks, the skeleton and luge tracks. |
|
|
Stuff ‘n Nonsense - Cookies And Pickles There are moments in our lives that remind us — sometimes painfully — that the march of time is resolute. I’m not talking about the inevitable body changes or the pressure of responsibility that seems to increase with each passing year as we age but rather something far more heart-rending. I’m talking about the moment when you realize you won’t always have your loved ... |
|
|
Mommy Musings - Seeing Differently I’m not your atypical sports enthusiast. |
|
|
Macho Madness - Temptation Island “Whoa,” I thought to myself while looking at a newspaper column photo. “That guy has a big ‘ol mustache, just like me.” |
|
|
Circling The Toilet The Oakdale City Council doesn’t like it. |
|
|
Dawn's Column - Loos, Lace, And The Law Usually when it comes to our columns, we write about what’s going on in our lives. In a previous column, I made the promise that I wouldn’t write too much about my wedding planning. The problem is, that with the exception of car trouble and my fiancé being stuck on jury duty because he thought he wouldn’t get selected, wedding planning is pretty much what my life’s ... |
| Sections: | BUSINESS | CONTESTS | ENTERTAINMENT | GAS | HOMES | LIVING | NEWS | OPINION | SPECIAL SECTIONS | SPORTS |
| Services: | Subscribe | Advertising |
| Submit News: | Contact Us | Anniversary PDF | Engagement PDF | Wedding PDF | Birth PDF |
| Online: | Archives |
