June Cleaver! Yes, this was the lady I wanted to be when I grew up! Actually, in retrospect, I realize that Dixie Ann Wimpee WAS so much like the "June Cleaver" persona that most girls my age grew up visualizing themselves becoming one day. Most women my age and older had mother's who stayed home and were truly "homemakers". The majority of our mom's did not work outside the home and cooked three meals a day, cleaned her own home, drove car pool, volunteered in the community, and ran errands for our father's. Our dad's were the financial providers and eating out was a special treat! Most females my age or older grew up being bombarded with this image as our future. I was so fine with that! I WAS disappointed when my vision didn't materialize! I am fine now and have embraced reality but I WAS truly disappointed! My mom always encouraged me to get my college education as "insurance". She said that just in case something happened and I ended up needing to work to help out or God forbid, support myself or me and my family, just get a degree, just in case! Well, I am so thankful I got a degree in something I love! I AM truly appreciative for my Baylor education and my profession. I am very happy and this is written with a huge sense of humor and learning to laugh at reality and embrace it! I grew up so shelter and protected and so spoiled! I was a doctor's daughter with an amazing mother who kept me right by her side at all times. She had a master's degree in Nutrition and she was a registered and licensed Dietitian. She had passed the "white glove" home management program at Texas Women's University and I realize now that Dixie Ann taught me just about everything she knew while raising me! I am so thankful! Maybe I didn't get to stay home full time and wear my pearls everyday while I kept house, like my idol June, or Dixie Ann, but I AM happy anyway! Isn't it interesting that even when our expectations don't always materialize, we can choose our attitude and we CAN make the best of it! We can make up our mind to BE HAPPY or to CHOOSE JOY at all times, no matter what! I am so blessed to be married to my best friend, to have a job I love, to have two kids I am so proud of, and to get to retire in TWO YEARS and draw full teacher retirement for the rest of my life! Hey, you know what, I AM going to get to stay home and keep house and wear my pearls everyday as I vacuum and clean and bake and wear my cute little aprons I love so, hey, wait a minute, I AM going to get to do what I've always dreamed of! I just didn't know I'd be 54 when I got to do so but hey, that's ok! I'll take it! God is so good! Just sometimes surprising! Lol! Isn't life grand! Let's just choose joy, and choose to celebrate EVERYDAY! Psalms 118:24 "...Let us rejoice and be glad!"