New Jersey Baby Boomer

Bunk beds with desk, also known as a loft bed, is a very popular option for a child’s room or dorm room. Not only does this functional piece of furniture act as a bed, but it also enables children to have a place to play, study and learn. All of this takes up much less space than having both a desk and a separate bed.

Most of these products have a twin size bed on top and have stationary or removable guard rails to keep kids from rolling out. Some systems include a twin size mattress but many do not. The top bunk is accessible by utilizing the included ladder that is located either in the front or the side of the bed.

Instead of a lower bunk, there is a desk area. These workstations usually have plenty of room for kids to store all of their play or study related belongings. Modern styles also have ample room for computers, monitors and printers. Some even have built in CPU trays and power cord management systems. Other models are available with 2 beds and a desk and dresser combination.

Other popular features on a bunk bed could include cork bulletin boards, pegboard organizers, rolling media carts and a plethora of drawers, organizers and storage space. Some models also include a built in dresser that helps to optimize a bedrooms space even further.

The majority of these systems are built for both younger and older children. Many include front and rear safety rails and levelers for stability. Most can support weights up-to 200 plus pounds. As always, it is wise to purchase a loft bed that has these safety features and are Consumer Product Safety Commission and The American Society of Testing and Materials compliant.

Many colors and finishes are available on these products. Custom knobs or accessories make finding a bunk bed with desk easy for any bedroom or dorm room decor.

The pain of loosing loved ones is more acute during the holiday season, and I’m reminded of this when reading an article about a New Jersey soldier who lost his life in Afghanistan. I was actually first made aware of this through my daughter’s post on Facebook, she is a good friend to Nicole, the woman interviewed in the article the above link leads to.  Nicole was a classmate and close friend to Ron Wildrick. Ron left behind 2 children and a family that will feel pain that is hard to bear. We pray for his family and those who loved him, there are not words enough to bring the comfort that can only come with time and a lot of healing.

As a Baby Boomer, there have been so very many friends who have lost parents during this season…more than in years past. It seems like a new report comes each week…one friend lost both of her parents within a month of each other.

Time does heal the most painful part of loss like this…I am not sure I can speak for the mother and wife of one who has lost a son-husband, but I can speak as a daughter who has lost her father. It has been 6 years…he passed away just before the holiday season began. I can honestly say that though there is an occasional tear, the gut-wrenching pain has subsided, and mostly it is a memory, a smile, a peaceful feeling.

I write about loss during the Christmas and holiday season not to be depressing, but because it is real, yet it doesn’t change the meaning of the season. It just changes the expectations which we place on what we think the season should be.

May the God of all comfort bring peace and comfort to those who are hurting.

I’ve been trying to get this post started and keep being distracted by the upcoming verdict in the Casey Anthony trial…oh…here it is…hold on again…wow, not guilty to so much…hmmm

Okay, back to the diary. I have had the thought about keeping a journal or diary for a long time now, and have had many false starts, but think I want to give this a go. I wish I’d done this long ago, especially as the memory of past events get jumbled with the years, but I can still start…and as the memories come back, can add them in retrospect.

I’m not going to keep it here, but as uploaded links to RedGage, a place I use to share links to blog posts, share photos, and more. Simple text for now, uploaded to a website at my hosting service that is used for general storage. If you want to follow it, please stop by and visit “happynut”, my user name on RedGage.

I did start the diary on the 4th of July, have to get used to sharing in this way. Please stop by and read if you have time, and if you have trouble accessing it, let me know in a comment.

It’s black Friday…or grey Friday if you look out my windows. No, I didn’t run out the door to hit the midnight sales last night, or the 3 am sales at Kohls, or the early sales at other stores. Those days are done for me, for some they may be a tradition, for me, they were something I did when my children were young….and there was no such thing as “online shopping”.

I’m an online shopper but this year, with a challenged economy and how it has challenged us financially, I’m going to try to rediscover my creative side, and see how we can save.

Thanksgiving holidays…yes, we have lots to be thankful for, there is no doubt about that, but it’s a deeper more meaningful kind of thanksgiving, not the kind that is thankful because we own this or that, but the kind that is thankful that someone in the family who is aging is still with you, the kind that remembers those that are no longer with you with thanksgiving for the part they have played in your life. There’s missing, the missing of those loved ones, missing children that may be overseas in the military, missing children that have married and moved out of the area. Everyone’s circumstances are different, so their approach to the season varies.

This was maybe not the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had, not feeling well and various circumstances, but still, there are so many things to be thankful for, always…it’s a good exercise to take time to count your blessings, to count my blessings, especially if my mood isn’t lining up with the season as it should.

I’m thankful for you, my readers.

Last year my husband and I started Geocaching, we aren’t out there every weekend like some enthusiasts, but enjoy our times when we do go out.  It’s great exercise and not an expensive hobby.  All you need is a hiking or biking GPS (not the kind that you use in your car) and a way to find “caches” in your area.  You can find more information, and see what we do visit a page I put together called “Geocaching Baby Boomers” (I have new pictures that I have to add, but there are some there), and you can find out more about Geocaching at the MAIN site, geocaching.com.

Here are some pages devoted just to Geocaching in New Jersey:

• Geocaching in New Jersey (at geocaching.com)
• Northern New Jersey Cachers
• Central Jersey Geocaching
• South Jersey Geocaching (not sure how active this one is?)

Here’s a video put together by the North Jersey group…you don’t have to see snakes, get scratched up, and some of the other delightful things you’ll see here, because when you use geocaching.com to find and upload caches in areas you want to explore, you can set parameters ahead of time to avoid whatever you’d like to avoid. It REALLY IS a LOT of fun!

It’s time to remember the birthday of Elvis Presley, his 75th.  We can only imagine what Elvis would have looked and sounded like at that age…or better yet, let him remain forever young in our memories.

I tried to dig around and see what I could find to connect Elvis with our fine state of New Jersey, this Baby Boomer remembers him well, and remembers how heartbroken some of my girlfriends were when he died.  I mean really heartbroken, you’d have thought they lost a family member or someone they knew personally and very well, when the closest they had been to him was to put together scrapbooks, listen to his music, watch him on TV, or if really fortunate, attend a concert.

Last year in New Jersey, they had the first ever Elvis look (and sound) alike competition in Rahway, NJ, here’s a video for you…these guys aren’t Elvis, but they aren’t bad either:

I was also able to find an interview…listen close, it has some rough spots, but not too bad…it was supposed done at Fort Dix in 1960:

And these are some personal favorites of mine:

Always on my Mind – not “polished”, but nice:

The Wonder of You

Can’t Help Falling In Love With You (sing along)

Amazing Grace (with picture montage)

There’s a few of my favorites. I can’t help but notice, looking at him and his pictures in retrospect, he seems unhappy, often as if he doesn’t really look well or “into” what he’s doing, but his voice was always beautiful.

What a surprise it was to be called by Sid Johnston from the Suburban Trends, a local/regional paper, to ask me questions about my blogs and websites. As much as I share in writing, verbally, I’m relatively quiet (some may disagree, but it’s true, I promise LOL!) by nature, so just say that I live in Northern NJ on most of my sites to maintain some privacy, but Sid was persistent, and tracked me down, and then put together this wonderful article…thank you so much!  Actually when you think about it, there isn’t a lot of privacy when you post to blogs and on the web, your audience is huge, hmmm. Well anyway, never expected a full page article, and very much appreciate it.

Everything is true in the article…well, almost…I guess since I have a blog for Work at Home Grandmothers, and a small but growing network of Work at Home Grandmothers one would imagine that I’m a grandmom…not yet, but maybe one day.  Most if not all of my other blogs and sites will be listed in my blogroll as soon as I finish typing this.

One thing I wasn’t “savvy” enough to do was figure out how to make the images so that you could click on them and bring up a bigger image, so if you’d like to be able to read the article, email me at claudiascorner[at]gmail.com and I’ll send you larger images, or if you live locally, stop by the store and pick up a copy of the Trends, and for more information about the paper, or to subscribe, click here.

3/19/09 Update:  Suburban Trends has added the article to their site, and IZEA did a post on their blog, you can click here to find the post.  Thanks to both of you!