5.11.12 TIMES

SEMOTIMESWWW.SEMOTIMES.COM

The Most Important News of your Week 5.11.12

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Apron Liberation movement in Poplar Bluff

Garden Club celebrates 75th

anniversary

Library seeks a more reliable funding source

2

3The Week in Review

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It was a good week for Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, which an-nounced Wednesday dur-

ing its Topping Out ceremony that construction of the new hospital is a full year ahead of schedule, and will be open by January.

It was a good week for the 100 block of South Main Street, headquarter of the

SEMO Times, which has landed it-self a Chicago style café. Full story to come!

It was a good week for former House Speaker Rod Jetton, more recently

marketing director at Schultz & Summers Engineering, who will re-turn to public work as leader of a state transportation committee. We here at Thumbs believe everyone deserves a second chance.

It was a good week for Matt Sanders, Krakowi-ak’s former colleague at the

Southeast Missou-rian, who we have learned has been named managing editor of the Cape Girardeau newspa-per.

It was a bad week

for horse carriage-jackings in St. Louis. What year is this, Missouri, 1890?

It was a good week for one of our biggest supporters, Sergio Lopez from Las

Mas, who finally got his braces off. That’s right, one of our readers had braces. The SEMO Times is for the children!

1. What’s the last restaurant you ate at?

2. Dedicate a song to some-one on your friend list!

KevinHilderbrand

SuzieMartin

KimMcMullin

1. El Acapulco. Great service, food tastes like it was made with gramma’s recipe...

2. “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison to Beverly Tidwell

1. Las Margaritas. Best place in town.

2. “The More I Drink” for Scott R. Faughn

1. Las Mas

2. “I Fell In Love Again” by the Forrester Sisters for Mark McMullin

StaffPublisher

Scott R. [email protected]

Managing EditorTim [email protected]

ReporterLiz Ellis

[email protected]

Semotimes

“The most important news of your week”

5.11.12Volume 4 Issue 17

100 S. Main StPoplar Bluff, MO

573-785-2200

Cover

Designed byLiz Ellis

Story byTim Krakowiak

Photo byTim Krakowiak

Cover Story SEMO Times4

by Tim Krakowiak, Managing Editor

Library seeks a more reliable funding source

istorically the Poplar Bluff Public Library has stood for combating illiteracy. Today

the staff works toward narrowing the digital divide that exists among the generations, according to library offi-cials.

Having reached a crossroads in fund-ing needed to provide the community technology, the relevance of that ser-vice will be put to the test next month as the library attempts to capture a small piece of the sales tax pie driving the city bud-get.

D u r -ing a s p e c i a l election June 5, P o p l a r B l u f f v o t e r s will be asked to r ep l ace the near 14-cent per $100 assessed valuation library property tax with an additional quarter of a penny sales tax at retail stores within the municipal library district, raising sales taxes to 7.725 cents on the dollar.

“This will be the first library in Mis-

souri to pass this tax and could be the first in many, many states,” Library Director Jackie Thomas said. “I don’t know of another library anywhere us-ing this tax.”

In order to bring Proposition 1 to the voters, library officials spent three years working on passing a state law that would enable the democratic pro-cess to run its course. “Libraries are the last political subdivision in the entire state to be allowed to ask local citizens, ‘Would you do this?” Thomas

said.L a s t

y e a r , Gov. Jay N i x o n s i g n e d into law a bill au-thorizing the vote to take p l a c e s t r i c t l y in the f o r m e r s e n a t o -rial Dis-

trict 25, as sort of a pilot for the state. Originally proposed in 2009, the dead bill was reintroduced two years later by sponsor Rep. Todd Richardson of Poplar Bluff, ultimately passing as part of a larger package pushed by Sen.

Rob Mayer of Dexter.“While there are 17,000 some odd

people in Poplar Bluff, there are over 40,000 in Butler County, so what you have is the people who live within the city supporting something that serves a much larger population,” Richardson explained. “Given the landscape of our area, I think it’s an appropriate ques-tion for the voters to decide. Legisla-ture simply gave the library the ability to put forth the question.”

While library patrons outside of the city have to pay a $35 user fee, the proceeds only account for 3 percent of the library’s revenue, according to literature the library is sending out to citizens.

“A sales tax across the board would be more equitable for people who use the library that live outside of the city limits and are not really paying their fair share,” stated library board presi-dent Kathy Sanders, who is also a

member of the Missouri Secretary’s Council on Library Development.

During a local election in 2007, the library attempted to extend its tax base across the entire county, since more than half of library patrons are non-residents of Poplar Bluff. The measure failed by 3,027 to 2,284 votes.

If the tax levy does not pass this time around, library officials say deeper cuts will have to be made, as the library budget has seen no growth in the past several years, while items checked out each year have increased from 89,000 to 280,000 on Thomas’ watch.

Since 2005, operating hours have been reduced from 63 to 54 hours per week and two full-time positions have been eliminated, according to Thomas, who has been there since 1998.

“Here we have this beautiful build-ing on the National Register (of His-

Mary Gigi of Poplar Bluff Junior High tutors 15-year-old Anthony Little after school Wednesday at the Poplar Bluff Public Library. Photo by Tim Krakowiak

“This will be the first library in Missouri to pass this tax

and could be the first in many, many states. I don’t know

of another library anywhere using this tax.”

-Jackie Thomas, Poplar Bluff Public Library

H

>>Library , pg 11

semotimes.com

HigHligHts

5

UCAN golf tournament dedicated to former board member

The United Cancer Assistance Network is hosting its annual charity golf tourna-ment beginning at 1 p.m. June 1 at West-wood Hills Country Club, announced Jeff Shawan, president of the UCAN Board of Directors.The tournament is dedicated to Butch

Brown, devoted UCAN board member who served as president for three years. “I don’t know of anyone who had more pas-sion for UCAN than Butch Brown,” said Marsha LeGrand, UCAN board mem-ber. UCAN was his pride and joy, and he worked tirelessly on behalf of the charity.”The four-person, scramble golf tourna-

ment is held in Poplar Bluff annually by the local not-for-profit organization to raise funds to assist area cancer patients. UCAN is the area’s only nonprofit organi-zation formed for the singular purpose of providing individualized support for area cancer patients.To enter the golf tournament or to be a

sponsor of the event call Melody Melloy, director of marketing, at 573-776-1892, or call this year’s tournament chairmen, Don and Sally Metz, at 573-718-1472. The first 144 players to sign up will be ac-cepted. The number of teams is limited to 36 for faster play.

House on Vine Street to be considered for National Register

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Mis-souri Advisory Council on Historic Pres-ervation will consider nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, in-cluding the Williams-Gierth house in Pop-lar Bluff, during its quarterly meeting.The meeting, which is open to the pub-

lic, will begin at 9 a.m. next Friday in the LaCharrette conference room of the Lewis and Clark State Office Building in Jeffer-son City.In addition to what is informally known

as the old castle house at 848 Vine St., the Hunter-Dawson residence in New Madrid will also be considered for the register.For more information about the May

meeting or the council, visit the depart-ment’s website at www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo.

MoDOT kicks off online property auction

SIKESTON, Mo. – The Missouri De-partment of Transportation is offering an innovative way for the public to partici-pate in land auctions—online. The online auction began Wednesday with parcels of land for sale in Butler County.The Southeast District’s Realty to Roads

website offers information about the prop-erties for sale, including photos and vid-eos, online bidder registration and an on-line bid form. Interested parties can visit the online auction at www.modot.org/southeast through May 30. The current high bid will be updated each weekday as it is processed, or as they are received.A conference room will be set up at Mo-

DOT’s district office in Sikeston for inter-ested parties to view the final bids as they are posted on May 30, beginning at 9 a.m. Bids will be posted as they are received until 9:45 a.m. All bidders may continue to submit bids until the close of the auc-tion at 10 a.m.For more information, contact Interme-

diate Right of Way Specialist Eric Kaut at 417-469-6296, Right of Way Special-ist Mike Smith at 573-472-5286 or Mo-DOT’s customer service center toll-free at 888-ASK MoDOT (275-6636). Trans-portation information is available online at www.modot.org/southeast, twitter.com/MoDOTSoutheast and facebook.com/MoDOTSoutheast.

Three Rivers hires chamber direc-tor to lead planned Sikeston centerSIKESTON, MO – Three Rivers Col-

lege announced the appointment of Missy Marshall to the position of director for the college’s Center at Sikeston.Marshall, currently the executive direc-

tor of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Com-merce, will begin work June 4. Marshall announced her intent to resign to the lead-ership of the Sikeston Chamber on Mon-day.

News SEMO Times6

Poplar Bluff Garden Club celebratesby Liz Ellis, Reporter

n 1937, the Poplar Bluff Gar-den Club was founded by 16

women who met twice a month dur-ing the spring and once a month during the winter to plan out activities. They held flower shows and fundraisers, and planted and landscaped all over town.

Now, 75 years later, the club has a long history and an impressive legacy left behind.

“I love the friendship and the feel-ing that we do something that is worth-while. We’re not just some ladies’ circle out there having fun,” said Katie Findlay, a member since 1992. “We work hard and do a lot during the year.”

In fact, the garden club is constantly doing something for the community. Their projects include planting crepe myrtles around town, planting a tree every Arbor Day, landscaping public areas including the Poplar Bluff Pub-lic Library and Three Rivers College, putting wreaths on the Blue Star Me-morial, planting petunias at City Hall, planting roses at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center and more.

“It’s amazing what we’ve done in the years I’ve been a member,” said Alana DeBord, who began with the club in 1998. “We’re all getting older, but we’re still so active… I’m proud of what we’ve done in the community.”

Most recently, the club celebrated Arbor Day by dedicating a tree at the library and visiting the Kindergarten Center to talk to the children about na-ture and gardening.

“This is a very active club. They are always doing something for the community to beautify Poplar Bluff. They do a lot for the community, and it is very educational,” former member Penny Lynch said.

Centered on nature and the commu-nity, the organization is more than hap-

py to cater to everyone—even those who know little about gardening.

“I’m not a gardener. To me it’s just work…” said Judy Duncan, a member since 1977. “I joined to learn about gardening. I didn’t have a clue when I joined, but I have learned a lot. I joined for the artistic side of it.”

The organization is not simply about flowers either. In fact, they also help provide information about birds, keep bird sanctuaries and conduct bluebird walks. Nature and all that it entails is what the club is about.

“It’s about the environment and wa-ter resources, recycling, birds… It’s not just plants. It’s the environment. Nature. It’s very broad,” Duncan con-tinued.

For more information about the Pop-lar Bluff Garden Club, visit www.pb-gardenclub.com or simply attend their next meeting, which are held on the second Wednesday of every month at 9:30 a.m. June’s meeting will be in the arts and crafts room of the Twin Tow-ers building.

Liz Ellis can be contacted by emailing [email protected] or by calling 573-785-2200.

75years

I

During its meeting Wednesday, several of the past presidents of the club posed for a picture, including: (from left) Alana DeBord, Shelley Ploetze, Judy Duncan, Sherry Wilson (South-east District director), Judy Sheets (State Federated Garden Clubs of Missouri president), Cindy Boyers, Rose Brown and Katie Findlay (in front). Photo by Liz Ellis

1937 - First meeting

1945 - Officially adopted Poplar Bluff Garden Club name

1966 - First yard of the month award given

1977 - Organized Campbell Garden Club

1984 - First combined Garden Club yard tour with Better Gardens Garden Club and Green Thumb Garden Club

1996 - Located and rededicated the Blue Star Memorial

1999 - Planted 100 crepe myrtles around Poplar Bluff

2000 - Clover Leaf at Hwy 60 and 67 was beautified with crepe myrtles by community betterment and garden club

2011 - Named Southeast District club of the year

7

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News SEMO Times 11>>Library, from pg 4toric Places)… people coming in from all over the Midwest, blown away, particularly by our children’s program, but maintenance remains an issue,” said John Stanard, who has served the library board for 17 years. “Passage will help set us up for the future, to have steady, reliable funding and keep up with changing technology.”

The library’s budget is currently subsidized by the city of Poplar Bluff to the tune of about $79,000 from the general revenue fund, based on an av-erage of the last three years.

Besides the card fee being waived for all Butler Countians, the city would likely stop having to provide financial support, as the library would be self-sustained with the new funding mecha-nism in place.

The proposition is actually nothing new for the city, as voters approved the same measure for the Poplar Bluff Parks & Recreation Department in 1999, replacing an identical property tax with an equivalent sales tax boost.

Sales tax revenue for the parks de-partment has equaled more than $1 million annually since 2009, while the library property tax has generated over $300,000 during the same period, ac-cording to information provided by Mark Massingham, city finance direc-tor.

With the additional revenue, the li-brary would be able to double its bud-get, allowing for the purchase of more

books, including building a teacher curriculum collection, along with ex-tending weeknight hours plus open-ing on Sundays. Long-term plans in-clude adding a bookmobile as well as new virtual libraries and Wi-Fi access points throughout the community, ac-cording to Thomas.

“When I joined the Friends of the Li-brary (three years ago), I had no idea I was going to be helping to raise money for books. I just thought that was in the operating budget,” said Heather Nagy, who is president of the library’s non-profit fundraising arm.

Nagy explained that her son Hunt, who is a freshman at Poplar Bluff High School, had to type four research papers this year, each requiring Inter-net sources. Students who do not have home computers, she pointed out, rely on the library’s limited after-school hours.

“If you help out teachers, you help the school system, and if you help the school system, you help students, which helps the community grow and attract new businesses, which creates more jobs,” Nagy pleaded. “It’s all a big cycle that helps the whole region succeed.

Tim Krakowiak can be contacted by emailing [email protected], or fol-low him on Twitter @TimKrak.

A group of young patrons use the self-checkout system to borrow books Wednesday at Poplar Bluff Pub-lic Library on North Main Street. Photo by Tim Krakowiak

Arts & Entertainment SEMO Times12

Walk Because UCAN

May 198:30 a.m. - noon

Parking lot west of UCAN buildingPoplar Bluff

The Pulse Events from PoplarBluffLive.com in the 573 area code

Cage of Honor 51

May 126 - 10 p.m.

Whiskey DownPoplar Bluff

Shades of Soul Live

May 128:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.

Pink Galleon Billiards & GamesCape Girardeau

UCAN Men’s Softball Tourney

May 127 a.m. - 7 p.m.Hillcrest ParkPoplar Bluff

Today is Apron Liberation DayWomen encouraged to wear aprons

in public to honor mothers

omen from all walks of life have worn aprons in the kitchen and around the house for decades to

protect clothes while doing household chores. These aprons, decorated or utilitarian, were often handmade and handed down from one generation to the next.

Today has been designated as Apron Liberation Day, a day in which aprons everywhere should be liberated from the house and worn outside and around town. According to Tammy Hilder-brand, founder of the event, the idea behind apron liberation is to make peo-ple aware of the sacrifices that former generations made, especially women, and to honor their choices.

“Apron Liberation came to me as a way to honor our mothers, grandmoth-ers, aunts or sisters… all the important women in our life that didn’t really have all the opportunities that we had,” said Hilderbrand, the owner of Hilder-brand Diamond Company. “I think it’s a big statement of who we are and be-ing proud of who we are and where we came from… There have been a lot of people before [us] who traveled some tough roads to be able to get where we are today.”

The idea, she said, occurred to her when she was thinking about her grandmother and the pretty aprons that she used to wear after church to make dinner. Her grandmother, Hilderbrand said, had many pretty aprons, but only

the family ever saw them.“…People don’t wear [aprons] out,

because they’re just seen as aprons,

they aren’t seen as fashion items by themselves. I’d love to see them be-come a fashion item that you can wear,

by Liz Ellis, Reporter

WIn honor of Apron Liberation Day, Hilderbrand Dia-mond Company will be hosting an apron judging contest. One winner will recieve a golden rolling pin and tiara (shown above) and be named ‘apron diva.’ Photo by Liz Ellis

Arts & Entertainment SEMO Times 13

May 1911 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Eagle Pass WineryPoplar Bluff

UCAN Drink Wine Grand Opening

Spaghetti Day The Hipstour Lil Wyte concert and party

May 2211 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Emmanuel Baptist ChurchDoniphan

May 226 p.m. - 10 p.m.The UpperdeckCape Girardeau

May 267 p.m. - 1 a.m.Eagles LodgePoplar Bluff

How it Works:1. Create a Facebook event

2. Invite the SEMO Times to your event on Facebook3. The event will automatically be updated on poplarblufflive.com

4. Your event will appear in the paper!

especially on Apron Liberation Day,” Hilderbrand said. “I think it’s a won-derful opportunity to get your aprons out of the drawer and wear them, show them off proudly and tell your story about how that apron came to be in your possession.”

In honor of the first Apron Liberation Day, Hilderbrand will be holding an apron contest in her store. Communi-ty members are encouraged to submit photos of their aprons for judging or come to the store in person to be en-tered. One winner will receive a golden rolling pin and a tiara and be dubbed “apron diva” of the year. Judging will

begin at 2 p.m., and refreshments will be provided. Pictures can be posted on the Apron Liberation Facebook page for judging purposes also.

“Part of it is just plain fun,” Hilder-brand said. “And it doesn’t necessar-ily have to be an apron that [the par-ticipants] made. It can be one from their collection, one that belonged to a grandmother or aunt or mother, or just one that they found at the store that ap-pealed to them.”

Hilderbrand said some people had argued that wearing an apron is a sign of the “domestic bondage” of women, unable to go out on their own and have the same opportunities as men. Hilder-brand disagrees.

“Women have so many opportunities now. To me the apron is not a symbol of domestic bondage at all. To me, it’s a symbol of freedom,” Hilderbrand said. “The fact that we finally have the op-portunity to choose our path in life… We can choose to go out into the work-force and we have the opportunity to educate ourselves or to do anything we want to do. But we also have the choice to be able to take care of our families

and do all the traditional things that women do… And we don’t have to choose one way or the other—we can actually choose to do both. And I think that’s really a unique place in history for women to be able to do that.”

After seeing the interest that the apron liberation has generated, Hilder-brand recently opened an online shop called “Women in Pink” at www.zaz-zle.com/taramydesigns that is centered on female empowerment. The store will sell a few aprons as well as vari-ous types of shirts and other clothing with the WIP logo.

Right now, the shop is primarily on the Web, but someday it may be more than that. Eventually, Hilderbrand said she may venture into home décor or even vintage fashion.

“We are just going to see how it goes—that’s how I’ve done most things in my life,” Hilderbrand said. “Just try it and see what happens.”

Liz Ellis can be reached by emailing [email protected] or by calling 573-785-2200

Tammy Hilderbrand, owner of Hilderbrand Diamond Com-pany and founder of Apron Liberation Day, rocks an apron. Photo by Liz Ellis

14 Opinion & Editorial SEMO Times

Society’s views about moth-erhood and the role moth-ers should or shouldn’t play in their children’s lives is… well… schizophrenic. I think it’s always been that way. Dur-ing different times of history, society has had widely var-ied ideas about who a mother should be.

A hundred years ago, there was disagreement. The upper class frequently thought too much mothering would ruin a child. They preferred hav-ing them raised by nannies and sent to boarding school to insure that they grew up with a certain amount of indepen-dence. Coddling was seen as counter-productive to the in-dustrial revolution. Child rear-ing should be somewhat like factory production… efficient.

And then in the 1940s and ‘50s, as women started to en-ter the workforce because of necessity wrought by World War II, the arguments became louder. “A woman’s place is in the home with her children.”

Then with the 1960s women began to feel that they had re-sponsibility to themselves as much as their children. To be self-actualized and to under-stand their own potential, they were going to have to cut the apron strings.

And now… here we are… 2012, and the debate rages on.

A book that was released in France two years ago has made its way to the U.S. The book, by author Elisabeth Badinter, is entitled, “Le Con-flit: La Femme et la Mere,” or translated, “The Conflict: The

Woman and the Mother.”The book was written as a

commentary on French soci-ety. Badinter argued that be-cause of liberal French labor laws for women, including tax breaks, paid maternity leave and a liberal approach to par-enting, French women were turning into over-parenters, or as we call them in the U.S., “helicopter mommies.

She claims they have be-come so obsessed with moth-erhood that the dream of the women’s movement is being cast aside. She claimed that “the baby is the best ally of masculine domination.”

I thought about all this. Is there truth to this? And is it a good thing or a bad thing for children and for society?

I think the answer is prob-ably both.

Whether it’s French soci-ety or American society, we both have a tendency to want to believe there is some kind of magic formula for produc-ing great children who turn into great adults. As a matter of fact, I think we look for a “magic bullet” for any prob-lem in society.

Sure… it would be great if raising great kids was as easy as following a recipe… spend a certain number of hours with your child per week, feed them lots of vegetables and closely supervise all their activities, school work and friendships… and you’re sure to have a child who grows into a responsible and productive adult.

Nope. Not that easy.The best advice I can give is

to do the best you can in your life’s circumstances. Most im-portantly, be the kind of person you hope your children will grow to be. The best way to teach perseverance is to show perseverance. You don’t need to shelter your children from the fact that life can be tough, you just need to show them the courage to keep fighting, and to keep getting up, no mat-ter how many times you get knocked down.

The best way to teach com-passion for others is to show compassion for others. If you hope for your children to be community leaders who help their communities, be that per-son yourself. If you want them to value education, show that you value education. Teach courage by showing courage.

Live your values.And mostly let them know

you love them regardless… re-gardless of whether they fail or succeed in all of their endeav-ors. You are the one unwaver-ing thing in life they can de-pend on. And that is a love that will never die. It will be with them long after you no longer roam this earth.

That’s not mother obsession. That’s just love.

Tammy Hilderbrand is the owner of Hilderbrand Dia-mond Company in Poplar Bluff, which can be found online at www.hilderbrand-diamondcompany.com. You can reach her by emailing [email protected].

The mommy wars

As many of you may have noticed, I have been out for a few weeks. I have been help-ing to plan and prepare for my daughter's wedding. Lots and lots of work! No time to write or even to get inspired to write. My head has been a swirling mecca of wedding, wedding and more wedding.

Now that the champagne has gone flat and the rice has been swept up, I have been taking a few moments to catch my breath and get back into the swing of things. So I found it only fitting to write about how ceremonies play a role in our overall health.

Whether it is a wedding, graduation, funeral or even a Cinco de Mayo, party ceremo-nies seem to be important in most people’s lives. But what is it about a ceremony that is so important? Quite simply, they depict change.

A wedding ceremony or graduation ceremony is a huge event in life. They are both rites of passage from one life to the next. Even a funeral is a rite of passage from one plane of existence into the next.

For most people, at a wed-ding, graduation or a birth-day, we are surrounded by

those who are important in our life. Family and friends. This serves as a reminder that we are not going through life alone. That we do not have to face changes in our life alone, and that we are being cheered on. Even a funeral is a remind-er to those left behind that the person who has died did not spend life alone and that the ones left behind won't either.

Ceremonies give us the op-portunity to express feelings of joy and sorrow without feeling awkward or out of place. Let's face it, in the event of the funeral, it is not for the person who died, but for those still living to be able to grieve openly and candidly with oth-ers who are also grieving. A wedding or a birthday gives us a chance to express joy fully and completely. Whatever the ceremony, the expressions of emotions are cathartic.

So when you are planning a ceremony, keep in mind that they are good for our over-all health. When we celebrate with others it makes the joy so much sweeter. When we express sorrow with others it is comforting and consol-ing. It grounds us. It keeps us connected with our past while

Celebrate: your health

depends on it

Healthy Lifestylewith Kat Robinson

15Advice SEMO Times

Dear Joy,I need some help. I dropped out of college when I was 19, when I

was pregnant with my first born, and now that my kids are older, I want to go back to college to try and finish my degree. My husband thinks it is a waste of time and money. We both have OK jobs right now, but I think we could make more money (and be happier) if I could go finish my schooling. Since he never went to college, I think he might be a little jealous or doesn’t understand.

What should I do? I want his help and support with this, but I also really want to try and go for my dreams. How should I convince him?

Bookworm,Dexter

Bookworm,My first impression is go for your dreams! But... you do have to

think it out.First, can you afford to quit work, or can you finish your degree

by taking classes at nights or online? If you will have to quit your job, can you both cut back and live on your husband’s salary? How long will it take you to finish? Are jobs available in your area for the degree you desire?

You must give this a lot of thought before you quit a job. Also, think about college funds for your kids, your retirement and other matters. Would this degree help you attain these things faster? I totally understand wanting to go for your dreams. That is admiral and a wonderful achievement for you to go for. Just think it ALL out carefully.

Now about your husband being a little jealous or not understanding. Talk to him. Let him know how important it is for you personally and to help the family in the long run. We all deserve to be happy and follow our dreams. Compromise is a big part of a successful marriage. You have a big decision to make. Remember, in talking about this, be sweet, not confrontational. Listen to his opinion as well!

I could never say do what YOU want to do because all those years ago you made the decision to quit, and with that comes consequences that last a long time. I hope you can both come to the best decision for you and your family.

Good Luck!-Joy

A weekly advice column from a local romance expert, Ask Joy is our own version of the nationally syndicated Ask Abby. To ask Joy a relationship question, email her at [email protected], or befriend her on Facebook at Ask Joy. Names are kept confidential.

moving us forward into the future.So congratulations to all the seniors

as they move into their new lives! Reach for the stars you will at least grab a star!

And to my lovely daughter Candi and my new son Jake, may your new life together be filled with love and joy!

For all of you involved in the cer-

emonies of life, look around and know that you are not alone.

Till next time, here's to your health!

A yoga/healthy lifestyle instructor, Kat Robinson is the owner of Active Kat Yoga in Doniphan, which can be found online at www.activekatyoga.com. You can reach her by emailing, [email protected].

Husband says college is a waste