VACATIONS OVER

We got home today from our trip to Colorado. The weather was wonderful, although we did have some snow while we were there. This is great for people from Alabama who sees snow maybe every other year or so. Everything cleared up fast and we were only house bound for one day.

The grand kids kept us real busy and we enjoyed spending time with them. We had a day at Chuckie Cheese and played all the games, rode all the rides and ate pizza and sandwiches. ( which were pretty darn good.)

Of course I have never seen a pizza yet that I didn't like.

We took one day and carried Sarah and all the kids to the Cliff Dwelling and a drive through the Garden of the Gods. This gave Sondra time to get some work done. This was the day the snow storm came through and we were about half way through the drive when it started snowing. By the time we got back to Sondra's, John could hardly see how to drive.

We didn't make it to the top of Pike's Peak this time, but will try that on the next visit. The view of the mountains was just breath taking. I can't believe there so many houses in any given area. Looking out over the area it was just a sea of houses but not to many trees. This was amazing to me since you can't look out the window without seeing trees every where here at home.

Jonathan celebrated his 39 th birthday while we were there. Sondra made him a carrot cake, which is his favorite. We didn't get to spend to much time with him. because he was away on business most of the week.

We helped Sondra hang curtains and pictures and move furniture around so I guess you might say we had a very productive week. And of course no flight would be complete without my arial pictures. As you can see there was a lot of snow left on the ground. Luckily we were able to enjoy the snow without it interferring with our trip.

We had a wonderful time, but now it is time for me to get back in the groove of working. 4:45 a.m. comes early in the morning so I need to start making arrangements for the week ahead.

SPRING BREAK

Well it is finally that time of the year again and the most hectic month we have had in a long while. Everyone is having parties, spring fling, karate camp you name it we have had it. Now it is my week to kick back and relax, if I have enough energy left to do that.

We are going to Colorado for the week. Hope the weather is nice. I plan on bringing back lots of pictures. "The more to bore you with":) Hopefully I will have some interesting stories to tell you when we get back.

If you are also off this week, have a safe and funfilled vacation.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY

Today is Emily's 8th birthday. We had dinner at Johnny and Tracy's house tonight and played charades. This was Emily's game chose. That game is really harder than you realize.

I think John kind of ticked her off, because he had told her last week that he was going get her a horse for her birthday. She knew he couldn't get one, but secretly hoped that we would come pulling a horse in behind the van. I told him he shouldn't tease her like that.

Johnny and John Pearson spent the whole day sitting at Med Plus waiting to see a doctor. John Pearson broke his thumb in PE on Friday and it had turned black and green. Now he will have to go to bone doctor and have the same things done again.

I can't believe Emily is already 8 years old. It seems just yesterday that I would sit and rock her and when I would stop singing to her, she would start going hmmm. hmmm., hmmmm. She love the sound of singing.

Well Emily since Grandaddy didn't get you a horse, I posted a picture of the horses in the pasture behind us. Hope you had a wonderful birthday

Happy birthday emily!!. we love you mowmaw and grandaddy.

(Happy birthday Emily!! We love you MawMaw and Grandaddy.)

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LOOSING FAITH

I have been hearing on the news for the last couple of weeks about the survey that talks about Americans loosing their faith. This is very disturbing to me.

People say that part of the reason they are loosing faith is because of the economy, the war and the loss of jobs. These are all reasons to be concerned about our life styles and safety, but I don't understand how this can make us loose our faith in God. Every since the beginning of time there have been famines, there have been wars that have almost wiped out

nations, and here in the United States the great Depression that left practically every family completely broke, unable to feed their families and no jobs to be had. In all of these times people have found their faith to be a rock to cling to and help them find the strength to start again.

I saw an interview yesterday with a young woman holding her baby on her hip talking to the newsperson. He was asking her about loosing faith and this was her comment. "I can see why people are loosing faith, it is bad when you can't even go into the store and buy a Coke." What in the world does that have to do with faith. I might have felt a little pity if she had said that I can't even buy my baby a bottle of milk. But a Coke? Makes me think that she didn't have much faith to loose.

This is my opinion, but I think we are failing our children, our grandchildren and generations to come by not instilling a little faith, religion and just plain morals into their lives. We have let the government take prayer out of school, displaying the Ten Commandments can get you jail time and morals are anything goes. We all know that it just continues to get worse. I think it is time that each of us should stand and say, "Yes, I do believe in God". "Yes I do believe that God answers prayers, but some times the answer is NO". "Yes I do believe that we should love our

neighbor, but we don't have to always love what our neighbors are doing."

"Yes sometimes our faith is shaken, but it would be harder to live without faith at all".

If our nations falls it is not because God doesn't like us anymore, it is because we don't like God anymore. Let's get our priorities straight

SOUNDS LIKE LIFE TO ME

As I was going into work this morning, I heard a song on the radio called
" It sounds like life to me". It was by Daryle Worley and was a catchy tune about a man that had fallen off the wagon, because of all the things going wrong in his life. After each bad thing he said had happened the refrain was "It sounds like life to me".

The song kind of stuck with me today and in all my conversations with my co-workers and all the things they spoke about, the sad, the pitiful and the just plain aggravating, I would think to myself "It sounds like life to me".

We all face obstacles. You may not get the respect that we need or deserve from your bosses or co-workers, but you do not loose the love of your family. You may not make the team, but you are still NO. 1 to someone. You may not be the most beautiful or most handsome, but
you are drop dead gorgeous to someone. Does that "Sound like life to you'.

We all would like to change some of the things we have said and or done.
There are things we wish we had done and will never get the second chance to do. Most of us would like to weigh 20 lbs less and have a magic wrinkle remover but..........

"It Sounds Like Life to Me".

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT DESIGN

I figured you had heard enough silliness for a couple of days and looked for something a little more cultured to post:) I was going through some pictures that we had taken in the last year or so and came across these pictures of the Rosenbaum home in Florence Al.

This house was designed by the famous Frank Lloyd Wright. It is one of the few built in Al. It was amazing to go through the house. It was designed for a place for everything and everything in its place. Apparently they raised four boys in this house. Their bedroom looks almost like a dormitory and I think that is what they called it, with four beds built in a bunk bed design on the back wall. One side of the room is all windows. ( I have a hard time imagining any of mine sharing this space without someone horsing around and going through the window). There were desk built in ,the closets were very tiny and the drawers were all built in the wall. You can see the drawers in the picture above. They had to be well organized people.

The dining room is very basic with a wood table built almost like a table/ bar that fits 6 chairs. The original kitchen was the most compact kitchen you have ever seen. It was almost like a closet that you could close off when entertaining. Stove on one wall, sink on one wall and the refrigerator on the third wall. All the halls are very narrow less than 30" in width.

I loved the sewing room. Some of Mrs Rosenbaum's handiwork is on display. It is just a very unusual home design. I think the furniture had to be carried in through the doors that opened from each room to the outside. There is no way anything could be carried down the narrow halls.

If I could find my brochure I could give more details. If you every get a chance to visit Florence, it may be one of the places to put on your list of things to see.

Hope someone enjoys these pictures. ( Todd I posted these with you in mind).

HOW EMBARASSING IS THAT?

One day Sandra and I decided that we would meet at her house and fire up the big black pot and make homemade chicken stew. John and I arrived at 7:30 to find that Sandra wasn't home. I guess she had gone to the store to pick up something we had forgotton for the stew.

We sat in the car waiting for about 15 minutes when nature called in a very loud voice. I got out of the car went to every door in her house and even a couple of windows, but everything was locked up tight as a drum.
I came back and told John that I had to find a restroom, so off we went as fast as the speed limit would let us go. We finally stopped at Shoney's and I made a bee line for the restroom. I lined the toilet and sat down, "major relief". After a few minutes I wash my hands, gave my hair a comb through with my fingers, checked to see if my lipstick was still on and walked back to the car.

We went back to Sandra's and by this time she was home. We go in and start getting our things ready when she says " Pat do you have a bad cold" and I tell her, "No. Why"? and she says " Well what are you doing with that toilet paper hanging out of you pants. Oh my goodness. I reached into the back waistband and hanging there was a string of toilet paper about 2 feet long. Evidently when I pulled my jeans up the paper had caught. I walked through Shoney's, out the door and past the whole front of the building with this toilet paper hanging like a giant long white tail.

Needless to say, it was quite a while before I returned to Shoney's.

With that said, and I can't believe I just put that into my blog, I will give you the recipe for:

HOMEMADE CHICKEN STEW

3 lbs chicken ( dark and light meat)
4 lbs potatoes ( red are the best)
1 large onion
1 large can of tomato juice
1 can cream style corn
Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken until tender. Pull chicken from bone and save broth. Add potatoes, onion, tomato juice, salt, pepper and pulled chicken to broth. Cook until potatoes and onions are done. If you stir it often the potatoes will break up and the stew will start to get thick. Add the cream style corn the last 15 minutes. The corn helps the stew to thicken more.

Serve with crackers or white bread and cheddar cheese. I always add about teaspoon of dill pickle juice to bowl. Yummy!

NO. 1 EMBARASSING MOMENT

When I was in high school, I took all the business classes and was pretty good at short hand and typed 85 or 90 words a minute. When you were typing on an old Royal electric or just a plain manual typewriter, that was pretty darn good.

Well I graduated at 18 and was not the most confident teenager in the world, but knew it was time to either get a job, go to college or get married. Since John had not come along at that time, I had to opt for the first two. I took my ACT test but didn't feel that I did as well as I should so I never went back to get my score.

My Dad insisted that I go over to the TVA employment office and take their secretarial test. I went because if Daddy told me to jump my only question was "how high?. Well I got there and the room was was full of women of all ages hopeful of landing a job with TVA. I could feel the tension rising from my stomach, up into my throat, my palms were sweating and when I looked down my hands were shaking visiblely. We all took a seat in front of a type writer, got our paper inserted and waited for the instructor to give us directions. In the mean time I am about to get sick from the tension. The instructor tells us what we are supposed to do and that the test will last for five minute and we will be graded on the number of words we get right per minute.

She set the timer and says now start. I start typing and glance down after the first few words, everything is going great. I start to relax and the tension is lessening in my shoulders, my head starts to clear and I think, why was I so afraid. I continue typing like a demon, my fingers are literally flying across the keyboard. The bell goes off indicating that the test is over and I breath a sigh of relief. Then I look down at my paper and this is what I see.

Hjejug eh ui g s joo jdui ut iijk jxxxoj mmm enthh toi toelll oih nkw.n jtnnmi ieht mem ii eiuio lemt ml elk mremjjw. o sm divj s nui O vsmy nr;ofbr yjomd Gr ylr hommr frmloyn dn okk ekrt

After the first line where I glanced up to see if I was doing OK, I got my fingers in the wrong position, and the rest of the five minutes I didn't hit a single right key. Well being the naive person that I was, instead of taking the paper, folding it and putting it in my purse, I did like the instructor said and put my name in the right hand corner and left it on my desk. I can't even imagine the laugh that those people got out of my typing test. I figure that somewhere, on some wall, in some personel office still hangs my infamous TVA typing test.

Needless to say I did not pursue a career in office management.

EMILY'S BAPTISIM

Today was Emily's baptism into the Catholic Church. It was a real special day for the whole family. Mark and Monica were her Godparents and were both able to make it in for the ceremony. Father Andy was the celebrant.

When we got up this morning there was about 2" of snow on the ground, and believe it or not 2" of snow in Alabama can completely paralyze the whole area. As it turned out the roads were not cold enough for the snow to stick on them and it was just a beautiful white morning and everything had melted by the time we got out of church.

Johnny and Tracy took us out to Olive Garden after church and we had a nice meal and time to sit and talk and laugh. I would post the silly pictures we all made at the restruant, but I want do that and take away from Emily's special day. Maybe I will post them at a later date.

I wish all the family could have been here to celebrate with her, but it is almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time now. Sondra, David and Jonathan had taken care of Luke and Charlotte while Sarah and Cody came down to close out the sale of their house. Sarah and Cody's flight back to CO. left on Saturday. Tim, Andrew, Matthew and Aaron had to stay in Memphis for a retreat that Matthew was having today. The retreat was canceled because of the snow. Had they have known, they could have come in with Monica. Oh well that's what happens when there are so many family members.

All in all it was a wonderful day and we are truly blest to have such a large and beautiful family.

Coming next week: SOME OF MY MOST EMBARASSING MOMENTS