HOME AT LAST

Sondra getting friendly with the Navy

Fixing to tour the Naval Museum

Sacked out at the beach

To much fun in the sun

Do you know how many pancakes a box of Bisquick can make?

An almost empty pool at the beach

Three rowdy boys.


Battle field at Perryville KY.


John next to a cannon. He loves anything to do with the history of the civil war.

My friend Diane.

WHEE!!... I feel like I just slid into home. I have been gone for the last month.

A week in Niceville, a week in Orange Beach and then a week in Ohio. The dust on my furniture is at least an inch thick and the dust bunnies are hiding everywhere I look. But I guess there will always be time to clean.

When we were almost home from Orange Beach, I ask John if he needed to go up to Ohio and check on his mom and he said he would like to. He said when do you think we should go and I said it didn't matter. So we got in from OB Sunday around 8:00 PM and headed out to Ohio on Wednesday morning at 4:00 AM. We would have left sooner but John Pearson had football camp and we didn't want Emily to be home alone.

We decided to stop in Cinn. and visit with an old friend. We met Diane when we first got married and she and her husband and little girl lived next door to us

in Milford Ohio. John worked long hours at the Kresge store and Diane and I would spend hours watching soap operas and honing our cooking skills. I had none at that time and was always impressed with the fact that she could follow recipes and they would come out just perfect. Mine were always kind of hit or miss. She had already had her little when I met her and I was expecting our first child, so I thought she was a more experienced mom and relied on her to answer any questions I had about babies and birthing. Looking back on that time I realize that we were two very naive kids just trying to figure out how to make it in an adult world.

It is kind of strange in a way. We only knew each other for a year when John got transferred to Columbus. After we moved we continued to keep in touch. Time passed, our lives changed, more kids for both of us, a divorce for Diane and later a marriage to a very nice man. I talked to her every once in awhile, a few letters and a couple of visit in the beginning. The first thing you know it has been 32 years since we have seen her, so I gave her a call and told her we were in the area and would like to stop by. It is the darnedest thing with Diane. No matter how long it has been since I have talked to her, it is like we just talked yesterday and we become those two young girls sitting in her living room watching TV and eating hot German potato salad. The main difference is more wrinkles, gray hair (covered by the bottle) and now talking about grand kids instead of our own babies.

I am one of those people that doesn't have a lot of casual friends, but I have a few really good life long friends and that is fine with me.

After a short visit with Diane, we headed on over to Gallipolis to visit with John's mom. She is staying with Jim and Becky. We had a nice visit and was able to find a lot of things for our antique booths ( not at Jim and Becky's house by the way). Rosemary came over to visit and John was excited to spend time with her. Larry picked her up on Sunday and brought his mom and Stratton. We spent the day in the pool and visiting. We left on Monday morning and finally got home about 8:30. It was a nice trip all around. Glad to be home for a bit.

Finally got some of the vacation pictures to post.

VACATION IN ORANGE BEACH

Sorry I haven't posted on my blog in a couple of weeks, but it is summer time and we have had a lot going on. With five adult children spread out all over the place and ten grand children that you try to see as often as possible, we spend a lot of time hot footing from one place to the other.

Well flitter. I came in this morning to post some pictures and found the only part of my ramblings that save was the first paragraph. I was satisfied with what I wrote last nigh, but for the life of me I can't begin to put it down again.

I talked about Mark giving Paige a ring two weeks ago and his unusual method of giving it to her. He sent her to the Quick Mart to get him two tall boys and when she came back and walked in the door, he was down on one knee holding the engagement ring. It was a good thing she didn't use the bottles on his head. But Paige was happy and there were lots of tears, hugs and kisses all around.

Then I talked about going with Sarah and the kids to their new home in FL.. They will be there for the next few months. They found a nice place with lots of room. The area is just beautiful. I reckon when I think of FL. I usually think of scrappy land with lots of sand and no grass. I guess that is the same as people thinking of Alabama as cotton fields and a shack with a satellite dish hanging off the side. Both states have some of the most beautiful areas in the country. Destin was just great. The beaches were snow white and the water was clear and blue.

After a week there we moved on to Orange Beach and met up with the rest of the family. Everyone was able to come down except Johnny, Tracy, Mark and Paige.
We were able to get two condos on the seventh floor in a very nice high rise. But let me tell you, ten kids and and seven adults get pretty loud and between the slamming of doors from the kids running from one condo to the other and the squealing and yelling really cut into Mawmaw's nap time.

The media is making the situation in the gulf look worse than it is. The beaches are still white and the water is for the most part clear. What has happened is that a whole area is being devastated by the lack of vacationers. For us it was fine. We had the pool pretty much to ourselves, there was hardly anyone on the beach, ( except the crews they had racking and bagging anything coming ashore) the shopping malls were almost empty and very little waiting at the restaurants. But I'm sure the livelihood of the people living and working there is shot to hell. If you are planning a trip to the gulf area don't cancel. This may be the best year for a relaxing vacation.

It was good to have all the grand kids together. There was the usual she hit me, they want play with me, he got my toy, that was a ugly word and you better not say it again, don't hang over the balcony and stuff like that. But all in all we had a wonderful time. When we got home and finally crawled into bed it was so quiet that it took me a while to drift off to sleep.

Our Family is a circle of strength and love. With every birth and every union the circle grows. Every joy shared adds more love. Every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger. ( I don't know who wrote this verse but I like it).

My pictures are still not down loading. Later maybe