Walk a little slower

• 
  WALK A LITTLE SLOWER
• Pat Sundquist
• 12/15/2012

 

Walk a little slower

Our childhood days have past

No more chasing fireflies and butterflies

and rainbows that never last.

 

Walk a little slower

Our youth left much to soon.

the excitement of first kisses shared

and building dream castles under the moon.

 

Walk a little slower

our children are all grown up and gone.

and they fined themselves where we once were

with children of their own.

 

Walk a little slower now

Darling take my hand

There's much to do and much  to see

for this woman and this man.

 

 

 

OUR TRIP TO CALIFORNIA

 

 

I will post after Thanksgiving.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday.

ADJUSTING TO RETIREMENT

John and I are falling into a routine since I have retired.  No more getting up at 4:45am in a sleepy fog and I can actually stay up later than 9:30 pm.  It has been a little hard getting myself use to the idea that there are seven days in a week and not just the time from getting off on Friday after work until Monday morning and going back to work.  I think most people that work just an average job truly do live for the weekend.

We have taken a few trips over the summer.  We went to Nebraska, Kentucky, Louisiana and a couple of shorts trips to Memphis.  We will be taking a trip out to California this fall to visit Sarah, Cody and the kids.  We kind of debated whether to fly and stay two weeks or take a little more time and drive across.  Flying won out.  We would love to see all the places in between, but  decided we might be too much of a road hazard to drive that far.

The last ten years, we have been places and seen things that we never dreamed in a million years we would be able to see.  Thanks to the fact that we have lots of kids and they have lived in a various places here and around the world.  It all started when they bought up tickets to take an Alaskan cruise.  After that Sondra and her family moved to Germany and we were able to visit them there a couple of times.  They treated us to a cruise, where we traveled to Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Italy.  In my opinion no place is as easy on the eye as home. 

Florida is beautiful along the Gulf Coast,  Colorado is breath taking, North and South Caroline are great places to visit, Washington state is a mild and pleasing break from the hot humid days of our Alabama area.  Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee and everywhere else we have traveled has had so many wonderful things to see and do.

My fantasy is to have one of those big ole' travel buses and just get in and drive all the back roads in the USA.  I think it would be fun to stop at all the little flea markets, thrift stores and even stop randomly and see what people have that they want to get rid of.  John and I are so weird.  We would probably drive right past the Grand Canyon on the right if there was a little store with a bunch of junk out front on the left.  It is amazing what makes people tick.

One of the annoying things for me about being retired is trying to decided which things I need to do and which things just want to do.  So far I have tried to talk John into buying a storage building,  enclosing the carport and making a family room and building a deck along the back of the house.  So far the answer has been no, no and no.  Now I know that those are things that I want to do.

 Some of my need too's are finishing the bathroom, painting the ceilings, new carpet and flooring.  You can imagine how John feels.  Yes, he probably wishes that I would go back to work.  And as you can probably tell by my post that there is a lot of stuff going on in my head that is off the wall and has no sense of connectivity ( if that is a word).  I guess as time goes on I will level out,  won't feel so frantic to get things done, sleep til 10:00 and wear my PJ's all day.  Wait a minute, I think its starting,  It's 12:34 and I'm still sitting here in my PJ's

The Streets and Highways of Americia

Sleepy little town in Louisiana

This was such a peaceful looking place, I just had to get out and take a picture. I actually got out of the car. Usually I just roll the window and stick my head out.

The Atchafalaya Basin. My picture doesn't do it justice. It was just breath taking.

Here is my Confederate Soldiers uniform. I thought it was really neat. John hasn't tried it own. I hope it doesn't fit him. He will get out his sword and become General "Stonewall" Sundquist

This is the piece of Nippon that I found. The mark indicates that is was made sometime around 1891-1900. I can't believe I found it at a thrift store.

We are just a few days short of Labor Day and I really can't figure out where all the time has gone since May. This has been the "Summer of the Family". A lot of things going on, kids moving from one state to another, grand kids growing up faster that you can keep up with, job changes for some and beginning new jobs for others, and as for myself I finally retired. Yep Pee~~

Fast forward to the middle of September. I went into the kitchen to check on dinner and finally made it back to my post two weeks later. So here I go again. Like I was saying this has been very fast summer. I am officially retired and like most people I don't know how I had time to work. I think in my last post Sondra's family moved to Louisiana, since then Sarah's family has moved to Monterrey California, Monica got a full time teaching position and her husband made a career change, Mark's wife Paige is finishing up her degree at Old Miss and Johnny and Tracy are busy with their jobs.

Our first trip of the summer was the trip out to Colorado and driving back with Sondra and the boys. They were able to stay with us to close to a month before leaving for Louisiana. Two days after they left we took John's mom back to Ohio. She was with us for about six weeks while Jimmy and Becky took their trip to Europe. We came home and left three days later headed to Nebraska so we could spend some time with Sarah, Cody and the kids while he was on leave visiting his family.

Sondra had asked if we could come down to Louisiana and watch David and Daniel while she and Johnathan took a short vacation. We drove down, leaving on the 4Th, stayed until the 11Th and started back home. We decided to take a couple more days and see some of LA. I have not been there since I was around 4 years old, so over 60 years. I loved the swamp lands and the moss hanging off the trees. The scenery really does have a relaxing affect.

We went to a couple casinos and hit a bunch of flea markets and antique stores. We came back with some nice things to go into our booth. One of the things we found was a Confederate soldiers Civil War uniform for reenactments. I also found a really nice Nippon vase from around 1891. We had a trunk full of things we just couldn't leave behind.

Driving in unfamiliar areas can cause a few problems. Louisiana has a lot of one way streets going into town and out of town. We were driving through one town and when I spotted a thrift store and said to John ooh let's turn around and go back. We pulled off the road and headed back up the same street. Suddenly there was a man coming down our lane. He stops in the lane and holds both hands up. I said to John "What the heck is he doing"? John says "We are going the wrong way on a one way street". Needless to say we got of the road quick, but that just happened to be back in front of the thrift store so we thanked the man for saving our lives and went in and that where I found my beautiful Nippon vase. There is always a silver lining.

When we got to Hattisburg MS.. We found that apparently they don't find a need for signs. We had planned on taking route 11 instead of taking the interstate. Well we follow the one sign that said route 11, went past the Court House and down a road that turned into a dirt road, then circled back up to the Court house. We did this three times and never figured out how to get onto route 11. If we hadn't have had the compass in the car, we would probably still be driving around the Court House. Please, if you stole the route 11 signs in Hattisburg, put them back.

Of course I can't leave out my own state of Alabama. For some reason once the markings on the Hwy. wears off, you're pretty much on your own. I was driving and it was dark. MS roads were well painted and even had reflectors. As we crossed into Al. suddenly the lines were faded and no reflectors at all. I felt the best thing to do was to shut my eyes and stick my fingers in ears and hope for the best.

If our kids read this they will probably take the car, keys and drivers licence from both us and ground us from driving ever again. Needless to say we made it home safely from one more trip.

Long Hot Summer

I can't believe I have gone so long without posting something on my blog.  Sometimes it seems so easy to come in and sit down and just let the words roll out of my head and off my fingers.  Sometime it makes sence and sometimes it doesn't, but I write something never the less.  It has been a hectic summer so far.  We took a drive out to Colorado Springs with our friends Sandra and Charles.  We stayed a few days and drove back with Sondra, David and Daniel in tow.  John drove the 37 ft U-Haul van and I kept Sondra company on the drive back.  They were fixing to make the move from Colorado Springs to  Ft Polk,Louisana. 

We have never been able to spend much time with David and Daniel because they have always lived so far away.  This time they were with us for about a month.  Sondra went down to check out the living accomadations and left the kids with us for about 10 days.  To our happy surprise the kids didn't seem to mind staying with Mawmaw and Granddaddy.  In the meantime after they had been here about a week, we drove up to Elizabethtown KY. to pick up John's mom who is 89 years old.  She lives with John's younger brother in Ohio.  Jim and Becky (John's younger brother), were taking a trip to Europe for the month of June and we had ask her to stay with us while they were gone.  With all the people here, it brought back memories of raising five kids in a three bedroom house. 

John and Charles on our trip to Colorado

Sandra and I on the trip to Colorado.

Monica on our trip to Memphis last weekend.

Paige playing with the boys, drawing silly faces.

Tim and his mother Lynn

We stopped at the Cathedral of the Plains on our Colorado trip.  Absolutely beautiful.

Johnny came in from work on one of the 106 degrees day and hosed down Tiger.  He was loving the cool water.

For a dog that normally hates water, he seems pretty content.



John's mother Rose



A birthday cake for Tracy.  I have two wonderful daughter-in-laws. 

Up until a week ago we were having some of the most pleasant weather we've had in the spring for a long time.  This week it has turned into the hottest weather in ages.  Yesterday the themometer on the back porch read 106.  I has been too hot to get out and go anywhere so we have stayed close to home.  A couple of swims at Johnny and Tracy's have been our big outtings for the last few days.

Matthew celebrating yet another birthday #11

Andrew ready for the BIG WATER BATTLE.

Four generations of Sundquist

My grandson John Pearson just turned 16 and got his drivers licence.  Now he is working his first job and doing his summer football practice as you can see is totally wiped out.

I left my camera in Sandra and Charles's car on our trip, so I didn't get picture of Sondra and the kids on my camera.  Sondra send me a copy of the pictures we made on your camera and I will add them.

As you can see it has been a busy summer so far.  Maybe I will become a little more motivated about posting.  Hope everyone is tolerating the heat well.  I'm glad we got Sondra and her family out of Colorado before the fires started.  Until the next time,  have a good week.

Adventures with the Blue Dodge Van

It's been a few weeks since I felt motivated to blog. Sometimes its hard to have a sense of humor about life, but there is one thing in our life that we never lets us down in the humor department and that is our 1993 Blue Dodge Grand Caravan.

Just a short time after John retired almost 9 years ago, we were driving down Bridge Rd. and as we passed this house there was a van sitting in the front yard with a for sale on it. I had been noticing it for a couple of days and I told John that maybe we should stop and check it out. We stopped and a lady came out and told us she wanted $2,000.00 dollars for it. She had bought a new van after her husband died. She let us take it for a test drive and I told John that we maybe should buy it since we had been looking for something to haul our antique stuff in. We got back to her house and looked at the van a little longer. Finally she said that if we wanted it we could have it for $1,500.00 because the tags and insurance and everything would probably run about $500.00 and she would just like to get rid of it. At that point we owned the Blue Dodge Van with 110,000 miles on it.

The first trip we took in it, we drove from Killen Al. to Lincoln NB over to Ft. Bragg NC to Myrtle Beach SC then back to Alabama. It was a very uneventful trip as far a the van was concerned. We thought we had hit the mother load of Dodge vans.

Our next trip that I recall was to Lincoln NB when Sarah had Luke. Cody was on his first deployment so Sarah decided to come back to stay with us until he came home. When we started home John drove the van and I drove Sarah's vehicle. Luke was about a week old and Sarah had had a C-section so she was still a little medicated or she would probably have chosen to have ridden with John. We were coming through Kansas City and I had already moved over into the far left lane to make the exit heading south when John suddenly shoots off to the right and onto the off ramp. I don't know how but I managed to cross the four lanes of traffic and off the ramp without hurting someone, but I did. We managed to make it to service station and they got us running again. After a grueling trip we made it back to Alabama in one piece. To this day I say thank God that Sarah was on medication.

Then the next time I remember was a trip to Myrtle Beach and coming home we came down through NC to have a more scenic ride. As we were merging onto the interstate heading south just outside of Greenville, the van sputtered to a halt. So here we sat with cars speeding past on both sides doing ninety miles and hour, the temperature must have been 100 degrees. At this point I was learning cuss words that I didn't know John used. Finally I don't know how John got the Blue van running and we made it home one more time.

The next time that I recall, I'm sure there were more times in between, John, Mark and I made a trip to Ohio to visit family. On our return trip as we were coming into Nashville, right in the busiest construction area at the time. The Blue Van gave a little sputter and stopped right off the edge of the interstate. We literally were so close to the concrete barrier that we had a hard time getting out of the van. John couldn't get out on his side because the cars passing were too close. As we were crawling over the barrier a construction worker shouted at us, "You know, that's not a good place to park you car". I just rolled my eyes and said "You think?" We found a tree to sit under for the next 30 minutes or so. John was able to get'er started again and motioned for Mark and I to get in. We crawled back over the barrier and headed south toward home.

Another memorable trip was when the family decided to take a week long trip to Gulf Shores. Sarah drove her own car down because she had to be back to work in three days. That left us with Luke and Charlotte to spend the remainder of the week. The kids were fine after Sarah left and we had fun with all the kids and grand kids. On our way back we made it to the north side of Montgomery and yet again a little sputter and there we were sitting on the side of the road . So here was John and I with two babies in a pretty rough section of town. We managed to get a car rental agency to deliver us a car and when they came to pick us up you could tell they were a little leary of the area and told us we should be more careful about the exits we get off at. "OK" . We had the van towed to the dealership and got a motel room. After three nights in the motel they called and said they couldn't find a thing wrong with the van. Finally we made it home again.

Now, John just handed me a note with some of the places we have been stranded in with the Blue Van beside the above mentioned. St Louis Mo., St Joseph Mo., Huntsville Al., Huntington WV, Corinth MS., Memphis Tn., Bowling Green Ky. and there are smaller places that you have probably never heard of. I will have to say that the nicest place to be stranded was in Corinth MS. A man in the Wal-Mart parking lot and his wife asked us if we needed help. John ask if he could boost us off. He didn't have jumper cables but he took his battery out of his car and turned it upside down on our battery and jumped us off. The lady at the Chevron station offered for us to use her car to go to the dealership and a young girl at the Sav-A-lot offered us a meal on her. Both offers were declined, but I was touched by their kindness. So if you break down hopefully you will be in Corinth MS.

I'm just about through but I have to tell you about our last trip. On my spring break we decided to go visit John's family in Galapolis OH. We got within less than a hundred miles from our destination. You guessed it put-put. There just happened to be a wide shoulder on the road so we rode it for what seemed like miles. It started to rain and again you guessed it the wipers stopped. After a bit the wipers came back on and the car stopped sputtering and John stopped cussing. We made it into Galapolis stayed overnight and drove on over to Marrietta OH the next day. Why you ask? I guess we just like to live dangerously.

It should be rolling over to 300,000 miles soon. We could have purchased a Cadillac with all the money we've spent keeping her running, but for some reason every time we decide to get rid of it something holds us back. Maybe the old man was really ticked at his wife for selling it and continues to live on in the form of a 1993 Blue Dodge Grand Caravan. Doo doo doo do (to the sound of the twilight zone).

Spring Break with the Grandkids

Paige came in for the week also. She hangs in there with all these crazy boys. Bless her heart.


Andrew thinks he is a Greek ship captain.

See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. YEAH!!

A couple of handsome teenagers. Wow!!

Andrew, checking out a John Deere injury.

Emily getting all grown up.

John Pearson and the Deere.

Wouldn't you think they would all be a little old to be having so much fun on the toy tractor?

Emily still able to do a back bend. I'm Jealous.

OK JP, I think it's Andrew's time to ride.

Our three grandsons from Memphis came down and stayed a week with us, while they were out of school for spring break. I had to work so John got to entertain them during the day. Emily was having ball practice several evenings while they were here, so that meant playing at the park until they were worn out on those days.

They took a side trip to David Crockett park in Lawerencburg Tn. John forgot to carry the camera so he didn't get any pictures. They tried their hand a fishing, but decided it was more fun to swim in the creek. They encountered a couple of snakes while tromping through the woods. Matthew found a one legged frog, but released him into the backyard. They stopped at a thrift store in St Joe and found some interesting hats. Andrew found a black Greek fishing cap, a Russian winter cap and a fedora. Matthew found a fedora that he plans to put pins and fishing lures on. Aaron was just along for the ride.

We had fun just being with the kids. They are all growing up much too fast. I am going to just post some of the pictures we made while they were here. A picture is worth a thousand words.

PONDERING POLITICS

I have more to do tonight than sit here and ponder the future of US politics, but ponder I am. I am not really a political person and I always vote my conscience instead party lines although I have leaned toward the Republican party the last two elections. I grew up listening to my dad discuss politics and he was always a die hard Democrat. As a matter of fact there was a time in the south, if you wasn't a Democrat, you were kind of looked on as an outsider or worse yet just downright freakish.

I have been trying to decide whom I should cast my vote for. Not to offend anyone, but I feel that we need to make another change. The honeymoon lasted longer than the marriage this last time around. I can't imagine another four years of rising gas prices, more people losing their homes, and food prices growing faster that Jack's bean stalk can possibly grow. I am getting ready to quit work in a few months and I really am afraid to make this move. It's better to have a paycheck coming in each week than to be looking for another job in a few months that would only pay minimum wage.

I have been trying to listen to some of the candidates and this is kind of what I deduct.

1. We seem to get some pretty sorry a** people seeking the presidential position.
2. It seems corruption and scandal is the biggest thing on the agenda.
3. I keep thinking that surely there must be at least one upright honest person left somewhere
in America.
4. Why would I want to vote for a person that is doing things that I would be canned for.

I guess I buy into a lot of the Obama criticism. And again not to offend anyone, but I have questions that I would like to see answered. Where did he actually come from? Was his family independently wealthy? How did he get to go to these Ivy League schools? He is only forty something now. How did he get so much wealth accumulated so quickly. He could only have been in his mid twenties when he graduated, quickly found a job making boo koos of money, got elected into congress (or the senate), served part of a term and was immediately elected President of the United States by the age of what? 42. Now I know there are a lot of people that I don't know, but I had never heard of him until he became a candidate for President. Even with Bill Clinton, I knew he was Governor of Arkansas before he was president. Was Obama beamed down from a spaceship. Just kidding about that last sentence.

Now on the other hand you have our Republican candidates. Mitt Romney: Does he have a clue about the trials that mid to lower income people are dealing with. Just having money to buy gas to drive to work every day is a problem with most people. Buying food to feed a family of four or five is sometimes mind boggling. Keeping your kids in clothes. Paying utilities and the list goes on and on. I think his wealth sets him way too far above most people at this time. Mr. Romney, put all your money except for 20-30 thousand dollars in an account, forget about it for four years and try to live on that 20-30 thousand or less for the next four years then come back and run in 2016. I think you would make a great president then.

Rick Santoram: Another that I know nothing about. He seems to have some good values, but to me he seems a little naive and leans a little too much on what his wife has to say. I think we need someone with a little more toughness about them.

Newt Gingrich: I think he is a smooth talker and probably a great debater. He wouldn't be afraid to get right in your face and tell you what he thinks. His problem is that he has the morals of Bill Clinton. I feel that we not only need a president that serves all the people but also has a sense of decency and is honorable in his own life.

Ron Paul: Now this is a name that I have seen on little signs stuck on the side of the road and nailed to telephone polls for years now. He is for the military, jobs, housing, lowering everything that needs to be lowered and raising everything that needs to raised. According to the pamplets I have seen about him he would turn this whole mess around and fix it NOW. He is an older, level headed, patriotic, God fearing person. The only problem I see with him is that he would need a magic wand to do all the things he promises. Does anyone have a magic wand? If you do send it to me and I will fix it myself.

OUR TINY BLESSING

A few short months I got a call from my son Mark and daughter-in-law Paige. It kind of startled me a little bit because they had been home to visit for the weekend and this was Monday. Paige told me they had something they needed to talk to me about. My mind kind of raced as to what it might be. They seemed to be perfectly happy when they left. Was one of them sick? Had Mark lost his job? Was Paige having trouble at school? "Mom we are going to have a baby". My heart kind of flipped flopped in my chest. This was a happy surprise for me. I ask them if they were OK and they told me they were not expecting to get pregnant this soon and the doctor had told Paige that she might never be able to get pregnant, so they were in kind of a state of shock. John and I told them that if you waited until you had everything in order they might not have a baby.





After a few weeks Paige got over her morning sickness and they became adjusted to the idea of having a baby and you could see the excitement in their eyes. They were in the process of fixing up the spare room for a nursery. An ultra sound at the end of the forth month was unable to tell them if it was a boy or a girl. Another one a couple of weeks later confirmed that they were going to have a little girl. They chose the name Caroline Grace and started buying tiny pink outfits and counting down the months until they could bring their baby home and start their life as a family of three.

We got another phone call last Friday and Mark told me he was on the way to the hospital. Paige had gone into preterm labor and hopefully the doctors could get the labor stopped and with bed rest she would be able to carry Caroline a few more weeks. As the night wore on, Mark called several more times and things were not looking good. We decided to go on to Memphis to be with them and give a little moral support. As the hours wore on it was apparent that Caroline was going to be born too soon. At 2:18 on 2/19 she entered into this world but was just too tiny to survive.

As we all took turns holding this tiny baby each of our hearts broke to think of all the wonderful things that we would never get to experience with Caroline Grace. It was so hard to see Mark and Paige grieving and not be able to take the pain away form them. We all know that somewhere alone the way there will be a blessing from this tiny little life that touched all ours lives.

Caroline Grace is our twelfth grandchild and she will be in our hearts forever.

We love you Maw Maw and Granddaddy.

ONE SECOND AT A TIME

Amazingly enough I turned 67 years old this week. Looking back I not only wonder where the year has gone, but where in the heck did 67 years go? I posted on FB the other day that I realized I was the same age as my grand mother when I thought she was on her last leg. Sadly enough she did die at the age of 68. She had some health problems diabetes, high blood pressure and heart trouble to name a few. But wait I have all those things myself. Hmmm.. now I'm starting to wonder why I haven't taken better care of myself?

Getting back to that time thing. Thinking about time and eternity and ever and ever just freaks John out. He can actually have a panic attack just thinking about the ever and ever part. My theory on time is that everything in our life is separated by one second at a time. We didn't just begin life one day have a break then wake up and it was time to go to school, then realize one day that you had finished school, married, had a family, your kids had grown up and had their own family and on and on........

Each minute, hour, day, week, month and year is separated by just a single tick of the clock. Something happened in each second of our lives. I think we look back and only remember the highlights, the big things that had an impact on us. I think back and try to remember the more forgettable stuff like staring into a baby crib and reaching out an touching the soft tiny foot of the neighbors new baby. Recalling how the air smelled when the rain fell on the hot dusty dirt road in the summer time. Taking a cottonwood leaf with the prickly stuff on the front side, then holding it against your skin and smacking it until it left a bright red irritated spot that we called a tattoo. So many things happened in those seconds that it would be totally impossible to remember everything, but every once in a while a fleeting memory of a long forgotten second drifts by and I think, that was an important part of my life.

To celebrate my birthday, John took me out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called "Franks".

The food was really good and the decor gave the place a feeling of warmth and stepping back in time. The day was fun, nothing earth shattering but one of those days that will come back to me in the future and I will think, life sure was good that day.

AN OLD YEAR ENDS AND A NEW YEAR BEGINS

Johnny, Tracy, Emily and John Pearson outside the Lodge

Suzanne and Monica

Matthew and Aaron acting goofy.

Breakfast the first morning at the Lodge.

John and Charles. Can you believe they both use to be redheads?

Daniel on Christmas morning.

Thank goodness Santa found them

Happy smiles

David looks like a little Wizard in his majic attire.

Ours was not a big tree but it made the boys feel assured that Santa was coming.

Three weeks with Mawmaw and Granddaddy must have worn out Sedlacek's

Sweet Charlotte








Three weeks in Washington

Brothers bonding

Mark looks worn to a frazzle.

Luke and Charlotte at cookie time.

Calgon take me away.














Believe it or not, John and I didn't fall off the face of the earth. I think my last post was shortly before Thanksgiving and our life has been a whirlwind through the holidays. I declare that the older we get, the busier our life becomes. Maybe we just make ourselves feel more important than we actually are. With five kids there are always things going on that we want to be a part of with the kids and grand kids. Makes me wonder what people like the Octi Mom and the Duggars will do when all their children grows up and have children of their own. It could be a never ending trip from one home to the other helping with one special event after the other. There are births, wedding, baptisms, first communions, sporting events, graduations and the list goes on and on.

We left Saturday after Thanksgiving and headed out to Washington. New baby number 11 had arrived on November the 8Th and Sarah needed a few extra hands and we had four ready to pitch in. The little ones were glad to have us there for a while even their other grandparents were leaving Seattle on the same day we were flying in. I think they were glad to get a little more spoiling. Luke and Charlotte were still in school so we were constantly in the car taking Charlotte to school, picking Luke up, picking Charlotte up, running to Karate, gymnastics, Dr's appointments and you name it. As much as Maw maw and Granddaddy enjoyed our visit, we were dragging our hinney by the time the three weeks were up and we headed back to Al.

When we made it back home Sondra, Jonathan, David and Daniel were already here. They had made the trip home from Co. for the holidays. The first week we were home I was sick as a dog and spent more time in bed than anywhere else. I finally got over my ick and we had a nice Christmas. I miss having little ones home at Christmas. They seem to have an excitement that I just can't seem to pull out of my hat anymore. It's sad that we lose that joy and anticipation somewhere alone the way.

We had our trip to the Elk River Lodge for New Year's. All the Krieger's were here this year. For the second year in a row Sarah, Cody and the kids didn't make it home. It was too hard for Sarah to travel with all four little ones. Maybe next year everyone will be able to make it in.

I hope I didn't leave anyone out of the pictures, but if I did I'll get you next time.

Today is mine and John's 46Th wedding anniversary. Where does the time go? I cannot even begin to tell how lucky and blest I am to have met and married John. We have had a lifetime of peeks and valleys, but we have always managed to find a bridge to get from one peek to the other. God has blest us with five children that have all made us proud and blest us with soon to be 12 grand children. I hope that they will always remember the good times and have a special place in their hearts for Maw maw and Granddaddy.