Life is short, Live it anyway

ONE SECOND AT A TIME

2012-02-05T16:33:00.005-06:00

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

2012-01-10T18:51:00.008-06:00

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.

2011-11-25T08:35:00.002-06:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I HOPE EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL DAY AND TOOK THE TIME TO REMEMBER THE THINGS YOU HAVE TO BE THANKFUL FOR.

The Cycle of Life.

2011-11-19T10:53:00.007-06:00

Paul relaxing after a tiring day.

Mark giving Paul a welcome kiss.

I have not posted in a while, mainly because I have to get motivated to sit down at the computer and put my thoughts into words. Sometimes it is because I have no words. Sometimes I have too many words going on in my head and I have to be sure that what I say is really appropriate. This time I am torn between overwhelming happiness and the sadness of losing people close to me.

On November the 8TH we were blessed with grandchild number eleven. He was born in Washington state and is all the way across the country from us. We are chaffing at the bits to see him. His name is Paul Atticus Sedlacek, he weighed 7 lbs and 13 oz and was just 19 inches long. Hopefully he grows taller like his dads side of the family. We plan to make the trip to Washington before the New Year. Thankfully Cody got to come home from Afghanistan to be with Sarah for the birth. We will be relieving him later this month at which time he will be returning to finish up his third deployment. The kids are loving having their dad home and Sarah is glad to have him there to bond with Paul and spend a little time with Luke, Charlotte and Mark.

This past week my cousin Ronnie Oldham passed away. He had been sick off and on for almost a year now. He died on 11/11/11. Ronnie was another one of the talented Oldham kids. He was a musician/songwriter and had worked with multiple artist including Percy Sledge, Hank Williams Jr, Narvel Felts and ZZ Hill to name a few. He was in the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and had received other musical awards.

It always amazed me how much talent was in my family. My dad and all his brothers could play just about any instrument they picked up and could harmonized there voices so well. We had keyboard players, guitar players, drummers and songwriters. My cousin Judy had a beautiful voice when she was a teenager. She could sound just like Brenda Lee and Connie Francis and would always get up and belt out a few girl songs at dances we had at the rec center. But for all the talent in the family it was not evenly spread around. I myself took piano lessons for nine years and still can't play, even for my own enjoyment. I have numerous other cousins that are every bit as untalented as me. Maybe the talent is there somewhere but the rest of us just have not dug deep enough to find it.

Maybe the next generation will inherit some of the musical talent. Andrew is learning to play the piano, Matthew works at the guitar, Emily is in the chorus at school, John Pearson has a guitar, I think maybe David has some entertaining qualities in him and Luke has been told by his teacher that he has both a sense of rhythm and beat. Who knows maybe the talent is still hidden in one of my grand kids.

For Everything There Is a Season

For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.

Pre Game Prayer

2011-10-27T19:21:00.007-05:00

We are having a little controversy in our small town. I think the town of Killen Al. would rather not be thrown into the spotlight, but unfortunately that seems to be what has happened. We are a small southern town where probably 95% of the people here are sitting on a church pew every Sunday morning and Wednesday night. We have just about every denomination represented in our area. Everyone is basically tolerant of everyone else's beliefs.

We are accustom to praying for everything and everybody. I am happy if a friend being Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or any religious belief says to me "God bless you", because in reality God is God to all of us. It makes me feel closer to a person some how to know that they believe in a supreme being and that unites us in a world family. My problem is that the world consist of something like 95% of people that are considered believers in a higher power and less than 5% of people that profess to believe in nothing. Now my question is how do these 5% of the people wield so power over the other 95% of the rest of us that they can determine when and where we can pray?

There was an article in our local newspaper this past week that read, "Group complains about Brooks' pregame prayers".

Before each home game a student, teacher or local minister says a prayer usually asking God to watch over all the players from both teams. They will remember all the students, parents and everyone traveling to and from the game. They pray that the game will be played in good sportsmanship manner. They don't take these public prayers on the road. I have been to games where no prayers were said, but you better believe that I'm praying from the bleachers. It personally makes me feel better that my grandson is being prayed for before a game.

A young man was hurt at a game a few weeks ago and they thought he was going to have to be airlifted to Huntsville. The stadium was completely quiet even though there were several hundred people there. I knew that all these people were praying for that player. The only exception to the silence were three young girls sitting right behind us and they giggled and laughed the whole time the paramedics worked this boy. I felt that this was disrespectful. I guess no one had ever taught them to pray. I'm afraid this is what we will find when the "Freedom From Religion Foundation" digs it's claws into our rights.

In the complaint filed, this is part of what was written. "It is coercive and inappropriate to ask students to listen while a prayer is delivered at athletic events". I ask why? I felt it was inappropriate to listen to these girls talk, laugh and be disrespectful when there was an injury on the field, but I didn't file a complaint. Maybe I should have ask someone from the Freedom Of Religion Foundation to step in for me. Oh wait that is probably illegal to have a Freedom of Religion Foundation. The government has band everything else that pertains to 95% of our populations beliefs. If they can ask us not to pray at a game, why can't we ask them to come a few minutes late, after the pray has been said. And not to inconvenience these 5%, we can have a section marked off and a pair of ear plugs at each of these seats so they want be able to hear the words "One nation under God" when the "Pledge of Allegiance" is recited. Oh and an eye mask to take to the concession stand so they can't see "In God We Trust" when they pull out the money to pay for the food they buy.

You know I am feeling more and more like the masses are being controlled by the few. I don't ask that anyone believe, do or participate in anything that I do, but please do not take away my freedom to do it. You can continue to not pray, but I think I need all the help I can get. God bless us one and all.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE GETTING OLD WHEN

2011-10-05T20:07:00.008-05:00

TRACY!!!! DON'T PUT YOUR PHONE NUMBER ON THERE!!!!!!

Favorite part of the evening.

Emily pretending to sit on a pumpkin

Emily waiting for Fair Food.

Getting ready for the fair

Last week was a busy week, but we also managed to get in a few fun things too. Tracy and Emily wanted us to go to the Lawrenceburg fair on Friday evening. We got to the fair around 7:00 o'clock and it was already so crowded you could hardly walk. Since none of us are big fans of the rides, we walked around for awhile, got something too eat ( Why does fair food always taste and smell so good?) and then went to look at the exhibits. There was a little bit of everything on display. We registered for all the give-a-ways, so we will probably be getting phone calls from every vendor that was at the fair.

Emily loves looking at the animals and was a little disappointed when there were only cows and rabbits on display. Usually she gets to pet goats, chickens and all kinds of little critters. Of course we had to play a few games to try to win a stuffed animal. We didn't walk away empty handed. She came out with a stuffed dog and a stuffed tiger.

It's always fun going to the fair. It brings back memories of when I was a kid and they actually let us out of school and loaded up the school buses and took us all to the fair. I would usually carry $10:00 and come home with $7:50. I loved to go, but I was afraid of most of the rides. You sure don't get out with $10:00 a person now. I can't even begin to estimate how much money is spent in one evening let along for the whole week.

The most enjoyable part of the evening was stopping at the Dairy Queen and getting a strawberry sundae.

On Saturday we carried some things over to the antique booth and later stopped a Stephano's and got a pizza. John and I are still laughing about the pizza adventure. John let me out at the Salvation Army thrift store and he went on down and ordered a pizza. After looking around for a while, I walked on down to the pizza place about the same time our pizza was ready. Well we started eating and as always it was delicious. We took another slice and ate it. I'm looking a the pizza and how much is left, but heck we usually eat the whole thing, so we each took another slice. Well it was all we could do to eat the third piece. I told John to get a to go box and we put what was left in it to carry home. I said, "John, I don't know why, but I just don't seem to have much appetite today. We usually don't have trouble finishing off a small pizza." He looked a little funny and then said "I do usually get a small one, don't I, but I ordered a medium today." Well so much for our loss of appetite. John did tell the lady behind the counter to remind him the next time we come in to only sell us a small unless we have someone with us.

We got in the car and left and got almost to Muscle Shoals when I realized I have left my purse at the restaurant, so we had to turn around and go back. Luckily the lady had found my purse and put it behind the counter. I'm sure she was wondering if we would make it home by ourselves. It gets a little freaky when you have more than one senior moment in one day.

We might as well laugh at ourselves, because everyone else does.

TIRED OF BEING A CHILD.

2011-09-29T18:45:00.004-05:00

I AM 66 YEARS OLD!!!! When do I stop feeling like a child? I have raised a family of five children. I am the grand mother of eleven grand children. I have a handful of really good friends who would do just about anything for me. The people I work with think I'm strong, smart and determined. Why then, do I let myself be trampled on by the people who have been in my life longer than anyone else? By this I mean my original family, my mother, brother and sister.

When does family stop caring about each other? When I was at home, I felt I could argue and fuss with my siblings and by the end of the day everything would be forgotten. I would never have dreamed of disrespecting my mother or dad by back talking or doing anything that would upset them. Being the oldest girl in my family, I have always tried to be the peace maker and a try to pull everyone together. I always felt protective of my younger siblings and being fifteen years older than my sister, I was like a mother figure. I use to take my brother with me every where I went. He was seven years younger than me so this was not always cool when I was 18 and he was 11. Somewhere along the line everyone grew up and older and forgot what it means to still be a family.

My dad died 18 years ago and it has been a down hill slide since. I have tried to help my mother, but I have found the more you do the less you are appreciated. I have been screamed at, cussed at, accused of lying, stealing, cheating and berated by all of my original family. I am in a constant state of confusion and depression, feeling that maybe there is something I can do to change the situation, but apparently not.

I know that this may sound heartless to some, but I have to walk away from the situation. I cannot live without a feeling of peace in my heart and mind. I know this sounds like a really weird thing to blog about, but I have felt the need put my feelings into words. I want to feel like an adult and not A cowering child afraid to speak up for and defend myself.

FOUNDER'S DAY AND BALL GAMES

2011-08-29T18:02:00.008-05:00

Me and John at the Killen Founder's Day celebration. We went out to the park on Friday night and listened to to the band Pioneer Drive.
We went back on Saturday to meet with some of my classmates from the 9TH grade class of 1960.

This picture was made following Andrew's ballgame. Andrew is a real go getter when it comes to playing ball. He seems to always be up against the biggest guy out there. I tell him, "Why do you get so upset when your little brother does something to you and then you go out on the field and let those big guys beat you up and act like nothing has happened"?

Matthew has not chosen a sport yet. Maybe he will get into bull riding. I'm sure he will find his niche one of these days. Aaron is a runner and can run like the wind.

The boys of fall have come out with a vengeance. The white team below is John Pearson's team. He is in the tenth grade this year . We went to his B team game on Monday evening and he played quiet a bit. One of the boys on the opposing team was hurt at the beginning of the 4Th quarter and they thought he was going to have to be med -vac ed to Huntsville. He later started to move and was taken to ECM hospital instead. The game was called thank goodness. I don't know if I could have watched anymore that night.

The crimson and white is Andrew's team. He plays on offence and defence.

This picture was made to prove that I am wearing the necklace that Sarah gave me and that I plan to drink the tea that Monica gave me. Where do my kids get this? They tell me "Now I'm going to give this to you put if you're not going to wear or use it, I'll give to to someone else".

Matthew putting a spit shine on the rims of his bicycle.

Aaron was excited to get these really big bucks.

I carried two old bikes up to Memphis for Matthew. The plan is to combine the parts and make one rideable bike. It was exciting for a little while. Who knows if he will continue to work on it.

It may be just something else for mom and dad to find a place for in the garage.

I think Andrew got into the dismantling in a big way. He got the wheels and seat off. It is always fun to tear something apart. It's the putting back together that is boring.

Mark and Paige came over . We stayed home with the kids while Monica, Tim, Mark and Paige had a night out. They went to play Trivia Pursuit at one of the churches in Mid Town.

Monica after her first week of teaching the 3k and 4k kids . After 12 years of being a stay at home mom she has decided to go back and get her masters and become teacher. I think maybe she should have decided to be a brain surgeon. Probably less stressful.

We decided to go to Memphis this weekend because Andrew only has a couple of weekend games and I was afraid if we didn't go to this first one, we something would come up and we would miss the next one. The weather was really great. It was still pretty hot, but the wind from the hurricane off the coast was sending a wonderful breeze right to us. We left just after the game was over and got home around 9:30 pm. It took us a little longer because we had to stop in Corinth MS and get a bite to eat. God forbid we make the three hour trip without stopping to eat something. Normally we stop at the Dairy Queen and get an ice cream treat, but this time we stopped at Wendy's and got a bowl of chili. It never gets to hot for Chili.

VACATION CONTINUES TO MEMPHIS

2011-07-16T22:11:00.007-05:00

On our way back home.

Train ride.

Rolling hills of somewhere out west.

Wheat fields of somewhere out west.

Daniel and David wollering on the sofa.

Mountain just outside of a town that started with a U., somewhere out west.

Interesting mountain formation, somewhere out west.

Pasture land somewhere out west.

Don't fence me in.

On the back of the train with Luke and Charlotte.

We left Colorado Springs on Thursday around mid morning. The weather was very nice when we left and we were ready to begin our trip south. As the day wore on the temps got higher and higher and the scenery became more monotonous. There were time that day I was sure my head was going to nod right through the side window. I had determined that I would not go to sleep while we were riding, because John was doing the driving and he always likes to tell everyone that I sleep while he drives. I would be fine with driving awhile, but I think he is terrified of me getting behind the wheel. Several years ago I was driving and he had just dosed off when I accidentally ran up on a curb. Since then no matter how many times I offer he will say " Oh no I fine right now". Well alright, how long are you going to hold that against my driving skills?

We drove that day until about 9:00PM. We took a state route just to the south of Topeka Kansas and drove to a little town just north of Burlington. ( I hope I got the names right). We found a little motel called the Wyatt Earp Motel and stayed there for the night. The next morning we headed east to Nevada Mo.. We stopped at Buzz's BBQ and had lunch. We stopped at a couple of yard sales then drove around Cottey College where the girls went to school. We headed south to Joplin. We bypassed most of Joplin, so we really didn't see any of the storm damage. At one point during the day I looked at the thermometer and it was 110 degrees. I licked my lip to catch the sweat that was running down my face and I swear I tasted like pure salt. At that point I understood how Lots wife could have turned into a pillar of salt.

By this time we were heading toward Little Rock and I had talked to Monica and told her that we wouldn't be in until Sunday. The traffic was not as bad as usual and we were making better time than we had anticipated. When we got almost to West Memphis AR., I said to John, "What do you think about riding on down to Tunica and having the last big fling of our vacation." To my surprise he said that he was thinking the same thing. I almost passed out. When we got across the Mississippi River we headed south again and drove down to Tunica. We were able to get a room ( another surprise on a Saturday night). We played the slots until 2:00 AM then headed back to the room. House keeping had turned the air down to 50 degrees and when we finally turned in for the night it was so cold we could hardly stand to undress for bed. I told John, if we didn't get pneumonia from the extreme temperature change (110-50) it would be a miracle. Another thing I was concerned about was whether the kids would have us both committed to rehab for excessive trips to the casinos. Three time in three weeks was more then we usually go in a year. Oh by the way we still didn't win anything.

As you can see by the time we got home all the scenery had started to look the same and I couldn't even begin to tell you where the pictures were taken. I do remember the kids names and faces and that was what the trip was all about. I realize I did make one big boo-boo when we got to Memphis. I totally forgot to take pictures of Andrew, Matthew and Aaron. Sorry guys.

SUMMER VACATION COLORADO SPRINGS

2011-07-15T15:37:00.007-05:00

At the Ice Cream Parlor.

Not so cool.

Parade

Keeping cool.

Monument Colorado parade.

Somewhere on the road.

Sondra making her great gucamole.

Daniel at McDonalds

Cripple Creek Colorado

In front of Sondra and Jonathan's house.

Rainbow over the subdivision

David at the computer

Beautiful scenery.

Jonathan's rose.

More pretty scenery.

Our trip from Washington to Colorado was filled with the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. I was honestly afraid to close my eyes because I would miss something. The ride was nice and comfortable weather wise. We Stayed one night in Pendelton Oregon. The next night we stayed just outside of Denver. We were close enough to drive on in to Co. Springs, but decided we needed a good nights rest before we started our visit with Sondra, Jonathan, David and Daniel.

We got to Sondra and Jonathan's house around 10:30 on Sunday morning. Again it was great to see kids and grand kids. And as always the little ones were excited and had a list of things for Maw Maw and granddaddy to do. I had to put David off until the next day because he had a recipe for the "Best every chocolate chip cookies" that he wanted to make right then. We ended up making the cookies and I believe they were the "Best ever Chocolate chip cookies". I have made them with Emily since we got home.

Sondra works from home and very seldom gets a day out without the kids, so we decided to take a drive over to Cripple Creek on the other side of the mountain. We got there around 10:00 in the morning, had lunch, and yet again spent money at the casino without winning. The main thing was that we had a day out with our daughter and she had a day away from work.

The weather started to really warm up while we were in Co. Springs. John and I hit a few thrift stores. Sondra and I managed a few walks while we were there. Mainly we kind of hung around the house and were entertained by David and Daniel. Jonathan grilled out a couple of nights. John, Sondra and I carried the kids to a Fourth of July parade in Monument Co.. There were and estimated 30 thousand people there. It was really great to see so many people celebrating, waving flags, eating hot dogs and all the things that go with the 4TH.

On Friday we left Co. Springs to begin our trip heading south. It always makes me sad to leave the grand kids. It takes a few days for them to warm up to you and seems as soon as they do, its time to leave. I guess that's the way it's meant to be....

SUMMER VACATION WASHINGTON PART ONE

2011-07-12T17:37:00.009-05:00

Olympia Washington

John teaching Luke and Charlotte to play rummy.

Mark, just a swinging

Charlotte eating s'mores.

Luke rescuing Mark from the jungle gym.

Luke caught a butterfly on a Dandelion.

Serious, Prissy, and Happy.

John, Sarah and the kids.

At the Huntsville airport

Ready to leave on our vacation

We just returned Sunday from our epic vacation - adventure. We left on June 21ST from Huntsville and started our trip to Washington State. Of course our trips always involve visiting our children and this trip was no different. Sarah, Cody and the kids are now living in Yelm Washington. We flew from Huntsville to Denver then on to Seattle Washington. Sarah and the kids met us there. It was so good to see all of them. Luke and Charlotte have grown so much, but Mark has really changed. When we saw him before Christmas, before they left, he was just a baby crawling around. Now he is a full blown toddler and still crawling but now it is crawling on top of everything he can get too. He fell off so much stuff while we were there, I was drawn up in a knot for days.

The weather in Washington was just wonderful. When we left Alabama the temps were in the high nineties and low hundreds. When we got to Seattle the temp was like 67 degrees and didn't vary from that more than one or two degrees. We spent eight days in Washington. We enjoyed going to the farmers market where we wondered around for a while. Then we got some of the best seafood we had had in a long time. Clams, shrimp and fish, sold from a food stand there at the market. We also bought fresh cherries that were fresh and sweet and really yummy.

Our main goal for this trip was to spend time with the grand kids. John spent lots of time playing cards and games with Luke and Charlotte. Mark took every opportunity to climb on the table and disrupt the game. We took a side trip down to Oregon where we took a train ride. We went down the night before and stayed in a little town along the Columbia River. The power of that river was amazing to me. The water was swift with lots of white caps. Must have been quite a ride for the settlers that came through years ago. I'm use to seeing big rivers here in the south, but in comparison ours are strong, slower moving, lazy type rivers.

On Sunday we boarded the train at 10:00 and took a four hour trip up through the mountains where we got a wonderful view of Mt Hood. The constant rocking back and forth of the train soon put Mark to sleep and the rest of us were close behind him. We were all just kind of staring out the window in a stupor. The scenery in Washington and Oregon was some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. But that darn rocking of the train was almost to much for a bunch of nappers like us.

John, Sarah and I managed to squeeze in a trip to a casino that was just a few miles form her house. Here again we had no luck, but are just dumb enough to lose our money and still have fun. Go figure.

The days went much to fast. We ended up leaving a day early, because we bought Sarah's car(they bought a newer one) while we were there and decided to drive cross country coming back. We drove down through Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and finally Colorado........

Happy Father's Day John

2011-06-19T20:05:00.006-05:00

Eagles flying over the Tennessee River.

Emily enjoying a Sunday swim.

Grandma Rose cooling off her feet.

Four generation of Sundquist.

John Pearson acting goofy peeping in the kitchen window.

Me.

At Joe Wheeler Resort.

Me and Rose

Over looking the Tennesee River.

John and Rose.

Today was Father's Day and it was the most beautiful day we have had in quite a while. It was really breezy and a little overcast when I first got up this morning. As the day went on it just got nicer and nicer. We went to 11:00 church this morning and made a quick stop by ALDI's on the way home. After we got home we changed into our bathing suits and went over to Johnny's and Tracy's to eat lunch and swim for a while.

Their central heat and air went out last week, so they have been struggling to make it in this 90+ degrees heat that we have been having for the last few weeks. They are lucky to have the pool to cool off in. The contractors come tomorrow to put in a new unit. Hopefully they will have air by Tuesday.

Tracy grilled brats and hot dogs, made cheese dip and key lime pie. It was a real relaxing afternoon and we even got home early enough to squeeze a little nap before the afternoon was up.

Yesterday we took a drive up to Joe Wheeler park and sat out by the lake for a while. We made it back to the car just before a tremendous wind storm came through. I don't know why we are having so many storms here lately. I guess it has something to do with the instability of the weather. When it gets hot like its been lately a little cool front can cause the weather to go crazy.

We also drove down to Lock Six boat ramp and sat and watched some eagles that had a nest somewhere close by. There were at least two and they would fly out over the water then glide back over the trees. I managed to catch one picture of them just above the tree line. We use to never see eagles in this area, but now they are spotted from Waterloo up to Champion paper mill. We also saw a deer, which are getting plentiful in this area. I never saw a deer around here until I was in my thirties and now you can hardly drive down the road at night without one running out in front of you. All in all it has been a nice Father's Day weekend.

Jim should be getting here tomorrow to carry Rose back to Ohio. We have have had nice visit with her. Hopefully she has enjoyed her stay with us. We will be flying out Tuesday to Seattle to stay a few days with Sarah and the kids, then down to Colorado Springs to spend another few days with Sondra, Jonathan and the boys. We are really looking forward to our visit. In the meantime Monica and her boys will be coming here to spend a week or so and keep and eye out on Emily and JP while Johnny and Tracy are at work. Mark and Paige will be in for the Forth of July. I guess I could leave a to do list and come back to a clean house. We will be home shortly after that. Sounds like we are all running in circles.

I need to get busy packing and doing a little laundry. I told Tracy I only worried about carrying my medicine. If I forget anything else there's always Wal-Mart or a thrift store somewhere close by.

HOT TIME IN MISSISSIPPI

2011-06-08T17:59:00.007-05:00

Dinner at Monica and Tim's house.

Johnny, David and Mark.

Part of John's family,

Mark acting like he's not nervous.

Becky, Jim and Ludwig their exchange student from Sweden.

Emily trying to make a fashion statement, I guess.

Rehearsal

Mark and Paige feeling the heat.

Rose eating lunch.

When Mark and Paige got engaged last year, the wedding seemed so far away, but guess that time waits for no man or in this case no man and woman. The wedding took place in Southaven MS this past weekend. I think the weather man said it was the hottest early part of June in weather recorded history. At 6:30 when the wedding started it was 77 degrees and the high that day had been 99 degrees with the heat index of 103. Needless to say we were not just perspiring but wringing wet with sweat.

The wedding was really beautiful. All of John's Mother, brothers and sister came in from Ohio. The nieces and nephews except one came in. All of our kids except Sarah, Luke, Charlotte and baby Mark came. It would have been almost impossible for her to travel with three kids and expecting. Sondra flew in with David and Daniel and I didn't envy her trying to load and unload all her gear in and out of the airport. We had lots of family and friends come in from AL.

The wedding was outside and I was so thankful that it didn't rain for the rehearsal dinner or the wedding which were both outside. We were so busy praying for clear weather, that we forgot to also pray for cool weather. The reception was part inside and part outside. There was a DJ inside and the dancing went on until midnight. There was a time when I would never get up and dance in a crowd like this, but I thought what the heck this is my last child to be married, so we just let our hair down and danced right along with all the young people.

It was great having time to reconnect with John's family for a couple of days. John's mom came home with us and will stay for a couple of weeks. Then we will head out west to see kids and grand kids.

Why does things have to be so difficult. I think I can finally download some pictures from the rehearsal and family gathering at the hotel. I seem to have a conglomeration of pictures that have no rhyme or reason, but I was just glad to get anything to download. Maybe when I figure out what the problem is, I can share some actual wedding pictures. Oh well it has stopped again. Later.

Storm clean up is underway at Mother's

2011-05-13T16:38:00.006-05:00

Seems that it has been forever since I posted anything on my blog. I just couldn't find anything light hearted to talk about. Well I still haven't, but I figured it's time to sit down and let some of my thoughts out before my head swells like a helium balloon and I float off into oblivion. That might not be such a bad thing.

There is so much going on in our area right now. Clean up from the tornadoes is still going full blast all across the south. I haven't been into the areas that were hit, but John and a couple of friends drove to an area around Athens and Madison last week. John said he had never seen so much destruction and total devastation in his life. These were not even the areas that were hit hardest. There are so many tales of people being lost elderly people, young adults, teenagers and babies. It is hard to make yourself believe that nature can cause this much heart ache.

The flooding in the Memphis, Mississippi and Louisiana areas are as mind boggling as the tornadoes. Seems as though all across the southern United States people are being effected by the weather. I posted a few more pictures of the wind damage at Mother's house. Luckily we were able to get hold of a insurance contractor and they came on out and got the tree cut down and cleared away. Now it is just a matter of waiting for them to be able to start the renovation work. It may take a while because of the large number of homes that will have to be renovated or rebuilt. So I guess patience is the name of the game right now.

In the meantime time is clicking down to the wedding. Just three more weeks. The nice part is that I'm off work now and have a little more time to get things done. We are looking forward to having lots of family members come in from out of town to attend the wedding. We are going to have the rehearsal dinner at Monica's home. There will be a bachelor and a bachelorette party for Mark and Paige. A bridal tea on Friday morning, wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal party on Friday afternoon and evening. You know, now that I see that in writing, I think the tea is on Saturday morning. Well when ever it is, its going to be a very busy weekend.

John's mom is going to be staying a week or so with us after the wedding. Jimmy and Becky will be taking Ludwig ( their foreign exchange student from Sweden) on a few side trips while they are down here. When they get back John and I will be going to WA. to see Sarah and the kids and then to Co to stay a few days with Sondra and Jonathan and the kids. Lord I'm already wondering what has happened to the summer. I will be going back to work around the thirteenth of Aug.. Wow, its enough to make your head spin.

STORM DAMAGE

2011-04-29T19:34:00.003-05:00

There are two or three trees on the roof at Mother's house. This one is on top of the sun porch.

This is a oak tree uprooted on the creek bank. I seems as though the storm went right up through her yard.

It is hard to tell from looking at this picture, but the hole under the trees is 4 or 5 feet deep and about 10 or 12 feet across.

The tree was completely over the whole house. These limbs were from the two trees in the back yard. Wayne and one of his son-in-laws got the limbs off the top of the house so he could patch the leaks. Now there are so many limbs on the ground that you literally can't make it around the house. We were very lucky that no one was hurt and that the trees didn't completely crush the house. Robbie made these pictures the morning after the first storm went through.

Today was the first time I actually saw live pictures of the devastation from the tornadoes that went through our area. It is unreal that so few lives were lost. Mark's best friend and his wife lost their home, car's, pet and everything they owned in the storm that hit Tony Alabama. They had planned on staying in their house and waiting the storm out, but at the last minute decided to go a relatives house that had a shelter. Thank God they did. Their home was totally destroyed.

The houses, businesses, churches and schools can be rebuilt. The lives of loved ones cannot be replaced. The ones of us who were untouched are thankful for being spared from this horrific act of nature. Continue to pray for the people across the south who lost family members and homes that they can over come this tragedy and become stronger.

BRIDAL SHOWER'S AND BATHROOM REMODELING

2011-04-20T20:47:00.005-05:00

Oh Well!! I have been putting off posting for the past few days because I have been having trouble downloading some pictures that I wanted to add to my blog. Seems as thought that want be happening until I buy an adaptor for the computer. All the pictures that we made at the shower were made with either Monica's or Tracy's camera and their memory card is a 4GB (what ever that means) , and apparently is not compatible with my computer. It's not that I didn't try everything in the book to get them to download. Monica left her memory card with me, I took it to work and downloaded the pictures to the work computer, with the help of a student that had an adaptor and emailed them to myself. I could pull up the pictures up to look at them, I made a file and saved it to desk top, but it would not go onto my blog post. Then Tracy sent me her memory card and I tried again. Same thing. So by the time I get pictures from the shower posted Mark and Paige will have grand kids of their own. Things like that can really make me come unglued.

John's bathroom project is coming along pretty well. We will probably be going to Johnny and Tracy's for our shower's for quite a bit longer though. John can figure out just about anything, but if we were building a whole house I'm afraid we would be in big trouble. After falling through the floor joist twice already and getting horrible sores on both knees from crawling around on the floor, he is pretty stove up right now. I feel so bad for him, but it is one of those things that he wants to do by himself and like I say, I'm about as much help as a one armed paper hanger.

It seems ever thing is coming quickly to a head. School will be out in about 18 working day and there is so much to do in the mean time. The wedding will be June 4Th and that is about 6 weeks. I have to find a dress, make arrangements for the rehearsal dinner and probably stuff I haven't thought of yet. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends that we don't get to see very often. The best thing for me is that I'm not the Mother of the Bride. ( Not that I wouldn't love to have Paige for a daughter). But after having three daughters and one son get married, I'll take another son's wedding every time.

I have to post this little tribute to Granddaddy from Matthew. This is a little speech he gave for scouts the other day.

My favorite person in the world is my granddaddy. What makes him my favorite person you might ask? We find some of the coolest treasurers together. Not the kind you find buried int the sand, or at least we haven't found that kind yet. But the kind of treasures you find in old attics, garages, dumpsters, thrift stores and auction.

Anytime I have ever asked for something, he has managed to find it. Some of the things I have asked for and we have managed to find are an old electric typewriter, a Indiana Jones fedora and leather jacket, an old cassette recorder, a stop watch, and an old smokers pipe. these are not the kind of thing that you can just pick up at Target... these are antiques.

My Grandaddy who was also a boy scout, has always been a collector, but he started out as a boy collecting stamps and coins. I think I learned to love collecting from him. I don't just collect one kind of thing , I like to collect interesting things that catch my eye.

Granddaddy always says I have a good eye for antiques. And I can always seem to talk down the price of something I really want. Over spring break I spent the week with my Granddaddy and MawMaw and I found a Porshe 356 model that was made in Italy. They wanted $10 for it but I talked them into taking $5 for it.

While I really enjoy finding treasures, the very best part is spending time with my Grandaddy.

Thank you Matthew for making Granddaddy's day.

SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME

2011-04-01T19:20:00.005-05:00

My spring break is winding down to a hopefully nice long weekend. We stayed pretty close to home the first part of the week. The weather was kind of nasty and I had a couple of doctor appointments. After my evening at the ER on Friday night, I figured the week was going to be a complete bust, but things got better as the week went on. We went to an auction on Saturday night. This was up in Loretto TN. at Old School Antiques. It is in what use to be the Loretto school house. The auction is held on the second and forth Saturday of the month. The attendance is picking up quite a bit and there are lots of bargains to be had. Sunday was cold and miserable so after church, I spent the afternoon rolled up in a blanket doing absolutely nothing. Monday we had our taxes filled out and on Tuesday I had a doctors appointment. I had promised myself that I would accomplish tons of stuff, like cleaning house a bit, get the yard mowed, so far I'm batting ZERO. I'm getting ready for Mark and Paige's shower so on Wednesday I made some cakes and stuck them in the freezer. I found this really cute recipe for a Sunflower Cake. You make a single layer cake with chocolate icing and put Twinkies around it and drizzle chocolate on the Twinkies and it looks like a big Sunflower. Then I made a punch of heart shaped red velvet cakes (small) and I will put a dollop of cream cheese icing on top. I guess you would call it a Hearts and Flowers theme. I will try to remember to post few pictures when I finish them. On Thursday Emily was going to go home with a friend, so we didn't have to pick her up at the bus stop. We decided we would take a short trip. So since it was my vacation week, John took me to Tunica (The Casino Capital of the South). I am so dumb. I don't know why I love going and throwing my hard earned money away. I guess I must have an addictive personality. Anyway we drove down on Thursday afternoon, checked in around 4 PM and played the slots until around 11:00. We had a free room and some discounts on food. John won a couple of small jackpots and won $100.00. So we spent about what most people would spend on a really nice evening out. On the way home we stopped in Southaven and met Paige. We went over and John got fitted for his tux for the wedding. Then we went to the Bed and Breakfast where to wedding is going to be held. It is a real pretty area, so I think the wedding will be beautiful. I will have to start praying for good weather since the wedding is going to be outside. After leaving there we drove over to Mark's work place and stayed just a few minutes. We drove in and got home around 6:00. I came in turned on the computer and sat down and started to write this blog. John is taking a nap and I'm trying to figure out what we can get into tomorrow. To be continued.......

MAKING SOME CHANGES

2011-03-30T19:51:00.003-05:00

I am having a hard time trying to figure out why I have to be whacked up side the head a dozen times with a sledge hammer to get the point. My body is in a health crisis and I simply just can not or will not accept it. As I had said in my last post, my numbers were all way off on my blood work that I had done last week. I know that I am going to have to take charge and do something about it or I might be kissing my rear in good-by. I guess the main problem is that I feel pretty good, I go to work every day and I'm 66 years old and I figure things start to deteriorate sooner or later.

I have decided that I am going to give it one more try and see if I can't develop a healthier life style for myself ( and John too, if he will let me). The problem with John is that he thinks you should be able to eat all the butter, eggs, cookies, cakes and pies that you can hold. He thinks it is ridiculous to buy skim or low fat milk, margarine or anything sweetened with splenda. I on the other hand am a diabetic and my triglycerides are out the ceiling and I HAVE TO MAKE SOME CHANGES. I am not trying to blame John, even thought it may sound like it. I am just trying to talk myself through this situation.

Right now I am in my third day of trying to eat better and cut out some fats, cholesterol, sugar and carbs. The first day I had Brand cereal and skim milk for breakfast, a veggie wrap for lunch and baked Tilapia and wild rice for dinner. Pretty much the same thing the second day. I also had a couple of oranges and an apple when I thought I couldn't make any longer.

This morning I fixed some oatmeal and skim milk for breakfast. We went out on one of our rambles today and ended up in Athens Al.. Of course we got hungry and of course we had to stop and get something to eat. We stopped at Jack's and got a salad. John got the crispy fried chicken salad and I got the grilled chicken salad. When John got back to the table the tray was loaded down. The salad was in one of those black with a clear top 32 oz. bowls, with a pack of dressing, a pack of croutons, several packs of crackers and extra honey mustard dressing for John's crispy chicken. Now I don't care how you stretch it that ain't a low cal meal. I ate the grilled chicken and about a third of the lettuce and veggies with some of the salad dressing and the croutons. If a dietitian figured the nutrition value, it would still have been more then I needed. At least it wasn't a cheese burger, fries and drink.

This evening for dinner, and I have a few pictures to document it, I think we ate pretty healthy.

The wrap consisted of:

1 flour tortilla

fresh spinach

red peppers

tomatoes

onion

1 oz turkey

1 teaspoon of lite dressing

I put cheese and extra dressing on John's wrap.

I also made this really tasty soup.

Do you remember those really large butter beans that everyone hated as a kid. Well I always loved them. That's my problem I like everything.

Butter Bean Soup:

1 can large butter beans

1 can chicken broth

1 small onion (chopped)

1 Roma tomato (chopped)

1 handful of fresh spinach

salt and pepper to taste

Cook on medium heat until onions, tomatoes and spinach are tender. This made a very tasty soup and went well with the wrap. It was a nice comfort food for a cold rainy evening.

Now I'm not going to bore everyone with a blow by blow description of everything I eat for the rest of my life, but I will probably occasionally post a follow up as to how I'm doing with this epic battle that I am pursuing and post some recipes that I find particularly interesting.

This is no Caribbean Cruise

2011-03-27T07:51:00.010-05:00

Johnny, Emily, Tracy and John Pearson

John Pearson getting to be all grown up.

Emily and Matthew playing games on the computer.

For the last two weeks we have been going non-stop. Not going anywhere in the traveling sense but in the lots of things going on sense. Things are working there way down to Mark and Paige's wedding in June. This will be the last of our five children to get married and hopefully they have all chosen wisely and we want have to worry about weddings again until the grand kids get older. It always makes you feel good inside when you see that your kids are happy and Mark and Paige are very happy.

To give you and idea of all the things that have been going on, I will start with our visit from Matthew. Matthew was on spring break week before last. He had ask if he could come and spend a few days with us. John met Tim, Andrew and Matthew in Corinth MS and as usual had some ice cream treats at the Dairy Queen before making their way back home. I was working so I missed a lot of the rambling around that week. John took Matthew to every thrift store in the area. He bought skates, a lava lamp, boat and I can't even remember all the other things. I just know that his mom and dad probably hated to see him drag all the stuff he bought into the house when we carried him home.

While he was here Emily had her 10Th birthday, so we went over and spent the evening with her and her little friends and had Birthday cake, ice cream and pizza. Then seven days later on the 22 ND Johnny celebrated his 44Th birthday

We carried Matthew back to Memphis on Saturday and spent the evening with Monica, Tim and the boys. Andrew fixed most of the dinner. He made a baked chicken with his special sauce (it was really good) , salad and baked potatoes as big as a football. Mark and Paige came over and had dinner with us.

On Sunday we got up and went to church with Mark and Paige. She goes to the La belle Baptist Church in Southaven MS. It was a very nice service. The shower started at 2 PM and there was a really nice turn out and they got some lovely gifts. Now we are on the countdown to April 10TH, when we will have the shower here in AL. I had planned on having the shower at Out Post 72, but got a call from the owner one day last week, telling me that they had closed the previous Sunday. I had to hustle it up a bit and find another place. Luckily I was able to get the activities room at our church (St Joseph Catholic) church in Florence. The bad part is that I had already mailed invitations to everyone and now I need to start making phone calls and make sure everyone knows about the change of place.

I had gone to the doctor last week to have some blood work done, so I could renew my meds. When I got in from work on Friday, I told John that I was going to lie down and take a short nap. He told me that I needed to call the doctor before I did that. Well I called the doctor and the receptionist gave me the results of my blood test. As usual everything was up. She told me to hold on while she talked to the doctor. She came back and told me I should get to the ER asap. Apparently my triglycerides were 1610. So we headed out to the ER about 3:00 PM. I'm on the phone trying to get a hold of Johnny or Tracy or John Pearson to pick up Emily who usually gets off the bus at 3:30. All I got was the voice mails. Thank goodness the school bus driver decided to bring her straight to our door. She didn't have to walk from the bus stop.

When we got the hospital they hooked me up to all the stuff they do. First off they couldn't get a blood pressure reading. Finally got that, then did the EKG and chest X-Ray. Then they did a C-scan. After 5 hours the doctor came back and tells me that all the test came back normal. In other words your old, too fat and need to exercise more. The story of my life.

That was the beginning of my vacation, so with the other test they're fixing to do, I will probably spend most of the rest of my vacation at the doctors office. Money wise it will be just like going on a Caribbean Cruise.

MATTHEW'S GREAT TITANIC PINEWOOD DERBY ADVENTURE!!

2011-03-13T08:43:00.007-05:00

This is the tale of Matthew's Great Titanic Pinewood Derby Adventure. You want believe all the really weird things that happened on this particular scouting event. As you can see from the pictures above that this has got to be one of the neatest Pinewood Derby cars that most of the judges have ever seen. Who would ever think of making a Pinewood racing car that looks like the ship Titanic.

Matthew solicited the help of his neighbor Mr. Lyle, who has a workshop, to cut out pieces for him. Then he and his dad ( I think) assembled this really unique car. Well he entered it in the local Cub Scouts race. It was not the fastest car, so he didn't win for speed, but he won best in show. For this award he got to go to district. This event was held in St Louis. So the family headed to St Louis.

He got registered and all the things you have to do to get signed up for your category. When they got back to the awards ceremony Matthew's car was setting off to the side all by itself. The awards were given and Matthew didn't get anything not even a participants ribbon. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE!!!! Man something's just not right. Matthew says to his Dad, "Let's just get out of here", so they head back to the hotel. That night when they went to the banquet, Tim (Dad) saw the gentleman that was in charge of the event. He told him that he didn't understand why Matthew was the only one in the group not to get some kind of award. The gentleman ask, "Are you talking about Matthew's car?". "We had him down to race the car". So there was a mix up in the registration. So Matthew will get a Special Award and he was recognised at the banquet. All in all he was satisfied with the out come of the district Soapbox competition.

They stayed the whole weekend and since it was Sunday they did some community work instead of going to church. All the Scouts were picking up rubbish around the area and you really want believe this. MATTHEW FOUND A HUNDRED $$$BILL!! It was just lying on the ground and you could tell it had been there for a while. He was so excited and showed it to his dad. He and Dad had a discussion about the money and Dad told him he thought it would be a good idea to give it to church or a charity. This took a little convincing, but Matthew decided he would give it to the St Vincent De Paul Society and dropped it into their collection box at church. In return for his good deed, Tim got him a model of the Titanic ship and they are busy putting the finishing touches on it.

Matthew will be coming to spend a few days with us this week. He is out of school on spring break. I'm sure he and Grandaddy will find a lot of things to get into while he is here. Matthew loves to check out the Thrift Stores and hit every yard sale we can find. Sometimes we just have to talk him out of some of the things he wants to purchase. I guess he is going to be just like Maw maw and Grandaddy. That's OK.

So that is Matthew's Great Titanic Pinewood Derby Adventure. (A really cool kid).

PROCRASTINATING (ON MY MIND)

2011-03-05T22:24:00.008-06:00

It has been one of those rainy, dreary days where you are torn between pulling the covers back up over you head and staying in bed all day or making the most of a not so good day. Since it is the weekend and I hate to waste a perfectly good day off, we opted to get up this morning and go right out into the nasty weather.

John got on the computer and looked up auctions on auctionzip.com. This is a neat little calender of events in and around the area. You just put in your zip code and the number of miles you're willing to drive and it list the auctions in that area. With gas being $3.49 a gallon here, we chose a 15 mile radius. The auction we chose was in a warehouse out in industrial park. It was a very nice facility, we were out of the rain and had clean restrooms and food available. We got there late so most of the good stuff was already gone. This was good, because we weren't tempted to purchase stuff we would regret later. The only thing I did get was a set of dishes. Now I have thirty place settings of this pattern. I think I'm having a (what was I thinking moment). That's alright. If I ever get the whole family together I will be able to use most of the pieces.

After the auction we went over to Keepers of the past to check on our booth. While we were in that part of town we went over to Stephano's and got a pizza. I have mentioned these pizzas before, but I have to again. They make a mega supreme pizza that has everything on it. Canadian bacon, sausage, pepperoni, green olives, black olives, onions peppers and I figure more stuff. These are the best pizzas I have ever eaten. If you are in Sheffield, go to Town Plaza Shopping center. They are located in the corner next to Keepers of the Past Antique mall.

Yummm....

I am having one of those days where I am seeing so much stuff started and hardly anything finished. I started lining some of my rug purses, but just couldn't stay with it long enough to finish. I'll try again tomorrow. I have my rug that is about three fourth of the ways finished and is in the utility room waiting for me to get re motivated. I have the picture scanner sitting on the dresser waiting for me to start scanning our old pictures to a disk. My Rosetta Stone keeps starring me in face here at the computer and the one person I could practice my Spanish words on got fired the other day and the rest of the workers speak Chinese. But I will learn to speak enough Spanish to be able to decipher whether the people I'm standing in line with at Wal-mart are talking about me:)

Last week was very hectic. Denise our manager had to have emergency gallbladder surgery, one of the girls nephews died, another was in the hospital with the flu and another was in Fl. with her daughter for a recycle convention. But it doesn't matter how many people are out the work still has to get done so everyone pulled together and got-er-done. Hopefully next week will be a little smoother. The George Lindsey film festival is coming up, so we will be working on that most of the week. By the way George was in the hospital, so due to his health some of the events had to be canceled.

I was just getting excited about Spring being in the air. The buttercups, forsythia and the Bradford pears are in full bloom. But I'm afraid to say that the cold front that just went through has turned it as cold as a Witch's Tu-Tu in Alaska. I guess we will have to wait just a little longer to proclaim that it is spring in AL.

Matthew if you read this I haven't forgotten your Soap Box Derby pictures. I have to figure how to resize them before I can download them to my blog.

NOT MUCH HAPPENING IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS

2011-02-19T08:55:00.004-06:00

It is always nice to have a three day weekend. So today is Saturday and I'm right in the middle and it makes me feel like I still have time to accomplish a lot of stuff. Yet here I sit on the computer wasting valuable time.

First of all I need to be getting a little cleaning done around the house since we are having company in on Friday of next week. Seems there is no energy or time left when I get in from work. So it needs to be done now. Last month we got together with these friends and had dinner and played a game called Mexican Train. So we decided to make it a monthly get together.

I am planning on having a real simple dinner, Loaded Potato Soup, Strawberry Blue Cheese Salad and Tiramisu. I figured this would be and easy meal that I could whip together after work on Friday. I will probably make the Tiramisu on Thursday so all the flavors will be blended by Friday.

I need to check out some other games. I love to play Scrabble, but I swear the older I get the less competent I feel about my spelling skills and there are just so many four letter words in the English language. I also thought about Trivia Pursuit but feel that takes a lot of concentration on my part. If you have any suggestions give them to me.

There is not much going on around here lately so I haven't posted anything in several days. Everything is really slow at work. It getting the time of year that the students start running out money and are saving what they do have for spring break, which will the the last week in April. Our GM is asking for schedule cuts, so that makes things a little tense at work. Trying to look busy, stay busy and accomplish as much as possible in fewer hours. Oh well that business.

John got his results back from the MIR. Every thing came back normal. Apparently no blockage, but he does have some hypertension. The doctor has put him on a blood pressure medicine and it is already lowering his readings. Still a little high on the bottom. He still has a little dizziness in the mornings. I tell him after all, he is 66 years old, what do you expect. For a man that has always had blood pressure like a kid, this is devastating to him. He thinks having to take this little pill is the worse thing ever.

I guess I will get in the kitchen and make some breakfast. I don't know what the day holds but maybe something exciting and interesting that I can post in the days to come. Hope everyone is healthy, happy and enjoying life.

NUT CLUSTERS (AND I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT MY FAMILY)

2011-02-06T18:18:00.005-06:00

Seems this cold weather is really getting to my sweet tooth. I should not be looking for anything sweet because, being a diabetic I really do not need to be tempted so. But that being said this cold weather is really getting to my sweet tooth.

The other night I got to prowling around in the fridge to see what I could come up with. It was one of those days that it was kind of like opening Tut's tomb and finding it empty. I did manage to find a half bag of chocolate chips, a few walnuts in a bag and a box of raisins. Since I'm one of those people that does not like to be defeated I continued my quest for a sweet snack. At first I thought I would add a handful of cereal and some coconut and make a trail mix. Nah!! Not what I want. Then I thought I would make a small batch of cookies. Uh uh!! To much effort. Then the perfect idea came to me. I would make some nut clusters.

I placed the Chocolate Chips in a pan with a spoonful of vegetable oil. This helped the chips melt to a creamy consistency. When the chocolate was melted I added the nuts and raisins, stirred them until they were well coated. Then I took a teaspoon and dropped the mixture onto wax paper, set it in the fridge until the chocolate had firmed back up. They were Delicious. It was a cross between the chocolate covered raisins that you get at the movie theater and a Goo Goo Cluster without the marsh mellow and caramel.

Now I rationalize to myself the the nuts were healthy, the raisins were a fruit so they had to be healthy, the chocolate was semi sweet with 70 calories per serving and 8 grams of sugar. Oh my gosh!! I have created the perfect health food.

I would have taken pictures, but seems they were gone before I got around to it.

1 bag chocolate chips (semi sweet)
1 cup nuts (I used walnuts)
1 cup raisins

Melt, mix, drop, cool and eat.

I think I'm channeling Julia Child.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2011-02-03T19:43:00.003-06:00

It is so cold tonight and we are expecting some snow and freezing rain. I hope if it is going to do anything it will do it before I have to go to work in the morning. Sixty six years ago today, I was all snug and cozy inside the my mother's womb. Warm, comfortable and oblivious to anything going on in the outside world. Well that changed fast enough on Feb 4Th. I was born at the old hospital in town and was welcomed into the world by my mother, daddy and a brother just 2 years older. Mother was in the hospital for two weeks and had to be brought home in an ambulance. Not because she was sick, but because daddy was in the military and that was the rules at the time. I'm told that I was a good baby and was really shy when I was little. I was one of those kids that would bury my face in mother's skirt if anyone tried to talk to me. I would spend hours digging dirt. All I needed to keep me entertained was a pan and a spoon.

My brother and I were close in age and had a close friendship growing up. When I was seven I had another brother, and another brother when I was twelve and a sister when I was 15. When they were born I became a second mother and could change a diaper with the best of them.

Life in our house was always loud and always lots of friends coming and going. There were usually two or three extra kids there on any given weekend. My brother Bruce was in a rock-n-roll band and they would practice in the basement and I would have my friends over to listen to music and flirt with the boys in the band (who thought we were a bunch of teenie bopper pest.)

I learned that life was not always kind when I was 16 and my youngest brother died at the age of four. This had a huge impact on our whole family. Mother was never the same after that. She became real reclusive and after 50 years she still lives her life inside the four walls of her home. Who's to say what anyone would do if they lost a child.

I met John when I was 20 and he was 21. We only knew each other for three months when we got married. We just kind of knew from the first date that we were meant for each other. That was 45 years ago so I guess we must have been destined to be together. For the last 45 five years we have raised five children. They are all grown and have lives and families of their own. So far we have had no divorces, no serious problems with our kids and we continue to keep our fingers crossed as we move into another era with grand kids hitting their teen years. God has blessed us more than we can even imagine.

The years has given me a handful of really great friends and a boatload of people that has brought joy to my life. John and I were talking the other night and decided that we have had a wonderful life, we would not change a thing, but we wouldn't go back and live it over. It would be too hard to relive all the losses, disappointments and mistakes that come with life. I prefer to take the memories of all the good times and carry them into the future.

Sixty six years ago I was feeling the urge to enter this adventure called life. Sixty six years later I am still living the adventure.

THINGS I HAVE A HARD TIME LETTING GO OF

2011-01-25T19:35:00.007-06:00

The inside edge of the door where we measured the growth of our kids. Looks like Marks height was last recorded in July of 1994. That was Johnny's height in December of December 1989. Wow!!! That's thirty one years.

We have a shelf in the kitchen with family keepsakes. The yellow Ball jar belonged to John's uncle, the platter on the right belonged to my grand mother (Mama Hale), the syrup pitcher was found under Bruce's house when it was remodeled years ago. It must have belonged to the Lewis' that lived there when I was little and the Micky Mouse was a toy that belonged to my brother Mark ( who died when he was four).

The canister set in the middle of the shelf was brought over when John's great grand parents came here from Germany back in the 1800's

Now this is probably one of the strangest things I hold on to. This plant was given to Sarah by her softball team when my dad died 18 years ago. Over the years I would decide to throw it away, but would say to myself, " I'll water it one more time". As you can see it is in pitiful shape, but not dead yet. I can't bring myself to toss it out.

In looking around the house, I found some pretty weird stuff, like this cut out of a turtle. Sarah was the turtle and Nichole her best friend was the frog. If you can see there are #99 stickers on it. That was the year they graduated from High School and I'm pretty sure they created this lovely master piece earlier on.

Now these are a couple of things that I am not sentimental about, but every time I have started to get rid of them, one of the girls will say, "Oh mother don't throw those out, they have been there forever" and then remind me that I threw out the little boy sports pictures that hung in the boys room. So here they hang waiting for some of the kids to come home and claim them.....

This picture is hard to see, but it says May 20Th 1984. Oh my goodness, that's 27 years. Now I have painted this bedroom several times since then, but I have never been able to roll that roller brush over the Unicorns that Sondra painted on the inside closet door.

This is one of the Unicorns that she drew. She would have been 12 or 13 at the time.

Now the picture below is my pride and joy. I was 8 months pregnant with Mark at the time. Johnny, Monica and Sondra were absolutely driving me nuts that day. I went into the bedroom to ask them to settle down , and they had made the most god awful mess I had ever seen. I really lost it, but decided I had better calm down before trying to discipline them. I stomped out of the bedroom into the hall took my foot and kicked the door. I popped that big old hole in it and then I had to worry about trying to explain to John when he came home. So my punishment has been that every time I walk down the hall I have to remember that I need to control my temper. One of these days we plan to take it down and see what all the kids and grand kids have stuck down in the hole in the door over the years.

And last but not least is my Bitchalittle sign. This has hung in my kitchen, by the stove for probably the last 40 years. I have decided a number of times to take it down and throw it out but it still hangs there. This says a lot about me and my life and how I have handled things over the last 65 years. Enjoy life a lot and BITCHALITTLE.

DON'T FORGET TO READ TO FINE PRINT

2011-01-17T08:46:00.004-06:00

I am just flat out annoyed. Whatever happened to the time when you bought a item or an insurance policy and you didn't have to pull out the microscope to find out what is written in fine print somewhere at the bottom of the page. It seems that everything has restrictions or loop holes or "Oh I forgot to tell you" attached somewhere.

I received a letter from my Advantage policy this week telling me that the blood pressure medicine that I have been taking for a number of years is no longer available to me. They have given me an added month of the prescription. During that time I will need to see my doctor and have her prescribe another medication. It usually takes me a few weeks to adapt to a new medication, since if there is a side affect I usually have it. I am going into my second year with this Advantage policy. Apparently a year is enough time for them to see which medications a person takes and delete those meds from their list.

Back when John was working and we had the regular Blue Cross and Blue Shield, (this was before we turned 65 and had to find a Medicare supplement), we could go to the drug store with our prescription and pay a $15.00 co-pay and walk out with no problems. Now we have money taken out of our social security check, and pay for the Advantage policy out our pocket. By the way the Advantage policy doubled this year. Now if I am not mistaken, we pay more per month than when John was working and are getting less. I guess that is a ploy to kill off all the senior citizens, move the longevity rate back a few years and then lay the loss of years on our diet.

We also bought an insurance policy when we were in our late twenties or early thirties. This was supposed to be one of those policies where the money grows and when you get to retirement age you have a nice nest egg to make your life easier. WELL!! Last year we go a notice from the company saying that they had been using our money that the policy had made to pay premiums and the money was gone. We had never missed a payment and had always been prompt in paying the premiums. To keep the policy active we would have to pay xx amount extra. Since this will be our funeral expense money, we continue to send payments. This is as bad a dealing with the Mafia. How are companies allowed to miss use money like that? My advise to young couples is to figure out how much you will have to pay each month for prescription and premiums and stuff it in a fruit jar and bury it it in you back yard. At least you will know where your money is.

Now this will just make you want to spit out ten penny nails. We got a subscription notice from Reminisce Magazine this week. Now we love this magazine but have only bought occasionally because they are kind of expensive. John said maybe we should buy this subscription. He got to reading the fine print and found out that there are only six issues a year. If they issue a special, that counts for two issues and that at any time they can change the number of issues per year and guess what? You pay the same amount whether it be six issues or one. Huh mm.. Whatever happened to the times when you knew what you were buying and got in a timely fashion?

Since I am on a complaining soap box, let me say something about our economy. We live in a beautiful area with lots of lakes, boating, fishing and golf courses. But most of us can't survive on professional fishing and golf. Most of the industry in our area has shut down and moved to other countries. We are an area of food related businesses and retail stores. I don't understand sending the textile and garment business out of the country. We are loosing a whole generation of people to welfare and government programs who could be self providing for their families, if the jobs were still here. There will come a time when the people in these other countries will not be willing to work for pennies by the hour. When they price themselves out of a job, who will we turn to then? We will have to find a way to retrain our own workers and reestablish all these businesses that we have so foolishly thrown out.

We are going to have to move back a little to a time when a person could make a living, have confidence in the business they dealt with and not become such a skeptic as myself.

SNOW IN ALABAMA

2011-01-11T17:24:00.008-06:00

The ground is still covered with the most beautiful snow we have had in years, here in Alabama. The snow came in during the early morning hours on Monday. We were awaken to the soft quiet sounds that you only get when there is snow on the ground or the power goes off during the night. At first I thought is was just a dusting, but when it actually got daylight, I realized we had really gotten a snow. John went out back and measured snow that was on top of the picnic table and it measured 14". Not much has melted because the temperatures have stayed right around freezing. The old wives tale is if it stays on the ground three days, you'll get another snow soon. The snow that we had at Christmas laid on the ground for three days, so maybe there is something to the saying.

All the schools and most of the businesses in the area were closed on Monday, but people started trying to make it back to work today. We were closed at UNA because we don't officially open until Wednesday. The temperature is supposed to get down to 17 degrees tonight, so I think I will have John drive me into work in the morning. I don't know how, nor do I even pretend to know how to drive in icy conditions.

I have been really disappointed because I have tried for the last two days to get some pictures of the snow. For some reason my camera will take video and inside pictures, but when I take a picture outside all I get is white, and I can't figure out how to reset the camera.

John Pearson and Emily were here today and will be tomorrow. We have played games most of the day. Rummy and Mexican Train have been the most popular. Poor John. He will be here with them by himself tomorrow. I think Emily will want to play Monopoly. I hate that game I'd rather be working:) I also made some really good brownies this morning. This made a nice snow day treat along with a glass of cold milk.

Brownie Recipe

2 sticks margarine
2 cups sugar
2 cups plain flour
1/2 coco
2 eggs
tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts

Melt margarine, add sugar, salt, vanilla, and coco. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Add flour and stir until blended thoroughly with sugar mixture. Beat egg and add a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate mixture and stir. ( this warms the eggs so they don't start to cook when you blend it into the rest of the ingredients). Add eggs and nuts. Spray 9x13 with nonstick spray. Cook for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

I actually watched a whole football game for the third time in my life. AU was playing for the National Championship last night against the Oregon Ducks. It was a close game and both teams stayed neck to neck the whole game. So it was almost 11:00 o'clock when the kicker for AU made the final two points of the ballgame. If AU had ever got far enough ahead I would probably not have stayed up and watched the whole thing. I only got interested this year because Johnny and Mark get so excited.

Sorry no snow pictures right now.

MY LONG AWAITED POTTERY CLASS

2011-01-06T19:11:00.003-06:00

I have worked at UNA for the last 21 years minus the 1 1/2 years that that I left to work somewhere else. Every year I would tell John that I wanted to take the pottery class for beginners and every year something else would come up and I would not go. Well this time I talked a friend at work into signing up with me and we went together. That made it a whole lot easier.

The classes started just after we got back from our trip to CO.. I came home with the worst sinus infection that I have ever had in my life. Just to try bending over to work on the pottery pieces made me feel like my head was going to burst. I even missed a whole week of classes.

I think if I had felt better I could have done a much better job. Although I didn't put a hundred percent effort into the project, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to pick up my creations. Its probably hard to tell in the pictures, but the colors turned out bright and pretty well blended. Since the glaze was in large 5 gallon buckets and looks absolutely nothing like the color you're hoping to achieve, I just had to hope for the best.

I know that my pieces are not
something that will be handed down through generations, but I was satisfied enough with them to maybe try it again sometimes. Johnny did like an luminary and I gave it to him, so if any of the other kids wants a piece it is kind of first come first serve.

This is my whimsical piece. It has a daisy on the front and if you turn it around there is a little snake crawling from behind. I like this piece the most.

The picture at the bottom is a fruit bowl and a pitcher. The color in the bowl is a real pretty sky blue, but it looks kind of gray here.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to try the wheel. I guess because it is a beginners class they prefer you make things by hand. Maybe if I go again I can create something on the wheel.

It was worth the price of the class and I got to know my friend Catherine better and found that we had lots of things in common. Now I am going to spend the next few weeks working with the Rosetta Stone program that Sondra gave me for Christmas and try to learn some Spanish. (See) Then, I will get out the Instant Photo Digitizer that Monica and Tim gave us and Digitize all our pictures that we have taken for the last 45 years.

ENJOYING OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

2011-01-03T08:55:00.009-06:00

Another Pat and John. Pat is Sandra's sister and we have been friends since we were about 4 or 5 years old. They made it down to spend the evening with us on the last day of our stay at the group lodge. It was nice catching up on kids and grand kids.

Bill and Mary Sue came up for a visit on New Year's eve. We have been neighbors and friends for about 40 years. I can't believe how the time has flown. They have just celebrated their 50 anniversary recently and are still smiling. Don't you just love it?

This picture was taken on New Year's Day. We had the traditional southern meal. Turnip greens, black eyed peas and hog jowl along with a lot of other yummy food such as fried okra, mac & cheese, corn, and a hunk of cornbread. I think I ate enough to make me healthy, wealthy and wise for the rest of my life. If I didn't, I sure tried.

Enjoying conversation with friends. (My John, Sandra and friend John).

This was our New Year's Eve feast. Every year for the last 40 years we have had seafood and this year was no different. We had boiled shrimp, grilled jumbo shrimp, grilled scallops, fried oysters, fresh water stripe, hush puppies, home cut fries and just to make it healthy, we had a salad. The kids lined up before we finished cooking and the adults were not far behind.

We stayed 4 days at the lodge. We played more board games than I can count. The two that we enjoyed most was Mexican Train domino's and Smart Ass. They were both games that the young ones and adults could play together.

This group is working on a puzzle. It was a Noah's ark picture and turned out really pretty. It was small pieces and lots of color and design. I found a piece at the beginning and when they were almost through putting it together.

Emily and Paige ( Marks fiance') and myself decided to make cookies to take to the lodge. We made around 16 dozen cookies, peanut butter, chocolate chip, sugar cookies and some ooey gooey bars. The box of cookies had been devoured by the second day. I know most of the kids were on a real sugar high the first two days.

This picture shows what a mess be made in the kitchen on our cookie adventure. I think me and Paige enjoyed it more then Emily.

I also took a trip down memory lane while I was off work. This is a picture of the house my Dad built when I was about 10 years old. We had move into an old farm house and it burnt to the ground. We built in the same spot and lived there until I was 13. That is when we move down to the lake. When he built this house, I thought it was huge, but it wasn't. It made me a little sad to see it in shambles and about ready to be torn down to make room for a subdivision. Lots of happy memories there.

Another view of the house inside.

Six of us on the couch. We said hopefully, next year we will fit it better.

We did get a beautiful snow on Christmas morning. Just enough to turn everything white, but not enough to cover the roads and side walks. For some reason my pictures seem to be going backwards but I am not going to take the time to make them chronologically correct.

This was Christmas. Sarah and Cody and the kids had to leave on Sunday morning heading for Washington St. They didn't make to the New Year's weekend. It gets harder and harder to get everyone in the same place at the same time.

I hope everyone had as happy a holiday season as we did. Although I think we need to create a few more words to describe our feeling. Like maybe sadcited (sad that part of you family is leaving and excited that others will be coming in soon). One thing is for sure I think a lot of happy memories were made this year and hopefully there will be more in store during the coming year.

OH THE JOYS OF CHRISTMAS BREAK

2010-12-21T21:48:00.003-06:00

I finished work on Friday and have started what should be three weeks of R and R. I know before I know it the Christmas break will be over and it will be back to the grind stone again, but in the mean time I am going to try to pack all I can into the days off.

As you can see I am not the most decorative person when it comes to getting ready for Christmas, but I wanted to at least have up a Christmas tree. Sarah, Cody and the kids will be leaving on the 26TH headed for Washington state. He will be stationed there for the next two or three years. Anyway they were not able to put up a Christmas this year because of the move and Luke and Charlotte are a little disappointed. When they get here on Wednesday they should be excited to see our little tree. John set out the Nativity set and I pulled out a few Christmas dishes. I'm sure the kids will think its all ready for Santa.

The first thing planned for my time off was cataract surgery which I had Monday. Surprisingly enough there was no pain involved and I felt fine this morning so Paige, John and I spent most of the day doing some last minute shopping. Hopefully I didn't over do it. It is already amazing how the much clearer my sight is. For the last few months it has been like looking through wax paper. Images are so much sharper and clearer now. It was totally worth the surgery.

We have spent the evening going through old picture. Paige is looking for pictures to create a slide show for the wedding coming up in June. Man when I look at the pictures of when all the kids were home it gives me a feeling between sadness and humor. Sadness because the time went so fast and humor to see how we all looked and how much we have changed. When you look at your babies coming home from the hospital, to toddlers, to starting school, finishing school, to having babies of their own and becoming young adults then older adults it takes takes your breath away. ( It makes me think of the song that says " Life's not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away").

Sometimes in the next two weeks all the children will be home. As I said earlier Sarah will be here for Christmas with her family. Mark and Paige, Johnny, Tracy and the kids will all be here for Christmas also. Sondra and Jonathan and the boys will be getting in for New Year's and so will Monica, Tim and their boys. We have the fishing lodge rented again this New Year's and our family and the Krieger family will be spending four days up there. We had such a wonderful time last year, we decided to go there again this year. It will be four days of screaming kids running up and down the hall. Karaoke from most of us who can't carry a tune in a tow sack. Everyone laughing, talking and reminiscing. This is our favorite time of the whole year.

This year neither family has anyone deployed at this time. Last year Charlie was in Iraq. Cody will deploy again sometimes in 2011. Jonathan is home for now. We are just thankful to have them all home for the Holidays.

2010-12-14T19:42:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. It always gets hectic this time of the year. School is coming to a fast and furious end on December the 18Th. Mid terms are in progress right now and all the students are anxious to get their test over with and get the heck out of Dodge for three weeks. We have a million things going on at Sodexo with all the Christmas parties, graduation and the NCAA Championship game that will be played on Saturday.

It never ceases to amaze me how everything is crammed into the last week of the semester. On Friday we will be feeding the teams that are in town to play for the Championship. I think they are Delta State and Duluth Minnesota. If I'm wrong it because I not a big football fan. Anyway there will be 344 players and personnel whom we will serve lunch to. Then we will go directly into the reception for graduation. We are planning on 450 for this event. Then there are a few other small parties scattered in throughout the day. By the time we get through Friday night we will dragging our hinnies. Then for a few it will be back to work bright and early on Saturday morning for the President's box and the Press box for the big game. Poor Denise I don't know how she keeps up with it all.

To top it all off we are under a winter storm watch. It is suppose to start sleeting, snowing and freezing rain tonight. I'm afraid to say if it is nasty in the morning I won't be going in to work. You really can't tell about Alabama weather, it may be sixty degrees tomorrow. We will just have to wait and see.

Opps!! I just looked at the clock. It is 8:00 o'clock and I have to go watch Biggest Loser.

REUNION A SUCCESS

2010-11-17T15:08:00.004-06:00

A group picture of our Class of 1960. Brenda Holden had to leave before we took the picture. Left to right Diane Rickard, Penny Duffy, Judy McMurtrey, Douglas Harvey, Linda Garret, Pat Oldham,Patricia Lemay Charlene Lanier, Johnny McGee, Wayne Lanier. Back rowJerry Tank, Gaylord Ashby, Mary Ann Crow, Sondra Littrell, Ralph Jackson, Shirley Herston in the bottom group picture with the magenta cape on.

John mingling and taking a few pictures.

Roger Hamner (Mary Ann Crow) and Mary Mcgee (Johnny Mcgee) spouses of class members.

A.L Haygood (Sondra Littrell) and Mary Ann (Crow) Hamner

Gaylord Ashby, Johnny McGee, Ralph Jackson and Jerry Tank.

Best friends all through school Judy (McMurtrey) Love, Sondra (Littrell) Haygood and Pat (Oldham) Sundquist.

Another group picture.

Celebrate with a cake.

We had lots of people that RSVP ed but still didn't come. It seemed that everyone that did come had a great time and it was good to see old friends from the past. Hopefully we will get together again in the next few years. Loved seeing everyone.

GREAT TRIP TO COLORADO

2010-10-31T19:41:00.004-05:00

John, Charles and Sandra

Charles and John

Chapel

Spiral staircase

Birds and Prairie Dogs

Sondra and Jonathan ready for their night out.

Jonathan and Sondra.

The Cripple Creek side of the Mountains.

Daniel and I at Cheyenne Mountain Park

Fall in all its glory.

Wide open spaces.

John and David.

Looking out at Pike's Peak.

We have been back from our trip to Colorado for a week now. I have been trying to make time to post some pictures and write a little about our trip, but it has been busy at work and the recliner looks to darn good when I get home in the evening.

We drove out with Sandra and Charles and had a really nice trip. It was fun traveling with friends. We left on Friday afternoon after I got off work and drove to Memphis. Monica had a nice dinner waiting. (Chili, dips, chips and all sorts of goodies). We turned in pretty early and had a good nights sleep then headed out again about 6:00 Saturday morning. We drove across Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle and into NM. We finally stopped at a motel around 9:30 when we reached Albuquerque. We were worn smack dabbed out. We all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. We were back on the road by 7:30 Sunday morning. We drove over to Charles' aunts house and visited with her for a while. She is 83 years old but insisted we go to the casino and have lunch and play the slots for a while. Charles won $400.00, his aunt won $200.00 and his cousin won a couple of hundred. We had a great time and we all had a day that once again left up exhausted.

On Monday we got up early and headed on up to Colorado. We stopped along the way and saw the Church of the Sisters of Loretta and saw the miraculous spiral staircase attributed to St. Joseph. The church was beautiful and serene.

While we were in Santa Fe we went into a few shops and stopped at a couple of street vendors. Sandra go a White Buffalo (white turquoise) ring and I got a pair of white earrings.

We had a wonderful week visiting with the grand kids and taking a few side trip in the area. I took a heck of a cold while I was there, so I felt a little crappy most of the week. Daniel has just learned to walk, so he was toddling around everywhere. He is always smiling a really laid back. David is in kindergarten and knows more than I did when I graduated from high school. He is reading and writing and constantly asking questions trying to learn more. He amazes me.

I had to be back to work on Monday, so Sondra got me a ticket to fly back home on Sunday. I was a little nervous because it was the first time I had flown by myself. I had a great flight and it took me about 5 hours to get home. Luckily the storms that went through came the day after I got home. John, Charles and Sandra got in on Tuesday evening after traveling two days. We all had a wonderful visit and it was good seeing the kids and grand kids. I think we will rest up for a while before we take off again. By the way, we just found out that Sarah and Cody will soon be moving to Washington state in a few months. Can we get there from here?

John and I with Daniel and David

OCTOBER IS HERE ALREADY

2010-10-09T08:33:00.003-05:00

Well this is the 9TH of October already. Time seems to be on a race horse course to the end of the year. It seems that it was only a few weeks ago that the new year was beginning and I had dozens of things I had hoped to accomplish this time around. But it seems that I have got caught up in the old day to day stuff and my to do list has not gotten any shorter. As always it is "I owe, I owe so its off to work I go". I am in the figuring out stage about work, should I continue working or retire. In my case it would not be retiring, it would quitting because there will no retirement benefits. (One reason to quit). I still just don't know if I want to stay at home all the time.

The weather has cooled down somewhat and there is a hint of fall in the air. Cool mornings and evening and warm days. Fall and Spring are my favorite times of the year. Makes you want to get outside and do things. With the leaves starting to fall I'm sure there will be plenty of outside work before long.

John went down to FL to sit with Luke and Charlotte for a few days while Sarah took some classes over in Foley. I really would have liked to go and visit with the kids, but couldn't ask off at this time. ( That is another good reason to quit work).

We were in Memphis last weekend. We had not been able to see Andrew play PW football and the season is getting shorter all the time. He did really well and got his name called on the speaker several time for making tackles. ( Missing out on the kids activities is another reason to quit). Matthew and Aaron had a great time playing with John Pearson and Emily. We ate to much stayed up to late.

It is back to Memphis this weekend to attend Mark and Paige's engagement party. I will probably ride up with Johnny and John Pearson since my car is acting up and I don't want to end up on the side of the road somewhere near Walnut MS. John will be getting home from FL about the same time I'm leaving for MS. He will be too tired to make the drive to MS. I'm sure.

In another week we will be going out to Colorado to visit Sondra, Jonathan, David and Daniel. We are all getting excited about making our cross country adventure. We will probably stop over in Albuquerque NM to visit some of Charles' family. John and I have never been there and we are looking forward to that. I hope to get lots of pictures to post. This is where you really start praying for nice weather.

I guess I had better finish getting the house work done ( one good reason to keep working, John keeps the house running better than I do) and start packing. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

WENT TO AN AUCTION TODAY.

2010-09-25T23:43:00.006-05:00

Rag Rug Purses

Blue Angel- Fat Albert

Pictures from some one's past

Coo-Coo clock

1954-1955 Union Pacific calendars

WWI leggings

John and I went up to Loretto Tn. where they were having an auction at an old church building. It was great being inside sense it was raining pretty hard when we first got out this morning. We were really happy to get some rain because it was starting to look like a dust bowl around here.

There were a lot of interesting items up for auction. A lot of them we didn't even try to bid on because things were selling rather high. There were a lot of WWI items and John bid and won a pair of leather leggings. We have a picture of his grand father wearing a pair just like them when he was in the army. That was kind of a sentimental purchase.

We bought a stack of old pictures of some one's family that we didn't know, but it is fun to see all those faces from the past and try to imagine how life was back in the days of black and white and tin type. A couple of Union Pacific calendars from 1954 and 1955. Man I was just 9 years old then. It is kind of weird to think we are separated from those times by just one year, one day, one hour, one minute, and one second at a time. It's not like time stopped somewhere between now and then. It just keeps going on. I think that is why we like old stuff. It keeps us in touch with the past.

We found four old year books, the Diorama from Florence State Teachers College, which is now the University of North Alabama. They are the years 52, 53, 54 and 1958. The 1952 copy has pictures of Harlon Hill who went on to play professional football, Yolande Bethbeze from Mobile who was crowned Miss America in 1951 and George (Goober) Lindsey from the Andy Griffith Mayberry RFD show, in his football playing days.

I purchased a Coo Coo clock. It seems to be working and keeping perfect time. The kids hate it when they come home and our other clock starts Coo-Cooing. Can you imagine how they will like having two going off at the same time. Actually we will probably sell most of the things we bought today, but we can enjoy them for a while.

There were a few other pictures, one was for John Pearson if he wants it. It is a picture of the Blue Angel Airline- Fat Albert plane. It is signed by the Blue Angel pilots in 1999. He likes military things so if he has a place left on his wall, I guess that will be his.

My rag rug weaving has been moving right along. I have woven five for purses and just have to make a lining for each of them. The black and orange one is for Emily. Those are Brook's school colors. I guess I need to figure out what I'm going to do with them or else take the purses apart and make rug for the living room. Seems like the older I get the more things I want to try to do. Hopefully this will be the year that I sign up for the pottery making class at UNA. Any one need a cup, bowl, jug.....??

KILLEN ELEMENTERY 9TH GRADE FIFTY YEAR REUNION

2010-09-19T20:11:00.004-05:00

Judy McMurtry, Johnny Mcgee and Pat Oldham

Judy McMurtrey, Patricia LeMay, and Pat Oldham

We had our annual gathering of our ninth grade class at the Killen founders day celebration. There was a grand total of three there this time. Not that we are the only three left, but we were the only three that showed up this year. We did manage to get a picture of Johnny McGee before we left. He wasn't there for the planning of the 50Th year reunion of our ninth grade class but I'm sure we will put him to work doing something.

Judy is going to be in charge of contacting our classmates. She must have the phone number and the address of every person she has ever met in her entire life. When we had our 30Th reunion she ran up an enormous phone bill. She doesn't just call and give you the details, she calls and catches up on everything that has happened in the last 50 years. That is why we love her so much, she keeps up with people and things that has happened over the years that everyone else has forgotten years ago.

Patricia is taking care of finding a place to meet. As of right now she is looking at the community room at the Center Star bank. We had a reunion there once before and had lots of space and the plenty of kitchen room. Patricia has the business sense to pull all that together.

I will be in charge of the food. I guess because I work in food service they thought I knew what I was doing in this department. If anyone has any suggestions please contact me.

I am hoping classmates will find this by googling other classmates so I'm listing a few names. Linda Garrett, Meryle Fulks, Gaylord Ashby, Ted Wiley, Linda Miller, Clora Gautney, Beverly Hice, Mary Ann Crow, Sondra Littrell, Jerry Tank.

The date we are shooting for is November the 6Th. This will be on a Saturday. We are hoping for a nice turn out. We are planning on lots of 50's-60's music, good food and catching up with old friends. I'm sure it will be interesting to see how much everyone has changed over the last 50 years. If anyone has stayed the same you will have made medical history and the rest of us will be looking for an explanation. Hope to see you in November

GOD BLESS AMERICIA

2010-09-11T20:24:00.005-05:00

I think these words say it all. May we always remember the lives lost on 9/1/1.

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates,Melody by Samuel Ward

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress. A thoroughfare of freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine! O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea! O beautiful for pilgrims feet, Whose stem impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought By pilgrim foot and knee! O beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife When once and twice, for man's avail Men lavished precious life! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free! O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!

BACK TO WORK

2010-09-05T00:16:00.007-05:00

It is starting to feel a little like fall here in Alabama. The days are still extremely warm, but the morning and evenings are starting to get that crisp feeling that makes you know that pretty soon you will be missing the warm days of summer.

We are two weeks into the first semester and this looks like it is shaping up to be a real busy year. All the changes we thought we would have ready by the time school started have not taken place yet. So it was back to the same old same old. The Rice Box should be coming in by October and the Sub connection by January and a lot of other changes will be fazed in over the next few years. In the meantime we just keep trying to keep enough coming in to feed all these starving college students. I can see why the kids gain the freshmen 15.

This has been a rough two weeks for me. When we left Niceville after spending the last week of my summer break there. I developed a summer cold. I am still trying to completely kick it, but it is hanging on just enough to make me feel crappy. You would think a shot and a round of antibiotics would work faster than this. I shouldn't complain though, it has been years since I had a bug of any kind.

There is lots of things going on right now. JP and Andrew are playing football. JP on the junior varsity and Andrew on St Francis Pee Wee team. We have not made to to Memphis to see Andrew's game yet but will make it in the next few weeks. Emily is cheer leading and we have not made it to either of her games, but the season is young.

Mother just celebrated her 90Th birthday and we will be having a get together for her tomorrow. I think it is a surprise. At least I have not mentioned it to her. It seems strange to think of a parent being 90 years old. Other than the fact that she has a harder time getting around and moves a little slower, she still acts the same. It seems that age just comes out of nowhere and kind of surrounds you. At this point in my life it is easy to see what is in store for me in the next 20-25 years. I guess age is something that can only be disguised for so long and then boom it gets you. In the mean time I just keep trying to stay one step ahead but I can feel age breathing down my neck.

We hopefully will be taking a trip to Colorado with friends in October. When we were a lot younger we would talk about when the kids grew up and got out of the house, that we would travel and take really neat vacations just the four of us. That has not happened. Seems you have as much responsibility as a grand parent as a parent. Between working and watching grand kids, we have as of yet not been anywhere together. So October will be the first trip the four of us have taken since John, Charles and Sandra have retired. Who knows traveling together could be the end of a very long friendship:)

Oh well I know I am boring you. Nothing much has happend to blog about. Maybe the next time will be a little more entertaining.

Last trip of the Summer

2010-08-22T19:40:00.008-05:00

A sign of the times. How sad.

Saying good by to Mawmaw and Grandaddy.

Annie's in Luverne AL

Sun sinking slowly in the west.

Striking a pose.

Goofy man!

ballerina girl.

Mark's baptism

We have made of final trip of the Summer. We got in last night from FL.. We had a really good visit with Sarah and the kids. It was one of the hottest weeks I think we have had so far. It rained a little each day and that made the weather not only hot but extremely humid.

Luke was in school, but Charlotte and Little Man (Mark) kept us busy during the day. Mark learned to crawl while we were there and we had the thrill of seeing him do the army crawl all over the place. The first place he headed was to the toy room where he tumbled off the little stoop between the two rooms. He cried like he had fallen off a building. Then he tried to do it all over again.

Charlotte started ballet lessons and loved it. She looked so cute in her ballet outfit. Everyday she would ask if she had a ballet lesson. I think she is going to do well at this.

We tried to find some treasures at the local thrift stores, but didn't find a thing while we were there. We had a hard time finding a seafood place to eat cat, but finally found a place called Dewey Destins. It was a real whole in the wall place or maybe I should call it a cork in the bay place. It was built on a pier over the water with just picnic tables outside on the dock. The shrimp and scallops were delicious, but it was one of those places if I driven up to it by myself, I would have turned around and left. Good thing John, Sarah and the kids and I were all there together.

I took a picture of the sign above at one of the thrift stores we stopped at. "Obama does not consider us a Christian nation." This makes me sad. One of these days I hope our leaders wake up and rethink some of their ideas.

It is always hard to leave after spending time with any of the grand kids. The picture of Luke standing in the driveway when we left almost made me cry. I'm sure the kids ran in the house and didn't think of us again.

We took the long way home up Hwy 331 to Montogomery. We stopped at a little cafe in Luverne AL and had some of the best seafood I have ever had. The place was called Annie's and we finally found some great seafood. The shrimp and oysters were yummy, so I posted a picture of the sign. If you are ever down in Luverne stop and eat at Annie's

The sunset picture was on the way from Cullman to Moulton AL. It was so pretty and came out nicely on the camera. Later as we got closer to home we saw one of the most brilliant lightening shows that I've seen in a while. About 30 minutes after we got home the bottom fell out and we had a huge electrical storm. The power went out for a couple of hours and there was complete silence and I went off to sleep and never realized when the power came back on.

Summer is winding down for me and it was back to work this morning. It was nice to get back a see all my co-workers. Wednesday all the students will be in class and the work will begin in earnest. So I guess it is time to take a deep breath, get the nose to the grind stone and move into another school year.

HOPE YOU LOVE REDHEADS

2010-08-11T14:39:00.007-05:00

RED HAIR

SIGNATURE SMILE

FRECKLES

This was my day to accomplish tons of stuff. We tried to get all our running around done yesterday and today was supposed to be the big work day. Now I'm just talking about myself, because John is out side in this heat changing the oil in the car and doing lord only know what else. No it is just me. I can't seem to get myself motivated. I can't really decide where to start. I keep telling myself to start where your at, but I keep getting side tracked.

This morning we actually slept to 9:00 o'clock. I'm telling you, not having grand kids coming in first thing in the morning can make you lose track of time. When we got up John said " It is still Wednesday, isn't it"? I can see where people that don't have stuff to keep them occupied could completely loose their sense of time. I guess we could start putting notches on the door frame to keep track of our days.

I decided when I first got up this morning that I would color my hair. I had colored it a few weeks ago and it turned out a nice kind of strawberry blond color and since I am mostly gray on top I kind of liked the change. But today it turned out a RED!! I can't decide if I look more like Howdy Doody or the character on the cover of Mad Magazine. I would lean more toward the Mad character because I do tend to have a few freckles and the signature gap between my front teeth.. John looked a little shocked but tried to keep a straight face. That is one thing about getting older, you don't tend to freak out over things that you know time will take care of.

We had planned on going swimming over at Johnny and Tracy's this afternoon, but I kind of got to thinking about all that chlorine and the possibility of turning my hair green and I decided I had better give it a few days.

SWEATING WITH THE OLDIES IN ALABAMA

2010-08-05T18:41:00.006-05:00

HOT, HOT, HOTTER. This summer has topped the charts as far as heat is concerned. Maybe it is just in the South, but this has got to be the hottest summer we have had in ages. Our temps have been consistently in the very high nineties for weeks now and that makes it feel like 112 degrees. I guess I could stand the heat OK, but the blasted humidity is the killer. When I go out on the back porch in the morning, the air is so heavy that you can actually feel the weight of the air pressing down on you. Have you ever laid back in a hot tub of water and put a hot washcloth over you face and tried to breath? Well this is what it feels like outside. Needless to say we have been staying in more than usual.

After we got back from our trips to Niceville, Orange Beach and then Ohio we have stayed pretty close to home. Week before last our area celebrated the W.C. Handy festival. There is so much talent in area, everything ranging from country, bluegrass, jazz, rock and roll you name it. On Saturday the beginning of the festival, we went up to Joe Wheeler Lodge and watched a Tina Turner impersonator. She was great and as full of energy as the real Tina. Then on Monday night we went out to the Killen Methodist Church and listened to Dillion Hodges and his group that plays some great bluegrass-jazz. There was also a Gospel group that performed before Dillion that was a joy to listen to. On Thursday night there was a street party on North Court Street that featured the Midnighters. This is a local group that we try to listen to whenever possible. One other evening we went to St. Micheals gym to listen the Pine Hill Haints, a really unique group that has a cross between bluegrass and Cajun sound. They played everything from a wash tub base, hand saw and a rub board. Lots of fun. After that evening we were either rained out or just plain couldn't stand the heat. Great Handy Festival.

I have been putting up jelly this past week. Our fig tree has just about taken over the back yard and has produced tons of figs. We have been able to share them with the neighbors. When we went over to Johnny and Tracy's the other day, we found that their grapes had come in, so I have been making a few jars of grape jelly. You know it is expensive to make homemade jelly. I no longer had any jars, so I have to buy jars, and it take a boat load of sugar, so I bought sugar twice and then the sure jell. I could have gone to the store and got the jelly cheaper. Oh well John and John Pearson loved it so I guess that is all that mattered.

One other thing I have accomplished this summer is that I rooted a pineapple top and a avacoda seed. I have tried a dozen time and could never get anything to happen. Must be this hot weather but both have taken hold and are growing nicely.

While we were on our trip to Ohio, I found some frames to make rag rugs with, so in my spare time I have been trying to weave a rag rug. It's kind of fun, I just have a hard time making myself sit there long enough to accomplish much. I have started with a small rug about the size of a place mate. If I get good at it I will move on up to a bath mate or something about that size. Who knows if I get really good at it I may make an area rug. Right..

As summer starts to draw to a close, I have lots of happy memories of our trips, visiting family and friends and look forward to the coming school year. We will be having a wedding in June of next year. Mark and Paige has set the date of June 4Th for their wedding. Now we will just have to work on trying to keep body, mind and soul together for the next few months.

HOME AT LAST

2010-07-23T09:08:00.011-05:00

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

2010-07-11T21:23:00.004-05:00

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

OLD SCHOOL ANTIQUES

2010-06-17T08:54:00.009-05:00

Lots of signs

This gentleman has some wonderful old toys and Longenberger baskets

Another view of our booth.

Coke, Coke and more Coke

Does anyone need a pulpit?

Primitive and advertising signs

Vintage dolls and toys

The person that has this booth does glass painting

This booth has lots of primitive items
This lady had some very pretty Fenton
How about a 50's Murray Bike?
Part of our booth

JP in front of Store

I thought I would post some pictures of the antique store, "OLD SCHOOL ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES", and the booth we have been working on. It is in the old school building in Loretta Tn. Right now there are only about 15 booths, but they are expanding into the other side of the building and that will double the current space.

I guess we are not the only people that likes to collect things. From the looks of it there is no limit to what people collect. We have things in our booth from primitive to art deco to 60's and 70's. Our booth consist of the first two pictures and one more above. I just thought it would be neat to show some of the items the store has to offer. I'm sure by the end of the summer there will be two or three times the amount of merchandise.

Loretta TN is a neat old town and we enjoy just riding through looking at the old houses and store buildings. They have a little restaurant there called the Mustang Cafe. It serves a hot bar with some wonderful home cooking. You can also order off the menu. The cafe has as many antiques as the antique store. The walls are lined with old pictures, army memorabilia, sporting items and you name it. When you visit some of these places it makes you feel as though you just stepped into Mayberry USA. I am always glad to see little towns thriving. Maybe that is what we need. Step away from the malls and embrace the mom and pop businesses.

Anyone searching for a new place to browse and hopefully buy, should enjoy checking out the "OLD SCHOOL ANTIQUE AND COLLECTIBLES".

SO MUCH FOR A QUIET WEEK.

2010-06-08T17:21:00.003-05:00

This week has been a little quieter. not less busy but a little quieter just the same. Famous last words. I was going to go on and on about what a quiet week we were having with just John Pearson with us during the day. Emily is going to pony camp this week and JP has football practice starting at 5:30 in the morning. Sarah, Cody and the kids are in Nebraska for a week or so visiting the other grand parents. When I wrote the first line I got called away from the computer and here we are. How quickly things change.

We have been trying to set up a third antique booth in a new shop in Loretta TN., so that has meant making extra trips to Sheffield to pick up items and then driving up to Loretta to carry them and set them up. It is probably about 60 miles round trip. Like I said Emily is at pony camp and that is a trip each morning out to Jacksonburg. Since we are in town I have been going to exercise down at UNA. Then it is back out to Killen to pick up JP form football practice. We have really been keeping the roads hot.

Today we came in and John had started a project of painting the ceiling of the carport. While he was doing this I decided to burn this huge brush pile that had slowly been building for a couple of years in our back yard. I don't know if it was something that JP and I did or not, but suddenly we had no water. John told me to look under the house and make sure the pipe had not broken. When I opened the crawl space door, sure enough there was several inches of water. John came down from the ladder to check what was going on under the house. When he came out he was soaking wet from head to toe and cussing like a sailor. Not good. We checked the fuse box. Fuses were Ok. He went back under the house and came out and said he needed to run into town to get a part that goes on the water tank. He came back home with the part, crawled back under the house, stayed a while then came back out cussing again. He decided that we needed a new pump. This entails digging down couple of feet and pulling the pump and a hundred feet of piping to the surface. I called Johnny and JP to come over and help get it out of the ground. I thought all three of them were going to have a heart attack. As we speak we are out of water. The old pump and piping are lying in the front yard. Hopefully Lowe's will have the size pump we need tomorrow.

There is always a silver lining to every bad situation. We didn't have company, it poured down rain, I was able to wash my hair by sticking my head in the water that was coming off the eaves of house, I have a couple of buckets catching rain water to flush the toilets and I have to be at work tomorrow at 6:00. Yeah!!

Hopefully when I get home John and JP will have a new pump in and we will have water once again. So much for a quiet week.

SUMMER FUN AND MADNESS

2010-05-31T21:21:00.007-05:00

It is two weeks into my summer break and we have not slowed down yet. Graduation was on the 15Th of June and we left on Monday morning heading out to North Carolina. John was heading down to Myrtle Beach to help his brothers pack up their mother's house and move her things back up to Ohio. I think it was hard for her to make the decision to move away from Myrtle Beach. It had been her home since around 1980, but sooner or later we have to make changes and this is the time for her to make hers.

John drove on up to Ohio and stayed a day there, then headed back to Alabama. Sarah and I drove in with the kids on Saturday and we were all pretty well beat on Sunday. We had planned on staying over night along the way, but the as the day and then the night wore on Sarah decided that she felt like driving all the way in. It was 12 hours of constant riding but we were glad to have the trip over when we got here. Cody had to stay and close out their house and finally made it in Wednesday. Between the stuff that John brought in from his mom's place and the stuff that didn't get on the moving van for Sarah and Cody, we are at over flow capacity. When I counted the bicycles on the carport this morning we had eight plus a couple of scooters. Oh well.

We had a nice cookout at Johnny's yesterday. Mark and Paige came in from MS. It rained the whole time Johnny and Mark grilled. We had burgers, pork chops, smoked sausage, potato salad, baked beans, broccoli salad to name some of the things. Tracy made homemade strawberry ice cream later. After the rain stopped everyone went swimming. Everyone had a great time. Although Mark's leg went out again and he could hardly walk. Of course he was not happy that we stayed on to him about going to the doctor. I declare I don't know why my sons hate to go to the doctor the way they do. It surely can't be because their mother sets a bad example.

Sarah and Cody left this morning heading for FL.. They will be trying to find a house for when Cody starts his training down there. Luke and Charlotte stayed here and Little Man (Mark)went with them. When they get back toward the end of the week they will be going to Nebraska to visit Cody's family there. We are all trying to keep the oil companies in business I reckon. Later in the summer when we all meet in Fl. for a family vacation, we may consider carrying extra containers. This way we can get our oil right off the beach. Hope this crisis is settled before we get there.

Well I'm am worn out so I guess I will close for now and head to the bed. Tomorrow is another day and it looks like it will be as busy as the last few. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. God bless all our military family and friends and especially those that had fought and died so we can enjoy the many blessings that we have.

ARTERIOGRAM TURNED OUT WELL

2010-05-06T19:40:00.003-05:00

Well I made it through another stressful week. I went back to the cardiologist on Tuesday. I thought since I had not heard from him that my stress test must have come back OK but that was not the case. The first thing he ask me was, "Has anyone ever told you that you have a heart problem?" This right away scarred me really bad. I told him no but I had been to the Doctor many time over the years for heart palpitations. He started showing John and I pictures made at the time of the stress test and explaining how the blood was not getting to parts of my heart. I knew right off that this was not good. So his next words were that he needed to schedule me for a arteriogram. This literally took my breath away. After I got myself composed a little he told me that he could do it either Wednesday or Thursday. I decided to take the earlier one and get it over with.

I had to be at the hospital at 10:00 the next morning. Johnny and Tracy came down to be with John, I didn't want him to be there by himself in case something happened. After getting processed into the hospital, having chest ex rays taken and waiting for a couple of hours I was taken into Ambulatory where they put in a life port ( I think that is what it called) and a IV. This was at around 12:30PM. We continued to wait and they continued to take people in for procedures. At almost 3:30 they came in to get me and to inject me with a benidral, pepcid and Valium cocktail. This pretty much made me get a real buzz going. From that point on I was pretty much unable to speak coherently but I also lost most of my fear. I was carried down to the cath lab and my doctor ask how I was feeling and told I was fine just couldn't speak or think clearly and he told me he was going to give me something to make me more of the same. I felt a slight stinging when he cut into the groin and artery but no real pain. The next thing I knew he was telling me that the test was over and everything looked great.

He went out and told John and the kids that he found no blockage at all and the only thing he noticed was that my heart was not shaped like the normal heart. I don't know if this is something I should be worried about or not. I was so relieved to hear that the test went well and I was still under the influence of the medication I couldn't think of asking questions at that point. I will have to make a note of all the questions I have and ask them at a follow up visit. Right now I am just thankful for the good news I got.

I do think that all the prayers offered up for me by all my family and friends made all the difference in the world for me. I don't know how people can make it through stressful situations like this without a belief in God. Thank you God for getting me through another tough day in my life.

STRESS TEST IS OVER

2010-04-26T18:22:00.010-05:00

We went back to Memphis this past weekend to attend Matthew's first communion. We got there Friday night and the service was at 10:00 A.M on Saturday. It was a really large group of communicants. It is always nice to see the little boys dressed in their sports jackets and slacks and the little girls dressed up in their white dresses and veils. It was a special occasion even for Matthew, who never shows much excitement unless he is camping out at a scouting event or finding great treasures at a yard sale or thrift store. ( He gets that from Grand daddy and Mawmaw)but Sunday he had on his best outfit and his brightest smile.

After the service we went to a Hibachi grill and had lunch. I swear I have never had so much to eat in one setting. The cook made fried rice, grilled veggies, shrimp, steak, scallops and chicken to serve us and to top it off he was very entertaining. It was my first time at a restuant like this, so I was empressed with all the cooking, tricks and jokes the grill chef was making. While we were in the restruant a pretty bad storm went over. I guess it was part of the cell that spawn all the tornadoes across Louisana, Missippi and Alabam. Luckily ours was just a heavy rain and some wind, but no damage.

Late Saturday afternoon John and I left heading down to Tunica. The storm had done a little more damage there. The wind had taken out a stretch of power line polls, but that seemed to be the only damage that we saw. Mark and Paige came down and we had dinner and played the slots for a while. They left around 11:00 because Paige had to be at work on Sunday morning. We left there around 2:00 on Sunday afternoon and headed home. The trip took some of the anxiety that I was having about my stress test away for a couple of days.

This morning we got up early and headed down to the cardioligist office where I had to have a nuclear stress test. Man I am the biggest woose ever. I had stressed myself out for the last two weeks worring about this test. Why is it that the fear of something and the letting your mind run away with you usually turns out to be worse than the thing you have to undergo. The test turned out to be much easier that I had imagined. It took about three hours to get out of the office, but most of it was sitting in the waiting room waiting for the next phase of the test. I was injected with a dye and had a scan done, waited again then had the stress chemical injected. It took four minutes to go in and then they let it hold for another four minutes. The last minute of the injection I felt a little tightness in my upper body, but no pain. Then they held me at this point for another four minutes. When the last four minutes was up I was injected again with something to take away the effects of the stress chemical, went back to the waiting room until they called me in for the second set of scans. When that was over I was finished. Had I have known how the test worked I would not have driven myself half nuts for the last two weeks. Yeah, I would probably still worry cause like I say I am the biggest woose ever.

DANCING WITH THE STARS ( WANNABES)

2010-04-07T20:31:00.003-05:00

There are three TV shows that I have become addicted to somewhat. Dancing With the Stars, Biggest Loser, and Ugly Betty. I usually set up and watch the first two on Monday and Tuesday nights, but I usually record Ugly Betty because I have a hard time staying up until 10:00. I watch the last ten minutes of Dancing With the Stars on Tuesday night just to see who gets voted off.

Poor Buzz, I'm sure he had illusions of winning the mirror ball trophy. But I think he was still wearing his space shoes. He seemed a little weighted down. I wonder how much they pay these people to embarrass themselves in front of a live television audience.

Jake looked like he was truly relieved that he didn't get voted off. I guess he is not ready to give up his fifteen minutes of fame. He seems to be stretching it into at least 45 minutes. I really liked him when he was a bachelor on the Bachelorette season. He seemed like a real all American type guy looking for the perfect girl. When he came back last season as the Bachelor I figured out the he had the worst taste possible in women. Most of the girls that seemed half way real, he sent home. Then he ended up with two divorcees and a lingerie model. For some reason I don't think he was looking for Ms Right.

I have always felt that Kate Gosslin was very domineering and maybe not so easy to live with person. I'm sure that she and Jon had some deep problems in their marriage and it would probably not worked even if they had not had eight kids and lived the last few years on TV. I do have to say that I truly felt sorry for her the first night that she danced on the show. She looked as horrified as I would have if it had been me doing the same thing. Now whether she is doing this for her own ego or whether she is doing it to support her family I don't know, but I can't imagine anyone willingly humiliating themselves this way. I get to actually praying for her when she comes out. "Dear Lord, please let her do better this time". At least it turns it into a religious experience.

Then I usually watch Ugly Betty after work on Thursday. I have watched since the first season and enjoyed it through her awkwardness (glasses, braces, ugly clothes) and waited for her to turn into a swan. I am afraid the producer is turning her into a too worldly woman with too many life experiences that makes her less unique and just like all the other characters on all the other shows. If the story line continues as it is now I guess I will have to say good bye to Ugly Betty and find something that comes on at a better time slot and does not assault my poor naive sense of values.

The Biggest Loser is my favorite. I can't imagine anyone losing 150 lbs in three months. (Mike) I can't figure out how they have kept some of these contestants from dropping dead from the excessive work outs. I guess it is the money that motivates them. I need to tie a dollar on at stick and put it in front of the tread mill maybe I would get a little more motivated.

So there is my TV review for the week.

WHEN I WAS A KID

2010-04-02T20:14:00.004-05:00

Today has been the most beautiful day. Right now it is 8:15pm and the temperature is 73 degrees. I think it is supposed to rain later on in the weekend, but right now I am sitting here with the windows opened and a nice breeze is blowing through and I can hear the crickets chirping, the neighborhood dogs barking and the occasional whinnying of the horses in the pasture behind us. It makes us know that warmer days are ahead. It seems that ever thing has come into full bloom in just a matter of a few days. Butter cups, forsythia, plum trees, violets and Bradford trees have changed the drab scene of winter into a splash of color that is just breath taking. Everything is yellow, pink, purple and white. I guess nature is just renewing itself.

We stopped at a yard sale out in Killen and got to talking to a young woman that lived on the street that I lived on when I was growing up. I was able to name most of the people that lived up one side of the street and down the other when I lived there. I was able to go across the street to another yard sale at the little house that my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Jimmerson lived in when they were a newly married couple. It gave me strange feeling walking into the house where they had lived. It really had not changed that much. Just a little one bedroom house with a living room kitchen and bath. It brought back lots of happy memories of staying overnight and sleeping on a pallet in their bedroom floor. They didn't have any children so they spoiled me and my older brother quite a bit.

Up the street was where my grand mother Hale live and I can remember sitting at the base of her porch steps digging dirt with a spoon and putting it into a pan. Across from that was where my best friend Judy lived and I spent most of my life walking from our house on the north end of the street down to the south end to play with Judy. We would get into a huge 50 gallon drum and get her brother to give us a shove and roll down the hill until it would come to a stop just before it reached the pond. Dear Lord you wonder how kids survived, but when we got up in the morning our mothers told us to go out and play and that is exactly what we did. We would usually make it home in time to eat and head back out again.

There were several families on up the street that didn't have children, but the next house with kids was the home of Becky. Becky was a year younger than me and Judy. She would walk by the house and start calling us names and the next thing you knew we would be slinging rocks at each other. Judy and I behind the swing on the porch and Becky behind a tree. I still to this day can't figure out why we didn't like her.

None of the families from my younger days still live there, but it was fun to reminisce about the Mauldins, he was the princaple of our school, the Taylors lived across the street from us, the Lewis',he was from Germany and still spoke with an accent, the Richardsons an old couple at the end of the street. Mrs Richardson gave me a tobacco sack full of ribbons one time and I thought that was the greatest gift I had ever received, the other Hales, Minnie and Connie, Minnie always wore Tabu cologne and to this day when I smell it I think of her, the Hamners and so many other families that lived in our little town. Now I probably couldn't name three families in the area. John laughed at me when we got into the car and left. He said "Man you were sure wound up. I haven't heard you talk that much in I don't know when".

I guess it is the nice weather that puts me in a very nostalgic mood. Remembering the first days of spring. How it felt to take you shoes off and walk through the new, soft green grass. The smell of rain falling on a dusty road. The feel of wading in the first mud puddles of spring and the feel of mud squishing between you toes. Spending hours catching bumble bees in a fruit jar. Tying a string to a June bugs leg and letting it fly around your head. Catching lighting bugs and July flies. It makes me excited to think of all the things that are in store for the grand kids in the coming months. That is if we can pull them away from the TV and all the electronic games...

SPRING IS COMING TO ALABAMA

2010-03-23T22:46:00.005-05:00

I am into my fourth day of spring break and am finally settling into the idea of being off work for a few days. About the time I get to feeling comfortable being off work it will be time to go back. The weather has been a little dreary this past weekend and it has been a little colder then I like. But today it finally started to warm up a little and we were able to make it out to the park and walk for a bit.

I took a few pictures this morning of the buttercups and the forsythia in bloom. That is a sure sigh that spring is on its way in Alabama. It seems that the buttercups just start popping up every where you look. In every one's yard, in pastures, even along side the road. As you can see in my picture they are growing up between the cinder blocks that I have setting at the side of the house. The green onions are starting to take over the yard but they say if you wait and cut them on Good Friday it will kill them for the year. We'll see.

Mark and Paige came in for a visit this past weekend. We went to a few yard sales and prowled around at a couple of thrift stores while they were here, but we didn't find a thing. We spent the rest of the time they were here just hanging out at the house. Mark grilled some really yummy New York strip steaks Saturday night. The only time we ever grill out is when Mark comes home. John and I are not very good at grilling. Mark has it down to a fine art. Paige bought a sofa while they were in town and of course it rained cats and dogs up until about 3:00pm on Sunday. Finally it slacked off enough they were able to start the drive back to South Haven Ms. They made it back without ruining the sofa.

Johnny and Tracy are getting ready to move into their new (to them) house. They came over on Sunday after church and had lunch with us. I made a couple of pictures of Johnny and Mark aka Grisly Adams and Junior Samples. Mark says he is growing his hair out for Locks of Love (is he kidding? Who knows). Johnny was going over to the new house to paint. That's my boys.

I found this really old table at an auction the other week and when we got the old paint scraped off there was a really cool design underneath all the paint. We decided to leave it unfinished and sale it the way it is. It also has a really nice marble top, that I didn't get a picture of. John seems to think it is from the late 1800's. I figure someone that is into Shabby Chic will be smitten by it. Anyway it fills up a spot in our antique booth very nicely.

A FEW DAY'S WITH MATTHEW

2010-03-14T20:22:00.004-05:00

This has been a very hectic week and yet a very enjoyable week all rolled into one. Hectic because of work. Our contract is up for grabs and this has had all the management in a real tail spin, cracking the whip and trying to make things perfect that sometimes just cannot be made perfect. Everyone's nerves is about shot and I'm afraid that by the time the decission is made about the contract, the great bond that we have had with all the employees is going to turn to crap. It is such a shame that you have to dread getting up in the morning and heading off to work. At 65 I guess if if gets too much worse I can just say "See ya later. Bye".

The enjoyable part was a short visit from grandson Matthew. He was on spring break this past week and was really antsy to go somewhere for a few days. Monica's mother-in-law is recovering from hip replacement surgery so Monica had to stay close by to check in on her. When I talked to Monica she told me that Matthew was having a fit to do something with his time off. I told her to meet John in Corinth MS and we would bring him to AL for a few days. He had already questioned John about whether we still had Monica's typewriter. Well Monica has been away from home now for about 25 years, but I guess he thought being the pack rats that we are we would still have it stuck back somewhere. So on the way home they stopped a the Salvation Army over in Sheffield and just happened to find a portable Smith-Corona for $5.00 bucks. John said when they got in the car that Matthew kind of held the typewriter to his chest and said "I am finally happy".

John spent Thursday and Friday doing just about anything Matthew wanted to do. Feed the neighbors horses, cut limbs to whittle on, play cards, ride his scooter and you name it. Friday night he spent the night with John Pearson and Emily. On Saturday we took Matthew and Emily and spent several hours at the Antique store pricing items and trying to set thing up in our new booth. I was surprised they let us stay as long as they did. I guess the only reason they were as patient as they were is because they knew there was pizza waiting at the end of the line. After stuffing ourselves with Pizza we headed home. Me for a short nap and the kids to watch a movie. Sometimes while I was napping Sandra called to see if we wanted to go to this little dance club. A friends grandson plays drums for a country band. After Johnny and Tracy picked Emily up to go to town and get her birthday present, we headed back out.

The little dance club is for families, no beer or anything like that. Just a little band that plays really ole country music. Lots of Willie, Merle and Loretta Lynn . They are not the best band in the world but it is just a fun atmosphere. Mostly old people just having fun. For $4.00 you get in and the lady serves food for the guest. That night she had potato soup, chips and dip, hot dogs and dessert. You just buy soft drinks. A really cheap date:)

Matthew had fun. He carried his guitar and strummed along with the band. He and I danced a couple of dances, and he got up and line danced (some what) with the rest of the group. He ate hotdogs and finally wore himself down around 9:00 so we headed back home.

At church this morning Father Andy was asking a question to anyone that knew the answer. I was watching Father and he was walking toward our pew. I thought "Oh crap, I hope he is not going to ask me something. When he stopped at our pew I realized that Matthew had his hand raised. He answered Father's question, which was not exactly the answer Father was looking for, but was the logical one. I was really proud of him for paying enough attention to answer. After church John said it scarred him, because he was afraid Father was going to ask him something too.

After church we headed out to Corinth to meet Tim. We had a bite of lunch at Dairy Queen. We loaded Matthew's stuff into Tim's car. A $5.00 typewriter, two hermit crabs, an eight foot wild cherry tree limb for whittling, a watch with a Indian head penny for the face, his bag, guitar and lord knows what else. It was a great week and Matthew seemed to have a wonderful time. John and I headed back home for a short nap before before we had to turn in for the night. Wheee!!!!

ANTIQUES, INSURANCE AND ARRHYTHMIA

2010-03-07T08:05:00.004-06:00

Time is amazing. Here we are heading well into March. Spring is rapidly over taking winter and the time will change next week and we will have longer days to cram more things into. I have been trying to sit down at the computer and write something on my blog, but every day when I would get home from work it was straight to the computer trying to straighten out something about insurance.

John and I have decided that it is a huge ploy to drive all people over 65 to drink, suicide or the mental ward. Well right now I am looking at two out of three. I shudder to think what will happen if the government takes over the health care completely. I bet between the two of us, we get 20 pounds of mail a week just about insurance. Don't you think there should be a cheaper easier way? I know I throw away a small forest of paper each week. I could probably have had liposuction and a face lift on what has been spent on just paper alone.

Oh well so much for insurance woos. I have felt pretty good this week after my visit to the emergency room last Saturday night. I have had arrhythmia for years and occasionally have a spell with it, but that night I had ARRHYTHMIA!!. It scared the beejeebees out of both John and I. They did all the things they do, EKG, blood test and chest xray and sent me home with a huge dose of beta blocker and I have an appointment with a cardiologist on Wednesday. I hate going to the doctor so keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

On to happier thoughts. John and I had spent last Saturday at an auction and bought a van load of really interesting things. We got a marble top wash stand, a table to fit in an entry way, a night stand, a chestnut bed, some mirrors and glassware to name a few. I told him that we would probably be featured on the Hoarders or American Pickers in the future. Most of the items will have to be refinished some what.

We spent all day yesterday day carrying things to our antique booth. We put out a lot of stuff and rearranged both booths. At lunch time we went down the mall to Stefano's and had a pizza (they make the best mega pizza with black olives, green olives, Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, pepperoni, peppers and onions. Come back you are losing you train of thought....). After we ate we stopped in at another little antique store that has just been opened. It is called Keepers in the Corner. While we were in there, I talked John into getting another booth. You know a place to put our overflow things. ( Now you understand why we may be on Hoarders or Pickers) I guess John will have to get everything organized there this week. You know I am sort of glad I will be working:)

I feel better now that I have posted on my blog. Now it is off to church and away we go into a new week. Hope everyone has a great one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ROCKET MAN

2010-02-25T19:19:00.003-06:00

P1010147.MOV

David will be 5 years old on Saturday. We got such a kick out of this video that I thought I would post it. How in the world do kids get so smart so fast. I am 65 years old and couldn't begin to give all the names of the planets in our solar system. He cut them out and designed the solar system by himself, unless you count Daniel who was watching him. I think we have a rocket scientist on our hands.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID WE LOVE YOU T....H....I....S... M....U.....C....H... XOXOXOXOX.

PRIDE, ANXIETY AND LOVE

2010-02-15T15:02:00.009-06:00

The last week has literally flown by. We got in from our visit to Fayetteville, I went back to work and John's brother Jim and Becky came in for a short visit. I have not had the time or took the time to sit down and write on my blog for a few days. But since I have a snow day today I have nothing else taking my time, so I will try to post something.

I was looking back at the pictures that I had taken of new baby Mark Hayden and also the pictures that I had made in August when Daniel was born. It made me smile to look at the expressions on the siblings faces. You could see a little anxiety, (maybe wondering if this new baby is going to take over my territory). You could see the look of pride. (look I have a brand new baby brother). But most of all you could see the look of love on all the faces. Happy moms, glad to have baby here. Big smiles from the dads showing the pride they have in their families. Super happy Maw Maw and Grand daddy knowing that these are little pieces of them that will stretch into the future for another generation.

I dug out some pictures of our own little family when the kids were babies and I could see the same expressions on their faces. Big brother holding little brother, sisters being the little mommies to new baby and the look of "is he taking my place". I'm sure if I dug further and looked at pictures of my own siblings, I would see the same thing. ( Pride, anxiety and lots of love.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes by. As hard as we try to grab hold and slow it down and keep it for a little longer it slides right through our fingers. The great part is that you can relive it again through children and grand children. I am really happy that we had a large family and the process of growing has been on going and no end in sight at the moment. This is what life is made of.

TIME TO HEAD HOME

2010-02-06T16:57:00.003-06:00

We arrived here in Fayetteville last Wednesday. Mark Hayden was born on Thursday morning and because of the crazy weather got to come home the following day. The rest of the time has been spent trying to entertain Luke and Charlotte and let Sarah get back into the swing of things. Cody started his two week leave yesterday so it is time for John and I to head back toward Alabama. We will head out tomorrow after church.

Last night was very hectic. At around 3:00 AM, I heard Sarah and went into the hall to see what was going on. It seemed Luke had had a accident during the night and she was changing his PJ's. I was stumbling around sort of in suddenly awakening stupor. She tells me to check on Charlotte. Charlotte was sitting in Sarah's bed where she had just thrown up. I starting stripping beds and throwing linens into the washer. Somewhere in all the hustle she and Cody had notice that Luke had what appeared to be a reaction to a shot he had taken two day before. I felt that it was a reaction to the band aide he had worn since the shot. I was voted down:) and he called him mom in Nebraska at 3:30 AM. I know this probably scared her to death. (Sorry Linda). Then a call to the 24 hour medical advice line where they told us to just watch the area. Charlotte was sick a few more time during the night, but was feeling better this morning. Mark Hayden slept through all the commotion. Hopefully everyone is back on track now.

I guess we have done all we can do and from now until the other Grandma comes to visit in a few days Sarah and Cody are on their own. They will probably be happy get into their own routine. It was nice to get to be here for the happy occasion. It is true about grandparents coming and spoiling the kids and then getting into the car and waving bye-bye.

NEW BABY

2010-02-01T07:22:00.004-06:00

We have been staying in close to home since we brought baby home from the hospital. Sarah was able to come home a day earlier because the weather. We were on the tail end of the snow storm that went through the area and mainly got freezing rain and ice. There was a couple of inches of snow on top so the kids were able to get out and play in it for a while. Things are starting to clear up some but refreezes at night. Maybe this will be the day it warms up and completely melts.

Schools are still closed so Luke gets to stay home for another day. This has given the kids a chance to get use to having a new baby in the house. Charlotte is starting to warm up to baby a little. When we first got home she seemed a little scared of him. Now she is asking to hold him and will give him a kiss.

Sarah is feeling much better and is getting around really well. John is the main child entertainer and I am the chief cook and bottle washer. As Charlotte says "Maw maw is a good cooker and Grand daddy is a good washer".

We will be taking Mark Hayden to the pediatrician later today. He has been eating like a little pig. We are pretty sure he has gained weight. He is in that eat sleep, eat sleep stage so we don't hear much from him yet. I'm sure that will change in a week or so.

MARK HAYDEN HAS ARRIVED

2010-01-28T18:26:00.002-06:00

Mark Hayden was born this morning at 7:51 am. Sarah and Cody got up at 3:30 am to get ready for the trip to the hospital. I thought I was up most of the night waiting for them to get up but I must have fallen into a sound sleep just before time, so Sarah had to awaken me and I had just enough time to hop into my clothes and brush my teeth before we left. I had this bedhead spot in the back of my head all day that made me look a little like a Monk. There was a time when I would never have ventured out of the house like that. That's the beauty of age you don't worry about stuff like bedhead.

Mark Hayden is a beautiful baby with lots of dark hair and a perfectly round head. That is one good thing about a c-section baby, they come into the world with rosy skin and no cone shaped heads. He sucks his fingers already and apparently was born hungry. I took as many pictures as I could, but I am no competition for the other Grandma.

I came back to the house this afternoon so Sarah and Cody could have some time alone with Mark Hayden. Luke and Charlotte are sad that they can't go into the hospital to visit. With flu season in full swing, the hospital doesn't allow anyone under 12 years of age. Hopefully everyone will be home by the weekend. Maybe the snow won't keep them from coming home Saturday.

It is a relief to have No. 10 here and healthy

WAITING ON THE STORK TO ARRIVE

2010-01-20T19:18:00.004-06:00

We are still waiting on the arrival of new baby Mark Hayden. I think it may be harder on Maw Maw and Grandaddy waiting on the birth than it is Sarah and Cody. I have had my clothes stacked on the dresser in our bedroom for a couple of weeks now. I would put them in the suitcase, but I would just have to keep digging them out to find something to wear.

Sarah is scheduled to have a c-section on the 28Th, but we were all sure that she would go earlier. I guess we were all wrong, the 28Th is just a week away. I am not the best at the waiting game. I find myself getting more and more nervous. It is like listing to water drip. Your mind gets totally caught up in waiting for the phone to ring, then when it does you about jump out of you skin. We are just getting so excited.

As fate would have it two out of three of the cars we have went kerplunk this week. John spent all of today putting a new radiator on one and the battery went out on the other. If we take the van, we will need a couple of new tires. So while I worry about the birthing process, John is worrying about keeping a car running long enough to get us there. I guess it all goes back to the vow he made with God before we were married.

We will probably be out of pocket for a few days starting next week. When we I get back I will post pictures of Mark Hayden. In the mean time I continue to wait. DRIP..Drip....drip.

GRAND KIDS, THEY ARE ALL DIFFERENT

2010-01-14T19:12:00.013-06:00

I started back to work Monday. It was great having three weeks off for the holidays. We stayed pretty busy the whole time and actually had all the family home for the New Year's holiday.

Our family is growing with leaps and bounds. Daniel was born in August and Mark Hayden will be here by the end of the month. That will make 10 in all with 8 boys and 2 girls. This is wonderful. Lots of people to take care of us in our old age.

It is funny how all the kids are so different. JP our oldest is still very loving at 13, but you begin to wonder how much longer he is going to want to hang out with the grandparents. Right now he seems very comfortable with us, because at thirteen, he thinks we are a little crazy. Emily is very smart and such a good reader. Emily was our only grand daughter for a long time. She is not as affectionate with us now as she was when she was younger, but is glad to have us available to answer her beck and call, and believe me she can keep us both busy.

Andrew is super smart and will probably have Musial talent. He is into boy scouts and just made the school play. Matthew is probably going to venture off into the wild and become the next Indiana Jones. He is not crazy about school and wants to be grown up before his time. You just want to tell him to slow down and enjoy being a kid. Aaron is a little stand offish with us. It takes him a little longer to warm up to us when we visit, but once he does he lets his hair down. Andrew and Matthew are the ones I have to fuss at the most when they visit, but when they leave they cling to us and the tears flow. Maybe they just love to hear Maw Maw fuss and scold.

David and Daniel are the two grand kids we have spent less time with. David is quite the little man and talks big and tells you everything he can think of and more. Daniel is just 5 months old and is all snugly and smiles. That is a wonderful age to bond with a child. He is a really tall baby. He is average in all his percentile measurements except 25% in weight and 95% in height. I guess he will be tall and thin like his dad.

Luke and Charlotte have been with us the most. Luke has lots of common sense and if you tell him to go move something or carry something, he goes and does it without asking how or why. I guess he has a lot of Nebraska farm boy in his genes. Charlotte is our little miss Pris. She is one of those little girls that is just born with the girlie nature. She likes to dress up, have tea parties and play with dolls. We are now waiting to see what Mark Hayden's personality will be like. Our wait is getting shorter each day. He will be born at the end of the month.

I guess no matter how many you have, there will be a different personality to go along with each one of them.

I HATE WINTER

2010-01-08T17:21:00.005-06:00

The weather here in Alabama is extremely cold for the south. We have been holed up in the house for two days now and I am starting to go stir crazy. I know most people would love to have a couple of days to just lay around the house and do nothing but for some reason this really gets to me. It is not that we haven't done anything the last couple of weeks, we spent five days at the group lodge with family and friends. Then when we got back on Sunday and unpacked everything and had a good nights sleep, we left Monday and spent two days in Tunica MS. We usually do this to celebrate our anniversary. This is always my idea, because I love playing the slots. John goes along with the plan because I am easier to live with if I get my way.

We did have a great time and probably needed the time away with just the two of us. We stayed at the Hollywood Casino hotel. They have the deep memory foam beds, so we rested well. We spent a few hours at the Outlet Mall looking around. I found a blouse and John got a new pair of shoes. I'm not much of a shopper. I see thing that looks great on the rack but when I try it on, it looses something in the translation.

We spent a little time at Fitzgrarld's. If you go, head up the escalator. When you get to the top there will be some eletronic games along the wall to the left. They are called Platium something or other. They may be new, because they were paying off. We must have set and played for three or four hours. John would have won pretty well if I hadn't kept asking for money:) We started to stay two more nights, but then decided to come home since the weather was supposed to get bad. We got home about 7:00pm on Wednesday.

Thursday morning we awoke to a dusting of snow. Now I know that sounds like nothing to some parts of the country. But when we have snow here, the roads are not treated with salt and whatever else they put on the roads. It usually rains, then freezes, then a little snow on top of the ice and suddenly it is slick a goose poop. School was out in our whole area. Some work places closed down to keep people off the roads. The temp. this morning was 12 degrees and now at 5:49 PM it is 21 degrees. Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day. I will be happy just to go to the grocery store.

John made a few pictures for me. As you can see it is just a cold, gray, miserable day. It makes me long for the nice hot days of summer, with just a touch of persperation glistening on your forehead and a big glass of ice tea sitting next to you while you're lounging in the hammock. AWWW!!!!

IT WAS A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

2010-01-06T19:25:00.009-06:00

Since our family has grown so much in the last few years, it is almost impossible to get all the kids and grand kids into our three bedroom house. With five kids, their spouses or significant other and nine grand children it was time to find a bigger place. Luckily we were able to rent a group lodge with thirteen bedrooms and twenty six beds. This was like a dream come true for me. There was a long hall that ran from one end of the building to the other and the little kids were in hog heaven. They must have run a marathon while we were there, all of them racing up and down the hall playing tag and playing with the toys they had available to them.

The weather was really cold while we were there, but the kids managed to get out and do a little fishing, Frisbee football and John Pearson and Andrew even slept out in Andrew's new tent one night. The men watched a lot of football and the women had a little time to catch up on gossip. Sandra and I put out meals for everyone. Lucky for us it had a commercial kitchen so we were able to cook everything quicker. One morning we made about a hundred pancakes with sausage and bacon.

New Year's day we fed forty people for breakfast then that evening we had a traditional New Year's meal of hog jowl, black eyed peas and turnip greens. Just so everyone would be happy we cooked a pork loin, fried okra and Mac and cheese. We decided if anyone went away hungry, it was their own fault.

Our New Year's get to gathers have been taking place for almost forty years now. The Kriegers and Sundquist started the tradition when we had five children between us and we would take turns each year having it at each others house. Then as the kids got older we stopped staying over. Then we back on the road during the holiday and worried about someone having an accident. Now there are twenty of our family and fourteen in theirs so it was time to move on to bigger and better places.

If you want to every entertain a house full of kids let them play bingo. Monica and Suzanne bought a whole mess of gifts from the Dollar Tree and Big Lots and Sandra brought a bingo set including the roller basket and the little ones had a blast. Once they had bingoed they couldn't bingo again until everyone bingoed. You could just see the excitement as they waited for their number to be called.

I don't know how we crammed so much into four days. We even managed to have Daniel baptized after mass on New Year's eve. This is another tradition our families have. We always go to mass on New Year's eve. It gives you a sense of peace to finish the year with your family sitting next to you in church and then get up on New Year's day and have them with you to start the next year. I don't know how many more years the younger members of our families will be interested in these get-to-gethers, but as of right now, I think they are all still enjoying them.

Thank God for another blessed year and we wish for the same in the year to come.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

2009-12-24T18:38:00.004-06:00

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Clement Clarke Moore
or Henry Livingston

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,

With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night."

Take a little time to cozy down with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate and read this story to your children or grand children. Sleep tight.

CHRISTMAS TREATS

2009-12-21T18:36:00.009-06:00

TRAIL MIX

PRESS COOKIES

APRICOT CRESCENTS

CHOCOLATE DIPPED PEANUT BUTTER PRETZELS

SNACKS

ORIENTAL TABLE

END TABLE

We finished up this semester of school on Friday, with a reception for about six or seven hundred people. It seemed that everyone turned out for food and refreshments. We had worked for the last two days of school getting ready for this. The reception started at 5:00 and was over around 7:00. We got everything broke down and cleaned up and was out of there by 8:30.

Saturday we kind of laid around the house and watched a couple of movies. For the life of me I can't tell you what we watched. It was just nice to have a little free time to do nothing.

Sunday we went to church and decided to take a short ride afterward. We ended up in Athen's and stopped at a little flea market. I found this really neat Japanese table. It has a peacock and floral design on top and the legs are only about a foot in height. That would eliminate me from eating at this table. I can't imagine trying to gracefully get up after a meal. We also found an end table. I think it was crafted by someone in their home shop. It was different and we both liked it, so that is all that matters. If it doesn't sale I guess one of the kids will get it:)

Today John Pearson and Emily stayed with us since school is out for them too. John Pearson had to go to practice and John and Emily stayed at home while I went into town. Sissy and I worked out at the wellness center at UNA. I know if I miss too many workouts through the holidays it will be hard to get back in the groove when I go back to work.

When I got home I decided I would make some Christmas treats. Right after Christmas the rest of the family will start arriving for the New Year's get together, so I thought I would make some stuff to snack on. I made some press cookies, you know the kind that you squeeze out of the cookie press. Then I made some apricot crescents ( they kind of taste like a little fried pies). I bought some peanut butter filled pretzels and dipped them in chocolate. They kind of taste like a crunchy Reese's cup. I bought bags of nuts, dried fruit and yogurt covered raisins and made a trail mix. Johnny loves the trail mix. John loves the apricot crescents. John Pearson and Emily seemed to like everything. Hopefully there will be some left when everyone else gets here.

Here is just a little note about what not to do when you make cookies:

After beating the dough with you hand mixer, always unplug it. I was trying to get the rest of the dough out of the mixer blades and accidentally hit the on button. I got my thumb caught in the beaters and when I jerked my hand out

I pulled back so quick and hard that my shoulder that has been frozen for the past year moved to fast and too far. I really thought I was going to pass out. I have felt a little woozy the rest of the day. Thank God I didn't do something that dumb at work. I would have been written up big time.

REMEMBERING CHRISTMAS

2009-12-12T20:17:00.006-06:00

Christmas is in the air and you can feel, hear and smell it everywhere you go. When we drive into town there are Christmas lights every where you look. You turn you radio on and you get a steady stream of Christmas music, the TV abounds with Christmas specials and in every store, office building or friends house you go to has the smell of cinnamon and fresh cut pine trees. There is just a feel at Christmas that you don't get any other time of the year. Even the jingle of the Salvation Army bell out in front of almost every store, sends a little tingle up your spine. Walking past the Santa's at the mall and seeing the little kids beaming with pure excitement puts a smile on your face and brings backs memories of when you yourself was a child that age.

I can remember sitting on Santa's knee at the old Sears store in town. We would stand in line for what seemed like forever waiting our turn. The closer I would get, the bigger the lump in my throat got. I would keep repeating my list in my head the whole time I stood in line so I wouldn't forget what I wanted. When it came my turn and Santa swept me up into his lap, my mind would go completely blank. I swear all I could remember seeing was the hair in Santa's nostrils and the smell of onions on his breath. I can remember putting my small hand on his beard and patting it ever so lightly, but for some unknown reason I had the urge to yank it just to see if it was real. Poor Santa. I'm sure that happens a lot.

Every year we would get a Sears and Penny's catalog. I would literally spend hours leafing through the pages trying to decide what I wanted Santa to bring. It was almost as exciting looking at the catalogs as it was to wake up on Christmas morning and seeing what you got. Then, like today, a lot of what you got was determined by what your parents could afford. One thing was always for sure. A stocking filled with oranges, stick candy and chocolate drops and for me a doll.

I always got a doll for Christmas. When I was growing up it was popular for girls to get a doll all the way up until they were thirteen and the last one would be a bride doll. I kept all my dolls until I was in my mid teens. One day my younger brother got mad at me about something and when I went into my bedroom there were doll heads and doll stuffing all over my room. So much for the doll collection that I had worked on for thirteen years.

The toys that we played with were much different than the toys now. I remember that when I was about five, I got an iron and little metal ironing board. The difference between now and then was that you actually plugged the iron into an electrical outlet and it actually got hot. I burnt the bejibbies out of my fingers more times than I can count. I felt like I was really ironing when Mother handed me a pile of handkerchiefs to iron and what the heck the burns always healed after a couple of days.

My brother got a BB gun when he was around seven. You know I don't remember anyone telling us "your going to shoot your eye out". I don't remember anyone telling him not to point the gun at you sister. I can remember him telling me if I didn't step over the electric fence he was going to shoot me in the foot. I didn't and he did.

He also got a bow and arrow set one Christmas. This was no mansy pansy toy set. It was the real thing with metal tips and all. We would take it out in the yard and shoot it straight up in the air. It is a thousand wonders we didn't kill each other. John said he and his brother did the same thing. Maybe that is why OSHA had to step in.

My younger brother got a BB gun when he was about six or seven. By this time I was about thirteen. Mother and Daddy had to run into town and left the three of us kids by ourselves. Wayne got out his BB gun and was shooting it out in the front yard. He was always the meanest kid in the world and would do about anything you dared him to do. I told him to put a cigarette in his mouth and I would shoot it out. He put it into his mouth and turned sideways. I promise I had no intentions of actually shooting at him, but when I lifted the gun like I was aiming at him the darn thing went off and I shot him right above his left eye. I thought Daddy was going to ground me for the rest of my life.

When I think back on Christmas when I was a kid, it seems I see it through a sort of a pinkish yellowish glow. Like from the light of a oil lantern. That's probably a little odd sounding but when we would go to my grand parent's house they only had lantern light for a long time. We would have Christmas dinner at their house. The men would eat first and sit around and talk until they were finished with their meal. After the men ate, the women would fix the kids plates and only after we were fed did the women sit down and have their meal. Later if we made it through the meal and afternoon without some of the brothers getting into a huge argument, we would all sit around the living room and the kids would fall asleep on the floor while the adults talked and my Dad and his brothers played music and sang.

Yes Christmas is in the air and it makes me reminisce about Christmases of long ago and most of the time I laugh.

KIDS DO SAY THE DARNEDEST THINGS

2009-12-06T19:23:00.006-06:00

We had a nice trip to Memphis this weekend. We haven't seen the kids living in that area for quiet a while. We left Friday evening around 6:00P.M. and drove up. It is a three hour trip, so we made it in around 9:00. The kids are always glad to see us and are usually waiting at the door with a handful of games, books and toys, ready to play with Maw Maw and Grandaddy for a day or two. Since it was as late, Monica made them go to bed shortly after we arrived.

Saturday we got up early and met Mark and Paige at his apartment and drove over to meet Paige's parents. They were very nice and we also met her grand mother Polly who is 90 years old. Paige had to be at work at 2:00 that afternoon so we stopped and had lunch at Back Yard Burger. "Yummy".

We headed back to Monica's house to pick up the boys. We took them shopping for their Christmas presents. I decided it would be better to let them get their gifts and play with it now, then they wouldn't be distracted when Santa comes at Christmas. Andrew got a limited addition Monopoly game, Matthew got a Nerf shotgun and a pair of binoculars and Aaron got a Nut Cracker at the Thrift Store and and set of Hot Wheels and a bag of Christmas cookies at Target. ( Aaron tickles me with his shopping. At five there is no rhyme or reason to his plan. He just picks anything up and puts it in the cart). After we got home he decided he didn't want it because he was afraid he wouldn't get what he had ask Santa for. I kept telling him that the stuff was for him from Maw Maw and Grandaddy that it had nothing to do with Santa, but when we left he had still not played with his presents. Oh well I'm sure Matthew will make use of Aaron's stuff.

Monica and Tim went to a Christmas party Saturday night and we stayed with the kids. Matthew and I decorated a ginger bread house. John played Monopoly with Andrew and Aaron. It was a pretty quiet evening. We got the boys in bed just after 9:30. We got up early this morning and got ready for church. After church we stopped at Perkins to get a bite before we headed back home. They make a double "Yummy" cheeseburger. Man I will have to walk double time on that treadmill to work off this weekend. We got home at 5 minutes til 3 and I headed to the bed for a three hour nap. I was exhausted, but in a nice way.

Just wanted to add a couple of funny things the kids have said the the last couple of weeks. David told Sondra the other day that he wanted to send his cousins a "female". Sondra told him that he must mean an "email" because females were girls. He said, "OK I want to send a "boy female".

When Luke and Charlotte were here for Thanksgiving, we were shopping for their Christmas gifts. I picked up a coloring book with Cinderella and Prince Charming on the cover. I said "look Charlotte who is this"? She replied " That's Cindawella". Luke turned to us and said "That's not Cindawella, its Cindalella." Seems we have a problem with "R's".

This morning in church Andrew was trying to lift my arm to put it around his neck. I whispered to him " That is my frozen shoulder. It want go up that high". He said "Like John McCain"? and I said "Yeah like John McCain".

Kids do say the darnedest things

THANKSGIVING

2009-11-23T17:55:00.004-06:00

Thanksgiving is here, so close that you can almost smell the turkey and dressing, and pumpkin and pecan pies cooking in the oven. It seems that this time of year really flies by and once Halloween comes it is just wham bam until Thanksgiving and Christmas have past and we are looking at a whole new year. It is really true what is said about time flying faster as you get older. It seems that I was just cooking Thanksgiving dinner and here it is time to do it again.

I think we all start thinking about the things that we are thankful for around this time of year. I am thankful for my family, friends and the fact that I have lived long enough to have raised my children and am now enjoying watching my grand kids grow. I am thankful that I am still able to work and have a job I enjoy and fellow workmates that make my job more interesting to go to each day. I am thankful that my children have picked wonderful mates that are dependable and hard working and devoted to their families. Most of all I am thankful for the fact that grew up in the time that I did.

I grew up in a time when we not only could but were expected to pray each day before class started and we were expected to say the pledge of allegiance with our hand over our heart and taught how to honor our faith and our flag. I grew up in a time when everyone assumed that God was a man and when we said "Our Father who art in Heaven", we new that we were talking to our heavenly Father. I grew up in a time when we celebrated Christmas and never heard anyone of any faith protesting the fact that a Nativity scene was set up on any one's lawn, or in front of a church or public building. I grew up in a time when we actually Christmas caroled in our neighborhood and was never confronted by any negative comments and when we put up our Christmas tree, it was not a Holiday tree, it went up a few days before Christmas and I still remember how excited we were when we finally screwed enough bulbs to make the whole string of lights come on at once. We should all have that excitement like we had when we were little.

I think we have all become so politically correct that we have forgotten how to just bask in the simple pleasure of the moment. We should trust each other enough to believe we are capable of tolerating our individual differences.

I am thankful for the memories of the past, which seem a little naive, even to myself now. It was nice thinking that our President and other politicians had our best interest in mind. It was nice thinking that a family consisted of a Dad, Mother and children. It was nice thinking that all children were loved and cared for. I am thankful that I grew up in a small town and was able to experience all the things I have written about above. I think if I was a child growing up now I would be a total misfit.

2009-11-16T19:57:00.001-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Getting into the Holiday spirit

2009-11-15T09:18:00.004-06:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We elfed ourselves, then I lost us in a change I tried to make, but I think I have elfed us again. Lord I work so hard trying to figure out some of this stuff. Here I am missing most of Dancing With the Stars, but I think I got it. My George I think I finally got it.

VETERAN'S DAY

2009-11-11T18:07:00.006-06:00

Thank you to all our troops serving at home and in foreign countries. Thanks to all the service men and women that have fought in years past. These people have insured the freedom's that we have today.

I am proud to say that I have two son-in-laws that are serving their country now. Both have served in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and many other places. My son served in the navy. My Dad and brother served in the Army and Army reserve. John's brother served in the navy and served in Vietnam. John's Grandfather fought in the trenches during WWI. My uncle was a prisoner of war in WWII and my friend's son is serving in Iraq at this time. They are and were doing a job that most of us could or would not do.

Thanks Again -

AUCTION ON SATURDAY

2009-11-08T21:47:00.004-06:00

Wind mill that we will have to assemble

Lawn furniture we will need to repaint

A huge bird house

A globe

A cute little corner cabinet.

This has been the most beautiful weekend we have had in forever. The sun was bright, the sky was perfectly clear and the breeze kept it from being too cool or too hot. My only complaint was that I didn't take a hat or sun screen when we went to the auction on Saturday. So today I have a bright red neck ( that has nothing to do with the fact that I live in Alabama) and a red nose that makes me look sort of like a wino. We spent most of the day sitting out in this little pasture where the auction was being held. We were oblivious to the rays.

When we first got there I didn't think we would find anything worth hanging around for. But if you have ever been to an auction, it doesn't matter how much junk is there, you manage to find a treasure and suddenly your hand is shooting up in air waving wildly to the auctioneer. About an hour into the sale I started looking around for a Porto potty. There was none to be had and the house that was being sold had been unoccupied for a few years. So there was no facility and no relief in sight. After about another 15 minutes I broke down and found the lady that lived in the house next door, and yes, choked on my pride and ask it I could use her bathroom. She was very gracious and I thanked her to the point that I knew I was over doing it a bit. The rest of the day went much better.

We bought a corner cabinet that was probably made back in the 40's. We decided this because of the thickness and the width of the wood. I have it shoved in the corner in the kitchen, but will carry it to Keepers as soon as we get an empty spot. We got the wind mill that will need to be put back together. The blades still turn smoothly and I thought it was cute so up shot the hand.

Next was the bird cage that must be designed for a parrot or some other large bird. I certainly don't have room for it, so it will go to Keepers also, along with the globe. John did bid on something for us. It was a set of lawn furniture, a table with a thick glass top and four chairs . It is heavy as a lead pipe and we like never force all this stuff into the back of the van. We finally got it unloaded this afternoon. I know the neighbors must look out the window and say, "What the heck are they dragging home now".

Our kids just have to be patient with us. We don't smoke, we don't drink, we don't have any other hobbies. We just like to collect junk. We have the satisfaction of knowing that when we die, the kids will have to have an auction to get rid of all this stuff. It's pay back time children:)

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

2009-11-04T18:55:00.008-06:00

This last week has been a very busy one for me and John. We have traveled thirteen hundred miles in a short span of time between last Thursday and this past Tuesday. We drove from here to Ft Bragg N.C then down to Myrtle Beach S.C, then back home. We are still driving the Dodge van which has close to if not 200 thousand miles on it. We debated on renting a vehicle, but decided to tempt fate one more time and take the van. Even though we have broken down on every trip, in every major city, on the busiest interstate highways in America we still chose to drive our own. I must say it is probably a good thing, because I don't know if we will ever be able to vacuum all the cookies and Cheeze-its out of the back seat. I don't think the car rental place would have taken kindly to the mess the kids made.

Sarah and Cody came in with the kids on Sunday evening around midnight and left out for Ft Bragg on Monday evening about the same time. They Luke and Charlotte with us for a couple of days while they went ahead and got the furniture settled in. We entertained the kids and they entertained us for the next couple of days. We left around 12:30 on Thursday morning so we could get into the trip while the kids slept. When we got on the other side of Augusta Ga. Charlotte needed a diaper change and I realized she was running a fever. After that stop it was drive a few miles, stop and do a diaper change, drive a few miles.....

We got into Ft Bragg around 2:30 that afternoon. The kids were glad to see mom and dad and their new house and check out their new rooms. We helped hang some curtains and pictures and piddled around putting things away. That night Luke wanted Maw maw to sleep with him. Sometime during the night he rolls over and said "Maw maw my tummy hurts". You guessed it he was running a fever and had an upset stomach. I am convinced if I make it through this episode without getting sick, I must be a pretty tough old bird:)

We had a nice visit and it is always good to have an idea where you children are living. We decided since we were so close we should drive down to Myrtle Beach and check on John's mom.

We got there about 5:00 went out to the K&W and had dinner. The next morning John and Rose went to church then we went to Friendly's and had breakfast. John and I went and had the tires rotated on the van and hit a few thrift stores. That night we went to a little Calabash restaurant and had seafood. ( Man I am still stuffed from all the eating we did.) We left Tuesday morning heading back to Alabama and arrived here at 6:30 Tuesday night. I had to be up at 4:45 this morning and to work by 6:00. I am kind of dragging my tail tonight.

I will back track just a bit now. John's mom is 86 years old and has been living on her own since John's dad died a number of years ago. I know it is hard to give up your independence and everyone wants to keep that sense of being in charge of your life. I do think there comes a time when you have to let your children take some of the responsibility for you. Let them worry about where you left your purse, or what you did with the house key. Let them drive you to church so you don't have to get their an hour early just to find a spot up close to the door. Take this time to enjoy your kids, grand kid and great grand kids some of whom you haven't seen in years or ever. Interacting with them will help keep your mind active and help unclutter the things that are there just to irritate. This may be the time to make those choices.

RAMBLING AGAIN

2009-10-20T18:12:00.009-05:00

Red skies at night. Sailors delight

Sun rise, sun set, swiftly goes the days. I thought these were beautiful fall pictures

Do you ever get the feeling that you are fishing in a dry hole. Well that is how I have felt for the last week or so about posting something on my blog. I have come in here and sat down at the computer several times in the last few days but for the life of me no words would come out. That is a little unusual, because most of the time I can start off typing and suddenly I am rambling on about all kinds of nonsense. So I thought I would try one more time.

Mark had his 32 ND birthday on the 16Th of this month. Talking about time flying, it seems like just yesterday that he was riding up and down the hall on the vacuum cleaner, wearing Sondra's little floral house coat. He also use to dress up in tights, a cape and cowboy boots and pretend to be a super hero. He was always running through the house jumping off chairs, the couch and beds rescuing us from great danger. Thank goodness the Dukes of Hazard came along and rescued us from the super hero. He went through a stage where he was Bo and continued to be Bo until he was in probably the second or third grade. Luckily he figured out which one was Bo, because one day when we were at the drug store, Mark was about two or three, the cashier said to him, " Well you sure are a cute little boy. What is your name". He looked at her and said just as serious as could be, "Ennis". We had to point out the characters to him the next time he watched the show. Dear Lord, I didn't want anyone to think we had really named him "Ennis". We must have all known the theme song to that show as well as Waylon Jennings did.

Sarah and Cody and the kids will be moving east soon. We are waiting to get the final word on when they will leave for Ft. Bragg. I declare they are like a band of gypsies. We were trying to figure out how many times they have moved in the six years they have been married. First to Omaha, back to Alabama, back to Lincoln, back to Alabama, to Huntsville, to Killen, to North Platte and now to Ft Bragg. I think there were actually a couple of more moves but I just can't get my mind wrapped around it. I hope they can be settled for at least three years. If I had to even think about moving all our junk I would probably be over come by exhaustion just from contemplating it. Good thing they are young and adventuresome.

John Pearson's football games are over for the season. He has done really well and I am thankful he made it through without getting hurt. Hopefully he will take a growing spurt before they start practicing for next season. Emily has one more softball game. Most of the games have been rained out. Her game is supposed to be this Thursday and guess what? It is supposed to start raining again Thursday. Oh well.

I am still trying to avoid the flu. We have had lots of people out sick but so far I haven't taken it. Knock on wood. John is still hacking and coughing but has no fever anymore. Emily has been here at the house with John for the last two days. She has been running a low grade fever. Our manager has been off work for over a week, but came in today and had to leave because she was to sick to stay. ugh!! Hope she is not contagious. Oh well again!!!

The leaves are starting to turn slightly and by the time the week is over and a couple of light frost things will really start to burst out in a kaleidoscope of color. I hope this happens before Halloween. I still have happy memories of going out on Halloween night with friends, trick or treating, walking through the leaves that had fallen and the sound of the soft crunch the leaves would make under your feet. Sadly Halloween is almost a thing of the past here. I guess most people don't feel comfortable letting their kids get out and ramble around half the night. Most things have changed, for me too much. I wonder if the kids just got to wild or the parents became to cautious. We all need simpler times.