PICTURES OF ALASKA, I HOPE

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I beat her socks off.

Our cruise ship the "Summit"

I don't know if I am going to get the pictures posted or not. Uh Oh! Here comes one. Maybe it is going to work now. I feel like I have just given birth to these pictures. I have labored for two days and finally they are here. I would name them, but I haven't figured out how to label each picture:)

The first picture is a picture of the ship we were on called the Summit.

Next is a picture of my tennis match. This is the girl I beat. She was a real sweet girl but I showed her no mercy.

The others are just sights that I thought was worthy a picture.

SHARING SOME OF OUR PICTURES FROM ALASKA

Well Sarah, Cody, Luke and Charlotte have gone back to Nebraska. We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed being with the kids for awhile. I had four days off and was able to spend the whole time with them. Now I have gone back to work and back to the old grind. I am going to have to think of something to blog about. If you can't talk about your grand kids, what better thing to talk about than your old vacations and show pictures. Yea!!!

I mentioned in one of my first blogs that I had seen and done things in the last couple of years that I thought I would only see in National Geographic. Well I have now seen some of those wonderful places and have taken my own pictures. God really knew how to create magnificent sights.

In 2006 our kids chipped in and gave us a trip to Alaska. We went the last week in May. It must have been the most perfect week of the year. The weather was just right not to hot or cold. Most of the days were clear and sunny. The days were still long and you could wake up at 3 :00 a.m in the morning out look out the porthole and see nothing put blue sea and sky. It was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. We were lucky enough to have a large port window that was probably five or six feet in diameter. It was nice just to go back to our room and lay on the bed and watch the waves rolling past. ( Talk about stress relief!)

We flew into Anchorage then took a train down to Seward, where we boarded the Summit. We cruised for seven days and stopped at several ports. We didn't take many side trips, we just enjoyed getting off the ship and wandering around the small towns. We met a lot of really nice people on board. We enjoyed the fancy dinners, the live shows and the casino. I even came in second in a table tennis tournament. Of course there were only three of us competing and I wasn't that good. It was just that the third person was really terrible.

I wish I was like Sondra and could remember the names of all the towns, and the of all the people we met. I couldn't remember stuff like that when her age. The important thing is that we went, we saw and we enjoyed every minute of it. One of the advantages of having a lots of kids, they sometimes surprise with very special gifts.

I will have to post the pictures tomorrow. Darn dial up. Kept getting shut down.

SPENDING THE NIGHT AT MAWMAW'S

Here are some pictures of the grandkids this week. Sarah and Cody, Luke and Charlotte came down form Nebraska for a short visit. It was good to have the kids back in the house. Luke and Charlotte went to the toy box and found the toys they had left behind when they moved. They acted like they had been here only yesterday.

Johnny, Tracy and John Pearson came down with a bug and had to stay home from work and school on Friday. Emily had had it last week so she stayed with us. Emily, Luke and Charlotte had a really good time playing together. Emily mothers the little ones. She likes to help them get dressed and shampoo their hair when they take their baths. This works out great for me. I hate kneeling and leaning over in the tub to try wrestle them down to get them bathed.

When I put them to bed, I had them lay crossed ways in the bed so they would have more room. This brought back memories of when I was a child and staying at a relatives and sleeping maybe five or six in a bed, usually three at the head of the bed and two at the foot. It was hard to find a comfortable spot without having someone's feet or butt in your face.

I had to snap the picture of John kissing the kids goodnight. He is the perfect grandaddy. He has much more patience than I do. He will play games like CLUE, MONOPLY AND JOHN PEARSON RUMMY with them for hours. I guess as long as I cook for them when they are here I can skimp on the playing stuff.

This morning I took the picture of the the three of them. Luke and Charlotte had both had a bloody nose. Charlotte had fallen out of a chair the night before and burst her lip and hit her nose, so she went to bed with a bloody nose and Luke just got one during the night. With all the feet and elbows and the way they had all rolled during the night I am not suprised. Could have been a foot, could have been a knee, could have been an elbow or maybe someone's head. You know all the kids have giant bowling ball heads. Should have slept in a helmet on

A ROSE BETWEEN TWO THORNS

These pictures were taken in November when we went to Columbus Ohio for John's mom's 85 th birthday. It was also Caroline's mother's 85 th birthday.

There was a really good turn out. John, Tom, Jim and Rosemary were all able to make it. Some of Rose's grandchildren and great grandchildren were there. Mark was the only one of our children that made it. I think he really enjoyed himself. Joey, Lisa and Landon ( Rosemary and Larry's). Lori, Todd and Anthony (Tom and Carol's). All of Caroline's sisters and brother came. We had a wonderful time with lots of tasty food and drink. The weather was just perfect, warm enough that we could be outside and cool enough that we could play the corn hole toss game without breaking to much of a sweat.

It is hard to get all the relatives together so sometimes it can be two or three years before John gets to see his family. It was fun watching John and his brothers and sister cutting up and teasing each other and their mother. Oddly enough no one remembers the same thing from their childhood or if they do they remember it differently. Anyway it was a lot a of fun and maybe we can all get together again soon.

HAPPY 85TH BIRTHDAY!!! ROSE, MOM, GRANDMOTHER AND GREAT GRANDMOTHER.

I have had a very hard time downloading these pictures. One more try and that is it. Yepee I got two them. Yepee got three more. That's good

EXERCISING OUR WAY TO TOTAL FITNESS

Well since it is the New Year, we couldn't at least start the month of January without making an attempt at getting fit. Believe me this is harder than it looks.

I went to Wal-Mart and bought two hoola hoops. I was remembering how much fun it was when the hoops first came out in the late 50's. My friends and I would spend hours gyrating around the yard with these wonderful new inventions swaying effortless around our waist. We got so good that we could start at the neck and work them down to the ankles and back up again. Well either times have changed or the hoola hoop has.

I have tried for a week to keep it going for just two or three rounds and I simply can not make it happen. One thing for sure is that it really makes your stomach muscles hurt. I guess this is better than nothing, but I sure do hate to admit defeat.

John Pearson and Emily are getting the hang of it, but not MawMaw, so I just went back to the stepper. If I don't fall off and break something I can tell everyone that I am on a streneous work out program.

FORTY THREE YEARS OF WEDDED BLISS

Forty three years ago John and I got married in a very small wedding at St. Joseph church in Florence Al. The only people there were my parents, brothers, sister and grand dad, John's mom and dad, and Shirley Kolossa who was the personnel manager at K-Mart. My sister-in-law Shirley and Joe McCellan served as our wittnesses.

We didn't have a reception or any thing like that. I didn't know too much about weddings and how they were put together. I think at the time I had only gone to about five weddings and they looked a little scary to me, so I didn't want all that hoopla.

John and I may be the two most boring people in the world, but our marriage has been anything but boring. We were 20 and 21 in 1966, we only knew each other 3 months when we got married. I pretty much knew from the time we first met that John was Mr. Right. We had the same ideas about life and the same values and that pretty much sealed the deal for me.

We have raised our family in the same house for the last forty years. Five kids, two parents and always any number of friends spending the night packed our three bedroom house to overflow capacity. Now when the kids and grand kids come we have to pack part of them off to Johnny's or Sarah's ( when they lived here). I have no desire to live anywhere else, this is the house where all our memories were made. If my ship every comes in though ,I will remodel, but like Mark asked " How is that ship going to get under that little bridge Daddy?"

I can only hope that our kids love and respect each other enough commit to their marriages and make it at least as long as John and I have.

Now enough about the past. I will tell you what we did today. We left the house at about 10:00 o'clock this morning and drove over to Hearts Crys this is a thrift store in Killen. We take the grand kids there when they are in and you would think they were shopping at Macy's. Found a dress, plate, toy tractor (for Luke), and a set of wheels for a Razor scooter. Spent $6.00.

We then went to Habitat Restore. Found a set of horseshoes from the Foundrey of the Shoals. If we keep them another fifty years they will probably be worth what we paid for them, $15.00. I also found a Hall CO. coffee pot for $8.00 total $22.00.

We then went to Chili's for lunch and had hamburgers ( that reminds me of something that happend on our honeymoon, but I won't get into that right now.) From the picture you can barely see the Chili's sign so I guess if God wanted us to take pictures of ourselves, he would have given us longer arms:)

We rounded off our exciting day by going over to check our antique booth at Keepers of the Past. As you can see it just happens to have a Salvation Army next to it and we had to prawl around in there for awhile. We did sell a china cabinet while we were in Keepers. $325.00

We came home had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and watched the movie "Bucket List".

We have for the past several years gone to Tunica for our anniversary, but John thinks we came out ahead this time. Made

$325.00 spent $50.00 on all our activities and didn't have to drive 8 hours.

Now we will start working forty four years...

OLD FRIENDS ARE THE GREATEST

Why is it that we get so mellow and begin to reminisce about old friends and relationships this time of the year? I guess it is because it is the beginning a new year and we start thinking about things to keep and things to throw away, habits to get into and habits to discard, relationships to let go of and friendships to hang on to for dear life.

Old friends are definetly the most treasured gifts. I don't have a lot of really close friends, but the ones I do have I hold close to my heart.

Sandra is probably my closest and dearest friend. We have known each other most of our lives and became good friends after we both got married to nice Catholic boys. Our families have vacationed together, been through good times and bad, sickness and health, poorer and poorer. In a way I guess our families are married to each other. We have never been mad enough at each other to say "well this is it". Friends like this are hard to find.

Judy was my best friend in school and we lived next door to each other growing up. We were like sisters. We told each other secrets that no one else would ever know. We wore each others clothes ( the ones I could get into because she was so tiny and I was never that) and sometimes we fought like a couple of wild cats. I don't see Judy often now, but I always get a birthday card each year. When we do see each other we laugh and giggle and act nutty just like we did when we were kids. Friends like this keep you young.

Mary Sue is my neighborhood friend. Our kids played together growing up and are still friends. We have exercised together, dieted together and we both love to play the slots, so we have made more than a few trips to Tunica. I know she is just down the street and will come if I need her.

Friends like this make you feel secure.

Johnny was my best guy friend from my teenage years. He always accepted me and Judy for the nuts we were. We went to parties, movies, and just drove around on Court Street for hours on Saturday night. It was nice to have a guy friend to call when you couldn't get a date. Friends like this are fun to be around.

Diane lives in Ohio and I haven't seen her in fifteen or maybe twenty years. We became best buddies when we lived in the same apartment building when John and I moved to Ohio with K-mart. I would not have made it without her. John worked long hours and I had Johnny and she had Jody who was just a few months older than Johnny. I would get up and get John off to work and by 9:30 or 10:00 I would go over to her apartment. We would watch soap opras most of the morning, then I would go back to our apartment and fix John's lunch. I would head back to her place in the afternoon and watch more soaps. We would cook up new recipes ( Diane was really a good cook). I particularly remember fixing "Hot German potato salad". We must have ate a bucket full of that stuff. We made it every day for a week. One day I went over and she was making a standing rib roast ( I was impressed) because my cooking skills had not developed much past spaghetti and meatloaf.

I talked to Diane every couple of years, but when we do talk the conversation is easy and as if no time has lapsed since the last time. I talked to her this week and touched base with her about family and how she was spending her retirement time. It may be another couple of years before I talk to her but I know our friendship will remain the same. Friends like this make you feel connected by memories.

There are a few more friends, but these friendships are evolving as time goes on. Maybe they will in time become as important as the ones I have written about. Friends like this make you work at the relationship.

REDNECK SEAFOOD DINNER

Well I started back to work today and it really wasn't so bad. It was nice seeing all my co-workers and finding out how their holidays went.

It finally stopped raining , the sun came out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It was a little windy and the tempature had dropped but it was nice to see the sunshine for a change.

When I got in and checked my email, Jim had sent us an email with the REDNECK SEAFOOD DINNER picture. I thought it was so cute I just had to share it with everyone. The really strange thing is that we served the little squid dogs a couple of summers ago when the international students came in. They couldn't eat beef or pork so we made them from turkey franks, and we couldn't fix them fast enough. I guess you could say they are not redneck food but INTERNATIONL CUISINE!!

Oh by the way Jim, I haven't been able to find your picture that I was looking for, but I will.....

LOOKS LIKE VACATION IS FINALLY OVER.

Well I have been off work since the 14th of November and the time has arrived for me to head back to the old grind of working 8 hours a day.

I am going back with mixed emotions. First I know I need to go back because John and I have this habit of wanting to eat 2 or 3 times a day. I think I feel more mentally alert when I do something besides watch TV and sit in the recliner. And I do miss all the people I work with and the students.

On the other hand, sometimes the people I work with and the students can be a real pain in the rear. Some days I enjoy waking up at 8:00 am instead of 4:45 am. Most of all I think those 2 or3 meals a day have made me feel like a blimp and now I am praying that I can still button and zip my work pants. Is there anyway to loose 10 lbs in two days beside cutting something off? If so respond as soon as possible.

My time off has been really enjoyable. We were able to take a trip to Nebraska to see Sarah, Cody and the kids. We went to Memphis for a long weekend to see Monica, Tim and the kids and Mark. Sondra, Jonathan and David came home for a week. Johnny had a couple of weeks off to spend with John Pearson and Emily, so these last few weeks have been full of family, friends, food and celebrating.

We are so happy that we were able to make it through this year safe and sound. We look forward to the year to come and hope it is every bit as good as the one just past.

MORE FAMILY PICTURES

I thought I would add a few more family pictures. These are primarily added for the interest of our real Swedish Sundqvist relatives. I have tried to add a picture of each of our immediate family members. Sorry if I have left anyone out in the last three post. Let me know if I did.

There is a picture of Sarah and Cody our youngest daughter. The two little ones in the tree are their children Luke and Charlotte.

The young man with the beard is our youngest son Mark, the boy and girl by the roll of hay are John Pearson and Emily. The group picture is John's Mom, Jim, Tom, John and sister Rosemary.

New Year's pictures

OK so here are the other pictures I said I would post. I guess this is where the saying, "If you want a better picture, you should bring a better face", comes from.

Mark I just simply could not post the most recent picture I had of you. As your mother I love you too much and refuse to do that to you:)

2009 AND WE ARE DOING FINE!!

We celebrated New Year's eve at Sandra and Charles' home this year. It was me and John, Johnny, Tracy, John Pearson, Emily, Monica, Tim, Andrew, Matthew, Aaron, Sondra, Jonathan, David, Suzanne, Todd, Audrey, Ian, Benjamin, Sandra and Charles. The numbers keep getting smaller with adult children and larger with grandchildren,

Mark could not come because he had to be back to work on Friday. Sarah, Cody, Luke and Charlotte were in Nebraska. Freeman and Huntley went to Gulf for a few days, and Charlie, Jennifer, Charlie Ann, Cody and Nathan were in Kansas.

It gets harder and harder to keep these old traditions going. Sandra and I were trying to figure out how many years our familes had been getting together on New Year's, and we came to the conclusion that is is well over 30 years. It has been fun watching the kids grow from their infant and toddler years to their pre school to elementry years and Lord knows their teen age and dating years. Now all of our kids are grown and have families of their own, except Mark who is still available. And the beat goes on.

It was wonderful having Sondra, Jonathan and David back from Germany. Monica, Tim and the kids came in from Memphis and Mark was in for a day earlier in the week. Johnny and Tracy and the kids came over several times. They all fun catching up with each other after almost three years.

We had our ususal seafood feast on New Year's eve and we probably want want shrimp again until next year. Sandra and Charles did a great job.

On New Year's day we had the traditional meal.

Blackeyed peas - Health

Collard greens -Wealth

Hog jowl - Luck

Corn bread - Because it goes great with the above.

And this year we added Peaches which is for Love. This was contributed by Jonathan from when he worked at Morrison's.

All in all it was a fun filled week, but now I need to rest up for a few days before I return to work.

We wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR

I will add more pictures tomorrow since I didn't get Mark and Jonathan in this batch, also Johnny, Tracy and the Kids. Sorry!!!

CHRISTMAS' PAST

Well it is Christmas Eve 2008. After all the Christmas' past, with five children in the house and each one wanting something special that "Santa" is sure to bring them, we are own our own. Just John and Me and the the NetDish installer are here together. I know he is ready to get home to his family and we are ready for him to leave. We are going to eat dinner with Johnny, Tracy and the kids. Tracy's mom will be there also. We haven't seen her in quite a while.

I was going trough some pictures today and found these in our picture drawer. Man I can't believe that so much time has past since the kids were here. Johnny is going to be 42, Monica just turned 40, Sondra is 37 (and going to have baby #2), Mark is 30, and Sarah is 27. That must make me and John about 110.

The worst part and the best part is that me and John will have the Holiday with just the two of us. It is just not the same without a child in the house. Although Johnny, Tracy and the kids will come over and eat tomorrow, the presents have all been exchange so no messy wrapping paper to fill up two garbage cans.

Monica and Tim and the kids will spend Christmas at home in Memphis.

Sarah and Cody and the kids will spend Christmas in Nebraska.

Sondra and Jonathan and David will be in North Carolina, and Mark will spend Christmas alone in South Haven MS because he has to work the day after Christmas. (That really Stinks)

After dinner tomorrow John and I will probably cozy down for a nice long after Christmas dinner nap. We want be putting bikes, trains, and doll beds together. We want be trying to find the instructions that got thrown away with all the Christmas wrapping paper, and we want be shouting, "you're going to shoot your eye out".

Just a reminder to all our children. Although it seems very hectic and madding at times. Enjoy the Christmas of the Present, remember the Christmas' of the Past, and look forward to the Christmas' of the Future.

Now to all a Merry Christmas and for us a good nap.

HEREEEES JOHN PEARSON & EMILY

I made this picture at Thanksgiving. John Pearson has been wanting to know why I haven't posted his picture. So here it is.

Right before Thanksgiving John Pearson and Emily came in from school and JP started racking leaves. He worked and worked and I thought man what has come over this child. About an hour later he wants me to come out in the yard to see what he was doing. He and Emily were jumping into the leaves having a great time. I got several good pictures of them frolicking in the newly racked leaves.

BACK FROM NEBRASKA

We had a real nice trip up to Nebraska to visit Sarah, Cody and the kids.

The weather was great while were there. Luckily we went last week instead of this week. It was great spending time with Luke and Charlotte. They seemed to enjoy our company.

We had very smooth flights all the way. We got into Nashville Saturday night about 8:30 and into Killen at around 11:30 pm. It is always nice to travel, but always nice to get home and lie down on your own bed.

VICTORIA SECRET

Well tonight is the Victoria Secret Extravaganza. I have to say seeing all those super models parading around in their undies really is quite a sight. I know this sounds silly, but it makes me want to slip into my best lingerie, which I did.

SHARE IT ANYWAY.

Father Andy read this quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He is not the friendliest person that I have ever met, but occasionally he says something in his homily that kind of sticks with you. I hope I am not committing plagerism, but I will share it anyway. (disregard my bad spelling). I wasn't sure my picture would download and it is probably to small to read so I typed it out. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

"The fruit of faith is love, and the fruit of love is service"

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered

FORGIVE THEM ANYWAY.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

BE KIND ANYWAY.

if you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

SUCCEED ANYWAY.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

BUILD ANYWAY.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

BE HAPPY ANYWAY.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

DO GOOD ANYWAY.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU'VE GOT ANYWAY.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;it was never between you and them anyway.