Last trip of the Summer

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

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

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

Sondra getting friendly with the Navy

Fixing to tour the Naval Museum

Sacked out at the beach

To much fun in the sun

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

An almost empty pool at the beach

Three rowdy boys.


Battle field at Perryville KY.


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

My friend Diane.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finally got some of the vacation pictures to post.

VACATION IN ORANGE BEACH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My pictures are still not down loading. Later maybe

OLD SCHOOL ANTIQUES

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.

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

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

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

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.