STORM DAMAGE

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

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

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

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

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!!

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)

p

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.