Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping!! Yeap I have had my shopping fix for awhile now!!

Here in Savannah our NEW Michaels store opened today!! Becky, Maddie and I went to look and see what we could get "cheap" for our scrapbooking HABIT!! We found bargains that we just HAD to have!! Now we are ready to scrapbook our HEARTS out!!

Maddie asked her mom if it was okay for her to go with "the girls" today!! She had a great time without her little brother picking on her all of the time. She went all over Michaels looking for just the right flowers for her room. She has dragonfiles and flowers in her room now. You know she is growing up quickly.

We ate lunch out together. Looked around some more and finally started back toward home. We had one more stop at KROGER'S....always need that food you know!!

After grocery shopping we headed back home. Big ole' thunder clouds and lightning were hanging low in the sky. We just made it into my house and it let loose.

What a good day though. I am not very tired from shopping!! You know it takes a lot out of you when you are looking for those CLEARANCE signs and those REDUCED ITEMS sign!! We have taught Maddie to find those for us. She is getting really good at it too.

You have to learn to be a "good woman shopper"...My friend calls it RETAIL THERAPY...Right Kathy!!

Hope you had a good weekend!!!

It is no one's birthday that I know about today!! Just another ordinary day of going with my husband to have a nuclear stress test at the cardiologist's office.

They took him back and missed those BIG veins that he has in his hands then finally decided to go with one in his arm...He came back protesting to me that they had started his "stress test" off with enough stress...missing his BIG vein!!

We sat and waited and then he went back for his first test!! He came back, sat some more in for another test...You got it... this happened about 4 times.

Finally he was released and off we went. He had not eaten in a LONG while but first we had to stop and see where our daughter works.

She works at the hospital in an area called the PAD!! They have decorated it with FROGS to keep up with the name "the PAD". She was just hanging out when we arrived. She introduced us to her co-workers.

Next stop...something to eat for my weary walker!!

The tests come back sometime on Monday or Tuesday. Now we have to wait to see the results. The technican said that everything looked fine to him. We are hoping that is the Good News!!
Maybe God did not give my husband the heart that he gave to his father!! We are hoping for great results!!

You know MEN. They think that if nothing is wrong why try to fix it!! I just wanted to MAKE SURE...good and sure that everything is OKAY with him.

I know you have a great heart, MY DEAR!! Why would I have stayed married these many, many years!!???

August 25, 2005...this would have been my grandmother or as I called her Mom's birthday. If I have it figured right she would have been 100!!!!....So it is very fitting that I write something about her today on my blog.

Mom never wanted to be a grandmother (or so I have been told, she was not that old) when I came along a different name had to be chosen. MOM was the name that I guess she chose. I think at first she did not much care for me and then really made up for it almost going too far.

My earliest recollections of her would be standing in front of her front door with my little red suitcase asking to spend the night. I remember the door opening with what seemed to be a lot of men in her home. They picked me up on their shoulders and got me some chocolate milk. I am sure that most of them were friends of her husbands so probably pretty drunk.

Mom never married the greatest of men. She just did not pick her husbands well. If I am right she was married 4 times. I have one memory of my real grandfather. He had red hair. He was mean to her and beat her up. She managed to have my mother, Jeri and her brother, Bill. Through very hard times she kept her family together.

Mom was a beautican. Then you only made very small amounts for hair cuts and perms plus unlike today you also worked long hours. (I wish she could see what we pay today!! ) During that time she met these other men that turned out to be the same type of man...drinking and wife beating.

I came into the picture when she had married the final one. I used to stay with them a lot and go many places. I was very spoiled by both of them. A fact that I am not too proud of as an adult. I was just a kid then and did not know any better.

I have seen things that I should never have seen as a child. Like the times he would get drunk and beat Mom up. I remember that too much even though I try, those scenes still play in my mind. We would always try to get her to leave. After what seemed like many years, we did get her to leave him.

What a mess so much of Mom's life was. Even today I hate it for her.

Mom had so many great things in her life though. She had family that adorned her and still do to this day. She was very pretty and also very kind. She tried so hard to make things work out.

I told her once that I would sit on her lap until she was 100. Well, Mom if somehow you are listening or watching us...Now is the time for me to sit on your lap!! I think that I am going to be way too heavy for you...how about you sitting on mine!! DEAL??

This is my brother Ron's 57th birthday today!! I never thought that he would actually get to be this age. He is as close to my age today as he ever gets.

I am the oldest!! GREAT!! Being the oldest is not what it is cut out to be ....honestly!!

Ron has always been the one to fight with...it seems!! I think that we get along pretty good anymore (course he lives in the South West and I live in the South East)!! That could have something to do with it!! Hm..now let me think!!

I remember the day that he was born. My great grandmother was at our house taking care of me. Mother came home with him. Wow!! was my life about to change.

He was fine as a baby and little boy. He was always hiding behind Mother's dress tail. That is when housewives wore dresses all the time. He seemed to always be afraid of anything that was outside of that security area. He was a little light blond boy and fun when he was that age.

One time though I remember quite well he was throwing a hoe around his head someway!! He was not very old and now that I think about it I wonder how he picked that big hoe up!! But he let it go and it landed the pointy edge in the back of my head. I don't remember much after that but Mother said she saw me and fainted. I must have had a very hard head because as you can see I am still alive to talk about it.

A few years after that I gave it" all" back to him. We loved cowboys and Indians. One day we were chasing each other through the house...in the back door and out the front and around and around!! We had our cowboy hats and guns. They made the guns then out of something pretty hard. I thought I would see if it really worked like in the cowboy movies. They took hold of the gun and hit people over the head and they would fall right down. I grabbed the gun and tried it and guess what... it works...On little brothers well!! I don't remember what happened after that incident either...Probably a good spanking...which I deserved.

Ron and I have fought over the years something awful. Our last "knock down and drag out" fight was when I was about 17...He won!! I am so glad that is all over with. We were awful and I wonder how our parents put up with it all. What a pair we were. Dad and Mother, we are both very sorry!!

Well I have said all of this to say...Happy Birthday little Brother, Ron and many, many, more to come!! I am too far away now to hit you over the head with a gun...you are safe!!

I know, I know...it has been awhile since I have written in here. It is so HOT here that it seems like I just stay PUT inside and try to keep cool!!

I go to church, to CURVES and that is about it!! Getting old and stale in my advancing age I guess!! I am longing for some cool outside air.

September is going to be bringing a new set of things to do for me. Starting with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) of which I am a mentor...You know Mentor...Someone who has already been there, already done that and well cannot remember!! NOPE!! I have to remember to be of any help.

Also our bible study starts and we will be in Precepts once again under the authority of Joy and Kay Arthur!! It is getting deeper and deeper each year in this study. I expect tihs one to be WAYYYYYYY deep this year!! So hang on to your shoes and get ready to learn!!!

Between these two things which makes meetings and more meetings plus CURVES and church I will get really, really busy.

Then there is the little thing of taking care of my house and my wonderful husband. I cannot let those two slip. Plus I will be needing to put my exercising at CURVES in there too. The coming months should be fun but very busy ones...Schedules...never liked them but they do help with organizing your time.

So you see my life is somewhat boring right now but soon to pick up and start going!!

Hope I have something to write about then...

Neighbors and Neighborhoods!! I remember when I was growing up that we "neighbored" with our neighbors. Today that is just not done like it was then.

We would get in our car on Sunday afternoons and take long drives. We might think to stop in and see Mr. and Mrs. Jones. We would just pull into their driveway and stop and talk for a while.

Today that is just not done. I don't know when it all stopped, but I think it is way too bad.

For the past year my neighbor and I have been having get togethers of our neighbor women at one of our homes.

I started first with a TEA here at my home with all the pretty dishes, little cakes and of course TEA. It was a success so we decided to do it when we could.

Today we had another neighborhood ladies get together!!

We had lunch this Saturday afternoon. I had made invitations and gave them out to 20 women here in our neighborhood.

We want our neighborhood to be a good place to live and raise our children.

We have had robberies here and we believe that if we know each other then can help prevent this from happening here as often.

Today was fun!! We only had about 8 of the 20 we really should have had come. Life is just too busy anymore I guess. I hate to see the old ways go away....

Life is not what it used to be...and I know that...but just getting to know your neighbor...what harm is that!!

We plan on trying it again in a couple of months. I still think the concept is a great idea!! Talking the neighborhood ladies into it...Well that seems to be another thing.

Scrapbooking has become a passion of mine over the past two years!! My daughter, Becky introduced me to the art. I started off at a run. Sometimes I get bogged down and quit for awhile but then once again I get going and am into another book.

I just finished my son, Jon's book from birth to present day. It was fun to do to watch him grow up all over again. When you sit and look at the pictures you can get a little weepy just with the memories that seem to flood back into your mind.

They were little once and now so grown up with families of their own!! Man, I sometimes hate to think about that. I know that it just makes me realize the shortness of this life that we live here on earth.

I am now getting ready to start my 1st daughter's book. This should be fun!! I am just a little more into the "girly" things. I have her front page done and so need to get busy with the rest of her life. Now I will get to watch my little 6 lbs. 15 oz. red headed baby grow up all over again!! This is FUN!! You should try it.

I have a goal now that I am in my 60's. I am going to TRY to put every loose picture into an album. That way someday when my kids have to deal with all the "stuff" that I leave behind they will not have to worry about pictures. What a goal you say!! Yeap it is.

I love pictures. I love taking them and working with them.

One thing I have given myself permission to do is to shred those that I am not going to be using. That was hard at first but it only makes sense. Why leave these around for people to destroy anyway. Just do it...as Nike says.

Better get off this blogging stuff and get onto my other passion...scrapbooking.

PS..this page was done by another wonderful scrapbooker...Not mine..but isnt she sweet???

Memories...When I was a little girl I remember going to my great grandmother Trinkle's house in Redmon, Illinois. She always had beautiful flowers. Lillys of the Valley always grew outside of her home.

She also had a big variety of African Violets on a round table in her living room. The table had a big light in the middle of it and every night that light shown on those violets.

She had every color it seemed to me as a young girl. There were pink ones, white ones and of course my favorite ones...PURPLE!! I still love that color to this day!!

They were beautiful and I always loved seeing them there when we would go to visit her.

As I have grown older I found that I loved flowers also. I can grow some things. But the ones that grow the best for me are....YEAP...You guessed it...AFRICAN VIOLETS!! They grow great for me.

Maybe it is like my great grandmother saying..."as long as you grow these you will remember me". I don't know but it seems like I do think of her every time I see all of mine.

I have around 9 plants now. Some have babies and some have babies starting to come.

People laugh at me how I talk to them. You know I can get a violet to bloom by telling them to get "busy" and make some babies......

Yes, you laugh but most of the time it helps them to "get busy".

I think my great grandmother would be happy with me!!

Today has been a "bummed out" day for me!! It was just a day that I thought it might just be worth staying in bed and not making any more troubles or any more problems for myself.

Then I ran across this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, " Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission."

I am not going to give my permission then!! I decided to refuse to feel bummed out after shedding a few tears and deciding that I needed to take this advise.

I know that God is always there for me so I don't know why sometimes I just take things way too personal. I need to learn to get over that and maybe grow up!!

Here is another poem that I also read today.

"Happiness keeps you sweet,
Trials keep you strong.
Sorrows keep you human,
Failures keep you humble.
Success keeps you glowing,
But God keeps you going!"


Guess I need to take my own advice!!

Weight...the enemy of most women!! WHY you ask? WHY well I have not idea why...WHY do we have to worry about what the scales say? WHY do we have to worry about what size dress or pants we wear? WHY....media and people always telling us that you can look better...you can do better...you can be better!!

Sometimes I just get sick of all of that!!! I have struggled with weight most of my life.

We women have babies and then try to get to looking like we used too...MOST of us have a time trying to do that. Then there are some very fortunate women who just pop right back into looking just like they did before they were pregnant...These are the lucky ones..then there was ME!!

But now the tide is changing!!! About 4 months ago my friend and I joined CURVES. I have tried Weight Watchers and several other ways to lose weight in all of these years. I decided to try one more time. At my age (60) it is just getting HARDER and HARDER to do!!

I have been going "faithfully" and trying to be careful eating and guess what.. TODAY I have now lost 10 lbs. and 10 inches!! I am so happy!! I was so surprised this morning when I weighed in that I CRIED!! I know that sounds dumb to a lot of you skinny minnies out there but not to me!! I have tried for the past 15 years to lose and now I am doing it...YES Actually doing it for a change!!

If there is a CURVES in your area...which I bet there is...you need to run not walk down there and sign up. Then start going regularly and putting everything you have into it. You will feel better and in time be healthier for it. I know that my self esteem is doing a WHOLE lot better.

I cannot wait to see my clothes fitting looser!!

I LOVE MY CURVES!!!

TODAY IS MY DAD'S 87TH BIRTHDAY!!!!

I just got off of the phone with my dad. I called to wish him a happy 87th!! WOW!! 87...He says he never thougth that he would live to be this age...but that he would be turning 17 next year!! SURE..DAD!! 17!! Don't think that works anymore...just like me...40...that does not work anymore either!! Just a wish that will not ever come true!! :-)

I was trying to remember my earliest recollection of my dad. The furthest back that I can remember would be on the farm in Murdock. He was a tenant farmer then and worked all of the time. My brother and I never saw him much but I do remember he would come home at lunchtime. After lunch he would lay down on the floor by our pink (black..it was all kinds of colors) round floor fan and take a nap!! He would rest for a while and then get up and go again until it was dark.

My brother and I did not know how hard or how long he worked then, but now we understand, of course!!

We did not have much that I remember now, but that never seemed to matter to us as kids.

Dad would make things for us like a tree swing, stilits, (sp) kites and just whatever he could think of to make for us.

We did not have gobs and gobs of toys like everyone has now. We mostly had to make our own and use our imaginations to do the rest.

When Dad was home seems like he was washing the car, mowing the yard or just keeping busy. If he wasn't busy he was taking a nap...which now I see he really deserved!!

Funny as a child, these things don't seem important. When you become an adult they are VERY important!!

I remember Dad when the tornado hit our house too. The noise woke him up first. He went downstairs to check things out in the dark because the electricity was off...He stepped in water and realized that he needed to get us out of there.

We all got in the car and went to his dad and mother's home in Tuscola.

The next day we found out that the roof had caved in into our diningroom.

I remember Dad milking too!! He would sit on a 3 legged stool and milk our cows. The kittens would all line up around him and he would occasionally squirt milk into their mouths. There they would be all around him with milk running off their chins..Ha!! How cute. I can still see that picture in my mind.

I wanted to just celebrate my Dad today with this little blog!! I know I am not the greatest of writers but he is the greatest of DAD'S...thanks for being my Dad...I love you!!!

RETREAT WEEKEND....I am a Mentor Mom for our MOPS organization at our church. In case you don't know what MOPS is...well..it is Mothers Of Preschoolers. I am supposed to be one of the ones with some wisdom SINCE I have already made it through that horrible "terrible" time in my life.

The older I get the less I remember!! God is good you know!!

I am going with my other mentor mom friend this afternoon. We take food and plan this next years MOPS meetings. It is usually fun especially when we go out to the Camp to stay. I am trying to take good foods because it seems like that is all everyone does is eat and eat some more. Since I have been losing weight I don't want to sabotage myself this weekend.

Today I am trying to get my washing done and just be ready when my friend comes. I am so tired from yesterday. I had my two grandchildren. They were very good but I am just too old anymore I guess. Plus I always try to do WAY more than I should!! Just part of me I guess.

So...this is ME signing off...getting ready to go to the woods...

"WAG YOUR DRAGON TALE"....boy, you are saying, she is out on a limb tonight. No, not really. Yesterday I went with my daughter and her two children to the Civic Center to see "Dragon Tales" live on stage...The four tickets that we had were FREE...so that is one good reason to go. Between you and ME...it was the only good reason to go!!

What is Dragon Tales? Hm...well let's see. For kids only!! Really!! There were little kids running all over the place. You could see some dads but mostly moms and grandmas with little ones. Cotton Candy was being sold plus little stuffed animals of dragon tails and mostly anything else to get your money.

We had pretty good seats on the floor on this big auditorium but even at that I am still glad that the tickets were FREE!! Hmm...

It started out with 4 adults that well, you know must be getting a really good pay check or they just simply like to stand up there and act silly for a bunch of kids!! I would have to get paid really, really good for that.

They had everyone stand up and learn to shake their dragon tales. One little girl close to us really had it down well. She was shaking pretty well!!!

Kids were laughing and happy all over the place. Now ours!! Well my grandson kept asking, ' when it was over with'...does that tell you anything?? The lights would go down and he would think it was time to go. "Can we go now". So I guess not ALL kids like it!!

We sat through the WHOLE thing...(did I say it was FREE)!!

That was yesterday!! So now you know what Dragon Tales are...Only for little children...but better if they are FREE!!!

RAIN!! My how I love just watching it come down!! It is pouring right now and God is really letting us have it....So happy for that.

RAIN to me is soothing. I like the fact that it is cleaning everything off..almost like new again!!

RAIN is loved by my flowers I am sure!! They must love being nice and soaked and taking it all in after all the VERY HOT weather that we have had here.

RAIN Lucy our cat is sitting here in the window beside me just watching it come down. She has no fear of the lightning or the thunder. She is just enjoying watching.

RAIN you know there was no rain when God created the earth. WOW!! That would have been depressing. But then again, they had never seen it and did not know what they were missing. Noah soon found out what it was and the rest of the world found out...Can you imagine seeing water fall from the heavens and realizing that you had no place to go...can you imagine realizing that you should have listened to what that mad man Noah had been telling you. No place to run and hide!! Boy! Just thinking about it gives me the chills...Then after the water came from the heavens, it also started coming up like fountains from the earth itself. Just try to picture what that would have looked like.

RAIN now the frogs in the creek out back are happy!! They are making that really loud noise that they seem to make most nights but tonight it is wet. They really, really like that!! The noise seems louder.

RAIN source of our lives!! God knew what to give us.

I am just a social butterly, like my good friend, Kathy would say!! I was invited to go "back" to the TEA ROOM in downtown Savannah again!! My, I really am popular!!

A friend of my daughter and myself invited us to go and celebrate her daughter's 6th birthday..I never turn down going to the TEA ROOM..NEVER!!

Today I tried a new tea too...Winter Soltice!! It was good, but I still LOVE Emperor's Bride the most!!

The picture that you see if of my photogenic granddaughter, Madison!! Isn't she just precious!! I think so, but then again I am very predjuice!! She was all dressed up in her very finest and looked so cute that I just had to share this picture!!

We had fun, ate, drank tea and then went to Forsythe Park so that the kids could play for a while. The weather was "just a little bit" cooler today but still HOT enough.

What fun Savannah is...I am enjoying living here. I would never have learned how much fun it is to live someplace else if it had not been for my daughter and son-in-law. They moved and asked us to come along!! What a good decision that has been. I miss the rest of my family terribly but I am not young anymore and knew that I needed a change. I think sometimes we all do.

Come visit anytime and I will take you...gladly to the TEA ROOM!!

TEA ANYONE???