HALF A DOZEN KIDS

Once there were six siblings

Born in ole Kentuck

To get them all together

Would take a lot of luck

But they made a lot of plans

and vowed thru thick and thin

That they would work and work

And be together once again

It happened in October

of the year two thousand and nine

And when they got together

Boy, did that group shine

They met at sister Betty's house

and hugged and laughed and kissed

And being all together once again

Was so much joy and bliss

They had aunts and cousins

who came from far and near

to share in the reunion

with smiles and words of cheer

And when the time was over

Each had to go their own way

But they had made many happy memories

to store in their hearts to stay

Thoughts on a polka dot.

Tonight I feel like a polka dot. A polka dot is one small dot in a pattern on a piece of material or a printed document. When you look at the pattern you can see all the polka dots, but to pick out one specific dot would be very difficult.

You can get buried real deep in a polka dot pattern and never be noticed. You look like all the other polka dots and have very little significance to anyone.

To be noticed in a polka dot pattern you have to be different from all the other polka dots. For instance if you were a blue polka dot in a black pattern, you surely would be noticed.

Many times I wished I could be a blue polka dot but I've always been a black polka dot. Sometimes that is a good thing, but at other times you have a great desire to be different.

So, if being a black polka dot is my lot in life, then I must bear it. I will faithfully keep my place in the pattern until it is my time to go to the great polka dot place in the sky. And then, when I am gone, I will be a blue polka dot, for there will be a vacant place in the pattern and people will easily recognize my place and say, "There's a polka dot gone from that spot". If that don't make you blue, then nothing will.

Goodnight to all you fellow black polka dots out there. "I" know you're out there.

Last Mow

Well, I mowed my yard (the front only) today for , I hope, the last time this year. Had to use the push mower because the rider is broken. I had to mow some and then rest before I could mow the rest. Also it started lightly raining while I was mowing the first time and my back was getting pretty wet, another good reason to stop for a while.

Usually by this time each year the grass has a lot of brown in it and doesn't need any more mowing. It's still pretty green and with all the rain we've been having it still is growing very well.

But!!! Beware grass. The weatherman has forcasted snow for sometime this week. Probably a few flakes in the air, but nevertheless snow. Now we all know for a surety that grass can't grow when there's snow in the air. Don't we???????

I am not really ready for snow, but if it will stop that grass from growing, I guess I can stand a little of it.I have pushed that mower around the yard all I care to, for this year.

The only drawback to this problem is, that when you put the mower away for the year, you have to dig the snow blower out. Not looking forward to that either.

Oh, well, it's not too hard to snow blow those few flakes blowing around in the air.

Happy prewinter everyone.

A Rainy Day

Fall is rapidly approaching the city of Shelby in the state of Ohio. I welcome it some days and other days I dread it with a passion. Today is one of the days I dread it. It has been raining this afternoon and even the house feels damp and chills you to the bone.

I still have outside things to be stored for the winter and I need wood carried to the back porch before the snow flies........... The yard may need to be mowed once more before the mower can be put away and this rain will surely cause the leaves to fall from the trees, so that raking is lookin good for future weeks.


April will be flying home next weekend and after coming to see me and the girls and their homes on Saturday, she and I will travel to Ky. until Monday, when I will take her back to the airport in Columbus for her flight back to Utah. Then I will drive back to Shelby to try and catch up before another onslaught of things begin to happen. It will be a good thing to be with all my family one more time.

I will just try to live one day at a time for a few weeks and see what happens. Hoping to stay warm and dry tonight. Love and Prayers to all.

Good Growing Times

When I planted my little garden this year, I asked God to bless it and told Him, I would try my best to not let any of it go to ruin. Be careful what you tell God.

Since I got 8 tomato plants that were the little Roma's, I figured I would not get much juice, which is what I was out of. One of my friends at church had a really good tomato year and ended up giving me enough tomatoes to can about 30 qts. It still didn't look like I would get much of a crop from my garden. Then we went on vacation for 9 days, and when I got home, walaaaaaa! Tomatoes galore. I have canned tomatoes until I am tired of them. But I told God!!!!!!!!!!.

I went out last week and picked everything left in the garden that was ripe because we had a frost warning for that night. It did come a big frost during the night. But we were having our ladies retreat on Sat. and I had a million things to do for it. So the 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes and the 4 heads of cabbage and the huge bucket of carrots had to be put on hold.

All I have left is the tomatoes, which are in two cookers on the stove, and will be juiced when they are done cooking, and one very large head of cabbage. I had to throw out a few tomatoes but I have saved most all of the produce and can feel that I didn't let God down.

I am sure these things will taste very, very good this winter when the cold winds blow and we are snowed in, but today I do not like tomatoes or cabbage. Hopefully, by tomorrow I will have everything canned or frozen for this year.

Next year, Lord, I don't think I want a garden!

A different car

Have been home from our vacation for almost a week and it has flown by. Hit a deer when we were a mile from Heather's house and messed up the left side of the van pretty bad. It isn't drive able until it's fixed so I am driving a rental.

Now I don't know why they give you such lousy cars for rentals. This car has nothing you would consider an extra feature on it. The windows are crank and I haven't had to manually roll down a window for a long, long time. The locks are all manual too. I have to stretch across the seat to unlock the door when someone else rides with me.

Wednesday night I drove to church and when I started home I realized I didn't know where the lights were. I had one of the guys come and help me look. A third guy finally sh0wed me where they were.

The gears are on the column on the floor and my hand roams all over the dashboard and down the sides of the front of the dash before I find the shifter.

It is very low to the ground and I'm afraid one of these times I am not going to be able to pull myself up out of the thing when I stop. I may find myself sitting in it for hours before someone realizes that I am stuck in it.

I know that I have probably shocked you very badly to know what a horrific life I now find myself in, but if you all pray real hard , they may call next week and say they are ready to fix my van. Until then I will just have to do the best I can with what the good Lord has given me.


Hope to be driving a Pontiac Montana real soon.

Vacation with a Hurricane

We are leaving for Hilton Head next Friday on our vacation. We have waited all summer for our vacation and we really need it. The girls have been working on that project and nothing has gone right with it. They even extended it until Labor Day weekend because things have gone so bad. Of course that is the week we are going to be gone. They will just have to do without Becky and Heather that week, anyway as bad as things are going the job will probably still be going on when they get back. I am working as hard as I can to get all my sewing done before we leave but alas I also have hit a wall of problems. I do have three of the wedding dresses finished but I still have three more to go and two of them are trouble. I also have a prom dress to be repaired and five pairs of pants to hem. So we are really, really looking forward to our vacation.
Now we knew that the hurricane season is going on but for heavens sake, two of them in two weeks. Do they not know where Hilton Head is? Right on the Atlantic Ocean. And of course, the hurricanes have to make a show of themselves and blow right along the coastline when they are out there trying to prove how big they are. Well we have news for them, they can share our vacation with us, for we are going to Hilton Head next week come hurricane or high water. As hectic as life has been this summer a hurricane will just seem like another day to us. I bet we could even take a walk on the beach with the hurricane blowing along beside us. Can't you just see us now, walking along with our hair blowing straight up in the air or whipping around our faces. I bet we would think it quite funny. (Can you laugh out loud if you are out in hurricane winds? ) Well perhaps it will just be a plain ole dull vacation with lots of sunshine and nice weather but that's not going to stop us, as I said before, we are still going.
So, look out Hilton Head, here come the Browns and we are going to have a good time no matter what. If you happen to hear about 4 crazy women out on the beach (we are taking my sister with us) while a great wind was blowing, you can say to yourself, I bet they are having fun because they are on vacation!!!!!!

Changes

Well, Adam is leaving tomorrow for another year of college. Life is full of changes anymore. It was strange getting used to having him home again with all the stress and aggravation that he can bring with him, but, now that I have already gone through it once before, I know how hard it will be in the next few weeks getting used to an empty house again.
I will have to consider a lot of changes in the near future. I am getting older and this property I own takes a lot of care to keep things going. I may have to sell ( if I can) and get something smaller. Of course this creates another dilemma for I have millions of things in this house and if I get a smaller place, some of it will have to go. Deciding what to keep and what to get rid of will take a few years in itself.
I have always loved my home so finding another area that I would like to live in will take me a long time, I'm sure.
With all the time it will take to get another place and deciding what to keep and what to get rid of may take so long that there will be no need to even look for another home. I may have just solved this problem. Now, on to the next one. Maybe change won't be as bad as I thought.

Light the Lamps

I bought Becky some lamps for her birthday. She found a set at Wal-Mart that she really liked. It had 2 table lamps in the set and a tall floor lamp. We took it home in a medium sized box , wondering how many parts were in there waiting for us to put together. Also, we were kind of stumped as to how the lamp shades were crammed in there. It was the day after we moved her in and so we went lickety split back to her house to put them together to see how they would look in her living room. Adam and I started putting the pieces together while Becky was trying to unhook the lamp off a little table lamp that she had. It was one of those that had the lamp built in the table and it was about to fall apart, so when she got the lamp un hooked from the table,we sat one of the table lamps on it. It looked really great!... We discovered that the lamp shades were folded flat and the hasp and other wire frame were in the box. With some difficulty we got them put together, and the color really complimented the room. Adam was down to the tall floor lamp, when tragedy struck.The floor lamp was in three pieces with the wires strung thru the pipe like parts. One of them had the screw section in crooked and no matter how hard we tried, we could not get that thing together. We finally gave up and decided to take it back to Wal-Mart.
We didn't attempt to try and take the lamps apart and put them back in the box, so there went Becky and myself , carrying 2 table lamps and a box with a floor lamp sticking out all over, into Wal-Mart. They only had one more of those sets left, so we grabbed it before anyone else could and exchanged it and headed back to Beck's house. She really liked those lamps and was excited we got another set. We learned our lesson from the last time, so we started with the floor lamp. Wouldn't you know this floor lamp did the very same thing. We tried so hard to get it to go together that we got it stuck and couldn't get it apart, so there we are going back to Wal-Mart with a box with the table lamps still in their original wrappings and that stupid floor lamp half put together.
There were 4 people ahead of us, so we had to wait in line. The wait wasn't too long and when we were the next people to get waited on, another woman came and got in line behind us. She had a baby doll that was turning its head and babbling in baby talk and then it would laugh a baby laugh( which I thought was real cute) but the woman said it had been doing that ever since she took it off the shelf in the store. By the time we got to the desk to be waited on, I could see why she was bringing that thing back. We were glad to walk away from her and that doll.
Now Becky has to hunt for lamps again. She had to go thru the trouble of putting that old lamp back on the table so she will have some light in her living room, until she can find some more lamps. I just might let her go out on her own for this adventure. Good Luck Beck. Love mom.

GREEN BEANS

THE GREEN BEAN IS A LOVELY THING
HANGING FROM THE VINE
BUT WHEN YOU PICK THREE BUSHELS FULL
IT MAKES YOU WANT TO WHINE


AND I AM SURE THEY'LL TASTE SOOO GOOD
WHEN THE WINTER SNOW IS BLOWING
BUT FOR NOW, IN THE AUGUST HEAT
I JUST WISH,(FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE) THAT THEY WOULD STOP GROWING.

My Life's Gone Crazy

All of a sudden my life has gone completely crazy. I feel like I'm on a carousel and can't get off. Becky has already stated that it took me and her three days to move her. Adam did help some but not all the time . We had 5 days of Bible School and even if I didn't have a job, I had to get ready every night and go. Cedar Point on Saturday was an all day affair, even more for me because I had to go to Mansfield to get food to take on Friday.On the way to Cedar Point, a friend called and said she had a bushel of beans for me. Said she would bring them on Sun. as I wouldn't be home till late that night, so Sunday, the girls helped string the beans and I started canning. Could tell I was a little short on the last canner full so I went to the garden and Picked a bucket from my garden to finish the canner. Had to clean them and then go back to church. Monday was outside all day doing the yard work, but at least that is done before we leave for Gettysburg on Friday. Today, Had to be at church at 8:30 to let piano tuner in, so I just went on over to Mansfield to get tires on the van before trip. Came home, went to curves, and then picked more beans from my garden. Cleaned them and just turned burner off first canner full. I need to clean the fellowship hall before I leave on the trip and I have an outfit for a wedding on Aug 15, that I must finish. Now I usually don't accomplish this much stuff in this short a time but I am keeping up with it pretty well, so I wonder if I'm nearing the end of my life and have acquired an extra burst of energy to get me thru everything. I am afraid to stop because I may never get anything else done in the time I may have left. So I am just going to keep on until I fall over and if you happen to come by me, don't worry, I will either be dead or building up energy for the next few weeks. Stay healthy and get lots of rest.

The Great Ice Cream Adventure

Ever since Adam started dating, I spend most of the evening hours by myself. Sometimes on Saturday evening one or both of the girls come over, but some of Becky's classmates were home this weekend and wanted to have supper together so she had plans and I hadn't heard from Heather today, so when Adam left about 6:30, I decided to go for a walk.
As I was getting my walking equipment ready( MP3 player, head phones, cell phone, door keys and fanny pack because there are no pockets in the skirt I am wearing) I thought that I would walk a little farther than I usually do and go to PAULS ( a ice cream shop that's open in the summer here in town) and get a cone to eat walking back to the house. So I grabbed some money to add to my fanny pack essentials.
I figured all the walking would cancel out the calories in the cone I was planning to buy and anyway I was only going to order a small vanilla cone, I reasoned with myself. For some reason I hit one of those depressed spells I take, and so I thought that a cone would help lift my spirits.
I got down to PAULS and there were two people ahead of me. As I got in line standing outside, I started looking at the different items PAULS had painted on the building and ALL of them looked so good. My resolve to get a small vanilla cone began to weaken. I was still debating with myself what to get when the waitress said," and what can I get for you, Hon?" Before I knew what had happened I blurted out " A carmel pecan cone with two scoops". Oh, well , maybe I will walk the calories off from this cone as well.( yeah, and pigs fly, too).
I paid $2.65 for my "carmel pecan cone, with two scoops" and began the walk back to my house. It had been kinda cool all day, with a small breeze blowing. Made for a really great walking day but not too great for walking with a cone day.
The cone began to melt at a rapid pace and I had to lick real fast to keep up with it. Now, PAULS is east from my house, so I had to walk west to get back home. At 6:45 in the evening the sun is just eye level when you are walking west. I couldn't see a ding dong blasted thing until I would hit a spot with 2 or 3 trees in a row . I was just hoping there wasn't a big rock or tree root or anything like that in the pathway or sure as shootin' I would trip over it and fall flat on my face.
I thought that I was keeping up with the melting cone, when I felt a cold splash on my shin. I had to start licking at a rapid rate of speed to keep it from dripping all over me. I finally got ahead of the drip and could stop and wipe the ice cream from my shin, but the rapid licking had caused me to get choked and I coughed about 15 times before I could stop. I tried to keep licking the cone between coughs but Just as I was getting the cough under control, I felt a cold spot on my toe. Yes, you are right, more ice cream had gotten away from my tongue. I had gotten the cone down to the rim of the cone by now and so I could stop and wipe the ice cream off my toe. Luckily for me, I had grabbed a couple extra napkins when I had gotten my cone.
Now, you would think that this had been enough trouble for me but the coughing spell had caused my nose to start running. Now I am walking, licking and sniffing. Not a real comfortable situation. My nose is really having a running fit. I am afraid I will run out of air between the licking and sniffing and walking..
I finally get the ice cream into the cone and in a few minutes the troublesome problem is solved. My nose on the other hand is going into full speed ahead mode. Like I said, I had grabbed extra napkins so with the ice cream gone, I had a hand free to wipe my nose with.( I had to carry my MP3 player in one hand and with the ice cream cone in the other I had no hand to wipe my nose)
I am nearing the end of my journey as I can see the street sign for my street ahead so I think I will have a nice pleasant little walk the rest of the way home, even if my nose is still running like a sugar tree. All of a sudden the ligament in the back of my knee and the muscle in my hip try to lock up on me. I have been having this happen occasionally but why now of all times. Now I am limping and sniffing as I am trying to walk home. I begin saying, " I think I can, I think I can" as I try to get home without having to crawl on my knees.
But God is still on His throne in heaven and had mercy on me for I make it to my driveway and my hip and knee are even doing better,( not well but better). I round the corner of the driveway headed for the back door and refuge and think to myself " I don't even know if that ice cream cone was worth it" but then I think , Well, it was awfully good. I might even try it again one day.

Let's Have A Pool Party!

Well here it is , the middle of July already. What a busy summer! It will be over before I get started enjoying it. The garden is doing great. I have had radishes, zucchini, and green onions from it. After the rain last Sat. the first planting of beans are blooming like crazy and I have little green tomatoes forming on the tomato plants. Will be canning some things before long if I have good luck.
Good luck I am not having with my pool. Adam decided he wanted to put it up on one of the two days it was in the 90's. So he did. I called my neighbor who has a water business and he said he could come the next day at 8:00 in the morning. Who, in his right mind delivers water at 8:00 in the morning? Anyway I got up at 6:30 to be sure and be awake and have some coffee before he got here that day. He came at 8:00. It was already so muggy that I had sweat already running down my face. Started the pump and after a few feet of water was pumped in the pool, I noticed a little stream of water coming from under the edge of the pool. I very calmly said," Greg, is that water coming from my pool?" to which he replied," Uh-oh, yeah, you got a problem there." I told him to finish putting that load in and I would try and get one of the patches that will work under water ,that he told me about. He suggested I set a gallon jug of water on the hole and it might stop it until I got the patch put on. After he left, I went in the house and found an empty milk jug. I figured when it filled with water it would set on the hole in the bottom of the pool. I put in in the pool, on the hole and it floated away. Good grief! I had to go hunt the broom so I could reach the stupid jug and drag it over to the side of the pool, so I could reach it. I got the bright idea of putting some rocks in it and it did stay on the hole, but the rocks had dirt on them so I had a bunch of dirt in my clean water.
Took a couple of days before I got to Wal-Mart to get the patch kit. By now the temperature is only in the 70's. Finally made Adam get in the pool and put the patch on. Greg had told me his customers swore by those patches and he was right. It stopped the leak right away. The temperatures are staying in the 70's which is too cold to get in the pool, but I figured it needed to have the filter turned on to keep the water clean. I told Adam to go ahead and hook the filter pump up and it looked like he had done the job. So I got the extension cord from the garage and pulled it to the pump and plugged it in. Looked like I had turned Niagara Falls on. Had to unplug it real fast. Sure, Adam had hooked the pump up, but he didn't check to see if it had a filter in it. Had to make another trip to Mansfield to get a filter. I had got some shock while I was at the store so I put it in the pool and the water became real clear again.
After I got the filter, I put it in the pump and plugged it in again. Not good. Water was leaking out of both ends of the hose on the pump.Unplugged again and waited for Adam to get home. He was no help. We couldn't get those hose to stop leaking. We inspected one of the hose and found it had about 5 cracks in it on one end. Went to the pool place to but new hose but you can't buy hoses for Intex pools at a pool place. Got on line to order new ones. The only site I found with the hose for the model pump I have, was out of stock. I get the bright idea to put duct tape on it until I might can order some new ones. Can't find my duct tape. I have some strapping tape so I use that. Didn't work. A friend came by and said he could put some kind of rubber cement on it and then duct tape over that so he took it home with him and when he brought it back and hooked it up, it worked good,but the cement and duct tape made the end heavy and so it pulled downward so hard it split the other end. My friend took it back home with him to fix the other end. I am considering buying a new pump( they had one at Meijers on sale for $30.00 but i wasn't sure it would work on my pool) but Sam said he would get it fixed for me , so I waited. When he got the other end fixed, we put a wire around it and tied it to the medal part of the pool so it would not have all that heavy weight pulling on it. It worked!!!!! Now the other hose that doesn't have any splits is leaking again except when the pump is running so we have to put the stopper in the end of the hose to keep it from leaking when the pump is not on. We got a bigger 0- ring but Adam hasn't put in in the end of the hose yet. We think this will stop the leak.
Now the water is real green again and I will have to go and buy some more shock. The really irritating thing about this whole mess, is that no one has been in that stupid pool yet.I got in once and walked around with the net getting the bugs and leaves out. ( By the way, the Japanese Beetles love the pool and there are dozens in it every day that I have to scoop out). Adam has informed me that he will probably be in it this weekend if we get it to turn some other color than green.I watched the weather a while ago and the weatherman said it would probably rain this weekend. Oh, well the Japanese Beetles are having fun in the pool anyway.

THE BAD AND GOOD SEED

I watched the movie, "The Bad Seed" tonight. It really freaks me out to watch this show. Don't know why I do. It's about an adopted woman whose little girl kills people who don't do what she wants them to. The woman discovers her real mother was a murderer, who killed 8 people herself, and so the adopted woman thinks she passed her 'bad seed' to her child. The woman loves her child so much that she promises to not let anyone hurt her. She gives the child a bunch of sleeping pills and when she falls asleep, the woman takes a gun and shoots herself. The neighbors hear the shoot and go rushing in and of course, they save the little girl.( In this version the woman survives and the plight of the little girl has a strange ending, another version I've seen the parent dies) At any rate it's a freaky show but It made me think about seeds.
Worked outside all day today. Since it rained all week, had to get the grass mowed. My neighbors are on a cruise and I sowed some good seed and told them I would mow their lawn while they were gone. So I mowed for a loooong time. I thought, people, if someone hadn't sown grass seed on this piece of ground I live on , I wouldn't have a numb posterior for a hour or two.
Then Adam and myself, edged all the walks around my house. Have you ever seen the walks around my house? There is lots and lots of concrete around my house. If there were never any grass seed put around those walks, I wouldn't have to spend lots of hours edging.
After many hours working on the yard and all the projects associated with grass seed, I decided to go look at the garden. My, Oh, My the weeds that have sprung up in my garden. Now, I have planted beans, radishes cabbage, onions, dill, parsley, cantaloupe, zucchini, and other things in my garden, and I had to go pay for seeds (or plants) to have these things grow, but I never and I do mean never have planted weed seeds. I do not want weeds in the garden. Where have these seeds come from? I think they truly are "Bad Seeds". So I spent as much time as my back would allow to hoe these 'bad seeds' from the garden. Why are bad seeds free and good seeds cost money? This is a question I would like answered.Since this is Saturday, I will have to go out Monday and hoe some more on the bad seeds or they will take over the good seeds.
After working in the garden for a long as I could stand it, I rested for a while and then I walked out front. We had put down some bricks around the front of the house and I wanted to see how things looked , after the lawn had been mowed and the walks edged, to see if the new bricks could be seen better. I spied the new tree we had planted and saw how big the new grass was getting that we had planted around the tree, so I went to find my grass shears, and I cut the new grass a little, but not too much, for I don't want it to die after I spent all that time planting the grass seed.
It is the end of the day and I am really, really tired. I made a dish of macaroni salad as we are planning on grilling hot dogs for fathers day. Guess what one of the ingredients was. Celery Seed.
I am going to take a shower and go to bed. I never thought seeds were dangerous, but after spending the whole day working because of seeds, I can tell you, BEWARE! SEEDS CAN KILL YOU.
HAVE A GREAT FATHER'S DAY ALL YOU DADS, AND ENJOY ALL THE SEEDS OF LOVE THAT WILL BE COMING YOUR WAY.

"Kill the rabbit"

Why do the rabbits like me so
This is something I do not know
I said it once, and I'll say it again
I certainly do not care for them.

On my flowers, I've worked so hard
To have a pretty awesome yard
But each day when outside I go
I find the rabbits have dug another hole

The petunia's try and try and try
To lift their lovely petals to the sky
But their roots are being dug about
If they can hang on, I have my doubts

I tried to put some moth balls in
But the rabbits threw them out again
My flowers lives are in peril
Daggone those rabbits!Oh, wait maybe its a squirrel!

Workin'

It is already June. Adam and I have worked liked dogs ( where did that phrase come from? And what exactly does it mean? I have never seen a dog work so I don't know if it's good or bad to say that,but I've heard it all my life and when someone says it, everyone knows exactly what they mean, so I'll just go along with it) and we still don't have everything done. As a matter of fact the more we do, the more we seem to have left to do.
Adam starts work Monday so I only have 2 more days to get as much out of him as I can. We planted some of the garden last week and we have beans and radishes and green onions up. We are much later than those of you in Ky. when it comes to our gardens. It was only 50 degrees today up here. It may have stunted the growth of the plants. I think tomorrow is supposed to be a little warmer.
We are going to plant more beans and onions and probably radishes too, next week. We are not very knowledgeable in our gardening skills, but we are doing OK for a couple of novices. Someone told us ashes were very good for your plants so Adam went out today and flung the ashes from the fireplace on the garden. The garden is a little grey looking now. Adam thinks the ashes will blend in with the ground after a few days.
We also planted grass seed around "Belinda" today. We went out to a farm and bought a bale of straw and spread some on the grass seed and watered it down. Looks good to us. There was a bird hoppin' around the yard after we were done. He must have thought we did a good job too!
We went to 'Menards' and bought 10 more bricks to finish the trim around the flower beds we had started and more mulch, so tomorrow we can finish those jobs.
We, or perhaps I should say I, still have several projects to do , to say I have the outside work done. Like, I only trimmed half the hedges, and I still need to get all the weeds out of the pool spot, but I guess it will give me something to do when Adam goes to work.
All in all, I'd say that Adam and I should be proud of ourselves for all the things we accomplished in May. He really helped lighten my load this spring. Glad God gave him to me.

A Hairy Tale

Hi guys,
Went to Ky. this weekend to visit with the family, as Dennis and his family were coming in from Arizona. You will no doubt read lots of blogs about this event.
We had a really great time. So good to see all the family again. We have the greatest family on earth. Just ask any of us.
Becky, Adam and myself went down Friday night. Got to Granny,s about 10:00. We all stayed at her house because it was so late.The next morning granny insisted on fixing sausage and gravy for breakfast. I then cleaned the kitchen for her for her mother,s day present.
I told my sister, Betty that I would go to a memorial service for my uncle Clabert Boyles, who had passed away. The service was at 2 o'clock on that Sat. Betty said she would be at granny,s at 1 and we would leave about 1'30 to go to the service. The kids went with me.
After the service the minister said there was food for the family at the fellowship hall. Betty said she was hungry so , since we were riding with her, we went to eat. A lot of my family was there, including my other two sisters who lived close. So we spent some time visiting with all of them. Went back to granny,s and Betty came in to visit for a while.
When Betty left, we needed to go to the store for granny. She needed more sausage in case Dennis helped her fix a breakfast while he was in. And Adam had used most of her ice to soak his ankle in, so we wanted to replace it.
Now, Dennis and his family will be in tonight so we are supposed to go to Diana and Murf's to spend the night. I wanted to get there before dark because we are not very familiar with the area. So we realize that time is running low on our time clocks, so we need to get hoppin'.
We devise a plan. We will go to town, Becky and I will go to the store and get the few items on the list, while Adam goes to the dollar store to buy a belt. Then we will go to the Dairy Queen to get granny a burger and onion rings, then take it all back to granny,s and head on out to the Murphy,s.
It starts out good. Adam gets his belt, meets us at the store, helps get the items needed and we head to DQ. Things aren't so good there, for one thing they are slower than Christmas. After we get the food we head back to granny,s and on the way, I suddenly say," Did, we get sausage?" Becky replies, "Oh, no." We decide to stop at the little store near granny,s to see if they have any. Then I say, "Did we get ice?" and Becky replies, "Oh no!" so I know they have ice at the little store, and I go on down the road, headed toward the little store. As I near the store, I have already forgotten that we needed to stop there, but before I got past it Becky pointed her finger at it and said something that resembled "store" giving me enough time to whip in before I passed it. Not wanting to block the gas pump, I stop at the lower end of the store.
Becky, nor Adam wants to get out of the car, so I go in looking for the needed items. God was gracious and they had a roll of sausage. I took it to the counter and paid for it and a bag of ice, which I was told I could get myself.
This is going well, I thought, and we will have plenty of time to get to the Murphy's before dark. I go over to the ice box and open the door. I have the roll of sausage in my left hand and my purse hanging on my arm. I reach in for the ice, but there is only one one bag on the very bottom on this side and when I try to pull it out , it is frozen to the bottom. Oh, darn, I will have to open the other side and get one out of there ,for it is full. I raise my head up for I have been bent down in this chest trying to reach the bag of ice, when my head hits a big steel spring that holds the door open. Don't you know my hair twists itself in the spring and there I am trapped on that hinge. Becky and Adam can't see me and I know they will let me hang there for an hour before they come to see what happened, so I have to take my right hand, and twist it up around my head and try pull my hair out. It will not come out easy. I have to slowly pull and pull to get myself unhooked.
Finally! I feel my head come free. I go to the other side and with my head reared back so as not to get near the door, I get the ice. As I am going to the car with the stupid sausage and purse dragging my left hand down, and the ice dragging my right hand down and the one side of my hair sticking straight out on the side of my head, I see Becky and Adam laughing.I can tell you I do not think any of this funny. And I certainly hope that if Dennis has sausage for breakfast one morning, he doesn't choke on it.And whoever gets a nice cold drink for dinner had better appreciate it. And if I have a bald spot on the side of my head, you can laugh, but you better not let me see you.
I hope going up to Diana's isn't this hard!

Lost and Found

I am a little tired tonight. Mostly because I stayed up until 4:00 last night. I have an appointment to see a financial advisor tomorrow and he told me to bring my copies of my IRA forms I had taken out 7 years ago.
Now, I haven't thought about those papers for a long time. I thought I had all my important papers in my fireproof box but when I looked there, no papers! I thought I would go to bed as it was 1:30 and look for them in the morning. But as I lay there trying to go to sleep, my mind would not shut down and I kept thinking of where I may have put them to keep them safe.
All of a sudden, I thought I knew where I had put them, so I got out of bed to look. Not there. So, now I am wide awake and figured I might as well search for a little while. I can sleep in for a while in the morning.
I searched thru all the files in the file cabinet, no papers there. I dug thru the closet and that was no easy job, but did not turn up any papers there either. I did find my old fireproof box. The lid will not stay shut without locking it, so I looked for the keys to open it. I shook the box and heard something move in there.I just knew that this is the place I stuck them to keep them safe. Now you must understand that I know for a fact that they are in the house somewhere for I never throw anything away.
I have keep those keys in a little jewel box on the shelf of my dresser ever since I got the box. They are not there! Now I remember, I put them somewhere else several months ago to "keep them safe". I looked for 2 hours for those keys. Finally, exhausted, I went to bed. I figured I had worn my brain out trying to think where I had put those keys.
I must stop trying to keep my things "safe" because I can never find anything anymore. When I got up this morning I continued my search for a hour or more. Suddenly I remembered I had filed some things in the drawers of the computer desk. I looked there, and all I can say is 'God is Good' for there they were.
I still don't know where the keys to the fireproof box are, but I will run across them some day. I only hope I don't need whatever is inside there until I do. I'm sure they are guaranteed to be safe though.
This is an every day occurrence for me anymore.I am getting tired of searching for hours for things that I know are in this house. I really need a smaller house so I don't have to search such a big area.
You know, of all the things I've lost lately, I think I miss my mind the most.

The Tree Ordeal

For Mother's Day, I got a tree. Well, really I got a gift card that was bought to buy a tree with. Every since the two pines went down this February, I kept saying I wanted a tree for my front yard.
So, this is what the kids got me and I have been real excited that I will get a tree for the front yard and I don't have to spend any of my own money. I knew that I would have to wait until Adam came home from college, to get the tree. I needed his truck to bring it home in.
This week we started on the "Tree Project". On Wednesday Adam and myself went to Lowe's (where the gift card was purchased because the kids didn't really know of a good place to buy a tree and I had said that I had seen one at Lowe's that I liked). We looked at the trees and I found a maple that I liked, but we had driven the van so we could not purchase it that day. It was only $40.00 so I found a flowering cherry tree that I thought would look good in the spot where the big pine came down. Now I am all set in my mind to what we would buy. We decide that the next day, since I have to come to Mansfield to pick up the plaque I had ordered for the memorial service we are having in June, we will drive the truck and pick up the trees on our way home.
Adam says on Wednesday night that he is getting up early to go lift at the gym and will be home by 10 or 10:30. I usually go to Curves and exercise at 10, so we will be ready to go to Mansfield by 11. I get home from Curves at 11 to find the phone ringing and Adam still in bed. Chris Hunt is on the phone for Adam. He got out of his classes early and wants to stop by to see Adam. I say O.K. because I need to make a couple of calls. Chris is still here when I am ready to leave so I ask him if he wants to go with us. He does. So we take the van again as It would be a really tight fit in the truck with all three of us.
On Thursday night, Adam says he is getting up early and he, Chris and Kyle are going to go golfing and will be home about 11 so we can go get the trees. Adam gets up late and they are just leaving as I am going to curves. I get home and wait and wait. Adam calls, says things are going real slow and he will be later than he thought.Becky took 1/2 day off , so she and I go to Mansfield looking for purses. Adam calls about 3(he just got home from golfing, glad I didn't wait all day on him) He meets us at Lowe's. My tree is gone! They have a red maple. Maybe I will get that. Just doesn't click. I find an October Maple. Really like it, but it is $62. Guess I'll only get one tree.
We follow Adam home to make sure Belinda (the name I give my tree, Heather names all her cars so I thought my tree should be named too) gets home safe. The leaves are all curled up and turned dark green so I think we may have killed her. The kids think she will be alright by tomorrow.
On Friday night Adam says he is getting up early on Saturday, and will get Belinda planted and mow Heather's lawn. At 11 I can see that it is going to rain, so I get Adam out of bed and tell him that he had better go mow Heather's yard before the rain comes. He says that he can plant the tree in just a little while and it would be a good idea to get it in the ground before it rains. So I jump on my rider to mow around the place where we are going to plant the tree. Adam starts digging the hole for the tree. It is the spot where the Blue Spruce used to be. I am still mowing when he motions for me to come over. The people who took the tree down and charged me $75 to take out the stump, had just taken the stump out about a foot below the ground. I wanted the tree in that spot. I had to go call Buckeye Tree Service but they did not answer the phone so I had to leave a message.
The tree removal called while I was still mowing and before Adam left. He said that the roots of the old tree would compete with the new tree for water for 5 Years and people usually planted grass when they took a tree down. Adam went to mow Heather's yard.
Sam came to pick up the old railroad ties that used to be around the garden, He said just dig a hole in front of the old stump and plant the tree there. My neighbor came over and said the same thing, so when Adam came back from Heather's that is what we did.
We had to take an axe and chop a few roots out but Adam finally got the hole big enough for Belinda. We sat her in the hole and it was way too deep, so we had to take her out and put dirt back in the hole. Then Adam had to stomp on it to make it level. We had to do this three times before we got her up to the place we thought she should be. By now it has started to sprinkle rain. We are getting quite wet and our tennis shoes are so heavy with mud that we can hardly lift our feet. We finally get the tree planted and are pretty wet. Adam still has to put the stakes on her to keep her growing straight. He only puts one on for now as the rain decides to come down in a pouring fashion.
We take our shoes off inside the kitchen door and have mud everywhere. We are starved and I do not want to cook. I am pooped from the tree ordeal. So we decide to clean up and go out to eat.
I hope Belinda appreciates what we did for her. And she better live if she knows what's good for her, because I'm not going thru this again.

My Mother

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I thought about my mom today. She has been gone about 14 years now. Sometimes I can't remember very much about her. She worked most of the time I lived at home and was always tired when she got home. We didn't have much quality time together like I have had with my kids.
She must have had a really hard life because I don't remember her laughing much. Maybe it's because I moved to Ohio when I was 18. I only got to spend time with her when we went home for a visit and we had to share the time with Tom's parents.
I remember some things that will always be special though. She would sing this silly song that I have never, ever heard anyone else sing. It was called "The Tune The Old Cow Died On". And when we took her on vacation with us, and anytime we drove by a stand of pines, she would sing "In the Pines". She didn't sing very well, but she liked to try.
She got Tom's brother Dennis to drive her up to Shelby when I had Becky. They drove during the late night hours, through a heavy fog, and only stayed for a couple of hours before they went back home. I don't know for sure, but I imagine she had to work that day.
When Heather was born, and I called and told her the name we had picked out she said in a shocked voice," Heathen". I think she was making a joke but she never corrected it. It was funny to me.
We took a vacation when my sister April got married and moved to Oregon, and took her with us. We drove and took 3 weeks for this vacation. We saw lots of things and had many things that made wonderful memories on that trip. Mom was a smoker, which we all hated, but on our way back home, we stopped at a campground to spent the night. (We had bought a van for the trip,(our first van) that had been converted so that it could be used for a camper) The girls were so excited to be 'camping out'. The mosquito's were so bad that we couldn't sleep or even rest. The only time we had any peace from them was when mom was smoking. We would sit near the smoke and the mosquito's stayed away. Tom finally got up and said," I can't sleep so get in this van, we're going home."
We took her to Virginia with us the next year and that was another fiasco, but it's too long to blog about now. More memories.
Her favorite meal was bacon and eggs, even at 7 o'clock at night. Every time we went home she would lay out liver to thaw so she could fix us some for a meal. My family would not eat liver. I don't know why she couldn't remember that.
She had 3 son-in-laws named Tom. Two of them had last names that started with a "B" so she gave them numbers. my Tom was either "Tom Brown" or "Tom number one".
I gave her money several times and I think one of them she either couldn't or took a long time to repay so she insisted that I have her "red Avon glass" so I would be sure to get my money back.
Now that I started writing about her, I guess I remember lots of things. Wish we could have spent more time together and talked about her life. I miss her a lot, especially on special days like "Mother's Day". I'm glad she was my mother.

Have a Happy Mother's Day Mom, I Love You
Your daughter, Brenda

A Monster in the house.

Does she look scary to you? Well, in this picture she looks like my precious baby girl, but there was once a time when I thought she was a monster.
She still lived at home. All the kids were still at home with us. There was a movie on T.V. that night about a family going to their cabin for vacation and a serial killer, posing as a hitchhiker. I wouldn't watch it after I saw the advertisement for it, as those kinds of shows stay in my mind for a long time.
Anyone who is, or ever has been ,a mother, knows all about down time. When all the family went to bed I would stay up and read or watch something I wanted to see on T.V. until I got real sleepy and them I would go to bed.
This happened the night I saw the ad for that scary movie. At about 3 o'clock in the morning I awoke and realized I had fallen asleep and I needed to go to bed. Upstairs I went and went in the bathroom to brush my teeth before retiring.
When I turned out the light and opened the bathroom door, I faced total darkness. As I started out of the door, I realized there was something standing in front of me. And I do mean something. It was about 5 feet or more in height and had no head and had an awkward posture. I stared for a second or two and then the mind process kicked into gear. I thought someone or something had entered my home and could possibly harm my family( the serial killer hitchhiker must have been floating around in there somewhere)All of a sudden I knew I must do something to save my family from sure destruction. My heart started pounding so hard, I thought I might be having a heart attack. I opened my mouth and screamed with all my might!!!!!!!Just then My eyes has adjusted to the darkness and I realized that it was Heather standing there. She had that huge head of hair hanging down over her face( thus the faceless thing)and was slumped over as she had just climbed out of bed to come to the bathroom. She wore a black sweatshirt with the arms hanging down over her hands and some kind of dark pants on.
I had just gotten my heart to stop racing and was about to speak to her when she let out an ear piercing scream. ( Later she stated that I had scared her when I screamed). Now, not expecting her to let out a scream, she scared me anew, to which I replied with another scream. and doing this scared her again, so another scream from her. I cannot remember how many times we screamed at each other until I found enough sense to say "Heather Nicole!!!!"" Now we had broken the scream cycle.I demanded to know why she was up a 3 in the morning, as if her kidneys had no right to be awake at that time in the morning. After she informed me that she needed to go to the bathroom and I stated that she had scared me and she stated that I had scared her, we went on our separate ways.
Now, Adam's bedroom is directly across the hall from the bathroom but you know we never woke him up. But alas not so for poor Tom who had to get up at 5:30 that morning to go to work. When I got in the bed, he wanted to know what in the world was going on. I told him and he tried to go back to sleep. Still having that rush of adrenalin going thru my body I could not go to sleep.As I lay there thinking about what had just happened I found it very funny and I started to laugh. I tried to hold it in so as not to disturb Tom, bust I couldn't keep it in. AS I began laughing out loud, I could hear Heather laughing in her bedroom. It soon turned into hysterical laughter for both of us. It was so bad, I told Tom to slap me so I could stop laughing. I do not think my poor hubby got much sleep that night. The next morning we found out that we had awaken Becky and scared her stiff. and she was awake the rest of the night also.
The next day everyone was going to work and school in a daze. AS each one came home that night and walked into the living room, where I was sitting, we would break out into bouts of laughter. Needless to say we all went to bed early that night and got a very good nights sleep.
So, just look at that face and do not let it fool you. Remember the next time you see a pretty face, there just might be a monster lurking under there!

Who's Weird?

I just read the comment my niece, Shelley wrote about my blog-"Clean what!!!!!" First of all to Shelley and Becky---- I did not mean I would take the buttons off all the clothes. Only the garments where I had about $10.00 in buttons. I would probably only get $4 or $5 for the garments in a garage sale,and if I could recycle the buttons at a saving of $10.00 I thought perhaps it might be worth it, to reuse the buttons and throw the material away. Honestly girls!!



Secondly, about the comment Shelley made about not being weird. Hummmmm! Well I got the dictionary out and looked up the meaning. The first meaning was ' of fate or destiny' . I am not real sure what that one is supposed to mean, but I think the Brown's make their own fate and destiny , so that one can apply. Second meaning: of or about ghosts, evil spirits, or other supernatural things; unearthy;mysterious;eerie. I can say there is nothing ghostly, evil or supernatural about Shelley. Now, with the word, mysterious, we are beginning to form a picture of my beloved niece.

Third meaning:(a) strikingly odd, strange, etc fantastic: bizarre, Ahh we are making a clearer picture all the time. (b) eccentric, erratic, or unconventional in behaviour. Pay dirt! erratic: having no fixed course, or deviating from the normal or customary course. eccentric:not having the axis in the center; out of the ordinary; odd.

Now Shelley, forgetting your kids conference two times is a little out of the ordinary to me. And I would say calling your police husband in the middle of a courtroom hearing to remind him to bring home "T.P." is deviating from the normal. And,,, in my opinion, being told you can no longer ride in the cruiser with your husband because you were yelling at the prisoners is just bizarre. Now , if you think trying to save some money because you are a poor widow woman trying to live on a small pension and send her poor little boy thru college is weird , and you are not weird, with the things you do, perhaps we should read the dictionary together and talk it over.

Don't you ever change. Love you just exactly the way you are. all my love-Aunt Brenda

Flowers for the yard.

There is a story about our former pastor's wife, Christine, that we all like to tell now and then. When they were building one of the homes they lived in during the time we knew them, Chummy sent Christine to the hardware store to buy some grass seed for the new yard. The salesman asked her what kind of seed she wanted and she replied, " I like that kind that has the pretty little yellow flowers in it."

Today, I spent several hours, digging up those "pretty little yellow flowers" from my yard. Why do we do such things? I spend hours planting flowers in beds around my house so I will have pretty things to look at when I go outside or look out my windows. God just gives us those pretty little yellow flowers for free and we don't even want them. Perhaps the fact that they are scattered about the yard in no organized pattern has something to do with it, or that they will grow up to have those big balls of ugly seeds that blow in the wind and cause us to sneeze and cough. They also choke out the little blades of grass that are trying to come up out of the ground and cause them to die before they have a chance to live a normal life. Then in the late summer, when the little yellow flowers have long since died off ,the big ugly leaves dies and leaves bare spots all over the yard where the little blades of grass would have been grown by now if they had been given a chance to live. This does not make for a pretty yard.

So every spring I go outside with my trusty "pretty little yellow flower" digger and dig them up from my front yard. And I will spend money to buy flowers to plant in the beds around my house so I can have a pretty picture when I look outside. But I do appreciate the fact that God wants to give me a flower for free. You would know this is true if you would just go look at the back yard.

hope you enjoy those "pretty little yellow flowers" this year!

Clean What!!!!!!!!!!!

When Adam went to college last fall I decided to go thru all this junk I've collected thru the years and piled in all these rooms of my house. I figured I would have so much free time on my hands and this project will keep me from being so lonely, plus my house will be in better shape.

I really didn't get started as soon as I planned (Imagine that) but I have worked on it. The "sun room" as we call it, was where I kept all my scrapbooking supplies last year. I organized them into one box, and piled the twin bed in the room with all the papers from diabetic diets, Ladies Auxiliary projects, loose bills I am organizing , the church diet plan, and any other project I have papers on that I don't know exactly what I am going to do with. You can see almost all the floor and the desk top is almost bare. That's something isn't it? Well I'll work on this room later, it takes too much time to go thru all those papers.

The Living room I've kept in pretty good shape. Every drawer and end table and any other place I can stick stuff ,is full as it can be, but...... you only see the furniture and the big pile of current projects and bills, I am working on. Some days there is a stack of newspapers, if I haven't carried them into the sun room and piled them on one of the clean spots I had in there.

The family room isn't bad either. I have pulled out all the music books we have, since I'm learning to play the piano( earlier blog) and they have to have a corner to be piled in. The couch only has one place you can sit down on, but anyway the kids have learned to put the camcorder and camera , all the papers I'm currently using, the box with my good silverware in it , the bag with the old bridesmaid dresses in( that the owner of wants me to make her daughter something out of, when she finds time to look for a pattern) and the goblets I just recently bought, on the floor, if they want to sit on it. The computer, being in this room, has times it gets piled up, but I clean it every now and then. ( after all how can you blog,if you can't get your hands on the keyboard). All in all, I think it is is good shape.

Upstairs, I cleaned Adam's room after he left, and since it is mostly his stuff in the closet and drawers, I can't do much there. He does make the bed when he comes home for a visit and so That room is not a worry, although right now I have all the Easter decorations piled in his room, waiting to be carried to the attic and put away in one of the boxes I have for Easter things.(You have to go in his room to get to the attic door.) ( Actually the attic is one large room running the length of the house,you will see the importance of this later) ( It is so big it was Becky's bedroom when we first moved in the house)

My bedroom needs some work. I have filled three bags with clothes that I am deciding if someone really will use them if I give them to goodwill or someplace like that, or If I should salvage them for my use, like taking the buttons off and reusing them. oh, well. I'll think about that later.

The sewing room!!!!!Lord have mercy on me. I have cleaned it Lots of times since last fall. I start on another project and everything in the room gets pulled out into the middle of the floor. When one project is done, I have another one to start, sometimes two or three are going on at the same time. oh well, that's what's nice about having a sewing room, I can leave it piled up until I am done with my projects, and then clean it up.

The other place I was determined to have cleaned by the time Adam came home for the summer, was the attic. RIGHT..................You talk about a disaster. I spent one whole day on it last fall and had all the Christmas stuff moved down to one end of the room, planning to go thru the967 boxes of Christmas things I have(that's no joke, ask the kids) and get rid of some of it.I'm just not in the mood to go thru Christmas things right now. I'll work on that later. I did sort all the clothes I wanted to put in a garage sale this summer in one place(although I'd rather take a bullet to the head than have one of those things) and all Adam's baby things I want to keep are in their own corner. Heather does have a box of her old college things up there. I could do a lot better if that box wasn't in my way.hahhahahahahahahaha I have gone thru 3 boxes of old material scraps. I start to throw them away and I think, maybe I will find a use for them someday. Someday had better get here soon or the material be will dry rotted and what good will it do me then??????? We are having a mother -daughter tea in two weeks and I told Danielle I will help her make a garden, so I will be digging thru all that stuff again to find things to make the garden, so whats the use of trying to clean now, when I will be messing it up anyway.

Adam will be home in two weeks for the summer! I will be glad! I need some time to work on this house. It's a mess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Big Purple dress

My Aunt Juanita took me to her house one summer and taught me to sew. I made a maroon skirt. I'll always remember what it looked like. Because mom had very little money when I was about to get married, I made my wedding dress. It wasn't real good but it got the job done. My Tom was so small that he could rarely buy anything that didn't have to have some kind of altering done before he could wear it. Thus, my sewing career began.

I've been asked to make all kinds of things in my life. Some were really crazy. I made a white satin vest for a dog to wear in her master's wedding pictures. I made two little baseball caps for two fence posts that one of Tom's friends had carved faces on. I made tons of welding hats for the guys at the steel mill. I've made lots and lots of costumes. I made a custom tablecloth for ,"The Spencers" gospel singing group. I was asked to make a cover for a boat, but I refused that one.

I've sewed bridesmaid dresses for I don't know how many weddings and I don't know how many little dresses, pinafores and bonnets for new babies. One of my most common alterations these days, is prom dresses. I am getting more and more calls every year. Some of those things can be real bears to work on.

I finished alterations on one today that I hope I never see again. The mother of the girl wearing the dress graduated from school with Heather. I am getting too old for this. When they brought me the dress, we had to really pull to get the plastic cover off it. It needed about one inch taken in on the sides. The mother asked me, where to go and have it puffed out. I told her the cleaners would probably do it. This dress has three, yes, three petticoats under it and the top is two layers of purple netting material with sequins all over it . Well, I had to flip it upside down to get to the sides, the longer I worked on it, the more it puffed out. by the time I got the first side ready to be worked on it was a big huge purple ball. I felt like I was in a jungle when I was working on that thing.It has grown larger each day. I had so many layers around me that I had a hard time finding the front of the dress when I finished a side. I had it pulled up on top of my head so I could get the side under the machine. Now, this process creates static so that when I moved it from my head, it would pop and crack and of course shock me. Well, I have one side done and the other ripped apart, so what could I do but finish it. Back on top of my head. More popping and cracking and my hair is standing on end when I pull the dress off it,so that it reminds me of a weird science project. I would like to not put it back on my head, but the thing is so big by now, I can barely get close to my machine. One more time to the head and I will be done.This time the petticoat layers have fallen down over my head, with my eyes peeking from under the edge of them, I do the last stitch. Am I glad to be done with it.

I am tired and will have to go to bed soon, but I have a dilemma. The dress has puffed so much on it's own that I had to lay it on my bed which it fills. Oh. well, I can throw it on the floor so I can get in my bed. After all, the mother is going to get the cleaners to steam puff it so it will stand out.

I hope her date has a large, large car.

The Dreaded Dentist Visit

Today I had a dentist appointment to have my teeth cleaned at 10:00 in the morning.Why I agreed to such a time, I don't know. When they call to tell you that it has been a long time since you have been in and it's really time you need to have this done, you just take the first appointment they have open. They make you feel like you're not a normal person waiting so long to get your teeth cleaned. Anyway, I headed for the dentist's office at 9:50. One good thing about having your medical people in Shelby, is that you can get to the office in a matter of minutes.

I didn't have to wait very long before they called my name( not many people agreed to those early times). I got in the chair and the first thing they did was x-rays ( since I hadn't been in for ages).We were on the last little tab, and when she put it in my mouth and told me to bite down, I knew something wasn't right. I could feel something odd with my tongue. I thought, ' I have my teeth on her glove' but what can you do with a hand stuck in your mouth. I frantically tried to shove it aside with my tongue, but at her insistence to bite down, I did just that. Of course when she tried to pull her hand out, she says " oh, you're biting on my glove" Duhhhh! It's a wonder I didn't bite a hole in it, with her trying to pull it out of my mouth with my teeth on it.

X-rays over, she begins the job of scraping around all your teeth with that little sharp dental tool, chatting like a magpie all the while, just as though we were at a party. I listen though, for it keeps your mind occupied during the torture session. They used to squirt your mouth full of water from a little hose, but now they have a new plan. There is a cup under the little spout on the side of the chair, and you get to fill it yourself and then rinse . It was very simple and I managed it very well, but the water must have been frozen in its early life . I have 5 crowns in my mouth and I cannot take really cold water being thrown back in my mouth. Whew, I grabbed my mouth and made a comment about cold water. The hygienist began to be worried about me, so she suggested I fill the cup and hold it in my hand to warm up some before the next rinse. I did this with reservation as I am afraid the hygienist may get a bath before we are done.

Things go very well for the next few minutes and she is nearing the end of the cleaning, when she hits an exposed nerve. I jump in the chair and let out a yelp to which the hygienist also jumps and yells. She said I scared her for she wasn't expecting that. Well, for her information, I wasn't expecting it either and to my good credit I keep all the water in the cup when I jumped. It was that hygienist's lucky day! When she got finished and said I could rinse, I said to her ( in a rather annoyed voice, "What did you do to that tooth?" she said that the nerve was exposed a little probably from my gums receding some. She said she would warn the dentist that I had a "Hot Spot" in my mouth. I replied to her "You Better")

Then when she started to polish my teeth I took one of those real hot spells that I get when my sugar gets out of whack. I had already warned her that it might happen, so she stopped and let me take my sweater off . Then she took one of the hoses' and began blowing cold air all over me with it. She said she would help cool me off. I think my hygienist is having a nervous breakdown about now.She gets done and has the dentist come in and warns him very emphatically that I have a "hot spot" on number something, so I don't get that shock again. He gets done and tells me everything looks good. I say that I like him and the little hygienist says so pitifully behind me;" She doesn't care much for me!" I didn't mean to hurt her feelings.But we are laughing together as I am leaving so I think she has forgiven me.

Then I am sent to the front desk to part with my money. The girl at the desk smiles sweetly and says that will be $90.00. I almost jump and yell again. As I am going out the door the receptionist says, " Have a good day and see you in six months."

That's what she thinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope you all have really good dentist's visits!

Demented Elecrontics

Have you ever argued with an electronic device? Well, I have. As a matter of fact, today! Ever since we got lost in Washington D.C. and Becky had to load a gps system on her cell phone to get us out of there, I hinted that I would like a GPS. Guess what I got for Christmas?

Since I have not traveled anywhere that I did not know how to get to since I got my new present, I have never used it. Today I had to go way over on the other side of Mansfield to a area that I have rarely traveled, so I knew this would be the perfect time to use my Garmin.

I practiced loading the address on it. Worked perfectly. I even found the save button and saved it as a favorite. It only was half charged but I found the cord to plug it in the cigarette lighter on the car which charges it as you are driving, so I knew I was in tip top shape to head into the unknown boundaries of traveling.

Myself, my Garmin and Becky's DVR cable box headed for the car and the trip to Mansfield. (Becky got a new TV and our cable co. gives you free HD if your TV is compatible to it, but you have to have a cable box to fit that category. Since the cable office is very near the place I had to go, she asked me to take her old box and have it replaced.)

The first problem I had, was I could not get the holder to stick on the window and then get the garmin to stay in it so I just put the garmin on the dash in front of me(it has an indented place with a rubber piece on it so things stay put) and it seemed to work fine.

I started out of my driveway and Mrs. Garmin came on and told me to follow the high -lighted path. Well, I wanted to go the back roads to Mansfield, so I turned on Vernon Road, which of course put her in a tizzy. She told me in no uncertain terms to follow the high-lighted paths. I knew that she would recalculate so I paid her no mind. I must say she is a persistent little thing, for she told me about 5 times and then she said, and I swear they programmed a sigh in there, that she was recalculating. Well, I turn about 8 times on different back roads to get to Mansfield, so she was quite perturbed with me when I finally reached this side of Mansfield. Being tired of hearing her sigh and getting close to the area I was unfamiliar with, I decided to listen to her.

She told me to turn right, which totally confused me,for I could look to the left and see the area I needed to go to, but Mansfield has a lot of one-way streets and such so I thought she may be taking me in the back way or something. She kept telling me to turn right ,and I did what she said until she told me I would be turning on 314 which is just outside of Shelby!!! She had me going backward from where I wanted to be. I knew I wasn't supposed to turn right!

So I whipped down the first road I came to and thought It would take me to Lexington, where I could find my way to the south side of Mansfield. Wasn't where I thought I was. Mrs. garmin was thoroughly disgusted with me by then, but kept giving me directions. Since I had no idea where I was by then ,I would follow them sometimes, until I just felt she didn't have a clue what she was doing either ,so I would turn the opposite direction.She told me to turn on route 288 and this is where we got into an argument. I am in territory I have never even dreamed of being in Mansfield. I am passing huge fields with no sign of life anywhere about. I pass an occasional vehicle going in the opposite direction and I wonder if I should try to flag one of them down and beg for help.I think I have been kidnapped by this little electronic box. Perhaps there is a sinister plan behind her actions. She is telling me to turn right again. I yell at her that I know I am not supposed to go right. I say that if God will only let me come to a sign that I recognize I will fix her little red wagon. All of a sudden the screen flashes low battery at me. Now I am in a pickle, don't know where I am and Mrs. Garmin is not talking to me. Oh, dear what can I do!

Just then 288 ends and I see a sign up ahead. Mt. Gilead 18 miles ahead!!!!! Well, I know where I am now. For those of you who don't know our area I am about 12 or 15 miles to the west of Mansfield.

I turn around and head back down 288. I know I can backtrack to Lexington now and end up on the south side of Mansfield,which is my destination. As I am driving along I say to the DVR cable box in the back floorboard, " You better not open your mouth!". Which he never did.Smart Box.

To give a little credit to Mrs. Garmin, it's hard telling where I told her to take me. I would guess somewhere west of Mansfield, wouldn't you?

The Day After

It's always a rush the week before Easter at my house.So the Monday after Easter I look forward to as a resting day.

This year it was unusually hectic. I finished all the clothes I was making early, I am usually hemming or still sewing the sat night before Easter, and it's a good thing!

We made it through going to a revival Monday and Tuesday nights, Our home church on Wednesday, I had to go get the flowers and decorate the church Thursdsay morning and then we had tickets to a play in Mansfield that night, Friday, Adam came home and we rushed back to Mansfield to see a Good Friday concert that night. Stopped to eat after the concert so was late getting home. Saturday morning, Adam and I went to Herman's house in Mansfield to pick up a lawn mower he gave Heather, dropped it off and then went out to the track field to watch a little of the Shelby Invite, came home, made my tater salad, and cut up most of the fruit I was taking to sunrise service, took my shower curled my hair and collapsed. Go up at 6 went to sunrise service , regular Sunday school and church, made dinner, sent Adam back to college. My sister came up about 4 to spend the night with me so we walked her dog and waited for Becky and Heather to come up for a few minutes to visit after church that night.

Monday arrives and I am really ready for my rest day. Betty had to leave at noon, then I went to curves and then home to flop on the couch and rest! I spied the eggs hanging on the tree when I was coming home so took time to take them down. Just as I finished the rain came. Was more than glad to head for couch. Just settled in with book when phone rings. A prayer request. After 6 calls, back to book. Mail arrives. Must put on rain gear to go get mail. Really chilled from going out in a monsoon so couch and book and blanket here I come. Phone again. Adam needs phone number of High School. I remind him he left a letter from the college at home that needed to be turned in. Of course he has no idea of what to do about it. Call number at college. While waiting for college to get to a real person ,home phone rings, Betty can't find her pink jacket, can I look for it? A real person comes on the line from the college, must hang up on Betty, will call later. College person needs form immediately with copy of my and Adam's tax returns. Adam doesn't know college address, Person tells me how to get it. Call Adam and tell him to get me that address immediately and call me back as I must get form in mail in morning. Hang up, Call Betty tell her I found Jacket. Phone rings, Adam with address, must hang up on Betty again. Get address from Adam. Yell at him for a while for making me do this. It is the form for his loan for money f or college next fall. hang up, call Betty, apologize several times , tell her I will send jacket in a manila envelope, which I don't have, tomorrow. Must call tax preparer to ask question about tax forms. She tells me I need to white out one place on form and sign my name. I don't have white out. I must get dressed, run out to Drug Mart to buy manila envelopes and white out. Home again and fix package to send to Betty and letter to send to Akron. It is 9:00.


Whew! what a rest day! maybe I can try again tomorrow.

Piano Concert in B(renda)

My last blog was about useless things and I am still thinking of that. Everyone knows I have a piano. There have been many hours of playing, coming from it's ivory keys. Since the girls have moved out on their own, the piano doesn't get much playing time. Only when Becky or Heather is over and they play on it for a little while.

I paid a lot of money for that piano and I do not want it to sit there and be a useless instrument. A few months ago Becky had said it needed to be tuned, so when I got the tuner for the church piano, I scheduled him to come tune mine. Cost me $80.00. Gee-O-Pete. Well now that I paid that much for a tuning, I wasn't going to let it go to waste.So I have decided to learn to play the thing. Enough for me to get some use out of it anyway.

So, I have been trying to spend at least 30 minutes a day, when I can, practicing.Now I may have told you about me staying up all hours of the night, so if it is 1 o'clock and I decide to play a while, I just d0 that. It is a good thing my neighbors' houses are not too close to me, for I'm sure the eerie sounds coming from my house late at night could cause them to believe in spirits.

I am rather proud of myself, for I can sometimes play fast enough to make out what song I am attempting to play. I can recognize the treble clef notes pretty well but I have a ways to go on those bass clef notes. Anyway I only want to play good enough for me to be able to sit down and enjoy some music.

Well, like I said on my last blog, we had a beautiful day today. I was so thankful for it. After I got home from seeing "To Kill A Mockingbird" I decided to play for a while. I was playing along, concentrating on keeping the tempo and playing all the right notes, when I realized what I was Playing, "Jingle Bells!" I hope the weather fairy wasn't listening to me.No more winter for a while!!!! I will have to learn a spring or summer song. I don't want the weather fairy to hear any more songs that even mentioned cold weather. Does anyone have the music to "Sunshine on my Shoulder"?


HOPING FOR SOME SUNSHINE!

Easter Trees?

I hate useless things, don't you? Well I guess I really don't hate them for my whole house is full of them and I wouldn't part with them for the world. But I like to have them used as much as possible. For instance several years ago I bought a small artificial pine tree, which I put in my hall and decorated it for every holiday to make my home a festive and warm place to be. After a few years I got tired of decorating that stupid tree all the time so I didn't do anything to it for a long time. The tree now has a few inches of dust on it(have you ever tried to clean one of those things) and the pretty white lights I had put on to make it shine and glow , have long since died. It's little artificial branches droop downward as if to say "I'm no longer wanted". Not that I care what those branches want, they scratch the fire out of me when I do try to put something on them anyway. Back to the story, I had purchased different decorations for the different holidays, and after each holiday those particular decorations would be put away upstairs until the next time they were needed. I was upstairs looking for something for some of the decorations I was fixing for the church when I spied my box , no two boxes of Easter decorations. Even though Easter is only two days away I decided I needed to put those things to use.
I had a large bag of those plastic colored eggs, that I had put yarn inside of and then snapped them shut so they could be hung on a tree branch. So grabbing my bag of eggs I headed outdoors to decorate the little tree that Tom had planted out back.It was a fairly warm day today and the sun was shining like all get out. I began putting the eggs on the tree, but the one constant in northern Ohio is the wind. Those little eggs were having a high ole time once they were released on their branches. Also, the little tree seemed to have grown quite a bit since the last time I put eggs on it. I had to stretch on my toes to grab the top branches, then pull the branch down and try to get an egg over it before it slipped out of my hand and spring back into position.( It did this a couple of times and once it flung the egg so hard it wrapped the string tight around the branch and the poor egg was sticking straight up in the air, forcing me to stretch and grab the branch again get it loose so it could hang free, like all the other eggs)The little tree looked like it was starting to form buds, so I was trying to be careful and not tear them off as I was hanging the eggs on the branches, but if there are no leaves or flowers this year we will all know the reason why.The little tree also scratched the dickens out of my arms too. And I thought the house tree was bad.
Back inside, I went to work on the house tree. Since it is small, I had it all spruced up in no time, and I didn't think it was very bad on the scratching after the outside tree. I had made a Easter Bunny Angel, which is a bunny with wings that can be taken off.( I guess that 's like a punishment thing, you know if it's bad you can take it's wings away, you probably won't get this but I know what it means). It's about the size of a small baby doll. I made it a red frilly dress with ruffles on it and a pinafore over it. Then I crocheted a bunny and her dress with a little purse to go with it. They are sitting in the floor in front of the T. V. Two purple bunny's sit in front of the end tables. One wears a little hat and can be lifted up at his middle and can be a Easter Basket.(A good friend bought this for Adam when he was little). Then I have 14 or 15 ceramic bunny's of different sizes and shapes. I placed these on the mantle and top of the T.V. stand.One of them is a little bunny dressed in pink pajamas that Becky bought me. It's so cute! Always reminds me of Adam when he was a baby.
When I placed one more ceramic bunny on the table, my useless things were all in use again. Looking at all of them placed around, you can tell something special is about to happen.All these things revive memories that are fun to remember and the anticipation of new memories to store away for the future.
I guess things like Easter trees and Easter Bunny angels are only useless for part of the year. When it's Easter time they have found their place in the world and are as useful as can be.Like the Bible says ," there is a time for all things", and nothing wants to be useless forever, even an Easter Tree.
Happy Easter Everyone!

Is Spring Out There?

Today was a great day. The weather was around 70 and the sun was out. It made you hunger to be outdoors. I raked some on the yard and picked up some piles of leaves and pine cones that Adam and myself had raked up earlier in the month. I was getting ready for the first lawn mowing, which I assumed would be just around the corner, since we were having such lovely weather.

I noticed a few buds starting to come out on the daffodils in the back yard. I thought " How great! With this weather those flowers will be bursting out soon." I am so ready for spring to come and move in to stay.

Then, as I ran outside to put the van in the garage, I was really surprised to find it raining. The air already had turned cold again. I listened to the weather when the evening news came on, hoping that it was only a fluke and the weather woman would say, "Get ready for more sunshine," but the dreaded words came out of her mouth, more cold weather on the way. Where in the world is the warm weather fairy? Has she fallen asleep on the job? Hasn't she heard that spring arrived two weeks ago? If she's holding out for more pay, I think I could scrounge something up for a little warmer weather. Gee O Pete, how much cold does she think we can stand? I do believe I have some ice crystals forming in my veins. Well, I tell you what, I haven't lived in northern Ohio for 40 years for nothing. I can hang on for as long as it takes for the warm weather to get here.I will just put it on my list of things to look forward to and then I will be happy when the days arrive. Just remind me of this when it's 100 degrees outside and I am sweating to death and wishing for cooler weather. Warm weather fairy, you better wake up and start doing your job. In this day and age there's always another fairy waiting to get your job.