MEMORIES

Today would have been my mother's 99th birthday! Oh, how I wish she was still here with me. What a time we would have had!! But, I do believe she is here in spirit... She would have been so...excited to see how her grandchildren had grown and what wonderful adults they had all become! She saw most of them marry, and saw a few of their children! She loved being a grandma and a great grandma! But..wow being a great..great grandma would have been such a thrill for her. She always referred to them as flowers in her garden of life. Each beautiful and unique in their own special way. Smile... She was the true essence of what a Grandmother should be. She was the age I am today when she passed away. Hard to believe, and yet to think that my Tom has been gone a year now and his sister just passed about 3 weeks ago. We never know when God will take us home, so as they say, it's what we do with our lives while we're here on this earth that counts. They all made wonderful, loving memories for those of us who are left behind. I don't think I can have a conversation that I don't speak of my Tom. (Such as: he would have said this or he would have done that.) I still grieve for him, but he is still a big part of my life...if only in memories. He left so many memories for us to remember and share, as did his sister and my Mom.

In the 5 weeks of this year...my emotions have been all over the place. From happiness, concern, loved, sickness, tired, amused, excited, blessed and most of all sadness over the loss of my sister in law in January. I thank God for my friends and family who have been there for me, with love and concern. Rusty, is my rock. He keeps me busy, which is good..smile... He watches over me like a hawk. He reminds me of a kid...if I'm on the phone, he needs attention.. If I go to the bathroom, he either pushes the door open or scratches at it (uggg-that's one of the reasons I don't normally close it tight.. ha!) and he comes in, and lays there until it's time for me to come out!!! If you have a pet, do they do these same things??? Some may call it a nuisance, I call it LOVE!!

"The Lord remembers us and will bless us." Ps:115:12

October..Your Here Already...

Can you believe it?? October is here already?  This picture is our mums...aren't they pretty?? One year, we bought 3 of them; purple, yellow and orange! For whatever reason this was the only one that survived and flourished! Every year, they bring back memories of watching Tom planting them:)

 

Hard to believe...but a year ago on the 29th of September, Tom left our home never to return. From then on, he was either in nursing homes or the hospital before passing away in January. But there are just so many sweet memories that I encounter everyday...just like this one, of him planting these gorgeous flowers for all of us to enjoy long after he's gone. I have been so blessed to have had him in my life.

 

Today, when I let Rusty out, the yard was full of turkeys! I thought, 'ya you go boy'!! And sure enough he chased them all out of the yard..ha.. (Had they only known he could go just so far, he's on a pretty short lease...lol) However, Mr. Squirrel..came scampering across the yard today too...trying to find a place to bury a nut that he had in his mouth. He'd start to dig...then run a little farther and try again. He'd stop and look at Rusty, and for whatever reason he knew he wasn't going to come after him. Then off he'd go again..I'm not sure if he ever found a place to bury that nut...hummm........ I tried getting a picture with my cell phone, but they were NOT good.

This was our day this morning.. overcast and kind of gloomy. No rain however, which is good, the farmers are or soon will be getting in their fields and harvesting their crops. It is pretty though to watch the leaves turn colors and fall to the ground. What about your weather, how was it today??

 

My son is doing better, he's been able to play a few songs with his band. That is exciting and good for him. It will have been 3 months next week since his horrible accident. He continues to help me and be a blessing. I sold our pickup last weekend and had to take care of all kinds of stuff with that. But he was right there driving me around. (smile) And Rusty had to go to the groomers, so he did that one day. (thank goodness..)

 

My daughter in Georgia is back home tonight from their trip to Florida. What fun they had. Loved the pictures she sent. They went to Sea World Friday. They really saw a lot of cool stuff.

 

My sister in law is back in the hospital, so your prayers and/or good thoughts for her and for Randy (my son) would be greatly appreciated. Tomorrow I will tell you what my plans are for the day. (Let's see if I get them done!!)

 

Blessings and good night..

Do You Remember Jumping Rope??

How many of you remember jumping rope as a young person?? I use to love it, and when I was at home, I always wanted to practice so I would get better at it. Course, it was just my Mom and me (as my brothers and dad would be working, of course Mom was busy too, but always made time for me.) who were available and as you know you needed 3 people. Well we had a cement pad at the bottom of our steps, which led to a sidewalk heading over to the milk house. Across from that was a brooder house where we raised baby chickens. (Those memories are for another day!) Anyway, we would tie one end of the rope to the stair handle and Mom would have the other end. She would swing it around and it would make a 'slapping' sound as it hit the pavement. I would carefully watch the rope and jump in...just at the right moment. The photo (from the internet) above is what I would look like. (This memory came to me last night..I thought I want to blog again, but wasn't sure how to start. That's when I thought, when is the right time to jump in?? And decided, unlike the jump rope, it was now.) The post's may be random and zig zag back and forth across time, but hope you will stick with my through this journey in my life.

On February 2nd (Groundhogs day) we had a blizzard like none we've seen before. We were warned it was coming, (that is why I took the pictures 'before'). We ended up with a record setting amount of snow of 12.5". There had 'never' been that much snow here in a 24 hour period before... We have a service who come and do our yard and remove our snow. The lower right photo shows them out there working on it. I felt so bad for them, it was not only a wet, heavy snow but it was cold and the wind was blowing.

 

Now, here is poor Rusty. He goes out the back door to go potty. Off and on all day I tried to keep some snow off the porch. (Then the guys came and shoveled it off--we could see the porch and the steps.) That evening, I went to let him out and due to the high winds, the snow was as high as the porch. He stepped out...looked and turned around wanting to come back in. sad... I told him, "Oh honey you have to go out and pee.." So, he leaped into the snow bank and made his way to the ground. Very soon, he was ready to come back in.. I took these pictures as he leaped up through the snow to get back into his warm home...

 

These beautiful flowers were brought in by our yard people. They thought so much of Tom and just felt so bad that he had passed away.  This is what I see now...an empty chair. Time does heal, but the first night when they brought it back from the nursing home, I was very tired that evening and was dozing off and on. Once I woke up and could just feel Tom's presence. I know for most of you that sounds strange, but maybe for others it doesn't. I don't know, I've never been through this before so not sure what to expect.

 

More tomorrow as you follow me on this journey called life...



Baptisms

I have a friend who was going to her grandson's baptism this weekend. I told her to take some pictures so I could see. It reminded me of a time long ago (like 21 years ago. smile...) I've always taken pictures it seems. ha! Anyway, our granddaughter and grandson were baptized the same day. So, I was taking pictures of the two families. The camera I had, used rolls of film (remember them??) I always tried to use the 24 picture ones. But you would have to wait to use all of them to develop them. Anyway, I was snapping away and the camera went..zzzzzzzzzzzz (I had used all the film and it was rewinding!) Oh my gosh how embarrassing!! Father stopped and said, "We'll wait for you"...ha..ha..

 

Isn't it funny, how life stirs up memories for us??? God has given us such an amazing gift...memories! Be sure to enjoy them...as there are diseases that can steal them from us too. But that is just part of this life...

 

Glory be to God, as we pray for this little baby who was baptized this weekend and may he make lots of beautiful memories during his lifetime. amen...

Chicken! Chicken!

Each year when we go to the cemetery, we stop into this bar that is famous for their broasted chicken. (Note the chicken..already for Memorial Day...smile..) They also have gambling machines. I love to drop a little in them. My SIL egged me on with, "you are so lucky you should try your luck." So, I had 3 one dollar bills and put them in. Won...Lost...Won..Lost...Won! (then I heard, chickens here...) okay time to cash out! I won $3.75! That meant, I won, .75 cents...lol

Tom's Aunt Pearl, her husband and brother were good friends with the original owner. He had several senior photos hanging in there from this town. We found this one, which contains Pearls photo!

A little closer photo!

When we were leaving, I spotted this sign...I thought sometime I'd love to drive those 6 miles and see this church....It must be a little country church. (This gets on my to do list!!)

Another shot...that poor old yellow building, I understand, is full of old antiques. That too would be fun to check out...lol (If it truly is full of antiques..)

Just a parting shot, as we left to head to the cemetery....

 

Today was another 'busy' one...  Plus my son stopped by and I talked to my daughter for an hour and a half. smile... So, it was a good day!!! How about you? What kind of a day did you have??

New Stove, Kitchen-Klatter Cookbook and Prayer Request

 

I found Mom's old Kitchen-Klatter cookbook the other day. (Do you remember this one??) You could buy their flavorings. They were out of Shenandoah, IA. I remember Mom would listen to them on the radio. (Before the days of TV, when the radio was the connection to the world.)

 

This particular cookbook was printed in 1978. But she was a fan of them for years. So she was probably really happy when they came out with the book and was able to buy it!

 

When I came across this recipe, I thought, "Wow, this must be the recipe that Mom used when her and I canned pears one year." I still remember those 'green' pears. They were really pretty, and so yummy!

 

We finally got our new stove. I was so excited, it is very nice and so bright and shiny...lol The knobs are just the opposite, so that will take a little getting use to. Instead of going from a low flame to a high flame. Now it's high to low. But, the oven...that's a whole different story. smile.. I was looking in the cookbook for a recipe to bake something. Didn't find anything yet, however, I know I will find something scrumptious. And when I do, you will be the first to read all about it. smile....

 

How is your weather? We are having a gorgeous, beautiful blue sky day! But it is soooo cold and windy.  Just miserable!

 

Tomorrow my SIL Karen, goes in for a pet scan, so would really appreciate prayers that the results will be positive. 

 

 

Old Photos..

 

I was going through some old photos last night and came across a couple I thought I'd share with you. smile... We use to have a 5th wheel trailer, a boat and a boat lift on a lake. It was a lot of great times. At that time we had a Lhasa Apso puppy, named Bandit! Here he is out for a walk with me...smile.. Does this look like it snowed?? Nope, it's cotton...from the cottonwood trees! By the way, it does a real number on your fish line..ha...ha..

 

Here is the view from our deck. I loved this deck...Tom built it (I think for me..smile). We had the best view! As you can see from the previous photo, all the trailers were parked vertical to the lake, we were parked horizontal. We could either sit out on the deck or inside at our table and watch everything going on out there!!! At any rate, the ground was very rough and uneven, that is why he built the deck. I could just walk out the door to a very even surface! (Notice the wire? that was to keep Bandit from running off...ha..ha!)

 

Now for what I really wanted to show you...look at the mushrooms that were growing on the tree in front of our trailer. I've heard some say they are eatable but there was no way I was going to take the gamble..

 

When we were looking at these Tom said "don't  you wish we still had it?"  And yes, especially now, (being retired) it would be fun. But times change and we feel so blessed to have these wonderful memories!

 

Did you have a nice weekend? What did you do? We are looking forward to a busy week...doctors appointments...and just lots of stuff going on. That is good though. How about you?

Fireworks...

Today, we made Green Bean Tater Tot Casserole, it was so good! When we use to go up to the lakes and visit our friends there....she would always have dinner for us!! And this is what she made for us. (And of course she also had salads, pies etc. ) We really miss them, they are both gone to live with the Lord. But every time we have this we both think of those beautiful...lovely people whom we loved so much for so long. Have you made this before?? 

As you know the Fourth of July is just around the corner and if you have pets you also know how scared  they can get.  This picture is of our dog Rover, taken back in 1959! Rover came to our house and we adopted him right away! My brother told me that a neighbor stopped one day, to let Dad know that Rover had been at his house...but thought it was fine for us to keep him. Mom said, he was an outside dog...and was not allowed in the house!  Well, you can just imagine telling a couple boys that!! smile.. Of course they brought him in of a night. He was their sleeping partner.. (Mom and Dad's bedroom was down stairs and our  rooms were upstairs. The front door led directly to the stairs going up to our bedrooms!) Well,  Mom soon found out and wasn't happy about it...lol

Now back to the Fourth...someone must have shot at Rover, as when he'd hear the fireworks...he would run a couple miles away to some of our farm ground and hide under the tractor..until we'd find him! I thought..wow...how did he know the way down there...but my brother said he use to follow the tractors all over. Do you have any stories about pets and fireworks??

Tom and I are doing good tonight, we both had some things removed from my neck and his chin. We were a little sore last night. But so happy they are all gone! Only thing left, we have to have the stitches removed next week!

Hope all is well in your little corner of the world!

more as it happens here in the city...........

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-a-Dee-Ay

Have you ever had  something by way of conversation start memories come flowing in? This morning I was reading The Rusty Thimble's blog post "The Birds are Singing"! She had a picture of a road runner on her post...and I said to Tom, this is so cool...have you ever seen one? He said 'no'! (Now me...the only one I'd ever seen was in a cartoon. smile...) He said, there was one in the movie "Songs of the South"! (which spurred my memories...)

I told him my story about the movie! When I was young, they use to put a coloring page in the newspaper when a children's film came to town. Kids would color them and send them into the paper and they selected a few that were good and sent "free" tickets to the kids to see the show. Well, low and behold, I won!! (yeah!! yeah!! yeah!!)  Mom (Grace) took me up and dropped me off...I stood in line (which was a long one) for quite awhile...(my picture I colored was posted out front...so cute!!) I was told later I wouldn't have had to stand in line. ha..ha.. But remember..I was just a little girl...smile... Memories...sweet memories!!!!! We think we'll get this movie and relive it again...smile...

I put my little rabbits out for Easter...aren't they cute??  Do you see the rose on the one bunny? I made the dough out of white bread and Aleene's craft glue. I also used food coloring. I glued it to the back of the head, as you can see in the last photo. (This was back when I did lots of crafts..smile..)

These clouds were so pretty today... we had to go and get the oil changed in the van and this is what we saw!! smile..

Tomorrow, we've got another appointment with the therapist as I'm still  really having problems with my hip. Which means 'up and at em' bright  and early tomorrow morning...but I hope it's not as early at it was this morning... which was 4 a.m.!! sad...  (I was hurting..) 

I hope you had a wonderful day...

more as it happens here in the city......

The Day After the Music Died

On February 4, 1959 there was a Winter Dance Party Tour. 

Frankie Avalon performs at the Shore acres Ballroom in Sioux City as part of the Winter Dance Party Tour.

The plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper -- on what many might call the most famous rock 'n' roll tour in history -- crashed Feb. 3, 1959, in Clear Lake, Iowa.

The next day the troupe was in Sioux City with replacement artists. Heartbroken teenagers flocked to Shore Acres to pay homage to the lost stars and celebrate their legacy with the remaining artists.

When I read about this..I had flash backs as I was there that night. As I looked at this sea of people, I hoped I'd spot myself in this picture! But no luck!! Then I started having memories about that night. I was 15 years old and my brother's girlfriend talked him into bringing me along with them as they went to this Winter Dance Party as my birthday gift! I was so excited!!! Then tragedy  set in and the performers were killed in this devastating  plane wreck. However, we did get to go and Frankie Avalon was there performing! Afterwards people were getting autographs, so Larry's girlfriend (being older and of course more mature then me) took me up for autographs! I have one from one of a band member of the Belmont's and one of the Crickets band members...oh ya...that was "Waylon Jennings"!! I had brought my little Autograph book!! I will show you a picture of it along with a picture of Mom's (Grace) autograph book! (Actually, her's is in better shape than mine is!)

Today Karen went in for her colonoscopy and they did find something, so she will have to have a Cat Scan tomorrow, then the following day the doctor will make a decision on how he will go forward. So, I would really appreciate continued prayers for her... When we took her home, Tom took her dog out for her and as I was sitting in the van, I looked up and saw this feeder and the chickadees feeding on this (maybe) homemade suet! I'm sure this person must enjoy looking out their window watching the birds feed! smile...

I hope you all had a good day... I would love to hear what you are doing this week...

more as it happens here in the city..............

Christmas Past

I was checking out some old Christmas photos and I came across this one. This is me in 1959, some of the things I see, I'm kneeling in front of our 'artificial' tree, showing off my travel suitcase that my folks got me for Christmas (and I still have it today!) I think the clothes I had on were gifts also! I see Mom must have gotten a new coffee maker! Also, I noticed the window...where I had stenciled with spray snow, Santa flying across the snow laden hills! We lived in a 5 bedroom farm house, but the upstairs wasn't heated in the winter, so my brothers slept on a fold out couch in the front room. You can see their clothes laying on the sewing machine and hanging on the curtain rod! I had a bed in my folk's bedroom. I think that is why I always loved springtime the best, as that is when we got to have our own bedrooms again upstairs!! smile....  

I thought you would like to see our little Rusty the other night. I about cracked up, when I looked over there and saw how he was holding his treat in his mouth! Looks just like a big cigar doesn't it? ha...ha...

Tomorrow we take him back out to the vet to get his stitches taken out! He has been such a good boy, we didn't even need to use the collar...as he didn't chew on his tail.

I told you, I'd share some of the fun we had at our Red Hat Christmas luncheon. Three ladies 'volunteered' and  they had three helpers and they decorated each one turning them into angels! They were given white tissue paper, ribbon, gold cord and scotch tape! Didn't they all do a great job?? smile....

We made some crock-pot dressing this afternoon and will turn it on tomorrow for our South Bottoms Christmas potluck! It should be amazing and lots of fun!

I hope you are having a good week! 

more as it happens.......

We shall never forget...

Today, September 11th, brings back such terrible memories. It is burned into my mind, just like the day John F. Kennedy was killed. It's days like this that puts me back in time. Eleven years ago today, I was at work, walking toward the ice maker, filling my water jug with ice, preparing myself for another work day. (I always had a jug of ice water on my desk to drink all day..) The TV was on a National News Station, and I paused to watch as the first plane crashed into the first Twin Towers. I remember remarking...it must be really foggy there for an airliner to crash into that building. I then went back to my office, lifting up a prayer for those who would have been killed in the crash. Soon, word was out that another plane crashed into the other tower...the rest of the day is a blur. Working at the airport, brought more fear for us...wondering if this was just the beginning of an attack on our country. Before the day was over, all flights were cancelled, the airport was closed...the gates were double locked....and fear struck all of us! Word had it..that the President was being flown into Offutt Air force Base in Omaha to keep him safe...which is just south of us. But we found out later that wasn't true. But at the time, our fears were enhanced....

What are some of your memories from the horrific day?

Once again, my thoughts and prayers went out today to all those families and people affected by this terrible act of terrorism. 

We went to the doctor today for our monthly check up, and of course I spotted this beautiful 'yellow' flower and thought of my daughter. smile... I had asked her if she liked my new header and her remark was, "yes, it is so you...smile"... I said "oh you mean because it's mostly yellow??" ha...ha...

We had a good report at the doctors office, so that was good! Afterwards, we headed to the Senior Center for our lunch..they were serving broasted chicken again...yumm..as always it was amazing! You just can't cook for what it cost and what they serve! I had a nice lettuce salad along with the chicken dinner.. smile..

They also had a book sale going on, they must have been cleaning out the library..smile... I picked up a couple books for my son, not sure if he'll like them or not but for fifty cents, I couldn't go wrong..smile.. Speaking of books, I finished the book "Rose of Sharon", that my friend Rose Ross Zediker wrote, it was the third of a series of books she wrote. I told her how amazing to be able to run a thread through all three of them, and yet they are a great read on their own. God has given her such a gift!  I will be starting on my last Gladys Tabor book "Country Chronicle", so I'll have to ask Susan Branch what book of Gladys's I should get next...smile... She is an authority on Gladys Tabor books...smile... How about you? What book or books are you reading?

We had another record setting day today...with a high of 98 degrees! BUT tomorrow our temps are to cool off and be with highs in the 70's! Yeah!! My kind of weather for the next week...all 70's and the highest will be in the low 80's...  How about your weather, is it going to be nice also???

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

more as it happens here in the city..................

Office Changes

When I started working at Airway’s Service Inc. at the airport in the office back in 1968…things were so different then they are today. We fueled Ozark Airlines and that was the companies bread and butter. We also had smaller aircraft that would stop for fuel and service, as well as lots of student pilots (learning how to fly).  They would come in and pay for their fuel of which I would have to manually multiply, the gallons versus the price. The ledgers were all added up on a manual adding machine where I would push in the numbers then pull the handle down to add or subtract the amount. All ledgers, payroll etc. were done by hand each day or weekly. Over the years the machines gradually changed, instead of being called ‘adding machines’ they were later known as calculators then eventually this was almost all done by computers. Typewriters went from manual ones to electric ones. I remember when my boss got an electric IBM Selectric, instead of the "basket" of individual typebars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a traditional typewriter, the Selectric had a type element (frequently called a "typeball", or even more informally, a "golf ball") that rotated and pivoted to the correct position before striking. The type element could be easily changed so as to print different fonts in the same document, resurrecting a capacity that had been pioneered by the Blickensderfer typewriter sixty years before. The Selectric also replaced the traditional typewriter's moving carriage with a paper roller ("platen") that stayed in position while the typeball and ribbon mechanism moved from side to side, now that was the one I wanted to use all the time!! However, even then we had to use carbon paper to make copies of our letters or documents. Eventually there were copy machines, our first one had a heating element that you needed to heat up before ‘trying’ to make a copy on a specific kind of paper. It did not always work so well. Eventually the copy machines could do almost anything you would tell them to. Amazing how you can sit at your computer and tell the copy machine in another room to make x amount of copies in a specific order for you! Phones went from one line…where you would have to run in the other office to tell someone they had a call, to multiply lines you had to answer and were able to transfer calls to other offices with just the push of a button!!! And then there were fax machines…these changed immensely..due to computers. Instead of having to walk to a fax machine, you can fax something from your computer and never leave your office. Of course the biggest change was the computer! Scary?? Oh, yes…I never wanted to change, I loved doing my books, payroll etc. by hand. BUT, times change, business’s change and if you want to stay in the workforce YOU change! I actually have grown to love computers, in most ways it takes less time to do the work; it seems to be more accurate and efficient. Smart people of this world have written software programs that are specific for different businesses, most of the time making people’s lives so much simpler. The best thing about all of this..thanks to computers, I was able to work from home! How amazing is that? Most days toward the end of my 30 plus years career I would work half days in the office and the rest of the day at home. Due to my MS, this gave me the opportunity to rest for a while in the afternoon before getting back to work. And of course if we had a “snow day” I would work the whole day from home and not have to worry about driving on those dangerous…slippery roads! Thank you Jesus for ‘change’ and for us being able to accept it!

I wrote this article for our South Bottoms newsletter...showing how things have changed over the years and thought you might enjoy reading it!

Blessings and have a wonderful day...