FYI

I have "Pop-A-Lock" on speed dial.... They laugh at me now when I lock my keys in my car. They know my name. They recognize my phone number on caller ID. They know my car. I'm just tryin' to help the pore guys out...

WHEN I WAS A KID...

I see blogs from time to time that post their own baby pics and so I decided to do that, too, seein' as how I'm runnin' a little low in the subject matter department today. Won't get any more new pictures of Europe from Josh until he gets home I guess, which 'll be Sunday week.

mom & dad both grew up in hometown. Mom worked at one of the banks downtown, dad worked at Penney's and then Sears. Drat! I think I left my photos of them when they were newlyweds at the farm !&&*^(@!$#^!@@. Oh well, guess I'll just show you a few of me. Mom and her friend Jimmie Sue were big shoe nuts back when, and they would go on their lunch hour to Penney's and look at shoes and to the dime store to have lunch at the fountain. Well, her and dad finally spotted each other and mom went for several weeks to spy on him and decide for sure whether she wanted to meet him. I guess she finally did after he caught her lookin' and smiled at her. A mutual friend introduced them, and they started dating and fell madly in love! They were engaged after about 6 months and married within a year. I came along a couple of years later...

Here's me at 18 mos. I have some older photos and a good little baby pic somewhere but I'll have to find it. Mom and Dad thought I was quite cute! My hair is still very curly. Mother would brush out my white blond hair and in a minute or two, it had sprung back up in little knots and ringlets. I still fight it to this day! (we're never happy with our hair are we?)

I think I mentioned once before how much I loved the Palladin show "Have Gun Will Travel". Mom and Dad bought me this little cowboy outfit which I absolutely LOVED and I rode my palomino spring horse thousands of miles watching Palladin and dreaming of becoming a cowboy when I grew up! I even had six-shooters! I never was much of a girly-girl when I was young...

Then here I am showing you a high school pic when my husband and I were only 17 and just started dating. This was at the Sadie Hawkins dance. I look back now and realize how young we were, but of course we thought we knew everything! We were highschool sweethearts from then on. I have known him since I was 16!

I don't know how this goofy Blogger is going to show these photos. It's jumpin' around on me and the photos won't stay where I put 'em!!!

Here I am at 18. This was my free spirit-hippie stage. I was a teen in the 70's - a little late for the hippie generation, but at 17-18, it all seemed so cool and romantic and I remember being said that it was all over before I was old enough to be a part. Of course, now in retrospect, I wouldn't dare be involved in all the stuff that came with being a hippie!!! I still feel like free spirit sometimes tho. It would be nice to really get into the artist/bohemian/gypsy/hippie personna and just be weird - aren't artists supposed to be that way? and wear lots of silver and turquoise and maybe have a nose-ring and a tattoo on my ankle? whadaya think dear readers??? then I could travel around and paint and sell my paintings on the sidewalk in California and Colorado for enough money to go to Europe and paint my way through Tuscany and Spain... sigh.... sounds purty swooft to me... no really, wouldn't it be nice to just escape sometime?

I think part of the free spirit thing is that at 52, I think I've finally gotten to the point that I don't care what others think of me, I care what I think of me. I'm comfortable in my own skin, no matter what it looks like, I'm comfortable doing whatever makes me happy and makes me smile, and painting my way through life and wearing what I want and gettin' into the artsy-fartsy thing might make me happy (all this according to the Lord's will of course) I never cared for big expensive houses, or expensive cars or clothes. The Lord provides me with everything I need and most things I want. He gave me a talent that I'm really wasting right now, what with work and all. I'm too tired to even think about painting when I get home from work, and laundry and housework and cooking are all screaming to be done first.

But NO! I'm trapped in this midlife, conservative lookin' body and family and lifestyle. EEEEk! I've turned into my mother, I'm exactly like her. How many of us said we were NEVER gonna be like our parents? I sure did! I couldn't wait to get out from under their wing, and then I couldn't wait to get back. Now I want to spend as much time with them as I can before they're gone. Guess that makes me a "mature" woman.

Speaking of which..... There's this real estate magazine-lette that we have around town where all the local realtors put ads for their realty in there and they always try to have some fancy-shmancy description of their homes. This goofy guy that I went to high school works for one of the realtys and several years ago, he worded his ad somewhat like this:

"This home......she has all the charm, elegance and gracefulness of a beautiful older woman..." CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS GUY??? OF ALL THE NERVE comparing an old house to a woman! He was a PIG in high school, and by gum, he's STILL a PIG!!!!

How did I get off on that tangent? Ok, I guess I'm tired. I'm palaverin' again. I guess I need to git ya'll used to that word. Add it to your vocabulary girls - people may really think you're smart, especially you northern gals. Us sutheners generally know what that means, at least I think most of us do. Night, night- sleep tight - sweet dreams - I love you.... my mom and dad used to say that to me and my sibs every single night, with a kiss on the forehead (then say night-night), kiss on one cheek (say sleep tight), kiss on other cheek (say sweet dreams), I love you (kiss nose). I did that to my kids and still do when they'll let me! ...... sweet dreams.....

Foreclosure Sale and Josh in Europe...

Yesterday was one of those days...

Started out great - I was able to stay focused long enough to get alot done at my office, you know, catching up on little loose ends in between a steady stream of customers. I was very efficient and felt very proud of myself. Even handled one stinker of a customer. Those are always fun - NOT. Yesterday, I locked myself out of my office not once, but TWICE. Had to call our other office and finally my friend and boss, Charlie, to come and unlock it for me. My purse, my phones, my keys were all locked in my office. I was going to make a trip to the potty before I left and as soon as I pulled the office door closed behind me and heard that "click", I knew! I went across the street and called for help, waited, waited, waited. My husband was trying to call me and showed up at my office about 6:00 p.m. looking for me. He was ready to beat the door down and see if I'd been mugged, or had a heart attack, or fallen. No, just stupid little me! Then I ran by the grocery store and forgot to get his Skoal (which he had requested that I get). I was such a doofus yesterday.

I'm very easy going and I can get along with anyone, and am able to calm a customer's fluster and make a friend. I've only had ONE instance where I had to get in somebody's face. I've worked here at the construction office/self-storage facility for the last seven years. Every so often, we have a foreclosure sale & auction off the storage units that the tenants quit paying for and run up a huge account. I generally have the sales on a Friday morning at 8:00 or so. Now, there are seasoned junkers/flea marketers/and the curious that come to the sales. Some of them are quite experienced. (As you know, these folks are a different breed of cat - myself included.) I send out flyers to my "list" of marketers and also the sale has to be put in the newspaper with the location, time & date. (In case you wonder, YES we DO have a dumpster at the storage and YES I DO take advantage of "dumpster diving" from time to time - you'd be surprised what people throw away... that's another story for another day!)

Friday morning awhile back comes and my office fills up with folks anxious to get on with the program (the sale) - you never know who will show up or how many. I have them all sign in. There is a guy that calls and asks for directions and says he's on his way. I tell him I would wait for a few minutes, but then we would have to start without him.

There's this older couple in the hallway (who've been to my sales before), the wife is mouthin' aloud that we should go ahead and get started. They've been grumbling and making comments like, "well, so-n-so storage always starts earlier...we could've already been done and gone...this girl don't know what she's doing...the fewer we have at this sale the better our chances will be of getting stuff cheap... we shouldn't have to wait for anybody... blah blah blah".

I listen to it for a good 30 minutes from the time they get there, even interjecting once that I am waiting on one person, and it's not even quite 8:00 yet. I'm trying to be nice but I've about had it up to my eyeballs with her palaverin'. They are upsetting the rest of the people, I'm afraid they're going to incite a rebellion and I'm beginning to hear a few comments from some of the others.

Grumble, grumble, grumble. Great Granny Grunt! Ok, that's it! I go out of my office to the waiting area and come face to face with the lady. She sees me approach and shuts up. In my nicest quietest angry voice I say thru clenched teeth, "Ma'am, I don't give a rat what the other storage facilities do, this is MY storage facility, and if you don't like the way I'm doing things, then I invite you to git outta here! I can refuse to let you in the sale if I want to! Shut your mouth, please, or you can leave!" High fives all around, sighs of relief, and some stifled laughter. I think I hear, "You go, girl!"

NEW TOPIC: I always have to do that for my husband - I tend to ramble and jump about on different subject matter... You may or may not remember, but my middle son, Josh, is in Europe taking some classes this summer at King's College in London. He is also doing some traveling on the weekends while over there. I thought I'd post a few pics from him in Ireland at the Cliffs of Mohor and the Clanmacnoise Monastic settlement. He loved the Cliffs- said it was the most beautiful place he'd ever been. Said it was 685' from the cliffs to the ocean. It was on a Sunday morning. He'd downloaded "I Can Only Imagine" on his IPod, so he listened to that song over and over while looking upon the cliffs and the ocean. "Mom, it gave me chills," he told me. He's loving his trip! He's broadening his horizons and expanding his world view (as my hubby puts it). I'm missin' him.

This week he's in France at Normandy, Omaha beach, and Paris. He called this a.m. to tell me he and his buddies visited Notre Dame and now are at the Eiffel Tower and tomorrow they're going to the Louvre. He says the countryside of France is beautiful & I'm hoping that he takes lots of cottage-y flower-y countryside & cute-little-shoppe photos that give me inspiration to paint! They will go to Germany and possibly Switzerland this weekend/next week. I'm so glad he's got this opportunity...

Josh says that he's seeing things and places that are

hundreds of years old. The USA is a relatively young country if you think about it. I mean, people have been here for awhile, but as a nation, we're still pretty young.

At the British Archives in London where he's doing some research for a paper he has to write, he said he has seen documents that Britain has been keeping for hundreds of years, some possibly over a thousand, since they started the Archives. - the Magna Carta sent by the US, the Doomsday Document, letters from Hitler, Churchill, all the "big meats", etc. Just fascinating...

Well, I'll close for now. Thanks for humoring me by reading this, if you made it this far... my brain is mush. Now I gotta run by the store and pick out something half-way healthy to fix for supper. See you soon!

Just checkin' in...

Hi friends! I've been so busy and I realized that it's been over a week since I posted. I've been able to read a few of your blogs at work, but that's been about it.

Good news is that we got a little bit of rain this morning early-early. We have had such hot dry temps for the last few weeks, hottest I've seen in several years, some near record highs. I know there's folks that are alot worse off than we are in other areas of Texas. Check out Berte's pecan farm at Riverbend Farm out west - she said their pecan crop this year is not going to be very good. I know there are others needin rain, too. Our yards and fields around here have been dry and brown and crackly for awhile. The weatherman said it'll be a little cooler in the 90's instead of the 100's + for hopefully most of next week.

My garden's gone to seed. Me and daddy picked all the last of the purple hull peas Wednesday after supper from his garden and we looked at the thermometer and it read 102 - this was at 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. It was so hot, but we needed to get 'em up. He was fixin' to plow 'em under. I started feelin a little nauseated and dizzy so we tried to hurry.

I WISH I would've had my camera. Daddy has this big fan motor that he built a frame for. Well, he got the bright idea to run an extension cord from the shop out to the garden and pointed it on me 'n him while we were pickin' peas. It's so strong, it 'bout blew us away. But it stirred up some air and blew the wasps to smithereens (they love peas and the pea flowers), and of course a little sand. We looked a sight!!! We just rolled it along with us down the rows!!!! "You might be a redneck iffen.... you pick yer vegetables in the hot sun with a big ole shop fan a-blowin' on ya to cool ya off..."

Ahhh, country life. My mama said she didn't want any more peas cuz their freezer won't hold another thing. She doesn't like gettin' in the garden because of bees and wasps. If you don't bother them they won't bother you. I don't like em but I'm not scared of em. We just go ahead and pick and they move out of the way. Mom's not really into all the farm-y stuff. Daddy and me ARE. So I carried all the peas home - nearly another 2 bushels, and I've been shellin peas the last coupla nights. My fingers are purple...

Well, we are celebrating the 21st birthday of my daughter this weekend. Her brothers won't b3 here but we will do something fun and nice for her, and of course see the grandparents sometime, too. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, hope it's cooler wherever you are, and hope & pray that those who need it get some rain. I'll see you next week!

Fishin' with my Daddy, Sunflowers

Last Saturday, I went fishin with my Daddy. We had such fun! He has access to a couple of private lakes and they are full of crappie, perch and bass. Every time you cast, you catch somethin'! Below's an awful picture of me holding up one of my catches. It was hotter'n heck, but we stayed up under the boathouse instead of going out in the boat and fryin'. Daddy had some old shrimp in the freezer that we cut up to use for bait. I love me a good crappie or perch fish fry! The meat is so white and mild, not fishy at all. Here's a pic of Daddy with one of his bass. He is a FISHIN' MACHINE!

I've always been a Daddy's girl all my life. I still spend as much time with him as I can. I wish I had a photo of us together fishin', but there was only the two of us. I was catchin and he was cleanin. Mom tells me the story from when I was little - 2 or 3 years old. I followed my Dad around like a puppy anytime he was at home. He was alway busy doin somethin'. He is a mechanic, he can fix anything, make anything, patch anything, you name it. Whenever I would ask, "Doin', Daddy?" he would always answer, "Aw, um, business." He probably told me that a 100 times. One day, I was following him around watchin what he was doin, and said, "Doin', Daddy? Binness?" He fell out laughin! I still follow him around today. We make stuff together, repair stuff together, go fishin', garden, whatever he's doin, I wanna do. I sure hope the Lord lets him stay with me for a good long time. I don't know what I'll do when he's gone...
Now, here's a couple of shots of my sunflowers from the garden. This big ole bumblebee kept flyin around me and the flowers and finally landed on this big flower so he got his picture made. I love sunflowers - they're so cheery and smiley, and they look "farm-ie". I'm for all things "farm-ie" lookin'!You can see our little farmhouse in the background. It's been so dry, the ground is crinkly and the bermuda is brown. We did get a little rain Sunday, I think, and that ole bermuda will green back up in no time. I hope we get some more this week. The only thing left in my garden is some green beans, and some late peas. If I get real industrious, I may try a fall garden this year. My roses look beautiful and so does the plumbago. The June bugs are flourishing and have found a little gap in the weatherstripping on the back door and are making themselves very comfortable inside the laundry room of the farmhouse. They love to get their legs tangled up in the rug and make me have to get down on my hands and knees and pick them off!

Pulled up the last of my onions. I have alot of 'em in the shed and these babies will join them. I do still have to dig up my Yukon potatoes. I've got several good size ones, but thought I'd wait just a week or so longer on them... Well, my boy leaves for England tomorrow. I'm missin' him already. It's hard to think about him bein' half-way around the world and I can't get to him. I know he's gonna have a wonderful time at the university over there, get to do some traveling while in Europe and see and do things that I'll probably never get to see and do. Princess is taking her finals from summer school this week. It's been busy... update on MIL - she's continuing to do better each day in her new assisted living apartment village. She's meetin people (even tho she can't remember their names) and eatin well, and enjoying herself. It's a good feelin to know that she's in a safe place and is being looked after and taken care of.

Anybody having problems with blogger this morning? On my favorite blogs to visit, it wasn't listing their latest post - it was taking me directly to a "feed" to subscribe to. It wouldn't let me do anything! Drat!

Have a good one, friends!

MIA - Sorry!

Good mornin all! Sorry I've been MIA lately. With all the things goin on in my life right now, it's a wonder I'm here at all. I've been tryin to catch up on readin your lovely blogs when I can and makin a few comments, but it's been so crazy on Sand Flat Farm and elsewhere around here that I'm findin myself stretched way too thin.

Main item - we have been searching and have found an assisted living/memory care facility for my MIL. She cannot stay by herself any longer. She's been takin her exercise by walkin in the heat of the day (and we've been havin 100+ temps the last couple of weeks), she goes out at midnite (the neighbors tell us) and checks her mailbox. There's probably no tellin WHAT she's been doin that we don't know about. We've been dreadin this day for a long time. As long as Tony's dad was alive, she had someone there with her. My FIL has been gone a couple of months now, and we wanted to see how she did alone. If she didn't go walkin and go out at night, she would've been fine for awhile longer. She can certainly take care of herself and her home.

We found a really nice place that actually doesn't look like a nursing home at all. It looks like an upscale ground level apartment complex that is enclosed with a beautiful courtyard in the middle, places to walk, all kinds of activities, very caring staff, and happy residents her own age.

It's only 2 years old and it looks like some kind of mountain lodge - very attractive decor. We took her to visit yesterday afternoon and eat supper there, and she was very impressed with everything. After about 30 minutes, she realized why we were there, and she started poutin and givin Tony EVIL glares. He should have had a hole burned right thru his head by her mean staring and clenched teeth.

Anyway, it was an answer to prayers, and Tony & I both looked at each other when we left out the front door and said "this is IT!" We were in total agreement on everything about the place.

The best thing is that if/when MIL becomes worse with her dementia/Alzheimers, they move her to their own Alzheimers unit, switch her furniture from her apartment to one in the A. unit, and it makes a very easy transition, as it's all done while she's out of her apt., and they set up the new apt. just like the old one. She may think something's a little different, but she won't be able to figure it out. We move her tomorrow - pray for us - she WILL be angry and upset, but we know that's to be expected.

Also, we're gettin Josh ready for his trip to England to do a foreign study program for the rest of the summer. There's alot to do on that, too. He and my daughter will finish up the first semester of summer classes next week, thank goodness.

We've been havin to go the farm nearly everyday, too, to water the garden and all the trees/shrubs/flowers. It's been SO HOT AND DRY here. My fruit trees look wilted, my corn didn't make, too hot, the squash & zucchini have quit bearing, etc. It's like they all can't get enough water. That old bermuda grass out there is all brown, but a quick little rain'll bring it back out immediately.

I've put up another dozen quarts of pickles - we DID do well on cucumbers this year. The tomatoes are comin in now, and I need to put some in the freezer. I have some more green beans about ready, too. This gardenin business is sure time-consuming, but I love it. It's physical, it's calming to my nerves, and it gives me such pleasure to see and eat the fruits of my labor.

I'll post some pics of my sunflowers tomorrow maybe. I DID get alot of sunflowers to grow this year, and I took some pretty good pics of em, even if I do say so myself. Sorry I didn't have any cool photos to show you today. Just boring reading material. Let's see if there's something on this here computer at work to let you look at....

Where is this beautiful, dreamy place, you say? http://www.elmwoodgardens.com/ Elmwood Gardens, just outside of Palestine, TX. My little photos don't do it justice. It's a beautiful area where they have brought lots of old buildings, cottages, there are fountains, pavillions, flowers galore, vegetable gardens, horses & carriages, a place to have get togethers, honeymoon in the cottages, get married on the grounds, have bands play at your wedding, have a reception and dance, OR you could have some other kind of get together! You MUST see the website. My daughter was invited to model in a bridal show out there a couple of years ago and I ran across these photos. It's only about 45 minutes from us, and it would be a wonderful, romantic place to get married. The cottages are all decked out in antiques, quilts, shabby everything and the bathrooms have old clawfoot tubs. They did it all up right! It's beautiful! Check it out!