I MISS YOU ALL!

Hello my dear bloggie friends!  I've missed you all so much and I've missed reading what all's been going on in your lives!  Thought I'd just check in and make sure you're all still there, and give you a little update on our goings-on around here.  Wedding is 3 weeks away, lots of last minute details to take care of, still getting things cleaned out of the house, a few lookers at the house, working on the garden - looking good so far. 

In other news, I'd like you keep my dear MIL in your prayers.  Since I posted last, she suffered a stroke and is mostly paralyzed on her right side.  She can still swallow a little bit, and she is getting nutrition (for which we are thankful) but trying to rehab her broken leg/hip on the left side while the right side is immobile is going to be next to impossible if some of the feeling in her right leg doesn't come back.  I don't see her ever getting out of a wheelchair.  She seems depressed and maybe has given up.  We're not sure what she's thinking since she has Alzheimers.  Our prayer is that God will do whatever's best for her.  We are not at the point of making life/death decisions right now, but her prognosis is not good.

My cat, Jasper, has disappeared, too, from the farm.  I don't know if he's gone visitin' or if a coyote got him. He was such a GREAT cat, good mouser, and he followed us around like a puppy dog.  He'd even taken to riding on the Mule with me - just hopped right in and sat next to me while I drove around the farm.  I miss him already - I hope he shows up.  We may not be able to keep a cat out there - I don't know.

Take care my friends - love you all - I'll be back soon!!

Taking a Little Break

Hello my dear ones ~~~  Just a quick stop to let you know that I'm going to take a little blogging break.  With the wedding drawing near, my mother in law laid up with a broken leg/hip in the nursing home, trying to get the household moved and cleaned out, work, and all the other busy-ness in my life happening right now, blogging has definitely taken a back seat.  I DO so miss you all, but I know you'll be there when I can come back and visit.  Hopefully, I'll be back to visit from time to time, do some reading and catching up and will have lots to tell you and lots of wedding pics to show  you in a few short weeks.  But for now, I have to slow 'er down and do what I need to do.  If you need to contact me, do it by email.  Don't forget about me!!!

Keep your dress down people!  Or let it blow up if your bootie looks this good! Me?  I let mine blow up all the time!  JK....

source: http://www.cwomen.com/marilyn-monroe.html

HEY THERE, ARE Y'ALL STILL THERE??? I AM ...

I'm still here!  I'm still alive!  I got over my "crud" finally.  (thank you Vee for checking on me...) I'm just busy-busy with the house, the wedding AND...

Hubby's mom fell AGAIN, and broke the same leg/hip that she broke in April of last year!  Bless her heart, with her memory problems, she forgets or refuses to use her walker and she fell last Thursday in her bathroom at the Alz. care home and now is in the hospital.  They did major surgery to repair her leg/hip and had to replace the pin with another longer pin and screws and cables - Oh, I don't know what all.  I hate it so badly for her!  It's hard to help her understand what's going on and why she's hurting.  I think she'll be in a nursing home for a couple of months while healing and we'll see what to do from there.  They've got her on pain meds right now, so she's groggy, but I'm hoping that she'll be feeling better soon.

And the wedding... well, lots of you know what we're dealing with here.  April 30 is coming up very soon, and as usual, I'm running behind, and still have lots to do for the rehearsal dinner, etc.  It's coming together and it's going to be beautiful. I can't wait!  I could have searched the world over and I couldn't have found a better match for my son - well, of course, you dummy!  God brought them together so I had nothing to do with it!  If you knew our lives you'd know this is a "God" thing!  I love this sweet young lady SO much!

I DID find another gal to help at my office so that's a HUGE relief for me.  I hope she likes it here.  She's really doing well, and I hope to keep her for a long time.  She's young with two little girls (but her mom keeps them for her). Normally, I wouldn't want to hire someone with kids cuz they're always calling in sick, but since they stay with their grandmother, it's a little different.  We'll see what happens!

I'm SO anxious to get out in my garden!  There just hasn't been much time. I was hoping to get out there and get some seed beds in last weekend, but life happens, and family comes first so...  maybe in another week or two.  It's still early to some of you, but I'm chompin' at the bit here.  I usually already have my potatoes in, already have my onions in, and beginning to get peas and beans in the ground.  My fruit trees have already flowered and are leafing out as well as the rose bushes.  The daffodils are fading away, and believe it or not - we've already seen the crane flies and a few mosquitos on the muggy nights. 

We have a huge old oak tree that spreads out over our deck and back yard and the birds have eaten all the little berries off of it and have pooped seeds all over the deck.  Problem is, they stick like glue and I may have to get the power washer out to get all those seeds off.  They're stuck all over the metal chairs, too! Besides, the mistletoe just falls and drops pieces of itself all over the place, too. So messy!  The clovery grasses are coming up everywhere with little purple flowery thingies and the lawnmower is in the shop! Our yards need a haircut already!

I found a little bitty turtle in my hydrangea bed, but went back later and it was dead. I wondered if the crows brought it over there or something. I thoroughly detest the crows.  Do you know they can take the lid off a garbage can and rummage through the trash and make a big ole mess on the ground!!!  I sat and watched 'em do a while back and they disappeared about the time I appeared with my son's pellet gun.  Shoot!

All this to say that SPRING IS WELL ON ITS WAY here at Sand Flat Farm!  And I'm smilin' and so happy about it!  Now if I could just find some time to get out in the garden...

PS - I've read several good blog posts on all the tragedies happening across the Pacific Ocean from us in Japan.  It's so sad.  If you haven't been by her blog, Debbie at Of His Pasture had a great post today about Japan, a wonderful book about a brave Christian woman, and letting God watch over her kids while they are in Japan.  Stop by there and check out this post.  After you do that, jump over to my other Debbie's blog, Wisdom, and read her post about not panicking in these troubled times and that what happened in Japan is just History in the Making.  We are to put our trust and faith in the Lord.  His children do not have to worry about these things.  Both of these posts today helped me put into words what we should be doing and what we should be praying about.  I am so thankful to have met so many Christian women friends in blogland that I can count on to lift me up daily.  These gals are just two of them.  Thank you one and all for your encouragement and your prayers.  I thank God for you all.  Have a great week, my lovelies!

Mema

Ok, let's see where I can go with today's post... hmmmm.... Been doin' some visitin' around, but it's been crazy busy at our house with MIL in the hospital. Mema was moved to rehab yesterday. Threw a fit and they had to call my husband to talk to her.  I think she'll actually like the rehab place alot more than the hospital. It's quieter, she'll have the same nurse and aide every day, therapy twice a day - which she's NOT going to like. 

I met her caregivers yesterday, and they seemed so kind and sweet and caring.  I stayed long enough and so did my husband to observe how gentle they handled her.  The hospital folks are so overworked and busy, they just didn't have the time for any extra spoiling except to do their job.  Plus, these new caregivers get to know their patients - they are assigned to certain ones and just those few.  Change is so hard with Alzheimers, as most of you know. And bless her heart, she's had to change SO much during this past year.

She's getting quieter. She doesn't talk nearly as much as she used to. She's content most of the time, or WAS in her Memory Care Facility. She enjoys her family even if she's quiet and she doesn't like to be out of her apartment even to come to our house for very long. I have to say tho that she loves going to church with us.   She keeps to herself, doesn't much like being around the other people in her facility. Most of them are even worse off than she is and she senses that there is a difference. She likes to stay in her apartment, watch the country music station (she says she's waiting on my son to appear on there), do a few crossword puzzles or read her Bible and sleep.  We see her everyday.

Here's my sweet mother in law and me at a recent activity they had at her facility.  There are different church groups around town that go the nursing homes and sing & play music, and my mother's church choir group came and sang this particular day. So we went to listen.  Even my daughter came.

                         

I have to say that I've had the sweetest mother in law that you could ever have. Both my in-laws have been such a blessing in my life and in the lives of my children.  She adores them.  Mema and Bepa had no other grandkids but mine and so they fairly doted on them.  It's been so wonderful, as I've said before, to have positive reinforcement on raising Christian children in the form of grandparents, including my parents, too. My kids have had that Christian influence on both sides, and we never had to worry about babysitters.  The Lord has really blessed our family.

I've often wondered what it would be like to not have family. My husband has a woman about my age that works at his office. Her parents are gone, she has no husband, no siblings - NO ONE. How sad is that? She doesn't have a church family either for she is not a religious person.  How in the world can one get by in this life without God, first of all, but without a family?  How lonely that must feel.  I've had this heavy weight on my heart lately for these folks that are without.  I know there must be plenty.

We as Christians who have a physical family, a loving Father and a church family need to reach out to these people.  They CAN have a heavenly Father who will love them more than any earthly father can, and they CAN have a church family to be there for encouragement, love and support and to take away the lonliness that they sometimes must feel. I know most churches now have singles ministries, but what can we do on a daily basis to help these folks to feel loved & valued?

OK, I'm preaching to myself today. I'm guilty of thinking of these things and then letting the time go by and not actually doing anything.  Shame on me. I remind myself that if I do these things unto the least of my brethren then I'm doing it for Him.  My daughter is learning to step out of her comfort zone - I've got to step out of mine.

Update on Mother in Law

Just an update.  Mother in Law came through her surgery well and she's going to be in the hospital for 2-3 days.  She is having some pain but they are trying to manage that with morphine.  They'll be getting her up and about tomorrow I think.  Now we'll have to regroup and make some new plans as to where she'll be staying.  We should know more in a day or two I hope.  Thank you so much for all your thoughts, prayers and well-wishes. It means so much to me (and my husband) - much more than you know!!!

We Serve A Risen Saviour!!!

Happy Easter Sunday to you all. I hope that you are all celebrating the resurrection of Christ our Saviour, and spending time with loved ones today.

Keep us in your prayers - we went to my mother-in-law's this morning to get her ready for Easter Sunday services, and we found her on the floor in her room.  She had fallen and broken her hip.  We had to cancel all plans for Easter with the family and kids and call an ambulance to take her to the hospital.  Xrays confirmed a broken hip, and she will be having surgery later on this evening.  She will then probably go to a rehab facility, and if she heals well, will return to her Alz. care home.  If not, then I guess we'll be looking for a nursing home.  Tough times ahead.  I'm so glad that God is in charge of our lives and that we have a Spirit who intercedes for us when times get hard.  Blessings to you all dear friends...

Work Weekend & GIVEAWAY!

Ok, friends... I promised a post, but I don't have any new pictures to show you. Is that ok? Think you can do with just type?  I hope so. Maybe I can pull up a couple of older photos that hopefully I haven't used before...

We had a busy, busy weekend. We got up early Saturday and did about 10 hours working on the garden, the flower beds, the yard at the farm.  We have about 6-7 giant catalpa trees and they have just about finished dropping their footlong beanpods all over the yard. I HATE catalpa trees, but if we didn't have those we'd just have the big oak and the sycamore and some china berry trees (which I also hate).  SO, we raked as much as we could, burned most of it, and mulched a bunch more.  And all those huge beanpods open up and these little fuzzy white seedlings float all around everywhere and sprout in our sugar sand.  Such a mess.  We're constantly going around pulling up little sprouts.  The china berries are doing the same thing.  YUCK.

Anyway, we worked hard raking and doing all our stuff.  I planted my rows of carrot seeds. I had to wait until the moon was waning. I've had 'em for a couple of weeks but that was the first chance I got to plant them.  We had a really good rain Sunday night through early this morning so everything I have planted to now got a good soaking. I hope those little carrot seeds didn't wash away... My  tulips and lilies are coming up and my wagon of pansies has never looked better.  The snow and cold kept them kinda sickly looking but they kept popping back out and now since it's a bit warmer they're beautiful. Here's a pic that I took a couple of weeks ago, but they're all twice as big now and overflowing out of the wagon - I'll try to get a current photo!

We grilled hamburgers Saturday night for us and Josh and his girlfriend. They were so good. Flash forwards me to summertime!  Yea, it's almost here - at least spring is! We're having 75 degree temps today!!!  Another shower for tomorrow and then several days of nice gardening weather.

Sunday, we went to church, and then the rest of the day we spent at my  MIL's house cleaning up and getting the furniture moved out, the rest of the wallpaper off, etc.  The mud-guys and painters and the roofer are coming later this week to start their stuff and Sunday afternoon was the only day to do it. We were going to do the bulk of it ourselves, but when the roofer told us that he had a mud crew and a painting crew as well as excellent references, we decided to JUST GIT ER DUN.  We hope to put it up for rent in the next month or two.  Rental income will help us pay for MIL's care at the memory care facility. It's very expensive...

So, needless to say, I needed another weekend after this past weekend.  I kept nodding off in front of my computer yesterday.  Tonight we are taking MIL out for her birthday. I will go over after work and get her dressed and hair done - we're going to eat catfish - her favorite!  I know she won't remember it tomorrow, but for tonight - she'll have a wonderful time and we can imagine that all is well with her and just enjoy being together.  She's a jewel. I had the best in-laws in the whole world!  And my husband says the same thing about my folks! 

NEWS FLASH!!!  I'm coming up on my 200th post! I can't believe it!  I'm planning a giveaway and plan to make it very special because I let my 100th post get away from me.  So stay tuned.  I think this is post #193. May be a little premature to announce it, but I want to give you guys plenty of time warning!  Let me get my thoughts together about what I'm gonna do, and I'll be back in touch to announce the winning prize!!!  I want it to be special because you all have enriched my life so much & given in so many ways to me, and I want you all to know how very precious you are to me.  This is an outstanding group of women, friends and family that I have here in bloglandia & so I simply must do something befitting this great group of gals! 

The Lord's Prayer

 (DISCLAIMER) This picture has nothing to do at all with my post...

http://god-gives-us-strength.blogspot.com/2009/12/lords-prayer.html

If you've never heard Andrea Bocelli sing The Lord's Prayer, you have to go listen to this. He sings with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir ~~~ Pretty heavenly!

Sorry I've been MIA the last few days. My mother in law has not been feeling well, and now she's in the hospital with severe anemia. Please keep her in your prayers.

I've been working my tail off this week, too, trying to get ready for a foreclosure sale of all the tenants who are not paying their storage rents (I manage 2 self-storage facilities).  Recession even hits self-storage! We usually stay about 95-98% full, but our numbers are down and the number of foreclosures is UP.  I hate to see people lose their stuff cuz they can't pay, but I tend to be a softy, and try to work with people to help them get caught up, and I usually wind up losing money on them. 

I've learned to be tough. I've been working here for 7 1/2 years and I've heard it all.  I've always been so gullible & always believed everything people told me (still do), but I've had to become a bit cynical.  Looking back, there have actually been very few people that have had extenuating circumstances that they couldn't pay.  I've always believed the best in people and believed all the hard luck stories, but this is a business and we are not running a charity here. If you can afford nice cars, gold teeth, diamonds on your acrylic nails, designer purses, and bling-bling on your state of the art cellphones - you can afford to pay your self-storage bill.

There have been a few times that I've had a person die, or someone has gone to the hospital, or something like that and I've tried very hard to work with that person or their family and help them get caught up and move out.  Most people, unfortunately, give me the runaround and self-storage is way down on their list of priorities & bills to pay.

It seems that the people who can least afford self-storage are the ones who wind up getting it. Yes, there are good reasons for self-storage - , divorce, when you're building a house and need a place to stash your stuff, of course moving, putting a loved one in a nursing home and needing storage until you decide what to do with their things.  I've even had a couple of people go to jail and leave their things in storage while they're incarcerated. Oh yeah, I've got a couple of people in the armed services that leave their belongings here while they're being deployed. But for the most part, people think they can just get a storage unit and keep extra "stuff" in it, and they get behind ONE month, and never catch up.  And they come in here and give me some cockamamie hard-luck story that I'm supposed to believe.

I've heard EVERYTHING why people need a storage.  I've had a couple of women that came here running away from abusive situations at home with their children and they don't want their husband/boyfriend to know they've got a storage (which is against the law for me to disclose that anyway). I've had people come in here to my office crying. It's really sad.  I try to help as best as I can. I feel like I'm a counselor sometimes because people are running away or bereaved & I guess I have a friendly face.

It's been interesting to say the least. I have a huge dumpster outside on the parking lot that I check regularly to see what people are throwing away.  You wouldn't believe what I've seen. I have to make sure there are no chemicals, tires, paint, etc., in there.  But people throw away some great stuff.  I got an old antique floor lamp out of there to put in the farmhouse, had the wiring checked and found an old shade with little dingle-dangles on it at a garage sale for it.  I found an antique accordian in the trash AND an old silver plated clarinet.  I also found an old oil painting print of a big red barn and horse and buggy that I re-framed and put in  my bedroom at the farmhouse. All for free!

I'm always digging old books out and just this week somebody put a bunch of old tin plates with flowerdy designs that I've never seen before.  There were some old pitcher crocks and a beautiful old vintage green and pink cookie jar that somebody dropped in there and it was broken into about 5 pieces. Made me so MAD!!!  I wanted it bad. But it was too far gone.  I also found some pretty little green and yellow square ceramic salad plates (I guess) that were really old, too.

The funniest thing was one time when this couple got a divorce, and the wife dumped all her husband's small tools and electic tools into the trash cuz she was mad at him.  I dug an electric sander and a whole bunch of other small tools and packages of sandpaper & other carpentry stuff, etc., and took them  home to my husband.  Two decent lawn chairs, ummmm, let me see....Oh yeah - one time I had to cut a lock on a storage that we were about to foreclose on, and when I opened up the door, there was a lifesize Elvis Presley dummy in there - standing up!  Scared the pee-diddle out of me!

Oh, and you should see what goes on sale at a foreclosure sale - if you've never been to a storage foreclosure sale, you should check it out.  They're published in the newspaper usually in the public notice section.  Sometimes you can get some NICE stuff CHEAP! We sell the entire contents of a storage for one price.  They can be broken down, but it's too time consuming.  I've got my eye on one of the storages here that's got two beautiful leather couches and a nice sized generator in it.  I imagine the people will redeem their property and come pay their past due account but Man, wouldn't that be nice!  Sometimes it's just junk but you never know.  One man  said a friend of his bought a storage unit at a FC sale and when he went through everything he found an antique brooch that he sold for $10,000.  It had genuine diamonds and gemstones in it.  People will use their storages to hide stuff that they don't want anyone to find - like a few thousand dollars that somebody hid in a dresser. OR, a body that somebody hid in a plastic garbage can and duck-taped the lid on. (that wasn't at MY storage)

Ok, there you have the skinny on the self-storage industry.  I have an office that has bars across the customer window.  I guess I'm safe enough but I don't wear jewelry  cuz you just never know what kind of people are gonna come in here. Well, I guess that's all for today. I'll be scant around this weekend - I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time at the hospital. So ya'll have a good one & go check out those storage foreclosure sales - and keep your gown down!

EPHEMERA

I know there are alot of you "paper artists" and ephemera collectors out there that might appreciate my post tonight.  While going through some of my in-laws' things I ran across a few dozen postcards, etc., some of which I thought I'd show you all. We're trying to gradually get things cleaned out and organized for an estate sale, since my sweet MIL won't be going back home to live.  We need to either sell the house or rent it out.
I don't know about the Bible cards, but the Postcards date back to the '40's.  Most of them were from family members to Tony's folks.

I found two little sweet Bible story cards. There's a short story about the picture on the back of the card  and a memory verse. The cards are all numbered so I assume there was a whole bunch of em at one time. This first one is Timothy. The second is Jesus. I've never seen these cards before...

Now these next few are just some funny postcards, and then a couple of really vintage-looking cards - pretty cards.

These were cute! That momma pig has got some sharp teeth!

Look at little boy winking!

And how's this for some Texas cow-punchin'????

This 'un's just downright purty.

So is this one! Hope these gals don't slip and fall and get their dresses all wet! 

This final photo has a story behind it.  It was sent to Miss Callie Dee Stringer in Big Sandy, Texas, from one Leebron Malvern Hill, a young gentleman who'd begun courting Miss Callie Dee back in the 1940's.  It seems he was quite sweet on her for awhile and she fell madly in love with him. He promised to marry her, and even gave her a ring (which I have). It's a wide gold band with a swirl of small diamonds across the top created for a small finger. My MIL was given the ring  by her Aunt Callie later in life. The ring was a token of love and affection for the young lady, or possibly even an engagement ring or a gentleman's pinkie finger ring. 

Miss Callie waited and waited upon Mr. Hill to make up his mind when he wanted to marry her. But alas, other interests came calling Mr. Hill to ramble about and he found himself in different parts of the country - last place on his post card to her was from North Carolina.  His love for Miss Callie Dee Stringer waned, and so he gradually fell out of touch.  She was left with a broken heart and a gold ring on her finger.  She never married.  I don't know if she never had another opportunity, or just didn't want to or just pined away after Mr. Leebron Malvern Hill for the rest of her life. Quite a sad little story.

Well, that's all folks - except Good Nite! 

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!