Meme from over at Donna's place

Donna had this over at her blog yesterday so I'm a'doin it too cause she asked us to.

Fact #1: I love birds and I especially love hummingbirds. I've taken so many pictures of the birds that live in my yard that one pair of Mockingbirds lets me get pretty close and almost pose for me.
Fact #2: My favorite flower is a sunflower, mainly because of their sturdiness and bright colors. One of my sunflower photos won best of show at the Tri-County fair in September (it wasn't the one below). Sunflowers make me smile.

Fact#3: I hoard things. I think this trait came from both of my grandmothers who were also hoarders, but it could be also that we didn't have much growing up and had to make do with what we did have.

Fact#4: I don't like to be late, and if I am late, something unavoidable happened to prevent me from being on time. It also makes me crazy and antsy to wait on someone who's habitually late.

Fact#5: I do not like to shop especially if I'm going to have to shop some where that will be crowded.

More Ho, Ho, Ho

I'm supposed to be sitting in the dining room floor wrapping the rest of those presents but instead I'm sitting here googling Christmas cartoons.

December Sadness

December just doesn't bring the same joyous feelings of anticipation to me that it does for most people, I guess it's because so often over the years we've lost so many of our family members during this month.

It's happened again this year, I had a phone call early yesterday morning with the news that my ex-BIL had committed suicide. My sister and their son, Michael, arrived in the town where he'd lived today to make funeral arrangements. This has been doubly hard for her because a good friend of her's died on Saturday, also from suicide.

Sometimes I wonder if our family is cursed.

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Presenting the Chick, aka, Alexis, and Jilly Beans.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Christmas comes about every 6 months now, doesn't it? It sure seems like it. I really do believe it only came about once a year back when I was a kid, of course then it seemed like time was creeping. Now time flies and I'm creeping.

I STILL hate WalMart

Good grief but I wish I didn't have to drive 120 miles round trip to do my every day shopping cause I'd never darken the door of another WalMart for the rest of my life!

They've probably stopped throwing darts at a photo of me in the employee lounge,,,they're more than likely using an axe now.

Merry, Merry

The other day as we were looking at the toy catalog (we've worn out 2 around here already), Jilly Beans pointed to Santa and said, "Ho-Ho". That sweet little voice took me back about 25 years ago to a memory of another little voice, my nephew, Jacob, who gave Santa that very same name. Don't kids come up with some amazing things?

I believe Jerri and Alexis have been instructing the Beans on the real meaning of Christmas too because she's been going around for 2 weeks now singing Happy Birthday to baby Jesus.



Is everyone 'bout ready for Christmas?

I Believe In Angels

Because an Angel touched my life today.

I don't even know how to tell her how thankful I am to be able to call her my friend, but thank you Christmas Angel for being who you are.

Church of Riches

As we parked in one of the parking lots of the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis last Saturday I looked up at the huge church and thought, "Wow, this is a church? How does a church do what churches are supposed to do and still become rich enough to build all this?"

We chose an entrance to enter (out of many) and passed over lush carpets below sparkling chandeliers in one of the lobbies. We passed by a gift shop and circled around the amphitheater-type sanctuary which had many doors marked with letters of the alphabet (reminded me of the gate areas of a big airport) to lead you to your seating.

The tickets to the Singing Christmas Tree program were reasonable at $10 apiece, but just at the matinee performance there were over 5000 visitors, so I was pretty stunned when just before the grand finale the pastor came out to do a little preaching and had the ushers pass around the collection plates.

I was much impressed with the lovely program but I was not impressed with the image of riches that the sight of this church gave me, this church who's services are televised every Sunday morning. I am unimpressed in their church ministries to the poor. For one thing, I never knew that there were participant costs for Mission opportunities. A church this magnificent should be able to afford to send those church members who have the desire to participate in Mission trips to foreign countries, yet the costs per participant is from $1,500 to $2,500?

They do have a program where members can chose to adopt a needy family at Christmas, but does the church also provide for these families? I could find no information about this.

Maybe I have the wrong idea of how churches should operate because I've only ever attended small churches where every member is known and the offerings that are taken up every Sunday go to the needy after the bare necessities such as electricity and a living for the Preacher have been paid.

I was raised in the knowledge that the people who gather to worship are the church, not the building they worship in. Is something wrong with my way of thinking?

Where I Come From

Here's a repeat from awhile ago that a thoughtful blog bud sent to me.


Miss Kris asked me if I'd like to do this and it looked like fun so here goes. These are the instructions she had with her meme.

What this Meme is about is writing your very own personal poem about "Where You're From"...and it's very personal because you'll use bits and pieces from your life to write about. It's so simple...and the results are remarkable. I'm including the outline for you to use...it's up to you to fill in the blanks. Here is the outline:

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.
I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).
I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)
I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).
I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).
From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).
I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.
I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).
From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).
I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).

Let me know if you decide to try it yourselves so I can come see!

Here is what I was finally able to construct.

I am from the envy of starch-stiff can-cans hanging on a clothes line,
From Juicy Fruit gum and lick-em at leisure Slow Poke Suckers.
I am from the nothing near fancy, this place and that,
A tree for switches in the back.
I am from the cotton fields and morning glories, cracklings fresh from the oven,
The scents and tastes unbelievable unless you'd savored them yourself.
I am from huge family hoe-downs, blond ladies with green eyes,
From Laveada and Ruth, and Grandpa Fisher.
I am from the family of men who faithfully served,
And women who kept the home fires burning and porch lights on.
From don't forget to say please and thank you, and I had a good time.
I am from The Old Rugged Cross and Sunday school classes,
Summer Bible School and Baptist baptisms.
I'm from a small town hospital near our southern country spot,
And before that came tepees and the rush for land,
Home-made sauerkraut and skillet cornbread hot with fresh-churned butter.
From the horse thief who hung from a scaffold,
The man with red hair who died before I was imagined,
But who left his hair and eyes to my son,
I am from the small packet of extra prints that others gave me,
The scrapbooks so lovingly thought through,
So as not to forget where I came from.

Busy, Busy Week

It's been a hectic week around here, I don't even remember what we did every day except for 2 of them. Zach and Alexis, aka, the Chick, were promoted up to a yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do and were both proud as little peacocks. (Nanaw and Mom and Dad were pretty proud too).

Today we (6 adults) took this bunch of roughnecks to see the Singing Christmas Tree program at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. It was totally awesome. Many thanks to Jerri's Aunt Peggy and her Mom, Banny, for letting us join their "Are We There Yet" club for such a fun outing.

James was kind enough to let us drive his "new" truck to Memphis with a warning not to "wreck it or get a scratch on it in any way or else we could never come back home" so when he called around 5:30ish to see if we were on our way home I replied to his query with, "Yeah, we stopped for a bite to eat and we'll be on our way as soon as we can get the truck outta the shop". There was about 1/2 second of silence on the line before he bellowed. Ha! I probably made him have a couple of kittens and puppies there before I started laughing.

Up a Creek

Add in the price of oil and you're without a paddle too.


After reading about this incident, I reckon there may be a bunch of folks trying to change their names soon.

Finally!

James was finally able to take possession of his new (used) truck yesterday. Maybe I'll have a rest from all the aggravation now. It's too darned purdy to be put on the farm though, by next fall there'll be enough dust gathered inside to plant a little cotton crop.

Ditzy Days

I still feel yuck and on top of that I'm dropping, tripping, spilling, and bumping my way through my days. This evening as I was taking my chicken and rice out of the oven, I somehow stuck my hand to the roof of the oven. That made me feel pretty danged stupid besides the fact that it hurts like the devils own branding iron. Luckily I'm also finding that I have a high pain tolerance lately which is almost a good thing.

Living with 2 males of the species isn't helping matters either. They open cabinets, my head finds them, they leave a drawer open, my leg finds it, they leave a glass of water sitting on a table, I spill it all over the table, the carpet, in my purse, on my checkbook, and on my feet. It was only a little glass, where does all that water come from????

Sniffin and Snortin

I kept Zach at home yesterday cause he'd crouped all night the night before and was running a little fever, now he's passed the bug on to us. My throat is sore and my head is all stuffy and James is coming down with the same stuff.

Zach and Alexis had their Tae Kwon Do exam/test/demonstration this morning so we were at the college gym until after noon. They both did exceptionally well but it'll be next week before they know if they've advanced.




The Chick (Alexis) was sitting in my lap the other day and asked me to tell her a scary story. I told her the one about a "one-armed man at a lookout point" using all the scary voice tricks I knew, heck I was even scaring myself. After I finished I asked her if she was scared and she said, "Well, no,,"

30 Days of Down South

I was going to post something other than the dribble I've posted here the past couple of days but the school bus just pulled into the drive and a load of little girls are bursting through my door.

So later, if I survive!

Back In Business

Whew, I was going through withdrawal.

Quickie

That HughesNet dude better not piddle around before coming tomorrow dammit.

Pokey connection

Gripey, grumpy, Nanaw.

Danged HUGHESNET onsite support dude has been here today. This guy replaces the other guy who was here twice without resolving the problem, and I should have known not to have expected much from this dude, who got his van stuck in a ditch cause he didn't know how to turn around when he missed the turn onto our road which caused him to arrive a whole 1 1/2 hrs late, but a gal has to try to have a little expectation in her life, ya know?

Anyway, the other guy would at least put things back to the same ole slow connection before he disappeared off into the sunset without fixing the problem, this pony-tailed, paunchy, dude, couldn't fix the problem and left me without a connection at all! James was left in charge when I had to leave to take Zach to his MA class or else dude never would have left me dead in the water, even if it meant handcuffing him to the satellite pole! (can ya'll tell I'm trying not to curse in at least 2 languages here?)

So,,he told James he'd be back on Thursday, so the only connection I have with cyperspace is on Zach's laptop which has this iffy wireless connection that's mysterious as hell to me beings that I have no idea where it's coming from cause I don't have a router.

Ok, I'm done for the night. Ya'll have a wonderful evening!

Witch Hunt

I believe, at the very least, these men, boys when they were convicted, deserve a new trial. I've read the trial transcripts, autopsy reports,,,etc,, and I firmly believe that the whole investigation into the murders of the 3 little West Memphis boys was a witch hunt comparable to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

I believe the City of West Memphis, County of Crittenden, in Arkansas, best be thinking of how they'll compensate these men for taking away 14 years of their lives because they've committed a most horrible injustice. If you agree, you can send your thoughts to the Governor of Arkansas.

Tired Tonight

Barton elementary choir. Zach and MeriKate looked so cute.

We completed the first step in purchasing the truck for James but apparently financial folks here in the delta aren't used to partial cash transactions. We don't want to finance the full amount of the truck, only 2/3 rds of it, so somehow this is going to take a little longer. The loan was approved last week, in fact, the loan amount approved is about $6,000 more than we're actually borrowing so I'm not quite sure why this is taking a "few" more days. Maybe they're having to redo the contract or something? It also be because the insurance bank is not here in town..,,

Anyway, James survived this part of the transaction but I reckon they'd better make the rest as simple as possible. I can't take too much of the joint business stuff, it gives me a headache.

That Holiday's Over

Back to school tomorrow! (here's Nanaw doing a happy dance!) They're only going to be in school for 3 weeks and 3 days, out 2 half days, then out until Jan. 7th for Christmas holidays, so I don't have too long to prepare for ole Santa to visit.



I did put my tree up and it looked pretty nice but it just needed a little something.

Jerri and Bubbie and the chicklets came over, so Jerri, being one of the Martha Stewart Queens of the family, took some red ribbon I'd bought, some old flowers, and fixed it right up.


Looks rite purdy now, don't it?

Zach has two projects due on Friday for Science and Social Studies, it took a little persuasion, but I convinced him that he needed to finish them up this weekend because the week ahead is looking pretty full. Tomorrow night he and MeriKate have to be in a music performance, Tuesday night and Thursday night is Tae Kwon Do, and Saturday their MA tests. (it was supposed to have been a couple of weeks ago but the instructor keeps giving them extra time to work on their skills)

Here's his Food Chain for his Science project. (thank goodness for foam stickers and clipart).

I expect to be in a fairly grumpy mood tomorrow due to having to spend the entire day with James so I can assist him in the purchase of a farm truck. He's not buying a new one this time, we just lose so much the minute he drives one off the lot and onto the farm, so for the first time in years we're going through a bank. It seems to make a happy difference that the bank is owned by our insurance company cause the interest rate is about 2 % lower.

Ya'll pray that I don't end up in the slammer for murder due to the fact that we're not very compatible partners when conducting business.

Attack Deer and Turkey Stuffed Humans

Zach, my nephew, Fisher, and my greatniece, Bailey.

Great Niece, Addison, was doing some major snoozing yesterday. She didn't even wake up through most of the football racket going on over the LSU and Arkansas game.
Turkey stuffed monkeys. Jillian, Alexis, and Jaylen were finally kicking back after a long Thanksgiving day.

Fisher and Jordan were busy playing games and were bored with the camera.

I didn't even get a shot of Krysten, MeriKate, and Abby on Thanksgiving, they were too busy to stay still long enough. I kept waiting to get a shot of all the babies together but one was always missing. MeriKate may have been a little camera shy due to a little incident on the church bus the other evening. A little girl whacked her in the head with her backpack which blacked her eye and knocked out one of her front teeth. It was a baby tooth, thank goodness!

I had fun spending time with Paula on Thursday evening, then she and I met Terri at her daughters yesterday but Detra (my niece) and Paula were busy doing Detra's Christmas decorating, Terri was all intent on the Arkansas-LSU football game, so we didn't get to do a whole lot of catching up.

After reading this, I think I want a buck for protection, forget a guard dog.

Still Stuffed

I'm still pretty pooped so this will be short and sweet. Photos to follow soon.

Everybody over their turkey feast and having a great weekend?

Lady's Night with a Twist

I'm over at Jerri's with my sister, Paula, my daughter, Trish, Jordan, Jaylen, Alexis, Jillian, my nephew, Fisher, Zach, Banny, Jerri's mom, and my son, and Jerri's here too. We've eaten till we're ready to pop, we've played games (if ya'll haven't played Catch Phrase, you need to, it's too fun for words!). They're playing dominos now but I'm too pooped to think anymore so I thought I'd post my Thursday post and wish everyone a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

The Beans Rides Again!

The Perpetrator, Jillian Page, aka Jilly Beans, or just "Beans"
Peanut buttery hand prints found on the wall in the hall.

Jerri sent me an email this week with photos and told me she'd been gathering proof against the perpetrator who'd been making all her hair turn grey. I hope she won't feel that the perp will need to be incarcerated because I believe she deserves to be on probabtion at least until the age of 3 1/2, using the "terrible twos" defense if need be.

The three major infractions by the perp this week have been,

Upon being presented with a spoonful of peanut butter for a snack, the perp chose to rub it on her hands and decorate the wall in the hall. (see crime scene photo above).

Awaking early and believing that the beta fish needed more human contact, perp climbed upon the kitchen counter and removed said fish from his watery environment. "I just need to hold the Pish", said perp when confronted. (caught in the act photo above)

Giving no reason for her actions, the perp was caught red-handed inserting one of the family cats into the crisper drawer on the fridge.

Defense team will be collecting chocolate donations to cover costs of keeping the perpetrator out of trouble.

How about some kiddy MA?

Zach is at the back left wearing the maroon and white shirt.

Alexis, aka the Chick, is front right.

Sisters

I'm so excited cause I'll be able to see both of my sisters this week!

1961 or 1962 with our cousin
This was us in 1966 so I was about 11, Paula was 8 1/2, and Terri was 7. This was taken shortly before I burned down the barn (in the background), and the toilet, which was over to the left (out of the picture).

Paula and I are meeting Terri in Brinkley on Friday to have a catch up afternoon. This picture is of Terri and I at one of the Blues Fests in Helena. I don't know who that dork is behind us in the picture, I guess he wanted to preserve the moment too.

Paula will be here for Thanksgiving and we plan to have a "girls" night over at Jerri's on Thursday night. In this picture, we're getting ready for Jaylen's first birthday party.The 3 photos above are of us in 1999, 2004, and 2005. I'm sad to say that we haven't all been together at the same time since then so you can see why I'm so excited. We have so much to talk about, so much to catch up on, it might take a while.

YouTube is My Friend

I spent an unknown amount of time yesterday composing a post only to have Blogger eat it up. You saw the result of my temper tantrum, I just threw up those two video links and let er go.

Today I'm not in a very good mood to start with so if I decided that if I spent the time for a lengthy composition just to feed that blog monster again, I'd probably throw this puter through a window.

I can't afford a new window, so this is what you get.

I love this guy and I'd like to adopt his attitude about life.

Some music never gets old.

I'm needing a little rest

I'll be back a little later, maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow. I'm just a little tired.
Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Grandma's Cures

When we were growing up my Grandma Fisher was in charge of most of our medical care. She nursed my sisters and I through everything from thorn wounds to measles and chickenpox and we survived it all, although that old saying, "What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger", comes to mind when I think of some of her cures.
Black Salve was one of the "cures" in the old, white-painted cabinet that hung on the wall of her kitchen. She brought it out when we had splinters or thorns that needed it's "drawing" power to bring the object to the surface so that she could do surgery with her sewing needle. I remember chasing the cows one day while I was barefooted, after being warned to put my shoes on before heading down to the pasture, and I stepped on a thorn that drove itself deep into my heel. It took weeks of black salve applications to get that old thorn out but it finally festered up one day and Grandma's skills with that needle extracted it.
Father John's was another of her "cures for what ails ya" and if we ever came down with a sniffle, she'd dose us up with a tablespoon of it. She used Grove's Chill Tonic (we called it Grover's) to keep us from getting colds and to build up our blood in the Spring after a hard Winter. There was much protest when she brought out those two bottles and I can even remember trying to run and hide to avoid having to swallow that nasty stuff, but she'd just wait patiently cause she knew I'd come out of hiding around meal time.
If you needed a laxative she had a bottle of Black Draught and if that didn't work you, pronto, she had an old stand-by, Castor Oil. As bad as the Black Draught tasted, you always prayed it would work cause the Castor Oil was a hundred times worse!
A little, blue, jar of Vick's Salve (actually Vick's vapor rub) was also a resident of her medicine cabinet. She'd rub it on our chests if we had a cough, rub it under our noses if we were sniffling, and put a glob of it in our mouths if we had what she thought was the croup. One of the main ingredients of Vick's is camphor and I've heard tell, since I've been grown, that it's a poison if it is ingested because it causes the death of liver cells. I guess it's a wonder that we're still alive, cause I know for a fact that, as a kid, I probably ingested what amounts to 2 or 3 jars of that stuff.

A little bottle of turpentine was in that cabinet too. In the Spring we'd get a drop of turpentine on a teaspoon of sugar to make sure we didn't have any worms. Sugar does not disguise the taste of turpentine and it tastes pretty much the same way it smells. She also used turpentine as a disinfectant, when I buried her butcher knife up to the bone in my hand between thumb and pointer when I was trying to punch holes in a jar lid for the frogs we'd caught, she poured turpentine in and on the wound and tied a bleached dish towel around it. I've got a scar from it, but the hand still works fine.

I suppose we were lucky that her medical skills graduated to a use of more modern pharmaceutical supplies by the time we were born cause I've heard stories of how she'd used kerosene (she called it coal oil) to disinfect and cure stuff like cuts and snake bite when she was younger.

Brent had one

I've been over at Law and Disorder to see what Brent posted and he had one of these buddies. I had to make one for myself.
I kinda like my tail.

Hell Is Living With A Sick 10-yr-old Boy

Zach has a virus. He missed school yesterday to visit the doctor, he missed today because he still feels yucky, and will miss tomorrow so I can keep feeding him the meds. I'm HOPING,,,,praying,,that he can return to school on Thursday. If not, ya'll can come visit me in the padded cell I'll for sure be visiting.

Redneck Driving Etiquette

1. When approching a 4 way stop, remember the vehicle with the largest tires always goes first.

2. When sending your wife down the road with a gas can in hand, remember it's impolite to ask her to bring back a 6 pack of beer.

3. Remember that the median is not a passing lane.

4. Never tow another car using panty hose and duct tape.

Tired, Tired, Nanaw

I bought groceries this morning.

I put them away while starting Sunday dinner. We had chicken-n-dumplings, peas, cornbread, cheesy scalloped potatoes, and (bought) pumpkin pie.

Jilly Beans decided she'd like to stay over with Nanaw and PopPop tonight. I've been trying to talk her into going to sleep but she's not ready cause when I say, "Beans, aren't you ready for night-nights yet?" She says, "No, No, Nanaw, wait, wait."