Miracles Happen

Most parents love their children and many are quite proud of their sons’ and daughters’ accomplishments. I am a member of that club but I also belong to a smaller club of parents who have children who have overcome great obstacles just to survive. I once thought I had lost my daughter, but I now know that she was never mine to loose. I thank Almighty God for taking care of His child, especially these past two years, and for allowing me to see the miracles He is working not only in her life but also in the lives of those of us in her family. I love you, JB, and I always will. I will continue to pray for your courage and strength to continue on this journey of sobriety. I rejoice with you and I am proud to be your mother. Happy “2nd” Birthday!

Life is a dance when you do the steps.

ODAAT (One day at a time)

Handsome vs. Cool and Other Such Words

It is obvious to me that grandmothers do not say the right things. Come to think of it, this must be a carry over from when I was a mother and didn’t say the right things. This morning, intending to extend a compliment to my grandson, I made the mistake of telling him he looked handsome. He told me he didn’t want to look handsome, he wanted to look cool. “Oh, well then, you look cool.” He rolled his eyes and shook his head in disdain. I guess it is not cool to have your grandmother tell you that you look cool. Please notice the comment from his great-grandmother on yesterdays’ post. She must not know about the word “handsome” either.

I was thinking about some of the words that were popular at different times to describe something we liked. The word “cool” was actually used in my generation, too. Does anyone remember the word “tuff?” A few friends used this word to describe me in my high school yearbook. It really doesn’t sound like much of a compliment, does it? So, I’m taking a survey. Maybe I can find out if anyone is reading my blog. I dare you to let me know what your favorite “cool” word was in high school. Just push the little comment link and remember to put your name, initials, or something so I know who you are.

First Day of School 2008

“Middle school is not as scary as I thought it would be,” our granddaughter answered the question of how her first day went. She was a chatterbox all evening and even sang and danced around a bit. So I think it was a successful day. She had most of her classes with an old friend and all but one of her classes with a brand new friend. Friends are so important. I pray she will be surrounded by kids who will have a healthy influence on her. As I waited on her on the greenbelt after school (yep, I managed to embarrass her right away on the first day) I heard children using such vulgar language as they passed by without any care at all that there was an adult within hearing distance. It’s so common these days. I was at the urgent care clinic on Sunday with my three year old granddaughter. A girl that I would guess to be around 14 or 15 years old was sitting with her mother and was cussing up a storm. I was very close to asking her to please watch her mouth in front of my granddaughter when they called me back to see the doctor. I have well learned my lessons on criticizing and blaming parents for the behavior of their children but, at the threat of sounding judgmental, I sure think it would be a great idea to at least attempt to clean up some of the trash mouth that abounds. Of course, that would mean that the adults would have to work on it a bit themselves. I’m far from innocent in this matter but, as my grandson would say, “C’mon!” Sorry, I digressed. Here’s a picture of her before school on the same greenbelt.

Speaking of our grandson, I’ll get back on track and say that he was equally as enthused about his first day. He likes his teacher, who is new to the school this year. He also has a good friend who goes to our church in his class as well as a girl from his class last year with whom he seems to be quite smitten. He is radiantly happy about his battery operated pencil sharpener. The teacher is graciously allowing him to keep it at school as long as he doesn’t pass it around and only uses it in the morning before they start working. We’ll see how long that lasts. I’m trying to pump up the idea of responsibility, now that he’s growing up and in third grade. I sure hope this will be a good learning experience, as opposed to a difficult one. He loves that pencil sharpener! Here’s a picture I took of him on the first day of school. Have I mentioned before that he hates to have his picture taken?

End of Summer Vacation Crunch

It’s just about over…summer, 2008. Where did it go? In an effort to cram a mini vacation in for the kids this week, I rented a mini van, invited a girl friend and two of her kids (who are the same ages as my eldest grandchildren) and we headed for Corpus Christi for two days. Since school starts on Monday, it was now or never. Ignoring the impending bad weather (90% chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday and 50% on Wednesday), we headed south to the beach. After all, there was a slight chance it wouldn’t rain. Oh, and I made the mistake of making hotel reservations through an online bidding site last week and I couldn’t cancel the reservations. Prepared to be cooped up in a hotel room with five children we loaded down the van with lots of games, movies, and snacks. We left early to avoid the morning traffic as much as possible. It rained most of the way there. We had a while before we could check into the hotel and it wasn’t raining so we headed for CC Public Beach with thoughts of having a picnic. As we pulled up to the park, it started to rain. It was also very windy and very cool. Making lemonade out of lemons, the youngsters played in the rain and the sand and waded into the gulf. I stayed in the van with my friend and watched. Wimpy on my part but she had an ear ache and was wise to stay inside. As we watched them play, we wondered aloud why we didn’t think to have them change into their bathing suits. Oh, well, we had towels and dry clothes. After a bit, the rain stopped and the wind died down. We had our picnic lunch and headed for the warmth of the hotel. After that, the weather was great, even sunny. I’m glad we went. Oh, and I forgot the camera, so no pictures to post. But I am posting these pictures from my niece taken of my great-nephew on his first day of school, with his little sister, waiting on the school bus, and then climbing aboard. What a precious little boy taking such a big step!

Brown Eyed Girl

Look, no glasses!

Here's a picture of eldest granddaughter wearing the new contacts she's had since Saturday afternoon. Yesterday evening she slept over at a friends house. This morning she lost a contact, not even 48 hours! Aye-yie-yie! Since she wasn't home and since she didn't call anyone (me) AND since she had no experience with what to do after dropping a contact lens while trying to insert it, she gave up looking for it. Yeah, I know that's a long, run-on sentence, but you get the point. Anyway, she now knows that she is not to give up looking for a lost contact until she finds it. It's hard to find but it's there somewhere! And contact lens will stick to anything so you have to look everywhere, not just the floor. I informed her that I would replace this one but the next time, she has to pay for it. At the time I didn't know they wouldn't charge me for it. Not only that but they are disposable lens that can only be worn for two weeks. Regardless, I feel it is important for her to understand her responsibly with them. None the less, she's doing great and was able to insert them both into her eyes in less than two minutes this afternoon. She informed me that she wants to get blue contacts next time so she will have blue eyes like the rest of the family. "What am I, Swiss cheese?" I ask. Then she goes into a spill about her "half" brother and sister having blue eyes just like her mom and that she feels left out. She rarely uses the word "half" when she refers to her brother and sister. Besides, her dad and other grandmother have very pretty brown eyes, just like her. I think she's working me so I'll let her change her eye color. But just to be on the safe side, I will remind her of how God has made her a special and unique little girl, unlike anyone else in the world, and that is something to be happy about.


The picture below was taken by Hubby on August 2. He thought the folks in WV would be interested in the temperature. He and his mom enjoy talking about the weather and he loves his little weather station. The grandson is also fascinated by it and notices nearly every change. So, Hubby snapped this picture and told me that I should put it on my blog. Okay, it's ten days later, but I'm doing it. I try to be appreciative when he tells me what I should post on MY blog but sometimes I get a little ruffled. Then I realize that ultimately I have the choice to use his suggestions and post his pictures or not. And it is my choice to post them. And I'm not one bit jealous of not thinking of it myself. And it's not about CONTROL either!!! Convinced? Ha! Ha! Ha! It WAS pretty, darn hot that day! The temperature is on the bottom - 106.4 degrees F.

I leave for California tomorrow morning to attend a Celebrate Recovery Summit. I'll be back on Saturday. I'm very excited for several reasons but especially because I will only be responsible for me, myself, and I for the next five days! Even though I'll be busy attending workshops, I consider this a vacation! I'm taking my laptop but I don't know if I'll have time to post. However, insomnia sometimes rules the night.

Growing Up…So Fast!

Our soon to be 12 year old granddaughter hit another growing up milestone yesterday. She has been wearing glasses since before she could walk. She now is the proud owner of contact lens. She earned it. At the beginning of the summer, I asked her what would motivate her to quit sucking her thumb. She had quit that bad habit about a year and a half ago after she had worn an appliance in her mouth for about 9 months. But, as with any habit or addiction, a person cannot really stop until they have that desire on their own. She slowly started it back up and before long; we had to ask her to remove her thumb from her mouth over and over again. She didn’t even have to think about a motivator; she wanted contact lens. I agreed that if she stopped sucking her thumb before she started middle school this fall, I would take her to the eye doctor to see if she can wear contacts. Perhaps entering middle school might have been enough motivation and perhaps some would disagree with my approach (you shouldn’t try to buy someone out of a habit) but it worked. She counted the days down. She knew how long they say it takes to break a habit (whoever ‘they’ are) and she counted down the days, taking it one day at a time. She also put away her baby blanket that her Aunt Janet gave her when she was fourteen months old. We discussed how it could possibly sabotage her progress since the two go hand in hand (or in this case, hand in mouth, ha, ha, ha!). Well, needless to say, she did it. Yea! She and her dad met me at the ophthalmologist office and after her exam, we got the okay from the doctor. Next came the hard part, inserting and taking them out of her eyes. I remember well my first attempt and as some of you know from experience, it doesn’t come naturally! She was getting a little frustrated but finally managed to get them in and out, then back in again so we could leave the office. I assured her that it just takes practice. She wrestled with them yesterday evening to get them out but she did much better today putting them in. She’s a happy camper now! Congratulations, Sweetie!

Our Karate Kids

Actually, they would correct me and say “It’s TaeKwonDo!” But 'Our TaeKwonDo Kids' isn't as catchy a title, in my opinion. Besides 'Karate' is a lot easier to spell. Anyway, here is a picture of the two oldest grand kids in front of the four judges at their belt test and, at the bottom, a video of them receiving their brown belts. The other two pictures are of the youngest granddaughter hamming it up at the belt testing.

Accident Prone Family

Heelys Healing - My great-niece, Shelby, is an all-star catcher on her girls’ softball league. I just found a couple of days ago that she couldn’t finish up her season due to an accident on her heelys (shoes with wheels on them). Shelby, I just want to say that I am very proud of you and that I miss you! Now we have something in common. I broke my arm when I was a year younger than you are, the summer before I went into third grade. It sure puts a drag on summer vacation fun. I hope you get your cast off soon. Please ask your mom or grandma to post or send a picture of you and your cast for me.

Rib Recovery - My youngest brother, Steve, broke a rib and tore his spleen in a fall last week. Thankfully, the spleen is repairing itself and he didn’t need surgery. He is recuperating but when I talked to him over the weekend he was still in a lot of pain.

Daughter and Doggie Distress – A few weeks ago, our eldest daughter and her two dogs drove in for a visit from Dallas. Not unlike many canines, the dogs love to put their heads out of the window. Her first born, Olivia (they are like her children), was on daughter’s lap with the window half down, enjoying the wind in her face. Mind you, it is hot and air conditioning is hardly an option this time of year, but….Anyway, Oscar, the baby of the family, was in the back seat and was obviously jealous of his sister’s car privilege. He started to roll down his power window with his paw, which, of course, concerned and startled Daughter Dear. As she glanced back over her shoulder, the car drifted to the right and smashed into a guardrail. Livie Lou (that’s what I call her) flew out the window. The car was traveling 50 mph. She landed in the road, now stunned and bleeding. Thank God she landed on the right side lane instead of in front of the oncoming traffic. Fighting panic, Daughter slowed the car down to a stop, secured the other dog and ran back to get her dazed dog. Before she could get to her, Olivia darted straight toward her car, obviously seeking safety. Long story, short…we took her to the vet and she only suffered from shock and road rash. The doc gave her a shot of antibiotics and some pain pills. Here’s a picture of a scrape that came pretty close to her eye. The car was scraped up, too, from the front fender to the rear. Before returning to Dallas, she went and bought some doggie seatbelts. They were out of them before she even got out of town!

Bread, Bananas & Batteries and Pop tarts, Pudding & Pickles

Staple Foods – “What’s that?” my grandson asked me yesterday as I explained why we were stopping at the grocery store yesterday. “Its food you can eat that won’t go bad and that you don’t have to cook, just in case the electricity goes out for a couple of days.” I replied. At least that was my definition for it at the time. The three B’s were on my mental list. The three P’s were things the kids came up with. As we passed the canned foods I thought, “No way am I eating cold Beefaroni.” I did get some tuna, canned chicken and Vienna sausages. Yep, Vienna sausages! I remember eating them as a kid and loving them. The laundry is done, the dishwasher has been run, and the kids have been scrubbed from head to toe. So if we run out of hot water, at least things won’t get too smelly around here. Except, of course, the heat and humidity may make that short lived if the air conditioner doesn’t run. So, I think we are prepared if the power goes out for any length of time (probably way over-prepared).

It’s starting to rain. They are expecting the eye of the storm to pass pretty much over us. Thankfully, it’s not a very strong one. To family up north: I'll keep you posted. Later...

I'm Back. I Hope. I Think.

July was quite a busy month. Blogging just had to go down on the priority list. I’m glad to know that some of you missed my postings. I know I missed writing them. I hope to keep up now.

First of all, thanks to everyone who has inquired about my knee. It is much, much better now. I only have minor pain from the two inch heals I wore to church yesterday because the flats just didn’t look right! Vanity, vanity! I went to physical therapy a few times and learned what exercises to do at home each day to strengthen the muscles around the patella (knee cap). I’m also going to start a walking program as soon as the Spirit moves me (I think He’s trying to move me but I weigh too much! (Ha! Ha!). Okay, reality is that I don’t make the time. But I must, I must, I must. I do not want to hobble around the rest of my life with arthritic knees. I’d start tomorrow but there’s a tropical storm coming that is probably going to be a category one hurricane before morning. Maybe I’ll start walking this evening after it cools down a bit. Of course, I need to do all the laundry up and make some bags of ice for the cooler, just in case we don’t have electricity tomorrow. Oh, I could think of a billion excuses, so I guess I’ll just knock it off and go this evening.

Speaking of the storm, the grocery stores and gas stations are crazy busy. I couldn’t find ‘D’ size batteries at Kroger but decided not to run around looking for them with three excited kids; wasting the expensive gasoline I just filled up in the car. The batteries in the good flashlight are pretty fresh anyway. Besides, we had a minor catastrophe at the store that distracted me from any concern about batteries. Let me set this up…This morning, Hubby gave the three-year old granddaughter a precious little pink Bible some friends from church gave him over the weekend. Their daughter had outgrown it. As you may recall from a couple of posts back that she keeps taking off with my Bible. Well, she has carried this little girl Bible around all day, including into the grocery store. As we pulled away from the parking lot to head home, I hear a panicked cry from the back seat. You guessed it. She left her Bible in the grocery cart. She put it on the bottom part of the cart and the checker didn’t notice it. The bagger dude loaded my groceries into another cart so I didn’t notice it either. We immediately did a u-turn and headed back to the store all the while listening to sobs between these heartbreaking words, “That was my special Bible! My papaw gave it to me!” I kept trying to reassure her that we would find it. We must have looked in every grocery cart in the parking lot and in the store but we couldn't find it. The people working the check out counter didn’t see it and the customer service desk didn’t have it. I left my name and phone number and asked them to call me if anyone turned it in to them. Then we got busy praying that someone would find it and give it to the lady in Customer Service. The two older children informed me that they had already prayed about it six times! After we had been home for about a half hour, we got the phone call. We were singing thanks to Jesus all the way back to the store. After returning to the car, the toddler wanted to know why the people in the store didn’t sing with us. That was hard to explain. I have no idea why they were not as overjoyed as we were at this answered prayer! I love my grandchildren so much!

Well, I better get off here and prepare to hunker down for Edouard. What an odd name for a storm! And is that the correct way to spell 'hunker'? I’ll try to do more catching up later. Perhaps the electricity will stay on tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

He was born August 2, 1930 and passed from this life on February 15, 1981. He was only 50 years old. I feel like I hardly knew him. That makes me sad.

EEK! EEK! YUCK! GROSS!

I love the birds that have found their way into my backyard because of the feeders, the birdbaths, and the flower gardens. Unfortunately, the squirrels won’t leave the birdseed alone and they are quite remarkable at figuring out how to get their grubby little paws on it. Hubby gets a kick out of watching them and for some reason he thinks it’s funny when they get on my bird feeder and chow down. I gave up and resigned to the fact that if I want to feed the birds I also must feed the squirrels. I’m not totally opposed to it since they are cute, even though they are a bit greedy. However, I draw the line when it comes to this little rodent! I’m not sure how to draw the line, or where to draw it, but I’m drawing it (even if it means no birds). Hubby was able to get this picture because the thing was petrified of the cat that was hanging around the bottom of the bird feeder post waiting for him to dismount. That also explains why I found bird feathers and other ruminants of what was once a blue jay. I suppose I have been living in denial thinking there are no rats or mice in the woods behind our house. Gives me the creeps! This picture was taken about a week ago and we haven’t seen a rat since then. Come to think of it, the birds are not as abundant either. But the squirrels…let me just say, they do not fear cats!