Sunday, May 31, 2009

I'll Be Back ---

Rosanne and I went to see Terminator Salvation after the meeting today and you could tell everyone in the theater were fans because they all laughed when the character John Connor used those words - the cool thing being we knew where he got those words from - Terminator 2: Judgement Day. It goes without saying that Christian Bale was good as John Connor but Sam Worthington also got our attention in a big way. He really did a great job in his role and I think we will be seeing a lot more of him. Of course, it was good to see "the enhanced Arnold" again.
It was also good to have some personal time with Rosanne - we don't get to see each other very much and now she is super busy planning for a new granddaughter and the wedding of her baby daughter. Big D went fishing today with some friends. They went to a place called Wachapreague in VA which is also called "Little City by the Sea". He called to say they had a good day of fishing and were staying in a really nice house. Just hope he doesn't over-do it but that is just me wishing.

Call me the Commenter...

I'm not sure what was going on with me today but I couldn't stop raising my hand at the WT study to comment. Since the other two congs were still working on the Quick Build, we were the only meeting held today and had lots of visitors which is good since this is a big vacation week and usually there are a lot of people out of town. Gail's BS was ready when I picked her up and Eileen surprised me by coming to just the talk. It was fun seeing so many old friends.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

What Makes a Day - a GOOD Day?


Woke to a bright sunny morning, got out in service with some of my favorite people and had success on a planned call. Now to see what happens with it. Drove out to one of my favorite places in the world - the farm. While there, other friends dropped in too and it was nice to get caught up with everyone.
Was trying to think of something I wanted to eat and decided to go to Bullock's BBQ? It has been years since I've been there so when Big Al called to see what I was doing and I told her and it made her hungry so she insisted I had to buy her a plate too. When I thought of going to Bullock's, it brought my friend in Florida's name to my mind so I called her to check in and see how she was doing. She is enjoying her retirement and we talked again about maybe meeting at the beach half-way - we'll see. I would still love to see her new house.
Wow - got one plate and it fed both of us with some left over. Big Al came by to get her plate and called me later to say she and Sidney enjoyed what they got too. I'll have to admit, the Banana Pudding was tasty.
So what makes a day a GOOD day? Blue skies, nice breeze, bright sun, good friends, loved ones and good food. Uhmmmmm - good day.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Old Friends and Thai

What a busy day - service in the morning including filling in for Gail on her study while she was away on vacation. We only covered one paragraph but talked about a lot of things she had questions about. Then I squeezed in lunch with an old friend at her favorite Thai restaurant before going to Eileen's to see her dear Mom. My friend is a cancer survivor which means she is still here! She wanted me to meet her there because she said Thai food is good for you. I let her order for me and liked everything we got.This looks a little like the soup we got. It was nice being with her - she looked great and was so upbeat it was contagious. Even though we haven't really been around each other in a very long time, the years fell away and I was transported back in time to a night in my living room when Page had a few of her friends over and before you know it a few of my friends had dropped by and we had the music cranked up and were dancing and laughing. I think Page might have been 12 so I was about 37 - boy, I was the same age that Page is now. Hard to believe.
As soon as she started talking, I remembered her outrageous sense of humor and biting sarcasm which has always sent me over the edge with laughter. Then we went next door to a wine shop and used her wine card to sip a new wine they had. The customer service was very good and I bought a bottle of a wine I haven't tried before while I was telling the manager about my "new" favorite chardonnay. He told me he could order it for me and I told him if he beat my other supplier's price, I would prefer to order from him as he is closer. He called me and not only beat the price but because I ordered what his distributor had left, he gave me an extra 10% - I love a good deal.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Second Appointment Done and Done...

Big D went with me to my second Medical Appointment with the "C" doctor. Basically, they took my money, we waited with a lot of other people and one family caught our attention. Four daughters with their Mom and Dad and the Dad's sister. They reminded me of my family in a lot of ways and we talked some. The girls all cut up and laughed a lot with each other and the Mom but the Dad was quiet. They said they also had a brother but he didn't come. Then the Mom mentioned the doctor had said for all of them to be there and the Dad finally said something and it made me sad. He said yeah, everyone but the son. That is when I knew he was the patient. They called me back and weighed me (gained 4 pounds) and took my blood after which we went back to the waiting room. They called me back a little later and we waited in the little examination room for awhile. The PA came in and poked, prodded and examined me and said nothing new, see you in 10 weeks. We didn't get to see my actual doctor - only the PA but she is nice. We talked for a little bit and I'm trying to get acclimated to what will become a routine..After we left, Big D and I talked about our questions for the next appointment. It was funny, we both had the same questions! We talked about exercise and how we both need it but Big D said he just "ain't gonna do it". I am still unpacking from the weekend and have left my really nice walking shoes out as incentive. Aren't they pretty? Don't ask me how long I've had them ... we'll see.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Old Friends - Good Memories - Sad Realities

How do you prepare to lose someone who has been a main character in your and your families' life since you were in your early 20's? How do you help his mate, his daughter, his son and family who are all counted among your family and best of friends through the days, hours, minutes and seconds to that final moment and after? You don't - if there is one thing I have learned in my many years, there are some things you can not prepare for and the death of a loved one is one of them. I am losing a best friend in the next few weeks. It is inevitable and I steel myself for when the final breath is taken. The emotions are pure and real and you know you need to embrace and feel each one of them. You pray that you will not think of yourself and your own loss but focus on how to help him and his loved ones move forward in the days to follow one step at a time.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Family weekend...too short

Had a wonderful family weekend with our children at our son's house in VA. Daughter and her boyfriend drove up from GA and hubby and I drove up from NC. Daughter-in-law Leah served her famous lasagna Friday night and we all stayed up late getting caught up. We spent Saturday up at Maury River- beautiful day. We also spent a brief amount of time in Buchanan - girls walking through an antique shop and Little D and Bentley walked across a swinging bridge. Page bought a cool piece of luggage and some hand embroidered pillow cases. I found a lovely hand painted fan and nice pin. I gave the pin to Page because of the main color - virbrant blue - and the fact that she can wear it while training - gives people something to look at other than her face the whole time. Stopped at a big country store and sat in rocking chairs on a huge porch eating hand dipped ice cream in waffle cones while others drank great milkshakes. Yum. Hubby and Little D cooked steaks Saturday night and some family and friends dropped by. One special friend is H - Leah's cousin who is studying to be a Therapeutic Masseuse. He bought over his table and Page and I both had a wonderful full body massage. It was a short but really sweet weekend. We were missing our babies before we reached the bottom of the mountain.
Today has been a really lazy day. I keep saying I am going to de-clutter this little house we live in but I get sidetracked (had to check over 150 emails) and it seems the older I get, the faster time flies so here we are at 4:45pm and I'm still in my nightgown trying to learn how to BLOG! later tater

Introduction

I'm not sure how much I'll write here. I've enjoyed following a few blogs lately but will not even attempt to add the various bells and whistles they have on theirs. One word of warning - my son says the fact I can type as fast as I can think is a dangerous thing so if you get tired of the rambling and click off - it will not hurt my feelings in the least. I am one of six girls born to a very special woman. One of my sisters (next to the oldest) died as a baby so there would be 5 left. I was born in Henderson but lived in Kittrell when we lived with my Grandma P while Daddy worked in Durham. We all moved to Durham when I was still a toddler in an apartment in an older home on Wake Forest Hwy. We then moved down the road to Husketh's Place (old white house) on the corner of Wake Forest Hwy and Patterson Road. I actually have quite a few memories of living in that house. My older sister taught me how to write my name, my ABC's and numbers by writing in the dirt yard. She also used to draw rooms in the dirt and we would play house. Mama would make me little bloomer shorts out of chicken feed bags that were actually very pretty material designed for women to use as fabric for clothing after the feed was gone. After my oldest sister got married, Mama went to work when I was in the first grade at Oak Grove Elementary and we moved downtown to Chapel Hill Street where I attended Morehead Elementary School for a year. We moved back to the country when I was in the 2nd grade (right after Hurricane Hazel) where I re-entered Oak Grove Elementary School.
I guess the one thing I can share about Mama that will explain what kind of person she was is that every single one of her daughter's husbands adored her. I can't think of anyone who didn't love her and if they didn't who would want to know them anyway? Being the fifth one in line, I only remember living in four places with the longest period of time being an old farm house that my Dad "remodeled". Mom always said, "once your Daddy put his hammer down, he didn't pick it back up", which meant there were still quite a few things she would have liked seen done. :-) There were only a few houses on that old country road when we moved there but new little brick houses started springing up along both sides of the road and before you knew it - we lived in a neighborhood. They even paved the road! All the kids in those new little houses loved being in our house - in the summertime, the screen doors were opening and shutting all day long. Mama used to tell me how she remembered hearing the back screen door opening as I would fly out on my long legs with my very long ponytail swinging around in a circle running across the field as I was yelling out, "I'm going to Marcia's". The first picture above was taken right after I had gotten that ponytail cut off the summer before I started high school. I was 14 years old and the second picture was taken the summer of 1985 I believe.
Marcia was a friend who was a year behind me in school. She moved into one of the bigger of those houses and I loved her like a sister. We did everything together from climbing trees, swinging on vines in the woods, (where I would catch horrible poison ivy) swimming in the pond (I couldn't swim - yikes), walking to church together, making necklaces out of clover flowers (and stepping on at least one bee) playing games and going to the movies or skating. Her Daddy bought her a Palomino horse not long after they moved there. We loved riding that beautiful horse all over the place. There was a family with a young boy who lived at the end of our road on a big piece of land with a barn, pasture, pigs, etc. My friend paid to keep her horse in their barn with their horse. They would let me ride their horse to make sure she got exercise(the young boy wasn't really that interested in her). She had been a show horse, was very large and the saddle was an English style saddle - her name was Black Beauty. Otherwise, we rode together on Madonna who was very tolerant of two young girls on her back. We lived in that house until the summer after I graduated from high school. Other than the last house my parents lived (and died) in, they lived in that house the longest.
Another interesting tidbit - the road I lived on was probably a little over a mile long and a young boy who lived at the other end eventually became my husband. I first noticed him when he got on the school bus after we moved to Ross Road. I didn't find out until after we had been married for quite awhile that he had been noticing me too. :-)