Nifty, Nifty - who turned 50?

Say it isn't so!!! How can it be that my oldest niece is 50 years old today? It seems like just yesterday I was holding her while rocking her in Daddy's big platform rocker on Ross Road smelling her baby smell. Such a beautiful baby she was - from the minute she was born. For a thirteen year old, it was like a little miracle. My last doll Mama bought me was a really big doll that I kept upstair. I'm talking big! Mama had a picture of Dee in that doll's dress! It fit her perfectly when she was a toddler and looked so cute on her. Of course my sister didn't mind that I was so crazy about her since it guaranteed a built in baby-sitter/slave! I know I have spoken of her on my blog before but I couldn't let this little milestone go by without mention. I especially have it mention it since she brought it up on FaceBook earlier today! Personally, I liked my 50's. The picture is of her and her dear hubby and her beloved Dorothy Dog. I don't get to see her too often - maybe the family reunion if we all get there but she leads a very busy life. I have come to the conclusion that she doesn't know how to make a bad picture. I mean really - I can't think of one time I've seen one of her. I do have a picture of her and her mom and they look exactly alike. Believe me, her Mom is beautiful too - always has been. Her's was the first name I spoke aloud as a toddler and she has always tried to "take care" of me like she does everyone in her life that she loves. Love you 2lbs Dee! You too Big Al!

Wednesday.... officially a good hump day....

Today was such a good day, I decided to give myself some virtual flowers. These are one of my favorite flowers and I snatched this picture from a web site. To be honest, Monday and Tuesday were good also but today was a little better. It was my third day back out in the trenches and it has felt so good to be back doing what I love and being with the friends. We have our dear CO and his wife with us this week and the special meeting last night was great! They are the sweetest couple and we so enjoy our special week with them. Eileen joined us for service this morning and it was nice being with her since I haven't seen her for awhile. Her Mom has been so sick and is now in the hospital. Hoping with all my heart things turn around for her and she feels much better soon. Got with my dear friends Gerl and Gail at lunch time and we all came to my house. Gerl had brought her lunch (but did have one of Big D's leftover Krispy Kreme donuts for dessert). I heated up some leftovers from last night for me and Gail. She also had one of Big D's donuts but I had one of his coveted chocolate covered cherries. Yum. I can't believe I only had one! After that Gerl and I hooked up with Keith and his grandmother for street work and it was a wonderful afternoon! Have I mentioned that Keith's mother is Gail? His "other" mother is Gerl. When Gerl's beautiful son died as a teenager, young Keith adopted her and they have a very special relationship. Keith loves his grandmother so much and is very protective of her. To be honest, we all are but you can't let her know it. She is so special to so many people. I met her when I was dating Big D. We went to her big house to bring something to his older brother who was a friend of her husband's. They were sitting around the kitchen table - she had red hair and a beautiful smile and her hubby was a handsome man and HUGE - no - not fat - BIG! Keith is a big man but his granddaddy was much bigger with a big voice and laugh to go with it. At that time, they had 6 children who all ran in and out of the kitchen to check out who had come in. I noticed a green Bible on her counter in the kitchen and picked it up. She asked me if I knew what it was and I said yes, that I had one and that my sister was studying in it. She asked me who my sister was and when I told her, of course she knew them. Turns out she knew my brother-in-law from when he was a small boy in her neighborhood. After I got married and started studying and attending meetings, I got to know her so much better. Eventually, they had two more little boys and when her mother-in-law died, they had her teenage son come live with them. Basically, they raised 9 beautiful children. She was there for me on so many levels that even she will never realize. Both of my children adore her and have wonderful memories of the times she kept them off and on when I would take a part-time or short-term job. We had many late night conversations about everything from raising babies, female health issues but especially husbands who caused us much consternation from time to time! I have been so blessed to have had so many wonderful strong older women in my life to help me along the paths women have to travel. I am home now with Princess Miya and Big D.We have decided to have the Home Plate special for dinner tonight - meatloaf and chicken dumplings! Yum. We get take-out from there every so often but definitely like the meatloaf night best. We normally get one plate of the meatloaf with several veggies (turnip greens are good) and a cup of the dumplings with hushpuppies and it feeds both of us with some left over. I do so love their sweet tea. This place opened in 1995 and has been great for our senior citizen community. My sister-in-law loves it because it is seasoned a little like our mother's food was.

The Princess and the Pea....

I was a young girl the first time I heard/read the story of the Princess and the Pea. I know it was in elementary school - Oak Grove Elementary (the old one). Page did a 100 mile, 2 day Bike Ride for MS several years ago. My sister Ruth went to Atlanta with me for it. We volunteered so we could stay close to her - got the nice red Volunteer shirt and everything. We got up early on Saturday morning, put the bike rack on my car, picked up Page's friend (and bike) and drove to where the ride began about and hour so away. Well - once they stopped at our volunteer station, we left. I thought - heck - I'm not sitting around here, I'm going to the next stop so I'll know my daughter is okay. LOL The ride was pretty grueling on country roads with big hills but we also went through some of the prettiest little villages scattered along the route. My sister and I were pretty busy - we picked up bikers who had broken down (thank goodness for the bike rack), saw some bikers miss their turn and went several miles out of their way (again, thank goodness for the bike rack), picked up Page's friend so she could rest until the next stop where she and Page took off to complete the first 50 miles. That night, we all stayed in a hotel - our room had a pull out sofa bed and a nice Queen sized bed. I told Ruth she could sleep in the bed with Page and I would take the sofa. Page took her sleeping pill (you need to go to sleep within 30 minutes or it doesn't work). Well, Ruth kept talking and wanted to watch TV so Page told her to switch with me and put the closed caption on and let her go to sleep. The next morning, Ruth woke up and moaning and groaning and complaining about having to sleep on the sofa bed and how Page had hurt her feelings. After she got out of the sofa bed, she came over and got in bed with me (Page was getting ready to take a shower) and kept saying, "I'm a Princess and that Pea kept me awake all night!" It was pretty funny. She can get so dramatic. I borrowed this painting my good friend Katarina did for her daughter's room. I love it myself. It instantly made me think of mine and Ruth's great adventure during the 2 day Bike Ride - especially the Princess and the Pea. We saw so many pretty places along the way. After being in the car all day for several days, Ruth finally snapped on Saturday when Page's friend was in the back seat. Out of the clear blue sky, she just snapped at me and I didn't know exactly what was going on but I'm one of the King girls so I automatically snapped right back. Still not sure what made her so mad - she had pouted because I insisted on waiting to watch the bikers start at the starting line (I cried for some reason). She was ready to go right now and evidently she is used to getting her way! LOL Evidently it scared Page's girlfriend really bad. Later Page told me she gave her an account of what happened. It went something like this if my memory is still working correctly - [She was like, your Mama's sister snapped your Mama's head off and then your Mama's head whipped around and she asked her sister what in the world is wrong with you? And then your Mama's sister growled out something in a really threatening way and I was trying to be as quiet as I could because I was afraid I might get hit if blows started being exchanged and then your Mama said something in a really strong voice and all of a sudden, they started talking to each other like nothing had happened at all and I'm like, what the heck? I know they were just getting ready to trade blows out of the clear blue sky and then BAM, they were acting like nothing even happened and to be honest, I don't know what did happen.] Page said she laughed and laughed at her friend and said, Now do you understand why I keep saying how glad I am that I don't have sisters? They can turn evil on a dime honey and you do NOT want to be near when they do. Personally, I think the girl was over-reacting. If she thought that was a fight, she has never seen a fight - especially between sisters. Sissy girl!

GG will be 80......

My hubby's older sister will be 80 years old tomorrow!!!! How can that be???? This woman has been a strong catalyst in my life for more years than I can recall. I first met her as the young, sexy, vibrant mother of my childhood friend. They lived in a red house on top of a hill - I thought it was so cool - a Red House! It had a big white chimney on the front porch and we used to walk on a path through a field to go to my friend's grandparent's house. My friend was the oldest of four active children who were trained from an early age to be responsible and all had chores to do at home. It wasn't long before I learned my friend was related (niece) to a boy I had noticed at a very young age. It turns out her Mom was the oldest and married young and had two children older than her mother's youngest child. The young boy I had noticed eventually became my husband so my friend became my niece! I know - a little convoluted but it works. I love this picture of my friend, me and my hubby at the coast. She is as pretty as her mother and grandmother and I love her dearly. I wish I had a picture in my computer of when GG was younger. She became a strong female in my life and helped me through many of the perils of marriage and motherhood. I think I have already related how all of us young mothers would end up at her house with our babies and what wonderful memories I have of that time. She also taught me other important things like how to drink alcohol without ever getting drunk or sick! My hubby and I used to go on a weekend fishing trip with her and her hubby at least once a year and oh the wonderful memories of those times! We would be out on the boat very early and fish all day. I came to treasure those weekends! She loved fishing as much as my husband does and a few times on Sunday, we would stop by the deep canals on our way home and she and my hubby would fish the canals while me and Papa would read the Sunday papers and maybe take a nap! When her first grandchild was born, she became GG and her husband became Papa. When Papa died, it left a hole in my heart that will never be filled. He was a true patriarch and I loved him dearly. This is a picture of GG with her oldest daughter's three girls. Both of GG's beautiful daughters had three daughter's themselves. Her oldest son had three sons and one daughter and now she has three great-grandchildren - 2 girls and one boy. Her youngest son didn't have any children. I got a lot closer to her younger daughter later in life. She lives on the Outer Banks where she and her wonderful husband decided they wanted to raise their children. She is as pretty and smart as her older sister and I have come to love her very much. She is super organized and loves to clean house more than anyone I know. :-) Her daughters say she has callouses on her hand from carrying the vacuum cleaner around! I don't want to be as heavy into cleaning as she is but I could use a little bit of what drives her. All of the kids are very close to GG and stay in contact with her on a daily basis. She has often told me and Big D how blessed she has been with her children and grandchildren and we have seen it first hand. She stopped by the house today on her way home from an errand but after she witnessed one of my coughing spells, she left post-haste! LOL She ain't no dummy! I called the youngest daughter after she left. Big D was wondering if GG knew they were having a little 80th to-do this weekend and she said yes, but she may have forgotten it. Since there will be so many people, they are all meeting for finger foods and a cake at the Manchester Grill. I'm glad I got to see everyone several weeks ago as I will not be going to the Grill. Just to show you how special the youngest daughter is, she is coming tomorrow to clean GG's house before everyone else comes in. The oldest son, his family and the oldest grandson and his family are all going to be staying with GG this weekend. Wish Papa could be here too........

Good friends.....

What a nice surprise I got today. Two of my dear friends sent me a nice little basket of flowers! I got a call about an hour ago asking if I were going to be home this afternoon because I was going to get a delivery. I started wondering what in the world could I be getting! Aren't they beautiful! I love fresh flowers! What is really funny is one of the sister's who sent this to me is the one who called me Sunday saying, "Okay, this has been going on long enough. What is wrong." She is so funny, dry as toast and I love her dearly. The other sister is also very sweet - she was baptized at the convention this past summer after working through some really tough situations. She has a very large family who were (and still are) all having a hard time with her decisions but she was strong. She has moved across town so it is hard to see each other often. She may eventually change congregations which might be best for her but we would really miss her. Another funny thing is I was just starting to feel sorry for myself. You know- everyone has forgotten me, no one misses me, I could lay in this house and rot before anyone knew it kind of pity party going on and Knock, Knock - the nice reminder that someone does really care. I know - I should write a book about how to feel sorry for yourself. Face Smack! As my dear friend loves to say - "It's my pity party and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want, to, cry if I want to, you can cry to if it happens to you!" So there.

Passing along the memories....

Last week I was thinking about how Page will be 38 this month. I had just turned 25 in November before Page was born in January. My Mother was 30 years older than me. It helps me remember how old people are when I think of how many years there are between us. My first niece was born January 13 after I had turned 13 in November. When Page was born on January 15th, that same niece had just turned 12 two days before; so the oldest niece in my family will be 50 this month! Now THAT is hard to believe - especially when you see how young she looks. This is a picture of me when I was 381/2 years old. It was part of one of the group pictures my sister's and I had taken every so many often. If you click on the picture you can see the necklace up close. I was drawn to several pieces of my Mama's jewelry for as long as I can remember. My boyfriend had a big picture made of me when I was about 14 or 15 and I wore my Mother's cameo necklace (Daddy had given it to her and it had a tiny picture of each one of them in it). I laid claim to that necklace and wore it constantly for years and years. I also wore her original wedding rings. Daddy bought her new ones when I was a girl so she let me wear them also. In every picture my sisters and I had made, I am wearing that necklace. When I was about the age of Page, I told Mama the pictures were fading away and I wanted to try to replace them. It was then that she told me to consider the necklace mine. So this week, I passed the cameo necklace on to Page. I don't wear necklaces too often these days. I used to be known as the unique necklace woman but when I got older, they started getting on my nerves within an hour. Mama also gave me a gold necklace Daddy had made for her. It was a gold chain holding an Italian gold coin my sister purchased for my Dad when she lived in Italy. I took the chain from the coin to use on another necklace and need to put my hands on it. Hmmmm. I propped the tiny little diamond up inside the box to give you an idea of just how small that little stone was but it was gorgeous to me. The band got so thin I had to stop wearing it. Daddy would agonize over what to buy Mama when it came to gifts. He wanted that gold coin to give her in a big way! I remember one year he gave her a beautiful dresser set - comb, mirror and brush. I think he did pretty good for the most part. Daddy was such a complicated man or maybe I should say he was conflicted. I don't know. But one thing I do know and have known all my life - Mama loved Daddy - pure and simple. There would never be another man for her. She took the bad with the good and kept moving forward. And Daddy loved Mama. His problems got in the way a lot but I always knew he would be there if any of us needed him and felt a huge hole in my life when he died. Miss you Daddy - not the drama but YOU. Page gave me a pretty pair of earring this past week. I love them! I haven't been able to wear them yet but plan to as soon as I can get out of this house which hopefully will be soon. Isolation is not a good thing! It wouldn't be so bad if I felt like doing something besides writing on my Blog and checking my FB every so often. :-) What I need to be doing is working on Big D's books in QuickBooks so we can get taxes done as soon as possible. I have about seven months worth of computer and paperwork to do. It isn't helping that for some reason, I can't print out last month's invoices. Everytime I try, I get blank invoices and I can't figure out why. It is nice to look out my office window and see the sun but Big D just warned me - that sun ain't going to warm me up! He said it is brutally cold. I think I'll call some of my pioneer partners and get them to drop off some not at homes and get busy at home. Now that is a plan!

Been in the cave too long......

Big D and I took Page to meet her Mom and Grandma yesterday afternoon in Danville, VA. Big D heated the car up real good and packed it for me so all I had to do was bundle up and climb in. I really needed to see some sunshine but was still coughing too much and felt a little worse than the day before. So far, that has been how this has gone, feel real bad, feel little better and then BAM, feel much worse, etc., etc., etc.. I hated to tell Leah but Page2 started coughing Friday night and was still coughing Saturday. Please don't let her have what I have - she has to go to school next week! She hadn't been taking her allergy medicine so there is hope. I had one of my studies over the phone when we got back which was wonderful! I haven't seen this beautiful young woman or her sons in several weeks so it was good talking to her. I had a nice long chat with my friend Ruth who lives in Florida. Her hubby said they were about to freeze down there! Page1 told me it was real cold in Georgia too. The wind makes the cold so much harder to be in. I'll just stay in my little cave here thank you very much. Leah's Mom said Leah's dad is real sick too and it sounds a lot like what I have. I spoke with him on the phone and he said - "I can't tell you how tired I am of getting sick AGAIN". I assured him that I actually know exactly how he feels. He is such a sweet man and one of the best huggers in the universe. The sun shining through the car windows made me so sleepy - it was nice. The meeting today (over the phone) was great - especially the WT study about prayers. It made you think on a personal note about your own prayers and how they relate to our relationships. Eileen called - she can't find her book for our study so we are going to do it tomorrow (over the phone). I don't want anyone to take a chance on catching this if they can help it. I wanted to add one more picture from our week together. Page had her Shrek ears from her game on and everyone was throwing the rings at her head. Cute. Oh - that cute shirt she has on? Yeah - well it is still here at Granmommie's house along with several other shirts, pants, underwear and sweatshirt with hoodie. Oh yeah - Granmommie is in the dog house - she forgot to look in the laundry room for more of her clothes when she packed. Leah said it was okay but it really isn't. If I ever get out of this cave - I'll buy a mailer that will hold them and send them to her. Oh - Leah also said Page is still coughing but hasn't had a fever so still hoping allergies.