So, Wessie and Heathie (our son) are both truck drivers as some of you know. They call each other and I showed them how to do conference calls. We all three talk daily and sometimes two or three times a day. A lot of these conversations are very entertaining. Well, not all, sometimes they have to stop talking to complain about other drivers. Hint: It is not gentle complaining as I am sure you know.

I mentioned in the prior blog that I have some issues. We choose to affectionately call them afflictions instead of diseases. We like the sound of that better. Anyway, we have decided to joke about our afflictions when possible. I do realize I have a different sense of humor, but this makes me laugh just thinking about it and I still am smiling slightly. It truthfully is not even that funny at all. I probably should not even share but I remember that I can reread them and smile again. Hey, that may even work for memory loss. We often tease that it may be like “50 First Dates” around here.

For those of you who do not know Heathie, he has a very quick wit and the way he says something will make you laugh just because of the way he said it. We shall see if you laugh or even smile.

We were on the phone and I usually tell a story and Heathie will say that he knew that yesterday or he will say I told it the same way before. Well, today I told a story and Wes was really interested in it. Heathie said that we all heard this yesterday. Wessie said he did not. Then it dawned on me!!!! I said Wessie and I really are best friends!!!! We will be able to tell each other the same story over and over and never even know it!

NOTE: MEMORY ISSUES ARE NOT A FUNNY THING AT ALL. IN FACT WE HAVE SEEN SO MANY FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS SUFFER THROUGH IT AS WE HAVE SUFFERED WITH THEM. WE JUST DECIDED THAT WE WOULD TRY TO USE AS MUCH HUMOR AS POSSIBLE TO LIGHTEN OUR LOAD. I AM SORRY IF SOMEONE IS HURT BY THIS OR OFFENDED.

Yes, I have been gone a long time. In fact, it feels like forever.

I had Covid and was termed a long hauler. Let me tell you, it was a long haul. Still is. I have had so many doctor appointments and tests that it keeps us hopping. We tease and say the doctors do this just to get us out of the house. Believe me, we get out enough! Couple that with the extreme fatigue, trying to keep my job and daily chores, I did not feel much like posting.

I realize that you lose readers by not being consistent and I apologize. But, here I am. It may still be sporadic because I won’t be totally well again. I will have my days and maybe even weeks that I can do nothing. I might tell the story on here but not sure people want to hear it. For now, I wanted to apologize. I do have a story to tell in just a few. I think it is funny, and again, there are those of you who do not understand my humor. I wanted to explain myself before I just started posting again, so here you go!

Love you all! Thanks for reading.

Shelby used to live about an hour away so once a month or so we would go visit her and go shopping and/or to eat. One time, she had a friend along with them. It was usually just her and her husband. Her friend was in the very back seat of our Quest. There were two front seats and two middle seats and then a rather small back seat. We had her friend sit back there.

We had been shopping quite a bit and it was a long day. We were driving along and Wessie gets the best idea ever. He noticed that her friend was asleep. He said he would hit the brakes and we should all scream. He did so!

Haha! The result was better than anything we could have imagined. I am laughing just writing about it. Her friend not only screamed, his arms and legs were flailing like he was trying to run and hit someone or something. He was a mess. Of course, we were all immediately laughing hysterically but it took him some time to stop the screaming. When he did, he abruptly stopped and said, “Jerks!”. Haha. I guess it was mean, but it sure was a good laugh.

So, this is a silly, little, short blog, but I thought it was funny! This does not mean any of you will find it funny, but I am sharing anyway in case you may get a smile from this. You know how you may be with another person and both of you are in your own thoughts? As one starts to speak, you may have something on your mind and it comes out directly after the other person speaks.Well, Shelby and I were going to pick up medicine for her dog. I had to drive her as she is very sick. We were leaving the vet and I noticed a hearse driving by. Shelby was in her own thoughts and said, “I do not feel well at all!” I immediately came out with, “There is a hearse.” Without missing a beat, she immediately followed with, “Well, I do not feel that bad!”

We both cracked up. How witty of her and how appropriate. I am sorry, I just thought it was funny and wanted to share. Hahahaha.

By the way, I am glad that she does not feel that bad!

Back in the day . . . haha. I am really old so now you will really know how old!

When mom would mop the floors – on her hands and knees, of course, (which I still do) she would move all of the kitchen chairs away from the table and line them up in a row. She taught us kids how to play choo choo with the chairs. Honey was always the lead then me, and Little Phil was the caboose. Our father was a railroader so this game was important to us. We loved it! Although sometimes Honey, the conductor, could get a little bossy. She was the oldest after all. Haha.

We played trains until Mom needed to move the chairs back in place. She left a little path not mopped so we could get out of the room and somewhere else while we waited for the floor to dry. Woe to the person who walked on it! I do not understand that because to this day it does not bother me if someone walks on it. Perhaps we have better chemicals because I have never seen little footprints made from walking on it while it was wet.

At some point later she would wax the tiled floors. They were the old tiles they all had back then. Ours were dark brown and light brown. I am sure you have seen the type. They were alternated like a checkerboard. Any way, waxing time… That was our favorite part! It was more fun than choo choo train.

Mom would get her rag rugs…they still sell them today … and pull us around on them to buff the floor for a beautiful shine. We had two rugs going at a time because we could pull each other too. We had races and fights. We tried to push the others off. It was great fun! We pulled the person and then did an abrupt swing to the left or right. The goal was to knock them off. We learned to grab the sides and wrap ourselves up and it was more difficult to “swing us off the rug”. It could be accomplished though. Sometimes a swing to the left and quickly back to the right would knock a person right out of the rug. Waxing the floors was always the most fun part.

Mom seemed to make everything fun! I love you Mom!

A lot of times Wessie will call me from the store or some place when he is out and put someone strange on the phone that I actually know. He does this to embarrass me and perhaps make me look foolish. The game is that I am supposed to guess who is on the other end.

So, true to form, I receive a call from Wessie. I, of course. respond with a hello. The person on the other end has an extremely different voice. I know that they do this to confuse me. Rising up for the game, I completely mimicked the voice. He asked me if I knew this phone number. In my mimicking voice I replied that I did and made some small talk. I am very good at playing along.

This, however, was the wrong thing to do. The guy told me that he was in the bathroom at Walmart and had found this phone. He asked what I wanted him to do with it. Oh goodness! I was so embarrassed for making fun of his voice. I did not know whether to continue on in my mimicking voice or to straighten up and act serious.

I opted to keep the voice so he would not think I was a total jerk and told him to please take it to the service desk. I need to not play so much, but I never learn!

I then called the service desk and had Wessie paged. While I was on the phone the Walmart employee told me a gentleman just picked it up. I hollered for him to wait and asked how he knew it was the correct person. He yelled for Wessie to stop! Haha. He asked what the name of his company used to be. I could hear him respond, “Wesco”. I said that’s him, thanks for you help. I am just glad that Wesco did not say that he did not have a company since he no longer does.

That husband of mine!

When Shelby had her tonsils removed, a wonderful woman from church, Mrs. Perkins, came to visit and brought her a little bear. It was wearing a pretty white dress and when you squeezed it, it played, Jesus Loves Me. Shelby absolutely loved it!

The cat did not love it so much. Every single time that cat would see that bear, it would sneak and grab it and run downstairs as fast as it could and throw it in the litter box. We did not want Shelby to play and cuddle with a bear that had been in a litter box. We were afraid to wash it because the music may not work. We began hiding the bear from the cat, but it still managed to find it.

I was sitting here today and that popped into my mind. It was the cutest thing. Makes me smile and almost laugh out loud. There were three of the kids living here still, Rowdy, Cody and Shelby. Heath may have been around quite a lot. Whenever we would hear the music, the kids (even Heath if he were here) knew to find the cat. It was so cute and funny. You would hear, “Jesus Loves Me” and all kids on cue got up and ran to the downstairs. The cat was in front running as fast as he could, his tail straight out and his ears back. What a funny memory. You would have to see it. Hilarious!

We, to this day, do not know what that cat hated about that bear. We do not know if there was an odd smell or if the music bothered it. I wish I had a video of that. Also, why in the litter box? Haha. Funny!

Side note: Shelby still has the bear except it is safe in storage.

We have a new little dog that was given to us. I am not usually a dog person, but I love this little one so. Whenever Wessie is home and she barks, Wessie gets up with her and walks through the house with her saying, “What’s going on? Is Timmy stuck in a well? Let’s go find Timmy!” Wessie thinks he is so funny. It does make me laugh repeatedly though, no matter how many times he does it. Haha. In case some of you are too young, this is a reference to the show, Lassie that was on when we were children. Lassie was an exceptional collie that saved everyone.

Well, my daughter has a dog named Ree. Ree and our little dog, Minnie, were in my office while I was working one day. Ree took off out to the other room barking her head off. I responded to Ree telling her it was nothing as it usually is. She kept running out there and coming back in. I responded to Ree telling her I was not playing her game today.

Ree would not let up and I finally got up and followed her. She took me to my kitchen stove. A pot on the burner was boiling over! What a great dog! I was so impressed with her!

I guess there really are other Lassie’s in the world. I feel that every older person should have a dog around to take care of them!

So, since I had Covid, I have orthostatic hypotension. This means that when I stand, my blood pressure drops and it renders me unable to continue standing and also makes me short of breath. I have to use a wheelchair when I shop because it is standing too long and walking too much. I just cannot breathe.

Shelby was pushing me in the wheelchair at Walmart. She wanted these bowls and when she tried to get one, the whole stack was stuck together. She pulled and pulled on them. She twisted and turned them. She even went so far as to find a towel or washrag or some type of cloth to try to increase her grip to get them apart.

Then comes the big light bulb with the brilliant idea. Haha. Hey mom, hold on to this end while I pull this end. I eagerly grabbed the end to assist her. Guess what happened?! You know it! Haha. She pulled the bowls and my wheelchair and I just followed her down the aisle. She giggled a bit and tried again and again we all took off with her. Then we both lost it. It was so funny to us. She was standing there doubled over in laughter. It took awhile for us to stop laughing and people were walking by looking at us and wondering. Of course, that made it more funny. I love moments of uncontrolled laughter.

I am sure you are thinking, this is a blog? Well, I thought if you could envision it, it may be funny to you. However, it may have been one of those moments where you had to be there Anyway, you have a great day today and I hope I made you smile.

Think back to your childhood. I was thinking back to all of the outdoor things we did as children. Most of our life was spent outside. When we would wake up in the morning, we threw on our clothes and ran, literally ran, to the door and threw open the screen door and ran outside to play.

We would maybe stop and play with the dogs, climb some trees, head to the sand pile, go exploring in the woods or play P – I – G on the basketball hoop on the barn. Or maybe we would mess with the animals on the farm or play around in the barn and go on made up adventures. Sometimes we would play around in the creek which we always for some reason called the crick.

Living in the country, neighbor children (actually there were no close neighbors, we all had to ride our bikes to others homes) would stop by and join in playing. You just never knew what the day would bring and this was very exciting. Much more fun, I believe, than the children have today.

We had 10 acres of ground and tons of places to play. We had a sledding hill and a pond that Mom and Dad had made for us. We had wooden floors in the barn since Mom and Dad had square dances. We could skate and skate board in there. We played lots of games in there. Even had parties. Randomly at nights we would set up our tent and all of the siblings would sleep in it, or just one or two. What great times we had.

We would play tag, kick the can, New Orleans, Who wants a corner, hide and seek, just so many games. Kick the can reminded me of the times when we would step on pop cans so that they were stuck to our feet and we would walk around on them liking the noises it made.

The house was a good distance from the barn, so we could play flies and grounders, kickball and a small version of football. We would have races from time to time. The races is why I started writing this. Haha. I know that it happened to my brother and sister as well as myself, but I wonder if any of you have had this happen and would remember it.

We were outside playing around and had to run inside to get a drink. We usually had kool-aid or iced tea. No sodas for us back then. We loved both drinks, kool-aid and tea. Of course, there was not time to mess around, we had to get our drinks and get right back at it. That meant we chugged the drink and ran right back out. As we were running, I noticed that I could hear and feel my drink sloshing around in my stomach. I called my brother over immediately and had him listen. He tried to make his do that. His would not do it so he ran in and chugged some more. He finally got his to do it and we thought it was the neatest thing. Mine stopped doing it so we ran in to get some more to drink. At this point, our sister caught us and wondered what we were up to. Of course, her being older and smarter, she knew this was not possible. She had to get a drink and run out and try it too. Sure enough, we could all jostle our stomachs and make swishing noises. We thought it was the greatest thing ever. Did any of you ever notice this?

Funny how much entertainment we had with little or nothing. I sure miss those days. I could go on and on about the things we would do outside!

My neighbor, like clockwork in the morning and early afternoon somehow faithfully sets off his/her car alarm. When it happens, it does it twice, back to back with about a 5 minute gap in between. For the first few times, I jumped up and checked my car to see if mine was going off. Now when it happens I just smile. I wonder what it is they are doing to make it happen.

Today when it just happened, it reminded me of a story. Our children were in 6th grad. 3rd grade and 1st grade. Perhaps the 6th grader was in 7th. I may be wrong on those ages. We had just moved to our house here in town where we are now. We had purchased this home from a pastor’s mother and of course, she invited us to church when she met us at the closing. It took a few invites but we finally decided to go when Pastor saw Wessie at the lumber yard and told him a program called Awana was just beginning for children. We decided to go.

We never missed a week after we started. An evangelist was sheduled to visit for 3 weeknights in a row. We were going to skip the second night because we had a plumbing issue and Wessie was digging up something to fix it. I do not remember what. About 30 minutes before it was to start, he tossed down the shovel (he did NOT throw it at me like he recently did the hammer! Haha!) and said let’s go, I do not want to miss this guy. We hurried and went and that very meeting, we all got saved!

We had recently bought a used bronco and was driving that as our family car. We pulled up to church the next night for the third and final meeting and Wessie somehow set off the alarm. The horn was honking and the lights were flashing. We did not know what to do or how to stop it. Whatever we did made it “panic” more and the horn started honking furiously and the lights were going crazy! We had everyone’s attention! We were so embarrassed but we finally got them to stop. We were still relatively new and we were embarrassed for making a scene. Haha.

We are sitting in the sanctuary listening to the awesome speaker when he looks at us and smiles. He says something like . . . How do you like this?! This family is new to this church and they come here this week for this special event. They all were saved last night. Everyone was happy and smiling at us. He then goes on to say they are so happy! Tonight when they pulled in they were laying on the horn and had the lights a blazing!

I would say that is how it should be when you get saved! Lay on the horns and flash your lights and rush in to the church parking lot!

This past weekend was great! Weather was nice. We were opening the pool and getting the hot tub set up and just working away. I went out to help Wessie. Today was not one of his finer moments.

He was screwing in boards to cover the deck up after removing several pieces. I asked if I may practice screwing the screws in since I have my own power drill. He said sure. He showed me once and then said go ahead. Of course, the second one did not work so well and he came back saying rather loudly, you are stripping it. You are stripping it. Well I said it must have hit a knot or another screw. He said no and said I was fired. That sort of disappointed me and I said gosh teacher, I only got taught once. He apologized and called me back but I might be stubborn and I said no.

Later on I came back out to do something and he said for me to hammer in that nail near me that was sticking out. You won’t believe this one! He threw the hammer at me. Yes AT me. He must have thought he was throwing it TO me, but he did not accomplish that. He threw it and it hit the deck and bounced up and nailed me in the shin. There is next to nothing on your shin. Anything that hits it brings instant tears to your eyes! Wow. He felt so bad. He kept saying he was sorry and hugging me and saying he was really sorry.

I said I was glad he was not tossing me a knife!

I went in to tease Shelby and was going to call her and say dad threw a hammer at me but she called me first. I laughed and she said go over to Alexa and play Bang, Bang Maxwell’s Silver Hammer loud enough for him to hear and keep me on the phone because I want to know his reaction. We did just that. He ignored me for awhile and I kept turning it up louder. He finally asked how long it took me to figure t play that song! Haha. Poor Wessie.

I probably should not even be posting this one, but I guess it is okay for every one to have laughs on me. Laughing is great and in much need.

Wessie and I had a busy Saturday. We went shopping to 3 or 4 different stores. We usually have to pick up all of the different foods we need for the week. You know how it goes, you only will get your produce at this store, your meat at that store. It is just a bunch of running. I make meals for Wessie to take in his truck all week and then there is food for me. We went home and put the groceries up and went to have a drink. It was for a soda, not alcohol. We went to a few other stores that were not groceries after that and then we went to dinner.

Mind you, Wessie has been with me the entire day and did not ever tell me about this. I had seen several people too and they never told me. Hopefully they did not notice, but I know some people had to notice. It was so very obvious.

We were walking to the car after dinner and finally I noticed something. It was driving me crazy and interrupting my walking. I guess inside of my jeans with me was a pair of my underwear! It was hanging to the side so it must have been there the entire time. The part I noticed was when it was over the top of my shoe and was rubbing against the top of my foot while I was walking. Yes, they were hanging out enough for it to be obvious what piece of clothing it was.

I was so embarrassed. They must have been up in the legs of my jeans until they dropped down. So, that means I had a bulge somewhere in my pants all day. I was confused as to how it happened until Shelby said they got in there while my clothes were drying. Oh yeah, duh! That is exactly what happened.

I guess it is not so terrible, because I remember seeing a lady years ago, while working at the University here, walking up the stairs. She had her entire dress stuffed into the back of her panty hose and there was nothing left unnoticed. I tried to catch her but I did not make it to her in time. I am thankful that I was only walking around dragging my underwear!

I am a genius! Well maybe I am. Maybe someone else already thought of it and everyone knows but me. In thinking about it, if I did not know like everyone else, then I AM a genius for thinking of it. So, I am a genius! Some of you may thank me for this wonderful idea!!!

You know that little hole in the top of your pan lid? It is for steam escape correct? Yes it is. However, I found a really neat use! I was cooking rice and not all of the water had cooked out. I know I measured it correctly so I let if cook a little longer. There was still enough water that I did not want it like that.

I was trying to spoon out the rice and drain the water from there because I was too lazy to get the colander out. I saw the lid sitting over there and wondered! I put the lid on and held it tight. Went to the sink and it was the perfect way to drain the water through the little steam hole. Wow! This is a game changer! I am so excited. I immediately called Wessie and told him and he, too, thought it was a great idea.

In the middle of writing this, Shelby called me. I excitedly told her I was writing a blog on how I am a genius. She wondered why so I asked her if she knew what that hole on the lid of a pan was for. She said for steam to escape. I said right, but there is another use. She immediately said we use it for draining!

UGH!!! I felt defeated. My pride bubble was punctured. Then, I realized what I said above. I AM a genius for thinking of it even if everyone else already knows!

I came to turn on the computer to tag my children on facebook to have them call me so that I could find my phone. HaHa. It happens more times than it should. I have this bluetooth and I am so used to walking around without the phone that I often times lose the phone! I found the phone, so I figured I would just write about my incident.

I love baths. I always take a bath. I cannot even remember the last time that I had a shower. Due to my breathing issues and fatigue with Covid 19 (as a long hauler as they call us), it is harder and harder for me to take a bath. We have a shower downstairs, but then I would have to try to do the stairs. Thanks to my little brother, he gave me and put in a tub/shower for me. I hated to see my big older tub leave the premises, but that is what old age does for you. I have yet to use the shower due to my stubborn attitude that I have. I swear I am not stubborn but some say that I am. Some even call me hard-headed. Imagine that!

Anyway, I decided that tonight would be the night. I turned it on and figured out how it all worked. My husband and brother customized the shower to fit my height so I would not drown. They had great fun joking about this, but I told them I was taller than a lot of people I know. I did not want a shower in my house looking like it was for the munchkin family. However, I do have a separate shower head that I can take down and use just for me and the taller people can use the one that is attached. I hope that makes sense. So I got the water the right temperature and figured out how to use the heads. Hey! I even have two grab bars in there! A perfect short, old woman shower!

I do not watch scary movies, but I have heard about a shower scene in the movie Psycho, so I locked myself into the bathroom. That was my first mistake. I could not get either door to unlock and I was wondering how I would like sleeping in there with no phone to call anyone. I do have a nice fluffy bath mat and my two wet towels, so hey, I was good to go. I took a few deep breaths and finally got the door to unlock. We should probably change that lock because there have been so many people get locked in there that we have had to rescue. It is so funny when it happens to them though that we have not been in a rush to fix it. Maybe now I should put that on Wessie’s list!

Anyway, after my escape, I got on here to request a phone call from my friends on facebook. I guess I solved that problem on my own, too! Go me!!!!! (P.S. The shower was not so bad, but as of now, I still prefer a bath!)

Cotton balls! Furry, fuzzy, thready little balls. I remember on the movie Elf, Buddy eats them up like crazy. His father tells him to stop and he throws another one in his mouth and eats it. I have never ever seen anyone eat one before! I know, it is just television and he more than likely did not eat that cotton ball. The visual is still there in my mind, though!

Cotton balls ARE useful, though! However, I do not use them for much at all except to clean the dry/erase calendar. I use nail polish remover and just put one on top of the bottle and saturate it and the dry/erase board is perfectly cleaned! Takes no time at all!

However, I have this cat, named Zoe. For some reason this cat goes crazy over the smell of this polish remover. She must be addicted to the alcohol! When I used the cotton ball I would put it in the bottom of a cup so that I could reuse it the next time I clean the board. I don’t know why I do this, it is not like cotton balls are expensive. You get a huge bag when you buy them. But, for some reason, I must feel like I need to use it clear up! I would always later catch Zoe running down the hallway with this cotton ball in her mouth. The chase was on.

I would put the ball at the bottom of this cup that I keep odds and ends in on my desk. She would go right to it and work and work until she got it out of there. Every time I saw her on my desk, I would get her down. The next time, I would bury the ball deeper with heavier items. I do not know why it took me several months to decide to find a new location. I guess the cat is smarter than me, or, I just liked playing the game. I do not know. I am pretty sure that I did not like playing the game. Haha.

Since I came down with Covid, I have not used the calendar since October. I am getting some energy back so today I decided to update my calendar for February. I cleaned the board and filled in the dates and information. I left my office to go wash my hands and grab a bite to eat. When I return to the room, Zoe is standing on my desk on her hind legs sniffing the board like crazy. She must have been in withdrawals!! I thought that the cotton ball must have been smelled and sucked on by her so much that it lost its aroma. I could hardly get her away from that calendar!

Guess what??!! A surprise for me! Buddy is not the only one who eats cotton balls! Apparently Zoe does too. I do not know if I will find her staggering down the hallways or if she will have a little hangover tomorrow.

This is a brief little blog. I read something somewhere, probably a little facebook quote thing, but it was so true that I had to come on here and share.

When a new mommy tells me how tired they are, I jokingly tell them that from now on they will be tired the entire rest of their life. They laugh and I laugh, but it is totally true. If they are not keeping you up all night as babies, they keep you up all night as grownups, even when they do not live with you. A mother never stops worrying, at least I do not. I am assuming other mothers do too or there would not be so many sayings and quotes about that subject. I have actually had the new mommy come back and tell me that I was exactly correct with my tired statement. We laugh again, but we know it is too true.

Well, I do not have any clever sayings about the happiness of a mother. I just know that I am so blessed and happy to have my children. However, this quote hits the nail on the head.

A MOTHER IS ONLY AS HAPPY AS HER SADDEST CHILD.

Hmm. I had not thought of it that way. As simple as it is, I had not exactly put it into words like that. It seems that things are going along well and then a child has a setback. They are unhappy and we are unhappy. That child will be okay and there goes another child with a setback. Unhappiness again. There are good times, and very, very happy times, but that is such a true statement. Not only is a mother sad for her child, she worries and there is nothing mom can do to fix this like we used to be able to fix their scrapes. It really hurts when you cannot fix it or help your child. It is so hard. It is especially hard when more than one child is sad. Mom then feels all of their sadness and worries about all of them!

Oh well, that is life. I would not trade my children for anything.

I always read my blog to Wessie before I post it. It is sort of a second proofing. Wouldn’t you know, I was reading this to Wessie and when I read the last line, he said, but go ahead and make an offer.

I have a problem, obsession rather. I think it is probably because I am home so much of the time. I tend to rearrange the rooms . . . a lot. Well, my mother did that as well, so maybe that is what started it. She would often times tell Dad, what if we knocked that wall at and did blah, blah. Lol. When my nephew comes to visit from out of state, the room is usually rearranged since the last time he was here. The last time he was here he said that he felt like I lived in a slowly revolving home because everything was always moved. Ha!

At one point, we had 9 people living here for a period of time, Wessie and I and 7 children. Wow, is right! Wessie made this huge kitchen table and it turned out larger than he expected so we had to put it in the living room which was right off of a tiny dining room. That dining room held a small table for 6 people. That is crowded with the 6! I had turned that tiny dining room into a tiny living room but I could not stand seeing the sink and stove, the refrigerator, and all of that kitchen stuff while watching television or conversing with people. Four of the people had large bedrooms (one for a son and the other for a son, his wife and 1 year old daughter) downstairs so they were down there most of the time watching their own televisions and did not really join us in the upstairs living room. At one time, half of the basement was a huge family room and the other half was where we had our school. See how often I change things? Ha.

We had a bedroom down the hallway upstairs at the back of the house, so I got the bright idea of making that the living room. The bedroom at the back of the house was small but it was so cozy. We were even able to get our Christmas tree in there and have Christmas one year. After that, we moved it back because some of the people moved out.

The point of this story is that we called the bedroom/living room, the Bliving room. It was after all a bedroom turned into a living room. Bliving room made perfect sense. It just makes me laugh when I think of it because others started calling it the bliving room too. The cable man came in one time to do some work and we were all sitting at the table. He walks up the steps and he never breaks a stride and asks …. the router is still in the bliving room right.? Haha. The people at the table frowned and asked what he meant. The cable man and the kids and I broke into laughter. We had to explain just what the bliving room was. You all may not find any humor in this but to me it is funny. It makes me smile and laugh to think of how many people just accepted that word and called the room the same thing. Who says what room has to be what anyway. Right?

Hello all. I am sorry that I have not posted in awhile. Please do not give up on me. I will be back at some point soon.

I came down with Covid on November 11. It was not kind to me and it is taking some time to get over this virus.

I felt like I should let you know that I did not just disappear. Thank you for reading and following me and I will be back. I have Christmas posts from last year and there are others here that you could read if you have not read them all.

If I am not back the end of the month ….Merry Christmas to you all and thank you again!

People often joke about the size of your pill container determining your age. That could be partially true.  Haha!

I dont use a pill container but will probably have to relinquish and do so, if I can find one big enough, due to the forgetfulness.  Haha! Wessie uses one faithfully.

We did, however, have to have a dedicated pill cabinet in the kitchen. Wessie has his and I have mine. The overflow . . . yes there is an overflow . . . goes in the bathroom cabinets. Such a sign of our older ages.

Some people are able to just pour out a handful of pills and pop them in their mouth and swallow them. Wessie can do this as well. (He does have a big mouth, you know. Haha. Just joking). I have trouble swallowing one. I have since I was a child.

Most of my pills are vitamins and often times I skip some of them because it feels like such a chore. Swallowing them one at a time seems to take forever and it is not always a success. Sometimes choking is involved. Okay, a lot of times choking is involved.

As I was taking them all today it occurred to me that there were so many that it was like eating a meal. A tasteless meal obviously, but a meal. It took about as long as eating a small snack and I was full.

Maybe I should never miss a day! Perhaps I have come up with a new meal replacement and an easier way to lose weight!

As I was proofing this it dawned on me . . . forget the meal replacement idea. You have to take some of these medications with food. Haha. I will think on my next brilliant idea and get back to you!

You go places and you plan events with family and friends. You have high expectations of how much fun it will be. You remember days of old or even just last year. You all excitedly get together and darn….. what a let down. You all keep a happy face as best you can and say oh well, we were together. You say, there is always next year or next time. Obviously, everyone IS let down and it was NOT what we had expected. Things do get in the way, though, sometimes weather, sometimes people not being able to all make it, and now there is Covid.

That was the way with our annual Pumpkin Patch trip. The pumpkin patches all said they were open. We went to our favorite one which involved a lot of driving and to our dismay it was not fully open. It was even more driving for some of the family because they came from 2 hours away to begin with. All you could do was walk around and look at the variety of pumpkin and squash to purchase. Oh well, we all said. We took some pictures and said the obligatory things about being together was what mattered and that there is always next year. (Why did I suddenly think of the Chicago Cubs there?)

One day, when Cody and Shelby still lived at home, Cody and I were bored and we decided, hey we can go camping! We informed Dad when he came home from work and we packed everything up and went and set up site at Fox Ridge which is not far from our house. We rushed back in to town to meet Shelby who should be getting home from school. We told her to pack her stuff we were camping tonight. She had to go to work soon and was working until 10:00 p.m. We told her to pack her stuff and we would take her to work and pick her up afterward. What a great time we had then! Everyone was excited.

We love the unplanned spur of the moment events! We have a lot of those times. We often just jump up and go. Sometimes we wake up and decide to go visit one of our children or to go on a short trip. Some people just are not able to do something if it is not planned. If you are one of those people, please lighten up and try to do it. It is so nice. You have no idea what the day may bring.

One Sunday morning we were getting ready for church and a friend of the children called as we were supposed to pick him up for church. He said, hey can we skip today and go exploring. We picked him up and took off driving and stopped wherever we wanted along the way. What a great day that was. God may not have liked that we “skipped” out, but we did. I am glad that we could lighten up and go do a friend’s request. For whatever reason, he must have needed that and we all enjoyed the day with lots of laughter.

Also, there are the times when you are out and about that just happen to turn in to one of the best times you have had. Nothing was planned, nothing special was going on, it just happened. That has happened so many, many times. One just happened recently which prompted me to post this. There were only three of us. It was just an ordinary night and all of a sudden, we were laughing and singing and dancing and having the best time ever! It is great in another way because all that week, you think about those good times and smile and this leads you to having a better week than you normally may have had.

There have been many other such events that were planned, and unplanned even, that have turned out to be a let down. Do not allow the let downs to stop you, keep going. Then, there are the pleasant surprises that can be the very best. Do not stop planning and do not stop the impromptu! You never know when you will have one of the best and happiest times. Go with the flow. Always laugh. Do not be afraid to laugh even if it is at yourself. Keep looking for the good times and keep smiling, there are not enough good times. Make your own. You will be surprised at how nice it feels to smile and more so to laugh.

We recently had our roof and gutters replaced due to a hail and wind storm.

My brother painted my shutters and he was here today hanging them. Of course I was helping again!

I was handing him the brush and he would brush the dust and spider webs off of the siding and then I handed him the screws and a shutter and he would attach the shutter. My helping saved him trips up and down the ladder.

Some places where the ladder had to be placed were a little precarious. I was so thirsty and it was so windy. I had handed him everything and knew that after this shutter he would have to get down and move the ladder. So . . .

I tell him I am going to get a drink and will be back and I tell him to be careful. I then proceed to walk away. Oh, gosh! …I just keep laughing as I am typing this! For some reason it makes me laugh.

As I am leaving he is saying ok I hope I am ok. If you hear a thud and it is me falling will it make a difference and you will come back sooner? I suddenly stop walking and giggle a bit and ask him if he would mind waiting until I get my drink before he falls.

He said something smart back but I don’t know what it was because I was laughing so hard by then. I guess you had to be there but how silly of me to just walk away in the middle of something important and then him to calmly ask if I would come sooner if I heard him fall.

I guess I have a weird sense of humor.

Well the story about my father’s brakes going out and someone driving through Buffalo Wild Wings while my son was working brought another brake story to my mind. This one is another famous Wessie story.

I had a car that seemed to have a history of getting the back passenger door crashed. I cannot remember the first time, but I actually am thinking it was Wessie. The next time, I was at Walmart stuck behind a car waiting for a parking space. A car beside me started backing out of his parking space and was headed straight for my back passenger door. I honked and honked and tried to go forward or backward to get out of the way while I was honking the entire time. It was to no avail. He crashed the back door in. We, of course, had it repaired.

We lived in the country and had a huge pole barn. I parked by pulling into the side of the barn to the north and Wessie parked by pulling into the end of the barn toward the west. He was getting ready to go to work one night and we all had kissed him goodbye.

My son was standing by the front door which was closed, so we were unable to see out. I heard a sickening crunch sound that you always remember once you hear it. It is the sound of a car being smashed by another. It is a very recognizable sound. I was trying to open the door because I could not imagine what would have happened. My son asked what was the matter. I told him to move because someone had hit a car. He was puzzled as well, but moved out of the way so I could open the door.

Outside of the garage door was Wessie standing there in disbelief. No vehicles could be seen. I asked if he had hit a car and said I heard the unmistakable noise of metal on metal. He just stood there. The kids came running out by then and we went to the barn. Sure enough, the front end of Wes’ old vintage red truck was in my back passenger door.

I could not believe he did that. I asked how in the world he did that. This is even more unbelievable. . . his response was that he noticed the brakes were not working as he was backing out, so he pulled back into the pole barn. The son had a response then as well. He asked his father, did you think, let’s see, stop the truck by backing into the basketball pole or pull in and smash the cadillac? Well all of us lost it then. Wes was once again the brunt of the laughter.

Obviously he was not thinking. Of course, the truck, a 1966 short bed Chevy street rod, is good and heavy, so nothing happened at all to the truck. My car door did not fare so well. When Wessie went to have it again repaired, the body shop owner asked if we just wanted a target painted there. I said no, thank you, Wes has a very good aim!

I cannot remember the year for this story, but my sister, myself and my little brother were still living at home. My father, has a sense of humor different than others. It is the BEST humor ever. Just a little information here, first. Sometimes you do not get his humor until later and you think about what he said and go oh yeah and laugh when you are not even around him. Then you feel like an idiot busting out laughing alone and people stare at you. The main thing about his humor is that he is so QUICK!

Anyway, this one in particular …. He had taken his car in to get his brakes fixed as they were not working well. My sister picked him up and brought him home until they called him back and said that the job was finished. I do not remember who dropped him off up there, but someone did and then left.

My father went into the store to settle up the bill. He reached in his pocket and to his dismay, he had not brought his check book with him. Living in a smaller town, everyone knew him. So he said I will run home and get my check book and be right back. They, of course, said okay.

My father came back to the auto shop, pulled into the parking lot and drove right through the front windows and into the store! Wow! The brakes they just fixed did not work at all. What is the likelihood of getting your brakes fixed and finding they weren’t fixed by driving into the place that fixed them! To me, that is the beauty of the story. I guess it should not be as it is sad that they had such damage to their store, but what irony!! What a way to test your brakes.

Back to my father’s humor. He was shaken, but he calmly stepped out of the car, showed his checkbook and said, “I guess I do not need this now. I guess I won’t be using it.” Everyone there laughed. Laughter is a good way to relieve stress and tension. We are so thankful that EVERYONE was okay. How scary.

This story came to mind yesterday as we were with family and it was brought up about Cody working at Buffalo Wild Wings while he was in school in Dekalb. They were at the front door at their stations and suddenly a car came crashing through! He was okay, but a few were injured slightly. One girl was pushed a bit by the car and was a bit airborne for awhile. How scary there too! Talk about Wild Wings!

I realize that there are lots of confusing spellings of words. The ones that get me the most though are the words with the hidden letter W.

Why do you even need to have that W in there? The word answering. Go ahead and pronounce the W. “an swering.” I am not an English major or anywhere close to it, but why is the W even needed there?

Then there is sword. Go ahead and pronounce the W in that. I cannot even figure how to type it so that you pronounce it with the W sound. Lol. I am sure that you get my point though and can figure out how to do it.

There is wrist, wriggle, wrinkle, wreck, wrought, wrong, wrestle. These words you actually cannot pronounce the W as you can in answer and sword. I am trying to think if there are others like answer and sword but I cannot come up with any others.

To me at least wrist, wrinkle, wreck and the others you can leave the W silent at the beginning. The W in the middle of answer and sword drives me crazy.

Are there any of you majors out there that know if there is a reason for this? I really am wanting an “an swer” if you would not mind “an swering.”

I had trouble eating properly due to feeling like I used to cook for an entire crew and reducing to just cooking for me. I ate very unhealthy snack foods because how do you cook for one person? I then realized that with my husband being a truck driver, I could cook a regular meal and freeze the rest for him to take for his meals.

I wondered if I had been a good mother at all. I even asked my children if they had a good childhood. I apologized for incidents that I remembered and I cried all of the time. I would wish I could do it all over again. Not that anything was that bad at all, because it was not, but I would just remember and wonder. I wished we had more money so we could have done more. We made the choice to home school and knew we would only have one income and that is what we decided to do because we considered that more important. I still feel that it was a good decision and very important to do.

Sometimes, I would just lay around and then I would sleep and feel like everyone would be better off without me because I was not pleasant to be around. I have always loved life and had wished I was not this old because I had so much more to do. At this point, I felt like I was ready whenever God wanted me and that could be as soon as He wanted. I felt that I was just wallowing and feeling pity for myself, but I could not rise above it. I have never felt pity for myself. I usually am a pretty happy person. I choose happiness and laughter. I do not want to live that way that I was. I wanted my children’s attention so much when they were just trying to live their lives. My children are wonderful, they were just doing what they were supposed to be doing and being successful at it. I am very, very proud of them. All of them. I have others, but these two were the babies, the others had long since moved out. There is a big age difference in the children due to Wessie and I having been married before. I really have no friends, so I could not just do things with them. I was used to hanging with family and when they were gone, who did you do anything with?

I was so used to taking care of them that it was terribly hard not knowing if they were home and in bed safely. They have been very understanding and I text them and they let me know. Poor kids, hahaha, having an overprotective mother like me! That may be part of why I felt they would be better off without me – they would no longer feel like they had to report to mommy. I am better and I do try not to bother them so much. I get so upset when they are hurt still. I cannot kiss it and make it better or hold them while they cry. That is so very hard. I will always want to shelter them and make things better for them if I can at all.

My oldest daughter lost her husband recently and there is nothing at all that I can do and it is tearing me apart. I want to take all of her sadness and see her beautiful smile again. I want her to go on and lead the life they had planned. I know she feels she cannot without him and she cannot really. It will never be the same. She will go on but it will be different. I wish I could do something for her.

I am always wondering and asking if they have money and if they have food. I am sure that I drove them nuts! I still do to an extent. The medicine did help a tremendous amount. Anyway, I keep having thoughts that I could go on and on with. But I will stop before I say too much and ramble.

The reason that I began to write about this in the first place was to perhaps help someone else that may need to hear that they are normal. I felt so terrible about thinking everyone would be happier without me. I did not mention this to many people because I felt it was a horrid thought. I did not want them to worry that I would actually do anything because I will never. But what actually prompted me was a woman named Chonda Pierce. She is a Christian comedian that I stumbled across on You Tube. A video popped up where she was talking honestly and openly about her depression. She had the same feeling that perhaps it would be better off if she were not here. I felt so much better after listening to her. I had thought I was in such sad shape for thinking that at all. If she felt that way, others probably do too. So, here I am sharing.

She cried some and also made light of it in her video. This is not a direct quote following here, it is my wording of what I remember her saying. She said she confessed this to her daughter and said she was thinking of jumping in the river. She said her daughter being so sweet and understanding said to her that she knew she would have to tell dad didn’t she. She said she heard them outside of her room talking in muffled voices. She said her husband came in and said I hear you want to jump in the river. She said yes. She said her husband said to her that she did know the river was only about a foot deep didn’t she. She laughed.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone. Do not be afraid to admit it. Get some help. It does work. It does not mean you are a failure. I love you all. Thank you for listening!

I had so many, many feelings and emotions when I was laying on the couch and sleeping only. I first of all want to make it clear that no one is to blame but myself. It will sound like I am placing blame, but I am not. I am positive this is what empty nest is.

We decided to home school our children when they were in first and third grade. This means that I had the wonderful opportunity to spend all of my time with them. This was important because school and their activities are so rushed and children grow up before you know it. The more time, the better for us. All I had ever wanted out of life was for someone to love me and give me babies to love. Dad still had to work, but he had more time with the children as well. We joined Awana and even became leaders to spend more time with them. We were youth group leaders for their age group. We even taught Sunday School class for awhile. We started a church basketball team for children and Wessie coached. I scheduled the games and we even had cheerleading for the girls. It was a fantastic life! The children always had game nights at our house on the weekends and our house was continually full of children and laughter. What a blessing for us. I am so happy we had these opportunities. I would LOVE to do it all over again.

Suddenly, everyone grows up and moves out, just like they are supposed to. This is a common thing for children to do. It is great when your children can move on and be without you. It means you did it right and did a good job. But . . . Mom is left alone as dad is gone more often now. Major sadness sat it. I knew nothing else to do. It felt like I had no purpose. What what I supposed to do? There was a big void in my life. When Wessie would come home on the weekend, we would shop, do his laundry and get him ready to work again on Sunday. That was it. Wow. What a change from how it used to be.

That is why I finally cried to Wessie and said that I either needed a baby, cats, or I needed to kill myself. I am glad he chose the cats as I thought he would teasingly say go ahead, I will miss you. Haha. Do not worry, I would never kill myself. I would not do that and have anyone have to find me. That would be a horrid thing to do.

I was quite a pest to everyone at that particular time. I cried a lot and shared those cries with my friends. They listened. Well, I really do not have friends, my family is what I have. They are my very best friends.

I am sorry to do this, but there is so much more that I am afraid I will have to have one more post. See you tomorrow and thanks for listening.

I left off with having talked with the pharmacist. This pharmacist is the best I have ever had! He shared with me his own issues and I even cried for him. He was of such help. My Wessie was totally impressed as well. The pharmacist even mentioned that counseling may help if I ever needed that. He shared how it had helped him. He spent so much time with us and I feel that he went above and beyond.

I told him how I felt like a failure having to take medicine and he explained everything to me in detail and I left there feeling okay, even good, about taking it. He said that even though it was hard for me that the hard part was over and that was in asking for help. I felt even worse because I had never actually thought people needed medicine. I always understood depression meaning that if you were alone or doing things that made you sad like looking at old photos of your deceased family members and things like that, then you would be depressed. I always had thought the key was to get up and occupy yourself. I found that during this, I did not want to even get up. I just would do my job and then lay on the couch and cry or just sleep.

I forget the statistics he gave me but there is a large percentage of people who suffer depression. He also said something like . . . imagine the firefighters and their depression, the first responders and their depression, the veterans and their depression, the doctors, nurses and health care professionals and their depression, the police officers and so on, now magnify what you have imagined he said. Wow! I have never even thought about that. He told me an amount of time that it would take for the full benefits of the medicine, I think 6 months, I do not know. I asked when I could stop taking it after that. He responded by asking me why I would ever want to if it helped me.

Turns out he was correct on all points. I will finish tomorrow with what prompted me to even post these blogs on depression.

This won’t be one of my normal lighthearted posts, so you may not want to read this one. I had actually initially started this blog to perhaps discuss things and to heal. I started out with my childhood memories and then I just seemed to have fun things to say. I do, however, feel like I need to mention this. I apologize if it is a downer. To me, it is more of a revelation. I will say right off at the beginning here . . . I am completely fine now and happy!

I never understood depression. I always felt like it was a choice – – you could sit around and think about depressing things and cry or you could get up and occupy yourself and change your thoughts and the depression would go away.

I work at a doctor’s office and I often talked with the drug reps. I expressed my feelings to them about depression and they always tried to explain to me how it was. I just never could understand that. I have to say, I apologize. I am totally wrong!

After my children moved out and I was here alone (my Wessie is gone a lot, so basically I am alone) I was so sad. I never called it depression. I was just so sad and lonely. Turns out it was depression! Wow, it is a real thing and there is nothing you can do about it. Well, not by yourself at least.

I was on the phone with Wessie one night while he was out of town and I told him I was so sad. I either needed a cat, a baby or to kill myself. Haha. I actually thought he would go with the latter but he said we will get a cat. We ended up with two because Wessie did not want to split sisters up. That was nice and we got Lemon and Zoe. That did not help that much. It just made me some more responsibility and work. I do love them though and am happy we adopted them.

I finally went to the doctor that I work for and told him I needed help. He has always been a good listener. He is so sympathetic that you just feel good even talking with him. He suggested a medicine. I was not happy about this at all, but I was agreeable. I then went to the pharmacy.

I have a fantastic pharmacy. I went to pick up the medicine and was crying because this made me feel like such a failure. I was having to admit I was wrong all along and having to admit I was depressed when I never believed it was a real thing. The pharmacist who is also a wonderful person discussed this and the medication with me for at least an hour. He was so kind and helpful. I have to say that I was reluctant. He explained that it would take some time for it to have full benefits but that I should notice within a week that I was feeling better. He was right and I was so shocked about how much better I felt.

I have more to say but I do not want this to be a long blog so I will post the second part later.

I had to go on an errand yesterday. I pulled into the parking lot and saw my friend in the passenger seat. I could not clearly see her husband, but I was so excited to see them out and about!

I can never do anything traditional like get out and walk up to someone and say hello. Nope, not me! I get all excited and drive right up to the passenger side car door and make a face like, “Gasp! I almost hit you!”

The lady, who turned out to not be my friend after all, was not really excited about seeing me. In fact, she almost had a very angry look in that glare that she was giving me. My smiling at her never even helped to change her face.

I backed up and parked and looked back over at them and they were just sitting in the van staring ahead like nothing had happened. I don’t think they even wanted to get to know me! Haha.

My little brother is finishing a job on our house after the roof was damaged by hail and wind.

As always, I help out and am mostly the gopher. I used to work with him in our younger days…20 years ago or so. I did drywall finishing (to an extent, ha …mudding seams and hole patching and sanding) painting, staining and sealing and whatever I was capable of helping with.

Today as I am helping, Wessie called and was discussing the pay. Wessie told my brother that his pay doubled if I had to help him. They both thought they were hysterically funny.

Throughout the day my brother would have me do stuff and say he wanted to make sure that the double pay would last throughout the job and laughed.

So… he had this ladder that was on a bit of uneven ground. He thought that I should stand on one of the pieces that resemble rungs on the other side. Ever obliging, I hopped right up there. He is working and I am happily standing there gabbing away. When he says it is okay for me to get down, I cannot move. My feet were shaped around those thin little “rungs” for such a while that it felt so painful to pull them up to step down. All I could do was stand there and laugh about not being able to move. He said take your time the pay is double!

We moved on to the gables. I think that I forgot to mention that he was putting up soffit. He would cut the pieces a few at at time (of course nothing on our house is even so the piece sizes varied) and we would carry them over. Once there, he would climb up and I would hand him pieces. He wanted the first piece and I handed it up to him. He handed it back down and asked for the first piece he had down there that was bent. I ever so proudly told him that I noticed it was all bent and I had straightened it out for him! His little head sort of sagged and he looked back up, actually he looked down but since he had his head hung he had to sort of look up. Haha. He smiled and said that he had bent it as it was the piece that went in the middle of peak and it had to be that way. I think that this time I was the one who said the pay increases!

Now we move on to the back of the house. I have two bird feeders that I hang under the soffit. This seems to be the magical place that the squirrels cannot figure out how to get to and drain the feeders! As my brother was closer to putting the soffit up I reminded him to mark where the holes were for the hooks for the feeders. I have no idea why that was a dumb reminder that I had for him but, but he seemed relieved that the pay would stay at the higher level. Wessie had come home from work at that time and they chuckled. For some reason I guess you do not put hooks back in the original spot, you just make new holes. My brother said he would just let Wessie hang them for me.

The job was finished and my brother left the ladder up so that the feeders could be hung.

Here is a side note. . .remember that I have had a few falls in the last few years with some resulting in broken bones.

I excitedly ran to get my feeders. Our deck has multiple levels with slight step downs. Running, on the way back to them with a feeder in each hand (you know what is coming here!) I run over a step down. Both legs twist and I make those groaning/screaming noises that I make when I hurt something and then I start laughing as usual.

Wessie stops what he is doing, points his finger at me and tells me angrily that if I broke my foot or ankle or anything I do not get to feed the birds any longer!

My brother turned and we looked at each other questionably and our uncontrollable laughter broke out. What sort of comment was that Wessie??!! Since I broke my foot before from coming off of a step down out of the bathroom at my niece’s wedding does that mean I do not get to go to any other weddings or do I not get to go the bathroom?

I have been thinking about Joe a lot today. Of course, we all have been thinking about him and missing him so much.

I knew Joe since he was a little boy. He was a neighbor in the country. Of course, I am a lot older so he was a child to me. I can remember that he was over a lot and riding by on his scooter or something like that. He always was smiling. He was enjoying the day and/or he knew what he was going to be doing and was happily anticipating it. We always smiled when Joe went by smiling.

I later knew him when he was in high school as a friend of our daughter, Stacy. We did not hit it off too well then from time to time, but other times we did. Kids will be kids, but we still loved him. He still had that smile. Our daughter ended up sort of dating him for awhile but then she married and he was an usher at the wedding. He still had his smile. It was almost like a tattoo. That smile was constantly on his face.

Through a lot of circumstances and some time passing, Joe and Stacy ending up marrying each other. They had 10 years of marriage. That seems like a lot of time but was way too short. Through some circumstances and things, we did not get to spend as much time with Joe and Stacy as we should have.

All of the stories that have been shared of Joe and the stories of their marriage and events that have happened, I sure do wish we did have more time to spend together. I cannot get Joe off of my mind in particular today. I sure wish things were different. We are spending lots of time with the family now, but you cannot make up for lost time ever.

My thoughts of Joe today are of thankfulness for him. I am so thankful for so many, many things about Joe. He raised their children with great values. He taught Stacy, the children and his friends many things. He believed in people and gave everyone a chance, sometimes chance after chance. He said people just do the best that they can. What an attitude. He is right.

I am thankful that he showed people what love should be like. He showed his love in everything he did. He even showed love in his work. He would not do something shoddy in his work. He did the best that he could do. He was always grateful for what he had and always showed love in return for it. He did not take his marriage for granted. He worked at keeping the love up and the surprise. He worked hard to play hard was his other belief. He loved God and prayed daily.

Most of all, I am thankful that he and Stacy married. I am thankful that she had this time with him. I am thankful for all that he taught her. I am thankful for the happiness that she had while married to him. I am sorry that she does not have that any longer. I pray that she remembers all of the good times and all of the love he showered upon her. I pray that she remembers everything he taught her and continues to live the life he wanted her to live. I pray that she lives with Joe, through Joe, for Joe and for herself.

Rest in peace, sweet Joe. We love you.

Let’s rip on old Wessie some more.  Haha.  He sets himself up so.  This is my sister-in-law’s favorite story.  It makes her laugh the most.  The guy loves cheese. This also reminds me of the movie, Uncle Buck.  John Candy is Uncle Buck and he says, ” I don’t know, I can’t get enough cheese.  I feel like a big mouse.”  Wessie is a big mouse!!

Pizza . . . without fail . . . he chokes on it.  Rather, he chokes on the cheese on the pizza. He always, always orders extra cheese.  I feel like he takes too big of bites or something, I have no idea what happens to him.

Anyway, since it is such a frequent thing and he is always okay, we tend to ignore him.  (Poor Wessie, we probably ignore him more than he knows, lol).  One time when the children were very small, we had people over for pizza.  There was a lot of pizza on the counter.  I am pretty sure it was from Jerry’s Pizza, a favorite of ours.  It is sad to say it is no longer there.   We always ordered extra cheese from there and it was so very, very cheesy!

We were lining up to get pizza and Wessie is at the sink choking as usual.  Everyone, being used to him choking, is just trying to get their pizza and get around him.  His brother walks by and makes the comment to him, “Geesh, Wes, go into the other room to die, that is disgusting!”  Haha.  Everyone laughs and goes on around him.  Someone else made the comment, “Come on Wes, chew it up first!” Someone else walks by and says something like, “Move, Wes, that is disgusting.”  Poor old Wessie.

I finally get up to the counter and notice that he is acting different this time.  His face is red and he is really not making any noise now.  I am trying, as short as I am, to wrap my arms around him to help his choking.  I notice it is suddenly very quiet as everyone is busy eating.  I say, “I do not think I am going to be able to do this.  His brother, who is quite a bit taller than Wes even, sees what is going on and rushes over and saves little Wessie’s life!

We have laughed and laughed about how Wes was seriously having an issue and everyone was saying mean things and ignoring him.  My sister-in-law seems to find this to be the funniest story she has heard.  I do not know what she finds so funny about it, but she is amused by all of the people making rude comments and she thinks it is funny how poor Wessie is having an issue and everyone is ignoring him and being derogatory.  She has a weird humor!  Haha.  To be truthful, we all were laughing and laughing about it and still do.

Actually, this probably sounds like a bad story, but if you were there….

I forgot to mention two other fun things that happened on the fence installing day! Right before our smart friend came, these two other events happened.

Our daughter was trying to turn the gas off on the grill and had to reach behind it. It was backed right up to the fence rail. As she was reaching, the fence rail broke and she was flailing around trying not to fall. Of course, we were all laughing. Sorry, but if an accident is funny looking, I have to laugh as did all of the other witnesses. I will ask them how they are in between the laughter. I am sure I am not the only calloused person like this. Haha. She grabbed the grill in order to not fall off and was able to save herself.

At the same time, her daughter was laughing at her and was walking by and went on to sit down. Well guess what??!! Haha! As she sat down, the chair broke a bit and she fell backwards, her feet going into the air. We could hardly contain ourselves. What fun! Haha. No one was hurt, of course.

Where is the phone when you need a good video! There goes the $10,000.00 prize on America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Once again, Wessie provides the material! We do not need to do anything, just wait for Wessie! Haha.

This weekend, we were building a fence for our daughter. Well, not we, but Wessie and a very good friend of our daughter’s, Dennis. Her children were helping as well. It was a two day project. The fence is finished and looks wonderful I might add!

Stacy, our daughter, and I were just sitting on the deck, watching, supervising, doing a few things. We were just enjoying the day. Dennis’ wife could not come on Friday as she was under the weather. Saturday, however, she did come and thank God for that!

You see, Wessie parked his car in the back yard as it contained his tools. We had the fence almost completed. Gina, Dennis’ wife, brought sandwiches and made them and delivered them to the deck. The boys were sitting and eating and we were all talking. Remember that smart friend I mentioned in the title? It is Gina. We were all talking about how nice the fence looked and Gina agreed and then said, “How are you going to get your car out?” You should have seen everyone’s faces. Mouths dropped open on some, smiles and laughter appeared on others. Haha. We sure are fortunate that she made it over that day!

Luckily, there happened to be one spot that was left open and we were lucky that it did fit through there! Hahaha! Oh, Wessie, I love you!

There is a place in Champaign called The Bins. From what I understand, it is a store that sells Amazon returns. They just fill all of these bins up and you go through and buy what you like. Some items have never been opened and you have no idea what is in them. There is a desk area that you take that to and they open it. If you do not want it, they tape it back up. The first day, the day they stock it, the cost is $7.00 per item. The price is cheaper each day thereafter. Then they start all over.

This sounded like a really neat store. Shelby had been going to it and was telling us of all the deals she was getting. We decided we wanted to go and picked her up and went there with family and some friends. There were 7 of us in total. The Bins only allows so many people in at a time in case anyone was wondering. We were all browsing along separately, some of us together.

Shelby picks up an item and asks me if I think a certain person would like to have this. I tell her I am not sure. Later, she picks up another item and asks me if I think a certain person could perhaps sell that item. I say again that I am not sure. Then, Shelby says that my voice sure does sound terrible and asks me if my throat is sore. I tell her no and that I am fine. Shelby turns to look at me and . . . IT IS NOT ME that she has been speaking to all along! She has been carrying on a conversation with a total stranger and then insults her voice on top of that! Haha! Shelby was so embarrassed! I thought I was the only one that did things like that!

Like mother, like daughter!

We got a riding lawn mower from our daughter, Stacy.  I have been on a rider since I was a little girl.  I used to mow my mom and dad’s yard. It was huge as we lived out in the country, so I am no stranger to one.

When Wessie and I lived in the country, I mowed the lawn on a rider as well since Wessie was never home.  When we moved to town, he said I did not need a rider and gave it to my sister.  I have not mowed the lawn since.  (We actually could use the rider!  Silly Wes!) So, when we got one from Stacy, it was nice because now I could again mow the lawn so Wessie has more time on his day off.  He will no longer have to mow the lawn!

I was trying to familiarize myself with the mower because it has been about 22 years now and mowers are different.  He set it all up and said here is the brake, here is where the blade goes, turn the key and go.  I did just that.  All was going well.

I came back to him after making a round and said I could hardly see where I had mowed.  He said I did not have the blade engaged.  I showed him it was where he told me.  He said that was just the height and I had to engage it over here.  (First thing he failed to tell me that would have been helpful.) I went around again and came back to him.  I told him that it went entirely too slow and I was not going to do it if it had to be that slow. I told him he could just do it and that I had no time for that either.

I start to drive off and he comes up and throws a switch up (second thing he forgot to tell me that would have been helpful) and off races the lawn mower!  He moved it from #1 to #7.  I am flying all over the place. I went over bricks, up and down hills and everything all at a very fast pace!!  He is running after me hollering things like …. you are going to hit the car. . . Look out for the car … hit the clutch…. stop…. watch for the car.

I am, of course, doing the best I can to steer.  I am thinking hit the clutch?  There is no clutch.  I am thinking a clutch is what you push in to shift gears on a car and there is no shifting on a lawn mower.  You have to picture him chasing after me and hollering all sorts of solutions.  It was cracking me up. Well, I was laughing but also trying to save my life.  I had no idea our yard had so many small hills and nasty bumps! Haha.

Finally I realized that I should not be listening to him and my common sense kicked in and I hit the brake.  All was well.  I got off of the mower and he asked why I did not hit the clutch when he told me to. I explained to him just what a clutch was and that there was none.  He told me that the brake is the clutch.  I just said I had never heard that and I think he can still mow the lawn.

We were on our way to the lake for the day.  As we were riding in the truck, I noticed this cloud that was perfectly shaped like a crab wrapping itself around another cloud.  The crab was dark gray around a huge fluffy white cloud.  My mind flashed back to the memories of being on blankets in the yard with the children and finding all sorts of cloud shapes.  We did this  frequently and totally enjoyed it.

I mentioned to Wessie and our daughter, Stacy, how there was this cloud that looked just like a crab but that now he had lost one of his legs and they could no longer really see how perfect it was.  I went back to my memories of cloud viewing and my phone rang.

I answered it and it was Shelby!  She said, “Mom, outside there is this cloud that looks just like a crab!”  I was so excited!!! I excitedly exclaimed  oh my gosh and asked if she could see it from where she was and see it clearly too?? She said,  Well, it has lost one of its legs.”  I was so excited and carrying on and telling Wessie and Stacy and I was just going on and on.  Shelby started laughing.

Then, she told me . . . .  I had apparently pocket dialed her so she just quietly listened and then thought she would call me and play along.  Haha.  She sure got me!!!  It was great!

I was going to spend the night with my daughter, Stacy, one night.  I opted to sleep on the couch.  My grandson, Luke, was sleeping in the recliner.  I had this dream that I had this gigantic stuffed dog on top of the bed.  Cody and Shelby each had one when they were little, a blue one for Cody and a pink one for Shelby.  I must have been thinking of that.  In my dream, Wessie and I were sleeping and that dog was in my way. I picked that dog up and went to throw it on Wessie and growled at him.  Haha.

Well, I remember that dream, but what I remember the most is hitting a very hard surface and finding myself on the floor and slightly under the coffee table and my pillow about a foot away from that!  I guess I was actually throwing my pillow at Wessie (who was not even there as I was on the couch) and when I rolled to throw my pillow at him, I actually threw my pillow and then threw myself to the floor!  OUCH!

At first I could not get up and did not really know where I was.  I finally got myself into a sitting position and my grandson was sitting in the recliner.  I looked at him and asked why he was not laughing.  He just shrugged.  (How polite!  I would have been laughing so hard!!)  I got back up on the couch and laid back down and then I recalled that dream.  I asked him if I was talking when I fell.  He said I had not been.  About two or three minutes later, I told him that I had to say that that had really hurt.  Haha!

A couple of days later, I told Wessie that I thought I must have bruised my shoulder blade because it hurt a bit.  It kept getting worse and worse and I finally decided maybe I should see a doctor.  Well, that is when I found I had dislocated a rib.  Really?  Hahaha!  I never even heard of such a thing.  How funny!

I guess it is a good thing I did not break another toe!  What do you think of that, Shelby??!!  Hahahaha!  Do I still have those anger issues and somehow was angry with that dog?

So . .. in my prior blogs I talk about how I broke my toe and my foot.  These were three separate incidents.  You can go back and read all of the details about them, but to give a shortened version, the first toe break was an attempt to “save” my children.  Haha.

There was a gallon pickle jar, filled with pickles, that we put in front of a gate in the hallway to keep the cats from getting in.  The jar was there because they would take their paws and “snap” the gate making a banging noise trying to get in.  The jar was strategically placed to stop the cats from banging the gate all night and we could then sleep. The two older children were screaming one night and were downstairs (Cody and Shelby). I had to get to them fast as I did not know what was going on.  I could not get the jar to move so I opened the gate and kicked and kicked until it was out of my way.  Well, repeatedly kicking a pickle jar will eventually break your toe.  No surprise news to me.

The second toe break was an accident.  I came out of the bathroom in the dark and accidentally ran into the cedar chest.  All of my toes went one way and the little toe went the other way.  Of course, that broke that toe.

So . . . my daughter, Shelby, had a friend talking about broken toes.  Shelby said that her mother had about 10 broken toes.  A little bit of exaggeration there.  Haha.  Her friend was astonished and asked what made me break so many toes.  Shelby calmly tells her that I broke one toe by kicking a jar of pickles and the other by kicking a cedar chest.  The girl gasps and asks Shelby if her mother has anger issues!!!!

Thanks, Shelby for spreading an inaccurate representation of me!  Hahaha.