I just was noticing how the children speak today.  Well, I have always noticed, but in particular I have noticed how they use the phrase, “I mean.”

I always have used the phrase “I mean” as a correction.  If I had said look at that red car and it was really a blue car, I would say I mean blue.  I had figured “I mean” meant that you had made a mistake in what you had said and when you said “I mean”, you were saying that you did not actually “mean” what you had said and what you really meant was ….  Haha.  That is a complicated paragraph, but I bet you are following me and you get what I mean!  (Sorry, I could not resist.)

So, back to the children … you might ask them, “How are you?”  They will say, “I mean, I am good.”  You say, “What are you going to do today?”  They will say, “I mean, I thought I would go shopping.”

To my children, I have said what do you mean by I mean?  Did you say something first that I missed hearing?  Were you just thinking and corrected yourself?  Haha.  They will, of course, get a little annoyed but they get my point.

I mean, I was just thinking about it so I thought I would post this!

I may have mentioned all of this before, but it is on my mind.

The senses have a lot to do with your memories, certain sounds and songs, certain smells, certain ways we feel,  taste of something,  just walking into a place and having a feeling of a past notion.

We grew up on 10 acres and with the trees and scenery the breezes were the best!  We lived on a sort of incline as well.  Our yard was coveted by the “people in town.”  They would drive by on a hot day, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  They would stop and ask if we wanted to sit in the yard.  Mom and dad, of course, always welcomed people.  The cousins meant we had more socialization as well, younger, people to play with and as we got older, people to talk with.  Haha.  Dad had built picnic tables and we had wooden benches he built that to this day are more comfortable to me than the lawn chairs, plastic or cloth. There was always plenty of seating and of course the yard!  I have been trying to get my husband to build me a bench identical to that.  It has been 30 years so far but I think I may be making some progress.  We can only hope!

We never had air conditioning and were never hot.  That was, in fact, the coolest house I have ever lived in.  Even having air conditioning now, it was so much better. Cool, fresh air cannot be beat.  Mom and dad had it set up with one of those huge fans in a window blowing out so that it was sucking out the heat and some random fans blowing around the house.  It is amazing how cool that was, of course, there was plenty of shade around the house as well.

I will probably share more of the “senses” memories because for some reason they are surfacing.  Don’t get me wrong, I love for them to come up.  The memories are of great times! This was brought to mind because I had the windows open a few weeks ago and the breeze wafted in and I just had this feeling of being at home with my mom, dad and brothers and sister.  I don’t know what makes it happen, but I am glad that it does! What good days!  Enjoy each moment.

So, it gets really hectic when you are getting supper prepared for 4 children and a husband, especially as you are “plating” as they call it now.  I plated some stuff and the rest I carried in bowls to the table.  My husband’s 14 year old and 10 year old sons were there at this time and our son, Cody,  was about 5 and our daughter, Shelby,  about 3.  I was carrying hot stuff to the table and the kids were all trying to take their seats.

I always told them they did not need to sit at the table and wait with their forks in hand ready to stab at the food.  This statement always made them giggle and laugh. They could come in when they were called or even help me somewhat.  They would just laugh and sit there anyway.  It was sort of cute seeing them all sit there excited about supper,  but not when my husband did it as well.  I mean come on husband, help out!  Haha.

One particular night was especially hectic.  Everyone was starving and everyone was running around the kitchen and table area and being exceptionally loud as they were always in such good moods. It would not have been so bad if they were sitting but they were all dashing around the table and sort of being right in the way.  Right when I had a hot dish in my hand, Shelby came running up to me with her little finger extended and was slightly whining.  I assumed she just wanted me to kiss it, but the boys were all being loud so I could not really hear her.  She kept getting louder and louder.  I yelled at them to please quiet down and they all got louder as if they all needed me to hear something right then and there. I turned to get another dish to bring over and Shelby was still following me with that little finger extended. I was afraid we would collide and I would spill something on her.  I looked and it was not bleeding so I took the final dish to the table.

Finally in frustration, I hurriedly set the plate down, answered two of the boy’s questions and grabbed Shelby’s little finger and kissed it.  She turned her finger around and looked at it and said, “my booger gone!”  Oh my gosh!  I quickly reached for my mouth and sort of started sputtering and wiping my mouth and the boys all erupted in laughter.  Then Shelby giggled and said, “You kissed my booger gone!” We all laughed and laughed and suddenly things were not hectic any longer.  It was just what we needed to take the edge off.  What a fun supper it turned out to be, at my expense of course, but I survived it.

To this day they talk about me kissing a booger and have a great laugh over it!  I miss my babies.

Do you ever wonder what you are thinking?  Or if you are even thinking at all?!!

For instance, one time I added a nice topping of paprika to my oatmeal.  It was not cinnamon after all.  Another time, I was making gravy and it was lumpy.  My mother-in-law said that is not a problem, just strain it.  I was so impressed!  Wow, no more lumpy gravy!  (This only happens to me when I make brown gravy with corn starch, even though I make a paste first).  I immediately grabbed a strainer and strained my wonderful gravy . . . right down the kitchen sink drain!  Dumb!  I just stood there and stared at my loss.  I called my mother later and we had a good laugh. Sad to say, there is an endless list of things like this that I have done.  They always provide me with a laugh, though, so that is good.  I seem to always call someone and share with them and then they have a good laugh.  So, you see, something good comes out of everything!  Haha. I could go on and on here, but I will spare you.

I am hypoglycemic and at times I wait too long to eat and then I am really sick and have to grab something immediately.  Sometimes it just hits you fast and you have to grab anything.  That is no excuse for doing dumb things, though.  I was just throwing that out there.  Haha.

That very thing happened to me this morning and I thought I would grab cereal.  I know, if it is too bad I can drink orange juice or have a spoon of sugar, but i would rather grab something to eat as it will last longer and the orange juice and sugar are just added calories.

I grab my box of cereal and do not even look because I know the color of the box.  Not even looking I have poured myself a big bowl of uncooked rice!  I am just glad that I noticed before I poured the milk!

My cats were the only two survivors of a litter that was attacked by a dog.  They became my owner when they were 6 months of age.  They are the most loving cats ever.  I have never seen anything like them.  They crave affection more than any cat.  They are not the typical “I will come to you when I want, do not expect more” cat.  When I call their name they come running from wherever they are. They cannot get to me fast enough.

They are never alone.  They stay by each other every second.

Actually, I do not know a lot about cats and your cats are probably just as special but you know how you brag on your own like there are no others.  Haha.  The yellow one is Lemon Breeland and the TortiTabby is Zoe Hart. They are my girls!  This morning they really touched my heart.  Well, they do a lot, but this morning…oh my!

I heard a cat sounding like they had a hairball.  I went out to see which cat it was and it was little Zoe.  She was heaving and Lemon had her little paw around her neck and was looking at Zoe with such concern.  My heart absolutely melted.  It was the same as if your child was vomiting and you were holding their little head.  I watched to be sure everything was going to be okay.  Zoe stopped soon and fortunately there was nothing for me to clean up.  As soon as Zoe stopped and was okay, little Lemon started licking her head and Zoe leaned into her.

Talk about tugging on your heart strings!  I love my girls!

Today, as I was in my office (at home) working, a bug crawled up to me.  As you know from the camel cricket story, this did not make me very happy.  It was not small but it was not huge.  It was big enough for me to hate it though!  It was one of the ones that would make a good crunch if I killed it.

What in the world were the two cats thinking?!  Getting bugs is their thing.  They love to do this.  Why did they let me down??

I used to cover bugs with things like paper cups, bowls, whatever I could find and save them until my husband got home and then he could kill them. I often thought that perhaps they would suffocate, but they never did.  He was used to coming home and finding them.  He did not understand, but he accepted it.

Later in life, I have learned that I need to kill them rather than wonder where they may be later that day.  (I stopped covering them.  I had decided I would have to get too close to them trying to cover them up.  There is a story to tell later about a wolf spider that made me come to this conclusion.) Ugh!  I will never forget that spider.

I absolutely cannot step on a bug.  That crunch noise just sends me off.  My entire leg feels horrid.  I get chills and can barely stand that my foot is actually attached to my body.  It is like I try to shake it loose.  I make awful sounds and jump around like I am on hot coals barefoot. I really cannot explain it but I just cannot step on a bug.  It makes me shudder, repeatedly. I learned to quickly pull my shoe off and beat it to death with the shoe.  That is much better.  No chills or shaking, just a sick feeling,  sort of queasy.  Of course, if any body parts are left on the shoe, it has to be cleaned.

Sometimes I think about that bug.  I wonder how I would feel if I were just walking around and suddenly a big shoe smashed me.  I get over it quickly though.  I remember that if I were walking around their house uninvited, I guess I would deserve to be stepped on.  They have the entire outside, they just need to stay there.  Anyway, it is rude of them to just come on in.

So, back to this incident.  I had no shoes on!  I do dictation when I work at home, so I have to have the shoe off to be able to find the correct pedal, rewind, play, and  fast forward.  That bug had me pinned in.  I could not get to the door to get to my shoes as it was between me and the door.  I was trying to figure out how long it would take him to get to me, could he fly, could I make it past him and get back before he was gone?  (I just noticed I called it a him.  I guess because guys like to torment and that is what bugs do.  Haha.)

Now I have a mess!  He was moving right along straight to me! I threw a stack of dictation on the floor and smashed down with my hand.  I had to be certain to have enough of a stack so my arm did not have the same reaction to my hand as my leg does to my foot.  Wessie will be home this afternoon and have to clean it up.  The major portion is on the floor, but particles are stuck to that bottom piece of dictation.

Now I have to see him over there most of the day and I cannot type that one dictation until it is cleaned off.  At least I know where he is and that he will not be getting any closer to me.  I wonder if they travel in groups like other things do.  Perhaps I should take the rest of the day off?

Due to the world situation, I have been afforded the luxury of watching a little more television.

I have always struggled with the issue of meeting an old acquaintance in a shopping center or in passing somewhere.  The struggle is in trying to remember their name.  I hate that more than anything.  It does not mean they were not important to me, it just means I am older and I have to go way back in my rolodex in my brain to come up with the name.

Many times I just avoid the name and say Hey!  Then I hate that because I am home wondering who that was for days!  Sometimes I come up with it and other times I fail.  HOWEVER, there is that time when the person asks if that is your husband or your child or a reference to the person you are with.  It is then that you NEED to know the name so you can tell the person that this is your friend so and so.  UGH!  Embarrassing and awkward to say the least.  I am sure that I am not the only one but that does not comfort me.  It makes me feel terrible.

Well, good news!  On a series that our daughter suggested that we watch we found the solution.  Again, I am slow and usually a bit behind.  You probably all have already figured out how to handle it, but I accept that I am usually the last to know.

A couple was going to a family reunion and she knew she would not remember their names since it had been years since she had seen any of them.  She instructed her boyfriend how to handle it.  She would say to the person, this is my friend, Luke.  She instructed him to shake their hand and say, “And you are?”  OMG!!!! How brilliant!!!!

Why could I not come up with this on my own???!!!  Why did I not watch that show years ago?  That solves most of the issues because I am not alone that often but there may still be that time when I struggle.  Still, I am overjoyed with this solution!

Perhaps some of you are as behind as me and this may be so helpful to you!  And you are?

I am so sorry that I have not been consistent with posting.

When I started this my thought was that I could talk about things that I needed to talk about perhaps to heal or to vent.  I don’t know. . . I started to talk about my family and the beginning of my life and they were such fun little stories.  I had comments that people liked that they laughed when they read my posts.   I had comments that people liked to be taken back to their childhood through my stories.  Therefore, I hesitate to talk about anything sad or something that may bring others down.

I have been going through a time and have not written because it may not be as upbeat.  So, here I am.  I will try to be consistent again.  At the moment we are getting ready for Wessie’s 65th birthday. That will happen tomorrow.  He is once again the same age as me and I am no longer older!  (Only by 4 months but he enjoys saying I am older.)  The children will be here and we will enjoy some much needed family time.  I will post a blog talking about the type of person little Wessie is, complete with some pictures!  I do not know when yet, because I will have to gather information.

Right now I am upset that I am almost out of toilet paper!  Haha.  Well, actually, it is not even funny.  I do not understand why people do that.  Now they have tons of toilet paper and others have none.  Also, there is the fact that some people cannot afford to stock up.  They buy specific items as the need arises.  Now those people have no toilet paper.  Anyway, that is not setting well with me at the moment.  I do not blame the people who can do that for doing it.  I just wish they did not need to take so much.  We are all in this together. Enough of that, things will work out.  Sorry if I made anyone upset with my rant.

Anyway, I will be posting again and if you read this, thank you for hanging in there.  I have lots of material.  Haha.  I just have to feel like talking about it.  Sometime I may perhaps post the more serious stuff, but I do not think people would like to hear it.

Love you all.

This is a great dish. It is even better if you are fortunate to be able to add the items that I cannot have. It is pretty darn good without them too, though!

You brown 2 pounds of ground pork with a well rounded teaspoon of steak and chop seasoning and a large tablespoon of minced garlic. You may adjust the amount to your taste. When the pork is done add 1/2 stick of butter and two cans of drained and rinsed black beans. Add two packages of Old El Paso mild taco seasoning.  You could step it up and add something other than mild, if that is your preference.   Add half and half. This was not measured, you just add to it until there is a sort of sauce.  Stir well and add heavy whipping cream to make a thicker sauce. If you want to eat this as a chili add enough dairy to make a sauce. I had originally started to make chili but had no tomato sauce so I was going to make a makeshift white chili.  That is why I used dairy. To use as dip use less dairy.  After I tasted a bite to see if I needed to add anything, I decided to make dip instead.

I dipped up bowls and I added cheddar cheese to mine and dipped with tostitos.

Wessie added sour cream and velveeta cheese. He dipped his as well.

I cannot eat a lot of things, so I made mine rather plain like I said above and it was quite delicious.

What would be completely wonderful would be to add a can of drained and rinsed corn, diced fresh tomatoes, diced peppers and diced onions! That would be so, so delicious!!! Perhaps some shredded lettuce as well! Use whatever you desire. Then you could top with green onion tops! My mother always said that whatever you liked the best of, add  more of that to a dish and you will love it.

Here is a photo of mine. It sort of looks a tad bit greasy, but it is not, it is how the shredded cheddar cheese appears.  In fact, I sort of think that this photo does NOT look appetizing.  My mother also said that sometimes the worst looking meals tasted the best.

ENJOY!  As a side note, I had some later on this evening and it is even better left over!  That is saying something because I rarely eat left overs!  They tend to get that “left over taste”.  It is true that some things are better left over and this must be one of those!

My mother and father hung out with some friends and they had children as well.  We lived out south of town and they lived south of town but way more south than we did.

Our parents would often go play bingo and when they did so, the other couple would bring their children to our house and we would all stay there while they played bingo.  What a great time we had playing with these friends!  There are a lot of good memories of us being together.  There is one memory in particular that I am writing about today, though.  It makes me laugh every time I think of it and I hope you enjoy the story as well.

Back then, we had the stereo players that were consoles and you opened the lid and put on an album and there were huge speakers at either end of the console. I guess I should also say that back then we had albums!  Haha.   I really liked The Guess Who and had that album playing.  It was just background music and we are all playing and talking.  The music was just totally background because none of us really noticed when the music stopped.  However, shortly after the last song had ended, someone yelled loud and clear, “Alright, I saw you!”

When we heard that, we all froze in our tracks.  How scary!  Who was in the house and what did they see???? Who did they see? Tons of thoughts ran through my mind as must have happened with everyone else.  Evidently, not so with my younger brother!  He was quick thinking and quick on his feet!  Haha.  He ran over to the couch and in one smooth move, hopped over it and was behind it in nothing flat!  Not to be out done, I think the rest of us quickly followed suit!  Who knew so many of us could fit back there?!!  If memory serves me, not all of us could and some of us were out of luck, but we were all huddled near each other at least!

After a period of time when nothing happened to us, I think we slowly started coming out from behind the couch.  How scary that was!  How funny it was!  Haha.  My little brother being so quick and running so fast . . . that image still makes me laugh.  We laugh today saying he must have been the most scared. Thinking about it, he must have been the quickest thinking as well.  I hesitate to say the smartest, because he will never let me live that down! I always wonder if I will freeze in fear or react.  I guess he was the only one that reacted that time.

So, who yelled????  Haha.  This is so funny.  At the end of the album, after the music has stopped, someone on there yelled out, “Alright!  I saw you!”  So funny.  I just tried to google to see why they did it, but I do not do such a great job of googling I guess.  I cannot even find out what song it was after.

The album was Rockin’ by the Guess Who.  Following is the album.  I feel like it was at the end of side 2, but now that I have looked it up, I am unsure of myself.  Whatever it was, it was great fun!  By the way, I still love The Guess Who and still listen to them!

Side one

1. “Heartbroken Bopper” – 4:52
2. “Get Your Ribbons On” – 2:36
3. “Smoke Big Factory” (Cummings/Winter/Jim Kale) – 3:57
4. “Arrivederci Girl” (Cummings) – 2:31
5. “Guns, Guns, Guns” (Cummings) – 4:59

Side two

6. “Running Bear” (J.P. Richardson) – 2:19
7. “Back to the City” – 3:37
8. “Your Nashville Sneakers” (Cummings) – 2:55
9. “Herbert’s a Loser” (Greg Leskiw/Winter) – 3:35
10. “Hi Rockers!” – 6:50

a) “Sea of Love” (Phil Phillips/George Khoury)

b) “Heaven Only Moved Once Yesterday” (Winter)

c) “Don’t You Want Me” (Cummings)

I wonder if I listen, they will still say it?  A lot does get cut when they play the music other than on the album.

I completely realize that I have no idea what comes out of my mouth.  Some of my friends realize that too.  Okay, all of my friends realize that, some realize it painfully so.  Most of the times it is in person that I embarrass myself.  Sometimes I am fortunate enough to do it on the telephone which I thought would be less embarrassing, but now I question that.

I previously shared a post about talking on the phone and I always say I love you as the last thing I say.  I do this because you never know what may happen.  At that time, I had just talked to 3 family members and then I received a call from Wessie’s lawyer.  YES!  When we hung up I told him I loved him.  Yes, I felt the need to call back and tell him that I did not in fact love him.  I am pretty sure that that made everything worse.  I should have just left it at that and let him figure it out.

Well … Friday, I called the pharmacy to renew some medications.  Unfortunately, I did not do this on the actual call and totally embarrass myself.  NO!  I did it in a more permanent way.  I left a voicemail!!!  Occasionally over the weekend, I have thought of this and wondered what they thought.  It is sad that I did leave my name.  Now they all know who it was.

No!  I did NOT tell them I loved them.  I was going through the spiel … Hi, this is Debbie, the date of birth is blah blah, I would like to renew blah blah and so on.  Then. for some reason, when I was finished with that, I immediately said, “In Jesus Name I pray …” I stopped myself there and stuttered and then just said thank you and hung up.  I was starting to say “In Jesus Name I Pray, Amen.”  I am not exactly sure where I stopped talking but they could figure out what I was going to say, I am sure.

Why in the world did I do this?  That did not even sound like a prayer.  It is not like I am embarrassed that I said that because  I do love Jesus.  It was just not supposed to follow a request like that and that is why it was embarrassing.  I laughed as did the people who heard me make the call.  Later, I thought maybe God realized that I needed Him brought to my mind.  Then I thought that perhaps I needed to pray.  I also thought that maybe the person that took my recording needed to be reminded of Jesus.  For whatever reason, I did do it.  I also did pray.

I only wish that I would somehow ever be able to know what was coming out of my mouth before everyone else does!

So, Wessie naturally is in disbelief that I even thought I would stand on this toilet.  He figures I would know better.  I explain to him that I am not that large and I do sit on it and people who weigh more than me do too. He points out in great detail about all of that weight in just two spots, psi, etc. He goes on and on about how I should know better.  (I guess he thinks I am really smart or he assumes that I think!)  I listen and listen to his lecture.  I defend myself and tell him how strong the toilet is but I did have the fear that I would go crashing through the floor to the basement.

We both laughed a bit over that because I was sitting on the toilet in the first house we purchased and the toilet fell backward through the floor while I was pregnant and sitting on it!  Let’s just say that I needed help getting off of that toilet and it was a pretty embarrassing moment.  I weighed  less then than I do now!  It was not that I was big, it was that the floor beneath the toilet was rotten and I happened to be the one who sat on it at the wrong time.  Needless to say we had a great deal of repairs! We had a laugh over that memory.

I then went on to actually admit that I did not really think about what I was doing, I just wanted the gold and it seemed to be the fastest way to grab it.  At first he seemed concerned about me. He told me how I could have broke my ankle or my leg, hit my head, been knocked out and so on.

Secondly, and most like a man, he was concerned about whether or not I busted the seal on the toilet and how it would leak and he would have to repair it and would not be home for a few days.

The best part is yet to come.  What an imagination that man has!  It now comes to concern for himself.  Not that he would miss me, but that he would be blamed for the accident. He decided that I would fall, break my ankle and then hit my head.  However, some how he believed that I would have hit my head inside of the toilet and would have drowned.  I have yet to figure out how that could even be possible.  He explained it in detail, but I cannot even begin to remember even how to describe his thought process. I was laughing so hard at this thought, from standing on top of the rim, I fell and hit my head and drowned.  He said that stranger things have happened and it could very well be possible.

It gets better . . . Not only did I drown, everyone believed that Wes drowned me and tried to use the excuse that I fell.  Wow!  Haha.  What an imagination.  I do wonder why he never got around to mentioning that fact that he would miss me or be sad or anything like that.  Hmmmmm.

This was what I posted as my status on facebook on January 1.  Lots of questions were asked about that post.  Following here will be the story.

I have about 4 shelves behind my stool in the bathroom.  These shelves contain towels, washrags and decorations.  On the very top shelf that I can never reach, is a very nice metal container with sunflowers in it.  What is the point of putting anything there that I need as I cannot reach it anyway?  Right?

Well, I was reorganizing after Christmas and thought that I needed that flower arrangement somewhere else.  I have a separate room for the bath tub, cabinet and sink,  which is much bigger  and a separate room where the toilet is which is very small with a small sink.  This was probably a good idea when the house was built because someone could use the toilet while someone was bathing. There are four doors accessing these rooms and I really do not like to haul a kitchen chair back there to reach things.  Sometimes I take a broomstick or something to scoot items and then try to catch them.  I already realized that this would not be a good idea because I could see my face getting smashed or cut something or break or dent something.

My brilliant idea? Stand on the toilet seat.  I closed the lid and pressed on it and decided that it was just a thin plastic thing that gave and I would not be able to stand on it.  I decided to not stand on the other lid  either as it was the same material.  But!…the toilet was porcelain and should hold me.  Good idea, right?  NO!

I hop right up with a foot on either side of the rim.  The first thing I notice is that the toilet seems to sag or sink down. I look down and my feet are sort of sliding.  Combine a damp, cold sort of porcelain rim and old tennis shoes and some sliding is sure to occur.  I think to myself, “what have I done?”.  I think about falling in the toilet with one leg and all of the pain I will feel to other parts of my body as I crash, and various other thoughts come to mind. I wonder how will I land?  What will I hurt?  Will I break the same foot again, a leg, an ankle?  Why do I never think things through?  Why do I think I can do anything?  Why do I not realize that I am old now?  Why did I not bring my cell phone with me in case?

I look up at the floral arrangement and realize that since I am up here, I might as well go ahead and grab it.  I have to stretch a bit still, but I do get a hold of it.  This action seemed to make sliding a little more noticeable.  I dance around a bit steadying my feet and wonder what is the best way to get down.  I again imagine all of the pain I may be in.  I do not know why I lingered around on this porcelain death device so long to think about all of these things.

I do finally get down and feel so very thankful.  I knew I really did not want to admit my stupidity but I did tell Wessie.  Wow, you should have heard the things he had to say and the scenarios he came up with!

I will fill you in on that tomorrow.  He has such an imagination!

I wanted to post a story about New Year’s Eve and then I thought that I had posted it before.  Sure enough, I did post it before.  I even told the story of when we were little and when my children were little.  I tried to think of something different to say, but as I reread the older one, it was all the same.  So, I hope you do not mind, if you were interested, I copied it and pasted it here so you would not need to look for it.

I miss the children.  One of them is carrying on the tradition of staying home and having a game night at their place.  They even offered everyone to spend the night to stay safe.  The other one is not sure what they are doing tonight yet.

I pray that everyone is safe tonight and has a good time.  Now that the children are grown and Wessie is working, it is just another night.  It actually always was just another night, but it was fun having a reason to celebrate.  If the children were still little, it would not be just another night, but since they are not, it seems like a good idea to say it is just another night.  Haha.  It helps us older folks get by. Don’t take this wrong, we are glad the children are grown and on their own and doing what they want!  That means that we have raised them right.  Besides, I have become accustomed to that 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. bedtime!

Below is the prior blog that I wrote about New Year’s Eve:

Mom and Dad had New Year’s Eve parties. They were not really parties, they involved the family and were a bit different. When we were children we would try to stay up late so we could go outside and make noise at midnight. This was a tradition that Mom and Dad had. We did not always make it until then since we were so young. This was a night to play games and watch television. We had all sorts of snacks during the evening, complete with some left over Christmas goodies! When we did make it up until midnight, it seemed that great things happened! It was such fun to go outside and make noise. Mom gave us pots and pans and wooden spoons and we would get to bang on them as hard as we could. Clang! Clang! Clang! I always liked the angel food cake pan. You could put your hand in the middle of the pan and bang away! The older brothers would fire shotguns into the air. We could hear the other neighbors making noise as well and some had firecrackers. It seemed such fun to be able to go outside late at night and make noise! I have no idea why they thought of going outside and making noise, but hey, I happily participated. It was fun and it was really neat! The sounds of talking in the distance, sounds of merriment and noise-making echoing through the woods and the area was something to hear! Some noises were muffled as they were more in the distance and we would try to guess what neighbors were doing what. This was such excitement for little kids and the grown ups seemed to enjoy it too!! After the noise making, Mom honored the tradition that a man had to be the first person through the door of the house the first day of the year, so we had to wait for Dad or one of the brothers to enter the house first. If a woman/girl entered first, she would have you walk out backwards so a man could then enter. Walking out backwards must have “un-done” your entrance. I think some of the times, we would open the door so we could let the old year out and let the new year in.

After the noise making, mom and the older children would come in and call relatives and friends. All of the phone prefixes started with the same number then so if the year was 1965, they would disguise their voice and call people and say is this 1-9-6-5? They would for some reason find it funny if the person would say no and they would laugh and say yes it is! They would shout “Happy New Year!” They would only talk for a brief moment as they had others to call and do the same thing to and they did not want them to beat them to it!

The bad part of this was the next day. There was some sort of food mom had to serve. I am shocked that I do not remember this, as I was always upset that she made it, mainly because I did not care for it. It was either cabbage, or beans and corn bread. It was something that she said was to be the traditional first meal of the new year. I do not know which it was. Her mother was German, so I am thinking it was cabbage. Well, I have talked with a reliable source, my cousin, Scottie, …and he states that it was corned beef brisket, and cabbage, boiled with potatoes and carrots. He still eats it every New Year’s Eve! Scottie, I never really cared for it, but I am thankful you were there to remember for me.

When our own children, were younger, we would have snacks and sparkling grape juice to toast with at midnight. We would play some games and perhaps watch a movie. We enjoyed watching the yearly countdowns, top music, top news, etc. As the children aged, we would host game nights with plenty of food. We would allow the friends to all stay over (in fact we preferred it) so no one would be out driving with the ones who drive and drink. We would go outside at midnight and make noise, but we never heard anyone else and it felt sort of silly to be doing that. The kids did not really see the point, so we stopped that. We would serve breakfast for the ones who stayed over. Some times, we would have the same type of thing at church and stay there until midnight or later. The church sort of lost interest in this or the people did, so we had it at our home mostly. We always liked to provide alternatives for the children. We had such great times on New Year’s Eve.

No game night tonight! All of the children and their friends are grown and really are not too interested in coming here. I wonder why? I even have pots and pans I would let them bang on!

Happy New Year, everyone! Enjoy and please, please be safe!

I was looking out the window and not liking how it looks like it is near bedtime when it is mid morning.  I have never liked the gloomy days.  That is one reason I like snow.  Snow makes everything so bright and pretty.  If there is not going to be sunshine, than I want snow.  I just like bright! Bright makes me happy.  It makes me energetic.  Gloomy makes me want to lay around and just go to bed.  I am sure I am not the only one that feels this way?

I had the pleasure of knowing a woman named Evelyn Perkins.  You remember, I speak of my friend, Dorothy, on here.  Dorothy was mother to our pastor, John Best.  Evelyn Perkins is John Best’s mother-in-law.  She was just as wonderful as Dorothy, in my opinion.  I loved them both, dearly.

If I am correct on this, I believe Mrs. Perkins lived to be 106 years old.  She came to church at 105 I believe.  It was either 105 or 104 that she still walked right up the steps of the church.  She was so “Perky” as she would laugh and say.

Once you got to the stop of the stairs, there was a long pew that you could sit on.  After services, I would often sit there with Mrs. Perkins and talk with her.  She was such a delight to talk with.  She always had something positive to say.  She loved my children.  She would watch them and the other children go by playing and giggling.  She would talk about each one and how she loved this or that about them. She always had a smile, a beautiful smile, on her face.

It was so gloomy one day and I mentioned how I did not like it one bit. This gloomy day is what reminded me of her.  I said that I needed the sunshine. She nodded her head and smiled at me.

She said yes, you do need the sunshine, but I would think that you would need the “Son-shine” more.  If you have the “Son-shine” then you will always feel like you have the sunshine.

I miss you so much Mrs. Perkins.  You showed the “Son-shine” to everyone!

Pot Roast!  I LOVE pot roast.  It was always my favorite.  I think mainly it was because of the potatoes.  I will admit it, I love potatoes.  Who does not??  I like to say it is because my grandfather (my mother’s father) was Irish and I cannot help but love them, it is my heritage.  They do show up on my body too!  They show up around the hips.

My mother made the best roast.  I liked the version she made and she called it beef, browned potatoes and gravy.  She served this meal at her restaurant, Granny’s Kitchen, as well.  We all have followed her recipe but no one has ever made it quite like hers.  No one has ever made it taste as good!  It was not made in the oven, it was all done on top of the stove.  There has never been a better gravy. She would flour the potatoes and the roast seemed to make it’s own gravy.

Since I fail at making it, I just tend to make a roast.  My mother always said that baking meat tasted totally different than any other way and you could not beat a baked roast!  The potatoes do taste exceptional.  The children have left home and that means all of the extra mouths in way of friends have left as well.  It seems that a roast is entirely too much food for us.  (It is just me and Wessie.)  I do make meals and freeze the rest in little containers for him to take in his truck so that he has plenty of good meals rather than meals that are not good for him.  Still, I find that a roast, even a small one is way too much.

I have taken to asking the butcher for one pound packages of stew beef.  I make tons of things with that.  I have even baked it in the dutch oven as a roast and it works just fine. Well, the point of this story is . . . after Christmas I made a stew on top of the stove with all of the extras, potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, all goodness!  As I was dishing the meal up for us, (just the two of us) something occurred to me.

I wish I had thought of this as the children were younger, it would have been so easy!  Did anyone ever notice that stew is just actually pre-cut roast and the fixings?  How easy this would have been and how much time would have been saved at meal time. I would not have had to cut up all of the plates for the children.  It would have already been done!  Haha.  Just a thought for you mothers who still have younger children.  Make the stew instead of the roast!!!

I already had thought of the spaghetti issues.  I always would take a large bowl and break the spaghetti noodles into 1 – 1 1/2″ pieces before I boiled them.  This saved the cutting up the spaghetti afterward for the children.  Why did I not think of stew??!!

Just a thought! (And a brilliant one at that, if I must say so myself!  Haha!)

(The oven baked meat does taste better actually.  The crunchy outside type of crust on the meat is delicious.  The stew beef, however, is extra tender.  But, the ease of stew is wonderful!)

Option:  Sometimes I take the stew and fry it a bit in a large skillet to sort of brown/crisp/burn the food a little to get that extra crunch.

I am sorry that I have not been consistent with my postings.  Some of my family members have been sick and I have been sick as well.  After being sick, I am desperately trying to get ready for Christmas, so I have not been posting. I apologize. I will get back on track.

I just wanted to take a brief moment to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and wonderful holidays.  Take the time to be with family and friends.  Put your telephones up.  That is the hardest.  No one seems to be able to put the phones down, but that is probably the most important thing to do at this time.  Be in the moment!!!  Cherish the moment!!!   People can be gone in an instant and out of your life so make the best of all of your moments.  Be appreciative of what you have and make the best of everything.

Take the time to say a prayer for all.  Remember to check on or invite over the people that will be alone.  This is not always a fun time for everyone.  Many people have losses, well, we all do, but some are fresh and time is needed to heal wounds.  It never really will heal, but it will not be as raw. The first time without someone is the hardest.  We have been through it as well . . . several times.  To all of you, I will pray for you and I am so very, very sorry for your losses.

We love all of you and wish you the best!

Feel free to share some of you favorite memories or moments from this Christmas.  If you need a friend, someone to talk to, message me.  Let’s enjoy this time and for those of you hurting, let’s help each other get through it.

The words are from White Christmas.

“Snow.  Snow.  Snow.  It won’t be long before we’ll all be there with snow.  Snow.  I want to wash my hand, my face and hair with snow.” The cast is Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen and Rosemary Clooney.  They start the song off with each one taking a turn singing “snow” one time each and then they all sing the rest of the song. It is the best movie!

I do LOVE the snow!  However, I worry so much about the people who have to work outside and the drivers, and the truck drivers.  My husband is a truck driver.

We had about 5 inches of snow yesterday, I believe.  We are to get 3 – 5 inches today.  I have to say that I LOVE it!  I do not like the cold and I do not like to worry about everyone. I worry about the first responders who have to get out due to the emergencies, the line workers and others.   I guess there is good and bad with everything.

The world is so, so different when it snows and that is why I love it.  It is hard to describe, the snow blankets the earth and it seems that the sounds are different.  They are muffled or something.  It seems to be quieter out.  The snow plows come by and I love to hear the loudness of them.  I love to hear the scraping.  They even wake you up in the night, but it makes me smile when I hear them.  I even try to get to the window to look out to see their lights.  I may be weird, but I LOVE it.  Even though it is so, so cold, it feels warmer when the snow is down on the ground. It seems as though it sort of insulates the world.

I love to go outside when it is snowing at night and take a walk.  The feeling is the best.  You notice that most of your neighbors are out walking as well.  It is just too pretty and too neat to not go out when it is snowing at night.  The children and my husband and I  would go out as often as we could when it was not way too cold to do so.

It even seems to be that there is a different smell.  It smells so clean and the air feels especially crisp and clear.  I really wish I could describe it but the best I can say is that I feel like the snow makes it seem magical outside.  The beauty of it all, on the trees, covering the grass, the flakes falling, some small and some large, it is all breathtaking to me.

The night becomes daylight with the snow all around.  I always thank God for his large nightlight that he provides us with.  You can see as much at night as you can at daylight when there is snow.  I can get up and see the deer walking down the street.  I know it is dangerous out and I do not like that, but I do thank God for the beauty and the miracle of the snow!

I have no idea why, but this totally makes me laugh.  Last Thursday, the 5th, was my pick up day for garbage.  To my dismay, when I was at work and heard the trucks there, I realized that I did not remember to take mine to the curb.  What a drag, as all three cans were full!

When I got off of work and was driving down our road, I could see a can at the end of my drive.  I thought that perhaps my brother came and took it out or that the company went up to the garage and picked them up!  How nice!  Then, I realized that I had three cans, but oh, well, someone took one!  Yay!

NOT!  There was a can that did not belong to me.  It was one of the large ones that you can rent from the company.  It comes almost to my shoulders and would be too big for me to deal with.  I opened the lid and wow, it really smelled worse than any I have ever used!  I needed to see if it were empty, though.  It was so I came into the house and called the company.  The company had no idea why it was there and said she would schedule a pick up but that it may be a week.

So… time goes by and I did not want my neighbors to complain that I was leaving my can out there all week.  I messaged one neighbor and told them it was not mine.  Haha.  Later I went and moved it a few feet from my drive.  A few days later, my husband moved it further away.  The next pick up day rolled around. Yay!  I remembered to take all of my cans to the curb and they would probably pick up the stranger.

NOT!  The company went up the road and retrieved it and put it back in my driveway!!! Haha.  Unbelievable.  Again, I came into the house and called the company.  I had them laughing.  It was actually sort of fun.  She said she would be sure they came back and picked it up.  She said if it was still there on Friday, to call her back.  She asked what I did with it.  I told her that this time it was across the street. She laughed again.

Today is Friday, it is still there but this time, no one has wheeled it back to my driveway!  I, of course, phoned them again.  They were in disbelief that no one picked it up, but were still laughing with me.  I do not get the local company when I call.  I get some other city and, of course, a different person each time.  This one was laughing too and promised me that she would get it picked up.  She said if not today, at least by Monday.  She laughed and said she hoped they did NOT put it back in my driveway.  I laughed with her and told her that perhaps if it was, we would take it a few blocks away.  She laughed and said I may have to.

Haha!  I do not know why I find it funny, but I guess I am entertained easily.  We shall see the what the fate of the can will be!

So, Little Wessie is a big guy.  Not overweight, tall and muscular.  He is a “tough guy”.  But . . . Wessie and snakes …. not such a tough guy.

The children had a fake, large snake made of rubber.  Wes would have fits when he would stumble upon it.  The children noticed this and would continually hide it places for dad to find.  Dad got mad (actually scared) enough that the snake was never to be found again.  We do not know if he just plain threw it away or cut it up or just what he did with it! The last place that we saw it was wrapped around the stair railing in the living room.  Haha.  That one was the best.  You should have heard him that morning.  We placed it after he went to bed.  Of course, the next morning, I think the entire neighborhood heard Wes.  That was the last we saw of Mr. Snake.

The first we heard of Wes not liking snakes was when we acquired this rubber snake.  He tells the story of a snake at his friend, Dennis and Maralea’s house.  It seems that Wes came to visit them and when he pulled up, a neighbor woman asked him to come over and “remove” a snake that was at her front door.  Wes informed the lady that she was on her own.  He said he was sorry.  He told her he was just as afraid of snakes as she was if, in fact, not more. He said she had groceries to take in and did not want to walk past that snake at her front door.

Brandon, Maralea and Dennis’ son, to the rescue again.  Haha. I posted about Brandon in prior blogs.  He was a little on the small side but absolutely fearless.  At least that was my opinion of him.  He was in Taekwondo and was very good. He just did not put up with nonsense.  He was the type to take care of things.  He had a way of saying exactly what was on his mind whether you wanted to hear it or not.  You had to know him to appreciate this story.

Wes tells the story this way, although, I do not know how it really came about, but according to Wes . . .  Brandon was just a little guy, somewhere around 8 years of age.   Wes said he had arrived at the house about the same time that Maralea and her children did.  They all witnessed Wes talking to the neighbor.  Wes said that while he was explaining his fears to the neighbor, Maralea and the girls, Denise and Missy, were laughing and laughing.

Wes said that he turned away from the neighbor and went on to visit with his friends and he hears little Brandon sigh heavily.  Wes sees Brandon, his head hanging down,  shaking his head in disbelief at Wes while walking toward the neighbor’s  and muttering, “I will go get the snake.” That made everyone there erupt into laughter according to Wes.

To this day, I think that Brandon is Wes’ hero. (I am afraid that may make Brandon’s head even bigger.  I am sorry for this Missy and Denise!) He repeatedly tells this story at the mention of a snake and says I am sorry, but I am not embarrassed at all that a little boy had to go take care of the snake. He says better him than me!

This little story popped up on my facebook memories and it made me laugh again, so I thought I would share this story here.  It may not make you laugh, but it did me so I am sharing.  Just as a side note, when I reminded Shelby of it, we both were tickled, so here goes.

Also, I started this blog so that the children could look back and find out things that they may have forgotten or not been interested in while we were alive.  Therefore, it seems a good idea to post it.

The facebook posts is following.  The items in the quotations are what appeared on facebook.  The rest is my interjections.

“That hysterically funny/awkward moment . . . Shelby is in the back of the house and I am in the front.  I yell to Shelby, Hey!  Its Cody!  Cody comes in the door saying who else would it be?  Hahaha!”  (He was totally clueless as he often is.)

“Shelby says well she was warning me so we would quit talking about you.  They both laugh and mom says well we were!” (Shelby acted like it was a joke and of course, Cody was sure it was.  Shelby thought she had done a great job of covering up the fact that that is exactly what we were doing.  Then I told the truth, to Shelby’s dismay and shock! Haha!) I forget what all was said when Cody found out we were, in fact, talking about him.  I do not even remember what we were saying about him.  I know that no one was really mad at the other or anything like that, so that is good.

“Even funnier, Cody leaves and comes back a few hours later and when he unlocks the door he comes in and yells, Hey!  It’s Cody!  Haha.  Cracks me up!”  (You have to know Cody and his little bit of a sarcastic humor that he has, but it was really, really funny to all of us! Shelby and I were laughing really hard at this one.  Cody was just smiling and snickering over how funny he thinks he is. )

Then, Shelby commented . . . “Lol.  You had to rat me out!”  I responded  . . . “Ratted us both out!  You were trying to cover up.  I saw no reason to not just lay it out there!  Lol.”

Well, it was funny to me and still is.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I am sure all of you have been caught more than once in a situation where you were talking about someone and tried to cover it up.  Perhaps you could share your memory here.  I feel like it is best just to admit it and take the consequences.  I think some would say it is best to not talk about others.  How hard is that though?

So, Thanksgiving.  I have posted about the past Thanksgivings before and how they have changed since the children grew up and moved out.  So, what to talk about on this Thanksgiving?

I usually like to post happy, fun things that make people smile or even laugh.  However, sometimes that is not always possible.  This will not be sad, sad though.  It is just a reflection.

Thanksgiving was over and as I said, they are different as people have passed away, but they will grow again as babies are born.  The children left and my husband and I were alone for the rest of the week.  I was walking down the hallway and a realization hit me.  It was how the hallway appeared so small now compared to how it was.

I recalled the memories of the children running side by side down the hallway.  At one time, the children could run down the hallway with me alongside them!  The hallway however, being much smaller, would not allow that now.  It sort of made me cry.  Well, who am I kidding, I outright cried.  I miss those little feet running down the hall so terribly much.  I can see them in their various outfits, in their pajamas and carrying their toys.  I can hear their giggles.

Yes, I cried hard.  But !!! . . . I am so thankful for the memories and the blessings of having them to begin with.

Remember the blog I had called,  “It Is Not as Easy As It seems?”  That is another story of our “help”.   My little brother was always coming up with these ideas to “help” mom and dad.  He somehow always talked me in to going along with these projects.  That blog was about how we totally wasted the flooring they had purchased and messed up the floor.  This “help” did not ruin anything.  At least I can say that I bet mom and dad were not as upset at this “help.”

This particular story is about the time that he decided we should organize and clean her kitchen cabinets out . . .  Top, bottom and extra high top cabinets.  After all, as he said, the tops were so messy and he was right, but I do not think it would be a good idea to say that in front of mom. They had a large kitchen and so, so many cabinets.

His idea of how to best do this project was to first empty out all of the bottom cabinets, then we proceeded on to the row that we called the regular row.  That is the row that most people could easily reach where the glasses, plates, etc. were stored.  Then there was the way high up row!  That was where everything that was never used was kept.  It was never too tidy.  We had to stand on the counters to reach these cabinets and even then we had to stretch.  We had every single cabinet emptied at last. My idea was to do a row at a time, but he thought it best to get everything out where we could see it and perhaps organize it better that way.

There was stuff everywhere!  All of the counters were full, the table was totally full and the floor! This seemed like it took the entire morning.  We were worn out and truth of the matter, probably bored with this project. We were children still, you know.  This could not be expected to keep our attention very long. What a big job!  So, we decided it would be best to go outside and play for awhile. This idea I wholeheartedly went along with.  He did not have to ask me twice.

Mom and dad returned from their errands.  We smiled and hollered hello to them and kept on playing.  Let me just say that we were certainly able to hear my mother clear outside when she discovered our “help!”  As we approached our mother, my little brother was all smiles and told my mother that we were helping her clean the house and that we got this started for her.  He informed her how messy those top cabinets were.  He went on to tell her that she would not have much to do since we began it and she needed to go finish it now.  I was cringing as he was telling her all of this.  Her face was beginning to look more angry with each sentence that came out of his mouth.  He just kept smiling at her and talking and talking.  He did have the cutest little smile, but his charms were not going to work this time! Even I knew that was NOT the best way to handle this.

He just kept smiling, but not for long.  My mother was not having any part of this!  She informed us that we started it and we would most certainly get right back in there and finish it!  What a chore that was!!!  I do not recall what all my little brother said while we were finishing our project, but I know that he was back tracking on the things he said and pleading for help.  Nothing doing, my mother was “kind” enough to let us finish our good deed all by ourselves.

I think we learned right then and there that if we were ever going to clean again, it would be a little bit at a time.  What a mess we made!  Hopefully I learned not to go along with my brother’s ideas again.  I imagine I did not, though.  I am sure some other “projects” will come to mind eventually.

I was talking to my husband about this and saying that you would think we would not have wanted to “help” anymore but that I was sure there were more stories.  He just laughed and said he KNEW there were more stories and started listing them.  He said he was sure there were more stories than he knew about because we two were mischievous.  I reminded him that I was talking about the times we tried to help them.  He laughed even more and said that we may have called it help but we were mischievous.  Hmmmm…. surely not us!!

My sister, Honey Lee Hutton.

In a span of a little less than three years, I lost first my sister, then my brother and then my other brother.  They were all three older than me and they passed away in reverse order, Honey, the youngest of the three first.  I miss them all so terribly much and think of them daily.

When I think of them, I may tear up a bit, I may smile, I may downright laugh out loud at a memory.  I am a person who will try not to dwell on it.  I do not want to hole up and be super depressed.  If a song comes on that is too great of a memory and bothers me, I switch it off.  I try to divert my attention.

When a person that knew my sister would think of her, I am sure The Beatles would come to mind as well.  The Beatles! Well, of course dancing would come to mind.  One time I could not remember who sang a song and she was sort of disappointed in me.  She was like, “DEBBIE! You KNOW it is The Beatles!” Boy did I feel sheepish.  Haha.

Anyway, as a ringtone for my sister, I had the song Ob La Di, Ob La Da.  To this date, if I hear that song I immediately shut it off.  It hurts too much to hear it and not be able to see or talk to Honey.  However, today, it came on and I went to turn it off.  Something inside of me told me to smile and to listen to it and remember her . . . think of her.

I did just that!  Shortly into the song the lyrics say:

Ob la di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra
La-la, how the life goes on
Ob-la di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra
La-la, how the life goes on

Life does go on.  Honey would want all of us to go and to have the best life we can.  So would my brothers.  We are doing that Honey, Pete and Jerry, but we sure do wish you were here with us.

The last line says . . .

And if you want some fun, sing ob-la-di, la-da.

Honey, Jerry and Pete always had fun and we will too, but we miss you so much. They loved to laugh!  They LOVED music.  So, let’s all have some fun in remembrance.  Sing Ob La Di La Da!  Love you all.

Think about this . . .  Give it a fair chance . . .  You have these words: Nobody, Somebody, Anybody.  Nobody means no one.  Somebody means some person.  Somebody could be anyone, it is sort of non-descript.   Anybody could be anyone.  Anybody is no one in particular either.

These are not actually the best words, are they?  They do not really refer to a person at all.  Maybe to accurately describe, onebody would be a perfect word.  (Body here is pronounced the same way as in nobody, somebody and anybody.) Onebody would mean one person.  This is saying that you know of one person who did or said whatever. This gives the person sort of a meaning, an existence.  It is onebody.  That means you are referring to a particular person.  An example of the use in a sentences would be,  “So the other day I was walking to the store and onebody said to me…”  See, it works doesn’t it?  Now I feel like there is actually a person.  It was that one person.  I forgot a word up there, there is everybody too!  So, onebody means it is not the whole entire group, it is one in particular.  This sort of makes that onebody someone special doesn’t it?

Why am I bringing this up?  I do not get into a habit of making up words, but…. this has suddenly and for no reason popped out of my mouth more than once.  Well not suddenly, it has been happening for awhile  I have no idea why I use this word or where it came from.  For the life of me, I cannot seem to help it just popping up in conversation.  I know, all of you that know me are saying right now that a lot of stuff suddenly pops out of my mouth for no reason!  Haha! You would be correct.  Most of what pops out of my mouth gets me in to trouble and most of it is totally unexpected.  As they say, I am just as surprised as you are of what comes out of my mouth.

I have noticed lately, though, that my new word, onebody, keeps surfacing.  At the office the other day I even said it to a patient.  I felt so dumb and apologized and went through my speech about wondering how things come out of my mouth, etc.  They were laughing and I, of course, kept rambling on as is my style.  As you can read in the other blogs, or hopefully have already read, when I embarrass myself, I just keep right on going.  There is no stopping me, sad to say. It is okay, really, it does make other people laugh.

Anyway, after great thought, I have come to the conclusion that onebody IS a word.  If not, it should be.  I may possibly get that started because I say it so often now it could catch on.  When it does, remember that it was me!  Debbie Webster!  The use of it makes more and more sense to me.

Here is another example, If nobody likes your blog, that is sad.  If anybody likes it, that is good, but anybody is no one that you know.  If somebody likes it that is better than none, but still no one you particularly know.  However, if onebody likes it….you know of one person!  See, makes sense doesn’t it?  Okay, in a weird way it makes sense.

It sort of has to make sense because onebody keeps coming out of my mouth and I cannot stop myself.  If it did not make sense, that would mean I was senseless.  Haha.  Sorry, I could not help that one.

Okay, so anyway, if onebody would admit that they understand me and the use of this word, I would feel a lot better.  Haha!

I never watched sports on television.  I only liked to watch sports in person and I was not that interested in it really, but games were fun to go to with friends.

Then I met and married Wessie.  He always wanted to watch sports, but I never did.  Then, I had children and Space Jam was released.  I cried through that movie and asked if that Michael Jordan was as good as those clips.  The response, of course, was yes.   My sister and her family were crazy about the Chicago Bulls and mainly MJ!  She was always telling me to come watch a game with her and I was never interested.  That abruptly changed after the movie!  I never missed a game or a newscast about them. To this day, I am still a Michael Jordan fan.

My family on my mother’s side were all die hard Cubs fans as well as were my brothers. They had the games on all of the time, I would take the charter buses and go to the games when they played the Cardinals and it was quite fun.  Later, I got to go to Chicago White Sox games and Chicago Blackhawk games.  I really got hooked on the Blackhawk games and would listen to those games on the radio if I could not get them on the television.  I certainly would NOT watch football on television though!  Then, the Bears were doing great and ended up doing the Superbowl Shuffle and winning.  Those games were fun to watch on television.  So I sort of liked football then but stopped after that.  I, however, have since started back up and have several favorite football teams.

So, I now watch sports on television. I am usually home alone and no one watches them with me.  I get all excited and call them and tell them about a great play and they politely listen, but now they do not seem interested.  Go figure!  How does that happen?!!  So, I sit here and yell at the television by myself.  I cheer alone too!

Okay, I probably like football and hockey the best.  I totally LOVED watching the Cubs win the world series!  That was the most exciting ever.  I was so sad that most of my family had passed on and did not get to see it when they were ever so faithful, but what total enjoyment!  I was thrilled that my nephew went to see them in person in the final games and was there supporting the team and our family. I still watch the Cubbies play.

I have not really found a team to like or even watch in the NBA.  They are no longer fun so that is one sport that I do without.  During March Madness, however,  it is fun to watch the last quarter of any game.

Ok, so, my nephew texted me and asked if I was watching the World Series last night.  I responded that I was not as I did not have a team I was interested in.  I said if I picked one it would be Washington. I then checked on the game and found that this could be the last one if Houston won.  I then had to watch the game.  I LOVED when Washington hit the home run after that horrid call.  How fun was that?!!  Anyway, now, of course, I have to watch it again tonight.  Go Washington, please!

The point of this long lead in was to say the following.  Haha.  I was talking to a lot of friends/people about the fact that I never liked sports and now I am the big fan and am sitting at home watching everything all alone.  What the heck??!!  Where are they now?  Some of the responses were that when the generation of my children were 60 years old no one would be watching these sports anyway.  Some said that golf was rapidly dying out.  I did not agree with that, but I certainly do not watch golf either.  I know several who do and totally love it though.  One friend has a daughter who was fabulous and now has a team she coaches.  Several went on to say that the NFL and the MLB would be dead as well.

I had mentioned some of my baseball card collections.  A lot of them said those will be the first to go and who still collects them anyway?  They asked if I knew of any.  I responded that I had not really thought about that or looked for any.

I reacted to all of this rather emotionally and totally disagreed.  How could this even be thoughts in people’s heads.  Baseball is so American!!  I am still upset about these comments even though I wholeheartedly think they are all crazy.  However, then I get to thinking about what the children do today.  Most are on their video games turned into online games.  Who will be playing the sports for people to watch?  Who will watch the sports if all of the audience is online playing videos? People even watch videos of people playing online games.

It seems crazy to me and I cannot even fathom that sports would die out. They have been around forever.  What about the Sandlot????!!!!  You rarely see a group of children out playing unorganized ball these days.  We always were outside playing and people would randomly stop as they were driving by and ask if they could play.  That is in a prior blog of mine from our childhood days. I totally disagree with these thoughts of friends, but what do I know? What a sad time it would be without baseball.  What a sad world.  Those times of outside play were the best!  I would hate to think that children would have no knowledge of outside play and no memories.  Could things actually change that much?

What are your thoughts?

Years ago, I saw Seinfeld do a bit about missing socks.  He says that the dryer is their only chance to escape and they all know it.  He says, “They do escape from the dryer.  They plan it the night before in the hamper. Tomorrow.  The Dryer.  I am going.”  He goes on to say how the dryer door swings open and the sock is leaning up against the side wall.  Then he makes a series of faces and movements pretending he is the sock and is hiding.  His facial expressions, especially the eyes just kill me.   That always makes me laugh.  I can actually picture a sock come to life doing just that.  Where do they go anyway??!! Some have said they actually get stuck somewhere in the insides of the dryer.  I have no idea, but I am CERTAIN that it is not me losing them.  There were always unmatched pairs and it drove me nuts.  Check Seinfeld out on you tube, it is a funny bit.  I think of him every time I have a sock come up missing and I can see his face.  I do not really care for Seinfeld like everyone seems to, but I do laugh a lot at that skit.

We have actually had our dryer apart for repairs over the years.  We have been through about three dryers over the years and I am here to tell you that no socks have ever been found by us on the insides of the dryer!  So, maybe Seinfeld is right.  They escape and end up having little faces sewn on them and are worn on hands as puppets.  Who knows!  Yes, it is a comedy and yes, it is funny, but it is a true conundrum.  I thought perhaps the children lost them or something, but now that it is just us two grownups . . . adults…. where are the socks??  I mean, we are responsible, right?

The second issue I have are the tupperware/rubermaid lids to the storage containers. Where in the world do they go?  I attributed that to the younger ones in the house too.  Perhaps when they unloaded the dishwasher as their chores, they were put in the wrong places?  Perhaps they inadvertently tossed them in the garbage can after dinner.  Who knows the answer to that.  However, once again, it is just us two grownups now and I have cleaned and downsized my cabinet contents.  All containers had lids to begin with.  Note that I said to begin with.  They are once again missing in action. I know this is perhaps something that all people joke about but again, the struggle is real.  I know for a fact that they are returned to the proper storage place and I know that we have not accidentally thrown any of the lids away.  It drives me nutty as well.  I will have to see if there is a skit on the lid disappearances later on.

We know for a fact that we have lost several a pizza cutter and/or knife by leaving it in the pizza box.  Someone will then come up and carry the box out to the garbage and the cutter is forever gone.  We purchase a new one and try to remember to catch the box before it leaves the building.  (Of course, the box does not actually leave the building, one of us takes the box out of the building.  Haha. I just pictured the box running out the door and us trying to catch it!  Haha!) We are not always diligent enough, though. We know the answer to their disappearance without a doubt.  However, we do not throw away any lids, there is nothing I can think of that we would throw them away in.  They are not used for transporting, so they are not left behind any place.

I am sorry if this has already been mentioned, but I am down three lids now and I have resorted to still using the container and then putting the container in a gallon baggie to close the container up.  I would rather have a lid to wash and reuse.  I refuse to buy more containers with lids, though.  Just saying.  I guess it may depend on how many baggies I use and the cost.

Has anyone heard any theories on these lids and their disappearance?

Yes, you probably have most often heard this on Dragnet.  I am using it in a different way, but yet the same, to protect the innocent.  I am sure that all of you know that feeling when all that your family has to do is to mention a phrase and you instantly die inside hoping beyond all hope that the embarrassing story about you will not be told.  Everyone that knows about it in the room bursts out laughing and the poor victim is sweating bullets.  They try to laugh so as not to give it away that it is about them while at the same time shooting you looks that could kill.

So, following here, I will post a few that you will just have to use your imagination with and I hope that the “victims” get a smile out of it.  Keep in mind, that I have tons of nieces and nephews so these stories are not particularly about Shelby and Cody although I am sure that I will remember some about them.  There will probably be several installments to this story as items come to mind.  Not many have come to mind right now, but I thought I would start with a few.

You all know how terrible the stomach flu can be.  You may remember things such as sitting on the toilet with a trash can in front of you and various other bad, bad memories.  Well with one relative, all we have to say is “why me?”.  We usually say this as pathetically as possible with great expression.  A lot of people in the room get a great laugh…. all but one.

A person one time had an injury that we will not mention how it happened in a place that we could not get a bandage to stick to.  Someone came up with the idea of placing a feminine napkin there.  It was a great idea because it would just stick to the underwear in that particular place.  It was working great and the victim was so happy about how well it was working.  They were happy until they realized that if something happened like a wreck or what have you, how in the world would a napkin in their pants be explained.  That part is funny, but the injury is actually what is funny.  All we have to do is mention a related phrase and a lot of people in the the room get a great laugh … all but one.

There was a person in their young age that would run around telling everyone they almost had a girlfriend.  Most people would respond and ask, “almost?”  That person would smile and say yes.  They would then tell the story as follows, “I said hi and they said hi back!” No one could help their response of insane fits of laughter.  This has been several years ago, but yet someone brought it up to me recently and said they would never, ever forget that and it still made them laugh.  We only have to say the words she said hi back and a lot of people in the room get a great laugh … all but one.

Now, the story on the person who remembered that story above.  You know those little plastic swimming pools for children?  Well, we had one for a little person.  We had just filled it and by the time it was filled, the sun had moved and we needed to move it into the sun to warm it up.  My sister and I were struggling to lift and carry this heavy pool to move it.  We were sweating and grunting and having a terrible time moving it.  My sister told me we should move it over to that bare spot in the yard.  We are attempting to do this and are quite frustrated as it is so heavy and bulky.  A little person is grabbing my leg and calling my name and was adamant to get my attention.  Finally I dropped my end of the pool and asked what.  Such a cute little face with a sobbing, somewhat fearful voice asked so sweetly, “what did that bear do there??”  Awwww, the precious, precious little person.  My sister and I broke out in laughter, but of course, comforted the little person.  How sweet is this story?? We only have to ask what the bear did there and a lot of people in the room have a great laugh …all but one.

One person would sit around and complain about being hungry in between meals.  We offered a candy bar or peanut butter cups and the such.  They would tell us they did not like chocolate.  We offered potato chips, but they said they only liked a certain type.  It seemed that we mostly had chocolate to offer since the chips were a no go.  They vehemently repeated that they hated chocolate.  Suddenly their face lit up and they said,  “hey let’s make some brownies.”  We all burst out in laughter.  Haha, duh, what are brownies made from?? So, all we have to say is lets make some brownies and a lot of people in the room have a great laugh … all but one.

There was a person who had their bath and suddenly came running out of the bathroom and ran all through the house.  Their family was concerned and was trying to catch the person to see what was wrong and they were all yelling things like what is wrong, are you okay, what is the matter.   Can you just picture everyone running through the house behind a small naked person? As the victim was running past the frantic people, they breathlessly replied without stopping, “drying off!”  Haha.  What a great story.  As this became a pattern for the victim, when others happened to be visiting the house at this time, when the victim would come running by the other children laughingly informed everyone that they were drying off.  If anyone says “drying off”, a lot of people in the room get a great laugh … all but one.

One more story for this post.  Sometimes reactions people have to things embarrass them.  There is one person who does not like their reaction to a movie.  It really embarrasses them but I think it was the cutest thing ever.  The movie was Boys Town.  Pee Wee was hit by a car.  The victim here, frantically and sobbing heavily yelled, “PEE WEE!!”  They were crying and were so cute looking.  Comfort was immediately given to the victim but the victim was so angry that the others were smiling and laughing at the cute, caring outburst of this little person.  For some reason, this person hates to have this brought up.  I have no idea why, because how sweet is that reaction?!! All one has to say is “Pee Wee!” and a lot of people in the room get a laugh … all but one.

I am pretty sure the victims find it just as funny, they just have a slight feeling of embarrassment.  All families do this and have many stories, I am sure!  Feel free to share some “nameless” stories if you would like.  If you share them, we can all laugh … all but one!

My daughter, Shelby, is such a cutie!  We were friends with a wonderful woman from church and she happened to be the “BEST” cook.  (That was her last name, as well.)  I have posted here about her before.  We live in the house that we purchased from her and she moved only a few blocks away.

She often invited us over to her home for dinner.  That was always such a treat as she was always so happy (it was a bonus that she was a great cook).  She had a dog named Nipper that the children were always so happy to see, as well.  So . . . this one time we were there, Shelby came home and asked if I would please, please buy the kind of mashed potatoes that she made because they were the best that she had ever had.

I laughed so hard at this and called my friend right away and we both laughed.  You see, the potatoes were not a brand at all. They were real potatoes that were boiled and then peeled and mashed.  I was raised to cook this way, too, and used to when the children were smaller.  As time went on, my husband was awarded custody of his three children, one at a time,  so the family was large!  I did not have time nor did I feel like peeling that many potatoes to make enough for seven people.  Consequently, Shelby was used to having instant mashed potatoes.  Haha.  My poor deprived children missing out on that.  There were only three children at home when this happened, so I started cooking the way I was raised again and stopped using so much instant food.  My friend and I never forgot that and any time potatoes were mentioned around us we would laugh and ask each other what brand!  We laughed a lot together.

What brings this story to mind is Shelby.  She was at her Grandmother’s house (Grandmother by marriage).  Since Shelby cannot eat a lot right now due to stomach issues, her Grandmother decided to make her some rice pudding.  Shelby had never had that.  (She thought she had not, but we used to make that a lot, too.  Her Aunt Honey made it very often.) Her Grandmother asked Shelby if she knew how to make pudding from scratch.  (Keep in mind, that I used to make chocolate pudding, my mother’s recipe, all of the time.)  Shelby’s response to Grandma was, “Oh yes, you just open the box and follow the instructions!!!” (Just so no one thinks Shelby is lame, she does know what cooking from scratch is, she just was not thinking and answered too quickly.)

Shelby did have instant pudding when her father made it.  He is diabetic and always made the sugar free and just put it in a jar with the milk and shook it up.   This was quick and very easy, so it was served a lot. I asked Shelby if she remembered me making the chocolate pudding.  She said she thought she remembered me making something like that with corn starch.  Haha.  I never liked cakes when I was a child so for my birthday, my mother made me a chocolate pie.  I have that recipe and would always just make the filling.  Shelby should remember it as it made enough filling for seven pies!!  I never cut it down, I made it just that way.  We never seemed to have a problem eating it all up.  My husband always commented that he loved that type of pudding because it formed sort of a skim of pudding on top.  It is funny how people remember different things.

Shelby said she thought making it from scratch was opening the box and making it.  She said otherwise, she would have just bought those little containers of Jello pudding, the snack packs.  Haha!

My goal . . . show Shelby what homemade food really tastes like!  Just kidding, she does know.

This story is about a little boy, he must have been around 9 or 10 at the time, perhaps 7 or 8.  I do know that this story happened in the mid 1990’s.  He will be 38 years old very soon!!!  So, first things first, Happy Birthday!  I will not mention his name here, but if he would like to come forward and comment (or any of his relatives), it will be fine with me.  Haha!

There was a grocery store in town here called Wilb Walker’s.  I had just walked in and I saw this little guy come walking in to the store but he did not see me.  I know for sure that I had my little boy with me, but I am not certain that my little girl was around yet.  I made certain that they were quiet and I came up behind him and threw my arms around him and gave him a huge hug!

To my surprise, he started yelling at the top of his lungs, “STRANGER!! STRANGER!!!”  He started kicking his little legs and he was flailing his arms trying to break loose. Actually, I do not know why this surprised me at all.  He could not see who grabbed him so this is exactly what he should have done!  He was a student of  Tae Kwon Do and as far as I know, he was for a very long time and he was very proud of it.  Perhaps that training is what taught him this reaction.  No offense here to anyone, but he seemed to be such a small little guy and he was so cute in his Tae Kwon Do … I will say apparel … because I do not know what it is called.  **Google Results — Taekwondo uniforms (typically called a dobok; also commonly known as a gi, but that is the Japanese word for them) are common for practitioners to wear. They are usually a plain, white, v-neck heavy cotton top with pants that have an elastic waist.**

Anyway, I immediately let go of him.  I felt so stupid for not thinking about him having that reaction and I felt terrible for scaring him.  I was embarrassed as everyone was looking at me. However, at the same time, I was looking around for authorities to come and take me!  Haha.  His mother appeared within seconds as she was just a bit behind him.  (I cannot remember if both of his sisters were with them or not.) We were laughing.  His mother thought it was very funny.  You would think when he found out who I was and when his mother arrived, that that would be the end of it.  But, no!

This little fellow proceeded to tell me off for doing that.  Then, he went on to lecture me how it was totally the wrong thing to do to children.  I wish I could remember his exacting wording, but it has been so long ago.  He instructed me on the ways of the world and how there were evil people who would take children.  He spoke much more eloquently than I am about the situation.  Like I said, I cannot remember his wording.  I hate to admit it, and his sister’s probably will hate that I said it, but he sounded brilliant.  His mother tried to end his lecture but he would have no part of it.  He HAD to let me know.  As a matter of fact, he seemed downright angry!  I can still see his face and his eyes.  Yes, I think angry would be the appropriate description.  Haha.  As he was telling me off, he kept turning to walk away and then he would come back as he remembered more to say to me and the entire time he was pointing his little finger at me.  You just had to be there to appreciate it.  So cute and so funny while so appropriate.

I was thinking about the world and how dangerous it is for children today and this story of my little friend came to mind so I had to share it.  It was not nearly as bad back then, but he knew to be careful.  Good job little guy! Do you remember this?

Following is an actual  post that appeared in my “Memories” on Facebook.  You all have seen A Christmas Carol?  Alastair Sim, otherwise known as Ebenezer Scrooge,  has the three spirits appear to him, Christmas Past, Present and Future. I feel like this Facebook memory appeared to me as “The Ghost of Fall Future” as it seems to be reminding me of what is about to happen since it is Fall again. This post was from September 2, 2016.  I have added to the “memory” from how it appeared on Facebook in order to complete the sentences and so the story would be easier to understand.   Here you go:

“Apparently I have discovered a new group of friends.  They are unacceptable to me and I do not feel the same about them.

The night before last, I had a moth become attached to me and it seemed that he just could not leave me alone.  It may have been a female, but since it was annoying me, I assumed it was a male.   That thing followed me everywhere. Try as I might, I could not kill it and I could not get away from it.  It ended up actually flying  between my eye and my glasses.  That is the point where you do the fastest dance in the world! Guess what??!!! To make matters worse, he got stuck there!   Oh my gosh!!! What a battle!!! Ewwww!

The following night, I was sitting peacefully  watching television.  I guess I was watching it with a buddy.  A moth was just sitting right there beside.  I would think it was the same one, but I am pretty positive that the prior one did not live through the ordeal I put it through getting it out of my glasses.  Also, I did dispose of the little fellow.  Who knows, he could have just had the wind knocked out of him.  The fight to capture that one began!

Today, however, was the worst experience ever!  I  drink from glasses that have lids.  I feel this keeps the drink cooler. Also, I use that type  so that no flies or anything will land on them. try to share a drink with me,  or perhaps decide to take a swim.  I had poured a nice cold, delicious glass of tea and went about my business.  Some time later, I opened the lid to have a taste of tea.   It was so good and smooth tasting. I just love iced tea!  I closed up the glass and noticed something on my lip!  It was one of those little hard shelled bugs!!!  He must have been right inside of the lid and when I took my drink, he crawled over to my lip!!!  That incident made me lose my tea!

I am beginning to not like fall . . . And to think I used to love camping. I am now reconsidering that thought! Hmmmmm??”

There you go!  There is my post from this day in 2016!  Just a note, I have had a very good day without incident!!!  I hope I did not speak too soon and that nothing visits me tonight!  Haha!!

The challenge is real here!!

My husband and my brother are/were carpenters.  It always frustrated them so when I tried to measure by “the little marks”.  One person even found a tape measure that actually labeled every measurement and gave it to me.  It actually said 1/16″, 1/8″, 1/4″, 1/2″ and so on.  That was great when I needed a tape measure., but not so great for paper crafts.  My husband and I just had a lengthy phone discussion including a partial video call while he was trying to help me with a measurement.

I have made 5 attempts and wasted so much paper trying to accomplish this project.  I said that it hurt my head and I was almost in tears.  I did actually end up with some tears. I switched to using computer paper so as not to destroy any more of my card stock until I had it down.

Turns out that I have three different measuring devices with three different ways to measure, one shows the 16th increments, one only shows the 8th and the other only shows the 1/4th.  In order to accomplish this project, I have to use all three of these instruments. My husband was frustrated when he found this out and said I had to use the same throughout and that I could not switch back and forth.  That is not possible as all three are needed in a different way.  Anyway . . .

We are working and working on it and then I tear up like I said earlier.  (I think things become harder the older you get, things like . . . thinking!) I said I am sorry, it is really frustrating.  We add everything up again for the second time (I have tried three times without him) and I draw, measure and cut.  Nope!  It does not work.  We start trying again . . . I start out with the, “Okay, I need 1/2 plus 1/8 plus a tiny little mark.”  Ha ha. My husband says immediately, “Now I am crying!”.  Haha.  That was a laugh I needed.  He said your brother would have already hung up the phone!  He said no man should have to go through this.  Just so you know, he is not actually mad at me.  He is very patient in some areas and this is one of them.  (Other areas, not so good.  Ha.Ha.)

He went on to say that it should be taught in school.  I told him that perhaps it was. (We, of course, know that it was.) He said it is so basic that it probably was in Kindergarten and I missed it.  He was correct, I did miss it.  I was too young to go to Kindergarten.  Side note here, I started first grade in August and turned 5 in November.  That was the way the dates were set up back then.  My parents thought I was too young, but I had to go.  So, I did in fact miss that class!  Haha.  Another side note here, we did home school our children.  I wonder if I taught them?  Ha.

He went on to say that this was basic math.  Another slight disagreement here … measuring is measuring and math is math.  I explain what I believe to be the difference and go on to inform him how much better I am at math than he is.  So, now I go back to asking, “Just tell me, what is 1/2 plus 1/8 plus a tiny mark?”  A sort of swear word, a very mild one, pops out of his mouth.  I immediately tell him I am so sorry, I am hanging up for now and that I love him.  He told me to wait, he was not swearing at me.  He switched back to a video call and showed me an entire jar of peanuts spilled all over the bunk and floor of his truck!  Haha.  I go on to apologize and tell him it is all my fault and he so sweetly says it is not.  Just to let you know, we did not fight over this project at all, we were both just frustrated.  He remained calm and nice throughout and I did what I do best, I cried in frustration.

We start to try one more time and he says how about we wait until I get home to teach help you in person?  I, however, come up with a better idea!  I say how about I find a new project!!!!

When the children were smaller, I always had an issue with finding the dish rag in the sink all wadded up into a ball and smelling so very soured!  No matter how many times I would ask them not to do this, it was an everyday occurrence.  I think my husband was probably guilty as well! (In fact, I am sure he was!!)

We had a very hectic schedule with so many living in the house (as most people do).  What with scheduling basketball games, fundraising, driving to the games, homeschooling, music lessons, youth group, etc., at times the rinsed, dirty dishes were left in the sink. (GASP!)  They were awaiting placement in the dishwasher and the dishwasher was probably awaiting emptying.  Haha.  Invariably, at the bottom of the dishes was a wadded up and smelly dish rag!

I tried the rags called Handi Wipes, but they were a bit on the costly side and I did not like the larger size of them.  It was much cheaper to use a cloth dish rag and wash it out.  But, oh, that smell!  I was just absolutely fed up with using them and most of them were stained. Scott Shop Towels to the rescue!  They are those blue shop towels that are usually in the automotive department!  I started using them.  They were so cheap back then.  Of course, it was a little difficult to find them at first because most contained oil, now most do not! In fact, I do not remember seeing any that do now.  I do not know what they cost then, but now they come to about $.30 a towel.  This was, I thought, a fantastic idea of mine!  Just toss them after you use it and no towel left in the sink!  No nasty smells! You never had to worry about stains on your dish rags and trying to wash those stains out.  I was so proud of myself!!

My son, Cody, however was not so proud of me.  We had been using them for quite some time and I never had any idea that he was actually embarrassed by this.  Our house was always open to the youth and Cody and Shelby’s friends.  We were always feeding a group of people and having game nights, etc.  It was great to have everyone at our house and know where they were than to have them running around town looking for something to do.  My husband and I loved this . . .  All of the people popping in and out and feeling welcome, never having to be invited,  all of the laughter in the house, we loved all of it!  We miss all of this now that the children are grown.

I was serving snacks and cleaning the kitchen.  The children were at the table playing games.  I do not know what came over Cody this night, but he came up to me and stood beside me at the sink.  He very softly whispered to me, “Mom, are you embarrassed that we cannot afford dish rags like other people?”

I immediately laughed and continued to laugh.  I do not know what he was thinking about my outburst of laughter, but you should have seen his face.  Haha!  I leaned over to his ear and said that of course we could afford dish rags!  It was my choice to NOT use them.  Then I explained my reasoning to him.  My poor children, I did not mean to embarrass them.  It never occurred to me that they may have thought we could not afford them.  I do not remember if I asked how Shelby felt about our use of them.  I was merely getting rid of an issue that I had, solving a problem, alleviating a reason for me to harp on them.

However, to this day, I still use them. I still feel pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea.  Haha.  My husband, at my request all of those years ago, even made me a handy, dandy holder and it is on my counter at this moment!  In fact, I jumped up and took this photo.

I do not think I have every seen Cody or Shelby use them for dishes though!  I do take them some rolls occasionally but I think they never use them, period!  Pretty sure they were embarrassed.  Haha.  Shop towels are great for cleaning as well.  You know those special microfiber towels that people sell that you only use water?  Well, a wet shop towel and a dry shop towel work just as well!  I love them on glass.  I use them for all cleaning chores.  Keep in mind, they are only $.30 each.

As you can tell, I am still just pretty darn proud of myself!!!  Ha! Ha!!

My husband worked for his father in the backhoe and trenching business.  I am sure that some of you have known someone with a story to tell of being buried in a trench.  There are broken collar bones and such from this occurrence.  My husband, Wes, was buried in one once.  It happens to a lot of people.  When it happened to him, the others yelled for him to run, but Wes ran the wrong way.  He was pinned from his neck to his waist and then buried from there down.  They dug so far down and then pulled him out, which was probably not a good idea.  They pulled him right out of his boots!  It took approximately and an hour and a half as they had to dig by hand.  They took him to the hospital and x-rays were taken.  He had no broken ribs but all of his ribs were bruised and every breath was very painful. He had to take several days off and the pain was excruciating.

There is a story that my father-in-law told that made us all laugh every time even though it was scary to some of the people involved, well ONE of the people involved.  It seems that my father-in-law, Frank, worked for his father-in-law, Harold, before he had his own business, Sanders Trenching and Backhoe. It was winter and they were working in a field. Harold had to leave the job site to do something and left Frank there. There was only the backhoe and their pick up truck at the site.  Harold was gone in the pick up, so Frank was there alone.  Remember, Frank is married to Harold’s daughter, Imy.

When Harold returns, all he sees is the backhoe, and it is running.  The trench was caved in and the pair of Frank’s gloves were sticking in the dirt! Harold is beside himself.  He left Frank and now he has been buried for who knows how long.  Harold is frantically digging with his hands and thinking he has just made his daughter a widow and various  other sad, sad thoughts.  He was wondering how he was going to explain this to his daughter and his wife.  When Frank tells the story, he says that he was digging like a dog and then he would imitate this motion.  That was so funny to see Frank doing this!  Poor Harold.  What he must be thinking and how he must be feeling!  I imagine his hands were painful from the digging!

A very short time later, the farmer pulled up.  Harold, saw Frank get out of the truck and jumped up and stopped digging.  He just stared at Frank and stormed over to the truck and drove off.  It turns out that the farmer had stopped and asked Frank to go to lunch.  Without thinking, Frank said sure and took off with the farmer.  Harold’s part of the story is the part that makes this story sad.  I cannot even imagine being in his shoes! I  won’t even tell the rest of the story here.  But, you can imagine.  You all know how you feel when you have thought someone was hurt?  You are happy they are not, but still, at times, the anger comes?  This will be left for your imagination.

Frank and Imy were always so tickled about this story.  It was so cute to watch them tell it and to hear it.  They would giggle like little children throughout the story.  I never got the chance to meet Harold, but I can only hope that he laughed about it later as well.

**As an additional note, some time later in life, Frank did have a huge clump of dirt land on him which resulted in a broken collar bone.  That is when he was in business for himself as Sanders Trenching and Backhoe.  I wonder if Harold found that funny/ironic? Haha!!

I have never liked pancakes or eggs over easy.  Matter of fact, the only way I have ever liked eggs has been in brownies or cake or cheesecake, eggnog, you get the picture.

First the eggs over easy story . . . a very long time ago, my mother wanted to help a friend out and she, as always, involved me.  She was my best friend.  I loved being involved in everything with her.  What good times we had! We worked a 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift at a small restaurant of one of her friends on Friday and Saturday nights. I say helped out, but we did get paid for the shifts. Saturday nights were easier on me as I worked all day Friday at my regular job.  I was the waitress and she was the grill cook.  We mainly had a lot of breakfast orders due to the time of the shift.

One night late, my mother had stepped out for something, I think she had to run home,  and had been gone for quite awhile.  A customer came in and wanted eggs over easy.  Since I do not like eggs, I do not cook them.  I told him she would be back shortly and he said he did not mind the wait.  For some reason, she did not return as soon as I expected  and I finally had to agree to make the breakfast.  He said he wanted his eggs over easy.  Uh oh!  Well, everything went okay until time to flip the eggs “over easy”.  I chased those eggs all over that griddle but could not get the spatula under them!  You know that little hole (actually it is a rectangular square) at the back of the griddle, the drain,  where the grease is scraped off the griddle and in to?  They slid right into the hole and out of sight.  I turned around and the customer was watching my every move.  His look on his face is one I will not forget.  Haha.  Embarrassed, I finally sort of half smiled and said to him, “well, they went over easy”.  We both laughed and about that time, my mother, my hero, came in the door and saved the day!

Since having children I have had to make eggs. There are two ways that I cook them for them, scrambled and fried!  I, to this day, cannot make them over easy.  Oh Wait!!! I can boil eggs!  I can even get them to peel perfectly!!!! I guess there are 3 ways I can make eggs.  Go me!

Story number two  . . . pancakes.  I do not like pancakes either and never have.  I liked them once when my mother made a new recipe called Souffle Pancakes.  They were so light and fluffy!  Yummers!  That is the only time though, and she really did not make them often that way.

When I married Wes, he considered his specialty to be pancakes. (I think of Uncle Buck, the movie starring John Candy, here.  When Uncle Buck is cooking some sort of thing, Miles says that he is cooking their garbage and Uncle Buck says that it is his specialty!) Well, old Wessie was right.  It is his specialty and I now love pancakes, BUT only when Wes makes them. He does something different to the recipe, I do not know what, but they are so smooth and fluffy!   I have tried to make those for the children as well. He would save me some of his batter so that they would be just as good.

I have about as much luck with them as I do the eggs.   I would try to flip them too soon and have a pile of goop.  Wes showed me how to wait for the bubbles and for the edges to brown before I flipped them.  BUT . . . my pancakes tend to look like the State of Illinois or Oklahoma or something like that.  It never matters how “round” I seem to pour them, they turn into Illinois!  I have to cook so many to even get a small stack that is even worth eating.  Haha.  The children were always good sports about it though. It was a great day for me when I found the pancakes in a bag at the store that only needed to be put in the microwave!

Do not take any of this the wrong way, I CAN cook.  Some people think I am a great cook,  I just have issues with pancakes and eggs over easy.  Looks like I will always make eggs the same 3 ways and just leave the pancakes to Wessie, unless someone does a project for school where they need a replica of the State of Illinois made out of something unusual.  Just let me know if you need me!

I was cleaning some things today and stumbled upon a treasure.  Grandma Lucy is my husband’s mother’s mother.  She was such a wonderful woman.  She always had a smile on her face.  She was so kind and loving.

We camped through the summer at a lake near Grandma Lucy’s home.  Wes had to work and would come to the campgrounds at night.  I would take the children in to visit Grandma from time to time while Wes was working.  The first thing she did was to make sure that everyone had something to eat if they needed and always, always gave the children ice cream and then they were off to the play room.  We never needed anything to eat, but Grandma always wanted to make sure that if you were hungry, she fed you.  Asking if you wanted to eat was always the first thing she would ask! The children always were excited about the ice cream, though!  That was never turned down.

One time when we were there, Shelby was upset because her cat had passed away.  It was a black and white cat named Oreo.  Grandma had a black beanie baby cat named Licorice.  She kept it on a red pillow that was like fur.  She gave the cat and the pillow to Shelby and told her it was so that she could have a friend.  What a sweet thing to do.  She was always doing such sweet things for the children.  Visits with Grandma Lucy were always so nice!  She was always full of smiles and laughter. When we had the holiday dinners at her home, I would always help with the dishes and we had the best of conversations at the sink.  I sure miss her!

My treasure today was what my husband, Wes,  had said at her funeral.  I found the paper that he had written it out on. I am going to share that.

“All of us grandchildren and great-grandchildren have special memories of Grandma from Thanksgiving noodles to mostaccioli at Christmas.  That was great cooking! I personally remember when I was young and thirsty, drinking that glass of water that held her false teeth! That was not very good.  But, the thing I remember best was Grandma’s tolerance.  She was all of the time smiling and joking when I would take something apart knowing full and well that I wouldn’t get it back together.  I tried, but usually always failed.  But that did not discourage me or grandma.  Next trip back I’d find something else to take apart and she’d smile and laugh when I couldn’t get it back together again.

Just like the Lord smiles when we try to do something in our own strength. It can’t be done. Phillipians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  John 14:1 says, “Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

So with Jesus helping us we can be assured that Grandma is in her eternal mansion in heaven and if we all put our trust in Jesus, we will someday join her there.”

Wow!  I am so glad that I found that today!

I do not know how some of us are so stupid as to drink that “denture water”, but when he shared his story with me when we met, I, too, had done the same thing, but with my mother’s!  Yuck!  I never, ever drank from a glass that was sitting around again.  I have a friend whose husband did the same thing.  Are we stupid or what?  I guess we could feel better saying desperate.  Haha.  I know I was choking at the time and was trying to drink water from my hands and how awesome that a glass of water happened to be there in my time of need?  Gross!

Anyway, another story about Wes taking everything apart. .. Grandma Lucy would always laugh and tell us of different things he would take apart.  One day, she got up and went into another room and came out carrying something and handed it to Wes.  She said something like, “Here, you can have this.  You might as well, you did get it back together but it still does not work.  Perhaps you can take it home and try again. What a laugh we all had.  Below is the picture of what she gave us.  We have it on a shelf in our living room.

It will remain on our shelf.  It is a treasure from a very treasured Grandmother.  We love and miss you Grandma Lucy.  Thank you for being you!

It is summer and the pool always reminds me of this story! As I had mentioned before, our family lived right next to each other at one point. There was my brother’s house which was originally my parent’s home. He built my mother and father a home on part of the same 10 acres to the east of him. Then next to them was where my sister lived. Anyway, my brother had a pool at his house that we swam in. It was a really nice pool with a deep end of about 7.5 feet. We loved being able to swim in it! My brother had two children. At this time, I think my niece, Jennifer, was in her teens and little Erin was about 4 or 5.

My niece, Lea, and I, were swimming one day. It was a very nice, warm, calm day. We were on rafts and just sort of drifting off in our own thoughts, eyes closed, totally enjoying the day. Eventually, we noticed that we were floating quite a bit. I did not mention it and neither did she. Finally I asked her how it was that we were floating so nicely on such a calm day. She replied that she had no idea. We both sort of said, “Hmmm” and went back to our own daydreams.

Some time later, we hear this little tiny voice, sort of filled with water from swimming, sort of sounding a bit like Pee Wee Herman, say, “Hold on, Lea, we are going!” We both raised up on our rafts and turned around to the sound of the voice. There was my tiny little niece, Erin! She had been swimming and swimming, pulling both of our rafts around the pool! Amazing! Lea and I immediately broke out into laughter. We jumped off of our rafts and asked her how long she had been there. She was just giggling away. We asked her if she was worn out by tugging us around. She just giggled. She is such a pretty little girl and those dimples when she smiles, oh my!!!!

To this day, I have no idea how that tiny little girl was hauling us all around the pool. I realize they say that things are lighter in the water, but wow! She has always been a little fish in the water, though. I think she was swimming at two years old, if not at age one!

This story, for some reason, always makes us laugh. At times when we remember it we say to one another, “Hold on, Lea, we are going!” That will always make us laugh.

So….. haha, along with the many symptoms you can have from food intolerance, along come vivid dreams from certain types of reactions to food.  All people have or have had vivid dreams and they are caused whether or not you have a food intolerance and they can be caused by foods as well then.

Whenever I eat something I should not like a bit of a salicylate or a night shade (I will never, ever have gluten, it is too dangerous), I have the most vivid dreams.  (Salicylates are in a lot of foods, some are higher than others and some night shades are potatoes, tomatoes, peppers etc.  Night shades absorb the sun during the day and grow at night.) I also have what I call the coma sleeps along with that.  So many nights, I wake myself up screaming or sobbing.  I know that when we yell in our sleep we think we are a big hero and are screaming our heads off, but it is more like some sort of a wounded animal sound . . .  more of a moan, perhaps. Haha.  My husband always laughs and imitates the sound because I usually wake up afraid I will wake the neighbors and they will call the police thinking someone is breaking in.  He starts making the noise for me and laughing his head off stating that I am not actually yelling at all and no one would hear me.

Anyway, the last couple of nights, oh my!  The dreams are not only vivid, they are downright dumb!  Do you ever notice that at times, when you dream, you are also in full action mode and doing just exactly what you are dreaming.  I have spent some nights looking for an item and will wake up and I am moving all of the blankets around and searching under pillows.  I have been punching the mattress with my fist while fighting off an intruder.  These types of dreams wear you out and start your day off as tired. Dreams are just funny.  Some are very terrifying when they seem so real and are not funny at all.

Night before last, I was making coffee in my sleep and I needed to dump out the old coffee and rinse the pot.  This is strange in itself because I only make one cup of coffee in the morning and drink it all and rinse it at the time.  However, I, for some reason, walked out on the deck to dump this remaining coffee and into the lake!  There is no lake out my back door!  There is a pool that I have referred to as the pond when all of those annoying tree frogs were assaulting me.  Haha.  Perhaps that was in my subconsious, my lake with the frogs.  Anyway, in my dream Wes walked out to see why I was dumping my coffee out there and I dropped my coffee pot into the lake and it rapidly floated away.  I just stood there and cried.  Of course, I woke myself up and I was just sobbing and sobbing.  Gosh, I sure do entertain myself.  My sobs turned into laughter and sure enough, when I got into the kitchen, my coffee pot was safe and sound!

Last night, I had several dreams!  They were unreal and felt back to back and all night long.  I have read that dreams and dream time actually do not last that long, but they sure can feel like they are the entire night long.  We all know that I hate critters and crawlers, some flyers.  Ewwwww!!!  I grew up living in the country and mice were a thing you just seemed to deal with.  I would never sleep on a night we found a mouse and I had a hard time falling asleep during the season.  I had to be all wrapped up like a cocoon so that nothing could crawl on me.  Later in life as my theory changed, I decided to just dress myself so that I was covered tightly from head to toe so that I would not be stuck in a cocoon with a mouse and had to fight to get out! I was so excited to move to town and never have them.  Everyone told me that we would anyway.  I am a mouse demon, though, I plug every crack, pinhole, any opening I can find.  We have lived here since 1998 and so far so good, but I am worried that more cracks are opening and with all of these woodsy type animals and varmints in my backyard, I bet they will be next.

I will just have to move.  I have already decided that if I try to shoot them, it will just destroy the house and the neighbors, hearing the shots, will surely call the police.  Well ….. my day has started off great today.  I woke up at 4:00 a.m. from a dream.  I had gone to the bathroom in my dream and when I went to wash my hands, there was a mouse just sitting on the back of the sink.  It was horrible!!!!   He just sat there looking at me and I just froze.  I finally ran to the bedroom to get my gun and that is when I woke up.  Of course, I could not go back to sleep.  There was no way I was going to lay down and close my eyes with a possible mouse in my bathroom, dream or no dream.

Good news, when I went to the kitchen to make coffee, the pot was still there and not in the lake today!  As the coffee was making, my routine is to then go and open all of the curtains.  The window above the sink was first.  Upon opening it there was a huge spider there.  Of course, he probably was not all that huge, but we all know that all spiders appear larger than they are, just like the warning on the mirror!  We all know that I do not like the crunch of bigger bugs/insects under my foot so I quickly removed my shoe, the weapon.  Who am I kidding, there is no way this person who thinks she is wonder woman could hoist her leg up that high and kill a spider in the window over a sink.  Haha.  Anyway, the shoes I wear around the house are a worn out pair of tennis shoes that I can slip on like a house shoe.  They have holes in the toes!  My husband hates them.  Haha.  Hey! I do not wear them in public and the ability to slip on and off is great as you never know when you may have to smash something.  (I just made that up now, it just came to my mind, but it is a good idea to be able to remove them for just that!)

I am sort of proud for me for this.  When the kids were little and Wes and I were first married, this was not the case.  I would put a clear glass, tumbler or bowl over the victims and wait for Wes to get home and take care of them for us.  I would have to then go around and make sure they had not escaped.  In my older age, I have learned that it is either them or me.  I now take care of them on my own so I do not wonder where they are.  I want to know EXACTLY where there are!

So, shoe off and it will be goodbye Mr. Spider! I smoothly move the shoe over the spider and hold it in place so as to be sure he is trapped and then I grind the shoe around to assure he will not move.  I get sort of proud of me for this action as I never used to do that.  I remove the shoe and there is no spider.  That is the worst feeling in the world!  Where is he???  My mind goes wild, he probably somehow got into the shoe.  The shoe is rapidly thrown to the floor!!  Then I get the idea that he probably crawled around and on my arm or even worse, up my pant legs.  You got it, as ugly as it may seem, the clothes came off.  I am now doing the dance.  I finally calmed myself down and am walking around fully clothed and pants rolled up my legs as high as I can get them so a mouse or spider will have difficulty climbing up my legs.  Yes, it is going to be a good day today!  Haha.  I hope you all have a good day, today!  Be careful with the heat advisory for the next few days.  I will be keeping my eyes open for Mr. Spider out in the kitchen!

So, I have tons and I mean tons of food related issues.  Sometimes they seem unreal to me and I think that they cannot actually be a problem and that I am just odd.  When I hear that someone else has the same issue, is it wrong that I feel a bit relieved to hear it?  Do not get me wrong, I feel terrible for them because this is just not fun, pleasant, easy to deal with or anything at all! I hate it for them, but yet it seems to be some sort of confirmation for me that I am not totally nuts and losing it!

I have a gluten intolerance, salicylates, night shades and soy.  I have diverticulitis and have had surgeries on my stomach and my colon. I feel like I am forgetting others here, but that is enough for now.   Basically, eating is a chore.  There is a store here in town that has always seemed to be an issue for me.  When you walk in the front door, to the left is the bakery and to the right is the deli.  Right across from each other they are baking and deep frying breaded items.  Gluten is definitely in the air.  The bread aisle there is one of the worst in any store.  My husband, who has no issues, can barely stand the smell going down that aisle.  With those three things alone, we feel that they need a better ventilation system or something.  They have an organic/gluten free area/specialty food section.  I find some goodies there. Well, a Hyvee or Meijer would be better, but for our town, it seems to be nice.  It is really a small section, but at least we have it for some things. It probably should be on the complete other side of the store, though.

At one point, while I was shopping, I ran into someone I knew so I was in the store longer than anticipated.  I was at the very back of the store and became so weak and had breathing issues that I almost went to the ground.  I was holding on to my cart and trying to get my cell phone to call someone as there was no one in sight.  I do not know how I managed to get out of there, but I finally did.  I had to remain in my car for awhile before driving home.  It is a good thing I do not live too far away. I have a flight of stairs to go up before getting to the kitchen.  I just put the groceries on the counter and went to sleep immediately.  There was no way to stay awake.  How scary. I call these events a coma sleep.  I do not know what they are really, but I just become so weak and go to sleep and wake up whenever.  When you wake up, you are in such a fog and it feels like you are awake while sleeping. I am not really aware of any of my surroundings and hear nothing as you can when you are in a normal sleep and I am hard to wake up.  My family always worries and tries to wake me to be certain I am okay. I always leave the store feeling very weak and it takes me awhile to recover.  I absolutely hate going there, but there are some things you need that you have to go there for.

However, I will never go there again.  If I need anything, I will have to ask someone to get it for me.  The reason being, I heard a story of a little girl who was in the store with her mother.  The little girl had such a reaction that her mother had to immediately take her to the emergency room.  The little girl is okay.  After the event, the mother called the store and voiced her concerns.  The store, at that time, seemed to be a bit insensitive.  I heard that the mother then asked that at least a sign be posted warning of the food issue and such.  The store did not respond to that request.  Of course, I only heard this and do not know the actual outcome firsthand.  I do believe it though since I have had issues in there. I do feel so terrible for this little girl.  I am praying for her.  However, it made me realize how stupid I was to continue entering the store when it clearly affected me. I feel like this incident was an additional warning for me.

All of these gluten issues and other food issues popping up lately are unreal.  I hope they can figure this out soon. I feel so certain that it is additives and such. So, so many people are being affected and so suddenly.  It is not pleasant at all.  It is so hard to be diligent about avoiding products with no actual help, or any way that this can be avoided.  It is almost better to just stay home. It is frustrating as you begin to feel like you need to be in a bubble.  Society is into cookouts, eating out and social events involving food.  It is hard to have what is considered a normal life and hard to attend the family events.

I am not being an Eeyore here, just stating the facts.  I do not mean to be bringing anyone down, I am fine, just a little frustrated as at times I feel like I am sleeping my life away.  It is even worse to sleep your life away when you feel like there is nothing that you have done wrong or have had the wrong thing to eat.  You follow what you think you are supposed to and you still are sick.  The actual point of this was that I never realized what could actually happen by entering the store and I would like to sort of warn others to please be careful!!!

My daughter has an issue to strawberries that has sent her to the emergency room several times.  She is as careful as can be, but insensitive people do things that cause her to have the reactions.  At a store in her town, she was getting some potatoes.  How in the world would this action give her a reaction?  Well, someone, being lazy, threw some sort of strawberries with their sauce in the potato bin.  She evidently, unknown to her, was picking out some potatoes and some of this strawberry concoction got on her arm.  She was going down an aisle and started having breathing issues and itching and hives developed.  She was fortunate to have her Prednisone with her and was able to get some down along with Benadryl.

The point here is, the stores and customers are not being careful so we need to be extra, extra careful.  Hopefully this story will help others to be more sensitive to our issues and to be more careful with the cross contamination.  Thank you all!  I am sorry for this post and for not making you smile today!  Well, smile anyway, life is short!!!!

My husband and I were driving to visit the children.  We were listening to music and my mind always roams when we do that as a song will remind you of a particular place, time or event.  This prompted me to tell a story of my childhood and our laundry to my husband.

My mother had a separate little building behind the house that was appropriately called “the wash house.”   She had her washer out there but, of course, there was no dryer.  Her washing machine had a wringer on the top of it.  After the washing cycle was over, she had to wring out the clothing and put it in a basket.  We then took the clothing and shook it out and hung it on the clothes line to dry. You had to shake it before you hung it up as the wringer had it all smashed flat and twisted up.

There was a bag that hung on the line that was filled with clothespins.  There were a variety of cute little bags that were available.  A lot of women started to sew and make their own unique ones. My sister and I  would just stick our hand right in there and pull out a hand full of clothespins.  At times, we were such pros at it that we would stick some in our mouth so we could be so efficient and speedy at hanging the clothes.  It did not take us long to become smart, though!  Sometimes there were spiders and other bugs in that bag and sometimes perhaps some bird droppings landed in there.  We learned to access that bag differently and to never put the clothespins in our mouths! We used some of our new found knowledge when removing the clothes from the line as well. After we removed an item, we would always shake it before putting it in the basket to avoid bringing any spiders or other such things in to the house with us.

I loved when they came out with the newer clothes pins that had springs and would open up like a clip. They held the clothing better than the ones that just had a slot cut in the pin. We had sticks/boards that dad had made to prop the line up higher if there were too many clothes dragging the line down too far.  It was never good to have your clothes dragging the ground. We had really long clothes lines as we had 5 children at home which meant a lot of clothes!  There were three lines in total.  We hung the sheets and towels on the clothes line in front and the more intimate clothing behind those so they could not be seen from the road.

Neighbors were courteous and did not burn their trash when your clothes were out on the line.  You could only hope, though, that the birds would know to leave the clothes alone!  Haha. If they did not, mom would have to wash them again. You also hoped that it would not rain until the clothes were dry and if it did there was the mad dash by all to run out and remove the clothing. I actually thought the clothes line and the issues we had were fun. It makes me smile to think of these things.

I started laughing when talking to my husband about this as I remembered the winter season. He did not have a recollection of hanging clothes out, or so he says.  He lived in a different town, but he did live in town.  Perhaps things were different for “town people”.  We lived in the country.

I was laughing and telling him how in the winter, if it were windy as well, the clothes would be hanging like this … and I attempted a pose to show him.  Haha.  The towels would be hanging at an angle and the other clothes as well.  It was so funny taking them down and into the house as they were so stiff.  It still makes me laugh today.  For kicks, I googled and found an image that I will share.  It makes me laugh as well.

It was a bit painful to hang clothes up in the winter as your hands would get so terribly cold.  My mother eventually had the washer moved inside the house.  It was on the enclosed back porch.  It was not really a back porch, but we called it that. I remember at times,  we would run a line and hang the clothes inside of that room.

There is nothing like the smell of clothing dried outside!  It was always so wonderful to sleep on those crisp, nice smelling sheets. The towels, though, were sort of hard, not as soft as they are today when dried in a dryer.  The clothes line meant that mom had to iron almost all of our clothing.  She had a little squirt bottle with water to mist the clothing to make it easier to iron.  That is probably what gave someone the idea of the steam iron. Things are a lot easier today.

For a short while, when my husband and I were first married, I would hang our towels outside to be able to enjoy the smell of those fresh towels.  I did not hang everything out, just the towels and sheets. We moved in to town and I stopped doing that as well.  The good old days were great, but they were a lot more work!  I still miss them, though!!!

My brother and his wife came to visit one time (years ago now) and asked if we used foil pouches on our grill.  I did not know what he meant.  He said he would like to make us chicken.  Of course, any time someone wants to cook, why would you ever say no?  So, he showed us how he made it and it was delicious!

I love it and made it several times.  I have since been unable to eat that type of food, but I remembered the chicken and and made it today.  I am able to have a little more to eat, but only able to eat stuff like this rarely.  It is a simple recipe, but oh so very good!  You may all already have been making it for years, but I am going to share anyway.  We had one difference I believe.  It has been so long now, that I do not remember.  I think, however, that he used a seasoning called Old Bay.  He would say he just loved it!  He also loved Sweet Baby Rays barbecue sauce.  I can still see his smile and his eyes light up when he would say “Sweet Baby Rays”!  He had a special way of saying it too, with sort of an accent and emphasis!   What a nice memory to have.

Anyway, it is, of course, cooked on the grill.  You use heavy duty foil and you (yikes, I hope I can describe this)  You lay the foil, one piece north and south and one piece east and west.  This allows a “square” in the middle that is double thickness.  You spread a little oil over the square.  You put Old Bay, or I used Steak and Chop seasoning over both sides of the chicken.  Top this with sliced onions and liberally spread Sweet Baby Rays over the top.  Close up one pouch one way and then close the second pouch the other way.  This is to ensure that it is sealed well so that when you flip it, you do not lose all of your sauce. Do not close it flat, but close it like it is sort of a tent.  I am not so certain that I have the exact recipe after all of these years, but it is still good this way. This is how I made it today for lunch.

I believe he said the grill should be at 350 degrees, but I am not sure about that either.  I remember that from time to time we lifted the lid to cool down the grill.  Anyway, the pouch will “balloon up” as it is cooking.  I cooked for 15-20 on one side and then flipped it over.  Cooking time will, of course, depend on the chicken breast’s thickness and size.  I did use a tenderizer and pounded it much thinner than how it came to decrease the cooking time.

The main point here is that this is so delicious!!!  I sure do miss my brother.   I am glad we had that time!  When he cooked this chicken there were about 10 people that were here.  What a great meal we had and what a great time.  All I can say is, (emphasis and accent)…. SWEET BABY RAYS!!!!