Memorial Day Weekend

When I was a kid, my favorite part of Memorial Day Weekend was the Parade. Not to watch, but to march in. I was a Girl Scout, those were my marching buddies. The parade route was not real long, through town, up a really big hill to the cemetery. It was almost always cool in the morning since summer up north starts WAY later than summer here in the south.
Arriving at the appointed spot, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Fire Department, VFW, Police Department and the usual high school band and cheerleaders. Standing in the silence of the graves, hands over our hearts. In the distance the solo trumpeter playing taps. The orders given to honor those who made us a free nation. Ready! Aim! Fire! The shock of each volley, even though I knew it was coming. Seven rifles fire three times. Deafening in the silence of the place we stood.
Thank you to all those who have given so that we may live free.

Damn it has been a long time

now I dont go to florida so often, and my dad has gone to a better place, and Max has come into my life, and I am retired, and I am busier than I was when I was working. My constant companion is 3 years old and a delight. I wish my constant companions were 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and none.

Do I hang out in Florida too much?

When I was down here sometime earlier this year, I was playing with dad's camera and took this photo of some future Florida oranges:



And now, here in November, I get to see the finished product:

Okay, so here's the deal...

I booked a trip to Florida to see my Dad. Leaving Sheveport is slim pickings, I gotta tell you. There are 2 morning flights, one at oh-dark-thirty, and the other at-half-past-sunrise. Since I am bumming a ride to the airport, I opt for the later of the stupidly early flights.

Waiting until a more human time of day might have sent me on a nine hour flight to some exotic city like Detroit, or given me a 6 hour layover in some cool place like Nowhere, USA. So I took the late early flight.

Delta flies through Atlanta, and that is usually the Burmuda Triangle of Layovers. My flight out to Melbourne is at 1 pm. So, not wanting to sit with my bag for 3 hours, I hesitated for a moment before I checked it through to Melbourne.

Surprise, surprise, surprise....we arrive in Atlanta only to be put in a holding pattern.....but somehow we were cleared to land earlier than scheduled. That's okay the pilot assured us, we would get to wait on the tarmac for a gate. And STILL we arrive early.

So, I trudge up the ramp with laptop, purse and puzzle book, look up and see a flight to Melbourne, not only on time but at the gate, preparing to board. It would get me in to my destination 2 hours earlier, and greatly reduce my boring layover here in Atlanta.

In my mind, I am in like Flynn. I can zip into town early, hitch-hike to Dad's (okay, that was when I was a hippie, I would call a cab in this millenium), and suprise the crap out of everyone!!!!!! Great idea, hu?

NO WAY JOSE BOSE! You must be on the plane that your luggage is on, why didn't you gate check your bag? So I wouldn't have to sit around and watch it for 3 long hours. But if you had gate checked your bag, you could get on this flight. I don't care when my bag gets there, I can drive up and get I can buy new clothes and pick it up on my way out of town for all I care, I just want on the earlier flight. But federal law states that you must be on the plane with your luggage. I don't give a crap about my luggage, 2 extra hours with my dad is more important. If the weather was bad you could do it. Is cold bad? No. Is cold when you are from the south bad? Look, I am wearing my winter coat (Kentucky sweatshirt), this is really bad weather for me. Nope! Is there am equipment problem that could put me on this flight? Sorry, all the planes seem to be in the best shape ever for this holiday season.

Live and Learn, and journal when it happens. Off to watch crap tv for a couple of hours.

We're going to be the cutest family on the Polar Express!!!!!

We are going on the Polar Express ride in Palestine Tx. I guess it is a bigger deal than I thought, because people keep telling me that they have tried to get tickets and they sell out soooo fast. Anyhoooooo. I decided that if I was going to take my herd of grand kids to that that they were going to match, match, match!!

Off to the Old Navy website and here is the result:



A perfect match, 3 in blue,


2 in pink...


How freaking cute is all that?

And just how much of the world have you seen?

Thanks Ces!

Red Sky at Night, Sailor's Delight?

Beautiful sunsets...


Bring morning............Rain!


And gray skies...


And I wish you could hear the rain, slamming on the roof....

A new tradition is born

I decided that I would start a new family tradition for the Florida bunch. Since we are together a few times a year, sometimes near one person's birthday but never near another person's birthday. So, now when we are all together I think we should always have birthday cake and ice cream....

Time for a pre-tropical storm power outage.


Happy Birthday every body.


Candles go out easy with so many mouths to blow.


Two of my favorite people came to the party.
Ben and Jerry!


Jimmy got frosted.

Good job Becca!

And Becca in return.

Good job Linda!

Dad's new pet

Has been coming in the house daily and smashing his wings against the ceiling and the light. I keep putting him out and telling him to run free, but he doesnt get it. This morning he was floating face down in the dog's water bowl and I thought he had gone to the bug box in the sky. To my surprise, he started moving when I picked him up and carried him out to a branch on the tree off the porch. If you could have seen the look in his eyes when I saved him!



He's about 3" long with about a 4" wing span. I wish he would stay out when I put him out!

I showed my blog to someone

And we got back to the picture of my mom and dad when they were young and in love a long time ago in a far away place.

She said that I AM my father's daughter. My brother and sister both look a little more like my mom than dad. I have my mom's hooded eyes, and her hips and her ass that she grew in her golden years. "Hi, mom's hips, hi, mom's ass".

I will take any part of my mom and be proud to wear it.

Will my girls see part of me or Bob in them when they grow older, especially like me they lost a parent at way too young an age (parents should live longer than 55 or 63 but maybe not as long as 112ish}. Funny how we are told how our kids look like such and such in our families, and then we age and look like someone else in our families..........Stop me I ramble!

But I hope they love the bits of me and Bob that they got and that Reece, Anden, Landry, Cole and Drew love the bits of Peter and Dawn and Jay and DeAnn that they got as much as I love the bits of Cope and Dorsey that I got.

NANA 911

It seems that when I got the tickets to the Sheryl Crow/James Blunt concert for DeAnn, the radio station neglected to tell me that the desk was closed up for lunch from 12 to 1. Things that make you go hmmmm.

So, I am hanging out in the 100 degree heat (okay, it was only 98) and I WAS in the shade of the building, and my phone starts humming "WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING" so I knew it was Houston calling.

Dawn told me that Reece needed to talk to me. This is all I heard "He is ripped and I can't sleep with him" "Can you fix him, Nana?" Well I thought that Blanket was the victim, as he has already undergone several surgeries. But, alas, it was Patches the dog that needs repair. I assured Reece that Nana could fix Patches when they come up next week or when I go down there the following weekend. Then Dawn said that she can sew, why was it that Reece needed Nana to do the repair work?

And my mind went back to the days of Bluie, and how thin and frail Bluie was getting in his old age, and how Grandma (my mom) was the repair/surgeon to to the fixing.....I can sew!

I see it is another family tradition!

So next weekend I will be repairing Patches the dog, perhaps a vest with his name or monogram on it?

HOW DO YOU SPELL HOT?

On the patio IN THE SHADE before the sun got to that side of the house:

On my car thermometer (outisde temp not in the car):


HELP ME I'M MELTING!!!!!!!

Visit to the Horsies

On the way into my sudivision is a smallish horse place that has 2 foals. Actually, they may be old enough to call colts now, they are both boys. They are still nursing.



Anden is pretty brave, she ran to the fence and called the horsies to come on over...



Cole thought it was so much fun to call the horses...



The baby says "Look at those kids, momma"



"Come on, mom, lets go see the kids"



"Yep, looks like kids to me!"



"I wonder if it is a boy or a girl. Hey pal, come see"


"It's not very big, but I bet it eats little boys," said Cole.



I guess little kids arent as interesting to little horses as little horses are to little kids, eating is more fun.



"Bye bye horsies, see ya next week!"

Girls can so saw!!!

That is an old saying from when Nana was a little girl, and the guys told her she couldn't work in the shop.

Enough, on to the blog. Jay and Pete and I took the big kids to Home Depot to make the monthly kid's project.

Reece really seemed to be concentrating...


Until he hit the wrong nail and I told him "the joke" about hitting the wrong nail...
(he did get the joke, but didnt think it was too funny)

Anden picked it up pretty fast:


She even did pretty well without any help...


Landry scoped out the instructions pretty good before she started to work.


She really seemed to get into the nailing after a while:


Dads to the rescue, to finish the project...


Poor old Cole :-(


Is this how you hold the hammer, dad?


All in all it was a successful trip and the projects turned out fine!

Does the fix look better?

Well I made my first attempt at fixing an old photo, does it make a difference?








This time I spent less time on sharpen and crap like that in order to crop better. Boy there is a lot to learn! But I think I like this one better. Next I tnink I will color the flowers.


I can't tell, you tell me. I like the size and the fact that the crack on the photo look better, but I think I made it look grainy. I guess I will have to try again to get the defects better but make it less grainy, maybe I played around too much!

Pronouns are lost on 3 year olds

Over the weekend (before Anden's big break), she was so patiently and quietly sitting in a chair on the patio, watching a barn swallow working on her nest.

As is typical with a kid this age, when talking about the bird, it was "Her flew away" "her is feeding her babies" "her came back".

Thinking I was doing it right, I explained that "She flew away" "She came back".

Monday night I told DeAnn about the bird watching, and DeAnn asked Anden what the bird's name is.....

Without missing a beat, Anden replied, "She".

First attempt without DeAnn's Assistance

Okay, so I am trying to learn photoshop all by myself....Not an easy task with as few viable brain cells that are left in my noggin.

Here is the original photo:



Here is the cropped:



And here is the altered:



For you photoshop gurus, this may seem really simple, but I had to get the crop thing down right (actually it took longer than you would think), I had to make a layer and turn the layer black and white, and then remove the black and white to make the colored shapes. Finally I got to flatten the image. Hopefully my future attempts will be more intricate!!

How Hillary Might Have Won

If only Hillary had listened, it might have been Barak dropping out of the race!

Pilgrims invade Mayflower Hotel in DC

Catchy headline, eh?

Actually I thought you might like to see the hotel we are staying in this weekend. Thank you DeAnn and Priceline.com.

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/wassh-renaissance-mayflower-hotel/

Also to see some of our first day here in the Nation's capitol, see:
http://www.burgranger.blogspot.com

Tschuss!

Just me and my new friends

This one's for you Reece!!!



and this one too!!!



I know you all think that crickets and madagascar hissing cockroaches are yucky, but they were very nice and they said to tell you all so!!!!!!