My Maternal Grandmother

My maternal grandmother kept a jar of dimes in the kitchen, and would often give us each a dime, which was a fortune to us! She was an incredibly attentive listener. Even though there were several of us, looking back I think she must have intentionally managed to spend one-on-one time with each on of us. She would ask Terry to sing hymns for her, and she would listen raptly. 

I don't remember what she particularly did with any of the others, but I remember her asking me questions - real questions - listening and responding to my childish answers seriously - as she taught me to crochet.  She would ask what I was learning in school (not just how I liked it or who my friends were but what I was LEARNING.)  I realize now how unique that was. She was a hugger and a toucher, which made me feel very warm and secure at her house. 

I remember playing hopscotch on the sidewalk in front of her house or in her dirt yard. I remember watching her move around her kitchen singing hymns as she worked. Biscuits. Hair in a bun at the back of the head. Thick glasses. Housedresses. Snuff! Soft speech.

Thursday Thirteen - Edition 61 - Things on my Mind

13 activities that have consumed my blogging time

1. Dealing with a real estate lawyer - We have been exploring possibilities to solve our problems with our crazy neighbor so we can sell our albatross. At this point, the lawyer's office is researching precedents, so the ball is in the lawyer's court. We are shuffling our feet and dancing around as we wait for the return volley -- fully expecting an ace right on the line. After all, why should anything go in our favor now, after all this time? Financial miracles have not been part of our life-history. On the up side, however, we finally have renters in the house, so we don't have to make two of every utility payment each month; and a little money is actually coming in, cheerily waving hello as it passes all the funds that are going out.

2. Refinancing our mortgage -- Our mortgage banker approached us a couple of months ago about refinancing the mortgage on our current home. We can, allegedly, make smaller payments for a shorter length of time by refinancing at a lower rate. She has been "working" on that for over a month now; so we are again waiting for our opportunity to return the volley. I sure hope we can win this point!

3. Updating our very dated home -- Since we bought this built-in-the-sixties home about two years ago, we have been slowly making it more liveable. So far we have put in a new furnace, painted the sunroom floor, had the outside trim painted, put on new shutters, removed old carpet and had the hardwood floors refinished, put in a new toilet in the guest bath and new fixtures in both showers, and bought and installed a new dishwasher and refrigerator. We have ordered and are set to install, within the next week or so, new countertops, sinks, and garbage disposal in the kitchen. We have removed wallpaper in the hall and the guest bath, and yesterday I bought primer and paint to paint those rooms. The wallpaper removal was simple in the hall (it had been applied over a painted surface.) The bathroom was another story. The wallpaper had been applied to bare wallboard. We finally gave up on getting the wallpaper backing and adhesive removed well, and today we are puttying and sanding walls to apply a primer before painting in there. Actually my dear DH is sanding away as I dawdle at the computer!

4. Trying to figure out how to remedy the damage done in our yard by the drought. All our azaleas are dead, the plants in the box by the mailbox and the natural area in the back are brown and dry. So far, we have just debated and mourned - no time for action on that front yet.

5. Income Taxes - April 15 is fast approaching, so gathering info, filling in blanks, making calls, researching new deductions, etc., have been the order of the day, so to speak. We got it sent off the the preparer this week.

6. Birthdays and family "stuff" - Early Spring holds big days in our extended family, and Easter horned into the schedule early this year. Mother's bday in February starts it off. DH and Biggest Little Brother have theirs in March; both grandsons' come the first week of April. Daughter's family is building a house in our town. They now live two hours away, so we have been doing a little of the local "stuff" on their behalf. G'kid's activities take a lot of time. Today for example, Doc has a tennis match at 4:00, Raye a soccer game at 5:00, and Nat a softball game at 7:30! Jed's 7th birthday party is Saturday.

7. Illnesses - One by one, many of us, including Moi, have suffered through a week or so of this year's prevailing epizudic. Oldest granddaughter, Raye, has had 3 concussions in the last 3 years playing basketball; so she had an appointment with a neurologist today to see if there has been damage that needs to be considered. The CAT scan this AM showed some areas of concern, and they have scheduled an MRI later this month and a follow-up appointment with the neurologist to discuss recommendations. Her basketball and soccer careers may be derailed - perhaps it is time for this very athletic and competitive girl to take up tennis or golf! In an alternate reality, she could actually become a scholar instead of an athlete!!! Sweet Nat hurt her finger playing softball a couple of weeks ago. Her pediatrician has recommended that she go to an orthopedic doc since the finger still hurts even though it has been splinted since the injury. She is going today for XRays.

And more seriously, my dear cousin, Don, has remained in critical condition for several weeks due to cancer surgery with complications from a collection of other weakening conditions. Don and his wife will celebrate, the Lord willing, their 3rd anniversary this week. Other than his wife, his closest relatives are my mother, my siblings, my cousin Jane, and I. I have made a couple of long trips to spend some time with Don while I can.

8. Other leisure choices - I have been reading and doing sudokus instead of writing recently. Neither takes the energy that writing does, and those can both be done sitting in a recliner and dozing for variety. I have read more than 6 novels this month as well as several magazines, and done a lot of research on wall-paper removal, the Lenten season, and other topics. To be perfectly honest, three of those "reads" have been "listens" on my Ipod as I run errands and labor on household chores. I can't write while removing wallpaper or driving to Lowe's, but I can listen to a novel. BTW, I just finished listening to "The Quickie" by James Patterson. It sped up wallpaper-removal time dramatically. I will run errands to "Taken by Storm" this afternoon.

9. I have tried to concentrate on exercise and weight control lately. I am not being very successful, but I have fit in a few walks and a little more healthy home-cooking than usual. Planning, shopping for, and cooking nutritious meals takes a lot more time than just running by the pizza place or going to Applebee's.

10. I have been researching another cruise. After all, we ARE allegedly retired, and one of our goals for retirement was to travel more. I am also looking into an AMTRAK trip to visit Sis in DC. Surprise, Jan!!

11- 13. You name it; I'm your girl. I am childcare giver, personal shopper, chauffeur, errand-runner, researcher on any topic of your need, and general flunkie!

When I'm Famous

I haven't done one of these "memey-cutsie" thing-a-ma-jigs in a while, but I saw this one and liked it, so here goes. I stole it shamlessly from Melli at Insanity Prevails who shamelessly stole it from Amazing Gracie (who shamelessly stole it from someone else...)

When I'm famous, my name will be......

1. ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Gypsy Dakota

2. GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Nut Oatmeal

3. “FLY Girl” NAME:(first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) L-Tur

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Detective Aqua Giraffe

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Joan Porterdale

6. STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 letters of first) TUR-LY

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Gold Mimosa

8. NASCAR NAME: (first names of grandfathers) Benjamin Grady

9. STRIPPER NAME: (favorite perfume. favorite candy) Sierra Dove

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names)Ruth Columbus

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME:(5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Davenport Dalton

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (favorite season/holiday, flower) Autumn Daisy

13. CARTOON NAME:(favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)Strawberry Socky

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Bagel Willow

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Watercolor Thunderstorm Tour

Thursday Thirteen Edition 52 for me

A website I enjoy visiting from time to time is Brownielocks. At this site you can find all kinds of interesting "stuff" about historical events, silly customs, calendars, calculations regarding time, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (imagine Yul Brenner here delivering this line from The King and I.)

I turned to Brownielocks for some input into the usually uneventful month of August, which we are now sweltering through. August is the month of the Peridot (light green birthstone) and Gladiolus (tall spiky flower of the month.) Although this month is one of the few months of the year in which there is no major holiday, it has been declared by various groups as the month of their cause, and various groups have claimed a week or a day of it to be the week or day of their cause. Here are some of the more interesting days that have been designated.

1....August 5 - Sister's Day and Friendship Day (As a "girl" with four sisters and two sisters-in-law, this day is interesting to me.)

2....August 7 - Professional Speaker's Day (One of those sisters mentioned above should have been honored on this day -- I wish I had known to send her a card.)

3....August 11 - National Garage Sale Day (One would think that this would always come on a weekend -- say the 2nd Saturday in August or some such designation!)

4....August 18 - Bad Poetry Day (If you read my blog often, you know why I found this day to have a personal connection!)

5...August 24 - Vesuvius Day (One of the most fascinating places I have ever visited was a year and a half ago when we visited Pompeii and saw the devastation caused by the historic eruption of this volcano in the first century AD. Here I am in Pompeii with Mt Vesuvius in the background.)

6....Children's Eye Health and Safety Month

7...National Civility Month - (My students will hear about this one tomorrow! I could just hope for a DAY of civility -- a MONTH is just useless dreaming!)

8....August 1-7 national Breastfeeding week (No comment)

9....August 25-31 - National Be Kind to Humankind Week (It is a shame that this week comes during National Civility Month. It should be put in a different month to encourage civil behavior a couple of times a year!)

10....August 26 - Sissy's Day (Okay, so this one is just MY designation in honor of my sis of The Median Sib.)

11....August 29 Bre's Day (Again, my personal day for one of my GKids)

12....Back to School month (Boo!!! Hisss!!!)

13....Hot as H*ll month (True blue this year. The thermometer in my car read 108 degrees all the way home today!"

Random Flickr Image #7154

Random Flickr-blogging explained. As always, everyone is welcome to join in the fun; just post links to your entries in the comment thread at the bloghub, If I Ran the Zoo.

This week the assigned random number was 7154. Flickr had 2,179 photos uploaded with that number. It seemed to me that there was an unusually large collection of cute-kid pictures. I decided to post only pics of individual babies under 3 or so years of age. Even so, I came up with TEN of them! Remember the song: "Everybody loves a baby, that's why we invited you! Pretty baby! Pretty baby!...."

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7154 Uploaded on 28 July 2006
By Creative Lee DigitalSee more photos, or visit Creative Lee Digital's profile.

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IMG_7154.JPG Uploaded on 23 January 2006
By jstaffinSee more photos, or visit his profile.

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IMG_7154 Uploaded on 3 June 2006
By Meghan.NSee more photos, or visit her profile.

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_MG_7154.jpg Uploaded on 5 April 2007
By pQbonSee more photos, or visit his profile

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Img_7154 Uploaded on 3 October 2006
By kithfan21See more photos, or visit her profile.

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IMG_7154 Uploaded on 30 October 2006
By Echun and Neil 隨拍See more photos, or visit Echun and Neil 隨拍's profile

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100_7154 Uploaded on 18 February 2006
By jondonSee more photos, or visit his profile.

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IMG_7154 Uploaded on 21 January 2007
By 72.8% WATERSee more photos, or visit 72.8% WATER's profile

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DSC_7154 Uploaded on 28 March 2007
By crazybarSee more photos, or visit crazybar's profile

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IMG_7154 Uploaded on 11 April 2006
By Mark BakalorSee more photos, or visit his profile.

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Three Word Wednesday - My Edition #4

Three Word Wednesday. Each week, Bone, at If You Read Only One Blog This Year, posts three (or more) random words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything.

Last week I started a story and never finished it. So this week I am incorporating last week's words and this week's words into one story.

The assigned words are:

• filthy


• guess
  
• convenience


• stroke


• summer


• leave

...and here's my short story (written with more help than any grandmother deserves!!):

"Come on, Kids. Now that you are all cleaned up, let's leave now and walk over to Aunt Ruth's house."

Visiting grandchildren and Spring-like weather had given my energy level a boost, and I thought I was in shape for an invigorating and adventurous walk with the six children. Aunt Ruth lived no more than a mile away along the streets -- it was an even shorter walk through the woods.

Always up for an adventure, the children's faces lit up, and they stood still for the obligatory sunscreen application and bug repellant spraying.

As we walked along the sidewalk, Aggie saw a brown thrasher flitting through the bushes and begged, "Can I try to take a picture of it? Please? It's our state bird." With my assenting nod, she began the chase along the path carefully aiming the camera. The rest of us tagged along into the woods to keep her in sight.

"Well, we might as well just stay on this path and go to Aunt Ruth's house through the woods now," said Nat.

"Sure. Let's do that. It's shorter that way anyway. Detouring through the woods will actually be a convenience."

Aggie ran back to the group. "I think I got a good picture!" she cried.

Just at that moment Jed saw a round river stone at the edge of the creek. "This would be perfect to paint for a paper weight. Can I get it?"

"Hey, that's a great idea," said Bri. "Let's each find one and make paperweights when we get back home. We can give them to our dads for Father's Day."

They began to search for the perfect stone, unearthing those half-buried on the banks of the stream and dipping hands into the water to pick up some just visible through the shallow water. "Watch out, Jed!" called Doc. "You might fall in if you reach so far! Let me get that one for you."

SPLASH!!

Doc looked up sheepishly with muddy water dripping off his hands and from his sodden, filthy shirt.

I looked around and suddenly realized that we were not on the path that I knew. "I guess we need to go that way," I said. We set off, picking up the pace since we had already been walking for quite some time.

The oldest girl, Raye, took the younger ones "under her wing" and shepherded them along at a good pace. "Just look at us!" she commented wryly. "Why did we bother to clean up? We are certainly not clean now!" They each displayed dirty hands, each grubby appendage holding a large river rock for later artwork. Doc's shirt was not the only one sporting smudges and grime. Jed had even managed to get smears of mud on his face, and the three younger girls' hair had come loose from their neat pony tails. Five pairs of blue eyes and one pair of hazel ones looked to me filled with trepidation -- expecting a reprimand.

"Oh well," I said, chuckling, "Aunt Ruth will have to see you as you really are, won't she?!" I don't think seeing 6 dirty children is likely to cause her to have a stroke. After all, she raised 7 kids; she knows all about the call of the forest and the lure of bodies of water.

Summer 2007 promises lots of adventure. This was just the opening chapter.

Thursday Thirteen - Edition 45 for me

13 Things I’ve Done Since Becoming a “Senior Citizen” (10 are actually true! Can you spot the three lies?) (For the purposes of this article I am calling 60 the beginning of senior citizenry.) For the sake of simplicity I used the singular personal pronoun although several of these include my DH and would technically call for the plural pronoun. 1....I went snorkeling. 2....I bought a pickup truck. 3....I changed clothes riding in a car on I-75. 4....I lost over 100 pounds -- and gained back 30. 5....I helped decorate a school cafeteria for a middle school dance. 6....I took piano lessons. 7....I took language lessons. - Spanish 8....I cruised the Mediterranean. 9....I drove through town with a mannequin strapped into the passenger seat of my truck. 10...I climbed Stone Mountain. 11...I saw an active volcano. 12...I wore “heelies” (those cute shoes with built-in wheels). 13...I bought and furnished a house for the first time in my life And, BTW, this is definitely NOT me! Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
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Would You Like Fries with That?

I saw this at Cozy Reader a couple of weeks ago; She says she saw it at Susie Pie. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting one, so I decided to answer the questions and invite you to do the same.

1. What do you like on a hot dog? Chili if the dog is from The Varsity in Atlanta or The Dixie in Corbin, KY. Otherwise, just mustard and ketchup.

2. What do you like on a hamburger? Don't put onion, mayonnaise, and/ or sauerkraut. I like mustard, ketchup, tomato, lettuce, and dill pickle.

3. What do you like on a baked potato? It varies from time to time. I like butter, sour cream, bacon bits, grated cheese, salt and pepper or any combination of these additions.

4. What do you like on a slice of toast? I sometimes like it dry. Usually I like just a little butter or margarine and maybe some sugar-free fruit spread or apple butter.

5. What do you like in a cup of coffee or tea? I don't drink either of these regularly; but when I do drink coffee, I usually take it black or with chocolate and creamer stirred in to make a kind of cappuchino. I drink iced tea almost daily and without any sweetener or other addition.

If you decide to play along with this one, leave a note and let us know. I'll come along and read your answers.