New Beginnings

With the new year most of us are looking for new beginnings. This year new beginnings has been forced upon me. Last month I lost my husband. He had been ill for several months which was why I haven't been blogging. This is the first week I've been by myself since his death. I keep thinking he'll walk in any minute.

I'm looking forward to reconnecting with my blogging buddies.

Prayer Request

I just received an email from Aaron, one our blogging buddies husband, to let me know Renee' from A Path of Joy and 2 Peas in a Pod is in the hospital with multiple blood clots in her lungs. Aaron called this condition bilateral PE. Please add Renee' and her family to your prayer list.

I met Renee' shortly after I started blogging and have developed a deep and meaningful relationship with her. If anyone would have told me I could develop this type of friendship through blogging I would have said they were crazy. Renne' is an RN and home schools her two boys, Little Pea and Big Pea.

I'll keep you updated as I learn more about Renee's condition.

Too Busy

Have you ever had weeks like this????

Each time I think I'll get back to blogging, life throws me another curve. It's been so crazy here I haven't had the opportunity to go see my daughter in Charlotte for over a year. Boy, I miss them so much!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween. The weather here was perfect which led to hundreds of kids coming by. Brian and Amber brought their girls over to go trick or treating. I haven't uploaded the pictures I took, so I'll post those another day. The girls looked so cute. Josie is now 8 months old and is trying to walk. She pulls herself up and walks around the furniture but hasn't figured out how to take off on her own. It won't be long.

PLUS






Let me share a little bit of wisdom with you. A cellphone and a washing machine do not mix:) A few weeks ago my cellphone managed to find itself into my laundry. While putting the wet clothes in the dryer I felt this horrible sick feeling coming across me. There in my washer was my cellphone.....how could this happen. Often I carry my phone in my back jeans pocket. I must have left it in my jeans and that 's how it ended up with the dirty laundry. Knowing my cellphone was probably dead.I remembered watching Abby from NCIS drying a cellphone with a hair dryer. I did this and was excited that when I recharged the phone it came on. Then I learned none of the functions would work. I went down to the ATT to see if they could dry it out or do something to salvage my phone. They suggested putting it into a bag of rice overnight. This didn't work either. Now I was in a position to get a new phone. Since my contract was up I was eligible for a free or very inexpensive phone. I went with another Motorola because I loved my Razor and was told my car jax and earbud would fit. My car jax does work, but the ear bud doesn't. This new phone is very cheaply made, but it was free, so I'm not complaining too much.

Happy Fall

Today was a perfect fall day. The sun was shining down on my face and the air was crisp. I was out all afternoon enjoying the day and braving the grand opening of a new store, Magic Mart, in our local mall. Don't know if you have this store in your town, but it has a little bit of everything, like Walmart, but it has name brand clothing, shoes, handbags, and off brand furniture.

A few weeks ago we experienced a sudden storm and it rained buckets! During this storm hubby opened the garage door and we got unexpected company. These beautiful dogs ran in to get out of the rain. I didn't recall these dogs from our neighborhood so I called a couple neighbors to see if they knew who they belonged to. I know I would be worried if my dog was out in this storm. No one knew them so I just figured they were from an adjoining development. When the rain stopped we tried to shoo them out of the garage, but they wanted to stay. Whenever I would go inside they would race to the door to come into the house. My dog, CC, stayed in the house and growled knowing there were strange dogs in her garage.

When I uploaded this picture I wondered why the left side of the picture was uneven. It is because the freezer is standing there. If you look closely you can see the freezer, but don't look at the messy garage. I said don't look!!

Back to my story. When all efforts failed to shoo the dogs from the garage when the rain stopped, I suggested hubby to walk out on the driveway and call the dogs and then I would I close the garage door. This worked. I thought hubby would come in through the front door, but he sat out in his truck until the dogs left. Men!!!

I am going to try very hard to get back to blogging on a regular basis. Hope you all are doing well.

It's Back to School Time

Today was the first day of school in my neck of the woods. I still get excited about this day even though I no longer have kids going to school. At this time of year I enjoy walking down the school aisle at Walmart looking at all the colorful school supplies. I can almost smell the paste and the ink from the highlighters right now.

My DIL Amber sent me a few pictures of Kati all ready for her first day of school. She is starting second grade. Dot the cat wanted to be in the picture too.

My daughter Nicole will be sending me pictures the end of the month. That is when she downloads all the pictures for the month to share what they have been doing. In the meantime, here's a picture from last month of the whole family. Starting from the left is Nicole, Carson, Bret, Caison, Campbell and in front Caramia. Carson is in third grade, Caison is in preschool and Campbell is in first grade. Everyone thinks Caison and Campbell are twins, yet Campbell is 18 months older than Caison.

I have more news. My youngest grand daughter Josie said her first words last week. She said "Hi Dada". She is growing so fast. She is rolling over and over and over and doing the belly crawl and pulling up on furniture. She is only 5 1/2 months old.

That's about all for now. Hope everyone is doing good.

This past weekend was hubby's annual family reunion. The get together began with a dinner on Friday evening for the immediate family, which was about 25 of us. Saturday was the reunion and Sunday most of the immediate family hung out at one of the aunt's summer home. Most of his family lives in Florida. The reunion is for his father's side of the family and three of his aunt's are still living.

Aunt Myrtle is in very good health except for her memory. She lives in a nursing home here in West Virginia.


Aunt Ada lives in Louisville, KY with her daughter Jane and her husband Jimmy. We just learned she has congestive heart failure and must be on oxygen in order to live.


And, shoooo, don't tell anyone, my favorite is Aunt Delvia and Uncle Les. They live in Florida, but spend their summers here in West Virginia. The are both in very good health. Can't believe uncle Les turned 90 this year.

This story wouldn't be complete without a picture of hubby and his sisters, Anna Lee, Mary Lou and Donna all live in Florida. He has one more sister Patty who lives in Hawaii. Hubby is the youngest, then Anna Lee, Donna and Mary Lou and Patty. I know, hubby doesn't look very good. This is part of the reason I haven't been blogging. He has had a rough few months. I'm glad he was well enough to go to the reunion.

I sure miss you guys and will return to blogging full time real soon.

Catching Up

I wrote this post last evening and am posting it now since my camera is now recharged so I could upload the pictures.

Almost another month has gone by since my last post. I truly am trying to get back to blogging but life has been standing in the way. I've been taking a few pictures in hopes of obtaining inspiration to blog.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July holiday. As most of America was having hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks, etc. on the grill, hubby and I had crab legs. By dinner time it was beginning to rain and I suggested the crab legs. They were sooooo gooood! I can't remember the last time I prepared crab legs. I bought them about a week ago not thinking we would be eating them on the 4th.


This evening I was out in the garage when I saw a bird fly into hubby's truck that was sitting on the driveway. I walked over to make sure it was ok. It was a baby who looked as if this may have been his first flight. His feathers were fluffy which is a good indicator for his age. The poor little thing just sat there looking at me without too much fear.


Mom was sitting in the tree beside the truck and was chirping constantly as if to tell the baby to get away from me.


Later it waddled into the garage and my dog CC had just come out to see what we were doing. You can see from this picture the little bird is still learning to walk, let along fly.

When CC saw the bird she was very curious and approached the bird with caution.

Just as the perfect shot presented itself my battery went dead. CC almost nose to nose with the bird. I ran into the house to grab my point and shoot camera but the battery was dead on it too. I was surprised the bird wasn't afraid and of course CC was just curious. Had the bird made a move CC would have run to get into the house.


Ok, 45 minutes has now gone by. I wanted to double check if hubby had closed the garage door when we came in. Not....when I reached out to close the door I could hear the baby somewhere in the garage and Mom and Dad were flying hysterically in front of the garage door. I could hear the bird chipping but couldn't find it. Finally I saw the lawn mover bag move and knew the bird was inside the bag. I've never taken that thing off and when I started moving it about the baby started screaming and Mom and Dad where flying into the garage squawking at me. The bird got out the flew behind some containers on the floor. To hurry up this story, I was finally able to encourage it out of the garage by gently moving it with a feather duster. The family is back together and I'm pooped!

I feel like I preformed a huge heroic task since I'm afraid of birds.