Showers....Gifts Galore!

Today,
a wedding shower for a dear friend's daughter.

Friends gather to put out food made with our own hands on fancy plates, flowers arranged to create the "awww" effect.
Punch, ice water in a beautiful crystal decanter.
The gift giving, the ribbons saved,
the paper torn off and tossed aside.
The gifts are displayed on another beautiful table with care.
All the while, smiles and hugs and "oo's" and "aww's" being shared.

I stand aside and watch the room.
No matter what kind of shower we are providing, wedding or baby shower,
our group of girls delight in the new anticipated happiness for the recipient.
Our group of friends hold hands
and dry each others tears at funerals that we have to attend.

These women have heart.

I'm so happy that through this chapter of my life God has provided me with
this group.
Everyone is not of the same denomination of church.
Some are loud and obnoxious
(like me and a few others)
Some are quiet.
Some are more comfortable financially.
Some are not.
Some came from the country.
Some are city girls.
Some are real prayer warriors,
and those that aren't have strength in other areas as needed.

Ok, now let's really get to it...we love laughs!
Each one has their own struggles, their own fights against life,
but give us one little tidbit of laughter and we LOVE it!
We can take one CRAZY episode out of our daily encounters,
and run with it!
Sure, holding the hands, drying the tears, and strengthening each other throughout troubled times is so important.
But, without the laughter that would get dry, dull, and very depressing.
I love our mixture!


Today as I saw faces enter the room that no longer work along side us,
I realize their chapter ended with us at work but will forever be a part of us.

Yes, we have heart.
Caring.
Empathy,
and true love.
I'm so glad I have my girls...they are MY gift, each day.

Summer..... It Is!!!!!!!

You know it's summer when the metal part of the seat belt in your vehicle
can cause a 3rd degree burn.

The summer tomatoes, followed by the pea crops, and then the watermelons!
OMiGosh!
The smell of fresh mowed lawns, chlorine water by the pools.
Bugs and spiders, and mosquitos everywhere!
Red wasp, honey bees, and don't you dare smile while riding the four wheelers or boats or you'll get
teeth full of bugs.
The daylight lasts so much longer.
With everything buzzing, flying, growing, there's just more energy in the air!
Except for the mid afternoon til after dinner time.
The real steamy time of day that all of it slows down and stops.
Time to nap with a humming fan, blowing.
I love summer!

My Mom!

I don't really know what angle to write this story from, should I tell in "general" or tell "details"??
With details this could be very lengthy, there's so much to say about my Mom. So, I'm just gonna begin and see where this goes.

There was never a day that you'd walk into my Mom's house and not smell wonderful food cooking.
She was a round, jolly, wonderful cook, that was never too busy to sit and laugh and talk with whoever came into her home. Her house always had people coming and going. She welcomed people so whole heartily they returned just to hear her laughter, and eat her good food.
When you were in my Mom's presence she made you feel good about who you were.

In the years of me being a teenager, Mom smoked skinny brown cigarettes and cussed like a sailor. Always with a rip-roaring laughter to back it all up! Always up for a practical joke, she was just a person people liked!

We always had extra people for every holiday or just on any day...people she'd met that had no where to go for the holiday she'd invite them to eat with us. How may Christmas's we'd find us running to the store last minute to get some extra socks to wrap or books or something for Mom's friends she'd invited in. Mom got mail and visits, from people for years that had lived in one of her rent houses that she'd helped through tough times.

Mom had a teenage girl through the 1950's, another teenage girl through the 1960's, then me as a teenage girl in the 1970's... she saw times change a lot. She just rolled with the changes...
She never talked of the past. I asked her questions of things and she'd answer my questions but always said, "I don't' like old stuff, antiques are just old stuff, I like new stuff. Let's not talk of the old times let's look to the new times."
When I'd fuss at her about something, and she didn't agree, her famous saying was"BLOW IT OUT YOUR ASS"HAHAHA Even in writing this, I want to laugh out loud!

Mom was my biggest cheerleader! Any time I needed to feel loved, she was my safe place.
My kids called her "Mimi" and she loved them as much as I do. She was always ready to brag about them to anyone that would listen, wherever she was!

Mom and I were very different, yet very alike. She had many challenging things in her life that formed her into such an interesting character. Her resilience was amazing!

Four years ago this month, Mom died.
A part of me died too. The part that was so intertwined with her laugh, her hands, her smell.

I'll always...always, love my mom.

Fever...

I'm sitting at the desk at the computer, and I get chilled to the bone.
Perhaps I have the thermostat turned too low.
I change it and go back to the computer.
A few moments pass and I begin to shake, and my teeth start chattering.
OK, this is not normal, I get my winter robe and put it on and get under the warmest blanket I can find.
I continue to shake. While shaking and teeth chattering, I notice the aching shoulders, and back. Uh-oh.
I got the thermometer out of the cabinet and took my temp, 101.
Throughout the night, the fitful sleep, the shaking, the teeth chattering, plus a sick stomach.
I switch the TV on periodically to have noise to distract me from the aches.

Swine flu all over the TV. People wearing masks.
I turn the TV off.

Things worsen, but then turn around. I take my temp, 100.
Thermometers are so good to show you that you are getting better.
I feel somewhat better. Another hour goes by and I take my temp again, 99.5.
Going down.
Finally, another hour or so, temp 98.6!
Yea! For thermometers!

I have found out over the years, I'm not one that likes being alone when sick. When I was young my mom always made me a bed on the couch when I was sick, in the middle of everything going on. She would let me lay in her lap and I'd smell Jergens lotion, and onions(she was always cooking and chopped onions for everything she cooked).
Right now I can close my eyes and see her loving hands.

So, just another sick day, a wasted 24 hours.
What a wasted day.
A whole 24 hours I'll never get back.
No smiles in 24 hours.

But, only 24 hours...
Tomorrow will have to be double happy, double fun!

My Sister

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday!

I won't tell her age but I will tell you a little about her...

Talk about an interesting person...

Here we go!

I was two years old when Bobbie Jo left home to get married. She went to California to marry her husband he was out there in the Army. She was 17. Her first child was born about 9 months after she married, at 18. Her family of three moved back to Arkadelphia. 20 months later she delivered twins a boy and girl, Bobbie was now 19. Three babies within 20 months.

They lived two houses down from us, so my neice and nephews were like siblings for me.

I was 3 years older than her oldest, 5 years older than the twins.

When the twins were 4, Bobbie Jo and Charlie divorced.

Bobbie became the single mother that worked hard to raise her kids. At one time she had three jobs, selling Mary Kay makeup(she got a pink car for high sales!), working at a Timex watch factory, and going to Beauty School. It took her a long time to finish Beauty School with the other jobs and 3 kids, with no financial help from the father. My Mom and Dad were there for her but they were having their own struggles.

Different points in her life they moved to try different venues of work for her. She lived in Texarkana and worked for an ammunition plant during the war. She lived in the Little Rock area selling mink coats in an elite shop downtown. What a variety! No one has EVER called her boring!

When she finished Beauty School and got her license, there was no stopping her then. She put in her own shop in Malvern, AR. Another in Hot Springs, AR for a few years.

Later moved to Taylor, TX, and had her own shop there, and another at Phlugerville, TX.

Later than that she moved to Arlington, TX, and had her own shop in Midlothian,TX.

Yes, she was quiet an entrepreneur!

Throughout these years her children flourished into wonderful responsible caring adults.

Did she make mistakes in her own life, in her mothering life? Heck, yes.

Was she fun? Heck, yes.

Was she perfect? Heck, no.

How many of us can say we are perfect?

Our Mom's last five years were spent in Bobbie's home.

Our Mom's last moments of life were spent in Bobbie's arms.

Mom wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Tomorrow when she blows the candles out on her cake as her grandchildren are gathered around her chanting "Go Nanny Jo"(which name I chose for her with the first grandbaby due and she was feaking out not wanting to be called "Grandma"at the tender age of 44!)

She can look back on her "resume of life past" and really be amazed at all the crooks and turns and where the roads have all come out so far. She has the three grown children and 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild, and another on the way. Whew...

Happy Birthday, sweet, crazy, nuttie, vivacious, loonie, adorable, hilarious,.... sis.

Shopping...

Anyone that knows me...knows I HATE to shop.
Last Monday I went on the most dreaded shopping trip EVER.

I had to find me a new pair of jeans...dum,dum,dum...

Now, for a "200+" beauty, this is a day-of-reckoning.
The dressing rooms have harsh lighting to show all the purple veins in HiDefinition.
And there are FULL-LENGTH mirrors!
Sometimes there are more than one.
So, I go to the big-girl's store.
Lane Bryant
I start to look around, as I find the jeans, I see tags that are different colors, and definitely different numbers on those tags. Instead of seeing 16, 18, 20 etc.
I see 0, 2, 4, 6, etc.
You've GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!
So, forget indescreetly shopping and silently, without eye contact paying for the purchase.

I have to ask how the size charts go...

The sales clerk looks me over (as I cringe) and says "you will be a yellow 6".
Shur-nuf, she was correct.
"6" I was.
Now, you and I both know in the real world it's not a true "6", just a fat woman's "fantasy-land 6".
Looking at those jeans in that dressing room, on my short fat bod, was no scene for a "fantasy".
Oh well, it is what it is...

The day after the dreaded shopping trip...my sweet husband comes over to kiss me goodbye for the day, and says what he says most days of our marriage,
"My woman is so pretty. I got me a good looking woman."

Bless his heart.

Just A Days Thought

Today I woke up, slowly walked into the kitchen to get my first cup of java, got my lap top and crawled back into bed. Before settling down I opened every window blind, so as I write this the sun is streaming in. How good is this??!!
Tomorrow is Easter.
Easter.
My faith in Jesus is total , and it fills my heart and soul plum-up to the top!!

I had a conversation with a good friend this week, we talked about JOY.
People say that I make them feel good about themselves, people do seek out my company, either to hear my humor or my bantor, or just to make jabs at my good nature. How irritating I can be most days, trying to be "up and happy by-choice".
One person that I work with told me this week to
"hush-up, not everyone could fart rainbows" like me.
When she said this I CRACKED UP!!
I've never heard it put like that to me...oh believe me, I've had lots of things said to me about my cheer'full'ness, over the years.

I have a lot of sadness deep down in my soul, like we all do.
If you've ever loved people and lost them to death, it makes you really recount every minute here with them.
Holes are left in those spots of the heart.
If you've ever been disappointed in someone that you loved the most, there's another hole. If you've ever had financial hardship that will create so much anxiety,
holes happen....
Now, the good news...total faith in Jesus can fill those holes.
I try to see every sunrise as another chance to get it right.
I want to "love" it all-right.
I want to understand what God wants of me this day.
So, every day I try to see "why" God has given me this time.
I'm really sure He doesn't want all my holes to show.
I'm sure He's happy with me "farting rainbows!"