Our First Date

My husband & I started liking each other at an early age. In fact, Lewis' first trips to my house was on his bike! This is super sweet because my house was actually 8 miles from his. That's a LONG ride for someone on a bike! Then in 1966 when he turned 16 he got his drivers license. Afterwards he worked all summer in tobacco and at a Fast Food place, called the Red Wagon. Finally in October he had saved $300.00, which was enough money to buy a light blue 1953 Ford car. That's when he called and asked me to go to the football game with him on our first REAL date! Of course I was on cloud nine and couldn't wait. About 4:00 I began to pick out the perfect outfit and washed and rolled my hair. This was undoubtedly the best day of my life, but then it happened. My sister, Judy, came into the den where my dad was watching T.V. and asked him what I thought was a sensible question. She wanted to borrow his car to drive to the football game. I really thought he would say "sure you can" but his answer floored me. As he looked up from his chair at her he said, "Barbara is going with Lewis so you can ride with them." He had to be kidding, but I knew my dad well enough to know that NO he wasn't! Judy looked at me and rolled her eyes as if to say "sorry". She then told my dad "NO!" she would stay at home because she sure didn't want to ride with us, that would be CRAZY! Then my dad became upset because she talked back so he said, "if you can't go together than neither one of you can go! "How could he do this, I thought." This day was turning from bad to worse! In my mind I was thinking "this boy will NEVER ask me for another date after this!" How could my perfect day & my first date all be ruined within a 5 minute time period. I remember calling Lewis and crying about what had happened. To my surprise this one of a kind sweet guy said,"that will be fine, Barbara, she can ride with us." So my first romantic date with a boy turned out to be a three-some! Lewis driving, me in the middle, and my sister beside me, all three of us in the front seat together! I was angry about it for weeks, but it gradually became a joke over the years. Today Lewis & I often wonder, after having girls of our own, what was the reasoning behind daddy's decision. Was it that he really wasn't ready to let his little girl be alone in a car with a boy? I'll never know the answer but thank goodness that boy did ask me out again and for many times after that! In fact he just asked me for a date for Valentine night. We're going to the Sweetheart banquet at our church and yes we will be ALONE in his car!

Young Love!!

An "Egg-less" Life

Our grandson Cole has been allergic to eggs since he was just a little fellow. When you hear this you automatically think...OK, no eggs...that's easy! But have you ever looked at the ingredients on most packaged items. If you have you know that about 90% of them contain egg. Still not so hard to avoid if you're an adult, but imagine 15 children eating cake at a birthday party and 1 child can't have any! Now that's tough. But the one tougher than that has been his mom! My daughter was told by the specialist that if Cole avoided eggs for about 2 years he would probably outgrow any allergic reaction to them. So, for 2 LONG years she has diligently kept her son away from any egg products. She has cooked everything for him from scratch using an egg-free powder! People have said..."just a little egg won't hurt him", but she stood firm. Firm because she had hopes that if she & Scott did their part their sweet Cole would one day ride with them to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and enjoy a big, fat, doughnut! Tonight this came true because of the willpower of a mom, and a super mom at that! I'm proud of you Michelle for your steadfastness during a difficult time! And Cole, we're so happy for you, enjoy your new world of foods! At the next birthday party stick your whole face in the cake, you deserve it!!

The Love of A Mother !

Overboard!

Okay, I guess I've gone a little overboard! I didn't realize it until my husband offered his Sunday School Posters. You see, within the last year I have started to collect "sayings" and I've hung them throughout my home. It started one day when I was at my youngest daughter, Lisa's house. The plaque was hanging beside her bed and I LOVED it. The frame was black with gold lettering that said "ALWAYS KISS ME GOODNIGHT". I searched on line and found the print. Then Lewis made the frame to go around it. That was my first, but certainly not my last. Since that day I have stenciled about seven different sayings and hung 10 plaques throughout the house. I didn't know I had gotten so bad until the comments starting coming. My grandson, Cole was the first. He saw the stenciling and said Papa was really going to be mad at me for writing on the wall! Since then every time he comes he lets me know that my writing is still on the wall and I need to wash it off! My son, Steven was the next one. He jokingly said," Looks like mom is turning her house into a poem!" My husband, who can be a clown, made the most recent comment. As a Sunday School teacher he always takes down his monthly lesson posters out of his class before a new month begins. Well, this time he took the posters off the wall, looked at me and asked, "should I throw these in the trash or do you want them to hang up on our wall at home?" We both laughed! Exactly what has me sticking plaques wherever there's a blank space on our wall? I really don't know. It seems that every time I see a new one the words say exactly the way I feel about something. Then I find myself saying "that's so sweet" and before I know it, it's hanging in my house. All I can say is I'm glad we downsized to a smaller home because in our larger house I would still have lots of walls to cover! In trying to think which one I could do without and take down, there's none. Each one says something special to my heart and makes me smile every time I read it. Guess you could say it's like therapy without having to pay a lot of money for it! As for your posters, Lewis, you can keep those. I haven't gotten quite that desperate yet!

This is where it started.



And it just keeps on growing!














This is still not all of them. I guess I'm just weird. Some people collect dolls, pottery, angels, or other things....I collect WORDS!!

God's Paintbrush

God didn't sleep last night,

He took His paintbrush instead,

And painted all the earth white,

While we were still in bed!

He started with the grass,

and then He did the trees,

Each with a stroke of His hand,

to make the winter scene complete.

The awesomeness of its silence,

the beauty of its glow,

God covered the earth last night,

With a blanket of beautiful snow!
bhm

The "BOY"attitudes

The Beatitudes as they're called in the Bible show the kind of people we should really be. Having a visit from my 3 grandsons made me think they should be renamed "Boy"attitudes. The three that stood out most are MEEKNESS, PEACEMAKER & PURE IN HEART. I don't mean to brag but really I am. How can I have three grandsons with totally different personalities but yet they're all so sweet in their own way. I would call Dalton the"meek one" because he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Cole would be the "peacemaker" because he goes along with whatever he's told to do rather than cause a fuss, and then there's Parker who is "so pure in heart" you could squeeze him to pieces. Here's an example of each from their Sunday visit with us:

Dalton (the Meek one)......Papa fixed hot dogs and French Fries for Dalton & Parker while I played Candy Land with Dalton & Parker set up the farm animals. When he called them to eat we were surprised to see that he had taken 2 white lunch bags and said he had made "Papa Kids' Meals"! When they opened their bags they found napkins, mini candy bars and what should have been toys. The "toys" actually turned out to be 2 key chains in little boxes left over from our church homecoming! (It was obvious Papa had searched in his top drawer, found these and did it as a joke for Dalton.) It had the church's address and phone number and said "God Bless This Church". Dalton looked at it, frowned and asked why he would need a key chain, but then he saw his papa's fake sadness and quickly changed his attitude. "Actually I DO need this, "he said. "If I'm ever lost this will help me find my way home because I can call the church phone number!" I looked at him and winked but he immediately said, "No Nana, I'm serious!" How sweet is that?

Cole-(the Peacemaker)..... Cole arrived at our house after lunch. Dalton had already gotten out of this Sunday clothes and found a snowman shirt I had put in their clothes drawer. The snowman lit up as he walked. I told Dalton it was for any of the 3 to wear if they got dirty at my house but he just happened to find it first. Cole looked at it, and said, "I don't think I have one of those, it sure is cool!" Then he went right on playing. No pouting, no saying I want one,too. He was simply the sweet little peacemaker he always is! (Needless to say I went back and purchased 2 more shirts and even 1 for Ella!)

Parker-(the Pure of Heart)....This innocent little child loves you unconditionally. Everything and anything makes him happy. When I couldn't find something to use as a pond for his farm I asked if a muffin pan would work. He smiled and nodded his little head . Then we filled each compartment with water and proceeded to put a duck or frog in each slot. If you lose something he searches and searches until he finds it and brings it to you! Sweet, sweet, child!


3 Beautiful little boys, 3 Beautiful personalities that I wouldn't change for the world! I love you my boys!

Ella was sick at home during this visit but we all know what an "angel" she is!

The Dead Zone

Friday after work we headed for the farm house. We had to go winterize due to the 9 degree forecast. If you've never been inside an old farm house, in the middle of winter, with NO heat, you've missed a real experience. I would compare it to being in a cardboard box under a bridge! Things started to gradually get better as the fireplace heated up and the warmth from the gas heater started to fill the room. I perked coffee in an old percolator and then we settled in our cozy chairs and relaxed. "Wow, this is the life!" we said. In warmer weather there's always lots to do and we constantly stay busy but in the cold of winter, we usually end up sitting in front of the fireplace. I proceeded to read the local newspaper which I found in the driveway. Only problem, it had been several weeks since we'd been so the news seemed old and I almost felt like a mind reader because I knew what happened in some of the situations. Lewis tried to find something on TV but without cable there's only 3 choices and 1 of those is Spanish. The most exercise we got was walking over to the refrigerator to get a snack, which there's not usually much of unless I bring something from home. Little by little we felt like we'd settled into the "Dead Zone"as a cell phone commercial calls it. We gradually began to feel secluded from the rest of the world. The evening news would not come on until 11:00 and there was no weather channel. At only 9:00 we decided to go to bed because there was nothing to do and we had relaxed so much in front of the fire we couldn't stay awake any longer. The peace, quiet and seclusion, is really nice, but only for a little while. As soon as we returned home we jumped right back into the "electronic world". I turned on the computer, checked my emails and read the blogs. Lewis started flipping his remote and watching 5 different shows at the same time!
"Wow, this is the life!" we said. The "Dead Zone" is really good for a little relaxation and it sure does make us enjoy the fast pace of home more! We call it the best of two lives!

The Power of Faith

Wednesday turned out to be a very windy day. One of the strongest wind bands happened around 9:30 a.m. while I was at work. Our first graders were on the carpet having their calendar time. The lights blinked and caused several of the children to have a little anxiety. The teacher I work with tried to explain what was happening. She let them know that when the wind blows it shakes the trees and sometimes the trees touch our power lines. She then told them this would cause our lights to go out and there would be nothing we could do about it. Quickly one little fellow spoke up and said that WE couldn't do anything about it but GOD sure could! My teacher (being a christian) agreed with him then went on with her lesson. About five minutes later the lights actually did go out and our whole hallway went black, that is except for OUR classroom! Our lights were still shining bright. Another teacher passed by our door and stuck her head in. She asked who had the divine power in our room because every other room on our wing had NO electricity! We immediately pointed to our little fellow and told her he had just said that God would look after us! We learned later that day that for some odd reason 4 different rooms scattered throughout our school are on a different circuit than the rest! Our room just happened to be one of them and the only one on our wing! We laughed and said we'd never tell because in that little fellow's eyes his faith in God had kept our lights on and that's the way we wanted to leave it! If only we could have faith as strong and pure as a child...life sure would be a lot simpler!





Strange.... No Electricity but we had lights!

Blog Bashing

Well now I know how it's done! If you want something special from your husband just bash him on your blog! My last blog was bashing my husband for his cooking skills. Then tonight I arrived home from choir practice to find a yummy Hot dinner waiting for me! There was steak, bread, and even a baked potato! Way to go honey! Sorry I was so rough on you, but if this is what I get I'll try to think of more bad things to say! I'm loving it!

My Husband's birthday!

Today is my husband's birthday. His 59th birthday to be exact. Yes, folks he's 59 and still can't cook! This is a man who has been called a "Jack of ALL Trades". This man is an electronic programming genius, an electrician, a plumber, carpenter, auto mechanic, accountant, just to name a few, so exactly what happened to the trade of COOKING? When our last child moved out we made an agreement about Sundays. I would cook ALL week and he would be in charge of Sunday night supper ONLY! I picked Sunday nights because I have choir practice at 5:00 p.m and really thought it would be nice to come home at 6:00 to a nice hot meal that someone else had prepared. Not asking too much, do you think? Well, it hasn't happened. This guy will just not cook! Honey, I know it's your birthday and I really do love you, but your cooking stinks! This last Sunday night really topped the cake. I walked in and immediately knew there was no food cooking because I couldn't smell anything. Then I walked over to the stove and oh my gosh! There was a pot sitting on the stove with a can of tomato soup in it and a banana on top of the can! He was in his chair watching TV and yelled into the kitchen that he didn't know if I wanted the tomato soup or a banana sandwich so he left it for me to decide! Then he made me promise I wouldn't do a blog about this, but I just couldn't let it slide! If you have a husband out there that cooks be thankful! I might be willing to trade out mine on Sundays for his other "Jack of All Trades", if you'll let yours come cook for me! Happy Birthday honey, sorry, you really are the best, at most other things, just not at cooking!

I promise this picture is untouched. This is

exactly what I saw. I got the camera as quickly

as I could because I knew you wouldn't believe it!

A New Year

A year has come,
A year has went.
Now you reflect,
on the time you've spent;
with friends & love ones, too,
all the people who are close to you.
Promising, like you've done before,
that this coming year,
you'll do much more;
to make life special,
to make life grand.
You'll be kind to someone,
You'll leaned a helping hand.
Just remember to let God lead,
and He'll take care of all your needs!
bhm
Have a Happy & Healthy 2009!