Granny

Granny passed away Tuesday, April 7, and we drove up to Tennessee on that day. I can't tell you how difficult that was. The viewing was Friday. There was a slide show on a TV at the funeral home with so many pictures of her, even some rare pictures from when she was a teenager. It was wonderful to see all those. The funeral was held Saturday. There were so many relatives there that I had not seen in ages... people I used to be close to and that I often missed. I felt like all eyes were on me, and they probably were, because everyone knew that Granny and I were the closest. Normally this would have bothered me, but I think the Lord carried me through it fantastically. I grieved well, and cried no more than I had tissues for :) I absolutely loved Granny's pastor and his wife. I wish I could see them all the time. Their names are Bob and Bobbie, how about that? Their last name is something long that starts with a Z, so he goes by BobZ. It was so evident that Bob loved my Granny, and knew her very well. He also knew me and my sisters well, from all the stories he had heard, and the pictures he had seen. I used to upload all my pictures to Walgreens.com and have them printed in TN for Granny to pick up, so she always had the latest pics. Evidently she took them to church with her. Somehow I felt like I knew Bob, too. The service at the funeral home was heavy, but by the time we all drove to the cemetery, the atmosphere there was a little lighter. Unfortunately, the weather was very cold and wet. Everyone had to park in, and walk through, a lot of mud to get to the plot. Much to Bob and Bobbie's approval, I changed into tennis in the car. We all laughed about my flowy dress and tennis, and agreed that Granny would have approved. She was buried in the most beautiful cemetery, next to my grandfather (lovingly called Punkin), and my uncle Alan, their firstborn who died at age 33. I have pictures on my camera of the view from that hill, but I have yet to locate my camera in the luggage! I will post them later.

The funeral was lovely, but the rest of the trip was not! Grace was sick on the drive up. She ruined a car seat before we even got out of town. We did get to rent a new, fully loaded suburban, with DVD, nav, leather, power running boards, the works. It was awesome! So we had plenty of room with Hannah and Malachi, and also added Bekah and Noma to the passenger list for the drive home. The drive home included more sleep and was less eventful. I wish our stay in TN had been uneventful, but sadly, that was a lot of bickering over Granny's things. My dad decided to sell the house, and we only had through Monday to help dad move everything out of the house. His brother left town the night of the funeral, and we had to leave Monday night, so we had to clean out the house pretty fast. A cousin of my dad's, who is closer in age to me than my dad, agreed to buy the house, which is fantastic. My dad is busy taking care of that transaction right now. But since we had to move so quickly, a few relatives (nieces of Granny) got very angry with us. I'm sure they felt we didn't allow some proper time to pass before "ripping apart" the house. We have gotten quite a few verbal lashings. I don't know why they don't understand that all of Granny's descendants live in TX, and don't have time to let the house sit for a while. It is not a good idea to leave a house vacant with valuables in it! I just don't get some people. oh well. I hope mom and dad are able to put out all the fires before they come home.

Speaking of home, I am so glad to be in mine! So GLAD! I love this place! And I have some painting to do!

Finally, I posted. Goforth and tire swing!

It has been way too long since I posted! I just haven't wanted to sit down and write about myself I guess. Bubba and Grace and I are doing very well. We are excited to be paying down our debts, Dave Ramsey style, and we are way ahead of the schedule we first set up. I think when we first started out, we calculated that it would take us something like 25 months to reach "debt-free other than the house". Now that we are 7-8 months into it, our projected end date will be just 16 months from when we started!! And if we can get paid for the Jeep that we sold, it will be much sooner! Very exciting. God has blessed us abundantly.

Grace and I flew with Malachi and Hannah to TN to visit our Granny for 8 days, and we just got back last Saturday night. My parents and other sisters also went, but they drove. Granny has lung cancer which has spread to her brain, and she is bedridden and unable to communicate much. Fortunately, she is in no pain. It is the 8 brain lesions that are killing her, not the lung cancer, so she probably won't ever feel much. One of the lesions is on the area that controls heart and lung function. It was hard being there, seeing her so helpless, and even harder to leave. She is very dear to me. I don't know if I will see her again in this life, but I know I will drive up for the funeral, and take Bubba with me at that time.

We did get to have some fun while we were there. We visited one of my very favorite places, Goforth Creek.

And we drove John Deere Gators around the family property, mostly to get to the tire swing. We loved the tire swing. It hangs from about a 40ft branch, so you can swing that thing pretty far.

That's Hannah, with Mary's boyfriend Paul pushing. We have way too many pictures of the tire swing.

OK, happy subject. Grace likes to wear skirts. She just came up and begged me to put on her "princess" skirt so she could twirl to the music on TV. I love having a girl! But she is into that stage where everything "hurts". I don't know if she wants attention or what! Still love her though. She has been sitting very patiently at the chiropractor, watching the dr. Grimm crack my neck. I was very surprised that she was ok with this. Grimm said that little boys flip out when they see their moms get adjusted, but little girls don't. Funny.

Oh, and before my trip to TN, my dear friend Angela got MARRIED!! I was very excited to get to go to not only the wedding, but the bachelorette party too! I'm so happy for her. This is her and her HUSBAND Brent!


One last good thought. Lying in the grass. Don't you want to?

kids...

Did you know that yams are not available in the U.S.? We have two types of sweet potatoes here, and neither type is an actual "yam". Yams are native to Africa. I trust Food Network is right about this.

I can't wait until Thanksgiving. We are having a big shin dig at my grandmother's ranch, with spunky cousins and adorable great aunts and funny uncles. I've learned to make some smashing dishes since last year, and I can't wait to share them. I am especially excited because I thought until yesterday that Bubba was going to miss Thanksgiving to work, but now he has that Thursday and Friday off! And he has Christmas and New Year's eve/day off! I'm so happy about this.

Last night the three of us went to Walmart and shopped for Grace's birthday presents. We got her a Dora big wheels-type trike, a Disney Princesses tea set, an outfit that looks very Christmasy, baby doll bottles and diapers (she likes to use her own diapers on her dolls), and.... I forget what else. We had fun. Oh ya, new tennis shoes. As we were leaving Walmart, Grace was hungry (it was after 9pm) and we passed the in-store McDonald's. Grace started yelling and pointing at McDonald's, and I realized that this was the very first of many times she will beg for McDonald's in her childhood. We did stop and get an ice cream for her. (Of course I took some bites too. Which I had to report to my diet accountability partner, MIIIIIIRIam.)

I haven't told you about Noma's birthday, which was the 11th. She turned 12. She was born my senior year of high school, and now she's 12. I'm an old lady. But Noma looked fabulous. She has gotten so much taller and thinner in the past year; she is so grown up now! I have some pics of her in the dress I bought her and boots that Mary bought her. The pics really don't do her justice, she was so pretty in that dress. I'll show you anyway.

And this is the corn snake that mom indulged her love of reptiles with.
And these are the cutest cousins ever, at Noma's party.

I could look at pictures of my Grace and little Malachi all day long, couldn't you?

Speaking of Malachi, I uploaded the picture of him on his birthday, the only picture I got before we lost the camera! He's wearing his cute John Deer boots we got in Fredericksburg.

I also forgot to post Halloween pictures. Here is Grace, Cooper, and Connor, and grandfather Bob, in front of their house, waiting for trick-or-treaters.

And this is Grace packing herself away for the trip back home, ahah.


now here's a random picture of my lounging sweater I just bought at Gap Body for $23. It is so comfy!

Well I'd love to stay and chat some more, but Grace is throwing herself on the floor in defiance of my couch sitting. I'm sure she wants to go outside, like the public service announcements keep telling us to do. Why can't they leave me alone? I have a nice little butt dent in the couch.

Banana Balloons, Jeopardy Bonus, and Sweet Potato polish.

I just baked. I love to bake, I don't know why I don't do it more often. I made marvelous banana and chocolate chip biscotti! yummy yummy yummy...

We threw a balloon-filled birthday party for my nephew Malachi on Thursday. We had Thomas the Train decorations and plates; it was so cute. I made BBQ pulled pork, served on buttered Texas toast, and my grandmother brought tons of fruit straight from Sams. We had a glorious feast. My mom brought a red velvet cake from HEB, and Malachi had a good ol' time diving into it. I was cleaning up that mess for two days. I'm still finding bits of red velvet cake in random places around the house. My only regret was that in the middle of the circus I lost the camera! I have 2 pictures of Hannah holding her son, but none of all the action. So sad. I found the camera right after everyone left. oh well. good memories.

Ok, I could have sworn I had something great to say in this blog, but now I can't think of it.

Tomorrow in my class we are going to play Jeopardy to review for the next test. The kids had a lot of fun last time, so I'm looking forward to it.

Bubba finally got a bonus on his paycheck on Friday. It made me very happy. We paid off a credit card, increased our savings, paid an unexpected doctor's bill, and I have money to buy Christmas presents! :) We have a lot to be thankful for. Jesus is awesome.

This Wednesday is my last Bible study meeting (Ladies Wed. morning Bible study at CBC) and I have committed to make a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows for the luncheon afterwards. I have never actually made one before, but I hardly ever goof up a dish when following a recipe. I'm hoping I can cook the sweet potatoes the night before, refrigerate them and make the casserole in the morning before I go. I hope it turns out good!

One last thought, I am wearing some fabulous, new, dark red shimmery toe nail polish. I makes me very happy. And PedEggs are awesome. Go get one.

I have a joke...

It's a lesson too, but it's so funny. My MOPS friend Terri sent this to me, and I'm still crying over it. I have to do this one day. HAVE TO.

JUST A LITTLE SIN

A father of three teenagers set a rule that the family could not watch R-rated movies. This created a problem when a certain popular movie opened in local theaters. All the teens were bent on seeing the film, despite it's 'R' rating. The teens interviewed friends and even members of their church to compile alist of pros and cons about the movie. They hoped that the list wouldconvince their dad that they should be allowedto attend. The cons were that it contained only a fewswear words that misused God's name, only one act of violence ('which you can see on TV all the time,' they said), and only one sex scene (and it was mostly implied sex, off camera). The pros were that it was a popular movie - a blockbuster. If the teens saw the movie, then they would not feel left out when their friends discussed it. The movie contained a good plot and two hours of nonstop action and suspense. There were fantastic special effects! The movie featured some of the most talented actors in Hollywood. The teens were certain that the film would be nominated for several awards. And Christian friends at their church who had seen the movie said it wasn't 'that bad.' Therefore, since there were more pros than cons, the teens asked their father to reconsider his position just once. The father looked at the list and asked if he could have a day to think about it before making his decision. The teens were thrilled. Now we've got him! they thought. Our argument is too good! Dad can't turn us down! So they agreed to give him a day to think about their request. The next day the father called his three teenagers, who were smiling smugly, in the living room. They were puzzled to see a plate of brownies on the coffee table. The father said he had decided that if they would eat a brownie, then he would let them go to the movie. But just like the movie, the brownies had pros and cons. The pros were that they had been made with fresh walnuts and the finest chocolate. These moist frosted brownies had been created with an award-winning recipe. Best of all, they had been made with care by thehands of the teens' own father. The brownies had only one con. They had a little bit of dog poop in them.
But the dough had been mixed well - the teens would probably not even be able to taste it. And their father had baked the brownies at 350 degrees, so any bacteria or germs had probably been destroyed. Therefore, if any of his children could stand to eat a brownie that included 'just a little bit of poop,' then they would also be permitted to see the movie with 'just a little bit of smut.' By now the teens had lost their smug expressions. They turned down the tainted brownies, and only Dad was smiling smugly as they left the room. Now when his teenagers ask permission to do something he is opposed to, the father just asks, 'Would you like me to whip up a batch of my special brownies?'



Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I deleted a million >>>> thingies for you:)

Waiting for Christmas

This cold weather makes me want to put up Christmas decorations! Yes, I said Christmas. I don't know why, but I want to bypass fall decorations altogether and go straight to Christmas. It is 41 degrees outside! I put blankets in Grace's crib last night (usually I just dress her warmly), and she actually kept them on her all night! Well, they were on her this morning at least. She is mesmerized by Sesame Street right now.

I just want to document right now that I know Allison Johnson. My friend Allison is going to be famous. Last Wednesday I watched Allison speak at my Bible study, and immediately afterward she flew to NM to pitch the book she is writing to several publishing houses. She received positive feed back from all of them, including Tyndale, Beacon Hill, Harvest House, and AMG. Maybe she will actually have to choose which one she publishes with! I'm excited for her. She helps women become everything they are meant to be in Christ.

Speaking of books, I need to buy more books. I'm running out of things to read. Any suggestions? I always have at least two books on my night stand that I'm in the process of reading. I finished "Waking the Dead" (changed my life), and I found "Purpose Driven Life" on my bookshelf, but I don't know if I really want to read it.

Some ladies at my Bible study were talking about a fictional book called "The Shack" by William P. Young. Some liked it, some were completely disturbed by it. I don't know if I want to read it. It has been so long since I read "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness" by Frank Peretti that I could probably read them again and enjoy it just as much. It has been 15 years! Wow! I bet I have forgotten most of it. Oh, if you've read the Shack, tell me how you liked it.

Well we are going to Laredo this weekend for Halloween and 2 birthdays, my father-in-law's and my nephew Cooper's. Cooper is turning 2, so that means Grace's birthday is 3 weeks and 3 days after that. I need to plan something!


I just read something terrible. Let it not be!

Joaquin Phoenix declares retirement from acting

Oct. 29, 2008, 2:11 PM EST

Zap2it.com

At the ripe old age of 34, Joaquin Phoenix is thinking about retirement.

The "Walk the Line" Oscar nominee mentioned his intent to leave acting behind at Monday night's (Oct. 27) Paul Newman benefit for camps for kids, reports "Extra."

"I want to take this opportunity... also to give you the exclusive and just talk a little bit about the fact that this will be my last performance as an actor," Phoenix told the entertainment newsmagazine. "I'm not doing films anymore.

"I'm working on my music," he added in explanation. "I'm done. I've been through that."

The actor's rep confirmed that was his client's intention.

Phoenix received a Grammy for his work on the "Walk the Line" soundtrack and is currently recording an album with the British indie rock band The Charlatans. Phoenix, who was also nominated for his supporting role in "Gladiator," next appears opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in the romantic drama "Two Lovers," set for release in February.

Taken from MSN.com. I loved him in The Village and Signs. We Own the Night was good too... except for the opening scene, just fast forward through that and the rest is good. He will be missed.

Pumpkin Patch and Life

HOWDY PARTNER!

Saturday Bubba and I took Grace to the Love Apple Orchard pumpkin patch with Bubba's coworkers. It was hot, but Grace had some fun. She got to run though a maze of hay and pumpkins, see a live scarecrow, play musical instruments, and eat apple ice cream (delicious!)




Here she's running through the maze with her friend Emma. We all call Grace and Emma sisters because they look a lot a like!

This is about as close as she would get to that scary guy in costume. He was nice though. He didn't move while little ones were around.
The obligatory silly picture.


Grace playing tambourine and shaking a gourd.
Grabbing a burger before heading home.


This was Grace's sleeping position of choice on the way home. It was a loooong drive and we were just glad she fell asleep. We drove through Kerrville on the way there, and through Bandera on the way back. Makes me tired just thinking about it.
And this one I took 15 minutes ago. She is just so funny when she eats pickles.

Now for something else entirely.

The evil brownie mix in the pantry is calling my name. I'm trying so hard to resist, but it's Ghirardelli, and I think it comes with icing. Why do I buy these things? I think there is an evil gnome living in my thighs that reaches out and grabs the box of brownie mix while I'm shopping so innocently at the grocery store, not even looking in the direction of the deliciously wicked baked good mixes. Oh dear, what to do about those thighs of mine.

I exercised twice yesterday, and I felt like a weakling. I need to do this more often. No, I will do that more often. I need to win the battle with my thighs. I don't want to weigh more on Grace's 2nd birthday than I did on her first birthday. Shameful!

On the home improvement front, we tiled the backsplash on the other side of my kitchen. You might recall a picture I have posted elsewheres of the backsplash Bubba and I installed a few months ago, but if you don't, here it is. I haven't uploaded pictures of the other side because I'm not finished with the grout, but the tiles are all up and I love it. I love tile! I want to tile everything.

Ok, I'm going to have to get me some chocolate, one way or another. And Grace smells. I should check that out too. I hope Bubba comes home soon. She's bound to get bored of me in a minute. Even with Dora on TV. Oh ya, Grace now calls for "Dora and Boots" by name, and points out Winnie the Pooh where ever she sees him and says "Pooh! Pooh!"