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It Began with a free vacation

'Folding laundry' photo (c) 2010, Lisa Clarke - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/It began with a free vacation.  Tommy and I along with our 3 month old Golden Retriever slept in a king size bed for a week.

We’d not had room to snooze like that since the 1970′s when we enjoyed our room size water bed. For some reason after the leaks we downsized and then again when my Father passed away and we were able to add his antique bedroom set to our home – however it is a standard full size.

The first night on vacation we knew we’d be paying for our trip once we returned home because a bed upgrade was in order.

Long story short we ended up not just buying a king sized bed, but a “mac of a bed”, an all latex top of the line adjustable bed.  Major expense yet one I don’t think we’ll ever regret.  Amazing how wonderful this bed is.

However getting the bed required changing the entire arrangement of the bedroom to make it fit. Which also meant removing the 100+ pound 32 inch fat television that was now mounted on the wrong side of our room. Once it was down we decided its surely the time to replace it with a sleek and much less intrusive flat screen.

Right in the midst of all these exciting changes and expenses our 20 year old washer went out. Tommy is able to repair most anything. But after finding the source of the washing machine leak he declared that  this problem was not going to be worth the cost or effort to fix.  So we ended up buying a new washer/dryer set.

This when the paint on our bedroom walls was still too wet to hang the pictures.

So here we are one month from Christmas and have spent more money on ourselves than we spend for the entirety of the holiday season for a decade!

Do you think the kids/ grandkids might appreciate a gift card that says Mom/Granny will do your laundry  instead of buying Christmas gifts?

Just pondering the idea:)

This should NOT be the face of PD

Face of Parkinson's Disease?

My plan was to update my blog titled This Can’t Be  My action was to cry.

Face of Parkinson's Disease?

 

This one is amazing

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Have I mentioned lately how completely thankful I am for my husband?

It’s not our anniversary.  It’s not Tommy’s birthday. Hey- it’s not even Friday!

Yet, occasionally it needs to be publicly proclaimed when someone is so loyal and genuinely selfless and kind.

Wow!  Words cannot express my utter joy.

I love this man.

Growing with him has increased my faith in God.  Because he’s such a “religious” man?   No, he’s the furthest from “religious” I know.   His faith is simple and sincere.

His concern for others never ceases to amaze me.  He never looks for fault in others; instead he continually looks for ways to encourage them.

I love this man.

His legacy will be that of one who brought joy into the lives of people with his honesty and simple heart.

So often during his busy work week he’ll call and ask: “Have I told you that I love you today”.

Have I told you lately how much I love him?

 

 

celebrating 20K tweets

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Wow. I’m thinking a celebration is in order.  20,000 tweets!  Amazing even to me. Goes to show you how early my adoption to twitter really was.  I began tweeting in early March of 2007.  Most people had not even heard of twitter.  They were into myspace  (which I’d left) and face book which I had not begun yet.  Twitter had an immediate appeal to me.  I was excited to be able to reach out to friends and like minded people without having them follow me back.

I loved the real time conversation I could have with people.  It has been delightful to reach out via search to people of like mind and those with very different values .  This took me from my sofa out into a world of interesting people that I would have never had the honor of meeting. Many which I have become great friends with and will remain in contact with for the rest of my life.

Funny how things change.. initially when I was looking for folks to follow.. I ignored folks with 10,000 tweets or more. I thought they would over whelm my feed. LOL

Initially all my interaction was via twitter.  People say I am tweeting less.  Not that it means less to me but because with fb and now G+ and blogging, there are many different options for sharing with people.

I still find twitter to be my favorite of all apps to really engage in So Media. It’s real time. we can make columns with third party apps like Tweet Deck.  We can connect our twitter accounts to a multiple choice of apps to share our pictures/ videos/ and blog posts.

I’m sure G+ will keep growing.. lots of technology geeks refining the experience for G+.  I plan to continue for now to post #1through twitter, #2 by bloggins and #3 via Google+.  For now because the majority of my friends are still on fb (some just now adopting)  I will keep posting there – but less I believe.

20,000 tweets… had I put a dollar away for each tweet I could nearly buy a car!

Here’s my 1st tweet: SwitchingGranny: Listening to podcasts.. joining twitter..checking it out2007-03-30 01:50:37I’

I wish Twitter had saved all my archived posts. Tt’s like a daily diary and I’m still hoping someday I can get them back.

What ever comes along as newer social media apps! I personally will feel the most connected at Twitter.

Thanks Tweeps

 

Who finds real love at 13?

I sure did!  He was sitting in front of me in my 8th grade science class.  I was drawn to Tommy 1st because he was so exceptionally handsome. No other boys in our class had hair on their chests! He was so funny and so kind. He also had an unusual amount of “worldly wisdom” compared to other boys my age. But what really caused me to love him was finding out that this sweet, street smart guy was unable to read. It broke my heart.

His life had been so much different from mine up until that point. I’d been in a family that was stable and  financially comfortable. He had been raised in a family that was continually breaking apart and had no idea of where he would be living in the next year.

Initially I think I loved him more than he loved me. Of course everyone thought this was puppy love.  He on the other hand  was simply  delighted with the attention of all the girls in our class.

The day he turned 16 years old  he joined the Merchant Marines.  My heart was broken. I didn’t know if I’d ever see Tommy Garrett again.

I began my pursuit by purchasing his freshman pictures and sending the package to his Mother.  She  was delighted and encouraged him to write to me and thank me while away at the Merchant Marines school of seamanship. This ploy began our communication. He did write me back and I still have this letter today:

It said “Marthe- you dot how mug I thing a bit you. Love Tommy”

Thankfully there was a man on board Tommy’s 1st ship that told him this is not the life for you and if you have a young girl back home who love you go home and pursue that relationship. You would be happier working at a gas station and having a family that loves you.  This life is no good.

Tommy took this man’s advice and left the merchant marines.  Easter Sunday of my Sophomore year I ran away with him.  We weren’t sure where we were going.  We tried to go to New Orleans (where he had some family), but soon found out that our gas and the fact that the station wagon he had took more oil than gas would cost us too much to get there. We spent our first night together pulled over on the highway by a trash stop.

We were soon encouraged to try Shawnee Town, Ilinois because it was a known fact that anyone could get married in Shawnee Town.

Well- the judge in the Shawnee Town court house literally laughed and said “Kids go back home!”  We couldn’t go back home -we’d already committed to spending the rest of our lives together.  We moved to Shawnee National Forest.  It rained for a week straight. Tommy’s car leaked. So we ultimately found our way into a cave under High Knob for cover and to hide from my Dad who surely had helicopters hunting for me.

We sold our spare tire for $5.oo which allowed us enough money to buy and share a bologna sandwich a day.  When that ran out we knew we needed to come back to town and get Tommy a job and get myself back into high school. Ultimately these things happened. And my parents reluctantly signed for us to get married.  We had our 1st son 3 years later and a second just 14 months after.

Can’t say it’s all been easy but I can say that I have no regrets!  I married the kindest man in the world. And yes, real lasting love can be found at the tender age of 13! And by God’s divine grace our love has continued and grown as the years have passed by.

Happy 38th Anniversary to my best friend and the love of my life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A geeky Granny’s Brag Book

Rummage Sale Bloopers

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Sometimes I remember and smile!

While reading facebook I saw my (DIL) daughter in law complain that the t-shirt she’d ordered to wear at her daughter/ my grand daughter’s recital today was ordered in a Youth size. She was upset because she Always wears the new recital t-shirt to the recital.

Being the caring Mother in Law that I am,  I immediately  commented on her  status that she could wear mine. I even called her to be sure she knew of my generous offer before this morning- She said “Oh Your’s is WAY TOO BIG!”

Then I was reminded of a rummage sale I was putting together in about 1980.  My Mother and Aunt were  so concerned for poor Tommy and I that they actually cleaned out their own closets and gathered lots of donations.

I’ll never forget my aunt Dorothy coming around the evening before nearly in hysterics, holding the newspaper with the ad for the sale which said:

“Yard sale with Everything, Kids toys, clothes, furniture, antiques, household items, Tons of extra large sized woman’s clothing.

She said “Had I known you were going to put THIS in the paper and plaster it on signs all over the neighborhood I may not have donated!

I can still picture her reminding me off and on for years afterwards. “HUGE WOMEN’S CLOTHES” and her delightful chuckle. I hadn’t offended Aunt Dorothy Just added another funny story for her to tell.

So, I told the sweet Mother of our little SparklesGlitter that she could tie a HUGE knot in my t-shirt and be quite trendy at the recital. And then I smiled inside remembering Aunt Dorothy!

What I learned from my dying Mother

This Rose is for you Mother

I wrote this a couple of weeks before my Mother died. I had moved in with her to care for her during the final two months of her life. I was able to share with her what I’d written and she smiled:

This Rose is for you Mother

What I’ve learned from my Mother:

I have learned that her heart is bigger than I’d ever given her credit for.

I have learned that God’s grace transcends our circumstances.

I have learned that one can suffer to the point of death while still considering the needs of others before oneself.

I have learned that is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.

I have learned not to fret the small things.

I have learned that it is possible to endure very difficult things without complaining.

I have learned the importance of family.

I have learned how insignificant material things are.

I have learned how swiftly this life passes by.

I am still learning to live by faith rather than by sight.

I am learning how to be humble.

I am learning how to be a servant.

I kept a blog of emails during the two months I lived with Mother titled “My Mother’s Journey towards death
It is a compilation of emails I sent to friends who were praying and their email replies. The unique thing was that my Mother did not believe in God. Yet at the end she took up a proposition of a very good friend of her’s to ask if He exists.

A Cinderella Story

Breanna & her Papaw

Breanna & her Papaw

We love our 7 year old Grand daughter.  We’ve worked hard to keep her exposed to the Arts.  She has been in dance lessons since the age of 3.  During the past couple of years she has really loved opportunities to perform in front of an audience.  Recitals, and a couple parts in a local production of The Nutcracker have given her much delight.

A few weeks ago our daughter in law called and said that Breanna’s dance teacher had ask if she could participate in a unique opportunity to dance as part of the pre show for a professional ballet company The Ballet Magnificant. The dance was going to be to Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “Cinderella“.  And it was going to require that either Breanna’s Daddy or her Papaw danced along with her.  Breanna’s Daddy works 2nd shift so he had a good excuse to not be available.  Her Papaw couldn’t stand the thought of Breanna being unable to dance so he surprised all of us by saying that he would dance the part of her Daddy in the song.

This turned out to be one of the highlights of our lives. I couldn’t video the actual performance due to distracting others. But between my daughter in law and myself we did get a video of the dress rehearsal. And some precious pictures.

Hope this home video touches you just 1/8th as much as the real thing did everyone that watched.  Breanna told me later that people watching back stage were actually crying real tears because they liked she & Papaw dancing so much!

 

Delightful evening & Impressive surprise across the Ohio River

 

Saturday night I was privileged to attend The Russian National Ballet Theatre‘s production of “Romeo and Juliet”.  I was given four tickets from my dear friend  Nibby Priest.  The Priest family holds season tickets with the Henderson Area Arts Alliance They were unable to use their tickets for this performance.

Immediately I ask my budding ballerina grand daughter (aka SparklesGlitter)  to join me along with her dance teacher of four years, Kay Richardt and another little girl from Breanna’s dance class.

The ballet was at the Henderson Fine Arts Center, located on the campus of the Henderson Community College. And it is indeed a showplace!

Our seats were amazing.  Right in the 3rd row center stage. The ballet was beautiful! I honestly believe that these young ballerinas were treated to a show they’ll never forget.

And if you like me were not aware of the Henderson Fine Arts Alliance maybe you’ll use this opportunity to check out their website and offerings.

 

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