The Easter Bunny and the Catfish Connoisseur

 Jenn, Jordan, Dan, Brylan and Grannie's Table

 Galloping Dan

 Gram is making big bubbles and Jordan is loving it.

 Stubbs love Brylan

 What do I have in here?

 Stubbs love Grannie

 Dan, Stubbs, Jenn and Brylan

 Jordan, Brylan and Stubbs

 Joe, Rog and Lizzie

 Jordan checking out his eggs.

 Papa is tickling Brylan's tummy!

Inez, Jeremy and Brad

I hosted Easter lunch at our house this year.  Our family has grown this year and my house is small.  I decided we would have al fresco dinning.  There was a chance of rain, but it held off.  I set up three tables outside and we had a great time.  We had Lexington Grilled Chicken, Roasted Asparagus, Three Cheese Pasta, Lizzie made Strawberry Salad and Inez brought a delicious chocolate egg cake!  

We blew bubbles and hid eggs.  It was so fun.  There were some flies but it was not too hot and Jordan ran and ran and ran.  He chased bubbles and played with his cars and trucks.  Brylan loved playing with Stubbs and enjoyed sitting on the grass.   It was the most relaxing family dinner ever.   Which is why I have so many photos.

I  had a wonderful Mother's Day as well.  My kids called me and wished me a Happy Mother's Day.  I am very blessed to have my mother.  My sisters and I always make Mother's Day about her.  She will be 93 the end of May.  We always buy her gifts and try to find a place she will enjoy having lunch.  Mother loves fried catfish.  She compares all fried catfish to her favorite restaurant back in Mississippi - The Back 40.  We have yet to find fried catfish in the mid-cities area that measures up to  the 40.  This year we ate at Catfish and Company.  That is a good start for pleasing a catfish lover!  We always ask her at the end of the meal how it measured up.  Well this year she said the catfish was little tough.  So, if you know a good catfish place in the area, please let me know.   

I am thankful for the blessings of my 92 year old Mother, and my sisters.  Lizzie and Inez live here and Betty is in Arkansas.  Betty had a wonderful Mother's Day surprise when her son unexpectedly showed up for lunch!  Those are the best surprises.  And, Betty will welcome her first grandchild in about a month.  I am so fortunate to have my family!  

Hope your day was filled with many blessings and family.

Smooches to all!

Linda

 Stubbs loves boiled eggs

Miss Ellie is taking a break.

 My treasured washi eggs

 Little white bunny

 Carrot bundles

 Farmer rabbit

Table scape

Really scary rabbit!

 

THE END

The miracle of cheesy babies!

My sister Betty and niece Tara and her husband, Josh were in town for a visit last week.  Tara is pregnant with their first child and my sister's first grandchild.  It is a boy who will be called Jake.  Tara sends us pregnancy updates that compares the size of the baby to a vegetable.  Jake was the size of a spaghetti squash on the last update.  Tara and Josh had a 3D ultrasound done while they were in town.  There is not a 3D ultrasound place where they live in Arkansas and there just happened to be one very close to us.  They invited us to join them for the ultrasound.  It was my sister and brother-in-law, my sister (- the grandmother -to-be), Tara, Josh, my 92 year old mother (- the great grandmother-to-be), and me in the ultrasound room.  The place was set up for big groups.  The lights were soft, there were 2  comfy sofas, and a big screen television to see the ultrasound.  Tara has the cutest little baby bump!  Jake was a little shy and was not ready for his big 3D debut.  He has very cute feet and he was holding one of them.  He was snuggled into the placenta and we did not get a front facial shot, but what we did see, he is very cute. 

My friend Terry told me last week that she will be a grandmother in the fall and her sister Paula will be one soon after.  My son-in-law's sister had a baby last week.  His mother is an excellent photographer and she posted some beautiful pictures of her new born granddaughter on FB.  Katie commented that the new baby was cheesy.  I had to tell Katie that she too was a member of the cheesy newborn club.  I remember very clearly the moment she was born (via C-section) and hearing her first cry and seeing her little cheesy body.  I think cheesy skin happens when the baby is late and Katie was very late.  

I am looking forward to Jake's birth this summer and one day I will have my own cheesy grandchildren. I am not rushing anyone to have a baby anytime soon, but I do look forward to that special day.  In the mean time, I am babysitting my granddog Finn next month and I am really looking forward to his visit.!!

Smooches to all,

Linda

Prayers for Japan

Joe told me first thing when I woke up the other day about the earthquake in Japan.   I immediately grabbed my cell phone to see if my friend Vicki had posted anything on Facebook.  Vicki lives south of Tokyo.  She works for the Dept. of Defense schools.  She and her husband work at an Army post there.  Vicki had posted and said they were safe.  Vicki and I know each other from when I lived in Okinawa.  It was 1991 -1994.   Vicki was a DODDS teacher where my kids went to school  and I was a military wife stationed there.  We taught childrens choir at Koza Baptist Church.  I know two families that still live on Okinawa from my days  there, the Russells and Reimers.  The Reimers posted and said they did not feel any effects.  Vicki said they are out of gas at the stations there.  I know there must be a lot of fear over the nuclear reactors. 

I loved living in Japan.  The Japanese are wonderful, hard working, honest people.  They can survive this and thrive.  There is an Okinawan lady who is a custodian  at my work.  She is in her 60s and can work circles around me any day.  I pray for the country and for their safety from the after effects. 

When I lived on Okinawa we would have ground thunder.  We lived across from the beach.  It would sound like a big truck moving quickly.  However, there were not any highways for big trucks to speed down.  The Okinawan lady who did sewing for me told me that next time I heard that sound, I should go upstairs.  I did not really know what a tsunami was at that time.  I think I may have been more afraid if I knew then what I know now.  My sew lady knew about a tsunami and was telling me to go to higher ground.  We did have a few actual tremors that shook our cinder block town house.  There were four townhouses connected made from cinder blocks and it would shake.  The hangers in the closet would start to rattle and the towels would swing back and forth.  That is enough of an earthquake for me.  We were not in a good location for a tsunami since Okinawa is a small island. 

I will be praying for the military families stationed in Japan and the Japanese people.  It will be hard times ahead for everyone. 

Dadoo

Granddaddy giving the grand kids a ride on the lawn mower tractor.  I think this was around 1979.

January is a month for birthdays in my family.  You mention someone's birthday is in January and Mother immediately starts reciting everyone in the family who has/had a January birthday.  First on the list is "Mama".  That is Mother's mother, who we affectionately called Grannie; then there is Mother's sister-in-law, my Aunt Nita. Then three of Mother's four grandsons were born in January, but unfortunately she always leaves one out.  I always remind her, but I guess when you are 92 years old, two out of three is not bad.  Then, my dad was also born in January and died a few days before his birthday in 1998.

I always think of him as Dadoo.   I have no idea why I call him that name in my  memory.  It was Dadoo and Mamoo.  I don't know where it came from.  I usually remember the quirky details of things, but for this one I got nothing.  Dadoo was fun.  I have the greatest memories of him.  I feel like he was just here yesterday instead of being gone for 13 years.  I always knew  what he would think of something.  He was not overly opinionated, but you knew where he stood.  Dadoo was also a fun granddaddy.  The kids always loved to spend time with him.  In the early years it was a ride on the lawnmower tractor.  Later, it was a ride in the buggy with old bad Buck. 

It is also my friend Judy's birthday in January.  I forgot to wish her a happy birthday.  So, happy belated birthday my friend!    She and I have been friends for a very long time.  I am very blessed that she has been in my life all these years.

Me and the Judy bug!

It was my son Jamey's birthday yesterday.  He is possibly in his last semester of college.  He is the youth pastor at a church, and really cares about his youth kids.  Jamey's girlfriend, Samantha is wonderful.  She is the girlfriend any mother would pick for their son.  He is a good son and I am very blessed that for the last 24 years he has called me mom.

My Jamey and Samantha:  Jam and Sam at her sister's wedding in January.

January was a good month and February is coming in with some wild weather.  Hope you had a great start to 2011.

Smooches to all,
Linda

Christmas Wrap Up

 Jamey and his girlfriend Samantha

Barbeque from Red Hot and Blue

Jamey and his Grannie pet

 Oh Christmas tree

 Stubbie Claus

Silly Ellie - she hates the camera

Selah - Christmas concert at FBC Irving

Jennifer, Brylan, Walter, Jordan, Alicia and Daniel

Grandcuties:  Daniel - Alicia's Boyfriend, Alicia and Kayla

Jordan

Christmas arrived at my house with some major computer problems.  I really dislike having computer problems.  Thankfully, I have a Droid phone that allows me access to email and Facebook.  Other than that, I had a very relaxing holiday. 

I posted pictures of a few of the holiday highlights.

Jamey and his girlfriend, Samantha, came for a visit.  This is the first time I have gotten to meet her.  She is so sweet.  I really like this girl.

Joe and I always go to a Christmas concert.  This year we went to a Selah concert.  Selah is one of my favorite contemporary groups.  Our Lizzie and Rog went with us.

My oldest sister Inez, decided to retire from her job of 38 years and got married.  Wow, that was a lot of major changes made in a very short period of time.  Our Christmas eve tradition is Christmas eve service at church, and a meal.  The sisters no longer give gifts to each other, but we still give gifts to our mother.  Mother always goes home with a major haul!  This year our new brother in law prepared the Christmas eve meal.  It was excellent. 

The day after Christmas, we enjoyed our holiday visit with Joe's family.  We went south to Beverly and Walters house. I love going to their house because it is never crowded.  They have so much room to spread out and they are wonderful hosts.  Alicia, and her boyfriend Daniel and Kayla are teenagers.  I think they may have to gotten to the age where it is best to buy a gift card.  I made my first visit to Aeropostle to buy their gifts.  I was way out of my element.  But they were very sweet and said they liked what I had picked out.  Jennifer, Dan, Jordan and Brylan were there.  10 month old Brylan was tearing the paper off the box.  I think Jordan was hoping there was a new toy in his box and it was only some boring clothes.  What a bad Gram I was.  For the last several years we have played a trivia game and have little prizes.  It is so much fun.  T
 here are always a couple of gifts that everyone wants.  I never know what they will be.  This year it was that root beer in the brown bottles and a season of McGyver DVD.  Kayla always seems to hold on to the gift everyone would like to have.   

I loved my year end shutdown from work.  I slept late and just lounged around and did a little scrapping.  On Christmas day we did not have to go anywhere and I wore my pajamas all day long.  I even cooked in my pajamas.  I am usually a person who gets dressed first thing.  It was so relaxing.  I did not send out Christmas cards this year.  I don't really have a good excuse, I just did not do it.

My word for this year is reconnect.  I want to reconnect with friends, church and fitness/health.  As always my resolution is to loose weight.  It is 1/11/11 and I have not really established a plan but I really am going to work on it. 

I hope you had holiday filled with memories and special times with family and friends. 

Love,
Linda

I am thankful for my children

 Drew and Katie at Mulates

 Me and Jamey - such a funny guy!

 Jamey and the dreaded machine.

 Katie and my granddog Finn.

He was not supposed to get on the white bed.

 Pelvis the Pelican

 Katie sewing the hospital gown

 These signs were in Katie and Drew's neighborhood.  

It cracked me up - Speed Lumps!!

 Jamey and the Mac

 Sauce Picante`

at Johnsons

 The Art Center that Pixar built at U LaLa!

 They are standing in front of a giant egg that lights up and there were some lovely Mallard ducks in the pond.

This is completely self absorbed blog post.  I spent this past weekend with my kids in the lovely city of Lafayette, Louisiana.  It was a wonderful weekend.  

I saw three indi films.  I know the film maker of one of them.  I don't think I have ever seen any indi films previously.  I enjoyed some fabulous Cajun food.  I saw some outstanding art.  The artist was there too.  What a great weekend. We also did a little dancing.  It was very fun. I realized that I love Acadiana.  I am not so fond of New Orleans but I love Acadiana.  There is a big difference. 


My daughter and son-in-law live in a little two bedroom rental house.  It is perfect for them.  They do not own a television.  Can you imagine not owning a television?  Katie and I sewed.  We made a dress that looked like a hospital gown.  We altered a thrift store dress and it looked really cute.  My Katie has great style.  Her husband, my son-in-law, Drew is such a fine man.  He is talented and caring and a great cook.  He made a great pot of gumbo that I want to try to make.  He shared his secret with me.  


My son, Jamey, made the hour and a half ride down from his school to visit with me.  He rode his motorcycle in the dark.  I did not know about it until he was already almost there.  He left to go home on Saturday afternoon just as it started to rain.  I felt like I could not breathe.  The motorcycle terrifies me.   He wears a giant helmet, a heavy padded leather motorcycle jacket and coverall pants.  He takes every precaution.  He tells me he is a good driver.  I am sure he is.  However, it is the other drivers on the road that I am unsure about.  Motorcycles are easy to not notice when you are distracted.  I started texting him when I thought he should be home.  When he texted me back that he was home, the elephant finally got off my chest and my lungs were able to fill up with air.  Jamey has a full beard.  It is red and he as a part down under his chin where his beard does not grow.  He is in a play this semester and the beard is for his role in the play.  Jamey has a girlfriend that I can't wait to meet.  The girlfriend is not allowed to ride the motorcycle.  Her dad's rule, and I am glad about that rule. 

I am so thankful that I was able to spend three days with them.  It is such a blessing to see  they have grown up into wonderful, loving  adults.  I know one day they will give me red headed grandchildren and I look forward to them calling me Gram.  I was the best weekend.

This Thanksgiving  I am grateful for my children.  Even though we will not be together for Thanksgiving, we will never be apart in my heart.

Piece by Peace Scrappers at Crossroads Retreat Center

Terry about to enjoy a piece of coconut pie with 4 inch meringue

Paula has a piece of coconut pie too.

Judy has chocolate and I have Preacher Pie

Texas Ware that I found at the antique mall for Katie

This weekend was the annual scrapbook retreat.  I am very blessed to be a part of a group from my home church.  My parents moved from my hometown when I graduated from high school.  So I have been away for a long, long time but they let me join them once a month in their scrap group.  It is called Piece by Peace.  This is the third year we have gone away for a weekend scrap retreat.  This time we went to the Crossroads Retreat Center.  We had a little excitement when a tornado was spotted close by.  There were 9 people in our group and a group of 18 women in another house on the property.  If we had to move to safety, it would have been 30 people in the same small room.  I was praying the tornado would just move on by and it did. 

I have known four of the girls for almost 50 years.  They have not gotten older, they have gotten better.  Terry, Paula, Judy and I made a stop in Canton and had lunch at a tea room on the square.  When we saw the dessert list on the sign outside, we were in.  I had a delicious quiche, and strawberry spinach salad.  Then for dessert was some fabulous pie.  We went in a little antique mall and I found some Texas Ware for my daughter.  She has been wanting some.  If you don't know what it is, it is the plastic dishes from the 60's.  It is also called Mel-mac.  It looks like it is old, and I would not put in the microwave or dishwasher.  But, I do like the aqua color. 

The retreat center was set in a secluded, woodsy area.  The gardens and ornamental plants were very overgrown and badly in need of a trim.  The cabin where we stayed had the unmistakable smell of mold.  There was no way to hide it.  There was insect activity in the cabin, but I did sleep really well. There was no hairdryer in the bathroom.  I did not bring one and my hair was scary. 

However,the scrapping area was great.  We had long tables and good chairs.  One for each person.   There was a living area and a dining area.  If you needed a break from scrapping, you could go sit on the couch.  Everything was on ground level, so there were no stairs for me to go and up and down.  I was very happy about that.   The large room also had the kitchen, a bathroom and a room for a massage.  The owners kept coming in the scrap building  and turning off lights.  It made me crazy.  To a scrapper, light is very important.  We were paying a good price to use the electricity. We played a fun scavenger hunt game and Terry and I won!  We really over thought the clues and it paid off because we won.  We had 4 fabulous make and takes. 

The time went by so quickly.  I  loved every minute.  I am so blessed to be a part of this group.  I am already looking forward to next year.  I don't know if we will go back to this location or try another, but as long as my gal pals are with me, it will be fabulous. 

I missed my husband and pups but it made coming home so much sweeter.