The Photo.......

The Big 50.......

   My Thomas celebrates his 50th birthday today. We were setting in the swing enjoying the morning and we talked about our ages. I ask him if being 50 was any different from being 49. His response, "I still think I'm in my 30's". When I look at him I still see him as that young man that I fell in love with over 25 years ago. My prayer is that we both are able to celebrate at least 40 more birthday's together......

Indiana summers...........

   Remembering my flowers before the sun roasted them........ Is this what southern Indiana is going to be like from now on? What happened to the 80-85 degrees that we were use to.
   Are we as gardeners going to have to change our ways of doing things?
   I don't like it, not one bit. Give me back our Indiana summers, where the flowers would bloom till the first frost!!

Ironing 101.........

   Received a message the other day from a Mom telling me that her son is preparing for collage in a few days. She was trying to show him how to iron his shirts and press his pants. He told her that he appreciated her help but he needed to be shown by, The BAT Lady ( I taught them Basic Aid Training in 4th grade) and that I was the one who knew the most about ironing. Well, talk about making my heart smile..........
   To fill you in on how he knows that I'm good at ironing. On the Senior trip in April, I ironed all the shirts, pants and what ever else was requested by the senior boys. Two nights straight the guys would bring me their dress clothes for the tour of Washington DC the next day. On the third night we had to back track one place and they needed their suits again. One of the guys took mine and Linda keys, got our room ready for ironing. He had the ironing board up, the iron turned on and already had the water in for steam pressing. We're talking 15 shirts, 15 pants and maybe a suit jacket depending on how they had been packing their suit case the last few day. They made sure I had snacks, water and the news on the tv. These young men became by boys not only for that week but for the rest of their lives. Still today I will see them and they call me, "Mom". So tomorrow evening I'm going to his parents house and I'll give him, Ironing 101.

Clutter..........

   Gosh, I've not been blogging.....sorry. Thomas and I have been busy laying flooring in the house. We are down to just one room which is Sarah's. I want to paint before we lay the flooring. I've narrowed it down to about four colors. Our home is country/primitive. Each room is a different color depending on how it is decorated. I'm leaning on shades of dark mustard or cornbread. I have to make my mind up in the next few days, I need to get hopping.
   We finished the office a few days ago and I couldn't believe the stuff that I had in cabinets and drawers. I found stuff left over from my shop. Why would I have kept my FTD manual??? Needless to say I had a lot of stuff to haul to the burn pile. We've been cleaning out drawers before we put them back into the rooms. Why do we as humans think that we need to keep everything? Maybe my thinking has changed as I've become older, I don't have the need to keep so much stuff. It's clutter...and clutter isn't good. I've read articles on how we should de-clutter our homes. They say it's not healthy. It does make you feel better knowing that you don't have a lot of "Junk" laying around.
Everyone have a good weekend and clean out a drawer before Monday..................

I survived.......

 
   The weekend was a double event, Denise moved in at Purdue and Linda was honored to speak at the Centennial celebration of Purdue Agricultural Education. We loaded up Friday evening and headed north. Linda, Denise, Derrick, Grandma Janet and me. I wasn't sure if I could step out of the car onto Boiler ground. I thought that maybe I would hear a loud boom from the east.  Ball State booms that is. I stepped out easy and slow. I swear I heard a few small booms......
   Linda gave a heartfelt speech of her days at Purdue and the memories of her Dad being a graduate and her following in his footsteps. Now the torch was being passed to his grandaughter Denise. She talked about the changes in education and told a few funny story's about some of her former students.
Linda is a teacher who teaches from the heart and cares for her students. I was proud that Purdue choose to honor her.
   We had a few hours in the afternoon to enjoy the campus and for Linda to show off Purdue to me. During the business session after lunch I slipped out and made my way to where, "the big boys play" as Linda puts it. I was able to make my way to center court. Now I'm sorry to all my Purdue friends but I never felt no super charge nor was I over come with emotion. As I looked around I could not find a bit of Cardinal Red anywhere. But you know if you would look to the east and stand center court at Ball State you will not find an ounce of black and gold.

Birthday girl......

  Sunday August 12, 1984 at 12:21 in the afternoon I gave birth to my second baby girl. Sandra Denise entered this world 18 days late. She wasn't an easy birth, she decided to make things difficult to drive the nurses and three doctors crazy. None the less she was beautiful weighing in at seven pounds, six ounces and 21 inches long. When they finally put her in my arms I opened the blanket and counted her toes and fingers and kissed the inside of her tiny little hand. To this day I still kiss the inside of her hand.
   I'm so proud of her for all that she has accomplished. She has filled my heart with so much joy that sometimes I feel that my heart just might bust. Happy Birthday to my babygirl.......

I"m going where......

   My bestie Linda has been given the honor to speek at Purdue University. She ask me a few months ago to go with her. I ask her, "You want me to go where?" she said, you heard me, the best place in the world. I only go to, BALL STATE........She just laughed and laughed. So tonight I guess I'm heading to Purdue.  The university is celebrating 100 years of Agriculture Education. Our day will begin at 9am Saturday morning with a tour of the campus and other exciting (???) places. Linda said I even get to see where the big boys play ball. The day ends with a banquet. Now all my friends (Ardell) don't get to excited cause this girl won't be buying a Purdue shirt or doing the Purdue chant. I will be wearing my BALL STATE shirt under my dress clothes.

   Denise is also moving in this weekend. I remember years ago Sarah's moving day. It was a chore getting everything up eight floors and the elevator only went to the sixth floor. Emotions run high on moving days. You laugh and cry all in the same minute. I'm excited for Denise but sad for Linda, I know how those first few months feel when the house is empty. Sarah and I lived through it and Denise and Linda will also live through it.

August 6.....19 years...

Happy Anniversary to my husband. He's my best friend, my buddy and the love of my life. I'm so blessed to be his wife.