Tresa's Blog

They announced it this afternoon, I just found out and found another blog reference to it….divorce blog. This strikes me as rather strange, sort of like Ronnie divorcing Nancy like right before he REALLY got Alzheimers….

I know the Gores aren’t quite that old but….anyway it all sounds like it’s quite amicable which probably means neither one cares whether the other screwed around or not?

Just my 2 cents worth, now I know Tipper played drums and sang backup for Diva Zappa’s album…..strange but true…..

Flip flop picture from etsy…. I would still like to call these thongs, flip flops just doesn’t roll off the tongue?

Now picture flip flops like these only with mother of pearl and amber beading? Got the picture. I WORE these outside with cut off GREY sweatpants and a baggy t shirt this morning. TAN flip flops with grey and black. HORRORS!! We were probably 5 miles from the nearest house, somewhere in the desert but…..I could see the fashion police busting out of the sagebrush, dodging the mesquite saying ah HA!!! We knew you were poor white trash and this proves it!

OK, maybe I’m just weird and like to match?

Now lets talk about people who wear pajama bottoms IN PUBLIC IN STORES??? NONONONO, although I did see a man in Wal Mart once who had on full mens old fashioned pj’s and a robe, calmly walking and shopping, nice pj’s nice robe???

Maybe the low carb diet is affecting my brain?

Oh and you’d have to know my husband and what a tease he is but the low carb thing is working, I have HUGE size 6 shorts on and if he tugs on them they start to go down my hips, evidently this is great fun if done where he thinks I will get mad @ him? Of course I’ve always been able to put his jeans on (on me if you haven’t gotten the picture not on him) and button them and take them off without unbuttoning.

Also sharing my daughters famous line from yesterday, “don’t you DARE pee on my flashlight”. Teenage boys, power outage…..

Also titled This is True Love or Hell Is For Children.

This morning @ 4 am as I was standing in an almost blizzard trying to hold a flashlight for my husband while he was fixing the truck I’m thinking I am too OLD for this crap it’s like dying cold.  (I’m being PG here ok? an f word seemed appropriate but I don’t say that……much……mostly under my breath)

What were we doing?  We were @ a fuel stop in Northern Illinois fixing the dipstick tube on a semi.  You ask how and why did the dipstick tube get loose?  Silly Silly people.  Don’t ya know, the tire hit it when the wheel fell off two days before that.  That is a different story.  We are fine, the truck is now fine… no one else was hurt and it really wasn’t anyone’s fault other than the people who designed modern axles on trucks or anything that is sealed where you can’t check it the old fashioned way and mechanics that tell you things are fine when they aren’t.  The fuel filter gelling up you can’t blame on the tire though, that was later this afternoon.  What is the point of all of this drivel?  I was thinking this morning as I was holding the flashlight for my husband and shaking uncontrollably because it was 10 and the wind was 35 mph and I’m a wuss (my words, he told me to get back in where it was warm but I ignored him)…. Anyway I was thinking what an impossible situation we were in, he was trying to get a tube stuck back on a huge block of metal with another piece in between so it would all go together.  So far so good but it didn’t want to stay, he had to reach his LONG arms way in the engine compartment @ an impossible angle without gloves, it’s 4 am and we were already a day late delivering the load, plus the wind chill of something way below zero.  But yet I had almost complete confidence that he could eventually get it all to work again and I actually felt young again and in control.  Why?  Because I’m an optimistic idiot?  Perhaps, but he usually can fix anything given enough time and a little duct tape or thread providing he didn’t throw the parts too far when he got disgusted the first or tenth time.  Even if he couldn’t have fixed it he was trying and I was just so much in love in the middle of the blizzard it was pathetic.  Did I mention it was snowing and the roads were poop?  And while I was slogging into the truck stop to buy some $25 a gallon oil (yes you read right) I’m thinking this would make an excellent blogging story, how sick is THAT?

I bought doughnuts  this afternoon even though we are on a low carb, low fat diet for health and his high blood sugar.  Husband asked why I did it, I told him pastries were better than drinking and it was getting to the point it was one or the other.  The truck hadn’t even gelled up yet though then.  I was still an innocent as to truly how bad things could get.

So I’ve had some sleep now and some doughnuts and the world is a rosier place.  I’ll tell the rest of the story later.  The tire landing in the woods and leaning out a foot while going down the road was a beauty of a feeling, I was actually standing up in the sleeper when it hit, so much for seat belts.  That was right before the truck hit the pavement.

I am sorry I didn’t visit blogs or write while I was gone.  I had internet service.  I am lazy.  lazy lazy.  But I did think while going down the road.

I was thinking about how this is my blog and I write what I want and how because it’s MY BLOG.  Sometimes people don’t understand I use sentences that run together and And @ the beginning of a sentence or aint because it suits my purposes.  (OK sometimes I don’t know any better but we can pretend I catch all my mistakes can’t we?)

I also use hyperbole, rhetorical questions, allusion, illusion, preparation h, simile, and ky jelly if necessary to get my point slid across.

I also tilt @ windmills, the rebel without a cause, I spawned two conservative children and I have NO idea how but they think I am nuts.  BUT I play Don Quixote sometimes here BECAUSE I CAN, because it’s MY BLOG!!  And yes I had to look up how to spell Quixote.

I know the last 3 paragraphs have nothing to do with thanksgiving but I thought of the ky jelly line and it seemed too good not to share? I also thought of a blog post about how I lack the farming gene and my families ability to tell the crop and planting date of any field while I’m doing good to even notice them much less identify them but we will save that for another day.

What I’m grateful  for Thanksgiving day 2009:

The ability to blog and to read others blogs and my dear friends I’ve “met” blogging.

The free internet, news services, and press we have in this country.

Of course family and friends, I do have friends, I was just having trouble remembering some of their names because I hadn’t seen them since July?  LOL

Our family having survived the ups and downs of the previous year.  It’s been triumph and tragedy.  Some lost companies because of lost contracts through no fault of their own.  Some lost jobs because they were too temperamental.  (sorry if I scoff @ that one, they spoke up and told the truth and it hurt so they lost their job, imagine my relative having a big mouth? Moi?)  It was over a year ago that I started but I worked outside the home @ a job for the first time in 19 years.   Anyway I did a “real” job and I took orders from people and was a good employee which is not easy after years of “self” employment.  My husband also got a “job” for the first time in 20+ years when he leased his truck onto construction.  From what I hear he was a model employee (except for the time he asked permission to knock somone’s block off from the foreman, foreman said OK?) and was always ahead of everyone else even though he was the oldest one doing what he did. We are back to self employed but you always “work” for someone, if you are boss you “work” for the employees sometimes I think.   Also my brother is shall we say a senior citizen, I don’t know if he’s in like in his second childhood or what (I have doubts he ever left the first) but for an old man he’s not old.  Maybe it’s the race car he has?  He doesn’t drive it anymore but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.  My husband is of an age where I remember my parents well and I was going through my teenage rebellion.  He’s not old.  I’m thinking we are oblivious or just not aging like previous generations did (due to superior health care or the bilssful oblivion of many drug trips, JUST KIDDING)

Basically we have triumphed over adversity and turned around and made life better and realized what was important and what wasn’t  because of it and I’m thankful for the opportunity and the ability and the health to do it, especially during this time of financial difficulty.  (this is starting to sound like one of those bragging Christmas letters, little Johnnie is now the president of the cub scouts in North America and little Sally has been voted high school prom queen while in kindergarten and they will both attend Yale next year on a full ride scholarship, those kind of letters)

I’m grateful for my home and the ability to not live too close to people most of the time.  I’m grateful for all the “luck” and blessings that have enabled me to enjoy some(most) of lifes riches.

I’m grateful our relatives are still with us this year that were with us last year for the most part. I will miss Lester and Louella (my moms first cousin who married the widow of my dads best friend, got that?) because they were one of the links to my past.  I’m grateful that I was here when one of the closest family friends died.  I’m glad I got the opportunity to know our dog Mugsey.

I’m grateful I’ve sort of beat the fat genes that run in our family and have never seriously been over 160.  I shouldn’t say that because I will blossom (my brother has called me squatty body (say it it rhymes, he’s sometimes amusing, this isn’t one of those times) for years, we cant all be 6′4″ BRO!).  The last time I had a skinny woman ancestor was my great grandmother and her having no teeth may have had something to do with that?

I’m grateful for the man who is sleeping in my bed, (it’s my husband silly) and the dog who is sleeping in the chair, the dog sleeping on the porch, and the cat sleeping in the log cabin.

I’m grateful for the ability to overcome the health problems we have faced over the past year and the ability to “get healthy” disgusting and boring but we are doing it.  No drink, no smoke, no fatty foods, vegetables, very few sweets, sleep regularly, walk, drink water, blaaaahhhh.   BTW I never said I ever quit drinking, I’m the type of person who can have one and quit, or one potato chip.  I’m a sick sick puppy I know.  My husband will tell you how healthy he is and now he’s losing weight.  Did I mention the term ad nauseum?  I would never say those words? 

I’m grateful for the ability to go and stuff ourselves silly tomorrow with many of our close relatives and talk to the others. I am also grateful I can now distinguish most of  my grand-children’s voices over the phone and not call the boys by their mothers names which makes me NOT favorite grandma.  I’m also thankful we all have a way of making a living and/or our driving privledges left.  You know who I’m talking to.

Donnie Osmond won Dancing With The Stars and we missed it!  Sorry but I just couldn’t get behind Mya, I even sent a text vote for Kelley, first time I’ve ever done that and Johanna was GOOD and I think Derek is my nephew, that’s good and clean isn’t it?  When the show came on I thought it was the stupidest thing ever.  Now I’m usually pretty close with guessing how the judges are going to score the couples and how they will criticize them.  I know NOTHING about ballroom dancing or didn’t.  Just thought I”d throw that in there.

I’m grateful I learned how to spell quixote.

I’m on an angels on twitter list! Thanks Starlingpoet!  My family would say if she only knew me……..

I’d better quit.

Happy TURKEY DAY amigos!!

I wrote about Dispatches truck trip on animals that give pause.

Oct 3, 2009

Interesting first lines of blog descriptions I found while looking for blog listing services.

We provides info about

How to shoose

Photos of place I have been

If you need to make younger,

This blog will present you how to

help you to make your finance more better

We helping Blogger in many part

Do you see anything wrong with them?

The dog just crawled up in my lap because it’s thundering, he’s not too skittish during storms but out Golden Lab was terrified so the bichon is a little leery of them. He’s not normally a cuddly dog unless he’s tired or afraid. I just realized how much he was like a child wanting comfort and wondering if I would need the feeling of the warm small thing needing me for the rest of my life. I was even the teenager who took the babies out of church so their mothers could enjoy the service, and I could get out of church to talk to one of my friends who invariably went out to help me. To see more of the dog go to Animals that give pause of course.

I just had to look up how to spell intubation. I intubated a man once who was in a coma. Just thought I’d throw that in there.  For some reason I just remembered it.

My grandson (I can write about him here because I am like 99% sure his friends don’t read this blog) sent me a text  earlier today about guns and trucks and wild pigs, fun things. We text quite a bit, he was being facetious and he is quite popular but once he said he was so cool he just text his mom, his grandma, and one friend?  He’s 15.  Remember I was a child bride and I do mean child so I can have a 15 year old grandson.

I took a walk with the dog earlier.  Evidently the walk improved the dogs digestion and he passed gas. He is a little white puffball but his gas smells like a chemical plant, probably hair dye mixed with a bit of sewer gas and smelling salts mixed in.  Hard to believe he can make an odor like that.

Dog and I just reached an important agreement after long negotiations. He can lay flat on my lap without being supported and held close to my body with my left arm, I mean it’s possible in his world, probably only temporarily though.

October 17, 2009 (forgot to post this before)

Since husband will be home tomorrow and he only gets one day a week off I try to devote it to him.  I know—– I know— gag me with a spoon—– but he works hard.  So I write a post or two ahead and if I’m not totally brain dead from our usual breakfast out on Sunday I will post them.  Speaking of eating breakfast out we went to Golden Corral last Sunday.  I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to seriously p anyone off but I’m not skinny, I wear between a 6 and a 10 and I’m 5′4″ and there were maybe 3 people out of everyone in Golden Corral that were skinnier than me and that’s giving two of them the benefit of the doubt and the other one was a teenager!  It was weird, made me feel good but also led me to believe I could eat those 3 plates, yes I did.  Also made me wonder about the general health of America?

Train of thought:

I’m sure you all have seen the  She’s a Very Freaky Girl commercial?  That always makes me think of Little Miss Sunshine (the movie, strange but it grows on you) which makes me think of the little girls grandpa trying to “help” her ou with her dance routine by choosing Superfreak for the music for a little girls beauty contest, the song and dance routine weren’t too well received.  It reminded me of my daughter coming in the house one day (we lived by her grandpas business, my father) and proudly saying Grandpa taught me how to siphon gas.  I got a little closer to her  and asked what exactly did you do for grandpa, she said sucked on the hose to get the gas out. Of course we laughed and laughed.  Please don’t think my father was a mean man but he was a horrible practical joker.   My daughter was no worse for the wear either.  But that is why Superfreak reminds me of siphoning gas.  Grandpa did something “good”.

And my grandsons!!! Semi big deal in our county, OK it’s the biggest deal besides the occasional unexpected explosion or the tourists coming in April or leaving in September.  Oh yeah the Fairs, demolition derbys and beer gardens are pretty big deals too.

This is the FIRST and only time that brothers have won Apple Festival King two years in a row.  Of course most people don’t have kids 15 1/2 months apart either.

Zach and his Queen last year

Marcus and his Queen 2009 Apple Festival

Zach, Marcus, Jacob, and Sara

Story also on Animals That Give Pause and Missouri Books and my old animals blog on blogger, in other words Grandma is braggin!  And the whole family is very proud and happy, I just emailed and twittered, I’m working on facebook.

You can read about the triple murder of the members of the Leutjen family here.
The Suspect is apprehended here.

It seems the murder suspect is Donnie and Sharon’s nephew and they are speculating the motive was robbery. Does this make us feel any safer in our homes around here. Maybe a bit. I know if my nephew wanted money all he would have to do is ask, I’d probably tell him I’m broke but it would be close to the truth. I still lock the door when I’m in the other end of the house. Don’t know if this botched robbery was because of the economy or just plain greed. I can’t see how the nephew thought he was going to fence anything (most of Donnie’s collections were quite famous, hard to fence stuff like that) or that Donnie would just keep money laying around the house but maybe there’s more to it than that. They are still looking for other suspects or actually they said “We have evidence that links at least one more, if not multiple suspects to this homicide.”

I’m lucky in that I have police officers living next door and we all work different shifts that change, like we have anything worth stealing but……. I know my security system works because the kids have came to the house unexpectedly more than once and been VERY surprised, IE I call the house and ask them what they are doing there or someone comes in in the middle of the night demanding to know WHO’S THERE. Also being known as slightly crazy and having a temper doesn’t hurt either?

So I’ve booked way too much into the next two weeks so my blogging will be on hold mostly. Suddenly realized my drivers license was up for renewal, need birth certificate here in MO now, need to get it because I spent two hours looking for it and nada, nothing. Wienie roast, need to clean house, trip to dentist, and there’s that work thing that keeps getting in there.
Got the lawn mowed, yey me!!! but it will need it again soon because we have had like 2 real days totally without rain. Oh yeah, my daughter is coming to visit and I’m squeezing a short trip in there? Mountains of laundry, have to go pick up a vehicle……. better get busy. It’s good to be able to walk and do again though! Here’s the scoop on my bloodclot on that on Animals That Give Pause, this is the most recent post.

Just when you think life will go on like it is it changes. I’ve been waxing rather philosophical lately and there is a reason. My life or my future has changed drastically in the last month or so. I hesitate to write about it because I don’t want to jinx it but as Monaliza has pointed out in her blog Hypnotic Visualization I have to own my life and dreams and visualize positive things. Also it’s funny but my friend SquirrelQueen posted about a river today and how it ebbs and flows like our own lives on The Road To Here today. When Monaliza commented on my beautiful garden home it was all the more poignant because I knew I would be leaving it.

What’s the big change, it’s all good, the answer to our prayers actually. Husband has a new job. The problem, it’s 700 miles away right now and possibly further later on. The benefits? Retirement, excellent pay, being able to pay our BILLS (notice capitalization!) and save, we will get to see each other every day, husband won’t have to fight for truck loads and drive all night on icy roads as I stress. The drawbacks, it’s so far away from friends family and home although I’ll get to come home often. We had just decided to bite the bullet and we both work after being in business for ourselves for years then this job comes along and it’s just too good to pass up. We have family here (police officers next door!) that will take care of the house and probably one of the kids will move into it. If so we will build a new one that is smaller and more sensible (we will probably build a shop or storage building and move out of this house so the kids can really use it) but we were just getting this one whipped into shape after being gone 2 years cleaning up after hurricanes. I won’t have to work but will do something because I’ve always helped my husband in his business. We have a really nice 5th wheel to live in while we are away from home that we bought while cleaning up after hurricanes.

So life changes. I never thought I’d be thinking about building a new house, that part isn’t set in stone yet but it’s a possibility (the first time I’ve even considered it). I’ll be @ home most of the summer, we are doing this all gradually, planning the smart way for once. As my daughter told my husband (her stepfather) “it’s too good a job, no complaining and no quitting and could you take my husband too?” His daughter told him he could always step in a pile of poop and come up with a rose. Old saying in case you aren’t familiar with it. Hopefully all 7 kids will come visit us often. I’ll still be blogging, the younger dogs will come with us, the cats and older dog will have to stay here (6 cats in a camper don’t work no matter how big it is) but there will be people here they are all used to so it will be fine. Life changes and stays the same. What stays constant is the people who truly matter.

Ok, I’m on Twitter first of all, my name is TCblogger. So far I’ve found my cousin and my niece and am following some lady from Canada who is a life coach? We will see how that goes?

I have a job, a 40 hour a week job, I might not HAVE to work now that my husbands business is doing better but every little bit helps and he has the impression that I like my job. OK, I have stories to tell him when I come home but I find myself counting the hours and minutes till I can leave, the days till my next day off and so forth. Since I’ve had this job housework has been kept to a minimum. Since there are only two of us and two dogs here in the house it doesn’t get very dirty. BUT I know what a CLEAN house looks like. I just don’t remember how to get there.

I ran my husbands business for like 3 years, had a lady come in and clean house one day a week and then I did yard work, laundry, extra cleaning, and cooking, kept me busy. Then we lived in a 35 ft camper and then a 38 ft camper for a couple years while in MS and FL cleaning up after hurricanes which I could just about clean with q tips in a day. Then I did ebay and stayed @ home and cleaned when it needed it. Then ebay dried up and I got a real job, I’ve worked outside the home many times before and @ jobs that required longer hours but now I just come home and plop down and read, blog, take a bath, put a few clothes in the washer, make sure the animals are fed and go to bed if husband isn’t home. So I guess I will have to slow down on the reading and the blogging if I want a clean house?

What caused this sudden interest in cleaning house? My daughter has a “friend” she is bringing home, daughter is 33 (I really was a child bride) and they are coming for mothers day. He has a mother but lives much closer to her than my daughter lives to hers. I just can’t see the 2 TVs sitting in the family room, my husbands desk full of paperwork, the small refrigerator that is supposed to go somewhere that has had it’s home on the bench by the door, or any of the outside junk by the back door (shovel, battered imitation wrought iron table with dead plants on it, garbage can, storage box for gardening stuff, cat shelf, ancient bar b que grill) impressing my daughters “friend”? Much less the dog needs brushed, his nails clipped and I have to lay out clothes for tomorrow and get to bed! We won’t even talk about the second guest room which is full of stuff from the camper we moved out of or the extra room off the kitchen which is supposed to be a sewing room, right now it’s called the library, that doesn’t mean the books are on shelves, it does mean the jeans that need thrown away or patched are in there and all my extra baskets, movies without a home, and the dog and cat food sits right inside the door. Glorified messy closet. Anyway here’s pictures of my living room,

I’m proud of it, there are muddy cat paws prints on the windows though in the dining room, egads!!! Does anyone have any suggestions? Just get up and do it? I think it’s the energy thing that has me stalled out?

BTW my panic may be caused by unrealistic expectations, I just don’t seem to be able to find the dividing line between clean and dirty, a happy medium. I used to clean my Venetian Blinds weekly when I was very newly married, like WASH them. I used to bleach my white painted kitchen cabinets and kitchen linoleum weekly not too long ago, I realize I went too far then, I just want to get some of that ability back? Now sometimes I don’t run the dishwasher all the way through weekly? Just rinse till I get a full load. The guest room closet has things in it from about 4 people who don’t live here but store their stuff here and part of it is on the floor, pardon me my grandkids extra clothes are in there too….. Help!!

I came home from work Thanksgiving eve to find the turkey breast done in the slow cooker thanks to my daughter, my nephew and youngest stepson were also here. We aren’t talking teenagers here, stepson was the youngest and he is 25. We had a really good talk about family etc., my stepson echoed most of our thoughts in that his childhood wasn’t idyllic when he was living it, his stepmother was known for sneak attacks for one thing, catching him doing something wrong and punishing immediately, imagine the horror!! LOL But after being around others who came from TRULY dysfunctional homes or abusive situations we all realized how very lucky our lives had been. We all sat around recalling memories and analyzing the latest member of the family we thought needed analyzing.

This isn’t a sales pitch but it involves a website for ads something like craigslist. It’s the brainchild of my cousin with embellishments by me. MOADS4U came about because we were tired of being pushed around by Ebay and wanted something for locals and beyond. Right now it’s a little rough but it does work. Collectively we have 20 years of computer and web experience. My cousin is the web person, I’m more of an OS hobby person, I think networking is fun? We’ve been on ebay for 6 years, been power sellers, I want my feedback on my tombstone, that’s how good it is.

What does this have to do with family (I can sense the stifled yawns right now)? My cousin and I have been friends for all of our lives, best friends. We never had to think about it, we always had a best friend. She had a sister who was quite a bit younger and we both had older brothers but we were always best friends. We aren’t even first cousins, her mother and my father were first half cousins (and were always there for each other, all of the old diaries from the 30s and 40s have the two families getting together around the wood stove playing board games and then playing in the snow or that’s how it seems). On the site MOADS4U the top pictures are her grandpa, a old bus or car, a bank building which was the office where we both worked for awhile (it was the office for my husbands trucking company then), her mother as a girl (my surrogate mother when I needed one), and a creek which was known as Uncle Sam’s (not the guy on the poster, Uncle Sam White who used to own it). The creek was a magical place with a rope to swing off of, a log to sit in the water on or dive off of till the next flood washed it away, a gravel bar for fires and wiener roasts. Back in the 70s before pollution or keeping babies away from life was thought of I took my oldest daughter swimming there when she was only 5 months old, she LOVED it and was surrounded by all the town kids who had come down to the swimming hole to cool off. The water ran through miles of woods and fields, it wasn’t chlorinated but if it had rained that summer it was fairly clean. We’ve taken her children there, they think it’s great but REALLY like the pool. LOL

We started the website together after doing websites for many people around the country. We share that and a view (my cousin lives next door, down the road if you will) dogs (my dog races their car when they come home and their dog is always here when I come home) and sometimes vehicles. Our lives have paralleled with first marriages that were “forever” to guys who were friends and had some drug problems shall we say. We both grew tired of the lying and just general craziness being married to those two brought. We both ended up getting divorced although hers was more drawn out and mine was faster, she had 3 kids, I had two, we acquired 2 and 5 stepchildren with our second marriages. We were remarried within 2 weeks of each other to a cop and a truck driver although they are so much more than that. Her cop is a gunsmith @ heart and my truck driver is a farmer @ heart (BTW they aren’t perfect but we don’t wonder what they are up to most of the time). Our children whether natural or step have done us proud which is probably a mid western term but that’s how it is.

All of this talk of family the other night (we stayed up till 2 am, STUPID when we had to get up @ 7 am and start cooking and go to the train station) reminded me of our childhoods and while not totally idyllic by today’s standards they were almost so. We rode horses and rode horses, sometimes with saddles, more often not, one Indian Pony we could ride without a bridle and jump on him from behind. We broke a pony for the neighbor and it ended up rolling over on me, luckily it didn’t weigh hardly anything. We took my pony in an old abandoned log cabin and then discovered there was a cellar that wasn’t too sturdy under the pony, all was well and good but that was probably the stupidest thing we did. We swam with the horses and on occasion my pony would chase us, she wasn’t known for her pleasant temperament (biting, chasing, and rearing were more here style than nuzzling) (we probably should have been killed @ some point from being thrown off a horse but we figured out how to roll in a ball and relax and could be tossed with the best).

We climbed every roof on the farm except where our parents could see us climbed to the peak, slid down, and then jumped off, luckily it was only like 10 ft to soft grass but it still wasn’t smart (all the falling or being bucked off of horses came in handy probably). We explored another abandoned house in the woods (was actually my great aunts but I didn’t know it @ the time), my cousin had a broken arm and we took the nails out of the window panes and put the panes of glass in when we climbed out then they promptly fell out and broke. The house was full of awakening black snakes and others in the spring which gave us both a horrible lifelong fear of snakes, the walls had been insulated with mud and straw and I guess it was a good place for them to hibernate. We ran to a door which turned out to be a cellar with steps going to nowhere but a pool of water and bones from animals that had fell in the cellar window and not been able to get out. SPOOKY!! LOL especially for 11 or 12 years old! Where were our parents? Our mothers were doing something in the house with their bouffant hairdos and flowery dresses or Capri’s, as long as we didn’t have to go to the doctor when we got back and our clothes weren’t in tatters we were OK as long as we were GONE and we would just show up for meals. Our fathers were in my dads mechanics shop in overalls (our dads were both big men, not tall but both dark and burly, spoiled us but we did what they said when they said it) working on something or another or exchanging stories with Sunday loafers around a wood stove with bottles of pop in glass bottles, sometimes we played in the shop, whirled each other around with an automotive belt while the other one was on a mechanics stool with wheels and then LET GO! We grew up with tales of how the moon would spill it’s magic out if a quarter moon was tipped or how the Spaniards had abandoned some treasure long long ago. The first one nobody really believed the second one no one ever found the treasure and I think it’s long gone if it ever was there, a form of that story exists almost everywhere. We had annual beginning of summer and end of summer cookouts @ the creek with swimming parties where our parents actually would get wet and quit fussing about all the work they had to do. When my husband and I were cleaning out 50 year old hay etc. out of the barn last winter we found the trivet device my dad had made for those cookouts (actually he made it for cooking while hunting I think but my mom put a stop to the 26 foxhounds he had @ one time). Our cookouts were kool-aid, fried potatoes always and hamburgers or fried eggs and they always tasted GREAT. We went exploring @ my cousins farm also to old abandoned mines filled with water that we threw rocks in and speculated on their depth and whether their were bodies in there, exotic names like the Ouchita, signs of mans work in the woods abandoned and grown over. We got older and rode in her brothers old cars and wondered which of his friends might be boyfriend material. Then marriages and children came, working and hoping and surviving, now we are both grandmothers.

I’m hopefully able to look back with fondness and ahead with zest although the zest is hard to conjure up some mornings,we are not OLD yet though. My cousin would abhor the thought as she is only a year younger, OK a year and 43 days, but we do have a treasure trove of memories and history. Actually our parents were both older than normal for the 50s and 60s so we are of an age when we remember our parents best. I don’t think we are totally unique in our relationship but life has given us each someone to lean on and remember with (what brought this on was trying to remember if we cleaned Aunt Betty’s house for her one day and WHY we cleaned Aunt Betty’s house, which used to be Uncle Oscars and had a huge screened in porch, was once a log cabin and was by a creek, I thought I can ask Peggi if she remembers!). I look on our website as a modern day quilt made by two cousins, friends, sisters, however you want to qualify our relationship. A few stitches here, a blog there, a scrap of fabric here, a new ad there….. and life goes on.