Wow! It's windy!

Wow, it's windy. David called me today to warn me about the wind when driving over the mountain from Charlottesville to Waynesboro. I told him I had been feeling the wind all the way up, especially in North Carolina. When I passed Charlottesville, there was a sign up about high winds. When I got near Waynesboro, I understood what they meant. I was very glad to arrive safely.

Ella is beautiful, of course. It took her a few minutes to warm up to me, but we'll have the next two weeks to play and get to know each other again.

I'm sorry about my last post. I thought I had it fixed for photos. I'll work on it tomorrow and maybe get them up.

One of the fun things today was meeting Kenju. We had lunch together at Bob Evans on I-95. I appreciate so much her coming. The weather was windy. She said that while she was driving to the restaurant, her husband called and said that a tree had blown over, and the power had gone off. After talking for two hours, we said good-by. I came on to Virginia, and she was on her way back home.

April 15, 1979

Easter Sunday 1979. We thought we had three weeks before the baby would be born. Because I had had my labor induced with Sarah because of toxemia, I had not experienced going into labor, and so on Saturday when I had a few twinges, I did not recognize the beginning of labor. When I woke up on Sunday morning, everything started in motion. We called the doctor, Don took Sarah to my mother's, and we headed to the hospital.

We arrived there around 7:30, and David arrived at 10:59 Easter Sunday morning. What a gift! My friend, who I knew was working that day at her office because her family had an accounting firm and I called her there later sent me a card that said, "Well, this year he's the Easter bunny. From now on he'll be known as 'Form 1040.'"

I had made Sarah's Easter dress that year, so our Easter celebration came a week later when we all went to church together. David wore a newborn outfit that Sunday, and I believe that it was the only Sunday that he wore that outfit.
My little boy with his set of wheels. After this auto he moved up to the General Lee Big Wheel. His sister was pushing him around the pool one day when he went into the pool. He told his daddy, "I went all the way down to the drain."

Where do the years go? They grow up so quickly. The song "Turn around, turn around" speaks of the little girl who grows up and is so quickly gone. They same is true for the son. Four of my blogging friends who have children who are graduating or getting ready to graduate from high school or college. I love reading their posts about their children and think back to those days. I sometimes go to my kids' high school basketball games and when I watch the parents who are there enjoying their children's games, I encourage them to relish every day because it passes so quickly.

David played baseball in Little League and a year in high school. He also played basketball in high school. His team went to state his senior year, and they were state runner- ups in their division. This year his team gathered together in December for a 10-year reunion. This summer his high school class will have its ten-year reunion.

Penn State was David's school of choice. He had gone to a small Christian high school, and he desired to go to a big university, and he didn't want to stay in Florida. So with the help of my mother's gifts to him, a few loans, and some help from mom and dad, off he went to Penn State. There he got a degree in engineering, became involved in a campus ministry, and after graduation worked for three years as a campus minister at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. And, oh yes, during that time, he married Sabrina, whom he met at Penn State while she was there working on her Master's degree.

Now living in Virgina, he is teaching eighth grade math and is the father of Ella, the cute little girl whose picture I keep posting on this blog.

My son has grown from a cute,loving little boy into a young man who has always made his parents proud. He is intelligent, articulate, caring about others. He adores his wife and daughter, but most of all he loves God and seeks to please Him by his life.

Happy birthday to you, David, my wonderful son. I love you so much.

Oh, my, I've been tagged.

SRP, over at Melange, surprised me greatly by nominating me for the Thinking Blogger award. I'm pleased but very surprised. When I read the posts of others, I ooh and aah over their eloquent writing and deep thoughts, and then I look at mine and think to myself that they don't begin to compare. But I love this blogging business. It has helped me chronicle for my children my past and my present and meet so many new friends.

I have the responsibility now of naming five bloggers whom I think fit this category.

1. The Doctor Is In is Dr. Bob's blog. He is a physician who lives in the northwest who writes about religion, medicine, politics, pets, and passion in life. I come away from his posts often thinking about present-day issues, often comforted, and always informed.
2. Passions of the Soul is Vicki's blog. She is an advocate for Compassion, the organization that encourages sponsoring needy children in poorer countries. If you go to her blog, you will truly feel her passion for these children. She has sponsored several girls in the Dominican Republic and has been to visit them several times. She and her husband recently adopted a dog, a beagle whom they renamed Bailey, thus Beagle Bailey. That made me smile.
3. Heavenly Heartburn is written by Gordon Cloud in Cairo, Georgia. A Southern Baptist pastor whose posts sometimes speak of our southern culture. Once he posted about "pot liquor." I asked him if he hadn't misspelled it. I thought it should be "pot likker." He said that he wanted the northern folks to know what he was talking about. His posts make me feel like he is my pastor sometimes. One of these days I'm going to Cairo, Georgia to meet him and his family and worship at his church.
4. Dappled Things is Bet's blog. Bet teaches journalism in Greenville, South Carolina. Having gone to college in Greenville, I enjoy reading her posts. She has had beautiful spring photos this year which have brought back many memories. She has a miniature schnauzer named Barnie, who is just about the cutest dog I've ever seen. She has a sister who lives in Staunton, Virginia who is not too far from my son.
5. Breathing Deeply is a blog I found recently though a cystic fibrosis forum. Those of you who have read my blog know that my granddaughter Ella has cystic fibrosis. Lauren is a young woman in California who has CF. She is a writer, a scientist, and a real support and inspiration to me as she writes about her daily life with CF. She also has a site, Pools of Grace, where she regularly posts devotional thoughts she has written.

The participation rules of the award are simple:
1) If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think
2) Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3) Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

I hope you will visit these blogs. Tell them I sent you.

Nostalgia

I tried to post a few days ago, and for some reason my photos did not appear as I planned, so hopefully they will today. As most of you know, or maybe you don't, I'm a Florida native. Born in the little town of Lacoochee, hence the name of my blog, my parents moved to Bradenton right after World War II was over in 1945. I like to tell people I was a babe in arms, but I was actually four. Bradenton was a little town, a wonderful place to grow up. Some of us get together for lunch and talk about our carefree days as kids, and how we could go anywhere and be safe. So much as changed as we've progressed. I sometimes wonder if it is really progress.

As I get older, I think back and remember my grandparents' homes and how they were. They other day I stopped in at our historical park here. I hadn't been there for a while, and when I stepped onto the grounds, many memories filled my mind. One of the first stops is the Wiggins general store. When I was a little girl, this was indeed a store in east Bradenton, and upstairs were apartments. My mother and daddy had some friends who lived in one of those apartments and would visit them there.

I think Cracker Barrel must have driven by here and gotten the idea for the front porch of the restaurant, although I know this scene is repeated many times over in the south. A general store was a wonderful meeting place, so much to see and do, and to catch up on conversation with friends.

Anything that one needed could be found in one place, and the person who ran the store probably had a story to tell as he served you there. There was no such thing as prepacked goods here. Wrapped in brown paper, tied with some string, you were soon ready to take your purchases and be on your way.

I googled general store and had fun looking at some of the websites for stores around the country. One that caught my eye is in Floyd, Virginia. I might have to take a trip there when I get to Virginia. Another one that might be on my way sometime is in Dillard, Georgia. That is a fun place to visit on the way to the mountains.

Wikepedia made the statement that the convenience stores have sort of taken the place of the general store. I don't think so.

Happy Easter!

A very blessed resurrection day to all! He is risen! Hallelujah!

I've been without my computer for a few days, so I haven't checked in on everybody. Hopefully, I'll have it back, perhaps by this afternoon. I'm at my daughter's house right now, using hers. I look forward to catching up on everyone's doings. Till later.

This week's focus

If you've been by lately, you'll see that I'm having trouble posting photos. SRP gave me her solution, and it didn't work for me when I went in. I'll try again later.

I'm thinking that perhaps my focus should be elsewhere. Last night in choir practice as we were going over our music for Easter Sunday, I was again awed by God's love and His supreme sacrifice for the world and for me. One of the songs we are singing is "I Stand Amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene." We're not singing the melody sung from the hymnal, so I was forced to look at and think about the words on the page. It is a love that we cannot begin to understand, but it is love that I have accepted. It is that love and grace that has sustained me through the hard times that have come my way.

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Frustrated

I've been trying to post with a photo, and all I get is a square with the little red box. I originally posted, the photo was there, and then when I went to my blog again, the photo had disappeared, and the box appeared. Does anyone know what I did wrong? I followed the normal procedure for uploading...also tried it from Picasa. Boo-hoo.

Don't Mess With Me Today

What started out as a beautiful day just went south.

But before I rant, please take time to read this post over at Pondering Penguin. Karen writes so thoughtfully about Elizabeth Edwards and the recent announcement of her recurrence of cancer.

Cancer is such a hideous disease, isn't it. Vicki wrote recently of a young woman just turning 20, who is faced with needing a bone marrow transplant because of leukemia, and undergoing harvesting of eggs for future use because in all probability she would not be able to conceive after all the treatments. That's not what a 20 year old should be facing.

In our church, there is a gentleman who has just turned 70, who is battling cancer, and he's not winning. It started out in his tongue, is now in his throat, practically strangling him, and there isn't much left to be done. He and his wife have a daughter who is developmentally delayed, nearing 50 years of age, and that burden is heavy. Yes, arrangements are made, but the worry is still there.

But then there is Ben, who survived his ordeal this last year, and Anthony, who, so far, is doing well after his bone marrow transplant. While there's breath there's hope, n'est-ce pas.

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Spring training is almost over. I smiled when I read B.C. this morning.

I have a ticket for one more game this week, and then the boys of summer will be headed north to begin the regular season of baseball. The month of spring training is all too short. Along with the boys going north, will be many of the snowbirds who migrate back to their homes in the north. Some of them will be missed; some won't. Our roads will be less crowded, but the restaurants and businesses who depend on tourism will be wishing they were still here.

When my daughter was getting ready for college, we went to North Carolina to finish her registration for fall. We traveled back to Florida on Saturday, April 1. I'm so glad we were coming south. Going north on I-75 was a steady stream of cars, RV's, campers, boats. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have never believed it. It was as though the state was being evacuated, and in a way, it was. The kids and I wished them all a good trip. That migration will soon be taking place again.
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Now for my RANT. For those of us who live in Florida, homeowner's insurance is a touchy subject. I remember crying when our premium doubled to $600.00. That was many years ago.
The Allst*te pulled out of our area, saying that we were high risk, and some company took over. They got their increase, pulled out, and so on and so on. Last year I paid $2500, and I complained. My premium this year? With yet another company...$4138.00. I submitted a payment of over $1000. Just one little mistake...I left off the fifty cents after the decimal point. So today I get a notice of cancellation if they don't have their fifty cents before April 4. I'm going to pay whatever postage it takes to send it in pennies. That just makes me SO MAD.

Make New Friends, but Keep the Old

I know that anyone who was ever in Girl Scouts learned that song, along with Kookaburra, and other rounds sung in troop meetings. What a wonderful time that was. The photo above was probably taken around 1950 when we were in fifth or sixth grade. Most of us in that troop had begun scouting together as Brownies. Many of them went on in high school to become Mariner Scouts. The neat thing is that many of us who are in that photo still get together for lunch about once every three months, not just as former Girl Scouts, but as friends who went to school together from kindergarten through high school.

After I graduated from college, I lived in Cincinnati for five years and taught there. I have very fond memories of my years there, but after teaching there, I traveled to Haiti and lived for three and a half years and taught the children of missionaries. Most of those missionaries have retired now, and many of them live here in Bradenton at Bradenton Missionary Village, a community provided by Anthony Rossi, the founder to Tropicana Products. Whenever someone comes to visit, we take that opportunity to get together and visit.

Such was the case last Thursday. One of the missionary ladies who lives in New York came to the Orlando area to visit her son and daughter-in-law who have recently moved here. We met together for a pot-luck lunch, and as usual the stories began to be told by the men. They have the tales to tell.

As I look at these photos, I think of all the years of service that these folks gave. Most of them spent their entire adult lives in ministry to others. Some are now widowed, some are not in good health, but they rejoice in God's goodness in their lives. I have always counted it such a privilege to know them and to have had a part in the education of their children, many of whom are missionaries as well.

These are the "old friends."
I'm so happy for the "new friends" that I've met through the blogging community - SRP, AC, Coll, Karen, Debra, Judy, Tammy, Susie, Vicki, Vickie, Janice, Pastor Gordon, Lauren, Bet,Ron and the list continues to expand. My day is made brighter by visiting your blogs, sometimes lurking, often commenting. Thanks.

Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
New-made friendships, like new wine,
Age will mellow and refine.
Friendships that have stood the test -
Time and change - are surely best;
Brow may wrinkle, hair grow gray,
Friendship never knows decay.
For 'mid old friends, tried and true,
Once more we our youth renew.
But old friends, alas! may die,
New friends must their place supply.
Cherish friendship in your breast-
New is good, but old is best;
Make new friends, but keep the old;
Those are silver, these are gold.
Joseph Parry

A Day at the Park

On the first warm (a relatively loose term) day in March, Ella made her first trip to the park with her mommy and daddy. A great time was had by all. The park is not far at all from David and Sabrina's house. In just a few weeks, after our Sweet Adelines competition in Daytona Beach, I'll be driving to Virginia to stay for a while. I look forward to making visits to the park to watch the ducks and whatever else may be there.

Of course, I can hardly wait to see this darling baby again, as you all well know. Don't you love her hat?

A year later

A year ago I posted about Ben, a young man living and working with his wife in Columbia, South Carolina. Their lives were forever changed that day when Ben was taken to the hospital, talking funny. The result was that he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, which had invaded his body and caused a stroke. This note from his wife:

Well, today is a day of mixed emotions for us. Exactly one year ago today
I received a phone call from Ben's boss at my job telling me that he was talking
funny, so they'd taken him to the emergency room. From there our lives
spun madly out of control and you all know the rest of the story. But
today marks a year that Ben has survived when he was only given a 50% chance, so
praise to God that he's still with us and doing so well.
You all have been an amazing support and we
are looking forward to the start of a much better year--post cancer and dramatic
brain surgery etc. We pray that things will only get better from here!

This also is from Liza:

Ben's going to therapy every day and I think this week they'll be ordering the "Saeboflex" glove for him to use for therapy on his arm. Here's a link to more info about the glove:
http://www.saebo.com/seaboflex.html

Ben feels like his arm is improving, so that's encouraging. His occupational therapist did tell him that he will probably not get back fine motor skills such as typing or writing, so he should continue to work on doing those with his left hand. Please pray that he would be motivated to work on those skills even though it's a disappointment that he won't be able to do them with his right hand as he used to.
Ben received something called "A Ticket to Work" from the Social Security Administration which is supposed to give him free vocational rehab, so hopefully we are going to look into that this week sometime just to see exactly what the program is all about. He probably won't actually start until he's done with therapy since that's our main focus at the moment, and since he's still not really ready to get back into a job yet.

There's much here to be thankful for and much to pray for yet.

Thanks for all your comments

I asked David what he thought might have been going through his mind when that picture was taken. His answer? "I have no idea. It was posed." I remember looking out that kitchen window one day in October after the wind had blown all the leaves from the two big tree in their back yard, and I thought to myself that someone is going to have a lot of work to do. There were leaves on the trees in the morning, but by afternoon they had all come down.

I liked Anna's thought and some of you thought Mommy stuff as well. Anna was thinking that maybe Mommy was getting some time to herself, and David and Ella were watching her leave.

They looked rather serious to me. I know that Ella's CF is on my mind everyday, and I was wondering if David might be looking ahead, wondering what the future holds. One day when Ella's older she'll be asking questions about it all. OK, that's enough heavy stuff.

Thanks again for commenting.

What do they see?

I have several favorite photos of my granddaughter and her parents, and this is definitely one of them. Looking out their kitchen window, what do they see? What are they thinking? I have some thoughts, and I'll share them at a later time, but I'm going to take an idea from Carmi and some other blogs I've read and ask you your thoughts. What do you think might be going through their minds as they look out the window?

Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Part 2

The Pirates play at McKechnie Field in Bradenton. This field and seats were redone a few years ago, and instead of building a fancy, new facility out of town, they decided to stay here near downtown Bradenton. That made us all happy. Today the Pirates played the Tampa Bay Rays. Neither team has a stellar record. In fact, I don't believe either of them had won a game before today's game, and the Pirates beat them 5-2. It's going to be a long season.

I haven't seen too many young families here this week. I guess it isn't spring break up north yet, or else they're still frozen. At Monday's game, they announced the respective scores of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as being 25 and 20. Everyone laughed. Then the temperature of Bradenton was announced as being 70, and that brought cheers from everyone.
It's always fun having a friend along. My friend Peg and I have been friends since we were in elementary school. We lost touch for a few years ago, but we reconnected after she moved back to Bradenton. Monday we ate foot-long hot dogs; today we enjoyed a slice of pizza.

Spring training runs through the end of the month. The Yankees will be here Saturday. The Red Sox will be playing too. I don't have tickets for either of those games. I believe the Braves are coming too. AC, eat your heart out. I believe that game is sold out.

I intended this post to come second, and I tried publishing this one first, so that it would be on bottom, but I didn't succeed. Oh, well.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Part 1

March in Florida means baseball. It's that time of year when the boys of summer get together and practice for the upcoming baseball season. Bradenton is the winter home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. When I was growing up, the Boston Braves trained here, and later the Milwaukee Braves.

My parents were great baseball fans. My mother said when she married my dad that if she hadn't learned to love baseball, she would have been a baseball widow. Long after my father had died, she remained a fan, following the Atlanta Braves.

It's always fun to go to the games with a friend. There aren't too many young families here this week. It must not be spring break yet. But the old folks are there...those who are loyal to the Pirates, no matter what. It used to be when I went to the games, I recognized the names, back in the days of the Killer B's - Bonds, Bonilla, Bream, Bell and there was one other whose name escapes me. Kevin, the young man in the picture below is back this year. He's the "Whazzup" guy. For several years he was a vendor, and you got used to his familiar cry. He was away for two years and is back this year. Monday when I went to the game, he wasn't hollering out to the crowd. He ran up to where we were sitting and said that someone had complained about his being loud. Can you imagine?! Someone told him to tell his boss that they were going to give up their season tickets if they muffled him, so today he was hollering out again. We all smiled. Some people!

Good Luck Charms

My son and daughter-in-law gave me this print, Good Luck Charms, by P. Buckley Moss at Christmas time when they came to Florida. I have just had it framed and am so pleased how it turned out. I told them I'd send them a picture, so I thought I'd show it to you as well.

P. Buckley Moss lives in Waynesboro, Virginia where my son and his wife live. She also has a studio in St. Petersburg, just over the bridge. A dyslexic child, one teacher said that she would never amount to anything, but she had artistic ability.

She has become a role model for the learning impaired and frequently is asked to speak to special education classes. Donations of Moss' original works and prints to related children's charities have raised millions of dollars for their causes. Read more about her here.

I'm quite pleased with how the framing came out. The matting is just right. The frame's true color doesn't show here. It is a pewter gray.

Scary

I do believe blogging is gettig to me. I dreamed last night that I was at a concert, and SRP's brother was singing. Many of you follow her blog and know that Stephen is an opera singer. Later he was sitting among the audience, and I passed by him to get to my seat, and I stepped on his toe.

I excused myself, and we began talking. He spoke of his niece Nyssa. However, in the dream, he was much younger and thinner. He could really sing, though.

Crazy, huh?

So much for the accents

I think the previous post pretty much debunks the accent quiz. I took it and came out Southern, and that was after I changed some of my answers, hoping it would be Southern. Tammy and AC, who are from Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively, did not test out Southern. Colleen, in Canada, got mixed results. It was fun, though. Oh, well.

Have you taken this quiz?

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The South   That's a Southern accent you've got there. You may love it, you may hate it, you may swear you don't have it, but whatever the case, we can hear it.
The Inland North
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The Midland
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

One More Thing

I taught school for 36 years. Many teachers do not throw things away. I am one of those. You don't want to throw it away, for if you do, you'll need it tomorrow. If you've been reading this blog any time at all, you know that I am thinking of relocating to live near my son and his family. My daughter and I have decided life is too short; friends are wonderful, but family is where it's at. Because of Ella's CF, it is likely that they will stay where they are for a good while since they are so close to a certified CF clinic at UVA Children's Hospital.

I have lived in the same house for 30 years. My husband and I had it built when I was pregnant with my daughter. I'm now in the process of sorting through STUFF and discarding. We don't have basements here, so my garage has accumulated a lot of the STUFF. I can park my car in it at night, however.

Books, books, and more books. Many of them are children's books that I held on to primarily for any grandchildren who might come along. Some of them I've already sent to Ella for her ever-growing library...books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and some gems by Jan Brett and Mary Engelbreit. Yesterday I went out into the garage to pack up some more, and there were yet more.

I've always said that if I cleaned out a spot, more STUFF would just rise up to take its place.

When my husband died, I didn't dispose of his belongings right away. Little by little, I've gotten rid of things, but it's hard to let go. The first thing to go was the drawer of socks. Whenever I bought him new socks, they went into the drawer with the old ones until you could hardly close the drawer. I know it should have been my job to keep them culled out, but I didn't always.

There is a wonderful organization in St. Pete called D&D Missionary Homes, and they operate a clothes closet for missionaries who have need of clothing. When they're getting ready to go back to the mission field, they can go into the "store" and take as much as they feel that they can use for their next term of service. If they're going back to the field with small children, they can take clothes in graded sizes, as many as they think they need. So when I finally decided to take his clothes out of the closet, I filled a couple of suitcases full and sent them there.

Now that I'm getting serious about cleaning out STUFF, I looked in the closet this morning. There, hanging, were two suits that I had bought for Don in the early years of our marriage. They are in wonderful condition, and as far as I know, are not out of style. I loved them when I bought them, and I still do. I hope that someone passing through D&D Homes wears a 44 Long. They will find two nice suits.

When I lived in Haiti, clothing would come there in "missionary barrels." The missionary kids were funny when they talked about where they had gotten their latest fashions. Our field director was bemoaning the fact that he never got any suits because he said, "No one ever dies my size."

So, as I took the clothing to my church this morning, to be picked up and taken to D&D, I held those suits one last time, remembering.