New life, new friends and good times

Well just to keep you updated if anyone is actually reading this, I sold my house in Alabama and then bought a 3 bedroom house in TN.  My mom is coming to live with me.  She's alone, I'm alone so we'll be alone together, LOL.  It's taking me a while to move as I have to do it when I have time.  Work has been slamming me which is good in one way but bad in another, if you know what I mean.  Getting furniture again is something.  So expensive and I really have to rely on my friends to get it here when I don't buy in a store.  I still need a couch but things are looking better even though I don't have all the boxes and bags unpacked.

I had two dogs for a while but after I got them fixed (one was a female and the other was a male) the female went missing.  Another female showed up a few months later, a black lab mix, and I was going to keep her but she turned out to be more of an attack dog, she attacked the neighbors goats and I couldn't deal with that.  She also was snapping at me so I called the local dog catcher and they came and got her.  I still have the male dog, Buddy and he is a sweety.  I only had the one cat, Tikki, but when I was looking at houses there was one that had some kittens and one of them was black so of course I had to have him.  He is such a lovebug :)  He makes me laugh and I really needed to do that since I was under pressure with buying the house.  Now that I am in the new house, Buddy is outside and the cats are inside.  I tried to have Buddy in here but he decided that the carpet was yard and did his business several times even after being corrected about it and he chased the cats all over.  Like have wild kingdom in the house... so he is outside and he likes it out there.  Although he has to stop barking at the deer.  The guy that hooked up my internet was surprised at how happy Buddy was to see him.  Well he called him Buddy when he saw him so of course he's his friend now :)  Maybe I should have picked another name?

Getting everything out of the storage shed is a bummer.  There were mice in there.  They didn't get into my yarn thanks to having storage bins made out of cedar chips but they got into the cardboard boxes and pooped everywhere.  Such a mess.  Of course having everything in the shed for two years didn't help either but I am slowly cleaning things up and putting them away which is why it's taking me so long to get things put away here.

Well will close for now,
Hope you all have a good one!

Denise

Another death in the family

My father passed away on the 18th from a massive heart attack and stroke.  Not much I have to say about it.  I miss him very much and still grieving of course for my husband.  Life goes on.  Seems like it should stop or at least pause for a moment though.

Old family pics

I made up my yearly family calendars for Christmas and since I had the pics saved to my computer thought you might like seeing them.

This is my Aunt Dee

My Uncle Gene, Uncle Bob and my dad

My DH when he was little at Christmas.  Don't you just love that smile

This is my favorite pic of my brother and my cousin Jen.

This is my Grandma and Grandpa Snyder and some friends.  It was probably taken in the early 20's before they were married.

This is my other grandma, Grandma Wyse.

These are a litter of kittens our cat, Kiwi had.  She is pictured below.

This is my parent's dog, Lady.  They now have two Jack Russells.  Why yes they are sooooo much calmer than Lady was, why do you ask?  (little sarcasm there).

This is my Aunt Teena and one of her daughters, Jeanette.  Her other daughter is Jen (see photo above).  

This is me and my hubby at his brother's wedding.  Wow it's been close to 23 years ago now...Unfortunately the marriage didn't last for him and his first wife but me and hubby are still going strong!

Here I am at Christmas one year.  

The same Christmas. I got a phone!  and a Jack in the box.

This is our beloved cat, Molly who died this year. Really miss him.

There is Roxy when we first moved to our house. He had never seen a fireplace and it just amazed him.

l-r in back:  My mom, Aunt Jean, Uncle Bob and my dad.  Uncle Bob died this year.  He had Alzheimer's and was down to less than 100 lbs.  So sad.  He was a sweetie.  

The Wyse sisters:  Dee, Sylvia (Teena), Jean and my mom.  

This is my Uncle Gene.  He's my creative uncle.  Loves to make things and he loves owls too.

Hope you enjoyed seeing some of my family!

Family tree at Ancestry.com

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Been away from the blog for a while...

To update everyone on how much I've been doing...and how exciting my life is...

The chickens are laying again...a lot.  I have several dozen eggs in the fridge.  We eat eggs almost every day for breakfast and I even made some egg salad the other day for lunch.  I really don't want to eat them for supper too, really I don't.

We planted cabbages, peas, lettuce, basil, potatoes in the garden.  I guess too early cause guess what, we're getting a freeze tonight and tomorrow night...hmmm hope we don't lose the blueberries and grapes.  I wanted to cover them tonight but hubby said they should be OK since it's a light freeze so he can't blame me if they freeze and all the berries drop off.

Dad and mom called yesterday to let me know that they had to rush to the hospital cause mom was having chest pains at 1 a.m.  Turns out she has a hiatal hernia and not having a heart attack.

We close on some new property we are buying tomorrow.  5 acres of land in Tennessee!  No house on it but we are planning on building one or getting a trailer (I don't like trailers, been there, done that and don't want to do it again :)  Hubby was thinking we might just build a pole building and then do the inside like we want but he wants to have a garage door...what?  Anyway he says then it will be easier to move in the furniture and appliances.  Guess  you can't argue with that logic huh?

My brother is moving to New York.  Dad and mom finally got him on the phone, hadn't heard from him for over two weeks.  I had left a message a couple of days after he had called me drunk.  He's an alcoholic and fell off the wagon again.  Glad he's OK.  Wish he would get his act together.

Our geriatric cat is on his last legs I'm afraid.  He's dragging his back leg and peed on our bed the other day.      I couldn't yell at him or anything, he's so old.  If he gets any worse, we'll probably have to take him to be put to sleep.  As long as he's eating and drinking, we'll keep him and love on him as long as possible.  Had to give him a bath tonight though he stunk so bad (all the peeing I think).  He's good about going to the litter box usually though.  I have shut him out of the bedroom.  I had the devil of a time getting the top pillow top clean (we have an air bed) and the top zips off.  It is so bulky and barely fits in the washer.  I put it outside to dry.

Hubby has been sick  but won't go to the doctor until after we sign the papers for the land.  I'm calling the doc to make an appointment when he's outside tomorrow...sneaky huh?

I got one cross stitched picture done.  I need to take some pics of it.  It's a fruit label and I'm making quite a few others to go with it.  I think I will make a quilted hanging out of them.  I'm still working on several sweaters and a pair of socks as well.  I get bored with one project and go to another one.

Well that's all I can think of for now.  Hope you had a very nice Easter!

Denise

RIP Karen

  This is a pic of my sister in law Karen and her husband Mike.  She passed away this morning from transplant rejection complications.  She had suffered with Crohn's since she was a teenager.  She is in a much happier pain free place now living it up with her grandmother, mother and aunts. 

Been gone a long long time...

but I'm back at least for this post LOL.  I'm covering for people on vacation at work so blogging will be sporatic but I will be back with more photos soon!  Hope everyone had a lovely holiday and didnt gain too much weight snacking on all that wonderful homemade food.  Nothing much going on here just working and wondering how cold it can get without any ice or snow...hmmm.

Here's  an old photo from the 40's.  It has kind of crappy shadows but the people you can see from left to right are:  My aunt Dee, Great Aunt Jess, My Grandma.  The little girl in the front is my Aunt Teena.  We havent figured out who the goofy boy is in front but mom figures he's a cousin but she wasnt sure and neither was Aunt Teena.   Oh my how the mind goes after you hit 70 LOL.  Give them a few years and they will remember who it is and how he's related.  Arent the dresses they have on lovely?

Until next time, when my fingers will be nubs from all the typing I'm doing, this is Denise signing out!

More family photos

This is a pic of my granddad.  He is the handsome fellow in the middle.  Notice they are all smoking.  This must have been a special occasion since they seem to be wearing pretty nice clothes and they are standing in front of a mine.  My granddad worked in the coal mines probably when this photo was taken about the 1910-1920's. 

More family photos

I dug out an oldy but goody here.  This is my grandmother's family, the Andersons from the early 1900's.  My grandmother is the little girl in white in the front.  She was born in 1899.

More family holiday photos

I found some more!

This is my crazy brother and our dog Princess.  This was taken in the late 70's.

This is a pic of my mom's sisters.  Left to right:  Aunt Dee, Aunt Teena, Aunt Jean and my mom.  Yes they are all from the same parents...my mom takes after my grandfather's side of the family and she is the youngest.  This was taken around Easter but I'm just guessing since Aunt Teena is wearing a rabbit on her sweatshirt.

Christmas pictures

I thought I would post some family photos from holidays past so here we go.  Try not to make too much fun of our hair and outfits OK? LOL

This is the adult's table.  Left to right:  My Aunt Teena, my mom, Uncle Bob, Uncle Don, my dad, Aunt Dee, Aunt Jean and Uncle Gene is behind the camera.  Aunt Dee and Uncle Don are no longer with us.

This is the kid's table.  Didnt matter how old we got we had to sit at the kid's table LOL.  Left to right:  Scott (Jen's husband), Arielle (Jen's little girl), Jennifer (my cousin), my hubby, me and in front is Josh (Jen's oldest).  My brother, Jen's sister, and Linda and Pam (my other cousins).  Josh and Arielle are all grown up.  These pics were taken in the late 80's. 

I'll try to find some more.

Survival Without Electricity

When you lose electricity for whatever reason for a long period of time, the first thing you try to do is turn on the lights when it gets dark.  Click, click, no lights right?  You need some sort of light source.  Oil lamps are great and keeping extra oil is a wonderful idea.  Also you need matches or a lighter.  Matches are your best bet cause lighters run out.  Candles are another great idea.  Hopefully you have plenty of them.  Although I would suggest that you not light up a bunch of the scented ones especially if they are different scents.  Like Grandma said it will smell like a French Whorehouse.  Always wondered how she knew what one smelled like...:)  Also if you have those solar lights you use outdoors to line your walk, bring them in at night.  These would be especially good for people with allergies.  You might have to rig up something to hold them in of course.  I suggest a weighted vase with a hole that is just big enough to hold the light upright.  You (men) can always duct tape them to the wall if your wife isnt near...LOL.

Hopefully you dont have an all electric house like we do so you wont have to worry about cooking without the electric.  We were not prepared for this and had to run out and buy a little charcoal grill and charcoal.  You can find little charcoal grills for very little money.  You will need matches to start it though.  Our grill manufacturer did not recommend lighter fluid.  It can give your food a funny taste and singe off your eyebrows if you're not careful.  You can cook a lot of things on the grill so even if you are a vegetarian you can use a grill too.  We not only grilled meat but I also cut up apples put some butter on them put them in a piece of tinfoil and they came out soooo yummy.  We even did a pizza on the grill.  Just remember to leave off the top and not have flames shooting out ;)  You can even get a propane grill just remember in cases of natural disasters you might not be able to get your tank filled if the electric is out for more than a week.  I made sun tea everyday in a small glass bottle for myself. 

We still had water but of course our water heater is electric too so do everyone a favor and take a cold shower.  It's not going to kill you or you could do like one of my DH's co-workers and heat potfuls of water on the grill so his wife could take a hot bath.  Talk about henpecked!  DH asked me if I wanted him to ever do that and I said no I'll just pull up my big girl panties and deal with a cold shower.  DH did have a problem with shaving with cold water though.  We were surprised at how long the hot water stays hot in the tank.  We had warm showers for a couple of days after the electric went out.  Another thing we couldnt do was wash clothes in the washer so the kitchen sink became my washer.  I have a double bowled sink so I just filled up both sides with water, added soap to one side and had the other side for rinsing.  I have a clothesline outside so just hung up the clothes out there.  What gets your clothes clean is not the detergent itself, it is the action of the water flowing through the cloth and I usually wash our clothes in cold water anyway so this was not a big deal although my arms, wrists and hands were hurting the next day from all the wringing out of the clothes.  It is a good idea to start this early in the morning as it will take a while for the clothes to dry since manual wringing does not get as much water out as the washer can.

Washing dishes was another thing.  Just use your sink to clean them in.  If you dont have a double bowled sink find a big bowl or bucket to wash them in and another to rinse them in.  Having a couple of buckets handy is a good thing.  They are very useful and you will wonder how you ever survived without them after you have them.

With the electric off for more than a couple of days, you will have to think about your refridgerator and freezer.  Everything is going to thaw out.  If you cant eat everything, you need to throw things out.  Having a cooler with ice will save some things for you.  Make sure you get one that is high enough to store milk jugs or soda bottles upright.  Getting ice might be a problem as we found out.  There were runs on stores and gas stations.  Having some food in cans and jars is a good solution to this.  MRE's are good to have on hand if you dont have high blood pressure.  They are very high in sodium at least the ones I have seen and some people say that they arent that good compared to real food so that decision I leave up to you.  I'm going to be canning some soups and stews this fall so we can have them on hand in case of emergencies like the most recent one.  Another thing you might want to get is a manual can opener.  I know a lot of people have electric ones and that's fine but when you lose electric you will definitely need a manual one.  They come with bottle top openers and that sure is handy as well.  Spend a little money on a really good one as the poorly made ones can fall apart on you when you least expect it. 

We have an upright freezer and didnt open it for four days.  Things were cold but thawed so most everything we had to throw out.  You will need a place to store the garbage can cause it will stink.  Make sure if you have it outside to have something heavy on it so no critters can get inside.  One thing you dont want to have to do is pick all that up...ewww.  It might be a while before the garbage is picked up so make sure you bag everything, dont just throw it in the can.  It's messy for you but think of the garbagemen if nothing else.  You wouldnt want to pick it up if it fell out of your garbagecan unbagged, well they dont either and probably wont so you end up having to pick it up anyway. 

If you dont have water, that can be a major problem.  Some communities will get water buffalos in.  These are just big plastic tanks filled with water.  You take your own containers and fill from the tanks.  Usually there is a limit to how much you can get and they advise boiling the water before you drink it.  It is a very good idea to have some water stored for emergencies.  Be sure though to rotate it out and use up the old as it can taste bad after storing it for a while.  I suggest using glass jugs as plastic can leach chemicals into the water at high temps.  This is also true for any kind of sodas, the plastic leaches chemicals into the soda at high temps.  It wont taste the same and it is really bad for you. 

Getting groceries will be a problem if there is a natural disaster as well.  They wont have anything frozen, most of the produce will go bad and meat will be nonexistant.  And you really dont want to have to fight someone else for food do you?  When the tornados hit down here, people kind of went nuts especially about food and gas.  They were lining up for miles to get gas.  There were gas limits.  Some stations wouldnt allow you to fill gas cans.  They ran out of gas.  Gas prices went up.  Make sure if you know there is a storm coming to have enough gas in your vehicle BEFORE the storm.  And if there is a storm what in the world are you doing driving around anyway?  Stay home.  There is nothing open.  Dont be stupid and cause accidents...jeez.  Some people have no common sense.  Another investment would be a weather radio.  If you dont have one get one, have batteries for it.  Have a battery operated radio.  There will be no TV unless you have a generator and likely you will have that hooked up to more important things like your hot water heater, fridge and freezer and maybe a few lights.  If you think you will need a generator, buy one beforehand.  Again you will need gas or deisel to run it.  That might be a problem to get.  Another thing is have some flashlights.  Nothing worse than getting up in the morning and running into something that obviously moved during the night...yes things move I swear ;)  Dont use the generator INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.  They create carbon monoxide and will kill you or at least send you to the hospital if you are lucky.  You cant smell carbon monoxide.  The generator has to be outside or under cover away from your house.  They are noisy.  I still dont know how those people who ended up in the hospital down here could stand the noise and fuel smell but they did and put them in their house and ended up in the hospital lucky to be alive.  If it would have been winter, they would have died. 

If you live where there is snow and you lose electric, you're doomed, DOOMED!  Sorry couldnt resist that one.  Actually if it's winter and you lose your electric, make sure you have a heat source.  If the only thing you can do is build a fire outside do that.  Dont try to stay in your house without heat.  You can get hypothermia and die or at the very least lose your fingers and toes.  This is nothing to mess with believe me.  If you live in an all electric house and that's where you get your heat from get some other source of heat like a wood heater/stove.  You can cook on them and heat water on them as well.  Kerosene heaters are also good but and here's a bit BUT do make sure you have adequate ventilation.  Have multiple layers of clothes on, have lots of quilts and blankets.  If it gets way too cold, head your butt over to a shelter quick.  If you have animals, make sure they have lots of blankets.  If they are outside make sure they have a shelter with plenty of hay or straw to burrow in to.  Make sure you have plenty of food and water for them.  Having extra cat and dog food stored is good.  Just rotate it out and keep it stored in a container out of the bags.  Canned pet food, just rotate out.  If you have houseplants, kiss them goodbye.  Too cold and nothing will save them unless you wrap them up in blankets too.  That might help.  It's worth a try.  Freezing pipes are another problem, make sure to turn off the water.  That will help when the electric gets turned back on and at least will stop you from having a flood in your kitchen, bathroom or laundry room.  Another thing you have to think about if you dont have water is how to flush the toilets.  If you know beforehand, fill up your bathtub and have a bucket to fill to flush with.  If you dont know beforehand, you might have to go old school and use a bucket and take out back when full. 

Aint nothing like ending a post with poop LOL.  If I think of anything else, there will be another post on this.  If you think of anything that I missed or have a question, please leave a comment. 

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Funny how he actually looks like my brother...:)

Happy Mother's Day!

Here it is already Mother's Day and I didnt even post anything about my mom...bad me...hit me with a wet noodle :(

Anyway I have to say that I have the best mom.  She was there for us when me and my brother were growing up.  My dad was an over-the-road truck driver for most of his life so mom kind of took over both mom and dad roles for us.  Well except when we were really bad then it was "wait til your father gets home" which really meant wait til he gets home to spank you because you were so bad.  Sometimes she would forget to tell him anything though which was good.  We didnt get spanked too many times only when we really needed it and we turned out OK.  She also convinced my brother that she was psychic cause she always knew what we had gotten into during the day even when she couldnt see us.  Truth was we had very nosy neighbors lol.  They told on us can you believe that?  Man, couldnt get away with anything...lol. 

Mom isnt a fancy cook and sometimes we didnt have a lot of money but she always made enough for us to eat and we never went hungry.  I'm just starting to like speghetti again.  Too much growing up I guess.  She would make us monster cookies for Christmas, yum.  But the best thing she did was make spoon fudge.  (If she reads this she is probably dying from embarrassment).  It was supposed to be fudge just plain old fudge unfortunately my mom cant make plain old fudge.  For some reason it always would be runny so we would grab a plate and instant spoon fudge!  It was great!  The neighborhood kids wanted their moms to make them spoon fudge since we had it and gave them some.  Then mom started getting phone calls from their moms asking for the recipe for this "spoon fudge" that their kids wanted.  Dad thought it was hilarious.  She also made potato candy for Christmas.  Dont think that she only made things for Christmas though cause she makes an awesome alphabet salad and broccoli salad too.  And her marinated meatballs are to die for.

One thing mom always says "when they're gone, they're gone" when talking about cookies.  Tease her about that one...;)

Mom also worked some when we were growing up and I mean that she worked at a job outside of home cause she worked hard at home too.  She was a beautician, LPN, and waitress at different times during our growing up years.  She has also served as a councilwoman following in the footsteps of her mother who was a committewoman for many years.  She now is officially retired and so is my dad.  Actually she hasnt killed him yet...but there's still time yet. lol.  She used to have complete charge of the house and now that dad is home all the time that's changed. 

She taught me how to sew on a machine when I was 8, started a girl scout troup so I had something to do since my brother had boy scouts and when we were in high school actually started a basketball league for the local kids so we had something to do during the week.  She didnt get paid for any of this, she just did it because she loved us and Mom we really appreciate everything you ever did for us especially the spoon fudge! ;)

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who have human kids and animals too cause you are loved each and every day by these wonderful beings you take care of.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Aunts, aunts and more aunts

I guess I was very lucky growing up as I had great-aunts still living.  Now it's nothing but back in the 60-70's there werent too many out there.  I didnt have any great-uncles still living though so missed out on knowing them.

Great-aunt Jess:  She was Grandma's sister on my mom's side.  She was a bigger lady with long white hair that she would wear up around her head like a crown.  She loved the Pirates and if you were in the neighborhood you knew they were playing cause you could here the game blaring from her TV or radio.  She was kind of hard of hearing.  She always had pink mints for me and my mom and little black licorice babies for my little brother when we came to visit.  My brother being my brother (a little weird ;)) would play with the flab on her arms.  She had lost a lot of weight.  She called them wings lol.  She was the only woman I ever met who had a cane, not your usual cane either.  It had belonged to her husband.  It was black and had a big silver eagle head on it. 

I do have a family story about Aunt Jess that was told to me by my grandma.  Here goes, hope it doesnt lose much in the translation...

Aunt Jess lived down the road from my grandparents in a little house by herself.  She had lost her husband before this story takes place.  Grandma invited Aunt Jess up to the house for dinner one evening.  They had a good meal and for desert Grandma made apple pie.  This was one of Aunt Jess's favorites but she was too full from dinner and asked if she could take a slice home with her.  Grandma put a slice on a plate but Aunt Jess said not to bother putting anything over it cause she just had a little ways to walk and then she would be home. 

A few minutes after she left Grandpa was looking out the window and pretty soon he saw this flashlight weaving back and forth on the road and all around Aunt Jess's house.  He told Grandma and she called down to see what was going on.  Aunt Jess was laughing so long and hard that in between gasps she told Grandma that when she got home the pie was not on the plate so she went out to see if she could find it with the flashlight.  She was laughing so hard because she couldnt find it so went back to the house and discovered it was stuck to the bottom of her shoe! 

*********

Great-Aunt Mary:  She was another one of Grandma's sisters (she had four sisters and a brother).  She was a character.  It took until the late 70's to get my grandma to wear slacks but Great-aunt Mary wore them back in the 20's.  She always took great pride in wearing red nail polish and red lipstick.  She also loved anything loud and gaudy.  She had those brass peacocks that you used to be able to buy on her living room walls and she also had one of those lights with the roman statue.  She had beads on her bedroom door.  She loved to make us angelfood cake.  We liked the cake all right but then she would put this awful green icing on it that was soooo hard that you could even chip it with your fork.  She liked to play this game with us where she would have a little piece of black construction paper on her fingernail and it would magically disappear and reappear on another finger.  We thought it was pretty fun.  We were young - what can I say.  She always got us gifts for Christmas.  Little necklaces and small things that didnt cost a lot cause she didnt get much from social security.

*******

Then there was Great-Aunt Grace:  I didnt like her.  Sorry but there it is.  We went to visit her once.  She glared at us kids like we were going to steal her blind or break everything in her house which we wouldnt do cause we would have gotten whooped when we got home if we did.  Anyway her house smelled and she had all the blinds closed and it was depressing in there.  Not long after that she died.  Maybe if we would have been able to get to know her I would have liked her I dont know.

Funny story my father tells of my Great-Aunts:  One year Grandma had Aunt Mary, Aunt Jess and the rest of the family over for like a family reunion sort of thing (this was when my parents were first married).  My dad likes to talk so the "girls" cornered him and started talking to him about anything and everything.  The only trouble was none of them could hear the other so he was trying to carry on a conversation with all of them about different things.  When he was listening to one the one on the other side would think he was ignoring her so she would tap him on the arm to get his attention.  Needless to say, he was glad when he had an excuse to get some more coffee! 

I hope you have enjoyed what I have typed so far on the female members of my family and arent too bored yet.  I still have my aunts, another grandma and mom to go.

Talk to ya later!

Denise

My Grandma

My grandma Lettie was a character.  She was a wonderful woman.  She was strong and didnt take any nonsense from anyone but had a wacky sense of humor.  During the war (WWII) she and my grandfather worked in a steel mill.  Grandma drove a forklift which is strange because she never did drive a car.  She used to say she was little but she was mighty.  At only 4' 10" or so she was little but she would tell everyone she was 4' 12".  She would say it fast to see how long it took people to actually understand what she had said. 

She showed me how to crochet yarn with my fingers when I was five or so and she sewed clothes for my dolls that she gave me that were my mom's.  She played the piano by ear. 

One day my mom called my grandma because there was a snake in our garage.  Mom is terrified of snakes but not Grandma.  She came over with a shovel and divided that snake from its head just like that....  She killed a lot of snakes.  She also was a strict grandma.  When we misbehaved when we were at her house while she was watching us she would have us go out and pick a switch off of the lilac bush.  One time my brother being a little you-know-what decided that he would pick the littlest switch he could find.  Needless to say, the smaller they are the more they hurt which he found out the hard way! 

We would help her pick acorns which she would turn into little ski-men.  She always had canaries in the old house.  It used to amaze me that they would go to sleep if you covered their cage up.  Grandma was a good cook too...pies, noodles, cakes, canning, bread, you name it she made it.  She had to sell the old farmhouse when I was in grade school. My grandfather had died a few years before and she just could not keep up with the furnace in the wintertime (coal) and the upkeep so she sold it and moved into an apartment and eventually bought a brand new trailer.  I still remember the summers you would go into her trailer and there she would be with a big dishpan kneading bread her face all red and sweaty.  Grandma what are you doing I'd say and she would say I'm baking bread.  My mom used to have a cow.  But that was grandma and you couldnt argue with her. 

As she got older her eyesight and memory started to go.  She made some chocolate bar cookies with the candy bars on the bottom and told us to have some while she got us something to drink one day.  When my mom took off the cover the cookies were covered in ants!  Grandma came back in and said "you dont like my cookies?"  Mom said "well they are covered in ants".  Well Grandma got to laughing and said you don't like chocolate covered ants?  The memory thing started later when she kept forgetting to turn off the water in her bathroom.  Pretty soon she would haul out the bathroom carpeting (not rug the carpeting) and throw it over the clothesline.  She would hide money in her bible too, forget what she did with it and then accuse my uncle of stealing it.  She also didnt like the fact that my aunt was living in sin with him.  Which he wasnt.  They had been married a long time and Grandma had attended the wedding. 

If you hadnt noticed I really miss Grandma.  She was my best friend when I was growing up.  She taught me a lot like how to chop off a snake's head lol. 

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Black walnuts...

I was just remembering today about a black walnut tree my parents had in the side yard when I was younger.  Huge tree, lots of nuts and of course we happened to park the car underneath this said tree.  Dont know why the nuts never dented the top of the car.  Mom got the great idea to harvest the nuts one year, you know because they were free and walnuts cost so much at the store so harvested they were.  Now if you dont know black walnuts are covered by this lovely green to brown thick skin and if you remove the skin there's the nutshell and to get to the nut you have to crack the nutshell.  Well she had oh about two bushel fulls of these nuts and had to remove the skin.  Now sometimes the skins will crack after they are older but you have to hurry to harvest them because the squirrels love them.  So basically I think maybe oh say maybe 10 nuts in the whole batch did not have the skins on and maybe 20 were cracked.  It might be an exaggeration but I dont think I am far off.  Anyway we went to school and when we came home she had started on the first bushel and was half way through.  To get to this point she had worked ALL DAY.  Her fingers and hands were sore from getting the skin off using a knife and they were a beautiful dark brown.  She ended up giving the other bushel away.  Her hands stayed that lovely shade for at least two weeks.  It had to wear off - nothing took it off which really looked funny on my mom cause she is so light skinned.  She was embarrassed to go to church.  Dad thought it was really funny though but didnt say too much just smirked.  But she got enough nuts to last for a long time.

The tree is now gone.  It eventually rotted through the core of it and came down in a storm.  Mom ended up hating that tree.  Sap on the cars, big nuts everywhere and she couldnt get anything to grow where it was for years after it was gone. 

Since Mother's Day is just around the corner, I think I will be sharing other stories of my mom and other female members of my family just so you can get the full effect of how actually strange my family is....lol.  Gotta love them!

Talk to ya later!

Denise

Happy T-Day Everyone!

My DH and I celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday since he has to work on Thanksgiving.  Kroger is open so he has to work.  We had ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy.  I even made a pumpkin pie but forgot to do any veggies.  DH said the potatoes are a veggie.  Yes they are but something green would have been nice.  Oh well.  Our oldest cat of course needed some ham.  He doesnt really need ham just what DH said ;)  Since Molly's infected tooth fell out he has been feeling better.  The price the vet charges to clean teeth or extract one is outragious and they would have to knock the poor old thing out to do it which isnt a good thing since he is so old.  He had lost his other front incisor last year so now he doesnt have any.  He is near to 20 years old and still in pretty good health although he cant keep himself as clean as he used to.  We will need to give him his holiday bath.  He doesnt try to get out of the bathtub just sits there and meows pitifully and upsets the rest of the cats so they hide.  They know what's coming! :)

We are supposed to be going out on Thanksgiving with our friends to see a movie.  Will have to see what one since we will have to make it for evening after DH gets home.  Will keep you posted on what we see and how it was.

Eat lots of turkey or tofu for T-Day!

Talk to you later!

Denise