The Best Weekend and September's Eve.....

Friday was an exciting day!

Louis Dean and I dressed up like Twinkies for Harrison's first leveling game for the Brahmas!

Purple is the color and I had fun dressing up in support of him and his team!

Just so you know.....overalls are really comfy!

It was fun to have Summer with us.

My two dear daughters!

That was Friday and we came home and watched The Thursday Murder Club.

At least Summer and I did and it was wonderful!

My two daughters love movies as much as I do.

Saturday was watching Trystan play hockey!

Her team color is green and I dressed in several shades of that!

From hat to eye shadow to top and jacket and pants.

When I walked in, Harrison told his mom, "Look! MeeMaw looks like a cute pickle."

And so I did!

So good to see my children together!

My beautiful Logan always reminds me of Mona Lisa.

The following photos are from Mike at Trystan's earlier game.

What a great photo Mike took!

Look at her concentration!

Trystan worked hard for her green helmet as a Dallas Stars Elite Girls!!

But the game we watched on Saturday was beyond exciting! They won 2-0 but what an energetic game. SO many penalities on the opposing team and even a fight on the ice and several misconducts plus  four ejections. SO exciting! Our girls aere 14 Under and they played a team of 16 Under

It took awhile to calm down and chill out after all that excitement.

Saturday night closed with a good book and a good glass of red wine.

Life is good and I am blessed.

Look who was up before daylight to watch the 7:15 AM game of Trystan of the Dallas Stars Elite vs Warriors in Mansfield.

That's true love from Uncle Jesse and Rachel.

Love how our family supports one another.

I do declare that filling medicine boxes is a challenging business.

We get 90 day refills but the thing is that on the third month - some meds aren't ready to refill and I get confused. I need all my wits about me to deal with this.

I do wish I was sharper than I am. In time to come I may use a service that fills our boxes for us.

Jesse and Summer - my two oldest children and both are blessings to my heart.

I do so love them both!

And here is Jesse with his beautiful brown-eyed girl, Rachel!

They are so cute!

It was a great afternoon.

Jesse installed a ceiling fan in the guest room for me.

I ordered it thinking it was bigger than it was.

Turned out it was a tiny fan and perfect for the guest room since there's the bunk bed in there.

Jesse helped me order a real fan for our bedroom and it will arrive tomorrow.

It was such a blessing to visit with Jesse, Rachel and Summer!

Louis Dean helped me prepare the fruitcake cookie dough for tomorrow morning.

Instead of using two tablespoons of milk - I use Captain Morgan's spiced rum....in memory of my dear sister Nita. That was a favorite of hers.

Louis Dean had shelled pecans from last year's harvest which we had kept in the freezer and he sorted through them for hulls and such before we added them to the fruitcake mixture.

The coffee is ready and the CD player is primed.

I know it's a little crazy that I love September First so much - but I do!!!

And I hope I always will!

Happy September's Eve!!

Catching up!!

 It's been a busy week here and I'm catching up before the weekend starts!

Tuesday morning I had the stem cells put in on a clear contact lens and went back later that evening to have it removed. No problems and, while it may be wishful thinking, I do believe I can see a little better. I should be getting my new glasses next week which will help even more.

Met Brenda at a thrift store we don't normally shop and we hit the jackpot!

It's a funky thrift store located at Story Road and Rock Island.

I love these brand new fall pillow covers and plan to use them in the gazebo - my last room to finish decorating!

This candle smells so good.

I placed it on my bedside table.

A set of two denim valances I will be taking to the ranch with us next time we go.

And just look at all the fall debris I got!

Brenda bought just as much as I did.

The garlands were all brand new, too.

That was exactly what Brenda was looking for and there they were!!

We found so much that we didn't even go to the other thrift stores.

Wonder if they missed us?

Now it's just two more days and a wake up!

It's silly how excited I am about September First!!

I'm nearly completely ready!

The fruitcake mix arrived yesterday and I will buy some spiced rum today - makes the cookies taste extra good.

Summer arrived Wednesday evening!

It is so good to see her! She'll be staying a few days before heading to Puerto Rico for three months.

Tabitha has a new cuddle spot in the laundry room.

The last several days I've noticed the lamp between the washer and dryer had been pushed to one side so I would push it back. Now I know who was doing the pushing!

Louis Dean fell in his room yesterday morning and banged up his right shoulder.

I think men do not handle pain as well as women do.

He said his feel just slipped out from under him. 

Thank goodness he didn't break a bone but I have been on nurse duty ever since.

I put Chinese liniment on it and later the deep heat patch along with Motrin and a heating pad.

It's no longer throbbing but it's going to be sore for awhile.

I went to see Dr. Sander yesterday afternoon and told him I felt like I was wasting his time as I realized the pain I was having had nothing to do with my hips. He had x-rays done on my hips and lumbar region and the good news is both my hips look good!

The lumbar x-ray - not so much.

It showed significant scoliosis and pressure from the vertebrae on my sciatica nerve.

He has ordered a prescription for steroids to see if that helps clear up some the inflamation.

So fairly good news there!

Next week I will see another specialist for my ankles.

I'm always careful how I walk as my ankles feel as if they are going to give out on me.

Not to mention that they hurt most of the time.

There may not be much they can do about it but at least I will know.

Exercising, maintaining a healthy diet, getting plenty of rest - I'm doing everything I can to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible. I'm not only doing this for myself but for Louis Dean also.

I can't take care of him if I haven't taken care of myself.

By the way, did any of you watch the interview Diane Sawyer did with Emma Heming Willis?

I was very impressed.

Children in the Closet....Chapter 27

 Chapter 27

Jesse and I were more compatible than any other time in the previous 27 years of our marriage. Nearly every morning, I would find a note from him propped up by the coffee pot. Sometimes it was a simple ‘I love you,’ other days he would thank me for being a good wife and mother and other times suggest something we might do together on the weekend. We felt like a young couple with a busy home life including four dogs, two young children, two birds and one cat!

I threw myself into homeschooling joining a group of home educators and attending my first Heart and Home Ministries Home School Book Fair. I absolutely loved teaching Amber how to ‘read, write and do arithmetic.’ Everything became a learning opportunity and I rejoiced that I was now a cancer survivor and looking forward to seeing my children grow up.

Even though Dr. Baugh had given me a clean bill of health, for some reason I thought about cancer a lot for the first few months of 1990. I felt my throat for growths until I noticed I was bruising my neck. The cancer had affected my menstrual cycle and it wasn’t long before I realized I was in the menopausal stage of life at the age of 41 and the resulting hot flashes and severe PMS symptoms would be a regular part of my life for a good while. I called all these new emotions and physical happenings ‘chewing nails’ and I did chew lots of nails during the next couple of years. Still, the good days far outweighed the bad ones and Jesse was an enormous help to me with Amber and Benjamin. He continued to leave sippy cups of water or juice by their beds along with a snack every morning before he left for work. This gave me at least another hour to sleep as he would also prop up a book or a toy for them to play with after their snack in case they didn’t go back to sleep.

One day, Amber and Benjamin ran into a little trouble feeding the cat accidently spilling five pounds of cat food in the sink and onto the floor where the cat ate so much that she vomited up all over the place and the sink was stopped up and things were a big mess! The phone rang and it was Summer. Amber said, “If you come over – stay calm! We have had a rough day!”

Our homeschooling was such a great adventure! We went to the Casa Manana theater plays monthly, bowling days, park days, co-op learning days, Myerson Symphony concerts and more.

We went skating once a month and that’s when I broke my wrist as I stood up in my skates and attempted to get out on the rink. I fell on the carpeted area before I even made it onto the rink and still broke my left wrist! I had to go to an orthopedic surgeon and he put a cast on it. We seldom had medical insurance – actually we only had coverage for one year in all the time we were married – so when it was time to have the cast removed, Jesse sawed it off himself. I was sitting on the floor in the dining room and when I saw my withered up bony arm, I keeled right over in a faint!  We did not do skate activities for a good long time after that.

Jesse, Jr. transferred from Northlake College to UTA in Arlington and moved to Fort Worth to live with his Granny. Mother was so excited about that and they bonded well and were great for each other. We had a huge scare when Jesse, Jr. showed signs of a heart attack and feared for his life. It’s amazing how fast your heart can beat when life as you know it threatens to change forever. Thankfully this turned out to be a pulled muscle, but, once again, I was reminded how fragile Life is to each one of us.

Our business was slow in the first part of the year but continued to do better as the months went by. So much so that we took a vacation to San Antonio and on down to Corpus Christi for my 42nd birthday.

Family celebrations and seasonal changes along with watching our children grow made for an exceptionally happy year. Even though I was physically and mentally challenged with this whole ‘change of life’ thing – how does it happen that you have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and yet you’re going through menopause??  It can happen and it happened to me.

I admit that there were a few times when life seemed to go back to the stressful, traumatic days of old. Jesse would turn bitter and forget to be nice to us – but it didn’t last long and I wasn’t always sugar and spice myself what with biting nails and experiencing power surges aka hot flashes off and on.

All in all, 1990 was one of the happiest years of my life and I was grateful to be alive and thankful for my life! I loved being a wife and a mother, a Sunday School teacher for the two-year-old class and active in church and being a keeper at home. 

The next few years continued to be good ones even though I experienced headaches more days than not. Our finances fluctuated but that was normal to us since we were self employed.  When we had good contracts come in – we stocked up the pantry and freezer, paid bills ahead and put back a padded ‘cushion’ to help us when jobs were scarce. Jesse had been self-employed since the first year we married so this was how it'd always been for us.

Our beloved Mrs. Morrison died in the spring of 1991. She loved all of us including Jesse and was like the best grandmother possible to me and my children. I thanked God for her and was grateful all four of my children had the privilege of knowing her. Her funeral was in Ennis, Texas where she had lived for several years in an assisted living place close to her only daughter. Amber and Benjamin were sick so I stayed home with them while Jesse, Summer and Jesse, Jr. attended the funeral service.

For days, weeks, months and even years, I would momentarily forget she was gone and think suddenly to myself, “I haven’t call Mrs. Morrison!” I still miss her to this very day.

Our lives were busy as I continued to homeschool and take the kids to East Texas to pick blueberries and peaches along with Jesse’s sister and her two children who were about the same age as Amber and Benjamin. She had two sets of children in much the same way as I did only from two marriages.

We vacationed in Colorado often during those years – skiing in winter at least once and sometimes twice - and enjoying a summer trip as well. We celebrated one trip in a ‘new to us’ van!

I had longed for one so we made a prayer card and prayed specifically for a couple of months until Monday July 8th, 1991, when we bought a Chevrolet Regency van with only 11,000 miles on it. Just the two front seats and one passenger seat in the back had ever been used! The family we bought it from had 13 licensed vehicles and this one had been used solely for transporting a family member back and forth to a hospital in Oklahoma for cancer treatments.

Since we homeschooled, we needed an activity that would be in place of P.E. My neighbor on the corner had two children – a girl and a boy three years apart and close in age to my two. She knew how much Amber loved swimming lessons in the summers so when she saw a notice in the newspaper about a beginning Synchronized Swimming class being offered at the North Lake Natatorium, she encouraged me to sign Amber up!

I did just that and Amber absolutely loved it! She was the youngest swimmer on the team and that was her sport of choice all the way through school and beyond. She made lifelong friends that are still a part of her life today. The team practiced on Tuesday and Thursday nights 6:00-8:00 and 7:00-11:00 on Saturday mornings in addition to local and later national swim meets all over the country.

Now I needed something for Benjamin to do and that turned out to be Tai Kwon Do. He started when he was four years old and achieved Black Belt when he was 14. He continued to train until he graduated high school. The training proved to a good thing as he was always able to defend himself even against those who were bigger and stronger. 

His karate school emphasized character training and respect to your elders. While Benjamin had to use his skills to defend himself a few times – he was never the aggressor – and others learned to respect his abilities. 

 

We all continued to visit with Mother and she would often come over and visit us. She was good at doing hair and would frost mine for me. Christmas Eve was always spent at Mother’s and she was supportive of all of us siblings and even more so of Lonnie, which was not altogether a good thing

She had worked since she was 16 years old and was a good manager at the telephone answering service company, so it came as a total surprise when she was fired one week before Christmas in 1991.

Life was good in 1992 as we took a ski trip to Winter Park, Colorado in January, drove to Tyler, Texas to see the Azalea Trail in the spring, and a trip to San Francisco in June. We were making good money so Jesse got a new truck in September.

We were active in church where Jesse was a deacon and I taught Sunday School and we entertained nearly every week – either inviting a family over for Sunday dinner or several couples over after church on Sunday nights where I served either a baked potato bar or a spread of finger foods. After we ate, we’d clear the table and bring in the puzzle board and spend an hour or so visiting as we all work on the current jigsaw puzzle.

One special blessing in 1992 was Lanita’s son marrying the love of his life in the spring. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and I attended both while Jesse stayed home with Amber and Benjamin. He did not join in many Fort Worth family activities and carried a disapproving attitude towards all of my siblings except Lonnie who worked for Jesse many years. Jesse was a hard man to work for as he yelled and barked at people, but Lonnie had a pretty thick skin and handled it well.

Lloydine and Lanita each divorced in 1992 and they lived together for awhile which worked out well for them. Even so the year ended on a happy note when we found out that her son and his wife would be expecting a baby! With all the chemo and radiation – God was blessing with children – this would be the first of four!

I have to admit to a serious burden to my heart, though. Sadly, Summer was no longer part of our life and it was not her choice but her father’s. He was an extremely strict man and adhered to the principle of children obeying their father and a wife obeying her husband - right down to every choice they made in life, from whom they dated or married to any and all moral and personal decisions. So far, Jesse Jr had stayed under his dad’s radar but Summer became a focus for all of Jesse’s criticism and condemnation. As a mother, it broke my heart to not be allowed to see my daughter. While I did not openly oppose Jesse in any of his decisions, I did manage to keep in some kind of contact with Summer and, to avoid making him angry, we would meet or talk in secret.

I felt the first tiny trickle of fear that something bad was about to happen.

A Family Weekend! Louis Dean is Now a Great-great-GREAT Granddad!!!

 We used to go to Snyder out in west Texas to visit with granddaughter, Chandy, and her family at least once a year. We aren't traveling much these days and so I'm thankful that we made all those visits when we could. Chandy and husband Chris and their three youngest children live in the country and raise chickens, goats, ducks and all kinds of critters including donkeys! It's a great life but it is more desert than farm land but rattlesnakes are plentiful. They can't leave the place often due to caring for all their critters so they did a lot of planning and came to visit us late Thursday afternoon.

The cats were a little skitish but soon made friends with all of them.

Since I wasn't sure what time they would arrive but I wanted to have some food ready.

A charcuterie board seemed like the perfect light meal.

I'm a big fan of Aldi grocery stores and find many intersting things to try...

as in this bacon bread cheese. I served it cubed and cold with a dipping sauce of maple syrup, but it one cheese that you can actually grill as it doesn't melt!

I'll be trying that next time.

I had also made a fresh batch of spiced pumpkin muffins which they all loved.

Louis Dean and Chandy went to the music room while Chris entertained the kids in the den.

As happens so often these days, Louis Dean couldn't find the pics for Chandy to play the autoharp.

They spent a good time talking about music and memories and Chandy assured her granddad she would stop at a music store on her way back over the next day and picked some up.

They didn't stay with us as Chandy's best friend lives in the area and they wanted to see each other so they stayed in a convenient hotel.

This was their family mini vacation so they took the kids sightseeing during the day and come over for dinner and music Friday evening.

We are so proud of Chris and Chandy.

While Louis Dean and Chandy played music, 

Bella counted things.....like how many lamps I have then how many mirrors!

They plan to come back over the Christmas holiidays and I told her she could count Christmas trees and wreaths!

Chandy didn't forget the pics and she and her Granddad played a lot of good music together.

He was a happy man!

Chandy is pretty amazing!

Not only does she work full time from home, she also homeschools her three younger children as well as take care of the critters. AND she plays beautiful music!

I loved seeing Louis Dean so happy!

Jaxon may be playing the autoharp someday all by himself.

It was a wonderful evening.

Dinner on Friday night was Golden chicken pasta, garlic toast and a garden salad.

By 9:30 the evening was over and Louis Dean and I sat up with a glass of wine basking in the glow of spending time with family.

When we woke up Saturday morning, Louis Dean remembered that Chandy had been there and that they had played music together. He said, "Good!! I'm not crazy! But who were those children?"

I explained they were his great-grandchildren and that later that evening, his oldest great granddaughter was coming with Aliya - Louis Dean's first great-great-granddaughter!

Chris and Chandy had spent the day at the Dallas Zoo and they arrived late that afternoon completely exhausted!! 

While they went off to Braum's to buy ice cream, Bella and I played pick up sticks!

Turns out - she was really good at that!

After ice cream, we all went in to the cool air conditioned house to rest.

They put a movie on for the kids and Chris and Chandy both took naps in the den while LD and I went in our room for a nap.

I was up an hour later and started Taco Soup per grandson Piercyn's request. I'd gone to the Mexican bakery here in Irving and bought a dozen Mexican cookies which were a big hit later that night.

Snyder, Texas is a good four hours away and Kaitlyn and her husband, Sammy, drove down to see us.

She wanted her Granddad to meet Aliya who is just a year old.

We had such a good time talking and laughing together!

This is Aliya, Kaitlyn and Sammy and we are so proud of this young family!

We are hoping they will return to visit during the Christmas holidays and stay here with us in the guest room.

We sat down to eat dinner and stayed at the table until 8:30.

I had made a Dr Pepper cake for dessert.

Even though Kaitlyn and Sammy had driven four hours to get here, they were only able to stay for two hours before they turned around and started driving home.

What a beautiful gift of time they gave Louis Dean.

Right before everyone left I took a group photo of the family!

I should have done that before dinner!

By 9:00 they were on their way home.

It was a long weekend and took a lot of energy for all of us but worth every single minute.

While Louis Dean may not remember all this in the coming days, everyone else will.

It's important to connect to family as often as we can....while we can.

I'm pretty sure everyone spent some time today resting and recovering!

I slept until nearly 1:00 this afternoon and then took a nap from 5:00-7:00.

Chandy called us this evening to say goodnight - and it wasn't even 9:00 yet!

We have a slower week coming up with getting stem cells in my left eye and seeing my surgeon about my hip. Thrifting on Tuesday and Summer will arrive at some point later on.

We are just seven days away from September First!

I'll be making celebration plans for that day.....getting out the Neil Diamond CDs, gathering the ingredients for pumpkin muffins, fruitcake cookies. I'll light a special pumpkin candle, drink from my oldest fall coffee cup that I have used for the last 30 years. I'm glad I bought two at Marshall's Pottery way back when as one of them got broken.

August has gone by in the blink of an eyeit seems.

I intend to enjoy every single moment of September 2025.....