"It's all in the journey."

                         -Homer

I have posted our 2009 book group reading list! 

I Married My Own 'Jake'

How many of you saw the John Hughes movie 'Sixteen Candles' with Molly Ringwald back in the 80's?  I happened to turn on the t.v. and watched some of it this week.  It's the sweet story of the good girl finally getting the good guy. My girlfriends and I fell in love with Jake in the movie!  We thought he was the ultimate, good-looking, Porche driving, good-dressing, smart guy! 

That night I told DH he was my "Jake". He said, "Who?"  I had to explain to him that it was a compliment.  He had on a sweater that I had bought him for Christmas and looked especially handsome. He always looks best when I dress him. He will agree when OTHER people compliment him on his outfit and quickly forgets the next time I make a suggestion. 

I will have to say he almost took the 'Jake' thing too far a few years ago.  He wanted a Porche!  I said NO Way!  I wonder if that was his mid-life crisis phase?  Well, I nipped that in the bud! I knew he would feel the need for speed and I want him around and living!

So, I will be thankful for my blessing of having my own personal 'Jake'.

(I'll let you know if this gets me brownie points for Valentines!)

David Lipscomb High School 2009 Homecoming

Savannah and her special friends had an incredible weekend!

The day started early with the girls getting together to help each other do hair and make-up.

I'm sure they were all so cute riding together to their special event.

After the homecoming ceremonies, lots of pictures with friends and the reception, they were off to "Chappy's on Church" Louisiana style restaurant.  More pictures were made, lots of great food eaten and everyone agreed that it had been a special night!

Savannah and her friend Bryan at the homecoming reception.  (Kimberly and Truman's handsome son)

Pictures- Virginia and Savannah, the Homecoming Court,

Amy, Savannah and Katie had their pictures made after they got ready at Katie's

Picking Up an Old Friend

I have been in one of those funks of not having anything good to read lately.  Good books seem to come in waves and lately it seems things have been dry.

So, over Christmas I started going back and rereading some of my favorite books that I had not read in years.  I reread The Beekeeper's Apprentice and loved it once again.  Then I picked up some of Elizabeth Peter's mysteries, Elizabeth Goudge The Middle Window and right now I am reading Cordelia Underwood by Van Reid. It is a delightfully funny story that my entire family has enjoyed.  My Dad loved it and we had fun laughing over some scenes. I think Leslie's book group is to read it soon.  The authors writing has been compared to Charles Dickens, but I actually like Van Reid better!

I am sure there are plenty of good things to read out there, but  I am also trying to save a dollar and use the library more.

When it has been ten or fifteen years since you read a great book, when you pick it up again, it's like finding an old friend and reminiscing.

p.s. I was sorry to read that the author Michael Crichton passed away in November from a long bout of cancer.  Years ago, one of the first books our book group read was Sphere and all loved it.  He went on to write Jurassic Park  and other thrillers.  

"She is too fond of books

        and it has turned her brain."

                               Louisa May Alcott

To Have Chili With Beans or Not

We have a conundrum around here that I am sure has frustrated and astounded many families like mine.  And we are just not sure what to do about it.  There is not an equal vote.

DH and I don't like beans in our chili.  Savannah likes beans and few if any tomatoes.

I have been fixing chili with ground beef and lots of chunks of tomato for years.  Savannah has picked around the tomatoes and just eaten juice and meat.

The last time I fixed chili, I added a can of chili beans just for my girl and found myself very disappointed in my own dinner.  I ended up spooning my beans over to Savannah.

What should I do? Should I fix it the way I want to? Should I have a can of beans on the side that have not been simmered into the chili on the side for my daughter? That can't taste that good!

We love chili in the winter! I almost fixed it for tonight. When DH called I asked him if he would like chili tonight.  He said, "Absolutely not."  I was hurt, thinking the beans had put him off last time and he forever didn't want my chili anymore.  I asked, "Why not?"  He said, "Because I just had Krystal chili for lunch today."   Oh...okay, his life was saved.

Any suggestions for dinner?

Go Away Static!

Winter. I love the snowflakes, hot bowls of soup, fires in the fireplace, sweaters, tights, scarf, smoke coming out of the chimney and the flannel sheets. But... I do not like the static electricity!

The blankets are shocking me in the night with little flashes of lightning.  My hair is standing up on end and my skirt is walking up my tights.

Yes, I do use bounce.  I didn't use conditioner today to try to calm my hair down.  Nothing works! I am a walking conductor!

It Started With Camping

My love for travel began when my parents started taking us camping.  When I was born, until I was two and Leslie five or so, we had a Volkswagen pop-up camper.  We had that until Leslie got into her falling off the bed and breaking her arm/collar bone stage.

Then we got a Starcraft camper.  It was one of those crank first, then pull out the sides camper.  We went all over in that thing and even joined a camper club.  That's when there are places decided upon by the club to go together. Leslie and I had so much fun playing with other kids, searching for garnets in mountain creeks, and inhaling so much of the outdoors that we went to sleep with the crackling pops and murmurings of listening to the adults talk around the bonfire. 

Until we went to the Low country of South Carolina.  Mom and Dad were up in the middle of the night using duct tape to tape up all the cracks in the pop-up because of mosquitoes!  I slept through most of it, but it had a lasting effect on mom and dad.  The starcraft was sold and we moved up to the Coachman.

The summer I went into the 6th grade and Les was in 9th, Mom and Dad planned a 3 week trip around the United States.  We still talk about what we saw and did on that trip!  Believe me, a lot can happen when you are cooped up with family for 3 weeks!  

My most traumatizing memory was when we were camping in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming.  All we had heard and the only signs I remember reading were:  "Do not feed the bears!"  That can surely scare an eleven year old!

In the camper, everyone had their place to sleep.  Mom and Dad on the Queen bed over the cab and Leslie got the bunk in the back, so that left me with the sofas that made out into a bed. Surrounded on three sides by windows!   Well, I can tell you that I did not sleep a wink the entire time in Yellowstone!  I knew that I would be the first to be gobbled up when that bear came through one of those windows! I couldn't get Les to sleep with me any in that campground!

Swimming in hot springs, seeing the St. Louis arch, visiting Washington D.C., watching bats fly out of Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico and seeing the Grand Canyon are a few of the sights I saw in that camper. 

Book Group List for 2009

My book group chose some really interesting books for this year.  More non-fiction, memoirs/autobiography's than ever before.

The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle

Madonna's of Leningrad by Debra Dean

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks

They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver

Some Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

My Lobotomy by Howard Dully

Disney World Christmas 2008

Happy Birthday DH!

Happy Birthday to My Darling Husband!

Happy Birthday my love!

I am SO thankful for you!

You make me a better person and you make everyone around you happy!

You have the most tender, giving heart of any man I know.

I love you more every day that I am blessed to have with you!

This man of mine has never even raised his voice to me in 23 years OR purposefully said a hurtful word to me. 

I pray every day that Savannah will find a husband that loves her like you love me!

I hope I get to spend your next 44 years and more with you!

Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas!

Epiphany-a moment of sudden revelation or insight

Tess and Cathy!

Masterpiece Theatre is back!

Tess of the D'Urberville's

Wuthering Height's

New adaptations!

On Sunday nights!  Set your recorder!  They look great!

698 emails to look through and delete, unpack, take dogs to get shots, grocery shop, fix dinner, put up some Christmas decorations, do laundry.  But that is okay.  I am thankful for the little things in life.  

The Lord is so good to us and He is Sovereign!

At the beginning of this New Year, I have so many of you on my heart and in my prayers! I wish you all health, happiness and the Peace that passes all understanding.

Life is so short and we get our priorities so messed up that it all passes in a whorl!  Claim this day and the next and the next!  

This year I want to be...

kind

encouraging

in the Word daily

hopeful

prayerful

healthy

selfless

humble

joyful

faithful

Heading Home

Don Pedros french toast was delicious this morning! They make their own bread and the batter they soak the pieces in is so yummy!! And the oranges for the fresh squeezed orange juice was so sweet!

We are packing up to return to Tennessee. It has been a wonderful holiday!! I have loved getting to see ALL my relatives!

Louvenia Davis Hallford
(Aunt Luke)
December 11, 1928-December 30, 2008

A Family Visited

Today Les and the kids headed back to Georgia. Todd/Uno-who has to go to work this Friday so they want to get home and spend a little time with him. Les says he will be flying to Guadalajara this month.

Last night we all drove the one and a half hour to Andalusia, Alabama for my Aunts visitation. Mom and Dad went back this morning for the funeral. It was a sad time, but a good visit with my cousins. Savannah was able to meet four of my first cousins and their children. It was amazing to see some of the resemblances between family and photos.

My dad came from such a huge family (7 brothers and 3 sisters), that it is impossible to see and spend time with all of our extended family. It made me a little sad because they are such wonderful people! Jimmy and Linda, it was so good to see you both and catch up! Please come to Atlanta or Nashville and see us. Your family and children were so sweet!

My Dad had talked to Jimmy about my blog a while back and so when I talked to Jimmy last night, he had a good story for me.

Years ago in Monroeville, Alabama, which is only about forty-five minutes from Andalusia, they were filming 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Jimmy said that Harper Lee was having a book signing and he went to get his book signed and struck up a conversation with her and ended up walking back with her to her house and she fixed him a glass of iced tea and had a conversation with him on her front porch. He said she was one of the most interesting people he had ever met! I love a great author story!

Jimmy told Mom this morning that he thought with all the Oxford, Mississippi connections I had that I would write about William Faulkner. She told him that I had. So Jimmy, you might have to go back and read some past months blogs.

It is quiet here at the cottage. The sky is so black with just a sliver of moon, with stars as bright as I could remember. Leslie told Sydney last night that they needed to study some astronomy because the stars were so bright last night.

Dad was quite melancholy last night and today. He loved his brother Jim something strong. This morning at the old Pleasant Home grave site, he looked over his loved ones graves. His mama, his brother Jim, his grandparents, his great grandparents, Cross's and Martins, a favorite fifteen year old cousin Foy Dubois,who had died when dirt caved in on him and now Aunt Luke rests with her Jim.