Tammie's Thoughts

Vacation 2009 -1

2009-07-21T11:14:00.003-05:00

Brad and Amy Bellamy on the porch of the Grand Hotel on Macknac island
Tim and me

Our vacation started with picking up Brad and Amy Bellamy in Detroit on our way to Mackanac Island. The island is beautiful. It has an airport, horses and carriages, and bikes on it. The only other motorized autos are fire and police. We ate dinner the first night at the Grand Hotel. It has the longest porch in the world and if you are not eating there are staying there ($600/night) and no we didn't stay there...it cost $10 to walk on the porch! The dinner was so so but very expensive...glad I had the experience once. You had to dress for dinner as you can tell by the photos.
The next day we went to Fort Macknac and saw enactments of what life was like there in the early days. It was all quite interesting. The tour guide said that if you went in every fudge shop on the island and had a sample of fudge, you could eat a pound and a half free in one day.

For those of you who are really interested in more photos and vacation info, see Tim's facebook or my facebook. There's lots of more photos there!

Vacation 2009-2

2009-07-21T10:43:00.003-05:00

Laura, John, Nigel, and Tim at the Toronto Zoo. What a fun day it was!
Tim and Nigel at the pay ground the next day. Nigel loves to dig in the sand!
Laura and me at the park.

We went to Toronto on Sunday. It was really good to see Laura, John and Nigel. I think I made a mistake though letting Tim go with me. He played and played with Nigel so I fear that Nigel will favor his Poppa Tim over his Grammie Tammie! We went to the zoo the first day and to the park the second day. Nigel is almost walking and he knows what he wants and where he wants to go. That child loves being outside! Laura and Nigel are coming on Aug. 1 and will be here til Aug. 11. I can hardly wait!
Hanging out with Lisa French in NYC
Live Bait was a neat place to eat with a southern flair that Lisa took us to for lunch.

We went to NYC for a couple of days. My Old-himers is kicking in...when we got there, we realized that I had made hotel reservations at 2 different hotels to arrive on two different days so we had to call and cancel one of them and then I realized that I had gotten show tickets for the same night. So we went to the Jersey Boys theatre and begged the guy to change our tickets. He took mercy on us and gave us two seats on the VERY FRONT row that he said were hard to get rid of anyway because you have to look up all the time...like we really cared! It was great! The language at the beginning of the show was a little rough, but the music was fabulous! The first night we also ate outside at a neat little cafe a couple of blocks away from the Ed Sullivan theatre and we listened to Paul McCartney sing throughout our dinner (eben though we didn't realize that it was really him until afterwards!). The next day, we met Lisa French at Madison Square Park for a free concert by Trout Fishing in America and we had a great time! They are really a kids' group, but Tim and I are groupies anyway! Then we ate lunch with Lisa and had ice cream at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. We were told that was one thing you could not miss there and the ice cream was pretty good (but not quite as good as gelato...but Laura did take us to a place in Toronto that was just about that good!). On our way to see 9 to 5 that night, the streets were all blocked off because Obama was in town so we had to find a round about way to get to the theatre, but we made it.
The flight home was the worse part of the trip...had 30-50 mile an hour headwinds and weather to deal with so it took us 9 hours to fly home! I was really ready to get out of that plane, but thankful to the Lord for our safety!

Father's Dad

2009-06-21T13:04:00.002-05:00

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but today I'm thinking about my dad...he was a wonderful man and I would give anything to be able to give him just one more hug and tell him how much I love him. He died in a motorcycle accident in 1983 (I think it was 1983). I can still see him sitting at the kitchen table drinking his coffee and talking to all the neighbors that stopped by. I remember the thrill it was the night he was baptized into Christ after so many years of mama taking all four of us to church and praying so hard that he would decided that he want to put on Christ in baptism. I remember going to town with him and every one throwing up a hand and calling hello to Tracy and being proud that he was my dad. I remember him making me chop cotton to earn money for things I wanted then him giving me not only the pay for the work but the money for what i was working for anyway. I remember his eyes lighting up when he would see Tamara Lynn or Laura or Joe(y) for he loved his grandchildren. You will always be my "diddy" and I will always hold a special place for you in my heart.

I was also blessed to have a step-daddy for 20 years. He never had children of his own so we were the children of his heart and he treated each of us and each grand child as if they were his very own. Our first Christmas with him was more fun...He was the biggest child of all there because he'd never had a big Christmas with a big family and it was so fun to watch his face and see the joy there. He took great care of our mother in her declining years and for that I will forever be grateful. He died of cancer in Dec. 2007. Mama died in Feb. of 2008. She lost her will to live after she lost him.

You know the old saying that anyone can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a daddy...well, thank you, Lord, that I have been blessed to have two daddys in my life. Here's to you: Tracy Skelton and Mutt Kemp!

Colorado Trip

2009-03-14T18:55:00.002-05:00

This is the ceramic mug that I got served hot tea in in first class on the way to Colorado. I got bumped to first class for some reason. On the way home, Tim did, too. I had a lot of fun laughing at him when we got home because he didn't realize that all the food and drink in first class was free and he only had a cup of coffee. I had hot tea and sparking water and great snacks!
This is the guys waiting on Cathy and Noah to arrive.
Angie waiting.
The view from our condo. It was beautiful!
A bison light switch plate in the condo were we stayed. I wanted one like it really bad but I never got the chance to go shopping!

Canada Trip

2009-02-27T15:30:00.003-06:00

These are the flowers Tim sent me for Valentines. I got to enjoy a couple of days before I left for Canada. They were still pretty when I got home but didn't last too much longer. It's the thought that counts!
At the first of the month, Tim went skiing in Utah on his annual man trip so I went to Canada to see Laura, John, and of course, Nigel. He's growing so much and getting to have such a sweet, cute personality!
I arrived on Sunday night and stayed all day Monday and Tuesday and left on Wednesday morning. John and Laura went out for coffee with friends on Monday afternoon and after Laura taught her class on Monday night, John met her for dinner and I got to keep Nigel all by myself. He was such a sweetie.

These "snow pictures" are for you, Wil. They were having a heat wave while I was there (36-40 degrees) and the snow was yucky and melty, but in some spots on the streets it was piled up as high as me! I could hardly believe how much was still piled up when it was so warm. Nigel likes to ride in his stroller almost standing up. That way he can see everything around him and the cold doesn't seem to bother him at all. He loves to be outside. On Tuesday, Laura and I went out for lunch. Nigel loved riding around but he didn't like it one bit when she tried to lay him back so he could sleep...he fell asleep just like he was! I'll have to go back in April so I can see them again. Can't let Nigel grow up without knowing his Grammie Tammie!

Family Gathering

2009-01-31T18:24:00.004-06:00

Terri, Diana, Joy, Tammie
Lynn and Tim

My cousins, Joy and Lynn Rockenbach, from Little Rock and Terri Watkins from Merigold, MS came up today along with my sister, Diana from Corinth. It was so nice to be together and visit and have fun and replay the memories from our childhood and make new ones WITHOUT being at a funeral! It seems like in the last few years, that's the only time we get together any more. We need to have more fun times like this! Finding a place to eat lunch seemed to be a comedy of errors...First we went to the DMC Soul Food Cafe...it was closed so we decided we'd have Italian and we went to Polla Pasta. It's open every day for lunch except...you guessed it...Saturday, so we finally ended up at J Alexander's. We had a great time! We just need to gather more cousins and do it more often!

Favorite Video

2009-01-22T21:25:00.004-06:00

This has to be one of my all time favorite videos. I can definitely identify with this woman! I think my favorite line is "Well, we didn't know it's be YOU! We were hoping for someone with a JOB!"

Lost Generation

2009-01-15T11:12:00.001-06:00

I really like the message of this youtube video!

Wonderful Christmas Season!

2008-12-30T19:49:00.004-06:00

Look at this beautiful smile! Nigel is such a cutie! We are really going to miss him and John and Laura, too. I'm already planning my next trip to Canada. Can't let that precious little one grow up without knowing me!
He's chewing on a toothbrush in this photo. What could be more appropriate?
Laura, John, and Nigel came in on December 22nd. As you can tell in this photo, it's a grandmother's joy to hold the sleeping grandbaby as long as she can.
We started our holidays with a surprise 30th birthday party for our "adopted" son, Daniel. His wife, Suzanne, put in lots of work to make it be a fun surprise party for him complete with an airplane cake. The only thing is that the cake maker didn't realize that she had to put wheels on the plane therefore, it appeared that he had a belly in landing, but like they say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one!

We had lots of family and friends in and out while the Hacker-Wrights were here and we enjoyed every minute of it. John's mom joined us from Austin, Texas a couple of days. My family all came and of course our Harding friends came for our annual sleep over.
It was a wonderful time!

Hope you all have a Happy 2009!

A Weekend of Honors

2008-11-16T20:33:00.006-06:00

My niece, Judith, was in a Beauty Pagent at her high school which she won. She is a beautiful girl inside and out and I am proud to claim her as my niece! Congratulations, Judith!
We went to Huntsville this weekend for a dinner honoring Tim's mom and dad. Though there are so many people in this photo to single anyone out, these are all the people who came from out of town to honor Joe. Ten came from Harding. All his children were there. Three of the ladies who went on the beginning European campaigns came - on all the way from Seattle, Washington. Gotfried Riechel from Germany was also there. They spoke of the beginning of the campaigns and the beginning thoughts of the foreign campuses for Harding as well as the Vocational Ministry Program that Joe had a hand in starting many years ago. Tom Parsons read a beautiful letter from Jerry Jones that was a tribute to Joe and he had letters from many others who could not be with us. It was a very special night.
This is Neale and Treva Pryor who came from Searcy to be with us for the evening.
This is Don Shackleford presenting Joe with a commentary he wrote and thanking him for all these years of friendship.
This is Dr. Burke presenting Joe with a Lifetime Christian Service Award. Joe was really surprised and said himself that this was the first time anyone ever caught him "speechless!"

Several Exciting Weekends

2008-11-09T19:53:00.008-06:00

In order for this post to make sense, you'll have to read it from the bottom to the top...I still don't have the hang of getting the pictures and the text in the right order! You'd think after all this time, I would know how to do it, but somehow, I don't!
This weekend, we were in Detroit for Brad Bellamy's wedding. It was beautiful also. They had a foot washing ceremony during the wedding...something I'd never seen before but a really nice touch. Then for the reception, we had a sit down 7 course dinner - must be a northern thing....It was fun and I''m glad we got to go to be with them!

Last week we went to California for a dental convention. While we were there, we got to go out and eat with Gaye and Colin, my cousins and it was so much fun. I left Tim there on Friday and flew to Little Rock for Reagan's wedding on Saturday. It was wonderful being with all my Searcy friends and with Vivian (I fed-exed my car keys to her in Mobile and she flew into Memphis, picked up my car and drove to Searcy, then picked me up at the Little Rock airport.) The wedding was beautiful! All the guys wore kilts and it was really neat. We got to see Reagan and Nate's house. It's really cute. This photo is of Regan and Nate at the rehersal dinner. And I love the roses in Reagan's hair!
Then we had Harding homecoming were Tim was honored as the outstanding alumnus from the college of sciences. His mom and dad came. Even Joe came to the dinner with us and brought Jon James with him. They left after Tim got the award, but they were there to see him receive it. That was a really neat time. This photo has Joan, Tim's mom, Tim, and Wil, my nephew, at the banquet.

It's been a while since I had time to post. We've had some fun weekends since the last time I posted. We sent to Sheveport to visit with Tim's sister Carol and her family. Scott, Cathy, and Noah went with us and we all went to the Red River Revel. It was a really fun weekend. We got to hear Trout Fishing in America sing again (you can find them on Youtube.com). They have several songs that are sooooo funny. One of my favorites is "My Hair Had a Party Last Night." This is Laurel doing a bungie jump at the Revel.

Family is Wonderful!

2008-10-06T10:01:00.004-05:00

This is my cousin Hob, Gaye's husband, Colin, and Scott Mitchell. (He makes me feel old...I remember when he was born!)
This is Uncle Ray and his new wife, Joyce. They are such a happy little couple and it is delightful to see them together!
This is all the "Skelton " girls. We all had a great lunch together and a fine time of fellowship and laughter and remembrance of childhood times. and yes, Laura, Carylon did drop me on my head when I was a baby and I'm still here to tell about it. We laughed telling stories from our childhoods until we had tears rolling down our faces. We talking about always climbing that tree by Diana's window after dark and scaring her especially after we went to see Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte and how we all called mama and daddy's brothers and sisters aunt and uncle like they all belonged to us be cause we all spent so much time together on the farm in the summer time ( and besides, Uncle Ray did marry our Aunt Jeanette's aunt after Aunt Dorothy died.)
It was a fun day and I hated to see it end! Joe had a bunch of his friends over and they ate lunch with us , too. They were all very polite and gave me my hugs, which you know I can't live without...We hope to see Gaye and Colin again in November when we're in San Diego since that's where they live. Maybe it'll work out. We just need to be able to get together more often just for fun!!!

Another great weekend

2008-10-06T09:36:00.004-05:00

We started our weekend at the Zoe Worship conference in Nashville. As usual, it did not let us down. This is Mike Cope followed by a photo of a guy dressed as John. Between Mike, Randy Harris, the Zoe Singers, and John, they quoted almost the entire book of Revelations for about a period of 3 hours on Saturday. It was amazing! I have never better understood this book or seen it brought to life more realistically! It was wonderful!
Jeff Walling spoke on Friday night and needless to say, he was great too, I just didn't get a photo of him.
Our good friend Janet was there. Of course it was good to see her as always and catch up on everything. Wish we could see her more often! We also saw Alita Gable Clark. It was great to see her so happy. and Ken and Crystal Delano...you can tell we're getting old because we were all showing off photos of our grandchildren!

Awesome Worship Today!

2008-09-21T18:55:00.006-05:00

Meet Lee Brown, our new brother in Christ.
Lee has a story to tell. He lived on the streets of Memphis for 20 years. He was befriended by John Kennedy (a Sycamore View member and a Harding Grad professor). He came to talk to our Career Counseling class a couple of semesters ago. He began by saying he was born unwanted and unloved by everyone except his grandmother. He grew up angry, alone, and unloved. He joined the military when he was old enough so that he could fight and kill legally. While living on the streets, he was set on fire, frozen to park benches, ate from garbage cans, had one eye stabbed with an ice pick...About a year ago, Joe Birch, a news anchor in Memphis, helped him get an apartment in which he has been for almost a year now.
This is John, Lee, and Josh, our preacher. His lesson today was perfect to what took place. He came from Luke where Jesus touched the untouchable and unclean and calmed the storms in their lives. So encouraging to see Sycamore View really moving to accept ANYONE who wants to be baptized and embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior!
After the baptism, John and Lee did the communion talk together. It was very touching. Lee said the most beautiful prayer. It was such simply amazing! Praise God for how He is working at Sycamore View.

And there was one more serendipity this morning...Curt Sparks was there. He had come in to do a wedding last night. It was great to see him, but we did miss Nedra!

Rants and Raves!

2008-09-18T07:30:00.004-05:00

1. Several weeks ago, after a year or so of ice cream for at least one meal a day, I had some friends who talked me into going to the Diet Center. I had done that program once before when my children were in grade school with great success and kept the weight off for several years (until the dr. gave me elavil for my migraines....that stuff made me eat like there was no tomorrow and I gained 40 pounds in 2 months...)...well, after 3 days of eating healthy - fruits, vegetables, grilled chicken, salads, NO SUGAR, NO ICE CREAM, my stomach was killing me - I mean worse than labor pains! So I called my friend, the gastro doctor and he told me it was probably my stomach just trying to get used to the change in diet. It still wasn't much better in 3 days so I went to see him. After a cat scan, found out I have diverticulous...He put me on antibiotics for a week. Then last week, I had to go back in and have a blood test...I have an infection in the lining of my stomach! More antibiotics and in six weeks I have to have another test...Should have just kept eating ice cream every day...It might have killed me sooner, but I would have died happy! On the up side, I have lost, at the last weight in, 9 and a half pounds. I'm pretty sure it will be more next time because my jeans are getting really loose.

2. Tim and I have an appointment with an attorney this afternoon about the Kroger thing. They finally called with an offer which was not enough to even cover the medical bills, so...

3. I have misplaced (I hope it's misplaced and not stolen) my wallet. It had $200 in it that was left over from the Toronto trip and that is making me really crazy!

4. Tim bought his airline ticket to go back to Toronto to get his plane but he DIDN'T buy me one so he will get to see Laura and Nigel and John and I won't! He's going to owe me big time for that!

5. And now I'm like Reagan...does no one love me anymore? No one is making comments on my blog! (except for Beth....Thanks! I love you, too!)

Time to Spare, Go by Air

2008-09-16T16:02:00.002-05:00

Well, coming home on Sunday was certainly an adventure. We got up at 6:00 in order to get home in time for Sunday night things and lo and behold, when Tim taxied out to do the final run up on the engine, the right mag died so we could not fly home in our plane. We took it back up to the terminal and got a taxi to the international airport where we were given the choice of three flights home. We picked the middle priced one (though still very expensive) that was supposed to get us home by 1:00 Sunday afternoon. We were late boarding our flight to Cinnicinati about 2 hours. It was a really rough flight (Thanks, IKE). Then they closed the Cinnicinati airport because the winds were so strong that it wasn't safe for the guys to be in the control towers so we spent most of the day sitting in the airport. We finally got out about 9:40 Sunday night - at least it was a direct flight to Memphis and Joe picked us up. What a day!!! Not like one I want to experience again for a long time! When the plane is fixed, we'll have to fly back to Toronto (unless I can talk John or Laura into taking flying lessons and flying the plane back home to us) to get it and I guess we'll just be forced to see Nigel again sooner than we anticipated. What a pity!

2008-09-12T12:55:00.005-05:00

Finally, Tim came back to the room, and here is a beautiful picture of Nigel having fun playing peek-a-boo.

Here is a photo of me and Laura with Nigel last night at the Italian restaurant. He is learning to smile for the camera, and I am learning to keep my eyes open.

Sitting in Tornoto

2008-09-12T09:55:00.002-05:00

We are Tornto. No prpblems at all with the plane - Thank the Lord! Laura and Nigel were waiting for us at the hotel! That was such a sweet pleasure. We ate at a very authentic Italitan place last ( not too good for my diet...I've lost 9 aand 1/2 pounds) but it was really wonderful. Nigel has grown so much. We took lots of photos, but I'm having to work on Tim's computer this morning and I don't think he down loaded any of them last night, He was to busy playing with Nigel. He has that same precious little face but he smiles so much more. At first he wouldn't let me carry him around too much, but he evntually warmed uo to me and let me hold him. I think I could cuddle with him all day. Laura stayed with us until John finished his meditation and the he came to pick them up. I tried to trade Nigle for a piece of Teramisue (SP?) that we had bought for John at supper but he was a little selfish and he wouldn't go for that...he wanted them both! Which is just as good, I guess since I don't have the equipment to feed Nigel anymore...well, I have the equipment, but it's not in working order right now.

Tim has classes in the mornings and is free in the afternoons so that works out really well. Laura and John and Nigel will get alone time in the mornings and then in the afternoons we can all do stuff together.

Oh, and Laura got her hair cut really, really cute. I'll post pictures when Tim gets back to the room and shows me how.

Nigel video

2008-08-14T16:31:00.001-05:00

Look at Laura's blog for a cute video of Nigel. I still can't believe MY child has a child of her own! He is so precious and she and John are such good parents!

Trip to the old home place - for Tim's mom

2008-07-29T21:03:00.007-05:00

Carol and Joan
Joan and her grandparents' graves
Laurel, me, and James
Joan in front of the old house where Auntie Bert and Uncle Gene lived.
The gate to where the old house used to be where George Benson (Joan's uncle) grew up.
The sign "Crestview" at the farm
The old church building

We left early Friday morning last week and flew out to Oklahoma to see Tim's mom's old home place where she grew up. It was really neat. At first I was not certain I wanted to go and didn't understand why she wanted to go, but after we got there it was abundantly clear. She pointed out a tree that her dad had planted and we looked through the house her Auntie Bert and Uncle Gene had lived in. She pointed out other special places in the area. We went to the grave yard where her grandparents and great grandparents were buried. It was really neat and touching. We also looked at the old church building where Joan and her family had gone to church.

Then we left and went to Lubbock to see Joan's sister, Pat. We had a nice visit with her and on Saturday, we went to Shervport to eat dinner with Carol and Charley and James and Laurel. It was a really neat trip.

Christian the Lion - the full story (in HQ)

2008-07-22T11:35:00.001-05:00

I am so grateful for all of my friends - new and old as the saying goes, one is silver and other gold!

Family Reunion

2008-07-20T18:21:00.005-05:00

Singing and loving it! Aunt Ruth, Mike Williams, Uncle Tom, Billy Williams
Singing some more! Terry Williams, Mike Williams, and their sister, Cindy.
This is just as we arrived at the reunion. Mike Williams who worked so hard to put it all together, me, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Tom, my mom's youngest brother.

We had a great time yesterday at the Williams Family Reunion. My mom's mom was a Williams. We got to see people I haven't seen in years (or some since Mama's funeral. As always we had a wonderful time of fellowship and singing! We used to do this every summer at Ma and Pa Horis's house in the country and we'd have literally trailers loaded with food and then we'd sing til we couldn't sing anymore. It was a wonderful day!

More Nigel Photos

2008-07-10T20:10:00.004-05:00

Chicago and Toronto

2008-07-10T19:40:00.003-05:00

We had a great time in the Windy City seeing Wicked. I think even Vivian enjoyed the show. She and Tim about walked my legs off but we had fun.
Then we went to Toronto. We landed at the Toronto City Island Airport that is in Lake Ontario and then we had to take a ferry across to the mainland to meet Laura. We went to eat with Laura, John, and Nigel that night at a neat little Italian restaurant down the street from their apartment. They live in a neat part of the city called the Junction. All the light poles have little trains on them. It reminds me a lot of the Cooper-Young district in Memphis. Vivian, Tim and I spent the next day riding on the double decker bus touring the city and seeing lots of historical sights then John, Laura and Nigel came to our hotel and we ate at a restaurant down the street from there. The food wasn't so great but the company was wonderful. The next day, we went to Gilbraltar Point Island. It had a neat light house and lots of other neat things to do. That night Laura and John went out for dinner and let us babysit Nigel. That was so fun! Vivian gave him a bath in the sink. He really liked playing in the water and she also introduced him to a pacifier which he really seemed to take to. I had fun just holding him and kissing him. I was singing to him when he was being fussy and all of a sudden, he just "koncked" out. Then I just held him the rest of the night...that is what grandmothers are suppose to do isn't it?

2008-07-01T11:27:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of more photos of Nigel. We are leaving on Friday and going to Chicago for the weekend to see Wicked (we're taking Vivian with us - she's dreading having to go see Wicked, but she's excited about seeing Nigel!) We tried to get Diana to go but she has to babysit her house and getting it built. She says it is coming along nicely. I might have to run down there tomorrow to see it! Then we are going to Toronto to see Nigel and Laura and John and their new apartment. I can't wait to see my babies (all three of them) and get new photos and see how Nigel has changed!

2008-06-07T11:58:00.002-05:00

A few more photos of sweet little Nigel. Looks like he's puckering up for a kiss in the last one, doesn't it?

Nigel

2008-06-06T18:27:00.003-05:00

This are not the best photos of Nigel that I've taken, but they are the only ones that I could find after I put them on my computer....too bad Tim isn't here. I guess I'm lucky to just get these on here at all. Nigel is so precious. He just eats and sleeps and hardly cries at all. Laura is a good little mom and John is a good little dad. They have let me hold him some and cuddle with him. Every time I think he's smiling and get the camera set up, he's not smiling any more! But I am loving to get to cuddle with him! We went showing today for several things they needed including a bassinet so maybe Laura and John will get a better night's sleep tonight. I'll put up more photos when I get home and have Tim to show me how to pic the exact ones I want.

Welcome to our world!

2008-05-30T18:38:00.002-05:00

Welcome to our world Nigel Timothy Hacker-Wright! He was born on May 30, weighing in at 6lbs, 15oz. He is precious according to his mommy and I'm sure his grandmother will agree when she sees him. Both Mom and Nigel are doing well. She ended up having to have a c-section - no surprise to me, she's so little and will be in the hospital until Monday. I'm leaving next Tuesday to go to Canada to be with Laura and John and Nigel for about 5 days. I can hardly wait! They just live too far away...looks like I'm going to be wracking up air miles to Canada! My only regret is that my mom and Papa Mutt didn't live to see this precious little bundle.

Party Weekend

2008-05-19T19:43:00.008-05:00

We had a cookout here Saturday night for the music ministry. Special thanks to Ken Cox and Eric Channey for patting out the burgers. I cannot stand to put my hands in hamburger meat! After we ate, we all went upstairs and listened to the newest CD they are getting ready to do. It sounds great so you are all going to have to come to Sycamore View so you can get one for free when you turn in your visitors card.

We had a fish fry at the Inman's on Sunday night for the Pepperdine group. It was lots of fun. The food was good and the company even better. The kids had a great time playing outside and fishing in their pond. This is Brenda South making great hushpuppies and Crista cooking fish and chicken fingers for the kids. Also Fadea is in the pink pants with the pony tail and Candice Goff id there with Brenda. Sorry I don't have more close up face photos....but I never had the camera in my hand! That's Hannah Newsome fishing in the pond. The photo with the children playing in the wagon is so great. They are have a great time. The two little blonde girls in the wagon are Carlyle and Kaycee. I've got them talking Tim into buying me a big diamond ring like their mothers have. They are so funny. They call him the "purple man" or "pink man" or whatever color shirt he has on and every time they see him, they tell him that he needs to buy me a big diamond or either a swimming pool. They are cousins and they are so cute!

Oklahoma

2008-05-12T13:18:00.004-05:00

This was the weather we enjoyed in Oklahoma when we went for Tim's aunt's funeral. This was actually a toronado....we were just too close to it to see the funnel...we were hiding under an overpass...Tim did a great job with the service and we enjoyed getting to visit with his mom and dad and cousins a little while. It was not nearly as difficult on me as I had feared it would be. God is good!

Great Week at Pepperdine!

2008-05-04T20:24:00.007-05:00

Can you believe that this is Allen Gillespie....he used to be little Allen who threw temper tantrums and got up and walked off if no one was looking! What a handsome young man he has become! He introduced our group one night.
The Pepperdine campus was beautiful and we took photos of these deer right on campus!
This is precious little Corbin....I'm still not real good at getting these photos in the order I want them in this blog!
We had a great week at Pepperdine! The Sycamore Praise Team and Lynn Anderson did a great job of presenting the Psalms. The Psalms of Lament night was a real tear jerker, but wonderful never the less as were all their presentations. We got to see lots of old friends and it was so good to see them. This photo has Tim and me with Curt and Nedra Sparks, our former preacher. It was so good to see them and get to visit with them. Curt's presentation and the Overland Park Praise team were both great, too!
We also got to see Allen and Sara Gillespie and Brett and April and Corbin Emmerson. Allen and April grew up next door to us. Allen now works in Development at Pepperdine and Brett and April are missionaries in Togo. They just happened to be home on furlow. It was wonderful to see them and I got to play "granny" to Corbin a little while one night during the main session. He was a little fussy so I got to take him out side and let Bret and April both stay inside and listen. I loved doing that....getting ready for Nigel's entrance into the world!

HiDef BGT Charlie Green sings Summer Wind

2008-04-26T20:40:00.001-05:00

This kid can really sing! He reminds me of a young Tony Garcia!

What a Great Day!

2008-04-20T21:47:00.002-05:00

We had a great day of worship today! Ronnie and Jennifer Parker came to church with us today to eat lunch with Jim Woodruff who is filling in until our new preacher, Josh Ross, comes in June. We had a wonderful time reliving old memories and making new ones. I'm really sorry we forgot the camera to take a photo!

Tonight, the praise team, who is going to Pepperdine lectures sang the songs from the CD, The Psalms Project. Most of the songs are taken directly from the Psalms - many word for word and they are wonderful. Lynn Anderson will be speaking on the Psalms and the Sycamore Praise Team will be singing with him (or as Jim Woodruff calls them, the Kipettes).

I am continuing to get better as I stay "lazy" and rest and allow my emotions and brain to heal. Tim is having fun telling me I am just lazy but he knows better...he sees the results of my trying to do to much in one day! It was a great day, but now it's time for bed! Love you all!

It's been a pretty good week

2008-04-19T12:21:00.002-05:00

Last weekend, Tim and I went to see Miss Predigrew lives for a day. It was a little different but interesting. On Saturday, I went to Corinth to see Diana. We spend several hours going through boxes of burned up jewelry looking for diamonds and other stones - we found none...of course everything was black so who could tell what we were looking at anyway and a lot of it was melted together! We found little pieces of chain that we could rub the soot of off and tell what they used to be, but they aren't good to anybody now. There were some tearful moments finding some of Mama's jewelry (all of it costume but you know how as she grew older she liked to wear a ring on nearly every finger and a pin at her neck and sometimes a necklace, too) and there were some tears mixed with laughter for the same reasons!
Today I'm going to a Scream Free Parenting Seminar. I might like to get certified to teach it one day.
Yesterday I did a talk on mental health to the Youth Leadership Bartlett group. I guess they got something out of it. They acted interested and asked lots of questions.
Hope you all are having a good weekend!

Good Movies

2008-04-04T17:16:00.002-05:00

Tim and I went to see 21 yesterday and Leatherheads today. They were both good movies. Not too much chick flicks nor too much violence and shot-em-up kind of movies. Leatherheads did have a little more foul language but neither had the F word. I'd recommend either. I'm enjoying my resting time and I haven't had a headache yesterday or today. HOORAY!

Doctor Reports

2008-03-31T11:58:00.002-05:00

OK, folks, it's official...I'm crazy...no, not really....the neurologist said I have something called Post Traumatic Headache Syndrome. Yes, it is real. Google it and read about it if you want. In short, people who have migraines and get a lick on the head like I got tend to have migraines more frequently and severely for 3-6 months after the head trauma and I have had a headache nearly everyday since then. He suggested that I take off 3-6 months and do nothing to allow my brian time to heal.

The psychologist told me to take at least 3 months to heal emotionally so that's what I'm going to do. Keith, the clinic director has been kind enough to find someone to take my cases for me (except for one that I want to keep) and at the end of 3 months, we will reevaluate the situation. Dr. Clement wants to see me weekly for a few weeks. I have to go back to Dr. Landy (the neurologist) in May for a recheck. We'll see what happens from here!

Easter

2008-03-25T18:32:00.002-05:00

Easter in Searcy was wonderful as usual, but we did miss the James clan (but we didn't feel sorry for them...Mike and Beth are in Florence, Italy). Vivian and I stayed at their house anyway and we got to see Jon. All my friends in Searcy told me to go to the neurologist and get my head checked out...they all say I'm not the same as I was before the crack in my head...I really don't know if it's the crack in my head or all the other stuff I've been through in the last few months but I am going to see the neurologist tomorrow and the psychologist on Thursday so we'll see what they can come up with...I dropped my class today so that's one less thing on my plate....I might decide by the next time it's offered to take it again but right now, my brain needs a rest!

Supervision

2008-03-19T11:48:00.002-05:00

Today is the first day since Sunday that I had to get out of bed early in the morning....had to get up to go to supervision. Tim is in Colorado skiing with Joe, Cathy, his sister, and Noah, his nephew. I love sleeping until I wake up without an alarm! It's been a great week!

Time to Remember Happy Times

2008-03-10T12:51:00.005-05:00

This is a photo of Mama at Christmas a couple of years ago. She loved that dress with the snowmen on it. She was really happy when she was with her family and a photo of Mama and Bill. Her funeral was a week ago today. She really looked beautiful and peaceful in death. Her service was a real celebration of her life and I know it went long- probably too long for some but we children loved every minute of it. Tim lead the singing, Mama did love to sing. Several people asked him afterwards if it was a requirement to be able to sing to be a member of the Church of Christ. The singing was beautiful. She would have loved it. Of course, that's how we grew up...we never had a family gathering that didn't end in a singing. Mama and all her brothers and sisters could sing.
Paul Sparks talked about Mama's involvement in the Indianola church. He even said that if she had been a man, he would have made her an elder. The preacher from Corinth spoke also and then came the best part. People from the audience were invited to get up and say anything they wanted to say about her. My cousin, Joy, said she was Mama's favorite; however, there was some discussion about that later. Actually, I think she made every grandchild and niece and nephew feel special and worked hard not to show favorites to any of them. Mama made every child that came through the doors of our house feel special. And lots of kids did come through the doors of our house. Cousins from the city spent weeks with us in the summer (we spend weeks with them in the city, too), kids from church spent every Sunday afternoon with us. One of Robin's friends told a story at the funeral about shooting a hole in the ceiling with Robin's new shotgun...mama and daddy were so relieved that no one was hurt they didn't even get in trouble...Dale said that was the day he learned that Tracy Skelton (my dad) could be a tenor instead of a bass!
When we were talking to the preacher about our remembrances of her, Diana told him that she taught us to be good submissive wives, but it didn't take on me! We did also talk about how Mama had a revolving door at her house and so do Tim and I. She fed every visiting preacher whether they were Church of Christ preachers or from the Church of God down the road and we often kept their families at our house during the gospel meetings. Tim and I have guys from Harding grad school at our house quite often for short courses or over night during the semester when they drive in for one class a week. She set a great example of hospitality to us all!
Joy pointed out several sayings that Mama regularly said especially this one, " You scream, I scream, We all scream for ice cream!" We all quoted it with her just like Mama quoted scriptures in church with the preacher (not that it is in any way a scripture)...but is it any wonder that I love ice cream?
Thanks to all of you who came to show your love and support especially to our out of town friends and to all who have sent cards, e-mails and notes! It is such a blessing to have friends like you!

2008-03-01T21:32:00.002-06:00

My dear sweet mama went home to be with the Lord yesterday, Friday, February 29, 2008 at 2:00 pm. While it was very hard to let her go, it was an answer to our prayers. Since Papa Mutt died in December, it seems that Mama had lost her will to live. She wouldn't eat, didn't sleep hardly at all, was in pain a great deal of the time, and just seemed lost in general with out Papa Mutt to ground her. These photos were taken this summer at a cousin's reunion. In the first one, Mama fell asleep sitting up which is what she did most of the time since Papa Mutt died. The other is of Mama with her brother, Tom and sister, Des.
This last week of her life was unbearable for her. She had been in the hospital with pneumonia, a kidney stone in each kidney, bloating in her stomach, congestive heart failure and several other medical things wrong with her that I didn't understand, but she died with all her family around her and all of us singing hymns - she loved to sing and had the most beautiful voice until the end when she couldn't talk anymore...the only time she seemed alive since Papa Mutt died was when she was in church singing or at the nursing home singing with different groups who would come in to sing with the residents and she knew every word of every song and she sang out with that beautiful, clear soprano voice. When the preacher quoted a scripture, she quoted it right along with him and when he asked a question, she answered it right out loud! She did love the Lord and I am so grateful that she taught me to love Him, too. I was talking today with my sister and brothers about how we had a "drug" problem when we were kids...Mama drug us to church every time the doors were open and to gospel meetings and singings every where in the Mississippi Delta and usually by herself because Daddy didn't become a Christian until I was in college.

You know, I know she's singing with the angels and she is not hurting anymore and that is exactly what we prayed for and we told her while she was laying in that hospital bed that she could go and that we would be OK....and we will be, but the moment she took that last breath, I wanted to take it all back...only I don't want her back the way she was but the way I knew her when I was growing up...always singing and with a smile on her face, taking care of us and taking care of our friends and others...Yep, God does answer prayers and sometimes He gives you exactly what you ask for and when you get it, you're not always ready for it! What fickle humans we are!

When it rains, it pours!

2008-02-26T12:37:00.002-06:00

Diana, my sister, called this morning. She was at the hospital last night with Mama which is a good thing because lightening struck her house and it burned everything. Her bedroom was destroyed. They called her from the hospital about 1:00 in the morning to come out to the house. It's pretty much a total loss from what she described, but the insurance adjuster can't come until tomorrow...How stupid is that? I'm still feeling dizzy sometimes and don't trust myself to drive very far, so I can't be of much help. Just pray for our family, please! These past few months have been rough!

What I Don't Like About Getting Older!

2008-02-24T15:00:00.002-06:00

Well, my oldest cousin, Bud Mullen, for those of you who know her, he was Carylon Mitchell's oldest brother, was buried today. He had cancer but he got pneumonia and couldn't pull through it. He's the first cousin I've lost to death (other than car wrecks) and I don't like it one bit. Bud used to have a convertible when I was a teenager and he was a lot older than me, so all the cousins my age would tell him that if he would take us for a ride in the convertible that we wouldn't go home to Aunt Becky's (of Tea Cake fame) with him to spend the weekend, so he would take us for a ride and then we would still all go home with him to spend the weekend. Aunt Becky was always glad to have us and Bud tolerated us pretty good. I didn't get to go to the funeral because of this stupid head injury. I got the staples out on Saturday, but I still feel dizzy when I stand up too fast and so I didn't feel comfortable to drive myself down there and Tim's afternoon is filled with practice for the Easter Chorus and Pepperdine Lectures Praise Team. Mama is back in the hospital with another kidney infection and I haven't been able to go down and help Diana either. I feel bad about that, but that's life, i guess.

Joe will be home from China on Thursday night late. That will be interesting to see if he's decided he wants to go back to live there or not.

Tagged by Danny Dodd

2008-02-16T21:25:00.002-06:00

This tag is a little different from others I have received. I'm supposed to take a book and open it to page 123 and type the sixth, seventh, and eighth lines of the book. Since most of the books I am reading right now are text books for my Testing and Assessments class, these sentences might make no sense to anyone expect those in my class...but here they are from The Essentials of Testing and Assessments by Neukrug and Fawcett: Most law schools require the LSAT, which is a half-day test to access acquired reading and verbal reading skills. The LSAT has a unique scoring method that ranges from 120 to 150 and has a mean of 150 and a standard deviation of 10. Reliability estimates are quite high ranging from 90 to 95. So there you have it...If you plan on going to law school, this information may be somewhat helpful...

On an entirely different note, Tim and I went to see Sarah Pacheco at the Bartlett Performing Arts Center. It was a great concert. she did lots of Broadway hits and she had a great voice. After the show, Tim and I went to Kroger to pick up a few things...I slipped and fell flat on my back on a bottle of broken olive oil on floor busting my head open. We ended up in the emergency room and I got several staples in my head (5 or 6) and as a result, spend most of today in the bed with a headache not the usually kind, but in the back of my head where the staples are...What a mess!

I'm going back to bed!

Relaxing Week

2008-02-06T13:17:00.000-06:00

This has been one of the most relaxing weeks of my life! Tim is gone skiing in Whistler. Joe is in China. I did not schedule any clients and so I have been sleeping when I want, reading when I want, watching TV when I want, eating when I want, etc. Still haven't gotten bored though! I put on clothes for the first time today and went and got my roots done and hair cut.

I did weather the storms last night with no problem. The tornado sirens went off constantly for about 2 hours and this thing kept flashing on the TV screen interrupting my lifetime channel which was rather irritating, but all the other stations just had news on them...I knew it was bad weather...I didn't need to watch that. I never lost power. Thanks to all of you who called last night or this morning to make sure I made it ok.

Joe did call and wake me up one morning this week. He and Luke are having a great time in China. He thinks he might want to get a job there and stay. We'll see what comes of that.

Tim is having a great time skiing. The high has been around -4 everyday...not exactly my idea of a good time! This is his annual "man trip" but this time they have Bobby's wife, Sherry, and Ben's wife, Amy, with them. I'm not sure that Sherry and Amy aren't getting the short end of the stick having to cook every night and watch movies like 310 to Yuma.

Laura has called to check on me twice. She's doing fine. She knew more about the tornados than I did...go figure....

I'm on my way to Corinth in a little bit to see Mama. Be back tomorrow in time for class tomorrow night.

Magic is amazing!

2008-01-27T18:47:00.000-06:00

Tim and I went to the Bartlett Performing Arts Center again last night. This time to watch a, well, I would call him a magician, but he called himself a perceptionist and said that he used the power of suggestion. He was amazing. He could bend and break silverware with his mind and he could "read minds."

How he could do all of this, I have no idea how he did what he did but I know he didn't have plants in the audience because most of the people he called up there were people we knew (Bartlett is a small town, you know...) He even had 4 different people stand up and one told him what kind of car they would have if they could have any car in the world. The next told him what color, the next told him price, and the other the license plate number. He wrote them all down and then had a little boy who we happened to know come up and take a piece of paper out of his billfold and read the exact same information from it. Now, HOW DID HE DO THAT?????

Never fails to amaze me no matter how many times i see it...of course, I had been in the bed most of the time since Thursday with a migraine and was back there again today for most of the day...so it could have been the drugs, But everyone around me was amazed, too!

I you ever get the chance to see Craig Kargus, go!

BRRRRRRR!

2008-01-20T13:44:00.000-06:00

Finally it added my photo of Tim and me with Trout Fishing in America! Great Show and like I said in my last post, go to youtube.com and look them up and you can hear some of their songs - My Hair Had a Party Last Night and Pico DeGallo are two of my favorites as well as A Prefect Cup of Coffee.

We went to see Mad Money and 27 Dresses this weekend. They were both good and funny!

It's so cold! All I want to do is stay on the couch with a cup of hot tea and bundle up in my Harding throw!

Great Weekend

2008-01-14T13:44:00.001-06:00

Friday afternoon we went to see the Bucket List. It was a great show. Somewhat bitter sweet but a great show still. Wish I had as much money as jack Nicholson did in that picture so I could do all the stuff he did!

We went to the Bartlett Performing Arts Center on Saturday night to hear Trout Fishing in America. I have a photo of us with them and one of Ed and Leanne Braddock-Cookenham with them that I have tried several times to upload onto this blog but the files must be too big or something because it hangs my computer up every time I try to do it. It was a great concert and we laughed until we cried! They were so funny. It was a great family show! They played all different kids of guitars, banjos, bass fiddles, etc. and sang some songs we knew and a great deal more that were original with the funniest lyrics like "My hair had a party last night...when I went to bed everything was alright...but my hair got into a fight...it must have had a party last night.." We also saw Jim and Julie Chester there and Michael and Melanie Semore there. ( You can go to youtube.com and search for Trout Fishing in America and hear a few of their songs...the Hair one and one called Pico De Gallo and several others that are soooooo funny!)

We ate lunch on Sunday with Rick and Leslie and heard about their adventures in Togo and saw some of their photos. One really interesting one of Rick...I think Leslie should post it on her blog!

On Sunday night, we went to Ross Road for a night of praise led by James Reddick. It was good to see some old friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. One in particular - Ronnie - can't remember his last name, but he was Laura's track coach when she was in Junior High and he wanted to know all about what she's doing now and where she is (as did the Chesters and Semores).

On the way home, we got a call from Reagan. She was on her way home from Nashville and she stopped and spend the night so we got to talk to her for a few minutes. Sounds like she's really enjoying her life right now. I'm happy for her!

Now it's Monday and back to work...wonder if I'll ever in my life have enough time to just lay around long enough to get bored?!?

The Apartment is Finally Cleaned Out!

2008-01-06T20:55:00.000-06:00

After spending the last two weekends cleaning out Mama and Papa Mutt's apartment, I am happy to say that we got everything out finally on Saturday afternoon late. We went through a bunch of stuff and I brought some home and Diana, Robin, and Bill got a lot of what they wanted, but there's still stuff we aren't sure what to do with. We made a Kemp box to take to Papa Mutt's nephew and a Willingham box to take to Mutt's first wife's family. Maybe one day soon I can get Tim to scan some of the old photos we found and post them on here. I found one newspaper clipping of me when I was in 4-H in high school when I did a poster talk on TEETH! Had no idea I would marry a dentist one day...How ironic is that? I won 1st place in the state with that talk, too!

Please continue to pray for Mama. She seems so lost and alone still and her roommate who has been so good to her in the nursing home is moving out tomorrow to go home and live with one of her children. Pray that she'll get another one who will take good care of her. She's not eating and she just wanders around aimlessly. She does still know all of us but she can't understand why we leave her at the nursing home and don't take her with us. I'm praying that when she doesn't know us anymore that the Lord will take her home.

Today I have to go back to the real world and see clients.

Hope 2008 is great for all of you!

Tagged by Jenn

2008-01-02T10:14:00.000-06:00

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
Went to Downtown Disney in California

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Ssometimes, but I seldom keep them so I'm not making any this year!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
April Gillespie Emmerson - Baby Boy, Corban, in Togo, Africa
my cousin, Shannon - Baby Boy
AND I learned that I am going to be a grandmother for the first time!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My step dad.
My Uncle Jimmie.

5. What countries did you visit?
Italy for Thanksgiving with Beckie and Vivian

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
More time with family

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
the Saturday after Thanksgiving when Laura called to tell us that she was going to have a baby

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Helping my clients

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not passing the MFT Board-SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nope.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Don't think I bought anything important...since the fire, and I got my house redone, I don't feel the need to shop much.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Joe - He worked at Fed EX for almost 9 months and he's done all the stuff he needs to do to go to China.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Laura's and Joe's complete rejection of God.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Buying counseling books, aides, supervision fees.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Becoming a grandmother!

16. What song will always remind you of 2007?
The new Zoe song, "Oh no, He'll never let go, He'll never let go of me"

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer?
a. happier, b. a tad thinner, c. materially poorer, richer in blessings

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Sleeping! Reading novels, spending time with family

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Complaining, griping...I'm trying to get better, I promise!!

20. How did you spend Christmas?
In Colorado with my family

21. What was your favorite TV program?
Don't really have one...like Disney Channel

24. Do you dislike anyone now that you didn’t dislike this time last year?
Nope

25. What was the best book you read?
Sister Chicks Series

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Some acapella stuff on you tube!

27. What did you want and get?
Didn't really want anything except to spend more time with my family and friends

28. What did you want and not get?
To spend more time with my family and friends

I tag whoever wants to take the time to do this...I'm putting off taking down my Christmas tree!

Christmas in Colorado

2007-12-24T17:57:00.000-06:00

We've had a great week so far in Colorado! The family pics are taken off the balcony of our condo. We can sit on the couch with a cup of coffee or hot tea and watch the skiers/snowboarders go down the mountain in the background and watch the gondolas go back and forth. Tim is posing in one of these photos under deer antlers in front of a shop. Tim, Joe, and Brian have spent almost everyday skiing. Today, Tim and Joe took the day off to spend the day with Laura and John. We went downtown and ate lunch at this neat little cafe called Winona's. They had wonderful soups and sandwiches and great deserts!
Joe and Tim have skied/snowboarded every other day. Yesterday, they did Powder Cats to do back country skiing. They had a great time but they came home tired and hungry! We ordered pizza.
Tonight, Laura and John are cooking, It will be delicious!
Hope you are all enjoying your holidays!

Good news, Sad news

2007-12-17T14:23:00.000-06:00

First the good news...I made an A in my Career Counseling class! Hooray! Now I have to take Testing and Assessments next semester. Hope I'll do as well in that class. I should since I'm a lot more interested in that subject.

Now the sad...well, on one hand, it's not so sad. We buried Papa Mutt yesterday. It was a blessing to see him at peace in his casket yesterday. When Robin and I took Mama to see him on Friday night, he was struggling for every breath and it was so hard to see him like that. He had already told us he never wanted to live that way. Bill, Diana, and Tamara Lynn went to see him at the last visitation time that night and then he died during the night. Somehow I think he was just holding on until he saw all of his children. Mutt and Mama had been married for over 20 years. My daddy died when Joe(y) was still in diapers and he's 26 now. Though I dearly loved and still do love my daddy, Mutt was really good to Mama and he made her laugh. Even on Thanksgiving when we moved them into the nursing home, he was still joking and laughing with us and making her laugh. The good think I can say about his death is that he didn't linger long. They found the cancer right before Thanksgiving and it was very fast growing and aggressive and he was gone in just a couple of weeks. I'll never forget the first Christmas he had with us. Never having had children himself (well, he did have one who died when he was a baby) he'd never experienced a big family Christmas and so when he had gifts piled up higher than his head, he was more fun to watch than the children. He was so excited! And he loved to give to us, too. He took good care of Mama and for that I will forever be grateful. All the grandsons who were old enough were pall bearers. I was really proud of Joe, dressed in his suit and tie and looking so sharp and being there for the family in spite of the fact that he had a migraine. (Tim had to stop twice on the way down for him to throw up, but he hung in there anyway and did his part!) There was one really funny thing...the new preacher at Indianola whom none of us knew led the singing...Wil and Tim decided that it didn't really matter because when he started the songs, if the Skelton and the Horis clans didn't like how he was leading singing that we'd just all take over and sing how we wanted to sing anyway, but that wasn't necessary. He did a good job. I think Pappa Mutt would have liked the singing and Mama sang along with every word!

Now, please pray for Mama. She seems so lost and alone without him. Several times yesterday on the way from Corinth to Indianola, she looked at me and asked if I knew that her husband had died and she didn't know how she would make it without him. I pray that when she not longer knows all of her children, the Lord will take her home, too.

Thanks to everyone for all your love and prayers and support! Especially to Beckie for coming from Searcy and to Brenda and Randy for coming from Memphis to be with me!

Party! Party! Party!

2007-12-09T21:40:00.000-06:00

We have spent this weekend partying with our friends here in Memphis. We started Friday night with our annual group dinner which we have been doing since before some of us had children...so this was our 28th or 29th year for that dinner. It is always great fun. Wonderful food, wonderful fellowship, wonderful friends...until we start playing dirty Santa...then watch out...all niceness goes out the window and the fight is on but we have great fun!
Then Saturday night we had the praise team party at our house. We ate and sang Christmas carols. It sounded beautiful! Ed Riddick brought his keyboard. He is amazingly talented as is his whole family! I think that Tim could have sang all night!
Today at lunch we had our Sunday school class party at Ed and Leanne's. Needless to say, more good food and fellowship and tonight, we had home group here at our house with more great food and fun and fellowship and a dirty Santa ornament exchange. I think everyone was pretty happy with what they ended up with. Fred Collier got his annual UT ornament...nobody else wants it...I got a Santa dish...Tim ended up with a Christmas recipe card deck...how funny is that...maybe I'll be encouraged to cook or maybe Laura will like it and use it.
Rick and Leslie are leaving in a few days for Togo to see April and Brett and their grandchildren. The partying is over for me for now. My final is tomorrow night so I have to discipline myself to study all day tomorrow for that. Guess I'm a glutton for punishment...just keep taking classes and having to study...oh, well, they say life long learning wards off Alzehemizers...

For Baby - John Denver

2007-12-04T22:50:00.001-06:00

This was a song from our wedding....I still love it and I still love my Tim!

Dec. 2 - A Special Day

2007-12-03T09:41:00.001-06:00

This is Joe, Jon and Jeremy James...Yesterday was Joe's 26th birthday! I can hardly believe that he is that old. That really makes me old! He's my baby! Joe and Tim had Mexican food so Joe was pretty content.

Sadly, I didn't get to spend much of the day with Joe. My Uncle Jimmie, my daddy's brother, died and yesterday was his funeral in Mississippi, so I was gone most of the day. Uncle Jimmie was a wonderful man. He and Aunt Etheleen always welcomed us into their home and showed great hospitality to everyone. His oldest son, Gordon, was one of my favorite cousins when I was growing up. Gordon was one year older than me and we played together all the time, but the year Joe(y) was born, Gordon was hit by a drunk driver the same week Joe was born and I didn't get to go to his funeral because I'd just had Joe so I'm sure that yesterday was harder for Aunt Etheleen because of loosing her oldest son about this same time 26 years ago. There's only 3 of my dad's siblings left...there were 8 of them in the beginning. That's one thing I hate about getting old! But we'll all get there one day! Uncle Jimmie left a wonderful legacy of love for God, love for family, love for his fellow man, integrity, hospitality,and the one special thing I'll always remember is going to their house around Christmas time and they would always have those little bottles of coke to drink from. Every year when I put up my Christmas tree and hang those Hallmark Santas holding those little bottles of coke, I think if Uncle Jimmie and Aunt Etheleen! Here's to fond memories and love everlasting!

Harding is Wonderful!

2007-11-30T16:01:00.000-06:00

Mike Cope's blog had an plug for ACU yesterday, so I think I need to do one for Harding....If you thinking about college, Harding is the place to go! It was the four best years of my life and my friends I made there are still my best friends in the whole wide world! If you think you might have an interest in Harding at all, look on the Haring University website or leave me a comment here with your information and I'll get the right person to get in touch with you. Can't find a better, more fun, place with higher academic standards than Harding to go to! We also have a needs based scholarship through Associated Women for Harding that you can apply for. Some of my happiest, funniest memories are in Searcy and /or other places with my Harding friends! Can't beat it!!!!!

I'm Gonna Be a Grandmother!

2007-11-26T22:02:00.001-06:00

I am so excited! Laura and John are going to have a baby in early June 2008! What wonderful news to get for Thanksgiving!

We needed some happy news to combat the stuff going on with Mama and Mutt. They got moved to the nursing home on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We still don't have conclusive information from the masses in Mutt's chest. He will have to have a needle biopsy to be sure. We're leaving the decision up to him. He turned 88 on Monday. Mama is sick with a virus or something today...Looks like they won't be leaving the nursing home this time though we haven't talked to them about it yet.

Robin and Cheryl have finally found a house to buy and it is really neat! It has several acres with it and plenty of bedrooms for all the kids! I am so happy for them to finally have a nice place they can call their own!

Have a happy holiday season!
More later!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-19T12:13:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy being with your family and eating all the turkey and trimmings (or in Beckie and Gene's case, steak and bakes potatoes)! We'll be going to Corinth on Wednesday and spend the night and sometimes on Thursday afternoon, we'll go to Huntsville and then come home on Friday afternoon so we can decorate for Christmas on Saturday.

Please pray for Papa Mutt (my step-dad). He's in the hospital right now in Corinth. They've found a mass in his right lung and aren't sure what it is. They've done a biopsy but we don't have the results yet. I spent the weekend with Mama so that Diana could have a break. I think they are going to have to go to the nursing home when Mutt gets out of the hospital because he is so weak, but Diana and Robin are going to let the doctors handle telling them. I think Papa Mutt knows it in his heart, but I don't know how Mama will take it...she will probably be ok as long as Mutt is. Just please pray for them and for us.

Once again, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Two tags to catch up on...

2007-11-12T10:38:00.000-06:00

I was tagged by my friend, Jennifer Greene and Rebecca Jane and Reagan, too, I think.... last week and now that I have a minute or two and I'm responding to their tags!!

MY ROCK STAR NAME (first pet and current car):
Lady Solara

MY WANNABE NAME (favorite ice cream flavor and favorite cookie):
Cinnamon Cashew Crunch Macadamia Nut White Chocolate Chip (boy am I glad that's not my name...I can't even spell it!)

MY "FLY GIRL" NAME (first initial of first name and first three letters of last name):
THAC

MY DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color and favorite animal):
Red Horse (sound like an Indian, doesn't it?)

MY SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name and the city where you were born):
Skelton Indianola (you know all good Southern girls drop their middle names when they get married and take on thier maiden name as thier middle name; however, Alice Indianola, doesn't sound any better!)

MY STAR WARS NAME (first 3 letters of your last name and first 2 letters of your first name):
Hacta (maybe I'll carry around a big hatchett where ever I go!)

MY SUPERHERO NAME ("The" and second favorite color and favorite drink):
The Blue Perrier (can't get enough of that fizzy water lately...makes me think I'm in Europe since I can't go there!)

MY -cough,cough- ENTERTAINER -cough,cough- NAME (name of your favorite perfume/cologne and favorite candy):
White Shoulders Snickers (I wore White Shoulders in college...never wear perfume now...gives me a headache!)

MY WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother's and father's middle names):
Lilly Tracy (not too bad, I guess.)

Now for the other one...

50 years ago, I was 5...until tomorrow when i will turn 56. I was in first grade and believe it or not, I was the tallest kid in my class!

40 years ago, I was 15 and attedning Indianola High School. My graduating class in 1969 was the last ever graduating class from there. The next year, they had forced intergration and the high school became the junior high for the entire city and Indianola Academy sprang up overnight because no one in Indianola wanted to intergrate. I was not in the "in crowd," but I wasn't on the bottom of the food chain either and I had lots of friends. I was always in chorus and took piano...but I didn't keep up my lessons, so I can't play now. That's one thing I regret. I was big in 4-H and loved doing all the competive things with 4-H.

30 years ago, I was at Harding...the best 4 years of my life when all I had to do was study and had Daddy's credit card in my hot little hand. My friends I made at harding are still my very bestest friends in the whole wide world. I went on a campaign to Italy and England where Tim and I fell in love. He first kissed me in the side yard of St. Paul's in London.

20 years ago, Tim and I were married (actually we've been married 33 years, so this is not a completely accurate time line) and had Laura who was 8 by then because she is 28 now and Joe was 5 because he is 25 now. Tim was out of dental school and we thought we were living high on the hog! We'd already lived on Kevin with a swimming pool and were building the house we live in now (which they will have to carry my cold dead body out of because i don't intend to ever move again!)

10 years ago, well actually 12 years ago, I took my first trip to Ukraine(1995). It was a wonderful mission trip and we also took our family to England that summer. Vivian joined us and we saw every Beatles thing there was to see. It was the hottest summer on record for the past 20 or 30 years in Europe and we all about burned up! But we still had fun!

Somewhere between 10 and 5 years ago, I went to England with Beckie, Reagan, Laura, Katie, Vivan, and Cindy Cogbill. Vivian got the van stuck in a garage. It was so funny...of course, i'd think it was funny,,,I didn't have to drive. And when she drove in London we felt like the European vacation...only instead of going continually around Big Ben, we kept going around Travalgar Square. One thing about those round-abouts you can just keep going around until you decide which way to turn. And I went to Germany with Beckie, Reagan, and Mami while Laura was at HUF. Though we would get to see her, but we didn't. But it was a great trip anyway!

5 years ago, I got this wild hair to go back to school and get my Masters in Counseling at HUGSR. Now I'm working for the Christian Counseling Center sponsored by Sycamore View and taking classes to sit for the Liscensed Professional Counselor Boards. Most of the time, I really enjoy the work. Just wish I could figure out some way to get the clients to all come in during the work day instead of late afternoon and evening, but when you're working with children and adolescents and their families, guess that's not really an option. They can't miss school every week.

I'm not too good at remembering all these dates...Beckie is usually my memory. Sometime in the last 10 years, Diana, my sister, and I took our mom to Ireland and our cousins and thier mom went with us. I also went to Italy with my cousins. Laura went for part of this trip. The pope died while we were there so Rome was rather crowded and we didn't get to see everything we wanted to.

Vegas as fun. We saw The Producers with Tony Danza and the All-American Superstar show with impersonars. Tim got elected to the Board of Trustees for the American Academy of Implant Dentistry which means he'll have four board meetings a year around the country. Maybe i'll get to travel with him. You know me...I'm always ready to go!

Las Vegas Bound

2007-11-06T09:27:00.000-06:00

We had a great marriage retreat this past wekend at Natchez Trace State Park. The fall colors were beautiful and the presenters (Leanne and Keith) and the exercises (not physical...get your mind out of the gutter, but talking exercises that forced us to be open and honest with each other) they came up with us to do as couples were great.

Tonight we are headed to Vegas for the rest of the week to a Dental Implant meeting. I will be sitting in the room most of the time rewritting my paper and studying during the day. Tim will be in seminars. In fact, he is doing one seminar with Stewart Ortan Jones (I think that's his name). He is from England and quite well known in implant circles so that's quite a feather in Tim's cap. And on Saturday night, he will walk across the stage and get his Diplomat award. That's the highest level you can achieve in implant dentistry, so that's pretty impressive, too. Hope I'll have photos to post later.

2007-11-01T17:06:00.000-05:00

Praise the Lord for second opportunities to talk with those you love and work out misunderstadings! My heart is much lighter today! Now just keep praying for me that I will have the wisdom to think before I speak next time!

Time For Fun!

2007-10-31T11:07:00.000-05:00

For the last two days I have been trying to upload this amazing Magic video from YouTube but can't figure out how to do it again....so go to YouTube.com and search for Magic1320 and watch it. It's funny!

Thanks!

2007-10-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all of you for loving me and caring. I'm over my pity party today and finished wearing my feelings on my shoulder. I'm trying very hard to give all this over to God. Only He can fix it anyway. I did find out though that there are a lot of you out there reading my blog who don't leave a comment....so feel free anytime to do so!

2007-10-29T12:55:00.000-05:00

I am sad and I never thought things would turn out this way in my life.
Don't want to talk about it. Can't talk about it. That's all...

Book Questions

2007-10-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

These questions were on Rushton's blog...I've been thinking about them for several days...I'm still not sure I have all the answers...

1. Hardcover or paperback, and why? whichever is cheaper
2. If I were to own a book shop, I would call it... Escape
3. My favorite quote from a book (mention the title) "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies." from Gone with the Wind
4. The author (alive or deceased) I would love to have lunch with would be Janet Evanovinch
5. If I was going to a deserted island and could only bring one book, except for the SAS survival guide, it would be…the Bible
6. I would love someone to invent a bookish gadget that… hold the book open and turn pages for me while I do something else with my hands
7. The smell of an old book reminds me of...the stacks in the Harding Library.
8. If I could be the lead character in a book (mention the title), it would be… Stephanie Plom in the Janet Evanovinch books
9. The most overestimated book of all times is…. Harry Potter? I don't really know
10. I hate it when a book…It doesn't have a happy ending

Home Group

2007-10-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

We had a great home group meeting tonight. Ken and Joan Cox, Rick and Leslie Gillespie, Paul and Caroline Phillips, Susie and John Hite, and Phil Hart along with Tim and me. We sang for about an hour out of these old, old hymnals (the skinny blue ones before the blue ones we used in college). It was a great time of prayer and fellowship!

I aso found a video clip today on you tube but I can't figure out how to get it on my blog...i know I did it once before, but my mind is mush tonight...it will really make you think about what it important in life! Go to YouTube.com and search for Randy Pausch on Oprah. Let me know what you think.

Another blog you might want to check out is touchalifekids.blogspot.com This one is written by Mike Cope's sister-in-law, Pam, who is in Cambodia try to rescue children from being sold into the sex slave business. It is heartbreaking!

Hope you are all having a great week and that the weekend will be even better!

AWH Pie Auction

2007-10-21T11:59:00.001-05:00

We had the annual AWH Pie Auction last night. It was great fun as usual! We raised $6000 just by selling the pies. That doesn't count ticket money so when that gets added in, I don't know what the total will be. If you weren't there, you missed out on great food and great fellowhship!

And this morning at church, Rena and Wheeler Howard were there with Helena. She is so precious. Go to Reagan's blog to see photos of her. I hated that Tim didn't have his camera in his pocket this morning ( he usually carries it with him everywhere!) so I could get of photo of me with her to post.

We've had a great weekend....now, I've got to study for my class tomorrow night! Hope your weekend was great, too!

One more thing...put Brett and April (gillespie) Emmerson on your prayer list. Some guy who repaired their truck took it on a joyride when he was finished and now it is a big ball of metal. The guy was in a coma but has come out and they think he will live, but April is having labor pains early and they need to leave soon to go to Accra (about 8 hours away from where they live) to await the arrival of the new baby. They'll have to borrow a car from the team. Pray for their safety.

The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture with Lyrics

2007-10-16T09:25:00.001-05:00

Can't believe I figured out how to do this. This is not the parenting advice I would give, but I think this is sooooo funny!

Hooray!!!

2007-10-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Well, the big test is over once again. I don't think it was as hard this time but that's not saying that I passed. There were 2 questions that had straight answers that I knew that only one answer could be correct... well, actually, there were 3 but one of them was about a symdrom that I had never heard of (Picca) I'll have to look it up. I"m just glad it's over for now!!! Tim and I are going to see a movie and relax!

And I have to tell you, it is a really small world! Last night, Daniel and Susanne Hurd were here and we went to eat at Bonefish Grill. Food was excellent. We were sitting at a community table because we didn't have reservations and these other two couples came and sat on the other end. Before the night was over, the guy next to me turned and introducted himself and he was from INDIANOLA, MS! Can you believe that ?... and that's not all, his brother went to church with me all while I was growning up and he knew my Daddy and my Uncles and Bill and Diana and almost everybody I knew in Indianola and a lot of people I didnt' know. He used to be a crop duster and he did my daddy's fields. Now he's retired and lives in Grmantown. And he had that Delta gentleman accent - you know where they say "Dolla" instead of dollar. He knows mama and Mutt. It was really neat. Of course, Tim and Daniel spend the whole night talking about flying so he (his name was Larry Hall) coulnd't resist getting in on the conversation. Beckie, you would love to have hime in your speech class as a guest...he speaks more"delta" that Jay Henley - who he also knows!

I have been tagged

2007-10-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, Reagan, just for you...7 things about me...

1. I have decided that I don't care how many typos are in this...this is the third time I have typed it and when i tried to preview it to correct any mistakes, I've deleted the whole thing and had to start over! UGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

2. I am taking additional classes needed to sit for the LPC Board. It is supposed to be more fact based than the MFT Board and therefore easier to pass. I am taking the MFT Board again on Saturday but I am not worrying myself to death studying for it...hasn't done any good so far anyway only created more test anxiety!

3. My Myers-Briggs Type is ESFJ. One of my top 5 occupations to consider is Culinary Arts! How funny is that! But, I never said I couldn't cook, jus that I DON'T cook.

4. I don't like animals in my house. I grew up on a farm and animals belonged outside.

5. I have complete confidence in Tim's ability to fly and I will be sooooooooo glad when this FAA stuff is over and he can fly again. It's all making me crazy!

6. I loved the Zoe Conference on Friday night. It was wonderful and we got to see several friends that we haven't seen in a while but we ended up spending Saturday with family. Noah scored a touchdown at his flag football game and Tim's parents showed up with Tim's mom's famous homemade apple pies for his birthday which is on Monday.

7. I hope to go to Greece, France, Japan, Pepperdine Lectures, and Ghana in 2008.

And I don't think I'll tag anyone else...Last time, no one did it anyway, so if you feel the burning desire to give us 7 facts about yourself, please have at it! I'd love to hear from you!

Great Crab Claws

2007-10-02T20:46:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to say that my play therapy conference was really good and I got lots of practical ideas, but the best part was getting to see Vivian and eat dinner with her on Wednesday night and spend the night with her on Friday night...I ate crab claws for every meal except breakfast while I was down there and I even had a hot Krispy Kreme donut for breakfast on Saturday morning before I left Mobile. YUM!!!!

AACC and Play Therapy Confernce

2007-09-24T10:13:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Nashville for the American Association of Christian Counselors at the Opryland Hotel. It was a great confenrence with some great speakers - Max Lucado, Larry Crabb, John Eldridge, Dan Allender, Kay Authur, among others. And I got to see several people that I had not seen in a long time - Adrian Hickman and his daughter, Andrea and his sisten-in-laws who were visiting him at the Capstone booth, Sharron Pharr and Kim (I can't remember her last name). I also saw Dr. JoNeal Kirby and Elaine Denman. It was good to see my friends from Harding and catch up.

I'm leaving this Wednesday to go to Orange Beach, AL to a play therapy workshop on Thursday and Friday. I'll get to see Vivian and eat some crab claws. I'll spend the night with Vivian on Friday and drive home on Saturday. Now I just have to figure out how to make the navigation system in my car work like I want it to. When we went to Branson this summer, Tim fixed it so it wouldn't keep directing us to interstates and I ended going way out of the way to get to Opryland...I don't want to do that going to Orange Beach!

I think I could spend all my time going to seminars and never seeing clients...

I am so Thankful!

2007-09-16T16:40:00.000-05:00

I guess you wonder why after a year's time, I would post a photo of Laura and John and put a title that says I am so thanksful! Well, life has a way of catching your attention sometimes...sometimes good and sometimes, not so good. This week my heart is breaking for some friends that I grew up with in Indianola. They no longer live there, but their daughter, Heather, who was the same age as Laura, was murdered by her druggie boyfriend...beaten to death with a hammer. He had hit her once before and she required 50+ staples to put her head back together and though her family and freinds encouraged her to stay away from him, she with her good heart, after he had finished a stint in a drug rehab program took him back. Just a few days later, she was dead. Somehow that seems to be the pattern a great deal of the time for battered women. The saying goes, "the first time you get hit, you're a victum, the second time, you're a volunteer." But somehow, it's just not that simple. For whatever reason, Heather looked for the good in him and after his stay in rehab, thought that he would be "cured" and that her Christianity would be a light for him...

So today, I am especially grateful for John and his love for Laura. When I am around them, their love for each other is obvious and his protection of her is quite visible. If I ever say or do anything that upsets her or makes her uncomfortable (which I do usually unknowingly with my big mouth...you know I have this problem of saying what I think when I think it...), he calls me on the carpet and lets me know that I need to be more careful about what I say so that I don't hurt her feelings.
So, John and Laura, I love you both very much and I love that you are so in love with each other. I am so proud of you both and of your accomplishments in every area of your lives (except for one and you know what I'm talking about - that I can't change, I can only pray about!). THANK YOU SO MUCH, JOHN, FOR LOVING AND TAKING SUCH GOOD CARE OF MY LITTLE GIRL! AND HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THE 18TH!!!

AWH and Searcy Friends

2007-09-09T20:30:00.000-05:00

I went to Searcy on Thursday of this past week. I had an AWH National Council Meeting on Friday morning with a luncheon with the AWH scholarship recipients. I even got to sit by Sun (sp?) who lived with John and Rose Kennedy the last couple of years. It was great to see and talk to him for a while. It is always great to see the kids who benefit from our work...makes baking all those pies and cakes and casseroles ( and the stuff I volunteer to buy at Sam's - because you know I don't cook!) worth it. But I went early so I could play with my friends on Thursday night and take my nephew, Wil, who is a Harding student out to dinner. Beckie and Gene Weaver, Mike and Beth James, Jonathan James and his girlfriend and Wil and me all went to Doc's Grill. Food was good...fellowship was even better. We laughed until we cried...if you're reading this and you know Mike or Gene, ask them about the Mens' bathroom door in the Reynold's building.

Labor Day Weekend

2007-09-03T21:40:00.001-05:00

We had a fun Labor Day weekend with my nephew, Wil, and two of his friends, Jordan and Caroline, from Harding here for the weekend. We cooked out burgers and Tim made a big pot of spaghetti on Saturday. It's always fun to have college kids around - makes us feel young again!

Sunday afternoon we went to see Mr. Bean's Holiday with Leslie and Rick Gillespie and Leanne Braddock and Ed Cookenham. As you can tell from the photo, we had a great time and everyone at the theatre thought we never got out we were acting so silly. We came home to find Daniel and Suzane Hurd here (actually, we knew they were going to be here because they called before we left and told us they were coming to spend the night on their way from Searcy back home to Nashville -Caroline was funny - she was like, "So, do you always have people calling and dropping in to spend the night on the spur of the moment?"...she hasn't known us long enough to know about our revolving door!) and they already had the grill going and so the Gillespies and the Cookenhams ate with us and we had a really nice evening with friends.

Today, I studied all day. Tim and Daniel went out flying (Daniel just got his instrument rating) and Suzane went shopping with her granmother. I had class tonight. Harding doesn't count Labor Day as a holiday! But, it was a good weekend anyway!

Guelph II

2007-08-26T20:51:00.001-05:00

This is the wonderful dinner that John cooked for us last night. Everything tasted as wonderful or better than it smelled. Most of the ingredients were fresh from the farmers' market making the dinner even more tasty...fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, apples for the apple crisp... We enjoyed the evening just sitting around the table and visitng with each other.

This is another photo destined for our "Hall of Fame" with the "Pole Pictures." (Laura and Joe with one in North Carolina and the other in South Carolina, Vivian and Joe singing in the rain at DisneyWorld, Vivian and Joe in Liverpool, Cristen and Laura in Colorado, etc. each time they are hanging onto a pole of some sort.) I finally figured out a way to keep John from putting horns on my head...

Guelph

2007-08-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

This is downtown Guelph. It is a really neat "little" downtown area. The city has about 100,000 people, but the downtown area is neat and quaint.

Laura and John took us to a little town called Elora today. It was a really neat little town, too...lots of little shops and original art in galleries.

We enjoyed a wonderful butter tart, which is a native Canadian treat, coffee for Laura and John with cappuccino for Tim and me at this cutest little "patisserie." Laura and I decided that we would do a "seefood" pose for Tim; I can remember when Laura would have been embarrassed to death to do this with me...she's mellowing out in her old age. John almost decided that he didn't want to be in our family anymore if we were going to act like that!

All of us in the patisserie. John deserved what he got with the seefood picture! Every group picture we've made this weekend so far, he's put horns of some sort on my head!

Right now we are back at John and Laura's and he's cooking dinner for us. It smells great!

Just A Little Note

2007-08-20T12:07:00.000-05:00

Not much to say this morning, but I wanted you all to know that I am still alive. Had a terrible headache Thursday - Sunday...it eased up on Friday a bit and finally went away completely on Sunday afternoon..what a relief! That's going to be my first question when I get to heaven, I think, is why did I get to have those headaches? Tim took good care of me though. We're going to see Laura and John this weekend. I'm really excited about going to Canada. Never been there before and even more excited about seeing my babies. (I know they don't think of themselves as babies, but they will always be my babies-even John because he loves and takes care of my Laura so well!)
I'm starting a new class tonight at the Grad school - Career Counseling. Gotta go get my reading done before class.

New Photo

2007-08-11T22:00:00.001-05:00

This is a new photo for the church directory. I am trying to add it as my blog photo but I have not yet quite figured out how to do it yet.

Tampa Trip

2007-08-04T19:29:00.000-05:00

This is the seafood resturant where we ate the first night. We had coconut almond shrimp. It was good, but not nearly as good as at the Rainforest cafe in California.
This is me in the bushes outside the Salvador Dali Museum. It was a really neat exhibit that we went to today!
We ate gelato here today. It was good, but not as good as Italy.

California

2007-07-31T12:38:00.001-05:00

We had a great time in California. The highlight of our trip was getting to see Allen and Sarah Gillespie for a little while. They are doing great and Allen seems really exicted about his work with Pepperdine.

Our limo picked us up a the airport and took us to the hotel. Those seminar people really know how to treat their people.

Our bag got to LA about 12 hours after we did...so the first order of the day on Friday morning was to find clean underwear...I always take a backpack with my meds and clean underwear, but this time, I didn't...fortunately, there was a Wal-mart across the street from the hotel so we could walk over and get what we needed. I can wear that outter wear for several days but I gotta have clean underwear! There was also a Starbucks for which we were very grateful...the coffee at the hotel was nasty! The rest of the breakfast was really tasty though. Friday was a very relaxing day...since we didn't have our bag, we didn't feel the need to get up early and pack every sight seeing thing we could into that one day. We went to Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe (photos are on Tim's blog). We had the best coconut shrimp that we have ever eaten there!

On Saturday, Tim went to his training and I laid around and read a novel and visited with Allen and Sarah and then that night a hummer limo picked up me and the other wives and took us to meet out husbands for dinner at the very nice fancy resturant.

On Sunday, the limo took us back to the airport and we had an unevenful flight back to Atlanta but then, we had a seven hour delay in Atlanta because of the weather so instead of getting home at 7:00 it was almost 1:00 am...It was quite interesting...Delta kept chaning our departing time and our departure gate...we're supposed to go to another seminar in Tampa this weekend...hope the travel will be less trouble free but I will be taking my backpack with my meds and clean underwear on the plane with me this time!

2007-07-30T12:37:00.000-05:00

OK, I did the Simponizer thing like Beckie and Reagan and Jennifer...I don't know exactly how they came up with this image fromt he photo that I put in because I don't think it looks at all like me...Reagan's looks just like her curly hair...anyway...that's my give in to peer pressure for today!

The Kids are gone

2007-07-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

The kids are gone. The house is quiet except for my coughing and blowing my nose (I know - that's probably too much information for most of you, but this cold is driving me crazy and making be feel very unproductive...the medicine I'm taking makes me feel like I have a sack over my head and I don't want to do anything except lay on the couch and sleep...of course, that's what I want to do most of the time anyway...now I just have a real reason to get by with it!)

The search cmmittee told us yesterday that they are essentially starting over with their search for a pulpit minister. None of the 3 they had it worked down to worked out so we'll get to enjoy John Mark Hicks a little longer. If any of you have any great suggestions, let me know.

Tim and I are leaving on Thursday to go to LA, CA for Tim's last training on his Laser equipment. We'll have Friday to play and then he'll be in classes all day Saturday. We're trying to work out getting to do dinner with Allen and Sarah Gillespie on Friday night, The Laser compnay will treat us on Saturday night (as much as that piece of equipment cost, I'm sure that we more than paid for that dinner but anyway it's a nice perk which they do not have to give). We'll be home sometime on Sunday.

Have great week!

Hard time this week

2007-07-17T10:15:00.000-05:00

Well, I did ok last week making myself get up and going to work out, but I'm having a hard time getting motivated this week. I have about 11 kids at my house from Michigan this week (all boys) - Leslie has the girls at her house - they are here working with the Raleigh Plant chruch and the Downtown Church for the week and that really has not one thing to do with whether I work out or not but when I really don't want too, one excuse is as good as another!

Mama, Papa Mutt, and Diana were here all day yesterday so I spent the day going to the various doctors with them. It enjoyable getting to visit with them. Mama's Alzeheimier's is getting a little worse each time I see her and it's sad, but she still knows us all and she and Mutt still pick at and cut up with each other and laugh so that's really good! We met Robin and his family at the mall for dinner last night. They all came to have their teeth cleaned yesterday.

Gotta make myself get up and get dressed and go to the store. Leslie and I are making dinner for the kids tonight. It's fun having them here and hearing about their experiences. They are all fascinated by my pineapples and the ledgend of the pineapple.

3 times this week

2007-07-12T14:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I worked out three times this week...that means I'm up to 10 minutes...

Tim is seeing a cartiologist today and having a sleep-deprived EEG tomorrow so maybe soon he will be released to fly again soon.

Laura and John got moved to Canada. She called today and said the weather is wonderful - in the 70's with a nice breeze and sunshine. Tim hopes to fly us up there before shcool starts for them in September. I am excited for them. John is doing what he loves - being in the world of acadameia (is that spelling correct?) and Laura is getting ready to apply for PHD programs in French...If you can do what you love and make a living doing it, then you are a blessed person!

We ate lunch with the staff yesterday for some birthdays and Tammy White's boyfriend, Rick, who is also a pilot, joined us...He's trying to talk Tim into buying a new plane...I told him to just go ahead and buy it and I would find more trips to go on...I mean, he's already got his three ski trips planned, so I think I've decided I'm going to Greece next March with my cousins (my nephew, Wil, will be studying in Greece and we'll have to go see him and his favorite Aunt Diana will be forced to go with us), then in May, I will have to go with Beckie and Reagan to Japan to have reunion with Mami (we did a trip to Germany together several years ago) and then in August, Tim will go with me and Leanne and Ed back to Ghana for a mission trip, so 2008 looks to be a busy traveling year for me. And of course, I'll have to go to Canada sometimes in the year to see Laura. Tim will never get to retire...We both like to play toooooooo much!

Exercising

2007-07-09T08:27:00.000-05:00

OK, I did it. I got up this morning and joined Bartlett Rec and worked out on the elipital (SP?) machine for a little over 8 minutes. Dr. Cole told me to do 8 minutes for the first week and then build up a minute a week. I think I can build up faster than that, but I'm going to do it as he says because I don't want to hurt my back. I'm thinking maybe if I make it public knowledge on this blog, I'll be too ashamed to not do it at least 4 times a week or more. He actually says I should exercise every day that I eat...maybe I'll have to start fasting some days!

Tim got challenged yesterday at church to get ready to run a half marathon in December so he started running yesterday. He ran 1.7 miles in just a few minutes. I think I got about a third of a mile in 8 minutes this morning...but I did get my heart rate up good....if I do this consistently and don't see any pounds go down on the scales, I will be sorely dissappointed!

a few pics from the cousin's reunion

2007-07-07T13:24:00.001-05:00

These are the cousins who showed up...Robin, Diana, Me, Bill, Joyce, Kim, Linda...Bob was there for a while, but he had to leave to go see his girlfriend before we started taking photos,
Mama, Uncle Tom, and Aunt Des - their only other living siblings are Aunt Grace in Maryville and Uncle Aaron in Harrison, AR who weren't able to come.
My brothers and sister.
Kim and her husband, Robbie took a fun drive in Tim's car on those little curvy country roads.
Hope we'll have more cousins to join us next time...we really had a good time catching up! Two of our cousins, Joy and Terri, when to see "the Full Monty" in Little Rock that weekend. I called to see if they still had full vision after the show or if God had struck them blind, but Terri said they could both see alright...at least out of one eye...they were williing to risk one each.

Cousins' Reunion

2007-07-05T18:14:00.000-05:00

We had a cousins' reunion with some of the cousins on my mom's side of the family on Saturday, June 30. Only about 7 or 8 of us (out of 20 or so) made it, but those of us who were there had a great time! I was goimg to put some photos on here, but Tim has not had time to down load them to my computer and I have no idea how to do it so I decided I'd write about it any way. We did get one major decision made...We are going to try to go to Greece in March next year if we can find prices that are at all reasonalble - I've been looking, but so far I've not found anything cheap. Wil, ny nephew will be studying in Greece in the spring, so we'll get to see him, too, and it'll make the trip even better.

My cousin, Joyce, has a cabin on the Tennessee River. We all met there for the day and everyone had a great time playing in the water and on the "ski doos" (I think is what you call them) and riding the pontoon (sp?) boat and eating and laughing. It was great fun! We missed the ones who weren't there and hope they can join us next time. It's so much more fun to get together when we aren't there for a funeral, which is when most families come together it seems...now I'm trying to get on in the works for the Skelton side of my family for next summer.

That day started our July 4th celebrations and we've had two more since then,,,Tuesday night, we were with Ed and Leanne Braddock-Cookenham, who live on the lake over which they shoot of the Bartlett Fireworks. Their back yard was full of friends, Tim and I rode the motocycle over so we could park on the Cookenham's sidewalk. It took us over 30 minutes to get home because of th crowd and we don't live two miles from them! On Wednesday night, we ate with the Gillespies, Jane and Garry Manness and Lynn and Augustine from Ghanna (we're planning to go back there in August 2008 if any one wants to go with us).
We are enjoyng being off the rest of this week-or at least I am...Tim is studying for his ACLS exam.

Beckie called today and said that she would probably be here to spend the night Satuday night. I'm looking forward to that!
Hope you all have had a great 4th. Laura called today on their way from Austin (they'd been to see John's mom) and said it was raining hard on them. Pray they make it home safely. Driving in the rain is not fun! Until next time...

Going Stir Crazy 2

2007-06-27T16:02:00.000-05:00

I guesss it would help if i added a few words with the title...I know that I have had two weeks of vacation already this summer and I know that I will be getting to go with Tim to a seminar in LA in the end of July and to one in Tampa the first weekend in August but still here I have sat for the last hour almost looking up air fare/hotel deals for July 4 and the rest of the week...I am really getting spoiled and I want to go somewhere exciting! TO PLAY!!!!! NOT to a seminar! I'm ready for Spain or Greece or Japan or Finland or Sweeden or Denmark or someplace I've never been before! Who wants to go with me and when can we go?!?

Going Stir Crazy!

2007-06-27T16:01:00.001-05:00

Home Group

2007-06-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

We had a great home group meeting tonight! We sang all night and it was awesome. We had two visitors with us - Gabriel from Ghana and Jeff from Searcy. Gabriel was overwhelmed with the singing. They sing beautifully in Ghana with all their hearts but most of it is in unison no harmony. He went to anaother congregation this morning with some other friends and after home group tonight, he wanted to know if the singing at Sycamore View was better or worse than home group. When we told him it was better, he could hardly believe it. We are planing a trip back to Ghana in August 2008 so keep that in your thoughts and prayer that God will lead and direct us in planning and putting this trip together.

Jeff is here from Searcy. He's taking Don Meredith's class at the grad school this week in a short course. He needs prayers, too! He will do well I'm sure. This is Jeff's third time to be with us so he's family now.

I'm ready for another trip....i know I've only been back to work for a week...I got spoiled to being off...

Branson, MO

2007-06-15T14:13:00.000-05:00

You need to go to Tim's blog to see photos...He's already put the highlights of the trip on his blog.
Artist-Tim.blogspot.com

More Beach Photos

2007-06-15T13:35:00.001-05:00

Beckie with her scarf. Jessica brought scarfs that Vivian had given her girls last year to play on the beach...we had fun with them, too!
I really do have clothes on behind the towel! This is just one of the "Calendar Girls" photos that we have been saying we were going to do ever since we saw the movie. Mary Lou and Sally say they are going to print them on a calendar to raise money for the Sunshine School. I kind of doubt that they will make much money...we don't quite have the bodies or expose as much as the firemen so on their calendars.
I loved the look on Sally's face when she told "loopey" - that's always the first person out at 31 who has to serve goodies to all the rest - that she wanted a LOT of ice cream...She got about a tablepoon full. Sally and I might tie when it comes to ice cream being our favorite food.
Jessica decided to make a nose ring out of her glow lights. It was pretty funny!
My favorite pastime at the beach - relaxing and reading a good book! This was the first year in many years that I have been there that I didn't have to spend the morning studying for some upcoming class. I read alsmost a book a day...novels, mindless, fun reading!

Gulf Shores

2007-06-11T11:03:00.000-05:00

Sally comtemplating her "31" cards
Making lovely earrings
Our beautiful flipflops that we made
glow ring favors from Sally and Mary Lou
Sally and Julie
We had a great time at Guf Shores! We had Beckie, Linda, Mary Lou, Sally, Bonnie, and Jessica from Searcy; Julie from Atlanta; Wesley from Nashville; Mary from New York; Vivan (part of the time) from Mobile and me from Bartlett. Quite an assortment with lots and lots of fun! Not many places had crab claws but we enjoyed lots of other seafood and key lime pie, read lots of books, took lots of naps, and played lots of games! It was great fun!

Jonathn and Sandy's Wedding

2007-05-26T17:24:00.000-05:00

We just got home today from Florida. Jonathan and Sandy's weddding on the beach was really neat. Tim performed the ceremony...he found out when he got there about 5:00 Wednesday afternoon that he would be doing that...the weddiing was to start at 6:15. He did a good job inspite of little prep time. We had fun with all our family that was there and we missed those who weren't. We did decide; however, that Seagrove and Seaside are for rich people not like regular people like us who ususally go to Gulf Shores. We went to breakfast one morning at a place that the cheapest thing on the menu was $8.00 pancakes and I don't know how much the coffee was, but the bill for 6 of us was $89.00! The food was good though! I'm going to try to post some wedding photos here and there's one of Noah, Tim's nephew, follow his Uncle Tim's example of see-food!

I have been tagged

2007-05-21T12:12:00.000-05:00

Coming up with 7 things that people don't know about me will be difficult because I am pretty open and tell everything all the time.....
1. Like Beckie, if I wear sandals all day, I hate dirty toes and feet and I have to wash them before I go to bed even if no other part of my body gets washed.
2. When traveling in Europe or in the US, and I know I'm going to be walking a lot, I had always rather wear my tennis shoes even if they don't match my outfit because they are more comfortable.
3. I once flew an airplaine from Arlington, TN to Covington, TN all by myself without an instructor and they cut of the back of my favorite Haridng shirt because it was my first solo flight.
4. In my next life, I want to be independently wealthy so that I can give unlimitedly to all the places I love like Harding and Sycamore View and still afford to travel the world over (including the US.)
5. I can't stand for people to chew and pop gum so that I can hear it!
6. I don't mind to do almost anything someone asks me to do for them, but I hate it when someone orders me around like I am their servant.
7. I am having a very difficult time accepting the fact that I have taught hundereds of children about God and his love, some of whom have even become missionaries, but my own children have their dowbts about God and there is not one thing i can do about it except keep on loving them dearly (and I do) and praying that one day they will come back to thier love for the Lord,

Now, I tag Laura, John (that will helpp me get to know you better), Callie, Danny Dodd, and James Wood.

Dr. Diplomat

2007-05-15T15:40:00.000-05:00

Just want to say in spite of all the trauma and panic, Tim passed his test in Chicago and is now one of the few Diplomats in Implant Dentistry in the World...Now if the FAA would just give him the ok to fly again, he'd be one happy camper!

2007-05-09T09:46:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry that photo of Beckie is so small. I don't know how to get it to be bigger. She's sitting in her office surrounded by a sea of papers with a fancy cowboy hat on...she's a Texan all the way!

2007-05-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

This is one little piece of an e-mail I received from several friends for Mother's Day. Don't worry, Laura and John, I'm NOT hinting for a grandbaby but I do like and agree with the sentiment and evidently after our last conversation, John, the concern goes both ways! Love you both!
This is my dear friend, Beckie. Praise the Lord, she got all her stuff back from her harddrive except for e-mails! Those she can live without.

2007-05-07T11:25:00.000-05:00

We have a very full and busy weekend, but it was fun getting to see lots of people we hadn't seen in a long time. Mike Tinker, one of our HUGSR guys, graduated on Saturday and he asked us to be his family for the graduation festivities and that was fun. I got to see a bunch of my friends graduate and this may be the last class of counseling studehts that I will know anyone in...I still miss that comradery (and no, even after Spring Sing, Dr. Burke, I still don't know how to spell it!) that you have with all the students!

But right now, my friend, Beckie, needs all our best wishes and prayers, and a MAC genusis...her computer crashed...I thought Mac's weren't supposed to do that, but hers did and it had on it all her grades for this semester, her finals, her photos, and her 200+ page document to accreidation for the new Masters in Speech Pathology (of which she is going to be the chair) in the fall at Harding...

Beach week can't come soon enough!

Leanne's Birthday and St. Louis

2007-04-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

We just got back from seeing the doctor in St. Louis again. He says it could be an isolated incident that we may never know what caused it but he suggested that Tim have a sleep deprived EEG in a couple of weeks. We brought all the records from the hospital and doctor to bring to a neurologist here so Tim can have that done. The dr. in St. Louis did tell him that he didn't see any reason he couldn't drive so thank heavens for that- I won't have to kill him and plead insanity for him telling me how to drive all the time. He did good on the way to St. Louis. And he did a good job driving home and I was more than happy to let him!
We had a great dinner and visit with Kate and Josh on Sunday night after we got to St. Louis. It was really good to get to be with them!

We took time this morning to visit the arch before going to the doctor. We didn't have time to go up in it. We spend time at a fly fishing store first...Let's just say that we are definately going to have to go back to St. Louis to sight see. There's lots of neat places there!

As we were traveing to St. Louis, we had flashbacks or at least I had flash backs of college days as we passed these exits. I really wanted to take Tim down into Cooter, but he didn't want to take time...I wondered if I could find the Cooter jail or post office of the home of "Peaches" Cooper, Jeanine's mom. I figured I could...Cooter's not that big!
We were treated to dinner by "Ms" Frances," Leanne' mother for Leanne's birthday last Saturday night. It was a really fun time. "Ms" Francies is 95 and sharp as a tack! She has the funniest stories to tell and they are all real! If I can be that way I won't mind living that long but if I can't, I don't think I want to stay around that long. It was a delightful evening being with Leanne and Ed and "Ms" Frances!