When it rains, it pours!

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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

Dec. 2 - A Special Day

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!

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!

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!

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...

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

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.

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!