Family Gathering

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

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

I really like the message of this youtube video!

Wonderful Christmas Season!

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

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

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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! 

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

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

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

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)

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

Family Reunion

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

Chicago and Toronto

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?

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!