I am doing OK so far. It still all seems unreal. We are thankful he went so quickly. He started feeling really bad at 1 a.m. Fri. We took him to hosp. before 9 am. He was OK most of Fri. Weak, but not in pain. About 7 pm his blood pressure went really low. He died at 8:03 p.m.

We are planning services for Thurs. All the family should be here by then. Family viewing at 10 a.m. Go to cemetery at 11 a.m. Lunch at our church at noon. Calling at church starting at 3 p.m. Memorial service at 7 p.m.

I'll probably tell you more about it later. We will have lots of family coming. I keep thinking that it's too bad he is missing all this. He loved having people over. Then I remind myself that he is undoubtedly enjoying a much better celebration in Heaven with friends and family who went before him.

Thanks to all of you, for your messages of encouragement and your prayers.

My husband, Tom, died last nite at our local hosp. He didn't sleep at all the night before, puffing and shortness of breath. Took him to ER in the morning. They were planning to take him to Ft. Wayne and do a heart cath and defibrillator Mon. I spent the day with him, and had just gone home for a bit when daughter called and said I'm coming to get you. They're taking him to ER. 3 docs were working on him. He died just before 8 pm. He had a massive blood clot in his heart. Most of the family was at hosp. with me last night. Several offered to spend the night, but I didn't want them to. I was able to get some sleep. I'm one whose emotions take awhile to catch up with events, so that's what's happening now. I won't be on here much if any this next week. Thanks in advance for you love and prayers. Gracia

I would guess this was taken in 1945. It was probably my birthday party, though it could have been my brother's. I'm not sure. The front row, left to right, a neighbor girl, my cousin Carol Ann, and my brother. The 2nd row, Aunt Marita, cousin Rosemany, friend Barbara, me, and a neighbor boy. The lady in white in the back row is our maternal grandmother, who lived with us. We called her Meme. Next is a friend of our mother's, and then cousin Gloria.

Birthday parties then were not big affairs like they are now. The kids came over, we played games, opened presents, and then ate cake and ice cream. They usually lasted not much longer than 1 hour. Today there are pinatas, bouncy houses, clowns, ponies, and anything else the parents can think of and afford.......or charge.

The older we got, the fewer children we were allowed to invite. One year...I think I was about 13......almost too old for a party back then.......I invited 2 or 3 girls, and thought we would have fun baking our own cake. By then Mother and Daddy were divorced. Mother was busy because she was finishing college and working part-time. Besides that, she had a boyfriend. It's a good thing we had Meme around to help mother us. Anyway, my friends spent the whole time watching TV with my brother in the living room while I baked the cake. They did help me eat it though. Of course, TV was still fairly new, and maybe they didn't have any at their houses......I don't know. I think that was the last birthday party I had until I was grown-up. Don't feel too sorry for me......I've had plenty of birthday parties since then. They're not nearly as exciting as they used to be. They're still fun though, especially since I get to share them with the others in our family who have January birthdays, including 2 who were born the same day as me.

Did you have birthday parties when you were a kid?

Of course, I'm not a bit prejudiced........well, maybe just a little.

Starting on the left, the blond girl is our grand-daughter who is 15. Next  is her mom, our daughter in law. On the right is our youngest daughter. Her two children are in the front row.,,They are our youngest grand-children, so far. They are 8 and 6 years old. There are younger ones in the family, but they are great grand-children.  The 6 year old is a bit ornery.  She refuses to smile nicely for a picture.  She'd rather make a face.

We often have at least part of the family over for Sunday dinner after church. I actually took this picture a few weeks ago. No one came last Sun. because the weather and the roads were so bad. Today there were 13 of us here. We had chicken stir-fry, rice, corn, and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. I'm never quite sure how many are going to show up, so I try to make enough, and if we have left-overs we eat them later in the week. There was no leftover cake today though.  It's probably just as well.

Our church just finished a series on Jesus' return. As Christians, we look forward to His return. Christians don't agree on what will happen when. Our church is one that takes the Bible literally. It was an interesting series. Next we start a series on the end of Jesus'life here on earth, which will culminate with Easter and the Resurrection. It doesn't seem pssible that Easter (and Spring, we hope) will be here soon. This has been the longest winter I can remember since we've lived in Indiana. We're not suffering too much. We have a warm house, an attached garage, and heated cars. Today we had a heat wave compared to last week. It was up to 19, But it's supposed to turn colder again next week. Whatever.....there's not much we can do about it anyway. Our youngest son, who now lives in NY state, went hiking yesterday with his buddies at Niagara. He said it was fun. It wouldn't have been fun for me. I probably would have ended up in the hospital. Ahh, youth!

Brrr!  When I went to the eye Dr. this morning at 8 am, it was minus 3 outside. The Dr. was pleased with my eye, but will not give me a prescription for 2 more weeks, in case my eye changes more.
Here are a couple of pictures I took Valentine's Day when we had blowing snow and white-outs all day. It was really strange. One minute we'd see blue sky, and the next all we could see was white. The snow was blowing vertically. Plus it was very cold.

The camera could see the outlines of trees and the grapevine, but I couldn't see them. Not sure what the little orange dot is, probably a spot on the window.

We've had lots of birds at the feeder. The big "snowflake" on the window is a window sticker. It's there to discourage the birds from flying into the glass. We also had an unwelcome visitor.

I don't blame him. He has to eat too. Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy. I'm kind of glad I have a good excuse not to drive. As they say, "It's too cold for man nor beast" out there!

What is the best way to avoid spam?  I never had a problem before but tonight had about 12 comments from people who claim they found me on the net, and had marvelous things to say about my most wonderful blog.   I think I either deleted them or put them in trash.  Any advice from any of you, my friends?  Thanks.

I'm going to try to paste a link here for a FB video my brother sent me.  Hope you can see and hear it.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=329176657286142&set=vb.288175238052951&type=2&theater

He wrote to say his wife is having a good time visiting grand-babies in London, and he is playing with his jazz band in Madrid  10 nights out of 12.  He sent the video, saying we can see that he's behaving himself, and paying no attention whatsoever to the young gals in the audience.  Smile.  (Frank, you should enjoy this.)

PS He doesn't have a FB page.  Someone I don't know posted it.  Probably the young lady's husband or boyfriend.

Hubby is watching the dog show on TV so I thought I would show you a picture of our favorite dog.

This is Mindy. She was young when we got her, but not a puppy. We were looking for another dog, and I answered an ad in the paper. She was already named, house-broken, and apparently had been taught a couple of tricks. She always met everyone at the front door with one of her toys in her mouth. She also smiled, but I don't think that was learned. She just did it on her own. She was very good about sleeping in her cage on our enclosed back porch. The vet said she was a schnauzer mix. We think she was part poodle, because she didn't shed. She was a curly dog, and had to be groomed once in awhile. She was medium sized, but I don't remember what she weighed.

I've also forgotten how long we had her, but a good long time. When she got older, her eyesight went, and she would run into things. Once I left the dishwasher door open, and she went running around the house,
through the kitchen as usual, and hit the dish-washer door. Hard. I felt so bad.

Finally we had to have her put to sleep. It's always hard to lose a good friend.

No, this is not me now, thank God.

It was taken more than 31 years ago.  And no, it was not twins, just one big boy, almost 10 lbs.  I was 46 most of the time I carried him, and turned 47  six days before he was born.  We didn't have maternity insurance, so I came home the same night.   I had had to be induced.  I think my body was saying "No, I don't want to do this again."  However it was a normal birth with no problems, and baby was (and still is) healthy.

My oldest is now in her 50's so we have kids, grand-kids, and great grand-kids of all ages all mixed up. It's been fun and interesting.  I never wanted to be anything other than be a wife and mother, and I was blessed to be able to do that.  Hubby worked long hours to make that possible.  For a long time we made do with one car.  Young folks today would think that is impossible, but it's not.  We had used furniture, hand-me-down clothes, and I learned how to make one chicken last for 3 meals. It was many years before I had a clothes dryer or a dish-washer. I was young then and had lots of energy. Now I am thankful for both those appliances. I'm also very thankful for our new house with an attached garage. We never had one until we built this house 7 years ago. (Not the house in the picture.) The garage is such a blessing, especially in Indiana winters.

Pottery Bayou is a small store in our town, where you can go to paint pottery.  You pay a set price to paint, plus the price of whatever you choose to paint.  I had never been there until last year.  That's where I took the 3 grand-daughters for their birthdays,  One was born in Oct. one is Nov. and one the day after Christmas.  We decided a long time ago to celebrate their birthdays together, since there are so many other holidays that time of year, and they are close in age.  So off we went in Nov.  I didn't know what to choose until one of the grand-daughters spotted an elephant.  My husband has an elephant collection.  She insisted I needed to paint it for Grandpa, so I did.  I gave it to him for Christmas.

The little spots on the mat are bird seeds. My canary is very messy.

My oldest daughter loves to go there. This is what she gave me for Christmas

She thought about writing Old Bag. It's a good thing she didn't!
Here's another picture of it in use.

Then for my birthday she surprised me with this lovely teapot. The bottom of it is a cup. I love it.

The inside of it is painted a light tea brown, so tea stains won't show. I can hardly wait for my sister-in-law's visit in March. She is a dedicated tea drinker.