ata_grandma's Xanga

Growth and Changes

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:40:27 GMT

Baby Evie is growing and changing.

Finally.........we caught a smile for the camera.

Her mom is a busy mommy, with 2 year old Ella, plus she's babysitting Micah.

New subject........those of you on Xanga and Facebook. Have you noticed that Xanga people get up earlier in the morning than FB people? Makes sense I guess. FB peeps seem to be younger, and probably sleep better at night. That makes most of us on Xanga older and more wakeful. Probably wiser too.......lol.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

Simon

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:18:58 GMT

I would like to introduce you to Simon. Simon is a cat, but not just any cat. He owns his own truck. If you don't think so, just ask him.

My grandson, Mark, disagrees with Simon, but Simon doesn't care.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Simon doesn't have his driver's license yet.

Aren't you glad?

Thank You

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:06:24 GMT

Thanks to all of you for your comments about my parents' story. I've been wanting to share it for a long time, and finally got around to it. Next maybe I'll share some more about my grandparents, but for now here are a few pictures of the October birthday party for the 3 birthday girls. One has a birthday in Oct. one in Nov. and one the day after Christmas. We've always celebrated them together.

The one on the left is our great-grand-daughter. The other 2 are grand-daughters.

What could be more appropriate for a girls' birthday party than pink cupcakes?

A good time was had by all, even the little brother, and the adults who stopped by.

An Amazing Story

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:02:15 GMT

Back in 1936 a beautiful young lady met a handsome young man at Long Beach City College. Fern was about 5'4" with straight blond hair and brown eyes. Bobby was 5'10" with dark brown curly hair and brown eyes. He was Armenian, her parents were Scotch-Irish and Dutch. They were married in 1937, and their first child (me) was born in 1938. Three years later their son was born.

Fast forward to 1948. My brother and I were about to leave for Vacation Bible School at the nearby Baptist Church. Daddy was sitting on the couch. He told us to sit down. Then he told us that he was going away to live someplace else for awhile. We went on to Bible School. After it was over I got my brother and we ran home. Mother was vacuuming. I said "Mama, are you getting a divorce?" She said "Yes" and I went in my room and cried. That's all I remember about that day. It was not an amicable divorce. Mother wouldn't talk to Daddy. If he was late in sending child support.........and he was always late doing most everything.........I had to phone and remind him about it. When I graduated from high school, Mother came to Baccalaureate, and Daddy came to graduation, even though our graduating class had 1000 students in it. When I got married Mother said she wouldn't come if Dad came, and Dad said he wouldn't pay for a wedding because we weren't done with college. So we had a small wedding and told my Dad about it afterwards.

To his credit, Dad came to get my brother and me almost every weekend. We went to the aquarium, the beach, the tide pools, the zoo, the airport. We did lots of fun things that we probably wouldn't have done if they had stayed married. The only problem was that Dad was always late. We waited countless hours for him to come get us.

My mother married my first step-dad in 1957. My father married my step-mother in 1958. (My husband and I also married in 1958.) 13 years later my mother divorced my step-dad. They had moved to Florida where he taught in a Junior College. He had an affair with one of his students and left Mother. A year later she met and married a widower and they were married for 30 plus years until he died. Several years before he died they moved to Indiana and lived next door to us. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's and eventually had to be in a nursing home. During one of his stays in a nursing home he had a room-mate named George who had fallen and broken his hip. We had known George, a good Christian man, for many years. When my step-dad was in the nursing home long-term, George went to visit him often. I believe it was through George and the Chaplain at the home, that my step-dad gave his life to the Lord. More about George later.

Meanwhile my dad's health was failing. My brother and I made several visits to California to do what we could to help him and our step-mom. They moved out of their home into a retirement complex. Then Dad fell, and was taken to the nursing home part. More visits. Then my step-mom died fairly suddenly. Dad was still in the nursing home, with no family near to check on him. As soon as it was possible we made arrangements to have him flown here to be in a nursing home near us. We were just waiting on the home to have a bed for him. One day they phoned to tell me there were 2 beds available. I asked who the room-mates would be. When they said "George" I said "We'll take that one." So he and George were room-mates. George's wife went every day, and each evening she read the Bible to George and prayed with him, and they would sing hymns. Dad loved hymns, so he sang with them. When George died, Dad said his best friend had died. That part of the story is amazing, but it's not the most amazing.

Mother had gone every day to see my step-dad when he was in the same nursing home. When Dad first came she wanted to go see him. She told me later that she hadn't known how she would feel when she saw him, but when she did she didn't see an old sick man. She saw the same Bobby she had once known and loved. He remembered her, and they would sit and talk about the old days. One time he told her she had a good memory. She said "I do have a good memory, but I only remember the good things." That wasn't true, but it was absolutly the right thing to say to him. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's with Parkinson symptoms, so his memory came and went, and he had to be in a wheelchair unless a therapist was helping him walk. He wanted to marry Mother again, but we didn't want to have to get a lawyer to redo family trusts, so we told him he was too old to get married, and he and Mother could just be good friends, and they were.

I may have prayed for them to get back together when I was little, I don't remember. I know I never prayed for that when I was grown-up. I just never ever expected it would happen. God works in mysterious ways, and miracles still happen.

Trick or Treat

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:59:13 GMT

Here are the cute trick or treaters who came to our house Saturday night.

A panda bear.

The ghost of Christmas past.

An angel.

A princess dressed in a poodle skirt. It's hard to keep a skirt up when you don't have a waist. Hehee.

And a pumpkin. For awhile after her mommy left, she was a very noisy pumpkin. Then she went to sleep.
I was glad we didn't have anybody scary at our house. We have lots of candy left over. I wish I could hide it from myself. I could throw it away.................................nah.

Pictures!

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:31:25 GMT

Yay! I got to upload more pictures! Halloween pictures will have to wait, but here are some leaf pictures.

Fun in the leaves.

More fun in the leaves.

"Let's get some more leaves."

Double raking.
Tomorrow........Halloween pictures.

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:51:25 GMT

Everything went as planned today. That was nice, especially as that very rarely happens. I think the 3 girls had fun at their party. We babysat Evie while her mom and dad took Ella trick-or-treating. Evie was not a happy camper, but she finally fell asleep. Babies are so sweet! We were visited by a princess dressed in a poodle skirt, a panda bear, an angel, and the ghost of Christmas past. I hope to be able to show you pictures soon. The dance was fun, but I didn't take my camera, so no pictures of that. We get to sleep in an hour tomorrow......woo hoo!

Halloween

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:42:13 GMT

Busy day planned for tomorrow.
1. Tea and computer time.
2. Bible study and prayer.
3. Straighten up house.
4. Frost a whole bunch of cupcakes that I baked today.
5. Grandkids come for the 3 girls' birthdays. One was Oct. 18, next will be Nov. 15, and then Dec. 26. We've always celebrated them together. One just turned 8 and the other two will be 10.
6. Welcome trick-or-treaters (mostly grandkids) while babysitting Evie.
7. Go to the October Ballroom Dance.
Almost forgot......I also have to put the little hot dog thingies in the crockpot so I have some food to take to the dance. I'd better check on the recipe tonight. I know it's chili sauce and grape jelly, but I need to find out how much, and how long to cook them. We don't have to take food, but a lot of people do. Then I have to think about Sun. We'll have pork chops, baked with cream of mushroom soup, but what else? Maybe there'll be some cupcakes left over for dessert?
I plan to take pictures tomorrow. Hopefully Xanga will let me upload some more soon.

Company

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:55:53 GMT

We had company for dinner tonight, some people we first met about 30 years ago. They are retired Bible translators. They worked with Wycliffe among the Colorado Indians in Ecuador. Actually our daughters first met at school. MK's (missionary kids) seem to attract other MK's, and our 2 daughters had a lot in common even though one grew up in Africa and the other in Ecuador. Anyway, being linguists (them, not us), we talked a lot about words.
You might think that sounds boring and scholarly, but it's not. Here is a silly saying Bruce told us that I'd never heard before. In 1942 Christopher Cucumber sailed up the Mississlopy River, carrying the Star Spangled Banana in one hand and the Decoration of Indigestion in the other.

I told you it was silly.

Happy Birthday

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:42:43 GMT

                                             HAPPY BIRTHDAY

                      to our grand-daughter, Rebecca. She is 15 years old today!