Then and Now.....

I was reading back through some of my old blog posts and realized something.....

I was much more open before I knew my family was reading. That doesn't mean I don't want my family to read my blog, it just makes me think more about what I'm writing.  I wonder if all great writers felt they needed to censor their words???

 I recently read on another blog this quote....

Blog like nobody's reading.....

Well......who knows what I'll do in the future.  You'll just have to stay tuned!

Anyhow, reading old posts is very sentimental and brings back both good and not so good memories.  

I can still do this....

I just did one the other night to be sure.

I started to do a "since then" post, but changed my mind.  I do that a lot....change my mind.

********************************************
So..... so much for then......let's move on to now...

.....just some really random stuff today as I'm feeling really random.

We are going to remodel our master bathroom.  We seriously are.....no, I mean it....o.k. well as soon as we can find tile we can agree on....and decide about the vanity and the mirror and the medicine cabinets and the light fixtures.....I think you get the picture.

We almost built a house together soon after we got married.  Thank goodness we thought twice and decided we were fine in our house.   Just remodeling puts a huge strain on us so building would probably send one of us to jail.  Just kidding.....sort of.

**********************************************
And while I'm at it....let me say I've been reading a lot about grammar lately and I'm just not going to start stressing over whether or not I'm ending a sentence with a preposition.  O.K?  Grammar Girl agrees with me so I feel good about my decision.  I have enough to stress about without adding grammar to the mix!

Whew!  Not that that's been on my mind or anything.

***********************************************

We had a very nice Valentine's Day......We don't usually do anything since it falls right in the fury of tax season and I'm determined not to be held hostage to H*llmark.......but I did send cards to my grandchildren this year and got a card for the superhero.

Someone whispered in his ear that Maybe His Baby Had the Blues......cause he came home early with flowers and cooked a wonderful meal!!!  Can't get any better than that....at least not on a G rated blog!

 Smile.

Here are the tulips he brought home and there he is slaving over the stove cooking dinner!  Isn't he cute!?

I took this picture with my camera on the tripod....AND I broke the tripod.  Whoops!
I thought it was a neat picture with Russell in the background.........going out to the outside refrigerator to get something else to cook!

Yes, yes, he is the best.  Now let's move on....

********************************************

A friend talked me into going to a painting class.  It turned out to be interesting and fun! So here are the steps we went through to get the final masterpiece product.

First, you paint your whole canvass the background color.......so that's me thinking can we move this along?

But as you can see, I was concentrating

My friend's canvass is on the right and mine is on the left in the almost done phase.

The finished Van Gohs.......I asked my husband which one he liked best and he said Sharon's!

My finished painting......and whether he likes it or not, it's hanging in the bathroom!

*******************************************

It was a very busy few days for my sister and her husband, moving his mother into the same assisted living facility where our mother lives.

My other sister and I and my brother and his wife helped as much as we could, but it is a big job and if you have never had the pleasure of taking someone's life of oh......50 plus years......and trying to make it fit into 500 square feet, you don't know what you're missing.

My sisters

The table is cleaned off!

Just a few things out of cabinets getting ready for the move

I sure wish I'd taken a picture of her apartment all fixed up.  It looks just like home!
We're all praying that Mary will soon be right at home in her new apartment.

**************************************

Speaking of cell phones and not being a techie........you may remember this post where I have a hard time explaining how things work to the younger generation or maybe they had a hard time explaining to me....

Well, the other night just as I hit end after finishing a conversation, my phone went dead.....d.e.a.d.  I mean it wouldn't light up, it wouldn't do anything.  Dead.  I plugged it into the charger.....nothing.

Here is the poor dead thing

Sooooo.......I get up the next morning and go straight to the cell phone store.....walk in and tell them the problem.  The cell phone store employee takes my dead phone over to a charger, plugs it in and it comes on and starts charging........just a dead battery.

That's enough for today!  

Last trip before tax season.....

We had time for a little mini trip right before tax season got started in earnest.  So.....we went to Ocala and took Mema and Matt as it was Matt's birthday weekend.  Mema hadn't seen Charley in a while so we were all excited to get some time with him and his parents.

Charley needed a little bit to warm up to us.....but not long.

Before long, he was having a great time playing with us and we were loving playing too!

Charley was showing Pappy how he can do a flip out of his chair

Telling Uncle Matt all about life.....

Catching Charley for a hug

Fun with Pappy

Our children, the parents.....does it seem strange to anyone else that our children can be old enough to be parents???  Or that we can be old enough to have children that are old enough?????

Push me Pappy

Push higher Uncle Matt

Charley gets around!

Stops only a little minute for a picture

Play ball

Pappy needs a rest

I am not sleepy!

I am NOT sleepy!

I am.......asleep!

Guess what these three are doing?

Happy Birthday, Matt

Four generations

Time to go.....

Yes, I'm so behind in posting!  This trip we took in January before Russell got entirely too busy with tax season.

We had a great time visiting with Tommy, Claudia and Charley!

Can't wait unil next time!

Sweet Hearts...

February......the love month.  I admit that I sometimes feel pitiful when I watch commercials before Valentine's day and know that it is right smack in the fury of tax season when my husband is way too busy to think about bringing home presents.

But he does,  he brings home the best present every single day.  Him.  He's a gift.  He's a treasure.
He may not be the most romantic.......although he sometimes surprises me when I least expect it...but he's the man of my dreams.

And he's such a funny valentine!  Tonight as he was eating the low carb chicken parmesan I cooked, he asked if it was low fat and I proudly said, no.....low carb..... and he said "well I guess the bread kills that huh?"  I forgot!  Oh, well.

While we were eating supper, he asked if I would be o.k. with him picking up something for supper on Valentine's day because he will be too tired to fight the crowds and go out to a restaurant.  And that's o.k.  Really o.k.  He'll be here and I'll be here and that's all that counts.  Besides, any time I don't have to cook, I'm good with that!

So real Valentine commercials probably would do better to show what true love is......someone who is real, solid, there...not just a romantic, although romantic is good.

When the flowers die and the jewelry is relegated to the jewelry box, he'll still be right here.....coming home every night after working long days to make sure I'm taken care of....I'll take that, I'll take him!

He's a sweet heart....

I have lots of sweet hearts that I love.  I have four sons and two great daughters in law.  I have several absolutely wonderful and beautiful and brilliant grandchildren.
I have lots of siblings and a great mama and MIL.
I have friends, really great friends.
I even have a few extra children God gave along the way.

I have a Savior who loves me.

Who could ask for anything more?  So when I'm watching the commercials and hearing of all the romantic gestures, I'll close my eyes and see the man who loves me.....and I'll remember that my heart still beats a little faster each time he walks through that door and I'll remember that he walks through that door every day without fail and I'll say a little prayer of thanksgiving.  And I'll forget that every so often we get mad at one another....we forget quickly.

We love because He first loved us......1  John 4:19

Come again?

The last couple of months that is......time has gone by so quickly that I realized I didn't do a Christmas post!  So briefly.....although my husband says I don't do briefly.....we had a very nice Christmas and enjoyed being with family and friends, while missing some who weren't here.  When you have a big family, it's hard for everyone to be in one place at the same time, but we try as often as possible.


I seriously tried cutting back the number of pictures for this post.


Russell started a tradition our very first Christmas of cooking a big breakfast on Christmas morning.  Christmas day was on Sunday this year, so he cooked on Christmas Eve after our church candlelight service.
The chef

A couple of our friends came, along with Mary Catherine (MIL) and Matt
Our friends children came too but they weren't particularly fond of having their pictures taken

Later, after our guests had gone, we opened presents with Matt and Mary Catherine

and our nephew Chris

Christmas day, after church, David and Arwen came to open gifts

We had a good time as you can see

My Pinterest project.....Christmas ornament with David and Arwen's wedding invitation

Still later in the day, we went to my brother's for our traditional Christmas family gathering and dinner

Cousins Bryce and Matt

Some of the guys hanging out

My oldest brother's inlaws....still lovebirds after over 60 years together

Nephew Tommy with mama

We always try to get a sisters picture

My niece Debbie with her four beautiful girls and on the left, my niece Joneida (and Daisy Mae)

For all you pinterest fans, isn't this neat?  My SIL puts her Christmas cards on her pantry doors like a Christmas tree

My niece, Jenny and two of her children

BIL Mike with his mama

Brother Michael and BIL Dick looking sheepish because I demanded sweetly asked them to hide their beer

Christmas trampoline football

Our children who were in town

My beautiful SIL and hostess with granddaughter Lauren

Nephew Don and wife Kathleen

The guys getting ready to play dirty Santa

Brother Tommy with mama

Nephew Andy with his daughter Lauren

Nephew Dickie with wife Joneida and daughter Maggie....and Daisy Mae

That's just a little sampling of the people who were there on Christmas Day.


It was sort of a low key Christmas for us this year.


I have more catching up to do, so I'll be back soon.  I hope.