Hapninz

Long days. Brief nights. Bright spots of social interaction.
Hard work. Desk lunch. The camper has left the yard.
Friends move. Excited for them. Hello, Austin, TX!
Pookums gone. Red hair and all. Hoosier for a week.
Still got the darn dog. Any takers?
Work tomorrow. Maybe off Sunday. Big meeting Monday. Really must iron shirt.
Quiet. Don't get that very often.
Fridge full of food. Bad time for diet. Seem to have misplaced 9 pounds.
Trainer merciless. Interval workouts. Almost reviewed lunch.
I love it when guests bring wine. Been treated very well recently.
Off again. S'long.

Thanksgiving Day and day after

Buried Treasure

I just found this post from Mom squirreled away in the drafts folder. Go, Mom!

Sat. morn
I swore I wouldn't write another thing on this but here I am trying to do the motherly duty of keeping her brood informed of the "other generation". Thanksgiving Day at church didn't turn out as expected but there must be a blessing in it somewhere. I'm still searching for it. We had prepared to serve 200 and hopefully more from 11-1 pm. The volunteers were busy mashing potatoes, slicing mountains of turkey, stirring gravy, cutting pies, etc.... you get the picture! Anticipation of sharing was on many hearts and in the eyes of every person in that room. Eleven o'clock arrived but no lonely or needy soul showed up. Fifteen minutes later three elderly ladies, members of our church arrived. By noon we might have had 25 folks. By closing time at 1 pm we probably had served fifty people plus the 50 volunteers. Sooo, we threw away some mashed potatoes, covered mountains of turkey and put it in the fridge, threw some turkey in leftover gravy (and put in fridge), sent leftover pies home with anyone that would take them. BTW, we had approximately 20 pies that weren't even cut!! To make a long story short we are serving leftovers to the church congregation tomorrow. I hope they stay.

Dad and Jim went up north yesterday to a cattle sale so I did some Christmas shopping. It was nice not having any crowds plus a wonderful selection plus the ease of comparison pricing. Goodbye malls, hello internet!!! I LOVE IT!!!

Also yesterday I had several visitors to the treehouse. Joann, Lacy, and Hannah came from Evansville. Hannah's parting words to her gramma as they left were "I want a treehouse." My friend, Carole, brought all her KY relatives over and they loved it. I had just made some brownies so we enjoyed hot chocolate and warm brownies. If the temperature isn't below 35 or so it stays comfortable with a couple small space heaters going. There are new pictures on Webshots if you are interested.

Have to close and go work on church float for tonight's parade. Will be in touch by phone. Sure more comfortable with that means of keeping in touch.

Love
Mom or Mamaw

Ship 'em out!

This weekend I helped a friend rebuild and rehang a gate. It took 5 bowls of tobacco and three beers each, but it's done. Now he is on his way to Chicago. Probably to get away from the gate. He has my iPod. He's a convert. I did a special playlist for him that takes him right back to high school. Yup. He's outta here for a week.

This Friday, my daughter hits the friendly skies for a trip to visit my folks. She's taking the backpack I intended to pack in, her CD player, and a surprise for all the family. For those of you thinking the worst, no. She's not. She's just done a little something drastic that will surprise a few people. But after Friday morning, she's outta here for a week.

The following weekend, I follow my daughter. I've done nothing drastic. But I will be attending the 70-somethingth semi-annual Houts-Barber reunion. It's being held on the grounds where I spent the last eight years of my life in Indiana. That's right. They couldn't get the pavilion at the city park so Dad said, "Let's have it here." It almost has a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland sound, doesn't it? "Say kids, let's put on a family reunion!" All I can say is, "Lordy, what a lovely way to blow a diet." So I'm outta here for a quick weekend.

Pray for Joan. She'll be handling Coby by herself.