~Christmas Pins~

When Mike and I first separated and divorced. I did not have alot of money to give the boys to buy me Christmas (mom and dad always chipped in to help them and take them shopping)( THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALWAYS BEING THERE), so they started buying me a Christmas Pin each Year. I could never decide which one to wear, so I began wearing them all on one shirt, I have continued that tradition now for many years, Some of them have had to be retired (put away for safe keeping), because they began to wear out. The reindeer lost his horns and his red nose, the sleigh lost its sleds, the wreath lost all its greenery, the pin back broke off an angel and I could not get hot glue or super glue to hold another one one. I love them each and every one. Even in their adult years, they have continued that tradition. I get a Christmas Pin each year.

I have some that have special meaning to me, they all do but these really stand out to me. The double bells on the dress of the angel pin were given to me by Grandma Brown when I was about 7 or 8, it was inside a wallet that she sent me for Christmas. The Bells just below it is the pin she always wore on her coat at Christmas Time, thanks mom for giving that to me.

Then there is the candle, that one was when my dad had his wreck in Dec 14, 1991(Tony's 21st Birthday). We were at the hospital and James and Amie took the boys to get my pin. When they returned they had gotten the candle and told me "this is our light at the end of the tunnel", you see dad was in a coma and the doctors had told us earlier that they were going to have to drill a hole in his head to releave the pressure on his brain. Just minutes after they gave me that , the doctor came in and told us Dad was awake (no drilling, Thank you Jesus). We got to take him home on Christmas Eve and all he wanted for Christmas Dinner was some Black Olives and he got them. They are all different, there are Angels, Snowmen, Teddy Bears, Santa, Santa Bears, Candy Canes, but they are all very special to me. Bruce just walked through and told me I was going to have to get a bigger shirt, that one was kinda full.

This years pin is a jointed Showman, sorry mom, I know how much you like snowmen, but you can't have this one... Everyone at work waits to see what pin I get each year. I always wear my shirt once right after Christmas so they can see the new addition. So that is our little Christmas tradition in my family. Now the girls join in picking out the pin for each year.

SO MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!

~Christmas at Nana's~

On Monday night all my kids came over for Christmas. Buck, Mandy and the girls came over around 2 and started cooking dinner, That was nice... Bruce ended up cooking the deer steak, because he did not like the way Mandy was doing it, so he offered to do it. Mandy told Bruce she liked his way much better, it tasted better, so she would be doing it that way from now on. I had put rolls in the oven that morning to rise all day, while I was at work. Mandy finished baking them. We had Deer steak, rolls, corn casserole, mashed taters, and Macaroni and Cheese, It was really good. I had baked on Saturday/Sunday so we also had 4 kinds of bread, Banana Nut, Coconut Pecan, Pumpkin Spice, and Cinnamon Nut, Then I had made Chocolate and Vanilla Fudge, Skillet Cookies and puppy chow. We ate and then had presents. I now have 2 Build a Bear gift cards. The girls and I will have a ball building bears. The deal is I take the 3 girls and they build me a bear. I let them do it however they want to. It is alot of fun..

We had a really good Christmas. I had gotten Kelsey twin baby dolls and Bunk beds for them. She loves to play with mine that I have had since I was little, so I thought I would get her some. When we brought out the bunk beds, I had forgotten to make the blankets for the babies, so she grabbed some Tissue paper from the gifts and covered up the babies with it. It was so cute.

I had gotten Cember and Gabby art stuff, Blendy Pens, Color Splitz Pens, Glitter Pens and some other stuff like that, and so it was not strowed all over the house, I got them a wooden storage cabinet with 6 drawers, so they have a drawer for each different kind of pen. Then there were clothes for everyone.

When everyone got through with their take home goodies, there was little left, so I am baking again today (after I brave the craziness I know is going on at Walmart for some more baking supplies) for Mom and Dad's tomorrow evening. That's OK I love to bake.

EVERYONE HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and REMEMBER JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON>..

Love ya ALL!!!!!!

~JESUS TOOK THE WHEEL~

You got it. As I was traveling to work this morning, we noticed a car up ahead of us was sliding on a bridge, I took my foot off the gas a good ways prior to getting to the bridge and lightly tapped my brakes to slow us down, There were 2 tanker rigs several car lengths ahead of us. I had told Betty (the lady that swaps rides with me) shortly after leaving Sheridan, " I don't want to be beside them on slick roads", as they were hauling flammable materials. Well as we hit the bridge, the long one over Hurricane Creek at Ico (just north of Sheridan) we began to slide, zig zagging across the bridge, at times it felt as if we were only on 2 wheels and we were about to roll over. We went back and forth across the bridge, and then we went into a spin. I was scared to death, I just prayed and all of a sudden it was like the steering wheel was ripped from my hand and we came to a COMPLETE STOP, headed back toward Sheridan. We had gone the entire length of the bridge, in what seemed like extremely slow motion, sliding from one side to the other and spun around and did not hit a thing,, That is the hand of GOD that prevented us from hitting anything. As we began crossing the bridge, there was on coming traffic, one of the vehicles that was in front of us, went into the ditch. The Tankers were sliding, we were all sliding, That bridge was a solid sheet of ICE. When we finally stopped, I just said, 'Thank you Jesus", it was his hand that stopped that vehicle, I could not do it.
I tried to call 911 to let them know about the car that went off, but I kept getting Jefferson Co. I could not get Grant Co. So, I dialed the Sheriff's Department and let them know, Someone had already gotten them, so Help was on it's way. Betty and I decided to just go back home and maybe try again later. As we were driving back to Sheridan, we listened to the radio and heard of alot of wrecks in and around Pine Bluff and also several on I 530, which is where we were headed. I am still shaking so bad, I am not sure I can drive that again today.. Although, it is the end of the year and I do have a Contract that needs completed to go into effect on the 31st. Just not sure what we will do from here, But I just know that had it not been for the hand of God, I would probably be in the hospital or worse right now. I give him all the praise for his extra strong protecting hand this morning.

~SLIDING HOME~

I have to chime in on this one. Aunt Sue, I bet you remember this. We were in California for Christmas in '75 or '76, I think it was '75, I want to say that, because Mike had gotten me a promise ring for Christmas, because he did not want me going to CA without a ring, and we knew my mom and dad would not let me have an engagement ring at "15", I would have been sixteen in '76, got engaged in Nov. '77. I had a coat that could either be Long or you zip the bottom off and it was a short coat, it was black with a white fur collar. Aunt Sue fell in love with that coat and offered to buy it from me. Now, I was in California, with only that coat to keep me warm if it should get cold, however, when we left for CA, the weather was really good, not too cold....
While we were there we did some Shopping (Imagine that). I found a sweater actually 2, that I just loved, it had pockets on the front and a belt with it, one was light blue and one was brown stripped. I bought them and told Aunt Sue, I would sell (actually we just traded the coat for what I owed her on the phone bill for calling my boyfriend back home while I was there) her my coat, because I would not need anything more than that sweater on the way home...

WELL>>>>>>>>> Little did I know about what was ahead of us on the way home. We hit snow and ice at Needles CA and drove on it the remainder of the way home, including our driveway.. SOLID ICE. Dad kept asking west bound truckers (the day of the CB Radio)"how did it look over their shoulder" (CB Language, I never did get into that, now Pam.. Boy I will have to tell you a story about her and the CB Radio) and we were always told about another 50 miles and you will be out of it,,,,, Apparently that storm was just about 50 miles ahead of us, because we NEVER ran out of it.... So there I was with only a SWEATER to keep me warm when we would stop... Needless to say, I did not linger outside the car any length of time when we would stop, just run in do my business and run back to the car.. I just about froze my Patootie off that trip... I was so COLD,,, I was never so cold in all my life... But Aunt Sue was toasty warm in that COAT!

Wonder what ever became of that COAT??

~HAPPY B-DAY-TWIN -DOUBLE FIRST-COUSINS~

Tony as a baby and then Tony and Kiefer on the Jet Ski.

Sheri as a baby and then Sheri and her youngest son.

Today is the birthday of my youngest brother and my cousin. Yes, they were born on the same day only 18 minutes apart. Their Dad's are brothers and their mothers are sisters. Wow what a day that was. Sheri was born first (coming early) then Tony (over due). Delivered by the same doctor, mothers shared the same hospital room and they also share the same Middle and last names. So many similarities in their lives yet so many differences.

Today they are "38". At 12:20 Sheri will be "38" and following at 12:38 Tony will be "38". How do I remember that so well, actually I cheated, I read the newspaper clipping that I copied for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary Scrapbook.. I can't remember what time my own children were born anymore without looking, I do know that my first one was born at 2:43 PM, but I have to look on the other 2.

Happy Birthday to you Both. Here's wishing you many many many more HAPPY BIRTHDAYS!!!!!!!

~Santa Hat & Jingle Bells~

Here is a picture of Cember in my Santa Hat that I spoke about a couple of blogs ago.. She found it laying on the table and had to pose for a shot. She is a real poser when it comes to pics.

Then Kelsey found my jingle bell earrings on the bathroom cabinet and had to have them in her ears, boy did she put on a show after that. We had to put her hair in a hair pretty so she could really make them jingle. We had to take a pic and send to daddy on his phone.

We were having girls nite and the next day I was going to the Nutcracker with Gabby. That was a real treat, never seen that before. Not quite sure what the story line was, but the ballet was beautiful and the scenes were spectacular. We ended up having to sit in the nose bleed section. That was really hard on mom to climb all those stairs, but she made it. One of the girls in Sheridan 4th grade was in it, so the whole 4th grade was invited to attend, at a reduced admission fee. That was neat. then we went to the park to have our sack lunches we had brought, and it was 37* outside, it was TOO cold to be at the park..

Not much of anything going on over the weekend, I did not feel real well. Then back to work Monday, Water Aerobics Monday Nite.

Today, we had our Secret Pal reveal luncheon at work. That was interesting. I was way off on who I thought had my name. I really got some neat things. Had a really fun time doing it. Next year we are going to do a month by month thing.. Secret Cupid, Secret Leprachan, Secret Bunny, etc... We will draw a name for each Holiday. That will be real interesting.

Tomorrow I have an MRI and then go to the Doc to get the results. Not looking forward to that... Larry will be going with me and then off to the airport and to Charlotte until Saturday.

Tomorrow nite my aerobics group is going to Whippet for a Christmas type party. That will be fun. They have really good fish dinners.

Friday nite is STOCKING STUFFING>.. More on that next post.

Have a WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON and remember JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!!!!!

~CELEBRATING 50 YEARS~

This picture was taken shortly after they were married. They were married by the Justice of the Peace and then got into a car with My Dad's Brother, Jim, his wife and 5 of their children and headed for California.

This picture was taken last month while Visiting dad's brother and sister and mom's sister in California.

Tomorrow, Dec. 8th, my parents will mark their 50th Wedding Anniversary. Wow!!!!!!! You don't hear of that often any more.

I can't begin to name all the trials and celebrations they have experienced in their marriage. They have parented 4 children, 2 girls and then 2 boys. They have stood by us in our mistakes and our accomplishments with all the love and support we could have hoped for. They have seen all 4 of us through a broken marriage, their youngest son through the death of his second wife, at the moment his daughter was born permaturely. They have helped me raise my boys after my marriage collapsed. They raised Tony's 2 children for several years, They take over with Pam's daugher when Pam is in the hospital. They have been my rock more times than I can count. They have been there for all of us at a moments notice for whatever we needed them for, whenever we needed them, in the middle of the night of the middle of the day, it does not matter, they will be there. I owe them so much, I will never be able to repay them for all they have done for me, but I will spend the remainder of my life trying to pay them back. I want to be there for them, for what ever they need, whenever they need it.

They are proud Grandparents to 10 Grandchildren(8 boys and 2 girls), 2 grand-daughter-in-laws, 2 step-grandchildren and 3 Great-Granddaughters. Their oldest daughter and their oldest son each have 3 boys, their youngest daugher and youngest son have a son and a daughter (in that order) When we are all together, it is quite a bunch.

We were almost all together on Sunday after Thanksgiving, missing was their oldest Grandson, Buck (working in Georgia) and their 5th Grandson, Shawn (working at Sonic, just turned 16 and got him a car to pay for). While there was that many of us together, we presented Mom and Dad with a scrapbook and DVD of the past 50 years.

Their oldest Grandson is 29 and the youngest Granddaughter is 9, so there is a 20 year span between the first and last grandchild. There is 37 years difference in the youngest girl and the next girl born into this family. Pam was 37 when Buck and Mandy had Cember (Great-granddaughter). Then in 17 months we had 4 girls born into this family, 2 grand-daughters and 2 great-granddaughters. Then when Gabby was 7 we had another girl born, Kelsey.

So here's a Toast to my Parents, May You Love for Each Other be as strong as they day you married, and may you have many more Happy Anniversaries...

I LOVE YOU BOTH MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!