Memorial Day

In 1944, my father-in-law Calvin followed his older brother Wilbur into WWII, joining the U.S. Navy and was shipped off to the Pacific Theatre. He had the chance to visit his brother several times while there. Wilbur was a gunner on a fighter plane flying missions over the Sea of Japan. While his brother was based in Saipan, Calvin was able to go and visit him at the base there. He walked into his brother's barracks to find his possesions packed and bundled on his bunk. The men there looked uneasy as he asked for his brother, and they told him that he needed to see the commanding officer. He went to this officer and was told that his brother had flown a mission the night before and had been shot down. They had not found any survivors. He was given his brother's possesions. I can't begin to imagine how he must have felt-only 17 or 18, and to be met so suddenly with the news that his brother was dead. Their parents probably wouldn't even know for several weeks. He was later given the chance to be stationed back in the U.S., but chose to stay in the Pacific in honor of his brother. Wilbur's medals and the Purple Heart that he earned somehow never got home to his family. About 10 years ago, Calvin began to try to get his brother's medals. He met some resistance from the government, but fortunately a New Mexico Senator (Pete Dominici) stepped in, got the medals, and presented them to Calvin in a beautiful ceremony. Those medals were placed in a shadow box and had a prominent place in their home. When Calvin died this past November, my husband and I were going through his things, and found a small metal box. When we opened it, there were his brother's possessions that were given to Calvin all those years ago. It brought tears to our eyes to see them and to remember the story that his dad often told of that terrible day-he could never tell it without weeping.

Remebering today all of those who gave everything to protect our freedom, and the loved ones they left behind. May we soon have all of our troops safely back home to stay.

Waddy's Wagon-Wilbur's plane that was shot down. He is on the top right in the back holding up a sling shot.

Long start of a long weekend

Welcome to my new follower, and thank you all so much for your kind words and congratulations!  I really enjoy and appreciate your comments!

Yesterday, we packed up the old pickup truck and headed to New Mexico to help my husband's mom move to her new apartment. It's about a 5 hour drive and it is pretty much the middle of nowhere for most of it. Our truck has a lot of miles and years on her, but she made the trip 5 hours in the other direction just fine a few weeks ago, so we didn't anticipate any problems. About 60 miles out of town (about 20 miles to the nearest town) she decided that she wasn't up for the trip and left us stranded by the side of the road. It was about 2pm and very hot. Thank goodness for cell phones and Triple-A! Even though we were only an hour from home, it took three hours for the tow truck to come and get us. Here's a view of the "lovely" countryside:

The temperature was right around 100F and we were very ill-prepared for an emergency-no water or food. A highway patrolman stopped to check on us, and we told him there was a tow truck coming and we thought we'd be fine, so he left. Fortunately, there was a good wind blowing which made the heat bearable, and we rigged a shade across part of the windshield with an old jacket, so although we were very uncomfortable, we managed. We listened to an audiobook on my laptop until the tow truck finally arrived.  We were fairly drained by the heat and thrist by the time we got back home and very hungry. I don't think we'll be leaving on a trip anymore without some emergency water, food and a big windowshade!

Exciting!!

When it rains, it pours-that may not be an appropriate maxim when talking about grandchildren-but my grandmotherly cup is definitely overflowing! Not only are our daughter and son-in-law expecting at the end of August, our son and daugther-in-law have just announced that they are expecting their first little one in late January! Our family is growing by leaps and bounds and we couldn't be happier!

Getting Started

There are 15 days until retirement for my husband-I can hardly wrap my mind around that, let alone all that needs to be done to realize our dream of moving to the country and building a house. First things first, we need to sell our house. Looking around, it's amazing what you don't notice when you live with it everyday. When you start seeing it through a potential buyers eyes, however, you see all kinds of things. Repairing, patching, painting, sorting and deep cleaning are all in our immediate future.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have a small powder room off our kitchen that belonged to our cat for many years. With his passing last year, it was available for humans again, but far from ready. My husband completely re-did it from top to bottom and it is beautiful! Here are some before  pictures:


And here are the after pictures:

                                                   

 I'm really proud of how it turned out! 

Weekend

We had a lovely weekend with our granddaughters (oh yes, and their parents!). Our oldest turned six and had her birthday party Saturday. They have a local park with a picnic pavillion and a "splash pad" and 5 little girls had a wet and wonderful time. The splash pad is free and has all kinds of water fountains that run on a 15 minute timed meter, so that it can used as long as you want by pressing a button. Between that and the playground the party was a great success!

My husband took us all out to lunch on Mother's Day-the girls were dressed up in pretty dresses and were so sweet. Our son called me on our way home, so the day was complete!

We were able to look at several properties out in the country while we were there and narrowed our search down to 3 or 4 tracts that look promising. They were wooded areas with some clearing areas where we could build our house. The wildflowers were beautiful, but of course, I forgot my camera!

Rain is continuing to fall as it has for most of the last 5 and we are so thankful! Hoping this signals the end of our drought!

Bittersweet

Today is my oldest granddaughter's 6th birthday; she was born on my dad's 90th birthday. He couldn't always remember exactly who she was or how she was related to him, but he knew he loved her and was proud and pleased when he was told the news. He passed away the next year and always had her picture by his bedside. He would be 96 today.

My Mom and Dad's Wedding Day

This coming Sunday is Mother's Day-our daughter is expecting her third baby-a much hoped for son, my mother-in-law ( a true second mom to me) has her first birthday and Mother's Day without my father-in-law, and my own sweet mom has been gone almost 15 years. How she loved her grandchildren and how she would have adored her great-grandchildren!

Mom and Dad-in-law

Years pass more swiftly now than I ever thought possible, bringing that touch of bittersweet to more celebrations.  "To everything there is a season...a time to be born, a time to die...a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance..."  This is my time to celebrate all of these people; to celebrate sweet memories of things past, to celebrate the present and make good memories, and to be ever thankful and mindful of the One who gives me all the seasons of my life.

Rain!

We awoke this morning to grey skies and the sweet sound of rain! It was forcast for today, but we've learned to believe it when we see it. It must have started in the early hours of the morning-a soft steady rain that's just right for soaking into the parched ground. The temperatures have dropped about 20 degrees and it feels wonderful-I have the windows wide open this morning! So very thankful for this change in the weather-it's supposed to be like this for the next several days-hope it's true!

Mockingbirds

Welcome to my new followers!

After a two day break from working in the yard (thanks to my back) I was out again early this morning to finish cleaning up the yard. Yesterday was our weekly two hour watering day, so at least some of the ground was fairly soft. I love going out in the mornings here and listening to the Mockingbirds. Their song is amazing to me-so varied and lively.  I read somewhere that their song consists of 200 different calls-and it does seem that you never hear the same calls twice. You can hear them calling back and forth to each other across the neighborhood.

You can hear one here: http://youtu.be/B-mOsezFIgw. (This isn't my video, just one that I chose since it was fairly clear and short-I don't endorse any of the comments on it!)

The Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas (as well as several other states) and is a feisty little thing-very protective of it's nest. I've seen them attack my friend's cat with such ferocity that she gave up and ran back in the house rather than stay in the yard. "Divebombing" we call it, since that's what it looks like!

Charlie MockingBird Parker Backyard Birds Cary NC 0816

Some people consider them a nuisance since the unmated males will sing all night long (literally) and they can be pretty loud, but I enjoy them.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

There's a Hole in the Sky...

...over Odessa, Texas. A saying you hear frequently these days. I have been out digging up weeds this morning-the only thing that will grow without water seemingly. It's so disheartening-two years ago, we has lush, emerald green grass, flowers and we kept the weeds under control. Then in October 2010, it literally stopped raining. February 2011 brought near 0 F and even sub-0 F temperatures for almost a week but with no precipitation of any kind. We lost almost all of our grass to that dry cold snap. Then, last summer brought week after week of triple digit temperatures with no rain. We had wildfires all over the state-some within a few miles of our home-that took out the remaining plants that were holding down the dirt. Then the wind started blowing. (Sounds almost biblical, doesn't it?) We had days that were reminescent of the Dust Bowl days and the water levels in our lakes began to drop drastically. (We get all of our water from lakes here. We have water underground, but much is not drinkable unless you go very deep.) Strangely, December and January 2011 brought record-breaking snowfall. (You can't make this stuff up, folks.)  Rain has gradually begun returning to our state, but in our little corner, we are still in severe drought conditions.  We are allowed to water what we can for two hours one evening a week by hose or drip irrigation hoses, but water pressure is so low that you can't fill a drip hose even with the spigot open all the way.  (My husband says the water folks are decreasing the pressure during these hours, and it's true, you can see the difference when you turn on the tap indoors.) You can't have the end of a regular hose open-it must have some sort of nozzle that controls the flow on the end. Fines for watering any other time, or even having water on outside except those hours are stiff. Seems almost unreal.  Last night, storms rolled in bringing rain and even tornadoes to all those around us, but all we got was wind. Some people are having a water well dug so that they can water when they want and fill their swimming pools, but at $10,000.00 a well, most can't afford it-and in reality there's only so much below ground water, and we're not getting anything to replenish it.  Sorry for the lengthy post-the more I wrote, the more I realized just how strange the whole situation is. I'm not a scientist, and I can't give any reasons for this weather. Some would say it's global warming, some would say natural climate change, but when you're standing in the middle of it wondering how long it will go on, I'm not sure it matters. Next post will be more cheerful!!

P.S.  Welcome to all my new followers and a thank you all my followers for kind comments! It's a highlight in my day to sit down and read your blogs and your comments on mine and I do appreciate you!