What Happened to June?

June 13, 2010
Left, riding on a bus, for Savannah, Ga. Spent the week with church friends absorbing the history of a beautiful city. I said absorbing, I did not say that I absorbed all of the history. There is so much more to see. The trip was loaded with History, Heat, and Humidity; as well as Food, Fellowship and Fun!

I had begun reading the Savannah quartet by Eugenia Price. I had read the first book and was into the second book before we left. I knew some of the history I wanted to see. It is a very lovely city. They have done a great job of preserving their history. Some of the historical buildings were destroyed before the ladies of Savannah put their foot down and said, "NO MORE, we are not going to destroy any more of our history." The bulldozers were stopped; AND some of what was destroyed has been restored/replicated. I want to go back and see all the things I did not see while we were there.

FOOD...I think that was the theme for the week. We did our best to follow the theme. Breakfast was at the hotel every morning and anything you could ever want to eat was on the buffet. We ate at Sticky Fingers (Bar-B-Que), Paula Deen's restaurant, Uncle Bubba's restaurant, on a Riverboat cruise, at The River House restaurant. The two meals where we ate own our own--one of them was fast food for a good reason, the other was along Bay Street in another restored building. Every where we ate was in a restored building of one type or another except the river boat.

Some of us went the first afternoon to the 8th Air Force Museum. It was a little way out of Savannah and due to the time frame we grabbed fast food on the way to the museum (the ones who did not go to the museum, well who knows what they ate or did). Along with everything else we could have used more time in the museum.

As always with a tour group there are pros and cons: (1) con: there is never enough time to see everything you want to see, (2) pro: we do get a GOOD overview of the area, (3) a big PRO: we often skip the long lines to get into an establishment and/or we can get into an establishment when others can not. Example: Individual people wanting to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant have to go early in the morning, stand in long lines to get a reservation for later in the day. As a group with pre-purchased group tickets we did not have to stand in line at all.

We went to Tybee Island which is off the coast of Savannah. We toured Fort Pulaski which was a well built and well preserved fort from the very early days in Savannah. We also saw the museum and the Lighthouse Station on Tybee Island, another well preserved and/or restored/being restored part of history. You can go up in the lighthouse, but it is 178 steps of pure heat on a very hot day, so it was not a good choice for the day. One of our group who is in excellent physical condition did go up and was quite hot by the time they were back on the ground. You could not take water with you on this little trek.

While we were on the Riverboat Cruise we saw another of Savannah's forts--Fort Jackson. It is right on the water. Interesting! We did not get to go in this fort. While we were on the cruise we saw other parts of Savannah that we could not see from the shore. We also saw the skyline at night, plus a magnificent sun set over the river. One of our group kept us entertained with stories from previous travels.

We returned on June 19, 2010.

June 20 to July 3, 2010

Laundry, goof-off and a lot of time spent on church history and church library work. I did get a new perm, a massage, and a pedicure.

How is that for a two-week period of time of doing a of total nothing. Oh well, it was fun.

Tomorrow is July 4, 2010 and a few of us will get together for family food and fun time. After that I will try to be more productive so that I have something to write about.

JUNE 2010

June started with me on the run...appointments, regular day to day stuff, fun stuff, sad stuff, grandchildren stuff, and the list goes on and on.

Attended MCT Black Box Theater. The program was a concert/medley of Rogers & Hammerstein musicals. It was fun...I was with friends, the program was great, and we were all trying to place each song with which musical.

Attended a funeral.

Attended FYC program...the first night program of the summer. The dinner was fish with all the trimmings. The program was Don & Trent Blackley. Dinning room was FULL to over flowing. What more could any one want? Great evening!

HIGHLIGHT...answer to prayer...Shelby is headed to Texas A&M when school starts...Woo Hoo, Whoop, Gig 'em.

Zach has a baseball playoff game tonight.

Various grand kids are at various camps...campers, or leaders. Some of them will be home Saturday. Others are camp leaders for the summer. Miss the grand kids when they are away for whatever reason.

Lisa and I have been sort of laid back this week...we have only had one Blizzard, but we are hoping to find time to have another one.

Wedding on schedule for Saturday.

Sunday--church. After church, Paula Dean here I come.

That's All Folks...Tune in Next Time!

May 25 - 31, 2010

Always Behind! On May 26 I attempted to get caught up, but I didn't and now I am even further behind. What is it they say about retirement...don't know how you ever got anything done before retirement...something like that. Well, my rebutal to that is I am doing what I want to do, if I want to do it, when I want to do it--I set my own deadlines. However, none of that is totally true. What is true is that I am having fun, I have choices and deadlines these days and they don't include TAKS testing.
May 24...
Sr Adult Choir practice , baked cookies, Sr Adult Choir party.
May 25...
Watched two ball games in the evening--Jeremiah Martinez's T-Ball game and Zach's Baseball game.
May 26...
Retired teachers meeting, Church History work, Children's Choir Musical at church about the Ten Commandments.
May 27...
Total Blur--maybe I didn't do anything.
May 28...
Sr Adult Game Day at the church, lunch, helped decorate for Patrick's Sr. Party, attended the party, helped clean up after party, fell into bed. Vickie, Donnie, Kristen arrived for the party/weekend.
May 29...
1:00 pm attended Patrick's Graduation...lunch/supper/games at the Dillard's
May 30...
Church, lunch/afternoon at the Dillard's, supper/movie with Brian, Lisa, and Kristen. Vickie & Donny joined Scott and Carolyn for a typical Benk/Mac "All Nighter".
May 31...
MEMORIAL DAY...chilled out (sort of) with Vickie, Donnie, Kristen, Lisa, Brian...Brian worked part of the day, the rest of us did piddling things. V, D, K left early afternoon for Houston. Brian & Lisa went to their regular Bible Study. I had a doggie disaster. The dogs managed to push the gate open and Oscar escaped. I caged Sarge and Scooter and went looking for Oscar who remained aloof until Brian & Lisa came home and pranced in with them as though that was a normal thing to do.

END Of MAY 2010!

May 19 - 24, 2010

OH NO, I am behind again...

May 19...

• Loaded up my car with all the goodies I had been collecting for the Senior (12th graders) All-Nighter.
• Went to Walmart to pick up the drinks for the Senior All-Nighter...I was supposed to go later with Olive, but it was threatening to rain and I did not want to have to do that project in the rain. No we did not get rain after all.
• Went to church...unloaded the drinks and all the other stuff in my car...stashed it in the senior closet.
• Started work in the History Office
• Other Senior All-Nighter goodies began to arrive...in my office.
  
• After all the goodies were at church and locked up I went to lunch with Geri and Fran.
• After lunch transferred the goodies from my office to senior closet...project completed.
• Worked on history
• Ate supper
• Bible Study
• Home
• Fell into bed

May 20...
Left the church with the senior adults to go on a Mystery Trip...we went to the Old Red Museum. They/someone has refurbished the Old Red Courthouse into a museum of Dallas County from its beginning to 2007. There were originally 4 courtrooms on the second floor, each courtroom hold 1/4 of the Dallas history, across from the original wrought iron Grand Stairway there is an area that was probably once offices that has been turned into the Crystal Charity Ball Children's Education Center. This is a magnificent museum...very well done. After the museum we had lunch at the Original El Fenix in downtown Dallas...of course it was pouring rain as we were ready to leave the restaurant, but none of us melted. It was a lovely day. Mystery Trips are good.

I got home just as Brian and Lisa and Sarge were leaving to go to Birmingham to close on their house and move their remaining possessions to Dallas.

May 21...
Senior All-Nighter. Zach spent the night with me.

May 22...
Just me and Zach...took the dogs to the groomer...baked cookies...picked dogs up from the groomer...cooked Mac and Cheese and Spam for me and Zach and Cindie...Cindie was beat she was one of the leaders for the Senior All-Nighter...not as young as she used to be.

May 23...
Sunday...Senior Breakfast...Senior Speaker and video of the seniors life...Worship Service...Lunch...evening Worship Service...home.

The Ice Cream Scoop!

I forgot one very amusing thing that happened yesterday.

Brian asked if he could use the Ice Cream Spoon to dip something else...other than ice cream. I said yes. Now you have to remember that the Ice Cream Spoon has been around for ever, the handle is broken, but it is sturdy enough to scoop ice cream without bending it. I suppose it is all the grand kids know at my house.

Lisa said Mee Maw I have been thinking about buying you a real Ice Cream Scoop.

My reply was that I really think I remember buying an Ice Cream Scoop. We got to looking and actually found a real Ice Cream Scoop in one of the kitchen drawers.

Well Brian really went into orbit. He was so excited. You would have thought I had just handed him the world on a golden platter. He even added that it was a really good one. I am sure I got it at Walmart.

It really takes "so much" to make grand kids happy. They are all so special. Love them all.

May 10 - 18, 2010

My times flies when we are having fun!

Monday, May 10--Pop Choir Rehearsal
Wednesday, May 12--Work at church, supper, Bible Study
Friday, May 14--Forever Young Club in the morning, work on project in the afternoon, rain

Now that certainly doesn't sound like much but I do know that every minute between all of these events had to fall into place correctly or I would have never finished anything. I can tell you that I finished the project and and checked everything off the list. Just don't ask me what was on the list. I can't remember, I just know it is done.

Lisa left town Thursday morning, Brian and I survived, Spencer came into town Friday evening.

Saturday, May 15--Spencer went to College Station. I went with Cindie and Mike to College Station to see the Corp of Cadets Final Review for 2010. It was also Josh's last Corp event--the end of his four years in the Corp. It was the beginning of Spencer's fourth year in the Corp. All-in-all it was a very special occasion. Then all the family present went to eat, after that four cars headed to Dallas. This family makes every event special, exciting, hilarious, and/or whatever. Nothing is ever boring. Vickie and Donny left for Houston...by themselves, with no children in tow. Josh and Jenny were in the lead car to Dallas, followed by Mike, Virginia, and Zack in one car, then Heather was driving Spencer's truck with Patrick as a passenger, bringing up the rear was Cindie, Shelby, Me and Spencer who was dead asleep. We kept H & P in the middle since they were the youngest and most inexperienced drivers. H & P decided about 40 miles out of Mesquite to change drivers. No big deal we probably all needed a break. Arrived my house...H & S grabbed a blanket, pillow and a couch and crashed. I was right behind them, put my head on my pillow at 2:30 am Sunday morning.

Sunday, May 16--Got H & S up, fed them a waffle, and sent them on their way to Arkansas for the summer. Went to church, then a quick rest, then Baccalaureate for P, then rest, then church, then to bed for the night. It was a full day! (Lisa came home sometime but I didn't see her until the next morning.)

Monday, May 17--Pop Choir Performance at Christian Care Center, ran errands, and chilled.

Tuesday, May 18--More projects, more errands. Trying to get things in order for the beginning of another whirlwind of activities for the remainder of the week and the remainder of the month.

I keep reminding myself that I LOVE THE MONTH OF MAY.

Mother's Day

Wow is it already May 9th, Mother's Day...what happened between my last post on April 24th and today?

Well several things happened:

• April 26-30--TAKS week for public schools and some family members...5 grandchildren taking TAKS test and three children administering the TAKS test.
  
• April 26-30--Yard work...Patrick and I (he didn't have to take the TAKS test)...I am trying to improve the condition of my yard. Over the last few years it has begun to deteriorate and look drab. I am determined to improve that situation.
  
• April 30--Shelby's 20th birthday...where was she, taking a college class all weekend.
  
• April 28--Retired Teacher's meeting...part of the program included information about the Brickyard Cemetery Preservation Project. Very few people in Mesquite even know that there ever was a Black Community in our city. It was moving away about the time I moved to Mesquite, but I knew about it and about where it was located, but not much more. I am glad they are trying to preserve the cemetery.
  
• May 3--BSF Introduction for next year...I have completed all the Bible Study Fellowship courses up to this point, but next year there will be a new study-on the Book of Isaiah--and I am planning to attend, but before you can attend you have to attend an introduction and enrollment session.
  
• May 4--Voting for local stuff...City Council, DCCCD board members, etc. I am convinced now more than ever that informed voting is absolutely necessary, and I intend to do my part. Sometimes I may be voting against a candidate, but that is important also.
  
• May 5--Lighthouse Award Program for Patrick...the entire faculty from Principal to Security Guard is included. Each person chooses a student who has made an impression on that faculty member. The student is presented a certificate, a lapel pin, a picture of the two of them. The program consists of 3 of the chosen students making a speech regarding their plight in life and how they have overcome obstacles to get to where they are today.
  
• May 5--Korean Children Choir at our church...such a treat. These were students of the approximate 4th - 6th grade age range (maybe a couple or 7th-8th grade range). They were polite, well organized, and very talented. They sang and choreographed songs (Patriotic and Hymns) in English and Korean. They wore two performance uniforms during the program-formal wear and native wear. They also had a traveling uniform-black skirts and slacks with white blouses and shirts. They ate dinner in our dinning hall with all of us and they were wearing their formal wear (pink dresses and black tuxes). They visited with our kids as our kids came by the table, but they never left their table. They were not running all over the dinning hall. They left the dinning hall in single file to prepare for the concert. After the program they left the choir suite in their traveling uniform, in single file, carrying their own uniform bags headed straight for the bus. However, they were all smiles and told us all good bye as they passed us in the hall.
  
• May 6--Singing Men of Texas Concert...composed of men in the North Texas area who are Ministers of Music in a church, retired from a church, or on staff in a Christian College, or somehow connected to Christian music leadership. These men were scheduled to go on a singing mission trip to the Ukraine, but the volcanic ash from the erupting volcano in Iceland delayed their trip until October 2010. Their repertoire included two numbers in Russian. By October they will be singing a new repertoire of new music, but they will still sing their Russian numbers in the Ukraine.
  
• May 8--Mother's Day dinner with Larry, Brenda, Jordan, Courtney, Hunter...because there are so many variables in Larry's family they decided to celebrate Mother's day for Brenda and I on Saturday night. We went to a place called Fish City. Excellent food.
  

Well now I am tired just thinking over the activities since the last post.

When I look forward to the remainder of May and on into June it looks about the same