2010 Ice Storm

The sun shining on the ice crystals makes a pretty scene out of our window this morning.

The woods are light and sparkly and I have no promises to keep. (with apologies to Robert Frost)

So Hubs and I will eat and eat.

Bacon, eggs, and lots of meat.

Homemade Hash Browns are a treat

and his brownies can't be beat.

Determined not to be fatola

I made home made Granola.

Alas, my plan did not work

I ate it all like a JERK :)

Hubs has been working on our taxes. Warren Buffett's CPA couldn't do a better job!

Bless his heart

he tries his best

to try to get something back

from the IRS.

I have been reading, quilting, and eating. I did watch Hallmark Hall of Fame's wonderful program last night. Took place on a farm in the forties. I love that time period. The ladies hats...their ruby red lips and nails, high heels that look like some you see today. (Of course, the ones dressed like this were the city girls visiting the farm.) The main character had become pregnant by a GI who left town before she knew about the baby. I often wonder if this is what happened to my birth mother. It was Wartime in Washington when I was conceived (and born).

A friend from home recently Facebooked me about that tv program, Find Your Family. I have seen it a couple times and even downloaded the info to apply but decided it was too late to find my birth family. (They are as old as me at least and the show seems to pick mostly people from the West coast where they are located.)

Besides: I have two families all ready. My "adoptive family" who consider me equal partners with the rest of the fam and the family I gave birth to......which has grown pretty sizable. Hey, make that three families....the family of God.....which is really HUGE and has some of the best people you could ever meet.

Speaking of which.....our church was called off for today! I was shocked when they called last night. Seems the power was out at the church all day yesterday and the decision was made then. Actually I missed seeing my spiritual family today.......but maybe it's a good thing to realize what I would miss if I didn't have my church family.

Maybe churches should have a campaign called Find Your Church Family!

What do you think?

The Stars of Darlington

Last night, Hubs and I had the privilege of going to the Darlington Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet where they recognized our son Wayne and his wife Niki for their work at the Billie Hardee Home for Boys.

This is Wayne with the home's namesake, Billie Hardee.

Here are Wayne, Niki and the award presenter accepting the award to a standing ovation :)
As a mother and father, we are proud of our son and his wife for their work. As the presenter said, "they have taken the boy's home" to a whole new level, with services for every kind of problem the children present." Two former clients of the home were present at the banquet. Both are grown men with jobs who live in Darlington.

As a side note, I got to wear this beautiful WARM leopard coat that my friend Rita gave me the day before. I have never had a fur coat before, fake or real, and this baby is so warm and soft I may never take it off. In fact, I sat in a draft at The Country Club last night and I did NOT take it off. I appreciate my friend Rita who is generous to a fault as they say!

I am proud of my son, his wife, and the work they do. "God doesn't make any bad boys", Billie Hardee said last night and it is so true. It is society and bad parents who turn good boys into troubled kids. It is up to all of us to help turn them around.

What do you and I do to help? Maybe we volunteer. Maybe we give. Maybe we pray. Maybe we teach Sunday School. Maybe we coach a sport. Maybe we tutor. Maybe we encourage our children to befriend the misfits in their class. All of us can do something. Will you? Will I?

Its A New QUILT and More

I started this new quilt yesterday. Its called Carolina Byways. My good friend and quilter extraordinaire, Sallie McCauley and husband Andy came to visit and spend the night before signing on the sale of their house here today.

She wanted to try out my "new" Janome sewing machine before purchasing her own, so she sewed and cut some blocks for me while I cut out blocks for her to sew. In the quilting world this is FUN!

The placement of the blocks above is temporary....when I have more hopefully it will look like the mountains and oceans of the Carolinas.

Andy helped me understand the current US financial problems....no mean feat!

Today on Chris Fabry Live, Erwin Lutzer, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago and learned theologian compared the conditions in the US today with the conditions in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. He was NOT saying we are Nazi's etc.... just that the conditions in Germany when Hitler rose to power were similar to those in the US today.

• A disregard for human life (abortion is a slippery slope to euthanasia and a "death panel"
• The deadening of conscience (Values clarification is what we teach in school....there is no right or wrong....every one does they feel is best.)
• Economic turmoil.....(when people need food and shelter they will abandon their ideals)
• Separation of Church and State (Hitler told Bonhoeffer "you can have their (Christian's) bodys as long as I have their souls")

If this interests or infuriates you go to Chris Fabry Live and listen to today's broadcast. Let me know what you think!

This is my mother-in-law, Edith Chapman, on left and her sister Sabra on the right. Edith was 19 at the time, Sabra fifteen.

I recently became interested in pictorial quilting. These are story quilts with real history behind them. I decided to focus my quilt on the people in our family tree. I am learning to make fabric pictures of our ancestors. They probably won't be very realistic depictions but at least they will acknowledge our forefathers and fore mothers. The one above represents my parents.

This was the first one I did and it is of Curtis' great great grandparents.

I made the wedding dress of some of the actual fabric from my wedding dress. Oops.....I see I was so anxious to blog about it I omitted our wedding date......March 19, 1966.

Its been pretty cold here so I haven't been doing much else besides pilates, Bible Study, Free Medical Clinic, reading, and church library work.

What have you been up to?

Cooper and I Make News

I only wish this picture was in color so you could see Cooper's pink tongue on my lips :)

Other than getting my name and age in the paper I have been up to no good as usual.

I finished my Carolina Christmas quilt (I didn't start it until after Thanksgiving so I didn't plan to have it done by Christmas.)

Had Hannah and Gates over to spend the night last night. Gates and I did our usual playing Mommy and Daddy while Hannah kept her school running in the background. When he was cooking he brought me a piece of (fake) birthday cake and starts clapping his hands and singing like they do at restaurants......Happy, Happy Birthday!

Oh, and we got out the rhythm instruments and marched around as the USC Gamecock Marching Band in between quarters of football with Pop Pop.

I'm not sure how many times he shot me......right after I cocked his pistol for him because it is too hard for him to cock. I did learn that being "dead" has its advantages....I got to be still for a minute or two :)

That's about it for here. It was sunny and warm today which was a welcome change.

What was the best thing about YOUR weekend?


Free Counter

Havoc in Haiti

Truthfully, the recent earthquake in Haiti has not penetrated my consciousness until about an hour ago.

My guy, Chris Fabry (Live) just did a radio program about what is happening THERE and HERE.

I am so geographically illiterate about that area I wasn't sure where Haiti was....hence the map.

Some of what I learned in the last hour has been eye opening to me. I didn't know many Haitians live here in the US in an area of Miami called Little Haiti. Obviously these people are concerned about their relatives who they haven't heard from since the quake.

An article in today's Florence newspaper told about a man from Dillon who left for Haiti Tuesday. When he arrived in Port au Prince he said God told him not to stay there so they travelled an hour or so away. Minutes later the earthquake hit; he was not hurt so he can now help the people who were.

I just love it when God gets credit for being God......especially in the newspaper!

Let us all bow our heads and pray for the people of Haiti. Let us pray for a heart of compassion to care about them and help in whatever way we can.

Have you heard any Good News about this bad situation?

The Weather Outside is Breezy

And if you go out
you might become sneezy!

I have plenty of time to kill
Learn to scan, yes I will !

Reading books is lots of fun
When you can't go in the sun

Watching videos is a hoot
if it is not a western where they shoot

I am trying to diet, too
so snacking will not do

The studio is freezing
sewing is not so pleasing

But at least we are not pioneers
with snow up to our ears!

Happy January!

HelP

This is going to be a rant against Hewlett Packard. Since I cannot get through to ANYONE at their corporate office who speaks English I will just have to send it out into the blogosphere and hope it lands on one of their desks.

• First, a month ago my HP printer, the one that I bought with my HP computer and HP monitor started making strange noises and having difficulty ejecting the paper after printing on it. I called my local repair people and they said, "Buy a new one" "No one works on printers; they are two hard to fix and cheap to buy."

• I go directly to Walmart and get a new one. $49.98. Works great (once hubs figures out how to get the computer operating system in sync with it.)
• Problem: New printer uses 60 HP ink. I have three cartridges of HP 22 Colored ink I ordered on line from HP.
• I start calling HP with a perfectly reasonable idea of returning the 3 cartridges I have in exchange for ones that fit the new printer.
• By now, you can probably guess where this is going. After being on hold numerous times, being transferred many times, and repeating the whole story numerous times to people of various ethnicity who have trouble understanding me.....and who I can barely understand...I get an invoice number to give to the exchange department when they reopen on Monday.

• I think I am home free.....maybe....
• Oh no, Monday I start again .......foreign operator.....I just tell him, "I don't mean to be offensive, but could I please speak with a person for whom the English language is their first language.....I have a hearing problem and cannot understand your accent"
• "Please let me twi to help you fwist," No really, I need an English speaking operator.....No, please give me a chance......
• Sucker me goes for it.....repeats the whole dang thing and ends up with, Sorry, we cannot help you.

SO IF ANY OF YOU USE HP 22 INKJET CARTRIDGES....I HAVE 3 TRICOLORS TO SEND YOU!

An Eagle Scout

Last night I went to the Eagle Scout Award Ceremonies for one of my former students, Craig Anderson. His mother, Marcia, is a dear friend of mine and one of THE FINEST people I know.The last time I'd done any Scouting was back in 1967-68 when my husband was the Scout Master for Troop 509, the troop he was in growing up.

Hubs and I didn't have any children when we started. In fact, I remember telling him I was pregnant when he was hospitalized after being hit in the eye by a baseball during a troop baseball game. (Thank you God for restoring his eyesight!)

I also remember camping with the troop in our family clubhouse (cement block, fireplace for heat) on the coldest night ever.

I have pictures and movies of our twin boys waddling around our pond as the scouts fished.

I also remember going to some regional scouting banquet at the country club in Florence, SC. When grown men came out wearing some kind of animal heads and calling themselves "Silver Beavers" I cracked up (Laughter not mental breakdown). I think that close to the end of our scouting career.

I also have a picture of my Dad and his Scout troop in Washington, DC circa 1910. If my new printer/scanner would scan I would put the picture right here. Trust me it is a lovely old picture.

Oh, and our boys were Boy Scouts. About all I remember about that was sending them to Scout Camp as often as possible.

Back to last night......

The Boy Scout Oath is "On my honor, I will do my best.....To do my duty, to God and my Country.....and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight."

Pretty all encompassing isn't it. Duty to God and Country. Duty to other people. Duty to self.

The Boy Scout Law says, A Scout is:

1. Trustworthy
2. Loyal
3. Helpful
4. Friendly
5. Courteous
6. Kind
7. Obedient
8. Cheerful
9. Thrifty
10. Brave
11. Clean
12. Reverent

The Scout leading the service last night elaborated on each of these qualities briefly. I wish I had his notes......but they are kind of self-explanatory.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if ALL of us sought to BE all of these things? I do believe they are similar to what God wants us to be.

Any comments? Thoughts? Scouting Memories?

Happy 2010 - Out With the Old, In With the New

Actually, my title should be.....what's old is new again! A dear friend, Wesley Haynes, took what were some very yucky boards that had been shelves in my husband's farm shelter for 50 plus years and turned them into this gorgeous table. It was unveiled at our New Year's Party last night to much acclaim.

Prior to being shelves, it was a wagon on our farm that our Uncle Chris Evans made at his woodworking shop when he taught at Antioch High School.

Prior to being a wagon it was an OLD Pine tree (see how wide that one board is!) grown here on our farm and cut in 1945 when there was a sawmill here on our place.

I am so glad Wesley was willing and skillful enough to make this piece of history for our family to pass down.


Another thing old that is new again is Cowboys! Here is grandson Gates in his Wowboy hat; he has on his wowboy boots (with heels that light up, thank you). He also got the wowboy horses (VERY large stuffed ones) and wowboy guns he asked Santa for. They were not invited to the party for obvious reasons.

Midway through his visit at the party he said to me, "Nanny, lets play!"
He did not quite get the concept that sometimes (like once in a BLUE MOON) Nanny can't play :)

I guess you are cognizant of the fact that last night, December 31, 2009, was a "blue moon".
Definition: The second full moon of ONE month. Won't happen again until 2031 (or some such number). Hubs and I will be in our dotage then. So we decided to have a Once in a Blue Moon Party. We don't entertain like we used to when we had serfs (I mean children) to help clean up the house. It actually wasn't that bad.....my cleaning standards have dropped to a new low. (Keep it dark) as are my food prep (everyone bring something). The party went so well, we may not wait until the next blue moon. (And I am really enjoying the snacks every one left......I have declared this Munching in your PJs Day.)

Why don't you keep on your pj's and join me in a munch out! (The diet begins MONDAY, people!) All those in favor raise your right hand.....(do not shout "aye, aye" with your mouth full.)

And now to give my children an anxiety attack to start their year with......I was asked to do Stand Up at a HUGE banquet at the end of January. With any luck it will be televised. I am NOT kidding. Kathy Baxley wouldn't lie....but she might be bought !?!

Fasten your jaws people.....anything you say or do can and will be used for humor! Yee Haw!