Summer Deck Parties

A few years ago, Bobby and I built a laundry room/pantry and a very large deck onto the back of our house. Our house was built in the 1970's and it is really small. We had a nice backyard, but it slopes and was really not a good place to entertain.

I've always loved having friends over for potluck and to just sit around and fellowship but we'd never really been able to have more than just a few friends until we built our deck. Now we can have lots of friends come over at the same time. It's wonderful.

Lots of times after church, we'll just tell everyone to grab something and come on over. Then we set it all out and have a potluck dinner. God has been good to us - we never seem to run out of food and the company is always great to be around.

We have had as many as 20 plus friends (and a few dogs) on the deck for cookouts and birthday parties and we always have a ball. Sometimes we sit out there and just listen to the frogs, catie dids, owls and other critters.

I can't wait until I get through getting everything cleaned and ready for the fun to begin! It's a big job and takes a long time, but it is worth it!

Our dogs really love the deck too because they have a place to lay in the sun and sleep, the birds love it because I have more places to hang my bird feeders and the squirrels love it because I hang more bird feeders (I don't have the heart to hurt them so I just feed them right along with my birds). All in all , everyone loves our deck!

Ahhh, the Public....

I am an operator at a 911 center and people's attitudes about public safety workers never ceases to amaze me. On one hand it is very sad and on the other, it makes me angry.

People will call for some of the stupidest things you can imagine. They will tie up emergency lines with things like "why is my power out?", "can you tell me how to get to ....?", "I see a cop at my neighbor's house - what's going on?" and things like that.

I want a free day where I can answer their questions realistically without having to worry about getting fired. Like "How are we supposed to know why your power is off? Did you pay the bill?" or "do I look like an atlas?" or better yet - "stop being a nosey neighbor and worry more about what is going on at your house!".

People will call because there are children playing in the street in front of their house - "Would it be better if they were somewhere planning to rob your house or steal your car - or would you rather have them playing in the street not bothering anyone and having fun like kids are supposed do?"

They call because their 10 year old child won't mind them and then they want the police to come do something about it (what are we supposed to do? Come discipline your child because you are too lazy or too busy to do it yourself?). They should have thought about the responsibilities of raising a child before they laid down with that guy and conceived that poor child.

I love the women who call for an ambulance because they are having a baby, they are 9 months pregnant, labor started 3 hours ago, their contractions are a minute apart and there are 5 people sitting in the living room that could have driven them to the hospital hours ago in one of the 6 cars sitting in the driveway! REALLY??? Uhhhh, how long have you known that you were pregnant? How long have you been in labor? Couldn't someone get up off the sofa long enough to take you to the hospital instead of taking that ambulance away from what might have been a REAL emergency call??? What are these people thinking?

People need to learn to be more responsible and to use a little common sense before they call 911. When I was growing up, I knew that there had better be lots of blood, a fire or someone better be committing a real crime before I called 911.

And the sad part is that there are many responsible people who only call 911 when they have an emergency. Some even actually apologize for calling us. I just want to take them in my arms and hug them, try to make thnigs better for them and then tell them how much I appreciate the fact that they are not calling for something stupid.

It really makes me angry when I see people on the news saying things like "he wasn't doing anything wrong and the cop was just harassing him". I'm sorry, when was driving a stolen car and trying to run over the officer with it "not doing anything wrong?".

Our officers put their lives on the line for the community every day. So do our firemen and EMS workers. Public safety personnell work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and rarely get the thanks that they all deserve. Many of them give up time with their families and loved ones just so that they can be there to help the people of their communities. We'd love to have all the holidays and weekends off too, but we know that we can't and we're willing to give that up to serve our community.

Next time you deal with a fireman, an officer or any other public safety person - remember that they are there to help you and not to hurt you. Don't take your anger out on them, stay calm and answer their questions and just think about where you would be without them.

Chaos is a word that comes to mind....

Meet the Family - Becca

Becca is my baby girl and has always been a beautiful child, well..... except for those first couple of days.

When Becca was born, they had to use forceps to get her out (she was a very large baby - almost 10 pounds) and it caused her head to have corners (I swear she looked like an alphabet block!). When I first saw her I cried (I didn't know that her head would round out in a couple of days - all I knew was that her head was square...).

My mother-in-law was the secretary in the church I grew up in and when she came into the room and talked about what a beautiful baby Becca was, I cried more. She had never lied to me before. Finally one of the nurses told me that it wasn't permanent and she would be fine in a couple of days. Boy, was I relieved!

With the exception of a few Kodak moments, she turned out really well, if I do say so myself!

She has grown up to be a beautiful young woman and has a great personality. She has lots of friends and is constantly on the go - sometimes it's really hard to keep up with her. We have a good time together (but it usually ends up costing me!) and I'm sure we will for many years to come.

Some Random Thoughts...

I was sitting here and had this totally random thought - What idiot invented bungee jumping? Whatever posessed them to tie a giant rubber band around their ankle and jump off of the highest thing they could find? You'd have to be out of your ever-loving mind to do such a thing. If God had meant for us to do it, he'd have put something on my ankle to attach the rubber band to and since there is no attachment site, then he most certainly didn't want me to jump off of a bridge with a giant rubber band around my ankle. Wow, that felt nice to get that off my chest.....

And while I'm unloading - whose bright idea was it that we should support every person too lazy to go out and find a job and work for a living? It's very frustrating when you go to the grocery store in your 10 year old vehicle (because you can't afford a newer one), you have to struggle to buy enough groceries to last you till the next paycheck and the lady in front of you is buying steaks, grapes and other things that you can't afford. Then to top it all off, she pays for it with a government credit card and then loads her groceries and the 8 kids she has that we also pay to support into a brand new car. It's just wrong that when you work hard for a living then you get penalized and if you stay home and have babies, then the government will support you and buy you whatever you want.

Another thing that drives me crazy is people who litter. There are trash cans everywhere you go so why do they think that they have a right to trash the world we all live in? How hard is it to drop your trash into a garbage can instead of out your car window? I think people who litter should be made to do 100 hours of community service at the county dump and make them pick up all the slimy junk left laying around. Yeah, that would teach 'em!!

Wow, I like venting - makes you feel really good! Think I'll go now before I get myself into real trouble!

Have a great day!

Meet the Family - Steve

Steve was the first child I gave birth to and so I really didn’t know what to expect. Of course, everyone gives you advice and tells you all the things that happened to them while they were pregnant. Somehow or another though, they must not have had the same experiences I did because no one ever mentioned the things that happened to me.

The night before Steve was born I woke up in the middle of the night thinking that my water had broken. I wasn’t having any pain so I decided to take a shower before I woke Bobby up. Well, he must have been sleeping on pins and needles because the minute I stepped into the shower he came into the bathroom wanting to know what was going on. As soon as I got dressed we headed to the hospital.

They checked me in, did a little test and then told me that my water had not broken. Then they proceeded to tell me that my beautiful little baby had kicked my bladder and had caused me to go to the bathroom. (Not a great feeling when they tell you that you just made a trip to the hospital for wetting the bed!). I was scheduled to be induced the next day anyway so rather than send me home and make me come back the next day, our doctor decided to go ahead and induce my labor while I was there.

I had planned on having an epidural so that I could be awake for the birth but not in any pain. After they gave me the medicine to start labor but before the pain got too bad, they gave me the epidural. Well, it was great and blocked the pain really well….. on one side of my body that is. It turned out that I had what they called a “window” and that the epidural had gone to one side. They gave me a booster shot thinking that it would numb the other side. It did, but in the process it numbed me so much that I could not feel a thing from my waist down.

When they came in to take me to the delivery room one of the nurses asked me to just pick up my bottom and help them get me onto the gurney. I laughed at her and then said “Pick it up??? I don’t even know where it is!” After a few minutes of pushing, pulling and yanking, they finally got me onto the gurney (think about those people who try to get a beached whale back into the water – it was a little like that!).

We finally made it into the delivery room and right before Steve was born, they went through a shift change. Talk about loosing your dignity. There’s nothing like laying on the delivery table exposed to God and everybody and then they all leave and a whole new shift comes in…. if it hadn’t been so funny, I probably would have cried. We did have 2 of the nurses that stayed with us through the whole delivery. All in all it was a great experience, we laughed and told jokes and then laughed a little more.

My dad had been wanting a little girl since I had told him I was pregnant and had even brought a little pink sleeper to the hospital for his baby “granddaughter”. After Steve was born, Bobby went to the waiting room to tell everybody that we had a boy and he said that Daddy’s chin dropped for just a moment and then he jumped up and celebrated with everyone else. No man loved his grandson more than my Daddy loved Steve. Up to the day he died, Steve was his buddy and the joy of his life.

Steve is all grown up and married now and has turned out to be a fine young man. He makes us very proud. This story will probably embarrass him to death but it’s still funny no matter how you look at it.

The Wonders of Nature

Many years ago Bobby, Steve and I went on a mission trip to Breckenridge, Colorado with about 80 of our friends from church (Becca was at home going to GA Camp). Having never been out west and most especially to the Rockies, I had no idea of just how magnificent it was.

It was the first week of June and when we stepped off of the plane we could see snow capped mountains in the distance. The sky was the brightest blue I have ever seen (evidently there is no smog anywhere in the state!) and it smelled so clean and the mountains were absolutely breathtaking.

One of the members of the church we were working on owned a house that had 5 very large bedrooms and a great room that was bigger than the house I live in now. Our family, 3 other families, 3 single men and all the teenagers stayed in our house. The 3 house “moms” cooked for everyone and we ate breakfast and dinner together at the house each day. After dinner was a sort of free time and we could do whatever we wanted to.

The kids were particularly fond of going out on the deck and watching the night sky (this deck was the largest I have ever seen – it went all the way around the house). I didn’t realize what the attraction was until I went out on the deck with them one night (I had avoided this because the temperature dropped into the 30’s at night). I sat there for maybe a minute or two and then I knew what they were so excited about…. there were shooting stars every couple of minutes and sometimes several at a time. Someone later told me it was because of the altitude and the fact that the air is so thin and clean that you can see so many of them. It was like being in the middle of a constant meteor shower. It was so awesome that I could hardly catch my breath.

The church we were working on had a little mountain stream

behind it where the church had dug out a baptismal pool for having their baptisms. The water in this stream was about 33° (OK, maybe a little warmer, but not much) and all I can say is that you had to really love God to get baptized in that stream. I stuck my foot in and thought it would freeze solid before I could get it out!

Working on this mission trip was such a blessing – you woke up in the mornings to some of the most beautiful scenery that you can imagine and went to sleep at night under a sky with billions of stars (because of city lights and other things, we only see a tiny fraction of the stars that you could see out there). Each day I’d see the beauty of God’s creation and couldn’t help but wonder how it is that someone can say there is no God. You’ll never convince me that all this beauty “just happened”.

I am so thankful that God has given me the opportunities to see the wonders that He has created. Colorado was a beautiful state, but I was still glad to get home and see the wonders that we have here in Georgia. Every place that I have ever been privileged to visit has been wonderful in its own way, but there is no beauty like what you find at home.

Meet the Family - April

April’s mother, Joy was Bobby’s first wife and was also a friend of mine. When she and Bobby started dating, she came into our circle of friends instead of Bobby leaving, so we all became friends.

During her pregnancy with April, Joy was diagnosed with toxemia, which is also known as preeclampsia or pregnancy induced high blood pressure. It causes you to retain water and lots of other nasty symptoms. It can cause major complications if not treated. Joy was advised to drink lots of water, not to eat salt and to stay away from junk foods. Unfortunately, she didn’t heed what the doctor said and constantly ate junk foods, especially frozen pizzas.

Bobby, Joy, Bobby’s sister Anita, her boyfriend and several other people went to Daytona for the 4th of July. Joy was about 6 months along and her doctor advised her that she should not go but she went anyway. While there she started to retain fluids and by the time they got home, she was very sick. The doctor put her into the hospital saying that she needed to deliver the baby or she would die.

Bobby and Joy were told that if Joy delivered naturally, then her body would expel most of the toxins she had built up but they gave the baby very little chance of surviving. If Joy had to have a cesarean section, then there was a possibility that Joy and the baby would not make it. Joy was induced to try and make her deliver the baby naturally, but it began to put too much of a strain on her and the baby and so they decided that the doctor would perform a cesarean. Because of this, there was very little strain put on April and she managed to survive against the odds.

April was 1 lb. and 11 ounces when she was born and breathed on her own from the beginning. All they did was give her a little oxygen. She lost a little weight but then started to gradually gain weight daily. April was the first baby to ever come home from Northside Hospital before she weighed 5 lbs. She weighed about 4 and a half pounds, but had been healthy from the day she was born so they decided that there was no need to keep her.

April was so small that she would fit in the palm of Bobby’s hand and her head could go all the way into a small styrofoam coffee cup. Due to the fact that she missed her last 3 months of development in the womb, she was a little slow learning to walk, talk and to learn some of the other skills that come naturally, but other than that, she had no problems.

Today she is a happy healthy adult with a daughter of her own.

Family Reunions

Well, it's getting to be the time of year when most of us have to start thinking about family reunions. We all love our families, but life sometimes has a habit of putting distance between family members. Sometimes it kids, sometimes family moves away to another state or country, some have health problems, etc.

If it's not little league, then it's dance or gymnastics, soccor, school plays, birthday parties, vacations, Christmas or whatever, but it just seems that you don't have much time to see your extended family members. Family reunions are a great way to at least get to see your family once a year, if not more. And of course, there's always the pot luck lunch that comes along with a reunion.

My father-in-law, Gene and his siblings have been having reunions for quiet a few years now. There were four brothers and one sister in the family. Gene's mother died when he was a baby and his sister, Frank (Francis) helped to raise all the boys. There are only the twins, Hoyt and Howard left now. Gene, Milton and Frank have all passed away, but the family still gets together to have a reunion and to remember them.

There's always lots of laughter and plenty of good food. When I got into the family, I started making them get together for "group" shots so that my kids would grow up knowing who their aunts and uncles are. It's a wonderful way to get to know your extended family and to have a great memory of the day. I always made sure I got a picture of the brothers and sister whether they were all there or not. I cherish them to this day. The pictures from 1999, 2000 and 2001 are above.

My mother-in-law, Dorothy and her sisters Willene and Betty, have a family reunion every year. They do it for the joy that they get out of seeing those they love and out of respect for their mother who made them promise on her deathbed, that they would always keep the family together. I'm sure that this wonderful woman we called "Grandma Dodd" is so proud of her daughters for the love and hard work they put into her dying wish. The pictures above are from 1997, 2006 and 2009.

If everyone shows up draggin their young 'ens in tow, then they are estatic. If not, they're happy with whomever happens to pop in the door. They will cook for days to make sure that each and every one gets to eat something they love and to make sure their houses are spotless and ready for "company". They enlist the help of husbands, kids and grandkids alike to drag chairs and tables up from the basement and meticulously make sure that everyone has a seat.

They valiantly try each year to get us to sit with members of the family that we don't normally get to see and we try, but somehow or another, we always end up sitting with the same ones each year..... but, God love 'em, they keep on trying!

If you get the chance to go to a family reunion, then try your best. Even if you think you won't hardly know anyone - I guarantee you that someone will know you and want to know everything you have been up to since the last time they saw you (which may be 20 years or more). You'll be amazed at just how much fun you can have. And remember that these are the people you came from - no matter how good or bad they are - they are all a part of your "family history" and a lot can be learned from them. And be sure to take a camera - you never know when or if you'll see your "kin folk" again.

Enjoy this beautiful day that God has given us and remember I love you all!

Buds - A.J. & Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea and her mother, Yancey were our outside dogs and never socialized too much with our other dogs. After the death of Yancey, I was so afraid that Sweet Pea would be poisoned too, that I let her stay inside the house, thinking that I would eventually start leaving her outside all the time.

Sweet Pea has always been skittish of the other dogs and of anyone visiting the house and it really got worse after Yancey died. She’s probably the sweetest of all the dogs we have, but just had not been exposed to other animals much.

A.J. is our miniature long-haired daschund who is 10’ tall and invincible. He is a couple of years old but has the heart of a 6 month old puppy and loves to play. He seemed to sense that Sweet Pea needed someone to give her some attention, so he started trying to play with her. She snapped at him a few times, letting him know that she did NOT want a playmate. A.J. being the persistent little cuss that he is would not let her say no. Being older, I guess Sweet Pea finally decided it was easier to just let A.J. play with her than to get into trouble for nipping at him.

As time went by, Sweet Pea began to warm up to A.J. and they are now the best of buds. They play tag and wrestle. When you tell Sweet Pea to “pin” A.J. she will put her leg on top of him and pin him to the floor. And every so often we even catch them sleeping beside each other.

Just goes to show that when don't think you like someone - be careful, they just might turn out to be one of your best "buds"!

Meet the Family - The Kids

Bobby and I have 3 kids, April (who is by Bobby’s first marriage, but she’s always been my first child – even before Bobby and I married), Steve and Becca. Our children are not exceptional except for the fact that they are beautiful, smart and well-rounded.

They were taught from an early age to respect other people’s property – the first rule at our house was “if it’s not yours – DON’T Touch It!! They grew up knowing that if they disrespected their teachers, anyone from church, their grandparents or just about anyone else, then the punishment would be severe.

They knew that if they were sent to the office for being bad that they had better go ahead and call for an ambulance and family and children’s services because they were going to need them by the time I got through with them.

They were taught to say “yes ma’m and no ma’m, yes sir and no sir”, to open doors for others, to say thank you when someone did something for them, to respect figures of authority, to honor the flag and to be kind to others who were less fortunate than they were.

I am very proud to say that my children are not axe murderers or thieves, they aren’t members of gangs, they don’t do drugs, and don’t live off of the government. They are just good well-rounded American kids. I'm not saying that they are perfect, because by no means are they even close to perfect, but I couldn’t be prouder of any of them.

They’re all adults now and letting them go was a really hard thing to do because they will always be my babies. Sometimes I can’t quiet let go, but it’s getting better and a little easier as time goes by. Most of the time I enjoy the empty nest, but sometimes it gets really lonely and I want my babies back, then I get over it.

I seem to have trained them well and so far so good..... Just remember to give your babies lots of hugs and kisses because before you know it, they get to "big" for them. Either that or teach them that they will never get to old to mind their mama (which includes giving hugs and kisses) or their mama will take them down a notch or two!

"Train up a child in the ways he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

Unconditional Love

We were always on the go so much when the kids were growing up that we didn't have time to have a pet. The kids never seemed to mind, because they knew that we could not take care of an animal if we were going to travel, play sports, etc. and that seemed to be more important at the time. As the kids got older the need for that "unconditional love" that comes along with having a dog (cats expect unconditional love whereas dogs just give it willingly) seemed to grow stronger than the need to be gone all the time.


On my youngest daughter's 11th birthday, we had a spend the night birthday party at our house. The next morning one of the neighborhood girls that was staying over realized she had left her medicine at home and off the group of girls went to retrieve it. Well.... to make a really long story short, not only did they come home with the medicine, but they brought along this tiny little brown and white ball that was covered in fleas. Having been a dog person all my life, of course my heart immediately melted and he has held it ever since. He was named Lucky by vote of all the girls at the party (mine was the only other vote and I wanted "E.B." which would be short for Ed Beagle - as in Ed Beagley. Since none of the girls had a clue who Ed Beagley was, I of course lost by a landslide). From then on Lucky ruled the house.

My husband had always insisted that we did not need a dog, but our daughter had a way of getting what she wanted no matter what. . . . after picking fleas off of the poor little puppy for over an hour, both the puppy and I were exhausted. We made a little pallet on the living room floor for the now clean dog and when my husband (who had been in the bedroom watching a race and had no idea what was going on in the rest of the house) came through, he looked down and in a not so happy voice said, "What is that?". Well baby girl in all her wisdom immediately said, "Well, duh, Daddy - it's a dog!" - at which point I figured that hubby dear would kill her, but he didn't. Sooooo, the rest is history. Lucky stayed and won over all the hearts in the family.

As time went by, our little household grew to include four dogs - Lucky, Yancey (who has since gone to doggie heaven), her puppy - Sweet Pea, and A.J. (which stands for Adam, Jr. but don't ask...). It is amazing to me everyday just how much they love this family. And it is indeed an unconditional love - there are never any strings, except maybe wanting to be petted all the time, but that just goes with being a dog. I know they love me, because when I leave the room, there is the pitter patter of small, medium and large feet coming right along behind me, even if I leave for just a moment.

Their joy in life seems to be in pleasing and being with their "family". And you know what - to me that is a great philosophy. . . . find joy by pleasing, taking pleasure in being with, and unconditionally loving your family and friends.

Meet the Family - The Husband

My husband, Bobby, and I met in the summer of 1966 when we were both working for VBS (Vacation Bible School) at our church - Lakewood Heights Baptist Church in south Atlanta. Bobby's mother was the church secretary, my mother's sister Eloise was the head of the Women's Misson Union (WMU) and her husband, Uncle Hamp, was the chairman of the deacons. Our roots run deep in the Baptist church and it has always been a big part of our lives.

My first real encounter with Bobby was when the youth went on a retreat to the Cherokee Mountains to see the play "Unto These Hills". I hardly knew anybody on the retreat because I had just started going to Lakewood Heights with my aunt, uncle and cousins. I was friends with Bobby's sister, Anita and ended up in her room for the retreat.

When we first loaded the Greyhound bus that would take us to the mountains, the only seat left was the very last one at the back of the bus in front of the bathroom. If you've ever ridden on a Greyhound, then you know that this is the shortest seat on the whole bus because of the bathroom. Well, wouldn't you just know that the last person to get on the bus would be the tallest one too. You guessed it, it was Bobby and the only seat left was beside me.

I was very shy back then and the thoughts of a guy sitting with me was just scaring me to death. He sat down and of course, had nowhere to put his legs because they were so long. One leg went into the aisle and the other onto my half of the floor. Of course, being shy, this meant that I had to scrunch up into the corner of the seat so that his leg would not touch mine and I rode all the way to Cherokee this way. I was so thankful for the bathroom break so I could stretch my legs out that I was beside myself.

All through the trip it seemed as if fate kept throwing us together (not to mention the fact that all the kids were pairing up and Bobby seemed to get stuck with me - sort of...). It might not have been too bad except that his sister was my friend and as it turned out - we were staying in the room being chaperoned by Bobby's mom and weren't able to escape after curfew (as if I would EVER do anything like that!).

All in all it wasn't a bad trip, but if I could have cut Bobby's legs off at the knees for the ride up and back, I think it would have been better!

Through the years, it seemed as if Bobby was always there for the major things that happened in my life. He would take me to special events like my Senior Prom when I didn't have a date (his girlfriend lived in Tennessee and could not always come to Atlanta for school and church events). We were part of a close group of friends that were always together and have remained friends to this day.

Family and friends alike tried to get us to date, but by pushing us harder they only managed to push us apart. For that I thank them because I firmly believe that had we married after high school, we would never have made it. God knew his plans for us and I'm glad we both had the experience of living a life without each other because it only made our lives together stronger.

Remember to tell the ones you love that you love them and tell them often, you never know when you may not get another chance to say "I Love You" . . . . . .

Hallelujah! Christ is Risen.

Easter has always had special meaning for our family. We are Christians and today is the holiest of all days to us. It means that we are forgiven for our sins and will be together in eternity as a family because Christ died for our sins and was resurrected on the third day.... which we celebrate on Easter Sunday.

We get together as a family at Grandma's house and celebrate in all the traditional ways - we have dinner which always includes ham, deviled eggs, peas from Grandma's garden, biscuits, all the other fixings and some good ole Georgia sweet tea. Grandma makes her biscuits from scratch right out of the flour container (which I have never been able to do and never will never attempt to do unless you like skipping stones with your dinner!). We always laugh a lot and there is usually one or two who take a nap after lunch.

We decorated eggs and had easter egg hunts for all the kids when they were younger. Some of the eggs are still turning up in the yard, years later. (Not the real ones, we'd find them in the summer after Easter when they started to get really "ripe"!). And with me around, there was always the "family group shot" that everyone moaned and groaned about, but now loves to see how we all changed through the years!

Enjoy your day and I hope that you spend it with family. Easter is a celabration of life everlasting so just remember that without Christ, Easter and our lives would have no meaning, no point. God bless you all and remember I love you!

Family History

When I was in high school I became very interested in my family. My mother and father both loved their families very much and talked about their ancestors often. It was only natural that I would want to know more about these people I had heard so much about as a child. Our ancestors have a lot to do with the people we are today.

If you have ever had an interest in your ancestors and set out to find out who they were, then you understand just how addicting it can be. Genealogy (the search for one's roots) is a wonderful hobby but can become all consuming. When my children were younger, I would drag them to old courthouses, family reunions and cemeteries. I can remember my son sitting in the back seat of the car when we'd pass a cemetery he'd say: "Don't stop mom - we don't have time".

I have a database containing more that 10,000 people with the same surnames as my family and more notes on those people than I will ever be able to post to their information. I learned early on that you have to gather any and all information on people with the same surname because somewhere in the branches of your family tree, they are going to join into the same tree trunk as your family - otherwise known as "branch kin".

Genealogy is also a wonderful way to learn history - not only of your family but of our great nation. I never really liked history much and could have cared less about it until I started digging for my roots. I've learned about the civil war and many of it's battles, migration patterns of our ancestors, the Revolutionary War, the World Wars and many other momentous occasions in the forming of our country.

I never knew any of my grandparents because they had all passed away before I was born, but I felt as if I had known them since they were so loved and talked about by my parents. I longed for the knowledge of who they were, what their lives were like and where they came from and was pleasantly surprised at the things I found.

Genealogy is an ongoing process and after four decades of searching, I still find out things about my ancestors that never cease to amaze me. And yes there are many "skeletons in my closet", but that's part of the fun of genealogy - finding out that there were some black sheep in the flock right along with all the pretty white ones.

In all my countless hours of searching, I learned a lot about who I was, who I wanted to become and who I wanted my children to become. I know that because of the wonderful God-fearing ancestors that I have that I am a better person. I continue to grow and learn, and I know that I have a lot of relatives long gone standing behind me cheering me on.......

Who knew I'd ever have a blog!

A good friend of mine has several blogs that I just love reading and so I thought that it might be fun to have my own blog. Well, after several hours of trying to figure out what I'm doing (and I'm still not sure I completely understand all of this - I'm technologically challenged), I'm finally writing something!

Now I have to figure out what I want to write about! For my first blog I think I'd like to write about the thing that makes me the happiest - my family.

I have been married for almost 25 years to my second (and last) husband who was always the love of my life, I just didn't know it at the time I married my first husband. I met him when I was in the 7th grade and he was in the 8th. We both worked at the vacation Bible school that our church had that summer. His sister was my best friend and so we were always together. As fate would have it though, he and I both married other people and it was only after divorcing our spouses that we ended up back together. The rest is history. I sometimes want to strangle him, but we can usually come to a mutual agreement before I get to that point. We have had very few arguments during our married life (I can probably count them on both hands) but when we do, they're doozies. But that's a whole other blog.

I have three grown children, 2 daughters and a son who is married to a very loved daughter-in-law and I have a 17 going on 40 year old granddaughter. Sure there are moments I want to drown them all and start over and then I remember the diapers, spit rags, croup and various other things that go along with raising children and I decided that I'll just keep the kids I have. Besides the good times with my children far outweigh the bad times and I really don't want to raise more kids (unless I can spoil them and send them home!). My kids are beautiful and I always tell them they were swapped at birth because they are so pretty, but I know they are all mine and I wouldn't have it any other way. I love them all.

Sometimes God has thrown our family curve balls, but we've always managed to catch them and make base hits out of them. It continues to be a wild ride with lots of challenges, but worth them all.

Life is not easy, it's always full of curve balls and challenges, but if you try really hard, you can hit a home run with them. Enjoy them all, no matter how fast they come at you!