Still Cruisin’

  

        When we went on our first cruise about 7 years ago, we opened up a whole new can of worms!   We had no idea what fun we had been missing for all those years.   If we had only known, we’d have been going on cruises more often.

        If you’ve never been on a cruise, you are missing a real treat!   We try to go on one a year now and love it when some of our friends get to join us.  

 

        This year we went with Cheryl and Scott, two of our good friends, and had a ball!  Our other friends didn’t get to go with us – they had gone on a trip to Africa earlier this year to see their son who was a missionary there.   We did a four stop, 7 day cruise on the Carnival Dream which is a huge ship!

        Even though there was a tropical storm near several of the ports that we visited, we were able to complete our cruise and still have a wonderful time.   We got to snorkel while we were in Isla Roatan, Hondourus and had an absolutely wonderful time.  We saw lots of pretty fish, lounged around on a gorgeous beach and got to see some beautiful sights there.

        When we weren’t eating, we played cards, danced, played games, basked in the hot tub and just relaxed.  All in all it was a wonderful cruise!

You will always be my friend, you know too much!

  

        While on vacation this year, I found the perfect gift for my two best girlfriends.   It was a magnet that in not so many words says what everyone who has a “best” friend knows. . . . that they will always be friends because they know the innermost thoughts and feelings of each other and are trusted to never reveal them unless asked to do so.

        And of course there are those moments of “What happens in (insert name of city or country here), stays in (insert same name)”.   We’ve all had them – you know the ones!   When you say or do something really stupid and you thank God everyday that only your best friends were there to witness it!

        Your secret will be safe with them!   So to all my girlfriends, remember that you will always be my friend, you know too much!   And besides that, I love you guys!

Life is a Roller Coaster

      When I look back on my life, it is amazing what a roller coaster ride it has been.   There have been so many ups and downs, but realistically there have been so many more ups than downs.   I have no complaints at all and I can honestly say that if I were to die today, I would be the luckiest person in the world.

       I have had experiences in life that as a child I would have never dreamed possible.  I’ve done things and seen places that others only dream of.    How many people can say that their life has been as full as mine?

       Let’s see……  I’ve been a bookkeeper, executive secretary, purchasing agent, truck driver, business owner, school bus driver, funeral home receptionist and secretary, a 911 operator, a wife, mother, Granny  and a mother-in-law.   I’ve had more life experiences and have more useless bits of information floating around in my head than any two people should have.  And yet, I wouldn’t trade a minute of it for anything.

         I have been places and seen things that I might never have had the opportunity to enjoy if my life had  gone in a different direction.   I’ve gotten to hang out with race car drivers and they actually know me – I mean how cool is that??  Especially as much as I love racing!      I’ve been on mission trips to some of the most beautiful places God has created and received the joy that working for others brings.   I have had people come into my life that brought me such joy and impacted my life in ways they will never know.   I’ve had the joy of watching my children grow to be adults and have families of their own.   I’ve travelled more in my lifetime than my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did in all their lifetimes.

        How could I ever complain?  Don’t get me wrong, there have been some rough spots, but they just naturally come with life.    As Forrest Gump once said “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ll get!”.   So far, my life has been filled with my favorites -  strawberry, lemon and maple creams…… oh, and chocolate covered cherries!

This Journey Called Motherhood

              

1985 – Steve         and       1989 – Becca

      Motherhood is a strange journey for most of us.  We spend all of our youth playing house, caring for baby dolls and dreaming of getting married and having our own kids.

      Then the next thing you know, you’re married and all your dreams are coming true….. or at least you’d like to believe they are.   You realize you’re a little late and panic.   You somehow or another calm yourself down and decide that you might in fact like the idea of being a mother so you head to the doctor to find out if the rabbit will die or not.  It does and so you begin that life long journey called “Motherhood”. 

      In reality, you begin to look like a whale, your hormones are going crazy and you’ll cry about a stupid commercial for an hour.   God forbid that you should watch a good “chic” flick – you’ll have puffy eyes and a stuffy nose for months.   Your ankles swell to the size of basketballs, you can’t see your feet, you’re swaybacked from a much enlarged front side of your body and you waddle like a duck.  Other than that, pregnancy is a great thing. 

       And then after all the anxiety, mood swings, pain, joy, laughter, cursing and pushing comes the moment you’ve waited your whole life for …… the moment when you first look into that beautiful little face, hold them in your arms and know that it was all worth it.

        

   1985 – Steve                    1989 – Becca

      Being a mother means unconditional love sprinkled with discipline, guidance, patience, wonder, worry, pride, anger,  fear, happiness, sadness, expectancy, disappointment and many emotions yet to be felt.  

      The love that I have for all my children (including the one that I didn’t give birth to) will never change.  I can only envision it getting stronger as my life goes on.  I thank God each day for the joy of having them in my life.

Little Reminders

          Each day there are so many reminders that I am getting older – it just makes me want to shout for the world to slow down, I’m not through enjoying all the wonderful things that God has made.  It’s just that my body hasn’t kept up with me.  It’s getting old and I’m not. 

          Over the weekend I took pictures for the wedding of a beautiful young lady named Allison that I have known since she was five or six   years old.   I kept telling everyone that she’s just not old enough to get married.   But there she was marrying the man of her dreams.  

        There were lots of children there that I had known for many years, some with children of their own and I kept telling them that they just weren’t supposed to be that old!     But they are and I must face the fact that I am getting older also.

          Allison had her wedding at an old farmhouse that has been set up for weddings and special events called the “McGarrity House” and it was so beautiful there – I was in hog heaven running around  taking pictures.   And believe me, I paid for it dearly the next day!    My whole body hurt and I could barely walk!   I was just really thankful that the Lord at least let me wake up!  But it was all worth it. 

        I absolutely love the new more relaxed way of taking wedding photos.  You can have so much more fun with it and really get shots that capture the mood of the day!   Now that’s not to say that I didn’t get some good “formal” shots, but being with the kids and getting them to do crazy things was so much more fun!    They laughed and had fun getting their pictures made so it made the day go much faster.

     

          Allison didn’t want Tim to see her in her dress before the wedding so I came up with the idea of getting them together without him being able to see her.  I took the sash off the flower girl’s dress and put it around his eyes as a blindfold and then had her kiss him.   I think they both cried.  It was funny but yet so sweet!

       

        It was a beautiful ceremony and I know that Allison and Tim will have a wonderful life together.   Even though it meant that I had gotten lots older, I was proud to be there and be a part of their special day.  I love you Allison!  and thank you!

 

Have a Wonderful Life, Mr. & Mrs. Troupe!

My “Sisters”

  

Darla, Me and Cheryl    

      I grew up as an only child and so I never really knew what it was like to live with siblings.    I had the next best thing though . . .  I had cousins.   My cousins are my sisters in many ways.  My mother’s sister Eloise had 3 children – Larre, Cheryl and Darla.    Larre and Cheryl were a good bit older than me, but Darla was only a little over 2 years older than me.

           When I was in the 6th grade, we moved close to my Aunt and Uncle so I got to spend a lot more time with my cousins.    I would spend a lot of time at their house hanging out with Darla and she would spend many summer days at my house.   We lived in an apartment complex that had a swimming pool and she would come over early in the morning and we’d hang out by the pool all day.   

          Our favorite thing to do was to go to the K-Mart across the street and get a Chef Boy-ar-dee boxed pizza mix and come home and make homemade pizza.   I should own the company by now if you got stock for every pizza of theirs you bought!   They sure were good though.

          Our families have always gotten together for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.  These family gatherings have always been some of the best times of my life.   We would often talk to friends about our get-togethers and they would find it hard to believe that we never heard a cross word or anything spoken in anger.  It was and still is a constant source of humor and laughter.   Whether we are telling tales on one another or just talking over old times, there is always laughter involved.  I am so proud to have come from a family like this and hope that it has rubbed off onto the next generation (and I’m pretty sure it has).  

          There’s always a card game, a trivia game or some kind of sports event that everyone gets into.  I must admit that even though I love to play cards, I do love our family trivia games.  We divide the family into 2 teams and then have at it!   There’s always an answer or two that gets everyone going and then it just goes downhill from there with us laughing all the way to the bottom of the hill!

          Darla and her husband live on a small lake in Jonesboro, Georgia and we spend time there having picnics, bar-b-ques and just hanging out.   The kids (and now  the grandkids) can fish, swim, paddleboat or go out on the lake in the canoe.  It has been the source of many a great party and as always, lots of laughter!

          Cheryl and her husband, Roy, live in an old farmhouse near Jackson, Georgia and have lots of room.   There’s tons of places for the kids to play and for the grown-ups to relax and try to rest (which usually doesn’t last long!).   We love having Thanksgiving and Christmas there because there is so much room and so many things to do.   One year we had a true “Redneck” Thanksgiving.   When we pulled up, some of the family was already there and the women of the family were in the lower yard firing a pistol while the men were next to the barn throwing knives.  It was a hoot – there’ll be another blog on that event, because it was just too crazy not to have it’s own page!

          The older we get, the more I have come to appreciate and love the “Sisters” that God gave to me.   I got the next best thing to real ones, but I couldn’t love them more if they were my real sisters.   They have made my life a wonderful place and I’m the lucky one – I’m richer, more blessed, and happier for having these wonderful ladies in my life!

          I Love You, my Sisters!

         

NEW YORK CITY!

          It’s December 6th, 2008 and here we are off to New York with my sister-in-law, Anita and my niece, Stephanie.    Anita is a flight attendant and she and Stephanie were headed to New York for a long weekend and invited Becca and I to go along.

       

 

          We boarded an early morning flight and since we were on buddy passes, we were afraid that all four of us might not make it on the flight, but we did.   I was so excited.  I’d never been to New York, much less at Christmas time and it was one of the things on my “Bucket List” that I wanted to do.   Becca and I had to take our traditional “self portrait” to get the trip started off right.

           The first thing we did after checking in at our hotel (which was about a block from Times Square!) was to find a street vendor and buy hats, scarves and gloves.  It was freezing and the wind just cut right through you!  We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company and then took a tour of the city.  It was lots of fun to see how they decorate everything for Christmas.  We went to Grand Central Station, The Brooklyn Bridge and lots of other places.

           We rode the subway a lot while we were there (it was mine and Becca’s first time to ride one).  We went to see the Statue of Liberty, China Town, Little Italy, Ground Zero and lots of other places.  We had a ball!  While we were in  China Town, Anita wanted to take us to look at some of the knock-off purses that they sell there.  After she asked a shop vendor about a Prada bag, he called someone on a walkie-talkie and then a lady came and carried us to a little side street and had us get into a parked van with all these purses lining the sides and back of the van.  I must admit, I was very uncomfortable with the situation, wondering when someone was going to start the van and kidnap these four stupid women from Georgia.   Luckily, Anita had done this before and said it was harmless unless the police raided the van.   Well, since I worked for the police in a manner of speaking, I figured it wouldn’t be a very good thing for me to get arrested in New York for buying counterfeit purses.  From then on, I stayed on the outside and just acted as a look-out!  Hahaha, I felt like I was in a James Bond movie!  They did get some nice looking pocketbooks for a really good price though, I must admit!

                      

Becca picking the nose of “Lady Liberty” (or at least a life sized replica of her face and Becca and I with the Wall Street Bull

                  

        Trinity Church was an amazing place to visit and to learn the story of the sycamore tree on the Church grounds that fell without damaging the church, the cemetery or  anything else was amazing.  God is so awesome in so many ways!

         There is no question in my mind though that my MOST FAVORITE thing we did was to go to Rockefeller Center and see all the lights, decorations and of course, the ice rink.  It was everything I had dreamed of and then some.  It was so beautiful and to be with the ones I love made it just that much more special.  Afterwards, we visited the NBC studios, and looked at some of the amazing store windows.  What better way to start off the Christmas season than with a trip to the beautiful city of New York! 

            If for some reason I don’t get to do all of the things on my bucket list, I will have gotten to do one of the top five on my list.  I may have frozen while doing it, but it was one of the highlights of my life!

         

          Thank you Anita, Stephanie and Becca for making my trip so memorable and fun!  I Love You!

Loved Ones Long Gone

          I grew up not knowing who my Grandparents were because they were all dead before I was born.  This saddened me greatly and I had this unnatural (bordering on obsessive) desire to know them.   Through the years I have come to learn a lot about them, some things that even my mother and father did not know.   I became obsessed with genealogy (the study of one’s family history) when I was in my very early 20’s and now have tens of thousands of relatives (and yes, I have that many) in a database with their dates of birth, marriage and deaths, places and photos of their graves, and photos and stories of their lives.

          My intent has always been to publish a story about what I find, but it is an overwhelming task.  I can not tell you just how many hours of my life I have spent doing family history research, but it is far too many to count.   One day I hope to make my book a reality, but until then, I’ll keep on digging for the stories that make the loved ones I never knew real to me.

          I love old cemeteries, old stories and most of all, old pictures.   Pictures capture a moment in time that would all but be lost, especially for those who never knew the people in them.  Below are a few of my family members that I love to look at and share.

          On the left is my Grandmother and Grandfather, Elijah Albright “Lige” Veal and Carrie Elizabeth Edna Frances Sarratt Veal.  In the middle is my father, Joe Dorsey “J.D.” Petty when he looked like a little girl, haha!  And then my mother, Martha Frances Veal when she was 3 years old.

 

          On the left is (from left to right), my great-grandfather,  Green Berry Sarratt, my grandfather, Elijah Albright Veal, Sr., Bobby Davis, my uncle, E. A. “Bub” Veal, Jr. and my great-grandmother Alice Miller Turner Sarratt.  Bobby Davis was the grandson of Alice’s sister Ella Sarratt Mitchell and Bub Veal is the brother of Martha and Eloise Veal.      The next picture is of my great aunt, Lucy Hope Sarratt (sister of Carrie) and a friend sometime around 1914 or so when she was about 20.    And the picture on the right is of my mother and her sister, Martha Frances Veal and Alice Eloise Veal.

          My mother and her mother shortly before Grandmother died in 1938.   My mother in about 1935 at about age 25 and then my dad when he was in the service, somewhere around 1943.

 

          My mother’s grandmother, Alice Miller Turner Sarratt and then her daughter, Ella Sarratt Mitchell.   One of the only pictures we have of my mother and both of her siblings, E. A. “Bub” Veal, Jr., my mother, Martha Frances Veal Petty and their sister, Alice Eloise Veal Mitchell.

          I know that they are now all together and happy again, but it still doesn’t make it any easier on those of us left behind.  I miss each and every one of them more than I can express and long for the days when we will all be together again.  In the meantime, I will try to make them proud of those of us who carry on the legacy they left behind.

          Remember to honor those you love and make them proud, whether they are still here or “Long Gone”.