The Wheels on the Bus go round and round!

Friday was the day! A day I have looked forward to and have dreaded at the same time.

The little boy got on the bus for the first day of Kindergarden. A milestone which will open so many doors to so many wonderful things and so many wonderful experiences.

A door closing on my favorite little boy's pre-school life.

I cried. How many more years will I be able to see his first day of school? Will there be middle school days, and high school days, and college days? No one knows, so I best take advantage of each and every day in between!

Nothing like "going live"!

Hi there everyone. I have missed blogging for the last three weeks and I think it has taken a toll on me. Whereas I can vent, or rant, or just muse and think online on my little blog, instead, I have let things build up until I had a tummy ache. Or something close to that vicinity. Alright, I had pains in my chest.

I phoned my friend Jo Ann Wingfield yesterday and left a message on her answering machine.
It went something like this....."I am running away and I wondered if Wooster would be a good place to start?" (Jo Ann lives in Wooster).

She called me about 45 minutes later and said "Come on down"!

So I did.

You know, I know we live in the age of blog, jog, tweet, twitter and text. But you know folks, there just ain't no better form of communication than to be face to face with a friend. We chatted for about 45 minutes, had a glass of tea (actually half and half, the way I like it) and
voila' I felt better. We didn't talk about anything much, just talked, and I got a tour of her house which she has lived in for a year now and it is flat ass gorgeous. You should see how they finished the basement!

Anyway, I phoned her today to say thank you for letting me come down to Wooster. She said she enjoyed it too!

When she ended the conversation on the phone, besides saying "goodbye" she said "I love you".
I hung up in such haste, that I almost missed hearing those words. Not many people tell me "I love you" these days. I sure reflected on that for the rest of the day.

Jo Ann, I love you too!
Judy

It's bred in the genes!

Sarah and Daniel have been staying since Saturday. A flea problem (that darn cat) became known, and the exterminator was not able to come out until yesterday. On Monday a.m. Sarah picked up her two dogs and cat from home and took them to the groomer's to have a "dip" to be sure!

Then they were allowed to come to Nana's house.

Well, Toby took this personally. I can only describe what has taken place. Since the arrival of Dozer and Jinx, he has paced and panted until I thought he was going to be sick.

Turns out, the herding instinct that was bred into this breed over a century or more came out in "living color". Toby wanted those dogs to have nothing to do with Daniel. He went in to Daniel's bedroom, jumped up on the bed with him, and would not get down. Toby doesn't sleep with Daniel at all. Until now. Those black beasts were not going to hurt his little boy and that was that. The black dogs even had the audacity to curl up at my feet while I sat on the sofa. Again, Toby panted and paced! Moving the two dogs away from my feet solved the problem. Toby instantly took their place, put his head down and took a snooze. No grass growing under his feet!

Tonight, I expect the same reaction. "Daniel, it's time for bed" and I bet Toby beats him to the comforter!

It's been 20 years!

Just wanted to share this photo of Nathan and Daniel
sitting on the stone retaining wall at an event Saturday.

Nathan's wife Traci coordinated an event for the owner
of a large landscaping event. A Press Party to be exact.
There was also a press get together on Thursday evening
that had wine and appetizers and cool stuff.

This landscaping contractor does lots of "barter"
work and Traci and he were bartering their skills.

Here's the point of the photo. Nathan is sporting a new
coif! His new job required a "conservative" hair cut, so
last week he had his locks shorn. A really great look
on a really great guy!

Another headline I missed!

Isn't it sad the media can tell us all about the crap that goes on, but ignores the GOOD people. If a movie star or politician stubs their toe or rants four letter words we have to hear about it for days!

Pamela Murphy, widow of WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, died peacefully at her home on April 8, 2010. She was the widow of the most decorated WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, and established her own distinctive 35 year career working as a patient liaison at the Sepulveda Veterans Administration hospital, treating every veteran who visited the facility as if they were a VIP.
Any soldier or Marine who came into the hospital got the same special treatment from her. She would walk the hallways with her clipboard in hand making sure her boys got to see the specialist they needed.
If they didn't, watch out. Her boys weren't Medal of Honor recipients or movie stars like Audie, but that didn't matter to Pam. They had served their country. That was good enough for her. She never called a veteran by his first name. It was always "Mister." Respect came with the job.
"Nobody could cut through VA red tape faster than Mrs. Murphy," said veteran Stephen Sherman, speaking for thousands of veterans she befriended over the years. "Many times I watched her march a veteran who had been waiting more than an hour right into the doctor's office. She was even reprimanded a few times, but it didn't matter to Mrs. Murphy. "Only her boys mattered. She was our angel."
Audie Murphy died broke in a plane crash in 1971, squandering millions of dollars on gambling, bad investments, and yes, other women. "Even with the adultery and desertion at the end, he always remained my hero," Pam told me.
She went from a comfortable ranch-style home in Van Nuys where she raised two sons to a small apartment - taking a clerk's job at the nearby VA to support herself and start paying off her faded movie star husband's debts. At first, no one knew who she was. Soon, though, word spread through the VA that the nice woman with the clipboard wasAudie Murphy's widow. It was like saying General Patton had just walked in the front door. Men with tears in their eyes walked up to her and gave her a hug.
"Thank you," they said, over and over.
The first couple of years, I think the hugs were more for Audie's memory as a war hero. The last 30 years, they were for Pam.
One year I asked her to be the focus of a Veteran's Day column for all the work she had done. Pam just shook her head no.
"Honor them, not me," she said, pointing to a group of veterans down the hallway. "They're the ones who deserve it."
The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy deserved the accolades, they said. Incredibly, in 2002, Pam's job was going to be eliminated in budget cuts. She was considered "excess staff." "I don't think helping cut down on veterans' complaints and showing them the respect they deserve, should be considered excess staff," she told me. Neither did the veterans. They went ballistic, holding a rally for her outside the VA gates. Pretty soon, word came down from the top of the VA. Pam Murphy was no longer considered "excess staff."
She remained working full time at the VA until 2007 when she was 87.
"The last time she was here was a couple of years ago for the conference we had for homeless veterans," said Becky James, coordinator of the VA's Veterans History Project. Pam wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help some more of her boys. Pam Murphy was 90 when she died last week.

What a lady.

Thank you Linda (of Louisville) for sending this to me.

Do you remember?

I was just reading through an old cookbook, waiting for 9:00 to come so I could put Daniel to bed with books.I sat bolt upright. There was a recipe for WallPaper Cleaner.

I remember cleaning wallpaper in the spring and the fall of the year when I was growing up. The stuff we used came in a can and it was green. Some of it was pink but I only remember the green.

It was the consistency of "Play Dough". I can almost sell it now! We would labor long and hard to clean the whole house from ceilings to floors. You rolled it in the shape of a sausage roll and "rolled" is down the walls.

Now that wall coverings are "vinyl coated" we just wash the stuff down (or not).

Ah, I remember it well!

Hmmmm

An older couple is lying in bed one morning.
They had just awakened from a good night's sleep
He takes her hand and she responds, 'Don't touch me."
'Why not?' he asked.
She answered, 'Because I'm dead.
The husband asked...'What are you talking about?
We're both lying here in bed together and talking to one another!'
She said, 'No, I'm definitely dead.'
He insisted, 'You are not dead. What in the world makes you think you're dead?'
'Because I woke up this morning and nothing hurts.'