HAPPY FATHER'S DAY 2011

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY !!!!!!

Woke this morning to a thunder storm which was strange to hear first thing in the morning.
I went into church in the rain and came out in the sunshine.
But the sunshine didn't last long as the clouds and more rain came soon after lunch. Everyone made it to our father's day lunch of ham and mac and cheese casserole, fresh potatoes and fried squash from our garden and green beans and corn from the vegetable market.
When everyone left Hubbie and I spent a relaxing day.

This afternoon I thought about my father on this Father's Day and how his life must have been.
Born in 1901,the youngest of 13 children, 4 of whom had already passed away and 1 more died shortly after he was born. I don't know a lot about my dad's early life and their is no one left to help me out.
Among some old photos I found after my mom died was an old metal photograph.Compared to some of the other pics of my dad although there are no markings on this old photo I believe it is my dad probably in his late teen years. In all his pics he had a big bush of hair that was parted in the middle.

Here is dad in later years with his new 1951 Oldsmobile. He worked for GM for a while and bought this car because he said oldsmobiles were the testing grounds for cadilacs.
This was our only family car until I was in high school in the late 60's.This is dad in 1953 with his best friend Jack.
Me and my brother in dad's lap on Christmas 1958.This is dad doing what he loved doing, farming the land in the mid 60's. No matter how hot the temperature you would always find him in his long sleeve,long pants khaki shirt and pants.

I would love to know more about my dad's early life and hopefully through some research that I am trying to find time for I can shed some light at least on where he lived.
It is sad that I never thought to ask him any questions while he was still alive.

Happy Father's Day to all the dad's out there in blogger land ,may God bless you with many more.
Good Night and God bless.

BUSY BEFORE FATHER'S DAY SATURDAY

Busy market day today,daughter and I waited on customers steadily all morning.
The sun heated up the downtown streets pretty fast running the customers at the antique fair on main street indoors to cool down and many of them came into the market.
I got my second volume of my blog book started on my laptop today. It will cover the first 6 months of 2010.
Daughter took my list and went shopping after market as I got a huge 10 caramel cake order from one of the local camps for next Thursday so I needed more supplies.
As I sat at a red light in town on my way home I watched this little blackbird taking a bath in a puddle.I could imagine mama bird supervising this bath.......
Make sure you get under your wings and under your chin.....
Hey don't sling all the water out of the tub......

That's it get all the way under !!!!!!

Just got home and unloaded before the storm hit our area. We had very high winds,I felt sorry for the chickens as they were blown around while trying to get in their house.
We only got a 1/4 inch of rain and had no wind damage here on the farm,even the chickens are all alright. However some of our neighbors weren't so lucky as trees were down all around the area and power was off for a lot of folks again. Duke Power hasn't gotten all the power back on yet from the last storm and now they have more.
The temperature dropped from 87 degrees to 67 in about 30 minutes, it was actually to chilly to sit out in the sunroom with short sleeves.
Daughter waited out the storm in Walmart before heading home.
After we got her unloaded we fried some fresh okra and had an early supper before she left to dog sit.
Hubbie and I vegged out for a little while ,then watched the news.
Hubbie took advantage of the damp garden soil and planted some late bush beans this evening.
I continue to try to find a replacement manifold for the one he tore up yesterday on the tractor but so far no luck.

Tonight is doggy grooming night and Bernie and Dolly are headed for haircuts and baths.
After the dog grooming chores I watched the late news and then called it a day.
Thanking God for a day full of blessings and gratefulness to Him.
Good Night and God Bless.

GRATEFUL FRIDAY

With a busy Friday on tap and this being Hubbie's first Friday off for the summer my schedule changes will start today.
During chores today I gave all my chickens except the youngest medicated water to keep their systems running as they should and rid them of any parasites.
Hubbie and I headed up to do all the work at church this morning instead of going twice as usual.
We made it home at lunch time and then it was lawn mowing duty for Hubbie and cake baking duty for me.
Daughter has been at the realty office all morning filling out papers on her house.
G-son came over this afternoon to spend time with us so his dad could take a shower and rest.
However his rest was cut short when he had to come over and load a bush hog on to a buyers trailer.
Hubby had tried to back it up on the trailer,but the ramps flew up and knocked the muffler off the tractor leaving a large hole in the manifold. No money will be made on this sale and he could have gotten badly hurt.
Son loaded it with his skid steer easily.
We made a spaghetti supper for #1 and #2 son ,daughter and a friend of hers who stopped by and g-son.
After supper daughter, her friend and I had a nice visit. This friend from high school was daughter's college roommate and she was in her wedding just a few weeks ago.Andrea is a nurse at Mission Hospital but will be moving to Charlotte at the end of the month to join her new husband who already has a job there and she will be entering a school/work program for 2 1/2 years to become an anesthesiologist.

I iced caramel,chocolate and coconut cakes tonight. I have quite a few orders for tomorrow.
Today has been a cloudy,normal temperature 80 day. The full moon tonight was burning through the clouds.Grateful for #1 son's healing as it appears to be coming along very well and the prayers that were answered.
Good Night and God Bless.

DAUGHTER'S HOUSE OFFER ACCEPTED

Felt very blessed this morning to have maintained our power overnight through the storms. The news reports this morning are comparing the massive power outage numbers from last night's storm to 2004 hurricane Ivan's numbers. Tonight as I write this blog there are still around 20,000 homes and business's without electricity in western NC and the upstate area of SC.
Daughter and I loaded up and went to the Curb Market this morning,it sure is nice to have her here to help carry and set up.
We had a pretty good day and she got some big news while we were there. The bank accepted her offer on the 1st house she made an offer on. While I thought she would be jumping for joy she had a reserved caution about it.
It is a big deal,to buy your 1st house and she is really the first to move off our family farm.
So I understand her reservations.
But I think she has gotten a very good deal on this house and could stand to make some money on it if she decides she doesn't like living there in future years.
After market she went to meet with some house sitting clients and I did shopping for groceries and supplies. She beat me home
and was there to help unload, I'm sure gonna miss this !!!!
After Hubbie got home from work we met #2 son who hasn't seen this house to go over and look it over since we hadn't been in it in a couple months.
This is the house new in Feb. 2008.
Everything was the same, no more damage,except for a mowed over septic vent pipe.
I guess they let the grass get so high they didn't see the pipe sticking up.
She became more excited as we went through the house talking about what needed to be done and what she could do.
If I lived here I would spend a lot of time on the front porch just staring at the gorgeous view.
She is meeting the realtor early in the morning to get he paperwork started. There are several more hurdles to clear before it actually becomes a reality.

After we got home I was pretty wiped out so I layed down to rest for a few minutes and realized I hadn't eaten anything since my salad at lunch,no wonder I feel wiped out!
I got up and fixed some pop corn chicken and a cottage cheese fruit salad.
I did the evening chores and iced 6 caramel cakes tonight.
I'm still feeling a bit un-normal tonight but I think I'm just extra tired.
Thankful for a blessing filled day.
Good Night and God Bless.

NICE MORNING STORMY EVENING

Today started with usual chores on another nice cooler morning. After breakfast I baked my pound cakes and cleaned floors while they were in the ovens.
After lunch I delivered an Avon order just out the road and daughter took #1 son to Walmart with her to get him out of the house and get him some exercise.
They found me a table for the outside patio, amazingly with green cushions that match my metal furniture exactly.
This is a stock photo from Walmart's web site. It started raining before I thought about getting a picture of it in my patio.

Son seems to be doing very well,he sat for a while and visited before daughter took him home to rest before he went to church tonight.

With the cloudy skies I did weekly paperwork this afternoon before supper.
It rained and stormed pretty bad here, but no hail or high winds with the rain thankfully.
D-in-love sent a picture of hail in Asheville where she was and south of us they got terrifically high winds.
All this yellow and red stuff passed through here around 6 pm moving southeast. There was already almost 1 1/2 inches of rain in the gauge as I did chores in the rain this evening. The chickens were confused as it got dark as night at 6 when the storms passed,then it lightened up again so they didn't know whether to go to sleep or get up,poor things.
It is still raining at 9:30 tonight a good slow steady rain.

Earlier today as I looked out the back door I was happy to see this little guy.
I haven't seen him in months and thought he had met with his demise ,but here he is and he seems a bit calmer than before eating peacefully with several gray squirrels that were also cleaning up under the bird feeders.

I iced caramel,chocolate and coconut cakes tonight.
Grateful to God tonight for the blessings of today and for His continued blessings of son in his healing.
Good Night and God Bless.

SON GETS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL TODAY

The morning air felt so good today ,I did a little extra work outside before breakfast.
I started laundry and hung out a load of towels in the nice cooler sunshine.
Got a call from son saying they are releasing him from the hospital after lunch.
I cleaned house while I watched over g-son so d-in-love could go pick him up. They had to go check on a prescription for his blood thinner that he is back on and didn't get home until almost 4:00. He was hurting pretty bad and just wanted to lay down.
Daughter came home after her last day at work for a little while,she is a 10 month employee with the school system but works another month in another workers place.
She and I potted a luffa gourd she has growing while we waited on Hubbie to get home from work. They have to head back to the hospital to pick up son's medicine while I watch g-son so d-in-love can take pictures this evening.
Some friends of theirs brought supper by here for them this evening.
I knew I liked this girl with cowboy boots under her wedding gown !!! And I imagine she is a good cook also.
D-in-love came by and picked everything up after her photo shoot.
I baked cake layers tonight,but will wait until morning to bake pound cakes because of a large pound cake order I have for Thursday.
Talked to son tonight and he sounds fine. It sure is nice to have him home after only 5 days this time around.
Still praying for an uneventful recovery for him.
Thanking God tonight for the blessings of today and continuing to pray for His grace on the McGraw family in their loss.
Good Night and God Bless.

DAY 4 OF HOSPITAL VISITS AND 1981 MEMORIES

After chores and breakfast I hurried through an Avon order online before getting over to the hospital.
It feels nice outside today with temperatures only in the low 80's for a nice change. The skies are partly cloudy but it is suppose to clear off after lunch with no chance of rain.

It's funny how normally I would hate this long drive but suddenly it has become routine and doesn't seem like such a long drive anymore.I don't even have to pay attention to the Trauma Unit directions any more.


And I don't even bother looking for a parking place above ground anymore,I just drive straight down into the parking deck. Today I parked ,walked up the stairs and walked right past the car that was in front of me still circling trying to find a space to park on top.
Son is doing very well today , his hemoglobin is starting to come up,it was 8.8 this morning. Unhooked from the IV fluid he has walked around the halls on his crutches and has a machine to bend his knee that he gets in 6-8 hours a day now. He is ready to get out of the hospital tomorrow though.
Our neighbor and son's friend's father who had the problems after surgery died this afternoon after having a massive stroke last night. It was very sad, son's friend came up and sat in his room this evening and told him about it. Please offer prayers for this family. He was only 58 years old.
I came home and did some yard work this afternoon.
Daughter came in and said she got out bid on the condo, but now has renewed her bid on the original house she made an offer on.
Tomorrow is her last day of work this school year.
Her and Hubbie went over to have supper with son tonight.
Just as they were leaving a deputy ran into the ditch at our driveway ,tearing his patrol car up but not hitting anything but the end of the culvert. Thankfully he didn't hit anyone coming in the opposite direction.He said he looked down at his radio and ran off the road.
I waked this evening and watered all my potted plants since we haven't had any rain to speak of since last Thursday.

Back in June of 1981 as I was carrying #1 son, Hubbie and I made a short trip to Myrtle Beach,this is where we stayed.We also spent some time at the lake in the first part of the month before my dad had to be put into the hospital.There weren't too many more days to smile about as my dad had surgery to remove some spots from his lungs and would struggle with recovery for several weeks.

As this eventful day comes to an end I ask God to be with the McGraw family as they struggled to understand why their father,husband,son was taken away and I pray that they find comfort in the Lord Jesus during this time. I pray for the young deputy that had the accident,he was very upset, may he find peace. Last but not least I pray that son will continue to heal and that God will bless him with patience and comfort during recovery.
Good night and God Bless.