Joyous Tomorrows

I haven't written about the death of my sweet husband.  My heart has been heavy in that area since 9:00 am on December 23, 2008. The 22nd had been a busy time. Children coming in and out of the house to visit with their dad because we all knew that time for him was getting shorter by the day. I had cleansed his wounds, and tucked him in, then I had lain down on the sofa next to him to rest.  I apparently fell fast asleep, because I was awakened by my son and his wife as they prepared breakfast in the kitchen.  I sat up and immediately noticed that Ned wasn't breathing right.  I ran over to the side of the bed, and saw his oxygen had slipped off.  I quickly put it back on, but he wasn't responsive to my touch or to my calling his name.  I could tell he was in a Cheyne-Stokes breathing pattern.  I called to my children and then reached for my phone to call the Hospice team that he was dying.  While I was on the phone, he took his last breath with my son holding his hand an

Aine urged us to go through our photos for the last 10 years and create a post using the photos for the past 10 years. I am in a world of hurt.  When my children left home, I sent the bulk of pictures of them with them.  After that along came digital cameras (love them) BUT I had saved all my pictures, organized beautifully, on my external hard drive so I would not lose any... Guess what, computer is fine... external is in the shop, with prayers. Since my picture capacity is low, I (this is with a wink) decided to have a historical reenactment of Christmas's past.  Last year (repeat "last year") I purchased some awesome Christmas fabric with the goal in mind to make pillow cases for all my grandchildren for the following Christmas. Do you think I actually followed through with that?  You are right... I did not.  So on Thursday (3 days ago) I got my fabric out, and began my marathon to finish my pillowcases in time to mail them with in 3 days. I have finish 5 of 2

Aine at Blue Raspberry Sunday  gave the prompt writing about a talent that you or an ancestor had.  Since I am trying to write my stories for my family about me, it will be a talent I have.  A talent I have been blessed with would be called God given.  I did nothing to develop it, it is just me. I was blessed with the talent of looking outward and caring for others.  Looking back one incident that stands out to me, probably not the first time I had done, but a memorable experience; was when my mother caught the hillside on fire. We live halfway up a sizable hill, not a mountain, but definitely could wind you if you walked up it.  (Side note:  Rocky Mountain states say Oklahoma mountains are hills. J )  In the 1950s, people burned their trash in the country.  My dad, to be safe, had a 50 gallon barrel with a mesh wire top to keep the fire contained.  This day, my mom had lifted the lid to add some paper to what she was already burning and the wind caught something loose in the

When I first began my genealogy blog Branching Out Through The Years , my purpose was to preserve the memories of my husband known on the blog as "The Hero"for our grandchildren.  He really wanted to know them and wanted them to know him.  His choice was taken from him by cancer. The Hero and I with oldest daughter's first son. After that, I decided to write the stories of my associations with my relatives, aunts, uncles, grandparents for my children and grandchildren because for the most part they never met or really knew any of them.  This grew to posts about ancestors I wanted to know about and sharing findings with those who were also interested. When I started on my mother-in-law's family, it was very exciting for her.  She shared her personal stories.  Many times I sat on the floor at her feet and wrote down as she told me.  My sister-in-law also had her write down her personal history so now we have it in her writing.  There is something special a

Not only is this a hard prompt, it is being addressed late. Oh, my. Without a doubt, my biggest mistake in life was in a sequence. I never took to time to learn to organize my household.  I let circumstances rule me, not the other way around. Don't get me wrong, I love organization. When I was a work, everything was in its place and there was a place for everything.  Of course, I kept things simple. At home, oh my, a totally different story.  I did have things kind of organized, if you call a place for cloth in boxes, and crates for piles of papers (yes, if you are a genealogy friend, I am a pile organizer). There were book shelves, and when the books were on the shelves they were organized to subjects. The big problem was I spent more time going out and helping people, spending time doing things with my children, and helping my husband, as well as working, than I did on keeping a clean organized house.  This was a big mistake. My husband would have been much happ

My Halloween Ghost, True Story.  J Once there was a ghost who lived in a house in Edmond, Oklahoma.   The little girl there saw him in her closet. A dark headed man who just hung around her room. At night she was careful to cover her head so just her nose stuck out.  He couldn’t touch her then.  This was because one night, she woke up and something was holding her hand.  Weird.  She knew he meant her no harm so she just kept an eye out for him.                 She knew when he was around because she felt ... someone watching her. When she had grown up and went away to college, her parents found her portrait off the wall, sitting on the floor facing the wall.  She was missed, or he was ticked she had left. The house is gone, a big warehouse sits there now, wonder where the ghost went, if he found peace. The legend was,  he was a man found who had hung himself in the chicken house when the area was a farm. The End J

Looks like joining the meme   Blue Raspberry Sundays  is getting me back blogging. Would love to have you join in. Today prompt is Homecoming memories and or other Fall Traditions. This one is again, a personal story.  My daughter and her sweet boyfriend were going to her homecoming.  She was a twirler so it was important to go. He lived about 30 miles away and drove and old green Valiant (that has some funny stories in itself).  I knew the long distant challenges, and that he was preparing to go on a church mission, so I took pity on them and said I would make the mum corsage.  Before coming to Texas, I had never seen this tradition, but had worked as a school nurse at the High School for 8 years, thus I was prepared. I went down to the local Michael's and stocked up on the materials I needed.  It took 2 weeks to get it all assembled and just to her liking.  I think it turned out great.  She kept it for a long time, but many moves made it impractical to keep. We thought th

My daughter has started back blogging and has new meme to get us to share our stories with family and friends.  The old meme was Sharing a Slice of Life. This meme is Blue Raspberry Sundays  follow along and even better join in. Now, to the subject matter. My favorite candy is,  chocolate covered cherries, especially Dark Chocolate covered cherries.   I am not sure my children remember the depth of my Hero's love for me regarding chocolate covered cherries. When I was expecting my first child, I was a transplanted Okie.  In Oklahoma, I had grown up getting the candy at any store.  It was the most wonderful candy bar imaginable. It was called "Cherry Humps".  I loved the taste, texture, and mmmm the cherry in the middle.   I would let it slowly dissolve in my mouth and slide down the esophagus.  Yeah... I really loved that candy bar.  Here I was expecting, and most desirous of having a Cherry Hump candy bar.   I was told it was too hot in Texas, so they onl

As we move toward Independence day I thought this was an apt quote...  “Patriotism,” said Theodore Roosevelt, “means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. … “Every man,” said President Roosevelt, “who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.” (Theodore Roosevelt, Works, vol. 21, pp. 316, 321.) And yet we should pray for our civic leaders and encourage them in righteousness Depicts the first battle of two of my ancestors and  a quote of Lemuel Roberts who wrote his Revolutionary War memoirs

A little fun for you, my grandson and granddaughter chose a gift for their uncle that gave them a giggle.  Hope you get a giggle out of it too. Of course after walking through the store with the 2 year old pushing the button ever time it stopped, her teenage brother was ready to squash the toy, sister, and grandma. Big brother in Cap.  Littler sister in arms I hope to finish some important projects from last year. I need to learn when to stop adding and just get the job done.  Sigh. Saying this very quietly, I am hoping to have spring time at home this year.  My daughter keeps talking about me moving into town, but I have to say, I love the country and how there isn't anyone dictating how I should live.  I know not so good for the property values, but then who is to say the people who live down the street in a trailer and own their land, isn't as good as the person living in a half a million dollar home in town and still owes most of their mortgage.