It’s ALL ABOUT ME!

Happy Birthday to the BEST FATHER IN THE WORLD!!!

The Event of the Century kicks off in 3 weeks and 2 days. Jennifer and I have been busy, busy, busy getting ready for her wedding and we are almost there! We have her dress, shoes, jewelry, my dress (finally!), shoes; we have the photographer all lined up; the cake ordered; the music selected; the centerpieces for the reception ready (almost); and the tuxedos selected. I think we’ve done most of the work!

Her best friend threw her a lingerie shower last weekend and we had great fun. A lot of family (Hi Gay, Jessica, Gram, Kay, Kelly!!!) and friends came to shower Jennifer with love and good wishes. This weekend Gram and Pop are giving her a BBQ dinner party, and in 2 weeks, Kay and Kelly are throwing her a bridal shower. What fun! Summer and Bryn will arrive in a couple of weeks and I cannot wait. I just wish they could have been here for the shower fun. Jimmy, Wendy, Sue, Caitlin, and Russell will arrive just before the wedding. I wish they could have all been here for the party fun too, but I understand. Plus, Caitlin has been enjoying some time out of the country.

T minus 3 weeks, 2 days…. AND COUNTING!

Almost 2 weeks ago, I had a mole taken off my back. I left the doctor’s office that day with instructions to keep the area clean and to return in 10-14 days to have the stitches removed. In the last few days, those stitches have driven me crazy. I’ve been so ready to have them removed that tonight I asked Jim to pull them out. I found some small scissors and my tweezers, all of which I sterilized. Jim took a good look and decided that he couldn’t see well enough to yank the threads, so I called in Jennifer. Jennifer who was going to be a nurse until she realized she didn’t like blood and guts. Jennifer who got woozy when I shoved an earring through the almost-completely-grown-up piercing in her ear.

She looked at my back and said that she would try and that if it made her sick she would just do it with her eyes closed! She is too funny! Actually, she came through like a trooper and pulled 4 of the 5 stitches. She agonized over the 5th stitch claiming that the skin had grown over the stitch and that she didn’t think she could take it out. I encouraged her telling her that she could take it out because I was not going to the doctor with 4 stitches removed and asking them to remove the 5th! How funny would that be! Finally she got the stitch out and I was FREE of the irritating things.

Now I must remember to cancel my appointment with the doctor.

It’s been many long years since we’ve had a central air unit that worked properly. So far, it’s been a HOT summer without air. Now we have a new unit! A 3 ton. 14 SEER. I’m in heaven! The installation has taken all week and is almost complete. We have air, but the finishing touches (another return, 2 more room ducts, finishing touches) will be done on Monday. But — WE HAVE AIR!!!!

Kay, Kelly, Jennifer and Kelly were at the Huntsville Air Show when the storm hit. Actually, Jennifer saw a cloud-to-ground lightning strike and insisted that she and Kelly leave. They made it out just before the storm.

Jennifer and Kelly are trying to raise money for their honeymoon. What better way to raise money than a yard sale? You go through your house, pull out unwanted items, spend a week pricing them, put them out in your yard, and attempt to make your “trash” another person’s “treasure.” Sounds easy enough, right? Jennifer and I worked for an entire week going through every nook and cranny of the house looking for “treasures.” What we found, combined with items from Kelly’s house and Kelly’s mother’s house, gave us plenty of yard sale items. Maybe our items were not “prime” sale items (prime being anything baby oriented), but they were nice.

Last Saturday morning we got up at 4:00 a.m. and carefully arranged all our marketable merchandise. Kelly and Jennifer went around the neighborhood and put up the obligatory signs. Then our sale opened — with little fanfare and no customers. And it went downhill from there! I’ve had yard sales before, but that was the worst one I’ve ever had. Jennifer and I talked it over and decided that our lack of customers must have been a combination of location and the holiday weekend. During the previous week while we pulled out and priced items, we repeated over and over that after the yard sale everything left was going to charity. That quickly changed. Realizing our lack of sales and knowing that we had good items to sale, we decided to try one more time.

Kay was nice enough to offer up her house for our next yard sale attempt. She lives in the city at what we thought was a prime location. Once again, one week after our sucky yard sale, we got up at 4 am and put out our merchandise. This time, we said, everything left really was going to charity. Our sale opened at 7 a.m., and at 6:30 a.m., customers started coming in. We had a tremendous start and it went uphill from there. During the entire day, from 6:30 to noon, we had a steady stream of customers. There were never fewer than 5 customers at a time from 6:30 to 11:30. Things slowed down a bit at 11:30 and we closed things down at noon.

We did end up giving away a lot of stuff in the end because we had some customers who came after the sale had closed and we offered them anything they wanted for free. All of our leftovers, save 3 boxes, were given away and we only had to carry off the 3 remaining boxes. All in all, it was a wonderful day!

Our first yard sale netted 125.00. Today’s gross take was right at 400.00. Kenny and Kendrick had some items in the sale, around 65.00. Jennifer and Kelly’s take was right at 340.00. Was it worth all the work? Absolutely! Am I having another yard sale anytime soon? NEVER!

I was talking to Daddy tonight and he told me, as he had in times past, of hitchhiking home from Auburn. When he wanted to go home, he would hitch from Auburn to Berry - a distance of about 225 miles. These days, we cannot even fathom hitchhiking. It goes against everything we’ve been taught. “If you hitch, only bad things will happen to you.” So it takes some real thought to imagine your parent doing just that 50 odd years ago. Daddy told me about this one particular trip where he got a ride from Auburn to Montgomery (with a “real nice lady”) rather easily and a ride from Auburn to Prattville just as easily. He said in Prattville he waited for hours for the next kindly stranger. Three or possibly four hours. When he found a ride, it was only to Tuscaloser. Once in Tuscaloser, he called his Daddy who, along with his uncle, came to pick him up. Daddy got home late on a Friday night and had to leave early on Sunday morning to catch the bus back home. Why come home for such a short time? In a nutshell, because he was homesick!

I asked why he didn’t hitch back, and he said that he just rode the bus. I suggested that maybe he took the bus because his parents gave him money and he agreed that it was probably the answer. We talked about him going to Auburn and how his parents afforded to send 4 children to school on a minister’s salary. He says that to this day he still doesn’t know how they afforded it, but they did. They paid tuition, room, and board. Room and board in the dorm at that time was 145.50! And that included three meals a day! WOW how things have changed!

I love the talks I have with Daddy. I must get back over there and have more garden time, as we have great “garden talks!”

I sure miss you.

Christopher left this morning at 4:15 a.m. on his way to Texas. We enabled Verizon’s “Chaperone” service which allows a parent to track a child via the GPS locator in the child’s phone. It worked very well. Jimmy and I tracked him from my house to his destination and mapped his progress along the way on a Google map for Kay, Sue, and Grandpa to monitor. Kay said “gee, you could really stalk someone like this” and Jimmy named the map “Stalking Chris.” We had great fun watching him all day (even seeing his MPH) and being sure he arrived safely. He made the trip in record time: 11 hours and 45 minutes.