It’s ALL ABOUT ME!

On the way home from Jennifer’s house, Kendrick and I stopped for a visit with relatives. Mother’s first cousin, Myra, and her husband, Charles, live in Gardendale. Myra and Mother were good friends when they were growing up. Granny and Myra’s father were siblings. I took a photo album of Mother’s with me, and Myra and Charles identified many of the folks in the photos. It was a great visit, and I learned a lot about Mother! I intend to write about it, but I’m not sure when. I plan to stop and visit Myra and Charles more often. It seems we have more cousins (Mrya’s sister) in Decatur and maybe we can all get together soon.

Myra, Charles, and I visit while Wilson stands guard:

Charles tries to make friends with Wilson:

Kendrick entertains himself with the camera while I visit:

I’m spending another weekend with Jennifer in that town that shall remain nameless. Kendrick came with me and I couldn’t be happier! We left yesterday afternoon after I picked him up from school. We drove straight through (a big 2 hours) and got to Jennifer’s house around 6:00. Kendrick is a great traveler and we’ve been having a great time. Well, except when we went to the mall. To say Kendrick doesn’t like to shop is an understatement! Last night we went out to eat at McAllister’s. Tonight Jennifer cooked us some spaghetti. It was wonderful. Here are some pictures of the weekend so far:

The beginning of the trip:

After we got back from McAllister’s last night, Kelly and Kendrick bonded:

Kendrick enjoys a fruit roll-up in the car on the way to the mall:

Kendrick and Jennifer in the mall:

Jennifer plays with Sadie and Wilson in Kelly’s back yard:

Kendrick and Kelly hang out at Kelly’s house:

Kendrick and Kelly discuss things at Jennifer’s apartment after dinner tonight:

We played a couple of games tonight including “Loaded Questions” (fun!) and “Uno”.

Kendrick hold a staring contest with Sadie. Sadie won when she barked and scared Kendrick silly!

I’m really glad Kendrick came with me!!! He’s loads of fun!

Here’s a side note: This is a picture I took of Jennifer (thanks, smarty Jess!) in Kelly’s back yard. I think it turned out pretty good!

The entire time I was at Sue’s house, the thought that I would have to take down my Christmas decorations when I got home lurked in the back of my mind. I absolutely dreaded it. How cruel is it to have to do all the Chrismas work and then have to take down all the decorations and put them away? I accepted that it had to be done and that I would be the one to do it.

After driving 13 hours home from Sue’s house, I was exhausted. That’s an understatement! There’s not even a word strong enough to describe how tired I was! When I arrived home, tired and edgy, I noticed that the outside Christmas lights were not on. When I went in the house, the first thing I saw was the empty place where the tree once stood. I glanced around the house, at first not believing my own eyes. Every hint of Christmas was gone. All put away. How did this happen? Did little elves come in while I was away and perform this daunting task? Did Santa himself come back and give me a late Christmas gift? No…. my own beautiful, sweet daughter took everything down, boxed it all up, and put it away. Jim helped her with the outside decorations, but I’m sure he was inspired by her. After thanking her profusely, she told me that she wasn’t sure if she put everything back in it’s proper box. I told her I didn’t care if anything was in it’s ‘proper’ place or not — I was so thrilled that she did me this huge favor.

I’ve been meaning to blog this thank-you to Jennifer since that beautiful evening when I returned home as a weary traveler, to see that someone cared enough about me to help me out. Not until last night when I was telling a friend of my wonderful surprise did I remember to blog this. So here it is! Thank you so much, Jennifer! You have no idea how you lightened my load in the post-Christmas days!!!

Per Kay (and CNN), there is great news for The Brick (aka Wilson):

Doggy Diet Drug Approved!

I was perusing Ebay tonight looking for something interesting. Sometimes Sue and I browse together and get a kick out of some of the descriptions. We have one favorite seller that describes things like “gnarly ‘ole” and “funky” and “icky”. We get a real kick out of him (her?). Anyway, tonight I was looking by myself since it was late and I figured Sue was asleep. I found something that brought back awesome memories from my childhood and hopefully from the sibs’ childhoods….. anyone?

The holidays and my time off work were great. We had a great Christmas, a good trip to Sue’s house, and a Happy New Year. There are many things I think about that I’d like to blog — but when I sit down to actually write, nothing comes to me! I got a new digital camera (very small to fit into my purse) and I love it! Jim is making me a shoe shelf in the closet and it’s wonderful. Most of my shoes all lined up on little shelves ready for use.. If this side works out good, he’s going to build one on the other side of the closet. I got rid of about 4 pairs of shoes going through my shoes. I guess I should get rid of more, but we’ll see. When I get my camera hooked up to the computer, I’ll take a picture of the shoe shelf and blog it.

Oh well — maybe I’ll remember all the cool things I intend to blog!