The Wearing of the Green

Since I was coming to Savannah to keep the grands this weekend, I decided to drive over a day early so that Walker, Katie and I could take in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  Savannah has one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the country.

It was a gorgeous day, and we found our place along the curb just before the parade started.

The bagpipe bands were quite colorful.

But they were also quite loud.  It’s a good thing Walker brought his earplugs.

There were lots of colorful floats.

And even the Budweiser Clydesdales, which were followed by several people with large pooper scoopers.

But Walker was especially thrilled with the Piggly Wiggly float with its giant pig.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

You know what they say about imitation?  Well, consider me flattered.

Back in January, I received an email from Dawn, who is the room mother for her daughter's second grade class in Tampa.  As a fund raiser, the students were going to make beverage tubs to sell.  When Dawn started doing some research on the internet in hopes of finding something more than simply decoupage pictures on the side of a bucket, she came across my blog post about my galvanized beverage chillers.  You can read it HERE.

With a little adult supervision, Dawn thought this might be a good project for her daughter's class.  She emailed me for more details, and I told her where I had purchased all of my materials, and approximately how much she could expect to spend.  I asked her to send me photos of the completed tubs, and yesterday they arrived in my inbox.

"My local Home Depot was so incredible," Dawn wrote, "and they actually drilled the holes in the tub for me.  I can play a real good 'damsel in distress'."

Remember Shrinky Dinks?  Dawn had the children make Shrinky Dink beads personalized with their names to incorporate into the project.  I see endless possibilities with this clever idea.

Thanks for sharing, Dawn.  It's always nice to see what others can do with your ideas.

Mathematics 101 - Fractions

This is my grandson, Walker. He’s three-years-old, pushing four in a couple of months.

This morning his mother, Katie, made muffins, and Walker enjoyed several.  In fact he liked them so much that after his nap he asked for another, and was terribly disappointed when Katie reminded him that he had already consumed lots of muffins.

After much pleading by Walker, Katie told him that he could have half a muffin.

Walker thought about that for a minute and then asked, “Can I have two halves?”

Since grandchildren are about my most favorite things, especially when they are so smart and clever, I thought I'd link up with Laurie, who's hosting "Favorite Things Saturday."  Be sure to check it out.

Lucy's First Birthday

LBeau and I traveled to Harrison, Arkansas, this past weekend to celebrate Lucy's first birthday with Lucy, Ben and Claire and Claire's family.  Lucy turned one on Friday, but we saved the party for Saturday, which was also Claire's brother Adam's 19th birthday.

Claire spent Saturday morning making birthday cakes—a pistachio cake for the adults, a banana "smash" cake for Lucy and a brownie cake for Adam.

Claire's sister Caroline helped Claire choose photos from each month of Lucy's first year.  These were mounted and hung on the dining room chandelier.

After lunch it was time to celebrate.  Lucy briefly donned the Party Princess hat.

But Adam absolutely refused to wear it.

Lucy got lots of cute clothes, including these cool new shoes.

But the most fun was eating the "smash" cake…

…and sitting in her brand new chair.

You're Not Getting Any Younger

I've had lots of reminders lately that time is marching on.  The first came back in January when I visited the orthopedic surgeon to have my sutures removed.  When I asked Greg, the physician's assistant, about the repair of the meniscus tear that they had found, he remarked, "Oh at your age we don't repair them; we just clean them up."

I looked at my friend Glenda and said, "Well I guess I'm just too old to fix."

Shortly after that, I began to correspond via email with a cousin in Virginia who is updating the Belin family tree.  He needed some help filling in the gaps.  My maternal grandmother, Mary Belle Belin Reynolds, grew up in Warren, Arkansas, and is shown below with her siblings.

When I started working on information for my part of the family, I realized that since his last update we've added 15 members of a new generation to the line.  This is Ty.  Born in January, he's number 14.  Later in January Marion, named for my mother, arrived, and number 16 is already on the way.

As if that was not enough hint that I'm not as young as I used to be, my friend Danny began posting pictures on Facebook of our hometown, Camden, Arkansas.   This photo of the Tastee-Freez prompted a lengthy discussion of our Friday and Saturday night routine—circle the Tastee-Freez and the Duck Inn, and head back to Teen Town for more dancing to those 1960's 45's.

Meanwhile, Roy, our class president, circulated one of those email quizzes to see how much we remembered.  You know, questions like "What builds strong bodies 12 ways?"  I got a perfect score.

That prompted Jack to post some pictures from a 1958 Christmas dance.  We were 12 years old and in seventh grade, that awkward age where most of the girls are taller than the boys.  I was not one of them—awkward, yes (my mother had blessed me with an awful home perm), but taller, no.

Joy and Jack (dancing), and Nancy (seated with the corsage) were our hosts.  The dance was held at the Supervisor's Club, which was also the venue for our 45th class reunion several years ago.

So yes, I'm getting older, but it surely is fun to look back and remember the good times.  I'm already looking forward to more good times to come.

Valentine Cuties!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  In honor of this day that honors love, I thought I'd share this family photo of my brother Tommy and my cousins Mary Lynn and Ruth Ann.

This picture was made sometime in the mid 1950's by Ben Bracken, who was the photographer (the only professional photographer, in fact) in Camden, Arkansas.  As I recall, it was for some kind of feature article that was published in the Camden News.

I've spent a lot of time lately looking at old photos from my hometown, thanks to my friend Danny.  More on that later as I try to get inspired to start blogging more frequently again.

Meanwhile, hope you get flowers or a heart-shaped box of chocolate candy or at least a card from your sweetie.

Exceedingly Blessed

Just after Thanksgiving an MRI revealed a mass behind my right knee.  This was not news that I was prepared to hear when I finally scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon at the urging of my friends.  A torn meniscus perhaps, or maybe just arthritis, but not a tumor.

The good news—Dr. Sorrell was 99.99% certain it was benign.  The bad news—to get to it, he would need to make a jagged 6 inch incision behind my knee.  Recovery would take about six weeks.  So how soon did I need to schedule surgery?  After all, I had things to do and places to go.

Destin for New Years…

…and New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.

So I scheduled surgery for Thursday, January 13 (at least it wasn’t Friday the 13th).

When Dr. Sorrell came to see me in pre-op, he said that he had been studying my MRI and thought it was worth trying an arthroscopic procedure before opening up the back of my leg.  If it didn’t work, they would flip me over and proceed as originally planned.  I agreed.

What a great feeling to wake up hearing one nurse tell another that I had had an arthroscopic procedure.  The difference in recovery will be huge!!  Instead of the mark of Zorro on the back of my leg, I have three holes in the center of my knee and one on the side.

My friends have been wonderful.  Glenda sat with LBeau during surgery, took my prescriptions to be filled and stayed until supper time.  She came back the next day to keep me company while LBeau went to work and helped me remove the dressing on Saturday.  She’s also become my designated driver.  Yesterday we visited one of my job sites, and today she’s taking me for my first physical therapy appointment.

We’ve had delicious meals every night, furnished by my Bible study friends and my P.E.O. sisters.  When they see me walking around (I’ve been weight bearing since the first day), they probably wonder why I need such service, but believe me, it would be difficult getting to the grocery store and being on my feet long enough to prepare dinner.

So I am exceedingly blessed.  And one more thing.  You can’t begin to know how much it means to tell someone you’re praying for them, until it’s you they’re praying for.  Thanks everyone!!