The Story of My Life

Hello and welcome. They say home is where the heart is- well I discovered that some of my heart remains here. This land has been in my maternal grandfather's family for, well back to my great-great grandfather's time. In fact, this house sat at the back of the acres that I spent an amazing day exploring. My grandfather is one of the lads on the front porch of this house, which sat above the creek and the family mill. HIS grandfather is the oldest man in the black suit and hat. His father is somewhere in the porch shadows. Not sure if the house was crooked or the photographer was drunk, but a very cool picture indeed. Zooming in when I scanned it at high resolution affords many heart warming details of the life they lived. The land remains with a very special couple who have made the place a country paradise. I call her Aunt Mary George. Technically, she is not my aunt. But in the South, does that matter? She is a cousin to my grandfather, I believe, but they all grew up to...

With the passing of my MawMaw, I finished up the series of photographs I had been working on. I have been working on some final touches tonight.I am going to have a canvas done of each of these to hang on my walls in my family/antique room. Each of my grandparents and even a great-grandparent are represented with something cherished. What do ya think?

I am really not sure how to begin the tale of Baby Girl's 5th birthday party. We had it at home and her only request was a pinata. Her Daddy got up really early the day of the party and went to a Mexican grocery store to have a good selection and get a "good one". There are lots of pertinent facts from here on in the story. ** It was one of those days when the temperature was in the teens and the high below freezing. **The year prior we had a pinata that you pull strings out of to win. She wanted a real one to hit. Daddy held it last year and the sweet little darlings pulled the strings until all the loot fell out. ***After the helpful employees at the Hispanic American grocery got the...and I quote....Gringo...a pinata down from the huge selection, he happily brought it home where we filled it with bags and bags of treats for the children. Now, you have just read about my family's tendencies to do things that are somewhat out of the ordinary and, well stupid. So I h...

The winner of the family's STOOPIDIST things contest is (drum roll please......) MY SISTER..... she is the old one in the pic above.....looks good to be kinda dumb, doesn't she....!) For catching a bag of fireworks on fire in the floorboard of her car at a GAS STATION and throwing it OUT THE WINDOW!!!!!. A close second goes to: My MOTHER for running through a beauty shop wall and window while driving with a PINK cast on her foot. MY AUNT J for leaving her car running in the garage for 4 hours which ties with MY UNCLE C losing HIS car in the Brookwood Medical Center Parking Garage for over 5 hours. An honorable mention goes to- ME for locking myself out in a nightie and breaking a window with my BARE hand to get in Several votes were cast for the CURLING IRON TONGUE test....which, I admit was me also--when I was a stoopid teenager MY MOTHER once again for being a human trash compactor. Thanks for all the votes and comments on our family's lack of intelligence. I will be cre...

My grandmother lived the longest, fullest, healthiest, happiest life of anyone I have ever know. What a legacy she left to all of us. I never saw her without a smile on her face and something to do with her day. I am sure the smile on her face is huge today as she looks down on her 4 kids, 11 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren. We celebrated her 95th birthday with her several months ago. Today, we celebrate her life.

We spent a few days in my home town. The kids wanted to spend every night with their favorite Aunt GL. And MY favorite aunt cooked dumplings and homemade puddings. I hung out with Em a few days and we ignored all the kids, played on the computer, and ate chocolate. We had a great time at my brother's house on Christmas Eve Day. Played games, ate and enjoyed each other's company....and of course, opened gifts. We all just hung out the entire day together and then we returned to our house for a visit from Santa. The children were so blessed with many wonderful gifts- but the best part of Christmas is sharing the true meaning with those you love.

I love the Christmas season. Here is a quick recap of ours....And is was Wonderful. We began with the fudge-making and Gran Spending the night . We participated in AND LOST the Helena Christmas gnome hunt ...but had fun doing it. That's all that matters, right. RIGHT??? Congratulations Bama Belle !!! We then went to PawPaw's farm for an evening with the family at his and Nanny's place. Her tree is always picture perfect and my Dad, thank goodness, had gall bladder surgery and was medicated during the 2 days it took her to get the beads measured to the exact inch and straight. Just kidding, of course, but it is beautiful and my Dad does indeed make fun of her usually. My sister bought my brother's son a drum set. Pretty funny.... only because it was not my child's to take home. We began our Chanukah celebrations on Sunday the 21st. My Yankee Boy's father's family was Jewish and he grew up in Hebrew school until they kicked him out. We have lots of hi...

I have many wonderful tales of our Christmas gathering and fun! Here are just a couple of snapshots for today. I will share more stories, pictures and family fun later! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Very Happy New Year!

Fantasy Fudge We made this every Christmas growing up and it is my favorite Christmas food. My Mom visited and we created the magic for my kids! Um, you think this is a sweet enough recipe???? Wait. A Recipe????? On MY BLOG??????? Hershey's Kisses Fantasy Fudge Combine : 5 cups sugar, 2 sticks of butter 1 large can of PET milk. (Try not to add sugar to a candle in the process. ) Boil and stir like crazy for 5 minutes. Reduce heat. Stir in 1 large jar of marshmallow creme . (Stir. Stir. Stir. Watch your heat or you will end up with chocolate bubble gum. Trust me on that one.) Stir in 1 and 1/2 lbs, YES POUNDS of Hershey's kisses . Stir Oh yes, it takes awhile to unwrap all of them. Stir and stir and stir some more. That is why it is a family recipe. You all have to stir. Add 1 tsp. of vanilla at the end and stir just a little more. Pour in a buttered 9X13 pyrex pan and refrigerate for several hours. OMG!!!!The creamiest, richest fudge you have EVER eaten. No calories, ...

I love this time of year! I have been trying to teach my children Christmas carols and remind them the reason for the season- Jesus' birth. I am trying to teach them about giving and not just wanting and getting. We attended a Christmas play at CCB church this weekend. Any child who wanted to participate had a time to arrive for a fitting for a chosen costume and participate. Kinda an impromptu Christmas play! A few older kids had the parts that told the story from the animals' point of view and the other kids were ALL the animals. Baby girl was all about it. Little man, not so much. He dressed in his stylin' new clothes and said he would "look" at the costumes to see the choices but would rather just watch his sister. I said that was fine and just wanted us to all go as a family to celebrate Christmas together, secretly wanting my little man to still be my baby boy and be in the play. We arrived and Baby girl chose a cute little bunny costume with ears and t...

My Mom's yard over Thanksgiving was so wonderful. We had fresh lemons, satsumas, grapefruit, oranges. They even have a blueberry patch! Ah, coastal living. One of the many perks: Fresh fruit year round. The children loved picking fruit right off the tree and eating it. We had to monitor them because picking was so much fun that they may have raided the crops if we had not!