Wordless Wednesday-"Wynona" Judd or Ryder?

Home Schooling and Counted Cross Stitching

I used to love to cross stitch. I haven't done it in years, not since my children were young. Melissa in NZ and Nin are inspiring me to get busy and do some sewing again. I used to sew my daughters and my dresses, all matching of course! That was back in the day. I cross stitched this little Precious Moments boy and girl when I was pregnant with my first child.

I loved these blocks and wooden toys and books as much as my children did.

The Complete Tales of Beatrice Potter, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Little House on the Prairie, and Little Visits with God. We had so many good books. I used Ramalda Spaulding's Writing Road to Reading and Saxon Math and Cuisinart rods and Christian Liberty Academy History and Language. And so much more...

These were good times.

God put a smile upon my face

Laughter does good like a medicine!

My Bathroom Haven

My bathroom haven from Junebug57 on Vimeo.

Fun Monday

Candid Karina and her lovely little Meez self would like to know what your security blanket is, what you can't leave home without, and we're not talking about Mastercard.

Ok. You see these sunglasses? I can't leave home without them, not at all, have to, absolutely have to have them, even in the shade I still get glare. Ever since I had lasik eye surgery, my eyes have drastically needed protection from the sun. Sometimes I have had to put two pairs on when I am driving into the sun, I just can't find a pair dark enough. I need some illegal shades, do they make them? I also need my lipstick. It is Clinque Black Honey at the moment. Must have it. And where would I be without my purse? I'd be at home with it. Seriously. If I have to narrow it down, my wallet might suffice, but I would be feeling deprived.

Award

I posted my picture of the moon so you could laugh at it.
Not exactly a close up but it did turn out kind of eerie.

I received this little award from Sandy which originally came from Hootin'Anni. It is meant to be paid forward, but I really would choose Sandy again if I could, but instead I will choose to give this treat to: Pamela @ The Dust Will Wait. She has been very kind to me and all comments to others that I read. I send another treat to: TJ @ humble origins. She is another wonderful lady with kind words.

My Dad, My Hero

After being in the hospital six weeks my dad passed away early one morning after he started bleeding internally and receiving and losing blood as fast as they could give it to him. He finally stopped bleeding, but his heart rate and blood pressure went down to something like 20/30 and his heart finally stopped. We had made the decision that they were to do everything to save him except if his heart stopped, they were not to resusitate. You should have seen the condition he was in, he had a surgery that wouldn't heal. He was cut open from his sternum down to his belly button. He had to have part of his stomach removed to stop the bleeding that an ulcer was causing. He'd had these ulcers for years. He had been being treated for a malignant melanoma on his arm before he ever went to the emergency room with his bleeding ulcers. He couldn't keep anything down in his stomach. He was losing weight. His wife (my step-mom) had passed away less than a year ago. He had so many machines and tubes hooked up to him. I left the hospital once to go get something to eat and came back and they said, "where were you? We were looking for you. We had to put your dad on a ventilator." At least I wasn't there to make that decision, it was made for me. They started asking several times after this, "How much farther do you want to go?" They had to put my dad into a drug induced coma because he was in such pain. I wondered as he lay there just how bad it was for him to be absolutely out of control. I wondered if he was still in pain, if he was crying out to be released, to be taken home. I wondered if he could hear us as we were talking in his room, joining hands around him and praying for him. I wondered if he wanted us to continue or let him go. I told him it was alright if he went. The last thing he said to me before he went into his coma was, "You know that I love you." And I said, "Yes, Daddy, I know that you love me and I love you." At the end when they took him off his pain medications to see if he could wake up and function again because this was an up and down process where they thought one day he was 10% chance of survival to maybe he's gonna make it, don't give up! We lived 5 hours away from him so I couldn't be there all the time, but I came every week for a few days and nights. But at the last one nurse told me that he was getting a response out of him, he would open his mouth to let him swab it out. I wanted to be there to see this and I got to. The nurse said, "Claude, open your mouth so I can clean it." He opened his mouth. Now the most excellent thing about this is that means that he could hear everything that was being said.

Jim Croce - Time In A Bottle 1972

I loved this when I was sixteen. I played this song on the piano for a friend at her wedding in 1975.

Dear God, Please Bring my Daddy Home Safely

Dad on his horse

Dad as a electrician

Dad as a father walking his daughter down the aisle
I looked scared and Dad was saying,"Keep that dress
away from my feet!"

Dad and his Ford tractor

Yesterday I saw an old friend of my dad's at the grocery store. We were in the same check-out line so I asked him if he knew that my dad has passed away. He said yes he did. I told him Dad had been in the hospital for six weeks and that they had given him morphine that had caused him to say some funny things. My dad had been an electrician and he thought he was working on the electricity in the hospital ceiling. He had a tv cable in his hands and was looking up at the grid ceiling thinking about fixing it. He asked my husband for tools and was telling us that if he could just get a certain man he knew to come everything would be alright. I said to my dad's friend at the store that this was funny, but this was before we knew how bad his condition was. So I guess this prompted my dad's friend to tell me what a good time he and my dad and another friend who worked with my dad had at the electric company shop. One time he said someone gave my dad a big jar of homemade whiskey. So the three of them sat at the shop in some big easy chairs that were there and passed this jar around and drank it all. He said that he got up to leave and could barely walk out through these huge double doors that you pulled trucks through. I don't even want to think about the driving that he did. So I laughed with him and told him to take care of himself as I said good-bye. After I got into my car I thought to myself I should have told him, "You guys may have been having fun, but you don't know the countless nights I lay awake in my bed praying for God to bring my Daddy safely home." I would listen every night for his pickup to pull up in our long driveway so I could finally go to sleep. We lived out in the country on a county road in a small town (the same town that I live in now). It was quiet and I could usually tell the sound of his pickup coming down the road. I had an upstairs bedroom and I would go to the bathroom window overlooking the front yard and check to make sure his vehicle was coming down the road or into the drive. He didn't always come into the house right away. He usually fell asleep out in his truck. But at least he was home. My dad quit drinking about 20 years ago but he probably drank 35 years straight before that. That's one of the reasons he didn't make it after his surgery. His liver had some cirhosis (sp?) and they couldn't get him to stop bleeding. That's one of your liver's main jobs is to stop bleeding. My dad has been gone for 3 months now on the 27th. I watched him in the hospital, his body filled with fluid twice his size that his kidneys couldn't work hard enough to get rid of. And it didn't matter to me one bit what my dad may have ever done or not done. I just wanted him to live and be well. He was my dad, just my dear old dad. It's hard to let someone go, but believe me I have many good memories of him. I love you, Daddy. I always will.

Laundry Room

As you can see I have quite colorful tastes. I will also point out the various holiday themes on my shelves. I will probably never get rid of these since I am quite the pack rat. I inherited this trait from my mother who hates to part with anything but at least she grew up in a day when you needed to save and keep things. The Frankenstein is my son's and he moves and makes noises when you turn him on. I will keep him for the memories. I love my sunny little spot. It is right next to a bathroom that has a large, deep sink for soaking items. On the opposite wall, there is a closet filled with cleaning items and the iron and ironing board on the back of a door inside the closet. On the shelf, I have a Santa Claus on a merry-go-round pony, a pool testing kit, a pair of sunglasses for mowing grass, a little bowl from Mexico that my mom gave me, candles, oil lamps, colored sand-filled animals my children made, and a green rubber brain. There are blue delft tiles that I am collecting to hang on my wall once I find something to do that with. And of course, my cobalt blue vases in the window. We have a small refrigerator to keep water bottles and gatorade in between the washer and the dryer.

Joined NaBloPoMo.com

It's National Blog Posting Month in November. You must post once a day for the whole month. I think I can do it because I seem to post every day anyway whether I have anything to say or not!

Wordless Wednesday-"Royal Gorge"

New cat in town-Marbled Bengal?

We have a new visitor to our home.
Have you ever seen a cat marked
like this? There are swirls like a
tortoise shell. I wonder what
kind of cat he is?

He is becoming more friendly
every day. I hope he stays.

Dune buggies

Our last dune buggy

Little Sahara
Does sand get in your eyes?
Yes! And every other crevice you have!

Climbing a dune

Our second buggy

Big VW motor, not stock anymore
My hubby builds every bit of it

Our first dune buggy

New paddle tires, uncut

I sewed the little cover on top!
That was my contribution.

Me and dune buggy
These were the days before children. We spent every week-end we could
going to Little Sahara, camping out. We belonged to SBOT (Sand Buggies
of Tulsa) and had lots of fun. Late 70's, early 80's.
The most beautiful and fun part of the dunes is when
you go out at midnight with a full moon and little twinkle
lights on top of your antenna and no head lights. There
are a trail of twinkle lights going to the top of the dunes
and over and all you can see is twinkle lights disappearing.
The thrill of going over the top of a dune with no backside
and flying off into the air! Such a rush! I would have dreams
about it for several nights later and could just close my eyes
and envision it all over.

Popeye the Sailor Man

Popeye
Our road trip many years ago took us through Arkansas and Missouri,
I believe this Popeye was located in Sprngdale, Arkansas.
We drove our converted van and camped out everywhere.
My husband is very talented. He put paneling and carpet
in the van and made a bed in the back. I sewed curtains
and made cushions for it out of fur. We had a little
moon roof that he installed. Oh, the talent! The
side of the van had an eagle on both sides made
out of racing stripe tape (made by hubby). If you enlarge
picture perhaps you can see it. It was irridescent. Also,
as you can see I didn't wear enough clothing, remember please
this was the middle 70's and I was not as bright as I am now!

Fun Monday

This week's Fun Monday is being hosted by Willowtree, he wants to see some clothing art. That's tee shirts, baseball caps, hoodies, sports uniforms or any bit of clothing that you or your kids own that has interesting, funny or artistic graphics.


This is my husband's shirt. Everyone gives
him shirts. And he wears them!

This is my sweatshirt. Doesn't everyone
in the world have one of these?

This is my son's shirt. StrongBad stuff.

Cat on a ball

The first time we put her on the ball, she stayed on quite a while enjoying it.
When I went to get the camera of course she wanted off.
You can see my son and me in the reflection.

Road Trip to Wichita

Disclaimer: No one was hurt during this mock terrorist attack in Wichita!
See the camera man on top of the building?

This training demonstration or enactment must have been a big deal in Wichita. My husband goes to this location quite often because of his job and we just happened to see this training going on. We were told they blew up the building and women were screaming on top of the roof waiting to be rescued by helicoptors and firemen.

Thank goodness it was just practice training.
Oklahoma already experienced a real one.

Welcome to Oklahoma! Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain!

Tank farm-black gold, Texas tea
There were hundreds of these.

I wonder if the brown one is chocolate milk?

Refinery-where would we be without them? Certainly not driving gasoline and diesel vehicles.

Stacks and stacks of steam

And just who is responsible for this?

Six mile stretch of long, unwinding road

Silo imploded?

Water tower

Very old house

Old antique store

1902 Bank Building before statehood



I have so many great pictures of this bridge!

Arkansas River

Farm tractor

Arkansas River Bridge