HOME AGAIN

Two weeks away was long enough! My own bed felt good last night. Poocharoo was glad to see me even though she was well cared for by Louise and James. James, Paul and grandson Jordan went with me in my car (I didn't have to drive) and we drove straight through in a little over one day. I told them after we got there that once such trip was enough. These old bones just can't take it anymore, but the kids did have more time to visit. The guys had to drive back on Sunday and Monday but I stayed on for another week and had a more time with my girls. I then came home on Amtrac to Hastings where James picked me up at 4 a.m. Thursday. It was a long 36 hour trip. I took lots of pictures and had a great time. I'll write more about all that in later postings, right now I'm still tired. I guess it will take me a few more hours (days? weeks?) to recover. 'Til then, God bless.

THERE ARE DAYS!

There are days and there are days, and today was one of those days! Today I sold David's car that he drove to work. A family came to look at it last Thursday evening. Their son was going to college and he needed a car. Father and son took it for a test drive while I visited with the mother in the yard. Poocheroo was around trying to get my attention when suddenly she started to bark. I turned and looked and sure enough the wagon had just turned into the alley at the south end just as David always did and Pooch was standing there at the fence looking at me and barking just as she had alerted me to his car coming home for the last six years. I managed to hold it together until they had left and I got into the house (after praising Poocheroo) before I lost control and started to cry. Like I said before--it's the little things that get to me in unexpected ways. They called Saturday to say they would buy it and we agreed on a price. Today they came to get it. We had to go to the court house to sign over the title and I left first, I couldn't watch it drive away. But it will let me pay off the Cruiser and have one less monthly bill. I celebrated by buying a deli-dinner at the grocery store.

Things seem to come one after the other. My good mixer quit the day David died while mixing up a batch of apricot bread for him. Jonathan took it to Kansas City to be fixed again and was told it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new one. In June I had to put two new tires on the Cruiser, then a week later one of the old ones developed a bulge and had to be replaced. The company wouldn't allow anything on it, said it was rim damage! No way! The last trip I took to Menards and WalMart at Hastings in July a truck threw a rock and put a chip in the Cruisers windshield and when I went to see about the insurance coverage I found out we have the only car insurance that doesn't cover it. I was able to get the chip fixed here in Smith Center, can't even tell where it was now. Then last week my dryer up and quit on me. Good thing I had put up a clothes line to use this summer. James informed me tonight that he was going up tomorrow to see about getting it fixed or getting a new one. I was going to let it go until after my trip. To top everything else my stereo decided to join the others and went on strike, first refusing to play my tapes and now the CD part won't work either so I can't play my music. I'm beginning to think my machines are involved in a plot to make my life simpler and cut down on the overhead expenses! Oh, Well! Life goes on and on and on day by day, some easier than others. The heat hasn't helped any with several days over 100 degrees.

Oh yes! my trip! One very bright spot in my world right now. I am going, with James and Paul (I do'nt think they wanted Mom to drive out by herself), to see my girls in Virginia and Maryland and to attend grandson Devin's Eagle Award Ceremony on August 14th. We were both so anticipating this trip. I'm glad the boys are going with me. James and I will go as far as Pauls on Wednesday. We're driving out in my car on Thursday and Friday and they will be coming back on Sunday and Monday. I am going to stay for a few days to visit. I get to see the girls and their families so seldom that I am really looking forward to it. I am going to come back on the train. It's been a long time since I took a train ride--I was expecting James when I went to Chicago while selling Stanley Home Products. Oops! I forgot about our train ride in Russia on a train that reminded me of those in the movies from the 20's and 30's. This one on Amtrac should be a little nicer ride. I'll try to remember to take lots of pictures to post (and to take the charger along). One nice thing about the new digital cameras--you can keep right on snapping pictures without having to change film or worry about paying to have them developed! I will have my new cell phone (and charger) with me so I won't be out of touch.

Keep me in your prayers as I do you. God bless!

MEMORIES OF MOMMA

Today is my mothers birthday---August 5, l892. My earliest memory of Momma is sitting on her lap in her rocking chair while she read me Bible stories while holding a warm cloth on my ear to help ease an ear ache. I remember standing on a chair by the kitchen table kneading my own piece of bread dough beside her while she made bread for the family. Nothing tasted better than that little piece of my own bread, warm from the oven with melted butter on it. She taught me how to sew, by hand at first then on the old treadle machine when I was big enough to work the pedal and guide the fabric at the same time. I learned to love growing things and enjoying the produce from them both as flowers and fruits and vegatables, and to preserve them for the future. It seems as though we always had a pet of some kind, usually a cat and the picture of her with a cat on her lap purring while she petted it is a warm memory. She loved her chilckens on the farm. I can still hear her talking (clucking) to them while she fed them and gathered the eggs. And she loved music--playing the piano, singing as she worked, and teaching our canary to whistle a tune by whistling it over and over whenever she was in the room with it. Of course, singing hymns in church was a favorite. Her love for the Lord shone through in her daily life. Her lessons for her children was by example. She has been gone now for over twenty years but I still miss her and there are many times even yet when I wish I could tell her of my joys and sorrows and laughs. The memories are many, of good times and not so good times, but always of love. Momma still means love to me.

"'FRAIDY Cat" POOCHEROO

Poocheroo doesn't like loud noises like fireworks and thunder. She is a good storm predictor. At the first hint of a storm she is at the back door wanting in. While we were gone to the Peterson family reunion in Minnesota a couple weeks ago, there was a bad storm that went through and I wasn't here to let her in when she knocked on the door. Yes, I said knocks. She stands on her hind legs and beats a tatoo with her front paws on th stormdoor while whining to get my attention. The glass was up and when she wasn't let in she tried it on her own. She managed to tear the screen (that the guys had fixed when here in April) loose at the bottom somehow and boosted herself through the opening and got stuck between the doors. When Louise came over to feed her the next morning and couldn't see her she thought she had somehow gotten out of her yard until she heard her crying and could just see two ears showing above the opening in the door. She had to go through the house to get Poocheroo out of her predicament. But that wasn't the end of it. When I got home I put the glass down to cover the hole and keep the bugs out. Well, last night another storm went through and before there was a noise that I could hear she was beating on the door so rapidly that it sounded like a woodpecker. I couldn't see or hear anything like a storm coming so I told her to shush and didn't let her in. I should have known better! She kept it up and added whining and barking to her pleading. Then I heard a crash. She had pounded and pushed on the door so hard that the adjustable window part fell out and down between the doors knocking the stormdoor partially open but blocking her entrance. Thankfully it is plexiglass so I didn't have broken glass to contend with as well. That loud noise scared her also ---but not enough to leave the porch. Then I heard the thunder and could see the lightning in the distance so she did get in. I keep an old quilt folded up under the dish cupboard and a leash fastened to one of it's legs by the back door so she has a place of safty to hang out. She runs all over the house if I don't hook her up, and I do mean runs, and she has learned how to avoid being caught by running around the circle of the downstairs walkway, no doors to block her. When she sees me coming to meet and catch her she turns and goes the other direction! David and I used to be able to corral her together but now that I am alone I have to lure her with "people" food to catch her. Funny what you can miss a person for, little things, trivial things, every day things. Anyway---now I have to fix the back screendoor again and I have to take the whole door off to do it as it doesn't come apart. Oh well, such is life, and life goes on and I would surely miss her company if I didn't have my "'Fraidy Cat" Poocheroo and hear her knocking on my door. Be thankful for the little things and praise the Lord you still have them.