2008 January Almost Gone!!!!

This has been another boring cold week and no pictures.

Monday the kids were out of school for Robert E. Lee Day, but I had to work. The boys had gone out last night since no schoo; so they slept in and from what I understand Blake talked Papaw into taking him to walmart to buy paint balls for a paintball gun he either bought or was given the night before....along with many lectures on the do's and don'ts of paintball guns. We have avoided these guns for years, lol. I wonder how long before Blake is in trouble with Papaw. I got home from work to find a strange car in the yard and found Morgan , Kyle's friend there helping Kyle to do homework. She seems to be a nice girl and I definately like her better than the last one.

Tuesday , Wednesday and Thursday were just regular days with everyone doing what they normally do, weather was rainy, cloudy and cold. Pat did go to deer camp one day I think. Chris is still working everyday for a long time I am thinking close to 3 weeks. I sure am glad NRC has limits on our working hours during an outage. Speaking of outage we have a small problem and will be shutting the plant down again sometime between now and the 28th of Febuary I am thinking will be another 2 weeks for me in an outage. I just hope I get to work days and I know I will get 1 day off out of 7.

Thursday evening I had to take the prep stuff for the colonscopy that I had done on Friday morning. Needless to say I spent the night in the bathroom...lol TMI but I discovered something I was so proud to figure out, lol. I finally figured out haw to deactivate the dang touchpad on this computer. I honestly have spent many hours trying to figure that out and been so aggrivated and there I was in the bathroom and the light was good and I saw the key on the Fn keys that would do it. YES!!!!!!!! so Susan if you are reading this its the Fn key and the F7 depressed at the same time. No more wild typing hopefully.

Friday went real well and my test was good ... I honestly enjoyed the day very much. After the test I went home and took a long nap in the middle of the day and it was GREAT. Pat did as well. The boys went to thier Mom's and the weather was bad all day and calling for ICE.

Blake went on a 4H Club field trip to Jackson on Saturday and I am sure he enjoyed that. Kyle is hanging with friends after earning gas money doing some chores for his Mom. I went to walmart and ran in to my dear old fried Vonnie, have not seen her in years. We stood righ there in walmart for an hour and talked old times and kids and grand kids. I am hoping we get a chance to get together more often. She seems to be doing well. Busy with grandkids like everyone else, lol.

BTW I did not get started in my exercise as I intended lol but I did do them 1 day. I have not give up just can't seem to get it going my way... I guess I better hit it this week before the 12 hours starts again... ugh...ugh...ugh. Chris and I are both still doing good on the diet. I have cut out about half of my diet drinks. Drinking more water and tea.

I think this picture below was probably taken while Papapw Grace was in the war. Mamaw Grace, Helen sitting in her lap and Mom on one side and Jeanette on the other side.

This is Mom and Dad when Ronny was a baby. Dad does have a lil hair here.

Then again when I was a baby.

Below is Randy, Me and Ronny....Seems I have crooked cut bangs in every picture. I don't think I gave myself haircuts that often, lol.

2008-Mid January

This is truly the most boring time of year and again I took no pictures, but do scroll and see the old photo's.

I left off last week with getting called in to work on Sunday, as it turned out I worked 12 hours all week until Thursday and got off at 9 then, but had to work on Friday which was my OFF Friday. Chris is in an outage also and has not had an off day in about 10 days so I tried to not complain too much. I guess its a good thing everyone in the house can cook enough to survive, lol. I did cook some at night for the next night. When I get home at 8 everyone has eat. Pat did cook fish one night for the boys. The boys did not work out as much this week but they did go a couple days and of course on Wednesdays they have that extra workout at school. I still have not got into a routine on exercise, but I have gotten a couple more dvd's that look like they will be more my style, so I am hoping that this week I will get started. Life should be in a normal routine. I just can't do it when I work 12's. I have been extra nice to myself this weekend, since I worked so much last week. There is really not much to tell about the week other than everyone has been doing what they should. It has been cold her this week and Pat has done some extra stuff in the house, which is always nice.

Friday I was cold all day and I made a huge pot of chili when I got home, its really not too bad on carbs if you do not use corn chips or crackers or noodles lol. I used lots of burger and man it hit the spot. I did boil some cabbage as well and found out chilli over cabbage is good. Kyle wanted to go out Friday night but Chris told him no because of the weather. He had a couple friends that came over to visit a bit and that seemed to work out fine. Saturday I was looking forward to sleeping in so I skipped the early walmart run. I woke at 7 to the phone ringing lol it was Mom asking about snow. I got up and looked and we did have snow very little but snow. I did not even take a picture. I went back to bed could not go to sleep so I got up and woke Blake so he could see the snow and go to Walmart. Blake was real excited about the snow he threw a few snow balls and woke Kyle, I think he really wanted to throw a snowball at Kyle. As we drove to Walmart I thought dang I should have took a picture. When we got back home it was too late to take a picture. Saturday we mostly chilled and tried to stay warm. Kyle did get to go out Saturday night. Blake started working on a puzzle, which I intended to help him with, but got tied up working with my scanner trying to scan some pictures. Guess what my new laptop with Windows Vista is not compatible with my scanner and probably not my printer either. Oh well I just used a jump drive to move the pictures I scanned from my older laptop to my new one. I stayed cold all day Saturday, I put on extra socks, then a jacket got a bigger blanket when sitting in recliner and still cold so I got the heat pad out and stuck it under the blanket and man that was the very dinktem.

.

THis is Mamaw and Papaw Grace when they were dating I think. I am sure if you ever knew Mamaw Grace you thought of her when I said "the very dintem." If you don't know what a dinktem is ask someone to tell ya. I bet all my siblings know what a dinktem is and probably Tracy, Chris, Brandon and Dustin.

This is the only picture I have of Papaw Hand and I know none of the kids remember him. He died when Tracy was not even 7 months old. I remember going to Mamaw Hands and we forgot the diaper bag, lol we went to a store in Sumiton and bout pampers (we used cloth diapers back then) and a bottle. She wanted this lil blue change purse on a keyring at the checkout counter so I got that for her to play with and she took her 1st steps to me dangling it at her.

This is me and Randy and Ronny with our snowman, this was taken at the house we lived in before Mom and Dad built the house they live in now. I am thinking this would have been the winter before we moved to the house. Yes thats a diaper on my head.

2ND Week of January 08

This week has been a GOOD week. The kids all got back in school. Kyle and Blake started the week off good and started going to the gym to workout after the school workout. Monday and Tuesday nights I heard a lot of moaning and groaning with any movement out of them, lol. Chris and I have both been able to stay on out diet all week. He started his plant shutdown on Saturday and the Ops manager bought 12 Pizza's for thier lunch.....but he did GREAT and stayed on his diet. I had told him we would have steak for supper Saturday night so maybe that helped, lol. I even did workouts at home this week .... well 3 days anyway. I discovered that I need to learn the moves to my dvd workout to be able to keep up with the dvd. But I just made up my pown moves and worked away and tried to start learning thier routine. I did order a couype more workpout video's that I am hoping will be easier to follow. I realize that I have to do a lifetime change and if I am gonna have the perfect body for my perfect retirement I better get busy.

Its that time of year where I do not take pictures very much so I may post some old photo's just for fun.

On Thursday I went to the Dr. for my yearly checkup and then to the peridontist for a checkup. I even was able to get a few errands run and my hair trimmed in between, so I felt the afternoon off work was successful. Pat went to his Dr. for a checkup as well, I guess we are both doing good.

How you like Pats fro? lol

The boys came in on Thursday afternoon and1st thing out of thier mouth was Tyler is fixed. I knew Tyler had started his medication today but FIXED so quick? Yes the boys said he is back to him old self. As I continued to pry into what made them know all this I fould out that while Kyle went to workout at the gym that he had dropped Tyler and Blake off at McDonalds for a workout, lol. I heard from Tracy later and confirmed what the boys said... seems the meds has helped a lot so we will just have to see how that goes for a bit... we are all excited for Tyler. I am sure many (even me) have no clue as to how hard it has been for him. The Dr's seem to think they will have him all fixed up and regulated soon. I sure hope so as its getting closer to time to think about summer fun. Speaking of summer fun... WE are thinking of going to 6Flags on June 11th and would like all to mark calendar and think about meeting us there. We will be going to see Brooke Graduate from her elementary school on the 10th and drive back to Atlanta area and get up the next day and spend that at 6 Flags. Also while we are on summer fun This is what I know so far. Chris will be on vacation June 3rd thr the 23rd and we should be in Bama then.

Yes its me back in the "Good Ole Days"?

Friday the boys got thier report cards and even thou I have not seen them yet, because they are at thier Mom's the weekend... seems they were good. Blake texted me his was A's and B's but then he also texted me the grades and there was an 84 which here in Mississippi is a C. I had give him a lil carrot hanging out there if he made A/B honor roll... so I guess we have to see how that works out. I hope that next 9 weeks Tyler is texting me with his grades good. I have been letting him slide from my speeches and stuff, lol but thats over with now and I really look for him to get it going on.

This is Papaw Grace for those who did not ever get a chance to meet him. I think Tracy and Chris were the youngest members of the family when he died.

Saturday all the guys were gone and I had the house to myself for the 1st time all year and for months too. However it was noon before Pat got gone, lol. I still enjoyed my afternoon and got lots of stuff done. It seemed that I dusted for hours and thats just in my room and the den, lol. I also started the pink baby blanket for Eric's baby girl, I think her name will be Nylah, I need to verify the spelling. Saturday night about 830 I got one of those dreaded phone calls from WORK where they had shutdown and needed me to come in at midnight to make protective tags for them to be able to work on the equipement. So I went straight to bed with 2.5 hrs to sleep and then shower and drive to work..... at 10 pm the phone rang and they had change of plans and wanted me to come in on days instead cause I am suppose to be in training on Monday. So here I sit writing my blog during my lunch time as I yawn because my body tells me its Sunday and I usually play sleep catchup then and sleep in til 10 or 11. I just heard my training for this week has been cancelled... I guess thats good news for me, lol. I still hate training week. We are on 12 hrs until we get the plant back online. I just might give up my Sunday sleep in every week if I never had to go to training again, lol.

1st Week of 2008

This week went really fast...... New Years Day I cooked and all the kids and Grandkids came to eat, except Kyle who was at deer camp all week. Kyle did come home for about an hour one night to shower and get some warming things for his hands. Brooke hung out with Tanner mostlybut did get some more time with her Dad. I worked Wednesday and Thursday and was off for the weekend. I VOTE FOR A 2 DAY WORK WEEK!!!! Monday's are not so bad when the next day is Friday.

On Friday morning Pat and Brooke and I left early to go to Bama. We had a GIRLS NIGHT planned for that night and wanted to get some things done before the Ali, Hannah and Chloe got there. Also a guy I use to work with ( he retired already) and his wife were coming by to visit for a bit and see our place. My friend and his wife have been in North Alabama working for a few months and really like it there I think. We had a really nice visit and hope to visit again soon when they are in Vickburg for a few days.

Friday night the girls had a great time and were enjoyable to be around. I do have a few pictures of them. They had Pizza, did makeups and made brownies, computered and talked on the phone, ate ice cream, lol. They were actually very good, but I still did not get my normal sleep.

Saturday the girls all left by 10 and I left shortly afterwards headed to take Brooke to meet her Mom. Brooke and I had a nice visit and probably the only one on one time we have had the two weeks. We always hate the departure and always promise to not cry lol and I think we both always try to keep the other from seeing , lol and most of the time we both fail. Spring Break will be here before you know it and Brooke will be back for a visit.

Satutday evening when I returned to the lake I took down the Christmas decorationsand cleaned up a bit. Mom and Dad came to visit and Susan brought us some Boston Butt that Rando had smoked and I had picked up some GreenTop BBQ sauce. Sue also brought Pat some potatoe salad and baked beans. I will say I was very good the weekend and stayed on my diet and turned down many things.......Later Saturday Marcia came for a visit but I guess we all realized we were tired and she went home early to crash and I crashed as well.

Sunday was a nice drive home and seemed Chris and the boys had managed just fine and were all ready for starting back to school. Thats about it for the 1st week of the year. All seem Healthy and Happy what more cane one ask for.

2007-THE END of DECEMBER

I have been partially busy and partially lazy. Tracy is so right about leaving out good stuff when you skip a week. What seems so boring to one may be interestiong to another.


I can only remember back to Wednesday before Christmas. I got home from work and Kyle was gone to deer camp, Chris had gotten called in to work so there was no reason to wait til Thursday moring to head to Bama, so Pat and Blake and I loaded up ( I had most of the stuff loaded all week that could be loaded) and headed to Bama. Was a pleasant trip, Blake listened to his music on cell phone card that I loaned him and a bluetoothe ear piece, I think he liked that. I think this may be the 1st time we have traveled with just Blake, lol. Needless to say we did spoil him a bit. Its easy to do with one lol u eat where they want and no disagreement. It was late when we got in so we basically unloaded and went to bed. Thursday best I can remember I did my walmart run early that morning with Blake my bestest helper ever. Blake tinkered around the lake with his remote control boat and his pellet gun. Pat mowed the leaves and it rained that afternoon. I read some in my book and took a nap, lol. I showed Blake how to watch movies online with Netflix and he watched several movies.

We slept in on Friday and I had planned to not leave the place all day, lol. I asked Pat if he wanted to go pick out a recliner and was sooooo shocked when he said yes. I guess he knew that either he could pick it out or live with what I picked out. So off Pat, Blake and I go to the furniture store. We had to pay much more than I had planned and figured Pat would balk on me....but its very simple ... if you want LAZYBOY and you want leather you have to pay the price or get something you do not want.... this is a major investment at our age and best to get what you want. The old recliner which everyone loved was moved to a new home in Dad's shop. That should be interesting, I guess everyman needs a recliner in his getaway,lol. The recliner was delivered on Saturday. We finished that rather quickly and were undecided what to do, but after a phone call to Moms and finding out she was at Randy's we knew exactly what to do. So we headed for Randy's to meet the twins and I am so ashamed to say I did not even have a camera with me. We really enjoyed our visit and Emma is a lil doll. The boys are just precious and they were all so good the entire visit. I am impressed with the way Brandon and Christi seem to manage them all and traveling and the kids in a good mood. We went by moms when we left there for a visit before we headed home to the lake.


Saturday is kinda a blur now, but basically we hung out at the lake and waited for Tracy and family to arrive in the afternoon. Brooke would be arriving later after Tiny met to get her and take her to the Rigsby party. We had a nice visit with Tracy and Rusty and kids, it was really nice to have them there. Pat and I enjoyed a visit with Greg and Marcia while all the kids were gone to the Rigsby Party. When they all returned we let them open a present that I had for them in Bama.... which was Bama pj's for everyone.... even Pat!






























Sunday I fixed breakfast of sausage balls and sausage pinwheels. It makes me look so forward to having my addition done so we can all be there and not destroy the living area with beds. We had the Family Christmas gathering at noon and was way to short for me.... but I was just thankful we were all able to get together... we did miss Chris and Kyle .... but I know Chris's hunting time is so short and he and Kyle do enjoy that time. I was glad that I made that trip to Randy's to visit with the twins and Emma.... Dustin was there and gosh I barely got to speak to him seems so I will say I did not get my fill of anyone and especially Dustin. I think next time we are gonna do a Pizza order out gathering. I have very few pictures and for some reason my camera was acting up and they were all horrible.... I an just sick that I did not get any good pictures of the twins. I kept messing with camera and got an OK picture here and there but most were bad.




































We got a chance to visit with Greg and Marcia a lil more on Sunday night. I shpwed Marcia how to make mom's fudge that they love so much.

On Monday, Christmas Eve, Pat, Brooke, Tanner, Blake and I headed home. Chris and Kyle came in from the woods at dark thirty and Santa came for them cause Chris had to work Christmas day.

















Christmas Day I cooked so that I did not have to cook the rest of the week and there was always food for whomever and whenever, lol.

On the 26th we had our Ms Christmas with Tracy and Chris and thier families....Was nice to visit with all and we had PIZZA and assortment of sweets. Kyle left going back to deer camp for a few days. Chris spent Thurday with Brooke and Blake then he and Blake joined Kyle on Friday.






















Saturday the boys went to thier Moms and Brooke to Tanners and Chris had to start night shift, so basically Pat and I had the next few days just us and we made good use of our recliners and watched many football games, was great no schedule... I can get into this style of life. New years Eve, Blake and Brooke came home and Kyle did just long enough to get his hunting stuff and some food to go to deer camp. I guess we will see him when he gets out of food or comes to town to get more gas in his truck to run around in the woods.... He sure has grown up a lot this past year.

I have made some new years resolutions , mostly to get better control of myself lol in the weight and exercise area. I have 18 months til I retire and I wanna retire in a much healthier body than I am now, lol. IT seems if I can quit smoking I should be able to lose weight. Time will tell... The key is to stay focussed so ummm I guess I am attempting to focus now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!