I can't do this anymore

I have to go away for a while, don't know when or if I will be back.
Irrepairable damages
I can't do this anymore

Picture of the day-Friday

Well happy Friday everyone. This is the last picture with a story. This is me (I'm the dorky looking one) and baby bear. Do you think my glasses are big enough HaHaHa. Once again we were off to Sears to have pictures taken, Nina was a year old so this was somewhere around February 1986. I had a really cool chocolate brown Chevy stepside pick up truck so we got Aunt Barbara and went to town. No problems with the pictures, went to get groceries then headed home. Halfway home between Hot Springs and Bismarck (in an area my daddy calls "the narrows") the truck died. Here we were 2 young ladies and a baby with a truck full of groceries on the side of the road - I don't deal well with this kind of situation. I told Barbara to go to a house down the hill and see if she could use their phone (no cell phones in those days). No luck there, but here came a truck with a lady that lived in Bismarck and she gave us a ride home. Once I got home I went to find my daddy and told him where my truck was and that he could just shove it down the hill - I didn't want to see it again. Well of course he didn't do that, him and my uncle Jan went to get it. Turns out, the truck had dual fuel tanks (yes I knew that) but they were hooked up backwards (no I didnt know that) and I had run out of gas. Had I tried to flip the gas tank switch we would have been ok and gotten home just fine but did that even occur to me - NOOOOOO. Anyway, I was mad so I sold the truck to my uncle Jan and bought a brand new Chevy Chevette - talk about dorky. HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND EVERY ONE.

Picture ofhe Day-Thursday

Guess who this is? Nina Bear at 6 months old. She is too cute. Don't you just love the dress and matching shoes. Well there will be tears on my keyboard by the time I am done with this story. My mom bought this dress for Nina and I thought it would be perfect to have her picture made in. Got her some little white tights and cute red shoes (I still have the shoes). When I started to put the dress on Nina - she started to scream and cry. I am not the most patient person in the world and I could not figure out what was wrong. I just wanted her to shut up and let me get her dressed. Her dad said the dress must be too small but I knew that wasn't it. Finally got her dressed although she stopped screaming, she was still crying. Went to the local Sears and she actually stopped crying long enough for this picture to be taken. When we got home, I started to get her undressed and as I took the dress off, I noticed scratches on her arms and thought "what in the world?" After I got the dress off Nina, I started to look at it and realized that the dress had pins in it. MY GOD, what kind of friggen idiot would put pins in baby clothes. I was shocked and horrified and at the time it just reiterated that I was an awful momma. Now the tears come, I love you Bear and I'm sorry.

Here is the picture for Wed. Don't know what happened to the other one. Sorry.

Picture of the Day-Wednesday

Yes it is another "chalk drawn" picture. This time it is me & Ricky and it is December of 1976. Ricky comes in my bedroom and tells me to "get up" and since I am not a morning (or afternoon) person, this was not received very well. Especially when he wouldn't tell me where we were going - just "get up and get dressed". Even I know that you don't tell Ricky "no" so I got up and got dressed. Off to Knotts Berry Farm we went. No fun, no rides, just have this picture done. I remember when we brought it home, we unrolled it and looked real close at it noticing little things that the artist caught. Now personally, I love this picture. Ricky hates it. Can you tell I'm a bit "pudgy". I was the heaviest - oh ok - the fattest I had ever been. I blame it on Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts and Whole Milk. If you could have seen me six months previous to this - wow!! The summer of 1976 I was as close to "hot" as I have ever been. Went to the beach nearly every day, had a nice tan, long blonde hair and NO GLASSES - I got contacts that year. But I still love this picture and it will hang in my house one day.

Picture of the day - Tuesday

Can you believe that is me? Well it is, and I was 14 years old. This is a chalk drawing done at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park California. We had company - My aunt Lois (who was my moms sister) came to visit from Northern California with a couple of her kids-Jeannie and Danny. My aunt Mae came by to visit and she brought her daughter Vernie. So us kids decided to go to Knotts Berry Farm (which is an amusement park) to kill some time and have some fun. My mom told the big kids (everyone but me) to make sure I got my picture done at some point while we were there. I don't remember everything, but I know we had a blast and by the time we remembered to go get my picture done, I was a mess. I remember telling the guy that was doing the drawing that my hair couldn't look this bad in the picture (no one had thought to bring a comb or brush). I think he did a good job. Ricky had his done a year or so earlier so now my mom had one of each of us. They were framed and hung on the wall. I love them. This one now hangs in my daddy's bedroom.

OH YEAH - HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINA BEAR. YOU ARE A WHOPPING 24 YEARS OLD TODAY AND I LOVE YOU! ! ! ! ! !

Picture of the day-Monday

The summer of '71 - Corona California. It was the summer my mom bleached my hair platinum blonde (I was 11 years old), It was the summer I learned how to milk a cow and it was the summer I went to Arkansas and back TWICE. But those are stories for another time. On July 4, 1971 our cat had kittens. I was in Arkansas - my mom called and told me that the cat had kittens but not to expect them to still be there by the time I got home. I freaked and asked if I could come home. Let me back up a little. My Aunt Lois and Aunt Mae decided to take a road trip to Arkansas that summer and it was decided that Ricky & I would go with them, along with my cousins Danny, Jeannie, Larry & Vernie. 6 kids and two wonderful ladies. The cars were packed and Ricky's motorcycle was on the bumper of aunt Lois's car. We made it to Arkansas and all kind of went different ways. Midway through the summer, Aunt Mae was going home. Vernie, Danny & I went with her. That was the wildest road trip I have ever been on (but again, a story for another time). When I got home the kittens were still there but soon after the momma disappeared. I fed the kittens baby food and they survived. There were 4 kittens, 2 girls and 2 boys. The only one that made it as a pet was the one pictured above. The cat with no name. He was beautiful, dark gray, long hair and he loved to play rough. He loved my daddy. He knew when dad was supposed to get home from work and he waited in the driveway for him almost every day. He moved from Corona to Fullerton with us. He was a fighter and loved to get into it with the neighbor cats (my daddy would actually run outside in the middle of the night in his underwear to stop the fights).

My mom got the idea to have his "portrait" painted by a friend of hers. So we went to the store and got the brandy snifter and the goldfish, put them on the coffee table and waited with camera in hand. We took 36 pictures of the cat checking out the fish, had them developed then sent them to mom's friend. This is what she painted from those pictures. It hangs in my dads living room. The cat made the move from California to Arkansas - mom & dad shipped him ahead and Ricky took care of him til mom & dad got here. I know he was still around when Nina was a year old (1986) but at some point after that, he just got old and took himself off to the woods never to be seen from again.

Thanks for letting me share and reminisce. See you tomorrow...........

Dads Place

So we cleaned out the "attic" on Saturday. Through away a truckload of junk but kept the record collection. And what a collection it is. Dozens and dozens of albums and 45's. As I went through the 45's (looking for a specific one Ricky wanted) I couldn't help but sing the songs. While I was there, I went in the house and took some pictures. I'll be sharing those pictures with you this week - one per day. The pictures are actually of other pictures hanging on the walls in my dads house. Each of the pictures has a story so I'll be sharing that as well.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day. Nina, next year will be better. I'd love to hear about everyone else's Valentines Day, leave a comment and tell me how it was.

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day Everyone (yes I know it's a day early). These are the flowers I sent to Norman. I am really disappointed because this doesnt look anything like the picture from the Teleflora ad. But since it is Friday and I have a 3 day weekend ahead, I will let it go. I am going out to my dads house this weekend to clean out the attic. Well, it isn't really an "attic", it is one of those places where you have a pull down ladder in the garage and you just start throwing things up there. Anyway, daddy and Ricky will be there and you know I will have my camera. Planning something special for the blog next week - hopefully nothing messes with my plan.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE !!!

Normans Collection

Now many of you know that I (did) collect all kinds of things - glassware (fiesta, harlequin, jadeite & Fireking), coca cola bottle carriers, beanie babies, barbies, creamers, oil cans etc etc. But I wanted to share with you what Norman collects. HANGERS. Yep regular wire hangers. He displays them in our closet. He adds to it on a weekly basis. I don't know if he has a favorite. But since he put up with my collections for years and years, I guess I gotta put up with his. NOT. Hopefully we will by saying good-bye to the hangers next week.

I love you Nina Bear
Book Print is killing me.
Reg have fun on your cruise.

YEE-HAW

Here is Cowboy Connor. It's kinda hard to tell, but he has on a black cowboy hat. Ain't he the cutest little cowboy you've ever seen. Notice his shirt says "Don't bug me" - he gets that from me. Not a lot of time to blog today, since I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, it took me forever to figure out how to get this picture on here. I didn't take it with my camera, it was emailed to me (by Chris - thanks Chris - keep um coming). So to get it from email to here has taken 2 days. Enjoy the picture, have a good day and see ya later.

Road Trip

So, on Saturday, Norman and I decided to take a Road Trip (to Malvern) and right before we left, I got a call from my Daddy asking if we wanted to have lunch with him & Ricky at Cici's Pizza. Sure, I love Cici's Pizza and haven't been there in while. So we met them there and had lunch and visited for a while. Daddy & Ricky had been to the gun & knife show in town. Now if you're lookin at the picture and wondering who Daddys hairstylist is, well don't be mean - it was a VERY windy day and his hair is blowing around - it isn't actually stuck up there like a rooster. Cici's was packed and they didn't have any macaroni & cheese pizza but we all managed to get full. Now, on to the Road Trip. You gotta feel sorry for Norman (again) cuz I burned a cd of some of my favorite music to listen to while riding in the car and for those of you that have either been in the car with me or worked with me while I was next to a radio - YOU KNOW I CANNOT LISTEN TO MUSIC AND NOT SING. And just for the record, I really like to sing loud (and I do not sing well). Oh it was great fun for me, not so much for Norman. I know, you are asking WHY IN THE WORLD would you take a Road Trip to Malvern????? Well let me tell ya, Norman likes these snack cakes made by Tastey Kake. They are peanut butter somethin or other and I had found them once at the Wal-Mart in Malvern. Norman was getting a hankerin for some so off we went. Did we find um? NO so we extended the road trip to Benton (woohoo more singing for me) and tried the Wal-Mart there. Did we find um? NO so we extended the road trip to Bryant and tried the Wal-Mart there (Yep you guessed it, I found another homemade cd and sang some more) Did we find um? NOPE but we did find some other kind of Tastey Kake thingys that we bought. Now, had the tables been turned, and I was looking for some kind of goodie like this, there is no way we would have taken this road trip, however, I do understand the need for goodies so of course I suggested the extensions on the road trip. I had my Sonic CVDC and my music and I was in heaven.

I got some awesome pictures I will be posting this week so stay tuned.

Sharing

I talked with Ricky this morning and he has actually visited this Blog. I didn't think he ever would. He did make the comment that he thought there would be more pictures, so here are more pictures. My Cici Bear and my Nina Bear. Nina has strep throat and had to go to the doctor and get a shot - man that hurt. Don't forget to take your medicine Bear.

Oh we have no hot water today and my car is making funny noises. (sounds like a song huh?) I had to wash my hair in COLD water...brrrr. But I did what any wife of a maintenance man would do, I called Norman at work and whined about it. He came home to diagnose the problem and bless his heart- he knows that I'm expecting to take a hot shower tonight when I get home from work. Poor Guy.

Remember, "If you're goin through Hell, keep on going, don't slow down, if you're scared don't show it, you might get out before the devil even knows you're there" (as sang by Rodney Atkins) I love this song. Someday I will learn how to put youtube videos on my blog and then we really have some fun. Until then - well - I can't think of anything "snappy" to put here - so how about you thinking of something and leaving it as a comment......oooo sounds like fun. HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY - IT'S FRIDAY EVE!!

Grand Prize Winner

Look here, I won again. Woohoo - a FREE box of Nabisco crackers. Hey it's better than nothin - right. You know me, I love FREE.

Look who came to dinner...

Yes, I cooked and they came. Nina & Chris and my grandpuppy Izzy came over on Sunday for Dinner. The menu was Chicken Fried Steak (yum), mashed potatoes, corn and rolls. It was pretty good for someone who hasn't fixed this particular meal in 10 years. It was super bowl Sunday but we got in some visiting between the game and the commercials. Chris helped me with my craigslist items that I have up for sale - Thanks so much Chris. I got a chance to check out engagement rings on-line with Nina and Izzy just aggravated Cicibear to no end. It was a nice evening even though both Nina & I had the sniffles, sneezes and cough. Hope you feel better bear.

I miss you Reg.

I love you Nina Bear.

I (still) hate book print.