HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

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America celebrates July 4 as Independence Day because it was on July 4, 1776, that members of the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadephia, adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence.





John Adams wrote that the Fourth of July "...ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other..."


Here is a simple way to decorate a cake for the Fourth of July holiday using blueberries and strawberries!

You can make your own cake or you can click on the link for a recipe of how to make the cake above: http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Wave-Your-Flag-Cake-Video/Detail.aspx

I am proud to be an American and proud of my country. I am proud of having freedom of choice and of living in a land of opportunity.

Leave me a comment and tell me what it is about this country that makes you proud!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Fourth of July holiday!!!!!!

Thomas Wyatt Spends the Night at Nanna JuJu's

Thomas Wyatt came to spend the night with me on Wednesday. My son, Rob, became ill on Wednesday morning and had to go to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with a kidney stone, given lots of pain medicine and sent home to see if he would pass the stone.

Sarah, my daughter-in-law, brought TW to me on Wednesday afternoon so that Rob could get some rest and hopefully the stone would pass and everything would be o.k. Rob did pass the stone on Wednesday night but has to see a urologist because he has another stone that showed up in his right kidney in the x-rays.

TW just runs himself to death when he comes to my house. He follows me everywhere I go and checks out everything I do. If I go into the bedroom, he closes the bedroom door so that we are shut up in that room together and he plays while I am making the bed or whatever.

I gave him a bath in my kitchen sink on Wednesday night and he thought that was great fun! It is easier for me to get him in and out of the sink than the bathtub and I think it is safer also.



After getting his bath and getting all rubbed down with baby lotion and into his pajamas he went to sleep at 7 p.m. and slept until 6:30 a.m.



He gets up with a happy face ready to face another day of playing, running around all over the place and checking out all the wonders of this world!



Rob was feeling much better on Thursday and picked him up in the afternoon. TW is always happy to see his dad and his mom but I think he really likes to come to Nanna's house where he just about gets to do what he wants.

He is the sweetest little boy on earth and his Nanna loves him so much.

I think he knows that though!!!!!!

Did You Ever Hear of Dr. Ephraim McDowell?

You would say I am a bit of a history nut when it comes to Kentucky. I like to read about the history of our state and its people. Kentucky sometimes gets a bad name. Everyone has heard the stories about Kentucky people being hillbillies and going around barefoot all the time. (I do like to go barefoot!) Our state is rich in political leaders, nationally acclaimed authors and musicians, just to name a few.

I am originally from Frankfort, the state capital of Kentucky, but lived in Boyle County for many years.

Danville, the county seat of Boyle County, is home to the Ephraim McDowell House.

My daughter, Leigh, worked here as a tour guide when she was in school.

The Ephraim McDowell House was the location of the world's first successful abdominal surgery performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell in 1809. Dr. McDowell was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1771 but moved to Kentucky with his father when he was twelve years of age. He studied medicine in Virginia and Scotland and in 1795 opened his practice in Danville.

In 1809, Dr. McDowell was called to Green County, Kentucky to see a patient, Mrs. Jane Crawford, thought to be pregnant and expecting twins. Dr. McDowell, upon examining Mrs. Crawford, discovered she was not pregnant at all but had an ovarian tumor. He advised his patient that he would do experimental surgery if she would come to his house for the procedure. A few days later, Mrs. Crawford, rode sixty miles on horseback to the McDowell House.

On Christmas morning in 1809, Dr. McDowell performed the surgery without benefit of anesthetic and removed an ovarian tumor that weighed twenty-two and one-half pounds. The operation was successful!

Twenty-five days later Mrs. Crawford was well enough to travel and returned to her home nine miles south of Greensburg in Green County.

Jane Crawford lived for 32 more years after the operation.

Dr. McDowell died in 1830 with what is believed to have been a ruptured appendix.

The Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville is named for Dr. McDowell.

To see tour dates, hours and prices click here: http://www.mcdowellhouse.com/tours.html

Can you imagine riding 60 miles on a horse with a 22 lb. tumor and having surgery with no pain medicine? Then, being recuperated enough in about three weeks or so to go home and live another 32 years. Talk about a strong woman!!!

DO YOU HAVE A PET PEEVE??????????

I think we all have a few pet peeves.

Something that is particularly irritating or annoying to just you. It seems the older I get the more pet peeves I can add to my list!

Maybe, it is just my age.




There does seem to be things that bother me now that would not have bothered me 20 years ago.

Below is a list with a few of my pet peeves:

1. I don't like to listen to people whine.

2. People who don't use "pooper scoopers" and let their pets go in my yard.

3. No toilet tissue in public bathrooms.

4. Litterbugs

5. People who are obnoxious in public

6. Poor table manners

7. Drivers that tailgate

8. Selfish people

9. Braggarts

10. People who get in the 10 item express lane with more than 10 items.

Pet peeves associated with driving often leads to road rage!

A pet peeve can be about a specific behavior and often involves someone close such as a spouse.

Who likes a whiner?

Many people have pet peeves about the bathroom

Leave me a comment with some of your pet peeves!

Hickory, Dickory, Dock, I Love A Clock!!!!!!

I have a thing about clocks! I don't know why. I guess we all like some things better than others and collect stuff we like.

My clocks are not old or collectors items. I just like clocks.

If I go into Big Lots, I will look at the clocks. If I go to a flea market or antique shop, the clocks are one of the first things I look for in the store. If I find one I really like, I will come home and take down one I already have and either give it away, throw it away, or try to move it somewhere.

I, now, have one in every room including the laundry room and the garage and I don't want more than one to a room so I have to take one down when I get a new one. I have not put one in the storage building yet but that is a thought!

Some of my clocks are electric but most are battery operated. I hate having to reset them every time the electric goes off like the ones on the stove and microwave.

Every time the batteries start getting low the clocks seem to start ticking louder. I kind of like hearing them tick because it reminds me of the old wind-up clocks we used to have at home when I was a child. You could hear those old things all over the house ticking, ticking, ticking.

Is there anyone else out there that has a passion for clocks? Is there something else that you collect or that you especially like a lot?

Leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite collectible.

Happy Father's Day Daddy

This is my father with me when I was two years old.

My father died on November 26, 1993. It was Thanksgiving Day. I was getting ready to leave to come home and got the call that he had passed away. He had been sick for several years and was 88 years old when he died.

When I first married my son's father, back in the 60s, we lived in Richmond, Kentucky. One day, I was homesick and missing my parents and wrote a poem for my father. I mailed him the poem and he seemed to really enjoy it.

One of my nieces read it at his funeral in 1993. I still have a copy of the poem and am posting it for him today on Father's Day.

To Daddy

Daddy, I spent the afternoon with you today

Even though you are several miles away

You were constantly on my mind

As we traveled back to a bygone time.

I remembered being a little girl

You took me upon your knee

And read the Sunday funny papers

Out loud at night to me

You taught me how to spell my name

Before I started to school

You built a great, big doll house

Beside a concrete swimming pool

I went with you into the field

To milk that old, brown cow

And wandered around impatiently

But how I love that memory now

We picked crates and crates of strawberries

And complained constantly of the heat

But now that I am older

That memory is so sweet

When it came time to set tobacco

On our little piece of land

I dropped the plants, and poured the water

And you, Dad, set it all by hand

Then when the time came

For our tobacco to be sold

You stripped it all in the garage

Where it was so very cold

I used to love to sneak out of the house

And watch you working down there

As I sat upon the tobacco press

Chattering on, without a care.

I remember many days

Dad, just you and me

Pitting cherries or picking gooseberries

In the backyard under that old tree

We also went fishing so many times

Took lunch in your black pail

You always made sure, Dad

I caught a fish without fail.

I guess those days are gone forever

Lost except in memory

But, Dad, I thank you with all my heart

For being such a good father to me

My only hope now that I am older

And as time goes on

Is that I can pass what you gave me

To children of my own.

So this afternoon, Dad, we spent together

wandering back through time

And I loved each and every minute

In the memories of my mind.

The Birthday Boy

Thomas Wyatt was one year old on Friday, June 6th. I cannot believe it has been a whole year since we brought him home from the hospital and mom and dad had me come and stay a few days to help out.


He loves Elmo and so everything for his birthday had an Elmo theme. Nanna Juju made two cakes. One for the grownups and one for him for his very own and some Elmo cupcakes, too.


He has come so far in a year. He is not only walking but running.


He could not believe that he could just dig into the cake and he had icing all over the place and all over him. We had to stand him in the sink and almost hose him down!



Later, Mom and Dad went for a much needed evening out and Thomas Wyatt spent the night with me. If you have ever seen that Ever-ready rabbit on tv that just keeps going and going, he cannot hold a candle to TW hyped up on sugar from a birthday cake! He can run circles around that rabbit.









Finally, he just conked out and slept eleven hours.





I think the birthday boy really enjoyed his day, his cake, his presents, and spending the night at Nanna's house.

Butterflies Are Free

Butterflies are such brightly colored, beautiful additions to your garden and give it a sense of happiness and peace. I love watching them flit from one plant to another sampling the necture of each flower bloom like it was a buffet laid out on nature's table.




Adult butterflies are attracted to red, yellow, orange, pink, or purple blossoms and flat-topped or clustered flowers. They love zennias, marigolds, cone flowers, daisies, verbenas, garlic chives, lilacs, bee balm, and many mint plants to name a few.



Butterfly adults feed mostly in the sun so your plants should receive full sun mid-morning to mid-afternoon.




There are at least 700 species of butterflies in North America and most insecticides are lethal to them.




In a previous blog I talked about toad abodes so wondered if there was such a thing as a butterfly house and found out there are such things for the garden. You can make your own or order them from various places.




The following link will give you plans for building a butterfly house for your garden and various other butterfly related items: http://butterflywebsite.com/articles/house/plans.htm






I, also, learned that butterflies love over-ripe fruit such as bananas, strawberries, orange slices, and leftover melon ends.






A ceramic or glass pie plate, plastic or terra cotta plant saucer, or a dish with a sloping rim can all be used to make easy butterfly feeders. Suspend the plate with flower pot hangers or fashion a macrame style holder from household twine. You could wind the stems of silk or plastic flowers around the twine holder to decorate the butterfly feeder and make it visually appealing to butterflies.Simply hang the feeder from the bough of a shady tree, in a spot where you can easily view visitors to the feeder. Try to place it a little higher than your highest flowers. Add slices of over-ripe fruit. You can sprinkle a little fruit juice or water over the fruit slices if they dry out too much - remember it's the mushy, rotting, very over-ripe fruit that butterflies like best. Replace the fruit if it dries out or becomes moldy.




This is a cute poem or song I found about butterflies:

The Fuzzy Caterpillar (Tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)

The fuzzy caterpillar curled up on a leaf,

Spun her little chrysalis

And then fell fast asleep.

While she was sleeping,

She dreamed that she could fly,

And later when she wokeup

She was a butterfly!

Country Music in Kentucky

On Sunday, I watched a program on Kentucky Education Television about the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum. They were inducting the 2008 artists. Crystal Gayle and Dwight Yoakam were two of the new inductees for this year. Loretta Lynn presented the award to Crystal and then she sang some of the songs that made her famous such as "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". Several of her other brothers and sisters were also there to see her get the award.

Dwight Yoakam was also inducted. He gave the most moving speech about Eastern Kentucky and his roots there. I could have listened to him all afternoon. He told a story about an aunt of his that moved away from the "holler" and did well for herself and was able to buy a cadillac car.

When she drove it back to Eastern Kentucky they were not sure she would be able to get it up the gravel road to their homeplace but everyone thought she was rich. He stated this gave him the idea for the song, "Guitars, Cadillacs" he had on his first album. He, also, did "Bury Me". I had never heard this one but it is about the Big Sandy.

Here is one verse of Bury Me:

Bury me along the big sandy

Down in those blue gray mountains

Rest my soul in those fields of coal

Until this old earth doesn't tremble.

Kentucky is rich in it's music and famous country singers. Here is a list of just a few:

Crystal Gayle

Loretta Lynn

Dwight Yoakam

John Michael Montgomery

Eddie Montgomery

Bill Monroe

John Conlee

Billy Ray Cyrus

Red Foley

Tom T. Hall

Grandpa Jones

Naomi Judd

Wynonna Judd

Patty Loveless

Ricky Skaggs

Merle Travis

I am sure there are others that I could not think of. If you know one, add it in a comment!