BUSY WEEKEND, BUSY TIMES FOR ME

First of all let me say that my blogging friend, Balisha, is at home and doing well. Thanks again for all your prayers and concern.

I spent the weekend with my daughter, Anne, on the farm in Georgetown. (Leigh was out of town) We had a great time.

On Saturday morning, I went with her to get a load of hay for the horses and was able to help load some of it. Next, we road the backroads around Georgetown, Lexington, and Midway. It is beautiful here this time of the year with all the horse farms, board fences, and fall colors. We had lunch at a little place called Wallace Station where you can eat outside at picnic tables and enjoy the wonderful weather we are having.

That's Anne feeding hay to the horses on the left.

Later in the day, we went to the Peddlers Mall and Big Lots and then ordered a big pizza from

Fat Kats for dinner.

We stayed up real late and looked at old pictures of the farm the kids grew up on. The photo below is of me and a friend in 1978. It was 4 months after my twins were born. The girl with me in the photo is Cassie Durham. She is on the left and I am on the right.

For all you gardeners out there, the photo on the left below is our just plowed garden back then. We used to grow, can, and freeze all our vegetables on the farm.

On Sunday morning, my son, Rob, his wife, Sarah, and TW, Anne, Bob and I met at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. The food was great and we all enjoyed seeing each other.

Thomas Wyatt came to spend the night with me on Monday. We watched videos, ate oats (his favorite thing to eat), and played with cars and trucks. Oh yes, we had to play hide-in-seek.

The picture below is TW hiding. He thinks I can't see him when he gets behind the shutters!

Look at his toes in this picture. I do the same thing!

He is getting sleepy when he lies down, wants his blanket and gathers all his toys, and cup around him. He is watching a Mishee Mouse video. He can't pronouce Mickey yet.

Today, was grocery shopping and a haircut. I am worn out! Now, to get around to all the blogs and make comments, finally! Hope everyone had a good weekend and is having a good week.

MY RODEO COWGIRLS, ANNE AND LEIGH

I think it is about time I did an update on my lovely twin daughters, Leigh and Anne. The picture on the left was taken at Keeneland and is one of my favorites. Don't you think they look alike? That's Leigh Harper on the left and Anne Parker on the right. They light up my life!

The girls live a very busy life with boyfriends, jobs, rodeo, and taking care of their farm but they always find time to call "Mom" every day. Leigh calls each morning on her way to work and Anne calls on the way home in the afternoon. We recently made our annual trip to Amish country

and I will be making a trip to their place for an overnight visit in the next couple of weeks.

Anne has a new man in her life. She is in the process of training him and took him to his first rodeo last night. That's Anne with her new man, Roanie on the right. She also has Drifter that she has trained. He is up for sale at this time and a beautiful horse. Anne is riding Drifter in the ring in the picture on the left.

Leigh has been doing great and came in second overall last night at the rodeo and won the second division placing in the money! That is Leigh with her barrel racing horse, Dually, in the picture on the left.

The farm seems to be growing. They now have four horses, two dogs and a cat. Dodgie is Anne's dog and Spur Dog belongs to Leigh.

Greeley, the cat, stays at the barn and keeps all the mice out of the horse feed. Greeley, is named for the hat company in Colorado that makes custom hats for cowboys and cowgirls.

The girls each had a hat made on a recent trip out west to visit a friend.

Below are some videos taken at last night's event. This was Roanie's first time at the barrel race and he did great. Leigh and Dually beat their best time last night.

I hope I got these videos uploaded correctly.

I am so proud of my girls and all they have accomplished in their lives and love them so much.

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

MY WEEKEND VISITOR - THOMAS WYATT!

It has been a while since I did a post on my grandson, TW. He has been here several times to visit and he turned 2 years old in June.

We had a birthday party at my house with two cakes, cupcakes, and all the trimmings. Dad took lots of pictures and made a video.

He is all boy and has the cuts and scrapes to prove it.

His favorite toys are those little diecast cars and trucks.

The World's Longest Yard Sale has been going on right near where I live and I got him lots of those little cars to play with on this visit and even found a school bus he has been wanting for a while now and a big dump truck.

We always watch the movie, "Cars" and "Elmo" and "Toy Story" when he visits. He loves oatmeal and as soon as he is awake (usually around 5:30 a.m.), Nanna is making oatmeal with bananas and applesauce. Then, around 8:30, we have sausage and waffles. It takes a lot of food for such an active little person!

He has to go outside to see if there is anything new since his last visit. TW enjoys looking at my owl, "Hootie". Hootie keeps the birds off my patio furniture.

He likes to show Nanna his muscles! Mom, Sarah, thinks he looks like a little bumble bee in this picture.

Climbing is a favorite thing, of course, and Nanna's shoes have to be tried on for size every visit.

Bathtime is fun and after a very busy day TW settles down for a little more t.v. and off to bed.

I love my time with Thomas Wyatt and enjoy his visits.

He is a beautiful little boy and his Nanna loves him very much

REMEMBER THE HULA HOOP!

Remember the hula hoop craze in the late 50s? I used to love to hula
hoop when I was younger. I once entered a contest sponsored by a Frisch's Restaurant when I was in my early teens and went five hours and twenty minutes. I won a big boy and a malt for all that work! The girl that won went for 8 hours and won a transistor radio.

According to some sources the hula hoop originated in Australia. The 50s hoops were hollow plastic tubing. It is estimated that Wham-O sold over 100 million hoops in 1958 alone.

I recently read an article in Prevention Magazine that "hooping" is making a comeback and they are no longer for the playground but a way to burn calories and tone your stomach muscles.

Today, there are web sites such as http://hooping.org/ and http://yourhoop.com/ where you can purchase custom hoops, collapsible hoops, do-it-yourself hoops and instructional videos if your are interested in "hooping". They can range in price from $15 to $50 and more. It seems adults need one based on your body weight if you are using it for exercise.

So guys and gals if you want to tone up, get yourself one of these new "hoops", turn on the music and start "hooping" it up! I am seriously considering trying it out.

Do you have any memories or past experiences about the hula hoops or do you think this would be a good way to lose weight and tone up today?

DO YOU NEED WASHING?

A friend of mine sent me this. I love it. This is something we all need to stop and think about.

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.

It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Target.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall.. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom let's run through the rain," she said."What?" Mom asked."Lets run through the rain!" She repeated."No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,""We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said."No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!

"The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes..Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith."Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said..Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars..And yes, I did. I ran.. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday..To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

This brought back memories of one rainy afternoon about fifteen years ago when a friend and I walked about three miles in a warm, summer afternoon's rain. We were soaked to the skin but it was one of the most exhilarating and fun things I have ever done.

Do you have memories of walking in the rain???

ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS?

Superstitions are beliefs in ideas or practices based on the supernatural as opposed to the laws of science.

My mother was very superstitious and was always telling us not to walk under ladders because it was bad luck or that a black cat crossing the road in front of you was bad luck. She had a whole bag full of this stuff and she passed some of them on to me.

I have to admit I don't like it when I see a black cat crossing the road and can remember once a long time ago turning the car around and going in the other direction.

If I am walking down the street, I won't go under a ladder either!

Remember when we were kids and played hopscotch or walked down the sidewalk and we would say, "step on a crack, break your mother's back".

I can remember spending hours looking for four-leafed clovers because we thought they would bring us good luck and do toads really cause warts?

I still repeat the saying, "find a penny and pick it up and all day long you'll have good luck."

Does an apple a day keep the doctor away? Is is really unlucky to rock an empty rocking chair?

The cardinal is Kentucky's state bird and there are a lot of them around. I can remember a saying mother always had when she saw one of these birds. It went like this: " Red bird, red bird, one, two, three. Going to see someone you are not expecting to see!" To this day whenever I see a red bird, I think of this saying. I think I may have passed this one on to my girls because they say it, too.

Isn't is amazing how these things stay with us over the years? Do you have superstitions or remember some of your own?

KENTUCKY'S COUNTRY QUEEN, LORETTA LYNN

Those of you that read my blog all the time know that I like to write about famous Kentuckians. This lady is Kentucky's most well known country music artist, Loretta Lynn.

I plan to write about several of our songwriters and musicians in the future and if you want to hear the music of each person, it will be playing in the background while you read the post. If you don't want to hear the music, just scroll down to the bottom of the page and turn it off!

Loretta Lynn was born in Butcher Holler, Kentucky on April 14, 1935. She was the second of 8 children. That part of Kentucky is known for its coal mines and a lot of poverty.

Loretta married Oliver Vanetta Lynn at the ripe old age of 13 in 1948. Oliver's nickname was Doolittle or Mooney. Mooney was from his early career of running moonshine. Loretta had her first child at the age of fourteen and four by the age of seventeen. She was a grandmother at thirty two. They were married for almost 50 years and had 6 children all together, including a set of twins, Peggy and Patsy. Peggy was named for her mother and Patsy was named after the great Patsy Cline.

I am sure most of you have seen the movie, Coal Miners Daughter or read the book by the same name. If not, they are both worth your time.

Loretta has written over 160 songs, released 17 number one albums, and had 16 number one singles on the country charts. She was the first woman named, Entertainer of the Year, by the Country Music Association and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She ruled country music during the 60s and 70s.

Loretta and Doo bought the entire town of Hurricane Mills, Tennessee and their 1817 plantation home there is billed as the 7th largest attraction in Tennessee. She filmed her famous Crisco commercials from the kitchen of the big house.


The Lynns had a son, Jack Benny, that drowned in 1984.

Doo died in 1996 and Loretta moved to a smaller house behind the big one where she resides today. The big house is open for tours.

I heard Marie Osmond say once that she started out singing country music because Loretta was one of her idols.


A favorite saying is supposed to be, "Honey, life flies by so you have to make every day count!"

A few years back, I made a trip to Butcher Holler to see her childhood home. It was an experience!


Finding the place was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We went to Paintsville, Kentucky and began asking directions. Everyone knew where it was but there was no roadside signs or anything at this time. The first thing we finally found was a rock with an arrow pointing down a country road.



Finally, we came upon a country store that was run by her brother, Herman. He told us he would lead us up to the old house and it cost $5 per person to enter and look around.

We followed him up a gravel road to the house. His dog ran along beside his car all the way up the road. The house sits on top of a hill and was worth the $5 to have a look around. There was an old wishing well in the yard and a lot of the furniture, according to Herman, was the original furnishings during the time they grew up. He said the wood cooking stove was original, too. There was lots of family pictures and photos around the place and pictures of her after she got famous.




This lady has endured poverty to become a major star and is a staunch survivor today.


I am proud she is from my home state of Kentucky!

MY 100th BLOG POST!

Today's post marks 100 entries I have made on this site! It is amazing how fast they add up. My first post was in April 2008. I have enjoyed blogging so much and have made so many friends out there in blog land from Scotland to Australia to the United Kingdom, India, Canada, and right here in the United States.

I appreciate each and every blogging friend and all the great comments you leave here. This has been a place to laugh, cry, vent, play, and express love for friends and family and get to know some wonderful people far and wide.

I thought for this post, I would show you my blogging place where I spend a lot of time reading your comments, writing comments on your blogs and just generally hang out when I am on the computer. We post pictures of flowers, trips, birds, and a zillion other things but this is where I am actually coming from! It is just a small room in my home that I use for my computer and my monster.

I hate the computer desk but it does the job for now. I plan to replace it in the future. I have all my cookbooks, recipes, and files in this room.

My "monster" is my pilates that looks like some kind of torture machine but actually works very well if I use it often. It keeps my arthritis from acting up and keeps me limber.

I have a small t.v. mounted up in one corner of the room so that I can keep up with my shows and be on the computer at the same time.

The shelves hold my cookbooks and family pictures.

These black and white framed pictures of my grandson, Thomas Wyatt, on the wall are some of my favorites.

Bob made me this little cherry table and I love it!

The picture below is a collage my son did for me. The girl is me when I was in grade school.

Now, you have some idea or thought in your head of where I am coming from when I write or comment.

I challenge all my blogging friends out there to do a post on their blog site! This has been fun to do and a great year for me just getting to know you all. Thanks again and hugs to you from me. I tried to make these pictures so they would blow up if you clicked on them but for some reason it would not let me do it this time. Does anyone else have problems with pictures on blogger?

A VISIT FROM THE LITTLE MAN!

TW spent the day with me on Saturday so that mom, Sarah, could visit with her friend who has a new baby.

We had a great time. I made him breakfast and found out he loves sausage and had two along with applesauce, biscuits, sorghum and milk. He will not eat eggs! When he does not like or want something, he just says "no" and hands it back to you or pushes it away.

We played outside with his wagon. This time he wanted to pull the wagon all around the yard and not ride in it. Nana had bought a couple water guns and he thought that was great fun but had trouble reaching the trigger on the gun.

He is still not quite tall enough to open the patio door by himself but he never fails to try!

Nana's shoes are still too big!

He absolutely loves that Disney movie, "Cars" and we watched that along with an Elmo movie.

TW is really into his cars and trucks now and plays with them constantly. He will be two on June 6, and I plan to make him a birthday cake and put the little cars from the movie on it.

Nap time lasted over two hours but he is used to taking a nap at daycare.

He is always glad to see Mommy return and blows me kisses when they are leaving. We had a great visit and a great day. He will be back on June 6 to spend the night with me on his birthday.

That look in the picture on the left just melts Nana's heart!

A SHORT TRIP TO VIVAY!

Bob and I decided to take a short trip this week just to get away for a few days. The weather here has been beautiful and in the high 70s and low 80s. We decided to drive up to Vevay, Indiana. Vevay is a small town that is trying to build up its tourist trade. It sits right on the river and the whole town is a mile long with only one stoplight. The drive is about an hour and a half from my house. I was ready to go somewhere after two straight weeks of rain, rain, rain!

We had breakfast in a small restaurant on Main Street where everyone knew everyone else in there and a full breakfast cost all of $3.50. There was one waitress and the lady cooking looked to be in her 80s. The food was great.

After breakfast, we ventured out to walk around the town and see the sights.

The Mercantile Shop carried all handmade items from the local people.

There was a sidewalk cafe for lunch and the local radio station pipes music onto Main Street all day.

The Amish Shop featured their goods and antiques. That's Bob under the sign. The puppet in the picture was looking for a good home.

The architecture of some of the buildings was awesome and the court house was built during Civil War Days. A rose garden and Farmer's Market surround the old court house.I saw this sign posted on the side of a shop in Vevay. I could not resist taking a picture. The owners must not be fans of the Clintons! The sign says, "Hillary and Bill belong in the big house, not in the White House!" There is a wonderful Riverfront Park with a playground for children and picnic area and benches along the river where you can sit and watch the boats. I saw this race car on the playground and immediately thought of my 23 month old grandson, Thomas Wyatt. He loves the Disney movie, "Cars", and he would love playing in this one.
Bob and I watched the boats and this tugboat came down the river pushing a barge loaded with coal.

This is such a laid back little town that I felt like I was in Mayberry and Andy and Barney might appear any minute. It was the perfect place to relax, talk to local people and shop keepers and enjoy the wonderful weather.

We have decided to take several short trips or day trips in the near future. I enjoy working in the yard at home and usually if I go on a big vacation I am ready to come home in a few days so this works well for us.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy three day weekend.