After Church this morning we had a Farewell meal in the fellowship hall for our Head Coach and Athletic Director and his family.  They are moving to Dallas to coach in a very nice school and live in a very nice neighborhood.

When he took the Head Coaching job we were a Class 3A School.  We went down to Class 2A year before last.  

They have a twin girl and boy eight and a four year old daughter.  Precious family, and one we all have grown to love and admire. 

They  will be missed very much, and their love for our little community and the work they did will not be easily replaced.  They both cried at the Dinner.  

We have lost alot of good people since our Steel Mill practically shut down twenty-five years ago.  Eight thousand people lost their jobs and there was a mass exodus.  Those under fifty got out if they could. 

The town has seen no growth and when young people do come, they don't stay more than five years.  You can't blame them.  It's hard for kids to come back, as there are no jobs available.  Some have tho, and it is nice to see a friendly face from the past.

I love our little town, and the people that have stayed.  I love our Church and the familiar faces I've seen for over forty three years.  

I love our City Park and the old homes that line the streets.  The beautiful Churches and the old Courthouse.  I love seeing where my children went to school and played ball, and worked! 

I remember the drug stores that stand empty and the dress shops that house an old furniture store and an insurance agent.  The Hardware Store is now empty as well as the Carpet Warehouse.

We still have the 99Cents Movie Theatre and the Banks and the Musuem and a fabulous Beauty Shop with eight beauticians and two nail girls. 

Our Mortician is still in the same old big beautiful home, and when someone dies, he turns the porch light on so we know the body is ready for viewing.   

It's been hard saying goodbye to friends we've made along the way.  Some come back for visits, while most are just a sweet memory.

Small towns are just not for everyone!

 

   

 

 

 

Sometimes I feel so insignificant.  

I never really dwelled on it until I went to an air port. There is just something about an airport that makes me feel very insignificant! 

We're all trying to get somewhere, but in the end, we ALL will be on the other side of the ground.

Some people live like this is as good as it gets.  

I look at people and I wonder are you hurting?  Are you sick?  Did you get the job?  I went to a concert the other night, and wondered how many people there would be alive this time next year? 

I'm into the death stuff because of my sis in law, I know. 

My Dad died when I was 20, but hey, I had my whole life before me.  I just moved on.  When you are my age, the only moving on I will do is meeting my Maker...

So this week I will not worry about things that may never happen, or the twenty pounds I must lose or my health or my husbands.  Instead I will focus on the little things....

I'll remember to breath deeply of the honeysuckle in my back woods, and listen carefully to the birds, and watch the tall pines sway back and forth. The strangers I will met on the street or in the malls or at the red lights, I'll say a prayer that they too, will remember the small things in their life.

For it's the small things that make our lives Heaven on Earth.   

I

   

 Passive/Aggressive Anger Management

           

            A husband asks his wife, 'When I get mad at you,
you never fight back. How do you control your anger?'
           
            'I clean the toilet bowl.'
           
            'How does that help?'
           
            'I use your toothbrush.'

 

   I could'nt resist this guys!    I do love my man and would'nt do this at all!

Well, maybe not to this husband!  The first......ummmm, maybe a time or two.....

Tornados have dipped all around us for weeks now, and we are under an alert today, tonight and tomorrow. It's raining and the wind has shifted out of the South. The frogs are going crazy, and the birds have gone for cover, except my hummers, and they won't go until the last minute.

Everything is so green and fresh and clean looking. Our garden is doing great and tomato blooms are plenty.

I wish for everyone a wonderful Summer full of precious memories, long evenings under the shade trees or on the porch, and friends and family around you! I've already seen fire flies!

Take care! Heide

My 97 year old Mom talking with a friend at my Brother and Sis in Laws party. She had a ball.... She made the blouse she is wearing.

The Hill Country was beautiful. Hot and humid with wild flowers blooming and our family and many friends full of pride and sad at the same time.

My sister in law, as most of you know has been battling multiple myeloma, a very painful, deadly form of cancer, for three years 7
months! Her meds have taken its toll, and her blood pressure is up, but you would never know it if you met her for the first time.

I cleaned her house and help my brother set up the party bldg., and helped her make her famous "red" sauce and her hot salsa and her calantro dip. We had so much fun, and I helped her open jars and cans and cut up japalenos, onions and made my guacamole. My Brother did his shrimp boil with little new potatoes, German Sausage, and sweet corn on the cob!

Their daughter will graduate from Vet School, this time next year. She too is a doll, and they have so much to be proud of with their two kids.

Please join with us, PRAYING that Karen will be here and able to party with her daughter in another year. 25% live with this four years. She and my Bro leave for Utah for more treatment Tuesday.




My Bro and Sister In Law had a wonderful Brunch Sat. morning after their Shrimp Bowl/Graduation Party. Only fam were there, and we told my nephews future in laws goodbye, as they headed back to Nebraska. Both of their married daughters and hubbys and four grandsons were there. We really are growing, and I loved them all.

After they left, we went to my Aunt Madilenes to say hi in the Nursing Home. She was so happy to see us, and hugged us and cried. I hated so much leaving her. She is 95, and can no longer live alone.
I love my Aunt Madilene and ask you remember her in your prayers. She is beautiful, and has one child, a son and has been widowed fifty years.



My cousin who retired from Director of Nursing at Harris Methodist Hospital in Ft. Worth this past Dec., was at the party with her hubby. She is my Moms baby sisters daughter. My Aunt Ann died six years ago. My cousin and I were like sisters growing up.

She developed Type 2 diabetes in Jan., and is having a horrible time with her meds. Everything they give her makes her sick. She felt horrible, and was not her fun-loving self. I pray she will get to feeling better and start enjoying her retirement. She is 65 and looks 55, and very small. I just thot fat people like me got diabetes!


My nephew and his future wife will be veternarians in Phoenix... Look out June and Ron.

I'm so thankful for once again family memories and a Get Together!

Hope to see everyone really soon. Heide