Where has it gone?

I'd like to know where the first five plus months have gone this year. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming in a new year and now it is June! I've traveled so much that I'm sure that has made time seem to fly. Which brings up another thing -- who likes to live out of suitcases? Well, I have made it an art this year! Or, I should have ... I probably haven't since I keep forgetting where I left things. Then again, I remember where I left something -- but not exactly "where" at the place where I left it. Okay -- have I completely confused myself? Partly ...


Case in point -- I bought a new digital camera this year and with it was a charger thingy. Pull out the little battery in the camera, stick it in the charger and before too long, the green light comes on telling you that the battery is ready to go back into the camera. Great .. as long as you remember where the charger is.


I arrived home from one of my many trips and looked in what I thought was the normal place to keep the charger. Not to be found anywhere! Then I remembered -- I think I left it at my mother-in-law's house but I wasn't going to be there for a while so pulled out the trusty old digital camera that is much bigger to lug around, has lesser mega-pixels (whatever that means) but takes better pictures than many cameras with 8+ mp's (for short).


Soooo, on Monday, I was at my mother-in-law's house again and I went to where I thought my charger should be -- on the bookshelf in her room. Yes, that is definitely where I left it -- I was sure -- well, pretty sure? Maybe??? Nope, nowhere to be found. But, I had this nagging reminder that it was indeed there ... somewhere. Then I remembered I had left a suitcase there in her closet. Pulled out the suitcase -- zipped open the top compartment and voila!! There it was just waiting for me to find it? Wonder what battery chargers would say if they actually had a brain? "Why did you put me in this dark place and then leave me here for so long when you knew you really needed me??"


Okay .. that's enough!! I need to get up early tomorrow to head to Atlanta! Better get good sleep -- I'll be traveling up I-75 and glad I am not going south -- after the accident down near
Bradenton, it looks like noone will be traveling that area for a while!! A tanker truck tried to avoid an accident on I-75 and in doing so, went over the edge down onto Route 301 and exploded. It 'compromised' the bridge structure so not sure how long it will take to get it fixed. The driver is alive but severely burned. As you can see, this was a challenge for drivers until they were able to put both directions of traffic on the one side not affected by the crash.




So ... I guess I'd better get some rest.

A special birthday!!

My dad told my sister, Rachel, that he was feeling sad and a little lonely. She reminded him that today would have been my mother's birthday. While his mind is very alert, he sometimes loses track of what the actual date is. He immediately recognized the date and I'm sure spent the evening reminiscing as he often does.

So, a happy birthday in memory of my mother. I thought I'd add just a few photos here as I remember the special lady who gave birth to six of us. I'm sure she wasn't sure what she had gotten herself into with four boys and two girls! We were the bookends -- four boys between us! I think there were even times when all she could do was shake her head -- especially when my brothers got old enough to know exactly how to 'push her buttons'. Actually, I think her sons-in-law, Allen (Southerland) and Bob learned how to master that! But, she seemed to be a pretty good sport for the most part!

So ... lest I ramble too much, here are a few photos just for the memory ... happy birthday, Mother! You are never out of our minds and hearts! And you would be amused at some of the times we remember you most ...

(I've also included a photo of my mother, her brother, Cecil, her mother and her sister, Wanda. We are blessed that even though my mother and my grandmother have gone onto heaven, both Uncle Cecil and Aunt Wanda are very much a part of our lives!)

I'm home ... for the moment anyway!!

Well, believe it or not, the plane was on time (arriving) and we were on time (leaving). Actually, we landed early! With all the storms in Indiana I was certain that there would be delays as there were for others who were in the airport -- some had been waiting on planes to arrive for several hours. I felt quite blessed that our plane was on time!! Needless to say, I had a very warm greeting when I arrived - temperature, that is!

I talked to Rachel and she told me that another line (or maybe more than one) of severe storms were headed their way ... again!!! They didn't have any damage at their home but north of them, it hit pretty hard .. again! I'll take our every-once-in-a-while hurricane visits any day compared to their tornadoes which can form in an instant it seems.

Now that I've shared that -- and no one probably gives a hoot about it anyway -- I'll get back to my everyday life. Well, then again, not everyday -- I sure don't like to go to the dentist every day and that is on my schedule today. Fortunately, it is not a long visit! Hurray!

So ... lest I bore anyone to tears, I think I'll stop while I'm ahead -- which actually was to share a little about absolutely nothing! Hopefully, tomorrow will be better!!

Small Towns USA

You'll notice I mentioned "small towns" .. I've seen a few of those in the past week! It reminded me of visiting my grandmother in a relatively small town -- nothing like how small these were I just visited. Spiceland, Indiana. Actually, I thought their only claim to fame was a four way stop in the middle of town -- and the small post office I had difficulty finding. However, I was sadly mistaken -- it's much bigger than that. It 'officially' boasts a population of around 750 -- my brother thinks it's closer to 800 but I have no idea where he came up with that idea.

Rachel and I took a leisurely stroll (by car, of course) through Spiceland as we needed to pick up a crock pot (no, I didn't say 'crackpot') from a friend. (Have I already posted this before? If so, please attribute it to my age!) I was soon to find out that Spiceland is also home to a fairly large company - Draper. Rachel tried to explain what they make and I'm not sure exactly what it is but they ship whatever product they make to all ends of the earth. Now don't you feel sufficiently educated about absolutely nothing! I did find out that they employ about 500 at that plant although Rachel thought it might be more than that. The 500 number came from one of the employees. We were told though that kids who grow up in Spiceland find a reason to leave as soon as they can manage it .. not sure why. Seems like a nice little town .. quiet, the neighbors stand out in their yards talking (in a small town, talking might be more akin to gossip), little kids are riding their bicycles down the street ... seems to be pretty safe! (The 'white' area in the photo below is Draper.)

Then there is Lewisville -- when I thought towns wouldn't get much smaller than Spiceland, I went with Rachel to a graduating senior's reception in Lewisville. I knew it had to be a small town when the only stoplight in town held a small sign pointing to the right ... "Lee's Open House". It has to be a small town when there is either only one Lee or everyone knows which Lee they are talking about. I think most of the town must have shown up at Lee's house for the hog roast -- or else many were driving from some distance -- I think the latter was the case since we saw friends we hadn't seen in a year or so since they moved away. Which meant they moved maybe an hour from here. In Florida, if you move away, we assume you have changed states.

All kidding aside, it was nice to drive on the highways of Indiana as it brought back memories of Illinois and heading to my uncle and aunt's farm. I'm not a 'farmer gal' at all -- probably more citified than I want to admit, but I sure loved the time we spent there at the farm. I still am amazed how farmers can plant such straight lines (corn, etc.) I've flown over corn fields and am so awed by this. I'm sure there has to be some simple equation .. then again, maybe it's a special art -- one that is way beyond me!!!

So ... I think I have rambled enough for an evening. I am winding down after a very full week finished by a video game with two nieces and two nephews -- there were only 'four' controllers so figure that one out! (Actually, Juliana and Jimmy traded off -- I told them ONLY ten turns and then I was off and running.) Of course, I didn't win -- although I won the first mini-game completely by default. Couldn't tell you what I did to win but got a 'high five' from Shaley who announced, "You won!!"

I haven't figured out why I only play video games at Rachel's -- I think I need to go home and play some of these with grandkids -- maybe I've learned enough that I can beat someone at some game -- some time -- then again, probably not! They are just tooooo good at it!

Goodnight ....

Graduation Day, etc.

Since Shara's graduation was to be held at 91st Street Christian Church on the north side of Indy, I decided to visit my mother's grave which wasn't too far out of the way. I'm glad I did -- Jene', Seth Mark and Shaley were with me. Then we headed on to Shara's graduation. Here are a few photos of that day, too. I will be heading to Indy today and then home to Florida tomorrow. I enjoy being here but will be glad to get back home, too.

We did do one unusual thing which used to be very 'usual'. We had dinner together at the MCL Cafeteria near the church. That was my parents' favorite place to eat and even though most of the siblings are from the Indy area, no one had eaten there since my mother had passed away. I think it was a fortunate thing that the room where we usually ate together as a family was reserved so we ate in a different section. So, it was a bitter / sweet time together.

"While the storm clouds gather" ... DRIVE FAST!!

Okay, so the title seems a little off ... but that's how we ended what was actually a very nice day. Great start -- scary end!! The day was very busy in preparation for Shara's reception. However, here are a few photos from the reception. Sandi designed this for Rachel -- we simply followed the instructions. Literally!! Rachel laid the 'map' of the table on each table -- and we followed the lead. It worked as these photos will show!

The 'stations' included -- Chocolate (white/dark) fountain table, Picnic table, Chips/Salsa table, Veggie table, Candy table, Cheese ball / Spinach dip table.

Here are a couple photos from the reception ... will try to post more later ...

Now, for the fun part of the evening (which will help to explain the photos below!)

The real excitement didn’t start until 11pm! Since the reception officially ended at 10pm, this seems a little contradictory. However, we were all in clean-up / take down mode and all was going well. Then, Allen makes an announcement – “There is a tornado in the ground in Greenfield – we have to leave NOW and go to the church. We have 20 minutes to get there before it arrives here! So, grab whatever you can and head there.” So, it was sort of crazy – all of us grabbing bags of this or a box of that and heading for the car. “Who’s going with me?” I yelled (after about 10 minutes) to whoever wanted to listen. Jimmy said, “I’m coming!” So, we headed down the road – watching the lightning which was illuminating the approaching storm. We only had about 2-3 miles to go but we were heading south and the storm was coming from the west. I was keeping the car within range of the speed limit – however, those behind us obviously had a little less time than we did. Allen told Rachel they needed to leave NOW, so she jumped in Jene’s car (with glass items in the back seat falling around) .. Allen was in the Suburban (packed to the gills), my niece, Jacinta, had Juliana with her. Jacinta asked what the speed limit was … “Probably around 50mph” Juliana answered. However, getting out of the storm was the primary thing on Allen’s mind so Allen was prodding Jacinta along with honking his horn and urging her to get moving .. and he also told Jene’, “Drive FAST!!!”

By the time Jimmy and I arrived at the church, Shara was there with the door open, urging everyone down the stairs and into the basement. Several of her friends were already there … ‘hunkered’ down in the hallway. Finally, all the cars arrived. However, my brother, Joel, and Allen decided to stay upstairs and watch the storm … Allen actually headed to their house to check the weather and see where the tornado was (or where 'they' were) .. he called the neighbors (got them out of bed) and they headed to the church, too. As the lightning illuminated the sky, Joel and Allen could see the form of the tornado headed straight towards us. By this time, the rain was pouring -- almost sideways!! And the wind was ferocious!

We did not leave the church until after 1am! Talk about tired – all the time thinking about what still needed to be cleaned up! Wondering when we would do it since Rachel, Allen and Shara needed to leave at 7:45am for the church to practice for graduation (in Indy!)

Every time we thought we could leave, we would hear another tornado siren or listen to an update on the radio in the basement of the church. The tornado did come pretty close and we’ve seen quite a bit of damage. Just a few miles east on I-70, a semi (driving) was blown over. That also happened closer to Indy on I-70. Billboard signs along the interstate were twisted and we saw barns demolished. Evidently there was quite a bit of damage just west of here in Knightstown and major damage on the northeast side of Indy. We were fortunate here – although there was a lot of rain in the front yard. We waded through a creek to bring things in from the vehicles.

Power stayed on until about 1:30am!! Then it went off … with several extra people staying overnight, it became interesting trying to find your way around the house without running into someone. Of course, it became very humorous also when the lights came on – and lots of lights came on!! So, it was turn off the lights and try to get some sleep before we started a new day – which actually had already begun in the basement of the church!

While it was a wild and crazy night, we had a nice graduation day for Shara -- Rachel and I went back and cleaned up within a couple hours! So, another one is over -- and Rachel will actually probably have two college graduations before the next high school graduation. I'll have my first graduation for a grandchild next year (Kasi) ... I'm surely not that old yet!!

Thanks to Sandi for walking us through what we needed to do at the reception by phone!!