Think we'll take a nap ...

Ava looks completely relaxed on her Poppa's lap and I think Chris decided that if she could take a nap, he could, too!!

She's found a special place in his heart and you can tell she's completely relaxed and secure on his lap!!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Cecil! It's hard to believe that he is into his 80's (no, I won't add 'well' into his 80's.) I remember his birthday (sorry, Aunt Wanda) because it is two days after mine. I remember back when I was a child, my grandmother would go to Tennessee during November. Partly to celebrate Uncle Cecil's birthday, I imagine, and sometimes to stay for Thanksgiving. My grandmother's birthday was in October so perhaps they celebrated her birthday, too. I do remember many Thanksgiving dinners at my grandmother's house so she must not have stayed through Thanksgiving every year. There's nothing like being at G'ma's house on Thanksgiving. I do remember a few times when the Nelsons were able to join us in Princeton (IL).

Uncle Cecil is one of those great southern gentlemen. I haven't met too many who really qualify for that but he has always been that way as long as I can remember. I don't remember him getting "out of sorts" or maybe he just hid it from all of us! Who knows! I know that I was always in awe of his education and knew that at least two weeks each week were spent in Clinton TN in a high security job related to the government. (Hope I got that right!)

I do remember visiting their home and of course, that mean I would be with Cynthia (Cindy) who is just a few months younger than I am. We had so much fun together. One of my favorite memories is when I wished I had her curly hair and she hated the curls. So, one afternoon, we decide to brush those curls right out of her hair! As you can imagine, we brushed for a long time and absolutely nothing happened. I would have given anything for her curls -- my hair was as straight as a stick!!

Uncle Cecil is the oldest of three children. My mother was just 2 years younger and Aunt Wanda is MUCH younger! (Aren't you proud of me, Aunt Wanda?) It was always fun to get all of us together. There are 12 grandchildren -- I am happy to announce I am the oldest! Not that it makes a difference except that Grandma Nelson did remind me of that over the years. "You're the oldest!" Not sure if that was a good thing or not but I tended to believe it was a good thing. We sometimes talked about my Grandpa Nelson who passed away when I was just 3 years old. From what I understand and with all the photos and video tapes to confirm that, we had a very close relationship. When he was too ill to get out of bed, he hid a tricycle under the sheet! I can remember that -- and remember riding it down the hallway!

Okay, so I have sort of ventured away from my original post which was to wish my Uncle Cecil a "happy birthday". Family is so important and I am so glad we made memories that will last a lifetime! Oh, I could get carried away from the 'happy birthday' message to include other memories like visiting the farm where Aunt Wanda and her family lived. Or I could include Grandma's enclosed back porch which, in the wintertime was cold enough to serve as a storage area for all the homemade cookies and candies she would prepare for the holidays. Or I could mention the basement at her house we all loved. At the bottom of the steps to the left was her deep freeze and in it we would find the best lemon ice cream ever -- and to this day, I haven't found lemon ice cream like that. Of course, that basement was an awesome place for the 'boys' to roller skate and make lots of noise which usually brought Grandma to the top of the stairs with a stern warning! It really got noisy if they got to playing those table hockey games!!

I could mention learning to can tomatoes in her basement or wondering how Uncle Chuck could get those rows of corn so straight out at the farm. And all I was going to do in this post was wish my Uncle Cecil a 'happy birthday'. Wow .. got carried away, huh?

By the way, he is married to one of the sweetest ladies in the world and she can truly be defined has having southern hospitality at its best! (In the photo: Aunt Wanda, Aunt Roberta & Uncle Cecil, taken at my mother's funeral.)

And then there are all of us ... in the photo below, we are all there except Rachel who hadn't arrived quite yet. Front row: Bobby (U. Cecil's), Gary (A. Wanda's), my brothers, Joel, Thad & Mark, Scott (A. Wanda's). Back row: My brother, Tim, Grandma Nelson holding Valerie (A. Wanda's), me, Cynthia (U. Cecil's) and Carol Lee (A. Wanda's).

So, Happy Birthday, Uncle Cecil!

The final year ...

Do I feel older today as I enter into the final year of my 50's ... I never dreamed this day would come when I was young. In fact, I thought when you turned 50, you would get old and die. I grieved for a long time about the day my dad would turn 50 and he might just go on to heaven. I am happy to report that he is 83 and still here -- and I can talk to him daily. For that I am very thankful! I do have to admit that while I don't feel any older today, I did wonder about that when my first great-grandchild was born. Wow! Should I feel old? Then I realized that my sister, Rachel, is now a great-great aunt so if I go by the "great" definition, she should feel MUCH older than I do and she is almost 15 years younger than I am. So much for that ...

I remember my 40th and 50th parties ... On my 40th, we were living in North Carolina and I was working at a construction company. My primary boss was Eddie Beaver but much of my work was actually done for Ed Arthur. I have a feeling that Ed A. was responsible for what I found in my office that Friday morning .. why do I remember it was a Friday? Well, that was the day subcontractors came in to pick up their checks and when I walked in that morning, there was this big dead wreath proclaiming, "Our Sympathy At the Passing of Your Youth"!! (Hey, Terri Russell, did you have something to do with that?) I understand that someone went to a local graveyard and picked up that wreath -- it was on a nice easel type of thingy set where you could see it right when you walked in the front door. (Like an 'in your face' kind of thing!)

Soooo.... if that wasn't enough, I looked into my office which was right off the foyer. My office chair was gone and in its place was a rocking chair!! A rocking chair! And a nice afghan and a cane!! But, that wasn't the best and if I were much more organized like my daughter, Sandi, or my sister, Rachel, or my sisters-in-law, Betty and Linda, I could go to a scrapbook and pull out the photo. I saw it recently but have a feeling it is in some box somewhere .. oh, well ...

Anyway, there was a big sign on the front of my desk .. it covered almost the whole front of it and it stated, "I'd rather be 40 than pregnant"!! Well, I may agree with that but really, Ed, did you have to proclaim it to the whole world?? I'll have to admit, it did make some good memories.

My 50th was much kinder ... our girls threw a real 50's bash for me and turned our family room into a 50's cafe! Poodle skirts, old fashioned bottled root beer in buckets of ice, and lp records filled the family room. They had invited lots of friends and we truly felt like we were back in the 50's!!!

Okay, so I've spent about an hour looking through old photos and can't find them -- where is my organization talents when I need them -- then again, now isn't the time I should have had them -- that would have been years ago! Roxanne told me she remembered seeing some of them in a photo album -- shock, they made it to an album. I do have some albums that are theme oriented but they are in a drawer in the family room.