Thursday, December 31, 2009

Once in a Blue Moon


Have you ever heard that expression -- once in a blue moon? Well, there will be a blue moon tonight! A blue moon is the second full moon in a month. (That happens only about once every two and a half years. ) There was one on the second of the month and now another tonight, the last day of the month. What makes this blue moon even more rare is that it's happening on New Year's Eve. According to one website, the last New Year's Eve blue moon was in 1990 and the next won't be until 2028. Just in case you're wondering, the moon will not actually be "blue". This is just a term used to express this lunar event.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling the need to celebrate this New Year's Eve blue moon in some way. If you do, let me know how you do it. I'll share mine with you also. **** I celebrated by looking for the moon until I found it uncovered and could take this sad little photo! I also called many loved ones tonight to wish them a Happy Blue Moon and a Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Wreck This Journal




I've been working on my "Wreck This Journal" by Keri Smith since right around Easter. I'm not finished with it yet. I only work on it with my grandkids or when I just want to doodle or experiment. Or play! She has several different books out. All of which I'd like to get.
These are a couple of the pages that I've worked on recently. I've enjoyed working on them very much and I hate that I've finally filled up the pages of circles. So much so that I may have to put circles on a another page or two, just for the heck of it.
The stamps have been extremely fun too. I wish I had been pasting used stamps in books for years! I just think of all the cool stamps that I've bought to send off to other people and never seen again and I get a little sad. Then I look at these two pages and think of the ones to come. I'll never skip over an envelope again. And I can always use the stamp glued pages for other art at some point in the future. You just never know what will happen. It will also be a great way to cover up pages in the journal that I'm not overly fond of.
I highly recommend this book and anything else that Keri Smith has written. *each name has a different link







One Little Update on The Best is yet to Come

Just want to clarify that when I'm talking about eating better and exercising, my goal is to get healthy. If I do lose weight and get trimmer in the bargain, that will be an added bonus. I want to see my grandkids grow up. I want to see them get married and have children. I want to see them be happy. What a blessing that would be. What more could a gramma want?

Even more than that, I want to be comfortable in my clothes. I want my knee to feel better. I want to walk miles at a time and enjoy it. I want to find a bra that fits and is pretty and comfortable. I want to actually wear the clothes that I always picture myself in. I want to be much more fit.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The Best is yet to Come!

As the year grows to its end, I am thinking of all sorts of things.



The last year and a half have been more than challenging personally, not only for myself, but for my husband also. I have hopes and wishes for this man I've been with since July of 1976 and married to for almost 32 years now, but when you get right down to it, I can only work on my own hopes and wishes. He has to take care of himself, so to speak. So do I. I plan to do just that this coming year. I plan to become the person I was meant to be. It's not too late.



I plan to get healthy, once and for all. I'm too young (at days shy of 50) to feel this damn old. The reason for me feeling old is my physical condition. To say that it's "poor" would be an understatement. I don't exercise and I don't eat correctly, whatever that is. Over the coming year, I plan to start doing both of these things, slowly but surely. I may even start another blog just about my health goals. If I do, I'll let you know. Getting healthy has been a goal of mine for many years now, but I swear this is the last year that I'm going to end the year weighing more than when I started it. I heard Dr. Phil (I think) say one time that you will not weigh the same the next year as you did this year. You will either weigh more or less. I do believe he's right.



I will continue to grow creatively. I've done some of this in 2009 and I cannot tell you the difference it has made in my daily life. I feel like a new person! I feel like I'm starting to become the person I was meant to be. I feel that it literally saved me these last few months. I must continue on this journey. There is no option. It's like needing to breathe. My only regret is that it's taken me so long to start this journey in such seriousness and enjoyment. I've been on the path for many years, but I'm making progress now. Thank You Lord for that.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

The Christmas Day that was....

We were able to cook after all. I got lots of suggestions, all good, from my quilting friends on how to handle the dead oven heating element. In the end though, my hubby decided to use the oven with the broiler element. We kept the door shut and adjusted the shelves down one, experimented with time and temperature and used foil when necessary. Thankfully, it was just the two of us and, because of that, we had a limited menu to begin with. Everything turned out well. Which is more than I can say for me.



I'm sick. I don't know if it's an extremely light case of the flu or a sinus infection. It feels like a combination of both, so your guess is as good as mine. I do know that using my neti pot just about killed me last night, but after the initial pain, I felt much better. So, I'm leaning toward a sinus infection.



My hubby has been taking care of me. I've been in bed, being a bum and feeling crummy. Sleeping when the coughing isn't keeping me awake. Today, I'm a little better since it's the first time I've felt up to using the computer at all.



A little update on our snow. You basically saw it in the photo I posted. It did get heavier for a bit, but nothing came of it. We didn't get even a light covering.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

What's not cookin'

We just discovered that the heating element has gone out on our oven. It's after 6 PM on Christmas Eve. I'm guessing that not one place that sells replacement parts would be open at this time. So, our Christmas dinner will be most unusual tomorrow. I'll let you know later what it ends up being.

Will it be a white Christmas?


Christmas Eve 2009

We were supposed to go to my sister-in-law Charmaine's house today. When I woke up, I could tell that it had indeed gotten colder, as predicted. I felt a migraine coming on. I feel miserable. I did not feel like visiting with anyone even someone I love and enjoy so very much as Charmaine.

I drug myself out of bed, washed the remaining dishes and had breakfast. Then I told my hubby how I was feeling. Seems he wasn't feeling terribly good either. So he called his sister and told her we wouldn't be making it to her house after all. I feel bad about canceling on them, but with 16 other guests expected, hopefully they won't miss us too much.

I came back upstairs and put on my Holly jewelry that I made last night. I turned on the White Christmas marathon that is showing on AMC. I have it muted so that I can listed to Christmas music on the radio, which I'm listening to through the computer. I have KVIL (a Dallas station) on because they play all Christmas music after Thanksgiving (I think). Since it's on the computer, they usually show the song and artist, so I'm making a list of songs to down load later.

I've got the shades up, watching for the snow we might get. It's snowing at Charmaine's now and at several other friend's homes who all live farther north than us. It's very windy here and ice is melting from our roof, but no rain or snow yet today. We got a lot of rain last night, which I guess is where the ice came from. I've seen a little bird land several times on the deck rail. That's been fun to watch. I have an urge to put bird seed on the rail, but I'll have to wait for hubby to wake up. I can hear him softly snoring in the recliner downstairs.

So, this is our Christmas Eve. Quiet and drippy. Nice, but not quite what we had originally planned. Head achy and hoping for that to end. Maybe I need a nap too.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

"Holly" Jewelry set


Hubby and I are going to his sister Charmaine's tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner. I'm not entirely sure what clothing I'll wear, but I did want to make some jewelry to wear to the gathering. So, tonight I pulled out my new green glass beads and started playing. I knew I wanted it to be Christmasy looking, so I pulled out all of my reds, whites, clears and other greens also.
My garnets are beautiful, but too dark for Christmas and rather brown looking, like most of my other red beads, which I hadn't realized before and I find rather disappointing. The garnet beads are what I had originally planned to use, so on to plan B since they just wouldn't do. I had 30 lovely little green, red and white millefiori beads that I almost incorporated into the necklace. I also tried some Swarovski Crystal AB beads, but I really liked this combination of the glass beads and coral best once I came across them together.
It's the shortest necklace I've made for myself since I've been making jewelry. I couldn't make it any longer. I used all of my coral beads in this. The earrings are the first I've ever made. I call this the Holly set. It looks like abstract holly leaves and berries to me.
Merry Christmas!

Hair

I have old hair now. I'm going to be 50 in a couple of weeks. I'm not upset by that number because it sure as hell beats the alternative and I'm more comfortable in my own skin than ever before, but I'm not overly happy about my hair. I've never dyed it. It's my natural color. The only thing I've ever done to my hair in the past, besides cut it, is to perm it, many years ago. I have some grey. That doesn't bother me. Never has. I'm not all that vain. Although, I am more vain that I used to be. At one time (in my late 30's probably) I saw an interview with Tyne Daly, who said she celebrated her 50th birthday by shaving all the hair off of her body. And I do mean all of the hair off of her whole body! I thought that was pretty cool and decided I'd do the same thing. Well, the closer I got to 50, the more I thought I probably would not do that. Tyne is a more courageous woman than I or I am indeed more vain than she. Maybe both.

So today I get out of the shower and dried my hair. Then I look in the mirror and realize it looks so dull and lifeless. I have old hair now. That makes me a little sad. Even more sad than the sagging breasts, the flapping arms, the smile lines and other wrinkles. But, I digress and I go to places neither of us want to picture at this time of day. When I was much younger, I promised my dad that I would never dye my hair. I may have to break that promise one day because if the commercials are to be believed, that's all I have to do to get my shiny hair back.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

This time of year...


This time of year is always special to me. I love to see my Christmas tree all decorated and lite up. This year, the tree is so full of ornaments that my hubby has been concerned it would topple over. I knew it wouldn't. My favorite new ornament on the tree this year is a sock monkey wearing boxer shorts with hearts all over them. I bought my hubby similar boxers when we were first married, for Valentine's Day. I found the sock monkey ornament at the Houston Quilt Festival in October and just had to get it for him. I look at that little sock monkey and laugh.




I've been doing chores and running errands when I have to. Craving Christmas movies and music constantly. I can't seem to get enough of either this year. I want to sit and quilt with these wonderful old movies playing in the background for me to stop and gaze at every time I pull the thread through the layers of the quilt. Sometimes I have to rewind the movie if something really good or special to me happens while I'm loading my needle with stitches. I stay up late watching and stitching and sleep later than I should the next day. I'm not getting everything done that really should be done, but I'm getting the things done that have to be done.




You may have noticed that I haven't added any photos to my weekly photo challenge in a while. Well, I think I've run out of room for it in my life at the moment. Other things are just taking over. Not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure I'll revisit a photography challenge in the future. Right now, I want to concentrate on quilting and stitching.








Sunday, December 20, 2009

quote

I've been on the Good Reads website most of the day reading quotes. This has been a favorite for some time, but I never knew who said it until today.

"Well behaved women seldom make history." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Kantha Stitching

Kantha is a type of stitching that I first saw on the blog, Spirit Cloth written by Jude Hill. I've attempted it myself on a couple of my small art quilts. Rage and Black Cat both have my variation of kantha stitching on them. I had wanted to use kantha for Thou Shall Not Steal Pecans, but I had trouble with the batting bearding through to the front of the quilt. I used Mountain Mist 100% cotton batting in that quilt, which is a perfectly wonderful batting to hand quilt with traditional quilting thread. I apparently needed a batting with a scrim for kantha stitching on that particular fabric because it was a little more loosely woven than what I normally use. That's why I think the Warm and Natural batting will work for kantha and that wonderful hand dyed fabric by Marcia Derse. It has a thin scrim. I'm excited to think of the possibilities! I will let you know how it goes as soon as I know.

Kari, thank you for the kantha link.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A New Quilt Shop in Tool, Texas!!!


Mom came by this morning. We sat visiting, laughing and talking for a while. It is always so good to see my Momma! I know I'm very lucky. Not every woman can see her mom often and not every woman even wants to. In this area, I'm very blessed. I want to see her more often than I get to, but I'm happy I get to see her as often as I do.
As we talked, mom asked if I had seen the new quilt shop down the road. What? A quilt shop? Where? When did it open? Are you sure? She told me where she had seen the sign. I knew exactly where that was (about 5 miles from my house!). We ran a few errands later and as we passed the store, we stopped in. I think I squealed like a little kid on Christmas morning when I first saw the sign! Unfortunately, at the time, they were closed to go to lunch. (Don't worry, they don't do this on a daily basis.) So we noted the time they'd be back and headed back to the house to visit more until they reopened. At 2 PM we hit the road to go back.
We met the owner, Charlotte Scrimshire and her friend Judy. We talked, we visited, we shopped! I bought a craft sized Warm & Natural batting, to try in the next quilt from the fabric I bought from Marcia Derse while in Houston this October. I'm still wanting to try kantha stitching on that fabric and this batting may give me the option. I don't think it will beard as badly on Warm & Natural as it did on the other stuff I used.
This is a brand spanking new shop! Gone Quiltin' at the Lake opened last week. She doesn't have a large inventory yet, but it usually takes a little while for a quilt shop to build up. If you're in the area, please stop by and see if she has anything you need. The way I think of it, is that everything we buy will mean more Charlotte can stock later for her shop! She's has quilt classes, fabric, notions, patterns and she has a long arm machine for quilting for the public. She even has some completed quilts and other sewn items for sale on consignment. Remember, it will only get better as time passes! I'm so excited! Can you see me doing a happy dance around the room from where you are?

Monday, December 14, 2009

Making it my own!

My sister, mother, niece and I all went shopping to this wonderful place -- Old Town Spring -- on one of my recent visits to my sister's house. There was a shop there that I totally fell in love with. Thad's had all kinds of unique items and lots and lots of fantastic Christmas things. There was a beautiful, unusual wreath that I wanted so badly! It was large and full of vintage ornaments! You could hardly see the green of the foliage for all the great little do-dads. If money was no concern, I would have left with it that day, but I live in the real world where people get laid off right before the holidays, so I didn't.

The wreath at Thad's had a vintage Santa cup (I put a new one on my wreath, it only cost $1 at Michael's!), a vintage white plastic reindeer (we had some when I was a child, but I'm looking for some now), vintage glass ornaments (I put a few on mine) and several small wrapped packages (momma has some that she's bringing to me).

My wreath isn't quite as wonderful as the one at Thad's, but I do love it. Even though I don't consider it finished yet, it is finished for this year. I used ornaments I had already. Ornaments that looked vintage to me, although most of them aren't that old. In the next year, I will continue to look for vintage Christmas things and ornaments to add to my wreath. I want it to end up being just as spectacular as the wreath at Thad's.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Mopping Walls


In the top photo, if you look to the right above the curtain, you'll see streaks from a roof leak. At the time, we had a metal roof and that streaked stuff that ran down my walls is the roof coat. To be honest, we've had the new roof for some time now, but I was afraid that the streaks wouldn't come off, so I never even tried to clean them. Pretty sad, I know.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was vacuuming walls as part of getting ready for decorating. Well, vacuuming the walls just highlighted those streaks. The time had come to try to wash them off, if possible. I used a sponge mop, Murphy's Oil Soap, hot water and a little elbow grease and scrubbed the walls. It worked! In that top photo, to the left of the curtain is the mopped wall. Can you see the difference? I sure can and you should see it in person. That part of the house looks brand new again!
There is, of course, one big problem with this newly cleaned wall portion. The problem is that I now need to mop/scrub all the walls in the house! I know I won't get time to do this until after the holidays. In the last photo, you can see the wall that had the majority of streaks all clean and shiny. Above the curtain on the left is where I need to re-vacuum. My vacuum cleaner doesn't sound full when it's full of wall dust like it does when it's full of floor dirt. I was obviously tired by the time I got to that section of wall and I obviously had a full vacuum bag. I didn't even notice that the vacuum wasn't picking up all of the dust any longer. It makes me tired just to look at it. I don't even want to think of vacuuming and mopping the walls of the whole house yet. Sure will look pretty when it's done.
*I just enlarged each photo to look at them. I can see that I missed some streaks toward the top (second photo) of the wall. I was pretty tuckered when I thought I was finished. And you couldn't see the streaks because the wall was still wet. Guess I'll be double checking and re-mopping too. Sheesh.

Finished one of my Minis

Spoiler Alert! If you're in my Quilting Friends group, you shouldn't read this post until Sunday 12/13. In fact, if you've read this far, it may be too late. Sorry.





I'm totally finished with the Thou Shalt Not Steal Pecans quilt. My right thumb looks a little like hamburger meat. I was trying to hurry my hand quilting yesterday and I kept poking myself. It was truly difficult to continue to work on it today. Thankfully, I had very little quilting left. Then all I had to do was put the binding, label and the hanging sleeve on. And it only took me until 11:30 PM to do it all.



I have to admit that I love this quilt. I don't know if anyone else really does, but I really do. This is my second totally original quilt. Black Cat was the first. Black Cat was donated to my quilt guild's live miniature auction last year. Pecans will be given as a gift in our Quilting Friends Christmas party. It's going to be difficult to give up Pecans. I'll miss it.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

A Little Clarification

A little clarification for my momma and the men in my life about the posting I made earlier. I love the company of men. I enjoy them and their wit. Nothing on earth makes me happier than the sound of my son or hubby's laughter! I even enjoy talking to men. Men make life interesting. They make it challenging. They make it fun. BUT, I still crave the company of women and only women at times. AND when I do crave the company of women I don't want men pushing their way into the mix. Sorry guys, you are not invited. Please don't let the door hit you in the butt on your way out.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Thank You, Charmaine!



I've shown you the photo I took of my son and father before. Now, you get to see it with the painting my wonderful, talented sister-in-law Charmaine painted for me. I'm just in awe over her talent! You should see her quilts. Her applique is amazing. Now, she's taken up painting and after just a very few lessons, I think she's ready to teach. I hope to have her paint our Elly next year. Elly escaped our fenced yard and was hit by a car that ended her life last April, in the prime of her life. She was only six and a black German Shepherd dog. I miss her so much.
Charmaine has been such a blessing in my life. I met her when my mother-in-law (her mother) had had a heart attack and she, my hubby (her brother) and I were going to drive to Mississippi together to see her. As it turned out, we didn't make it in time, so we went there to plan and attend her funeral. That was in 1983, I think. Since then, she's always been there when I've needed her. She's a true friend. A sister. I'm blessed to have a sister by birth, a sister by marriage and a soul sister. I have an extremely good friend too and a mother that I love and get along with. Who could ask for more?
Thank you, Charmaine. One more thing -- I did have trouble deciding where to hang the painting. I knew it deserved to be in the living room where everyone who visited could see it, but I wanted it in my bedroom. That way, if there was ever a fire in the middle of the night, I could save it. Now, I just hope that if we're ever unfortunate enough to have a fire, that I'm wide awake and I can get it and the watercolor of our home that is upstairs.

Just Because it's Beautiful


Last night when my hubby and I were on our way to Braum's for that peppermint ice cream, this is what the sunset was like at that moment. Isn't it beautiful? I just had to share it with you. It looked so much like a painting to me. It took my breath away.

My Blue Willow


Pam and I have talked about our blue willow dishes in the past. I mentioned to her that mine had the gate open. She'd never seen any with a gate open. So, here is a photo of one of my plates.
I used to have several different types of blue willow by various manufacturers. They all cost various amounts and came from different places, although most came from resale shops, yard sales or antique malls and even eBay. After finding this EIT blue willow and deciding that it was my favorite, I sold and gave away all my other blue willow by other makers. English Ironstone Tableware is what the EIT stands for. Made in England, of course. I have no idea how long it's been made, but I know it's not as old as some of the other blue willow. Probably not as old as most of the other blue willow, for that matter, but it suits us. We use it for our everyday dishes. The mark on the back of ours is just a plain EIT, nothing else. It's kind of indented into the dish and has no ink. I guess it was pressed into the ironstone before it was fired. We have plates, cereal bowls and berry bowls. I sold the cups and saucers in the last yard sale because we prefer to use mugs and just really don't have room for things we don't actually use.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

This is "date" day for my hubby and I. Today, we're planning to go to Braum's and get something to eat (after we've worked up an appetite decorating) and I'll get a peppermint ice cream cone. I love peppermint ice cream during the holidays. I never eat it any other time. I don't know why. I'm just a little weird that way.

To work up that appetite, we've cleaned off the bar and hubby has set up the Christmas tree. I am vacuuming the floor and walls. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm vacuuming my walls. You see, I live in a log house with rounded cedar walls. Pain - in - the - butt! They catch dust like you would not believe! I should do this at least twice a year and I should have done it a month or so ago so that I would not have to do it today, but I didn't. So, I have to do it now. Otherwise, our Christmas decorations would just look crappy against a dusty room. I'll be sure to post photos at some point.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Time

There are moments of time that seem to stand still. Some seem to drag. Some seem to flutter by and most seem to fly. Moment to moment, the way time passes seems to change for me lately. I think some of it has to do with the Texas weather constantly changing. It was cloudy and fluttering snow this morning. My hubby called up to me to tell me it was snowing. I actually saw one snowflake before it stopped! It took me about 30 seconds to wrestle the shade up the window. Now, the sun is bright, but it's still so very cold feeling to me. I can't seem to warm up.

I sit looking out the window as I type this and see the few remaining yellow Elm leaves, on the otherwise bare limbs, shivering in the wind and I shiver with them. I feel the chill bumps rise up on my legs. The tree branches are swaying and dancing. I just want to crawl back under my cozy quilts and take a nap. I'm still having very sleepy days thanks to the withdrawal effects of cutting back on effexor.

But that isn't what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to tell you about driving home last night. The moon was so big and bright in the sky. It was just beautiful. I wanted so badly to photograph it. I even tried with my little digital camera driving at 70 miles an hour, but I know without even looking that the photos didn't turn out. How could they? As I got closer to home, the temperature got lower and the clouds moved in to cover the moon. The sky was still bright, so the sky was more of a charcoal grey than black. The clouds looked like the stripes on kitten fur to me. I kept thinking of a dark tabby kitten and wishing I could hear the purr. Occasionally I would see a house lite up by Christmas lights. It was a nice drive.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Is It Just Me?

I love to visit my sister and her family. The thing I enjoy most about seeing them is getting to talk to my sister and niece and if I'm really lucky, my momma will be visiting at the same time and I'll get to talk to her too. There is just something about talking with women that is so very special to me. So, much so that I crave it at times. Is that just me or do you crave the company of other women too? It's not that I don't enjoy my nephews, my brother-in-law or the husbands of my friends, but they are not the ones I feel a deep need to see and spend time with. Sorry to say this fellas, but for the most part, I'd be happy not to even see you guys. It's the women I want to spend time with and talk to. Please forgive me guys, I do love you all, but don't let the door hit you on your way out. We have some things to discuss here.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Today is all about Dad talk

Today is the 14th anniversary of my dad's passing. This day used to upset me a great deal. I finally got used to the idea of him being gone. I got used to the fact that we'd never be able to go back and be close for a longer period. We got very close after he became ill and it made me angry that we had wasted all of the years before that. Really, that he had wasted all of those years. I'm not angry any longer. That's just a waste of time and energy.

My dad was basically a good man. He did the best he could with what he had, just as most of us do. His father was not a good role model. His mother passed when he was young. His father was not always around for him and his sisters and brothers after their mother passed. So, providing for his family was number one in his book. More important than anything else and I do mean anything. He was a good provider. He started providing to the best of his ability when he was a kid of 14 or so. Maybe even younger. He was the oldest brother and there were hungry younger kids in the family. He and his sister Joan tried to make sure everyone had food and that it was cooked and fed to them. He went into the Navy at a very early age. He got married at 19 to my mother who was 18 at the time.

He worked nights and weekends. He went to Vietnam to work for a newspaper during the war because he could make more money there than here in the States. I was eight years old. My parents divorced when he returned. I was ten then.

No one in his family ever wanted for anything that they truly needed when he was around. At least not if he agreed that they needed it. That sounds snotty and that's not the way I mean for it to be. It's just that if he didn't think it was a necessity, he wasn't going to help you get it with his hard earned money.

Daddy was always good at telling me that he loved me. I don't know that I always believed it, but I did love to hear it and I loved that he could say it when so many people find it difficult to say those three little words -- "I love you" can change a life.

My dad could never remember my birth date. He was forever getting my birthday and my sister's confused and mixed up. For instance mine is January 7th and Teresa's is June 16th. He'd call to wish me a happy birthday on January 16th. This was not the worst thing my daddy ever did though. He used to pit my sister and I against each other. It was his way of trying to get us to do better in certain areas of our lives -- pointing out how well the other was doing -- was to him, telling us that we were just as capable of doing that well ourselves. It didn't work that way though. Not at all. I can't speak for my sister here but, I ended up feeling dumb and not trusting my intelligence. It's taken me almost 50 years to start believing that I am indeed smart. That I am talented. That I can learn and even teach.

Daddy and I talked about this before he died. He lived on our land from October until he died on December 1st. We spent a lot of time together. I took him to dialysis twice a week and my sweet Aunt Joan would take him on Saturday's to give me a little break. I cooked for him and cleaned his little travel trailer. He had a lot of bad days, but we had a lot of good times during those two short months. We got to know each other for the first times in our lives. He was truly saddened to know that his actions had affected me in such a way. I know in my heart that if he had known another way to encourage us, he would have, but he didn't have the first idea of how to begin.

Looking back over this, I'm amazed at the things I've shared with you all. You see, my dad was an alcoholic and that didn't even seem important in this posting. Wonders never cease.