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Trust me on this:  The day of your fortieth anniversary is not a time to reflect on your life and analyze it.  I had so many memories crop up yesterday and literally laughed until I wet my pants.  Not once but several times.  I talked to my best friend who was (of course!) my maid of honor and we giggled about the way she signed her maiden name on my marriage license.  She'd been married a whole three months and hadn't gotten used to the new moniker.  So my marriage license has her name scratched out and rewritten all proper.  She said the only thing she remembered about the whole ceremony was that she ruined my marriage certificate.  The best man has Alzheimer's and when asked if he remembered what he was doing forty years ago replied, "I can't remember what I was doing yesterday!".  Amazingly, he was able to recall the church we were married in and how uncomfortable Ronnie looked in his borrowed suit and tie.

We left town with only a TV set that my parents handed down and some wedding shower presents.  It never occurred to us that we didn't even have a bank account.  Life was good in 1972.

Last night, Lacey and Jack cooked a little celebration supper for us.  We had steaks and all the trimmings, including a cake that shouted "Happy Anniversary!" in bright red colors (for older eyes, I guess!).  Fortunately, we ate early so we had time to watch part of a movie on the Western Channel before falling asleep in our recliners.  That man of mine!  It's been forty years and he's still the life of the party!

120 on Snow

This morning when Ronnie woke up he asked what the weather was like.  I said, "I don't know what it's like today but forty years ago today there was two inches of snow on the ground."  His response:  "I was doing a hundred and twenty miles an hour on snow?!"  As usual I had no idea what he was talking about.  I had gone to bed last night remembering the young girl/woman who had gone to bed forty years ago anticipating her early morning wedding the next day.  I thought about the dress that had a hemline three inches above my knees and the Bible my dad offered with a red rose tied on top with satin ribbons that I carried down the aisle.  I remembered my older brother at the piano as I walked into the tiny church and the glare of sunlight on new fallen snow when I stepped outside.  All Ronnie could remember was being chased out of town by friends who had smeared our windows with shaving cream sentiments--and yes, he managed to outrun them by driving 120 mph on snow.  That should have been my first clue.

120 on snow is a pretty apt description of the last forty years of life with Ronnie.  We've known the thrill of the ride as well as hit the ditch a time or two.  Life is good today and I am thankful for the ways God has used Ronnie to complete my life and make me the person I am today.  Happy anniversary to me today!

Love y'all!

Mammy

January--love it or hate it?

I always enjoy the newness of January.  Love putting the new calendar in the frame in the kitchen.  Love taking time to list everybody's birthday as I leaf through each page.  Love cleaning out the closets and pantry in anticipation of being neater next year.  Hate the resolutions.  I just can't seem to keep them until the first calendar page is flipped.  This year I decided not to resolve anything.  I'm just trying to release a few things.  Here's a little ditty for those of you who (once again) chose to make that weight loss resolution:

Methusaleh

Methusaleh ate what he found on his plate,
And never as people do now,
Did he note the amount of the calorie count;
He ate it because it was chow.
He wasn't disturbed as at dinner he sat,
Devouring a roast or a pie,
To think it was lacking in granular fat
Or a couple of vitamins shy.
He cheerfully chewed each species of food,
Unmindful of troubles or fears
Lest his health might be hurt
By some fancy dessert;
And he lived over nine hundred years.

"Methusaleh," Author Unknown, The Best Loved Poems of the American People, Hazel Felleman, Editor, Copyright 1936, Doubleday and Company.

Love y'all!

Mammy

2012

Ahhh. A new year.  New opportunities.  New challenges.  Love it.

I look forward to the new year and the changes it will bring.  Tomorrow my daughter-in-law will be home from prison and will join us in our home.  We'll begin to share the responsibilities of raising Caden and learning to function as a family.  I know I'll be released of a lot of responsibility as she takes over the mommy role--and I'm sure that won't often be easy for me after four years of being in charge.  But I love Lacey and believe with my whole heart that this is going to work. You certainly won't be wasting a prayer on our family as we work to know what God would have each of us to do to make this as easy for Caden as possible.

On a brighter note, less parenting responsibilities mean more time for me.  Hopefully, I'll be able to blog more often, enjoy my other grandchildren and even get some much needed exercise. 

Blessings to you and yours.  Let me hear from you.  What do you expect 2012 has in store for you?

Oh Lawd, it's hot!

Summer has hit with a vengeance already.  It has really been hot this week--so hot that Poppa actually overheated when he worked outdoors to help set up a swimming pool for Jessen on Saturday.  He came home exhausted but thrilled that Jess and his little brothers have a great place to play this summer.  Unfortunately, Poppa was seriously dehydrated and had to miss church on Sunday because his blood pressure was 54/47.  I wanted to take him to the hospital but he insisted that he could rest in his recliner and drink water and get better easier than he could sit in an emergency room waiting to see a doctor.  It has taken him until today to get his legs back under himself but I think he is on the road to recovery if he won't get out in the heat again for a while.

I am continuing to walk every day but I'm not walking on my lunch break anymore.  It's just too hot.  Now I wait until after 8 in the evening and walk at home.  That's harder to do because there are always forty things I need to be doing after I get home from work each day but I just keep telling myself that walking is now a top priority.  And it's paying off.  I've lost 13 pounds and my cholesterol is 163 (down from 499) and my triglycerides are 293 (down from a whopping 2,120!). I am pretty proud of myself.

There's been a lot going on around Mammy's House that has kept me from blogging.  In the first place, I've been really bummed that I can't add pictures to my posts.   The copier continues to copy but refuses to scan or download images.  And I so wanted to show you the pictures from Caden's graduation.  I'm waiting for my whiz brain daughter-in-law to come for a visit and I will see what she can do to rectify that situation.  We also got a new great niece yesterday. I expect that she will come home from the hospital tomorrow and I am just itching to get my hands on her.  I love babies that are fresh from the hand of God.  And of course, I have been busy canning and putting up all the fresh produce that comes with this season of the year.  Last week I canned green beans, made pickles and pickled beets.  Tomorrow I plan to make plum jelly.  We've also had meals of fresh corn, home-grown tomatoes and new potatoes.  Lettuce straight from the garden has gone into salads and vine-ripe strawberries have been eaten for breakfast. It just doesn't get any better than this!

I planted cherry tomatoes in a large pot next to my back door so that Caden could enjoy being a farmer and gathering the ripe tomatoes.  I told his dad that I'd rather have planted Better Boys or Beefsteak but I wanted  Caden to enjoy gathering LOTS of little tomatoes.  Sunday afternoon Caden went outside and when he came back in, he was carrying a double handful of little yellow blossoms.  He said, "Here, Mammy!  I brought you some flowers!"  So much for fresh tomatoes.  I got flowers instead....

Blessings to you today!

Mammy

 

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

Saddle up your horses and come on over!

What's the point?

I swore I wasn't going to blog about my diet dilemma but there's so much good material in it that it is going to be hard to ignore.  I've been doing Weight Watchers online for three weeks now and Points have become the main focus of my life.  If you have been living on another planet and are unaware that WW has a new Points Plus program, let me quickly fill you in on the highlights.  The program assigns a point value to each food item and the dieter is allotted a certain number of points each day.  If you eat all your points at breakfast, you do without for the rest of the day.  At least that's what I've been told.  Haven't had any experience with that personally, of course.  All veggies with the exception of the starchy (read delicious) ones are free and all fruits are free.  The obvious object of the game is to eat foods that offer free or low points and avoid foods with high point values.  Yeah, right.

So obviously the next question you'll be asking is how am I doing.  Well, glad you asked.  It's been a learning experience for me.  I was flabbergasted (I think that is the same word Frank Camping used to describe his reaction to the world not coming to an end this past weekend but it's the best word I can think of to describe my emotion so forgive me) to learn how many points I've been munching away on each day.  I've been totally Point Oblivious for a lifetime.  Now I am learning that lunch at Sonic can wipe out several days worth of Points.  Let's not even talk about a trip to Olive Garden.  That would be totally Death by Points.  I've also learned that I actually enjoy strawberries and bananas for breakfast (Free points!  Hallelujah!) and simple baked sweet potatoes are a delight I haven't tasted in years.  Additionally, there is life after Coke and--just as Momma always told me--exercise won't kill me.  I am proud to announce that I walk every day there isn't tornadic activity.  That's not saying a lot in southeastern Oklahoma but I'm giving it my best shot.

I go back to see the heart specialist tomorrow and will have lab tests to see how my chubby little body is reacting to all these changes.  I am praying for significantly lower numbers (in my triglyceride level, not my Points.  Lord, please don't ever let them lower my Points!) and am already planning what I'll have for lunch after the appointment (Some things never change!).  You won't be wasting a prayer on me tomorrow as I drive down Preston Road while fasting.  And of course, I'll keep you posted.

Love y'all.
Mammy