mel

Mel has always loved pork

still can't get her off the phone

Prior to 2010, you had to use confetti in a snow ball fight in Mississippi
My fave pic of Mel.......and Michael Scott

13

The Natural

It seems my daughter, Chris, is a natural at sewing. She must be channelling my Mother, who also "sewed by ear".

Both my daughters are faithful gaming convention participants. Chris started making her own costume pieces when she couldn't find them on the web. She did it all by hand at first, but got more ambitious and so needed a sewing machine to do ......something. I don't know sewing terms, she didn't get the talent from me. She used a machine for the first time under the watchful eye of it's owner, and once her savant seamstress appeared, the advisor went on to watch soaps.

In the time it took me to finally procure a machine, Chris continued to create by hand, including a "Mario" hat that is nothing short of a masterpiece.

<<<< MY Baby (She looks like her dad here)

Finally, she got the machine for her birthday. She showed such promise just teaching herself the machine, I allowed her to hem her sister's $80 satin chorus dress.

And so, my bunny has decided to tackle an Alice Wonderland, not Brady Bunch costume for her first full fledged sewing project.

with pin tucks, no less

Such concentration, such form

until tomorrow.....

WE WANT KITTY

We want a kitten. A kitten from an inside cat who has been raised indoors and is used to people handling them. I want to raise a kitten into a cat, young enough to adapt to us, not coming into the home assuming you are their human bidding doers.

We have a dog, and I love her lots, but I looove cats, I can't help it. I torture myself looking at LOL Cat sites, but I can turn into blathering kitty mush for the right cat. Cats and babies turn me into a baby talking voice over machine. Chris is even allergic to cats, not diagnosed or anything, just after we gave away 2 cats (they were mean anti social cats, it was best we parted ways) she stopped the practically non stop sneezing she has done since birth. Silly me, I never put 2 and 2 together, but so great was our kitty love it was a hint we purposely overlooked accidentally.

It's the purring, the dainty paws, the little ears, those whiskers......oh, I could go on. People who do not love cats think I am crazy. Cat lovers understand.

Now, I could hate cats, my mother had cats, a whole colony of cats, a virtual kit and caboodle. She put animals before people, and that ain't right. I don't hate them, I wuv dems vewwy ....anyway, I digress.

We especially want one now, so we can name it Marie. It might seem silly, but we feel strongly about this and we can be mighty headstrong stubborn folks. Chris wants one maybe more than me and Mel, sneezing de damned. Wuvs kitties, wuvs dem....us.....do

Ahem.....

Little Things

My mother-in-law, Marie, was buried today.
Funeral processions are a caravan of cars creeping along ferrying the bereaved to the final resting place. Used to be that the cars in a funeral procession drove with their lights on. Now, since so many cars have lights that won't even turn off, we have to put our emergency blinkers on to identify ourselves as mourners. Most people will pull over and stop as a funeral procession passes, out of respect to the deceased. Some also turn on their blinkers in solidarity. I love this, I love people who take the time to do it, I love doing it myself. I don't know if everyone has this custom in their area, but I hope they do, it's a beautiful thing.
My heart was touched, by a man out pulling weeds by his mail box, or some other retired older Dude activity that makes it necessary to be so near the road, stood with his hat in his hand, held over his heart. He stood stoically in the sun, watching us pass, sharing our grief for a moment in time, suspended in memory. Little things mean a lot, that saying is true. The smallest gesture often speaks the loudest.


Now on to another little thing I fell in love with today.

This is Kyle. Isn't he just insanely precious? He is the newest edition to this loud, rambunctious wonderful group of people. Isn't he lucky?

Life, like the seasons in a year, must follow a pattern. Babies are the Springtime. Fresh and new, they signal the beginning of the circle. Kyle's Mom and Dad are summer. Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high. They've got their whole life ahead of them, and I wish them the best. Life is wonderful when you love your partner and you've got a new baby.
Me, I'm in the Autumn of my life, but very teeny tiny early autumn. I'll be 50 this year. I can't believe I'll be 50 this year, I still feel so summery. My hair is getting grayer everyday, like leaves on a tree turning into fall foliage.
Come for me slowly, Winter, I got things I need to do before I reunite with those who have gone on before.

Louisissippian

I am a proud Louisissippian. Born in Attala Co Ms (I was born in the same town as the world's richest female media mogul type woman who acts sometimes and has the most world famous talkshow ever, but i ain't namin' names.) Moved around between Jackson and Walls til the age of 5, when I moved to Lafayette, Louisiana. Back in Miss, La, Miss, La and that was in one year, I went to 5 schools in the first grade. Louisiana til mid '68 Miss...yak yak yak..you get the picture.

Anyway, I lived Fourteen years, altogether in Lafayette, Louisiana. I went to the same high school for all four years of my Spartan career. That was a big deal for me, I'd never gone to a school for more than one year, except for grades 3-5 in Brandon, Mississippi.

So, I am a Louisissippian. I haven't lived in Lafayette since '86, but I get back from time to time. Lafayette is always with me, though. Not a day goes by that I don't think of good ol' Laffy at least once. I miss Mardi Gras, real Cajun cooking, drive thru daiquiri huts, I remember somethings about High School, my first through fifth jobs at various answering services around town. I care about a lot of people back there. The two people that know Vi ages 14-25 better than anyone else, are in Louisiana.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a Mississippi gal. I have Redneck tendancies. I love turnip greens and corn bread. I go to Natchez and tour Longwood every few years. Ask me my hometown. Eudora Mississippi. Doesn't even have it's own post office. has to schelp along on the charity of a mini city 12 miles away.

Let me state, here, now, on the World Wide Web..Geaux Saints!!!!!!!

I have a very fragmented sentence for you. 2A.M..............Subie Surfing..........lost glasses. Ah.......Eudora!

A Good Place to Begin

The muse is upon me.

I've been thinking about starting a blog for awhile. Strangely, I seem to think I have something interesting to say. I've been inspired by my cousin Kat, and here I am.

My Mother-in-law, Marie

3/6/31-2/15/10.

"What-ev-er"

I wish every one could have known my mother-in-law, Marie. She was so full of life, ready for anything. She wanted to do anything she heard about. She had the gift of living vicariously through others, soaking everything she could from their experiences. She was the woman you wanted to be when you got to be her age.

Marie was my mother-in-law 1992-2000, officially, but the clan she belonged to lives by the credo "once part of our family, always a part of our family". She was everybody's MawMaw.

She loved everything she loved with every ounce of her being. She was game for anything, loved to watch people perform karaoke and loved to hear live music at the casinos. She didn't like to go to movies, though, I think the dark theater kind of freaked her out a little bit, she loved the light. Marie was always on the go, a whirling dervish of good natured Southern ladiness. Wouldn't bake you cookies, but she'd buy you what ever kind you wanted. On your birthday, she bought your cake and gave you money for new tennies. Love pizza? Marie would go to Domino's personally and sit in their waiting area for your favorite pie to surprise you with. She didn't call it in, she went in person.

Hey, come think of it, that describes Marie perfectly. She didn't call it in, she went in person. She was there for you, she loved you no matter how horribly you messed up. She didn't preach nag or scold. She loved turnip greens, Mountain Dew, pigs, kids, making prize eggs for Easter egg hunts, bread and butter pickles, yard sales, couch nappin' and getting "Kissy kisses" from little kids. Did I mention she liked kids, cos she loooooved kids. Anybody's kids, the more kids the merrier. And she was a spoiler. Kids love her, too.

How many times have I watched her, face aglow, watching my daughter discover things, fascinated and proud.

I love Marie, she was more than a mother-in-law to me, I had a relationship with her I had not been able to enjoy with my own Mother, but that's a story for another time. I'm lucky to have known her and have been part of her world.

God has an angel willing to dress in a cow suit.