Friends.................

I have had the great pleasure of knowing some wonderful women in my life and calling them friends was an added bonus...But when you have a friend that knows most of your secrets and you know theirs.....Well, you better hold on to them for dear life (just so you can pick out who plays you in the lifetime movie, because I hang out with some funny people) and honest people....Just the other day my dear friend Hope told me that she described me to a co-worker as someone with more issues than a magazine.........When I told my dear friend Liz that...She agreed.....
Today is Lizzie's birthday, and I want to wish her a Happy Birthday.....Your still a hot mama even if you can't Salsa, Tap Dance, Tango or just squat down........

Meet A Beautiful Miracle..................

I would like for you to meet a future Ultimate Fighting Champion if ever there was one (His Mama is a friend of mine).........This handsome little fella is Mr. Jackson Cash Harmon and he was born almost three months premature....He came into the world on July 7th weighing 1lb and 9oz, today he is 2lbs and 3oz and starting to take some of his Mama's milk....And she finally got to hold this tiny miracle yesterday....I believe in prayers and I thought I would pass this little fella and his tired Mama and Daddy along to you...He's doing great, but still has a long way to go...And I'll keep you posted

What Generation Gap.............

Our granddaughter is staying with us for her last week of Summer vacation.... you know, Wonka Land as her parents like to call it....Or the land that knows no No's....
Tonight the princess decided to take a leisurely bubble bath and I being her loyal servant obliged her.........
When she stepped into the tub she asked, "Gram, would you play one of those funny records you like to listen to while I'm in here".......I couldn't believe what I was hearing, someone who bops around the house singing Justin Bieber and The Jonas Brothers and shakes her tiny behind to Lady Gaga, was wanting to listen to Ella Fitzgerald.....Her Grammie's old Jazz tunes
I stood and watched as she lay in a bubble filled tub with her eyes closed and her head laid back, Lady Ella's magic spell was cast
It was beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I'll introduce her to a little Nina Simone the next bubble bath........

Renewal..........

I ran away from home for a few days and it was awesome!!! I believe a person needs to do that sometimes, it keeps the neighbor's safe....And I told my husband I was going to leave him if he didn't get me away from that blasted pressure cooker for a few days....Beside, my soul was in need of renewal and there's only two places that do that for me...

One, is Cades Cove in Tennessee, it's in the Great Smokey Mountains and it's a place that transforms my spirit and soul every time I walk the path and trails of the old home places...I see jonquils and roses that are growing out in the middle of nowhere and think of the callused hands that lovingly planted them there many years ago....And in the breeze, I can almost hear a Mother calling her family in for supper....To me it's really magical..

(Corny, I know, but when your menopausal and you can find serenity, you milk it for all it's worth).....

The other is the Gulf Coast, which is where we went...I can set for hours watching the waves and listen to the water and think of nothing, I feel that with each wave my soul is renewed and refreshed, and I am part of Gods great plan again...

When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with it's great wide sounds, cleanses me with it's noise and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused....

~Rainer Maria Rilke

P.S.

The pressure cooker and the garden was still here when when we got home...I'm currently planning my next escape.........

Summer Time Around The Prison/Sweat Shop/Palace...........

Well folks, once again it's that time of year when I don my Caroline Ingles apron and curse the garden and the heat....You got it!! It's canning and preserving time.....I'm so excited, I just can't hide it......NO, I'M IN TORMENT!!!!! If I was born in the 1800's I'm pretty sure I would have been a prostitute, because if I'd had been a farmers wife I believe my husband would have gotten tired of my whining and took me out behind the barn and shot me........(Beside, my uterus would have had a cut-off valve anyway and I don't like body odor).......

Anyway, I need to keep my status as raining queen, so I pitch a fit and go on.........Trust me, it does no good, for this once red lipstick wearing, no such thing as to many sales in one day, and quality purse toting woman who use to get shinny gifts, only gets rewarded with 30lbs of South Georgia Peaches in need of preserving now......When my husband was a teenager he didn't have a poster of Rachel Welch on his wall, it was June Cleaver, I'm sure of it!!! Let's clarify something, I don't want to be June Cleaver, I'd rather be Holly Golightly (from Breakfast at Tiffany's).............
So I stay and work in the labor camp that I call home for mere pennies a day...........(Anyone feeling sorry for me yet)
And after removing 2,765 briers from different parts of my body I walked into the house with a bucket of these beauties...

Ripe and Juicy! They were growing wild on our property when we bought it and we have babied them ever since, this year they said, "Thank you for the love"... We've enjoyed cobbler from them and I can't wait to have some of these on a hot buttermilk biscuit.

During the winter my Father in law gave us some green beans for our garden that come from some ancestors during the 1800's. They came from some Cherokee Indians before the trail of tears . Each family has gotten seeds out of each crop for the next year and it's been going strong ever since.....Well, after spending three hours in 150 degree (I added in the humidity) heat picking these monster beans, and two days and nights picking and canning more.......I have decided that we need to give them back their beans......We have taken enough from them....And if they act now, they can take the garden too......

Closet Twlight Fan............

Yes, I will admit that I'm a closet Twilight fan. I didn't start watching until the first one came out on DVD, I bought it just to see what the fuss was about....At least that's my story! I thought the acting was horrible but I was hooked and got my daughter hooked also....When the second one came out, my daughter and me went during the week to see it because neither one of us could stand the thought of all those screaming teenagers..What we found was a half empty theater full of middle aged women in dark sunglasses and hats, all of them acting like they wondered into the wrong room...But this time was different........BOY WAS IT DIFFERENT!!!! We walked into a theater full of mostly menopausal women who had no shame....And a few normal folks who wished they'd stayed home....Let me tell you about these two ladies who sat beside us, they were worth the price of admission....The two ladies (and I'm being nice) one said she had just turned 70 were loving every minute of this movie...As soon as it started they both said, "Bring on those boys". Every action scene they were down in their chairs, covering their eyes and punching back. At one point I looked over at the lady next to me and said, " Mam, are you sure you need to be in here without adult supervision", she looked over at me grabbed my arm and said, "This is just so hot and intense".....I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants........When a love scene came, on all I heard was, bring it on, that's what I'm talking about and at one point she said, "He wants her to straddle that".....These two ladies DID NOT have an inside voice and what ever club they belong to, I wish I was a member........What naughty spunk!!! Of course it made us think which group we will be safer with when the next one comes out. Teenage hormones or hormonal replacement therapy.......

Happy 4th Everyone.........

May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country! ~ Daniel Webster