A Delightful Day

It’s not often I can get the wild ones to hold still for a photo or two.  Ava usually cringes and puts her hand in front of her face.  Kate shows me her, um, backside.  So when we accidentally wondered into the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique in Disney when we were down there in May, into the Photo Opportunity portion of the Boutique, the girls lit up.  This wasn’t any old picture-taking by their old granny!  This was the real thing!

There was a photographer there (older than ME I might add) and a fainting couch to pose upon with a blue backdrop.  Oh, yeah.  They had hit the big time.  So they posed and smiled and never once acted like they did not want their picture taken.  And being the good granny that she was (I am almost certain) the photographer asked me to join them on some pics.  And they were actually happy to have me in them.

WDWRESORTSANDMORE_DTDMEMR_20160518_386459621579

I guess this was the highlight of my trip!

Girls hugging I mean… they even HUGGED!!!

Posing.  Unbelievable!

The new plan is to get me a vest like the ones they wore in Disney, hang my camera around my neck, and see if I can’t get them to do this for me.

If I had known we were walking into a photo shoot, we might have doodied up a bit.

Scooter Scandal

Kate on scooter

She flies as fast as it will go.  If it had a pedal, it would be on the metal.  I have a real premonition that she is going to take after her Gigi and her momma.  Kate has already received her first ticket from one of our observant and kind and considerate police officers  (which I must thank for doing such a good job) as  she was scooting around on the mall, being her nosy little  self.

Kate and ticket

The defendant looks like she’s been in the pokey all night!

Isn’t there some saying about being nosy getting one into trouble?!!!

Noaming

No, the title is not supposed to be “roaming;” however, it is sort of like roaming.  When we go a “roaming,” we learn all sort of things, discover wonders, revisit once-discovered favorites, learn something new, see something we haven’t seen before… the list is long.

So as I have moments of time during this day, I plug in my earphones and listen to/watch Noam Chomsky.  I may or may not agree with all he says, but listening to his perspective and educated opinions causes me to question some of the opinions I may have had or bolsters some that I still have.   Those opinions that we make based in feeling, tradition, or the biased/ distorted media.

Here is just a little sample:

One video leads to another to another to another.  And from Professor Chomsky, I then want to see the opinions of other learned people, people that really, truly know what’s going on in the world and know  who is/are making the decisions.  I want to find out just exactly what the decisions are that are being made and how those decision affect the world.

I will warn you:  It’s addictive to watch these types of things that inform and develop independent thinking, perhaps provide a thought outside the box of memes on Facebook.

But so worth it.

 

 

Thinking about Thanking

Today at my brother’s house, my little niece, Charlotte Ann, had a prayer/speech she had prepared.  In it she wanted us all to think about what we were thankful for, and the plan was then to share those thoughts.Brenda in thought

We never did get around to sharing our thankful thoughts.  We were too busy eating and playing games and eating and yelling over each other to try to be heard and eating and laughing and eating and accusing the guys of cheating and eating and actually cheating ourselves.  Until we were so full and so hoarse and so tired that we all scattered and went our own ways to our own abodes or wherever else we had planned to go.

The thing we didn’t do, of course, was share in our bounty of thankfulness.  And bounty is an accurate description of the list of things to be thankful about:

1.  My salvation through Jesus the Christ.

2.  Family who love and fight and play and strive to make time to get together as our families expand and that time is more precious.

3.  A home.

4.  Plenty of food.

5.  Work that provides me with a paycheck and work that must be done in order to keep a clean house, grow a garden, have a lawn… you get the drift.

6.  The opportunity to help others whether it is monetarily or hands on.

7.  Good choices.

8.  Good doctors and staff that actually care about one’s health.

9.  My church.

10.  You guys who read my blog.  🙂

As I ponder on my good life, my heart cries for those who are in real struggles right now:  mental health, the fight for life as they struggle with a disease, the loss of a loved one, drug addiction, sexual abuse, hunger, oppression of different forms…

God, pour mercy and grace upon these people.  Give me direction to turn my thanksgiving into theirs as well.

New Blog – New Theme Day

In my quest for just the right theme for my dear-to-me-yet-mostly-neglected blog in the last year or two, I am changing the theme (background and set-up of the page) about as often as I post a blog.  I want something clear and easy-to-read.

This one looks promising.

IMG_8489

I WILL find the perfect theme!

It’s bright; it states the name and purpose of the blog well at the top; I kind of like the apron signature on the top left with my mission statement and AAA, etc., at the top so anyone curious can click on them to find out a little more about me.

I haven’t changed much or any since I started blogging, so no need to update.  Maybe I’ll swing by there to make sure.  Maybe I should put an updated photo, but I haven’t changed too much there either:  a few more wrinkles perhaps, a few extra pounds that will be gone by spring or sooner.

summer in a nutshell

               OOPS!  NOT ME!  MY DAUGHTER!             But isn’t she beautiful?

Keep going all the way to the bottom, and it very precisely and easily lets you leave a message–

I LOVE MESSAGES! 

— as well as gives you other sites to visit, “Tasty Tidbits,” or topics from which to choose to read, “Whet Your Appetite,” or how to subscribe to my blog.  Free.  You can subscribe to something for FREE!  Now isn’t that an incentive?cropped-cropped-blogger-bren-20111.jpg

 

 

On Being Me

cropped-cropped-blogger-bren-20111.jpgSoooooo I haven’t blogged in awhile.  That doesn’t mean I don’t want to or I don’t have ideas flying around my brain in the middle of the night (when I really don’t want to get up and get on the computer because I would really like to sleep).

Soooooo I have chosen to change the theme of the blog periodically until I decide if I am going to keep blogging (more than sporadically) or chuck the whole project that I started those years ago.  Annnnndddd, since I can never make up my mind about almost everything, I need your help, you faithful few.  Check on me every now and then and tell me which theme you like best.

This one is One Strange Town (or something like that).  I really liked it for a few minutes.  Now, I’m not so sure.

Old Gringo Women's Sora boot

Old Gringo Women’s Sora boot

The winner will receive an awesome prize.  A prize worthy of Blogville.  A prize-almost-not-quite-sort-of-like the prizes my favorite blogger Pioneer Woman gives away.  She gives away the neatest stuff.  Do you know she has a line of dishes at Walmart?!!  And it is so cool.

She blogs about her dog a lot.  And her cows.  She even has a basset something-or-other in the dishwear.  Is dishwear a word?  It pops up with a red underline.

I need a dog… or some cows… I want to market my dishwear or underwear or whateverwear at Target.

My goal is to look around here and see what I have of interest to blog about (according to my college English classes that should really be “of which to blog”) (at least I think that’s what they taught me – it’s been a long time since I was in college).

My garage!!!  I have so very much stuff in there with BIG personality.

I’m going to go check it out!

Little Will and the Clan

Momma and newborn Will

Momma and newborn Will

Just because I think he’ll have to be a wrangler to handle those wild animals that this little guy has been adopted into, I got him a pair of baby cowboy boots and a bandanna bib.  He was only 5 pounds and some ounces when he joined us, but I’m expecting the little guy to grow… and grow fast.

He was graced with some mighty tall and fine looking parents.  Good parents that just couldn’t quite take care of him, so they searched and searched and found just the right set of parents they wanted their little boy to know as his very own.  And this set of parents came with a herd of youngins that would love him and cuddle him and play with him, and, I would suspect, even someday fight with him.  A family.  A good family who had prayed for just the right son to bring into their fold.

cousins

cousins

One of these days, sooner than we like, he will be sitting on the couch with the Illinois cousins and his two sisters and big brother. But for right now he’s very content to be snuggled by whoever wants to grab hold and snuggle.

snuggling

snuggling

one happy Daddy

one happy Daddy

Our little guy is just that right now:  little!!  We have been used to his big sister who also comes from tall genes and looks four instead of barely two.  And she has been used to the limelight and the attention, so when Mawmaw asked her if she wanted little Will, her answer was a firm “No!”

just fine without a baby smaller than me, thank you very much!!

just fine without a baby smaller than me, thank you very much!!

The three-turned-four-child household will be going through a lot of changes this year.  A big part of those changes is from our little Will joining the clan.

What a great change!!

such a cutie!

such a cutie!

 

 

The Hogbottoms Have Turned Into Wild Boars

The usually meek and mild, sweet and sugar, grown-up Hogbottoms have shelved their mellow ways for the fast-paced, furious and frantic wild run made for the boars.  Yes.  You heard it right.  Wild boar run!

Hogbottoms on the run!

Hogbottoms on the run!

Our normal Hogbottom  activity is, well, something like this:

hogs at the trough

hogs at the trough

It all began with the elevator ride with a bunch of drunken beachgoers.  We had already gotten on the elevator, and if we had just pushed the floor button instead of standing there like a herd of dumb hogs, we would have missed the whole incident that has resulted in our boardom.

The door opened and the surprised group (after all there stood three women) began to enter.  The drunken surprised group I should say.  Three men of varying ages and one woman.  The older man was subdued; the next young man was only throwing out some bad French occasionally, but the gal who stepped all over Terah’s feet and the youngest guy were putting on a show.  Rubbing her cheek, the young man was speaking French to her as the woman laughed and spoke English, then some French.

Since none of us speak French, it could have been the song lyrics of Frere Jacques for all we know.  I do know they were not French.

The lady was speaking to the older man about his son, and the older man was apparently just trying to hang on to the wall.  So we have surmised all sorts of scenarios of the relationship between the lady who was much older than the amorous young man and the rest of the group of men.  I’m sure the truth would be much less interesting.

They are on our floor.

The young drunk very obnoxiously jerked and jerked on the outside security door instead of using a key until it came open.  Maybe they didn’t have one, but we were right there standing with them.  They could have asked us if we had a key.

No.  He proceeds to tear up the door so that now it is more difficult to get into.  We now usually have several tries before the key opens it.

This made the Hogbottoms slightly perturbed with the neighbors down the hall.  And their room just happens to be the door on the right as soon as we walk in that outside door.  And every once in a while Dar gets a little frisky.  So……

The first time it happened we were all surprised!  Scared the snot out of us.  Dar was in the middle of the group meandering back down the hallway to our room.  She put out her arm as we passed their door and knocked!

You have never seen those Hogbottoms move so fast!  We were bumping into butts and using elbows to push each other out of the way.  Lisa was looking back at the group (oh, yeah, she got the lead that night.)

That night?!!!!

It happens often now.  The running and laughing down the hall that is.  Since the first two or three knocks by Dar and Terah (if I name one I have to name them all), we are now trained to just take off running at the first whiff of a potential knock.  One Hogbottom smells the threat and begins to run; the rest of us take off too.  Butts and elbows and backward glances abound.

And the laughter.  The hilarity is more contagious than the running, and because we are laughing so hard, it’s all we can do  to get to our apartment and flatten ourselves against the wall and door to not be seen by the occupants of knocked door.

As I have thought on our knocking on the door of the drunken elevator riders, I have decided the joke is probably on us.  Not once have we heard the door open to see who knocked nor has anyone yelled out anything.  I imagine the only people we are bothering would be the poor souls on the floor below us who have heard the wild boars running.