Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Happy Birthday Sam!

My husband celebrated his 73rd birthday today! We went to Red Lobster and invited Elton and Carol to go with us. I did the inviting and Elton paid! I didn't expect that.


I didn't notice until we were seated that the table beside us had a toddler and an infant. Normally...y'all are going to think I'm terrible...but normally I ask to sit someplace else...like all the way across the restaurant from the children. However, when that little blonde looked at me and smiled. Well, you had to use your imagination because she had a stopper (pacifier) in her mouth, but she smiled...and I sat down. She was so cute. Started to fuss only one time and I caught her eye and smiled at her and wiggle my eyebrows. That child sat there and waited for her food like a big girl. Music was playing in the background and she would 'dance' sitting in her chair. For dessert, mom and dad shared a chocolate goodie with a scoop of ice cream. Mom would head toward the little girl with a spoon of ice cream and the little birdie's mouth would pop open. She'd take the ice cream then put her hands over her ears. Carol and I finally realized that she was pressing on her ears...cold ice cream...press on ears. Bite of cold ice cream...press ears. She was trying to take care of brain freeze! LOL She was such a cutie!

RE: Ill- that's 'ill' - mannered children in restaurants. Many times adults set kids up to be a pain in the behind. For some unknown reason, the parent(s) decide to bring a child into an restaurant after a morning (or day) of shopping and plop an already tired child into a high chair, pull them up to the table, and expect them to act like adults. HELLO! At home you don't put a child in their high chair until food is on the table. Sit down...eat...no waiting. Then in a restaurant you want them to be civil when they are hungry and tired because their naptime was an hour ago?!

Then there are those little darlin's that it just doesn't matter. You can't do a thing to please them. This phase is called the 'terrible twos,' but unfortunately can continue into the 'trantrum threes' an on occasion become the 'formidable fours.' Shudder. I remember only too well never going into a store with sweet - ahem - little Jonathan. I lived for Mother's Day Out on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

Sarah was complaining about her littlest one's tantrums. I recalled a time when I was trying to get Jonathan stripped and into the bathtub. He did not want to go. In the middle of the tantrum, I looked at the sock that I'd just pulled off his foot...I was holding it in my hot little hand. I looked him in the eyes and said, "Open your mouth." He looked at me quizzically. "I said open your mouth." He did. I stuck the sock in it. He had this startled look on his face. I laughed...then so did he.



Changing gears - I just remembered something about our trip. In Mercedes, after Claraine and I hugged our greeting, she turned to me. "I didn't remember your accents being so thick." (Claraine and Harold are from Atikokan, Canada.)


WHAT?! What accent? I don't have an accent. I don't know why she said that. ;o) And I told her so! I do not have an accent.


While we were sitting in her living room visiting, she turned to Harold and said something which she followed with, "Eh?" I looked at her and said, "Eh? Eh?" She pointed her finger at me and said, "And we'll have no more of that."

Sunday, December 7, 2008

He's a Good Man

I've been on the phone with my son for a while this evening. He's recently become a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) in a nursing home. After a year, if he wants, the nursing home will pay his schooling to become a nurse.

When we visited him last week, he seemed to really like his job and discussed a few of the patients. One he wanted Sam to meet...a graduate of Texas A&M, but the gentleman died earlier in the week...the man never had any visitors.

This evening he told me about a lady who is 98 or 99. She reads her Bible every evening. Unfortunately, it is coming apart. When she drops it, pages fall out. Someone will pick it up for her, shove the pages back in, and hand it to her. Jonathan said that he sat down with her one evening and put the pages in order before he went to work.

He and another CNA, Sarah, who is married to Jonathan's best friend James... MOF, he lives with them and their children. Anyway, Jonathan and Sarah went to the Bible book store and purchased the lady a new large print Bible. Jonathan gave it to her before work the other day, handed it to her and told her that Santa came early.

I'm very proud of him.

1892

What a great time! Sam and I went traveling. We stopped in Lake Jackson and took my son out to dinner. He picked a Mexican restaurant that Sam and I had never tried. I ate their chicken stuffed avocado...deep fried of course. It was very good. Oops. Forgot to get a photo of it. But Sam did take this one...(Jonathan was fully rested and ready for work. I had been traveling since 9 a.m. This photo was taken around 7 or 8 p.m.) Isn't it different from this one?!
The next day we helped Sam's family celebrate their mom's 95th birthday. Unfortunately she has Alzheimer's. Even though Sam wanted photos of her, I want to respect who she was and not post them here.

On to South Padre Island. A friend of mine, a Canadian who winters in Mercedes, was told that the devastation from the hurricane was widespread and that the sand dunes were gone. We didn't see it. We saw only one place on the northern part of the island where the dunes were breached and then they didn't wash completely across the island...the surge evidently just washed down the road.
We also saw new construction everywhere we looked in the densely populated southern part of the island.
Sam took this one of me. I really like it...except for my camera bag sticking out of the back of my neck. Argghh! Next we traveled on to Mercedes to visit with Claraine and Harold from Atikokan, Ontario. They purchased a place in Mercedes in the early 1990s and have wintered in Texas ever since. I wanted to go to Mexico - since I've never been. We all went in Harold's car across the border at Nuevo Progresso. I purchased a red blouse for myself and some vanilla for a couple of friends. See that camera around my neck in the above photo. I forgot to take it out.

Also, no photos of Fredericksburg. Sigh. What good is a camera if you don't use it. We didn't spend much time in Fredericksburg outside of eating a delicious German meal on night and going through the Nimitz and WWII museums.

But, we did go to Luckenbach!
Next stop was Glen Rose. I'd give anything if we'd taken Jonathan there when he was a little boy and just "eat up" with dinosaurs. The best tracks were underwater and the water was way too cold to wade in. ;o) Another time...maybe...

We finished up in north Texas where we had dinner with Sam's brother and son. His daughter got tied up at school...she teaches at the Culinary Institute...wine. The next day we went to Corith to American Eagle Harley. Sam doesn't take notes when I mention something I'd like to have but won't spend that amount of money on...so I specifically pointed out a couple of items. ;o) Nothing was purchased so I'm assuming he will be heading to The Harley Shop in Longview between now and Christmas.

Sam just stuck his head in and reported that we traveled 1892 miles.