The end of a year

As I look back at his year,I wonder some times about life. It was a very stessful year as far as the illness in our families... my dad found that his cancer was back in the spring of the year, he has been fighting hard, my father in law also found
out that he has cancer about mid August, he lost almost 100 lbs and did not have it to lose, regained some of it back and also fighting hard, but not feeling so good right now.
Two dear friends that we know have past away that are our age from cancer and heart
attack and it has made us reflect and look at all the good things we have in life.
The flood in our basement took alot out on me, lost alot of personal items that my kids made for me, that meant alot to me, holiday items and pictures of the past... the work that was involved in getting it in order... once Zesa finishes the last of the shelves I can go through some of the boxes and reorganize everything...
I have a good family and I'm thankful for each one of them, I'm going to try to take in all the precious moments that are in my life this coming year, the loved ones, because you don't know how long you will have them here

M&M'S 1ST BIRTHDAY

This is my beautiful M&M, she is 1 today, I love her so much... I wish I could be with her all the time like I did with her older brother and sister, but it is not possible. She is truely a combo of both her parents, big blue eyes like my son and beautiful like her mother.... Happy Birthday my sweet M&M.. Granny and Papa loves you and misses you!!!!!!

getting ready for the feast

Always the day before Turkey day I take the day off and COOK. I always have to work on Thanksgiving so I try to prepare as much as I can the day before. Baking,setting the table, and the cleaning before everyone arrives for Dinner on Thanksgiving.
This year Ta wants to have it at her house, and also have P family over too. The catch is she does not want to clean and cook the Turkey, so she ask me to. I told her
if I'm going to do it I'll also have to make the stuffing,because I can't make it without some yummy stuffing and that means the giblet gravy also. Today I will clean it and put it back in the fridge, make the stuffing, then get up early and stuff it.
I will also cook the giblets ( I always buy more to make it meaty ) Zesa is going to take it over in the morning and and pop it in the oven for me while I'm at work, then we will go over about 5:00 pm for dinner. I'm still going to make pies today,
so we will have some for the days after. Much less work this year. Zesa is going to make a pumpkin roll for us also, so the house should smell great today. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving... give thanks for the good things, time with FAMILY... good food, and yes maybe a little nap after the turkey...

A Day Off!!!!!!!!

This time of year it it very stressful at work, we just made the schedule on Tuesday
for Thanksgiving Week and for Black Friday... two of the best days for our sales in our business. Our associates are mad because they are scheduled more than 4 hours on Thanksgiving. I had so many people come in my office complaining about the hours they were scheduled. Anyway I'm glad to be off, a day away from it all. Zesa and I are going to get more lumber to build more shelves in the basement. Two weeks ago
we went and rented a big truck, bought 6 sheets of plywood,4 sheets of peg board,
20 2x4's, 10 2x6's and some 2x2's. Zesa put the shelves together in the garage, the
she and J carried them down stairs and put the legs on and finished them. They are for my 18 gallon containers. That one was a a little more than 11 feet long and held 28 containers. The peg board she put on the back side of it so we can hang brooms and such on it. They look real nice, so today we are going to get the rest of the wood to go along the other side of the wall. That one won't have peg board on the back because it will be up next to the wall. When it is finished everything will
fit so nothing is on the floor. The top shelf has extra storeage for suitcases and such. The peg board closes off the storeage area so you can't see it when you in the basement. She is so helpful around the house and it is fun to work together. We also have to do a little shopping for Thanksgiving, so we have alot to do. CCK is at her Daddy's house so we will alot more done today. A Day Off!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it

Celabrating Veterans Day

In my family we are proud of the fact that many men in our Family have served. Not only several Uncles, but my Husbands Father served twice. once in the air force and then in the Army in World War II. I have 2 brother in laws on his side and also two nephews, that were in at different times. On my side my father served in the Korean War, and also my husbands step father did. My husband went to Vietnam at the end of the War when he was only 18 years old. Last of all my daughter Zesa just got out of the Marine Corp. I am very proud of each and every family member for the freedom they have given us to make choices, and to worship as we please, the freedom to live!!!! God Bless each one for time they SERVED for our freedom. THANK YOU WE HONOR YOU!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday

This is my beautiful Ta, she is 29 years old today..Happy Birthday Ta...
She was only 5 lbs 14 oz and very quiet the first few years of her life, then as she entered the 2nd grade she was no longer shy. She is very honest with people. She loves her older brother and misses him very much. She spend alot of time with her baby sister now that she is back in the area. She is smart, driven, and works really hard. She is a nurse at a local Hospital, married to a wonderful guy, and has the cutest baby Boy. She a great MOM!!!!!!!!!! and a great Aunt, she love each of her
neices and her nephew.. Happy 29th love ya MOM

After the Election

As I was watching the election results I was listening to some of the comments that people were making about change and the fact that History was made and the changes that everyone is expecting to happen. It made me think about my life as a child. As a child I did not know much about the problems in the world, that others knew and lived in the 60's, such as separtate bathrooms for whites and colored, not being able to go to certain places etc... I grew up in a small country town in Michigan,
a white community. Most of the early 60's we did not always have have a T.V. so I guess because of that I wasn't aware of what was going on in others parts of the country or what people were going through. Our parents never told us that we were
better than other people or that the color of our skin was better than others so to me everyone was the same. I'm proud that my parents taught us that God created everyone equal, red, yellow, black, or white God loves us the same. In the first grade I had a little friend named Charlie Washington that was a foster child of one of a woman that lived near us. Every day at lunch time he and I would always trade sandwiches. They raised rabbits so he always had rabbit sandwiches with celery, onions and mayo, I had peanut butter and jelly. He was tired of his sandwich so we always traded. He was also very funny and always a big smile on his face. He and I always played outside on the playground together. I did not know at the time that he was black, I just knew he was my friend and to me we were just people.
We also had a older couple that came to our church named Mr. and Mrs. Hudson. He had the most beautiful voice and would sing in our church every Sunday Morning. My grandma told me one day, (you know he is a colored man) but to me he was just a nice gentle man that sang music and I always thought his wife was beautiful. My point is
other than these 3 people in my childhood everyone else was white so I did not see what was happening to others and how they were treated. It must of been awful for them... Seeing the tears on the faces of the people made me think about what kind of change and hope that these people are looking for after what they have lived.
I was also glad to see the peace that was in the crowd at Grant Park in Chicago. Over a 150,000 people and no one was hurt, the crowd was mixed with every background possible and everyone was united was if they were 1. How great was that, The Mayor was so proud that everyone came together. I hope and pray our country does see change...
We can do it...

Don't forget to vote!!!!!!!

As I sit here tonight, knowing I'm going to vote early in the morning before I go to work, I wonder some times are we making the right choices. For the past few months at our house in our living room the T.V. is on CNN from the time we get home from til we go to bed. The only time the channel is changed is to watch another view on another station. J is really in to it, so I can't help but hear it. I think this time I know more about each party than I ever have in the past. I also think I have more of an opinion than I ever have. Some people only listen to bites, some only to moral issues, and some just because of a party. We really need to listen to every part of it. I don't always agree with everything that each party stands for , but I have to vote for the one that I think will lead our country and get us out of this mess. It is going to be a hard job. Really think about all the issues, and not just part of it... I will be glad when it's over so our dinner conversations will be something different Ha! Ha!

A Gorgeous Fall day

It's been a good day, I got up real early and put the 2nd coat of paint on the stair steps, while that was drying I did some touch up painting. After the steps dried I put on saftey strips on the steps so no one would slip. J and I went out for breakfast, Zesa and KCK went to Ta's last night to spend the night. After breakfast
we took a drive to East Chicago to a Mexican bakery and bought some sweet bread. I put my Fall decorations up and put the Halloween away. I need to finish some laundry
then we are going to Ta's for dinner at 5:00. I feel like I never get done with things around the house. Just glad I'm able to give a whirl each and every day. I should be outside!!!!!!!!!

halloween night

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The kids had so much fun, Duggie only made up on side of the block and back, but KCK
went down several blocks. Each time she up to a house she had to tell them she was Dora. J stayed home to pass out treats, while Zesa, Ta,P and I went with the kids.
We had about 90 kids come by this year.

getting ready for the trick or treaters

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Finally have the basement finished, just a few things to put away, now we can get ready for the trick or treaters to come tomorrow night. Zesa and Ta are going to get the kids pictures taken tomorrow morning. The only thing missing is Bug, Pie, and M&M
I miss trick or treating with them!!!!!

A Beautiful Day

It was so nice out today, that I thought it would be nice to be outside instead of
painting, which probably was'nt to smart since I don't have that many days during the week to get the basement done. J mowed our grass and he always does the lady's
next door,so I worked in the flower beds. It was so relaxing to me,to me that is'nt work.
I put in about 60 more bulbs.. tulips,Iris,crocus & daffodils, cleaned up some of the weeds that grew since the flood, and put away my hanging baskets. I'm not sure how many more nice days we will have before it gets cold..so I had to take a break from the basement. Zesa and Ta went shopping at the Mall with the kids, so it was nice to be in the Sun shine for the afternoon!!!!! I got the front of the house decorated for Halloween, it looks good

not enough time

I know that I have'nt updated my blog since my birthday,
but I had alot going on. I was reminded last night when I talk to my daughter in law last night that I have'nt updated in a while. I feel like I have neglected everyone because of this flood.
After all the clean up, we had to get the paint off the walls because it was peeling. As we got the peeling off the basement walls it started to mold, so the cleaning
started over. Zesa has been so much help in cleaning and painting.. don't know what I would have done without her. Just getting the peeling paint off was a job and what a mess it made. I had a melt down in the the basement one night --thank god I was by myself and one one saw me... but the mess was to much, but I got over it and life goes on. Zesa and J painted about 3 quarters of the walls in the last two days and it looks good. I'm home alone today so I think I can get alot of it done today. It is just had to work and get it done, we just need to get it done so we can get things
done before the snow comes and we get everything back in the back in the house from the garage. Well I need to get to work, hopefully I can update more often.

Quiet Birthday

Today was a quiet day, I got e-mails from my sisters,my grandkids made me a cute
card..I love it, and I talked to my Mom and Dad, Troy and Tera on the phone. Zesa and Crazy Cousin K gave me a beautiful necklace and bracelet to wear on Saturday when we go to a friends wedding. We had ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. On Sunday we are going to T&P's to really celebrate.

grannys birthday

Make a Smilebox greeting

These 3 are why I say this is the best things in life!!!! makes everything that happened in the past two weeks go away.

Still cleaning

It is Monday, one week later... the clean up is never ending.. each day after the flood we were either taking things out to the drive way to the damaged pile or storing the things in the garage
that did not get wet. We cleaned a section of the basement at a time, we divided it by four sections. We bleached, used pine sol and some other disinfectants, and the power washer. J tried to kill Zesa and I with the bleach, he used too much and we had to leave the basement. Each section was cleaned three times. We also cleaned off the out sides of all the 18 gal containers.
Now we are waiting for it to dry real good, before we repaint the walls and the floor. The insurance man came over last Friday and gave me a check right on the spot after looking at all the personal things we lost. J & I went to the hardware on Sunday and bought 3 dehumidifiers, 2 sump pumps and 6 hoses, just in case we have a bad rain again, we will be ready. We are going to have some come in and put a battery back up on our regular sump pump. After painting the floor and walls J and Zesa are going to build shelves for my 18 gal container that have Holiday in them. We piled every thing out for the garbage man tonight. He be so mad when he sees everything. Now I need to go through the holiday and re-pack the items I can keep and get rid of everything else.....

What a week!!

On Sunday morning Zesa ( that is what Doogie calls her) called us to the basement because
water was coming up the drain near the washer. I grabbed the shop vac and tried to suck it up. I also started putting towels down thinking I could contain it to one area. J went to the hardware to find a pump so if it got real bad we could pump it. It seems like he was gone for ever. It was coming in faster than Zesa and I could clean it up. I called T&P to see if they could come and help and if the knew any one with a pump. They were trapped in their subdivision, the water was worse by them. I called some friend to help and they came with buckets, shop vacs and two other guys to help. All this time J is still trying to find a pump because they were gone from the shelves in the stores. We started a chain of people up the stairs 6 of us and passed buckets up
the stairs to empty them out side. It is still pouring out there. That did not help. One funny moment that happened to my friend Joanie, she is always saying she is a princess and can't do alot of things around the house, so her husband helps her alot, but she was being a trooper and was helping us bail the water outside. The water is a dirty brown and we are not really sure if it is sewage. Joanie and I were on the bottom floor filling buckets and handing them to everyone one on the stair steps. Zesa's handle on her bucket broke and the water went all over Joanie on her head and everything, she yelled out "Hey you guys remember I'm a princess" I just laughed at her and said, You've been de-throned.. We had to laugh or we would just cry.... They called our friend Donna and she came over with a pump and hooked it up. J finally got home, the only thing he could find was a pump that you would use to pump water from a swimming pool. After a while he hooked that up also and ran that one too. The water was coming in faster than the two pumps could pump it. By now the whole basement was in about 4 inches of water. We tried to put everything up high, but still had shelves and such on the floor that we could not put up. I went outside to check on our neighbor and to move the hose that was from the sump pump so that the water would go to the street. I was soaking wet, because the rain was still coming down. The neighbor gave me another pump and hose, so I gave it to Zesa and she hooked it up to the other side of the basement. Three pumps and four hoses going out to the street and it was still coming up... As the water was coming up some of my 18 gallon containers that I have holiday items in tipped over and was floating all over.. some got water in them. The rain stopped about 4 hours later and the the water went down in the street. The water was over the bottom step in the basement. It was still pumping it out but the water was coming in and it was only keeping up enough so that it did not get deeper. We kept the pumps running all day.. the neighbors brought us burger king for lunch, and we just waited for the water to go down. J and Joanie brought us dinner and sat with us for a while. At 11:00 pm the water was gone, but the mess!!!!!!!!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

taking a break

Well as I am cleaning down stairs I am sad that I have lost things such as pictures and books that I bought when my children were small, dating back 35 years... then said to myself get over yourself, there are so many people that have more water than us that can not even get back in there homes. On the front page of the news paper yesterday was a women in waders passed her waist, crying as she looks at her home under water and it is higher than her basement.
Also a father in his 70's and his son in his 40's that were killed as they were trying to save a young boy in a near by town that was being swept away. The child was saved, but the men died. So sad here, you sometimes get caught up in your own problems and there are some that are going through so much more. We were one of the lucky ones. I heard at work last night that some houses were blowing up because of gas leaks..... so scary

The clean up

J took the day off Monday, he went to the insurance co. with the pictures I took to see what they could do for us, they said to just put the wet items separtate from the dry and try to figure out what we lost. They put most of the dry items in the garage and wet thing in the drive way.. I keep thinking that people are going to come by thinking we are having a yard sale. When I got home I went through the containers that had tipped over to see if water got in, then we sorted that stuff.
The next day we both had to go to work, Zesa worked on it all day , she hauled all the big furniture up the stairs by herself, full of water and I'm sure she hurt herself. J got the hot water going and I washed a few things and washed some of the floor before going to bed. The bad part is that some of the area was hit harder than us, so coming home from work was an 1 1/2 hours getting home with the traffic backed up so I did have much time to help. I had to work at 12:30 on Wednesday, so I told Zesa to rest her back because I would be off Thursday & Friday and could work on it. She did not listen, when I got home she had moved things over to one side of the basement, and had scrubbed the walls and floor with soapy bleach water. J helped her to get more of the wet items out side. She then went to T&P"s house to spend the night about 8:30 pm
so she could watch Doogie on Thursday. She will be back on Friday, so I'm going to get as much done as I can so she can rest... she has worked so hard, don't know what I would have done without her. So my day begins, working in a stinky basement.......

My first day

I was in the middle of starting my first day of my new blog, when my daughter calls for my husband and I to come in the basement. It has been raining for the last three days...the streets were starting to flood and all the back yards, Our basement had water coming in it...tons
We were bailing it out and we got a hold of some friends and we hooked up three pumps and it is still at the top of my bottom step. My christmas, halloween,and easter decorations are all
floating in the basement. brown dirty water....