Two years ago today my momma passed away. 

My Mom was born and raised in Millwood, GA.  She was the baby of 14 children.  Her father was what my mother called a “faith healer” some others called him a “witch doctor” and her mother was of course busy taking care of her children and home.

My mother was always a God fearing woman that was raised in a Pentecostal church. When she was in elementary school she would stand on the step of the school and preach to all the other children during recess.    She was a good daughter, sister, cousin, aunt, wife, mother and grandmother. 

I spoke to momma at least once a day all of my life.  On Thursday, October 21 we talked on the phone for about an hour.  My brother called an hour and a half later to tell me that an ambulance had been called to momma and it was bad, it was bad.  My momma’s heart had stopped.  It just stopped.  She was on life support from the moment she arrived at the hospital until Saturday, October 23 when her children decided it was enough.  I miss my momma.

I am sitting here trying to think of the words to explain how much my momma means to me and no words come to mind. 

*Big Sigh*

Still to this day it is hard to believe she is gone forever.  When she left it shook my family to the core, we were all broken.  I think we are all coming back into our normal now but I still have days and sometimes weeks were I wonder constantly if we made the right decision.  Even though we were told that she had no brain activity and was having one seizure after another I think…what if. 

It’s a strange feeling when you realize you have NO parents.  As everyone says “Life goes on” and it does. 

 

Until next time…

Hugs~

Char

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” ― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Oh how I love Anne of Green Gables.  If you have never seen it, it is a must!  It is a PBS special that comes on once a year.  Make sure you watch J

 

 

There is Autumn in the air.  It feels amazing.  The sun is shining, there is a cool breeze and the birds are chirping.  It’s time to start making chili and maybe squeeze in one more camping trip before it gets too cold.   We love to drink latte’s (decaf of course) in the evenings and breath in the crisp air while sitting on the front porch.  I will open my bedroom window and just stare out at the pecan tree as I drift into a nice nap. 

I have mentioned that I live in the South where Northerners say it is summer all year long.  I love summer, spring and fall … winter, not so much. It doesn’t really get -0 cold here but I still hate it.  I hate 20^o mornings.  It depresses me so. 

Ok, Ok…I won’t go into any sad thoughts of winter. 

Do you have any seasonal rituals that you and your family enjoy?  Please share!

Hugs~

Char

Today is my Daddy’s birthday so I will tell you a little about him.  He was born in 1930 in Mississippi and had 4 brothers and 2 sisters.  He was close to all of his siblings.  His mother passed away when he was 12 years old, he didn’t talk about that.  He was very, very close to his father until he passed away in 1983. 

My parents were married in 1950 in Axson, GA.  Two years later my mother gave birth to my oldest brother.  There are six of us children.  My brothers loved and admired my father.  Even as they were adults with families of their own, they would take fishing and camping trips together.  Me and my sisters were all Daddy’s girls.  I even had a “Daddy’s Girl” vanity tag on my car for years. 

Daddy was a man of very few words.  He didn’t say much so when he did, we all listened.  He was a brilliant business man and always worked hard to take care of his family.  He knew several trades.  He worked in pulp wood, painted houses, worked at a dairy farm and several other.  He was offered an opportunity to be a general manager of a fast food restaurant and that is where he stayed until he retired. 

I love my Daddy and I miss him so much.  I wish my children would have known him.  He would have loved them so.  He was an excellent Father and Grandfather. 

RIP Daddy…Give Momma a hug from me.

Char~

Couponing…Is an awesome idea.  It has been around for as long as I can remember but has really turned into a craze over the past couple of years.  Here is my problem with it…I do not have the friggin time! 

 

My sister-in-laws practices extreme couponing.  She posts pictures of 8 bottles of shampoo, four boxes of cereal, seven packages of frozen vegetables, two disposable razors and comments; “I got all of this for $1.59.”  I would love to have all of that for less than two bucks however;  I am not going to get together with a bunch of women to clip coupons, carry around an envelope full of coupons that I may never use and go to four different stores.  And here is why; If I'm hanign with my girls, I want to drink wine, eat hummus with pita chips and gossip.  My purse is so jam packed with bills, meds, Nan's hair barretts, Bub's video games and most of the time my husbands wallet and/or sunglasss.  Instead of wasting the gas and time running around to all the stores, I could take a nap instead. 

I get it, it’s a money saving option but come on!! I also have a problem remembering the rules; “This place takes double coupons on Wednesday’s (what is a double coupon again) and then here you can use a manufactures coupon and an in-store coupon”.  All of that is too much for my brain to consume.

I recently read the slogan; “He works, I save.”  What about the families that have two working parents?  Who saves then?  Me?  Why?  Because I am a woman???  Oh don’t get me started on that. 

Ok, Ok, I see that I am almost spinning into an age-old rant so I will pull myself back together…

Oh yeah, couponing…I was talking about couponing.  So…If any of you have any tips on couponing the easy way, please let me know so that I can share that information with my husband for his next trip to the grocery store ;)

Hugs,

Char~

As I said before in my first post, I am a college student.  A college student at almost 40…what was I thinking? I will earn an A.S. degree in Web Technology.  It will take me longer than two years to achieve this as I do have a full time job also but I will not give up.  School starts today.  I am taking two online classes this semester, Introduction to Computer Technology and College Composition.  I am not concerned about the Computer Tech class at all however the College Comp has me a little anxious.  The book for that class is titled “The Pop Culture Zone: Writing Critically about Popular Culture”.  WHAT?  I have no interest in doing that at all but it is a class that I HAVE to take so I will try my best to give it my all.  We will see what happens with that…

I have been at my job for almost 14 years.  I have been promoted 4 times during that time.  As of right now my title is “Information Specialist”.  I am the webmaster, event coordinator, public relations and a lot of other things including washing dishes if that needs to be done.  I really enjoy my job.  I get to show my creative side.  I like most of the people that I work with and I am known as the comic relief/counselor, I take that position serious.    My co-workers know that they can bitch or gossip with me and it will never, ever go outside of my office.  Most days, we have a good time. 

Our office is somewhat offset right now.  One of my co-workers and dear friends has been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer.  She is 36 years old and has cancer in her adrenal gland, left ovaries, left lung, intestines and was just told she has an inoperable tumor on the left ventricle of  her heart.  We are all broken hearted over this.  She hasn’t been able to work since January of this year.  I miss her.  I miss her coming into my cubicle and propping her feet up on the corner of my desk and saying; “Want a potted meat sandwich?”  Oh how I love her.  Her presence is missed in this office.  And with that…I will close.

 

Hugs,

Char~

Let’s start with Glo.  When I first started dating Dew, he told me that he was sure that he had a daughter that he had never met.  He was told that she wasn’t his but in his heart he knew she was.  He was uneasy about contacting her because he wasn’t sure what she had been told.  When Glo was 22 she sent Dew a Facebook friend request.  Within a couple of months she was visiting with us for a week.  A month later she was back for a surprise week visit.  Since then she has been in our lives.  She is absolutely gorgeous and smart.  She has a musical talent that is out of this world (like her Dad).  Last year we traveled to South Florida to attend her wedding.  We felt so accepted by her family and friends.  Bub and Nan completely love their big sister and she has been a blessing to our family.  We love you GLO!

Bub was born in 1997, 6 weeks early.  He weighed in at 3lbs 14oz.  He was the smallest thing I had ever seen.  I was very scared and did not know anyone that had a preemie therefore I had no one to turn to, no one to ask if my baby was going to live or die.  He was in the newborn intensive care unit until he weighed 4lbs 8oz which was exactly 6 weeks later.  He came home on his due date wearing an apnea monitor to make sure he kept breathing while he slept.  Bub had a few health problems that he ended up growing out of.  He is now 15 years old and is taller than me and will be taller than Dew.  He is a gamer and is so hysterical.  He makes us laugh daily.

Nan was born in 2001, 8 weeks early.  She weighed in at 2lbs 3oz.  I only thought Bub was small.  She was so tiny!  This time around I felt more comfortable.  I understood how things worked in the NICU and knew the terminology the doctors and nurses used.  Even with that, I was still scared.  It is a painful thing to go through.  It is amazing hard to get discharged from the hospital and leave your baby there.  Nan is now 11 years old.  She is completely beautiful.  She has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound but she doesn’t let that hold her back much.  She did get the love of sleep from me.  On a weekend or when school is out, it is nothing for her to sleep until noon.  Sometimes she will look at me all sleepy-eyed and say “Let’s take a nap Mom”.  I LOVE IT because I am always game! 

So, that’s our kids and you can bet they keep me busy. 

 

Hugs,

 

Char~

Dew…My husband Dew.  What can I tell you about him?  Let’s see, he was born and raised in South Florida.  He moved to my neck of the woods in 1987 or so.  We saw each other a few times but never met until I started to date his roommate.  We would stay on the phone until the wee hours of the morning while the roommate/boyfriend was at work.  We went through a lot of different stages in our relationship. There would be years that I hated him and his sarcastic ways and then years I would long to see him and his long shiny hair (it was longer than mine J).  I then began a relationship with someone else and Dew moved in with his girlfriend.  We would still end up at the same hang outs and parties.  If our “significant other’s” were not there we would always end up making out somehow.  We even made out in his bathroom during a New Year’s Eve party.  So we finally dumped out baggage and decided “It’s you and me babe”.  We got married in 2004 while our family and friends watched. 

He is an automotive technician and is very good at what he does.  He doesn’t always like it but it is what it is.  We like a lot of the same things; we both move music, we love to go camping, to the drag races, and inviting my huge family over for the holidays.  He rides a motorcycle and we like to jump on it and ride to the coast and take a swim.  Dew is the kind of guy that will sneak into the bathroom, make a bubble bath with a glass of wine and then come to tell me; “Your bath is ready”.  He is really good to me and we laugh A LOT.  He has a great since of humor and can sing like a bird.  He is also the kind of guy that will watch football until he falls asleep sitting up, that drives me insane!  I’m sure there are plenty of things about me that annoy him but he needs to keep that shit to himself.  I ain’t trying to hear all of that.  We are a match made in heaven, I think.  Others might think differently but this is my blog and what I say goes, right?

 

Hugs,

 

Char~

 

I read this on another blog and just had to share it! 

Hugs,
Char~

You Know You’re a Mom When…
1. You count the sprinkles on each kid’s cupcake to make sure they’re equal.

2. You find yourself cutting your husbands’ sandwiches into cute shapes.

3. You can’t bear to give away baby clothes – it’s so final.

4. You hear your mother’s voice coming out of your mouth when you say, “NOT in your good clothes!”

5. You stop criticizing the way your mother raised you.

6. You hire a sitter because you haven’t been out with your husband in ages, then spend half the night checking on the kids.

7. You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

8. You hide in the bathroom to be alone.

9. Your kid throws up and you catch it.

10. Someone else’s kid throws up at a party. You keep eating.

11. You use your own saliva to clean your child’s face.

12. You’ve mastered the art of placing large quantities of pancakes and eggs on a plate without anything touching.

13. Your child insists that you read “Once Upon a Potty” out loud in the lobby of Grand Central Station and you do it.

14. You cling to the high moral ground on toy weapons; your child chews his toast into the shape of a gun.

15. You hope ketchup is a vegetable, since it’s the only one your child eats.

16. You donate to charities in the hope that your child won’t get that disease.

17. Your feet stick to the kitchen floor, and you don’t care.

18. The closest you get to gourmet cooking is making Rice Krispie treats.

19. You no longer object to cold pizza for breakfast.

20. Your purse is crammed with emergency toys, candy and first aid supplies.

21. You can talk on the phone, pack a lunch & breast feed all once.

22. You wonder why it was you ever feared being alone.

23 You spend an entire week wearing sweats.

24. You can remove chewing gum from just about anything.

25. You say at least once a day, “I’m not cut out for this job”, but you know you wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Let me tell you all about me.  I was raised in North Florida where I had a pretty uneventful life.  We lived in the country and were 20 minutes away from the closest “big” town, which seemed it was days away when I was little.  I have 3 brothers and 2 sisters; I am the baby of the family.   My parents were married for 45 years when my father passed away.  I was a quiet and shy child that had a freckle face and slender build.  My youngest sister and I would spend hours outdoors; some of those hours we would play, the others we would fight.  I always felt awkward and out of place but that got better as I got older and I realized I had it going on!  When I came into the teenage years, Mother Nature was very good to me J  I had no problem’s finding a date or boyfriend.  I hated school and couldn’t have cared less about my grades or attendance.  Unfortunately I dropped out of school when I was 17 and joined the working world.  I worked in the food industry until I was 22 or so then I was onto the secretarial world.  I met my husband when I was around 18 years old.  He was my boyfriend’s roommate.  We were friends then enemies then friends again then the best of friends then lovers.  We were rarely apart from one another.  At the age of 25 I found out I was pregnant with Bub.  I was sooooo scared and Dew was sooooo happy.  He would have married me that day but I didn’t want to be the chick that got married because she was pregnant.  On the day that he was born our lives where changed forever.  The change was huge but the happiness and love you feel is so much greater than the change.  Such a sweet baby boy we were blessed with.  Two years later I was pregnant again, I was around 3 ½ months along when I miscarried.  I had just begun working for the University of Florida as a secretary.  I signed up to take the GED test and received my high school diploma when I was 28 years old.  I was content with my job but always felt that I needed more.  Four years after Bub was born I was pregnant again!  We welcomed precious Nan.  Such a small, beautiful girl.  I am now the webmaster and event coordinator.  I love my job, for the first time in 14 years, I actually love my job.  I started taking college classes in 2010.  I am going for my A.S. in Web Technologies.  It will take me awhile to get my degree since I cannot possibly attend full time.  So, with a husband, children, work, school and a home to take care of…I am tired and need a nap. 

Big Hugs,

Char~

Welcome to my blog!  This is something I have thought about for a while.  I decided to get an expert opinion so I discussed it with one of my closest friends who has been a blogger for several years.  She told me to “Go for it!”.  She gave me some great advise and made me feel more comfortable about it all.  She helped me step by step and even did the design work for this page.  Thank you Wolf Queen.  I love you! 

Let me tell you about my household…I will be 40 this year and am a webmaster/event coordinator for the University of Florida, I also attend community college.  My husband Cliff is an automotive technician.  We have three children; Glo, Bub and Nan.    Glo is my step daughter; she recently graduated college with a major in music and has been married for a little over a year.  Bub will start 9^th grade on Monday, he is a video game addict.  Nan; sweet baby girl will start 5^th grade next week.  All of our children bring their own special twist of craziness to our family.  We happily live in the South where neighbors are scarce and pine trees are abundant.  We spend most of our down time sitting on our front porch.  We laugh a lot and our house is usually chaotic. 

As the blog goes on, I will tell you more about each of us and what goes on in our lives. 

Big Hugs,

Char~