Where Have I Been?

Just decided to come over here to see when last I posted. Wow... it's been a while. So, here I am, just saying I'm still here... just not 'here'! Possibly not even 'all here', if you get my drift!

I've been lazy and will probably continue to do that... it's easier than trying to keep up with everything... As we say, so much to do, so little time.

I admire all of you who can keep up a blog and all the other stuff we all need to keep up with in any given day.

Later my friends... much later!

Marge

Welcome Back to The Texas Woman!

I just visited the site of a fellow blogger buddie who I had asked for prayer from the Dolls when she learned she had breast cancer. She hadn't posted a lot for a while and that allowed doubt to start to creep in.

I AM SO HAPPY to say she just posted and she is doing well! She may not be back fulltime, but she is back ... and that's the best news I can deliver!

I haven't been posting either, but I couldn't think of any better reason to write something today!

Welcome back to The Texas Woman! You were missed.

The Dolls and Virtual Dolls in Vegas 10/24 - 10/28/09

For those who wanted to know who's who in my avatar, here we are in Vegas..

The Dolls:

From L to Right:

Back row: Rbennie, Margo, Laurie, meb, PDXgranny,

Front row: Sydney, Auntie Leigh, Becky

From L to Right: Laurie, PDXgranny, meb, Rbennie, Sydney

The little stuffed animals(virtual dolls) you see in the picture (on Elaine's shoulder and in my hand) were representative of those who couldn't go on the trip. We carried them around and they did what we did. Mine, the orange giraffe was actually donna from al.

Virtual Dolls - Not necessarily in the picture were:
Donna in the al, Jennasmom, Jackie, Sizzie, delee,
and Terry in CA (Hope I haven't forgotten anyone).

Nana in NW was with us briefly but had an emergency
and had to return home early. All is well now.

Dla who lives there met us for dinner one night. Great
meeting her! She was gorgeous...sorry no picture of her

We had a WONDERFUL time!

I'M VEGAS BOUND!

One more day of work and I'm on my way to Vegas to meet my blogger buddies! I CANNOT WAIT! We've planned this since the end of 2008 and it's finally here.

Spouses or significant others have cautioned that perhaps we're trying to lure the others there to steal a kidney or sell them into sex slavery. I may have to volunteer for the second one. OK, now that I've embarrassed my immediate family and my church family... Lighten up!

So, while I want to see everything and do everything, more than anything I want to meet these friends I found in cyber-ville.

I'll tell you all about it when I get home, but right now I just wanted to let you know where I'll be for the next few days. I know... 'what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas', except if I see anyone dancing naked on a table, then I'm tellin' . (Hope it's not me.)

I HAD A MEMORY

I worded my title as such because I have a friend who is always telling great stories that she remembers from her youth and I've always told her I can't remember anything. Yet, when reading her blog, it triggers a memory.

It doesn't have to have anything to do with what she's discussing... just a word and I'm off on a memory trip of my own. I think the following memory is funny, so I'm telling it. Thanks for this one Sizzie!

When I was in high-school, my sister was two grades higher than I. We were probably considered "poor" financially in those days, so we didn't have the benefit of a washing machine. Thus, we had to wash our own clothes, in the bathtub, on a scrub board...mom said we were old enough to do that chore ourselves. Well, I wasn't so good at keeping enough clothes clean for the week, so I had to do double duty with my washing chore. My sister, on the other hand, was Miss Do Everything Right. Her clothes were washed, ironed and hung or placed neatly in her dresser drawer, and enough to last her the whole week.

She would always tell me that I needed to be better prepared. Today I might have given her a flip answer, like "get bent", but back then ... well, I probably had some smart answer for her.

Anyway, eventually she graduated and started a job but still lived at home. I had two more years of school. She always left for work earlier than when I had to catch the school bus, (I'm sure you have figured out where I'm going here) ... after she left for work, I would go to her wardrobe and borrow her clothes to wear to school. Nice clean clothes...

And... I would return from school before she got home from work, sooooo... I'd place her clothes back neatly in her closet or dresser. This went on for about a year and a half... just before I graduated from high school. She never knew, until... that blasted year book and my stupidity.

I had all my pictures taken for the yearbook wearing her clothes. When the yearbook came out and she saw the pix, she had a fit. She could not believe I could have pulled it off, as she thought I wasn't capable of keeping anything neat or clean. And the thought of her wearing clothes that had already been worn was more than she could take. I'm not sure if we had an actual physical knock-down-drag-out. Probably not then... she was too sophisticated for that, after all, she was a working girl.

Of course, that was the end of having clean clothes prepared for me. But it was a blessing while it lasted.

My Dad

Dad was the mainstay of our family when I was younger. Mom being a little shy, daddy filled in for what she was uncomfortable doing.

He was even the one who bought our clothes for us. He would come home on a Saturday night with two new beautiful dresses for Joan and I, just to make sure that we were well dressed at church the next morning. I loved the clothes he would pick out… red velvet or black velvet with white collars. I always thought I was the most beautiful little girl in the world. I've since seen pictures of myself and now know that the dresses were usually bought bigger so that we wouldn't out-grow them so quickly. I never knew that we didn't have much money, so when dad would come home with those clothes, my mother always seemed to be upset over it. I guess she was the one trying to manage a budget.

Dad also did the shopping for groceries, and that was one place he never skimped. We always had so much food on the table. Mom would try to make leftovers last for days. Dad would do the cooking first, always on Sunday, and we'd come home from church with a feast awaiting us for our noonday meal.

Sunday was “fun day” for our family. It was daddy’s only day off and he always wanted to do something that was as far from working as possible. The first thing was Sunday breakfast… Dad was Greek, and I can still hear him calling us to breakfast after he had cooked a huge meal: “Get ON the table!” he would yell, trying to get us out of bed. His English never quite made it but we had a lot of laughs because of it. Get ON the table was always a good one. In later years, by the time we had finished eating breakfast, he was well into starting to cook for the extended families who were coming over for lunch/dinner (today we'd call it brunch)…my two brothers and their families and my sister and her family and of course me and my family. We lived in a mobile home in mom and dad’s back yard.

Back to when we were younger, after breakfast we packed up and drove an hour to the beach… Rehoboth/Dewey Beaches…made famous by President Johnson’s daughters who came over from Washington, DC to party…

The large part of these Sunday trips to the beach was that dad was a gambler…loved his cards…. and that’s why he always headed to the “game” in Rehoboth. Our food for that day was the Boardwalk Fries, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, ice cream and of course, always a big box of Salt Water Taffy! The day would end at about 2-3 o'clock in the morning with Mom and us kids waiting in the car for him to finish his card game, and then another hour drive home. Monday mornings were never easy for mom to get us up to go to school. Today dad would probably be arrested for neglect. I always saw it as just another adventure!

Dad had diabetes and ultimately lost a leg because of it. He never quite recovered from that disease and died at the early age of 63. Family life sort of stopped at the same time. Now I realize that it was Daddy who kept the family together, not only immediate family, but all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Only time you see them now is if there is a funeral.

However, my young life was blessed.

You Gotta Love This One

Why Men Shouldn't Take Messages: