Speaking of this being wedding month...

This was supposed to be for yesterday - but I didn't finish it - and now it's the day AFTER Ann and Steve's anniversary. Happy Anniversary anyway.

Today is Ann and Steve's Anniversary - their 7th anniversary.

Wow - I was definitely involved in that one.

I remember the day after I knew they were getting married, I felt rather overwhelmed and drove to K-Mart and purchased 2 packs of large index cards and a box to hold them. They weren't officially engaged, I just knew they were going to be. And it all just fell into place after that. I think that getting those index cards and the box to file them - well - that gave me some order to the big event we would be planning.

So - Happy Seventh Anniversary to Ann and Steve - To the Mom and Dad it's an event to put together. To the Bride and Groom - it's their wedding day and it belongs to them.

The day was beautiful and it was, for us, a great day of fellowship and celebration. Lots of friends and family.

That is all of my post for now and perhaps I'll write something this afternoon. I'm in the middle of a lot of small and medium size projects.

Turnip Greens, Old Pictures and October

One has got to really love a food item in order to stand at the kitchen sink and piece after piece clean and strip, etc. What am I referring to??? Turnip Greens. Charlie bought them at Farmer's Market today. We both LOVE them. That's what I'm doing this morning - cleaning them - also going to boil the green peanuts he bought. That's football food - watch the game - eat boiled peanuts. It's a Rhodes tradition and he was raised on boiled peanuts in the fall. But they have to be green - not just raw. He's a peanut snob about that and doesn't trust some of the stands selling boiled peanuts. He thinks they are passing raw ones, boiled, for green ones. There's a difference.

Also got some sweet potatoes from this dear man who sells them. I haven't met him - but Charlie knows all those folks down there and we love their fresh vegetables. Peas and Green Beans, stringless, fresh tomatoes - can't beat it - but it's about to be over and I don't can any of this stuff. My sweet neighbor, Wanda, gave me fresh okra this week, and last week, Laura Beth's father in law sent some with them to us. Had fried okra at Sunday lunch. So good. Charlie and I even like the boiled okra.

Back to my turnip greens - when I have those cleaned and cooked - that's like solid gold. Last year I froze some and the Pot Liquor(turnip juice). Love it. Charlie and I had those frozen greens last week with sweet potatoes. I tried to make Cracklin Bread, using fried bacon pieces, because I didn't have cracklins. I feel that project coming on. Trying to get my cracklin bread to taste like my grandmother's. I've got to tweak it and work with it until I can say...that's it....that's Ella's cracklin bread. It's like a kind of cornbread with a very hard crust - cooked in a little oil in a black skillet - so good if done right. Mother could do it...she didn't think she could - but I loved hers - but Ella was just known for it - and I think Mother referred to Granny's Cracklin Bread - so I guess it was handed down.... only I seem to be fumbling the ball. Oops.

Okay - so yesterday I went to CVS Pharmacy and put some random photos on a disc. Old Black and Whites which have a lot to do with what I blog about - my fond memories, etc. Now I have a few images and I intend to get some more. It is very time consuming to do that and I can't do many at a time. I did 27 yesterday - that's the most I've done so far. In my dreams I would have a really good scanner at home, a really good printer(not my mediocre one) and an updated computer with terrific graphic software. I have amateur software. But it's all fun to do and the creativity is a bit limited without top quality equipment - but it's fun.

Back to my turnip greens and trying to find a reason to put one of pictures up here. When I'm cleaning the greens and switching them from one side of the sink to the other, getting that dirt rinsed off - I am reminded of watching Mother in her double sink - and when she let the dirty water out in order to get new clean water - well - it made such a noise going down the drain - and still does actually - it would scare me - so I would hold my ears when that took place. So the picture below is Mom in her kitchen, first year she was in it. I love this picture. It is a classic 50's retro kitchen.

It's still wedding month - plus Ann and Steve have an anniversary on October 5 - this Monday - so I will continue to post some of Charlie and me and maybe think of stuff to say - maybe find letters Mom and I wrote each other during the planning stage leading up to the wedding. It's also beautiful fall weather month and October 2009 is outdoing itself. It's wonderful and delightful and aren't we grateful for how God made this world?!!

First Day of October

October means Fall - Pumpkins - Leaves turn - Warm - Cozy -

In my life it also means wedding month.

Charlie and I married on October 27, 1979. This year it will have been 30 years.

So - I picked songs that remind me of him and us and me and when we were dating.

I was 28, he was 26. We were single, working, living in Birmingham. Didn't feel so green behind the ears anymore - we both "felt 'out on our own' ". There was music on the radio and there were lyrics about falling in love. I tried to find some of those that reminded me of when we were dating - Boz Scaggs was really popular at the time and if I hear his music on oldie stations it reminds me of dating Charlie - I have a hard time remembering titles and artists - so there's one song in particular that I can't remember and can't find - maybe I'll find it later.

I don't like to post any harsh music - mostly easy listening and I doubt anyone hangs around on this blog long enough to listen to all my songs - but there's one in the middle of my playlist - words and music are a bit hard and anyone would think they don't suit my personality - that's because you don't really know me that well - sadly Charlie has found out over the years I can be a bit hard to "live with". When the soundtrack for "What Women Want" came out he and I were listening to it(I'd bought it) and the song, well, I hate to spell out the title, it isn't a nice sound at all, the title, by Meredith Brooks was playing. He said it reminded him of me. (He didn't mean that awful title, but the words. He wouldn't have called me that word. It's so derogatory) He was laughing when he said it. awwww. :-( I wonder if most men find that out about their wives - after the weeks and months have passed - and we get really comfortable with each other. Or we get really selfish with each other. Anyway, I had to explain that song - it's not my usual kind of music on here.

The first song, the Kenny Rogers song, reminds me of where we are now. It's been 30 years - I don't really listen to Kenny Rogers - and never did that much - but he does some nice easy listening.

I hope Christ has shaped me and molded me enough to make me nicer. I think it feels like he has. Marriage in the early years for both Charlie and me was a huge shock to our system. Neither of us knew we had to change so much and give so much and adapt to things we had absolutely no interest in. For me it was Football and Hunting. Good grief!! I was going to so many Auburn Football Games! Once I even took a book with me to read.....to the game. If anyone knows me at all then you've discovered I'm a talker. Charlie is not that by nature. He's quiet, subdued mostly - (except during an Auburn Football Game!)

I now enjoy Auburn Football. Charlie enjoys our long conversations and is patient with my "stories". We've lived through giving birth to and raising 4 girls. We're about to be done with the college years. We've both lived through my menopause. That's huge and noone warned us about that one. It looks different on everyone and you don't know you're in menopause until it's all over with. So you look back and say, "Oh! that explains all of that".

30 years of living together, going to bed, waking up, doing the daily routine - guiding our girls - making a lot of mistakes - having a lot of successes. Charlie's dad died of Lung Cancer in 89 or 90 - Daddy died after living with Alzheimers for at least 5 years - in 93. Mother died just because it was her time - in 2006 about 3 weeks before Laura Beth married Scott. We've lived through 2 weddings and 4 grandchildren with number 5 due in February.

Praise God that He revealed Himself to each of us before we met and we understood that He was to be Lord of our lives. That's not simple - as we're in this marriage and God working junk out of our lives - and our hearts - well - things can get really sloppy at times - But God is the Redeemer and Savior and Lord.

Charlie is a solid man - with much integrity - we never questioned during any heated fight that we'd ever consider not being married. I never had to doubt him nor did he have to doubt me. I'm grateful for that and we really really really really enjoy having each other at the end of the day. We've never been really ooshy gooshy about each other and our love. We just belong together as long as God has us on this earth.

How did we meet? I reluctantly went on a blind date with him. He was fresh out of law school and his first job was in Scottsboro. A friend had visited him in Scottsboro - she was here on a job related task(she too was graduated from law school) and she learned that single life for Charlie in Scottsboro was, ummm, not really suiting him. He was traveling to Birmingham each weekend to stay with friends. I was working in Birmingham. She pleaded with me to date him and I refused and refused and refused. I hated blind dates. They were always unsuccessful. Finally I agreed. She set it up - he called me. We went out. It wasn't love at first sight. I was feeling weird about the whole thing and just awkward. We found out we had a lot of friends in common, that we'd known all the same people during Auburn and Birmingham. We had lived in the same places at the same time. The first date was enjoyable enough - plenty to talk about - I just was feeling weird because everyone was watching and waiting for us to immediately fall in love. So time went by - we did a few things together - but sparks weren't flying and he just started dating this other girl. I was relieved. Enough of that. But then we were in the same crowd - we knew each other - and with the pressure of dating off of us - well - the chemistry began to happen. He and the other girl weren't really connecting and I was all about getting him back in my court. I did, he did and there are a lot of little stories in between. But the short of it - we met in August of 1978 and married in October of 1979.

Once we knew we were engaged Charlie began to look for a job in Birmingham - he wanted me to keep the job I had - and he had only been out of school for one year and working in Scottsboro for one year. He got a job in the District Attorney's office in B'ham. He was one of many many assistants there in B'ham. We lived and worked in B'ham, married, for one year. 6 months into our being married I got pregnant with Ann. That wasn't planned, but it wasn't unplanned either. It was just, "Oh well." Then Dwight Duke, D.A., began to woo Charlie back to Scottsboro and with my being pregnant and our wanting me to be able to stay at home - well - we came here and have been in Scottsboro since the end of August 1980. The first weekend here was First Monday Sunday. I don't think Art in the Park had begun then, but it was a big First Monday Sunday and we were on the square - with my parents who had helped us move - We lived in Goosepond Apartments.

That's how we began life in Scottsboro. Our first anniversary I was 6 months pregnant. Crazy. Charlie bought me roses and we grilled steaks on the little deck thing of our apartment. We ended up burning them because we were standing inside the sliding glass doors and started kissing a lot. :-) Then we remembered the steaks and they were on fire. Those kinds of things really make Charlie mad - he loves a good steak - so he went from lovey dovey kiss, kiss, kiss, to "I'm SO MAD ABOUT THIS"! I had to calm him down and convince him it wasn't the end of the world. They were charred, but who cared. I was pregnant and we were in love. Yay! You can't beat that.

I gotta close - lots and lots of stories. 30 years of stories. Good and Bad. It's life.

Saturday

The apple butter did great. Ann's did great. We used different recipes and both of us like hers the best, although I do like them both. I had some of mine on toast this morning. Yum.

It's raining outside - the kind of hard, yet soft, rain which invites one to sit on the porch. I would, with my coffee, but I am doing final clothes folding. Laura Beth, Scott and Ada are on their way here from Crossville - they've been with Scott's family. We are all so excited to see Ada - oh, and Laura Beth and Scott, too. :-)

Hopefully, with Ann coming by, we'll probably have pictures.

I cleaned my house yesterday - well - not the baseboards. I had planned to go back after the vacumming and mopping and bedmaking(clean sheets) and bathroom cleaning - go back and sit on the floor and go all around cleaning my baseboards. Didn't get to that - but I have the solution ready. I'm gonna do it maybe on Monday. Who hates that layer of dust that settles on the baseboards? Also, about carpet - very deceptive. Hardwood floors tell it like it is. One knows for sure if the dust is out of hand. Gotta clean those floors. But it's easier to deny the dust if there's carpet. I have way too much carpet and look forward to the day when I can have hardwood floors. My vacuum is a dinosaur - an antique - a very old electrolux. I need a new one - but that's not happening soon, either.

Just checking in so there'll be a new post and wanting anyone who reads this to know how excited I am to see Ada.

I wish Sarah and Kate could be here.

More later on this rainy, indoor Saturday.

I'm Back!

I'm back posting, I'm back from Perdido Beach and I'm back with some new pictures on my Blog.

Ann was over today and I had her bring her camera.

Crow Mtn. and apple season - it's one of the best things -

We drove up there (to Crow Mtn.) on Tuesday and after the 30 min. drive and the 10-15 min. shopping spree - I had in my possession two very large bags of apples for making apple butter and one medium bag of Jonathan Gold for munching on and 1 medium bag of some kind of tart, crisp apple for freezing for pies - and a box of yummy Bartlett Pears. Those are in two bowls softening and ripening and then I better gobble them up before they go bad.

I had a wonderful time at Perdido Beach - soulful conversation with 3 unique women - They live very large Birmingham lives and mine is a simple smalltown life - I love my life, but enjoy living vicariously through theirs a few times during the year. We all grew up in a small town so we all understand that rhythm. I lived in Birmingham for a while and loved it, but I was a lot younger and so were they.

Scenes from today's Apple Butter experience. Begin with cider fresh from Crow Mtn. Apple Orchard.

.......and then the recipe tells me to boil down the cider

to half that amount.That takes 1 1/2 hours, but I should have boiled it down some more. At the end of the day I think my apple butter is too thin.

Beautiful, healthy apples.


Peeling, Peeling, Peeling.....and in between all of these stages getting phone calls and making them to Sarah. She has had a relapse with her flu and suspects a sinus infection. I connected with my Tallassee friend and her family doctor. So - a lot of back and forth calls regarding directions and appointment and insurance, etc.

So now it's the end of the day. There's been a lot happening today - not just the apple project - Ann has gone home with her camera so I can't take pictures of the finished product - but I have the apple butter in the jars and I've heard that pleasing "pop", knowing they've sealed. Ann made her own recipe and it is in the crockpot. Still has to be put in jars. That's for tomorrow.

Different Kind of Week

Today is Thursday and I haven't posted since Monday.

This week has been very different for me.

If you're reading this, I know you've seen Ann's blog and know they are at the beach - and you've seen the pictures that she posted. I've talked to them a few times. Once Luke got on the phone and I was asking him questions which he only answered with Yes. Questions like: Are you having fun?, Do you like the water and sand? I told him I missed him, but I have to ask questions that require an answer or it'll just be silent on the other end, unless he has something to tell me. So, knowing he did not want to leave the beach and the vacation I asked, "Luke do you want to come home or do you want to stay there?" He responded, "I want to come home." At that point he dropped the phone and I heard him say, "Mom, I want to go home to Near's house." Ann grabbed the phone and we got so tickled. That doesn't mean he really would rather be with me than there and all that they are doing. He just has no concept that he can't make a quick run to my house and then return quickly to SeaGrove. Awww.

Guess if you're reading this you've also read Laura Beth's blog and all of Ada's antics. Also seen the picture of the lipstick on her face. So funny and the fact that she says "Aw Mam!" for "Aw Man!". So funny.

I also recommend Sarah and Kate's blog and how they share their heart.

So - this week has been different without the Barbers here, plus Charlie is practically absent. So I feel like a single lady living in this town and in this house. Charlie has Grand Jury this week and is also preparing for an upcoming trial - so he goes to work early and comes home late and is rather distracted and tired - but we do enjoy our evenings watching our TV programs. That relaxes us.

Another unusual thing about this week. It's been a week of old and present friends and time spent with them. Mary Bratton and I got together on Tuesday morning. We seldom get to do that anymore - and that afternoon Steve and Yonea Chunn stopped by on their way home from Chattanooga to Mississippi. I'll tell about them further down in this post. Then, responding to an invitation from my "cousin-in-law" Martha Robinson(also friend from high school up to present day), I said yes to her invite to join her, Sarah Dodd(friend from college up until present day) and Val Carrier(friend from high school up until present day) at Martha's condo in Florida. I was a bit reluctant because I have so much to do here at home, but I hate to pass up the good fellowship - so I'm driving tomorrow to B'ham and am riding down with Val. Martha and Sarah left yesterday to go down.

Yesterday, I also had a visit with a friend in our church who fell and broke her ankle. Ouch! She normally works during the day, but is off her feet for 6-8 weeks! Can't imagine. It was one of those freak accidents - just going to pick a weed and a slippery spot and bam! She is down and has a nasty break.

So - it's been a week of visits with ladies in my age bracket. I usually only run into them in Wal-Mart - I think we are all on our "treadmill of life" and those slow easy visits - well - we just don't take the time for them. Sad.

Plus I've been on the phone quite a bit with a friend who used to live here, Corny Rose. Her husband, also a close friend to Charlie and me, had a terrible medical freaky thing involving colon/bloodvessel/something perforating and boom - he was in terrible shape in icu - had to have surgery - but thanks to his good health and good doctors under God's sovereignty, what could have been fatal ended up in his returning home yesterday from the hospital. So grateful. So glad. But again, little contact with them except a few times during the year.

This week has been a chain of events and phone calls putting me in contact with friends from past and present, in a concentrated way. It feels like God's hand is all over it and I have to wonder and ask the whys and why now? Is something about to happen? What is God teaching me and telling me? Is it just one huge blessing and gift - because I love fellowship with friends. I really do. I also love time alone. I am energized by time alone and also often hate to invade someone's space - so I tend to retreat - but at the same time really really really enjoy good conversation - Well - I'll just enjoy it all and keep my heart open to what He is teaching me.

Who are Yonea and Steve? They used to live here in Scottsboro and moved to Mississippi after their 2nd child was born. Yonea is 13 years younger than I, so she has always felt like a younger sister. Steve is 8 years younger than Charlie and I. They now have 9 children! Can anyone imagine that? other than the Duggars on TV who are expecting their 19th. My youngest, Kate, was 2 when their first was born - so their oldest is 19 and their youngest is 5. Ellie, my granddaughter is 4. Weird that Ann has a child only 1 year younger than Yonea's youngest. Their children are delightful and balanced and get into their normal amount of trouble and maintain their normal amount of obedience. They are homeschooled with a small dose of public school. Steve and Yonea look healthy and still young at 50 and 45. Yonea is training for a half marathon and Steve has returned to his former swimming skills. He was a swimmer in high school and a swim team coach - he's back at it along with his children, some of them - others run track. An active family! They have a zeal and passion for the Lord, and love His word and we enjoy talking about all of that and sharing our hearts. We talked too long the other day and had lots of laughs. They stayed beyond what they intended to be a brief bathroom break. I was so glad but knew they had 9 children to get back to - Well - they aren't all children 19,17,15 and so on, down to 5. Anyway - that's Yonea and Steve and their visit was a big treat for me. Poor Charlie had to miss it. He worked until 6:30.

Another friend who lives out of town, Beth Baldwin - well I had spent Saturday conversing with her. I thought of this. I could honestly say to someone that Beth and I travel together, only we're never in the same car or at the same end of the state. I have family in South Alabama(Evergreen and Auburn) and Beth has Joy living in Athens, TN, just above C'nooga - well - if we're on the road one of us will call the other and discover that she's headed north and I'm headed south - and we'll talk a bit. Sometimes we'll discover we're about to pass each other and we'll stop at the same location for a bathroom break. So funny.

It's been a great week with friends. And then I have my regular emails with Mary Ann and an occasion phone call to her or from her but we do regular emailing. I'll see her on my way to the beach on Friday. Val's making a quick stop in Evergreen to see her mom and a mutual friend of ours who's going through chemo to kill breast cancer. Brave girl, Connie K.

So - that's been my week and today is Thursday. I need to get up and get things done.

September post.

It's Monday.

The day was wet, this morning, looking through the kitchen windows enroute to the coffeemaker. Assuming there would be no grass cutting, my mind thought of other ways to spend this Monday - so many projects - which did cross my mind in the night when suffering a bit of insomnia. That kind of thinking only led to stress - better spend those insomia minutes, sometimes hours, praying for people who need prayer - especially the persecuted believers throughout parts of Europe and Asia - that's another post - perhaps its own blog.

So - Charlie reminded me that Kate needed money in her account - also asked me to google a shoe repair place in Huntsville - there's got to be someone who still repairs shoes. Another task - to take care of the 50.00 rebate card sent to us by Verizon - there were a few gliches surrounding the cashing of it. Charlie was off to Grand Jury and I was left to be a good steward of my Monday. Yipes.

Rain, more rain - not wanting to leave the house - but finally I dressed and did a bit of makeup and I actually drove off to assume the responsibilites which might seem trivial to most adult females.

This post is about September. The sky quit pouring rain on Scottsbor0 - the ground became reasonably dry - the lawn mower had plenty of gasoline - so at 6:25 - the grass is cut - and memories and smells and feelings ran through my mind as I cut around the trees whose leaves are falling, leaving those leafy patches to cut through - The air smells dry and fallish. My dear hydrangea bushes are making their best effort to show me a few more blooms - here in September. Bless them. I appreciate the effort, but in a whisper let me say that those September blooms are no comparison to the early summer blooms - still - I love the pinks and lavenders of the petals belonging to the midseason mopheads which are drying up - and their late new and fresh blooms are a grand last hurrah - such a noble effort to remind me that summer 2010 will be here - the seasons, at least, they continue.

My thoughts, of course, went to childhood and Williams Avenue. The smell of burning leaves. That is how many dealt with those piles of pecan leaves - but not until November, actually. November is the ripe month for pecans. The rains and the shaking of the limbs and the pecans fall and we gathered them for Christmas money. Loved it. Still, September. School beginning - homework - playing outside with friends after school. Days getting shorter. Changes. But...Mother and Daddy ever there - always there - no change in that - and Mary Ann by my side, always at home in the evening when I was - sharing the room - and the TV and our side of the family table. Probably she'd be playing the piano before dinner or after. And Daddy tweaking any wrong note or questions regarding rhythm.

It's mid September now. Elizabeth must get things in order for Fall and Thanksgiving, to be followed by Christmas. All the holidays - and family coming in - clean sheets - surfaces dusted - good food -

and must close - Charlie is coming in the back door.