Category: Things I Love

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, our nation’s official birthday. When I think of that day so many thoughts rush into my head, my first thoughts are of my childhood, specifically the bi-centennial, now that was a great 4th of July. Next are the thoughts of the years spent in Owasso, in the country with everyone at my parent’s house, amazing times.
But the prevailing thoughts are of my ancestors, specifically the one who originally came to the colonies to fight for the British. Yes, the British, he was a Hessian soldier for hire, that’s right, my ancestor, Thomas, was a soldier for hire. He was captured at Ticonderoga; while he was imprisoned he came to believe in what the American soldiers were fighting for. He switched sides and no, it wasn’t for money this time, it was loyalty and belief. I know that part of the story is true due to the Contental Congress had no money to pay their soldiers; those men were fighting for pure love of the country they wanted to govern themselves. See when you fight for a belief, for love of God and Country you always prevail. Which they did, after the war there was no money to pay the soldiers so they were given land instead; Thomas was given a valley in Virginia where he married and had three sons. One grew up and went to explore upper state New York, the other one, the oldest, stayed, the youngest went West. He wanted to explore this great land. He ended up in what is now Missouri. It is from him that my branch of the family comes.
I come from people who were Boomer Sooners, they came to Indian Territory (for those of you unfamiliar, that is now Oklahoma) in a covered wagon, a member of my family has fought for this country in every single war we have had, up to and including the current conflict. We have real cowboys in our lineage, who rode the range from Dodge City to Abilene; our ancestry also includes brave souls who came to Oklahoma via the Trail of Tears.
My children have so much to be proud of, the way their family helped shaped this country, were a part of the making of it. On their dad’s side, his grandparents came through Ellis Island, their great-grandfather was a Union Organizer in Chicago, their other great-grandfather lost a leg in service to this country in World War II. He was a great man, remained in service to this country, even after retirement, taking soldiers that could not drive to the VA Hospital. A great man, an amazing American.
I hope on the 4th of July that we all think back to the amazing men and women who shaped this country, who made it what it is, and we understand what we have to do as individuals and as a whole to get this country back on the right path, to once again realize not only our individual freedoms but our freedoms as a country.

Ok, so on Sunday I was watching a show on the history channel about Halloween. I had no Idea that the great holiday started in Ireland.

Why was I not up on the history of Halloween? Me! I love history, all history, of everything. And, I LOVE Halloween. The come as you aren’t holiday. Or, as I like to refer to it, the come as you really want to dress every day holiday.

I have not planned well for this year. I was not going to dress up as I was not going to be at work, then I was invited to a party, so costume plans are on. I have not decided on what I want to dress as yet.

I have a ton of costumes in my closet, there is the Anna Nicole, in poor taste now that she is dead, the Greek goddess, Wonder Woman (my personal favorite), Barbie doll one, and of course the quintessential sexy witch.

I will probably go with the witch one, I love that costume. However I love my wonder woman boots and have only worn them twice. Ugh, decisions.

Any thoughts on what I should be? And I would love to hear what everyone else is dressing up as!

I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom lately. Not surprising considering the anniversary of her death was August 11th. She has been gone for 5 years now. However, mentally, she was gone years before her physical passing. She has Alzheimer’s.

Before the disease came along my mom was total greatness. She was funny, kind, gentle, thoughtful, resourceful, confident and just in general amazing. She was all of the things I so desperately want to be. I never ever heard her say one bad word about anyone. EVER! That is a hard thing to accomplish. I remember asking her once if she had ever done anything bad in her life. She sat there for a long time, finally she said well this one time when I was 5 years old…. I can’t tell you what she did, as she made me promise never to reveal her secret, but the real point of the whole thing was she had to go back 80 years!!! She was 85 when she told me that story. I can begin my list at the age of 4 and just continue on till today! She had the patience of Job. I remember the one and only time I ever saw her lose her cool and it was when I was 15 and my dad decided to teach me to drive, well, during one of our driving lessons I backed the car into the fence. No comments please. My mom shot out of the house like a lightning bolt, pointed her finger at my dad and said “Driver’s Ed!” then went back into the house. My dad looked at me and said “Well, I guess that settles that”. LOL! It was funny.

My mom was so very intelligent. She was a published author, a retired dental assistant, seamstress, Sunday school teacher and frustrated wannabe English teacher. She told me that when she was a girl she wanted to go to college and become a teacher. Well since it was the depression and she was a girl there was no money for college. It wasn’t even discussed. I often wonder what kind of life my mother would have had if she had been able to go to college.

The quality that I loved the most, and still miss to this day, is the way I could tell my mom anything and she never judged me. She never offered advice unless I specifically asked for it, even then, never expected me to act on the advice.

I try and mimic that characteristic with my own children. I hope I do half as good of job as my mom did in the whole parenting department. I sometimes feel bad that my children don’t have as good a mother as I had.

Did I mention the cooking? My mom was a terrific cook. She made the best ever fried green tomatoes and this coconut cake, it was white cake with this icing that was out of this world, made out of that marshmellow stuff in a jar with coconut, it was a pure white cake, so good!! Trust me when I say we ate well. She tried to impart all of that domestic stuff on to me, it hasn’t taken yet…

When I grow up I want to be like my mother.