Memorial weekend.

Lauren's last day of middle school was Thursday. Friday I drove over and picked her up.

She had two requests before she came over.

1. Please have spinach dip.

Check.

2. Can we go to Starkville. And look for a jersey?

Check.

Friday afternoon we made a quick trip to the Books a Million and Old Navy. Then home to make some yummy meatballs for supper. We put them on sub rolls with pizza sauce. 

We watched the movie "Pitch Perfect 3". Then Lauren introduced us to The Office and Parks and Rec. 

She knows all the characters on those shows.

I had volunteer duty at the Farmer's Market Saturday morning and left her and Macho sleeping.

After I got home and grabbed a quick bowl of cereal and cup of coffee we were off to Starkville.

We hit the campus bookstore and found the t-shirt that looked like a jersey. Jerseys are sooooo expensive. I had put a price limit on the shirt. Her birthday is coming up and this would be our present to her. 

Doesn't she look cute in the tank we had purchased at Old Navy on Friday?! 

Macho is sporting his new MSU hat that he bought at the bookstore. 

Showing off the jersey. Um. She is going to be 15 in a couple of weeks. So. 

The jersey is very apropos. Or, spot on. 

Dog statues are all over the campus. 

There have been many Bully mascots over the years. 

We dined at the Bulldog Burger place. Lauren and Macho had the burger. I had the Kale State salad. It was delish. 

A quick trip to the Academy store and we headed home.

Lauren and I concocted some graham cracker toffee for her to take home with her on Sunday. 

We dined on leftovers and watched the movie "Bridge to Terabithia". 

After mass on Sunday we came home and tag-teamed a quiche. We ate that and a salad for an early lunch. Then we drove her home.

It happened to be Tucker's birthday. We wished him a Happy Birthday in delivered his gift in person. We told his birth story, as is our custom. 

Man, he was a gray baby when he was born. Daughter knew right away that something was not right. He wasn't making any noise. 

Within 30 seconds of his arrival it went from 2 nurses and a doctor, to about a dozen people in the room. I am sure there was an alarm button pressed somehow, somewhere that we never heard. They were all so calm and professional. 

The nurses put a resuscitating mask on him and hand pumped it and rubbed him hard. It took multiple tries with the mask to get him to breath.

When his little chest fluttered and he took his first breath I saw his color change from grey to pink in seconds.  

  Then I got shaky and thought, 'what just happened?' 

It was a small miracle. 

Thank you, Lord.

It was indeed a happy birth day.

Shalom. 

Your name Yvonne?

The back o' your head is ridiculous!

(Disclaimer: certain family members will get this post. For the rest of you, go to YouTube and google "Can I have your number?" Watch it. The first time is funny. Then. It gets funnier. Every. Time. I. See. It.)

Dad's birthday.

My Dad's 98th birthday is today. He died January 1, 2013.

He was a good sweet Dad. 

I celebrate him today. 

The photo below was taken in 2012. He was in ill health the entire year.

On this particular day one of my sisters had taken Mom to the doctor, thinking she may be having a heart attack. 

My Dad was so worried. He was afraid she would have a stay in the hospital. He was lost without her.

I was talking to him on FaceTime when Mom got home.

Two hundred and fifty miles away I could feel his relief when she walked in the room. 

They kissed and he just held her hand. 

She was his everything.

And he hers. 

I love you Dad. 

Shalom. 

Delta wedding.

We can check delta wedding off our bucket list now. This one is in the books.

It was certainly relaxed and fun. The wedding was custom made for the bride and groom. They both seemed very at ease throughout the weekend. 

We began with the 3 hour drive to the west side of the state. The opposite side from us. When you drive through Jim Hensen's home town you stop and take a picture with Kermit. That is just what you do. And. We did. 

There is a certain hill just past Winona that curves slightly on the western descent. After that things get flat real fast. And you are in the delta. There are no more hills. Unless you turn around and go back. But there is charm and history that seep up from the ground there. You can feel it as you drive. Mile after mile. Planting is happening right now in the delta. So we saw fields in various early stages of the growing season. We saw dirt rows. We saw rows of young plants popping up. And. We saw famers driving big equipment planting their fields. We saw dust behind every vehicle on the field roads. We saw the dust before we saw the vehicle. 

You know what that looks like? Money. 

The delta crops include corn, rice, soy beans, cotton, and I don't know what all. 

Flat as far as the eye can see.

And so we attended a memorable rehearsal dinner which included fried catfish, smoked chicken, and hot tamales! All good. 

I think my favorite dish of the weekend was the candied tomato casserole served at the bridal brunch Saturday morning. The host promised me the recipe. 

I will follow up on that. 

I did not want to carry my purse all weekend so I opted to leave it in Macho's truck. I didn't have pockets to carry my phone and I didn't want to hold it everywhere I went. So it got left in the truck, too. Which means I didn't take a single picture of the wedding events. I knew there would be lots of others taking photos. I just enjoyed living in the moment. All weekend. 

The wedding occurred at half past five Saturday evening. The bride was lovely. 

Her joy was obvious. 

After the nuptials we ate and danced the night away. 

And they lived happily ever after. 

Namaste. 

Wedding weekend....

Macho got home from his business trip. 

Let the festivities commence. Nephew getting married.

In the Delta. 

Delta wedding.

#goingtothechapel

4:00 is the new 5:00. 

It's a wine/beer and popcorn kind of night.

Shalom.

Tuesday.

The weekend was good. Daughter and offspring came over. Our festival weather was not ideal but we went anyway. We played games at home. We took a walk in the neighborhood. Daughter treated us to brunch after Mass on Sunday. Then they were gone. The house got quiet. 

I attended a wedding shower Sunday afternoon. It was lovely.

Tucker and the Super Carrot pose on the fire truck. 

Our sweet Lauren is really growing up. Her sweetness is showing. 

She will be in high school next year. I hope she rocks it!

Good things happening all around.

Macho has an out of town business trip this week. I have lots to do myownself.

Going to attend the 8-O-May celebration at our local African American cemetery tonight. 

Singing and reenactments are the fare. 

Getting Macho's suit to the cleaner this morning in preparation for the big wedding this weekend.

Delta wedding! It should be fun!

Shalom. 

From the farm.

The week sped by. I fulfilled all my first of the month duties with garden club and seniors at church. I will have a summer break from both of those until September. Ahhh...

The sugar snap peas that I pushed under the dirt have come up...

This photo was taken several days ago. The plants are even bigger now and I can see their tiny little pea vines growing. I hope I can harvest some! I love sugar snap peas. These seeds came from the Dollar Tree. 

On Wednesday our worms arrived.

I ordered 2 lbs of red wigglers from the Willow Dale Worm Farm in Booneville.

Sam the farmer gave me little instruction. So far so good. They are still alive. We really are just winging it. We don't know how much to feed them. I hope they don't starve. What do we feed them?

Apple cores, leaves, newspaper, coffee grounds, mangoes that went bad...get the idea?

Sam said no bananas nor citrus. Too much acid. Don't want to scald their little tummies. 

Why did we do it? For fun. And. Because they produce castings that make great fertilizer. And the liquid byproduct is supposed to be a good fertilizer and bug deterrent for plants. 

I'll let you know how it goes. 

Reporting from the Reeves' Worm Farm...

Shalom. 

Oh Laurel!

The circle of life continues. One of Macho's first cousins passed away on Saturday. He was able to visit with her family on Sunday evening at the funeral home. 

I was already committed to travel south and so was unable to join him. 

She suffered with the Alzheimer's for several years. Her family said it was hard and sad seeing her suffer. We know it was. We continue to pray for their comfort. 

***

I picked up Sister Paulette on my way out of town. We spent the night at Alice's Palace. Her dad was the perfect host and had prepared a delicious meal of roasted vegetables and Korean short ribs for our supper. It was all delicious. 

Cc and her sister are doing great. 

Our sweet Alice will be one month old tomorrow. She is bright and growing and all things good. 

We left early Monday morning traveling south again. We landed in Laurel. We have some history there, along with our cousin, Richard. Our Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Jimmy made their home in Laurel. They are both deceased, but we did get in a good visit with Richard. More about him later. 

We walked all around town. It is going through a revitalization process. And. It is darling. Cute shops, restaurants, and some picturesque homes. The one above is where Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Jimmy lived for many years. It is called The Lindsey House. 

The street where the house is located is lined with old oaks. Shady and southern and beautiful. 

I spotted this bank while on our walk. I recognized it as the building that used to be the post office. The very building that was repurposed in the early '60s and where my piece of marble came from. The marble that is in the table in my living room right now. It passed from the old post office to my Uncle Jimmy. It then belonged to Mom and Dad for many years and rested on two old piano corbels in their living room until Katrina displaced it. After sitting in Mom's new-to-her garage for several years she offered it to me. It sat in my garage for a year before I found someone to create a table frame to display the piece. I love it. And knowing the history of it. 

Look who we ran into! Ben Napier from HGTVs Home Town. He is a marvelous ambassador for the city of Laurel. He was so friendly and warm. And. He is so tall! 

Of course we shopped the Napier's Lauren Mercantile Co. store. I even made a purchase. This is a photo of Sister Paulette, cousin Richard, and Sister Amanda.

Richard is our adopted cousin. He spoke to us about how he feels about his adoption yesterday. He has a big heart for animals, especially ones that are not quite perfect. He somehow tried to connect his being adopted with animals being euthanized. He thinks that he was fortunate to be adopted and he doesn't feel it necessary to seek information beyond what he knows. It was difficult trying to follow his conversation. I wanted so badly to understand what he was trying to tell us. 

He is special to us, but I want you to know that he is a special adult. He limits his conversation to what he knows - motors and oil and machines. As a 59 year old adult it is still difficult for him to navigate his home town. 

We love him. He is family. 

After our lunch and cousin visit we had some time to spend before we had to go our separate ways and say goodbye. Therefore we located the Sweet Something shop and each got a decadent treat. Sister Paulette ate a huge cinnamon roll with lots of sugar frosting on top. Sister Amanda ate a big brownie topped with a scoop of ice cream. I ate most of this thing in the photo. It was two huge chocolate chips cookies with chocolate filling. It was so sweet. The last 1/3 of it I brought home to Macho. 

Today is another gorgeous spring day. I've had my walk. My bed is stripped. I plan to stay home and wash sheet, towels, and cloths. Do a little dusting. And who knows? There may be adventures right in my own backyard. 

Shalom.