Happy Birthday Mama

Today would have been my Mother's 94th Birthday. This is a picture my brother took of us at Brian and Shannon's Wedding. I love it because you can see the happiness in our faces. One, because I was so happy Bri and Shan were married and I was so happy to be so close to my mother and having our picture made...to have this memory forever. I knew we were happy, but since we could not see ourselves, this is such a treasure to me.

I have mentioned my dreams in earlier posts. Last week I was having one of my dreams that was rambling. I was trying to get home from a wedding because I had to get up for work at 5am, no matter how I tried I could not get home and to bed. Finally I was in my bed, and my mother walked over to my bed and pulled the quilt over my shoulders very tenderly, like a mother does. I woke up the next day feeling she had really visited me.

She will always be with me, in my heart.

I love you, mama. I miss you still.
Beverly

Forrest's T-Ball Game

Forrest showing me his batting arm. He was so excited to be in uniform and ready to hit.



He was first at bat and got a hit and made it to first base.



In fact, he made it all the way home....Yeah!



Afterwards we went to eat at Dino's Italian. Yum...Lily playing SOS.



Daddy and Forrest playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.



I was there too, but nobody takes my picture. I had fun and enjoyed being outside at the games this week.

Happy Anniversary Brian and Shannon

Fifteen years ago today we all gathered at the Ornamental Metal Museum on the Mississippi River to watch as Brian and Shannon were wed. It was a beautiful evening with the sun setting across the river. It was a magical evening. Now, after fifteen years of marriage and life as parents of a high spirited, sweet Max who can melt my heart when he says "I love you Meme", they are celebrating tonight. I feel so happy to see Brian and Shannon continue to love each other today as they promised each other fifteen years ago.

Baseball Games

I always loved going to my boy's games. Now, I get to do it all again. Each of my son's have a son, so I go to Max's one evening and Forrest's game the next.

Max and his coach, who was such an inspiring coach. He called the boys "Gentlemen" and praised their efforts even if they struck out.



Max got a hit and made it to first and on to second if I remember correctly.



I love being at the games. I will post on Forrest's later. This Meme is tired.

My Girlie Girl Who Loves to Climb Trees Too

Social Security

From one of my favorite go to blogs about retirement and Social Security has an interesting post here

My Feral Cat

Just an update on the girl feral kitty that was born in my garage. She had taken to resting on the sidewalk across the street. I guess she wants to keep an outlook on my house. I drove in the driveway after having a sandwich with Kevin who works nearby. I could not eat it all and was bringing the leftovers home.

I decided to see if I could get her to eat some of the ham, without running from me as they run very fast when they see people. However, she just sat and watched as I slowly approached with outstretched hand of ham. When I reached her, she took a sniff, and I promise you she looked into my eyes with the expression, "WHAT? NO SQUIRREL, NO RAT???"
I wanted to laugh, but, I left it and she finally ate it....

My life with animals I do not want continues. I guess they want me.....lions, tigers, and bears oh my, I hope they are not the next to come.....

Why Me?????

I love all things living. I love flowers, animals, big and small. However, I have to admit I do favor dogs. I have had cats, two to be exact. Buffy lived with me and the boys for twelve years. I have had dogs most of my life. First there was Snookie, then Ching, then Sweetpea, and now Shelby. These have been my pets. I am not so fond of wild animals. I think chipmunks are cute, I am not fond of squirrels. They climb down the tree and stare at me and squak at me and Shelby. I try and ignore them, Shelby not so much.
The real problem is why do wild animals love me, and my yard. I live smack dab in the middle of the city. One morning at 6am, I am out with Shelby. Feeling we were not alone, I turn around and there is a mama raccoon with two babies. We all were stunned. I was afraid they wanted my 10 pound dog, so I grab her and roar at them. Yes, you heard me correctly, I roared. I wanted them to know I was the alpha animal. They fled quickly. They came back later and sat quietly on my fence. Now, you would think they would love sitting on the rocks at the lake close to my house. Why do they pick me?
One Christmas, a raccoon came to my door, sick. I was so upset when I realized he was sick. I went out and talked to him, telling him, You are not sick, get up and walk away. Do Not Die on me. It must have been the nurse in me. He just looked at me and laid there and died. There has been opossums on the fence, but they are so dumb, they do not run away when you roar at them, not even when you go at them with a broom. There are feral cats who roam my neighborhood. I do not want them in the back yard. I have a dog who gets sick from their, how can I say it delicately, excrement, aka poop. I run them away, but they return. In fact, one of them had babies in my door less garage. Now, that was fun. I got the great idea to take those babies to the front yard. I grabbed up the one and took her to the front yard and put her down in the monkey grass. When I went back for her brother he had crawled into the corner and was trapped. Now, I was getting all soft. I got a box and put them both in there until I was thinking clearer. There in comes wisdom. I called Shannon for help. While talking to her Mama Cat came back to the nursery. I quickly hung up the phone, started yelling to the Mama Cat and holding up a kitten, saying, "I have your babies, here they are. She stopped and stared at me. I think she was working a plan in her mind to overtake me and get her babies back. I put the kittens down and went in the house. in a few minutes she had taken them and was gone. Problem solved. No cats to rile my dog, and the babies are still with mama. No so fast. I left to get Lily and when we got back home, guess who was safely tucked in the garage where they started. I spread coyete urine all around and they have stayed in the front. So far.

I have accepted the frogs I have every year. I do jump back a bit when I walk upon them, but they do not upset the apple cart. Just so they don't jump on me.

It always amazes me when I find a new critter here in the city yard. My last friend was the turtle. He appeared one day about a week ago. He moved across the yard pretty fast and was gone. I looked everywhere for him. No turtle....until today. He is safe and sound by the fence. Who will come next? I would like to request a hummingbird...

T-Ball in the Gym

Happy Forrest


Forrest loves T-Ball Practice. Because of the rain they had to go to the gym.


One coach asked if he could yell "Run, Forrest, Run", Mom says sure...run Forrest run...



The coaches motivating the Mighty Crabs!!!



Lily is still sleepy from a 7am wake up call to get Forrest to the practice.



More fun on the courts



Daddy getting his groove on with go at the hoops.

Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Hands
by Kathleen Higham

I pray to tend my garden Lord
Sowing seed for spiritual fruit.
Walk beside me with each endeavor..
Give me truth in my pursuit.

For I am struggling daily
Longing for patience, kindness, and love,
And I hope my hands are faithful
As I search for my garden glove.

As my hands lie folded in my lap,
A vision comes to me.. so clear.
About hands that touched and guided me..
And comforted me in fear.
Yes I recognize my hands today
As they come from love so strong
And they are the hands of my Mother
And my heart is filled with song.

This morning praise comes from my lips..
And I sing to my Lord and Friend.
I thank You for my Mother's hands
And the garden You help me tend.

Shannon

Shannon is my son Brian's wife. She has been in my family since she was 16 years old. My then husband Jimmy and I had been to dinner, and were walking into the kitchen. As a pretty astute mother, I noticed a little dark haired girl sitting at the table with "something" about her. I immediately looked at Brian and could see a look in his face I had not seen before. It is immediately a gasp in your heart, if your heart could gasp. You leave the room, and you know. Part of your son's heart will no longer be yours. However, like mother's love with children, their heart just grows. There is always love to go around. My heart opened up for Shannon too, she became a child of mine. After graduation her parents moved, and she fit snugly into our family. She and Brian would stop by on weekends while in college to do their laundry, they ate with us, they vacationed with us. She opened up a world for me that I loved. She sang in the car, my sons were always so quiet. They joked, laughed, and had all sorts of fun. Hiking in the mountains of Telluride, CO, she would scurry down a cliff in two seconds flat. My heart would sink, and I would already be preparing in my mind how I explain how she hurled down the SanJuan Mountains with me only inches from her.
I started this post with the goal of showing a brief glimpse of the time around Max's birthday. Her father is a photojournalist who is world traveled. I love to read his blog. It was inspired my Shannon's photo blog of her world. His is named Father of Click, and I hope you can find it here.

In case you can not reach it. Shannon's blog is www.Shannon-click.blogspot.com. then click on her link to her father. It will be a nice visit. The photo above is probably
taken by Brian or her dad....

HAPPPY BIRTHDAY MAX

Happy Birthday Max
This is the image I saw the first time I met you. You were in your Dada's arms. I was seeing my firstborn son with his firstborn son. I know in your eight year old self, it may not be incredible, but it was to Meme.

Little did I know that day how much I would love you. Each visit with you brought wonderment to my life. As a newborn I would swing with you on the front porch swing of the old house, and sing You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, You make me happy when skies are gray, you'll never know dear how much I love you. I found out later, if my memory is correct that your Mama sang it to you too.

As the time went on and the New Year approached, Meme got to spend New Years Eve with you. We were awake at Midnight, oh yeah! So, I sang and den danced with you in the early hours of the New Year.

As you grew, we have shared many moments. Playing on the swing set, me trying to learn to build robots with Legos, drawing, and your most favorite, reading to you. When you were a toddler, you would pick a book for me to read to you, and as you got near to me, you would turn trustingly and back into my lap with your book. Now you can out
read me, and I miss reading to you.

One of my proudest moments, and I am laughing as I recall this, is when I taught
you how to imitate the elephant noise. You had a play chair thingie, and when you
pushed the sound for the elephant, I would put my arm in front of my face and make
the same noise. Soon you were doing it too. It was an awesome period of time for you
and me.

I remember when you were first learning to talk. You spoke Spanglish, or as your
mother explained to me, a combination of English and Spanish since you attended a
Spanish daycare. The problem would come at dinner time. I would ask you, if you
milk or carrots? You would say something, but, Meme just did not understand. There
in lied the problem, you wanted more, I wanted to understand. Somehow, since Meme
is the Baby Whisperer, we worked it out.

Max, I know this is getting long. I will cut to the chase.
Happy 8th Birthday. My boy is getting so big. I cherish our times together.
Here's to another year of fun. I can't wait.....
I love you,
Meme