Ten Things aka Ten Fathers

My daughter does Ten Things Tuesday and lists (oddly enough) ten things she is thankful for on her blog every Tuesday. I have been thinking about a Father's day blog and kept thinking of different fathers that I am thankful for, so I decided a Ten Things type blog was in order.



1. My Heavenly Father. God has richly blessed me and my family. He is my strength, my friend, my comforter, my shoulder to cry on, my redeemer, my protector, my peace . . . well you get the idea. He is my everything and words are not enough to thank Him for who and what he is to me.



2. My Husband, Kirby. He is not my father, nor is he the father of my two children, but he is the man who would move mountains and swim oceans for me and my kids. He constantly urges me to spend time (and money) on my children and grandchildren. Some blended families have jealousy problems, but he usually treats my kids better than he treats his own! And don't even get him started talking about those beautiful, genius grandbabies, Bailey & Maverick!! I'm so glad you came into my life, Babe.

3. & 4. My Dad, Sponcil and my step-dad, Bennie. I did a post on April 17 if you want to read about these two great men. I'll just repeat here that I was very blessed to have them in my life. I'll see you both again someday in that land where we'll never grow old and there will be no sickness or death.

5. My father-in-law, Ed. Kirby and I are so excited every time we get to spend time with his mom and her husband in Texas. We always have so much fun together and Ed always gives us a hug when we leave even though everyone says he isn't one to show his feelings or be very affectionate. We can discuss everything from the Bible to the next door neighbors and anything in between, and Ed always has something funny to say. Thanks for always making time for us, Ed. Happy Father's Day.

6. My son, Todd. My son is a step-dad to four kids, and he is amazing to me. If you spend time with them, you can see the love and respect and trust they have in him. I truly believe that he found his calling in life because these four wonderful kids just needed a foundation to grow on, and he's definitely built for that job!! I love you, son!! Happy Father's day. Can't wait to see you all when I come to Texas.

7. My son in law, Jake. What can I say? He is the father of the two most adorable, most handsome, most brilliant, most incredible little boys you ever saw. I know every grandmother thinks her grandchildren are the best, but I'm not kidding. These boys are not like any other grandchildren!! They really are better looking and smarter. And I've been around a lot of babies in my life. Seriously. Thanks, Jake. Happy Father's day.

8. My ex-husband, Jerry. I know. Weird that I would mention him. I admit he has his short comings (but then who doesn't). I only bring him up because he is the father of my two kids. So I'm giving credit where credit is due. He's still part of their lives and I apreciate what he has done for them over the years.

9. George Washington. Hey, he's the father of our country, isn't he? I've been reading a little about our history lately, and if you haven't read about our founding fathers, you are missing an exciting and fascinating look at some brave and brilliant men. I know, it's not politically correct any more to give any credit to a bunch of "rich, white men" but what they did is nothing short of miraculous. I'm thankful to live in a country where I'm free to think and say what I want, and openly worship God. At least for now. We need to pray for this country and it's leaders or we could lose everything the founding fathers built.

10. Which brings me to our Military dads (like Jake). Thank you for the sacrifices you make for our freedom. Happy Father's day to all you dads who are serving in the military. May God bless you and protect you wherever you are today.

Blogging Blues!!

I've had a really hard time blogging lately. I just can't get in the mood. It seems like so many things are going on, but I just don't feel like writing about it. I guess it's sort of writer's block or something. I've been reading a series of books by Lawrence Block about a thief/crime solver named Bernie Rhodenbarr. I've read several and have a couple more that I bought at the flea market in Myrtle Beach. Between reading, I've been doing some research on Kirby's family tree. His brother being here helping with Rusty has us talking about their Rhodes family grandparents and other people they remember. Then I found a web site where someone had gone to the cemetery in Palestine, TX and made a list of every headstone. That got us looking into who some of the other Rhodes headstones belonged to. I can see why people get so caught up in tracing their ancestry. I'm fascinated by some of the things I have found and these people aren't even my ancestors. The really funny thing is to look at census records. They have so many mistakes in them, but I guess that is to be expected when you are writing down names and ages of people who don't read or write themselves. One of their relatives is listed as Paul in 1910, Paris in 1920, and Pariah in 1930. But he has the same wife and children each time, so it must be the same person. In between reading old census reports, I've finished the wallpaper in my kitchen and pulled off enough of the paper in the hallway to make a big mess. The bad thing is, I haven't picked out any paper for the hallway, so the mess I have will be there until I decide what I'm putting up in its place. Meanwhile, I printed some pictures for scrapbooking (like I really have time to work on that).

Old Project (still not finished)

Here are pictures of the plate racks I have been working on hanging up in my kitchen for about 3 months. Jen and I bought some plates at Pier 1, but I wasn't really happy with the way they fit in the racks. They were a little too big. But I'm using the 4 solid color ones along with 4 decorated ones I found at Marshalls. What I want now is something to put in the middle of these plates. As I said, the square plates are too large to sit next to each other, but the small ones are too small to look good in the rack. Oh the crazy things that I get into when I try to decorate.

10 days on the road and I'm a gonna make it home

tonight. I think in the song it might have been 6 days. I can't believe it's been 10 days since I was here. I guess I should say the fish from my last post were delicious. We bought some fish fry coating that was Louisiana brand and it was so good. I don't know what kind of spices they used in it but I'll certainly buy it again. They've been fishing once since then and didn't get anything.


Today I am all about getting a new cell phone. Our old phone fell or was dropped and the top broke off so we get a signal sometimes and other times we can't get one. We have to wiggle the broken piece and then hold the phone with both hands to keep the top from moving while we are trying to talk. It reminds me of the old days when we had an antenna on the TV and we would try so hard to get a good picture. One of my friends in high school told me she used to sit behind the TV and watch it with a mirror her dad put on a chair in front of it so that she could keep her hand on the antenna and wiggle one of the old tubes. I'm sure most of you don't have any idea what a "tube" looked like. It was a glass dome about the size of a drinking glass with metal plugs coming out the bottom. Several different kinds were plugged into the back of the TV to make it work. I remember my father spending hours replacing tubes when I was growing up. The invention of the transistor is still changing our lives today, but look at how big the first one was!!! Imagine a computer with a few dozen of these inside it. Can anyone say HUGE!!! Forget a laptop. It would have squashed you like a bug.


So, I will appreciate my new cell phone all the more for thinking about how big things used to be!!

Something smells fishy!!

Guess where Kirby, Rusty, and Charles spent the afternoon!! I hope I have some tartar sauce in the fridge!!

Views from the Condo

Our creek at Whitman just doesn't compare to this view of the ocean. Too bad we have to go home tomorrow.

Bike Week with no Bikes!!! Yikes!!!

We have been planning our trip to Myrtle Beach for Bike Week for months, but at the last minute, our plans had to be changed. Kirby's biker buddy had a doctor's appointment and some medical tests that he could not miss and they scheduled them for this week. So, Kirby decided to stay at home with his buddy and his brother and his son. They were supposed to go camping and fishing, however, the weather hasn't been very co-operative. WV has had a lot of rain this week. Since we already had the condo rented, my sister, Claudia, and I came to the beach without any bikers or bikes!! It seems strange to be here for bike week and not have a trailer or bikes to worry about. Of course, it's been one long shopping trip for us, broken up by a few hours of working jigsaw puzzles or reading mystery novels. Veda came down today and went to Hamricks with us. We all took a bunch of clothes to the dressing room and actually ended up buying a couple of things. It was fun to model for each other and help each other decide on which outfits looked good. Everything that didn't fit was pronounced "too big."

Every condo we've ever rented has been nice. This one is no exception. Here's a picture from the living room that shows the table, bar and kitchen. Tomorrow I'll take some pictures of the beach from our balcony. We're on the 9th floor, so the view is great.


The two bathrooms both have unusual wallpaper. Claudia's is pink and blue fish as you can see in this picture. Whoever did this paper did a good job of covering the medicine cabinet and matching the fish pattern.

My bathroom is even crazier with seashells of all kinds. It almost makes me dizzy to go in there.

Can you see the medicine cabinet?? It took me two days to notice it.