Jen's trip home to visit us

  It has been a joy having Jen come home to visit us , have looked forward to it for sooo long.  However she was not enjoying the heat here but now it has rained for the couple days so cooled things down alot and she liked that.  She said she was wanting to see rain and a thunderstorm. ha. She got her wish!  Second day here we had a little family get together for her over at Sherry's home.  Tryed to keep her busy, we went to the Trout Lake nature center,  not impressed much,  went to target,  to walmart , to visit Frankie, Watched a couple 3D movies with dad, went to dog pound and looked at cats. Jen would love a cat but she can't have one where she lives now.  I enjoyed Jen giving me  a couple massages on two evenings which was great!  My leg had been giving me problems and the massage felt great and has helped so much!! Thank you Jen! For sure she has a gift for it!! Here is picture of her donut puzzle which she worked hard on while here, was a fun puzzle for sure .  After,  she helped me finish up a couple that i had  previously started.

                      It was fun Jen!!

                                

Memories

 Uncle Joe sent me these cool pictures! They were things your dad and I were familiar with back in our day.  Will write a little about each picture  so you will know more of what it was like for your old parents back in the good old days!!

 This is the first reading book we learned from.  Dick & Jane , and their dog Spot.  Don't recall the baby's name but they had this red Radio Flyer Wagon.
 

Dad was always taking me to the A.& W. Rootbeer stand on some of our dates.  The rootbeer was great and  they brought the food right up to the window of the car, didn't have to get out. It was busy place on
 Sat. nights.                                  

 
this was more or less what the washer looked like that my mom used and I heard someone say once that my mom actually got her hand caught in the wringer.  ugh!  So after clothes washed then my mom would hang them on the line to dry.  Think my mom enjoyed  hanging the clothes up and have the sun to dry them.  She felt they smelled so good after drying in the Sun!  I think about it and  wonder if they were very soft.  Today we use dryer sheets and it guarantees they are soft. :)



Here are the shoes all the girls wore back then, they were called Saddle Oxfords. You can see why! Looks like a saddle you put on a horse doesn't it. ha!







 This is how  we got curly hair back then. I actually can remember rolling my hair up and putting bobbie pins in place to hold it so could  enjoy some curls next day.  I also remember having hair rolled up into rags to make it super curly! sounds crazy huh.



  Here is the first dinnete set  dad and I bought when we got our first home, well we rented it and put alot of work into it. It was yellow and I thought it was sooo nice.  
Dad and I rented our first house out in country. We had to drive about five miles to get into town but that didn't last lone, moved right back into town after about four months because we didn't want to be there and have to drive back and forth when the snow set in.
We bought all used furniture for our first place to save money.  
Playing jacks was sooo much fun, wonder why kids don't enjoy it today. ha.

"You can rock it you can roll it at the Sock Hop! " Bump you remember that I'm sure! :)  Boy, did you and I cut a rug!! ha.  Bump was the best brother ever.  We did almost everything together!




I remember when Mary Marley whom i babysit for first plucked my eyebrows, they were sooo beautiful  i thought! She was beautiful and she helped me to find a new look !  I sure did appreciate what she did for me to help me feel better about myself.

Miss this kind of phone, even if I
do love my cell!
I remember the movie " Dial 9 for Murder."ha.  Sure miss turning those dials!
When we went into a resturant you usually found this music box and you flipped the doors from the top till found your favorite song and then dropped in your quarter and pressed the red button on side ,then up came your song.   O how we loved to find the song of the month. We sang along or danced. 

 Find your size! Wow every Sat. night Bump and I hit the rink!! Man it was the best of good fun times, what do kids do today?  Gosh, we loved that rink in Vincennes so much and could I ever move on those skates. ha.  Even dance on them.  ha.  Our friend from church ran the place so that made it really extra special.  It was the best of all hang outs!


Going to the outside Drive Inn and taking a big stack of popcorn, well it didn't get much better than that!

Our sister in law Lillie  took us kids many times / she loved doing things for us/ she reminds me alot of our Valerie. Lillie was great fun even though later on she and my brother Roscoe divorced. She taught me to drive and i think she played a big part in the early years of both Bump and I. For sure she left Bump and I with some pretty good  memories. 

                                                      ta ta, mama

                                                                           

A gift

What a wonderful gift to us all!! 

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins." MATTHEW 1:2So thankful for His love!  None of us are perfect so we sure do need Him in our lives!

Man's best friend

Tonight i watched the movie Marley and Me and wow did it ever make me cry! I just had to post our Maggie and quote the verse at the end of the movie.  The movie really touched my heart and if any of you
have ever had a dog that you loved and got attached to you will know what i am talking about!  Here is our sweet Maggie,  and yes a big part of our life!!




The Verse at the end of movie:
 A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water log stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if your rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?

Blessing of children

In the church children are given a special  blessing... this is given to each individual child by the priesthood when they enter into baptism and become members of the Lords church! This gift of the Spirit will  hopefully guide them in their life as they draw close to the Savior and make wise choices.
One of my favorite songs sung by the Carpenters :
            Bless the Beasts and the Children/Love this Song
                                        
                                         
Bless the beasts and the children

For in this world they have no voice
They have no choice

Bless the beasts and the children
For the world can never be
The world they see

Light their way
When the darkness surrounds them
Give them love
Let it shine all around them

Bless the beasts and the children
                                         Give them shelter from the storm
                                         Keep them safe
                                         Keep them warm

                         
                                         

Life

So we are drifting along in the river of life and say that the hole in the boat won't effect us.  No problem here! We put our blinders on and say everything is ok in my life, its perfect!  Well ask yourself "is it really?" You may be telling yourself that the stuff going on out there in the world doesn't have any effect on me or my family.  We are all doing great at our end.   The fact is lots of things going on in the world  does effect us.  Just as that hole in the boat effects all those on board.  We are all on board together in this journey of life!

Was thinking of how the way marriage is even being redefinded today,   Families are falling apart! The new generation coming up see no need to marry , no need for a commitment, or even to have children.  I fear families will never be the same again!  
There is a hole in the boat alright and two notice it while two don't seem to care at all.  Without all working  together they will all likely go down .  That one little hole if not fixed will have percussions on all that are in the boat.
 How do we solve this?  Its time to turn to our Savior and to His teachings. Bring back those sweet teachings that make all the difference.  I teach a new class now at church called the CTR class.  It stands for choose the right.  I am  teaching them about how to make good choices and tell them how much they are loved by their families, and that i love them too, and also that Jesus loves them!

You will surely notice when it gets hard to stay afloat in life.  You will be tested and when this happens your only hope to suvive will be to turn to our Savior.  Like the hole in the boat , don't feel for a minute that  it won't effect you , it will!  It will effect you, your children and more to come.   Now is the time to repair your boat!  Its not too late to patch that hole!
So many want to help keep you afloat, especially your family!!

Ma's house on Bunker Hill

Picture of  Ma

                              My grandmother / Sarah Humes & Fred
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Dottie:   This is my mother's mom and we always called her Ma!  She lived in Vincennes, Indiana ,  out of city limits and up on a hill which was called Bunker Hill. There is a history about a battle i think that was fought there many years ago.  Anyway , we would go to her home every Sunday it seemed to have dinner with her.  While the adults set around and talked we kids would play or just listen to them tell of the happenings of the week or the latest gossip. I remember Fred who was a relative that lived there and remember that he had this can that he spit chewing tobacco in, i thought it nasty looking.   Had fond memories of going to ma's though.  For one , she was a great cook and there was always the smell of something cooking in her kitchen. She had a feather bed which we kids loved sleeping in when we stayed overnight.  It was wonderful as i remember waking up to the wonderful smell of gravy and biscuits, the aroma filled the house.  At my home you didn't get that. Mom was nothing like her mother, had her good side but ma well,  her whole life centered around her home. My mom on the other hand wasn't happy being at home.  I don't know what all my mother had to deal with in her life but its sad to me that she was unhappy for the most part.  I think life was hard for my mom and also the role of motherhood. I  take after my grandmother in the fact that my home is my heaven on earth. I love being a homemaker.   I remember Ma would cook on a old wood burning stove which is unheard of today. ha.  Ma's life was pretty much a routine which she followed day in and day out. I put my glasses on first thing in morning and ma  well she put on her apron. ha. Life is certainly different today than those of yesterdays. I doubt that ma even  went out very often, perhaps now and then  just to purchase food  or necessities.

My sister Sarah /has this to say of Ma!  -She was a great lady.  I never wanted to go home when I was at her house.  She would walk me to bus stop on Willow Street and put me on the bus and I would tell her I was never coming back I was hurt so much because she was sending me home.
But I would go back the very next                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       chance I got.  I loved having her braid my hair.  She would wash it in rain water and then braid it.  I had long hair at that time.
My sister Donna /  Liked Ma's cooking and playing with all the kids on the Sunday afternoons when we visited  there.  But I stayed with our Aunt Lillie the most! I think she thought of me as the child she was never able to have.

Donna's Wild Adventures / the Up's and Down's

 
 You  are about to embark on some crazy up and down adventures of my sister Donna . I think last time i wrote about her it was on the "Attack of the Rabbit!" So decided to list and write more about some of Donna's fun,  and spiritual and not so fun events that have accurred in her life.  some are pretty amazing!
 Bank Route: this will be scary:
Donna did a bank route back several years ago.  She did this late at night when banks were closed.  It was a late run , like nine to midnight or so.  One night after leaving a bank and getting back on the highway this guy drives along beside her. Looks at her and it was intimidating and weird.  He kept driving along beside her.  When she would speed up  he would speed up also. This kept up and she was getting scared and started crying. She couldn't stop at a bank and couldn't get off of the highway.  Finally after playing this cat and mouse game with her she finally saw this exit coming up , she decided its now or never, she was going to have to dart across the two lanes and exit in front of cars fast if she was ever going to get rid of him.  So even with cars on other side coming up she thought I have to be fast and cut infront of them in order to lose this crazy guy!  So intense as it was ,  she came closer to the exit and at the last minute she cut across two lanes to quickly exit the highway.  doing this so fast and at last mins. that the guy couldn't get over to follow. Whew!  He did lay on his horn in anger!  Next day she saw the man's  picture on tv,  and recognized his face and said it was the same man who had followed her on the highway, he was that close to her. He was wanted for being out there raping women.  Talk about scary!!! 

Daycare: Donna had a daycare for several years. Was really good with the children .  She kept about seven children in all i think.  One day she was at our home in Pine Hills and we had the TV on and up popped pictures of two of the children Donna kept. They said a mother and two children had been shot.  It seems the mom went out near midnight to get milk for cereal the next morning and a couple guys on drugs forced her in her car where kids were waiting . Long story and sad .  The boys were quite young  and after raping the mom they then took them out and shot them.  The mother survived but the children did not. Donna saw this Headline with childrens pictures come up on tv and freaked and started crying uncontrollably.  These were her babies!  So awful! It was such a sad thing and it hit all the newspapers. Young boys on drugs and looking for action and it went too far.  So Sad!  There were three young guys and it took just one to come up with this bazaar thought and the others followed. :(

Experiment with Lye: Well this is pretty scary.   Donna decided she was going to make gravy one night for supper. She said she reached up into the cabinet and got down what she thought was flour.  As she was stiring the flour and added milk she said her eyes started to burn.  
Our sister in law came into the kitchen and ask what she was doing. She said "making gravy for supper" but my eyes are really burning.  Lillie our sister in law said what did you put in it. Donna said this here flour.  Lillie said let me see that jar!  she picked up the jar and said "Donna , this is lye!!!"  Oh my gosh!  You could have killed us!    Donna wasn't aware and said "glad I didn't taste it." ha. Wow!  Why was lye in our kitchen? Who knows!  Sounds like something dad might have done, always putting stuff any old place.   Lucky Donna, and lucky that Lillie walked in at that time.  crazy family!

Stranger in the house:
Donna actually got home really late one night and a stranger nearly knocked her down as he ran pass her and out the front door.  It was dark so she didn't get to see who it was . She said no one else was home at that time.  We always left doors unlocked in those days. More than once have we been scared that someone might be in our house but that night Donna said this man came running out the front door and nearly knocked her over.  
  Blue Baby: is name they gave to a guy they say that wasn't quite right mentally since birth /  someone said he lacked oxygen  as a baby so thats why they called him Blue Baby.  So as you got off the city bus us kids  had to walk around this long curve to get to our house.  One night it was dark when Donna was heading home . He jumped out at her(my sister may have been with her) from no where and it scared them to death and they ran like never before.   From that day forward when any of us kids got to that corner we would say GO  and take off running as fast as we could not stopping till we were way pass that corner.  Doubt he would have hurt anybody but no one was taking any chances. ha.  So it became a big thing , when you hit that corner, run for your life!! Blue Baby might just be waiting on that bend.   Wow, did I ever learn to run fast once I approached that bend.  I do remember Bump and I running like crazy once we hit that curve !  haha.  We thought blue baby might just be there waiting for us on that curve.  haha.
The Keys: Years ago Donna did a Bank Route late at night, very late! Well this is one story i will always remember cause on this particual night as she told me , a miracle took place.  Donna arrived at this one Bank as usual and it was around midnight and went inside. After making sure she had dropped off everything she prepared to leave as usual and found that she couldn't find the keys to lock up the Bank. She thought i can't call Bank Pres. this late and wake him. worrying what she should do she again looked inside and then outside and everywhere  /she cryed and finally dropped to her knees right there in the middle of the  bank and said a prayer. Said she told her problem to the Lord. When she was done, she said it felt as if someone had put there hands on her shoulders and led her directly outside.  She looked and saw this beam of light shining down from the sky right onto the keys . She said she cryed. She said the keys were shimming in this bright light.    A miracle ?  I choose to believe. I believe Donna  had a very personal prayer answered that night just for her.  With a experience like that how can there be any room for doubt.  Beautiful!

Whats on the fence?
This one has to do with Donna sometimes being in such a rush and leaving things behind. Donna is always watching the clock, she is always on a time line.  Picked her up one day and as we took off and headed out, we nearly arrived where we were going and she said where is my purse?  I said no idea and then she said i had it. Yikes!  worried we headed back home and there it hung on the fence post!  O my gosh she said, anyone going by could have taken it.  Yikes.  stay tuned,  more stories  to come on.
 Car Problem!  Donna was out on the road one night , thinking on bank route likely but anyway she had a car problem and pulled over.  It wouldn't start and out of no where this man is standing there and said can I help.  She said i heard no car or saw a car and told him what had happened and he looked under the hood and said get in car and try it.  It started right up and when she went to thank him he was GONE!  She said it was impossible that he could appear from no where and then disappear without her seeing him leave .   She called it a miracle and said perhaps he was one of the twelve apostles that wanted to stay on the earth till Christ returned again.                                                                                                                

The ice ride: this one a little crazy and wild:
Donna told me of a story about when she and Aunt Lillie took off to go visit Uncle Jim and Aunt Gerty .
They had to decide if they wanted to take this a old rickety traintrack that they had turned into a bridge which went over the river to Illinois. Taking this route would make the trip shorter instead of taking the long way around to get to Uncle Jim's place.  So they decided to take the short cut over the bridge.  Well they got to the old bridge and started across, unknown to them the bridge had iced over the night before.  Donna having had never driven on ice before, never realized how bad the traintrack bridge was, it became very scary! The road was very narrow and they would slide from side to side, back and forth till they felt for sure they were going to go over the side and down into the river below.  Donna told Aunt Lillie she better  pray.  For sure there was no way of turning around!  Another car headed towards them and seeing there situation he backed from off the bridge so he could let her come on through.  Now two cars could be on the bridge at same time because of it being so narrow.    Donna said that was " one scary day!"

 so stay tuned in, with Donna you just never know what will happen next!!

always and forever

We cannot pick our family 
                                          but they are our family just the same!

What you think?

•   What do you think about being with your family in the world to come? Can you really imagine not having  family with you in the next life? Isn't that where your happiness really comes from?  Some might say Not Mine but honestly what they may not understand is that in the next life, families will have a total different outlook because now they know the plan.  we will have a pure love for those that we may not experience it for at this moment. and yes our hearts will turn!
•  “What was the promise made to the fathers that was to be fulfilled in the latter days / its turning of the hearts of the children to their fathers? It is to connect families, and that is being done right now in the temples that dot the earth today,plus by people everywhere who are involved in geneology with a tremendous desire to connect families and they don't know exactly why.  Its the promise of the Lord made through Enoch, Isaiah, and the prophets of old, to the nations of the earth, that the time should come when the dead should be redeemed” “God made those promises to the ancient patriarchs—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and on— we undoubtedly made them to our  lineal fathers and mothers, those who came before us to this earth before the gospel was restored. 
• •On 3 April 1836 in the Kirtland Temple, the prophet Elijah appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. why? What was Elijah’s purpose in visiting Joseph and Oliver?  He said he came to confer the sealing power of the priesthood on Joseph . This power makes possible eternal marriage, sealings to parents, and temple ordinance and work for the dead.  
• My house is a house of order says the Lord!

• • Why would the earth be “utterly wasted at [the Lord’s] coming” if we did not have these sealings  done?   the answer Because one of the primary purposes of life on earth is to establish eternal family relationships.
  This is the purpose of life and the temples! Without this it would be near impossible to connect families. and thats what its all about " geneology"  and dad takes it very serious, he says they were here just as you and i are here now and have families.
   “no family ties would exist in the eternities, and indeed the family of man would have been left in eternity with ‘neither root [ancestors] nor branch [descendants].’ as the scriptures say.
•  A sealed, united, celestial family of God is the ultimate purpose of the church/  any failure here would be  rendering the entire plan of salvation ‘utterly wasted'   Wow!  Can you imagine! Hope you found this interesting and it touches your heart as it has mine.

Vertigo!!

For a good two weeks now, i have had VERTIGO!
 It is horrible!  Felt dizzy and like i was going to throw up. I feel life is not fair!! 
Does anyone remember seeing this movie way back when?  James Stewart was afraid of heights and would get vertigo . A murder mystery.
 Believe me when i say its awful having vertigo!  Its something that goes on in the inner ear and when you lay head down or move too quickly you start spinning.  Today feel much better, took motion sickness pills which helped alot but you really feel out of it and not at all yourself!!!  I pray no one gets this!!  This stops you in your  tracks!!

Vertigo is the feeling that you are spinning or the world is spinning around you. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is caused by a problem in the inner ear . It usually causes brief vertigo spells that come and go. For some people, BPPV goes away by itself in a few weeks. But it can come back again. BPPV is not a sign of a serious health problem   

 My life will never be the same again if it can come back!!

BPPV

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV) is caused by misplaced crystals within the ear. Treatment, simply put, involves moving these crystals out of areas that cause vertigo and into areas where they do not. A number of exercises have been developed to shift these crystals. The following article explains with diagrams how these exercises can be performed at the office or at home with some help:  The success of these exercises depends on their being performed correctly.

• The Brandt-Daroff Exercises, which can be done at home and have a very high success rate but are unpleasant and time consuming to perform.

the rainbow

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, 
and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

It does bring a sense of peace and how much the creator of heaven and earth must love us.  

Beautiful Saying!

"I have been happy my entire life but this is the happiest I’ve ever been.  I wouldn’t trade places with anybody in the whole world!"

Wow!  what a beautiful statement!!  Found this in a magazine.  I thought how wonderful it would be to be able to say that and mean it!  But the truth of the matter is that life isn't always fair and many  cannot say that in all honesty.  Life has away of taking a tow on even the best of people.  I think everyone at some point in their life will have to go through something. Stay strong and until that test comes in your life embrace all the sweetness life has to offer!  love , mamashap  

A Baby Shower