#AtoZChallenge - All Gallow's Eve - L

LOUISVILLE - A CITY STORY

Before we moved to Kentucky, we lived in Texas.  One two occasions, we drove up here with the kids to visit Chris's Dad and Mamaw.  Both times, our vehicle broke down beyond simple repair and Chris's Dad had to come and rescue us several hundred miles away from his home.  Yeah, I know most parents would do that for their children, and certainly grandparents for grandchildren.  But there are a couple of exceptional additions to this set-up.

First of all, my father-in-law's right leg is amputated above the knew due to an infection that had set in after a surgery.  Secondly, he had not met our two boys before our first visit.  Secondly, the first time I met my father-in-law was when he knocked on our motel room door at 2am after he arrived from Kentucky to pick us up.

So, that was all set up for the real story.  We were waiting in a gas station-cafe while someone was trying to fix our vehicle when I overheard the following story.  Some version of this will probably wind up in All Gallow's Eve.

A table of locals were sitting there talking amongst themselves.  They were trying to determine the pronunciation of the capital city of Kentucky, whether it was "Loo-iss-ville" or "Loo-ee-ville".  My mind played the following retort:

"First of all, the capital of Kentucky if FRANKFORT!  Secondly, it's not pronounced "Loo-iss-ville" OR "Loo-ee-ville", *ahem* silly, it's "LOO-uh-vull", or even "LOO-vull".  You'll be pegged for an outsider right off talking like that!"

~~~oOo~~~

Click the sunflower graphic at the top of the page to see the LONG list of other #AtoZChallenge participants and see what they're on about this month!

Family

I remember holidays at our house when I was growing up to be small gatherings, usually just my father (until he passed in 1979), my mother, my brother and me.  Several times in the past 7-8 years, we have driven from Somerset, KY, to the Fort Worth, TX, area for Thanksgiving or Christmas with some of my in-laws.  In the last four years, we've made the trip twice - with our dog.  Luckily we had gotten a Suburban a couple of years ago, which made that a lot more feasible.  Once, we borrowed a local family member's van.

[One nice thing about the trips, however, was that we seem to have overcome our 'Arkansas Curse'.  Twice, when we lived in Texas and visited Kentucky, our vehicles broke down on the same 20-mile stretch of I-40 in Arkansas, necessitating my FIL (father-in-law) to drive down from Kentucky and rescue us.]

My MIL (mother-in-law) likes 'big'.  She does big gatherings really well.  Family at Thanksgiving or Christmas, and her husband's Marine buddies on Independence Day.  When we are there at Thanksgiving, we help decorate for Christmas.  When we are there at Christmas, we help take down the holiday decorations.

Anyway, here's who showed up to the last couple of family celebrations:

- Cheryl and Vince - MIL and hubby
- me, my husband, son 1, son2, daughter
- Aunt Rose, Uncle Johnny, Uncle Johnny's mother
- Cousin J Lee and his wife
- Aunt Sheila
- Cousin Jennifer (Sheila's biological daughter whom she was forced to give up the day she was born), her husband, their son and daughter
- Cousin Jason, his wife, their two sons
- Cousin Tara and her husband (and at the next celebration their new baby will be there as well)

That makes 23 at my count.  So different from the first half of my life (so far) ... and nice, as well.

For instance, the year I moved out of my mother's house, she went to a 4-ft "fake" Christmas tree.  I'm sure the last few years, since my mother had moved to a nursing home, no decorations went up at all.  In Texas, there is a big tree in the living room, a smaller-yet-still-impressive tree in the family room (where the presents go), a Marine tree in Vince's 'man-cave' and bits of green wrapped around room accent that doesn't move.

Yup.  I'm a lucky gal when it comes to family!

Valentine's Day - Bringin' the Festive Back

Since 1979, Valentine's Day has been a double-edged sword for me.

On February 15th of that year, my father passed away due to a stroke and heart attack. He was 47 years old at the time. I was a senior in high school. Coincidentally, I was in the play "Lazarus Laughed" at the time, the theme of which was "there is no death". I was kind of numb until we went to sit down for his memorial service, when I broke down. The directors asked if we wanted to have the curtains drawn and I did not.

Anyway, from the evening before (February 14, 1979), it was obvious that my father did not have long to live. So...Valentine's Day has that little tinge for me.

But now that I have children of my own, I try to be a little more cheerful for the day. My daughter, who just turned 8, especially loves holidays...the decorating, making crafts, celebrating, etc.

And I recently joined swap-bot.com, and am doing a couple of Valentine card/craft swaps with folks, which also brings a little more sense of the festive back.

DH helps, too. He got me a medium-sized fuzzy ladybug (think pillow size). He's a true country boy, and this effort of his is SO appreciated. The only trouble was is that our daughter assumed it was for her, has named her "Spots" and uses Spots for a pillow at night. *lol*

So, while 32 years has passed, and I still miss my father, I know he is in a better place, and I know he knows his grandchildren. And that is all good.

Day 1 - 30 Day Giving Challenge

My giving today was to my family.

My father-in-law is having some rather serious health challenges at the moment. Several years back, after an operation on his knee, an infection set up that eventually required the amputation of his right leg just above the knee. In spite of this "disability", he continues to be one of the most active people I know. He cares for his aging mother (Mamaw is 89). He drives the local Amish people around - locally and nationally, having recently made a couple of trips to Delaware.

Anyway, he learned this summer that his other knee requires an operation, and he is understandably nervous. In addition, he has a slipped disk in his neck and that needs an operation as well. He was at the hospital today getting a CT scan.

DH approached me at home and asked if we could take the kids to Stanford, so he could be there if his Dad needed him. Chris was worried because when he talked to his father on the phone, he said his father sounded like he was drunk. FIL wasn't drunk, but has been taking some serious painkillers to deal with his physical ailments. He said his father would probably be upset at him, but he wanted to be there just in case.

So we woke up the kids, got them dressed and we headed out. I was deliberately obtuse about why we were going, because the two youngest (DS2 - age 12 and DD - age 7) tend to get rather upset about sickness and injury. We just said we were going to help Papaw.

Well, when we were halfway there, Papaw (FIL) called and said he was turning into his driveway. So we turned to head towards his house. Before we got there, DH decided not to go. Obviously his father got home ok. FIL is extremely independent and DH thought he would probably get mad that we all came up "to check on him" and probably needed rest anyway.

This took 3-4 hours out of our day. But it was for family...and that means everything to me.

*+*+*+*+*

Even though it is past the beginning of the month, I invite y'all to join in the challenge, by clicking on the button to the left for more information!

Seven Plus Eleven Minus Two

Last Friday, while we were out spending what little paycheck came in, our electricity was turned off. Being as it "could not" get turned back on until Tuesday, we stayed 4 nights at a Red Roof Inn in the town where I work. Even though DH and I could have survived w/o much hardship, we couldn't ask the kids (11, 10 and 5) to endure night-time temps that got as low as 10 degrees (Fahrenheit).

The kids loved it, of course, especially the little hot chocolate/coffee/mocha machine in the lobby. They also loved watching Cartoon Network, as all we have at home for the moment is Canadian satellite. (Nothing against, Canada, of course, but their channels are just not what we are used to.) I loved that my commute was whittled from 30 minutes down to 3 minutes. WOOHOO!

We made several trips back to the house during that time, of course, to check on our dog, Sheeva, who was VERY preggers at the time.

When we arrived home on Tuesday morning, the dog came bounding up to the car, like usual, and DH noticed that she was considerably thinner than the day before. So, The Great Puppy Hunt began!

We found six under our back porch. Sadly, one did not make it. *sigh* This is not a very accessible area for us, and as the lower temperatures at night continued, and the pups were lying in dirt, we proceeded to detach the nailed in crosshatched wood in order to get them out. DH took "Angel" (my name for the pup that didn't make it) to a wooded area behind the house while the kids looked at the remains of a big tree stump that had been smoldering in our driveway for the weekend.

About 15 minutes later, the son of our across-the-street neighbor came up and asked if our dog had recently had puppies. Sheeva, naturally, went protective at the "stranger". Anyway, he went on to say that there were some puppies on his dad's porch. DD and I went with him, while DH held onto Sheeva's collar.

There was one puppy that had wiggled/crawled off the porch and become tangled in a vine. (The last two times Mamaw's cats had kittens I've had to rescue one of them from a vine, too. What's up with that?) The neighbor pulled four more out from a tarp that was on the porch.

OMG...ELEVEN PUPPIES!

Unfortunately, one was a runt and did not survive the day. Hence the title of this post "Seven Plus Eleven Minus Two". The "seven" refers to me, my husband, our three children, our dog and our cat; "eleven" is for the puppies that our dog had, and "two" for the two angel pups.

I had yesterday off work, and I have today off as well. DS2 has been bothered by a toothache for a couple of days now. Were it not for the fact that our dental insurance sucks (no pun intended), and those pesky dentists want cash up front, the tooth would be gone already. I've heard that UK (in this case, the University of Kentucky) Dental School has a program where you can go to the school and have students (under direction from licensed dentists) do whatever needs doing to your teeth for $100. I have a feeling more than one of us will be looking into that.

Well, that gets y'all up to speed on our back porch. I'm drinking cold black coffee and reading blogs, doing the Thursday Thirteen thing on Bluegrassgal's Weblog and Entrecard. C U around. Thanks for stopping by.

My Daughter the Hooker!

A few days ago my 5 year old daughter wanted to wear her Halloween dress. You see, she was a "butterfly princess" for Halloween - with a dress and little wings that went around her shoulders. The wings are long gone but the dress is still in good shape. It's cornflower blue with lots of flouncy white stuff.

Anyway, the dress was laying over the back of the couch when my girl asked my husband for help. He told her to go pick up the dress and bring it to him. She complied and came back with the dress draped across her front and proudly exclaimed, "DADDY, I'M A HOOKER!" (Yup. Hubby had the SAME reaction!). "Excuse me," he asked.

T reiterated, "Look, Daddy, I'm a hooker!" "What do you mean, Pumpkin?" T was holding her finger in the shape of a hook and said, "I picked up the dress with my hook. I'm a hooker!" DH didn't know whether to laugh or faint!