Ice House Baby

Larry and I have spent the last three weekends down in Macon County helping my folks out and I know it's crazy but every time I go "home", I cry.  I cry for days gone by, people I've loved who are no longer with us, my schools that are no longer there, the general rundownness (is that a word??) of it all.  Yesterday, we went to the store for Mama and there it was.  My granddaddy's ice house.  Been there forever.  Ain't making plans to go anywhere now either.

Well, my granddaddy's ice house makes me cry, too.

When I got finished shopping for the things Mama needed, I got back to the truck and Larry says, "hold on a minute" and when I asked where he was going, he says, "I'm going in the store".  He comes out a few minutes later and goes to the ice freezer and gets a bag of ice, comes back to the truck and tells me he doesn't want me to cry anymore.  Awwww.

We drive over to the ice house and he takes my picture holding that bag of ice in front of it.  

Another Clark with ice there.  We've come full circle.

Larry said there was a bad glare from the sun but that wasn't it.

That was my granddaddy smiling down on me.  

It's my 10 year blogiversary!

Y'all.  I just realized that this month marks ten years blogging on the Junket!  Wow.  These past ten years have flown and I have changed SO much. 

I've shared my life, my jobs, my job changes, going back to school, trips I've taken, food I've cooked, Gotcha Days for our fur babies, my attempts at gardening, products I love, just MY LIFE.  And I've enjoyed every minute sharing with the ones of you who read my blog.  I know you're out there.  I've had over 208,000 page views from all over the world.  I see you and I appreciate you!!  Thank you for following me and for reading about my life.

One thing I have shared a lot that I don't do so much anymore is family get togethers.  I used to love those.  I love my family and I loved getting together with them on holidays and birthdays and such.  But things have changed and I have very strained relationships with both my sister and my brother so I see my parents when I can avoid the other two.  It's really hard to avoid my brother since he and his wife LIVE with my mama and daddy because he's a drug addict who refuses to get help.  He won't work, can't pass a drug test to even get and keep a job, and the whole thing is so infuriating.  I feel like he's mooching off my folks, who pay all the bills and buy all the food.  And this is not the first time they've had to live with my parents.  It's a pattern with them.  They've allowed his drug addiction to take homes, cars, everything they have.  It is not right.  It is not what I need and expect from my brother.  He is such a disappointment to me.  He's taken money from me, groceries from me, because he LIED to my face and took advantage of my love and my obligation as "big sister".  Every single person in the family who looks the other way enables him and they disappoint me, too.  I'm the bad guy because I don't and I'm being "mean" because I refuse to condone his behavior.

I haven't seen my sister in two years.  And that one stings.  I love my sister.  She has a hateful way about her, though.  A way that cuts and bites and hurts and she said one thing too many, a nasty insult to Larry.  At my birthday party, two years ago this month.  The absolute last straw.  I've suffered years of her verbal abuse, her little digs, her smart remarks, telling me what to do, how to be, how to even raise my cat (who by the way, is ridiculously healthy and happy and sweet and friendly and social), making fun of me whenever she could.  I just took it, laughed and let it go.  The outburst to Larry (after years of constant little digs at him as well, which he took and let go), over something that was SO small and insignificant and involved ME and not her, was just the thing that changed something in me.  Like a little off switch inside.  And I've not seen her since.  Oh, we've texted a few times but could not get anything resolved.  You can't make someone apologize for doing something to you but you can refuse to subject yourself to more of it.  Forgiveness flows freely around here but I'm not stupid.  I've touched that hot stove before.

I don't know if they'll read this or not and I don't care.  I don't blog for them.  I blog for me, as an outlet to express what's going on in my life and the life I'm building with Larry, after so many years of being apart.  We deserve this life.  We waited a very long time to have it.  And we get to decide who's in it and who's not.  I don't like the term "toxic relationships" but if you find yourself in one, get out.  It's not worth the pain.  I also have a strained relationship with Larry's daughter and have not seen them in over three years.  Also, over something very selfish and nasty she said to Larry.  Larry tells me all the time to let this stuff go, that the insults were toward him and he's perfectly fine with everybody, old hippie that he is.  I just can't do it, though.  I forgive you but you need to apologize and change when you see you've hurt somebody.  I have no room in my life or heart for selfish people.  

So, there's all that.  Me at 52.  I've been through a lot the past several years and the worst time of my entire life has been with this foot of mine.  The more I endure, the more I realize that I want to surround myself with people who love me and don't play games.  The older you get, the less drama you want around you, and the only drama I want in my life is "The Young and The Restless".

My advice is if you want to blog, DO IT.  Even if no one reads it.  Do it for you.  

Again, thanks for reading my blog and I welcome each and every one of you to stay on this ride with me.  I promise it will not be boring!

The Easter Bunny still comes to see me...

The Easter Bunny came to see all of us!  Larry and I got baskets of candy and goodies and I got a giant Easter Minnie Mouse and Mickey and Minnie POPs!

Banjo and Tabbie Hoffman got a new water fountain to share (Tabbie drinks out of Banjo's water bowl anyway AND eats his food...oy), Banjo got some new chew bones and Tabbie got some silver vine sticks.  They both got new toys, too.  Yay for the Easter Bunny!!

It's the day after Christmas...

Christmas has come and gone in a flash.  It seems to do that more and more as we get older, doesn't it?

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve afternoon with Mama and Daddy and enjoyed some yummy barbecue and teriyaki wings, pasta salad, Christmas cookies, Mama's faithful Martha Washington candy (that she has made every Christmas of my memory) and the oven-roasted pecans that she never fails to make for me.  I made rum balls for the first time ever this year and they were such a hit, I had to make two batches to take to work!  They were really, really good.

I'm finding that the older I get, the more nostalgic I get.  I long for Christmases of years past when life was simple, times were hard but love was abundant.  Things just aren't the same anymore.  We're too busy, life is too fast and our loved ones are slipping away from us due to age, distance or hardheadedness.  It's sad, really.

I took an extra day off today but Larry went back to work.  I had plans to start to pack away Christmas but it's afternoon now and I still haven't started.  I'm probably not going to.  It'll keep.  And in the meantime, I can enjoy our beautiful tree and eat a couple more Christmas cookies.

As far as gifts went, we pretty much racked up.  Mama and Daddy had our stockings stuffed and we each got gift cards that will be very happily used!  Larry and I had cheated so bad this month and had already opened up so much of our gifts to each other but we did save a few for Christmas.  Eve.  We so bad.

One of the big gifts we gave each other was hiring somebody to repair our hot tub!  It's been down a long time and when we went to Helen in September and stayed in that cabin with a hot tub, we realized how much we missed ours.  Larry found a guy who sold and serviced Leisure Bay spas exactly like ours for over ten years and we had him come from Alabama to fix ours.  All that was wrong was the motor had died.  That's it.  No lightning strike, no power issue.  Just a worn out motor.  $447 later and it was right as rain.  And we have really, really loved having it back!  

Here are some pics from our Christmas at home.

Larry found a 1950's Pyrex warming plate for me.  I didn't even know they existed!  And he finally got me the 1950's yellow Pyrex Hostess bowl he's been eying for a year or so.  I kept telling him it was too much, that they wanted waaaaay too much for that bowl.  He got it anyway.

We're still playing Pokémon (when they make it interesting!) and he got me a Pikachu shirt and bank.  

And a Robins AFB shirt in red that I can wear on Support The Troops Fridays! 

We're replacing all of our cookware so we added these two pieces of All-Clad!  I love to cook and I get really excited about new cookware!  Ha!

This crazy amazing bird.  We saw him at an antique store just before Christmas and I just loved him.  But they wanted $125 for him and that was just insane.  Larry went back later and made a deal and got him for me.  His name is Elton.  Look at that hat!  You can't see them but he's got some kickin' boots on, too. 

Larry got some Duluth Trading Company clothes and some Fox River Army boot socks, along with a new Bluetooth speaker, a cell phone mounting kit for his truck, some military patches to add to his office wall, some cologne and some beard balm.

I got him this, too.  A FrostGuard to cover the windshield of his truck on cold nights.  I keep my car in the garage but he has to scrape his windshield.  Not no more!

Santa came to see our boys, too!  Banjo's tree stump full of squeaky squirrels and Tabbie Hoffman's hamster that records what you say (or purr) and then repeats it back.  And stockings full of toys and treats (and toothpaste!).

Tabbie with his hamster.  I love how it's looking up at him!

 Larry feeding Banjo some treats.  The squirrels forgotten.  

Santa brought a fruit, nut and berry bell for the backyard birdies, too.

This was me Christmas afternoon, with my new fuzzy socks and Christmas blanket Mama gave me.  Calm, quiet, peaceful afternoon.

Earth Day and a birthday!

I left Larry at home today on Earth Day cutting grass and replacing more of the fence and finishing up a chest-of-drawers that he's been working on and I spent some of the day down home in Montezuma for our Katie's third birthday party.  Katie loves Minnie Mouse so a Minnie party it was, complete with cake, cupcakes and pizza!  She got Minnie clothes and toys and Larry and I gave her a Minnie Mouse sofa!  She was so cute opening her stuff.  

I just love this picture of her when she saw Minnie on that little sofa.

Here she is tooting her birthday horn!

Clumsy me, I busted my camera while I was there today.  The strap came loose and I dropped my camera on the concrete step.  10 seconds earlier and it would have landed on the soft dirt and been all right.

Owwee.  Hopefully we can get it fixed.  I finished the birthday party taking pictures with it and they all turned out good so it still works, you just can't see the picture.  I probably won't forget hearing that craaaaackkk any time soon.  It sounded like my ankle felt when I broke it.  Owwee.

I came home and finally got my little garden planted.  I decided to try container gardening this year so I planted my 'maters and peppers in a pot and I planted zinnias in the middle.  In two other pots, I planted my lavender, sage and rosemary.

I still have flower seeds to plant --- wildflowers, zinnias, marigolds and mums and I even got a pack of catnip to plant in a pot for Tabbie Hoffman.

Maybe tomorrow... 

Christmas

It sure didn't feel much like Christmas outside (78 degrees!) but it felt like it in our hearts.  Larry and I exchanged our gifts yesterday and had Santa for Tabbie Hoffman and Banjo this morning before we went and had Christmas with my family in Oglethorpe.  Lots of love and laughter and babies and presents.  Oh my goodness, the presents!  

This is what Santa brought our boys.  Banjo got a Dremel nail trimmer and Tabbie got a feeding maze toy.  They each got a toy (Tabbie's is a catnip-filled banana!) and treats and new vanilla-flavored toothpaste in their stockings.  And Larry loved his Notre Dame plush blanket and lounge pants that Santa brought him!

Larry got me the Farm Vet Barbie set (with the itty bitty chicken squeeeee!), a rare 1960 promotional Golden Grapes Pyrex chip and dip set, a vintage Petunia Pig drinking glass, a new cereal bowl, some Optical Illusion cards and a sweet, sweet coffee mug that he wrote on with permanent marker.  He wrote, "When I was young and dreamed of love, I saw a shadow of you.  When I grew up and experienced love, I realized the shadow was you."  Yep, he's a keeper!  He also got me a Pyrex Old Orchard casserole dish (with the lid!), a pair of Pikachu bedroom slippers, a Pokemon Monopoly game, a selfie stick, a beautiful Christmas bracelet and I know I'm forgetting something...anyway, I racked up!  I got a new FryDaddy from Mama and Daddy (along with a cute top, socks and my old stocking slap FULL of stuff) and a gorgeous tapestry from Ami and Brian that I think I'm going to use as a tablecloth.  I also got some soft slippers, a new coffee mug and some bath stuff.


 
Santa came to see our backyard birds, too.  They got a bird seed bell that I smeared peanut butter on and hung from our magnolia tree on Christmas Eve.

We went to Christmas Eve service at Southside Baptist yesterday afternoon (and even though it was 70 degrees when we got out, it was snowing in the lobby!  They had a snow machine going and it was so fun!) and then we went to see the new animated musical, Sing, and we enjoyed it so much.  Such a cute story and some really amazing talent.  We loved it!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  It's always so sad to me to see it go.  After weeks (months!) of planning and shopping and picking up this and that for this person and that person and then it's all over in a flash.  A big, wonderful, chaotic, wrapping paper flying, flash.

And we'll do it all again next year. 

Road Trip(s)!

Larry and I have been on the road the past two days!  Yesterday, he spoke, along with a group of Braille folks, to the guys in the Braille program down at Alamo.  Banjo and I went with him, dropped him off and then went to the park and enjoyed a beautiful, sunny, cool morning.  After they were done, we all had lunch at the best little hole-in-the-wall country restaurant, Sharkey's.  We had the lunch buffet, spaghetti with butter beans, fried squash, biscuits, banana pudding and we got some ham for Banjo.  

We left Alamo in search of some thrift or vintage stores.  We had asked and got directions to a good one called the "red barn" in Vidalia so we headed there.  On the way, we ran smack dab into Mount Vernon and Brewton-Parker College.  Larry graduated and got his degree from BP in 1985 so we had to stop!  We walked around their beautiful campus and Larry got himself a shirt and a pennant to hang on the wall in his office.

Here's a picture I took of him under the Brewton-Parker arch.

Back on the road toward Vidalia and once we got there, we never saw a "red barn" vintage store so we stopped and asked.  I have to hand it to Larry.  He is NOT like other men who will just drive and drive aimlessly.  He'll stop and talk to somebody!  Come to find out, it's the Little Red WAGON and it's in Lyons.  So off we went, down the road some more headed to Lyons.  It was so worth the drive!

We saw an estate sale sign on the side of the road so we turned off and went to find it!  We got a cherry quilt rack and a few other things.  I found a couple of very old books, Gregg Shorthand and a book of American poetry.

We found lots of good stuff at the Little Red Wagon!  A lot of vendors sell there and there's tons of vintage and antique but there's lots of good old Southern things, too, and boutique clothes.  I got the cutest tank tunic that I hope to wear with leggings Thanksgiving, IF it's warm enough.  You can't ever tell with fall in Georgia.  It was 32 this morning and freezing, 78 this afternoon.

Here's our pretty quilt rack.  I put my granny square afghan on it and an afghan that belonged to my own granny, Maw. 

 I found this potholder at the estate sale yesterday.  It's right at home here.  :D

We found these adorable little Christmas signs at the Little Red Wagon.  They'll go in our beachy bathroom next month.

I cracked all the way up when I saw this Seven Willows soap!  That's so Southern.  I got a bar of sea salt soap to go in our bathroom, too.  Savannah's Salt soap.  Yummmm.  I used to make my own soap.  It's so much more cost-effective to buy somebody else's now.  And saves time, too!

Who remembers learning shorthand?  I never did but I remember my sweet Aunt Carol using it and writing up a storm when she worked as a legal secretary.

 

Larry found this 1960's Bobo The Clown inflatable punching bag for $3!  Ricky and I had one very similar when we were kids, probably the 70's version.  I love it! 

We wore Banjo OUT yesterday!  But he had his blankey and pillow in the back seat so he didn't mind much.  He was with us, he ran at the park and he got ham!  He was a happy boy.

Today, we hit an estate sale first thing and then drove down to Montezuma and went to one there, too, in a beautiful old 116-year-old house.  We went by the flea market in Oglethorpe and then went and visited with Mama and Daddy for a little while. 

I found this amazing 1967 Syroco atomic starburst clock at the flea market for FIVE DOLLARS!  I've wanted one forever to go over the TV.  I just love it.  One just like it is listed on eBay RIGHT NOW for $150!!  I knew it was special the second I saw it.  It was just stuck on a shelf waaaaaay in the back, covered in dust.  But I knew.  I knew. 

I found this little sweetie at the first estate sale this morning.  A 1960's Enesco praying child head vase.  He's right in front on the shelf with my lady heads, with lots of mamas to look after him.

The second estate sale, down in Montezuma, was fabulous!!  That kitchen...swooooon.  It was HUGE, with an island in the middle AND a little sitting area off to the side.  The whole thing was decorated in roosters and chickens.  Baskets and pots hung all over and five (yes, FIVE!) pie safes held beautiful baking dishes and chicken figurines.  I coulda stayed in there all day.  Until I saw the dressing room!  They had turned a small bedroom (the whole house had been renovated and was just gorgeous!) into an area for the lady of the house to dress and do her makeup.  There were full-length mirrors and bureaus and chifferobes and the best lighting I've ever seen.  I walked in and my mouth fell open.  Then I went and found Larry to show him!  I found bags of Clinique stuff in a bureau drawer.  I got all this for $8!  Squeeeeeee!!!

We found quite a few treasures there and got a little Christmas shopping done, too!

I got these cute little bottles for the kitchen windowsill (that I'm constantly changing!).

And this pretty vase that I found on a window shelf in that beautiful rooster-y kitchen.

We stopped by a cotton field on the way home and took a few pictures.  

Georgia snow.  :)

I'm pouting because the wind was blowing my hair.  I hate the wind blowing my hair.  :)

We've had a great couple of days on the road!  We stayin' our hinies HOME the rest of the weekend! 

What happened to June???

Wow!  It's July already!!  I had a wonderful birthday month.  Larry spoiled me slap rotten with Pyrex and other gifts, a beautiful cake, fish tacos on my birthday, a movie date and lots of love.  He made me a beautiful wooden planter for the front porch that we filled with apple blossom caladiums.  And this weekend, he's working on a garden bench.  

Here's a pic of the caladiums when we planted them June 12th...

 

And here they are today!

They really like it out there!

Mama Bird never laid any eggs in her nest in the decoy plant that I made for her.  :(   But somebody laid an egg in the plant next to it!

So we are still on nest watch, even though it doesn't look like there's even a nest for this little egg.

Father's Day, I shared my birthday with Daddy and we had a little party for both of us.  I got two pairs of cute pajamas from Mama and Daddy, a sundress and a super cool vintage pitcher from Ami and Brian, two really pretty beach totes from Mama and Ami and Ami gave me some sunscreen to take with us on our trip. 

I see SO MANY posts on Facebook about folks going to the beach and getting cooked.  Get you some Banana Boat spray.  It works.  I use the 50 or 100 and we've been to the beach three times now using that stuff and have not even gotten pink.  It works!!  Protect your skin.  Get you some!!
 

Does my mama know me or what??  :D

 

I got a beautiful cake, a pineapple plant, a vintage silver butter dish and bread plate from my folks at work.  I was told early last month that I'm being reassigned to C-130's so I'll be leaving my F-15 family soon.  I'm not entirely happy about that but I trust my God.  I know He's got something wonderful planned for me and I'm pretty excited to see what that is. 

Larry gave me several really beautiful pieces of Pyrex for my birthday and one piece, my Holy Grail Friendship, arrived in about a bazillion pieces.  We are still battling the seller for a refund.  Ugh.  My friend, Stacy, saw my post on Facebook about it and she ordered me another one!  And it was here, in one piece, just a couple days later!

I told Stacy that that was the true meaning of friendship.  :) Stacy and I went to electronics school together and both got jobs at the base because of it.  God puts people in your path for a reason.  I'm so glad my path crossed Stacy's.

Larry got me a brown on white Town and Country (it kinda looks blue in this picture but it's brown) and a Shenandoah one day and came home with a yellow Cross Stitch and yellow and black Gooseberry another day!

Last weekend, we went to Jekyll Island and celebrated some more!  We played footsie in the sand, rode the waves together, had fresh seafood for supper at Latitude 31 on the water, watched our very first ever lacrosse game at the soccer field and just had a wonderful restful, relaxing weekend.  We'd been babysitting our friends' puppies for them last month so they took care of our babies while we were gone, too.  

We had such a great time!  And then we came home and the house was 80 degrees and we had to get the AC fixed last week.  Ahhh, the joys of home ownership.


  

But for a couple of days, we had this.

So now it's July!  We're having steaks and baked potatoes and ice cream cones tomorrow for the 4th and we'll probably sit out on the porch and watch the neighborhood firework show.  

Happy 4th, y'all!  Be safe, be happy, be loved.