I Spent My Day Kickin' Rocks Down Memory Lane

Yesterday we bought a scanner and by the time we got home I was in too much pain to figure it out. Austin got it hooked up for me, put in the ink cartridges and so forth.

Today I got up with the mindset that I was going to sort through the other photo albums of Grandma's that I knew were in my mom's closet upstairs. We carried them down to the Whine Cellar - it took about a half dozen trips - and I settled in to start picking out pictures for her birthday book,  "Leta - The First 90 Years". Or something like that. Still working on the title.

But first I had to install the software for the scanner and figure out how to use it and then I had to figure out how to migrate the scanned documents to Picasa (which is my photo editing software choice). An hour later and I was finally ready to scan.

photos taken before her High School Graduation. She graduated from Druid Hills High school.

(the family before a Braves game, 1996. Front L-R is Mom, Angie, my brother Michael, my little Cody, Grandma (in pink hat), Ryan (in grey shirt) and me. Yes, I was huge. Still am. Back row is my brothers David & Bryan, my kids dad (with the sunglasses) my brother Jim, and hiding back in a cluster is my cousin Donald, his wife, my Aunt Claire and my dad with the white baseball cap.)

Sitting in the position to place documents in the scanner and take them out - and save them to my computer - was increasingly uncomfortable. Tonight it feels like my spine is just bone on bone. Hurts. So. Bad. It's interesting and entertaining going through everything but man... it stinkin' hurts.

It's really easy to see how I came to be an obsessive a prolific writer. She has little novellas about every vacation. We're talking nine pages, front and back.  She has notes and descriptions on the backs of photos - to such an extent that I stopped trying to type up captions and just started scanning the back of the photo to save after the photo for the details.

I went through eleven photo albums and scanned in a couple dozen new pictures and documents. She has so much great stuff - including a letter her cousin wrote from Germany toward the end of World War II - it's a real treasure trove for a history buff and genealogy nut like me.

She also has some really great things that she's saved. Things that some might see as trash but I see as such awesome treasures. She has the brochure from the boarding house where she stayed when she worked at the Pentagon during WWII. She has her wedding invitations from 1946. She has this awesome postcard that her dad (who was a doctor) received from a pharmaceutical company a hundred years ago. She has all these love letters between her parents. I think I shared some of them last year when I was staying with her. They're hard to read since Granddaddy Ward was a doctor and doctors, even then, had horrible penmanship. She has brochures from different places she's visited. She has gajillion geneology documents.

Great-Aunt Cynthia on her Wedding Day, 1944

Here's the thing - I was looking through all these books today and I thought, "I am not capable of even coming close to capturing even a fraction of her remarkable life." It's humbling. She's exactly twice my age and y'all... she has really lived! I feel such a huge responsibility to put together a book that really reflects who she is and how fascinating her life has been. I'm trying to use quotes from her own letters and notes and novellas so that the story is told in her own words but I want to do it in a way that shows that we *get* who she is and are proud of her as a legacy and a matriarch. I don't want her to feel like I left anything out but... truthfully, there are only so many pages we can do and I only have so much time to do it. Tomorrow will be a big writing day for me, I'm hoping to get a lot more transcribed, especially things about her travels and participation in her community. Oh, and I have about four more albums to go through and a 1/2 a box of documents.

Other than that... today I leveled up on Farmville2. I'm now on level 37 after playing for a month and a half. I watched a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy. I made corn dogs and mashed potatoes for dinner. I showered. I didn't glam, though, I went with a bun and no makeup today. I look like hell and I don't even care. I'll be pretty another day. I had too much to do today to waste time with the hair dryer and straightening iron. Plus, we're expecting rain over the next two days so I'll just end up frizzy no matter what I do. I put a good coat of argon oil on my hair and let it soak in all day. Hopefully that will keep the frizzies away.

And that's about it. Hope you enjoy the photos today! Love and hugs, y'all!

The first "photo" is a letter she received from her cousin Bill who was stationed in Germany. It's fairly interesting to read, if you're into that kind of stuff.

Her little dog Trouble

I love this because it shows that Granddaddy Ward really did have an office in the Flat Iron Building in 1918

My G-Gma's face is blurred - in motion - but this picture was interesting because it was taken while she was in mourning for her first husband who died after only sixteen months of marriage. 

My Great-Grandma's sister, Aunt Lillian. Her son Robert (center) was a decorated veteran of WWII. He was to be in an airshow as part of the Truman Inauguration and his plane crashed. Very sad and tragic.

 Another sad story - this is Great Grandma's sister Kate with her two sons. She died about two years later from breast cancer.

Commendation from the Red Cross

 While dating her second husband, Harry. They had five good years together, traveling and building their dream home. And then he got sick.

1969 - at work at Sherwin Williams. She worked in their corporate office for 25 years.

Looking Back...

Today my oldest "little girl" turns 11. Sarabeth is my niece, not my child but she's the first girl born into our family after me (that's a 34 year drought) and she and her sister are the closest things I'll ever have to daughters. I've blogged about her a lot over the years. If you're in the mood for a little time travel you can check out her 6th birthday pictures here.

Four years ago I wrote the following post about her 7th birthday:

Seven years ago everything changed.

I started work at my uncle’s State Farm office and began a career path that would afford me a decent wage and opportunity to continue working, even as my misguided romantic life lead me to living in 5 different homes and working in four different offices in 3 years. Seven years ago I started learning job skills and earned certification that will allow me to support myself as long as I need to… and on the same day...

Seven years ago today my legacy was born.

I don’t mean my career. Since 1968 there had been only boys born into the Gant family. We were blessed enough to add wives for my brothers and two little girls who became part of our family during their childhood. But no girls born a Gant… from 1968 until 2002.

Then… on this day in 2002… my precious little legacy, Sarabeth Leah Gant came into the world and promptly wrapped me around her tiny little finger. She’s had me in her grip ever since. From the time she was tee-tiny any time I was around her, my troubles melted away. She is wise beyond her years yet incredibly innocent. We have the BEST conversations! She has a childlike faith but understanding of God that few adults comprehend. She remembers everything. She can read better than some high school kids. She could count to fifty in Spanish when she was only 3. She memorized more bible verses last year than any other kindergartener in the church. She is tall and lean and graceful. She has incredibly beautiful red hair and adorable freckles and freakishly long toes. She loves flipflops and lip gloss and glitter and books and singing and dancing. She is shy when she first meets you or when she’s introduced to a new environment but once she warms up, she’s a little chatterbox! She is a good big sister… a daddy’s girl… she loves her mommy… she (just like her Aunt Heather) loves to be around people but also needs alone time to regroup.

She is seven. My sweet little Sarabeth is seven. I was a little misty driving into work this morning thinking about how fast the time is passing. I don’t want to keep her little because I want her to enjoy all that life has to offer as she grows up. She’s in a great community, with a loving and supportive church family and has parents who make her a priority. She has everything she needs to grow into an amazing person. I’m so blessed to be able to watch her grow!

Three years ago it was a Junie B. Jones birthday party and the cutie-patootie pictures are here.  And this is what I had to say about her at eight:

The other blessing that entered my life 8 years ago was my precious niece, Sarabeth. Our family had not had a girl born to our family since me... so we had a 34 year "It's a GIRL!" drought! My nieces Tiffany and Elizabeth joined our family by way of marriage and we love them as if they had been with us their entire lives... there are no steps in our family... but we had no biological Gant girls born in all that time. Then came Sarabeth... my legacy... my pride and joy... my treasure... many, many times, my reason for living. We bonded right away and we have always enjoyed a precious relationship. I had a wonderful aunt growing up who spent a lot of quality time with me... who took me out of my all boy environment and made paper dolls for me... let me spend the night with her... and just always made me feel special. I wanted to be that kind of aunt for my Sarabeth. I hope I have been. Thanks to digital photography, I have more photos of Sarabeth than I do of my own three kids... thanks to the stage of life that I'm in, I've had more unrestrained, carefree time to spend with Sarabeth than I did with my own kids. She is beautiful, brilliant, extremely well behaved and funny. She is the best big sister that Jamie could have ever hoped for. She is a deep thinker... an over-achiever... sensitive... kind and loving. Truly, she was worth the 34 year wait... so, Happy Birthday Sarabeth Leah Gant! I look forward to spending many more birthdays with your sweet self!


Sweet memories. And then she turned nine. A few photos from her party are here. Nine soon turned into ten and here are some pictures from that special day.  This year instead of the big afternoon party with cake and ice cream and presents, she's doing a spend the night party. She's of that age now. I've promised to go and hang out a little while with them Friday night and sneak out before my bedtime. I'm so blessed that she wants me around... that I'm not an aunt she only sees on holidays... that we have a real kinship, a bond... she's a treasure that I never take for granted.

You know, I really believe that God knew what he was doing in giving me the boys he did. There was Ryan, who was born grown... who was capable of changing out an outlet before he was potty trained - who actually announced to us at 2 years and 8 months that he was "now going to wear underwear" and he did from that moment on. No accidents. Ryan took care of me, took care of the mechanical stuff and the maintenance on the house. I know why God gave me him.

And I know why God gave me Cody... his sweet spirit... I always say that Austin is the youngest but Cody is my baby. Cody is the child who nurtures people. He cares about your feelings. Cody was my athlete, my little superstar. He was my reward, the child who wanted to get up early and go out to breakfast with me on weekends. He liked hanging out with mommy. I needed that.

God gave me Austin because God knew it would take someone with lower standards of cleanliness, huge amounts of patience and a really good ability to laugh at life to raise Austin. God gave me Austin because He wanted me to be able to see the world through Austin's eyes. I still cherish my time with him. I don't know what I'll do whenever he's grown and moves out on his own. I need him to keep me grounded and to remind me of my purpose in life.

So, you see, there were these three boys that God chose for me and in all of that, there wasn't room for the little girl I so desperately wanted. God knew that if I could just hold out for a few years that He would give our family these two red-haired dolls who would be everything we ever dreamed of... the little sister I never had, the little girls I never had... these amazing, funny, spirited, talented little girls for me to enjoy without having to have the health and energy I would have needed to raise a little girl of my own.

Truly, God's way is so much better.

I started my morning by watching a deer hanging out in our backyard. She saw me but she didn't run away for - probably fifteen minutes. I got lots of pictures. I shared them on Facebook this morning but I'll share them here too for those of your who missed the Facebook ones.

We got a new scanner but the guy who I wanted to use to fix my mom's computer has gone out of business. Not sure what our next step is with that. Anyways... we went to Walmart and then to Rite Aid for prescriptions and by the time we got home I was in horrible pain. It's been a bad day for me pain-wise. I just haven't been able to get past it today, not even with the good stuff.

Tomorrow I'm going to wake up ten feet tall and bullet proof and I'm going to get some happy scanning going on and work on that book for Grandma's birthday.

Hope your Monday was good... and if not, at least it's just about over.

Love and hugs, y'all!

My Current Project and A Lot of Pictures

I have spent most of the day working on a biography of my grandmother for her 90th birthday. She is (was? I don't know how much writing she's doing now) a prolific writer and most of her archives are here at our house. In my Whine Cellar. Just waiting to be transcribed. It's tedious work as most of things are written by hand and her handwriting can be difficult to read. Not as difficult as my dad's which is neat but microscopic...  but difficult enough that I needed the bright overhead lights on to be able to read it. I'm trying to write her story in her words as much as I can which, I really hope, she will enjoy. Especially since most of her treasures are here with us and not with her in the restricted space she has now. I thought it would be nice to have a little book that she could share with her friends. I also hope it will be something future generations will enjoy.

I also hope I can get it finished and printed before her birthday party early next month. It's a big job but ... what else do I really have to do? I am about 25% of the way through so I feel like if I can keep my nose to the grindstone, I can get this finished this week which will leave enough time for it to be proofread for content and accuracy (by Pop) and for spelling and grammar (by my sister-in-law, Dr. Gant). I'm using Shutterfly to format it so it's a fairly easy process... once I have the text selected. The biggest hurdle today was in sorting through stacks of documents to see which I wanted to use. It's just a matter of being able to have a quiet place to work without interruption and I can churn it out. I hope.

We're having a bit of a technology crisis here, though. My mom's laptop has been hit with a virus and my scanner isn't working. I have a lot of old photos already saved thanks to my scan-a-thon last Summer while I was staying with grandma. I discovered many, many more that I would like to include in the book, though. So we're taking mom's computer to the repairman tomorrow and shopping for a scanner. We use our laptops here for tv watching since the only tv is in the living room. And Austin's room, but that doesn't count because nobody wants to go in there. Computers are important here.

I said all of that to say that I don't have a lot to say today because my creative juices have been wrung out. I do have a lot of pictures - not all of them of cats - to share. Also, I want to mention that I made an awesome huge batch of chili yesterday and today I made chicken enchiladas for the first time. I may not cook again for a month. Heck... I may not EAT again for a month! I want to tweak a few things in the enchilada recipe the next time I make it but it was good enough that Lily, the old arthritic dog who has maybe been down the stairs here ONCE in the whole time we've lived here followed her nose downstairs looking for whatever I was eating. I left her more than a few scraps. That was a lot of work.

Ok. Picture time! Hope you all had a great weekend! Love and hugs!

 Little Kitty curled up at the end of my bed.

 Little Kitty sleeping UNDER the blanket with his little head beside/on my pillow. He starts the night at the foot of the bed and ends up sleeping like a person. He also does NOT like it when I get up. Unless it's time for the cats to be fed and then he can't get me out of bed quick enough.

 Right now the leaves are just barely beginning to change but there are enough changing that you can tell it's Fall. The lake is crystal clear. It's just so gorgeous!

This picture was from yesterday.

 I found Stubby's old Christmas cape and put it on Little Kitty this morning. He didn't seem to mind. He sort of pranced around like he was special.

 Would it creep you out to find this on your porch, a foot from your backdoor? I bet it would creep you out more if you found out that this creature was previously inside of your house and your child had thoughtfully dragged it outside so that you didn't freak out.

 This picture was from today. You can't tell by the picture but a lot more leaves have changed since yesterday. You'll have to take my word for it.

 What? You don't have an air mattress on your back porch?

 Lily after her adventure to the Whine Cellar in search of the whole enchilada. She's still very thin but I think she's looking healthier than she was two weeks ago. She has thyroid cancer so she's not ever going to be back to her robust old self but she looks good today.

 Austin planted wild flowers at the base of the fountain. This one was an over-achiever.

 Notice Oscar's tail underneath the flower?

 It's a really tall flower!

 Austin walking the old girls up the hill. It's easier for them to go up the hill than up the stairs.

 Goodnight, y'all!

7 Quick Takes Friday

I'm linking up with Conversion Diary for 7 Quick Takes Friday! Who says I don't live large?

1. Today was Dr. Day. As per usual... I forgot what time my appointment was and had to call at 8am to find out when I was supposed to go which meant I was up earlier than usual.

Refer to previous comments about no longer being a morning person. 

At any rate... it was at 11am which meant I had time to shower and "style" my hair (style = not a sopping wet side braid).

The appointment was no different than usual... give them my debit card so they can take all my money... pee in a cup so they know I'm not on crack... see Dr. Hottie and review meds... get refills for meds... go home.

I had a form from my disability lawyer for the doctor to spell out what type of work I can and can't do. Dr. Hottie wants me to get an evaluation from a Physical Therapist before they complete the form. It's an extra expense (I don't know how much yet) but... he said if they had to go back through my records to validate how they know that my injuries and afflictions result in specific restrictions of motion, etc, there is nothing there really to substantiate what trial and error over the course of the past two years and nine months have shown us. In other words, me saying it hurts and them knowing it hurts isn't enough to prove it hurts. He feels like this is an investment in speeding up the disability process. Ultimately, from one side or the other it's going to come down to proving my inability to do certain things and having the earlier record from a doctor who I'm paying vs. a doctor who is paid by the Social inSecurity people is worth the time and money. I see where he's coming from. I hate the thought of spending the money but it makes sense. Road block on getting that form together until I can get in to see the Physical Therapist.

We hit another roadblock in determining the cause of my left-sided abdominal pain. He thinks it's a hernia based on where it is and just from him pushing and probing on me but it really requires a full work up to know for sure. Full workup = money I don't have so for now the game plan is to treat it as if it's a hernia and exercise care in lifting things, etc. If the pain gets worse go to an ER.
Healthcare in America, folks. It's a beautiful thing.

2. It was a gorgeous day to be out and about. I really can't believe this string of beautiful weather we've had. It feels unprecedented - I can't remember another time where the weather was this perfect for this many days in a row. I took pictures as I was stopped in "traffic" at the town square on my way home. The word "traffic" is really relative. Cars back up around the town square in the middle of the day and on tourist-y weekends. Having lived - and commuted - in the Atlanta area for so many years, I know that waiting through an extra cycle of the traffic light doesn't truly equal being caught in traffic. However, the point remains that I was stopped and could therefore take a photo or two.

The first picture is of the Cleveland Donut Shop and Glenda's. Glenda's has THE BEST home-cooking around. You can see they're relatively plain little buildings but what goes on inside those buildings is NOT plain. Mainly though, I just wanted you to see how blue the sky was today. I didn't make any adjustments on the photo. It was THIS blue!

You can see here the the leaves are just barely beginning to change. A few more cool nights and it's going to be really colorful up in here. This is the empty lot beside the old Babyland General.

 Fall decor beside the bank. Last year our friends at Loganberry Heritage Farm did the decorating... I don't know if they did this year or not.

You know you live in a small town when there's a cemetery beside the local IGA. 

3. I spared you the 28 million cat pictures from yesterday. I have to share this one though... my sweet Little Kitty taking over the lap where the laptop should be. Acting like he owns this place.

And another one of him acting like he owns it...

4. We had guests last weekend... my dad's friend Fred and his wife Daisy. Pop and Fred have been friends since I was a kid. Ironically, Fred and Daisy's daughter lives with my kids' dad. It is semi-awkward for me but eh... I mean, it is what it is. It makes it hard to hate on your ex when your ex is their daughter's beau but I don't really do a whole lot of hatin' on him anyways. He missed out on a lot of stuff with my kids and I could have used his help and his money but I got very little of either and they turned out to be pretty decent guys and I get all the credit. The end. My kids' dad has been sober for a month or two and that's a big deal. I don't want my kids to have to bury their dad and I don't want Cody to have to worry about whether or not he's showing up to work. He's reportedly doing better about going to work and I'm sure his present girlfriend has something to do with it. She comes from good people. ANYWAYS... I said all of that, to say that when Fred and Daisy came to see us they brought this lovely plant and Little Kitty LOVES it! He had killed off most of my mom's other plants so this is a whole new challenge for him.

P.S. I totally gave Austin heck about Fred and Daisy being his Meemaw and Pappaw.

5. I did laundry today and made instant mashed potatoes and field peas for dinner. I also cleaned the sliding glass door in the Whine Cellar because the bug guts on it were blocking my gorgeous view of the lake. I consider that a highly productive day.

6. My sister-in-law called tonight with a great idea about what to do for Grandma's 90th birthday which is next month. It's a really good idea and I'm pretty much the only one who can do it. It will take some creative energy but it will be good for me to have a project. I'll share it with y'all when I get it finished.

7. I read ahead to the end of the series on Breaking Bad and I still want to watch it but... last night I decided I would rather watch Orange Is The New Black and I enjoyed it more. That's what I'm about to do... break out the old Netflix.

Hope you guys have a great weekend! Love and hugs!

I Am Not Posting 28 Cat Pictures

My digital camera serves as a diary of sorts for me to remember what things I wanted to share with you. When I came downstairs (DOWNSTAIRS! YAY!) to the Whine Cellar and looked at the trusty digi-cam tonight I had sixteen cat pictures. I left the camera in my bedroom today (no, really, you don't carry your camera around the house with you? Of course you do because 98% of the world has a cellphone with picture taking capability but I digress...) so while I was upstairs I took a dozen or so pictures on my mom's camera of the cats with the pumpkin we bought two days ago but seriously, that just means that I have about 28 pictures of cats to show for my day today. How in the world can I come up with an interesting blog post from 28 cat pictures? How is this different from any other day?

Last night I stayed up past midnight watching four episodes of Breaking Bad. I can't say that it's groundbreaking television. I mean, it's no Mary Tyler Moore Show or anything. It was good enough to make me want to see the next one and the next one until I fell asleep.

And then I was rudely awakened by one young son looking for chocolate in my nightstand because... there is usually chocolate hidden somewhere in the vicinity of where I'm sleeping. And then I was awakened a second time by the same young son who wanted a second helping because y'all... the Halloween KitKats are the bomb! The orange ones are the best. Good enough that I let him and Logan take my car to Walmart today to buy more of them. That good. (I also needed air in my tires which is why they were driving my car.)

Also, young son woke me up to tell me that one of the members of the Basement Clown Posse is going to be a father again. Actually. Is it odd that my son is the only one of the three of them that doesn't have a child yet? Logan's baby mama is pregnant for a second time - by someone else. And Pat's girlfriend is pregnant with her first child but his second. The girl Austin is dating has a baby but there's a complicated story there, not really one of those 16 And Pregnant stories. Anyways. BCP apparently does not stand for birth control pills in their lexicon.

Tonight they're all out in a pack roaming the village while Logan romances a new girl so I have the entire bottom floor and my entire stash of Halloween Kitkats to myself. And the cats.

I cooked dried beans with ham in the crockpot all day. Mom made cornbread and that was our dinner. It was good enough that I mentioned that Pop should be jealous. He's been - by his words, not mine - jealous of the lovely weather and gorgeous views we've had here all week. The view is great but the eating ain't bad either.

Mom also made lemon poppyseed muffins while she had the oven fired up. I brought one downstairs for me to have as my after dark - pre-chocolate time snack. I set it on my ottoman and went to the potty. When I came back the cats had started licking the butter off. I took pictures. Then Oscar came down and - even though he's on a strict diet because dachshunds can't carry extra weight - I let him have a nibble of the muffin. Then he started eating the cupcake liner and I had to take it away from him.

I have a doctors appointment tomorrow. Still one hundred percent out of pocket for me. I don't love going but I don't hate it either. They don't really do much except make me pee in a cup and give me a new set of prescriptions. It's not the best solution for my issues but until there is some real healthcare coverage for me and/or a real income it's the best I can do. Managing things. That's it for now. I hate waking up in the morning because it is so painful and so hard to get something on my stomach so that I can take something to get the pain under control. It's hard to go from being a morning person to hating mornings like that and it just really seems like there should be a solution. For now... the solution is to keep waking up and hope that it will get better and not worse.

The lab work is because they have to be so careful about prescribing pain meds. They have to make sure you're not indulging in any other illicit drugs. As if I could afford to. And honestly, if I was, I wouldn't be spending $200 every other month to see them and $100 a month on drugs. The legal kind.

I started my Christmas shopping already. It will be a hard candy Christmas but I did buy something for my nieces that I think they'll really like that is unique. I also found something for my two older boys that I think they'll both appreciate. All on zulily.com so far. Also bought something for my dad. So really, I'm pretty far along in the process. I buy more for Austin than my older boys because they both have significant others who buy for them. One of my brothers doesn't do Christmas and one doesn't do Christmas with us so I'm pretty much just down to Austin, my mom, and the two participatory brothers.

It was cool enough last night to sleep in a sweatshirt and warm fuzzy pj pants. Tonight I'm just going with long sleeve tshirt and yoga pants. Mild sunny days and cool nights... it can stay like this forever. Plus maybe one good snowstorm in mid-January. Otherwise - open window weather as long as possible, please.

And that, plus 28 cat pictures is what is happening in my world today.

Love and hugs, y'all.