... enjoying "small world" moments

This is a story in three parts. 

The first part is known to many of you.  

The second part is known to some of you.  

The third part ... very few of you.

PART I

I have three brothers -- all older than me -- and the middle of the three is a school teacher in England. He teaches the children of military personnel at Lakenheath Air Base. Snook (not his real name, but we'll use it anyway to protect his real identity) is a math whiz and loves getting high school kids to understand his beloved math. Teaching is so natural to him.  He taught in Michigan before heading to Japan to teach at the base in Misawa and is now in England teaching at Lakenheath. There is a rumor that he may retire soon, so that has prompted me to purchase an airline ticket so I can go to England on the cheaps in April.

PART II

I have developed a fascination with cupcakes.  Really, what is better than a cake that you get to eat all by yourself. As a result, I spend hours browsing internet sites and blogs for cupcake recipes. Once a recipe sparks an interest, I'm off to the store and then I drag out Momma's old Sunbeam Mixmaster and we whip up cupcakes. Oh the yummy delights we've made together ... and the flops I've thrown in the trash (honestly, don't people try these recipes out before they post them). This pic is one where I did a mix and match with the cupcake (vanilla) and the frosting (caramel). I must admit, they are too good.  nom nom

The poor souls at work are all too willing to be my guinea pigs and, let's just say, the plate came home empty.

PART II (and 1/2)

As part of my fascination with cupcakes, I've found a little shop just off of Camp Bowie in Fort Worth that sells only cupcakes. Nothing too unusual about that. After all, there are entire television shows dealing with cupcake shops, cupcake contests, etc. While it is true that they were Fort Worth's first "cupcake only" bakery, that's not what makes them unique for me. No, what is special about this shop is that it is truly a "mom and pop" enterprise. And while I've never been there, there's a good reason for that. They open at 10:00 in the morning and leave when their morning batch of cupcakes (300-400) is gone. They post on Facebook when all cupcakes have left the building to alert people that they are closed for the day. Generally, that happens way before I could get there ... having to work at an office where they would probably get a little upset at my running out the door at 10:00 to go get a cupcake from The Cupcake Cottage. The Cupcake Cottage couple also have no qualms about closing for a few days when they have "life events" (which they describe as anything from visiting family and friends to yard work to rounding-up unsuspecting dust-bunnies at home). Their philosophy is "work to live" and not the other way around. Because of this, I have "liked" this cupcake bakery on Facebook and enjoy seeing their daily flavors which are posted every day (sometimes with mouth watering pictures).  

PART III 

(Finally, you didn't think I'd get here, did you?)

Somehow I find out that Sandra (that's the "mom" in The Cupcake Cottage duo) writes a blog. Well, I'm a blog-a-holic so of course, I had to start reading her blog (secretly hoping for a cupcake recipe or two).  While I was disappointed to find that there are no recipes there, the following discovery did delight me. I learned that she was a school teacher long ago (well, maybe not all that long ago). Nothing earth shaking here, except that her first teaching job was (... drumroll please ...) teaching students in England at (... you ready for this ...) Lakeheath Air Base. I felt a little crazy doing it, but I wrote her a little e-mail telling her of this "small world" connection. I shouldn't have been surprised when she didn't think it was too crazy and wrote me back and gave me stories of her time in England, places she liked and memories she had, things she longed to do again. With the philosophy they have for their business, I should have known that she would appreciate the connection. I love "small world" moments and thought this one was exceptional.

Now, before I go to England, I feel a great need to visit The Cupcake Cottage and meet this lady who humored my craziness.  

Remember, it is a small world.

... you never know who knows about you or about where you've been ...

SO BE NICE TO EVERYONE.

Until next time - 

Bunches!

Nona

... and I'm running behind

Geesh ... just February and I'm running behind in my blogging plans.

OK, it's true, I set no hard and fast rules about how often I would blog. However, I did set goals (goals are good, right?) and I've blown those. As a reminder, I said I would blog on the weekends with mid-week blogs showing up fairly often. That SOOO hasn't happened!

Not that I haven't been busy ... I have. There's always work, plus there were doctor appointments for mom, cataloging rubber stamps (if it doesn't sound too hard, it's because you've never done it), vet appointment for the seizing dog (that's a story in and of itself, but all is well that seems to be ending well),  cold, nasty days that made me want to stay curled in the fetal position on the couch, etc, etc, etc.

So who have I failed by not blogging? I really doubt that you (are you out there, reader or hopefully readers?) have been saddened or had feelings of neglect from the lack of blog output from me. But I have felt like I was missing something.

Once again, I am jumping in. I have lots of ideas and plan to put them into cyberspace ... but not tonight. Why? Because as usual, I am running behind and have lots to do before bedtime. Vicious cycle!

Running behind ... but never actually running!  

Bunches!!!

Here comes sixty ... celebrating Princess Emily

I am blessed. Did you hear what I said ??? I AM BLESSED! I have a lovely family. My husband is the perfect mate for me. It is obvious that God picked him for me and matched us together. There is no way I'm smart enough to have made that decision on my own. When we married we became a family of two. Then two years later, we became a family of three when our beautiful baby girl, Rebeka Lynn, was born. Five years later, Beki became a big sister as Ryan was born and four years after that, Robert was born.

It seems the years flew by and now they all have grown and had families of their own.  We have eight ... YES EIGHT ... grandchildren and each and every one is the most perfect grandchild in the world.

But this week, we are celebrating the 11th birthday of our beautiful Princess Emily, oldest of the three daughters of our son Robert and his lovely wife, Kelly. Emily gets to be the first child honored in the blog as her birthday is the first to come after the "official" start of the blog.

The family gathered on Saturday evening for a wonderful dinner at Babe's in Granbury. All I can say about that is "yum yum". The family dinner has been planned for over a month. Then last week we began to wonder if we would need to postpone, as the area was coated in ice on Tuesday ... and Wednesday ... and Thursday. On Friday, a thick blanket of snow covered everything again making it extremely doubtful that anyone would be able to make the drive. On Saturday morning, everything was still blanketed with snow, but by Saturday afternoon, the sunshine had done the trick. I really am grateful to our God for giving us clear roads for the drive.

If you are unfamiliar with Babe's, it is one of those wonderful places where you pick your meat (limited selection:  fried chicken, smoked chicken, chicken fried steak or catfish) and then everything is brought out family style:  mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, salad and biscuits. The waitresses all gathered to wish Emily a happy birthday, then had her do their own version of the chicken dance. Sweet Princess that she is, she clucked, clapped and flapped to a Babe's chicken perfection.

Kelly designed Emily's chicken cake ... oh my word, it was so cute. Check out the detail. The little girl sitting on the cake is beautiful, but note the chicken with its head on the chopping block. The staff at Babe's was SOOO impressed. (By the way, everything on the cake is edible and hand crafted by Kelly too.)  

My favorite term to describe Emily is that she is a "pure spirit". Emily is the type of child that sees need in the world and tries to fill that need. She is the child that wants to wear Tom's Shoes not because they're cool (which, they really are) but because every time she gets a new pair, an underprivileged child gets a free pair. So many of her friends have started wearing Tom's because Emily wears them and I've told her that because she introduced Tom's to her friends, she is responsible for even more shoes being donated.

The former pastor at our church befriended a homeless man who hangs out near the freeway that passes our church. When the pastor left and moved to Chicago, Emily told her parents that their family needed to watch out and take care of the gentleman. She is precious and I am so honored to be her Nana.

As the months pass, I will introduce you to the other Princes and Princesses that I am fortunate to be Nana to. I warn you, sometimes they come in groups (birthdays have a way of "clumping" in this family), but I assure you, they are each and every one a precious gift from God.

However, for now ... Happy Birthday Princess Emily!!!
Bunches!

Headed for Sixty ... and thinking like a CAT?

OK everyone ... please stop grimacing and ... no ... wait ... don't throw things. Surely you knew this was coming. I love my critters. I love other people's critters. I love all types of critters. But I've had a cat in my life for as long as I can remember. Thomas was my first cat love and he endured moving from Arkansas to Louisiana to Texas and remained my best friend for years. After Thomas ... well ... I don't know.  There were so many cats with names as varied as Maestro, Dixie, Rastas, Happy (ahhh, yes, he was a magnificent cat), Nugget (as in Cat McNugget ... get it?), Angel, Chubbie, and the current two: Rosie and Goldie. They were all different but shared one thing in common ... they knew they were unusual and special.

If you've ever been the personal attendant to a cat, you understand what I mean. Cats know that they are NOT average critters. In fact, cats probably resent me calling them critters. I do that simply because it annoys them and because it's easier than saying, "The cats and the dogs need ____". I can simply say I need to feed the critters, give the critters water, brush the critters, take the critters to the vet, etc. There is no doubt in my mind that I've insulted the cats by grouping them with the dogs. But really, what are they going to do? They don't have opposable thumbs so they're limited in their attempts at retaliation.

I once had a birthday card that said "Cats know how you feel ... they just don't care." Well, in most cases, that is true. My cats pretty much are of the impression that I was put on this earth to care for them. They may "act" attentive and suck you in, but once you're hooked, they go back to their attitude of, "Yes, I'm pretty, now care for me." The current elder cat is a prime example. She arrived on my patio without invitation and was, well let me put this delicately, great with kitten. She took up residence in the "Dogloo" that we kept on our patio just in case the dog should ever want to sleep in it. HA! However, around that time, we were having an abundance of rain and our back yard flooded. I looked out one evening to see Rosie in the Dogloo and the the silly plastic doghouse was floating by the door. Seriously, what was I to do? I threw open the door, reached out and pulled the floating dog house over and invited the little pregnant thing into the house. Not having a timid bone in her body, she came right in.  Later, Rosie joined me when I went to bed. She was so grateful to me and couldn't contain her purring to show me her devotion (or that's what I believed at the time).  Most likely, she was just singing because she was warm and dry and had found the ultimate sucker.  Her purring was so loud, I had difficulty sleeping.

She had me hooked! The next morning, I set up a little birthing suite in our office and left her there in case the blessed event should come during the day. We continued this routine for a little over a week UNTIL ... Dennis needed in the office after I had left that morning and Rosie escaped. Being the wonderful, wise person he is, he decided that she wouldn't have her kittens that day and left her roaming in the house. That evening, I came in to a strange noise ... the ever so tiny mewing of a newborn kitten.  It was a tiny little cream colored kitten.  

Wonder of wonders ... I've never witnessed birth when I wasn't the one doing the pushing so I set up camp right outside of Dennis' closet (oh yes she did ... that was her way of thanking him for leaving her loose in the house) and watched as she gave birth to another little cream baby.  At that point, I was hoping she was through, but of course, you know she wasn't.  Along comes a gray baby and another cream kitten. She seemed to be through so I decided to give her some privacy and go watch a little TV.

After a while, during a commercial break, I decide to go and see how Momma cat and her little family were doing ... and they were fine.  Unfortunately, there were newcomers that weren't there when I left.  Another gray baby and a little orange kitten had made an arrival.


Fast forward four years and here I am ... and Rosie and the little orange surprise are vital components in my life.

Now lest you think that the other babies aren't loved, I assure you that each was given a wonderful home.  The three cream babies (who by 4 weeks of age had developed Siamese markings) were taken by our wonderful veterinarian who gave two to her mother-in-law and one to her niece.  The two little gray babies went to live with one of my co-workers and are loved and pampered as cats believe they should be.

I simply had to keep Rosie because she was so affectionate and devoted to me (remember the loud purring).  HA ... she was such a great actress.  Aloof ... this cat defines the word. Despite all of that, Rosie is a great cat but as you can see from her photo, she thinks she rules the world.

As for the little orange surprise, she was a surprise to our vet as well.  It seems that orange/yellow cats are typically male and it is unusual for females to be colored that way. So with a vet tech and two veterinaries agreeing that this kitten is definitely female, very unusual and more than a little bit special, I decided that she should just stay with me.  Unfortunately, she heard all this fuss about how "unusual" and "special" she is and now she expects royal treatment.

So now, how does this all relate to my grand scheme to enjoy the road to sixty in a full and wonderful way?  Oh, I am so very glad you asked. I have realized that just like my cats, I am unusual. I am a special creation. Everyone isn't going to treat me that way and I shouldn't care whether they do, but when I look in the mirror, I know. Trust me, I really know.