Life with my sister

The White County Fair in Searcy on Moster Truck night is a tradition for we 3 Lee's. It's a 1hour 20 min drive for us. Randall's plane from Iowa landed in Jonesboro around 5:00 and we ran home for him to change his clothes....he picked his best redneck shirt for the occasion to ensure he fit in real good. That's my man! LOL .  We rolled in right as it started, after stopping off at the Bulldog in Bald Knob for supper, of course.  This guy was more into the rides than the monster trucks this year. He was so fun to watch. Everything was exciting to him. I love living life through him sometimes. Oh, to be a child.  Dude would not ride this last year and this year he took the front seat with a smile. So cute!  He smiled the entire ride and put his hands in the air and everything. We got such a joy out of watching him.  When Henry walked up the steps to that slide and went down by himself I shed a tear. Crazy, I know. This boy is blooming right before my eyes in so m...

Wilma and her girls - our last picture with her. About 6 weeks before she died. 10 years ago this morning my Meemaw (Julie's "Grandmother") met Jesus face to face. What a rejoicing that must have been for she, my Peepaw (Julie's "Granddaddy") and our Healer. We called them different names, but they were the same people to us...loving, Godly grandparents who helped mold us into the women we are today. There are so many things I wish she was here to see. She never met Anna or Henry. She would adore Anna's love for all things girly and Henry's curly hair and knee socks. She loved Samuel, Claire, David and Daniel and bragged on them every week at the beauty shop and at church. Meemaw loved family and because of that we are still the same, strong family she left 10 years ago. As I get older I find myself appreciating my maternal and paternal families so much more. Julie and I were SO fournate to end up in this life together with all these people. This is...

School Days, School Days... The kids went to school today. Not "real" school, as we call public school, but a homeschool academy that meets on Tuesdays. Everyone was excited, and everyone was a bit apprehensive about going this morning. They all looked so cute. I wish I had taken a picture. I just don't even think in pictures anymore! Shameful I know. I woke up early this morning fixed breakfast and made lunches for the three in our family that don't care for spaghetti, which is what was being served for lunch at school. Sadly, I didn't think ahead about lunches and was out of bread and zippy bags. So, I made peanut butter crackers and wrapped them in foil. Poor things, they don't even know to be embarrassed ! Samuel is taking Geography, Civil War History, Music, and Drama. David and Daniel are taking Music, Science, Art, Cooking, and English. Anna is taking Music, Art, Cooking, Thinking Skills, and Grammar/Reading. I hope they love it. I hope I love it. I al...

Henry has learned so much about Christmas at his faith-based school. He is learning about the real meaning of Christmas, yet he is also learning the whimsical fun of Christmas. It is so true when they say from out of the mouth the heart speaks. Henry is an open book and it is so entertaining. Henry will often say "Santa Watch'n" when he gets in trouble. He will also see a picture of Santa and say, "Santa Caus com'n town". When I ask him what Santa says he goes, "Ho Ho Ho. Merry Istmis" Because Henry is a feisty little two year old boy, he sometimes has to go to Mrs. Debbie's office at school for misbehaving. (He has not been in 2 weeks and I am such a proud Mama!) She is the director and loved by all. I think he sometimes wants to go see her so he acts ugly on purpose! (they all go to her office...so don't sit there at your screen thinking my Henry is a hellion!) Anyway, he always feels ashamed when he goes, hangs his hea...

Saturday morning I took Henry to breakfast with Santa at another local church in town. It was so much fun and super festive. Henry was SO excited about seeing Santa. He talked about Santa the whole way there and ran to the line when we got there. He tried to climb on stage and cut in line to get to Santa. Once we got up to Santa this is what happened. Poor little buddy! My friend Carole was taking the photos and she loved it to so much. She is a sassy grandmother and loves the babies. It was fun. Then, Sunday morning Ms. Peggy was working the preschool desk as always. She stands up each Sunday and looks over the desk to see how Henry is dressed. She loves our Henry's classic style because she owned the children's clothing store in town for years and respects good style :) Anyway, Peggy then looks at me and says with her sassy self, "I heard about Santa"....News travels fast in J'Town! She tells me that she is in supper club with Carole and she was telling them all...

Last year I posted this link to some of my favorite Christmas songs. I suggest you go to that link and enjoy the tunes. Here is David Phelps singing O Holy Night... I adore his version. I just love the music of this festive season! Abby

The other night the kids and I were watching a replay of the 1978 Orange Bowl where Arkansas beat Oklahoma. They laughed at the lack of camera angles and kept asking what the score was and why it wasn't in a box at the top of the screen. I told them I had watched that game that night and that just confirmed in their minds that I am ancient, my days are short my friends. I told them I remembered it because something really wonderful happened that night. My Grandaddy was a preacher and for some reason had a Living Bible laying on top of his tv. Do you remember this Bible? It was hardback, yet had a soft green cover. Strange. Anyway. I noticed that it said Living Bible on it and I asked Grandaddy if I read it did that mean I would live forever. He said, with a smile on his face (a smile that I miss), that if I read it and believed it then yes, I would live forever! I didn't understand the concept of eternity in Heaven but I did get the concept of the Bible, believing, and a foreve...

We took Henry to see Randall's Grandad last weekend. He has a window unit in his home. It is one of the older homes in their town...in fact I believe it was Randall's great-grandparents home. He has a window unit. As a parent of a toddler I often fail to prepare and plan for new discoveries. They in turn catch me off guard. This was a discovery that resulted in great loud " AHHHHHH's " in the vent, lots of arm waves in front of the vent and lots of me going "NO! Do not touch the buttons, Henry!!". It was really cute how he spotted it, ran toward it and immediately went " AHHHHHH ". It made me laugh and almost cry. It took me back to Spradling Avenue when I was a little girl. At that time my grandparents lived in the home my mother grew up in and they had a window unit. While watching Henry discover the fun of a window unit, I remembered the smell of that air, it is not like any other smell. I remembered the " Ahhhhhh's ", trying ...

Henry is back with his mom and dad. I texted Abby today and told her that he really didn't want to leave my house and we would meet them Saturday instead of today. She texted back something like, "BRING HIM BACK NOW!!" I enjoyed having Henry the last 5 days. We had lots of fun and memories were made. But I want to share two of the highlights with you. **Wednesday we skyped with Abby and Randall using Samuel's ipod touch. Henry was so cute, he would take the ipod away from Samuel and say "Mama, Daddy" It was so sweet looking at his little face looking at his parents. There just isn't anything like the love of a child! **I rocked Henry to sleep at night. I rocked him differently than his mom does. I rocked him slow and softly told him stories about our family. Abby was five when our grandfather died and I was 13, so I figured I remembered more about Papaw than she did and told him stories about him. I told him how Papaw fought in the war, how he loved...

Mama sent these pictures over the weekend. They made me smile. All of the little girls were in the Fort visiting grandparents and they got together for a little play time with Marmie /Aunt "Taffy" and Gigi/Aunt J - tbeo (my mama and her sister...in case you are confused). Anna K and Gracie B are only a few months apart in age and they adore seeing one another the few times a year that they are able to. They literally squeal. I can actually hear that squeal as I type this. So cute! Then there is little Molly who is subject to do whatever those big girls want to do. Sweet little thing! This picture above instantly made me think of the one below... I went and took a photo of it in my scrapbook and here it is. Sarah is Grace's mama and she always had a little brother who tagged along with us. Bless his heart. Look at him. At least we did not make him wear a uniform with us! Julie was a cheerleader and we often played dress up in her uniforms and performed for anyone who wo...

Henry and I had a mother/son date night on Friday night in honor of Mother's Day. His Daddy took our picture on the back patio before we left the house. Randall gave him all kinds of pointers as he put him in the car and waved us down the driveway. It was cute. We went to Chick fil A because they were having a mother/son date night. They had red carpet rolled out for us, they seated us and took our order at a nicely decorated table. They had live music, flowers and balloons for us. They had little handouts on the tables to teach boys manners and printed menus so you could order from the table. I loved it! Henry loved it because he got his chicken and ketchup...he is such a simple date. It was the first date I have ever had where I had to feed my date, clean his snotty nose and change his diaper. I enjoyed it a lot though! They had a convertible you could take a ride in. I had no intentions of partaking in this activity and if you know me well, you must know how it took biting al...

We took this little curly headed cutie to the Memphis Zoo the other day. He loved the farm animals a lot. I think because most of his animal toys make farm animal sounds, so he was familiar with them. He called the donkey "mama", but he called the gorilla "daddy", so that made it all better! Henry and his daddy were admiring the ducks in this photo. I am not sure they were admiring them the way the zoo intended....admiring them from a duck hunters prospective, of course. Henry loved taking in all the sights and smells of the zoo while riding the Once Upon A Farm train. Henry loved getting out of the stroller and running his daddy all over the place. It was truly too cute. "moo!" He was looking at the cow and saying, "moo". It was not as cool as we anticipated that day, and this poor little fella got hot in his stroller, but he was a trooper. He loved looking at all the animals and soaking up all the other children around him. We had so m...

The last time I saw my mom she gave me some mementos from my childhood. Pictures, report cards, class pictures. Oh, the memories. She even gave me my baby books. Stephen and I spent the evening looking though everything. He made comments like, " oh, this was a mistake" when he saw pictures of me in typical 1975 attire. I'm so glad he loves me for who I am, not what I look like (or looked like). While reading the baby books I was surprised to see a couple of dates that didn't jive with my memory. I have always thought and told people that I was saved and baptized in the month of April. As it turns out it was October. I have no idea why I thought it was April but I'm just glad that God doesn't care if I can remember the date of my decision. He just cares that I made the decision! I also realized that I broke my thumb and began the school year with a cast in 2 nd grade. I have thought it was 3rd grade, but never could make that work in my mind with other events ...

Julie convinced me to download Skype this week so she and the kids could see us. I did and it pretty much ROCKS! Samuel and I have gotten a lot of face time, along with the other 3 little cuties. Henry loves it and goes "Ah-oh" the whole time, as though it has to be a mistake to see his cousins in real time on the computer! Samuel has his own Skype account. Is he really this old now?! I remember this little chubby faced boy like it was yesterday. Oh me. Doesn't this picture crack you up? Well, maybe it doesn't, but I laughed outloud at the 11x13 I discovered this week in a photo box. We really did it up big in our denim, I tell ya! The adorable little guy in the yellow suit had his 28th birthday this week. Man, we are getting so old! I am pretty confident Granny would be pretty proud of her adult great-grandchildren. The preparation for Spring always makes me think of our precious Granny. This warmer weather is making me so ready to wear Spring dresses! I love this ...