Good-Bye Danny 3/27/59-1/5/21

No one realizes just how hard it is to say good-bye for the final time.  I used to get laughed at by you. "Why are you crying?  You're just going to Florida.  You'll be back in a couple weeks."  Annynd the answer was always the same.  "Because you never know what could happen.  

Danny and I were not always on good terms, let me start off by saying that.  We had our ups and downs, our goods and bads, and some of those bad times were downright awful!  The good more than often outweighed the bad.

Danny and I, over the years have been blessed with 7 grandchildren, and 2 of them lived with Danny, and a 3rd was on the way.  But then cancer came and stole his health.  He became a force to be reckoned with in his fight.  Then he beat it.  He was ecstatic.  He worked hard to make sure his children, his grandchildren, and everyone who knew him, knew that he was living day to day, making memories.  

Then came the news the cancer came back.  Danny got more and more sick, ending up in the hospital, more and more often.  He told me that he wanted to start getting out more because depression would kill him more than anything.  

In December of 2020 he ended up in the hospital and he checked himself out right before Christmas.  He got to celebrate a little with the kids before he went back on December 30, 2020.  On January 4, 2021 we were notified that it would be best to put him in hospice care because he wasn't getting better and probably wouldn't.  I got the call on January 5, 2021 at 6:26 a.m. that he had passed away at 6:17 a.m.

Telling the kids that their dad had passed was something I was not prepared to do.  Telling friends of Danny's was also hard.  The hardest, though, is remembering every single fight, every single harsh word said, every single everything ever said!  Those things haunt me all the time!  

I love you, Danny.  Always have, always will!

Been A While

Actually been longer than a while, been a little over a year, and a lot has happened.  There have been birthdays, holidays, deaths, births.  As is with every year it seems.  I've had the kids all move out and Danny and I are happy with that.  I've had a new location in Virginia where I'm trying to start my business along with keeping in in Georgia.  I've also lost weight, ended up in the hospital after tearing all the cartilage from my sternum and ribs, and I've gotten 2 of my romance novels and a book of poetry published.  Granted they do well on Kindle when it's free, just wish they would sell!  And then came last Saturday when Danny and I went to put some gas in the Bronco and the cashier asked who the little white haired lady was in the truck.  That was enough.  I decided I was dying my hair.  Always, since I made the mistake of permanent hair dye 17 years ago with Cinnaberry and had to have it bleach washed out 7 times, I started back with my blonde, kept it.  The last time I dyed my hair was Sept. of last year, right after I did my last entry on here.  I haven't dyed it since.  Well, I went to Walgreens and saw Copper Mahogany Brown.  I thought, perfect.  I waited for a few days for another box to come in.  Danny, of course, hated the color and told me flat out "NO!"  Fought about it, but in the end I did it.  He still isn't happy, but I like it.  It should be out in a few weeks to a few months, and the blonde will be back, along with the white.

All hail the redhead!!!!!

So Much has happened

I know, it been literally months and months since I've written on here. In the meantime we've had Diana, Trisha, my Dad, Danny, Amber, Brian, Pop, Daniel, Emma, Elizabeth, Matthew, Jules, Colby,Leslie, me, Hunter, and Felicia all turn a year older. We celebrated Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. We've had snow, rain, then a drought, the remnant of Tropical Storm Lee that was supposed to give us over 10" of rain..we got 2" instead. I looked at and fell in love with a beautiful home that I was hoping we could get, but unfortunately we couldn't. Ladybug is 2 and still living in the front yard, Paws had a set of kittens, and 1 disappeared, leaving Sylvester, (or Manson and Fuzz calls him), and Whiskers, and Fuzz found a kitten at Waffle House that he ended up bringing home and named him....Waffles! Striper is no longer with us, nor is Kitt...we have no clue where they are. Dixie stays in the house with us and Hurricane and Raskull and Smackie are outside...waaay too wild to live in the house! Amber, Brian, and Patrick all have cars...Amber's is a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix Supercharge, Patrick's is a 1998 Mercury Sable, and Brian has a 2000 Ford Ranger that has a blue and red theme like Superman. I'll be sure and keep up the blog more than what I have.....

Happy 19th Birthday Patrick!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know you didn't quite get the birthday you were hoping for. You did get your strawberry cheesecake, but the presents were kind of lacking. I should've thought more about it before the snowstorm came so I could've went out and got you things. While I was making your cheesecake this afternoon, I thought a lot about from the time you were born until now. So many things went through my head. How you would sit in my lap watching M*A*S*H* with me, you used to love that show, followed by The Jeffersons, and then All In The Family. How we got the giggles over the Hunter-Douglas ceiling fan commercial and the Burger King Commercial. The Lego buildings we would build. Later on it was you going to school, and the time when the asst. principal came to pick you up from the house because you "missed the bus yet again" when I was 45 miles away at work. Your science fair projects that I "helped" you make....I love getting good grades!!!!! (I think the 2 best was The Bermuda Triangle and Altantis...although, no one expected the aquarium to spring a leak and me have to hurry and drive to the school to empty it before it all emptied on the floor!) You are full of energy, that's something that never changed...whether it was fighting with your brother and sister, skateboarding, jumping on the trampoline in a dog cage with Brian, swinging off the doll house on palm fronds, playing war with water guns on the doll house roof with Brian, or doing "recon" around the "premises" with Brian in your camo outfit. You didn't give me a lot of problems when you were little and you don't give me a lot now. Your music I tolerate, but it still makes me want to kill someone....you're an awesome guitarist, and as a person in general, you're one of the most gentlest and compassionate people I know. I know that for lunch or supper on any given day you'll eat Cheddar Explosion Mac & Cheese or potatoes, gravy, and biscuits or pizza, although when you were little it was PB&J!

I love you Patrick...always stay the way you are. Never let anyone change you, except if you think it's for the better.

Happy 19th Birthday! We all love you very much!

Major Snowstorm

When it comes to snow, it's like my inner child has hit pay dirt. I stay on the blogs, watch models, (what little I know about them), listen to the pro's and hope like heck that it comes to fruition what we're hoping for and that the real thing doesn't shift north or south because it will either give us freezing rain, ice, and rain, or it could give us nothing. Up until the night of the storm, it was predicted to give us 1-4", depending on who you listened to out of Atlanta. I was reading the blog by Andy Wood out of South Carolina and he was saying more than that. I had the news on, and Atlanta was getting pounded by heavy snow, and I was getting really jealous. I went outside and saw the first few flakes and ran into get Amber, who came outside and told me to come get her when it "really started snowing." Well, I decided while I was waiting to straighten up the porch, which included putting the lights I didn't get to use for Christmas away, sweeping off the porch that had the left over pine needles and small stems from the Christmas tree, and rolling up the extension cord. When I was done, still nothing by a stray flake or two and I came inside to look on the blog and radar...showed a heavy swath of snow coming through, so I went back out. About 10 minutes later the wind picked up and the snow came in. I called Amber out who promptly went back inside. It was snowing really hard..sometimes straight down, sometimes sideways when the wind would pick up. I came in after 15 minutes and there was about 1/10" of snow on the rails. After an hour I looked outside and we had 3". I went to bed hoping for a foot, (that's what was being said on some of the blogs). Around 4:30 AM I couldn't sleep so I came back out and looked outside...didn't see it snowing, but we had 8" sitting on the ground...so beautiful. Ladybug was not too happy...she had a coating of snow on her and was standing up. On radar a couple of hours later I see we are in a slot of dry air...like the snow was coming to us and was hitting a brick wall...we kept getting flurries off and on. Amber and I took a walk, I made a snowman, wrote in the snow, and climbed up the back way home, only to fall down twice at the top until I got my strength and held onto the dogs cage. Amber decided to record it. The snow has a layer of ice on top where it rained lightly and ended up as freezing rain. No snowman this time here. Maybe next!

Happy New Year!!!!!

Good-bye 2010, Hello 2011! I sat and watch the last 45 seconds of the old year slip away on the couch. As the new year rang in, tears slipped down my face as I recalled the good times and the bad times throughout the year. The worst, my mother-in-law passed away...the best, Danny was found to not have anything really wrong with him that doctors could find. So many memories of in between. All the kids have jobs, I have a ceramics shop, Danny has plenty to do to keep busy. We all wish we could be with family more, and I was grateful to have my best friend, her husband, and kids come up and spend a few days with us and my stepmom and little brother Matthew came up a few days after they left and spent the day while they were going to see her Mom. I miss my Mom and Dad, and it's going to be somewhat of a hardship when I go to visit family in FL now because my Mom moved back to Ohio in August. It will be strange to say the least.

My goals this year.....#1 Get into shape. #2 Get my ceramics shop up and going. #3 Make sure my family stays healthy and happy....not getting off so far into the healthy bit as we're all going into the new year sick! #4 Hope that my children all have healthy relationships!

May God Bless all of us this upcoming year!

Henry IV The Snowman Returns

Well, Amber and I knew we had to build this snowman! We had a lot of snow to do it with, but it was harder than what we thought. Powdered snow, wet snow, snow with ice on bottom. All in all, we did a bang up job. Danny helped shovel the snow into a bucket, Amber would bring it over and dump it by the snowman, then I'd pack it. Not the best way to do the snowman, but it worked. Isn't Henry IV just adorable? I also think that the view is gorgeous too from the yard!