Happy New and Good Health Year to ALL!

. . . some things we’ll be expecting:

Our “baby” boy will be 37 this month —
Our Beau Beau poodle was born 16 years ago in April —

We’re praying for some rain soon —
Kelby has started working on the shop landscaping —

Our shop is full — we’re ready to set up at the Warrenton Antique Show,
both this spring AND this fall —

Hawaii or Bust — we’ll be there for almost three weeks
with friends Ann and Nick — celebrating both anniversaries (our 40th
and their 45th last April) —

Another trip in May — this time to Springfield, Ohio for antique
shopping with friends Don and Betty.
Then, we will head toward Iowa to visit with Jackie, Gregg, and
Mom Palmer; and maybe a trip by Columbia, Missouri to check on
Cousin Dale and Jan and Cousin Jack and Neva.

June — our birthday month — and our oldest son turns 40!

July and August — maybe a trip to some cool place, like Red River?

September — UT games without Vince — oh my!
September will be a busy month for antique selling — first we’ll be
at a show in Huntsville next to Betty and Don’s booth.
Then at the end of September and first of October we’ll be set up again at the
Warrenton antique show — hopefully another great sale.

Thanksgiving — time to try out the new recipe I got from Nelda Click for
“the best dressing ever,” according to one of her good friends.

Christmas — already? I’d better start shopping!

It can’t be Decembrrrr — we’re in our short-sleeve shirts and shorts and thinking about turning the a/c “on.” But, that’s our Texas Decembers some years.

What happened to all the days since I last posted a blog? Just seems like one big blur — Thanksgiving and Christmas — but what a wonderful one! Having our little family together makes all of these days just so special. What else could you want except their good health and love?

This year’s Christmas tree was decorated by our grandkids — we put the pre-lit tree up for them and then just turned all the boxes with decorations over to them. They had a ball opening up and unwrapping it all — some of the ornaments they recognized from previous years, and some of the Hallmark ornaments are ones that will be theirs to take some day. It didn’t matter that most of the top portion of the tree was pretty bare — it was beautiful. Two clock ornaments were handed to Papo — he had to hang at least those two! Then, three small presents under the tree were opened by the grandkids — they were excited about that even though the gifts were stocking stuffer type things. It’s fun to let them open a gift or two before Christmas — why not spread out the fun a little bit!

We had our “big” Christmas party for family on Christmas Eve — afternoon. Started with some King Ranch casserole, chili, and tamales and then to the stockings and presents under the tree. All had a wonderful time watching each other open their presents.

Christmas Day, Kelby and Holly drove to Houston for time with some of her family. Randy and family came over after some “Santa” time and we had traditional turkey and dressing dinner/supper. Beautiful weather — in 70’s and kids could play outside all day — and did.

Quilting is my passion right now and I love to spend time doing that. It’s McKenna’s quilt time now and out of 48 blocks to make, I have 11 done. Here are a few of her purple and pink blocks that will make her Mumbo Gumbo quilt:

I figure at one a day, maybe I’ll have the piecing portion done by end of January. But, no pressure.

It’s also time to start working out — and eating less! That’s our New Year’s resolution — and it just must be done! One of the best inventions ever was ELASTIC! However, there is a limit to how effective that works, too!

It’s been a really wonderful 2005 — and pray that we’ll continue to have good health and blessings during the New Year. God Bless You, too!

As a business teacher for 32 years, I heard from many high school graduates about how much their learned skills in our classes helped to prepare them for the work place. One told me that he found much more use from his typing class “finding x” than he ever did trying to “find the value of x” in his algebra classes. Of course, we business teachers knew this all along! After all, the graduation rate of students who enter college is below 20 percent. That’s one in five — and yet, the secondary curriculum focuses on preparation of students “for college” — rather than for the “work place.” Why? Even the students who attend and graduate from college will enter the work place at some point — many need to “be in the work place” as they attend classes in college to pay their way.

As a retiree, I now can sit back without knots in my stomach as the school administrators change their focus or the direction of monies away from career-based instruction. It is my hope that before our grandchildren get to the secondary level, the school system will allow them opportunities to take classes that not only prepare them for college (if they choose that route), but also to enroll in classes that give them saleable skills.

I will make this positive remark regarding “finding x” in math classes. As a beginning quilter, I am finding more and more use for math skills — just yesterday I used a compass to create an equilateral triangle.

Oh, and one more thing completely off the subject — unless you consider “x” as a chromosone — hooray for the passing of Proposition 2 in Texas!

After being gone for almost two weeks, it was no surprise to see some dust bunnies in my house upon arrival. Of course, for those of you who know me well, these are not anything new! Unlike my dear mother, house cleaning is low on my list of priorities. How can I think about dusting or mopping when other things await such as quilting or blogging or genealogy research or Samtiques or Paula’s Home Cooking on the Food Channel to watch? (Rhetorical question!) One of the wonderful benefits of living far enough out of the city is that visitors usually call first to be sure we are home. That gives us a little time to sweep and swipe at the dust bunnies — just in case anyone really cares!

I’m thinking that dust bunnies are not all that bad. Consider that they:

don’t make any noise
don’t require any daily substance
keep out of direct sight (and sometimes our reach)
collect dust out of the atmosphere that we breathe
listen to our rage about them without responding
are not discrimating in where they live
have a habit of moving to the far back of “things”
are prolific — no abortions here — may be conservative critters
are light and airy — could possibly be liberal
do not resist attack — must be an independent group
patiently wait to be recognized, even though
collectively, they could over-run any household in a matter of weeks, but don’t.

So, why the big worry about “DB’s”? Instead, let’s learn to get along and maybe even consider naming them. Some good names might include:

Dusty (come on, give me a break!)
Harry
Heidi
Bertha

Afterall, if we just leave them alone, they’ll just get bigger and bigger — isn’t that what we want . . . bigger. Maybe we could even start something like the Spam-o-rama’s that are held in various cities for Spam lovers or a new bowl game named after them — the Dust Bunny Bowl! This is only the beginning!

So, leave your DB’s alone, compliment your friends on their DB’s and go do something really important — like washing behind your ears.