Coming at you from 6000 ft

** Editors Note: This is a delayed post. Things were a bit crazy in Texas and there no time to upload this.  Also, there is no way that I can thank you guys for all the wonderful comments, emails, thoughts, prayers and flowers. It all means so much to me and it has been a great source of strength to both me and Vincent. Thank you so very much.

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So Vins and I are in the air and on the way to OKC. Finally. I always think that flying is such an adventure and this morning has been quite adventurous.

We woke up at 4:30 and got to the airport at 5:00 (I love living super close to the airport!!!!!) Once we got to Yeager airport (CRW) everything went smoothly checking in and going through security. But we boarded about 15 minutes late. No big deal we all get on the plane to learn for our pilot, who is an over-sharer:'

“Ladies and gentlemen, this your captain speaking, I want to thank you for flying with us today. I am very sorry about the minor delay, this morning when we tried to start up the plane we discovered that the auxiliary power to the cabin is not working. But don’t worry I jerry rigged it about 20 minutes ago and made a call to corporate to make sure everything I tinkered with is kosher. Right now it seems to be working. We will be departing shortly, once again I apologize for the delay, I will make up that time in the air on the way to Atlanta.”

I am thinking, “Uhm….Does our pilot know a short-cut?” But whatever it was not really a delay or anything to be concerned about. Once of the reasons that I chose to fly via Atlanta was that there are several flights that go on to OKC in case we miss one. So no big deal.

We are about to take off when the pilot gets back on the intercom and informs us that we will once again be delayed another 20 minutes because of the congested air space in Atlanta.  I am still not worried because 20 minutes is peanuts in delay time for flying. After 15 minutes of chatting the Pilot who is super talkative gets back on the intercom to say:

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, I want to apologize that it is so cold in the plane we do not have any heat, I was not able to repair that this morning. Hopefully once we are in the air it will start working. I am also going to start up the left engine, but I must rev up the right engine to do it. So if you hear a bunch of sounds back there please do not be alarmed.”

We were alarmed, but more in a nervous giggly way. The older woman behind us said really loud “Good gracious, I didn’t want to know that!” It was pretty funny. Anyway we took off and the heat did come on, but I had already put on my socks, which is something I REFUSE to travel without. I must have extra socks. So I was okay with the temp.

We did make really good time to Atlanta, I guess the pilot did know of a short cut. Once we get to Atlanta we still had time to make our next flight, which I was happy we didn’t miss. So we board, and all get situated. Everything is going great the Captain comes on to tell we are third in line and that we will soon be taking off. And 3 minutes after that, the captain comes back on to let us know our wing flapper thingys are broke and that we are going back to the gate. We ended up getting a new plane. All in all so far we have been delayed 3 hours, but I am not upset or anything I expected.

I have been using my time wisely. I have been reading the Sky Mall magazine which I LOVE!!!! Sky Mall has the coolest things in it, and the most ridiculous.  But everything in the magazine is super over priced. Look at some of the things I found!

I thought about buying this for my new nephew Kas, who is cute like you guys would not believe, for when he comes to see me. I think this costs like $200 and it seems super safe. You just hang your baby from your tray hook and – TADA!!!hands free.  You can even use it to strap your baby very precariously to a lawn chair. I think all new parents need one. I am unsure about if this will actually work if you are in coach, I am almost positive that there is not enough room to dangle your baby in front of you. My laptop barley fits. But I could be wrong.

Don’t you hate having white feet? Don’t you wish that Santa would bring you a foot tanner for Christmas? I mean you can put it under your desk at work and tan your feet all day and no one will notice.

  This one looks really cool. It is a head vibrator! And looks guys it is hands free. I personally think that this would give me a headache. I mean it is 15 points that vibrate your head.

I would buy this and give it to my friend Lloyd and Eric who are huge Big Foot fans. I think that they may be the only people who can appreciate this particular form of garden art.

This I would buy for myself and most of the members of my family. We are weiner dog lovers. Who won’t want a $70 wiener dog bracelet???

 

This one is sooooo funny. I like the line about “consult a physician…..” so I asked Vins, my physician in training,  what he thought and he said that if you plan on hanging your self, rope would be a lot cheaper. I kind of want to try it out…..not the rope but the cervical traction device. It sounds painful and looks hilarious.

  Here we have tape for your face. That way you can tape your wrinkles back, but don’t worry guys! The tape is not noticeable…RIGHT!!!! The good news that that I think it is the most affordable thing in the magazine only $15.95, but that is probably a day, so I guess it adds up really fast.

I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, but I am certain that is will not work. I am pretty certain that if used long enough you will bruise the  sh!t out of your lips, in which case I would laugh at you. Because who would buy this????

I need one of these because I feel like I am a great multi-tasker especially in the car while I am driving. Just imaging I could blog while I am on the way to the grocery store!!!! And at $350 it is a bargain.

I am sure everyone wants an eyeball massage!

    

Now, this I actually kind of want. You can plug it in to an Ipod and watch movies. I think it is pretty cool, but at $350……maybe next year.

Not so Happy Thanksgiving

So incase you did not know, my biological mother Ceean passed away very unexpectantly on Saturday. Vincent and I are flying to Texas very early on Thursday morning. The viewing is on Friday night and the funeral is Saturday afternoon. I want to thank everyone for their condolences and for their thoughts. I really appreciate it.

I am really dreading this weekend, I know that it will very stressful and hectic especially with the busy travel time. I know it sounds weird but with my life up in WV, I am pretty removed from the daily happenings of my family. So the thought that Ceean is no longer here does not impact my day to day life, but the second that I get to Texas I am afraid that my grief will feed off of everyone else's grief and sadness. Since everyone knows that Ceean and I did not have a “mother-daughter relationship” I am already worried about what their reactions to me will be. I would almost rather stay home and not deal with it.

I am pretty confused about all of my feelings. I know this is going to sound horrible, but I am very surprised about how upset I was when I first found out about her death. 

How can someone be surprised about being upset about the death of their birth mother?

I loved Ceean, but I loved her from a distance…..if that make any sense. Ceean once told me that she loved me very much, but that she was afraid of me. And I can’t explain it here, but I totally understand what she was saying because I felt the same way about her. I was also afraid that Ceean would hurt me, so I never gave her the chance. Even now looking back at the situation knowing everything I know now,  I probably would not have changed much. Once again I sound horrible.

Without sounding very cliché, Ceean was so unforgettable. She was literally the life of the party with a big mouth and an even bigger heart. She totally commanded attention. She was a Trucker!!!! She would do things like shave her head bald on a dare (two years ago). Threaten to “beat your ass” if you messed with her family or friends. You should have heard what she offered to do to Frank (our old neighbor in Fairmont). She was honest to a fault always cutting straight to the problem and mincing words about it, but at the same time she was sweet. And always funny if not offensive. Most of all she was herself, so unapologetically herself. She did not care what other people thought, even her family.

Ceean Denice Yowell Harried

 

May 2, 1965 ~ November 21, 2009

13 Thoughts

I am writing this post quickly because I have lots of crazy thought floating around in my head, and I need to get them out.

Thought #1.

I can’t look in the mirror! Today is Friday the 13th, the third and final one of the year and I wore shoes that have red on them. Which means that if I look in the mirror I will die a bloody and horrible death. Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to go in to a public restroom and NOT look in the mirror!?!?!? I need to go home and change shoes, it is messing with my physic which is fragile today!!!!

Thought #2.

Things are happen at work. Good things, I think….. I hope

Thought #3.

When I have a baby would it be wrong to dress it up as a baby zombie for Halloween???? I think it would be soooo cool to be a zombie family for a day.

Thought #4.

I made a new friend, we are still in the awkward stages of getting to know each other, but I think it could be love!!!! And I am not going to let her read this blog because my weirdness could scare her. I am still on my best behavior.Thought #5.

I hope I get my H1N1 vaccine soon… like on Monday.

Thought #6.

I am totally expanding my PhotoShop skills!

Thought #7.

I hope that I feel like running tomorrow morning. I want to just go and run get that after run high. But this time I will not listen to Willie Nelson on the Ipod, it made my last run a bit difficult. The music is just too slow.

Thought#8.

I need to get cracking on the Big Holiday Project 2009! I transferring a couple million VHS tapes of our family to DVD, and it is VERY time consuming!!!!

Thought #9.

Should I par take in the craziness know as black Friday.  I want to….but I little part of me is afraid about the masses of people that will ascend upon Corridor G at 3:00 am the day after Thanksgiving. It is worth it?

Thought #10.

I need some rain boots. Stupid Target is selling rain boots that are too skinny for my legs!!!! Now I have to return them and my legs are not that fat. AND I have to pay the return shipping. Not a happy camper!

Thought #11.

The landscape has turned ugly here in WV. Everything is looking dead and it is a bit depressing. I already miss the leafs.

Thought 12#.

My random thought today have been like a random collection of songs. Some will say a phrase and I will immediately think of a song it is totally stuck in my head, and it is all I can think about. In addition, I will hum/sing it out loud at my desk, until I new phrase comes along and forces and new song in my head.

It is very distracting being me right now. I. HAVE. ZERO. FOCUS.

Thought 13#.

i am so happy it is Friday. Even if it Friday the 13th and I accidently wore red on my shoes.

A Time To Remember: Chapter 5

Poppy and Raymond were camped in a tent at Chewey, Oklahoma near Frank's sawmill. They cut logs then snake them down to the mill. They stayed all week and came home Saturday night.

On Wednesday night November 27, 1929 Poppy told Raymond they would get up early the next morning, go cut a few logs, then it being Thanksgiving, they would go home for mother would have a big dinner ready for them.

The next morning Raymond got up, got the fire going real good. He went to the door of the tent, called poppy. He didn't answer. That was unusual for poppy was easy to wake when someone called his name. Raymond called again, still no answer. He walked back to the bed. Poppy had slipped away sometime in the early morning hours. God had his place ready and had called him home.

A preacher and his wife had come to our house to take dinner with us. Cecil had been rabbit hunting and just come home, when we saw Pearl and the deputy sheriff walking up the lane with the sad news.

Mommy met them at the gate, asked, "What is wrong son?” He said, "Poppy is dead."

I thought my world had ended then and there. For I not only lost my loving father but also my best friend.

I remember the last time I saw my daddy alive as though it was yesterday. When he started back to camp on Sunday before, I walked with him to the gate down the lane. He picked me up, gave me a big hug, told me to go back to the house, stay with mother till he got back home.

We put poppy in a homemade walnut casket that is what he always said he wanted. It was lined with white material and covered with black.

He was laid to rest in the Ketcher graveyard near Christie, Oklahoma. It is an Indian graveyard. No one can be buried in it unless they are a special friend to the Indians, which poppy was. He was a special friend to everybody.

It was snowing large flakes. I'll never forget seeing them falling on that black casket.

I missed poppy so much. I'd go down by the little spring branch where he and I used to watch bees. I'd sit for an hour at a time wondering if poppy would miss me as much as I missed him.

Mother missed him too. Many times I've heard her crying when she thought she was alone. They had been married thirty nine years, rearing eight children, going through good times and bad. Mother told me they had some rough times getting by. I didn't see any of them. My life had been wonderful up to that time.

Mother tried to do the things with me that poppy did. But it was never the same. We would go rabbit hunting. Mother dressed our game, put it away in a box behind the house with a layer of meat, layer of salt and a layer of snow and ice. When we wanted some meat, we just scraped the snow and ice away, got what we wanted, covered up the rest till next time. I guess that was our first ice box.

I always loved to hunt. Mother taught me to handle a gun. She was a crack shot with one. She still could shoot perfectly at age eighty.

We moved to Chewey, Oklahoma. in December, around Christmas time.

The boys built us a house out of slabs from Frank's sawmill, just one big room, for Mother and I to sleep in and the kitchen with a side room on the back for Cecil and Raymond to sleep in, that was 1929.

On Christmas morning a lady came to our house with a doll. Said Santa didn't know where I had moved to, so he left it with her to bring to me. I was always told that Santa was only a man dressed up in a bright red suit to hand out presents to children at Christmas time.

That was the coldest winter I have ever seen since. The ice and snow got so bad, the horses couldn't stand up to pull the wagon. Raymond froze his feet so bad when he pulled his socks off, the whole bottom of his feet bled.

After eating most everything mother had canned and the dried fruit she had put up was gone, Cecil wrapped his feet with gunny sacks, walked to Chewey to get some groceries, about three miles. It took him most all day to make the trip. Sometimes he would slip and fall all over the road trying to get up to his feet so he could go a little farther. He could only carry a small sack of flour, a bucket of lard, a gallon of molasses and some coffee. We had a cow so we had milk and butter.

Our bed ticks were filled with corn shucks. Mother ripped them open, fed the shucks to the cow because she couldn't find anything to eat through the ice. That was the taste of my rough living. It never got much better after that.

Leonard and Herbert (my nephews) and I used to play along the creek by the saw mill.

One day we were digging a cave in the side of a bluff, Herbert was digging just above Leonard and I, when he started running down the hill screaming, "They're after me, they're after me." Some men from the mill went to see what was wrong. They saw two big rattle snakes coming down the hill after him. Frank said it was mating time is the reason they chased Herbert like that. I didn't know what he meant by it being mating, but I guess the snakes knew.

I never saw anyone as scared in my life as he was. His eyes were big as dollars. I guess mine would have been if the snakes had been chasing me. You can bet we never finished digging that cave. We tried to stay closer to the house from then on.

We still had fun catching frogs and crawdads in the creek, or just wading in the clear cool water. Oh to be that carefree again. Not a worry to mar a perfect day.

Frank sold the mill and all moved to Seneca, Missouri. They lived there till he passed away in 1951. They had another boy Jim. We never had a chance to play together as Leonard and Herbert and I. He was so much younger than us.

The whole family is gone now, but lovely memories will stay with me as long as I live.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4

Fabulous Fall

I have lived in several areas: Texas, The Netherlands, North Carolina, and now West Virginia. As I look back and reflect on the different things that I enjoyed about each place I come to realize that these places have a certain “season” that shines.

In Texas it is spring, I love April afternoons when you can feel the energy in the air from an impending thunderstorm. It is so exciting, probably because it is about the only time it rains. When I was younger I would open the curtains in my room to watch the lighting storms. It seemed a bit magical and dangerous, there was the extra adrenaline in your blood ready to act in case there was a tornado. Even all the animals could feel it, we would try to go and feed everyone before the storm and all the cows would start running all over the place and the peacocks would get on the ground and dig a little ditch for cover. It was pure craziness.

The Netherlands has the best summers! For starters it totally sneaks up on you, or it snuck up on me at least! There is NO SPRING! In May, while the people in Texas are turning on the A/C and trying not to got out in the heat, people in Holland are freezing still. I can leave Texas in May wearing shorts and sweating and after a short 12 hours later arrive in Amsterdam FORGET to pack a jacket (again!) and have to search out a store to buy one (again!). I can not wrap my mind around it being cold in May, to me it is impossible….yet it happens. Then sometime in June it gets warm, like overnight. It is cold then BAM here is Summer. Also Summer is so awesome in Holland because the sun sets so late at night, and it is not too hot. You sit outside to eat and it is very comfortable. All the Dutchies come out on the first warm day of the year, people are smiling and relishing the fact that they can ride their bicycle without donning 16 layers of clothing. I love it!

But West Virginia is best experienced in the Fall. It is just beautiful here. There are so many festivals and things to do in the Fall. Already this season I have attended Bridge Day, Jackson's Mill Jubilee, The World Chili Cook-off, and I have taken several hikes and neighborhood walks. Last week I took my camera on our afternoon walk with the dogs and these are just a few of the pictures that I took.

  A view of the River……

I think the reds are my favorite…..

This tree is on our street right out side our building.

Man finds a leaf….

This tree had all the colors! Red, Yellow, Orange, and Green….all in one tree!

I have no idea what kind of plant this is, but it is so cool looking. It looks like little orange lanterns. 

Maybe they look like mini pumpkins, whatever it is, I like!

One lone tree that is changing colors.  The State Capitol Building. Even Stonewall Jackson is enjoying the views.  

You can not even see the grass for all the leaves. Really this picture does not do justice to the amount of leaves that were on that lawn!!!

So many leaves….

These two peepers were enjoying the view of the Kanawha River.

So next we need to move somewhere with really awesome winters so that I can have a “well rounded” living experience.

The Nurse is in…..

TA DA!!!! I was a nurse for Halloween. And not just any nurse, a sadistic nurse who worked at a Hotel in the 1930’s; my name was Sally Major. 

Last night Vincent (AKA, Johnny Fabulous) and I were invited to participate in a mystery dinner at our friend’s house in celebration of Halloween. It was a blast, everyone dressed up as their character and we acted the whole thing out over a wonderful meal.

Here we have the Secretary, The Nurse (Me), The Maid, The Lady of the Night, The Wife, The Bum, and The Socialite

I knew that I was going to be the nurse since September, and I thought that it would be really easy to buy a nurse’s dress. Well, I thought wrong!!!! It is nearly impossible to find nurse’s dress that is not trashy. So I decided that I would make one. I thought that is would be easy to find a shirt dress pattern, once again I was wrong! After looking at several different stores I finally found a pattern that did not look impossible. I used Simplicity Pattern 5191 as a guide. I have NEVER made anything is difficult with a sewing machine. So I told myself that I would follow the directions and not deviate from the plan. But I found the directions really difficult, it was probably because I do not know how to sew. So after spending 5 weeks of trying to decipher the instructions I decided to just “wing it”.  I am physical unable to follow directions.

   

I looked at this website and figured out how to make my cape, which turned out perfect. I added my own decor with clasp thing and the buttons all match. I found this pattern for the hat, and cut it out of textured poster board from Michael's. Then I used glue dots and a piece of red ribbon to finish it off. The shoes are from the Salvation Army and the Over the Knee sock are from Target.

Vincent actually did my hair for me!!! I found this video on YouTube about finger waves and we watched it a million times. It turned out great.  I want him to fix my hair every morning now. This picture was taken after we partied it up all night and got back home, so it held up great.

Thanks Vins!!!

Vincent was an entertainer. We bought a vest at Goodwill for $2 and a mustache for $1.80, after a few handfuls of wax for the hair he was ready to go!

We have a great time, afterwards the entire group danced it up in the living room to the most random collection of music, including Michael Jackson Thriller. It was awesome, just like my outfit.