duck

Country decoy

Ruth over at synch-ro-ni-zing (see Blog List at the right of the screen) has written a moving tribute to her father. In her tribute she said that if an inanimate object could represent a person, her father would be represented by his beautiful barrister bookcases. That got me thinking. What would best represent me? My home? My photograph albums? This blog (if my family ever reads it)? I think to my children it might be this wooden decoy from North Carolina.

My brother got it for me one Christmas when I was strong into my country phase. He was shocked by the price at the cute little country store but he got it anyway. My family couldn't quite understand my decoy love. The distressed finish, the "worm holes", the worn ivory paint, the little beady eye, the shape and feel of it, the wood-burned logo on the bottom. It was shabby chic before there was such a term and was the source of much teasing. It came in two pieces. The strong heavy body and the delicate long curving neck and head. My daughter broke the curvy neck piece when she tried to use the decory and it's wooden tray to anchor the corner of a sheet tent she was making. The neck was glued back together. The crack is still visible.

The decoy and it's tray sat in the middle of my dining table for years. We always referred to it as the "duck". I'm not sure if it is really supposed to be a swan or a goose. Keys and messages were often left in the "duck tray". It was decorated with pine cones and green boughs at Christmas and various bows, hats and other embellishments throughout the year. My son delighted in annoying me by turning it's head backwards. Now it sits primly on top of a corner bookcase, seldom noticed or commented on. I would put it on my mantel if it would fit. A beloved object. Wonder what they will do with it when I am gone?

some happy moments - wedding dress shopping, road trip, macarena

Jill trys on a bridesmaid dress

Jaime (far right) and friends leaving for their trip to St. Augustine and the Suwannee River Music Festival.

Some sad times lately. One wedding postponed (canceled?) and another one scheduled. Jaime has been VERY sick. Cory has been having a lot of back problems but is slowly improving. Jonah and Jill continue to bicker constantly. I wish they could get along better so we could do things together.

Happy moments:

Jaime is still not well, but she and her friends took off for their road trip yesterday. Hopefully they will have a lot of fun and she will feel better.

I went shopping with Stephanie and her mom, Debbie, to buy a beautiful wedding dress. I just had to share the photo of Jill trying on a raspberry bridesmaid dress especially since I am pretty sure my son, Cory, never looks at this blog. Cory and Steph are planning to be married at her father's house in Virginia in September. I know it will be beautiful. The raspberry color is perfect with Jill's tan skin and dark hair. Don't know if she will wear this dress or just have a raspberry sash.

Jaime, Roger and I attended my friend's surprise birthday party last week. Saw a lot of people I don't see that often. It was fun. They had awesome white sangria and great food at Cafe Don Jose.

Cory and I went to the park yesterday to pick up Jonah and Jill and to let Mia run off some energy. Russell had the stereo out on a covered patio where he and a line of kids were dancing the Macarena (spelling?) and a lot of other line dances. Jill was right in the middle of it all. It was so cute. I am so grateful for the park program.

Happy moments to come:

Roger's sister Mary and I plan to have lunch and go the opening of Sex and the City 2 on the 27th. Got to figure out what to wear. That same day is the end of school party. Also, Roger, Jaime and I are attending my friend's wedding at the end of the month. This morning Roger and Cory and I are going to the driving range with Mia. Happy times.

memories of my mother on Mother's Day

Here is the picture I found of my great-grandmother, Dehlia Curtis, and her baby, Johnny.

Jonah and Jill know about their great-grandmother even though they never met her. They think the "great" in great-grandma refers to the quality of her grandmothering rather than her generational relationship to them. They are sure she was a great grandma because their parents remember her with such reverance and love. My son has often accused me of not being loyal to him as compared with my mother who was always on his side no matter what. I was on his side, too, but I felt that included pointing out the error of his ways.
***
My mother died shortly after "seeing" a sonogram of her first great-grandchild. I'm sure she couldn't really see that blurry thing especially with her eyes clouded with cataracs, but she told her roommate at the nursing home that she had seen her great-grandson and then she died a few days later.
***
My mother suggested Jonah's name since his mother was Jaime and his dad was Jeremy. After her death, that is the name they gave him.
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I remember my mother and my aunt Nellie laughing hysterically because a truck had gone by with a sign that said, "CHICKEN FERT".
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I once gave my mother and my aunt matching robes for Christmas. I remember them sitting around my Aunt Nellie's kitchen table drinking coffee and wearing their robes.
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My mother was a very good cook. She often made calf's liver with onions and gravy which I loved. I was grown before I found out she actually hated liver and never ate it herself.
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My mother loved to cook turkey and dressing and my father loved to eat it but she didn't like it when he pestered her in the kitchen, hugging her from behind and tasting the food before it was done. I always accused her of torturing us because it took so long to cook. Many years later after my father's death, her second husband earned her wrath by making himself a bologna sandwich about 1/2 hour before her elaborate Thanksgiving dinner was ready.
***
My mother was always pretty and slim. She didn't drive. She was trying to drive a car on my grandfather's (on my father's side) farm when she ran into a pole and that was it. She never drove again. So she walked everywhere for years taking a bus into the city and walking for blocks in high heels in all kinds of weather.
***
They always made fun of my mother because she saw some baby pigs on her first visit to the farm and said, "Oh, what cute little kittens!"
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When my parents lived in North Carolina, my mother cooked fried fish every Friday night. Their neighbor was the brother of either David Brinkley or Chet Huntley (the famous television news team). I can't remember which one he was related to but he loved my mother's fried fish and always came to dinner on that night.
***
That reminds me that once I was watching television on April Fool's day and I got the idea of switching the salt and the sugar. I started feeling guilty so I told my mother what I had done. She thought I was joking until she tasted the fried fish and french fries she had made for dinner. She had to throw the whole thing in the trash. I escaped punishment because I had tried to tell her the truth.
***
I have never tasted a french fry that is as good as the ones my mother made. Wendy's comes close. My husband says my homemade french fries are pretty good, though. I cut them big like my mother did and roast them in the oven with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Tasty and much easier than deep frying the way she did.
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I remember trying to make "gravy" on my toy stove when I was little. I sprinkled salt and pepper into the little saucepan full of water. I stirred and stirred but it would not get thick and brown like my mother's gravy.
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When Jaime was born prematurely my mother came to stay for a while. We stopped on my way home from the hospital (Jaime had to stay behind for a while) so mom could buy a pressure cooker and a new rocking chair. The pressure cooker was to make my favorite dinner -- beef stew.
***
My mother was a medical record librarian. She was very good at her profession and became a manager and was active in the Medical Record Librarian Association. Her employees loved her. She was a notary as a part of her job and performed three wedding ceremonies at different times. A few of her ex-employees saw her obituary and attended her memorial service. One lady told me my mother had performed her marriage ceremony. I told her that my mom always said she performed three ceremonies but only one took. The lady said, "Well, actually none of them took but she doesn't have to know.
***
My mother taught me to love old movies like Casablance, Rebecca, Gone With the Wind and all of Alfred Hichcock's films such as Rear Window and Vertigo. She liked to read movie magazines. She also loved the sweet music from the 40's and 50's -- Perry Como, Gayle Storm and Nat King Cole. I spent my rather lonely summers reading her Book of the Month club selections. I got quite an education from that. When she got older we had a large collection of beloved movies that she would watch over and over just like a young child. I often watched them with her and I still have them.
***
I never wanted so much to talk to my mother as when my bachelor brother announced his marriage to a friend of ours from our teenage years. I just wanted to call her up in heaven and say, "GUESS WHAT!" Of course I wish she could know my grandchildren. She would have loved them so much. And I wish she could meet Roger. She always got along with my boyfriends (better than I did sometimes). I feel that somehow she knows. Especially these sweet children.

I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day.

just some pictures

Jaime and Cory on her 30th birthday.

Mia - 3 1/2

Jill and Mia at the computer

Mia again. She looks a lot like many of my pictures at that age (and like Jaime, too).

Jonah decked out for field day at school with his Manatee shirt.

Roger and Nibbles

Nibbles just had a new haircut and shampoo.

Happy Birthday to Me

Not my best look, but the margueritas were great!

My brother, Rick

My brother's wife, Darlene, got in on the act.

Roger and his sister, Mary

A better shot of Rick and Darlene.

62! I spent my birthday with my daughter, Jaime. We had lunch and went shopping. Then I followed up with dinner at Vallarta's Mexican restaurant. I missed getting pictures of my friend, Peggy and of Alan. Karin is at the edge of Darlene's picture. Joyce, Sylvia and Linda weren't able to be there, but we all had a great time.

Ft. DeSoto Beach - Family Visit

Ft. DeSoto Beach is special with it's wide white beaches and green palm and pine trees.

Daughter and Dad

Sky and beach

Jill and Alex - instant friends

Beach boy

Jill admires Jonah's find

Mia decides the dress has to go

Bathing beauty 1

Bathing beauty 2

Friends

Grandson and Grandpa

Never pose your subjects looking directly into the sun!!!

Happy day at the beach with Roger's daughter and her family. It was just the right temperature in the shade a Ft. DeSoto beach. Everyone loved it and the seafood lunch that followed. Then the visitors headed back up the highway toward Michigan with newfound friends waving out the window as we turned off to go home. With the horrible oil spill in the gulf, I just hope Ft. DeSoto continues to look like this forever.

some Easter pictures

Mia and the bubble machine

Candy ducky (before Mia ate the bill). Jonah said it didn't taste very good, but it was cute.

Mia and Easter basket

Jill with painted hair from the school carnival

Mia at the beach nearby

Beach

Bathing beauty

My first attempts at loading pictures since my computer crashed. Don't have my usual photo editing software. I had a lot of pictures of people eating our Easter buffet, but none that I thought anyone would want to publish online. They will be good for memories only.