Sunday, January 29, 2012

Rachel and Don had a family shower yesterday. Amelia and Kendall came all the way from Alabama to be with us!! Yippee! Our Epworth friends came to help us celebrate, also. We had a great time!!
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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Romeo and Juliet and the Ballet

My favorite play of all time is Romeo and Juliet. I can't help it. I always envisioned myself playing Juliet, in my younger days. I knew most of the lines. I did bits of her parts in acting classes and such. I first became enamored of this play when I was in the ninth grade. I lived in Spangdahlem, Germany at the time and went to high school in Bitburg, Germany. The wonderful movie version of Romeo and Juliet was released during my freshman year of high school, and it actually came to our small Air Force Base in Germany. So, all of the high school English classes got to go to the theatre to see it. I was SOLD!! I loved the story then, and I still love the story today. I especially love the music that was written for the movie version. That tune is really special to me. A few months ago, the Romeo and Juliet ballet began to be advertised in the paper. I knew that I just HAD to go see it and take my daughter and my nieces. I kept this thought to myself, though, not knowing whether or not I would really get to go. Rachel used to take dance, and she was really good. My niece Lauren took dance at her school, and she loves ballet. So, I finally went to the Civic Center and bought the tickets this past week. I got seats pretty close to the front of the auditorium, and we all enjoyed being close enough to see the facial expressions as well as the dances. The classical music, by Sergei Prokofiev, is rather daunting and heavy, so the dancing was really slow and flowing. There were no high jumps, not a lot of spins across the stage, or any really fancy stuff, but the story was told very lyrically and beautifully. The choreographer did a wonderful job of storytelling through dance. The company that performed here is the State Ballet Theatre of Russia. They used recorded music, and that was not so great. I would love to see a ballet using a full orchestra, but that would cost loads of money and require a trip out of town somewhere like New York!! No matter, the ballet was great. I have been thinking about it all day, and I dreamed about it last night. I have done several YouTube searches today to see if any performances of other troupes might be there. Yes, they are. I can see that all of the ballet companies do the same sort of slow, lyrical dancing to Prokofiev's music. This experience was a great start to a long weekend. I hope you all have a great one, too.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Gone A Visitin'

The art, or practice, of going visiting seems to have gone by the wayside (along with many other 'old' traditions). My cousin called me up yesterday morning and asked me if I would like to drive to Sylvania to see some of our older cousins. My mamma and aunt have some first cousins who still live in the "country" town of Sylvania, GA. Since both of our mammas are gone now, it is up to us to keep up the family connections. There is a family reunion during the first weekend in December, but we have missed the last two and haven't seen this part of the family in a while. Anyway, we went visiting yesterday. I remember going visiting very fondly. We used to go to visit relatives or family friends on a Sunday afteroon, or we might just take a nice drive on a Sunday afternoon. Nobody visits anybody anymore. I am not sure why, but this practice has gone out of style. I suppose it could be the busy lifestyle that everyone leads that keeps us from doing this. It could be that people just do not want other people in their homes anymore. Whatever the reason, it is a lost art. My mamma and my aunt were the only children that my grandmother had. Her sister, however, had eight children. Of the eight, only three are still living. Mina and I visited those three yesterday, and all three of them were so very excited that we came! The day was so bright and pretty, and the weather was perfect for being out and about. We had a terrific day just mosying down the highway and stopping by for a chat without having to worry about hurrying or anything like that. It was a nice, calm, peaceful, and relaxing day. When we got back to Savannah, we stopped at my daughter's house. She had called me up and asked me to stop by to see all of the baby gifts she had gotten at her baby shower the night before. She found a neat way to decorate a wall in the baby's room with letters of the alphabet. Each person invited to the party was assigned a letter to bring. So, she has all sorts of letters, different sizes, shapes, colors, etc. Most of the people decorated their letter, so each letter is distinctly different. Rachel also cooked dinner for us. Her mother in law and a friend stopped by, also, so we all had a nice little visit. This was a nice way to round off a very pleasant day. So the next time you need something fun to do, just Go A Visiting!!!!!!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

BABY SHOWER NUMBER ONE!!

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Rachel's friend, Lila, gave Rachel a baby shower last night. Enjoy!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

This is so crazy!

This is so crazy! I changed my blog style the other day, and I am pretty much satisfied with it. The crazy thing is -when I click on the Name of the blog, everything looks correct (all titles in pink). When I click on the name of a post, the titles are all in black! I keep checking my settings and designs over and over, and they all show up PINK! What in the world is going on? Also, I cannot make any of my writing divide into paragraphs. It works just fine in the text mode of writing, but then on the blog - everything is all jammed together! When I just did a 'preview' of this post, all of the titles are in black. They are supposed to be pink. I just do not know what is going on. Like I said, this is so crazy!!!!!!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A New Year, My Dogs, My Cat, and Lasagna

The new year has begun! What a cold day we have had today!! For a deep southern town, we have been ice cold all day! My daddy keeps looking out for the robins. He is worried about them this year. We have had so much summer-y weather, that it seems the birds have gotten confused! He saw some of them today drinking from some oily street water, and he was worried about them. He hasn't seen many birds migrating lately, so he is wondering what has happened to them all. I told him that maybe they are all confused because of the unusually warm winter weather, and they might think it isn't winter yet! We had our first day back at school today. We were there without the students, and that was nice, although that left time for a silly TWO hour meeting!! As I was walking to my classroom this morning, a young father was there dropping off his teeny tiny children. They must have been in preK, because they were very small. I told him that school doesn't start until tomorrow. He seemed a bit confused and asked me what day it was. I told him that school starts tomorrow. He said, "Well, that explains it." I wasn't sure what he meant by that. I thought maybe it was his day with his children, and he might not have known their schedule. Later, I realized that he was probably talking about why the bus hadn't come to pick up the children. We are in a temporary location this year, while our new school is being built, and all of our students are bus riders. They are usually walkers, but our new location is pretty far away from the children's homes, so they must ride the bus or be driven to school. I bought another bag of dog food and some little doggie bones. I have been going to a feed store to get some rather expensive dog food for the last several months. This food is expensive, but it is better on the dogs' stomachs than the regular kind. So, I find it is worth the trip and the money. It also keeps my backyard less 'poopy', if you catch my drift! haha! The regular dog food has lots of fillers in it that tear up the dogs' tummies. This food that I am getting is all natural, and it is lamb and rice. The vet said that lamb and rice is the best for them, so that is what I am buying. The dogs are getting old, so they deserve some good food. I have a Golden Retriever and an Old English Sheepdog. My cat is still eating regular Purina food, and she is okay with it! haha I am trying to warm up my house. I turned down the heat, thinking it would warm up during the day, but it is now cold in here! I had it all toasty warm this morning, too. I accidentally turned the heat way, way, down, so it is taking a while to warm up. I do not like to be cold. Well, I should go for now. I am planning on making some homemade lasagna, which I love! I shouldn't make it when I know that no one will be over here to eat it but me, but I love that stuff!! Toodle-oo I hope you all have a great day!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Day One, De-Clutter, De-Hoard!!

Day One of my New Adventure has begun! I am going to try and declutter and 'dehoard' this house. I did a pretty good job of getting rid of a lot of old clothes this past summer, and last summer, but now I need to get rid of a lot of other junk that is in this house. I suppose I am somewhat of a hoarder. I think it is a family trait of sorts. Both of my parents were raised during the depression, and this made them tend to keep things for later. My grandmother was the same way. Growing up extremely poor had a lot to do with it, also. There were always towels or sheets that were "put up for later", and they never got used. There have always been things in very small boxes, in small boxes, and in even more boxes that were put away for special times. We are still finding things like that. This house of mine is really a mess. I have an entire room full of books that I have used in the last several years for studying. They are important, but I have got to DO something with them. There are tote boxes full of teaching supplies, books, bulletin board items, etc. all over the house and in the attic. There are books upon books upon books all over the house. These are the items that are of importance. The other things cluttering up the place are not so important. SO, my big idea for the year was to find all of my old Southern Living magazines and cut out the recipes from them and then put the remaining parts of the magazines in the recycle bin outside.
Task #1 Accomplished!! I did that today. I had magazines from 2006 and 2005, and all of 2010 and 2011. I think I must have put others in the recycle bin at some other point and time, because I cannot find them anywhere, UNLESS they are in a tote box somewhere. My goal is to put the recipes into a notebook and make my own Southern Living cookbook. Hey, it will save a bunch of money that I might spend on a Southern Living cookbook! Why pay for them twice??I know there are some more of those rascals around this house somewhere, and maybe I will find them while I am piddling around getting rid of other 'stuff'. Can anyone tell that I have gotten rid of four or five years worth of magazines? No. Can I? Not really, but it is a START!! You have to start small, or you will drive yourself crazy. I found that out a while ago. Start with a simple corner and get that one corner done, and it is amazing how good you will feel. I have LOTS of corners to go through, not to mention entire rooms, but that is for another time!! See, I told you I would find some more. I just turned around from this computer to look at this very crowded room, and I spied two more SL's from 2005! I must have had them out to put in the other pile, because these were right on top of a basket. So, there ya go! After going through several magazines page by page from the beginning of the book, I realized that the recipes are all in the BACK! There may be one or two in the front, just to whet your appetite, but the majority are in the back. The beginning is usually about taking trips to places, then you have your gardening and your decorating. The main cooking sections are last. I also found that there is usually a little story in the very back of the magazine. Those stories are quite cute. I have just made a small dent in the job, but I am actually on the way to decluttering and dehoarding (which I realize is not a real word, but I thought I would make it up to fit this cause of mine)!! This process is going to take a while. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day, and my mess of a house wasn't created in a day. Little baby steps...that is what it will take...little baby steps. It looks like I am on the way to a productive new year. I hope so, anyway!! Have a great day!!