Eleanor Roosevelt

So... last week, as I sat eating supper with a few of

my best friends, the topic of our favorite quotes came up. As I listened to a few

quotes , one being a quote from a recent movie, I volunteered

that my favorite person to quote was

Eleanor Roosevelt.

That kind of stopped the conversation. So...they said "tell us a quote"

and I said "I will have to look it up". Now, I really do love to quote her but I can't do it from memory.

Anyway...everyone had a big laugh over my proclamation.

So

The next morning I pulled up one of my favorite Eleanor Roosevelt quotes

and sent it in a text to my buddies.

They loved it and I now send them a quote every morning.

They are learning to love ole Eleanor like I do!

So, dear blog readers

I am going to start doing a post of Eleanor Roosevelt quotes

and a fact or two about her every so often.

I hope you learn to love her too!

QUOTING ELEANOR

Eleanor Roosevelt was married to Franklin Roosevelt

her 5th cousin once removed

She was known for having a very true concern for others

You can never really live anyone else's life, not even

your child's.

The influence you exert is through your own

life, and what you have become yourself.

Eleanor Roosevelt

You Might Be Crazy If...........

You Go To The Zoo

During Spring Break!

I went to Birmingham last Friday to keep Lawson

Courtney had conference calls beginning at 11:00

and

Dave had two workers helping him with

the landscaping job he is doing

I got there at 11:10 and Lawson and I went to

Sam's to pick up a few items.

Do you ever eat at Sam's?

The cheapest lunch ever

Big hot dog, a hot pretzel, a big bag of chips and a very large drink

that Law shared with me

$3.86

We left Sam's and headed to 280 toward the Zoo

I should have known that it would be bad when

it took 5 minutes to merge into the traffic heading to

the Zoo

As we turned left I saw people parked on both sides of the road

all the way to the stop light!

Crazy me

I made it to the gate and after waiting for the man directing traffic

I turned into the Zoo

That was when I realized that I was out of gas.....

on fumes actually

It was so crowded and slow that I was picturing

getting stoned as my car , finally completely out of gas,

stopped and caused a traffic jam that would be

on the front page of The Birmingham News

I decided to try to get back out on the road and go

get some gas

that is when it really got interesting

I got caught in a line of big SUVs

(don't forget that the Obama is at the car doctor

getting over a bad case of DEER)

So, I was one of those big SUVs

We could not get out!

It was getting ugly

I turned the air conditioning off

to save gas???

and rolled down the windows

It was so bad that at one point

Lawson asked me

"what is all that yelling!"

Finally, a zoo worker stopped traffic and got us all out

Back on the road I went and got some gas

The whole time Lawson is saying

I WANT TO GO TO THE ZOO

So......

We went back to the zoo

I mean

what is a MeMe to do

and yes, I went right back and turned into the Zoo to

try to park

at least I wouldn't run out of gas

Luckily, this time I found a parking spot

but not before I thought I was going to

have to fight over it

We unloaded and got the stroller

Lawson hates the stroller but it is good to have to carry purses etc.

and headed to the gate

NO, this can't be

six lines, all the way to the parking lot,

to get in the gate

and it is already 2:00 PM

so

we got in line

but finally

something went right

maybe the only thing all day

a Zoo worker came out and said if you were a member

to show her your card and go in

Guess what

we are members.....YEA

So

we get in the gate

we are already tired and hot

Lawson asks for a Popsicle

I say okay...he has really been good during all of this

We go in the souvenir shop to get a Rocket Ice Pop

no Rocket Ice Pops...all gone

They say...check the concession stand outside

So....we get in line at the concession stand

stand there a while

We are next

I go to get my money out of my purse

What is this......No Money

That can't be...but it is

so I get out my debit card

don't take debit cards or credit cards

Have to tell Lawson we can't get a Rocket Pop

not pretty

So.....

I say...let's go to the snack bar (I know they take a credit card) and see if we can get a

Rocket Pop

Keep in mind that we have not seen any animals yet

We get to the snack bar

a line out the door

it would have taken at least an hour

to get a Rocket Pop

I break the news to Lawson

he did not take it well..to say the least

As I was contemplating begging for some money

I saw the water play pad

Look Lawson

and that took care of the problem

We didn't see a single animal that day

or

get a Rocket Pop

but.....

Law had a good time!

Spring Break and Cousins

I remember when my kids were in school

and spring break rolled around

that meant going to Granny and Paw Paw's farm

for a visit with all the cousins

Well, we don't have a farm

but

we do live in the country

All 4 grand kids were at our house during the beginning of this week

and

they had a running, jumping, laying

in the floor, giggling, good time with each other

I love that they love each other

here is a little...or......err

a long look

at some of the things they did this week

enjoy

we did!

Emma, Abby and JB3 were helping Lawson swing
I happened to glance at these two
I believe that JB3 is going to be one big boy
I have been to both of their classes at school
Abby is an average sized 2nd grade girl
JB3 is bigger than average
Abby is 7 yrs 6 months
JB3 is 5 years 2 months


Abby and JB3 left their coats in the car
They are wearing my jackets

Emma was getting Bailey to chase a stick

The dogs even say

Anything for the grand kids

JB3 showing Lawson how it's done

JB3 found a worm

Lawson had to hold it

Walking a log

careful.....careful

oops.....

Homemade fun - Emma was making the log bounce

Abby was amazed at

the roots on this fallen tree

The boys were pulling out the rotten roots

I said something about the roots

Lawson informed me that

they weren't roots

they were sticks

Back in the house

the boys decided that their hands were dirty

so...

this is what I found

They had clean hands

but

everything around them was

dirty!

Watching a stump grinder machine

they were mesmerized

The kids had been playing in the play room

for a while

when

I walked in the kitchen to this

Lawson hiding during a game of

hide n go seek

Monsters vs Aliens

JB3 introduced Lawson to the DS

can you tell that he was amazed

Emma, Abby and JB3 are so

patient with Lawson

they are good cousins!

We were going to take the kids to Pizza Hut

for supper

Emma told Pops that she wanted to go to

Tuugie's

So we did

Emma isn't pouting

She was just mid-bite

I made the kids some brownies after supper

JB3 and Law licked the bowl

This new bag of chips was gone

in ten minutes

Emma, Abby, John Brady and Lawson

We Love you

and hope

you always want to spend time with us

Spring Break at MeMe's

Lawson brought me a sweet surprise

A elephant made from his hand print and thumb print

I was so tickled that it just now occurred to me

that Dave might rather have this elephant at MeMe's house

than at his house!

Ha Ha....... just kidding Dave

after all I am not sure how you would make

a tiger out of a hand print ????

***** Hey, House of Bowling---maybe you could work on that*****

Lawson and Pops taking a 4 wheeler ride

Pops has always loved to play ball
So
Lawson just could not understand why
MeMe and Pops jumped up and told him
that he couldn't play with this ball!

Pops got him his Spiderman football
but
he wanted THAT ball


He just doesn't understand yet!!!!!

But.....

he got happy again

when Pops got out his

Uncle Josh's train set

A Little Bit Of....Here, There & Everywhere

Click your heels together

and say

There's no place like home

There's no place like Home

There's no place like home

I guess you can tell where we have been

Me along with Kim. Emma, Abby, JB3

Christy and Allie

went to see the

Wizard of Oz

Friday night at the

BJCC

It was great and I was surprised at how

it held the kids attention

They loved it and I did too

Saturday morning we had a few hours of

sunshine!

I made a picture of one bunch of my

daffodils

Bailey sleeping in the sunshine


Emma made this cookie for me
a few weeks ago
Isn't it great

And
on the
Obama vs deer front
$7000.00 worth of damage
and the next day they found that
the air conditioner was affected
and
the roof has a wrinkle in it
so that number will go up

Tuesdays with MeMe didn't happen today

This Happened today

I was on Highway 63 ( I call it the mine road).

I was about a mile past Shiver De Freeze Road
just starting down the hill.
It was so fast. Out of no where something landed on my car and the
hood flew up and covered the windshield.
The impact knocked me into the oncoming lane but luckily
no one was coming. As I threw on the brakes, in that split second, I could see out the very bottom of the windshield and I saw the deer.
It was falling back down onto the motor of my car. It
hit, bounced and hit the front of the car for a third time.
The poor deer then began rolling down the hill in front of me as I tried to find a way to get off the road with the hood still covering my windshield.

The front and both sides of my car are smashed.
The radiator is pushed in.
Basically, the whole front of my car is a goner.
John and the tow truck driver pulled the hood down.
That was when it was obvious .....
The deer jumped onto my hood!

The deer was a nice size young buck.
One of it's horns broke off on my car.

John was in Lamar County. When he got there we walked back up the hill and found the beginning of the deer hair and the spot of impact. The deer jumped from a high bank
that was right next to the road.

There were so many things that could have gone wrong.
But, they didn't.
I am shook up but unhurt
and
I am thankful!

Where Have I Been

I have been wandering around in Internet limbo. For the last 10 days my Internet has had a mind of it's own. Two days of that time it refused to let me on line. The rest of the time I was lucky to be able to pull up anything! I guess that is the price you pay to live in the country.

One of those days I was on the Shutterfly site. I was trying to get a book completed before the free shipping expired. I was trying to upload pictures. It was taking forever and many times I got the message "Internet Explorer cannot display the page". John heard me grinding my teeth. I actually timed uploading one picture and it took 21 minutes and I felt lucky!

So, I got very discouraged. I spent the past weekend at Courtney's house

While Lawson was napping

I decided to try to upload pics to the Shutterfly site

I tried one picture

It took 5 seconds

Then I tried 10 pictures at once

Less than a minute

Wow

I worked on Shutterfly all weekend

Anyway

I have a few pictures from the last 10 days in my life

Another Tuesday with MeMe

Emma sent me a text and asked me to make

a smoothie for a after school snack.

So, I got a recipe off the Internet and

bought the needed ingredients

Abby and John Brady helping get

the ingredients ready

Emma adding an ingredient

Abby and John Brady did not like the smoothie

but

Emma and MeMe did!

The following Friday I went to Birmingham to go
to a consignment sale, at Asbury Methodist, for Courtney.

She could not go until she was through with her
conference calls and by then all the
good things would be gone.
After the sale I went and picked up Lawson
and we went to the Zoo.

MeMe's learn quickly
What did I learn?
Make sure you have quarters when you
go to the zoo
You have to have quarters to get food to
feed the animals
So.....
I put a quarter in the food machine and told
Lawson not to open it up until I could
help him
What did Lawson do?
He opened it up and spilled all of it
So....
I got out another quarter
and emptied a Ziploc bag to put the food in
and started over
This big fellow thought he was the boss
and I guess he was
he ate most of our food

Lawson loved feeding the
"Mingos"

This area is closed
They are building an African Safari area
This spot had a concession stand at the top of the hill
with Monkey Island in front of it when
I was a little girl

I was in Birmingham again this weekend to
stay with Courtney and Lawson while
Dave was gone on a trip. I took Lawson to
Heardmont Park. This is my favorite park. It has great play equipment and a stream that runs through it that Lawson loves.


Lawson found a stick while we were walking. I guess
it must have been the perfect stick because he went into his own little play world with that stick.
He was pretend spraying everything in the park. I asked what he was spraying and he said
"bolly boil". I asked if he said olive oil and he firmly told me "no,
I spraying bolly boil".
He is spraying under the bridge with bolly boil in the picture

Pop came up Saturday

John needed to go to the Bass Pro Shop. He had

some gift cards burning a hole in his pocket.

Lawson went with us. Lawson and John Brady love Bass Pro.

Lawson told us on the way there that he was going to see fish, deers (as he says it),

and steps.

Pops told Lawson he could have a prize. He picked some Cotton Candy.

Lawson has never had cotton candy and he wanted to eat it on

the way home. We told him he had to wait until we got home. As it turned out he did not get to eat it that night.

So....

first thing Sunday morning

Lawson climbs on the dryer, finds the cotton candy

and digs in

Is there anything any cuter than a toddler boy in

scuffed toe white shoes

Another Tuesday with MeMe

It was cold outside

so...

Wii it was

Abby doing her reading homework

*******I started this post at 1:00 PM today and it has taken me

8 hours to get it up due to my Internet*******