I just read where the president declared an emergency existence in the state.  FEMA will control 75% of federal funding for our state as of April 27, 2011.   I hope they hurry as I know there are many people without homes not to mention being without electricity.  There are tornado warnings, flood and severe thunderstorm warnings still in effect.

I woke late to notice that my power was out.  After being a bit confused from walking around trying to decide what to do about my coffee, I decided that I needed to go out for it.  On leaving the house, I noticed my street was blocked off in front of my home.  A tree was being taken down.  Later, I learned that it had fell on a power line, thus, me not having power.  Nothing new.  So, I start to drive up into my small town.   As I was driving, I noticed that no one has power.  Finally, I reached the Sonic and they were so busy that cars were parked behind other cars.  I thought that was strange.

I am just now updating this.  It seems that

According to The Weather Channel, there were 130 tornado reports today alone in the state of Alabama and a total of 72 people have been killed.  This is of 11:34 PM on Wednesday night.

Damage in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Another view in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

People watching a tornado approaching in Cullman, Alabama

Super Huge Tornado

Two women lucky to be alive after the storm

Tuscaloosa, Alabama storm damage

Anyway, I started to my sons home to check on them as I didn’t have phone service at home.  As I was driving though their community which has many, many trees, I saw trees on houses, trees on power lines and was very concerned about what I would find at my son’s home.  On arriving, my oldest grandson was in the driveway. No power at their house either.  A tree from the neighbors yard was over on their fence but not their home.  I was so happy.  However, my daughter in law drove up to say she had been at her parents home and they had lost 20 trees which took power lines down when they fell.  Alabama Power Company said that it might be two weeks before power could be restored at their home.

After leaving, I found out that people not far from me had lost their lives because a tornado ripped though their community.  Also on television, I was watching the biggest funnel cloud as it headed toward Bryant Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

My prayer are for those who have lost loved ones, lost their homes or have been affected in anyway.

Liz in National Velvet

“National Velvet” was her first hit at the box office.  It was a sweet story and I enjoyed watching it as many did.  She was just a child but she already had talent.

One of my favorite films she made was “Giant” with Rock Hudson and James Dean which came out in 1956 but I didn’t see it until many years later.  That story was interesting because they took that family from their young years on the ranch into their old age.  Kind of amazing to see how Hollywood made them all look older in the fifties.  I couldn’t imagine Elizabeth Taylor as ever being old.

Giant

Another movie that I adored watching and still do when I can was “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.”  Partly because it took place in the south and I am a southern woman.  Another reason was because of Paul Newman.  I loved Paul Newman back in the day as almost every woman did.  He was hot and sultry.

Tennessee Williams who wrote the story had a flare for describing the dynamics of family life in the South.

Liz and Paul...Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

At age 28 she won the Academy Award for Butterfield 8.  A movie consider a melodrama.  Her talent in this movie was outstanding.  Not only that but she was just about at her peek in her beauty to me.   I can’t remember but I think this is the only movie where she dies.  I remember crying as I watched it.

Scene in Butterfield 8

Many people have had their say about her drug abuse.  Not me.  We all in life have our problems.  Had she not gone into rehab for help, not many people would have known.

Plus, she was known for her many marriages.  If I am correct, she married 8 times.  My mother never forgave her for breaking up the marriage of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.  Probably the one man most people remember the most was to Richard Burton. She and Burton had met before the making of Cleopatra.   He flirted with her but she told him she would not be another notch on his belt.  When the met on the set of Cleopatra, they started an affair that rocked the world.  The Vatican even wrote about it.  The front page headlines of a space mission here in the states had to take second billing to their affair.

In fact, she was married to Richard Burton for ten years only to get a divorce.  About 16 months after their divorce, they remarried.  It was published that they drank, had stormy fights and would make up as if nothing had happened.  They both were married when they met on the set to do Cleopatra.

While watching” Who Is Afraid of Virginia Wolfe”, I always wondered if this was a bit like their life.  Not that the movie was glamors but the man and wife drank too much, were both abusive and not any couple that anyone would want to socialize with in life.  To watch a trailer of the movie, click on the link below.

Richard Burton gave Liz the famous 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp Diamond, in 1968.  I was shocked and so was the world.  This was probably the most money any man had ever spent on a piece of jewelry for a woman at the time and maybe since.

To read about his purchases of jewelry for Liz you can read this link.

http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/taylor-burtondiamond.html

Elizabeth Taylor wasn’t boring.  She lived a lavish life that was read about by many.  For decades she was the talk of all the Tabloids.  My thought is that Elizabeth Taylor was who she was in life.  Now, my wish is for her to rest in peace.  I loved you Elizabeth Taylor.  You bought me a lot of joy though watching your  movies.

Credits for some of my information.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1892720128/tt0061184

http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/taylor-burtondiamond.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Taylor

A good airline to use

When we arrived at the airport, A. J. parked right in front knowing he may have been asked to move but he stood with me until the Sky Cap checked my bags. He tipped him for me and then he parked and came inside to sit with me until I had to go though security. It was a bitter sweet moment. He stood so he could see me until I was out of site. I kept looking back and he was standing there like he was guarding me. He had told me not to cry but the closer I got to where I could not see him, well, the tissue came out. Finally, when I knew I would be out of site, I told him bye and blew him a kiss as he did. Then I was gone.

The next part is always fun. Having to take off my shoes, jacket and put everything in bins to be examined. I get the full treatment since I have an artificial knee. They have to pat me down in front of everyone. Oh, they ask if I want to do it in private but I just figure everyone needed to see this older lady being patted down and wonder if I am a bad woman. ha ha….It helps to get a seat alone if one is available.

Leaving him with so much to do was hard but I needed to come home for a lot of reasons. If not, I might have still been there as hard as it was. I have to have this kidney stone blasted to hell and back.

It is a hard thing to watch a person take apart their parents home of fifty years knowing they will never walk back in the door to see it looking like it once did again.   I don’t think he could have done that first part without someone who cared to be there with him. He cried a lot, would get hurt and angry. It was just heart breaking to watch.   He grew up in that home. It was his home from the time he was just a little boy. In fact, the room where I slept was once his room.  The furniture he had as a child was nice and looked nearly new. That was a surprise.  Most people do not take such good care of their furniture.

The bad part was his dad dying in the middle of us sorting and packing. It slowed things down. He grieved and grieved. So sad. I told him about a pamphlet he needed to get on grieve. He said he didn’t need it. He was just lashing out because of the hurt.  Yesterday, he told me the funeral home sent a package that offered counseling on grieve. He said he was going. I was so glad. Finally, he was beginning to see things like I had hoped.

His brother was in rehab and he couldn’t get him to talk to him. His brother was suppose to be the executor of the estate but now he can’t so A. J. has to do it all. He and his brother finally did talk when he went home from rehab. They sorted out what the brother wanted which wasn’t much.

I made friends with the couple across the street. The gentleman was very fond of me and my southern ways. They had us over once but the Friday night before I left, they took us out because I would be leaving. I had a great time. Two martinis later and I was the life of the party. Dang but I am a cheap date.  It was just wonderful to have people be so fond of me.  Anytime that I was there alone, I knew all I had to do was call them for anything and they would oblige me.  Later, they bought 3 pieces of very nice collectible furniture that my friend had planned to take outside and burn.  He had no  clue they had value.  Anyway, their daughter who lives in New York will be enjoying them soon enough.
I am glad that I went but I can say it was a strain. I have never been away from home that long.  When I walked in the door of my home that night, I looked around and was shocked that everything was so clean. I had cleaned everything before I left.

While I was gone, everything was in a mess.  Sorting thought things of 50 years wasn’t easy.  We would put things in a place of safe keeping only to forget where we put them.  There were important papers from when his parents came to this country in 1949 to escape the Communist.  His parents marriage licenses were found but they were written in Ukrainian.   A. J. speaks Ukrainian so, it wasn’t a problem for him.  He spoke their language before he spoke English.

Ukraine Location on Map

It has taken me three days to unpack.  All I have wanted to do is sleep. Today, I finally feel like I may stay awake all day. Would I do it again? I sure would. It feels good in my heart to know that I made a difference in someone’s life who needed it.

I have been making biscuits since I was about ten years old.  My mom taught me to make them the way she did which wasn’t that much fun or easy.  She put flour in a large bowl, took her fist and made a well in the middle by pressing the flour down.  After that, she would put in the buttermilk and shortening.  I think it was lard back in those days and take her hand and squeeze the milk and lard together as she pulled in a bit of flour from the edges until she had the dough form a ball.  That wasn’t fun because the milk would be too cold and when I was finished, my fingers were freezing.  Then I had to pinch off a bit of the dough and roll it between floured hands and put them in a pan close together.

Times changed and so did the way I made biscuits.  In time, I figured out that I could measure the flour into the bowl, add the shortening and then buttermilk.  It has to be the right kind of ingredients.   In the south, we use soft winter flour.  My personal choice is White Lily and I always use Crisco.  I never buy a knock off brand or store brand of solid shortening.  Crisco is all I ever use.

One has to have a dough cutter to cut the shortening into the flour.  Cut the shortening until it forms little pea size bits.  Then add the buttermilk and stir until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl.  Don’t overwork it.  Be very careful to be gentle with the dough for soft biscuits.  A stainless steel bowl or a glass bowl is what I use.  Never use aluminum.  It isn’t good because the biscuits can take on a bad taste from being mixed in aluminum.   Most folks know not to cook in aluminum now days anyway.

When the dough is ready, I have a board or a clean counter top ready with flour that I have sprinkled on it.  I turn the dough out and (very gently) pad it down to about 3/4″ to 1″ flat.  I then take a sharp biscuit cutter to cut them quickly. Never twist the cutter just press down until the biscuit is cut though.  One can make a biscuit cutter out of a vegetable can if they do not have one.  Be sure to flip the biscuit when you put it in the pan.  When the cutter presses down on the dough, it needs to be flipped to get the biscuits to rise correctly.  Many people do not know this trick but I learned as I went.

I put the biscuits in a dark pan that has been lightly greased.  They cook at 450 degrees until the tops are nice and golden brown.  Using a dark pan will ensure that the bottoms will be brown too.  What I want in a biscuit is for it to be golden brown with a crust on the outside and soft on the inside.  There isn’t a man in the south who would not love having a great home made biscuit for breakfast.  Heck, he might eat a half dozen.  So, if you are cooking for a man, make sure to cook plenty.  Biscuits can be kept in a covered bowl for a few days on the counter. Did you notice the little biscuit on the plate?  That is what we call a baby biscuit.  If there is any dough left, we use it even if it isn’t large as the rest.  Thus, at my home, they are called baby biscuits.  The children would fight over who got that one.  Too sweet just thinking about it.

What I like to do with old biscuits is to split them open, but butter or margarine on both sides and sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  Then I pop them under the broiler until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.  I have had friends visit from other parts of the country and when I made cinnamon biscuits from old ones, they simply loved them.

Don’t say you can’t make a good biscuit.  There were many things in life that you once couldn’t do but practice will prefect them.  I worked on making them forever and now, it is second nature to make them.  It will be for you too if you keep at it.

Look on the side of any bag of flour for the recipe.  I don’t need to tell you because I use the same amount of ingredients.  The thing with me now is that I don’t have to measure.  I have cooked them so long that I can just look at the amount going in and know if it is right.

Here is what the ingredients look like that I use.  You may not can find them in your part of the country but I will try to find a place so you can order them.

Crisco Shortening

White Lily Flour

One last thing and that is buttermilk.  Don’t try making biscuits with really drinking milk.  The buttermilk makes them worth eating.  In fact, one of my favorite moments is when the biscuits come out of the oven and I hold the pan up to smell them.  Ahhh, there is nothing like a buttermilk make biscuit.

Barber's Buttermilk.

Now, get busy and give it a try.  Your family will love you for putting a great bread on the table.  They aren’t hard to make and they sure beat making bread that has to be kneed.  Never, never knead them.  Good luck and have fun.  Baking is a joy to me and I hope it will be for you too.

Rose In Memory of His Father

I just returned from helping a friend who needed to clear his parents home of fifty years of accumulated things.    It was not anything that could be done in two months.  When I first flew up, my plans were to stay for a month but I changed my mind.

People do not realize as they live their lives each day that something may or can happen to them tomorrow.  We all are guilty of keeping too many things that are not needed in our home.  On top of that, may people will not let go of things and rent storage to put them in.

His father was a doctor and had retired.  When he did, he bought home everything even the table he used to examine people.  He bought home drugs,  medical records and anything else that was there.  Even the posters that were on his walls.  I wonder if it ever occurred to him to just throw away most of the things.  We had to contact a group to disposes of medicines the proper way.  Now, my friend will have to jump through hoops just trying to do the proper thing about getting rid of the medical records.  His dad was not doing well mentally but no one understood that until his mother had a stroke.

His mother sewed.  She did brilliant embroidery work and had so many extra supplies  from years and years ago.  I know because she still had thread on wooden spools.  She had boxes and boxes of buttons, old sewing needles, yarn, knitting needles and fabric.  You name it and she had it.  She loved making pretty things but when her hands started to hurt from arthritis, she had to give it up.

What does keeping all of these things matter?  It matters a lot when someone else has to clean it out of a home.  One thing is certain, I came home with a new view on how I will leave my home to my children once I am gone.  It isn’t fair to expect our children to come behind us to clean up our mess.  A mess that we just didn’t take the time to clean up or one that we were not thinking was even there.  Sometimes, I feel that people do not realize that when they  put a receipt for something in a drawer that unless they are diligent in cleaning out their drawers and closets often, that receipt may be there 30 years later.  We found receipts from fifty years ago.

My friend feels overwhelmed.  He felt that way while I was there.  Before his father died, we had some  fun even in the middle of trying to make sense of all that was in the home.  Afterward, the fun stopped as he was grieving.  Not only was he grieving but he was angry.  I understand because that it is one of the  first steps of grief.  He didn’t understand.  When I would try to talk to him about it, he wasn’t interested.  It is hard to watch a person grieve knowing that there is nothing anyone can do.  That is a journey that a person has to make alone in life.  Sure good friends can reach out to them and try to give comfort but in the end, they will have to walk though that time alone.  We all do.  I have made that journey many times in my life.

In the mean time, his mom is still in a nursing home.  They are not treating her well.  Since she is in another state where is brother lives, it is hard for him to get there to see her as much as he would like.  He worries about her.  So, in the middle of grieving for his father, worrying about his mother, not being employed at the time, he still has to clean out this house by himself.  He is angry, confused, dazed and dismayed at what to do with everything.  He doesn’t have time to sell a lot of things since he needs to be looking for a job.  I know what he is going though since I was there.  It is like trying to reach the top of a mountain with branches of trees hitting you in the face with every step.    My heart goes out to my friend.  I would not wish this on anyone.

So, if your home is filled with paperwork that isn’t necessary, get rid of it.  If you have old clothes give them away.  Thin out the number of dishes you have in your kitchen.  When we reach a certain age, we do not entertain like we once did.  Do you really need all of those pots and pans in the kitchen?  When was the last time you cleaned out your closets, drawers or even the pantry?

Do your family a huge favor and save them from having to clean up after you when you are gone.  We never know when that day will come.  I plan to start with my project of cleaning out my home this week.  I would not like to  think of my children here in my home being unhappy when if I had planned like I should have, they would have little to do.  Burying your parents is bad enough.

When I was born, we lived in a small city in Alabama. When my sister was hit by a truck after she slide off the hood of the car that was parked on the street, our parents moved to the country.

It wasn’t a town but just a small place with a lot of churches and a couple of gas stations with small grocery stores inside. I remember getting off the school bus that brought me home from about ten miles away. The school was in a small yet active town.

When the county sent a road grader out to spread new gravel on the road and smooth it out, everyone was excited as the road had holes in it sometimes. Once we turned off the main road which was a four lane later, it was a two lane road that took us to our community. Then we had to turn onto a dirt road to get to our house. The road to my house was lonely as there were not anymore houses for at least a mile.

Many, many times, I walked to see a girl friend who lived on the other end of that road as I passed trees with muscadine vines growing up in them. These were a real treat in the summer if we could get them before the animals did. One spot on the road was where chert was gotten to put on the road. It left a small pond if it had rained. In this pond would be tadpoles. My sister and I was amazed at these little creatures living in the water. We knew that later, they would become frogs.

Anyway, we would walk all the way to the end of it just because that is what little children did. We could take off to play in the pasture, wade in the creek where stones were like a play ground to my sister and me. If we didn’t have chores, we played outside all day. Mom would call us from the front porch when it was time for dinner. I can still hear my mom calling my name over and over again making sure that I heard her. I would hear her and call back to her that I was coming.

Most of the homes were small and well cared for if the people owned them. Other homes were not nice at all but people had to have a place to live. Most people had wells for water without indoor plumbing. We didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was about eleven years old.

I drew more water than any little girl that I knew. The well had a bucket attached to a rope. I would drop the bucket into the well and I always watched it as it fell into the water. I would pull on the rope to see if the pail was full and when it was, I would draw it up with a crank. Imagine all the water a family of six used each day. Mom did laundry about once a week and the washing machine had to be filled as did both of the galvanized tubs, that were used to rinse the clothes.

Plus, the family bathed each night in a tub that was used to rinse the clothes in. We had to have water to wash our hair, mop the floors, do the dishes and cook with. Just think about all that one uses water for in their homes. Then imagine all of that water coming from a well in a gallon and one half bucket one bucket at a time.

A few of my friends in the area did have indoor plumbing and I thought they were rich. Me knowing that they didn’t have to go outside to an outhouse made me think they must be rich. I remember watching cars go down the two lane paved road in the summer and if the cars had their windows rolled up, I knew they had air conditioning in them. That amazed me that people had that kind of money.

The church where we attended on Sunday sat on a hill and was made of stone. It had a tall steppe on top with a cross. One Sunday, my mother forgot to put the emergency brake on and she saw the car rolling down the hill. She was about ninety-eight pounds at five foot five and being wiry and full of adventure, she ran to stop the car. I still can’t believe she jumped inside to stop that car. Afterward, mom never drove again. I think it scared her too much. Anyway, that church split as some churches do and we started to another church. We attended meetings in a small building until the members built a new church.

All of the men gathered their tools and went to help build the church. My dad was not a member but he helped. My dad was like that. He would help anyone do anything, He enjoyed it. Mom was so proud of him. At that church, I played the piano for the first time in public. To me the woman who played the piano each Sunday was wonderful. My dream was to learn to play as well as her.

During the summer after school was out, we had vacation bible school. We always attended. It would have been unheard of not to. We would study and afterward, the ladies in the church would make cookies and we would probably have cool aide to drink. This one woman made great cookies. At least to me. The cookies had a bit of jelly right in the center. They were special and a real treat.

We had a cow that had to be milked twice a day. My dad milked the cow before going to work and again in the evening after coming home. We had butter from that milk as well as buttermilk for mom to cook delicious breads. Mom and dad enjoyed drinking it but not me.

We also had chickens. There was a chicken coop out behind our house where the chickens would go to roost in the late evenings. I suppose the chickens laid their eggs before leaving the chicken coop in the mornings. I remember going into the coop to gather the eggs when the chickens were pecking away at insects, worms or whatever pleased them during the day. The sound of a rooster crowing is still one of my favorite sounds.

Mom and dad always had a huge garden where they grew about anything one could think of. People would drive from miles around just to see their garden. It really was that pretty and nice. There were never any weeds in it. I know because I learned to use a hoe early in life. Mom would get up just at day break to poison the vegetables. She said she did then because there was no wind. She would put something over her mouth because she realized she didn’t need to breath the dust. That was back when we still used DDT. However, mom knew that she couldn’t use the poison after a certain time during the growing season or the food would be contaminated.

When the garden would be filled with beans, pens, corn, okra along with other vegetables, they would have to be picked. I enjoyed it. However, I didn’t like cutting okra because if the leaves or pods touched my skin, it would make it itch. Mom always worn long sleeved shirts to cut it.

When the beans or peas were gathered in big buckets, we children would sit with mom under a shade tree to string the green beans or shell the peas to be canned. What we didn’t eat was canned and believe me, that was a lot. One year we grew some peanuts. Our soil was sandy but rich and anything would grow nicely. It was my job to keep the weeds out. I remember when the time came to pull them up. Dad made little cuts in the ground far out from the plant and then he would pull up the entire vine. The peanuts would be left turned upside down to dry in the sun.

As y’all can see, I enjoyed my life in the country. It was a fun place to live. My wish is that every child could have a chance to live at least one year like I did back when I was just a girl.

I have been doing genealogy research since about nine-teen ninety-seven and have more information of all of my different family lines that I would ever have imagined. I know who my twenty-seventh great grand mother was by way of marriage on my father's side. She came from Spain to marry into our English family. Since the family was royalty, that was common.

It started with my mom showing interest in her family. She told me where she thought her family was from but after doing the research, she was wrong about one thing. I have not found one Irish person in our family.

Once I started doing research, I became engrossed in finding out more and more. I was never happy to know just a little, I wanted to know it all and I just about do.

My dad's side of my family is rich in history. His ancestors came to America in the mid sixteen hundreds and because planters. That is a fancy word for farmers. They raised all the grains that most people did as well as tobacco because the English loved their tobacco and they knew that since England is where they lived before coming here. They did very well for themselves but I keep thinking about how they coped with King George III sending troops here during that time and how it affected their lives. I have never found information that they housed one or more of these soldiers as was common.

This family lived in a castle and had titles yet, one brother wanted to strike it out on his own to come to a wild and strange land. One that wasn't settled by any means. He was English as I have stated. Going back into his family of ancestors, I can tell anyone that before coming to England, they lived as a royal family in France. It all had to do with France taking control of England. Before that, they were from Norway where they were also royalty and before that in the seventh century, they were royalty in Sweden. That could be backward. It may have been Sweden and then Norway. I am not sure without looking it up in my records.

My great grand father on my mom's side was in the American Civil War on the Confederate side. He was a little man of only five foot two with dark hard, dark complexion with green eyes. This information can be found on his records when the North won the war. Confederates had to pledge their allegiance to the United States of America since we had pulled out before the war. They documented the persons looks.

This type of information can be found in any good library that has good genealogy records. This man is my brick wall. I can not find anything on him other than where he lived here in Alabama in eight-teen seventy on the census records. He was living next door to the family of the woman he would marry.

My dad's side of the family were not happy to stay in one place. I think of them as being like a band of gypsies. They settled in Virginia but as the family grew, the men struck out for other southern states as land was available at the expense of the Native Americans.

My great grand father on my dad's side was born in Georgia but when land came available in North Alabama, he came here. To get land one has to live in that place for a year. Having children helped because for each one, your name was put into the hat that many more times.

His lovely wife died after giving birth the year they arrived here. It just seems to me that he could have waited until she had the child to make that journey from Georgia to Alabama. Oh, I am forgetting just how those times we so different.

I could write for days but I decided to hit a few high points or low depending on how one looks at it.

History to me is exciting. The more I learn the more I want to know.

For anyone interested in getting started, the census records are available up to nine-teen thirty now. That is a great place to start.

Control Congress

I received this from a friend today in my email.  It made such a huge impact on me that I thought I should put it up for others to read.

**********************************
Congressional  Reform Act of  2010


1. Term  Limits.

12 years only,  one of the possible options  below..

A. Two Six-year  Senate terms
B. Six Two-year  House terms
C. One Six-year  Senate term and three Two-Year House  terms

2.   No Tenure / No Pension.

A  Congressman collects a salary while in office  and receives no pay when they are out of  office.

3.   Congress (past, present & future)  participates in Social Security.

All  funds in the Congressional retirement fund move  to the Social Security system immediately.   All future funds flow into the Social  Security system, and Congress participates with  the American people.

4.  Congress can purchase their ownretirement plan,  just as all Americans do.

5.  Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay  raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the  lower of CPI or 3%.

6.  Congress loses their current health care system  and participates in the same health care system  as the American  people.

7.  Congress must equally abide by all laws they  impose on the American people.

8.  All contracts with past and present Congressmen  are void effective  1/1/11.

The American  people did not make this contract with  Congressmen.  Congressmen made all these  contracts for  themselves.


Serving  in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The  Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators,  serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

In my life, I have found that to be a pessimist only brings worry and fretful feelings of discontent. Anxiety takes over people’s lives and they can not be as productive as they could be. Some people do not seem to be able to look at the positive side of life. My heart goes out to them because they are not living a happy life.

For the most of my life, I have been an optimist. It was a choice that I made. Anyone can make that choice but living it is another thing. We sometimes have to let a few friends or family members not have too much access to our lives if they are a pessimist person. We also have to remind ourselves daily that we want good things to come our way.

If one is looking for a job and they think they will get one, they usually do. It also applies to one not thinking they will get one. It has to do with how we feel about ourselves as a person.

People who bring negativity to me are not welcome. Right now, I have a friend I have been talking to about how to look at things with a positive attitude. I thought that I was making some progress with them but I fear that I was only kidding myself. This person told me they needed me in their life. The reason being is because I am happy and laugh a lot. I look at the bright side of things and do not dwell on the negative.

For a little while, when this person started being so negative, I could pull them out of it. They would start laughing with me and we would enjoy our time talking. Then, I noticed that they reverted back to their old ways and I do not have time to baby sit someone trying to keep them in a good mood.

However, as much as I am bright, cheerful and positive when in conversation with my friend, they can not see that things in their life would improve if only, they changed what they expect to happen.

That is where optimism comes in. If a person looks at a problem in life and expects the best will come of it, they have a better chance of good actually happening. If they expect the worst, one can bet the worst will happen.

I have a theory about this. I have also written about this many times in hopes that just one person will understand and apply it to their lives.

Our brain reacts to what we tell it. If we tell it good things all the time, after a while, our brain will take over and we will start seeing things in a positive way. However, if we tell our brain that we are a failure, then it will respond in such a way that we will fail. How many of y’all have seen someone who never thought good would happen in their lives? Did that person have good happen? Think about that for a moment.

I am not sure why people develop such negative attitudes in life but if they could only try to change with daily affirmations, they could change and be happy, productive and happy people.

After saying all of that, I suppose it is clear that I am very optimist woman and I always will be. I have my days when I feel a bit blue as everyone does. The difference is that I do not dwell on what has made me feel blue. I pull myself together and get back to the business of being positive which brings me much joy in my life.

Blazing Football

I wonder how many folks out there know how exciting high school football can be.  Some teams are blessed with the best coaches.  These coaches sometimes change the lives of the young men under their charge.  A lot of 6-A school have great teams because they have a lot of young men from which to pick.  Plus, they have the money to hire the best coaches for their teams.  However, our school is not that big of a school.  Saying it is 3-A means it is a mid sized school since schools are ranked from 1-A to 6-A with 1-A being the smallest.

My grandson is on a winning team again this year.  Last year this same team was only scored on three times but never lost a game all the way though the play offs.  They took state in the 3-A division in the state of Alabama.  That was an awesome feat for a small school who had never come close to having a winning team such as this one under the leadership of Keith Etheredge.

Coach Keith Etheredge

Coach Etheredge went to high school there with my youngest son.  He finished college served his time and came back to his school to lead these young men to victory.  He is making men out of these young men.  Other than their school work and playing football they serve doing community service work under his direction.

These young men look up to their coach with admiration and will do anything for him.  That says a lot about this coach.  My grandson had to be on the field the morning of the game ready to scrimmage at six am.  That is tough for young men.  Yet, as I stated, they all are devoted to school and their football team.  That same day, they had a homecoming parade.  It was small but it was a lot of fun to go out to support the school and the football team.

Cropped Photo of team

All of the boys on the team received a huge championship ring last year thanks to the awesome contributions of the community.  I hope they get another one this year as they deserve it.

Championship Ring

If there were more people in the school systems who cared as much about the young people as this coach, there would be less kids in the street and more involved in the school.

My hat goes off to this coach for all of his devoted time.  Cheers to Coach Etheredge, the school and the sports program.  One more  thing is that last year, the basketball team also won state.

3-A Basketball Champs