The Grape Squishery Of 2009

When I signed up to harvest grapes at Tres Suenos Winery, in Luther Oklahoma, I was not expecting a spiritual revelation from God. But, in essence, that is what I got. The growing of grapes and the making of wine has been a part of the world's economy for centuries. God knew this exacting process would be around for a long time. I believe this is partly why He chose to use the "fruit of the vine" for His remembrance supper. It brings new understanding of Jesus saying "I am the Vine, and you are the branches."

A few years ago, a crowd of our friends attended a wedding at a winery. The bride wanted an outdoor wedding. It was very pretty. They have a small vineyard right on the property, and a small grove of trees on the other side of the main building, where the wedding took place. I fell in love with the beauty of it all. The wine was something new to me. I had never before found one that tasted good to me. This wedding had two flavors of wine that did taste quite good.

DH and I went back later, to an annual festival and wine tasting. We heard wonderful live music, tasted several varieties of wine, and had a grand time. We have been to the festival two years in a row, and are planning to attend our third this fall. The owners of the winery host a harvest in August every year, once the grapes are ready. This year, I signed up to be notified of the harvest. DH did not come, I was on my own this time.

I drove the almost hour from my home, and got there near 7:00 am. I met with the owner of the Winery and about 20 others. We then drove in a caravan to a contract vineyard about 8 miles away, to harvest a white variety of Sauvignon grapes. We snipped grapes off the vines from 8:00 until 11:00 am. Some of the grapes we harvested after the picture.



This is me, among the vines. The first picture of the day. A nice lady came by and said she wanted to take pictures, but her camera was at the house. I handed her mine, and asked that she take a picture of me (so she would know whom to bring the camera back to).



We were each given a white 5 gallon bucket. This is my bucket, mostly full of white grapes.



When those were filled, we put the grapes into bigger crates that could hold 3-4 buckets of grapes. This is one of those crates.



The crates were then picked up, and workers transferred the grapes to huge white containers, and brought back the crates to be filled again. This is one container being loaded on a forklift.



The owner had the load weighed, but he didn't know his empty weight, so there was no exact number for the weight of the grapes we harvested. He estimated that we picked around 3 tons of grapes.

This is one of the owners. His name is Richard.



We got to watch the grapes be moved from the small crates and big white containers through a machine that took off the stems, crushed the grapes, and sent them through a tube to large blue drums. This machine was quite noisy.



For our work the owners provided lunch. (The owner's wife had bought Red Table Grapes at the grocer for us.... and got picked on about it.) After lunch, we had the opportunity to personally stomp on a small batch of grapes. The owner had pulled many stems out of about one crate of grapes, and put them in the bottom of a 55 gallon steel barrel. We got to wash off our feet, and step into the barrel to mash the grapes. There was a baby about 1 year old, and he was having a stomping good time, and then he realized that he was not able to get himself out of the barrel. He cried, and continued to stomp all the way up the side of the barrel. Poor baby. His older brother was also having a great time squishing grapes, ending up in the barrel at least 3 times, with others and by himself. I was the second to last person to step on the grapes. Have you ever stepped on one grape accidentally in your kitchen? This was messy and fun, and totally squishy. These are my toes in the grapes.



The owner will further press those grapes and keep them separate from the rest of the harvest. He will bottle that wine, and put our names on it. He said there would be about 20 bottles from this barrel. White wine should spend about 6 months fermenting before they put it in the bottles, where it will spend another 6 months before it will be drinkable. A year from now, I will have a bottle of wine from the harvest I helped to pick. I plan to refer to it as Baby Toes. This was the baby.



The grapes at the winery property are purple grapes, but I don't know what variety.



The white grapes we harvested.



God truly is an artist. He created such lovely plants, people and processes. I plan to do this again and again. DH hopefully can come next time, and several of my friends have also volunteered. I have to go back there to collect this year's wine: 2009 Sauvignon Baby Toes. If you get a chance to taste wine from Tres Suenos Winery, do it. The name means Three Dreams, and the dreams of the owners have come to be a tasty reality.

New Adventures Of The Traveling Bloggers Or The Chelf Life Of Flea Bytes

I enjoy travel. I love meeting new people. I adore getting to combine the two.

Back in July, on a Thursday, DH and I made a trip to Bricktown (downtown OKC). We met Jayme for dinner, with her immediate family, and some extended family, too. They were in town for the big annual family reunion, that was being held in a church building (less than a mile from my house). We had a really good Italian dinner at Zio's. We enjoyed walking around Bricktown and along the canal.

I had (conveniently for Jayme) left my camera in the car. Apparently, Jayme was nervous that I would chronicle our visit here. I don't like pictures of me, but I am happy to share pictures of others! No pictures this time. Good for Jayme, bad for the rest of us. Ha! I didn't want her to think that I had left her out of the journal, simply because there were no pictures. I loved visiting with them, and I wanted you all to know it!

We had a great time. Neal and DH are friends from many years ago, and it was nice for them to catch up, too. Ellie told DH he was "Ca-RAY-zy!" for not liking Strawberries. That was cute.

A month later, DH has this week off. He took a week of vacation to hang out with me, in honor of our 10th Anniversary (this Friday). We are doing much like we did when we took our honeymoon. Then, he was still in College, and I was working full time. I took one week, and we spent that week taking small trips. We spent our first two nights in a Bed and Breakfast in Guthrie, OK. We also took day trips to Wichita and Tulsa.

Monday this week we went to Tulsa. We met Flea. I don't remember precisely when I found Flea's blog, but we have been enjoying each other's blogs for around two years, I suppose. I knew when I started reading that we were kindred spirits.

She brought the "loquacious" Red Rocks with her. We met at DH's favorite place to eat that we don't have here in OKC, Fuddrucker's. We refer to it simply as Fudd's, as to not say terrible words accidentally. They make burgers to order... you can get a one pound burger that covers a plate! We ate, took pictures and visited for most of two hours!

This is Red Rocks... talking. He is quite into Classic Rock, and was a pleasure to talk to. He had to go home to make an original dessert for a Scout thing that night. Good looking, prepared, and smart. What more could you need from a kid?



Fred and Bessie also came, and enjoyed the picnic. This is Fred, making sure he got the last of the Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese sauce. (A must for the french fries.)



Here is Bessie, worrying about Fred and his balancing act to reach something.



Mr. Monkeysuit came, too. He is a ladies' man. Flea got some good pictures of him giving me a kiss.



Here is DH giving Mr. Monkeysuit the contemplative stare... and probably a warning about getting too fresh with me.



This is the Good Flea and Chelf, photo on my camera, courtesy of DH.



Thank you for coming along on the driving adventures of Chelf and DH. More entries to come, as the Anniversary Week progresses!

Wait... I Have A Blog?

I am surprised how many of you have still come by to see if I have had any inspiration. Constantly surprised by my awesome friends. Thank you for not giving up on me.

I know I have appeared to just drop off the blogging wagon. I have been quite obsessed with the ease of Facebook. This is no excuse. I still need to write. I have moved my physical existence from a rent house to our first home. Having never bought a house before, I was overwhelmed. I didn't have an actual intention to buy the house until almost Valentine's Day. We signed the contract and gave our earnest money on March 9. We signed the mountain of paperwork and got funded on April 9. The beautiful house is ours, after a mere two months.



The word "overwhelmed" doesn't really cover it. I am swamped, tuckered, lost, disorganized, cluttered.... and then overwhelmed. It all looks like such a mess. I have so much stuff that seems less valuable now that it is in the new house. I have done a lot of laundry, and cleaned and organized... and it looks as if I have done nothing. I am clearly in need of a maid, storage designer, motivational speaker and life coach. Sigh. I keep plugging away at it, hoping that I can have things down to a manageable dull roar by Mother's Day, when my Mother is coming for a visit.

I asked the previous owner to trim the bushes back away from the house, so that we could get to the water access behind them. Yeah, someone really took that the wrong way. The bushes got trimmed from the front. I don't know whom to blame, because I realize that what I said was misinterpreted. I don't like the bushes, I wanted them gone anyway. But I was hoping to wait a year or two before removing them completely, and replacing them with a stone patio.

The cats have been getting used to the new place, too. They stayed in the former house for a few days longer than we and our stuff did. They came out of the safety lockdown room (old master bedroom) and looked at Jeff as if to say, "WE'VE BEEN ROBBED!!!" They spent the first two days in the new house climbing into places I won't let them go again, sniffing everything, and staring out the windows.

Marvel decided that he needed to be in the closet in the second bedroom. A bag fell, and in his efforts to escape, he got a shallow cut on his nose. Poor baby. It worries me that he was bleeding, but it stopped pretty quickly. I am hoping that he heals quickly, too. He does not like me cleaning his wound, and he will not be happy with alcohol being on the cotton ball that comes next.

Mystic has not injured herself, but has gotten to the top of the built-in bookcase, the top of our closet in the master bedroom, and the top of a bookshelf we brought in. She is a very vocal cat, walking around talking to the Ceiling Cat, or whatever she imagines is up there.

Obviously, the cats are fine. They are both crashed on the couch next to me right now. I would put a picture here of that, but the camera is in my purse, which is currently under Mystic's head.

This has been a pleasant break. I am going to get back to the cleaning and finding of places for all my junk. Thanks for checking on me. Keep coming by, anytime. I love visitors. Feel free to come find me physically, too. But if you drop by, be warned: I will put you to work!

Have a blessed day!

A Full Plate

I often have to tell the tale of the origin of the nickname. Explaining CHELF gets my readers a little bit closer to the CHELF SPACE headline here. I think I have explained some before... but for those of you who may have forgotten, and those who have not read from the beginning, let me tell the story once more. (Oh, yeah, like I don't like talking about this!)

When I was in High School (and early in my Junior College days) I did babysitting to supplement my income from my first job. My favorite charge was a little girl named Amber. Now, Amber was VERY smart. Quick. Not just a kid who talked early, but one who comprehended more deeply at a younger age than other children around. Logic was obvious in her little two year old brain.

Our story begins with Amber being my rag doll. I carried that child all over our church building. Her mom would play "Who's Got You?" with her when she was with someone else. One day, I was holding Amber, and Mommy asked "Who's got you?"

Amber had made a point to try to say my name. Michelle is actually almost as hard as saying J names... it is long, and has a difficult transition in the middle. I had decided that maybe using the nickname I used in High School might work easier, Chelle. Just say Michelle and take out the MI. Chelle, like a sea Shell. Amber had decided somehow that my name needed an F on the end. It sounded better to her. It seemed to flow off her tongue. Chelf. With this in mind, I will tell you now that this time she answered with a huge sigh and a big hug around my neck, and she told her mom, "MY Chelf!"

I don't know when the idea really came to me, but I know that I chose to spell the nickname the way I do in order to put it on a license plate some day. When DH bought his little red hatchback, before we were married, I informed him of my dream. The very first all MY NEW CAR needed to have a special license plate that would say... you guessed it! MYCHELF!

This week, my dream was realized.



Now I think about Hammy the Squirrel in Over The Hedge: "Kinda anti-climactic."

I have been wanting not only the tag but the new car to put it on for more than 16 years. Amber is now in her Freshman year in college someplace. (I hear she graduated with honors near the tippy top of her class.) I have been working and saving and thinking toward this goal for a very long time. I haven't had my husband as long as I have sheltered this dream.

So, I had to share my joy today! This is a cliche', a dream come true. With pictures! Thank you for sharing in this silly joy of mine.

The Second Season Of The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Bloggers

I promised a little more light and a lot less darkness in this post. I also promised pictures. You are getting both today. As promised. Insert Smile here. :-)

This week has been a little crazy. I have had appointments, expectations, housework. I have also done without company for most of the evenings, as DH has been doing part-time radio production as well as his full-time job. I have spent a lot of time cleaning the house (the work NEVER ends, really), and more time than necessary on the laptop.

I spent this past weekend watching little ones for friends and family. This is Alex.



The first thing I heard him do when he came to my house was original. He said, "cat" and clicked at them. The last thing he did on the way out the door was deep knee bends, with shouting... I figured out that this was a mimic of Daddy, who teaches Tae Kwon Do. You can see my shoe rack by the front door in the back ground of the picture... Alex was convinced that I had my shoes organized incorrectly. He spent most of an hour rearranging them for me. Quite amusing.

This is Jelly Bean trying to hug Gum Drop, and Gum Drop having none of that. They both are great at moving all the time. It is tough to get a clear picture. I don't think pictures really do them justice.



Gum Drop had come home from a fresh hair cut - his first! He was quite handsome. Jelly Bean had gotten her really long hair trimmed, and she was the first to tell me of the difference. Here is Jelly's Hair. Yeah, I'm not jealous of the "Cousin It" view at all... No, really, I'm not!



Today was really good too. Mamma Mia and her Hunny came from Colorado, and we met for lunch today. Pumkin was sure to tell me that she didn't remember me. I told her that was OK. She had only met me once, and it was months ago! Isn't she cute?



Now, Sugar Plum's real name and Jelly Bean's real name are the same. And Hunny's name and BIL's name are the same. So we don't have a hard time remembering Mamma Mia's family's names. Sugar Plum is a cutie, too. See?



Here is the picture that her Hunny took of us. Left, Mamma Mia. Right, Chelf. I am not going to beat myself up over my opinion of my image. I have Jared to thank for making me see that the pictures are not for me, but for YOU. I know how I look and I don't like it much, but it is how I am right now. It is my present. It is my history, and may be valuable in the future when I have lost all this weight that I constantly fight with. It was a GOOD Hair Day, so I shouldn't complain at all!



I hadn't really thought of it before, but he made a face today, and I noticed how much her Hunny looks like Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales). Am I crazy, or do you see it too?



{Edit: To prove the thought, remember that when Veggie Tales started, Phil Vischer was a lot younger... and had dark hair. And I have seen the "behind the scenes" extras on the videos, so that is where I think the expression I saw came from. This picture I got from his entry on Wikipedia. Here is the link. Thanks.}



The most important part of the day was lunch. No, not the eating of the lunch, but the visiting and friendship. We got to watch the kids play, and we got to have a relaxing time. These visits really don't last long enough for me. But, the girls were getting tired; the eventual result of that is, of course, cranky. Oh, and Mamma Mia brought me Pueblo, CO Green Chiles... to compare with my favorite Hatch, NM Green Chiles. I have a lot of chiles now, and it will take a lot of Chili recipes to go through it all. How yummy this winter eating will be.

I am looking for a shop to buy bulk spices... loose flavorings sold by weight. If you know of such a shop online, that is fine, but I was hoping for some place local. I live in Oklahoma City, and I am willing to go to Tulsa or Wichita, but not much further. If I can get there and back again (yes, I realize I made a literary reference... that was on purpose) in one day, I would like to have a reason to go besides the spices. Please leave me comments with your suggestions. Thanks!

I wish for everyone to have a pleasant and fulfilling Thanksgiving holiday!

Discount Spelling Causes Business Laughs Galore

Word of the Post
Today's word is: palindrome
/pal"in*drome/ noun
The word literally means to run back again. This is the term for a word or phrase that is the same both forward and backward. Examples: Hannah, lol, madam. Go check out Weird Al Yankovic's song called BOB. The whole of the lyrics are palindromes.
~~~~~~~~~~
I just want to say that I have not forgotten my blog. I have not forgotten any of my diligent readers. I have taken pictures, so this should make up for the lack of words, right?

This is a local Discount Tire store that recently opened. They need a new sign painter, can you tell me why?

This is the first Cat Scan of the cool box we got from Flea. Marvel is soft and sweet, and curious to know what was in the box. I think the package passed the scan.

This was the Second Opinion. Mystic is very good at knowing when something is not for her, and getting into it anyway. By now, the box has been opened, emptied, and still passed the thorough scan.

The mug came! DH was so excited! He is the one who won the contest for her picture, and he chose to get a mug (the other choice was a t-shirt) with his own caption. Would this qualify Fred and Bessie as LOLCows? (As opposed to LOLCats with their own website.)

The caption that won the day and the mug! I still have yet to see DH use his mug, but it has been washed and is now waiting for his hot cocoa. We need cooler weather so he can be happy to drink hot cocoa.

Not to gross you out or anything, but this was my work today. We had a wooden seat that was old, and cracked and needed to be changed. This job took me almost an hour and a half. The removal of the old took FOREVER! The cleaning up and attachment of the new (pictured here) took less than ten minutes. Yeah, I took a shower after this, because... eew.

There are these pretty flowers that grow in the summer at my house. There were once daffodil bulbs in the little flower patch by the porch. I don't even know what this stuff is, but it is brilliantly pink, and there is just one localized patch of them. I have several pictures of them. I also had the mosquito bites to prove that I was outside in the cool, cool, cool of the evening for more that two seconds.

THIS is the oddest picture I think I shall ever see. This is a marching band, in the shape of the State of Oklahoma (it is upside down from his nosebleed seat).

This was taken by MY DH, at the Oklahoma State vs. Troy football game this past Saturday. Now, anyone who knows my DH knows that he is an OU (University of Oklahoma) fan, and that naturally means he is not an OSU fan. But when you get free tickets handed to you, you take them, no matter what team you watch.

DH's friend from his Friday Night Finals job had an extra ticket, and offered to take DH to the game. DH was a good boy, and didn't wear OU stuff to an OSU game. He went because I said he could, and because he loves college football. He had a blast, and both Oklahoma teams won against past troubles. All in all, it was a good night. I was surprised he wanted to go.

This is my friend Pam and her daughter Tulle, playing the "Beating Nemo" game at a gathering after a church service. The tail gave way long before the rest of the fish gave up its candy. Tulla is a cutie, and when everyone had gotten their fill of destroying the pinata, DH was standing nearby while Pam and Tulle and I were cleaning candy off the ground. She didn't say anything to him, but she went and got his hand, and brought him over to "help" pick up the candy. We all got a good laugh out of it. Pam said that DH had been told, and that he was expected to help. He stopped helping when Tulle went back inside... the ground is a long way down from 6 ft up.

"He touched the butt!" This is the punishment for being Nemo. He pooped Tootsie Rolls. It was way more violent than a church group should have had so much fun with.

This is my MIL petting the biggest dog I have seen in a long time. A few weeks ago, we went to DH's Great Uncle's funeral in TX. This was Great Uncle's dog, Klondike. Gentle Giant of a dog, sweet and friendly, and just looking for someone to scritch his ears.

He was as big as half the couch. He is getting old, too. It took a lot to get up from the floor when he laid down... and he laid down right in the middle of the room several times. There were so many of us in the house, poor Klondike was always in the way. What would you do for a Klondike dog? I did a lot of ear scritching. And I nearly lost a leg when he sat on me! I was originally in that seat he is blocking, and my circulation was cut off. DH said once that he could eat our two cats, and nobody would notice. (Of course the cats would notice, and I would notice them missing!)

Tomorrow, if not before, one of my friends is having her third baby. She is scheduled for a C-section tomorrow morning, really early. I am going to help her dad with babysitting her twins while she is early in the hospital. Yep, you read that right. She has twin boys, and is having another boy with this delivery. Did I mention that the twins are barely over a year old? No? Oh, well that seemed important. The boys are so cute, and another will only be more cuteness in the world. Her husband works so hard, and at last news to me, was looking for another job.

I need to go shopping. If it were only for shoes and hair bands, it would be fun, but this is for staples. Not the kind that go into paper, the kind that are required shopping list items.

Enjoy your adventures this week!

Party All The Time

For those interested in my meager little life, I have been so busy lately. I have hardly had a moment's rest, a bit of peace.

There are some bright spots in the world. This one, for instance.

This was Gum Drop (SIL looking on and balancing him from behind) at his First Birthday Party. He is in his own Chiefs Jersey Onesie (Hi, Sally!), and opening our present to him. He had the best time! He got so much more messy than his sister did at her first party. The party was all Chiefs, and the party cake was a football field, complete with players. His own personal cake was a football.

Pure Joy.


His hair did a flyaway crazy 'do after his chocolate bath. I didn't get a picture of the muddy looking bathwater, mostly because it was too gross. Got to love the kiddos.

The next bright spot is this one.

Jelly Bean is now 3, and her Third Birthday Party was Care Bears. She picked it herself. There were balloons, cake and lemonade, and lots of presents! There were goodie bags that JB gave to her friends, with Baby Gummy Bears in there. So tasty!

This one moves so much and so often, I rarely get a good picture of her. Usually I get only hair as she dashes away. This is JB on her requested Birthday Scooter, wearing her requisite Birthday Helmet (that was our contribution). She did very well on the scooter; I even caught it on video (haven't yet figured out how to post those. I promise some in the future).

There have been a few other things going on in my life, too. There was the wonderful visit from my friend, the Georgia Peach. This is Georgia Peach, Roadrunner, and Chelf. (Pay no attention to the BunnyButt in the background)

Georgia Peach came to see a whole bunch of us Clubbies, and brought her two "nieces" (her BFF's two kids) with her. I have several BFF's with children, and I would be willing to bet that none of them would let me take two of their kiddos on a week-long adventure to another state in a rented car. Not without a lot of explaining, and pictures. Georgia is just that awesome of an "Aunt".

There have been the trips to the local swimming hole. This is Roadrunner's little one, I think I shall refer to him as Mr. Bump. He is calamity and daring all in one.

I didn't get a good picture of the older son by himself. I have to think of a nickname that doesn't violate any copyright laws. (Karate Kid is already taken, and it is Tae Kwon Do anyway) Maybe Roadrunner can help me? (BunnyButt suggested "Sauce", but I don't want the kiddo mad at me, either.)

Then there is the Tea Kettle. This little one is Roadrunner's nephew. He screams in a pitch that no boy should ever be allowed to make. It sounds just like her tea kettle. He likes to snuggle, and get me into trouble by crying when I pick him up.

I am now off to two more Birthday Parties tonight. Tomorrow, there is a Wedding Shower I am helping hostess. This busy life is sometimes almost too much. Almost. Then I look at all the little faces around me, and I know....

So very worth it!

Eulogy Of The Car

Wordless Wednesday

2002 Buick Century

Purchased January 9, 2003 ~ Traded July 26, 2008

R.I.P., old bucket.
(Rust In Pieces, that is.)

...And We're Back. So, Chelf. Deal or No Deal?

OK. I have sent a few of you into a tizzy trying to guess what the "news" could be.
Muh hu ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I am such an evil blogger. Bad Chelf. Bad.

Sally is guessing that I am pregnant. (Nope. I do wish, though.)

Rachel caught me this morning at church. (I was hoping not to be seen just yet!)

Flea is every bit as impatient as I am, so... in light of the threat to my safety, here you go.

We bought a NEW car.

We couldn't find a Wii Fit, so we got a Honda Fit, instead. (DH just called it a Wee Fit. Isn't he funny?) Nearly as hard to find, and just as desirable. I have never in my life owned a brand new car. I love the smell of new car (plastic fumes) in the morning!

I am still running on the adrenaline from Saturday night. We were driving around, and decided to go look to see what the dealership had. There were three cars, all in my favorite color of BLUE... I even had two shades to pick from. Seriously, it came to a toss of a dime. (You think I am joking. How cute.) They were all 5-speed Manual, which gets better gas mileage, if you know how to drive one.

They were all sitting there... begging me to take them home.

And then I thought about the value of the Buick. That stupid, frustrating car that I have threatened to drive into the nearest lake. Maybe not the nearest lake, because Hefner is our area's water supply, and I like our water. But a lake, nevertheless. I added up in my head all the repairs that thing will need. I could repair our existing (and totally paid for!) car, at a cost of.... 6 months of payments toward this new one. And I still have no guarantee that it would be worry-free. It is so very out of warranty. Just the insurance and me against the probable loss of a stupid, worthless, scary, expensive piece of.... junk that we have owned for 5 1/2 years. (Notice please the restraint to keep the G-rating, and the anger out of that last sentence.) They gave us $3000, sight unseen, which I think is fair. I couldn't get $4000 by selling it on the street, because of the new issues it decided to give me. If they spend a little to fix it, they can make all their money back, or they can sell it at auction and let someone else worry about it.

If we decide that we can survive with only one car (as I don't work right now), we can always sell the Malibu to our friend, and use her payments to us as payments on the new one, too. I have a contingency plan for almost everything. I am tempted.

I can see the shaking heads, and hear the big sighs and screams of "NOOOOOO!!!!!" from those of you who know that I try to follow the plan of my rich friend Dave Ramsey. No, I really don't want a car payment. But... in all fairness, I don't want to finance the cost of repairs on a car that is bound to fail, either. And we would have to borrow to fix all the issues of the Buick. We got a much better rate (12 points better!) than we got when we financed the Buick. I got them to check another bank, and lower the interest again by 0.74%. See what a little pleasant conversation can do for you?

Would you like to see it?


The other blue was Vivid Blue Pearl, and was more a Royal Blue. This Baby Blue Silver shade is named Tidewater Blue Metallic. It sounds like a laundry detergent to me. I am going to apply for a special tag, MYCHELF. I have wanted that on a car ever since Amber called me that, 16 years ago. She was 2 at the time. She graduated High School this year. Now, like the car itself, I have the tough choice of what color to make the tag. If I go Baby Blue, I think it will clash, as will plain Silver. DH will have a hissy fit if I make it Pink. I was thinking if they have a White Pearl, that might look nice. If they have a "Choose Life" tag available still, and I can get my nickname on it, that may be the way to go.

Thanks to Dad, I learned on a Manual. However, it has been 13 or more years since I have driven one on a regular basis. You will have to ask DH if I did well driving today. I only killed it once. I think I did very well.

I am considering naming this car. The Bu (Malibu) and the Ick (Buick) have been just descriptive titles. I want some suggestions for Names for this Honda. Fenry is out, by the way. DH had a Honda Accord in High School that was Fenry Honda, so we don't want to taint that memory. But if you have any suggestions for this little beauty, I would love to hear them. I may even come up with a prize for a contest.

Hope I didn't disappoint too many of you. This car buying stuff is a real ADVENTURE. I am still high from the experience.

Freedom Day Celebrations

Friday morning, we packed all the necessities and a few "just in case" items into the car, and set off for our short trip to Aunt Sharon's house, near Parsons, KS. I am used to the drive taking more time. Did I drive slower when I was single? I must have stopped more often, or there was construction that I have forgotten. Whatever the reason, it took almost an hour less than I thought to get there, and that was including the 1/2 hour or so we spent in a restaurant in Tulsa on the way through. Aunt's house has been Grand Central Station at Fourth of July for as long as I can remember. This year was no different. Actually, this year was a little different. Aunt Marilyn usually stays at a hotel, but her kids stay at the house. This year, DH and I stayed at the same hotel as Aunt Marilyn and Uncle John for the first night. Since some of the cousins left on Saturday, we all stayed at the house on Saturday night, as there were more rooms free. This is Aunt Sharon and Uncle Roy, sorting change for Hope Harbor Children's Home. We joked that they were so poor after the 4th, that they were scrounging for pennies to fill the Food Fund.


Usually, if everyone were to show up, there would be no less than 29 people. We also have close family friends who might as well be related, as many as 12 more from their family, who will come to our party to watch the fireworks. This year, we had 22 all together. My parents couldn't come from so far away, a few cousins couldn't come because of work or distance; they were greatly missed. This is Beka, her hubby Kyle, and the newest cousin, Kaylynn.


"The Girls" are all about 16 to 23, and there are 7 of them. These girls are mostly my 2nd cousins, but there are two 1st cousins. (Kaylynn is the only 3rd cousin, so far.) They all pile in and do fun things. Friday afternoon, there were two different games of Taboo; Saturday, the game of the hours was Rummicube; I tried to teach Andrea to play Cribbage, but we never got to finish the game. Now that several are old enough to drive, and have cars, they go to the swimming pool in Oswego, KS by themselves. That is the pool where I learned to swim at age 14. It is so neat to know that The Girls have turned out so well. Good kids, all. I remember when Jess was barely old enough to try walking, and now she is a college graduate, with a good job, and a bright future. Yep, part of that feeling old coming back up. This is the whole batch, watching the fireworks.



I have always been in the middle. Stuck at the kiddie table, and desperate to be at the adult table. The older than me cousins are around 10 years older. The younger group is at least 10 years younger than me. The younger cousins and the second cousins are not so far apart in age. I used to get shuffled with the younger kids, I suppose because there just wasn't room where I wanted to be. Honestly, if there is a disconnect in our family, it is your own fault. There are plenty of things to do, people to hang out with, and everyone is friendly. But... there are times when The Girls make me crazy. They are all so pretty, thin, tanned and tall. I only got one of those traits (pretty is the one I am selfishly and vainly claiming). This is Grams, with DH and Me. See where I got all that beauty? I only hope that I have that much hair when I am 88. Kinda tough, since I don't think I have that much hair now.



With Kaylynn, we now have five living generations. Somewhere, there are generational pictures. I don't have any of them, and I didn't get one of my own, but I did get this picture of the top and bottom of the list. This is Grams, holding Kaylynn... her only (there will be others, so first!) Great Great Grandchild.



I wish that we could get together more than once a year, but we are all so spread out, and getting more so with every cousin that marries and moves great distances due to jobs. When I moved to Oklahoma, I was moving closer. Top to bottom and left to right: DH, Me, Kyle holding Kaylynn, Alysia, Rebekah, Morgan, Laura, Andrea, Colby, Jessica and Chelsea. Photo on my camera, courtesy of cousin Kelley.



I have seriously considered starting a Facebook page. Not because I just want another blog to bore you with, but because I have friends who have invited me to join. Now, I find that several of the cousins have a Facebook. Much like the blogs, I want to do it to keep in touch, since none of us seem to use a telephone anymore. A letter? What is that? This is Crazy Faces.


We found we have talents as pyrotechnical engineers. Did you know that a Black Cat will still blow up if you drop it in a bucket of water? It does, and it does not destroy the bucket. There was the game of Fireworks Ball. A lit Black Cat pitched from the deck to the batter on the ground who is holding a splintered 2 x 4 or a fireplace shovel. Then, there were the rogue fireworks that tried to chase Jayson. Seriously, it was kinda scary. One of the roman candles fell over and off the table after the first shot. It got turned a little more clockwise with each shot, and that was the direction that Jayson ran. We were laughing so hard, once we knew that he was not burned, and the trees had not caught fire. He didn't know why it was following him, and I reminded him that "smoke follows beauty". This is the dusk view of the firestarters. How many cousins can one deck hold? (I have the tune of Ariel's song in the cavern from Disney's "The Little Mermaid" playing in my head now. Don't you?)


We went to church with Grams on Sunday, and we are happy to stand while singing. The little building has the hardest, oddest angled, close-set wooden benches with no padding at all. Back in 2003 (the last time DH and I went to the 4th), cousin Kevin was leading the singing, and asked, "Would you please stand?" and DH said (not realizing how out loud...), "GLADLY!" Oddly, they sang two songs that I didn't know. That is rare. I love it! We had lunch on Sunday at a Chinese buffet, which was pretty good. We drove home Sunday afternoon, in the same easy, lazy way we came back from NM. We took our time, enjoyed the view. OK, I slept while DH drove. Don't laugh. It is our way. We came home sunburned, and tired, but it was a wonderfully fun holiday. The Fourth has been the big annual holiday since I was a little kid. I hope to share that with my family for many years to come.