Bob and Shell

They are my goldfish.  Actually I bought three of them and thought of names like Moe, Larry, and Curly, or Winken, Blinken, and Nod.  They are for when my grandchildren come over to see us.  Before the kids ever saw them, though, one died.  He looked weak from the beginning...kind of frail, and he was white - probably on his death bed when I brought him home.  Anyway, he died right away.  So I am left with...Moe and Larry, or Blinken and Nod, or whoever.  The gold one and the blonde one.
Emma has taken the most interest in them and she named them.. Bob and Shell.  "Bob and Mi-chelle?" I asked.  "No," she said, "Just Shell."  I do not know which is which.
So there they are, in my kitchen swimming around in a fish bowl.  Their home gets cleaned weekly, by me.  I have put it off all day today.  While washing the dishes this evening, I glanced over and took pity on them.  "Okay you guys, let's do this."
Why do things sometimes happen all at once?  I mean, when you can't possibly do two tasks at once that need your undivided attention - why?  That seems to happen to me alot lately.
I was finished cleaning the bowl and rinsing the marbles - (don't you just love marbles in a fishbowl or in a glass jar in the window?) - and I was putting the fish back into the bowl and one slipped out and went down the garbage disposal...and the phone rang, and rang.  Tommy yelled from the other room, "It's your mom."  As he is talking, I am frantically sticking my hand down into the disposal.  Have you ever done that?  Try it.  I am feeling around for a fish - in the hope that he is still wiggling.  Now the black icky thingy is around my wrist like a bracelet and the fish is in my fist.  I am trying to find the phone.  It is not in its home...
I look down at my Bob or Shell and he/she isn't moving.  I rinse him under the sink - yes, him.  After thinking about it, Shell would never escape into a garbage disposal.  I drop Bob back into his bowl and watch.  He swims!!  He survived and is following Shell around the bowl, telling her about his adventure.  I put the disposal thingy back in place (gross) and take pictures of my two fish that I have suddenly grown very fond of.  We have bonded.
During all of this, Tommy is telling me that I can get another and I realize how much I love these fish.  We get attached to things we take care of, don't we?  Some things just need caring for.  Some people do, too.

Campfires

Giant marshmallows

Recently, Tommy, my mom, and I went to Hardin, Texas to spend the evening with my brother and his family.  They have some acreage and whenever the temperatures drop, a campfire appears.  What is it about fires that is so appealing?  They are mesmerizing and make you just want to sit in front of them for hours...which is what we did.  Out came marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate.  My mom thinks chocolate is one of the main food groups, so she was in heaven.  Stars filled the sky.  Why are they always so vivid in the country and absent in the city?  I really do know the answer to that, but still....
Molly, their oldest, is a firebug.  She was the keeper of the flame all evening.

I have always lived in the city, but sometimes I hear the call of the wild. I want the best of both worlds, I guess.  Maybe someday, when Tommy's preaching days are over, we could make a change like that. Until then, we have relatives we can visit.  Nice.

What Lies Ahead...

It's not about being "here"...  It's about being "there".  Do you have struggles?  Well, I do too, and mine are mostly with myself. 
Nothing happens by chance.  I truly believe that. I also believe that my struggles are designed, hand-carved so to speak, just for me, by a good and loving God. That makes them alot easier to deal with. 
Nothing comes my way without having passed through His hands first.  This is a lesson I have tried to hang on to...though at times it has been hard. We cling so ferociously to this life and we want all it has to offer. We forget what lies behind the curtain...glory. 
Learn to live your life with a purpose...not to gain all you can, but quite the opposite.  Giving all you can to what God has for you to do...yielding your life for others and gaining an eternity of blessings.  How often I forget this jewel of wisdom.  It is not about me.  It is not about me.  It is not about me....or you either, by the way.  It is about giving God glory for it all...the good, the bad, and everything in the middle.  
Ask yourself this question when facing a task - Will this matter one hundred years from now?  Will it count for eternity?  It can, you know.  Do your best for Him and learn to see the trials in your life as refining tools - to make you stronger and more useful to His kingdom - knowing that the smallest kindness done in secret brings Him MUCH glory.
So as you and I go through our days, doing the next thing on our lists, just remember to store some things up for heaven and that life is not lived for today, but for eternity...
Trust Him as your only Hope...because He is.  

Blindness

Suda Mae is my mom.  She is the one who made me hang up laundry, do dishes, and other mean things as a child...but I have forgiven her (smile) and I am glad...now.  She has always been my number one cheerleader. A few years ago, she began to go blind, having macular degeneration along with glaucoma.  It is very rare...especially with this particular combination of both.  There is no cure or operation left to be done.  My brothers and I took her driver's license away from her about three years ago.  She was not a happy camper, but the decision had to be made.  I became her taxi, "go pher", and...her wheels basically.
Every day, her sight changes.  She is eighty-one now.  Some days are a lighter shadow than others, but none are good.  I am amazed at the transformation she has gone through....from anger to joy...from frustration to peace.  My mom did bookkeeping and taxes for many, many years.  The loss of her eyesight has taken the work from her that she loved to do...but she is learning to be content right where she is.  It is a process.
I imagine myself in her shoes.  Would I be so positive? Would I get up, get dressed, and put on make-up? (we have laughed about that one more than once).  She often has on earrings that do not match, shoes of different colors, and brown pants that she thought were black...but she still smiles about it and we both can laugh.  My job involves reading and looking for lost things on the floor.  We have developed a system that works for us in any given situation.  
She cannot see faces, and identifies people from their voices, or perhaps their height.  So far, she is able to stay in her house, as she has it memorized.  We plan for her to live with us in the coming future...a time we do not talk about for now.
My mom has taught me many things in her life, but the most important lessons were not the things she thought she was teaching me...but from what I have observed - her attitude, her love for family, and her ability to hope for better things to come.
I am thankful to God for all of this.  It has made us both stronger, and me more caring.  God means all things for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose...so Your will be done, O Lord, not ours.
She and I recently talked about her not being able to see the faces of the ones she loved...but the next face she does see will be the one of her Savior, Jesus Christ.  Perhaps that will make her joy with Him extra sweet.

Affordable Tidbits of Fall

These are random Fall encouragements I wanted to fit somewhere in my blog without writing paragraphs about them, though I could.  Be glad I didn't.

1.  If you have time, watch Alfred Hitchcock's "The Trouble With Harry".  It is a delightful spoof.  The scenery is gorgeous. Really gorgeous.
2.  Personally, I don't care for coffee, but the Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks is yum.
3.  Go to your local feed store and take pix of your kids on hay bales with pumpkins.
4.  Find those pumpkins in #3 at a local pumpkin patch.  Many churches will have them in their yards at affordable prices.
5.  Make cider.  The simplest way is store bought apple cider and a bag of red hots or a box of Aspen's Mulling Spices.  Yum.

6.  Put orange Christmas bulbs in your nightlights.  If you don't have nightlights, make your own with a clear plain votive.  Glue orange tissue on the outside of it in overlapping small pieces, and drop a tea light in.
7.  Make soup...and listen to Christmas music.
8.  Fall is the best time to plan for the holidays ahead....while listening to Christmas music.
9.  Read more...outside.
10.  Go to Galveston and walk on the beach before our rainy winter sets in.
11.  Spray paint a gourd black and tie an orange ribbon around it.
12.  Candy corn in little bowls.
13.  Open your windows and freshen your house.  Amazingly pleasant.
14.  Bring out oranges and browns in any way you can...blankets, pillows, dishes, etc.
15.  Put colored lights in your fireplace or in a basket of leaves.

Vacation 2010 - Tommy and Matt with kids....and story teller.
If you are looking for a trip out of town - Go to Mountain View, Arkansas.  Lovely little town.  Every night, pickers gather round campfires near the town square and play bluegrass music til the cows come home.  (I don't know when cows come home, but I give in long before they do.)  If you don't like bluegrass, don't go....cuz it's Arkansas and that's what they do. Take note of fiddles on the back wall.

Froberg's

Have you ever been to Froberg's in Alvin?  It is a farmers' market...kind of hidden away on the back streets, but such a refreshing reminder that good things come from nature...in a nature setting.  Recently they added more parking (which was much needed) because the traffic was backed up with cars trying to get in.  Hey,  maybe you have been there.
For most of the year, strawberries grow in the back acres.  Come spring, you can grab a bucket and pick to your heart's delight, paying by the pound when you are done.  Too bad for them that they don't weigh us before and after we pick! Kids of all ages are out there grabbing the yummy red fruit as fast as their fingers can work.

Not only is their produce fresh from local farms, but there is usually someone handing out samples of sausage from the little smokehouse next door, enticing you to visit.  So after making your veggie and fruit purchases, walk over to Greak's and grab something there.  My favorite is a chopped beef BBQ sandwich, a bottle of coke, and maybe a bag of chips.  Tommy loves their turkey jerky.  Either works and there is so much more.
Outside the market are picnic tables, sinks to wash your hands or whatevers in (perhaps you want to rinse those fresh picked strawberries), and they have the ever lovely blue port-a-thingys ....should you be desperate enough.

       


Anyway, this is an unpaid advertisement.  It is about an hour from where I am, but you may be closer.  Look them up, and then go.

Shuttle

Today, while driving south on 45, all of a sudden all the cars started pulling off the freeway and onto the grass or the shoulder of the freeway.  The traffic just stopped moving.  And then I saw it.  The shuttle was flying over.  People were in awe, some holding cameras and camera phones and some just staring.  It was really quite moving.  I too, grabbed my camera and took some pictures.  Thought I would share.  Have a wonderful day.

Salsa

I am not sure if I can plug a product on my blog or if it is taboo to mention name brand anything....after I was recently labeled "spam".  (Trying to stay on Mr. G's good side - assuming he has one.)
However, I found the most wonderful salsa in Wal-Mart and HEB carries it as well.  Maybe your store does, too.  It is Clint's Salsa.  Yum.  I have to say that I make good salsa.  My friend JoRonda taught me how, though hers is for those with a hankering to burn their lips off or make them numb.  Mine is much more subdued.  Don't get me wrong - hers is amazing for that true jalapeno fire in your belly.  But my belly is old and  gets very mad at me if/when I eat raw peppers.  I use the nacho peppers in a jar.  Clint's Salsa tastes more like mine that mine does.
If you are a salsa lover and you don't like it too thick, or too thin, try this.  It is just right.  I like the mild best, but you might be a "fire in your belly" person.  Enjoy!

Nightmares in the Closet

You women know what I am talking about.  Sometimes you want to take a shredder in there and take care of those clothes that are being mean to you.  Maybe then you could come out feeling satisfied and victorious instead of disappointed and defeated.  I rarely win the battle.
We have our "occasionally on a regular basis" visitors - (yes, that sums it up), but otherwise our bedrooms stay empty.  I have banished the ill-fitting clothes to those closets.  They are being punished.  I do not have them grouped by size, though I could, as I have a variety of those numbers that we assign to ourselves.  No, my clothes are clumped in wherever I can find space to clump them.  Right now they are sad - I hope - because I am not speaking to them.
I wear dresses on Sundays and various occasions, but most of the time you will find me in capris and jeans.  I am a woman of leisure, even when I am making a mad dash here and there.  You can't go wrong with tees and pants.  I am always surprised when someone says to me, "You look nice today."  But when several people say it, I have to look down and see what I have on and say, "Okay, this works."

Recently I visited my daughter, Jana in Chicago.  She took me to some retail/thrift stores.  Pay dirt.  Of course!  Why not pay "pennies" for what someone else wore for awhile instead of shopping retail?  You know ladies, that by the time you make that purchase in the mall, several others have already tried on those clothes.  Makes you think, doesn't it?

Most thrift stores color code their clothes to help that person who is looking for a top to match that weird colored skirt she bought.  It's very helpful. Plus, there are different sales on different days.  On Mondays, maybe everything marked in blue will be half price, and on Tuesday, all green tags might be 25% off.  And if you happen to be over a certain(?) age...well you get the picture.  There is always a sale!
Beware of overkill.  I could hardly get my suitcase closed after shopping in Chicago.  (Remember, I am supposed to be scaling down and purging my house of excess.)  Maybe I will start with those mean clothes.

Getting on that treadmill would take care of much of the problem:/

SPAM

I feel it is therapeutic to write about my spam experience.  Yesterday when Mr. Google - (mister because it could not possibly be a woman.  We simply do not call a person "spam") - told me that I was spam, I could not believe my reaction.  I immediately felt my face turn red and I felt like I should go stand in a corner.  Surely this was a mistake.  Trying again to reach my site, I was once again told I was spam....my face was still red.
IF anyone was trying to reach my blog, they could, after reading that I had violated something.  I would never violate anything - well, okay but NOT if it was going to be plastered all over the web.  What to do, what to do.  And then hubby came home.  I explained my dilemma and he...yawned.  At least that is how it seemed to me.
I contacted Mr G and they told me to follow their instructions.  With rapid speed I typed... They replied that since I was responding, I must not be a robot - geniuses - and that I was probably a 'false spam'.  I am human and I am not even real spam.  I am fake spam.  After many sighs, Tommy came to my rescue.  You Tube.  They were the problem, and not just to me.  It seems many people had been bothered by a video called "Grand Theft Auto".  Now really, does that even sound remotely like me?  Other bloggers were griping and complaining about it under the video and I said "Add my name to that" and Tommy calmly, but wisely said, "No".  My husband found my source of irritation after only twenty minutes, but he could not fix it. Playing the waiting game...
This morning I checked it again and I am once again ME.  We always joke about spam.  No one takes it seriously....until now.  Spam is finally having the last word...and I am listening.  (Smile.)  Sshhh - I put Caleb's Nike tennis shoes back on the SWOOSH post.

Galveston

Tommy and Emma

It is one of my favorite places to go, especially in the winter, spring, and summer.  After the summer, I am on to other things, but a beach in the dead of winter is...well, melancholy and thought provoking.  Shops are closed, the beaches - empty, and the fares are at their lowest in case you want to stay a few days.
Galveston is full of things to do but I usually run on the off beaten paths of places I visit.  It's those places that have character and a flavor for what the heartbeat of a town really is.

The twins

There are different beaches - East Beach, Stewart Beach, the one at Moody Gardens, and the one that backs up to the Seawall, and then there are the ones west of town.  I prefer West Beach, down near where Galveston State Park is.  Notice I said "near".  There are pocket parks with bathrooms and snack bars, but I like the free beach that you can just drive on and park your car, put your blanket out and spend the day.  Simple.  My grandkids like to feed the seagulls.  They are always ready to eat crackers, chips, bread, or almost anything you toss up into the air at them - (the birds, not the grandkids:)  We usually do this AFTER we have had our lunch so as to not add any of their mess to our mess on the blanket...if you know what I mean.
Having gone there some in my teenage years, my first memories are of hamburger joints and live music at Stewart Beach.  It was the 60's.  Surfing was big - and still is, actually - even in Galveston waters...but not many big waves.
I took my kids at least 20 times a summer when they were little.  That first sunburn soon gave way to some very brown skin.  We loved the ocean.

Our favorite thing to do was hunt for sharks' teeth.  Yes, there are sharks in them there waters, and there are teeth in them there sharks and they lose them and eventually they make it to shore.  I have picked up over 600 of them and keep them in a jar.  Most are teeny tiny, but some are noteworthy, if I do say so myself.  You would think they would be white, but actually they are dark....guess it depends on the type of shark.  I have a healthy respect for the ocean and all that is in it.  The fact that we can't see what is down there is thrilling and scary to me...like the imaginary boogie man in the closet or under the bed.
In the early 90's, I stepped on a stingray and he barbed me.  (Guess I deserved it.)  My leg went numb in minutes and it was several years before I would set my big toe in the water again.  Now I only get in up to my knees and even then I shuffle my feet.  Stingrays will move if you come up on one like that.
Tommy and I honeymooned at the Flagship Hotel that was out over the water on a pier.  It was quite a big deal back then at 20 bucks a night.  Isn't that a hoot?  It's recently been replaced by Pleasure Pier, looking much like Kemah with many rides and games, and there is a ten dollar fee just to enter.
Glen Campbell sang a song about Galveston long ago.  That's the Galveston I like best.  It was rough around the edges,  floats were allowed in the water,  it didn't cost to park on the Seawall (this is coming soon I am told), and it was affordable.  Progress is usually in the money business and better times are just in memories.

Still, I love it.  I try to look past all the 'wonderful' redo's of the island and see the old houses with shuttered windows, the oleanders that seem to always be in bloom, and all the streets with names of letters and numbers.  It's still there, that old Galveston.  Hurricanes have had their way in bringing about many of the changes, knocking down Murdoch's Bath House and damaging the Flagship pier, but you can't take away the smell of salt water, the cries of the seagulls, and the rarely ever blue waters of the bay....all the best parts are still there.  Go find them.

What is Good.....

Micah 6:8  "He has told you, O man, what is good;  and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
This is one of my favorite verses, hidden away in the Old Testament like a golden nugget waiting to be discovered.  What a picture of what God wants from us!  How simple the request.  The words look easy enough....do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.  Got it....that is until I try to do it.  I can't - and neither can you, by the way - without His help.  Maybe that's the whole point.  He knows we cannot do what He requires of us without His help.  Enter humility.
 O Lord, we need Your help to do as You ask.  We are incapable in our own strength.
In doing justice, may we love the unlovely, the broken, the poor.  May we seek to serve in Your name and for Your glory.
In loving kindness, may we encourage others, practice good manners, and put the welfare of others ahead of our own.
In walking humbly with You, may we seek Your face daily, read Your word and obey what we read.  May we bow before You and just praise You without asking for anything, being thankful for everything.
 "He has told you, O man, what is good"....   Let's practice these things.  He requires it.

Soup's On

Isn't Fall a great time of year to make soup?  I love soup and come September and cooler weather, I grab the recipe books and begin to make a list of ingredients needed to make all kinds.  Soup makes the whole house smell good....whether it's chili or chicken noodle or vegetable, and everything in between.  It is  comfort food.  Recently I was purging my house of all its excess....a task of monumental proportion.  I counted twenty eight soup bowls in my cabinet.  Now really, who was I going to cook for?  So I scaled down to a mere...lower number - and then, when I least expected it, I found some orange bowls in Iowa that I loved....only $1.50 a piece.  Self-control went out the window:(  They now have a new home in my kitchen.  Soup must be made - that's all there is to it.  If you would like to eat soup out of my orange bowls and experience Fall in my house, just give me a call.  I am ready!  
(Okay, two things -- I will wait awhile before writing again about this season I love...and I will continue to work on that self-control.)

Changed By the Weather

How often do we let the temperature outside dictate our temperature inside (of us)?  Summertime in Houston is a KILLER.  Why can't we move this city a little further north - say, Missouri or Kansas? Why do we have to be so close to that equator?  I have another question about that equator - why are the countries below it beginning Spring right now?  I will never understand that....nope, never. 
Back to my original thought....weather often changes our moods.  Do not deny it...I have witnessed it and experienced it myself.  Today was a cool(er) day where I live.  I say cool, meaning it is about 80 degrees outside right now...a real heat buster.
Low humidity makes all the difference in the world.  People smile more.  They talk about the weather, not as small talk, but because they want to.  Strange, because we are the same people, doing the same things we always do, but our steps are lighter and our moods brighter.  Face it.  A cool breeze after a sauna summer is heaven and a tie that binds....common ground for those that have survived August in the South.  I happen to know that those north of us appreciate Spring just as much, after the bitter cold that keeps them inside for months.  Just ask Jana and Matt.
I can't tell you how many emails and comments I have gotten about this drop in temps...even before it happened.  People that know I love Autumn, approach me with glee...and I get a "leafy" card from my friend Kim Carmichael every single year.  So happy some things do not change.  (There are worse things I could be known for, you know.)

The truth is, there is no Mother Nature.  It is God's design to have seasons. This is one of His best ideas.  Fall is like Christmas Eve every day - anticipation and delight until the last red leaf has sadly fallen to the ground.  But take heart...it returns in a year's time, to once again stir the imagination of good things to come.  All this expounding from one little cool front.  Get ready to enjoy Autumn!

Grandchildren

They are gifts.  Ask any grandparent.  At the time I am writing this, I have nine and none on the way....that I know of.  The very thought of a pregnancy might send them all over the edge of wherever the edges are because they all had babies this year...  It wasn't planned by anyone but God, so thank you, Lord.

My oldest, Lee and wife Shannon have four:

Luke Thomas and Emma Grace - 6 year old twins

Bella Rose - age 3

Ivy June - 5 months

FYI (that is us in the picture, not Lee and Shannon)

    My second oldest, Luke and wife YuJueng had their first on August 4th of this year, Mae Jaeyeon.

Ok.  This IS Luke and YuJueng and Mae, and oh yes, Flag.

                                                                                                                                                                 

Jana, our daughter and husband Matt also have four:

Adalynn Joy - age 6,

Levi Matthew - age 4

Ricky Ryan - age 2

Thomas James (T.J.) - 6 months

Again, this is not Jana and Matt.  It's us.

                                                                                                   Denny is unmarried....as far as I know.  If you see him, could you please tell him to call home?  Thanks.

It is pointless to say that they are all different.  Of course they are...even the twins are soooo not like each other.  How does God make so many individuals?  Think about the centuries before us.  I DO know that I am so thankful - and so are you - that everyone is not like me.  Let's just be grateful for small mercies.

Luke is unpredictable.

Emma is "anticipation"...always.

Bella is Lee Jr, female version.

              

Ivy is always thinking.

Mae - future music lover for sure.

Addie is creative.

Levi - well this face says it all.

Ricky - lady killer

T.J. - a future force to be reckoned with

Thank you Lord, for these blessings called grandchildren.  You think of everything.

Preacher Man

Yes, my grandma made my dress.

Most of you know that I am married to a preacher/pastor.  He didn't start out on that path when we met....far from it.  Did I say far?  I meant....right far.   He lived in our neighborhood.  Actually he lived there before we did, so I guess we lived in his neighborhood.  Anyway, after a time, Tommy became my oldest brother Ray's best friend.  Tommy had two younger brothers, Ricky and Jimmy.  Ricky was my brother Owen's friend and Jimmy was my youngest brother Wilbur's best friend and probably still is.  Needless to say, these boys were at our house on a daily basis....Tommy and I started dating when I was finishing ninth grade and he was finishing high school.  Yes, his friends told him he robbed the cradle.  Ninth grade was still a part of junior high back then. We dated on and off for about three years.  During that time, Tommy worked at the local grocery store, the A&P - which stood for Atlantic and Pacific something or other.  He was a stockboy and checker.  He would bring me displays from the store when they were done with them.  One time I got a big blown up cow.  I have no idea what it was for, but I had it.  He would also let me have singles of my favorite records.  They sold for around a dollar.  That was cool. 
When he left the A&P, he went to work for the gas company reading meters.  Lots of stories there about dogs and fences and guessing what the meter said because he couldn't get in the yard, etc.  One thing he learned from that job was how to get around Houston.  He knew every short cut there was.  I am not kidding.  He still has a knack for avoiding traffic in any given area of town.  (Years later, when I was in labor with our firstborn, I let my mom drive me to the hospital because he would have taken the bumpiest, pot hole filled street he could find in order to miss a red light.  Lee might have been born anywhere had I gone with him.)
The next job he had was with the U.S. Navy as a submariner.  He actually drove the sub.  He also did the dishes.  I dont think there are any traffic lights under the water, so short cuts were not necessary.  And apparantly he didn't like the task of dish washing or else he forgot how because.....
We got married while he was enlisted.  He came home on leave and we planned our wedding in two weeks.  I absolutely would never have let Jana do that.  Never.  Still, here we are forty-one years later come October 21st, more in love than ever.  He did not re-enlist so goodbye Guam, Hawaii, and all those other places that nuclear subs hang around.  Scary, huh?
The next job he had was a salesman in a sporting goods store.  Anyone remember Sporting Goods Inc?  We lived at that time in a "mother-in-law" house that sat in the Marsh's backyard.  We had great memories there and it was while we lived there that he got a job at the ARCO plant...now Lyondell-Citgo.  He started out making grease and ended up in marketing downtown.  He worked for ARCO/Lyondell for twenty years.  I know those plants are eye sores and they stink and are dirty and make the sky any color but blue, but it was a good living and we are grateful for those twenty years.
And then...(because somewhere between the Navy and the sporting goods store, Tommy became a Christian and his love for God's word grew).....he received his associate degree in divinty and went on staff at the church we were attending and stayed there for seven years, before leaving and starting the church we are in now.
So the grocery clerk turned meter reader turned submariner turned salesman turned plant worker turned associate pastor turned pastor lives happily ever after....with me.
Many things have happened in our lives over the years, some good, some not so good, but God is always good and He has been with us through it all.  He has kept us and will keep us...until His return for us or He calls us home.

I recently read some blogs that refer to the husband as "farmer" or "cowboy", describing what he does rather than who he is.  I cannot see myself typing "preacher" or "pastor" when talking about Tommy.  It would sound ridiculous.  So he will remain "Tommy" and he will remain mine.

Bluegrass....All In the Family

   Tommy in the 70's

My family is musical, except for me...but they should be glad because someone needs to be the audience, right?  My husband, brothers, and son Lee have been in more bluegrass groups than you can shake a stick at.  Lee plays the mandolin, guitar, and banjo....all very well. Tommy plays the mandolin.  My brother Owen plays the dobro and his wife Laurette plays the upright bass.  My brother Wilbur plays the guitar and banjo and wife Kasie plays the fiddle. My older brother Ray also played upright bass when he was still with us.  Tommy's brother Jimmy plays the guitar. They all sing.

My son Luke is the classical musician, playing the piano and teaching music at Northwestern college in Iowa..  His wife YuJueng sings, plays piano and teaches music as well.  Luke also played the mandolin in a little group called Angel Band that he, Lee and Kasie were part of for a short time....remember, I said more groups than you can shake a stick at. Denny, son #3 also plays the guitar.

I am surrounded by music and music lovers. Currently, no group exists.  They just meet with friends in homes once in a while and jam for hours....and hours.  Do you have a picker in your house?  He is a unique specimen to behold....unlike any other.  Conversation is one sided.  They are listening, sort of, and they nod slowly in agreement or just stare if they are thinking, but if they have to speak, they have to stop the music, so it is unlikely you will get an answer until the song is over.  Ask me how I know this. 
In earlier years we attended any bluegrass festival within driving distance, lawn chairs in tow.  Kerrville used to be the place to congregate.  We knew Ricky Skaggs before he was RICKY SKAGGS.  He played the Kerrville festivals wearing jeans with holes in the knees before it was popular, and a white tee shirt. It was all very casual and he would come and visit with us.  He picked up Tommy's "Tom Ellis mandolin" and played it.  His talent was real and it wasn't long before the world knew it.
Bluegrass is NOT the same as Country.  It's all about the instruments.  Singing is great, but can you pick?  During the tunes, every picker gets to play a 'break' and display the skills he possesses.  In order to have those skills, he must practice for what seems like most of his life.  His dedication to know his instrument is obsessive.  I am speaking in masculine terms because that is what I have lived with - a husband, sons, and brothers. The "shes" of the music world equally sacrifice the time to perfect the skill.
Pickers do not have to know each other....they just have this built in radar that draws them together and out come the instruments and all that is needed is for one of them to lead by saying "G", "D", "C", etc - meaning 'play this chord next'.  It's truly amazing to see the love of this art and that focused stare come over their faces all in unison.  A phenomenon to behold - (said with some sarcasm).  Everyone else in the room becomes invisible....it's magic.
   Tommy no longer owns a mandolin and only picks one up if there is an extra one laying around when the guys play in our living room.  His skills are rusty, but the love of the music remains. 

Bluegrass lives on - and once in a while it is 'live' in our house.