Tribute To A Daughter

Someone else turned a year older in January.  Guess who?

Yep.  There's now an eleven-year-old girl in the house!  I've written so much about Eler Beth in this journal, that most readers probably know her pretty well.  You probably won't want to go back and read all these linked entries, but I sure did have fun re-reading them myself! 

If you've read my journal for very long, you know that Eler Beth loves to fish, and hunt, and collect and learn about fossils and rocks and minerals; that she loves her pets, is good at finding things and noticing things and helping to catch crooks; that she likes to name her possessions, even plants and bicycles!  She's smart and funny and quick-witted and very much a Momma's Baby and a Daddy's Girl, and thinks the sun sets and rises on her grandmother!  (It does, actually.)  She can do anything a boy can do, but she still loves to dress girlie, go shopping and has been known to succumb to the lure of a pair of earrings.  She's tough and will charge into battle against a boy twice her size if she thinks he's threatening her big brother, but passively allow a nurse to take some blood?  No way!  She misses her former school principal who died last year and whom she credits with "changing her life" by making her "drop everything and read".  She got to pet a real live white Bengal Tiger cub, named Glacier, at Bass Pro Shop.  She's quite a little communicator, too.  One thing I miss about working is getting emails from her at work.  They were precious.  And she gave us a wonderful anniversary gift last year.

Yep, that's my girl!

A Sisterly Tribute

Since today is the last day of January, I just want to mention that my sister Dennice turned 59 one day this month (for her privacy I won't say which day).  So I decided to do a little tribute to her.  If you click on the link above you'll get a little background information on this eldest of the Dowell children, if you haven't already.  I will re-post a bit of that here and continue with a funny "Dennice" story.

Dennice is a Speech and Language Pathologist who works in a school system and who also takes private clients. The rest of us thought it was rather ironic when she decided to become a Speech Pathologist because, of all of us, Dee is known as the "talker". She also has a very country/Southern accent that none of the rest of us have, even though we all grew up in the same county in Kentucky. Dee never fails to put her foot in her mouth and then proceed to make matters worse by trying to explain herself out of the situation. And although now, in her later years, she doesn't get into quite as many physical scrapes as she did when she was younger, she is still known as the one who could fall up a set of stairs, and the one who once backed into a parked school bus -- among other things. Oh, the stories I could tell!

And I think I'll tell one now.

When I was about 8 years old Dennice and her husband and young daughter lived in a mobile home for a few years.  At this time she was a stay-at-home-mom, and one who was never idle.  She kept herself busy from sunup to sundown with housekeeping, yardwork, a garden and her young daughter.  One day she took the notion to put a fresh coat of paint on the bathroom.  She'd been painting for a few minutes when it occurred to her that she hadn't opened the window, and that that just might be a good idea!  Struggle as she could, though, she could not get the window in the little bathroom to open.  So she grabbed a hammer and tapped a few times; but the window remained stuck.

Dennice wasn't going to give up easily, so she went outside and around to the back of the trailor to see if tapping on it from the outside would do the trick.  When she got around back, lo and behold, the window was open!  Humpf, she thought!  Her tapping must have loosened it after all!

Back inside she went, to pick up her paint brush and resume her work.  When she got back inside the bathroom the window had closed.  She tried and tried but once again the window was stuck.

Back outside she trudged, hammer in hand, to give that blankety-blank window a piece of her mind.  The window, once again, was open.  This time she charged back inside, a martial light in her eye, just daring that window to be closed.

It was!

Okay.  Was she imagining this?  Had the paint fumes got to her after all?  One more time she was going to go outside, and if that window was open she was going to go get someone to stand guard outside while she went inside, and they were going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

Back outside she went, plan of action in mind, hammer in hand, and a determined set to her jaw.  The window was open.

Furious now and muttering epithets under her breath, she shoved her hammer through the open window, where it landed with a clatter in the kitchen sink.

Yes, the kitchen sink.

Now, as you know, kitchen sinks aren't usually found in bathrooms, but are rather usually located in a kitchen. 

Stunned, she looked to her right, and, sure enough, there was the bathroom window, right where it had been the whole time, stuck tight.

Now, that's a cute story in and of itself, but the really funny thing, and the thing that makes it a true"Dennice" story is the fact that had she not told on herself, none of the rest of us would ever have known about it.  That's my sister, Dennice!

(Oh, I've got a lot of Dennice stories!  This is just the beginning!)

Tags: Family stories

Thought For The Day:

Some People Are Like Slinkies.......................    

 

 

     They are not really good for anything..........................

 

            BUT............................

 

     They still bring a smile to your face 

 

                      When you push them down a flight of stairs!  

  

Wednesday Wanderings

It is, once again, deceivingly beautiful outside today.  Our wind chill is currently about 8 degrees F, but the sun is shining and the skies are clear.  There were some flurries earlier today, but no accumulation.  I fear that is about to change.  It looks like we are either going to get a little accumulation tomorrow or we're going to get icy rain; I'd rather have the snow.

I've done my seasonal cleaning on my kitchen and laundry room (to borrow Martha's term for it), and thought I deserved to get out for a while on this gorgeous day.  With the radio playing and my shades on I could pretend it was a nice early spring day -- until I stepped out of my nicely heated car.

My first stop was the bank to make a deposit into one of our savings accounts.  This particular account is a Passbook Account, and usually I glance at my book when I get it back before I put it away.  This morning after I left the bank I drove on to Kroger and got a really, really good parking space!  But just before I got out of the car I realized I hadn't looked at my account book.  We've used this bank for many years and I can only remember one time that they made a mistake, which they corrected practically as soon as they'd made it.  But I'm a creature of habit and a victim of compulsive behavior, so there was no way I wasn't going to look at it once I'd thought of it; turns out it's a good thing I did!  I'd deposited $400, but my book showed a deposit of only $40.  So it was off to the bank again.  They apologised and corrected my deposit, and I went back to Kroger.  My five star parking space was gone, of course, but there was one just a couple down, so that wasn't too bad.

After a little shopping there I went to Wal-Mart and splurged on a few little items for myself.  I bought some clear plastic storage totes, too, because you can never have too many of those, and I plan to continue my seasonal cleaning, room by room, so they may come in handy.

Well, I'm off to get some lunch, but I'll be back.  I have a few entries I want to make today.  Til later!

This and That

It's very cold here today, but deceivingly sunny.  Every time I step outside I feel like someone has pulled one over on me.  Brrr.

We did get a little snow here on Tuesday, Wednesday and even yesterday, but we've had no accumulation.  Yesterday the sun was shining brightly the whole time it was snowing.  I'm going to stop complaining, though.  At least I've seen some snow this year, even if it did disappear once it hit the ground, and at least it's cold enough to feel like a normal winter.

Last night was Open House at Prosser, where Andrew is taking computer programming.  The whole family went, and we had a nice time.  It was nice to see Andrew's classroom and talk with his instructor; we know a few of the other instructors there, and some of the students, so we had a lot of people to talk to.  Andrew is doing well in his class, and I think maybe he's found his niche.

Today was a special day for Eler Beth.   Back in November her school conducted its annual fund-raiser, and one of the incentive prizes was a limo ride to lunch with the principal, for selling a certain number of items.  There were 15 students who earned the limo ride, and Eler Beth was one of them.  She took a camera along, so hopefully I'll have a few photos to share soon.  They went to Pizza Hut; three adults, including the principal, and the 15 students in one stretch limousine.  The students ranged from pre-school to 5th grade, so it must have been quite a fun time!

I've been kind of bad about journaling this week, although I have tried to keep up with everyone else's journals.  I've been introduced to a few new journals (new to me) that I'm enjoying reading. 

I've also been trying to get some major cleaning done here in the house; as opposed to regular maintenance cleaning.  I've cleaned, re-lined and re-organized all my kitchen and pantry shelves and cabinets, which I guess I do about every three or four months.  It was time.  I also took all the blades and light fixtures apart on my ceiling fan in the kitchen and gave them a good scrubbing.  I try to keep them dusted, but they still get so grimy that once in a while I just can't stand it and have to see them really clean.

Does anyone else out there ever get down on their hands and knees to scrub a floor anymore?  I do.  Not all the time, of course, but once every so often I just have to do my kitchen and utility room floors that way; the bathroom and entrance hall, too.  When I was growing up we had hardwood floors in most of the rooms of our house, and although they were swept daily and mopped at the very least once a week, my mother would, about once a month, get down on her hands and knees and clean them.  She'd have a bucket of soapy water and a bucket of clean, rinse water, and I can remember helping her to scrub them.  I actually enjoy doing it once in a while; I get a really good sense of satisfaction knowing that every inch is completely clean, and it actually feels good physically.  I used to like to wash down walls, too, but not so much anymore. lol

So anyway, my kitchen and utility room floors have been cleaned and polished.  I guess I'll stay with the kitchen theme and give my appliances a good cleaning by next week.  That'll be one room's Spring cleaning just about done! 

And I guess that's about it; not too much exciting going on in the Helms household right now, but I may be back later with something.  I wouldn't put it past me!  Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Can It Be??

It's snowing!!!

Not much so far, but it is snow!

 

The dogs woke me up, so I peeked outside to see what they were barking at.  I still don't know what they were barking at, but I saw these little, tiny, white things floating softly down out of the sky.

"Snow?"  I asked myself.  "Can that be snow?  It's been so long since I've actually seen any."  So I slipped on my shoes and stepped outside. 

Yep, it is snow.  Wet, tiny little flakes, but it is snow.

Let the word go forth -- Jeffersonville is finally seeing some snow!

Guess What?

No. Snow.

None.

We got a very little bit of freezing rain and sleet early Sunday morning, then it turned to plain old rain.  When that stopped, we got nothing for the rest of the day Sunday.  They are saying we may get a few flurries today sometime, but I think it's all a nasty rumour, personally!

I think Colorado is going to get our snow today, and they don't need any more!  Areas a bit North and East of us did finally get some snow yesterday.  I just want a little bit of snow, you know?  Just a little!