Seems like it's been a long time since I wrote, but I haven't had a lot to write about.

After the new year, school started back up and I had two babies full time and one part time. They still come up with funny things they do and say, and a lot of it comes right out of the mouths of their respective mothers. "You close that cabinet door and do it RIGHT now", says one while pointing her crooked lil finger at all of my open cabinet doors. "I want to hold you", says another while clinging to my knees. " I made POOPIE, I made POOPIE", yells another from her seat on the toilet. But for the most part, they love each other and play very well together, and they all sing "Clean up, clean up, every body clean up" when I tell them to pick up the toys in the den.

In the last two weeks, we've had three snow and ice weather watches, but so far they've sorta fizzled out. The snow did fall beautifully for about an hour Thursday, but it didn't stick and it didn't do it for long. But Brittany really enjoyed it. She ate some, laid down in it, made handprints in it and generally had a good time. By the time she left to go home, it had stopped and the sun was trying to come out.

I think I might have mentioned my "lost" TV stand that Tami ordered to go with the TV she got me for Christmas. Well, it got stuck in a snow storm in Illinois the week before Christmas and thats as far as it was ever tracked. She finally gave up and cancelled the order, got a credit for what she'd paid and got me a stand here at Sears. It looks really good and Douglas and Emily did a good job of putting it together. Well, I've gotten 3 calls from UPS to see if I've gotten my order yet. I told the girl last week that the order had been cancelled about three weeks ago and she thanked me and hung up. It's still out there in mid America somewhere.

Cindy and Dave went to Chocolates and Champagne tonight at the Museum of Fine Arts and History and brought me a plate of GOOD looking chocolates of all kinds. Cindy had wrapped a truffle in a napkin and put it in her purse for me when she saw all these other fancy looking people fixing plates to go, so she made me a plate. She also brought me a long stemmed red rose and two wine glasses. The funny thing is, I had locked the front door when the kids left to go skating and they walked up, turned the knob and had been in the house for about fifteen minutes when I heard them down stairs. I was up in my room on the computer, talking to Kelly, with my door closed to keep Tiger out of my room and I didn't hear them and they thought I had gone off and left the door open. So now, I'm in my room, but the other lock is on the door. I think I need a new lock!!!

Speaking of locks, on a cold Monday about two weeks ago, Rachel and I were going to run to the post office before it closed at 5PM, and I thought I had my keys in my coat pocket, went out and closed the basement door behind me and went to the car and NO KEYS!!! I sent Rachel to the funeral home to see if they had a spare key, but they didn't. I had already tried the door and it was locked solidly. I knew Cindy had a key, but Rachel had left her cell phone in the house and I didn't remember her number any way. So, I walked back over to the door, told the Lord that I really needed to get in to get my keys, and tried it again and the door came open. I've tried that several times since( when I had my keys with me), but the door has remained locked. And I did make it to the post office in time!

I haven't taken Rebecca and Tommy to see Sharon since the last Sat. in October because they haven't been here on an even Sat., except one and it iced that day. So I decided to take them on a Sunday.

Enterprise provided the transportation, a 2005 Yukon, which to my surprise was very easy to drive. I had expected it to be different, but once I got into it, it didn't appear to be any bigger than Richard's Buick. It just went so much faster.

We left Danville at 9:22am and got to the parking lot at Fluvanna at 12:12pm. Thats less than 3 hours. Coming home we stopped at a Sheetz in Lynchburg, pumped gas, went inside so the kids could get a slushie, stood in line to pay and still made it home in less than 3 hours. Of course, the traffic on Sunday was considerably less than it is on Saturday.

After we got home, of course the kids were starving so I had to fix something that would be fast so they ate easy mac and hot pockets. Tommy didn't have anything to take back to Stoneville, but Rebecca had her glasses, her contact lens solution and her lens case. We put it in a baggie and put it in the car and went on our way. When we got to Ginnys, Rebecca and Emily hopped out of the car and ran in so Rebecca could show Emily her drums and when we got home the phone was ringing. Rebecca had left her stuff in the car.

I've decided that when I get another car, if I can't get a Hyundai sonata, I want a small SUV, maybe a Nisson Quest. Of course, by then, I might have to get one of those little scoot arounds that I see on TV.

Saturday evening we had a Valentine's Banquet at church. We had a lot of good food and desserts and games, we just didn't have that many people show up. We had it as a fund raiser for our WW and the fee was only $5 for one or $9 for a couple. I think we had 6 to attend that didn't go to church there.

Today is Valentine's Day. So far, I have gotten 4 boxes of chocolates and 2 chocolate roses. And I had decided to go on a diet today!! Guess I'll have to put it off til the candy is gone.

Last night I got ready to go to bed and when I turned off the light and got comfortable, I found I couldn't get to sleep. Now, I never have a problem getting to sleep,but I twisted and turned and finally discovered what the problem was. I have lived in this house since 1991 and have always slept with my bed in the same place. Where the bed is I can, after I turn my light off, see the light on the church across the street. It has always soothed me to sleep, but last night the light was out. Today I called a guy I know who goes to church there and told him of my problem and he went by and changed the light bulb which had burned out and now as I look out my window, I see it burning brightly. And so I'm anticipating a good night's sleep tonight.

Today I got a catalog from Sears called Kid's Rooms and Brittany spent a good 45 minutes looking at the beds, bedspreads, and other decorations. When she got to the last two pages, she found just what she was looking for........a bunk bed with a princess castle built around and over it. It had steps leading up to the top bunk and a slide coming down. She sat there for a while just looking at it and I asked her what she would do with a bed like that and she told me. She said that when her mommy told her to go to bed, she'd say (and her voice sounded just like her mama)"Brittany, get yoself in de bed now and I mean it." I asked her what she'd do in the morning when she woke up in that bed. "I'd say, Goooood Morning, mama. Did you sleep good? Then I'd slide down dat slide and land on de floor." She was gonna take the catalog to show her mom and dad, but she forgot it. But thats OK.........I saved it for her.

Rebecca and Tommy are spending the weekend with me. Actually they came on Thursday since Friday was a teacher work day and they didn't have school. Thursday evening we ate supper, Sarah ate with us and we played Scrabble for a while and watched TV.

Friday, I had to babysit and they "helped". Rachel and Chad came by after school and after supper, all the kids went skating.After Rebecca and Tommy came home, they got ready for bed and we watched TV for a little while and then I tucked Rebecca in and got myself ready for bed. Tommy had dozed off on the sofa all covered up and when I got ready to go upstairs, he looked so comfortable that I just left him there. I went up, turned off my computer, said my prayers and went to sleep. After what seemed like just a very few minutes, a bright light shown in my room, then it went off and I heard clump, clump, clump, really fast coming up the steps and then Tommy's bedroom door slammed. It didn't take me long to figure out that he had awakened and decided to get in his own bed. But he did it so quickly!! Saturday morning when he got up he asked me if I had carried him to bed. I told him how he got there, but he didn't remember anything about it.

I had an eye appointment at 1PM on Saturday and took Rebecca and Emily with me to shop while I got my eyes checked. I went on home because I had to pick up Tommy at Susans and go to the grocery store, but they stayed on for about an hour and Ron picked them up and brought them home.

Before we went to the store, Tommy asked if we could go to the science museum to see the new exibit. It was called The Predators and was really interesting. Tommy went ahead of me into one of the rooms and there was a life size shark facing a small cage. He stepped into the cage, face to face with that big open mouth with all those teeth, and a train went by and sounded it's horn just as he stepped into the cage and you never saw a lil fellow move so fast in your life! He screamed and jumped back and then realized what the noise was and I think it sorta embarassed him. But it scared me, too. I KNOW sharks don't whistle or toot, but it was so unexpected.

Then we went to the grocery store and bought the essentials and a few non essentials, came home, ate supper and now Rebecca, Emily and Tommy are gone skating again. I think Rachel went again tonight, along with Susan and her kids. I cleaned up the kitchen, got up a load of dirty clothes and now I'm waiting for them to get back.

To top off the weekend, the weather people are saying it's gonna sleet and snow in the morning. Well, I just checked again and now they saw it will be rain tomorrow, not icy stuff. That's OK!!!

I was sitting here thinking that it would have been so nice to have had a cassette recorder many years ago when I was a kid. I guess what got me to thinking was that I found a blank tape and put it into my very old recorder and the kids, even in this day of computers, portable dvd players and such, had a grand old time with it.

Just think, if I had a cassette recorder when I was Rebecca and Rachel's age, I could have captured all those stories Banny Hall used to tell when we were held captive on the front porch on Highland Ct.(then Pickett St.)due to rain or a thunderstorm. Then you could hear about the first picture she ever saw, a daguerreotype, which was a chemically treated print made on a sheet of metal or glass and was kinda brownish in color.Or you would know how when she was younger and lived in the hills around Lynchburg, VA that she was called on to treat sick younguns, deliver babies, or even sew severed appendages back on.You would hear about her G'ma who worked in a plantation house for a very snooty matron, who ended up waltzing in a large crowd of people with a greasy dishrag pinned to her bustle.(The matron, not great, great G'ma).

She entertained all the kids in the neighborhood with the best and scariest ghost stories that she vowed were true. As she spun her tales, the porch got progressively more crowded, with us(the REAL grandkids) almost in her lap. As she talked you could hear the chains rattle, see the blood stains that wouldn't come out of the wood floor and hear that mournful train whistle as the ghost train rumbled down the tracks.

We heard about when she was born her mother got up from her child birth bed and carried her to the train station to see the train carrying Abraham Lincoln's body as it went by. That woman could spin a tale!

On the other side, the Craig side, we got stories too. About the Civil War gold that was hidden in Bedford and where G'pa thought it was. We heard about G'pa's twin cousins who fought in the "war between the states" when they were just young teens. About escapades involving my daddy's brothers when they were young. We heard countless stories about two uncles who both served their army time as soldiers at the tomb of the unknown soldier in Arlington. Oh, to have had a tape recorder!