Sometime right before Christmas I got one of those family letters that circulate around about that time of year extolling all the wonders of the writers immediate family. However, this one was different..........it didn't really go on and on about the writers children, although it did mention the grandkids. She also asked about our family and what everybody was doing and enclosed an e-mail address so I could e-mail her.

But what caught my eye and to the extent that I called my niece and my son to comment on it, was a statement she made. "Marie said that she hadn't seen Douglas Adams in years until he came to Bobby's(her husband)funeral." Now the Douglas she was talking about was not my grandson, but my brother-in-law who died in 1988. She also mentioned Gerry, who died in 1998.

I got on my trusty, soon to fade computer, and e-mailed her and brought her to to date on everybody, including Connie, Tom and Boots. Haven't heard from her yet, but I'm still hoping. She was in Colorada when I got the letter and was heading for her new home in Florida after she finished babysitting the grandkids. Don't you think thats weird? Not knowing about some of the people you were closest to when you were a kid?

Brittany is getting to be quite a conversationalist. Her best friend Anna is partly responsible because Anna talks non stop and in order to keep up to snuff, Brittany has to do a lot of talking,too.

The other morning I asked her what she wanted for breakfast. (Her favorite breakfast is an omelet and ham or bacon.) So she said "I'll have an ummlet(her pronunciation) and ham." I fixed her food and after she cut her omelet up with a plastic knife she looked at me and said,"Damma Maxine, can I have the catsup?" I said, "What"? because she doesn't even eat catsup on her fries anymore. She looked at me like I didn't have good sense and in a very exasperated tone said, "Catsup, you know.....dat red stuff".

Thursday I had some strawberries that Cindy had brought me and she saw them in the fridge and wanted one. I told her that after breakfast I'd give her some. After she ate I washed 3 big ones and she sat and ate them and wiped her mouth and a little while later she had to go to "do a poopie". I went to check to make sure she'd wiped and to help her wash her hands. She hopped off the commode and looked into it and with a puzzled look asked,"Damma Maxine, is dat my stwawberry"? What it was was an odd shaped doo ball that did kinda look like a strawberry!

She loves my lighthouse shower curtain and always makes comments about the wighthouses on it. Friday she was in the bathroom and she said, "Damma Maxine, I weally like your wighthouse shower curtain. My daddy got me a new bath tub." I told her that maybe she could get a lighthouse curtain. I asked her if her tub had a curtain or a door. She thought about it for a while and said "A door". But actually, the old tub had a door. This tub will have a shower curtain. So..........Maybe?????? A Wighthouse Curtain???????????

I was cleaning out my desk drawer and found a picture of Kerri with some tall curly haired boy, she was probably about 16, and I showed Brittany the pic and asked her who it was. She looked and said, "Dat's my mama, but dat ain't my daddy"! Out of the mouths of babes!

Saturday morning Cindy and I went to two moving sales. One had nothing but junk, but the other one had lots of good stuff. Cindy bought a sofa and the guy gave her a real old doll and a couple of old puzzles. I bought a chair for my computer that is so comfortable and looks good, too. Also a miniature vase for my friend who collects them.

Then we went to DAV where I found a few books and we went to the Dove store where I found a few more books.

After we went back to my house I called Sears and my new glasses were back so we went to pick them up. We came back to the house and I made us a sandwich and no matter how much I tried on my glasses, they looked awful with my hair. Cindy asked why I didn't call Wal-mart to see if Kelly, Sharon's friend was working. I did and she was, so we went to Wal-Mart. Kelly gave me a haircut I love. It's short and easy to style and everybody who has seen it has liked it.Today she came by the house and brought me some hair wax, hairspray and something else to use when I fix it. Now, thats what I call above and beyond the call of duty.

Sunday I was coming down the road in Richard's Buick and had to stop at a traffic light. While I was waiting for the traffic to turn in front of me, a 55 Ford passed. It was in fine shape.....shiny, no dents, whitewalls even a dark blue color. All of a sudden, I had this really weird feeling. Way back in '55 I dated a guy who drove a 55 dark blue Ford. I had had "crushes" on boys before, but this guy was really special. I dated him for a year, went and met his parents and siblings, uncle and aunt and his grandma. All of them liked me except his mom. His G'ma was really special and would hold me on her lap and tell me how welcome I would be to the family. Of course, I only weighed 110 pounds at the time, so I fit well on her lap.

I remember when my sister was living in No. Augusta, S.C. and was expecting her baby and my mom wanted to see her and he took us down there one Friday night. Richard went, too. He was about 3 years old and slept all the way. We spent the weekend and even talked of getting married while we were there, but decided not to. I think I was scared of having his mom for a mother-in-law, although I would have been happy with the rest of the family.

He looked like a light haired Elvis. You know, those sultry eyes and that sexy mouth and the sideburns. Ummmmm, he was HOT!!!Although that wasn't a word used to describe someone's looks back then!!!

I married Boots and he married this girl named Joan right after Tami was born and about 20 years ago I ran into his uncle and aunt and she told me he had died of a heart attack the year before.

I've thought that if I'd married him instead of Boots, I would have had blue eyed children instead of all brown. But I wouldn't have had but four (that was the number we had settled on) so which ones wouldn't I have had? That's not something I want to think about.....I would not want to have missed having any of my seven, so every thing turned out OK. It was just such a shock to see that car that was a clone from my past.

Friday Kerri told me that they were going to Virginia Beach for the weekend and the hotel had a heated pool. I told Brittany that I had a couple of swim suits and we found them and she tried on the one that she liked the best. She was still wearing it when Anna came home from pre-school and of course Anna wanted one too. I helped her get it on and she preened and strutted and declared,"I really look good in this swim soup".

Tommy and Rebecca are here this weekend and Tommy and I went to a moving sale. He got a skate board and I bought 20 books and some new kitchen things and five of the cutest snowmen stocking holders. Last Christmas I decorated my mantle with snowmen and these holders will be just perfect if I go that route again. He was asking $2 each for the five, but let me have all of them for $3. Of course, I don't really need five, but maybe somebody will come along who needs two.

We walked down to The Painted Nest this afternoon and Anni, the owner, has some of the prettiest things. I wish I had lots of money just to buy all that pretty stuff I liked. I did sort of lay away something for a birthday present and bought the cutest lil puppy for my friend Betty who just had heart surgery. While I was there Anni asked me if I would make cheese straws for a meeting of The Red Hat Society that is meeting at her store on Thursday.

The North looks so good all lit up and sparkling clean these days. They had a play there last night and again tonight and just looking at it reminded me of "the good old days."

Well, all the stuff in my head disappeared when I sat down to write,so I'll say good night for now. "Bye!!

My friend Kelly called me last week and said she had a 1989 Ford Tiempo that I could have if I wanted it.That it hadn't been run in about a year, but she thought it could be fixed up without too much of a problem. Jackie went and hauled it to his house Monday evening, but the weather hasn't been the best to work on automobiles. However, yesterday was sort of nice so he finally got it started. He called me today and told me to come out and look at it to see if I really wanted to drive it before he did any thing else to it. Seems it needs a water pump for sure, the headlights and rims that hold them in, and who knows what else. Jackie said the inside looked like a herd of goats had been in there eating it. He said it probably could be fixed up, but that it would probably cost more than its worth. I'll go out there one day soon and check it out, but right now, I'm not very hopeful.