Seems like since I started babysitting a six month old, I haven't had as much time as I did when I had a 3, 4, and 5 year old. Wonder why?

Last Sat. was fairly warm and there were 4 or 5 yardsales, so we went. I really like going with Tommy S. cause everytime I pick up something I think I want to buy, if he's found something, he'll just take mine and pay for it too. We found some pretty good things Sat. I got little Tommy 2 pairs of nice jeans for 50 cents each. Then big Tommy bought lil Tommy and Chad 3 games you plug into the TV to play and Brittany a three wheel scooter so she'd have one at home and one at my house.

After yardsales, I ran to the grocery store and then in the afternoon, Tami and Kaitlyn came up and we finally got to exchange Christmas presents. We went to Kerri's for a while and then I came on back home so Tami could have some private time with her daughter.

Emily spent the night with Rebecca and they went to church. Not Sunday School, church. Which leads me to the story I'm going to relate.

There's a man in our merged church who has been a widower for about 4 years. I think he's asked every single, divorced or widowed lady in church to go with him to the mountains. So far, no takers! Anyway, I think I wrote about him hugging me at our class Christmas breakfast and I definitely didn't like it. Too close for comfort!! Anyway, Sunday morning I was standing at my pew waiting to help Mildred Moorefield up (it takes me and her daughter to get her up off the pew) and Rebecca walked up. Morris (the above mentioned man) was standing there having shook Mildred's hand and Rebecca leaned over and said something in Morris's ear. On the way to the parking lot I asked her what she'd said and she said, very casually, "Oh, I just told Morris that you really wanted him to hug you". Well, I gave her "down in the country" for that.

I noticed he kept on looking at me Sunday night and grinning, but I didn't really pay that much attention to him. Then early Monday morning the phone rang and it was Morris. He just wanted to ask me if what Rebecca had told him was true. I told him absolutely not! That I didn't like to be hugged and I wasn't a hugger. Actually, I really do like hugs and hugging, just not him. His body gets waaay to close to mine when he hugs and once was enough!

Today in 4th grade, all the kids had to write a poem. Here's Chad's poem:

After I play all afternoon,

I like to look at the moon.

Some craters look like alligators.

The moon is like a big glowing cheese

I hope a mouse doesn't eat it, please

The moon shines bright like a traffic light,

It gleams and glows at night.

Well, where do I start? Seems like it's been so long. I was getting some stuff up for the yard sale our church is having this Sat. and found a pair of opera glasses with a neck cord. Since Brittany loves the good ones that belonged to Boots, I gave her the ones I found. She was sitting on the edge of the bed looking at me thru them, first the big end, then the little end. Then she turned them back around to the correct way, and said "I really like looking at you thru this end, G'ma. I can see all your wrinkles real good."

Baby Coby is thriving! He's got 2 teeth since I started babysitting him and has probably gained 7 or 8 pounds. He looks like a lil boy now instead of a baby. He can sit up and can get up on his knees and go backwards. He can also quack! He looks so surprised when he does it. Like, WHAT is that?

Tomorrow at church we're having a pancake breakfast and a yardsale. I guess I need to get to bed cause I have to get up early and get there by 7AM. It's supposed to start at 8, so we have an hour to get cooking.

Today after church I got a phone call. My friend Faye had died at church. Seems she had gone to the rest room and when she didn't return, someone went looking for her and found her on the floor. An ambulance was called, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

I wonder if she had a premonition? Talking to people close to her I found that she had called a friend and together they had written her obituary. It was found on her table when her daughter went to her apartment this morning after church. Also, her usual Sunday morning routine was a quick talk to Richard before church. This morning it lasted longer than usual. Also, she usually went to church then went by the nursing home to see her sister. This morning she went to see her sister before church. She called me last night for a chat while she was running her bath water. She said she felt fine when I asked her. Said her leg got tired faster now that she was getting old. She told me to tell a friend at our church that she said "hey".

I think I've known Faye about all my life. I remember when I was just a lil kid before I started to school, she would come with her mother to visit the lady who lived across the street from us. She'd had polio long before a vaccine was even a gleam in Salk's eye and she wore a brace on her leg. Her mom would pull her over to Pickett St. in a red wagon. At that time she lived on Farrar St. and the highway hadn't been built yet, so in order to get from Farrar to Pickett you had to go over the whee bump and up Henry to Pickett.(Now Highland Ct.)

Once she came over with her mom and her friend's daughter and I were playing in a pile of sand and Faye's mom told her not to get in it because it would get in her brace and irritate her leg. Needless to say, as soon as her mom got out of sight, Faye was in the sand pile pouring sand all over herself.I really envied her her brace. I thought it was really a good accessory to have.

Faye was a beautiful child and young woman. She had thick dark hair and beautiful skin and eyes that were always laughing. Add to that a beautiful singing voice and a wonderful personality and you had Faye.

I know that she will be greatly missed here by her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and friends. But just remember, now she has that perfect leg with no aches and pains and I can just see her skipping down that street of gold beside the crystal sea.

Goodbye, dear friend. Talk to you later.

Yesterday, Friday, my friend Ava came by here and asked if Susan or I would go with her to Roman Eagle Nursing Home where she had been taking a CNA class so she could practice some of her stuff before she takes her state boards next week.

Well, Susan wouldn't go, so I did. She did volunteer to watch Coby while I went.

We got there and I had to lay in a hospital bed and she did some kind of arm and leg exercises on me.(I was an old lady not able to move)Then she put a belt like contraption around my body to help get me up so she could put me in a wheel chair. Then I had to lay back down and she took my pulse, did respirations and took my temperature. I also had to roll over, with her help, and she put me on the bed pan.(I kept my jeans on).

She was supposed to weigh me and clean my pretend dentures, but got side tracked by the teacher who was trying to sell her some Mary Kay perfume. After she checked my blood pressure, I got out of the bed and she put the one armed dummy back and made the bed around the "patient". Quite a fun filled hour!

Today was YARDSALE day. Tommy and Richard picked me up at 6:45 and we went to quite a few. Got some good stuff. I ended up with 2 big, really nice book shelves. Light colored wood, very heavy and new looking. Also, about 10 new books, a lighthouse welcome sign, 2 blazers for spring, various and sundry items for the kids and a girl baby doll, all wrinkled and anatomically correct. I can't wait to hear what Brittany says when she takes it's diaper off.

Cindy came this afternoon to go to the rugger roast and since we want to go see Doug's play tomorrow afternoon, I cooked tonight so we'll have time to eat before we go. I made macaroni salad and broccoli casserole except for the topping (I'll do that right before I cook it), and cooked the wings enough so all I have to do is add the hot sauce and stick them in the oven. I might cook some corn, but then again, I might not.

Can't sleep so I thought I'd catch up a little. Of course, the reason why I can't sleep is because I fell asleep in my comfy recliner and slept from 9:30 til 12:45. I did see the Idol results, tho. Can't figure out why Gina got booted off and Hayley didn't.

I think babysitting at my age is starting to get to me. Now in the evenings when I sit down to watch TV, seems like my eyes just want to close. Maybe it's because I'm getting up a lot earlier and being on the move from 7:30 til 5:30. However, Coby is a pretty good boy, but he's getting so heavy that he might be toting me around soon!

My friend Tommy had two grandbabies born today. Both boys, born to two different daughters-in-law. One in Roanoke Community Hospital in the elevator, no less! How's that for a dramatic entrance into the world? Hope that doesn't interfere with yardsales Sat.

We've had such beautiful weather and now "they" say it's gonna get cold again and be cold for Easter. I could do without that. I have an azalea beside the house and one in a pot on the deck that are full of buds fixing to pop open and my strawberries in the earth boxes are blooming. A lil squirrel has been busy. I saw two strange looking shoots in one earth box and tried to pull up one of them and I found it was a black walnut that had sprouted and was well on the way to being a tree. I moved one of them, but left the other for now. Any body want a black walnut tree to put in their yard?

I read Lisa's blog about her cooking chicken enchildas (I think) and wanted to tell you about something I fixed. I saw a can of Margaret Holmes squash casserole at the grocery store and bought it. I'd never seen it before, but I got it; opened it and dumped it into a square dish and put the crushed up Ritz crackers with butter on top and it was pretty good. Next time, tho, I'm gonna add some sharp cheddar to the squash part. Maybe a tad of sour cream. You know, like you do broccoli casserole.

Well, seems I didn't have much to catch up on after all. Think I'll go to bed because 6:45 comes early. Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter in case I don't get back before then.

In all the years I've been reading Charley Reese, I've probably agreed with what he wrote three times. This is one of the times.

I predict that applications for admission to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, are going to increase considerably as a result of the television coverage of the shootings by a deranged student.

Paradoxically, the coverage of the tradegy revealed a university and a community at their very best. Administrators, faculty, students, police and medical people responded competently and heroically. The spirit shown by the students is outstanding. The more I watched the more I thought how great it would be to be part of the "Hokie Nation." If I were college age, I'd think seriously about attending that school.

Students and faculty facing the murderous gunman, though naturally frightened, acted heroically. One professor held the door against the gunman while his students escaped. Shots fired through the door killed him.

In two other classrooms, students themselves barred the door and kept the gunman out. In one of those cases, the students holding the door had already been shot.

Equally as impressive was that not one of the numerous interviews with students revealed any sniveling or self pity. The students uniformly showed compassion for their fellow students and faculty members. If they wept, it was for others.

They not only maintained their dignity in the face of the tragic murders of 32 people, but also in the face of an army of international media that descended on them.

And their overwhelming support and obvious affection for Virginis Tech is something I've never seen before.

These weren't sport fans; these were students who loved their school and what so many of them described as the Hokie spirit.

Virginia Tech has a beautiful campus, and the small town of Blacksburg is itself both beautiful and friendly.

The violence began at 7:15 a.m. on April 16. After a two hour gap during which the gunman was apparently holed up in his dormitory room, it resumed but was over by 10:15 a.m. when he committed suicide as police were closing in on him.

I don't know of a better recommendation for an administration. These folks were able to handle the mass murder and the influx of the media people, and arrange a convocation with the governor and the president in attendance the very next day. The logistics of such an event are staggering. At the same time, the student government arranged a candlelight vigil that was attended by thousands of students, faculty and townspeople. That reflects not only administrative competence but a spirit of community that all of us can envy.

The staffs of local hospitals, overwhelmed with volunteers, did a superb job of handling the wounded and won high praise from parents for their compassion and competence.

As for danger to students, we have to face the fact that insanity happens. Despite a lot of psychobabble about "warning signs," predicting human behavior is virtually impossible. Laws make it extremely difficult to commit someone involuntarily to a mental institution. Treatment for psychiatric disorders is itself problematic.

Much was made of the graphic violence in this boy's writings, but they were no more graphic and bizarre than the violence put on the screen by Quentin Tarantino and his ilk.

What happened at Virginia Tech could happen on any university campus or at any other place.It is rare, but it happens.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Virginia Tech to any of my loved ones. After all, if tradegy must occur, better that it occurs at a place where there is such a tremendous spirit of camaraderie and compassion to overcome its effects.

Unexpectedly, while watching mass murder occur, the Hokies made me proud to be an American. They showed themselves to be the kind of people you'd want around you in a bad situation.

I heard this twice today. Once a mention on Paul Harvey; just enough to make me want to hear more. Then Rush Limbaugh went into more detail.

Seems the rich and famous in Japan; movie stars, stage stars, just wealthy folks,etc., love white French poodles. And they are hard to come by and expensive. Like $3,200 each without papers.

Well, all of a sudden there were many offered for only $1,600 and many were sold. The way it sounded, by the same person or persons.

Then the stories started coming out about the poodles. One movie star went on a talk show and brought her poodle with her and after talking about it to the host, brought it out on stage. One rich lady took hers to the vet to see why it wouldn't bark or eat the dog food she'd bought for it. One person took hers to the doggy beauty shop to get it's nails trimmed and painted. And one rich guy took his poodle to the vet because he thought it was really sick because it ate the fabric off his sofa and started in on the carpet.

Well, guess what? The vet said it wouldn't bark or eat dog food because: ??? And the doggy beauty shop person got her clippers and polish and then refused to do the beauty treatment because;?? And the vet just down right had hysterics when the guy brought his fabric and carpet eating poodle in.

Guess What?? The poodles they had all gotten at such a discount were baby lambs!! Little white sheep!!! How dumb can you get?? Didn't they notice the Baaing?? Anyway, at least 2,000 were sold as poodles by some enterprising entrepreneur. Good trick!!