Yesterday, October 31 started out badly. Of the three girls spending the night with me, only Sarah got up when called, ate without fussing and got dressed on time.

When we finally got to church, we were about 5 minutes late for Sunday School. Since it was Pastor Appreciation day, the whole order of the service was changed. All of that went well and we finally adjourned to the fellowship hall for lunch.

After a wait of a few minutes for all the food to be heated and put out, the pastor said the blessing and we all lined up to eat. The tables were beautifully decorated with fake autumn leaves and orange candles in holders..........burning.

Well. I finally got to the end of the table and got my plate, napkin and fork. I by-passed the chicken and had put ham and biscuits on my plate along with corn pudding and was eyeing the broccoli casserole, when my hand, the one holding the plate, suddenly felt warm. I figured I was too close to a candle so I backed away, but my hand just got warmer. Then I looked down and my napkin was blazing. And I mean ON FIRE!!!!! Well, I dropped it and it lay there burning while everybody just stood there watching. So, without regard to my long dress or Sunday shoes, I stomped it out. Then a nice lil man got down and scraped the remnants off the carpet where it had melted into it. It left a good sized place on the carpet, but the lil man said he couldn't wait to get home to tell his wife that we had a "red hot mama" at the service.

I had to take Rebecca back to Stoneville and was supposed to get her there by 5 at the latest. We finally left Danville at 4:30 or later, and made pretty good time.........not speeding cause that is a crooked little road, not condutive to fast driving, but there were no big trucks going to or coming from Miller Brewery, which is often the case.

We got to Eden township and all of a sudden discovered that the temp. guage was all the way over to high (although the light wasn't on) and managed to get to the service station right before Eden proper.

Just as we pulled into the parking space, the car cut off. I opened the hood and you wouldn't believe the steam. Men started coming out of the wood work to look and diagnose. Finally, a greasy, short guy who looked like he had been working on something dirty looked, and showed me where the radiator had developed a crack. To make a long story short, we had to call Ginny to come pick up Rebecca, called Bobby to come get me and called Jackie to come look at the car. Well, he couldn't fix it so it spent the night in Eden.

Jackie called me this afternoon after he got back from his run and asked if he could put it on a trailer (a friend of his had one) and take it to his house so he could see what he could do to make it run.

The radiator isn't too much of a problem, but Jackie said he thought it might need a new motor.

At this point, I'm without wheels and all of a sudden I need to go to vote, to the grocery store and to practice our church Christmas play. Oh, woe is me!!

Last week when I received this wonderful new computer, I wrote an entry about how much I liked it and how much I appreciated the one who made it all possible. I don't know what happened to the entry. Last time I looked it was posted, not once, but twice. Now today when I added an entry, the one from last week isn't here. Don't know what happened, but let it be known that my eternal thanks go to the one who made it possible and I'll be forever thankful.

Maybe, if I think hard enough I can come up with something to write.

Today I answered a knock on my door and there stood my cousins, Marie and Lois. Now Marie lives here in town and I either see her or talk to her on the phone quite often. However, Lois lives in Ohio and I hadn't seen her in about 8 years, although I had talked to her on the phone when I started my Geraldine story.

We had a nice visit and during the course of the conversation Lois started talking about how close she and Geraldine were when they were kids.She mentioned the time they snuck a can of cinnamon out of Mama's kitchen and ate it all. Geraldine ended up turning yellow from eating it, but it had no effect on Lois. Maybe Geraldine liked it more and ate more of it?

She also told me of the time when my Uncle Earl and Aunt Bevy came out to visit. Lois was about 6 and Geraldine was about 4 and they were jumping on my Mama's bed, when Bevy walked by the door. Lois said that something was wrong with her hip or leg and she walked with a limp. Lois said she told Geraldine something to say when Bevy walked by again. So, the lady walked by and Geraldine hollered, "Hey, how come you walk like a crippled chicken?" Lois said her mama (Effie) wore out her behind real good, but Geraldine didn't get a whipping. Cause she was just a little girl "put up to say it".

Well, the first trailer Jackie tried to put my car on was too short so he had to go back the next day with a different one and he finally got it to his house. He took things out of the motor and came to the conclusion that something was cracked...head, block, something???? Anyway, it either needs a new motor or I need a new car. And I have almost new tires on it and my CD player! It isn't a lot of fun being without wheels.

I went with Cindy to look at another Toyota last night which was a neat lil station wagon....new tires, brakes, good paint job, clean on the inside, but some lady had put a deposit down on it. Oh well, I won 15 scratch lottery tickets on WBTM this evening. Maybe I'll get lucky!! After all, you can win up to $115,000 on a ticket. You just have to get the right one!!

This weekend, Tommy and Rebecca were here and Chad spent the night down here with Tommy on Friday. Saturday they were out playing in the back yard when all of a sudden I heard screaming and by the time I got down the stairs they were in the house. Tommy was the one screaming. He had climbed the dogwood tree and fallen out. His face was red and he had red marks on his chest, back, side and a scrape on his chin and his leg. I finally got him calmed down and ascertained that nothing was broken and he looked up at me and said,"Grandma, you know the worst thing about falling out of that tree..it's all them branches hitting you on the way down."

When Anna and Brittany first started using the commode, I told them not to put ANYTHING in it cause whatever they put in it would get wet and cold and go to the river.

Yesterday Brittany had a small picture of Rebecca in her hand and flushed the commode for me and she accidently dropped the picture and when it went swirling around she had a fit. "Oh, Gamma maxine, Rebetta(Rebecca) is detting all told and wet and she's on de way to de ribber. Do somesing." I finally calmed her down, but every once in a while she would come up to me and look mournful and say,"Poor Rebetta, her all told and wet in the ribber."

Today we were in the bathroom and I looked over at her and she had the toilet plunger. I told her to put it back and she looked at me so sweetly and said,"But. I want to det Rebetta out de ribber so her won't be told and wet."

What can you say??

Monday morning when Brittany woke up, she got out of the bed and came into the kitchen. A while later, Rebecca who is here for Thanksgiving, came into the kitchen. Brittany's eyes got so big and she said,"Rebetta's here, her not in de told, wet ribber any more."

Anna has been having trouble when she went to poop.......caused by diarrhea brought on by her medicine. The trouble being that she'd "gone" so much her butt hole was sore. Tuesday, in the middle of her lunch, she excused herself and went to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later she started hollering, "Everybody come here quick, hurry." We all went running and she's sitting on the commode with a big smile on her face. "I can make poopie now and it doesn't hurt!!"

Monday afternoon when Savannah came all the girls made over her and because she's seen Emily and Rachel so often she lets them hold her. Well, Rebecca picked her up and Savannah gave her a mean look and said,"I don't want to hold you!" Rebecca kept on holding her and Savannah leaned back away from her and said in a deep voice, "I said I don't want to hold you." She won't be two until Dec. 23 but she has been making complete sentences for a long time.