GringaDreamingofGlass

My only sister

2008-05-18T12:02:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of me with my sister, Kay. I have worshipped her my entire life, but I know the same is not true the other way around! When we were growing up I was really a fly in her soup, for sure! But to me, she was perfect-and still is. We lived in a very small town in Arkansas-Elaine, Arkansas-to be exact. She was head cheerleader, football queen, valedictorian of her class, voted most likely to succeed. You name it, she got it. She even married her high school sweetheart (captain of the football team, no less). And I looked up to her every minute of every day. She is still very happily married to the same man and he is a gem. His name is Jimmy so naturally I married a Jimmy, too. They have 3 sons and a daughter and 7 grandchildren. She and Jimmy live in this huge 1930's house in St Petersburg, Fl. that I absolutely adore visiting. It has 5 bedrooms, 2 sleeping porches, 6 bathrooms, on and on and on. You would think I would be jealous of her but the opposite is true. I am so proud to be her sister I could burst. She has a kind and generous heart and she is my link to the past and to my roots. She used to live in Memphis with the rest of the family, and right before she and her family moved they had a going away party. The whole evening my heart was breaking because my dreams of going shopping with her or out to lunch and generally spending more time with her were going up in smoke. Now she was leaving my life forever and actually seemed HAPPY about it. To top it all off she was leaving me in charge of our aging, demanding mother whom I had never been able to please a day in my life. I was devastated. When the evening was winding down I finally couldn't hold it in any more and I broke down in tears. Kay misunderstood and thought I had misinterpretted a comment she had made earlier about Mother visiting in Florida. I'll never forget what she said. "Don't worry. I'm not taking your mother away from you." If I hadn't had that knife sticking in my heart I might have laughed. Well, it turned out okay, I guess. I visit her every couple of years. I call her sometimes. And she was there when I really needed her when Mother was sssooo sick so many times and the last time when Mother fell and broke her hip and died. We don't have any brothers so Kay is all I have to tell me about the family that went before us. And I so crave to belong to that family that is now gone. She told me anecdotes about Daddy during WWII. He was a glider pilot. I have a picture of him dressed like Rambo standing in front of his glider. Kay says he never once shot his gun for fear of actually hitting someone. (hahaha) He died when I was 20-way too young. I wish I had asked him more questions about his past. She tells me stories about my grandmother that were told to her. Right now she is putting together a collection of pictures and stories of our family on the internet for others to pull from. Her husband is the clever one that knows how to do that. I guess none of us want to be forgotten. Rich people donate money in order to have buildings or universities named after themselves. The rest of us post stories about ourselves on the internet.

This is my family

2008-04-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Here is little Alec with his tennis racket.........

I have a husband, 2 grown married daughters who are as different as night and day, and 3 grandsons under the age of eight. The grandsons all belong to my daughter who lives near me. The oldest is thin, shy, and would rather die that disappoint his teacher. The middle one is built like a Mack truck, loves being the center of attention, and never met a stranger. The baby is 2 now and he likes to throw things heavy at my head. I babysit him three days a week. After a morning of romping and generally acting like a 2 year old, he is ready for his nap by 12:00, and I don't hear another peep out of him until at least 3:00. I think this because he lives in such chaos at home that he loves the peace and quiet at my house. Their mother is my older daughter and she was no trouble to us at all when she was growing up. She never got into trouble at school and has a master's degree in elementary education. Her husband is very good to her and loves his sons. He is a very good son-in-law.

Now for our other daughter. When she was a teenager-Oh, My GOD! I do not know how I survived. I'll never forget the time she came home from college with a bright pink hunk of hair going right down the middle of her head. She looked like a deranged Mohican. Then there was the time she got the tattoo right above her behind. That will look great in the nursing home, don't you know? The best gift she gave me was when she came home with the tongue stud. When she stuck her tongue out at me, I let out this blood curdling scream!! I nearly fainted. It was the best reaction she could have hoped for, I'm sure. Thank goodness she has settled down, married a fine man, gotten a degree in computer programming, web development, and administration, and is doing well. I'M the one who is the worse for wear!

This is my sweet, shy Joshua with his parents
Stephanie and Erin. (Erin, Eric, and Alec!!!
How am I supposed to remember that when I
am in the nursing home?)

This sweet cherub is my little Eric graduating from pre-school.

Here is my younger daughter graduating from college-you have no idea how proud I was!!

I didn't get to have a church wedding, but both my daughters did. My poor husband had his heart torn out twice when he had to give both his precious daughters away to two other men. The older one went first and it hurt him the worst, I think, just because he wasn't prepared to let go. He had gotten used to the idea by the time Holly got married, but I could still see the pain and wistfulness in his eyes. I, of course just cried at both weddings.

This is Holly
and Shane.

This is Stephanie with the
minister on the left and her
new husband, Erin, on the
right.

I also have a best friend, Pam, who I can call anytime (except when she is hiking, swimming, power walking, exercising, bicycling, or otherwise abusing her body) and tell her all my problems. She can also do the same with me. We worked together for years and go on trips together with my other best friends, Vicki and Beth. Pam came up with the idea of getting charm bracelets and adding a charm to commemorate every trip we take. We have all sorts of rules about the bracelets. We wear them only when we four are together, and we are only allowed to buy charms when we are together. Once we bought pewter horses to remember our trip to the race track in Arkansas. Pam got to looking at her horse one time and realized her horse's tail had broken off. I started laughing until I looked at mine and saw that my horse's tail had broken off, too. We have so many charms on our bracelets now that the constant jingling drives all of us bonkers!! We like to drink, eat and talk about men on our trips. We mostly vent about our husbands and laugh about everyone's elses (current and exes). When we are driving to our destinations there isn't an antique or junk store we won't stop to shop in. I LOVE the art deco period. (I once paid $601.00 for a plastic Cleopatra box. Yep. I'm an idiot. But I AM a proud owner of a black and white art deco 1930's Cleopatra box.) Beth loves really old purses and books. Vicki loves to buy things for family and friends. Pam loves old hankies and Westie dog memorabilia.

Here are Pam, Beth and Vicki. I love my friends. They are the family I got to pick.

I guess I should post a picture of my husband and me. Here we are at Thanksgiving. My husband is quite nice looking I think. I fell in love with him because he had big muscles, wore boots and rode an orange motorcycle. Now his muscles aren't so big, his boots rotted away and he sold his motorcycle, but I still love him. Let's face it, I haven't exactly been on ice over the years, either!

Looking for someone to chat with in Spanish

2008-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

I have been taking lessons in Spanish for several years. Right now I am in a small class of 3 that consists of mostly conversation. That is what I need the most. Most people who have never taken a foreign language don't understand that you can read a foreign language and then understand what someone is saying in a foreign language way before you can speak or write it yourself. I can be reminded of a word when someone else says it, but I can't recall it in my own mind fast enough to carry on an active conversation. I find myself stuttering and getting embarrassed and then going completely blank like a total idiot. Anyway, writing to someone would at least give me some writing skills and you could correct my mistakes. I can take the criticisms!

Also, does anyone know how to make this website use spanish letters? Do I have to use another program and then copy it over to here? La computadora es muy dificil, no? (Use your imagination to place accent marks where they belong since I can't- hahaha.)

My love of Stained Glass

2008-03-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

I fell in love with making stained glass from the first moment I picked up a piece of the glass and started cutting it. It was in the back of a small stained glass shop named "A Touch of Glass" in Memphis, Tn. I took classes there every Tuesday night for years until the internet finally drove them out of business. I really miss those classes. Everyone was working on different projects, and the owner always had a solution to your probems. When I needed that certain piece of glass, I just went up front and chose what I wanted from his stock. Now I have to gamble on getting the right color and texture from looking at a picture over the internet. Most of the time I am disappointed when I get the piece in the mail. And can you believe it, the closest stained glass shop to me now is in Jackson, Tenn. Pretty far from me even as the crow flies. I wish someone around here would open up another store. Hobby Lobby only sells small pieces in pitiful colors.
Well, that's my one and only waa, waa, poor me story for the month!

Where are you Juan?

2008-03-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

You left no way for me to contact you, Juan! Living in the wilds of Peru with only you to protect me sounds like a dream. We could swing from vines like Tarzan and Jane. I bet I could "learn" a whole lot of Spanish from you very quickly! And you even have access to the internet. Please, please tell me how to reach you ........

Thunderstorm vs Scottie

2008-03-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

We had a thunderstorm last night, and my dog is scared to death of thunder. He usually sleeps in "his" recliner in our bedroom but as soon as that first clap of thunder hit, I heard him jump to the floor and up on the bed. He creeped up to the head of of the bed and before I realized it, he had wrapped himself around the crown of my head so that he was wedged between me and the headboard. By morning I was scrunched down the bed and he had completely taken over my pillow and was sleeping soundly. I got out of bed with a headache and achy joints and he was rested and ready for the day!