Bitter Sweet Home Going

It's that time of year again, when we take our vacation to Georgia to spend the fourth of July with my family. And as usual I am very excited. Excited to see my son, his wife and daughter, sister, brothers, in-laws, nieces & nephews and all of their children. Excited about all the fun we will have. Excited about going to a beach house later in the week to spend a few days with my son, his wife and Dixie.

At the same time the wounds of losing my dear sister will be newly opened. While I have mourned her for the last eight months, I have not had to really miss her, any more than I always do living so far from her, like I will when I get home and she isn't there. This will be a hard trip in that aspect.

But I am very blessed to have the family that I have and I know that we will cry together, and laugh together and we will get through the hard times just as we have made it through other hard times and we will come out stronger and closer when it's all said and done.

Even though I know this will be hard, I am still excited to go and can't wait to spend time with my family that I love very much. I look forward to spending time with each and every one of them.

No I will go re-do my makeup so I can go to work.

Mae

Lake Erie

We recently visited Lake Erie. I had never seen any of the Great Lakes and since we live less than 5 hours away I really wanted to go see one. I really didn't know what to expect. Living in Florida for so long and being close to the ocean, I couldn't imagine that there could be so much fresh water in one place. It really does look like an ocean. They waves aren't as big and the shells are a lot smaller but it does have waves and shells (I can't really call them sea shells).

I have to say that I was totally amazed at the beauty and wonder of it.


These pictures are of Marblehead, taken at the Lighthouse. It is very pretty there and the little town of Mablehead is very cute and the people are very friendly.



On the way home we saw this strange looking thing from the road and I thought it looked like the moon had landed. We got off at the exit because it was time for lunch, and discovered that is was the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum. It is in Wapakoneta OH. According to the cashier at the Lucky Steer (where we had a really good lunch of all you can eat fried chicken), the locals call it Wapa. It cost $8.00 per adult to get in but it was really cool and interesting. If you are ever headed down I75 and see the moon, I suggest stopping in and taking a look.


On the way up to the Lake we stopped at Lehman's. It is really cool also. It is a lot bigger than I thought it would be and has something for everything. We are in the market for a wood burning cook stove so I thought I'd like to look at theirs. Lehman's, if you don't know, supplies the Amish with non electrical appliances, and anything else you could imagine. Baskets, dishes, laundry supplies, soaps, candles, cook books, hurricane lamps, the list just goes on and on. I did buy a basket, a tart warmer and a candle.

Then we went to the Log Cabin Gun Shop. You'll have to ask Greg about that stop. It did have some cool stuff, but not a lot for my taste.

We had one rule on this little vacation and that was we couldn't eat at any restaurant that we could eat at at home. On the way down we ate Chinese somewhere in Ohio, it was okay. The first night we ate at the Jolly Roger, way over priced and not very friendly. The second night we ate a Marina on Lake Erie and the food again was okay but the atmosphere made up for it. The lunch we had at a little sandwich shop in Marblehead was really good and of course the meal at the Luck Steer was very good. Breakfast was eaten at the hotel.

All in all it was a very fun trip and we had a really good time. I think we will visit Lake Erie again. And I think we will keep the rule of not eating at chain restaurants when we are on vacation (with the exception of Hardee's biscuit when we are near a Hardee's).

Mae

For the Nieces & Nephews

When I was somewhere around 15 daddy got a pony from a man we went to church with. The pony's name was John and he hadn't been ridden for quite a few years. But daddy had in his mind that he could be retrained and be a good pony for the grand kids to ride. On Christmas day everyone was home, and I don't remember whose idea it was to get John out and ride him.

My youngest brother Earl decided that he would be the first to ride. And for a little bit it actually looked like John was going along with it. But then, the grand kids all got excited and went running and screaming toward the pony.
The next thing you know Earl is sitting on the ground and the pony was running down the dirt road next to the house.

All the men went running after the pony and boy did they have a chase. My sister-in-law, Carol, and I went to see if we could help. As we were walking down the dirt road we saw all the men coming back. Earl was once again, sitting on the pony. So, Carol and I turned around and headed back toward the house. We turned around a couple of seconds later to see what progress the men and John were making and lo and behold Earl was flat on his keester on the ground and the pony was running as hard as could across the corn field. Well, Carol and I almost rolled on the ground laughing. All we could see was that pony running like wild fire and all the men in our family running behind him.

My brother-in-law, Gilbert, jumped a fence to catch the pony and didn't know that there was a sow in there with piglets. And, if you don't know, you don't mess with a sow who has piglets. That sow came charging at Gilbert so Gilbert jumped the fence again, only this time he was in a much bigger hurry and didn't quite make it over the fence intact. He got caught on the fence and broke his leg.

With all the commotion, I really don't remember how they ever caught John or how Gilbert managed to get back to the house. But I do know that daddy got rid of John shortly after that.

He gave him to a farmer down the road for his grand kids, who by the way never rode him either.

I know we are a little sick, but that was a really funny Christmas. And for all the younger kids in the family this was the year after Gilbert shot his toe off. So he had 2 really rough years in a row. But even he laughs about it now.

Love,
Aunt Mae