Happy Thanksgiving

I hope wherever you are, that your Thanksgiving is wonderful and that you are truly blessed. For the first time ever, I won't see my parents or my siblings for this holiday. I'll miss them terribly, but all of my siblings came to help me celebrate Thanksgiving in the big town of Jasper, AR this past Sunday. That's right-they all came to my house and I hope everyone had a good time. I certainly did. I'm so lucky to have grown up with 3 siblings-3 siblings that have been my friends and continue to love me almost as much as I love and adore each one of them.

Succulent Pinterest success

Thumbing through pinterest one day, I saw a post on how to start succulents. Think little indoor plants that require very little water. I tried once and got nothing but rotted leaves. Then, I thought about it-these are the same people that said violets start roots at six weeks-wrong it's more like eight to eleven weeks. So I tried it again and eureka! Little succulents have started.

Just Wondering

My youngest daughter, Lauren, visited over the week and I've started the process of cleaning all the sheets. Yesterday, I put clean sheets on the bed and left for work. Not quite finished-no pillow cases or comforter on it. Today, I went to put the pillow cases on pillows and on the bed-right smack in the middle of the bed was a shiny penny. I fluffed the sheets before putting them on. No one has been in that room but me and the dogs. I refuse to believe that one of them picked up a coin in their mouth and jumped on the bed with it. The bed's an old one with high foot boards-so I can't lean over the bed and smooth out the middle-there's no way anything could have fallen out of my pocket(and I wasn't wearing anything with pockets). So where did that penny come from? There's no hole in the ceiling.
Then I remember "when an angel misses you-they toss a penny down. Sometimes just to cheer you up and to make a smile out of a frown"
Yes, I believe in angels but I'm not sure they can throw pennies. But the penny is there and the dogs aren't talking.

Pansy Time

The fall season means a lot of different things to different people.Pumpkins are everywhere. Hay rides, leaves changing color, foot ball games, bon fires, and even deer hunting. For me, fall means time to plant the pansies. The beautiful annuals that can't stand the Arkansas heat. They do well in the winter, and I love to see them blooming in the snow.  I usually don't plant annuals-after all, they're only good for one season. That all changed when my mom told me that they were my great-grandma's favorite flower. I started planting them as a way to remember her. It wasn't long before I started taking some to my mom to plant too.  Little by little stories would come out, and it gave me a glimpse of the short,                                                                                       German woman that could never

pronounce my name correctly. To her, I was Kaddie. I loved hearing those stories and learning about the past. Now, I realize that Mom looked forward to telling me those stories as much as I loved hearing them. It gave her a chance to talk about someone she loved and missed. I know Grandma ironed sheets and boxer shorts (sorry hubs, I didn't inherit that gene) and that she loved pizza and beer (that gene  I got). She also loved to listen to music as she cleaned house, going to movies, and reading stories. My name wasn't the only English word she had problems saying. Pistachio always came out sounding like piss-cry-tony. I remember that her accent was very heavy-and by the time I arrived she had been in the states a long, long time. She smelled of roses and watched Lawrence Welk. I was forced to watch it so many times, I remember words to the parting song. "Good night, sleep tight, and pleasant dreams to you. Here's a wish and a prayer that your dreams come true...."

Vacation day two Ruby Falls, Rock City Garden

Boy, day two was a busy day. We headed out early and went to Ruby Falls. Ruby was the wife of the man that discovered that part of the cave. The falls are in a large room carved out by water that took millions of years to create. The waterfall is over one hundred feet.

Then down the road a little ways is Rock City Gardens. If you ever get to go there, don't go on a hot day. Wear very comfortable shoes. Charge the camera and plan to spend the day.

Then we went on to The Tail of the Dragon, but that's another tale.

Coon Dog Cemetery ... Vacation day one

On our first day of vacation, we headed out before the sun came out. I can't tell you what time we left, but I know we were in Devall's Bluff (home of Craig's BBQ) long before the restaurant opened. We traveled just outside of Memphis and down south. Our first stop was a cemetery just outside of Tuscumbia, AL.
The Coon Dog Cemetery. The only one of its kind in the world. I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly not what I saw. The graves were immaculate. Decorated with flags, flowers, and coins. Yes, coins like the military. A penny on the grave if you knew the deceased. A nickel or dime if you fought along side of him and a quarter if you there when he died. There was even a leash or two on top of the marker.  The granite markers proudly displayed the name of the dog, the birth date, time of death and even championships won or words about the dog.
It was some time during this visit, I really missed my dogs. I know they aren't champions or coon dogs but they're very important to me-like all these dogs  were special to someone too. There's Troop, Ranger, Sally Ann, Roscoe-I wish I could remember all 85 names but the one that really hit me was the grave that read "Dixie". That's when the water works started. A kind man might have put his arms around his wife, but Dwight just kept taking pictures and got as far away as possible-the shower didn't last long. My dog sitter sent a picture of my babies playing and every thing was good with the world again.
Then we hit the road to lay our heads down in Scottsboro, AL. A total of a little over 560 miles behind us that day.

Aloha Camp Taloha

Many people have never heard of Camp Taloha and most people that have heard of it have no idea of its location. It sits on the outskirts of Pine Bluff down a logging road off of Sulphur Springs Road in the boonies. There's even a sign.
The Girl Scout powers that be have decided to close the camp and the final flag ceremony is Thursday the 22nd. Today.
If you walk down the logging road, the first thing you'll come to is the flag pole. It won't be flying the Camp director's panties for the ceremony, and I wonder if they'll end the ceremony with a friendship circle. All significant ceremonies end with the friendship circle.
The road forks at the flag pole and if you take a right, you'll end up at the lake. It's situated so that voices echo across the water which is a lot of fun if you're trying to scare someone on the other side. When the girls sing, their voices carry across the lake and they sound like angels.(sounding is as close as they ever got). Many girls caught their first fish at this lake. There were canoe races and nights spent watching falling stars on the banks.
Headed back to "camp" on the right is the bunk house. I've forgotten its name, but it was reserved for the older girls that came to camp. What a privilege it was to stay there. No wondering out at night to use the rest room-there was one indoors. Because it was so close to the hall, you could also catch a couple of extra winks of sleep.
Next came "K" hall aka the dining hall, craft room. Everyone ate here and sometimes the tables and benches were pushed back and the place became a dance hall. That's right. Those uneven wooden floors were perfect for the Macarena, the cha-cha slide, the hokey pokey, and even the chicken dance.
It was there I petted a possum for the first and last time. Not that she was dining or dancing, she was an invited guest coming to educate us on nature.
Not too far from "K" hall is the cement pond. The pool was a life saver during the dog days of summer. Arkansas heat and no air conditioner can take its toll.  Many girls would have gladly given up their right arm instead of losing pool privileges. The same Camp Director that had flying panties helped me unload all of the ice machines and dump them in to the pool just before the early bird swim one morning. Boy, there were some screeches. I think she laughed harder than anyone. It was in that pool, that I got my life guard certification.
Leaving the pool, you passed the bath house. I don't care how much you cleaned them, there were always enough spiders/frogs for at least one scream.
Then you would come to a circle of cabins. The windows were screens that you could cover with tarps if it rained. In the inside, the beams were exposed and many nights were spent on the cots looking up reading signatures and advice left from campers long ago. Some campers found signatures from their moms and older sisters. There were never any ladders left in the cabins for us to climb up and leave our signatures but that didn't stop us. Cheerleader pyramids have nothing on girl scouts determined to leave their mark on the world.
The last thing you'd probably notice would be the fire ring. Nothing left but ashes now. You know there were tons of ghost stories told around that fire ring, but what you probably don't know is that's where I found hope for the "Future Generation". After the stories were spent, sooner or later a young girl would talk about something bothering her. It might be her parents divorce or being bullied or may be some stupid boy had broken her heart. Another girl would offer some encouragement or maybe two of them would chime in. Before you knew it, these girls would be hugging and solving the problems of the world. So much love. So much strength. You may see the ashes, I see the warmth around the fire ring.
All those little girls have grown up now. Some even have daughters of their own, but they still have the love and strength they showed me all those years ago.
I've thought long and hard about attending the final flag ceremony. It's a four hour drive and I could physically do it, but my heart just won't let me.
I'll keep Camp Taloha in my heart with my memories. A circle is round and has no end and that's how long I'll cherish them.