Lynn Family Reunion

53 members of the Lynn family drove/flew in for the Lynn Family Reunion. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Lynn's home the hub of family activity and gatherings for 4 generations was the destination of choice. The small white farmhouse, outbuildings and barn brought back memories for each one as we pulled into the gravel driveway and side yard. Family trickled in as a soft breeze blew. Folks brought a special dish or dessert for the family picnic which sent tempting scents into the air. The metal chairs and sling backs started filling up as the morning slowly turned to afternoon. The big climbing tree in the back of Grandma and Grandpa's backyard which has been a center point for children for many years was once again being conquered, this time by the 4th generation. Stories were swapped, memories exchanged, and lives updated. We marveled over the little ones, and the young adults, that last time we saw them they were the kids running in and out of Grandma's kitchen. Time passes on, and the intermingling of the generations sure would have kept a smile across both Grandma and Grandpas faces. They loved it when their home filled up with family, and it happened often.
We started with prayer, and ended with more memories etched in our minds eye. It was bittersweet being back at the homestead, because everyone missed Grandma and Grandpa. There were pieces of their lives setting about, and as each child or grandchild looked over things, a certain item would jump out to them, and gingerly with great emotion each said item would be caressed and the story behind it shared. The creak of the wooden floorboards, the familar smack of the side screen door on the porch, the pictures on the wall, the furniture, all of it was being cleaned up and in some cases out, so that Uncle Phillip and Aunt Charlene could now make this their home.

It is good to know that we will all meet again here on earth as long as its possible, but the best part is that before Grandma and Grandpa died, they knew that each of their grandchildren had accepted Christ and that several of their great grandchildren also have a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ meaning we will all get to have the ultimate reunion one day in Heaven.

The Little Red Stool

Just inside the kitchen door at the Lynn Family homestead stood a rather inconspicious red stool. This little red stool has silently supported family and watched several generations grow and slowly fade as time ticks inevitably ticks on. Almost every visitor to this little country home has a story about their time spent on little red. Its location of prime real estate in the corner in the kitchen allows for being part of the heart of the home, the kitchen. This is where you would find Grandma preparing a meal, and Grandpa sitting at the table chatting about his latest flight, or some news from his trip to town. After the meal was prepared, folks would retire to the sitting room just off the kitchen to chat and catch up on the day's activities, and family happenings. On one of my first visits to the beloved home, I too spent time on little red listening to the family interact and laugh together.

My favorite story is Grandma Lynn telling me about how Richard (my father in law) when he was courting my mother in law would come in the side door of the home and take a seat on little red and wait there for Ginger to be ready for their date. ;) He spent a lot of time on that little red stool. Grandma told everyone before she left us to fill her place in heaven, that Richard was to get that red stool.

This past weekend the family came together once again for a reunion of sorts. It was odd to be there in this enduring home without Grandma and Grandpa. Today, we packed the little red stool and carried it home to TN, where Richard and Ginger will put it in a place of honor in their home.

Is there something special that everytime you look at it, it brings you back to a happy time in your life? Isn't it something that an inanimate object such as this little red stool can hold such a place of honor in a family?

83 Years - A Birthday Celebration

SNICKER! Guess where I've been?  We have some precious friends, adopted family really that we get the privalege of visiting with often. I always come away amused. Tonight was no let down as the air was ripe with the electricity between two hearts happily married 60 some odd years.
His money, Her money, Our money together was the topic of conversation. As they teased each other back and forth, Sweetie and I grinned from ear to ear. This couple is so real. We have had conversations covering all sorts of topics, all peppered with humor. They have given advice, which we treasure, they have worked with us on projects, and we have gone and had fun with them also. When you get to live life the everyday ups and downs of it, you become part of that person, or in our case, that persons inner circle.
On our way out the door, it was let drop by the Mr. that it was the Mrs. birthday tomorrow. The Mrs. proceeded to tell us no fuss was to be made, although she used that as an opportunity to throw a jab in on the Mr. about how he'd better take her somewhere nice to eat. To which he replied with a wink, "I'm takin her to McDonalds!". 
Since Sweetie and I work and the boys are in school all day we have to wait until evening to visit and "show no fuss". Mrs. informed us it was a good day as Mr. took her to Logans Roadhouse and even let her get dessert. She smiled as she softly touched the pedals of the red gerber daisies and yellow carnations the boys gave her. Although her mouth said, "You really shouldn't have"; her eyes gave her away. She was thrilled over the gift and even allowed for a giggle to pass her lips when our puppy Sasha 'gave her paw (five)'. Cory played Happy Birthday on the piano for her to hear and she loved the 'cha, cha, cha!' that Brian added to the end.  In order to stay in character, the Mr. took no time in adding, "You look like a monkey and smell like one too!". 
What a great way to spend an evening!

Makin' Lemonade with Brian!

Making Lemonade!

Brian and I made lemonade!  If you take about 3 lemons cut them in half and put them in a juicer..take the juice and put it in a freezer bag, cut a piece of the lemon rind and seal the bag. Later on you can take the bag out of the freezer and place in a container, add sugar to sweeten and mix in hot/warm water. Now you have lemonade! Let it sit in fridge for a couple hours.. Fill a cup with ice add lemonade! Enjoy! Yummy!

Squirrel!

Look what was on our deck this morning eating my plants! He's gotten fat.. I wonder how..I sent Sasha (our rat terrier out after it)..hee hee! Sasha doesn't like Squirrels!

1st Glimpse of Fall

This has been a whirlwind of a weather year. We had snow early in the year that kept folks home, and school children out for several days (this is not normal for West TN). We get some snow.. usually a dusting, or maybe an inch. Then spring time came along and we got so much water over the weekend of April 30th- May 3rd that our town suffered through major flooding issues. June, July and now August have been some of the most dry, and hottest months on record with consecutive days of temperatures over 100 degrees! Yesterday, when washing breakfast dishes, I noticed that some of the leaves on the left tree in our backyard had turned red! (see picture) It's only in this particular bunch, nowhere else on the tree is there any red. Maybe this branch is as ready as we are for the cooler temperatures!

Fall is a favorite time of the year for me, as it signals back to school! To me there is nothing like the smell of new crayons and sharp pencils! I loved school, and my friends, so this was a highlight for me.

I still like to help the boys get their supplies together and prepare for a fresh start!

While fall signals the end of many of my flowers, it welcomes my mums! It's kind of nice to clean out the flower beds, and sweep off my porch so I can freely rock in the cool breeze of the season! Neighbors come out of their homes more, and so we spend time catching up. The fields have been mowed and the hay bales are scattered about. Some of the corn fields are being prepared for fun mazes, and county fairs are popping up all across the state. The cooler weather will signal times of giggling children dressed in their favorite costumes and of course, Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as you don't have to worry with presents, and everyone gathers together and expresses their thanks to each other and to God for all their blessings.

What's your favorite thing about fall?

Overcoming Ourselves To Achieve Our Goals

We can't overcome the odds until we overcome ourselves.  I have seen too many people who want more from life but are UNWILLING to make the changes to achieve it. You can't decide to achieve a goal and then put parameters on what you're willing to do to get there.
There is enough evidence out there just in the number of self help/motivational books sold on a daily basis to prove this theory. The theory being that there are those that name a goal, and take the necessary steps to achieve it, and then there are those who have good intentions but don't get past naming the goal much less taking the steps to claim that goal as their own.
Sweetie has recently finished his Bachelors Degree. This was a goal set back a few years ago. While in the USAF he took some classes as he could. Since we have been back in TN he stepped that up and made a plan to take two to three classes at a time. Did this make life difficult? Yes. Did the family and friends re-adjust our lifestyles so that he could achieve this? Yes! When he takes that diploma in hand in December family and friends will celebrate not only his achievement but his focus and dedication to seeing this process through.
Goal accomplished! If you are asking yourself is there another goal? You would be right, with Sweetie there is always another goal. (We look forward to celebrating with him on achieving that one also!)

There is so much negativity everywhere you look. Folks sometimes we are harder on ourselves than anyone else will ever be. Forgive yourself, recognize there will be setbacks, that's part of it! Above all, Keep GOING! If you have a goal, big or smallplease; write it down. Write out your plan to achieve it. As time goes by, life itself presents obstacles, write down ways to get around those obstacles, and keep on truckin! You will be glad you did!

It takes Two to Tango

Recently Sweetie and I started taking dance lessons. We are now a month into learning how to do the Argentina Tango. When you get a moment, do a search on the dance, the videos are amazing! I have seen some videos where the dance is very emotional, and others where it is almost fluid!

The Argentine Tango is danced in an embrace that can vary from very open, in which leader and follower connect at arms length, to very closed, in which the connection is chest-to-chest, or anywhere in between.

Tango dance is essentially walking with a partner and the music. The more I see and experience of the dance, it has the capability of being emotional and can vary in speed. I am learning to take cues from Sweeties frame as to which way I step and how I step. We are learning a new way to communicate!
Let's take a side step together here! Sweetie is very in tune with the beat, and has fun improvising. Me? Ha! I am so determined that I do it exactly right that I tend to not live in the moment, but am anxious over the step at the time, and the upcoming steps that I don't experience the joy he does. I'm working on this. Some nights are better than others! I know in my mind that it takes awhile to learn to dance, and with lots of practice and time, it will give me the experience to do well. But my heart wants to do it perfectly the first time! 
Okay, back to it!  I looked up the etiquette of the dance and this is what I found thanks to our awesome dance teacher, and some help from Wikipedia!
"Argentine tango is danced counterclockwise around the outside of the dance floor (the "line of dance") and dance "traffic" often segregates into a number of "lanes"; cutting across the middle of the floor is frowned upon. In general, the middle of the floor is where one finds either beginners who lack floor navigation skills or people who are performing "showy" figures or patterns that take up more dance floor space. It is acceptable to stop briefly in the line of dance to perform stationary figures, as long as the other dancers are not unduly impeded. The school of thought about this is, if there is open space in front, there are likely people waiting behind. Dancers are expected to respect the other couples on the floor; colliding or even crowding another couple, or stepping on others' feet is to be avoided strenuously. It is considered rude; in addition to possible physical harm rendered, it can be disruptive to a couple's musicality."
This is very true as our class is a mix of beginners and experienced dancers. When we change partners a whole new line of communication begins! Do any of you dance? What is your favorite style?

Sweetie and I are not amazing- yet! But one day hope to grace the dance floor with style!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

I work part time with a local electrical company. Part of my job is to answer the phone and set customers appointments. Today our temperatures in TN were high of 99 with heat index of 105, and low of 79. Needless to say in this humidity there is moisture popping up all over. Meaning that small bursts of pop up storms are scattered everywhere; so on a stretch of road there might be pouring rain in one area, and further down it will be dry. Crazy! With all that energy in the air, it has to go somewhere. That somewhere was into many fuse boxes across town. Breakers in our boxes are connecting the circuits in our homes which are wired to different outlets which in turn power our appliances. With no electricity, in time reduces us all down to the basics.

Back to the current situation! With the storm and electric out, folks started to worry when some of their lights would come back on and some other things didn’t have power. After going to the box and flipping switches this way and that, and pressing the GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) buttons to reset their plugs, if things weren’t working as they should, they called their local electric company or their electrician.

Here is where I come in. Several calls in, I get another call that I just must share with you. This precious lady was very confused with the situation at hand and didn’t understand why if you stick a butter knife or steak knife pointy side into a plug your arm tingles. She was trying to push her little reset button and thought that it would work quicker if she poked at it with a sharp object. Folks: Side note here..Please don’t stick anything into your wall plugs. If it is live, you will receive a shock (or severe tingle down the arm of the hand that is poking around electricity).

This lady was on the phone with me explaining which rooms in her home she had power in and I could hear her when she started clicking breakers back and forth in the panel in her garage. When she wasn’t getting the results she wanted by “showing” me how when she flipped a breaker that it still wasn’t working, she moved on to poking at this plug. Now remember, I can’t see her, but she seems to think I can. Bless her heart. She was so precious. She is telling me that she gets a sharp tingle in her arm when she touches her plug. She kept saying, “See? Ouch! Like that! Ouch! Ooohhh Ouch!” Not wanting to be disrespectful I asked her what she was doing. When she gave me a visual description, I begged her to stop. To top it off she then tells me that there are black marks coming out of her plug. Shaking my head, I ask her to please put down the knife and leave the plug alone. I get her address and phone number and assure her that since I have a technician in the area he will be at her house within the next 15 minutes. She then tells me that, “she hopes he comes soon, because her husband will be home in an hour and 45 minutes and while he thinks he can fix things, (then she whispers) …he really can’t.” I assure her he will be there soon, and she hangs up with me.

Later in the afternoon I asked the technician about this customer. He smiles and tells me that the plug had sparked for sure as there were burn marks all around it. (she even showed him the black tip on the end of the knife). He properly labeled her fuse box, replaced her plug which had been fried pretty good, and gave her a quick safety do and don’t list all before her helpful hubby came home. All in a days work!

Memorializing Crunch

For two weeks and a couple of days now, I've had the privilege of taking care of these dogs while a friend of mine is out of town. Nestle is the name of the dark haired dog and the brown one is named Crunch. There is another brown dog that is a twin to this one whose name is Hershey.  Everyday I go out either early morning or after work to play with these dogs, water plants and to pick up her mail. My friend called me to let me know that Crunch had an infection in his paw, a few vet visits later he was on medicine and they also found some problems on his insides. On this trip out of town to greet her first grandbaby she took Crunch with her since he was at the point of having to get a shot twice a day, leaving me with two dogs. She called me a couple days ago and told me he had died. I am so sad. He was buried up at her son's house.

I wonder if the other two dogs will miss Crunch. I am sure they do, as I have wittnessed other dogs look for the one that has died, or wait for them in a certain place that they used to meet. It is amazing how much pets affect our lives. Often they are silent creatures that love us unconditionally. I've known these three dogs for several years, and so I feel a tinge of sadness when just two come running to meet me.

I'm so thankful for the pets in my life as they fill a spot in my heart that I didn't know needed filling and when they aren't there...they are missed.

Healthy Boundaries

Healthy Boundaries






I am a peacekeeper by nature. I don't like conflict and I try to avoid confrontation if at all possible.

However, I have discovered that there is a difference between being a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.

A peacekeeper doesn't help the situation at hand because the issues are still there – just stuffed away for another day which can lead to bitterness and resentment. When I'm a peacemaker I acknowledge the situation and let the other person know I was hurt by their actions.

As far as I know at this point in my life I don't have anyone who is upset with me. I do know that in the general day to day flow there may come a time that I disappoint someone or don't live up to their expectations. Most of the time this cannot be helped. As I get older, I am learning the long and hard way that I cannot control other peoples thoughts. (and I don't want to)

It seems there is always someone or several someones who carry drama with them wherever they go. These folks seem to migrate to me. In the last year maybe a little longer, I started work on healthy boundaries. If I keep these boundaries it helps me keep my distance and restores my sanity. It's not that I don't care, cause I don't like for anyone to hurt or be wronged; but it is not my job to fix it! That is so free-ing!

Healthy boundaries let me back away from certain friendships and family members for a little while, so that Jesus can help me sort my hurt out. Ya know? This is good for me and the hurting person.

I have a precious girlfriend that has become my best friend because while we differ in our reaction to situations, we both truly push each other to be better. Other than Sweetie, I haven't had many people want to invest in me as I was in them. We share a lot of the same goals, and even though we are in different grooves during the week, we meet one another in the middle. Sure, we have disappointed each other, and maybe drew the short end of the stick, but the other one was always there to help pull the other up out of the muck. We know that when it comes down to it, if an error was made, attention will be called to it immediately. This way its aired out and over with!

"Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don't say."
- Anon

Honeycomb!

OOH! Honeycomb! YAY!

Mom sent Cory and I a honeycomb from Colorado. Yummy! Have you ever eaten any before?  It's obviously full of yummy, sweet honey and the comb is best described as like a wax.  You suck the honey out and just kinda chew/suck on the wax. I've known people that eat the wax. I don't, but do like to know that if I did it would be all natural and okay to do so!

What fun! Cory and I love it! It is from a place called Honeyville in Durango, Co.

http://www.honeyville.com/

They have all sorts of flavors of honey, and things made with honey. Awesome website! Check it out when you get a free moment!

August 2, 1997

Cory is 13 today! Wow! Where has the time gone? Thirteen years ago today I thought I knew what I was doing with my day. But Cory had other ideas.

It was a Saturday, and my mom had flown in the day before to be with me the final days before her first grandchild was born. We had prepared a long list of yard sales to go to, then maybe walk this baby out. Cory was due in July and Doc said that if he didn't make an appearance in a couple of days, he was going to induce me. I was walking and walking and walking, as that is what I was told would help.

I thought I would be wandering about town but Cory started letting me know he was ready around 5am. We headed to the hospital and he was born a little after 10 am. Our 8 pound little boy. I remember looking at him in wonder counting his little toes, and just being so thankful. I was a Mom! While that was overwhelming and exciting, I had no idea what I was in for. When the hospital said we could go home, I was concerned we would know enough to keep him alive! It was great having my mom there and then Sweeties parents came in and helped us make it though the first few weeks. I remember the first day Sweetie went to work and everyone was gone and I was alone with Cory. Wow. We learned together. We learned what the different sounds you made meant and what to do when you cried.  I learned all sorts of things that books don't cover being away from home and family. After awhile it was just second nature to tote him around and take him to church, the firestation, hockey games, and the beach. Each new day, it seemed he would discover something new. I tried real hard to capture as much as possible on film. To watch you discover new things and accomplish new feats..it was awesome...

It seemed like no time before you were ready to start your first day of kindergarten. Oh the time  has flown by. Its been fun to watch him grow. He loves music and currently plays violin, piano, and drums. He is now working on the electric guitar he got today!