65 Things I Love!

On the occasion of my mom's 65th birthday (oops...I mean 29th birthday), I decided to not clutter up her house with more crap that she's going to try to give back to me anyway.  Instead, her gift is below.  Yay!  No dusting.  :)

65 Things I Love About Ginny

65.  I love that her nickname growing up was Chicken Hawk.  Because her last name was Hawk.  Not sure where the Chicken came from.

64.  I love that I get my red hair from her.  :D

63.  I love that *I* am her favorite child.  Yeah.  That's the best!

62.  We love that she is good at laundry.  "I'm doing laundry.  Give me the clothes off your back."  Yeah.  Just like Doris.  LOL!

61.  I love that she's so giving.  Ever since we were little, she was always volunteering for causes.  Usually through the Elks Club (or the Does).

60.  I love that she instilled in us the value of treating every human being with respect.  This comes from the volunteer work that she always had us doing with the "Mentally Retarded" as they were called in the day.

59.  I love that I did NOT get her cold nature.  

58.  I love that she gets focused on a hobby for a while and then tries something new.  That gives my family endless "so...what is Ginny interested in now?"  lol!  I *may* have gotten that trait as well.

57.  I love that one of those hobbies was started 20 years ago, dropped and then resurfaced about two years ago when she decided to finish the quilt that she started for me...20 years ago.  LOL!

56.  I love that she has a NJ attitude in the south.  Some people, however, are not as appreciative of that.

55.  I love that she's bossy.  Okay.  She just knows what she wants.  Nothing wrong with that.

54.  I love that Shane is now in marching band and I am living her life 20 years later because she went to every single football game when Susan and I were growing up to watch us.

53.  I love that her birthday is September 15th.  That is one day before Owen's birthday and now I can finally remember if her birthday is September 10 (her and daddy's anniversary) or September 15th.  I could never remember which one was which.

52.  I love how she drops everything if her children need her.  Yeah.  I love that.

51.  I love that she was 51 when Shane was born.  He's now 14.

50.  Speaking of him being 14, I do *not* love that her "I hope you have one just like you" is coming back to haunt me.  Yeah.  I don't like that!

49.  I love that she and daddy still live in the same house that I grew up in.  I'm not so sure *she* loves it.  And by "not so sure", I mean...she would be happy moving.  But she'd have to uproot daddy first.  Yeah.  Good luck with THAT one Ginny!  LOL!

48.  I love that her experience with the school's PTA was exactly like mine.  "You're preaching to the choir sister!"  

47.  I love that she is good with numbers and math.  Because that SURE didn't pass onto me. 

46.  I love that her math sense *did* pass onto Shane tho because he's a wiz at it.

45.  I love that she likes to shop.  

44.  I love it even more that she has lots of friends to do it with.

43.  I love it that she will humor me and daddy and go to Skin's Hotdogs when I come home.  Yeah.  I love that place!

42.  I love it that when we go to the original Skins that the waitress there last time said "OMG.  How big HAS he (Shane) gotten."  Yeah.  We don't really know her but we do. 

41.  I love it that she seems to know everyone in Anderson.

40.  I love it that she keeps up with all of my friends.

39.  I love it that she keeps up with all of her friends.

38.  I love it that she goes on a cruise with her friends every year.  Yeah.  That's cool.  And that's important.  BFF's are important to a girl.

37.  I love it that she has a good eye for color.  Her house is all kinds of coordinated.  Yeah.  I love that!

36.  I love to watch her scold Sheldon.  It's like turning back the hands of time about 25 years and watching her and Susan.  LOL!

35.  I love it that she has a granddaughter who is a girly girl who will indulge Ginny's bows and cute dresses.  Yeah.  I'm talking about Mary Mayken.  Definitely not Sheldon.  

34.  I love it that Ginny encourages Mary Mayken's girly side.  I hope that doesn't backfire on her.  Talk about a diva in the making.  :D

33.  I love that she sucked daddy into taking me and Susan to our first concert when we were 12 to see Rick Springfield.  She did it under the "it's for my Mother's Day present" guise.  Yeah.  Good one, Ginny!

32.  I love it (now anyway) that she got so mad at me when I was about 13 that she told my dad to go into my room and beat me because she couldn't do it.  It was like she was channeling Bill Cosby or something.  I think she would have killed me if she would have started.  LOL!

31.  I love it that her 12 year old granddaughter is taller than she is.  

30.  I love it that her 14 year old grandson is taller than she is.  No.  Really.  I love it.  I was worried that he wasn't going to be as tall as I am.  Whew.  At least he'll be 5'4".  Woot!

29.  I love it that she is finally 29 years old!

28.  I love it that she knows a lot of Shane and Owen's friends.  Even though she lives 9 hours away.  That means that she comes up here enough to get to know them.

27.  I also love it that she knows a lot of *my* friends.  Because that means that she comes up here enough to get to know them.  

26.  I love it that she and daddy took us camping at Oconee State Park every weekend during the summers in our RV camper.

25.  I love it that I learned how to make monkey bread during those camping trips.  

24.  I love it that I've passed along that monkey bread making and loving skills to my children.  They both request it for their birthday breakfast.  

23.  I love it that she did not kill me and Susan growing up.  Yeah.  That wouldn't have helped anyone. :D

22.  I love it that she and my dad were so active in the Elks Club when I was growing up.  We made some of the best childhood friends growing up when they were in the bar and we were running around the Club looking for trouble to get into.  We usually found it.

21.  I love it that she moved to SC from NJ.  Although I love my Joisey family, growing up in the south is something special.

20.  I love it that I had the Joisey roots tho because I learned to tell it like it was...oh so sweetly.  Bless you heart.   :D

19. I love that we had a pool growing up.  So did my friends.  And theirs.  Night time swims were the best!

18.  I love it that my parents always supported Susan and my activities.

17.  I love it that Susan loves to go to Disney.  Because mom does too.  And I don't.  So they can go together.  :)

16.  I love it that my mom is such a loyal friend.  Obviously her friends love her too because she's had the same group of friends since the Elks Club days.  (Jo, Mary and Nelly)

15.  I love it that she has to go shopping when she's at my house or she'll get stir crazy.

14.  I love it when she gets stir crazy that shit gets done in my house.  Like tons of cleaning.  Yeah.  I LOVE that!

13.  I love it that everything in her house is organized.  Everything is in bins, labeled or in baskets.

12.  I love her sarcastic sense of humor.

11.  I love how she isn't as black and white as me and my dad.

10.  I love how even though she has the ability to make decisions based on how she feels about a situation, she's very logical.

9.  I love the one picture that I saw of her as a platinum blond when my dad was in the service.  That was almost as good as when Susan went bleach blond.  Almost.  

8.  I love it that she taught me how to make shoo fly pie.  No one here knows what it is when I make it but *I* do and it's my part of my Yankee heritage.

7.  I love it that she and my dad share the same ancestors about 7 generations back.  That would actually explain some things.  :D

6.  I love it that I share her middle name.

5.  I love it that she nicknamed Susan Fruita Fats instead of me.

4.  I don't love it that she nicknamed me Sam, Sam the Garbage Man.  Maybe Fruita Fats wasn't so bad.

3.  I love it that she and my dad took us to Clemson Homecoming bonfire every year.  They said it was for Susan and my birthday but I think that they just wanted to party.  

2.  I love it that she got a dog (Sadie) and waited to tell dad until she was at my house.  Yeah.  That was the best!

1.  I love it that she's the best mom ever.

Happy birthday Mom!!!

Getting the What Not

This could have been me or Susan about 25 years ago.

Getting the whatnot from Nanny.

Sorry girl.  I do feel your pain but better you than me. 

LOL!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me!

A month and a half later, thanks to the US Postal Service

It looked like a lovely birthday card.  :)

Striking It Off The List

As most of my friends who know me know that I am a list maker and a checker-offer of the old to-do list. 

Nothing gives  me more satisfaction than taking a pen and striking through a task.

Or adding something that wasn't originally on the list ONTO the list and then striking it off...just because I want credit.  And the satisfaction of striking it off.

But as most of us do, some things on the list just never get done. 

Or it drops to the bottom of the list, and continues revolving back through the order on the list until it actually gets done.

But sometimes I just drop it off the list completely accepting the fact that it's never going to get done.

And let me tell you that the apple don't fall far from the proverbial tree.  My mother is the same way.

So when she came in and handed me a gift a few weeks ago when she was in town visiting, I coulddn't believe my eyes.

It was a quilt that she started for me about 20 years ago.

No.  That's not a typo.

Details.

My favorite square.

I was quite surprised.  And impressed.  And happy.

It's a beautiful quilt and a beautiful sentiment that she finished it for me.  One that I will cherish for sure.

All that being said, it doesn't mean that I didn't razz her about it taking 20 years to get it off of her to do list.  LOL!

That was a HUGE strike through off her list!  Woot!  Woot!

Puppy Love

Aw.

Nothing like puppy love. :)

School Fundraising

If you have kids or grandkids, inevitably you're going to be presented with an opportunity to support your child's school.  IE - you're going to be hit with a school fundraiser.  And sometimes when you're lucky, you are presented with something that you actually would *like* to buy.

And other times, all you have to do is put in a little effort and the school can make money from things that you would normally throw away.

And such is the case with Campbell's Soup labels.  It's easy.  All I have to do is turn in the labels off the soup can to Owen's school and they make money off of it.

Collecting soup labels fundraising has been around for quite a while.  I distinctly remember going through my mom's cabinet around the fourth grade and pulling off the labels from the soup cans and turning them into the PTA. 

And leaving the cans there without a label. And probably with no identifier as to what was in the can or the expiration date.

For my mom: :-|

So yeah.  Fundraising.  Everyone's doing it.  

Mom, Why Does Nanny Look So Weird?

A few weeks ago, Shane walked by my curio cabinet and saw a picture of whom he thought was my mom. He asked me why Nanny looked so weird.

I asked him what in the world was he talking about and he pointed at this picture.


I laughed when I saw the picture that he was pointing to because it wasn't Nanny -- it was her mom Doris. I told Shane that it was his great grandmother and she looked weird because the picture was taken many years ago when the clothing and hair styles were different.

I started laughing because my mom and I have talked about many times that she looks more and more like Doris as she gets older.

But, I'm sure that she wouldn't mind being compared to the younger Doris because she was quite pretty when she was younger).

Love Those Goofy Faces!

I love taking pictures of kids.

Mostly I love taking the unposed pictures where they have no idea that you're taking them. Or they don't care.

The posed pictures are absolutely the hardest to take. So, I usually ask them to do a goofy faced shot. It looses them up when they start to whine about getting their pictures made.

Shane and Owen have gotten quite good at them. Sheldon is learning. Mary Mayken is, well, Mary Mayken.



And, I've started doing this with grown ups too. They give even better faces that the kids.



Here's a few others from the same photo shoot.



Such angels. Looks can be deceiving, don't you know?




I didn't order up a goofy face. Owen just can't help himself. It's his current smile. :)



Here are Sheldon and Mary Mayken with both of their grandfathers. Even though the men aren't looking at the camera, I love this picture because the grandfathers are both looking at the girls - right where their focus should be.



So next time you're taking pictures, ask your subject to give you a goofy face. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you get.

Happy Birthday, Ginny!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday Dear Ginny!
Happy Birthday Dear You!

Since we took a trip down memory lane for Shane, we have to be fair and do it for Ginny! :)







Hope you had a great birthday with Mickey! :) :) :)