Bittersweet

Yesterday, Mama went through all the boxes in the basement.  She was dreading that. She doesn't like being in that basement.  She went through all the Christmas boxes and found the items she wanted to keep.  She found another large plastic container that held her wedding gown, but it also held other treasures that she had forgotten about.

Some of the treasures.

This is one of the ornaments we told you about.  It belonged to her Grandparents on her Dad's side.  Notice the hook. it is made of a wire and rope.

We have five of these.  One broke several years ago.

This is a crochet hook that is handmade. A note attached to it said it was made by Minne Todd.  Mama's Great Grandmother was a Todd, but her name was not Minnie.  She is unsure who Minnie was.  She tried to do a little research, but so far doesn't have the answer.

This nativity ornament has always been on Mama's family Christmas tree.  She is not sure how old it is, but it is old. The angel was bought when Mama was in first grade, so it's OLD, too.

This dress was Mama's.  It was crocheted by Mama's Grandma, her Dad's Mom.

This was given to Mama's brother on his first Christmas.  He didn't want it, so Mama has it.  It is 52 years old.  It used to be a brass color, but Mama repainted it about 30 years ago.

A hat made by Mama's grandma.

This is a harmonica that was owned by Mama's Great Grandfather on her Mom's side.  It is dated 1836, but we don't know if that is when it was made. The writing on it is hard to make out, so we need to find a magnifying glass which is probably at Goodwill.  LOL

Having all of these things is bittersweet for Mama. She doesn't have anyone to leave them to on her side of the family.  She is going to pack them into the china cabinet for now.

Two more huge trips were made to Goodwill yesterday.  The guys there give Mama a big wave when they see her coming. She told them that we are going to be living in our RV full-time.  Their eyes got HUGE. I guess they have never heard of that before. BOL   Mama made a lot of trips up and down the steps yesterday, so she was really tired last night.  She still needs to go through a box that has diplomas and other personal items. The basement is about 75% done.   The next room is the garage and Mama is more than scared to open boxes out there.  When we came home from our trip, there was a very long snake skin in the garage. Where is the rest of the snake?  Yeah, so Mama is putting the garage off for as long as she can. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Enjoys Sniffing Old Items

Everyone Is Fine!

The last update we had on Grandpa was good.  He enjoyed a mainly liquid dinner last night. We hope he recovers quickly and is back home soon.  He is Dad's stepdad, which makes him Grandpa to us.  He is always helping us with things.  When we were in Illinois, Scout thought she saw him and when nuts.  She was so disappointed when she found out it wasn't Grandpa.

An old photo of me looking cool.

Dad is fine after encountering Hurricane Sandy. He emailed us yesterday to say it was mainly just windy.  He called us just before 9 p.m. to say that all was well and it was over. He said the other part of the island got hit harder than they did. 

Scout's nose looks really long.  BOL

Yesterday, Mama finished clearing out the junk/sewing room. The kitchen is about as done as it can be for now. She made what seems to be a daily trip to Goodwill.  They gave her more boxes to fill. LOL  (If you need boxes, check with your local Goodwill.  They are happy to give them away.) Today, Mama is tackling the basement which has all the Christmas stuff. She is going to keep her Grandparents ornaments that she was told came from Germany. She is not sure if that is true, but they are definitely very old.  She will take a photo to show you tomorrow.  She also wants to keep a little nativity ornament that is really old and an angel ornament that she has had since first grade. The rest will be donated.

I Look cute in hats, but I don't like them.

Mama's passport card arrived yesterday.  She can now travel to Canada and Mexico.  It is not the same as a regular passport because it only allows her to DRIVE into Canada and Mexico.  So, if we are sent to Canada, we are ready!

 Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Itching To Hit The Road Again

"We Are Going To Need More Trash Bags!

That is what Mama said when she found another tub of papers that needed to be shredded.  Well, it's not the first thing she said, but maybe the second or third. I actually thought she was going to cry when she saw those papers.

Papers that needed to be shredded.

 We started out being pretty productive yesterday.  Mama decided she was going to finish the office by clearing out everything that was not staying. She looked up on the Internet how to clean up her hard drive so she could donate her computer.  It was an easy process.  She loaded up the desktop, monitor, printer table and the laser printer that she bought in 1995 for $1,500 in the Jeep.  Yes, that is how much she spent on that printer. That is what they used to cost. She needed it for the new business she was starting. Obviously, it was a work horse because it still works.  Mama worked it hard in the glory days of her business.  Yes, I think she was sad to say goodbye to it.  After she finished the office, she headed to the junk/sewing room and that is when she discovered the tub of papers.   She was very sad. She decided to go to Goodwill and drop off the donations, grab some lunch at Bandana's (BBQ place) and then start on the shredding.  She forgot to buy trash bags and had to head back out for that.  This bin took her about five hours to shred.  Our shredder only shreds six pages at a time and gets hot, so he needs to cool off. Finally, we finished at 8:15 p.m.

Today is a day of worry.  1) Grandpa is having surgery.  We are sure he will be fine, but still having surgery is scary.  2) Dad is in Jamaica and they are having a hurricane.  He said no one is concerned there.  They didn't board up any of the windows. We hope we hear from him tonight and he says everything is okay.

On the bright side, today is Mama's only niece's 16th birthday!  We hope she has a very happy day.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Tired Of Paper Shredding

Shredding Papers Again

We spent seven hours yesterday shredding papers.  Mama had to go through all her tax papers, business papers and just old bills that she kept. Mama had a small business for almost fifteen years, so most those papers were shredded, too.  She decided to shred everything she was throwing away for safety.  We ended up with five big trash bags full of shredded paper. That's a lot of shredded paper.  Our paper shredder kept getting too hot and we had to let it cool down before it would work again.  Scout and I supervised.

Bunny reported yesterday on our meeting on Saturday.  Mama loves the photo of me and Bunny also the one of me and Scout. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should.  BOL

Dad's trip is about half over.  We are just taking a day at a time and not thinking about how much longer it is.  He said they are having a tropical storm today and we didn't even know about it until he told us.  We've been too busy to pay attention to much on the news.

This morning, I have been watching the squirrels.  It's a rainy morning and I can just watch them from my bed.  However, I got up to get a drink and Scout took my bed.  She is not even watching the squirrels.  She is wasting the bed.

We took some more pictures of our yard yesterday.  The colors are really pretty now.

There was a pretty sunset the other night.

Scout got up from the bed, so I need to grab it for more squirrel watching.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Enjoys Watching The Squirrels From His Bed

The Bubba Kids Meet

Today was a big day for us. We met my half sister, Bunny.  Many of you know her from her blog Tales and Tails.  We have the same, Dad, Be My Bubba.

The is our Dad - picture from Greyhound Data.com

Mama was a little concerned about us going to a museum, so she told us to play before we left.  She hoped we would be tired that way.

It looks like I did all the running, doesn't it?  BOL  Scout did run, but you sure can't tell in these photos.

Finally, it was time to go to The American Kennel Club/Museum of the Dog.  Sounds classy, doesn't it?  That is why Mama was nervous.  She kept telling me not to mark anything. Well, when someone tells you not to do something, that's what you want to do.  I am happy to say that I DID NOT MARK anything.  The only thing I did to embarrass Mama was whine.  It's what I do though.  She would rather have me do that than mark.

A nice table was set up for Bunny and Blueberry's appearance with cookies for all the dog visitors.  Yum!  Bunny and her folks had visited in June and Bunny was asked if she wanted to be the dog of the day or maybe it was the breed of the day and today was the day.

Mama wanted to get a photo of all four of us.  It wasn't easy. 

Close, but Blueberry is too far back.

Scout looks like she is throwing up.

Not yet.

Leaning too far to the right.

I think we need to give up.

WE DID IT!

Okay, we are done.  You can see the professional models in this photo.  We didn't know treats were involved or we would have worked a little harder.

Blueberry and Bunny are princesses.

Mama said that we are rednecks. We stick our tongues on the floor.

 

It was a tiring day.

We had a lot of fun.  We met several people who enjoyed petting all of us.  Two ladies came back several times and petted us.  They liked my kisses.

Mama had never been to the museum and still hasn't seen it because she was scared I would do something bad.  She is going to go back and tour it without us.  She thought about going tomorrow, but they are having a huge pug event and it sounds like it will be too crowded.  They don't even charge admission tomorrow because it is too hard to keep track of people.  They said there will be 300 pugs!  She said she will go back on a quieter day.

We sure enjoyed meeting Bunny and Blueberry.  They are definitely dignified greyhounds.  We liked their folks, too!

Be sure to be watching Bunny's blog for her view of our day together.

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Just Realized He Is A Redneck Greyhound, But He Is Just Carrying On The Family Tradition Since He Is A Bubba