JUST CHECKING IN

Today is a perfect day.  The sun is shining, the wind is a nice breeze and the air is cool and comfortable.  Just the kind of day that you wish you could bottle and have all year round.  While I was walking Houston and looking at the beautiful flowers and bushes here at my complex I realized just how lovely everything is because we have had so much rain.  However, as great as it is right now I know that in a few days it will be the first day of June and summer will be here with all of it's hot, muggy days. 

This has been a pretty busy month for me.  Carter and Goodpasture baseball has drawn me to the ball field like a magnet.  We won the District and then the Region and then the Sectional and we got prepared to play in Murfreesboro at the State Tournament, which we won last year.  So the 21st through the 24th, each day or evening, whatever the schedule called for, Bobbie and Jim Wiseman picked me  up and I rode with them to Murfreesboro.  We played the first games at Blackman High School and that was a first class stadium.  We were threatened with storms, wind, etc but escaped each time we played.  On Friday the 24th we went to M.T.S.U. with high expectations of winning another state title.  We were not so lucky this year.  We were ahead 3-0 until the 7th inning when Pigeon Forge High School scored three runs and tied the game.  In the extra inning they scored two runs and we didn't score so we lost the game 5-3.  What a heartbreaker.  I will say that Carter played extremely well in all of the games, even hitting a home run in one of them.  I am so very proud of him.  My mother used to say "I'm proud of Ronald even if he is my son" until somebody told her that she should say "I'm proud of Ronald and he is my son".  So I will say "I am proud of Carter and he is my grandson". His picture was on the front page of the paper this morning and also he was interviewed after the game and that was in the paper.  I will miss the baseball games but it is my understanding that the football team will meet for the first time next week and he will be getting prepared to give us some more activity to be proud of.  We certainly enjoyed his football career last year. 

Today is graduation day for Ashton Gassaway, who happens to be Carter's girlfriend , and I, along with Corinne, Kim, and Jacque will be attending her graduation party this afternoon. I imagine that it will be very nice because, from what I have been told, her mom has been working on it all week.  I will see a lot of people that I know and it will be fun.

Yesterday I received a call from Nita who is in Gulf Shores, Alabama with Chris, Ashley and the children.  She was telling me what a wonderful place Chris had rented for them to stay in while they are there.  Chris asked to speak to me and when he got on the phone he greeted me with "Mimi, we are going to have a baby".  Well, I was shocked speechless.  I guess I assumed that they had their family complete with the two boys and the little girl.  However, God had other plans for them and this child was described to me as "a pleasant surprise".  The baby is due in November and I will pray for a healthy baby that will make the number of my great-grandchildren 20.  In all of my wildest dreams I never thought I would have 20 great grandchildren!!!!!  And you know what?  Courtney and Carter will add to that number one day.  I probably won't be around to meet those children but, who knows, anything is possible.  I will say this about Chris and Ashley, they surely do have beautiful children and I expect this next one to be no exception. 

Speaking of babies, I have talked in this Blog about  Rosemary and Ron Taylor's new grandbaby.  I haven't met Emma Louise Taylor yet but I have seen many, many pictures of her on Kim's Facebook page and she is a beauty.  I hope that someday soon we can get together and I can see her in person.  From the pictures of her with her grandmother and her Aunt Jessica, I can see that she is giving lots of enjoyment to that family.

This week-end is Memorial Day week-end.  My only plan is that Sara will come tomorrow (Sunday) and we will visit a restaurant for dinner and then she will spend the night.  On Monday, which is Memorial Day, Paul has invited us to go to lunch.  That will be our Memorial Day Celebration.  I remember Memorial Day's of long ago - we lived on Valley Park Drive and the children didn't get out of school until the first week of June so they would not be at home.  Billy had the day off.  We would start early washing windows.  He would be on the outside and I would be on the inside.  We had the kind of windows that had storm windows and screens and he would take all of that off and we would wash the windows, the storm windows and he would put the screens back in.  I never could please him with my part of the job because I would leave a streak here and there and he was a perfectionist.  We would usually end up yelling at each other because the job would take all day and we would both be so tired.  When we would finish and get cleaned up and the girls would come home from school we would go to Shoney's or some restaurant for supper.  It was a long time ago but the memory is as vivid as if were yesterday.  Some things you never forget. 

I don't have to wash windows any more.  There's a lot of things I don't have to do now but sometimes I would like to relive just one more day of those days.  I have had a good life.  God has blessed me over and over in may ways and that is because God is good - all the time.