Ho Ho Ho, it's all over but the payments

Christmas has come and gone, and all that' s left is a distant memory and the future payment of those credit card bills. I am glad it is all over, too much food, so much visiting, it is tiring. Bill and I went to Dona's for Christmas Eve, as did the rest of the family. It was fun as always, Steve and Jeanie were doing as well as could be expected after their home was destroyed, they are picking up the pieces. We had breakfast at Dona's and then Jeannie and I went Christmas shopping, it's Christmas eve, and she still wasn't done!! I enjoyed being with her though. She is such a sweetheart.

Christmas day Bill and I went to mom's, along with Kent. Darren and Mindy showed up about 4:00, so we had a short visit. Shelley was working and Preston went to Minnesota to visit the inlaws. I heard from the both of them too, so Christmas trudged on and was finally over. I don't mean to sound like "Bah , humbug", but it seems that the season just stresses everyone out somuch and then when it is over, everyone goes into that January slump, I need to move to Florida!

Those silly girls....all except for you mom, you're not silly!

Oh, I SO wish I was having a Christmas Party.....would these not be just the most perfect plates and napkins??? Mooning Santas!.....that is just SO ME!

Yesterday, Dec. 21, that first day of winter.....
Mom and I ate lunch at Applebee's, went shopping at Walmart and finished our scrapbooking page for Shelley's birthday. We had coffee and watched our new Clay Aiken Christmas cd, It was a fun day with mom, as always....hugs...

Today Lydia and Rhiannon called me and wanted me to meet them for lunch!
Those silly girls!!....said they missed me and were hungry for banana splits!!
It was nice to see them, guess they are anxious for Spring and the ice cream shoppe! We had such a fun time, laughing at the Mexican cook in the chinese restaurant!.......What's up with that????

Red Hatter's Christmas Party

Dec. 14th......(why do I have to keep putting the date in here?? Where is my date thingy?)
Mom and I finally got around to joining the Red Hat Society. We knew several of the ladies anyway, which was a plus. We went to Ryan's in Mt. Vernon for our Christmas Party. My everyone was all decked out in their finest Red Hat attire! The tables were decorated just beautifully with a Red Hat place mat (which we got to keep), Red Hat Bears that played "Girls just want to have fun", and lots of Red, purple and pink items. It was such fun! We all have a decorated cloth gift bag with lots of fun Red Hat stuff in it! These ladies were just hilarious and it was a good thing we were in the closed party room, because we were loud. One of the workers was a cute young man, who just loves the Red Hat Ladies. He especially liked this lady in the picture!...I think he was just buckin' for a big tip, but he was very cute and charming and made us all laugh! We had a gift exchange! It was wild. You got to choose a gift and open it, but if someone after you wanted your gift you had to give it to them and then YOU had to go choose another wrapped package from the table. At first I thought..."What fun is that?", but it WAS fun and funny too! We all ended up with fun things anyway. I can't wait until next month to see what happens next........so stay tuned for "The Red Hats Ride Again"...

Chuck Berry's still got it...............

Dec. 14th we had tickets to see Chuck Berry at his St. Louis nightclub "Blueberry Hill". with all of the upset with the fire and taking care of family members during the last few days. I had just about given up the idea of going. As luck would have it, all was taken care of (at least for Wed.) by 5:30. Bill and I changed our clothes and took off for the city.

Let me just say that Chuck has still got it!....it was a fantastic performance, he sang all of the great old rock and roll songs from the 50's and 60's and alot of wonderful blues. At the age of 79, he was still dancing across the stage and even did his famous "duck" walk. In fact, the room he always performs in is called the "Duck Room" and is lined with ducks of all sorts!. It is a small, intimate venue and I loved it. Bill and I needed some cheering up after the last few days, it was just unbelievable being in the same room with a great Icon like Chuck Berry. I am so glad we made it to hear him sing. He is such a pro and played that guitar like it was his oldest and dearest best friend. What an amazing entertainer!

It was really dark, and they sign said "No photoes", so I had to be careful and couldn't adjust my lighting, but wanted one just to remember the night.

The second picture was when they performed the last song, which was Johnny B. Good and some girls from the audience came up and danced on stage......in face we were all dancing anyway.....how could you not?

I have no words.....

Since I can't get the date thing to work on this blogger thing, I will just have to type the date in my post.

On Dec. 13th my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law, Steve and Jeannie Halterman had a terrible fire at their house.
The fire was just horrible, and the loss of their little dog was the worst blow of all. My BIL drives a semi-truck and is on the road allot, he was talking to my SIL on the cell phone when she drove in the drive and saw the house on fire. Can you imagine??? He was in CA. He flew home from Albuquerque, NM and Bill picked him up at the airport. We were all at the house yesterday when he saw it for the first time. He cried, but then, we all went inside and there were some things that they could save. I can't see how they can save the house, but that is what they are talking about. Two bedrooms upstairs only had smoke damage and there were some things inside cabinets that were still OK. They lost their computers and everything that went with that. The top floor fell into the basement, it is just a horrible thing. They are spending the day with adjusters and insurance people today. My BIL/SIL are deeply religious and they kept saying how thankful they were for every little item we found that could be saved. It was so amazing, a true Christian spirit between the two of them. It just made me want to cry hearing them talk like that , so positive. If it wasn't for their little dog, I think they would have taken it all much better, if that is possible. I think it will be ok, eventually. They were offered a free house to live in for as long as they want by one of their church members, so I think they are going to do that for now.

We are going tomorrow to help them clean after all of the insurance people are done with them. Hopefully things will go up hill from here, so everyone please keep them in your prayers.

I titled this post: I have no words, but it appears that I do....I guess I should have called it "I haven't the RIGHT words", because I don't.

25 years later.....

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of our beloved Beatle, John Lennon.
It's hard to believe it has been that long since this terrible tragedy changed music history forever. I have often wondered what beautiful pieces of music he would have given the world, had he lived. A horrible loss, not just of his life, but the loss of the creative genius that he was.

John Lennon and the Beatles rose to fame during my teen years, continuing on through my life until that fateful night in December, 1980. I remember the night like it was yesterday, watching Monday night football, then the horrible news broadcast to the world....I remember getting on the phone and calling a friend, it affected all of us of a certain age..we cried together.

Forward to today. There is now a plaque in Central Park across from the very brownstone where he was living and where he was shot by a crazed fan. The plaque is flush with the ground and just says "Imagine" on it with some etching around the edge. As I am typing this, there is a huge crowd standing in "Strawberry Fields" (the area around this memorial plaque), singing Beatles songs from long ago. It is very heart-wrenching and it hurts to watch it, but a heart-felt tribute to John Lennon.

I chose the above picture because it was taken the same day he was murdered. John and Yoko had a photo shoot with the famous photographer, Annie Lebovitz, that very day.. How interesting and prophetic that this was the last picture of John Lennon when he was alive...and how "John and Yoko-ish", that it would be John in the Nude and Yoko completely clothed in black with her hair swirling around them. I would have expected nothing less of them.

So this is MY small tribute to John Lennon on this day in early December, with snow flying outside my windows and John Lennon music playing on my computer,
John...we miss you still.

Beam me up Scottie, never saw that one comin'

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are on our way to ..Ho Ho Ho….Christmas. So, what has happened since our wonderful vacation?

We have gotten back into our normal pattern of life. It seemed weird once we got back home, we were so used to being on the go and everyday had been an adventure, ….things seemed mundane. It was good to be home though, back to our own bed, coffee in front of the tv watching the business news, feeding the chickens and letting Sally run in the early morning.

Mom and I went to Mt. Vernon last week and had a chocolate latte at the Rend Lake College coffee shop. It was a snowy, cold day, so we enjoyed it so much, sitting in the warmth of the coffee shop while watching the flakes swirl around outside the plate glass windows.

Danielle came and stayed for a couple of days before heading west towards home. She is officially out of the military now and is looking forward to starting a new life in Wyoming. Mom came up for supper and we had a really nice time. Danie, please keep in touch, we love ya.

Last weekend Bill and I went to Fairview Heights to the mall. It was fun walking among the shoppers with all of their packages and the Christmas music playing throughout the building.

Sunday morning there was snow on the ground when we woke up, not much, probably about an inch. I went to let the chickens out and the first one ran out and then stopped dead in his tracks, looked at the snow and ran back into the coop! Crazy birds, they get wigged out about everything.

This week mom and I had lunch with Teresa. I will be glad when she is finished with school, maybe we can go shopping and get in some mischief like the good old days.
Mom and I decorated our red hats for the Red Hat Society. I heard from the “Queen Mom”, Rhae Alvis today. We are old friends from school and were co-workers many years ago. We will go to the Christmas party next week and become members officially. Sounds like such fun.

Preston called to tell me that my other grandbaby is also a boy! I told him I was so excited, and couldn’t wait for both new babies to get here. He, Amanda and family had a great time at Disney World last week. Preston couldn’t stop talking about the trip, reminded me of when he was a little boy…kind of pulled at my heart strings for a minute.
I am glad Amanda has made him so happy and now he's about to embark on a new journey, being a dad. We love you all so much!

Shelley called today. She is doing fine also, She and Cary have finally got moved into their new home. They had read the blog about all of our vacation stops and events. Cary just had to let me know I made a fetching wench!!.. He is such a hoot! Shelley was her cheerful, happy self as always. She is just waiting for baby Garrett to be born.

So today we winterized the chicken coop and put a heat lamp in there…hope there are no singed feathers in the a.m.
So that is a quick rundown of the last few weeks since we got home.

Let me just leave you with this little tidbit:

Mr. Sulu is gay…..beam me up, Scottie…I never saw that one coming!
(It's ok, Georga, you're still my hero!)

Time travelers

The first time we attended a Renaissance Faire was at Hammond, LA, 5 years ago. So we are very fond of this particular festival, as it was what started us on this great adventure as time travelers. We love the Renaissance era because of it's colorful history, the great costumes and their way of life. It was a much freer time, free to be who you really were, a glorious, creative time in history.

So this is why we drove all day to get here, it is our special thing that we share with each other that we really love.

This fair is alot like the other one we attended last weekend, in that it has the joust, the numerous stage shows, the food, street minstrels, merchants, etc. However, this year they had a new queen, there has always been the same one for the last 5 years, a lovely spanish lady. The new queen was very beautiful and VERY pale. We were crossing the "Kissing Bridge" (invaded by the gypsies) and I saw a familiar face in the crowd. It was the "old" queen, who had mysteriously become a woodland nymph with ears and a tail. We always visited with her in the past and was great to see her again, she stopped and gave us a hug and a few laughs!

There is a "ferry" that travel across the lake that is in the center of the fair. It is just a wooden raft with park bench bolted onto it, and they just pull it with a rope from one side to the other, this always cracks me up!

A very good looking pirate guy try to kidnap me, I put on a brave smile while he held a gun to my head...and then Bill and I sat on a bench late in the afternoon and I was practicing my british accent, thanking everyone for attending our Rennfaire....Bill was laughing, but I just smiled at the people and kept thanking them, we were making a few remarks about some of them under our breath....what fun!

We stayed until close, at which time they had a sing along with all of the characters of the court! I hated to see it end, don't know if we will be able to come back again. It was kind of sad. Vacation is now officially over......waahhhhhh!

Not. so. fast

We were nearing Nashville, TN and were about to take Interstate 24 north to get home, when Bill asks me to check the map and see how far away we were from the Louisiana Renaissance Festival in Hammond, LA. We did some quick cipherin' and decided to head south instead of going home....

I made a call to the 800 Econolodge number and found a room in Vicksburg, MS, 3 hours from the Renn-faire, but we found out we were lucky to get that room, there was nothing south of us to stay in, just like had been reported. It took us the rest of the day and we were so tired, especially Bill, since he did all of the driving. My head hit the pillow and I was out like a light!

This is not the end

We left our beautiful beach retreat today and headed for home. We stayed in Newport, TN at a very nice Econo Lodge. Heading for home tomorrow, or so I thought!

Why is this place called an island?

I got up early and had coffee on the balcony in my jammies!...I wondered what the working people were doing.....so beautiful. There were still some rain storms out at sea and it made for a beautiful sunrise. A flock of pelicans flew right over my head looking for some breakfast.

Later Bill got up and we decided to take a long walk on the beach and look for shells. Before we knew it we couldn't see our hotel anymore. We walked towards town and had lunch at a nice little restaurant and then walked back to the beach. The ocean was calmer today, still so beautiful. We found a few shells, but mostly just enjoyed the salty air and cool ocean breeze. It was about 80 degrees most of the day. We finally made it back to our room about 4 hours later, we had walked 8 miles!....We both took a nap....even though I hated to waste the rest of the day inside. We had some sandwiches in our room and took a walk on the pier. The moon is still full tonight!...I could really get used to this life! We decided to start heading home tomorrow.....

We couldn't remember driving over any water, so why is this place called an island. When we drove back over the bridge that we used to get here, we drove over some marshland with a tiny little stream running through it, guess that makes it an island...lol.

Ok, Bill, your turn!

Bill couldn’t decide which direction to drive, he didn’t put much thought into HIS part of the vacation planning. We decided to drive back to the beach areas of N.C. , along the coast. We stopped at a few places, but it wasn’t quite what we were looking for. We finally ended up in Oak Island, NC. It is a quaint little seaside town, with lots of condos to rent. The entire beach area was nothing but summer condos, amonst them all was a beautiful motel, we drove by it several times, because it looked very expensive. Finally we stopped at the Ocean Crest Motel and asked the prices of their rooms, they were 60% lower due to it being the off-season. Well, Bill really outdid himself this time, we rented a room on the second floor with a view of the Atlantic, how gorgeous! We even had our own private balcony with table and chairs, I was so happy! We walked along the beach until sunset, of which I got some wonderful pictures. A storm was brewing at sea and it started to rain softly on us, well, just how romantic is this? We drove to the next block and got a few things to eat in our room. So we had a picnic by the open glass door of our room, with the sound of the ocean and the full moon rising over the surf. I kept running outiside to watch the water, so beautiful! Bill, good start…!!!!!

Carolina Beach.....part 2

I just had to post this picture separately, you can really see the gulls enjoying the cheetos!

Carolina Beach....here we come!

Today we met up with Danie. We took our suitcases to her house and then headed for Carolina Beach. It was a beautiful day, perfect temperature and no rain. After a couple of hours we arrived. At first we just walked along the beach, running in the tide and picking up seashells, there was much laughing and silliness, as usual. We decided to have some lunch, so we went to the “Sea Witch”, cabana and tiki bar, at least that’s what the sign said. We had fresh shrimp, fries and beer, all of the main food groups! The shrimp was the best I have ever had. The Sea Witch was a really fun place and we enjoyed. Danie and Bill had several beers, me I had just one. We got the blanket out of the car and went back to the beach with a bag of cheetos. We fed the cheetos to the seagulls! The beautiful Atlantic surf was glistening in the sun and smashing loudly onto the beach, it was so relaxing we almost fell asleep. It was great to be with Danie again, so sweet and funny! It was getting dark so we headed for home. Watched some tv and then went to bed. Another wonderful day of our vacation. This concluded MY part of the vacation planning, now it’s Bill’s turn, I wonder what’s next?

A visit with the dimpled one and family

Made our way to Fayetteville, NC to meet up with Preston and Amanda and kids. We went to Smokey Bones to eat. The food was delicious! We had a very nice time. Preston was very chatty and Amanda looked so cute, didn’t even look pregnant, ah the advantages of being tall and thin…lucky girl! The kids, Hanna and Austin were such a hoot! We enjoyed them so much. Preston and Amanda seem very happy and the kids, like I said, were great, can’t wait for the other one to get here. We stayed at their house until after 5:00 and then came to our room at the, again, Motel 6, in Fayetteville.

Austin took the second picture, he did a pretty good job,

Little Hanna took the last one, she was just a LITTLE short, but got a great picture of her brother....lol!

North Carolina Renaissance Fair....at last....time for fun!

Renaissance festival (Concord/Huntersville, NC)

We arrived at the Renn-faire at 10:30 a.m. A crowd of people were waiting for the castle gates to open and much hilariousness was happening in the balcony with the King, Queen, nobles and such. Soon we were allowed to enter, and what a fantastic day was ahead of us! First we rented a costume for Bill, as I was already dressed and we started walking around. I don’t even know where to begin, there was so much so see. We saw a gazebo in the middle of the “town” square where some minstresls were playing. They were very good and very funny, they were singing “He’s in the dungeon now”, to the tune of “He’s in the jailhouse now” (O Brother where are thou soundtrack)…using mandolins , wooden flutes, guitars and a bass fiddle. One portly gentleman even did the yoddling part, what a hoot!

So we took the tour and talked to many of the “towns people”. We ran across two very funny sisters who did a bit about the history of undies, called “Naughty knickers”, very funny and soon they got into a water fight. Bill and I had our picture taken with them and then we were on our way.

Soon it was high noon and it was time for the jousting tournament!
Our champion was Sir Matthew and was quite the “hottie”, black curly hair and dimples! However, he lost to the ugly guy..ha ha.

We decided to have some lunch and on the way observed some belly dancers practicing in the street. For lunch we had baked chicken and smashed potatoes, and some pumpkin/wheat beer, which was yummy. We wandered around some more, watching some more of the stage shows, some jugglers, some magicians, some unusual routines. There were the usual game booths: throwing tomatoes at some guy in a stockade, throwing hatchets at a targer, flinging a frog from a catapolt to a target (no they weren’t real frogs!), smashing platters, etc.

Many of the costumes were amazingly detailed. Some animals were even dressed up like fairy dogs. There were fairies, grim reapers, gypsies, renaissance men and woman of all classes, just wonderful stuff.

It was time for dessert and we went to “Ye chocolate shoppe”, and got some wonderful chocolate candy, we sat in the town square an ate it while a beautiful dark haired girl play softly on a harp.

We walked around some more went to the petting zoo, watched people ride the camel and the elephant. Checked out all of the vendors selling crafts, jewelry, magic charms, perfume and other interesting items. In one booth you could make a wax figure of your hands. People would decide what position their hands would be in and then you would dip it on wax, get in line, dip it in cool water, then go back to the wax again and again. Until it was thick enough. I don’t know how they got it off of their hands in one piece , but then you could add colors, glitter or a rose and then you were done, it was creepy and interesting at the same time.

It was getting late, but people just kept coming into the faire, thousands of people, about 25% to 30% were in costume.

Now it was dark and the faire was closing. Close to the front gate was the “town cripple”, he just sat in the road and had a can for money. If you put money in his cup he would hit himself in the head with a skillet or blow a horn with his left nostril, it was hilarious! We just kept laughing, he was very animated and funny, what a gig!

It took us an hour to get out of the parking area. We were starving so we drove to Monroe, NC and got a room at Motel 6. We found a great family buffet and I didn’t even take time to change clothes, just went on in , in my renn. Garb. Naturally people were staring, but I didn’t care. Some lady came up and asked me if I had been in a play at church!...(not with my boobies exposed!!). I just explained about the Renn-faire and went on my way. We were pooped!...went to bed early!

Day 2

11/11/05……….Driving…..stayed all night at Mooresville, NC
Sleep Inn

And so the vacation of great expectations begins

11/10/05……….Driving…stayed all night at Caryville, TN,
Budget Inn.

Happy Birthday to mom and Shelley

Sunday mom and I met Shelley at Tuscola at the "Amish Buffet". Shelley looked so cute with her little pregnant belly. Mom and I bought little girl party party favors for Shelley. Since she will be a mom in a few months, we decided she should have just one more "Little girl birthday party. Shelley wore the tierra, beads, and "Birthday girl" badge all day, even after lunch and while we were shopping. The Red Barn is an amish buffet and and entire village of crafts, foods and decorations. It is just beautiful and we have been there many times, it is always good for a girl's day out. We left the hubbys at home. We shopped all of the little craft stores which are all built like log cabins, but are all housed inside the main barn. In fact, it is always decorated for christmas year round. We laughed so much...Shelley was such a hoot and was telling us horror stories about their "new" house repairs. I told her it reminded me of that movie "money Pit"...it was funny then, I guess we'll see what happens as time goes on. I miss her so much not living very close anymore, but she is happy and the baby boy is growing by leaps and bounds.

We leave on vacation Thurs. and I am so ready. Can't wait to actually put something INTERESTING in my blog. Must call the kids and tell them when we are coming.

Just one more thing.......

As the pumpkin patch fades into a distant memory.....

Here is a collage of the last weekend. It was really great fun and was not so busy as the rest of the month. Lydia and I got to judge the animal costume party contest, the winners are on the right side of the picture and were adorable.



But alas! It is over.......Finally.......and forever!

It's almost Halloweeeeeeeeeeen!

It is only a few days until Halloween! Obviously, this my favorite "holiday", such an exciting time of the year, seasons changing, dressing up in costume, cider, candy corn, one last hurrah before winter sets in.

So this is what has happened the last few weeks: Relleke pumpkinfarm: The last two weekends have been crazy, as always, so busy, beautiful weather. We have made it through this far, so only one more weekend. This one won't be so bad (I hope), since it is right on halloween and everyone will have already gotten their pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, and so the crowd will be smaller and should be a little more fun for us. I can hear my vacation calling me!!

Last Wed. mom and I went to Centralia and had lunch at a little Italian restaurant down town. There is a city museum there that we just happened to drive by on our way to lunch. Mom knew about it and so we stopped in. It was a fantastic city museum with all kinds of things that happened in the past history of Centralia, this small town in Illinois. Newspaper clippings, military memoriblia (from Centralia soldiers), photos, just amazing. I am going to go back with my camera as it is well worth it. Mom's high school picture was on the wall with her class, as well as uncle Bob and uncle John. There was also a picture of her in her cute little majorette outfit hanging on the wall. There was a clipping of uncle Ed's sweet shop (grandpa's brother) on it's last day open. I guess it was a popular hang out back in it's day. Very interesting!

Talked to Danielle. She is doing fine and we are going to stop and visit her too on our vacation, as well as Preston and Amanda.

Shelley called this week also. The baby is a boy!! We are all so happy everything is going well for her this time. Cary is estatic as he was the last Yandell male to carry on the family name.

Fast forward to yesterday, Oct. 26th. Preston is finally home from Afghanistan! It was so nice to talk to him, he sounded so tired. Said he had been on the move for 30 hours trying to get home. He called while Bill, mom and I were at Walmart, getting ready to leave. He talked to all of us. He told Bill that he felt the earthquake that happened in Pakistan and that it was hard to stand up. He was only 60 miles from the epicenter. Too scary. I told him I would call back Friday after he has rested up a bit.

So, yesterday we went out to lunch for chinese food and then I got mom a cell phone for her birthday which is next week. It took us a while to get it going, but she is set for a year now, got enough minutes to last until next October and we are all on speed dial.

So, WOW, I shouldn't have waited to long to catch up this little journal!
The chickens are doing something weird,,,gotta go!

My Celtic heritage

About 5 years ago Preson and Danie sent me a wonderful Christmas present. It was the McKelvey coat-of-arms and a history of my maiden name. I thought it was very interesting and since nothing exciting happened today I thought I would put it here for posterity.

First, here is my Coat-of-arms:



McKelvey

Family Name history

The Scottish surname McKelvey is patronymic in origin, belonging to that group of surnames derived from the forename of the original bearer’s father. In this case the surname comes from the old Gaelic forename Sealbhach (pronounced “Shelvey”) and comes from the phrase “Mac Shealbhaigh”, meaning “son of Sealbhach”. The prefix “Mac” is followed by the genitive case of the forename and causes the initial “S” to undergo mutation to “Sh”. The letters “sh” are not pronounced in the Gaelic tongue, thus name is elided to “Mac ‘ealbhaigh’ which came to be Anglicized to McKelvey. The McKelvey’s are in fact a branch of the Clan Campbell who appeared in Argyll in the year 404 and who became Dukes of Argyll in the later Middle Ages ; the McKelvey bear the Campbell arms which are illustrated above. The McKelveys owned lands in Dumfriesshire and the earliest documentation of the name dates back to the year 1296 when one Morice MacSalny (sic) paid homage to the Scottish King. Morice had a son who is said to have been a hostage in Galloway and he is noted in 1300 as Mathew Make Salvi. The surname was also born by a hero of Scottish folklore; McDougall’s “Folktales and Fairy Lore” is recorded the story of “Sealbhach mac Shealbhaigh” (in other words , Shelvey McKelvey) and the Balieveolan Glassrig. The surname is also found in northern Ireland as a result of the constant traffic and inter-relations Ulster and Scotland In the middle ages. In the County Donegal there is a surname MacKelvy which is native to Ireland, and which is derived from the Irish Gaelic “Mac Giolla Bhuidhe” “Son of the lad with the yellow hair”. It is possible that the surname McKelvey is in some cases a variant of this, as are MacElwee, MacCalvey, MacGilvie and Mac Galloway.

Blazen of arms: Gyronny of eight or an sable
Crest: A boar’s head coupled or
Motto: Ne obliviscaris
Translation: Do not forget

Origin: Scotland

I need to go find the clan plaid, as different clans were identified by the plaid colors they wore. I am getting a new Renaissance costume which is Celtic, so that when we attend the Renn-faires I will be showing my true heritage.

Relleke Part 2

Today we finished the second week end at Relleke. It was very, very busy and we did really well financially, as always. It is just so tiring though.

We came home and went straight to Denny's for some real food. I don't think there is a food group for corndogs and curly fries, unless it is a "do not eat" group.

We got home about 9:30 and I went to the coop to make sure everyone was accounted for. Uh-oh, I was missing a chicken. Bill came out to the coop and was using the flashlight, looking under chickens, behind chickens...only 19. He went outside and there was one of the new chicks (chicks isn't the right word now, they are 3/4 grown), anyway, there was the little blonde one up in a tree asleep! We just left here there. Hope she's there in the morning.

MISSING!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHICKEN?

Red Ethel Cash

Today we were trying to decide where to go in vacation. The Louisiana Rennfaire has sent out emails stating that there are very few hotels available in the entire Gulf coast area due to hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Lots of the hotels are full of evacuees that fled the area and are still there. We have decided to go elsewhere, even though we would like to put our tourist dollars into this area, I think it will just have to wait.

I got on the internet and started looking up Rennfaires for different states. There is a Pirate festivel in Clear Water, FLA. Well, this just sounds like such fun. On their website there was a test you could take to figure out your pirate name....Mine is.......
Red Ethel Cash.. I thought this was fun, so here is a link so that you too can find out what your Pirate name is, just in case it ever comes up in conversation!

Your pirate name

And the great pumpkin adventure begins

Yesterday and today we were once again at Relleke's Pumpkinfest. Attending were the usual suspects, food vendors, crafters, clowns, camels, and of course, little one's running around with their faces painted. It was a beautiful day. The crowd was a little smaller than usual both days. We were told there were so many other festivals going on in the St. Louis area that it was taking away from our crowd. I not complaining, we still did very well. Sunday Lyd worked with us. We had lots of fun with her. Bill was telling us a story about a guy that called him BOB for about two years, but eventually someone must have told said guy that Bob's name was Bill. Anyway, Bill was telling us this story, so all day we called him BOB. "Bob, I need 3 orders of curly fries"...Bob, you are so funny"....he kept threatening us, but we were not afeared. It made the day go a little faster. Had the few weirdos asking for strange things, like plastic cups to put curly fries in because her kids would fight if they were just all on one plate. Sounds like a parenting problem to me...we did not do it. Some guy waning to know how much sugar we put in the shake ups and how many cups is 16 ounces? Did these people not go to school? Duh!

One week end down...........4 to go!

The Legend of Enos W. Taylor

It was a beautiful day today and so I decided to take a walk in the cemetery...what?.....well, because "In My Head Everyday Is Halloween" and besides it's close to my house and has nice little paths to follow. So I am walking along in the morning sunshine and I see a grave with a confederate flag. Then I remembered what the story was and was thinking about the story of this confederate soldier and why he is buried here in Yankee territory.


The story is writtin right on his tombstone, but the part I remember was that he was thrown off the train, dead and somebody just threw him in an open grave with his boots up and threw some dirt on him. Not a very respectful way to treat a human being, but this was a time of war and hate.


Poor Enos W. Taylor was only 19 years old and died for what he believed in. The other part of the story is that there were hundreds of people that attended the funeral for Enos, none of them knew him, but honored his memory. I don't know why Mr. Eagan decided to do this kind and respectful thing for this unknown soldier, but there were fresh flowers there today on this Monday in September. A life remembered from a time when our country was divided and hundreds of thousands died on the soil they called home.


I wonder if the family of Enos Taylor ever knew what happened to him, their young son who went off to war and never came home.