McDonald's Commercial......or 'crete workers taking a break?

This isn't a commercial for McDonald's. but it sure would make a good one. This is actually my husband, Bill (left) and his buddy and co-worker Sonny taking a break while Main St. was blocked due to the transport of 140 foot cement ibeams made be the men of Egyptian Concrete in Salem, IL. The beams are on their way to St. Louis to repair the bridges there.

A day at the Mall in Tuscola, IL

Mom and I met Shelley, Garret, Marsha and Christine at the Big Red Barn, which is run by the Amish people of the area. It is a huge red barn with white trim, with many craft and boutique type places inside. All of these pictures were taken there, though we continued on to do some real shopping at the mall, where the barn is located. Garret had fun on the slide.
Mom and Shelley in front of one of the many shops inside the barn mall.
Me and Shelley.....;-)
Garret on top of the huge horse in the lobby, with the old carriage attached. I don't know why this picture is not clear, but he still looks cute riding bare back.
Gattet loved all of the crafts, he couldn't wait to get his hands on them.
He especially loved these big wooden flowers.......
Exploring.......
Great grandma and Garret under the lamp post.
He kept saying "OUT", he wanted the big flower off so he could hold it....
Smiling for mom...Great grandma Knight, and grandma Marsha below...

Happy Birthday, Son....

Today is my son, Preston's Birthday

Happy Birthday son, So glad you are home from Iraq and enjoying your family. Great talking to you today.



Love,Mom

My brother wants to know "What's shakin'....

Earthquake report.......

Bill goes to work around 5:30 a.m., so we were up at 4:30 and I had just made coffee and we were waiting for it to get done, suddenly our trailer started moving, sounded like a strong wind at first, in about two seconds we knew it was an earthquake, everything was shaking, it reminded me of the movie Jurassic Park, where the dinosaur is coming....!!! Everything moved a lot and was very scary. It went on for a long time (so it seemed) , then there were some smaller after shocks later in the day. All the dogs in town were barking, that part at least was good for a laugh. I wonder what the chickens were thinking.....anyway, it was all very eerie. It could have been much worse. There doesn't seem to be any damage around here. I talked to my son, Darren, in St. Louis, they had some damages there on some older buildings. Talked to Shelley too, she slept through it, but she woke up suddenly around 4:45 and didn't know why until she heard the news. The report of the earthquake was on all of the national channels too, since it is not a common happening around here, even though we are on the New Madrid fault. The epicenter was in New Salem, IL, which is really just the west side of Salem, Indiana, so it was about 60 miles straight east of us.
That's about all there was too it, but for a few seconds there, I felt an adrenaline rush, and not the good kind...!

Wine, Bingo and Karaoke

We had our Red Hat meeting tonight, if you would like to see what we were up to, here is the link to our blog....

Red Hat ladies.......Salute!

The Funeral

It is all over, the visitation and the funeral. It was so very sad. The display of pictures was just fantastic. Since he was a jockey, he had lots of professional pictures taken through the years, many of them were with him on horses, in races, just riding a horse with a cowboy hat with the sun setting, sitting in a hay loft, where you could just see the back of his belt that had his name on there..TONY. They were so cool, prom pix, ball games, laughing with his nieces and nephews, it was a beautiful display representing his life. The preacher was very good, kept it short, but very meaningful. The music, had everyone in tears, Sarah McLaughlin, WILL YOU REMEMBER ME, Bob Dillon, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR, Eric Clapton, NO TEARS IN HEAVEN, and it ended with a beautiful country song, I have no idea the name, but it had fiddles playing slowly in the background and the song was beautiful. The preacher said a prayer and then ended with a poem THE COWBOY'S PRAYER, so beautiful. There were hundreds of people at the visitation last night, so many people at the funeral today, that they had to stand outside, so many people went to the cemetery that traffic had to pull over for miles. A beautiful sunny day, such a sad event. His mom just cried constantly, as did his sister. Of course, they were all just heart-broken. We all cried a lot, Bill had a hard time. All of his work buddies (and Tony's) were there from the concrete place.

The autopsy showed that he had a massive heart attack, one of his arteries was 100% blocked, the others were blocked also, I don't know how much though. Also, it showed he had signs of having heart disease for a long time now. I was talking to one of his aunts and she said many of the men in the family had died of heart attacks at an early age, she named about 7 different men that died before they were 50....so it was kind of an inherited thing then....

An odd thing happened today. I was at our little grocery store here in town and a guy I went to school with came in there at the same time. He lives in Salem, and was on his way to Effingham, which is about 30 more miles from here. He had stopped in the store to get a soda and a snack. Anyway, I was talking to him about Tony, asking him if he knew him,etc. He said no, but his wife is a trauma nurse, and she was on duty when they brought Tony in after the accident. He said she did CPR on him and brought him back, and then released him to the doctor. However, they lost him after that.....I guess, there was just so much blockage (they didn't know at that time) that his heart couldn't keep beating...my friend told me his wife has been an xray technician for years, and th was the first time she came home from work and just sat down and cried............but how, strange, that this guy just happened to stop in the store the same time I was in there, and his wife was connected to Tony in that way...

A Sad day.......life is too short......

I usually try to keep this blog up-beat and cheerful, as that is my nature, but today was very sad because of an untimely death of a friend.

Bill just left to go see his boss, there was a death this morning of one of his co-workers and he was also a good friend to both of us. There is much more to the story than that.

This morning Bill got up early and wanted to take me to McDonald's for breakfast, so we called our friend, Tony Garrison, as he is always calling on Sunday mornings and wants to go out to eat. So he said he would meet us there. When he got there, he was not feeling well, said his chest hurt, said it was indigestion, or heartburn. He had been throwing up and was about doubled over in pain. We begged him to go to the ER, we said we would take him and stay with him until his mom and dad could get there. He is very stubborn and hard-headed and would not go. He insisted it was indigestion. We ate our breakfast and he just sat with us. He had taken a zantac and got a 7 up and seemed to feel much better and was his old self. Then we all went to Walmart where we chatted and he also seemed fine. I went back to the craft dept. then and Bill and Tony were talking in the front of the store. Then Tony said to Bill "See ya later, buddy", his last words in this world. and he drove away. We paid for our items and left. Bill took me by his workplace and was showing me these huge concrete beams they have all been working on for the bridges they are fixing in St. Louis. We were only there about maybe 5 minutes. We were going back towards town and we saw lots of emergency lights, police cars, the rescue unit, ambulance. We drove down one side road and parked, Bill got out walked towards the road as close as he could get, as it is a major intersection in town. When he came back to the car he said he was almost 100% sure it was Tony's car. It was flipped upside down, and the air bag had been deployed. We hoped for the best. We went to the hospital, but, of course, we are not family and they would not tell us anything, then we tried to call the hospital when we got back home, still nothing they could tell us. Finally we listened to the local news and they said there was a fatality. He hit a pole and there was no other vehicle involved. Soon one of Bill's other friends/co-workers called and said the boss had just been to his house and was on his way here. Bill went to find him now. There were 4 workers and a foreman that were working so closely with each other in Missouri last summer and fall, Tony was one of them. He always looked up to Bill and they were really good friends, he called often and stopped by here to visit too......I will really miss him....the saddest part, he was only 37, and graduated with my daughter, Shelley. She remembers him too. I am going to have to call her now and tell her this sad news. I am glad I gave him a hug this morning, he was in so much pain. He could have even been having a heart attack, I guess we will know eventually. It is just the saddest thing and I know the family is heart-broken.

The family needs prayers. I know his parents too, worked with them both for years.....so sad....we all NEVER want to get THAT call....

Redneck Rocker's MYspace

This is my brother's band, the Redneck Rockers. His myspace page is so funny and is so HIM,
take a look and read all of the great stuff he wrote there, and add them as a friend, if you like. Their band is really fantastic and they are all so talented. If you live in the southern Illinois area, try to catch them sometime, you won't be disappointed..

The person that took this picture must be so talented....(That would be ME!).....

Here is the link:

REDNECK ROCKERS MYSPACE

What is Dick looking at?

Oh, Look, See Dick (Cheney)
What does Dick see?
Run, Dick, Run!
Dick Cheney is not the only one that looks cool in sun glasses.....

Attention: LEXOPHILES!

LEXOPHILES (LOVERS OF WORDS):

1. A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead giveaway.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts; in feudalism, it’s your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don’t pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I’ll show you A-flat miner.
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
12. A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
13. You are stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.
14. Local Area Network in Australia : The LAN down under.
15. He broke into song because he couldn’t find the key.
16. A calendar’s days are numbered.
17. A lot of money is tainted: ‘Taint yours, and ‘taint mine.
18. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
19. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
20. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
21. The short fortuneteller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
23. When you’ve seen one shopping center you’ve seen a mall.
24. If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
25. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
26. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
27. Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.
28. Acupuncture: a jab well done.
29. Marathon runners with bad shoes suffer the agony of de feet.

A Day in my life..........

Went to mon's today. We tried a new kind of "coffee". You know how I am always getting the free samples, well, I got one from a company called "Teeccino", the coffee is made without coffee beans. It is made with dried fruit and nuts with some chicory added. It is the most yummy stuff. I sent for a sample pack. I tried a couple of the different flavors, and took some to mom's today. We had the hazelnut. I told her to keep one for herself and she chose the Vanilla nut. The coffee is caffeine free, but does having something that gives you energy, can't remember what it is right now. So, anyway, (after that long explanation), we had coffee and pumpkin bread that I made. We had a nice visit.

Mom got her a cell phone,so we got it all set up and put the phone numbers in.

We were happy because the official announcment came out today that Clay Aiken's new album will be released May 6th, all new songs!! So, were were going "eeeeeeeeee!"

After that I went to Walmart and got groceries and some soil to plant my lettuces and broccoli in. I have some large containers. I can't quite decide whether to just go ahead and plant the stuff in the garden, or maybe just the peas and onions in the garden and the rest in pots. Guess I'll see what mood strikes me tomorrow. The last frost for our area is around April 10th, it is going to be very warm the next four days...I will make a decision tomorrow.

So, we had pizza for supper, Bill is in bed, I took a bath and there is nothing on tv.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Here is link to the Tecchino website, in case you're interested.

http://www.teeccino.com/default.aspx

Scooters R Us

Look at the name on the side....:Hardly Dangerous.....
Gangsta!......Bwahhh!
Don't look at me, I'm hideous!..(No make-up and I have my barnyard shoes on, hee)

Bill recently bought us each a scooter. They are used and have some miles on them, but he got them for a really good price, which was why he bought both of them. The guy that sold them has a used car lot in Salem, IL. His name is Richard Pollard. He has the most interesting place there. His house is right next door to the used car lot. He has an actual airplane (two passenger) that looks like it crashed into his back yard, the nose is buried in the ground, quite a show stopper if you drive around the curve and see it suddenly. He also has a "flower bed", that is full of chrome bumpers buried in rows, the small end in the ground. He has a big sign that says "bumper crop", by there. Standing next to the bumper crop is a huge knight armor, it is about 8 feet tall, the sign next to him says: "bumper guard". Richard also has been in lots of our parades we have here. He has a go- cart, and the seat is a toilet! The scooter that Bill got for himself is a small Honda...instead of "Harley Davidson", it says "Hardly Dangerous" on the side. Mine is red and Bill has been giving me riding lessons in the drive way, and then I ventured out into the road. It was such fun! Now I am going to have to get a motorcycle license driver's license, if we are going to ride together. Bill already has one. So, I guess that would make me a motorcycle mama....or maybe just a Scooter mama, somehow that title looses some of it's glamor, but I will live with it.

I don't think I'm quite ready for the "Big wheels" yet....:-)

What's behind the gate?

I just find this picture so interesting. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think is behind the gate.