On a better note..it's my birthday, it's my birthday...

Yep, I am 19. I will forever be 19.

After the stress of putting the below ebay article I feel everyone needs to read...I need to find my happy place. My birthdays remind me of my wonderful step grandmother; Reoma, who died two years ago. She named me you see...and we had a very special bond. She never had any children of her own. I lucked out.

I miss her dearly. I am not quite sure if this is the happier note I was going for..but I have the need to ramble about her and share..and since this is my place and no one can shut me up...yea for me. She was born and raised in Louisiana. She spoke with a very heavy Cajun accent. I LOVED hearing her talk. She was a very sassy independent woman...just wonderful.

They grew up dirt poor with their coon hounds getting fed better than the kids.. I remember a few years ago we were watching something on TV around Christmas time. She blurted out. " I remember one year each of us kids got an orange and a walnut. We felt like the richest kids on earth."



Here we are again.

I know 100% my love for things of
the past stem from my two sets of
grandparents. Unfortunately I don't
have many pictures of my other set..
I wish I had. Both sets were so
different from each other. It really sucks when people die. Especially when you grow up and you don't have a lot of tangible things to remember them by. My kids will never get to grow up with them...knowing them how I knew them. They were my happy place as a child. When I heard she was passing, we quickly left and made the 150 mile journey. I got there just in time to hold her hand..and my face was the last thing she saw. You can't get better closure then that.

This is about the age she used to send me new knee high patent leather boots every spring. I was hot in those boots.








As you can see, I was quite happy to be there with them...and my cousins...

On another sad note, the first girl laying down on the left is Christina. We were like best friends and sisters rolled into one. She died suddenly, without warning in her sleep 3 years ago at the age of 36. Maybe I will talk about her later.

Their homestead was the center of my universe on vacations and such...you see that Spartan bullet trailer in the back? I stripped that puppy clean when we moved them off the land a few years ago...which was the second most painful thing I have ever had to do. I took as much I could if they did not want it. So much of it had been there as long as I could remember. The dishes, the silverware, the sheets, are all used in my home. There was no way I was leaving my nostalgia for the new owners to throw away.





This is my grandparents together in the late 60's when they met.

LOVE the glasses...













This is my grandfather Walt now.

This was taken last summer. He is showing off the tomato plants I sent him. We took the kids up there for a few days to get to know him more before anything happens. Being in his 80's...well..










This is my tribute to my grandmother.

It is a 1973 International Travelall. A towing monster. I bought it for a family vehicle. Her name is Reoma and I love her.

"What about the gas??" You ask

Gee, my registration is $80 per year, my insurance is $60 per month, I have no payments, parts are cheap, we can repair things ourselves, it is made of steal and I will head up against any other car on the planet in a crash test any day, I can easily sell it at anytime doubling my money, it will always keep its resell value and I get only 3 miles less per gallon then a new SUV in comparison. Do the math. Who is the smart guy now?

Well believe it or not I am now back in my happy spot...wow this is therapeutic.