Today is Tuesday................Today is Tuesday..............


Oh sorry, I thought I was with the kids right now.....................well, whoops....I AM! *wink*

We've been swimming, waterballooning, walk-walk-walking, children's museuming, playgrounding, singing, reading, coloring.........................


POH  is exHAUSTED!  How is it that TWO kids can wear me out more than  the SEVEN at  home?  Hoo-boy, these kids have en-en-en-er-geeeeeeeeeeee.  Out the wazoooooooooooo!  Ooooooo, don't mention the zoo! *smacking own head*  Yikes, I can smell the elephants as we speak!

Well, if this place is Texas................I like it!  Maybe I'll just MOVE here, Heide............how 'bout dat? 

It sure is purty where we are .  Lot's of trees.  I thought I was in Florida! 

One thing though...............they have  CAMERA'S at every light.  Don't run the red!  You get the ticket in the mail and they have your PICTURE!  Shoooot.  Good thing POH isn't drivin'!

Well, it was a wild ride today! We hit turbulance between Rochester and Washington, DC. When the plane landed with a jolt I let a little gasp. Several people turned to see if I was still breathing. Just barely. I like airplanes too. Just not when they are rocking like my old horse when I was three......
ya know?

The trip from DC to Houston was better.....longer though. At least I got a bag of pretzels and some tomato juice on that one! Ooooo, I was huh-uh-uhn-gareeeeeee!

I got the best greeting I think I have ever received in my enTIRE life, from my five year old grandson at the airport. He ran up and JUMPED up in my arms. He is getting BIG!

All those days of driving three hours to watch him while his mother worked, between the ages of 8 and 18 months was definitely worth it though........baby, he LOVE his Nana! *wink*

My granddaughter is the keeeeuuuutest little thing with her painted nails, pierced ears, purty sandels. She looks just like her mommy did back in the day with those reddish blonde curls all over her head. Wow, I was seriously transported back in time when I saw her.

I met another little boy in the airport. He was running all over the place and his mother had lost complete control of him. He was totally annoying the other people sitting in the gate area, but I have to say he had the most beautiful brown face and dark black eyes. I'm not quite sure what nationality he was, maybe Indian, but he was a keeeeeuuuuutie.

He decided at one point to climb up in the chair next to me, stick his four year old face right up in mine and ask me how I was 'dooooin'. I could feel the faces of all the stuffy ol' adults around me looking over to see how I was going to handle the intrusion. Yeah, like I had anything better to do right then.

I pulled out the pack of bubblemint Orbit gum I bought yesterday and looked at the mother. She nodded with a grateful expression. I handed him a piece, he chewed it for exactly ten seconds and promptly swallowed it. Then he put out his hand for more. I looked him straight in the eye and said, "ONE MORE and don't swallow this one because there won't be another". He looked very somber and nodded his head. He never swallowed the next piece.

Then I pulled out one of three books I had brought with me in my bag. It had a little clock on it and lot's of colorful pictures. He and I sat and read the book for 20 minutes. I thought the mom was going to cry for the relief she felt. I was feeling awesome that I could help her. At one point she looked at me and intimated that I didn't have to........I smiled and waved her off. I told her that I don't know why, but kids like me. She relaxed.

As they were about to go, the little boy asked if he could have the book. I was torn. I had bought it for my grandson, but I also knew it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure Wal-Mart would have another. *sheepish grin* The way he asked was a little bit fresh and I didn't want him to think that he could just go up and ask strangers for things quite like that. He was so cute though when he said, "But you KNOW I'll love it!"

Okay, everybody just get it out right now..............

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

As he ran away to catch the flight they were going on the mom passed by me. I slipped her the book. Again, she tried to refuse. Again, I insisted. She took it with a shy thank you and a smile.

Yeah, Wal-Mart has a ton of 'em.........even if they don't, my grandchildren have a huge closet full of books. I guess I won't worry if I can't find that exACT one, right?

It was a long day...........but a good one. Hey, I even got a chicken teriyaki sub from Subway. A Jerod special low fat one even! *two thumbs up!*

So, here I am, Heide! Where are ya, girl? *smile* You're right, The Woodlands is very, very pretty. My son-in-law told me that they live in the 'slums' of this particular area.. I had to chuckle. Nothing about this place is the slums, Heide!

My in-laws are no longer alive, but if they were, today would have been their 65th wedding anniversary. They never made it quite to their 50th. My father-in-law died in 1991........the 49th year. He had Parkinson's disease for 15 years before that. My mother-in-law died of complications of Alzhiemer's approximately ten years later. Those two diseases are an evil that I shall confine my opinion about till another time.

My in-laws were about the best anyone could ever have. Two words that would best describe them are "meek and mild"............just like the Lord they served. I could not have asked to have any who loved me more. My father-in-law called me "my son's beautiful wife" in his journal.................

oh............oh..........how I needed to hear just that back in those late teen years when self-esteem is a hard won commodity. I don't know where I ever got the boldness but I remember, at the tender age of 17, following suit when his twin daughters, who I was close friends with, would run up to him after work and kiss him on the cheek. I can honestly say that I loved Mr. Hope's parents and miss them to this day.

Both were graduates of Cornell University in New York, my father-in-law from Cornell Law. To this day we continue the celebration of "Noodle Day" which was the name of the dinner they met at while still in school.

I will never forget, how after more than thirty years of marriage my father-in-law, all 6'2" of him, would scoop up my tiny as can be mother-in-law and just begin dancing with her around the living room.

I was in awe, and still am, of the strength of their romantic love, even after eight children, the last of whom came when she was 46 years old and President of the City of Rochester Board of Education.

She ran in the fifties, a time when very few women held any type of political office, under the banner, "Elect a MOTHER to the School Board". She won handily the first time..............the second time almost by a landslide.

An interesting side note is that she was a very devout Christian.........................and a Democrat. Those words were not an oxymoron before 1973 when abortion and out of control spending became part of the package in politics.

My father-in-law was also involved in his own way, running for Congress in the late fifties. After losing by a narrow margin, he decided to focus his attention on getting his wife elected to her post. He was a volunteer in church and the community, giving pro bono services to two seperate colleges and serving on the Board of Corrections among other things. I remember people who knew him "from the old neighborhood" coming to him with a dish of lasagna or some other token, other than money, and how he helped them with their legal matters.

He is the main reason that no one will ever convince me to judge all lawyers as crooked, even if some are. It is a generalization that I will never be part of making. One of his grandsons, the one who bears his very name just moved from Colorado to Manhattan last year to take a job in the Public Defenders office for half the salary most lawyers make. The family tradition continues.


Happy Anniversary, Gramma and Papa. I'm glad to know that I will see you again on that great and glorious day that I come to be with you in the Lord's presence. I love you both.

PS. In case you're interested, Mr. Hope is in the back on the far right.

This is for you, AZRON,

I'm PACKING! *two big thumbs up!*

Leaving Friday around noon.

Lot's of arrangements still to make to be sure kids at home are taken care of.

Stay in touch with me all of you!  I'll still be checking in when I can............

Love you all