More Ramblings

I was doing nothing as usual, I got up this morning with nothing to do and have only got about half of it done so far. In fact, my wife said, you haven't done anything for two days and I said I know it and it's because I am not done yet. A little humor to start the blog with and I know you might have heard this from me or from somewhere else but I have decided to adopt this attitude for my own.

I have been organizing my office for a year and I still find things to make it better, or at least I think it is better. some of it has been done several times. Now I am starting to put together a Hale/Odom family scrap book together. I have had pictures and other items for several years, but only now am I getting interested in putting it all together.

Speaking of heritage, I have found some pretty interesting facts out about both sides of the family. For instance my Grandfather Hale punched cattle with Will Rogers in Oklahoma before 1900. There are other things about the family, I will not bore you with the details.

This is my time of the year, not the weather time, but basketball and KY Jay hawk time. Then of course there is March Madness. Go KU!!!

Coming up Tuesday is a time in history to be remembered, when the first black president will take office. I for one hope he will do the right things and pull our country back on our feet. I don't know why one would want such a demanding job, especially one with small children, but that is his decision and no one else can make that call for him. Can you just imagine what it would be like to be of grade school age and living in the White House? Wow!!!! Of course I lived in a white house as a child but it wasn't the same.

Then, the football playoffs are coming up and I guess I will be for Arizona, only because they will be the under dog all the way, but first they have to get past the Steelers, no small task. There is so much going on on TV this time of year and of course there is American Idol. How do we cope?

Another thing, my delete key isn't working for some reason, what a bummer. Our key board is original, it came with the first computer we bought several years and two computers ago. Luckily we have a new one that can be hooked up easily when ever it is needed. Maybe some one can tell me what is wrong or maybe it will fix itself. As long as I am on this computer thing, I have never been able to push the print screen button and print the screen. I have tried to find somewhere that I can go and turn this action on, but can't find it. Does anyone know where it went?

In the last month we have had 4 friends pass on from this world and we have another two that are struggling to keep going. My daughter tells me it is because I am that age, she did not have to remind me.

It seems like the older we get the younger our minds seem and the weaker our bodies are, frankly I am tired of it all. What happened to my youth, where did it go so fast and why do your grandchildren make you so tired just watching them move around. Oh to be younger again!!!

Well once again you have waisted perfectly good time reading my nothing. Even so, I hope you enjoyed it a little anyway.

Have a wonderful New Year and stay warm, safe and faithful.

I love anyone that has read this garbage all the way through

Jim

P.S. Breaking news, my delete key just started working again.

Sleep

Here it is, 2:30 AM and I am writing my blog. Why? I wish I knew. I went to bed at 11 PM and went right to sleep, then at 12:45 I heard the bathroom calling so I went to investigate. When I tried to get back to sleep, I started thinking about all sorts of unimportant stuff and could not relax, so I got up and worked on pictures for our new digital picture frame we got form our kids at Christmas. It is obvious after loading them in the frame, that I don't know much about what I am doing there either. They are all turned right, but just don't look very good. I guess I will have to read the book....SCREAM.

I think I will go back to the throne room and then eat some toast and try to go to bed again. We have to be up by 0830 so we can go to coffee. Boy, do we lead a loaded life or what?

Of course, my lovely wife is sleeping like a baby. How sweet that would be. I guess it is a good thing she sleeps so good or I would be in more trouble than I already am..... So, GOOD NIGHT, AGAIN!!!!

Offically Over!!!

Well, it finally happened, Christmas is officially over for the Hale family.

We gathered, and with 13 grandchildren it is a gathering, at the Holiday Inn Holidome here in Salina. We have started having Christmas there because our little house just is not big enough for 23 people at one time. A fun time was had playing games, visiting and kids swimming. The food was really good and the service was excellent. The only problem we encountered was with the reservation staff. They were mostly completely incompetent. They rented rooms that were already rented, not once but twice. It remains to be seen if all the charges come out right or not.

Our grand children range in age from the twins at 16 to the baby Truman, aka. tiny tornado, at almost 2. for the most part all the kids get along very well, of course there are those times as there are in every family where something has to go wrong and it usually does. But, nothing really bad happened, no missing children, bloody body parts or broken arms or legs. So, I guess one could say it was a successfully good time and it was.

Now the New years is here and what to do. As I get further into retirement I have found that I can get up in the morning with nothing to do and go bed with only half of it done, my favorite saying at this time.

It seems I can always find something to do each morning if only paying bills, reading e-mail, reading the Salina Urinal, oops Salina Journal, and occasionally writing in my blog. We, my sister and her daughter and I, have also started Face Book, but I don't understand what to do with it so I think I will just stick with my blog.

In the past month we have lost two friends and a brother of another friend, all with in about a two week time frame. We also have another friend that is in Hospice and not doing very well, so we keep praying for comfort for her and wait. So sad!!!

My Kansas City Chiefs had a dismal year so I am glad that is over. Now into the playoffs and watching the games I am interested in. I am rooting for anybody that beats the Patriots. I don't really care who wins, but I would like to see a new team take it all.

The best thing about this time of year for me and sports is that the Kansas Jayhawk basketball team is about to enter Big 12 play, Go KU!!!

Well I have about run out of blog, so I will Just say to all that read this:
Have a really great 2009 and we love you all.

Offically over!

Almost Over

Here it is December 29th, 7 A.M. and we as a family still have not had Christmas. Oh, Estella and I have had a couple of Christmas celebrations already, just not with the whole family. We all, 23 of us, get together only once a year sometime around Christmas to celebrate. This year, and probably in the years to come, we will be at the Holiday Inn Holidome where they will furnish our dinner, traditional style, and a room big enough to get everyone in at the same time. We will all be there except for son-in-law Dan who has to be with the Wichita State women's basketball team, he is the trainer and oversees their aches, pains and wraps. We have elected to be in Salina mainly because, it is more centrally located than going to any kids house and it is less trouble letting someone else cook and clean for us. Plus, it affords a place where the grand kids can play and swim and we can visit more easily.

The last two Christmas time's brought celebrating in very uncomfortable situations. First two years ago, just before we got together, two days before to be exact, for our first celebration at the Holidome in Salina, Estella was diagnosed with Cancer, so she was in the hospital. Thankfully and praise the Lord, she has gone through radiation and chemo and has been cancer free for a year and a half. We owe it all to the good Lord and prayer from many friends and many people we don't even know.

Then last Christmas, we were planning to be in Salina again and I ended up in the hospital from August 27th until December 23rd in Topeka. But that did not stop us as everyone came to Topeka where we were living at the Thornton Place Retirement Home and they set us up with a great place to have our gathering and we ordered a large amount of pizza. Not traditional Christmas, but it didn't matter it was wonderful being together with everyone.

We are now home as of last February 28th and both are getting along very well. One seems to be so much better off when it comes to healing when one can be in his/her own surroundings.

So, as the title suggests, it is almost over, but that is not the whole story here.

We had a half family celebration at Thanksgiving, which does not happen often, as Monica and Gwen's family was here and took care of everything for us, it was wonderful. One thing I need to say here though, Monica you must find your own recipe to your pie crust, that cherry pie was not like you usually fix at all. Note, she threw it away it was so bad. I might add, Monica brought most of the food with here and also had a wedding to be in on the Friday after Thanksgiving, so she did a lot of pre-planning to pull it all off. The dinner was wonderful and we all ate way to much.

Then, on Christmas day we went to friends home in Salina and had a non traditional dinner and wonderful time with friends playing cards, visiting and laughing. The women traded gifts and we all went home happy and once again, very full.

Next, we went to daughter Amy's on the day after Christmas where she fixed the traditional Christmas dinner and I might add did a wonder job, especially the pecan pie she made her daddy, I even got to bring a little home. We spent the afternoon with Amy and family and really enjoyed being with them. Again, we came home very full and very happy.

So, you see, we get to have still another celebration of the birth of Jesus and good times with family. We are so blessed!!!! To all that might read this rambling, I hope you had just as good a time around the holidays as we did and we wish you all the very best of the New Year and caution you to celebrate in moderation. We will do the usual party hardy, get crazy style we are a custom to, and at the stroke of midnight I will turn to my lovely wife and say, "honey turn over you are snoring and I can't sleep". Of course I don't snore, or at least I never hear it. Thank the Lord for Estella being such a sound sleeper.

And to all have a good day and a very healthy and prosperous New Year!

Pet Peeve

Is it just me or does no one know when their lights are on bright at night? Lately I have noticed that there are a lot of cars driving in town and on the highways that are using their bright lights. In the olden days if you encountered a car with bright lights you would flash yours a couple times and in common courtesy the other driver would dim his/her lights. Not anymore!!! Or maybe these new lights are just so bright and my eyes are so old I just think they are on bright. Or maybe everyone is so involved in their cell phones they are clueless if they are driving on bright or not. Speaking of lights, what is with these real bright blue lights anyway? I don't like them either as they bother me even more. Maybe I should convert to those real bright lights and join in the program of being clueless to my driving habits. No, I refuse, I don't need another thing to be clueless about in my life, I have enough already.

Thanksgiving, Fun But Tiring

Well. thanksgiving is over!!! We had 14 for dinner on Thursday. In our little house it was crowded, but we managed very well. Daughter Monica brought the turkey and mashed potatoes with her and then cooked the rest on Thursday morning. Daughter Gwen and her family came bringing the bread and deserts. It was all very good, all we had to prepare was the ham and buy the salad.

Monica and family came on Wednesday and went home on Saturday. We got to keep the 2 boys, ages 7 and 2, on Wednesday night and again on Friday night. That was the tiring part. It is evident why children come to you when you are young. I don't know how grandparents that take on raising their grandchildren do it. I don't think there is any way we would be strong enough mentally and physically to do it.

Holidays are such a grand time of food, family, food, friends, food and good times. Oh yes did I mention the food? We have enough leftovers to get us by for a few days, but it is always just as good the second and third and fourth time around. We so enjoyed the kids, and when Gwen's family came there were 4 more. Luckily, only one is of the younger age, so he, Matthew and Logan, played downstairs most of the time. If I just had a small fraction of all the energy that was in our house for Thanksgiving I would be much more healthy.

We will get together with all the family for Christmas on January 3rd. There will be 22 of us at that time, so we will gather at the Holidome where there is more room and more for all the kids to do.

We praise the Lord for such good children and grand kids, it is truly a blessing like no other.