Clan Update

Hopefully all the ailing members of the clan are up and over the sneaky little bug that caught them. Just a quick note from the cave to update what is happening here.

We totally enjoyed all the cubs and their families that made it here for the big day. I think all of us had more to eat than we needed. One neice has called me to remind me that I didn't fulfil my role in the making of a chocolate pie for this specific person. I promised two for Xmas. It seems she has appointed me to take her Grandmother's place in making these pies.

J came through her surgery today. It was quite lengthy, almost five hours but thankfully no report of any lingering problems. There were several of us there to give her moral support and it sure seemed like a long time to sit and wait.

Gerbeans and spouse will be leaving tomorrow. Boy their time here sure goes fast.

I have started another new project. Genealogy! Boy is it ever fascinating. I am about to decide that I may have too many projects going but sure enjoy both the land searches along with the "people" searches.

Will sign off for now -

"Latest Endeavor"

Grammy is into another search. I am now doing genealogy searches working on my family tree. How interesting!! I have gone back as far as several "greats" on certain family ancestors. When Xmas rolls around and the grandkids come and find Grammy glued to the computer on ancestry.com they may get a little irritated, lol.
Howver, I will try to make sure that we don't have to many "sad days". I have discovered that one of our distant relatives was married to the Gatlins of the Gatlin Gun inventors. Another one was captured in the civil war, one was witness to a lynching, etc.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. Don't know for sure who all will be here but will just enjoy the time. I am trying out a new rocky road chocolate pie recipe. One of the cubettes asked her Mom to make sure that I didn't forget to make the broccoli/rice cassserole and the cherry cheese cake. And they think us "older" ones are the traditionalists, lol.

We had the energizer bunny all day Sunday. She went to Church with us. We then went out to eat and on to the Couches for a visit. She got to go with Papa G out into the pasture to see the longhorn cows. He couldn't get her on the four wheeler though, she said, "no, I too scared". She does not want to miss her bible class and since her Mom and her Nina were going to the city, I talked them into leaving her with us.

I have come to grips with the situation with the cub to the north. Still have some very sad thoughts but don't obsess about it. It is in God's hands.

Happy turkey day to all of you - as you know our family has our love -

New Experience

I had a new experience yesterday that I enjoyed immensely. My siblings and I are in the process of leasing some of our royalty that we inherited from our Mom. As is my usual inquisitive nature, I couldn't figure why the numbers of acres seemed to change each time a land company leased the royalty. I decided that I would try to find out how all this worked. That involved me going to the court house in Atoka County and doing research on two Sections of land. There was one lady that worked there that sort of took me under her wing and taught me the tricks to find information. That was so interesting. I was able to learn how to trace the history of ownership clear back to their beginning. I was able to find out that we were being "underpaid" for the number of acres. The siblings were encouraging but didn't participate in the hunt. I have two more court houses to visit. One in Pittsburg County and one in Cooks County, Texas. Oh yes, another visit to Atoka County for two more sections. That is so fascinating to see all these records. Fortunately, these parcels of land so far have not changed ownership too awfully many times. Each time any transaction takes place, it is notated in first the legal description book under the specific Section, then the deeds are in yet more books and if the mineral rights have been sold they are also kept in minerals deed books. The land in Texas in question that my Papa kept the mineral rights on was land owned by his Dad and it was purchased back in the 1800's. After his death, Papa bought his siblings share of the property. We have no idea how much royalty we may have there. So far, there has not been anyone attempting to lease it. Anyway, I am looking forward to that challenge. Should be very interesting to read about that great grand father on the D side.

Casper had his beauty shop appt today and got his yearly vaccinations. He was really glad to see us when we picked him up.

Thanks for visiting!

"True Family Sagas"

There was this family who lived in a small rural community. They were extremely poor in material things but very blessed with what matters most - family - This family consisted of a mother, father and three girls. Two of the girls were much older than the third one. They were surrounded by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles and too many cousins to count. This family lived in a three room house without running water and had an outside outhouse. The birthdays were not always celebrated with gifts, parties or even cakes. Yet each family member knew they were loved. Christmas also was very lean. Not always even a Christmas tree. Yet each member knew they were loved.

Now when future stories are written about this family, you have the setting.

The episode that I am writing about today took place when the two older siblings were quite young (around ages 11 & 13). Their parents had to go to the Northwest to pick up the patriarch's brother(who was going through mid-life crisis). Anyway, the parents left the two girls with a great-grandmother and great-grandfather hereafter called Pa and Grannie. Pa and Grannie lived one block over in a fairly large house. Grannie was not to keen on cleaning and had many cats that lived inside. Unfortunately the cats got their food from the dining room table also. Now the second night there, the siblings were in bed trying to go to sleep and the wind was whistling through the windows and the house seemed to be creaking. They decided then and there that they would go home and spend the rest of the time there. Which is exactly what they did the very next day.

Now before the parents returned the youngest sibling decided to clean the house and do the laundry. The older sibling refused to help so this created a large confrontation that resulted in a rather spirited fight with feather pillows. Much to their dismay, one of the pillows came apart and those pesky feathers went everywhere. The youngest sibling thought by sweeping them outside, they would go un-noticed. Afterall, they had chickens so feathers were common place. However, piles of feathers are different from a few scattered around or at least that is what the parents said.

Stay tuned!

And Life Goes On!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, with the election behind us what oh what will the networks find to blast away to the unsuspecting watchers! Of course, we could always push the "off" button, heaven forbid. I realize that I am probably in the minority but I actually enjoy politics. Could that be because my Dad had me handing out candidates cards at a very young age? Or calling people to see if they needed for my Dad to give them a ride to the polls? Or maybe it was just the "lively" debates between my Dad and his Dad. One a staunch democrat and the other just as staunch in his republican view. Oh well, my one attempt in running for an office (School Board) was interesting. Even though I came close enough for a run-off, I didn't win. You know those incumbents are hard to beat, lol.

Our cub is currently suffering with "pink" eye. She is sure that this is the disaster of the year. I don't think she minds missing school but does mind missing the academic trip to a nearby town tomorrow afternoon.

The Alien is sure enjoying his new truck. His brother-in-law is very worried that the Alien is going to wash the paint off if he doesn't quit washing it so often.

Our little energizer bunny is sure blooming these days. At Church Sunday, she sat in my lap and immediately she said, "Grammy, where is your purse?" She has already learned where the goodies are.

Earlier Halloweens Remembered

With the recent celebrations going on for this Halloween, it brought back memories of "many" Halloweens ago. There was not the huge attention paid to it in the small rural area where I grew up. Although, the most dire thing done back then was to turn over people's outhouses. For all you young whippersnappers that don't know, there were times when we actually had an "outside" toilet. Come to think of it, there are good sides to everything. You sure didn't have complaints of someone "hogging" the bathroom. It was sweltering hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter. Anyway, there was this one guy in our town who was also the janitor at our school. He was extremely "cranky" so the kids that were inclined to be mischievous seemed to always accomplish turning over his outhouse. That was pretty amazing since he would sit out by it with his shotgun most of the night. In retrospect, the crankiness could have come from him having to put up with all of us everyday, ya think?

My Dad was very involved with young people and had some curious ways of making us think. For instance, one Halloween, he loaded up his pickup (with a camper shell on it) with kids and took us to a town about 35 miles away. His brother-in-law was the deputy sheriff. This uncle took us down in the basement where the jail was located and gave us a tour. To this day, I remember the prisoners yelling and screaming at us. Valuable exposure to that side of life given to us in a purely unassuming way. We all thought at the time that it was just a scary thing to do.

Another time, he suggested that a bunch of us go walk through the cemetery. He recommended a certain route to take. Off we went, it was getting dark with just enough light to make out outlines of things. When we got to the cemetery, we were already worked up in frenzy thinking about all the ghosts that "might" be there. Sure enough, all of a sudden, we heard this "ohhhhhh" noise and looked over to see this ghost just gliding through the graves. Talk about run, anyone of us could have qualified for the Olympics. We beat Dad back to the house and we were excitedly telling Mom about the ghost. About that time, Dad walked up so we told him the story. Before we got to the "ohhhhh" noise Dad said, "Did it sound like this and he made the sound". Needless to say, he was in big trouble. More from laughing too hard than our pommelling him I think.

We had a few trick or treaters last night, not many though. Our Cub worked at the Fall Festival at our Church. She made a "cute" cat.