Truly A New Year

This New Year will truly be a new beginning for my family. For the first time in almost a decade we will be debt free and moving into our new home here in Orlando. We've found the perfect house for us to grow old in together. It's a couple of blocks from my brother's house with a lake access across the street. The price is low enough we will be able to afford and have a pool put in as well. It's in a nature preserve and the serenity abounds. The backyard is already fenced in for our troop of pups and totally look forward to spreading out a little more.

Three bedrooms, two baths. Not too big but not too little. As Goldilocks said "It's just right."

Tim and Massey went to look at it today and having our agent contact them this next week. Just hoping we can snag it but we all have a pretty good feeling about it.


It appears we'll be using a lot of glass cleaner but love the sun room and all the windows. Praying really hard about this one; of course we've been praying a lot for quite a few years.


We've looked at quite a lot houses and been tempted by a few with a higher price than we originally wanted and am glad now we waited. Yes the others were beautiful but this one just feels like home ... and home is about where the heart is, not the price tag. Tim's only objection was that it sat at an odd angle on the corner lot.

Odd?!

Sounds like the perfect angle for this clan of Clampetts!

Massey's going out on her own soon and will have two spare bedrooms for visits from everyone.


Besides...

We've managed to be happy in every home we've lived in, regardless of the circumstances.

                        Humble beginnings but where all three of our kids began their lives.

Then we bought a newly built house in Newnan and raised them there, along with all the other neighborhood kids.

The first fifteen years were like living on Easy Street. The next few, not so much but still managed to be happy; just grateful we had a roof over our heads.

                       Then my husband aka 'Ole Jed' made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.



After literally years of  serious financial trouble, he got his (and our) lucky break. Only problem was it required his moving to Lubbock, Texas for two years.

                                      This was us waiting for his flight to begin boarding.

 We all stayed home while Tim moved to the middle of nowhere...alone, for two years. I took this pic of him on the plane train while I took my lunch break while working at the airport to see him off at his gate. He didn't look thrilled.

But...he did great in Texas. He only got to come home twice the entire time but knocked his job out of the park and got a much deserved promotion...and transfer to Orlando.

Then he lived in Orlando for another year before we followed him. He was away from family and friends for three years just to make it happen for us.

That's the kind of man you want to marry, and lucky for me, I did.

 



We moved once again, into a tiny temp rental so small we could talk to each other from different rooms across the house in a speaking voice.

It had been recently renovated and was clean, giving us a place to sleep and store a quarter of our belongings. The rest of our furniture and things are still in storage here in Orlando with a few bigger pieces of furniture still in our house in Georgia.

Once again, we've been happy here.

                                      I'm almost ten years older but twenty years wiser now.




We've moved from home to home to home and pretty much started at the bottom, worked our way to the top, back down again and are inclining back up.

You don't need to find your way home again, but simply find love wherever your home may take you.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. We're planning on it...hang around to see what happens.

Till next time...COTTON

Sissified Southerners

It was all people talked about at work today. When I went into work at noon, it was sixty four degrees. Another server who was raised in Orlando, said to me "Did you turn the heat on in your house today?" I told him we have never even turned the heater on in our house since moving here in late September of 2016.

I thought he was yanking my chain ... he wasn't.

 People back in Georgia where we moved from would be elated for a sixty four degree day about now.

To me, it's just a roll down the sleeves of your shirt day and button up one more button. I guess the constant breeze makes it feel much colder, especially to people used to it being summer pretty much year round.

My dogs, on the other hand, now act like we are locking them out in a blizzard when the temp drops below sixty five degrees when we put them in the backyard to do their business... and they all three wear fur coats!

The only time the heat has been turned on in our house was when our dog sitter had to turn it on when she stayed over while we went back for Massey's college graduation. Granted the temps here dropped into the mid thirties, and we would have turned it on as well.


 There's a few things which strike me as strange, now that we live here in north central Florida.

Number one, the minute temps drop down to sixty they all wear parkas with fur lined hoods pulled up, wool scarves and Ugg boots.

Number two, I don't care what holiday it is, they shoot off fireworks...big ones. I am well over fifty six years old and have never heard fireworks shot off on Halloween, not to mention Easter.

Number three, am not too sure how fast you have to drive to get a speeding ticket here but rarely ever see someone pulled over for it or cops pulled to the side with a radar gun,waiting to catch them. Must be part of their 'Tourism First' motto.

Number four, and most importantly, can't believe how much I have come to actually love living here.

Every city has their own social and racial dynamic. Atlanta is overwhelmingly an African American community which I was totally comfortable with, growing up in the totally integrated city of East Point, on the south side of the Atlanta city limits. Best childhood ever, learning to judge peeps by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.

Now I've moved to 'Brown Town'. Not only do I work with with peeps born in Orlando, but from Honduras, Ecuador, Guyana, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Nicaragua and even Spain.

And to think I thought Atlanta was a melting pot?

I'm just glad they all ended up here, in a country (my own country) as great as this one, even with its many faults.

Tim and I tossed around many songs from our youth to end this blog with.

I think we made an excellent choice.


This world is one world we all live in. One  place...and we are all people together.

Enjoy, and love all  the fellow human beings around you.

Till next time and next year, a very grateful COTTON

The Birthday Boy

                 Today is my brothers' birthday. A greater guy, you'll never meet. Truest fact ever.

He is the funniest person I've ever met and that's saying something, considering think I'm a pretty funny person as well, although my kids and husband beg to differ.

He's got the quickest wit ever and knows how to make you laugh...even when you don't feel like it.

                                  He's not only a great brother but a pretty great uncle as well.

           All three of our kids think the world of their Uncle Chris and don't blame them one bit.


He's helped them all out at one time or another and never given it a second thought. They all have tremendous respect for Chris as does every person who knows him. He'll practice tough love when it's needed but always comes through for them...and for me as well.

He's so much like our Diddy in every single way except for the fact our father never drank or smoked and Chris enjoys a good cigar as well as a cold cocktail.

He's a hard worker just like Diddy was. He has a huge heart just like Diddy did. He detests discrimination and social injustice just as Diddy did and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it, also the way Diddy was. He's honest, sometimes brutally so, if the situation calls for it...once again just like our Diddy.


When we were little, squabbled like siblings do but always had each others' back. Ever since mama died, when I had  just turned seventeen, my brother and sister have been exactly where they are in the photo below of us...on either side of me.

                                      It's been almost forty years now, and still remain by my side.

                                                 Life doesn't get much luckier than that.



Both my brother and sister have done much more for me than I have ever done for them but never act smug about it. They are both just taking care of their little sister, like my parents taught them to do.


I try and do nice things for them as often as I can and for a few years, while working my cash cow job at the airport, managed to at least give them both a couple of nicer Christmas and birthday presents.

But here's the even better thing. It doesn't seem to bother them, or at least don't make me feel like it does.

We were raised by the most loving, caring, funny, smart and giving couple...and it rubbed off.

So Happy Birthday to my most awesome brother. You've always been a hoot to be around. This world certainly needs more people like you in it.

                            

                           He was the cutest little kid as well; he made Beaver Cleaver look ugly.

                                                                      (Same shirt)                

(Different year)

                Life doesn't get much better than being a part of this crazy and kooky Clan.

                  And the ride has certainly been a lot more fun with a brother like Chris.

                                                  Happy Sixty First Birthday Dude!

                                                      ...and thanks for loving me.

Til next time...Cotton