Now THAT was a "Thanks Given"

We spent Thanksgiving at my brother's new house in Orlando this year. He invited us all down for Thanksgiving, his treat. He just bought a big house on a beautiful lake and even has a twenty four foot Sea Ray. We were all excited!

Sometimes a lake house is a bit of a walk from the house,  not in this case.

We went down in shifts. My sister, my daughter and I left first on Tuesday around noon. We drove thirty minutes and stopped for lunch...you  gotta love driving with women.

We ate and gassed up the car and headed out for real. My  daughter posted on Facebook  we were leaving and immediately got two or three warnings about bad weather and to drive careful.

That turned out to be a HUGE understatement.

My sister started out driving as the rain began to fall, just a drizzle at first. After about an hour or so she asked if I would drive a while and I said sure.

My Cotton luck kicked  right in around Tifton, Georgia and rain began to pour in buckets. The wind was crazy, the people driving were crazy and then the lightning was crazy. Her defroster only semi worked but the windshield was still hard to see out of and I was a nervous wreck. I hated to be a sissy and tell her how much I despise driving in the rain, especially since she was the one who letting us bum a ride down with her. So I'm in the slow lane, forcing myself to go fifty when the first lightening bolt hit that seemed like it was twenty feet away. My nerves were shot and kept hoping to see an exit sign. We finally saw one and told them I had to stop for a minute. We pulled into  the first gas station and I pulled up next  to a pump even though we had a full tank. (The pumps had a roof over them)

We went inside and the young girl inside said  they were under a tornado warning. I asked where the rest room was, looking around the store when she said "Sorry, they're around the side of the building."

My  daughter and I made  a run for it staying as close as we could to the side of the building and opened the door to the nastiest rest room I think we have ever seen. It was so disgusting I was worried about even squatting but I did, since  that last lightning bolt  about made me pee in my pants.

We  went back around the side and entered the store again. I told Massey  to buy me a coke, handed her some money and tried to calm my nerves outside as I watched the rain blow sideways. My sister went to the restroom next and  came back to announce  she had seen  cleaner rest rooms in Cuba while on a mission trip.

Feeling braver I got back into the driver's seat and off we went again. I got on the highway and the guy behind me started honking. I looked down and saw I was going 40 MPH so I took a deep breath and kicked it up to 55.  Not ten minutes later while Cin was talking on her cell to her husband I heard a thump coming from the fast lane and saw a car hydroplaning then spinning in circles headed straight for the front of our car. It was close enough for me to touch it out the window. I slowed down so it wouldn't hit us and the driver over corrected and started spinning back the other way. The car hit the median and came to a stop against the inside wall facing oncoming traffic. Massey called 911 and I just kept going, praying someone didn't slam into the wrecked car facing traffic. By this point my nerves were completely shot, then it got even worse. The lightning was downright frightening every time it cracked and I saw something on the median wall up ahead. As we got closer we saw it was a huge boat sitting on top of the wall with it's trailer still in the lane of traffic and the car that had been pulling it a little further down. Needless to say I once again started praying for an exit sign. For some reason idiot drivers feel it necessary to put their hazard lights on which only confuse the cars behind them. We limped to the next exit and I was still shaking when we got out of the car. The windshield was so smudged up from us trying to wipe it clear you could barely see out of it so we went to a Dollar Store and bought some windex and paper towels. By the time we got the windshield clear the rain had slacked up but I still handed the keys back to my sister. Tag, you're it.

At least the rest of the drive was uneventful although we didn't pull into my brother's driveway until almost eleven. My brother asked us if we wanted a drink and told him I'd wanted one since Tifton, three hours back.

Chris had gone grocery shopping with a detailed shopping list my sister had sent him and the kitchen was stocked with everything we needed to cook the Thanksgiving dinner. He also had a full supply of anything you might think you may want to drink. Water bottles, Snapple, plenty of wine, red and white. All kinds of beer, scotch, vodka, tequila and all the mixers...things were looking up!

The next morning he worked a half a day and we went out for a couple of last minute items we'd forgotten about. We were driving back home when a flock of tiny white birds fluttered in the sky above the car. Just as we noticed them, a huge Bald Eagle swooped  into the flock of tiny birds. It was the most amazing, tremendous bird I've ever seen and was so close we could see it in detail. You certainly don't see a Bald Eagle every day!

Chris got home around noon and took us out on his boat. it's a beautiful boat and large enough for him to take out in the ocean. We backed out of the slip and I shouted out "Take off, Sonny Crockett!" and he did!

There was a cool little canal leading to the next lake over and we tooled through it. It was absolutely beautiful.

The like the great Uncle he is, said "Your turn to drive, Massey" even though she had never driven a boat in her life. She was put- zing along when Chris leaned over her shoulder and gunned the engine.

Cin and I stayed in the back and left Massey and Cap'n Chris up front.

It was a beautiful but windy day and we had to hang onto our hats but had a great time. By this time our next crew was on the way down, Tim and Cindy's son, Casey. Massey and Chris left to go pick up a Honey Baked Ham and brought us all back subs for dinner. Cindy and I got busy doing some chopping and preparations for Thursday. we got most all the casseroles put together and a lot of little things out of the way.

We played cards after dinner around the huge dining room table Chris bought since we were having Thanksgiving at his house. It seats ten easily.  It was nice just being with my brother and sister again. Massey got to see first hand how funny we all (think we) are when together, especially when it's cocktail time.

Tim and Casey rolled in around ten and the party started over again.

Thanksgiving morning Massey went to the airport to pick up Cin's husband who flew down and the party grew even larger. The boys played golf and Cin and I got busy cooking. Let's just say we outdid ourselves.
Menu: Turkey and dressing with Giblet gravy
Honey Baked Ham
Green beans with new potatoes
Collard Greens
Sweet potato casserole
Potato salad
Squash casserole
Hash brown casserole
Green bean casserole
Deviled eggs
Heavenly hash
Sweet potato biscuits

Chris' next door neighbor and his girlfriend joined us for dinner and the feast started. Everything turned out great and we totally stuffed ourselves. A bunch went out on the boat after dinner and we got everything put up into the fridge.

We played cards after dinner and some watched football. Cin taught us a new card game, Nertz. You have to get the hang of it first but turned out to be a pretty fun game. Once again the beer, wine and cocktails flowed freely. Some more friends of my brother's were dropping by later on and my other nephew (Griffin) and his girlfriend were flying down around seven to join us. Griffin's girlfriend is a cutie pie,  Hawaiian and they make a really cute couple.

Around eight or so we had probably six or seven of us around the huge table playing cards and the football games were blaring out in surround sound on the huge flat screen in the living room and were partying up a storm when the kitchen door opened and Griffin's girlfriend appeared to appear in the door way while my sister and I shouted "How'd you get here, Jamie?" (We were supposed to send either Massey or Harvey to pick them up) When Griffin didn't walk in behind her but some dude we had never seen did, finally realized it wasn't Jamie but another one of Chris' friends dropping by with her boyfriend. The girl was very pretty and just happened to be from Laos. When you're partying it up, playing an intense card game and the room is loud, Hawaii and Laos are (so it seems) easily confused. The girl looked at Cindy and me like we were idiots but soon enough we were all laughing again. The leftovers came out of the fridge and we started over.

Jamie and Griffin DID arrive after Harvey went and picked them up and party number three started. More food was eaten and Chris shot off massive fireworks from the dock. It was an awesome Thanksgiving.

The next day we all went out on the boat again. Casey got to drive this time and we stayed out for quite a while. When Chris asked Griffin if he wanted to drive the only thing Griffin asked when he took the wheel was "How do you make it go fast?"  We survived, came home and ate more leftovers. We had enough food to feed a small army.

That night after watching football games we decided to play games. We started with Charades, boys against girls and all laughed ourselves silly. Then my sister and I wanted to play Kangaroo; it's a game my parents used to play at church socials. The only ones who knew how it worked were Chris, Cindy and me.

Short version: everyone continues what they are doing, playing cards or watching TV. I say to my sister, "I'm clearing the air and sending you a message." Nobody much pays attention but the thing is who ever talks next is the unknown Kangaroo. After a couple more minutes go by I ask Cindy if she received my message? If she is sure she knows who the first person to speak was after I cleared the air she says she has the message, if she's not certain (maybe two people spoke at once) she says she hasn't received it and I clear the air again. (Let's just say it was Griffin who spoke first when I cleared the air) A couple more minutes go by and I ask her if she got my message? Once she has the message, we send her out of the room. I begin pointing at different people in the room and say "Kangaroo" and from outside the room she repeats back "Kangaroo." Finally I point to Griffin  and say to her outside of the room "Kangaroo, who am I pointing to?" and she says "Griffin."  I wish you could have seen their faces...they thought we were magicians! A couple of them tried it, always failing then Cindy and I would do it again, this time with her clearing the air. By the third time we did it they were all guessing different ways they thought we were doing it.  Finally Griffin's girlfriend caught on and we had another few rounds including her. It's a great party game.

By Saturday we had just about eaten and drank Chris out of house and home but he was a terrific host the entire time. The boys played golf again and us girls had a movie day.

Sunday morning Chris had to work (we thought he was probably just sitting around the corner in his car waiting to see us finally leave) and we cleaned up our mess, put all the sheets and towels on to wash and bagged up the mounds of trash bags we had filled in the garage and headed home.

Tim, Massey and I were in the lead car with Cin, her two boys and Jamie behind us in another car.(Harvey flew back home early)

Chris, always the nice guy had bought us each a Sun Pass for the cars so we didn't have to pay any tolls and sailed through quite a few long lines of people heading home waiting in line to pay the tolls. It easily saved us over thirty minutes.

We were sailing along in Gainesville, Florida. Tim was driving. We were in the passing/fast lane when we heard a loud "BAM" and Tim yelled "Was that us?" We were still rolling along but we saw a tire tread behind us. About then Massey said she smelled the burning rubber so we pulled off into the tiny emergency lane by the center median. Casey stopped behind us in their car. The entire tread had blown off. Cars were whizzing by going eighty and were literally about four feet from the car. It was the passenger side back tire.

Cindy backed her car up about thirty feet or so and put her flashers on. The boys started getting the spare out and cars kept right on whizzing by, making my sister and me nervous wrecks. I made Massey get out of the car and stand far into the grassy median. Cindy and I walked well down past her car behind the car with the flat. She stopped there and I continued down about another twenty feet. As the cars approached I waved my hands frantically down in an effort to tell cars to slow down. Cindy was motioning for cars to move over a lane to give us more room to change the tire. For the most part people were fantastic and although we caused a small traffic backup with our antics at least it slowed most all the cars down.

Of course there is one in every crowd. As Griffin was wrestling with the tire iron with his back no more than three feet away from passing cars, one idiot blew his horn as he passed going at least seventy. You can't fix stupid.

We got the little donut spare on and then had to  manage to pull two cars out of the center median back into the fast lane of traffic, no easy feat with every one and their brother returning home from Thanksgiving holidays.

We finally got back into the lane and maneuvered all the way over to the slow lane. I was just happy no one had gotten hurt or killed. Then we had to find a tire place open on a Sunday afternoon, Thanksgiving weekend.

Three hours later we were finally back on the road after having to put almost two hundred bucks on my sister's credit card. Tim and I are going to help pay her back but you can't drive one of these donut tires on the interstate, especially for two hundred miles so it was the only option we had.

So the trip down was horrible and the trip back was scary but the in between was marvelous! I guess that's what they mean about taking the good with the bad. We didn't get Massey back to her dorm until almost ten and got home around eleven.  We had been shooting for seven.

So all in all it was a "Thanks Given" to remember. I give Thanks I didn't get anyone killed while freaking out in the torrential thunderstorm on the way down and I give Thanks no one got killed changing the tire by a packed out holiday weekend interstate fast lane. I give Thanks I have such a wonderful brother who was an ultimate host to our crazy band of misfits. I give Thanks for days of fun and laughter with the ones I love. I give Thanks to the two who had to stay home for work and couldn't go with us but took care of all our pups, eight in all.

Most of all I give Thanks that all these people love me, it's a wonderful feeling to be loved and as the song says, 



Love, love, love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game.
It's easy.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All you need is love (all together, now!)
All you need is love. (everybody!)
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need (love is all you need).

This is all that's left of the Leach clan but we're all still as close as we were on this old station wagon. There are so many families who don't get along or even speak to each other much less love each other.

I give Thanks I'm one of the lucky ones.
Til Next time, a VERY grateful COTTON

Giving Thanks...

Jeez...I have so much to be giving thanks for that I hardly know where to start.
This time last year we were in a heap of do do so high we couldn't peek over the steaming stack of crap on our plate. This year we have scraped away at  the pile and it's down to just scrubbing up and keeping on keeping on.
I aged more than I have in ten years in the past twelve months but lived to tell the story.

It is the story of a family that after twenty three years of sitting pretty  hit a bump so high that it rocked us to our bare existence and made us realize how true the words are "Love is all you need."

By the grace of God the love of family and the help of many, many friends we made it through. I never pass a homeless person without thinking about how close we were to being their neighbors.
I went to Little Five Points this last weekend with my brother and sister to meet up with a long lost cousin. We had a ball and a great meal,  all thanks to my bro and his excellent credit. He thought he was riding with me to meet a cousin we haven't seen in decades and re connect. It was really HIM treating US to a great time and my sister and me re connecting with a long lost cousin and our brother's wallet.

When we left the restaurant I had an awesome half  a turkey club sandwich in my hand when a homeless woman approached us and asked if we had any food? I really wanted that sandwich but thought about the fact she was most probably living on the streets and would most probably never eat a club sandwich still warm from a restaurant.  I handed her my box and my sister immediately said "Good for you, Kell."

That's the way it is in my family and that's the way it is in my life.

The Golden Rule is what we should ALL live by.  Not doing so is the result of ALL our problems. Just think about it...

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
It's so simple..."Others" have not only taken care of me but gotten me through and  made my life all the better.
Can we not love EVERYONE like my family and  friends have loved ME?
So what there are a few (million) free loaders.   Hasn't there always been?  They profit from our generosity and sincerity but I am a firm believer in Karma... Pay your taxes learn  the language and make a positive impact on our  society.

I have never been homeless but  been close (kinda in  my book.) To not experience begging for a meal... only tells me  I am on top and one of the lucky ones. The top of the  lower middle class suits me just fine...heck it is a step up!

Count your blessings name them one by one....It's amazing when you do!
I went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving today. My sister is struggling just like me and my brother is just happy he only has see us twice a year (Thanksgiving and Christmas) . "One down one to go!"

With my brother at my back and my sister by my side...My blessings are easy to count..God blessed me with amazing sibs and friends too numerous to name.

When you think your life sucks,  think about kids that are sexually abused. Think about kids that are bullied. Think about people who are starving ...think about people who are blind , deaf or mentally challenged. In the grand scheme of life I am "Effing Lucky."

True Dat, High Five and a WOOT WOOT!


Til next time...COTTON

Free at Last, Free at Last, My Wallpaper is FREE at Last!!

Two weeks into my project, my wallpaper is finally gone.

I called my "next door husband" to tell him thanks for loaning me his paper scorer...and thanks for not telling me what a NIGHTMARE it is to take down wallpaper!

He told me that when he started his son's bathroom, he finally said that it would be easier to put new sheet rock up over the old and just be done with it.

It took me a week, but I have finally cleaned the walls of any paper or paste.

I put in a call to my sister (who should have her own "how to" show) and told her that I had fifty bucks to give her if she would just come over and clean up the mess that I have made of my kid's bathroom.

Of course she refused the money, but I can always force it into her purse or buy her an even BIGGER Christmas present.

I did the grunt work, but it was the most exasperating project that I have ever started. Now all I need is for Cin to come swooping in, and make it look pretty.

She is such a perfectionist... and she is so detailed and diligent that I know I will have a GREAT looking bathroom by the time my Thanksgiving "Herd" arrives .

Maybe I will allow Cin and her husband to eat in the new bathroom!!

As I finished my horrendous project, I also finished the book "Atonement".

What did you think about it?

I was disappointed with the fifty year gap in the story, and wanted to read of the revenge and "atonement" in a little more detail. I started out not really liking it... How many ways are there to describe the sun coming up or a walk to the lake?
But I ended up really liking it, and I think that after I see the movie, I may feel more satisfied and as an aspiring writer myself...I can see that it was a heartfelt and intimate work.

ANY HOO.. Everyone, even my secret readers, Elizabeth and Frances...thanks for reading me, thanks for thinking that I am interesting enough to check out every day....And a shout out to Kay at my job who reads my blog on a daily basis as well... You know what?

I may start out small, but with the mouth , opinions and stories that I have..."WHO KNOWS"???

And to my friend in upstate New York....Thanks for being my far away reader!!

I feel SO blessed. My life is full of drama (HEY!! I have three kids) But I am so truly lucky and fortunate to be sitting at a computer typing my tiny thoughts on a keyboard and having ANYONE read them!

Life is short.

Life is what you make it to be.

My life is full, but writing this dinky blog gives me a satisfaction that I never thought that I could feel at the age of 48...going full tilt at my job, full tilt at raising my kids, and now going full tilt at pleasing myself. Only a woman and a mother would put herself last!!

Everyone have a tremendous Thanksgiving, and if I don't get back to you in the next day or two...always know that I want to be here....I just want my bathroom finished more!!! (THANK YOU CIN)

Til next time!!!

Stripping Wallpaper... WHAT A JOY!!!

I think that I would rather BE a stripper than to have to take wallpaper down.

I have been working for over a week just to strip the paper from around the top of the shower of my kid's bathroom.

When I first started, my two younger kids said "take it all down"!!

Thank goodness I don't listen to them much!!

I have tried home remedies, "DIF" the wonder product for taking paper down easy, fabric softener, hot water...and a lot of cussing.

The one thing that I have realized is that when something DOES work, it takes the taping of the sheet rock off, a LOT of the actual sheet rock and a bare minimum of the actual wallpaper.

My wall that I have finally completed looks like it has acne scars.

Pockets so deeply dug into the walls, missing layers of sheet rock, patches of wallpaper glue...and the scars of me unrelentingly forcing the damn scraper that advertised "The Only One That Works".

If ONLY my sister, who can "WISH" wallpaper away was not sick, I could go on to patching up my scars, dents and obvious mistakes.

I am beginning to think she may have "faked" her cold.

Because if I had to look at the mess and destruction I have done in (thankfully my kid's bathroom) I would fake an illness too.

It is a total mess...it is a nightmare that I try to avoid.

I made tremendous progress tonight (Thank you Coors Light).

I alternated between fabric softener, "DIF", hot water and cleaning my scraper every five minutes.

I will NEVER EVER put wallpaper up in my house again.

We bought our house as a new home, and they obviously did not treat the walls before putting up the wallpaper.

I wouldn't be nearly as concerned as I am, if not for the fact that I have 25 people coming over for Thanksgiving, and the kid's bathroom is used frequently when we have a lot of people over.

I have thought maybe I can lock my dogs in the bathroom, and say "OH..Don't go in there, the dogs are in there".

Hopefully, Cin will be miraculously healed by tomorrow and will help me Spackle, re tape and sand the walls...and I can have the walls repainted (NO PAPER) by the time that my avalanche of company arrives on Thursday.

If not... We may start the bloody marys early and hope that no one notices what a wreck my bathroom is.

I know that it won't bother anyone like it will bother me, but with the task of Thanksgiving at hand for over twenty people...I don't want to have to worry about the mess that I have made with the help of so many products that have deemed themselves so "Spectacular...Amazing..The ONLY one that works."

If they are THAT SPECTACULAR...come on over and cook my turkey for me too!!

As I write this in frustration and jest...I hope that EVERYONE has a great Thanksgiving, and is surrounded by love and people that mean the most to them.

And if you can't fit into either of those categories...

Feel free and totally welcome to come to MY HOUSE...You are MOST welcome to come (you may not want to come back) but you will be an honored guest at our table....Just don't go into the upstairs bathroom...Unless my sister makes a rapid recovery!!

To my family, to my friends and to my limited readers...

Happy Thanksgiving... make the best of your life and your situation... and always know that if you need help... Thanks to a huge turnout from the voices ...It is ON THE WAY.

Of course this is only my opinion.

Til Next time...Cotton