In The Mail Today

I'm sure you remember the sad, sad story of my Big White Bowl. I was really missing it, because I didn't have another bowl big enough for mixing things like that gluten free brownie mix. I bought the mix about three weeks ago--it has been sitting there in the cupboard since then.

This morning, I received a package in the mail from my sister. I have to say, I am so happy first that she thought of me, and second that she sent me this bowl. I live in a very remote area, and have been to all the stores and thrift shops in town and there was just no bowl to buy, anywhere. Now I can make those brownies, probably tomorrow. Thank you, my seester!

Remember Whensday

In the summer of 1985, I had major surgery and was out of work on sick leave for 10 and a half weeks. While I was recuperating, I went on a short trip to visit my brother and his family. I lived west of Atlanta, and he lived in south Georgia, out in the country.

I had a wonderful visit with them, just hanging around the house, doing nothing special at all, but it was one of my favorite trips I ever took. One day while we were there, we visited Okeefeenoke Swamp, and took a boat ride along the murky water, with alligators swimming by. That is my sister-in-law, Jean on the left, my daughter Becca in the back, and me on the right, sitting in Jean's kitchen.

For more Remember Whensday photos, click here.

Make New Friends, But Keep The Old...

(Me and my sister, circa 1964)

Anyone who has ever been a Girl Scout will know that song.....One is silver and the other gold.

This week has been busy, and full of friends, both old and new. Last Saturday, FabGrandpa and I had a little dinner party to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Our guests included Curtis and KJ, a couple we met here at the North Rim, and have been trying to get together with since the end of April. Our schedules finally clicked last weekend. I had so much fun getting to know them better, and hope we will be friends for a long while. Curtis is an electrician here, and KJ, his wife, is a law enforcement ranger.

On Tuesday, I had my appointment with my new musculo-skelteal doctor, Dr. Monika Radloff, in Flagstaff. In my opinion, she is a very good doctor. She spent lots of time, both listening to my description of my symptoms, and in explaining to me what is wrong with me and telling me how to get better. While I hope I don't have to visit her very often, I am glad that I met her and would recommend her to others with similiar problems.

On Wednesday, I got a phone call from a long time friend, who I have not seen in ages! She and her husband were in Las Vegas, and wanted to come to visit the Grand Canyon. Gloria and I go waaaay back--to 1982 when I was a Girl Scout leader, she also was a Girl Scout leader. The girls in her troop were just a couple years younger than the girls in my troop, so sometimes our troops did things together. Gloria is now the older girl program manager for the Girl Scout Council in Atlanta.

I managed to get four and a half hours of leave time, so I could take Gloria and Byron on a private tour of the North Rim. I took them up to Cape Royal, where I discovered that Byron is afraid of heights! We had a wonderful time, but no pictures because I forgot my camera!!! Oh My Gosh! It was like I had just seen them last week, except now we talked about our grandchildren instead of about our Girl Scout troops!!!

And, you know how sometimes, even with the closest of friends, the ones we call sisters, we can come close to blows? Good thing I am in Arizona and my sister is in Georgia, or that probably would have happened. We had a huge sibling fight, through about 15 emails back and forth. I have kept it very private, but I want my sister to know, I still love you. While we probably won't EVER agree on politics, religion, child-rearing, best place to live, or even choice of sodas, we WILL always be sisters and I will always love you. You are the GOLDEST of the GOLD, my seester!

What An Exciting Thing!

This is Mama on the left, and Lilly on the right.

Back in December, I was the Guest Babe Of The Month over at 7 Babes A Blogging. As the guest blogger, I had to write at least one post per week. While I was trying to figure out what to write, I went to my mother's 80th birthday party. I came home from that party and wrote A Tribute To My Mother. (this site is now defunct, sorry) I didn't think much more about it, until this week.

On Sunday, Mama called me and told me that she got a phone call from her niece that she has not heard from in 44 years. Susan, my cousin, is the daughter of Mama's sister, Lilly, who died in 1963 from an aneurysm. Susan was 12 years old when her mother died, and went to live in Oklahoma with her paternal grandmother, and never saw her relatives in Michigan again after that. She said she has tried for years to find them, but did not ever know any last names except for Grandmother Brouch, Mama's mother.

Susan's husband has been searching the internet off and on for several years, and Saturday night he googled "brouch michigan" and one of the sites that came up was 7 Babes A Blogging, the site where I was the guest blogger for December. When he clicked on that link and found my post, he knew right away he had found the right family. When he showed it to my cousin and she saw the pictures of Mama on that post, she said they looked so much like her own mother that she knew it, too. So, they looked up phone numbers for Strouds in Douglasville, and the first one she called was Mama.

When Mama called me, she was THRILLED! She was so happy. She did not know I had written about her. Mama told me that she had often wondered over the years what had become of her sister's children. Then she asked me, Did you really write a tribute to me? and I said yes, and she said, "I never knew you felt that way about me." Well, gee, she IS my mother!

So, Susan called me last night and she thanked me over and over for writing that blog, because she has found her family after all this time. She also told me that she has been trying to duplicate her mother's stuffed cabbage all her life, and now she knows that she has found the right recipe.

This is not the first time our family has been reunited through the internet. Back in 1979, my youngest brother, Bobby, died in an accident. At the time of his death, he had a six month old daughter. After he died, his widow would not allow any of us to visit with her child, and we lost track of her. Earlier this year, my sister joined MySpace. She decided to do a search to see if maybe our niece was a member there. Sure enough, there she was. And since she had a very unusual first name, we knew it was her. She was in the Air Force, stationed in Arizona.

When my sister contacted her, she was delighted to find out she had such a large family, and when she came home to Georgia to visit in July, she was the guest of honor at a party to introduce her to the whole gang.

My sister also found our older brother's two children from his first marriage. They are both living in California. While they have not visited us, yet, we do keep in touch with them through MySpace. I think we have found everyone now. How Exciting!

Brothers and Sisters

This is the latest portrait of my FabGrandchildren, Michael and Sarah. Michael lives in Maryland at Andrews Air Force Base with their father and step-mother. Sarah lives in Seattle, Washington with their mother and step-father. Sarah came to Maryland for two weeks, then Michael flew with her to Seattle for two weeks. While they were together in Seattle, their mother, my ex-daughter-in-law, took them to have their picture taken. I must say that I think that photographer has a good sense of humor!