My Mom at 92

November 30, 1917, was the date of my Mom's birth. Yesterday she turned 92. Doesn't she look great? Amazing!
She still goes to art class every Thursday and spends the day at Hobby Lobby getting art lessons and painting. She attends church almost every Sunday, and is active in the Single Sisters group in her church.


Eleven of us gathered at Charleston's in Edmond to celebrate with Mom. Four siblings and mates couldn't make it, but we still had a good crowd. (Benefits of having a large family...)


Mother ordered coffee (now this is black coffee at 5 pm in the afternoon. Doesn't seem to keep her awake at night. Amazing!) She also ordered the grilled pork chops and had beans and slaw as sides. I'm her daughter and eating that and drinking coffee would give me a terrible stomach ache. She must have a stomach of steel.


This is what Paul and I ordered for the three of us to share, bread pudding. Actually, almost everyone at the table, twelve of us, had at least a bite. Some commented that didn't look like any bread pudding we'd ever seen. It was very good.

After we ordered and while we waited for our food, we sang Happy Birthday and presented Mom with her gifts. I got her a very nice OU shirt. She's complimented mine every time I wear it. She said she would wear it every Thursday to art class. Freddie got her a radio for the kitchen window. The clock is an atomic clock so it will always tell the right time. She's been hinting. Several of the others gave Mom 12 checks or bills of $10 each. This is tradition. That pays for her art classes for the entire year. Mom took her time and read every card (when she stumbled, I helped) and enjoyed every one.

Some of Rachel's family came and brought the cute one-year-old boys. They and their parents added the much needed youth factor to our gathering.

The whole evening, which ended early, was just exceptional. We have a great family who loves to honor their matriarch. Each year we are so grateful that we've had another year with our Mom. Hopefully we'll have many more.
Mary B.

Thanksgiving 2009

Every year at Thanksgiving my family of origin gets together. I am one of eleven children and most of us married and had families of our own. One sibling has died, but there are ten of us left, and my Mom will be 92 on Monday, November 30. Here we are posing for a picture with Mom. You wouldn't believe how many pictures and how much trouble we went to so we could have one good picture. Fun and challenging.

It's always quite a gathering. This year we had about 125, that's as close a count as we could get with everyone moving around and without having a sign-in list, but it's a pretty close count.

Mother starts the celebration by saying a few words and telling all the additions we've had since last Thanksgiving, births and weddings. That talk sometimes gets pretty long, and then of course someone is always forgotten. It just can't be helped with such a large family. Mother played a guessing game having everyone guess how many are now in the family. Total is 176. That's just Mother, her children and their mates, their children and mates, and their children. Mother now has great-greats.

We had a good time, way too much food, and fun just catching up with those we hadn't seen since last year. There's a lot of physical activity going on in the gym: roller skating, dodge ball, and basketball. You put your well being in jeopardy when you traversed the gym floor to go to the restroom.

We had a special treat this year of Paul and Margaret Purifoy coming at Mother's invitation. Paul brought his guitar and sang three or four fun songs including "I Am My Own Grandpa" and "The Mississippi Squirrel." Not sure the younger generations caught it all, but we older ones had a good laugh. That was very special, the Purifoys making us a part of their Thanksgiving Day.

We end up with supper of leftovers including sandwiches and chips and hot cheese dip. Clean-up is not so bad when everyone helps. Great day. Great family. Great food. Wonderful things to enjoy and be thankful for.
MB

That's Us

My handsome feller has found a new talent. He's expressing himself through poetry. He's always had a way with words. I'm not surprised, but I am thrilled that he's cultivating this talent.

The other day we were reminiscing about the different phases we've come through in our relationship. He was thoughtful. Soon he shared this poem with me.



He's got a talent, doesn't he?

This is a very special, thoughtful writing. Because I lived through these times with him, this has much meaning for me.
I love that man!
MB

The Wonder of Electronics

I am of the generation that's been slow to embrace this age of everything digital and electronic. I'm the exception. I absolutely love trying all the new things that come out.

My most recent fun thing I got for my birthday is a Kindle DX. It's an e-reader; i.e., a digital book library. It holds over 3500 e-books. Isn't that amazing? I immediately went to my Kindle account and started downloading many of the classics, which are now free. I love The Scarlet Letter and now have it electronically. I also downloaded The Message, the modern version of the New Testament. How fun is that?

Another amazing feature is that I can download pdf's through my personal Kindle account. I clog and one of my first necessary tasks when learning a new dance is to get it mentally memorized. I do that through cue sheets. Now, I can review my clogging cue sheets on my Kindle. Amazing!

If when I'm reading something on the Kindle and I want to highlight, I just do so. That is then put on a separate sheet and all my notes are kept there with a date and source alongside. Again, how cool is that?

Can you tell that what the younger generations probably take for granted, I'm continually amazed and thrilled and want to become adept at using these new electronics.

I also have an iPhone and I recently upgraded. I can now do voice notes as reminders. Incredible! Plus all the regular features of the iPhone and all the apps that I've downloaded. It's still a matter of WOW to me.

Remember, I'm someone who can remember when I heard of television. My siblings and I would marvel that we would be able to not only listen like we did to the radio, but we could see something like at the movies. Wow! In OKC at first there was just one channel of television. Then we marveled that there would be more than one channel. How exciting!

I've taken to this electronic age like a duck to water. How fun! How amazing! How incredible!!
I'm living proof that you can teach old dogs new tricks, especially if the new tricks are electronics and the old dog is I.

(A BTW: that last sentence seems wrong ending with an "I." But, being a grammarian, I have to do it right. Yuk! :-)
MB

Dara The Volunteer

Dara works two days a week at the Food Bank as a volunteer.

We are so proud of her. She found this position, applied for it, was interviewed and hired, all by herself. She often rides the bus, which she has to reserve to pick her up ahead of time, and puts in her hours as a volunteer.

In the picture, you can only see Dara's head. She's right beside the lady holding the tray above her head.

Grams and Papaw just wanted to brag a little and tell Dara (and everyone) how very proud we are of her.
MB

Fun Day at OU Game

Today, Saturday Sept 19, 2009, OU played Tulsa University here in Norman OK. As usual, we like to go out and spend several hours just enjoying the atmosphere and the fun on the OU campus.

We walk around for awhile and then we stop at the School of Engineering and get a hamburger dinner complete with chips, baked beans, candy bar, and drink. Very good.

Outside the Student Union the OU Band drummers perform for about twenty or thirty minutes. It's really fun and a big crowd gathers around to listen. Today there were six xylophones besides the twenty or so drums. People cheer and clap after each selection. They are so precise and so together.

Then when we can we walk over to the Heisman Park and view all the statues of the OU Heisman Trophy winners. That's always a good picture taking walk.

My Dad, Fred Cherry, played football at OU and ran track. The players who lettered are all listed on plaques in an outside area and the plaques are arranged by years. I took a couple of pictures of the 1930 football team and the 1931 football team and the track and field team. I'm proud to say that my Dad many years ago lettered in sports at Oklahoma University where he earned his petroleum engineering degree.

After that we head to the game. There's always a huge crowd, but it's easy to get around and we know right where our seats are because we've been going to OU games for several years and our season tickets are always the same seats. (Getting expensive though, a little more so each year.)

One of the things I really looked forward to this year was getting to see Courtney in the Pom Squad. Her mom, my coworker, died very unexpectedly last February and didn't even know that Courtney made the squad. We yelled and waved at her and Paul took her picture. She's a great Pom girl and is so pretty. It was fun to watch her.

We usually tire before the game is over and think about heading home, especially if it's a blowout (in OU's favor that is). Today it was a blowout at halftime, 31 to 0, so we decided to head for the house. We're both fighting allergies and colds and wanted to get home. It's a good long walk back to the car, and if we're lucky, we hail a rickshaw. We were lucky.

We headed home and watched the end of the game on TV.
It was a good football day. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
MB

Fun Evening But Lousy Game

We thoroughly enjoyed going to the new Cowboy Stadium in Arlington TX to see the OU vs BYU game. The most fascinating feature was the big HD TV screen. Unbelievable. It stretched from one twenty yard line to the other. Huge!!

Here's a picture of Paul and me as we arrived two hours early to be able to casually tour the stadium and have fun looking at all the features. Our seats were seven rows from the top, so it took us awhile to navigate all the stairs and work our way up.

One of the very fun things about the game was getting to see my friend's daughter in the OU Pom squad. My friend and coworker died last February and it's a double pleasure to get to see her daughter at the OU games. She reminds me so much of her Mom, it's kind of bitter sweet.

We had a very fun weekend. Went to church at Southcliff in Fort Worth, where Paul pastored several years ago. We got to visit with several friends and had fun reminiscing about "the good ole' days."

Now for the yukky part: It was a lousy game! We were so disappointed in the way OU played. But, on the other hand, sometimes a bad game is the inspiration to play better. Here's hoping.

Great weekend. Lots of fun.
Life is good!
MB