Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen

This is my birthday and I am going to do what I want. 

I internally still see myself at 16 want to join me for cake?

I was showing off my High School class ring.

Wordless Wednesday Timeless Southern Summertime Color

Sharing a Slice of Life The Strawberry Friend

This was a much more difficult a meme prompt from Sharing a Slice of Life than I thought it would be. 'Friends' is a subject you would think would be easy.  Through the years, I have had special friends that I thought I would be connected to for all my life.  Distance would minimized the friendship, but the events of the time they were in my life remained as special times.
One such friendship started at the first house the Hero and I had.  It was in an old section of Houston called "The Heights".  My daughter Texasblu was the instigator of a the most fun friendship I had while we lived in Houston.  Mrs Arlene Anderson was our next door neighbor.  I did not know that at first; I was very shy and would never approach someone to meet them.  I always had to be introduced. 
Texasblu on the other hand a smiling outgoing 18 month old was not shy.  One day she discovered that just on the other side of the chain link fence was strawberries.  She would slip her tiny hand through the fence and back would come a strawberry...One day I saw her grabbing the strawberry, we then had to approach the neighbor to tell her we were stealing strawberries.  What a special lady, Miss Arlene as she liked having Texasblu call her, laughed and said she had been watching her "Strawberry Girl" and thought she was special.  That was the first time we spoke, soon after we went shopping together.  She is the one who introduced me to plants and unusual nurseries.  She showed me where all the unusual hole in the wall stores were that you could buy cheaply.  We had hours and hours of fun shopping trips with the Strawberry Girl in tow.  I know that Strawberry Girl was her substitute for a granddaughter since she did not have a child.  Miss Arlene was a once in life time experience that I am so glad I had.  I wish I had pictures of her, maybe Texasblu has some in her scrapbook. I hope so.  When we moved away, they did also, in the opposite direction.  It was sad to lose that friendship, but the parting was with love.

Sentimental Sunday The Hero and The Moonbeam Attack

I would be willing to wager, that many have had this experience.   It was so funny.
Let me tell you a little bit about our top story in our home.  The ceiling is the roof, it is 25 ft tall, and there are the equivalent  of 15 ft tall windows.  Not all one piece of course, but they are collectively that tall.  I never found a curtain that I liked for them because I loved watching the clouds go by and the stars at night. 
With that setting in mind, I will take you into the story.
 

We had been working hard.  The Hero had been late to work a couple of times from over sleeping.  He was anxious when we went to bed, because his employer had been fussing at him about being late.
I drifted off to a deep sleep immediately. 
I was rudely awakened when the Hero jumped out of bed and started throwing his clothes on.  It was as bright as mid-day in the room.  I said, "What are you doing?"  He said, "I am late!  It must be about noon."  Peering at the clock, I sat back in bed giggling.  "Silly, it is only 2 am in the morning.  That is the moon shining so bright." 
He looked at the clock himself then grinned and laughed saying, "I can use some more sleep." 
Watch that old devil moon, it can fool you at times.  ; )
This was his favorite story to tell on himself when someone would talk about over sleeping.

Surname Saturday Knapp/ Gildon

I wish I could find the descendants of this line.  they seem to be the line that prospered in children the most of my Charles Gildon Line.

Wordless Wednesday Parts of Me

What I do.  

Approved by Bryan (4yearold)

Sharing a Slice of Life 'Bugs'

The prompt by Texasblu this week at Sharing a of Life was 'Bugs'.  Now, it would be easy enough to write about butterflies, cicadas, and grasshoppers.  They are pleasant, cute, and the cicadas sing the song of the South all summer long.
As usual, I can't stay with the fluff.  I have to focus on the bane of Southern life...The Mosquito. 
For our ancestors in Georgia, Alabama, and other swampy areas, the mosquito was the carrier of the parasite which caused ague  or Malaria.  The name brings thoughts of chills and fever.  The truth is; it was a horrible plight for the person who contacted the disease and lived.  They never knew when it would occur again. I actually had not really studied the disease until now.  As a nurse, we touched upon it but it is not considered a major disease in this time.
Today, mosquitoes are still around and and plaguing mankind.
I know because I buy repellents and all manner of insect killers.
My most memorable experience with mosquitoes was in the swampy land of Louisiana.  My father had taken me on a tour of a few states.  We went to New Orleans then left towards Galveston.  That night, we stopped at a road side park near the beach.  As the sun went down, the alligators began bellowing, and the mosquitoes came out.  I really think they were vampires or huge bats, but my dad said they were mosquitoes.  We quickly withdrew to the camper, to lie down to go to sleep. You could hear them humming as loud as cicadas.   It was hot, but I wrapped up in a blanket, because I could see they had a plan.  One mosquito would pull back the screen and the others would dive bomb down and carry us away.  If I was in a blanket, they couldn't reach me.  LOL   I just left a small breathing hole for my nose. My dad would say "Frances! Take that blanket off."  My reply, 'No way, you can't make me.' and I would pull it tighter around me.  I did survive the night, but those were the biggest mosquitoes I had ever seen.  Spare me. 
It is no wonder our ancestors were overcome by them. 
Lather me down with every home made repellent and then spray a circle around me with Deet spray.  ; )    They shall not overcome we modern day people.!