Isaias or I 26

 It has been a challenging week. 

I am completely exhausted.

I am thankful and sad at the same time. 

*****

Compared to so many around me, I came out really good.

Each storm has a name and that name goes down with its own story. I have lived through many and this one's main tagline will be, "The Storm That Broke All the Rules." 

A few observations...

I have lived through most of my hurricanes being center or east of the storm. West is best is the rule. This one seemed to have broken all those rules. The west was not the place to be. We were in the center with the National Hurricane deeming the center crossed Destin. That does fit. Lindsay and her family went to Atlanta for the storm. That was sorta in the works pre storm. Tucker is 8 today and came on the heels of Michael 8 years ago and is frightened of even a thunderstorm, which is not good considering where we live and those being a part of life, so they rode it out at Tyler's parents. She knew what was going on, but that is scary too thinking about your family down here and knowing what can happen.

We kept waiting for the surge of water. We know how far it comes up and had prepared. It never really surged. The wind howled and was about the right amount for what they said was coming. The rain however was not the right amount.

I do think the wind we received as that wall was coming over was about right. Do NOT mistake that for it was nothing or not scary as Hell. 

The rain was the craziest. The number of homes in Fort Walton Beach that are flooded is unbelievable. The direction of those rains too was odd. We have a couple in our small group who do live in a low lying area. They did have flood insurance. They prepared their back side of their home with as much as they could and decided to leave town pretty much knowing they would get water in it. What they didn't expect was the amount or the direction it came in from though. We know so many from our church that live in that neighborhood that flooded. I feel so grateful.

Paul Allen had a large tree come from a neighbor's yard in to his, but it missed the house. Praise God. Lindsay lost a fence, but you know all of those things are fixable.

Lindsay's neighbor did say the eye came over them because he thought a window was blown out at her house, but checked on it and the eye that it still had did come right over them. He was able to look up and see stars and then not.

There is debris as far as you can see everywhere.

Our live oaks all look pitiful. Heavily pruned but all standing. One of them next door fell, but didn't crash the house. Many down the street the same.

I will always say the number really means nothing unless it is a 5 and then catastrophic doesn't describe it. 

My mother's assisted living place took on water. I won't say flooded because it didn't go up the walls, but the flooring was soggy for certain. I am disgusted with the place for lack of communication, but I will get past it. I had taken her out the day before it all started. I didn't like that it was headed our way and they can strengthen quickly. Her place is close to the Gulf and wouldn't be protected from winds as much as we are even though we are on the bay. 

She has been with me for most of the week. She is entirely ready to be back in her place which HOPEFULLY will alleviate my guilt for not having her live with me. Just a week has been hard. I love her but she is a lot. I certainly don't think it would be good for Jeff.

Now, the west is best thing...

Whatever happened to the storm cause an odd phenomenon to occur. The worst winds were on the west side running from Milton to Repton. For those that know the area. Highway 87 leaves Navarre and runs through Milton where we bought Barkley, up by Whiting Field and into Brewton, my hometown. At the state line that highway changes to Highway 41. The highest winds ran from Milton straight up 87/41 all the way to Repton, Alabama. I have so many friends and family with lots of damage. It will be a while before things are back to normal up that way.

 I think people can be surprised at how far the winds can go. Brewton took a hit in Ivan and everyone is saying this was worse. Ivan was a low 4. 

I let everyone know on Facebook I was ok, but I had no idea about Mom's place or all my family. It has been a lot to swallow as all hurricanes are. About the 3rd day I had to quit looking at any news or social media to recapture my sanity. 

I am good now.

We had our small group on Wednesday along with the couple that their home is ruined. I wanted to find some Scripture to read since we were mainly meeting to pray and converse. 

I read Romans 5:1-5 emphasizing certain words. 

5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [b]we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but [c]we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

I am so grateful I was spare, but heartbroken for others. It will take time.

Jeff and I have had lots of doctor appointments the last few weeks mostly due to his Parkinson's. I have noticed a few new things which has led to testing, but I feel all of it is the P word. None of it is fun, but Tuesday after the storm he had his bladder appointment for the scope. He gets tense before each one and quite frankly, it is a good thing we were even able to keep the appointment in Pensacola. I keep reminding myself of the good. He does have another tumor and will need the surgery to remove it. That is why they do the scopes every 3-4 months. Bladder cancer has a high recurrence rate. We are waiting for that to be scheduled. He is seeing some other doctors in the days ahead for the other mentioned items.

Busy days.

I am of course behind in reading anyone's blog. I will get there eventually. I have mostly looked at Facebook to see family and friends. I do have power which is in itself ANOTHER completely weird thing about this storm.

I won't be around too much until it settles down a bit more.

I will leave you on a happy note. 

Barkley had no idea a storm came. He was completely happy and well cared for. He was pretty sure all was good while his doggy family in Milton was also hit very hard. Fortunately, many have swooped in to help cut trees and help out with the breeder's needs. All I could do was pray that would happen for her. 

He is just adorable.

Everything goes to his mouth. 

Can you believe that mum still looks this way? Now, there was debris everywhere around it but the wind came in from an odd direction and I guess its proximity to the house and being low it didn't get touched. 

Trust me when I tell you the wind whipping between our houses and in the circle in the live oaks was nuts.

We are off to celebrate Tucker's birthday and watch Georgia demolish us in football, but our family will always be Auburn.

Fall arrived this morning. It is cool and I am in my first long sleeve shirt and pants for the season. I think I am ready. I know all those cutting up logs and working are happy to see it. As I look across the bayou there is a huge tree they are working on now.

Forgive typos - my brain is tired too. 

I haven't even picked up a needle in over a week. Not good-

On one more good thing -

I saw a hummingbird on my bottlebrush the morning of the hurricane and then again yesterday. I take those as good things. Also I think it was Friday, I saw a ton of monarch butterflies in the front yard. 

Oh goodness, one more thing. See, I told y'all I am nuts. 

I 26 is the name I dubbed the storm all most immediately. What was the NHC thinking when giving a name like that for people like me living in northwest Floria and south Alabama to try and pronounce with southern accents. That may be a lighter moment in all this - the names given to it. I even heard it dubbed Julio Iglesias. I wasn't the only one who knew we would need something else. 

Thank goodness I 26 is gone. 

Thankful,

Sandy

News

I am high alert, but I wanted to get this post out before the weekend for a reason unrelated to storms. 

We are on storm watch here in the Gulf. Anything that forms in the Bay of Campeche is not to be taken lightly and must be carefully watched. This means I am in storm mode. That means I am washing clothes and cleaning house like it is the most important thing I will ever do. I don't know exactly why I get like this, but it is what it is. I am prepared in the way of water, food and fuel. If it turns in to something and moseys this way, I will be out of power for a longer time than most. That is something I have written about before - being on a very small part of the electrical grid.

So yes, let's hope this thing disappoints weather reporters. We are saturated so even being on the east side of it will bring more water than we need. The peninsula probably needs water but not this kind of water. 

So I am still in grieving for my Gus. I don't think I will ever quite get over his loss, but losing our family pets is hard. I counted up the other day, that we have only been without a dog for 8 months of our marriage. We got Sally about 2 months after we married and after losing her it took us about 8 months to find Murphy. We were never without a dog again as we decided to have 2 at the same time from that time forward. 

The house has been so quiet and sad without Gus. 

All that changes on Friday when we bring home BARKLEY. We have gone to see Barkley twice and the breeder has put up with Jeff needing to have pictures sent weekly of him. Needless to say we are ready to let Barkley be a part of our story.

Springers come in black and white, liver and white, and tricolor which we were familiar with. We have had 2 black and whites and 2 liver and whites.

We were not familiar with roans. The roan means their white is mixed with the colors black or liver. A black one is known as a blue roan and a liver one is known as a red roan.

Barkley is going to be a blue roan. 

It will take him about 4 to 6 months to fill in his coloring. 

Here is a page of possible looks for him from Pinterest.

We did notice the roan in his white on our first visit. He has tiger striped legs. It will be interesting to see what he ends up looking like. 

Like I said, we have been twice to see him and we pick him up on Friday morning. 

I honestly glad he is not liver and white, because I am still so heartbroken over Gus. I needed a different look. I love liver and white. They are quintessentially the look of what one expects in a Springer, but I know Barkley will have his own look.

This was the latest picture the breeder texted us of him. I can see his head is already filling in with the roan.

I will be back next week if I have power to share all about him. 

Let's pray I have power and Barkley doesn't have his first adventure with a hurricane!

OH and --- I bought a mum which proves only one mum can give someone all the fall feels. I simply must share before it dies or gets messed up from a storm.

It is actually in full bloom right now. This was from a week or so ago. I did wait until there were no 3 digit temperatures. All that heat has that GULF still very warm.

Sandy

Memories: Barbie

 This is a post for the family one day...that posterity's sake kind of thing. 

Read along if you like.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/137711701095722873/.

The Barbie case pictured above was the exact one I had. I completely wore it out. Lindsay had used it and finally I deemed it silly to hold onto anymore. I still use Pinterest to capture the fun things from my younger days.

I also had the Barbie  in the upper left corner with the Auburn hair. She too was completely worn out and finally did not remain. I had 2 other Barbies in my collection: Talking PJ and Malibu Barbie. I had wanted Malibu Barbie so much and when I got her one year for Christmas I remember being so disappointed. Her hair was not straight across. It was at a diagonal. I don't think it was supposed to be like that, but maybe a seconds or one that didn't get caught in inspections. I was so sad, but she got used a ton as well.

I loved Barbies so much. I dressed and redressed and imagined and such. Lindsay never liked Barbies like me. She did like the picking out outfits but that was about all. Her best friend loved them so she played with them when Chelsea came over to visit. Later they switched to American Girl dolls. 

When we moved into our current home, Lindsay was going in 8th grade, so we took 3 of the Barbie outfits and placed them in shadowboxes to hang on her wall. They are still here but moved to the bookcase. The top 2 dresses are dresses from my time along with these....

and these.

In the bottom picture you may recognize the bottom right 2 outfits were PJ outfits. The yellow beach towel and stained blue bathing suit belonged to Malibu Barbie.

All of the other dresses were bought at the Western Auto on the square in Monroeville. I don't know why Western Auto would have had Barbie clothes. I have since decided that these must have been made by someone locally. They were in a wooden bin near the front of the store and I loved going in to check for new additions. Considering how many I have of them, Mama must have deemed that an appropriate expenditure of money. What is amazing about all of them is how well made they are! They have little snaps for closures and such neat finishes. Nothing Lindsay ever got later when she got her Barbie clothes compares. 

I have always kept them separated from the other Barbie stuff. I will let Valerie eventually play with them, but I will wait until she is old enough to realize the difference in the quality of the sewing.

Here I am at age 5 with my new Barbie furniture and the case that I got from Santa that year. 

You might notice the nifty record player. I think those Christmas gifts summed childhood up for me in a nutshell. I always loved records and Barbies.

So what brought on this post? On a rainy morning I finally decided to organize the Barbie bin. I let Valerie look along with me as I decided to organize and see if there was something new for her to play with on that day.

I have captured a few things to add to the post. 

The 1996 Olympics being in Atlanta was a big deal so Lindsay got a Barbie with an Olympic outfit. The bag had some little athletic things in it.

Oh this gem below. I at some time made a purse for a Barbie. It is not sewn, just cut and stitched by hand. It looks very 70ish. I am thinking I might have been bored one summer day and pulled them out to do something like this. Far past my Barbie playing days.

We have all sorts of things like pom moms, camping gear, hats and such to go with Barbie and whole separate bag of shoes and socks.

Here are some newer evening gowns. You can see the quality is nothing like the ones I had as a child.

Here are some of the Barbies left in the bin. Malibu Barbie is on the left. Her hair has darkened with time. It was bleached blonde like the others with her back in the day. PJ is missing a leg but I still have it. Probably time to ditch her too. 

One thing to note about the newer Barbies - they have tons of hair - all of them.

The outfit on the right above and the ones in the below pictures were the most well made of the 90's fashion. That middle jumpsuit came with PJ too.

Nana (Jeff's mom) gave Lindsay these little wicker chairs back in the 90's. I kept them out with some of the Barbies for Valerie to play with now.

We also still have a Barbie locker. 

Valerie playing with her chairs and Barbies I left out for her.

Barbies were countless hours of fun for me. Lindsay too. I think I kept them because they were such fun for me. I will pass them along to Valerie as she gets a little older. I may let Lindsay keep some of the older dresses if she chooses. I have really learned that keeping all the things is too much. Remembering is good and a photograph is good. Now, the older clothes was a good thing to hold on to especially since they all look really good still.

I am sure some of you are remembering your time with Barbie as well. 

Remembering the fun days of childhood,

Sandy

Happy Fall Y'all

 According to the calendar, it is officially fall. It is one of two seasons that I wait for the astrological date to show up before calling it the new season. 

For 2.5 months it has been a sauna down here. We have had more 100-110 heat index days than can be counted. Honestly most of those days have been that. I have learned new things about summer flowers with that kind of heat. It is no wonder I just can't envision fall OR

is it ---that we think of fall and think of a New England fall with glorious color earlier than I would ever see???

Fall here in our area is big hay bales in the fields to the north, cotton blooming, football with cute sundresses as the attire for a college girls. Everyone else wears shorts and a school tee. I knew a trip to Auburn would let me welcome it in -fall as I know it that is.

One of my older pics since I didn't take any this past weekend.

On one note of leaving summer to move into fall is the lack of acorns. Last year gave us a mast year of acorns, so I would venture this year we could call it a scarce season of acorns. What will the squirrels do?

We traveled to Auburn this past weekend and had a nice time. It was hot, but still all the above things were noted and it felt like a southern fall. November is fall here in my area. I am actually looking forward to it now that I have decided it is fall, but I don't like to rush the days either.

Lindsay and her family came with us as well as Paul Allen's dogs. They went to Tennessee for a wedding.

Dansby walked right up in front of them posed for the picture and pretty much said, "I am going to be in this picture!

Katie snapped this one of the Florida kids hoping for cooler weather in the mountains, but not finding it. They did love the bears.

Little Valerie is growing up so quickly. We put her baby (aka, Lindsay's old baby doll) to nap this morning on the couch.

For lunch she got mad at me because I told her she couldn't put anymore chili on a cracker until she ate one. She can make a stink face very well.

I have been decorating since we returned from Auburn as well. I think it just can't happen until I make a September trip to Auburn.

All the same stuff but a few pictures anyway.

Do orangey shells count as fall decor with a Jesus added to the center?

The table has finally gotten its pumpkins. These are my favorite fall decoration. I got them at Joann's about 12 years ago. I saw them the minute I walked in and knew they were coming home with me.

In other things around the house, we added some more of that tinting to the living room like we added to the kitchen last October. OF course, we waited until summer was almost over to do it. Just like when we did it to the kitchen I was slightly worried about how dark it made it. IT is kind of like looking outside through sunshades, but the way it cools things down is absolutely a game changer in a good way.

Tucker and I had used a thermometer to measure the difference in the heat from the kitchen table with the tinting to the area in the living room without tinting. I had Jeff call the next week to have them come out and do it to the windows.

Also around the house...

the boys knocked over a lamp downstairs when they were all over celebrating my birthday midSeptember. Miles came up the stairs to tell us that glass was on the floor and that Palmer had done it, but the truth was like reading the book by the Berenstain Bears called The Blame Game. I had at least 50 of those books which I gave to both children and Paul Allen said later that night he read that one and it was the exact story of what happened downstairs with the lamp. They were playing with a ball which Palmer threw at him, but he kicked it and it hit the lamp.

All was well, but it made me do a switcharoo of lamps so I guess it turned out well. The only thing that broke on the other one was the light bulb. Now, the lamp below may actually need to come upstairs and pull the old one back out which is metal.

Here is what I pulled out from the closet.

The above lamp was a set that my mother-in-law made for me decades ago. One had broken and I ended up letting Mama use this one in a bedroom. When she moved to assisted living I got it and store it thinking one day I would use it. It looks nice there. Oh and the glass in the picture frame broke. 

Boys will be boys.

Around the neighborhood...

A new house has been built 3 doors down on the water. It has kept me entertained for months on end.

They built a new dock and sea wall which the kiddos and I watched out our kitchen window with great interest. It took almost 3 weeks to do all of that.

Count 3 docks and you see the new one. The pine tree in the corner of the yard - well, I now have to watch and see if it lives. They upped the seawall and filled in dirt over the roots of that pine. I don't think that is gonna work. Something to observe.

I took this late yesterday while walking. I have to wait until it is less than a 100 degrees.

You can't see the plants but let's just say they made me happy. I complain about all new builds in our area because the builders do not leave trees which are essential and they plant non native shrubs. It boils my blood. I am not lying.

Anywho, I saw camellias, azaleas, palmettos, and such ----all native to our area. 

First time and since it is so close to me it made me extremely happy. Now, to see who buys it.

I finished the beachy fall stitch. I now have to fully finish it. I just have it folded for the picture.

I think I would like to do more of these, but I am going to get back to my sampler and osprey. It feels so good to want to stitch. 

I am going to discuss reading soon, but I have one more thing to share to this post that happened yesterday afternoon, and this post is already very long.

The doorbell rang and Jeff answered. It was a delivery of a special piece of art from an old friend.

I cried! 

I have a friend who I taught with at 2 schools, one back when I was young and then one when I was close to retirement. She would later come to my church and we have a long story together. 

She has pancreatic cancer and is taking chemo to give her time. She is currently staying in Birmingham with her granddaughter to take the treatments and have someone take care of her. She is an only child like me. Her mother is alive and in her 90's here and just went on Hospice. 

When Chris found out she had cancer, she couldn't talk to anyone, but I kept texting and checking in with here. I told her she didn't have to answer but that she had a lot of people who cared.

Two days after Gus died she finally called me. She ended up comforting me, but we had an hour long conversation and covered a lot of ground.

She got one of the ladies from her Bible Study group here that knows our family well to ask the kids to send her pictures of Gus and had someone locally that I also know to do a sketch of Gus. I will treasure it forever. 

You know all the people we come in contact along the way weave our stories into the most amazing tapestry when we look back.

I will close for now....

Blogger is driving me nuts again. My feed of blogs is not refreshing. Arghhh.

I have to share with you what I learned about full sun and 110 degree heat with flowers AND oh, I planted a mum. 

More coming soon.

I hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Sandy

Another Year - Yippie!

 I love birthdays. I love when you look at the calendar or now your phone and you see your date. It has always made me feel special, like the day was meant for me. I guess it is and well -maybe all the other people with your birthday.

I have been lucky enough to make it for another revolution around the sun. Hello 66. Medicare and Social Security payments all done for a year now. That was a process and a half!

Every now and then you experience one that kind of makes you notice the aging process. 25 was one. I know - you were NOT expecting that one were you? I think 25 kind of hit me that I was not a college kid anymore, but a married woman teaching school. I also agreed to teach 9th grade girls in Sunday School that year and they thought of me as older. 30 did not phase me, but 32 did. I realized I was the same age as my dad when he died and I looked at my children and thought about how hard it must have been for him to lay there with cancer and know he would not be there for me to grow up. 32 was perhaps the age that messed with me most, but what came out of it was to never think of aging as anything other than a blessing!

 Along came 65. Physically, I  think I have felt this one the most. I think it seemed overnight that I had a big change in my energy level. I simply can't do what I once did. I have had to slow my roll and pace the tasks. I also noticed a physical change in my appearance. It seems the wrinkles are just suddenly very noticeable. I have never been on to whine about aging. Aging is a true gift and I think we should set an example for the younger crowd of aging gracefully. Goodness knows the world is full of everyone trying to tuck and cream there way to everlasting beauty.

Now let's talk about beauty. I don't think getting old means you lose your beauty. It just looks different. I think Ali McGraw is perhaps one of the most beautiful older ladies I have ever seen. She hasn't followed the Hollywood way. In my opinion, she has aged gracefully.

I have a whole Pinterest page devoted to cute hairstyles and cuts with gray hair. I let mine go gray at age 41. I had enough of that coloring thing. I think it is especially hard to color your hair when you have black/brown hair. Highlights don't look like they do when you have lighter hair.

I will admit to purchasing some cream this year for my face. I have never ever been good about taking care of my skin. I woke up one morning this year and it was like those wrinkles were screaming at me. But Ali has wrinkles in that picture above and I think they are life lines.

But, I did buy me some Clinque daytime cream and some nighttime cream. Remembering to put it on was an issue at first but I getting there. 

I have worn Clinique since I was in college. In high school, I wore Maybelline mascara in the pink and green container. Most of you girls in your 60's know it. I also wore Cover Girl blush pictured below.

That blush was amazing. 

I started wearing Clinique in college and other than my small stint in the late 80's with Beauty Control after having my colors done I have stuck with it. You can see from my little dish above I have tried several other blushes trying to get one with less harsh chemicals, but for now that Clinque Chubby Stick is my absolute favorite blush. It is most like that old Cover Girl one. On the tray are some A'del and Ilia colors. I like both, but Clinque is still my favorite.

I had my colors done in 1986 and honestly I have stuck to that pretty much my whole life. I can tell those colors work best for me. Below is the page from the book of my colors.

Here are my spring summer tops and you can see many are true to my colors.

When I wear things from the color palette I am brighter in the face. I have a very dark complexion in my face which....

has made wearing foundation my hardest piece of the puzzle. I have had good skin. Other than the wrinkles it is still good skin, but I feel awful in foundation so I have pretty much accepted that and it is a rare occasion that I put it on. I keep a little extra items in the drawer.

Below is the color palette for the face. This is where Clinique comes to my aid as well. 

I have given up their eye shadows (well I do still have some in my drawer). I find they are beautiful but make my eyes itch after the days lingers on.

Way more about aging that you thought you were getting - huh?!

I still think walking is perhaps the best exercise out there. I went out to the beach in the morning after picking up Valerie on my birthday. The water was like a blue green pool. I wanted to stay, so...

I went back later that day for a beach walk.

My favorite place doing what I love to do...strolling in the water's edge.

The family all came over on Sunday to celebrate. Jeff made jambalaya and picked up pastries from the local French bakery that is honestly too good for my good. 

I am so blessed. Lindsay took mine and Jeff's picture.

In accepting that I am always critical of my photos I am going to do better about posting them.

Here's to 66 and being grateful for another year. 

Maybe I need to figure out which foundation Ali McGraw wears and I will be set. All that said, I rarely wear anything on a daily basis. Perks of retirement. I will pop on blush and lipstick for a run to the grocery store.

Gracefully and gratefully aging,

Sandy

Remembering 25 Years Later

I have been blogging since 2014 and have never shared anything on September 11th. I have read many, but just never stopped to add my day to it. I have decided on this 25th anniversary to do so. I think this will be something for the children and grandchildren one day.

*****

September 11, 2001

It was an ordinary school morning. Jeff was an assistant principal at the high school right down the road. Lindsay was a 6th grader and going to the middle school for the first year right across from her dad. Both schools were an early school time and for the first year in such a long time our family had different morning schedules. Jeff and Lindsay were out the door by 6:30ish. Paul Allen was in 4th grade which was the same grade I taught at the elementary school very close by our home too.  Ours was late starting school which meant we didn't have to rush out the door. I was able to slowly make lunches and eat a breakfast and ease out the door at leisure and arrive still early to school. Paul Allen may have been the kid who loved this schedule more than anyone. He could eat his breakfast slowly and watch a cartoon and not consider for even a moment brushing his teeth or putting on his shoes until the credits rolled on that cartoon.

The start time for school was 9:00 which is central time so that means I was standing in the kitchen by the TV probably washing dishes or making lunch when the first plane flew into the WTC at 7:46 our time. 

Just an ordinary day doing my ordinary things turned the country upside down. 

Just as most everyone I was sort of thinking it was an accident. Why would anyone fly into the building? I was thinking big city crazy stuff. Of course, it didn't take long to realize something awful had begun.

I was getting ready to walk out the door when the second plane hit at 8:03. I stood there a moment longer trying to make sense of it, but finally decided we needed to leave for school.

Paul Allen and I proceeded to the car and the radio was on Rick and Bubba's radio show. Some of you Southerners will know what I am talking about. Light hearted radio for the short drive to school each morning, but that morning even Rick and Bubba realized it was more and were covering it. I didn't move it from the station as they were trying to make sense of it too, but by the time we made it to the school there was no doubt it was not an accident and we were under attack.

The whole thing is a reminder of how much life has changed since then. No cell phones in everyone's hand. No calls had been made to me yet from Jeff. In fact, I wouldn't talk to him or Lindsay until after school because you would have had to call the school and have someone turn it over to your room which was just not common then.

I remember being terribly upset at the thoughts of what might be happening on the drive to the school. I knew Jeff was close enough to Lindsay to not be overly fretful. Paul Allen were very quiet as we listened to the radio, but that fits both of our personalities. We absorb before we voice. The other two would be talking and thinking aloud.

I immediately went to my room and turned on the TV. We did have those in our rooms by that year and I watched the news until we were told we couldn't have them on when the children came in. I totally understood that, but being me that was hard to cut me off from information.

A few minutes before the children would arrive I began to take in just what this meant for them. I had children in my room whose parents were in the service. Specifically a jet pilot and a helicopter pilot. 

I put on my teacher face and told Paul Allen all would be ok and I braced myself for the day.

Most of the children came in that morning quieter than usual although I had a wonderful class. A few things stick out from the day more than others.

Camille's birthday was that day. I had already put her present on her desk, but as I looked at her desk in the moments before the students walked in I felt a pang of sorrow for her to have her birthday tarnished by such awful news. News that you knew would be remembered even at that early moment. I love birthdays and always celebrate, so I made a point to give her a big hug and tell her Happy Birthday when she came in to the room. 

Kate, whose dad was a pilot came in teary eyed. She probably was the most affected by the news because her mother was so upset. I worked hard to keep her under my wing all day. 

I had no way of keeping up like we do now. I couldn't have the TV on understandably, but I had a radio/CD player behind my desk. All it would pick up was the public radio station. I had it on ever so slightly so that I could hear if any thing new was announced. 

Mostly the day was quiet and somewhat somber with me trying to carry on with school. I tried to be caring but keep the pace of school going.

I was glad for the day to be over and see all of my family in one spot at home. We have never been one to hide bad things or news from our children. That is probably due to my having lost my dad early in life. I am not a sugar coat anything. I will do my best to keep a positive spin but I don't believe in teaching that bad things don't happen.

We watched the news that evening. Lindsay of course being the child that read adults like a story book knew something was up at school and managed to figure out something awful had happened very early in the day. I think she hassled enough adults before they had the official ok to tell the students what was going on. I think Jeff's day was like mine, just navigating the day with students.

In the few days immediately following it, one thing sticks out to me ---the silence.

I have shared recently that we live in a military community and there are 7 military bases/posts in the region. Jets fly over all day and cargo planes at night. The silence of no planes in the air was so noticeable. As I type that sentence a jet flies over now. That is our life.

It changed us. Phones were no longer thought of us as an annoyance but a need. We must be able to talk to our families. That may be the biggest change and it brought a new life.

Sometimes it is hard to believe it was 25 years ago. 

There are just moments you will never forget. I watched a lot of news by that TV washing dishes or cooking. One other day I remember well was the Tulsa bombing. I was on spring break. I don't watch news like I used to so I am afraid I would hear about it second hand now and that might be ok.

Never take blessings for granted and be grateful for the men and women in uniform who do their best to keep us safe.

A lot of life takes place in the ordinary days. In the kitchen too.