December 13, 2025 A.D.

December 13, 2025 A.D.

I have lots to talk about. I will save all the surgery stuff for later.

First up is an early Christmas present. I wrote about all the things I consider treasures from Germany here.   One of those treasures was the cuckoo clock that didn't work and had been sitting in a box for a long time. It is pictured in that post way back in the day. 

One day I walked in the sewing room where the box was supposed to be and it was missing. I immediately asked Jeff about it. I had spoiled the surprise. He had finally found someone local to repair it and thought he had been secretive in taking it out of the house.

We discussed where to hang it much too long and finally decided on the family room replacing a clock that hung in this spot. It has to be very high because of the chains. It is quite loud so there are times that I have to stop the pendulum from swinging such as when we are hosting our weekly Bible study.

Needless to say it was a great present.

Stitching

I have finally finished stitching The 12 Days of Christmas. Here it is just folded under.

I wanted to have it fully finished by now, but I have just worked so hard, and it is what it is. I hope to sew it up tomorrow. Currently my plan is to back it with a green fabric that does have a subtle variegated print. I want to edge it with piping and put some hanging strips at the top to hang on a dowel. Those doggone beads have tried to come loose which I am glad is happening before I gift it. I think I am just going to put a dot of Alene's glue under them to secure them. I hopefully will get it done this week.

Decorating

The house is all decorated for Christmas. I have thoroughly enjoyed it ---I guess that is when you know you have the right amount of decorations out.

Not much has changed in the last couple of years. Maybe a tweak here and there, but nothing new.

There is a lady on Instagram who does a weekly post about how you don't need to buy anything new...you don't need to go to Walmart, Home Goods, etc or order from Amazon. She says you are just bored:) 

I would say she is mostly right!

But....I did buy one thing new. I needed some new placemats for my kitchen table that were green. My others were toast and I had thrown them out last spring. I went to Kohl's and found some that have a wee bit of sparkle in them.

What I couldn't decide was which color napkin to use. I ended up liking both so I am swapping them out often. Green is up right now.

Is there going to be a house tour this year? Truth? Probably not.

I added more green ornaments than red to the bowl...one tweak.

You may even notice Valerie in the background by the Auburn Christmas tree.

One corner in the kitchen.

I have been so busy this December, but coming home to all the pretties has been good. 

Home!

This corner will probably stay a little longer than Christmas.

A Winter Project

I mentioned that I planned to defeat the darkness this year with projects to keep my brain engaged rather than falling asleep so early. My first project was to check off a long procrastinated ancestry book.

I had made an ancestry book for my side of the family, but never followed through with Jeff's side of the family. I buckled down this fall and tried to work on it a few nights each week. I can finally say it is completed with pictures and all. WOOHOO!

I  used this document I made to add information and went back as far as I could safely feel like it was legit. I did use Ancestry's website, but I found the website Find a Grave and in both cases the old family Bibles to be helpful as well. Jeff's mom gave me her side of the family written out in her handwriting years ago. She had asked me if I wanted it and I said, "Absolutely," but raising a family made me lay it aside for far too long. Many of Jeff's family were in one cemetery which did make things easier.

I can't tell you how good it feels to have this task done. I made us a binder and each child one. Now, they have both sides of family information down.

One interesting note on this... I noticed when I was doing my side of the family I only had one grandparent  (of course add great great to that) that was a Civil War veteran. I noticed dates of birth and realized my relatives were just not the age that would have put them in battle. However, just like my dad was in the Korean War and Jeff's dad was in WWII that made all the difference for his ancestors to have multiple Civil War veterans. Jeff's parents are older than mine. They had Jeff a little later in life. I was able to find some interesting information on the Civil War veterans in the family that with the information Jeff's mom had written down for me all those years ago. 

One interesting photo I came across in Jeff's parents' albums was ....

The 2 men standing are brothers of Jeff's great grandparent. His great grandfather was the youngest and these 2 were the oldest. The picture was made at a Confederate Reunion in Little Rock in May of 1911. I had seen the picture in the album but decided to look at the back where the information was plainly written down. He also had one relative who died during the war. Based on the information I wondered if he might have been at the hospital in Point Clear (The Grand Hotel) as that was a hospital during the war. He is buried at Bayou La Batre which would be near there.

I was very proud of myself or getting that done. The kids haven't seen the binders yet. I am waiting to hand those over at Christmas.

Shopping

I also have most of my shopping done and gifts wrapped. I can't take credit for all of that. Jeff has been a busy shopper. 

I hate shopping.

One particular evening we were out and I really felt quite old. I just hate the stores these days as most seem so junky and poor quality stuff. I was lamenting the days of organized department stores or small stores that you could swoop in and find just what you were looking for without shuffling through so much other stuff. Part of this is online shopping of which I am very guilty of utilziing. I was complaining like someone old too. Had to catch myself!

Thankfully Jeff has more patience for shopping than me.

College Football

I just have to go back there one more time this year. I know many of you don't keep up so scroll on down past this heading.  I am usually not one for drama of any kind, but I couldn't help myself with all the Ole Miss / LSU / Coach Kiffin drama. I was lured in and followed like I was hypnotized. Totally unlike me!!! Now, I will say in my defense that our family texts were lighting up with the latest news. Jeff's dad and brother were big Ole Miss fans. Jeff and his brother Danny used to go to the Auburn/ Ole Miss game for years whether it was in Auburn or in Mississippi. Paul Allen and Jeff keep up with Ole Miss so it just continued with all that drama coming out.

I eventually came to a conclusion  ---- and this made me giggle!!!

....Remember the old show "Dallas? and the episode of "Who Shot JR?" Oh my goodness, I was at Auburn  when that aired back in the early 80's. I watched with friends with eagerness to find out who had actually shot JR. Somewhere out there is photo of my friends and I that night having our watch party. 

One day I was keeping up with who said what and that came to mind! The drama with Coach Kiffin had become as big as "Who Shot JR?" The best thing so far is Archie Manning calling Kiffin narcissistic.

I am now on to basketball!

Life Update

Jeff's surgery went very well. Better than we could have hoped for. The tumor was not cancerous, in fact he said it was more like inflammation from the previous surgery. I am still happy for the 4 month scopes. This surgery was not invasive at all, so he was not down at all. He has finally been able to ride his bike again after the knee replacement. I had almost given up on that idea, so that is a huge win.

Lindsay's surgery was on Monday. She was worse than expected and had to lose an ovary and a Fallopian tube. She thought it would be a 3 day recovery. That ended up not being the case. She is finally feeling a little better. She will try and work some this next week, but Christmas vacation starts with this coming Friday so that will be good for her to use the remainder of December recovering. Jeff and I have been helping with transporting kids to and from school. I am very grateful we can help.

We did have some family pictures taken on the Friday after Thanksgiving. They were so so... sickness and the weather made them so so for me. Here are some of the cutest though...

Well, that is a wrap on a long post. 

I do hope to settle down after Christmas and do more posting.

Grateful,

Sandy

November 30, 2025

 I have been gone awhile...

Stitching Progress

I have #4-12 finished.  I have actually started 1-3, but haven't had much stitching time lately. I am now hoping to finish mid December.

Interesting Fact

Hurricane season "25 is officially over and left us with a very unique season. I will share what I mean in the two pictures of information.

No landfalling hurricane to the United States since 2015, but even crazier is...

We haven't had one here in the Gulf...especially along the northern Gulf Coast.

Crazy, but I will take it!

Life Lately

We have spent a good portion of our evenings in November at Fall Baseball aka "Fall Ball" and then Flag Football.

The last Thursday before Thanksgiving week was Palmer's last game and Tucker had a flag football game. Tyler had to go out of town so Jeff and I helped Lindsay out. We stopped and bought them food to eat at the ballpark because they would hardly have time to go home and change before the first game.

While Lindsay walked back and forth between the 2 fields, I took Palmer and Jeff took Tucker. Palmer was so excited to get his little medal and have pizza.

Tucker had a great play which as Jeff said, if there was an ESPN for flag football for kids, Tucker would have made the highlight reel. Lindsay, Palmer, and I arrived at his field just in time to see his side going crazy and congratulating him. He came from across the field to the other side and dove to get the flag from the opposing team and then slid on out of bounds. He saved the touchdown and they won the game. He was beyond excited.

What I did notice, but thought maybe he had eaten snacks was that he didn't eat. Tucker loves food and rarely ever turns anything down especially Chik Fila because he does not get it often.

At 9:30 that night Lindsay found out why when he threw up. That was the beginning of that wing of our family having perhaps the worst stomach bug in the history of stomach bugs. It went through them and the both ends lasted for a full 48 hours and then just incredible lethargy. I began to wonder if they would even have Thanksgiving.

It was a school holiday week, but trust me none of them had a holiday. 

We did manage to NOT get it, but we have other things of concern which I will save for last.

We had to cancel family photographs, but we all were together for Thanksgiving.

Jeff ordered a craft project for the kiddos to make. Tie dye t-shirts by spraying them with paint.

They poured macaroni on and then used the paint to spray the color to them.

Even little Valerie got one made by her Mama.

Thanksgiving is always a great day. It never fails that I start to wonder if I should have decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving like everyone else in the world seems to be doing or at least social media would have you think. I really don't care what others do, but I like keeping things like I had them growing up. 

I ignored the crowd and as always when the meal is served and I sit down to rest I am glad I waited. 

I have been decorating since Friday morning. I did buy my tree on Tuesday because the best tree stand arrived, but it just sat in water until Friday.

-----

All last week I wore an Auburn shirt...

I know it sounds crazy, but the last few years have not been for the faint of heart for us Auburn folks. If you grew up in Alabama as I did, you know it is just a wee bit different. I completely set myself up for heartbreak. I thought maybe just maybe since it was a home game and at Jordan Hare (remember Coach Saban says the stadium is haunted) that just maybe we could pull off a win. 

Like I said I set myself up for disappointment. I got up every day last week and donned an Auburn shirt. I have an entire wardrobe of Auburn attire. I even slept in an Auburn shirt each night. I was giving them all the juice from afar to pull out a miracle. HA!

I got up yesterday and put on my Iron Bowl traditional orange and navy stripes, tiger socks and Auburn Sorelli. I pulled out the stops.

I said I would take the loss if we just stayed in the game until the end. Oh! I should have never voiced those words. More yardage on offense but lots of mistakes left me undone and saying I am never watching college football again. 

I will. I do hate what has happened to it lately. I have no idea what I think about the coaching hire, but it is time to get on board anyway.

So, War Eagle!

And now on to the reason for no words from me for a while.

Lindsay's sickness of course caused her surgery to be postponed. That is twice that has happened. Nothing you can do but go with it. It is now scheduled for December 9th.

The even tougher stuff. Jeff has another bladder tumor. I just could not write ---

Surgery is in the morning in Pensacola. 

The tumor is in the same location as the last one. Even though the biopsy was clear, the doctor said a cell could have remained. It is small so the surgery should be much quicker and less invasive as the last one. Thankful for those cystoscopies every 3 months.

Cherish the good moments with your family. We did get the pictures taken Friday. Haven't seen them yet, but glad we were able to get them.

Mom slid down in the shower today. She is more and more feeble daily and while her mind is good enough to get the important things done, I will say it is slipping too. She will tell a story and it is a new story made with things from at lest 3 real events. She just combines them in to a new story. It all sounds good and logical, but wow is all I can say.

I can tell you all of that wears on me. Just haven't felt like communicating. Sometimes you just need to be quiet and let God hold you which HE DOES.

One day at a time. 

Don't know when I will be back. (sounds like song lyrics- I know you oldies are humming it now)

To Christmas and the birth of our Savior,

Sandy