Of course I’m gonna be thankful for our veterans today. And of course I’m gonna have a story to go with it.
There was this crotchety old grumpy man that shopped at the store for as long as I can remember. Nothing special to set him apart, other than his strong Northern accent…which I will admit, made me dislike him even more.
As the years passed, instead of getting grouchier like most people do, he began to become warmer towards us, occasionally cracking a smile or tell us to have a nice day. Then he started bringing us cakes & sweets from the Food Lion across the street. A major transformation from such an irritable old man.
A few months after my wedding, I realized I hadn’t seen him in awhile. I asked a coworker that I knew would remember him, & he told me he had passed away back in the spring. I was astounded, & disappointed in myself that it had taken me so long to miss him. I went to the computer & pulled up his obituary. As I read it, I was overwhemed by what a fulfilling life he had lived. I hope that mine will be half as honorable:
…”he served in the U.S. Navy during WWII fighting U-boats from a blimp…he worked for International Harvester as a tool & die maker…he worked for the Catholic Diocese of Joliet…he was a Volunteer Fireman with a rank of Captain…he was an avid scout master…he was a lifelong member of the NRA…he enjoyed fishing, hunting, & tinkering in his shop where he proved a master of invention & creativity…he volunteered at the food ministry…he was preceded in death by his parents, wife, two brothers & seven sisters…survivors include a brother, seven grandchildren & eleven grandchildren…”
And thats one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. And I didn’t know him at all. Happy Veterans Day Mr. Walt. I’ve been wanting to write a tribute to him for quite some time, he’s been on my mind a lot. Today was a good one for that. And Happy Veterans Day to all my friends who served, I’m glad you made it home safe. Thank you for your service.
11-11-13 9:29pm
I waited on him WEEKLY for YEARS. I guess one of his kids wrote it, it was really enthralling. Also, in lieu of flowers, he wanted donations to be made to the Sevier County Food Ministries or the local humane society. I thought he hated pets.
I thought he hated everything.
I was so wrong.
Veterans Day: the 11th day of thankfulness. I am thankful to those currently enlisted, those who served, all their families, & those who wanted to serve & couldn’t. We are in your debt. I think of this often: several years ago (probably around 10) my mom, grandmother, & I were all sitting on the porch breaking beans. Mom was saying she had heard on the news there was a shortage of soldiers & they were talking about what would have to happen if more people didn’t start joining the military soon. Evidently the word draft had come up. So mom spouts off that I had better hurry up & have a kid or I could be drafted. Grandmother & I both stopped to stare at her like she had lobsters crawling out of her ears. “Jody, do you not know your daughter at ALL? I’m sure she would much rather go fight in war than raise a baby!” I sure would! The thought of a child STILL terrifies me. Not that war doesn’t, mind you. But thankful to those men & women who step out every day, forsaking everyone & everything familiar & loved to fight for our country. Our freedom. Our HOME. Thank you.
“Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your soul, The other died for your freedom.”
11-11-12 12:03
Today I’m thankful for a sense of humor. Mine AND everybody else’s. I laugh at the dumbest stuff. I love corny jokes. I enjoy looking at pictures of cat antics & videos of dogs. I crack up at the most inappropriate times. It makes the days go by faster. And I’m proud of my laugh lines-the same ones that my Clinique girl struggles to understand why I don’t care about smoothing. Laughter IS contagious. I will leave you with a few illustrations:
Me, behind the counter at work, to customer walking in: “Hello.”~with a WINNING smile, of course.
“Grass seed?”
“Curtains?”
“Grass seed?”
“Pineapples?”
At this point, they generally smile like I’m either a volunteer who escaped from the mental ward, catch onto my joke & laugh & say hello like a normal conversation, or frown & explain that they’re looking for grass seed (or the bathroom, usually). Its a lot of fun.
Yesterday, Lisa was over here visiting & she took one of those dreaded “selfies” of us. In our defense, Johnny was entertaining the munchkins outside.
Lisa: “You’ll hafta tag yourself, I can’t tag on my phone.”
Me: “What? Surely…”
Lisa: “No, look…how do I do it?”
I tap on the picture to make it big &…
Lisa: “…tag photo?…Ohhh…shut up!”
Me, laughing hysterically. In an effort to shut me up-
Lisa: “You weren’t thankful for anything yesterday.”
“Yes I was!!!”
“No, you weren’t. I looked again today.”
“Yes I was!”-frantically calling up my facebook on my phone. “Right here, that I can read!”
Lisa: “Oh, I just saw you shared a link. I didn’t read it.”
Me: “Thanks a lot, some best friend you are.”
Lisa: “But I liked it!”
Me: “No you didn’t!!!”
Lisa: “What????…well I meant to. Here, I’ll like it… There. So, what are you gonna be thankful for today?”
Me, bending over dying laughing: “I already was. My crockpot!”
Lisa: “No, I just checked it, it’s not on here.”
“Lisa. Look. Right there. Do you need facebook for dummies?”
“I think so. Ok, I’m liking it too.”
And we raffed& raffed…<3 my bestie. Her thankful day is coming the 28th.
Thankful for my crockpot today & every day. Especially thankful for it since our oven officially gave up the ghost last week. But the crockpot is awesome, regardless. Gives me time on my day off to do other stuff than worry about dinner. And on days when I work, it’s working for me 🙂 yep, I am definitely thankful for my crockpot. And I am thankful I’ve got food to put in it. Today is chili, if anyone is hungry.
At the risk of seeming shallow, I am thankful for manners today. Money can buy many things, & it can buy manners to a point. However, the truly well-bred & well-raised will stand out in a crowd. It makes a difference when you treat people with respect & make them feel at home in an unfamiliar setting. “Please” & “thank you” go a long way in retail, as well as the rest of the world. It helps to be sincere as well, but if not, fake it & you will still be taking the high road. It’s in the simplest things. It is holding a door for the person at the gas station. It is letting people cross in front of you when it’s raining & you’re cozy in your car. It is not interrupting someone when they’re speaking. It is so many things that here in the south we may take for granted & come as a culture shock when we visit…elsewhere…
I hope that people are still ingraining these policies in their children but I don’t think its as commonplace as it used to be, or needs to be. I see a lot of kids that have a shortage of respect for their parents, nevermind strangers. I can only hope that with age comes wisdom & they correct themselves.
Please be aware I’m not doing these in order of importance. I like to shake it up a little & write about what has convicted me on that particular day.
11-6-13 6:54 pm
Thankful for another day. Just now, scrolling through my newsfeed, I saw one of the “billboards” (as I like to call them) that said something to the effect of, “be thankful you are alive, someone, somewhere is fighting & drawing their last breath.” I also like the one that says “if we all took our problems & threw them in a pile to be doled out, we’d snatch our own back up.” So, I know that this day will be filled with drivers lost in space, customers lost in themselves, & probably a lunch that’s lost, period, but I know it’s quite a wondrous thing to just be alive, & I am grateful for it. Happy day, y’al
Alright. This one’s personal, y’all. Today I am thankful for my momma, my grandmother, and University of Tennessee football. If that sounds like a strange combination, you must have missed my status a couple of weeks ago.
This is my Grandmother’s grave today. She’s been gone just over five years. I am constantly reminded of her. She LOVED football. I mean, she loved it like a man does (no offense ladies, but you know what I mean). Every time I watch a ballgame I think of her hollerin’ & being on the edge of the couch when it was 3rd down for the opposing team: “Hold ’em boys, hold ’em…” Yes, that’s a football on her headstone. Underneath, it says “Go Vols!” I’m not even kidding. I’m thankful mom takes care of her grave because Lord knows I can’t. I’d be crying & snotting so hard the funeral directors would have to drive me home. I’m thankful these women taught me how to understand the game, & how to be a good sport. And today is a great example of “I’m for Tennessee & whoever’s playin’ Florida.” True story. Go Dawgs. And GO VOLS!!!!!
Oooh! Thirty Days of Thankfullness is here again 🙂 I know some of you don’t particularly care for it, but I much prefer opening my facebook to find my status feed full of blessings & pleasant thoughts. So here I go.
Thankful today that I live in East Tennessee. It is truly beautiful this time of year. (Actually, I find it beautiful most of the year) It was a brilliant day, with sunshine so bright it hurt my eyes & made me squint. The leaves are absolutely gorgeous, & the temperature is just right. We have fresh, drinkable, clean water all around us. We are close enough to the most-visited national park in the states to visit it as often as we want. Although the tourists are a pain, they do make Sevier County one of the more fortunate & funded counties around. I’m thankful that people in this area are not ashamed to ask for prayer for themselves, their family, or a complete stranger if they need it. I’m thankful for chickens crowing, frogs croaking, & locusts buzzing in the late afternoons. I’m thankful for porch swings to drink sweet tea on, a hometown small enough that I still run into people I know at the grocery store, & high school football games & plays that everyone still attend. I don’t even mind getting behind tractors occasionally, because farmers mean food. (And I love food.) I’m proud to be a hillbilly from Tennessee. I’m thankful this is home.
I am a nerd. I have always been a nerd. I will probably remain a nerd for the rest of my life. I like to read- a lot (if you haven’t caught on). I enjoy cooking, & even more than that, I love eating. I tell the lamest jokes & then laugh at them uncontrollably. I am not a trendsetter for the latest fashions, I prefer the classic tried & true pieces. I have worn glasses since I was in fifth grade even though I heard the mantra “boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses” way too frequently. Even those who loved me would go so far to say, “Why don’t you try contacts? You would be so pretty!”
Really.
I was only popular by association (to Meg) in my school years –as several of you could attest to. I didn’t really fit in with people my own age until I went to Walters State due to my addiction to horseback riding. I never really cared about going to concerts, or out clubbing, or having a new car. I am not ashamed of any of these things. And I’m aware its no small miracle that I’m married to such a cool, good looking man. I didn’t marry the first guy to ask me out. Don’t settle, y’all. I would say “ladies” but the guys don’t need to give up, either. Just be yourself. There’s someone out there. I don’t know what brought this on, but I felt led to share. Oh, & you’ll probably do better with meeting the love of your life doing what you love or in church than you will at some party you inwardly dread going to, anyway. Shug & I had our first date hiking in the mountains-me in a grubby t-shirt, no makeup, & sweating. It was awesome not having to dress up & be uncomfortable for hours on end. Just hang in there y’all. Marry someone who doesn’t mind you wearing your pajamas all day long on Sunday while laying on the couch with your My Little Pony & books. Or whatever. Just sayin’ 😉
I still don’t have anything nice to say. But I will tell y’all about my lunchtime adventure today, because y’all seem to enjoy them. Its going to sound like complaining, but stick with me, its worth it.
Went to Buddy’s BBQ because I was craving bar-b-que something fierce. Of course I have to drive like a demon to get there & back in my allotted lunch break time. I pull up at the drive thru.
Silence.
I back up & pull forward.
Nothing.
“Hello?”
*cricket, cricket*
There were cars in the parking lot, so they were open.
I’m expecting Ashton Kutcher to come out of the bushes, but time is of the essence, so I grumble & whip into a parking space & stomp in.
Grouchy lady takes my order, I inform her of the faulty service of the drive through speaker. She tells me it’s plugged in & shrugs. Whatever, give me my food before I have a stroke. I won’t go into how she didn’t want to supply me with both ketchup AND extra barbeque sauce, nor a lid that fit my coke, but I got back into Patsy & sped back to the other side of the river, frantically trying to eat my sandwich.
This is where things went tragically downhill.
My little sauce cup was working out great. I’d dribble a little onto my sandwich, take a bite. Dribble, bite. Dribble, bite. You get the idea. My fries are nestled between my legs in their cup, drink in the holder. I would only set the sauce cup on my leg when I was stopped at a light. Otherwise I would hold it & set the sandwich down. Now, this system was working great all the way back to the store. I had pulled in & was working my way around the building, giving myself a little congratulatory speech about not spilling anything when my phone rang. I reached for it and…bar-b-que sauce EVERYWHERE. ALL OVER my khaki pants-between my legs, no less. I was trying to hurry & grab it & the fries went flying to the floorboard. A few creative words later, I righted the cup & salvaged what I could of the fries. Somehow, the cup went sideways AGAIN & spilled the remainder onto the center seat & my pocketbook. Then I got to parade in work & try to clean that mess up. People stopped to stare.
Six hours later, I still smell faintly of barbeque. The dogs greeted me exuberantly.
You’re welcome.
I’ve got the January blues. In an effort to cheer up, instead of listing various woes & grievances, I have decided to compile a list of specific things that make me happy. I encourage y’all to do the same. Honestly, Facebook could use more happiness & less bitterness.
75 degree sunny spring days
Sitting in the front row at church with Johnny
Pinterest (big surprise there)
Having girls night with Lisa
The middle of an excellent book
Touring historic homes & plantations
Well mannered children
Hiking Porters Creek Trail in the month of April
Book of Romans NKJV
Songs where I know every single word (this is very limited. Truth be told, Ice, Ice, Baby is about it)
Movies that are SO funny I’m afraid to laugh in case I miss something
Cupcakes. Thats all. Never had a bad one.
Riding tall & well-trained horses in my old jumping saddle
White Star’s vanilla soft serve ice cream
Watching someone type very fast & accurately
Alliteration
Top Gun roller coaster
Sweet seedless tangerines
Sea otters
I feel better so I’m quitting. Have a good day.
