Love & Marriage

Today is Kenny and my 45th wedding anniversary!!! Truly, that does not seem possible. Talk about time flying, whether you're having fun or not! On May 14th, 1966 did we have any idea what we were committing ourselves to? NOT A CLUE! Here we are in our wedding picture, in for a life sentence!!!! Do those people look ready to live together, make joint decisions, make and raise a family, and a million other things that make a marriage??? Not on your life!!!

BUT, we did it, and we've done pretty darn good for ourselves!!! We had good examples, my Mom and Dad were married for 48 years before my Mom's death and Kenny's Mom and Dad were married 6 weeks short of 50 years before his Dad's death. We used both sets of parents for examples and tweaked everything to suit us. Was is always fun and games? Nope! Did both of us at one time or another declare "I'm leaving, this is not working!" Yes! Did we work out whatever the problem was and keep on keepin' on?? Yes!! And by doing so, we became a stronger unit. A couple that still has the ability to drive each other crazy and then laugh at the craziness!!!

This has been a hard year. Kenny's heart surgery has been much more that we thought would be involved in the recovery. But he's slowly coming back to be more himself. We're in it together and as we get older it gets kinda scary thinking that something could happen to either one of us and the other person is our main link to wellness. I think we'll be okay!

I just thought of a funny story of when we first got married. I was a person that was afraid of every noise I heard in our house. I had just left my family where my Dad would go out and look for all the boogey men that I knew were in the house somewhere just waiting to kill me. Let me give you a visual ~ my Dad, middle of the night, walking down the hall in his underwear with a loaded pistol in his hand, ready to save us from lurking evil that I was sure was in the house. Now, all of a sudden I'm in a house, sleeping next to this kid, who when I wake him up and tell him I hear a noise, is just as scared as I am. I'm thinking, what in the heck have I gotten myself into!!! Eventually he would learn to get up, go down the hall and look but he didn't have a gun with him!!

This is a picture of my Grandma & Grandpa Hogg. My Mom's Mom and Dad. It's a picture of their 50th anniversary. Don't they look old?? I'm hoping in 5 years Kenny and I don't look that old. I Love this picture, just wanted to make the comparison.

My friend Linda Robertson Groobin who was my maid of honor, has always been so good about remembering our anniversary and sending a card. This year is no different and her card is what inspired me to put in the picture of Kenny and I in a photo booth. So here's the card she sent us - Thanks Linda! I LOVE IT!!!

So, next week we'll take a little trip to Reno, hopefully win a little money, go out to a nice dinner and go see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and get started on 46 years!!

My thought to leave you with this time: Who knows what can happen when you go out on a date with a boy your best friend went out with first?? Life is full of surprises!!

Until next time . . .

Oh My - Mother's Day

Mother's Day is not one of my favorite "days". I wouldn't really call it a holiday so for me, it's a day. I guess you could say I carry a grudge, I don't have a Mother to celebrate in life with, so on a daily basis I celebrate her in my mind.This is a picture of her in her "wild & crazy" days!! Mom grew up in Millbrae, just 16 miles south of San Francisco. During World War II she worked in a dime store (now that's an oldie but a goodie word) and loved to go to San Francisco to dance the night away. She got married when she was 21, had me when she was 22 and became the center of our family's life. Dad was always working to give us a better life and Mom was home - I mean that in the sense that wherever Mom was - was home. I could go on and on but I won't. Her family loved her so much and I sometimes wonder if she knew how important she was to all of us. I MISS HER!!!

Now it's crazy to say it's not one of my favorite days. I have 4 beautiful, wonderful children of my own. And I do know they love me. But I don't think they could ever love me as much as I love my Mom. I know, that's where crazy comes in!!!

This is a picture of me and the kids back in the early 80's. I realize after looking through a lot of pictures, I have very few pictures of me and the kids. That's probably because 1) I don't like to have my picture taken and 2) I'm usually taking the pictures.

I had a quiet Mother's Day. Got a call from Erik, Mike lives here and wished me a Happy Mother's Day early in the morning, Jeff came up for a visit and I got a nice big hug from him and Tina called from Mississippi. I had received a package from her a few days before and waited until today to unwrap my gift. It was so special. She sent me quite a few cd's that I can't wait to start listening to and she also sent me a book. At first I thought she had sent me a journal. I thought I recognized it as one that she had bought here in Santa Rosa. When I started flipping through the pages my heart skipped a beat!! She had cut out pictures of my life - Mom and Dad, our whole family, Kenny and the kids, Kenny and I when we were young, me when I was young, my kids, my grandkids!!!! I immediately started crying, the kind of cry when your throat closes up and you are literally "choked up." Her fiance, Max, is an artist, and he had done illustrations and wording throughout the book. Oh my God, so special to me!!! I told Tina later on the phone that it was the best gift I've ever gotten, except for my 4 kids (and my 7 grandkids)!!!

So, although quiet, it was a special day. I thought about my Mom alot. Thought about the 4 great kids that got me into this Mother's Day club and thanked God for blessing me in so many ways!!!

My thought to leave you with this time is: As you get older, memories become so much more important to you and then wouldn't you know, your memory goes!!! Use it or lose it!!!

Until next time . . .

Oh What A Glorious Day!!!

The title of my blog this time was actually how I felt yesterday. I woke up (always encouraging) and the sun was out, we had slept the night before with our window open and the blinds were pulled up and sunlight and blue sky were giving us a wonderful way to start the day!



Then the paper shouted that Osama binLaden had finally been found and killed!!! I had seen the news the night before on the computer and listened to President Obama's speech. When I listened to his speech it made me remember why I wanted him for President. I am not a political person. In fact I had never voted before the 2008 election. But President Obama has a wonderful way of speaking and it reminded me of when I was young and would watch John F. Kennedy in his news conferences. Just let me add, I know that people are not thrilled with him and feel he is letting America down some how. Let me just say that is how alot of people felt with the administrations before him. We all have to live with who our President is and hope that whoever it is is always trying to do the best by the American people.



Anyway, that's beside the point. We all will never forget the images and stories and we all saw heard when the terrorists attacked us on 9/11 and I just think most Americans felt vindicated in some small way.



That's kinda weird I had all that to say. It's just that I was out yesterday and everywhere I went people were smiling and friendly and I must say HAPPY!! At first I thought it was just the sunshine because we've been dealing with a lot of gloomy days here but then I heard some people talking about the binLaden situation and I realized it had a more significant effect than I had thought about.


I have been so busy working in our yard. In my mind I was calling it my "geranium summer" in honor of my Mom. My Mom loved to go to nurseries and if she saw a geranium she liked, she just broke a piece off of one, went home and stuck it in some water and eventually planted it and had some really pretty geraniums. So, my geraniums never grow, always die back and get so ugly over the winter but this year I decided I would save them and plant them somewhere else and they would be reborn!!! And BEAUTIFUL!!! Well, they are starting to grow although I haven't seen any evidence of any flowers but I'm sure they are all going to be great!


I have been so creative in my yard this year. I've made new planting areas, repainted some of my stuff on my fence that was all faded, been working on a drip system and tried to do a little something everyday. Well, you would be amazed at how good everything looks and it's only a few days into May. I have told you before that the peak of my yard is Memorial Day and after that it goes downhill drastically. So, I only have this month to enjoy the beauty. I have not taken pictures yet but you can be sure I will. Then I will post them here. Maybe I'll even do that tomorrow and add them to this post. Bottom line is that I am enjoying myself. And I LOVE to go outside and sit at our patio table and enjoy the yard, the birds the clean yard!


I have a new picture of our little Rhone. He's 6 months old already!! He is the happiest little baby. Obviously sitting up now. He's not too sure about Grammy yet but I will be working on that little situation.

I haven't lost one yet. He just has to get big enough that I can ply him with sweets!!!

The boys in our family are totally into their Little League teams. We spend at least 1 night a week out at the ballpark and Kenny has been out to see everyone play on Saturdays. Zachy was involved in a triple play the last game he played. Joe is pitching and doing very well although his team has only won 2 games. Matt is playing out in left field and he's made some great plays from out there. They seem to all like it. Mike is really busy. He's managing Zachy's team - the Mets - he's coaching on Joe's team - the White Sox - and he gets to be a Dad at Matt's games - the Diamondbacks. Although he hasn't gotten to see many of Matt's games because Mike's teams have been playing the same time as Matt's team quite a few times. It's a busy time!

Well, I think that's about it for this post. Time for me to go check in on "The Biggest Loser." My television season is just about coming to an end. And Oprah is finishing up her 25 years on her talk show. I will miss her show. I always record them, don't always watch all of them. But I think she has made the world a better place and shown differing views and opinions on all sorts of subjects and really has made a big impact on our world concerning acceptance, caring and letting people know that whatever our situations, there are people "out there" who are experiencing the same thing as some of us. I don't think I said that as well as I could have, like I said, I will miss her show.

Coming up on our 45th wedding anniversay in 2 weeks. I cannot believe 45 years has come and gone. Time plays with your mind and then, you look in the mirror and realize - wow, 45 years has had to have gone by - when did I fall apart!!!!

My message to leave you with this time is: Find something to be happy about, it makes you feel good, inside & out!!!

Until next time . . .