"Christiansen's Comments" from Hinds County Gazette "Scout and Gabby" came to Grandma's

Oh! My Word! It was a rough weekend here at 201….

I baby sat daughter Angela’s dogs. We each have two dogs, so that is four dogs in the house and yard, which would not have been terrible, but she has a 6 month old puppy and I have a 6 month old puppy…The puppies never stopped…they never stopped barking, they never stopped chewing, they never stopped running, they never stopped digging. I am exhausted my older dog Shelby is exhausted.



Angela's Scout and Gabby

 

My Emma

approximately 6 monthes

My beautiful quiet Shelby






The back yard looks like a war zone…. holes every where…they dumped the garbage can over… ripped in to the garbage and strew trash all around. Angela’s puppy Scout turns over flower pots, then totes the pots around scattering them to all corners….she brought one clay pot up the ramp, when I yelled she dropped it and it shattered in to a hundred pieces….what a mess.



Scout pulled the rugs off my back porch…into the yard, so she and my puppy Emma could play tug a war. I don’t know if the rugs are salvageable…probably not.



Angela’s dogs are gone now, so when the sun comes up good and it gets a bit warmer I shall go clean up the back yard…



But what Angela’s puppy Scout did here isn’t the worst performance of her short life…at her house Scout has a doggie door, one day while Angela was at work; she pulled the water hose in the house through the doggie door!!! All 50 feet! Maybe it was just 25 feet….. Still and all quite an accomplishment.



When Angela’s other dog, Gabby, was a puppy I went out and planted bushes along the back fence…Well, Gabby one by one, over time, managed to pull them all up… every one!…about the time you thought she was finished destroying bushes, she would dig up another …a few she pulled through the doggie door…one not only did she manage to pull through the doggie door, she maneuvered it through the house and up on the bed while Angela slept.



We have had lots of rain so the yard was still quite muddy….so all in the kitchen and up and down the hall muddy paw prints abound. I have called for help…Ms Addie will tend to the mud and paw prints…while I will work on the yard.



But first I got to go out to Cannada Farms, Scott just called, he has deer meat for me…I am going to try to make deer tamales…I will let you know how they turn out.



Love to all

Call if you need me

Christiansen's Coments...Hinds county Gazette

Yippee

Blog spot would not let me place pictures like I wanted today...Taylor is at the bottom of the page...

Keith McKey and Whit

Angela and Whit thier first meeting

Yippee!!!!!

I just became aware, this very morning, that there is still one thing on this old body that still works.

Yesterday, Sunday, was the day we changed our clocks, left daylight savings time behind and went back to the real, genuine, authentic time. Back when I was growing up the time never changed. When did daylight savings became official …early 70s? Well, not sure… but when ever it was, since then, I have been discombobulated for two or three weeks in the Fall when we “fall back” and two or three weeks in the Spring when we “spring forward”.

My knees hurt, my hands ache, my brain and body has slowed down, way down. But when I woke up this morning and the clock said 5:30 and not 4:30...4:30 has been my usual time since Spring…It tumbled to me, a “Bear of little brain”. I do not wake up abnormally early…It is my body clock, it just does not change, I wake up the same time summer and winter. So the rest of my old carcass is wearing out, but my body clock is still working!!!! Never stopped!!!!! For some reason I find that comforting.

I still do not like the shorter days…but there are no more hours of sun light in the days of winter…. no matter what time we by.

Next week ,I will be bringing my Christmas tree down from the attic and begin the setting up process, then commence hanging ornaments….This might be a bit early even for me. But, I am not even one of the “busy” people and my calendar is filling right on up. And Of Course I do not want to miss anything….So the tree will get ornamented in fits and starts again this year

.

I am more energized about setting up the tree up this year…because of Whit…but I am not so sure he will be very excited…. at 1 ½ years old …everything is new to him…so even quite atypical occurrences are just part of his normal day. He watches with curiosity, and great interest, but not with amazement…..it has been my observance it is when children get a little older, is when they begin realize, a speeding fire truck with sirens screaming, is not an everyday happening…then they get excited and amazed. Right now for Whit, a train whistling down the track is no more or less exciting then finding a new rock. Whit is rather fond of rocks, he has quite a collection.

Last week, East Group Properties in down town Jackson , had a Trick or Treat Party. Keith, Peggy Ann’s husband, and my daughter Angela work there…it was for the children and grand children of the employees. Peggy Ann and I, not ones to miss a party if we can help it, went and borrowed us each a grand child, Whit and his big brother, 5 year old, Taylor…and headed to Jackson. I told you all of that to tell you this… Taylor was far more excited then Whit…to Whit it was just another day in his world…an interesting day to be sure…but no more fascinating then standing at the fence in his back yard watching the goats.

Taylor looking uo at the tall building in down town Jackson Mississippi

Got to go! I want to try a new tamale recipe Lindsay Noble Jr. gave me…interesting, instead of wrapping them in corn husks they are wrapped in coffee filters.



　

Whit enjoying his loot

Christiansen Comments, Hinds County Gazette November 2010

The Christmas tree is decorated!

 It was a team effort for sure, I worked on it…not long, but I did work on it, I had guests for Lunch last Sunday they worked on it. Jacqueline came by Saturday and finished it up….Thank you very much Jac.




My friend Suzanne, on the other hand….. Well….she has not darken my door, since I announce my Christmas tree was down from the attic, fully assembled and ready to be decked out. Bless Suz’s heart she got caught one year decorating my tree…and Let me tell you, she was a less then enthusiastic elf. But Suz did call most everyday last week…Asking, rather overly cheerful, “what’s going on?“ I suspect it was just an attempt to find out if the tree was decorated yet, and to see if it would be safe to accept an invitation to stop by on her way home from teaching.



JO Gayle and I may have been first getting our trees up….But The Suz Girl, is not fond of tree adorning.. at all! She was on the phone weeks ago… lining up a crew to come deal with her tree…. Her daughter, Marianna and her friend Ava are coming this weekend to tend to it.

                                                       Ava and Marianna

                                            Deer Hunters  Suzanne drafted.....

My tree is up and beautifully decorated, the fruitcakes are made, dowsed with rum and are ripening in their tins, there is a batch caramels cooked and wrapped. My holiday season has begun.



There are always a good many men in the grocery when I go in the mornings…Mostly old geezers pushing the buggy for the wife…As a rule they aren’t doing a lot of smiling. But Friday morning when I was in the Kroger… there were lots of men, of all ages shopping alone, And they were grinning….I was momentarily puzzled…..Then it tumbled….They have charcoal and beer in their buggies. …they are headed to deer camp.



I told you last week that I was making Yankee dressing to take to “old people club“….They ate it! Wait a minute… I don’t know for sure that they ate it… But they did at least they put it on their plates, because it was gone except two or three spoons full, There were a couple pans of cornbread dressing too…The cornbread dressing was all gone….that’s ok, my feelings aren’t hurt.



My next culinary endeavor is going be, seeing can I make hot tamales… from scratch….I have been looking at recipes on line and watching videos of the process on Youtube. I does not appear difficult….Time consuming but not difficult…..we will see.



Sunday evening we had a lovely community Thanksgiving service at the Edwards Methodist Church …after the service…. the ladies served soup lots of different soups. We do not often get together as a community, except for funerals…It was a very special time. My joyous Christmas season has begun





I hope you have/had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I will be going to Angela’s. We will be eating turkey sandwiches, potato chips and dill pickles. Her philosophy is this, “why make that big enormous meal?…When really the best part of Thanksgiving dinner is the leftover turkey sandwiches. “ Angela will roasting a 20 pound turkey, essentially just to make sandwiches. Angela is a “Cut to the chase” “bottom line” kind of girl. …it must be that accountant gene she has in her.

Love to all

Call if you need me

"Christiansen's Comments" Hinds County Gazette July 29 2010

How old do you have to be.... to be old?

I realized this week just how old my kids are….in a conversation with daughter Angela yesterday she made this statement, “ Mother, in ten years you will only be 75.” I recall a time when she thought thirty was, if not over the hill, was at the very tippy top of the hill. In fact I remember when I thought 30 was old. Isn’t it remarkable how the older we get …the age we consider old gets older?

Angela

( she wants this to be the picture that accompanys her obituary

no matter what age she passes....she maintains it's the only good picture ever taken of her)

One hot summer day….not unlike the ones we have been having of late. The TV weather man was issuing warnings about the elderly and the heat…they were advising them not to go outside in the heat of the day. Mother loved the front porch and wiled away many happy hours out there. As was her habit, after lunch she took her binoculars and went out….



As was my habit, after a bit of kitchen tidying, I followed mother out to the porch, and sat down in the swing …we hadn’t been out long, when she stood up, repeated what the weatherman had said about the heat and went back in the house….well, we had not been in the house long, when I heard her laugh, slap her knee and say, “I bet they were talking about old people.” and back out she went….mother was in her 90s….

Mother, Jacqueline and baby Haley

Jacqueline and I drove over to Burleigh, to see Ms Worrell last week, Saturday, July,17, was her 98th birthday. We found her cheerful, bright eyed….and still able to spin a good tale. She looked great! Ms Worrell’s hair is red …not old lady blue. You might think 98 is old…but I am here to report it is not as old as you might think. Brooke told us, she played dominions for 6 straight hours on her birthday. So there you are….. age is relative!

Ms Worrell...at 98

Love to all

Call if you need me