ONE HAND WAVING

There are just times when you realize that our children or grandchild have grown up just a little more than we were expecting.

Around September, three years ago, Luke was 3 1/2 and Devon and I were in CVS to pick up a prescription.   As we were walking down the aisle, there was lots of Halloween items on display and one in particular, began to talk.

I am sure you have seen this often.  It is a bowl with the hand that moves and talks as you try to retrieve your treat.

Well, the hand moved and chattered and Luke was scared to death.

We both laughed and continued down the aisle and while we waited for our script to be filled, Devon sat down and put his arm in the hole that takes your blood pressure.

Luke wanted to do it too, but poppa told him, "This is where all them hands in the bowls come from, wanna try?"

Luke, bent down and poked his eyes into the hole and decided not to.  The Pharmacy Tech laughed and told Devon how awful he was as they just giggled.

Fast forward to three days ago.  Luke is now 6 1/2.  I had to pickup some scripts and he came with me.  I asked him to sit in the chair next to the Blood Pressure machine.  It seems that they now have a new one, but the armhole is still the same.

Luke stooped way down (he is getting much taller), and looked in the whole.  He proceed to put his left arm in and waited.  As his arm is not big enough, nothing happen, but he looked at me, smiled and ran over to the counter. "Nana, poppa lied.  He told me a bold face lie about where them hands come from!"

Who would believe that he would remember that story at all!  Well, the same Pharmacy Tech and I sure did have a great laugh over this one.  Luke went home to tell Devon that he had caught him in a lie!  Poppa just laughed.

He sure is growing up way to fast!

CHILDHOOD MEMORY

Tonight, I was making one of my favorite meals.  As a child, we had homemade spaghetti every Sunday.  Mom would make the dough before we went to church, and put on the sauce.  It would simmer on low till we got home.

I loved to cut the noodles up.  Even as a very small child, we would get to turn the handle.

On these Sunday's, we were also allowed to drink pop!!  Wow.  Thinking back we never felt slighted that mom and dad could have pop anytime.  We knew that we had ours with our pasta!!

We would also have leftovers on Wednesday.  Every Wednesday.  I don't think we ever tired of eating it!

Then my nana moved in with us.  No matter what what day it was, there was always sauce in the refrigerator.  My brother Bob really took advantage of that!  Mom was not happy, but to nana, the men got what they wanted.

Just smelling that sauce cooking and having Luke come running in to say he knew what we were having for dinner must have given me the same pleasure my mom and nana had.  Luke ate two full bowls and said his heart hurt cuz he "ate so much"!

There are just some smells that bring back memories.  This is definitely one of my favorites.  Fresh Bread, is another.  All make me smile on the inside and the outside.

TWO ANGELS

This is a story of two Angels. One was born on December 14, 1942 in Atkinson, Nebraska. Her folks named her Helen Louise. She was their first child. She was a beautiful blonde baby with blue eyes and she stayed that way all of her life. On her first Christmas,  her parents bought the second angel.. Pretty much state of the art for that time. It had a wand with a star in it’s hand and some plastic pieces that extended inside where there was a small light that made the wand glow and the plastic pieces that stuck out shine… It even had hair and was hand painted. Probably a bit expensive for those days considering the economy and trying to live on a soldiers salary, But it was for their “Angel”.

The little blonde angel grew and from the time she was able to speak she never wanted to be anything but a nurse. There are many family stories of her medical and patching up skills even as a child. The years flew by but each year her Christmas angel topped the family tree.. A sister was born, then a brother and finally me the baby brother…They tell me first word was “Hela” before Momma or Dada.. I followed her everywhere… She took me with her much of the time. She eventually joined the Army so she could get her nurses training.. She never had to go anywhere bad like her father did, even so she dealt with plenty of the aftermath of damage war does to people. 

   As I grew I don’t remember a Christmas that my sister’s angel wasn’t on our tree though she’d had a few rough times in her life too... Dropped a few times and glued.. Burned some from too hot of a light bulb being used. Some melted plastic and the colors are not the same anymore. 

For years the blonde angel with the bright blue eyes worked as a nurse at the Veterans Hospital.. As she began to get a few years on her, she began to have medical problems.. A bad back which many nurses get.. Diabetes, leg and knee trouble. Always cheerful and always there to love and help out anyone even if they didn’t ask. Finally, on January 10, 1999 very ill and in much pain, she left us to go home to Jesus.. Not old at all, only 57. It took me months before I finally let it out and cried... I cried till I was sick.

A year or two later when I came home for Christmas, I walked into my parents house and there atop their tree was a bright, gaudy, tinsel looking star with flashing lights and I was aghast.. “Where is she? Where is Helen’s angel?” My mother looked at me as though it was nothing and said “I threw her away.. She was just too far gone and ugly to use any more.” I was heartbroken.. “When did you throw her away?” I sadly asked.. “Why didn’t you at least save her as a keepsake?” “She was just worthless and falling to pieces” says mom.. “She’s in there in the box by the kitchen trash if you don’t believe me.. If you want to keep her, take her.” “No I don’t want to take her, I want to save her” I took her out of the box and with a bottle of glue hid in my bedroom for a while.. I managed to make her stay together! But, mom wasn’t having anything to do with me taking down her pretty star.. I wrapped her in tissue and put her in the ornament box.

Daddy passed away in 2004, then mom followed him in 2007. While back home with my brother and sister, trying to make some sense of what to do with all the things mom had in a rented storage, I saw the old wooden ornament box and I wondered if it could possibly still be there.. Surely the next year after I was gone Mother would have thrown it away. I opened the box and for some reason right on top.. Still in the very same tissue I’d used, was Helen’s angel. My sister and brother had no objection to my tearful request of that one item from the old box.

Now it’s nearing Christmas of 2011. In two days Helen would be 69.. Still not old.. I still miss her, her kindness, and gentle spirit. People may look at our tree a little funny every year but I don’t care. This is my family and we make the decisions. Sleep well my angel sister.. Your birth angel will top my tree till I pass her to one of my family that will never think she’s too old or ugly to be there every year.
                                                                                                                             By:  Brother, Devon Etherton

OUCH.....

This would not be the way I would want to start off the New Year, but Luke finally was getting back to a routine and school.  That did not last long at all.  It was his first day back and I got a phone call at work to say that "Luke was not acting like himself.  He is very quiet and not chatty at all."  When I asked the school nurse if there were any other symptoms, she told me Luke had a fever of 99.2.

Well, in my day, mom would have given me two aspirins and sent me on my way.  But, we are way to progressive for that today.  At 99.0, they no longer call that elevation in the schools, they call that "sick".

Mom picked him up from school and gave him something for the fever and sure enough, he was jumping and playing around like he was never sick.

That night, around three A.M., Luke comes into our bedroom and tells me that his "BRAIN HURTS".   Now, since Luke has not only, never really been sick, he also has not ever had a headache.   He actually did not have a word in his vocabulary to explain it.

Like most fevers, it went up to 102 at night, and with meds, came down after being treated.

We decided he should just stay home the next two days and recoup and have the weekend to get himself back to normal.

By Friday, he came into the bedroom while I was on the computer to tell me he felt better, but he had "OLD LIPS"  Okay now, what exactly does that mean??  Wrinkled maybe??  LOL

On further inspection, I can surely see that his lips were all cracked and blistered!!  Wonder where this way of describing things started.  All I know is that I will truly miss these experiences as he gets older.

P.S.  Note the declarations painted on the wall behind him...that was when he was younger and drew picture of his friend.  Papa and I decided they could stay up for awhile!  An artist in the making.

WHO IS SELFISH

We are born by nature to be selfish, demanding and all about 

ourselves. Some people never change. Some people work very 

hard at making others think they are not,  but therein they get 

a self serving satisfaction from others saying how nice or good 

they are. The good feeling without the humility is useless in 

the eyes of the carpenter.

Beware of any person that 

professes to be a "Good Christian" 

We are humans and sinners, Nothing is good enough to keep 

us continuously in grace but constant devotion. Even Jesus 

Christ himself never claimed to be good enough while in the 

flesh. He prayed and worked hard every day to be humble and

to teach and please his father.

As we get older we mellow we become kinder and more 

tolerant of things we never were before...It's not

because we've become better people from our good acts as 

much as we've learned from the pain we've caused and that 

which has been brought upon us. Usually from our own poor

judgment and decisions.

~Devon Etherton 12/21/2011 Peace and Blessing to Everyone.

 December 21, 2011 at 10:00pm · 

Welcome 2012

I grew up in a time when we were taught......no, drilled into...how 

to hide under our desk, or use covering of any kind, to try to save

ourselves, during a nuclear attack!  They had us all pretty well 

convinced we were going to get it ...... Just a matter of when.

Younger people don't know much about the words "Duck 

and cover" but it still stirs some deep emotions in my older 

friends...

Yes, Welcome 2012, because if the commies or the nukes

didn't get me, I am sure as heck not afraid of the Mayan's

or their calendar!

                                          

 Peace, Love and many Blessings to everyone.

~Devon Etherton 1/1/2012~

Merry Christmas Nana and Papa

There is nothing like Jesus's Birthday and having young grandchildren.  It seems that you want them to have everything, beginning with memories of the Baby Jesus.

This year, Luke is five and he is so into the Spirit of Christmas.  Did he make a few mistakes?  You bet he did! And they were lots of fun.

The season began with him being in the Christmas play at church.  We just have an awesome congregation that rallies around all the little ones.  Luke is a born ham, so you can only imagine how that went.

At school, they had a little Santa Shop.  It is here, that for one dollar, the children can make their own purchases.  The real problem is that they are only allowed three presents.   Luke bought a present for me (nana) and for Uncle Dyllie and one for himself.  He had it all figured out.  He would buy everyone else's at the Sock Party at church.  But, circumstance do not always turn out like we expect and the Santa Shop at Church was cancelled!

What to do, what to do!  Okay, he asked his mom for a date night.  He proceeded to ask me for the collateral to fund this date.  I asked him if he had a job.  He told me that his job was school, and he was going everyday and doing his job!

Then, he asked his mom to take him to one of his favorite stores.  JUST A BUCK!  Oh yea, you may have guessed it, everything is one dollar!  How wonderful is that for a five year old boy.

He bought a few more gifts.  One for Magoo (the future Aunt Dyllie) and Papa and another one for me(the nana)!

This just brought back so many memories.  My first gift is a change purse.  It is actually kinda cute and practical and I was very impressed.  I remember things I used to give my mom and dad.  I made ashtrays out of clay and bought my dad ties he never wore.  The man worked as a welder for General Motors and did not need to wear one.  I remember jewelry that was pretty gaudy!

Well, the second gift that Luke gave me did not disappoint me!  Yep, gaudy jewelery.!  It has iconic pictures of Jesus around the entire bracelet.  Of course, I have had to wear it on numerous occasions when he is with me.  If I don't have it on, he asks about it.

What I did discover, is that the bracelet flips over and on the other side is a very nice black onyx bracelet.  So, I wear it often and do the flipping thing from time to time.

Uncle Dylan got a car.  You know the kind you put in your pocket.  He let him have it for a few days, than made sure he asked to borrow it!  What a con artist.

Now, it was Papa Devon's turn.  He waited for Papa to get home from work and had him open it up.  After what papa had already heard, he was a little apprehensive!  What he found was a little, pocket size FIRST AID KIT.  Yep, Luke was good at predicting who should get what gift.

He also got Uncle Jason a trophy that says he is #1.

The best thing about this Christmas was that he remembers whose birthday we are actually celebrating.  We keep reminding him that Jesus loves those who give of themselves!  I am sure each one of use remembers these kind of gifts, the ones that were actually given with enthusiasm and love.

May God bless your Spirit of Christmas and may it last for a lifetime.