Memories

The kids and I had a nice weekend. Saturday we drove 70 miles to Mobile and went shopping and had lunch at Red Lobster. Amber said we should take pictures and post them of the good food they have there, but I left my camera in the car and so didn't get to take any. Tara thought our waiter was really "hot". He was a nice looking young man. He had only been working there for two weeks so he was still learning everything.
We went to the book store and left Keith there while Amber, Tara, and I went to the fabric store. Tara doesn't like fabric but she didn't want to stay in the book store so she sat in the car and worked on some puzzle books she had gotten at the book store. Amber and I got lots of fabric! I can't believe I forgot to take pictures of it! I will have to post pictures of it later.

Yesterday we went to church and I sang my very first solo! Now I have sang small solo parts in the choir, you know like just a verse. But yesterday I stood up behind the pulpit all by myself and sang the whole song. A song of my choosing. I was so nervous and my legs were so wobbly that I thought I would fall going back down the couple steps from the pulpit! Everyone gave me lots of compliments, even my children. So I must have done pretty good.

Last night I was looking up in my closet for some things and I looked into this one small tote. I found some of my grade school papers I had forgotten were in there.
This little butterfly I made in first grade. It is made of dyed egg shells. I can still remember having mama save egg shells at home for me to take to school.
I just loved my first grade teacher, Mrs. Dunn. Her husband was the manager of the grocery store that we shopped at. They were the nicest people. When I was in my twenties I attended church with their son and his wife and daughters. Mr. Dunn eventually got Alzheimer's and I can remember Mrs. Dunn taking care of him. She was such a sweet loving woman. They have both passed away now and that is a great loss to this town.

I also found this angel in the tote. I didn't make her at school. I can remember she was in a coloring book and I traced her on white paper. I glued another piece of white paper to the back of the traced piece and put lots of glitter on it! It came out pretty light when I photographed it. Her hair is actually gold. I remember making several of these. I just thought they were so pretty. Actually she is not an angel, but I thought she looked like one. I made them at Christmas one year when I was very young.
Here is the back of the little angel girl.
When I was 16 my best friend, Debra, and I went to Mobile all by our selves. Mobile is 70 miles away and since our town is so small everybody went there to shop. Debra is now my Sunday School teacher. I have talked about her and posted pictures of her in my blog before. We each got one of these little elephants to keep forever and remind ourselves of our fun trip! I asked Debra not long ago if she still had hers and she said yes. We have had these elephants for 33 years now! I had put him in my tote, also.
Here is a side view of my little elephant.
I have to tell you what happened to Debra and me. We rode all around Mobile, went by her grandmothers and everything. We were almost home, had just reached the city limits of our town when we had a flat tire! Luckily this nice man stopped and changed it. We were so grateful that the tire went flat in our own town and not in Mobile or on the highway coming from Mobile. Now there are lots of service stations along that highway, but back then there were very few and they were far between each other. There was hardly anything along that highway back then. There are lots of businesses and such now. I will always cherish my memories of that trip. Yesterday morning when I got behind the pulpit to sing and looked up, there was Debra sitting there smiling at me. It really helped me. Debra is such a sweet person. I always know if I look at her she is going to be smiling at me. I am so glad we have remained friends all these years. There were a lot of years that we did not see or talk to each other as she had moved away to go to college and she married and we lost contact. But now she is back home and we are in the same church we attended together as teenagers and it is a good feeling to be back together again.