This Hurts Me Worse Than It Hurts You

There is nothing, I tell you, nothing, that will humble you more quickly than having a photo made of yourself that's supposed to look good enough to go on the back of a book.

Lord have  mercy.

Husband took about elevendy billion shots, and the  more he took, the grumpier I got.

I'm old, okay? I don't like this. Plus it makes  me  hurt worse.

Husband kept saying, "Your face is showing your pain. You are going to have to be an actress and pretend everything is great."

I won't repeat what I said.

Anyway, out of all those photos, we narrowed it down to 3. And the three got narrowed down to one. 

But my hair looks almost orange because we had to darken the photo because I'm the whitest white that ever whited.

But my publisher, Mr. Magic, fixed that.

So it's as good as it gets, folks.

And that ain't so good.

Happy Birthday

Mother turned 88 years old Sunday.

We had a big spread, the cost being spread out amongst us. We aren't a big family, but when you put us all in one house, it feels pretty big. Sixteen this time, as we had two Texas cousins join in the fray.

We put the eclipse photo on the birthday cake (see previous blog), which she had not seen. She asked, "Is that me!?" We said yes. She said, "Lord, I look like I weigh 400 pound." 

Now, my mother used to be pretty chubby. She used to be about five feet five inches tall and weighed in the 160's. She has shrunk to five feet and weighs about 109, maybe. 

She blew out her candles (two large 8's).

We ate. She kept telling her great-grandson to stop dawdling and eat so she could open  her presents. This made him giggle. He's six.

Her great-granddaughter, age 2, had a love/hate relationship with Brother of Many Surgeries dog,  Elmer. (I apologize for the name.)

He's three times her size, so she was afraid of him. Yet when he disappeared, she'd look around and ask, "Where's dog?" She'd find him, and he'd get up to follow her and she'd run screaming bloody murder. I swan, I saw that dog roll his eyes. But they were fast friends by the end of the day.

She got lots of nice gifts. We ate good food. We all talked a mile a minute. We took photos.

But my favorite is of Mother, Daughter and  myself: 

I don't remember what was so funny, but we seemed to be enjoying ourselves.

And here is a group with only Niece missing, 'cause she's taking the photo and Husband as he went home puny:

A good time was had by all.

Even Elmer.

Texas Week

My cousins who visited for a week, weren't born or completely raised in Texas. Their daddy got transferred when they were up pretty big kids, but that's where they attended high school and finished being raised and settled.

They don't wear cowboy hats or boots (at least not in the summer), but they are proud of their state.

We had a good week, reminiscing, eating, laughing and going over photographs that they brought with them of our grandmother's side of the family. For many of the pictures, none of us could identify anyone in them.

That  made me sad. Did folks think that in over  a hundred years their ancestors would know them? Surely not. It would have been nice if they, or the generation that came after them, had labeled them.

Texas Cousin's mother had labeled some of them before her death, and had made a list (which I forgot to scan) of births and deaths of folks.

I scanned some of  the photos in my computer, and will finish that task soon. I suppose  the ones I don't know I'll just file under the family name.

If you are a picture taker, please identify your subject. Even if it's a pretty  tree. "Taken in great-aunt Joan Doe's back yard." It will mean something to folks on down the road of time.

It really will.

Redecorating

Take a look at some of the new stuff on my blog site. To your right, you will see the title of all my books, and how to contact me to purchase them. Notice they are all under twenty dollars!  Wow! What a steal!

Ahem.

If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page you will discover some pictures.  These are all (except for posters and book covers) snapshots of book signings over the years. It's not all I have, but I didn't want to bore you.

I haven't changed a bit,  have I?

Well, not much.

I will soon be adding audio so you can hear a tidbit of each book, perhaps helping you decide if you would like to purchase that particular book. It might make  you say, "Oh, yeah, I want that book." Or it might make you say, "What is wrong with that woman?" Since I will be the reader.

Either way, it should give you a few minutes of entertainment.

Hope you enjoy the changes. I'll keep you updated as they  happen.

See ya!