And as He was dreaming, an Angels song awakened our Little Boy Blue....Eugene Field

On Friday, November 2nd, 1979 at 5:25am in the very early morning, I became a mother. Before that, I had been a baby, a toddler, a little girl, an adolescent, a teenager (sorry Mom and Dad), a young woman, a sister, a daughter, a granddaughter, and a young wife. Lots of phases, lots of changes, and new responsibilities. All had contributed, each in their own way, to the most wonderful, exciting, thrilling, scary, heart bursting, and awe inspiring phase of all...motherhood. I had one younger sister and two younger brothers on which my child rearing teeth had been cut. From the age of eight, I learned to change diapers, give bottles, burp, bathe, dress, and watch over my younger siblings. I was the original "little mother hen" to our brood. I played with baby dolls alot when I was a child, too, and always dreamed of being a mother someday, but none of this quite prepared me for the intense feelings that I felt for my son when he was born. Brothers and sisters and baby dolls don't cause that stir to your heart when you look into their eyes, as your own child does. No words can express it, only new mothers can understand this. I think back to that time and realize it was a blessing to be young and "blissfully ignorant" of the magnitude of responsibility of parenthood that rested squarely on my shoulders. As a grandparent, I know what lies ahead for Mommy, Daddy, and Jack. It is hard for me to "sit back" and not put in my "two cents" worth, especially when it's not solicited. But, if my advice is asked, I will gladly give it. I never professed to being a perfect mother, there is no such person, but I have learned a little something along the way. My mother has always told me that I hovered too much over my own children and she tells me that I'm still that way with Jack, and she is probably right. (Please don't tell her I admitted that). One of my mothers' favorite stories about over-protective parenting comes from her own father and his younger brother, her uncle. My Grandpa Greenlee was a soft-spoken, no-nonsense kind of guy, who only spoke when absolutely necessary. One day my grandpa, his brother, my mother, her sister, Judy, and younger cousin were all sitting on the front porch, the girls were running around on this porch that had no railing. My mothers uncle kept getting up and down and stopping his daughter from falling off the edge of the porch. After awhile, he looked at my Grandfather sitting there calmly and asked him, "Aren't you afraid your girls will fall off the porch"? My grandfather, smiled, and said, "They will only fall off once". I have to laugh every time I hear that story, and it so true and hard to do...let your kids have a few falls. They have to fall off of the porch occasionally to learn a lesson. Every parent would love to wrap their child in "bubble wrap" to keep them from getting the bumps, bruises, hurt feelings, and hard knocks that comes with growing up. That is just not possible. In those first few days home with my new son, Frank, I recall one day in early November sitting in the chair in my living room rocking the day away with my baby in my arms, as he slept. Then, a voice from inside said to me, "You are his mother now, you can't sit here holding him all day, he needs to be in his bed, it's what's best for him". I have listened to that "little voice" many times throughout the years, as I had to make the hard choices. That's what being a good parent is all about. That afternoon, I got right up and put him in his bed to take his nap. The official separation of mother and child had begun. You soon realize that your children come through you, are a part of you, but they are their "own person" right from the first moment of birth. They are there for you to love, teach, nurture, discipline, and send on their merry way, someday. This is a job that you will work yourself right out of. One of my favorite lines from a wonderful movie, titled "Parenthood" comes from a grandmother as she shares her analogy of being a parent. She says to Steve Martin, who just found out his wife, Mary Steenburgen is pregnant with their fourth child and is feeling ambivalent about it, " When I was a young wife, your Grandpa and I went to the Fair, some decided to ride the merry-go-round, it just went up and down and around and around, it was pleasant and safe. Your grandpa and I decided to ride the roller coaster instead, it was so scary, so exciting, so thrilling, so fast, with steep hills and drops, we went around sharp curves, and my heart was in my throat. Yes, we decided to ride the roller coaster". That grandmother summed up parenthood perfectly, I think. It is just like a roller coaster ride! I'd like to wish my son, Frank McCullough a Happy 30th Birthday, my first baby, now a grown-up, one of the two best "gifts" I ever received. He and his wife Casey, will be receiving their own "special gift", their first baby, in early June of 2010. Frank has always loved to ride the roller coaster, Casey will learn to love it too! So, climb in the seat, buckle up tight, keep your eyes wide open, (you don't want to miss a thing), be excited, thrilled and a little scared while the roller coaster ride begins!

Darkness falls accross the land, the Midnight hour is close at hand....Vincent Price from "Thriller"

Whooo! Eeeee! Whooo! Eeeee! It's that creepy, crawly, bumps in the night time of year, Halloween! Bowls of candy corn and peanut butter chews, jack-o-lanterns glowing faces on front porches, spiderwebs, bats, black cats, witches, goblins, skeletons, monsters and such, all mean one of my favorite "holidays". Halloween is one of the biggest "retail" holidays of the year, after Christmas. When driving around, more people decorate for Halloween every year. I love those big blow-up "characters" in yards, they spell "Halloween". When I was a child, I simply couldn't wait for Halloween. We would usually dress up in whatever we could find in my grandparents old trunk, add some creepy make-up and you were set. Back in the "olden days", as my kids called it, the only stores that Halloween costumes could be purchased at were K-Mart or Loys Dime store, uptown Gibson City. Now these costumes consisted of a plastic outfit with a tie at the back of the neck and included a plastic mask with cut-out holes for your nose, eyes, and mouth. The eye holes never quite lined up with your own, and after breathing through the mask for a few minutes, condensation from your breath would cover the inside of the mask, very comfortable indeed! And, don't forget the rubber, stretchy cord in the back that held the mask on your head, that usually broke after you had it on the first five minutes. Yeah, those costumes were wonderful! NOT! We found out after having these a few times, it was much more fun and comfortable to find "old clothes" at Grandma's and Grandpas! Alot cheaper too! We also didn't have those wonderful plastic pumpkin candy holders with a handle. No sir, we had old grocery bags, that worked just fine and they held lots more candy! No fancy flashlights either! What's a Halloween without at least one free-fall off a curb or down some steps when you couldn't see?
If you didn't come home with at least one skinned knee or hand it wasn't Halloween! We would load up in the car and head for Anchor, where our Grandparents lived to descend upon the little village to collect our hoard of candy. Mom would stay at Grandma's to visit while we took off in search of candy. In those days, we knew every house and who inhabited said home, along with where every child lived, and there were lots of kids, back then. We were very methodical and would end up hitting every house in that town, and all by 10:00. Yes, we stayed out trick-or-treating till 10:00. There was nothing to worry about, no one had to check our candy and we even got home-made popcorn balls! My grandmas' next-door neighbor always had home-made popcorn balls, so that was always the first place we went, cause when they were gone, they were gone! Those were the days! When we were finished, we had soo much candy, we could stuff our faces for weeks! We always hid our stash when we got home in a secret place, from brothers and sisters, and especially our parents! Even back then, yes, parents would get in their kids bags and take out their favorite candy! Where do you think I learned this? So, when my own kids came home, I always took their candy into the kitchen, to check it out to make sure it was safe, while secretly stashing away my favorites. Now don't tell me that you didn't do that, because parents have been doing this since the beginning of time, and don't deny it! I kind of feel sorry for kids today, because they don't have the freedom that we had as kids and my parents didn't have the worry that I had, and as parents have today. Some really bad adults caused this many years ago and it still makes me mad every time I think of it. Now parents have to follow set trick or treat hours, lights have to be on front porches to signal that it is alright to "trick or treat" there. Parents have to check through candy to make sure it is safe. Some people think it is not right for a child to dress up in any costume that is scary or evil. Just why do adults have to try to impose their beliefs on kids at Halloween? Halloween to me as a child meant one thing and one thing only, it was a night for kids to dress-up in the costume of their "choice" and go out and let people try to guess who you were and give you candy. That's it, that's what it meant, and if you ask most kids, they'll tell you that's what it means to them. A night to dress-up, be something or somebody they usually aren't, have fun, run around and get lots of candy. I never quite understood people calling it "begging". We never begged, we laughed and said, as loud as we could, "trick or treat". We never tricked anybody, cause everybody gave us candy and we wouldn't have thought to do anything, except go to the next house, if they had ran out of candy or said they didn't have any. End of story. One thing that used to go on that seems to have stopped or at least diminished somewhat, is the smashing of pumpkins. The year our daughter was born, we had a medium sized jack-o-lantern for our son and a little bitty jack-o-lantern for her. That Halloween evening, some pranksters came by and snatched the little jack-o-lantern and smashed it in front of our house. Our son was so upset over this and I don't think he ever forgot it and never would go out smashing pumpkins. Every Halloween when he went out with his friends, I would always remind him of how upset he was the year the little pumpkin was smashed and he always said, "I remember mom, I'd never do that to some little kid". Some lessons are learned and remembered. One year we had a "special" Halloween party at our home, the kids were 8 and 4 and they were allowed to each have 4 friends over for apple bobbing, pin the heart on the ghost, pizza, and candy, dressing up, spooky music, and scary stories. It was a very fun Halloween indeed! The kids still talk about their "Halloween party". So parents, remember Halloween as it should be, a night for your kids to dress-up, use their imaginations, have fun, run around, get candy, jump, yell, and just be kids. Halloween is truly a night for your kids to just be kids. And being a kid doesn't last as long as it should! Eat a popcorn ball or a candy apple, play some scary music, decorate your house, carve a jack-0-lantern with your kids, have a party, put on a scary movie (not too scary, you don't want them up all night), let them have some friends spend the night, go all out! Have a great Halloween everybody! Whooo! Eeeeee! Whoooo! Eeeeeee!

A mother's love is warm and sweet..an everlasting spring...Ben Burroughs

This past week has been a very busy one, indeed. Last Saturday, we had a big birthday bash in honor of little grandson Jack's second birthday. It was a lovely party with balloons, a pretty M & M birthday cake, ice cream, and of course M & M's. Family and friends celebrated along with several other little children that will be Jack's little buddies when he gets older. There were three of them there, two little boys, and the cutest red-headed little girl you've ever seen. All born within one month of each other. This is the first time we had the opportunity of getting them together at one time. They were simply hilarious! Jack loved his cake and running around, but could have cared less about the presents, his mommy and daddy had to do the honors of un-wrapping his loot. He would amble up and observe what was being unwrapped and then would grab it, if it was toys, certainly not the clothes. Of course, the three toddlers always wanted the one toy that someone else had. M & M's were eaten by the handful. By the time the party was over, those three were so sugared up, I'm sure they were bouncing off the walls, but oh, what fun! It was decided that Jack would come to grandma and paw paws house for his nap, as mommy and daddy wanted to put away all the birthday loot. When we got to our house, we did a little relaxing and un-winding before I tried the nap, oh yes, we had a badly needed diaper change too. Up stairs we went and sat down in the rocking chair with blankie and tried to "rocky rock", as grandma calls it. As soon as his little head hit my shoulder, he started saying, "mama, mama". Then he switched to "dada, dada". Well, he wasn't having anything to do with a nap. I called mama and told her that her little birthday boy wasn't having anything to do with taking a nap. Too much sugar, I bet. The next day, on Sunday, there was another birthday party up in Pekin with the other grandparents and their side of the family. Jack has the privilege of being the first grandchild and first great-grandchild on all sides, so let's just say he got plenty of clothes and toys for his birthday. On Monday, the Radio Station took a bus trip to Nashville, Indiana. We left Gibson City at 6:00 am. It was raining hard when we left Gibson City and I know several of our "guests" were concerned that the day was going to be a "wash". We assured them that we had checked the weather forecast for Nashville and it was supposed to be a lovely, sunny day. We had a really great group of people that day that followed our directions perfectly, made it back to the bus when we stopped and made it back by 4:00 pm to travel back home. The day turned out to be just as the weatherman predicted, warm and sunny. Nashville is a beautiful, picturesque village with some quaint shops and restaurants. The town itself is very pretty and well-kept. The homes are old, painted very prettily and turned into shops. It is worth the trip to visit this cute little town. I managed to get a beautiful necklace and earring set for a steal and I also found the cutest Christmas outfit for Jack. We ate at a nice restaurant for lunch, had a delicious bowl of french onion soup. Mmmm good. The funny thing was, when we got back to Gibson City, around 7:30pm it was raining still. It was so nice to get away from dreary, rainy weather, if even for the day. Tuesday brought a busy day of work and I had Jack all day, when I went to take him home, I found two very sick people, named mama and dada laying about looking like death warmed over. They both had the flu, the achy, sore throat, fever, coughing, miserable flu, so back out the door I went with little Jack, he was banned from his home until his parents recovered. He spent the night Tues, went to my mother's Wed am, and spent the night Wed night, all day Thursday. His parents felt like they had re-joined the land of the living by Thurs. night. Grandma was bushed. Wed and Thurs nights I was in bed by 9 pm, I also had a ton of extra work and the station this week, so let's just say, it's been one mighty tiring week. We did manage to get Jack off to Paxton to get his flu shot this afternoon, so hopefully it will "kick in" a few weeks from now. This flu they had was bad, and so early in the season. I have since talked to lots of people who either have been ill with it, or know someone else that has had it. Anyway, we mother's do what we can to take care of our families when they become ill. Believe it or not, I very rarely get ill with anything, don't know if it's because I have taken care of so many "sick" people that I have built up immunity to it or just that the germs know they won't have a fighting chance on this tough mother and grandmother. No flu germs are gonna stop me. Or maybe it's because I just keep telling myself, "I can't get sick, I can't get sick." Too many people depending on me, gotta stay healthy. There is lots to do and I just plain refuse to get sick, of course, I do drink lots of water, get my rest and try to eat right. We mothers have to stay strong and healthy for our families. They depend on us. On the occasion that I am a "little under the weather", I don't let it stop me, I'm just like that "energizer bunny" that just keeps on "going and going". Here's to all you mothers and grandmothers out there who have tirelessly taken care of all the "ill" people in your households all these years. My only question is, just who's gonna take care of me, if and when I get sick? Knowing my luck, the rest of them will get sick at the same time and will be worse than me so I will be dragging myself across the floor to make them tea and toast. So, all of you mothers and grandmothers out there, take good care of yourselves, get your rest, eat your veggies, drink your water, take your vitamins, cause this fall and winter looks like it's gonna be a doozy and we are going to be real busy playing "Florence Nightingale".

Old man winter is hiding right around the corner.....

Yes, it will soon be here, it's coming...it's just around the bend, we don't want to think about it, but whether you like it or not, old man winter is peeking around the corner at you. It's the time to put away the patio furniture, empty the hot tub, clean out the gazebo, put that lawn mower up, empty out and clean up your flower pots, give that garage a good cleaning, take the watering can to the shed along with all the other summer tools, dig out the snow shovel, salt, car de-icer. window scrapers, make sure you have those battery jumper cables in your car, where they belong, get your car winterized, check your tires, get your furnace cleaned and checked, and don't forget to get more furnace filters and change yours. WHEW! Getting ready for winter is a lot of work, oh, and don't forget my two FAVORITE jobs, cleaning out the eve spouts and raking up all of those leaves that come down and come down and come down. Just when you think you have gotten them all taken care of, your lawn is leaf-free, a good wind comes along and blows all of your neighbors leaves, who haven't done any raking at all, back in your yard, or the wind shifts from the north and all of them that were tucked against the fence across the street decide they don't like it there anymore, they have been wistfully looking at your clean yard and decided to make it their new home. Gotta love the leaves! I sure like them better when they are up in the trees. When I choose to complain out loud about these pesky leaves, this is just about the time my son takes the opportunity to "remind" me that I always say I love the Fall so much! Oh yes, I almost forgot, the final task is to mow your yard off as short as you can, that way all the rest of the leaves just blow right on by and onto your neighbor's yard! I have learned that little trick. The best thing about completing all of the tasks previously mentioned, is the great satisfaction I derive when I sit back and look at my home and yard from a distance and see the simplicity and clean lines without all of the "summer clutter". Then it's time to start inside, I am a fall cleaner, I don't do or believe in large "spring" cleaning, I instead do large "fall" cleaning. I feel like the fall is a much better time to do this, although I do clean my home in the spring, just not like I do in the fall. I have my windows open as much as possible in the summertime and that means lots of dust and outside allergens make their way inside, so why spring clean? Nope, mine gets done in the fall when the house is going to be closed up all winter, I want things clean, closets organized and things in their place. I recently threw away about two garbage bags of "old clothes". Now, don't get excited and say, "Debra, you should have given those clothes to those who could use them". Trust me, no one would have wanted these "old clothes". They had all had their day, most of them had been around for a long, long time and I had gotten my wear out of them. I have lost weight the last few months and they were all way too big anyway, and I decided that if it was too big, it was going AWAY, far, far AWAY! Keeping them would be a big mistake and much too tempting. If they were gone, there would be no excuse to get back into them, EVER! So, now I have to get some new clothes, yippee! Now, for some women, this would be an exciting, interesting prospect, going shopping for new clothes, but for me, yes, I am probably the only woman on the face of this planet who detests shopping! There I said it, I HATE SHOPPING! There is a "shopping gene", my mother has this gene, my daughter has this gene. I do not have this gene, it skipped a generation. My mother and my daughter love to shop! They both love to look, look, look at everything. They are both their happiest wandering around stores. Come to think of it, my mother's mother, my Grandma Greenlee loved to shop too! So, when I mentioned that I needed to get some new clothes, they both smiled excitedly and said, "We love to shop, we'll take you shopping"! I thought for a moment, "Lets, see, shopping for clothing with them, hmmm, nope, I don't think so". It would be a three-day event, this shopping trip, I wouldn't make it home alive. I'd disappear in a clothing rack and never be seen or heard from again. It would be like going into the jungle and just disappearing, forever! A week or so ago, I had to make a "quick trip" out of town to get a much needed piece of equipment for the Radio Station, so I planned a trip down and back one afternoon, by myself, soon word had gotten around about this trip, this also was daughter's day off, soon she and grandson were going along, then hubby decided he was going too. I planned on making a "quick stop" at my favorite store to "maybe" purchase a pair or two of much needed dress slacks, this trip ended up lasting forever, got home with the wrong size slacks, the saleslady put the wrong size ones in the bag, I was not happy. This easy trip turned into a long one as the piece of equipment wasn't ready on time either! Shopping for me is a chore, everything looks the same, the racks of clothes are endless, I can never find what I want, and I detest trying them on in those small changing rooms. The mirrors always make you look so good too! Do they have to put such large mirrors in these dressing rooms? Maybe they could put them on all sides and add more glaring lights that are so flattering to all. Yes, winter will soon be here, oh, i just remembered that I will need to get a new winter coat too, my old one is way too big! Shhhh, don't tell my mom or my daughter, they will want to take me shopping! Let's see, I could sneak out of town one afternoon and say I have to go to an appliance store or get a root canal, yeah, that might work!