NUVI

Our Garmin Nuvi was an interesting addition to our recent road trip to Georgia.....a little forewarning on the freeways can be helpful....an voice gently guides you to the correct lane as you sail through an unfamiliar city. As long as you follow the verbal instructions life is quite good.

But invariably "driver error" occurs....and then the Nuvi voice becomes rather insistent and unpleasant. "Recalculating" reverberates at higher levels as an impatient Nuvi calls the shots. "Make a U-turn in 500 feet!" the GPS demands. As the stress of making the necessary navigational adjustments mounts, the driver must ponder the wisdom of inviting this unpleasnt little toy to ride along.

Upon arrival at our destination in Kennesaw, we discussed the Nuvi with Katie....who thought the name sounded like a sex toy...she promptly renamed the device "Beatrice".
Alas, a name change does not soften the snotty tone Beatrice uses as she chants "Recalculating"....and personification does not remove the sting of failure to follow the instructions of an inanimate object!
EllenE

Georgia Peaches

As Ray Charles would sing "that old sweet song, keeps Georgia on my mind." Actually Georgia Peaches were on our minds ......a visit to Atlanta last week gave Marshall and I an opportunity to see our favorite fuzzy freestones....all three "kids" are now located in the Peach state.

After a blazing 13 hour ride we arrived in Kennesaw Saturday evening...just in time for supper with Katie, Trent, and Andy. A little grillin' and a little chillin' with "Guitar Hero" made for a great evening.

We spent part of Monday in Duluth waiting at Andy's new apartment for a Rooms To Go delivery ...the new couch made it up three flights of stairs on the shoulders of two guys! And what a swell couch.....Marshall is envious....Andy can stretch out completely to watch TV or read....a love seat won't do if you are a serious couch tater!

Andy started his new job on Tuesday so we hung out with Katie....who is becoming the cook supreme.....Trent is the griller and Katie is the baker. She stirred up a lovely applesauce cake from scratch....she's become a real Betty Crocker. The cake was soooo good...it disappeared in 36 hours!! Relocated to our hips!

Yoga and swimming at the gym, relaxing with a good book on the screened porch, hiking around some of the Civil War battlefields, sampling tasty restaurants...lots of leisurely activities at the Resort Mason!! Marshall loved his "sleep ins" until 7:45!! "I can't do that at home!" he said.

Just having time together made for some warm memories. Hard to say when we'll see each other again but we always appreciate what we get.

Life goes on.....lots of ball games ahead for Trent who continues to keep Turner field lush and beautiful.....lots of lesson plans and reading as Katie preps for summer school....lots of adjusting to new coworkers and a new city for Andy. As for us, we'll get back into the swing of banking and nursing....reluctantly...but we'll do it until we can travel again!
Ellen E

"...Hey teacher leave them kids alone..."

Well its finally the end of the school year, I'm done with my Associates degree classes all I have left are my Gen-Ed classes and hopefully I'll get credit for this last semester. Due to my stubborn teacher not wanting to talk to my boss I didn't get some needed paper work done, but my boss did talk to the president of the college and from what he said it was all taken care of so hopefully I can stop by and raise some hell about this situation and be assured that I'm getting credit. "Sigh" frustrating things always have to happen when your under the weather, end of the year and I have a cold and what makes it worse is I have to be up at 6:30 in the morning hell or high water to be at work so it will definitely be fun Monday getting up at the butt-crack of dawn with a cold to go and change oil and rotate tires.

Ellises in the Southeast

Hi, y'all. Ellen, Marshall, and Andy have all converged in the Atlanta metro area this past week, and one of them is staying for good.

Trent and I helped Andy move into his third story apartment on Saturday, and then we helped him pick out his first store-bought couch, which was delivered on Monday. (I'll send pictures soon.) My folks arrived Saturday evening, and all five of us dined on tuna salad sandwiches and grilled chicken and pork chops on our back porch.

Since then, we've visited Andy's apartment in Duluth a few times (it's about an hour away, northeast of Atlanta), and he's stopped by here a few times to chow down on grilled burgers and dogs and homemade apple cake with butter cream icing and to teach Mom the basics of Guitar Hero. She can jam. Dad probably can, too, but he hasn't tried it yet.

Mom, Dad, and I have gone hiking around Kennesaw Mountain and Allatoona Pass over the past couple of days, and we toodled around Marietta Square and dined on Colombian tamales. In addition to mornings at the YMCA and lazy afternoons reading on the back porch and bird-watching, Mom and I are working our way through season six of Sex and the City on DVD, and we're all rooting for the kid from Blue Springs on AI.

That's the news from Georgia. Hope all is well in the Midwest.

new job

good morning andy! I hope your new job goes well today ! We're all rooting for you.

The skys are gray
you bring a welcome smile
time can not steal

my haiku to you, and as your great grandfather use to say, "see you in the funny papers"

A Few More Thoughts....

Here are a few more thoughts related to spring I found on the internet:

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. Emma Goldman

Where flowers bloom so does hope. Lady Bird Johnson

Each flower is a soul opening out to nature. Gerald De Nerval

My sentiments: Emma Goldman's thought is sweet but I'd rather have diamonds.

AND NOW A FEW HAIKUS:

the greenhouse--
on the seed catalogue
a half eaten red apple. Jorgen Johansson

Butterfly! These words
from my brush are not flowers--
only their shadows. Soseki

Fiddler Kin=====
A nuturing reminder
Of who we are. HK

Every season is a time of reflection. Every season bears fruit. Every season gives us a reason to be grateful. Every season brings us hope, but especially spring.

Memories of Mom

There is an old poem that spells out the word M O T H E R and a few words are written by each letter to define the universal mom. I want to share my memories of our Mom using that format.

M Memories of Michigan. Michigan is the state where Mom grew up and the place she loved.
Mounds of food she lovingly prepared for her family on holidays and every day.
Motherhood: She was the mother of 6 girls and sacrificed herself for her children. She was proud of and very generous to her 5 grandchildren. She never met her first great grandchild.
Money: Mom was a good money manager. She had a strong work ethic and was frugal.
Mall: Mom was frugal but she liked to window shop.

O Opera: The Phantom of the Opera was Mom's favorite broadway musical.
Other musical venues were also loved by her; movies that featured dancing and singing etc.
On the record: Mom could have been a writer but she did not recognize her talent.
On the record: music, books and poetry filled her soul and helped sustain her.
Optimistic: Mom believed tomorrow would be better than today.

T Trips to anywhere. She had a sense of adventure which she inherited from her Mom and Dad.
Tea and scones. She made the best scones and a perfect cup of tea.
Trifle. One did not trifle with her. Also, she made the best peach trifle in the world.

H Honor, her mother and William (Bill), her dad, became her earthly guardian angels.
Hilltop Tavern was the business Mom's parents ran which sustained them for many years.

E Earth: Mom loved God's creations and was a good steward.
Energy: Mom had boundless energy and was physically active until her final years.
Easter: The day Mom died and became a new creation in Christ.

R Roots: Mom was proud of her English/Canadian ancestry and visited England and Canada.
Relatives: Mom drove across the western USA with her English cousin Alice Neal.
Relatives: Mom kept in constant touch with her family by phone and letter.
Resiliant: Mom persevered through many trials and never gave up hope.

Mom was fun loving, hardworking and the best cook in the world. She had a strong resolve to make each day better than the last. She was part of the greatest generation. May future generations be blessed with her tenacity and strength.

HAPPY MOTHER"S DAY MOTHER. WE MISS YOU.

taco stands

Not to sound like a worn out record or CD, but do any of you sisters remember a taco stand near one of Dad's stores? What year was this? I don't even remember a summer when Beth and Katie stayed with them. Was auntie M in some kind of a time warp or what? Come on sisters refresh my memory. This is a blank. I still can't get over the fact that your parents let you stay with them, well with grandma ok, but grandpa was still around and we all know how unpredictable he was. I a wait more details to fill in the gap in my life.

more thoughts on spring

I was looking out the upstairs bathroom window this morning as the rain fell and noticed how much change has occured in a brief amount of time. The redbuds once bright color is much duller and the woods are now thick with green foliage. You can no longer see the white tail deer munching on the meager available greens. The only sign they are out there is the frenzied trampling sound of broken twigs as they race to safety when spooked by the bark of a dog or some other sound of nature. We rarely see them in the yard now, as there is a buffet beyond our yard. The dandelions are in full swing. It is funny how from a distance the yellow and white color of flowers and seeds looks quite lovely, but up close our judgement changes to one of negativity, "Oh rats, dandelions". Perhaps if we had a different perspective the need for weed killers would diminish and the world would be less of a toxic wasteland for baby toes and puppy toes. I read that dandelions have evolved over 30 million years. They have developed many safety mechanisms to insure their survival. The english word dandelion was derived from the french word dent de lion, meaning lion's tooth. Anyway I am thinking we need to revisit our views on the lowly dandelion weed/flower and perhaps allow it to be elevated in status . John believes the blueberries may actually bear a little fruit this year, perhaps my threats did not fall on deaf blueberry leaves. Those are my newest thoughts on spring. My toe is better, the bruising is almost gone. It healed quickly, to which I give thanks. Enjoy the day and the weekend to come.

Bruised Toe and Chatting

Well yesterday I stubbed my toe and now it is black and blue and sore and looks rather pathetic. I have never stubbed my toe so hard that it became discolored. It is not so that I am incapacitated, but just enough to make me whine "my toe hurts" in that pathetic, poor me kind of voice. I worked in Plattsburg this evening so John fixed dinner, frozen Red Baron thin crust pizza. John can be so picky about certain things, but he will eat a frozen pizza and be happy about it. The girls in Plattsburg and I chatted. John believes it is good for me to have "chat time" with the Plattsburg ladies. Once a month my friend Carol comes up for a massage and then we go to lunch and again I have "chat time". Do guys need chat time with each other. Do they miss their guy friends if they don't see them for a while? I think friendships are important and I think John is right I need my "chat time" fix.

Sick and Lazy

It's springtime here. The windows are open, and stench of three cats and a dog has finally made way for the scent of fresh cut grass and Bradford Pears in our humble abode.

I finished grading my students' final papers and projects on Tuesday (except for one student who has an incomplete) and entered their grades before the deadline. I organized my teaching files--both electronically and in hard copy--and began making plans for summer teaching. I'm catching up on things that I've let slide for the past few months, and I'm trying to work on a couple of manuscripts and research projects.

And, naturally, I've gotten sick.

In times of high stress (during the semester for me), I think our immune systems shift into overdrive to help us stay healthy. And then, when that stress lessens, our immune systems also downshift, and suddenly we're overcome by sinus drainage, sore throats, hacking coughs, and aches and pains. Actually, my cold isn't all that bad ... it's mostly from the neck up: congestion, runny nose, sore throat. Technically, I should still be able to run at full capacity. But instead, I've skipped the gym for the past two mornings (foregoing my new triathlon training workout) and slept in. Today, I'm supposed to be working from home ... working on a manuscript. Right now, it's pretty crappy. Twenty pages of crapola.

I think I'll take a nap.

Garden Wisdom

Some thoughts about gardening and spring found on the internet:

Connection with gardens...can become windows to the inner life. The simple act of stopping and looking at the beauty around us can be prayer. Patricia R. Barrett

We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough? Wendell Berry

A garden has a curious innocent way of consuming cash, while all the time you are under the illusion that you are spending nothing. Esther Meynell

Location, location, location...is also true for plants. Michael P. Garofalo from his book Pulling Onions.

The day, water, sun, moon, night- I do not have to purchase these things with money. Plautus

Live simply, so others may simply live. Ghandi

A rhyme from Mother Goose

Surprise

Close your eyes, and do not peek,
And I'll rub spring across your cheek,
Soft as velvet, smooth and sleek,
Close you eyes, and do not peek.