Feb 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
Marjorie Scarborough 1918-2008 (With her 4 oldest grandkids- Steve, Meme holding me, Ginna, and Margaret in front.)
My grandmother, Marjorie Jean Mann Scarborough passed away on Saturday night. She was a strong woman, and even at 89, and having been ill awhile her passing seems a bit unexpected somehow. Maybe because hers is the first death in our family since my father I think, which was in 1977. (How fortunate we’ve been.) Meme was a great grandma and I looked forward to our Saturday phone calls or visits for a long time.She taught me so much about unexpected things. She loved to tell funny stories and poems or sing little ditties like her great-grandpa did.
“I’ll tell you a story about Annie Laurie
and now my story’s begun, I’ll tell you another about her brother and now my story is done.”
Meme could get anything she wanted out of life I think. I saw her talk us onto a nuclear sub onetime because my little brother wanted to see what it looked like. It was NOT a ship open to the public, but somehow she managed to get us on and we even got to look through the periscope to find our car. She made friends in every walk of life. She told me how she’d nursed in Vancouver on the docks- even helped prostitutes in the floating opium dens deliver their babies. She had friends in Panama that had houses on every continent, and friends who sold molas on the streets.
I’m grateful that I had her for a grandma, even if she did switch my legs a time or two. I’m grateful I got to hold her hand one last time (thank you Maradee.) I know she is on a wonderful journey now- “Going to Carolina” as she would have said.
I love you Meme.
Feb 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
I had a surprise visit from an old college buddy on Thursday! He was in town for work and stopped by for a quick visit. I hadn’t seen him in 15 years, since his wedding I think! There were not many latinos in Fayetteville when I was at U of A (ya really!) and there were only five kids from Panama- Me, Casey Wharry, Larry Tartaglia, and two guys whose parents owned Estrella Azul milk company (who weren’t very friendly.) My Spanish prof introduced me to Casey and we were fast friends from then on. He introduced me to Juan Luis Guerra y 4:40, and other such music I hadn’t found yet (Atlantic siders stick to reggae mostly) and I showed him and his friends the best places for surf and sand on the Atlantic side. His wife, Celeste, is a gorgeous girl who was in many art classes with Scott (who was an art major at the time.) I haven’t seen her since their second son was born (what is it, 12 yrs now?) It’s funny how much has changed since then: *Now there is an internet! *We each have three kids! *Grey hair (for me anyway) *We actually can go see Hog games if we want to! but it seems like we picked up in the same place as if we weren’t 15 years older! I really hope we get to see more of them soon!
Feb 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
Cole 10 weeks old
We have a new baby! His name is Cole, and he is a gorgeous black lab. We found him on www.freecycle.org a wonderful site/community that I highly recommend. It’s a system where if you have something to give away you can post it and people just come get it. We even had our garage/lean-to torn down through freecycle! It always reminds me of that 60’s movie about the IRS collector who goes to this family’s house and tries to audit them (where he ends up marrying the daughter.) What is the name of that movie… We’ve given away most of our baby things via the site too. Also have gotten some neat things (roller blades for Emily, African thumb piano.) Speaking of baby things, I forgot what it was like to have a puppy! He is really bad about eating things he finds around. As I write I’m saying “Cole- don’t eat that plant!” “Cole don’t knock over that 20lb bag of dog food!” Our last dog, Matty didn’t even weigh 20 lbs. “COLE, get out of the plant!” Uh, oh, I think I need to read up on dog training…
Feb 5, 2009 | Arkansas, Uncategorized, United States
One thing you can never predict is Arkansas weather! Last week the weather was at freezing or just above. Then yesterday it was in the 70’s (today too!)
We decided to go ride bikes on the River Trail since it was such a gorgeous day yesterday (and the last day of winter break for the kids.) We love the new trails!
We started at the Murry Dam and rode to Burn’s Park where we stopped for a picnic. On the way there we saw a few Great Blue Herons and Canada Geese on the river and even a white swan. It seemed strange to see a swan on the river, and alone at that. You don’t realize how big they are. Usually we see deer and nutrias or beaver, but it was so busy yesterday I guess they were all hiding. After lunch we rode back along the river and Emily did see a muskrat. I heard it but it was in the horsetails before I got a glimpse. Then we stopped at the bridge and walked over.
Now NLR/LR has the largest pedestrian walking bridge in the nation- the “Big Dam Bridge” -it spans the Arkansas River and goes right over Murray Lock and Dam.
It is so much fun to walk over the river and stand directly over the locks to watch the tugboats push barges down the river.
You can even yell down and talk to the bargemen…
“Where are you going?”
“What are you hauling?”
We watched nine barges full of wheat get pushed into the locks.
Then we got back on our bikes and headed back to the car. I think we rode about ten miles in all, give or take a few.
Who knows, it might snow tomorrow!
Feb 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’m attempting to start this blog (again.) I tried on blogspot but couldn’t spend the time that it took to figure out all the bells and whistles. We’ll see how this works! (Mac’s are so much easier! I love iWeb!)
Yesterday was a hard day. It started (or never ended) with two days of no sleep. Amanda, mom’s dog, has been staying with us while mom’s away in Arizona. She was 15+ and not in the best shape lately. She woke up Wednesday morning and her front legs were stiff and cold. I took her to the vet and she gave her some steroids and said it was probably a stroke. On Thursday she improved a bit, and was able to move them stiffly, but not stand up without falling over. We had two nights of her crying every ten to twenty minutes for me. Yesterday started at the vet’s again, and we had the sad news that there wasn’t anything she could do that would get her back to “normal.” So… we had to make the decision that was best for her. I had the kids with me and was really worried about how they would react. We had to put our dog (Amanda’s sister) Matty, to sleep in October.
Max said, “Mommy, I am going to be the person who lives the longest life ever.” (He obsesses over death and dying…) I said, “Well, there is a reason for everything, baby. We are all part of God, so we never really die all the way.” He smiled and said “That’s good. And now Amanda’s in heaven with her daddy Foster and mommy Amanda and sister Matty and they are playing.”
I think he’s going to be okay.
Well, we had the Cookie Rally, the big start of the Girl Scout Cookie sale last night too. It is a “lock-in” type event held at the UALR Student Union and goes until midnight! We ended up with only four girls and two adults going, so it was a manageable group. I didn’t think it was much fun as lines were soooo long and there wasn’t anything different from last year. I think the girls had some fun regardless and that IS what it’s all about! I hope they listen to some of our suggestions for next year.
Well, I’m off to take the Christmas tree all the way down and begin this new year again…
Dec 31, 2007 | Motherhood, Uncategorized
This is my first time attempting to blog- Here we go!
I really love my cousin Kelly’s blog, so I thought I might
give it a go. I used to journal and scrapbook but when you
have three kids (two under the age of 6) your time is
greatly limited!
We have had an extremely busy, but fun holiday season thus far.
Emily was in the Nutcracker with Ballet Arkansas, and we had
practices, shows etc. I am head room mom for both
Em and Max’s classes, so there were parties to plan and execute..
Then, Jac’s birthday is Christmas eve, and we had the usual Christmas
dinner here with a smaller group than usual (14) but still lots of cooking
and such. It was all fun but it’s nice to relax this week (raking, doing laundry,
hmmmmm…)
I really miss having the kids home though, and it is fun to see them playing
again. I think that has been the hardest part for me sending them to school this year.
We were so fortunate to have had them all home together for so long. If we don’t
find a middle school we like it could be we homeschool next year. Only time will tell!
Now for cocoa and jammies!
