Roooby Begonia

This "Ruby Begonia" is in memory of my very dear friend Judy Jenkins .

Judy lost her battle with breast cancer in 1995 just a month shy of her daughter Leslie (one of my bestest and oldest friends) finding out she was pregnant (later to find out - with twins *good one Judy* wink, wink). I can't start to imagine what Leslie went through those nine months without Judy cheering her on but I know she was there in Spirit - you could feel her all around. Leslie is natured a lot like her Mama - suck it up and get on with life. I know what a hole her passing left in my heart...one that will not be filled again until we meet again - I know she'll have the greatest shoes to go with that new robe of hers - and oh, I can just see the crown - spit shined and perfect.



Judy was someone that people migrated towards - you know the type - happy go lucky - had a real zest for life and by golly she was going to live her life out till the very end and she did; with her family by her side. Oh the funniest personality like no other and always had a positive outlook in whatever came her way - even breast cancer. She could make light of ANYTHING! Of course, how could I forget her buzz word; "they swon". You never ever....EVER went over to the Jenkins house that Judy didn't have a Sun-Drop in her hand or at least on the kitchen counter. That's where my addiction started - Hello, my name is Tammy and I'm a Sun-Drop-aholic. It's nectar of the Gods as far as I'm concerned.

Hmmm...I would describe Judy as having a definite passion for fashion that's for sure. Even before I knew what that meant - Judy always had the cutest outfit on - classical fashion - not trendy - she was total C.L.A.S.S.

As kids growing up, Leslie and I loved to watch her Mama and Daddy shag - they would just glide across the living room floor knowing exactly which way the other would step. We would beg them to dance...come on, come on, and then we would put on a song....gosh, what was the name of that song...it had green in the title...it may have been Green Eyes by Ravens...here is a YouTube link for a quick listen to the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlMhnzuuJLM&feature=related .

Leave me comments people - you know who you are! If you don't know how - figure it out! :-)

Blessings,
Tammy

Now How Funny is This!?!

Hope you got a chuckle out of this one.

Blessings,

Tammy

X BC 4EVR

As October rolls around it's all about the "PINK" with me. Personally, I have lost 2 wonderful women (My Sassy and Judy) to breast cancer and know without a doubt they would have never had the chance to live years past both their diagnosis without funding for research and development. So, I challenge you today, to donate to a Breast Cancer research organization, so our loved ones or maybe even you and I would have a better chance of surviving this maniacal disease.

MY "SASSY"

4 years ago my Aunt Pat (whom I called Sassy - and boy was she sassy) passed on to be with Lord Jesus. She was one of those personalities that was larger than life. Sassy always had a word of encouragement, a song (boy, did she have a great set of lungs, I loved to hear her sing), a laugh (one of those deep rooted ones), a smile (you know the kind from ear to ear), a dessert or two and always, always, she indeed had her conversations woven of the finest thread with the LOVE of Christ. Whenever I sat in front of her she always had the wisdom of the ages to relate to me and so I would tuck this wisdom inside my heart for a later date to hopefully one day have the chance to relate to Mason. God had given her many gifts of the Holy Spirit which I can pin point: discernment, mercy, faith, service, exhortation, giving, speaking in tongues and hospitality (if not a gift - certainly a Christian trait).

Here is a Gospel song that we sang together since I was...well, as long as I can remember and until Mason went into Middle School I sang Oh What A Day each and every morning while getting Mason ready for school - so he now knows the song backwards and forwards - just a short song but oh what a powerful one.

What a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see.

When I look upon His face, the one who saved me by His grace.

And when He takes me by the hand,And leads me thru the promised land.

What a day, Glorious day, that will be.

Sassy was such a huge part of my life. Once when I was 24 we were at church, we were having Revival that week and the Lord spoke to me just as plain as I'm typing this blog - that I was to have a boy and I needed to train him in the ways of the Lord because one day the Lord was going to need him as a warrior for Christ. I can remember looking at Sassy and saying "WOW" you will not believe what the Lord has revealed to me. I did not tell another soul until 2 years later when Mason my son was born.

It was with honor that I spent the last 5 years of her life helping take care of her; doctors appointments, biopsy appointments (receiving initial diagnosis), appointments, surgery, suture cleaning, learning to give shots (eek..when she became diabetic), appointments, drainage bulbs emptied, appointments, chemotherapy, radiation, appointments, blood transfusions, appointments, appointments. I just wish I could have bottled up her passion and enthusiasm for the Lord so I could have given it as a medicinal boost when spirits would get low.
Some of my fondest memories are when she was at her last fight...just us two, laughing till we cried about one crazy thing or the other. I know when my time comes I'll find Sassy waiting down by the river singing, laughing and rejoicing.

Blessings,
Tammy

Happy Birthday Greg!

Nicole...Who Am I????????

There is a similarity to A.L.D. and strangely enough a resemblence (at least the hair) to a certain wig from high school. teehee!

HAAHAAHAAHAA!!!!!

You had better leave me a comment on this one. I can't stop laughing!

TTFN,
Tammy

Can I Borrow Those Shoes - OUCH!

I can not remember what I was researching last week when I ran across several articles on the Chinese custom of foot binding. All I could think was... What in the world? Are you serious?? You have got to be kidding me???

Below, I have included excerpts from the articles and a few pictures. Oh yea, no doubt about it...you - will - wince!



According to Nadine Kim; Historians have tried to explain foot-binding in terms of a culture's standard of beauty or as a way of holding a woman to a household, but these explanations seemed to lack the kind of power that would sustain a custom for several centuries. Just think of how many times the beauty ideal has changed in this country within the last 100 years, from voluptuousness to fitness to heroin chic.



Some estimate there are still about a million women in China with bound feet. Although the custom was banned by the Communists in 1949, Beverly Jackson (curator of the Chinese collection at the Santa Barbara Historical Society Museum) said the practice continued in some areas until 1957.



Contrary to belief that binding started in infancy, Jackson said it was started at age 6 to give the foot's arch time to develop. Feet were wrapped in cotton, with only the big toe left free. In time, the bandage was wrapped tighter until the other toes were broken and forced flat against the soles. The ideal was a 3-inch foot called san zun jin lian, or golden lily, and woe to the girl whose future mother-in-law was allowed to do the binding.





Lisa See said, “We don’t have to look very far to know what women will do to themselves to make them conform to what their society considers to be beautiful.”

The history of Chinese foot binding is such that; if I bound up and broke my feet to fit into 3" size shoes (baby doll size mind you) all for the reason of finding a suitable mate...someone please whack me over the head and drag me to a "Safe Place" (like the kind of place with nice white padded walls). I am a firm believer if we do not stand for what is right, just & true and bring injustice to light than history WILL repeat itself.

Don't forget to leave me a comment.

Blog you later,
Tammy

My Steel Magnolia's

Last Night Anna, Nicole and I went to see the play Steel Magnolias at North Gaston High School - our "old" high school. It was a blast! The cast and costumes were spot on. Laughing at the amounts of hairspray used, the size of the "do's" and "Annelle" spontaneously praying all around the stage. LOL



It's such a great feeling when you have great friends with whom you can share all sorts of "good times". We just couldn't resist the opportunity to have our picture taken in Truvy's beauty shop chair. Here we are in all of our glory minus the big hair...ughm...Nicole. (Love ya)



OK, OK, you asked for them - here they are. Pictures of Anna, Nicole and me in High School - now how funny is that!?!







Whew....can you say AQUA NET - teehee!

Well, we have been trying to get Anna to go with us Letterboxing and she just can't find the time...can you Anna.?. So, Nicole lured her into a little night boxing - Caroline Shipp's box - mwahahahahah. We arrived at the location and for those who do not know the story, this is how it goes (quotes taken from The Dallas Doodlebugs, Atlas Quest Clue page for Caroline Shipp).

The story of Caroline Shipp is a sad and tragic one. On December 18, 1891, Caroline Shipp ate her last meal on this earth, a hastily provided snack of sardines and crackers eaten as she rode on the back of a crudely made coffin in the back of a creaking buckboard pulled by a pair of unwilling horses.

A short time later, Caroline Shipp became a statistic. She was the last person to die by legal hanging in Gaston County and the last woman to be executed on the gallows in North Carolina. But what happened to bring Caroline Shipp to this tragic end?
Barely 18 years old, frail and thought to be slightly retarded, Caroline had been convicted in mid October of murdering her son, not quite a year old, and a judge had sentenced her to hang by the neck until she was "dead, dead, dead!" He even ordered that gallows be constructed for the hanging; however, Gaston County had its own natural gallows, a massive white oak that stood one mile outside of Dallas. She maintained her innocence even as she stood at that tree looking out into the large crowd that had gathered to watch her hang. She said that her boyfriend Mack Farrar had given her son rat poisoning when she had left the house. Soon after she returned the baby started to convulse and died shortly afterwards. Farrar had said he would marry her, but he would not raise a child that did not belong to him.

The air was cold and crisp the day Caroline left the jail and boarded the wagon that took her to the place she would die. It had rained for several days prior and the roads were so soft and muddy, the wagon wheels would sink nearly a foot in some places, making the journey even harder and longer. Along the way she would sing bits of songs that she knew, stopping to tell those who had gathered along the road that she was not guilty of the crime she was to die for. Hundreds had come out to witness the hanging, some having brought picnic lunches to spend the day at the site. When they arrived, shortly after 8:00 am, Caroline was pulled from the wagon and told to stand on a high box. In her hand she held a white handkerchief and was told to drop it, as a signal, when she was ready. For several minutes she stood there softly singing an old gospel, as she looked out into the crowd for her sister or someone from family. They were not there. Again she spoke out, maintaining her innocence. Finally, she dropped the handkercheif and the executioner kicked the box out from under her feet. But the drop was short...not enough to cause death. Caroline kicked and thrashed in agony until a man disengaged himself from the crowd and pulled down on her feet until her neck snapped. Her body was left to hang there until late that afternoon, when they cut it down a buried it in a pauper's grave near the tree.

Her sad tale did not end there. It was rumored that she had become pregnant while she was in jail, and had lost her baby as she hung dying on that tree. That night before the loosely packed dirt could settle on her grave, grave robbers dug up the body and carried it away.

Today, over 100 years after this dramatic and traumatic episode in Gaston County history, Caroline Shipp is still discussed and found remarkable and fascinating.

The courthouse where Caroline Shipp was tried and convicted still stands and is used as the Dallas Police Department. The jailhouse that she spent 8 months in, waiting to die, also stands, but is empty. And......... the tree that Caroline Shipp met such a violent death at, still stands about a mile up the road from the courthouse and jail. Now, your journey will begin at the same place Caroline Shipp's did on that cold, wet December morning.

Here we are looking for the hanging tree.



Spooky huh...well you should be in front of that ol'hangin tree with a spooky story, only two small flashlights and a prison on your left. Not looking forward to advancing towards the tree - but of course Nicole was saying oh come on, you can do it, just a little further - ha! Wez wuz skeerd! I said, "What if we're walking down to the box and bodies were to start coming up and out of the graves (at one time it was the Pauper's Graveyard)...well just as the words left my lips I stepped on a crunchy stick that made the sound of rattling bones - dust and a bunch of screaming women - that's all I can say. Well, after that we made our way back down to the hanging tree - spooked again...more dust and more screaming women...but this time Anna had had enough - - well at least a part of her had...you be the judge. "Love ya Anna"



In all honesty I'm a great big CHICKEN and boxing this one at night gave me the spooks. We saw lights flashing in trees, limbs moving around like someone was looking out of them - skeerey!

Leave me a comment tell me what you think.

Blessings,
Tammy

Rainbow Piggy Toes

I have been going through years and years of pictures and come across a picture of Mason in one of his Power Ranger poses. I then looked down at his little piggy toes and he had RAINBOW PIGGY TOES. He would sit and watch me paint my toes and he would want his painted...well, I thought, "their's nothing wrong with him having rainbow piggies", "surely looks better than bright pink, or red", which there is nothing wrong with that; if that's what Mama wants to do. So here is a picture of Rainbow Piggy Toes - keep in mind that he is now wearing a whopping men's size 11(US). He thinks I'm nutters because I still call them piggy toes and anytime he's barefooted around me I want to love on those ol'pigs. If you have kids...take time today to love them from head to toe for they grow so quickly...right before our eyes.




Oh, yeah that reminds me...remember the episode(s) on Friends when Phoebe would sing Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat... - well I would sing Floppy Sock, Floppy Sock...Flippity, Floppity, Flip, Flop, Flop and he would just giggle. (just a random thought)

Blessings,
Tammy

Hope This Picture Brightens Your Day...

My Boy Is a Croaking!

I can't believe it! Mason's voice is absolutely, positively, and without a doubt changing, breaking, croaking. This week has been a lot of laughs with his voice - sometimes he'll talk and either nothing comes out or it sounds like a cartoon character or maybe froggy off of The Little Rascals.

I am so glad that we have his voice on lots of video, but also, we have that sweet, high pitched voice recorded on several Build-A-Bears . Whenever I hear that sweet, sweet voice I see our little angel sucking his thumb and holding onto Blankie (which we still have and snuggle with - if only now just a little shredded rag).



Oh, the memories...What a blessing it is to have memories.

Blessings,
Tammy

The Hairbrush

I want to share one of Beth Moore's experiences with you today. Beth is an outstanding Bible teacher, writer of Bible studies, and is a married mother of two daughters. I know I am guilty, at times, of being quick to judge (just like Jane Austen's Elizabeth Bennet) but I also know that the Lord still showers me with his grace and love and forgiveness. I hope you receive a blessing as I did when you read her story.

This is one of her experiences:

April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville, waiting to board the plane, I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I'd had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you.

You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego.

I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones.

The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man.

I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I'd just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport... an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat; trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served up on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him.

Let's admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man.

I had walked with God long enough to see the handwriting on the wall. I've learned that when I begin to feel what God feels, something so contrary to my natural feelings, something dramatic is bound to happen. And it may be embarrassing.

I immediately began to resist because I could feel God working on my spirit and I started arguing with God in my mind. 'Oh, no, God, please, no.' I looked up at the ceiling as if I could stare straight through it into heaven and said, 'Don't make me witness to this man. Not right here and now. Please. I'll do anything. Put me on the same plane, but don't make me get up here and witness to this man in front of this gawking audience. Please, Lord!'

There I sat in the blue vinyl chair begging His Highness, 'Please don't make me witness to this man. Not now. I'll do it on the plane.' Then I heard it...'I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to brush his hair.'

The words were so clear, my heart leap into my throat, and my thoughts spun like a top. Do I witness to the man or brush his hair? No-brainier. I looked straight back up at the ceiling and said, 'God, as I live and breathe, I want you to know I am ready to witness to this man. I'm on this Lord. I'm your girl! You've never seen a woman witness to a man faster in your life. What difference does it make if his hair is a mess if he is not redeemed? I am going to witness to this man' Again as clearly as I've ever heard an audible word, God seemed to write this statement across the wall of my mind. 'That is not what I said, Beth. I don't want you to witness to him. I want you to go brush his hair.'

I looked up at God and quipped, 'I don't have a hairbrush. It's in my suitcase on the plane. How am I supposed to brush his hair without a hairbrush?' God was so insistent that I almost involuntarily began to walk toward him as these thoughts came to me from God's word: 'I will thoroughly furnish you unto all good works.' (2 Timothy 3:17)

I stumbled over to the wheelchair thinking I could use one myself. Even as I retell this story, my pulse quickens and I feel those same butterflies. I knelt down in front of the man and asked as demurely as possible, 'Sir, may I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?' He looked back at me and said, 'What did you say?'

'May I have the pleasure of brushing your hair?'

To which he responded in volume ten, 'Little lady, if you expect me to hear you, you're going to have to talk louder than that.'

At this point, I took a deep breath and blurted out, 'SIR, MAY I HAVE THE PLEASURE OF BRUSHING YOUR HAIR?' At which point every eye in the place darted right at me. I was the only thing in the room looking more peculiar than old Mr. Long Locks. Face crimson and forehead breaking out in a sweat, I watched him look up at me with absolute shock on his face, and say, 'If you really want to.' Are you kidding? Of course I didn't want to. But God didn't seem interested in my personal preference right about then. He pressed on my heart until I could utter the words, 'Yes, sir, I would be pleased. But I have one little problem. I don't have a hairbrush.' 'I have one in my bag,' he responded.

I went around to the back of that wheelchair, and I got on my hands and knees and unzipped the stranger's old carry-on, hardly believing what I was doing. I stood up and started brushing the old man's hair. It was perfectly clean, but it was tangled and matted. I don't do many things well, but must admit I've had notable experience untangling knotted hair mothering two little girls. Like I'd done with either Amanda or Melissa in such a condition, I began brushing at the very bottom of the strands, remembering to take my time not to pull. A miraculous thing happened to me as I started brushing that old man's hair. Everybody else in the room disappeared. There was no one alive for those moments except that old man and me. I brushed and I brushed and I brushed until every tangle was out of that hair. I know this sounds so strange, but I've never felt that kind of love for another soul in my entire life. I believe with all my heart, I - for that few minutes -felt a portion of the very love of God. That He had overtaken my heart for a little while like someone renting a room and making Himself at home for a short while.

The emotions were so strong and so pure that I knew they had to be God's. His hair was finally as soft and smooth as an infant's.

I slipped the brush back in the bag and went around the chair to face him. I got back down on my knees, put my hands on his knees and said, 'Sir, do you know my Jesus?' He said, 'Yes, I do' Well, that figures, I thought. He explained, 'I've known Him since I married my bride. She wouldn't marry me until I got to know the Savior.' He said, 'You see, the problem is, I haven't seen my bride in months. I've had open-heart surgery, and she's been too ill to come see me. I was sitting here thinking to myself, what a mess I must be for my bride.'

Only God knows how often He allows us to be part of a divine moment when we're completely unaware of the significance. This, on the other hand, was one of those rare encounters when I knew God had intervened in details only He could have known. It was a God moment, and I'll never forget it.

Our time came to board, and we were not on the same plane. I was deeply ashamed of how I'd acted earlier and would have been so proud to have accompanied him on that aircraft.

I still had a few minutes, and as I gathered my things to board, the airline hostess returned from the corridor, tears streaming down her cheeks. She said, 'That old man's sitting on the plane, sobbing. Why did you do that? What made you do that?'

I said, 'Do you know Jesus? He can be the bossiest thing!'

And we got to share.

I learned something about God that day. He knows if you're exhausted, you're hungry, you're serving in the wrong place or it is time to move on but you feel too responsible to budge. He knows if you're hurting or feeling rejected. He knows if you're sick or drowning under a wave of temptation. Or He knows if you just need your hair brushed. He sees you as an individual. Tell Him your need!

I got on my own flight, sobs choking my throat, wondering how many opportunities just like that one had I missed along the way . . all because I didn't want people to think I was strange. God didn't send me to that old man. He sent that old man to me.

John 1:14 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth'

Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly shouting, 'Wow! What a ride! Thank You, Lord!'

Blessings
Tammy

Whatta Lady!

I, like a lot of Americans now, am anxiously awaiting the Presidential election in November. It wasn't until Sen. McCain chose conservative Sarah Palin to be his running mate that I truly had any interest in her - - being from NC and not too politically savvy, I had never really searched her out. I thought at first that it was to capture those female votes left abuts when Hilary Clinton lost out...but after reading political websites, online articles, newspaper articles, and online blogs I believe she may be just what we need - a Mom to sort things out. HA! No doubt she is going to have her hands full with 5 children 18, 17, 13, 6 & 4 months (whether or not they are out of the house doesn't matter - you still carry them with you everyday) and the baby has Down Syndrome (her quote after baby Trig was born: Trig is beautiful and already adored by us. We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.”) - which in and of itself would be a handful. Her conservative views on abortion, same sex marriages and her Christian beliefs leave a far better taste in my mouth than the other candidates. I say whatta lady - you go mama!

UPDATE, IN RESPONSE TO NEWS OF SARAH PALIN'S DAUGHTER BEING 5 MONTHS PREGNANT:
Family Response: "Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents," Sarah and Todd Palin said in the brief statement.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," they added.

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, released a statement lauding the Palins for acting in keeping with the group's policies and practices:
"We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their pro-life and pro-family values, but living them out even in the midst of trying circumstances.

"Being a Christian does not mean you're perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord. I've been the beneficiary of that forgiveness and restoration in my own life countless times, as I'm sure the Palins have," Dobson said.

Blessings,
Tammy