The Front Porch Swing

[dpenning]

Heading up to Billings again today, this time for a little dress shopping and there's some electrical stuff Ken needs to pick up. Tam wants to buy a formal for the cruise's "formal night" but she knows she'll only need it the one time. She's decided she wants to hit some of Billings' many consignment shops to find something she really likes and can afford for a "one time use". I already have mine so there'll be no need for me to look, but I'll bet my last cup of coffee that I end up trying some on anyway. Poor Ken - should be as much fun waiting around for us to try on dresses as it will be for us to tag along behind him at Lowes and Home Depot! Who knows? I may find something I like better than the one I have (fat chance - I LOVE that dress) and just have to add it to my collection. Teehe

Poor Ken indeed! I'd rather do the Lowes and Home Depot run too! LOL!

 

[Blooie]

Yes, you do! My mom, unbeknownst to the kids, had our grand parents all tell her stories from when they were kids, she wrote down some of her own and my dad's as well. Some were stories they would never have told us to our face, but GREAT stuff. She has since put them in a binder for each of the kids. We love reading those stories.

Every family has wonderful stories. I actually save mine in a folder in my "treasure box". Someday my kids will look back through that old fashioned box and the folder it holds and say, "Gee, I'd forgotten (or I remember) that!" They'll understand that every little thing they did for each other, for the family, or for total strangers was appreciated and that I loved them for that and for being my babies. They'll learn things about me and the husband I loved so very much; they'll learn things about themselves and each other. I'll never have a fancy house or a lot of material things to pass on to them, but I will have left them a legacy of life and that, to me, is precious..I've felt strange sometimes going through the belongings of family members who have passed away. I almost feel guilty, snooping through things that they kept, whether because they meant something special and were carefully saved, or they were simply tucked away and forgotten. I want my kids to understand that I WANT them to look forward to going through those treasures, not dread that process.

I have my "Treasure Box", (which somehow evolved into 'Treasure BoxES') and those are the only boxes I know my kids will understand. Because of those brightly colored hat boxes and what they hold, my kids also have begun collecting treasures as well. In the red box are things from my kids' lives. I've placed programs for weddings, school and graduation programs, funerals, and newspaper articles and ticket stubs for special events. The blue hat box has the folder with stories I've written for or about my family, personal notes to them, and the few items left from when I grew up. The yellow box is full of things that have to do with the grandkids. It holds bassinet identifications and footprint cards from the hospitals when they were born (if you ask the staff when a new little one is born, they will always make up a spare for you, as long as the parents agree), first haircut curls, birth announcements, newspaper birth notices, a photo of each baby and parents at baby's birth, dance recital programs, their school event programs, a rock Katie found that is shaped like a heart, Austin's obituary (I hate that one!), one of Kendra's surgical ID bands, and now a photo of Jamie, his wife Rachel, and newborn son Landyn, among other treasures. Every once in awhile one of the kids will ask me if I'd like an extra "whatever" to put in my treasure boxes.

I don't have much to leave my family when my time here is over. But if I can give them a legacy - a sense of who they were and that they were my everything - then I've left them my memories to take care of. Any of the rest of the things around the house are secondary to the things in those three treasure boxes. So when it's their turn to go through boxes I can only pray that they'll be able to see that the little things in their lives mattered deeply.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I write for the Lovell Chronicle. If I could figure out how to post a link I could post video of Senator Mike Enzi using two of my columns in speeches on the floor of the US Senate. He butchers them when he delivers, but it's still the words I wrote. I like him a lot but his problem isn't that he doesn't get it - his problem is that he can't sell it! I heard that line in a movie once...I think it was The American President. There was another line in there that I like - "I was too busy trying to keep my job to do my job." LOL

Edited to add: Type Senator Mike Enzi Diane Badget into Google (just like that) and a couple of things do pop up.

Here is a link I think can take a person directly to a video ...

 

[chickenboy190]

Today I saw I had caught a coon

So I let my chickens out and went over to see how big it was and such. Well this coon had babies in the trap last night

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Today I saw I had caught a coon

So I let my chickens out and went over to see how big it was and such. Well this coon had babies in the trap last night

Raccoon Babies = Chicken Nuggets?

( I'll send myself to my room now. )

 

[Tomtommom]

Today I saw I had caught a coon

So I let my chickens out and went over to see how big it was and such. Well this coon had babies in the trap last night

Aww... I feel bad for the wildlife. They're just doing what comes natural. We're in their territory, really.

That said, I don't have predator issues. Only had a few hawk run-ins. I'm sure I would feel different if they ate my birds.

 

[enola]

........not telling what I would do with coon and babies.........

 

[chickenboy190]

Raccoon Babies = Chicken Nuggets?

( I'll send myself to my room now. )

Maybe....

lol

Aww... I feel bad for the wildlife. They're just doing what comes natural. We're in their territory, really.

That said, I don't have predator issues. Only had a few hawk run-ins. I'm sure I would feel different if they ate my birds.

So then are you saying you don't like that I trap or you feel bad for the coon because she had her babies in a trap?

........not telling what I would do with coon and babies.........

okay

 

[TexasLisa]

Today I saw I had caught a coon

So I let my chickens out and went over to see how big it was and such. Well this coon had babies in the trap last night

What is with you and babies???? You must really have strong pheromones!

Lisa

 

[Oldmomma]

My kids each have a check box with their first items in them, a folder of photos as well. Parents being military we left lots of stuff behind and then two marriages took their share of things. I have a few special things and its been hard leaving my "life" behind for domeone else to pack up. I tried to go through stuff in every room over the past few years in the planning to move here. We came with each 100lbs of stuff, so think what you could carry of your life across the world on an airplane. He sent two cars and packed a few more things in each but so much still behind. I got my silver settings I used for holidays but yet to celebrate anything. No place to put it so its still in boxes. I got boxes of books butno bookcase and tons of more books back home.
One item sits in a safe waiting to be shipped that means more to me than anything else...a little gum machine coiled up snake..yep thats right a dime toy. My great uncle was "special" and well he was old even when I was little. I loved him and he use to grab me up and rub his 5oclock shadow beard up under my chin til I squealed. Well when my uncle learned we was moving away when I was 7 he gave me a going away present. I keep that plastic snake in with my few pieces of real jewelry and all my kids know its story. Dont know who will get it when im gone but til then its treasured. I dont have many wordly things but ive come to believe that a belief in God, being part of my kids lives and doing right by others leave more than I could ever hope for. Both my parents have passed away, my birthfather and his family chose to not be a part of my life. With all our moving most family is just a note here and there or totally forgotten me. But memories are all I have left of so many people in my life. I hope my kids will have good ones for me one day. My own family is getting divided up and I might lose two more of my kids to go back since they font like it here but guess there is a plan somewheres in all this. My dream of growing old sitting on a front porch swing watching my grandbabies play is fading...