Drinks
Desserts
Jennie's Red Stuff
Green Beans
Stuffing
Sweet Potato Casserole
Rolls
Aunt Jeff
Yesterday was the first day for Emily and Blair to spend the whole day at day care. We have to pack a lunch each day. Randy and I spent part of our Sunday evening getting their lunches ready. I have an igloo cooler and thought it would be perfect to pack both lunches in. WRONG!
We packed two bags of Blair's favorite Bar-B-Q chips, two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two yogurts, two Ziploc bags of cucumbers (they both love cucumbers), two pieces of homemade cake, and two large bottles of water. We were so pleased with our well thought out lunches. They would really enjoy what we had packed.
When I went to picked them up, I was met by Blair. He had a very stern look on his face. I knew things were just not right in his world.
Grandmother: Hey guys. You ready to go?
Blair: Grandma, I need to tell you something important. Emily gave my BAR-B-Q Chips away, and I really wanted them Bad!
Tears are now streaming down his face and he is not going to be consoled. He is downright, outright, infuriated by the blatant injustice that has befallen him at the hands of his now ‘Traitor’ of a sister.
Grandmother: Blair we can discuses this in the car? Okay?
Blair: No Grandma. You don't understand. She gave my BAR-B-Q Chips away to that girl.
Grandmother: Okay Blair. I do understand, but we will talk about this in the car!
Tears are still flowing and his look that could kill is directed at his sister. We get in the car. Blair is now ready to let loose on his sister.
Blair: You gave my BAR-B-Q chips to that girl and I wanted them. You are mean!
Grandmother: Emily, did you do that?
Emily: Yes.
Grandmother: Why did you to that to him Emmy?
Emily: Well grandma, that girl gave me something and I had to give her something to replace it.
Blair: MY CHIPS !
Grandmother: Why didn't you give her your chips?
Emily: Because I wanted them. I was hungry!
Grandmother: Emily, you know that was wrong. Blair loves those chips and you should not have given them away.
Emily: Well Grandma, he had cucumbers. He should have ate them!
Blair: I wanted my chips and you gave them away.
Tears! Tears! and more Tears!
Grandmother: Emily don't you ever do that again. You give you own stuff away. Not your brothers.
Emily: Okay.
I can hear Blair sniffling in the back seat. I think things are going to get a little calmer now. NOT! All of a sudden the tears are back in full force as Blair has another flash back of the day.
Blair: Grandma, she ate all my yogurt too! She ate all my stuff. She is so mean. I hate her!
Grandmother: No, you do not hate her. Emily, did you do that?
Emily: Yes, Grandma. I was hungry and you know I love that yogurt.
Blair: I love it too, Emily. You are so stupid.
Grandmother: Blair, no name calling. Emily you should not have ate his stuff. How would you feel it that had been done to you?
Emily: I wouldn't care. He should have ate his cucumbers!
What a dilemma! We can no longer use one box for their lunches. One of them has papaw's two stomachs, and the other will starve if left to the mercy of the other. Needless to say after all was said and done, they were both laughing and playing in the back seat as though nothing had ever happened.
Grandmother Jeff
While Chuck was upon his henhouse crowing the hatching of Jeannie Hen's egg, every chicken around rushed to see the little chick in wonderment. Only a few could get into the henhouse at a time so Jeannie Hen came to the door with the chick. She stood the chick in the doorway and kept her wings around it to make sure it didn't fall out the opening.
All of the hens looked at the chick and through he was very nice looking. "What is it." said one of the hens.
Jeannie Hen said, "A boy."
“What's his name?” shouted another hen.
Jeanie Hen said, "Matthew Wesley Squawker, but we’re going to call him Weasel."
Jeffery Hen looked at the chick and couldn't tell anything different about him, he looked just like all of the other chicks. She wondered why his egg had been brown.
The next morning Sandra Hay's husband broke the morning silence with the announcement of the laying of an egg. As usual all of the hens went to look at it. Jeffery Hen was in wonderment again. The egg was pure white, but the egg shell Sandra Hay had eaten was brown.
The next morning Patricia Hen's husband woke everyone up with the announcement of another egg. Jeffery Hen went over to look at the egg along with some other hens. Each hen went into the henhouse one at a time. When it came her turn she noticed the egg was pure white not brown. Jeffery Hen didn't know why since the eggshell Patricia Hen had eaten was brown.
It came daylight and Henry was up in the redwood tree crowing. All got out of the henhouse and went to the picking ground to eat. Jeffery Hen told the other hens that she didn't sleep well last night.
She asked Vicki Hen and Henrietta if they didn't care to keep an eye on her chicks. Jeffery Hen got into the henhouse but she didn't feel like roosting, she wanted to lay in the nest.
When it did came time to go to roost Panda and Crystal Fawn entered the henhouse. Jeffery Hen got up out of her nest and felt something very small come out of her and she also felt it hitting her leg. She looked back at her nest and it was so dark she couldn't see what it could be.
6 Killed, 4 Hurt By Slag Blast .
St. Joseph Gazette - Jul 21, 1942
least six persons were killed and four others seriously Injured tonight when a slag pile at the Oakwood smokeless coal mine here exploded and burled miners' …Hunt Bodies Of Children .Three Believed Trapped In Huge...
Reading Eagle - Jul 20, 1942
... were known to be dead as a result of the blast, which buried the miners' cabins at the operation of the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company last night…Six Buried Alive In .
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Jul 21, 1942
Ritchie chief bookkeeper at the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company at whose operation the tragedy occurred said the bodies of Mrs Robert Estop and two of five…
Amber said that Jevon was home from Georgia this weekend. He has been working up there for several months. It is a thrill for him to come home and see the family.
This past weekend, he was working on his four wheeler with Caitlyn. Her brain went to working on how she could get her Dad to stay home.
Caitlyn - "Dad, if you stayed here and didn't go back to Georgia, you could work on your four wheeler all you want. Don't you think that is a good idea?"
Jevon - “Sure Caitlyn, but if I stay here, I can't make money so that you and Momma can go get your nails and hair done, and buy all those pretty clothes."
Caitlyn - “Well, in that case Dad, you go on back to Georgia all you want to!"
Story from Grandma Jeff
Photos from Amber’s Facebook
( It has been quite a while since we last visited the henhouse. If you need to refresh your memory of what was going on, click on HenTale in the LABELS list. )
While Roo and Bear was gone, Patricia Hen and Sandra Hay were both in need of egg shell to lay their eggs. The elder hen has visited Jeannie Hen and Cluck weekly checking on their egg. While in the picking ground Patricia Hen and Sandra Hay's husbands were asking around, wondering where they can find some egg shell. "Our hens can't lay their eggs!" said the roosters.
Jeffery Hen only knew one thing to do. She went over to Jeannie Hen's house and while she was on her way there the elder hen came out of the house. Jeffery Hen said, "Elder Hen, there are two hens in need of egg shell to lay their eggs."
The elder hen went back into the henhouse and told Cluck about what was happening.
Jennie Hen said, "Our egg should hatch anytime now." Jennie Hen got off of her nest and looked at the egg. She said, "Look! I think I see a crack!"
Cluck and the elder hen flew up to the nest and noticed the crack. Cluck flew back down and went outside to tell Jeffery Hen to wait there, that the egg was hatching. "Please don't tell anybody, we are not ready to announce it yet."
Cluck gathered up all of the egg shell and took it outside to Jeffery Hen. He said, "Jeffery Hen, take half of this egg shell and give it to one hen and the other half to the other hen. Please don't let anybody know that the shell is brown. That was our secret, we didn't want anybody to know our egg was brown."
Jeffery Hen took the egg shell. On her way to Patricia Hen's house she was wondering what the brown egg shell tasted like. She took a bite from it. When she got to Patricia Hen's House she gave her half of what was left of the egg shell. She tried to give it to her in a way so she didn't see the brown side. Patricia Hen had the egg shell eaten in less then a second.
Jeffery Hen next went on her way to Sandra Hay house. Patricia Hen left for the watering hole to get a drink of water. On her way to Sandra Hay's house Jeffery Hen took another bite of the brown egg shell. When she finally got to Sandra Hay's house, she laid out the egg shell with the brown side down. Sandra Hay was in such a hurry to get it eaten that she just swallowed it whole. Quick as she got it down she was off to the watering hole for some water too.
Jeffery Hen started back to the picking ground. When she got there Cluck flew to the top of his henhouse and announced the hatching of Jennie Hen's egg.
Here’s another old photo from a box in Dad’s room. This one, I think, is a photo of our Uncle Homer on his Wedding Day.
The envelope they are holding appears to read ‘Our Marriage Seal’.
I’m a bit embarrassed to admit, I have no idea which wife this might have been. I seem to recall he was married more than once. I can remember Homer and his family living on Road Creek briefly when I was young but he lived in Chicago much of his life.
( Luci – Do you think you could get the story behind this photo from Mom and Dad ? )
The Ants and the Grasshopper
THE ANTS were spending a fine winter's day drying grain collected in the
summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly
begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, "Why did you not treasure
up food during the summer?”
He replied, "I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing."
They then said in derision: "If you were foolish enough to sing all the
summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter."It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.
Luci said... What did I do wrong. You all are up there having all that fun in the snow while I am sitting here snowbound again and this time listening to Rock Me to Sleep Mother.
Cameron got his glasses broke on our first day here. Thank God for Dad! He has a solution for everything.
Traci via Facebook
| Someone has set the first few verses to music. Click the button to listen. |
Here is another old photo I scanned recently:
That is Mom and Dad with their grandsons in about 1983.
It takes a much wider angle to get a photo of them with their grandsons today.
It appears the annual Ratliff Family invasion of West Virginia has gotten on the road.
Looks like Jeff is doing her usual good job of keeping an eye on the kids and making sure everyone stays safe.
Have the Emergency Rooms in West Virginia been alerted yet?
Photos from Traci via Facebook
I found this photo on Facebook yesterday. Luckily I had graduated before Uncle Willie came to Elkhorn to teach, so I was never in his class.
I can’t figure out what that big bronze colored device on his desk might be. I thought at first it might be a scotch tape dispenser but that wheel doesn’t look right and I’ve never seen one that huge. It’s probably some instrument of torture for poor students. Maybe that wheel is the proverbial grindstone we were supposed to keep our noses to.
While checking on Mom and Dad’s place at Road Creek this week, I ran across what appears to be a recent photo of Lucille. Thought I should share it with everyone…
This actually looks better than she normally does, I wonder if she has been back to Glamor Shots again?
So yesterday, Caitlyn is crying because she doesn't want to go to school. She gives me the saddest puppy eyes and sobs, "It's a FREE country, Mom! That means, if I don't wanna do something then I don't have to. And I don't wanna go to SCHOOL!"
Geez, I don't remember pulling the "It's a free country" card until I was like 9 or 10. I'm afraid this girl may be a force to be reckoned with.
Amber via Facebook
I grabbed this from Facebook a few days ago – Clyde
Mindy Ratliff-IsgetteOK, Ya know how Confucius Says ? Well I got a new one…
|
We stayed with Luci this past weekend. She must not have been ready for our arrival because this book was left out on her coffee table when we got there…
I never suspected Luci would be involved in this kind of activity but it may explain a few things I could never quite figure out:
Yes, this could explain a lot.
I put a dollar bill in Dad’s birthday card this year. He seemed amazed to get a card with money in it. In all his eighty-six years he had never received one before.
I told him I had decided to try to repay him for all he had spent in raising me, clothing me and sending me to college (not to mention his huge investment in feeding me.) To accomplish that I was going to put a dollar in his birthday card every year until I had him paid back. A great plan I thought.
There was only one flaw in my plan however. Guess who got the dollar …
We went to Owingsville this past weekend to see Mom and Dad.
Dad's birthday was Saturday so Jennie baked a cake and Luci fixed a huge roast. We got there a little after lunch time and found the Assisted Living Center's staff had prepared a big lunch, complete with a birthday cake for Dad. He was already stuffed like a tick ... both stomachs.
