Laughter is the Best Medicine

I love kids sports and to be more specific, my grandchildrens sports. I am one of those grandmothers that is always on the side lines and always cheering. I get so excited that my daughter will actually come by and stand by me and say “mom are you having fun yet”?

All three of my grandchildren play soccer, they have been kicking balls around since just about their first steps walking. My son in law was actually offered a Soccer Scholarship in Highschool, but instead of taking the Scholarship he married my daughter. I know that he often wonders what could have been if he had taken the scholarship, but I also see how much he loves my daughter and what a fantastic father and husband he is. I am very proud to call him my second son.

Now that you know the background. My grandaughter is my first grandchild and she was barely walking while kicking balls at the same time. I call her, My Sunshine! They even have a Rotweiler (dog) that would kick and chase the soccer ball all over the backyard, my son inlaw would go in the backyard and play soccer with him. Of course now, the dog is about 12yrs old in people years and doesn’t run like he use to, but he still has the soccer ball and is all over the place with it.

Soccer is usually three outdoor seasons a year and I don’t know how many indoor seasons. They mainly play their games at Southlakes Soccer Field in Moore. I am usually so pumped up on the way to the games, I am listening to my car stereo to songs like “We Will We Will Rock You” or “We Are The Champions My Friend!” My granddaughter thinks this is halarious. I take my folding chair and my water bottle & don’t forget the camera and my mother on her scooter. I sit in the chair until the game starts and thats all I can handle.

I am on my feet hooting, yelling, clapping, cheering all the girls on and having a blast. I get so excited I forget to take pictures, my chairs sits empy for anybody who would like to sit in it, and my daughter is so busy laughing at me she almost looses track of the game. The girls on this team she plays with all started together and know each others moves and really support each other. My mother will be pretty quiet until my girl steals the ball and away we go, shes yelling for her to goal it. They are awsome and they are only 10 year olds playing 12 year old girls. My daughter was told that the Scouts for the Olympic team will be out scouting the 12year olds this season but don’t be surpirsed if they scout my girl.

Now my 2nd grandchild, the one I call My Man, is 7 years old and has practiced with his sister until he could start playing soccer about 3 years ago. He has learned alot just by observing the games and playing in their practices. He has developed his own skill styles and is a wonderful player. When he started it was a riot. I love to laugh and it was great for the soul. If you have ever watched a 5year old play soccer it is great to see, they will get so excited that they will go to kick the ball and that foot will just keep on swinging and they will fall head over heels on the ground, or they will get distracted by something on the side lines and stop what they are doing and just stare. I love it, they are adorable. But his coach is his dad and their team has been #1 at South Lakes Soccer Field for the past two years in their age group. When he gets or steals the ball, you can see this look of concentration on his face and his little tounge sticking out with a grin so large and bright on his face that it could light the sky. He is definetly one to watch.

Now my third grandchild started this season. It’s kind of scary because he doesn’t appear to be afraid of anything and he is such a little guy. He is an asthmatic and takes a breathing treatment every morning. But it dosesn’t slow him down. I know they say big things come in little packages, and if you ever see this little package, I do believe its true. He has two games this Sat. and I have to be there on the sidelines with my camera to get my first glimpse of the “wee one ” coming into his own. This is my little man Tate.

Make yourself feel good, instead of sitting around inside of the house being bored watching TV and go and watch our up and coming generation play some kind of sport. You don’t have to be related to any of them. It is watching life bursting all around you and feeling the energy and excitement that they put off, that helps ignite that spark inside.

What would you do if you were in your golden years and had a family member living with you helping you to get by on a daily basis with your day to day routines and another family member ask you how much money you have in the bank or if they can have a copy of your last will & testament.

Would you be offended? What thoughts would go through your mind? As you know I live and help take care of my mother on a daily basis and have since Sept. 6, 2003. That is 6 1/2 years of my life that has been given to my mother.

In that time we have gone through multiple health crisis and some major remodeling to my mothers home. Remodeling old bathrooms that had water leaking in the floors and walls for years, adding a sunroom that she always wanted to give more light and room to the house, a privacy fence so she had privacy in her backyard from the new neighborhood that was built behind her house, a new CH&A unit, a new hot water heater, backup generator etc. Mostly updates to her house to make it more condusive for her daily living. I have taken her on trips to see things that she had wanted to see before, but never been able to, due to sickness or finances.

I have always tried to give her whatever she needed when she mentioned it so she never had to want for anything. I put all the work that had to be done on my own shoulders and handled all the details and muscle that was needed.

Recently she has mentioned to me that another sybling has been inquiring how much money she has in her banking account and asking for a copy of her Last Will & Testament. This upset her termendously as it would me. That is very private information, and as far as I am concerned nobody elses business. How would you like to be asked the same thing! Our important papers are locked up at well as copies are at our attorneys office.

I am sorry but this does not sit well with me, if my own children had asked me for the same information, I would have said it was none of their business and they would find out when I was gone. Life is for the living, and if you can afford to do something that you would really like to do, then do it. You can’t take it with you so why not enjoy what life you have left. After all it is your money and was left for you.

Who knows how long you will be on this earth, enjoy what you can when you can. It really doesn’t matter what other people think. If they are not walking in your shoes, they really don’t know what it is like.

I love to laugh and do things all the time to try and keep my mother laughing. She is not getting younger, and does feel all the aches and pains as we age which really don’t do much for her desposition, so let her be and if she ask you do something for her, just do it. If she ask your advice, give it but remember you are not walking in her shoes so think it through before you answer.

If you really want to make her feel loved and appreciated without a price in your head. Then ask her if there is anything that she needs, call and invite her out for dinner without an catches. Spend more than an hour with her at a time and don’t criticise her or me for what ever reason you may come up with. Be happy with your life as she is trying to be happy with hers and mine. Find something to make you laugh and stop and smell the roses on a daily basis you will find life will be so much more rewarding. Smile at somebody who looks like their having a bad day, it just might bring a smile back to you on their face. You do get less wrinkles when you smile ( I read that in a book somewhere).

Do you ever have those family get togethers where the family sits around and talks and laughs about things that have happened in the past? Well I have a story for you!

This story actually happened about 11 or 12 years ago, believe it or not.

My father came from a family of eight children that were raised during the depression, one of his brothers who lived in El Paso, Texas passed away, and we were planning the final trip to El Paso for his funeral.

I had a 2 door Ford Explorer, my father was 6′4″ tall and my mother is 4′11″ tall and I was the one driving. Now when you have a two door explorer, it can be a challenge for anybody to get into the back seat. My mother was so short that she needed a helping hand up and then had to crawl on her knees in the back and my fathers legs were so long that they would get tangled in the seat belt straps everytime he got in or out of the car. My father had Alzhimers Disease and was in the middle stage of it, the stages where you were confused or disoriented most of the time but there were moments of clarity when you knew everything that was going on. He did know that we were going to his brothers funeral in El Paso and it would be a very long ride.

Now if you have ever been to El Paso, Texas, it is in the middle of no where and either very hot and dry or cold and wet. Everything started out normal. When we arrived in El Paso, Texas we checked into the hotel and contacted other members of the family and let them know that we were there. They explained where the church was and where my uncle was so we could go and visit. Bless my dads heart he was excited to see his other brothers and sisters but very hard to handle and at times very disoriented.

That night my mother, father, younger brother and myself stayed in the same hotel room. My father ws very confused, he forgot where we were and started pounding on the walls. My mother was a nervous wreck and my brother and I looked at each other and we both wanted to run away. After everything settled down, it was either laugh or cry and it was much better to laugh.

We went to the church the next day and had a beautiful service, that is if any funeral can be beautiful. Now is when it gets wierd. After the funeral and you all line up to go to the cemetery in your procession line, we had about 25 vehicles in this line. But we kept driving and driving until we were almost 30 miles outside of town. My dad was very anxious, a person with Alhizmers does not stay confined inside of a car very well, it reminded me of the commercials are we there yet.

When we finally arrived at the cemetery to our surprise the grave had not been dug yet! There was some confusion about the equipment being there to do the work and the time that it had to be done. At any rate, we were all asked to leave and go back to out prospective places that we were staying and wait for a phone call. The funeral director was to call us when it was time to come back for the funeral.

Well just before dusk the funeral director called and said that everything was done and it was time to go back. After I managed to get my parents back into my vehicle we made the long drive back out to the cemetery. The bobcat was there to dig the hole but it had still not been dug. Now this cemetery was 30 miles outside of town and there were no street lamps around for light. It was an old fashioned cemetery. The moon was the brightest that I had ever seen it.

It was now getting dark, we were asked to move our cars where our headlights would shine on the bobcat and we could get this hole dug and have this over. We had car battery’s going dead. It was finally dug and the preacher was talking, remember the car lights are still on us. He finishes talking and goes to hand the folded United States Flag to my aunt, (as my uncle had been in the Navy) and drops the flag and it falls beneath the casket into the hole. The guy that was working the backhoe, crawled down into the hole and picked up the flag, handed it to the funeral director and tried to give it to my horrified aunt.

Of course the flag was desecrated and he was trying to give it to my aunt. My aunt of course refused to take the flag and said that it needed to be sent back to Washington DC and burned and replaced with another one. It is now pitch dark and there are wolves howling in the background. My father falls into a sticker patch getting out of my vehicle after having his legs getting tangled in the seat belt straps, my mother goes to help him and falls on top of him in the sticker patch. I took pictures of the whole thing, but the film was double exposed and the pictures that printed looked like ghost people standing in a cemetery at night.

Now even though this is a solem occasion, you have to laugh. I would never have thought that I would be involved in something like this in a hundred years. This is a story that will be in the family for a long, long time.

This Friday will be the installation day of the famous backup generator by Generac. All Installation is done by licensed professionals, all cost are included into the total balance that you will pay. Installation Includes Ground Preperation, Permits, Materials, Power Box with Back Up Switch inside your house and of course the generator etc.

We have a 4 bedroom house approx. 1800sq’ mol, and this generator is suppose to handle all of our emergency needs should we have a power shortage in the cold or heat. We will need power for our Central Heat and Air unit, 2 Refridgerators, 1 Microwave, 1 Freezer, my mothers By-Pap (Breathing Machine) & Oxygen Machine. We purchased a 14,000kt Unit. Which should be more than enough power to get us by.

The installer from Generac comes out to your house and will estimate how many kilowatts you will need to just get you by or have alittle extra kilowatts if needed, according to your personal needs. Before you purchase the unit and have it ordered. I found out some very interesting things as I am always loaded with questions, my mother says I am one of those people that has the mind set of, inquiring minds want to know.

I did find out that you use less watts when you use your Central & Air Unit compared to a free standing or ceramic heater. I would have thought it to be the opposite. There are units that run off of natural gas or propane gas. The unit that we are having installed will run off of natural gas as our house is gas & electric. When the placement is picked for the unit, it has to be at least 3 to 4 feet away from any window, due to the possibility of carbon dioxide being released in the air.

Our gas meter is behind our house and beside our sunroom. A licensed plumber will lay the gas pipes up to 5 feet from the gas meter without charging extra fees, if they had to dig out further it would cost Approx. $30. more per foot. The installation should take one to two days to be completely installed. You have a one year warranty on the Generac Unit or you can purchase a separate service agreement and have it maintained longer and more frequently.

I contacted my homeowners insurance to see it I needed to have it covered, we do not and the policy does not change. The unit is under the dwelling part of our insurance policy. It does ad to the value of the home should it ever be sold. There will be a weekly test done and this will be set up on a timer by the tenichian to insure that the unit is working correctly. Every Sat. when the noon bell goes off the generator will kick in and run approx. 15 minutes. It s being set up to kick on when the noon bell goes off, as it is a generator and all generators are not quiet and this should not disturb any of our neighbors. Did I mention that you can purchaset a muffler to be put on the generators so they are hardly noticed when they are running? So far everything sounds fantastic.

My mother is like a kid in a candy store right now, she is so excited that she can hardly stand it. She will be able to stay in her own home should and problems arise with the power being loss for any amount of time.

If this is something that you may want to consider, we purchased our unit through Lowes and they handled all details. This is not an cheap purchase, but not everything worth having is.

This puts a smile on my face, peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

My mother will celebrate her 75th Birthday tomorrow, March 5. Whenever she is asked her birthdate, she is quick to answer 3/5/35. She was born in the eyes of March. In a little farm house between Enid & Pond Creek Oklahoma.

She has had a tough life but a full life. If you ask her about her life she will tell you, that she lost her mother when she was 2yrs old in Pond Creek, Oklahoma to a blood clot after surgery. She has one older sister and one yournger sister. She was raised by her grandmother and step mom and physically abused by her step mom on a daily basis.

She was married at 16yrs old, had my older brother at 17. My father was in the military and died in an awlful car accident celebrating his 21st birthday, my mother was 19 years old and 8 1/2 months pregnant with me at the time.

She remarried when I was 2 years old, My step father was fantastic and he was the only father I ever knew. My older brother died in a drowning accident when he was 29 years old. I had two other brothers from my step father, who I always considered my real brothers as well as my older brother.

My younger brother died of a heart attack at the age of 41, in 2003. My Step father died of Alhiezmers in Dec. of 2004. I could not imagine losing one child not to mention two husbands and two children. She ask the lord almost everyday why she is still here. I tell her, it is because the lord still has a plan for her and there is still unfinished business on the earth for her to do yet.

She has three grandchildren, and four great grandchildren who love her very much. Tomorrow she will be 3/4 of a century old, and has earned everyone of those years. If I could write down all the knowledge that she has learned and all the wisdom that she has to pass on, how much further ahead I would be in this world.

I have heard the stories of the pranks that she has done to other people growing up in a small town, everything from the Haloween Parades down main street where the local kids have stolen the outhouses from someones property and left them parked in the middle of the main drag to the hang outs at the cemetery and the highschool inititations with the horse collars. And I am so thankful that I did not have to go through them.

Celebrate life with your loved one, tomorrow may bring curves, hills and valleys to go through and you may be left wondering how you got there without the guidance that could be given so freely and easily.

Don’t forget yourself when you are wrapped up in the every day process of taking care of your loved ones. You need to be able to tell your story too….