Remembering Ed

Today, Joanna woke up and said Jesus is happy to see Pappy and Chris and Tracy. She is so loving and thinks of people all the time. She talks about people she hasn't seen in a while, brings them up on all sorts of contexts. But, it was weird being the first thing she said when she woke up.

Earlier this week, Joanna said to Nana: "Pappy sees me taking a nap on Nana's bed." Aww!

Tonight, I was showing Joanna photos on Facebook and someone had added my name to a photo of the Letcher family and friends but I wasn't in it. I was so glad to see the picture, though. A heavenly "mistake", I'm sure. Joanna saw the picture and her face lit up. She said "Hey! That's Pappy! That's my Pappy. I'm going to grow up just like Pappy and just like Mommy."

I can't help but be a little sad today. I miss Pappy, too. I sure love his family. What a wonderful blessing. It makes me really grateful to God for putting our families together. It is truly a gift. I can't even put words on it.

Pickled Okra

Sweet, sour, and spicy pickled okra. Here is a photo of our okra in the process of being stuffed into this jar of spicey goodness. Jason did all the work. Recipe courtesy of my cousin and her husband. They made this recipe last year and we thought it was the best we'd ever had. Jason recreated it and we weren't disappointed.

Feeding the Hotdog to "this mouth"

This is just the kind of cute stuff I get to take part in on a daily basis. The memorable moment happened a few minutes before the took this snapshot: Joanna said she wanted to feed the hotdog to "this mouth" referring to the Rolling Stones logo on Jason's shirt. This got a few chuckles out of all of us. Thomas laughs because we are all laughing. He's laughing at us, I guess. We are a corny crew.

Here is the video I took right after this picture:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amyjokidd/July2010#5502892912633380834

Smiling at Me!

I was just looking at the Picasa Photo Album software thumbnails. (It uses face recognition to match faces in an album together.) I was looking at these pictures of just Joanna's face. She had several where she was super excited and had the biggest smile. I am honored to be the one she is smiling at or the one holding her while she felt so happy that she smiled that big. I love my daughter. I'm so proud to be her mom. She is such a beautiful and sweet person and I'm lucky to get to wake up and see her smile every day.

Reporting Numbers over Time

The truth of numbers depends on when a story was written, I guess! 

The Keen Oberver Website posted, "Haslam won the fifty percent of the Republican primary vote." http://www.keenobservers.com/2233/bill-haslam-wins-the-tennessee-election/

WATE News' article says "Haslam defeated Rep. Zach Wamp, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and two others by taking 47 percent of the Republican vote."
http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=12924871

WATE has a chart posting all the election results at http://www.wate.net/news/election/august-2010/tennessee which I found to be helpful.

I found the first article reporting "50%" from my search online. I enjoyed reading the article. It seemed well written. However, now that I have read different articles, one difference jumped out at me: 50 percent and it seemed final. It makes me discount the other things in that article. I'm disappointed. Who is right? I had to go read a third article.

This third article from the AP reports 52 percent, which wasn't the final number either. However, the article said that 2 percent of the precincts had reported at the time the article was written. I can respect that.
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=129705&catid=2

"Not 2 Snakes"

Joanna asked me for a hot dog for breakfast today. She said "I want a hotdog--like a snake. Not two snakes. Just one snake." Exact words. Here's the story. I used to cut up the hotdog for her. But not anymore. The first time she described the way she wanted to have the hotdog whole, she asked for a hotdog "like a snake." This went on a couple of times. I thought "How observant and smart she is!" Jason and I went out on a date and Granny watched the kids. Joanna asked her for a hotdog like a snake. She called us to find out what that meant. (This was really thoughtful and funny at the same time.) She warmed up the hotdog and got it a little too hot so she cut the hotdog in half, longways, to help it cool off. She told Joanna it was two snakes. (Sounds reasonable, right? Joanna ate the hotdog. Now, though, Joanna adds more specifics to her request for a hotdog. "I want a hotdog--like a snake. Not two snakes. Just one snake."

A Good Weekend

Saturday, Jason and I went out! We went to get the mower's tire repaired, ate sushi for lunch, attempted to find shoes at Coffin shoes (and found nothing), then we visited a new thrift store, then we went to see Twilight. God love my hubby for watching a movie just because I wanted to see it! Rachel watched the kids and when we got home we grilled and fed her dinner. That morning Joanna and I went to the grocery store, before 8 a.m.! We got some milk (for gravy) and a few other groceries. Joanna picked out cheez-its for herself and a miniature rose bush for Granny. Jason made a yummy breakfast and we had a nice morning together. I got grumpy before we even left because I tried unsuccesssfully to get Joanna to go down for a nap--she was so tired!!! But, she eventually passed out on Granny as she had not slept the greatest the night before. Luckily we smoothed out the bumps and had a good day.