Oscar's Memorial

As I mentioned before we were able to attend Oscar's Memorial Service since it was held the day after mom's. Following Oscar's service we got to spend some time with his oldest son Eddie and his youngest son, John (from 2nd marriage).

Harold and Eddie

?(John's friend), John, David (Harold's brother)

David playing with his grandson, Jay-Jay

Later that evening we went to our favorite family-style restaurant - Babe's for some delicious fried chicken or chicken-fried steak with salad and an endless supply of creamed corn, mashed potatoes and gravy. Yummy!

Jay-Jay, Jason, Lindsey

GREAT NEWS!!!!

I almost forgot!!! We are going to be grandparents - officially! George and Mandy are expecting. So now we will be step-grandparents to an absolutely adorable little girl, Carma, who will be 5 in a few weeks and now our first grandchild. They estimate she will be due around August. I can hardly wait.

Caught Up!

Well, I think the below postings should have you all caught up with what has been going on - Good and Bad!

The boys are doing fine. Jacob is ready to come home in March for his R&R. His girlfriend, Tammy and I got together for lunch yesterday. George is home in KS with his family and they are all trying to recover from colds that they have been passing back and forth. I miss him. It was nice to see him and finally meet Mandy and Carma, when they came to be with me while mom was in the hospital and until Harold could join me and then returned for the funeral. Just wish it could have been under better circumstances. Today I got together with Bobbie for lunch to catch up on things. Friday is Canasta - ready since I missed that last few times. And next week have 2 Red Hat luncheons to chose from on Wed., but will go to the local one, since I haven't seen them since Dec. That is my Busy Bees group. On Fri., I go to the Sr. Ctr. (had to cancel original date as I was in TX and then the rescheduled date as I had a headache, so I go on Feb.5th).

So as you can see I am getting back into the old routine and happy to be able to do so.

The Scarlet Sophisticates Celebrate Christmas in January

Well, it had not been our intent to celebrate Christmas in January, but due to a snow storm, we had to postpone it from the original date in December. Even though the man in the red suit could not join us this time as he had already started his vacation and was unavailable, we did everything we originally planned in December. We had door prizes, an ornament exchange, hat contest, singing and yet another December "REDuation"!

I got to wear my new red dress and my purple hat since December was my birthday month. However, I forgot to have someone take a picture of me with my camera. I think someone did take my pic with theirs, so I will have to find out who and get a copy.

These are the Hat Contest contestants. Pat won most beautiful and after we got her up there the lady sitting in the very front of the picture won for most Christmasy! Can't remember the other categories or who won them.

The Scarlet Singers sang some Red Hat Christmas songs.

Everyone was decked out in their finery, some more so than others, but all beautiful.

Sibbie and Pat


Fran & Doris

Ann & Barbara

Ann , Mary Anne, Myra

Not sure who this is or what she won the beautiful ornament for.

The Reduation (when the member who was originally a "Pink Hatter" (under 50), turns 50 and earns the right to now wear the official colors of Red and Purple.

Taking the Red Hat Oath!

We had some little visitors and let them try on some hats.

(Per dad, their grandma is also a red hatter)

We, of course, had to get dad in on the hat wearing.

Well, as you can see we had a wonderful time as usual. Can't wait for this December!

Celebrating my Birthday and Mom's New Life with God

Well, Harold flew in on the 31st (my B'day) and we did go out to dinner on my birthday with Harold's brother, David, his wife, Linda, and their daughter, Lindsey. My sister, Melanie and her DH, Jimmy also were able to join us. We ate at Posada's, one of my favorite Mexican food restaurants. I forgot to take my camera and get any pictures.

The evening after mom's funeral service (Jan. 4th), my sister and her family all decided to go out to eat and celebrate mom's new life with God. We decided to try the new Hibashi Japanese Steak House. Normally, when home we go to Sakura's Japanese Steak House for my birthday dinner, so we rolled it all into one.

Melanie, Ronnie and Tiffany started the night out with a Japanese Boiler Maker (they just had to try it. They received a half filled mug of beer and a little shot glass with Saki in it...the waiter had them put their chop sticks across the top of their mugs and place the shot glass on them and then we counted down and hit the table and the chopsticks rolled and the shot glasses fell in and they chugged them down. They decided ONE was enough - LOL! I didn't get a picture with my camera as Melanie was having me take one with hers...need to get those from her. I stuck to my plum wine Anyway, we had a great time and it was nice to relax after everything.

1st came the fried rice

Then the veggies - Love the volcano!

Then the meats - Yum!

At the end after cleaning off the grill, the cook did a little drumming and juggling act for us.

He was very good and fast!

While eating we heard them going around with this drum and singing "Happy Birthday" to people and Tiffany decided she just had to have them come over, so she told them we were celebrating my birthday, so I got a bowl of ice cream (not very good - they passed it around and only Tiffany and Jennifer cared for it, so they ate it).

I told the guy in the tie that we were also celebrating our mom's new life as she had passed away and the funeral had been earlier that day, so he came back and decided to give me a complementary glass of Saki. Sorry, but that is the nastiest stuff I have ever tasted. Luckily, Ronnie likes it, so he finished it off for me.

Longtime No See Relatives

The one thing a sad time does is bring family together. My mother's only sibling/sister, Julia was unable to come as were her children. I know they wanted to be there, but that is not always possible. Geraldine, from mom's side of the family, did come, but unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to get a picture of her and only saw her briefly after the memorial service.

Several members of dad's side were able to come and were a great comfort to him. Our church held a luncheon for us prior to the memorial service, to ensure that we would eat. I am so glad they did as I am sure most of would not have eaten lunch otherwise. I was able to get some pictures there of some of those that attended as I rarely get to see them, since they all live in Louisiana.

This is the wonderful spread the Ladies at Southwayside Baptist put on for us.

Pictured is my brother, Gary (on opp. side of table) and Raymond.

Dad's brothers: Melvin, Willis and Shelby

Uncle Shelby's family:

Front Row L to R: Gale, Debbie, Shelby, Juanita

Back Row: Mark, Raymond (Debbie's husband), Curtis

Uncle Melvin and his wife Aunt Norma Ruth

L to R: Raymond (Joan's DH), Joan, Uncle Willis

My sister Melanie and her clan

1st Row: Ronnie (Tiffany's DH), Tiffany, Jennifer

Back Row: Melanie, Jimmy (her DH) and Brandon

The grandkids (taken after the service at home):

Front Row: Emi, Frieda, Jennifer, Tiffany & Ronnie

Back Row: Andy, Chris, Brandon, Mikey

(George had to go back to the hotel with his wife, Mandy and Carma

as they were not feeling well)

Remember in the earlier post about mom, I told you how we got dad to the hospital to see mom (twice). Well, here is the proof that we transported him in the back of a work van. Only our family would come up with this - despite the seriousness of the situation, you had to laugh at this and of course the second time we did it I just had to get a picture to prove we had done it.

Now for the memorial service we did hire NETI van to pick him up and take him and bring him back home, but he had refused to let us do this to get him to the hospital and demanded that we get him there and I am so glad we did. He needed to see her as he just couldn't grasp (or didn't want to) what we were telling her about her condition. Once he saw her he knew what we had been trying to explain to him, but he needed to see it for himself and have the opportunity to say goodbye to her.

Christmas Day with Friends

This Christmas was our first without the boys and I wasn't sure how I would handle that, but with the help of friends, I made it through. George is in Ft. Riley, KS with his new wife, Mandy and step-daughter, Carma. Jacob is in Iraq.

Our Christmas Tree.

Li'l Bits favorite place under the tree

Tigger and Li'l Bit would vie for who got to sit on top of the soft pile in

the rocker next to the tree. Tigger won this time.

We usually have several of my girlfriends over for Christmas dinner and this year we had a few extras. Margarethe invited her friend, Andy from work (when she was at Dahlgren), also Mary and Melodye and her son Chad came as in years past. I also invited one of my Red Hat friends, Bobbie and her daughter, Judy. Bobbie had lost her husband, unexpectedly, in July and I knew this was going to be a hard time for her, so I asked her come spend it with us and I am so glad that she did. It was nice to have a full table.

L to R: Harold, Andy, Mary, Margarethe, Melodye, Chad, Bobbie, Judy

These are the delicious desserts that Bobbie made for us!

Sorry for the neglect!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the neglect of my blog lately, but as most of you know I had to make a rushed trip home to Texas on Dec. 27th as my mother had had a massive heart attack and was on a respirator and in a coma. On Dec. 30th, thru a comedy of errors, we managed to get my father loaded into the back of a work van on a mattress and took him to the hospital, the ICU staff met us downstairs with a gurney and took him up to see mom. Once he saw her and talked to the drs. about her condition and with us, he agreed it was best to take her off the respirator and put her into God's hands. He originally said to do it the next day, but I requested we wait until the Jan. 1st as the 31st was my birthday and once he realized this he agreed to wait until Fri. So on Jan. 1st we all gathered again around her and the drs. removed her from the respirator. Dad stayed as long as he could, but started hurting, so my sister, Melanie, her DH, Jimmy and my DH, Harold (he flew in on the 31st) took him back home. My brother, Gary and I stayed with her. Shortly after they left she stopped breathing and shortly after that her heart stopped. She went peacefully.

As hard as it has been to lose my mother, I am getting by. I have decided that New Year's Day will not be a day of sadness. It will continue to be a day to celebrate, both the New Year and the start of her new life with God. I know she is happy now (even more so than she was in life) and she is no longer in any pain. She had been suffering a great deal with arthritis, bursitis and fibromyalgia in her knees. She suffers no more.

To add to the situation, Harold's brother-in-law, passed away on Dec. 30th from Alzheimers and other complications. Oscar had been married to DH's older sister, Bonnye, until she passed away in 1990 from breast cancer. He remarried a little over a year later and about 10 years ago he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers. He declined quickly and for awhile had to be put into an Alzheimer home, but later had to return home where he has been the past few years and started declining rapidly the last 6 mths. or so. While we had not seen him in a long time, he will be missed as he was a very special person in our lives. We were able to go to his memorial service since it was held the day after mom's.

Dad's health is a little better than it was when I left in Oct., but he is still having problems. He had just returned home on Dec. 21st and got to spend the holidays at home. He is on the hospice program and a nurse comes in the morning to check on him and clean him up and such and then in the late afternoon/evening another nurse comes to treat any bed sores or anything he might have. We just switched him to an air mattress and that has been a big help in letting the few he had heal and keep more from forming at this time. My brother and his son are staying at the house and caring for him as well.

Well, I will close for now and try to get a few things posted...Christmas pics, family pictures taken before mom's memorial service and our postponed due to snow Christmas Party for my Red Hat Scarlet Sophisticates group ( I got home the day before, so I was able to go). Life goes on.

Thank you all for your support and condolences during this time.

Love,
Cindy

In Loving Memory

In Loving Memory

Elizabeth Ann Faulk Prather

June 4, 1936 - January 1, 2010