This about the truest picture ever.

JoAnn's little tin cup

All of us know and love JoAnn, but how many of you know she once stood on the street with a little tin cup and got change from strangers?
I really think I should explain this...
We had moved from Dallas to Sherman. Housing was almost impossible to find, but our parents did find a place on Elm St. On one side the street there had at some point been businesses  along that one half block. Most of them were gone except for a barber shop and small cafe..the rest were rented to people looking for a temporary place to live. It was less than an ideal place to live,but sometime you have no choice. It was a rather busy street because of the barber shop and cafe plus there was a grocery store across the street along with a used car lot and service station on the corner.
Daddy and mother both worked and I was in school. JoAnn was 5 years old. Daddy's s-mother  lived with us and watched JoAnn. Children do get out of your site at times and this happened, she got her little cup and preceded to stand out there on the sidewalk just out our front door. At some point grandma missed her and discovered what she was doing and promply got her in. Daddy and mother got the news when they got home and to say they were horrified is putting a gentle touch on it.
Needless to say, her career ended with a screeching halt!!!.I have no idea how many day's she got by with this before being caught or how much money she brought in. One thing you can say about this 5 year old kid..she knew early on that money was a good thing to have.
By the way, sissy what did you spend that money on????

Wayne being lazy (just kidding you aren't lazy)

When I have wanted to publish something I have just emailed it to JoAnn and she has been very gracious to print it for me..She said though that I needed to learn how to do this-- she knew I would enjoy doing it. I told Wayne that JoAnn gave me instructions on how to do it and he wanted to know what they were. I told him there was a half page of them---too long to read off he would need to just look at them...he said :"wouldn't it be eaiser to just let JoAnn do it?"   duh....

Esther

Tribute to my mother-in-law--  Esther hale

Since this is Esther’s birthday month and she is always wanting us to write something for the family website I thought I would write about her!

When I met Wayne’s family in 1970 I met a lady that would forever keep my life interesting.  She was a lady with a wig and sold Mary Kay.  She was always into some “experience” and dragged me into a few of them with her!    While Wayne and I were dating he asked me to Sunday lunch at their house.   She was making mashed potatoes and as we walked thru the front door she somehow dropped the pan and the mashed potatoes flew through the kitchen to the living room and plopped on the floor.  This is one of my first impressions of my mother-in-law.  After that it was just one thing after another.  One time she almost burned down the kitchen with a grease fire on the stove.  Extensive damage!!   For some reason (chance of money) we decided to make drapes (I think it was her idea).   Leland made us a large table to cut the fabric so we set out to make our first drapes for the office of the First Baptist Church (free of charge of course).  After that my dad paid us to make drapes for his mobil home.  We discovered right quick that this was hard work and decided to fold up the table.    Our next project we experienced for several good years was our business of catering weddings.  After awhile we purchased and old Volkswagon Van and  would  load up the van and away we would go.  Esther would look in the paper at wedding engagements and call them and set up appointments to talk to them.  One time we had decorated a cake and left it on her kitchen table.   Mike came in from work and did not turn on the light, took out a frozen loaf of bed and threw it on the table!!!!    Also we were catering a large wedding at a Sherman church and I heard a loud bang and when I turned around I saw Esther dazed  and standing by a large plate glass window.   She was walking lickety split and ran into the window.  We wondered then if she needed glasses!!!

I think her next adventure was photography.  She attended classes at Grayson College and became a photographer.  Next  came the studio in the basement.  She was a wild woman with a camera.  If you stood still she snapped!! 

Of course there are many stories before my time in the Hale family.  We have all laughed at the thought of Leland teaching her how to drive and her running over a man!!  When she looked in her rear view mirror all she saw was him making a flip in the air.  He was not seriously hurt and I think he hobbled off!!  We have all heard about her painting the kitchen floor with spray paint.  This may not sound so bad until I tell you it was black and she made it polk a dot!  One time she wanted to check on the Wayne and Jo Ann who were working in the hay field (at night while learning to haul hay)  but it was a ways from the road and she was afraid she would walk on a snake.  Her decision was to run as fast as she could to avoid any snakes but she did not count on a bobwire fence in the way. (Remember it was dark) She had stripes where she bounced off the fence.  Ouch!!!

Well I am sure I will think of other things during the day so if you hear me laughing you know it is about my MOTHER-IN-LAW.  Wayne and I will be married 40 year in April and without her it would not have been the same.  Love you Esther and Happy Birthday!!

Note from Jo Ann:  All this time I thought it was just me she was getting in trouble.

Another Esther experience

.let me tell you what happened to me...On the way to church, just as we got to Cannon I looked down and still had on my house shoes. I neary freaked out, we had to turn around and come back home so I could change shoes. Leland just thought that was so funny. I couldn't believe he turned around and told the lady in the pew behind us about it, she isn't even someone we know that well but she thought it was funny. We would have been late if church had of started on time this morning. Eddie and Shauna were already there and he said "we saw y'all going back the other way when we were going to church"..I told him what happened and he immediately told Wayne and Beth. Wayne started looking at me and pointed at my feet. I really would not have been surprised if Beth had of announced it. I guess she may know she does have her limits with me...ha..(why am I getting this feeling  that this may end up on the family website)....

Note: She's right, don't tell me anything, I'll tell everybody.. Could have been worse, she could have had on some house shoes I saw at Wal Mart's that had "Miller Time" with a picture of a beer can on the top of them  What if she had those and on forgotten and wore those into church.. Yep it could have been worse.

Cell Phone versus Garage Door Opener

Submitted by Jo Ann Warrington

It's been quite awhile back but Esther told me that Leland won't get a cell phone. I said "EVERYBODY has a cell phone." They do, right? I told her he needs to have one too. She said he didn't want one, so I suggested that he needs to look like he has one, so he could wear a garage door opener clipped to his belt and no one would know the difference. It may be bigger than a cell, but he is a big man so no one would notice that detail.

Time went on and he didn't have one, nor would he wear a garage door opener clipped to his belt. But, on March 25th of this year he got a cell phone.
Historical day for sure.

So here he is talking on his phone. Doesn't he look manly? But that doesn't have anything to do with the cell phone.

Tell me what you think..

O.K. pretend I am writing a letter to Dear Abby, and you are Abby.

Recently I made a trip to East Texas and North Texas to see family. . Since I live in San Antonio and have to get in traffic to get out of San Antonio, then go through Austin and then Dallas I figured I would go to my sister, Ione's house in Canton (East Texas) first. That way after leaving Austin I could turn East in Waco and go to Canton and miss Dallas, then go from Canton to Esther & Leland's house in North Texas and miss traffic again. Then when I left my sister's house from North Texas to go home, I would leave on Sunday when there is less traffic going through Dallas, then to Austin and then to San Antonio. While I was at my sister's house I was talking to her son Mike (my nephew) and told him of my clever plan of coming and going from San Antonio. I told him I planned it that way so as to miss all the traffic. He said real serious, "Well I'm sure the people in those big cities were glad you chose to go through their city when there was less traffic." I thought "what?, that's not a compliment."  I know he was teasing, I think. How did he come up with that so fast?

Then, my other nephew Wayne, Mike's brother went with us to eat at Braum's. I got choked, you know how when you take a drink of your drink and it goes down the wrong way? That's what happened. I was sitting next to Wayne and Esther told him to pat me on the back because I was choking and he said "It's o.k., I have another aunt."

I would like your comments, if you were "Dear Abby" and tell me what you think.

The Golf Cart, Blake, Abby, Alex and the Goat

THE GOLF CART, BLAKE, ABBY, ALEX AND THE GOAT.

 

As most have heard the kids got a goat for Christmas. It has really become a part of the family by now. He still has to stay in his house out back but when the kiddos get home from school he is anxious to get out and play. One day Beth was on the golf cart and she had let Billy Bob run along beside with her holding the rope. As she started back home he would have nothing to do with that having to run along beside the cart so he just jumped up on it and rode with her..

Well, now that Blake is 10 and has learned to drive the golf cart..oh my..

He loves driving it and they do look so cute with Blake driving, Alex in the middle and he and Abby laughing and having the time of their lives. Now Abby has watched him enough that she has learned to drive it and they take turns. Alex (3) thinks he can drive so they have to take the keys out when he is there. Now the combination of 3 kids, a goat and a golf cart is a recipe of something happening, good or bad some time or another. One day when they were riding the cart stopped. When Blake told Wayne about it he said "It just stopped." Well, Abby being the truthful little girl she is..(Blake's definition is 'tattle tale')..she shouted 'IT WAS SMOKING!' Blake screamed.."SHUT UP ABBY..I JUST GOT OFF BEING GROUNDED."

The damage was nothing, just a loose wire but poor Blake didn't know that at the time.

All I can say is that is one lucky goat to to have gotten this home for Christmas. Where else would he get to ride in a golf cart with two kids just learning to drive it?

Esther Runs into a Fence! Literally

Jo Ann and Wayne moved to Tom Bean and rented a house for awhile until they got some land close to us.( I loved it) Anyway, here they were in the country and did what about everyone else does when they move from living in the city or small town. They started a garden, got animals..including a goat!  They had a house moved in and did some remodeling. aahh, is there a story in that.  Right, sissy???  Why don't you write about that?

In the summer farmers wanted someone to haul hay. Our boys both would work a lot in the summer doing that. Well, that sounded interesting to them so someone close by needed their hay hauled and the only time they could do it was after work and the field was pretty close by. It had gotten dark but I decided to go down and see them for awhile. I drove there and thought about it before I got there that when I got out of the car that I would run real fast so if there was a snake it wouldn't have time to bite me. I was concentrating on that and I had totally forgotten about the NEW five strand barbed wire fence that had been put up. Oh my goodness..I got out of the car running at full speed and hit that fence with a vengeance. It knocked me completely on the ground.  As I lay there bleeding my thought was that a 'snake could eat me up'.  I did limp to my sissy and she was shocked to see all that blood and of course wanted to know what happened. We had some friends that lived real close to all this drama and I went to their house to wash the blood off. I was bleeding from all those barbs that had dug deep into my skin. Now, some folks have a real sick sense of humor because they laughed and laughed when they heard what happened. In fact, Lee told me later that every time Bob woke up through the night that he laughed. Leland wasn't home when all this happened.He was on his week in the gulf. By the time he got home I had five black and blue swollen lines where each wire did it's damage and little holes where the barbs dug in. Now he probably laughed when I was out of sight but in front of me he was very sympathetic. He never knew that after Jo Ann moved close by, just what he was going to encounter when he got home. Note from Jo Ann: By us moving close by, what did that have to do with HER running into a fence. I was out there in the field. 

 

Remodeling the House

Esther told you in another post about us moving a house on some land and remodeling it. The house that we moved onto the land was a not a big house but it was an old sturdy house. Vicky our daughter, is now a contractor and she calls a house like that "a house with good bones."

It was funny looking back on it that we didn't have a clue what we were doing.  We had a house moved to the property of 5 acres. When the men brought the house out I stood behind the truck and motioned which way I wanted the house to set on the land. I wanted the bedroom windows to face the south and they would drive the truck forward and then back it up again and again to get it right. It worked out the the house faced the road. Another thing we did was put the front of the house facing the back. The old living room served as a big master bedroom and we added a living room to the other end of the house (the back) and now that was the front of the house. We had a carpenter to build the living room, which was a good idea.  It set way back from the road and that would be scary to me some nights when Wayne worked the night shift.

Esther and I sat out to remodel. She would come over on my days off and we worked. Wayne was on the police department in McKinney and we never had the same days off, nor did we work the same hours. I worked in the day time and he worked different shifts all the time. So he didn't see what Esther and I were doing. Maybe he wouldn't have noticed anything wrong. He is not a handy man, let alone a carpenter. I think he would have noticed what we called things though, probably wouldn't have sounded right to him, like magic sticks and measurements called marks.  As I said it was an old house and things didn't always match up so we had to improvise. While I was at a lumber yard one day I found these loooong sticks, probably about 8 foot high. They were about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and about an inch wide. Perfect for hiding mistakes. We called them magic sticks.We used a lot of them. Like if the paneling didn't meet in the corners or close to the ceiling, we would put up a magic stick to hide the gap. Sort of looked like a border. It looked nice. Really, nobody ever said anything about it. I guess nobody noticed it. Some of the men in the family started using them. I remember my brother in law Weldon and my sister Ione visited from Colorado. Weldon started piddling around doing something in the closet that I was working on and started helping me. He said I had a gap and I told him we just used the magic sticks. He looked at me kind of funny, at the sticks and at me like he was saying "Are you serious" and after awhile he started using them when fixing gaps. He and my other brother in law, Leland who is married to Esther had always been perfectionists when it comes to fixing things. The fact that they both used the magic sticks convinced us we were doing the right thing.

Just a note here to let you know since we weren't carpenters, we didn't know how to read the yardstick. So one of us would measure and the other one would cut. Which ever the one measured would call out  "It's 3 feet, 4 inches and 3 marks" or whatever the measurement was. We knew how many feet and how many inches, we just didn't know what the measurements were for the fractions. Like 3 marks is how much? I couldn't tell you to this day how much that is.

Leland did the wiring and the septic tank. That was totally out of our expertise.

One other interesting thing happened in the remodeling. One day Esther and I decided this is the day that we will put down the linoleum in the kitchen. We spread the big roll of linoleum on the ground outside and went in the house to measure the kitchen and an extra room extended out from the kitchen. We had a lot of cabinets to go around. I don't know how many times we measured that kitchen and extra room and wrote the numbers down on a piece of paper. Then we took the paper outside and began to cut. I think we used a box cutter. When we finished we took it inside the house and boy was it heavy. A time or two we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. We finally got it in the big area of the kitchen & extended room. We knew we had it in the right position, pertaining to which side of the linoleum went to which side of the walls. The only thing is, it had unrolled by this time and we were under it, it was heavy and we didn't know how to get out. We were way out in the country by ourselves. We didn't have cell phones then to call anybody. After standing there under it in the dark for awhile trying to figure out what to do, we just started backing out from under it. Best I remember we were on opposites side of the linoleum and when we got out about the same time, that rug just fluttered to the floor and fell just exactly in place. We didn't have to do anything to straighten it. We just stood and looked at each other.  The only thing I can say is The Lord must have been there that day under rug with us. Years later Esther & Leland had some linoleum put down in their kitchen by professionals. Esther asked them why they didn't put it down in one piece and one of the guys told her, "you can't do that." Ha!!, we did. Us and The Lord.

Just a side note here. That house did not look bad at all. We may not have known what we were doing but it turned out o.k.. Except for the concrete on the front steps. We didn't know what we were doing there about concrete. Oooops.

Esther's Red Beans Could it be a new discovery?

NEVER USE CINNAMON IN RED BEANS:

Leland and I like to eat at Cheddar's and when we do he usually orders as one of the sides..red beans and rice. The other day I decided to cook some here at home. I knew I couldn't duplicate theirs but they would be good anyway. Who can mess up red beans?. I cooked them and added spices (those at Cheddar's are pretty hot and spicy) I  put the rice in them and jalapeno peppers and etc. Leland came in and I ask him to taste them to see if they were ok. He did and told me they needed more spice..not hot enough..I said I would put some chili powder in them. Got what I thought (didn't look) was chili powder and was pretty generous with it only to find out too late that I had put in cinnamon..yuk..sooo, I get some more peppers, garlic , and CHILI POWDER for sure this time and really laid it all on. It did help, but boy, that cinnamon was holding it's own.Wayne was eating lunch with us and he likes beans and corn bread but I did kinda warned them that these were a little different. They guessed right away what the difference was and was nice enough ,or hungry enough ,to eat some anyway. Wayne did say later that a lot  of good things were discovered by mistakes..I said but "not this" he said "NOPE."

This was last Friday and Mike , Reeda and the boys came and I had made a roast and etc. But warmed up the beans. I thought I would see how they liked them. Well, it didn't take Mike long to detect the cinnamon. He said it reminded him of the time I put cinnamon in the meat loaf..I do not remember that but he declares it happened and said that "daddy just said it was fine". Then we had leftovers, a lot of them..Wayne seemed to remember the meatloaf too so it must have happened..I must ask Sharon if she remembers it.

Don't kids just remember the darndest things???

Sharon's Demon Lawn Bag

 I think Sharon is more related to you and me than anyone else in the family..she gets into so much...she called me yesterday afternoon . We had just gotten home from all the running around we had to do. She said she still couldn't believe what had happened. Said she pulled into Walmart parking space and was talking to a friend on the phone and this neat looking young deputy sheriff knocked on her window and said "maam  do you know you are dragging a big bag of leaves under your right wheel?" She got out and looked and was  horrified to see this huge black Hefty bag of leaves. What happened is, as she backed out of her driveway she saw her neighbor had about 20 big hefty bags of leaves piled up there and she thought she had hit something but looked back through her rear view mirror and didn't see anything so she drove on to Walmart. After the deputy advised her of bag under her wheel she tried to get the bag out and pulled and pulled and leaves were going everywhere. She was so embarrassed with her car there and all those leaves and the bag she decided to move to a different parking place so she wasn't parked next to all those leaves.So she backed out and unknowingly she was still dragging the bag with about half the leaves still in there..she again parked and saw it was still with her and she decides to go to the Town Center where there is a huge parking lot and try to dislodge it there. So off she goes across Walmart parking lot...over to the Town Center dragging her bag.  scattering leaves. Finally, she got it loose and put the bag in her car,then goes back to Walmart.She said she knew people,who didn't see all this drama play out, wondered where in the world all those leaves came from.She said it would have made a great commercial  for Hefty bags.That bag was drug miles and still going...

She said she guess the whole incident was on camera at Walmart parking lot. Wouldn't you just love to have seen that on TV???..Bless her heart... She took a picture of the bag under her car (shown above) When this picture was taken, it still had part of it's cargo that it is not turning loose. But the bag still looks in good shape.

Submitted by Esther (Sharon's mother)

Esther said she should have taken the bag back to her neighbor's house and told him "that bag is alive."

P.S. Sharon has more stories she could tell......Need to ask her about eyelashes and glue. 

Alex Watson October 5th

Ooooops Alex broke Granna's china. Don't you wonder what is going through their little minds when they do something like that?

I put this under "funny stuff" may not have been funny to Alex at the time.

Time to learn to start cussing (well, maybe not)

A 6 year old and a 4 year old are raking the yard.

The 6 year old asks, "You know what? I think it's about time we started learning to cuss."

The 4 year old nods his head in approval.

The 6 year old continues,"When we go in for breakfast, I'm gonna say something with hell and you say something with ass."

The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.

When the mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, "Aw, hell, Mom, I guess I'll have some Cheerios.

WHACK!

He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up,and runs upstairs crying his eyes out, with his mother in hot pursuit,slapping his rear with every step.

His mom locks him in his room and shouts, "You can stay there until I let you out!"

She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year old and asks with a stern voice, "And what do YOU want for breakfast, young man?"

"I don't know," he blubbers, "but you can bet your ass it won't be Cheerios!"

Note from JoAnn: Our cousin Barbara sent this to Esther, Esther in turn sent it to me. I thought it cute to put on the family website. Probably somebody in our family has done something like this.

Wayne (Hale) woes

Wayne has had a problem with his pool leaking for quite sometime..he would have to add water to it each day..that was last year!.This year he decided to see if he could find the leak and thought he had a good idea where it was. The concrete around the pool had gotten a low spot there like the dirt was washed out under it. He rented a jack hammer and 'busted' it up..what a hot job! After he got all that broken up and started digging for the leak he found it...just outside where he tore up all the concrete...He had quite a mess and his little 5 year old granddaughter, Abby, saw him working and ask "what you doing" he told her he was repairing a leak..being the smart kid she is she noticed it wasn't under 'the mess' and ask him "well if the leak is there, why did you do all that ".......she is to get out of the hospital tomorrow..

Wayne & Beth's Memorial Weekend

Wayne and Beth's Memorial week-end.. Wayne and Beth left last Friday in their new camper for the week end at Lake Texoma..they carried their 4 grandchildren and also a friend of Blake's with them.. They had a great time with the kiddos letting them play and they rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours on the lake. Lori got all the kiddos Sunday..even though Wayne and Beth had enjoyed the time with the kids they were 'pooped' when everyone left..Beth said she and Wayne were just grungy dirty but wanted to go eat lunch somewhere and Wayne said he did not want to go through a drive through..he wanted to go inside someplace ..Beth told him they looked awful but decided on Braum's in Denison..Beth said "Wayne, we are going to have all these Church people come in all dressed up "..he sitll didn't care. When they drove into Braum's they noticed there was a pick up with a trailer loaded with cattle there.....They ordered and sure enough in came 'dressed up people'. This one woman walks over to them and announces.."By process of elemination, I guess you all the one's with the trailer out there with all those cattle..my mother-in-law is 100 and will be 101 soon wanted to know if she could pet the cows"..Beth told her" they were not the owners of the cattle but probably whoever was wouldn't mind if she petted them.".. Wayne told the lady "that as high as cattle are now she needed to be looking for some one in a 3 piece suit.".Chances are Wayne heard "I told you so"..I know that is what I would have said...anyway, two women left out and they are the ones that got in the truck with the trailer and cows...don't know if the lady got to pet them or not.. Note from Jo Ann: From the looks of the lady above it doesn't appear that she got to pet the cows. Just kidding. This is not a picture of that

lady. I got this off the internet.

Grouchy faced woman

Does she make you think she might be a little hard to live with? Looks like the man is having fun.

Cassie Got Out!!!

Our house....
Recently I bathed Cassie our little Shih Tzu. I decided to bath her after I took a shower, so instead of getting dressed right away I put my gown back on. Cassie had her bath in the bathtub and I remembered I left her conditioner in the kitchen. She is always real good about staying put so I left her in the tub while I went to get her conditioner. Well, she decided to get out and she passed me flying and went right out the doggie door, all clean and wet. I started after her and remembered I had my gown on and my hair was wet as I had shampooed it. So I ran and got Wayne to chase her down. I told him to catch Cassie. He did, but asked me what the problem was, we have a fence around the house. Problem?
I have my hair wet and have my gown on, am I suppose to chase Cassie around trying to catch her in the front yard. As you can see we have a fence around our house but not a high one. The house across the street is elevated a little bit so they can see. You don't think neighbors are not going to look at me chasing a wet dog around in the front yard looking like this? Not only that but I had to bath Cassie again. That day didn't start out very well.

Where Ione has and has not been

I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends, family and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I have been in Doubt. But that is a sad place to go, and I try not to visit there.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older. Well, I'm not there yet!

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense. It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up my heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get!

And more and more I think of the Here After...several times a day, in fact, I enter a room and think, "What am I here after?" Sadly, I know the feeling.

submitted by Ione

Cement Injected into woman's rear

Police say a woman seeking plastic surgery at a cheap price found a woman posing as a doctor who filled her buttocks with cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant.

The suspect--who police say was born a man and identifies as a woman--performed the surgery on herself, and investigators say she may have other victims. Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested Friday after a year on the lam and has been charged with practicing medicine with out a license with serious bodily injury.

Note from JoAnn
No Kidding!! This report comes out of Florida.
Maybe you don't want to go looking for the cheapest price when you are looking for surgery.
Gee Whiz.....lol