Catching up.

I had not realized how long it had been since my last post.

So much has happened in our lives, and there have been some changes.
My last post was April 2018.  So here's a little Catch-up.

First - Mother in law, and the house in Granbury -

During the last half of 2017 and into 2018 Daryl's mother had steadily become more and more affected by dementia, and probably Alzheimers.  Daryl and Michael traded off, and were staying with her pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Michael during the week while Daryl worked, and Daryl on weekends to give Michael a break. It was tough not seeing my husband much, but his mother needed him.

She passed away suddenly on July 22, 2018. She had been good the day before, Daryl took her out for a drive, they got take out food, we video chatted from Raylen's 12th birthday party with them, and all seemed OK. Daryl got up the next morning, and she had passed away overnight.

After all the arrangements, and funeral were finished, came the task of trying to make her home bearable. She had been a hoarder, and while alive, would get so upset if you moved her papers, or put anything anywhere she didn't want it. Her bedroom had stuff piled at least 3 to 4 foot high everywhere, except a path to the bed, and path to the toilet. And the smell was awful.. She had rotted food, cat mess, human mess, it was just bad.

Took a while but the house became livable inside, and then Daryl started working on the outside. We decided we wanted to live in the house, so he will be buying out his sister and brother's part of it once the estate is all settled. Daryl is the executor, and that is another matter that is dragging on, not because Daryl is trying to drag it on, it's just he only has so many hours in his days, and his mother had not filed income taxes for almost 10 years before her death, and finding the correct paperwork to do taxes that old, (she had lots of stocks, with at least 3 or 4 different brokers...  ) is taking him a while.  Plus getting someone to do an estate sale of all her junk has been difficult. They want to charge a lot to do it, because there is so much "stuff". 

Early March we came down here to stay a week, then Covid19 hit, and we stayed. We just decided to swap the households, and do her estate sale in Fort Worth, and go ahead and just start living here ourselves. It makes it much easier for Daryl to do the work that needs to be done, instead of waiting for the weekend, he can do stuff when he gets home from work.  So we are all 4 (Daryl, Michael, Jessica and myself) are living here now. Plus the pets... 

That's another change in our life, we "inherited" my mother in laws cat Twinkletoes. Twinkletoes is not normal. Twinkle is weird. If you have ever seen Captain Marvel, Twinkletoes is like a Flerken. Seriously. SO we added her to our menagerie - we have 5 cats now... and the 2 dogs. We are almost all moved in with our things here, only real furniture of ours left at the other house is my vanity. But there is a lot of stuff in the 2 storage buildings and the garage. And the garage here is full of junk from Daryl's mom, his granny, and his great aunt. His mother kept so much junk.  Someday we will have this all done. Then we will sell our home in Fort Worth, pay his brother and sister for this place and we will be settled until retirement.


Second - NEW JOB for me!
In fall of 2019 American decided it was going to do away with home based reservations agents. They gave us plenty of notice to either transfer as office based, or take a furlough. I chose furlough. I did not want to work in that office.  I get sick EVERY time I go to the office for meetings, or any in office training...   Then in November they posted job openings for home based agents in Customer Relations !!!  I applied, interviewed, and got hired. I started training end of January, 3 weeks in office training (where I got sick the first week, and stayed sick almost the entire training time!) and 3 weeks on the job training  - doing the actual job, with help onsite. Then we transitioned home. My first week at home, our internet went out, Daryl suggested going to his mom's house, since we are paying for internet there, so I did...  and we never left after that - because the week after that all Covid19 happened.  Now I am so very very happy with this job, but due to Covid, I may not have it much longer. They are doing layoffs in a month, and I am super worried I will be let go. This is a job I was meant to do, I love doing it, and just appreciate it so much. I am pretty scared, and worried about this.

Third - Jessica graduated College! She graduated as a double major, with degrees in Anthropology and History, and a minor in Classical studies!  She is planning on getting her masters degree at UTA in the fall, in Public History with certification in Archival studies. She loves her history.  She didn't get to graduate, due to Covid. It was heartbreaking for her, and us to see how it affected her. Social distancing has made her life so hard. She's 23, has been cut off from her school, her classmates, her friends, it has not been easy on her. But she's doing pretty good now. Just have to figure out how we will pay for Grad school for her.

That's all the big news really -  Daryl and I dd take a trip to Paris France September 2018. I am going to write a whole big blog full of amazing photos about that!!!

Probably more about the family than you want to know....

Been thinking a lot about losing Cleon, and feel like I should explain why it's so hard...

For those that don't know our family history, My mom and her brother were left at ages 2 and 4 with their paternal grandparents to raise. Their parents had split up, and neither wanted the kids. My grandpa was 19 when he had my uncle Tommy, and 21 when he had my mom... so he was 23 when he walked out of their lives. My great grandparents Granny and Papa Brown were in their mid-40s when my mom and uncle came to live with them. My aunt Cissy Brown was 21 at the time, a few years later Cleon Kelley came into her life. They didn't have children of their own, so they were the closest thing to real parents mama and uncle Tommy had. Not that Granny and Papa didn't try, but I don't think they were prepared to raise two young children again

A few years after that, my dad's oldest sister Bille Jackie Dickerson married Cleon's older brother Jay Kelley. Kind of cementing our family's relationship with the Kelley side of the family. The town they lived in was small, Santa Paula California. They all lived on the Limoneira Ranch for much of their childhood.

I always kind of think it's funny how I am related to both sides... Kelley and Brown. Directly descended from Cissy's side, she was my mom's aunt, and my great aunt, and then Cleon by marriage was family. But my Aunt Billie married to his brother Jay also made us family to the Kelleys. I have first cousins on both sides. My parent's marriage connected to two families even more.

My parents got married, dad joined the US Navy, and we moved around. My young childhood spent several years living in Almeda Ca, then Dublin CA, and lastly Port Hueneme while daddy was stationed at Point Mugu. Then my dad had to go off to a training school for several months, so mama, my older sister Laurie and I went to stay with my Uncle Tommy, Aunt Pat, and my cousins Miles, and Gabriella. We were there about 4 or 5 months I think.

During the time we lived in Ca. we spent a LOT of time with family. Mostly Granny, Papa and Cissy and Cleon. My dad's mother still worked full time, and his father died when I was 3, so we didn't spend as much of time with the Dickerson side of the family. Occasionally when dad was home we would drive to Oxnard to the house on Evergreen Square and visit Grandmother Dickerson, Uncle Mike, Aunt Marty Ann, and my cousin Mickey.

But mostly we spent weekends in Saticoy, at the little house across from the school. It used to be Cleon's parent's house, and Cissy and Cleon had lived in the "Little House" on the property. A guest house of sorts, had a living room, bedroom, and kitchen. No bathroom though - that was in the laundry building in the backyard. Later they moved into the house, and Granny and Papa lived with them. Eventually, my mom's dad moved into the little house, years later.

Cleon and Cissy were just always there for us. Holidays were spent at the house on Jazmin Avenue, my parents left us occasionally overnight with them, and we had trips to the A&W drive-in for burgers and root-beer (for me) or coke (Laurie).

They were VERY big visitors to the bar in Saticoy. We got to go with them, probably not something that could be done in this day and age, but at our young ages it was so much fun. Sawdust for the shuffleboard all over, sitting on barstools drinking soda pop, or as Cleon called it "Sody" pop.

There was this little carnival kind of thing in Saticoy (might have actually been Ventura I can't remember) but they had real horses that were tied to a circular thing and Cleon would take us there to play and ride horses. That was when my older sister Laurie's obsession with horses started.

One of my favorite memories of Cleon is his nickname for me, he called me "Stevi MacNelley" . He said I needed a good Irish name like Kelley. Stevi is the nickname I grew up with, ALL my family called me that.

As we grew up, and moved away, finally ending up in Texas, we didn't see them as often at all. We visited California about once a year, they came to Texas a few times too. But Cissy always sent boxes full of her garage sale treasures back to us, always thinking of mama and her girls when she was out shopping. Most of the Kelley side cousins grew up calling Cleon "Uncle Biggen" .. not us, he was always Cleon. Cissy was always just Cissy. I still have a few Christmas cards with her signature, I treasure them, like I do the ones from my mama over the years.

My mom's dad passed away when I was 10. He ended up living with my Granny, Cissy, and Cleon in his later years, then moving in with my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Pat before he died. But he wasn't around a lot as I grew up.

I didn't get to know my mother's mom until I was about 11, she lived in Austin Tx, when we were in Fort Worth. I did see her several times over the years but never got quite as attached as you might think one would to a grandparent. I guess not knowing her when I was younger, and the obvious strain between her and my mom made it difficult. Both my mom's parents were alcoholics, this eventually is what took my grandpa.

My mama talked to Cissy every week, and after my mama died I started calling her, if not every week at least 2 times a month. I called until she died, and I called after that until Cleon quit answering his phone. I always left messages, but he didn't call back. Then his phone was disconnected - (Found out just yesterday reason's why, but that's not something to go into here)

This is why Cleon and Cissy meant so much to me.. They were ALWAYS there, they did "grandparent" kinds of things for us. Gave us candy and soda when they knew we didn't need it. Let me "Drive" the pickup in Cleon's lap when I was 5. They were for all intent's and purposes my grandparents.

And they were the best grandparent's ever.

Cleon was the last person I was really close to from my "childhood" that was left. My sister Laura, mama and daddy all died in 2005. (Laura 02/18/05, Mama 07/09/05, Daddy 09/05/05) Cissy died in 2010. Now Cleon is gone. I am so very, VERY glad I got to see him last September.

I probably gave more information than anyone wanted, but I just needed to write about Cleon and Cissy and why they are so very very important in my life.

Here's my blog about Cissy

https://appleblossomsandsunshine.blogspot.com/2010/11/saying-goodbye-to-wonderful-woman.html

Christmas 2017

Christmas this year was celebrated with our family on Christmas Eve. We had snacks, presents and a lot of fun family time. We draw names among the adults for gift exchanging, and we also do a Chinese gift exchange. So everyone gets something they really want from their wish list and their secret Santa, and all go home with a gift that they either opened, or stole from someone :) 

The littles (Raylen and Denver) don't do the draw names,  so they get presents from everyone. 

I was pretty disappointed to not get our annual "out front" photos, but no one wanted to go out in the cooler weather. At least I got the tree inside photos! Although they are all kind of washed out, artificcial light is never as good as outside light! 

We had a good time, and enjoyed spending it with our family. Christmas morning, Daryl, Michael, Jessie and myself opened a few more gifts between us, and had a second Christmas. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - Now to look forward to a new year! 

The Tree Christmas Eve Afternoon

My baby girl, and her daddy

Denver opening his stocking stuff, Steven and Michael watching. 

Becca and her stocking 

April and her stocking, and Becca and Denver

Denver liked his flashlight Santa left in his stocking

Showing Aunt Becca his light

Denver seemed to like his space gun from Memaw and Papa. 

Cutest granddaughter ever.. in her Ravenclaw headband from Aunt Becca

tossing Denvers ball around.. 

Jessie and Daryl - getting the numbers ready to draw for the Chinese gift exchange

Got the numbers

Sweet Raylen 

my oldest son Steven, his sweet girl Raylen, his fiancee April, her son Denver. 

My sweet Children - Becca, Steven, Jessie, Michael 

Michael and Becca 

My beautiful daughters 

I do love my Daryl

All the kids - 

Add caption

Rebecca Michelle 

April and Steven - celebrated one year of being engaged on Christmas Eve

Didn't get a before food photo.. this was kind of "during" the day..  Lots of food! 

Jessie's gingerbread house

Giving Thanks

Well time got away from me and here it is the week before Christmas.  I will catch up a little here, and have another lovely post after the holiday!  

We had our family Thanksgiving dinner, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I wasn't sure if I would get the day off or not and didn't want to have everyone put plans on hold until I knew. So we celebrated early.

Daryl, his mom, April, Steven, Michael, Michael, Becca, Raylen, Jessie

Two sweet girls

Love my babies! 

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson - My Becca and her husband Michael

Michael Wade

Steven and his fiancee April

Daryl and his mom

There was SO much food. We were blessed to have our entire family there, except Denver.  I got a little creative and made a bread dough cornucopia for a table decoration. It actually turned out quite nice.  

After dinner, we did our obligatory family gathering group shots by the tree out front. Mother inlaw Shirley didn't want to come outside, so she's not in the group photos. 

My sweet kiddos

Whole family minus Denver and me(taking photos) 

After all the photos it was back inside for the traditional playing of Simpsons Road Rage, and dessert. 

Becca and Jake

Then on Thanksgiving day, Daryl, Jessie, Michael and myself had a small Thanksgiving dinner here. Just leftover turkey, and some freshly made sides.  

Thanksgiving round 2. 

We also had to deal with Zooey, She pushed her way through the crook of Daryl's elbow while he was finishing up his Thanksgiving day dinner... She was hilarious. 

 Daryl tried not to crack up. It was hard. Zooey was VERY persistent! 

Just LOOK at that face, eyeing the food!!!  Haha! 

It was actually nice this year having both Thanksgivings. I loved having all our family here for the early dinner, and it was nice to have a relaxed laid back Thanksgiving day dinner too. 

Looking forward to family time this next Sunday, when we do our Family Christmas, on Christmas Eve! 

Ventura September 2017

On our flight from Austin to Los Angeles -the plane was half empty

Jessie and I took a really short trip to Ventura California this past weekend. REALLY short - we left Friday afternoon from DFW, connected in Austin, flew into Los Angeles, and after picking up our rental got to our hotel around 10. We both pretty much crashed - our bodies stayed on Texas time the whole weekend! Two hours ahead of California, so it was about midnight on Friday.  

My beautiful Jessica 

 Saturday morning we were up early and went to the coffee shop at the hotel. The Vagabond Coffee Shop.  Walking in immediately Jessie loved it.  The atmosphere and decor made us feel as if we were in one of the coffee shops Sam and Dean from the show "Supernatural" frequented. The staff was super, and the food so delicious. It was one of the best dining choices I have made on a trip. 

Vagabond CoffeeShop

After breakfast, we drove to Santa Paula, The town my parents grew up in. 

We first visited the Santa Paula Cemetery. I visited my dad's parents, my great-grandparents, 2 of my uncles, and one of my great-great aunts. Couldn't find my grandpa Jimmy's marker. They gave me the incorrect one in the office. Next time I come out I will try again. 

My grandmother Martha. 

My dad's older brother David. 

My Uncle David's wife, Liz. 

My grandfather, and my dad's youngest sister- Marty Ann. 

My Papa and Granny - mom's grandparents. They raised her. 

My Aunt Doll and her husband Dan. Aunt Doll was my Papa's(James Brown) sister. 

  

My dad's brother, Bobby Dale. he was hit by a car when he was 7. 

After spending time finding relatives, and learning what a GREAT map reader Jessica was, we drove into town. First stop after all the hot traipsing around the cemetery was Foster's Freeze. Jess got a milkshake.I LOVED them when I was a kid. 

Then it was on to visiting places my parent's had told me about as I was growing up. 

We first went to Santa Paula Union High School, I didn't take photos, the campus is HUGE now, and doesn't look at all like the photos from my parents past. 

Then we drove up Railroad Avenue-

Church my parent's got married in. It was the church my granny attended when mama lived with her.

The Santa Paula train station - it has been in many movies, and TV Shows. 

I had some very windblown hair! 

 We drove by the house my Uncle Tommy and his family lived in, but couldn't get a photo.They had a big plastic tent thing up outside blocking most of the house. 

Then we headed back towards Saticoy - making a couple of photo stops - 

Briggs School, it was the"intermediate" school, after they attended Olivelands Elementary. My dad told us stories about walking 5 miles in the snow to Briggs School. (As a child, I didn't know there was NO SNOW in Santa Paula) 

The Limoneira Ranch was where my parents grew up. Mama's grandpa worked on the ranch, and my dad's father did as well.

 We drove the 10 - 15 minutes from Santa Paula to Saticoy, where many happy days of my childhood were spent at the home of my great-aunt Cissy, and great-uncle Cleon. Cissy died in 2010, but my Uncle Cleon is still there, in the house his parents owned when he was younger.

Cleon and myself

Photos on the wall.. my boys are on the left, above the tiny photo of me with glasses. My sister, and niece and other family members are here too. 

Drawing of my Aunt Cissy when she was younger.. the little black and white photo under her frame, is my mom at about 13 years old, she had such light blonde hair! 

I asked him to "smile" this is what I got :) 

Front porch...  no dog, but the warning has been there forever.  I love it still has "The Kelleys" sign on it! 

Side door used to be the main door we used going in the house, the "little house" on the left side was where Cleon and Cissy lived when his parents lived in the big house. and on the right side of the backyard house was a bathroom/laundry room. 

After our visit with Cleon, we headed back to our hotel to change, we were hot. I was trying to send my google directions to the Bluetooth in the car, and it kept playing this song...  We thought it was appropriate! 

Our last visit was to our friends, The Woods Family. They moved to Ventura from Texas about 2.5 years ago. We were so happy to see them! 

The chickens, Lazy, Brocko, and Stripey. Mama and daughter hatched them from eggs, and are raising them. Denedra said they are about a year old. 

At Ventura Beach

Then she drew an octopus, and her brother holding hands with it. 

Jessie and I - Ventura Beach 

Sweet girl  found some pretty red seaweed

We left Ventura Beach and headed south, down the Pacific Coast Highway, to Santa Monica. We had dinner at a really good burger place, The Burger Lounge. SO delicious. 

Then we drove to the Santa Monica Pier. 

The END of Route 66. Now I have been to both ends, but not driven the entire way (yet!) 

 We walked to the end of the pier, where we saw all these people with headphones on.. some with red lights, some blue, and some green. (we also discovered they could change the color) Apparently, this was a "Silent Disco" or "Silent DanceParty" or something like that. For 15.00 you can rent the Bluetooth headphones, and choose which DJ to listen to, Red, Blue, Green..  And the rest of us normal people just saw people dancing around and not hearing ANY music.. it was an experience for sure. We had a good time, laughing and watching all these people. 

The lighted Octopus at the arcade area of the pier. 

Jessica and I at the Santa Monica Pier.

 We had such a blast with the Woods family. Jessie can't wait to go back.  Jessie would love to go on her own, but she's not driving, so couldn't get from the airport anywhere. 

It was the best weekend Jessie and I have had together in a very long time. Not very expensive, and so worth the time. I love Southern California, at least the Ventura/Santa Paula area. Jessie does too, she said she'd be happy living there! 

Santa Paula has the mountains around it, Ventura has the beach. It is perfect almost! 

We got back to our hotel around 1am.  Got cleaned up and crashed. I definitely got all my steps in that day! We woke up early and headed on down to Los Angeles. Had to return the rental car - Which if you are looking for a new car, I highly recommend this Subaru! We LOVED it! 
And AVIS is the BEST CAR RENTAL place ever. Great rates, easy pickup, and return. They first had me in a MINIVAN, I clicked on the app and said nope didn't want that...  so I got THIS! same price! 

We weren't sure we would get on the flight home, it was so full... They did have room for one, so I told Jessica to go. Then before they closed the doors, they called me (apparently a paying passenger didn't show up) and I also got on the flight. 

Made it home Sunday Evening. About 48 hours after we left. 

Short trip, but packed with so many memories!