Like Scrapbooking (only less satisfying)

     I used to scrapbook.  Both of my children have beautiful baby books that I spent hours (and weekends) putting together.  When Luz passed away (October 2008) I stopped scrapbooking.  The first year was overwhelming and scrapbooking all those birthdays and holidays without her . . . well, there was no joy in that. 

     We're in the process of cleaning out our house this summer.  We're pulling things out of closets and drawers that haven't seen the light of day in a long time.  I guess this process could best be described as purging.  After two years of not being able to let go of anything that belonged to my mother-in-law or my grandmother (who died in August 2008) I'm ready to let some stuff go - including (maybe) my traditional approach to scrapbooking.  Because here's the thing about scrapbooking - it's labor intensive and messy and it encourages hoarding.  I don't need anything that encourages hoarding right now. 
So, I'm going to blog about some of those things that I don't want to forget and maybe someday in the future I'll print them out and add them to the childrens scrapbooks because their scrapbooks are important to me.  The kids like them too.  Every now and then one of them will pull out one of their scrapbooks and ask me to sit on the couch and go through it. That alone makes all the hours of work worthwhile.  Now, on to the thing I don't want to forget.

      Sarah is starting a band.  She hasn't settled on a name for her band but she has written their first song - "Rainbows."  She sang it to me and asked me what I thought.  It was pretty good, although the tune sounds a lot like that "Airplanes" song. She also said, and I am quoting her here, "It's going to be the first cut off my new album."  She's writing  her second song, "Sunset", sometime this weekend.   

You Dance a Dance Class

A few years ago (April 2009) I walked the Country Music HALF Marathon (CMHM) here in Nashville.  I found it a difficult thing to do, but not because of the distance or the effort required to complete it.  No, the CMHM was difficult for me because I walked  it surrounded by 35,000 other people (I hate crowds) while wearing a racing bib (I loathe nametags and anything nametag related) and I because there were always 34,999 people ahead of me in line for the porta potty. Also, the walkers are coralled at the back of the pack which means that I started walking over an hour after the Marathon officially began.  Once I finally started walking, it took me well over three hours to cross the finish line. It was a long day.   That very same day at that very same race, Joel ran his very first half marathon.  He started running over an hour before I started walking and he finished his half marathon in under two hours (1:58).  His day was much shorter than mine.  After my CMHM experience I decided to hang up my competative walking shoes for good.   

In the time since that race, Joel has become a competative runner. He runs so much and so often that the kids and I no longer feel obligated to attend his half-marathons.  Run a FULL marathon and we'll make the effort to cheer from the sidelines and greet him at the finish line, but run a HALF?  Call us when you're done.  My walking shoes, competative or otherwise, have not seen much use. Every now and then I go the the Y or walk around the neighborhood,  but my routine has been far from regular. You would think that living with a runner would increase my own get-fit motivation, but it hasn't.  Joel looks and feels great.  I do not. 

A few weeks ago I had my annual health screening at work and the test results were less than ideal.  Nothing serious, just some things I need to address sooner rather than later.  I spent an afternoon being miffed about the whole thing but then decided that I just need to get over myself and be grateful for fixable health issues.  I've put my walking shoes back on and I'm training to walk a half marathon here in Nashville in September. I decided to register for another half-marathon because quite frankly, I need a goal to walk towards. I would like to finish this race much closer to the three hour mark but I'm making no predictions. I wish I could say it feels good to be out walking again, but it doesn't - not yet anyway.  I'm hoping that will change but even if it doesn't I know that I've got to keep walking.  I can't let Joel have all the fun.

I tried to embed a clip from "Friends" (the best sitcom EVER) to help make my point but I can't get it to upload here.  The link to youtube works though, if you want to watch it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipsgYiyTpNc

Still Standing

Grandmother Hurst's House

Still Standing in Union County

 

John, Reid, Grandmother Hurst,
Wendy, David and me
Christmas Season, 1978

     The above photo is a fairly recent image of my Great-Grandmother Hurst's house in Union County, Tennessee.  This was my grandfather's childhood home. I found this photo by using the "street view" icon on Google maps.  I also took a virtual drive up and down the road leading to the house and it seems that not much has changed since I actually took a drive to see it over twenty years ago.  We used to visit Grandmother Hurst several times a year and what stands out in my memory about those visits were the stern warnings that my cousins and I received to stay away from the cistern that was in the side yard (for obvious reasons, none of our parents wanted us falling down a deep dark well) and the fact that there was no indoor plumbing. There was an outhouse on the hill up behind the house, but that never really appealed to me.

     As for the history of this house, I'm not really sure (date built, date purchased).  What I do know is that my great-grandfather, Attie Hugh Hurst, had two wives (not at the same time) and twelve children and they all lived here.  He and his first wife, Nancy Butcher, had three daughters (Stella, Retha and Leta) and when Nancy died he married my great-grandmother, Mary Williams, and they had nine more children (Fred, Nora, Jessie, Troy, Glenn, Harlan, L.J., Lou and H.C.).  It's amazing to me that this house is still standing there. I'd like to take a drive out to see it again, just wondering who I need to contact to make sure that would be okay. 

Attie Hugh Hurst's Children
Not sure about the back row, but the front row is
Jessie, Troy, Glenn, Harlan, LJ, Louella and HC.
Aunt Lou didn't like being called "Louella".