Help!!

Okay.. you people who read my blog and have blogs of your own.. I have been trying to learn more about designing my blog..and am very frustrated....HELP!! I want to rearrange the different elements on my blog.. do I HAVE to use one of the templates on here? Post on here, email me or Facebook me and help me out please!!! As soon as I can figure all this out.. I will make a new post!!!

Rambling

Well, November sure did fly by and now here we are two weeks from Christmas!! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. Had Sarah and her family at our house the first part of the week and then Bill and I spent Thanksgiving at Syd's with their family and headed to Destin Thanksgiving afternoon. This was the first time EVER I have been to Destin and not had my toes in the sand at least once. I spent all of the time either shopping or sleeping, plus it was really cold! Edith, Carolyn and I started shopping Thanksgiving night at 10pm!! I lasted til 6am and had to crash.. they stayed up for over 36 straight hours! It was lots of fun and we did get some great deals.

This week has been the week of Christmas parties at my house. We had the choir party Sunday night after our musical and then the Sunday School department party on Tuesday night. Both went very well... I love having a houseful of people! The musical Sunday afternoon was a wonderful worship experience. I, once again, was feeling that we were not prepared and nowhere near ready to present this program. But man, God showed out and showed up big time!! He really blessed our efforts and it turned out to be one of the best that we have ever done, according to many people who were there. There will be a dvd available at Parkway if any of you would like to see it. This Sunday we will leave after church and go to Mendenhall to be at Sydney's musical. She has a solo and Skyler and Mylie will also be participating. I LOVE that my children are involved at their churches and are serving the Lord! It's the best feeling in the world!!

Sarah called this morning and they had a terrible night. All three of the kids are sick. Wesley was up all night, very congested and coughing. Will woke up at 5am throwing up and hasn't stopped yet. Macy is better today, but threw up yesterday. I know that they love Tupelo and are supposed to be there.. but gosh I hate that they are so far away and I can't help her! She and I were both spoiled the 3 years they lived here and had both sets of grandparents in town to help! She is taking all 3 to the doctor this afternoon.

Today would have been my sweet cousin, Ava Carlisle Roach's 62nd birthday. Ava had breast cancer and died at the young age of 43 in 1992. I can't begin to tell you what a kind, caring, loving, wonderful person she was. Becky and I were blessed to grow up knowing and loving our cousins, aunts and uncles. We got together at my grandparents every chance we had and we were all very close. Ava was 7 years old when I was born and she became "my Ava." She carried me around all the time and made me feel very special! I was devastated when she announced that she was getting married at age 17!! I did not like Corbie at all and it had nothing to do with what kind of guy he was ... he was taking "my Ava" away...or so I thought at 10 years old. Of course, she made it all better when she told me that I was going to be the Junior Bridesmaid in her wedding! Corbie turned out to be a nice guy and he fit right into our family and we all grew to love him. We lost him to cancer also several years after Ava. They left a beautiful legacy in their three daughters! I know both of them are very proud of Shainna, Alainna, and Jessica. I am thankful again, for memories!

Mama's 82nd birthday was last Saturday. I went to see her and love on her although she had no idea it was her birthday, or who I was. It is getting more and more difficult to see her in the condition she is in. She MAY weigh 90 lbs and she is mostly drawn up in a fetal position. She is totally unable to communicate and the only sounds she can make are garbled mumbling. I am praying for God to release her beautiful spirit that I know is still in there and to take her on home to heaven to be with Him and my daddy! I miss daddy everyday but am very thankful he did not suffer long nor go through what my mama has been through and is still enduring. And, yet again... I am thankful for memories!




Bill and I are excited once again that we will have all of our children under our roof on Christmas Day and a few days after that! Sarah, Jeremy and their three will actually be here a week from tomorrow and stay through Christmas, so Santa Claus will visit Will, Macy and Wesley at our house.. what fun!!! Sunny and Bud will arrive a day or two before Christmas and Syd, Tony, Skyler and Mylie will be here Christmas morning! How very blessed we are!!! We are also blessed to have Becky and Kevin and their brood with us on Christmas Day! It will be wild and crazy and wonderful!!

Remember to take the time to thank God for all the blessings that you have and even if you are having problems, trials, sickness, loneliness..thank Him for loving us so very much that He sent His Son to take our place on the cross, to pay the debt for ALL our sin, so that we may have abundant life now and forever...just BELIEVE!!!!

Readers, I am sorry for this very rambling post! My family and I want to wish you and yours a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a wonderful 2010!!!

With love,
Martha

November!

Wow.. time does fly doesn't it? Here we are in November, October is done, Thanksgiving and Christmas are just ahead. I do love the Holidays! I love all the hustle and bustle..... shopping, decorating my house, parties... but most of all I love being with my precious family and friends as we celebrate God's goodness to us and the birth of His son!!

It has been a busy Fall. After my "girls trip" to Orange Beach, Bill and I went to Destin with our close friends, John and Edith for a few days the last of October. It was great to get away and of course as far as I am concerned, that is MY beach! I was able to relax on it for several hours while we were there. Then last weekend I met Edith and some of her friends and headed to New Orleans for my first ever experience at "Market." WOW! The convention center was full of booths of retailers selling their wares at wholesale prices(well some of them were wholesale, some seemed expensive to me.) It is quite an adventure! I had a great time with Edith, Helen and Beverly and got some Christmas shopping done. I left New Orleans Sunday at noon and headed north to Brandon. Met Sarah, Will, Macy and Wesley at Sunny's for the night and Monday. Syd decided to drive up with Skyler and Mylie for a little while Sunday evening, so I had all 3 of my girls and all of my babies(Skyler will be 12 in March..guess I should stop calling him a baby..) together for a few hours... I was in heaven! Spent the day with Sarah and the kids Monday having their Christmas picts made and running errands. I got home Monday night around
6:30. Bill and I are headed to Madison Friday night for the Madison Central-Starkville playoff game. Our good friends, Mike and Jeanna Crowder's son Josh is a Senior... wow, again..where did the time go?? We got to watch him play a game earlier this season and are glad it is working out for us to see him again. Saturday morning we will head to Tupelo and be there to celebrate Will's 5th birthday at his party Sunday afternoon. November is a big birthday month for our family... Sunny's was the 10th, Jessie's is the 15th and Will's is the 17th. Bill and I will head home last Sunday afternoon. Then the weekend before Thanksgiving, November 21 and 22 we will have the joy of celebrating a 90th birthday with our sweet friend, Mrs. Gertha Burgess and then celebrating the marriage of her daughter and our dear friend, Debbie Redfield to our dear friend, Glenn Mizell the next day! We will head to Sydney's on Wednesday for Thanksgiving and then back to Destin on Thanksgiving afternoon for a weekend of shopping for me and relaxing for Bill! That will get us through November and then I actually think we will be at home for the entire month of December!!! Which is really good since I am having two Christmas parties at my house and then my entire family for Christmas Day!

Becky and I went last week and ordered daddy's headstone. Actually it's a double one for he and mama. Not a fun thing to do but we are pleased with the way it will look. We miss him everyday and guess we will for the rest of our lives. Today is Veteran's Day, so been thinking about him a lot. Thanking God for my daddy and all the other men and women who have served and continue to serve our country to keep us free!!

Memories

Guess it's about time for a new post. Been thinking a lot lately about memories. Aren't you thankful that God gave our minds the ability to recall things that have already happened? I realize all too well that disease and age can rob us of our memories, but for the most part it is an awesome ability. We can just sit down and remember things that we want to replay in our mind. Most of us would rather remember just the happy, wonderful events in our life but remembering the not so good and even bad things is important as well.. hopefully we learn from them. I spent the past 5 days with some very dear long time(notice I did not say old!!) friends and a good bit of the time we spent together we were remembering! The 5 of us were all members at Parkway when our children were very young, one by one each family, except mine, moved away from Natchez. We have kept up through the years and seen one another at weddings and funerals but until this past week never taken the time to actually get together and enjoy being with each other again. We had a wonderful time and have all agreed to make it an annual event. Back to memories though....it was interesting how some of the memories we discussed were remembered by all of us and then some things only one or two of us would remember but after hearing it described could also at least vaguely remember the event. Then there were things that one or two remembered and the rest have absolutely no memory of that event at all. Interesting....

Memories have always been important to me but with daddy being gone they are now even more precious. I am so very thankful that I have the ability to "hear" his voice and to "feel" his hug. I am thankful to be able to relive in my mind the day of my wedding and those three wonderful days that my girls came into this world. I am thankful to be able to remember my mama's laugh and the delicious food that she cooked. I am thankful to remember just ordinary days that now seem extra-ordinary. Days when one of my children or now my grandchildren do or say something sweet or kind or funny. Like the night Skyler was lying beside me about to go to sleep and he looked up at me and said, "Mimi, I love you so much I could eat you up!" or having kept Will one day and him saying, "it's been a really good day, Mimi!"

Oh my, I have so many wonderful memories that God gives me the ability to recall. And there are the ones that are painful, yet helpful to remember, and some that are just painful. Like hearing my mama say she had not talked to me in 3 days when I had talked to her everyone of those days and knowing now that was the beginning of her Alzheimer's. And hearing a voice on the phone say, "Sydney has been in a wreck." and Sarah say, "Mama, I lost the baby." And most recently, hearing the doctor say, "we are fairly sure your daddy has cancer that has already spread." I thank God that He has given me many more wonderful, happy memories than the sad, painful ones. I know that more of each kind are in my future and the good thing about that is... I know Who holds the future!!!

As far as the past few days with my good friends....Beth, Jean, Kathy, and Melinda...I am so thankful for all our "old" memories and for the new ones we made over then last few days!!! Can't wait to do it again!

Here we are......20 years ago



And here are a few picts of us this past week!

Life without my daddy

Well, I have now lived 3 weeks without my precious daddy....it's very strange.

My last post was on August 20th and daddy died on September 2nd. We found out about the cancer on August 5th and buried him on September 5th. Yes, I said buried... I know in my previous post that I said we would have him cremated but after more thought and remembering other conservations with daddy we changed our minds. We had a beautiful service at Parkway and buried him in McComb where mama will be buried beside him. We have been overwhelmed by the number of people who brought food, sent cards, sent plants or flowers, came to the visitation and/or the service, loved us and prayed for us over the last few weeks. We can never thank you all enough!!

I miss daddy every day... I miss him calling me numerous times a day... I miss him being the first person I called every morning and the last one I called every night. I miss him pulling up in my driveway and blowing the horn so I would come out, pull up a lawn chair and visit with him for awhile. I miss him coming by with his left over supper, usually fried fish, to see if Bill wanted it. I miss him asking me questions about all my girls and their families, wanting to be sure they were okay, safe and happy. I miss knowing that up until the last few months he would be seeing mama and taking her a shake everyday. I know there are going to be many hard times missing him... already thinking about Christmas and how strange it will be to not have him there. Although... he really will be there, won't he? He will be there in the Christmas memories in each of our minds, he will be there in the smiles and laughter as we gather to open gifts, he will be there as we remember how much he loved to eat all the delicious food we will share, most importantly he will be there in the love that we show to one another because he taught us so much about how to love each other and everybody we come in contact with in this ole world. Yep...he will be there!

My Daddy

This post is long overdue but I am not even sure that I will be able to sit here and write it now. Most of you(all 1 or 2 that read) know that my sweet, wonderful daddy has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Wow...where did that come from. Never in all my thoughts of daddy growing older and eventually leaving us did I ever dream that he would have cancer. There just is not hardly any history of cancer in our family. Heart disease..yes, high blood pressure..yes, strokes...yes, diabetes..yes...but not cancer. And stranger still is that when we found out two weeks ago it had already spread to his lungs and brain. We still do not know where the primary source is. So very quickly we have had to deal with the realization that my daddy will not be with us much longer, maybe 1 to 3 months. He is now a resident at Adams County Nursing Center in the same room with my mama. It is very strange to be there with both of them and neither of them realizing who the other is, but somehow it is also very right. Daddy is on pain medicine now that is helping him to rest. When he is awake he recognizes some of the family, but not all and he talks out of his head a lot. This has forced my sister Becky and I to talk about funeral plans. We had discussed this with daddy before and have some notes written down about what he wanted. He has always been very claustrophobic and has said through the years that he does not want to be buried. He asked to be cremated and for us to spread his ashes in the ocean...being the Navy man he is... so that is what we will do. Of course we will have a memorial service first so that all the people who's lives he has touched can pay their respects. By the world's standards my daddy is not a rich man, but by what really counts in this ole world, he is the richest man I know! Daddy is kind, generous, caring, loyal, honest, and a loving man. He would give the shirt off of his back to anyone else in need and has many times! He was a perfect example of a loving husband to my mother and a loving father to me and Becky. His smile and beautiful blue eyes could light up a room and my heart. Being in his lap, even long after I was grown and had children of my own, was the safest place on earth. Not only was he a great example for his family, his influence on young boys that he coached in Little League baseball was one of kindness and understanding. I cannot count the times someone has said to me, "your dad was my little league coach, he is such a nice man!" Daddy worked with lots of people through out his life and many of them have told us what an honest, hardworking, loyal employee and employer he was. Mama and daddy were also close friends to many people. They loved to get together and cook fish, play cards, and just have a good time. Many of these people and their children have been our life long friends and they all love my daddy...because he loved them! I can't even begin to tell you the joy that he has brought to his granddaughters and great grandchildren and the joy they have brought to him. What a blessing that he has been able to have a real relationship with all of them. Daddy never talked much about his relationship with God, but it was very evident in the way he lived his life. He grew up in a Christian family and was saved as a young boy and as I thank God for all that my daddy is, I thank Him for this most of all...because I know that when daddy breathes his last breath on this earth his very next will be in the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that we will see him again!!!

35 years and counting!

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35 years ago today I walked down the aisle in Parkway Baptist Church on my daddy's arm and married the love of my life. Daddy said to me as we entered the back of the church, "you can still back out if your want to." I can honestly say that there has not once been a time in the last 35 years that I have wished I had said, "okay daddy, let's get out of here!" Yes, there have been ups and downs, yes, there have been fights, yes, there have been disappointments, but through it all God has blessed me beyond measure. Bill and I were very young when we married, I was 19 and he turned 19 two days after our wedding. I was very surprised that my mama and daddy did not try to talk us into waiting a few years, but as I think back I am sure it was because they had been through such heartache when they married. My mother's parents were totally against her marrying and were not even present at the wedding. It did not take them long to discover what a wonderful, kind, loving man my daddy is though. Anyway, back to Bill and I. We met in the fall of 1973 at good ole Copiah Lincoln Jr College in Wesson. It was my sophomore year as a cheerleader and he was a freshman football player. We met in August, but our first date was not until October for the Homecoming dance. Things progressed and the next thing I knew it was May. I had graduated from CoLin and was back at home and Bill was spending the summer working in Brookhaven. He would call me every night. Now by this time, we had discussed getting married, possible the next summer or the one after that. One night on the phone, he tells me that he just cannot wait and we need to go ahead and get married. I guess I said okay but I really do not remember what I said. I do know he instructed me to get my daddy on the phone so he could ask him permission. What on earth was he thinking??? I did put daddy on the phone and then mama and before I blinked my eyes I was engaged and we were planning an August wedding! I tell people all the time that it is a good thing God knew what He was doing because we sure did not! We married on August 3, 1974 after knowing each other almost one year and dating for 10 months!

There are many, many things that I could tell you about my husband. He has the most integrity of any man I know, he is honest, hardworking, loyal, and trustworthy. He is also kind, generous, caring, and loving. He is tremendously funny, although some people never see that side of him. His relationship with God is obvious, he lives his life desiring to be more Christ like each day. And he's not bad looking either! I admire and love all of these things about him! There is one more thing that he is that I have received tremendous joy from and that is the daddy he is. I am SO very thankful that he is the father of my children. Oh my goodness, Bill Salters loves his girls! Can you imagine a man who has hunted, played football and every other sport, and done every other thing that men and boys do, having not one, not two, but three little girls? He has never acted disappointed about not having a boy.. .and now as a grandfather God has given him three boys and two more girls and a ? on the way! He is the best example of a loving father that I know. He loves his girls...No Matter What.. to borrow a phrase from our preacher, Jason Meyer. His love for them and his entire family and friends, for that matter, is unconditional. The girls learned at a very young age that no matter what they did or said their daddy(and their mama!) loves them. They were not only told this over and over, they were shown it by his reaction when they disobeyed and got into trouble. He would certainly discipline them for the action, but it was always done with love and with explanation. Not only does he love them unconditionally, he loved and still loves being with them. When he got home in the afternoons the first thing he did was to love on his girls and play with them a while. He now loves when they come home to visit and still has such a good time with them. Of course, now he also loves that they bring our precious grandchildren when they come home!

Please do not get that idea that Bill is perfect, we all know that none of us are. But, he is exactly what I believe God calls us to be... a Godly example by the way he lives.. to his wife, his children, his grandchildren,all of his family and friends. On our 25th anniversary, we renewed our vows and I had Bro. Bart read a story entitled, "Laughter in the walls." I won't quote it all, but it is the story of a family and the rooms in the house they lived in and what those rooms had been used for. At the end of the story, the children are all grown and gone and the husband and wife are left alone in the empty nest... and so they sit back, enjoy each other's company and listen ... to the laughter in the walls....Bill and I are so blessed to be doing just that and my prayer for any of you reading this is that you will live your life doing what God has called you to and that you can sit back one day and listen to the "laughter in the walls."

We give God the glory and the praise for our 35 years together and ask Him to bless us with many more