"Pre-" Christmas Post

     I had planned to wait until after Christmas to post a Christmas blog but decided that because a lot has happened since my Thanksgiving post the Christmas post would be too long. I will write another one after our entire Christmas season. Here in Vicksburg the kids have always had their individual family Christmases in the morning and then we all get together at our house later on Christmas day and exchange gifts. The week-end after Christmas is always the "Theriot Christmas." We will head down south to Gueydan and celebrate again with our extended Theriot family. The next blog will include comments and pictures of all of our celebrations!

     We have still been so busy picking pecans. We only get to go to the farm every few days, and when we do we are still amazed at how many pecans there are--and the trees are still loaded! Landon and I went last week-end and picked as long as we could; we ended up with 53 pounds in a little more than an hour. It's so hard to quit picking when they are all over. I'm including a picture which shows my foot surrounded by pecans. This is only one variety. Every step you took there were many, many pecans on the ground just waiting to be picked up! It's hard to leave them, but we only have so much time.

  
      The day before yesterday, I sold almost 200 pounds of the smaller, native pecans at a really good price at Vicksburg Farm Supply . Later that afternoon, I took all four grandsons and Elizabeth back down to the farm and we picked another 75 pounds. Of course, it was quite muddy because we had had a storm a day or so before that and, unfortunately, my car got stuck in the mud and is still down there. I called AAA, but they couldn't even get it out. Got to get someone with heavy farm equipment to pull it out to the road and then AAA can come tow it if we need to. "Merry Christmas" to me! The pecans are still in the car, too! Oh, well, another lesson learned huh. This picture of Landon by the car was not taken the day we got stuck, but that's about where the car is now, bogged down in a whole lot of mud!

Daddy helping Megan spread icing

Enjoying the fruit of their labor!

   

We started a Christmas tradition when the first grandkids were old enough. Every year all the kids come to Grammy's and we bake and decorate Christmas cookies. This year was Megan's first year to be included, and she had a ball. Of course, I think she ate more icing than she used for decorating. It makes a huge mess, but it is such a lot of fun.

      Of course, the boys are all too "big" for that sort of stuff.  You can see how they spent the time. The boys did cut, bake,and decorate one cookie each to eat on baking day,

Top plate, Lizzie's "art"; bottom, Megan's

      which was probably a good idea because I don't think the girls shared their handiwork with the boys once they got home.   

   Megan is not new to "baking"; she and "Chef" Luke made a cake together one afternoon before school was out for the holidays.

I think Megan eats more frosting than she puts on the cake.

The battle of the chefs!!

        This last picture is my favorite picture (so far) this Christmas season. This holiday season has, for some reason, been more difficult for me than the last three. I cried most of Thanksgiving week-end, and find myself doing the same thing when driving and listening to Christmas music. Russell loved this time of the year, and we enjoyed it together so much, especially because of the grandchildren. I am so grateful I have them all here; They are my Christmas spirit!

Grammy and Megan looking at Christmas catalog; she points to pictures and says, "I want dat!"

          Merry Christmas to all my dear friends and relatives reading this blog. Thank you, and I love you all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

"The Lost Cajun" pecans

          I can't believe it has been so long since my last post. But we have been so busy with the pecans this year. We simply cannot pick them all, so we are letting people pick all they want themselves for a good price. This arrangement is working out very well, when the weather cooperates!. However, I was supposed to meet several people at the farm this afternoon to pick pecans, but it has been raining since yesterday afternoon and is very, very cold. We can't go today. Hopefully, it will stop raining and dry out a bit by Tuesday or so so we can get back there.

 

Me pointing out pecans to Pat and Aiden

     When I first placed our flyers out offering to let people pick their own pecans, one of the first calls I received was from a woman who said she had a special needs son. Well, of course, I identified immediately with her because I have my precious granddaughter Anna, who is also a special needs child. Her son had just had surgery on his brain stem and was having a lot of difficulty controlling his hands enough to pick up the very small pecans that fell from the tree in his yard. She wanted to know if our pecans might be big enough for him to pick up. I said I was sure they were and that they could come pick as many pecans as they wanted (for free, of course). So I met her and him (his name is Pat also) and a friend of theirs (4-year-old Aiden) out there last Sunday afternoon. Pat is actually 20 years old, not a child any more. And I really think he had a ball!

Pat cracking some pecans

     Not only was he able to pick up as many pecans as he wanted, he also petted and fed the horses and just generally walked around the farm pointing out the tractor and the horse trailer and the camper. He used the pecan cracker to crack and eat some of the pecans and used the scale to weigh them.

     Landon and Luke were out there with me and were riding around in the mule. Pat wanted to do that also, so Landon rode him around in the mule several times. After a couple of hours, another woman with a set of special needs twins showed up. I have actually known the mom for years, even before the girls were born. Their mom works in my son's office, so Craig had put a flyer up at work and had mentioned to her that if she wanted to bring her girls out on Sunday, they could pick all the pecans they wanted. So they came also. The girls will be 18 in January; they are about six months older than Anna.

     It was such a  wonderful day. Each family picked over 5 pounds of pecans and are planning to come back again (when the weather is better). The weather was perfect that day, even if a little on the warm side. But we didn't complain because it was such a rewarding day for everyone!! I am looking forward to doing the same thing again with Pat and the twins and anyone else who has a special needs child or grandchild or is involved with a special needs group.I have too many pecans to pick all of them up anyway, and this is such a fun day for the children who participate and for us--it's definitely a win-win situation.

     Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was wonderful. On Thanksgiving day, Sheri's boys, Landon and Luke, were with their Dad. So Sheri, Anna, and I were invited to share Thanksgiving lunch with Craig, Alicia, and their kids. It was so nice! Turkey and all the trimmings--everything was delicious!. I brought wine and, of course, two pecan pies. I have made six pecan pies since last Friday!! Then I went outside with the kids and watched them as they played on their outdoor play equipment. There were so many leaves on the ground, and the kids liked piling up the leaves at the end of the slide and sliding down backwards and burying themselves in the leaves. I took pictures of them (or their legs anyway!) after they slid down. And, of course, here is one picture of Kieran, always the clown!

 

   

      Here is my favorite picture of the day, Megan with her dad on the deck. She is so SHY, poor baby!! Ha! Ha!  

     Then on Saturday after Thanksgiving (yesterday), my family (I have 3 brothers and 1 sister) all got together. Our parents died very young, my dad at 52 (lung cancer) and my mom at 58 (brain tumors). After they were both gone, we all decided to get together every Thanksgiving because we all lived in different cities. We agreed to meet on the week-end, rather than on Thanksgiving day so we could all have Thanksgiving with our respective immediate families. We alternate hosting, and this year was my turn. Only one brother did not come; and some of the extended family members, children and grandchildren, were unable to come. The larger our families get, the harder it is for all of us to get together. But we always try, and we had a wonderful time, again despite the weather that turned to sprinkles so the kids could not play outside as long as they wanted.

Siblings Joey, Barbara, me, and Gene. We three oldest are each a year apart. Then Ron (5 years later) and Gene (3 years later). My mother was always having children!!

     The hosting sibling usually provides the main course and a side dish or two, and everyone else brings side dishes and drinks. We always end up with more food than we ever need and certainly more than we should eat! But it is so good to get together and catch up and reminisce about old times. We ate a lot, laughed a lot, and just enjoyed being together. My sister Barbara and her daughter Monica and family (husband, Ben, and children, Samantha and Beau) came down from Little Rock on Friday afternoon and stayed the weekend. Two of my brothers, Joey (the "patriarch"--oldest of the siblings) and Gene (the youngest of the siblings) came with some of their family members (see pictures below). They both live in West Monroe, Louisiana, about an hour from Vicksburg.

     The day was cut a bit short, again because of the weather. There was a really bad cell of thunderstorms coming in, so the ones from West Monroe and Shreveport left around 3:00 to try to beat out the storm because it got too, too bad. I had also planned to meet some folks at the farm to pick pecans today, but that had to be rescheduled as well! Oh, well! It was still a great week-end.

Anna, Luke, and Landon with mom, Sheri

Craig and Alicia with Ryan, Megan, Kieran, and Elizabeth

Grammy with all 7 precious grandchildren!!

Gene and his wife, Jeanette

Big brother Joey, wife Betty, daughters, Kathy (with hubby Jim) and Beth (hubby Ryan unable to make it), and grandchildren Sydney, Will, Blake, and Wes

Lizzie, Megan, and Sam in grammy's bedroom

The oldest sibling and the youngest

Grammy with her angel, Anna Kate

Barbara's daughter Monica with hubby Ben and children Beau and Sam(antha)

After huge meal, girls visited in dining room; guys watched football!

Two of my nieces, Kathy and Beth, with Mom Betty Carol (Joey's wife)

My youngest child and my youngest grandchild--aren't they adorable!!

      Second cousins (pictures on left
and right) playing a game on xBox.

Lots of good food!!

And some MORE food!!

 

 

   

Megan and Elizabeth on porch - think it had started sprinkling by then.

Megan just LOVES being outside!

    The only thing missing was Russell. And I'm afraid that, for some reason, this holiday season is going to be the hardest since I lost him. I don't know why. But I had a bad day this past week (cried all day), and this past Saturday morning before everybody got here I lost it a couple of times. I'm so thankful, however, to have such a wonderful family, and that includes all of Russell's family. I rely on all of them to help me carry on.

     As we enter into the rest of the holiday season, let's all hold all of our loved ones close; don't take anything or anyone for granted. Tell them all you love them every chance you have. And stay safe!!!

     

  

 

Lessons Learned

     This week's blog topic has to do with some lessons I learned over the past 10 days or so. These are lessons learned the hard way.

     The first lesson has to do with selling our pecans. Actually, I learned TWO valuable lessons. First, I called a local farmer's co-op that had advertised they were buying pecans. (I had decided to sell this first batch to a wholesaler to get some operating capital, rather than trying to sell them ourselves to ultimate customers.) I called late on a Friday aftenoon to find out what they were paying. At that time, they were paying $_______/pound for the large ones, and 20 cents less for the small ones. (Don't want to give away ALL our information. The problem was I was stuck at home, couldn't get anyone to stay with Anna to go sell them that day or on Saturday--plus the containers were too heavy for me to load into my car by myself!!)

The only picture I got at the co-op.
Man in rear is weighing pecans; Megan
doesn't look very happy, huh!

     Anyway, I decided I would wait and go on Tuesday (one of my regular "days out"), and I thought I would bring the boys with me so they could participate in this part of the process also. I actually thought they might ENJOY seeing how the pecans were weighed and priced. Maybe I should have taken ONLY the boys, but instead I picked up the 4 little ones up at school and I took them AND Megan to the co-op to sell the pecans. Perhaps it would not have been too bad if the owner of the business had not had to go to the bank to get more cash. Unfortunately, if I had sold the pecans on Friday or Saturday I would have been one of the EARLY ones to have some to sell. By waiting those three or four days, more people had pecans to sell and, naturally, the price had gone down. The co-op owner was now not even separating them into large or small pecans, but was instead buying ALL pecans for about 35 cents a pound LESS than last week. Lesson 1: sell pecans BEFORE the price drops. (I'm learning--again the HARD WAY!"

     Lesson 2: Do NOT take all the little kids with you when you go to sell pecans. It probably wouldn't have been as bad had we not had to wait for the owner to get back with cash. But as it happened, it was very hot so I had to let the kids out of the car. They kept running up and down the ramp to the warehouse, playing in the dirt, throwing rocks, and fighting with each other.

     I had this "fantasy" that this would be such a good learning experience for them. They could see how the pecans were weighed and how we got paid for them, etc. They watched and may have said, "Oh" once, but they were more interested in throwing things at each other! And, again, I had this "fantasy" that the co-op owner would have all kinds of patience with me and with the kids and would let me know what the varieties were that I had. He either did not know or just wanted to get rid of us. He agreed with everything I said. "Are these Stewarts?" "Yeah, sure, I think so." "Are these Mehans?" "Ah, I'm not really sure but it really doesn't matter, we are mixing them all together."

     Lesson 3: On the way back from South Louisiana last week, I stopped at a hardware store in one of the towns I drove through. I found a rolling pecan harvester at a good price so I bought it. I also found a scale for us to measure the pecans so we could put them in various-sized burlap bags to sell. It was also a good price, so I felt very good about my purhases.

     After I got home and opened the box the scale was in, I found that the metal part that actually holds the PAN onto the scale was missing. It was totally unusable! I should have opened the box at the store before I left. I immediately called the store and they said they would send me the part--that was last Thursday!! Still not here so we can't actually weigh the pecans yet.

My sister (Barbara) and I after
a walk on Central Avenue in Hot Springs

     Lesson 4 actually has nothing to do with pecans! I think I mentioned in a past blog that my sister (who is also a single grandparent) and I have decided that we need to take at least two trips a year together with NO CHILDREN and NO GRANDCHILDREN--just us. We need to get rejuvenated and spend some quality time on us. EVERY single grandparent should definitely do this. Find a close friend or relative and plan week-end trips at least twice a year. I promise it will help!!

     My sister and I went to Las Vegas in May for a few days--had a ball. Last year the first week-end in November we went to The Arlington Hotel and Spa in Hot Springs, Arkansas. There is a bath house there where you can get in a whirlpool bath with mineral waters and it is supposed to have a soothing and healing effect. It is a very famous old hotel and spa and at one time was the most popular Spa in the country.

My sister Barbara
on steps of The Arlington

     Both of our birthdays are in November (we are a year and 18 days apart), and we are very close. So we decided to make this an annual trek. Well, we had made our room reservation but we had NOT made any reservations for our spa treatments. We hadn't done this, though, because last year we did not schedule our appointments until the Friday night we got there and were able to get exactly what we wanted. Not so this time. We met there Friday afternoon (she comes down from Little Rock and I drive up from Vicksburg), immediately went up to our room, and called the bath house to make our spa treatment reservations. They were booked for the entire week-end--absolutely no times available. They suggested we call the hotel salon as it took appointments that the bath house could not accommodate. 

     The salon does all the massages, etc.; they just don't do the mineral baths. At first when we called they said they were totally booked also, but they took our room number and said they would call if they could work something out. They did call back (and I think Barbara--my sister--gave them some sob story about how needy we were!! Sisters who only got together once a year at this spa because we needed to be pampered, etc.) Anyway, it worked!! They said to come down in the morning at 9:00 for our full hour body massages, and they would try to work in our facials and pedicures when they could.

     As it happened, we got it all done while we were there. We got the massage, the facial, and the pedicure and by noon we felt fantastic! The rest of the weekend was just as awesome. So we WILL do this again the first week-end next November, but we will NOT ONLY book our room, we will schedule our spa treatments ahead of time as well!! More than worth it to do so; we were lucky that they were so helpful and sympathetic to our plight. We did, however, have an absolutely wonderful time just spending time together.

     On another note, Halloween came and went since my last post, and here are Craig's kids in their costumes. Elizabeth is Saint Elizabeth (she had to play her at school so this is the costume she wore for that), Megan is, of course, a witch; and the boys are, well, boys! They took Luke trick or treating with them; I think Luke was a baseball player also, not sure. Landon, of course, is too old to trick or treat; but he got his share of candy! We have lived in this house since 1992 and have had NO trick or treaters ever (except family)!!

Look how tall Landon is getting!!



     This past week-end was the first week-end for kids to deer hunt. Sheri took Landon and his friend Justin to the farm to hunt. No deer, but they had a good time anyway. Still plenty of hunting time left to try to get deer this year.

          And this final picture I just have to include. Megan was playing "dress up." She found some of my jewelry and this tiara that had been Anna's from some time back. She really  was dressed up!!

     We are still picking pecans. Craig and his boys picked two big buckets full yesterday from the same one tree we have already picked over 48 gallons from. These are medium-sized natives and, I think, the best tasting. I want to try to go tomorrow if I can. I enjoy picking pecans; it's kind of like Easter egg or treasure hunting!

     Hope you will keep reading!

     



    



  My "Girls"

After performance

     My blog today is mostly about my "girls." It seems as though I have been writing a lot about my grandsons, but this past week, Elizabeth (7) was the "star." Lizzie is SO active, as are all the kids. She is taking gymnastics, tumbling, AND competitive cheerleading. This past week-end her team competed in their first competition in Jackson, and they won first place in their group. It was so cute, and she looked absolutely beautiful--7 going on 17!!

Megan waiting for Lizzie's performance

  Megan really got into it, too. She could not sit still when she heard all the music. She says all the time, too, that she is also going to do "nastics." She is already doing a forward roll and has a really cute "routine" that she shows us all the time.

Grammy with two of her "girls"

Elizabeth's team with their first-place trophy

"Hi, Anna. I'm here!"

        When Megan gets to my house each morning, one of the first things she does is run over to Anna's bed. She climbs up on one of the rails and says, "Anna, I'm here!!" It is absolutely adorable. She will also, very often during the day, go over to Anna if she has a seizure or makes a sound and says, "It awite, Anna." And she will rub her arm and kiss Anna's cheek. I really think that Anna is responding some, although very slightly. Her eyes seem to dart back and forth more quickly when Megan is unusually loud, which is pretty much all the time--when she is awake.

     I think I will probably start composing a new blog every two weeks instead of every week. Not that there isn't enough going on to post every week!! But we are getting ready to be really busy with our pecan orchard--the trees are really producing this year, and we want to try something different this year, maybe selling them direct to customers (retail) rather than to a wholesaler. We want to package them in 1-, 3-, 5-, or 10-pound bags with our "The Lost Cajun" logo (which we haven't designed just yet!) on the bags. Russell always wanted to do this. He thought we would also make (and sell) pecan pies, pralines, etc.--anything you can do with pecans. So we thought we would give it a try this year.I'll keep you all posted on how our new "family business" is doing. Should be fun anyway. I'm paying the boys (Elizabeth wants to be involved also) to help me pick. It's so much fun. It's a lot like Easter egg-hunting.

     It's Friday, October 28, and I am still working on this blog. I got interrupted and had to go out of town for a couple of days, but I WILL post this one today. Elizabeth went to the doctor yesterday. She has strep throat and couldn't go to school. So today I have ALL my girls. We are having a "girls' 'day in!'" Here is a picture of them. Elizabeth is feeling a bit tired so wants to take a nap, and Megan just HAD to sit on the arm of the sofa. You can see Anna in her bed in the background. This is our "messy" room; I really try to keep the rest of the house neat, if not clean. But this is the room the kids and I LIVE, PLAY, READ, and sometimes FIGHT in so it is usually always a mess until after they all leave in the evening. But it's all good!!

How precious is this!!

     After all, this is what it is all about. I love this picture of Meagan when she is sleeping. She looks so much younger in this picture, but the picture is less than two weeks old. They grow up so fast; I hope this blog will keep them this age for a long, long time.