UPDATE and I got a new camera yesterday

UPDATE: I slept some, here and there, in the recliner, in my bed, a couple hours at a time. I am happy to say that right now, my knees are not aching! The peripheral neuropathy has let up some, too. I am tired but satisfied with how I feel. I am thankful that I have the option of hitting that recliner again when I finish this post. And thankful for your continued prayers, love, and concern.



Yesterday Leland came over on his bicycle after he'd finished bouldering at the gym which is a about six blocks from my apartment. We visited awhile and got to talking about a Camera World event that interested the two of us, him because he'd like to look at the newest model of the camera he already had, me because I wanted to check it out too because my Nikon D5100, although I adore it, is just so doggone heavy for me any more. So, I said, "Let's go!" Camera World had e-mailed me about their Trade-In event--Leland had received it too--so their marketing ploy worked on the two of us. Leland rode home and came back in his car. We got a parking spot right beside the store, so I didn't have to walk far. The guys in the store brought me a comfortable chair which even had a place for me to put my feet, sort of a stool which was easy to get on and off. Anyway, we ended up trading in our cameras and getting a new one, each of us--we'll  be able to tell them apart because my lens is a newer model than his.

Now I'm shooting with an Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. I've never owned anything but Nikon, so this will take a bit of getting used to. Leland has only owned this camera, so he's going to be a fantastic teacher and resource person who, by my having given birth to him, will happily put up with my asking the same questions over and over again until I am able to remember what I need to remember.

This is the third photo that I took with it this morning. These items sitting to my left as I type, atop one of those sectional book case cabinet things which you put together--you know, particle board covered in vinyl that resembles wood--mean a whole lot to me. There's the porcelain Cupie Doll that Mama loved; the blue glass head that I love; the painting of our darling Duncan that everyone adores (which we have thanks to Leslie and Chris); peaking out from behind it there's the owl that my Mama's mother Mama Sudie loved.

And standing over it all is a papier mache deer that I have named Ruby Pearl the Yes Dear Girl. I painted her myownself, with Yes Dear in various languages among the flowers. I love her because she reminds me how much my husband and I loved each other. You see, my sweetheart of a husband LeRoy loved to be out and about with our friends and throw in the occasional "Yes, dear." whenever he had the opportunity, sort of like he was the all-suffering man about the house. All of us knew that he was joking out the wazoo, that the two of us were equal members of our fine partnership of love. Anyway, when this deer ended up in my classroom years ago after having served as a high school skit prop, I couldn't just toss her out--yes, I know that girl deer don't have horns in real life, but, hey, she's made of papier mache.

UPDATE & Throwback Thursday. I took this photo on Friday, July 9, 2004, but that doesn't matter one bit because I'm using it today to show you my little Mama and me at the Bijou Cafe, eating our last meal in Portland on our first visit here to be with my sons. Now, she's gone, they're still here, I'm here, and the three of us are going to my chemotherapy appointment this afternoon.

If not for this woman, I'd be so scared at what I'm going to find out at 2:30 p.m. today.

As it is, knowing the smarts, the strength, and the determination housed in this sweetheart's little body all of her years--and because I am her daughter--I realize that I will come through the chemotherapy consultation  prepared to face what is next, not nearly as scared as I might have been.

My Mama (and my Daddy) taught my brother Howard and me to prepare ourselves mentally for what might be in our future, to rely on the love and support of our family, to see ourselves being successful, or, at the very least, coming out OK on the other side. My parents were not saints; they were hard-working people, trying to raise us the best that they could, by example in home life, work life, extended family life. Howard and I often speak about how we lucked out astronomically with the two of them as our Mama and Daddy. We'll tell that to anyone who will listen, smiling and feeling in awe as we speak, filled with great memories, loaded with impressions of strength and fortitude. Nowadays since he's still in Mississippi and I'm in Oregon, we talk on the phone very often, and I can see in my mind's eye the tilt of his head, the slight smile, the soft shrug of his shoulders, and the glow in his eyes when we're talking about Mama and Daddy, the blessings that they are our parents.

Because my husband LeRoy died when Lamont was seven and Leland was four, my Mama and Daddy and Howard played a huge role in helping to raise those two little boys into the men that they are today, not discounting one single iota of the influence of their Daddy's genes. He was the same kind of person as my parents. Able to see the humor and creativity and love in the people that the world sent our way, able to use inner strength and determination to get through what the world sent our way.

Lamont and Leland will be beside me at 2:30 p.m. today. There in spirit: Mama, Daddy, and LeRoy.

I love that I got to use one of Mama's favorite words in this post today, iota. She, who didn't get past the 9th grade, somehow discovered that iota fit perfectly when one wanted to discuss and extremely small amount. Thank you, Mama.

Time goes by.

Revisiting another favorite photo of mine, taken on July 9, 2004, when my little Mama and I first visited my sons here in Portland, Leland on the left, Lamont on the right. They had to get up very early that day--Leland to head for work, Lamont to meet Mama and me for breakfast before getting us to the airport for our flight home. These two are my rocks, their father's sons, one hundred percent.



See, here he is, from the mid-1960s. I didn't know him then. He was in the US Air Force.



And there he is in the middle, December, 1978, between Ronnie on the left and Lyndall on the right. We're about to begin the convoy from Kansas City, Kansas, to Jackson, Mississippi.

Thanks for indulging me. LeRoy died 32 years ago yesterday, so I decided to look through these photos again. I am blessed.

Happy New Year!

Happy what-would-have-been-our-42nd-anniversary, LeRoy, love of my life! Your sons and I miss you as we celebrate you and say a heartfelt, "Happy New Year!" to our family and friends.

We met on July 31, 1972; he asked me to marry him on September 24, 1972; we married on December 31, 1972; Lamont was born on September 24, 1975. Leland was born on October 31, 1978. LeRoy succumbed to complications from Crohn's Disease on April 14, 1983. In between all of those dates and because of those dates, our lives intertwined with love and joy and happiness and sadness, but ultimately with love and joy and happiness.

Happy anniversary, honey.

Lamont turns 39 today, Leland turns 36 on Halloween. Happy birthday, guys!

Most of these photos are the same ones I posted in celebration of September 24, and October, 31, 2010. Back then I thought I'd make a post for Lamont's birthday, then later on make one for Leland's birthday. However, as brothers should be, they're together in lots of photos, so I combined their birthday posts.



First, though, here are the three of us last November 13, outside the Hollywood Theatre--we'd just seen that wonderful documentary "Muscle Shoals." I'd already seen it and loved it, knew that their Daddy would've loved it, and wanted to make certain that they saw it. The two of them thoroughly enjoyed it!



One more photo before the repeats from 2010--this one that I took on Christmas Day 2013 in my apartment. Leland, Lamont, their friend Lee, and my sons' roommate Brody. Four great guys! And we can celebrate one more birthday--Brody's is Sept. 24 also, and, get this. He was born in the same exact hospital as Lamont, not the same year, but the same day, in Kansas City, Kansas! The two of them met when they both worked at a hotel and became roommates not too long afterwards.



Now for the repeats from the 2010 combined birthday post. In this photo, Lamont is between four and five and Leland is between one and two.



Lamont was three years, one month, and one week old when Leland as born.



When Leland was six weeks old in December, 1978, the four of us moved from Kansas City, Kansas, to Jackson, Mississippi. To help us, my parents came in their Winnebago so the kids and I could ride with them. My husband LeRoy drove the Ryder truck. My brother came, too, in his own vehicle to help out with any and everything. Here we are, early spring 1979, at the John Bell Williams airport out from Raymond, Mississippi. Our friends had flown down from KC to visit, in that airplane right there beside us. I'm holding our older son Lamont. LeRoy is holding our younger son Leland. LeRoy and I loved our prescription glasses that got darker out in the sunshine. We look pretty doggone cool, I think.



Our friend, Ronnie, the pilot. Our friend Lyndall, holding Lamont. My sweet, dearly departed husband LeRoy, holding a dozing Leland.



Baby Leland with me, his Mama.



About 1990, Lamont and Leland with their great-grandmother Vivian, my Daddy's Mama. If it really is 1990, then she's celebrating her 92nd birthday!



Mama and Daddy's backyard. We've got seated, left to right my Aunt Baker and JL's grandson Patrick, my son Leland, Patrick's fraternal twin brother Michael. Standing, left to right, my son Lamont, and the twins' older brother Steven. Lamont is in 6th grade. He broke his arm skateboarding, and one year later he broke the other one, skateboarding.



Lamont and Leland horsing around on Leland's 21st birthday, in 1999. I loved the photo so much that when I taught myself to make calendars, I put it in the background of this 2000 calendar.



Leland's kindergarten graduation.



I think this is kindergarten, too.



I think Lamont's about 18 months old here. We're still living in Kansas City; he's wearing a sailor hat that he loved to wear. I sewed those curtains myself.



Our cutie's a bit tired here.



Precious son Lamont.



Precious son Leland.



Lamont with Papaw, my Daddy. Lamont's got a Tupperware lettuce storage bowl on his head. He loved to wear it!



Leland's a few months old here--it's 1979.



Lamont's standing on a chair in our house in Kansas City, at the kitchen sink.



The guys are six and three here.



Here they're four and one. Love that jacket on Lamont and that bow tie on Leland.



LeRoy with Lamont who is probably close to one year old.



LeRoy with Leland who is probably five or six months old.



My two precious sons. I love them very much.



Lamont and Papaw.



Grandma and Leland.



The guys, taken on July 9, 2004. They got up early before they had to go to work at their respective restaurants, just so they could see us off back to Mississippi. Grandma and I had come to visit on June 30, fell in love with Portland, and jumped at the chance to join Lamont and Leland there, especially after they said, "Move out here! We'll take care of you when you're old!" They certainly did take care of their Grandma before she died in January, 2011, and they continue to take care of me.



And here they are, the photo that I took it on 9/11/2010.

Thankful for Thanksgiving Day and family memories.

These images are scans of small, much older photographs. The quality is slim, but the love is deep.



Thankful for having had these fine women as part of my life. Except for me, they're now all gone from here, to a place where I shall join them at some point in the I hope distant future. Left to right, front row, Ma (my Daddy's mother), Mama (my mother), Mama Sudie (Mama's mother). Back row, Aunt Baker (Daddy's sister), and me.

 

Also thankful for my dearly departed husband LeRoy and our two sons, Lamont and Leland.

 

Thankful for my Daddy, seen here with Lamont.

 

And my Mama, seen here with Leland.