Things Change

Ingrid and Astrid made the paper again.  They are famous...well, at least to "Gigi".

Why the Sister go blogging!
 Our missions change as we age.  When my sisters started blogging in 2006, our purpose was to share our lives.  Patsy had retired and had learned to use a computer.  This was a feat in itself.  Patsy spent her life toiling on assembly lines in garment plants and chicken processing plants.  She also cooked in nursing homes.  She had a really hard existence and her last years were her easiest except for a open hernia that had been repaired with mesh.  The mess grew into her gut.  The last time she went to the hospital they just left her with an open wound.  It oozed and was a constant annoyance.   She is the one who got the rest of us "blogging".  She passed away November 28, 2014.

Sister Helen lived in Arizona.  She was the second to have a Blog.  Since 2006 she has survived breast cancer and a divorce.  Last year she moved to Arkansas and lives in our parent's old home. She also visits her children around the country and helps with others she connects with along the way.  I am sure the blogging helped her feel connected to her roots.  Now, blogging is sort of a chore for Helen, but she continues to put something up weekly at least.

Sister Fleta has always worked and her job involves computers.  At first, she thought the blogging was sort of dumb, but she participated because she is a sister first!  Since 2006, she has taken on two young grandchildren to help raise.  The children's parents were divorced and their mother died in a house fire in January of 2014.  Fleta's son lives with her and his Dad, but he works away mostly for he is a welder and the union jobs pay so much more.  So much of the day to day care of the two children falls to her and her husband, George.  She uses the blog to record when and how somethings happen.  She has become a "goat" farmer too. Sister Patsy bought her a few goats and she still has some of them.  Fleta still works a full time job.  She walks for her health as she realizes that to stay alive and help get the two children raised she needs to be healthy.  Our brother lived in Mom and Dad's house next to her for over 25 years.  July 2, 2014, he had a massive heart attack and passed away.  He did not blog but read what we posted daily.

In 2006, I was still teaching at Russellville Middle School.  I started blogging and once removed the entire thing and then started over.  I enjoy sharing pictures.  I have read some of my early posts and they all sound "syrupy" to me.  I looked daily on my computer at school to see what Patsy and Helen had posted as they posted daily and sometimes more than once a day.  I did my posting at home.  In 2012, I retired and a large part of what I had been involved in all my life was over.  I have had to reinvent myself.  My new title is "Gigi" and for me the blog now is a record of my Grandchildren's lives.

Our cousin from Kansas City, MO started blogging with us.  We have been able to watch her grandson, Sam, grow into a fine young man--all from afar.  Winnie still shares with us what is going on in Missouri.  Her first blog got "hung" and she could not post from it.  It is still there and we can see all her marvelous old posts.  She scanned in 100's of pictures of our family and posted them there and we can enjoy them even today.

Several of the next generation tried blogging but they were soon blogged out and now it is just Fleta, Helen, myself, and our sweet cousin!  The Sister's plan to continue as long a google lets us have free space.  We can go back to Patsy's Blog and read her thoughts.  It means a lot.  Maybe, someone will read ours.  The Sisters all have cell phones today and we can talk and text all we want, but that does not leave a foot print.  We have found that foot prints of where we have been and where we are going are important.

Fleta gave me advice today about raising kids.  She said we should strive to teach our children that it is not okay to look for hand-outs.  They need to be taught to earn what they get.  She said that the low economic part of our society has taught their children to look for a free ride and not a job.  If they can earn money by sleeping late and watching tv, why go to work?  I read a book about this recently.   I think it was called "you are helping us too much".  Well, that is Fleta's advice for today!  While I was walking my four miles, Fleta and I talked on the cell phone.  Sometimes, I talk to Helen that way too, but she is in Washington state and they are two hours behind us.  If I walk at 7, it is 5 Helen time and I don't want to keep her away from her chores with the 4 grandkids there.  Helen's daughter is a kindergarten teacher and has a new job at a school there.  She had taught in AZ but after her husband took the better job building jets in Washington, she only substituted for teachers there.  Now, her children are all in school and she is teaching kindergarten again.  Helen is playing "Granny in Charge" of all the day to day chores.  It will help Kristina get back into the swing of working full time.  Sister Helen does have plans to return to the home place to live.

Some folks go jogging but the Sisters go blogging!