Sunny SoCal!

Our weather here has been so nice the past few days that it is almost embarrassing. Southern California has seen beautiful blue skys, clear mountains in the distance, and the sparkling ocean. Our temps have been in the upper 70's, I love it, even if it is still cool at night. The other day I had posted a picture from our gardens, Johnnye Merle Gardens & Nursery. The gardens are outside, behind Country Roads and owned by my oldest daughter, Brande. She named the nursery after my mom, her Gramma, Johnnye Merle.This is a picture of my mom at a young age. She was born and raised in Texas, and even though she moved to CA, her Texas roots and "pride" was always near and dear to her heart as was gardening! She always told Brande, Katie, and Bryce that her favorite flowers were the Blue Bonnetts because all you had to do was, "throw 'em in the hard Texas soil, stomp 'em in the ground, throw a little water on them and they would grow! She taught me about gardening, and then my kids as well. It was nice that my mom knew about the gardens before she died. She never got to visit but did get to see pictures. I had a picture of the garden on my blog and Maureen reminded me that not everyone has flowers this time of year. So, here's a few more photos below for Maureen and anyone else that is ready for Spring! They aren't the best photos since I took them really fast while working yesterday and only had time for a few because we were so busy.





For more pictures and information about Johnnye Merle Gardens, go visit Brande's blog or click on the picture of my mom on my side bar for the blog. And me, I'm going to enjoy our California sunshine while it lasts!

Monday Morning Memories

This is a picture of my mom when she was 15 and her mom, my grandmother. I've been trying for the past year or so to pull all my parents pictures together since they passed away. My dad's photos are great, he wrote on the backs of almost all of. He went as far as even writing little stories on some. But my mom, nothing! We didn't even find the old photo album of her growing up in Texas until after she passed away. Her childhood was not easy. It was tough for her growing up, her family didn't have much but neither did a lot of people where she lived. I just stumbled across the picture above and below. I figured out, because of what my mom was wearing, it was the day of her dad's funeral. I'd seen her in that outfit in a few old photos of her dads funeral I had found before. These pictures were big enough to have written just a few words, but nothing. My entire life, the only story I heard about my mom and her folks was from my dad, the world famous Mr. Moore! My mom never said much. It was a weird generation, or at least in my family. My folks never talked about personal stuff or my mom's family. The story I heard was that my grandmother had died of cancer when my mom was 15 years old, her her dad killed himself three years later. It wasn't until recently that my sister told me it was the other way around. It was right before my mom passed away, her dementia was bad, but finally after ALL this time she began to talk to my sister about what really happened a day before she died. My grandparents, Hobson Durham and Madge Dulane Durham are buried in Temple, Texas. We took a vacation once when I was little to Missouri to see my dad's family. I so wish he would have stopped in Texas on the way. It is hard for me to understand why they never talked about stuff like that and pretended like nothing ever happened. Those stories are such a part of my family and at least I'm slowly able to piece them together now. A few years ago, my oldest daughter, Brande, was traveling and stopped in Temple. She say her great-grandparents graves, and stopped by the library. She was lucky to have stumbled into a local historian while there. With the information Brande had about my mom's family, he was able to tell Brande where the restaurant was that her great-grandmother had worked at, and where her great-grandparents house use to be, things like that. It's tough when someone has passed away, like my mom, and taken so many untold stories with her. That's one of the things that attracts me to blogging, the stories. There is something left of us, even if its about old cats and flip flops. God, I had nothing to say this week-end, I confess!!

Monday Morning Memories

My mom died three years ago yesterday. Sometimes it seems so much longer, maybe because my dad died just a few months later and there was just so much we were all going through back then. It was a tough time, they had the dementia/Alzheimer's stuff going on. I remember when I got the call from assisted living that my mom and fallen and they were taking her to the hospital. It was the same day that little newborn Riley and Katie were coming home from the hospital. I remember looking at the sky, seriously, and out loud asking, "why now, why now". I feel bad admitting it, but I was angry. I just wanted a couple of days to celebrate the birth and enjoy my first grandchild! When I called the hospital, they say she would be okay, and in a few days they would send her back to assisted living. I felt better, although it only lasted a day. Above is a picture of me with my parents when I was a baby. Where did all that time go?This picture is my mom with Brande at the hospital when Katie was born. It makes me a little sad, wishing that she could still have done the same thing with Riley, after Morgan was born. A couple of days after I got the call from the hospital, its was 6:16am on August 30th, 2006. The nurse asked me to "hold" because the doctor wanted to talk to me. I was on "hold" for what seemed like forever, which actually was probably less than five minutes. The nurse got back on the phone and then said the doctor wanted me to come to the hospital right away. I "knew" my mom was gone and asked the nurse, but she wouldn't tell me. I understand much more now, how my mom had been so sick for so long and just "held on" long enough for Riley to be born. It still didn't make it any easier though. But with all things in life, with the passage of time, you accept what happens in life. And I know my mom is in a better place right now where she is no longer in pain. I just hope she knows that I'm trying my best to be the best Gramma ever to my baby girls, Riley & Morgan. I miss you Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom

  Today would have been my Mom's 82nd birthday. I wish the quality of the photo above was better. this was one of my mom's favorite photos. Her dad use to drive an oil truck in Temple,Texas. That's my mom, Johnnye Merle Durham, on top of the truck and her dad is the guy leaning on the truck up by the cab. She loved Temple and growing up there. As kids she would tell my sister and I all kinds of stories about growing up in Texas, and then she would tell the same stories to my kids. Days like today are kind of bittersweet,you know. I wish she would have lived long enough to hold Riley. But she did get to see a photo of her, and then five days after Riley was born, she asked for chapstick (she was obsessed with chapstick),smiled and died. That was my mom, not much for the big dramas in life, always preferred simple. I have to say I was kind of pissed off over that one, but of course I knew she fought the pain she was in until after Riley's birth but it seemed so unfair at the time. So this afternoon, Riley and I started dancing with the Backyardians. Kind of in Gramma Johnnye's memory! Riley is becoming quite the dancer these days. She makes me smile, she makes me laugh. As my dad always said, "your mom would have loved this baby". I DO love this baby, more than words can say. So, "Happy Birthday" mom and I'm still not going to creepy Forest Lawn. Riley and I are dancing instead!!