ABC'S then and now

Saw this on my friend Pearlie's site this morning and wanted to share it.

The amazing part was how many of the New Age Technology I knew!!!!! And, the one's I didn't Aric did.

Have a great day... we are, and we are so glad to have our grandson back with us this Wednesday after his trip to St. Louis & Indiana. In St. Louis he, Oksana, Marc & Deann all got to go up on the Arch, visited a museum and took a River Boat Dinner Cruise up the Mississippi. Oksana & Aric meet their mother the next day and she took then to Indiana to spend 2 weeks with her. They spent a lot of time at the swimming pool and came home brown as berries!!!! Marc drove back up to St. Louis this past Sunday to pick them up.

GOOD-BYE RONNIE

This picture is so Ronnie. Two pens in his pocket, cell phone (with the antenna up) in his pocket, suspenders, plaid shirt, blue jeans, & always a hat! A slight grin & a twinkle in his eye.

He was buried in a pink plaid shirt, blue jeans, red suspenders, with the pens & cell phone in his pocket and his new Stetson straw hat on his chest. A bottle of Mountain Dew was also there!!! Ronnie was never without his Mountain Dew.

Ronnie Carroll Seeley

January 29, 1943 - June 15, 2010

Age 67

Preceded in death by

Wife - Billie Janette "Jane" Seeley

Parents - Kenneth & Nina Bowman Seeley

Survivors:

Sons

Kenneth Wayne (Laura) Seeley
William Carroll (Dianne) Seeley

Joseph Brian (Amber Gibbs) Seeley

Brother

James Kenneth Seeley

Brother-In-Laws

Jerry Joyce

Mickey Joyce

Thirteen Grandchildren
One Great-Grandchild

Pallbearers:

Joe Seeley - Wayne Seeley - Billy Seeley - Jim Carroll

G.K. Seeley - Will Seeley - Jake Seeley - Fran Gonzales

We got one of those totally unexpected phone calls at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, June 16th. Our beloved brother-in-law had died the night before of a massive heart attack. We had lost Mickey's sister, and his wife, Jane, January 26. 2006.just 3 days before her 63rd birthday. His son, Billy, told us he would call all three sons each and every morning to tell them to have a good day and lately he'd been talking even more about how much he missed their Mama, his Janie.

There is nothing like a funeral in the South. Southerners still know how to give honor and respect to their friends. Ronnie's burial exemplifies this so well. On Saturday, from 2 pm to 8 pm, the family greeted visitors by the hundreds who came to pay their respect. The same thing occurred on Sunday from noon to 3 pm with the service beginning at 3 pm.

The first song was sung by 2nd son, Billy. The first speakers were Presley Seeley, daughter of the oldest son, Wayne, and then Wayne spoke. The second song was "I Can Only Imagine" sung by a close family friend. The second speaker was the 2nd son, Billy. The third song "I Believe" was sung by a man & woman duet. The 3rd speaker was the oldest grandson, G.K., son of Wayne. G.K. also read a poem Ronnie's only brother, Jimmy, had written titled "Together". The 4th speaker was the youngest son, Billy. The last speakers were brother-in-law, Jerry Joyce, and a family friend, Mike Sheley.

The comments from each speaker were so moving, telling the kind of father, grandfather, brother, man and friend Ronnie Seeley was. But they were also mixed with so many of the funny sayings Ronnie was known for and his funny antics which brought chuckles amidst our many tears.

The service was officiated by Dr. Eric Taylor, Baptist Pastor of the Seeley family.
Flowers - The center top shelf is the one from The Mickey Joyce Family.

The Long Horn display is from the sons & wives

The Whip below is from the grandchildren


Flowers - at the grave site

The burial was in Adams, Tennessee in the Seeley plot.

The hearst took the coffin from the funeral home in Springfield, Tennessee to about a mile from the cemetery where this wagon, with a team of horses and two drivers were waiting.
Pall bearers moving the casket from the wagon at the grave site. Facing from left to right, Grandson's Will, & G.K. & youngest son, Joe. With their backs left to right, Second son, Billy, Brother, Jimmy & oldest son, Wayne.

Pall bearers placing their rose boutonnieres onto the casket casing. Left to right, Grandsons: Fran Gonzales, Will Seeley, Jake Seeley & G.K. Seeley. Fran is not really a grandson but was treated as one and considered as one by Ronnie.

My beloved Mickey shoveling some dirt onto the coffin.


The bag piper who played "Amazing Grace"

The police man at the stop lights were standing at attention with their hands over their hearts. ALL the traffic pulled over to the side of the road as the L-O-N-G procession of automobiles followed the hearst.

Two other special things that were done: 1) Wayne Seeley owns a trucking firm and unbeknown to him 6 of his drivers pulled their Bar SS semi trucks along one spot in the road and honked their horns as we went by. 2) Another friend of Wayne, who is a pilot, flew his small plane up, down and around the procession as they approached Adams & the cemetery.

YOU ARE ALL SO..........

Some time ago on fb (facebook) I posted this silly little thing: "I want to see how forth coming my Facebook friends are........ Leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me using the THIRD letter of YOUR name...... It can only be one word...... Then copy and paste this post on your wall so I can leave a word ...about you."

I was shocked that 35 people left their one word response. I thought it would be fun to try and write a piece, about how I feel about all of them, using the word each of them left. It is in italic ts: here goes.....

You were all so merciful and enthusiastic in playing along with me on this intelligent fun post. You were not only super nice but helpful & hopeful (Kahri had to leave 2 "h" words!!!) and showed remarkable kindness in being so thoughtful and ready to play along. Showed how righteous you are toward this evangelical gal (me!) and your beautiful heart toward me that is so wonderful.

It also shows me how reliable you are toward the remarkable connection that fb & blogging have made between us. I so appreciate the noble words you were so incredible to select. Warmhearted is the most noticeable trait to add to this loquacious fun.

It is a rare and remarkable kind of beautiful relationship between us humble friends. You shower me with so much loving as I endeavor to be a mentor. in a very small way, to the amazing and thankfully spiritual connections that God makes between us in the Body of Christ.

I'm thankful that these avenues, which I find so neat, are open to so much genuine loving of one another as we join in rejoicing together over His great love that is yielding such real fruit of joy in my life. Top that off with, you keep me youthful.

I found that fun to compose and put together. The words are in the order they were posted and this is truly how I feel about you, my fb & blogging friends.

I am blessed!!!

TIME FOR SOME HUMOR & A Serious Note

Just received this and thought it was too good not to share. Besides that, I needed a little humor as we have had a family death and I am going to be away from the computer & blogging for a little while.

NEVER ARGUE WITH A WOMAN

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap.

Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out.

She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book" she replies, (thinking, "Isn't that obvious?")

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"For reading a book?" she replies.

""You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her again.

"I'm sorry officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault" says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think!

BLESSINGS OF FUN

Mickey & my life is blessed beyond measure in SOOOO many ways. One of those is the Lord has seen fit to surround us, and include us, in the lives of many younger people 1/2 our age.

Like I always say, "We are just re-cycled teenagers at heart!" And we are!!!!!

Sunday was one such blessed time as we celebrated......

This beautiful young ladies 38th Birthday.

You are SUCH a joy & blessing to so many, Lan.

Lan & her husband, Chris. They have only been married 6 months.

Carrie (in the blue) & Jacki. Jacki is our Kid's Minister and a single mom of 3. Carrie is a single mom of 2 little boys.

Terry, Abigail & Frankie and some of the many younger kids present.

Shirley, Athena & Cameron.

Dream & James, newly engaged about 3 weeks ago!!!

Chris & Lan ready to dive into her BD dessert.

Chris & Gary acting like the 2 kids they are.

Mickey caught in the act of getting a bite of the dessert.

After the wonderful church service we had, where Pastor Gary preached on "God's Promises are Without Failure", it was so much fun to celebrate Lan's birthday with such a great group of people who ALL love and serve the LORD.

Yes, we are blessed beyond measure.

APRICOT BLESSING

Wednesday night at church our friend, Carmel, brought us a sack of apricots from her apricot tree!!!

Here they are poured into a bowl to begin.

The first thing I wanted to make was an apricot cobbler. After washing, pitting and slicing some I lined a pie pan.

The finished, delicious Apricot Crunch Cobbler.

And yes, as always, Mickey & I had some hot out of the oven!!! Aric was with us and he ate the crunch but didn't like the apricots :o)

I washed, pitted and halved the remaining 8 cups and put them in my pot to make some jam.




About mid-way, through 3 hours simmering, as they are cooking down to jam.

The finished two jars of wonderful, tasty, fresh apricot jam. Oh, this tasted so good on my toast this morning.

Thank you so very much, Carmel.

PRIMARY COLORS

I love taking personality tests and we took one I'd never taken before at the marriage workshop called Primary Colors.

It is a color chart of 6 different colors: Red, Purple , Blue, Green, Yellow & Orange.

You come out one primary color and then a secondary color to tell your personality traits.

All of us at the marriage workshop took it Saturday and what really shocked me is that Mickey & I same out the same primary color.....Green. Yet our Secondary colors were totally different. Mine was Orange & his was Yellow. This means I have a need for attention and excitement and his is a need for approval.

I wanted to post and share the results here to save them for my posterity who may someday read these blog posts.

GREEN:

Our primary need is HARMONY.

Our greatest strength is RESPECTFUL AND ACCEPTING OF OTHERS.

It says we are fair, tolerant, humble, unyielding, deeply-committed, respectful of others, can be judgmental, trustworthy, & values harmony.

As with all personality types we also have weaknesses & Greens are:

We must watch out for becoming judgmental, or feeling that our perspectives and values are superior to other people's, even our partner's.

We are likely a big picture thinker. We may tend to have trouble solving a specific problem until we know how the problem relates to the big picture. Sometimes we make things more complicated than they need to be.

Sometimes green personalities have such a strong inner spiritual focus that their partners feel like they are not important. Make sure you make your partner feel like a priority.

Greens become discouraged when they think the world or people around them are out of tune with the BIG values. They don't care as much about being right as they care that things are right with the world.

Our focus on what is fair or right for the world can make us less sensitive to the needs of individuals.

We found this very fun and informative. You can go here to take it. If you do take it I'd love to know what your Primary Color is. It will help me understand you and your needs a little better.

EXPANDING THE BEE'S

We are learning that bee keeping can be very interesting!!!

A couple of weeks ago Mickey got a phone call saying a man had a swarm of bees on a wheelbarrow that he wanted someone to come and get because they had attacked the ranchers dog.

When Mickey arrived this is what he found. Now us not being either farmers or ranchers this was not exactly what he was expecting the wheelbarrow to look like!!!

The swarm is lodged between the wheel and the fender on this red side.

Here is an enlarged view. Usually the swarm can be captured by shaking the object they are clinging to but in this case, because of the way they were lodged between the wheel & fender, the only way to remove them was to reach in and push them out with your hand. Of course he was suited up with gloves & veil.

After safety placing the bees in the nuke (a smaller bee hive with only 5 frames in it) and removing his gloves & veil he was stung once on the chin and another bee flew into his ear, but thankfully did not sting Mickey and he was able to get it out.

SO... with a new swarm of bees Mickey has to build 4 medium supers.

Each super contains 8 of these frames. This is to make room for extractable honey.

Mickey's original bee hive he purchased in 2008 was expanded to 2 hives in 2009 and is now expanded to 4 hives. His intention is to only maintain 4 hives from this point forward.

MARRIAGE IS FOR REAL....and forever

What a fun, wonderful and memorable week-end we just had!!!!

Our Church sponsored a one-day marriage workshop, called Marriage is for Real, on Saturday from 10-4. Mickey & I, plus some 40 other couples attended.

We were seated at round tables with 6 to 8 to a table.



We shared our table with these two lovely couples:

Steve & Johnna

Sharon & Russ

The leader, John Johnson, was interesting, funny and it was a pure delight. Not all the attendees were from our Church, although most were. We had several young couples who were engaged and planning to be married. Mickey & I, and one other couple, won the honor of being married the longest. We were also served a wonderful lunch of Baked Ziti, Tossed Salad, Cheese & Garlic Toast and an assortment of cakes & cookies.


The best part of this workshop was actually on Sunday. John lead both the 8 a.m. & our 10:45 a.m. services and talked on Commitment. At the end of the service any couple present who wanted to participate were asked to come to the front to reaffirm their vows. All the married couples poured to the front.


I cannot tell you the moving experience it was to stand among all these other couples, of all ages and all length of marriage, and repeat our wedding vows and commitment to each other. We faced each other, looked into each others eyes and repeated our vows. I don't think there were many dry eyes among us as it was such a moving experience. I know tears were running down both Mickey & my face.

Thanks to Jennifer & Bill Humphries for these pictures of the group vow exchange.
This is the 3rd time for Mickey & I to repeat our vows.

At our marriage on October 4, 1958.




At our 30th year renewal on October 4, 1988.
Three of our children were our attendants: Son Marc, & daughters Jacque & Suzette.



Flower girl, 2 1/2 year old granddaughter, Jessica who wouldn't walk down the isle without her mother!!!



My two forever friends, Bev & Joan were candle lighters.



Receiving line of the wedding party:

Bride Susan, Groom Mickey, Bridesmaid daughter Suzette, Groomsman son Marc, Bridesmaid daughter Jacque, Groomsman son-in-law Terry.


I'm so sorry I didn't get a picture of us Sunday as we repeated these vows after 51 years, 8 months & and 2 days on June 6, 2010. I will hold the memory in my heart for the rest of our years.