Hodgepodge

I have blogged three days in a row. It's a miracle. Thanks to Joyce for this week's questions. I'd love to hear your answers!!

1. When the Hodgepodge lands on September 11th I want to acknowledge that. Will you purposely pause to remember, pray, or attend any sort of ceremony on 9/11? Share any thoughts or memories you'd like to share about this day. When I see the date "9/11" - I always think of that day. I was at the gym when the first tower went down. Everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing and walked away from their machines. As we stood in front of the TV in silence, the second tower was hit. Just typing those words gives me chills and takes me back to that day. After a few minutes, we all gathered our belongings and went home. I went home and was glued to the TV. I remember picking our kids up from school and we were all in shock. A former member of our church was in the Pentagon that day. He was never able to tell us much, but it had to be terrifying.

2. Growing up, did you spend a lot of time with your grandparents? What's something you learned from a grandparent? My daddy's parents lived in the same town and we saw them fairly often. I remember sitting on their porch on a summer night. We could hear all of the bugs and critters making night noises. My sister and I spent the night with them a few times over the years. My grandpa loved to garden and I still love fresh tomatoes and fresh beans and peas. My granny loved to quilt and cook. I didn't learn either from her, but I love to do both. My mother's mother lived further away. Now that we have interstates, it would have been a much shorter trip. Back then, it seemed like a day's journey. She was so poor. She lived in a tiny house in the woods and she didn't have indoor plumbing. Even though we didn't see her very often, I always felt so loved by her. What did I learn from her? Maybe I learned that even when you are dirt poor, you can still make a child feel very loved.

3. What's your go-to breakfast? My go-to breakfast is a turkey sandwich on keto bread. I sometimes eat Morningstar Farms sausage patties (fake) with a slice of 2% American cheese and a squirt of mustard.

4. Tell us the story behind one of your favorite photos. The photo below was taken by our friend, Halley, in November of 2020. We were still wearing masks. Our daughter's little girl wanted to wear the masks as a hat. This was not the photo we chose for our Christmas card, but I did want to remember.

I also love this one that we found when cleaning out Mark's mom's stuff. It is her with our kids at Halloween -- I don't know exactly how old they were in this picture -- but elementary school aged.

5. This week Friday lands on the 13th. Are you superstitious in any way? Do you like scary movies, and if so what's your favorite? My son says, "We aren't superstitious. We are just a little stitious." I think that is from a movie. I don't think I'm superstitious . . .but sometimes I might say, "don't do that or don't say that." I think it stems back to my childhood. My momma must have said that. When I was young, I watched more scary movies. I remember seeing The Shining and The Omen. I don't know if I could watch them now. I also remember watching Young Frankenstein. It wasn't scary . . .but it made me remember. I also remember watching some of the old Alfred Hitchcock movies . . .shiver!

6. Insert your own random thought here. Mark got his covid booster on Tuesday and I'm going to get mine today since we will be flying on a very long flight soon. We are actually getting covid, flu, and RSV -- all three. Have any of you ever been to Santorini? Did you do an excursion? We've been told that the bus tour isn't that great and I've been trying to find something we would both enjoy.