The Queen

Oops, in the last post I failed to mention that last Friday (July 2nd) was my grandmother Jane's birthday -- all 7 of her children came in town to celebrate. This was actually a really special day for all of us. Our family was chosen for the front cover of some Catholic magazine..? All of the St. Aloysius graduates from our family had to meet at St. Al for pictures... it was pretty hot, not too sure how those pics will turn out. But..it was fun and a great way to begin the bday celebration!!

The party then moved to Roca and as luck would have it.. the A/C was out. UGH! We enjoyed dinner and LOTS of wine! The birthday girl couldn't last like the rest of us! Happy 79th Mymother (this is what we call her, rather than gma)

For as long as I can remember, we've also called mymother "The Queen." My grandfather treated her like royalty and all of her children do the same.She is a LUCKY LUCKY woman with a huge family that caters to her EVERY need! My mom says that she never recalls a fight between my grandparents growing up...hard to believe when you have 7 children running around!!

My grandaddy Jerry just passed March 09, which has been REALLY hard on my grandmother. They did EVERYTHING together. They were high school sweethearts. He went to Notre Dame on a wrestling scholarship (never would have thought this by looking at him) and she went to Ole Miss. She didn't even last a year and she was moving to Indiana to be with him. They soon got married, he graduated from Notre Dam, moved back to Vburg and they started popping out babies!

Fun facts about "The Queen":

Everynight before she and my grandaddy went to bed, she put on her lipstick. She laughs when we ask her about it but...it hasn't stopped her. True Southern lady!

She LOVES Betty Boop and Marilyn Monroe! She used to carry a Marilyn Monroe license in her wallet. She would pull the Marilyn license out and show it to people instead of her own.

Every afternoon my grandparents had "tea time" at 4pm. My grandad would come home from work and they would have coffee/tea and a snack then take a 30 min nap. We knew better than to call, the phones always were taken off the hook!

My grandad was very organized, which rubbed off on mymother (he had a label machine and made labels for EVERYTHING--he even gave all the grandkids label machines one year for christmas) All of their dollar bills in their wallet faced one way, clothes in closet were color coordinated, shoes in the closet were in labeled shoe boxes (as if the box didn't give a good enough description), desk and kitchen drawers had dividers (and most labeled), etc. You can imagine how hard that would have been to get used to, but...she loved it!

At night they would have a cocktail and peanuts at 7, followed by dinner at 8. "The Queen" would only eat whole peanuts and only a small portion of them. I can't remember how many she would get but they would count out the exact # of whole peanuts , put them in a dish and take them to their "grown up" den to eat while drinking their cocktails. To this day my grandmother still does this, just the time is different.. peanuts and wine at 7, dinner at 7:30...EVERY night. We have my grandad to thank for that. He was VERY adament about everything being done at certain times. Ex...tea party at 4, cocktails at 7, dinner at 8....this NEVER changed and he would get so bent out of shape if something interferred.

Mymother is ALWAYS "dressed to a T". My mom goes to her house every night to take her dinner (I told you that cater to her EVERY need...my mom plans her menu on Sunday and even goes grocery shopping for her....takes her dinner M-Thurs at 7:30 SHARP) and lays out her outfit for the next day. Skirt, top/cardigan, shoes, purse and jewelry. If my mom goes out of town or can't make it over, she lays several outfits out so she can get by without her. Needless to say, she is very stylish and always looks so cute! Also...mymother ONLY wears skirts or dresses. I've never seen her in any type of pants or shorts. I do sometimes wonder what she would like like in shorts, ha! When she used to go walking at the mall (I have to admit...I went a couple of times with her...NOT COOL) she would wear her skirt with tennis shoes.

Birthdays are such a big deal in our family (like most, I'm sure). Every year my dad sent Heidi and I roses to school and mymother would pick us up and take us to her house for a birthday party themed "tea party"....she would ALWAYS have us either a cake or a single cupcake and give us our presents. She made us feel so special.

Almost forgot... mymother was once on a billboard on Clay Street in Vicksburg. She was eating at the Casino one night and they asked if she would be interested in posing for the billboard. Of course she did it and LOVED the attention. We still have that sign somewhere around our house.

Katie Kemp, Sally Wailes (mymother's sister) and "The Queen" herself!

Sally and Mymother

Jane Jones, Mary Bass and Mymother
(2 of her 4 daughters)

4 of 14 grandchildren

Sally and Mymother

Glenn Lassiter (married mymothers brother), Mymother and Diane (another daughter)

Mymother and Diane

Mymother and Mom

Pictures of all 7 children that hang above her bed!

Red, White and Blue

I used to tell my mom I HATED the colors red, white and blue, well not when they were by themselves, just when they were together--she always told me ..."these are your countries colors Kelly, you shouldn't hate them" OOPS! I can't say that I own ANYTHING red, white and blue but I have come to realize that those colors together are pretty amazing! The older I get, the better I understand =)

This weekend, we went to the lake (of course) and I'll have to say...out of the 16 years we've been going (and I dont believe I've EVER missed a 4th of July) there were more people there than I have EVER seen. Seriously. I'm thinking it has a lot to do with the oil spill in the Gulf. Most people that would have gone to the beach for the hollidays, came to the lake instead. It was nice seeing all those people at the lake again (the population died down a bit when gas went up, economy got bad, etc.) The water was extremely ROUGH and boats were EVERYWHERE.

My cousin, Robby and his wife Shannon came for the weekend. They haven't been in 4 or more years. Their little boy, Tinnin, LOVED it. He fished and played in the water all afternoon.

Tinnin Potts, 3 yrs old


















Tinnin and grandaddy Haden (his great-gdad)







Nic and I went to the Country Club Saturday night to hear The Chill play. The place was PACKED. They had to stop letting people in. Cars were parked all down the sides of the street and all in the grass for as long as you could see. There were HUNDREDS, ok maybe even close to 1,000 ppl there?  Thats A LOT for that small country club. The band was awesome (like always) but the heat WAS NOT. Imagine that many people crowded into a small place in JULY=HOT AS HELL! We hung out with Julie and Brandon for a bit but by midnight we were headed home to rest up for Independence Day!

Hope everyone had a great 4th!!

Lake Fun

This past weekend, we were "Doin' Bruin" again. My good friend Anna Federick got engaged on Friday night so she and her fiance' came down Saturday to celebrate and show off her BLING!! We had a great time and I had a blast talking wedding plans with her all day Saturday!! (Although, I'm soooo glad its her, not me!)

Remi enjoyed himself as well. We discovered that he LOVES the jet ski's (or maybe he just doesn't like for me to leave his side) Everytime I got on the jet ski and took off, he jumped in the water, swimming after me. It was cute but quickly got annoying. Everytime I got in the water on a jet ski or raft, here jumps Remi. I let him ride with me a few times but was terrified of getting pulled over by the game warden. I can hear it now.."Excuse me ma'am, dogs aren't allowed on jet skies"....that would have gotten ugly because we all know, I think of Remi as basically a human!

Remi checking things out.

My cousin brought her son and nephew over to swim (ages 5 and 6) and as soon as Jason (the 6 yr old nephew who has never even really been swimming,...sad, I know) put his raft in the water and attempted to get on it, here jumps Remi. He jumped OVER the kids head, landing on the raft (how it didn't pop, I have no clue) and knocking Jason into the water.  Jason just looked up at me with tear filled eyes and I made a joke about putting Remi in "time out" for stealing his raft, etc. Seeing tears in his eyes broke my heart. Damn Remi! The poor little boy has had a really rough month. For those of you around the Vicksburg area you have probably heard about the missing man, which is his dad. Jason Allen Ashley has been missing since May 22. Keep this family in your prayers please.

Needless to say, my cousin, Heather Ashley and her husband Chris, are keeping the little boy for the time being. Being at the lake was such a great way for him to get his mind off things. He got to experience many things for the first time, such as... he had never had a hat before, my cousin took him to Bass Pro and let him pick one out, he had never been on a jet ski before, my dad taught him how to drive it, he had never really been swimming before so once he got comfortable with the water, he jumped off the diving board 20 times! I think he had a blast. Please say a prayer for his fathers safe return.

Jason driving my dad. He loved it!