Today In History...Sue

May 17, 2000…The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago unveiled Sue, the largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yet discovered.
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I have been very fortunate to have visited The Field Museum and saw Sue in 2003 while in Chicago to present a childcare workshop.  I didn't have a lot of time to explore the museum and would to go back again.





I wrote about my previous museum visits on an earlier blog http://jocarweaver.blogspot.com/search/label/museums   I love museums!

Mothers Day - 2012

Mother's Day card - 1988 or 1989
Translation..."Dear Mom, I think you are nice pretty and great!!!!  If I could be big and tall like you I would go away.  But thats not true.  I will not lieve you inless I have too".

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That's the sometimes sucky part of being a mother with a grown child, an only child.  I knew that eventually Corey would have to "lieve" me because he had too.  Live goes on.  We all move on and sometimes you don't have to opportunity to see, visit or share like you used to when you don't live in the same state or vicinity. 

I also think it's a sucky thing that I don't get to see and visit my own mother more than I do.  It's hard to believe that it's been over seven months since I saw her and Dad.  That's been only three visits back to Georgia in 3 1/2 years.  I miss my own mother even at my age and I am still her child whom she misses very much.  Joe and I made four trips to Utah last year and the kids came over for one.  I'm always so grateful for the opportunities to visit with the kids - the opportunity to spend time with my only grandchild.

Things have started out totally different during the year.  No visits at all since Christmas in one direction or another.  We missed sharing a birthday with Derek this year.  I'm missing watching him grow up because I know how quickly they do.  Time is going so fast and life seems to be zipping along at an incredible clip.  I've learned that now is not the time to hold grudges or hurts to those we love.  Now is not the time to keep score on who did what to whom.  Now is the time to enjoy spending time with loved ones because you never know when it may be your last time.  I realize that every time I talk with my mom or dad that it could be the last time. 

So, I'm very grateful for the phone calls and the texts that I receive from my son - for his affirmations of love for and to me.  I'm so grateful that my Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to be his mother.

Today In History - The Chunnel

May 6, 1994…The Chunnel – the tunnel that links England and France under the English Channel – officially opened.

Corey in July of 2000 on the train to Paris, France just before we entered The Chunnel.

Time Out For Women - Billings 2012

Written on 1/19/13.

I remember that this was the first weekend "daycation" Joe and I were taking for 2012.  I wanted and needed to attend the Time Out For Women which was being held in Billings, Montana as I felt I needed a serious mental and spiritual detoxing.  I had been doing things so long for Joe, I needed something for me.

I had made reservations for us to stay at the Dude Rancher Lodge which is a historic downtown Billings hotel. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was built in 1950.  The exterior is a rustic ranch that features weeping brick mortar and full-length porches and the interior is designed with knotty pine paneling, custom-built western-style furnishings, decorative lampshades and carpeting that is adorned with the brands of local ranchers who originally invested in the property.  I would definitely stay there again.

The scary part about staying here was leaving Joe while I went to the TOFW.  My biggest concern was that he might decide to wander away from the hotel and get lost.  I'd "lost" him before in Walmart and was afraid of what might happen in a city the size of Billings.  Before I left, I took him to the hotel restaurant and got him settled and made him promise that he'd go back to the room after he ate.  I was hoping and praying that because I was going to TOFW that he and I would be protected that all would go well.

When I arrived at the location, I took a seat at the very back of the venue on the last row on one of the three chairs.  Although I was quite sure there were people there that I knew, I felt quite comfortable being by myself.  It felt so nice just sitting there just soaking up the whole atmosphere.  In a short while a lady came and asked if she could sit with me.  Of course, I said yes.   She asked what I was doing back there by myself and why I had come to the TOFW.  I briefly told her about what had been going on in my life with Joe and that I had come with the hope that I'd hear something that I felt was just for me and that I'd leave spiritually and mentally cleansed.  We conversed a few more minutes and then she excused herself saying that she needed to get on stage - she was one of the speakers.  OMG!  This was Merilee Boyack.  We later had our picture taken during the intermission.  This same lovely lady sent me a copy of one of her books after Joe passed away.  She'd heard from another friend that he had died just some three weeks after we'd met at the TOFW.

 

The best talk of the morning session was by Michael Cox.  His wife had died about a year ago and he was still grieving over her death.  I took notes of what he said and have since misplaced them these many months later, but I do remember him saying something to the effect that before we look at others weaknesses and put the moat in their eye, we need take the beam out of our eye first.  I left the TOFW vowing that I would be kinder and nicer to Joe.  I owed that and much more to him.

 

At the beginning of the lunch intermission, I called the hotel room and Joe's phone several times - no answer.  So I hurried quickly back to the room, picking up lunch for him first and found Joe there.  When I asked why he hadn't answered the phone - he didn't remember how to do it. 

 

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After I returned and changed clothes, we went out to do some exploring around Billings. 

 

The Boothill Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places.  According to local lore, the Boothill Cemetery is the burial ground of Coulson, the rough cow town that preceded Billings which existed from 1877 to 1885. The site has burials as early as 1854.. Deaths were caused by such events typhoid outbreaks, accidents, suicides, and murders.  It is also said that most of the people buried here passed away while wearing their boots on, thus the name, as some speculates.

Boothill Cemetery’s most popular burial is Muggins Taylor, known for being the scout who carried the news of Custer’s Last Stand to the world. 

 



 

 

People in the cemetery died from drowning, freezing to death, suicide by poison, killed by indians, accidental death being killed by his own gun, struck by a train, bucked by a horse,

died by arrow, etc.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Trip To Billings, Montana - 625 Miles

Today In History...Gone With The Wind

May 3, 1937…Author Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, "Gone With The Wind."
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I remember my mom saying that she fell in love with Clarke Gable when she saw the movie at its re-release in 1947.  She said she was sitting in the upper balcony of the Tift Theater when she watched it for the first time.

When I started reading the book, I never stopped until the last page.  I even wound up in my bedroom closet with a flashlight.  I still say that Scarlett was a fool!

Today In History - Barry White died

May 1, 2003…While being treated for kidney failure, singer/songwriter/producer Barry White suffered a stroke that affected his speech and the right side of his body. He died two months later.
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This was one of the "sexiest" singers alive - not in looks, but in song.  It's been said that more children have been conceived while potential parents listened to his music. 

May 1, 1883…William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody staged his first Wild West Show.
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August 4, 1999 Corey and I stopped on visited at the Buffalo Bill Ranch while on our trip out west.  This is where Buffalo Bill Cody settled on a ranch just north of North Platte in 1877. At the time, Buffalo Bill was in the midst of his famous Wild West Show, which featured scenes from the "West." Buffalo Bill had ventured into many other occupations before, and after, the Wild West Show.

He began as a Pony Express rider, at one time riding 322 miles in 21 hours, 40 minutes and going through 20 horses. Once the Civil War broke out, he was still too young to enlist, so he became a ranger, dispatch bearer, and scout in Missouri, Kansas, and the Santa Fe Trail. William F. earned his nickname of Buffalo Bill when he won a buffalo-hunting contest.

The Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park encompasses 16 acres of the 4,000 acres of Buffalo Bill's Ranch or Scout's Rest. The house, barn, and outbuildings are preserved and house Buffalo Bill and Wild West memorabilia and artifacts from Chief Sitting Bull. The three-story Victorian house was built in 1886, and was the home for Buffalo Bill, now it is open for the public to see what the times were like when this most famous showman lived.