Mr. Roboto

Sibley had a project in school that involved making her own robot. She sketched this one out all by herself and she, Bryant, and Skyler made it come to life. All I did was go out and buy the hot glue sticks. Bryant took a few pictures of her and the robot before the addition of the spigot. So, after he added the spigot, I took a couple more. Out of the spigot comes the drink of your choice. As you can see, the possibilities are almost endless. Sibley designed her robot especially with sleepovers in mind. Note the detail of the colorful button mosaics. One represents a Tootsie Roll and the other represents a bottle of Sprite.

Renaissance Festival 2009

I wasn't quite up to going on any trips yet this Spring Break, but we did go to the Arizona Renaissance Festival. For those of you who haven't been to the Wild Man Show, I would highly recommend it. It is hilarious and the kids really love it. It's one of those rare shows that both parents and children can enjoy. We really enjoyed the petting zoo too, as always. I love those super furry Scottish cows. They're so cute.

We also went to a trapeze show and a very entertaining hypnotist show. I would like to try getting hypnotized one day, but just know that I would say highly inappropriate things, like I did that time when I was waking up from surgery. At any rate, it wasn't the beach, but it was fun. I think we must have gotten some sunscreen or something on the camera.

Lady Skyler

Skyler conquered the jousting game and was dubbed, and shall henceforth be known as, "Lady Skyler." Huzzah Lady Skyler!

A warning to all of my local friends...

Don't go to the Superstition Springs movie theater during Spring Break! Oh my gosh. We went today and the line was all the way through the courtyard to the parking lot, literally! I guess it's all of the Spring Breakers, and the fact that they just opened the movies back up after the big remodel. Anyway, I just went into Borders and bought the new Barbie movie instead, and we all went home and watched it. There was no way I was waiting in that line. I guess I am just fed up with lines lately. Like yesterday I went to Costco and the post office, and the snowbirds were out of control. When are they going back to the Arctic anyway? It's already getting hot here, so it's time for them to leave! Can I get an Amen? Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry I'm such a fussy meany. At least the good news is that I am feeling well enough to go out again, right?

Family History

My father emailed me some pictures of ancestors today, and I wanted to share some of them, especially for my children. Hope you don't get too bored reading them! The first one is just one I had to put on here because my sister and I are wearing such hilarious outfits. It is from a 1991 newspaper article in the Montgomery Advertiser. Remember the color block stuff? Whoa!

John Jacob, His Irish Bride, and the Yankee Invaders

This is a picture of my great great great grandfather, John Jacob Enslen, who immigrated to the United States from Germany. (My oldest brother was named after John Jacob, although he goes by Jacob because my father is also named John.) John Jacob Enslen was born on July 24, 1812, in the German kingdom of Wurtenburg. He first arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later settled in Elmore County. He apparently moved to Alabama because his brother, Christian Enslen, was having great success there. Christian was in the banking industry, and built what was, for a time, the tallest building in the state of Alabama. It is in Birmingham and is now called the City Federal Building.

At any rate, John and Christian married two Irish sisters. On a side note, until today, I didn't know I had any Irish ancestry. I am very excited about Saint Patrick's Day now. Kiss me! I'm Irish!

So, where were we? Oh, his Irish bride was named Amelia Flynn. She appears to have been a large person. Legend has it that when the Yankees came through Elmore County during the Civil War, she sat on a barrel of sugar to conceal it from the Yankees with her long dress. (Sugar was a very rare, expensive commodity during the Civil War.) The family horses had already been hidden at Bald Knob, which is the highest point in Wetumpka. I will see if I can find a picture of Bald Knob and post it. I wish I had a picture of it on a foggy fall morning. It is truly a sight to behold then.

Obviously, Amelia is the lady in the other picture. John and Amelia had twelve children. Their tenth child, George Everett Enslen, is my great great grandfather. He was born in Wetumpka on October 13, 1856 and died on March 25, 1928. I believe he was buried in the same cemetery where we just buried my grandfather. I know George Everett's son, George Emerson Enslen, was buried there. When I die, I would like to be buried at the old Wetumpka cemetery too. And I want my headstone to say Jessica Enslen Slade, not just Jessica Slade, so people will know I am in the right place, where the Enslens have been for almost two centuries now.

Big Mama

I never knew my father's mother's mother. My grandmother often showed me this picture of her mother, though, and told me I looked just like her. Her name was Eldie Mae Harvell Estes, and she was born May 2, 1908, in Leon County, Florida. She died January 18, 1962, in Orlanda, Orange County, Florida. My father called her "Big Mama," which, as you will read in the next post, is common in the South for a Great Grandmother. As you can see in the picture, she was not a big woman.

Big Daddy

Bryant thinks it is really funny that we called our great grandfather "Big Daddy." In the South, having the preface "Big" in your name doesn't denote size, but age. So, oftentimes "Big Daddy" is just short for Great Grandaddy. Sometimes in the South when a son is named after his father, the son is called little and the father is called big. For example, Little John is the son and Big John is the Daddy, even though sometimes it is really funny to call some of these huge, robust men little and their father big, when the son outweighs the father by a hundred pounds or so. At any rate, that's our system and it works for us.

So, as we established, we called my paternal grandmother's father "Big Daddy." This is Big Daddy in the bow tie. When I knew him, he was in poor health, in a wheelchair. His given name was Lewis Elmer Estes, and he was born in Eclectic, Alabama on June 30, 1906. He died May 2, 1992.

He was a rascal. He learned to fly an airplane when my grandmother was very young and he was the first person to land a plane in Eclectic, Alabama. My grandmother told me the story of how embarrassed she was, sitting in Rushenville Baptist Church, listening to the preacher give his Sunday sermon, when all of the sudden a huge noise was heard overhead and everyone rushed over to the windows to see what it was. Lo and behold, there was her Daddy interrupting church by landing his airplane in the church field. Needless to say, he was not very fond of going to church. He later moved his family to Florida, where he took to poaching alligators.

I should say something else here. Grandmama has never spoken ill of Big Daddy in front of me. In fact, she told me he only spanked her one time in her whole life. It was when he was having a man over to talk business in the living room and she and Dean (her sister) kept running through the living room fighting with each other and interrupting him. He warned them several times to stop, but they kept on anyway. So, when the man left, she and Dean got a spanking. Even then, she said he gave her and Dean one swat, and that was it. She said it wasn't that hard, but they just cried and cried because it hurt their feelings so. Also, she said he often made her a toy by tying a string around a live bumble bee.

Another Sweet Memory

I have been thinking a lot about some things that Grandaddy said in the days before he died. I feel like writing them down. We were about to leave to fly back to Arizona and Bryant and I went to spend a few minutes with him before we had to go. This was five days before he died. He had been in and out of consciousness a lot and was very heavily medicated. He wasn't eating at all at this point. He looked at Bryant and said "Skyler flute." Bryant asked "Do you want to hear Skyler play the flute?". He said "Yeah." So Bryant ran next door and brought Skyler back with her flute. Rhett and Isaac also came back with him to hear Skyler's concert. She played for him and he listened very intently. She played Hot Cross Buns, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Jingle Bells. When she was done, Isaac said he wanted to sing Grandaddy a song. Those of you who know Isaac know that he loves to sing or rap in front of a crowd. He is not intimidated in the least by anyone. I admire his confidence. Anyway, he must have been inspired by Skyler, because he sang a rap version of Jingle Bells. Then I picked up Rhett and held him by Grandaddy's bed. His eyesight was failing him and he asked "Who's that?". I told him it was Rhett. Rhett told Grandaddy "I like your [hospital] bed." Grandaddy smiled at that, and we all chuckled. Then I said "You sure have a lot of great grandchildren, don't you?" And he said "Boy I'll tell you," which, in Southern means "Yes, indeed." Then he said "And if they're not a blessing, then grits ain't groceries."

A Sweet Newspaper Article About Grandaddy

I love this article. It was a sweet memory of him and it represented him very accurately.

Actinomyces: The Scourge of My Existence

Well, after four blissful months of absence, my actinomicosis has once again reared its ugly head. About three weeks ago, the pain returned to my left side and slowly spread throughout my abdomen. Pain's evil companion, fever, also reappeared. Why am I personifying my infection? I guess I see it as this force, this thing, that has completely transformed me into a fat, ugly, old beyond my years looking blob, a shadow of my former self, a bad wife and a terrible mother, with no energy to do the things I love, like cooking dinner for my family, teaching school, meeting my girls at the bus stop, etc. Oh what I would give to go back six and a half years in time and not get an IUD! But that sort of thinking won't get me anywhere. I have to be more positive. And at least this time I know what it is, and I don't have to spend months and months going from doctor to doctor, being misdiagnosed again and again. So, for the next six months I will be taking a mega dose of Penicillin. I guess I should have been given 6-12 months of antibiotics in the first place to completely kill of the actinomyces. Actinomicosis apparently has a high chance of recurrence. I truly believe my new, beefy dose of antibiotics for the extended period of time will kill it off, though. So, no baby news for at least six months, and I guess it's a good thing I didn't get pregnant yet anyway, right? Thanks for listening.