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On November 11, 2002, Veterans Day my husband died of Lung Cancer at the age of 60. Isabella my granddaughter was nine years old at that time. You know that when something like that happens you are so lost that you can only think about getting though the next day that you don’t think how this affects anyone else.  Isabella, who had lost her Poppy, carried on and keep him in her heart until until a couple of years ago when she decided to tell the world about her Poppy. So a couple of years ago she calls me and wants me to fly to Florida, where she lives, to attend a Fund Raiser called Strike Out Cancer. Strike Out Cancer turns out to be a bowling fund raiser for Cancer, now I am in no shape to bowl but it gave me a good excuse to go to Florida and see her and her brother and their Mom.  Now it turns out that Isabella and some friends had put the whole thing together with the help of the  Cancer Alliance. Great fun was had by all and they  raised a lot of money and a prouder Grandmother could not be found anywhere but she wasn’t done! She decides that not enough is being done in her area to raise money for research and to fight Lung Cancer, so her and her friend Melody Saunders take it on themselves to fix that. That brings us to Breathe Deep Tampa which is the first event in the Tampa Bay area to benefit and advocate for Lung Cancer, turns out this event is planned and managed by my Isabella and her friend Melody. They have teamed up with the LUNGevity Foundation to bring you the Breathe Deep Tampa and out two collage students are determined to succeed in their fight against Lung Cancer.

Isabella knows how it feels to lose someone you love to cancer and she is determined to keep some other 9 year old from losing their Poppy, Grandfather, Papaw or whatever they call that special person in their life, Isabella if you could see me now you would see me on my feet giving you a standing ovation.

YOU GO GIRL!!!!

If you are interested in more information on Breathe Deep Tampa, I have added their web site below.

Till next time World, Sharlet

hhtp://events. lungevity.org/site/TR? fr id=4210&pg=entry

They are building a nest in my Mulberry Tree, can tiny Road Runners be far behind? They are so busy carrying twigs back and forth. Will keep you posted.

Till next time World, Sharlet

My friends tell me I run a Wild Life Preserve in addition to the Zoo I have in my house. Well, I think that might be going just a tad to far. They are partly right, I agree I do have a Zoo in my house or maybe it just sounds like that sometimes. You see I have two Parrots, Echo and Chiquita  or the bird formerly known as Chico. You see when Chico laid eggs, I knew it was time for a name change.  Then there is Cloud Dancer (Cloudy) and Gracie Lou, my two dogs. Most of the time my house is very quite, like now the only sound you here is my typing, other times you would be well served to have a pair of ear muffs, like when Gracie and Chiquita play their favorite game “Come Here Gracie and Bark At Me So Mom Will Yell At You” . You can guess the out come of this game, Gracie gets yelled at and the bird formerly known as Chico sets in her cage and says “Gotcha Sucker” Echo, my other parrot never stops talking as long as there is someone around to listen. Sorry I got side tracked I wanted to tell you about Jake and Willow.

Jake and Willow are two Road Runners that have chosen my deck to roost on every night, this has been going on for almost a year now. Jake started coming to the house and making my deck his hang out, his favorite thing to do is pester the dogs. He dose this by pecking on the picture window and making them bark at him, I think it is funny but drives the dogs nuts. Couple months ago he had a friend with him, turns out she is more than a friend. You may ask how I know this, just trust me I do. So one day the dogs are barking like crazy and I go to check and there is Jake on the hammock jumping at the picture window (or so I thought) turns out he was trying to get to his new friend who is hiding on an outside speaker and he can’t get to her. Every night she is there and he is on the top of the cabinet by the door, makes you wonder if he is still trying to figure out how she gets up there. Anyway this is Jake and Willow. As you can see Willow just fits on that speaker no room for that pesky Jake and every night she is there and most of the time Jake is on top of the cabinet but every once in awhile Jake will go wondering and not spend the night and like any Mom who’s kid stays out all night I get all upset but then the next night or so Jake will come back home to Willow and the dogs.

Till next time World, Sharlet

Willow

Jake and The Hammock

Jake

Yes it is me doing one of my favorite things to do in my Arizona Neighborhood, I am working at our local Library. Meadview Library is kind of like the local Country Stores that you see all over the South. Kinda of like come on in and sit a spell and one of us will sit down and talk to you and if you sit there long enough somebody you know is going to come in  and stay a spell and by the time you leave you will have spent time with good friends and maybe even returned a book or picked up a new one you have been waiting for but no matter what, you are going to leave happier than when you came in. When I say work I don’t mean work, I mean volunteer, which is funny because it is work (only it is work that I enjoy so very much). While I only work one day a week, I spend so much time there that you would think I worked every day even  if there is not a lot of other places to go. Meadview as you my have guessed is a very rural place with about 2,500 people but with the right weather and a Holiday weekend it can become a metropolis, you see Meadview is located in the Lake Mead National Recreational Area about 5 miles from Lake Mead. Meadview consist  mostly of retires (of which I am one) but on those times when our sleepy little place goes a little wild and crazy we the locals tend to go about our business and wait for our little slice of heaven to return.

As you may guess our Library is kind of like our town, small in size but big in heart. Looking for a good book to read and don’t need a huge  selection then we have what you are looking for, want to use a computer we have that also or how about a movie to rent we have those but what we have most of all are those special people that you only find in Libraries like ours, Libraries were they feel free to just stop by and say “Hey”, Libraries where grown women will come in and make silly things that they wouldn’t spend .10 cents on in the store and leave with their prize in their hands and come back the next week and do it all over again. Libraries where the children come in and know that the lady working that day will take time to help them read their book, even if it only has pictures in it but the one thing they know for sure is that if they ask nice and say please Miss Pinkey is going to give them candy and they know how to ask because she is putty in their hands when they ask nice.  Those are just a few of the reasons I think we have biggest and best little Library you can find around and if you would like to stop by and see us I work on Thursday.

See you then!

Not being one to feel sorry for myself, I don’t get sad very often but sad I am. You may wonder why I am sad well I will tell you and I bet you are saying “Oh shit, do I have to listen to another sob story”? No you do not, you can chose not to read this but then you will be wondering  what can make such a normally up beat and happy person so sad. Well I will tell you, you see I am not in Michigan with my family for the summer, therefore I don’t get to see  my Grandchildren, my Son, all my brothers and sisters and the new man in my life Gus (who is just to cute for words). Now you might ask yourself why I just don’t go, well I will tell you why, stupid doctor won’t let me go! Why won’t he let me go, well that is a story for another time. What really is making me sad on this normally fun and happy holiday is this, it is to hot to breath. Anytime it gets to 121, it is to hot to do anything unless you want to cook your eggs on the sidewalk (oh I forgot we don’t have sidewalks), guess you would have to think of something else to do, oh I forgot it is to hot to think. They say we are going to have cooler weather next week, cold front is going to move in expect temperatures to get as low as 110. Now that is enough to make anybody sad!

My anniversary was on the 3rd of July, would have been 52 years but you see Bill has been dead almost 11 years. Oh yea that is another reason I am sad!

Check back with me world, I promise to not be sad.

Sharlet

My Brothers and Sisters, I miss you all!

There is luck and then there is LUCK, so as you may of guessed this is about Bingo. Well not really about Bingo, but about luck. Now I have these really special friends who would do anything for me so I tend to take advantage of them, I don’t mean to but it just happens. For instance I have this really bad problem sleeping and so I tend to fall asleep driving ( I can fall asleep talking to you, but that is another story) and as you may or may not know I live pretty far from everything so it kind of makes it hard to go to Doctors and stuff like that so that puts a burden on my friends who have to make sure I don’t set behind the wheel of a car for more that fifteen minutes or so and fall asleep. Which would be really bad luck!! Now that brings me back to my friends Connie and Chuck who if they know I have to be some where they are going to take me, now I know you are thinking what dose this have to do with Bingo. Well I am going to tell you, you see they like to play Bingo and every time we go to Las Vegas we end up playing Bingo at the Casino. Do I win? Nope but them they don’t either. There could be 20 or 25 people playing (counting us) and do we win, nope!!! Now for some reason we tend to go to the same Casino and if you go enough you get to know people that also play and then you get paranoid, like they are talking about you. Like look there are those poor people who come all the time but never win and then you get mad at people because they win all the time but you don’t and you want to get up and punch them in the nose but you can’t cause you are a lady so you just give them nasty looks! Still we keep going back and not winning, that is what I mean by luck and not having any and then there is LUCK which I have a lot of and I have to tell myself this when I don’t win playing Bingo. For instance I am no spring chicken and still can enjoy life ( which I do), I am the oldest of ten (10) children and we are all still around, I have two wonderful children and five beautiful grandchildren. So you see I am very LUCKY except things like Bingo which I don’t tend to be the luckiest at, except that may be changing, won three times tonight at our local bingo.  Should know better tomorrow because my friend Chuck who’s wife Connie is in Canada is still picking me up at 6:30am and driving me to Vegas because I have a Doctors appointment at 9:00am and the chances are pretty good we will do the Bingo thing. Even if I don’t win I am still very luck to have such great friends.

Till next time World, Sharlet

Ok, is it just me or are there a lot of unbalanced people in this world? What person in his or her right mind would walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope? Well it was not really a rope but a cable or wire, you could not get me to walk across the Grand Canyon on a SIDEWALK let a lone a tight rope. You see I live 21 miles from the West rim of the Grand Canyon and The Sky Walk and you could not get me to walk on that piece of Plexiglass for all the money that guy made for walking across the canyon. Must admit it was exciting , I am glad he made it with out falling but then it might have been more exciting if he had. Sorry, I know that sounds really bad but do you think they would have paid him all that money if they knew for sure he was not going to fall. No I didn’t want him to fall so do not leave comments that tell me what a bad person I am but it dose say a lot about us, I would venture to guess that it was one of the highest rated programs tonight.

Now on to more exciting things. You never know what you might run into when you walk out the door in Arizona, it could be any thing from a Snake (not the nice kind) to a Bob Cat or sometimes there might even be a person out there (not to likely). Couple days ago it was Javelin, not one but two! Now my two guard dogs, as always on guard, spotted them and decided it was their duty to rid the yard of them. Now being their loving master I decided that their combined weight of 10 lbs gave somebody an unfair advantage and believe me it wasn’t my faithful Guard Dogs who by the way are always on a chain due to these kind of surprises. Another thing I learned that day was always make sure you have good batteries  in your camera (which I did not), needless to say I was very lucky to get these photos. Used the camera on my phone so not the best photos but I was very happy to get them. Now the Javelin may not be as exciting the Man on a Rope but I think it comes pretty darn close. Check back again to see what surprising thing might show up in my yard, you never know it might just  be time to bring out those nasty Guard Dogs again!

Till next time World, it’s Sharlet

Yes, it is I. You must know that I first typed me but I know that there is somebody in this world that would correct my English. Yes world it is I and I know you must be wondering where I have been, (there must be somebody that is wondering) well I have not been on some world tour or a cruise around the world (dose sound like fun) no I have been in my own little world. Could tell you about all my health and other problems but then if you listened to my problems then I would have to listen to all of yours and that could take a real, real long time, so lest don’t go there.

Since I talked to you I have a new Grandson, he is a doll. Yes I know us Grandmas all think that but in this case it is true. I know, I know, you think I am being just another Grandma but believe me when you see his picture you will have to agree. Not only is he beautiful he smart, he is only 10 months old but he is walking and talking, that is the great thing about being a Grandma, Mom and Dad have to chase him around and keep him out of trouble. (ha like that is going to happen, look out trouble here comes Gus)

I’ll be going back to Michigan in two weeks for the summer and will get to spend time with Gus and his brother and sister, Sarah and Billy. Looking forward to seeing them, my Son, his Wife and my nine (9) brothers and sisters and all their kids and all their kids and so on. Trust me it makes for a big family a very big family.

I have so much to talk about but I think I will save that all for another time. Check out Gus, the newest member of my clan.

Till next time, It’s Me World Sharlet

Oh and to the person who would correct my English,you know who you are, I hope you had a safe trip home.

My newest Grandson, Gus.

No I know we all say I have the best Grandkids in the world, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think so myself. How many Grandma’s could say they were in the presence of the world next’s Verlander (Me)? Now I say this without a doubt in my mind( well almost no doubt), you see I say this because on Tuesday night I watch him pitch 5 innings of outstanding ball. Now the only problem I see  with this whole Ball game thing, is his Father! You see I think by the time he gets to the big league his Dad will have had a stroke!  Not only him but every Father who has a son playing sports. You see I think if they could fit into those uniforms they would take their kids place in a second but they spend 3 hours or so patting each other on the backs and letting each other know that  their kid is the next Verlander or Broch or Jackson or you get the picture! Bill is by no means my only Grandchild, he just happens to be the next great Pitcher. Isabella my oldest is off to collage, I have no idea how this happened, one day she is crawling around getting under my feet then the next thing I know I am watching her Graduate. She is off to become the world next great Doctor ( good because I sure could use the free Doctor care), good luck baby girl! Roberto her brother graduated from eight grade the same day,( it was a very long day) he is going to be a great Rock Star some day and if not I am sure what ever he decides to do he will be great at it. Last but not least is Sarah, who is having way to much fun to worry about what lies ahead. I love them all, they make getting this old fun! Like Roberto said when I had my last birthday, “How old are you Grandma?”, I replyed “older than dirt Roberto” his answer “Yea but mighty fine dirt Grandma” That is what our Grandkids do for us “Mighty fine dirt Grandma”!

OK, so I just got home from playing Bingo and I won! Well I sorta won, it cost me $22.00 to play and I won $24.00 so I am $2.00 ahead. Oh, I forgot, I bought a Coke so I am only really $1.00 ahead. Oh well, who is counting? Well if you want to get down to the nitty gritty I am counting, well I was counting until a couple of week ago. About 3 years ago I decide to keep track of how much it cost to play and how much I won. First year I keep track I won $3.00, not bad at least I was ahead of the game. Second year I lost $83.50, so alright I think, I really only go for the social side of the game because you see all my friends go and it is fun! Right!!!! OK, so a new year right? So by the end of February I am down $129.00, so guess what I have quit keeping track. Now I don’t want you to think that I lied about going to play for the social part of the game because I do but it is easier to enjoy the social end of the game if you are winning sometimes or you are not aware of the amount of money it is costing to be so social! Oh, and one more thing I sometimes might lie about, is how many 4’s I have on my cards. Now don’t ask me to explain the 4 thing all I know is that for some reason they count how many 4’s they get to mark when the number is called and then they hold up the number they had. Like 4 fingers for the 4’s they had. Now sometimes I forget to count, so I lie and hold up however many fingers I feel like holding up. Only thing is, my Mom use to say “You can lock your door against a thief but you can’t lock it against a Lie-er! So as you might guess I am not very likely to lie, none of us kids are but gee Mom I wish you were still around so you could let me know, is that really a lie or just a nice way to enjoy the game as much as those who counted their 4’s.