My Texas/Cali Connection

It's always been interesting to me, this Texas/California connection I have. I think it has to do with my mom being born and raised in Texas. I would like to say that I took some of these pictures at the Leftovers party, but as you know, I'm here working hard at Country Roads. I hoping to one day soon to get myself to Texas! But for now, I live through pictures. Above is one special lady, Debbie, aka "Trash". She is the Gramma to little Bella, the strongest little fighter I've ever seen, who just turned one year old. I love this picture of Debbie, she looks so cute and happy. People are always fascinated with Tim's hair! Remember the old little troll dolls from the sixties or seventies? There are days Tim's hair is just like that! I'm not sure "why" this lady was measuring Tim's head? !Then I saw this picture, and if I was Tim, I would have someone watch my back, as his head may be joining the most gruesome, frightening table of doll heads I've ever seen in a long time. I HATE these things, they scare the crap out of me!Here we have the world famous Theresa, with our Gloria. Theresa is like the roving blog reporter in the state of Texas. She is always visiting new shops, shows, and all her other favorite vintage places. I personally think that Theresa should dish out some of the dirt that goes on in these establishments (come on, we all know about the DRAMA in the junkin' biz) and Theresa could do like a "Junkin National Enquirer". Theresa, come on girl, I think there is some BIG bucks here, think about it!! Here's Tim again, probably being treated like a "boy toy" as he poses with the perfect hat.Did "ya'll"(I'm trying to get your language down) put him in a corner as well. We all know how Tim loves to talk, so please, he can where the hat, but let the boy talk!! And lastly, one of the tables at the Leftovers party! To all my Texas friends, please make sure my Country Roads family behaves themselves, okay? And thank you Gloria for the pictures!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom, "Johnnye Merle Durham Moore" would have been 83 years old today! She's been gone now about 4-1/2 years. Died a few days after Riley was born. Pissed me off at first, you know, your first grandbaby is born and then your mom dies, dandy! I quickly realized though that she hung on long enough just to know her first grandchild made it into the world safe and sound!
She was born in Lubbock, Texas to my grandparents, Hobson and Madge Durham. They sadly died before I was born. Never got a chance to know them. My mom and her family eventually moved to Temple, Texas where she went to school and grew up. I always remember the stories she told me about the Depression and what it was like in Texas. She lost her dad at 15 years old. He drank a bit too much, and sadly committed suicide. Her and her mom were very close, as you can see above in the picture. Not too much longer after my mom's dad died, her mom passed away from cancer. And truth me told, I don't think she ever got over that her entire life. She rarely would talk to me or my sister about it. She eventually met my knuckle headed dad, and for him I know it was love at first sight. Actually, after my mom died, he died less than six months later. He couldn't go on without her. She was his purpose in life! That's me with my folks and a couple of years later my sister was born. My mom was always quiet, didn't talk much, read a lot. I made her insane, I know that. I never, ever stopped talking! After Bryce was born, my mom told me if I had anymore kids she was moving back to Texas. I drove my mom crazy as a kid, so you can only imagine what three grandkids, all born not too far from each other, did to her! Just like the stories she told to me about growing up in Texas, she told my kids the same stories. Brande was able to stop in Temple a few years back. Happen to run into a local historian at the library. He told her the address of her grandma's house, and the restaurant where her great-grandma use to work. My mom's been gone a bit over four years now. Before she passed away, poor health and dementia had set in. So, it's nice to remember today, and the happier times of her life and her stories of her Texas roots. Funny thing how I'm blogging out here in So Cal, yet I have become friends with so many bloggers in Texas. Sometimes things "really" do happen for a reason! Happy Birthday Mom, we all love you!!

My Country Roads Family "Doin" Warrenton!

Thanks to Gloria, I too get to "do" Warrenton through pictures. The picture above is my very favorite as you see from left to right; Gloria, Tim, and Debbie. The reason it is my favorite is because there Debbie is, who I have gotten to know through the blogging world, with two of my good friends. It really is a small world after all. Thanks Debbie for posing with my buddies!


Here's Tim smiling with a treasure he's found. And I can tell you as he is smiling for the camera, his brain is racing as he thinks what he is going to make out of this.


Our Country Roads "girls"! From left to right are Lisa, Gloria, Jeannie, Pat, and Margaret. And of course the one's having a great time with "wine in hand" are Lisa and Margaret. You go girls!!

"Come on Lisa, just say cheezzze one more time so Gloria can take the picture"!!

Here's my "fancy girls", all dressed up and having the time of their lives. What you can't "hear" in this picture is all the giggling that I know is going on! They are just too cute when they get together!


This is a picture of "Tim & the Girls"! Margaret is trying to fool us by hiding wine in a water bottle! See, even I can tell and I'm only looking at a picture!I'm not sure who this beautiful display belongs to. Gloria forgot to tell me. But what amazes me is this awesome display is set up in a tent! Maybe I should post it in my store for a handful of my dealers that don't understand the importance of "display"! When Gloria returns home, I'll have more pictures of the awesome displays she took on her camera. I'm hoping that Gloria makes it to the Blog Party tonight so I can see some more pictures of my Texas girlfriends. Have fun everyone!!

The Week in a Blink!

Where the time went to this week, I have no idea. All I can say is the week flew by and I'm feeling it today. I don't know if I'm the only one, but there are times I can't even remember what month we are in! This year has gone by so quickly!Cottage White was in yesterday fixing up their new area of the store. John and his wife (sorry, I forgot her name) have done an awesome job. John's wife was apologizing to me yesterday because her displays didn't look the way she wanted, but she kept running out of time. There's that word again, "time", that we are all trying to find more of these days! But believe me, her displays look great!Lori Hannah "officially" joined out Country Roads family this month. And because of my lack of "time", I was late in sharing some of her awesome works of art!Lori is a very talented artist, and here are some of the bracelets she designs. It seems like I've known Lori forever, that is how quickly "time" passes! It's nice to have her be a part of our Country Roads family!I finally made "time" yesterday after work to get to see Riley. I've missed her so very much. It has only been for a few days but I'm use to seeing her almost daily! I brought over another birthday present for her. I ordered it awhile back, but apparently the shippers have been having "time" issues as well!American Girl has a new line of dolls out for the little girls to play with. I think they are called the "Itty Bitty" dolls, or something like that. I could sit all day and watch Riley play with her dolls. She is at the fun age of pretending, and it melts my heart to watch her. Riley is so loving and caring, I'm proud of her.Gloria emailed me a picture from Warrenton this morning. She said its been raining yesterdayn. I've known Gloria for a really long time, and no matter how early in the day, no matter what the weather is, Gloria always is put together in regards to make-up and hair!! Looks like T&T (Tim & Ted) are having a great time with the other "T's" in this photo!! Check back for some pictures from all my friends in Texas. I guess pictures are the next best thing to being there! And since this week flew by in a blink of MY eye, I best getback to work before I lose anymor time!

Living My Life Through Pictures!

This has been a tough week for me. Many of my friends are in Texas shopping till they drop, and me, I'm working a bit more than I normally do. Katie has been sick so I'm covering for her at the store. If you see my friends above, Tim & Lisa and Ted & Gloria, be sure to tell them to send me some more pictures! Tim is pretty easy to spot, "the hair" is the first clue it's Tim headed your way. Also, I currently don't have any pictures, but if you see three "older" nicely dressed women out shopping while laughing hysterically, they are also part of my Country Roads family!!I haven't seen my little Riley since Saturday!! That is unheard of for me and I'm planning a visit today after I leave work today. Which by the way is going to be EARLY!! Katie has been sending me pictures of Riley, like above in her tutu and pink flamingo slippers I got her at the zoo!Riley is becoming quite handy using a power drill as well this week. See how much I miss when I don't see my little girl?The one little baby I DO get to see though is Morgan. She was lying next to me in bed last night while I was working on my computer. I love the little "flower power" pj's with peace signs! Hopefully I'll have some more photos of all my friends and Country Roads family in Texas! Malisa promised me she would take pictures at the blog party for me, and as soon as Gloria finds out where it's at she said she would snap some pix's as well! Next Spring, I don't want to be "living my life through pictures", I want to be in Texas!!

Monday Morning Memories

This is a picture of my mom when she was 15 and her mom, my grandmother. I've been trying for the past year or so to pull all my parents pictures together since they passed away. My dad's photos are great, he wrote on the backs of almost all of. He went as far as even writing little stories on some. But my mom, nothing! We didn't even find the old photo album of her growing up in Texas until after she passed away. Her childhood was not easy. It was tough for her growing up, her family didn't have much but neither did a lot of people where she lived. I just stumbled across the picture above and below. I figured out, because of what my mom was wearing, it was the day of her dad's funeral. I'd seen her in that outfit in a few old photos of her dads funeral I had found before. These pictures were big enough to have written just a few words, but nothing. My entire life, the only story I heard about my mom and her folks was from my dad, the world famous Mr. Moore! My mom never said much. It was a weird generation, or at least in my family. My folks never talked about personal stuff or my mom's family. The story I heard was that my grandmother had died of cancer when my mom was 15 years old, her her dad killed himself three years later. It wasn't until recently that my sister told me it was the other way around. It was right before my mom passed away, her dementia was bad, but finally after ALL this time she began to talk to my sister about what really happened a day before she died. My grandparents, Hobson Durham and Madge Dulane Durham are buried in Temple, Texas. We took a vacation once when I was little to Missouri to see my dad's family. I so wish he would have stopped in Texas on the way. It is hard for me to understand why they never talked about stuff like that and pretended like nothing ever happened. Those stories are such a part of my family and at least I'm slowly able to piece them together now. A few years ago, my oldest daughter, Brande, was traveling and stopped in Temple. She say her great-grandparents graves, and stopped by the library. She was lucky to have stumbled into a local historian while there. With the information Brande had about my mom's family, he was able to tell Brande where the restaurant was that her great-grandmother had worked at, and where her great-grandparents house use to be, things like that. It's tough when someone has passed away, like my mom, and taken so many untold stories with her. That's one of the things that attracts me to blogging, the stories. There is something left of us, even if its about old cats and flip flops. God, I had nothing to say this week-end, I confess!!

Monday Morning Memories

As I've said many times, I try hard to find free time to scan in old pictures of my mom and dad's families, their past, their history. My dads picturs are so much easier, he had so many and wrote on most of the backs of the. But because my mom had a more difficult childhood, it's hard to piece it all together. My mom, Johnnye Merle Durham, was born and raised in Texas, and even though she moved to California in the 1950's, she was always so proud to be a "Texan". That's my Grandpa Hobson on the horse above. And below are some other photos I've been able to find. My Grandpa drove an oil truck to make a living back in the day.Here is my Grandpa Hobson and my Grandma Madge Dulane(I have her middle name) on their wedding day, they look so young. Here's my mom in Texas, I love the cowboy hat right beside her.This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom. She is in the cart having my Grandpa Hobson pull her. Until a couple of years ago, I never knew where myself and my kids got our blonde hair. When I saw this picture, I knew immediately. My Grandpa killed himself when my mom was 15, and then she lost my Grandma only a few years later to cancer. I never had the chance to know my grandparents only stories my mom would share here and there, but not very often. I don't think she ever got over her childhood. But once I found the pictures and began looking through them, I started to see the bigger picture, and understand how proud she was of her mom and dad. I will always remember the one story she did tell me repeatedly. It was about the Depression, and even though her family didn't have much, they "always" gave food to the people, often black people, that would come to their back door hungry. And that was one of the best lessons I've ever learned, no matter what your own situation is, you "always" give and pay it forward when you can regardless of race, politics or anything else. We were put on this earth to help each other. I really wish my mom would have shared more stories, as I know there were so many inside of her just waiting to be told. So, I'm doing my best to tell them for her!!