Gina’s Public Diary

Cliff repairing front porch roof, April-May 2008.

Working on porch 5/08.

Cliff has been working on our front porch for a month or so now (when he has a free second). There looked like there was one board that was rotten (our house was built in 1958 ) and he got up there to fix it and decided he had to redo the whole porch. He actually tore out all the boards, etc. and built a new porch roof all the way down to adding new shingles. He did make the roof come out about a foot more than it did before and I am so glad. My plants got drowned when it rained and now they are covered. With a house, it is always something…especially an older house.

Friday, Cliff and I ate at Spaghetti Warehouse because we had a coupon. It was ‘buy a spaghetti or lasagna and get one free’. WooHoo! Then we came home so he could work on the porch but he was too tired from working all week and had to lie down. He is almost finished and just has to put the board on the bottom to cover the rafters and paint!

On Saturday, we went to our family reunion on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family! We had a great time. The food was some of the best I had ever eaten at a reunion! We got to talk to my second cousin (who is a detective) all about crime in a small town. He says it is the same as the city but on a smaller scale. It was so good to see my grandmother’s brother and sisters. They are getting older. The brother next in age to my grandmother is 95 (I think)! He looked so well! My grandmother would’ve been 93 this year—it is so hard to believe. I will try to share a picture later. He was so sweet and remembered me! They had an old picture there I would give anything to have a copy of. It was before my grandmother was born and showed my grandmother’s brother who died…the one she talked so much about. The children were dressed so cute and the baby looked like it had on a christening gown—it was BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE old photos.

On Sunday, we had a picnic at church. It was inside since it is so hot here already. One of the ladies had painted trees and had decorated so adorable. I took a few pictures and will upload them later. (I hate uploading pictures. I don’t know why.) I saw two of my GA’s there all grown up and with babies! I felt very old. Then I ate bar-b-que ribs that night my brother had grilled out (YUM) and he sent Cliff a plate.

Memorial Day Monday, we ate at Coletta’s because Cliff wanted to get home and start on one of his projects. It is one of our favorite spaghetti restaurants but we were disappointed to see they had increased their prices. They were very cheap though and with the price of food, I guess it was time. Then we went to Lowe’s with about 1000 other people and bought some wood. There I heard this voice call “Mrs. Gina” and I turned around and another one of my grown-up GA’s had spotted me. She has grown up and has an eleven year old son. Did I mention I am getting old? Sometimes I worry I have done nothing for the Lord and then I see these little girls all grown up and they recognize me and I think maybe, just maybe, I did a little bit.

We got home and took the dogs riding because we had not done much with them all weekend. They love to go riding, well, Tuffy is not the fondest of it. He howls sometimes because he gets nervous but Mandy loves it. We used to take her and Chloe with us to Cliff’s Mother’s and they were excellent on long trips. This is long…is anybody still with me? Then Cliff decided he would start on his next project (before finishing the porch). He wants to expand the backyard fence on the east side to near the front of the house. He says that will give him more storage for our new lawn mower. Oh yeah, we had to buy a new lawn mower a couple of weeks ago. Our old one, which he said was 20 years old, died. The dogs and I sat with him and watched him work on this new project. Tuffy was in his cage and Mandy was free because she will not run off. Then the neighbors/owners of a beautiful boxer, came and visited a little while. All in all it was a nice weekend.