Amazing Grace!

My Mom's best friend and my other mother, Grace, turns 100 today:

As she closes in on her 100th birthday, Grace Engesser Paquette’s secret to longevity in life can’t really be attributed to one particular thing. Instead she feels its a variety of factors that have come into play.

“I’ve thought a lot about that lately and I just think life was just so much simpler and things were much easier when I was growing up which really helped,” Grace said. “When we were kids growing up on the farm we didn’t have all these fertilizers and chemicals they use today. We grew everything we ate. We raised our own vegetables and had a orchard for fruit and also raised livestock for meat. My mother always made sure we ate a very balanced diet and I’ve passed that on to my own children as well.

“Children these days seem to have to be so driven and many don’t really get a chance to be kids.

“I also think I’ve been fortunate to have some pretty good family genes. There are several people in my family who have lived a long time and I’m happy to keep up the family tradition,” she quipped.

Thanks Flash for posting this for me,
I posted once before about my other Mom.
When I read the book Water for Elephants, I thought about Grace.
That was her early life, she and her husband Harold traveled with the Engesser
Circus. Grace was one of those beautiful bareback horse riders.

Mom and Grace spent a couple winters in Arizona, and also did some traveling with a couple other friends
Grace is the last of the ladies, only one other made it to 100 before she died.

She could easily pass for 80 years old so I expect her to be around for sometime.

By Comparison!!

For the first time since 1976 I did not attend our State Democratic Convention
and I missed being there for the endorsement of the first Lady for Governor.
We had some very good Candidates, so I could have supported almost any of them.
Margaret Anderson Kelliher attended Gustavus Adolphus College in my home town.
I met her while she was still a student and she has surprised a lot of people.

She is the current Speaker of the House and she will make a great Governor
Unlike another Female 1/2 Governor that comes to mind.

Spring Fever !!

This weather has been so gorgeous, I haven't been able to sit here long enough to blog.

All is well here..I have been sitting outside reading Franklin and Lucy (and all the memorable woman in his life)'
He was quite a Hound Dog and the later years of his and Eleonore's marriage were lived more like a friendship.

Here is just a snap shot of the History.

"Roosevelt’s dalliance with Mercer (later Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd), conducted when he was a young assistant Navy secretary, has been known for years. Persico retells it in the context of the intimate lives of Franklin and Eleanor more generally. He focuses on the rift that Eleanor’s discovery of the liaison in 1918 introduced into the Roosevelt’s 13-year-old marriage, before pivoting to a thorough chronicle of Roosevelt’s subsequent relationships with various women, including a probably amorous one with Marguerite LeHand, known as Missy, his longtime personal aide. Persico speculates, too, about an encounter with Margaret, or Daisy, Suckley, a distant cousin of the president’s, and leaves scattered hints about Dorothy Schiff, the publisher of The New York Post, and Princess Martha of Norway. For good measure, the book revisits the probably romantic attachment between Eleanor Roosevelt and the journalist-turned-White House aide (and White House resident) Lorena Hickok.

Eleanor was not a passionate woman and after 6 children she made it clear her bed was off limits.
Very much like Rose Kennedy and other woman of that era, they found abstinence to be the best birth control

FDR was only 36 at the time and woman adored him, so he wasn't lonely.

Of all of his liaisons. I felt sympathy mostly for Missy she gave her whole life for him and sometimes she wasn't treated very well.
Franklin was a very selfish man and he had only one real love, Lucy Mercer Rutherford.
If it hadn't been for his desire to be President I'm sure he would have divorced Elenore and married Lucy

If someone took this book and turned it into fiction it, it would make a great movie.


Tonight is American Idol and I already have my favorite..win or lose this lady will be a big star.
So I am off for the night
Have a great week !

Baby makes 4 !!

Easter seemed to sneak up on me this year. probably because runningwoman was hosting again.
Makes me feel a little guilty that we only had one daughter because she seems to get all of the holidays.

We already knew that her 3 sons were going to be dads before the end of the year, and figured next Christmas was going to be an experience,
I plan on having Christmas here, but as this crowd grows..we may have to get a hall somewhere in the future.

The first baby due in August, is a sister for our only G G daughter Amalia, and she is tickled pink, for now anyway.
She turns 8 this month and she may not be as thrilled when she finds she isn't the belle of the ball at future gatherings and may have to share her grandma Linda's attention.

The next 2 are due in September and we may not know the gender before then.

I love these family days, no matter what surprises they bring, and this year we got another doozie.

My youngest son showed up and announced he was going to be a grampa, his oldest daughter
had just found out that she was pregnant by her boyfriend who we
thought she had broken up with, it was a dysfunctional relationship.
One thing I have learned through the years is, as much as you would like to, you can't pick mates for your kids.

I guess every red blooded woman likes a bad boy when they are young.

Most of us grow out of it by the time we are in our 20's, usually by then you realize that if they drink to much and get angry when they do..you ain't going to change them.
I always thought it was women with poor self esteem who ended up in these relationships
But if we look at Sandra Bullock we know that isn't the case.
and then you can't always trust the good guys either. ask Elin Woods

Hoping for the best for her.
When I hugged her I reminded her that she doesn't have to get married to have respect, and if she
needs a friendly ear,
I'm here anytime so is her other grandma.


Any stories to share about the bad boys in your past ?

I'm sure Jackie Sue has more then a few. *grin*