July 4th 2009

Celebrating at Casa De La Ratliff - Sorry but I don't have pictures of the "Insane and Unsafe" (Safe & Sane) fireworks show. I was too busy trying to protect my hair from catching on fire. If anyone has them please send them to me.

Sonia asks..How did you get that nickname?

Looking back on when I was a little nappy headed girl..unh ..unh..unh… (that’s a lyric from a Steve Wonder song ) sorry I digress. Seriously, when I was maybe 8 years old my mother gave us 2 chicks and 2 ducklings for Easter. I kept them until they were too big to stay in the house plus I grew tired of picking up bird poop. My mother arranged for my little darlings to stay with my grandparents, Momma Nita and Daddy James. I am named after my grandmother in case I need to state the obvious. So we loaded everybody into the car for a visit to see the grandparents. When we arrived I was surprised to see that my grandfather had built a chicken coop for my feathered friends. Each and every trip to my grandparents meant that I got to see my birdies. I fed them and gave them water and let them out from time to time. Their favorite treat, at least I thought so, was dried corn kernels. I would pick them off the cob and feed them until they could eat no more. My grandfather stumbled upon one of my feeding sessions and said….”baby….don’t feed them that there corn…they’ll choke to death.” I innocently replied…”but they ate it all up, they must like it”. He patiently responded…”baby, they’re chickens…they’ll eat anything.” Oh…my bad. I’m not stupid and I surely don’t want to kill my little friends. I fed them the next best thing…..RED CHILI PEPPERS. I simply picked them off the bush and shoved them through the cage and they ate.. and ate…and ate. So here comes Daddy James and he says, “baby…. what are you doing and what are you feeding those chickens.” I said I’m giving them peppers and they like it. That’s when he said “Lawd have mercy Jesus, what am I going to do with you….you’re my little Pepperchild.” So there you have it. He would tell me the story over and over and I’ve never forgotten it. Yeah, I know this sounds like a sweet story but there was a climatic ending. They tried to feed me fried chicken for dinner the following weekend. WTF…I’m still messed up over that but I love me some chicken.




Sonia - your're going to be a star - so get ready for your debut. There is a new question on the blog...let's see who is the next person to find it.

Deployed to Iraq

Marcus is on his way to Iraq in September. He casually dropped this on me while texting that he had just landed in SF. I know what you're thinking, Obama is slowly withdrawing the troops and one day we'll be out of that country and maybe taking care of our own. In the meantime one of our family members will be on the other side of the world. So I'm calling on our prayer warrior to post a prayer of peace and protection to look over Marcus and his family until he returns.

Easter Sunday

I surprised everyone and flew into L.A. to spend Easter with the family. We had a great time and I got to see my niece Melissa. She's all grown up now. Who knew we would have a AfricanAmerican - Hawiian with an Alabama accent in the family. Melissa of course is in the middle. Bobby and Darryn the nephews are showing her some luv.

Mom and the girls

This is my all time favorite photo taken at Mom's 73rd birthday party. I have another photo that was taken over twenty years ago that I will post as soon as I find it.

July 4th 2009

Lawdy Lawdy - guess what I did on the 4th of July?

1. Got a mani - pedi..
2. Stayed in bed because it was a holiday..

3. Went shopping for a cute outfit..

4. Got my hair did..

5. You guessed right. We went to a baseball game ..

Here we are in all our patriotic glory. The backdrop is real. We were in the luxury suite and the San Diego Padres game. We were sipping wine and eating hagen daz. What a life.

Remodel Madness

Most of you know there was a plan to remodel when we purchased our home. It's been a long journey with many dead con-artists, excuse me contractors along the way. Here is a view of our progress. We expect to have all of the infrastructure done by mid-August. When everything this is finished will have a tri-level. The first floor is the main living area. The second floor will have the master suite and workout room. The third level will be the media room. Can't wait to have everyone over for the PARTEH! Yeah Baby!