58 Years

 September 24, 2016 marks 58 years of marriage for Herb and Nancy Thoms.  Where else would you celebrate than at the car warehouse?

     Weeks of planning and inviting payed off.  Nancy bought a few decorations and a few balloons.  I made a cake and Nancy brought some drinks.  Slowly one by one family arrived. Then friends began to arrive.

      Nancy is one of the sweet Adeline's.  The group sang 5 songs that told the story of the Thoms in song.  It was so sweet to watch.

      After the songs they cut the cake. Then Herb spoke.  He said he wanted to highlight 3 years cause he didn't have time to talk about each.  The first was 1963 when Herb went to Vietnam and left Nancy in charge of the kids.  The second was in 1964 when Herb went to Vietnam and left Nancy in charge.  And again in 1965 when Herb went to Vietnam and left Nancy in charge of the kids.  Nancy spoke up and said I am still in charge of the kids.  We all laughed.

Just a Giggle

Do you know how to make three women giggle?  This morning at work I was standing in the front office area with two other women and a man walked in the hallway and just stood there.  Then he says "I'm Lost".  The three of us all giggle and show him the way to the door.

This made us laugh because we know very little about men but we do know if a man is lost, asking for directions is like admitting defeat. He had to ask for assistance. He couldn’t figure it out for himself. How humiliating!

You hear the expression "If all else fails, read the directions"  I looked  that expression up and this is what our wonderful internet had to say: what you can do if everything else you have tried has been unsuccessful; a last resort.

Synonyms: Band-Aid, emergency, expedient, impromptu, improvised, makeshift, practical, provisional, rough-and-ready, rough-and-tumble, stop-gap, substitute, temp, temporary, throwaway.

This got me thinking about how God reacts when we say to Him "I Am Lost."  Of course there is the big I'm lost. When you ask Jesus into your heart and you let go and let God.  The most important event in your life!

After that there are so many days when you just stop and say "I am lost."  Does God just giggle and open the door for us?

Just Another Movie Monday

    Scott called me at 6:30 am and asked if I was going to go take photos of a movie shoot in downtown Mobile.  The setting was the Malaga Hotel.  A very old hotel with a french influence.

    The documentary was about an actor that died in the 50s.  Scott provided the ambulance.  A 1951 Ford ambulance.

     It was with the same producer from the movie last summer.  It was fun to be downtown before anybody.


 

Keep Calm it is Show Day

  The morning started before the sun came up.  We started to unload the cars. Zeno and Jim made their way over early.  Jim loved getting in each car and driving them to the staging area before taking the cars to the field.  I left my camera with Zeno.  I know Darrin would not have time to get any photos.

I walked down to the civic center and waited for everybody to show up.  It was closer to 8 am before breakfast started.  I will ask next time to show up so I can play with the cars too.

Breakfast came and I sat with my team for Judging.  Ken was the team captain.  Joe White the guy with the blue pick up was teamed with me and we judged the Driver Participation Class.

There isn't much to the rules on this class.  The cars are not point judged.  They are a pass or fail.  you would fail for things like fire extinguisher, paint wrong color for period, wrong engine or hot rod.

After breakfast and before the Certified Judges Education (CJE)  I went over to check on the guys.  They had all the cars on the field and were finishing the polishing.  I checked the handles and cleaned the 51 Victoria.  It was a mess.  I saw it when Jim drove it around the parking lot earlier in the morning.

I made it back for the CJE but I went to the wrong place.  I wanted to take the Brass Era class but ended up with the Model A class.  We talked about some of the cars from the Brass Era anyway.

After judging school I had a few minutes so I checked in with the guys.

I went to judging and we spent a few minutes on each car.  There was one car that the fire extinguisher was in the empty zone.  When Joe told the owner that he would have to disqualify the car the man had the look of horror on his face.  Joe gave him time to go buy a new one just up the street at the hardware store.

We continued down the street to judge other cars and came back when we saw that the replacement extinguisher was under the tire.

After judging all the cars we had to run the judge sheet to the host hotel.  We put the sheets in order and then Ken took them in to the score keepers.  But before we could finish there were several cars that moved into our class.  They needed to be judged.

Finally we were done and I went and hung out with the guys.  They were drinking smoothies and I was hungry.  We went over the the breakfast place Baker's Kitchen and had lunch.

We waited for a half hour for a seat.  Kaye and Joey met us for lunch.  Joey was so hot he was soaking wet.  We ate but Joey did not want to sit he wanted to be with the cars.

After lunch we went back to where the cars were and hung out until they came around and released the cars.

It was so hot that I didn't go and take a picture of every car or at least most of them like I have in previous shows.  I did walk around and look at most of them.

We loaded the cars up and all headed to get cleaned up for the award banquet. It was so hot.  I just wanted to sit in the motor home and cool off.

We arrived at dinner early and we had houres douvers of fruit and cheese. Darrin and I choose a table that was right up front.  I wanted to be close to take pictures of the trophies.  We had the best filet minion that I have ever had.  Jim had salmon and he rally enjoyed it.  There was way to much food.

We sat and talked with Tom Cox from the Appraisers and next AACA President.  He is also on the newsletter committee and remembers reading our newsletter.  Kaye and Joey sat with us as well. We also saved a seat for Joe and his wife owner of the Hawthorne green metallic 51 Ford Custom.

When it came close to time for awards to be given out.  I passed out a card to each person with the cars and their classes on it as well as a not that one car is in Travis name.  When they start reading the names and cars it goes so fast you forget what class a car is in.

Finally they got to our cars.  Jim proudly went up and claimed his awards.  Senior First Place for the 1926 Ford Cabriolet, 1st Preservation for the 1962 Impala and a repeat preservation for the 1951 Ford Victoria.  We gathered all our awards and headed out.

Morning and a 14 hr drive were going to come early.

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

We left Columbia SC in the morning.  We made a few stops on the way.  the country was beautiful.

We arrived in New Bern at 12:30 pm. After parking the rigs and unhooking the excursion we registered the cars. We tried to register at the hotel.  They were not ready for us.

Jim looked at me and said what do you want to do.  I knew I had time in the afternoon scheduled for  touring a car collection.

So we left the hotel and drove across town to se the Joe Alcoke collection.  The cars were stored in an old dealership.  The showroom had a lot of nice cars in it.

I loved the old building and all the cool memorabilia that was all over the place.

There were a lot of muscle cars.  One car struck me it was 32 coupe.  The car was the same car that Joe Alcoke had used to leave his wedding.

After Doug showed us some of the cleaning products that he uses on the cars he took us out to the shop where he is working on restoring some of the vehicles.

the guys really enjoyed when they would get to uncover another vehicle to find out what it iss

 After spending an hour or more at the old dealership we went back to the Columbia and Zeno and Jim went to their hotel. Everybody was ready for a break and a shower before the dinner.

Darrin and I went and got the golf cart out.  We drove around and found the show entrance and also where the cars would be parked.

We went up to the convention center and ran into Connie and David Wright. We met them on the 25th Anniversary Founders Tour 3 years ago.  They jumped in the golf cart with us a drove around New Bern.  We took them over to see the river front and the rig.

We dropped then back off at their car and we went and got ready for the Carolina Pig Picking.

When we arrived for dinner in the golf cart we all posed by the statue of the founder of Pepsi.  New Bern proudly has that claim to fame.

At dinner we sat with Mike Krause who owned a 67 Impala Convertible, Jim from Pittsburgh an AACA judge, willy Jim's friend, Joey and Kaye Moore from Birmingham for dinner.  Kaye is a beautiful fun lady married the a very outgoing man.
 There was a buffet line that you would go through and they loaded your plate up with food.  chicken, BBQ, hush puppies and slaw.

Conversation was just like we had know each other for ever.  Of Course Jim had known so many already.

Kaye and I hit it off right away.

The chicken at dinner was very good. The event was awesome.  When it was over we all went back to the Columbia and Zeno and Jim headed back to the hotel.

Darrin and I decided we wanted to go sit by the river and watch the boats go by before going to sleep.

Off We go Again!

    Before the sun came up we were at the car warehouse to leave to take the 1936 Cabriolet, the 1951 Victoria and the 1962 Impala to the AACA Fall Meet in New Bern North Carolina.  The meet is August 11-13.


     In April we took the Cabriolet to Charlotte, NC to her first show and she got her First Place Junior.

 I started out riding with Zeno in the excursion. We talked about so many things including Jesus.  Zeno is an interesting man that has been married to his wife Reba for over 40 years.

    We stopped in Montgomery for a break at a truck stop.  At breakfast Jim told us about his first camping trip.  We laughed about it.

 
    Jim said it was back in 1962 he had a brand new station wagon, a company car.  He was going to the Optimist convention in Ontario, Canada.  His club was one of 12 out of 4000 to get a gold watch for their achievements.  He had found a pop camper to rent for $35 a week. He knew he could not afford tho stay in hotels and eat at restaurants.   He thought well we can all go and stay in the camper at night and we can cook dinner right out side it.  Nancy was a city girl and had never been camping.  Jim was a farm boy and thought this can't be that hard.  Nancy packed the camper.  At the time they had three children and Scott was just a baby.  

    Nancy invited her mom and sister to go with.  That made 7 people in the station wagon.

    Jim went to work that Friday and Nancy finished packing everything.  Jim left work early around 3 or 4.  On his way home with the brand new car a guy passed him in the left lane but before he could clear him he realized he needed to turn right so he did. Right into Jim.

   The whole front end of the car was tore off, radiator was steaming.  It had to be towed. 
In those days the wreckers raced to the scene of an accident and the first one there got the job.

    Jim needed the car to leave on his camping trip first thing in the morning.  He interviewed each of the drivers to see if any of them could fix the car by morning.  One driver called his boss and told Jim they could do it.  Jim was also told that his boss said he could not ask how much it was going to cost. 
Before agreeing Jim talked with the owner to make sure the car would be fixed.  Jim was also asked if it was important how the car looked and his reply was as long as it was operational and safe.

    Early the next morning as promised the car was delivered.  It ran but was a wreck.

    A metal I beam was used for the front bumper, there were two rods sticking out of the bumper with the head lights welded to them. What ever it was that was used for a hood was strapped down to the I beam. There wasn’t a grill on the car and the left front fender was half cut off.

    Nancy said “I am not going anywhere in
that thing.”

    They left for their vacation in that car with the family and towing the camper. When they
pulled in anywhere people would get out if the way. Cars would swing wide around them, Of course neither Jim or Nancy new much about camping. But so many campers would take care of them at each stop. Other campers would share with them and teach them how to camp. They even sent them out with lists of what they needed to buy to get through their vacation.


    When they got home they liked camping so much they bought a Zipper Camper.

    We stopped in Augusta Georgia to have dinner with Jim"s sister Jane, cousin Clair and friends Joe and Ann.  We ate at a little bar and grill called the Village Deli that turned out to be the local family hang out. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was cool.

    Before we left more of family came in.  I could hear people saying I think Jimmy is in town.
 
    We went up the road to Columbia and stayed for the night.  I called my cousin Karl and he came to the hotel to visit

The Big Bonus

    The big bonus to doing Amy's wedding cake is that we get to go to Huntsville for the weekend to see JBear.  He was so excited to see us.

He wanted to help GiGi with the cake just like he had done so many times.  He cried when we had to leave him behind when we went to deliver and set up the cake.

  Darrin and I set the cake up together.  He helped me carry the cakes in.  I went to work as fast as I could so we could get back to JBear.

    We played a little in the afternoon.  Bobby Sue and Barrett went with us to Huntsville so JBear and Barrett did get to play.

David made a kid wash with JBear.  We all had fun running through it. Barrett tried to take the car through it and ended up running into it.

     The next morning before going back home we took the boys to the park.  JBear loved the park and the attention he got.  It was just Grandpa, GiGi, JBear and Barrett.

Darrin and I followed them all over the park .

  We pushed them on the swings and went down the slides with them.  On one of the slides that turned a lot I thought I was going to get stuck.  I decided that I didn't need to go down that one again.


It was fun to watch Barrett try to do everything that JBear was doing.

 We climbed up the fort at Dublin park a hundred times.

 Nobody wanted to leave but it was time to go.

When we arrived back at David's house I let JBear use my camera to take a few pictures.  I have pictures of stuff in boxes, the walls, the toilet and so much more.


    We headed home.

Amy's Wedding

   I have been preparing for Amy's wedding for a while.  We have emailed back and forth about details for better part of a year. 

   The cake would be a simple, very elegant cake.  Strawberry and white cake with buttercream frosting and a grooms cake of butternut and chocolate frosting.  The wedding is to be at First Christian Church in Huntsville with the reception at the lumberyard.
 
   Darrin and I set the cake up together.  He helped me carry the cakes in.  I went to work as fast as I could so we could get back to JBear.

  Darrin took a minute to rest and leaned on a shelf that had the cake top and the toasting glasses on them.  Little did we know that the shelf was not attached and down the glasses went to the concrete floor along with the antique cake top.

  The cake top had been used for many generations.  The brides head broke off into many pieces. Darrin went to get glue and paint to fix the head.  I finished with the cakes.

   While I was waiting for Darrin to get back I found some glue and glued it back together.  We were able to leave as soon as Darrin got back.

  That evening I went to Amy's wedding.  She was such a beautiful bride.  The ceremony was beautiful.  I left a few moments early to get to the reception first.

  The cake still looked wonderful sitting in the window.  As with all things I was glad to see the topper looked as if nothing had ever happened.

I saw Mark Johnson at the wedding and to talk with him.  I had some great conversation with him. But and here is the big word that means things are about to take a one-eighty.


  I could not have seen this one coming.  I sat with Kenny for dinner. You have to know this is the pastor at the church I worked at in Huntsville that persecuted me for three years.

He stole my happiness with my job and had me convinced that I couldn't do anything well.  He even had me convinced that I was only qualified to run a copy machine.

   I learned a lot from those three years that have helped me be a stronger Christian.  I learned that all people including pastors are broken people.  They sin, just like me.  They go against what Jesus taught, just like me.  They hurt people whether intentional or not, just like me.

    At many points during those three years I felt like Job.  I had no idea why it was happening and there were many times I felt like I was sitting on the top of the garbage pile outside the city scrapping my wounds for relief and my spirit was so crushed that I just wanted this life to end.

    I learned during those three years that God did not ever turn his back on me.  I learned through so many lessons over then next two years that God had a plan and all we have to do is trust Him,

  He was right there with me and He drug me out of that situation.

Just like that cake top.  When it fell to the hard dark and clod floor and the head shattered.  God knelt down and carefully scooped up all the pieces of my life and carefully glued them back together.

    As I sat there and talked with Kenny and his wife Kelly, I could feel all the anger and hurt leave me.  I was surprised by my inner reaction.  After just one sentience I was comfortable to talk to him and even invited him to visit us in Mobile.

  

Did Job Bake a Cake?

    Baking cakes is not a new thing for me.  I have made over 400 cakes over the last 8 years.  A lot of them wedding cakes.

    Wedding cakes are scary.  They are a once in a lifetime event.  There is so much that can go wrong with the cake.

    When I got home yesterday with Barrett we made a cake that was half white and half chocolate.  He was so good about helping.  I let him (with help) put all the ingredients in the mixers.  He wanted to crack the eggs all by himself.

    Because I was doing two flavors of cake, I used both my mixer and Bobby Sue's mixer.  When we turned them on for the two minutes Barrett got so excited.  He shock his head in a circle to follow the beater. He squealed with happiness a few times as well.  He was covered from head to toe with chocolate cake batter.

    It was a lot of fun to bake cakes with him.

   The whole time I was teaching Barrett how to bake cakes I thought about how God had taught me so many things.  This verse came to mind. "Teach me, and I will be silent; And show me how I have erred" Job 6:24

    I have taken so many classes over the years and learned a lot about God.  I have not been the ideal student.  I want to learn but I don't want to listen and I really don't want to know where I have messed up
.
    I need to take a lesson from Barrett.  He eagerly waited for the next instruction and boldly tried to accomplish the task.  He would spill something and say "Oh No" and look to me for a way to correct the mistake.

    I wonder if God enjoys watching us try to accomplish a task he had given us as much as I enjoyed watching Barrett.  I know I will mess up things.  I know I will try hard to do it right,  I hope that I will continue to have a child like attitude.

    "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

17 Years Under Our Belts

On July 4th Darrin and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. Darrin has been my best friend, my hero and just an amazing man.

We decided to spend the morning at the Watermelon Festival in Grand Bay.

Bobby Sue had entered Barrett in a beautiful baby contest.  The contest started a 9 am.  The room was full of people.

It took a while for them to get to Barrett's group.  Barrett was ready to get on the stage.  He was such a ham both times he got to go on stage.

 There were only two boys in his age group.  Both boys got sales for best eyes and best hair.

Barrett was crowned King in his age group.  He loved getting a crown.
We all celebrated with a funnel cake and watermelon before heading home.

We finished the night by having dinner at the Pelican Reef and then over to Dog River for fire works at the marina

Sunday Cedar Rapids to Moline

Today is the last day of competition.

Scott, Mallory and Ashley rode in the car today.  No need to worry about time penalty's. Today would be all about having some fun.

Darrin and I had 5 hrs to make the 1 hour and 15 minute trip.  We stopped at the I-80 truck stop and toured the museum.  It was pretty cool.  There were some very cool trucks and some very unusual trucks too.  We also walked around the store and looked at all kinds of crazy souvenir items.


On this trip we have enjoyed many National Parks and a lot of museums.

We got to the hotel and the B team was at the desk.  This hotel decided to not let us check in for two reasons. First the rooms were not ready and second they would only let Travis and Scott have the rooms.  Problem was soon solved.

Randy came down to meet us and we hung out most of the afternoon.  We so cool to see so many family members on this cross country race.

I watched as the cars come across the finish line and they announced what their place was in the race.  The winners of each class had confetti shot over them.  Nice touch.

The cars parked along the street.  The local cars came out to park with the Great Race cars.

At 6 pm we went to a reception and a dinner before the award ceremony. It was fun to hang out with all our new friends one last night.  The banquet was nice.  The food was good.

At the award ceremony Scott won the best friend award from Toshi and team Japan.