HOPE YAW ARE BUSY AND NOT SICK!

Well it does seem like the stories have slowed down. My excuse is being sick AND being over-worked. Before all of that hit me I had blogger fever! I couldn't wait to see what everyone was talking about. ....and couldn't wait to get back on line. I think a lot of people are just busy, but yaw NEED to just sign in to say hi! Miss hearing from everyone. I agree with Orrin.....WRITE THOSE STORIES!! **Special note to David....I KNOW you got some good ones. When are YOU gonna share??????
Love YAW
Sandi

Solo - Long Cross Country

I remember back in January of '88, I was working to earn a Private Pilots License. I had gone through ground school and had perhaps 20 hours flight time. I was proficient with take-offs, landings and crosswind landing techniques (which will be explained in more detail later). If you have flown in a small aircraft, you know that they are much more affected by wind currents, updrafts, wind shear etc. than are large aircraft. On a windy day, the Cessna 152 that I flew (weighing 1600 pounds with full fuel, pilot and 1 passenger) could be quite a challenge for the most experienced of pilots. I think she topped out at about 95 knots (107 mph). I would complete the 5 hour trip in the trusty Cessna 152 in which I had been taking lessons for nearly two months.

continued in comments..........

cat got your fingers?

Gee whiz. Where has everyone gone? Its too early to be Christmas shopping, or hiding Easter eggs...... yaw aint trick or treatin already are ya? yeah ok, there is some of that going on.

Dont be shy, more stories, more posts, more pictures to share!!!

I will try to behave myself while responding (crossing my fingers as I trype.... ooops hard to trype with crothed fingerth)

Orrin

MORE PICS IN THE PHOTO BUCKET PLEASE!

I love all the photo's people have sent in to Dylans photo bucket! (well, MOST of them I love). I would love to see more of them. Please take the time to scan 'em in! Old, new, it doesn't matter--I just want to see more of all of yaw!!!
Love, Sandi

Buttons

I found this old picture, and am told that it is good ole Buttons! Can that be true?

Funny tho, it dont look a thing like Sandi.

Jim Breaks 2000

OK I didn't see any comments on the fact that Jim has over 2,000 hits on his profile. What's up with that?

Sandi and Ashton

Gee Donna, I don't know. I think there is a strong resemblance with Ashton Kutcher from the 70's show.

Grandma and Grandpa Ladd

Does anyone have any good stories about Grandma and Grandpa Ladd? I never got to meet either of them and I'd love to know more about what they were like.

Jodi

Aunt Earnie tale via Sandi....

Mom is still not ready to post, but she called to tell me this story. She said that when Gabbey was really young, and had just started school, he had to walk past Mrs. Cochron's house everyday. (Mrs Cochron told this little story many times thru her life because she thought it was so funny).

One day Gabbey was walking the wrong way, and she asked him where he was going? Why wasn't he going TOWARDS the school house, and Gabbey replied: "Aw, there's no need of me going to school.....I can't even read OR write!".

Gabbey, if you're reading this, please prove to us that you finally LEARNT it....!!! WRITE

Am I imagining things or is there a striking resemblence between Sandi and Paula Deen?

Nice Pictures

Nice pictures.... and I will just bet that Sandi doesnt know a thing about them. If that is what I'll look like, I am never gonna retire!

Cory, is that your immitation of John Travolta?

Too phunnie

Take A WHUPIN for a SISTAH!

Yeah, now here's one on Debbey. I think she was about 15, and at least 3 nights a week, she would sneak out our bedroom window to meet a certain fella. Dad worked the 3rd shift at "Ladd's Snack Shop" (a truck stop), and so she knew she had to be home before he got up for work. So every night before she "snuck" back in ...she would throw pebbles at our bedroom window, I would open it and tell her if it was safe to come in the back door. One night, Dad got up early, and Mom and Dad kept asking me where she was. I didn't squeal. I stayed true, even tho Dad made me go out in the car with him to look for her. When I STILL wouldn't tell, he said he had to "whup" me. So he did, and that is the only time I remember EVER getting one from him! When we got home from the hunt-- I was in the bedroom with Mom, and sure enough, Debbey starts throwing the pebbles at the window for the "all clear" sign. To her dismay, Mom greets her at the window. And Dylan, this is for you: now that I'm grown, I understand how spooky it is when you don't know where your children are. So don't forget that!Love, Sandi
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Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.....

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.....

When Jimmie and I were young (before Jimmie found his treasure ), we not only shared a bedroom, we slept in the same bed. We used to say our prayers every night before going to sleep. One night, we decided we needed to "shout" our prayer so we'd have a better chance of God hearing us. As loud as we could, we shouted: "NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP....", but before we could finish, we heard our live in baby-sitter yell..."SHUT UP IN THERE AND GO TO SLEEP". I remember the sadness in Jimmie's voice when he said, "boy, she doesn't even want us to pray". LOL! (in her defense, we were pretty darn loud!" but I'm sure God heard us and it carries us yet to this day!! AMEN!!

Spider Eyes

Sandi is a nut with a good heart. One day I had to go for some tests and she came over so I wouldn't have to go alone. She spent the night because I had an early appointment and she lives about an hour and a half away. Only Sandi's family knows what she looks like in the morning. Unfortunately she is a natural blonde with no eyebrows. So when she wakes up and hasn't had time to put on her make up she looks like one of those old games with the little scraps of metal and the magnet stick and you draw the face on-you know what I mean. When she woke up she stomped and I mean STOMPED out of the bedroom and she had this terribly mean look on her face. She was very serious and very upset and she stated LOUDLY "YOUR CAT STOLE MY EYE LASHES AND I AM NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT EYELASHES!!"Boy, Cloud and I started to scramble. I tore up my make up drawer looking for lashes and Cloud wanted to know where he needed to go to buy some. I found some that didn't match and were a little bent but she made them work. Then we all (and by that I mean Cloud and I) laughed till we hurt. She said she guessed the cat thought they were spiders so evidently the cat was forgiven.

Jimmy and His Treasure

We were at Mom's today and she told a story on Jimmy. She said when he was about 9 or 10 he was late getting in from school. When he finally got home he was all out of breath and he was carrying a big box. She looked in the box and it was full of old Playboy magazines. She said "Jimmy what are you doing?" and he said -very seriously "you didn't think I could leave a "treasure" like this laying in a field, did you?". He carried them up to his room and she said she didn't see him again for three months!

Bay has a heart!

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day! I just wanted yaw to know what an awesome city Bay is. Today was "Make a Wish" donation day. Our city joined the others, and in 9 hours we collected $10,000.00! With a population of 1800, I think that amount is terrific! I just thought yaw might like to know what kind of city we have here. I'm just so proud of all the participation. Our city is well known for helping anyone in need. "the hat" gets passed around A LOT here, and the hat always gets filled up! Our city is by far not the prettiest, (although it's beautiful when the cotton is in bloom), but it sure has a big heart. There are deep roots here, I guess that's why I still live here.

Our school displays senior pics, and you will find my Mom (Earnestine), ME,my husband Jack, my sister Jodi, my daughter Lori, and this year...my nephew Asa (for 2008), and in about 9 years, my grand daughters!! (hopefully). If you pick up one of the old year books, you'll see lots of your relatives. Oh yeah, and School Board President is none other than your cousin Little Jim! ....Debbey's daughter Mandi taught pre-school there, Aunt Earnie is the Food Service Director! Did I tell yaw I Love Bay? Oh, and here's an intersting tid bit...Mom, (Aunt Earnie) was President of the Bicentinnial Committee. She put on a festival week end that people still talk about....but most importantly, she is the first one to break the city law by actually havine a DANCE! No kidding, it was against the law to dance in Bay up until 1976. Mom went to the city council and pretty much told them to abolish the ordinance, because there would be a street dance! (even made one council member cry!). Biggest street dance you ever saw! It was great!
Love, Sandi

Help a brother out! (or cousin, nephew etc.....)

Help! I need to see more photos on profiles... so I can learn the faces before July!

I'm tryin!!!! otherwise we will have to use nametags......

and I really dont want to have to put fartaculor on mine

Orrin

watch out for cupid!

Happy Valentine's Day !

Love Ya

Cloud & Debbey

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day to all of the wonderful Lady Ladds

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY GIRLS!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Pics

As hard as it was to top Sandi's birthday picture, lol, I uploaded some of my daughter's wedding for y'all to see. (Hope I didn't overdo it)

Diane

another Cloud story

Being an avid Golfer i play every chance i get. i love the game because i have 4 hours to drink as many beers as i can.

we had traveled to Earnie's for a dinner, she cooks enough to feed an army, but i regress. Sandi's husband Jack was a golfer too and said we could play on a course over there after dinner. Wanting to get on the course asap i gulped down my dinner and off we went. I had my Nicholas Air Bear Clubs, a bunch of ProV balls and an ice chest overflowing with beer.

after driving a while Jack turned off onto a dirt road and after about a 1/4 mile we were there! Now i have played bad courses before but nothing like this. That's when Jack said this used to be a cow pasture! i thought used to be, hell there's a cow over there now. Jack said try to stay right of the cows.

Well we paid our Green fees and push started the cart to the first tee.
Wasn't too bad teeing off after i hammered my tee into the ground and hit my first shot.

beleive it or not there was another group ahead of us and we had to wait on them which i didn't mind because it gave me more drinking time.

My mild mannerd friend Jack said "just go ahead and hit" and we did because i knew jack had whupped most people around there at one time or another.

so we get to the 9th hole and i asked "which way now Jack" in which he repied "back to hole one and start over again"

Did i forget to mention that i spent a lot of time looking for my ball on the fairways! yes there were white rocks the same size as a golf ball everywhere.

Well about the 16th or 17 hole, or was it the 6th or 7th hole, i can't recall now. i had hit a long shot just left of the green, although it was also left of the little wire fence they had seperating the greens. so here we are, Jack driving the cart and me "6'0" 280lb leaning out trying to reach my ball to pick it up when Jack decides to cut hard left to go around, around, around, i really don't know what he was going around. Needless to say i fell out of the cart that was traveling at a fast pace down this rock infested hill and proceded to roll. and like a train it takes a long time to stop a big guy! by the time i had stopped Jack had turned around and came back and with a sincere look on his face asked if i was ok. Oh I'm fine, i replied, not feeling much pain from the beers, i dusted myself off and pulled the rocks from my knees and got back in the cart.

now one would think this was the end of it but nooooo.

we returned to Earnie's house and as i was putting my clubs in my car Jack had went into the house and told everybody what happen.

as i walked in, i don't remember who but it was probably Sandi said "fell out of the cart uh?"

well everyone had a good laugh at ole Cloud's expense on of that one.

Tell-able stories

I'm not really sure what stories I'll choose to tell and which one's should be kept quiet. But I know I shouldn't tell on myself. I spent a lot of time with Sandi and Cathi growing up. While they were very close and best friends for many years, I somehow ended up hanging with them on a few occasions. Probably to their dismay, because trouble didn't follow me as close as it did them. I may have cramped their style once or twice. But maybe they remember some of the things I can't remember. My rememberer is not what it used to be, so Cathi and Sandi, jump in and clarify some of the hazy spots.
I remember spending the night one time and ended up with mustard and ketchup between my toes while I was sleeping. I'm not remembering what that was all about. And remember that crazy monkey? OMG! Who's idea was that? Sandi!
And remember the break in while we were in the camper in the back yard? That was scary.
And how about the time Debbey made me go to the dunes with her and some guy she was seeing. And Squiggy or Squirrly or what ever his name was. I saw tears in his eyes when the cops poured the wine out in front of him. Kinda funny for me.
Think I'll stop for now and try to think of some more.
Love y'all
Donna

Step right up!

Come on yaw! They's a bunch of us that aint postin. Time to spill the beans. Tell some stories about your siblings, parents, cousins, inlaws and outlaws, or heaven forbid, about your ownself. Open up a fresh can of worms, spill the beans, let the cat out of the bag, someone's gotta be itchin to share secrets, sell someone down the river, do some squawkin, leakin, let something slip, do some squealin, snitchin, Step right up and spill your guts & divulge something humorous.
P.S. You can always do it anonymously ... unless of course you are talkin about me.. .then you have to sign in so I can make up stories about you! lol seriously tho, I would never ever do that, nah, not me

O

Poor ol Jo

Poor little Jodi has the flu. :( So sorry you feel so bad. It's really going around fast here. Hope it doesn't hit anyone else. Sophie was out of school for a full week running a high temp, she got antibiotics right away, so I'm not sure if it was the flu or not. Hope you feel better soon Jodi (and I know you're going to kill me for telling everyone you feel bad. For those of you that don't know Jodi, she is much like my husband Jack...never wants any sympathy-or to let anyone knows she feels bad. Well, it's out now Jo! Get better soon. I need you to make me laugh!
Love, Sandi aka Nanny
p.s. yeah...I know, it's 2am. Something is wrong with my internal clock.

Finally got in

After quite an ordeal, because I'm NOT computer literate, I finally am able to post a quick note. I'm so glad all you cousins are coming together again. I cannot wait to see ya'll! I'll be there in July for sure! Love to you all
Aunt Shirl

Okay Orrin!

Who ya payin? I KNOW I did NOT just see your number bigger than mine!! There MUST be an error on the blog. It's only 3am, so maybe I'm not seeing too well. I'll check it out again. hmmmmm, you hired two temps, didn't ya? uh huh...I see what's going on here. You would think after that cute little baby pic of me people would be taking a second look. As for WHO did that....I'm still decidint between Debbey or Jimmie. Doesn't matter...I will get you both.

Who is coming to Arkansas?

Have I missed this somewhere?

Please comment if you plan on attending the Reunion (and who you are bringing). When do you plan on arriving? How long do you get to stay?

did you notice ....

did anyone notice, in the photos that Sarah posted showing a young Margaret & Gabby.... the German "HALT" sign in the background... with bullet holes

some of my earliest memories are of going to school in Nuremburg.... I remember playing with these huge building blocks... getting sent to school on Holloween in my "costume" dressed up as a cowboy with my pants on backwards.... talk about a difficult time going to the bathroom!

I remember looking out the school window and seeing a huge military type parade ... to this day I wonder if it was honoring JFK after he was shot and killed

And sledding down some awesome hills, Gail playing at the bottom of a hill one time and taking a sled to the forehead, dang she aint been right since! (j/k as you know Sis :-) )

Our parents rented a little house, the neighbors (landlords) had a teenage son that used to send me to the store to buy him beer, I'd get to buy myself a piece of candy in exchange for running the errand, as a 5 yr. old!

back to work for me....

someone take over!

love,
Orrin

ODE TO GABBY

Just to let you know, if you can come, we will have a big plate of thick sliced bologna drenched in so much mustard it will make your toes curled, and we can run a video of the Orioles.

something about jodi-by cloud

I bet not many of you knew that last summer Jodi learned how to drive a BIG RIG. She was pretty serious about it and now has something to fall back on if the photography thing gets slow.

for those that are clicking their own profile

Cloud says---Just so you know, i can trace each of you by your IP address and see who's been clicking their own profile and i will have a spreadsheet at the reunion for everybody to see -Sandi!

Got Snow?

Hi Everyone,

We're thankful that everyone is ok, when we heard tornadoes hit Arkansas, we were worried about all of you. We too are being hit by this winter storm, but in Chicago that usually means snow. Yesterday the kids were told in school that there was a 95% chance that today would be another snowday, but the temperatures stayed right above freezing so the snow the kids hoped for, fell as rain instead. Today, though, 10-12" is predicted. Cindy said in Milwaukee they got 8-9" yesterday with another 10" coming today! All this is on top of the foot of snow we got last week-oh, well, that's life in Chicago.

I've been trying to get caught up on all the old posts, and noticed that alot of people have been asking about Gabby. Well, he is doing fine, his health is not as bad as was posted. He'll joining in on the blog, too, probably in a few weeks.

Well, gotta go, it's lunchtime and I need to go warm up the car and brush the snow off, (again!)

Love, Diane

We All Spent the Evening in Storm Shelters

Well, MOST of us spent several hours in storm shelters tonight. We had some really bad storms come thru. The Community Safe house was packed, but we were lucky that the bad stuff went around us. Some damage was done, but nothing like they predicted. Memphis got it pretty bad, but Debbey and Cloud are okay...at least the last time we heard from Debbey they were. She said there was damage all around them and she and Cloud were huddled in the closet til it settled down. As far as I know, everyone is safe. Thank goodness it is all over for the night. We are all pooped! Hope everyone else stayed out of the path. Now we gotta catch up on the primary news. What an excited life!
Love, Sandi

Orrin gets BUSTED

Okay Orrin Newton! I know why you've been a little quiet on the blog lately. I just peeked at your profile and happened to notice you had FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY SOEMTHING HITS!! C'mon....fess up, you've been spending A LOT of time clicking onto your own profile, haven't you???? You stinker! I shouldn't have told you about that! Now I'm gonna have to just go back and forth on mine (and you are soooo far ahead of the crowd!) FUNNEEE.....you are BUSTED!!! But we still love ya.
Sandi

P.S. Cindy...when you gonna do some talking??

Better Late Than Never!!!

Hi Everyone!

I'm the "other" Gail, youngest daughter of Gabby and Arlene.

I started a post late last night but was too tired to finish it so I saved it out there SOMEWHERE. Well when I was ready to finish the post I couldn't figure out where I had saved it. So I had to start all over again! I told you I was computer illiterate Jodi!

It's great to be here with all of you! I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with those of you I once knew and can't wait to make new relationships with those I've never met!

Love,
Gail

Welcome Newbies

Welcome to all the new contributors, it's sooo good to see you all! Gail, Cindy, Diane and Jack (my "sparkling" brother-in-law).

I know there are some other folks out there reading this blog who haven't joined yet. Anyone who would like to be added to the list of contributors can contact me at j.hutchison@suddenlink.net. If you don't feel like joining in the conversations right away, at least post a profile so we learn more about you.

There are a few folks who are missing that we would really, really love to hear from!

Love you all!
Jodi

and YET ANOTHER!

Miss Gail has joined us! Hi Gail!! so glad you jumped on board. We would love to hear you hit that key board and join our conversations, silly remarks, or start a new post. It is so great to see a new name. I think your sister Diane joined last week. She has already posted pics! Don't let her get too far ahead of you!! LOL!

And Aunt Shirley...if you're reading this, we'd sure like to see your profile and to hear from you on the blog! Love yous guys! Sandi

LOOK!! New Profiles!

Aint Aud (aka "Queen Bee") and Aunt Earnie have filled out their profiles AND have added a pic! Go take a peek. By the way, Aint Aud declared herself Queen Bee at her 75th Birthday dinner, and we think it's the perfect title. Jodi surprised her with a crown, and Debbey clothed her in fur! Let me tell you right now, this is serious business!! Don't think your Aunt Earnie is REALLY "low"profile. She's just not ready to bring it on quite yet! She's a real character that keeps us laughing (and eating waaay too much good food). The two of them are a blessing to all of us-but you can bet you won't snooze around these two.
Love, Sandi

Where do blue eyes come from?

I know what you're thinking, "Sarah all this family history stuff is really cool but where do my blue eys come from?". Yes, I get that all the time. Here's the scoop. People say....

Genetic mutation makes those brown eyes blue,
Scientists find that blue-eyed individuals have a single, common ancestor

By Jeanna Bryner

People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.
A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, so before then, there were no blue eyes.
"Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.

***snip, this is continued in the comment section***

Here's to my mom

#1. Coke is it!

My mother, Margaret LaVaughn Williamson married Gabby and had me, Orrin, and Gail. Somtime after they split up we were living near Church Street in Jonesboro and I remember this laundromat that had a vacant lot next to it. Of course in those days (and these days come to think of it) we didn't wear shoes much in the summer. Orrin and I were playing in that vacant lot and we were barefoot running around. Wouldn't you know there was a broken coke bottle with just the bottom of it sticking straight up. And wouldn't you know that diameter of that bottle and the heel of my foot were about the same size. And as fate would have it, as I was running across the vacant lot I stomped right on top of that bottle. My entire heel was just barely hanging on. I went crying and hopping on one foot into the laundromat to find my mom. Dear mother took one look at my heel and passed out cold. An elderly man was in there doing his laundry. He picked me up, carried me to the sink, washed everything off and wrapped it up in some cloth. Then we went back and tended to my mom.

#2. Snakes alive!
My mother is and has always been deathly afraid of snakes. It doesn't matter if they are big old ugly Cotton Mouths, or littel bitty red bellies. If it's a snake you will get a nice loud scream and the treat of seeing my mom pretty much a grade A #1 hissy fit. She just about pee's her pants at just the sight of one. This is all very useful information...if you're a kid. After we moved to Michigan we lived out in the country and spent every summer day playing in the woods and hunting for snakes. It was the beginning of summer and the baby snakes were just getting out of their burrows. (Do you see where this is going?). We had just got back from a great snake hunt and had our pocket pretty full of baby snakes. My mother and my aunt were in the house. Soooooo naturally us kids go in the house to show off our latest catch. Did I mention my aunt is just as bad as my mom? No, sorry about that. Anyway, with both of them screaming (we should have had some ear protection) they made a bee line to the bathroom and locked themselves in. They were in there cussing up a blue streak and shouting out all of the things that was going to happen to us if we didn't get rid of those snakes. It was fun while it lasted. After we raided the refridgerator for ice cream we headed back out to the woods. No telling how long they hid in that bathroom.

#3. Whirlygig
When we were young my folks were into big time wrestling (only the good lord knows why). My earliest memories are watching Flying Fred Curry, The Shiek, Chief somethin' or other. We saw it on television and saw it live. Yep, what a great time. Anyway. I remember when I was about 12-13 we were in the living room one day and mom and dad (Chuck) were getting a little frisky. No not that kind of frisky. They were goofing around and startin' to Rassel a bit. All of a sudden my mom did this firemans thing on dad and the next thing I know she has him over her shoulder and spinning him around like a propeller. Now mind you, she was about 120 lbs and he was about 180 lbs. But mom's a farm girl and as tough as a cob. People say. She spun him around and dropped him on the couch. She's been my hero ever since.