The Official Guide to Marrying a Tingley Woman

In 1995, my sisters and their first husbands wrote (and I use this term loosely) a book to give to my first husband (I sense a theme here) before we got married.  The title was "The Official Guide to Marrying a Tingley Woman" and if you have ANY knowledge of the Tingley Family and the TU Organization, this book is hysterical.

This is the title page - it's fading, but still readable.  And you already know the title.  I love the picture, though!

These two pages are fading as well.  The part on the left says:

"© 1995 by

Tingley United Press, Inc.
Worldwide publishers of quality Tingley promotional materials.
Note: All artistic renderings are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real individuals dead or alive, is pure happenstance and entirely unintentional, in no way reflecting the abilities or talents of the artists."

On the right side of the page above, there is a picture of a girl with a Barbie doll.  She is rubbing the boobies down so that Barbie's clothes wouldn't be so tight.  The text in yellow reads:

"(The rumors that Lorena Bobbit carried Tingley genes are not true!!!) "

I think the rest of these pictures are readable, although you may want to click on them so you can enlarge and read them better.

Busy!

Has it really been a month since I last blogged?   It's been busy, both at work and at home, but things are settling down a bit.  At work, we migrated our network connection to an MPLS network.  Basically we switched how we connect to our offices and to the internet.  Yeah, that is a basic overview.  It's much more complicated than that, but I won't bore you with all the details. 
The migration did not go as smoothly as we had hoped.  Not only were we in the office 4 hours longer than we expected to be on the night of the cutover, but it has taken 3 weeks to resolve some pretty strange issues with faxing and remote connectivity.  At least things are getting resolved and we can start looking ahead to new projects.
At home, over the past few weeks, we were preparing for a party at our house.  There was a lot of work to be done to get the place ready for all our family to arrive, but it was worth every minute of preparation.  I know I did a lot of work the day of the party, but I really did enjoy the time we all had together.  I think next time, we should gather at a hotel like we did in 1997 and just go bowling.  HA HA HA! 
So between trying to figure out a bunch of weird IT issues with our new network and preparing for a gathering of my family, I guess I haven't had much time at all to blog.  Well, I'm back now.  Aren't you all so excited!  :D

Ben is TEN!

Benjamin was born a decade ago today!  Yes, my little boy is 10 and growing up fast.  Here are some pictures to see how he's changed and grown over the years.

This was taken right after Benjamin was born

1st Birthday

"Happy Self Portrait"

Benjamin took this picture above himself.  It's one of my favorties.

Icing Face

B was eating an iced cookie and really enjoyed it!

Driving

3rd Birthday

Benjamin making a wish in New Orleans

Benjamin in Biloxi

Standing on the ice in our pool in February 2009 on a warm day!

Benjamin, Miss O'Brien, and Jakob

He's already driving!!

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

Happy Father's Day

I have sent my dad a Father's Day card, wished him Happy Father's Day on Facebook, and now am writing a blog to honor him.  I'll call him later just to be sure he's having a good day.  :)
I could sit here and write a bunch of words about Dad, but I think I'd like to share my memories via photographs.  Enjoy!

This is Dad when he was a little boy. 

This is Dad and his brother Gale when they were young

Here is Dad and Gale in 2010

This is Dad with his beautiful family in the early 60's.

This is me and Dad in the 70's

Dad and Mom - what a handsome couple!

Benjamin and Grandad.

We were in Oklahoma in the picture above and there was music playing outside.  Dad kneeled down with Benjamin and began singing to him.  I was lucky enough to capture the magical moment.

Do I really need a caption for this picture?  I think the T-Shirt says it all.

Night Thoughts

Last night, in the middle of the night, I woke up thinking about my blog.  I had a great topic, but of course I cannot remember it now.  I told myself that I should get up and write at least the topic down, but I didn't. 

A week or so ago, I "wrote" two poems in my head in the middle of the night.  Once again, I should have gotten out of the bed and written them down.  They weren't long, but I cannot remember the exact wording once I am awake. 

Of course, these ideas might just SEEM great to me in my semi-wakeful state.  They could be horrendous ideas that would bore even my biggest fan.  (HA HA) 

So I think I am going to get a little notepad and pencil and keep by my bedside so I can just roll over and write what I am thinking in the middle of the night.  Who knows, it might be really funny...or really horrible...or just boring.  :)  We shall see. 

Crazy Weather and The Sane Lane

Crazy weather....well, not really.  It's pretty normal weather.  HOT HOT HOT...and severe thunderstorms...followed by thick morning fog.  Well, I thought the fog was a bit unusual, but after the heat was so hot yesterday, followed by some wicked storms, complete with hail and some rotating clouds above the office (not a tornado), I suppose some thick fog was in order.

The fog was so thick this morning, that when I left my house, I went "the long way" to get to HWY 41 so I would not have to guess if someone was coming around the bend as I was pulling onto the road.  Smart idea, huh?  ;)  The long way is approximately .3 miles out of my way.  HA HA!

At one point, I think there was about 25 feet of visibility...I knew where the stoplight was supposed to be, I just couldn't see it until I was almost to it.  Thank goodness it was green!  Thank goodness my lane of traffic was the sane lane.  The right lane on HWY 41 coming down from Ridgetop was for the drivers who had their headlights on, travelling the speed limit and leaving distance between each other.  The left lane, however, was for the idiots.  They were going 65 or better, no headlights or just parking lights on.  Okay, there were a couple of idiots who were using their headlights, but I was floored at how many folks did NOT have headlights on. 

Thank goodness the fog cleared as I neared the interstate and the rest of the morning was gorgeous!  CLEAR blue skies, bright sunshine, and moderate temperatures....which quickly climbed back up into the oppressive range.  *SIGH*  It was nice while it lasted.

Mowed Grass

We used to have a local man mow our grass for a very reasonable price.  After a week or so of waiting for his regular appearance, Jim gave him a call and left a message.  After repeated messages and no return call or visit to our knee-high-grassy yard, we decided that something must have happened to him, although we're still hopeful he is okay.  (He is also a Nashville Firefighter) So we decided to purchase our own mower.  We had loaned our push mower to some "friends" and I seriously doubt we'd ever find them or the mower in this lifetime.  So Jim did a lot of research on mowers and we decided on a Craftsman riding mower.  It's pretty nifty and easy to drive.  What I like is the 8" turn radius!  WHEEE!  I'm so easy to please. 
So our grass is now cut and will remained in the "groomed" state until winter.  And if Benjamin has his way, he'll be doing the mowing from now on...at least in the front yard.