Most likely....my blog's biggest fan.....

Today is a good day. Not that all days are not good ones when you get this far in life. Family is very important to me so every other Sunday we always look forward to our youngest son, Jeff, coming home. We look forward to seeing him and talking about what, if anything new is going on in his life. He likes Moo's cooking of course and always seems to enjoy what I have because I will admit, I make sure when it is his Sunday that he has some or all of his favorite foods. Jeff of course we get to see more often as he just lives in Charlotte and can get home in a short period of time. Our oldest son, Kevin, and his family live in Cleveland, Ohio and that takes planning and time so the visits are not nearly as often as mama's would like.

I don't know whether it was Jeff or Kevin or both that started calling me Moo but I do remember the year. It was the summer of '86 when I had my first back surgery. The boys still think I scheduled it to be just when school got out so I would be out of work all summer recuperating. They would put nothing past Moo.
The surgery left me with what they called "the moobear shuffle". Back surgery will cause alot of weird movements, so the name moo and moobear stuck and became quite common to hear. It even graduated to "bigger and better" and thus, moobearski was included. I answer to all three as I am always called one of the three. Never mom or mama. Jeff asked why I didn't name my blog Moo's Place.....just didn't think of it at the time. :P

We always played sports with our sons, we took them to ballfields and of course Moo always played in outfield and ran the balls up. Yes, I had my own glove. We played tennis and basketball together. Even after they became adults, Moo would go along and play tennis and basketball. Jerrell wore his knees out playing softball until he was 41, so his knees would not allow him to play after he got older. Jerrell taught school and coached the first 14 years of our marriage and when school was out in the summers, he would take the boys out to the school gym and they played basketball. They always had fun summers with Dad. He fed them well and kept them entertained. He made them homemade potato chips as they called them. He sliced the potatoes wafer thin and fried them to a crisp, one by one. As I told Jeff today, each day of life will become a memory and I am glad they have fond memories of their youth. I remember when me, Jeff and Steph first started playing tennis and Jeff was really not that good.....or at least for the first two weeks. Almost overnight he got flat out good and gave me and Steph a good run for our money. Steph would beat him some, but Moo had really excelled that day to get a win under her belt with Jeff. They were taught by their dad and I to do whatever you do, do it the very best you could and give it your all. We went to play one day that was an extremely hot day. We had played for a while and Jeff and I were at the net picking up balls and he said "Moo, I don't know how you have so much stamina at your age". I said "son when I play with you I have to have stamina" or I might as well have stayed home. Oh yes, that stamina is now a memory for me.

Over the course of the years, again I had to have back surgery in '98. It was a sad year for me. I could no longer go with my grown sons anymore and play the game I loved dearly, basketball. My guardian told my coach when I was in high school that she didn't think I would go to school if it wasn't for getting to play basketball. Tennis came along later and I learned to love and enjoy it. All good things must come to an end. And end it did!

Jeff calls me Mooblogski now that I have this blog and reads it faithfully. His dad kiddingly told him that Google was going to change their name. To what??? Moogle of course. Kevin is a very busy man and has a tight schedule so he told me he has to catch up on the weekends. I guess I can understand, because I think researching for help in curing cancer, diseases of the blood and heart are far more important to him than reading Moo's blog. Yes, Kevin, I am proud of you son! Love you.
Jeff works for Hearst Corp. in the Hearst Towers, recently built in downtown Charlotte. He is a returns analyst. Although he is only on the 29th floor it still bugs me.

So Jeff, this one is for you son. You make me proud too! Moo loves ya. God Bless!